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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Elsie Venner, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
+
+[The Physician and Poet, Not the Jurist, O. W. Holmes, Jr.]
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Elsie Venner
+
+Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
+
+Release Date: August 15, 2006 [EBook #2696]
+Last Updated: February 18, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE VENNER ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE VENNER
+
+By Oliver Wendell Holmes
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+This tale was published in successive parts in the “Atlantic Monthly,”
+ under the name of “The Professor's Story,” the first number having
+appeared in the third week of December, 1859. The critic who is curious
+in coincidences must refer to the Magazine for the date of publication
+of the chapter he is examining.
+
+In calling this narrative a “romance,” the Author wishes to make sure of
+being indulged in the common privileges of the poetic license. Through
+all the disguise of fiction a grave scientific doctrine may be detected
+lying beneath some of the delineations of character. He has used this
+doctrine as a part of the machinery of his story without pledging his
+absolute belief in it to the extent to which it is asserted or implied.
+It was adopted as a convenient medium of truth rather than as an
+accepted scientific conclusion. The reader must judge for himself what
+is the value of various stories cited from old authors. He must decide
+how much of what has been told he can accept either as having actually
+happened, or as possible and more or less probable. The Author must
+be permitted, however, to say here, in his personal character, and as
+responsible to the students of the human mind and body, that since
+this story has been in progress he has received the most startling
+confirmation of the possibility of the existence of a character like
+that which he had drawn as a purely imaginary conception in Elsie
+Venner.
+
+BOSTON, January, 1861.
+
+
+
+
+A SECOND PREFACE.
+
+This is the story which a dear old lady, my very good friend, spoke of
+as “a medicated novel,” and quite properly refused to read. I was always
+pleased with her discriminating criticism. It is a medicated novel, and
+if she wished to read for mere amusement and helpful recreation there
+was no need of troubling herself with a story written with a different
+end in view.
+
+This story has called forth so many curious inquiries that it seems
+worth while to answer the more important questions which have occurred
+to its readers.
+
+In the first place, it is not based on any well-ascertained
+physiological fact. There are old fables about patients who have barked
+like dogs or crowed like cocks, after being bitten or wounded by those
+animals. There is nothing impossible in the idea that Romulus and Remus
+may have imbibed wolfish traits of character from the wet nurse the
+legend assigned them, but the legend is not sound history, and the
+supposition is nothing more than a speculative fancy. Still, there is a
+limbo of curious evidence bearing on the subject of pre-natal influences
+sufficient to form the starting-point of an imaginative composition.
+
+The real aim, of the story was to test the doctrine of “original sin”
+ and human responsibility for the disordered volition coming under that
+technical denomination. Was Elsie Venner, poisoned by the venom of a
+crotalus before she was born, morally responsible for the “volitional”
+ aberrations, which translated into acts become what is known as sin,
+and, it may be, what is punished as crime? If, on presentation of the
+evidence, she becomes by the verdict of the human conscience a proper
+object of divine pity and not of divine wrath, as a subject of moral
+poisoning, wherein lies the difference between her position at the bar
+of judgment, human or divine, and that of the unfortunate victim who
+received a moral poison from a remote ancestor before he drew his first
+breath?
+
+It might be supposed that the character of Elsie Veneer was suggested
+by some of the fabulous personages of classical or mediaeval story. I
+remember that a French critic spoke of her as cette pauvre Melusine. I
+ought to have been ashamed, perhaps, but I had, not the slightest idea
+who Melusina was until I hunted up the story, and found that she was a
+fairy, who for some offence was changed every Saturday to a serpent from
+her waist downward. I was of course familiar with Keats's Lamia, another
+imaginary being, the subject of magical transformation into a serpent.
+My story was well advanced before Hawthorne's wonderful “Marble Faun,”
+ which might be thought to have furnished me with the hint of a mixed
+nature,--human, with an alien element,--was published or known to me. So
+that my poor heroine found her origin, not in fable or romance, but in a
+physiological conception fertilized by a theological dogma.
+
+I had the dissatisfaction of enjoying from a quiet corner a well-meant
+effort to dramatize “Elsie Veneer.” Unfortunately, a physiological
+romance, as I knew beforehand, is hardly adapted for the melodramatic
+efforts of stage representation. I can therefore say, with perfect
+truth, that I was not disappointed. It is to the mind, and not to the
+senses, that such a story must appeal, and all attempts to render the
+character and events objective on the stage, or to make them real by
+artistic illustrations, are almost of necessity failures. The story has
+won the attention and enjoyed the favor of a limited class of readers,
+and if it still continues to interest others of the same tastes and
+habits of thought I can ask nothing more of it.
+
+January 23, 1883.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.
+
+I have nothing of importance to add to the two preceding Prefaces. The
+continued call for this story, which was not written for popularity, but
+with a very serious purpose, has somewhat surprised and, I need not add,
+gratified me. I can only restate the motive idea of the tale in a little
+different language. Believing, as I do, that our prevailing theologies
+are founded upon an utterly false view of the relation of man to his
+Creator, I attempted to illustrate the doctrine of inherited moral
+responsibility for other people's misbehavior. I tried to make out a
+case for my poor Elsie, whom the most hardened theologian would find
+it hard to blame for her inherited ophidian tastes and tendencies. How,
+then, is he to blame mankind for inheriting “sinfulness” from their
+first parents? May not the serpent have bitten Eve before the birth
+of Cain, her first-born? That would have made an excuse for Cain's
+children, as Elsie's ante-natal misfortune made an excuse for her. But
+what difference does it make in the child's responsibility whether his
+inherited tendencies come from a snake-bite or some other source which
+he knew nothing about and could not have prevented from acting? All this
+is plain enough, and the only use of the story is to bring the dogma of
+inherited guilt and its consequences into a clearer point of view.
+
+But, after all, the tale must have proved readable as a story to account
+for the large number of editions which it has reached.
+
+Some readers have been curious about the locality the writer was
+thought to have in view. No particular place was intended. Some of the
+characters may have been thought to have been drawn from life; but the
+personages mentioned are mostly composites, like Mr. Galton's compound
+photographic likenesses, and are not calculated to provoke scandal or
+suits for libel.
+
+O. W. H.
+
+BEVERLY FARMS, MASS., August 3, 1891.
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE VENNER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. THE BRAHMIN CASTE OF NEW ENGLAND.
+
+There is nothing in New England corresponding at all to the feudal
+aristocracies of the Old World. Whether it be owing to the stock from
+which we were derived, or to the practical working of our institutions,
+or to the abrogation of the technical “law of honor,” which draws a
+sharp line between the personally responsible class of “gentlemen” and
+the unnamed multitude of those who are not expected to risk their lives
+for an abstraction,--whatever be the cause, we have no such aristocracy
+here as that which grew up out of the military systems of the Middle
+Ages.
+
+What we mean by “aristocracy” is merely the richer part of the
+community, that live in the tallest houses, drive real carriages, (not
+“kerridges,”) kidglove their hands, and French-bonnet their ladies'
+heads, give parties where the persons who call them by the above title
+are not invited, and have a provokingly easy way of dressing, walking,
+talking, and nodding to people, as if they felt entirely at home, and
+would not be embarrassed in the least, if they met the Governor, or even
+the President of the United States, face to face. Some of these great
+folks are really well-bred, some of them are only purse-proud and
+assuming,--but they form a class, and are named as above in the common
+speech.
+
+It is in the nature of large fortunes to diminish rapidly, when
+subdivided and distributed. A million is the unit of wealth, now and
+here in America. It splits into four handsome properties; each of these
+into four good inheritances; these, again, into scanty competences for
+four ancient maidens,--with whom it is best the family should die out,
+unless it can begin again as its great-grandfather did. Now a million
+is a kind of golden cheese, which represents in a compendious form the
+summer's growth of a fat meadow of craft or commerce; and as this kind
+of meadow rarely bears more than one crop, it is pretty certain that
+sons and grandsons will not get another golden cheese out of it,
+whether they milk the same cows or turn in new ones. In other words,
+the millionocracy, considered in a large way, is not at all an affair
+of persons and families, but a perpetual fact of money with a variable
+human element, which a philosopher might leave out of consideration
+without falling into serious error. Of course, this trivial and,
+fugitive fact of personal wealth does not create a permanent
+class, unless some special means are taken to arrest the process of
+disintegration in the third generation. This is so rarely done, at least
+successfully, that one need not live a very long life to see most of
+the rich families he knew in childhood more or less reduced, and the
+millions shifted into the hands of the country-boys who were sweeping
+stores and carrying parcels when the now decayed gentry were driving
+their chariots, eating their venison over silver chafing-dishes,
+drinking Madeira chilled in embossed coolers, wearing their hair in
+powder, and casing their legs in long boots with silken tassels.
+
+There is, however, in New England, an aristocracy, if you choose to call
+it so, which has a far greater character of permanence. It has grown
+to be a caste,--not in any odious sense;--but, by the repetition of the
+same influences, generation after generation, it has acquired a distinct
+organization and physiognomy, which not to recognize is mere stupidity,
+and not to be willing to describe would show a distrust of the
+good-nature and intelligence of our readers, who like to have us see all
+we can and tell all we see.
+
+If you will look carefully at any class of students in one of our
+colleges, you will have no difficulty in selecting specimens of two
+different aspects of youthful manhood. Of course I shall choose extreme
+cases to illustrate the contrast between them. In the first, the figure
+is perhaps robust, but often otherwise,--inelegant, partly from careless
+attitudes, partly from ill-dressing,--the face is uncouth in feature, or
+at least common,--the mouth coarse and unformed,--the eye unsympathetic,
+even if bright,--the movements of the face are clumsy, like those of
+the limbs,--the voice is unmusical,--and the enunciation as if the words
+were coarse castings, instead of fine carvings. The youth of the
+other aspect is commonly slender, his face is smooth, and apt to be
+pallid,--his features are regular and of a certain delicacy,--his eye
+is bright and quick,--his lips play over the thought he utters as a
+pianist's fingers dance over their music, and his whole air, though
+it may be timid, and even awkward, has nothing clownish. If you are
+a teacher, you know what to expect from each of these young men. With
+equal willingness, the first will be slow at learning; the second will
+take to his books as a pointer or a setter to his field-work.
+
+The first youth is the common country-boy, whose race has been bred to
+bodily labor. Nature has adapted the family organization to the kind of
+life it has lived. The hands and feet by constant use have got more than
+their share of development,--the organs of thought and expression less
+than their share. The finer instincts are latent and must be developed.
+A youth of this kind is raw material in its first stage of elaboration.
+You must not expect too much of any such. Many of them have force of
+will and character, and become distinguished in practical life; but
+very few of them ever become great scholars. A scholar is, in a large
+proportion of cases, the son of scholars or scholarly persons.
+
+That is exactly what the other young man is. He comes of the Brahmin
+caste of New England. This is the harmless, inoffensive, untitled
+aristocracy referred to, and which many readers will at once
+acknowledge. There are races of scholars among us, in which aptitude for
+learning, and all these marks of it I have spoken of, are congenital and
+hereditary. Their names are always on some college catalogue or other.
+They break out every generation or two in some learned labor which calls
+them up after they seem to have died out. At last some newer name takes
+their place, it maybe,--but you inquire a little and you find it is the
+blood of the Edwardses or the Chauncys or the Ellerys or some of the
+old historic scholars, disguised under the altered name of a female
+descendant.
+
+There probably is not an experienced instructor anywhere in our
+Northern States who will not recognize at once the truth of this general
+distinction. But the reader who has never been a teacher will very
+probably object, that some of our most illustrious public men have come
+direct from the homespun-clad class of the people,--and he may, perhaps,
+even find a noted scholar or two whose parents were masters of the
+English alphabet, but of no other.
+
+It is not fair to pit a few chosen families against the great multitude
+of those who are continually working their way up into the intellectual
+classes. The results which are habitually reached by hereditary training
+are occasionally brought about without it. There are natural filters as
+well as artificial ones; and though the great rivers are commonly more
+or less turbid, if you will look long enough, you may find a spring that
+sparkles as no water does which drips through your apparatus of
+sands and sponges. So there are families which refine themselves
+into intellectual aptitude without having had much opportunity for
+intellectual acquirements. A series of felicitous crosses develops an
+improved strain of blood, and reaches its maximum perfection at last in
+the large uncombed youth who goes to college and startles the hereditary
+class-leaders by striding past them all. That is Nature's republicanism;
+thank God for it, but do not let it make you illogical. The race of the
+hereditary scholar has exchanged a certain portion of its animal vigor
+for its new instincts, and it is hard to lead men without a good deal
+of animal vigor. The scholar who comes by Nature's special grace from an
+unworn stock of broad-chested sires and deep-bosomed mothers must always
+overmatch an equal intelligence with a compromised and lowered vitality.
+A man's breathing and digestive apparatus (one is tempted to add
+muscular) are just as important to him on the floor of the Senate as his
+thinking organs. You broke down in your great speech, did you? Yes, your
+grandfather had an attack of dyspepsia in '82, after working too hard on
+his famous Election Sermon. All this does not touch the main fact: our
+scholars come chiefly from a privileged order, just as our best fruits
+come from well-known grafts, though now and then a seedling apple, like
+the Northern Spy, or a seedling pear, like the Seckel, springs from a
+nameless ancestry and grows to be the pride of all the gardens in the
+land.
+
+Let me introduce you to a young man who belongs to the Brahmin caste of
+New England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE STUDENT AND HIS CERTIFICATE.
+
+Bernard C. Langdon, a young man attending Medical Lectures at the school
+connected with one of our principal colleges, remained after the Lecture
+one day and wished to speak with the Professor. He was a student of
+mark,--first favorite of his year, as they say of the Derby colts.
+There are in every class half a dozen bright faces to which the teacher
+naturally, directs his discourse, and by the intermediation of whose
+attention he seems to hold that of the mass of listeners. Among these
+some one is pretty sure to take the lead, by virtue of a personal
+magnetism, or some peculiarity of expression, which places the face in
+quick sympathetic relations with the lecturer. This was a young man
+with such a face; and I found,--for you have guessed that I was the
+“Professor” above-mentioned,--that, when there was anything difficult to
+be explained, or when I was bringing out some favorite illustration of a
+nice point, (as, for instance; when I compared the cell-growth, by which
+Nature builds up a plant or an animal, to the glassblower's similar mode
+of beginning,--always with a hollow sphere, or vesicle, whatever he is
+going to make,) I naturally looked in his face and gauged my success by
+its expression.
+
+It was a handsome face,--a little too pale, perhaps, and would have
+borne something more of fulness without becoming heavy. I put the
+organization to which it belongs in Section B of Class 1 of my
+Anglo-American Anthropology (unpublished). The jaw in this section is
+but slightly narrowed,--just enough to make the width of the forehead
+tell more decidedly. The moustache often grows vigorously, but the
+whiskers are thin. The skin is like that of Jacob, rather than like
+Esau's. One string of the animal nature has been taken away, but this
+gives only a greater predominance to the intellectual chords. To see
+just how the vital energy has been toned down, you must contrast one of
+this section with a specimen of Section A of the same class,--say, for
+instance, one of the old-fashioned, full-whiskered, red-faced, roaring,
+big Commodores of the last generation, whom you remember, at least by
+their portraits, in ruffled shirts, looking as hearty as butchers and as
+plucky as bull-terriers, with their hair combed straight up from their
+foreheads, which were not commonly very high or broad. The special form
+of physical life I have been describing gives you a right to expect more
+delicate perceptions and a more reflective, nature than you commonly
+find in shaggy-throated men, clad in heavy suits of muscles.
+
+The student lingered in the lecture-room, looking all the time as if he
+wanted to say something in private, and waiting for two or three others,
+who were still hanging about, to be gone.
+
+Something is wrong!--I said to myself, when I noticed his
+expression.--Well, Mr. Langdon,--I said to him, when we were alone,--can
+I do anything for you to-day?
+
+You can, Sir,--he said.--I am going to leave the class, for the present,
+and keep school.
+
+Why, that 's a pity, and you so near graduating! You'd better stay and
+finish this course and take your degree in the spring, rather than break
+up your whole plan of study.
+
+I can't help myself, Sir,--the young man answered.--There 's trouble at
+home, and they cannot keep me here as they have done. So I must look out
+for myself for a while. It's what I've done before, and am ready to
+do again. I came to ask you for a certificate of my fitness to teach a
+common school, or a high school, if you think I am up to that. Are you
+willing to give it to me?
+
+Willing? Yes, to be sure,--but I don't want you to go. Stay; we'll make
+it easy for you. There's a fund will do something for you, perhaps. Then
+you can take both the annual prizes, if you like,--and claim them in
+money, if you want that more than medals.
+
+I have thought it all over,--he answered,--and have pretty much made up
+my mind to go.
+
+A perfectly gentlemanly young man, of courteous address and mild
+utterance, but means at least as much as he says. There are some people
+whose rhetoric consists of a slight habitual under-statement. I often
+tell Mrs. Professor that one of her “I think it's sos” is worth the
+Bible-oath of all the rest of the household that they “know it's so.”
+ When you find a person a little better than his word, a little more
+liberal than his promise, a little more than borne out in his statement
+by his facts, a little larger in deed than in speech, you recognize a
+kind of eloquence in that person's utterance not laid down in Blair or
+Campbell.
+
+This was a proud fellow, self-trusting, sensitive, with
+family-recollections that made him unwilling to accept the kind of aid
+which many students would have thankfully welcomed. I knew him too well
+to urge him, after the few words which implied that he was determined
+to go. Besides, I have great confidence in young men who believe in
+themselves, and are accustomed to rely on their own resources from an
+early period. When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully,
+the World, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to
+find it come off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away
+timid adventurers. I have seen young men more than once, who came to a
+great city without a single friend, support themselves and pay for their
+education, lay up money in a few years, grow rich enough to travel, and
+establish themselves in life, without ever asking a dollar of any person
+which they had not earned. But these are exceptional cases. There are
+horse-tamers, born so,--as we all know; there are woman-tamers, who
+bewitch the sex as the pied piper bedeviled the children of Hamelin; and
+there are world-tamers, who can make any community, even a Yankee one,
+get down and let them jump on its back as easily as Mr. Rarey saddled
+Cruiser.
+
+Whether Langdon was of this sort or not I could not say positively; but
+he had spirit, and, as I have said, a family-pride which would not let
+him be dependent. The New England Brahmin caste often gets blended with
+connections of political influence or commercial distinction. It is a
+charming thing for the scholar, when his fortune carries him in this way
+into some of the “old families” who have fine old houses, and city-lots
+that have risen in the market, and names written in all the stock-books
+of all the dividend-paying companies. His narrow study expands into a
+stately library, his books are counted by thousands instead of hundreds,
+and his favorites are dressed in gilded calf in place of plebeian
+sheepskin or its pauper substitutes of cloth and paper.
+
+The Reverend Jedediah Langdon, grandfather of our young gentleman, had
+made an advantageous alliance of this kind. Miss Dorothea Wentworth had
+read one of his sermons which had been printed “by request,” and became
+deeply interested in the young author, whom she had never seen. Out of
+this circumstance grew a correspondence, an interview, a declaration, a
+matrimonial alliance, and a family of half a dozen children. Wentworth
+Langdon, Esquire, was the oldest of these, and lived in the old
+family-mansion. Unfortunately, that principle of the diminution of
+estates by division, to which I have referred, rendered it somewhat
+difficult to maintain the establishment upon the fractional income
+which the proprietor received from his share of the property. Wentworth
+Langdon, Esq., represented a certain intermediate condition of life
+not at all infrequent in our old families. He was the connecting link
+between the generation which lived in ease, and even a kind of state,
+upon its own resources, and the new brood, which must live mainly by its
+wits or industry, and make itself rich, or shabbily subside into that
+lower stratum known to social geologists by a deposit of Kidderminster
+carpets and the peculiar aspect of the fossils constituting the family
+furniture and wardrobe. This slack-water period of a race, which comes
+before the rapid ebb of its prosperity, is familiar to all who live in
+cities. There are no more quiet, inoffensive people than these children
+of rich families, just above the necessity of active employment, yet
+not in a condition to place their own children advantageously, if they
+happen to have families. Many of them are content to live unmarried.
+Some mend their broken fortunes by prudent alliances, and some leave a
+numerous progeny to pass into the obscurity from which their ancestors
+emerged; so that you may see on handcarts and cobblers' stalls names
+which, a few generations back, were upon parchments with broad seals,
+and tombstones with armorial bearings.
+
+In a large city, this class of citizens is familiar to us in the
+streets. They are very courteous in their salutations; they have time
+enough to bow and take their hats off,--which, of course, no businessman
+can afford to do. Their beavers are smoothly brushed, and their
+boots well polished; all their appointments are tidy; they look
+the respectable walking gentleman to perfection. They are prone to
+habits,--they frequent reading-rooms,--insurance-offices,--they walk the
+same streets at the same hours,--so that one becomes familiar with their
+faces and persons, as a part of the street-furniture.
+
+There is one curious circumstance, that all city-people must have
+noticed, which is often illustrated in our experience of the slack-water
+gentry. We shall know a certain person by his looks, familiarly, for
+years, but never have learned his name. About this person we shall have
+accumulated no little circumstantial knowledge;--thus, his face, figure,
+gait, his mode of dressing, of saluting, perhaps even of speaking, may
+be familiar to us; yet who he is we know not. In another department of
+our consciousness, there is a very familiar name, which we have never
+found the person to match. We have heard it so often, that it has
+idealized itself, and become one of that multitude of permanent shapes
+which walk the chambers of the brain in velvet slippers in the company
+of Falstaff and Hamlet and General Washington and Mr. Pickwick.
+Sometimes the person dies, but the name lives on indefinitely. But now
+and then it happens, perhaps after years of this independent existence
+of the name and its shadowy image in the brain, on the one part, and the
+person and all its real attributes, as we see them daily, on the other,
+that some accident reveals their relation, and we find the name we have
+carried so long in our memory belongs to the person we have known so
+long as a fellow-citizen. Now the slack--water gentry are among the
+persons most likely to be the subjects of this curious divorce of title
+and reality,--for the reason, that, playing no important part in the
+community, there is nothing to tie the floating name to the actual
+individual, as is the case with the men who belong in any way to the
+public, while yet their names have a certain historical currency, and we
+cannot help meeting them, either in their haunts, or going to and from
+them.
+
+To this class belonged Wentworth Langdon, Esq. He had been “dead-headed”
+ into the world some fifty years ago, and had sat with his hands in
+his pockets staring at the show ever since. I shall not tell you, for
+reasons before hinted, the whole name of the place in which he lived.
+I will only point you in the right direction, by saying that there are
+three towns lying in a line with each other, as you go “down East,”
+ each of them with a Port in its name, and each of them having a peculiar
+interest which gives it individuality, in addition to the Oriental
+character they have in common. I need not tell you that these towns are
+Newburyport, Portsmouth, and Portland. The Oriental character they have
+in common consists in their large, square, palatial mansions, with sunny
+gardens round them. The two first have seen better days. They are in
+perfect harmony with the condition of weakened, but not impoverished,
+gentility. Each of them is a “paradise of demi-fortunes.” Each of them
+is of that intermediate size between a village and a city which any
+place has outgrown when the presence of a well-dressed stranger walking
+up and down the main street ceases to be a matter of public curiosity
+and private speculation, as frequently happens, during the busier months
+of the year, in considerable commercial centres like Salem. They both
+have grand old recollections to fall back upon,--times when they looked
+forward to commercial greatness, and when the portly gentlemen in cocked
+hats, who built their now decaying wharves and sent out their ships all
+over the world, dreamed that their fast-growing port was to be the Tyre
+or the Carthage of the rich British Colony. Great houses, like that once
+lived in by Lord Timothy Dexter, in Newburyport, remain as evidence of
+the fortunes amassed in these places of old. Other mansions--like the
+Rockingham House in Portsmouth (look at the white horse's tail before
+you mount the broad staircase)--show that there was not only wealth, but
+style and state, in these quiet old towns during the last century. It is
+not with any thought of pity or depreciation that we speak of them as in
+a certain sense decayed towns; they did not fulfil their early promise
+of expansion, but they remain incomparably the most interesting places
+of their size in any of the three northernmost New England States. They
+have even now prosperity enough to keep them in good condition, and
+offer the most attractive residences for quiet families, which, if they
+had been English, would have lived in a palazzo at Genoa or Pisa, or
+some other Continental Newburyport or Portsmouth.
+
+As for the last of the three Ports, or Portland, it is getting too
+prosperous to be as attractive as its less northerly neighbors. Meant
+for a fine old town, to ripen like a Cheshire cheese within its walls
+of ancient rind, burrowed by crooked alleys and mottled with venerable
+mould, it seems likely to sacrifice its mellow future to a vulgar
+material prosperity. Still it remains invested with many of its old
+charms, as yet, and will forfeit its place among this admirable trio
+only when it gets a hotel with unequivocal marks of having been built
+and organized in the present century.
+
+--It was one of the old square palaces of the North, in which Bernard
+Langdon, the son of Wentworth, was born. If he had had the luck to be
+an only child, he might have lived as his father had done, letting his
+meagre competence smoulder on almost without consuming, like the fuel
+in an air-tight stove. But after Master Bernard came Miss Dorothea
+Elizabeth Wentworth Langdon, and then Master William Pepperell Langdon,
+and others, equally well named,--a string of them, looking, when they
+stood in a row in prayer-time, as if they would fit a set of Pandean
+pipes, of from three feet upward in dimensions. The door of the
+air-tight stove has to be opened, under such circumstances, you may well
+suppose! So it happened that our young man had been obliged, from an
+early period, to do something to support himself, and found himself
+stopped short in his studies by the inability of the good people at home
+to furnish him the present means of support as a student.
+
+You will understand now why the young man wanted me to give him a
+certificate of his fitness to teach, and why I did not choose to urge
+him to accept the aid which a meek country-boy from a family without
+ante-Revolutionary recollections would have thankfully received. Go he
+must,--that was plain enough. He would not be content otherwise. He was
+not, however, to give up his studies; and as it is customary to allow
+half-time to students engaged in school-keeping,--that is, to count a
+year, so employed, if the student also keep on with his professional
+studies, as equal to six months of the three years he is expected to
+be under an instructor before applying for his degree,--he would not
+necessarily lose more than a few months of time. He had a small library
+of professional books, which he could take with him.
+
+So he left my teaching and that of my estimable colleagues, carrying
+with him my certificate, that Mr. Bernard C. Langdon was a young
+gentleman of excellent moral character, of high intelligence and good
+education, and that his services would be of great value in any school,
+academy, or other institution, where young persons of-either sex were to
+be instructed.
+
+I confess, that expression, “either sex,” ran a little thick, as I
+may say, from my pen. For, although the young man bore a very fair
+character, and there was no special cause for doubting his discretion,
+I considered him altogether too good-looking, in the first place, to be
+let loose in a roomful of young girls. I didn't want him to fall in love
+just then--and if half a dozen girls fell in love with him, as they most
+assuredly would, if brought into too near relations with him, why, there
+was no telling what gratitude and natural sensibility might bring about.
+
+Certificates are, for the most part, like ostrich-eggs; the giver never
+knows what is hatched out of them. But once in a thousand times they
+act as curses are said to,--come home to roost. Give them often enough,
+until it gets to be a mechanical business, and, some day or other, you
+will get caught warranting somebody's ice not to melt in any climate, or
+somebody's razors to be safe in the hands of the youngest children.
+
+I had an uneasy feeling, after giving this certificate. It might be all
+right enough; but if it happened to end badly, I should always reproach
+myself. There was a chance, certainly, that it would lead him or others
+into danger or wretchedness. Any one who looked at this young man could
+not fail to see that he was capable of fascinating and being fascinated.
+Those large, dark eyes of his would sink into the white soul of a
+young girl as the black cloth sunk into the snow in Franklin's famous
+experiment. Or, on the other hand, if the rays of a passionate nature
+should ever be concentrated on them, they would be absorbed into the
+very depths of his nature, and then his blood would turn to flame and
+burn his life out of him, until his cheeks grew as white as the ashes
+that cover a burning coal.
+
+I wish I had not said either sex in my certificate. An academy for young
+gentlemen, now; that sounds cool and unimaginative. A boys' school, that
+would be a very good place for him;--some of them are pretty rough, but
+there is nerve enough in that old Wentworth strain of blood; he can give
+any country fellow, of the common stock, twenty pounds, and hit him out
+of time in ten minutes. But to send such a young fellow as that out a
+girl's-nesting! to give this falcon a free pass into all the dove-cotes!
+I was a fool,--that's all.
+
+I brooded over the mischief which might come out of these two words
+until it seemed to me that they were charged with destiny. I could
+hardly sleep for thinking what a train I might have been laying, which
+might take a spark any day, and blow up nobody knows whose peace or
+prospects. What I dreaded most was one of those miserable matrimonial
+misalliances where a young fellow who does not know himself as yet
+flings his magnificent future into the checked apron-lap of some
+fresh-faced, half-bred country-girl, no more fit to be mated with him
+than her father's horse to go in double harness with Flora Temple. To
+think of the eagle's wings, being clipped so that he shall never
+lift himself over the farm-yard fence! Such things happen, and always
+must,--because, as one of us said awhile ago, a man always loves,
+a woman, and a woman a man, unless some good reason exists to the
+contrary. You think yourself a very fastidious young man, my friend; but
+there are probably at least five-thousand young women in these United
+States, any one of whom you would certainly marry, if you were thrown
+much into her company, and nobody more attractive were near, and she had
+no objection. And you, my dear young lady, justly pride yourself on your
+discerning delicacy; but if I should say that there are twenty thousand
+young men, any one of whom, if he offered his hand and heart under
+favorable circumstances, you would
+
+          “First endure, then pity, then embrace,”
+
+I should be much more imprudent than I mean to be, and you would, no
+doubt, throw down a story in which I hope to interest you.
+
+I had settled it in my mind that this young fellow had a career marked
+out for him. He should begin in the natural way, by taking care of poor
+patients in one of the public charities, and work his way up to a better
+kind of practice,--better, that is, in the vulgar, worldly sense. The
+great and good Boerhaave used to say, as I remember very well, that the
+poor were his best patients; for God was their paymaster. But everybody
+is not as patient as Boerhaave, nor as deserving; so that the rich,
+though not, perhaps, the best patients, are good enough for common
+practitioners. I suppose Boerhaave put up with them when he could not
+get poor ones, as he left his daughter two millions of florins when he
+died.
+
+Now if this young man once got into the wide streets, he would sweep
+them clear of his rivals of the same standing; and as I was getting
+indifferent to business, and old Dr. Kilham was growing careless, and
+had once or twice prescribed morphine when he meant quinine, there would
+soon be an opening into the Doctor's Paradise,--the streets with only
+one side to them. Then I would have him strike a bold stroke,--set up a
+nice little coach, and be driven round like a first-class London doctor,
+instead of coasting about in a shabby one-horse concern and casting
+anchor opposite his patients' doors like a Cape Ann fishing-smack. By
+the time he was thirty, he would have knocked the social pawns out of
+his way, and be ready to challenge a wife from the row of great pieces
+in the background. I would not have a man marry above his level, so as
+to become the appendage of a powerful family-connection; but I would not
+have him marry until he knew his level,--that is, again, looking at the
+matter in a purely worldly point of view, and not taking the sentiments
+at all into consideration. But remember, that a young man, using large
+endowments wisely and fortunately, may put himself on a level with
+the highest in the land in ten brilliant years of spirited, unflagging
+labor. And to stand at the very top of your calling in a great city is
+something in itself,--that is, if you like money, and influence, and a
+seat on the platform at public lectures, and gratuitous tickets to all
+sorts of places where you don't want to go, and, what is a good deal
+better than any of these things, a sense of power, limited, it may be,
+but absolute in its range, so that all the Caesars and Napoleons would
+have to stand aside, if they came between you and the exercise of your
+special vocation.
+
+That is what I thought this young fellow might have come to; and now I
+have let him go off into the country with my certificate, that he is fit
+to teach in a school for either sex! Ten to one he will run like a moth
+into a candle, right into one of those girls'-nests, and get tangled up
+in some sentimental folly or other, and there will be the end of him.
+Oh, yes! country doctor,--half a dollar a visit,--drive, drive, drive
+all day,--get up at night and harness your own horse,--drive again
+ten miles in a snow-storm, shake powders out of two phials, (pulv.
+glycyrrhiz., pulv. gum. acac. as partes equates,)--drive back again,
+if you don't happen to get stuck in a drift, no home, no peace, no
+continuous meals, no unbroken sleep, no Sunday, no holiday, no social
+intercourse, but one eternal jog, jog, jog, in a sulky, until you feel
+like the mummy of an Indian who had been buried in the sitting posture,
+and was dug up a hundred years afterwards! Why did n't I warn him about
+love and all that nonsense? Why didn't I tell him he had nothing to do
+with it, yet awhile? Why did n't I hold up to him those awful examples
+I could have cited, where poor young fellows who could just keep
+themselves afloat have hung a matrimonial millstone round their necks,
+taking it for a life-preserver? All this of two words in a certificate!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. MR. BERNARD TRIES HIS HAND.
+
+Whether the Student advertised for a school, or whether he fell in with
+the advertisement of a school-committee, is not certain. At any rate, it
+was not long before he found himself the head of a large district,
+or, as it was called by the inhabitants, “deestric” school, in the
+flourishing inland village of Pequawkett, or, as it is commonly spelt,
+Pigwacket Centre. The natives of this place would be surprised, if they
+should hear that any of the readers of a work published in Boston were
+unacquainted with so remarkable a locality. As, however, some copies of
+it may be read at a distance from this distinguished metropolis, it may
+be well to give a few particulars respecting the place, taken from the
+Universal Gazetteer.
+
+“PIGWACKET, sometimes spelt Pequawkett. A post-village and township
+in ------ Co., State of ------, situated in a fine agricultural
+region, 2 thriving villages, Pigwacket Centre and Smithville, 3
+churches, several school houses, and many handsome private residences.
+Mink River runs through the town, navigable for small boats after heavy
+rains. Muddy Pond at N. E. section, well stocked with horn pouts,
+eels, and shiners. Products, beef, pork, butter, cheese. Manufactures,
+shoe-pegs, clothes-pins, and tin-ware. Pop. 1373.”
+
+The reader may think there is nothing very remarkable implied in this
+description. If, however he had read the town-history, by the Rev.
+Jabez Grubb, he would have learned, that, like the celebrated Little
+Pedlington, it was distinguished by many very remarkable advantages.
+Thus:
+
+“The situation of Pigwacket is eminently beautiful, looking down the
+lovely valley of Mink River, a tributary of the Musquash. The air is
+salubrious, and many of the inhabitants have attained great age, several
+having passed the allotted period of 'three-score years and ten' before
+succumbing to any of the various 'ills that flesh is heir to.' Widow
+Comfort Leevins died in 1836 AEt. LXXXVII. years. Venus, an African,
+died in 1841, supposed to be C. years old. The people are distinguished
+for intelligence, as has been frequently remarked by eminent
+lyceum-lecturers, who have invariably spoken in the highest terms of
+a Pigwacket audience. There is a public library, containing nearly a
+hundred volumes, free to all subscribers. The preached word is well
+attended, there is a flourishing temperance society, and the schools are
+excellent. It is a residence admirably adapted to refined families who
+relish the beauties of Nature and the charms of society. The Honorable
+John Smith, formerly a member of the State Senate, was a native of this
+town.”
+
+That is the way they all talk. After all, it is probably pretty much
+like other inland New England towns in point of “salubrity,”--that is,
+gives people their choice of dysentery or fever every autumn, with a
+season-ticket for consumption, good all the year round. And so of the
+other pretences. “Pigwacket audience,” forsooth! Was there ever an
+audience anywhere, though there wasn't a pair of eyes in it brighter
+than pickled oysters, that did n't think it was “distinguished for
+intelligence”?--“The preached word”! That means the Rev. Jabez Grubb's
+sermons. “Temperance society”! “Excellent schools”! Ah, that is just
+what we were talking about.
+
+The truth was, that District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre, had had a good
+deal of trouble of late with its schoolmasters. The committee had done
+their best, but there were a number of well-grown and pretty rough young
+fellows who had got the upper-hand of the masters, and meant to keep it.
+Two dynasties had fallen before the uprising of this fierce democracy.
+This was a thing that used to be not very uncommon; but in so
+“intelligent” a community as that of Pigwacket Centre, in an era of
+public libraries and lyceum-lectures, it was portentous and alarming.
+
+The rebellion began under the ferule of Master Weeks, a slender youth
+from a country college, underfed, thin-blooded, sloping-shouldered,
+knock-kneed, straight-haired, weak-bearded, pale-eyed, wide-pupilled,
+half-colored; a common type enough in in-door races, not rich enough to
+pick and choose in their alliances. Nature kills off a good many of this
+sort in the first teething-time, a few in later childhood, a good many
+again in early adolescence; but every now and then one runs the gauntlet
+of her various diseases, or rather forms of one disease, and grows up,
+as Master Weeks had done.
+
+It was a very foolish thing for him to try to inflict personal
+punishment on such a lusty young fellow as Abner Briggs, Junior, one
+of the “hardest customers” in the way of a rough-and-tumble fight that
+there were anywhere round. No doubt he had been insolent, but it would
+have been better to overlook it. It pains me to report the events
+which took place when the master made his rash attempt to maintain his
+authority. Abner Briggs, Junior, was a great, hulking fellow, who had
+been bred to butchering, but urged by his parents to attend school, in
+order to learn the elegant accomplishments of reading and writing,
+in which he was sadly deficient. He was in the habit of talking and
+laughing pretty loud in school-hours, of throwing wads of paper reduced
+to a pulp by a natural and easy process, of occasional insolence and
+general negligence. One of the soft, but unpleasant missiles just
+alluded to flew by the master's head one morning, and flattened itself
+against the wall, where it adhered in the form of a convex mass in alto
+rilievo. The master looked round and saw the young butcher's arm in an
+attitude which pointed to it unequivocally as the source from which the
+projectile had taken its flight.
+
+Master Weeks turned pale. He must “lick” Abner Briggs, Junior, or
+abdicate. So he determined to lick Abner Briggs, Junior.
+
+“Come here, Sir!” he said; “you have insulted me and outraged the
+decency of the schoolroom often enough! Hold out your hand!”
+
+The young fellow grinned and held it out. The master struck at it with
+his black ruler, with a will in the blow and a snapping of the eyes,
+as much as to say that he meant to make him smart this time. The young
+fellow pulled his hand back as the ruler came down, and the master hit
+himself a vicious blow with it on the right knee. There are things no
+man can stand. The master caught the refractory youth by the collar and
+began shaking him, or rather shaking himself against him.
+
+“Le' go o' that are coat, naow,” said the fellow, “or I 'll make ye!
+'T 'll take tew on yet' handle me, I tell ye, 'n' then ye caant dew
+it!”--and the young pupil returned the master's attention by catching
+hold of his collar.
+
+When it comes to that, the best man, not exactly in the moral sense, but
+rather in the material, and more especially the muscular point of view,
+is very apt to have the best of it, irrespectively of the merits of the
+case. So it happened now. The unfortunate schoolmaster found himself
+taking the measure of the sanded floor, amidst the general uproar of the
+school. From that moment his ferule was broken, and the school-committee
+very soon had a vacancy to fill.
+
+Master Pigeon, the successor of Master Weeks, was of better stature, but
+loosely put together, and slender-limbed. A dreadfully nervous kind of
+man he was, walked on tiptoe, started at sudden noises, was distressed
+when he heard a whisper, had a quick, suspicious look, and was always
+saying, “Hush?” and putting his hands to his ears. The boys were not
+long in finding out this nervous weakness, of course. In less than a
+week a regular system of torments was inaugurated, full of the most
+diabolical malice and ingenuity. The exercises of the conspirators
+varied from day to day, but consisted mainly of foot-scraping, solos
+on the slate-pencil, (making it screech on the slate,) falling of heavy
+books, attacks of coughing, banging of desk-lids, boot-creaking, with
+sounds as of drawing a cork from time to time, followed by suppressed
+chuckles.
+
+Master Pigeon grew worse and worse under these inflictions. The rascally
+boys always had an excuse for any one trick they were caught at. “Could
+n' help coughin', Sir.” “Slipped out o' m' han', Sir.” “Did n' go to,
+Sir.” “Did n' dew't o' purpose, Sir.” And so on,--always the best of
+reasons for the most outrageous of behavior. The master weighed himself
+at the grocer's on a platform balance, some ten days after he began
+keeping the school. At the end of a week he weighed himself again. He
+had lost two pounds. At the end of another week he had lost five. He
+made a little calculation, based on these data, from which he learned
+that in a certain number of months, going on at this rate, he should
+come to weigh precisely nothing at all; and as this was a sum in
+subtraction he did not care to work out in practice, Master Pigeon took
+to himself wings and left the school-committee in possession of a letter
+of resignation and a vacant place to fill once more.
+
+This was the school to which Mr. Bernard Langdon found himself appointed
+as master. He accepted the place conditionally, with the understanding
+that he should leave it at the end of a month, if he were tired of it.
+
+The advent of Master Langdon to Pigwacket Centre created a much more
+lively sensation than had attended that of either of his predecessors.
+Looks go a good way all the world over, and though there were several
+good-looking people in the place, and Major Bush was what the natives of
+the town called a “hahnsome mahn,” that is, big, fat, and red, yet the
+sight of a really elegant young fellow, with the natural air which grows
+up with carefully-bred young persons, was a novelty. The Brahmin blood
+which came from his grandfather as well as from his mother, a direct
+descendant of the old Flynt family, well known by the famous tutor,
+Henry Flynt, (see Cat. Harv. Anno 1693,) had been enlivened and enriched
+by that of the Wentworths, which had had a good deal of ripe old Madeira
+and other generous elements mingled with it, so that it ran to gout
+sometimes in the old folks and to high spirit, warm complexion, and
+curly hair in some of the younger ones. The soft curling hair Mr.
+Bernard had inherited,--something, perhaps, of the high spirit; but that
+we shall have a chance of finding out by and by. But the long sermons
+and the frugal board of his Brahmin ancestry, with his own habits of
+study, had told upon his color, which was subdued to something more of
+delicacy than one would care to see in a young fellow with rough work
+before him. This, however, made him look more interesting, or, as the
+young ladies at Major Bush's said, “interestin'.”
+
+When Mr. Bernard showed himself at meeting, on the first Sunday after
+his arrival, it may be supposed that a good many eyes were turned upon
+the young schoolmaster. There was something heroic in his coming forward
+so readily to take a place which called for a strong hand, and a prompt,
+steady will to guide it. In fact, his position was that of a military
+chieftain on the eve of a battle. Everybody knew everything in Pigwacket
+Centre; and it was an understood thing that the young rebels meant to
+put down the new master, if they could. It was natural that the two
+prettiest girls in the village, called in the local dialect, as nearly
+as our limited alphabet will represent it, Alminy Cutterr, and Arvilly
+Braowne, should feel and express an interest in the good-looking
+stranger, and that, when their flattering comments were repeated in the
+hearing of their indigenous admirers, among whom were some of the older
+“boys” of the school, it should not add to the amiable dispositions of
+the turbulent youth.
+
+Monday came, and the new schoolmaster was in his chair at the upper end
+of the schoolhouse, on the raised platform. The rustics looked at his
+handsome face, thoughtful, peaceful, pleasant, cheerful, but sharply cut
+round the lips and proudly lighted about the eyes. The ringleader of
+the mischief-makers, the young butcher who has before figured in this
+narrative, looked at him stealthily, whenever he got a chance to study
+him unobserved; for the truth was, he felt uncomfortable, whenever he
+found the large, dark eyes fixed on his own little, sharp, deep-set,
+gray ones. But he managed to study him pretty well,--first his face,
+then his neck and shoulders, the set of his arms, the narrowing at the
+loins, the make of his legs, and the way he moved. In short, he examined
+him as he would have examined a steer, to see what he could do and
+how he would cut up. If he could only have gone to him and felt of his
+muscles, he would have been entirely satisfied. He was not a very wise
+youth, but he did know well enough, that, though big arms and legs are
+very good things, there is something besides size that goes to make a
+man; and he had heard stories of a fighting-man, called “The Spider,”
+ from his attenuated proportions, who was yet a terrible hitter in the
+ring, and had whipped many a big-limbed fellow, in and out of the roped
+arena.
+
+Nothing could be smoother than the way in which everything went on
+for the first day or two. The new master was so kind and courteous, he
+seemed to take everything in such a natural, easy way, that there was no
+chance to pick a quarrel with him. He in the mean time thought it best
+to watch the boys and young men for a day or two with as little show
+of authority as possible. It was easy enough to see that he would have
+occasion for it before long.
+
+The schoolhouse was a grim, old, red, one-story building, perched on a
+bare rock at the top of a hill,--partly because this was a conspicuous
+site for the temple of learning, and partly because land is cheap where
+there is no chance even for rye or buckwheat, and the very sheep find
+nothing to nibble. About the little porch were carved initials and
+dates, at various heights, from the stature of nine to that of eighteen.
+Inside were old unpainted desks,--unpainted, but browned with the umber
+of human contact,--and hacked by innumerable jack-knives. It was long
+since the walls had been whitewashed, as might be conjectured by the
+various traces left upon them, wherever idle hands or sleepy heads could
+reach them. A curious appearance was noticeable on various higher parts
+of the wall: namely, a wart-like eruption, as one would be tempted to
+call it, being in reality a crop of the soft missiles before mentioned,
+which, adhering in considerable numbers, and hardening after the usual
+fashion of papier-mache, formed at last permanent ornaments of the
+edifice.
+
+The young master's quick eye soon noticed that a particular part of the
+wall was most favored with these ornamental appendages. Their position
+pointed sufficiently clearly to the part of the room they came from.
+In fact, there was a nest of young mutineers just there, which must be
+broken up by a coup d'etat. This was easily effected by redistributing
+the seats and arranging the scholars according to classes, so that a
+mischievous fellow, charged full of the rebellious imponderable, should
+find himself between two non-conductors, in the shape of small boys of
+studious habits. It was managed quietly enough, in such a plausible sort
+of way that its motive was not thought of. But its effects were soon
+felt; and then began a system of correspondence by signs, and the
+throwing of little scrawls done up in pellets, and announced by
+preliminary a'h'ms! to call the attention of the distant youth
+addressed. Some of these were incendiary documents, devoting the
+schoolmaster to the lower divinities, as “a stuck-up dandy,” as “a
+purse-proud aristocrat,” as “a sight too big for his, etc.,” and holding
+him up in a variety of equally forcible phrases to the indignation of
+the youthful community of School District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre.
+
+Presently the draughtsman of the school set a caricature in circulation,
+labelled, to prevent mistakes, with the schoolmaster's name. An immense
+bell-crowned hat, and a long, pointed, swallow-tailed coat showed that
+the artist had in his mind the conventional dandy, as shown in prints
+of thirty or forty years ago, rather than any actual human aspect of the
+time. But it was passed round among the boys and made its laugh,
+helping of course to undermine the master's authority, as “Punch” or the
+“Charivari” takes the dignity out of an obnoxious minister. One morning,
+on going to the schoolroom, Master Langdon found an enlarged copy of
+this sketch, with its label, pinned on the door. He took it down,
+smiled a little, put it into his pocket, and entered the schoolroom. An
+insidious silence prevailed, which looked as if some plot were brewing.
+The boys were ripe for mischief, but afraid. They had really no fault to
+find with the master, except that he was dressed like a gentleman,
+which a certain class of fellows always consider a personal insult to
+themselves. But the older ones were evidently plotting, and more than
+once the warning a'h'm! was heard, and a dirty little scrap of paper
+rolled into a wad shot from one seat to another. One of these happened
+to strike the stove-funnel, and lodged on the master's desk. He was cool
+enough not to seem to notice it. He secured it, however, and found
+an opportunity to look at it, without being observed by the boys. It
+required no immediate notice.
+
+He who should have enjoyed the privilege of looking upon Mr. Bernard
+Langdon the next morning, when his toilet was about half finished, would
+have had a very pleasant gratuitous exhibition. First he buckled the
+strap of his trousers pretty tightly. Then he took up a pair of heavy
+dumb-bells, and swung them for a few minutes; then two great “Indian
+clubs,” with which he enacted all sorts of impossible-looking feats. His
+limbs were not very large, nor his shoulders remarkably broad; but if
+you knew as much of the muscles as all persons who look at statues and
+pictures with a critical eye ought to have learned,--if you knew the
+trapezius, lying diamond-shaped over the back and shoulders like
+a monk's cowl,--or the deltoid, which caps the shoulder like an
+epaulette,--or the triceps, which furnishes the calf of the upper
+arm,--or the hard-knotted biceps,--any of the great sculptural
+landmarks, in fact,--you would have said there was a pretty show of
+them, beneath the white satiny skin of Mr. Bernard Langdon. And if you
+had seen him, when he had laid down the Indian clubs, catch hold of a
+leather strap that hung from the beam of the old-fashioned ceiling,--and
+lift and lower himself over and over again by his left hand alone, you
+might have thought it a very simple and easy thing to do, until you
+tried to do it yourself. Mr. Bernard looked at himself with the eye
+of an expert. “Pretty well!” he said;--“not so much fallen off as I
+expected.” Then he set up his bolster in a very knowing sort of way,
+and delivered two or three blows straight as rulers and swift as winks.
+“That will do,” he said. Then, as if determined to make a certainty of
+his condition, he took a dynamometer from one of the drawers in his old
+veneered bureau. First he squeezed it with his two hands. Then he placed
+it on the floor and lifted, steadily, strongly. The springs creaked
+and cracked; the index swept with a great stride far up into the high
+figures of the scale; it was a good lift. He was satisfied. He sat down
+on the edge of his bed and looked at his cleanly-shaped arms. “If I
+strike one of those boobies, I am afraid I shall spoil him,” he said.
+Yet this young man, when weighed with his class at the college, could
+barely turn one hundred and forty-two pounds in the scale,--not a heavy
+weight, surely; but some of the middle weights, as the present English
+champion, for instance, seem to be of a far finer quality of muscle than
+the bulkier fellows.
+
+The master took his breakfast with a good appetite that morning, but was
+perhaps rather more quiet than usual. After breakfast he went up-stairs
+and put, on a light loose frock, instead of that which he commonly wore,
+which was a close-fitting and rather stylish one. On his way to
+school he met Alminy Cutterr, who happened to be walking in the other
+direction. “Good-morning, Miss Cutter,” he said; for she and another
+young lady had been introduced to him, on a former occasion, in the
+usual phrase of polite society in presenting ladies to gentlemen,--“Mr.
+Langdon, let me make y' acquainted with Miss Cutterr;--let me make y'
+acquainted with Miss Braowne.” So he said, “Good-morning”; to which she
+replied, “Good-mornin', Mr. Langdon. Haow's your haalth?” The answer
+to this question ought naturally to have been the end of the talk; but
+Alminy Cutterr lingered and looked as if she had something more on her
+mind.
+
+A young fellow does not require a great experience to read a simple
+country-girl's face as if it were a sign-board. Alminy was a good soul,
+with red cheeks and bright eyes, kind-hearted as she could be, and it
+was out of the question for her to hide her thoughts or feelings like
+a fine lady. Her bright eyes were moist and her red cheeks paler than
+their wont, as she said, with her lips quivering, “Oh, Mr. Langdon, them
+boys 'll be the death of ye, if ye don't take caar!”
+
+“Why, what's the matter, my dear?” said Mr. Bernard.--Don't think there
+was anything very odd in that “my dear,” at the second interview with a
+village belle;--some of these woman-tamers call a girl “My dear,” after
+five minutes' acquaintance, and it sounds all right as they say it. But
+you had better not try it at a venture.
+
+It sounded all right to Alminy, as Mr. Bernard said it.--“I 'll tell ye
+what's the mahtterr,” she said, in a frightened voice. “Ahbner 's go'n'
+to car' his dog, 'n' he'll set him on ye'z sure 'z y' 'r' alive. 'T's
+the same cretur that haaf eat up Eben Squires's little Jo, a year come
+nex' Faast day.”
+
+Now this last statement was undoubtedly overcolored; as little Jo
+Squires was running about the village,--with an ugly scar on his arm, it
+is true, where the beast had caught him with his teeth, on the occasion
+of the child's taking liberties with him, as he had been accustomed
+to do with a good-tempered Newfoundland dog, who seemed to like being
+pulled and hauled round by children. After this the creature was
+commonly muzzled, and, as he was fed on raw meat chiefly, was always
+ready for a fight, which he was occasionally indulged in, when anything
+stout enough to match him could be found in any of the neighboring
+villages.
+
+Tiger, or, more briefly, Tige, the property of Abner Briggs, Junior,
+belonged to a species not distinctly named in scientific books, but well
+known to our country-folks under the name “Yallah dog.” They do not
+use this expression as they would say black dog or white dog, but
+with almost as definite a meaning as when they speak of a terrier or a
+spaniel. A “yallah dog” is a large canine brute, of a dingy old-flannel
+color, of no particular breed except his own, who hangs round a tavern
+or a butcher's shop, or trots alongside of a team, looking as if he were
+disgusted with the world, and the world with him. Our inland population,
+while they tolerate him, speak of him with contempt. Old ______, of
+Meredith Bridge, used to twit the sun for not shining on cloudy days,
+swearing, that, if he hung up his “yallah dog,” he would make a better
+show of daylight. A country fellow, abusing a horse of his neighbor's,
+vowed, that, “if he had such a hoss, he'd swap him for a `yallah
+dog,'--and then shoot the dog.”
+
+Tige was an ill-conditioned brute by nature, and art had not improved
+him by cropping his ears and tail and investing him with a spiked
+collar. He bore on his person, also, various not ornamental scars, marks
+of old battles; for Tige had fight in him, as was said before, and
+as might be guessed by a certain bluntness about the muzzle, with
+a projection of the lower jaw, which looked as if there might be a
+bull-dog stripe among the numerous bar-sinisters of his lineage.
+
+It was hardly fair, however, to leave Alminy Cutterr waiting while this
+piece of natural history was telling.--As she spoke of little Jo, who
+had been “haaf eat up” by Tige, she could not contain her sympathies,
+and began to cry.
+
+“Why, my dear little soul,” said Mr. Bernard, “what are you worried
+about? I used to play with a bear when I was a boy; and the bear used to
+hug me, and I used to kiss him,--so!”
+
+It was too bad of Mr. Bernard, only the second time he had seen Alminy;
+but her kind feelings had touched him, and that seemed the most natural
+way of expressing his gratitude. Ahniny looked round to see if anybody
+was near; she saw nobody, so of course it would do no good to “holler.”
+ She saw nobody; but a stout young fellow, leading a yellow dog, muzzled,
+saw her through a crack in a picket fence, not a great way off the road.
+Many a year he had been “hangin' 'raoun'” Alminy, and never did he see
+any encouraging look, or hear any “Behave, naow!” or “Come, naow, a'n't
+ye 'shamed?” or other forbidding phrase of acquiescence, such as village
+belles under stand as well as ever did the nymph who fled to the willows
+in the eclogue we all remember.
+
+No wonder he was furious, when he saw the school master, who had never
+seen the girl until within a week, touching with his lips those rosy
+cheeks which he had never dared to approach. But that was all; it was
+a sudden impulse; and the master turned away from the young girl,
+laughing, and telling her not to fret herself about him,--he would take
+care of himself.
+
+So Master Langdon walked on toward his school-house, not displeased,
+perhaps, with his little adventure, nor immensely elated by it; for he
+was one of the natural class of the sex-subduers, and had had many a
+smile without asking, which had been denied to the feeble youth who try
+to win favor by pleading their passion in rhyme, and even to the
+more formidable approaches of young officers in volunteer companies,
+considered by many to be quite irresistible to the fair who have once
+beheld them from their windows in the epaulettes and plumes and sashes
+of the “Pigwacket Invincibles,” or the “Hackmatack Rangers.”
+
+Master Langdon took his seat and began the exercises of his school. The
+smaller boys recited their lessons well enough, but some of the larger
+ones were negligent and surly. He noticed one or two of them looking
+toward the door, as if expecting somebody or something in that
+direction. At half past nine o'clock, Abner Briggs, Junior, who had not
+yet shown himself, made his appearance. He was followed by his “yallah
+dog,” without his muzzle, who squatted down very grimly near the door,
+and gave a wolfish look round the room, as if he were considering which
+was the plumpest boy to begin with. The young butcher, meanwhile, went
+to his seat, looking somewhat flushed, except round the lips, which were
+hardly as red as common, and set pretty sharply.
+
+“Put out that dog, Abner Briggs!”--The master spoke as the captain
+speaks to the helmsman, when there are rocks foaming at the lips, right
+under his lee.
+
+Abner Briggs answered as the helmsman answers, when he knows he has a
+mutinous crew round him that mean to run the ship on the reef, and is
+one of the mutineers himself. “Put him aout y'rself, 'f ye a'n't afeard
+on him!”
+
+The master stepped into the aisle: The great cur showed his teeth,--and
+the devilish instincts of his old wolf-ancestry looked out of his eyes,
+and flashed from his sharp tusks, and yawned in his wide mouth and deep
+red gullet.
+
+The movements of animals are so much quicker than those of human beings
+commonly are, that they avoid blows as easily as one of us steps out of
+the way of an ox-cart. It must be a very stupid dog that lets himself be
+run over by a fast driver in his gig; he can jump out of the wheel's way
+after the tire has already touched him. So, while one is lifting a stick
+to strike or drawing back his foot to kick, the beast makes his spring,
+and the blow or the kick comes too late.
+
+It was not so this time. The master was a fencer, and something of
+a boxer; he had played at singlestick, and was used to watching an
+adversary's eye and coming down on him without any of those premonitory
+symptoms by which unpractised persons show long beforehand what mischief
+they meditate.
+
+“Out with you!” he said, fiercely,--and explained what he meant by
+a sudden flash of his foot that clashed the yellow dog's white teeth
+together like the springing of a bear-trap. The cur knew he had found
+his master at the first word and glance, as low animals on four legs, or
+a smaller number, always do; and the blow took him so by surprise, that
+it curled him up in an instant, and he went bundling out of the open
+schoolhouse-door with a most pitiable yelp, and his stump of a tail shut
+down as close as his owner ever shut the short, stubbed blade of his
+jack-knife.
+
+It was time for the other cur to find who his master.
+
+“Follow your dog, Abner Briggs!” said Master Langdon.
+
+The stout butcher-youth looked round, but the rebels were all cowed and
+sat still.
+
+“I'll go when I'm ready,” he said,--“'n' I guess I won't go afore I'm
+ready.”
+
+“You're ready now,” said Master Langdon, turning up his cuffs so
+that the little boys noticed the yellow gleam of a pair of gold
+sleeve-buttons, once worn by Colonel Percy Wentworth, famous in the Old
+French War.
+
+Abner Briggs, Junior, did not apparently think he was ready, at any
+rate; for he rose up in his place, and stood with clenched fists,
+defiant, as the master strode towards him. The master knew the fellow
+was really frightened, for all his looks, and that he must have no time
+to rally. So he caught him suddenly by the collar, and, with one great
+pull, had him out over his desk and on the open floor. He gave him a
+sharp fling backwards and stood looking at him.
+
+The rough-and-tumble fighters all clinch, as everybody knows; and Abner
+Briggs, Junior, was one of that kind. He remembered how he had floored
+Master Weeks, and he had just “spunk” enough left in him to try to
+repeat his former successful experiment an the new master. He sprang at
+him, open-handed, to clutch him. So the master had to strike,--once, but
+very hard, and just in the place to tell. No doubt, the authority that
+doth hedge a schoolmaster added to the effect of the blow; but the blow
+was itself a neat one, and did not require to be repeated.
+
+“Now go home,” said the master, “and don't let me see you or your dog
+here again.” And he turned his cuffs down over the gold sleeve-buttons.
+
+This finished the great Pigwacket Centre School rebellion. What could
+be done with a master who was so pleasant as long as the boys behaved
+decently, and such a terrible fellow when he got “riled,” as they
+called it? In a week's time everything was reduced to order, and the
+school-committee were delighted. The master, however, had received a
+proposition so much more agreeable and advantageous, that he informed
+the committee he should leave at the end of his month, having in his eye
+a sensible and energetic young college-graduate who would be willing and
+fully competent to take his place.
+
+So, at the expiration of the appointed time, Bernard Langdon, late
+master of the School District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre, took his
+departure from that place for another locality, whither we shall follow
+him, carrying with him the regrets of the committee, of most of the
+scholars, and of several young ladies; also two locks of hair, sent
+unbeknown to payrents, one dark and one warmish auburn, inscribed with
+the respective initials of Alminy Cutterr and Arvilly Braowne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE MOTH FLIES INTO THE CANDLE.
+
+The invitation which Mr. Bernard Langdon had accepted came from the
+Board of Trustees of the “Apollinean Female Institute,” a school for the
+education of young ladies, situated in the flourishing town of Rockland.
+This was an establishment on a considerable scale, in which a hundred
+scholars or thereabouts were taught the ordinary English branches,
+several of the modern languages, something of Latin, if desired, with a
+little natural philosophy, metaphysics, and rhetoric, to finish off with
+in the last year, and music at any time when they would pay for it. At
+the close of their career in the Institute, they were submitted to a
+grand public examination, and received diplomas tied in blue ribbons,
+which proclaimed them with a great flourish of capitals to be graduates
+of the Apollinean Female Institute.
+
+Rockland was a town of no inconsiderable pretensions. It was ennobled
+by lying at the foot of a mountain,--called by the working-folks of
+the place “the Maounting,”--which sufficiently showed that it was the
+principal high land of the district in which it was situated. It lay to
+the south of this, and basked in the sunshine as Italy stretches herself
+before the Alps. To pass from the town of Tamarack on the north of
+the mountain to Rockland on the south was like crossing from Coire to
+Chiavenna.
+
+There is nothing gives glory and grandeur and romance and mystery to
+a place like the impending presence of a high mountain. Our beautiful
+Northampton with its fair meadows and noble stream is lovely enough, but
+owes its surpassing attraction to those twin summits which brood over it
+like living presences, looking down into its streets as if they were its
+tutelary divinities, dressing and undressing their green shrines,
+robing themselves in jubilant sunshine or in sorrowing clouds, and doing
+penance in the snowy shroud of winter, as if they had living hearts
+under their rocky ribs and changed their mood like the children of the
+soil at their feet, who grow up under their almost parental smiles and
+frowns. Happy is the child whose first dreams of heaven are blended
+with the evening glories of Mount Holyoke, when the sun is firing its
+treetops, and gilding the white walls that mark its one human dwelling!
+If the other and the wilder of the two summits has a scowl of terror in
+its overhanging brows, yet is it a pleasing fear to look upon its savage
+solitudes through the barred nursery-windows in the heart of the sweet,
+companionable village.--And how the mountains love their children! The
+sea is of a facile virtue, and will run to kiss the first comer in any
+port he visits; but the chaste mountains sit apart, and show their faces
+only in the midst of their own families.
+
+The Mountain which kept watch to the north of Rockland lay waste and
+almost inviolate through much of its domain. The catamount still glared
+from the branches of its old hemlocks on the lesser beasts that strayed
+beneath him. It was not long since a wolf had wandered down, famished in
+the winter's dearth, and left a few bones and some tufts of wool of what
+had been a lamb in the morning. Nay, there were broad-footed tracks in
+the snow only two years previously, which could not be mistaken;--the
+black bear alone could have set that plantigrade seal, and little
+children must come home early from school and play, for he is an
+indiscriminate feeder when he is hungry, and a little child would not
+come amiss when other game was wanting.
+
+But these occasional visitors may have been mere wanderers, which,
+straying along in the woods by day, and perhaps stalking through the
+streets of still villages by night, had worked their way along down from
+the ragged mountain-spurs of higher latitudes. The one feature of The
+Mountain that shed the brownest horror on its woods was the existence
+of the terrible region known as Rattlesnake Ledge, and still tenanted
+by those damnable reptiles, which distil a fiercer venom under our cold
+northern sky than the cobra himself in the land of tropical spices and
+poisons.
+
+From the earliest settlement of the place, this fact had been, next
+to the Indians, the reigning nightmare of the inhabitants. It was easy
+enough, after a time, to drive away the savages; for “a screeching
+Indian Divell,” as our fathers called him, could not crawl into the
+crack of a rock to escape from his pursuers. But the venomous population
+of Rattlesnake Ledge had a Gibraltar for their fortress that might have
+defied the siege-train dragged to the walls of Sebastopol. In its deep
+embrasures and its impregnable easemates they reared their families,
+they met in love or wrath, they twined together in family knots, they
+hissed defiance in hostile clans, they fed, slept, hibernated, and in
+due time died in peace. Many a foray had the towns-people made, and many
+a stuffed skin was shown as a trophy,--nay, there were families where
+the children's first toy was made from the warning appendage that once
+vibrated to the wrath of one of these “cruel serpents.” Sometimes one of
+them, coaxed out by a warm sun, would writhe himself down the hillside
+into the roads, up the walks that led to houses,--worse than this, into
+the long grass, where the barefooted mowers would soon pass with
+their swinging scythes,--more rarely into houses, and on one memorable
+occasion, early in the last century, into the meeting-house, where he
+took a position on the pulpit-stairs,--as is narrated in the “Account of
+Some Remarkable Providences,” etc., where it is suggested that a strong
+tendency of the Rev. Didymus Bean, the Minister at that time, towards
+the Arminian Heresy may have had something to do with it, and that the
+Serpent supposed to have been killed on the Pulpit-Stairs was a false
+show of the Daemon's Contrivance, he having come in to listen to a
+Discourse which was a sweet Savour in his Nostrils, and, of course,
+not being capable of being killed Himself. Others said, however, that,
+though there was good Reason to think it was a Damon, yet he did come
+with Intent to bite the Heel of that faithful Servant,--etc.
+
+One Gilson is said to have died of the bite of a rattlesnake in
+this town early in the present century. After this there was a
+great snake-hunt, in which very many of these venomous beasts were
+killed,--one in particular, said to have been as big round as a
+stout man's arm, and to have had no less than forty joints to his
+rattle,--indicating, according to some, that he had lived forty years,
+but, if we might put any faith in the Indian tradition, that he had
+killed forty human beings,--an idle fancy, clearly. This hunt, however,
+had no permanent effect in keeping down the serpent population.
+Viviparous, creatures are a kind of specie-paying lot, but oviparous
+ones only give their notes, as it were, for a future brood,--an egg
+being, so to speak, a promise to pay a young one by and by, if nothing
+happen. Now the domestic habits of the rattlesnake are not studied very
+closely, for obvious reasons; but it is, no doubt, to all intents and
+purposes oviparous. Consequently it has large families, and is not easy
+to kill out.
+
+In the year 184-, a melancholy proof was afforded to the inhabitants of
+Rockland, that the brood which infested The Mountain was not extirpated.
+A very interesting young married woman, detained at home at the time by
+the state of her health, was bitten in the entry of her own house by a
+rattlesnake which had found its way down from The Mountain. Owing to the
+almost instant employment of powerful remedies, the bite did not prove
+immediately fatal; but she died within a few months of the time when she
+was bitten.
+
+All this seemed to throw a lurid kind of shadow over The Mountain. Yet,
+as many years passed without any accident, people grew comparatively
+careless, and it might rather be said to add a fearful kind of interest
+to the romantic hillside, that the banded reptiles, which had been the
+terror of the red men for nobody knows how many thousand years, were
+there still, with the same poison-bags and spring-teeth at the white
+men's service, if they meddled with them.
+
+The other natural features of Rockland were such as many of our pleasant
+country-towns can boast of. A brook came tumbling down the mountain-side
+and skirted the most thickly settled portion of the village. In the
+parts of its course where it ran through the woods, the water looked
+almost as brown as coffee flowing from its urn,--to say like smoky
+quartz would perhaps give a better idea,--but in the open plain it
+sparkled over the pebbles white as a queen's diamonds. There were
+huckleberry-pastures on the lower flanks of The Mountain, with plenty
+of the sweet-scented bayberry mingled with the other bushes. In other
+fields grew great store of high-bush blackberries. Along the roadside
+were bayberry-bushes, hung all over with bright red coral pendants in
+autumn and far into the winter. Then there were swamps set thick with
+dingy alders, where the three-leaved arum and the skunk's-cabbage grew
+broad and succulent, shelving down into black boggy pools here and there
+at the edge of which the green frog, stupidest of his tribe, sat waiting
+to be victimized by boy or snapping-turtle long after the shy and agile
+leopard-frog had taken the six-foot spring that plumped him into the
+middle of the pool. And on the neighboring banks the maiden-hair spread
+its flat disk of embroidered fronds on the wire-like stem that glistened
+polished and brown as the darkest tortoise-shell, and pale violets,
+cheated by the cold skies of their hues and perfume, sunned themselves
+like white-cheeked invalids. Over these rose the old forest-trees,--the
+maple, scarred with the wounds which had drained away its sweet
+life-blood,--the beech, its smooth gray bark mottled so as to look
+like the body of one of those great snakes of old that used to frighten
+armies, always the mark of lovers' knives, as in the days of Musidora
+and her swain,--the yellow birch, rough as the breast of Silenus in old
+marbles,--the wild cherry, its little bitter fruit lying unheeded at its
+foot,--and, soaring over all, the huge, coarse-barked, splintery-limbed,
+dark-mantled hemlock, in the depth of whose aerial solitudes the crow
+brooded on her nest unscared, and the gray squirrel lived unharmed till
+his incisors grew to look like ram's-horns.
+
+Rockland would have been but half a town without its pond; Guinnepeg
+Pond was the name of it, but the young ladies of the Apollinean
+Institute were very anxious that it should be called Crystalline Lake.
+It was here that the young folks used to sail in summer and skate in
+winter; here, too, those queer, old, rum-scented good-for-nothing, lazy,
+story-telling, half-vagabonds, who sawed a little wood or dug a few
+potatoes now and then under the pretence of working for their living,
+used to go and fish through the ice for pickerel every winter. And
+here those three young people were drowned, a few summers ago, by the
+upsetting of a sail-boat in a sudden flaw of wind. There is not one of
+these smiling ponds which has not devoured more youths and maidens than
+any of those monsters the ancients used to tell such lies about. But it
+was a pretty pond, and never looked more innocent--so the native “bard”
+ of Rockland said in his elegy--than on the morning when they found Sarah
+Jane and Ellen Maria floating among the lily-pads.
+
+The Apollinean Institute, or Institoot, as it was more commonly called,
+was, in the language of its Prospectus, a “first-class Educational
+Establishment.” It employed a considerable corps of instructors to rough
+out and finish the hundred young lady scholars it sheltered beneath its
+roof. First, Mr. and Mrs. Peckham, the Principal and the Matron of the
+school. Silas Peckham was a thorough Yankee, born on a windy part of
+the coast, and reared chiefly on salt-fish. Everybody knows the type of
+Yankee produced by this climate and diet: thin, as if he had been split
+and dried; with an ashen kind of complexion, like the tint of the food
+he is made of; and about as sharp, tough, juiceless, and biting to deal
+with as the other is to the taste. Silas Peckham kept a young ladies'
+school exactly as he would have kept a hundred head of cattle,--for the
+simple, unadorned purpose of making just as much money in just as few
+years as could be safely done. Mr. Peckham gave very little personal
+attention to the department of instruction, but was always busy with
+contracts for flour and potatoes, beef and pork, and other nutritive
+staples, the amount of which required for such an establishment was
+enough to frighten a quartermaster. Mrs. Peckham was from the West,
+raised on Indian corn and pork, which give a fuller outline and a more
+humid temperament, but may perhaps be thought to render people a little
+coarse-fibred. Her specialty was to look after the feathering, cackling,
+roosting, rising, and general behavior of these hundred chicks. An
+honest, ignorant woman, she could not have passed an examination in the
+youngest class. So this distinguished institution was under the charge
+of a commissary and a housekeeper, and its real business was making
+money by taking young girls in as boarders.
+
+Connected with this, however, was the incidental fact, which the public
+took for the principal one, namely, the business of instruction.
+Mr. Peckham knew well enough that it was just as well to have good
+instructors as bad ones, so far as cost was concerned, and a great deal
+better for the reputation of his feeding-establishment. He tried to
+get the best he could without paying too much, and, having got them, to
+screw all the work out of them that could possibly be extracted.
+
+There was a master for the English branches, with a young lady
+assistant. There was another young lady who taught French, of the
+ahvaung and baundahng style, which does not exactly smack of the
+asphalt of the Boulevards. There was also a German teacher of music, who
+sometimes helped in French of the ahfaung and bauntaung style,--so that,
+between the two, the young ladies could hardly have been mistaken for
+Parisians, by a Committee of the French Academy. The German teacher also
+taught a Latin class after his fashion,--benna, a ben, gahboot, ahead,
+and so forth.
+
+The master for the English branches had lately left the school for
+private reasons, which need not be here mentioned,--but he had gone,
+at any rate, and it was his place which had been offered to Mr. Bernard
+Langdon. The offer came just in season,--as, for various causes, he was
+willing to leave the place where he had begun his new experience.
+
+It was on a fine morning that Mr. Bernard, ushered in by Mr. Peckham,
+made his appearance in the great schoolroom of the Apollinean Institute.
+A general rustle ran all round the seats when the handsome young man
+was introduced. The principal carried him to the desk of the young lady
+English assistant, Miss Darley by name, and introduced him to her.
+
+There was not a great deal of study done that day. The young lady
+assistant had to point out to the new master the whole routine in which
+the classes were engaged when their late teacher left, and which had
+gone on as well as it could since. Then Master Langdon had a great many
+questions to ask, some relating to his new duties, and some,
+perhaps, implying a degree of curiosity not very unnatural under the
+circumstances. The truth is, the general effect of the schoolroom, with
+its scores of young girls, all their eyes naturally centring on him with
+fixed or furtive glances, was enough to bewilder and confuse a young man
+like Master Langdon, though he was not destitute of self-possession, as
+we have already seen.
+
+You cannot get together a hundred girls, taking them as they come, from
+the comfortable and affluent classes, probably anywhere, certainly not
+in New England, without seeing a good deal of beauty. In fact, we very
+commonly mean by beauty the way young girls look when there is
+nothing to hinder their looking as Nature meant them to. And the great
+schoolroom of the Apollinean Institute did really make so pretty a show
+on the morning when Master Langdon entered it, that he might be pardoned
+for asking Miss Darley more questions about his scholars than about
+their lessons.
+
+There were girls of all ages: little creatures, some pallid and
+delicate-looking, the offspring of invalid parents,--much given to
+books, not much to mischief, commonly spoken of as particularly good
+children, and contrasted with another sort, girls of more vigorous
+organization, who were disposed to laughing and play, and required a
+strong hand to manage them; then young growing misses of every shade of
+Saxon complexion, and here and there one of more Southern hue: blondes,
+some of them so translucent-looking that it seemed as if you could see
+the souls in their bodies, like bubbles in glass, if souls were objects
+of sight; brunettes, some with rose-red colors, and some with that
+swarthy hue which often carries with it a heavily-shaded lip, and
+which, with pure outlines and outspoken reliefs, gives us some of our
+handsomest women,--the women whom ornaments of plain gold adorn more
+than any other parures; and again, but only here and there, one with
+dark hair and gray or blue eyes, a Celtic type, perhaps, but found in
+our native stock occasionally; rarest of all, a light-haired girl with
+dark eyes, hazel, brown, or of the color of that mountain-brook spoken
+of in this chapter, where it ran through shadowy woodlands. With these
+were to be seen at intervals some of maturer years, full-blown flowers
+among the opening buds, with that conscious look upon their faces which
+so many women wear during the period when they never meet a single man
+without having his monosyllable ready for him,--tied as they are, poor
+things! on the rock of expectation, each of them an Andromeda waiting
+for her Perseus.
+
+“Who is that girl in ringlets,--the fourth in the third row on the
+right?” said Master Langdon.
+
+“Charlotte Ann Wood,” said Miss Darley; “writes very pretty poems.”
+
+“Oh!--And the pink one, three seats from her? Looks bright; anything in
+her?”
+
+“Emma Dean,--day-scholar,--Squire Dean's daughter,--nice girl,--second
+medal last year.”
+
+The master asked these two questions in a careless kind of way, and did
+not seem to pay any too much attention to the answers.
+
+“And who and what is that,” he said,--“sitting a little apart
+there,--that strange, wild-looking girl?”
+
+This time he put the real question he wanted answered;--the other two
+were asked at random, as masks for the third.
+
+The lady-teacher's face changed;--one would have said she was frightened
+or troubled. She looked at the girl doubtfully, as if she might hear the
+master's question and its answer. But the girl did not look up;--she was
+winding a gold chain about her wrist, and then uncoiling it, as if in a
+kind of reverie.
+
+Miss Darley drew close to the master and placed her hand so as to hide
+her lips. “Don't look at her as if we were talking about her,” she
+whispered softly; “that is Elsie Venner.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. AN OLD-FASHIONED DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTER.
+
+It was a comfort to get to a place with something like society, with
+residences which had pretensions to elegance, with people of some
+breeding, with a newspaper, and “stores” to advertise in it, and with
+two or three churches to keep each other alive by wholesome agitation.
+Rockland was such a place.
+
+Some of the natural features of the town have been described already.
+The Mountain, of course, was what gave it its character, and redeemed
+it from wearing the commonplace expression which belongs to ordinary
+country-villages. Beautiful, wild, invested with the mystery which
+belongs to untrodden spaces, and with enough of terror to give it
+dignity, it had yet closer relations with the town over which it brooded
+than the passing stranger knew of. Thus, it made a local climate
+by cutting off the northern winds and holding the sun's heat like a
+garden-wall. Peachtrees, which, on the northern side of the mountain,
+hardly ever came to fruit, ripened abundant crops in Rockland.
+
+But there was still another relation between the mountain and the town
+at its foot, which strangers were not likely to hear alluded to, and
+which was oftener thought of than spoken of by its inhabitants. Those
+high-impending forests,--“hangers,” as White of Selborne would have
+called them,--sloping far upward and backward into the distance, had
+always an air of menace blended with their wild beauty. It seemed as
+if some heaven-scaling Titan had thrown his shaggy robe over the bare,
+precipitous flanks of the rocky summit, and it might at any moment slide
+like a garment flung carelessly on the nearest chance-support, and, so
+sliding, crush the village out of being, as the Rossberg when it tumbled
+over on the valley of Goldau.
+
+Persons have been known to remove from the place, after a short
+residence in it, because they were haunted day and night by the thought
+of this awful green wall, piled up into the air over their heads. They
+would lie awake of nights, thinking they heard the muffed snapping of
+roots, as if a thousand acres of the mountain-side were tugging to break
+away, like the snow from a house-roof, and a hundred thousand trees were
+clinging with all their fibres to hold back the soil just ready to peel
+away and crash down with all its rocks and forest-growths. And yet, by
+one of those strange contradictions we are constantly finding in human
+nature, there were natives of the town who would come back thirty or
+forty years after leaving it, just to nestle under this same threatening
+mountainside, as old men sun themselves against southward-facing walls.
+The old dreams and legends of danger added to the attraction. If the
+mountain should ever slide, they had a kind of feeling as if they ought
+to be there. It was a fascination like that which the rattlesnake is
+said to exert.
+
+This comparison naturally suggests the recollection of that other source
+of danger which was an element in the every-day life of the Rockland
+people. The folks in some of the neighboring towns had a joke against
+them, that a Rocklander could n't hear a beanpod rattle without saying,
+“The Lord have mercy on us!” It is very true, that many a nervous old
+lady has had a terrible start, caused by some mischievous young rogue's
+giving a sudden shake to one of these noisy vegetable products in her
+immediate vicinity. Yet, strangely enough, many persons missed the
+excitement of the possibility of a fatal bite in other regions,
+where there were nothing but black and green and striped snakes,
+mean ophidians, having the spite of the nobler serpent without his
+venom,--poor crawling creatures, whom Nature would not trust with a
+poison-bag. Many natives of Rockland did unquestionably experience a
+certain gratification in this infinitesimal sense of danger. It was
+noted that the old people retained their hearing longer than in other
+places. Some said it was the softened climate, but others believed it
+was owing to the habit of keeping their ears open whenever they were
+walking through the grass or in the woods. At any rate, a slight sense
+of danger is often an agreeable stimulus. People sip their creme de
+noyau with a peculiar tremulous pleasure, because there is a bare
+possibility that it may contain prussic acid enough to knock them over;
+in which case they will lie as dead as if a thunder-cloud had emptied
+itself into the earth through their brain and marrow.
+
+But Rockland had other features which helped to give it a special
+character. First of all, there was one grand street which was its chief
+glory. Elm Street it was called, naturally enough, for its elms made
+a long, pointed-arched gallery of it through most of its extent. No
+natural Gothic arch compares, for a moment, with that formed by two
+American elms, where their lofty jets of foliage shoot across each
+other's ascending curves, to intermingle their showery flakes of green.
+When one looks through a long double row of these, as in that lovely
+avenue which the poets of Yale remember so well,
+
+    “Oh, could the vista of my life but now as bright appear
+     As when I first through Temple Street looked down thine espalier!”
+
+he beholds a temple not built with hands, fairer than any minster, with
+all its clustered stems and flowering capitals, that ever grew in stone.
+
+Nobody knows New England who is not on terms of intimacy with one of
+its elms. The elm comes nearer to having a soul than any other vegetable
+creature among us. It loves man as man loves it. It is modest and
+patient. It has a small flake of a seed which blows in everywhere and
+makes arrangements for coming up by and by. So, in spring, one finds a
+crop of baby-elms among his carrots and parsnips, very weak and small
+compared to those succulent vegetables. The baby-elms die, most of them,
+slain, unrecognized or unheeded, by hand or hoe, as meekly as
+Herod's innocents. One of them gets overlooked, perhaps, until it has
+established a kind of right to stay. Three generations of carrot and
+parsnip consumers have passed away, yourself among them, and now let
+your great-grandson look for the baby-elm. Twenty-two feet of clean
+girth, three hundred and sixty feet in the line that bounds its leafy
+circle, it covers the boy with such a canopy as neither glossy-leafed
+oak nor insect-haunted linden ever lifted into the summer skies.
+
+Elm Street was the pride of Rockland, but not only on account of its
+Gothic-arched vista. In this street were most of the great houses, or
+“mansion-houses,” as it was usual to call them. Along this street,
+also, the more nicely kept and neatly painted dwellings were chiefly
+congregated. It was the correct thing for a Rockland dignitary to have a
+house in Elm Street. A New England “mansion-house” is naturally square,
+with dormer windows projecting from the roof, which has a balustrade
+with turned posts round it. It shows a good breadth of front-yard
+before its door, as its owner shows a respectable expanse of a clean
+shirt-front. It has a lateral margin beyond its stables and offices, as
+its master wears his white wrist bands showing beyond his coat-cuffs.
+It may not have what can properly be called grounds, but it must have
+elbow-room, at any rate. Without it, it is like a man who is always
+tight-buttoned for want of any linen to show. The mansion-house which
+has had to “button itself up tight in fences, for want of green or
+gravel margin,” will be advertising for boarders presently. The old
+English pattern of the New England mansion-house, only on a somewhat
+grander scale, is Sir Thomas Abney's place, where dear, good Dr. Watts
+said prayers for the family, and wrote those blessed hymns of his that
+sing us into consciousness in our cradles, and come back to us in sweet,
+single verses, between the moments of wandering and of stupor, when we
+lie dying, and sound over us when we can no longer hear them, bringing
+grateful tears to the hot, aching eyes beneath the thick, black veils,
+and carrying the holy calm with them which filled the good man's
+heart, as he prayed and sung under the shelter of the old English
+mansion-house. Next to the mansion-houses, came the two-story trim,
+white-painted, “genteel” houses, which, being more gossipy and less
+nicely bred, crowded close up to the street, instead of standing
+back from it with arms akimbo, like the mansion-houses. Their little
+front-yards were very commonly full of lilac and syringa and other
+bushes, which were allowed to smother the lower story almost to the
+exclusion of light and airy so that, what with small windows and
+small windowpanes, and the darkness made by these choking growths of
+shrubbery, the front parlors of some of these houses were the most
+tomb-like, melancholy places that could be found anywhere among
+the abodes of the living. Their garnishing was apt to assist this
+impression. Large-patterned carpets, which always look discontented
+in little rooms, haircloth furniture, black and shiny as beetles' wing
+cases, and centre-tables, with a sullen oil-lamp of the kind called
+astral by our imaginative ancestors, in the centre,--these things
+were inevitable. In set piles round the lamp was ranged the current
+literature of the day, in the form of Temperance Documents, unbound
+numbers of one of the Unknown Public's Magazines with worn-out steel
+engravings and high-colored fashion-plates, the Poems of a distinguished
+British author whom it is unnecessary to mention, a volume of sermons,
+or a novel or two, or both, according to the tastes of the family, and
+the Good Book, which is always Itself in the cheapest and commonest
+company. The father of the family with his hand in the breast of his
+coat, the mother of the same in a wide-bordered cap, sometimes a print
+of the Last Supper, by no means Morghen's, or the Father of his Country,
+or the old General, or the Defender of the Constitution, or an unknown
+clergyman with an open book before him,--these were the usual ornaments
+of the walls, the first two a matter of rigor, the others according to
+politics and other tendencies.
+
+This intermediate class of houses, wherever one finds them in New
+England towns, are very apt to be cheerless and unsatisfactory. They
+have neither the luxury of the mansion-house nor the comfort of the
+farm-house. They are rarely kept at an agreeable temperature. The
+mansion-house has large fireplaces and generous chimneys, and is open
+to the sunshine. The farm-house makes no pretensions, but it has a good
+warm kitchen, at any rate, and one can be comfortable there with the
+rest of the family, without fear and without reproach. These lesser
+country-houses of genteel aspirations are much given to patent
+subterfuges of one kind and another to get heat without combustion. The
+chilly parlor and the slippery hair-cloth seat take the life out of the
+warmest welcome. If one would make these places wholesome, happy, and
+cheerful, the first precept would be,--The dearest fuel, plenty of it,
+and let half the heat go up the chimney. If you can't afford this, don't
+try to live in a “genteel” fashion, but stick to the ways of the honest
+farm-house.
+
+There were a good many comfortable farm-houses scattered about Rockland.
+The best of them were something of the following pattern, which is too
+often superseded of late by a more pretentious, but infinitely less
+pleasing kind of rustic architecture. A little back from the road,
+seated directly on the green sod, rose a plain wooden building, two
+stories in front, with a long roof sloping backwards to within a few
+feet of the ground. This, like the “mansion-house,” is copied from an
+old English pattern. Cottages of this model may be seen in Lancashire,
+for instance, always with the same honest, homely look, as if their
+roofs acknowledged their relationship to the soil out of which they
+sprung. The walls were unpainted, but turned by the slow action of sun
+and air and rain to a quiet dove or slate color. An old broken millstone
+at the door,--a well-sweep pointing like a finger to the heavens, which
+the shining round of water beneath looked up at like a dark unsleeping
+eye,--a single large elm a little at one side,--a barn twice as big as
+the house,--a cattle-yard, with
+
+     “The white horns tossing above the wall,”--
+
+some fields, in pasture or in crops, with low stone walls round them,--a
+row of beehives,--a garden-patch, with roots, and currant-bushes,
+and many-hued hollyhocks, and swollen-stemmed, globe-headed, seedling
+onions, and marigolds and flower-de-luces, and lady's-delights, and
+peonies, crowding in together, with southernwood in the borders,
+and woodbine and hops and morning-glories climbing as they got a
+chance,--these were the features by which the Rockland-born children
+remembered the farm-house, when they had grown to be men. Such are the
+recollections that come over poor sailor-boys crawling out on reeling
+yards to reef topsails as their vessels stagger round the stormy Cape;
+and such are the flitting images that make the eyes of old country-born
+merchants look dim and dreamy, as they sit in their city palaces, warm
+with the after-dinner flush of the red wave out of which Memory arises,
+as Aphrodite arose from the green waves of the ocean.
+
+Two meeting-houses stood on two eminences, facing each other, and
+looking like a couple of fighting-cocks with their necks straight up in
+the air,--as if they would flap their roofs, the next thing, and crow
+out of their upstretched steeples, and peck at each other's glass eyes
+with their sharp-pointed weathercocks.
+
+The first was a good pattern of the real old-fashioned New England
+meeting-house. It was a large barn with windows, fronted by a square
+tower crowned with a kind of wooden bell inverted and raised on legs,
+out of which rose a slender spire with the sharp-billed weathercock at
+its summit. Inside, tall, square pews with flapping seats, and a gallery
+running round three sides of the building. On the fourth side the
+pulpit, with a huge, dusty sounding-board hanging over it. Here preached
+the Reverend Pierrepont Honeywood, D. D., successor, after a number of
+generations, to the office and the parsonage of the Reverend Didymus
+Bean, before mentioned, but not suspected of any of his alleged
+heresies. He held to the old faith of the Puritans, and occasionally
+delivered a discourse which was considered by the hard-headed
+theologians of his parish to have settled the whole matter fully and
+finally, so that now there was a good logical basis laid down for
+the Millennium, which might begin at once upon the platform of his
+demonstrations. Yet the Reverend Dr. Honeywood was fonder of preaching
+plain, practical sermons about the duties of life, and showing his
+Christianity in abundant good works among his people. It was noticed by
+some few of his flock, not without comment, that the great majority of
+his texts came from the Gospels, and this more and more as he became
+interested in various benevolent enterprises which brought him into
+relations with-ministers and kindhearted laymen of other denominations.
+He was in fact a man of a very warm, open, and exceedingly human
+disposition, and, although bred by a clerical father, whose motto was
+“Sit anima mea cum Puritanis,” he exercised his human faculties in the
+harness of his ancient faith with such freedom that the straps of it got
+so loose they did not interfere greatly with the circulation of the
+warm blood through his system. Once in a while he seemed to think it
+necessary to come out with a grand doctrinal sermon, and them he would
+lapse away for a while into preaching on men's duties to each other and
+to society, and hit hard, perhaps, at some of the actual vices of the
+time and place, and insist with such tenderness and eloquence on the
+great depth and breadth of true Christian love and charity, that his
+oldest deacon shook his head, and wished he had shown as much interest
+when he was preaching, three Sabbaths back, on Predestination, or in
+his discourse against the Sabellians. But he was sound in the faith;
+no doubt of that. Did he not preside at the council held in the town
+of Tamarack, on the other side of the mountain, which expelled its
+clergyman for maintaining heretical doctrines? As presiding officer, he
+did not vote, of course, but there was no doubt that he was all right;
+he had some of the Edwards blood in him, and that couldn't very well let
+him go wrong.
+
+The meeting-house on the other and opposite summit was of a more modern
+style, considered by many a great improvement on the old New England
+model, so that it is not uncommon for a country parish to pull down its
+old meeting-house, which has been preached in for a hundred years or so,
+and put up one of these more elegant edifices. The new building was in
+what may be called the florid shingle-Gothic manner. Its pinnacles and
+crockets and other ornaments were, like the body of the building, all of
+pine wood,--an admirable material, as it is very soft and easily worked,
+and can be painted of any color desired. Inside, the walls were stuccoed
+in imitation of stone,--first a dark brown square, then two light brown
+squares, then another dark brown square, and so on, to represent the
+accidental differences of shade always noticeable in the real stones of
+which walls are built. To be sure, the architect could not help getting
+his party-colored squares in almost as regular rhythmical order as those
+of a chess-board; but nobody can avoid doing things in a systematic and
+serial way; indeed, people who wish to plant trees in natural chimps
+know very well that they cannot keep from making regular lines and
+symmetrical figures, unless by some trick or other, as that one of
+throwing a peck of potatoes up into the air and sticking in a tree
+wherever a potato happens to fall. The pews of this meeting-house were
+the usual oblong ones, where people sit close together, with a ledge
+before them to support their hymn-books, liable only to occasional
+contact with the back of the next pew's heads or bonnets, and a
+place running under the seat of that pew where hats could be
+deposited,--always at the risk of the owner, in case of injury by boots
+or crickets.
+
+In this meeting-house preached the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather, a
+divine of the “Liberal” school, as it is commonly called, bred at that
+famous college which used to be thought, twenty or thirty years ago, to
+have the monopoly of training young men in the milder forms of heresy.
+His ministrations were attended with decency, but not followed with
+enthusiasm. “The beauty of virtue” got to be an old story at last.
+“The moral dignity of human nature” ceased to excite a thrill of
+satisfaction, after some hundred repetitions. It grew to be a dull
+business, this preaching against stealing and intemperance, while he
+knew very well that the thieves were prowling round orchards and
+empty houses, instead of being there to hear the sermon, and that the
+drunkards, being rarely church-goers, get little good by the statistics
+and eloquent appeals of the preacher. Every now and then, however,
+the Reverend Mr. Fairweather let off a polemic discourse against his
+neighbor opposite, which waked his people up a little; but it was a
+languid congregation, at best,--very apt to stay away from meeting
+in the afternoon, and not at all given to extra evening services.
+The minister, unlike his rival of the other side of the way, was a
+down-hearted and timid kind of man. He went on preaching as he had been
+taught to preach, but he had misgivings at times. There was a little
+Roman Catholic church at the foot of the hill where his own was placed,
+which he always had to pass on Sundays. He could never look on
+the thronging multitudes that crowded its pews and aisles or knelt
+bare-headed on its steps, without a longing to get in among them and
+go down on his knees and enjoy that luxury of devotional contact which
+makes a worshipping throng as different from the same numbers praying
+apart as a bed of coals is from a trail of scattered cinders.
+
+“Oh, if I could but huddle in with those poor laborers and
+working-women!” he would say to himself. “If I could but breathe that
+atmosphere, stifling though it be, yet made holy by ancient litanies,
+and cloudy with the smoke of hallowed incense, for one hour, instead of
+droning over these moral precepts to my half-sleeping congregation!” The
+intellectual isolation of his sect preyed upon him; for, of all
+terrible things to natures like his, the most terrible is to belong to a
+minority. No person that looked at his thin and sallow cheek, his sunken
+and sad eye, his tremulous lip, his contracted forehead, or who heard
+his querulous, though not unmusical voice, could fail to see that his
+life was an uneasy one, that he was engaged in some inward conflict. His
+dark, melancholic aspect contrasted with his seemingly cheerful creed,
+and was all the more striking, as the worthy Dr. Honeywood, professing a
+belief which made him a passenger on board a shipwrecked planet, was
+yet a most good-humored and companionable gentleman, whose laugh on
+week-days did one as much good to listen to as the best sermon he ever
+delivered on a Sunday.
+
+A mile or two from the centre of Rockland was a pretty little Episcopal
+church, with a roof like a wedge of cheese, a square tower, a stained
+window, and a trained rector, who read the service with such ventral
+depth of utterance and rrreduplication of the rrresonant letter, that
+his own mother would not have known him for her son, if the good woman
+had not ironed his surplice and put it on with her own hands.
+
+There were two public-houses in the place: one dignified with the name
+of the Mountain House, somewhat frequented by city people in the summer
+months, large-fronted, three-storied, balconied, boasting a distinct
+ladies'-drawing-room, and spreading a table d'hote of some pretensions;
+the other, “Pollard's Tahvern,” in the common speech,--a two-story
+building, with a bar-room, once famous, where there was a great smell of
+hay and boots and pipes and all other bucolic-flavored elements,--where
+games of checkers were played on the back of the bellows with red and
+white kernels of corn, or with beans and coffee, where a man slept in a
+box-settle at night, to wake up early passengers,--where teamsters came
+in, with wooden-handled whips and coarse frocks, reinforcing the bucolic
+flavor of the atmosphere, and middle-aged male gossips, sometimes
+including the squire of the neighboring law-office, gathered to exchange
+a question or two about the news, and then fall into that solemn state
+of suspended animation which the temperance bar-rooms of modern days
+produce in human beings, as the Grotta del Cane does in dogs in the
+well-known experiments related by travellers. This bar-room used to be
+famous for drinking and storytelling, and sometimes fighting, in old
+times. That was when there were rows of decanters on the shelf behind
+the bar, and a hissing vessel of hot water ready, to make punch, and
+three or four loggerheads (long irons clubbed at the end) were always
+lying in the fire in the cold season, waiting to be plunged into
+sputtering and foaming mugs of flip,--a goodly compound; speaking
+according to the flesh, made with beer and sugar, and a certain
+suspicion of strong waters, over which a little nutmeg being grated,
+and in it the hot iron being then allowed to sizzle, there results a
+peculiar singed aroma, which the wise regard as a warning to remove
+themselves at once out of the reach of temptation.
+
+But the bar of Pollard's Tahvern no longer presented its old
+attractions, and the loggerheads had long disappeared from the fire. In
+place of the decanters, were boxes containing “lozengers,” as they were
+commonly called, sticks of candy in jars, cigars in tumblers, a few
+lemons, grown hard-skinned and marvellously shrunken by long exposure,
+but still feebly suggestive of possible lemonade,--the whole ornamented
+by festoons of yellow and blue cut flypaper. On the front shelf of the
+bar stood a large German-silver pitcher of water, and scattered about
+were ill-conditioned lamps, with wicks that always wanted picking, which
+burned red and smoked a good deal, and were apt to go out without any
+obvious cause, leaving strong reminiscences of the whale-fishery in the
+circumambient air.
+
+The common schoolhouses of Rockland were dwarfed by the grandeur of the
+Apollinean Institute. The master passed one of them, in a walk he was
+taking, soon after his arrival at Rockland. He looked in at the rows of
+desks, and recalled his late experiences. He could not help laughing, as
+he thought how neatly he had knocked the young butcher off his pins.
+
+“A little science is a dangerous thing, 'as well as a little
+'learning,'” he said to himself; “only it's dangerous to the fellow you'
+try it on.” And he cut him a good stick, and began climbing the side of
+The Mountain to get a look at that famous Rattlesnake Ledge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. THE SUNBEAM AND THE SHADOW.
+
+The virtue of the world is not mainly in its leaders. In the midst of
+the multitude which follows there is often something better than in the
+one that goes before. Old generals wanted to take Toulon, but one of
+their young colonels showed them how. The junior counsel has been known
+not unfrequently to make a better argument than his senior fellow,--if,
+indeed, he did not make both their arguments. Good ministers will tell
+you they have parishioners who beat them in the practice of the virtues.
+A great establishment, got up on commercial principles, like the
+Apollinean Institute, might yet be well carried on, if it happened to
+get good teachers. And when Master Langdon came to see its management,
+he recognized that there must be fidelity and intelligence somewhere
+among the instructors. It was only necessary to look for a moment at
+the fair, open forehead, the still, tranquil eye of gentle, habitual
+authority, the sweet gravity that lay upon the lips, to hear the clear
+answers to the pupils' questions, to notice how every request had the
+force without the form of a command, and the young man could not doubt
+that the good genius of the school stood before him in the person of
+Helen barley.
+
+It was the old story. A poor country-clergyman dies, and leaves a widow
+and a daughter. In Old England the daughter would have eaten the bitter
+bread of a governess in some rich family. In New England she must keep
+a school. So, rising from one sphere to another, she at length finds
+herself the prima donna in the department of instruction in Mr. Silas
+Peckham's educational establishment.
+
+What a miserable thing it is to be poor. She was dependent, frail,
+sensitive, conscientious. She was in the power of a hard, grasping,
+thin-blooded, tough-fibred, trading educator, who neither knew nor cared
+for a tender woman's sensibilities, but who paid her and meant to have
+his money's worth out of her brains, and as much more than his
+money's worth as he could get. She was consequently, in plain English,
+overworked, and an overworked woman is always a sad sight,--sadder a
+great deal than an overworked man, because she is so much more fertile
+in capacities of suffering than a man. She has so many varieties of
+headache,--sometimes as if Jael were driving the nail that killed Sisera
+into her temples,--sometimes letting her work with half her brain while
+the other half throbs as if it would go to pieces,--sometimes tightening
+round the brows as if her cap-band were a ring of iron,--and then her
+neuralgias, and her backaches, and her fits of depression, in which she
+thinks she is nothing and less than nothing, and those paroxysms which
+men speak slightingly of as hysterical,--convulsions, that is all, only
+not commonly fatal ones,--so many trials which belong to her fine and
+mobile structure,--that she is always entitled to pity, when she is
+placed in conditions which develop her nervous tendencies.
+
+The poor young lady's work had, of course, been doubled since the
+departure of Master Langdon's predecessor. Nobody knows what the
+weariness of instruction is, as soon as the teacher's faculties begin to
+be overtasked, but those who have tried it. The relays of fresh pupils,
+each new set with its exhausting powers in full action, coming one after
+another, take out all the reserved forces and faculties of resistance
+from the subject of their draining process.
+
+The day's work was over, and it was late in the evening, when she
+sat down, tired and faint, with a great bundle of girls' themes or
+compositions to read over before she could rest her weary head on the
+pillow of her narrow trundle-bed, and forget for a while the treadmill
+stair of labor she was daily climbing.
+
+How she dreaded this most forlorn of all a teacher's tasks! She
+was conscientious in her duties, and would insist on reading every
+sentence,--there was no saying where she might find faults of grammar or
+bad spelling. There might have been twenty or thirty of these themes
+in the bundle before her. Of course she knew pretty well the leading
+sentiments they could contain: that beauty was subject to the accidents
+of time; that wealth was inconstant, and existence uncertain; that
+virtue was its own reward; that youth exhaled, like the dewdrop from the
+flower, ere the sun had reached its meridian; that life was o'ershadowed
+with trials; that the lessons of virtue instilled by our beloved
+teachers were to be our guides through all our future career. The
+imagery employed consisted principally of roses, lilies, birds, clouds,
+and brooks, with the celebrated comparison of wayward genius to
+meteor. Who does not know the small, slanted, Italian hand of
+these girls'-compositions, their stringing together of the good old
+traditional copy-book phrases; their occasional gushes of sentiment,
+their profound estimates of the world, sounding to the old folks that
+read them as the experience of a bantam pullet's last-hatched young one
+with the chips of its shell on its head would sound to a Mother Cary's
+chicken, who knew the great ocean with all its typhoons and tornadoes?
+Yet every now and then one is liable to be surprised with strange
+clairvoyant flashes, that can hardly be explained, except by the
+mysterious inspiration which every now and then seizes a young girl and
+exalts her intelligence, just as hysteria in other instances exalts the
+sensibility,--a little something of that which made Joan of Arc, and the
+Burney girl who prophesied “Evelina,” and the Davidson sisters. In the
+midst of these commonplace exercises which Miss Darley read over so
+carefully were two or three that had something of individual flavor
+about them, and here and there there was an image or an epithet which
+showed the footprint of a passionate nature, as a fallen scarlet feather
+marks the path the wild flamingo has trodden.
+
+The young lady-teacher read them with a certain indifference of manner,
+as one reads proofs--noting defects of detail, but not commonly
+arrested by the matters treated of. Even Miss Charlotte Ann Wood's poem,
+beginning--
+
+          “How sweet at evening's balmy hour,”
+
+did not excite her. She marked the inevitable false rhyme of Cockney and
+Yankee beginners, morn and dawn, and tossed the verses on the pile of
+papers she had finished. She was looking over some of the last of them
+in a rather listless way,--for the poor thing was getting sleepy in
+spite of herself,--when she came to one which seemed to rouse her
+attention, and lifted her drooping lids. She looked at it a moment
+before she would touch it. Then she took hold of it by one corner and
+slid it off from the rest. One would have said she was afraid of it,
+or had some undefined antipathy which made it hateful to her. Such odd
+fancies are common enough in young persons in her nervous state. Many of
+these young people will jump up twenty times a day and run to dabble
+the tips of their fingers in water, after touching the most inoffensive
+objects.
+
+This composition was written in a singular, sharp-pointed, long, slender
+hand, on a kind of wavy, ribbed paper. There was something strangely
+suggestive about the look of it, but exactly of what, Miss barley either
+could not or did not try to think. The subject of the paper was The
+Mountain,--the composition being a sort of descriptive rhapsody. It
+showed a startling familiarity with some of the savage scenery of the
+region. One would have said that the writer must have threaded its
+wildest solitudes by the light of the moon and stars as well as by
+day. As the teacher read on, her color changed, and a kind of tremulous
+agitation came over her. There were hints in this strange paper she did
+not know what to make of. There was something in its descriptions and
+imagery that recalled,--Miss Darley could not say what,--but it made her
+frightfully nervous. Still she could not help reading, till she came
+to one passage which so agitated her, that the tired and over-wearied
+girl's self-control left her entirely. She sobbed once or twice, then
+laughed convulsively; and flung herself on the bed, where she worked out
+a set hysteric spasm as she best might, without anybody to rub her hands
+and see that she did not hurt herself.
+
+By and by she got quiet, rose and went to her bookcase, took down a
+volume of Coleridge, and read a short time, and so to bed, to sleep and
+wake from time to time with a sudden start out of uneasy dreams.
+
+Perhaps it is of no great consequence what it was in the composition
+which set her off into this nervous paroxysm. She was in such a state
+that almost any slight agitation would have brought on the attack, and
+it was the accident of her transient excitability, very probably, which
+made a trifling cause the seeming occasion of so much disturbance. The
+theme was signed, in the same peculiar, sharp, slender hand, E. Venner,
+and was, of course, written by that wild-looking girl who had excited
+the master's curiosity and prompted his question, as before mentioned.
+The next morning the lady-teacher looked pale and wearied, naturally
+enough, but she was in her place at the usual hour, and Master Langdon
+in his own.
+
+The girls had not yet entered the school room.
+
+“You have been ill, I am afraid,” said Mr. Bernard.
+
+“I was not well yesterday,” she, answered. “I had a worry and a kind of
+fright. It is so dreadful to have the charge of all these young souls
+and bodies. Every young girl ought to walk locked close, arm in arm,
+between two guardian angels. Sometimes I faint almost with the thought
+of all that I ought to do, and of my own weakness and wants.--Tell me,
+are there not natures born so out of parallel with the lines of natural
+law that nothing short of a miracle can bring them right?”
+
+Mr. Bernard had speculated somewhat, as all thoughtful persons of his
+profession are forced to do, on the innate organic tendencies with which
+individuals, families, and races are born. He replied, therefore, with
+a smile, as one to whom the question suggested a very familiar class of
+facts.
+
+“Why, of course. Each of us is only the footing-up of a double column of
+figures that goes back to the first pair. Every unit tells,--and some of
+them are plus, and some minus. If the columns don't add up right, it is
+commonly because we can't make out all the figures. I don't mean to say
+that something may not be added by Nature to make up for losses and keep
+the race to its average, but we are mainly nothing but the answer to
+a long sum in addition and subtraction. No doubt there are people born
+with impulses at every possible angle to the parallels of Nature, as you
+call them. If they happen to cut these at right angles, of course they
+are beyond the reach of common influences. Slight obliquities are what
+we have most to do with in education. Penitentiaries and insane asylums
+take care of most of the right-angle cases.--I am afraid I have put it
+too much like a professor, and I am only a student, you know. Pray, what
+set you to asking me this? Any strange cases among the scholars?”
+
+The meek teacher's blue eyes met the luminous glance that came with the
+question. She, too, was of gentle blood,--not meaning by that that she
+was of any noted lineage, but that she came of a cultivated stock, never
+rich, but long trained to intellectual callings. A thousand decencies,
+amenities, reticences, graces, which no one thinks of until he misses
+them, are the traditional right of those who spring from such families.
+And when two persons of this exceptional breeding meet in the midst
+of the common multitude, they seek each other's company at once by the
+natural law of elective affinity. It is wonderful how men and women know
+their peers. If two stranger queens, sole survivors of two shipwrecked
+vessels, were cast, half-naked, on a rock together, each would at once
+address the other as “Our Royal Sister.”
+
+Helen Darley looked into the dark eyes of Bernard Langdon glittering
+with the light which flashed from them with his question. Not as those
+foolish, innocent country-girls of the small village did she look into
+them, to be fascinated and bewildered, but to sound them with a calm,
+steadfast purpose. “A gentleman,” she said to herself, as she read his
+expression and his features with a woman's rapid, but exhausting glance.
+“A lady,” he said to himself, as he met her questioning look,--so brief,
+so quiet, yet so assured, as of one whom necessity had taught to read
+faces quickly without offence, as children read the faces of parents,
+as wives read the faces of hard-souled husbands. All this was but a few
+seconds' work, and yet the main point was settled. If there had been any
+vulgar curiosity or coarseness of any kind lurking in his expression,
+she would have detected it. If she had not lifted her eyes to his face
+so softly and kept them there so calmly and withdrawn them so quietly,
+he would not have said to himself, “She is a LADY,” for that word
+meant a good deal to the descendant of the courtly Wentworths and the
+scholarly Langdons.
+
+“There are strange people everywhere, Mr. Langdon,” she said, “and I
+don't think our schoolroom is an exception. I am glad you believe in the
+force of transmitted tendencies. It would break my heart, if I did not
+think that there are faults beyond the reach of everything but God's
+special grace. I should die, if I thought that my negligence or
+incapacity was alone responsible for the errors and sins of those I have
+charge of. Yet there are mysteries I do not know how to account for.”
+ She looked all round the schoolroom, and then said, in a whisper, “Mr.
+Langdon, we had a girl that stole, in the school, not long ago. Worse
+than that, we had a girl who tried to set us on fire. Children of good
+people, both of them. And we have a girl now that frightens me so”--
+
+The door opened, and three misses came in to take their seats: three
+types, as it happened, of certain classes, into which it would not have
+been difficult to distribute the greater number of the girls in
+the school.--Hannah Martin. Fourteen years and three months old.
+Short-necked, thick-waisted, round-cheeked, smooth, vacant forehead,
+large, dull eyes. Looks good-natured, with little other expression.
+Three buns in her bag, and a large apple. Has a habit of attacking her
+provisions in school-hours.--Rosa Milburn. Sixteen. Brunette, with
+a rare-ripe flush in her cheeks. Color comes and goes easily. Eyes
+wandering, apt to be downcast. Moody at times. Said to be passionate,
+if irritated. Finished in high relief. Carries shoulders well back
+and walks well, as if proud of her woman's life, with a slight rocking
+movement, being one of the wide-flanged pattern, but seems restless,--a
+hard girl to look after. Has a romance in her pocket, which she means
+to read in school-time.--Charlotte Ann Wood. Fifteen. The poetess before
+mentioned. Long, light ringlets, pallid complexion, blue eyes. Delicate
+child, half unfolded. Gentle, but languid and despondent. Does not go
+much with the other girls, but reads a good deal, especially poetry,
+underscoring favorite passages. Writes a great many verses, very fast,
+not very correctly; full of the usual human sentiments, expressed in
+the accustomed phrases. Under-vitalized. Sensibilities not covered with
+their normal integuments. A negative condition, often confounded with
+genius, and sometimes running into it. Young people who fall out of line
+through weakness of the active faculties are often confounded with those
+who step out of it through strength of the intellectual ones.
+
+The girls kept coming in, one after another, or in pairs or groups,
+until the schoolroom was nearly full. Then there was a little pause, and
+a light step was heard in the passage. The lady-teacher's eyes turned to
+the door, and the master's followed them in the same direction.
+
+A girl of about seventeen entered. She was tall and slender, but
+rounded, with a peculiar undulation of movement, such as one sometimes
+sees in perfectly untutored country-girls, whom Nature, the queen of
+graces, has taken in hand, but more commonly in connection with the
+very highest breeding of the most thoroughly trained society. She was
+a splendid scowling beauty, black-browed, with a flash of white teeth
+which was always like a surprise when her lips parted. She wore a
+checkered dress, of a curious pattern, and a camel's-hair scarf twisted
+a little fantastically about her. She went to her seat, which she had
+moved a short distance apart from the rest, and, sitting down, began
+playing listlessly with her gold chain, as was a common habit with her,
+coiling it and uncoiling it about her slender wrist, and braiding it
+in with her long, delicate fingers. Presently she looked up. Black,
+piercing eyes, not large,--a low forehead, as low as that of Clytie in
+the Townley bust,--black hair, twisted in heavy braids,--a face that one
+could not help looking at for its beauty, yet that one wanted to look
+away from for something in its expression, and could not for those
+diamond eyes. They were fixed on the lady-teacher now. The latter turned
+her own away, and let them wander over the other scholars. But they
+could not help coming back again for a single glance at the wild beauty.
+The diamond eyes were on her still. She turned the leaves of several of
+her books, as if in search of some passage, and, when she thought she
+had waited long enough to be safe, once more stole a quick look at the
+dark girl. The diamond eyes were still upon her. She put her kerchief
+to her forehead, which had grown slightly moist; she sighed once, almost
+shivered, for she felt cold; then, following some ill-defined impulse,
+which she could not resist, she left her place and went to the young
+girl's desk.
+
+“What do you want of me, Elsie Venner?” It was a strange question to
+put, for the girl had not signified that she wished the teacher to come
+to her.
+
+“Nothing,” she said. “I thought I could make you come.” The girl
+spoke in a low tone, a kind of half-whisper. She did not lisp, yet her
+articulation of one or two consonants was not absolutely perfect.
+
+“Where did you get that flower, Elsie?” said Miss Darley. It was a rare
+alpine flower, which was found only in one spot among the rocks of The
+Mountain.
+
+“Where it grew,” said Elsie Veneer. “Take it.” The teacher could not
+refuse her. The girl's finger tips touched hers as she took it. How cold
+they were for a girl of such an organization!
+
+The teacher went back to her seat. She made an excuse for quitting the
+schoolroom soon afterwards. The first thing she did was to fling the
+flower into her fireplace and rake the ashes over it. The second was to
+wash the tips of her fingers, as if she had been another Lady Macbeth. A
+poor, over-tasked, nervous creature,--we must not think too much of her
+fancies.
+
+After school was done, she finished the talk with the master which had
+been so suddenly interrupted. There were things spoken of which may
+prove interesting by and by, but there are other matters we must first
+attend to.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE EVENT OF THE SEASON.
+
+“Mr. and Mrs. Colonel Sprowle's compliments to Mr. Langdon and requests
+the pleasure of his company at a social entertainment on Wednesday
+evening next.
+
+         “Elm St. Monday.”
+
+On paper of a pinkish color and musky smell, with a large “S” at the
+top, and an embossed border. Envelop adherent, not sealed. Addressed
+
+          LANGDON ESQ.
+          Present.
+
+Brought by H. Frederic Sprowle, youngest son of the Colonel,--the H. of
+course standing for the paternal Hezekiah, put in to please the father,
+and reduced to its initial to please the mother, she having a marked
+preference for Frederic. Boy directed to wait for an answer.
+
+“Mr. Langdon has the pleasure of accepting Mr. and Mrs. Colonel
+Sprowle's polite invitation for Wednesday evening.”
+
+On plain paper, sealed with an initial.
+
+In walking along the main street, Mr. Bernard had noticed a large house
+of some pretensions to architectural display, namely, unnecessarily
+projecting eaves, giving it a mushroomy aspect, wooden mouldings at
+various available points, and a grandiose arched portico. It looked a
+little swaggering by the side of one or two of the mansion-houses that
+were not far from it, was painted too bright for Mr. Bernard's taste,
+had rather too fanciful a fence before it, and had some fruit-trees
+planted in the front-yard, which to this fastidious young gentleman
+implied a defective sense of the fitness of things, not promising
+in people who lived in so large a house, with a mushroom roof and a
+triumphal arch for its entrance.
+
+This place was known as “Colonel Sprowle's villa,” (genteel
+friends,)--as “the elegant residence of our distinguished
+fellow-citizen, Colonel Sprowle,” (Rockland Weekly Universe,)--as “the
+neew haouse,” (old settlers,)--as “Spraowle's Folly,” (disaffected
+and possibly envious neighbors,)--and in common discourse, as “the
+Colonel's.”
+
+Hezekiah Sprowle, Esquire, Colonel Sprowle of the Commonwealth's
+Militia, was a retired “merchant.” An India merchant he might, perhaps,
+have been properly called; for he used to deal in West India goods, such
+as coffee, sugar, and molasses, not to speak of rum,--also in tea, salt
+fish, butter and cheese, oil and candles, dried fruit, agricultural
+“p'doose” generally, industrial products, such as boots and shoes,
+and various kinds of iron and wooden ware, and at one end of the
+establishment in calicoes and other stuffs,--to say nothing of
+miscellaneous objects of the most varied nature, from sticks of candy,
+which tempted in the smaller youth with coppers in their fists, up to
+ornamental articles of apparel, pocket-books, breast-pins, gilt-edged
+Bibles, stationery, in short, everything which was like to prove
+seductive to the rural population. The Colonel had made money in trade,
+and also by matrimony. He had married Sarah, daughter and heiress of the
+late Tekel Jordan, Esq., an old miser, who gave the town-clock, which
+carries his name to posterity in large gilt letters as a generous
+benefactor of his native place. In due time the Colonel reaped the
+reward of well-placed affections. When his wife's inheritance fell in,
+he thought he had money enough to give up trade, and therefore sold out
+his “store,” called in some dialects of the English language shop, and
+his business.
+
+Life became pretty hard work to him, of course, as soon as he had
+nothing particular to do. Country people with money enough not to have
+to work are in much more danger than city people in the same condition.
+They get a specific look and character, which are the same in all the
+villages where one studies them. They very commonly fall into a routine,
+the basis of which is going to some lounging-place or other, a bar-room,
+a reading-room, or something of the kind. They grow slovenly in dress,
+and wear the same hat forever. They have a feeble curiosity for news
+perhaps, which they take daily as a man takes his bitters, and then fall
+silent and think they are thinking. But the mind goes out under this
+regimen, like a fire without a draught; and it is not very strange,
+if the instinct of mental self-preservation drives them to
+brandy-and-water, which makes the hoarse whisper of memory musical for
+a few brief moments, and puts a weak leer of promise on the features of
+the hollow-eyed future. The Colonel was kept pretty well in hand as yet
+by his wife, and though it had happened to him once or twice to come
+home rather late at night with a curious tendency to say the same
+thing twice and even three times over, it had always been in very cold
+weather,--and everybody knows that no one is safe to drink a couple of
+glasses of wine in a warm room and go suddenly out into the cold air.
+
+Miss Matilda Sprowle, sole daughter of the house, had reached the age at
+which young ladies are supposed in technical language to have come out,
+and thereafter are considered to be in company.
+
+“There's one piece o' goods,” said the Colonel to his wife, “that we
+ha'n't disposed of, nor got a customer for yet. That 's Matildy. I
+don't mean to set HER up at vaandoo. I guess she can have her pick of a
+dozen.”
+
+“She 's never seen anybody yet,” said Mrs. Sprowle, who had had a
+certain project for some time, but had kept quiet about it. “Let's have
+a party, and give her a chance to show herself and see some of the young
+folks.”
+
+The Colonel was not very clear-headed, and he thought, naturally enough,
+that the party was his own suggestion, because his remark led to the
+first starting of the idea. He entered into the plan, therefore, with a
+feeling of pride as well as pleasure, and the great project was resolved
+upon in a family council without a dissentient voice. This was the
+party, then, to which Mr. Bernard was going. The town had been full
+of it for a week. “Everybody was asked.” So everybody said that was
+invited. But how in respect of those who were not asked? If it had been
+one of the old mansion-houses that was giving a party, the boundary
+between the favored and the slighted families would have been known
+pretty well beforehand, and there would have been no great amount of
+grumbling. But the Colonel, for all his title, had a forest of poor
+relations and a brushwood swamp of shabby friends, for he had scrambled
+up to fortune, and now the time was come when he must define his new
+social position.
+
+This is always an awkward business in town or country. An exclusive
+alliance between two powers is often the same thing as a declaration of
+war against a third. Rockland was soon split into a triumphant minority,
+invited to Mrs. Sprowle's party, and a great majority, uninvited,
+of which the fraction just on the border line between recognized
+“gentility” and the level of the ungloved masses was in an active state
+of excitement and indignation.
+
+“Who is she, I should like to know?” said Mrs. Saymore, the tailor's
+wife. “There was plenty of folks in Rockland as good as ever Sally
+Jordan was, if she had managed to pick up a merchant. Other folks could
+have married merchants, if their families was n't as wealthy as them
+old skinflints that willed her their money,” etc., etc. Mrs. Saymore
+expressed the feeling of many beside herself. She had, however, a
+special right to be proud of the name she bore. Her husband was own
+cousin to the Saymores of Freestone Avenue (who write the name Seymour,
+and claim to be of the Duke of Somerset's family, showing a clear
+descent from the Protector to Edward Seymour, (1630,)--then a jump that
+would break a herald's neck to one Seth Saymore,(1783,)--from whom to
+the head of the present family the line is clear again). Mrs. Saymore,
+the tailor's wife, was not invited, because her husband mended clothes.
+If he had confined himself strictly to making them, it would have put a
+different face upon the matter.
+
+The landlord of the Mountain House and his lady were invited to Mrs.
+Sprowle's party. Not so the landlord of Pollard's Tahvern and his lady.
+Whereupon the latter vowed that they would have a party at their house
+too, and made arrangements for a dance of twenty or thirty couples, to
+be followed by an entertainment. Tickets to this “Social Ball” were soon
+circulated, and, being accessible to all at a moderate price, admission
+to the “Elegant Supper” included, this second festival promised to be as
+merry, if not as select, as the great party.
+
+Wednesday came. Such doings had never been heard of in Rockland as went
+on that day at the “villa.” The carpet had been taken up in the long
+room, so that the young folks might have a dance. Miss Matilda's piano
+had been moved in, and two fiddlers and a clarionet-player engaged to
+make music. All kinds of lamps had been put in requisition, and even
+colored wax-candles figured on the mantel-pieces. The costumes of the
+family had been tried on the day before: the Colonel's black suit fitted
+exceedingly well; his lady's velvet dress displayed her contours to
+advantage; Miss Matilda's flowered silk was considered superb; the
+eldest son of the family, Mr. T. Jordan Sprowle, called affectionately
+and elegantly “Geordie,” voted himself “stunnin'”; and even the small
+youth who had borne Mr. Bernard's invitation was effective in a new
+jacket and trousers, buttony in front, and baggy in the reverse
+aspect, as is wont to be the case with the home-made garments of inland
+youngsters.
+
+Great preparations had been made for the refection which was to be part
+of the entertainment. There was much clinking of borrowed spoons, which
+were to be carefully counted, and much clicking of borrowed china, which
+was to be tenderly handled, for nobody in the country keeps those vast
+closets full of such things which one may see in rich city-houses. Not
+a great deal could be done in the way of flowers, for there were no
+greenhouses, and few plants were out as yet; but there were paper
+ornaments for the candlesticks, and colored mats for the lamps, and
+all the tassels of the curtains and bells were taken out of those
+brown linen bags, in which, for reasons hitherto undiscovered, they are
+habitually concealed in some households. In the remoter apartments every
+imaginable operation was going on at once,--roasting, boiling, baking,
+beating, rolling, pounding in mortars, frying, freezing; for there was
+to be ice-cream to-night of domestic manufacture;--and in the midst
+of all these labors, Mrs. Sprowle and Miss Matilda were moving about,
+directing and helping as they best might, all day long. When the evening
+came, it might be feared they would not be in just the state of mind and
+body to entertain company.
+
+--One would like to give a party now and then, if one could be a
+billionaire.--“Antoine, I am going to have twenty people to dine
+to-day.” “Biens, Madame.” Not a word or thought more about it, but get
+home in season to dress, and come down to your own table, one of
+your own guests.--“Giuseppe, we are to have a party a week from
+to-night,--five hundred invitations--there is the list.” The day comes.
+“Madam, do you remember you have your party tonight?” “Why, so I have!
+Everything right? supper and all?” “All as it should be, Madam.”
+
+“Send up Victorine.” “Victorine, full toilet for this evening,--pink,
+diamonds, and emeralds. Coiffeur at seven. Allez.”--Billionism, or
+even millionism, must be a blessed kind of state, with health and clear
+conscience and youth and good looks,--but most blessed is this, that
+it takes off all the mean cares which give people the three wrinkles
+between the eyebrows, and leaves them free to have a good time and make
+others have a good time, all the way along from the charity that tips
+up unexpected loads of wood before widows' houses, and leaves foundling
+turkeys upon poor men's door-steps, and sets lean clergymen crying at
+the sight of anonymous fifty-dollar bills, to the taste which orders a
+perfect banquet in such sweet accord with every sense that everybody's
+nature flowers out full--blown in its golden--glowing, fragrant
+atmosphere.
+
+--A great party given by the smaller gentry of the interior is a kind
+of solemnity, so to speak. It involves so much labor and anxiety,--its
+spasmodic splendors are so violently contrasted with the homeliness of
+every-day family-life,--it is such a formidable matter to break in the
+raw subordinates to the manege of the cloak-room and the table,--there
+is such a terrible uncertainty in the results of unfamiliar culinary
+operations,--so many feuds are involved in drawing that fatal line
+which divides the invited from the uninvited fraction of the local
+universe,--that, if the notes requested the pleasure of the guests'
+company on “this solemn occasion,” they would pretty nearly express the
+true state of things.
+
+The Colonel himself had been pressed into the service. He had pounded
+something in the great mortar. He had agitated a quantity of sweetened
+and thickened milk in what was called a cream-freezer. At eleven
+o'clock, A. M., he retired for a space. On returning, his color was
+noted to be somewhat heightened, and he showed a disposition to be
+jocular with the female help,--which tendency, displaying itself in
+livelier demonstrations than were approved at head-quarters, led to his
+being detailed to out-of-door duties, such as raking gravel, arranging
+places for horses to be hitched to, and assisting in the construction of
+an arch of wintergreen at the porch of the mansion.
+
+A whiff from Mr. Geordie's cigar refreshed the toiling females from time
+to time; for the windows had to be opened occasionally, while all these
+operations were going on, and the youth amused himself with inspecting
+the interior, encouraging the operatives now and then in the phrases
+commonly employed by genteel young men,--for he had perused an odd
+volume of “Verdant Green,” and was acquainted with a Sophomore from
+one of the fresh-water colleges. “Go it on the feed!” exclaimed this
+spirited young man. “Nothin' like a good spread. Grub enough and good
+liquor, that's the ticket. Guv'nor'll do the heavy polite, and let me
+alone for polishin' off the young charmers.” And Mr. Geordie looked
+expressively at a handmaid who was rolling gingerbread, as if he were
+rehearsing for “Don Giovanni.”
+
+Evening came at last, and the ladies were forced to leave the scene of
+their labors to array themselves for the coming festivities. The tables
+had been set in a back room, the meats were ready, the pickles were
+displayed, the cake was baked, the blanc-mange had stiffened, and the
+ice-cream had frozen.
+
+At half past seven o'clock, the Colonel, in costume, came into the front
+parlor, and proceeded to light the lamps. Some were good-humored enough
+and took the hint of a lighted match at once. Others were as vicious as
+they could be,--would not light on any terms, any more than if they were
+filled with water, or lighted and smoked one side of the chimney, or
+spattered a few sparks and sulked themselves out, or kept up a
+faint show of burning, so that their ground glasses looked as feebly
+phosphorescent as so many invalid fireflies. With much coaxing and
+screwing and pricking, a tolerable illumination was at last achieved.
+At eight there was a grand rustling of silks, and Mrs. and Miss Sprowle
+descended from their respective bowers or boudoirs. Of course they were
+pretty well tired by this time, and very glad to sit down,--having the
+prospect before them of being obliged to stand for hours. The Colonel
+walked about the parlor, inspecting his regiment of lamps. By and by Mr.
+Geordie entered.
+
+“Mph! mph!” he sniffed, as he came in. “You smell of lamp-smoke here.”
+
+That always galls people,--to have a new-comer accuse them of smoke or
+close air, which they have got used to and do not perceive. The Colonel
+raged at the thought of his lamps' smoking, and tongued a few anathemas
+inside of his shut teeth, but turned down two or three wicks that burned
+higher than the rest.
+
+Master H. Frederic next made his appearance, with questionable marks
+upon his fingers and countenance. Had been tampering with something
+brown and sticky. His elder brother grew playful, and caught him by the
+baggy reverse of his more essential garment.
+
+“Hush!” said Mrs. Sprowle,--“there 's the bell!”
+
+Everybody took position at once, and began to look very smiling and
+altogether at ease.--False alarm. Only a parcel of spoons,--“loaned,” as
+the inland folks say when they mean lent, by a neighbor.
+
+“Better late than never!” said the Colonel, “let me heft them spoons.”
+
+Mrs. Sprowle came down into her chair again as if all her bones had been
+bewitched out of her.
+
+“I'm pretty nigh beat out a'ready,” said she, “before any of the folks
+has come.”
+
+They sat silent awhile, waiting for the first arrival. How nervous they
+got! and how their senses were sharpened!
+
+“Hark!” said Miss Matilda,--“what 's that rumblin'?”
+
+It was a cart going over a bridge more than a mile off, which at any
+other time they would not have heard. After this there was a lull, and
+poor Mrs. Sprowle's head nodded once or twice. Presently a crackling and
+grinding of gravel;--how much that means, when we are waiting for
+those whom we long or dread to see! Then a change in the tone of the
+gravel-crackling.
+
+“Yes, they have turned in at our gate. They're comin'! Mother! mother!”
+
+Everybody in position, smiling and at ease. Bell rings. Enter the first
+set of visitors. The Event of the Season has begun.
+
+“Law! it's nothin' but the Cranes' folks! I do believe Mahala 's come in
+that old green de-laine she wore at the Surprise Party!”
+
+Miss Matilda had peeped through a crack of the door and made this
+observation and the remark founded thereon. Continuing her attitude of
+attention, she overheard Mrs. Crane and her two daughters conversing in
+the attiring-room, up one flight.
+
+“How fine everything is in the great house!” said Mrs. Crane,--“jest
+look at the picters!”
+
+“Matildy Sprowle's drawin's,” said Ada Azuba, the eldest daughter.
+
+“I should think so,” said Mahala Crane, her younger sister,--a
+wide-awake girl, who had n't been to school for nothing, and performed a
+little on the lead pencil herself. “I should like to know whether that's
+a hay-cock or a mountain!”
+
+Miss Matilda winced; for this must refer to her favorite monochrome,
+executed by laying on heavy shadows and stumping them down into mellow
+harmony,--the style of drawing which is taught in six lessons, and the
+kind of specimen which is executed in something less than one hour.
+Parents and other very near relatives are sometimes gratified with these
+productions, and cause them to be framed and hung up, as in the present
+instance.
+
+“I guess we won't go down jest yet,” said Mrs. Crane, “as folks don't
+seem to have come.”
+
+So she began a systematic inspection of the dressing-room and its
+conveniences.
+
+“Mahogany four-poster;--come from the Jordans', I cal'la,te. Marseilles
+quilt. Ruffles all round the piller. Chintz curtings,--jest put up,--o'
+purpose for the party, I'll lay ye a dollar.--What a nice washbowl!”
+ (Taps it with a white knuckle belonging to a red finger.) “Stone
+chaney.--Here's a bran'-new brush and comb,--and here's a scent-bottle.
+Come here, girls, and fix yourselves in the glass, and scent your
+pocket-handkerchers.”
+
+And Mrs. Crane bedewed her own kerchief with some of the eau de Cologne
+of native manufacture,--said on its label to be much superior to the
+German article.
+
+It was a relief to Mrs. and the Miss Cranes when the bell rang and the
+next guests were admitted. Deacon and Mrs. Soper,--Deacon Soper of
+the Rev. Mr. Fairweather's church, and his lady. Mrs. Deacon Soper was
+directed, of course, to the ladies' dressing-room, and her husband to
+the other apartment, where gentlemen were to leave their outside
+coats and hats. Then came Mr. and Mrs. Briggs, and then the three Miss
+Spinneys, then Silas Peckham, Head of the Apollinean Institute, and Mrs.
+Peckham, and more after them, until at last the ladies' dressing-room
+got so full that one might have thought it was a trap none of them could
+get out of. In truth, they all felt a little awkwardly. Nobody wanted
+to be first to venture down-stairs. At last Mr. Silas Peckham thought it
+was time to make a move for the parlor, and for this purpose presented
+himself at the door of the ladies' dressing-room.
+
+“Lorindy, my dear!” he exclaimed to Mrs. Peckham,--“I think there can be
+no impropriety in our joining the family down-stairs.”
+
+Mrs. Peckham laid her large, flaccid arm in the sharp angle made by the
+black sleeve which held the bony limb her husband offered, and the two
+took the stair and struck out for the parlor. The ice was broken, and
+the dressing-room began to empty itself into the spacious, lighted
+apartments below.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham slid into the room with Mrs. Peckham alongside, like a
+shad convoying a jelly-fish.
+
+“Good-evenin', Mrs. Sprowle! I hope I see you well this evenin'. How 's
+your haalth, Colonel Sprowle?”
+
+“Very well, much obleeged to you. Hope you and your good lady are well.
+Much pleased to see you. Hope you'll enjoy yourselves. We've laid out to
+have everything in good shape,--spared no trouble nor ex”--
+
+“pence,”--said Silas Peckham.
+
+Mrs. Colonel Sprowle, who, you remember, was a Jordan, had nipped the
+Colonel's statement in the middle of the word Mr. Peckham finished,
+with a look that jerked him like one of those sharp twitches women keep
+giving a horse when they get a chance to drive one.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Crane, Miss Ada Azuba, and Miss Mahala Crane made their
+entrance. There had been a discussion about the necessity and propriety
+of inviting this family, the head of which kept a small shop for hats
+and boots and shoes. The Colonel's casting vote had carried it in the
+affirmative.--How terribly the poor old green de-laine did cut up in the
+blaze of so many lamps and candles.
+
+--Deluded little wretch, male or female, in town or country, going to
+your first great party, how little you know the nature of the ceremony
+in which you are to bear the part of victim! What! are not these
+garlands and gauzy mists and many-colored streamers which adorn you, is
+not this music which welcomes you, this radiance that glows about you,
+meant solely for your enjoyment, young miss of seventeen or eighteen
+summers, now for the first time swimming unto the frothy, chatoyant,
+sparkling, undulating sea of laces and silks and satins, and
+white-armed, flower-crowned maidens struggling in their waves beneath
+the lustres that make the false summer of the drawing-room?
+
+Stop at the threshold! This is a hall of judgment you are entering; the
+court is in session; and if you move five steps forward, you will be at
+its bar.
+
+There was a tribunal once in France, as you may remember, called the
+Chambre Ardente, the Burning Chamber. It was hung all round with lamps,
+and hence its name. The burning chamber for the trial of young maidens
+is the blazing ball-room. What have they full-dressed you, or rather
+half-dressed you for, do you think? To make you look pretty, of course!
+Why have they hung a chandelier above you, flickering all over with
+flames, so that it searches you like the noonday sun, and your deepest
+dimple cannot hold a shadow? To give brilliancy to the gay scene,
+no doubt!--No, my clear! Society is inspecting you, and it finds
+undisguised surfaces and strong lights a convenience in the process.
+The dance answers the purpose of the revolving pedestal upon which the
+“White Captive” turns, to show us the soft, kneaded marble, which looks
+as if it had never been hard, in all its manifold aspects of living
+loveliness. No mercy for you, my love! Justice, strict justice, you
+shall certainly have,--neither more nor less. For, look you, there are
+dozens, scores, hundreds, with whom you must be weighed in the balance;
+and you have got to learn that the “struggle for life” Mr. Charles
+Darwin talks about reaches to vertebrates clad in crinoline, as well
+as to mollusks in shells, or articulates in jointed scales, or anything
+that fights for breathing-room and food and love in any coat of fur or
+feather! Happy they who can flash defiance from bright eyes and snowy
+shoulders back into the pendants of the insolent lustres!
+
+--Miss Mahala Crane did not have these reflections; and no young girl
+ever did, or ever will, thank Heaven! Her keen eyes sparkled under
+her plainly parted hair and the green de-laine moulded itself in those
+unmistakable lines of natural symmetry in which Nature indulges a small
+shopkeeper's daughter occasionally as well as a wholesale dealer's young
+ladies. She would have liked a new dress as much as any other girl, but
+she meant to go and have a good time at any rate.
+
+The guests were now arriving in the drawing-room pretty fast, and the
+Colonel's hand began to burn a good deal with the sharp squeezes which
+many of the visitors gave it. Conversation, which had begun like a
+summer-shower, in scattering drops, was fast becoming continuous, and
+occasionally rising into gusty swells, with now and then a broad-chested
+laugh from some Captain or Major or other military personage,--for it
+may be noted that all large and loud men in the unpaved districts bear
+military titles.
+
+Deacon Soper came up presently, and entered into conversation with
+Colonel Sprowle.
+
+“I hope to see our pastor present this evenin',” said the Deacon.
+
+“I don't feel quite sure,” the Colonel answered. “His dyspepsy has been
+bad on him lately. He wrote to say, that, Providence permittin',
+it would be agreeable to him to take a part in the exercises of the
+evenin'; but I mistrusted he did n't mean to come. To tell the truth,
+Deacon Soper, I rather guess he don't like the idee of dancin', and some
+of the other little arrangements.”
+
+“Well,” said the Deacon, “I know there's some condemns dancin'. I've
+heerd a good deal of talk about it among the folks round. Some have it
+that it never brings a blessin' on a house to have dancin' in it. Judge
+Tileston died, you remember, within a month after he had his great ball,
+twelve year ago, and some thought it was in the natur' of a judgment.
+I don't believe in any of them notions. If a man happened to be struck
+dead the night after he'd been givin' a ball,” (the Colonel loosened his
+black stock a little, and winked and swallowed two or three times,) “I
+should n't call it a judgment,--I should call it a coincidence. But I 'm
+a little afraid our pastor won't come. Somethin' or other's the matter
+with Mr. Fairweather. I should sooner expect to see the old Doctor come
+over out of the Orthodox parsonage-house.”
+
+“I've asked him,” said the Colonel.
+
+“Well?” said Deacon Soper.
+
+“He said he should like to come, but he did n't know what his people
+would say. For his part, he loved to see young folks havin' their sports
+together, and very often felt as if he should like to be one of 'em
+himself. 'But,' says I, 'Doctor, I don't say there won't be a little
+dancin'.' 'Don't!' says he, 'for I want Letty to go,' (she's his
+granddaughter that's been stayin' with him,) 'and Letty 's mighty fond
+of dancin'. You know,' says the Doctor, 'it is n't my business to settle
+whether other people's children should dance or not.' And the Doctor
+looked as if he should like to rigadoon and sashy across as well as the
+young one he was talkin' about. He 's got blood in him, the old Doctor
+has. I wish our little man and him would swop pulpits.”
+
+Deacon Soper started and looked up into the Colonel's face, as if to see
+whether he was in earnest.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham and his lady joined the group.
+
+“Is this to be a Temperance Celebration, Mrs. Sprowle?” asked Mr. Silas
+Peckham.
+
+Mrs. Sprowle replied, “that there would be lemonade and srub for those
+that preferred such drinks, but that the Colonel had given folks to
+understand that he did n't mean to set in judgment on the marriage in
+Canaan, and that those that didn't like srub and such things would find
+somethin' that would suit them better.”
+
+Deacon Soper's countenance assumed a certain air of restrained
+cheerfulness. The conversation rose into one of its gusty paroxysms
+just then. Master H. Frederic got behind a door and began performing
+the experiment of stopping and unstopping his ears in rapid alternation,
+greatly rejoicing in the singular effect of mixed conversation chopped
+very small, like the contents of a mince-pie, or meat-pie, as it is more
+forcibly called in the deep-rutted villages lying along the unsalted
+streams. All at once it grew silent just round the door, where it had
+been loudest,--and the silence spread itself like a stain, till
+it hushed everything but a few corner-duets. A dark, sad-looking,
+middle-aged gentleman entered the parlor, with a young lady on his
+arm,--his daughter, as it seemed, for she was not wholly unlike him in
+feature, and of the same dark complexion.
+
+“Dudley Venner,” exclaimed a dozen people, in startled, but
+half-suppressed tones.
+
+“What can have brought Dudley out to-night?” said Jefferson Buck, a
+young fellow, who had been interrupted in one of the corner-duets which
+he was executing in concert with Miss Susy Pettingill.
+
+“How do I know, Jeff?” was Miss Susy's answer. Then, after a
+pause,--“Elsie made him come, I guess. Go ask Dr. Kittredge; he knows
+all about 'em both, they say.”
+
+Dr. Kittredge, the leading physician of Rockland, was a shrewd old man,
+who looked pretty keenly into his patients through his spectacles,
+and pretty widely at men, women, and things in general over them.
+Sixty-three years old,--just the year of the grand climacteric. A bald
+crown, as every doctor should have. A consulting practitioner's mouth;
+that is, movable round the corners while the case is under examination,
+but both corners well drawn down and kept so when the final opinion is
+made up. In fact, the Doctor was often sent for to act as “caounsel,”
+ all over the county, and beyond it. He kept three or four horses,
+sometimes riding in the saddle, commonly driving in a sulky, pretty
+fast, and looking straight before him, so that people got out of the way
+of bowing to him as he passed on the road. There was some talk about his
+not being so long-sighted as other folks, but his old patients laughed
+and looked knowing when this was spoken of.
+
+The Doctor knew a good many things besides how to drop tinctures
+and shake out powders. Thus, he knew a horse, and, what is harder to
+understand, a horse-dealer, and was a match for him. He knew what a
+nervous woman is, and how to manage her. He could tell at a glance when
+she is in that condition of unstable equilibrium in which a rough word
+is like a blow to her, and the touch of unmagnetized fingers reverses
+all her nervous currents. It is not everybody that enters into the soul
+of Mozart's or Beethoven's harmonies; and there are vital symphonies in
+B flat, and other low, sad keys, which a doctor may know as little of as
+a hurdy-gurdy player of the essence of those divine musical mysteries.
+The Doctor knew the difference between what men say and what they mean
+as well as most people. When he was listening to common talk, he was in
+the habit of looking over his spectacles; if he lifted his head so as
+to look through them at the person talking, he was busier with that
+person's thoughts than with his words.
+
+Jefferson Buck was not bold enough to confront the Doctor with Miss
+Susy's question, for he did not look as if he were in the mood to answer
+queries put by curious young people. His eyes were fixed steadily on the
+dark girl, every movement of whom he seemed to follow.
+
+She was, indeed, an apparition of wild beauty, so unlike the girls about
+her that it seemed nothing more than natural, that, when she moved, the
+groups should part to let her pass through them, and that she should
+carry the centre of all looks and thoughts with her. She was dressed to
+please her own fancy, evidently, with small regard to the modes declared
+correct by the Rockland milliners and mantua-makers. Her heavy black
+hair lay in a braided coil, with a long gold pin shat through it like a
+javelin. Round her neck was a golden torque, a round, cord-like chain,
+such as the Gaols used to wear; the “Dying Gladiator” has it. Her
+dress was a grayish watered silk; her collar was pinned with a flashing
+diamond brooch, the stones looking as fresh as morning dew-drops, but
+the silver setting of the past generation; her arms were bare, round,
+but slender rather than large, in keeping with her lithe round figure.
+On her wrists she wore bracelets: one was a circlet of enamelled scales;
+the other looked as if it might have been Cleopatra's asp, with its body
+turned to gold and its eyes to emeralds.
+
+Her father--for Dudley Venner was her father--looked like a man of
+culture and breeding, but melancholy and with a distracted air, as one
+whose life had met some fatal cross or blight. He saluted hardly anybody
+except his entertainers and the Doctor. One would have said, to look at
+him, that he was not at the party by choice; and it was natural enough
+to think, with Susy Pettingill, that it must have been a freak of the
+dark girl's which brought him there, for he had the air of a shy and
+sad-hearted recluse.
+
+It was hard to say what could have brought Elsie Venner to the party.
+Hardly anybody seemed to know her, and she seemed not at all disposed to
+make acquaintances. Here and there was one of the older girls from the
+Institute, but she appeared to have nothing in common with them. Even in
+the schoolroom, it may be remembered, she sat apart by her own choice,
+and now in the midst of the crowd she made a circle of isolation round
+herself. Drawing her arm out of her father's, she stood against the
+wall, and looked, with a strange, cold glitter in her eyes, at the crowd
+which moved and babbled before her.
+
+The old Doctor came up to her by and by.
+
+“Well, Elsie, I am quite surprised to find you here. Do tell me how you
+happened to do such a good-natured thing as to let us see you at such a
+great party.”
+
+“It's been dull at the mansion-house,” she said, “and I wanted to get
+out of it. It's too lonely there,--there's nobody to hate since Dick's
+gone.”
+
+The Doctor laughed good-naturedly, as if this were an amusing bit of
+pleasantry,--but he lifted his head and dropped his eyes a little, so
+as to see her through his spectacles. She narrowed her lids slightly, as
+one often sees a sleepy cat narrow hers,--somewhat as you may remember
+our famous Margaret used to, if you remember her at all,--so that her
+eyes looked very small, but bright as the diamonds on her breast. The
+old Doctor felt very oddly as she looked at him; he did not like the
+feeling, so he dropped his head and lifted his eyes and looked at her
+over his spectacles again.
+
+“And how have you all been at the mansion house?” said the Doctor.
+
+“Oh, well enough. But Dick's gone, and there's nobody left but Dudley
+and I and the people. I'm tired of it. What kills anybody quickest,
+Doctor?” Then, in a whisper, “I ran away again the other day, you know.”
+
+“Where did you go?” The Doctor spoke in a low, serious tone.
+
+“Oh, to the old place. Here, I brought this for you.”
+
+The Doctor started as she handed him a flower of the Atragene Americana,
+for he knew that there was only one spot where it grew, and that not
+one where any rash foot, least of all a thin-shod woman's foot, should
+venture.
+
+“How long were you gone?” said the Doctor.
+
+“Only one night. You should have heard the horns blowing and the guns
+firing. Dudley was frightened out of his wits. Old Sophy told him she'd
+had a dream, and that I should be found in Dead-Man's Hollow, with a
+great rock lying on me. They hunted all over it, but they did n't find
+me,--I was farther up.”
+
+Doctor Kittredge looked cloudy and worried while she was speaking, but
+forced a pleasant professional smile, as he said cheerily, and as if
+wishing to change the subject,
+
+“Have a good dance this evening, Elsie. The fiddlers are tuning up.
+Where 's the young master? has he come yet? or is he going to be late,
+with the other great folks?”
+
+The girl turned away without answering, and looked toward the door.
+
+The “great folks,” meaning the mansion-house gentry, were just beginning
+to come; Dudley Venner and his daughter had been the first of them.
+Judge Thornton, white-headed, fresh-faced, as good at sixty as he was
+at forty, with a youngish second wife, and one noble daughter, Arabella,
+who, they said, knew as much law as her father, a stately, Portia like
+girl, fit for a premier's wife, not like to find her match even in the
+great cities she sometimes visited; the Trecothicks, the family of a
+merchant, (in the larger sense,) who, having made himself rich enough by
+the time he had reached middle life, threw down his ledger as Sylla did
+his dagger, and retired to make a little paradise around him in one
+of the stateliest residences of the town, a family inheritance; the
+Vaughans, an old Rockland race, descended from its first settlers,
+Toryish in tendency in Revolutionary times, and barely escaping
+confiscation or worse; the Dunhams, a new family, dating its gentility
+only as far back as the Honorable Washington Dunham, M. C., but turning
+out a clever boy or two that went to college; and some showy girls with
+white necks and fat arms who had picked up professional husbands: these
+were the principal mansion-house people. All of them had made it a point
+to come; and as each of them entered, it seemed to Colonel and Mrs.
+Sprowle that the lamps burned up with a more cheerful light, and that
+the fiddles which sounded from the uncarpeted room were all half a tone
+higher and half a beat quicker.
+
+Mr. Bernard came in later than any of them; he had been busy with his
+new duties. He looked well and that is saying a good deal; for nothing
+but a gentleman is endurable in full dress. Hair that masses well,
+a head set on with an air, a neckerchief tied cleverly by an easy,
+practised hand, close-fitting gloves, feet well shaped and well
+covered,--these advantages can make us forgive the odious sable
+broadcloth suit, which appears to have been adopted by society on the
+same principle that condemned all the Venetian gondolas to perpetual and
+uniform blackness. Mr. Bernard, introduced by Mr. Geordie, made his
+bow to the Colonel and his lady and to Miss Matilda, from whom he got
+a particularly gracious curtsy, and then began looking about him
+for acquaintances. He found two or three faces he knew,--many more
+strangers. There was Silas Peckham,--there was no mistaking him; there
+was the inelastic amplitude of Mrs. Peckham; few of the Apollinean
+girls, of course, they not being recognized members of society,--but
+there is one with the flame in her cheeks and the fire in her eyes, the
+girl of vigorous tints and emphatic outlines, whom we saw entering the
+schoolroom the other day. Old Judge Thornton has his eyes on her, and
+the Colonel steals a look every now and then at the red brooch
+which lifts itself so superbly into the light, as if he thought it a
+wonderfully becoming ornament. Mr. Bernard himself was not displeased
+with the general effect of the rich-blooded schoolgirl, as she stood
+under the bright lamps, fanning herself in the warm, languid air, fixed
+in a kind of passionate surprise at the new life which seemed to be
+flowering out in her consciousness. Perhaps he looked at her somewhat
+steadily, as some others had done; at any rate, she seemed to feel that
+she was looked at, as people often do, and, turning her eyes suddenly
+on him, caught his own on her face, gave him a half-bashful smile, and
+threw in a blush involuntarily which made it more charming.
+
+“What can I do better,” he said to himself, “than have a dance with Rosa
+Milburn?” So he carried his handsome pupil into the next room and took
+his place with her in a cotillon. Whether the breath of the Goddess of
+Love could intoxicate like the cup of Circe,--whether a woman is ever
+phosphorescent with the luminous vapor of life that she exhales,--these
+and other questions which relate to occult influences exercised by
+certain women we will not now discuss. It is enough that Mr. Bernard
+was sensible of a strange fascination, not wholly new to him, nor
+unprecedented in the history of human experience, but always a
+revelation when it comes over us for the first or the hundredth time,
+so pale is the most recent memory by the side of the passing moment with
+the flush of any new-born passion on its cheek. Remember that Nature
+makes every man love all women, and trusts the trivial matter of special
+choice to the commonest accident.
+
+If Mr. Bernard had had nothing to distract his attention, he might have
+thought too much about his handsome partner, and then gone home and
+dreamed about her, which is always dangerous, and waked up thinking of
+her still, and then begun to be deeply interested in her studies, and so
+on, through the whole syllogism which ends in Nature's supreme quod erat
+demonstrandum. What was there to distract him or disturb him? He did not
+know,--but there was something. This sumptuous creature, this Eve just
+within the gate of an untried Paradise, untutored in the ways of the
+world, but on tiptoe to reach the fruit of the tree of knowledge,--alive
+to the moist vitality of that warm atmosphere palpitating with voices
+and music, as the flower of some dioecious plant which has grown in a
+lone corner and suddenly unfolding its corolla on some hot-breathing
+June evening, feels that the air is perfumed with strange odors and
+loaded with golden dust wafted from those other blossoms with which its
+double life is shared,--this almost over-womanized woman might well have
+bewitched him, but that he had a vague sense of a counter-charm. It was,
+perhaps, only the same consciousness that some one was looking at him
+which he himself had just given occasion to in his partner. Presently,
+in one of the turns of the dance, he felt his eyes drawn to a figure he
+had not distinctly recognized, though he had dimly felt its presence,
+and saw that Elsie Venner was looking at him as if she saw nothing else
+but him. He was not a nervous person, like the poor lady-teacher, yet
+the glitter of the diamond eyes affected him strangely. It seemed to
+disenchant the air, so full a moment before of strange attractions. He
+became silent, and dreamy, as it were. The round-limbed beauty at his
+side crushed her gauzy draperies against him, as they trod the figure of
+the dance together, but it was no more to him than if an old nurse
+had laid her hand on his sleeve. The young girl chafed at his seeming
+neglect, and her imperious blood mounted into her cheeks; but he
+appeared unconscious of it.
+
+“There is one of our young ladies I must speak to,” he said,--and was
+just leaving his partner's side.
+
+“Four hands all round?” shouted the first violin,--and Mr. Bernard found
+himself seized and whirled in a circle out of which he could not escape,
+and then forced to “cross over,” and then to “dozy do,” as the maestro
+had it,--and when, on getting back to his place, he looked for Elsie
+Venner, she was gone.
+
+The dancing went on briskly. Some of the old folks looked on, others
+conversed in groups and pairs, and so the evening wore along, until a
+little after ten o'clock. About this time there was noticed an increased
+bustle in the passages, with a considerable opening and shutting of
+doors. Presently it began to be whispered about that they were going to
+have supper. Many, who had never been to any large party before, held
+their breath for a moment at this announcement. It was rather with a
+tremulous interest than with open hilarity that the rumor was generally
+received.
+
+One point the Colonel had entirely forgotten to settle. It was a point
+involving not merely propriety, but perhaps principle also, or at least
+the good report of the house,--and he had never thought to arrange it.
+He took Judge Thornton aside and whispered the important question to
+him,--in his distress of mind, mistaking pockets and taking out his
+bandanna instead of his white handkerchief to wipe his forehead.
+
+“Judge,” he said, “do you think, that, before we commence refreshing
+ourselves at the tables, it would be the proper thing to--crave a--to
+request Deacon Soper or some other elderly person--to ask a blessing?”
+
+The Judge looked as grave as if he were about giving the opinion of the
+Court in the great India-rubber case.
+
+“On the whole,” he answered, after a pause, “I should think it might,
+perhaps, be dispensed with on this occasion. Young folks are noisy, and
+it is awkward to have talking and laughing going on while blessing is
+being asked. Unless a clergyman is present and makes a point of it, I
+think it will hardly be expected.”
+
+The Colonel was infinitely relieved. “Judge, will you take Mrs. Sprowle
+in to supper?” And the Colonel returned the compliment by offering his
+arm to Mrs. Judge Thornton.
+
+The door of the supper-room was now open, and the company, following
+the lead of the host and hostess, began to stream into it, until it was
+pretty well filled.
+
+There was an awful kind of pause. Many were beginning to drop their
+heads and shut their eyes, in anticipation of the usual petition before
+a meal; some expected the music to strike up,--others, that an oration
+would now be delivered by the Colonel.
+
+“Make yourselves at home, ladies and gentlemen,” said the Colonel; “good
+things were made to eat, and you're welcome to all you see before you.”
+
+So saying he attacked a huge turkey which stood at the head of the
+table; and his example being followed first by the bold, then by the
+doubtful, and lastly by the timid, the clatter soon made the circuit of
+the tables. Some were shocked, however, as the Colonel had feared they
+would be, at the want of the customary invocation. Widow Leech, a
+kind of relation, who had to be invited, and who came with her old,
+back-country-looking string of gold beads round her neck, seemed to feel
+very serious about it.
+
+“If she'd ha' known that folks would begrutch cravin' a blessin' over
+sech a heap o' provisions, she'd rather ha' staid t' home. It was a bad
+sign, when folks was n't grateful for the baounties of Providence.”
+
+The elder Miss Spinney, to whom she made this remark, assented to it,
+at the same time ogling a piece of frosted cake, which she presently
+appropriated with great refinement of manner,--taking it between her
+thumb and forefinger, keeping the others well spread and the little
+finger in extreme divergence, with a graceful undulation of the neck,
+and a queer little sound in her throat, as of an M that wanted to get
+out and perished in the attempt.
+
+The tables now presented an animated spectacle. Young fellows of the
+more dashing sort, with high stand-up collars and voluminous bows to
+their neckerchiefs, distinguished themselves by cutting up fowls and
+offering portions thereof to the buxom girls these knowing ones had
+commonly selected.
+
+“A bit of the wing, Roxy, or of the--under limb?”
+
+The first laugh broke out at this, but it was premature, a sporadic
+laugh, as Dr. Kittredge would have said, which did not become epidemic.
+People were very solemn as yet, many of them being new to such splendid
+scenes, and crushed, as it were, in the presence of so much crockery
+and so many silver spoons, and such a variety of unusual viands and
+beverages. When the laugh rose around Roxy and her saucy beau, several
+looked in that direction with an anxious expression, as if something had
+happened, a lady fainted, for instance, or a couple of lively fellows
+come to high words.
+
+“Young folks will be young folks,” said Deacon Soper. “No harm done.
+Least said soonest mended.”
+
+“Have some of these shell-oysters?” said the Colonel to Mrs. Trecothick.
+
+A delicate emphasis on the word shell implied that the Colonel knew what
+was what. To the New England inland native, beyond the reach of the
+east winds, the oyster unconditioned, the oyster absolute, without a
+qualifying adjective, is the pickled oyster. Mrs. Trecothick, who knew
+very well that an oyster long out of his shell (as is apt to be the
+case with the rural bivalve) gets homesick and loses his sprightliness,
+replied, with the pleasantest smile in the world, that the chicken she
+had been helped to was too delicate to be given up even for the greater
+rarity. But the word “shell-oysters” had been overheard; and there was a
+perceptible crowding movement towards their newly discovered habitat, a
+large soup-tureen.
+
+Silas Peckham had meantime fallen upon another locality of these recent
+mollusks. He said nothing, but helped himself freely, and made a sign to
+Mrs. Peckham.
+
+“Lorindy,” he whispered, “shell-oysters”
+
+And ladled them out to her largely, without betraying any emotion, just
+as if they had been the natural inland or pickled article.
+
+After the more solid portion of the banquet had been duly honored, the
+cakes and sweet preparations of various kinds began to get their share
+of attention. There were great cakes and little cakes, cakes with
+raisins in them, cakes with currants, and cakes without either; there
+were brown cakes and yellow cakes, frosted cakes, glazed cakes, hearts
+and rounds, and jumbles, which playful youth slip over the forefinger
+before spoiling their annular outline. There were mounds of blo'monje,
+of the arrowroot variety,--that being undistinguishable from such as is
+made with Russia isinglass. There were jellies, which had been shaking,
+all the time the young folks were dancing in the next room, as if
+they were balancing to partners. There were built-up fabrics, called
+Charlottes, caky externally, pulpy within; there were also marangs, and
+likewise custards,--some of the indolent-fluid sort, others firm, in
+which every stroke of the teaspoon left a smooth, conchoidal surface
+like the fracture of chalcedony, with here and there a little eye like
+what one sees in cheeses. Nor was that most wonderful object of domestic
+art called trifle wanting, with its charming confusion of cream and cake
+and almonds and jam and jelly and wine and cinnamon and froth; nor yet
+the marvellous floating-island,--name suggestive of all that is romantic
+in the imaginations of youthful palates.
+
+“It must have cost you a sight of work, to say nothin' of money, to get
+all this beautiful confectionery made for the party,” said Mrs. Crane to
+Mrs. Sprowle.
+
+“Well, it cost some consid'able labor, no doubt,” said Mrs. Sprowle.
+“Matilda and our girls and I made 'most all the cake with our own hands,
+and we all feel some tired; but if folks get what suits 'em, we don't
+begrudge the time nor the work. But I do feel thirsty,” said the
+poor lady, “and I think a glass of srub would do my throat good; it's
+dreadful dry. Mr. Peckham, would you be so polite as to pass me a glass
+of srub?”
+
+Silas Peckham bowed with great alacrity, and took from the table a small
+glass cup, containing a fluid reddish in hue and subacid in taste.
+This was srub, a beverage in local repute, of questionable nature, but
+suspected of owing its tint and sharpness to some kind of syrup derived
+from the maroon-colored fruit of the sumac. There were similar small
+cups on the table filled with lemonade, and here and there a decanter of
+Madeira wine, of the Marsala kind, which some prefer to, and many more
+cannot distinguish from, that which comes from the Atlantic island.
+
+“Take a glass of wine, Judge,” said, the Colonel; “here is an article
+that I rather think 'll suit you.”
+
+The Judge knew something of wines, and could tell all the famous old
+Madeiras from each other, “Eclipse,” “Juno,” the almost fabulously
+scarce and precious “White-top,” and the rest. He struck the nativity of
+the Mediterranean Madeira before it had fairly moistened his lip.
+
+“A sound wine, Colonel, and I should think of a genuine vintage. Your
+very good health.”
+
+“Deacon Soper,” said the Colonel, “here is some Madary Judge Thornton
+recommends. Let me fill you a glass of it.”
+
+The Deacon's eyes glistened. He was one of those consistent Christians
+who stick firmly by the first miracle and Paul's advice to Timothy.
+
+“A little good wine won't hurt anybody,” said the Deacon. “Plenty,
+--plenty,--plenty. There!” He had not withdrawn his glass, while the
+Colonel was pouring, for fear it should spill, and now it was running
+over.
+
+--It is very odd how all a man's philosophy and theology are at the
+mercy of a few drops of a fluid which the chemists say consists of
+nothing but C4, O2, H6. The Deacon's theology fell off several points
+towards latitudinarianism in the course of the next ten minutes. He had
+a deep inward sense that everything was as it should be, human nature
+included. The little accidents of humanity, known collectively to
+moralists as sin, looked very venial to his growing sense of universal
+brotherhood and benevolence.
+
+“It will all come right,” the Deacon said to himself,--“I feel a joyful
+conviction that everything is for the best. I am favored with a blessed
+peace of mind, and a very precious season of good feelin' toward my
+fellow-creturs.”
+
+A lusty young fellow happened to make a quick step backward just at
+that instant, and put his heel, with his weight on top of it, upon the
+Deacon's toes.
+
+“Aigh! What the d' d' didos are y' abaout with them great huffs o'
+yourn?” said the Deacon, with an expression upon his features not
+exactly that of peace and good-will to men. The lusty young fellow
+apologized; but the Deacon's face did not come right, and his theology
+backed round several points in the direction of total depravity.
+
+Some of the dashing young men in stand-up collars and extensive
+neckties, encouraged by Mr. Geordie, made quite free with the
+“Ma,dary,” and even induced some of the more stylish girls--not of the
+mansion-house set, but of the tip-top two-story families--to taste a
+little. Most of these young ladies made faces at it, and declared it was
+“perfectly horrid,” with that aspect of veracity peculiar to their age
+and sex.
+
+About this time a movement was made on the part of some of the
+mansion-house people to leave the supper-table. Miss Jane Trecothick
+had quietly hinted to her mother that she had had enough of it. Miss
+Arabella Thornton had whispered to her father that he had better adjourn
+this court to the next room. There were signs of migration,--a loosening
+of people in their places,--a looking about for arms to hitch on to.
+
+“Stop!” said the Colonel. “There's something coming yet.--Ice-cream!”
+
+The great folks saw that the play was not over yet, and that it was
+only polite to stay and see it out. The word “ice-cream” was no sooner
+whispered than it passed from one to another all down the tables. The
+effect was what might have been anticipated. Many of the guests had
+never seen this celebrated product of human skill, and to all the
+two-story population of Rockland it was the last expression of the art
+of pleasing and astonishing the human palate. Its appearance had been
+deferred for several reasons: first, because everybody would have
+attacked it, if it had come in with the other luxuries; secondly,
+because undue apprehensions were entertained (owing to want of
+experience) of its tendency to deliquesce and resolve itself with
+alarming rapidity into puddles of creamy fluid; and, thirdly, because
+the surprise would make a grand climax to finish off the banquet.
+
+There is something so audacious in the conception of ice-cream, that
+it is not strange that a population undebauched by the luxury of great
+cities looks upon it with a kind of awe and speaks of it with a certain
+emotion. This defiance of the seasons, forcing Nature to do her work
+of congelation in the face of her sultriest noon, might well inspire a
+timid mind with fear lest human art were revolting against the Higher
+Powers, and raise the same scruples which resisted the use of ether and
+chloroform in certain contingencies. Whatever may be the cause, it is
+well known that the announcement at any private rural entertainment that
+there is to be ice-cream produces an immediate and profound impression.
+It may be remarked, as aiding this impression, that exaggerated ideas
+are entertained as to the dangerous effects this congealed food may
+produce on persons not in the most robust health.
+
+There was silence as the pyramids of ice were placed on the table,
+everybody looking on in admiration. The Colonel took a knife and
+assailed the one at the head of the table. When he tried to cut off a
+slice, it didn't seem to understand it, however, and only tipped, as if
+it wanted to upset. The Colonel attacked it on the other side, and it
+tipped just as badly the other way. It was awkward for the Colonel.
+“Permit me,” said the Judge,--and he took the knife and struck a sharp
+slanting stroke which sliced off a piece just of the right size, and
+offered it to Mrs. Sprowle. This act of dexterity was much admired by
+the company.
+
+The tables were all alive again.
+
+“Lorindy, here's a plate of ice-cream,” said Silas Peckham.
+
+“Come, Mahaly,” said a fresh-looking young-fellow with a saucerful in
+each hand, “here's your ice-cream;--let's go in the corner and have a
+celebration, us two.” And the old green de-lame, with the young curves
+under it to make it sit well, moved off as pleased apparently as if it
+had been silk velvet with thousand-dollar laces over it.
+
+“Oh, now, Miss Green! do you think it's safe to put that cold stuff
+into your stomick?” said the Widow Leech to a young married lady, who,
+finding the air rather warm, thought a little ice would cool her down
+very nicely. “It's jest like eatin' snowballs. You don't look very
+rugged; and I should be dreadful afeard, if I was you.”
+
+“Carrie,” said old Dr. Kittredge, who had overheard this,--“how well
+you're looking this evening! But you must be tired and heated;--sit down
+here, and let me give you a good slice of ice-cream. How you young folks
+do grow up, to be sure! I don't feel quite certain whether it's you or
+your older sister, but I know it 's somebody I call Carrie, and that I
+'ve known ever since.”
+
+A sound something between a howl and an oath startled the company
+and broke off the Doctor's sentence. Everybody's eyes turned in the
+direction from which it came. A group instantly gathered round the
+person who had uttered it, who was no other than Deacon Soper.
+
+“He's chokin'! he's chokin'!” was the first exclamation,--“slap him on
+the back!”
+
+Several heavy fists beat such a tattoo on his spine that the Deacon felt
+as if at least one of his vertebrae would come up.
+
+“He's black in the face,” said Widow Leech, “he 's swallered somethin'
+the wrong way. Where's the Doctor?--let the Doctor get to him, can't
+ye?”
+
+“If you will move, my good lady, perhaps I can,” said Doctor Kittredge,
+in a calm tone of voice. “He's not choking, my friends,” the Doctor
+added immediately, when he got sight of him.
+
+“It 's apoplexy,--I told you so,--don't you see how red he is in the
+face?” said old Mrs. Peake, a famous woman for “nussin” sick folks,
+--determined to be a little ahead of the Doctor.
+
+“It's not apoplexy,” said Dr. Kittredge.
+
+“What is it, Doctor? what is it? Will he die? Is he dead?--Here's his
+poor wife, the Widow Soper that is to be, if she a'n't a'ready.”
+
+“Do be quiet, my good woman,” said Dr. Kittredge.--“Nothing serious, I
+think, Mrs. Soper. Deacon!”
+
+The sudden attack of Deacon Soper had begun with the extraordinary sound
+mentioned above. His features had immediately assumed an expression of
+intense pain, his eyes staring wildly, and, clapping his hands to his
+face, he had rocked his head backward and forward in speechless agony.
+
+At the Doctor's sharp appeal the Deacon lifted his head.
+
+“It's all right,” said the Doctor, as soon as he saw his face. “The
+Deacon had a smart attack of neuralgic pain. That 's all. Very severe,
+but not at all dangerous.”
+
+The Doctor kept his countenance, but his diaphragm was shaking the
+change in iris waistcoat-pockets with subterranean laughter. He had
+looked through his spectacles and seen at once what had happened.
+The Deacon, not being in the habit of taking his nourishment in the
+congealed state, had treated the ice-cream as a pudding of a rare
+species, and, to make sure of doing himself justice in its distribution,
+had taken a large mouthful of it without the least precaution. The
+consequence was a sensation as if a dentist were killing the nerves of
+twenty-five teeth at once with hot irons, or cold ones, which would hurt
+rather worse.
+
+The Deacon swallowed something with a spasmodic effort, and recovered
+pretty soon and received the congratulations of his friends. There were
+different versions of the expressions he had used at the onset of his
+complaint,--some of the reported exclamations involving a breach of
+propriety, to say the least,--but it was agreed that a man in an attack
+of neuralgy wasn't to be judged of by the rules that applied to other
+folks.
+
+The company soon after this retired from the supper-room. The
+mansion-house gentry took their leave, and the two-story people soon
+followed. Mr. Bernard had stayed an hour or two, and left soon after he
+found that Elsie Venner and her father had disappeared. As he passed by
+the dormitory of the Institute, he saw a light glimmering from one of
+its upper rooms, where the lady-teacher was still waking. His heart
+ached, when he remembered, that, through all these hours of gayety, or
+what was meant for it, the patient girl had been at work in her little
+chamber; and he looked up at the silent stars, as if to see that they
+were watching over her. The planet Mars was burning like a red coal; the
+northern constellation was slanting downward about its central point of
+flame; and while he looked, a falling star slid from the zenith and was
+lost.
+
+He reached his chamber and was soon dreaming over the Event of the
+Season.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE MORNING AFTER.
+
+Colonel Sprowle's family arose late the next morning. The fatigues and
+excitements of the evening and the preparation for it were followed by
+a natural collapse, of which somnolence was a leading symptom. The sun
+shone into the window at a pretty well opened angle when the Colonel
+first found himself sufficiently awake to address his yet slumbering
+spouse.
+
+“Sally!” said the Colonel, in a voice that was a little husky,--for he
+had finished off the evening with an extra glass or two of “Madary,”
+ and had a somewhat rusty and headachy sense of renewed existence, on
+greeting the rather advanced dawn,--“Sally!”
+
+“Take care o' them custard-cups! There they go!”
+
+Poor Mrs. Sprowle was fighting the party over in her dream; and as the
+visionary custard-cups crashed down through one lobe of her brain into
+another, she gave a start as if an inch of lightning from a quart Leyden
+jar had jumped into one of her knuckles with its sudden and lively
+poonk!
+
+“Sally!” said the Colonel,--“wake up, wake up. What 'r' y' dreamin'
+abaout?”
+
+Mrs. Sprowle raised herself, by a sort of spasm, sur son seant, as they
+say in France,--up on end, as we have it in New England. She looked
+first to the left, then to the right, then straight before her,
+apparently without seeing anything, and at last slowly settled down,
+with her two eyes, blank of any particular meaning, directed upon the
+Colonel.
+
+“What time is 't?” she said.
+
+“Ten o'clock. What y' been dreamin' abaout? Y' giv a jump like a
+hopper-grass. Wake up, wake UP! Th' party 's over, and y' been asleep
+all the mornin'. The party's over, I tell ye! Wake up!”
+
+“Over!” said Mrs. Sprowle, who began to define her position at
+last,--“over! I should think 't was time 't was over! It's lasted a
+hundud year. I've been workin' for that party longer 'n Methuselah's
+lifetime, sence I been asleep. The pies would n' bake, and the blo'monje
+would n' set, and the ice-cream would n' freeze, and all the folks
+kep' comin' 'n' comin' 'n' comin',--everybody I ever knew in all my
+life,--some of 'em 's been dead this twenty year 'n' more,--'n' nothin'
+for 'em to eat nor drink. The fire would n' burn to cook anything, all
+we could do. We blowed with the belluses, 'n' we stuffed in paper 'n'
+pitch-pine kindlin's, but nothin' could make that fire burn; 'n' all the
+time the folks kep' comin', as if they'd never stop,--'n' nothin' for
+'em but empty dishes, 'n' all the borrowed chaney slippin' round on the
+waiters 'n' chippin' 'n' crackin',--I would n' go through what I been
+through t'-night for all th' money in th' Bank,--I do believe it's
+harder t' have a party than t'”--
+
+Mrs. Sprowle stated the case strongly.
+
+The Colonel said he did n't know how that might be. She was a better
+judge than he was. It was bother enough, anyhow, and he was glad that
+it was over. After this, the worthy pair commenced preparations for
+rejoining the waking world, and in due time proceeded downstairs.
+
+Everybody was late that morning, and nothing had got put to rights. The
+house looked as if a small army had been quartered in it over night.
+The tables were of course in huge disorder, after the protracted assault
+they had undergone. There had been a great battle evidently, and it had
+gone against the provisions. Some points had been stormed, and all their
+defences annihilated, but here and there were centres of resistance
+which had held out against all attacks,--large rounds of beef, and
+solid loaves of cake, against which the inexperienced had wasted their
+energies in the enthusiasm of youth or uninformed maturity, while the
+longer-headed guests were making discoveries of “shell-oysters” and
+“patridges” and similar delicacies.
+
+The breakfast was naturally of a somewhat fragmentary character. A
+chicken that had lost his legs in the service of the preceding campaign
+was once more put on duty. A great ham stuck with cloves, as Saint
+Sebastian was with arrows, was again offered for martyrdom. It would
+have been a pleasant sight for a medical man of a speculative turn to
+have seen the prospect before the Colonel's family of the next week's
+breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. The trail that one of these
+great rural parties leaves after it is one of its most formidable
+considerations. Every door-handle in the house is suggestive of
+sweetmeats for the next week, at least. The most unnatural articles of
+diet displace the frugal but nutritious food of unconvulsed periods
+of existence. If there is a walking infant about the house, it
+will certainly have a more or less fatal fit from overmuch of some
+indigestible delicacy. Before the week is out, everybody will be tired
+to death of sugary forms of nourishment and long to see the last of the
+remnants of the festival.
+
+The family had not yet arrived at this condition. On the contrary,
+the first inspection of the tables suggested the prospect of days of
+unstinted luxury; and the younger portion of the household, especially,
+were in a state of great excitement as the account of stock was taken
+with reference to future internal investments. Some curious facts came
+to light during these researches.
+
+“Where's all the oranges gone to?” said Mrs. Sprowle. “I expected
+there'd be ever so many of 'em left. I did n't see many of the folks
+eatin' oranges. Where's the skins of 'em? There ought to be six dozen
+orange-skins round on the plates, and there a'n't one dozen. And all
+the small cakes, too, and all the sugar things that was stuck on the
+big cakes. Has anybody counted the spoons? Some of 'em got swallered,
+perhaps. I hope they was plated ones, if they did!”
+
+The failure of the morning's orange-crop and the deficit in other
+expected residual delicacies were not very difficult to account for. In
+many of the two-story Rockland families, and in those favored households
+of the neighboring villages whose members had been invited to the great
+party, there was a very general excitement among the younger people on
+the morning after the great event. “Did y' bring home somethin' from the
+party? What is it? What is it? Is it frut-cake? Is it nuts and oranges
+and apples? Give me some! Give me some!” Such a concert of treble
+voices uttering accents like these had not been heard since the great
+Temperance Festival with the celebrated “colation” in the open air under
+the trees of the Parnassian Grove,--as the place was christened by the
+young ladies of the Institute. The cry of the children was not in
+vain. From the pockets of demure fathers, from the bags of sharp-eyed
+spinsters, from the folded handkerchiefs of light-fingered sisters, from
+the tall hats of sly-winking brothers, there was a resurrection of
+the missing oranges and cakes and sugar-things in many a rejoicing
+family-circle, enough to astonish the most hardened “caterer” that ever
+contracted to feed a thousand people under canvas.
+
+The tender recollections of those dear little ones whom extreme youth or
+other pressing considerations detain from scenes of festivity--a trait
+of affection by no means uncommon among our thoughtful people--dignifies
+those social meetings where it is manifested, and sheds a ray of
+sunshine on our common nature. It is “an oasis in the desert,”--to
+use the striking expression of the last year's “Valedictorian” of the
+Apollinean Institute. In the midst of so much that is purely selfish, it
+is delightful to meet such disinterested care for others. When a
+large family of children are expecting a parent's return from an
+entertainment, it will often require great exertions on his part to
+freight himself so as to meet their reasonable expectations. A few rules
+are worth remembering by all who attend anniversary dinners in Faneuil
+Hall or elsewhere. Thus: Lobsters' claws are always acceptable to
+children of all ages. Oranges and apples are to be taken one at a time,
+until the coat-pockets begin to become inconveniently heavy. Cakes are
+injured by sitting upon them; it is, therefore, well to carry a stout
+tin box of a size to hold as many pieces as there are children in the
+domestic circle. A very pleasant amusement, at the close of one of
+these banquets, is grabbing for the flowers with which the table is
+embellished. These will please the ladies at home very greatly, and, if
+the children are at the same time abundantly supplied with fruits, nuts,
+cakes, and any little ornamental articles of confectionery which are of
+a nature to be unostentatiously removed, the kind-hearted parent will
+make a whole household happy, without any additional expense beyond the
+outlay for his ticket.
+
+There were fragmentary delicacies enough left, of one kind and another,
+at any rate, to make all the Colonel's family uncomfortable for the next
+week. It bid fair to take as long to get rid of the remains of the great
+party as it had taken to make ready for it.
+
+In the mean time Mr. Bernard had been dreaming, as young men dream, of
+gliding shapes with bright eyes and burning cheeks, strangely blended
+with red planets and hissing meteors, and, shining over all, the white,
+un-wandering star of the North, girt with its tethered constellations.
+
+After breakfast he walked into the parlor, where he found Miss Darley.
+She was alone, and, holding a school-book in her hand, was at work with
+one of the morning's lessons. She hardly noticed him as he entered,
+being very busy with her book,--and he paused a moment before speaking,
+and looked at her with a kind of reverence. It would not have been
+strictly true to call her beautiful. For years,--since her earliest
+womanhood,--those slender hands had taken the bread which repaid the
+toil of heart and brain from the coarse palms which offered it in the
+world's rude market. It was not for herself alone that she had bartered
+away the life of her youth, that she had breathed the hot air of
+schoolrooms, that she had forced her intelligence to posture before
+her will, as the exigencies of her place required,--waking to mental
+labor,--sleeping to dream of problems,--rolling up the stone of
+education for an endless twelvemonth's term, to find it at the bottom
+of the hill again when another year called her to its renewed duties,
+schooling her temper in unending inward and outward conflicts, until
+neither dulness nor obstinacy nor ingratitude nor insolence could
+reach her serene self-possession. Not for herself alone. Poorly as her
+prodigal labors were repaid in proportion to the waste of life they
+cost, her value was too well established to leave her without what,
+under other circumstances, would have been a more than sufficient
+compensation. But there were others who looked to her in their need,
+and so the modest fountain which might have been filled to its brim was
+continually drained through silent-flowing, hidden sluices.
+
+Out of such a life, inherited from a race which had lived in conditions
+not unlike her own, beauty, in the common sense of the term, could
+hardly find leisure to develop and shape itself. For it must be
+remembered, that symmetry and elegance of features and figure, like
+perfectly formed crystals in the mineral world, are reached only by
+insuring a certain necessary repose to individuals and to generations.
+Human beauty is an agricultural product in the country, growing up in
+men and women as in corn and cattle, where the soil is good. It is a
+luxury almost monopolized by the rich in cities, bred under glass like
+their forced pine-apples and peaches. Both in city and country, the
+evolution of the physical harmonies which make music to our eyes
+requires a combination of favorable circumstances, of which alternations
+of unburdened tranquillity with intervals of varied excitement of mind
+and body are among the most important. Where sufficient excitement is
+wanting, as often happens in the country, the features, however rich in
+red and white, get heavy, and the movements sluggish; where excitement
+is furnished in excess, as is frequently the case in cities, the
+contours and colors are impoverished, and the nerves begin to make their
+existence known to the consciousness, as the face very soon informs us.
+
+Helen Darley could not, in the nature of things, have possessed the kind
+of beauty which pleases the common taste. Her eye was calm, sad-looking,
+her features very still, except when her pleasant smile changed them for
+a moment, all her outlines were delicate, her voice was very gentle,
+but somewhat subdued by years of thoughtful labor, and on her smooth
+forehead one little hinted line whispered already that Care was
+beginning to mark the trace which Time sooner or later would make a
+furrow. She could not be a beauty; if she had been, it would have been
+much harder for many persons to be interested in her. For, although in
+the abstract we all love beauty, and although, if we were sent naked
+souls into some ultramundane warehouse of soulless bodies and told to
+select one to our liking, we should each choose a handsome one, and
+never think of the consequences,--it is quite certain that beauty
+carries an atmosphere of repulsion as well as of attraction with it,
+alike in both sexes. We may be well assured that there are many persons
+who no more think of specializing their love of the other sex upon one
+endowed with signal beauty, than they think of wanting great diamonds or
+thousand-dollar horses. No man or woman can appropriate beauty
+without paying for it,--in endowments, in fortune, in position, in
+self-surrender, or other valuable stock; and there are a great many who
+are too poor, too ordinary, too humble, too busy, too proud, to pay any
+of these prices for it. So the unbeautiful get many more lovers than
+the beauties; only, as there are more of them, their lovers are spread
+thinner and do not make so much show.
+
+The young master stood looking at Helen Darley with a kind of tender
+admiration. She was such a picture of the martyr by the slow social
+combustive process, that it almost seemed to him he could see a pale
+lambent nimbus round her head.
+
+“I did not see you at the great party last evening,” he said, presently.
+
+She looked up and answered, “No. I have not much taste for such large
+companies. Besides, I do not feel as if my time belonged to me after
+it has been paid for. There is always something to do, some lesson or
+exercise,--and it so happened, I was very busy last night with the new
+problems in geometry. I hope you had a good time.”
+
+“Very. Two or three of our girls were there. Rosa Milburn. What a beauty
+she is! I wonder what she feeds on! Wine and musk and chloroform and
+coals of fire, I believe; I didn't think there was such color and flavor
+in a woman outside the tropics.”
+
+Miss Darley smiled rather faintly; the imagery was not just to her
+taste: femineity often finds it very hard to accept the fact of
+muliebrity.
+
+“Was”--?
+
+She stopped short; but her question had asked itself.
+
+“Elsie there? She was, for an hour or so. She looked frightfully
+handsome. I meant to have spoken to her, but she slipped away before I
+knew it.”
+
+“I thought she meant to go to the party,” said Miss Darley. “Did she
+look at you?”
+
+“She did. Why?”
+
+“And you did not speak to her?”
+
+“No. I should have spoken to her, but she was gone when I looked for
+her. A strange creature! Is n't there an odd sort of fascination about
+her? You have not explained all the mystery about the girl. What does
+she come to this school for? She seems to do pretty much as she likes
+about studying.”
+
+Miss Darley answered in very low tones. “It was a fancy of hers to come,
+and they let her have her way. I don't know what there is about her,
+except that she seems to take my life out of me when she looks at me. I
+don't like to ask other people about our girls. She says very little to
+anybody, and studies, or makes believe to study, almost what she likes.
+I don't know what she is,” (Miss Darley laid her hand, trembling, on the
+young master's sleeve,) “but I can tell when she is in the room without
+seeing or hearing her. Oh, Mr. Langdon, I am weak and nervous, and no
+doubt foolish,--but--if there were women now, as in the days of our
+Saviour, possessed of devils, I should think there was something not
+human looking out of Elsie Venner's eyes!”
+
+The poor girl's breast rose and fell tumultuously as she spoke, and her
+voice labored, as if some obstruction were rising in her throat.
+
+A scene might possibly have come of it, but the door opened. Mr. Silas
+Peckham. Miss Darley got away as soon as she well could.
+
+“Why did not Miss Darley go to the party last evening?” said Mr.
+Bernard.
+
+“Well, the fact is,” answered Mr. Silas Peckham, “Miss Darley,
+she's pooty much took up with the school. She's an industris young.
+woman,--yis, she is industris,--but perhaps she a'n't quite so spry a
+worker as some. Maybe, considerin' she's paid for her time, she is n't
+fur out o' the way in occoopyin' herself evenin's,--that--is, if so
+be she a'n't smart enough to finish up all her work in the daytime.
+Edoocation is the great business of the Institoot. Amoosements are
+objec's of a secondary natur', accordin' to my v'oo.” [The unspellable
+pronunciation of this word is the touchstone of New England Brahminism.]
+
+Mr. Bernard drew a deep breath, his thin nostrils dilating, as if the
+air did not rush in fast enough to cool his blood, while Silas Peckham
+was speaking. The Head of the Apollinean Institute delivered himself
+of these judicious sentiments in that peculiar acid, penetrating tone,
+thickened with a nasal twang, which not rarely becomes hereditary after
+three or four generations raised upon east winds, salt fish, and large,
+white-bellied, pickled cucumbers. He spoke deliberately, as if weighing
+his words well, so that, during his few remarks, Mr. Bernard had time
+for a mental accompaniment with variations, accented by certain bodily
+changes, which escaped Mr. Peckham's observation. First there was a
+feeling of disgust and shame at hearing Helen Darley spoken of like a
+dumb working animal. That sent the blood up into his cheeks. Then the
+slur upon her probable want of force--her incapacity, who made the
+character of the school and left this man to pocket its profits--sent
+a thrill of the old Wentworth fire through him, so that his muscles
+hardened, his hands closed, and he took the measure of Mr. Silas
+Peckham, to see if his head would strike the wall in case he went over
+backwards all of a sudden. This would not do, of course, and so the
+thrill passed off and the muscles softened again. Then came that state
+of tenderness in the heart, overlying wrath in the stomach, in which the
+eyes grow moist like a woman's, and there is also a great boiling-up of
+objectionable terms out of the deep-water vocabulary, so that Prudence
+and Propriety and all the other pious P's have to jump upon the lid of
+speech to keep them from boiling over into fierce articulation. All
+this was internal, chiefly, and of course not recognized by Mr. Silas
+Peckham. The idea, that any full-grown, sensible man should have any
+other notion than that of getting the most work for the least money out
+of his assistants, had never suggested itself to him.
+
+Mr. Bernard had gone through this paroxysm, and cooled down, in the
+period while Mr. Peckham was uttering these words in his thin, shallow
+whine, twanging up into the frontal sinuses. What was the use of losing
+his temper and throwing away his place, and so, among the consequences
+which would necessarily follow, leaving the poor lady-teacher without
+a friend to stand by her ready to lay his hand on the grand-inquisitor
+before the windlass of his rack had taken one turn too many?
+
+“No doubt, Mr. Peckham,” he said, in a grave, calm voice, “there is
+a great deal of work to be done in the school; but perhaps we can
+distribute the duties a little more evenly after a time. I shall look
+over the girls' themes myself, after this week. Perhaps there will be
+some other parts of her labor that I can take on myself. We can arrange
+a new programme of studies and recitations.”
+
+“We can do that,” said Mr. Silas Peckham. “But I don't propose mater'lly
+alterin' Miss Darley's dooties. I don't think she works to hurt herself.
+Some of the Trustees have proposed interdoosin' new branches of study,
+and I expect you will be pooty much occoopied with the dooties that
+belong to your place. On the Sahbath you will be able to attend divine
+service three times, which is expected of our teachers. I shall continoo
+myself to give Sahbath Scriptur' readin's to the young ladies. That is
+a solemn dooty I can't make up my mind to commit to other people. My
+teachers enjoy the Lord's day as a day of rest. In it they do no manner
+of work, except in cases of necessity or mercy, such as fillin' out
+diplomas, or when we git crowded jest at the end of a term, or when
+there is an extry number of p'oopils, or other Providential call to
+dispense with the ordinance.”
+
+Mr. Bernard had a fine glow in his cheeks by this time,--doubtless
+kindled by the thought of the kind consideration Mr. Peckham showed for
+his subordinates in allowing them the between meeting-time on Sundays
+except for some special reason. But the morning was wearing away; so
+he went to the schoolroom, taking leave very properly of his respected
+principal, who soon took his hat and departed.
+
+Mr. Peckham visited certain “stores” or shops, where he made inquiries
+after various articles in the provision-line, and effected a purchase or
+two. Two or three barrels of potatoes, which had sprouted in a promising
+way, he secured at a bargain. A side of feminine beef was also obtained
+at a low figure. He was entirely satisfied with a couple of barrels of
+flour, which, being invoiced “slightly damaged,” were to be had at a
+reasonable price.
+
+After this, Silas Peckham felt in good spirits. He had done a pretty
+stroke of business. It came into his head whether he might not follow
+it up with a still more brilliant speculation. So he turned his steps in
+the direction of Colonel Sprowle's.
+
+It was now eleven o'clock, and the battle-field of last evening was as
+we left it. Mr. Peckham's visit was unexpected, perhaps not very well
+timed, but the Colonel received him civilly.
+
+“Beautifully lighted,--these rooms last night!” said Mr. Peckham.
+“Winter-strained?”
+
+The Colonel nodded.
+
+“How much do you pay for your winter-strained?”
+
+The Colonel told him the price.
+
+“Very hahnsome supper,--very hahnsome. Nothin' ever seen like it in
+Rockland. Must have been a great heap of things leftover.”
+
+The compliment was not ungrateful, and the Colonel acknowledged it by
+smiling and saying, “I should think the' was a trifle? Come and look.”
+
+When Silas Peckham saw how many delicacies had survived the evening's
+conflict, his commercial spirit rose at once to the point of a proposal.
+
+“Colonel Sprowle,” said he, “there's 'meat and cakes and pies and
+pickles enough on that table to spread a hahnsome colation. If you'd
+like to trade reasonable, I think perhaps I should be willin' to take
+'em off your hands. There's been a talk about our havin' a celebration
+in the Parnassian Grove, and I think I could work in what your folks
+don't want and make myself whole by chargin' a small sum for tickets.
+Broken meats, of course, a'n't of the same valoo as fresh provisions; so
+I think you might be willin' to trade reasonable.”
+
+Mr. Peckham paused and rested on his proposal. It would not, perhaps,
+have been very extraordinary, if Colonel Sprowle had entertained the
+proposition. There is no telling beforehand how such things will strike
+people. It didn't happen to strike the Colonel favorably. He had a
+little red-blooded manhood in him.
+
+“Sell you them things to make a colation out of?” the Colonel replied.
+“Walk up to that table, Mr. Peckham, and help yourself! Fill your
+pockets; Mr. Peckham! Fetch a basket, and our hired folks shall fill
+it full for ye! Send a cart, if y' like, 'n' carry off them leavin's to
+make a celebration for your pupils with! Only let me tell ye this:--as
+sure 's my name's Hezekiah Spraowle, you 'll be known through the taown
+'n' through the caounty, from that day forrard, as the Principal of the
+Broken-Victuals Institoot!”
+
+Even provincial human-nature sometimes has a touch of sublimity about
+it. Mr. Silas Peckham had gone a little deeper than he meant, and come
+upon the “hard pan,” as the well-diggers call it, of the Colonel's
+character, before he thought of it. A militia-colonel standing on his
+sentiments is not to be despised. That was shown pretty well in New
+England two or three generations ago. There were a good many plain
+officers that talked about their “rigiment” and their “caounty” who knew
+very well how to say “Make ready!” “Take aim!” “Fire!”--in the face of a
+line of grenadiers with bullets in their guns and bayonets on them. And
+though a rustic uniform is not always unexceptionable in its cut and
+trimmings, yet there was many an ill-made coat in those old times that
+was good enough to be shown to the enemy's front rank too often to
+be left on the field with a round hole in its left lapel that matched
+another going right through the brave heart of the plain country captain
+or major or colonel who was buried in it under the crimson turf.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham said little or nothing. His sensibilities were not
+acute, but he perceived that he had made a miscalculation. He hoped that
+there was no offence,--thought it might have been mutooally agreeable,
+conclooded he would give up the idee of a colation, and backed himself
+out as if unwilling to expose the less guarded aspect of his person to
+the risk of accelerating impulses.
+
+The Colonel shut the door,--cast his eye on the toe of his right boot,
+as if it had had a strong temptation,--looked at his watch, then round
+the room, and, going to a cupboard, swallowed a glass of deep-red brandy
+and water to compose his feelings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE DOCTOR ORDERS THE BEST SULKY. (With a Digression on
+“Hired Help.”)
+
+“ABEL! Slip Cassia into the new sulky, and fetch her round.”
+
+Abel was Dr. Kittredge's hired man. He was born in New Hampshire, a
+queer sort of State, with fat streaks of soil and population where they
+breed giants in mind and body, and lean streaks which export imperfectly
+nourished young men with promising but neglected appetites, who may be
+found in great numbers in all the large towns, or could be until of
+late years, when they have been half driven out of their favorite
+basement-stories by foreigners, and half coaxed away from them by
+California. New Hampshire is in more than one sense the Switzerland of
+New England. The “Granite State” being naturally enough deficient in
+pudding-stone, its children are apt to wander southward in search of
+that deposit,--in the unpetrified condition.
+
+Abel Stebbins was a good specimen of that extraordinary hybrid or
+mule between democracy and chrysocracy, a native-born New-England
+serving-man. The Old World has nothing at all like him. He is at once an
+emperor and a subordinate. In one hand he holds one five-millionth part
+(be the same more or less) of the power that sways the destinies of the
+Great Republic. His other hand is in your boot, which he is about to
+polish. It is impossible to turn a fellow citizen whose vote may make
+his master--say, rather, employer--Governor or President, or who may
+be one or both himself, into a flunky. That article must be imported
+ready-made from other centres of civilization. When a New Englander has
+lost his self-respect as a citizen and as a man, he is demoralized, and
+cannot be trusted with the money to pay for a dinner.
+
+It may be supposed, therefore, that this fractional emperor, this
+continent-shaper, finds his position awkward when he goes into service,
+and that his employer is apt to find it still more embarrassing. It
+is always under protest that the hired man does his duty. Every act of
+service is subject to the drawback, “I am as good as you are.” This is
+so common, at least, as almost to be the rule, and partly accounts for
+the rapid disappearance of the indigenous “domestic” from the basements
+above mentioned. Paleontologists will by and by be examining the floors
+of our kitchens for tracks of the extinct native species of serving-man.
+The female of the same race is fast dying out; indeed, the time is not
+far distant when all the varieties of young woman will have vanished
+from New England, as the dodo has perished in the Mauritius. The young
+lady is all that we shall have left, and the mop and duster of the last
+Ahnira or Loizy will be stared at by generations of Bridgets and Noras
+as that famous head and foot of the lost bird are stared at in the
+Ashmolean Museum.
+
+Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his
+difficult position. He sold his time to the Doctor, and, having sold it,
+he took care to fulfil his half of the bargain. The Doctor, on his
+part, treated him, not like a gentleman, because one does not order a
+gentleman to bring up his horse or run his errands, but he treated him
+like a man. Every order was given in courteous terms. His reasonable
+privileges were respected as much as if they had been guaranteed under
+hand and seal. The Doctor lent him books from his own library, and gave
+him all friendly counsel, as if he were a son or a younger brother.
+
+Abel had Revolutionary blood in his veins, and though he saw fit to
+“hire out,” he could never stand the word “servant,” or consider himself
+the inferior one of the two high contracting parties. When he came
+to live with the Doctor, he made up his mind he would dismiss the old
+gentleman, if he did not behave according to his notions of propriety.
+But he soon found that the Doctor was one of the right sort, and so
+determined to keep him. The Doctor soon found, on his side, that he had
+a trustworthy, intelligent fellow, who would be invaluable to him, if he
+only let him have his own way of doing what was to be done.
+
+The Doctor's hired man had not the manners of a French valet. He was
+grave and taciturn for the most part, he never bowed and rarely smiled,
+but was always at work in the daytime, and always reading in the
+evening. He was hostler, and did all the housework that a man could
+properly do, would go to the door or “tend table,” bought the provisions
+for the family,--in short, did almost everything for them but get their
+clothing. There was no office in a perfectly appointed household, from
+that of steward down to that of stable-boy, which he did not cheerfully
+assume. His round of work not consuming all his energies, he must needs
+cultivate the Doctor's garden, which he kept in one perpetual bloom,
+from the blowing of the first crocus to the fading of the last dahlia.
+
+This garden was Abel's poem. Its half-dozen beds were so many cantos.
+Nature crowded them for him with imagery such as no Laureate could
+copy in the cold mosaic of language. The rhythm of alternating dawn and
+sunset, the strophe and antistrophe still perceptible through all the
+sudden shifts of our dithyrambic seasons and echoed in corresponding
+floral harmonies, made melody in the soul of Abel, the plain
+serving-man. It softened his whole otherwise rigid aspect. He worshipped
+God according to the strict way of his fathers; but a florist's
+Puritanism is always colored by the petals of his flowers,--and Nature
+never shows him a black corolla.
+
+He may or may not figure again in this narrative; but as there must
+be some who confound the New England hired man, native-born, with
+the servant of foreign birth, and as there is the difference of two
+continents and two civilizations between them, it did not seem fair to
+let Abel bring round the Doctor's mare and sulky without touching his
+features in half-shadow into our background.
+
+The Doctor's mare, Cassia, was so called by her master from her cinnamon
+color, cassia being one of the professional names for that spice or
+drug. She was of the shade we call sorrel, or, as an Englishman would
+perhaps say, chestnut,--a genuine “Morgan” mare, with a low forehand, as
+is common in this breed, but with strong quarters and flat hocks, well
+ribbed up, with a good eye and a pair of lively ears,--a first-rate
+doctor's beast, would stand until her harness dropped off her back at
+the door of a tedious case, and trot over hill and dale thirty miles in
+three hours, if there was a child in the next county with a bean in
+its windpipe and the Doctor gave her a hint of the fact. Cassia was
+not large, but she had a good deal of action, and was the Doctor's
+show-horse. There were two other animals in his stable: Quassia or
+Quashy, the black horse, and Caustic, the old bay, with whom he jogged
+round the village.
+
+“A long ride to-day?” said Abel, as he brought up the equipage.
+
+“Just out of the village,--that 's all.--There 's a kink in her
+mane,--pull it out, will you?”
+
+“Goin' to visit some of the great folks,” Abel said to himself. “Wonder
+who it is.”--Then to the Doctor,--“Anybody get sick at Sprowles's? They
+say Deacon Soper had a fit, after eatin' some o' their frozen victuals.”
+
+The Doctor smiled. He guessed the Deacon would do well enough. He was
+only going to ride over to the Dudley mansion-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE DOCTOR CALLS ON ELSIE VENNER.
+
+If that primitive physician, Chiron, M. D., appears as a Centaur, as
+we look at him through the lapse of thirty centuries, the modern
+country-doctor, if he could be seen about thirty miles off, could not be
+distinguished from a wheel-animalcule. He inhabits a wheel-carriage.
+He thinks of stationary dwellings as Long Tom Coffin did of land in
+general; a house may be well enough for incidental purposes, but for
+a “stiddy” residence give him a “kerridge.” If he is classified in the
+Linnaean scale, he must be set down thus: Genus Homo; Species Rotifer
+infusorius, the wheel-animal of infusions.
+
+The Dudley mansion was not a mile from the Doctor's; but it never
+occurred to him to think of walking to see any of his patients'
+families, if he had any professional object in his visit. Whenever the
+narrow sulky turned in at a gate, the rustic who was digging potatoes,
+or hoeing corn, or swishing through the grass with his scythe, in
+wave-like crescents, or stepping short behind a loaded wheelbarrow,
+or trudging lazily by the side of the swinging, loose-throated,
+short-legged oxen, rocking along the road as if they had just been
+landed after a three-months' voyage, the toiling native, whatever he was
+doing, stopped and looked up at the house the Doctor was visiting.
+
+“Somebody sick over there t' Haynes's. Guess th' old man's ailin' ag'in.
+Winder's half-way open in the chamber,--should n' wonder 'f he was dead
+and laid aout. Docterin' a'n't no use, when y' see th' winders open like
+that. Wahl, money a'n't much to speak of to th' old man naow! He don'
+want but tew cents,--'n' old Widah Peake, she knows what he wants them
+for!”
+
+Or again,--
+
+“Measles raound pooty thick. Briggs's folks buried two children with
+'em lass' week. Th' of Doctor, he'd h' ker'd 'em threugh. Struck in 'n'
+p'dooced mo't'f'cation,--so they say.”
+
+This is only meant as a sample of the kind of way they used to think or
+talk, when the narrow sulky turned in at the gate of some house where
+there was a visit to be made.
+
+Oh, that narrow sulky! What hopes, what fears, what comfort, what
+anguish, what despair, in the roll of its coming or its parting wheels!
+In the spring, when the old people get the coughs which give them a few
+shakes and their lives drop in pieces like the ashes of a burned thread
+which have kept the threadlike shape until they were stirred,--in the
+hot summer noons, when the strong man comes in from the fields, like the
+son of the Shunamite, crying, “My head, my head,”--in the dying autumn
+days, when youth and maiden lie fever-stricken in many a household,
+still-faced, dull-eyed, dark-flushed, dry-lipped, low-muttering in their
+daylight dreams, their fingers moving singly like those of slumbering
+harpers,--in the dead winter, when the white plague of the North has
+caged its wasted victims, shuddering as they think of the frozen soil
+which must be quarried like rock to receive them, if their perpetual
+convalescence should happen to be interfered with by any untoward
+accident,--at every season, the narrow sulky rolled round freighted with
+unmeasured burdens of joy and woe.
+
+The Doctor drove along the southern foot of The Mountain. The “Dudley
+Mansion” was near the eastern edge of this declivity, where it rose
+steepest, with baldest cliffs and densest patches of overhanging wood.
+It seemed almost too steep to climb, but a practised eye could see from
+a distance the zigzag lines of the sheep-paths which scaled it like
+miniature Alpine roads. A few hundred feet up The Mountain's side was
+a dark deep dell, unwooded, save for a few spindling, crazy-looking
+hackmatacks or native larches, with pallid green tufts sticking out
+fantastically all over them. It shelved so deeply, that, while the
+hemlock-tassels were swinging on the trees around its border, all would
+be still at its springy bottom, save that perhaps a single fern would
+wave slowly backward and forward like a sabre with a twist as of a
+feathered oar,--and this when not a breath could be felt, and every
+other stem and blade were motionless. There was an old story of one
+having perished here in the winter of '86, and his body having been
+found in the spring,--whence its common name of “Dead-Man's Hollow.”
+ Higher up there were huge cliffs with chasms, and, it was thought,
+concealed caves, where in old times they said that Tories lay hid,--some
+hinted not without occasional aid and comfort from the Dudleys then
+living in the mansion-house. Still higher and farther west lay the
+accursed ledge,--shunned by all, unless it were now and then a daring
+youth, or a wandering naturalist who ventured to its edge in the hope
+of securing some infantile Crotalus durissus, who had not yet cut his
+poison teeth.
+
+Long, long ago, in old Colonial times, the Honorable Thomas Dudley,
+Esquire, a man of note and name and great resources, allied by descent
+to the family of “Tom Dudley,” as the early Governor is sometimes
+irreverently called by our most venerable, but still youthful
+antiquary,--and to the other public Dudleys, of course,--of all of
+whom he made small account, as being himself an English gentleman, with
+little taste for the splendors of provincial office, early in the last
+century, Thomas Dudley had built this mansion. For several generations
+it had been dwelt in by descendants of the same name, but soon after the
+Revolution it passed by marriage into the hands of the Venners, by whom
+it had ever since been held and tenanted.
+
+As the doctor turned an angle in the road, all at once the stately old
+house rose before him. It was a skilfully managed effect, as it well
+might be, for it was no vulgar English architect who had planned the
+mansion and arranged its position and approach. The old house rose
+before the Doctor, crowning a terraced garden, flanked at the left by an
+avenue of tall elms. The flower-beds were edged with box, which diffused
+around it that dreamy balsamic odor, full of ante-natal reminiscences
+of a lost Paradise, dimly fragrant as might be the bdellium of ancient
+Havilah, the land compassed by the river Pison that went out of Eden.
+The garden was somewhat neglected, but not in disgrace,--and in the time
+of tulips and hyacinths, of roses, of “snowballs,” of honeysuckles, of
+lilacs, of syringas, it was rich with blossoms.
+
+From the front-windows of the mansion the eye reached a far
+blue mountain-summit,--no rounded heap, such as often shuts in a
+village-landscape, but a sharp peak, clean-angled as Ascutney from
+the Dartmouth green. A wide gap through miles of woods had opened this
+distant view, and showed more, perhaps, than all the labors of the
+architect and the landscape-gardener the large style of the early
+Dudleys.
+
+The great stone-chimney of the mansion-house was the centre from which
+all the artificial features of the scene appeared to flow. The roofs,
+the gables, the dormer-windows, the porches, the clustered offices in
+the rear, all seemed to crowd about the great chimney. To this
+central pillar the paths all converged. The single poplar behind the
+house,--Nature is jealous of proud chimneys, and always loves to put
+a poplar near one, so that it may fling a leaf or two down its black
+throat every autumn,--the one tall poplar behind the house seemed to nod
+and whisper to the grave square column, the elms to sway their branches
+towards it. And when the blue smoke rose from its summit, it seemed to
+be wafted away to join the azure haze which hung around the peak in the
+far distance, so that both should bathe in a common atmosphere.
+
+Behind the house were clumps of lilacs with a century's growth upon
+them, and looking more like trees than like shrubs. Shaded by a group of
+these was the ancient well, of huge circuit, and with a low arch opening
+out of its wall about ten feet below the surface,--whether the door of a
+crypt for the concealment of treasure, or of a subterranean passage, or
+merely of a vault for keeping provisions cool in hot weather, opinions
+differed.
+
+On looking at the house, it was plain that it was built with Old-World
+notions of strength and durability, and, so far as might be, with
+Old-World materials. The hinges of the doors stretched out like arms,
+instead of like hands, as we make them. The bolts were massive enough
+for a donjon-keep. The small window-panes were actually inclosed in the
+wood of the sashes instead of being stuck to them with putty, as in our
+modern windows. The broad staircase was of easy ascent, and was guarded
+by quaintly turned and twisted balusters. The ceilings of the two rooms
+of state were moulded with medallion-portraits and rustic figures,
+such as may have been seen by many readers in the famous old Philipse
+house,--Washington's head-quarters,--in the town of Yorkers. The
+fire-places, worthy of the wide-throated central chimney, were bordered
+by pictured tiles, some of them with Scripture stories, some with
+Watteau-like figures,--tall damsels in slim waists and with spread
+enough of skirt for a modern ballroom, with bowing, reclining, or
+musical swains of what everybody calls the “conventional” sort,--that
+is, the swain adapted to genteel society rather than to a literal
+sheep-compelling existence.
+
+The house was furnished, soon after it was completed, with many heavy
+articles made in London from a rare wood just then come into fashion,
+not so rare now, and commonly known as mahogany. Time had turned it very
+dark, and the stately bedsteads and tall cabinets and claw-footed
+chairs and tables were in keeping with the sober dignity of the ancient
+mansion. The old “hangings” were yet preserved in the chambers, faded,
+but still showing their rich patterns,--properly entitled to their name,
+for they were literally hung upon flat wooden frames like trellis-work,
+which again were secured to the naked partitions.
+
+There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various
+apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in one
+sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly symbols,
+with a legend signifying that E. M. (supposed to be Elizabeth Mascarene)
+wished not to be “forgot”.
+
+         “When I am dead and lay'd in dust
+          And all my bones are”--
+
+Poor E. M.! Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a
+planet with a core of fire and a crust of fossils!
+
+Such was the Dudley mansion-house,--for it kept its ancient name in
+spite of the change in the line of descent. Its spacious apartments
+looked dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter
+dwelt by themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of
+life required. He almost lived in his library, the western room on the
+ground-floor. Its window looked upon a small plat of green, in the midst
+of which was a single grave marked by a plain marble slab. Except this
+room, and the chamber where he slept, and the servants' wing, the rest
+of the house was all Elsie's. She was always a restless, wandering
+child from her early years, and would have her little bed moved from one
+chamber to another,--flitting round as the fancy took her. Sometimes she
+would drag a mat and a pillow into one of the great empty rooms, and,
+wrapping herself in a shawl, coil up and go to sleep in a corner.
+Nothing frightened her; the “haunted” chamber, with the torn hangings
+that flapped like wings when there was air stirring, was one of her
+favorite retreats. She had been a very hard creature to manage. Her
+father could influence, but not govern her. Old Sophy, born of a slave
+mother in the house, could do more with her than anybody, knowing her
+by long instinctive study. The other servants were afraid of her. Her
+father had sent for governesses, but none of them ever stayed long. She
+made them nervous; one of them had a strange fit of sickness; not one of
+them ever came back to the house to see her. A young Spanish woman who
+taught her dancing succeeded best with her, for she had a passion for
+that exercise, and had mastered some of the most difficult dances.
+Long before this period, she had manifested some most extraordinary
+singularities of taste or instinct. The extreme sensitiveness of her
+father on this point prevented any allusion to them; but there
+were stories floating round, some of them even getting into the
+papers,--without her name, of course,--which were of a kind to excite
+intense curiosity, if not more anxious feelings. This thing was certain,
+that at the age of twelve she was missed one night, and was found
+sleeping in the open air under a tree, like a wild creature. Very often
+she would wander off by day, always without a companion, bringing home
+with her a nest, a flower, or even a more questionable trophy of her
+ramble, such as showed that there was no place where she was afraid to
+venture. Once in a while she had stayed out over night, in which
+case the alarm was spread, and men went in search of her, but never
+successfully,--so--that some said she hid herself in trees, and others
+that she had found one of the old Tory caves.
+
+Some, of course, said she was a crazy girl, and ought to be sent to an
+Asylum. But old Dr. Kittredge had shaken his head, and told them to bear
+with her, and let her have her way as much as they could, but watch her,
+as far as possible, without making her suspicious of them. He visited
+her now and then, under the pretext of seeing her father on business, or
+of only making a friendly call.
+
+The Doctor fastened his horse outside the gate, and walked up the
+garden-alley. He stopped suddenly with a start. A strange sound had
+jarred upon his ear. It was a sharp prolonged rattle, continuous, but
+rising and falling as if in rhythmical cadence. He moved softly towards
+the open window from which the sound seemed to proceed.
+
+Elsie was alone in the room, dancing one of those wild Moorish
+fandangos, such as a matador hot from the Plaza de Toros of Seville or
+Madrid might love to lie and gaze at. She was a figure to look upon
+in silence. The dancing frenzy must have seized upon her while she
+was dressing; for she was in her bodice, bare-armed, her hair floating
+unbound far below the waist of her barred or banded skirt. She had
+caught up her castanets, and rattled them as she danced with a kind of
+passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace,
+her diamond eyes glittering, her round arms wreathing and unwinding,
+alive and vibrant to the tips of the slender fingers. Some passion
+seemed to exhaust itself in this dancing paroxysm; for all at once she
+reeled from the middle of the floor, and flung herself, as it were in
+a careless coil, upon a great tiger's-skin which was spread out in one
+corner of the apartment.
+
+The old Doctor stood motionless, looking at her as she lay panting on
+the tawny, black-lined robe of the dead monster which stretched out
+beneath her, its rude flattened outline recalling the Terror of the
+Jungle as he crouched for his fatal spring. In a few moments her head
+drooped upon her arm, and her glittering eyes closed,--she was sleeping.
+He stood looking at her still, steadily, thoughtfully, tenderly.
+Presently he lifted his hand to his forehead, as if recalling some
+fading remembrance of other years.
+
+“Poor Catalina!”
+
+This was all he said. He shook his head,--implying that his visit would
+be in vain to-day,--returned to his sulky, and rode away, as if in a
+dream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. COUSIN RICHARD'S VISIT.
+
+The Doctor was roused from his revery by the clatter of approaching
+hoofs. He looked forward and saw a young fellow galloping rapidly
+towards him.
+
+A common New-England rider with his toes turned out, his elbows jerking
+and the daylight showing under him at every step, bestriding a cantering
+beast of the plebeian breed, thick at every point where he should be
+thin, and thin at every point where he should be thick, is not one of
+those noble objects that bewitch the world. The best horsemen outside of
+the cities are the unshod countryboys, who ride “bareback,” with only a
+halter round the horse's neck, digging their brown heels into his ribs,
+and slanting over backwards, but sticking on like leeches, and taking
+the hardest trot as if they loved it.--This was a different sight
+on which the Doctor was looking. The streaming mane and tail of the
+unshorn, savage-looking, black horse, the dashing grace with which the
+young fellow in the shadowy sombrero, and armed with the huge spurs,
+sat in his high-peaked saddle, could belong only to the mustang of the
+Pampas and his master. This bold rider was a young man whose sudden
+apparition in the quiet inland town had reminded some of the good people
+of a bright, curly-haired boy they had known some eight or ten years
+before as little Dick Venner.
+
+This boy had passed several of his early years at the Dudley mansion,
+the playmate of Elsie, being her cousin, two or three years older than
+herself, the son of Captain Richard Venner, a South American trader,
+who, as he changed his residence often, was glad to leave the boy in his
+brother's charge. The Captain's wife, this boy's mother, was a lady of
+Buenos Ayres, of Spanish descent, and had died while the child was in
+his cradle. These two motherless children were as strange a pair as one
+roof could well cover. Both handsome, wild, impetuous, unmanageable,
+they played and fought together like two young leopards, beautiful, but
+dangerous, their lawless instincts showing through all their graceful
+movements.
+
+The boy was little else than a young Gaucho when he first came to
+Rockland; for he had learned to ride almost as soon as to walk, and
+could jump on his pony and trip up a runaway pig with the bolas or noose
+him with his miniature lasso at an age when some city-children would
+hardly be trusted out of sight of a nursery-maid. It makes men imperious
+to sit a horse; no man governs his fellows so well as from this living
+throne. And so, from Marcus Aurelius in Roman bronze, down to the “man
+on horseback” in General Cushing's prophetic speech, the saddle has
+always been the true seat of empire. The absolute tyranny of the human
+will over a noble and powerful beast develops the instinct of personal
+prevalence and dominion; so that horse-subduer and hero were almost
+synonymous in simpler times, and are closely related still. An ancestry
+of wild riders naturally enough bequeaths also those other tendencies
+which we see in the Tartars, the Cossacks, and our own Indian Centaurs,
+and as well, perhaps, in the old-fashioned fox-hunting squire as in
+any of these. Sharp alternations of violent action and self-indulgent
+repose; a hard run, and a long revel after it; this is what over-much
+horse tends to animalize a man into. Such antecedents may have helped
+to make little Dick Venner a self-willed, capricious boy, and a rough
+playmate for Elsie.
+
+Elsie was the wilder of the two. Old Sophy, who used to watch them
+with those quick, animal-looking eyes of hers,--she was said to be
+the granddaughter of a cannibal chief, and inherited the keen senses
+belonging to all creatures which are hunted as game, Old Sophy, who
+watched them in their play and their quarrels, always seemed to be more
+afraid for the boy than the girl. “Masse Dick! Masse Dick! don' you be
+too rough wi' dat gal! She scratch you las' week, 'n' some day she
+bite you; 'n' if she bite you, Masse Dick!” Old Sophy nodded her head
+ominously, as if she could say a great deal more; while, in grateful
+acknowledgment of her caution, Master Dick put his two little fingers
+in the angles of his mouth, and his forefingers on his lower eyelids,
+drawing upon these features until his expression reminded her of
+something she vaguely recollected in her infancy,--the face of
+a favorite deity executed in wood by an African artist for her
+grandfather, brought over by her mother, and burned when she became a
+Christian.
+
+These two wild children had much in common. They loved to ramble
+together, to build huts, to climb trees for nests, to ride the colts,
+to dance, to race, and to play at boys' rude games as if both were boys.
+But wherever two natures have a great deal in common, the conditions of
+a first-rate quarrel are furnished ready-made. Relations are very apt to
+hate each other just because they are too much alike. It is so frightful
+to be in an atmosphere of family idiosyncrasies; to see all the
+hereditary uncomeliness or infirmity of body, all the defects of speech,
+all the failings of temper, intensified by concentration, so that every
+fault of our own finds itself multiplied by reflections, like our images
+in a saloon lined with mirrors! Nature knows what she is about. The
+centrifugal principle which grows out of the antipathy of like to like
+is only the repetition in character of the arrangement we see expressed
+materially in certain seed-capsules, which burst and throw the seed to
+all points of the compass. A house is a large pod with a human germ
+or two in each of its cells or chambers; it opens by dehiscence of the
+front-door by and by, and projects one of its germs to Kansas, another
+to San Francisco, another to Chicago, and so on; and this that Smith may
+not be Smithed to death and Brown may not be Browned into a mad-house,
+but mix in with the world again and struggle back to average humanity.
+
+Elsie's father, whose fault was to indulge her in everything, found that
+it would never do to let these children grow up together. They would
+either love each other as they got older, and pair like wild creatures,
+or take some fierce antipathy, which might end nobody could tell where.
+It was not safe to try. The boy must be sent away. A sharper quarrel
+than common decided this point. Master Dick forgot Old Sophy's caution,
+and vexed the girl into a paroxysm of wrath, in which she sprang at him
+and bit his arm. Perhaps they made too much of it; for they sent for the
+old Doctor, who came at once when he heard what had happened. He had a
+good deal to say about the danger there was from the teeth of animals
+or human beings when enraged; and as he emphasized his remarks by the
+application of a pencil of lunar caustic to each of the marks left by
+the sharp white teeth, they were like to be remembered by at least one
+of his hearers.
+
+So Master Dick went off on his travels, which led him into strange
+places and stranger company. Elsie was half pleased and half sorry to
+have him go; the children had a kind of mingled liking and hate for each
+other, just such as is very common among relations. Whether the girl had
+most satisfaction in the plays they shared, or in teasing him, or taking
+her small revenge upon him for teasing her, it would have been hard to
+say. At any rate, she was lonely without him. She had more fondness for
+the old black woman than anybody; but Sophy could not follow her far
+beyond her own old rocking-chair. As for her father, she had made him
+afraid of her, not for his sake, but for her own. Sometimes she would
+seem to be fond of him, and the parent's heart would yearn within him as
+she twined her supple arms about him; and then some look she gave him,
+some half-articulated expression, would turn his cheek pale and almost
+make him shiver, and he would say kindly, “Now go, Elsie, dear,” and
+smile upon her as she went, and close and lock the door softly after
+her. Then his forehead would knot and furrow itself, and the drops of
+anguish stand thick upon it. He would go to the western window of
+his study and look at the solitary mound with the marble slab for its
+head-stone. After his grief had had its way, he would kneel down and
+pray for his child as one who has no hope save in that special grace
+which can bring the most rebellious spirit into sweet subjection. All
+this might seem like weakness in a parent having the charge of one
+sole daughter of his house and heart; but he had tried authority and
+tenderness by turns so long without any good effect, that he had become
+sore perplexed, and, surrounding her with cautious watchfulness as he
+best might, left her in the main to her own guidance and the merciful
+influences which Heaven might send down to direct her footsteps.
+
+Meantime the boy grew up to youth and early manhood through a strange
+succession of adventures. He had been at school at Buenos Ayres,--had
+quarrelled with his mother's relatives,--had run off to the Pampas, and
+lived with the Gauchos;--had made friends with the Indians, and ridden
+with them, it was rumored, in some of their savage forays,--had
+returned and made up his quarrel,--had got money by inheritance or
+otherwise,--had troubled the peace of certain magistrates,--had found
+it convenient to leave the City of Wholesome Breezes for a time, and
+had galloped off on a fast horse of his, (so it was said,) with some
+officers riding after him, who took good care (but this was only the
+popular story) not to catch him. A few days after this he was taking
+his ice on the Alameda of Mendoza, and a week or two later sailed from
+Valparaiso for New York, carrying with him the horse with which he
+had scampered over the Plains, a trunk or two with his newly purchased
+outfit of, clothing and other conveniences, and a belt heavy with gold
+and with a few Brazilian diamonds sewed in it, enough in value to serve
+him for a long journey.
+
+Dick Venner had seen life enough to wear out the earlier sensibilities
+of adolescence. He was tired of worshipping or tyrannizing over the
+bistred or umbered beauties of mingled blood among whom he had been
+living. Even that piquant exhibition which the Rio de Mendoza presents
+to the amateur of breathing sculpture failed to interest him. He was
+thinking of a far-off village on the other side of the equator, and of
+the wild girl with whom he used to play and quarrel, a creature of a
+different race from these degenerate mongrels.
+
+“A game little devil she was, sure enough!”--And as Dick spoke, he bared
+his wrist to look for the marks she had left on it: two small white
+scars, where the two small sharp upper teeth had struck when she flashed
+at him with her eyes sparkling as bright as those glittering stones
+sewed up in the belt he wore. “That's a filly worth noosing!” said Dick
+to himself, as he looked in admiration at the sign of her spirit and
+passion. “I wonder if she will bite at eighteen as she did at eight! She
+shall have a chance to try, at any rate!”
+
+Such was the self-sacrificing disposition with which Richard Venner,
+Esq., a passenger by the Condor from Valparaiso, set foot upon his
+native shore, and turned his face in the direction of Rockland, The
+Mountain, and the mansion-house. He had heard something, from time
+to time, of his New-England relatives, and knew that they were living
+together as he left them. And so he heralded himself to “My dear Uncle”
+ by a letter signed “Your loving nephew, Richard Venner,” in which letter
+he told a very frank story of travel and mercantile adventure, expressed
+much gratitude for the excellent counsel and example which had helped to
+form his character and preserve him in the midst of temptation, inquired
+affectionately after his uncle's health, was much interested to know
+whether his lively cousin who used to be his playmate had grown up as
+handsome as she promised to be, and announced his intention of paying
+his respects to them both at Rockland. Not long after this came the
+trunks marked R. V. which he had sent before him, forerunners of his
+advent: he was not going to wait for a reply or an invitation.
+
+What a sound that is,--the banging down of the preliminary trunk,
+without its claimant to give it the life which is borrowed by all
+personal appendages, so long as the owner's hand or eye is on them! If
+it announce the coming of one loved and longed for, how we delight to
+look at it, to sit down on it, to caress it in our fancies, as a lone
+exile walking out on a windy pier yearns towards the merchantman lying
+alongside, with the colors of his own native land at her peak, and the
+name of the port he sailed from long ago upon her stern! But if it tell
+the near approach of the undesired, inevitable guest, what sound short
+of the muffled noises made by the undertakers as they turn the corners
+in the dim-lighted house, with low shuffle of feet and whispered
+cautions, carries such a sense of knocking-kneed collapse with it as the
+thumping down in the front entry of the heavy portmanteau, rammed with
+the changes of uncounted coming weeks?
+
+Whether the R. V. portmanteaus brought one or the other of these
+emotions to the tenants of the Dudley mansion, it might not be easy
+to settle. Elsie professed to be pleased with the thought of having an
+adventurous young stranger, with stories to tell, an inmate of their
+quiet, not to say dull, family. Under almost any other circumstances,
+her father would have been unwilling to take a young fellow of whom he
+knew so little under his roof; but this was his nephew, and anything
+that seemed like to amuse or please Elsie was agreeable to him. He had
+grown almost desperate, and felt as if any change in the current of her
+life and feelings might save her from some strange paroxysm of dangerous
+mental exaltation or sullen perversion of disposition, from which some
+fearful calamity might come to herself or others.
+
+Dick had been several weeks at the Dudley mansion. A few days before, he
+had made a sudden dash for the nearest large city,--and when the Doctor
+met him, he was just returning from his visit.
+
+It had been a curious meeting between the two young persons, who had
+parted so young and after such strange relations with each other. When
+Dick first presented himself at the mansion, not one in the house would
+have known him for the boy who had left them all so suddenly years ago.
+He was so dark, partly from his descent, partly from long habits of
+exposure, that Elsie looked almost fair beside him. He had something of
+the family beauty which belonged to his cousin, but his eye had a fierce
+passion in it, very unlike the cold glitter of Elsie's. Like many people
+of strong and imperious temper, he was soft-voiced and very gentle in
+his address, when he had no special reason for being otherwise. He soon
+found reasons enough to be as amiable as he could force himself to be
+with his uncle and his cousin. Elsie was to his fancy. She had a strange
+attraction for him, quite unlike anything he had ever known in other
+women. There was something, too, in early associations: when those who
+parted as children meet as man and woman, there is always a renewal
+of that early experience which followed the taste of the forbidden
+fruit,--a natural blush of consciousness, not without its charm.
+
+Nothing could be more becoming than the behavior of “Richard Venner,
+Esquire, the guest of Dudley Venner, Esquire, at his noble mansion,” as
+he was announced in the Court column of the “Rockland Weekly Universe.”
+ He was pleased to find himself treated with kindness and attention as a
+relative. He made himself very agreeable by abundant details concerning
+the religious, political, social, commercial, and educational progress
+of the South American cities and states. He was himself much interested
+in everything that was going on about the Dudley mansion, walked all
+over it, noticed its valuable wood-lots with special approbation, was
+delighted with the grand old house and its furniture, and would not be
+easy until he had seen all the family silver and heard its history. In
+return, he had much to tell of his father, now dead,--the only one of
+the Venners, beside themselves, in whose fate his uncle was interested.
+With Elsie, he was subdued and almost tender in his manner; with the few
+visitors whom they saw, shy and silent,--perhaps a little watchful, if
+any young man happened to be among them.
+
+Young fellows placed on their good behavior are apt to get restless and
+nervous, all ready to fly off into some mischief or other. Dick Venner
+had his half-tamed horse with him to work off his suppressed life with.
+When the savage passion of his young blood came over him, he would fetch
+out the mustang, screaming and kicking as these amiable beasts are wont
+to do, strap the Spanish saddle tight to his back, vault into it, and,
+after getting away from the village, strike the long spurs into his
+sides and whirl away in a wild gallop, until the black horse was flecked
+with white foam, and the cruel steel points were red with his blood.
+When horse and rider were alike fired, he would fling the bridle on his
+neck and saunter homeward, always contriving to get to the stable in a
+quiet way, and coming into the house as calm as a bishop after a sober
+trot on his steady-going cob.
+
+After a few weeks of this kind of life, he began to want some more
+fierce excitement. He had tried making downright love to Elsie, with no
+great success as yet, in his own opinion. The girl was capricious in her
+treatment of him, sometimes scowling and repellent, sometimes familiar,
+very often, as she used to be of old, teasing and malicious. All this,
+perhaps, made her more interesting to a young man who was tired of easy
+conquests. There was a strange fascination in her eyes, too, which at
+times was quite irresistible, so that he would feel himself drawn to
+her by a power which seemed to take away his will for the moment. It may
+have been nothing but the common charm of bright eyes; but he had never
+before experienced the same kind of attraction.
+
+Perhaps she was not so very different from what she had been as a child,
+after all. At any rate, so it seemed to Dick Venner, who, as was said
+before, had tried making love to her. They were sitting alone in the
+study one day; Elsie had round her neck that somewhat peculiar ornament,
+the golden torque, which she had worn to the great party. Youth is
+adventurous and very curious about necklaces, brooches, chains, and
+other such adornments, so long as they are worn by young persons of
+the female sex. Dick was seized with a great passion for examining this
+curious chain, and, after some preliminary questions, was rash enough
+to lean towards her and put out his hand toward the neck that lay in the
+golden coil.
+
+She threw her head back, her eyes narrowing and her forehead drawing
+down so that Dick thought her head actually flattened itself. He started
+involuntarily; for she looked so like the little girl who had struck him
+with those sharp flashing teeth, that the whole scene came back, and he
+felt the stroke again as if it had just been given, and the two white
+scars began to sting as they did after the old Doctor had burned them
+with that stick of gray caustic, which looked so like a slate pencil,
+and felt so much like the end of a red-hot poker.
+
+It took something more than a gallop to set him right after this. The
+next day he mentioned having received a letter from a mercantile agent
+with whom he had dealings. What his business was is, perhaps, none of
+our business. At any rate, it required him to go at once to the city
+where his correspondent resided.
+
+Independently of this “business” which called him, there may have been
+other motives, such as have been hinted at. People who have been living
+for a long time in dreary country-places, without any emotion beyond
+such as are occasioned by a trivial pleasure or annoyance, often get
+crazy at last for a vital paroxysm of some kind or other. In this state
+they rush to the great cities for a plunge into their turbid life-baths,
+with a frantic thirst for every exciting pleasure, which makes them
+the willing and easy victims of all those who sell the Devil's wares on
+commission. The less intelligent and instructed class of unfortunates,
+who venture with their ignorance and their instincts into what is
+sometimes called the “life” of great cities, are put through a rapid
+course of instruction which entitles them very commonly to a diploma
+from the police court. But they only illustrate the working of the same
+tendency in mankind at large which has been occasionally noticed in the
+sons of ministers and other eminently worthy people, by many ascribed
+to that intense congenital hatred for goodness which distinguishes human
+nature from that of the brute, but perhaps as readily accounted for by
+considering it as the yawning and stretching of a young soul cramped too
+long in one moral posture.
+
+Richard Veneer was a young man of remarkable experience for his years.
+He ran less risk, therefore, in exposing himself to the temptations and
+dangers of a great city than many older men, who, seeking the livelier
+scenes of excitement to be found in large towns as a relaxation after
+the monotonous routine of family life, are too often taken advantage of
+and made the victims of their sentiments or their generous confidence
+in their fellow-creatures. Such was not his destiny. There was something
+about him which looked as if he would not take bullying kindly. He had
+also the advantage of being acquainted with most of those ingenious
+devices by which the proverbial inconstancy of fortune is steadied to
+something more nearly approaching fixed laws, and the dangerous risks
+which have so often led young men to ruin and suicide are practically
+reduced to somewhat less than nothing. So that Mr. Richard Veneer worked
+off his nervous energies without any troublesome adventure, and
+was ready to return to Rockland in less than a week, without having
+lightened the money-belt he wore round his body, or tarnished the long
+glittering knife he carried in his boot.
+
+Dick had sent his trunk to the nearest town through which the railroad
+leading to the city passed. He rode off on his black horse and left him
+at the place where he took the cars. On arriving at the city station, he
+took a coach and drove to one of the great hotels. Thither drove also
+a sagacious-looking, middle-aged man, who entered his name as “W.
+Thompson” in the book at the office immediately after that of “R.
+Venner.” Mr. “Thompson” kept a carelessly observant eye upon Mr. Venner
+during his stay at the hotel, and followed him to the cars when he left,
+looking over his shoulder when he bought his ticket at the station, and
+seeing him fairly off without obtruding himself in any offensive way
+upon his attention. Mr. Thompson, known in other quarters as Detective
+Policeman Terry, got very little by his trouble. Richard Venner did
+not turn out to be the wife-poisoner, the defaulting cashier, the
+river-pirate, or the great counterfeiter. He paid his hotel-bill as a
+gentleman should always do, if he has the money and can spare it. The
+detective had probably overrated his own sagacity when he ventured
+to suspect Mr. Venner. He reported to his chief that there was a
+knowing-looking fellow he had been round after, but he rather guessed he
+was nothing more than “one o' them Southern sportsmen.”
+
+The poor fellows at the stable where Dick had left his horse had had
+trouble enough with him. One of the ostlers was limping about with a
+lame leg, and another had lost a mouthful of his coat, which came very
+near carrying a piece of his shoulder with it. When Mr. Venner came back
+for his beast, he was as wild as if he had just been lassoed, screaming,
+kicking, rolling over to get rid of his saddle, and when his rider was
+at last mounted, jumping about in a way to dislodge any common horseman.
+To all this Dick replied by sticking his long spurs deeper and deeper
+into his flanks, until the creature found he was mastered, and dashed
+off as if all the thistles of the Pampas were pricking him.
+
+“One more gallop, Juan?” This was in the last mile of the road before he
+came to the town which brought him in sight of the mansion-house. It was
+in this last gallop that the fiery mustang and his rider flashed by the
+old Doctor. Cassia pointed her sharp ears and shied to let them pass.
+The Doctor turned and looked through the little round glass in the back
+of his sulky.
+
+“Dick Turpin, there, will find more than his match!” said the Doctor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE APOLLINEAN INSTITUTE. (With Extracts from the “Report
+of the committee.”)
+
+The readers of this narrative will hardly expect any elaborate details
+of the educational management of the Apollinean Institute. They cannot
+be supposed to take the same interest in its affairs as was shown by
+the Annual Committees who reported upon its condition and prospects. As
+these Committees were, however, an important part of the mechanism of
+the establishment, some general account of their organization and a few
+extracts from the Report of the one last appointed may not be out of
+place.
+
+Whether Mr. Silas Peckham had some contrivance for packing his
+Committees, whether they happened always to be made up of optimists by
+nature, whether they were cajoled into good-humor by polite attentions,
+or whether they were always really delighted with the wonderful
+acquirements of the pupils and the admirable order of the school, it is
+certain that their Annual Reports were couched in language which might
+warm the heart of the most cold-blooded and calculating father that ever
+had a family of daughters to educate. In fact, these Annual Reports were
+considered by Mr. Peckham as his most effective advertisements.
+
+The first thing, therefore, was to see that the Committee was made up of
+persons known to the public.
+
+Some worn-out politician, in that leisurely and amiable transition-state
+which comes between official extinction and the paralysis which will
+finish him as soon as his brain gets a little softer, made an admirable
+Chairman for Mr. Peckham, when he had the luck to pick up such an
+article. Old reputations, like old fashions, are more prized in the
+grassy than in the stony districts. An effete celebrity, who would never
+be heard of again in the great places until the funeral sermon waked up
+his memory for one parting spasm, finds himself in full flavor of renown
+a little farther back from the changing winds of the sea-coast. If such
+a public character was not to be had, so that there was no chance of
+heading the Report with the name of the Honorable Mr. Somebody, the next
+best thing was to get the Reverend Dr. Somebody to take that conspicuous
+position. Then would follow two or three local worthies with Esquire
+after their names. If any stray literary personage from one of the great
+cities happened to be within reach, he was pounced upon by Mr. Silas
+Peckham. It was a hard case for the poor man, who had travelled a
+hundred miles or two to the outside suburbs after peace and unwatered
+milk, to be pumped for a speech in this unexpected way. It was harder
+still, if he had been induced to venture a few tremulous remarks, to be
+obliged to write them out for the “Rockland Weekly Universe,” with the
+chance of seeing them used as an advertising certificate as long as he
+lived, if he lived as long as the late Dr. Waterhouse did after giving
+his certificate in favor of Whitwell's celebrated Cephalic Snuff.
+
+The Report of the last Committee had been signed by the Honorable,
+___________late __________ of ___________, as Chairman. (It is with
+reluctance that the name and titles are left in blank; but our public
+characters are so familiarly known to the whole community that this
+reserve becomes necessary.) The other members of the Committee were the
+Reverend Mr. Butters, of a neighboring town, who was to make the prayer
+before the Exercises of the Exhibition, and two or three notabilities
+of Rockland, with geoponic eyes, and glabrous, bumpless foreheads. A few
+extracts from the Report are subjoined:
+
+“The Committee have great pleasure in recording their unanimous opinion,
+that the Institution was never in so flourishing a condition....
+
+“The health of the pupils is excellent; the admirable quality of food
+supplied shows itself in their appearance; their blooming aspect excited
+the admiration of the Committee, and bears testimony to the assiduity of
+the excellent Matron.
+
+“.... moral and religious condition most encouraging, which they cannot
+but attribute to the personal efforts and instruction of the faithful
+Principal, who considers religious instruction a solemn duty which he
+cannot commit to other people.
+
+“.... great progress in their studies, under the intelligent
+superintendence of the accomplished Principal, assisted by Mr. Badger,
+[Mr. Langdon's predecessor,] Miss Darley, the lady who superintends
+the English branches, Miss Crabs, her assistant and teacher of Modern
+Languages, and Mr. Schneider, teacher of French, German, Latin, and
+Music....
+
+“Education is the great business of the Institute. Amusements are
+objects of a secondary nature; but these are by no means neglected....
+
+“.... English compositions of great originality and beauty, creditable
+alike to the head and heart of their accomplished authors.... several
+poems of a very high order of merit, which would do honor to the
+literature of any age or country.... life-like drawings, showing great
+proficiency.... Many converse fluently in various modern languages....
+perform the most difficult airs with the skill of professional
+musicians....
+
+“.... advantages unsurpassed, if equalled by those of any Institution
+in the country, and reflecting the highest honor on the distinguished
+Head of the Establishment, SILAS PECKHAM, Esquire, and his admirable
+Lady, the MATRON, with their worthy assistants....”
+
+The perusal of this Report did Mr. Bernard more good than a week's
+vacation would have done: It gave him such a laugh as he had not had for
+a month. The way in which Silas Peckham had made his Committee say what
+he wanted them to--for he recognized a number of expressions in the
+Report as coming directly from the lips of his principal, and could not
+help thinking how cleverly he had forced his phrases, as jugglers do the
+particular card they wish their dupe to take--struck him as particularly
+neat and pleasing.
+
+He had passed through the sympathetic and emotional stages in his new
+experience, and had arrived at the philosophical and practical state,
+which takes things coolly, and goes to work to set them right. He had
+breadth enough of view to see that there was nothing so very exceptional
+in this educational trader's dealings with his subordinates, but he had
+also manly feeling enough to attack the particular individual instance
+of wrong before him. There are plenty of dealer's in morals, as in
+ordinary traffic, who confine themselves to wholesale business. They
+leave the small necessity of their next-door neighbor to the retailers,
+who are poorer in statistics and general facts, but richer in the
+every-day charities. Mr. Bernard felt, at first, as one does who sees a
+gray rat steal out of a drain and begin gnawing at the bark of some tree
+loaded with fruit or blossoms, which he will soon girdle, if he is let
+alone. The first impulse is to murder him with the nearest ragged stone.
+Then one remembers that he is a rodent, acting after the law of his
+kind, and cools down and is contented to drive him off and guard the
+tree against his teeth for the future. As soon as this is done, one can
+watch his attempts at mischief with a certain amusement.
+
+This was the kind of process Mr. Bernard had gone through. First, the
+indignant surprise of a generous nature, when it comes unexpectedly into
+relations with a mean one. Then the impulse of extermination,--a divine
+instinct, intended to keep down vermin of all classes to their
+working averages in the economy of Nature. Then a return of cheerful
+tolerance,--a feeling, that, if the Deity could bear with rats and
+sharpers, he could; with a confident trust, that, in the long run,
+terriers and honest men would have the upperhand, and a grateful
+consciousness that he had been sent just at the right time to come
+between a patient victim and the master who held her in peonage.
+
+Having once made up his mind what to do, Mr. Bernard was as good-natured
+and hopeful as ever. He had the great advantage, from his professional
+training, of knowing how to recognize and deal with the nervous
+disturbances to which overtasked women are so liable. He saw well enough
+that Helen Darley would certainly kill herself or lose her wits, if he
+could not lighten her labors and lift off a large part of her weight
+of cares. The worst of it was, that she was one of those women who
+naturally overwork themselves, like those horses who will go at the top
+of their pace until they drop. Such women are dreadfully unmanageable.
+It is as hard reasoning with them as it would have been reasoning with
+Io, when she was flying over land and sea, driven by the sting of the
+never-sleeping gadfly.
+
+This was a delicate, interesting game that he played. Under one innocent
+pretext or another, he invaded this or that special province she had
+made her own. He would collect the themes and have them all read and
+marked, answer all the puzzling questions in mathematics, make the other
+teachers come to him for directions, and in this way gradually took upon
+himself not only all the general superintendence that belonged to his
+office, but stole away so many of the special duties which might fairly
+have belonged to his assistant, that, before she knew it, she was
+looking better and feeling more cheerful than for many and many a month
+before.
+
+When the nervous energy is depressed by any bodily cause, or
+exhausted by overworking, there follow effects which have often
+been misinterpreted by moralists, and especially by theologians. The
+conscience itself becomes neuralgic, sometimes actually inflamed, so
+that the least touch is agony. Of all liars and false accusers, a
+sick conscience is the most inventive and indefatigable. The devoted
+daughter, wife, mother, whose life has been given to unselfish labors,
+who has filled a place which it seems to others only an angel would
+make good, reproaches herself with incompetence and neglect of duty. The
+humble Christian, who has been a model to others, calls himself a worm
+of the dust on one page of his diary, and arraigns himself on the next
+for coming short of the perfection of an archangel.
+
+Conscience itself requires a conscience, or nothing can be more
+unscrupulous. It told Saul that he did well in persecuting the
+Christians. It has goaded countless multitudes of various creeds to
+endless forms of self-torture. The cities of India are full of cripples
+it has made. The hill-sides of Syria are riddled with holes, where
+miserable hermits, whose lives it had palsied, lived and died like the
+vermin they harbored. Our libraries are crammed with books written by
+spiritual hypochondriacs, who inspected all their moral secretions
+a dozen times a day. They are full of interest, but they should be
+transferred from the shelf of the theologian to that of the medical man
+who makes a study of insanity.
+
+This was the state into which too much work and too much responsibility
+were bringing Helen Darley, when the new master came and lifted so much
+of the burden that was crushing her as must be removed before she could
+have a chance to recover her natural elasticity and buoyancy. Many
+of the noblest women, suffering like her, but less fortunate in being
+relieved at the right moment, die worried out of life by the perpetual
+teasing of this inflamed, neuralgic conscience. So subtile is the line
+which separates the true and almost angelic sensibility of a healthy,
+but exalted nature, from the soreness of a soul which is sympathizing
+with a morbid state of the body that it is no wonder they are often
+confounded. And thus many good women are suffered to perish by that form
+of spontaneous combustion in which the victim goes on toiling day and
+night with the hidden fire consuming her, until all at once her cheek
+whitens, and, as we look upon her, she drops away, a heap of ashes. The
+more they overwork themselves, the more exacting becomes the sense of
+duty,--as the draught of the locomotive's furnace blows stronger and
+makes the fire burn more fiercely, the faster it spins along the track.
+
+It is not very likely, as was said at the beginning of this chapter,
+that we shall trouble ourselves a great deal about the internal affairs
+of the Apollinean Institute. These schools are, in the nature of things,
+not so very unlike each other as to require a minute description for
+each particular one among them. They have all very much the same general
+features, pleasing and displeasing. All feeding-establishments have
+something odious about them,--from the wretched country-houses where
+paupers are farmed out to the lowest bidder, up to the commons-tables
+at colleges and even the fashionable boarding-house. A person's appetite
+should be at war with no other purse than his own. Young people,
+especially, who have a bone-factory at work in them, and have to feed
+the living looms of innumerable growing tissues, should be provided
+for, if possible, by those who love them like their own flesh and blood.
+Elsewhere their appetites will be sure to make them enemies, or, what
+are almost as bad, friends whose interests are at variance with the
+claims of their exacting necessities and demands.
+
+Besides, all commercial transactions in regard to the most sacred
+interests of life are hateful even to those who profit by them. The
+clergyman, the physician, the teacher, must be paid; but each of them,
+if his duty be performed in the true spirit, can hardly help a shiver
+of disgust when money is counted out to him for administering the
+consolations of religion, for saving some precious life, for sowing the
+seeds of Christian civilization in young ingenuous souls.
+
+And yet all these schools, with their provincial French and their
+mechanical accomplishments, with their cheap parade of diplomas and
+commencements and other public honors, have an ever fresh interest to
+all who see the task they are performing in our new social order. These
+girls are not being educated for governesses, or to be exported, with
+other manufactured articles, to colonies where there happens to be a
+surplus of males. Most of them will be wives, and every American-born
+husband is a possible President of these United States. Any one of these
+girls may be a four-years' queen. There is no sphere of human activity
+so exalted that she may not be called upon to fill it.
+
+But there is another consideration of far higher interest. The education
+of our community to all that is beautiful is flowing in mainly through
+its women, and that to a considerable extent by the aid of these large
+establishments, the least perfect of which do something to stimulate the
+higher tastes and partially instruct them. Sometimes there is, perhaps,
+reason to fear that girls will be too highly educated for their own
+happiness, if they are lifted by their culture out of the range of the
+practical and every-day working youth by whom they are surrounded. But
+this is a risk we must take. Our young men come into active life so
+early, that, if our girls were not educated to something beyond mere
+practical duties, our material prosperity would outstrip our culture; as
+it often does in large places where money is made too rapidly. This is
+the meaning, therefore, of that somewhat ambitious programme common to
+most of these large institutions, at which we sometimes smile, perhaps
+unwisely or uncharitably.
+
+We shall take it for granted that the routine of instruction went on at
+the Apollinean Institute much as it does in other schools of the same
+class. People, young or old, are wonderfully different, if we contrast
+extremes in pairs. They approach much nearer, if we take them in groups
+of twenty. Take two separate hundreds as they come, without choosing,
+and you get the gamut of human character in both so completely that you
+can strike many chords in each which shall be in perfect unison with
+corresponding ones in the other. If we go a step farther, and compare
+the population of two villages of the same race and region, there is
+such a regularly graduated distribution and parallelism of character,
+that it seems as if Nature must turn out human beings in sets like
+chessmen.
+
+It must be confessed that the position in which Mr. Bernard now found
+himself had a pleasing danger about it which might well justify all the
+fears entertained on his account by more experienced friends, when they
+learned that he was engaged in a Young Ladies' Seminary. The school
+never went on more smoothly than during the first period of his
+administration, after he had arranged its duties, and taken his share,
+and even more than his share, upon himself. But human nature does not
+wait for the diploma of the Apollinean Institute to claim the exercise
+of it, instincts and faculties. These young girls saw but little of
+the youth of the neighborhood. The mansion-house young men were off at
+college or in the cities, or making love to each other's sisters, or
+at any rate unavailable for some reason or other. There were a few
+“clerks,”--that is, young men who attended shops, commonly called
+“stores,”--who were fond of walking by the Institute, when they were off
+duty, for the sake of exchanging a word or a glance with any one of
+the young ladies they might happen to know, if any such were stirring
+abroad: crude young men, mostly, with a great many “Sirs” and “Ma'ams”
+ in their speech, and with that style of address sometimes acquired in
+the retail business, as if the salesman were recommending himself to
+a customer, “First-rate family article, Ma'am; warranted to wear a
+lifetime; just one yard and three quarters in this pattern, Ma'am;
+sha'n't I have the pleasure?” and so forth. If there had been ever so
+many of them, and if they had been ever so fascinating, the quarantine
+of the Institute was too rigorous to allow any romantic infection to be
+introduced from without.
+
+Anybody might see what would happen, with a good-looking, well-dressed,
+well-bred young man, who had the authority of a master, it is true, but
+the manners of a friend and equal, moving about among these young girls
+day after day, his eyes meeting theirs, his breath mingling with theirs,
+his voice growing familiar to them, never in any harsh tones, often
+soothing, encouraging, always sympathetic, with its male depth and
+breadth of sound among the chorus of trebles, as if it were a river in
+which a hundred of these little piping streamlets-might lose themselves;
+anybody might see what would happen. Young girls wrote home to their
+parents that they enjoyed themselves much, this term, at the Institute,
+and thought they were making rapid progress in their studies. There was
+a great enthusiasm for the young master's reading-classes in English
+poetry. Some of the poor little things began to adorn themselves with an
+extra ribbon, or a bit of such jewelry as they had before kept for great
+occasions. Dear souls! they only half knew what they were doing it for.
+Does the bird know why its feathers grow more brilliant and its voice
+becomes musical in the pairing season?
+
+And so, in the midst of this quiet inland town, where a mere accident
+had placed Mr. Bernard Langdon, there was a concentration of explosive
+materials which might at any time change its Arcadian and academic
+repose into a scene of dangerous commotion. What said Helen Darley, when
+she saw with her woman's glance that more than one girl, when she should
+be looking at her book, was looking over it toward the master's desk?
+Was her own heart warmed by any livelier feeling than gratitude, as its
+life began to flow with fuller pulses, and the morning sky again looked
+bright and the flowers recovered their lost fragrance? Was there any
+strange, mysterious affinity between the master and the dark girl who
+sat by herself? Could she call him at will by looking at him? Could it
+be that--? It made her shiver to think of it.--And who was that strange
+horseman who passed Mr. Bernard at dusk the other evening, looking
+so like Mephistopheles galloping hard to be in season at the witches'
+Sabbath-gathering? That must be the cousin of Elsie's who wants to marry
+her, they say. A dangerous-looking fellow for a rival, if one took a
+fancy to the dark girl! And who is she, and what?--by what demon is she
+haunted, by what taint is she blighted, by what curse is she followed,
+by what destiny is she marked, that her strange beauty has such a terror
+in it, and that hardly one shall dare to love her, and her eye glitters
+always, but warms for none?
+
+Some of these questions are ours. Some were Helen Darley's. Some of them
+mingled with the dreams of Bernard Langdon, as he slept the night after
+meeting the strange horseman. In the morning he happened to be a little
+late in entering the schoolroom. There was something between the leaves
+of the Virgil which lay upon his desk. He opened it and saw a
+freshly gathered mountain-flower. He looked at Elsie, instinctively,
+involuntarily. She had another such flower on her breast.
+
+A young girl's graceful compliment,--that is all,--no doubt,--no doubt.
+It was odd that the flower should have happened to be laid between the
+leaves of the Fourth Book of the “AEneid,” and at this line,
+
+          “Incipit effari, mediaque in voce resistit.”
+
+A remembrance of an ancient superstition flashed through the master's
+mind, and he determined to try the Sortes Virgilianae. He shut the
+volume, and opened it again at a venture.--The story of Laocoon!
+
+He read with a strange feeling of unwilling fascination, from “Horresco
+referees” to “Bis medium amplexi,” and flung the book from him, as if
+its leaves had been steeped in the subtle poisons that princes die of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. CURIOSITY.
+
+People will talk. 'Ciascun lo dice' is a tune that is played oftener
+than the national air of this country or any other.
+
+“That 's what they say. Means to marry her, if she is his cousin. Got
+money himself,--that 's the story,--but wants to come and live in the
+old place, and get the Dudley property by and by.” “Mother's folks was
+wealthy.”--“Twenty-three to twenty-five year old.”--“He a'n't more 'n
+twenty, or twenty-one at the outside.”--“Looks as if he knew too much
+to be only twenty year old.”--“Guess he's been through the mill,--don't
+look so green, anyhow, hey? Did y' ever mind that cut over his left
+eyebrow?”
+
+So they gossiped in Rockland. The young fellows could make nothing of
+Dick Venner. He was shy and proud with the few who made advances to him.
+The young ladies called him handsome and romantic, but he looked at them
+like a many-tailed pacha who was in the habit of, ordering his wives by
+the dozen.
+
+“What do you think of the young man over there at the Veneers'?” said
+Miss Arabella Thornton to her father.
+
+“Handsome,” said the Judge, “but dangerous-looking. His face is
+indictable at common law. Do you know, my dear, I think there is a blank
+at the Sheriff's office, with a place for his name in it?”
+
+The Judge paused and looked grave, as if he had just listened to the
+verdict of the jury and was going to pronounce sentence.
+
+“Have you heard anything against him?” said the Judge's daughter.
+
+“Nothing. But I don't like these mixed bloods and half-told stories.
+Besides, I have seen a good many desperate fellows at the bar, and I
+have a fancy they all have a look belonging to them. The worst one I
+ever sentenced looked a good deal like this fellow. A wicked mouth. All
+our other features are made for us; but a man makes his own mouth.”
+
+“Who was the person you sentenced?”
+
+“He was a young fellow that undertook to garrote a man who had won his
+money at cards. The same slender shape, the same cunning, fierce
+look, smoothed over with a plausible air. Depend upon it, there is an
+expression in all the sort of people who live by their wits when
+they can, and by worse weapons when their wits fail them, that we old
+law-doctors know just as well as the medical counsellors know the marks
+of disease in a man's face. Dr. Kittredge looks at a man and says he is
+going to die; I look at another man and say he is going to be hanged, if
+nothing happens. I don't say so of this one, but I don't like his looks.
+I wonder Dudley Veneer takes to him so kindly.”
+
+“It's all for Elsie's sake,” said Miss Thornton. “I feel quite sure of
+that. He never does anything that is not meant for her in some way. I
+suppose it amuses her to have her cousin about the house. She rides a
+good deal since he has been here. Have you seen them galloping about
+together? He looks like my idea of a Spanish bandit on that wild horse
+of his.”
+
+“Possibly he has been one,--or is one,” said the Judge,--smiling as men
+smile whose lips have often been freighted with the life and death of
+their fellow-creatures. “I met them riding the other day. Perhaps Dudley
+is right, if it pleases her to have a companion. What will happen,
+though, if he makes love to her? Will Elsie be easily taken with such
+a fellow? You young folks are supposed to know more about these matters
+than we middle-aged people.”
+
+“Nobody can tell. Elsie is not like anybody else. The girls who have
+seen most of her think she hates men, all but 'Dudley,' as she calls her
+father. Some of them doubt whether she loves him. They doubt whether
+she can love anything human, except perhaps the old black woman who
+has taken care of her since she was a baby. The village people have the
+strangest stories about her; you know what they call her?”
+
+She whispered three words in her father's ear. The Judge changed color
+as she spoke, sighed deeply, and was silent as if lost in thought for a
+moment.
+
+“I remember her mother,” he said, “so well! A sweeter creature never
+lived. Elsie has something of her in her look, but those are not her
+mother's eyes. They were dark, but soft, as in all I ever saw of her
+race. Her father's are dark too, but mild, and even tender, I should
+say. I don't know what there is about Elsie's,--but do you know, my
+dear, I find myself curiously influenced by them? I have had to face a
+good many sharp eyes and hard ones,--murderers' eyes and pirates',--men
+who had to be watched in the bar, where they stood on trial, for fear
+they should spring on the prosecuting officers like tigers,--but I never
+saw such eyes as Elsie's; and yet they have a kind of drawing virtue
+or power about them,--I don't know what else to call it: have you never
+observed this?”
+
+His daughter smiled in her turn.
+
+“Never observed it? Why, of course, nobody could be with Elsie Venner
+and not observe it. There are a good many other strange things about
+her: did you ever notice how she dresses?”
+
+“Why, handsomely enough, I should think,” the Judge answered. “I suppose
+she dresses as she likes, and sends to the city for what she wants. What
+do you mean in particular? We men notice effects in dress, but not much
+in detail.”
+
+“You never noticed the colors and patterns of her dresses? You never
+remarked anything curious about her ornaments? Well! I don't believe you
+men know, half the time, whether a lady wears a nine-penny collar or a
+thread-lace cape worth a thousand dollars. I don't believe you know a
+silk dress from a bombazine one. I don't believe you can tell whether
+a woman is in black or in colors, unless you happen to know she is a
+widow. Elsie Venner has a strange taste in dress, let me tell you. She
+sends for the oddest patterns of stuffs, and picks out the most curious
+things at the jeweller's, whenever she goes to town with her father.
+They say the old Doctor tells him to let her have her way about such
+matters. Afraid of her mind, if she is contradicted, I suppose. You've
+heard about her going to school at that place,--the 'Institoot,' as
+those people call it? They say she's bright enough in her way,--has
+studied at home, you know, with her father a good deal, knows some
+modern languages and Latin, I believe: at any rate, she would have
+it so,--she must go to the 'Institoot.' They have a very good female
+teacher there, I hear; and the new master, that young Mr. Langdon, looks
+and talks like a well-educated young man. I wonder what they 'll make of
+Elsie, between them!”
+
+So they talked at the Judge's, in the calm, judicial-looking
+mansion-house, in the grave, still library, with the troops of wan-hued
+law-books staring blindly out of their titles at them as they talked,
+like the ghosts of dead attorneys fixed motionless and speechless, each
+with a thin, golden film over his unwinking eyes.
+
+In the mean time, everything went on quietly enough after Cousin
+Richard's return. A man of sense,--that is, a man who knows perfectly
+well that a cool head is worth a dozen warm hearts in carrying the
+fortress of a woman's affections, (not yours, “Astarte,” nor yours,
+“Viola,”)--who knows that men are rejected by women every day because
+they, the men, love them, and are accepted every day because they do
+not, and therefore can study the arts of pleasing,--a man of sense,
+when he finds he has established his second parallel too soon, retires
+quietly to his first, and begins working on his covered ways again.
+The whole art of love may be read in any Encyclopaedia under the title
+Fortification, where the terms just used are explained. After the little
+adventure of the necklace, Dick retreated at once to his first parallel.
+Elsie loved riding,--and would go off with him on a gallop now and then.
+He was a master of all those strange Indian horseback-feats which shame
+the tricks of the circus-riders, and used to astonish and almost amuse
+her sometimes by disappearing from his saddle, like a phantom horseman
+lying flat against the side of the bounding creature that bore him, as
+if he were a hunting leopard with his claws in the horse's flank and
+flattening himself out against his heaving ribs. Elsie knew a little
+Spanish too, which she had learned from the young person who had taught
+her dancing, and Dick enlarged her vocabulary with a few soft
+phrases, and would sing her a song sometimes, touching the air upon an
+ancient-looking guitar they had found with the ghostly things in the
+garret,--a quaint old instrument, marked E. M. on the back, and supposed
+to have belonged to a certain Elizabeth Mascarene, before mentioned in
+connection with a work of art,--a fair, dowerless lady, who smiled and
+sung and faded away, unwedded, a hundred years ago, as dowerless ladies,
+not a few, are smiling and singing and fading now,--God grant each of
+them His love,--and one human heart as its interpreter!
+
+As for school, Elsie went or stayed away as she liked. Sometimes, when
+they thought she was at her desk in the great schoolroom, she would
+be on The Mountain,--alone always. Dick wanted to go with her, but
+she would never let him. Once, when she had followed the zigzag path
+a little way up, she looked back and caught a glimpse of him following
+her. She turned and passed him without a word, but giving him a look
+which seemed to make the scars on his wrist tingle, went to her room,
+where she locked herself up, and did not come out again till evening,
+Old Sophy having brought her food, and set it down, not speaking, but
+looking into her eyes inquiringly, like a dumb beast trying to feel
+out his master's will in his face. The evening was clear and the
+moon shining. As Dick sat at his chamber-window, looking at the
+mountain-side, he saw a gray-dressed figure flit between the trees
+and steal along the narrow path which led upward. Elsie's pillow was
+unpressed that night, but she had not been missed by the household,--for
+Dick knew enough to keep his own counsel. The next morning she avoided
+him and went off early to school. It was the same morning that the young
+master found the flower between the leaves of his Virgil.
+
+The girl got over her angry fit, and was pleasant enough with her cousin
+for a few days after this; but she shunned rather than sought him.
+She had taken a new interest in her books, and especially in certain
+poetical readings which the master conducted with the elder scholars.
+This gave Master Langdon a good chance to study her ways when her eye
+was on her book, to notice the inflections of her voice, to watch for
+any expression of her sentiments; for, to tell the truth, he had a
+kind of fear that the girl had taken a fancy to him, and, though she
+interested him, he did not wish to study her heart from the inside.
+
+The more he saw her, the more the sadness of her beauty wrought upon
+him. She looked as if she might hate, but could not love. She hardly
+smiled at anything, spoke rarely, but seemed to feel that her natural
+power of expression lay all in her bright eyes, the force of which so
+many had felt, but none perhaps had tried to explain to themselves. A
+person accustomed to watch the faces of those who were ailing in body or
+mind, and to search in every line and tint for some underlying source
+of disorder, could hardly help analyzing the impression such a face
+produced upon him. The light of those beautiful eyes was like the lustre
+of ice; in all her features there was nothing of that human warmth which
+shows that sympathy has reached the soul beneath the mask of flesh it
+wears. The look was that of remoteness, of utter isolation. There was
+in its stony apathy, it seemed to him, the pathos which we find in the
+blind who show no film or speck over the organs of sight; for Nature
+had meant her to be lovely, and left out nothing but love. And yet the
+master could not help feeling that some instinct was working in this
+girl which was in some way leading her to seek his presence. She did not
+lift her glittering eyes upon him as at first. It seemed strange that
+she did not, for they were surely her natural weapons of conquest. Her
+color did not come and go like that of young girls under excitement. She
+had a clear brunette complexion, a little sun-touched, it may be,--for
+the master noticed once, when her necklace was slightly displaced, that
+a faint ring or band of a little lighter shade than the rest of the
+surface encircled her neck. What was the slight peculiarity of her
+enunciation, when she read? Not a lisp, certainly, but the least
+possible imperfection in articulating some of the lingual sounds,--just
+enough to be noticed at first, and quite forgotten after being a few
+times heard.
+
+Not a word about the flower on either side. It was not uncommon for
+the schoolgirls to leave a rose or pink or wild flower on the teacher's
+desk. Finding it in the Virgil was nothing, after all; it was a little
+delicate flower, which looked as if it were made to press, and it was
+probably shut in by accident at the particular place where he found it.
+He took it into his head to examine it in a botanical point of view. He
+found it was not common,--that it grew only in certain localities,--and
+that one of these was among the rocks of the eastern spur of The
+Mountain.
+
+It happened to come into his head how the Swiss youth climb the sides
+of the Alps to find the flower called the Edelweiss for the maidens
+whom they wish to please. It is a pretty fancy, that of scaling some
+dangerous height before the dawn, so as to gather the flower in its
+freshness, that the favored maiden may wear it to church on Sunday
+morning, a proof at once of her lover's devotion and his courage. Mr.
+Bernard determined to explore the region where this flower was said to
+grow, that he might see where the wild girl sought the blossoms of which
+Nature was so jealous.
+
+It was on a warm, fair Saturday afternoon that he undertook his
+land-voyage of discovery. He had more curiosity, it may be, than he
+would have owned; for he had heard of the girl's wandering habits, and
+the guesses about her sylvan haunts, and was thinking what the chances
+were that he should meet her in some strange place, or come upon traces
+of her which would tell secrets she would not care to have known.
+
+The woods are all alive to one who walks through them with his mind in
+an excited state, and his eyes and ears wide open. The trees are always
+talking, not merely whispering with their leaves, (for every tree talks
+to itself in that way, even when it stands alone in the middle of
+a pasture,) but grating their boughs against each other, as old
+horn-handed farmers press their dry, rustling palms together, dropping
+a nut or a leaf or a twig, clicking to the tap of a woodpecker, or
+rustling as a squirrel flashes along a branch. It was now the season of
+singing-birds, and the woods were haunted with mysterious, tender music.
+The voices of the birds which love the deeper shades of the forest are
+sadder than those of the open fields: these are the nuns who have taken
+the veil, the hermits that have hidden themselves away from the
+world and tell their griefs to the infinite listening Silences of the
+wilderness,--for the one deep inner silence that Nature breaks with her
+fitful superficial sounds becomes multiplied as the image of a star in
+ruffled waters. Strange! The woods at first convey the impression of
+profound repose, and yet, if you watch their ways with open ear, you
+find the life which is in them is restless and nervous as that of a
+woman: the little twigs are crossing and twining and separating like
+slender fingers that cannot be still; the stray leaf is to be flattened
+into its place like a truant curl; the limbs sway and twist, impatient
+of their constrained attitude; and the rounded masses of foliage swell
+upward and subside from time to time with long soft sighs, and, it may
+be, the falling of a few rain-drops which had lain hidden among the
+deeper shadows. I pray you, notice, in the sweet summer days which will
+soon see you among the mountains, this inward tranquillity that belongs
+to the heart of the woodland, with this nervousness, for I do not know
+what else to call it, of outer movement. One would say, that Nature,
+like untrained persons, could not sit still without nestling about or
+doing something with her limbs or features, and that high breeding was
+only to be looked for in trim gardens, where the soul of the trees
+is ill at ease perhaps, but their manners are unexceptionable, and a
+rustling branch or leaf falling out of season is an indecorum. The real
+forest is hardly still except in the Indian summer; then there is death
+in the house, and they are waiting for the sharp shrunken months to come
+with white raiment for the summer's burial.
+
+There were many hemlocks in this neighborhood, the grandest and most
+solemn of all the forest-trees in the mountain regions. Up to a certain
+period of growth they are eminently beautiful, their boughs disposed in
+the most graceful pagoda-like series of close terraces, thick and dark
+with green crystalline leaflets. In spring the tender shoots come out of
+a paler green, finger-like, as if they were pointing to the violets at
+their feet. But when the trees have grown old, and their rough boles
+measure a yard and more through their diameter, they are no longer
+beautiful, but they have a sad solemnity all their own, too full of
+meaning to require the heart's comment to be framed in words. Below, all
+their earthward-looking branches are sapless and shattered, splintered
+by the weight of many winters' snows; above, they are still green and
+full of life, but their summits overtop all the deciduous trees around
+them, and in their companionship with heaven they are alone. On these
+the lightning loves to fall. One such Mr. Bernard saw,--or rather, what
+had been one such; for the bolt had torn the tree like an explosion
+from within, and the ground was strewed all around the broken stump with
+flakes of rough bark and strips and chips of shivered wood, into
+which the old tree had been rent by the bursting rocket from the
+thunder-cloud.
+
+--The master had struck up The Mountain obliquely from the western side
+of the Dudley mansion-house. In this way he ascended until he reached a
+point many hundred feet above the level of the plain, and commanding
+all the country beneath and around. Almost at his feet he saw the
+mansion-house, the chimney standing out of the middle of the roof, or
+rather, like a black square hole in it,--the trees almost directly over
+their stems, the fences as lines, the whole nearly as an architect
+would draw a ground-plan of the house and the inclosures round it. It
+frightened him to see how the huge masses of rock and old forest-growths
+hung over the home below. As he descended a little and drew near the
+ledge of evil name, he was struck with the appearance of a long narrow
+fissure that ran parallel with it and above it for many rods, not
+seemingly of very old standing,--for there were many fibres of roots
+which had evidently been snapped asunder when the rent took place, and
+some of which were still succulent in both separated portions.
+
+Mr. Bernard had made up his mind, when he set forth, not to come back
+before he had examined the dreaded ledge. He had half persuaded himself
+that it was scientific curiosity. He wished to examine the rocks, to
+see what flowers grew there, and perhaps to pick up an adventure in
+the zoological line; for he had on a pair of high, stout boots, and he
+carried a stick in his hand, which was forked at one extremity, so as to
+be very convenient to hold down a crotalus with, if he should happen to
+encounter one. He knew the aspect of the ledge from a distance; for its
+bald and leprous-looking declivities stood out in their nakedness from
+the wooded sides of The Mountain, when this was viewed from certain
+points of the village. But the nearer aspect of the blasted region had
+something frightful in it. The cliffs were water-worn, as if they had
+been gnawed for thousands of years by hungry waves. In some places they
+overhung their base so as to look like leaning towers which might topple
+over at any minute. In other parts they were scooped into niches or
+caverns. Here and there they were cracked in deep fissures, some of them
+of such width that one might enter them, if he cared to run the risk of
+meeting the regular tenants, who might treat him as an intruder.
+
+Parts of the ledge were cloven perpendicularly, with nothing but cracks
+or slightly projecting edges in which or on which a foot could find
+hold. High up on one of these precipitous walls of rock he saw some
+tufts of flowers, and knew them at once for the same that he had found
+between the leaves of his Virgil. Not there, surely! No woman would have
+clung against that steep, rough parapet to gather an idle blossom. And
+yet the master looked round everywhere, and even up the side of that
+rock, to see if there were no signs of a woman's footstep. He peered
+about curiously, as if his eye might fall on some of those fragments of
+dress which women leave after them, whenever they run against each other
+or against anything else,--in crowded ballrooms, in the brushwood after
+picnics, on the fences after rambles, scattered round over every place
+which has witnessed an act of violence, where rude hands have been laid
+upon them. Nothing--Stop, though, one moment. That stone is smooth and
+polished, as if it had been somewhat worn by the pressure of human feet.
+There is one twig broken among the stems of that clump of shrubs. He put
+his foot upon the stone and took hold of the close-clinging shrub. In
+this way he turned a sharp angle of the rock and found himself on
+a natural platform, which lay in front of one of the wider
+fissures,--whether the mouth of a cavern or not he could not yet tell.
+A flat stone made an easy seat, upon which he sat down, as he was
+very glad to do, and looked mechanically about him. A small fragment
+splintered from the rock was at his feet. He took it and threw it down
+the declivity a little below where he sat. He looked about for a stem
+or a straw of some kind to bite upon,--a country-instinct,--relic, no
+doubt, of the old vegetable-feeding habits of Eden. Is that a stem or a
+straw? He picked it up. It was a hair-pin.
+
+To say that Mr. Langdon had a strange sort of thrill shoot through him
+at the sight of this harmless little implement would be a statement not
+at variance with the fact of the case. That smooth stone had been often
+trodden, and by what foot he could not doubt. He rose up from his seat
+to look round for other signs of a woman's visits. What if there is a
+cavern here, where she has a retreat, fitted up, perhaps, as anchorites
+fitted their cells,--nay, it may be, carpeted and mirrored, and with one
+of those tiger-skins for a couch, such as they, say the girl loves to
+lie on? Let us look, at any rate.
+
+Mr. Bernard walked to the mouth of the cavern or fissure and looked into
+it. His look was met by the glitter of two diamond eyes, small, sharp,
+cold, shining out of the darkness, but gliding with a smooth, steady
+motion towards the light, and himself. He stood fixed, struck dumb,
+staring back into them with dilating pupils and sudden numbness of fear
+that cannot move, as in the terror of dreams. The two sparks of light
+came forward until they grew to circles of flame, and all at once lifted
+themselves up as if in angry surprise. Then for the first time thrilled
+in Mr. Bernard's ears the dreadful sound that nothing which breathes, be
+it man or brute, can hear unmoved,--the long, loud, stinging whirr,
+as the huge, thick bodied reptile shook his many-jointed rattle and
+adjusted his loops for the fatal stroke. His eyes were drawn as with
+magnets toward the circles of flame. His ears rung as in the overture
+to the swooning dream of chloroform. Nature was before man with her
+anaesthetics: the cat's first shake stupefies the mouse; the lion's
+first shake deadens the man's fear and feeling; and the crotalus
+paralyzes before he strikes. He waited as in a trance,--waited as one
+that longs to have the blow fall, and all over, as the man who shall be
+in two pieces in a second waits for the axe to drop. But while he looked
+straight into the flaming eyes, it seemed to him that they were losing
+their light and terror, that they were growing tame and dull; the charm
+was dissolving, the numbness was passing away, he could move once more.
+He heard a light breathing close to his ear, and, half turning, saw the
+face of Elsie Venner, looking motionless into the reptile's eyes, which
+had shrunk and faded under the stronger enchantment of her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. FAMILY SECRETS.
+
+It was commonly understood in the town of Rockland that Dudley Venner
+had had a great deal of trouble with that daughter of his, so handsome,
+yet so peculiar, about whom there were so many strange stories. There
+was no end to the tales which were told of her extraordinary doings.
+Yet her name was never coupled with that of any youth or man, until this
+cousin had provoked remark by his visit; and even then it was oftener in
+the shape of wondering conjectures whether he would dare to make love to
+her, than in any pretended knowledge of their relations to each other,
+that the public tongue exercised its village-prerogative of tattle.
+
+The more common version of the trouble at the mansion-house was this:
+Elsie was not exactly in her right mind. Her temper was singular, her
+tastes were anomalous, her habits were lawless, her antipathies were
+many and intense, and she was liable to explosions of ungovernable
+anger. Some said that was not the worst of it. At nearly fifteen years
+old, when she was growing fast, and in an irritable state of mind and
+body, she had had a governess placed over her for whom she had conceived
+an aversion. It was whispered among a few who knew more of the family
+secrets than others, that, worried and exasperated by the presence and
+jealous oversight of this person, Elsie had attempted to get finally rid
+of her by unlawful means, such as young girls have been known to
+employ in their straits, and to which the sex at all ages has a certain
+instinctive tendency, in preference to more palpable instruments for
+the righting of its wrongs. At any rate, this governess had been taken
+suddenly ill, and the Doctor had been sent for at midnight. Old Sophy
+had taken her master into a room apart, and said a few words to him
+which turned him as white as a sheet. As soon as he recovered himself,
+he sent Sophy out, called in the old Doctor, and gave him some few
+hints, on which he acted at once, and had the satisfaction of seeing
+his patient out of danger before he left in the morning. It is proper to
+say, that, during the following days, the most thorough search was made
+in every nook and cranny of those parts of the house which Elsie chiefly
+haunted, but nothing was found which might be accused of having been
+the intentional cause of the probably accidental sudden illness of the
+governess. From this time forward her father was never easy. Should he
+keep her apart, or shut her up, for fear of risk to others, and so
+lose every chance of restoring her mind to its healthy tone by kindly
+influences and intercourse with wholesome natures? There was no proof,
+only presumption, as to the agency of Elsie in the matter referred to.
+But the doubt was worse, perhaps, than certainty would have been,--for
+then he would have known what to do.
+
+He took the old Doctor as his adviser. The shrewd old man listened to
+the father's story, his explanations of possibilities, of probabilities,
+of dangers, of hopes. When he had got through, the Doctor looked him in
+the face steadily, as if he were saying, Is that all?
+
+The father's eyes fell. This was not all. There was something at the
+bottom of his soul which he could not bear to speak of,--nay, which,
+as often as it reared itself through the dark waves of unworded
+consciousness into the breathing air of thought, he trod down as the
+ruined angels tread down a lost soul, trying to come up out of the
+seething sea of torture. Only this one daughter! No! God never would
+have ordained such a thing. There was nothing ever heard of like it; it
+could not be; she was ill,--she would outgrow all these singularities;
+he had had an aunt who was peculiar; he had heard that hysteric girls
+showed the strangest forms of moral obliquity for a time, but came right
+at last. She would change all at once, when her health got more firmly
+settled in the course of her growth. Are there not rough buds that open
+into sweet flowers? Are there not fruits, which, while unripe, are
+not to be tasted or endured, which mature into the richest taste and
+fragrance? In God's good time she would come to her true nature; her
+eyes would lose that frightful, cold glitter; her lips would not feel so
+cold when she pressed them against his cheek; and that faint birth-mark,
+her mother swooned when she first saw, would fade wholly out,--it was
+less marked, surely, now than it used to be!
+
+So Dudley Venner felt, and would have thought, if he had let his
+thoughts breathe the air of his soul. But the Doctor read through words
+and thoughts and all into the father's consciousness. There are states
+of mind which may be shared by two persons in presence of each other,
+which remain not only unworded, but unthoughted, if such a word may
+be coined for our special need. Such a mutually interpenetrative
+consciousness there was between the father and the old physician. By a
+common impulse, both of them rose in a mechanical way and went to the
+western window, where each started, as he saw the other's look directed
+towards the white stone which stood in the midst of the small plot of
+green turf.
+
+The Doctor had, for a moment, forgotten himself but he looked up at the
+clouds, which were angry, and said, as if speaking of the weather, “It
+is dark now, but we hope it will clear up by and by. There are a great
+many more clouds than rains, and more rains than strokes of lightning,
+and more strokes of lightning than there are people killed. We must let
+this girl of ours have her way, as far as it is safe. Send away this
+woman she hates, quietly. Get her a foreigner for a governess, if you
+can,--one that can dance and sing and will teach her. In the house
+old Sophy will watch her best. Out of it you must trust her, I am
+afraid,--for she will not be followed round, and she is in less danger
+than you think. If she wanders at night, find her, if you can; the woods
+are not absolutely safe. If she will be friendly with any young people,
+have them to see her,--young men especially. She will not love any one
+easily, perhaps not at all; yet love would be more like to bring her
+right than anything else. If any young person seems in danger of falling
+in love with her, send him to me for counsel.”
+
+Dry, hard advice, but given from a kind hewn, with a moist eye, and in
+tones which tried to be cheerful and were full of sympathy. This advice
+was the key to the more than indulgent treatment which, as we have seen,
+the girl had received from her father and all about her. The old Doctor
+often came in, in the kindest, most natural sort of way, got into
+pleasant relations with Elsie by always treating her in the same easy
+manner as at the great party, encouraging all her harmless fancies, and
+rarely reminding her that he was a professional adviser, except when
+she came out of her own accord, as in the talk they had at the party,
+telling him of some wild trick she had been playing.
+
+“Let her go to the girls' school, by all means,” said the Doctor, when
+she had begun to talk about it. “Possibly she may take to some of the
+girls or of the teachers. Anything to interest her. Friendship, love,
+religion, whatever will set her nature at work. We must have headway on,
+or there will be no piloting her. Action first of all, and then we will
+see what to do with it.”
+
+So, when Cousin Richard came along, the Doctor, though he did not like
+his looks any too well, told her father to encourage his staying for a
+time. If she liked him, it was good; if she only tolerated him, it was
+better than nothing.
+
+“You know something about that nephew of yours, during these last years,
+I suppose?” the Doctor said. “Looks as if he had seen life. Has a scar
+that was made by a sword-cut, and a white spot on the side of his neck
+that looks like a bullet-mark. I think he has been what folks call a
+'hard customer.'”
+
+Dudley Venner owned that he had heard little or nothing of him of late
+years. He had invited himself, and of course it would not be decent not
+to receive him as a relative. He thought Elsie rather liked having him
+about the house for a while. She was very capricious,--acted as if she
+fancied him one day and disliked him the next. He did not know,--but
+sometimes thought that this nephew of his might take a serious liking to
+Elsie. What should he do about it, if it turned out so?
+
+The Doctor lifted his eyebrows a little. He thought there was no fear.
+Elsie was naturally what they call a man-hater, and there was very
+little danger of any sudden passion springing up between two such young
+persons. Let him stay awhile; it gives her something to think about. So
+he stayed awhile, as we have seen.
+
+The more Mr. Richard became acquainted with the family,--that is, with
+the two persons of whom it consisted,--the more favorably the idea of
+a permanent residence in the mansion-house seemed to impress him. The
+estate was large,--hundreds of acres, with woodlands and meadows of
+great value. The father and daughter had been living quietly, and there
+could not be a doubt that the property which came through the Dudleys
+must have largely increased of late years. It was evident enough that
+they had an abundant income, from the way in which Elsie's caprices were
+indulged. She had horses and carriages to suit herself; she sent to
+the great city for everything she wanted in the way of dress. Even her
+diamonds--and the young man knew something about these gems--must be of
+considerable value; and yet she wore them carelessly, as it pleased her
+fancy. She had precious old laces, too, almost worth their weight in
+diamonds; laces which had been snatched from altars in ancient Spanish
+cathedrals during the wars, and which it would not be safe to leave
+a duchess alone with for ten minutes. The old house was fat with the
+deposits of rich generations which had gone before. The famous “golden”
+ fire-set was a purchase of one of the family who had been in France
+during the Revolution, and must have come from a princely palace, if not
+from one of the royal residences. As for silver, the iron closet
+which had been made in the dining-room wall was running over with
+it: tea-kettles, coffee-pots, heavy-lidded tankards, chafing-dishes,
+punch-bowls, all that all the Dudleys had ever used, from the caudle-cup
+which used to be handed round the young mother's chamber, and the
+porringer from which children scooped their bread-and-milk with spoons
+as solid as ingots, to that ominous vessel, on the upper shelf, far back
+in the dark, with a spout like a slender italic S, out of which the sick
+and dying, all along the last century, and since, had taken the last
+drops that passed their lips. Without being much of a scholar, Dick
+could see well enough, too, that the books in the library had been
+ordered from the great London houses, whose imprint they bore, by
+persons who knew what was best and meant to have it. A man does not
+require much learning to feel pretty sure, when he takes one of those
+solid, smooth, velvet-leaved quartos, say a Baskerville Addison, for
+instance, bound in red morocco, with a margin of gold as rich as the
+embroidery of a prince's collar, as Vandyck drew it,--he need not know
+much to feel pretty sure that a score or two of shelves full of such
+books mean that it took a long purse, as well as a literary taste, to
+bring them together.
+
+To all these attractions the mind of this thoughtful young gentleman
+may be said to have been fully open. He did not disguise from himself,
+however, that there were a number of drawbacks in the way of his
+becoming established as the heir of the Dudley mansion-house and
+fortune. In the first place, Cousin Elsie was, unquestionably, very
+piquant, very handsome, game as a hawk, and hard to please, which
+made her worth trying for. But then there was something about Cousin
+Elsie,--(the small, white scars began stinging, as he said this to
+himself, and he pushed his sleeve up to look at them)--there was
+something about Cousin Elsie he couldn't make out. What was the matter
+with her eyes, that they sucked your life out of you in that strange
+way? What did she always wear a necklace for? Had she some such
+love-token on her neck as the old Don's revolver had left on his? How
+safe would anybody feel to live with her? Besides, her father would last
+forever, if he was left to himself. And he may take it into his head to
+marry again. That would be pleasant!
+
+So talked Cousin Richard to himself, in the calm of the night and in the
+tranquillity of his own soul. There was much to be said on both sides.
+It was a balance to be struck after the two columns were added up. He
+struck the balance, and came to the conclusion that he would fall in
+love with Elsie Venner.
+
+The intelligent reader will not confound this matured and serious
+intention of falling in love with the young lady with that mere impulse
+of the moment before mentioned as an instance of making love. On the
+contrary, the moment Mr. Richard had made up his mind that he should
+fall in love with Elsie, he began to be more reserved with her, and to
+try to make friends in other quarters. Sensible men, you know, care very
+little what a girl's present fancy is. The question is: Who manages her,
+and how can you get at that person or those persons? Her foolish little
+sentiments are all very well in their way; but business is business, and
+we can't stop for such trifles. The old political wire-pullers never go
+near the man they want to gain, if they can help it; they find out who
+his intimates and managers are, and work through them. Always handle any
+positively electrical body, whether it is charged with passion or power,
+with some non-conductor between you and it, not with your naked hands.
+--The above were some of the young gentleman's working axioms; and he
+proceeded to act in accordance with them.
+
+He began by paying his court more assiduously to his uncle. It was not
+very hard to ingratiate himself in that quarter; for his manners
+were insinuating, and his precocious experience of life made him
+entertaining. The old neglected billiard--room was soon put in order,
+and Dick, who was a magnificent player, had a series of games with his
+uncle, in which, singularly enough, he was beaten, though his antagonist
+had been out of play for years. He evinced a profound interest in the
+family history, insisted on having the details of its early alliances,
+and professed a great pride in it, which he had inherited from his
+father, who, though he had allied himself with the daughter of an alien
+race, had yet chosen one with the real azure blood in her veins, as
+proud as if she had Castile and Aragon for her dower and the Cid for her
+grand-papa. He also asked a great deal of advice, such as inexperienced
+young persons are in need of, and listened to it with due reverence.
+
+It is not very strange that uncle Dudley took a kinder view of his
+nephew than the Judge, who thought he could read a questionable history
+in his face,--or the old Doctor, who knew men's temperaments and
+organizations pretty well, and had his prejudices about races, and could
+tell an old sword-cut and a ballet-mark in two seconds from a scar got
+by falling against the fender, or a mark left by king's evil. He could
+not be expected to share our own prejudices; for he had heard nothing
+of the wild youth's adventures, or his scamper over the Pampas at short
+notice. So, then, “Richard Venner, Esquire, guest of Dudley Venner,
+Esquire, at his elegant mansion,” prolonged his visit until his presence
+became something like a matter of habit, and the neighbors began to
+think that the fine old house would be illuminated before long for a
+grand marriage.
+
+He had done pretty well with the father: the next thing was to gain over
+the nurse. Old Sophy was as cunning as a red fox or a gray woodchuck.
+She had nothing in the world to do but to watch Elsie; she had nothing
+to care for but this girl and her father. She had never liked Dick too
+well; for he used to make faces at her and tease her when he was a boy,
+and now he was a man there was something about him--she could not tell
+what--that made her suspicious of him. It was no small matter to get her
+over to his side.
+
+The jet-black Africans know that gold never looks so well as on the foil
+of their dark skins. Dick found in his trunk a string of gold beads,
+such as are manufactured in some of our cities, which he had brought
+from the gold region of Chili,--so he said,--for the express purpose of
+giving them to old Sophy. These Africans, too, have a perfect passion
+for gay-colored clothing; being condemned by Nature, as it were, to
+a perpetual mourning-suit, they love to enliven it with all sorts of
+variegated stuffs of sprightly patterns, aflame with red and yellow.
+The considerate young man had remembered this, too, and brought home
+for Sophy some handkerchiefs of rainbow hues, which had been strangely
+overlooked till now, at the bottom of one of his trunks. Old Sophy took
+his gifts, but kept her black eyes open and watched every movement
+of the young people all the more closely. It was through her that
+the father had always known most of the actions and tendencies of his
+daughter.
+
+In the mean time the strange adventure on The Mountain had brought the
+young master into new relations with Elsie. She had led him out of,
+danger; perhaps saved him from death by the strange power she exerted.
+He was grateful, and yet shuddered at the recollection of the whole
+scene. In his dreams he was pursued by the glare of cold glittering
+eyes, whether they were in the head of a woman or of a reptile he could
+not always tell, the images had so run together. But he could not help
+seeing that the eyes of the young girl had been often, very often,
+turned upon him when he had been looking away, and fell as his own
+glance met them. Helen Darley told him very plainly that this girl was
+thinking about him more than about her book. Dick Venner found she
+was getting more constant in her attendance at school. He learned, on
+inquiry, that there was a new master, a handsome young man. The handsome
+young man would not have liked the look that, came over Dick's face when
+he heard this fact mentioned.
+
+In short, everything was getting tangled up together, and there would be
+no chance of disentangling the threads in this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. PHYSIOLOGICAL.
+
+If Master Bernard felt a natural gratitude to his young pupil for saving
+him from an imminent peril, he was in a state of infinite perplexity
+to know why he should have needed such aid. He, an active, muscular,
+courageous, adventurous young fellow, with--a stick in his hand, ready
+to hold down the Old Serpent himself, if he had come in his way, to
+stand still, staring into those two eyes, until they came up close to
+him, and the strange, terrible sound seemed to freeze him stiff where he
+stood,--what was the meaning of it? Again, what was the influence
+this girl had seemingly exerted, under which the venomous creature had
+collapsed in such a sudden way? Whether he had been awake or dreaming
+he did not feel quite sure. He knew he had gone up The Mountain, at any
+rate; he knew he had come down The Mountain with the girl walking just
+before him;--there was no forgetting her figure, as she walked on
+in silence, her braided locks falling a little, for want of the lost
+hairpin, perhaps, and looking like a wreathing coil of--Shame on such
+fancies!--to wrong that supreme crowning gift of abounding Nature, a
+rush of shining black hair, which, shaken loose, would cloud her all
+round, like Godiva, from brow to instep! He was sure he had sat down
+before the fissure or cave. He was sure that he was led softly away from
+the place, and that it was Elsie who had led him. There was the hair-pin
+to show that so far it was not a dream. But between these recollections
+came a strange confusion; and the more the master thought, the more he
+was perplexed to know whether she had waked him, sleeping, as he sat on
+the stone, from some frightful dream, such as may come in a very brief
+slumber, or whether she had bewitched him into a trance with those
+strange eyes of hers, or whether it was all true, and he must solve its
+problem as he best might.
+
+There was another recollection connected with this mountain adventure.
+As they approached the mansion-house, they met a young man, whom Mr.
+Bernard remembered having seen once at least before, and whom he had
+heard of as a cousin of the young girl. As Cousin Richard Venner, the
+person in question, passed them, he took the measure, so to speak, of
+Mr. Bernard, with a look so piercing, so exhausting, so practised, so
+profoundly suspicious, that the young master felt in an instant that he
+had an enemy in this handsome youth,--an enemy, too, who was like to be
+subtle and dangerous.
+
+Mr. Bernard had made up his mind, that, come what might, enemy or no
+enemy, live or die, he would solve the mystery of Elsie Venner, sooner
+or later. He was not a man to be frightened out of his resolution by a
+scowl, or a stiletto, or any unknown means of mischief, of which a whole
+armory was hinted at in that passing look Dick Venner had given him.
+Indeed, like most adventurous young persons, he found a kind of charm
+in feeling that there might be some dangers in the way of his
+investigations. Some rumors which had reached him about the supposed
+suitor of Elsie Venner, who was thought to be a desperate kind of
+fellow, and whom some believed to be an unscrupulous adventurer, added
+a curious, romantic kind of interest to the course of physiological and
+psychological inquiries he was about instituting.
+
+The afternoon on The Mountain was still upper-most in his mind. Of
+course he knew the common stories--about fascination. He had once been
+himself an eyewitness of the charming of a small bird by one of our
+common harmless serpents. Whether a human being could be reached by this
+subtile agency, he had been skeptical, notwithstanding the mysterious
+relation generally felt to exist between man and this creature, “cursed
+above all cattle and above every beast of the field,”--a relation which
+some interpret as the fruit of the curse, and others hold to be so
+instinctive that this animal has been for that reason adopted as the
+natural symbol of evil. There was another solution, however, supplied
+him by his professional reading. The curious work of Mr. Braid of
+Manchester had made him familiar with the phenomena of a state allied to
+that produced by animal magnetism, and called by that writer by the name
+of hypnotism. He found, by referring to his note-book, the statement
+was, that, by fixing the eyes on a bright object so placed as to produce
+a strain upon the eyes and eyelids, and to maintain a steady fixed
+stare, there comes on in a few seconds a very singular condition,
+characterized by muscular rigidity and inability to move, with a
+strange exaltation of most of the senses, and generally a closure of the
+eyelids,--this condition being followed by torpor.
+
+Now this statement of Mr. Braid's, well known to the scientific world,
+and the truth of which had been confirmed by Mr. Bernard in
+certain experiments he had instituted, as it has been by many other
+experimenters, went far to explain the strange impressions, of which,
+waking or dreaming, he had certainly been the subject. His nervous
+system had been in a high state of exaltation at the time. He remembered
+how the little noises that made rings of sound in the silence of the
+woods, like pebbles dropped in still waters, had reached his inner
+consciousness. He remembered that singular sensation in the roots of the
+hair, when he came on the traces of the girl's presence, reminding him
+of a line in a certain poem which he had read lately with a new and
+peculiar interest. He even recalled a curious evidence of exalted
+sensibility and irritability, in the twitching of the minute muscles of
+the internal ear at every unexpected sound, producing an odd little snap
+in the middle of the head, which proved to him that he was getting very
+nervous.
+
+The next thing was to find out whether it were possible that the
+venomous creature's eyes should have served the purpose of Mr. Braid's
+“bright object” held very close to the person experimented on, or
+whether they had any special power which could be made the subject of
+exact observation.
+
+For this purpose Mr. Bernard considered it necessary to get a live
+crotalus or two into his possession, if this were possible. On inquiry,
+he found that there was a certain family living far up the mountainside,
+not a mile from the ledge, the members of which were said to have taken
+these creatures occasionally, and not to be in any danger, or at least
+in any fear, of being injured by them. He applied to these people, and
+offered a reward sufficient to set them at work to capture some of these
+animals, if such a thing were possible.
+
+A few days after this, a dark, gypsy-looking woman presented herself at
+his door. She held up her apron as if it contained something precious in
+the bag she made with it.
+
+“Y' wanted some rattlers,” said the woman. “Here they be.”
+
+She opened her apron and showed a coil of rattlesnakes lying very
+peaceably in its fold. They lifted their heads up, as if they wanted to
+see what was going on, but showed no sign of anger.
+
+“Are you crazy?” said Mr. Bernard. “You're dead in an hour, if one of
+those creatures strikes you!”
+
+He drew back a little, as he spoke; it might be simple disgust; it might
+be fear; it might be what we call antipathy, which is different from
+either, and which will sometimes show itself in paleness, and even
+faintness, produced by objects perfectly harmless and not in themselves
+offensive to any sense.
+
+“Lord bless you,” said the woman, “rattlers never touches our folks. I'd
+jest 'z lieves handle them creaturs as so many striped snakes.”
+
+So saying, she put their heads down with her hand, and packed them
+together in her apron as if they had been bits of cart-rope.
+
+Mr. Bernard had never heard of the power, or, at least, the belief in
+the possession of a power by certain persons, which enables them
+to handle these frightful reptiles with perfect impunity. The fact,
+however, is well known to others, and more especially to a very
+distinguished Professor in one of the leading institutions of the great
+city of the land, whose experiences in the neighborhood of Graylock, as
+he will doubtless inform the curious, were very much like those of the
+young master.
+
+Mr. Bernard had a wired cage ready for his formidable captives, and
+studied their habits and expression with a strange sort of interest.
+What did the Creator mean to signify, when he made such shapes of
+horror, and, as if he had doubly cursed this envenomed wretch, had set
+a mark upon him and sent him forth the Cain of the brotherhood of
+serpents? It was a very curious fact that the first train of thoughts
+Mr. Bernard's small menagerie suggested to him was the grave, though
+somewhat worn, subject of the origin of evil. There is now to be seen in
+a tall glass jar, in the Museum of Comparative Anatomy at Cantabridge in
+the territory of the Massachusetts, a huge crotalus, of a species which
+grows to more frightful dimensions than our own, under the hotter skies
+of South America. Look at it, ye who would know what is the tolerance,
+the freedom from prejudice, which can suffer such an incarnation of all
+that is devilish to lie unharmed in the cradle of Nature! Learn, too,
+that there are many things in this world which we are warned to shun,
+and are even suffered to slay, if need be, but which we must not hate,
+unless we would hate what God loves and cares for.
+
+Whatever fascination the creature might exercise in his native haunts,
+Mr. Bernard found himself not in the least nervous or affected in any
+way while looking at his caged reptiles. When their cage was shaken,
+they would lift their heads and spring their rattles; but the sound was
+by no means so formidable to listen to as when it reverberated among
+the chasms of the echoing rocks. The expression of the creatures was
+watchful, still, grave, passionless, fate-like, suggesting a cold
+malignity which seemed to be waiting for its opportunity. Their awful,
+deep-cut mouths were sternly closed over the long hollow fangs which
+rested their roots against the swollen poison-gland, where the venom had
+been hoarding up ever since the last stroke had emptied it. They never
+winked, for ophidians have no movable eyelids, but kept up that awful
+fixed stare which made the two unwinking gladiators the survivors of
+twenty pairs matched by one of the Roman Emperors, as Pliny tells us, in
+his “Natural History.” Their eyes did not flash, but shone with a cold
+still light. They were of a pale-golden or straw color, horrible to look
+into, with their stony calmness, their pitiless indifference, hardly
+enlivened by the almost imperceptible vertical slit of the pupil,
+through which Death seemed to be looking out like the archer behind the
+long narrow loop-hole in a blank turret-wall. On the whole, the caged
+reptiles, horrid as they were, hardly matched his recollections of what
+he had seen or dreamed he save at the cavern. These looked dangerous
+enough, but yet quiet. A treacherous stillness, however,--as the
+unfortunate New York physician found, when he put his foot out to wake
+up the torpid creature, and instantly the fang flashed through his boot,
+carrying the poison into his blood, and death with it.
+
+Mr. Bernard kept these strange creatures, and watched all their habits
+with a natural curiosity. In any collection of animals the venomous
+beasts are looked at with the greatest interest, just as the greatest
+villains are most run after by the unknown public. Nobody troubles
+himself for a common striped snake or a petty thief, but a cobra or a
+wife-killer is a centre of attraction to all eyes. These captives did
+very little to earn their living, but, on the other hand, their living
+was not expensive, their diet being nothing but air, au naturel. Months
+and months these creatures will live and seem to thrive well enough,
+as any showman who has then in his menagerie will testify, though they
+never touch anything to eat or drink.
+
+In the mean time Mr. Bernard had become very curious about a class of
+subjects not treated of in any detail in those text-books accessible in
+most country-towns, to the exclusion of the more special treatises, and
+especially of the rare and ancient works found on the shelves of the
+larger city-libraries. He was on a visit to old Dr. Kittredge one
+day, having been asked by him to call in for a few moments as soon as
+convenient. The Doctor smiled good-humoredly when he asked him if he had
+an extensive collection of medical works.
+
+“Why, no,” said the old Doctor, “I haven't got a great many printed
+books; and what I have I don't read quite as often as I might, I'm
+afraid. I read and studied in the time of it, when I was in the midst of
+the young men who were all at work with their books; but it's a mighty
+hard matter, when you go off alone into the country, to keep up with
+all that's going on in the Societies and the Colleges. I'll tell you,
+though, Mr. Langdon, when a man that's once started right lives among
+sick folks for five-and-thirty years, as I've done, if he has n't got
+a library of five-and-thirty volumes bound up in his head at the end of
+that time, he'd better stop driving round and sell his horse and sulky.
+I know the bigger part of the families within a dozen miles' ride. I
+know the families that have a way of living through everything, and
+I know the other set that have the trick of dying without any kind of
+reason for it. I know the years when the fevers and dysenteries are in
+earnest, and when they're only making believe. I know the folks that
+think they're dying as soon as they're sick, and the folks that never
+find out they 're sick till they're dead. I don't want to undervalue
+your science, Mr. Langdon. There are things I never learned, because
+they came in after my day, and I am very glad to send my patients to
+those that do know them, when I am at fault; but I know these people
+about here, fathers and mothers, and children and grandchildren, so
+as all the science in the world can't know them, without it takes time
+about it, and sees them grow up and grow old, and how the wear and tear
+of life comes to them. You can't tell a horse by driving him once, Mr.
+Langdon, nor a patient by talking half an hour with him.”
+
+“Do you know much about the Veneer family?” said Mr. Bernard, in a
+natural way enough, the Doctor's talk having suggested the question.
+
+The Doctor lifted his head with his accustomed movement, so as to
+command the young man through his spectacles.
+
+“I know all the families of this place and its neighborhood,” he
+answered.
+
+“We have the young lady studying with us at the Institute,” said Mr.
+Bernard.
+
+“I know it,” the Doctor answered. “Is she a good scholar?”
+
+All this time the Doctor's eyes were fixed steadily on Mr. Bernard,
+looking through the glasses.
+
+“She is a good scholar enough, but I don't know what to make of her.
+Sometimes I think she is a little out of her head. Her father, I
+believe, is sensible enough;--what sort of a woman was her mother,
+Doctor?--I suppose, of course, you remember all about her?”
+
+“Yes, I knew her mother. She was a very lovely young woman.”--The Doctor
+put his hand to his forehead and drew a long breath.--“What is there you
+notice out of the way about Elsie Venner?”
+
+“A good many things,” the master answered. “She shuns all the other
+girls. She is getting a strange influence over my fellow-teacher, a
+young lady,--you know Miss Helen Darley, perhaps? I am afraid this girl
+will kill her. I never saw or heard of anything like it, in prose at
+least;--do you remember much of Coleridge's Poems, Doctor?”
+
+The good old Doctor had to plead a negative.
+
+“Well, no matter. Elsie would have been burned for a witch in old times.
+I have seen the girl look at Miss Darley when she had not the least idea
+of it, and all at once I would see her grow pale and moist, and sigh,
+and move round uneasily, and turn towards Elsie, and perhaps get up
+and go to her, or else have slight spasmodic movements that looked like
+hysterics;--do you believe in the evil eye, Doctor?”
+
+“Mr. Langdon,” the Doctor said, solemnly, “there are strange things
+about Elsie Veneer,--very strange things. This was what I wanted to
+speak to you about. Let me advise you all to be very patient with the
+girl, but also very careful. Her love is not to be desired, and “--he
+spoke in a lower tone--“her hate is to be dreaded. Do you think she has
+any special fancy for anybody else in the school besides Miss Darley?”
+
+Mr. Bernard could not stand the old Doctor's spectacled eyes without
+betraying a little of the feeling natural to a young man to whom a home
+question involving a possible sentiment is put suddenly.
+
+“I have suspected,” he said,--“I have had a kind of feeling--that
+she--Well, come, Doctor,--I don't know that there 's any use in
+disguising the matter,--I have thought Elsie Veneer had rather a fancy
+for somebody else,--I mean myself.”
+
+There was something so becoming in the blush with which the young man
+made this confession, and so manly, too, in the tone with which he
+spoke, so remote from any shallow vanity, such as young men who are
+incapable of love are apt to feel, when some loose tendril of a woman's
+fancy which a chance wind has blown against them twines about them
+for the want of anything better, that the old Doctor looked at him
+admiringly, and could not help thinking that it was no wonder any young
+girl should be pleased with him.
+
+“You are a man of nerve, Mr. Langdon?” said the Doctor.
+
+“I thought so till very lately,” he replied. “I am not easily
+frightened, but I don't know but I might be bewitched or magnetized, or
+whatever it is when one is tied up and cannot move. I think I can find
+nerve enough, however, if there is any special use you want to put it
+to.”
+
+“Let me ask you one more question, Mr. Langdon. Do you find yourself
+disposed to take a special interest in Elsie,--to fall in love with her,
+in a word? Pardon me, for I do not ask from curiosity, but a much more
+serious motive.”
+
+“Elsie interests me,” said the young man, “interests me strangely. She
+has a wild flavor in her character which is wholly different from that
+of any human creature I ever saw. She has marks of genius, poetic or
+dramatic,--I hardly know which. She read a passage from Keats's 'Lamia'
+the other day, in the schoolroom, in such a way that I declare to you I
+thought some of the girls would faint or go into fits. Miss Darley got
+up and left the room, trembling all over. Then, I pity her, she is so
+lonely. The girls are afraid of her, and she seems to have either a
+dislike or a fear of them. They have all sorts of painful stories about
+her. They give her a name which no human creature ought to bear. They
+say she hides a mark on her neck by always wearing a necklace. She
+is very graceful, you know, and they will have it that she can twist
+herself into all sorts of shapes, or tie herself in a knot, if she wants
+to. There is not one of them that will look her in the eyes. I pity the
+poor girl; but, Doctor, I do not love her. I would risk my life for her,
+if it would do her any good, but it would be in cold blood. If her hand
+touches mine, it is not a thrill of passion I feel running through me,
+but a very different emotion. Oh, Doctor! there must be something in
+that creature's blood which has killed the humanity in her. God only
+knows the cause that has blighted such a soul in so beautiful a body!
+No, Doctor, I do not love the girl.”
+
+“Mr. Langdon,” said the Doctor, “you are young, and I am old. Let me
+talk to you with an old man's privilege, as an adviser. You have come to
+this country-town without suspicion, and you are moving in the midst of
+perils. There are things which I must not tell you now; but I may warn
+you. Keep your eyes open and your heart shut. If, through pitying that
+girl, you ever come to love her, you are lost. If you deal carelessly
+with her, beware! This is not all. There are other eyes on you beside
+Elsie Venner's. Do you go armed?”
+
+“I do!” said Mr. Bernard,--and he “put his hands up” in the shape
+of fists, in such a way as to show that he was master of the natural
+weapons at any rate.
+
+The Doctor could not help smiling. But his face fell in an instant.
+
+“You may want something more than those tools to work with. Come with me
+into my sanctum.”
+
+The Doctor led Mr. Bernard into a small room opening out of the study.
+It was a place such as anybody but a medical man would shiver to enter.
+There was the usual tall box with its bleached, rattling tenant; there
+were jars in rows where “interesting cases” outlived the grief of widows
+and heirs in alcoholic immortality,--for your “preparation-jar” is the
+true “monumentum aere perennius;” there were various semi-possibilities
+of minute dimensions and unpromising developments; there were shining
+instruments of evil aspect, and grim plates on the walls, and on one
+shelf by itself, accursed and apart, coiled in a long cylinder of
+spirit, a huge crotalus, rough-scaled, flatheaded, variegated with dull
+bands, one of which partially encircled the neck like a collar,--an
+awful wretch to look upon, with murder written all over him in horrid
+hieroglyphics. Mr. Bernard's look was riveted on this creature,--not
+fascinated certainly, for its eyes looked like white beads, being
+clouded by the action of the spirits in which it had been long
+kept,--but fixed by some indefinite sense of the renewal of a previous
+impression;--everybody knows the feeling, with its suggestion of some
+past state of existence. There was a scrap of paper on the jar, with
+something written on it. He was reaching up to read it when the Doctor
+touched him lightly.
+
+“Look here, Mr. Langdon!” he said, with a certain vivacity of manner, as
+if wishing to call away his attention,--“this is my armory.”
+
+The Doctor threw open the door of a small cabinet, where were disposed
+in artistic patterns various weapons of offence and defence,--for he was
+a virtuoso in his way, and by the side of the implements of the art of
+healing had pleased himself with displaying a collection of those other
+instruments, the use of which renders the first necessary.
+
+“See which of these weapons you would like best to carry about you,”
+ said the Doctor.
+
+Mr. Bernard laughed, and looked at the Doctor as if he half doubted
+whether he was in earnest.
+
+“This looks dangerous enough,” he said,--“for the man who carries it, at
+least.”
+
+He took down one of the prohibited Spanish daggers or knives which a
+traveller may, occasionally get hold of and smuggle out of the country.
+The blade was broad, trowel-like, but the point drawn out several
+inches, so as to look like a skewer.
+
+“This must be a jealous bull-fighter's weapon,” he said, and put it back
+in its place.
+
+Then he took down an ancient-looking broad-bladed dagger, with a complex
+aspect about it, as if it had some kind of mechanism connected with it.
+
+“Take care!” said the Doctor; “there is a trick to that dagger.”
+
+He took it and touched a spring. The dagger split suddenly into three
+blades, as when one separates the forefinger and the ring-finger from
+the middle one. The outside blades were sharp on their outer edge. The
+stab was to be made with the dagger shut, then the spring touched and
+the split blades withdrawn.
+
+Mr. Bernard replaced it, saying, that it would have served for sidearm
+to old Suwarrow, who told his men to work their bayonets back and
+forward when they pinned a Turk, but to wriggle them about in the wound
+when they stabbed a Frenchman.
+
+“Here,” said the Doctor, “this is the thing you want.”
+
+He took down a much more modern and familiar implement,--a small,
+beautifully finished revolver.
+
+“I want you to carry this,” he said; “and more than that, I want you to
+practise with it often, as for amusement, but so that it maybe seen and
+understood that you are apt to have a pistol about you. Pistol-shooting
+is pleasant sport enough, and there is no reason why you should not
+practise it like other young fellows. And now,” the Doctor said, “I have
+one other, weapon to give you.”
+
+He took a small piece of parchment and shook a white powder into it from
+one of his medicine-jars. The jar was marked with the name of a mineral
+salt, of a nature to have been serviceable in case of sudden illness in
+the time of the Borgias. The Doctor folded the parchment carefully, and
+marked the Latin name of the powder upon it.
+
+“Here,” he said, handing it to Mr. Bernard, “you see what it is, and you
+know what service it can render. Keep these two protectors about your
+person day and night; they will not harm you, and you may want one or
+the other or both before you think of it.”
+
+Mr. Bernard thought it was very odd, and not very old-gentlemanlike,
+to be fitting him out for treason, stratagem, and spoils, in this way.
+There was no harm, however, in carrying a doctor's powder in his pocket,
+or in amusing himself with shooting at a mark, as he had often done
+before. If the old gentleman had these fancies, it was as well to humor
+him.
+
+So he thanked old Doctor Kittredge, and shook his hand warmly as he left
+him.
+
+“The fellow's hand did not tremble, nor his color change,” the Doctor
+said, as he watched him walking away. “He is one of the right sort.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. EPISTOLARY.
+
+Mr. Langdon to the Professor.
+
+MY DEAR PROFESSOR, You were kind enough to promise me that you would
+assist me in any professional or scientific investigations in which I
+might become engaged. I have of late become deeply interested in a class
+of subjects which present peculiar difficulty, and I must exercise
+the privilege of questioning you on some points upon which I desire
+information I cannot otherwise obtain. I would not trouble you, if I
+could find any person or books competent to enlighten me on some of
+these singular matters which have so excited me. The leading doctor here
+is a shrewd, sensible man, but not versed in the curiosities of medical
+literature.
+
+I proceed, with your leave, to ask a considerable number of
+questions,--hoping to get answers to some of them, at least.
+
+Is there any evidence that human beings can be infected or wrought
+upon by poisons, or otherwise, so that they shall manifest any of
+the peculiarities belonging to beings of a lower nature? Can such
+peculiarities--be transmitted by inheritance? Is there anything to
+countenance the stories, long and widely current, about the “evil eye”?
+or is it a mere fancy that such a power belongs to any human being? Have
+you any personal experience as to the power of fascination said to be
+exercised by certain animals? What can you make of those circumstantial
+statements we have seen in the papers, of children forming mysterious
+friendships with ophidians of different species, sharing their food with
+them, and seeming to be under some subtile influence exercised by those
+creatures? Have you read, critically, Coleridge's poem of “Christabel,”
+ and Keats's “Lamia”?--If so, can you understand them, or find any
+physiological foundation for the story of either?
+
+There is another set of questions of a different nature I should like
+to ask, but it is hardly fair to put so many on a single sheet. There
+is one, however, you must answer. Do you think there may be
+predispositions, inherited or ingrafted, but at any rate constitutional,
+which shall take out certain apparently voluntary determinations
+from the control of the will, and leave them as free from moral
+responsibility as the instincts of the lower animals? Do you not think
+there may be a crime which is not a sin?
+
+Pardon me, my dear Sir, for troubling you with such a list of notes of
+interrogation. There are some very strange things going on here in this
+place, country-town as it is. Country-life is apt to be dull; but when
+it once gets going, it beats the city hollow, because it gives its whole
+mind to what it is about. These rural sinners make terrible work with
+the middle of the Decalogue, when they get started. However, I hope I
+shall live through my year's school-keeping without catastrophes, though
+there are queer doings about me which puzzle me and might scare some
+people. If anything should happen, you will be one of the first to
+hear of it, no doubt. But I trust not to help out the editors of the
+“Rockland Weekly Universe” with an obituary of the late lamented, who
+signed himself in life--
+
+Your friend and pupil, BERNARD C. LANGDON.
+
+
+The Professor to Mr. Langdon.
+
+MY DEAR MR. LANGDON, I do not wonder that you find no answer from your
+country friends to the curious questions you put. They belong to that
+middle region between science and poetry which sensible men, as they are
+called, are very shy of meddling with. Some people think that truth and
+gold are always to be washed for; but the wiser sort are of opinion,
+that, unless there are so many grains to the peck of sand or nonsense
+respectively, it does not pay to wash for either, so long as one can
+find anything else to do. I don't doubt there is some truth in the
+phenomena of animal magnetism, for instance; but when you ask me to
+cradle for it, I tell you that the hysteric girls cheat so, and the
+professionals are such a set of pickpockets, that I can do something
+better than hunt for the grains of truth among their tricks and lies. Do
+you remember what I used to say in my lectures?--or were you asleep
+just then, or cutting your initials on the rail? (You see I can ask
+questions, my young friend.) Leverage is everything,--was what I used to
+say;--don't begin to pry till you have got the long arm on your side.
+
+To please you, and satisfy your doubts as far as possible, I have looked
+into the old books,--into Schenckius and Turner and Kenelm. Digby and
+the rest, where I have found plenty of curious stories which you must
+take for what they are worth.
+
+Your first question I can answer in the affirmative upon pretty good
+authority. Mizaldus tells, in his “Memorabilia,” the well-known story
+of the girl fed on poisons, who was sent by the king of the Indies to
+Alexander the Great. “When Aristotle saw her eyes sparkling and snapping
+like those of serpents, he said, 'Look out for yourself, Alexander! this
+is a dangerous companion for you!'”--and sure enough, the young lady
+proved to be a very unsafe person to her friends. Cardanus gets a story
+from Avicenna, of a certain man bit by a serpent, who recovered of his
+bite, the snake dying therefrom. This man afterwards had a daughter
+whom venomous serpents could not harm, though she had a fatal power over
+them.
+
+I suppose you may remember the statements of old authors about
+Zycanthropy, the disease in which men took on the nature and aspect of
+wolves. Actius and Paulus, both men of authority, describe it. Altomaris
+gives a horrid case; and Fincelius mentions one occurring as late as
+1541, the subject of which was captured, still insisting that he was a
+wolf, only that the hair of his hide was turned in! Versipelles, it may
+be remembered, was the Latin name for these “were-wolves.”
+
+As for the cases where rabid persons have barked and bit like dogs,
+there are plenty of such on record.
+
+More singular, or at least more rare, is the account given by Andreas
+Baccius, of a man who was struck in the hand by a cock, with his beak,
+and who died on the third day thereafter, looking for all the world like
+a fighting-cock, to the great horror of the spectators.
+
+As to impressions transmitted at a very early period of existence, every
+one knows the story of King James's fear of a naked sword, and the way
+it is accounted for. Sir Kenelm Digby says,--“I remember when he dubbed
+me Knight, in the ceremony of putting the point of a naked sword upon
+my shoulder, he could not endure to look upon it, but turned his face
+another way, insomuch, that, in lieu of touching my shoulder, he had
+almost thrust the point into my eyes, had not the Duke of Buckingham
+guided his hand aright.” It is he, too, who tells the story of the
+mulberry mark upon the neck of a certain lady of high condition, which
+“every year, to mulberry season, did swell, grow big, and itch.” And
+Gaffarel mentions the case of a girl born with the figure of a fish on
+one of her limbs, of which the wonder was, that, when the girl did eat
+fish, this mark put her to sensible pain. But there is no end to cases
+of this kind, and I could give some of recent date, if necessary,
+lending a certain plausibility at least to the doctrine of transmitted
+impressions.
+
+I never saw a distinct case of evil eye, though I have seen eyes so bad
+that they might produce strange effects on very sensitive natures. But
+the belief in it under various names, fascination, jettcztura, etc., is
+so permanent and universal, from Egypt to Italy, and from the days
+of Solomon to those of Ferdinand of Naples, that there must be some
+peculiarity, to say the least, on which the opinion is based. There is
+very strong evidence that some such power is exercised by certain of the
+lower animals. Thus, it is stated on good authority that “almost every
+animal becomes panic-struck at the sight of the rattlesnake, and seems
+at once deprived of the power of motion, or the exercise of its usual
+instinct of self-preservation.” Other serpents seem to share this power
+of fascination, as the Cobra and the Buccephalus Capensis.
+
+Some think that it is nothing but fright; others attribute it to the
+
+               “strange powers that lie
+          Within the magic circle of the eye,”--
+
+as Churchill said, speaking of Garrick.
+
+You ask me about those mysterious and frightful intimacies between
+children and serpents, of which so many instances have been recorded.
+I am sure I cannot tell what to make of them. I have seen several such
+accounts in recent papers, but here is one published in the seventeenth
+century, which is as striking as any of the more modern ones:
+
+“Mr. Herbert Tones of Monmouth, when he was a little Boy, was used to
+eat his Milk in a Garden in the Morning, and was no sooner there, but
+a large Snake always came, and eat out of the Dish with him, and did so
+for a considerable time, till one Morning, he striking the Snake on the
+Head, it hissed at him. Upon which he told his Mother that the Baby
+(for so he call'd it) cry'd Hiss at him. His Mother had it kill'd, which
+occasioned him a great Fit of Sickness, and 'twas thought would have
+dy'd, but did recover.”
+
+There was likewise one “William Writtle, condemned at Maidston Assizes
+for a double murder, told a Minister that was with him after he was
+condemned, that his mother told him, that when he was a Child, there
+crept always to him a Snake, wherever she laid him. Sometimes she would
+convey him up Stairs, and leave him never so little, she should be sure
+to find a Snake in the Cradle with him, but never perceived it did him
+any harm.”
+
+One of the most striking alleged facts connected with the mysterious
+relation existing between the serpent and-the human species is the
+influence which the poison of the Crotulus, taken internally, seemed to
+produce over the moral faculties, in the experiments instituted by Dr.
+Hering at Surinam. There is something frightful in the disposition of
+certain ophidians, as the whipsnake, which darts at the eyes of cattle
+without any apparent provocation or other motive. It is natural enough
+that the evil principle should have been represented in the form of a
+serpent, but it is strange to think of introducing it into a human being
+like cow-pox by vaccination.
+
+You know all about the Psylli, or ancient serpent tamers, I suppose.
+Savary gives an account of the modern serpent-tamers in his “Letters on
+Egypt.” These modern jugglers are in the habit of making the venomous
+Naja counterfeit death, lying out straight and stiff, changing it into
+a rod, as the ancient magicians did with their serpents, (probably the
+same animal,) in the time of Moses.
+
+I am afraid I cannot throw much light on “Christabel” or “Lamia” by any
+criticism I can offer. Geraldine, in the former, seems to be simply a
+malignant witch-woman with the evil eye, but with no absolute ophidian
+relationship. Lamia is a serpent transformed by magic into a woman. The
+idea of both is mythological, and not in any sense physiological. Some
+women unquestionably suggest the image of serpents; men rarely or never.
+I have been struck, like many others, with the ophidian head and eye of
+the famous Rachel.
+
+Your question about inherited predispositions, as limiting the sphere of
+the will, and, consequently, of moral accountability, opens a very wide
+range of speculation. I can give you only a brief abstract of my own
+opinions on this delicate and difficult subject. Crime and sin, being
+the preserves of two great organized interests, have been guarded
+against all reforming poachers with as great jealousy as the Royal
+Forests. It is so easy to hang a troublesome fellow! It is so much
+simpler to consign a soul to perdition, or say masses, for money, to
+save it, than to take the blame on ourselves for letting it grow up in
+neglect and run to ruin for want of humanizing influences! They hung
+poor, crazy Bellingham for shooting Mr. Perceval. The ordinary of
+Newgate preached to women who were to swing at Tyburn for a petty theft
+as if they were worse than other people,--just as though he would not
+have been a pickpocket or shoplifter, himself, if he had been born in
+a den of thieves and bred up to steal or starve! The English law never
+began to get hold of the idea that a crime was not necessarily a sin,
+till Hadfield, who thought he was the Saviour of mankind, was tried for
+shooting at George the Third;--lucky for him that he did not hit his
+Majesty!
+
+It is very singular that we recognize all the bodily defects that unfit
+a man for military service, and all the intellectual ones that limit his
+range of thought, but always talk at him as if all his moral powers were
+perfect. I suppose we must punish evil-doers as we extirpate vermin; but
+I don't know that we have any more right to judge them than we have to
+judge rats and mice, which are just as good as cats and weasels, though
+we think it necessary to treat them as criminals.
+
+The limitations of human responsibility have never been properly
+studied, unless it be by the phrenologists. You know from my lectures
+that I consider phrenology, as taught, a pseudo-science, and not a
+branch of positive knowledge; but, for all that, we owe it an immense
+debt. It has melted the world's conscience in its crucible, and cast it
+in a new mould, with features less like those of Moloch and more like
+those of humanity. If it has failed to demonstrate its system of special
+correspondences, it has proved that there are fixed relations between
+organization and mind and character. It has brought out that great
+doctrine of moral insanity, which has done more to make men charitable
+and soften legal and theological barbarism than any one doctrine that I
+can think of since the message of peace and good-will to men.
+
+Automatic action in the moral world; the reflex movement which seems
+to be self-determination, and has been hanged and howled at as such
+(metaphorically) for nobody knows how many centuries: until somebody
+shall study this as Marshall Hall has studied reflex nervous action in
+the bodily system, I would not give much for men's judgments of each
+others' characters. Shut up the robber and the defaulter, we must. But
+what if your oldest boy had been stolen from his cradle and bred in a
+North-Street cellar? What if you are drinking a little too much wine and
+smoking a little too much tobacco, and your son takes after you, and so
+your poor grandson's brain being a little injured in physical texture,
+he loses the fine moral sense on which you pride yourself, and doesn't
+see the difference between signing another man's name to a draft and his
+own?
+
+I suppose the study of automatic action in the moral world (you see what
+I mean through the apparent contradiction of terms) may be a dangerous
+one in the view of many people. It is liable to abuse, no doubt.
+People are always glad to, get hold of anything which limits their
+responsibility. But remember that our moral estimates come down to us
+from ancestors who hanged children for stealing forty shillings' worth,
+and sent their souls to perdition for the sin of being born,--who
+punished the unfortunate families of suicides, and in their eagerness
+for justice executed one innocent person every three years, on the
+average, as Sir James Mackintosh tells us.
+
+I do not know in what shape the practical question may present itself to
+you; but I will tell you my rule in life, and I think you will find it
+a good one. Treat bad men exactly as if they were insane. They are
+in-sane, out of health, morally. Reason, which is food to sound minds,
+is not tolerated, still less assimilated, unless administered with the
+greatest caution; perhaps, not at all. Avoid collision with them, so far
+as you honorably can; keep your temper, if you can,--for one angry
+man is as good as another; restrain them from violence, promptly,
+completely, and with the least possible injury, just as in the case of
+maniacs,--and when you have got rid of them, or got them tied hand and
+foot so that they can do no mischief, sit down and contemplate them
+charitably, remembering that nine tenths of their' perversity comes from
+outside influences, drunken ancestors, abuse in childhood, bad company,
+from which you have happily been preserved, and for some of which you,
+as a member of society, may be fractionally responsible. I think also
+that there are special influences which work in the brood lake ferments,
+and I have a suspicion that some of those curious old stories I cited
+may have more recent parallels. Have you ever met with any cases which
+admitted of a solution like that which I have mentioned?
+
+Yours very truly, _____________ _____________
+
+               Bernard Langdon to Philip Staples.
+MY DEAR PHILIP,--
+
+I have been for some months established in this place, turning the
+main crank of the machinery for the manufactory of accomplishments
+superintended by, or rather worked to the profit of, a certain Mr. Silas
+Peckham. He is a poor wretch, with a little thin fishy blood in his
+body, lean and flat, long-armed and large-handed, thick-jointed
+and thin-muscled,--you know those unwholesome, weak-eyed, half-fed
+creatures, that look not fit to be round among live folks, and yet not
+quite dead enough to bury. If you ever hear of my being in court to
+answer to a charge of assault and battery, you may guess that I have
+been giving him a thrashing to settle off old scores; for he is a
+tyrant, and has come pretty near killing his principal lady-assistant
+with overworking her and keeping her out of all decent privileges.
+
+Helen Darley is this lady's name,--twenty two or three years old,
+I should think,--a very sweet, pale woman,--daughter of the usual
+country-clergyman,--thrown on her own resources from an early age, and
+the rest: a common story, but an uncommon person,--very. All conscience
+and sensibility, I should say,--a cruel worker,--no kind of regard for
+herself, seems as fragile and supple as a young willow-shoot, but try
+her and you find she has the spring in her of a steel cross-bow. I am
+glad I happened to come to this place, if it were only for her sake. I
+have saved that girl's life; I am as sure of it as if I had pulled her
+out of the fire or water.
+
+Of course I'm in love with her, you say,--we always love those whom
+we have benefited; “saved her life,--her love was the reward of his
+devotion,” etc., etc., as in a regular set novel. In love, Philip? Well,
+about that,--I love Helen Darley--very much: there is hardly anybody I
+love so well. What a noble creature she is! One of those that just go
+right on, do their own work and everybody else's, killing themselves
+inch by inch without ever thinking about it,--singing and dancing
+at their toil when they begin, worn and saddened after a while, but
+pressing steadily on, tottering by and by, and catching at the rail by
+the way-side to help them lift one foot before the other, and at last
+falling, face down, arms stretched forward.
+
+Philip, my boy, do you know I am the sort of man that locks his door
+sometimes and cries his heart out of his eyes,--that can sob like a
+woman and not be ashamed of it? I come of fighting-blood on one side,
+you know; I think I could be savage on occasion. But I am tender,--more
+and more tender as I come into my fulness of manhood. I don't like
+to strike a man, (laugh, if you like,--I know I hit hard when I do
+strike,)--but what I can't stand is the sight of these poor, patient,
+toiling women, who never find out in this life how good they are, and
+never know what it is to be told they are angels while they still wear
+the pleasing incumbrances of humanity. I don't know what to make
+of these cases. To think that a woman is never to be a woman again,
+whatever she may come to as an unsexed angel,--and that she should die
+unloved! Why does not somebody come and carry off this noble woman,
+waiting here all ready to make a man happy? Philip, do you know the
+pathos there is in the eyes of unsought women, oppressed with the burden
+of an inner life unshared? I can see into them now as I could not in
+those 'earlier days. I sometimes think their pupils dilate on purpose to
+let my consciousness glide through them; indeed, I dread them, I come so
+close to the nerve of the soul itself in these momentary intimacies. You
+used to tell me I was a Turk,--that my heart was full of pigeon-holes,
+with accommodations inside for a whole flock of doves. I don't know but
+I am still as Youngish as ever in my ways,--Brigham-Youngish, I mean;
+at any rate, T. always want to give a little love to all the poor
+things that cannot have a whole man to themselves. If they would only be
+contented with a little!
+
+Here now are two girls in this school where I am teaching. One of them,
+Rosa M., is not more than sixteen years old, I think they say; but
+Nature has forced her into a tropical luxuriance of beauty, as if it
+were July with her, instead of May. I suppose it is all natural enough
+that this girl should like a young man's attention, even if he were
+a grave schoolmaster; but the eloquence of this young thing's look
+is unmistakable,--and yet she does not know the language it is
+talking,--they none of them do; and there is where a good many poor
+creatures of our good-for-nothing sex are mistaken. There is no danger
+of my being rash, but I think this girl will cost somebody his life
+yet. She is one of those women men make a quarrel about and fight to the
+death for,--the old feral instinct, you know.
+
+Pray, don't think I am lost in conceit, but there is another girl here
+who I begin to think looks with a certain kindness on me. Her name is
+Elsie V., and she is the only daughter and heiress of an old family in
+this place. She is a portentous and almost fearful creature. If I should
+tell you all I know and half of what I fancy about her, you would
+tell me to get my life insured at once. Yet she is the most painfully
+interesting being,--so handsome! so lonely!--for she has no friends
+among the girls, and sits apart from them,--with black hair like the
+flow of a mountain-brook after a thaw, with a low-browed, scowling
+beauty of face, and such eyes as were never seen before, I really
+believe, in any human creature.
+
+Philip, I don't know what to say about this Elsie. There is something
+about her I have not fathomed. I have conjectures which I could not
+utter to any living soul. I dare not even hint the possibilities which
+have suggested themselves to me. This I will say, that I do take the
+most intense interest in this young person, an interest much more like
+pity than love in its common sense. If what I guess at is true, of all
+the tragedies of existence I ever knew this is the saddest, and yet so
+full of meaning! Do not ask me any questions,--I have said more than
+I meant to already; but I am involved in strange doubts and
+perplexities,--in dangers too, very possibly,--and it is a relief just
+to speak ever so guardedly of them to an early and faithful friend.
+
+Yours ever, BERNARD.
+
+P. S. I remember you had a copy of Fortunius Licetus' “De Monstris”
+ among your old books. Can't you lend it to me for a while? I am curious,
+and it will amuse me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. OLD SOPHY CALLS ON THE REVEREND DOCTOR.
+
+The two meeting-houses which faced each other like a pair of
+fighting-cocks had not flapped their wings or crowed at each other for
+a considerable time. The Reverend Mr. Fairweather had been dyspeptic and
+low-spirited of late, and was too languid for controversy. The Reverend
+Doctor Honeywood had been very busy with his benevolent associations,
+and had discoursed chiefly on practical matters, to the neglect of
+special doctrinal subjects. His senior deacon ventured to say to him
+that some of his people required to be reminded of the great fundamental
+doctrine of the worthlessness of all human efforts and motives. Some of
+them were altogether too much pleased with the success of the Temperance
+Society and the Association for the Relief of the Poor. There was a
+pestilent heresy about, concerning the satisfaction to be derived from
+a good conscience, as if, anybody ever did anything which was not to be
+hated, loathed, despised, and condemned.
+
+The old minister listened gravely, with an inward smile, and told his
+deacon that he would attend to his suggestion. After the deacon had
+gone, he tumbled over his manuscripts, until at length he came upon his
+first-rate old sermon on “Human Nature.” He had read a great deal of
+hard theology, and had at last reached that curious state which is
+so common in good ministers,--that, namely, in which they contrive to
+switch off their logical faculties on the narrow sidetrack of their
+technical dogmas, while the great freight-train of their substantial
+human qualities keeps in the main highway of common-sense, in which
+kindly souls are always found by all who approach them by their human
+side.
+
+The Doctor read his sermon with a pleasant, paternal interest: it was
+well argued from his premises. Here and there he dashed his pen through
+a harsh expression. Now and then he added an explanation or qualified
+abroad statement. But his mind was on the logical side-track, and he
+followed the chain of reasoning without fairly perceiving where it would
+lead him, if he carried it into real life.
+
+He was just touching up the final proposition, when his granddaughter,
+Letty, once before referred to, came into the room with her smiling face
+and lively movement. Miss Letty or Letitia Forrester was a city-bred
+girl of some fifteen or sixteen years old, who was passing the summer
+with her grandfather for the sake of country air and quiet. It was a
+sensible arrangement; for, having the promise of figuring as a belle by
+and by, and being a little given to dancing, and having a voice which
+drew a pretty dense circle around the piano when she sat down to play
+and sing, it was hard to keep her from being carried into society before
+her time, by the mere force of mutual attraction. Fortunately, she had
+some quiet as well as some social tastes, and was willing enough to pass
+two or three of the summer months in the country, where she was much
+better bestowed than she would have been at one of those watering-places
+where so many half-formed girls get prematurely hardened in the vice of
+self-consciousness.
+
+Miss Letty was altogether too wholesome, hearty, and high-strung a young
+girl to be a model, according to the flat-chested and cachectic pattern
+which is the classical type of certain excellent young females, often
+the subjects of biographical memoirs. But the old minister was proud of
+his granddaughter for all that. She was so full of life, so graceful, so
+generous, so vivacious, so ready always to do all she could for him and
+for everybody, so perfectly frank in her avowed delight in the pleasures
+which this miserable world offered her in the shape of natural beauty,
+of poetry, of music, of companionship, of books, of cheerful cooperation
+in the tasks of those about her, that the Reverend Doctor could not
+find it in his heart to condemn her because she was deficient in those
+particular graces and that signal other-worldliness he had sometimes
+noticed in feeble young persons suffering from various chronic diseases
+which impaired their vivacity and removed them from the range of
+temptation.
+
+When Letty, therefore, came bounding into the old minister's study,
+he glanced up from his manuscript, and, as his eye fell upon her,
+it flashed across him that there was nothing so very monstrous and
+unnatural about the specimen of congenital perversion he was looking at,
+with his features opening into their pleasantest sunshine. Technically,
+according to the fifth proposition of the sermon on Human Nature, very
+bad, no doubt. Practically, according to the fact before him, a very
+pretty piece of the Creator's handiwork, body and soul. Was it not a
+conceivable thing that the divine grace might show itself in different
+forms in a fresh young girl like Letitia, and in that poor thing he had
+visited yesterday, half-grown, half-colored, in bed for the last year
+with hip-disease?
+
+Was it to be supposed that this healthy young girl, with life throbbing
+all over her, could, without a miracle, be good according to the invalid
+pattern and formula?
+
+And yet there were mysteries in human nature which pointed to some
+tremendous perversion of its tendencies,--to some profound, radical vice
+of moral constitution, native or transmitted, as you will have it, but
+positive, at any rate, as the leprosy, breaking out in the blood of
+races, guard them ever so carefully. Did he not know the case of a young
+lady in Rockland, daughter of one of the first families in the place,
+a very beautiful and noble creature to look at, for whose bringing up
+nothing had been spared,--a girl who had had governesses to teach her at
+the house, who had been indulged almost too kindly,--a girl whose father
+had given himself, up to her, he being himself a pure and high-souled
+man?--and yet this girl was accused in whispers of having been on the
+very verge of committing a fatal crime; she was an object of fear to
+all who knew the dark hints which had been let fall about her, and there
+were some that believed--Why, what was this but an instance of the total
+obliquity and degeneration of the moral principle? and to what could it
+be owing, but to an innate organic tendency?
+
+“Busy, grandpapa?” said Letty, and without waiting for an answer
+kissed his cheek with a pair of lips made on purpose for that little
+function,--fine, but richly turned out, the corners tucked in with a
+finish of pretty dimples, the rose-bud lips of girlhood's June.
+
+The old gentleman looked at his granddaughter. Nature swelled up from
+his heart in a wave that sent a glow to his cheek and a sparkle to his
+eye. But it is very hard to be interrupted just as we are winding up a
+string of propositions with the grand conclusion which is the statement
+in brief of all that has gone before: our own starting-point, into which
+we have been trying to back our reader or listener as one backs a horse
+into the shafts.
+
+“Video meliora, proboque,--I see the better, and approve it; deteriora
+sequor, I follow after the worse; 't is that natural dislike to what
+is good, pure, holy, and true, that inrooted selfishness, totally
+insensible to the claims of”--
+
+Here the worthy man was interrupted by Miss Letty.
+
+“Do come, if you can, grandpapa,” said the young girl; “here is a poor
+old black woman wants to see you so much!”
+
+The good minister was as kind-hearted as if he had never groped in the
+dust and ashes of those cruel old abstractions which have killed out so
+much of the world's life and happiness. “With the heart man believeth
+unto righteousness;” a man's love is the measure of his fitness for good
+or bad company here or elsewhere. Men are tattooed with their special
+beliefs like so many South-Sea Islanders; but a real human heart, with
+Divine love in it, beats with the same glow under all, the patterns of
+all earth's thousand tribes!
+
+The Doctor sighed, and folded the sermon, and laid the Quarto Cruden on
+it. He rose from his desk, and, looking once more at the young girl's
+face, forgot his logical conclusions, and said to himself that she was
+a little angel,--which was in violent contradiction to the leading
+doctrine of his sermon on Human Nature. And so he followed her out of
+the study into the wide entry of the old-fashioned country-house.
+
+An old black woman sat on the plain oaken settle which humble visitors
+waiting to see the minister were wont to occupy. She was old, but how
+old it would be very hard to guess. She might be seventy. She might be
+ninety. One could not swear she was not a hundred. Black women remain
+at a stationary age (to the eyes of white people, at least) for thirty
+years. They do not appear to change during this period any more than
+so many Trenton trilobites. Bent up, wrinkled, yellow-eyed, with long
+upper-lip, projecting jaws, retreating chin, still meek features, long
+arms, large flat hands with uncolored palms and slightly webbed
+fingers, it was impossible not to see in this old creature a hint of
+the gradations by which life climbs up through the lower natures to the
+highest human developments. We cannot tell such old women's ages because
+we do not understand the physiognomy of a race so unlike our own.
+No doubt they see a great deal in each other's faces that we
+cannot,--changes of color and expression as real as our own, blushes and
+sudden betrayals of feeling,--just as these two canaries know what
+their single notes and short sentences and full song with this or that
+variation mean, though it is a mystery to us unplumed mortals.
+
+This particular old black woman was a striking specimen of her
+class. Old as she looked, her eye was bright and knowing. She wore a
+red-and-yellow turban, which set off her complexion well, and hoops of
+gold in her ears, and beads of gold about her neck, and an old funeral
+ring upon her finger. She had that touching stillness about her which
+belongs to animals that wait to be spoken to and then look up with a
+kind of sad humility.
+
+“Why, Sophy!” said the good minister, “is this you?”
+
+She looked up with the still expression on her face. “It's ol' Sophy,”
+ she said.
+
+“Why,” said the Doctor, “I did not believe you could walk so far as this
+to save the Union. Bring Sophy a glass of wine, Letty. Wine's good for
+old folks like Sophy and me, after walking a good way, or preaching a
+good while.”
+
+The young girl stepped into the back-parlor, where she found the
+great pewter flagon in which the wine that was left after each
+communion-service was brought to the minister's house. With much toil
+she managed to tip it so as to get a couple of glasses filled. The
+minister tasted his, and made old Sophy finish hers.
+
+“I wan' to see you 'n' talk wi' you all alone,” she said presently.
+
+The minister got up and led the way towards his study. “To be sure,” he
+said; he had only waited for her to rest a moment before he asked her
+into the library. The young girl took her gently by the arm, and helped
+her feeble steps along the passage. When they reached the study, she
+smoothed the cushion of a rocking-chair, and made the old woman sit
+down in it. Then she tripped lightly away, and left her alone with the
+minister.
+
+Old Sophy was a member of the Reverend Doctor Honeywood's church.
+She had been put through the necessary confessions in a tolerably
+satisfactory manner. To be sure, as her grandfather had been a cannibal
+chief, according to the common story, and, at any rate, a terrible wild
+savage, and as her mother retained to the last some of the prejudices
+of her early education, there was a heathen flavor in her Christianity
+which had often scandalized the elder of the minister's two deacons.
+But, the good minister had smoothed matters over: had explained that
+allowances were to be made for those who had been long sitting without
+the gate of Zion,--that, no doubt, a part of the curse which descended
+to the children of Ham consisted in “having the understanding darkened,”
+ as well as the skin,--and so had brought his suspicious senior deacon to
+tolerate old Sophy as one of the communion of fellow-sinners.
+
+--Poor things! How little we know the simple notions with which these
+rudiments of souls are nourished by the Divine Goodness! Did not Mrs.
+Professor come home this very blessed morning with a story of one of her
+old black women?
+
+“And how do you feel to-day, Mrs. Robinson?”
+
+“Oh, my dear, I have this singing in my head all the time.” (What
+doctors call tinnitus aurium.)
+
+“She 's got a cold in the head,” said old Mrs. Rider.
+
+“Oh, no, my dear! Whatever I'm thinking about, it's all this singing,
+this music. When I'm thinking of the dear Redeemer, it all turns into
+this singing and music. When the clark came to see me, I asked him if
+he couldn't cure me, and he said, No,--it was the Holy Spirit in me,
+singing to me; and all the time I hear this beautiful music, and it's
+the Holy Spirit a-singing to me.”
+
+The good man waited for Sophy to speak; but she did not open her lips as
+yet.
+
+“I hope you are not troubled in mind or body,” he said to her at length,
+finding she did not speak.
+
+The poor old woman took out a white handkerchief, and lifted it--to her
+black face. She could not say a word for her tears and sobs.
+
+The minister would have consoled her; he was used to tears, and could in
+most cases withstand their contagion manfully; but something choked
+his voice suddenly, and when he called upon it, he got no answer, but a
+tremulous movement of the muscles, which was worse than silence.
+
+At last she spoke.
+
+“Oh, no, no, no! It's my poor girl, my darling, my beauty, my baby,
+that 's grown up to be a woman; she will come to a bad end; she will do
+something that will make them kill her or shut her up all her life. Or,
+Doctor, Doctor, save her, pray for her! It a'n't her fault. It a'n't
+her fault. If they knew all that I know, they would n' blame that poor
+child. I must tell you, Doctor: if I should die, perhaps nobody else
+would tell you. Massa Veneer can't talk about it. Doctor Kittredge won't
+talk about it. Nobody but old Sophy to tell you, Doctor; and old Sophy
+can't die without telling you.”
+
+The kind minister soothed the poor old soul with those gentle, quieting
+tones which had carried peace and comfort to so many chambers of
+sickness and sorrow, to so many hearts overburdened by the trials laid
+upon them.
+
+Old Sophy became quiet in a few minutes, and proceeded to tell her
+story. She told it in the low half-whisper which is the natural voice
+of lips oppressed wish grief and fears; with quick glances around the
+apartment from time to time, as if she dreaded lest the dim portraits on
+the walls and the dark folios on the shelves might overhear her words.
+
+It was not one of those conversations which a third person can report
+minutely, unless by that miracle of clairvoyance known to the readers
+of stories made out of authors' brains. Yet its main character can be
+imparted in a much briefer space than the old black woman took to give
+all its details.
+
+She went far back to the time when Dudley Venner was born,--she being
+then a middle-aged woman. The heir and hope of a family which had been
+narrowing down as if doomed to extinction, he had been surrounded
+with every care and trained by the best education he could have in New
+England. He had left college, and was studying the profession which
+gentlemen of leisure most affect, when he fell in love with a young girl
+left in the world almost alone, as he was. The old woman told the story
+of his young love and his joyous bridal with a tenderness which had
+something more, even, than her family sympathies to account for it. Had
+she not hanging over her bed a paper-cutting of a profile,--jet black,
+but not blacker than the face it represented--of one who would have been
+her own husband in the small years of this century, if the vessel in
+which he went to sea, like Jamie in the ballad, had not sailed away and
+never come back to land? Had she not her bits of furniture stowed away
+which had been got ready for her own wedding,--two rocking-chairs,
+one worn with long use, one kept for him so long that it had grown a
+superstition with her never to sit in it,--and might he not come back
+yet, after all? Had she not her chest of linen ready for her humble
+house-keeping with store of serviceable huckaback and piles of neatly
+folded kerchiefs, wherefrom this one that showed so white against her
+black face was taken, for that she knew her eyes would betray her in
+“the presence”?
+
+All the first part of the story the old woman told tenderly, and yet
+dwelling upon every incident with a loving pleasure. How happy this
+young couple had been, what plans and projects of improvement they had
+formed, how they lived in each other, always together, so young and
+fresh and beautiful as she remembered them in that one early summer when
+they walked arm in arm through the wilderness of roses that ran riot in
+the garden,--she told of this as loath to leave it and come to the woe
+that lay beneath.
+
+She told the whole story;-shall I repeat it? Not now. If, in the course
+of relating the incidents I have undertaken to report, it tells itself,
+perhaps this will be better than to run the risk of producing a painful
+impression on some of those susceptible readers whom it would be
+ill-advised to disturb or excite, when they rather require to be amused
+and soothed. In our pictures of life, we must show the flowering-out of
+terrible growths which have their roots deep, deep underground. Just
+how far we shall lay bare the unseemly roots themselves is a matter of
+discretion and taste, and which none of us are infallible.
+
+The old woman told the whole story of Elsie, of her birth, of her
+peculiarities of person and disposition, of the passionate fears and
+hopes with which her father had watched the course of her development.
+She recounted all her strange ways, from the hour when she first tried
+to crawl across the carpet, and her father's look as she worked her way
+towards him. With the memory of Juliet's nurse she told the story of
+her teething, and how, the woman to whose breast she had clung dying
+suddenly about that time, they had to struggle hard with the child
+before she would learn the accomplishment of feeding with a spoon. And
+so of her fierce plays and fiercer disputes with that boy who had been
+her companion, and the whole scene of the quarrel when she struck him
+with those sharp white teeth, frightening her, old Sophy, almost to
+death; for, as she said, the boy would have died, if it hadn't been for
+the old Doctor's galloping over as fast as he could gallop and burning
+the places right out of his arm. Then came the story of that other
+incident, sufficiently alluded to already, which had produced such
+an ecstasy of fright and left such a nightmare of apprehension in the
+household. And so the old woman came down to this present time. That boy
+she never loved nor trusted was grown to a dark, dangerous-looking man,
+and he was under their roof. He wanted to marry our poor Elsie, and
+Elsie hated him, and sometimes she would look at him over her shoulder
+just as she used to look at that woman she hated; and she, old Sophy,
+couldn't sleep for thinking she should hear a scream from the white
+chamber some night and find him in spasms such as that woman came so
+near dying with. And then there was something about Elsie she did not
+know what to make of: she would sit and hang her head sometimes, and
+look as if she were dreaming; and she brought home books they said a
+young gentleman up at the great school lent her; and once she heard her
+whisper in her sleep, and she talked as young girls do to themselves
+when they're thinking about somebody they have a liking for and think
+nobody knows it.
+
+She finished her long story at last. The minister had listened to it in
+perfect silence. He sat still even when she had done speaking,--still,
+and lost in thought. It was a very awkward matter for him to have a
+hand in. Old Sophy was his parishioner, but the Veneers had a pew in
+the Reverend Mr. Fairweather's meeting-house. It would seem that he, Mr.
+Fairweather, was the natural adviser of the parties most interested. Had
+he sense and spirit enough to deal with such people? Was there enough
+capital of humanity in his somewhat limited nature to furnish sympathy
+and unshrinking service for his friends in an emergency? or was he too
+busy with his own attacks of spiritual neuralgia, and too much occupied
+with taking account of stock of his own thin-blooded offences, to forget
+himself and his personal interests on the small scale and the large,
+and run a risk of his life, if need were, at any rate give himself up
+without reserve to the dangerous task of guiding and counselling these
+distressed and imperilled fellow-creatures?
+
+The good minister thought the best thing to do would be to call and talk
+over some of these matters with Brother Fairweather,--for so he would
+call him at times, especially if his senior deacon were not within
+earshot. Having settled this point, he comforted Sophy with a few words
+of counsel and a promise of coming to see her very soon. He then called
+his man to put the old white horse into the chaise and drive Sophy back
+to the mansion-house.
+
+When the Doctor sat down to his sermon again, it looked very differently
+from the way it had looked at the moment he left it. When he came to
+think of it, he did not feel quite so sure practically about that matter
+of the utter natural selfishness of everybody. There was Letty, now,
+seemed to take a very unselfish interest in that old black woman, and
+indeed in poor people generally; perhaps it would not be too much to
+say that she was always thinking of other people. He thought he had
+seen other young persons naturally unselfish, thoughtful for others; it
+seemed to be a family trait in some he had known.
+
+But most of all he was exercised about this poor girl whose story Sophy
+had been telling. If what the old woman believed was true,--and it
+had too much semblance of probability,--what became of his theory of
+ingrained moral obliquity applied to such a case? If by the visitation
+of God a person receives any injury which impairs the intellect or the
+moral perceptions, is it not monstrous to judge such a person by our
+common working standards of right and wrong? Certainly, everybody will
+answer, in cases where there is a palpable organic change brought about,
+as when a blow on the head produces insanity. Fools! How long will it be
+before we shall learn that for every wound which betrays itself to the
+sight by a scar, there are a thousand unseen mutilations that cripple,
+each of them, some one or more of our highest faculties? If what Sophy
+told and believed was the real truth, what prayers could be agonizing
+enough, what tenderness could be deep enough, for this poor, lost,
+blighted, hapless, blameless child of misfortune, struck by such a doom
+as perhaps no living creature in all the sisterhood of humanity shared
+with her?
+
+The minister thought these matters over until his mind was bewildered
+with doubts and tossed to and fro on that stormy deep of thought heaving
+forever beneath the conflict of windy dogmas. He laid by his old sermon.
+He put back a pile of old commentators with their eyes and mouths and
+hearts full of the dust of the schools. Then he opened the book of
+Genesis at the eighteenth chapter and read that remarkable argument of
+Abraham's with his Maker in which he boldly appeals to first principles.
+He took as his text, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
+ and began to write his sermon, afterwards so famous, “On the Obligations
+of an Infinite Creator to a Finite Creature.”
+
+It astonished the good people, who had been accustomed so long to repeat
+mechanically their Oriental hyperboles of self-abasement, to hear their
+worthy minister maintaining that the dignified attitude of the old
+Patriarch, insisting on what was reasonable and fair with reference to
+his fellow-creatures, was really much more respectful to his Maker, and
+a great deal manlier and more to his credit, than if he had yielded the
+whole matter, and pretended that men had not rights as well as duties.
+The same logic which had carried him to certain conclusions with
+reference to human nature, this same irresistible logic carried him
+straight on from his text until he arrived at those other results, which
+not only astonished his people, as was said, but surprised himself. He
+went so far in defence of the rights of man, that he put his foot into
+several heresies, for which men had been burned so often, it was time,
+if ever it could be, to acknowledge the demonstration of the argumentum
+ad ignem. He did not believe in the responsibility of idiots. He did
+not believe a new-born infant was morally answerable for other people's
+acts. He thought a man with a crooked spine would never be called to
+account for not walking erect. He thought if the crook was in his brain,
+instead of his back, he could not fairly be blamed for any consequence
+of this natural defect, whatever lawyers or divines might call it.
+He argued, that, if a person inherited a perfect mind, body, and
+disposition, and had perfect teaching from infancy, that person could do
+nothing more than keep the moral law perfectly. But supposing that
+the Creator allows a person to be born with an hereditary or ingrafted
+organic tendency, and then puts this person into the hands of
+teachers incompetent or positively bad, is not what is called sin or
+transgression of the law necessarily involved in the premises? Is not
+a Creator bound to guard his children against the ruin which inherited
+ignorance might entail on them? Would it be fair for a parent to put
+into a child's hands the title-deeds to all its future possessions, and
+a bunch of matches? And are not men children, nay, babes, in the eye
+of Omniscience?--The minister grew bold in his questions. Had not he as
+good right to ask questions as Abraham?
+
+This was the dangerous vein of speculation in which the Reverend Doctor
+Honeywood found himself involved, as a consequence of the suggestions
+forced upon him by old Sophy's communication. The truth was, the good
+man had got so humanized by mixing up with other people in various
+benevolent schemes, that, the very moment he could escape from his old
+scholastic abstractions, he took the side of humanity instinctively,
+just as the Father of the Faithful did,--all honor be to the noble old
+Patriarch for insisting on the worth of an honest man, and making the
+best terms he could for a very ill-conditioned metropolis, which might
+possibly, however, have contained ten righteous people, for whose sake
+it should be spared!
+
+The consequence of all this was, that he was in a singular and seemingly
+self-contradictory state of mind when he took his hat and cane and went
+forth to call on his heretical brother. The old minister took it for
+granted that the Reverend Mr. Fairweather knew the private history of
+his parishioner's family. He did not reflect that there are griefs
+men never put into words,--that there are fears which must not be
+spoken,--intimate matters of consciousness which must be carried,
+as bullets which have been driven deep into the living tissues are
+sometimes carried, for a whole lifetime,--encysted griefs, if we may
+borrow the chirurgeon's term, never to be reached, never to be seen,
+never to be thrown out, but to go into the dust with the frame that
+bore them about with it, during long years of anguish, known only to the
+sufferer and his Maker. Dudley Venner had talked with his minister about
+this child of his. But he had talked cautiously, feeling his way for
+sympathy, looking out for those indications of tact and judgment which
+would warrant him in some partial communication, at least, of the origin
+of his doubts and fears, and never finding them.
+
+There was something about the Reverend Mr. Fairweather which repressed
+all attempts at confidential intercourse. What this something was,
+Dudley Venner could hardly say; but he felt it distinctly, and it
+sealed his lips. He never got beyond certain generalities connected
+with education and religious instruction. The minister could not help
+discovering, however, that there were difficulties connected with this
+girl's management, and he heard enough outside of the family to convince
+him that she had manifested tendencies, from an early age, at variance
+with the theoretical opinions he was in the habit of preaching, and in
+a dim way of holding for truth, as to the natural dispositions of the
+human being.
+
+About this terrible fact of congenital obliquity his new beliefs
+began to cluster as a centre, and to take form as a crystal around its
+nucleus. Still, he might perhaps have struggled against them, had it not
+been for the little Roman Catholic chapel he passed every Sunday, on his
+way to the meeting-house. Such a crowd of worshippers, swarming into the
+pews like bees, filling all the aisles, running over at the door like
+berries heaped too full in the measure,--some kneeling on the steps,
+some standing on the sidewalk, hats off, heads down, lips moving, some
+looking on devoutly from the other side of the street! Oh, could he
+have followed his own Bridget, maid of all work, into the heart of that
+steaming throng, and bowed his head while the priests intoned their
+Latin prayers! could he have snuffed up the cloud of frankincense, and
+felt that he was in the great ark which holds the better half of the
+Christian world, while all around it are wretched creatures, some
+struggling against the waves in leaky boats, and some on ill-connected
+rafts, and some with their heads just above water, thinking to ride out
+the flood which is to sweep the earth clean of sinners, upon their own
+private, individual life-preservers!
+
+Such was the present state of mind of the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather,
+when his clerical brother called upon him to talk over the questions to
+which old Sophy had called his attention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. THE REVEREND DOCTOR CALLS ON BROTHER FAIRWEATHER.
+
+For the last few months, while all these various matters were going on
+in Rockland, the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had been busy with the
+records of ancient councils and the writings of the early fathers. The
+more he read, the more discontented he became with the platform upon
+which he and his people were standing. They and he were clearly in
+a minority, and his deep inward longing to be with the majority was
+growing into an engrossing passion. He yearned especially towards the
+good old unquestioning, authoritative Mother Church, with her articles
+of faith which took away the necessity for private judgment, with her
+traditional forms and ceremonies, and her whole apparatus of stimulants
+and anodynes.
+
+About this time he procured a breviary and kept it in his desk under
+the loose papers. He sent to a Catholic bookstore and obtained a small
+crucifix suspended from a string of beads. He ordered his new coat to be
+cut very narrow in the collar and to be made single-breasted. He began
+an informal series of religious conversations with Miss O'Brien, the
+young person of Irish extraction already referred to as Bridget, maid
+of all work. These not proving very satisfactory, he managed to fall in
+with Father McShane, the Catholic priest of the Rockland church.
+
+Father McShane encouraged his nibble very scientifically. It would be
+such a fine thing to bring over one of those Protestant heretics, and a
+“liberal” one too!--not that there was any real difference between
+them, but it sounded better, to say that one of these rationalizing
+free-and-equal religionists had been made a convert than any of those
+half-way Protestants who were the slaves of catechisms instead of
+councils, and of commentators instead of popes. The subtle priest played
+his disciple with his finest tackle. It was hardly necessary: when
+anything or anybody wishes to be caught, a bare hook and a coarse line
+are all that is needed.
+
+If a man has a genuine, sincere, hearty wish to get rid of his liberty,
+if he is really bent upon becoming a slave, nothing can stop him. And
+the temptation is to some natures a very great one. Liberty is often a
+heavy burden on a man. It involves that necessity for perpetual choice
+which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded. In common life we
+shirk it by forming habits, which take the place of self-determination.
+In politics party-organization saves us the pains of much thinking
+before deciding how to cast our vote. In religious matters there are
+great multitudes watching us perpetually, each propagandist ready with
+his bundle of finalities, which having accepted we may be at peace.
+The more absolute the submission demanded, the stronger the temptation
+becomes to those who have been long tossed among doubts and conflicts.
+
+So it is that in all the quiet bays which indent the shores of the great
+ocean of thought, at every sinking wharf, we see moored the hulks
+and the razees of enslaved or half-enslaved intelligences. They rock
+peacefully as children in their cradles on the subdued swell which
+comes feebly in over the bar at the harbor's mouth, slowly crusting with
+barnacles, pulling at their iron cables as if they really wanted to be
+free; but better contented to remain bound as they are. For these no
+more the round unwalled horizon of the open sea, the joyous breeze
+aloft, the furrow, the foam, the sparkle, that track the rushing keel!
+They have escaped the dangers of the wave, and lie still henceforth,
+evermore. Happiest of souls, if lethargy is bliss, and palsy the chief
+beatitude!
+
+America owes its political freedom to religious Protestantism. But
+political freedom is reacting on religious prescription with still
+mightier force. We wonder, therefore, when we find a soul which was
+born to a full sense of individual liberty, an unchallenged right
+of self-determination on every new alleged truth offered to its
+intelligence, voluntarily surrendering any portion of its liberty to
+a spiritual dictatorship which always proves to rest, in the last
+analysis, on a majority vote, nothing more nor less, commonly an old
+one, passed in those barbarous times when men cursed and murdered each
+other for differences of opinion, and of course were not in a condition
+to settle the beliefs of a comparatively civilized community.
+
+In our disgust, we are liable to be intolerant. We forget that weakness
+is not in itself a sin. We forget that even cowardice may call for our
+most lenient judgment, if it spring from innate infirmity, Who of us
+does not look with great tenderness on the young chieftain in the “Fair
+Maid of Perth,” when he confesses his want of courage? All of us love
+companionship and sympathy; some of us may love them too much. All of us
+are more or less imaginative in our theology.
+
+Some of us may find the aid of material symbols a comfort, if not a
+necessity. The boldest thinker may have his moments of languor and
+discouragement, when he feels as if he could willingly exchange faiths
+with the old beldame crossing herself at the cathedral-door,--nay, that,
+if he could drop all coherent thought, and lie in the flowery meadow
+with the brown-eyed solemnly unthinking cattle, looking up to the sky,
+and all their simple consciousness staining itself blue, then down to
+the grass, and life turning to a mere greenness, blended with confused
+scents of herbs,--no individual mind-movement such as men are teased
+with, but the great calm cattle-sense of all time and all places that
+know the milky smell of herds,--if he could be like these, he would be
+content to be driven home by the cow-boy, and share the grassy banquet
+of the king of ancient Babylon. Let us be very generous, then, in our
+judgment of those who leave the front ranks of thought for the company
+of the meek non-combatants who follow with the baggage and provisions.
+Age, illness, too much wear and tear, a half-formed paralysis, may bring
+any of us to this pass. But while we can think and maintain the rights
+of our own individuality against every human combination, let us
+not forget to caution all who are disposed to waver that there is a
+cowardice which is criminal, and a longing for rest which it is baseness
+to indulge. God help him, over whose dead soul in his living body must
+be uttered the sad supplication, Requiescat in pace!
+
+A knock at the Reverend Mr. Fairweather's study door called his eyes
+from the book on which they were intent. He looked up, as if expecting a
+welcome guest.
+
+The Reverend Pierrepont Honeywood, D. D., entered the study of the
+Reverend Chauncy Fairweather. He was not the expected guest. Mr.
+Fairweather slipped the book he was reading into a half-open drawer,
+and pushed in the drawer. He slid something which rattled under a paper
+lying on the table. He rose with a slight change of color, and welcomed,
+a little awkwardly, his unusual visitor.
+
+“Good-evening, Brother Fairweather!” said the Reverend Doctor, in a
+very cordial, good-humored way. “I hope I am not spoiling one of those
+eloquent sermons I never have a chance to hear.”
+
+“Not at all, not at all,” the younger clergyman answered, in a languid
+tone, with a kind of habitual half-querulousness which belonged to
+it,--the vocal expression which we meet with now and then, and which
+says as plainly as so many words could say it, “I am a suffering
+individual. I am persistently undervalued, wronged, and imposed upon by
+mankind and the powers of the universe generally. But I endure all. I
+endure you. Speak. I listen. It is a burden to me, but I even approve. I
+sacrifice myself. Behold this movement of my lips! It is a smile.”
+
+The Reverend Doctor knew this forlorn way of Mr. Fairweather's, and
+was not troubled by it. He proceeded to relate the circumstances of his
+visit from the old black woman, and the fear she was in about the young
+girl, who being a parishioner of Mr. Fairweather's, he had thought it
+best to come over and speak to him about old Sophy's fears and fancies.
+
+In telling the old woman's story, he alluded only vaguely to those
+peculiar circumstances to which she had attributed so much importance,
+taking it for granted that the other minister must be familiar with
+the whole series of incidents she had related. The old minister was
+mistaken, as we have before seen. Mr. Fairweather had been settled in
+the place only about ten years, and, if he had heard a strange hint now
+and then about Elsie, had never considered it as anything more than
+idle and ignorant, if not malicious, village-gossip. All that he fully
+understood was that this had been a perverse and unmanageable child, and
+that the extraordinary care which had been bestowed on her had been so
+far thrown away that she was a dangerous, self-willed girl, whom all
+feared and almost all shunned, as if she carried with her some malignant
+influence.
+
+He replied, therefore, after hearing the story, that Elsie had always
+given trouble. There seemed to be a kind of natural obliquity about
+her. Perfectly unaccountable. A very dark case. Never amenable to good
+influences. Had sent her good books from the Sunday-school library.
+Remembered that she tore out the frontispiece of one of them, and kept
+it, and flung the book out of the window. It was a picture of
+Eve's temptation; and he recollected her saying that Eve was a good
+woman,--and she'd have done just so, if she'd been there. A very sad
+child, very sad; bad from infancy. He had talked himself bold, and
+said all at once, “Doctor, do you know I am almost ready to accept your
+doctrine of the congenital sinfulness of human nature? I am afraid that
+is the only thing which goes to the bottom of the difficulty.”
+
+The old minister's face did not open so approvingly as Mr. Fairweather
+had expected.
+
+“Why, yes,--well,--many find comfort in it,--I believe;--there is much
+to be said,--there are many bad people,--and bad children,--I can't
+be so sure about bad babies,--though they cry very malignantly at
+times,--especially if they have the stomach-ache. But I really don't
+know how to condemn this poor Elsie; she may have impulses that act
+in her like instincts in the lower animals, and so not come under the
+bearing of our ordinary rules of judgment.”
+
+“But this depraved tendency, Doctor,--this unaccountable perverseness.
+My dear Sir, I am afraid your school is in the right about human nature.
+Oh, those words of the Psalmist, 'shapen in iniquity,' and the rest!
+What are we to do with them,--we who teach that the soul of a child is
+an unstained white tablet?”
+
+“King David was very subject to fits of humility, and much given to
+self-reproaches,” said the Doctor, in a rather dry way. “We owe you and
+your friends a good deal for calling attention to the natural graces,
+which, after all, may, perhaps, be considered as another form of
+manifestation of the divine influence. Some of our writers have pressed
+rather too hard on the tendencies of the human soul toward evil as such.
+It maybe questioned whether these views have not interfered with the
+sound training of certain young persons, sons of clergymen and others.
+I am nearer of your mind about the possibility of educating children so
+that they shall become good Christians without any violent transition.
+That is what I should hope for from bringing them up 'in the nurture and
+admonition of the Lord.'”
+
+The younger minister looked puzzled, but presently answered, “Possibly
+we may have called attention to some neglected truths; but, after all, I
+fear we must go to the old school, if we want to get at the root of the
+matter. I know there is an outward amiability about many young persons,
+some young girls especially, that seems like genuine goodness; but I
+have been disposed of late to lean toward your view, that these human
+affections, as we see them in our children,--ours, I say, though I have
+not the fearful responsibility of training any of my own,--are only a
+kind of disguised and sinful selfishness.”
+
+The old minister groaned in spirit. His heart had been softened by
+the sweet influences of children and grandchildren. He thought of
+a half-sized grave in the burial-ground, and the fine, brave,
+noble-hearted boy he laid in it thirty years before,--the sweet,
+cheerful child who had made his home all sunshine until the day when he
+was brought into it, his long curls dripping, his fresh lips purpled in
+death,--foolish dear little blessed creature to throw himself into the
+deep water to save the drowning boy, who clung about him and carried him
+under! Disguised selfishness! And his granddaughter too, whose disguised
+selfishness was the light of his household!
+
+“Don't call it my view!” he said. “Abstractly, perhaps, all natures may
+be considered vitiated; but practically, as I see it in life, the divine
+grace keeps pace with the perverted instincts from infancy in many
+natures. Besides, this perversion itself may often be disease, bad
+habits transmitted, like drunkenness, or some hereditary misfortune, as
+with this Elsie we were talking about.”
+
+The younger minister was completely mystified. At every step he made
+towards the Doctor's recognized theological position, the Doctor took
+just one step towards his. They would cross each other soon at this
+rate, and might as well exchange pulpits,--as Colonel Sprowle once
+wished they would, it may be remembered.
+
+The Doctor, though a much clearer-headed man, was almost equally
+puzzled. He turned the conversation again upon Elsie, and endeavored
+to make her minister feel the importance of bringing every friendly
+influence to bear upon her at this critical period of her life. His
+sympathies did not seem so lively as the Doctor could have wished.
+Perhaps he had vastly more important objects of solicitude in his own
+spiritual interests.
+
+A knock at the door interrupted them. The Reverend Mr. Fairweather rose
+and went towards it. As he passed the table, his coat caught something,
+which came rattling to the floor. It was a crucifix with a string of
+beads attached. As he opened the door, the Milesian features of Father
+McShane presented themselves, and from their centre proceeded the
+clerical benediction in Irish-sounding Latin, Pax vobiscum!
+
+The Reverend Doctor Honeywood rose and left the priest and his disciple
+together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. THE SPIDER ON HIS THREAD.
+
+There was nobody, then, to counsel poor Elsie, except her father,
+who had learned to let her have her own way so as not to disturb such
+relations as they had together, and the old black woman, who had a
+real, though limited influence over the girl. Perhaps she did not need
+counsel. To look upon her, one might well suppose that she was
+competent to defend herself against any enemy she was like to have. That
+glittering, piercing eye was not to be softened by a few smooth words
+spoken in low tones, charged with the common sentiments which win their
+way to maidens' hearts. That round, lithe, sinuous figure was as full
+of dangerous life as ever lay under the slender flanks and clean-shaped
+limbs of a panther.
+
+There were particular times when Elsie was in such a mood that it must
+have been a bold person who would have intruded upon her with reproof or
+counsel. “This is one of her days,” old Sophy would say quietly to her
+father, and he would, as far as possible, leave her to herself. These
+days were more frequent, as old Sophy's keen, concentrated watchfulness
+had taught her, at certain periods of the year. It was in the heats of
+summer that they were most common and most strongly characterized. In
+winter, on the other hand, she was less excitable, and even at times
+heavy and as if chilled and dulled in her sensibilities. It was a
+strange, paroxysmal kind of life that belonged to her. It seemed to come
+and go with the sunlight. All winter long she would be comparatively
+quiet, easy to manage, listless, slow in her motions; her eye would lose
+something of its strange lustre; and the old nurse would feel so little
+anxiety, that her whole expression and aspect would show the change, and
+people would say to her, “Why, Sophy, how young you're looking!”
+
+As the spring came on, Elsie would leave the fireside, have her
+tiger-skin spread in the empty southern chamber next the wall, and lie
+there basking for whole hours in the sunshine. As the season warmed, the
+light would kindle afresh in her eyes, and the old woman's sleep would
+grow restless again,--for she knew, that, so long as the glitter
+was fierce in the girl's eyes, there was no trusting her impulses or
+movements.
+
+At last, when the veins of the summer were hot and swollen, and the
+juices of all the poison-plants and the blood of all the creatures that
+feed upon them had grown thick and strong,--about the time when the
+second mowing was in hand, and the brown, wet-faced men were following
+up the scythes as they chased the falling waves of grass, (falling as
+the waves fall on sickle-curved beaches; the foam-flowers dropping
+as the grass-flowers drop,--with sharp semivowel consonantal
+sounds,--frsh,--for that is the way the sea talks, and leaves all pure
+vowel-sounds for the winds to breathe over it, and all mutes to the
+unyielding earth,)--about this time of over-ripe midsummer, the life of
+Elsie seemed fullest of its malign and restless instincts. This was
+the period of the year when the Rockland people were most cautious of
+wandering in the leafier coverts which skirted the base of The Mountain,
+and the farmers liked to wear thick, long boots, whenever they went
+into the bushes. But Elsie was never so much given to roaming over
+The Mountain as at this season; and as she had grown more absolute and
+uncontrollable, she was as like to take the night as the day for her
+rambles.
+
+At this season, too, all her peculiar tastes in dress and ornament came
+out in a more striking way than at other times. She was never so superb
+as then, and never so threatening in her scowling beauty. The barred
+skirts she always fancied showed sharply beneath her diaphanous muslins;
+the diamonds often glittered on her breast as if for her own pleasure
+rather than to dazzle others; the asp-like bracelet hardly left her arm.
+She was never seen without some necklace,--either the golden cord she
+wore at the great party, or a chain of mosaics, or simply a ring of
+golden scales. Some said that Elsie always slept in a necklace, and that
+when she died she was to be buried in one. It was a fancy of hers,--but
+many thought there was a reason for it.
+
+Nobody watched Elsie with a more searching eye than her cousin, Dick
+Venner. He had kept more out of her way of late, it is true, but there
+was not a movement she made which he did not carefully observe just so
+far as he could without exciting her suspicion. It was plain enough to
+him that the road to fortune was before him, and that the first thing
+was to marry Elsie. What course he should take with her, or with others
+interested, after marrying her, need not be decided in a hurry.
+
+He had now done all he could expect to do at present in the way of
+conciliating the other members of the household. The girl's father
+tolerated him, if he did not even like him. Whether he suspected his
+project or not Dick did not feel sure; but it was something to have got
+a foothold in the house, and to have overcome any prepossession against
+him which his uncle might have entertained. To be a good listener and
+a bad billiard-player was not a very great sacrifice to effect this
+object. Then old Sophy could hardly help feeling well-disposed towards
+him, after the gifts he had bestowed on her and the court he had paid
+her. These were the only persons on the place of much importance to gain
+over. The people employed about the house and farm-lands had little to
+do with Elsie, except to obey her without questioning her commands.
+
+Mr. Richard began to think of reopening his second parallel. But he had
+lost something of the coolness with which he had begun his system of
+operations. The more he had reflected upon the matter, the more he had
+convinced himself that this was his one great chance in life. If he
+suffered this girl to escape him, such an opportunity could hardly,
+in the nature of things, present itself a second time. Only one life
+between Elsie and her fortune,--and lives are so uncertain! The girl
+might not suit him as a wife. Possibly. Time enough to find out after he
+had got her. In short, he must have the property, and Elsie Venner,
+as she was to go with it,--and then, if he found it convenient and
+agreeable to, lead a virtuous life, he would settle down and
+raise children and vegetables; but if he found it inconvenient and
+disagreeable, so much the worse for those who made it so. Like many
+other persons, he was not principled against virtue, provided virtue
+were a better investment than its opposite; but he knew that there
+might be contingencies in which the property would be better without its
+incumbrances, and he contemplated this conceivable problem in the light
+of all its possible solutions.
+
+One thing Mr. Richard could not conceal from himself: Elsie had some
+new cause of indifference, at least, if not of aversion to him. With the
+acuteness which persons who make a sole business of their own interest
+gain by practice, so that fortune-hunters are often shrewd where real
+lovers are terribly simple, he fixed at once on the young man up at the
+school where the girl had been going of late, as probably at the bottom
+of it.
+
+“Cousin Elsie in love!” so he communed with himself upon his lonely
+pillow. “In love with a Yankee schoolmaster! What else can it be? Let
+him look out for himself! He'll stand but a bad chance between us. What
+makes you think she's in love with him? Met her walking with him. Don't
+like her looks and ways;--she's thinking about something, anyhow.
+Where does she get those books she is reading so often? Not out of our
+library, that 's certain. If I could have ten minutes' peep into her
+chamber now, I would find out where she got them, and what mischief she
+was up to.”
+
+At that instant, as if some tributary demon had heard his wish, a shape
+which could be none but Elsie's flitted through a gleam of moonlight
+into the shadow of the trees. She was setting out on one of her midnight
+rambles.
+
+Dick felt his heart stir in its place, and presently his cheeks flushed
+with the old longing for an adventure. It was not much to invade a young
+girl's deserted chamber, but it would amuse a wakeful hour, and tell him
+some little matters he wanted to know. The chamber he slept in was over
+the room which Elsie chiefly occupied at this season. There was no
+great risk of his being seen or heard, if he ventured down-stairs to her
+apartment.
+
+Mr. Richard Venner, in the pursuit of his interesting project, arose
+and lighted a lamp. He wrapped himself in a dressing-gown and thrust his
+feet into a pair of cloth slippers. He stole carefully down the stair,
+and arrived safely at the door of Elsie's room.
+
+The young lady had taken the natural precaution to leave it fastened,
+carrying the key with her, no doubt,--unless; indeed, she had got out by
+the window, which was not far from the ground. Dick could get in at
+this window easily enough, but he did not like the idea of leaving
+his footprints in the flower-bed just under it. He returned to his own
+chamber, and held a council of war with himself.
+
+He put his head out of his own window and looked at that beneath. It was
+open. He then went to one of his trunks, which he unlocked, and began
+carefully removing its contents. What these were we need not stop to
+mention,--only remarking that there were dresses of various patterns,
+which might afford an agreeable series of changes, and in certain
+contingencies prove eminently useful. After removing a few of these, he
+thrust his hand to the very bottom of the remaining pile and drew out
+a coiled strip of leather many yards in length, ending in a noose,--a
+tough, well-seasoned lasso, looking as if it had seen service and was
+none the worse for it. He uncoiled a few yards of this and fastened it
+to the knob of a door. Then he threw the loose end out of the window so
+that it should hang by the open casement of Elsie's room. By this he let
+himself down opposite her window, and with a slight effort swung himself
+inside the room. He lighted a match, found a candle, and, having lighted
+that, looked curiously about him, as Clodius might have done when he
+smuggled himself in among the Vestals.
+
+Elsie's room was almost as peculiar as her dress and ornaments. It was
+a kind of museum of objects, such as the woods are full of to those who
+have eyes to see them, but many of them such as only few could hope to
+reach, even if they knew where to look for them. Crows' nests, which
+are never found but in the tall trees, commonly enough in the forks of
+ancient hemlocks, eggs of rare birds, which must have taken a quick eye
+and a hard climb to find and get hold of, mosses and ferns of unusual
+aspect, and quaint monstrosities of vegetable growth, such as Nature
+delights in, showed that Elsie had her tastes and fancies like any
+naturalist or poet.
+
+Nature, when left to her own freaks in the forest, is grotesque and
+fanciful to the verge of license, and beyond it. The foliage of trees
+does not always require clipping to make it look like an image of life.
+From those windows at Canoe Meadow, among the mountains, we could see
+all summer long a lion rampant, a Shanghai chicken, and General Jackson
+on horseback, done by Nature in green leaves, each with a single tree.
+But to Nature's tricks with boughs and roots and smaller vegetable
+growths there is no end. Her fancy is infinite, and her humor not always
+refined. There is a perpetual reminiscence of animal life in her rude
+caricatures, which sometimes actually reach the point of imitating the
+complete human figure, as in that extraordinary specimen which nobody
+will believe to be genuine, except the men of science, and of which the
+discreet reader may have a glimpse by application in the proper quarter.
+
+Elsie had gathered so many of these sculpture-like monstrosities, that
+one might have thought she had robbed old Sophy's grandfather of his
+fetishes. They helped to give her room a kind of enchanted look, as if
+a witch had her home in it. Over the fireplace was a long, staff-like
+branch, strangled in the spiral coils of one of those vines which strain
+the smaller trees in their clinging embraces, sinking into the bark
+until the parasite becomes almost identified with its support. With
+these sylvan curiosities were blended objects of art, some of them not
+less singular, but others showing a love for the beautiful in form
+and color, such as a girl of fine organization and nice culture might
+naturally be expected to feel and to indulge, in adorning her apartment.
+
+All these objects, pictures, bronzes, vases, and the rest, did not
+detain Mr. Richard Veneer very long, whatever may have been his
+sensibilities to art. He was more curious about books and papers. A copy
+of Keats lay on the table. He opened it and read the name of Bernard
+C. Langdon on the blank leaf. An envelope was on the table with Elsie's
+name written in a similar hand; but the envelope was empty, and he could
+not find the note it contained. Her desk was locked, and it would not be
+safe to tamper with it. He had seen enough; the girl received books
+and notes from this fellow up at the school, this usher, this Yankee
+quill-driver;--he was aspiring to become the lord of the Dudley domain,
+then, was he?
+
+Elsie had been reasonably careful. She had locked up her papers,
+whatever they might be. There was little else that promised to
+reward his curiosity, but he cast his eye on everything. There was a
+clasp-Bible among her books. Dick wondered if she ever unclasped it.
+There was a book of hymns; it had her name in it, and looked as if it
+might have been often read;--what the diablo had Elsie to do with hymns?
+
+Mr. Richard Venner was in an observing and analytical state of mind, it
+will be noticed, or he might perhaps have been touched with the innocent
+betrayals of the poor girl's chamber. Had she, after all, some human
+tenderness in her heart? That was not the way he put the question,--but
+whether she would take seriously to this schoolmaster, and if she did,
+what would be the neatest and surest and quickest way of putting a stop
+to all that nonsense. All this, however, he could think over more safely
+in his own quarters. So he stole softly to the window, and, catching
+the end of the leathern thong, regained his own chamber and drew in the
+lasso.
+
+It needs only a little jealousy to set a man on who is doubtful in love
+or wooing, or to make him take hold of his courting in earnest. As soon
+as Dick had satisfied himself that the young schoolmaster was his rival
+in Elsie's good graces, his whole thoughts concentrated themselves more
+than ever on accomplishing his great design of securing her for himself.
+There was no time to be lost. He must come into closer relations with
+her, so as to withdraw her thoughts from this fellow, and to find out
+more exactly what was the state of her affections, if she had any. So he
+began to court her company again, to propose riding with her, to sing to
+her, to join her whenever she was strolling about the grounds, to make
+himself agreeable, according to the ordinary understanding of that
+phrase, in every way which seemed to promise a chance for succeeding in
+that amiable effort.
+
+The girl treated him more capriciously than ever. She would be sullen
+and silent, or she would draw back fiercely at some harmless word or
+gesture, or she would look at him with her eyes narrowed in such a
+strange way and with such a wicked light in them that Dick swore to
+himself they were too much for him, and would leave her for the moment.
+Yet she tolerated him, almost as a matter of necessity, and sometimes
+seemed to take a kind of pleasure in trying her power upon him. This he
+soon found out, and humored her in the fancy that she could exercise
+a kind of fascination over him, though there were times in which he
+actually felt an influence he could not understand, an effect of some
+peculiar expression about her, perhaps, but still centring in those
+diamond eyes of hers which it made one feel so curiously to look into.
+
+Whether Elsie saw into his object or not was more than he could tell.
+His idea was, after having conciliated the good-will of all about her as
+far as possible, to make himself first a habit and then a necessity
+with the girl,--not to spring any trap of a declaration upon her until
+tolerance had grown into such a degree of inclination as her nature was
+like to admit. He had succeeded in the first part of his plan. He was at
+liberty to prolong his visit at his own pleasure. This was not strange;
+these three persons, Dudley Venner, his daughter, and his nephew,
+represented all that remained of an old and honorable family. Had
+Elsie been like other girls, her father might have been less willing
+to entertain a young fellow like Dick as an inmate; but he had long
+outgrown all the slighter apprehensions which he might have had in
+common with all parents, and followed rather than led the imperious
+instincts of his daughter. It was not a question of sentiment, but of
+life and death, or more than that,--some dark ending, perhaps, which
+would close the history of his race with disaster and evil report upon
+the lips of all coming generations.
+
+As to the thought of his nephew's making love to his daughter, it had
+almost passed from his mind. He had been so long in the habit of looking
+at Elsie as outside of all common influences and exceptional in the law
+of her nature, that it was difficult for him to think of her as a girl
+to be fallen in love with. Many persons are surprised, when others
+court their female relatives; they know them as good young or old women
+enough,--aunts, sisters, nieces, daughters, whatever they may be,--but
+never think of anybody's falling in love with them, any more than of
+their being struck by lightning. But in this case there were special
+reasons, in addition to the common family delusion,--reasons which
+seemed to make it impossible that she should attract a suitor. Who would
+dare to marry Elsie? No, let her have the pleasure, if it was one, at
+any rate the wholesome excitement, of companionship; it might save her
+from lapsing into melancholy or a worse form of madness. Dudley Venner
+had a kind of superstition, too, that, if Elsie could only outlive three
+septenaries, twenty-one years, so that, according to the prevalent idea,
+her whole frame would have been thrice made over, counting from her
+birth, she would revert to the natural standard of health of mind and
+feelings from which she had been so long perverted. The thought of any
+other motive than love being sufficient to induce Richard to become
+her suitor had not occurred to him. He had married early, at that happy
+period when interested motives are least apt to influence the choice;
+and his single idea of marriage was, that it was the union of persons
+naturally drawn towards each other by some mutual attraction. Very
+simple, perhaps; but he had lived lonely for many years since his wife's
+death, and judged the hearts of others, most of all of his brother's
+son, by his own. He had often thought whether, in case of Elsie's dying
+or being necessarily doomed to seclusion, he might not adopt this nephew
+and make him his heir; but it had not occurred to him that Richard might
+wish to become his son-in-law for the sake of his property.
+
+It is very easy to criticise other people's modes of dealing with their
+children. Outside observers see results; parents see processes. They
+notice the trivial movements and accents which betray the blood of
+this or that ancestor; they can detect the irrepressible movement of
+hereditary impulse in looks and acts which mean nothing to the common
+observer. To be a parent is almost to be a fatalist. This boy sits
+with legs crossed, just as his uncle used to whom he never saw; his
+grandfathers both died before he was born, but he has the movement of
+the eyebrows which we remember in one of them, and the gusty temper
+of three different generations, can tell pretty nearly the range of
+possibilities and the limitations of a child, actual or potential, of a
+given stock,--errors excepted always, because children of the same stock
+are not bred just alike, because the traits of some less known ancestor
+are liable to break out at any time, and because each human being has,
+after all, a small fraction of individuality about him which gives him a
+flavor, so that he is distinguishable from others by his friends or in a
+court of justice, and which occasionally makes a genius or a saint or a
+criminal of him. It is well that young persons cannot read these fatal
+oracles of Nature. Blind impulse is her highest wisdom, after all. We
+make our great jump, and then she takes the bandage off our eyes.
+That is the way the broad sea-level of average is maintained, and the
+physiological democracy is enabled to fight against the principle
+of selection which would disinherit all the weaker children. The
+magnificent constituency of mediocrities of which the world is made
+up,--the people without biographies, whose lives have made a clear
+solution in the fluid menstruum of time, instead of being precipitated
+in the opaque sediment of history--
+
+But this is a narrative, and not a disquisition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. FROM WITHOUT AND FROM WITHIN.
+
+There were not wanting people who accused Dudley VENNER of weakness and
+bad judgment in his treatment of his daughter. Some were of opinion that
+the great mistake was in not “breaking her will” when she was a little
+child. There was nothing the matter with her, they said, but that she
+had been spoiled by indulgence. If they had had the charge of her,
+they'd have brought her down. She'd got the upperhand of her father now;
+but if he'd only taken hold of her in season! There are people who think
+that everything may be done, if the doer, be he educator or physician,
+be only called “in season.” No doubt,--but in season would often be a
+hundred or two years before the child was born; and people never send so
+early as that.
+
+The father of Elsie Veneer knew his duties and his difficulties too well
+to trouble himself about anything others might think or say. So soon
+as he found that he could not govern his child, he gave his life up to
+following her and protecting her as far as he could. It was a stern and
+terrible trial for a man of acute sensibility, and not without force
+of intellect and will, and the manly ambition for himself and his
+family-name which belonged to his endowments and his position. Passive
+endurance is the hardest trial to persons of such a nature.
+
+What made it still more a long martyrdom was the necessity for bearing
+his cross in utter loneliness. He could not tell his griefs. He could
+not talk of them even with those who knew their secret spring. His
+minister had the unsympathetic nature which is common in the meaner sort
+of devotees,--persons who mistake spiritual selfishness for sanctity,
+and grab at the infinite prize of the great Future and Elsewhere with
+the egotism they excommunicate in its hardly more odious forms of
+avarice and self-indulgence. How could he speak with the old physician
+and the old black woman about a sorrow and a terror which but to name
+was to strike dumb the lips of Consolation?
+
+In the dawn of his manhood he had found that second consciousness for
+which young men and young women go about looking into each other's
+faces, with their sweet, artless aim playing in every feature, and
+making them beautiful to each other, as to all of us. He had found his
+other self early, before he had grown weary in the search and wasted his
+freshness in vain longings: the lot of many, perhaps we may say of most,
+who infringe the patent of our social order by intruding themselves
+into a life already upon half allowance of the necessary luxuries of
+existence. The life he had led for a brief space was not only beautiful
+in outward circumstance, as old Sophy had described it to the Reverend
+Doctor. It was that delicious process of the tuning of two souls to each
+other, string by string, not without little half-pleasing discords now
+and then when some chord in one or the other proves to be overstrained
+or over-lax, but always approaching nearer and nearer to harmony, until
+they become at last as two instruments with a single voice. Something
+more than a year of this blissful doubled consciousness had passed over
+him when he found himself once more alone,--alone, save for the little
+diamond-eyed child lying in the old black woman's arms, with the coral
+necklace round--her throat and the rattle in her hand.
+
+He would not die by his own act. It was not the way in his family. There
+may have been other, perhaps better reasons, but this was enough; he did
+not come of suicidal stock. He must live for this child's sake, at any
+rate; and yet,--oh, yet, who could tell with what thoughts he looked
+upon her? Sometimes her little features would look placid, and something
+like a smile would steal over them; then all his tender feelings would
+rush up, into his eyes, and he would put his arms out to take her from
+the old woman,--but all at once her eyes would narrow and she would
+throw her head back, and a shudder would seize him as he stooped over
+his child,--he could not look upon her,--he could not touch his lips to
+her cheek; nay, there would sometimes come into his soul such frightful
+suggestions that he would hurry from the room lest the hinted thought
+should become a momentary madness and he should lift his hand against
+the hapless infant which owed him life.
+
+In those miserable days he used to wander all over The Mountain in his
+restless endeavor to seek some relief for inward suffering in outward
+action. He had no thought of throwing himself from the summit of any of
+the broken cliffs, but he clambered over them recklessly, as having no
+particular care for his life. Sometimes he would go into the accursed
+district where the venomous reptiles were always to be dreaded, and
+court their worst haunts, and kill all he could come near with a kind of
+blind fury which was strange in a person of his gentle nature.
+
+One overhanging cliff was a favorite haunt of his. It frowned upon
+his home beneath in a very menacing way; he noticed slight seams and
+fissures that looked ominous;--what would happen, if it broke off some
+time or other and came crashing down on the fields and roofs below? He
+thought of such a possible catastrophe with a singular indifference, in
+fact with a feeling almost like pleasure. It would be such a swift and
+thorough solution of this great problem of life he was working out
+in ever-recurring daily anguish! The remote possibility of such a
+catastrophe had frightened some timid dwellers beneath The Mountain to
+other places of residence; here the danger was most imminent, and yet he
+loved to dwell upon the chances of its occurrence. Danger is often the
+best counterirritant in cases of mental suffering; he found a solace in
+careless exposure of his life, and learned to endure the trials of each
+day better by dwelling in imagination on the possibility that it might
+be the last for him and the home that was his.
+
+Time, the great consoler, helped these influences, and he gradually fell
+into more easy and less dangerous habits of life. He ceased from his
+more perilous rambles. He thought less of the danger from the great
+overhanging rocks and forests; they had hung there for centuries; it
+was not very likely they would crash or slide in his time. He became
+accustomed to all Elsie's strange looks and ways. Old Sophy dressed her
+with ruffles round her neck, and hunted up the red coral branch with
+silver bells which the little toothless Dudleys had bitten upon for
+a hundred years. By an infinite effort, her father forced himself to
+become the companion of this child, for whom he had such a mingled
+feeling, but whose presence was always a trial to him, and often a
+terror.
+
+At a cost which no human being could estimate, he had done his duty, and
+in some degree reaped his reward. Elsie grew up with a kind of filial
+feeling for him, such as her nature was capable of. She never would obey
+him; that was not to be looked for. Commands, threats, punishments, were
+out of the question with her; the mere physical effects of crossing her
+will betrayed themselves in such changes of expression and manner that
+it would have been senseless to attempt to govern her in any such way.
+Leaving her mainly to herself, she could be to some extent indirectly
+influenced,--not otherwise. She called her father “Dudley,” as if he had
+been her brother. She ordered everybody and would be ordered by none.
+
+Who could know all these things, except the few people of the household?
+What wonder, therefore, that ignorant and shallow persons laid the blame
+on her father of those peculiarities which were freely talked about,--of
+those darker tendencies which were hinted of in whispers? To all this
+talk, so far as it reached him, he was supremely indifferent, not only
+with the indifference which all gentlemen feel to the gossip of their
+inferiors, but with a charitable calmness which did not wonder or blame.
+He knew that his position was not simply a difficult, but an impossible
+one, and schooled himself to bear his destiny as well as he might, and
+report himself only at Headquarters.
+
+He had grown gentle under this discipline. His hair was just beginning
+to be touched with silver, and his expression was that of habitual
+sadness and anxiety. He had no counsellor, as we have seen, to turn to,
+who did not know either too much or too little. He had no heart to rest
+upon and into which he might unburden himself of the secrets and the
+sorrows that were aching in his own breast. Yet he had not allowed
+himself to run to waste in the long time since he was left alone to
+his trials and fears. He had resisted the seductions which always beset
+solitary men with restless brains overwrought by depressing agencies.
+He disguised no misery to himself with the lying delusion of wine. He
+sought no sleep from narcotics, though he lay with throbbing, wide-open
+eyes through all the weary hours of the night.
+
+It was understood between Dudley Veneer and old Doctor Kittredge that
+Elsie was a subject of occasional medical observation, on account of
+certain mental peculiarities which might end in a permanent affection of
+her reason. Beyond this nothing was said, whatever may have been in the
+mind of either. But Dudley Veneer had studied Elsie's case in the
+light of all the books he could find which might do anything towards
+explaining it. As in all cases where men meddle with medical science
+for a special purpose, having no previous acquaintance with it, his
+imagination found what it wanted in the books he read, and adjusted it
+to the facts before him. So it was he came to cherish those two fancies
+before alluded to that the ominous birthmark she had carried from
+infancy might fade and become obliterated, and that the age of complete
+maturity might be signalized by an entire change in her physical and
+mental state. He held these vague hopes as all of us nurse our only
+half-believed illusions. Not for the world would he have questioned his
+sagacious old medical friend as to the probability or possibility of
+their being true. We are very shy of asking questions of those who know
+enough to destroy with one word the hopes we live on.
+
+In this life of comparative seclusion to which the father had doomed
+himself for the sake of his child, he had found time for large and
+varied reading. The learned Judge Thornton confessed himself surprised
+at the extent of Dudley Veneer's information. Doctor Kittredge found
+that he was in advance of him in the knowledge of recent physiological
+discoveries. He had taken pains to become acquainted with agricultural
+chemistry; and the neighboring farmers owed him some useful hints about
+the management of their land. He renewed his old acquaintance with the
+classic authors. He loved to warm his pulses with Homer and calm them
+down with Horace. He received all manner of new books and periodicals,
+and gradually gained an interest in the events of the passing time.
+Yet he remained almost a hermit, not absolutely refusing to see his
+neighbors, nor even churlish towards them, but on the other hand not
+cultivating any intimate relations with them.
+
+He had retired from the world a young man, little more than a
+youth, indeed, with sentiments and aspirations all of them suddenly
+extinguished. The first had bequeathed him a single huge sorrow, the
+second a single trying duty. In due time the anguish had lost something
+of its poignancy, the light of earlier and happier memories had begun to
+struggle with and to soften its thick darkness, and even that duty which
+he had confronted with such an effort had become an endurable habit.
+
+At a period of life when many have been living on the capital of their
+acquired knowledge and their youthful stock of sensibilities until their
+intellects are really shallower and their hearts emptier than they were
+at twenty, Dudley Veneer was stronger in thought and tenderer in soul
+than in the first freshness of his youth, when he counted but half his
+present years. He had entered that period which marks the decline of men
+who have ceased growing in knowledge and strength: from forty to fifty
+a man must move upward, or the natural falling off in the vigor of life
+will carry him rapidly downward. At this time his inward: nature was
+richer and deeper than in any earlier period of his life. If he could
+only be summoned to action, he was capable of noble service. If his
+sympathies could only find an outlet, he was never so capable of love as
+now; for his natural affections had been gathering in the course of all
+these years, and the traces of that ineffaceable calamity of his
+life were softened and partially hidden by new growths of thought and
+feeling, as the wreck left by a mountainslide is covered over by the
+gentle intrusion of the soft-stemmed herbs which will prepare it for the
+stronger vegetation that will bring it once more into harmony with the
+peaceful slopes around it.
+
+Perhaps Dudley Veneer had not gained so much in worldly wisdom as if
+he had been more in society and less in his study. The indulgence with
+which he treated his nephew was, no doubt, imprudent. A man more in the
+habit of dealing with men would have been more guarded with a person
+with Dick's questionable story and unquestionable physiognomy. But he
+was singularly unsuspicious, and his natural kindness was an additional
+motive to the wish for introducing some variety into the routine of
+Elsie's life.
+
+If Dudley Veneer did not know just what he wanted at this period of his
+life, there were a great many people in the town of Rockland who thought
+they did know. He had been a widower long enough, “--nigh twenty year,
+wa'n't it? He'd been aout to Spraowles's party,--there wa'n't anything
+to hender him why he shouldn't stir raound l'k other folks. What was the
+reason he did n't go abaout to taown-meetin's 'n' Sahbath-meetin's,
+'n' lyceums, 'n' school 'xaminations, 'n' s'prise-parties, 'n'
+funerals,--and other entertainments where the still-faced two-story
+folks were in the habit of looking round to see if any of the
+mansion-house gentry were present?--Fac' was, he was livin' too lonesome
+daown there at the mansion-haouse. Why shouldn't he make up to the
+Jedge's daughter? She was genteel enough for him, and--let's see, haow
+old was she? Seven-'n'itwenty,--no, six-'n'-twenty,--born the same year
+we buried our little Anny Marl”.
+
+There was no possible objection to this arrangement, if the parties
+interested had seen fit to make it or even to think of it. But “Portia,”
+ as some of the mansion-house people called her, did not happen to awaken
+the elective affinities of the lonely widower. He met her once in a
+while, and said to himself that she was a good specimen of the grand
+style of woman; and then the image came back to him of a woman not quite
+so large, not quite so imperial in her port, not quite so incisive in
+her speech, not quite so judicial in her opinions, but with two or
+three more joints in her frame, and two or three soft inflections in her
+voice, which for some absurd reason or other drew him to her side and so
+bewitched him that he told her half his secrets and looked into her eyes
+all that he could not tell, in less time than it would have takes him
+to discuss the champion paper of the last Quarterly with the admirable
+“Portia.” Heu, quanto minus! How much more was that lost image to him
+than all it left on earth!
+
+The study of love is very much like that of meteorology. We know that
+just about so much rain will fall in a season; but on what particular
+day it will shower is more than we can tell. We know that just about so
+much love will be made every year in a given population; but who will
+rain his young affections upon the heart of whom is not known except to
+the astrologers and fortune-tellers. And why rain falls as it does and
+why love is made just as it is are equally puzzling questions.
+
+The woman a man loves is always his own daughter, far more his daughter
+than the female children born to him by the common law of life. It is
+not the outside woman, who takes his name, that he loves: before her
+image has reached the centre of his consciousness, it has passed through
+fifty many-layered nerve-strainers, been churned over by ten thousand
+pulse-beats, and reacted upon by millions of lateral impulses which
+bandy it about through the mental spaces as a reflection is sent back
+and forward in a saloon lined with mirrors. With this altered image of
+the woman before him, his preexisting ideal becomes blended. The object
+of his love is in part the offspring of her legal parents, but more of
+her lover's brain. The difference between the real and the ideal objects
+of love must not exceed a fixed maximum. The heart's vision cannot unite
+them stereoscopically into a single image, if the divergence passes
+certain limits. A formidable analogy, much in the nature of a proof,
+with very serious consequences, which moralists and match-makers would
+do well to remember! Double vision with the eyes of the heart is a
+dangerous physiological state, and may lead to missteps and serious
+falls.
+
+Whether Dudley Veneer would ever find a breathing image near enough to
+his ideal one, to fill the desolate chamber of his heart, or not, was
+very doubtful. Some gracious and gentle woman, whose influence would
+steal upon him as the first low words of prayer after that interval of
+silent mental supplication known to one of our simpler forms of public
+worship, gliding into his consciousness without hurting its old griefs,
+herself knowing the chastening of sorrow, and subdued into sweet
+acquiescence with the Divine will,--some such woman as this, if Heaven
+should send him such, might call him back to the world of happiness,
+from which he seemed forever exiled. He could never again be the young
+lover who walked through the garden-alleys all red with roses in the old
+dead and buried June of long ago. He could never forget the bride of his
+youth, whose image, growing phantomlike with the lapse of years, hovered
+over him like a dream while waking and like a reality in dreams. But if
+it might be in God's good providence that this desolate life should come
+under the influence of human affections once more, what an ecstasy of
+renewed existence was in store for him! His life had not all been buried
+under that narrow ridge of turf with the white stone at its head. It
+seemed so for a while; but it was not and could not and ought not to be
+so. His first passion had been a true and pure one; there was no spot or
+stain upon it. With all his grief there blended no cruel recollection
+of any word or look he would have wished to forget. All those little
+differences, such as young married people with any individual flavor in
+their characters must have, if they are tolerably mated, had only added
+to the music of existence, as the lesser discords admitted into some
+perfect symphony, fitly resolved, add richness and strength to the whole
+harmonious movement. It was a deep wound that Fate had inflicted on him;
+nay, it seemed like a mortal one; but the weapon was clean, and its edge
+was smooth. Such wounds must heal with time in healthy natures, whatever
+a false sentiment may say, by the wise and beneficent law of our
+being. The recollection of a deep and true affection is rather a divine
+nourishment for a life to grow strong upon than a poison to destroy it.
+
+Dudley Venner's habitual sadness could not be laid wholly to his early
+bereavement. It was partly the result of the long struggle between
+natural affection and duty, on one side, and the involuntary tendencies
+these had to overcome, on the other,--between hope and fear, so long
+in conflict that despair itself would have been like an anodyne, and he
+would have slept upon some final catastrophe with the heavy sleep of a
+bankrupt after his failure is proclaimed. Alas! some new affection might
+perhaps rekindle the fires of youth in his heart; but what power could
+calm that haggard terror of the parent which rose with every morning's
+sun and watched with every evening star,--what power save alone that of
+him who comes bearing the inverted torch, and leaving after him only the
+ashes printed with his footsteps?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. THE WIDOW ROWENS GIVES A TEA-PARTY.
+
+There was a good deal of interest felt, as has been said, in the lonely
+condition of Dudley Venner in that fine mansion-house of his, and
+with that strange daughter, who would never be married, as many people
+thought, in spite of all the stories. The feelings expressed by the good
+folks who dated from the time when they “buried aour little Anny Mari',”
+ and others of that homespun stripe, were founded in reason, after all.
+And so it was natural enough that they should be shared by various
+ladies, who, having conjugated the verb to live as far as the
+preterpluperfect tense, were ready to change one of its vowels and begin
+with it in the present indicative. Unfortunately, there was very little
+chance of showing sympathy in its active form for a gentleman who kept
+himself so much out of the way as the master of the Dudley Mansion.
+
+Various attempts had been made, from time to time, of late years, to get
+him out of his study, which had, for the most part, proved failures. It
+was a surprise, therefore, when he was seen at the Great Party at
+the Colonel's. But it was an encouragement to try him again, and the
+consequence had been that he had received a number of notes inviting him
+to various smaller entertainments, which, as neither he nor Elsie had
+any fancy for them, he had politely declined.
+
+Such was the state of things when he received an invitation to take tea
+sociably, with a few friends, at Hyacinth Cottage, the residence of the
+Widow Rowens, relict of the late Beeri Rowens, Esquire, better known as
+Major Rowens. Major Rowens was at the time of his decease a promising
+officer in the militia, in the direct line of promotion, as his
+waistband was getting tighter every year; and, as all the world knows,
+the militia-officer who splits off most buttons and fills the largest
+sword-belt stands the best chance of rising, or, perhaps we might say,
+spreading, to be General.
+
+Major Rowens united in his person certain other traits which help a man
+to eminence in the branch of public service referred to. He ran to high
+colors, to wide whiskers, to open pores; he had the saddle-leather skin
+common in Englishmen, rarer in Americans,--never found in the Brahmin
+caste, oftener in the military and the commodores: observing people know
+what is meant; blow the seed-arrows from the white-kid-looking button
+which holds them on a dandelion-stalk, and the pricked-pincushion
+surface shows you what to look for. He had the loud gruff voice which
+implies the right to command. He had the thick hand, stubbed fingers,
+with bristled pads between their joints, square, broad thumb-nails, and
+sturdy limbs, which mark a constitution made to use in rough out-door
+work. He had the never-failing predilection for showy switch-tailed
+horses that step high, and sidle about, and act as if they were going to
+do something fearful the next minute, in the face of awed and admiring
+multitudes gathered at mighty musters or imposing cattle-shows. He had
+no objection, either, to holding the reins in a wagon behind another
+kind of horse,--a slouching, listless beast, with a strong slant to his
+shoulder; and a notable depth to his quarter and an emphatic angle at
+the hock, who commonly walked or lounged along in a lazy trot of five
+or six miles an hour; but, if a lively colt happened to come rattling up
+alongside, or a brandy-faced old horse-jockey took the road to show off
+a fast nag, and threw his dust into the Major's face, would pick his
+legs up all at once, and straighten his body out, and swing off into a
+three-minute gait, in a way that “Old Blue” himself need not have been
+ashamed of.
+
+For some reason which must be left to the next generation of professors
+to find out, the men who are knowing in horse-flesh have an eye also
+for, let a long dash separate the brute creation from the angelic
+being now to be named,--for lovely woman. Of this fact there can be no
+possible doubt; and therefore you shall notice, that, if a fast
+horse trots before two, one of the twain is apt to be a pretty bit of
+muliebrity, with shapes to her, and eyes flying about in all directions.
+
+Major Rowens, at that time Lieutenant of the Rockland Fusileers, had
+driven and “traded” horses not a few before he turned his acquired skill
+as a judge of physical advantages in another direction. He knew a neat,
+snug hoof, a delicate pastern, a broad haunch, a deep chest, a close
+ribbed-up barrel, as well as any other man in the town. He was not to be
+taken in by your thick-jointed, heavy-headed cattle, without any go
+to them, that suit a country-parson, nor yet by the “gaanted-up,”
+ long-legged animals, with all their constitutions bred out of them, such
+as rich greenhorns buy and cover up with their plated trappings.
+
+Whether his equine experience was of any use to him in the selection of
+the mate with whom he was to go in double harness so long as they both
+should live, we need not stop to question. At any rate, nobody could
+find fault with the points of Miss Marilla Van Deusen, to whom he
+offered the privilege of becoming Mrs. Rowens. The Van must have been
+crossed out of her blood, for she was an out-and-out brunette, with hair
+and eyes black enough for a Mohawk's daughter. A fine style of woman,
+with very striking tints and outlines,--an excellent match for the
+Lieutenant, except for one thing. She was marked by Nature for a widow.
+She was evidently got up for mourning, and never looked so well as in
+deep black, with jet ornaments.
+
+The man who should dare to marry her would doom himself; for how could
+she become the widow she was bound to be, unless he could retire and
+give her a chance? The Lieutenant lived, however, as we have seen, to
+become Captain and then Major, with prospects of further advancement.
+But Mrs. Rowens often said she should never look well in colors. At last
+her destiny fulfilled itself, and the justice of Nature was vindicated.
+Major Rowens got overheated galloping about the field on the day of
+the Great Muster, and had a rush of blood to the head, according to the
+common report,--at any rate, something which stopped him short in his
+career of expansion and promotion, and established Mrs. Rowens in her
+normal condition of widowhood.
+
+The Widow Rowens was now in the full bloom of ornamental sorrow. A very
+shallow crape bonnet, frilled and froth-like, allowed the parted raven
+hair to show its glossy smoothness. A jet pin heaved upon her bosom with
+every sigh of memory, or emotion of unknown origin. Jet bracelets shone
+with every movement of her slender hands, cased in close-fitting black
+gloves. Her sable dress was ridged with manifold flounces, from beneath
+which a small foot showed itself from time to time, clad in the same
+hue of mourning. Everything about her was dark, except the whites of her
+eyes and the enamel of her teeth. The effect was complete. Gray's Elegy
+was not a more perfect composition.
+
+Much as the Widow was pleased with the costume belonging to her
+condition, she did not disguise from herself that under certain
+circumstances she might be willing to change her name again. Thus, for
+instance, if a gentleman not too far gone in maturity, of dignified
+exterior, with an ample fortune, and of unexceptionable character,
+should happen to set his heart upon her, and the only way to make him
+happy was to give up her weeds and go into those unbecoming colors
+again for his sake,--why, she felt that it was in her nature to make the
+sacrifice. By a singular coincidence it happened that a gentleman was
+now living in Rockland who united in himself all these advantages. Who
+he was, the sagacious reader may very probably have divined. Just to see
+how it looked, one day, having bolted her door, and drawn the curtains
+close, and glanced under the sofa, and listened at the keyhole to be
+sure there was nobody in the entry,--just to see how it looked, she had
+taken out an envelope and written on the back of it Mrs. Manilla Veneer.
+It made her head swim and her knees tremble. What if she should faint,
+or die, or have a stroke of palsy, and they should break into the room
+and find that name written! How she caught it up and tore it into little
+shreds, and then could not be easy until she had burned the small heap
+of pieces--
+
+But these are things which every honorable reader will consider imparted
+in strict confidence.
+
+The Widow Rowens, though not of the mansion house set, was among the
+most genteel of the two-story circle, and was in the habit of visiting
+some of the great people. In one of these visits she met a dashing young
+fellow with an olive complexion at the house of a professional gentleman
+who had married one of the white necks and pairs of fat arms from a
+distinguished family before referred to. The professional gentleman
+himself was out, but the lady introduced the olive-complexioned young
+man as Mr. Richard Venner.
+
+The Widow was particularly pleased with this accidental meeting. Had
+heard Mr. Venner's name frequently mentioned. Hoped his uncle was well,
+and his charming cousin,--was she as original as ever? Had often admired
+that charming creature he rode: we had had some fine horses. Had never
+got over her taste for riding, but could find nobody that liked a good
+long gallop since--well--she could n't help wishing she was alongside of
+him, the other day, when she saw him dashing by, just at twilight.
+
+The Widow paused; lifted a flimsy handkerchief with a very deep black
+border so as to play the jet bracelet; pushed the tip of her slender
+foot beyond the lowest of her black flounces; looked up; looked down;
+looked at Mr. Richard, the very picture of artless simplicity,--as
+represented in well-played genteel comedy.
+
+“A good bit of stuff,” Dick said to himself, “and something of it left
+yet; caramba!” The Major had not studied points for nothing, and
+the Widow was one of the right sort. The young man had been a little
+restless of late, and was willing to vary his routine by picking up an
+acquaintance here and there. So he took the Widow's hint. He should like
+to have a scamper of half a dozen miles with her some fine morning.
+
+The Widow was infinitely obliged; was not sure that she could find any
+horse in the village to suit her; but it was so kind in him! Would he
+not call at Hyacinth Cottage, and let her thank him again there?
+
+Thus began an acquaintance which the Widow made the most of, and on the
+strength of which she determined to give a tea-party and invite a number
+of persons of whom we know something already. She took a half-sheet of
+note-paper and made out her list as carefully as a country “merchant's
+clerk” adds up two and threepence (New-England nomenclature) and twelve
+and a half cents, figure by figure, and fraction by fraction, before
+he can be sure they will make half a dollar, without cheating somebody.
+After much consideration the list reduced itself to the following names:
+Mr. Richard Venner and Mrs. Blanche Creamer, the lady at whose house she
+had met him,--mansion-house breed,--but will come,--soft on Dick; Dudley
+Venner,--take care of him herself; Elsie,--Dick will see to her,--won't
+it fidget the Creamer woman to see him round her? the old Doctor,--he
+'s always handy; and there's that young master there, up at the
+school,--know him well enough to ask him,--oh, yes, he'll come. One,
+two, three, four, five, six,--seven; not room enough, without the leaf
+in the table; one place empty, if the leaf's in. Let's see,--Helen
+Darley,--she 'll do well enough to fill it up,--why, yes, just the
+thing,--light brown hair, blue eyes,--won't my pattern show off well
+against her? Put her down,--she 's worth her tea and toast ten times
+over,--nobody knows what a “thunder-and-lightning woman,” as poor Major
+used to have it, is, till she gets alongside of one of those old-maidish
+girls, with hair the color of brown sugar, and eyes like the blue of a
+teacup.
+
+The Widow smiled with a feeling of triumph at having overcome her
+difficulties and arranged her party,--arose and stood before her glass,
+three-quarters front, one-quarter profile, so as to show the whites of
+the eyes and the down of the upper lip. “Splendid!” said the Widow--and
+to tell the truth, she was not far out of the way, and with Helen Darley
+as a foil anybody would know she must be foudroyant and pyramidal,--if
+these French adjectives may be naturalized for this one particular
+exigency.
+
+So the Widow sent out her notes. The black grief which had filled her
+heart and had overflowed in surges of crape around her person had left a
+deposit half an inch wide at the margin of her note-paper. Her seal was
+a small youth with an inverted torch, the same on which Mrs. Blanche
+Creamer made her spiteful remark, that she expected to see that boy of
+the Widow's standing on his head yet; meaning, as Dick supposed, that
+she would get the torch right-side up as soon as she had a chance. That
+was after Dick had made the Widow's acquaintance, and Mrs. Creamer had
+got it into her foolish head that she would marry that young fellow,
+if she could catch him. How could he ever come to fancy such a
+quadroon-looking thing as that, she should like to know?
+
+It is easy enough to ask seven people to a party; but whether they will
+come or not is an open question, as it was in the case of the spirits of
+the vasty deep. If the note issues from a three-story mansion-house, and
+goes to two-story acquaintances, they will all be in an excellent
+state of health, and have much pleasure in accepting this very polite
+invitation. If the note is from the lady of a two-story family to
+three-story ones, the former highly respectable person will very
+probably find that an endemic complaint is prevalent, not represented in
+the weekly bills of mortality, which occasions numerous regrets in the
+bosoms of eminently desirable parties that they cannot have the pleasure
+of and-so-forthing.
+
+In this case there was room for doubt,--mainly as to whether Elsie
+would take a fancy to come or not. If she should come, her father would
+certainly be with her. Dick had promised, and thought he could bring
+Elsie. Of course the young schoolmaster will come, and that poor
+tired-out looking Helen, if only to get out of sight of those horrid
+Peckham wretches. They don't get such invitations every day. The others
+she felt sure of,--all but the old Doctor,--he might have some
+horrid patient or other to visit; tell him Elsie Venner's going to be
+there,--he always likes to have an eye on her, they say,--oh, he'd come
+fast enough, without any more coaxing.
+
+She wanted the Doctor, particularly. It was odd, but she was afraid of
+Elsie. She felt as if she should be safe enough, if the old Doctor were
+there to see to the girl; and then she should have leisure to devote
+herself more freely to the young lady's father, for whom all her
+sympathies were in a state of lively excitement.
+
+It was a long time since the Widow had seen so many persons round her
+table as she had now invited. Better have the plates set and see how
+they will fill it up with the leaf in.--A little too scattering with
+only eight plates set: if she could find two more people, now, that
+would bring the chairs a little closer,--snug, you know,--which makes
+the company sociable. The Widow thought over her acquaintances. Why how
+stupid! there was her good minister, the same who had married her, and
+might--might--bury her for aught she anew, and his granddaughter
+staying with him,--nice little girl, pretty, and not old enough to be
+dangerous;--for the Widow had no notion of making a tea-party and asking
+people to it that would be like to stand between her and any little
+project she might happen to have on anybody's heart,--not she! It was
+all right now; Blanche was married and so forth; Letty was a child;
+Elsie was his daughter; Helen Darley was a nice, worthy drudge,--poor
+thing!--faded, faded,--colors wouldn't wash, just what she wanted to
+show off against. Now, if the Dudley mansion-house people would only
+come,--that was the great point.
+
+“Here's a note for us, Elsie,” said her father, as they sat round the
+breakfast-table. “Mrs. Rowens wants us all to come to tea.”
+
+It was one of “Elsie's days,” as old Sophy called them. The light in her
+eyes was still, but very bright. She looked up so full of perverse and
+wilful impulses, that Dick knew he could make her go with him and
+her father. He had his own motives for bringing her to this
+determination,--and his own way of setting about it.
+
+“I don't want to go,” he said. “What do you say, uncle?”
+
+“To tell the truth, Richard, I don't mach fancy the Major's widow. I
+don't like to see her weeds flowering out quite so strong. I suppose you
+don't care about going, Elsie?”
+
+Elsie looked up in her father's face with an expression which he knew
+but too well. She was just in the state which the plain sort of people
+call “contrary,” when they have to deal with it in animals. She would
+insist on going to that tea-party; he knew it just as well before she
+spoke as after she had spoken. If Dick had said he wanted to go and her
+father had seconded his wishes, she would have insisted on staying at
+home. It was no great matter, her father said to himself, after
+all; very likely it would amuse her; the Widow was a lively woman
+enough,--perhaps a little comme il ne faut pas socially, compared with
+the Thorntons and some other families; but what did he care for these
+petty village distinctions?
+
+Elsie spoke.
+
+“I mean to go. You must go with me, Dudley. You may do as you like,
+Dick.”
+
+That settled the Dudley-mansion business, of course. They all three
+accepted, as fortunately did all the others who had been invited.
+
+Hyacinth Cottage was a pretty place enough, a little too much choked
+round with bushes, and too much overrun with climbing-roses, which, in
+the season of slugs and rose-bugs, were apt to show so brown about
+the leaves and so coleopterous about the flowers, that it might be
+questioned whether their buds and blossoms made up for these unpleasant
+animal combinations,--especially as the smell of whale-oil soap was very
+commonly in the ascendant over that of the roses. It had its patch
+of grass called “the lawn,” and its glazed closet known as “the
+conservatory,” according to that system of harmless fictions
+characteristic of the rural imagination and shown in the names applied
+to many familiar objects. The interior of the cottage was more tasteful
+and ambitious than that of the ordinary two-story dwellings. In place
+of the prevailing hair-cloth covered furniture, the visitor had the
+satisfaction of seating himself upon a chair covered with some of the
+Widow's embroidery, or a sofa luxurious with soft caressing plush. The
+sporting tastes of the late Major showed in various prints on the
+wall: Herring's “Plenipotentiary,” the “red bullock” of the '34 Derby;
+“Cadland” and “The Colonel;” “Crucifix;” “West-Australian,” fastest of
+modern racers; and among native celebrities, ugly, game old “Boston,”
+ with his straight neck and ragged hips; and gray “Lady Suffolk,” queen,
+in her day, not of the turf but of the track, “extending” herself till
+she measured a rod, more or less, skimming along within a yard of the
+ground, her legs opening and shutting under her with a snap, like the
+four blades of a compound jack-knife.
+
+These pictures were much more refreshing than those dreary fancy
+death-bed scenes, common in two-story country-houses, in which
+Washington and other distinguished personages are represented as
+obligingly devoting their last moments to taking a prominent part in
+a tableau, in which weeping relatives, attached servants, professional
+assistants, and celebrated personages who might by a stretch of
+imagination be supposed present, are grouped in the most approved style
+of arrangement about the chief actor's pillow.
+
+A single glazed bookcase held the family library, which was hidden from
+vulgar eyes by green silk curtains behind the glass. It would have been
+instructive to get a look at it, as it always is to peep into one's
+neighbor's book-shelves. From other sources and opportunities a partial
+idea of it has been obtained. The Widow had inherited some books from
+her mother, who was something of a reader: Young's “Night-Thoughts;”
+ “The Preceptor;” “The Task, a Poem,” by William Cowper; Hervey's
+“Meditations;” “Alonzo and Melissa;” “Buccaneers of America;” “The
+Triumphs of Temper;” “La Belle Assemblee;” Thomson's “Seasons;” and a
+few others. The Major had brought in “Tom Jones” and “Peregrine Pickle;”
+ various works by Mr. Pierce Egan; “Boxiana,” “The Racing Calendar;” and
+a “Book of Lively Songs and Jests.” The Widow had added the Poems
+of Lord Byron and T. Moore; “Eugene Aram;” “The Tower of London,” by
+Harrison Ainsworth; some of Scott's Novels; “The Pickwick Papers;” a
+volume of Plays, by W. Shakespeare; “Proverbial Philosophy;” “Pilgrim's
+Progress;” “The Whole Duty of Man” (a present when she was married);
+with two celebrated religious works, one by William Law and the other
+by Philip Doddridge, which were sent her after her husband's death, and
+which she had tried to read, but found that they did not agree with her.
+Of course the bookcase held a few school manuals and compendiums, and
+one of Mr. Webster's Dictionaries. But the gilt-edged Bible always lay
+on the centre-table, next to the magazine with the fashion-plates and
+the scrap-book with pictures from old annuals and illustrated papers.
+
+The reader need not apprehend the recital, at full length, of such
+formidable preparations for the Widow's tea-party as were required in
+the case of Colonel Sprowle's Social Entertainment. A tea-party, even in
+the country, is a comparatively simple and economical piece of business.
+As soon as the Widow found that all her company were coming, she set
+to work, with the aid of her “smart” maid-servant and a daughter of her
+own, who was beginning to stretch and spread at a fearful rate, but whom
+she treated as a small child, to make the necessary preparations. The
+silver had to be rubbed; also the grand plated urn,--her mother's before
+hers,--style of the Empire,--looking as if it might have been made to
+hold the Major's ashes. Then came the making and baking of cake and
+gingerbread, the smell whereof reached even as far as the sidewalk in
+front of the cottage, so that small boys returning from school snuffed
+it in the breeze, and discoursed with each other on its suggestions;
+so that the Widow Leech, who happened to pass, remembered she had n't
+called on Marilly Raowens for a consid'ble spell, and turned in at the
+gate and rang three times with long intervals,--but all in vain, the
+inside Widow having “spotted” the outside one through the blinds, and
+whispered to her aides-de-camp to let the old thing ring away till she
+pulled the bell out by the roots, but not to stir to open the door.
+
+Widow Rowens was what they called a real smart, capable woman, not very
+great on books, perhaps, but knew what was what and who was who as well
+as another,--knew how to make the little cottage look pretty, how to set
+out a tea-table, and, what a good many women never can find out, knew
+her own style and “got herself up tip-top,” as our young friend Master
+Geordie, Colonel Sprowle's heir-apparent, remarked to his friend from
+one of the fresh-water colleges. Flowers were abundant now, and she
+had dressed her rooms tastefully with them. The centre-table had two or
+three gilt-edged books lying carelessly about on it, and some prints
+and a stereoscope with stereographs to match, chiefly groups of picnics,
+weddings, etc., in which the same somewhat fatigued looking ladies
+of fashion and brides received the attentions of the same
+unpleasant-looking young men, easily identified under their different
+disguises, consisting of fashionable raiment such as gentlemen are
+supposed to wear habitually. With these, however, were some pretty
+English scenes,--pretty except for the old fellow with the hanging
+under-lip who infests every one of that interesting series; and a statue
+or two, especially that famous one commonly called the Lahcoon, so as to
+rhyme with moon and spoon, and representing an old man with his two sons
+in the embraces of two monstrous serpents.
+
+There is no denying that it was a very dashing achievement of the
+Widow's to bring together so considerable a number of desirable guests.
+She felt proud of her feat; but as to the triumph of getting Dudley
+Venner to come out for a visit to Hyacinth Cottage, she was surprised
+and almost frightened at her own success. So much might depend on the
+impressions of that evening!
+
+The next thing was to be sure that everybody should be in the right
+place at the tea-table, and this the Widow thought she could manage by a
+few words to the older guests and a little shuffling about and shifting
+when they got to the table. To settle everything the Widow made out
+a diagram, which the reader should have a chance of inspecting in an
+authentic copy, if these pages were allowed under any circumstances to
+be the vehicle of illustrations. If, however, he or she really wishes to
+see the way the pieces stood as they were placed at the beginning of the
+game, (the Widow's gambit,) he or she had better at once take a sheet
+of paper, draw an oval, and arrange the characters according to the
+following schedule.
+
+At the head of the table, the Hostess, Widow Marilla Rowens. Opposite
+her, at the other end, Rev. Dr. Honeywood. At the right of the Hostess,
+Dudley Veneer, next him Helen Darley, next her Dr. Kittredge, next
+him Mrs. Blanche Creamer, then the Reverend Doctor. At the left of
+the Hostess, Bernard Langdon, next him Letty Forrester, next Letty Mr.
+Richard Veneer, next him Elsie, and so to the Reverend Doctor again.
+
+The company came together a little before the early hour at which it was
+customary to take tea in Rockland. The Widow knew everybody, of course:
+who was there in Rockland she did not know? But some of them had to
+be introduced: Mr. Richard Veneer to Mr. Bernard, Mr. Bernard to Miss
+Letty, Dudley Veneer to Miss Helen Darley, and so on. The two young men
+looked each other straight in the eyes, both full of youthful life,
+but one of frank and fearless aspect, the other with a dangerous feline
+beauty alien to the New England half of his blood.
+
+The guests talked, turned over the prints, looked at the flowers, opened
+the “Proverbial Philosophy” with gilt edges, and the volume of Plays by
+W. Shakespeare, examined the horse-pictures on the walls, and so passed
+away the time until tea was announced, when they paired off for the room
+where it was in readiness. The Widow had managed it well; everything was
+just as she wanted it. Dudley Veneer was between herself and the poor
+tired-looking schoolmistress with her faded colors. Blanche Creamer, a
+lax, tumble-to-pieces, Greuze-ish looking blonde, whom the Widow
+hated because the men took to her, was purgatoried between the two old
+Doctors, and could see all the looks that passed between Dick Venner and
+his cousin. The young schoolmaster could talk to Miss Letty: it was his
+business to know how to talk to schoolgirls. Dick would amuse himself
+with his cousin Elsie. The old Doctors only wanted to be well fed and
+they would do well enough.
+
+It would be very pleasant to describe the tea-table; but in reality, it
+did not pretend to offer a plethoric banquet to the guests. The Widow
+had not visited the mansion-houses for nothing, and she had learned
+there that an overloaded tea-table may do well enough for farm-hands
+when they come in at evening from their work and sit down unwashed in
+their shirtsleeves, but that for decently bred people such an insult to
+the memory of a dinner not yet half-assimilated is wholly inadmissible.
+Everything was delicate, and almost everything of fair complexion: white
+bread and biscuits, frosted and sponge cake, cream, honey, straw-colored
+butter; only a shadow here and there, where the fire had crisped and
+browned the surfaces of a stack of dry toast, or where a preserve had
+brought away some of the red sunshine of the last year's summer. The
+Widow shall have the credit of her well-ordered tea-table, also of her
+bountiful cream-pitchers; for it is well known that city-people find
+cream a very scarce luxury in a good many country-houses of more
+pretensions than Hyacinth Cottage. There are no better maims for ladies
+who give tea-parties than these:
+
+Cream is thicker than water. Large heart never loved little cream pot.
+
+There is a common feeling in genteel families that the third meal of
+the day is not so essential a part of the daily bread as to require any
+especial acknowledgment to the Providence which bestows it. Very devout
+people, who would never sit down to a breakfast or a dinner without the
+grace before meat which honors the Giver of it, feel as if they thanked
+Heaven enough for their tea and toast by partaking of them cheerfully
+without audible petition or ascription. But the Widow was not exactly
+mansion-house-bred, and so thought it necessary to give the Reverend
+Doctor a peculiar look which he understood at once as inviting his
+professional services. He, therefore, uttered a few simple words of
+gratitude, very quietly,--much to the satisfaction of some of the
+guests, who had expected one of those elaborate effusions, with rolling
+up of the eyes and rhetorical accents, so frequent with eloquent divines
+when they address their Maker in genteel company.
+
+Everybody began talking with the person sitting next at hand. Mr.
+Bernard naturally enough turned his attention first to the Widow; but
+somehow or other the right side of the Widow seemed to be more
+wide awake than the left side, next him, and he resigned her to
+the courtesies of Mr. Dudley Venner, directing himself, not very
+unwillingly, to the young girl next him on the other side. Miss Letty
+Forrester, the granddaughter of the Reverend Doctor, was city-bred, as
+anybody might see, and city-dressed, as any woman would know at sight; a
+man might only feel the general effect of clear, well-matched colors, of
+harmonious proportions, of the cut which makes everything cling like a
+bather's sleeve where a natural outline is to be kept, and ruffle itself
+up like the hackle of a pitted fighting-cock where art has a right to
+luxuriate in silken exuberance. How this citybred and city-dressed girl
+came to be in Rockland Mr. Bernard did not know, but he knew at any rate
+that she was his next neighbor and entitled to his courtesies. She was
+handsome, too, when he came to look, very handsome when he came to
+look again,--endowed with that city beauty which is like the beauty of
+wall-fruit, something finer in certain respects than can be reared off
+the pavement.
+
+The miserable routinists who keep repeating invidiously Cowper's
+
+    “God made the country and man made the town,”
+
+as if the town were a place to kill out the race in, do not know what
+they are talking about. Where could they raise such Saint-Michael pears,
+such Saint-Germains, such Brown-Beurres, as we had until within a few
+years growing within the walls of our old city-gardens? Is the dark
+and damp cavern where a ragged beggar hides himself better than a
+town-mansion which fronts the sunshine and backs on its own cool shadow,
+with gas and water and all appliances to suit all needs? God made the
+cavern and man made the house! What then?
+
+There is no doubt that the pavement keeps a deal of mischief from coming
+up out of the earth, and, with a dash off of it in summer, just to cool
+the soles of the feet when it gets too hot, is the best place for many
+constitutions, as some few practical people have already discovered. And
+just so these beauties that grow and ripen against the city-walls, these
+young fellows with cheeks like peaches and young girls with cheeks like
+nectarines, show that the most perfect forms of artificial life can do
+as much for the human product as garden-culture for strawberries and
+blackberries.
+
+If Mr. Bernard had philosophized or prosed in this way, with so pretty,
+nay, so lovely a neighbor as Miss Letty Forrester waiting for him to
+speak to her, he would have to be dropped from this narrative as a
+person unworthy of his good-fortune, and not deserving the kind reader's
+further notice. On the contrary, he no sooner set his eyes fairly on her
+than he said to himself that she was charming, and that he wished she
+were one of his scholars at the Institute. So he began talking with her
+in an easy way; for he knew something of young girls by this time, and,
+of course, could adapt himself to a young lady who looked as if she
+might be not more than fifteen or sixteen years old, and therefore
+could hardly be a match in intellectual resources for the seventeen and
+eighteen year-old first-class scholars of the Apollinean Institute.
+But city-wall-fruit ripens early, and he soon found that this girl's
+training had so sharpened her wits and stored her memory, that he need
+not be at the trouble to stoop painfully in order to come down to her
+level.
+
+The beauty of good-breeding is that it adjusts itself to all relations
+without effort, true to itself always however the manners of those
+around it may change. Self-respect and respect for others,--the
+sensitive consciousness poises itself in these as the compass in the
+ship's binnacle balances itself and maintains its true level within
+the two concentric rings which suspend it on their pivots. This
+thorough-bred school-girl quite enchanted Mr. Bernard. He could not
+understand where she got her style, her way of dress, her enunciation,
+her easy manners. The minister was a most worthy gentleman, but this
+was not the Rockland native-born manner; some new element had come in
+between the good, plain, worthy man and this young girl, fit to be a
+Crown Prince's partner where there were a thousand to choose from.
+
+He looked across to Helen Darley, for he knew she would understand the
+glance of admiration with which he called her attention to the young
+beauty at his side; and Helen knew what a young girl could be, as
+compared with what too many a one is, as well as anybody.
+
+This poor, dear Helen of ours! How admirable the contrast between her
+and the Widow on the other side of Dudley Venner! But, what was very
+odd, that gentleman apparently thought the contrast was to the advantage
+of this poor, dear Helen. At any rate, instead of devoting himself
+solely to the Widow, he happened to be just at that moment talking in a
+very interested and, apparently, not uninteresting way to his right-hand
+neighbor, who, on her part, never looked more charmingly,--as Mr.
+Bernard could not help saying to himself,--but, to be sure, he had just
+been looking at the young girl next him, so that his eyes were brimful
+of beauty, and may have spilled some of it on the first comer: for
+you know M. Becquerel has been showing us lately how everything
+is phosphorescent; that it soaks itself with light in an instant's
+exposure, so that it is wet with liquid sunbeams, or, if you will,
+tremulous with luminous vibrations, when first plunged into the negative
+bath of darkness, and betrays itself by the light which escapes from its
+surface.
+
+Whatever were the reason, this poor, dear Helen never looked so sweetly.
+Her plainly parted brown hair, her meek, blue eyes, her cheek just a
+little tinged with color, the almost sad simplicity of her dress, and
+that look he knew so well,--so full of cheerful patience, so sincere,
+that he had trusted her from the first moment as the believers of the
+larger half of Christendom trust the Blessed Virgin,--Mr. Bernard took
+this all in at a glance, and felt as pleased as if it had been his own
+sister Dorothea Elizabeth that he was looking at. As for Dudley Veneer,
+Mr. Bernard could not help being struck by the animated expression of
+his countenance. It certainly showed great kindness, on his part, to
+pay so much attention to this quiet girl, when he had the
+thunder-and-lightning Widow on the other side of him.
+
+Mrs. Marilla Rowens did not know what to make of it. She had made her
+tea-party expressly for Mr. Dudley Veneer. She had placed him just as
+she wanted, between herself and a meek, delicate woman who dressed in
+gray, wore a plain breastpin with hair in it, who taught a pack of
+girls up there at the school, and looked as if she were born for a
+teacher,--the very best foil that she could have chosen; and here was
+this man, polite enough to herself, to be sure, but turning round to
+that very undistinguished young person as if he rather preferred her
+conversation of the two!
+
+The truth was that Dudley Veneer and Helen Darley met as two travellers
+might meet in the desert, wearied, both of them, with their long
+journey, one having food, but no water, the other water, but no food.
+Each saw that the other had been in long conflict with some trial; for
+their voices were low and tender, as patiently borne sorrow and humbly
+uttered prayers make every human voice. Through these tones, more than
+by what they said, they came into natural sympathetic relations with
+each other. Nothing could be more unstudied. As for Dudley Venner, no
+beauty in all the world could have so soothed and magnetized him as the
+very repose and subdued gentleness which the Widow had thought would
+make the best possible background for her own more salient and effective
+attractions. No doubt, Helen, on her side, was almost too readily
+pleased with the confidence this new acquaintance she was making seemed
+to show her from the very first. She knew so few men of any condition!
+Mr. Silas Peckham: he was her employer, and she ought to think of him
+as well as she could; but every time she thought of him it was with
+a shiver of disgust. Mr. Bernard Langdon: a noble young man, a true
+friend, like a brother to her,--God bless him, and send him some young
+heart as fresh as his own! But this gentleman produced a new impression
+upon her, quite different from any to which she was accustomed. His
+rich, low tones had the strangest significance to her; she felt sure
+he must have lived through long experiences, sorrowful like her own.
+Elsie's father! She looked into his dark eyes, as she listened to him,
+to see if they had any glimmer of that peculiar light, diamond-bright,
+but cold and still, which she knew so well in Elsie's. Anything but
+that! Never was there more tenderness, it seemed to her, than in the
+whole look and expression of Elsie's father. She must have been a great
+trial to him; yet his face was that of one who had been saddened, not
+soured, by his discipline. Knowing what Elsie must be to him, how hard
+she must make any parent's life, Helen could not but be struck with the
+interest Mr. Dudley Venner showed in her as his daughter's instructress.
+He was too kind to her; again and again she meekly turned from him, so
+as to leave him free to talk to the showy lady at his other side, who
+was looking all the while
+
+                         “like the night
+          Of cloudless realms and starry skies;”
+
+but still Mr. Dudley Venner, after a few courteous words, came back to
+the blue eyes and brown hair; still he kept his look fixed upon her, and
+his tones grew sweeter and lower as he became more interested in talk,
+until this poor, dear Helen, what with surprise, and the bashfulness
+natural to one who had seen little of the gay world, and the stirring of
+deep, confused sympathies with this suffering father, whose heart seemed
+so full of kindness, felt her cheeks glowing with unwonted flame, and
+betrayed the pleasing trouble of her situation by looking so sweetly as
+to arrest Mr. Bernard's eye for a moment, when he looked away from the
+young beauty sitting next him.
+
+Elsie meantime had been silent, with that singular, still, watchful
+look which those who knew her well had learned to fear. Her head just a
+little inclined on one side, perfectly motionless for whole minutes, her
+eyes seeming to, grow small and bright, as always when she was under her
+evil influence, she was looking obliquely at the young girl on the
+other side of her cousin Dick and next to Bernard Langdon. As for Dick
+himself, she seemed to be paying very little attention to him. Sometimes
+her eyes would wander off to Mr. Bernard, and their expression, as old
+Dr. Kittredge, who watched her for a while pretty keenly, noticed, would
+change perceptibly. One would have said that she looked with a kind of
+dull hatred at the girl, but with a half-relenting reproachful anger at
+Mr. Bernard.
+
+Miss Letty Forrester, at whom Elsie had been looking from time to time
+in this fixed way, was conscious meanwhile of some unusual influence.
+First it was a feeling of constraint,--then, as it were, a diminished
+power over the muscles, as if an invisible elastic cobweb were spinning
+round her,--then a tendency to turn away from Mr. Bernard, who was
+making himself very agreeable, and look straight into those eyes which
+would not leave her, and which seemed to be drawing her towards them,
+while at the same time they chilled the blood in all her veins.
+
+Mr. Bernard saw this influence coming over her. All at once he noticed
+that she sighed, and that some little points of moisture began to
+glisten on her forehead. But she did not grow pale perceptibly; she
+had no involuntary or hysteric movements; she still listened to him and
+smiled naturally enough. Perhaps she was only nervous at being stared
+at. At any rate, she was coming under some unpleasant influence or
+other, and Mr. Bernard had seen enough of the strange impression Elsie
+sometimes produced to wish this young girl to be relieved from it,
+whatever it was. He turned toward Elsie and looked at her in such a way
+as to draw her eyes upon him. Then he looked steadily and calmly into
+them. It was a great effort, for some perfectly inexplicable reason.
+At one instant he thought he could not sit where he was; he must go and
+speak to Elsie. Then he wanted to take his eyes away from hers; there
+was something intolerable in the light that came from them. But he was
+determined to look her down, and he believed he could do it, for he had
+seen her countenance change more than once when he had caught her gaze
+steadily fixed on him. All this took not minutes, but seconds. Presently
+she changed color slightly,--lifted her head, which was inclined a
+little to one side,--shut and opened her eyes two or three times, as if
+they had been pained or wearied,--and turned away baffled, and shamed,
+as it would seem, and shorn for the time of her singular and formidable
+or at least evil-natured power of swaying the impulses of those around
+her.
+
+It takes too long to describe these scenes where a good deal of life
+is concentrated into a few silent seconds. Mr. Richard Veneer had sat
+quietly through it all, although this short pantomime had taken place
+literally before his face. He saw what was going on well enough, and
+understood it all perfectly well. Of course the schoolmaster had been
+trying to make Elsie jealous, and had succeeded. The little schoolgirl
+was a decoy-duck,--that was all. Estates like the Dudley property were
+not to be had every day, and no doubt the Yankee usher was willing to
+take some pains to make sure of Elsie. Does n't Elsie look savage? Dick
+involuntarily moved his chair a little away from her, and thought he
+felt a pricking in the small white scars on his wrist. A dare-devil
+fellow, but somehow or other this girl had taken strange hold of his
+imagination, and he often swore to himself, that, when he married her,
+he would carry a loaded revolver with him to his bridal chamber.
+
+Mrs. Blanche Creamer raged inwardly at first to find herself between
+the two old gentlemen of the party. It very soon gave her great
+comfort, however, to see that Marilla, Rowens had just missed it in her
+calculations, and she chuckled immensely to find Dudley Veneer devoting
+himself chiefly to Helen Darley. If the Rowens woman should hook Dudley,
+she felt as if she should gnaw all her nails off for spite. To think of
+seeing her barouching about Rockland behind a pair of long-tailed bays
+and a coachman with a band on his hat, while she, Blanche Creamer, was
+driving herself about in a one-horse “carriage”! Recovering her spirits
+by degrees, she began playing her surfaces off at the two old Doctors,
+just by way of practice. First she heaved up a glaring white shoulder,
+the right one, so that the Reverend Doctor should be stunned by it, if
+such a thing might be. The Reverend Doctor was human, as the Apostle was
+not ashamed to confess himself. Half-devoutly and half-mischievously he
+repeated inwardly, “Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.” As the
+Reverend Doctor did not show any lively susceptibility, she thought
+she would try the left shoulder on old Dr. Kittredge. That worthy
+and experienced student of science was not at all displeased with the
+manoeuvre, and lifted his head so as to command the exhibition through
+his glasses. “Blanche is good for half a dozen years or so, if she is
+careful,” the Doctor said to himself, “and then she must take to her
+prayer-book.” After this spasmodic failure of Mrs. Blanche Creamer's
+to stir up the old Doctors, she returned again to the pleasing task of
+watching the Widow in her evident discomfiture. But dark as the Widow
+looked in her half-concealed pet, she was but as a pale shadow, compared
+to Elsie in her silent concentration of shame and anger.
+
+“Well, there is one good thing,” said Mrs. Blanche Creamer; “Dick
+doesn't get much out of that cousin of his this evening! Does n't he
+look handsome, though?”
+
+So Mrs. Blanche, being now a good deal taken up with her observations of
+those friends of hers and ours, began to be rather careless of her two
+old Doctors, who naturally enough fell into conversation with each other
+across the white surfaces of that lady, perhaps not very politely, but,
+under the circumstances, almost as a matter of necessity.
+
+When a minister and a doctor get talking together, they always have a
+great deal to say; and so it happened that the company left the table
+just as the two Doctors were beginning to get at each other's ideas
+about various interesting matters. If we follow them into the other
+parlor, we can, perhaps, pick up something of their conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. WHY DOCTORS DIFFER.
+
+The company rearranged itself with some changes after leaving the
+tea-table. Dudley Veneer was very polite to the Widow; but that lady
+having been called off for a few moments for some domestic arrangement,
+he slid back to the side of Helen Darley, his daughter's faithful
+teacher. Elsie had got away by herself, and was taken up in studying the
+stereoscopic Laocoon. Dick, being thus set free, had been seized upon by
+Mrs. Blanche Creamer, who had diffused herself over three-quarters of
+a sofa and beckoned him to the remaining fourth. Mr. Bernard and Miss
+Letty were having a snug fete-'a-fete in the recess of a bay-window. The
+two Doctors had taken two arm-chairs and sat squared off against each
+other. Their conversation is perhaps as well worth reporting as that of
+the rest of the company, and, as it was carried on in a louder tone, was
+of course more easy to gather and put on record.
+
+It was a curious sight enough to see those two representatives of two
+great professions brought face to face to talk over the subjects they
+had been looking at all their lives from such different points of
+view. Both were old; old enough to have been moulded by their habits of
+thought and life; old enough to have all their beliefs “fretted in,” as
+vintners say,--thoroughly worked up with their characters. Each of them
+looked his calling. The Reverend Doctor had lived a good deal among
+books in his study; the Doctor, as we will call the medical gentleman,
+had been riding about the country for between thirty and forty years.
+His face looked tough and weather-worn; while the Reverend Doctor's,
+hearty as it appeared, was of finer texture. The Doctor's was the graver
+of the two; there was something of grimness about it, partly owing
+to the northeasters he had faced for so many years, partly to long
+companionship with that stern personage who never deals in sentiment or
+pleasantry. His speech was apt to be brief and peremptory; it was a way
+he had got by ordering patients; but he could discourse somewhat, on
+occasion, as the reader may find out. The Reverend Doctor had an open,
+smiling expression, a cheery voice, a hearty laugh, and a cordial
+way with him which some thought too lively for his cloth, but which
+children, who are good judges of such matters, delighted in, so that
+he was the favorite of all the little rogues about town. But he had the
+clerical art of sobering down in a moment, when asked to say grace while
+somebody was in the middle of some particularly funny story; and though
+his voice was so cheery in common talk, in the pulpit, like almost
+all preachers, he had a wholly different and peculiar way of speaking,
+supposed to be more acceptable to the Creator than the natural manner.
+In point of fact, most of our anti-papal and anti-prelatical clergymen
+do really intone their prayers, without suspecting in the least that
+they have fallen into such a Romish practice.
+
+This is the way the conversation between the Doctor of Divinity and the
+Doctor of Medicine was going on at the point where these notes take it
+up.
+
+“Obi tres medici, duo athei, you know, Doctor. Your profession has
+always had the credit of being lax in doctrine,--though pretty stringent
+in practice, ha! ha!”
+
+“Some priest said that,” the Doctor answered, dryly. “They always talked
+Latin when they had a bigger lie than common to get rid of.”
+
+“Good!” said the Reverend Doctor; “I'm afraid they would lie a little
+sometimes. But isn't there some truth in it, Doctor? Don't you think
+your profession is apt to see 'Nature' in the place of the God of
+Nature,--to lose sight of the great First Cause in their daily study of
+secondary causes?”
+
+“I've thought about that,” the Doctor answered, “and I've talked about
+it and read about it, and I've come to the conclusion that nobody
+believes in God and trusts in God quite so much as the doctors; only it
+is n't just the sort of Deity that some of your profession have wanted
+them to take up with. There was a student of mine wrote a dissertation
+on the Natural Theology of Health and Disease, and took that old lying
+proverb for his motto. He knew a good deal more about books than ever
+I did, and had studied in other countries. I'll tell you what he said
+about it. He said the old Heathen Doctor, Galen, praised God for his
+handiwork in the human body, just as if he had been a Christian, or the
+Psalmist himself. He said they had this sentence set up in large letters
+in the great lecture-room in Paris where he attended: I dressed his
+wound and God healed him. That was an old surgeon's saying. And he gave
+a long list of doctors who were not only Christians, but famous ones. I
+grant you, though, ministers and doctors are very apt to see differently
+in spiritual matters.”
+
+“That's it,” said the Reverend Doctor; “you are apt to see 'Nature'
+where we see God, and appeal to 'Science' where we are contented with
+Revelation.”
+
+“We don't separate God and Nature, perhaps, as you do,” the Doctor
+answered. “When we say that God is omnipresent and omnipotent and
+omniscient, we are a little more apt to mean it than your folks are. We
+think, when a wound heals, that God's presence and power and knowledge
+are there, healing it, just as that old surgeon did. We think a good
+many theologians, working among their books, don't see the facts of the
+world they live in. When we tell 'em of these facts, they are apt to
+call us materialists and atheists and infidels, and all that. We can't
+help seeing the facts, and we don't think it's wicked to mention 'em.”
+
+“Do tell me,” the Reverend Doctor said, “some of these facts we are in
+the habit of overlooking, and which your profession thinks it can see
+and understand.”
+
+“That's very easy,” the Doctor replied. “For instance: you don't
+understand or don't allow for idiosyncrasies as we learn to. We know
+that food and physic act differently with different people; but you
+think the same kind of truth is going to suit, or ought to suit, all
+minds. We don't fight with a patient because he can't take magnesia or
+opium; but you are all the time quarrelling over your beliefs, as if
+belief did not depend very much on race and constitution, to say nothing
+of early training.”
+
+“Do you mean to say that every man is not absolutely free to choose his
+beliefs?”
+
+“The men you write about in your studies are, but not the men we see
+in the real world. There is some apparently congenital defect in the
+Indians, for instance, that keeps them from choosing civilization and
+Christianity. So with the Gypsies, very likely. Everybody knows
+that Catholicism or Protestantism is a good deal a matter of race.
+Constitution has more to do with belief than people think for. I went to
+a Universalist church, when I was in the city one day, to hear a famous
+man whom all the world knows, and I never saw such pews-full of broad
+shoulders and florid faces, and substantial, wholesome-looking persons,
+male and female, in all my life. Why, it was astonishing. Either their
+creed made them healthy, or they chose it because they were healthy.
+Your folks have never got the hang of human nature.”
+
+“I am afraid this would be considered a degrading and dangerous view of
+human beliefs and responsibility for them,” the Reverend Doctor replied.
+“Prove to a man that his will is governed by something outside of
+himself, and you have lost all hold on his moral and religious nature.
+There is nothing bad men want to believe so much as that they are
+governed by necessity. Now that which is at once degrading and dangerous
+cannot be true.”
+
+“No doubt,” the Doctor replied, “all large views of mankind limit our
+estimate of the absolute freedom of the will. But I don't think it
+degrades or endangers us, for this reason, that, while it makes us
+charitable to the rest of mankind, our own sense of freedom, whatever it
+is, is never affected by argument. Conscience won't be reasoned with.
+We feel that we can practically do this of that, and if we choose the
+wrong, we know we are responsible; but observation teaches us that this
+or that other race or individual has not the same practical freedom of
+choice. I don't see how we can avoid this conclusion in the instance
+of the American Indians. The science of Ethnology has upset a good many
+theoretical notions about human nature.”
+
+“Science!” said the Reverend Doctor, “science! that was a word the
+Apostle Paul did not seem to think much of, if we may judge by the
+Epistle to Timothy: 'Oppositions of science falsely so called.' I own
+that I am jealous of that word and the pretensions that go with
+it. Science has seemed to me to be very often only the handmaid of
+skepticism.”
+
+“Doctor!” the physician said, emphatically, “science is knowledge.
+Nothing that is not known properly belongs to science. Whenever
+knowledge obliges us to doubt, we are always safe in doubting.
+Astronomers foretell eclipses, say how long comets are to stay with us,
+point out where a new planet is to be found. We see they know what they
+assert, and the poor old Roman Catholic Church has at last to knock
+under. So Geology proves a certain succession of events, and the best
+Christian in the world must make the earth's history square with it.
+Besides, I don't think you remember what great revelations of himself
+the Creator has made in the minds of the men who have built up science.
+You seem to me to hold his human masterpieces very cheap. Don't
+you think the 'inspiration of the Almighty' gave Newton and Cuvier
+'understanding'?”
+
+The Reverend Doctor was not arguing for victory. In fact, what he
+wanted was to call out the opinions of the old physician by a show of
+opposition, being already predisposed to agree with many of them. He was
+rather trying the common arguments, as one tries tricks of fence merely
+to learn the way of parrying. But just here he saw a tempting opening,
+and could not resist giving a home-thrust.
+
+“Yes; but you surely would not consider it inspiration of the same kind
+as that of the writers of the Old Testament?”
+
+That cornered the Doctor, and he paused a moment before he replied. Then
+he raised his head, so as to command the Reverend Doctor's face through
+his spectacles, and said,
+
+“I did not say that. You are clear, I suppose, that the Omniscient spoke
+through Solomon, but that Shakespeare wrote without his help?”
+
+The Reverend Doctor looked very grave. It was a bold, blunt way
+of putting the question. He turned it aside with the remark, that
+Shakespeare seemed to him at times to come as near inspiration as any
+human being not included among the sacred writers.
+
+“Doctor,” the physician began, as from a sudden suggestion, “you won't
+quarrel with me, if I tell you some of my real thoughts, will you?”
+
+“Say on, my dear Sir, say on,” the minister answered, with his most
+genial smile; “your real thoughts are just what I want to get at. A
+man's real thoughts are a great rarity. If I don't agree with you, I
+shall like to hear you.”
+
+The Doctor began; and in order to give his thoughts more connectedly, we
+will omit the conversational breaks, the questions and comments of the
+clergyman, and all accidental interruptions.
+
+“When the old ecclesiastics said that where there were three doctors
+there were two atheists, they lied, of course. They called everybody who
+differed from them atheists, until they found out that not believing in
+God was n't nearly so ugly a crime as not believing in some particular
+dogma; then they called them heretics, until so many good people
+had been burned under that name that it began to smell too strong of
+roasting flesh,--and after that infidels, which properly means people
+without faith, of whom there are not a great many in any place or time.
+But then, of course, there was some reason why doctors shouldn't think
+about religion exactly as ministers did, or they never would have made
+that proverb. It 's very likely that something of the same kind is true
+now; whether it is so or not, I am going to tell you the reasons why it
+would not be strange, if doctors should take rather different views from
+clergymen about some matters of belief. I don't, of course, mean all
+doctors nor all clergymen. Some doctors go as far as any old New England
+divine, and some clergymen agree very well with the doctors that think
+least according to rule.
+
+“To begin with their ideas of the Creator himself. They always see him
+trying to help his creatures out of their troubles. A man no sooner gets
+a cut, than the Great Physician, whose agency we often call Nature, goes
+to work, first to stop the blood, and then to heal the wound, and then
+to make the scar as small as possible. If a man's pain exceeds a certain
+amount, he faints, and so gets relief. If it lasts too long, habit comes
+in to make it tolerable. If it is altogether too bad, he dies. That
+is the best thing to be done under the circumstances. So you see, the
+doctor is constantly in presence of a benevolent agency working against
+a settled order of things, of which pain and disease are the accidents,
+so to speak. Well, no doubt they find it harder than clergymen to
+believe that there can be any world or state from which this benevolent
+agency is wholly excluded. This may be very wrong; but it is not
+unnatural.
+
+“They can hardly conceive of a permanent state of being in which cuts
+would never try to heal, nor habit render suffering endurable. This is
+one effect of their training.
+
+“Then, again, their attention is very much called to human limitations.
+Ministers work out the machinery of responsibility in an abstract kind
+of way; they have a sort of algebra of human nature, in which friction
+and strength (or weakness) of material are left out. You see, a doctor
+is in the way of studying children from the moment of birth upwards. For
+the first year or so he sees that they are just as much pupils of their
+Maker as the young of any other animals. Well, their Maker trains them
+to pure selfishness. Why? In order that they may be sure to take care of
+themselves. So you see, when a child comes to be, we will say a year and
+a day old, and makes his first choice between right and wrong, he is
+at a disadvantage; for he, has that vis a tergo, as we doctors call it,
+that force from behind, of a whole year's life of selfishness, for which
+he is no more to blame than a calf is to blame for having lived in the
+same way, purely to gratify his natural appetites. Then we see that baby
+grow up to a child, and, if he is fat and stout and red and lively,
+we expect to find him troublesome and noisy, and, perhaps, sometimes
+disobedient more or less; that's the way each new generation breaks its
+egg-shell; but if he is very weak and thin, and is one of the kind that
+may be expected to die early, he will very likely sit in the house all
+day and read good books about other little sharp-faced children just
+like himself, who died early, having always been perfectly indifferent
+to all the out-door amusements of the wicked little red-cheeked
+children.
+
+“Some of the little folks we watch grow up to be young women, and
+occasionally one of them gets nervous, what we call hysterical, and then
+that girl will begin to play all sorts of pranks,--to lie and cheat,
+perhaps, in the most unaccountable way, so that she might seem to a
+minister a good example of total depravity. We don't see her in that
+light. We give her iron and valerian, and get her on horseback, if we
+can, and so expect to make her will come all right again. By and by we
+are called in to see an old baby, threescore years and ten or more old.
+We find this old baby has never got rid of that first year's teaching
+which led him to fill his stomach with all he could pump into it, and
+his hands with everything he could grab. People call him a miser. We are
+sorry for him; but we can't help remembering his first year's training,
+and the natural effect of money on the great majority of those that have
+it. So while the ministers say he 'shall hardly enter into the kingdom
+of heaven,' we like to remind them that 'with God all things are
+possible.'
+
+“Once more, we see all kinds of monomania and insanity. We learn from
+them to recognize all sorts of queer tendencies in minds supposed to
+be sane, so that we have nothing but compassion for a large class of
+persons condemned as sinners by theologians, but considered by us as
+invalids. We have constant reasons for noticing the transmission of
+qualities from parents to offspring, and we find it hard to hold a
+child accountable in any moral point of view for inherited bad temper
+or tendency to drunkenness,--as hard as we should to blame him for
+inheriting gout or asthma. I suppose we are more lenient with human
+nature than theologians generally are. We know that the spirits of men
+and their views of the present and the future go up and down with the
+barometer, and that a permanent depression of one inch in the mercurial
+column would affect the whole theology of Christendom.
+
+“Ministers talk about the human will as if it stood on a high look-out,
+with plenty of light, and elbowroom reaching to the horizon. Doctors
+are constantly noticing how it is tied up and darkened by inferior
+organization, by disease, and all sorts of crowding interferences, until
+they get to look upon Hottentots and Indians--and a good many of their
+own race as a kind of self-conscious blood-clocks with very limited
+power of self-determination. That's the tendency, I say, of a doctor's
+experience. But the people to whom they address their statements of the
+results of their observation belong to the thinking class of the highest
+races, and they are conscious of a great deal of liberty of will. So in
+the face of the fact that civilization with all it offers has proved a
+dead failure with the aboriginal races of this country,--on the whole, I
+say, a dead failure,--they talk as if they knew from their own will all
+about that of a Digger Indian! We are more apt to go by observation of
+the facts in the case. We are constantly seeing weakness where you see
+depravity. I don't say we're right; I only tell what you must often find
+to be the fact, right or wrong, in talking with doctors. You see, too,
+our notions of bodily and moral disease, or sin, are apt to go together.
+We used to be as hard on sickness as you were on sin. We know better
+now. We don't look at sickness as we used to, and try to poison it
+with everything that is offensive, burnt toads and earth-worms and
+viper-broth, and worse things than these. We know that disease has
+something back of it which the body isn't to blame for, at least in most
+cases, and which very often it is trying to get rid of. Just so with
+sin. I will agree to take a hundred new-born babes of a certain stock
+and return seventy-five of them in a dozen years true and honest, if not
+'pious' children. And I will take another hundred, of a different stock,
+and put them in the hands of certain Ann-Street or Five-Points teachers,
+and seventy-five of them will be thieves and liars at the end of the
+same dozen years. I have heard of an old character, Colonel Jaques, I
+believe it was, a famous cattle-breeder, who used to say he could breed
+to pretty much any pattern he wanted to. Well, we doctors see so much of
+families, how the tricks of the blood keep breaking out, just as much in
+character as they do in looks, that we can't help feeling as if a great
+many people hadn't a fair chance to be what is called 'good,' and that
+there isn't a text in the Bible better worth keeping always in mind than
+that one, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.'
+
+“As for our getting any quarter at the hands of theologians, we don't
+expect it, and have no right to. You don't give each other any quarter.
+I have had two religious books sent me by friends within a week or
+two. One is Mr. Brownson's; he is as fair and square as Euclid; a
+real honest, strong thinker, and one that knows what he is talking
+about,--for he has tried all sorts of religions, pretty much. He tells
+us that the Roman Catholic Church is the one 'through which alone we can
+hope for heaven.' The other is by a worthy Episcopal rector, who appears
+to write as if he were in earnest, and he calls the Papacy the 'Devil's
+Masterpiece,' and talks about the 'Satanic scheme' of that very Church
+'through which alone,' as Mr. Brownson tells us, 'we can hope for
+heaven.'
+
+“What's the use in our caring about hard words after this,--'atheists,'
+heretics, infidels, and the like? They're, after all, only the cinders
+picked up out of those heaps of ashes round the stumps of the old stakes
+where they used to burn men, women, and children for not thinking just
+like other folks. They 'll 'crock' your fingers, but they can't burn us.
+
+“Doctors are the best-natured people in the world, except when they get
+fighting with each other. And they have some advantages over you. You
+inherit your notions from a set of priests that had no wives and no
+children, or none to speak of, and so let their humanity die out of
+them. It did n't seem much to them to condemn a few thousand millions of
+people to purgatory or worse for a mistake of judgment. They didn't know
+what it was to have a child look up in their faces and say 'Father!'
+It will take you a hundred or two more years to get decently humanized,
+after so many centuries of de-humanizing celibacy.
+
+“Besides, though our libraries are, perhaps, not commonly quite so big
+as yours, God opens one book to physicians that a good many of you don't
+know much about,--the Book of Life. That is none of your dusty folios
+with black letters between pasteboard and leather, but it is printed
+in bright red type, and the binding of it is warm and tender to every
+touch. They reverence that book as one of the Almighty's infallible
+revelations. They will insist on reading you lessons out of it, whether
+you call them names or not. These will always be lessons of charity. No
+doubt, nothing can be more provoking to listen to. But do beg your folks
+to remember that the Smithfield fires are all out, and that the cinders
+are very dirty and not in the least dangerous. They'd a great deal
+better be civil, and not be throwing old proverbs in the doctors' faces,
+when they say that the man of the old monkish notions is one thing
+and the man they watch from his cradle to his coffin is something very
+different.”
+
+It has cost a good deal of trouble to work the Doctor's talk up into
+this formal shape. Some of his sentences have been rounded off for him,
+and the whole brought into a more rhetorical form than it could have
+pretended to, if taken as it fell from his lips. But the exact course
+of his remarks has been followed, and as far as possible his expressions
+have been retained. Though given in the form of a discourse, it must
+be remembered that this was a conversation, much more fragmentary and
+colloquial than it seems as just read.
+
+The Reverend Doctor was very far from taking offence at the old
+physician's freedom of speech. He knew him to be honest, kind,
+charitable, self-denying, wherever any sorrow was to be alleviated,
+always reverential, with a cheerful trust in the great Father of all
+mankind. To be sure, his senior deacon, old Deacon Shearer,--who seemed
+to have got his Scripture-teachings out of the “Vinegar Bible,” (the one
+where Vineyard is misprinted Vinegar; which a good many people seem to
+have adopted as the true reading,)--his senior deacon had called Dr.
+Kittredge an “infidel.” But the Reverend Doctor could not help feeling,
+that, unless the text, “By their fruits ye shall know them,” were an
+interpolation, the Doctor was the better Christian of the two. Whatever
+his senior deacon might think about it, he said to himself that he
+shouldn't be surprised if he met the Doctor in heaven yet, inquiring
+anxiously after old Deacon Shearer.
+
+He was on the point of expressing himself very frankly to the Doctor,
+with that benevolent smile on his face which had sometimes come near
+giving offence to the readers of the “Vinegar” edition, but he saw that
+the physician's attention had been arrested by Elsie. He looked in the
+same direction himself, and could not help being struck by her attitude
+and expression. There was something singularly graceful in the curves of
+her neck and the rest of her figure, but she was so perfectly still that
+it seemed as if she were hardly breathing. Her eyes were fixed on the
+young girl with whom Mr. Bernard was talking. He had often noticed their
+brilliancy, but now it seemed to him that they appeared dull, and the
+look on her features was as of some passion which had missed its stroke.
+Mr. Bernard's companion seemed unconscious that she was the object
+of this attention, and was listening to the young master as if he had
+succeeded in making himself very agreeable.
+
+Of course Dick Veneer had not mistaken the game that was going on. The
+schoolmaster meant to make Elsie jealous,--and he had done it. That 's
+it: get her savage first, and then come wheedling round her,--a sure
+trick, if he isn't headed off somehow. But Dick saw well enough that he
+had better let Elsie alone just now, and thought the best way of killing
+the evening would be to amuse himself in a little lively talk with
+Mrs. Blanche Creamer, and incidentally to show Elsie that he could make
+himself acceptable to other women, if not to herself.
+
+The Doctor presently went up to Elsie, determined to engage her in
+conversation and get her out of her thoughts, which he saw, by her look,
+were dangerous. Her father had been on the point of leaving Helen Darley
+to go to her, but felt easy enough when he saw the old Doctor at her
+side, and so went on talking. The Reverend Doctor, being now left alone,
+engaged the Widow Rowens, who put the best face on her vexation she
+could, but was devoting herself to all the underground deities for
+having been such a fool as to ask that pale-faced thing from the
+Institute to fill up her party.
+
+There is no space left to report the rest of the conversation. If there
+was anything of any significance in it, it will turn up by and by, no
+doubt. At ten o'clock the Reverend Doctor called Miss Letty, who had no
+idea it was so late; Mr. Bernard gave his arm to Helen; Mr. Richard saw
+to Mrs. Blanche Creamer; the Doctor gave Elsie a cautioning look, and
+went off alone, thoughtful; Dudley Venner and his daughter got into
+their carriage and were whirled away. The Widow's gambit was played, and
+she had not won the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. THE WILD HUNTSMAN.
+
+The young master had not forgotten the old Doctor's cautions. Without
+attributing any great importance to the warning he had given him, Mr.
+Bernard had so far complied with his advice that he was becoming a
+pretty good shot with the pistol. It was an amusement as good as many
+others to practise, and he had taken a fancy to it after the first few
+days.
+
+The popping of a pistol at odd hours in the backyard of the Institute
+was a phenomenon more than sufficiently remarkable to be talked about
+in Rockland. The viscous intelligence of a country-village is not easily
+stirred by the winds which ripple the fluent thought of great cities,
+but it holds every straw and entangles every insect that lights upon it.
+It soon became rumored in the town that the young master was a wonderful
+shot with the pistol. Some said he could hit a fo'pence-ha'penny at
+three rod; some, that he had shot a swallow, flying, with a single ball;
+some, that he snuffed a candle five times out of six at ten paces, and
+that he could hit any button in a man's coat he wanted to. In other
+words, as in all such cases, all the common feats were ascribed to him,
+as the current jokes of the day are laid at the door of any noted wit,
+however innocent he may be of them.
+
+In the natural course of things, Mr. Richard Venner, who had by this
+time made some acquaintances, as we have seen, among that class of the
+population least likely to allow a live cinder of gossip to go out for
+want of air, had heard incidentally that the master up there at the
+Institute was all the time practising with a pistol, that they say
+he can snuff a candle at ten rods, (that was Mrs. Blanche Creamer's
+version,) and that he could hit anybody he wanted to right in the eye,
+as far as he could see the white of it.
+
+Dick did not like the sound of all this any too well. Without believing
+more than half of it, there was enough to make the Yankee schoolmaster
+too unsafe to be trifled with. However, shooting at a mark was pleasant
+work enough; he had no particular objection to it himself. Only he did
+not care so much for those little popgun affairs that a man carries
+in his pocket, and with which you could n't shoot a fellow,--a robber,
+say,--without getting the muzzle under his nose. Pistols for boys;
+long-range rifles for men. There was such a gun lying in a closet with
+the fowling-pieces. He would go out into the fields and see what he
+could do as a marksman.
+
+The nature of the mark which Dick chose for experimenting upon was
+singular. He had found some panes of glass which had been removed
+from an old sash, and he placed these successively before his target,
+arranging them at different angles. He found that a bullet would go
+through the glass without glancing or having its force materially
+abated. It was an interesting fact in physics, and might prove of some
+practical significance hereafter. Nobody knows what may turn up to
+render these out-of-the-way facts useful. All this was done in a quiet
+way in one of the bare spots high up the side of The Mountain. He
+was very thoughtful in taking the precaution to get so far away;
+rifle-bullets are apt to glance and come whizzing about people's ears,
+if they are fired in the neighborhood of houses. Dick satisfied himself
+that he could be tolerably sure of hitting a pane of glass at a distance
+of thirty rods, more or less, and that, if there happened to be anything
+behind it, the glass would not materially alter the force or direction
+of the bullet.
+
+About this time it occurred to him also that there was an old
+accomplishment of his which he would be in danger of losing for want of
+practice, if he did not take some opportunity to try his hand and regain
+its cunning, if it had begun to be diminished by disuse. For his first
+trial, he chose an evening when the moon was shining, and after the hour
+when the Rockland people were like to be stirring abroad. He was so far
+established now that he could do much as he pleased without exciting
+remark.
+
+The prairie horse he rode, the mustang of the Pampas, wild as he was,
+had been trained to take part in at least one exercise. This was the
+accomplishment in which Mr. Richard now proposed to try himself. For
+this purpose he sought the implement of which, as it may be remembered,
+he had once made an incidental use,--the lasso, or long strip of hide
+with a slip-noose at the end of it. He had been accustomed to playing
+with such a thong from his boyhood, and had become expert in its use in
+capturing wild cattle in the course of his adventures. Unfortunately,
+there were no wild bulls likely to be met with in the neighborhood, to
+become the subjects of his skill. A stray cow in the road, an ox or a
+horse in a pasture, must serve his turn,--dull beasts, but moving marks
+to aim at, at any rate.
+
+Never, since he had galloped in the chase over the Pampas, had Dick
+Venner felt such a sense of life and power as when he struck the long
+spurs into his wild horse's flanks, and dashed along the road with the
+lasso lying like a coiled snake at the saddle-bow. In skilful hands, the
+silent, bloodless noose, flying like an arrow, but not like that leaving
+a wound behind it,--sudden as a pistol-shot, but without the telltale
+explosion,--is one of the most fearful and mysterious weapons that arm
+the hand of man. The old Romans knew how formidable, even in contest
+with a gladiator equipped with sword, helmet, and shield, was the almost
+naked retiarius, with his net in one hand and his three-pronged javelin
+in the other. Once get a net over a man's head, or a cord round his
+neck, or, what is more frequently done nowadays, bonnet him by knocking
+his hat down over his eyes, and he is at the mercy of his opponent. Our
+soldiers who served against the Mexicans found this out too well. Many
+a poor fellow has been lassoed by the fierce riders from the plains,
+and fallen an easy victim to the captor who had snared him in the fatal
+noose.
+
+But, imposing as the sight of the wild huntsmen of the Pampas might
+have been, Dick could not help laughing at the mock sublimity of his
+situation, as he tried his first experiment on an unhappy milky mother
+who had strayed from her herd and was wandering disconsolately along
+the road, laying the dust, as slue went, with thready streams from her
+swollen, swinging udders. “Here goes the Don at the windmill!” said
+Dick, and tilted full speed at her, whirling the lasso round his head as
+he rode. The creature swerved to one side of the way, as the wild horse
+and his rider came rushing down upon her, and presently turned and ran,
+as only cows and it would n't be safe to say it--can run. Just before
+he passed,--at twenty or thirty feet from her,--the lasso shot from his
+hand, uncoiling as it flew, and in an instant its loop was round
+her horns. “Well cast!” said Dick, as he galloped up to her side and
+dexterously disengaged the lasso. “Now for a horse on the run!”
+
+He had the good luck to find one, presently, grazing in a pasture at the
+road-side. Taking down the rails of the fence at one point, he drove the
+horse into the road and gave chase. It was a lively young animal enough,
+and was easily roused to a pretty fast pace. As his gallop grew more
+and more rapid, Dick gave the reins to the mustang, until the two horses
+stretched themselves out in their longest strides. If the first feat
+looked like play, the one he was now to attempt had a good deal the
+appearance of real work. He touched the mustang with the spur, and in a
+few fierce leaps found himself nearly abreast of the frightened animal
+he was chasing. Once more he whirled the lasso round and round over his
+head, and then shot it forth, as the rattlesnake shoots his head from
+the loops against which it rests. The noose was round the horse's neck,
+and in another instant was tightened so as almost to stop his breath.
+The prairie horse knew the trick of the cord, and leaned away from the
+captive, so as to keep the thong tensely stretched between his neck and
+the peak of the saddle to which it was fastened. Struggling was of no
+use with a halter round his windpipe, and he very soon began to tremble
+and stagger,--blind, no doubt, and with a roaring in his ears as of a
+thousand battle-trumpets,--at any rate, subdued and helpless. That was
+enough. Dick loosened his lasso, wound it up again, laid it like a pet
+snake in a coil at his saddle-bow, turned his horse, and rode slowly
+along towards the mansion-house.
+
+The place had never looked more stately and beautiful to him than as
+he now saw it in the moonlight. The undulations of the land,--the grand
+mountain screen which sheltered the mansion from the northern blasts,
+rising with all its hanging forests and parapets of naked rock high
+towards the heavens,--the ancient mansion, with its square chimneys, and
+bodyguard of old trees, and cincture of low walls with marble-pillared
+gateways,--the fields, with their various coverings,--the beds of
+flowers,--the plots of turf, one with a gray column in its centre
+bearing a sundial on which the rays of the moon were idly shining,
+another with a white stone and a narrow ridge of turf,--over all these
+objects, harmonized with all their infinite details into one fair whole
+by the moonlight, the prospective heir, as he deemed himself, looked
+with admiring eyes.
+
+But while he looked, the thought rose up in his mind like waters from a
+poisoned fountain, that there was a deep plot laid to cheat him of the
+inheritance which by a double claim he meant to call his own. Every day
+this ice-cold beauty, this dangerous, handsome cousin of his, went up to
+that place,--that usher's girl-trap. Everyday,--regularly now,--it used
+to be different. Did she go only to get out of his, her cousin's, reach?
+Was she not rather becoming more and more involved in the toils of this
+plotting Yankee?
+
+If Mr. Bernard had shown himself at that moment a few rods in advance,
+the chances are that in less than one minute he would have found
+himself with a noose round his neck, at the heels of a mounted horseman.
+Providence spared him for the present. Mr. Richard rode his horse
+quietly round to the stable, put him up, and proceeded towards the
+house. He got to his bed without disturbing the family, but could not
+sleep. The idea had fully taken possession of his mind that a deep
+intrigue was going on which would end by bringing Elsie and the
+schoolmaster into relations fatal to all his own hopes. With that
+ingenuity which always accompanies jealousy, he tortured every
+circumstance of the last few weeks so as to make it square with this
+belief. From this vein of thought he naturally passed to a consideration
+of every possible method by which the issue he feared might be avoided.
+
+Mr. Richard talked very plain language with himself in all these inward
+colloquies. Supposing it came to the worst, what could be done then?
+First, an accident might happen to the schoolmaster which should put
+a complete and final check upon his projects and contrivances. The
+particular accident which might interrupt his career must, evidently,
+be determined by circumstances; but it must be of a nature to explain
+itself without the necessity of any particular person's becoming
+involved in the matter. It would be unpleasant to go into particulars;
+but everybody knows well enough that men sometimes get in the way of
+a stray bullet, and that young persons occasionally do violence to
+themselves in various modes,--by firearms, suspension, and other
+means,--in consequence of disappointment in love, perhaps, oftener than
+from other motives. There was still another kind of accident which might
+serve his purpose. If anything should happen to Elsie, it would be the
+most natural thing in the world that his uncle should adopt him, his
+nephew and only near relation, as his heir. Unless, indeed, uncle Dudley
+should take it into his head to marry again. In that case, where would
+he, Dick, be? This was the most detestable complication which he could
+conceive of. And yet he had noticed--he could not help noticing--that
+his uncle had been very attentive to, and, as it seemed, very much
+pleased with, that young woman from the school. What did that mean? Was
+it possible that he was going to take a fancy to her?
+
+It made him wild to think of all the several contingencies which might
+defraud him of that good-fortune which seemed but just now within his
+grasp. He glared in the darkness at imaginary faces: sometimes at that
+of the handsome, treacherous schoolmaster; sometimes at that of the
+meek-looking, but no doubt, scheming, lady-teacher; sometimes at that of
+the dark girl whom he was ready to make his wife; sometimes at that of
+his much respected uncle, who, of course, could not be allowed to peril
+the fortunes of his relatives by forming a new connection. It was a
+frightful perplexity in which he found himself, because there was no
+one single life an accident to which would be sufficient to insure the
+fitting and natural course of descent to the great Dudley property. If
+it had been a simple question of helping forward a casualty to any one
+person, there was nothing in Dick's habits of thought and living to make
+that a serious difficulty. He had been so much with lawless people, that
+a life between his wish and his object seemed only as an obstacle to
+be removed, provided the object were worth the risk and trouble. But if
+there were two or three lives in the way, manifestly that altered the
+case.
+
+His Southern blood was getting impatient. There was enough of the
+New-Englander about him to make him calculate his chances before he
+struck; but his plans were liable to be defeated at any moment by a
+passionate impulse such as the dark-hued races of Southern Europe and
+their descendants are liable to. He lay in his bed, sometimes arranging
+plans to meet the various difficulties already mentioned, sometimes
+getting into a paroxysm of blind rage in the perplexity of considering
+what object he should select as the one most clearly in his way. On the
+whole, there could be no doubt where the most threatening of all his
+embarrassments lay. It was in the probable growing relation between
+Elsie and the schoolmaster. If it should prove, as it seemed likely,
+that there was springing up a serious attachment tending to a union
+between them, he knew what he should do, if he was not quite so sure how
+he should do it.
+
+There was one thing at least which might favor his projects, and which,
+at any rate, would serve to amuse him. He could, by a little quiet
+observation, find out what were the schoolmaster's habits of life:
+whether he had any routine which could be calculated upon; and under
+what circumstances a strictly private interview of a few minutes with
+him might be reckoned on, in case it should be desirable. He could also
+very probably learn some facts about Elsie, whether the young man was
+in the habit of attending her on her way home from school; whether she
+stayed about the schoolroom after the other girls had gone; and any
+incidental matters of interest which might present themselves.
+
+He was getting more and more restless for want of some excitement. A mad
+gallop, a visit to Mrs. Blanche Creamer, who had taken such a fancy to
+him, or a chat with the Widow Rowens, who was very lively in her talk,
+for all her sombre colors, and reminded him a good deal of same of his
+earlier friends, the senoritas,--all these were distractions, to be
+sure, but not enough to keep his fiery spirit from fretting itself
+in longings for more dangerous excitements. The thought of getting a
+knowledge of all Mr. Bernard's ways, so that he would be in his power at
+any moment, was a happy one.
+
+For some days after this he followed Elsie at a long distance behind, to
+watch her until she got to the schoolhouse. One day he saw Mr. Bernard
+join her: a mere accident, very probably, for it was only once this
+happened. She came on her homeward way alone,--quite apart from the
+groups of girls who strolled out of the schoolhouse yard in company.
+Sometimes she was behind them all,--which was suggestive. Could she have
+stayed to meet the schoolmaster?
+
+If he could have smuggled himself into the school, he would have liked
+to watch her there, and see if there was not some understanding between
+her and the master which betrayed itself by look or word. But this was
+beyond the limits of his audacity, and he had to content himself with
+such cautious observations as could be made at a distance. With the aid
+of a pocket-glass he could make out persons without the risk of being
+observed himself.
+
+Mr. Silos Peckham's corps of instructors was not expected to be off duty
+or to stand at ease for any considerable length of time. Sometimes Mr.
+Bernard, who had more freedom than the rest, would go out for a ramble
+in the daytime, but more frequently it would be in the evening, after
+the hour of “retiring,” as bedtime was elegantly termed by the young
+ladies of the Apollinean Institute. He would then not unfrequently walk
+out alone in the common roads, or climb up the sides of The Mountain,
+which seemed to be one of his favorite resorts. Here, of course, it was
+impossible to follow him with the eye at a distance. Dick had a hideous,
+gnawing suspicion that somewhere in these deep shades the schoolmaster
+might meet Elsie, whose evening wanderings he knew so well. But of this
+he was not able to assure himself. Secrecy was necessary to his present
+plans, and he could not compromise himself by over-eager curiosity. One
+thing he learned with certainty. The master returned, after his walk one
+evening, and entered the building where his room was situated. Presently
+a light betrayed the window of his apartment. From a wooded bank, some
+thirty or forty rods from this building, Dick Venner could see the
+interior of the chamber, and watch the master as he sat at his desk, the
+light falling strongly upon his face, intent upon the book or manuscript
+before him. Dick contemplated him very long in this attitude. The sense
+of watching his every motion, himself meanwhile utterly unseen, was
+delicious. How little the master was thinking what eyes were on him!
+
+Well,--there were two things quite certain. One was, that, if he chose,
+he could meet the schoolmaster alone, either in the road or in a more
+solitary place, if he preferred to watch his chance for an evening or
+two. The other was, that he commanded his position, as he sat at his
+desk in the evening, in such a way that there would be very little
+difficulty,--so far as that went; of course, however, silence is always
+preferable to noise, and there is a great difference in the marks left
+by different casualties. Very likely nothing would come of all this
+espionage; but, at any rate, the first thing to be done with a man you
+want to have in your power is to learn his habits.
+
+Since the tea-party at the Widow Rowens's, Elsie had been more fitful
+and moody than ever. Dick understood all this well enough, you know. It
+was the working of her jealousy against that young schoolgirl to whom
+the master had devoted himself for the sake of piquing the heiress
+of the Dudley mansion. Was it possible, in any way, to exasperate
+her irritable nature against him, and in this way to render her more
+accessible to his own advances? It was difficult to influence her at
+all. She endured his company without seeming to enjoy it. She watched
+him with that strange look of hers, sometimes as if she were on her
+guard against him, sometimes as if she would like to strike at him as
+in that fit of childish passion. She ordered him about with a haughty
+indifference which reminded him of his own way with the dark-eyed women
+whom he had known so well of old. All this added a secret pleasure to
+the other motives he had for worrying her with jealous suspicions. He
+knew she brooded silently on any grief that poisoned her comfort,--that
+she fed on it, as it were, until it ran with every drop of blood in her
+veins,--and that, except in some paroxysm of rage, of which he himself
+was not likely the second time to be the object, or in some deadly
+vengeance wrought secretly, against which he would keep a sharp lookout,
+so far as he was concerned, she had no outlet for her dangerous,
+smouldering passions.
+
+Beware of the woman who cannot find free utterance for all her stormy
+inner life either in words or song! So long as a woman can talk, there
+is nothing she cannot bear. If she cannot have a companion to listen to
+her woes, and has no musical utterance, vocal or instrumental,--then, if
+she is of the real woman sort, and has a few heartfuls of wild blood in
+her, and you have done her a wrong,--double-bolt the door which she may
+enter on noiseless slipper at midnight,--look twice before you taste of
+any cup whose draught the shadow of her hand may have darkened!
+
+But let her talk, and, above all, cry, or, if she is one of the
+coarser-grained tribe, give her the run of all the red-hot expletives in
+the language, and let her blister her lips with them until she is tired,
+she will sleep like a lamb after it, and you may take a cup of coffee
+from her without stirring it up to look for its sediment.
+
+So, if she can sing, or play on any musical instrument, all her
+wickedness will run off through her throat or the tips of her fingers.
+How many tragedies find their peaceful catastrophe in fierce roulades
+and strenuous bravuras! How many murders are executed in double-quick
+time upon the keys which stab the air with their dagger-strokes of
+sound! What would our civilization be without the piano? Are not Erard
+and Broadwood and Chickering the true humanizers of our time? Therefore
+do I love to hear the all-pervading tum tum jarring the walls of little
+parlors in houses with double door-plates on their portals, looking out
+on streets and courts which to know is to be unknown, and where to exist
+is not to live, according to any true definition of living. Therefore
+complain I not of modern degeneracy, when, even from the open window of
+the small unlovely farmhouse, tenanted by the hard-handed man of bovine
+flavors and the flat-patterned woman of broken-down countenance, issue
+the same familiar sounds. For who knows that Almira, but for these keys,
+which throb away her wild impulses in harmless discords would not
+have been floating, dead, in the brown stream which slides through the
+meadows by her father's door,--or living, with that other current
+which runs beneath the gas-lights over the slimy pavement, choking with
+wretched weeds that were once in spotless flower?
+
+Poor Elsie! She never sang nor played. She never shaped her inner life
+in words: such utterance was as much denied to her nature as common
+articulate speech to the deaf mute. Her only language must be in action.
+Watch her well by day and by night, old Sophy! watch her well! or
+the long line of her honored name may close in shame, and the stately
+mansion of the Dudleys remain a hissing and a reproach till its roof is
+buried in its cellar!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. ON HIS TRACKS.
+
+“Able!” said the old Doctor, one morning, “after you've harnessed
+Caustic, come into the study a few minutes, will you?”
+
+Abel nodded. He was a man of few words, and he knew that the “will you”
+ did not require an answer, being the true New-England way of rounding
+the corners of an employer's order,--a tribute to the personal
+independence of an American citizen.
+
+The hired man came into the study in the course of a few minutes.
+His face was perfectly still, and he waited to be spoken to; but the
+Doctor's eye detected a certain meaning in his expression, which looked
+as if he had something to communicate.
+
+“Well?” said the Doctor.
+
+“He's up to mischief o' some kind, I guess,” said Abel. “I jest happened
+daown by the mansion-haouse last night, 'n' he come aout o' the gate
+on that queer-lookin' creator' o' his. I watched him, 'n' he rid, very
+slow, all raoun' by the Institoot, 'n' acted as ef he was spyin' abaout.
+He looks to me like a man that's calc'latin' to do some kind of ill-turn
+to somebody. I should n't like to have him raoun' me, 'f there wa'n't
+a pitchfork or an eel-spear or some sech weep'n within reach. He may be
+all right; but I don't like his looks, 'n' I don't see what he's lurkin'
+raoun' the Institoot for, after folks is abed.”
+
+“Have you watched him pretty close for the last few days?” said the
+Doctor.
+
+“W'll, yes,--I've had my eye on him consid'ble o' the time. I haf to be
+pooty shy abaout it, or he'll find aout th't I'm on his tracks. I don'
+want him to get a spite ag'inst me, 'f I c'n help it; he looks to me
+like one o' them kind that kerries what they call slung-shot, 'n' hits
+ye on the side o' th' head with 'em so suddin y' never know what hurts
+ye.”
+
+“Why,” said the Doctor, sharply,--“have you ever seen him with any such
+weapon about him?”
+
+“W'll, no,--I caan't say that I hev,” Abel answered. “On'y he looks kin'
+o' dangerous. Maybe he's all jest 'z he ought to be,--I caan't say that
+he a'n't,--but he's aout late nights, 'n' lurkin' raonn' jest 'z ef
+he was spyin' somebody, 'n' somehaow I caan't help mistrustin' them
+Portagee-lookin' fellahs. I caan't keep the run o' this chap all the
+time; but I've a notion that old black woman daown 't the mansion-haouse
+knows 'z much abaout him 'z anybody.”
+
+The Doctor paused a moment, after hearing this report from his private
+detective, and then got into his chaise, and turned Caustic's head in
+the direction of the Dudley mansion. He had been suspicious of Dick from
+the first. He did not like his mixed blood, nor his looks, nor his
+ways. He had formed a conjecture about his projects early. He had made
+a shrewd guess as to the probable jealousy Dick would feel of the
+schoolmaster, had found out something of his movements, and had
+cautioned Mr. Bernard,--as we have seen. He felt an interest in
+the young man,--a student of his own profession, an intelligent and
+ingenuously unsuspecting young fellow, who had been thrown by accident
+into the companionship or the neighborhood of two persons, one of whom
+he knew to be dangerous, and the other he believed instinctively might
+be capable of crime.
+
+The Doctor rode down to the Dudley mansion solely for the sake of seeing
+old Sophy. He was lucky enough to find her alone in her kitchen.
+He began taking with her as a physician; he wanted to know how her
+rheumatism had been. The shrewd old woman saw through all that with her
+little beady black eyes. It was something quite different he had come
+for, and old Sophy answered very briefly for her aches and ails.
+
+“Old folks' bones a'n't like young folks',” she said. “It's the Lord's
+doin's, 'n' 't a'n't much matter. I sha'n' be long roan' this kitchen.
+It's the young Missis, Doctor,--it 's our Elsie,--it 's the baby, as we
+use' t' call her,--don' you remember, Doctor? Seventeen year ago, 'n'
+her poor mother cryin' for her,--'Where is she? where is she? Let me see
+her! '--'n' how I run up-stairs,--I could run then,--'n' got the coral
+necklace 'n' put it round her little neck, 'n' then showed her to her
+mother,--'n' how her mother looked at her, 'n' looked, 'n' then put out
+her poor thin fingers 'n' lifted the necklace,--'n' fell right back on
+her piller, as white as though she was laid out to bury?”
+
+The Doctor answered her by silence and a look of grave assent. He had
+never chosen to let old Sophy dwell upon these matters, for obvious
+reasons. The girl must not grow up haunted by perpetual fears and
+prophecies, if it were possible to prevent it.
+
+“Well, how has Elsie seemed of late?” he said, after this brief pause.
+
+The old woman shook her head. Then she looked up at the Doctor so
+steadily and searchingly that the diamond eyes of Elsie herself could
+hardly have pierced more deeply.
+
+The Doctor raised his head, by his habitual movement, and met the old
+woman's look with his own calm and scrutinizing gaze, sharpened by the
+glasses through which he now saw her.
+
+Sophy spoke presently in an awed tone, as if telling a vision.
+
+“We shall be havin' trouble before long. The' 's somethin' comin'
+from the Lord. I've had dreams, Doctor. It's many a year I've been
+a-dreamin', but now they're comin' over 'n' over the same thing. Three
+times I've dreamed one thing, Doctor,--one thing!”
+
+“And what was that?” the Doctor said, with that shade of curiosity
+in his tone which a metaphysician would probably say is an index of a
+certain tendency to belief in the superstition to which the question
+refers.
+
+“I ca'n' jestly tell y' what it was, Doctor,” the old woman answered,
+as if bewildered and trying to clear up her recollections; “but it
+was somethin' fearful, with a great noise 'n' a great cryin' o'
+people,--like the Las' Day, Doctor! The Lord have mercy on my poor
+chil', 'n' take care of her, if anything happens! But I's feared she'll
+never live to see the Las' Day, 'f 't don' come pooty quick.”
+
+Poor Sophy, only the third generation from cannibalism, was, not
+unnaturally, somewhat confused in her theological notions. Some of the
+Second-Advent preachers had been about, and circulated their predictions
+among the kitchen--population of Rockland. This was the way in which it
+happened that she mingled her fears in such a strange manner with their
+doctrines.
+
+The Doctor answered solemnly, that of the day and hour we knew not, but
+it became us to be always ready.--“Is there anything going on in the
+household different from common?”
+
+Old Sophy's wrinkled face looked as full of life and intelligence,
+when she turned it full upon the Doctor, as if she had slipped off her
+infirmities and years like an outer garment. All those fine instincts
+of observation which came straight to her from her savage grandfather
+looked out of her little eyes. She had a kind of faith that the Doctor
+was a mighty conjurer, who, if he would, could bewitch any of them. She
+had relieved her feelings by her long talk with the minister, but the
+Doctor was the immediate adviser of the family, and had watched them
+through all their troubles. Perhaps he could tell them what to do. She
+had but one real object of affection in the world,--this child that
+she had tended from infancy to womanhood. Troubles were gathering thick
+round her; how soon they would break upon her, and blight or destroy
+her, no one could tell; but there was nothing in all the catalogue of
+terrors which might not come upon the household at any moment. Her own
+wits had sharpened themselves in keeping watch by day and night, and
+her face had forgotten its age in the excitement which gave life to its
+features.
+
+“Doctor,” old Sophy said, “there's strange things goin' on here by night
+and by day. I don' like that man,--that Dick,--I never liked him. He
+giv' me some o' these things I' got on; I take 'em 'cos I know it make
+him mad, if I no take 'em; I wear 'em, so that he need n' feel as if I
+did n' like him; but, Doctor, I hate him,--jes' as much as a member of
+the church has the Lord's leave to hate anybody.”
+
+Her eyes sparkled with the old savage light, as if her ill-will to Mr.
+Richard Veneer might perhaps go a little farther than the Christian
+limit she had assigned. But remember that her grandfather was in the
+habit of inviting his friends to dine with him upon the last enemy he
+had bagged, and that her grandmother's teeth were filed down to points,
+so that they were as sharp as a shark's.
+
+“What is that you have seen about Mr. Richard Veneer that gives you such
+a spite against him, Sophy?” asked the Doctor.
+
+“What I' seen 'bout Dick Veneer?” she replied, fiercely. “I'll tell y'
+what I' seen. Dick wan's to marry our Elsie,--that 's what he wan's; 'n'
+he don' love her, Doctor,--he hates her, Doctor, as bad as I hate him!
+He wan's to marry our Elsie, In' live here in the big house, 'n' have
+nothin' to do but jes' lay still 'n' watch Massa Venner 'n' see how long
+'t Ill take him to die, 'n' 'f he don' die fas' 'puff, help him some
+way t' die fasser!--Come close up t' me, Doctor! I wan' t' tell you
+somethin' I tol' th' minister t' other day. Th' minister, he come down
+'n' prayed 'n' talked good,--he's a good man, that Doctor Honeywood, 'n'
+I tol' him all 'bout our Elsie, but he did n' tell nobody what to do
+to stop all what I' been dreamin' about happenin'. Come close up to me,
+Doctor!”
+
+The Doctor drew his chair close up to that of the old woman.
+
+“Doctor, nobody mus'n' never marry our Elsie 's longs she lives! Nobody
+mus' n' never live with Elsie but ol Sophy; 'n' ol Sophy won't never die
+'s long 's Elsie 's alive to be took care of. But I's feared, Doctor,
+I's greatly feared Elsie wan' to marry somebody. The' 's a young
+gen'l'm'n up at that school where she go,--so some of 'em tells me, 'n'
+she loves t' see him 'n' talk wi' him, 'n' she talks about him when she
+'s asleep sometimes. She mus 'n' never marry nobody, Doctor! If she do,
+he die, certain!”
+
+“If she has a fancy for the young man up at the school there,” the
+Doctor said, “I shouldn't think there would be much danger from Dick.”
+
+“Doctor, nobody know nothin' 'bout Elsie but of Sophy. She no like any
+other creator' th't ever drawed the bref o' life. If she ca'n' marry one
+man 'cos she love him, she marry another man 'cos she hate him.”
+
+“Marry a man because she hates him, Sophy? No woman ever did such a
+thing as that, or ever will do it.”
+
+“Who tol' you Elsie was a woman, Doctor?” said old Sophy, with a flash
+of strange intelligence in her eyes.
+
+The Doctor's face showed that he was startled. The old woman could
+not know much about Elsie that he did not know; but what strange
+superstition had got into her head, he was puzzled to guess. He had
+better follow Sophy's lead and find out what she meant.
+
+“I should call Elsie a woman, and a very handsome one,” he said. “You
+don't mean that she has any mark about her, except--you know--under the
+necklace?”
+
+The old woman resented the thought of any deformity about her darling.
+
+“I did n' say she had nothin'--but jes' that--you know. My beauty have
+anything ugly? She's the beautifullest-shaped lady that ever had a
+shinin' silk gown drawed over her shoulders. On'y she a'n't like no
+other woman in none of her ways. She don't cry 'n' laugh like other
+women. An' she ha'n' got the same kind o' feelin's as other women.--Do
+you know that young gen'l'm'n up at the school, Doctor?”
+
+“Yes, Sophy, I've met him sometimes. He's a very nice sort of young
+man, handsome, too, and I don't much wonder Elsie takes to him. Tell me,
+Sophy, what do you think would happen, if he should chance to fall in
+love with Elsie, and she with him, and he should marry her?”
+
+“Put your ear close to my lips, Doctor, dear!” She whispered a little to
+the Doctor, then added aloud, “He die,--that's all.”
+
+“But surely, Sophy, you a'n't afraid to have Dick marry her, if she
+would have him for any reason, are you? He can take care of himself, if
+anybody can.”
+
+“Doctor!” Sophy answered, “nobody can take care of hisself that live wi'
+Elsie! Nobody never in all this worl' mus' live wi' Elsie but of Sophy,
+I tell you. You don' think I care for Dick? What do I care, if Dick
+Venner die? He wan's to marry our Elsie so 's to live in the big house
+'n' get all the money 'n' all the silver things 'n' all the chists full
+o' linen 'n' beautiful clothes. That's what Dick wan's. An' he hates
+Elsie 'cos she don' like him. But if he marry Elsie, she 'll make him
+die some wrong way or other, 'n' they'll take her 'n' hang her, or he'll
+get mad with her 'n' choke her.--Oh, I know his chokin' tricks!--he don'
+leave his keys roun' for nothin.'”
+
+“What's that you say, Sophy? Tell me what you mean by all that.”
+
+So poor Sophy had to explain certain facts not in all respects to her
+credit. She had taken the opportunity of his absence to look about his
+chamber, and, having found a key in one of his drawers, had applied it
+to a trunk, and, finding that it opened the trunk, had made a kind of
+inspection for contraband articles, and, seeing the end of a leather
+thong, had followed it up until she saw that it finished with a noose,
+which, from certain appearances, she inferred to have seen service of at
+least doubtful nature. An unauthorized search; but old Sophy considered
+that a game of life and death was going on in the household, and that
+she was bound to look out for her darling.
+
+The Doctor paused a moment to think over this odd piece of
+information. Without sharing Sophy's belief as to the kind of use this
+mischievous-looking piece of property had been put to, it was certainly
+very odd that Dick should have such a thing at the bottom of his trunk.
+The Doctor remembered reading or hearing something about the lasso and
+the lariat and the bolas, and had an indistinct idea that they had been
+sometimes used as weapons of warfare or private revenge; but they were
+essentially a huntsman's implements, after all, and it was not very
+strange that this young man had brought one of them with him. Not
+strange, perhaps, but worth noting.
+
+“Do you really think Dick means mischief to anybody, that he has such
+dangerous-looking things?” the Doctor said, presently.
+
+“I tell you, Doctor. Dick means to have Elsie. If he ca'n' get her, he
+never let nobody else have her! Oh, Dick 's a dark man, Doctor! I know
+him! I 'member him when he was little boy,--he always cunin'. I think
+he mean mischief to somebody. He come home late nights,--come in
+softly,--oh, I hear him! I lay awake, 'n' got sharp ears,--I hear the
+cats walkin' over the roofs,--'n' I hear Dick Veneer, when he comes up
+in his stockin'-feet as still as a cat. I think he mean' mischief to
+somebody. I no like his looks these las' days.--Is that a very pooty
+gen'l'm'n up at the schoolhouse, Doctor?”
+
+“I told you he was good-looking. What if he is?”
+
+“I should like to see him, Doctor,--I should like to see the pooty
+gen'l'm'n that my poor Elsie loves. She mus 'n' never marry nobody,
+--but, oh, Doctor, I should like to see him, 'n' jes' think a little how
+it would ha' been, if the Lord had n' been so hard on Elsie.”
+
+She wept and wrung her hands. The kind Doctor was touched, and left her
+a moment to her thoughts.
+
+“And how does Mr. Dudley Veneer take all this?” he said, by way of
+changing the subject a little.
+
+“Oh, Massa Veneer, he good man, but he don' know nothin' 'bout Elsie, as
+of Sophy do. I keep close by her; I help her when she go to bed, 'n' set
+by her sometime when she--'sleep; I come to her in th' mornin' 'n' help
+her put on her things.”--Then, in a whisper;--“Doctor, Elsie lets of
+Sophy take off that necklace for her. What you think she do, 'f anybody
+else tech it?”
+
+“I don't know, I'm sure, Sophy,--strike the person, perhaps.”
+
+“Oh, yes, strike 'em! but not with her han's, Doctor!”--The old woman's
+significant pantomime must be guessed at.
+
+“But you haven't told me, Sophy, what Mr. Dudley Veneer thinks of his
+nephew, nor whether he has any notion that Dick wants to marry Elsie.”
+
+“I tell you. Massa Venner, he good man, but he no see nothin' 'bout what
+goes on here in the house. He sort o' broken-hearted, you know,--sort
+o' giv up,--don' know what to do wi' Elsie, 'xcep' say 'Yes, yes.' Dick
+always look smilin' 'n' behave well before him. One time I thought Massa
+Veneer b'lieve Dick was goin' to take to Elsie; but now he don' seem
+to take much notice,--he kin' o' stupid-' like 'bout sech things. It's
+trouble, Doctor; 'cos Massa Veneer bright man naterally,--'n' he's got
+a great heap o' books. I don' think Massa Veneer never been jes' heself
+sence Elsie 's born. He done all he know how,--but, Doctor, that wa'n' a
+great deal. You men-folks don' know nothin' 'bout these young gals;
+'n' 'f you knowed all the young gals that ever lived, y' would n' know
+nothin' 'bout our Elsie.”
+
+“No,--but, Sophy, what I want to know is, whether you think Mr. Veneer
+has any kind of suspicion about his nephew,--whether he has any notion
+that he's a dangerous sort of fellow,--or whether he feels safe to have
+him about, or has even taken a sort of fancy to him.”
+
+“Lar' bless you, Doctor, Massa Veneer no more idee 'f any mischief
+'bout Dick than he has 'bout you or me. Y' see, he very fond o' the
+Cap'n,--that Dick's father,--'n' he live so long alone here, 'long wi'
+us, that he kin' o' like to see mos' anybody 't 's got any o' th' of
+family-blood in 'em. He ha'n't got no more suspicions 'n a baby,--y'
+never see sech a man 'n y'r life. I kin' o' think he don' care for
+nothin' in this world 'xcep' jes' t' do what Elsie wan's him to. The
+fus' year after young Madam die he do nothin' but jes' set at the window
+'n' look out at her grave, 'n' then come up 'n' look at the baby's neck
+'n' say, 'It's fadin', Sophy, a'n't it? 'n' then go down in the study
+'n' walk 'n' walk, 'n' them kneel down 'n' pray. Doctor, there was two
+places in the old carpet that was all threadbare, where his knees had
+worn 'em. An' sometimes, you remember 'bout all that,--he'd go off up
+into The Mountain, 'n' be gone all day, 'n' kill all the Ugly Things
+he could find up there.--Oh, Doctor, I don' like to think o' them
+days!--An' by 'n' by he grew kin' o' still, 'n' begun to read a little,
+'n' 't las' he got 's quiet's a lamb, 'n' that's the way he is now. I
+think he's got religion, Doctor; but he a'n't so bright about what's
+goin' on, 'n' I don' believe he never suspec' nothin' till somethin'
+happens; for the' 's somethin' goin' to happen, Doctor, if the Las' Day
+does n' come to stop it; 'n' you mus' tell us what to do, 'n' save my
+poor Elsie, my baby that the Lord has n' took care of like all his other
+childer.”
+
+The Doctor assured the old woman that he was thinking a great deal about
+them all, and that there were other eyes on Dick besides her own. Let
+her watch him closely about the house, and he would keep a look-out
+elsewhere. If there was anything new, she must let him know at once.
+Send up one of the menservants, and he would come down at a moment's
+warning.
+
+There was really nothing definite against this young man; but the Doctor
+was sure that he was meditating some evil design or other. He rode
+straight up to the Institute. There he saw Mr. Bernard, and had a brief
+conversation with him, principally on matters relating to his personal
+interests.
+
+That evening, for some unknown reason, Mr. Bernard changed the place of
+his desk and drew down the shades of his windows. Late that night Mr.
+Richard Venner drew the charge of a rifle, and put the gun back among
+the fowling-pieces, swearing that a leather halter was worth a dozen of
+it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. THE PERILOUS HOUR.
+
+Up to this time Dick Venner had not decided on the particular mode
+and the precise period of relieving himself from the unwarrantable
+interference which threatened to defeat his plans. The luxury of feeling
+that he had his man in his power was its own reward. One who watches
+in the dark, outside, while his enemy, in utter unconsciousness, is
+illuminating his apartment and himself so that every movement of his
+head and every button on his coat can be seen and counted, experiences a
+peculiar kind of pleasure, if he holds a loaded rifle in his hand, which
+he naturally hates to bring to its climax by testing his skill as a
+marksman upon the object of his attention.
+
+Besides, Dick had two sides in his nature, almost as distinct as we
+sometimes observe in those persons who are the subjects of the condition
+known as double consciousness. On his New England side he was cunning
+and calculating, always cautious, measuring his distance before he
+risked his stroke, as nicely as if he were throwing his lasso. But
+he was liable to intercurrent fits of jealousy and rage, such as the
+light-hued races are hardly capable of conceiving, blinding paroxysms of
+passion, which for the time overmastered him, and which, if they found
+no ready outlet, transformed themselves into the more dangerous forces
+that worked through the instrumentality of his cool craftiness.
+
+He had failed as yet in getting any positive evidence that there was
+any relation between Elsie and the schoolmaster other than such as might
+exist unsuspected and unblamed between a teacher and his pupil. A book,
+or a note, even, did not prove the existence of any sentiment. At one
+time he would be devoured by suspicions, at another he would try to
+laugh himself out of them. And in the mean while he followed Elsie's
+tastes as closely as he could, determined to make some impression upon
+her,--to become a habit, a convenience, a necessity,--whatever might aid
+him in the attainment of the one end which was now the aim of his life.
+
+It was to humor one of her tastes already known to the reader, that he
+said to her one morning,--“Come, Elsie, take your castanets, and let us
+have a dance.”
+
+He had struck the right vein in the girl's fancy, for she was in the
+mood for this exercise, and very willingly led the way into one of the
+more empty apartments. What there was in this particular kind of dance
+which excited her it might not be easy to guess; but those who looked
+in with the old Doctor, on a former occasion, and saw her, will remember
+that she was strangely carried away by it, and became almost fearful in
+the vehemence of her passion. The sound of the castanets seemed to make
+her alive all over. Dick knew well enough what the exhibition would
+be, and was almost afraid of her at these moments; for it was like
+the dancing mania of Eastern devotees, more than the ordinary light
+amusement of joyous youth,--a convulsion of the body and the mind,
+rather than a series of voluntary modulated motions.
+
+Elsie rattled out the triple measure of a saraband. Her eyes began to
+glitter more brilliantly, and her shape to undulate in freer curves.
+Presently she noticed that Dick's look was fixed upon her necklace. His
+face betrayed his curiosity; he was intent on solving the question, why
+she always wore something about her neck. The chain of mosaics she had
+on at that moment displaced itself at every step, and he was peering
+with malignant, searching eagerness to see if an unsunned ring of
+fairer hue than the rest of the surface, or any less easily explained
+peculiarity, were hidden by her ornaments.
+
+She stopped suddenly, caught the chain of mosaics and settled it hastily
+in its place, flung down her castanets, drew herself back, and stood
+looking at him, with her head a little on one side, and her eyes
+narrowing in the way he had known so long and well.
+
+“What is the matter, Cousin Elsie? What do you stop for?” he said.
+
+Elsie did not answer, but kept her eyes on him, full of malicious light.
+The jealousy which lay covered up under his surface-thoughts took this
+opportunity to break out.
+
+“You would n't act so, if you were dancing with Mr. Langdon,--would you,
+Elsie?” he asked.
+
+It was with some effort that he looked steadily at her to see the effect
+of his question.
+
+Elsie colored,--not much, but still perceptibly. Dick could not remember
+that he had ever seen her show this mark of emotion before, in all his
+experience of her fitful changes of mood. It had a singular depth of
+significance, therefore, for him; he knew how hardly her color came.
+Blushing means nothing, in some persons; in others, it betrays a
+profound inward agitation,--a perturbation of the feelings far more
+trying than the passions which with many easily moved persons break
+forth in tears. All who have observed much are aware that some men,
+who have seen a good deal of life in its less chastened aspects and
+are anything but modest, will blush often and easily, while there
+are delicate and sensitive women who can faint, or go into fits, if
+necessary, but are very rarely seen to betray their feelings in their
+cheeks, even when their expression shows that their inmost soul is
+blushing scarlet. Presently she answered, abruptly and scornfully, “Mr.
+Langdon is a gentleman, and would not vex me as you do.”
+
+“A gentleman!” Dick answered, with the most insulting accent,--“a
+gentleman! Come, Elsie, you 've got the Dudley blood in your veins,
+and it does n't do for you to call this poor, sneaking schoolmaster a
+gentleman!”
+
+He stopped short. Elsie's bosom was heaving, the faint flush on her
+cheek was becoming a vivid glow. Whether it were shame or wrath, he
+saw that he had reached some deep-lying centre of emotion. There was no
+longer any doubt in his mind. With another girl these signs of confusion
+might mean little or nothing; with her they were decisive and final.
+Elsie Venner loved Bernard Langdon.
+
+The sudden conviction, absolute, overwhelming, which rushed upon him,
+had well-nigh led to an explosion of wrath, and perhaps some terrible
+scene which might have fulfilled some of old Sophy's predictions. This,
+however, would never do. Dick's face whitened with his thoughts, but he
+kept still until he could speak calmly.
+
+“I've nothing against the young fellow,” he said; “only I don't think
+there's anything quite good enough to keep the company of people that
+have the Dudley blood in them. You a'n't as proud as I am. I can't quite
+make up my mind to call a schoolmaster a gentleman, though this one may
+be well enough. I 've nothing against him, at any rate.”
+
+Elsie made no answer, but glided out of the room and slid away to her
+own apartment. She bolted the door and drew her curtains close. Then she
+threw herself on the floor, and fell into a dull, slow ache of passion,
+without tears, without words, almost without thoughts. So she remained,
+perhaps, for a half-hour, at the end of which time it seemed that her
+passion had become a sullen purpose. She arose, and, looking cautiously
+round, went to the hearth, which was ornamented with curious old Dutch
+tiles, with pictures of Scripture subjects. One of these represented
+the lifting of the brazen serpent. She took a hair-pin from one of her
+braids, and, insinuating its points under the edge of the tile, raised
+it from its place. A small leaden box lay under the tile, which she
+opened, and, taking from it a little white powder, which she folded in a
+scrap of paper, replaced the box and the tile over it.
+
+Whether Dick had by any means got a knowledge of this proceeding, or
+whether he only suspected some unmentionable design on her part, there
+is no sufficient means of determining. At any rate, when they met, an
+hour or two after these occurrences, he could not help noticing how
+easily she seemed to have got over her excitement. She was very pleasant
+with him,--too pleasant, Dick thought. It was not Elsie's way to come
+out of a fit of anger so easily as that. She had contrived some way of
+letting off her spite; that was certain. Dick was pretty cunning, as old
+Sophy had said, and, whether or not he had any means of knowing Elsie's
+private intentions, watched her closely, and was on his guard against
+accidents.
+
+For the first time, he took certain precautions with reference to his
+diet, such as were quite alien to his common habits. On coming to the
+dinner-table, that day, he complained of headache, took but little food,
+and refused the cup of coffee which Elsie offered him, saying that it
+did not agree with him when he had these attacks.
+
+Here was a new complication. Obviously enough, he could not live in this
+way, suspecting everything but plain bread and water, and hardly feeling
+safe in meddling with them. Not only had this school-keeping wretch come
+between him and the scheme by which he was to secure his future fortune,
+but his image had so infected his cousin's mind that she was ready to
+try on him some of those tricks which, as he had heard hinted in the
+village, she had once before put in practice upon a person who had
+become odious to her.
+
+Something must be done, and at once, to meet the double necessities of
+this case. Every day, while the young girl was in these relations with
+the young man, was only making matters worse. They could exchange words
+and looks, they could arrange private interviews, they would be stooping
+together over the same book, her hair touching his cheek, her breath
+mingling with his, all the magnetic attractions drawing them together
+with strange, invisible effluences. As her passion for the schoolmaster
+increased, her dislike to him, her cousin, would grow with it, and all
+his dangers would be multiplied. It was a fearful point he had, reached.
+He was tempted at one moment to give up all his plans and to disappear
+suddenly from the place, leaving with the schoolmaster, who had
+come between him and his object, an anonymous token of his personal
+sentiments which would be remembered a good while in the history of the
+town of Rockland. This was but a momentary thought; the great Dudley
+property could not be given up in that way.
+
+Something must happen at once to break up all this order of things. He
+could think of but one Providential event adequate to the emergency,--an
+event foreshadowed by various recent circumstances, but hitherto
+floating in his mind only as a possibility. Its occurrence would at once
+change the course of Elsie's feelings, providing her with something to
+think of besides mischief, and remove the accursed obstacle which
+was thwarting all his own projects. Every possible motive, then,--his
+interest, his jealousy, his longing for revenge, and now his fears for
+his own safety,--urged him to regard the happening of a certain casualty
+as a matter of simple necessity. This was the self-destruction of Mr.
+Bernard Langdon.
+
+Such an event, though it might be surprising to many people, would not
+be incredible, nor without many parallel cases. He was poor, a miserable
+fag, under the control of that mean wretch up there at the school, who
+looked as if he had sour buttermilk in his veins instead of blood. He
+was in love with a girl above his station, rich, and of old family, but
+strange in all her ways, and it was conceivable that he should become
+suddenly jealous of her. Or she might have frightened him with some
+display of her peculiarities which had filled him with a sudden
+repugnance in the place of love. Any of these things were credible, and
+would make a probable story enough,--so thought Dick over to himself
+with the New-England half of his mind.
+
+Unfortunately, men will not always take themselves out of the way when,
+so far as their neighbors are concerned, it would be altogether the most
+appropriate and graceful and acceptable service they could render. There
+was at this particular moment no special reason for believing that the
+schoolmaster meditated any violence to his own person. On the contrary,
+there was good evidence that he was taking some care of himself. He was
+looking well and in good spirits, and in the habit of amusing himself
+and exercising, as if to keep up his standard of health, especially of
+taking certain evening-walks, before referred to, at an hour when most
+of the Rockland people had “retired,” or, in vulgar language, “gone to
+bed.”
+
+Dick Veneer settled it, however, in his own mind, that Mr. Bernard
+Langdon must lay violent hands upon himself. He even went so far as to
+determine the precise hour, and the method in which the “rash act,” as
+it would undoubtedly be called in the next issue of “The Rockland Weekly
+Universe,” should be committed. Time,--this evening. Method, asphyxia,
+by suspension. It was, unquestionably, taking a great liberty with a
+man to decide that he should become felo de se without his own consent.
+Such, however, was the decision of Mr. Richard Veneer with regard to Mr.
+Bernard Langdon.
+
+If everything went right, then, there would be a coroner's inquest
+to-morrow upon what remained of that gentleman, found suspended to the
+branch of a tree somewhere within a mile of the Apollinean Institute.
+The “Weekly Universe” would have a startling paragraph announcing a
+“SAD EVENT!!!” which had “thrown the town into an intense state of
+excitement. Mr. Barnard Langden, a well-known teacher at the Appolinian
+Institute, was found, etc., etc. The vital spark was extinct. The
+motive to the rash act can only be conjectured, but is supposed to be
+disappointed affection. The name of an accomplished young lady of the
+highest respectability and great beauty is mentioned in connection with
+this melancholy occurrence.”
+
+Dick Venner was at the tea-table that evening, as usual.--No, he would
+take green tea, if she pleased,--the same that her father drank. It
+would suit his headache better.--Nothing,--he was much obliged to her.
+He would help himself,--which he did in a little different way from
+common, naturally enough, on account of his headache. He noticed that
+Elsie seemed a little nervous while she was rinsing some of the teacups
+before their removal.
+
+“There's something going on in that witch's head,” he said to himself.
+“I know her,--she 'd be savage now, if she had n't got some trick in
+hand. Let 's see how she looks to-morrow!”
+
+Dick announced that he should go to bed early that evening, on account
+of this confounded headache which had been troubling him so much. In
+fact, he went up early, and locked his door after him, with as much
+noise as he could make. He then changed some part of his dress, so that
+it should be dark throughout, slipped off his boots, drew the lasso out
+from the bottom of the contents of his trunk, and, carrying that and
+his boots in his hand, opened his door softly, locked it after him, and
+stole down the back-stairs, so as to get out of the house unnoticed. He
+went straight to the stable and saddled the mustang. He took a rope from
+the stable with him, mounted his horse, and set forth in the direction
+of the Institute.
+
+Mr. Bernard, as we have seen, had not been very profoundly impressed by
+the old Doctor's cautions,--enough, however, to follow out some of his
+hints which were not troublesome to attend to. He laughed at the idea of
+carrying a loaded pistol about with him; but still it seemed only fair,
+as the old Doctor thought so much of the matter, to humor him about it.
+As for not going about when and where he liked, for fear he might have
+some lurking enemy, that was a thing not to be listened to nor thought
+of. There was nothing to be ashamed of or troubled about in any of
+his relations with the school-girls. Elsie, no doubt, showed a kind
+of attraction towards him, as did perhaps some others; but he had been
+perfectly discreet, and no father or brother or lover had any just
+cause of quarrel with him. To be sure, that dark young man at the Dudley
+mansion-house looked as if he were his enemy, when he had met him; but
+certainly there was nothing in their relations to each other, or in
+his own to Elsie, that would be like to stir such malice in his mind
+as would lead him to play any of his wild Southern tricks at his, Mr.
+Bernard's, expense. Yet he had a vague feeling that this young man was
+dangerous, and he had been given to understand that one of the risks he
+ran was from that quarter.
+
+On this particular evening, he had a strange, unusual sense of some
+impending peril. His recent interview with the Doctor, certain remarks
+which had been dropped in his hearing, but above all an unaccountable
+impression upon his spirits, all combined to fill his mind with a
+foreboding conviction that he was very near some overshadowing danger.
+It was as the chill of the ice-mountain toward which the ship is
+steering under full sail. He felt a strong impulse to see Helen Darley
+and talk with her. She was in the common parlor, and, fortunately,
+alone.
+
+“Helen,” he said,--for they were almost like brother and sister now,--“I
+have been thinking what you would do, if I should have to leave the
+school at short notice, or be taken away suddenly by any accident.”
+
+“Do?” she said, her cheek growing paler than its natural delicate
+hue,--“why, I do not know how I could possibly consent to live here, if
+you left us. Since you came, my life has been almost easy; before, it
+was getting intolerable. You must not talk about going, my dear friend;
+you have spoiled me for my place. Who is there here that I can have any
+true society with, but you? You would not leave us for another school,
+would you?”
+
+“No, no, my dear Helen,” Mr. Bernard said, “if it depends on myself, I
+shall stay out my full time, and enjoy your company and friendship. But
+everything is uncertain in this world. I have been thinking that I might
+be wanted elsewhere, and called when I did not think of it;--it was a
+fancy, perhaps,--but I can't keep it out of my mind this evening. If any
+of my fancies should come true, Helen, there are two or three messages
+I want to leave with you. I have marked a book or two with a cross in
+pencil on the fly-leaf;--these are for you. There is a little hymn-book
+I should like to have you give to Elsie from me;--it may be a kind of
+comfort to the poor girl.”
+
+Helen's eyes glistened as she interrupted him,--
+
+“What do you mean? You must not talk so, Mr. Langdon. Why, you never
+looked better in your life. Tell me now, you are not in earnest, are
+you, but only trying a little sentiment on me?”
+
+Mr. Bernard smiled, but rather sadly.
+
+“About half in earnest,” he said. “I have had some fancies in my
+head,--superstitions, I suppose,--at any rate, it does no harm to tell
+you what I should like to have done, if anything should happen,--very
+likely nothing ever will. Send the rest of the books home, if you
+please, and write a letter to my mother. And, Helen, you will find
+one small volume in my desk enveloped and directed, you will see to
+whom;--give this with your own hands; it is a keepsake.”
+
+The tears gathered in her eyes; she could not speak at first. Presently,
+“Why, Bernard, my dear friend, my brother, it cannot be that you are in
+danger? Tell me what it is, and, if I can share it with you, or counsel
+you in any way, it will only be paying back the great debt I owe you.
+No, no,--it can't be true,--you are tired and worried, and your spirits
+have got depressed. I know what that is;--I was sure, one winter, that
+I should die before spring; but I lived to see the dandelions
+and buttercups go to seed. Come, tell me it was nothing but your
+imagination.”
+
+She felt a tear upon her cheek, but would not turn her face away from
+him; it was the tear of a sister.
+
+“I am really in earnest, Helen,” he said. “I don't know that there is
+the least reason in the world for these fancies. If they all go off and
+nothing comes of them, you may laugh at me, if you like. But if there
+should be any occasion, remember my requests. You don't believe in
+presentiments, do you?”
+
+“Oh, don't ask-me, I beg you,” Helen answered. “I have had a good many
+frights for every one real misfortune I have suffered. Sometimes I have
+thought I was warned beforehand of coming trouble, just as many people
+are of changes in the weather, by some unaccountable feeling,--but not
+often, and I don't like to talk about such things. I wouldn't think
+about these fancies of yours. I don't believe you have exercised
+enough;--don't you think it's confinement in the school has made you
+nervous?”
+
+“Perhaps it has; but it happens that I have thought more of exercise
+lately, and have taken regular evening walks, besides playing my old
+gymnastic tricks every day.”
+
+They talked on many subjects, but through all he said Helen perceived a
+pervading tone of sadness, and an expression as of a dreamy foreboding
+of unknown evil. They parted at the usual hour, and went to their
+several rooms. The sadness of Mr. Bernard had sunk into the heart
+of Helen, and she mingled many tears with her prayers that evening,
+earnestly entreating that he might be comforted in his days of trial and
+protected in his hour of danger.
+
+Mr. Bernard stayed in his room a short time before setting out for his
+evening walk. His eye fell upon the Bible his mother had given him when
+he left home, and he opened it in the New Testament at a venture.
+It happened that the first words he read were these,--“Lest, coming
+suddenly, he find you sleeping.” In the state of mind in which he was at
+the moment, the text startled him. It was like a supernatural warning.
+He was not going to expose himself to any particular danger this
+evening; a walk in a quiet village was as free from risk as Helen Darley
+or his own mother could ask; yet he had an unaccountable feeling of
+apprehension, without any definite object. At this moment he remembered
+the old Doctor's counsel, which he had sometimes neglected, and,
+blushing at the feeling which led him to do it, he took the pistol his
+suspicious old friend had forced upon him, which he had put away loaded,
+and, thrusting it into his pocket, set out upon his walk.
+
+The moon was shining at intervals, for the night was partially clouded.
+There seemed to be nobody stirring, though his attention was unusually
+awake, and he could hear the whirr of the bats overhead, and the
+pulsating croak of the frogs in the distant pools and marshes. Presently
+he detected the sound of hoofs at some distance, and, looking forward,
+saw a horseman coming in his direction. The moon was under a cloud
+at the moment, and he could only observe that the horse and his rider
+looked like a single dark object, and that they were moving along at an
+easy pace. Mr. Bernard was really ashamed of himself, when he found his
+hand on the butt of his pistol. When the horseman was within a hundred
+and fifty yards of him, the moon shone out suddenly and revealed each
+of them to the other. The rider paused for a moment, as if carefully
+surveying the pedestrian, then suddenly put his horse to the full
+gallop, and dashed towards him, rising at the same instant in his
+stirrups and swinging something round his head, what, Mr. Bernard could
+not make out. It was a strange manoeuvre,--so strange and threatening in
+aspect that the young man forgot his nervousness in an instant, cocked
+his pistol, and waited to see what mischief all this meant. He did not
+wait long. As the rider came rushing towards him, he made a rapid
+motion and something leaped five-and-twenty feet through the air, in
+Mr. Bernard's direction. In an instant he felt a ring, as of a rope or
+thong, settle upon his shoulders. There was no time to think, he would
+be lost in another second. He raised his pistol and fired,--not at the
+rider, but at the horse. His aim was true; the mustang gave one bound
+and fell lifeless, shot through the head. The lasso was fastened to his
+saddle, and his last bound threw Mr. Bernard violently to the earth,
+where he lay motionless, as if stunned.
+
+In the mean time, Dick Venner, who had been dashed down with his horse,
+was trying to extricate himself,--one of his legs being held fast under
+the animal, the long spur on his boot having caught in the saddle-cloth.
+He found, however, that he could do nothing with his right arm, his
+shoulder having been in some way injured in his fall. But his Southern
+blood was up, and, as he saw Mr. Bernard move as if he were coming to
+his senses, he struggled violently to free himself.
+
+“I 'll have the dog, yet,” he said,--“only let me get at him with the
+knife!”
+
+He had just succeeded in extricating his imprisoned leg, and was ready
+to spring to his feet, when he was caught firmly by the throat, and
+looking up, saw a clumsy barbed weapon, commonly known as a hay fork,
+within an inch of his breast.
+
+“Hold on there! What 'n thunder 'r' y' abaout, y' darned Portagee?” said
+a voice, with a decided nasal tone in it, but sharp and resolute.
+
+Dick looked from the weapon to the person who held it, and saw a sturdy,
+plain man standing over him, with his teeth clinched, and his aspect
+that of one all ready for mischief.
+
+“Lay still, naow!” said Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man; “'f y' don't,
+I'll stick ye, 'z sure 'z y' 'r' alive! I been arfter ye f'r a week,
+'n' I got y' naow! I knowed I'd ketch ye at some darned trick or 'nother
+'fore I'd done 'ith ye!”
+
+Dick lay perfectly still, feeling that he was crippled and helpless,
+thinking all the time with the Yankee half of his mind what to do about
+it. He saw Mr. Bernard lift his head and look around him. He would
+get his senses again in a few minutes, very probably, and then he, Mr.
+Richard Venner, would be done for.
+
+“Let me up! let me up!” he cried, in a low, hurried voice,--“I 'll give
+you a hundred dollars in gold to let me go. The man a'n't hurt,--don't
+you see him stirring? He'll come to himself in two minutes. Let me up!
+I'll give you a hundred and fifty dollars in gold, now, here on the
+spot,--and the watch out of my pocket; take it yourself, with your own
+hands!”
+
+“I'll see y' darned fust! Ketch me lett'n' go!” was Abel's emphatic
+answer. “Yeou lay still, 'n' wait t'll that man comes tew.”
+
+He kept the hay-fork ready for action at the slightest sign of
+resistance.
+
+Mr. Bernard, in the mean time, had been getting, first his senses, and
+then some few of his scattered wits, a little together.
+
+“What is it?”--he said. “Who'shurt? What's happened?”
+
+“Come along here 'z quick 'z y' ken,” Abel answered, “'n' haalp me fix
+this fellah. Y' been hurt, y'rself, 'n' the' 's murder come pooty nigh
+happenin'.”
+
+Mr. Bernard heard the answer, but presently stared about and asked
+again, “Who's hurt? What's happened?”
+
+“Y' 'r' hurt, y'rself, I tell ye,” said Abel; “'n' the' 's been a
+murder, pooty nigh.”
+
+Mr. Bernard felt something about his neck, and, putting his hands up,
+found the loop of the lasso, which he loosened, but did not think to
+slip over his head, in the confusion of his perceptions and thoughts. It
+was a wonder that it had not choked him, but he had fallen forward so as
+to slacken it.
+
+By this time he was getting some notion of what he was about, and
+presently began looking round for his pistol, which had fallen. He
+found it lying near him, cocked it mechanically, and walked, somewhat
+unsteadily, towards the two men, who were keeping their position as
+still as if they were performing in a tableau.
+
+“Quick, naow!” said Abel, who had heard the click of cocking the pistol,
+and saw that he held it in his hand, as he came towards him. “Gi' me
+that pistil, and yeou fetch that 'ere rope layin' there. I 'll have this
+here fellah fixed 'n less 'n two minutes.”
+
+Mr. Bernard did as Abel said,--stupidly and mechanically, for he was but
+half right as yet. Abel pointed the pistol at Dick's head.
+
+“Naow hold up y'r hands, yeou fellah,” he said, “'n' keep 'em up, while
+this man puts the rope mound y'r wrists.”
+
+Dick felt himself helpless, and, rather than have his disabled arm
+roughly dealt with, held up his hands. Mr. Bernard did as Abel said; he
+was in a purely passive state, and obeyed orders like a child. Abel then
+secured the rope in a most thorough and satisfactory complication of
+twists and knots.
+
+“Naow get up, will ye?” he said; and the unfortunate Dick rose to his
+feet.
+
+“Who's hurt? What's happened?” asked poor Mr. Bernard again, his memory
+having been completely jarred out of him for the time.
+
+“Come, look here naow, yeou, don' Stan' askin' questions over 'n'
+over;--'t beats all! ha'n't I tol' y' a dozen times?”
+
+As Abel spoke, he turned and looked at Mr. Bernard.
+
+“Hullo! What 'n thunder's that 'ere raoun' y'r neck? Ketched ye 'ith a
+slippernoose, hey? Wal, if that a'n't the craowner! Hol' on a minute,
+Cap'n, 'n' I'll show ye what that 'ere halter's good for.”
+
+Abel slipped the noose over Mr. Bernard's head, and put it round
+the neck of the miserable Dick Veneer, who made no sign of
+resistance,--whether on account of the pain he was in, or from mere
+helplessness, or because he was waiting for some unguarded moment to
+escape,--since resistance seemed of no use.
+
+“I 'm go'n' to kerry y' home,” said Abel; “'T' th' ol Doctor, he's got
+a gre't cur'osity t' see ye. Jes' step along naow,--off that way, will
+ye?--'n' I Ill hol' on t' th' bridle, f' fear y' sh'd run away.”
+
+He took hold of the leather thong, but found that it was fastened at the
+other end to the saddle. This was too much for Abel.
+
+“Wal, naow, yeou be a pooty chap to hev raound! A fellah's neck in a
+slippernoose at one eend of a halter, 'n' a hors on th' full spring at
+t' other eend!”
+
+He looked at him from' head to foot as a naturalist inspects a new
+specimen. His clothes had suffered in his fall, especially on the leg
+which had been caught under the horse.
+
+“Hullo! look o' there, naow! What's that 'ere stickin' aout o' y'r
+boot?”
+
+It was nothing but the handle of an ugly knife, which Abel instantly
+relieved him of.
+
+The party now took up the line of march for old Doctor Kittredge's
+house, Abel carrying the pistol and knife, and Mr. Bernard walking in
+silence, still half-stunned, holding the hay-fork, which Abel had thrust
+into his hand. It was all a dream to him as yet. He remembered the
+horseman riding at him, and his firing the pistol; but whether he was
+alive, and these walls around him belonged to the village of Rockland,
+or whether he had passed the dark river, and was in a suburb of the New
+Jerusalem, he could not as yet have told.
+
+They were in the street where the Doctor's house was situated.
+
+“I guess I'll fire off one o' these here berrils,” said Abel.
+
+He fired.
+
+Presently there was a noise of opening windows, and the nocturnal
+head-dresses of Rockland flowered out of them like so many developments
+of the Nightblooming Cereus. White cotton caps and red bandanna
+handkerchiefs were the prevailing forms of efflorescence. The main point
+was that the village was waked up. The old Doctor always waked easily,
+from long habit, and was the first among those who looked out to see
+what had happened.
+
+“Why, Abel!” he called out, “what have you got there? and what 's all
+this noise about?”
+
+“We've ketched the Portagee!” Abel answered, as laconically as the hero
+of Lake Erie, in his famous dispatch. “Go in there, you fellah!”
+
+The prisoner was marched into the house, and the Doctor, who had
+bewitched his clothes upon him in a way that would have been miraculous
+in anybody but a physician, was down in presentable form as soon as if
+it had been a child in a fit that he was sent for.
+
+“Richard Veneer!” the Doctor exclaimed. “What is the meaning of all
+this? Mr. Langdon, has anything happened to you?”
+
+Mr. Bernard put his hand to his head.
+
+“My mind is confused,” he said. “I've had a fall.--Oh, yes!--wait a
+minute and it will all come back to me.”
+
+“Sit down, sit down,” the Doctor said. “Abel will tell me about it.
+Slight concussion of the brain. Can't remember very well for an hour or
+two,--will come right by to-morrow.”
+
+“Been stunded,” Abel said. “He can't tell nothin'.”
+
+Abel then proceeded to give a Napoleonic bulletin of the recent combat
+of cavalry and infantry and its results,--none slain, one captured.
+
+The Doctor looked at the prisoner through his spectacles.
+
+“What 's the matter with your shoulder, Venner?”
+
+Dick answered sullenly, that he didn't know, fell on it when his horse
+came down. The Doctor examined it as carefully as he could through his
+clothes.
+
+“Out of joint. Untie his hands, Abel”
+
+By this time a small alarm had spread among the neighbors, and there was
+a circle around Dick, who glared about on the assembled honest people
+like a hawk with a broken wing.
+
+When the Doctor said, “Untie his hands,” the circle widened perceptibly.
+
+“Isn't it a leetle rash to give him the use of his hands? I see there's
+females and children standin' near.”
+
+This was the remark of our old friend, Deacon Soper, who retired from
+the front row, as he spoke, behind a respectable-looking, but somewhat
+hastily dressed person of the defenceless sex, the female help of a
+neighboring household, accompanied by a boy, whose unsmoothed shock of
+hair looked like a last year's crow's-nest.
+
+But Abel untied his hands, in spite of the Deacon's considerate
+remonstrance.
+
+“Now,” said the Doctor, “the first thing is to put the joint back.”
+
+“Stop,” said Deacon Soper,--“stop a minute. Don't you think it will be
+safer--for the women-folks--jest to wait till mornin', afore you put
+that j'int into the socket?”
+
+Colonel Sprowle, who had been called by a special messenger, spoke up at
+this moment.
+
+“Let the women-folks and the deacons go home, if they're scared, and put
+the fellah's j'int in as quick as you like. I 'll resk him, j'int in or
+out.”
+
+“I want one of you to go straight down to Dudley Venner's with a
+message,” the Doctor said. “I will have the young man's shoulder in
+quick enough.”
+
+“Don't send that message!” said Dick, in a hoarse voice;--“do what you
+like with my arm, but don't send that message! Let me go,--I can walk,
+and I'll be off from this place. There's nobody hurt but myself. Damn
+the shoulder!--let me go! You shall never hear of me again!”
+
+Mr. Bernard came forward.
+
+“My friends,” he said, “I am not injured,--seriously, at least. Nobody
+need complain against this man, if I don't. The Doctor will treat him
+like a human being, at any rate; and then, if he will go, let him. There
+are too many witnesses against him here for him to want to stay.”
+
+The Doctor, in the mean time, without saying a word to all this, had got
+a towel round the shoulder and chest and another round the arm, and had
+the bone replaced in a very few minutes.
+
+“Abel, put Cassia into the new chaise,” he said, quietly. “My friends
+and neighbors, leave this young man to me.”
+
+“Colonel Sprowle, you're a justice of the peace,” said Deacon Soper,
+“and you know what the law says in cases like this. It a'n't so clear
+that it won't have to come afore the Grand Jury, whether we will or no.”
+
+“I guess we'll set that j'int to-morrow mornin',” said Colonel
+Sprowle,--which made a laugh at the Deacon's expense, and virtually
+settled the question.
+
+“Now trust this young man in my care,” said the old Doctor, “and go home
+and finish your naps. I knew him when he was a boy and I'll answer for
+it, he won't trouble you any more. The Dudley blood makes folks proud, I
+can tell you, whatever else they are.”
+
+The good people so respected and believed in the Doctor that they left
+the prisoner with him.
+
+Presently, Cassia, the fast Morgan mare, came up to the front-door,
+with the wheels of the new, light chaise flashing behind her in the
+moonlight. The Doctor drove Dick forty miles at a stretch that night,
+out of the limits of the State.
+
+“Do you want money?” he said, before he left him.
+
+Dick told him the secret of his golden belt.
+
+“Where shall I send your trunk after you from your uncle's?”
+
+Dick gave him a direction to a seaport town to which he himself was
+going, to take passage for a port in South America.
+
+“Good-bye, Richard,” said the Doctor. “Try to learn something from
+to-night's lesson.”
+
+The Southern impulses in Dick's wild blood overcame him, and he kissed
+the old Doctor on both cheeks, crying as only the children of the sun
+can cry, after the first hours in the dewy morning of life. So Dick
+Venner disappears from this story. An hour after dawn, Cassia pointed
+her fine ears homeward, and struck into her square, honest trot, as
+if she had not been doing anything more than her duty during her four
+hours' stretch of the last night.
+
+Abel was not in the habit of questioning the Doctor's decisions.
+
+“It's all right,” he said to Mr. Bernard. “The fellah 's Squire Venner's
+relation, anyhaow. Don't you want to wait here, jest a little while,
+till I come back? The's a consid'able nice saddle 'n' bridle on a dead
+boss that's layin' daown there in the road 'n' I guess the' a'n't no use
+in lettin' on 'em spite,--so I'll jest step aout 'n' fetch 'em along. I
+kind o' calc'late 't won't pay to take the cretur's shoes 'n' hide off
+to-night,--'n' the' won't be much iron on that hose's huffs an haour
+after daylight, I'll bate ye a quarter.”
+
+“I'll walk along with you,” said Mr. Bernard; “I feel as if I could get
+along well enough now.”
+
+So they set off together. There was a little crowd round the dead
+mustang already, principally consisting of neighbors who had adjourned
+from the Doctor's house to see the scene of the late adventure. In
+addition to these, however, the assembly was honored by the presence of
+Mr. Principal Silas Peckham, who had been called from his slumbers by
+a message that Master Langdon was shot through the head by a
+highway-robber, but had learned a true version of the story by this
+time. His voice was at that moment heard above the rest,--sharp, but
+thin, like bad cider-vinegar.
+
+“I take charge of that property, I say. Master Langdon 's actin' under
+my orders, and I claim that hoss and all that's on him. Hiram! jest slip
+off that saddle and bridle, and carry 'em up to the Institoot, and bring
+down a pair of pinchers and a file,--and--stop--fetch a pair of shears,
+too; there's hosshair enough in that mane and tail to stuff a bolster
+with.”
+
+“You let that hoss alone!” spoke up Colonel Sprowle. “When a fellah
+goes out huntin' and shoots a squirrel, do you think he's go'n' to
+let another fellah pick him up and kerry him off? Not if he's got a
+double-berril gun, and t'other berril ha'n't been fired off yet! I
+should like to see the mahn that'll take off that seddle 'n' bridle,
+excep' the one th't hez a fair right to the whole concern!”
+
+Hiram was from one of the lean streaks in New Hampshire, and, not being
+overfed in Mr. Silas Peckham's kitchen, was somewhat wanting in stamina,
+as well as in stomach, for so doubtful an enterprise, as undertaking to
+carry out his employer's orders in the face of the Colonel's defiance.
+
+Just then Mr. Bernard and Abel came up together. “Here they be,” said
+the Colonel. “Stan' beck, gentlemen!”
+
+Mr. Bernard, who was pale and still a little confused, but gradually
+becoming more like himself, stood and looked in silence for a moment.
+
+All his thoughts seemed to be clearing themselves in this interval.
+He took in the whole series of incidents: his own frightful risk; the
+strange, instinctive, nay, Providential impulse, which had led him so
+suddenly to do the one only thing which could possibly have saved him;
+the sudden appearance of the Doctor's man, but for which he might yet
+have been lost; and the discomfiture and capture of his dangerous enemy.
+
+It was all past now, and a feeling of pity rose in Mr. Bernard's heart.
+
+“He loved that horse, no doubt,” he said,--“and no wonder. A beautiful,
+wild--looking creature! Take off those things that are on him, Abel, and
+have them carried to Mr. Dudley Veneer's. If he does not want them, you
+may keep them yourself, for all that I have to say. One thing more. I
+hope nobody will lift his hand against this noble creature to mutilate
+him in any way. After you have taken off the saddle and bridle, Abel,
+bury him just as he is. Under that old beech-tree will be a good place.
+You'll see to it,--won't you, Abel?”
+
+Abel nodded assent, and Mr. Bernard returned to the Institute, threw
+himself in his clothes on the bed, and slept like one who is heavy with
+wine.
+
+Following Mr. Bernard's wishes, Abel at once took off the high-peaked
+saddle and the richly ornamented bridle from the mustang. Then, with
+the aid of two or three others, he removed him to the place indicated.
+Spades and shovels were soon procured, and before the moon had set, the
+wild horse of the Pampas was at rest under the turf at the wayside, in
+the far village among the hills of New England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. THE NEWS REACHES THE DUDLEY MANSION.
+
+Early the next morning Abel Stebbins made his appearance at Dudley
+Veneer's, and requested to see the maan o' the haouse abaout somethin'
+o' consequence. Mr. Veneer sent word that the messenger should wait
+below, and presently appeared in the study, where Abel was making
+himself at home, as is the wont of the republican citizen, when he hides
+the purple of empire beneath the apron of domestic service.
+
+“Good mornin', Squire!” said Abel, as Mr. Venner entered. “My name's
+Stebbins, 'n' I'm stoppin' f'r a spell 'ith of Doctor Kittredge.”
+
+“Well, Stebbins,” said Mr. Dudley Veneer, “have you brought any special
+message from the Doctor?”
+
+“Y' ha'n't heerd nothin' abaout it, Squire, d' ye mean t' say?” said
+Abel,--beginning to suspect that he was the first to bring the news of
+last evening's events.
+
+“About what?” asked Mr. Veneer, with some interest.
+
+“Dew tell, naow! Waal, that beats all! Why, that 'ere Portagee relation
+o' yourn 'z been tryin' t' ketch a fellah 'n a slippernoose, 'n' got
+ketched himself,--that's all. Y' ha'n't heerd noth'n' abaout it?”
+
+“Sit down,” said Mr. Dudley Veneer, calmly, “and tell me all you have to
+say.”
+
+So Abel sat down and gave him an account of the events of the last
+evening. It was a strange and terrible surprise to Dudley Veneer to find
+that his nephew, who had been an inmate of his house and the companion
+of his daughter, was to all intents and purposes guilty of the gravest
+of crimes. But the first shock was no sooner over than he began to think
+what effect the news would have on Elsie. He imagined that there was a
+kind of friendly feeling between them, and he feared some crisis would
+be provoked in his daughter's mental condition by the discovery. He
+would wait, however, until she came from her chamber, before disturbing
+her with the evil tidings.
+
+Abel did not forget his message with reference to the equipments of the
+dead mustang.
+
+“The' was some things on the hoss, Squire, that the man he ketched
+said he did n' care no gre't abaout; but perhaps you'd like to have 'em
+fetched to the mansion-haouse. Ef y' did n' care abaout 'em, though,
+I should n' min' keepin' on 'em; they might come handy some time or
+'nother; they say, holt on t' anything for ten year 'n' there 'll be
+some kin' o' use for 't.”
+
+“Keep everything,” said Dudley Veneer. “I don't want to see anything
+belonging to that young man.”
+
+So Abel nodded to Mr. Veneer, and left the study to find some of the men
+about the stable to tell and talk over with them the events of the
+last evening. He presently came upon Elbridge, chief of the equine
+department, and driver of the family-coach.
+
+“Good mornin', Abe,” said Elbridge. “What's fetched y' daown here so
+all-fired airly?”
+
+“You're a darned pooty lot daown here, you be!”
+
+Abel answered. “Better keep your Portagees t' home nex' time, ketchin'
+folks 'ith slippernooses raoun' their necks, 'n' kerryin' knives 'n
+their boots!”
+
+“What 'r' you jawin' abaout?” Elbridge said, looking up to see if he was
+in earnest, and what he meant.
+
+“Jawin' abaout? You'll find aout'z soon 'z y' go into that 'ere stable
+o' yourn! Y' won't curry that 'ere long-tailed black hoss no more; 'n'
+y' won't set y'r eyes on the fellah that rid him, ag'in, in a hurry!”
+
+Elbridge walked straight to the stable, without saying a word, found the
+door unlocked, and went in.
+
+“Th' critter's gone, sure enough!” he said. “Glad on 't! The darndest,
+kickin'est, bitin'est beast th't ever I see, 'r ever wan' t' see ag'in!
+Good reddance! Don' wan' no snappin'-turkles in my stable! Whar's the
+man gone th't brought the critter?”
+
+“Whar he's gone? Guess y' better go 'n ask my ol man; he kerried him off
+lass' night; 'n' when he comes back, mebbe he 'll tell ye whar he's gone
+tew!”
+
+By this time Elbridge had found out that Abel was in earnest, and had
+something to tell. He looked at the litter in the mustang's stall, then
+at the crib.
+
+“Ha'n't eat b't haalf his feed. Ha'n't been daown on his straw. Must ha'
+been took aout somewhere abaout ten 'r 'levee o'clock. I know that 'ere
+critter's ways. The fellah's had him aout nights afore; b't I never
+thought nothin' o' no mischief. He 's a kin' o' haalf Injin. What is 't
+the chap's been a-doin' on? Tell 's all abaout it.”
+
+Abel sat down on a meal-chest, picked up a straw and put it into his
+mouth. Elbridge sat down at the other end, pulled out his jack-knife,
+opened the penknife-blade, and began sticking it into the lid of the
+meal-chest. The Doctor's man had a story to tell, and he meant to
+get all the enjoyment out of it. So he told it with every luxury of
+circumstance. Mr. Veneer's man heard it all with open mouth. No listener
+in the gardens of Stamboul could have found more rapture in a tale heard
+amidst the perfume of roses and the voices of birds and tinkling of
+fountains than Elbridge in following Abel's narrative, as they sat there
+in the aromatic ammoniacal atmosphere of the stable, the grinding of
+the horses' jaws keeping evenly on through it all, with now and then the
+interruption of a stamping hoof, and at intervals a ringing crow from
+the barn-yard.
+
+Elbridge stopped a minute to think, after Abel had finished.
+
+“Who's took care o' them things that was on the hoss?” he said, gravely.
+
+“Waal, Langden, he seemed to kin 'o' think I'd ought to have 'em,--'n'
+the Squire; he did n' seem to have no 'bjection; 'n' so,--waal, I
+calc'late I sh'll jes' holt on to 'em myself; they a'n't good f 'r much,
+but they're cur'ous t' keep t' look at.”
+
+Mr. Veneer's man did not appear much gratified by this arrangement,
+especially as he had a shrewd suspicion that some of the ornaments of
+the bridle were of precious metal, having made occasional examinations
+of them with the edge of a file. But he did not see exactly what to do
+about it, except to get them from Abel in the way of bargain.
+
+“Waal, no,--they a'n't good for much 'xcep' to look at. 'F y' ever rid
+on that seddle once, y' would n' try it ag'in, very spry,--not 'f y' c'd
+haalp y'rsaalf.
+
+“I tried it,--darned 'f I sot daown f'r th' nex' week,--eat all my
+victuals stan'in'. I sh'd like t' hev them things wal enough to heng up
+'n the stable; 'f y' want t' trade some day, fetch 'em along daown.”
+
+Abel rather expected that Elbridge would have laid claim to the saddle
+and bridle on the strength of some promise or other presumptive title,
+and thought himself lucky to get off with only offering to think abaout
+tradin'.
+
+When Elbridge returned to the house, he found the family in a state of
+great excitement. Mr. Venner had told Old Sophy, and she had informed
+the other servants. Everybody knew what had happened, excepting Elsie.
+Her father had charged them all to say nothing about it to her; he would
+tell her, when she came down.
+
+He heard her step at last,--alight, gliding step,--so light that her
+coming was often unheard, except by those who perceived the faint rustle
+that went with it. She was paler than common this morning, as she came
+into her father's study.
+
+After a few words of salutation, he said quietly, “Elsie, my dear, your
+cousin Richard has left us.”
+
+She grew still paler, as she asked,
+
+“Is he dead?”
+
+Dudley Venner started to see the expression with which Elsie put this
+question.
+
+“He is living,--but dead to us from this day forward,” said her father.
+
+He proceeded to tell her, in a general way, the story he had just heard
+from Abel. There could be no doubting it;--he remembered him as the
+Doctor's man; and as Abel had seen all with his own eyes, as Dick's
+chamber, when unlocked with a spare key, was found empty, and his bed
+had not been slept in, he accepted the whole account as true.
+
+When he told of Dick's attempt on the young schoolmaster, (“You know
+Mr. Langdon very well, Elsie,--a perfectly inoffensive young man, as I
+understand,”) Elsie turned her face away and slid along by the wall
+to the window which looked out oh the little grass-plot with the white
+stone standing in it. Her father could not see her face, but he knew
+by her movements that her dangerous mood was on her. When she heard the
+sequel of the story, the discomfiture and capture of Dick, she turned
+round for an instant, with a look of contempt and of something like
+triumph upon her face. Her father saw that her cousin had become
+odious to her: He knew well, by every change of her countenance, by
+her movements, by every varying curve of her graceful figure, the
+transitions front passion to repose, from fierce excitement to the dull
+languor which often succeeded her threatening paroxysms.
+
+She remained looking out at the window. A group of white fan-tailed
+pigeons had lighted on the green plot before it and clustered about one
+of their companions who lay on his back, fluttering in a strange way,
+with outspread wings and twitching feet. Elsie uttered a faint cry;
+these were her special favorites and often fed from her hand. She threw
+open the long window, sprang out, caught up the white fantail, and held
+it to her bosom. The bird stretched himself out, and then lay still,
+with open eyes, lifeless. She looked at him a moment, and, sliding in
+through the open window and through the study, sought her own apartment,
+where she locked herself in, and began to sob and moan like those that
+weep. But the gracious solace of tears seemed to be denied her, and her
+grief, like her anger, was a dull ache, longing, like that, to finish
+itself with a fierce paroxysm, but wanting its natural outlet.
+
+This seemingly trifling incident of the death of her favorite appeared
+to change all the current of her thought. Whether it were the sight
+of the dying bird, or the thought that her own agency might have beep
+concerned in it, or some deeper grief, which took this occasion to
+declare itself,--some dark remorse or hopeless longing,--whatever it
+might be, there was an unwonted tumult in her soul. To whom should
+she go in her vague misery? Only to Him who knows all His creatures'
+sorrows, and listens to the faintest human cry. She knelt, as she had
+been taught to kneel from her childhood, and tried to pray. But her
+thoughts refused to flow in the language of supplication. She could not
+plead for herself as other women plead in their hours of anguish. She
+rose like one who should stoop to drink, and find dust in the place of
+water. Partly from restlessness, partly from an attraction she hardly
+avowed to herself, she followed her usual habit and strolled listlessly
+along to the school.
+
+Of course everybody at the Institute was full of the terrible adventure
+of the preceding evening. Mr. Bernard felt poorly enough; but he had
+made it a point to show himself the next morning, as if nothing had
+happened. Helen Darley knew nothing of it all until she hard risen, when
+the gossipy matron of the establishment made her acquainted with all its
+details, embellished with such additional ornamental appendages as
+it had caught up in transmission from lip to lip. She did not love to
+betray her sensibilities, but she was pale and tremulous and very
+nearly tearful when Mr. Bernard entered the sitting-room, showing on
+his features traces of the violent shock he had received and the heavy
+slumber from which he had risen with throbbing brows. What the poor
+girl's impulse was, on seeing him, we need not inquire too curiously. If
+he had been her own brother, she would have kissed him and cried on
+his neck; but something held her back. There is no galvanism in
+kiss-your-brother; it is copper against copper: but alien bloods develop
+strange currents, when they flow close to each other, with only the
+films that cover lip and cheek between them. Mr. Bernard, as some of us
+may remember, violated the proprieties and laid himself open to reproach
+by his enterprise with a bouncing village-girl, to whose rosy cheek an
+honest smack was not probably an absolute novelty. He made it all up by
+his discretion and good behavior now. He saw by Helen's moist eye and
+trembling lip that her woman's heart was off its guard, and he knew,
+by the infallible instinct of sex, that he should be forgiven, if
+he thanked her for her sisterly sympathies in the most natural
+way,--expressive, and at the same time economical of breath and
+utterance. He would not give a false look to their friendship by any
+such demonstration. Helen was a little older than himself, but the
+aureole of young womanhood had not yet begun to fade from around her.
+She was surrounded by that enchanted atmosphere into which the girl
+walks with dreamy eyes, and out of which the woman passes with a
+story written on her forehead. Some people think very little of these
+refinements; they have not studied magnetism and the law of the square
+of the distance.
+
+So Mr. Bernard thanked Helen for her interest without the aid of the
+twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet,--the love labial,--the limping
+consonant which it takes two to speak plain. Indeed, he scarcely let her
+say a word, at first; for he saw that it was hard for her to conceal her
+emotion. No wonder; he had come within a hair's-breadth of losing his
+life, and he had been a very kind friend and a very dear companion to
+her.
+
+There were some curious spiritual experiences connected with his last
+evening's adventure which were working very strongly in his mind. It was
+borne in upon him irresistibly that he had been dead since he had seen
+Helen,--as dead as the son of the Widow of Nain before the bier was
+touched and he sat up and began to speak. There was an interval
+between two conscious moments which appeared to him like a temporary
+annihilation, and the thoughts it suggested were worrying him with
+strange perplexities.
+
+He remembered seeing the dark figure on horseback rise in the saddle and
+something leap from its hand. He remembered the thrill he felt as the
+coil settled on his shoulders, and the sudden impulse which led him to
+fire as he did. With the report of the pistol all became blank, until
+he found himself in a strange, bewildered state, groping about for
+the weapon, which he had a vague consciousness of having dropped. But,
+according to Abel's account, there must have been an interval of some
+minutes between these recollections, and he could not help asking, Where
+was the mind, the soul, the thinking principle, all this time?
+
+A man is stunned by a blow with a stick on the head. He becomes
+unconscious. Another man gets a harder blow on the head from a bigger
+stick, and it kills him. Does he become unconscious, too? If so, when
+does he come to his consciousness? The man who has had a slight or
+moderate blow comes to himself when the immediate shock passes off and
+the organs begin to work again, or when a bit of the skull is pried up,
+if that happens to be broken. Suppose the blow is hard enough to spoil
+the brain and stop the play of the organs, what happens them?
+
+A British captain was struck by a cannon-ball on the head, just as
+he was giving an order, at the Battle of the Nile. Fifteen months
+afterwards he was trephined at Greenwich Hospital, having been
+insensible all that time. Immediately after the operation his
+consciousness returned, and he at once began carrying out the order
+he was giving when the shot struck him. Suppose he had never been
+trephined, when would his consciousness have returned? When his breath
+ceased and his heart stopped beating?
+
+When Mr. Bernard said to Helen, “I have been dead since I saw you,” it
+startled her not a little; for his expression was that of perfect good
+faith, and she feared that his mind was disordered. When he explained,
+not as has been done just now, at length, but in a hurried, imperfect
+way, the meaning of his strange assertion, and the fearful Sadduceeisms
+which it had suggested to his mind, she looked troubled at first, and
+then thoughtful. She did not feel able to answer all the difficulties he
+raised, but she met them with that faith which is the strength as well
+as the weakness of women,--which makes them weak in the hands of man,
+but strong in the presence of the Unseen.
+
+“It is a strange experience,” she said; “but I once had something like
+it. I fainted, and lost some five or ten minutes out of my life, as much
+as if I had been dead. But when I came to myself, I was the same person
+every way, in my recollections and character. So I suppose that loss
+of consciousness is not death. And if I was born out of unconsciousness
+into infancy with many family-traits of mind and body, I can believe,
+from my own reason, even without help from Revelation, that I shall be
+born again out of the unconsciousness of death with my individual
+traits of mind and body. If death is, as it should seem to be, a loss of
+consciousness, that does not shake my faith; for I have been put into
+a body once already to fit me for living here, and I hope to be in some
+way fitted after this life to enjoy a better one. But it is all trust in
+God and in his Word. These are enough for me; I hope they are for you.”
+
+Helen was a minister's daughter, and familiar from her childhood with
+this class of questions, especially with all the doubts and perplexities
+which are sure to assail every thinking child bred in any inorganic
+or not thoroughly vitalized faith,--as is too often the case with the
+children of professional theologians. The kind of discipline they are
+subjected to is like that of the Flat-Head Indian pappooses. At five or
+ten or fifteen years old they put their hands up to their foreheads and
+ask, What are they strapping down my brains in this way for? So they
+tear off the sacred bandages of the great Flat-Head tribe, and there
+follows a mighty rush of blood to the long-compressed region. This
+accounts, in the most lucid manner, for those sudden freaks with which
+certain children of this class astonish their worthy parents at the
+period of life when they are growing fast, and, the frontal pressure
+beginning to be felt as something intolerable, they tear off the holy
+compresses.
+
+The hour for school came, and they went to the great hall for study.
+It would not have occurred to Mr. Silas Peckham to ask his assistant
+whether he felt well enough to attend to his duties; and Mr. Bernard
+chose to be at his post. A little headache and confusion were all that
+remained of his symptoms.
+
+Later, in the course of the forenoon, Elsie Venner came and took her
+place. The girls all stared at her--naturally enough; for it was hardly
+to have been expected that she would show herself, after such an event
+in the household to which she belonged. Her expression was somewhat
+peculiar, and, of course, was attributed to the shock her feelings had
+undergone on hearing of the crime attempted by her cousin and daily
+companion. When she was looking on her book, or on any indifferent
+object, her countenance betrayed some inward disturbance, which knitted
+her dark brows, and seemed to throw a deeper shadow over her features.
+But, from time to time, she would lift her eyes toward Mr. Bernard, and
+let them rest upon him, without a thought, seemingly, that she herself
+was the subject of observation or remark. Then they seemed to lose their
+cold glitter, and soften into a strange, dreamy tenderness. The deep
+instincts of womanhood were striving to grope their way to the surface
+of her being through all the alien influences which overlaid them.
+She could be secret and cunning in working out any of her dangerous
+impulses, but she did not know how to mask the unwonted feeling which
+fixed her eyes and her thoughts upon the only person who had ever
+reached the spring of her hidden sympathies.
+
+The girls all looked at Elsie, whenever they could steal a glance
+unperceived, and many of them were struck with this singular expression
+her features wore. They had long whispered it around among each other
+that she had a liking for the master; but there were too many of them of
+whom something like this could be said, to make it very remarkable. Now,
+however, when so many little hearts were fluttering at the thought
+of the peril through which the handsome young master had so recently
+passed, they were more alive than ever to the supposed relation between
+him and the dark school-girl. Some had supposed there was a mutual
+attachment between them; there was a story that they were secretly
+betrothed, in accordance with the rumor which had been current in the
+village. At any rate, some conflict was going on in that still, remote,
+clouded soul, and all the girls who looked upon her face were impressed
+and awed as they had never been before by the shadows that passed over
+it.
+
+One of these girls was more strongly arrested by Elsie's look than the
+others. This was a delicate, pallid creature, with a high forehead, and
+wide-open pupils, which looked as if they could take in all the shapes
+that flit in what, to common eyes, is darkness,--a girl said to be
+clairvoyant under certain influences. In the recess, as it was called,
+or interval of suspended studies in the middle of the forenoon, this
+girl carried her autograph-book,--for she had one of those indispensable
+appendages of the boarding-school miss of every degree,--and asked Elsie
+to write her name in it. She had an irresistible feeling, that, sooner
+or later, and perhaps very soon, there would attach an unusual interest
+to this autograph. Elsie took the pen and wrote, in her sharp Italian
+hand,
+
+Elsie Venner, Infelix.
+
+It was a remembrance, doubtless, of the forlorn queen of the “AEneid”;
+but its coming to her thought in this way confirmed the sensitive
+school-girl in her fears for Elsie, and she let fall a tear upon the
+page before she closed it.
+
+Of course, the keen and practised observation of Helen Darley could not
+fail to notice the change of Elsie's manner and expression. She had long
+seen that she was attracted to the young master, and had thought, as
+the old Doctor did, that any impression which acted upon her affections
+might be the means of awakening a new life in her singularly isolated
+nature. Now, however, the concentration of the poor girl's thoughts upon
+the one object which had had power to reach her deeper sensibilities
+was so painfully revealed in her features, that Helen began to fear
+once more, lest Mr. Bernard, in escaping the treacherous violence of
+an assassin, had been left to the equally dangerous consequences of a
+violent, engrossing passion in the breast of a young creature whose love
+it would be ruin to admit and might be deadly to reject. She knew her
+own heart too well to fear that any jealousy might mingle with her new
+apprehensions. It was understood between Bernard and Helen that they
+were too good friends to tamper with the silences and edging proximities
+of lovemaking. She knew, too, the simply human, not masculine, interest
+which Mr. Bernard took in Elsie; he had been frank with Helen, and more
+than satisfied her that with all the pity and sympathy which overflowed
+his soul, when he thought of the stricken girl, there mingled not one
+drop of such love as a youth may feel for a maiden.
+
+It may help the reader to gain some understanding of the anomalous
+nature of Elsie Veneer, if we look with Helen into Mr. Bernard's
+opinions and feelings with reference to her, as they had shaped
+themselves in his consciousness at the period of which we are speaking.
+
+At first he had been impressed by her wild beauty, and the contrast of
+all her looks and ways with those of the girls around her. Presently
+a sense of some ill-defined personal element, which half-attracted and
+half-repelled those who looked upon her, and especially those on whom
+she looked, began to make itself obvious to him, as he soon found it was
+painfully sensible to his more susceptible companion, the lady-teacher.
+It was not merely in the cold light of her diamond eyes, but in all her
+movements, in her graceful postures as she sat, in her costume, and, he
+sometimes thought, even in her speech, that this obscure and exceptional
+character betrayed itself. When Helen had said, that, if they were
+living in times when human beings were subject to possession, she should
+have thought there was something not human about Elsie, it struck an
+unsuspected vein of thought in his own mind, which he hated to put in
+words, but which was continually trying to articulate itself among the
+dumb thoughts which lie under the perpetual stream of mental whispers.
+
+Mr. Bernard's professional training had made him slow to accept
+marvellous stories and many forms of superstition. Yet, as a man of
+science, he well knew that just on the verge of the demonstrable facts
+of physics and physiology there is a nebulous border-land which what
+is called “common sense” perhaps does wisely not to enter, but which
+uncommon sense, or the fine apprehension of privileged intelligences,
+may cautiously explore, and in so doing find itself behind the scenes
+which make up for the gazing world the show which is called Nature.
+
+It was with something of this finer perception, perhaps with some degree
+of imaginative exaltation, that he set himself to solving the problem
+of Elsie's influence to attract and repel those around her. His letter
+already submitted to the reader hints in what direction his thoughts
+were disposed to turn. Here was a magnificent organization, superb
+in vigorous womanhood, with a beauty such as never comes but after
+generations of culture; yet through all this rich nature there ran some
+alien current of influence, sinuous and dark, as when a clouded streak
+seams the white marble of a perfect statue.
+
+It would be needless to repeat the particular suggestions which had come
+into his mind, as they must probably have come into that of the reader
+who has noted the singularities of Elsie's tastes and personal traits.
+The images which certain poets had dreamed of seemed to have become a
+reality before his own eyes. Then came that unexplained adventure of The
+Mountain,--almost like a dream in recollection, yet assuredly real in
+some of its main incidents,--with all that it revealed or hinted. This
+girl did not fear to visit the dreaded region, where danger lurked in
+every nook and beneath every tuft of leaves. Did the tenants of the
+fatal ledge recognize some mysterious affinity which made them tributary
+to the cold glitter of her diamond eyes? Was she from her birth one of
+those frightful children, such as he had read about, and the Professor
+had told him of, who form unnatural friendships with cold, writhing
+ophidians? There was no need of so unwelcome a thought as this; she had
+drawn him away from the dark opening in the rock at the moment when he
+seemed to be threatened by one of its malignant denizens; that was all
+he could be sure of; the counter-fascination might have been a dream, a
+fancy, a coincidence. All wonderful things soon grow doubtful in our own
+minds, as do even common events, if great interests prove suddenly to
+attach to their truth or falsehood.
+
+--I, who am telling of these occurrences, saw a friend in the great
+city, on the morning of a most memorable disaster, hours after the
+time when the train which carried its victims to their doom had left.
+I talked with him, and was for some minutes, at least, in his company.
+When I reached home, I found that the story had gone before that he was
+among the lost, and I alone could contradict it to his weeping friends
+and relatives. I did contradict it; but, alas! I began soon to doubt
+myself, penetrated by the contagion of their solicitude; my recollection
+began to question itself; the order of events became dislocated; and
+when I heard that he had reached home in safety, the relief was almost
+as great to me as to those who had expected to see their own brother's
+face no more.
+
+Mr. Bernard was disposed, then, not to accept the thought of any odious
+personal relationship of the kind which had suggested itself to him
+when he wrote the letter referred to. That the girl had something of the
+feral nature, her wild, lawless rambles in forbidden and blasted regions
+of The Mountain at all hours, her familiarity with the lonely haunts
+where any other human foot was so rarely seen, proved clearly enough.
+But the more he thought of all her strange instincts and modes of being,
+the more he became convinced that whatever alien impulse swayed her will
+and modulated or diverted or displaced her affections came from some
+impression that reached far back into the past, before the days when the
+faithful Old Sophy had rocked her in the cradle. He believed that she
+had brought her ruling tendency, whatever it was, into the world with
+her.
+
+When the school was over and the girls had all gone, Helen lingered in
+the schoolroom to speak with Mr. Bernard.
+
+“Did you remark Elsie's ways this forenoon?” she said.
+
+“No, not particularly; I have not noticed anything as sharply as I
+commonly do; my head has been a little queer, and I have been thinking
+over what we were talking about, and how near I came to solving the
+great problem which every day makes clear to such multitudes of people.
+What about Elsie?”
+
+“Bernard, her liking for you is growing into a passion. I have studied
+girls for a long while, and I know the difference between their passing
+fancies and their real emotions. I told you, you remember, that Rosa
+would have to leave us; we barely missed a scene, I think, if not a
+whole tragedy, by her going at the right moment. But Elsie is infinitely
+more dangerous to herself and others. Women's love is fierce enough, if
+it once gets the mastery of them, always; but this poor girl does not
+know what to do with a passion.”
+
+Mr. Bernard had never told Helen the story of the flower in his Virgil,
+or that other adventure--which he would have felt awkwardly to refer to;
+but it had been perfectly understood between them that Elsie showed in
+her own singular way a well-marked partiality for the young master.
+
+“Why don't they take her away from the school, if she is in such a
+strange, excitable state?” said Mr. Bernard.
+
+“I believe they are afraid of her,” Helen answered. “It is just one of
+those cases that are ten thousand thousand times worse than insanity. I
+don't think from what I hear, that her father has ever given up hoping
+that she will outgrow her peculiarities. Oh, these peculiar children for
+whom parents go on hoping every morning and despairing every night! If
+I could tell you half that mothers have told me, you would feel that the
+worst of all diseases of the moral sense and the will are those which
+all the Bedlams turn away from their doors as not being cases of
+insanity!”
+
+“Do you think her father has treated her judiciously?” said Mr. Bernard.
+
+“I think,” said Helen, with a little hesitation, which Mr. Bernard did
+not happen to notice,--“I think he has been very kind and indulgent,
+and I do not know that he could have treated her otherwise with a better
+chance of success.”
+
+“He must of course be fond of her,” Mr. Bernard said; “there is nothing
+else in the world for him to love.”
+
+Helen dropped a book she held in her hand, and, stooping to pick it up,
+the blood rushed into her cheeks.
+
+“It is getting late,” she said; “you must not stay any longer in
+this close schoolroom. Pray, go and get a little fresh air before
+dinner-time.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. A SOUL IN DISTRESS.
+
+The events told in the last two chapters had taken place toward the
+close of the week. On Saturday evening the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather
+received a note which was left at his door by an unknown person who
+departed without saying a word. Its words were these: “One who is in
+distress of mind requests the prayers of this congregation that God
+would be pleased to look in mercy upon the soul that he has afflicted.”
+
+There was nothing to show from whom the note came, or the sex or age
+or special source of spiritual discomfort or anxiety of the writer. The
+handwriting was delicate and might well be a woman's. The clergyman was
+not aware of any particular affliction among his parishioners which was
+likely to be made the subject of a request of this kind. Surely neither
+of the Venners would advertise the attempted crime of their relative in
+this way. But who else was there? The more he thought about it, the
+more it puzzled him, and as he did not like to pray in the dark, without
+knowing for whom he was praying, he could think of nothing better than
+to step into old Doctor Kittredge's and see what he had to say about it.
+
+The old Doctor was sitting alone in his study when the Reverend Mr.
+Fairweather was ushered in. He received his visitor very pleasantly,
+expecting, as a matter of course, that he would begin with some new
+grievance, dyspeptic, neuralgic, bronchitic, or other. The minister,
+however, began with questioning the old Doctor about the sequel of the
+other night's adventure; for he was already getting a little Jesuitical,
+and kept back the object of his visit until it should come up as if
+accidentally in the course of conversation.
+
+“It was a pretty bold thing to go off alone with that reprobate, as you
+did,” said the minister.
+
+“I don't know what there was bold about it,” the Doctor answered. “All
+he wanted was to get away. He was not quite a reprobate, you see; he
+didn't like the thought of disgracing his family or facing his uncle. I
+think he was ashamed to see his cousin, too, after what he had done.”
+
+“Did he talk with you on the way?”
+
+“Not much. For half an hour or so he did n't speak a word. Then he asked
+where I was driving him. I told him, and he seemed to be surprised into
+a sort of grateful feeling. Bad enough, no doubt, but might be worse.
+Has some humanity left in him yet. Let him go. God can judge him,--I
+can't.”
+
+“You are too charitable, Doctor,” the minister said. “I condemn him just
+as if he had carried out his project, which, they say, was to make it
+appear as if the schoolmaster had committed suicide. That's what people
+think the rope found by him was for. He has saved his neck,--but his
+soul is a lost one, I am afraid, beyond question.”
+
+“I can't judge men's souls,” the Doctor said. “I can judge their acts,
+and hold them responsible for those,--but I don't know much about their
+souls. If you or I had found our soul in a half-breed body; and been
+turned loose to run among the Indians, we might have been playing
+just such tricks as this fellow has been trying. What if you or I had
+inherited all the tendencies that were born with his cousin Elsie?”
+
+“Oh, that reminds me,”--the minister said, in a sudden way,--“I have
+received a note, which I am requested to read from the pulpit tomorrow.
+I wish you would just have the kindness to look at it and see where you
+think it came from.”
+
+The Doctor examined it carefully. It was a woman's or girl's note, he
+thought. Might come from one of the school-girls who was anxious about
+her spiritual condition. Handwriting was disguised; looked a little like
+Elsie Veneer's, but not characteristic enough to make it certain. It
+would be a new thing, if she had asked public prayers for herself, and
+a very favorable indication of a change in her singular moral nature. It
+was just possible Elsie might have sent that note. Nobody could foretell
+her actions. It would be well to see the girl and find out whether
+any unusual impression had been produced on her mind by the recent
+occurrence or by any other cause.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather folded the note and put it into his pocket.
+
+“I have been a good deal exercised in mind lately, myself,” he said.
+
+The old Doctor looked at him through his spectacles, and said, in his
+usual professional tone,
+
+“Put out your tongue.”
+
+The minister obeyed him in that feeble way common with persons of weak
+character,--for people differ as much in their mode of performing this
+trifling act as Gideon's soldiers in their way of drinking at the brook.
+The Doctor took his hand and placed a finger mechanically on his wrist.
+
+“It is more spiritual, I think, than bodily,” said the Reverend Mr.
+Fairweather.
+
+“Is your appetite as good as usual?” the Doctor asked.
+
+“Pretty good,” the minister answered; “but my sleep, my sleep,
+Doctor,--I am greatly troubled at night with lying awake and thinking of
+my future, I am not at ease in mind.”
+
+He looked round at all the doors, to be sure they were shut, and moved
+his chair up close to the Doctor's.
+
+“You do not know the mental trials I have been going through for the
+last few months.”
+
+“I think I do,” the old Doctor said. “You want to get out of the new
+church into the old one, don't you?”
+
+The minister blushed deeply; he thought he had been going on in a very
+quiet way, and that nobody suspected his secret. As the old Doctor was
+his counsellor in sickness, and almost everybody's confidant in trouble,
+he had intended to impart cautiously to him some hints of the change of
+sentiments through which he had been passing. He was too late with his
+information, it appeared, and there was nothing to be done but to throw
+himself on the Doctor's good sense and kindness, which everybody knew,
+and get what hints he could from him as to the practical course he
+should pursue. He began, after an awkward pause,
+
+“You would not have me stay in a communion which I feel to be alien to
+the true church, would you?”
+
+“Have you stay, my friend?” said the Doctor, with a pleasant, friendly
+look,--“have you stay? Not a month, nor a week, nor a day, if I could
+help it. You have got into the wrong pulpit, and I have known it from
+the first. The sooner you go where you belong, the better. And I'm very
+glad you don't mean to stop half-way. Don't you know you've always
+come to me when you've been dyspeptic or sick anyhow, and wanted to put
+yourself wholly into my hands, so that I might order you like a child
+just what to do and what to take? That 's exactly what you want
+in religion. I don't blame you for it. You never liked to take the
+responsibility of your own body; I don't see why you should want to have
+the charge of your own soul. But I'm glad you're going to the Old Mother
+of all. You wouldn't have been contented short of that.”
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather breathed with more freedom. The Doctor saw
+into his soul through those awful spectacles of his,--into it and
+beyond it, as one sees through a thin fog. But it was with a real human
+kindness, after all. He felt like a child before a strong man; but the
+strong man looked on him with a father's indulgence. Many and many a
+time, when he had come desponding and bemoaning himself on account of
+some contemptible bodily infirmity, the old Doctor had looked at him
+through his spectacles, listened patiently while he told his ailments,
+and then, in his large parental way, given him a few words of wholesome
+advice, and cheered him up so that he went off with a light heart,
+thinking that the heaven he was so much afraid of was not so very near,
+after all. It was the same thing now. He felt, as feeble natures always
+do in the presence of strong ones, overmastered, circumscribed, shut in,
+humbled; but yet it seemed as if the old Doctor did not despise him any
+more for what he considered weakness of mind than he used to despise him
+when he complained of his nerves or his digestion.
+
+Men who see into their neighbors are very apt to be contemptuous; but
+men who see through them find something lying behind every human soul
+which it is not for them to sit in judgment on, or to attempt to sneer
+out of the order of God's manifold universe.
+
+Little as the Doctor had said out of which comfort could be extracted,
+his genial manner had something grateful in it. A film of gratitude
+came over the poor man's cloudy, uncertain eye, and a look of tremulous
+relief and satisfaction played about his weak mouth. He was gravitating
+to the majority, where he hoped to find “rest”; but he was dreadfully
+sensitive to the opinions of the minority he was on the point of
+leaving.
+
+The old Doctor saw plainly enough what was going on in his mind.
+
+“I sha'n't quarrel with you,” he said,--“you know that very well; but
+you mustn't quarrel with me, if I talk honestly with you; it isn't
+everybody that will take the trouble. You flatter yourself that you will
+make a good many enemies by leaving your old communion. Not so many as
+you think. This is the way the common sort of people will talk:--'You
+have got your ticket to the feast of life, as much as any other man that
+ever lived. Protestantism says,--“Help yourself; here's a clean plate,
+and a knife and fork of your own, and plenty of fresh dishes to choose
+from.” The Old Mother says,--“Give me your ticket, my dear, and I'll
+feed you with my gold spoon off these beautiful old wooden trenchers.
+Such nice bits as those good old gentlemen have left for you!” There is
+no quarrelling with a man who prefers broken victuals. That's what the
+rougher sort will say; and then, where one scolds, ten will laugh. But,
+mind you, I don't either scold or laugh. I don't feel sure that you
+could very well have helped doing what you will soon do. You know you
+were never easy without some medicine to take when you felt ill in
+body. I'm afraid I've given you trashy stuff sometimes, just to keep
+you quiet. Now, let me tell you, there is just the same difference in
+spiritual patients that there is in bodily ones. One set believes
+in wholesome ways of living, and another must have a great list of
+specifics for all the soul's complaints. You belong with the last, and
+got accidentally shuffled in with the others.”
+
+The minister smiled faintly, but did not reply. Of course, he considered
+that way of talking as the result of the Doctor's professional training.
+It would not have been worth while to take offence at his plain speech,
+if he had been so disposed; for he might wish to consult him the next
+day as to “what he should take” for his dyspepsia or his neuralgia.
+
+He left the Doctor with a hollow feeling at the bottom of his soul, as
+if a good piece of his manhood had been scooped out of him. His hollow
+aching did not explain itself in words, but it grumbled and worried down
+among the unshaped thoughts which lie beneath them. He knew that he had
+been trying to reason himself out of his birthright of reason. He knew
+that the inspiration which gave him understanding was losing its throne
+in his intelligence, and the almighty Majority-Vote was proclaiming
+itself in its stead. He knew that the great primal truths, which each
+successive revelation only confirmed, were fast becoming hidden beneath
+the mechanical forms of thought, which, as with all new converts,
+engrossed so large a share of his attention. The “peace,” the “rest,”
+ which he had purchased were dearly bought to one who had been trained
+to the arms of thought, and whose noble privilege it might have been
+to live in perpetual warfare for the advancing truth which the next
+generation will claim as the legacy of the present.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was getting careless about his sermons. He
+must wait the fitting moment to declare himself; and in the mean time
+he was preaching to heretics. It did not matter much what he preached,
+under such circumstances. He pulled out two old yellow sermons from a
+heap of such, and began looking over that for the forenoon. Naturally
+enough, he fell asleep over it, and, sleeping, he began to dream.
+
+He dreamed that he was under the high arches of an old cathedral, amidst
+a throng of worshippers. The light streamed in through vast windows,
+dark with the purple robes of royal saints, or blazing with yellow
+glories around the heads of earthly martyrs and heavenly messengers. The
+billows of the great organ roared among the clustered columns, as the
+sea breaks amidst the basaltic pillars which crowd the stormy cavern of
+the Hebrides. The voice of the alternate choirs of singing boys swung
+back and forward, as the silver censer swung in the hands of the
+white-robed children. The sweet cloud of incense rose in soft, fleecy
+mists, full of penetrating suggestions of the East and its perfumed
+altars. The knees of twenty generations had worn the pavement; their
+feet had hollowed the steps; their shoulders had smoothed the columns.
+Dead bishops and abbots lay under the marble of the floor in their
+crumbled vestments; dead warriors, in rusted armor, were stretched
+beneath their sculptured effigies. And all at once all the buried
+multitudes who had ever worshipped there came thronging in through the
+aisles. They choked every space, they swarmed into all the chapels, they
+hung in clusters over the parapets of the galleries, they clung to
+the images in every niche, and still the vast throng kept flowing and
+flowing in, until the living were lost in the rush of the returning dead
+who had reclaimed their own. Then, as his dream became more fantastic,
+the huge cathedral itself seemed to change into the wreck of some mighty
+antediluvian vertebrate; its flying-buttresses arched round like ribs,
+its piers shaped themselves into limbs, and the sound of the organ-blast
+changed to the wind whistling through its thousand-jointed skeleton.
+
+And presently the sound lulled, and softened and softened, until it was
+as the murmur of a distant swarm of bees. A procession of monks wound
+along through an old street, chanting, as they walked. In his dream he
+glided in among them and bore his part in the burden of their song.
+He entered with the long train under a low arch, and presently he was
+kneeling in a narrow cell before an image of the Blessed Maiden holding
+the Divine Child in her arms, and his lips seemed to whisper,
+
+               Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!
+
+He turned to the crucifix, and, prostrating himself before the spare,
+agonizing shape of the Holy Sufferer, fell into a long passion of tears
+and broken prayers. He rose and flung himself, worn-out, upon his hard
+pallet, and, seeming to slumber, dreamed again within his dream. Once
+more in the vast cathedral, with throngs of the living choking its
+aisles, amidst jubilant peals from the cavernous depths of the great
+organ, and choral melodies ringing from the fluty throats of the singing
+boys. A day of great rejoicings,--for a prelate was to be consecrated,
+and the bones of the mighty skeleton-minster were shaking with anthems,
+as if there were life of its own within its buttressed ribs. He looked
+down at his feet; the folds of the sacred robe were flowing about them:
+he put his hand to his head; it was crowned with the holy mitre. A
+long sigh, as of perfect content in the consummation of all his earthly
+hopes, breathed through the dreamer's lips, and shaped itself, as it
+escaped, into the blissful murmur,
+
+               Ego sum Episcopus!
+
+One grinning gargoyle looked in from beneath the roof through an opening
+in a stained window. It was the face of a mocking fiend, such as the old
+builders loved to place under the eaves to spout the rain through their
+open mouths. It looked at him, as he sat in his mitred chair, with its
+hideous grin growing broader and broader, until it laughed out aloud,
+such a hard, stony, mocking laugh, that he awoke out of his second dream
+through his first into his common consciousness, and shivered, as he
+turned to the two yellow sermons which he was to pick over and weed of
+the little thought they might contain, for the next day's service.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather was too much taken up with his own
+bodily and spiritual condition to be deeply mindful of others. He
+carried the note requesting the prayers of the congregation in his
+pocket all day; and the soul in distress, which a single tender petition
+might have soothed, and perhaps have saved from despair or fatal error,
+found no voice in the temple to plead for it before the Throne of Mercy!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. THE SECRET IS WHISPERED.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather's congregation was not large, but
+select. The lines of social cleavage run through religious creeds as
+if they were of a piece with position and fortune. It is expected of
+persons of a certain breeding, in some parts of New England, that they
+shall be either Episcopalians or Unitarians. The mansion-house gentry of
+Rockland were pretty fairly divided between the little chapel, with the
+stained window and the trained rector, and the meeting-house where the
+Reverend Mr. Fairweather officiated.
+
+It was in the latter that Dudley Venner worshipped, when he attended
+service anywhere,--which depended very much on the caprice of Elsie. He
+saw plainly enough that a generous and liberally cultivated nature might
+find a refuge and congenial souls in either of these two persuasions,
+but he objected to some points of the formal creed of the older church,
+and especially to the mechanism which renders it hard to get free
+from its outworn and offensive formulae,--remembering how Archbishop
+Tillotson wished in vain that it could be “well rid of” the Athanasian
+Creed. This, and the fact that the meeting-house was nearer than the
+chapel, determined him, when the new rector, who was not quite up to
+his mark in education, was appointed, to take a pew in the “liberal”
+ worshippers' edifice.
+
+Elsie was very uncertain in her feeling about going to church. In
+summer, she loved rather to stroll over The Mountain, on Sundays. There
+was even a story, that she had one of the caves before mentioned fitted
+up as an oratory, and that she had her own wild way of worshipping
+the God whom she sought in the dark chasms of the dreaded cliffs. Mere
+fables, doubtless; but they showed the common belief, that Elsie, with
+all her strange and dangerous elements of character, had yet strong
+religious feeling mingled with them. The hymn-book which Dick had found,
+in his midnight invasion of her chamber, opened to favorite hymns,
+especially some of the Methodist and Quietist character. Many had
+noticed, that certain tunes, as sung by the choir, seemed to impress
+her deeply; and some said, that at such times her whole expression would
+change, and her stormy look would soften so as to remind them of her
+poor, sweet mother.
+
+On the Sunday morning after the talk recorded in the last chapter, Elsie
+made herself ready to go to meeting. She was dressed much as usual,
+excepting that she wore a thick veil, turned aside, but ready to conceal
+her features. It was natural enough that she should not wish to be
+looked in the face by curious persons who would be staring to see what
+effect the occurrence of the past week had had on her spirits. Her
+father attended her willingly; and they took their seats in the pew,
+somewhat to the surprise of many, who had hardly expected to see them,
+after so humiliating a family development as the attempted crime of
+their kinsman had just been furnishing for the astonishment of the
+public.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was now in his coldest mood. He had passed
+through the period of feverish excitement which marks a change of
+religious opinion. At first, when he had began to doubt his own
+theological positions, he had defended them against himself with
+more ingenuity and interest, perhaps, than he could have done against
+another; because men rarely take the trouble to understand anybody's
+difficulties in a question but their own. After this, as he began
+to draw off from different points of his old belief, the cautious
+disentangling of himself from one mesh after another gave sharpness to
+his intellect, and the tremulous eagerness with which he seized upon the
+doctrine which, piece by piece, under various pretexts and with various
+disguises, he was appropriating, gave interest and something like
+passion to his words. But when he had gradually accustomed his people
+to his new phraseology, and was really adjusting his sermons and his
+service to disguise his thoughts, he lost at once all his intellectual
+acuteness and all his spiritual fervor.
+
+Elsie sat quietly through the first part of the service, which was
+conducted in the cold, mechanical way to be expected. Her face was
+hidden by her veil; but her father knew her state of feeling, as well
+by her movements and attitudes as by the expression of her features. The
+hymn had been sung, the short prayer offered, the Bible read, and the
+long prayer was about to begin. This was the time at which the “notes”
+ of any who were in affliction from loss of friends, the sick who
+were doubtful of recovery, those who had cause to be grateful for
+preservation of life or other signal blessing, were wont to be read.
+
+Just then it was that Dudley Veneer noticed that his daughter was
+trembling,--a thing so rare, so unaccountable, indeed, under the
+circumstances, that he watched her closely, and began to fear that some
+nervous paroxysm, or other malady, might have just begun to show itself
+in this way upon her.
+
+The minister had in his pocket two notes. One, in the handwriting of
+Deacon Soper, was from a member of this congregation, returning thanks
+for his preservation through a season of great peril, supposed to be the
+exposure which he had shared with others, when standing in the circle
+around Dick Veneer. The other was the anonymous one, in a female hand,
+which he had received the evening before. He forgot them both. His
+thoughts were altogether too much taken up with more important matters.
+He prayed through all the frozen petitions of his expurgated form of
+supplication, and not a single heart was soothed or lifted, or reminded
+that its sorrows were struggling their way up to heaven, borne on the
+breath from a human soul that was warm with love.
+
+The people sat down as if relieved when the dreary prayer was finished.
+Elsie alone remained standing until her father touched her. Then she sat
+down, lifted her veil, and looked at him with a blank, sad look, as
+if she had suffered some pain or wrong, but could not give any name or
+expression to her vague trouble. She did not tremble any longer, but
+remained ominously still, as if she had been frozen where she sat.
+
+--Can a man love his own soul too well? Who, on the whole, constitute
+the nobler class of human beings? those who have lived mainly to make
+sure of their own personal welfare in another and future condition of
+existence, or they who have worked with all their might for their race,
+for their country, for the advancement of the kingdom of God, and left
+all personal arrangements concerning themselves to the sole charge of
+Him who made them and is responsible to himself for their safe-keeping?
+Is an anchorite who has worn the stone floor of his cell into basins
+with his knees bent in prayer, more acceptable than the soldier who
+gives his life for the maintenance of any sacred right or truth, without
+thinking what will specially become of him in a world where there are
+two or three million colonists a month, from this one planet, to be
+cared for? These are grave questions, which must suggest themselves to
+those who know that there are many profoundly selfish persons who are
+sincerely devout and perpetually occupied with their own future, while
+there are others who are perfectly ready to sacrifice themselves for
+any worthy object in this world, but are really too little occupied with
+their exclusive personality to think so much as many do about what is to
+become of them in another.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather did not, most certainly, belong to this
+latter class. There are several kinds of believers, whose history we
+find among the early converts to Christianity.
+
+There was the magistrate, whose social position was such that he
+preferred a private interview in the evening with the Teacher to
+following him--with the street-crowd. He had seen extraordinary facts
+which had satisfied him that the young Galilean had a divine commission.
+But still he cross-questioned the Teacher himself. He was not ready to
+accept statements without explanation. That was the right kind of man.
+See how he stood up for the legal rights of his Master, when the people
+were for laying hands on him!
+
+And again, there was the government official, intrusted with public
+money, which, in those days, implied that he was supposed to be honest.
+A single look of that heavenly countenance, and two words of gentle
+command, were enough for him. Neither of these men, the early disciple,
+nor the evangelist, seems to have been thinking primarily about his own
+personal safety.
+
+But now look at the poor, miserable turnkey, whose occupation shows
+what he was like to be, and who had just been thrusting two respectable
+strangers, taken from the hands of a mob, covered with stripes and
+stripped of clothing, into the inner prison, and making their feet fast
+in the stocks. His thought, in the moment of terror, is for himself:
+first, suicide; then, what he shall do,--not to save his household,--not
+to fulfil his duty to his office,--not to repair the outrage he has been
+committing,--but to secure his own personal safety. Truly, character
+shows itself as much in a man's way of becoming a Christian as in any
+other!
+
+--Elsie sat, statue-like, through the sermon. It would not be fair to
+the reader to give an abstract of that. When a man who has been bred to
+free thought and free speech suddenly finds himself stepping about, like
+a dancer amidst his eggs, among the old addled majority-votes which he
+must not tread upon, he is a spectacle for men and angels. Submission to
+intellectual precedent and authority does very well for those who have
+been bred to it; we know that the underground courses of their minds
+are laid in the Roman cement of tradition, and that stately and splendid
+structures may be reared on such a foundation. But to see one laying a
+platform over heretical quicksands, thirty or forty or fifty years deep,
+and then beginning to build upon it, is a sorry sight. A new convert
+from the reformed to the ancient faith may be very strong in the arms,
+but he will always have weak legs and shaky knees. He may use his hands
+well, and hit hard with his fists, but he will never stand on his legs
+in the way the man does who inherits his belief.
+
+The services were over at last, and Dudley Venner and his daughter
+walked home together in silence. He always respected her moods, and saw
+clearly enough that some inward trouble was weighing upon her. There
+was nothing to be said in such cases, for Elsie could never talk of her
+griefs. An hour, or a day, or a week of brooding, with perhaps a sudden
+flash of violence: this was the way in which the impressions which make
+other women weep, and tell their griefs by word or letter, showed their
+effects in her mind and acts.
+
+She wandered off up into the remoter parts of The Mountain, that day,
+after their return. No one saw just where she went,--indeed, no one knew
+its forest-recesses and rocky fastnesses as she did. She was gone until
+late at night; and when Old Sophy, who had watched for her, bound up her
+long hair for her sleep, it was damp with the cold dews.
+
+The old black woman looked at her without speaking, but questioning her
+with every feature as to the sorrow that was weighing on her.
+
+Suddenly she turned to Old Sophy.
+
+“You want to know what there is troubling me;” she said. “Nobody loves
+me. I cannot love anybody. What is love, Sophy?”
+
+“It's what poor Ol' Sophy's got for her Elsie,” the old woman answered.
+“Tell me, darlin',--don' you love somebody?--don' you love? you
+know,--oh, tell me, darlin', don' you love to see the gen'l'man
+that keeps up at the school where you go? They say he's the pootiest
+gen'l'man that was ever in the town here. Don' be 'fraid of poor Ol'
+Sophy, darlin',--she loved a man once,--see here! Oh, I've showed you
+this often enough!”
+
+She took from her pocket a half of one of the old Spanish silver coins,
+such as were current in the earlier part of this century. The other half
+of it had been lying in the deep sea-sand for more than fifty years.
+
+Elsie looked her in the face, but did not answer in words. What strange
+intelligence was that which passed between them through the diamond
+eyes and the little beady black ones?--what subtile intercommunication,
+penetrating so much deeper than articulate speech? This was the nearest
+approach to sympathetic relations that Elsie ever had: a kind of dumb
+intercourse of feeling, such as one sees in the eyes of brute mothers
+looking on their young. But, subtile as it was, it was narrow and
+individual; whereas an emotion which can shape itself in language opens
+the gate for itself into the great community of human affections; for
+every word we speak is the medal of a dead thought or feeling, struck in
+the die of some human experience, worn smooth by innumerable contacts,
+and always transferred warm from one to another. By words we share
+the common consciousness of the race, which has shaped itself in these
+symbols. By music we reach those special states of consciousness which,
+being without form, cannot be shaped with the mosaics of the vocabulary.
+The language of the eyes runs deeper into the personal nature, but it is
+purely individual, and perishes in the expression.
+
+If we consider them all as growing out of the consciousness as their
+root, language is the leaf, music is the flower; but when the eyes meet
+and search each other, it is the uncovering of the blanched stem through
+which the whole life runs, but which has never taken color or form from
+the sunlight.
+
+For three days Elsie did not return to the school. Much of the time she
+was among the woods and rocks. The season was now beginning to wane, and
+the forest to put on its autumnal glory. The dreamy haze was beginning
+to soften the landscape, and the mast delicious days of the year were
+lending their attraction to the scenery of The Mountain. It was not very
+singular that Elsie should be lingering in her old haunts, from which
+the change of season must soon drive her. But Old Sophy saw clearly
+enough that some internal conflict was going on, and knew very well that
+it must have its own way and work itself out as it best could. As much
+as looks could tell Elsie had told her. She had said in words, to be
+sure, that she could not love. Something warped and thwarted the emotion
+which would have been love in another, no doubt; but that such an
+emotion was striving with her against all malign influences which
+interfered with it the old woman had a perfect certainty in her own
+mind.
+
+Everybody who has observed the working of emotions in persons of various
+temperaments knows well enough that they have periods of incubation,
+which differ with the individual, and with the particular cause and
+degree of excitement, yet evidently go through a strictly self-limited
+series of evolutions, at the end of which, their result--an act of
+violence, a paroxysm of tears, a gradual subsidence into repose, or
+whatever it may be--declares itself, like the last stage of an attack of
+fever and ague. No one can observe children without noticing that there
+is a personal equation, to use the astronomer's language, in their
+tempers, so that one sulks an hour over an offence which makes another a
+fury for five minutes, and leaves him or her an angel when it is over.
+
+At the end of three days, Elsie braided her long, glossy, black hair,
+and shot a golden arrow through it. She dressed herself with more than
+usual care, and came down in the morning superb in her stormy beauty.
+The brooding paroxysm was over, or at least her passion had changed its
+phase. Her father saw it with great relief; he had always many fears for
+her in her hours and days of gloom, but, for reasons before assigned,
+had felt that she must be trusted to herself, without appealing to
+actual restraint, or any other supervision than such as Old Sophy could
+exercise without offence.
+
+She went off at the accustomed hour to the school. All the girls had
+their eyes on her. None so keen as these young misses to know an inward
+movement by an outward sign of adornment: if they have not as many
+signals as the ships that sail the great seas, there is not an end of
+ribbon or a turn of a ringlet which is not a hieroglyphic with a hidden
+meaning to these little cruisers over the ocean of sentiment.
+
+The girls all looked at Elsie with a new thought; for she was more
+sumptuously arrayed than perhaps ever before at the school; and they
+said to themselves that she had come meaning to draw the young master's
+eyes upon her. That was it; what else could it be? The beautiful cold
+girl with the diamond eyes meant to dazzle the handsome young gentleman.
+He would be afraid to love her; it couldn't be true, that which some
+people had said in the village; she was n't the kind of young lady to
+make Mr. Langdon happy. Those dark people are never safe: so one of the
+young blondes said to herself. Elsie was not literary enough for such
+a scholar: so thought Miss Charlotte Ann Wood, the young poetess. She
+couldn't have a good temper, with those scowling eyebrows: this was the
+opinion of several broad-faced, smiling girls, who thought, each in her
+own snug little mental sanctum, that, if, etc., etc., she could make him
+so happy!
+
+Elsie had none of the still, wicked light in her eyes, that morning.
+She looked gentle, but dreamy; played with her books; did not trouble
+herself with any of the exercises,--which in itself was not very
+remarkable, as she was always allowed, under some pretext or other, to
+have her own way.
+
+The school-hours were over at length. The girls went out, but she
+lingered to the last. She then came up to Mr. Bernard, with a book in
+her hand, as if to ask a question.
+
+“Will you walk towards my home with me today?” she said, in a very low
+voice, little more than a whisper.
+
+Mr. Bernard was startled by the request, put in such a way. He had a
+presentiment of some painful scene or other. But there was nothing to be
+done but to assure her that it would give him great pleasure.
+
+So they walked along together on their way toward the Dudley mansion.
+
+“I have no friend,” Elsie said, all at once. “Nothing loves me but one
+old woman. I cannot love anybody. They tell me there is something in my
+eyes that draws people to me and makes them faint: Look into them, will
+you?”
+
+She turned her face toward him. It was very pale, and the diamond eyes
+were glittering with a film, such as beneath other lids would have
+rounded into a tear.
+
+“Beautiful eyes, Elsie,” he said,--“sometimes very piercing,--but soft
+now, and looking as if there were something beneath them that friendship
+might draw out. I am your friend, Elsie. Tell me what I can do to render
+your life happier.”
+
+“Love me!” said Elsie Venner.
+
+What shall a man do, when a woman makes such a demand, involving such
+an avowal? It was the tenderest, cruellest, humblest moment of Mr.
+Bernard's life. He turned pale, he trembled almost, as if he had been a
+woman listening to her lover's declaration.
+
+“Elsie,” he said, presently, “I so long to be of some use to you, to
+have your confidence and sympathy, that I must not let you say or
+do anything to put us in false relations. I do love you, Elsie, as a
+suffering sister with sorrows of her own,--as one whom I would save at
+the risk of my happiness and life,--as one who needs a true friend more
+than--any of all the young girls I have known. More than this you would
+not ask me to say. You have been through excitement and trouble lately,
+and it has made you feel such a need more than ever. Give me your hand,
+dear Elsie, and trust me that I will be as true a friend to you as if we
+were children of the same mother.”
+
+Elsie gave him her hand mechanically. It seemed to him that a cold aura
+shot from it along his arm and chilled the blood running through his
+heart. He pressed it gently, looked at her with a face full of grave
+kindness and sad interest, then softly relinquished it.
+
+It was all over with poor Elsie. They walked almost in silence the rest
+of the way. Mr. Bernard left her at the gate of the mansion-house, and
+returned with sad forebodings. Elsie went at once to her own room, and
+did not come from it at the usual hours. At last Old Sophy began to
+be alarmed about her, went to her apartment, and, finding the door
+unlocked, entered cautiously. She found Elsie lying on her bed, her
+brows strongly contracted, her eyes dull, her whole look that of great
+suffering. Her first thought was that she had been doing herself a harm
+by some deadly means or other. But Elsie, saw her fear, and reassured
+her.
+
+“No,” she said, “there is nothing wrong, such as you are thinking of; I
+am not dying. You may send for the Doctor; perhaps he can take the pain
+from my head. That is all I want him to do. There is no use in the pain,
+that I know of; if he can stop it, let him.”
+
+So they sent for the old Doctor. It was not long before the solid trot
+of Caustic, the old bay horse, and the crashing of the gravel under the
+wheels, gave notice that the physician was driving up the avenue.
+
+The old Doctor was a model for visiting practitioners. He always
+came into the sick-room with a quiet, cheerful look, as if he had a
+consciousness that he was bringing some sure relief with him. The way a
+patient snatches his first look at his doctor's face, to see whether
+he is doomed, whether he is reprieved, whether he is unconditionally
+pardoned, has really something terrible about it. It is only to be
+met by an imperturbable mask of serenity, proof against anything and
+everything in a patient's aspect. The physician whose face reflects his
+patient's condition like a mirror may do well enough to examine people
+for a life-insurance office, but does not belong to the sickroom. The
+old Doctor did not keep people waiting in dread suspense, while he
+stayed talking about the case,--the patient all the time thinking that
+he and the friends are discussing some alarming symptom or formidable
+operation which he himself is by-and-by--to hear of.
+
+He was in Elsie's room almost before she knew he was in the house. He
+came to her bedside in such a natural, quiet way, that it seemed as if
+he were only a friend who had dropped in for a moment to say a pleasant
+word. Yet he was very uneasy about Elsie until he had seen her; he never
+knew what might happen to her or those about her, and came prepared for
+the worst.
+
+“Sick, my child?” he said, in a very soft, low voice.
+
+Elsie nodded, without speaking.
+
+The Doctor took her hand,--whether with professional views, or only in a
+friendly way, it would have been hard to tell. So he sat a few minutes,
+looking at her all the time with a kind of fatherly interest, but with
+it all noting how she lay, how she breathed, her color, her expression,
+all that teaches the practised eye so much without a single question
+being asked. He saw she was in suffering, and said presently,
+
+“You have pain somewhere; where is it?”
+
+She put her hand to her head.
+
+As she was not disposed to talk, he watched her for a while, questioned
+Old Sophy shrewdly a few minutes, and so made up his mind as to the
+probable cause of disturbance and the proper remedies to be used.
+
+Some very silly people thought the old Doctor did not believe in
+medicine, because he gave less than certain poor half-taught creatures
+in the smaller neighboring towns, who took advantage of people's
+sickness to disgust and disturb them with all manner of ill-smelling
+and ill-behaving drugs. In truth, he hated to give anything noxious or
+loathsome to those who were uncomfortable enough already, unless he was
+very sure it would do good,--in which case, he never played with drugs,
+but gave good, honest, efficient doses. Sometimes he lost a family of
+the more boorish sort, because they did not think they got their
+money's worth out of him, unless they had something more than a taste of
+everything he carried in his saddlebags.
+
+He ordered some remedies which he thought would relieve Elsie, and left
+her, saying he would call the next day, hoping to find her better.
+But the next day came, and the next, and still Elsie was on her bed,
+feverish, restless, wakeful, silent. At night she tossed about and
+wandered, and it became at length apparent that there was a settled
+attack, something like what they called, formerly, a “nervous fever.”
+
+On the fourth day she was more restless than common. One of the women
+of the house came in to help to take care of her; but she showed an
+aversion to her presence.
+
+“Send me Helen Darley,” she said, at last.
+
+The old Doctor told them, that, if possible, they must indulge this
+fancy of hers. The caprices of sick people were never to be despised,
+least of all of such persons as Elsie, when rendered irritable and
+exacting by pain and weakness.
+
+So a message was sent to Mr. Silas Peckham at the Apollinean Institute,
+to know if he could not spare Miss Helen Darley for a few days, if
+required, to give her attention to a young lady who attended his school
+and who was now lying ill,--no other person than the daughter of Dudley
+Venner.
+
+A mean man never agrees to anything without deliberately turning it
+over, so that he may see its dirty side, and, if he can, sweating the
+coin he pays for it. If an archangel should offer to save his soul for
+sixpence, he would try to find a sixpence with a hole in it. A gentleman
+says yes to a great many things without stopping to think: a shabby
+fellow is known by his caution in answering questions, for fear of,
+compromising his pocket or himself.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham looked very grave at the request. The dooties of Miss
+Darley at the Institoot were important, very important. He paid her
+large sums of money for her time,--more than she could expect to get in
+any other institootion for the edoocation of female youth. A deduction
+from her selary would be necessary, in case she should retire from the
+sphere of her dooties for a season. He should be put to extry expense,
+and have to perform additional labors himself. He would consider of the
+matter. If any arrangement could be made, he would send word to Squire
+Venner's folks.
+
+“Miss Darley,” said Silas Peckham, “the' 's a message from Squire
+Venner's that his daughter wants you down at the mansion-house to see
+her. She's got a fever, so they inform me. If it's any kind of ketchin'
+fever, of course you won't think of goin' near the mansion-house. If
+Doctor Kittredge says it's safe, perfec'ly safe, I can't object to your
+goin', on sech conditions as seem to be fair to all' concerned. You will
+give up your pay for the whole time you are absent,--portions of days to
+be caounted as whole days. You will be charged with board the same as
+if you eat your victuals with the household. The victuals are of no use
+after they're cooked but to be eat, and your bein' away is no savin' to
+our folks. I shall charge you a reasonable compensation for the demage
+to the school by the absence of a teacher. If Miss Crabs undertakes any
+dooties belongin' to your department of instruction, she will look to
+you for sech pecooniary considerations as you may agree upon between
+you. On these conditions I am willin' to give my consent to your
+temporary absence from the post of dooty. I will step down to Doctor
+Kittredge's myself, and make inquiries as to the natur' of the
+complaint.”
+
+Mr. Peckham took up a rusty and very narrow-brimmed hat, which he cocked
+upon one side of his head, with an air peculiar to the rural gentry. It
+was the hour when the Doctor expected to be in his office, unless he had
+some special call which kept him from home.
+
+He found the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather just taking leave of the
+Doctor. His hand was on the pit of his stomach, and his countenance was
+expressive of inward uneasiness.
+
+“Shake it before using,” said the Doctor; “and the sooner you make up
+your mind to speak right out, the better it will be for your digestion.”
+
+“Oh, Mr. Peckham! Walk in, Mr. Peckham! Nobody sick up at the school, I
+hope?”
+
+“The haalth of the school is fust-rate,” replied Mr. Peckham. “The
+sitooation is uncommonly favorable to saloobrity.” (These last words
+were from the Annual Report of the past year.) “Providence has spared
+our female youth in a remarkable measure. I've come with reference to
+another consideration. Dr. Kittredge, is there any ketchin' complaint
+goin' about in the village?”
+
+“Well, yes,” said the Doctor, “I should say there was something of that
+sort. Measles. Mumps. And Sin,--that's always catching.”
+
+The old Doctor's eye twinkled; once in a while he had his little touch
+of humor.
+
+Silas Peckham slanted his eye up suspiciously at the Doctor, as if he
+was getting some kind of advantage over him. That is the way people of
+his constitution are apt to take a bit of pleasantry.
+
+“I don't mean sech things, Doctor; I mean fevers. Is there any ketchin'
+fevers--bilious, or nervous, or typus, or whatever you call 'em--now
+goin' round this village? That's what I want to ascertain, if there's no
+impropriety.”
+
+The old Doctor looked at Silas through his spectacles.
+
+“Hard and sour as a green cider-apple,” he thought to himself. “No,”; he
+said,--“I don't know any such cases.”
+
+“What's the matter with Elsie Venner?” asked Silas, sharply, as if he
+expected to have him this time.
+
+“A mild feverish attack, I should call it in anybody else; but she has
+a peculiar constitution, and I never feel so safe about her as I should
+about most people.”
+
+“Anything ketchin' about it?” Silas asked, cunningly.
+
+“No, indeed!” said the Doctor,--“catching? no,--what put that into your
+head, Mr. Peckham?”
+
+“Well, Doctor,” the conscientious Principal answered, “I naterally feel
+a graat responsibility, a very graaat responsibility, for the noomerous
+and lovely young ladies committed to my charge. It has been a question,
+whether one of my assistants should go, accordin' to request, to stop
+with Miss Venner for a season. Nothin' restrains my givin' my full and
+free consent to her goin' but the fear lest contagious maladies should
+be introdooced among those lovely female youth. I shall abide by your
+opinion,--I understan' you to say distinc'ly, her complaint is not
+ketchin'?--and urge upon Miss Darley to fulfil her dooties to a
+sufferin' fellow-creature at any cost to myself and my establishment. We
+shall miss her very much; but it is a good cause, and she shall go,--and
+I shall trust that Providence will enable us to spare her without
+permanent demage to the interests of the Institootion.”
+
+Saying this, the excellent Principal departed, with his rusty
+narrow-brimmed hat leaning over, as if it had a six-knot breeze abeam,
+and its gunwale (so to speak) was dipping into his coat-collar. He
+announced the result of his inquiries to Helen, who had received a brief
+note in the mean time from a poor relation of Elsie's mother, then at
+the mansion-house, informing her of the critical situation of Elsie
+and of her urgent desire that Helen should be with her. She could not
+hesitate. She blushed as she thought of the comments that might be made;
+but what were such considerations in a matter of life and death? She
+could not stop to make terms with Silas Peckham. She must go. He might
+fleece her, if he would; she would not complain,--not even to Bernard,
+who, she knew, would bring the Principal to terms, if she gave the least
+hint of his intended extortions.
+
+So Helen made up her bundle of clothes to be sent after her, took a book
+or two with her to help her pass the time, and departed for the Dudley
+mansion. It was with a great inward effort that she undertook the
+sisterly task which was thus forced upon her. She had a kind of terror
+of Elsie; and the thought of having charge of her, of being alone with
+her, of coming under the full influence of those diamond eyes,--if,
+indeed, their light were not dimmed by suffering and weariness,--was one
+she shrank from. But what could she do? It might be a turning-point in
+the life of the poor girl; and she must overcome all her fears, all her
+repugnance, and go to her rescue.
+
+“Is Helen come?” said Elsie, when she heard, with her fine sense
+quickened by the irritability of sickness, a light footfall on the
+stair, with a cadence unlike that of any inmate of the house.
+
+“It's a strange woman's step,” said Old Sophy, who, with her exclusive
+love for Elsie, was naturally disposed to jealousy of a new-comer. “Let
+Ol' Sophy set at 'th' foot o' th' bed, if th' young missis sets by th'
+piller,--won' y', darlin'? The' 's nobody that's white can love y'
+as th' of black woman does;--don' sen' her away, now, there 's a dear
+soul!”
+
+Elsie motioned her to sit in the place she had pointed to, and Helen at
+that moment entered the room. Dudley Venner followed her.
+
+“She is your patient,” he said, “except while the Doctor is here. She
+has been longing to have you with her, and we shall expect you to make
+her well in a few days.”
+
+So Helen Darley found herself established in the most unexpected manner
+as an inmate of the Dudley mansion. She sat with Elsie most of the
+time, by day and by night, soothing her, and trying to enter into her
+confidence and affections, if it should prove that this strange creature
+was really capable of truly sympathetic emotions.
+
+What was this unexplained something which came between her soul and
+that of every other human being with whom she was in relations? Helen
+perceived, or rather felt, that she had, folded up in the depths of
+her being, a true womanly nature. Through the cloud that darkened her
+aspect, now and then a ray would steal forth, which, like the smile of
+stern and solemn people, was all the more impressive from its contrast
+with the expression she wore habitually. It might well be that pain and
+fatigue had changed her aspect; but, at any rate, Helen looked into
+her eyes without that nervous agitation which their cold glitter had
+produced on her when they were full of their natural light. She felt
+sure that her mother must have been a lovely, gentle woman. There were
+gleams of a beautiful nature shining through some ill-defined medium
+which disturbed and made them flicker and waver, as distant images do
+when seen through the rippling upward currents of heated air. She loved,
+in her own way, the old black woman, and seemed to keep up a kind of
+silent communication with her, as if they did not require the use of
+speech. She appeared to be tranquillized by the presence of Helen, and
+loved to have her seated at the bedside. Yet something, whatever it was,
+prevented her from opening her heart to her kind companion; and even now
+there were times when she would lie looking at her, with such a still,
+watchful, almost dangerous expression, that Helen would sigh, and change
+her place, as persons do whose breath some cunning orator had been
+sucking out of them with his spongy eloquence, so that, when he stops,
+they must get some air and stir about, or they feel as if they should be
+half smothered and palsied.
+
+It was too much to keep guessing what was the meaning of all this. Helen
+determined to ask Old Sophy some questions which might probably throw
+light upon her doubts. She took the opportunity one evening when Elsie
+was lying asleep and they were both sitting at some distance from her
+bed.
+
+“Tell me, Sophy,” she said, “was Elsie always as shy as she seems to be
+now, in talking with those to whom she is friendly?”
+
+“Alway jes' so, Miss Darlin', ever sense she was little chil'. When she
+was five, six year old, she lisp some,--call me Thophy; that make her
+kin' o' 'shamed, perhaps: after she grow up, she never lisp, but she
+kin' o' got the way o' not talkin' much. Fac' is, she don' like talkin'
+as common gals do, 'xcep' jes' once in a while wi' some partic'lar
+folks,--'n' then not much.”
+
+“How old is Elsie?”
+
+“Eighteen year this las' September.”
+
+“How long ago did her mother die?” Helen asked, with a little trembling
+in her voice.
+
+“Eighteen year ago this October,” said Old Sophy.
+
+Helen was silent for a moment. Then she whispered, almost
+inaudibly,--for her voice appeared to fail her,
+
+“What did her mother die of, Sophy?”
+
+The old woman's small eyes dilated until a ring of white showed round
+their beady centres. She caught Helen by the hand and clung to it, as if
+in fear. She looked round at Elsie, who lay sleeping, as of she might be
+listening. Then she drew Helen towards her and led her softly out of the
+room.
+
+“'Sh!--'sh!” she said, as soon as they were outside the door. “Don'
+never speak in this house 'bout what Elsie's mother died of!” she said.
+“Nobody never says nothin' 'bout it. Oh, God has made Ugly Things wi'
+death in their mouths, Miss Darlin', an' He knows what they're for; but
+my poor Elsie!--to have her blood changed in her before--It was in July
+Mistress got her death, but she liv' till three week after my poor Elsie
+was born.”
+
+She could speak no more. She had said enough. Helen remembered the
+stories she had heard on coming to the village, and among them one
+referred to in an early chapter of this narrative. All the unaccountable
+looks and tastes and ways of Elsie came back to her in the light of an
+ante-natal impression which had mingled an alien element in her nature.
+She knew the secret of the fascination which looked out of her cold,
+glittering eyes. She knew the significance of the strange repulsion
+which she felt in her own intimate consciousness underlying the
+inexplicable attraction which drew her towards the young girl in
+spite of this repugnance. She began to look with new feelings on the
+contradictions in her moral nature,--the longing for sympathy, as shown
+by her wishing for Helen's company, and the impossibility of passing
+beyond the cold circle of isolation within which she had her being.
+The fearful truth of that instinctive feeling of hers, that there was
+something not human looking out of Elsie's eyes, came upon her with
+a sudden flash of penetrating conviction. There were two warring
+principles in that superb organization and proud soul. One made her a
+woman, with all a woman's powers and longings. The other chilled all the
+currents of outlet for her emotions. It made her tearless and mute, when
+another woman would have wept and pleaded. And it infused into her
+soul something--it was cruel now to call it malice--which was still and
+watchful and dangerous, which waited its opportunity, and then shot like
+an arrow from its bow out of the coil of brooding premeditation. Even
+those who had never seen the white scars on Dick Venner's wrist,
+or heard the half-told story of her supposed attempt to do a graver
+mischief, knew well enough by looking at her that she was one of
+the creatures not to be tampered with,--silent in anger and swift in
+vengeance.
+
+Helen could not return to the bedside at once after this communication.
+It was with altered eyes that she must look on the poor girl, the victim
+of such an unheard-of fatality. All was explained to her now. But it
+opened such depths of solemn thought in her awakened consciousness, that
+it seemed as if the whole mystery of human life were coming up again
+before her for trial and judgment. “Oh,” she thought, “if, while the
+will lies sealed in its fountain, it may be poisoned at its very source,
+so that it shall flow dark and deadly through its whole course, who are
+we that we should judge our fellow-creatures by ourselves?” Then came
+the terrible question, how far the elements themselves are capable
+of perverting the moral nature: if valor, and justice, and truth, the
+strength of man and the virtue of woman, may not be poisoned out of a
+race by the food of the Australian in his forest, by the foul air and
+darkness of the Christians cooped up in the “tenement-houses” close by
+those who live in the palaces of the great cities?
+
+She walked out into the garden, lost in thought upon these dark and deep
+matters. Presently she heard a step behind her, and Elsie's father came
+up and joined her. Since his introduction to Helen at the distinguished
+tea-party given by the Widow Rowens, and before her coming to sit with
+Elsie, Mr. Dudley Venner had in the most accidental way in the world
+met her on several occasions: once after church, when she happened to be
+caught in a slight shower and he insisted on holding his umbrella
+over her on her way home;--once at a small party at one of the
+mansion-houses, where the quick-eyed lady of the house had a wonderful
+knack of bringing people together who liked to see each other;--perhaps
+at other times and places; but of this there is no certain evidence.
+
+They naturally spoke of Elsie, her illness, and the aspect it had taken.
+But Helen noticed in all that Dudley Venner said about his daughter a
+morbid sensitiveness, as it seemed to her, an aversion to saying much
+about her physical condition or her peculiarities,--a wish to feel
+and speak as a parent should, and yet a shrinking, as if there were
+something about Elsie which he could not bear to dwell upon. She thought
+she saw through all this, and she could interpret it all charitably.
+There were circumstances about his daughter which recalled the great
+sorrow of his life; it was not strange that this perpetual reminder
+should in some degree have modified his feelings as a father. But what
+a life he must have been leading for so many years, with this perpetual
+source of distress which he could not name! Helen knew well enough, now,
+the meaning of the sadness which had left such traces in his features
+and tones, and it made her feel very kindly and compassionate towards
+him.
+
+So they walked over the crackling leaves in the garden, between the
+lines of box breathing its fragrance of eternity;--for this is one of
+the odors which carry us out of time into the abysses of the unbeginning
+past; if we ever lived on another ball of stone than this, it must be
+that there was box growing on it. So they walked, finding their way
+softly to each other's sorrows and sympathies, each matching some
+counterpart to the other's experience of life, and startled to see how
+the different, yet parallel, lessons they had been taught by suffering
+had led them step by step to the same serene acquiescence in the
+orderings of that Supreme Wisdom which they both devoutly recognized.
+
+Old Sophy was at the window and saw them walking up and down the
+garden-alleys. She watched them as her grandfather the savage watched
+the figures that moved among the trees when a hostile tribe was lurking
+about his mountain.
+
+“There'll be a weddin' in the ol house,” she said, “before there's roses
+on them bushes ag'in. But it won' be my poor Elsie's weddin', 'n' ol'
+Sophy won' be there.”
+
+When Helen prayed in the silence of her soul that evening, it was not
+that Elsie's life might be spared. She dared not ask that as a favor of
+Heaven. What could life be to her but a perpetual anguish, and to those
+about her but an ever-present terror? Might she but be so influenced
+by divine grace, that what in her was most truly human, most purely
+woman-like, should overcome the dark, cold, unmentionable instinct which
+had pervaded her being like a subtile poison that was all she could ask,
+and the rest she left to a higher wisdom and tenderer love than her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. THE WHITE ASH.
+
+When Helen returned to Elsie's bedside, it was with a new and still
+deeper feeling of sympathy, such as the story told by Old Sophy might
+well awaken. She understood, as never before, the singular fascination
+and as singular repulsion which she had long felt in Elsie's presence.
+It had not been without a great effort that she had forced herself to
+become the almost constant attendant of the sick girl; and now she was
+learning, but not for the first time, the blessed truth which so many
+good women have found out for themselves, that the hardest duty bravely
+performed soon becomes a habit, and tends in due time to transform
+itself into a pleasure.
+
+The old Doctor was beginning to look graver, in spite of himself. The
+fever, if such it was, went gently forward, wasting the young girl's
+powers of resistance from day to day; yet she showed no disposition
+to take nourishment, and seemed literally to be living on air. It was
+remarkable that with all this her look was almost natural, and her
+features were hardly sharpened so as to suggest that her life was
+burning away. He did not like this, nor various other unobtrusive signs
+of danger which his practised eye detected. A very small matter might
+turn the balance which held life and death poised against each other.
+He surrounded her with precautions, that Nature might have every
+opportunity of cunningly shifting the weights from the scale of death
+to the scale of life, as she will often do if not rudely disturbed or
+interfered with.
+
+Little tokens of good-will and kind remembrance were constantly coming
+to her from the girls in the school and the good people in the village.
+Some of the mansion-house people obtained rare flowers which they sent
+her, and her table was covered with fruits which tempted her in vain.
+Several of the school-girls wished to make her a basket of their own
+handiwork, and, filling it with autumnal flowers, to send it as a joint
+offering. Mr. Bernard found out their project accidentally, and, wishing
+to have his share in it, brought home from one of his long walks some
+boughs full of variously tinted leaves, such as were still clinging
+to the stricken trees. With these he brought also some of the already
+fallen leaflets of the white ash, remarkable for their rich olive-purple
+color, forming a beautiful contrast with some of the lighter-hued
+leaves. It so happened that this particular tree, the white ash, did
+not grow upon The Mountain, and the leaflets were more welcome for their
+comparative rarity. So the girls made their basket, and the floor of it
+they covered with the rich olive-purple leaflets. Such late flowers as
+they could lay their hands upon served to fill it, and with many kindly
+messages they sent it to Miss Elsie Venner at the Dudley mansion-house.
+
+Elsie was sitting up in her bed when it came, languid, but tranquil, and
+Helen was by her, as usual, holding her hand, which was strangely cold,
+Helen thought, for one who was said to have some kind of fever. The
+school-girls' basket was brought in with its messages of love and hopes
+for speedy recovery. Old Sophy was delighted to see that it pleased
+Elsie, and laid it on the bed before her. Elsie began looking at the
+flowers, and taking them from the basket, that she might see the leaves.
+All at once she appeared to be agitated; she looked at the basket, then
+around, as if there were some fearful presence about her which she was
+searching for with her eager glances. She took out the flowers, one
+by one, her breathing growing hurried, her eyes staring, her hands
+trembling,--till, as she came near the bottom of the basket, she flung
+out all the rest with a hasty movement, looked upon the olive-purple
+leaflets as if paralyzed for a moment, shrunk up, as it were, into
+herself in a curdling terror, dashed the basket from her, and fell back
+senseless, with a faint cry which chilled the blood of the startled
+listeners at her bedside.
+
+“Take it away!--take it away!--quick!” said Old Sophy, as she hastened
+to her mistress's pillow. “It 's the leaves of the tree that was always
+death to her,--take it away! She can't live wi' it in the room!”
+
+The poor old woman began chafing Elsie's hands, and Helen to try to
+rouse her with hartshorn, while a third frightened attendant gathered
+up the flowers and the basket and carried them out of the apartment, She
+came to herself after a time, but exhausted and then wandering. In
+her delirium she talked constantly as if she were in a cave, with such
+exactness of circumstance that Helen could not doubt at all that she had
+some such retreat among the rocks of The Mountain, probably fitted up
+in her own fantastic way, where she sometimes hid herself from all human
+eyes, and of the entrance to which she alone possessed the secret.
+
+All this passed away, and left her, of course, weaker than before. But
+this was not the only influence the unexplained paroxysm had left behind
+it. From this time forward there was a change in her whole expression
+and her manner. The shadows ceased flitting over her features, and the
+old woman, who watched her from day to day and from hour to hour as a
+mother watches her child, saw the likeness she bore to her mother coming
+forth more and more, as the cold glitter died out of the diamond eyes,
+and the stormy scowl disappeared from the dark brows and low forehead.
+
+With all the kindness and indulgence her father had bestowed upon her,
+Elsie had never felt that he loved her. The reader knows well enough
+what fatal recollections and associations had frozen up the springs of
+natural affection in his breast. There was nothing in the world he would
+not do for Elsie. He had sacrificed his whole life to her. His very
+seeming carelessness about restraining her was all calculated; he knew
+that restraint would produce nothing but utter alienation. Just so
+far as she allowed him, he shared her studies, her few pleasures, her
+thoughts; but she was essentially solitary and uncommunicative. No
+person, as was said long ago, could judge him, because his task was not
+merely difficult, but simply impracticable to human powers. A nature
+like Elsie's had necessarily to be studied by itself, and to be followed
+in its laws where it could not be led.
+
+Every day, at different hours, during the whole of his daughter's
+illness, Dudley Venner had sat by her, doing all he could to soothe and
+please her. Always the same thin film of some emotional non-conductor
+between them; always that kind of habitual regard and family-interest,
+mingled with the deepest pity on one side and a sort of respect on the
+other, which never warmed into outward evidences of affection.
+
+It was after this occasion, when she had been so profoundly agitated
+by a seemingly insignificant cause, that her father and Old Sophy were
+sitting, one at one side of her bed and one at the other. She had fallen
+into a light slumber. As they were looking at her, the same thought came
+into both their minds at the same moment. Old Sophy spoke for both, as
+she said, in a low voice,
+
+“It 's her mother's look,--it 's her mother's own face right over
+again,--she never look' so before, the Lord's hand is on her! His will
+be done!”
+
+When Elsie woke and lifted her languid eyes upon her father's face, she
+saw in it a tenderness, a depth of affection, such as she remembered
+at rare moments of her childhood, when she had won him to her by some
+unusual gleam of sunshine in her fitful temper.
+
+“Elsie, dear,” he said, “we were thinking how much your expression was
+sometimes like that of your sweet mother. If you could but have seen
+her, so as to remember her!”
+
+The tender look and tone, the yearning of the daughter's heart for the
+mother she had never seen, save only with the unfixed, undistinguishing
+eyes of earliest infancy, perhaps the under-thought that she might soon
+rejoin her in another state of being,--all came upon her with a sudden
+overflow of feeling which broke through all the barriers between her
+heart and her eyes, and Elsie wept. It seemed to her father as if the
+malign influence--evil spirit it might almost be called--which had
+pervaded her being, had at last been driven forth or exorcised, and that
+these tears were at once the sign and the pledge of her redeemed nature.
+But now she was to be soothed, and not excited. After her tears she
+slept again, and the look her face wore was peaceful as never before.
+
+Old Sophy met the Doctor at the door and told him all the circumstances
+connected with the extraordinary attack from which Elsie had suffered.
+It was the purple leaves, she said. She remembered that Dick once
+brought home a branch of a tree with some of the same leaves on it, and
+Elsie screamed and almost fainted then. She, Sophy, had asked her, after
+she had got quiet, what it was in the leaves that made her feel so bad.
+Elsie could n't tell her,--did n't like to speak about it,--shuddered
+whenever Sophy mentioned it.
+
+This did not sound so strangely to the old Doctor as it does to some
+who listen to his narrative. He had known some curious examples of
+antipathies, and remembered reading of others still more singular.
+He had known those who could not bear the presence of a cat, and
+recollected the story, often told, of a person's hiding one in a chest
+when one of these sensitive individuals came into the room, so as not
+to disturb him; but he presently began to sweat and turn pale, and cried
+out that there must be a cat hid somewhere. He knew people who were
+poisoned by strawberries, by honey, by different meats, many who could
+not endure cheese,--some who could not bear the smell of roses. If he
+had known all the stories in the old books, he would have found that
+some have swooned and become as dead men at the smell of a rose,--that
+a stout soldier has been known to turn and run at the sight or smell of
+rue,--that cassia and even olive-oil have produced deadly faintings in
+certain individuals,--in short, that almost everything has seemed to be
+a poison to somebody.
+
+“Bring me that basket, Sophy,” said the old Doctor, “if you can find
+it.”
+
+Sophy brought it to him,--for he had not yet entered Elsie's apartment.
+
+“These purple leaves are from the white ash,” he said. “You don't know
+the notion that people commonly have about that tree, Sophy?”
+
+“I know they say the Ugly Things never go where the white ash grows,”
+ Sophy answered. “Oh, Doctor dear, what I'm thinkin' of a'n't true, is
+it?”
+
+The Doctor smiled sadly, but did not answer. He went directly to Elsie's
+room. Nobody would have known by his manner that he saw any special
+change in his patient. He spoke with her as usual, made some slight
+alteration in his prescriptions, and left the room with a kind, cheerful
+look. He met her father on the stairs.
+
+“Is it as I thought?” said Dudley Veneer.
+
+“There is everything to fear,” the Doctor said, “and not much, I am
+afraid, to hope. Does not her face recall to you one that you remember,
+as never before?”
+
+“Yes,” her father answered,--“oh, yes! What is the meaning of this
+change which has come over her features, and her voice, her temper, her
+whole being? Tell me, oh, tell me, what is it? Can it be that the curse
+is passing away, and my daughter is to be restored to me,--such as her
+mother would have had her,--such as her mother was?”
+
+“Walk out with me into the garden,” the Doctor said, “and I will tell
+you all I know and all I think about this great mystery of Elsie's
+life.”
+
+They walked out together, and the Doctor began: “She has lived a double
+being, as it were,--the consequence of the blight which fell upon her
+in the dim period before consciousness. You can see what she might have
+been but for this. You know that for these eighteen years her whole
+existence has taken its character from that influence which we need not
+name. But you will remember that few of the lower forms of life last as
+human beings do; and thus it might have been hoped and trusted with
+some show of reason, as I have always suspected you hoped and trusted,
+perhaps more confidently than myself, that the lower nature which had
+become engrafted on the higher would die out and leave the real woman's
+life she inherited to outlive this accidental principle which had so
+poisoned her childhood and youth. I believe it is so dying out; but I am
+afraid,--yes, I must say it, I fear it has involved the centres of
+life in its own decay. There is hardly any pulse at Elsie's wrist;
+no stimulants seem to rouse her; and it looks as if life were slowly
+retreating inwards, so that by-and-by she will sleep as those who lie
+down in the cold and never wake.”
+
+Strange as it may seem, her father heard all this not without deep
+sorrow, and such marks of it as his thoughtful and tranquil nature,
+long schooled by suffering, claimed or permitted, but with a resignation
+itself the measure of his past trials. Dear as his daughter might become
+to him, all he dared to ask of Heaven was that she might be restored to
+that truer self which lay beneath her false and adventitious being. If
+he could once see that the icy lustre in her eyes had become a soft,
+calm light,--that her soul was at peace with all about her and with Him;
+above,--this crumb from the children's table was enough for him, as it
+was for the Syro-Phoenician woman who asked that the dark spirit might
+go out from her daughter.
+
+There was little change the next day, until all at once she said in a
+clear voice that she should like to see her master at the school,
+Mr. Langdon. He came accordingly, and took the place of Helen at her
+bedside. It seemed as if Elsie had forgotten the last scene with him.
+Might it be that pride had come in, and she had sent for him only to
+show how superior she had grown to the weakness which had betrayed her
+into that extraordinary request, so contrary to the instincts and usages
+of her sex? Or was it that the singular change which had come over her
+had involved her passionate fancy for him and swept it away with her
+other habits of thought and feeling? Or could it be that she felt that
+all earthly interests were becoming of little account to her, and wished
+to place herself right with one to whom she had displayed a wayward
+movement of her unbalanced imagination? She welcomed Mr. Bernard as
+quietly as she had received Helen Darley. He colored at the recollection
+of that last scene, when he came into her presence; but she smiled with
+perfect tranquillity. She did not speak to him of any apprehension; but
+he saw that she looked upon herself as doomed. So friendly, yet so calm
+did she seem through all their interview, that Mr. Bernard could only
+look back upon her manifestation of feeling towards him on their walk
+from the school as a vagary of a mind laboring under some unnatural
+excitement, and wholly at variance with the true character of Elsie
+Venner as he saw her before him in her subdued, yet singular beauty. He
+looked with almost scientific closeness of observation into the diamond
+eyes; but that peculiar light which he knew so well was not there. She
+was the same in one sense as on that first day when he had seen her
+coiling and uncoiling her golden chain; yet how different in every
+aspect which revealed her state of mind and emotion! Something of
+tenderness there was, perhaps, in her tone towards him; she would not
+have sent for him, had she not felt more than an ordinary interest in
+him. But through the whole of his visit she never lost her gracious
+self-possession. The Dudley race might well be proud of the last of
+its daughters, as she lay dying, but unconquered by the feeling of the
+present or the fear of the future.
+
+As for Mr. Bernard, he found it very hard to look upon her, and
+listen to her unmoved. There was nothing that reminded him of the
+stormy--browed, almost savage girl he remembered in her fierce
+loveliness,--nothing of all her singularities of air and of costume.
+Nothing? Yes, one thing. Weak and suffering as she was, she had never
+parted with one particular ornament, such as a sick person would
+naturally, as it might be supposed, get rid of at once. The golden cord
+which she wore round her neck at the great party was still there. A
+bracelet was lying by her pillow; she had unclasped it from her wrist.
+
+Before Mr. Bernard left her, she said,
+
+“I shall never see you again. Some time or other, perhaps, you will
+mention my name to one whom you love. Give her this from your scholar
+and friend Elsie.”
+
+He took the bracelet, raised her hand to his lips, then turned his face
+away; in that moment he was the weaker of the two.
+
+“Good-bye,” she said; “thank you for coming.”
+
+His voice died away in his throat, as he tried to answer her. She
+followed him with her eyes as he passed from her sight through the
+door, and when it closed after him sobbed tremulously once or twice,
+but stilled herself, and met Helen, as she entered, with a composed
+countenance.
+
+“I have had a very pleasant visit from Mr. Langdon,” Elsie said. “Sit
+by me, Helen, awhile without speaking; I should like to sleep, if I
+can,--and to dream.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. THE GOLDEN CORD IS LOOSED.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather, hearing that his parishioner's
+daughter, Elsie, was very ill, could do nothing less than come to the
+mansion-house and tender such consolations as he was master of. It was
+rather remarkable that the old Doctor did not exactly approve of his
+visit. He thought that company of every sort might be injurious in
+her weak state. He was of opinion that Mr. Fairweather, though greatly
+interested in religious matters, was not the most sympathetic person
+that could be found; in fact, the old Doctor thought he was too much
+taken up with his own interests for eternity to give himself quite 'so
+heartily to the need of other people as some persons got up on a rather
+more generous scale (our good neighbor Dr. Honeywood, for instance)
+could do. However, all these things had better be arranged to suit her
+wants; if she would like to talk with a clergyman, she had a great
+deal better see one as often as she liked, and run the risk of the
+excitement, than have a hidden wish for such a visit and perhaps find
+herself too weak to see him by-and-by.
+
+The old Doctor knew by sad experience that dreadful mistake against
+which all medical practitioners should be warned. His experience may
+well be a guide for others. Do not overlook the desire for spiritual
+advice and consolation which patients sometimes feel, and, with the
+frightful mauvaise honte peculiar to Protestantism, alone among all
+human beliefs, are ashamed to tell. As a part of medical treatment, it
+is the physician's business to detect the hidden longing for the food of
+the soul, as much as for any form of bodily nourishment. Especially
+in the higher walks of society, where this unutterably miserable false
+shame of Protestantism acts in proportion to the general acuteness of
+the cultivated sensibilities, let no unwillingness to suggest the sick
+person's real need suffer him to languish between his want and his
+morbid sensitiveness. What an infinite advantage the Mussulmans and the
+Catholics have over many of our more exclusively spiritual sects in the
+way they keep their religion always by them and never blush for it! And
+besides this spiritual longing, we should never forget that
+
+          “On some fond breast the parting soul relies,”
+
+and the minister of religion, in addition to the sympathetic nature
+which we have a right to demand in him, has trained himself to the art
+of entering into the feelings of others.
+
+The reader must pardon this digression, which introduces the visit of
+the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather to Elsie Veneer. It was mentioned
+to her that he would like to call and see how she was, and she
+consented,--not with much apparent interest, for she had reasons of her
+own for not feeling any very deep conviction of his sympathy for persons
+in sorrow. But he came, and worked the conversation round to religion,
+and confused her with his hybrid notions, half made up of what he had
+been believing and teaching all his life, and half of the new doctrines
+which he had veneered upon the surface of his old belief. He got so
+far as to make a prayer with her,--a cool, well-guarded prayer, which
+compromised his faith as little as possible, and which, if devotion were
+a game played against Providence, might have been considered a cautious
+and sagacious move.
+
+When he had gone, Elsie called Old Sophy to her.
+
+“Sophy,” she said, “don't let them send that cold hearted man to me any
+more. If your old minister comes--to see you, I should like to hear him
+talk. He looks as if he cared for everybody, and would care for me. And,
+Sophy, if I should die one of these days, I should like to have that old
+minister come and say whatever is to be said over me. It would comfort
+Dudley more, I know, than to have that hard man here, when you're
+in trouble, for some of you will be sorry when I'm gone,--won't you,
+Sophy?”
+
+The poor old black woman could not stand this question. The cold
+minister had frozen Elsie until she felt as if nobody cared for her or
+would regret her,--and her question had betrayed this momentary feeling.
+
+“Don' talk so! don' talk so, darlin'!” she cried, passionately. “When
+you go, Ol' Sophy'll go; 'n' where you go, Ol' Sophy'll go: 'n' we'll
+both go t' th' place where th' Lord takes care of all his children,
+whether their faces are white or black. Oh, darlin', darlin'! if th'
+Lord should let me die firs', you shall fin' all ready for you when you
+come after me. On'y don' go 'n' leave poor Ol' Sophy all 'lone in th'
+world!”
+
+Helen came in at this moment and quieted the old woman with a look. Such
+scenes were just what were most dangerous, in the state in which Elsie
+was lying: but that is one of the ways in which an affectionate friend
+sometimes unconsciously wears out the life which a hired nurse, thinking
+of nothing but her regular duties and her wages, would have spared from
+all emotional fatigue.
+
+The change which had come over Elsie's disposition was itself the cause
+of new excitements. How was it possible that her father could keep away
+from her, now that she was coming back to the nature and the very look
+of her mother, the bride of his youth? How was it possible to refuse
+her, when she said to Old Sophy, that she should like to have her
+minister come in and sit by her, even though his presence might perhaps
+prove a new source of excitement?
+
+But the Reverend Doctor did come and sit by her, and spoke such soothing
+words to her, words of such peace and consolation, that from that hour
+she was tranquil as never before. All true hearts are alike in the
+hour of need; the Catholic has a reserved fund of faith for his
+fellow-creature's trying moment, and the Calvinist reveals those springs
+of human brotherhood and charity in his soul which are only covered over
+by the iron tables inscribed with the harder dogmas of his creed. It was
+enough that the Reverend Doctor knew all Elsie's history. He could not
+judge her by any formula, like those which have been moulded by past
+ages out of their ignorance. He did not talk with her as if she were an
+outside sinner worse than himself. He found a bruised and languishing
+soul, and bound up its wounds. A blessed office,--one which is confined
+to no sect or creed, but which good men in all times, under various
+names and with varying ministries, to suit the need of each age, of each
+race, of each individual soul, have come forward to discharge for their
+suffering fellow-creatures.
+
+After this there was little change in Elsie, except that her heart beat
+more feebly every day,--so that the old Doctor himself, with all his
+experience, could see nothing to account for the gradual failing of the
+powers of life, and yet could find no remedy which seemed to arrest its
+progress in the smallest degree.
+
+“Be very careful,” he said, “that she is not allowed to make any
+muscular exertion. Any such effort, when a person is so enfeebled, may
+stop the heart in a moment; and if it stops, it will never move again.”
+
+Helen enforced this rule with the greatest care. Elsie was hardly
+allowed to move her hand or to speak above a whisper. It seemed to be
+mainly the question now, whether this trembling flame of life would be
+blown out by some light breath of air, or whether it could be so nursed
+and sheltered by the hollow of these watchful hands that it would have a
+chance to kindle to its natural brightness.
+
+--Her father came in to sit with her in the evening. He had never talked
+so freely with her as during the hour he had passed at her bedside,
+telling her little circumstances of her mother's life, living over with
+her all that was pleasant in the past, and trying to encourage her with
+some cheerful gleams of hope for the future. A faint smile played over
+her face, but she did not answer his encouraging suggestions. The hour
+came for him to leave her with those who watched by her.
+
+“Good-night, my dear child,” he said, and stooping down, kissed her
+cheek.
+
+Elsie rose by a sudden effort, threw her arms round his neck, kissed
+him, and said, “Good-night, my dear father!”
+
+The suddenness of her movement had taken him by surprise, or he would
+have checked so dangerous an effort. It was too late now. Her arms
+slid away from him like lifeless weights,--her head fell back upon her
+pillow,--along sigh breathed through her lips.
+
+“She is faint,” said Helen, doubtfully; “bring me the hartshorn, Sophy.”
+
+The old woman had started from her place, and was now leaning over her,
+looking in her face, and listening for the sound of her breathing.
+
+“She 's dead! Elsie 's dead! My darlin 's dead!” she cried aloud,
+filling the room with her utterance of anguish.
+
+Dudley Venner drew her away and silenced her with a voice of authority,
+while Helen and an assistant plied their restoratives. It was all in
+vain.
+
+The solemn tidings passed from the chamber of death through the family.
+The daughter, the hope of that old and honored house, was dead in the
+freshness of her youth, and the home of its solitary representative was
+hereafter doubly desolate.
+
+A messenger rode hastily out of the avenue. A little after this the
+people of the village and the outlying farm-houses were startled by the
+sound of a bell.
+
+One,--two,--three,--four,
+
+They stopped in every house, as far as the wavering vibrations reached,
+and listened--
+
+five,--six,--seven,--
+
+It was not the little child which had been lying so long at the point of
+death; that could not be more than three or four years old--
+
+eight,--nine,--ten,--and so on to fifteen, sixteen,--seventeen,
+--eighteen--
+
+The pulsations seemed to keep on,--but it was the brain, and not the
+bell, that was throbbing now.
+
+“Elsie 's dead!” was the exclamation at a hundred firesides.
+
+“Eighteen year old,” said old Widow Peake, rising from her chair.
+“Eighteen year ago I laid two gold eagles on her mother's eyes,--he
+wouldn't have anything but gold touch her eyelids,--and now Elsie's to
+be straightened,--the Lord have mercy on her poor sinful soul!”
+
+Dudley Venner prayed that night that he might be forgiven, if he had
+failed in any act of duty or kindness to this unfortunate child of his,
+now freed from all the woes born with her and so long poisoning her
+soul. He thanked God for the brief interval of peace which had been
+granted her, for the sweet communion they had enjoyed in these last
+days, and for the hope of meeting her with that other lost friend in a
+better world.
+
+Helen mingled a few broken thanks and petitions with her tears: thanks
+that she had been permitted to share the last days and hours of this
+poor sister in sorrow; petitions that the grief of bereavement might be
+lightened to the lonely parent and the faithful old servant.
+
+Old Sophy said almost nothing, but sat day and night by her dead
+darling. But sometimes her anguish would find an outlet in strange
+sounds, something between a cry and a musical note,--such as noise had
+ever heard her utter before. These were old remembrances surging up from
+her childish days, coming through her mother from the cannibal chief,
+her grandfather,--death-wails, such as they sing in the mountains of
+Western Africa, when they see the fires on distant hill-sides and know
+that their own wives and children are undergoing the fate of captives.
+
+The time came when Elsie was to be laid by her mother in the small
+square marked by the white stone.
+
+It was not unwillingly that the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had
+relinquished the duty of conducting the service to the Reverend Doctor
+Honeywood, in accordance with Elsie's request. He could not, by any
+reasoning, reconcile his present way of thinking with a hope for the
+future of his unfortunate parishioner. Any good old Roman Catholic
+priest, born and bred to his faith and his business, would have found a
+loophole into some kind of heaven for her, by virtue of his doctrine of
+“invincible ignorance,” or other special proviso; but a recent convert
+cannot enter into the working conditions of his new creed. Beliefs must
+be lived in for a good while, before they accommodate themselves to the
+soul's wants, and wear loose enough to be comfortable.
+
+The Reverend Doctor had no such scruples. Like thousands of those who
+are classed nominally with the despairing believers, he had never prayed
+over a departed brother or sister without feeling and expressing a
+guarded hope that there was mercy in store for the poor sinner, whom
+parents, wives, children, brothers and sisters could not bear to give up
+to utter ruin without a word,--and would not, as he knew full well,
+in virtue of that human love and sympathy which nothing can ever
+extinguish. And in this poor Elsie's history he could read nothing
+which the tears of the recording angel might not wash away. As the good
+physician of the place knew the diseases that assailed the bodies of men
+and women, so he had learned the mysteries of the sickness of the soul.
+
+So many wished to look upon Elsie's face once more, that her father
+would not deny them; nay, he was pleased that those who remembered her
+living should see her in the still beauty of death. Helen and those with
+her arrayed her for this farewell-view. All was ready for the sad or
+curious eyes which were to look upon her. There 'was no painful change
+to be concealed by any artifice. Even her round neck was left uncovered,
+that she might be more like one who slept. Only the golden cord was left
+in its place: some searching eye might detect a trace of that birthmark
+which it was whispered she had always worn a necklace to conceal.
+
+At the last moment, when all the preparations were completed, Old Sophy
+stooped over her, and, with trembling hand, loosed the golden cord. She
+looked intently; for some little space: there was no shade nor blemish
+where the ring of gold had encircled her throat. She took it gently away
+and laid it in the casket which held her ornaments.
+
+“The Lord be praised!” the old woman cried, aloud. “He has taken away
+the mark that was on her; she's fit to meet his holy angels now!”
+
+So Elsie lay for hours in the great room, in a kind of state, with
+flowers all about her,--her black hair braided as in life,--her brows
+smooth, as if they had never known the scowl of passion,--and on her
+lips the faint smile with which she had uttered her last “Good--night.”
+ The young girls from the school looked at her, one after another, and
+passed on, sobbing, carrying in their hearts the picture that would be
+with them all their days. The great people of the place were all there
+with their silent sympathy. The lesser kind of gentry, and many of the
+plainer folk of the village, half-pleased to find themselves passing
+beneath the stately portico of the ancient mansion-house, crowded
+in, until the ample rooms were overflowing. All the friends whose
+acquaintance we have made were there, and many from remoter villages and
+towns.
+
+There was a deep silence at last. The hour had come for the parting
+words to be spoken over the dead. The good old minister's voice rose out
+of the stillness, subdued and tremulous at first, but growing firmer
+and clearer as he went on, until it reached the ears of the visitors who
+were in the far, desolate chambers, looking at the pictured hangings
+and the old dusty portraits. He did not tell her story in his prayer. He
+only spoke of our dear departed sister as one of many whom Providence
+in its wisdom has seen fit to bring under bondage from their cradles. It
+was not for us to judge them by any standard of our own. He who made the
+heart alone knew the infirmities it inherited or acquired. For all that
+our dear sister had presented that was interesting and attractive in her
+character we were to be grateful; for whatever was dark or inexplicable
+we must trust that the deep shadow which rested on the twilight dawn of
+her being might render a reason before the bar of Omniscience; for the
+grace which had lightened her last days we should pour out our hearts
+in thankful acknowledgment. From the life and the death of this our dear
+sister we should learn a lesson of patience with our fellow-creatures in
+their inborn peculiarities, of charity in judging what seem to us wilful
+faults of character, of hope and trust, that, by sickness or affliction,
+or such inevitable discipline as life must always bring with it, if by
+no gentler means, the soul which had been left by Nature to wander into
+the path of error and of suffering might be reclaimed and restored to
+its true aim, and so led on by divine grace to its eternal welfare. He
+closed his prayer by commending each member of the afflicted family to
+the divine blessing.
+
+Then all at once rose the clear sound of the girls' voices, in the
+sweet, sad melody of a funeral hymn,--one of those which Elsie had
+marked, as if prophetically, among her own favorites.
+
+And so they laid her in the earth, and showered down flowers upon her,
+and filled her grave, and covered it with green sods. By the side of it
+was another oblong ridge, with a white stone standing at its head. Mr.
+Bernard looked upon it, as he came close to the place where Elsie was
+laid, and read the inscription,
+
+                         CATALINA
+
+                  WIFE TO DUDLEY VENNER
+
+                          DIED
+                    OCTOBER 13TH 1840
+
+                      AGED XX YEARS
+
+A gentle rain fell on the turf after it was laid. This was the beginning
+of a long and dreary autumnal storm, a deferred “equinoctial,” as many
+considered it. The mountain streams were all swollen and turbulent, and
+the steep declivities were furrowed in every direction by new channels.
+It made the house seem doubly desolate to hear the wind howling and the
+rain beating upon the roofs. The poor relation who was staying at the
+house would insist on Helen's remaining a few days: Old Sophy was in
+such a condition, that it kept her in continual anxiety, and there were
+many cares which Helen could take off from her.
+
+The old black woman's life was buried in her darling's grave. She did
+nothing but moan and lament for her. At night she was restless, and
+would get up and wander to Elsie's apartment and look for her and call
+her by name. At other times she would lie awake and listen to the wind
+and the rain,--sometimes with such a wild look upon her face, and with
+such sudden starts and exclamations, that it seemed as if she heard
+spirit-voices and were answering the whispers of unseen visitants. With
+all this were mingled hints of her old superstition,--forebodings of
+something fearful about to happen,--perhaps the great final catastrophe
+of all things, according to the prediction current in the kitchens of
+Rockland.
+
+“Hark!” Old Sophy would say,--“don' you hear th' crackin' 'n' th'
+snappin' up in Th' Mountain, 'n' th' rollin' o' th' big stones? The' 's
+somethin' stirrin' among th' rocks; I hear th' soun' of it in th' night,
+when th' wind has stopped blowin'. Oh, stay by me a little while, Miss
+Darlin'! stay by me! for it's th' Las' Day, maybe, that's close on us,
+'n' I feel as if I could n' meet th' Lord all alone!”
+
+It was curious,--but Helen did certainly recognize sounds, during
+the lull of the storm, which were not of falling rain or running
+streams,--short snapping sounds, as of tense cords breaking,--long
+uneven sounds, as of masses rolling down steep declivities. But the
+morning came as usual; and as the others said nothing of these singular
+noises, Helen did not think it necessary to speak of them. All day long
+she and the humble relative of Elsie's mother, who had appeared as
+poor relations are wont to in the great prises of life, were busy in
+arranging the disordered house, and looking over the various objects
+which Elsie's singular tastes had brought together, to dispose of them
+as her father might direct. They all met together at the usual hour for
+tea. One of the servants came in, looking very blank, and said to the
+poor relation,
+
+“The well is gone dry; we have nothing but rainwater.”
+
+Dudley Venner's countenance changed; he sprang to, his feet and went
+to--assure himself of the fact, and, if he could, of the reason of it.
+For a well to dry up during such a rain-storm was extraordinary,--it was
+ominous.
+
+He came back, looking very anxious.
+
+“Did any of you notice any remarkable sounds last night,” he said,--“or
+this morning? Hark! do you hear anything now?”
+
+They listened in perfect silence for a few moments. Then there came a
+short cracking sound, and two or three snaps, as of parting cords.
+
+Dudley Venner called all his household together.
+
+“We are in danger here, as I think, to-night,” he said,--“not very great
+danger, perhaps, but it is a risk I do not wish you to run. These heavy
+rains have loosed some of the rocks above, and they may come down and
+endanger the house. Harness the horses, Elbridge, and take all the
+family away. Miss Darley will go to the Institute; the others will pass
+the night at the Mountain House. I shall stay here, myself: it is not
+at all likely that anything will come of these warnings; but if there
+should, I choose to be there and take my chance.”
+
+It needs little, generally, to frighten servants, and they were all
+ready enough to go. The poor relation was one of the timid sort, and was
+terribly uneasy to be got out of the house. This left no alternative, of
+course, for Helen, but to go also. They all urged upon Dudley Veneer to
+go with them: if there was danger, why should he remain to risk it, when
+he sent away the others?
+
+Old Sophy said nothing until the time came for her to go with the second
+of Elbridge's carriage-loads.
+
+“Come, Sophy,” said Dudley Veneer, “get your things and go. They will
+take good care of you at the Mountain House; and when we have made sure
+that there is no real danger, you shall come back at once.”
+
+“No, Masse!” Sophy answered. “I've seen Elsie into th' ground, 'n' I
+a'n't goin' away to come back 'n' fin' Masse Veneer buried under th'
+rocks. My darlin' 's gone; 'n' now, if Masse goes, 'n' th' of place
+goes, it's time for Ol' Sophy to go, too. No, Masse Veneer, we'll both
+stay in th' of mansion 'n' wait for th' Lord!”
+
+Nothing could change the old woman's determination; and her master, who
+only feared, but did not really expect the long-deferred catastrophe,
+was obliged to consent to her staying. The sudden drying of the well at
+such a time was the most alarming sign; for he remembered that the same
+thing had been observed just before great mountain-slides. This long
+rain, too, was just the kind of cause which was likely to loosen the
+strata of rock piled up in the ledges; if the dreaded event should ever
+come to pass, it would be at such a time.
+
+He paced his chamber uneasily until long past midnight. If the morning
+came without accident, he meant to have a careful examination made of
+all the rents and fissures above, of their direction and extent, and
+especially whether, in case of a mountain-slide, the huge masses would
+be like to reach so far to the east and so low down the declivity as the
+mansion.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning he was dozing in his chair. Old Sophy had
+lain down on her bed, and was muttering in troubled dreams.
+
+All at once a loud crash seemed to rend the very heavens above them: a
+crack as of the thunder that follows close upon the bolt,--a rending and
+crashing as of a forest snapped through all its stems, torn, twisted,
+splintered, dragged with all its ragged boughs into one chaotic ruin.
+The ground trembled under them as in an earthquake; the old mansion
+shuddered so that all its windows chattered in their casements; the
+great chimney shook off its heavy cap-stones, which came down on the
+roof with resounding concussions; and the echoes of The Mountain roared
+and bellowed in long reduplication, as if its whole foundations were
+rent, and this were the terrible voice of its dissolution.
+
+Dudley Venner rose from his chair, folded his arms, and awaited his
+fate. There was no knowing where to look for safety; and he remembered
+too well the story of the family that was lost by rushing out of the
+house, and so hurrying into the very jaws of death.
+
+He had stood thus but for a moment, when he heard the voice of Old Sophy
+in a wild cry of terror:
+
+“It's th' Las' Day! It's th' Las' Day! The Lord is comin' to take us
+all!”
+
+“Sophy!” he called; but she did not hear him or heed him, and rushed out
+of the house.
+
+The worst danger was over. If they were to be destroyed, it would
+necessarily be in a few seconds from the first thrill of the terrible
+convulsion. He waited in awful suspense, but calm. Not more than one or
+two minutes could have passed before the frightful tumult and all its
+sounding echoes had ceased. He called Old Sophy; but she did not answer.
+He went to the western window and looked forth into the darkness. He
+could not distinguish the outlines of the landscape, but the white stone
+was clearly visible, and by its side the new-made mound. Nay, what was
+that which obscured its outline, in shape like a human figure? He flung
+open the window and sprang through. It was all that there was left of
+poor Old Sophy, stretched out lifeless, upon her darling's grave.
+
+He had scarcely composed her limbs and drawn the sheet over her, when
+the neighbors began to arrive from all directions. Each was expecting
+to hear of houses overwhelmed and families destroyed; but each came with
+the story that his own household was safe. It was not until the morning
+dawned that the true nature and extent of the sudden movement was
+ascertained. A great seam had opened above the long cliff, and the
+terrible Rattlesnake Ledge, with all its envenomed reptiles, its
+dark fissures and black caverns, was buried forever beneath a mighty
+incumbent mass of ruin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. MR. SILAS PECKHAM RENDERS HIS ACCOUNT.
+
+The morning rose clear and bright. The long storm was over, and the calm
+autumnal sunshine was now to return, with all its infinite repose and
+sweetness. With the earliest dawn exploring parties were out in every
+direction along the southern slope of The Mountain, tracing the ravages
+of the great slide and the track it had followed. It proved to be not
+so much a slide as the breaking off and falling of a vast line of cliff,
+including the dreaded Ledge. It had folded over like the leaves of a
+half-opened book when they close, crushing the trees below, piling its
+ruins in a glacis at the foot of what had been the overhanging wall of
+the cliff, and filling up that deep cavity above the mansion-house which
+bore the ill-omened name of Dead Man's Hollow. This it was which had
+saved the Dudley mansion. The falling masses, or huge fragments
+breaking off from them, would have swept the house and all around it to
+destruction but for this deep shelving dell, into which the stream of
+ruin was happily directed. It was, indeed, one of Nature's conservative
+revolutions; for the fallen masses made a kind oz shelf, which
+interposed a level break between the inclined planes above and below it,
+so that the nightmare-fancies of the dwellers in the Dudley mansion, and
+in many other residences under the shadow of The Mountain, need not keep
+them lying awake hereafter to listen for the snapping of roots and the
+splitting of the rocks above them.
+
+Twenty-four hours after the falling of the cliff, it seemed as if it had
+happened ages ago. The new fact had fitted itself in with all the old
+predictions, forebodings, fears, and acquired the solidarity belonging
+to all events which have slipped out of the fingers of Time and
+dissolved in the antecedent eternity.
+
+Old Sophy was lying dead in the Dudley mansion. If there were tears shed
+for her, they could not be bitter ones; for she had lived out her full
+measure of days, and gone--who could help fondly believing it?--to
+rejoin her beloved mistress. They made a place for her at the foot of
+the two mounds. It was thus she would have chosen to sleep, and not to
+have wronged her humble devotion in life by asking to lie at the side
+of those whom she had served so long and faithfully. There were very few
+present at the simple ceremony. Helen Darley was one of these few. The
+old black woman had been her companion in all the kind offices of which
+she had been the ministering angel to Elsie.
+
+After it was all over, Helen was leaving with the rest, when Dudley
+Veneer begged her to stay a little, and he would send her back: it was
+a long walk; besides, he wished to say some things to her, which he had
+not had the opportunity of speaking. Of course Helen could not refuse
+him; there must be many thoughts coming into his mind which he would
+wish to share with her who had known his daughter so long and been with
+filer in her last days.
+
+She returned into the great parlor with the wrought cornices and the
+medallion-portraits on the ceiling.
+
+“I am now alone in the world,” Dudley Veneer said.
+
+Helen must have known that before he spoke. But the tone in which he
+said it had so much meaning, that she could not find a word to answer
+him with. They sat in silence, which the old tall clock counted out in
+long seconds; but it was silence which meant more than any words they
+had ever spoken.
+
+“Alone in the world. Helen, the freshness of my life is gone, and there
+is little left of the few graces which in my younger days might have
+fitted me to win the love of women. Listen to me,--kindly, if you can;
+forgive me, at least. Half my life has been passed in constant fear and
+anguish, without any near friend to share my trials. My task is done
+now; my fears have ceased to prey upon me; the sharpness of early
+sorrows has yielded something of its edge to time. You have bound me
+to you by gratitude in the tender care you have taken of my poor child.
+More than this. I must tell you all now, out of the depth of this
+trouble through which I am passing. I have loved you from the moment
+we first met; and if my life has anything left worth accepting, it is
+yours. Will you take the offered gift?”
+
+Helen looked in his face, surprised, bewildered.
+
+“This is not for me,--not for me,” she said. “I am but a poor faded
+flower, not worth the gathering, of such a one as you. No, no,--I have
+been bred to humble toil all my days, and I could not be to you what
+you ought to ask. I am accustomed to a kind of loneliness and
+self-dependence. I have seen nothing, almost, of the world, such as you
+were born to move in. Leave me to my obscure place and duties; I shall
+at least have peace;--and you--you will surely find in due time some one
+better fitted by Nature and training to make you happy.”
+
+“No, Miss Darley!” Dudley Venner said, almost sternly. “You must not
+speak to a man, who has lived through my experiences, of looking about
+for a new choice after his heart has once chosen. Say that you can never
+love me; say that I have lived too long to share your young life; say
+that sorrow has left nothing in me for Love to find his pleasure in; but
+do not mock me with the hope of a new affection for some unknown object.
+The first look of yours brought me to your side. The first tone of your
+voice sunk into my heart. From this moment my life must wither out or
+bloom anew. My home is desolate. Come under my roof and make it bright
+once more,--share my life with me,--or I shall give the halls of the old
+mansion to the bats and the owls, and wander forth alone without a hope
+or a friend!”
+
+To find herself with a man's future at the disposal of a single word of
+hers!--a man like this, too, with a fascination for her against which
+she had tried to shut her heart, feeling that he lived in another sphere
+than hers, working as she was for her bread a poor operative in the
+factory of a hard master and jealous overseer, the salaried drudge of
+Mr. Silas Peckham! Why, she had thought he was grateful to her as a
+friend of his daughter; she had even pleased herself with the feeling
+that he liked her, in her humble place, as a woman of some cultivation
+and many sympathetic points of relation with himself; but that he loved
+her,--that this deep, fine nature, in a man so far removed from her in
+outward circumstance, should have found its counterpart in one whom life
+had treated so coldly as herself,--that Dudley Venner should stake
+his happiness on a breath of hers,--poor Helen Darley's,--it was all a
+surprise, a confusion, a kind of fear not wholly fearful. Ah, me! women
+know what it is, that mist over the eyes, that trembling in the
+limbs, that faltering of the voice, that sweet, shame-faced, unspoken
+confession of weakness which does not wish to be strong, that sudden
+overflow in the soul where thoughts loose their hold on each other and
+swim single and helpless in the flood of emotion,--women know what it
+is!
+
+No doubt she was a little frightened and a good deal bewildered, and
+that her sympathies were warmly excited for a friend to whom she had
+been brought so near, and whose loneliness she saw and pitied. She lost
+that calm self-possession she had hoped to maintain.
+
+“If I thought that I could make you happy,--if I should speak from my
+heart, and not my reason,--I am but a weak woman,--yet if I can be to
+you--What can I say?”
+
+What more could this poor, dear Helen say?
+
+“Elbridge, harness the horses and take Miss Darley back to the school.”
+
+What conversation had taken place since Helen's rhetorical failure is
+not recorded in the minutes from which this narrative is constructed.
+But when the man who had been summoned had gone to get the carriage
+ready, Helen resumed something she had been speaking of.
+
+“Not for the world. Everything must go on just as it has gone on, for
+the present. There are proprieties to be consulted. I cannot be hard
+with you, that out of your very affliction has sprung this--this
+well--you must name it for me,--but the world will never listen to
+explanations. I am to be Helen Darley, lady assistant in Mr. Silas
+Peckham's school, as long as I see fit to hold my office. And I mean to
+attend to my scholars just as before; so that I shall have very little
+time for visiting or seeing company. I believe, though, you are one of
+the Trustees and a Member of the Examining Committee; so that, if you
+should happen to visit the school, I shall try to be civil to you.”
+
+Every lady sees, of course, that Helen was quite right; but perhaps here
+and there one will think that Dudley Venner was all wrong,--that he was
+too hasty,--that he should have been too full of his recent grief for
+such a confession as he has just made, and the passion from which it
+sprung. Perhaps they do not understand the sudden recoil of a strong
+nature long compressed. Perhaps they have not studied the mystery
+of allotropism in the emotions of the human heart. Go to the nearest
+chemist and ask him to show you some of the dark-red phosphorus which
+will not burn without fierce heating, but at 500 deg. Fahrenheit,
+changes back again to the inflammable substance we know so well. Grief
+seems more like ashes than like fire; but as grief has been love once,
+so it may become love again. This is emotional allotropism.
+
+Helen rode back to the Institute and inquired for Mr. Peckham. She had
+not seen him during the brief interval between her departure from the
+mansion-house and her return to Old Sophy's funeral. There were various
+questions about the school she wished to ask.
+
+“Oh, how's your haalth, Miss Darley?” Silas began. “We've missed you
+consid'able. Glad to see you back at the post of dooty. Hope the Squire
+treated you hahnsomely,--liberal pecooniary compensation,--hey? A'n't
+much of a loser, I guess, by acceptin' his propositions?”
+
+Helen blushed at this last question, as if Silas had meant something by
+it beyond asking what money she had received; but his own double-meaning
+expression and her blush were too nice points for him to have taken
+cognizance of. He was engaged in a mental calculation as to the amount
+of the deduction he should make under the head of “demage to the
+institootion,”--this depending somewhat on that of the “pecooniary
+compensation” she might have received for her services as the friend of
+Elsie Venner.
+
+So Helen slid back at once into her routine, the same faithful, patient
+creature she had always been. But what was this new light which seemed
+to have kindled in her eyes? What was this look of peace, which nothing
+could disturb, which smiled serenely through all the little meannesses
+with which the daily life of the educational factory surrounded her,
+which not only made her seem resigned, but overflowed all her features
+with a thoughtful, subdued happiness? Mr. Bernard did not know,--perhaps
+he did not guess. The inmates of the Dudley mansion were not scandalized
+by any mysterious visits of a veiled or unveiled lady. The vibrating
+tongues of the “female youth” of the Institute were not set in motion by
+the standing of an equipage at the gate, waiting for their lady-teacher.
+The servants at the mansion did not convey numerous letters with
+superscriptions in a bold, manly hand, sealed with the arms of a
+well-known house, and directed to Miss Helen Darley; nor, on the other
+hand, did Hiram, the man from the lean streak in New Hampshire,
+carry sweet-smelling, rose-hued, many-layered, criss-crossed,
+fine-stitch-lettered packages of note-paper directed to Dudley Venner,
+Esq., and all too scanty to hold that incredible expansion of the famous
+three words which a woman was born to say,--that perpetual miracle which
+astonishes all the go-betweens who wear their shoes out in carrying a
+woman's infinite variations on the theme--
+
+    “I love you.”
+
+But the reader must remember that there are walks in country-towns where
+people are liable to meet by accident, and that the hollow of an old
+tree has served the purpose of a post-office sometimes; so that he has
+her choice (to divide the pronouns impartially) of various hypotheses to
+account for the new glory of happiness which seemed to have irradiated
+our poor Helen's features, as if her dreary life were awakening in the
+dawn of a blessed future.
+
+With all the alleviations which have been hinted at, Mr. Dudley Venner
+thought that the days and the weeks had never moved so slowly as
+through the last period of the autumn that was passing. Elsie had been a
+perpetual source of anxiety to him, but still she had been a companion.
+He could not mourn for her; for he felt that she was safer with her
+mother, in that world where there are no more sorrows and dangers, than
+she could have been with him. But as he sat at his window and looked at
+the three mounds, the loneliness of the great house made it seem more
+like the sepulchre than these narrow dwellings where his beloved and her
+daughter lay close to each other, side by side,--Catalina, the bride
+of his youth, and Elsie, the child whom he had nurtured, with poor Old
+Sophy, who had followed them like a black shadow, at their feet, under
+the same soft turf, sprinkled with the brown autumnal leaves. It was not
+good for him to be thus alone. How should he ever live through the long
+months of November and December?
+
+The months of November and December did, in some way or other, get
+rid of themselves at last, bringing with them the usual events of
+village-life and a few unusual ones. Some of the geologists had been
+up to look at the great slide, of which they gave those prolix accounts
+which everybody remembers who read the scientific journals of the time.
+The engineers reported that there was little probability of any further
+convulsion along the line of rocks which overhung the more thickly
+settled part of the town. The naturalists drew up a paper on the
+“Probable Extinction of the Crotalus Durissus in the Township of
+Rockland.” The engagement of the Widow Rowens to a Little Millionville
+merchant was announced,--“Sudding 'n' onexpected,” Widow Leech
+said,--“waalthy, or she wouldn't ha' looked at him,--fifty year old,
+if he is a day, 'n' hu'n't got a white hair in his head.” The Reverend
+Chauncy Fairweather had publicly announced that he was going to join the
+Roman Catholic communion,--not so much to the surprise or consternation
+of the religious world as he had supposed. Several old ladies forthwith
+proclaimed their intention of following him; but, as one or two of them
+were deaf, and another had been threatened with an attack of that mild,
+but obstinate complaint, dementia senilis, many thought it was not so
+much the force of his arguments as a kind of tendency to jump as the
+bellwether jumps, well known in flocks not included in the Christian
+fold. His bereaved congregation immediately began pulling candidates on
+and off, like new boots, on trial. Some pinched in tender places; some
+were too loose; some were too square-toed; some were too coarse, and
+did n't please; some were too thin, and would n't last;--in short, they
+could n't possibly find a fit. At last, people began to drop in to hear
+old Doctor Honeywood. They were quite surprised to find what a human old
+gentleman he was, and went back and told the others, that, instead of
+being a case of confluent sectarianism, as they supposed, the good old
+minister had been so well vaccinated with charitable virus that he was
+now a true, open-souled Christian of the mildest type. The end of all
+which was, that the liberal people went over to the old minister almost
+in a body, just at the time that Deacon Shearer and the “Vinegar-Bible”
+ party split off, and that not long afterwards they sold their own
+meeting-house to the malecontents, so that Deacon Soper used often to
+remind Colonel Sprowle of his wish that “our little man and him [the
+Reverend Doctor] would swop pulpits,” and tell him it had “pooty nigh
+come trew.”--But this is anticipating the course of events, which were
+much longer in coming about; for we have but just got through that
+terrible long month, as Mr. Dudley Venner found it, of December.
+
+On the first of January, Mr. Silas Peckham was in the habit of settling
+his quarterly accounts, and making such new arrangements as his
+convenience or interest dictated. New Year was a holiday at the
+Institute. No doubt this accounted for Helen's being dressed so
+charmingly,--always, to be sure in, her own simple way, but yet with
+such a true lady's air, that she looked fit to be the mistress of any
+mansion in the land.
+
+She was in the parlor alone, a little before noon, when Mr. Peckham came
+in.
+
+“I'm ready to settle my accaount with you now, Miss Darley,” said Silas.
+
+“As you please, Mr. Peckham,” Helen answered, very graciously.
+
+“Before payin' you your selary,” the Principal continued, “I wish to
+come to an understandin' as to the futur'. I consider that I've been
+payin' high, very high, for the work you do. Women's wages can't be
+expected to do more than feed and clothe 'em, as a gineral thing, with
+a little savin', in case of sickness, and to bury 'em, if they
+break daown, as all of 'em are liable to do at any time. If I a'n't
+misinformed, you not only support yourself out of my establishment, but
+likewise relatives of yours, who I don't know that I'm called upon to
+feed and clothe. There is a young woman, not burdened with destitute
+relatives, has signified that she would be glad to take your dooties
+for less pecooniary compensation, by a consid'able amaount, than you now
+receive. I shall be willin', however, to retain your services at sech
+redooced rate as we shall fix upon,--provided sech redooced rate be as
+low or lower than the same services can be obtained elsewhere.”
+
+“As you please, Mr. Peckham,” Helen answered, with a smile so sweet that
+the Principal (who of course had trumped up this opposition-teacher for
+the occasion) said to himself she would stand being cut down a quarter,
+perhaps a half, of her salary.
+
+“Here is your accaount, Miss Darley, and the balance doo you,”
+ said Silas Peckham, handing her a paper and a small roll of
+infectious-flavored bills wrapping six poisonous coppers of the old
+coinage.
+
+She took the paper and began looking at it. She could not quite make up
+her mind to touch the feverish bills with the cankering coppers in them,
+and left them airing themselves on the table.
+
+The document she held ran as follows:
+
+Silas Peckham, Esq., Principal of the Apollinean Institute, In Account
+with Helen Darley, Assist. Teacher.
+
+            Dr.                                Cr.
+
+  To salary for quarter              By Deduction for absence
+  ending Jan 1st @ $75 per             1 week 3 days........... $10.00
+  quarter................ $75.00
+                                     “Board, lodging, etc for
+                                       10 days @ 75 cts per day.. 7.50
+
+                                     “Damage to Institution by
+                                       absence of teacher from
+                                       duties, say.............. 25.00
+
+                                     “Stationary furnished......... 43
+
+                                     “Postage-stamp................ 01
+
+                                     “Balance due Helen Darley.  32.06
+                           ------                             --------
+                           $75.00                               $75.00
+
+  ROCKLAND, Jan. 1st, 1859.
+
+
+Now Helen had her own private reasons for wishing to receive the
+small sum which was due her at this time without any unfair
+deduction,--reasons which we need not inquire into too particularly,
+as we may be very sure that they were right and womanly. So, when she
+looked over this account of Mr. Silas Peckham's, and saw that he had
+contrived to pare down her salary to something less than half its
+stipulated amount, the look which her countenance wore was as near to
+that of righteous indignation as her gentle features and soft blue eyes
+would admit of its being.
+
+“Why, Mr. Peckham,” she said, “do you mean this? If I am of so much
+value to you that you must take off twenty-five dollars for ten days'
+absence, how is it that my salary is to be cut down to less than
+seventy-five dollars a quarter, if I remain here?”
+
+“I gave you fair notice,” said Silas. “I have a minute of it I took down
+immed'ately after the intervoo.”
+
+He lugged out his large pocket-book with the strap going all round it,
+and took from it a slip of paper which confirmed his statement.
+
+“Besides,” he added, slyly, “I presoom you have received a liberal
+pecooniary compensation from Squire Venner for nussin' his daughter.”
+
+Helen was looking over the bill while he was speaking.
+
+“Board and lodging for ten days, Mr. Peckham,--whose board and lodging,
+pray?”
+
+The door opened before Silas Peckham could answer, and Mr. Bernard
+walked into the parlor. Helen was holding the bill in her hand, looking
+as any woman ought to look who has been at once wronged and insulted.
+
+“The last turn of the thumbscrew!” said Mr. Bernard to himself.
+
+“What is it, Helen? You look troubled.”
+
+She handed him the account.
+
+He looked at the footing of it. Then he looked at the items. Then he
+looked at Silas Peckham.
+
+At this moment Silas was sublime. He was so transcendently unconscious
+of the emotions going on in Mr. Bernard's mind at the moment, that he
+had only a single thought.
+
+“The accaount's correc'ly cast, I presoom;--if the' 's any mistake
+of figgers or addin' 'em up, it'll be made all right. Everything's
+accordin' to agreement. The minute written immed'ately after the
+intervoo is here in my possession.”
+
+Mr. Bernard looked at Helen. Just what would have happened to Silas
+Peckham, as he stood then and there, but for the interposition of a
+merciful Providence, nobody knows or ever will know; for at that moment
+steps were heard upon the stairs, and Hiram threw open the parlor-door
+for Mr. Dudley Venner to enter.
+
+He saluted them all gracefully with the good-wishes of the season, and
+each of them returned his compliment,--Helen blushing fearfully, of
+course, but not particularly noticed in her embarrassment by more than
+one.
+
+Silas Peckham reckoned with perfect confidence on his Trustees, who had
+always said what he told them to, and done what he wanted. It was a good
+chance now to show off his power, and, by letting his instructors know
+the unstable tenure of their offices, make it easier to settle his
+accounts and arrange his salaries. There was nothing very strange in Mr.
+Venner's calling; he was one of the Trustees, and this was New Year's
+Day. But he had called just at the lucky moment for Mr. Peckham's
+object.
+
+“I have thought some of makin' changes in the department of
+instruction,” he began. “Several accomplished teachers have applied to
+me, who would be glad of sitooations. I understand that there never have
+been so many fust-rate teachers, male and female, out of employment as
+doorin' the present season. If I can make sahtisfahctory arrangements
+with my present corpse of teachers, I shall be glad to do so; otherwise
+I shell, with the permission of the Trustees, make sech noo arrangements
+as circumstahnces compel.”
+
+“You may make arrangements for a new assistant in my department, Mr.
+Peckham,” said Mr. Bernard, “at once,--this day,--this hour. I am not
+safe to be trusted with your person five minutes out of this lady's
+presence,--of whom I beg pardon for this strong language. Mr. Venner, I
+must beg you, as one of the Trustees of this Institution, to look at
+the manner in which its Principal has attempted to swindle this faithful
+teacher whose toils and sacrifices and self-devotion to the school
+have made it all that it is, in spite of this miserable trader's
+incompetence. Will you look at the paper I hold?”
+
+Dudley Venner took the account and read it through, without changing a
+feature. Then he turned to Silas Peckham.
+
+“You may make arrangements for a new assistant in the branches this
+lady has taught. Miss Helen Darley is to be my wife. I had hoped to have
+announced this news in a less abrupt and ungraceful manner. But I came
+to tell you with my own lips what you would have learned before evening
+from my friends in the village.”
+
+Mr. Bernard went to Helen, who stood silent, with downcast eyes, and
+took her hand warmly, hoping she might find all the happiness she
+deserved. Then he turned to Dudley Venner, and said, “She is a queen,
+but has never found it out. The world has nothing nobler than this dear
+woman, whom you have discovered in the disguise of a teacher. God bless
+her and you!”
+
+Dudley Venner returned his friendly grasp, without answering a word in
+articulate speech.
+
+Silas remained dumb and aghast for a brief space. Coming to himself
+a little, he thought there might have been some mistake about the
+items,--would like to have Miss barley's bill returned,--would make it
+all right,--had no idee that Squire Venner had a special int'rest in
+Miss barley,--was sorry he had given offence,--if he might take that
+bill and look it over--
+
+“No. Mr. Peckham,” said Mr. Dudley Venner, “there will be a full meeting
+of the Board next week, and the bill, and such evidence with reference
+to the management of the Institution and the treatment of its
+instructors as Mr. Langdon sees fit to bring forward will be laid before
+them.”
+
+Miss Helen Darley became that very day the guest of Miss Arabella
+Thornton, the Judge's daughter. Mr. Bernard made his appearance a week
+or two later at the Lectures, where the Professor first introduced him
+to the reader.
+
+He stayed after the class had left the room.
+
+“Ah, Mr. Langdon! how do you do? Very glad to see you back again. How
+have you been since our correspondence on Fascination and other curious
+scientific questions?”
+
+It was the Professor who spoke,--whom the reader will recognize as
+myself, the teller of this story.
+
+“I have been well,” Mr. Bernard answered, with a serious look which
+invited a further question.
+
+“I hope you have had none of those painful or dangerous experiences you
+seemed to be thinking of when you wrote; at any rate, you have escaped
+having your obituary written.”
+
+“I have seen some things worth remembering. Shall I call on you this
+evening and tell you about them?”
+
+“I shall be most happy to see you.”
+
+This was the way in which I, the Professor, became acquainted with some
+of the leading events of this story. They interested me sufficiently
+to lead me to avail myself of all those other extraordinary methods of
+obtaining information well known to writers of narrative.
+
+Mr. Langdon seemed to me to have gained in seriousness and strength of
+character by his late experiences. He threw his whole energies into
+his studies with an effect which distanced all his previous efforts.
+Remembering my former hint, he employed his spare hours in writing for
+the annual prizes, both of which he took by a unanimous vote of the
+judges. Those who heard him read his Thesis at the Medical Commencement
+will not soon forget the impression made by his fine personal appearance
+and manners, nor the universal interest excited in the audience, as
+he read, with his beautiful enunciation, that striking paper entitled
+“Unresolved Nebulae in Vital Science.” It was a general remark of the
+Faculty,--and old Doctor Kittredge, who had come down on purpose to hear
+Mr. Langdon, heartily agreed to it,--that there had never been a diploma
+filled up, since the institution which conferred upon him the degree of
+Doctor Medicdnce was founded, which carried with it more of promise to
+the profession than that which bore the name of
+
+                    BERNARDUS CARYL LANGDON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. CONCLUSION.
+
+Mr. Bernard Langdon had no sooner taken his degree, than, in accordance
+with the advice of one of his teachers whom he frequently consulted,
+he took an office in the heart of the city where he had studied. He had
+thought of beginning in a suburb or some remoter district of the city
+proper.
+
+“No,” said his teacher,--to wit, myself,--“don't do any such thing. You
+are made for the best kind of practice; don't hamper yourself with an
+outside constituency, such as belongs to a practitioner of the second
+class. When a fellow like you chooses his beat, he must look ahead
+a little. Take care of all the poor that apply to you, but leave the
+half-pay classes to a different style of doctor,--the people who spend
+one half their time in taking care of their patients, and the other half
+in squeezing out their money. Go for the swell-fronts and south-exposure
+houses; the folks inside are just as good as other people, and the
+pleasantest, on the whole, to take care of. They must have somebody, and
+they like a gentleman best. Don't throw yourself away. You have a
+good presence and pleasing manners. You wear white linen by inherited
+instinct. You can pronounce the word view. You have all the elements of
+success; go and take it. Be polite and generous, but don't undervalue
+yourself. You will be useful, at any rate; you may just as well be
+happy, while you are about it. The highest social class furnishes
+incomparably the best patients, taking them by and large. Besides,
+when they won't get well and bore you to death, you can send 'em off to
+travel. Mind me now, and take the tops of your sparrowgrass. Somebody
+must have 'em,--why shouldn't you? If you don't take your chance, you'll
+get the butt-ends as a matter of course.”
+
+Mr. Bernard talked like a young man full of noble sentiments. He wanted
+to be useful to his fellow-beings. Their social differences were nothing
+to him. He would never court the rich,--he would go where he was called.
+He would rather save the life of a poor mother of a family than that of
+half a dozen old gouty millionaires whose heirs had been yawning and
+stretching these ten years to get rid of them.
+
+“Generous emotions!” I exclaimed. “Cherish 'em; cling to 'em till you
+are fifty, till you are seventy, till you are ninety! But do as I tell
+you,--strike for the best circle of practice, and you 'll be sure to get
+it!”
+
+Mr. Langdon did as I told him,--took a genteel office, furnished it
+neatly, dressed with a certain elegance, soon made a pleasant circle
+of acquaintances, and began to work his way into the right kind of
+business. I missed him, however, for some days, not long after he had
+opened his office. On his return, he told me he had been up at Rockland,
+by special invitation, to attend the wedding of Mr. Dudley Venner and
+Miss Helen Darley. He gave me a full account of the ceremony, which
+I regret that I cannot relate in full. “Helen looked like an
+angel,”--that, I am sure, was one of his expressions. As for her dress,
+I should like to give the details, but am afraid of committing blunders,
+as men always do, when they undertake to describe such matters. White
+dress, anyhow,--that I am sure of,--with orange-flowers, and the most
+wonderful lace veil that was ever seen or heard of. The Reverend Doctor
+Honeywood performed the ceremony, of course. The good people seemed
+to have forgotten they ever had had any other minister, except Deacon
+Shearer and his set of malcontents, who were doing a dull business in
+the meeting-house lately occupied by the Reverend Mr. Fairweather.
+
+“Who was at the wedding?”
+
+“Everybody, pretty much. They wanted to keep it quiet, but it was of
+no use. Married at church. Front pews, old Dr. Kittredge and all the
+mansionhouse people and distinguished strangers,--Colonel Sprowle and
+family, including Matilda's young gentleman, a graduate of one of
+the fresh-water colleges,--Mrs. Pickins (late Widow Rowens) and
+husband,--Deacon Soper and numerous parishioners. A little nearer the
+door, Abel, the Doctor's man, and Elbridge, who drove them to church in
+the family-coach. Father Fairweather, as they all call him now, came in
+late with Father McShane.”
+
+“And Silas Peckham?”
+
+“Oh, Silas had left The School and Rockland. Cut up altogether too
+badly in the examination instituted by the Trustees. Had removed over
+to Tamarack, and thought of renting a large house and 'farming' the
+town-poor.”
+
+Some time after this, as I was walking with a young friend along by
+the swell-fronts and south-exposures, whom should I see but Mr. Bernard
+Langdon, looking remarkably happy, and keeping step by the side of
+a very handsome and singularly well-dressed young lady? He bowed and
+lifted his hat as we passed.
+
+“Who is that pretty girl my young doctor has got there?” I said to my
+companion.
+
+“Who is that?” he answered. “You don't know? Why, that is neither more
+nor less than Miss Letitia Forrester, daughter of--of--why, the great
+banking firm, you know, Bilyuns Brothers & Forrester. Got acquainted
+with her in the country, they say. There 's a story that they're
+engaged, or like to be, if the firm consents.”
+
+“Oh” I said.
+
+I did not like the look of it in the least. Too young,--too young. Has
+not taken any position yet. No right to ask for the hand of Bilyuns
+Brothers & Co.'s daughter. Besides, it will spoil him for practice, if
+he marries a rich girl before he has formed habits of work.
+
+I looked in at his office the other day. A box of white kids was lying
+open on the table. A three-cornered note, directed in a very delicate
+lady's-hand, was distinguishable among a heap of papers. I was just
+going to call him to account for his proceedings, when he pushed
+the three-cornered note aside and took up a letter with a great
+corporation-seal upon it. He had received the offer of a professor's
+chair in an ancient and distinguished institution.
+
+“Pretty well for three-and-twenty, my boy,” I said. “I suppose you'll
+think you must be married one of these days, if you accept this office.”
+
+Mr. Langdon blushed.--There had been stories about him, he knew. His
+name had been mentioned in connection with that of a very charming young
+lady. The current reports were not true. He had met this young lady,
+and been much pleased with her, in the country, at the house of her
+grandfather, the Reverend Doctor Honeywood,--you remember Miss Letitia
+Forrester, whom I have mentioned repeatedly? On coming to town, he found
+his country-acquaintance in a social position which seemed to discourage
+his continued intimacy. He had discovered, however; that he was a not
+unwelcome visitor, and had kept up friendly relations with her. But
+there was no truth in the current reports,--none at all.'
+
+Some months had passed, after this visit, when I happened one evening to
+stroll into a box in one of the principal theatres of the city. A small
+party sat on the seats before me: a middle-aged gentleman and his lady,
+in front, and directly behind them my young doctor and the same very
+handsome young lady I had seen him walking with on the sidewalk before
+the swell-fronts and south-exposures. As Professor Langdon seemed to
+be very much taken up with his companion, and both of them looked as
+if they were enjoying themselves, I determined not to make my presence
+known to my young friend, and to withdraw quietly after feasting my eyes
+with the sight of them for a few minutes.
+
+“It looks as if something might come of it,” I said to myself. At that
+moment the young lady lifted her arm accidentally in such a way that the
+light fell upon the clasp of a chain which encircled her wrist. My eyes
+filled with tears as I read upon the clasp, in sharp-cut Italic
+letters, E. V. They were tears at once of sad remembrance and of joyous
+anticipation; for the ornament on which I looked was the double
+pledge of a dead sorrow and a living affection. It was the golden
+bracelet,--the parting-gift of Elsie Venner, the golden bracelet,--the
+parting-gift of Elsie Venner.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Elsie Venner, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
+
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+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Elsie Venner, by Oliver Wendell Holmes
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Elsie Venner, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
+
+[The Physician and Poet, Not the Jurist, O. W. Holmes, Jr.]
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Elsie Venner
+
+Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
+
+Release Date: August 15, 2006 [EBook #2696]
+Last Updated: February 18, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE VENNER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+    <h1>
+      ELSIE VENNER
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Oliver Wendell Holmes
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0002"> A SECOND PREFACE. </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_PREF2"> PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0004"> <b>ELSIE VENNER.</b> </a> <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>THE BRAHMIN CASTE OF NEW ENGLAND.
+        <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>THE STUDENT AND HIS
+        CERTIFICATE. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>MR.
+        BERNARD TRIES HIS HAND. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV.
+        </a>THE MOTH FLIES INTO THE CANDLE. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0005">
+        CHAPTER V. </a>AN OLD-FASHIONED DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTER. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>THE SUNBEAM AND THE SHADOW. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>THE EVENT OF THE SEASON. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>THE MORNING AFTER. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>THE DOCTOR ORDERS THE BEST SULKY.
+        <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>THE DOCTOR CALLS ON
+        ELSIE VENNER. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>COUSIN
+        RICHARD'S VISIT. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>THE
+        APOLLINEAN INSTITUTE. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII.
+        </a>CURIOSITY. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>FAMILY
+        SECRETS. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>PHYSIOLOGICAL.
+        <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>EPISTOLARY. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>OLD SOPHY CALLS ON THE REVEREND
+        DOCTOR. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>THE
+        REVEREND DOCTOR CALLS ON BROTHER FAIRWEATHER. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>THE SPIDER ON HIS THREAD. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>FROM WITHOUT AND FROM WITHIN.
+        <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a>THE WIDOW ROWENS
+        GIVES A TEA-PARTY. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a>WHY
+        DOCTORS DIFFER. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a>THE
+        WILD HUNTSMAN. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a>ON
+        HIS TRACKS. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a>THE
+        PERILOUS HOUR. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. </a>THE
+        NEWS REACHES THE DUDLEY MANSION. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0027">
+        CHAPTER XXVII. </a>A SOUL IN DISTRESS. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0028">
+        CHAPTER XXVIII. &nbsp;&nbsp;</a>THE SECRET IS WHISPERED. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX. </a>THE WHITE ASH. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XXX. </a>THE GOLDEN CORD IS LOOSED. <br /><br /><a
+        href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER XXXI. </a>MR. SILAS PECKHAM RENDERS HIS
+        ACCOUNT. <br /><br /><a href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER XXXII. </a>CONCLUSION.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      This tale was published in successive parts in the &ldquo;Atlantic Monthly,&rdquo;
+       under the name of &ldquo;The Professor's Story,&rdquo; the first number having
+      appeared in the third week of December, 1859. The critic who is curious in
+      coincidences must refer to the Magazine for the date of publication of the
+      chapter he is examining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In calling this narrative a &ldquo;romance,&rdquo; the Author wishes to make sure of
+      being indulged in the common privileges of the poetic license. Through all
+      the disguise of fiction a grave scientific doctrine may be detected lying
+      beneath some of the delineations of character. He has used this doctrine
+      as a part of the machinery of his story without pledging his absolute
+      belief in it to the extent to which it is asserted or implied. It was
+      adopted as a convenient medium of truth rather than as an accepted
+      scientific conclusion. The reader must judge for himself what is the value
+      of various stories cited from old authors. He must decide how much of what
+      has been told he can accept either as having actually happened, or as
+      possible and more or less probable. The Author must be permitted, however,
+      to say here, in his personal character, and as responsible to the students
+      of the human mind and body, that since this story has been in progress he
+      has received the most startling confirmation of the possibility of the
+      existence of a character like that which he had drawn as a purely
+      imaginary conception in Elsie Venner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      BOSTON, January, 1861.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      A SECOND PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      This is the story which a dear old lady, my very good friend, spoke of as
+      &ldquo;a medicated novel,&rdquo; and quite properly refused to read. I was always
+      pleased with her discriminating criticism. It is a medicated novel, and if
+      she wished to read for mere amusement and helpful recreation there was no
+      need of troubling herself with a story written with a different end in
+      view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This story has called forth so many curious inquiries that it seems worth
+      while to answer the more important questions which have occurred to its
+      readers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first place, it is not based on any well-ascertained physiological
+      fact. There are old fables about patients who have barked like dogs or
+      crowed like cocks, after being bitten or wounded by those animals. There
+      is nothing impossible in the idea that Romulus and Remus may have imbibed
+      wolfish traits of character from the wet nurse the legend assigned them,
+      but the legend is not sound history, and the supposition is nothing more
+      than a speculative fancy. Still, there is a limbo of curious evidence
+      bearing on the subject of pre-natal influences sufficient to form the
+      starting-point of an imaginative composition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The real aim, of the story was to test the doctrine of &ldquo;original sin&rdquo; and
+      human responsibility for the disordered volition coming under that
+      technical denomination. Was Elsie Venner, poisoned by the venom of a
+      crotalus before she was born, morally responsible for the &ldquo;volitional&rdquo;
+       aberrations, which translated into acts become what is known as sin, and,
+      it may be, what is punished as crime? If, on presentation of the evidence,
+      she becomes by the verdict of the human conscience a proper object of
+      divine pity and not of divine wrath, as a subject of moral poisoning,
+      wherein lies the difference between her position at the bar of judgment,
+      human or divine, and that of the unfortunate victim who received a moral
+      poison from a remote ancestor before he drew his first breath?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It might be supposed that the character of Elsie Venner was suggested by
+      some of the fabulous personages of classical or mediaeval story. I
+      remember that a French critic spoke of her as cette pauvre Melusine. I
+      ought to have been ashamed, perhaps, but I had, not the slightest idea who
+      Melusina was until I hunted up the story, and found that she was a fairy,
+      who for some offence was changed every Saturday to a serpent from her
+      waist downward. I was of course familiar with Keats's Lamia, another
+      imaginary being, the subject of magical transformation into a serpent. My
+      story was well advanced before Hawthorne's wonderful &ldquo;Marble Faun,&rdquo; which
+      might be thought to have furnished me with the hint of a mixed nature,&mdash;human,
+      with an alien element,&mdash;was published or known to me. So that my poor
+      heroine found her origin, not in fable or romance, but in a physiological
+      conception fertilized by a theological dogma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had the dissatisfaction of enjoying from a quiet corner a well-meant
+      effort to dramatize &ldquo;Elsie Venner.&rdquo; Unfortunately, a physiological
+      romance, as I knew beforehand, is hardly adapted for the melodramatic
+      efforts of stage representation. I can therefore say, with perfect truth,
+      that I was not disappointed. It is to the mind, and not to the senses,
+      that such a story must appeal, and all attempts to render the character
+      and events objective on the stage, or to make them real by artistic
+      illustrations, are almost of necessity failures. The story has won the
+      attention and enjoyed the favor of a limited class of readers, and if it
+      still continues to interest others of the same tastes and habits of
+      thought I can ask nothing more of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 23, 1883.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF2" id="link2H_PREF2">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I have nothing of importance to add to the two preceding Prefaces. The
+      continued call for this story, which was not written for popularity, but
+      with a very serious purpose, has somewhat surprised and, I need not add,
+      gratified me. I can only restate the motive idea of the tale in a little
+      different language. Believing, as I do, that our prevailing theologies are
+      founded upon an utterly false view of the relation of man to his Creator,
+      I attempted to illustrate the doctrine of inherited moral responsibility
+      for other people's misbehavior. I tried to make out a case for my poor
+      Elsie, whom the most hardened theologian would find it hard to blame for
+      her inherited ophidian tastes and tendencies. How, then, is he to blame
+      mankind for inheriting &ldquo;sinfulness&rdquo; from their first parents? May not the
+      serpent have bitten Eve before the birth of Cain, her first-born? That
+      would have made an excuse for Cain's children, as Elsie's ante-natal
+      misfortune made an excuse for her. But what difference does it make in the
+      child's responsibility whether his inherited tendencies come from a
+      snake-bite or some other source which he knew nothing about and could not
+      have prevented from acting? All this is plain enough, and the only use of
+      the story is to bring the dogma of inherited guilt and its consequences
+      into a clearer point of view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, after all, the tale must have proved readable as a story to account
+      for the large number of editions which it has reached.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some readers have been curious about the locality the writer was thought
+      to have in view. No particular place was intended. Some of the characters
+      may have been thought to have been drawn from life; but the personages
+      mentioned are mostly composites, like Mr. Galton's compound photographic
+      likenesses, and are not calculated to provoke scandal or suits for libel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      O. W. H.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      BEVERLY FARMS, MASS., August 3, 1891.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      ELSIE VENNER.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I. THE BRAHMIN CASTE OF NEW ENGLAND.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There is nothing in New England corresponding at all to the feudal
+      aristocracies of the Old World. Whether it be owing to the stock from
+      which we were derived, or to the practical working of our institutions, or
+      to the abrogation of the technical &ldquo;law of honor,&rdquo; which draws a sharp
+      line between the personally responsible class of &ldquo;gentlemen&rdquo; and the
+      unnamed multitude of those who are not expected to risk their lives for an
+      abstraction,&mdash;whatever be the cause, we have no such aristocracy here
+      as that which grew up out of the military systems of the Middle Ages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What we mean by &ldquo;aristocracy&rdquo; is merely the richer part of the community,
+      that live in the tallest houses, drive real carriages, (not &ldquo;kerridges,&rdquo;)
+      kidglove their hands, and French-bonnet their ladies' heads, give parties
+      where the persons who call them by the above title are not invited, and
+      have a provokingly easy way of dressing, walking, talking, and nodding to
+      people, as if they felt entirely at home, and would not be embarrassed in
+      the least, if they met the Governor, or even the President of the United
+      States, face to face. Some of these great folks are really well-bred, some
+      of them are only purse-proud and assuming,&mdash;but they form a class,
+      and are named as above in the common speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is in the nature of large fortunes to diminish rapidly, when subdivided
+      and distributed. A million is the unit of wealth, now and here in America.
+      It splits into four handsome properties; each of these into four good
+      inheritances; these, again, into scanty competences for four ancient
+      maidens,&mdash;with whom it is best the family should die out, unless it
+      can begin again as its great-grandfather did. Now a million is a kind of
+      golden cheese, which represents in a compendious form the summer's growth
+      of a fat meadow of craft or commerce; and as this kind of meadow rarely
+      bears more than one crop, it is pretty certain that sons and grandsons
+      will not get another golden cheese out of it, whether they milk the same
+      cows or turn in new ones. In other words, the millionocracy, considered in
+      a large way, is not at all an affair of persons and families, but a
+      perpetual fact of money with a variable human element, which a philosopher
+      might leave out of consideration without falling into serious error. Of
+      course, this trivial and, fugitive fact of personal wealth does not create
+      a permanent class, unless some special means are taken to arrest the
+      process of disintegration in the third generation. This is so rarely done,
+      at least successfully, that one need not live a very long life to see most
+      of the rich families he knew in childhood more or less reduced, and the
+      millions shifted into the hands of the country-boys who were sweeping
+      stores and carrying parcels when the now decayed gentry were driving their
+      chariots, eating their venison over silver chafing-dishes, drinking
+      Madeira chilled in embossed coolers, wearing their hair in powder, and
+      casing their legs in long boots with silken tassels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is, however, in New England, an aristocracy, if you choose to call
+      it so, which has a far greater character of permanence. It has grown to be
+      a caste,&mdash;not in any odious sense;&mdash;but, by the repetition of
+      the same influences, generation after generation, it has acquired a
+      distinct organization and physiognomy, which not to recognize is mere
+      stupidity, and not to be willing to describe would show a distrust of the
+      good-nature and intelligence of our readers, who like to have us see all
+      we can and tell all we see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If you will look carefully at any class of students in one of our
+      colleges, you will have no difficulty in selecting specimens of two
+      different aspects of youthful manhood. Of course I shall choose extreme
+      cases to illustrate the contrast between them. In the first, the figure is
+      perhaps robust, but often otherwise,&mdash;inelegant, partly from careless
+      attitudes, partly from ill-dressing,&mdash;the face is uncouth in feature,
+      or at least common,&mdash;the mouth coarse and unformed,&mdash;the eye
+      unsympathetic, even if bright,&mdash;the movements of the face are clumsy,
+      like those of the limbs,&mdash;the voice is unmusical,&mdash;and the
+      enunciation as if the words were coarse castings, instead of fine
+      carvings. The youth of the other aspect is commonly slender, his face is
+      smooth, and apt to be pallid,&mdash;his features are regular and of a
+      certain delicacy,&mdash;his eye is bright and quick,&mdash;his lips play
+      over the thought he utters as a pianist's fingers dance over their music,
+      and his whole air, though it may be timid, and even awkward, has nothing
+      clownish. If you are a teacher, you know what to expect from each of these
+      young men. With equal willingness, the first will be slow at learning; the
+      second will take to his books as a pointer or a setter to his field-work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first youth is the common country-boy, whose race has been bred to
+      bodily labor. Nature has adapted the family organization to the kind of
+      life it has lived. The hands and feet by constant use have got more than
+      their share of development,&mdash;the organs of thought and expression
+      less than their share. The finer instincts are latent and must be
+      developed. A youth of this kind is raw material in its first stage of
+      elaboration. You must not expect too much of any such. Many of them have
+      force of will and character, and become distinguished in practical life;
+      but very few of them ever become great scholars. A scholar is, in a large
+      proportion of cases, the son of scholars or scholarly persons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is exactly what the other young man is. He comes of the Brahmin caste
+      of New England. This is the harmless, inoffensive, untitled aristocracy
+      referred to, and which many readers will at once acknowledge. There are
+      races of scholars among us, in which aptitude for learning, and all these
+      marks of it I have spoken of, are congenital and hereditary. Their names
+      are always on some college catalogue or other. They break out every
+      generation or two in some learned labor which calls them up after they
+      seem to have died out. At last some newer name takes their place, it
+      maybe,&mdash;but you inquire a little and you find it is the blood of the
+      Edwardses or the Chauncys or the Ellerys or some of the old historic
+      scholars, disguised under the altered name of a female descendant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There probably is not an experienced instructor anywhere in our Northern
+      States who will not recognize at once the truth of this general
+      distinction. But the reader who has never been a teacher will very
+      probably object, that some of our most illustrious public men have come
+      direct from the homespun-clad class of the people,&mdash;and he may,
+      perhaps, even find a noted scholar or two whose parents were masters of
+      the English alphabet, but of no other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not fair to pit a few chosen families against the great multitude of
+      those who are continually working their way up into the intellectual
+      classes. The results which are habitually reached by hereditary training
+      are occasionally brought about without it. There are natural filters as
+      well as artificial ones; and though the great rivers are commonly more or
+      less turbid, if you will look long enough, you may find a spring that
+      sparkles as no water does which drips through your apparatus of sands and
+      sponges. So there are families which refine themselves into intellectual
+      aptitude without having had much opportunity for intellectual
+      acquirements. A series of felicitous crosses develops an improved strain
+      of blood, and reaches its maximum perfection at last in the large uncombed
+      youth who goes to college and startles the hereditary class-leaders by
+      striding past them all. That is Nature's republicanism; thank God for it,
+      but do not let it make you illogical. The race of the hereditary scholar
+      has exchanged a certain portion of its animal vigor for its new instincts,
+      and it is hard to lead men without a good deal of animal vigor. The
+      scholar who comes by Nature's special grace from an unworn stock of
+      broad-chested sires and deep-bosomed mothers must always overmatch an
+      equal intelligence with a compromised and lowered vitality. A man's
+      breathing and digestive apparatus (one is tempted to add muscular) are
+      just as important to him on the floor of the Senate as his thinking
+      organs. You broke down in your great speech, did you? Yes, your
+      grandfather had an attack of dyspepsia in '82, after working too hard on
+      his famous Election Sermon. All this does not touch the main fact: our
+      scholars come chiefly from a privileged order, just as our best fruits
+      come from well-known grafts, though now and then a seedling apple, like
+      the Northern Spy, or a seedling pear, like the Seckel, springs from a
+      nameless ancestry and grows to be the pride of all the gardens in the
+      land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let me introduce you to a young man who belongs to the Brahmin caste of
+      New England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II. THE STUDENT AND HIS CERTIFICATE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Bernard C. Langdon, a young man attending Medical Lectures at the school
+      connected with one of our principal colleges, remained after the Lecture
+      one day and wished to speak with the Professor. He was a student of mark,&mdash;first
+      favorite of his year, as they say of the Derby colts. There are in every
+      class half a dozen bright faces to which the teacher naturally, directs
+      his discourse, and by the intermediation of whose attention he seems to
+      hold that of the mass of listeners. Among these some one is pretty sure to
+      take the lead, by virtue of a personal magnetism, or some peculiarity of
+      expression, which places the face in quick sympathetic relations with the
+      lecturer. This was a young man with such a face; and I found,&mdash;for
+      you have guessed that I was the &ldquo;Professor&rdquo; above-mentioned,&mdash;that,
+      when there was anything difficult to be explained, or when I was bringing
+      out some favorite illustration of a nice point, (as, for instance; when I
+      compared the cell-growth, by which Nature builds up a plant or an animal,
+      to the glassblower's similar mode of beginning,&mdash;always with a hollow
+      sphere, or vesicle, whatever he is going to make,) I naturally looked in
+      his face and gauged my success by its expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a handsome face,&mdash;a little too pale, perhaps, and would have
+      borne something more of fulness without becoming heavy. I put the
+      organization to which it belongs in Section B of Class 1 of my
+      Anglo-American Anthropology (unpublished). The jaw in this section is but
+      slightly narrowed,&mdash;just enough to make the width of the forehead
+      tell more decidedly. The moustache often grows vigorously, but the
+      whiskers are thin. The skin is like that of Jacob, rather than like
+      Esau's. One string of the animal nature has been taken away, but this
+      gives only a greater predominance to the intellectual chords. To see just
+      how the vital energy has been toned down, you must contrast one of this
+      section with a specimen of Section A of the same class,&mdash;say, for
+      instance, one of the old-fashioned, full-whiskered, red-faced, roaring,
+      big Commodores of the last generation, whom you remember, at least by
+      their portraits, in ruffled shirts, looking as hearty as butchers and as
+      plucky as bull-terriers, with their hair combed straight up from their
+      foreheads, which were not commonly very high or broad. The special form of
+      physical life I have been describing gives you a right to expect more
+      delicate perceptions and a more reflective, nature than you commonly find
+      in shaggy-throated men, clad in heavy suits of muscles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The student lingered in the lecture-room, looking all the time as if he
+      wanted to say something in private, and waiting for two or three others,
+      who were still hanging about, to be gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something is wrong!&mdash;I said to myself, when I noticed his expression.&mdash;Well,
+      Mr. Langdon,&mdash;I said to him, when we were alone,&mdash;can I do
+      anything for you to-day?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You can, Sir,&mdash;he said.&mdash;I am going to leave the class, for the
+      present, and keep school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why, that 's a pity, and you so near graduating! You'd better stay and
+      finish this course and take your degree in the spring, rather than break
+      up your whole plan of study.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I can't help myself, Sir,&mdash;the young man answered.&mdash;There 's
+      trouble at home, and they cannot keep me here as they have done. So I must
+      look out for myself for a while. It's what I've done before, and am ready
+      to do again. I came to ask you for a certificate of my fitness to teach a
+      common school, or a high school, if you think I am up to that. Are you
+      willing to give it to me?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Willing? Yes, to be sure,&mdash;but I don't want you to go. Stay; we'll
+      make it easy for you. There's a fund will do something for you, perhaps.
+      Then you can take both the annual prizes, if you like,&mdash;and claim
+      them in money, if you want that more than medals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thought it all over,&mdash;he answered,&mdash;and have pretty much
+      made up my mind to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A perfectly gentlemanly young man, of courteous address and mild
+      utterance, but means at least as much as he says. There are some people
+      whose rhetoric consists of a slight habitual under-statement. I often tell
+      Mrs. Professor that one of her &ldquo;I think it's sos&rdquo; is worth the Bible-oath
+      of all the rest of the household that they &ldquo;know it's so.&rdquo; When you find a
+      person a little better than his word, a little more liberal than his
+      promise, a little more than borne out in his statement by his facts, a
+      little larger in deed than in speech, you recognize a kind of eloquence in
+      that person's utterance not laid down in Blair or Campbell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a proud fellow, self-trusting, sensitive, with
+      family-recollections that made him unwilling to accept the kind of aid
+      which many students would have thankfully welcomed. I knew him too well to
+      urge him, after the few words which implied that he was determined to go.
+      Besides, I have great confidence in young men who believe in themselves,
+      and are accustomed to rely on their own resources from an early period.
+      When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the World, and
+      takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it come off
+      in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away timid adventurers.
+      I have seen young men more than once, who came to a great city without a
+      single friend, support themselves and pay for their education, lay up
+      money in a few years, grow rich enough to travel, and establish themselves
+      in life, without ever asking a dollar of any person which they had not
+      earned. But these are exceptional cases. There are horse-tamers, born so,&mdash;as
+      we all know; there are woman-tamers, who bewitch the sex as the pied piper
+      bedeviled the children of Hamelin; and there are world-tamers, who can
+      make any community, even a Yankee one, get down and let them jump on its
+      back as easily as Mr. Rarey saddled Cruiser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether Langdon was of this sort or not I could not say positively; but he
+      had spirit, and, as I have said, a family-pride which would not let him be
+      dependent. The New England Brahmin caste often gets blended with
+      connections of political influence or commercial distinction. It is a
+      charming thing for the scholar, when his fortune carries him in this way
+      into some of the &ldquo;old families&rdquo; who have fine old houses, and city-lots
+      that have risen in the market, and names written in all the stock-books of
+      all the dividend-paying companies. His narrow study expands into a stately
+      library, his books are counted by thousands instead of hundreds, and his
+      favorites are dressed in gilded calf in place of plebeian sheepskin or its
+      pauper substitutes of cloth and paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Jedediah Langdon, grandfather of our young gentleman, had
+      made an advantageous alliance of this kind. Miss Dorothea Wentworth had
+      read one of his sermons which had been printed &ldquo;by request,&rdquo; and became
+      deeply interested in the young author, whom she had never seen. Out of
+      this circumstance grew a correspondence, an interview, a declaration, a
+      matrimonial alliance, and a family of half a dozen children. Wentworth
+      Langdon, Esquire, was the oldest of these, and lived in the old
+      family-mansion. Unfortunately, that principle of the diminution of estates
+      by division, to which I have referred, rendered it somewhat difficult to
+      maintain the establishment upon the fractional income which the proprietor
+      received from his share of the property. Wentworth Langdon, Esq.,
+      represented a certain intermediate condition of life not at all infrequent
+      in our old families. He was the connecting link between the generation
+      which lived in ease, and even a kind of state, upon its own resources, and
+      the new brood, which must live mainly by its wits or industry, and make
+      itself rich, or shabbily subside into that lower stratum known to social
+      geologists by a deposit of Kidderminster carpets and the peculiar aspect
+      of the fossils constituting the family furniture and wardrobe. This
+      slack-water period of a race, which comes before the rapid ebb of its
+      prosperity, is familiar to all who live in cities. There are no more
+      quiet, inoffensive people than these children of rich families, just above
+      the necessity of active employment, yet not in a condition to place their
+      own children advantageously, if they happen to have families. Many of them
+      are content to live unmarried. Some mend their broken fortunes by prudent
+      alliances, and some leave a numerous progeny to pass into the obscurity
+      from which their ancestors emerged; so that you may see on handcarts and
+      cobblers' stalls names which, a few generations back, were upon parchments
+      with broad seals, and tombstones with armorial bearings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a large city, this class of citizens is familiar to us in the streets.
+      They are very courteous in their salutations; they have time enough to bow
+      and take their hats off,&mdash;which, of course, no businessman can afford
+      to do. Their beavers are smoothly brushed, and their boots well polished;
+      all their appointments are tidy; they look the respectable walking
+      gentleman to perfection. They are prone to habits,&mdash;they frequent
+      reading-rooms,&mdash;insurance-offices,&mdash;they walk the same streets
+      at the same hours,&mdash;so that one becomes familiar with their faces and
+      persons, as a part of the street-furniture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is one curious circumstance, that all city-people must have noticed,
+      which is often illustrated in our experience of the slack-water gentry. We
+      shall know a certain person by his looks, familiarly, for years, but never
+      have learned his name. About this person we shall have accumulated no
+      little circumstantial knowledge;&mdash;thus, his face, figure, gait, his
+      mode of dressing, of saluting, perhaps even of speaking, may be familiar
+      to us; yet who he is we know not. In another department of our
+      consciousness, there is a very familiar name, which we have never found
+      the person to match. We have heard it so often, that it has idealized
+      itself, and become one of that multitude of permanent shapes which walk
+      the chambers of the brain in velvet slippers in the company of Falstaff
+      and Hamlet and General Washington and Mr. Pickwick. Sometimes the person
+      dies, but the name lives on indefinitely. But now and then it happens,
+      perhaps after years of this independent existence of the name and its
+      shadowy image in the brain, on the one part, and the person and all its
+      real attributes, as we see them daily, on the other, that some accident
+      reveals their relation, and we find the name we have carried so long in
+      our memory belongs to the person we have known so long as a
+      fellow-citizen. Now the slack&mdash;water gentry are among the persons
+      most likely to be the subjects of this curious divorce of title and
+      reality,&mdash;for the reason, that, playing no important part in the
+      community, there is nothing to tie the floating name to the actual
+      individual, as is the case with the men who belong in any way to the
+      public, while yet their names have a certain historical currency, and we
+      cannot help meeting them, either in their haunts, or going to and from
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this class belonged Wentworth Langdon, Esq. He had been &ldquo;dead-headed&rdquo;
+       into the world some fifty years ago, and had sat with his hands in his
+      pockets staring at the show ever since. I shall not tell you, for reasons
+      before hinted, the whole name of the place in which he lived. I will only
+      point you in the right direction, by saying that there are three towns
+      lying in a line with each other, as you go &ldquo;down East,&rdquo; each of them with
+      a Port in its name, and each of them having a peculiar interest which
+      gives it individuality, in addition to the Oriental character they have in
+      common. I need not tell you that these towns are Newburyport, Portsmouth,
+      and Portland. The Oriental character they have in common consists in their
+      large, square, palatial mansions, with sunny gardens round them. The two
+      first have seen better days. They are in perfect harmony with the
+      condition of weakened, but not impoverished, gentility. Each of them is a
+      &ldquo;paradise of demi-fortunes.&rdquo; Each of them is of that intermediate size
+      between a village and a city which any place has outgrown when the
+      presence of a well-dressed stranger walking up and down the main street
+      ceases to be a matter of public curiosity and private speculation, as
+      frequently happens, during the busier months of the year, in considerable
+      commercial centres like Salem. They both have grand old recollections to
+      fall back upon,&mdash;times when they looked forward to commercial
+      greatness, and when the portly gentlemen in cocked hats, who built their
+      now decaying wharves and sent out their ships all over the world, dreamed
+      that their fast-growing port was to be the Tyre or the Carthage of the
+      rich British Colony. Great houses, like that once lived in by Lord Timothy
+      Dexter, in Newburyport, remain as evidence of the fortunes amassed in
+      these places of old. Other mansions&mdash;like the Rockingham House in
+      Portsmouth (look at the white horse's tail before you mount the broad
+      staircase)&mdash;show that there was not only wealth, but style and state,
+      in these quiet old towns during the last century. It is not with any
+      thought of pity or depreciation that we speak of them as in a certain
+      sense decayed towns; they did not fulfil their early promise of expansion,
+      but they remain incomparably the most interesting places of their size in
+      any of the three northernmost New England States. They have even now
+      prosperity enough to keep them in good condition, and offer the most
+      attractive residences for quiet families, which, if they had been English,
+      would have lived in a palazzo at Genoa or Pisa, or some other Continental
+      Newburyport or Portsmouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the last of the three Ports, or Portland, it is getting too
+      prosperous to be as attractive as its less northerly neighbors. Meant for
+      a fine old town, to ripen like a Cheshire cheese within its walls of
+      ancient rind, burrowed by crooked alleys and mottled with venerable mould,
+      it seems likely to sacrifice its mellow future to a vulgar material
+      prosperity. Still it remains invested with many of its old charms, as yet,
+      and will forfeit its place among this admirable trio only when it gets a
+      hotel with unequivocal marks of having been built and organized in the
+      present century.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;It was one of the old square palaces of the North, in which Bernard
+      Langdon, the son of Wentworth, was born. If he had had the luck to be an
+      only child, he might have lived as his father had done, letting his meagre
+      competence smoulder on almost without consuming, like the fuel in an
+      air-tight stove. But after Master Bernard came Miss Dorothea Elizabeth
+      Wentworth Langdon, and then Master William Pepperell Langdon, and others,
+      equally well named,&mdash;a string of them, looking, when they stood in a
+      row in prayer-time, as if they would fit a set of Pandean pipes, of from
+      three feet upward in dimensions. The door of the air-tight stove has to be
+      opened, under such circumstances, you may well suppose! So it happened
+      that our young man had been obliged, from an early period, to do something
+      to support himself, and found himself stopped short in his studies by the
+      inability of the good people at home to furnish him the present means of
+      support as a student.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will understand now why the young man wanted me to give him a
+      certificate of his fitness to teach, and why I did not choose to urge him
+      to accept the aid which a meek country-boy from a family without
+      ante-Revolutionary recollections would have thankfully received. Go he
+      must,&mdash;that was plain enough. He would not be content otherwise. He
+      was not, however, to give up his studies; and as it is customary to allow
+      half-time to students engaged in school-keeping,&mdash;that is, to count a
+      year, so employed, if the student also keep on with his professional
+      studies, as equal to six months of the three years he is expected to be
+      under an instructor before applying for his degree,&mdash;he would not
+      necessarily lose more than a few months of time. He had a small library of
+      professional books, which he could take with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he left my teaching and that of my estimable colleagues, carrying with
+      him my certificate, that Mr. Bernard C. Langdon was a young gentleman of
+      excellent moral character, of high intelligence and good education, and
+      that his services would be of great value in any school, academy, or other
+      institution, where young persons of-either sex were to be instructed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I confess, that expression, &ldquo;either sex,&rdquo; ran a little thick, as I may
+      say, from my pen. For, although the young man bore a very fair character,
+      and there was no special cause for doubting his discretion, I considered
+      him altogether too good-looking, in the first place, to be let loose in a
+      roomful of young girls. I didn't want him to fall in love just then&mdash;and
+      if half a dozen girls fell in love with him, as they most assuredly would,
+      if brought into too near relations with him, why, there was no telling
+      what gratitude and natural sensibility might bring about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certificates are, for the most part, like ostrich-eggs; the giver never
+      knows what is hatched out of them. But once in a thousand times they act
+      as curses are said to,&mdash;come home to roost. Give them often enough,
+      until it gets to be a mechanical business, and, some day or other, you
+      will get caught warranting somebody's ice not to melt in any climate, or
+      somebody's razors to be safe in the hands of the youngest children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had an uneasy feeling, after giving this certificate. It might be all
+      right enough; but if it happened to end badly, I should always reproach
+      myself. There was a chance, certainly, that it would lead him or others
+      into danger or wretchedness. Any one who looked at this young man could
+      not fail to see that he was capable of fascinating and being fascinated.
+      Those large, dark eyes of his would sink into the white soul of a young
+      girl as the black cloth sunk into the snow in Franklin's famous
+      experiment. Or, on the other hand, if the rays of a passionate nature
+      should ever be concentrated on them, they would be absorbed into the very
+      depths of his nature, and then his blood would turn to flame and burn his
+      life out of him, until his cheeks grew as white as the ashes that cover a
+      burning coal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wish I had not said either sex in my certificate. An academy for young
+      gentlemen, now; that sounds cool and unimaginative. A boys' school, that
+      would be a very good place for him;&mdash;some of them are pretty rough,
+      but there is nerve enough in that old Wentworth strain of blood; he can
+      give any country fellow, of the common stock, twenty pounds, and hit him
+      out of time in ten minutes. But to send such a young fellow as that out a
+      girl's-nesting! to give this falcon a free pass into all the dove-cotes! I
+      was a fool,&mdash;that's all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I brooded over the mischief which might come out of these two words until
+      it seemed to me that they were charged with destiny. I could hardly sleep
+      for thinking what a train I might have been laying, which might take a
+      spark any day, and blow up nobody knows whose peace or prospects. What I
+      dreaded most was one of those miserable matrimonial misalliances where a
+      young fellow who does not know himself as yet flings his magnificent
+      future into the checked apron-lap of some fresh-faced, half-bred
+      country-girl, no more fit to be mated with him than her father's horse to
+      go in double harness with Flora Temple. To think of the eagle's wings,
+      being clipped so that he shall never lift himself over the farm-yard
+      fence! Such things happen, and always must,&mdash;because, as one of us
+      said awhile ago, a man always loves, a woman, and a woman a man, unless
+      some good reason exists to the contrary. You think yourself a very
+      fastidious young man, my friend; but there are probably at least
+      five-thousand young women in these United States, any one of whom you
+      would certainly marry, if you were thrown much into her company, and
+      nobody more attractive were near, and she had no objection. And you, my
+      dear young lady, justly pride yourself on your discerning delicacy; but if
+      I should say that there are twenty thousand young men, any one of whom, if
+      he offered his hand and heart under favorable circumstances, you would
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          &ldquo;First endure, then pity, then embrace,&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      I should be much more imprudent than I mean to be, and you would, no
+      doubt, throw down a story in which I hope to interest you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had settled it in my mind that this young fellow had a career marked out
+      for him. He should begin in the natural way, by taking care of poor
+      patients in one of the public charities, and work his way up to a better
+      kind of practice,&mdash;better, that is, in the vulgar, worldly sense. The
+      great and good Boerhaave used to say, as I remember very well, that the
+      poor were his best patients; for God was their paymaster. But everybody is
+      not as patient as Boerhaave, nor as deserving; so that the rich, though
+      not, perhaps, the best patients, are good enough for common practitioners.
+      I suppose Boerhaave put up with them when he could not get poor ones, as
+      he left his daughter two millions of florins when he died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now if this young man once got into the wide streets, he would sweep them
+      clear of his rivals of the same standing; and as I was getting indifferent
+      to business, and old Dr. Kilham was growing careless, and had once or
+      twice prescribed morphine when he meant quinine, there would soon be an
+      opening into the Doctor's Paradise,&mdash;the streets with only one side
+      to them. Then I would have him strike a bold stroke,&mdash;set up a nice
+      little coach, and be driven round like a first-class London doctor,
+      instead of coasting about in a shabby one-horse concern and casting anchor
+      opposite his patients' doors like a Cape Ann fishing-smack. By the time he
+      was thirty, he would have knocked the social pawns out of his way, and be
+      ready to challenge a wife from the row of great pieces in the background.
+      I would not have a man marry above his level, so as to become the
+      appendage of a powerful family-connection; but I would not have him marry
+      until he knew his level,&mdash;that is, again, looking at the matter in a
+      purely worldly point of view, and not taking the sentiments at all into
+      consideration. But remember, that a young man, using large endowments
+      wisely and fortunately, may put himself on a level with the highest in the
+      land in ten brilliant years of spirited, unflagging labor. And to stand at
+      the very top of your calling in a great city is something in itself,&mdash;that
+      is, if you like money, and influence, and a seat on the platform at public
+      lectures, and gratuitous tickets to all sorts of places where you don't
+      want to go, and, what is a good deal better than any of these things, a
+      sense of power, limited, it may be, but absolute in its range, so that all
+      the Caesars and Napoleons would have to stand aside, if they came between
+      you and the exercise of your special vocation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is what I thought this young fellow might have come to; and now I
+      have let him go off into the country with my certificate, that he is fit
+      to teach in a school for either sex! Ten to one he will run like a moth
+      into a candle, right into one of those girls'-nests, and get tangled up in
+      some sentimental folly or other, and there will be the end of him. Oh,
+      yes! country doctor,&mdash;half a dollar a visit,&mdash;drive, drive,
+      drive all day,&mdash;get up at night and harness your own horse,&mdash;drive
+      again ten miles in a snow-storm, shake powders out of two phials, (pulv.
+      glycyrrhiz., pulv. gum. acac. as partes equates,)&mdash;drive back again,
+      if you don't happen to get stuck in a drift, no home, no peace, no
+      continuous meals, no unbroken sleep, no Sunday, no holiday, no social
+      intercourse, but one eternal jog, jog, jog, in a sulky, until you feel
+      like the mummy of an Indian who had been buried in the sitting posture,
+      and was dug up a hundred years afterwards! Why did n't I warn him about
+      love and all that nonsense? Why didn't I tell him he had nothing to do
+      with it, yet awhile? Why did n't I hold up to him those awful examples I
+      could have cited, where poor young fellows who could just keep themselves
+      afloat have hung a matrimonial millstone round their necks, taking it for
+      a life-preserver? All this of two words in a certificate!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III. MR. BERNARD TRIES HIS HAND.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Whether the Student advertised for a school, or whether he fell in with
+      the advertisement of a school-committee, is not certain. At any rate, it
+      was not long before he found himself the head of a large district, or, as
+      it was called by the inhabitants, &ldquo;deestric&rdquo; school, in the flourishing
+      inland village of Pequawkett, or, as it is commonly spelt, Pigwacket
+      Centre. The natives of this place would be surprised, if they should hear
+      that any of the readers of a work published in Boston were unacquainted
+      with so remarkable a locality. As, however, some copies of it may be read
+      at a distance from this distinguished metropolis, it may be well to give a
+      few particulars respecting the place, taken from the Universal Gazetteer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;PIGWACKET, sometimes spelt Pequawkett. A post-village and township in
+      &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; Co., State of &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, situated in a fine
+      agricultural region, 2 thriving villages, Pigwacket Centre and Smithville,
+      3 churches, several school houses, and many handsome private residences.
+      Mink River runs through the town, navigable for small boats after heavy
+      rains. Muddy Pond at N. E. section, well stocked with horn pouts, eels,
+      and shiners. Products, beef, pork, butter, cheese. Manufactures,
+      shoe-pegs, clothes-pins, and tin-ware. Pop. 1373.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader may think there is nothing very remarkable implied in this
+      description. If, however he had read the town-history, by the Rev. Jabez
+      Grubb, he would have learned, that, like the celebrated Little Pedlington,
+      it was distinguished by many very remarkable advantages. Thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The situation of Pigwacket is eminently beautiful, looking down the
+      lovely valley of Mink River, a tributary of the Musquash. The air is
+      salubrious, and many of the inhabitants have attained great age, several
+      having passed the allotted period of 'three-score years and ten' before
+      succumbing to any of the various 'ills that flesh is heir to.' Widow
+      Comfort Leevins died in 1836 AEt. LXXXVII. years. Venus, an African, died
+      in 1841, supposed to be C. years old. The people are distinguished for
+      intelligence, as has been frequently remarked by eminent lyceum-lecturers,
+      who have invariably spoken in the highest terms of a Pigwacket audience.
+      There is a public library, containing nearly a hundred volumes, free to
+      all subscribers. The preached word is well attended, there is a
+      flourishing temperance society, and the schools are excellent. It is a
+      residence admirably adapted to refined families who relish the beauties of
+      Nature and the charms of society. The Honorable John Smith, formerly a
+      member of the State Senate, was a native of this town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That is the way they all talk. After all, it is probably pretty much like
+      other inland New England towns in point of &ldquo;salubrity,&rdquo;&mdash;that is,
+      gives people their choice of dysentery or fever every autumn, with a
+      season-ticket for consumption, good all the year round. And so of the
+      other pretences. &ldquo;Pigwacket audience,&rdquo; forsooth! Was there ever an
+      audience anywhere, though there wasn't a pair of eyes in it brighter than
+      pickled oysters, that did n't think it was &ldquo;distinguished for
+      intelligence&rdquo;?&mdash;&ldquo;The preached word&rdquo;! That means the Rev. Jabez
+      Grubb's sermons. &ldquo;Temperance society&rdquo;! &ldquo;Excellent schools&rdquo;! Ah, that is
+      just what we were talking about.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth was, that District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre, had had a good deal
+      of trouble of late with its schoolmasters. The committee had done their
+      best, but there were a number of well-grown and pretty rough young fellows
+      who had got the upper-hand of the masters, and meant to keep it. Two
+      dynasties had fallen before the uprising of this fierce democracy. This
+      was a thing that used to be not very uncommon; but in so &ldquo;intelligent&rdquo; a
+      community as that of Pigwacket Centre, in an era of public libraries and
+      lyceum-lectures, it was portentous and alarming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rebellion began under the ferule of Master Weeks, a slender youth from
+      a country college, underfed, thin-blooded, sloping-shouldered,
+      knock-kneed, straight-haired, weak-bearded, pale-eyed, wide-pupilled,
+      half-colored; a common type enough in in-door races, not rich enough to
+      pick and choose in their alliances. Nature kills off a good many of this
+      sort in the first teething-time, a few in later childhood, a good many
+      again in early adolescence; but every now and then one runs the gauntlet
+      of her various diseases, or rather forms of one disease, and grows up, as
+      Master Weeks had done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a very foolish thing for him to try to inflict personal punishment
+      on such a lusty young fellow as Abner Briggs, Junior, one of the &ldquo;hardest
+      customers&rdquo; in the way of a rough-and-tumble fight that there were anywhere
+      round. No doubt he had been insolent, but it would have been better to
+      overlook it. It pains me to report the events which took place when the
+      master made his rash attempt to maintain his authority. Abner Briggs,
+      Junior, was a great, hulking fellow, who had been bred to butchering, but
+      urged by his parents to attend school, in order to learn the elegant
+      accomplishments of reading and writing, in which he was sadly deficient.
+      He was in the habit of talking and laughing pretty loud in school-hours,
+      of throwing wads of paper reduced to a pulp by a natural and easy process,
+      of occasional insolence and general negligence. One of the soft, but
+      unpleasant missiles just alluded to flew by the master's head one morning,
+      and flattened itself against the wall, where it adhered in the form of a
+      convex mass in alto rilievo. The master looked round and saw the young
+      butcher's arm in an attitude which pointed to it unequivocally as the
+      source from which the projectile had taken its flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Master Weeks turned pale. He must &ldquo;lick&rdquo; Abner Briggs, Junior, or
+      abdicate. So he determined to lick Abner Briggs, Junior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here, Sir!&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;you have insulted me and outraged the decency
+      of the schoolroom often enough! Hold out your hand!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young fellow grinned and held it out. The master struck at it with his
+      black ruler, with a will in the blow and a snapping of the eyes, as much
+      as to say that he meant to make him smart this time. The young fellow
+      pulled his hand back as the ruler came down, and the master hit himself a
+      vicious blow with it on the right knee. There are things no man can stand.
+      The master caught the refractory youth by the collar and began shaking
+      him, or rather shaking himself against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Le' go o' that are coat, naow,&rdquo; said the fellow, &ldquo;or I 'll make ye! 'T
+      'll take tew on yet' handle me, I tell ye, 'n' then ye caant dew it!&rdquo;&mdash;and
+      the young pupil returned the master's attention by catching hold of his
+      collar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When it comes to that, the best man, not exactly in the moral sense, but
+      rather in the material, and more especially the muscular point of view, is
+      very apt to have the best of it, irrespectively of the merits of the case.
+      So it happened now. The unfortunate schoolmaster found himself taking the
+      measure of the sanded floor, amidst the general uproar of the school. From
+      that moment his ferule was broken, and the school-committee very soon had
+      a vacancy to fill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Master Pigeon, the successor of Master Weeks, was of better stature, but
+      loosely put together, and slender-limbed. A dreadfully nervous kind of man
+      he was, walked on tiptoe, started at sudden noises, was distressed when he
+      heard a whisper, had a quick, suspicious look, and was always saying,
+      &ldquo;Hush?&rdquo; and putting his hands to his ears. The boys were not long in
+      finding out this nervous weakness, of course. In less than a week a
+      regular system of torments was inaugurated, full of the most diabolical
+      malice and ingenuity. The exercises of the conspirators varied from day to
+      day, but consisted mainly of foot-scraping, solos on the slate-pencil,
+      (making it screech on the slate,) falling of heavy books, attacks of
+      coughing, banging of desk-lids, boot-creaking, with sounds as of drawing a
+      cork from time to time, followed by suppressed chuckles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Master Pigeon grew worse and worse under these inflictions. The rascally
+      boys always had an excuse for any one trick they were caught at. &ldquo;Could n'
+      help coughin', Sir.&rdquo; &ldquo;Slipped out o' m' han', Sir.&rdquo; &ldquo;Did n' go to, Sir.&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;Did n' dew't o' purpose, Sir.&rdquo; And so on,&mdash;always the best of
+      reasons for the most outrageous of behavior. The master weighed himself at
+      the grocer's on a platform balance, some ten days after he began keeping
+      the school. At the end of a week he weighed himself again. He had lost two
+      pounds. At the end of another week he had lost five. He made a little
+      calculation, based on these data, from which he learned that in a certain
+      number of months, going on at this rate, he should come to weigh precisely
+      nothing at all; and as this was a sum in subtraction he did not care to
+      work out in practice, Master Pigeon took to himself wings and left the
+      school-committee in possession of a letter of resignation and a vacant
+      place to fill once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the school to which Mr. Bernard Langdon found himself appointed
+      as master. He accepted the place conditionally, with the understanding
+      that he should leave it at the end of a month, if he were tired of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The advent of Master Langdon to Pigwacket Centre created a much more
+      lively sensation than had attended that of either of his predecessors.
+      Looks go a good way all the world over, and though there were several
+      good-looking people in the place, and Major Bush was what the natives of
+      the town called a &ldquo;hahnsome mahn,&rdquo; that is, big, fat, and red, yet the
+      sight of a really elegant young fellow, with the natural air which grows
+      up with carefully-bred young persons, was a novelty. The Brahmin blood
+      which came from his grandfather as well as from his mother, a direct
+      descendant of the old Flynt family, well known by the famous tutor, Henry
+      Flynt, (see Cat. Harv. Anno 1693,) had been enlivened and enriched by that
+      of the Wentworths, which had had a good deal of ripe old Madeira and other
+      generous elements mingled with it, so that it ran to gout sometimes in the
+      old folks and to high spirit, warm complexion, and curly hair in some of
+      the younger ones. The soft curling hair Mr. Bernard had inherited,&mdash;something,
+      perhaps, of the high spirit; but that we shall have a chance of finding
+      out by and by. But the long sermons and the frugal board of his Brahmin
+      ancestry, with his own habits of study, had told upon his color, which was
+      subdued to something more of delicacy than one would care to see in a
+      young fellow with rough work before him. This, however, made him look more
+      interesting, or, as the young ladies at Major Bush's said, &ldquo;interestin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mr. Bernard showed himself at meeting, on the first Sunday after his
+      arrival, it may be supposed that a good many eyes were turned upon the
+      young schoolmaster. There was something heroic in his coming forward so
+      readily to take a place which called for a strong hand, and a prompt,
+      steady will to guide it. In fact, his position was that of a military
+      chieftain on the eve of a battle. Everybody knew everything in Pigwacket
+      Centre; and it was an understood thing that the young rebels meant to put
+      down the new master, if they could. It was natural that the two prettiest
+      girls in the village, called in the local dialect, as nearly as our
+      limited alphabet will represent it, Alminy Cutterr, and Arvilly Braowne,
+      should feel and express an interest in the good-looking stranger, and
+      that, when their flattering comments were repeated in the hearing of their
+      indigenous admirers, among whom were some of the older &ldquo;boys&rdquo; of the
+      school, it should not add to the amiable dispositions of the turbulent
+      youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monday came, and the new schoolmaster was in his chair at the upper end of
+      the schoolhouse, on the raised platform. The rustics looked at his
+      handsome face, thoughtful, peaceful, pleasant, cheerful, but sharply cut
+      round the lips and proudly lighted about the eyes. The ringleader of the
+      mischief-makers, the young butcher who has before figured in this
+      narrative, looked at him stealthily, whenever he got a chance to study him
+      unobserved; for the truth was, he felt uncomfortable, whenever he found
+      the large, dark eyes fixed on his own little, sharp, deep-set, gray ones.
+      But he managed to study him pretty well,&mdash;first his face, then his
+      neck and shoulders, the set of his arms, the narrowing at the loins, the
+      make of his legs, and the way he moved. In short, he examined him as he
+      would have examined a steer, to see what he could do and how he would cut
+      up. If he could only have gone to him and felt of his muscles, he would
+      have been entirely satisfied. He was not a very wise youth, but he did
+      know well enough, that, though big arms and legs are very good things,
+      there is something besides size that goes to make a man; and he had heard
+      stories of a fighting-man, called &ldquo;The Spider,&rdquo; from his attenuated
+      proportions, who was yet a terrible hitter in the ring, and had whipped
+      many a big-limbed fellow, in and out of the roped arena.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could be smoother than the way in which everything went on for the
+      first day or two. The new master was so kind and courteous, he seemed to
+      take everything in such a natural, easy way, that there was no chance to
+      pick a quarrel with him. He in the mean time thought it best to watch the
+      boys and young men for a day or two with as little show of authority as
+      possible. It was easy enough to see that he would have occasion for it
+      before long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The schoolhouse was a grim, old, red, one-story building, perched on a
+      bare rock at the top of a hill,&mdash;partly because this was a
+      conspicuous site for the temple of learning, and partly because land is
+      cheap where there is no chance even for rye or buckwheat, and the very
+      sheep find nothing to nibble. About the little porch were carved initials
+      and dates, at various heights, from the stature of nine to that of
+      eighteen. Inside were old unpainted desks,&mdash;unpainted, but browned
+      with the umber of human contact,&mdash;and hacked by innumerable
+      jack-knives. It was long since the walls had been whitewashed, as might be
+      conjectured by the various traces left upon them, wherever idle hands or
+      sleepy heads could reach them. A curious appearance was noticeable on
+      various higher parts of the wall: namely, a wart-like eruption, as one
+      would be tempted to call it, being in reality a crop of the soft missiles
+      before mentioned, which, adhering in considerable numbers, and hardening
+      after the usual fashion of papier-mache, formed at last permanent
+      ornaments of the edifice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young master's quick eye soon noticed that a particular part of the
+      wall was most favored with these ornamental appendages. Their position
+      pointed sufficiently clearly to the part of the room they came from. In
+      fact, there was a nest of young mutineers just there, which must be broken
+      up by a coup d'etat. This was easily effected by redistributing the seats
+      and arranging the scholars according to classes, so that a mischievous
+      fellow, charged full of the rebellious imponderable, should find himself
+      between two non-conductors, in the shape of small boys of studious habits.
+      It was managed quietly enough, in such a plausible sort of way that its
+      motive was not thought of. But its effects were soon felt; and then began
+      a system of correspondence by signs, and the throwing of little scrawls
+      done up in pellets, and announced by preliminary a'h'ms! to call the
+      attention of the distant youth addressed. Some of these were incendiary
+      documents, devoting the schoolmaster to the lower divinities, as &ldquo;a
+      stuck-up dandy,&rdquo; as &ldquo;a purse-proud aristocrat,&rdquo; as &ldquo;a sight too big for
+      his, etc.,&rdquo; and holding him up in a variety of equally forcible phrases to
+      the indignation of the youthful community of School District No. 1,
+      Pigwacket Centre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the draughtsman of the school set a caricature in circulation,
+      labelled, to prevent mistakes, with the schoolmaster's name. An immense
+      bell-crowned hat, and a long, pointed, swallow-tailed coat showed that the
+      artist had in his mind the conventional dandy, as shown in prints of
+      thirty or forty years ago, rather than any actual human aspect of the
+      time. But it was passed round among the boys and made its laugh, helping
+      of course to undermine the master's authority, as &ldquo;Punch&rdquo; or the
+      &ldquo;Charivari&rdquo; takes the dignity out of an obnoxious minister. One morning,
+      on going to the schoolroom, Master Langdon found an enlarged copy of this
+      sketch, with its label, pinned on the door. He took it down, smiled a
+      little, put it into his pocket, and entered the schoolroom. An insidious
+      silence prevailed, which looked as if some plot were brewing. The boys
+      were ripe for mischief, but afraid. They had really no fault to find with
+      the master, except that he was dressed like a gentleman, which a certain
+      class of fellows always consider a personal insult to themselves. But the
+      older ones were evidently plotting, and more than once the warning a'h'm!
+      was heard, and a dirty little scrap of paper rolled into a wad shot from
+      one seat to another. One of these happened to strike the stove-funnel, and
+      lodged on the master's desk. He was cool enough not to seem to notice it.
+      He secured it, however, and found an opportunity to look at it, without
+      being observed by the boys. It required no immediate notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He who should have enjoyed the privilege of looking upon Mr. Bernard
+      Langdon the next morning, when his toilet was about half finished, would
+      have had a very pleasant gratuitous exhibition. First he buckled the strap
+      of his trousers pretty tightly. Then he took up a pair of heavy
+      dumb-bells, and swung them for a few minutes; then two great &ldquo;Indian
+      clubs,&rdquo; with which he enacted all sorts of impossible-looking feats. His
+      limbs were not very large, nor his shoulders remarkably broad; but if you
+      knew as much of the muscles as all persons who look at statues and
+      pictures with a critical eye ought to have learned,&mdash;if you knew the
+      trapezius, lying diamond-shaped over the back and shoulders like a monk's
+      cowl,&mdash;or the deltoid, which caps the shoulder like an epaulette,&mdash;or
+      the triceps, which furnishes the calf of the upper arm,&mdash;or the
+      hard-knotted biceps,&mdash;any of the great sculptural landmarks, in fact,&mdash;you
+      would have said there was a pretty show of them, beneath the white satiny
+      skin of Mr. Bernard Langdon. And if you had seen him, when he had laid
+      down the Indian clubs, catch hold of a leather strap that hung from the
+      beam of the old-fashioned ceiling,&mdash;and lift and lower himself over
+      and over again by his left hand alone, you might have thought it a very
+      simple and easy thing to do, until you tried to do it yourself. Mr.
+      Bernard looked at himself with the eye of an expert. &ldquo;Pretty well!&rdquo; he
+      said;&mdash;&ldquo;not so much fallen off as I expected.&rdquo; Then he set up his
+      bolster in a very knowing sort of way, and delivered two or three blows
+      straight as rulers and swift as winks. &ldquo;That will do,&rdquo; he said. Then, as
+      if determined to make a certainty of his condition, he took a dynamometer
+      from one of the drawers in his old veneered bureau. First he squeezed it
+      with his two hands. Then he placed it on the floor and lifted, steadily,
+      strongly. The springs creaked and cracked; the index swept with a great
+      stride far up into the high figures of the scale; it was a good lift. He
+      was satisfied. He sat down on the edge of his bed and looked at his
+      cleanly-shaped arms. &ldquo;If I strike one of those boobies, I am afraid I
+      shall spoil him,&rdquo; he said. Yet this young man, when weighed with his class
+      at the college, could barely turn one hundred and forty-two pounds in the
+      scale,&mdash;not a heavy weight, surely; but some of the middle weights,
+      as the present English champion, for instance, seem to be of a far finer
+      quality of muscle than the bulkier fellows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The master took his breakfast with a good appetite that morning, but was
+      perhaps rather more quiet than usual. After breakfast he went up-stairs
+      and put, on a light loose frock, instead of that which he commonly wore,
+      which was a close-fitting and rather stylish one. On his way to school he
+      met Alminy Cutterr, who happened to be walking in the other direction.
+      &ldquo;Good-morning, Miss Cutter,&rdquo; he said; for she and another young lady had
+      been introduced to him, on a former occasion, in the usual phrase of
+      polite society in presenting ladies to gentlemen,&mdash;&ldquo;Mr. Langdon, let
+      me make y' acquainted with Miss Cutterr;&mdash;let me make y' acquainted
+      with Miss Braowne.&rdquo; So he said, &ldquo;Good-morning&rdquo;; to which she replied,
+      &ldquo;Good-mornin', Mr. Langdon. Haow's your haalth?&rdquo; The answer to this
+      question ought naturally to have been the end of the talk; but Alminy
+      Cutterr lingered and looked as if she had something more on her mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A young fellow does not require a great experience to read a simple
+      country-girl's face as if it were a sign-board. Alminy was a good soul,
+      with red cheeks and bright eyes, kind-hearted as she could be, and it was
+      out of the question for her to hide her thoughts or feelings like a fine
+      lady. Her bright eyes were moist and her red cheeks paler than their wont,
+      as she said, with her lips quivering, &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Langdon, them boys 'll be
+      the death of ye, if ye don't take caar!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what's the matter, my dear?&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard.&mdash;Don't think
+      there was anything very odd in that &ldquo;my dear,&rdquo; at the second interview
+      with a village belle;&mdash;some of these woman-tamers call a girl &ldquo;My
+      dear,&rdquo; after five minutes' acquaintance, and it sounds all right as they
+      say it. But you had better not try it at a venture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It sounded all right to Alminy, as Mr. Bernard said it.&mdash;&ldquo;I 'll tell
+      ye what's the mahtterr,&rdquo; she said, in a frightened voice. &ldquo;Ahbner 's go'n'
+      to car' his dog, 'n' he'll set him on ye'z sure 'z y' 'r' alive. 'T's the
+      same cretur that haaf eat up Eben Squires's little Jo, a year come nex'
+      Faast day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now this last statement was undoubtedly overcolored; as little Jo Squires
+      was running about the village,&mdash;with an ugly scar on his arm, it is
+      true, where the beast had caught him with his teeth, on the occasion of
+      the child's taking liberties with him, as he had been accustomed to do
+      with a good-tempered Newfoundland dog, who seemed to like being pulled and
+      hauled round by children. After this the creature was commonly muzzled,
+      and, as he was fed on raw meat chiefly, was always ready for a fight,
+      which he was occasionally indulged in, when anything stout enough to match
+      him could be found in any of the neighboring villages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tiger, or, more briefly, Tige, the property of Abner Briggs, Junior,
+      belonged to a species not distinctly named in scientific books, but well
+      known to our country-folks under the name &ldquo;Yallah dog.&rdquo; They do not use
+      this expression as they would say black dog or white dog, but with almost
+      as definite a meaning as when they speak of a terrier or a spaniel. A
+      &ldquo;yallah dog&rdquo; is a large canine brute, of a dingy old-flannel color, of no
+      particular breed except his own, who hangs round a tavern or a butcher's
+      shop, or trots alongside of a team, looking as if he were disgusted with
+      the world, and the world with him. Our inland population, while they
+      tolerate him, speak of him with contempt. Old ______, of Meredith Bridge,
+      used to twit the sun for not shining on cloudy days, swearing, that, if he
+      hung up his &ldquo;yallah dog,&rdquo; he would make a better show of daylight. A
+      country fellow, abusing a horse of his neighbor's, vowed, that, &ldquo;if he had
+      such a hoss, he'd swap him for a `yallah dog,'&mdash;and then shoot the
+      dog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tige was an ill-conditioned brute by nature, and art had not improved him
+      by cropping his ears and tail and investing him with a spiked collar. He
+      bore on his person, also, various not ornamental scars, marks of old
+      battles; for Tige had fight in him, as was said before, and as might be
+      guessed by a certain bluntness about the muzzle, with a projection of the
+      lower jaw, which looked as if there might be a bull-dog stripe among the
+      numerous bar-sinisters of his lineage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was hardly fair, however, to leave Alminy Cutterr waiting while this
+      piece of natural history was telling.&mdash;As she spoke of little Jo, who
+      had been &ldquo;haaf eat up&rdquo; by Tige, she could not contain her sympathies, and
+      began to cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, my dear little soul,&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard, &ldquo;what are you worried about?
+      I used to play with a bear when I was a boy; and the bear used to hug me,
+      and I used to kiss him,&mdash;so!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was too bad of Mr. Bernard, only the second time he had seen Alminy;
+      but her kind feelings had touched him, and that seemed the most natural
+      way of expressing his gratitude. Ahniny looked round to see if anybody was
+      near; she saw nobody, so of course it would do no good to &ldquo;holler.&rdquo; She
+      saw nobody; but a stout young fellow, leading a yellow dog, muzzled, saw
+      her through a crack in a picket fence, not a great way off the road. Many
+      a year he had been &ldquo;hangin' 'raoun'&rdquo; Alminy, and never did he see any
+      encouraging look, or hear any &ldquo;Behave, naow!&rdquo; or &ldquo;Come, naow, a'n't ye
+      'shamed?&rdquo; or other forbidding phrase of acquiescence, such as village
+      belles under stand as well as ever did the nymph who fled to the willows
+      in the eclogue we all remember.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No wonder he was furious, when he saw the school master, who had never
+      seen the girl until within a week, touching with his lips those rosy
+      cheeks which he had never dared to approach. But that was all; it was a
+      sudden impulse; and the master turned away from the young girl, laughing,
+      and telling her not to fret herself about him,&mdash;he would take care of
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Master Langdon walked on toward his school-house, not displeased,
+      perhaps, with his little adventure, nor immensely elated by it; for he was
+      one of the natural class of the sex-subduers, and had had many a smile
+      without asking, which had been denied to the feeble youth who try to win
+      favor by pleading their passion in rhyme, and even to the more formidable
+      approaches of young officers in volunteer companies, considered by many to
+      be quite irresistible to the fair who have once beheld them from their
+      windows in the epaulettes and plumes and sashes of the &ldquo;Pigwacket
+      Invincibles,&rdquo; or the &ldquo;Hackmatack Rangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Master Langdon took his seat and began the exercises of his school. The
+      smaller boys recited their lessons well enough, but some of the larger
+      ones were negligent and surly. He noticed one or two of them looking
+      toward the door, as if expecting somebody or something in that direction.
+      At half past nine o'clock, Abner Briggs, Junior, who had not yet shown
+      himself, made his appearance. He was followed by his &ldquo;yallah dog,&rdquo; without
+      his muzzle, who squatted down very grimly near the door, and gave a
+      wolfish look round the room, as if he were considering which was the
+      plumpest boy to begin with. The young butcher, meanwhile, went to his
+      seat, looking somewhat flushed, except round the lips, which were hardly
+      as red as common, and set pretty sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put out that dog, Abner Briggs!&rdquo;&mdash;The master spoke as the captain
+      speaks to the helmsman, when there are rocks foaming at the lips, right
+      under his lee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abner Briggs answered as the helmsman answers, when he knows he has a
+      mutinous crew round him that mean to run the ship on the reef, and is one
+      of the mutineers himself. &ldquo;Put him aout y'rself, 'f ye a'n't afeard on
+      him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The master stepped into the aisle: The great cur showed his teeth,&mdash;and
+      the devilish instincts of his old wolf-ancestry looked out of his eyes,
+      and flashed from his sharp tusks, and yawned in his wide mouth and deep
+      red gullet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The movements of animals are so much quicker than those of human beings
+      commonly are, that they avoid blows as easily as one of us steps out of
+      the way of an ox-cart. It must be a very stupid dog that lets himself be
+      run over by a fast driver in his gig; he can jump out of the wheel's way
+      after the tire has already touched him. So, while one is lifting a stick
+      to strike or drawing back his foot to kick, the beast makes his spring,
+      and the blow or the kick comes too late.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not so this time. The master was a fencer, and something of a
+      boxer; he had played at singlestick, and was used to watching an
+      adversary's eye and coming down on him without any of those premonitory
+      symptoms by which unpractised persons show long beforehand what mischief
+      they meditate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out with you!&rdquo; he said, fiercely,&mdash;and explained what he meant by a
+      sudden flash of his foot that clashed the yellow dog's white teeth
+      together like the springing of a bear-trap. The cur knew he had found his
+      master at the first word and glance, as low animals on four legs, or a
+      smaller number, always do; and the blow took him so by surprise, that it
+      curled him up in an instant, and he went bundling out of the open
+      schoolhouse-door with a most pitiable yelp, and his stump of a tail shut
+      down as close as his owner ever shut the short, stubbed blade of his
+      jack-knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was time for the other cur to find who his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Follow your dog, Abner Briggs!&rdquo; said Master Langdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stout butcher-youth looked round, but the rebels were all cowed and
+      sat still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll go when I'm ready,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;'n' I guess I won't go afore I'm
+      ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're ready now,&rdquo; said Master Langdon, turning up his cuffs so that the
+      little boys noticed the yellow gleam of a pair of gold sleeve-buttons,
+      once worn by Colonel Percy Wentworth, famous in the Old French War.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abner Briggs, Junior, did not apparently think he was ready, at any rate;
+      for he rose up in his place, and stood with clenched fists, defiant, as
+      the master strode towards him. The master knew the fellow was really
+      frightened, for all his looks, and that he must have no time to rally. So
+      he caught him suddenly by the collar, and, with one great pull, had him
+      out over his desk and on the open floor. He gave him a sharp fling
+      backwards and stood looking at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rough-and-tumble fighters all clinch, as everybody knows; and Abner
+      Briggs, Junior, was one of that kind. He remembered how he had floored
+      Master Weeks, and he had just &ldquo;spunk&rdquo; enough left in him to try to repeat
+      his former successful experiment an the new master. He sprang at him,
+      open-handed, to clutch him. So the master had to strike,&mdash;once, but
+      very hard, and just in the place to tell. No doubt, the authority that
+      doth hedge a schoolmaster added to the effect of the blow; but the blow
+      was itself a neat one, and did not require to be repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now go home,&rdquo; said the master, &ldquo;and don't let me see you or your dog here
+      again.&rdquo; And he turned his cuffs down over the gold sleeve-buttons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This finished the great Pigwacket Centre School rebellion. What could be
+      done with a master who was so pleasant as long as the boys behaved
+      decently, and such a terrible fellow when he got &ldquo;riled,&rdquo; as they called
+      it? In a week's time everything was reduced to order, and the
+      school-committee were delighted. The master, however, had received a
+      proposition so much more agreeable and advantageous, that he informed the
+      committee he should leave at the end of his month, having in his eye a
+      sensible and energetic young college-graduate who would be willing and
+      fully competent to take his place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, at the expiration of the appointed time, Bernard Langdon, late master
+      of the School District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre, took his departure from
+      that place for another locality, whither we shall follow him, carrying
+      with him the regrets of the committee, of most of the scholars, and of
+      several young ladies; also two locks of hair, sent unbeknown to payrents,
+      one dark and one warmish auburn, inscribed with the respective initials of
+      Alminy Cutterr and Arvilly Braowne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV. THE MOTH FLIES INTO THE CANDLE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The invitation which Mr. Bernard Langdon had accepted came from the Board
+      of Trustees of the &ldquo;Apollinean Female Institute,&rdquo; a school for the
+      education of young ladies, situated in the flourishing town of Rockland.
+      This was an establishment on a considerable scale, in which a hundred
+      scholars or thereabouts were taught the ordinary English branches, several
+      of the modern languages, something of Latin, if desired, with a little
+      natural philosophy, metaphysics, and rhetoric, to finish off with in the
+      last year, and music at any time when they would pay for it. At the close
+      of their career in the Institute, they were submitted to a grand public
+      examination, and received diplomas tied in blue ribbons, which proclaimed
+      them with a great flourish of capitals to be graduates of the Apollinean
+      Female Institute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rockland was a town of no inconsiderable pretensions. It was ennobled by
+      lying at the foot of a mountain,&mdash;called by the working-folks of the
+      place &ldquo;the Maounting,&rdquo;&mdash;which sufficiently showed that it was the
+      principal high land of the district in which it was situated. It lay to
+      the south of this, and basked in the sunshine as Italy stretches herself
+      before the Alps. To pass from the town of Tamarack on the north of the
+      mountain to Rockland on the south was like crossing from Coire to
+      Chiavenna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is nothing gives glory and grandeur and romance and mystery to a
+      place like the impending presence of a high mountain. Our beautiful
+      Northampton with its fair meadows and noble stream is lovely enough, but
+      owes its surpassing attraction to those twin summits which brood over it
+      like living presences, looking down into its streets as if they were its
+      tutelary divinities, dressing and undressing their green shrines, robing
+      themselves in jubilant sunshine or in sorrowing clouds, and doing penance
+      in the snowy shroud of winter, as if they had living hearts under their
+      rocky ribs and changed their mood like the children of the soil at their
+      feet, who grow up under their almost parental smiles and frowns. Happy is
+      the child whose first dreams of heaven are blended with the evening
+      glories of Mount Holyoke, when the sun is firing its treetops, and gilding
+      the white walls that mark its one human dwelling! If the other and the
+      wilder of the two summits has a scowl of terror in its overhanging brows,
+      yet is it a pleasing fear to look upon its savage solitudes through the
+      barred nursery-windows in the heart of the sweet, companionable village.&mdash;And
+      how the mountains love their children! The sea is of a facile virtue, and
+      will run to kiss the first comer in any port he visits; but the chaste
+      mountains sit apart, and show their faces only in the midst of their own
+      families.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mountain which kept watch to the north of Rockland lay waste and
+      almost inviolate through much of its domain. The catamount still glared
+      from the branches of its old hemlocks on the lesser beasts that strayed
+      beneath him. It was not long since a wolf had wandered down, famished in
+      the winter's dearth, and left a few bones and some tufts of wool of what
+      had been a lamb in the morning. Nay, there were broad-footed tracks in the
+      snow only two years previously, which could not be mistaken;&mdash;the
+      black bear alone could have set that plantigrade seal, and little children
+      must come home early from school and play, for he is an indiscriminate
+      feeder when he is hungry, and a little child would not come amiss when
+      other game was wanting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these occasional visitors may have been mere wanderers, which,
+      straying along in the woods by day, and perhaps stalking through the
+      streets of still villages by night, had worked their way along down from
+      the ragged mountain-spurs of higher latitudes. The one feature of The
+      Mountain that shed the brownest horror on its woods was the existence of
+      the terrible region known as Rattlesnake Ledge, and still tenanted by
+      those damnable reptiles, which distil a fiercer venom under our cold
+      northern sky than the cobra himself in the land of tropical spices and
+      poisons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the earliest settlement of the place, this fact had been, next to the
+      Indians, the reigning nightmare of the inhabitants. It was easy enough,
+      after a time, to drive away the savages; for &ldquo;a screeching Indian Divell,&rdquo;
+       as our fathers called him, could not crawl into the crack of a rock to
+      escape from his pursuers. But the venomous population of Rattlesnake Ledge
+      had a Gibraltar for their fortress that might have defied the siege-train
+      dragged to the walls of Sebastopol. In its deep embrasures and its
+      impregnable easemates they reared their families, they met in love or
+      wrath, they twined together in family knots, they hissed defiance in
+      hostile clans, they fed, slept, hibernated, and in due time died in peace.
+      Many a foray had the towns-people made, and many a stuffed skin was shown
+      as a trophy,&mdash;nay, there were families where the children's first toy
+      was made from the warning appendage that once vibrated to the wrath of one
+      of these &ldquo;cruel serpents.&rdquo; Sometimes one of them, coaxed out by a warm
+      sun, would writhe himself down the hillside into the roads, up the walks
+      that led to houses,&mdash;worse than this, into the long grass, where the
+      barefooted mowers would soon pass with their swinging scythes,&mdash;more
+      rarely into houses, and on one memorable occasion, early in the last
+      century, into the meeting-house, where he took a position on the
+      pulpit-stairs,&mdash;as is narrated in the &ldquo;Account of Some Remarkable
+      Providences,&rdquo; etc., where it is suggested that a strong tendency of the
+      Rev. Didymus Bean, the Minister at that time, towards the Arminian Heresy
+      may have had something to do with it, and that the Serpent supposed to
+      have been killed on the Pulpit-Stairs was a false show of the Daemon's
+      Contrivance, he having come in to listen to a Discourse which was a sweet
+      Savour in his Nostrils, and, of course, not being capable of being killed
+      Himself. Others said, however, that, though there was good Reason to think
+      it was a Damon, yet he did come with Intent to bite the Heel of that
+      faithful Servant,&mdash;etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One Gilson is said to have died of the bite of a rattlesnake in this town
+      early in the present century. After this there was a great snake-hunt, in
+      which very many of these venomous beasts were killed,&mdash;one in
+      particular, said to have been as big round as a stout man's arm, and to
+      have had no less than forty joints to his rattle,&mdash;indicating,
+      according to some, that he had lived forty years, but, if we might put any
+      faith in the Indian tradition, that he had killed forty human beings,&mdash;an
+      idle fancy, clearly. This hunt, however, had no permanent effect in
+      keeping down the serpent population. Viviparous, creatures are a kind of
+      specie-paying lot, but oviparous ones only give their notes, as it were,
+      for a future brood,&mdash;an egg being, so to speak, a promise to pay a
+      young one by and by, if nothing happen. Now the domestic habits of the
+      rattlesnake are not studied very closely, for obvious reasons; but it is,
+      no doubt, to all intents and purposes oviparous. Consequently it has large
+      families, and is not easy to kill out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 184-, a melancholy proof was afforded to the inhabitants of
+      Rockland, that the brood which infested The Mountain was not extirpated. A
+      very interesting young married woman, detained at home at the time by the
+      state of her health, was bitten in the entry of her own house by a
+      rattlesnake which had found its way down from The Mountain. Owing to the
+      almost instant employment of powerful remedies, the bite did not prove
+      immediately fatal; but she died within a few months of the time when she
+      was bitten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this seemed to throw a lurid kind of shadow over The Mountain. Yet, as
+      many years passed without any accident, people grew comparatively
+      careless, and it might rather be said to add a fearful kind of interest to
+      the romantic hillside, that the banded reptiles, which had been the terror
+      of the red men for nobody knows how many thousand years, were there still,
+      with the same poison-bags and spring-teeth at the white men's service, if
+      they meddled with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other natural features of Rockland were such as many of our pleasant
+      country-towns can boast of. A brook came tumbling down the mountain-side
+      and skirted the most thickly settled portion of the village. In the parts
+      of its course where it ran through the woods, the water looked almost as
+      brown as coffee flowing from its urn,&mdash;to say like smoky quartz would
+      perhaps give a better idea,&mdash;but in the open plain it sparkled over
+      the pebbles white as a queen's diamonds. There were huckleberry-pastures
+      on the lower flanks of The Mountain, with plenty of the sweet-scented
+      bayberry mingled with the other bushes. In other fields grew great store
+      of high-bush blackberries. Along the roadside were bayberry-bushes, hung
+      all over with bright red coral pendants in autumn and far into the winter.
+      Then there were swamps set thick with dingy alders, where the three-leaved
+      arum and the skunk's-cabbage grew broad and succulent, shelving down into
+      black boggy pools here and there at the edge of which the green frog,
+      stupidest of his tribe, sat waiting to be victimized by boy or
+      snapping-turtle long after the shy and agile leopard-frog had taken the
+      six-foot spring that plumped him into the middle of the pool. And on the
+      neighboring banks the maiden-hair spread its flat disk of embroidered
+      fronds on the wire-like stem that glistened polished and brown as the
+      darkest tortoise-shell, and pale violets, cheated by the cold skies of
+      their hues and perfume, sunned themselves like white-cheeked invalids.
+      Over these rose the old forest-trees,&mdash;the maple, scarred with the
+      wounds which had drained away its sweet life-blood,&mdash;the beech, its
+      smooth gray bark mottled so as to look like the body of one of those great
+      snakes of old that used to frighten armies, always the mark of lovers'
+      knives, as in the days of Musidora and her swain,&mdash;the yellow birch,
+      rough as the breast of Silenus in old marbles,&mdash;the wild cherry, its
+      little bitter fruit lying unheeded at its foot,&mdash;and, soaring over
+      all, the huge, coarse-barked, splintery-limbed, dark-mantled hemlock, in
+      the depth of whose aerial solitudes the crow brooded on her nest unscared,
+      and the gray squirrel lived unharmed till his incisors grew to look like
+      ram's-horns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rockland would have been but half a town without its pond; Guinnepeg Pond
+      was the name of it, but the young ladies of the Apollinean Institute were
+      very anxious that it should be called Crystalline Lake. It was here that
+      the young folks used to sail in summer and skate in winter; here, too,
+      those queer, old, rum-scented good-for-nothing, lazy, story-telling,
+      half-vagabonds, who sawed a little wood or dug a few potatoes now and then
+      under the pretence of working for their living, used to go and fish
+      through the ice for pickerel every winter. And here those three young
+      people were drowned, a few summers ago, by the upsetting of a sail-boat in
+      a sudden flaw of wind. There is not one of these smiling ponds which has
+      not devoured more youths and maidens than any of those monsters the
+      ancients used to tell such lies about. But it was a pretty pond, and never
+      looked more innocent&mdash;so the native &ldquo;bard&rdquo; of Rockland said in his
+      elegy&mdash;than on the morning when they found Sarah Jane and Ellen Maria
+      floating among the lily-pads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Apollinean Institute, or Institoot, as it was more commonly called,
+      was, in the language of its Prospectus, a &ldquo;first-class Educational
+      Establishment.&rdquo; It employed a considerable corps of instructors to rough
+      out and finish the hundred young lady scholars it sheltered beneath its
+      roof. First, Mr. and Mrs. Peckham, the Principal and the Matron of the
+      school. Silas Peckham was a thorough Yankee, born on a windy part of the
+      coast, and reared chiefly on salt-fish. Everybody knows the type of Yankee
+      produced by this climate and diet: thin, as if he had been split and
+      dried; with an ashen kind of complexion, like the tint of the food he is
+      made of; and about as sharp, tough, juiceless, and biting to deal with as
+      the other is to the taste. Silas Peckham kept a young ladies' school
+      exactly as he would have kept a hundred head of cattle,&mdash;for the
+      simple, unadorned purpose of making just as much money in just as few
+      years as could be safely done. Mr. Peckham gave very little personal
+      attention to the department of instruction, but was always busy with
+      contracts for flour and potatoes, beef and pork, and other nutritive
+      staples, the amount of which required for such an establishment was enough
+      to frighten a quartermaster. Mrs. Peckham was from the West, raised on
+      Indian corn and pork, which give a fuller outline and a more humid
+      temperament, but may perhaps be thought to render people a little
+      coarse-fibred. Her specialty was to look after the feathering, cackling,
+      roosting, rising, and general behavior of these hundred chicks. An honest,
+      ignorant woman, she could not have passed an examination in the youngest
+      class. So this distinguished institution was under the charge of a
+      commissary and a housekeeper, and its real business was making money by
+      taking young girls in as boarders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Connected with this, however, was the incidental fact, which the public
+      took for the principal one, namely, the business of instruction. Mr.
+      Peckham knew well enough that it was just as well to have good instructors
+      as bad ones, so far as cost was concerned, and a great deal better for the
+      reputation of his feeding-establishment. He tried to get the best he could
+      without paying too much, and, having got them, to screw all the work out
+      of them that could possibly be extracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a master for the English branches, with a young lady assistant.
+      There was another young lady who taught French, of the ahvaung and
+      baundahng style, which does not exactly smack of the asphalt of the
+      Boulevards. There was also a German teacher of music, who sometimes helped
+      in French of the ahfaung and bauntaung style,&mdash;so that, between the
+      two, the young ladies could hardly have been mistaken for Parisians, by a
+      Committee of the French Academy. The German teacher also taught a Latin
+      class after his fashion,&mdash;benna, a ben, gahboot, ahead, and so forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The master for the English branches had lately left the school for private
+      reasons, which need not be here mentioned,&mdash;but he had gone, at any
+      rate, and it was his place which had been offered to Mr. Bernard Langdon.
+      The offer came just in season,&mdash;as, for various causes, he was
+      willing to leave the place where he had begun his new experience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on a fine morning that Mr. Bernard, ushered in by Mr. Peckham, made
+      his appearance in the great schoolroom of the Apollinean Institute. A
+      general rustle ran all round the seats when the handsome young man was
+      introduced. The principal carried him to the desk of the young lady
+      English assistant, Miss Darley by name, and introduced him to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not a great deal of study done that day. The young lady
+      assistant had to point out to the new master the whole routine in which
+      the classes were engaged when their late teacher left, and which had gone
+      on as well as it could since. Then Master Langdon had a great many
+      questions to ask, some relating to his new duties, and some, perhaps,
+      implying a degree of curiosity not very unnatural under the circumstances.
+      The truth is, the general effect of the schoolroom, with its scores of
+      young girls, all their eyes naturally centring on him with fixed or
+      furtive glances, was enough to bewilder and confuse a young man like
+      Master Langdon, though he was not destitute of self-possession, as we have
+      already seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You cannot get together a hundred girls, taking them as they come, from
+      the comfortable and affluent classes, probably anywhere, certainly not in
+      New England, without seeing a good deal of beauty. In fact, we very
+      commonly mean by beauty the way young girls look when there is nothing to
+      hinder their looking as Nature meant them to. And the great schoolroom of
+      the Apollinean Institute did really make so pretty a show on the morning
+      when Master Langdon entered it, that he might be pardoned for asking Miss
+      Darley more questions about his scholars than about their lessons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were girls of all ages: little creatures, some pallid and
+      delicate-looking, the offspring of invalid parents,&mdash;much given to
+      books, not much to mischief, commonly spoken of as particularly good
+      children, and contrasted with another sort, girls of more vigorous
+      organization, who were disposed to laughing and play, and required a
+      strong hand to manage them; then young growing misses of every shade of
+      Saxon complexion, and here and there one of more Southern hue: blondes,
+      some of them so translucent-looking that it seemed as if you could see the
+      souls in their bodies, like bubbles in glass, if souls were objects of
+      sight; brunettes, some with rose-red colors, and some with that swarthy
+      hue which often carries with it a heavily-shaded lip, and which, with pure
+      outlines and outspoken reliefs, gives us some of our handsomest women,&mdash;the
+      women whom ornaments of plain gold adorn more than any other parures; and
+      again, but only here and there, one with dark hair and gray or blue eyes,
+      a Celtic type, perhaps, but found in our native stock occasionally; rarest
+      of all, a light-haired girl with dark eyes, hazel, brown, or of the color
+      of that mountain-brook spoken of in this chapter, where it ran through
+      shadowy woodlands. With these were to be seen at intervals some of maturer
+      years, full-blown flowers among the opening buds, with that conscious look
+      upon their faces which so many women wear during the period when they
+      never meet a single man without having his monosyllable ready for him,&mdash;tied
+      as they are, poor things! on the rock of expectation, each of them an
+      Andromeda waiting for her Perseus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that girl in ringlets,&mdash;the fourth in the third row on the
+      right?&rdquo; said Master Langdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charlotte Ann Wood,&rdquo; said Miss Darley; &ldquo;writes very pretty poems.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&mdash;And the pink one, three seats from her? Looks bright; anything
+      in her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Emma Dean,&mdash;day-scholar,&mdash;Squire Dean's daughter,&mdash;nice
+      girl,&mdash;second medal last year.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The master asked these two questions in a careless kind of way, and did
+      not seem to pay any too much attention to the answers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who and what is that,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;sitting a little apart there,&mdash;that
+      strange, wild-looking girl?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This time he put the real question he wanted answered;&mdash;the other two
+      were asked at random, as masks for the third.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady-teacher's face changed;&mdash;one would have said she was
+      frightened or troubled. She looked at the girl doubtfully, as if she might
+      hear the master's question and its answer. But the girl did not look up;&mdash;she
+      was winding a gold chain about her wrist, and then uncoiling it, as if in
+      a kind of reverie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Darley drew close to the master and placed her hand so as to hide her
+      lips. &ldquo;Don't look at her as if we were talking about her,&rdquo; she whispered
+      softly; &ldquo;that is Elsie Venner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V. AN OLD-FASHIONED DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTER.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was a comfort to get to a place with something like society, with
+      residences which had pretensions to elegance, with people of some
+      breeding, with a newspaper, and &ldquo;stores&rdquo; to advertise in it, and with two
+      or three churches to keep each other alive by wholesome agitation.
+      Rockland was such a place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the natural features of the town have been described already. The
+      Mountain, of course, was what gave it its character, and redeemed it from
+      wearing the commonplace expression which belongs to ordinary
+      country-villages. Beautiful, wild, invested with the mystery which belongs
+      to untrodden spaces, and with enough of terror to give it dignity, it had
+      yet closer relations with the town over which it brooded than the passing
+      stranger knew of. Thus, it made a local climate by cutting off the
+      northern winds and holding the sun's heat like a garden-wall. Peachtrees,
+      which, on the northern side of the mountain, hardly ever came to fruit,
+      ripened abundant crops in Rockland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was still another relation between the mountain and the town at
+      its foot, which strangers were not likely to hear alluded to, and which
+      was oftener thought of than spoken of by its inhabitants. Those
+      high-impending forests,&mdash;&ldquo;hangers,&rdquo; as White of Selborne would have
+      called them,&mdash;sloping far upward and backward into the distance, had
+      always an air of menace blended with their wild beauty. It seemed as if
+      some heaven-scaling Titan had thrown his shaggy robe over the bare,
+      precipitous flanks of the rocky summit, and it might at any moment slide
+      like a garment flung carelessly on the nearest chance-support, and, so
+      sliding, crush the village out of being, as the Rossberg when it tumbled
+      over on the valley of Goldau.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Persons have been known to remove from the place, after a short residence
+      in it, because they were haunted day and night by the thought of this
+      awful green wall, piled up into the air over their heads. They would lie
+      awake of nights, thinking they heard the muffed snapping of roots, as if a
+      thousand acres of the mountain-side were tugging to break away, like the
+      snow from a house-roof, and a hundred thousand trees were clinging with
+      all their fibres to hold back the soil just ready to peel away and crash
+      down with all its rocks and forest-growths. And yet, by one of those
+      strange contradictions we are constantly finding in human nature, there
+      were natives of the town who would come back thirty or forty years after
+      leaving it, just to nestle under this same threatening mountainside, as
+      old men sun themselves against southward-facing walls. The old dreams and
+      legends of danger added to the attraction. If the mountain should ever
+      slide, they had a kind of feeling as if they ought to be there. It was a
+      fascination like that which the rattlesnake is said to exert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This comparison naturally suggests the recollection of that other source
+      of danger which was an element in the every-day life of the Rockland
+      people. The folks in some of the neighboring towns had a joke against
+      them, that a Rocklander could n't hear a beanpod rattle without saying,
+      &ldquo;The Lord have mercy on us!&rdquo; It is very true, that many a nervous old lady
+      has had a terrible start, caused by some mischievous young rogue's giving
+      a sudden shake to one of these noisy vegetable products in her immediate
+      vicinity. Yet, strangely enough, many persons missed the excitement of the
+      possibility of a fatal bite in other regions, where there were nothing but
+      black and green and striped snakes, mean ophidians, having the spite of
+      the nobler serpent without his venom,&mdash;poor crawling creatures, whom
+      Nature would not trust with a poison-bag. Many natives of Rockland did
+      unquestionably experience a certain gratification in this infinitesimal
+      sense of danger. It was noted that the old people retained their hearing
+      longer than in other places. Some said it was the softened climate, but
+      others believed it was owing to the habit of keeping their ears open
+      whenever they were walking through the grass or in the woods. At any rate,
+      a slight sense of danger is often an agreeable stimulus. People sip their
+      creme de noyau with a peculiar tremulous pleasure, because there is a bare
+      possibility that it may contain prussic acid enough to knock them over; in
+      which case they will lie as dead as if a thunder-cloud had emptied itself
+      into the earth through their brain and marrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Rockland had other features which helped to give it a special
+      character. First of all, there was one grand street which was its chief
+      glory. Elm Street it was called, naturally enough, for its elms made a
+      long, pointed-arched gallery of it through most of its extent. No natural
+      Gothic arch compares, for a moment, with that formed by two American elms,
+      where their lofty jets of foliage shoot across each other's ascending
+      curves, to intermingle their showery flakes of green. When one looks
+      through a long double row of these, as in that lovely avenue which the
+      poets of Yale remember so well,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;Oh, could the vista of my life but now as bright appear
+     As when I first through Temple Street looked down thine espalier!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      he beholds a temple not built with hands, fairer than any minster, with
+      all its clustered stems and flowering capitals, that ever grew in stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nobody knows New England who is not on terms of intimacy with one of its
+      elms. The elm comes nearer to having a soul than any other vegetable
+      creature among us. It loves man as man loves it. It is modest and patient.
+      It has a small flake of a seed which blows in everywhere and makes
+      arrangements for coming up by and by. So, in spring, one finds a crop of
+      baby-elms among his carrots and parsnips, very weak and small compared to
+      those succulent vegetables. The baby-elms die, most of them, slain,
+      unrecognized or unheeded, by hand or hoe, as meekly as Herod's innocents.
+      One of them gets overlooked, perhaps, until it has established a kind of
+      right to stay. Three generations of carrot and parsnip consumers have
+      passed away, yourself among them, and now let your great-grandson look for
+      the baby-elm. Twenty-two feet of clean girth, three hundred and sixty feet
+      in the line that bounds its leafy circle, it covers the boy with such a
+      canopy as neither glossy-leafed oak nor insect-haunted linden ever lifted
+      into the summer skies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elm Street was the pride of Rockland, but not only on account of its
+      Gothic-arched vista. In this street were most of the great houses, or
+      &ldquo;mansion-houses,&rdquo; as it was usual to call them. Along this street, also,
+      the more nicely kept and neatly painted dwellings were chiefly
+      congregated. It was the correct thing for a Rockland dignitary to have a
+      house in Elm Street. A New England &ldquo;mansion-house&rdquo; is naturally square,
+      with dormer windows projecting from the roof, which has a balustrade with
+      turned posts round it. It shows a good breadth of front-yard before its
+      door, as its owner shows a respectable expanse of a clean shirt-front. It
+      has a lateral margin beyond its stables and offices, as its master wears
+      his white wrist bands showing beyond his coat-cuffs. It may not have what
+      can properly be called grounds, but it must have elbow-room, at any rate.
+      Without it, it is like a man who is always tight-buttoned for want of any
+      linen to show. The mansion-house which has had to &ldquo;button itself up tight
+      in fences, for want of green or gravel margin,&rdquo; will be advertising for
+      boarders presently. The old English pattern of the New England
+      mansion-house, only on a somewhat grander scale, is Sir Thomas Abney's
+      place, where dear, good Dr. Watts said prayers for the family, and wrote
+      those blessed hymns of his that sing us into consciousness in our cradles,
+      and come back to us in sweet, single verses, between the moments of
+      wandering and of stupor, when we lie dying, and sound over us when we can
+      no longer hear them, bringing grateful tears to the hot, aching eyes
+      beneath the thick, black veils, and carrying the holy calm with them which
+      filled the good man's heart, as he prayed and sung under the shelter of
+      the old English mansion-house. Next to the mansion-houses, came the
+      two-story trim, white-painted, &ldquo;genteel&rdquo; houses, which, being more gossipy
+      and less nicely bred, crowded close up to the street, instead of standing
+      back from it with arms akimbo, like the mansion-houses. Their little
+      front-yards were very commonly full of lilac and syringa and other bushes,
+      which were allowed to smother the lower story almost to the exclusion of
+      light and airy so that, what with small windows and small windowpanes, and
+      the darkness made by these choking growths of shrubbery, the front parlors
+      of some of these houses were the most tomb-like, melancholy places that
+      could be found anywhere among the abodes of the living. Their garnishing
+      was apt to assist this impression. Large-patterned carpets, which always
+      look discontented in little rooms, haircloth furniture, black and shiny as
+      beetles' wing cases, and centre-tables, with a sullen oil-lamp of the kind
+      called astral by our imaginative ancestors, in the centre,&mdash;these
+      things were inevitable. In set piles round the lamp was ranged the current
+      literature of the day, in the form of Temperance Documents, unbound
+      numbers of one of the Unknown Public's Magazines with worn-out steel
+      engravings and high-colored fashion-plates, the Poems of a distinguished
+      British author whom it is unnecessary to mention, a volume of sermons, or
+      a novel or two, or both, according to the tastes of the family, and the
+      Good Book, which is always Itself in the cheapest and commonest company.
+      The father of the family with his hand in the breast of his coat, the
+      mother of the same in a wide-bordered cap, sometimes a print of the Last
+      Supper, by no means Morghen's, or the Father of his Country, or the old
+      General, or the Defender of the Constitution, or an unknown clergyman with
+      an open book before him,&mdash;these were the usual ornaments of the
+      walls, the first two a matter of rigor, the others according to politics
+      and other tendencies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This intermediate class of houses, wherever one finds them in New England
+      towns, are very apt to be cheerless and unsatisfactory. They have neither
+      the luxury of the mansion-house nor the comfort of the farm-house. They
+      are rarely kept at an agreeable temperature. The mansion-house has large
+      fireplaces and generous chimneys, and is open to the sunshine. The
+      farm-house makes no pretensions, but it has a good warm kitchen, at any
+      rate, and one can be comfortable there with the rest of the family,
+      without fear and without reproach. These lesser country-houses of genteel
+      aspirations are much given to patent subterfuges of one kind and another
+      to get heat without combustion. The chilly parlor and the slippery
+      hair-cloth seat take the life out of the warmest welcome. If one would
+      make these places wholesome, happy, and cheerful, the first precept would
+      be,&mdash;The dearest fuel, plenty of it, and let half the heat go up the
+      chimney. If you can't afford this, don't try to live in a &ldquo;genteel&rdquo;
+       fashion, but stick to the ways of the honest farm-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were a good many comfortable farm-houses scattered about Rockland.
+      The best of them were something of the following pattern, which is too
+      often superseded of late by a more pretentious, but infinitely less
+      pleasing kind of rustic architecture. A little back from the road, seated
+      directly on the green sod, rose a plain wooden building, two stories in
+      front, with a long roof sloping backwards to within a few feet of the
+      ground. This, like the &ldquo;mansion-house,&rdquo; is copied from an old English
+      pattern. Cottages of this model may be seen in Lancashire, for instance,
+      always with the same honest, homely look, as if their roofs acknowledged
+      their relationship to the soil out of which they sprung. The walls were
+      unpainted, but turned by the slow action of sun and air and rain to a
+      quiet dove or slate color. An old broken millstone at the door,&mdash;a
+      well-sweep pointing like a finger to the heavens, which the shining round
+      of water beneath looked up at like a dark unsleeping eye,&mdash;a single
+      large elm a little at one side,&mdash;a barn twice as big as the house,&mdash;a
+      cattle-yard, with
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The white horns tossing above the wall,&rdquo;&mdash;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      some fields, in pasture or in crops, with low stone walls round them,&mdash;a
+      row of beehives,&mdash;a garden-patch, with roots, and currant-bushes, and
+      many-hued hollyhocks, and swollen-stemmed, globe-headed, seedling onions,
+      and marigolds and flower-de-luces, and lady's-delights, and peonies,
+      crowding in together, with southernwood in the borders, and woodbine and
+      hops and morning-glories climbing as they got a chance,&mdash;these were
+      the features by which the Rockland-born children remembered the
+      farm-house, when they had grown to be men. Such are the recollections that
+      come over poor sailor-boys crawling out on reeling yards to reef topsails
+      as their vessels stagger round the stormy Cape; and such are the flitting
+      images that make the eyes of old country-born merchants look dim and
+      dreamy, as they sit in their city palaces, warm with the after-dinner
+      flush of the red wave out of which Memory arises, as Aphrodite arose from
+      the green waves of the ocean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two meeting-houses stood on two eminences, facing each other, and looking
+      like a couple of fighting-cocks with their necks straight up in the air,&mdash;as
+      if they would flap their roofs, the next thing, and crow out of their
+      upstretched steeples, and peck at each other's glass eyes with their
+      sharp-pointed weathercocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first was a good pattern of the real old-fashioned New England
+      meeting-house. It was a large barn with windows, fronted by a square tower
+      crowned with a kind of wooden bell inverted and raised on legs, out of
+      which rose a slender spire with the sharp-billed weathercock at its
+      summit. Inside, tall, square pews with flapping seats, and a gallery
+      running round three sides of the building. On the fourth side the pulpit,
+      with a huge, dusty sounding-board hanging over it. Here preached the
+      Reverend Pierrepont Honeywood, D. D., successor, after a number of
+      generations, to the office and the parsonage of the Reverend Didymus Bean,
+      before mentioned, but not suspected of any of his alleged heresies. He
+      held to the old faith of the Puritans, and occasionally delivered a
+      discourse which was considered by the hard-headed theologians of his
+      parish to have settled the whole matter fully and finally, so that now
+      there was a good logical basis laid down for the Millennium, which might
+      begin at once upon the platform of his demonstrations. Yet the Reverend
+      Dr. Honeywood was fonder of preaching plain, practical sermons about the
+      duties of life, and showing his Christianity in abundant good works among
+      his people. It was noticed by some few of his flock, not without comment,
+      that the great majority of his texts came from the Gospels, and this more
+      and more as he became interested in various benevolent enterprises which
+      brought him into relations with-ministers and kindhearted laymen of other
+      denominations. He was in fact a man of a very warm, open, and exceedingly
+      human disposition, and, although bred by a clerical father, whose motto
+      was &ldquo;Sit anima mea cum Puritanis,&rdquo; he exercised his human faculties in the
+      harness of his ancient faith with such freedom that the straps of it got
+      so loose they did not interfere greatly with the circulation of the warm
+      blood through his system. Once in a while he seemed to think it necessary
+      to come out with a grand doctrinal sermon, and them he would lapse away
+      for a while into preaching on men's duties to each other and to society,
+      and hit hard, perhaps, at some of the actual vices of the time and place,
+      and insist with such tenderness and eloquence on the great depth and
+      breadth of true Christian love and charity, that his oldest deacon shook
+      his head, and wished he had shown as much interest when he was preaching,
+      three Sabbaths back, on Predestination, or in his discourse against the
+      Sabellians. But he was sound in the faith; no doubt of that. Did he not
+      preside at the council held in the town of Tamarack, on the other side of
+      the mountain, which expelled its clergyman for maintaining heretical
+      doctrines? As presiding officer, he did not vote, of course, but there was
+      no doubt that he was all right; he had some of the Edwards blood in him,
+      and that couldn't very well let him go wrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meeting-house on the other and opposite summit was of a more modern
+      style, considered by many a great improvement on the old New England
+      model, so that it is not uncommon for a country parish to pull down its
+      old meeting-house, which has been preached in for a hundred years or so,
+      and put up one of these more elegant edifices. The new building was in
+      what may be called the florid shingle-Gothic manner. Its pinnacles and
+      crockets and other ornaments were, like the body of the building, all of
+      pine wood,&mdash;an admirable material, as it is very soft and easily
+      worked, and can be painted of any color desired. Inside, the walls were
+      stuccoed in imitation of stone,&mdash;first a dark brown square, then two
+      light brown squares, then another dark brown square, and so on, to
+      represent the accidental differences of shade always noticeable in the
+      real stones of which walls are built. To be sure, the architect could not
+      help getting his party-colored squares in almost as regular rhythmical
+      order as those of a chess-board; but nobody can avoid doing things in a
+      systematic and serial way; indeed, people who wish to plant trees in
+      natural chimps know very well that they cannot keep from making regular
+      lines and symmetrical figures, unless by some trick or other, as that one
+      of throwing a peck of potatoes up into the air and sticking in a tree
+      wherever a potato happens to fall. The pews of this meeting-house were the
+      usual oblong ones, where people sit close together, with a ledge before
+      them to support their hymn-books, liable only to occasional contact with
+      the back of the next pew's heads or bonnets, and a place running under the
+      seat of that pew where hats could be deposited,&mdash;always at the risk
+      of the owner, in case of injury by boots or crickets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this meeting-house preached the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather, a divine
+      of the &ldquo;Liberal&rdquo; school, as it is commonly called, bred at that famous
+      college which used to be thought, twenty or thirty years ago, to have the
+      monopoly of training young men in the milder forms of heresy. His
+      ministrations were attended with decency, but not followed with
+      enthusiasm. &ldquo;The beauty of virtue&rdquo; got to be an old story at last. &ldquo;The
+      moral dignity of human nature&rdquo; ceased to excite a thrill of satisfaction,
+      after some hundred repetitions. It grew to be a dull business, this
+      preaching against stealing and intemperance, while he knew very well that
+      the thieves were prowling round orchards and empty houses, instead of
+      being there to hear the sermon, and that the drunkards, being rarely
+      church-goers, get little good by the statistics and eloquent appeals of
+      the preacher. Every now and then, however, the Reverend Mr. Fairweather
+      let off a polemic discourse against his neighbor opposite, which waked his
+      people up a little; but it was a languid congregation, at best,&mdash;very
+      apt to stay away from meeting in the afternoon, and not at all given to
+      extra evening services. The minister, unlike his rival of the other side
+      of the way, was a down-hearted and timid kind of man. He went on preaching
+      as he had been taught to preach, but he had misgivings at times. There was
+      a little Roman Catholic church at the foot of the hill where his own was
+      placed, which he always had to pass on Sundays. He could never look on the
+      thronging multitudes that crowded its pews and aisles or knelt bare-headed
+      on its steps, without a longing to get in among them and go down on his
+      knees and enjoy that luxury of devotional contact which makes a
+      worshipping throng as different from the same numbers praying apart as a
+      bed of coals is from a trail of scattered cinders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, if I could but huddle in with those poor laborers and working-women!&rdquo;
+       he would say to himself. &ldquo;If I could but breathe that atmosphere, stifling
+      though it be, yet made holy by ancient litanies, and cloudy with the smoke
+      of hallowed incense, for one hour, instead of droning over these moral
+      precepts to my half-sleeping congregation!&rdquo; The intellectual isolation of
+      his sect preyed upon him; for, of all terrible things to natures like his,
+      the most terrible is to belong to a minority. No person that looked at his
+      thin and sallow cheek, his sunken and sad eye, his tremulous lip, his
+      contracted forehead, or who heard his querulous, though not unmusical
+      voice, could fail to see that his life was an uneasy one, that he was
+      engaged in some inward conflict. His dark, melancholic aspect contrasted
+      with his seemingly cheerful creed, and was all the more striking, as the
+      worthy Dr. Honeywood, professing a belief which made him a passenger on
+      board a shipwrecked planet, was yet a most good-humored and companionable
+      gentleman, whose laugh on week-days did one as much good to listen to as
+      the best sermon he ever delivered on a Sunday.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A mile or two from the centre of Rockland was a pretty little Episcopal
+      church, with a roof like a wedge of cheese, a square tower, a stained
+      window, and a trained rector, who read the service with such ventral depth
+      of utterance and rrreduplication of the rrresonant letter, that his own
+      mother would not have known him for her son, if the good woman had not
+      ironed his surplice and put it on with her own hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two public-houses in the place: one dignified with the name of
+      the Mountain House, somewhat frequented by city people in the summer
+      months, large-fronted, three-storied, balconied, boasting a distinct
+      ladies'-drawing-room, and spreading a table d'hote of some pretensions;
+      the other, &ldquo;Pollard's Tahvern,&rdquo; in the common speech,&mdash;a two-story
+      building, with a bar-room, once famous, where there was a great smell of
+      hay and boots and pipes and all other bucolic-flavored elements,&mdash;where
+      games of checkers were played on the back of the bellows with red and
+      white kernels of corn, or with beans and coffee, where a man slept in a
+      box-settle at night, to wake up early passengers,&mdash;where teamsters
+      came in, with wooden-handled whips and coarse frocks, reinforcing the
+      bucolic flavor of the atmosphere, and middle-aged male gossips, sometimes
+      including the squire of the neighboring law-office, gathered to exchange a
+      question or two about the news, and then fall into that solemn state of
+      suspended animation which the temperance bar-rooms of modern days produce
+      in human beings, as the Grotta del Cane does in dogs in the well-known
+      experiments related by travellers. This bar-room used to be famous for
+      drinking and storytelling, and sometimes fighting, in old times. That was
+      when there were rows of decanters on the shelf behind the bar, and a
+      hissing vessel of hot water ready, to make punch, and three or four
+      loggerheads (long irons clubbed at the end) were always lying in the fire
+      in the cold season, waiting to be plunged into sputtering and foaming mugs
+      of flip,&mdash;a goodly compound; speaking according to the flesh, made
+      with beer and sugar, and a certain suspicion of strong waters, over which
+      a little nutmeg being grated, and in it the hot iron being then allowed to
+      sizzle, there results a peculiar singed aroma, which the wise regard as a
+      warning to remove themselves at once out of the reach of temptation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the bar of Pollard's Tahvern no longer presented its old attractions,
+      and the loggerheads had long disappeared from the fire. In place of the
+      decanters, were boxes containing &ldquo;lozengers,&rdquo; as they were commonly
+      called, sticks of candy in jars, cigars in tumblers, a few lemons, grown
+      hard-skinned and marvellously shrunken by long exposure, but still feebly
+      suggestive of possible lemonade,&mdash;the whole ornamented by festoons of
+      yellow and blue cut flypaper. On the front shelf of the bar stood a large
+      German-silver pitcher of water, and scattered about were ill-conditioned
+      lamps, with wicks that always wanted picking, which burned red and smoked
+      a good deal, and were apt to go out without any obvious cause, leaving
+      strong reminiscences of the whale-fishery in the circumambient air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The common schoolhouses of Rockland were dwarfed by the grandeur of the
+      Apollinean Institute. The master passed one of them, in a walk he was
+      taking, soon after his arrival at Rockland. He looked in at the rows of
+      desks, and recalled his late experiences. He could not help laughing, as
+      he thought how neatly he had knocked the young butcher off his pins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little science is a dangerous thing, 'as well as a little 'learning,'&rdquo;
+       he said to himself; &ldquo;only it's dangerous to the fellow you' try it on.&rdquo;
+       And he cut him a good stick, and began climbing the side of The Mountain
+      to get a look at that famous Rattlesnake Ledge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI. THE SUNBEAM AND THE SHADOW.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The virtue of the world is not mainly in its leaders. In the midst of the
+      multitude which follows there is often something better than in the one
+      that goes before. Old generals wanted to take Toulon, but one of their
+      young colonels showed them how. The junior counsel has been known not
+      unfrequently to make a better argument than his senior fellow,&mdash;if,
+      indeed, he did not make both their arguments. Good ministers will tell you
+      they have parishioners who beat them in the practice of the virtues. A
+      great establishment, got up on commercial principles, like the Apollinean
+      Institute, might yet be well carried on, if it happened to get good
+      teachers. And when Master Langdon came to see its management, he
+      recognized that there must be fidelity and intelligence somewhere among
+      the instructors. It was only necessary to look for a moment at the fair,
+      open forehead, the still, tranquil eye of gentle, habitual authority, the
+      sweet gravity that lay upon the lips, to hear the clear answers to the
+      pupils' questions, to notice how every request had the force without the
+      form of a command, and the young man could not doubt that the good genius
+      of the school stood before him in the person of Helen barley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the old story. A poor country-clergyman dies, and leaves a widow
+      and a daughter. In Old England the daughter would have eaten the bitter
+      bread of a governess in some rich family. In New England she must keep a
+      school. So, rising from one sphere to another, she at length finds herself
+      the prima donna in the department of instruction in Mr. Silas Peckham's
+      educational establishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a miserable thing it is to be poor. She was dependent, frail,
+      sensitive, conscientious. She was in the power of a hard, grasping,
+      thin-blooded, tough-fibred, trading educator, who neither knew nor cared
+      for a tender woman's sensibilities, but who paid her and meant to have his
+      money's worth out of her brains, and as much more than his money's worth
+      as he could get. She was consequently, in plain English, overworked, and
+      an overworked woman is always a sad sight,&mdash;sadder a great deal than
+      an overworked man, because she is so much more fertile in capacities of
+      suffering than a man. She has so many varieties of headache,&mdash;sometimes
+      as if Jael were driving the nail that killed Sisera into her temples,&mdash;sometimes
+      letting her work with half her brain while the other half throbs as if it
+      would go to pieces,&mdash;sometimes tightening round the brows as if her
+      cap-band were a ring of iron,&mdash;and then her neuralgias, and her
+      backaches, and her fits of depression, in which she thinks she is nothing
+      and less than nothing, and those paroxysms which men speak slightingly of
+      as hysterical,&mdash;convulsions, that is all, only not commonly fatal
+      ones,&mdash;so many trials which belong to her fine and mobile structure,&mdash;that
+      she is always entitled to pity, when she is placed in conditions which
+      develop her nervous tendencies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor young lady's work had, of course, been doubled since the
+      departure of Master Langdon's predecessor. Nobody knows what the weariness
+      of instruction is, as soon as the teacher's faculties begin to be
+      overtasked, but those who have tried it. The relays of fresh pupils, each
+      new set with its exhausting powers in full action, coming one after
+      another, take out all the reserved forces and faculties of resistance from
+      the subject of their draining process.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day's work was over, and it was late in the evening, when she sat
+      down, tired and faint, with a great bundle of girls' themes or
+      compositions to read over before she could rest her weary head on the
+      pillow of her narrow trundle-bed, and forget for a while the treadmill
+      stair of labor she was daily climbing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How she dreaded this most forlorn of all a teacher's tasks! She was
+      conscientious in her duties, and would insist on reading every sentence,&mdash;there
+      was no saying where she might find faults of grammar or bad spelling.
+      There might have been twenty or thirty of these themes in the bundle
+      before her. Of course she knew pretty well the leading sentiments they
+      could contain: that beauty was subject to the accidents of time; that
+      wealth was inconstant, and existence uncertain; that virtue was its own
+      reward; that youth exhaled, like the dewdrop from the flower, ere the sun
+      had reached its meridian; that life was o'ershadowed with trials; that the
+      lessons of virtue instilled by our beloved teachers were to be our guides
+      through all our future career. The imagery employed consisted principally
+      of roses, lilies, birds, clouds, and brooks, with the celebrated
+      comparison of wayward genius to meteor. Who does not know the small,
+      slanted, Italian hand of these girls'-compositions, their stringing
+      together of the good old traditional copy-book phrases; their occasional
+      gushes of sentiment, their profound estimates of the world, sounding to
+      the old folks that read them as the experience of a bantam pullet's
+      last-hatched young one with the chips of its shell on its head would sound
+      to a Mother Cary's chicken, who knew the great ocean with all its typhoons
+      and tornadoes? Yet every now and then one is liable to be surprised with
+      strange clairvoyant flashes, that can hardly be explained, except by the
+      mysterious inspiration which every now and then seizes a young girl and
+      exalts her intelligence, just as hysteria in other instances exalts the
+      sensibility,&mdash;a little something of that which made Joan of Arc, and
+      the Burney girl who prophesied &ldquo;Evelina,&rdquo; and the Davidson sisters. In the
+      midst of these commonplace exercises which Miss Darley read over so
+      carefully were two or three that had something of individual flavor about
+      them, and here and there there was an image or an epithet which showed the
+      footprint of a passionate nature, as a fallen scarlet feather marks the
+      path the wild flamingo has trodden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young lady-teacher read them with a certain indifference of manner, as
+      one reads proofs&mdash;noting defects of detail, but not commonly arrested
+      by the matters treated of. Even Miss Charlotte Ann Wood's poem, beginning&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          &ldquo;How sweet at evening's balmy hour,&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      did not excite her. She marked the inevitable false rhyme of Cockney and
+      Yankee beginners, morn and dawn, and tossed the verses on the pile of
+      papers she had finished. She was looking over some of the last of them in
+      a rather listless way,&mdash;for the poor thing was getting sleepy in
+      spite of herself,&mdash;when she came to one which seemed to rouse her
+      attention, and lifted her drooping lids. She looked at it a moment before
+      she would touch it. Then she took hold of it by one corner and slid it off
+      from the rest. One would have said she was afraid of it, or had some
+      undefined antipathy which made it hateful to her. Such odd fancies are
+      common enough in young persons in her nervous state. Many of these young
+      people will jump up twenty times a day and run to dabble the tips of their
+      fingers in water, after touching the most inoffensive objects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This composition was written in a singular, sharp-pointed, long, slender
+      hand, on a kind of wavy, ribbed paper. There was something strangely
+      suggestive about the look of it, but exactly of what, Miss barley either
+      could not or did not try to think. The subject of the paper was The
+      Mountain,&mdash;the composition being a sort of descriptive rhapsody. It
+      showed a startling familiarity with some of the savage scenery of the
+      region. One would have said that the writer must have threaded its wildest
+      solitudes by the light of the moon and stars as well as by day. As the
+      teacher read on, her color changed, and a kind of tremulous agitation came
+      over her. There were hints in this strange paper she did not know what to
+      make of. There was something in its descriptions and imagery that
+      recalled,&mdash;Miss Darley could not say what,&mdash;but it made her
+      frightfully nervous. Still she could not help reading, till she came to
+      one passage which so agitated her, that the tired and over-wearied girl's
+      self-control left her entirely. She sobbed once or twice, then laughed
+      convulsively; and flung herself on the bed, where she worked out a set
+      hysteric spasm as she best might, without anybody to rub her hands and see
+      that she did not hurt herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by she got quiet, rose and went to her bookcase, took down a volume
+      of Coleridge, and read a short time, and so to bed, to sleep and wake from
+      time to time with a sudden start out of uneasy dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps it is of no great consequence what it was in the composition which
+      set her off into this nervous paroxysm. She was in such a state that
+      almost any slight agitation would have brought on the attack, and it was
+      the accident of her transient excitability, very probably, which made a
+      trifling cause the seeming occasion of so much disturbance. The theme was
+      signed, in the same peculiar, sharp, slender hand, E. Venner, and was, of
+      course, written by that wild-looking girl who had excited the master's
+      curiosity and prompted his question, as before mentioned. The next morning
+      the lady-teacher looked pale and wearied, naturally enough, but she was in
+      her place at the usual hour, and Master Langdon in his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls had not yet entered the school room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been ill, I am afraid,&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was not well yesterday,&rdquo; she, answered. &ldquo;I had a worry and a kind of
+      fright. It is so dreadful to have the charge of all these young souls and
+      bodies. Every young girl ought to walk locked close, arm in arm, between
+      two guardian angels. Sometimes I faint almost with the thought of all that
+      I ought to do, and of my own weakness and wants.&mdash;Tell me, are there
+      not natures born so out of parallel with the lines of natural law that
+      nothing short of a miracle can bring them right?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard had speculated somewhat, as all thoughtful persons of his
+      profession are forced to do, on the innate organic tendencies with which
+      individuals, families, and races are born. He replied, therefore, with a
+      smile, as one to whom the question suggested a very familiar class of
+      facts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, of course. Each of us is only the footing-up of a double column of
+      figures that goes back to the first pair. Every unit tells,&mdash;and some
+      of them are plus, and some minus. If the columns don't add up right, it is
+      commonly because we can't make out all the figures. I don't mean to say
+      that something may not be added by Nature to make up for losses and keep
+      the race to its average, but we are mainly nothing but the answer to a
+      long sum in addition and subtraction. No doubt there are people born with
+      impulses at every possible angle to the parallels of Nature, as you call
+      them. If they happen to cut these at right angles, of course they are
+      beyond the reach of common influences. Slight obliquities are what we have
+      most to do with in education. Penitentiaries and insane asylums take care
+      of most of the right-angle cases.&mdash;I am afraid I have put it too much
+      like a professor, and I am only a student, you know. Pray, what set you to
+      asking me this? Any strange cases among the scholars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The meek teacher's blue eyes met the luminous glance that came with the
+      question. She, too, was of gentle blood,&mdash;not meaning by that that
+      she was of any noted lineage, but that she came of a cultivated stock,
+      never rich, but long trained to intellectual callings. A thousand
+      decencies, amenities, reticences, graces, which no one thinks of until he
+      misses them, are the traditional right of those who spring from such
+      families. And when two persons of this exceptional breeding meet in the
+      midst of the common multitude, they seek each other's company at once by
+      the natural law of elective affinity. It is wonderful how men and women
+      know their peers. If two stranger queens, sole survivors of two
+      shipwrecked vessels, were cast, half-naked, on a rock together, each would
+      at once address the other as &ldquo;Our Royal Sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen Darley looked into the dark eyes of Bernard Langdon glittering with
+      the light which flashed from them with his question. Not as those foolish,
+      innocent country-girls of the small village did she look into them, to be
+      fascinated and bewildered, but to sound them with a calm, steadfast
+      purpose. &ldquo;A gentleman,&rdquo; she said to herself, as she read his expression
+      and his features with a woman's rapid, but exhausting glance. &ldquo;A lady,&rdquo; he
+      said to himself, as he met her questioning look,&mdash;so brief, so quiet,
+      yet so assured, as of one whom necessity had taught to read faces quickly
+      without offence, as children read the faces of parents, as wives read the
+      faces of hard-souled husbands. All this was but a few seconds' work, and
+      yet the main point was settled. If there had been any vulgar curiosity or
+      coarseness of any kind lurking in his expression, she would have detected
+      it. If she had not lifted her eyes to his face so softly and kept them
+      there so calmly and withdrawn them so quietly, he would not have said to
+      himself, &ldquo;She is a LADY,&rdquo; for that word meant a good deal to the
+      descendant of the courtly Wentworths and the scholarly Langdons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are strange people everywhere, Mr. Langdon,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and I don't
+      think our schoolroom is an exception. I am glad you believe in the force
+      of transmitted tendencies. It would break my heart, if I did not think
+      that there are faults beyond the reach of everything but God's special
+      grace. I should die, if I thought that my negligence or incapacity was
+      alone responsible for the errors and sins of those I have charge of. Yet
+      there are mysteries I do not know how to account for.&rdquo; She looked all
+      round the schoolroom, and then said, in a whisper, &ldquo;Mr. Langdon, we had a
+      girl that stole, in the school, not long ago. Worse than that, we had a
+      girl who tried to set us on fire. Children of good people, both of them.
+      And we have a girl now that frightens me so&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened, and three misses came in to take their seats: three
+      types, as it happened, of certain classes, into which it would not have
+      been difficult to distribute the greater number of the girls in the
+      school.&mdash;Hannah Martin. Fourteen years and three months old.
+      Short-necked, thick-waisted, round-cheeked, smooth, vacant forehead,
+      large, dull eyes. Looks good-natured, with little other expression. Three
+      buns in her bag, and a large apple. Has a habit of attacking her
+      provisions in school-hours.&mdash;Rosa Milburn. Sixteen. Brunette, with a
+      rare-ripe flush in her cheeks. Color comes and goes easily. Eyes
+      wandering, apt to be downcast. Moody at times. Said to be passionate, if
+      irritated. Finished in high relief. Carries shoulders well back and walks
+      well, as if proud of her woman's life, with a slight rocking movement,
+      being one of the wide-flanged pattern, but seems restless,&mdash;a hard
+      girl to look after. Has a romance in her pocket, which she means to read
+      in school-time.&mdash;Charlotte Ann Wood. Fifteen. The poetess before
+      mentioned. Long, light ringlets, pallid complexion, blue eyes. Delicate
+      child, half unfolded. Gentle, but languid and despondent. Does not go much
+      with the other girls, but reads a good deal, especially poetry,
+      underscoring favorite passages. Writes a great many verses, very fast, not
+      very correctly; full of the usual human sentiments, expressed in the
+      accustomed phrases. Under-vitalized. Sensibilities not covered with their
+      normal integuments. A negative condition, often confounded with genius,
+      and sometimes running into it. Young people who fall out of line through
+      weakness of the active faculties are often confounded with those who step
+      out of it through strength of the intellectual ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls kept coming in, one after another, or in pairs or groups, until
+      the schoolroom was nearly full. Then there was a little pause, and a light
+      step was heard in the passage. The lady-teacher's eyes turned to the door,
+      and the master's followed them in the same direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A girl of about seventeen entered. She was tall and slender, but rounded,
+      with a peculiar undulation of movement, such as one sometimes sees in
+      perfectly untutored country-girls, whom Nature, the queen of graces, has
+      taken in hand, but more commonly in connection with the very highest
+      breeding of the most thoroughly trained society. She was a splendid
+      scowling beauty, black-browed, with a flash of white teeth which was
+      always like a surprise when her lips parted. She wore a checkered dress,
+      of a curious pattern, and a camel's-hair scarf twisted a little
+      fantastically about her. She went to her seat, which she had moved a short
+      distance apart from the rest, and, sitting down, began playing listlessly
+      with her gold chain, as was a common habit with her, coiling it and
+      uncoiling it about her slender wrist, and braiding it in with her long,
+      delicate fingers. Presently she looked up. Black, piercing eyes, not
+      large,&mdash;a low forehead, as low as that of Clytie in the Townley bust,&mdash;black
+      hair, twisted in heavy braids,&mdash;a face that one could not help
+      looking at for its beauty, yet that one wanted to look away from for
+      something in its expression, and could not for those diamond eyes. They
+      were fixed on the lady-teacher now. The latter turned her own away, and
+      let them wander over the other scholars. But they could not help coming
+      back again for a single glance at the wild beauty. The diamond eyes were
+      on her still. She turned the leaves of several of her books, as if in
+      search of some passage, and, when she thought she had waited long enough
+      to be safe, once more stole a quick look at the dark girl. The diamond
+      eyes were still upon her. She put her kerchief to her forehead, which had
+      grown slightly moist; she sighed once, almost shivered, for she felt cold;
+      then, following some ill-defined impulse, which she could not resist, she
+      left her place and went to the young girl's desk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want of me, Elsie Venner?&rdquo; It was a strange question to put,
+      for the girl had not signified that she wished the teacher to come to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I thought I could make you come.&rdquo; The girl spoke in
+      a low tone, a kind of half-whisper. She did not lisp, yet her articulation
+      of one or two consonants was not absolutely perfect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you get that flower, Elsie?&rdquo; said Miss Darley. It was a rare
+      alpine flower, which was found only in one spot among the rocks of The
+      Mountain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where it grew,&rdquo; said Elsie Venner. &ldquo;Take it.&rdquo; The teacher could not
+      refuse her. The girl's finger tips touched hers as she took it. How cold
+      they were for a girl of such an organization!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The teacher went back to her seat. She made an excuse for quitting the
+      schoolroom soon afterwards. The first thing she did was to fling the
+      flower into her fireplace and rake the ashes over it. The second was to
+      wash the tips of her fingers, as if she had been another Lady Macbeth. A
+      poor, over-tasked, nervous creature,&mdash;we must not think too much of
+      her fancies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After school was done, she finished the talk with the master which had
+      been so suddenly interrupted. There were things spoken of which may prove
+      interesting by and by, but there are other matters we must first attend
+      to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII. THE EVENT OF THE SEASON.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. and Mrs. Colonel Sprowle's compliments to Mr. Langdon and requests
+      the pleasure of his company at a social entertainment on Wednesday evening
+      next.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         &ldquo;Elm St. Monday.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      On paper of a pinkish color and musky smell, with a large &ldquo;S&rdquo; at the top,
+      and an embossed border. Envelop adherent, not sealed. Addressed
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          LANGDON ESQ.
+          Present.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Brought by H. Frederic Sprowle, youngest son of the Colonel,&mdash;the H.
+      of course standing for the paternal Hezekiah, put in to please the father,
+      and reduced to its initial to please the mother, she having a marked
+      preference for Frederic. Boy directed to wait for an answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Langdon has the pleasure of accepting Mr. and Mrs. Colonel Sprowle's
+      polite invitation for Wednesday evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On plain paper, sealed with an initial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In walking along the main street, Mr. Bernard had noticed a large house of
+      some pretensions to architectural display, namely, unnecessarily
+      projecting eaves, giving it a mushroomy aspect, wooden mouldings at
+      various available points, and a grandiose arched portico. It looked a
+      little swaggering by the side of one or two of the mansion-houses that
+      were not far from it, was painted too bright for Mr. Bernard's taste, had
+      rather too fanciful a fence before it, and had some fruit-trees planted in
+      the front-yard, which to this fastidious young gentleman implied a
+      defective sense of the fitness of things, not promising in people who
+      lived in so large a house, with a mushroom roof and a triumphal arch for
+      its entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This place was known as &ldquo;Colonel Sprowle's villa,&rdquo; (genteel friends,)&mdash;as
+      &ldquo;the elegant residence of our distinguished fellow-citizen, Colonel
+      Sprowle,&rdquo; (Rockland Weekly Universe,)&mdash;as &ldquo;the neew haouse,&rdquo; (old
+      settlers,)&mdash;as &ldquo;Spraowle's Folly,&rdquo; (disaffected and possibly envious
+      neighbors,)&mdash;and in common discourse, as &ldquo;the Colonel's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hezekiah Sprowle, Esquire, Colonel Sprowle of the Commonwealth's Militia,
+      was a retired &ldquo;merchant.&rdquo; An India merchant he might, perhaps, have been
+      properly called; for he used to deal in West India goods, such as coffee,
+      sugar, and molasses, not to speak of rum,&mdash;also in tea, salt fish,
+      butter and cheese, oil and candles, dried fruit, agricultural &ldquo;p'doose&rdquo;
+       generally, industrial products, such as boots and shoes, and various kinds
+      of iron and wooden ware, and at one end of the establishment in calicoes
+      and other stuffs,&mdash;to say nothing of miscellaneous objects of the
+      most varied nature, from sticks of candy, which tempted in the smaller
+      youth with coppers in their fists, up to ornamental articles of apparel,
+      pocket-books, breast-pins, gilt-edged Bibles, stationery, in short,
+      everything which was like to prove seductive to the rural population. The
+      Colonel had made money in trade, and also by matrimony. He had married
+      Sarah, daughter and heiress of the late Tekel Jordan, Esq., an old miser,
+      who gave the town-clock, which carries his name to posterity in large gilt
+      letters as a generous benefactor of his native place. In due time the
+      Colonel reaped the reward of well-placed affections. When his wife's
+      inheritance fell in, he thought he had money enough to give up trade, and
+      therefore sold out his &ldquo;store,&rdquo; called in some dialects of the English
+      language shop, and his business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Life became pretty hard work to him, of course, as soon as he had nothing
+      particular to do. Country people with money enough not to have to work are
+      in much more danger than city people in the same condition. They get a
+      specific look and character, which are the same in all the villages where
+      one studies them. They very commonly fall into a routine, the basis of
+      which is going to some lounging-place or other, a bar-room, a
+      reading-room, or something of the kind. They grow slovenly in dress, and
+      wear the same hat forever. They have a feeble curiosity for news perhaps,
+      which they take daily as a man takes his bitters, and then fall silent and
+      think they are thinking. But the mind goes out under this regimen, like a
+      fire without a draught; and it is not very strange, if the instinct of
+      mental self-preservation drives them to brandy-and-water, which makes the
+      hoarse whisper of memory musical for a few brief moments, and puts a weak
+      leer of promise on the features of the hollow-eyed future. The Colonel was
+      kept pretty well in hand as yet by his wife, and though it had happened to
+      him once or twice to come home rather late at night with a curious
+      tendency to say the same thing twice and even three times over, it had
+      always been in very cold weather,&mdash;and everybody knows that no one is
+      safe to drink a couple of glasses of wine in a warm room and go suddenly
+      out into the cold air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Matilda Sprowle, sole daughter of the house, had reached the age at
+      which young ladies are supposed in technical language to have come out,
+      and thereafter are considered to be in company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's one piece o' goods,&rdquo; said the Colonel to his wife, &ldquo;that we
+      ha'n't disposed of, nor got a customer for yet. That 's Matildy. I don't
+      mean to set HER up at vaandoo. I guess she can have her pick of a dozen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She 's never seen anybody yet,&rdquo; said Mrs. Sprowle, who had had a certain
+      project for some time, but had kept quiet about it. &ldquo;Let's have a party,
+      and give her a chance to show herself and see some of the young folks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel was not very clear-headed, and he thought, naturally enough,
+      that the party was his own suggestion, because his remark led to the first
+      starting of the idea. He entered into the plan, therefore, with a feeling
+      of pride as well as pleasure, and the great project was resolved upon in a
+      family council without a dissentient voice. This was the party, then, to
+      which Mr. Bernard was going. The town had been full of it for a week.
+      &ldquo;Everybody was asked.&rdquo; So everybody said that was invited. But how in
+      respect of those who were not asked? If it had been one of the old
+      mansion-houses that was giving a party, the boundary between the favored
+      and the slighted families would have been known pretty well beforehand,
+      and there would have been no great amount of grumbling. But the Colonel,
+      for all his title, had a forest of poor relations and a brushwood swamp of
+      shabby friends, for he had scrambled up to fortune, and now the time was
+      come when he must define his new social position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is always an awkward business in town or country. An exclusive
+      alliance between two powers is often the same thing as a declaration of
+      war against a third. Rockland was soon split into a triumphant minority,
+      invited to Mrs. Sprowle's party, and a great majority, uninvited, of which
+      the fraction just on the border line between recognized &ldquo;gentility&rdquo; and
+      the level of the ungloved masses was in an active state of excitement and
+      indignation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is she, I should like to know?&rdquo; said Mrs. Saymore, the tailor's wife.
+      &ldquo;There was plenty of folks in Rockland as good as ever Sally Jordan was,
+      if she had managed to pick up a merchant. Other folks could have married
+      merchants, if their families was n't as wealthy as them old skinflints
+      that willed her their money,&rdquo; etc., etc. Mrs. Saymore expressed the
+      feeling of many beside herself. She had, however, a special right to be
+      proud of the name she bore. Her husband was own cousin to the Saymores of
+      Freestone Avenue (who write the name Seymour, and claim to be of the Duke
+      of Somerset's family, showing a clear descent from the Protector to Edward
+      Seymour, (1630,)&mdash;then a jump that would break a herald's neck to one
+      Seth Saymore,(1783,)&mdash;from whom to the head of the present family the
+      line is clear again). Mrs. Saymore, the tailor's wife, was not invited,
+      because her husband mended clothes. If he had confined himself strictly to
+      making them, it would have put a different face upon the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The landlord of the Mountain House and his lady were invited to Mrs.
+      Sprowle's party. Not so the landlord of Pollard's Tahvern and his lady.
+      Whereupon the latter vowed that they would have a party at their house
+      too, and made arrangements for a dance of twenty or thirty couples, to be
+      followed by an entertainment. Tickets to this &ldquo;Social Ball&rdquo; were soon
+      circulated, and, being accessible to all at a moderate price, admission to
+      the &ldquo;Elegant Supper&rdquo; included, this second festival promised to be as
+      merry, if not as select, as the great party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wednesday came. Such doings had never been heard of in Rockland as went on
+      that day at the &ldquo;villa.&rdquo; The carpet had been taken up in the long room, so
+      that the young folks might have a dance. Miss Matilda's piano had been
+      moved in, and two fiddlers and a clarionet-player engaged to make music.
+      All kinds of lamps had been put in requisition, and even colored
+      wax-candles figured on the mantel-pieces. The costumes of the family had
+      been tried on the day before: the Colonel's black suit fitted exceedingly
+      well; his lady's velvet dress displayed her contours to advantage; Miss
+      Matilda's flowered silk was considered superb; the eldest son of the
+      family, Mr. T. Jordan Sprowle, called affectionately and elegantly
+      &ldquo;Geordie,&rdquo; voted himself &ldquo;stunnin'&rdquo;; and even the small youth who had
+      borne Mr. Bernard's invitation was effective in a new jacket and trousers,
+      buttony in front, and baggy in the reverse aspect, as is wont to be the
+      case with the home-made garments of inland youngsters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great preparations had been made for the refection which was to be part of
+      the entertainment. There was much clinking of borrowed spoons, which were
+      to be carefully counted, and much clicking of borrowed china, which was to
+      be tenderly handled, for nobody in the country keeps those vast closets
+      full of such things which one may see in rich city-houses. Not a great
+      deal could be done in the way of flowers, for there were no greenhouses,
+      and few plants were out as yet; but there were paper ornaments for the
+      candlesticks, and colored mats for the lamps, and all the tassels of the
+      curtains and bells were taken out of those brown linen bags, in which, for
+      reasons hitherto undiscovered, they are habitually concealed in some
+      households. In the remoter apartments every imaginable operation was going
+      on at once,&mdash;roasting, boiling, baking, beating, rolling, pounding in
+      mortars, frying, freezing; for there was to be ice-cream to-night of
+      domestic manufacture;&mdash;and in the midst of all these labors, Mrs.
+      Sprowle and Miss Matilda were moving about, directing and helping as they
+      best might, all day long. When the evening came, it might be feared they
+      would not be in just the state of mind and body to entertain company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;One would like to give a party now and then, if one could be a
+      billionaire.&mdash;&ldquo;Antoine, I am going to have twenty people to dine
+      to-day.&rdquo; &ldquo;Biens, Madame.&rdquo; Not a word or thought more about it, but get
+      home in season to dress, and come down to your own table, one of your own
+      guests.&mdash;&ldquo;Giuseppe, we are to have a party a week from to-night,&mdash;five
+      hundred invitations&mdash;there is the list.&rdquo; The day comes. &ldquo;Madam, do
+      you remember you have your party tonight?&rdquo; &ldquo;Why, so I have! Everything
+      right? supper and all?&rdquo; &ldquo;All as it should be, Madam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send up Victorine.&rdquo; &ldquo;Victorine, full toilet for this evening,&mdash;pink,
+      diamonds, and emeralds. Coiffeur at seven. Allez.&rdquo;&mdash;Billionism, or
+      even millionism, must be a blessed kind of state, with health and clear
+      conscience and youth and good looks,&mdash;but most blessed is this, that
+      it takes off all the mean cares which give people the three wrinkles
+      between the eyebrows, and leaves them free to have a good time and make
+      others have a good time, all the way along from the charity that tips up
+      unexpected loads of wood before widows' houses, and leaves foundling
+      turkeys upon poor men's door-steps, and sets lean clergymen crying at the
+      sight of anonymous fifty-dollar bills, to the taste which orders a perfect
+      banquet in such sweet accord with every sense that everybody's nature
+      flowers out full&mdash;blown in its golden&mdash;glowing, fragrant
+      atmosphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;A great party given by the smaller gentry of the interior is a kind
+      of solemnity, so to speak. It involves so much labor and anxiety,&mdash;its
+      spasmodic splendors are so violently contrasted with the homeliness of
+      every-day family-life,&mdash;it is such a formidable matter to break in
+      the raw subordinates to the manege of the cloak-room and the table,&mdash;there
+      is such a terrible uncertainty in the results of unfamiliar culinary
+      operations,&mdash;so many feuds are involved in drawing that fatal line
+      which divides the invited from the uninvited fraction of the local
+      universe,&mdash;that, if the notes requested the pleasure of the guests'
+      company on &ldquo;this solemn occasion,&rdquo; they would pretty nearly express the
+      true state of things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel himself had been pressed into the service. He had pounded
+      something in the great mortar. He had agitated a quantity of sweetened and
+      thickened milk in what was called a cream-freezer. At eleven o'clock, A.
+      M., he retired for a space. On returning, his color was noted to be
+      somewhat heightened, and he showed a disposition to be jocular with the
+      female help,&mdash;which tendency, displaying itself in livelier
+      demonstrations than were approved at head-quarters, led to his being
+      detailed to out-of-door duties, such as raking gravel, arranging places
+      for horses to be hitched to, and assisting in the construction of an arch
+      of wintergreen at the porch of the mansion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A whiff from Mr. Geordie's cigar refreshed the toiling females from time
+      to time; for the windows had to be opened occasionally, while all these
+      operations were going on, and the youth amused himself with inspecting the
+      interior, encouraging the operatives now and then in the phrases commonly
+      employed by genteel young men,&mdash;for he had perused an odd volume of
+      &ldquo;Verdant Green,&rdquo; and was acquainted with a Sophomore from one of the
+      fresh-water colleges. &ldquo;Go it on the feed!&rdquo; exclaimed this spirited young
+      man. &ldquo;Nothin' like a good spread. Grub enough and good liquor, that's the
+      ticket. Guv'nor'll do the heavy polite, and let me alone for polishin' off
+      the young charmers.&rdquo; And Mr. Geordie looked expressively at a handmaid who
+      was rolling gingerbread, as if he were rehearsing for &ldquo;Don Giovanni.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Evening came at last, and the ladies were forced to leave the scene of
+      their labors to array themselves for the coming festivities. The tables
+      had been set in a back room, the meats were ready, the pickles were
+      displayed, the cake was baked, the blanc-mange had stiffened, and the
+      ice-cream had frozen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At half past seven o'clock, the Colonel, in costume, came into the front
+      parlor, and proceeded to light the lamps. Some were good-humored enough
+      and took the hint of a lighted match at once. Others were as vicious as
+      they could be,&mdash;would not light on any terms, any more than if they
+      were filled with water, or lighted and smoked one side of the chimney, or
+      spattered a few sparks and sulked themselves out, or kept up a faint show
+      of burning, so that their ground glasses looked as feebly phosphorescent
+      as so many invalid fireflies. With much coaxing and screwing and pricking,
+      a tolerable illumination was at last achieved. At eight there was a grand
+      rustling of silks, and Mrs. and Miss Sprowle descended from their
+      respective bowers or boudoirs. Of course they were pretty well tired by
+      this time, and very glad to sit down,&mdash;having the prospect before
+      them of being obliged to stand for hours. The Colonel walked about the
+      parlor, inspecting his regiment of lamps. By and by Mr. Geordie entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mph! mph!&rdquo; he sniffed, as he came in. &ldquo;You smell of lamp-smoke here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That always galls people,&mdash;to have a new-comer accuse them of smoke
+      or close air, which they have got used to and do not perceive. The Colonel
+      raged at the thought of his lamps' smoking, and tongued a few anathemas
+      inside of his shut teeth, but turned down two or three wicks that burned
+      higher than the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Master H. Frederic next made his appearance, with questionable marks upon
+      his fingers and countenance. Had been tampering with something brown and
+      sticky. His elder brother grew playful, and caught him by the baggy
+      reverse of his more essential garment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; said Mrs. Sprowle,&mdash;&ldquo;there 's the bell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody took position at once, and began to look very smiling and
+      altogether at ease.&mdash;False alarm. Only a parcel of spoons,&mdash;&ldquo;loaned,&rdquo;
+       as the inland folks say when they mean lent, by a neighbor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better late than never!&rdquo; said the Colonel, &ldquo;let me heft them spoons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Sprowle came down into her chair again as if all her bones had been
+      bewitched out of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm pretty nigh beat out a'ready,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;before any of the folks has
+      come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They sat silent awhile, waiting for the first arrival. How nervous they
+      got! and how their senses were sharpened!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark!&rdquo; said Miss Matilda,&mdash;&ldquo;what 's that rumblin'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a cart going over a bridge more than a mile off, which at any other
+      time they would not have heard. After this there was a lull, and poor Mrs.
+      Sprowle's head nodded once or twice. Presently a crackling and grinding of
+      gravel;&mdash;how much that means, when we are waiting for those whom we
+      long or dread to see! Then a change in the tone of the gravel-crackling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, they have turned in at our gate. They're comin'! Mother! mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody in position, smiling and at ease. Bell rings. Enter the first
+      set of visitors. The Event of the Season has begun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Law! it's nothin' but the Cranes' folks! I do believe Mahala 's come in
+      that old green de-laine she wore at the Surprise Party!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Matilda had peeped through a crack of the door and made this
+      observation and the remark founded thereon. Continuing her attitude of
+      attention, she overheard Mrs. Crane and her two daughters conversing in
+      the attiring-room, up one flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How fine everything is in the great house!&rdquo; said Mrs. Crane,&mdash;&ldquo;jest
+      look at the picters!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Matildy Sprowle's drawin's,&rdquo; said Ada Azuba, the eldest daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think so,&rdquo; said Mahala Crane, her younger sister,&mdash;a
+      wide-awake girl, who had n't been to school for nothing, and performed a
+      little on the lead pencil herself. &ldquo;I should like to know whether that's a
+      hay-cock or a mountain!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Matilda winced; for this must refer to her favorite monochrome,
+      executed by laying on heavy shadows and stumping them down into mellow
+      harmony,&mdash;the style of drawing which is taught in six lessons, and
+      the kind of specimen which is executed in something less than one hour.
+      Parents and other very near relatives are sometimes gratified with these
+      productions, and cause them to be framed and hung up, as in the present
+      instance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess we won't go down jest yet,&rdquo; said Mrs. Crane, &ldquo;as folks don't seem
+      to have come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So she began a systematic inspection of the dressing-room and its
+      conveniences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mahogany four-poster;&mdash;come from the Jordans', I cal'la,te.
+      Marseilles quilt. Ruffles all round the piller. Chintz curtings,&mdash;jest
+      put up,&mdash;o' purpose for the party, I'll lay ye a dollar.&mdash;What a
+      nice washbowl!&rdquo; (Taps it with a white knuckle belonging to a red finger.)
+      &ldquo;Stone chaney.&mdash;Here's a bran'-new brush and comb,&mdash;and here's a
+      scent-bottle. Come here, girls, and fix yourselves in the glass, and scent
+      your pocket-handkerchers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Mrs. Crane bedewed her own kerchief with some of the eau de Cologne of
+      native manufacture,&mdash;said on its label to be much superior to the
+      German article.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a relief to Mrs. and the Miss Cranes when the bell rang and the
+      next guests were admitted. Deacon and Mrs. Soper,&mdash;Deacon Soper of
+      the Rev. Mr. Fairweather's church, and his lady. Mrs. Deacon Soper was
+      directed, of course, to the ladies' dressing-room, and her husband to the
+      other apartment, where gentlemen were to leave their outside coats and
+      hats. Then came Mr. and Mrs. Briggs, and then the three Miss Spinneys,
+      then Silas Peckham, Head of the Apollinean Institute, and Mrs. Peckham,
+      and more after them, until at last the ladies' dressing-room got so full
+      that one might have thought it was a trap none of them could get out of.
+      In truth, they all felt a little awkwardly. Nobody wanted to be first to
+      venture down-stairs. At last Mr. Silas Peckham thought it was time to make
+      a move for the parlor, and for this purpose presented himself at the door
+      of the ladies' dressing-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lorindy, my dear!&rdquo; he exclaimed to Mrs. Peckham,&mdash;&ldquo;I think there can
+      be no impropriety in our joining the family down-stairs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Peckham laid her large, flaccid arm in the sharp angle made by the
+      black sleeve which held the bony limb her husband offered, and the two
+      took the stair and struck out for the parlor. The ice was broken, and the
+      dressing-room began to empty itself into the spacious, lighted apartments
+      below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Silas Peckham slid into the room with Mrs. Peckham alongside, like a
+      shad convoying a jelly-fish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-evenin', Mrs. Sprowle! I hope I see you well this evenin'. How 's
+      your haalth, Colonel Sprowle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, much obleeged to you. Hope you and your good lady are well.
+      Much pleased to see you. Hope you'll enjoy yourselves. We've laid out to
+      have everything in good shape,&mdash;spared no trouble nor ex&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;pence,&rdquo;&mdash;said Silas Peckham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Colonel Sprowle, who, you remember, was a Jordan, had nipped the
+      Colonel's statement in the middle of the word Mr. Peckham finished, with a
+      look that jerked him like one of those sharp twitches women keep giving a
+      horse when they get a chance to drive one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. and Mrs. Crane, Miss Ada Azuba, and Miss Mahala Crane made their
+      entrance. There had been a discussion about the necessity and propriety of
+      inviting this family, the head of which kept a small shop for hats and
+      boots and shoes. The Colonel's casting vote had carried it in the
+      affirmative.&mdash;How terribly the poor old green de-laine did cut up in
+      the blaze of so many lamps and candles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;Deluded little wretch, male or female, in town or country, going to
+      your first great party, how little you know the nature of the ceremony in
+      which you are to bear the part of victim! What! are not these garlands and
+      gauzy mists and many-colored streamers which adorn you, is not this music
+      which welcomes you, this radiance that glows about you, meant solely for
+      your enjoyment, young miss of seventeen or eighteen summers, now for the
+      first time swimming unto the frothy, chatoyant, sparkling, undulating sea
+      of laces and silks and satins, and white-armed, flower-crowned maidens
+      struggling in their waves beneath the lustres that make the false summer
+      of the drawing-room?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stop at the threshold! This is a hall of judgment you are entering; the
+      court is in session; and if you move five steps forward, you will be at
+      its bar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a tribunal once in France, as you may remember, called the
+      Chambre Ardente, the Burning Chamber. It was hung all round with lamps,
+      and hence its name. The burning chamber for the trial of young maidens is
+      the blazing ball-room. What have they full-dressed you, or rather
+      half-dressed you for, do you think? To make you look pretty, of course!
+      Why have they hung a chandelier above you, flickering all over with
+      flames, so that it searches you like the noonday sun, and your deepest
+      dimple cannot hold a shadow? To give brilliancy to the gay scene, no
+      doubt!&mdash;No, my clear! Society is inspecting you, and it finds
+      undisguised surfaces and strong lights a convenience in the process. The
+      dance answers the purpose of the revolving pedestal upon which the &ldquo;White
+      Captive&rdquo; turns, to show us the soft, kneaded marble, which looks as if it
+      had never been hard, in all its manifold aspects of living loveliness. No
+      mercy for you, my love! Justice, strict justice, you shall certainly have,&mdash;neither
+      more nor less. For, look you, there are dozens, scores, hundreds, with
+      whom you must be weighed in the balance; and you have got to learn that
+      the &ldquo;struggle for life&rdquo; Mr. Charles Darwin talks about reaches to
+      vertebrates clad in crinoline, as well as to mollusks in shells, or
+      articulates in jointed scales, or anything that fights for breathing-room
+      and food and love in any coat of fur or feather! Happy they who can flash
+      defiance from bright eyes and snowy shoulders back into the pendants of
+      the insolent lustres!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;Miss Mahala Crane did not have these reflections; and no young girl
+      ever did, or ever will, thank Heaven! Her keen eyes sparkled under her
+      plainly parted hair and the green de-laine moulded itself in those
+      unmistakable lines of natural symmetry in which Nature indulges a small
+      shopkeeper's daughter occasionally as well as a wholesale dealer's young
+      ladies. She would have liked a new dress as much as any other girl, but
+      she meant to go and have a good time at any rate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guests were now arriving in the drawing-room pretty fast, and the
+      Colonel's hand began to burn a good deal with the sharp squeezes which
+      many of the visitors gave it. Conversation, which had begun like a
+      summer-shower, in scattering drops, was fast becoming continuous, and
+      occasionally rising into gusty swells, with now and then a broad-chested
+      laugh from some Captain or Major or other military personage,&mdash;for it
+      may be noted that all large and loud men in the unpaved districts bear
+      military titles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deacon Soper came up presently, and entered into conversation with Colonel
+      Sprowle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope to see our pastor present this evenin',&rdquo; said the Deacon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't feel quite sure,&rdquo; the Colonel answered. &ldquo;His dyspepsy has been
+      bad on him lately. He wrote to say, that, Providence permittin', it would
+      be agreeable to him to take a part in the exercises of the evenin'; but I
+      mistrusted he did n't mean to come. To tell the truth, Deacon Soper, I
+      rather guess he don't like the idee of dancin', and some of the other
+      little arrangements.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Deacon, &ldquo;I know there's some condemns dancin'. I've heerd
+      a good deal of talk about it among the folks round. Some have it that it
+      never brings a blessin' on a house to have dancin' in it. Judge Tileston
+      died, you remember, within a month after he had his great ball, twelve
+      year ago, and some thought it was in the natur' of a judgment. I don't
+      believe in any of them notions. If a man happened to be struck dead the
+      night after he'd been givin' a ball,&rdquo; (the Colonel loosened his black
+      stock a little, and winked and swallowed two or three times,) &ldquo;I should
+      n't call it a judgment,&mdash;I should call it a coincidence. But I 'm a
+      little afraid our pastor won't come. Somethin' or other's the matter with
+      Mr. Fairweather. I should sooner expect to see the old Doctor come over
+      out of the Orthodox parsonage-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've asked him,&rdquo; said the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; said Deacon Soper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He said he should like to come, but he did n't know what his people would
+      say. For his part, he loved to see young folks havin' their sports
+      together, and very often felt as if he should like to be one of 'em
+      himself. 'But,' says I, 'Doctor, I don't say there won't be a little
+      dancin'.' 'Don't!' says he, 'for I want Letty to go,' (she's his
+      granddaughter that's been stayin' with him,) 'and Letty 's mighty fond of
+      dancin'. You know,' says the Doctor, 'it is n't my business to settle
+      whether other people's children should dance or not.' And the Doctor
+      looked as if he should like to rigadoon and sashy across as well as the
+      young one he was talkin' about. He 's got blood in him, the old Doctor
+      has. I wish our little man and him would swop pulpits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Deacon Soper started and looked up into the Colonel's face, as if to see
+      whether he was in earnest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Silas Peckham and his lady joined the group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this to be a Temperance Celebration, Mrs. Sprowle?&rdquo; asked Mr. Silas
+      Peckham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Sprowle replied, &ldquo;that there would be lemonade and srub for those
+      that preferred such drinks, but that the Colonel had given folks to
+      understand that he did n't mean to set in judgment on the marriage in
+      Canaan, and that those that didn't like srub and such things would find
+      somethin' that would suit them better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Deacon Soper's countenance assumed a certain air of restrained
+      cheerfulness. The conversation rose into one of its gusty paroxysms just
+      then. Master H. Frederic got behind a door and began performing the
+      experiment of stopping and unstopping his ears in rapid alternation,
+      greatly rejoicing in the singular effect of mixed conversation chopped
+      very small, like the contents of a mince-pie, or meat-pie, as it is more
+      forcibly called in the deep-rutted villages lying along the unsalted
+      streams. All at once it grew silent just round the door, where it had been
+      loudest,&mdash;and the silence spread itself like a stain, till it hushed
+      everything but a few corner-duets. A dark, sad-looking, middle-aged
+      gentleman entered the parlor, with a young lady on his arm,&mdash;his
+      daughter, as it seemed, for she was not wholly unlike him in feature, and
+      of the same dark complexion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dudley Venner,&rdquo; exclaimed a dozen people, in startled, but
+      half-suppressed tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can have brought Dudley out to-night?&rdquo; said Jefferson Buck, a young
+      fellow, who had been interrupted in one of the corner-duets which he was
+      executing in concert with Miss Susy Pettingill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do I know, Jeff?&rdquo; was Miss Susy's answer. Then, after a pause,&mdash;&ldquo;Elsie
+      made him come, I guess. Go ask Dr. Kittredge; he knows all about 'em both,
+      they say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Kittredge, the leading physician of Rockland, was a shrewd old man,
+      who looked pretty keenly into his patients through his spectacles, and
+      pretty widely at men, women, and things in general over them. Sixty-three
+      years old,&mdash;just the year of the grand climacteric. A bald crown, as
+      every doctor should have. A consulting practitioner's mouth; that is,
+      movable round the corners while the case is under examination, but both
+      corners well drawn down and kept so when the final opinion is made up. In
+      fact, the Doctor was often sent for to act as &ldquo;caounsel,&rdquo; all over the
+      county, and beyond it. He kept three or four horses, sometimes riding in
+      the saddle, commonly driving in a sulky, pretty fast, and looking straight
+      before him, so that people got out of the way of bowing to him as he
+      passed on the road. There was some talk about his not being so
+      long-sighted as other folks, but his old patients laughed and looked
+      knowing when this was spoken of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor knew a good many things besides how to drop tinctures and shake
+      out powders. Thus, he knew a horse, and, what is harder to understand, a
+      horse-dealer, and was a match for him. He knew what a nervous woman is,
+      and how to manage her. He could tell at a glance when she is in that
+      condition of unstable equilibrium in which a rough word is like a blow to
+      her, and the touch of unmagnetized fingers reverses all her nervous
+      currents. It is not everybody that enters into the soul of Mozart's or
+      Beethoven's harmonies; and there are vital symphonies in B flat, and other
+      low, sad keys, which a doctor may know as little of as a hurdy-gurdy
+      player of the essence of those divine musical mysteries. The Doctor knew
+      the difference between what men say and what they mean as well as most
+      people. When he was listening to common talk, he was in the habit of
+      looking over his spectacles; if he lifted his head so as to look through
+      them at the person talking, he was busier with that person's thoughts than
+      with his words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jefferson Buck was not bold enough to confront the Doctor with Miss Susy's
+      question, for he did not look as if he were in the mood to answer queries
+      put by curious young people. His eyes were fixed steadily on the dark
+      girl, every movement of whom he seemed to follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was, indeed, an apparition of wild beauty, so unlike the girls about
+      her that it seemed nothing more than natural, that, when she moved, the
+      groups should part to let her pass through them, and that she should carry
+      the centre of all looks and thoughts with her. She was dressed to please
+      her own fancy, evidently, with small regard to the modes declared correct
+      by the Rockland milliners and mantua-makers. Her heavy black hair lay in a
+      braided coil, with a long gold pin shat through it like a javelin. Round
+      her neck was a golden torque, a round, cord-like chain, such as the Gaols
+      used to wear; the &ldquo;Dying Gladiator&rdquo; has it. Her dress was a grayish
+      watered silk; her collar was pinned with a flashing diamond brooch, the
+      stones looking as fresh as morning dew-drops, but the silver setting of
+      the past generation; her arms were bare, round, but slender rather than
+      large, in keeping with her lithe round figure. On her wrists she wore
+      bracelets: one was a circlet of enamelled scales; the other looked as if
+      it might have been Cleopatra's asp, with its body turned to gold and its
+      eyes to emeralds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father&mdash;for Dudley Venner was her father&mdash;looked like a man
+      of culture and breeding, but melancholy and with a distracted air, as one
+      whose life had met some fatal cross or blight. He saluted hardly anybody
+      except his entertainers and the Doctor. One would have said, to look at
+      him, that he was not at the party by choice; and it was natural enough to
+      think, with Susy Pettingill, that it must have been a freak of the dark
+      girl's which brought him there, for he had the air of a shy and
+      sad-hearted recluse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was hard to say what could have brought Elsie Venner to the party.
+      Hardly anybody seemed to know her, and she seemed not at all disposed to
+      make acquaintances. Here and there was one of the older girls from the
+      Institute, but she appeared to have nothing in common with them. Even in
+      the schoolroom, it may be remembered, she sat apart by her own choice, and
+      now in the midst of the crowd she made a circle of isolation round
+      herself. Drawing her arm out of her father's, she stood against the wall,
+      and looked, with a strange, cold glitter in her eyes, at the crowd which
+      moved and babbled before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor came up to her by and by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Elsie, I am quite surprised to find you here. Do tell me how you
+      happened to do such a good-natured thing as to let us see you at such a
+      great party.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's been dull at the mansion-house,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and I wanted to get out
+      of it. It's too lonely there,&mdash;there's nobody to hate since Dick's
+      gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor laughed good-naturedly, as if this were an amusing bit of
+      pleasantry,&mdash;but he lifted his head and dropped his eyes a little, so
+      as to see her through his spectacles. She narrowed her lids slightly, as
+      one often sees a sleepy cat narrow hers,&mdash;somewhat as you may
+      remember our famous Margaret used to, if you remember her at all,&mdash;so
+      that her eyes looked very small, but bright as the diamonds on her breast.
+      The old Doctor felt very oddly as she looked at him; he did not like the
+      feeling, so he dropped his head and lifted his eyes and looked at her over
+      his spectacles again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how have you all been at the mansion house?&rdquo; said the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, well enough. But Dick's gone, and there's nobody left but Dudley and
+      I and the people. I'm tired of it. What kills anybody quickest, Doctor?&rdquo;
+       Then, in a whisper, &ldquo;I ran away again the other day, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you go?&rdquo; The Doctor spoke in a low, serious tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, to the old place. Here, I brought this for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor started as she handed him a flower of the Atragene Americana,
+      for he knew that there was only one spot where it grew, and that not one
+      where any rash foot, least of all a thin-shod woman's foot, should
+      venture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long were you gone?&rdquo; said the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only one night. You should have heard the horns blowing and the guns
+      firing. Dudley was frightened out of his wits. Old Sophy told him she'd
+      had a dream, and that I should be found in Dead-Man's Hollow, with a great
+      rock lying on me. They hunted all over it, but they did n't find me,&mdash;I
+      was farther up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Kittredge looked cloudy and worried while she was speaking, but
+      forced a pleasant professional smile, as he said cheerily, and as if
+      wishing to change the subject,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have a good dance this evening, Elsie. The fiddlers are tuning up. Where
+      's the young master? has he come yet? or is he going to be late, with the
+      other great folks?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl turned away without answering, and looked toward the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The &ldquo;great folks,&rdquo; meaning the mansion-house gentry, were just beginning
+      to come; Dudley Venner and his daughter had been the first of them. Judge
+      Thornton, white-headed, fresh-faced, as good at sixty as he was at forty,
+      with a youngish second wife, and one noble daughter, Arabella, who, they
+      said, knew as much law as her father, a stately, Portia like girl, fit for
+      a premier's wife, not like to find her match even in the great cities she
+      sometimes visited; the Trecothicks, the family of a merchant, (in the
+      larger sense,) who, having made himself rich enough by the time he had
+      reached middle life, threw down his ledger as Sylla did his dagger, and
+      retired to make a little paradise around him in one of the stateliest
+      residences of the town, a family inheritance; the Vaughans, an old
+      Rockland race, descended from its first settlers, Toryish in tendency in
+      Revolutionary times, and barely escaping confiscation or worse; the
+      Dunhams, a new family, dating its gentility only as far back as the
+      Honorable Washington Dunham, M. C., but turning out a clever boy or two
+      that went to college; and some showy girls with white necks and fat arms
+      who had picked up professional husbands: these were the principal
+      mansion-house people. All of them had made it a point to come; and as each
+      of them entered, it seemed to Colonel and Mrs. Sprowle that the lamps
+      burned up with a more cheerful light, and that the fiddles which sounded
+      from the uncarpeted room were all half a tone higher and half a beat
+      quicker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard came in later than any of them; he had been busy with his new
+      duties. He looked well and that is saying a good deal; for nothing but a
+      gentleman is endurable in full dress. Hair that masses well, a head set on
+      with an air, a neckerchief tied cleverly by an easy, practised hand,
+      close-fitting gloves, feet well shaped and well covered,&mdash;these
+      advantages can make us forgive the odious sable broadcloth suit, which
+      appears to have been adopted by society on the same principle that
+      condemned all the Venetian gondolas to perpetual and uniform blackness.
+      Mr. Bernard, introduced by Mr. Geordie, made his bow to the Colonel and
+      his lady and to Miss Matilda, from whom he got a particularly gracious
+      curtsy, and then began looking about him for acquaintances. He found two
+      or three faces he knew,&mdash;many more strangers. There was Silas
+      Peckham,&mdash;there was no mistaking him; there was the inelastic
+      amplitude of Mrs. Peckham; few of the Apollinean girls, of course, they
+      not being recognized members of society,&mdash;but there is one with the
+      flame in her cheeks and the fire in her eyes, the girl of vigorous tints
+      and emphatic outlines, whom we saw entering the schoolroom the other day.
+      Old Judge Thornton has his eyes on her, and the Colonel steals a look
+      every now and then at the red brooch which lifts itself so superbly into
+      the light, as if he thought it a wonderfully becoming ornament. Mr.
+      Bernard himself was not displeased with the general effect of the
+      rich-blooded schoolgirl, as she stood under the bright lamps, fanning
+      herself in the warm, languid air, fixed in a kind of passionate surprise
+      at the new life which seemed to be flowering out in her consciousness.
+      Perhaps he looked at her somewhat steadily, as some others had done; at
+      any rate, she seemed to feel that she was looked at, as people often do,
+      and, turning her eyes suddenly on him, caught his own on her face, gave
+      him a half-bashful smile, and threw in a blush involuntarily which made it
+      more charming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can I do better,&rdquo; he said to himself, &ldquo;than have a dance with Rosa
+      Milburn?&rdquo; So he carried his handsome pupil into the next room and took his
+      place with her in a cotillon. Whether the breath of the Goddess of Love
+      could intoxicate like the cup of Circe,&mdash;whether a woman is ever
+      phosphorescent with the luminous vapor of life that she exhales,&mdash;these
+      and other questions which relate to occult influences exercised by certain
+      women we will not now discuss. It is enough that Mr. Bernard was sensible
+      of a strange fascination, not wholly new to him, nor unprecedented in the
+      history of human experience, but always a revelation when it comes over us
+      for the first or the hundredth time, so pale is the most recent memory by
+      the side of the passing moment with the flush of any new-born passion on
+      its cheek. Remember that Nature makes every man love all women, and trusts
+      the trivial matter of special choice to the commonest accident.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Mr. Bernard had had nothing to distract his attention, he might have
+      thought too much about his handsome partner, and then gone home and
+      dreamed about her, which is always dangerous, and waked up thinking of her
+      still, and then begun to be deeply interested in her studies, and so on,
+      through the whole syllogism which ends in Nature's supreme quod erat
+      demonstrandum. What was there to distract him or disturb him? He did not
+      know,&mdash;but there was something. This sumptuous creature, this Eve
+      just within the gate of an untried Paradise, untutored in the ways of the
+      world, but on tiptoe to reach the fruit of the tree of knowledge,&mdash;alive
+      to the moist vitality of that warm atmosphere palpitating with voices and
+      music, as the flower of some dioecious plant which has grown in a lone
+      corner and suddenly unfolding its corolla on some hot-breathing June
+      evening, feels that the air is perfumed with strange odors and loaded with
+      golden dust wafted from those other blossoms with which its double life is
+      shared,&mdash;this almost over-womanized woman might well have bewitched
+      him, but that he had a vague sense of a counter-charm. It was, perhaps,
+      only the same consciousness that some one was looking at him which he
+      himself had just given occasion to in his partner. Presently, in one of
+      the turns of the dance, he felt his eyes drawn to a figure he had not
+      distinctly recognized, though he had dimly felt its presence, and saw that
+      Elsie Venner was looking at him as if she saw nothing else but him. He was
+      not a nervous person, like the poor lady-teacher, yet the glitter of the
+      diamond eyes affected him strangely. It seemed to disenchant the air, so
+      full a moment before of strange attractions. He became silent, and dreamy,
+      as it were. The round-limbed beauty at his side crushed her gauzy
+      draperies against him, as they trod the figure of the dance together, but
+      it was no more to him than if an old nurse had laid her hand on his
+      sleeve. The young girl chafed at his seeming neglect, and her imperious
+      blood mounted into her cheeks; but he appeared unconscious of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is one of our young ladies I must speak to,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;and was
+      just leaving his partner's side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Four hands all round?&rdquo; shouted the first violin,&mdash;and Mr. Bernard
+      found himself seized and whirled in a circle out of which he could not
+      escape, and then forced to &ldquo;cross over,&rdquo; and then to &ldquo;dozy do,&rdquo; as the
+      maestro had it,&mdash;and when, on getting back to his place, he looked
+      for Elsie Venner, she was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dancing went on briskly. Some of the old folks looked on, others
+      conversed in groups and pairs, and so the evening wore along, until a
+      little after ten o'clock. About this time there was noticed an increased
+      bustle in the passages, with a considerable opening and shutting of doors.
+      Presently it began to be whispered about that they were going to have
+      supper. Many, who had never been to any large party before, held their
+      breath for a moment at this announcement. It was rather with a tremulous
+      interest than with open hilarity that the rumor was generally received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One point the Colonel had entirely forgotten to settle. It was a point
+      involving not merely propriety, but perhaps principle also, or at least
+      the good report of the house,&mdash;and he had never thought to arrange
+      it. He took Judge Thornton aside and whispered the important question to
+      him,&mdash;in his distress of mind, mistaking pockets and taking out his
+      bandanna instead of his white handkerchief to wipe his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Judge,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;do you think, that, before we commence refreshing
+      ourselves at the tables, it would be the proper thing to&mdash;crave a&mdash;to
+      request Deacon Soper or some other elderly person&mdash;to ask a
+      blessing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge looked as grave as if he were about giving the opinion of the
+      Court in the great India-rubber case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the whole,&rdquo; he answered, after a pause, &ldquo;I should think it might,
+      perhaps, be dispensed with on this occasion. Young folks are noisy, and it
+      is awkward to have talking and laughing going on while blessing is being
+      asked. Unless a clergyman is present and makes a point of it, I think it
+      will hardly be expected.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel was infinitely relieved. &ldquo;Judge, will you take Mrs. Sprowle in
+      to supper?&rdquo; And the Colonel returned the compliment by offering his arm to
+      Mrs. Judge Thornton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door of the supper-room was now open, and the company, following the
+      lead of the host and hostess, began to stream into it, until it was pretty
+      well filled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an awful kind of pause. Many were beginning to drop their heads
+      and shut their eyes, in anticipation of the usual petition before a meal;
+      some expected the music to strike up,&mdash;others, that an oration would
+      now be delivered by the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make yourselves at home, ladies and gentlemen,&rdquo; said the Colonel; &ldquo;good
+      things were made to eat, and you're welcome to all you see before you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying he attacked a huge turkey which stood at the head of the table;
+      and his example being followed first by the bold, then by the doubtful,
+      and lastly by the timid, the clatter soon made the circuit of the tables.
+      Some were shocked, however, as the Colonel had feared they would be, at
+      the want of the customary invocation. Widow Leech, a kind of relation, who
+      had to be invited, and who came with her old, back-country-looking string
+      of gold beads round her neck, seemed to feel very serious about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If she'd ha' known that folks would begrutch cravin' a blessin' over sech
+      a heap o' provisions, she'd rather ha' staid t' home. It was a bad sign,
+      when folks was n't grateful for the baounties of Providence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The elder Miss Spinney, to whom she made this remark, assented to it, at
+      the same time ogling a piece of frosted cake, which she presently
+      appropriated with great refinement of manner,&mdash;taking it between her
+      thumb and forefinger, keeping the others well spread and the little finger
+      in extreme divergence, with a graceful undulation of the neck, and a queer
+      little sound in her throat, as of an M that wanted to get out and perished
+      in the attempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tables now presented an animated spectacle. Young fellows of the more
+      dashing sort, with high stand-up collars and voluminous bows to their
+      neckerchiefs, distinguished themselves by cutting up fowls and offering
+      portions thereof to the buxom girls these knowing ones had commonly
+      selected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A bit of the wing, Roxy, or of the&mdash;under limb?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The first laugh broke out at this, but it was premature, a sporadic laugh,
+      as Dr. Kittredge would have said, which did not become epidemic. People
+      were very solemn as yet, many of them being new to such splendid scenes,
+      and crushed, as it were, in the presence of so much crockery and so many
+      silver spoons, and such a variety of unusual viands and beverages. When
+      the laugh rose around Roxy and her saucy beau, several looked in that
+      direction with an anxious expression, as if something had happened, a lady
+      fainted, for instance, or a couple of lively fellows come to high words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Young folks will be young folks,&rdquo; said Deacon Soper. &ldquo;No harm done. Least
+      said soonest mended.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have some of these shell-oysters?&rdquo; said the Colonel to Mrs. Trecothick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A delicate emphasis on the word shell implied that the Colonel knew what
+      was what. To the New England inland native, beyond the reach of the east
+      winds, the oyster unconditioned, the oyster absolute, without a qualifying
+      adjective, is the pickled oyster. Mrs. Trecothick, who knew very well that
+      an oyster long out of his shell (as is apt to be the case with the rural
+      bivalve) gets homesick and loses his sprightliness, replied, with the
+      pleasantest smile in the world, that the chicken she had been helped to
+      was too delicate to be given up even for the greater rarity. But the word
+      &ldquo;shell-oysters&rdquo; had been overheard; and there was a perceptible crowding
+      movement towards their newly discovered habitat, a large soup-tureen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silas Peckham had meantime fallen upon another locality of these recent
+      mollusks. He said nothing, but helped himself freely, and made a sign to
+      Mrs. Peckham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lorindy,&rdquo; he whispered, &ldquo;shell-oysters&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And ladled them out to her largely, without betraying any emotion, just as
+      if they had been the natural inland or pickled article.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the more solid portion of the banquet had been duly honored, the
+      cakes and sweet preparations of various kinds began to get their share of
+      attention. There were great cakes and little cakes, cakes with raisins in
+      them, cakes with currants, and cakes without either; there were brown
+      cakes and yellow cakes, frosted cakes, glazed cakes, hearts and rounds,
+      and jumbles, which playful youth slip over the forefinger before spoiling
+      their annular outline. There were mounds of blo'monje, of the arrowroot
+      variety,&mdash;that being undistinguishable from such as is made with
+      Russia isinglass. There were jellies, which had been shaking, all the time
+      the young folks were dancing in the next room, as if they were balancing
+      to partners. There were built-up fabrics, called Charlottes, caky
+      externally, pulpy within; there were also marangs, and likewise custards,&mdash;some
+      of the indolent-fluid sort, others firm, in which every stroke of the
+      teaspoon left a smooth, conchoidal surface like the fracture of
+      chalcedony, with here and there a little eye like what one sees in
+      cheeses. Nor was that most wonderful object of domestic art called trifle
+      wanting, with its charming confusion of cream and cake and almonds and jam
+      and jelly and wine and cinnamon and froth; nor yet the marvellous
+      floating-island,&mdash;name suggestive of all that is romantic in the
+      imaginations of youthful palates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have cost you a sight of work, to say nothin' of money, to get
+      all this beautiful confectionery made for the party,&rdquo; said Mrs. Crane to
+      Mrs. Sprowle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it cost some consid'able labor, no doubt,&rdquo; said Mrs. Sprowle.
+      &ldquo;Matilda and our girls and I made 'most all the cake with our own hands,
+      and we all feel some tired; but if folks get what suits 'em, we don't
+      begrudge the time nor the work. But I do feel thirsty,&rdquo; said the poor
+      lady, &ldquo;and I think a glass of srub would do my throat good; it's dreadful
+      dry. Mr. Peckham, would you be so polite as to pass me a glass of srub?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Silas Peckham bowed with great alacrity, and took from the table a small
+      glass cup, containing a fluid reddish in hue and subacid in taste. This
+      was srub, a beverage in local repute, of questionable nature, but
+      suspected of owing its tint and sharpness to some kind of syrup derived
+      from the maroon-colored fruit of the sumac. There were similar small cups
+      on the table filled with lemonade, and here and there a decanter of
+      Madeira wine, of the Marsala kind, which some prefer to, and many more
+      cannot distinguish from, that which comes from the Atlantic island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take a glass of wine, Judge,&rdquo; said, the Colonel; &ldquo;here is an article that
+      I rather think 'll suit you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge knew something of wines, and could tell all the famous old
+      Madeiras from each other, &ldquo;Eclipse,&rdquo; &ldquo;Juno,&rdquo; the almost fabulously scarce
+      and precious &ldquo;White-top,&rdquo; and the rest. He struck the nativity of the
+      Mediterranean Madeira before it had fairly moistened his lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A sound wine, Colonel, and I should think of a genuine vintage. Your very
+      good health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Deacon Soper,&rdquo; said the Colonel, &ldquo;here is some Madary Judge Thornton
+      recommends. Let me fill you a glass of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Deacon's eyes glistened. He was one of those consistent Christians who
+      stick firmly by the first miracle and Paul's advice to Timothy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little good wine won't hurt anybody,&rdquo; said the Deacon. &ldquo;Plenty, &mdash;plenty,&mdash;plenty.
+      There!&rdquo; He had not withdrawn his glass, while the Colonel was pouring, for
+      fear it should spill, and now it was running over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;It is very odd how all a man's philosophy and theology are at the
+      mercy of a few drops of a fluid which the chemists say consists of nothing
+      but C4, O2, H6. The Deacon's theology fell off several points towards
+      latitudinarianism in the course of the next ten minutes. He had a deep
+      inward sense that everything was as it should be, human nature included.
+      The little accidents of humanity, known collectively to moralists as sin,
+      looked very venial to his growing sense of universal brotherhood and
+      benevolence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will all come right,&rdquo; the Deacon said to himself,&mdash;&ldquo;I feel a
+      joyful conviction that everything is for the best. I am favored with a
+      blessed peace of mind, and a very precious season of good feelin' toward
+      my fellow-creturs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A lusty young fellow happened to make a quick step backward just at that
+      instant, and put his heel, with his weight on top of it, upon the Deacon's
+      toes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aigh! What the d' d' didos are y' abaout with them great huffs o' yourn?&rdquo;
+       said the Deacon, with an expression upon his features not exactly that of
+      peace and good-will to men. The lusty young fellow apologized; but the
+      Deacon's face did not come right, and his theology backed round several
+      points in the direction of total depravity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the dashing young men in stand-up collars and extensive neckties,
+      encouraged by Mr. Geordie, made quite free with the &ldquo;Ma,dary,&rdquo; and even
+      induced some of the more stylish girls&mdash;not of the mansion-house set,
+      but of the tip-top two-story families&mdash;to taste a little. Most of
+      these young ladies made faces at it, and declared it was &ldquo;perfectly
+      horrid,&rdquo; with that aspect of veracity peculiar to their age and sex.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this time a movement was made on the part of some of the
+      mansion-house people to leave the supper-table. Miss Jane Trecothick had
+      quietly hinted to her mother that she had had enough of it. Miss Arabella
+      Thornton had whispered to her father that he had better adjourn this court
+      to the next room. There were signs of migration,&mdash;a loosening of
+      people in their places,&mdash;a looking about for arms to hitch on to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; said the Colonel. &ldquo;There's something coming yet.&mdash;Ice-cream!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The great folks saw that the play was not over yet, and that it was only
+      polite to stay and see it out. The word &ldquo;ice-cream&rdquo; was no sooner
+      whispered than it passed from one to another all down the tables. The
+      effect was what might have been anticipated. Many of the guests had never
+      seen this celebrated product of human skill, and to all the two-story
+      population of Rockland it was the last expression of the art of pleasing
+      and astonishing the human palate. Its appearance had been deferred for
+      several reasons: first, because everybody would have attacked it, if it
+      had come in with the other luxuries; secondly, because undue apprehensions
+      were entertained (owing to want of experience) of its tendency to
+      deliquesce and resolve itself with alarming rapidity into puddles of
+      creamy fluid; and, thirdly, because the surprise would make a grand climax
+      to finish off the banquet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is something so audacious in the conception of ice-cream, that it is
+      not strange that a population undebauched by the luxury of great cities
+      looks upon it with a kind of awe and speaks of it with a certain emotion.
+      This defiance of the seasons, forcing Nature to do her work of congelation
+      in the face of her sultriest noon, might well inspire a timid mind with
+      fear lest human art were revolting against the Higher Powers, and raise
+      the same scruples which resisted the use of ether and chloroform in
+      certain contingencies. Whatever may be the cause, it is well known that
+      the announcement at any private rural entertainment that there is to be
+      ice-cream produces an immediate and profound impression. It may be
+      remarked, as aiding this impression, that exaggerated ideas are
+      entertained as to the dangerous effects this congealed food may produce on
+      persons not in the most robust health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was silence as the pyramids of ice were placed on the table,
+      everybody looking on in admiration. The Colonel took a knife and assailed
+      the one at the head of the table. When he tried to cut off a slice, it
+      didn't seem to understand it, however, and only tipped, as if it wanted to
+      upset. The Colonel attacked it on the other side, and it tipped just as
+      badly the other way. It was awkward for the Colonel. &ldquo;Permit me,&rdquo; said the
+      Judge,&mdash;and he took the knife and struck a sharp slanting stroke
+      which sliced off a piece just of the right size, and offered it to Mrs.
+      Sprowle. This act of dexterity was much admired by the company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tables were all alive again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lorindy, here's a plate of ice-cream,&rdquo; said Silas Peckham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Mahaly,&rdquo; said a fresh-looking young-fellow with a saucerful in each
+      hand, &ldquo;here's your ice-cream;&mdash;let's go in the corner and have a
+      celebration, us two.&rdquo; And the old green de-lame, with the young curves
+      under it to make it sit well, moved off as pleased apparently as if it had
+      been silk velvet with thousand-dollar laces over it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, now, Miss Green! do you think it's safe to put that cold stuff into
+      your stomick?&rdquo; said the Widow Leech to a young married lady, who, finding
+      the air rather warm, thought a little ice would cool her down very nicely.
+      &ldquo;It's jest like eatin' snowballs. You don't look very rugged; and I should
+      be dreadful afeard, if I was you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Carrie,&rdquo; said old Dr. Kittredge, who had overheard this,&mdash;&ldquo;how well
+      you're looking this evening! But you must be tired and heated;&mdash;sit
+      down here, and let me give you a good slice of ice-cream. How you young
+      folks do grow up, to be sure! I don't feel quite certain whether it's you
+      or your older sister, but I know it 's somebody I call Carrie, and that I
+      've known ever since.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A sound something between a howl and an oath startled the company and
+      broke off the Doctor's sentence. Everybody's eyes turned in the direction
+      from which it came. A group instantly gathered round the person who had
+      uttered it, who was no other than Deacon Soper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's chokin'! he's chokin'!&rdquo; was the first exclamation,&mdash;&ldquo;slap him
+      on the back!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Several heavy fists beat such a tattoo on his spine that the Deacon felt
+      as if at least one of his vertebrae would come up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's black in the face,&rdquo; said Widow Leech, &ldquo;he 's swallered somethin' the
+      wrong way. Where's the Doctor?&mdash;let the Doctor get to him, can't ye?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will move, my good lady, perhaps I can,&rdquo; said Doctor Kittredge, in
+      a calm tone of voice. &ldquo;He's not choking, my friends,&rdquo; the Doctor added
+      immediately, when he got sight of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It 's apoplexy,&mdash;I told you so,&mdash;don't you see how red he is in
+      the face?&rdquo; said old Mrs. Peake, a famous woman for &ldquo;nussin&rdquo; sick folks,
+      &mdash;determined to be a little ahead of the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's not apoplexy,&rdquo; said Dr. Kittredge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Doctor? what is it? Will he die? Is he dead?&mdash;Here's his
+      poor wife, the Widow Soper that is to be, if she a'n't a'ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do be quiet, my good woman,&rdquo; said Dr. Kittredge.&mdash;&ldquo;Nothing serious,
+      I think, Mrs. Soper. Deacon!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sudden attack of Deacon Soper had begun with the extraordinary sound
+      mentioned above. His features had immediately assumed an expression of
+      intense pain, his eyes staring wildly, and, clapping his hands to his
+      face, he had rocked his head backward and forward in speechless agony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the Doctor's sharp appeal the Deacon lifted his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all right,&rdquo; said the Doctor, as soon as he saw his face. &ldquo;The Deacon
+      had a smart attack of neuralgic pain. That 's all. Very severe, but not at
+      all dangerous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor kept his countenance, but his diaphragm was shaking the change
+      in iris waistcoat-pockets with subterranean laughter. He had looked
+      through his spectacles and seen at once what had happened. The Deacon, not
+      being in the habit of taking his nourishment in the congealed state, had
+      treated the ice-cream as a pudding of a rare species, and, to make sure of
+      doing himself justice in its distribution, had taken a large mouthful of
+      it without the least precaution. The consequence was a sensation as if a
+      dentist were killing the nerves of twenty-five teeth at once with hot
+      irons, or cold ones, which would hurt rather worse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Deacon swallowed something with a spasmodic effort, and recovered
+      pretty soon and received the congratulations of his friends. There were
+      different versions of the expressions he had used at the onset of his
+      complaint,&mdash;some of the reported exclamations involving a breach of
+      propriety, to say the least,&mdash;but it was agreed that a man in an
+      attack of neuralgy wasn't to be judged of by the rules that applied to
+      other folks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The company soon after this retired from the supper-room. The
+      mansion-house gentry took their leave, and the two-story people soon
+      followed. Mr. Bernard had stayed an hour or two, and left soon after he
+      found that Elsie Venner and her father had disappeared. As he passed by
+      the dormitory of the Institute, he saw a light glimmering from one of its
+      upper rooms, where the lady-teacher was still waking. His heart ached,
+      when he remembered, that, through all these hours of gayety, or what was
+      meant for it, the patient girl had been at work in her little chamber; and
+      he looked up at the silent stars, as if to see that they were watching
+      over her. The planet Mars was burning like a red coal; the northern
+      constellation was slanting downward about its central point of flame; and
+      while he looked, a falling star slid from the zenith and was lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He reached his chamber and was soon dreaming over the Event of the Season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII. THE MORNING AFTER.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Colonel Sprowle's family arose late the next morning. The fatigues and
+      excitements of the evening and the preparation for it were followed by a
+      natural collapse, of which somnolence was a leading symptom. The sun shone
+      into the window at a pretty well opened angle when the Colonel first found
+      himself sufficiently awake to address his yet slumbering spouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sally!&rdquo; said the Colonel, in a voice that was a little husky,&mdash;for
+      he had finished off the evening with an extra glass or two of &ldquo;Madary,&rdquo;
+       and had a somewhat rusty and headachy sense of renewed existence, on
+      greeting the rather advanced dawn,&mdash;&ldquo;Sally!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care o' them custard-cups! There they go!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Mrs. Sprowle was fighting the party over in her dream; and as the
+      visionary custard-cups crashed down through one lobe of her brain into
+      another, she gave a start as if an inch of lightning from a quart Leyden
+      jar had jumped into one of her knuckles with its sudden and lively poonk!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sally!&rdquo; said the Colonel,&mdash;&ldquo;wake up, wake up. What 'r' y' dreamin'
+      abaout?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Sprowle raised herself, by a sort of spasm, sur son seant, as they
+      say in France,&mdash;up on end, as we have it in New England. She looked
+      first to the left, then to the right, then straight before her, apparently
+      without seeing anything, and at last slowly settled down, with her two
+      eyes, blank of any particular meaning, directed upon the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time is 't?&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ten o'clock. What y' been dreamin' abaout? Y' giv a jump like a
+      hopper-grass. Wake up, wake UP! Th' party 's over, and y' been asleep all
+      the mornin'. The party's over, I tell ye! Wake up!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Over!&rdquo; said Mrs. Sprowle, who began to define her position at last,&mdash;&ldquo;over!
+      I should think 't was time 't was over! It's lasted a hundud year. I've
+      been workin' for that party longer 'n Methuselah's lifetime, sence I been
+      asleep. The pies would n' bake, and the blo'monje would n' set, and the
+      ice-cream would n' freeze, and all the folks kep' comin' 'n' comin' 'n'
+      comin',&mdash;everybody I ever knew in all my life,&mdash;some of 'em 's
+      been dead this twenty year 'n' more,&mdash;'n' nothin' for 'em to eat nor
+      drink. The fire would n' burn to cook anything, all we could do. We blowed
+      with the belluses, 'n' we stuffed in paper 'n' pitch-pine kindlin's, but
+      nothin' could make that fire burn; 'n' all the time the folks kep' comin',
+      as if they'd never stop,&mdash;'n' nothin' for 'em but empty dishes, 'n'
+      all the borrowed chaney slippin' round on the waiters 'n' chippin' 'n'
+      crackin',&mdash;I would n' go through what I been through t'-night for all
+      th' money in th' Bank,&mdash;I do believe it's harder t' have a party than
+      t'&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Sprowle stated the case strongly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel said he did n't know how that might be. She was a better judge
+      than he was. It was bother enough, anyhow, and he was glad that it was
+      over. After this, the worthy pair commenced preparations for rejoining the
+      waking world, and in due time proceeded downstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody was late that morning, and nothing had got put to rights. The
+      house looked as if a small army had been quartered in it over night. The
+      tables were of course in huge disorder, after the protracted assault they
+      had undergone. There had been a great battle evidently, and it had gone
+      against the provisions. Some points had been stormed, and all their
+      defences annihilated, but here and there were centres of resistance which
+      had held out against all attacks,&mdash;large rounds of beef, and solid
+      loaves of cake, against which the inexperienced had wasted their energies
+      in the enthusiasm of youth or uninformed maturity, while the longer-headed
+      guests were making discoveries of &ldquo;shell-oysters&rdquo; and &ldquo;patridges&rdquo; and
+      similar delicacies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The breakfast was naturally of a somewhat fragmentary character. A chicken
+      that had lost his legs in the service of the preceding campaign was once
+      more put on duty. A great ham stuck with cloves, as Saint Sebastian was
+      with arrows, was again offered for martyrdom. It would have been a
+      pleasant sight for a medical man of a speculative turn to have seen the
+      prospect before the Colonel's family of the next week's breakfasts,
+      dinners, and suppers. The trail that one of these great rural parties
+      leaves after it is one of its most formidable considerations. Every
+      door-handle in the house is suggestive of sweetmeats for the next week, at
+      least. The most unnatural articles of diet displace the frugal but
+      nutritious food of unconvulsed periods of existence. If there is a walking
+      infant about the house, it will certainly have a more or less fatal fit
+      from overmuch of some indigestible delicacy. Before the week is out,
+      everybody will be tired to death of sugary forms of nourishment and long
+      to see the last of the remnants of the festival.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The family had not yet arrived at this condition. On the contrary, the
+      first inspection of the tables suggested the prospect of days of unstinted
+      luxury; and the younger portion of the household, especially, were in a
+      state of great excitement as the account of stock was taken with reference
+      to future internal investments. Some curious facts came to light during
+      these researches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where's all the oranges gone to?&rdquo; said Mrs. Sprowle. &ldquo;I expected there'd
+      be ever so many of 'em left. I did n't see many of the folks eatin'
+      oranges. Where's the skins of 'em? There ought to be six dozen
+      orange-skins round on the plates, and there a'n't one dozen. And all the
+      small cakes, too, and all the sugar things that was stuck on the big
+      cakes. Has anybody counted the spoons? Some of 'em got swallered, perhaps.
+      I hope they was plated ones, if they did!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The failure of the morning's orange-crop and the deficit in other expected
+      residual delicacies were not very difficult to account for. In many of the
+      two-story Rockland families, and in those favored households of the
+      neighboring villages whose members had been invited to the great party,
+      there was a very general excitement among the younger people on the
+      morning after the great event. &ldquo;Did y' bring home somethin' from the
+      party? What is it? What is it? Is it frut-cake? Is it nuts and oranges and
+      apples? Give me some! Give me some!&rdquo; Such a concert of treble voices
+      uttering accents like these had not been heard since the great Temperance
+      Festival with the celebrated &ldquo;colation&rdquo; in the open air under the trees of
+      the Parnassian Grove,&mdash;as the place was christened by the young
+      ladies of the Institute. The cry of the children was not in vain. From the
+      pockets of demure fathers, from the bags of sharp-eyed spinsters, from the
+      folded handkerchiefs of light-fingered sisters, from the tall hats of
+      sly-winking brothers, there was a resurrection of the missing oranges and
+      cakes and sugar-things in many a rejoicing family-circle, enough to
+      astonish the most hardened &ldquo;caterer&rdquo; that ever contracted to feed a
+      thousand people under canvas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tender recollections of those dear little ones whom extreme youth or
+      other pressing considerations detain from scenes of festivity&mdash;a
+      trait of affection by no means uncommon among our thoughtful people&mdash;dignifies
+      those social meetings where it is manifested, and sheds a ray of sunshine
+      on our common nature. It is &ldquo;an oasis in the desert,&rdquo;&mdash;to use the
+      striking expression of the last year's &ldquo;Valedictorian&rdquo; of the Apollinean
+      Institute. In the midst of so much that is purely selfish, it is
+      delightful to meet such disinterested care for others. When a large family
+      of children are expecting a parent's return from an entertainment, it will
+      often require great exertions on his part to freight himself so as to meet
+      their reasonable expectations. A few rules are worth remembering by all
+      who attend anniversary dinners in Faneuil Hall or elsewhere. Thus:
+      Lobsters' claws are always acceptable to children of all ages. Oranges and
+      apples are to be taken one at a time, until the coat-pockets begin to
+      become inconveniently heavy. Cakes are injured by sitting upon them; it
+      is, therefore, well to carry a stout tin box of a size to hold as many
+      pieces as there are children in the domestic circle. A very pleasant
+      amusement, at the close of one of these banquets, is grabbing for the
+      flowers with which the table is embellished. These will please the ladies
+      at home very greatly, and, if the children are at the same time abundantly
+      supplied with fruits, nuts, cakes, and any little ornamental articles of
+      confectionery which are of a nature to be unostentatiously removed, the
+      kind-hearted parent will make a whole household happy, without any
+      additional expense beyond the outlay for his ticket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were fragmentary delicacies enough left, of one kind and another, at
+      any rate, to make all the Colonel's family uncomfortable for the next
+      week. It bid fair to take as long to get rid of the remains of the great
+      party as it had taken to make ready for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time Mr. Bernard had been dreaming, as young men dream, of
+      gliding shapes with bright eyes and burning cheeks, strangely blended with
+      red planets and hissing meteors, and, shining over all, the white,
+      un-wandering star of the North, girt with its tethered constellations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After breakfast he walked into the parlor, where he found Miss Darley. She
+      was alone, and, holding a school-book in her hand, was at work with one of
+      the morning's lessons. She hardly noticed him as he entered, being very
+      busy with her book,&mdash;and he paused a moment before speaking, and
+      looked at her with a kind of reverence. It would not have been strictly
+      true to call her beautiful. For years,&mdash;since her earliest womanhood,&mdash;those
+      slender hands had taken the bread which repaid the toil of heart and brain
+      from the coarse palms which offered it in the world's rude market. It was
+      not for herself alone that she had bartered away the life of her youth,
+      that she had breathed the hot air of schoolrooms, that she had forced her
+      intelligence to posture before her will, as the exigencies of her place
+      required,&mdash;waking to mental labor,&mdash;sleeping to dream of
+      problems,&mdash;rolling up the stone of education for an endless
+      twelvemonth's term, to find it at the bottom of the hill again when
+      another year called her to its renewed duties, schooling her temper in
+      unending inward and outward conflicts, until neither dulness nor obstinacy
+      nor ingratitude nor insolence could reach her serene self-possession. Not
+      for herself alone. Poorly as her prodigal labors were repaid in proportion
+      to the waste of life they cost, her value was too well established to
+      leave her without what, under other circumstances, would have been a more
+      than sufficient compensation. But there were others who looked to her in
+      their need, and so the modest fountain which might have been filled to its
+      brim was continually drained through silent-flowing, hidden sluices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Out of such a life, inherited from a race which had lived in conditions
+      not unlike her own, beauty, in the common sense of the term, could hardly
+      find leisure to develop and shape itself. For it must be remembered, that
+      symmetry and elegance of features and figure, like perfectly formed
+      crystals in the mineral world, are reached only by insuring a certain
+      necessary repose to individuals and to generations. Human beauty is an
+      agricultural product in the country, growing up in men and women as in
+      corn and cattle, where the soil is good. It is a luxury almost monopolized
+      by the rich in cities, bred under glass like their forced pine-apples and
+      peaches. Both in city and country, the evolution of the physical harmonies
+      which make music to our eyes requires a combination of favorable
+      circumstances, of which alternations of unburdened tranquillity with
+      intervals of varied excitement of mind and body are among the most
+      important. Where sufficient excitement is wanting, as often happens in the
+      country, the features, however rich in red and white, get heavy, and the
+      movements sluggish; where excitement is furnished in excess, as is
+      frequently the case in cities, the contours and colors are impoverished,
+      and the nerves begin to make their existence known to the consciousness,
+      as the face very soon informs us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen Darley could not, in the nature of things, have possessed the kind
+      of beauty which pleases the common taste. Her eye was calm, sad-looking,
+      her features very still, except when her pleasant smile changed them for a
+      moment, all her outlines were delicate, her voice was very gentle, but
+      somewhat subdued by years of thoughtful labor, and on her smooth forehead
+      one little hinted line whispered already that Care was beginning to mark
+      the trace which Time sooner or later would make a furrow. She could not be
+      a beauty; if she had been, it would have been much harder for many persons
+      to be interested in her. For, although in the abstract we all love beauty,
+      and although, if we were sent naked souls into some ultramundane warehouse
+      of soulless bodies and told to select one to our liking, we should each
+      choose a handsome one, and never think of the consequences,&mdash;it is
+      quite certain that beauty carries an atmosphere of repulsion as well as of
+      attraction with it, alike in both sexes. We may be well assured that there
+      are many persons who no more think of specializing their love of the other
+      sex upon one endowed with signal beauty, than they think of wanting great
+      diamonds or thousand-dollar horses. No man or woman can appropriate beauty
+      without paying for it,&mdash;in endowments, in fortune, in position, in
+      self-surrender, or other valuable stock; and there are a great many who
+      are too poor, too ordinary, too humble, too busy, too proud, to pay any of
+      these prices for it. So the unbeautiful get many more lovers than the
+      beauties; only, as there are more of them, their lovers are spread thinner
+      and do not make so much show.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young master stood looking at Helen Darley with a kind of tender
+      admiration. She was such a picture of the martyr by the slow social
+      combustive process, that it almost seemed to him he could see a pale
+      lambent nimbus round her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not see you at the great party last evening,&rdquo; he said, presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked up and answered, &ldquo;No. I have not much taste for such large
+      companies. Besides, I do not feel as if my time belonged to me after it
+      has been paid for. There is always something to do, some lesson or
+      exercise,&mdash;and it so happened, I was very busy last night with the
+      new problems in geometry. I hope you had a good time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very. Two or three of our girls were there. Rosa Milburn. What a beauty
+      she is! I wonder what she feeds on! Wine and musk and chloroform and coals
+      of fire, I believe; I didn't think there was such color and flavor in a
+      woman outside the tropics.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Darley smiled rather faintly; the imagery was not just to her taste:
+      femineity often finds it very hard to accept the fact of muliebrity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was&rdquo;&mdash;?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stopped short; but her question had asked itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Elsie there? She was, for an hour or so. She looked frightfully handsome.
+      I meant to have spoken to her, but she slipped away before I knew it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought she meant to go to the party,&rdquo; said Miss Darley. &ldquo;Did she look
+      at you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She did. Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you did not speak to her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I should have spoken to her, but she was gone when I looked for her.
+      A strange creature! Is n't there an odd sort of fascination about her? You
+      have not explained all the mystery about the girl. What does she come to
+      this school for? She seems to do pretty much as she likes about studying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Darley answered in very low tones. &ldquo;It was a fancy of hers to come,
+      and they let her have her way. I don't know what there is about her,
+      except that she seems to take my life out of me when she looks at me. I
+      don't like to ask other people about our girls. She says very little to
+      anybody, and studies, or makes believe to study, almost what she likes. I
+      don't know what she is,&rdquo; (Miss Darley laid her hand, trembling, on the
+      young master's sleeve,) &ldquo;but I can tell when she is in the room without
+      seeing or hearing her. Oh, Mr. Langdon, I am weak and nervous, and no
+      doubt foolish,&mdash;but&mdash;if there were women now, as in the days of
+      our Saviour, possessed of devils, I should think there was something not
+      human looking out of Elsie Venner's eyes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor girl's breast rose and fell tumultuously as she spoke, and her
+      voice labored, as if some obstruction were rising in her throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A scene might possibly have come of it, but the door opened. Mr. Silas
+      Peckham. Miss Darley got away as soon as she well could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did not Miss Darley go to the party last evening?&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, the fact is,&rdquo; answered Mr. Silas Peckham, &ldquo;Miss Darley, she's pooty
+      much took up with the school. She's an industris young. woman,&mdash;yis,
+      she is industris,&mdash;but perhaps she a'n't quite so spry a worker as
+      some. Maybe, considerin' she's paid for her time, she is n't fur out o'
+      the way in occoopyin' herself evenin's,&mdash;that&mdash;is, if so be she
+      a'n't smart enough to finish up all her work in the daytime. Edoocation is
+      the great business of the Institoot. Amoosements are objec's of a
+      secondary natur', accordin' to my v'oo.&rdquo; [The unspellable pronunciation of
+      this word is the touchstone of New England Brahminism.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard drew a deep breath, his thin nostrils dilating, as if the air
+      did not rush in fast enough to cool his blood, while Silas Peckham was
+      speaking. The Head of the Apollinean Institute delivered himself of these
+      judicious sentiments in that peculiar acid, penetrating tone, thickened
+      with a nasal twang, which not rarely becomes hereditary after three or
+      four generations raised upon east winds, salt fish, and large,
+      white-bellied, pickled cucumbers. He spoke deliberately, as if weighing
+      his words well, so that, during his few remarks, Mr. Bernard had time for
+      a mental accompaniment with variations, accented by certain bodily
+      changes, which escaped Mr. Peckham's observation. First there was a
+      feeling of disgust and shame at hearing Helen Darley spoken of like a dumb
+      working animal. That sent the blood up into his cheeks. Then the slur upon
+      her probable want of force&mdash;her incapacity, who made the character of
+      the school and left this man to pocket its profits&mdash;sent a thrill of
+      the old Wentworth fire through him, so that his muscles hardened, his
+      hands closed, and he took the measure of Mr. Silas Peckham, to see if his
+      head would strike the wall in case he went over backwards all of a sudden.
+      This would not do, of course, and so the thrill passed off and the muscles
+      softened again. Then came that state of tenderness in the heart, overlying
+      wrath in the stomach, in which the eyes grow moist like a woman's, and
+      there is also a great boiling-up of objectionable terms out of the
+      deep-water vocabulary, so that Prudence and Propriety and all the other
+      pious P's have to jump upon the lid of speech to keep them from boiling
+      over into fierce articulation. All this was internal, chiefly, and of
+      course not recognized by Mr. Silas Peckham. The idea, that any full-grown,
+      sensible man should have any other notion than that of getting the most
+      work for the least money out of his assistants, had never suggested itself
+      to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard had gone through this paroxysm, and cooled down, in the period
+      while Mr. Peckham was uttering these words in his thin, shallow whine,
+      twanging up into the frontal sinuses. What was the use of losing his
+      temper and throwing away his place, and so, among the consequences which
+      would necessarily follow, leaving the poor lady-teacher without a friend
+      to stand by her ready to lay his hand on the grand-inquisitor before the
+      windlass of his rack had taken one turn too many?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt, Mr. Peckham,&rdquo; he said, in a grave, calm voice, &ldquo;there is a
+      great deal of work to be done in the school; but perhaps we can distribute
+      the duties a little more evenly after a time. I shall look over the girls'
+      themes myself, after this week. Perhaps there will be some other parts of
+      her labor that I can take on myself. We can arrange a new programme of
+      studies and recitations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can do that,&rdquo; said Mr. Silas Peckham. &ldquo;But I don't propose mater'lly
+      alterin' Miss Darley's dooties. I don't think she works to hurt herself.
+      Some of the Trustees have proposed interdoosin' new branches of study, and
+      I expect you will be pooty much occoopied with the dooties that belong to
+      your place. On the Sahbath you will be able to attend divine service three
+      times, which is expected of our teachers. I shall continoo myself to give
+      Sahbath Scriptur' readin's to the young ladies. That is a solemn dooty I
+      can't make up my mind to commit to other people. My teachers enjoy the
+      Lord's day as a day of rest. In it they do no manner of work, except in
+      cases of necessity or mercy, such as fillin' out diplomas, or when we git
+      crowded jest at the end of a term, or when there is an extry number of
+      p'oopils, or other Providential call to dispense with the ordinance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard had a fine glow in his cheeks by this time,&mdash;doubtless
+      kindled by the thought of the kind consideration Mr. Peckham showed for
+      his subordinates in allowing them the between meeting-time on Sundays
+      except for some special reason. But the morning was wearing away; so he
+      went to the schoolroom, taking leave very properly of his respected
+      principal, who soon took his hat and departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Peckham visited certain &ldquo;stores&rdquo; or shops, where he made inquiries
+      after various articles in the provision-line, and effected a purchase or
+      two. Two or three barrels of potatoes, which had sprouted in a promising
+      way, he secured at a bargain. A side of feminine beef was also obtained at
+      a low figure. He was entirely satisfied with a couple of barrels of flour,
+      which, being invoiced &ldquo;slightly damaged,&rdquo; were to be had at a reasonable
+      price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this, Silas Peckham felt in good spirits. He had done a pretty
+      stroke of business. It came into his head whether he might not follow it
+      up with a still more brilliant speculation. So he turned his steps in the
+      direction of Colonel Sprowle's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now eleven o'clock, and the battle-field of last evening was as we
+      left it. Mr. Peckham's visit was unexpected, perhaps not very well timed,
+      but the Colonel received him civilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beautifully lighted,&mdash;these rooms last night!&rdquo; said Mr. Peckham.
+      &ldquo;Winter-strained?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much do you pay for your winter-strained?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel told him the price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very hahnsome supper,&mdash;very hahnsome. Nothin' ever seen like it in
+      Rockland. Must have been a great heap of things leftover.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The compliment was not ungrateful, and the Colonel acknowledged it by
+      smiling and saying, &ldquo;I should think the' was a trifle? Come and look.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Silas Peckham saw how many delicacies had survived the evening's
+      conflict, his commercial spirit rose at once to the point of a proposal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Colonel Sprowle,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;there's 'meat and cakes and pies and pickles
+      enough on that table to spread a hahnsome colation. If you'd like to trade
+      reasonable, I think perhaps I should be willin' to take 'em off your
+      hands. There's been a talk about our havin' a celebration in the
+      Parnassian Grove, and I think I could work in what your folks don't want
+      and make myself whole by chargin' a small sum for tickets. Broken meats,
+      of course, a'n't of the same valoo as fresh provisions; so I think you
+      might be willin' to trade reasonable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Peckham paused and rested on his proposal. It would not, perhaps, have
+      been very extraordinary, if Colonel Sprowle had entertained the
+      proposition. There is no telling beforehand how such things will strike
+      people. It didn't happen to strike the Colonel favorably. He had a little
+      red-blooded manhood in him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sell you them things to make a colation out of?&rdquo; the Colonel replied.
+      &ldquo;Walk up to that table, Mr. Peckham, and help yourself! Fill your pockets;
+      Mr. Peckham! Fetch a basket, and our hired folks shall fill it full for
+      ye! Send a cart, if y' like, 'n' carry off them leavin's to make a
+      celebration for your pupils with! Only let me tell ye this:&mdash;as sure
+      's my name's Hezekiah Spraowle, you 'll be known through the taown 'n'
+      through the caounty, from that day forrard, as the Principal of the
+      Broken-Victuals Institoot!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even provincial human-nature sometimes has a touch of sublimity about it.
+      Mr. Silas Peckham had gone a little deeper than he meant, and come upon
+      the &ldquo;hard pan,&rdquo; as the well-diggers call it, of the Colonel's character,
+      before he thought of it. A militia-colonel standing on his sentiments is
+      not to be despised. That was shown pretty well in New England two or three
+      generations ago. There were a good many plain officers that talked about
+      their &ldquo;rigiment&rdquo; and their &ldquo;caounty&rdquo; who knew very well how to say &ldquo;Make
+      ready!&rdquo; &ldquo;Take aim!&rdquo; &ldquo;Fire!&rdquo;&mdash;in the face of a line of grenadiers with
+      bullets in their guns and bayonets on them. And though a rustic uniform is
+      not always unexceptionable in its cut and trimmings, yet there was many an
+      ill-made coat in those old times that was good enough to be shown to the
+      enemy's front rank too often to be left on the field with a round hole in
+      its left lapel that matched another going right through the brave heart of
+      the plain country captain or major or colonel who was buried in it under
+      the crimson turf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Silas Peckham said little or nothing. His sensibilities were not
+      acute, but he perceived that he had made a miscalculation. He hoped that
+      there was no offence,&mdash;thought it might have been mutooally
+      agreeable, conclooded he would give up the idee of a colation, and backed
+      himself out as if unwilling to expose the less guarded aspect of his
+      person to the risk of accelerating impulses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel shut the door,&mdash;cast his eye on the toe of his right
+      boot, as if it had had a strong temptation,&mdash;looked at his watch,
+      then round the room, and, going to a cupboard, swallowed a glass of
+      deep-red brandy and water to compose his feelings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX. THE DOCTOR ORDERS THE BEST SULKY. (With a Digression on &ldquo;Hired
+      Help.&rdquo;)
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      &ldquo;ABEL! Slip Cassia into the new sulky, and fetch her round.&rdquo;
+     </h3>
+    <p>
+      Abel was Dr. Kittredge's hired man. He was born in New Hampshire, a queer
+      sort of State, with fat streaks of soil and population where they breed
+      giants in mind and body, and lean streaks which export imperfectly
+      nourished young men with promising but neglected appetites, who may be
+      found in great numbers in all the large towns, or could be until of late
+      years, when they have been half driven out of their favorite
+      basement-stories by foreigners, and half coaxed away from them by
+      California. New Hampshire is in more than one sense the Switzerland of New
+      England. The &ldquo;Granite State&rdquo; being naturally enough deficient in
+      pudding-stone, its children are apt to wander southward in search of that
+      deposit,&mdash;in the unpetrified condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel Stebbins was a good specimen of that extraordinary hybrid or mule
+      between democracy and chrysocracy, a native-born New-England serving-man.
+      The Old World has nothing at all like him. He is at once an emperor and a
+      subordinate. In one hand he holds one five-millionth part (be the same
+      more or less) of the power that sways the destinies of the Great Republic.
+      His other hand is in your boot, which he is about to polish. It is
+      impossible to turn a fellow citizen whose vote may make his master&mdash;say,
+      rather, employer&mdash;Governor or President, or who may be one or both
+      himself, into a flunky. That article must be imported ready-made from
+      other centres of civilization. When a New Englander has lost his
+      self-respect as a citizen and as a man, he is demoralized, and cannot be
+      trusted with the money to pay for a dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be supposed, therefore, that this fractional emperor, this
+      continent-shaper, finds his position awkward when he goes into service,
+      and that his employer is apt to find it still more embarrassing. It is
+      always under protest that the hired man does his duty. Every act of
+      service is subject to the drawback, &ldquo;I am as good as you are.&rdquo; This is so
+      common, at least, as almost to be the rule, and partly accounts for the
+      rapid disappearance of the indigenous &ldquo;domestic&rdquo; from the basements above
+      mentioned. Paleontologists will by and by be examining the floors of our
+      kitchens for tracks of the extinct native species of serving-man. The
+      female of the same race is fast dying out; indeed, the time is not far
+      distant when all the varieties of young woman will have vanished from New
+      England, as the dodo has perished in the Mauritius. The young lady is all
+      that we shall have left, and the mop and duster of the last Ahnira or
+      Loizy will be stared at by generations of Bridgets and Noras as that
+      famous head and foot of the lost bird are stared at in the Ashmolean
+      Museum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his
+      difficult position. He sold his time to the Doctor, and, having sold it,
+      he took care to fulfil his half of the bargain. The Doctor, on his part,
+      treated him, not like a gentleman, because one does not order a gentleman
+      to bring up his horse or run his errands, but he treated him like a man.
+      Every order was given in courteous terms. His reasonable privileges were
+      respected as much as if they had been guaranteed under hand and seal. The
+      Doctor lent him books from his own library, and gave him all friendly
+      counsel, as if he were a son or a younger brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel had Revolutionary blood in his veins, and though he saw fit to &ldquo;hire
+      out,&rdquo; he could never stand the word &ldquo;servant,&rdquo; or consider himself the
+      inferior one of the two high contracting parties. When he came to live
+      with the Doctor, he made up his mind he would dismiss the old gentleman,
+      if he did not behave according to his notions of propriety. But he soon
+      found that the Doctor was one of the right sort, and so determined to keep
+      him. The Doctor soon found, on his side, that he had a trustworthy,
+      intelligent fellow, who would be invaluable to him, if he only let him
+      have his own way of doing what was to be done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor's hired man had not the manners of a French valet. He was grave
+      and taciturn for the most part, he never bowed and rarely smiled, but was
+      always at work in the daytime, and always reading in the evening. He was
+      hostler, and did all the housework that a man could properly do, would go
+      to the door or &ldquo;tend table,&rdquo; bought the provisions for the family,&mdash;in
+      short, did almost everything for them but get their clothing. There was no
+      office in a perfectly appointed household, from that of steward down to
+      that of stable-boy, which he did not cheerfully assume. His round of work
+      not consuming all his energies, he must needs cultivate the Doctor's
+      garden, which he kept in one perpetual bloom, from the blowing of the
+      first crocus to the fading of the last dahlia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This garden was Abel's poem. Its half-dozen beds were so many cantos.
+      Nature crowded them for him with imagery such as no Laureate could copy in
+      the cold mosaic of language. The rhythm of alternating dawn and sunset,
+      the strophe and antistrophe still perceptible through all the sudden
+      shifts of our dithyrambic seasons and echoed in corresponding floral
+      harmonies, made melody in the soul of Abel, the plain serving-man. It
+      softened his whole otherwise rigid aspect. He worshipped God according to
+      the strict way of his fathers; but a florist's Puritanism is always
+      colored by the petals of his flowers,&mdash;and Nature never shows him a
+      black corolla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He may or may not figure again in this narrative; but as there must be
+      some who confound the New England hired man, native-born, with the servant
+      of foreign birth, and as there is the difference of two continents and two
+      civilizations between them, it did not seem fair to let Abel bring round
+      the Doctor's mare and sulky without touching his features in half-shadow
+      into our background.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor's mare, Cassia, was so called by her master from her cinnamon
+      color, cassia being one of the professional names for that spice or drug.
+      She was of the shade we call sorrel, or, as an Englishman would perhaps
+      say, chestnut,&mdash;a genuine &ldquo;Morgan&rdquo; mare, with a low forehand, as is
+      common in this breed, but with strong quarters and flat hocks, well ribbed
+      up, with a good eye and a pair of lively ears,&mdash;a first-rate doctor's
+      beast, would stand until her harness dropped off her back at the door of a
+      tedious case, and trot over hill and dale thirty miles in three hours, if
+      there was a child in the next county with a bean in its windpipe and the
+      Doctor gave her a hint of the fact. Cassia was not large, but she had a
+      good deal of action, and was the Doctor's show-horse. There were two other
+      animals in his stable: Quassia or Quashy, the black horse, and Caustic,
+      the old bay, with whom he jogged round the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A long ride to-day?&rdquo; said Abel, as he brought up the equipage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just out of the village,&mdash;that 's all.&mdash;There 's a kink in her
+      mane,&mdash;pull it out, will you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goin' to visit some of the great folks,&rdquo; Abel said to himself. &ldquo;Wonder
+      who it is.&rdquo;&mdash;Then to the Doctor,&mdash;&ldquo;Anybody get sick at
+      Sprowles's? They say Deacon Soper had a fit, after eatin' some o' their
+      frozen victuals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor smiled. He guessed the Deacon would do well enough. He was only
+      going to ride over to the Dudley mansion-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X. THE DOCTOR CALLS ON ELSIE VENNER.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      If that primitive physician, Chiron, M. D., appears as a Centaur, as we
+      look at him through the lapse of thirty centuries, the modern
+      country-doctor, if he could be seen about thirty miles off, could not be
+      distinguished from a wheel-animalcule. He inhabits a wheel-carriage. He
+      thinks of stationary dwellings as Long Tom Coffin did of land in general;
+      a house may be well enough for incidental purposes, but for a &ldquo;stiddy&rdquo;
+       residence give him a &ldquo;kerridge.&rdquo; If he is classified in the Linnaean
+      scale, he must be set down thus: Genus Homo; Species Rotifer infusorius,
+      the wheel-animal of infusions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Dudley mansion was not a mile from the Doctor's; but it never occurred
+      to him to think of walking to see any of his patients' families, if he had
+      any professional object in his visit. Whenever the narrow sulky turned in
+      at a gate, the rustic who was digging potatoes, or hoeing corn, or
+      swishing through the grass with his scythe, in wave-like crescents, or
+      stepping short behind a loaded wheelbarrow, or trudging lazily by the side
+      of the swinging, loose-throated, short-legged oxen, rocking along the road
+      as if they had just been landed after a three-months' voyage, the toiling
+      native, whatever he was doing, stopped and looked up at the house the
+      Doctor was visiting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Somebody sick over there t' Haynes's. Guess th' old man's ailin' ag'in.
+      Winder's half-way open in the chamber,&mdash;should n' wonder 'f he was
+      dead and laid aout. Docterin' a'n't no use, when y' see th' winders open
+      like that. Wahl, money a'n't much to speak of to th' old man naow! He don'
+      want but tew cents,&mdash;'n' old Widah Peake, she knows what he wants
+      them for!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Or again,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Measles raound pooty thick. Briggs's folks buried two children with 'em
+      lass' week. Th' of Doctor, he'd h' ker'd 'em threugh. Struck in 'n'
+      p'dooced mo't'f'cation,&mdash;so they say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This is only meant as a sample of the kind of way they used to think or
+      talk, when the narrow sulky turned in at the gate of some house where
+      there was a visit to be made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh, that narrow sulky! What hopes, what fears, what comfort, what anguish,
+      what despair, in the roll of its coming or its parting wheels! In the
+      spring, when the old people get the coughs which give them a few shakes
+      and their lives drop in pieces like the ashes of a burned thread which
+      have kept the threadlike shape until they were stirred,&mdash;in the hot
+      summer noons, when the strong man comes in from the fields, like the son
+      of the Shunamite, crying, &ldquo;My head, my head,&rdquo;&mdash;in the dying autumn
+      days, when youth and maiden lie fever-stricken in many a household,
+      still-faced, dull-eyed, dark-flushed, dry-lipped, low-muttering in their
+      daylight dreams, their fingers moving singly like those of slumbering
+      harpers,&mdash;in the dead winter, when the white plague of the North has
+      caged its wasted victims, shuddering as they think of the frozen soil
+      which must be quarried like rock to receive them, if their perpetual
+      convalescence should happen to be interfered with by any untoward
+      accident,&mdash;at every season, the narrow sulky rolled round freighted
+      with unmeasured burdens of joy and woe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor drove along the southern foot of The Mountain. The &ldquo;Dudley
+      Mansion&rdquo; was near the eastern edge of this declivity, where it rose
+      steepest, with baldest cliffs and densest patches of overhanging wood. It
+      seemed almost too steep to climb, but a practised eye could see from a
+      distance the zigzag lines of the sheep-paths which scaled it like
+      miniature Alpine roads. A few hundred feet up The Mountain's side was a
+      dark deep dell, unwooded, save for a few spindling, crazy-looking
+      hackmatacks or native larches, with pallid green tufts sticking out
+      fantastically all over them. It shelved so deeply, that, while the
+      hemlock-tassels were swinging on the trees around its border, all would be
+      still at its springy bottom, save that perhaps a single fern would wave
+      slowly backward and forward like a sabre with a twist as of a feathered
+      oar,&mdash;and this when not a breath could be felt, and every other stem
+      and blade were motionless. There was an old story of one having perished
+      here in the winter of '86, and his body having been found in the spring,&mdash;whence
+      its common name of &ldquo;Dead-Man's Hollow.&rdquo; Higher up there were huge cliffs
+      with chasms, and, it was thought, concealed caves, where in old times they
+      said that Tories lay hid,&mdash;some hinted not without occasional aid and
+      comfort from the Dudleys then living in the mansion-house. Still higher
+      and farther west lay the accursed ledge,&mdash;shunned by all, unless it
+      were now and then a daring youth, or a wandering naturalist who ventured
+      to its edge in the hope of securing some infantile Crotalus durissus, who
+      had not yet cut his poison teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Long, long ago, in old Colonial times, the Honorable Thomas Dudley,
+      Esquire, a man of note and name and great resources, allied by descent to
+      the family of &ldquo;Tom Dudley,&rdquo; as the early Governor is sometimes
+      irreverently called by our most venerable, but still youthful antiquary,&mdash;and
+      to the other public Dudleys, of course,&mdash;of all of whom he made small
+      account, as being himself an English gentleman, with little taste for the
+      splendors of provincial office, early in the last century, Thomas Dudley
+      had built this mansion. For several generations it had been dwelt in by
+      descendants of the same name, but soon after the Revolution it passed by
+      marriage into the hands of the Venners, by whom it had ever since been
+      held and tenanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the doctor turned an angle in the road, all at once the stately old
+      house rose before him. It was a skilfully managed effect, as it well might
+      be, for it was no vulgar English architect who had planned the mansion and
+      arranged its position and approach. The old house rose before the Doctor,
+      crowning a terraced garden, flanked at the left by an avenue of tall elms.
+      The flower-beds were edged with box, which diffused around it that dreamy
+      balsamic odor, full of ante-natal reminiscences of a lost Paradise, dimly
+      fragrant as might be the bdellium of ancient Havilah, the land compassed
+      by the river Pison that went out of Eden. The garden was somewhat
+      neglected, but not in disgrace,&mdash;and in the time of tulips and
+      hyacinths, of roses, of &ldquo;snowballs,&rdquo; of honeysuckles, of lilacs, of
+      syringas, it was rich with blossoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the front-windows of the mansion the eye reached a far blue
+      mountain-summit,&mdash;no rounded heap, such as often shuts in a
+      village-landscape, but a sharp peak, clean-angled as Ascutney from the
+      Dartmouth green. A wide gap through miles of woods had opened this distant
+      view, and showed more, perhaps, than all the labors of the architect and
+      the landscape-gardener the large style of the early Dudleys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great stone-chimney of the mansion-house was the centre from which all
+      the artificial features of the scene appeared to flow. The roofs, the
+      gables, the dormer-windows, the porches, the clustered offices in the
+      rear, all seemed to crowd about the great chimney. To this central pillar
+      the paths all converged. The single poplar behind the house,&mdash;Nature
+      is jealous of proud chimneys, and always loves to put a poplar near one,
+      so that it may fling a leaf or two down its black throat every autumn,&mdash;the
+      one tall poplar behind the house seemed to nod and whisper to the grave
+      square column, the elms to sway their branches towards it. And when the
+      blue smoke rose from its summit, it seemed to be wafted away to join the
+      azure haze which hung around the peak in the far distance, so that both
+      should bathe in a common atmosphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Behind the house were clumps of lilacs with a century's growth upon them,
+      and looking more like trees than like shrubs. Shaded by a group of these
+      was the ancient well, of huge circuit, and with a low arch opening out of
+      its wall about ten feet below the surface,&mdash;whether the door of a
+      crypt for the concealment of treasure, or of a subterranean passage, or
+      merely of a vault for keeping provisions cool in hot weather, opinions
+      differed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On looking at the house, it was plain that it was built with Old-World
+      notions of strength and durability, and, so far as might be, with
+      Old-World materials. The hinges of the doors stretched out like arms,
+      instead of like hands, as we make them. The bolts were massive enough for
+      a donjon-keep. The small window-panes were actually inclosed in the wood
+      of the sashes instead of being stuck to them with putty, as in our modern
+      windows. The broad staircase was of easy ascent, and was guarded by
+      quaintly turned and twisted balusters. The ceilings of the two rooms of
+      state were moulded with medallion-portraits and rustic figures, such as
+      may have been seen by many readers in the famous old Philipse house,&mdash;Washington's
+      head-quarters,&mdash;in the town of Yorkers. The fire-places, worthy of
+      the wide-throated central chimney, were bordered by pictured tiles, some
+      of them with Scripture stories, some with Watteau-like figures,&mdash;tall
+      damsels in slim waists and with spread enough of skirt for a modern
+      ballroom, with bowing, reclining, or musical swains of what everybody
+      calls the &ldquo;conventional&rdquo; sort,&mdash;that is, the swain adapted to genteel
+      society rather than to a literal sheep-compelling existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house was furnished, soon after it was completed, with many heavy
+      articles made in London from a rare wood just then come into fashion, not
+      so rare now, and commonly known as mahogany. Time had turned it very dark,
+      and the stately bedsteads and tall cabinets and claw-footed chairs and
+      tables were in keeping with the sober dignity of the ancient mansion. The
+      old &ldquo;hangings&rdquo; were yet preserved in the chambers, faded, but still
+      showing their rich patterns,&mdash;properly entitled to their name, for
+      they were literally hung upon flat wooden frames like trellis-work, which
+      again were secured to the naked partitions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various
+      apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in one
+      sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly symbols, with a
+      legend signifying that E. M. (supposed to be Elizabeth Mascarene) wished
+      not to be &ldquo;forgot&rdquo;.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         &ldquo;When I am dead and lay'd in dust
+          And all my bones are&rdquo;&mdash;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Poor E. M.! Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a planet
+      with a core of fire and a crust of fossils!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the Dudley mansion-house,&mdash;for it kept its ancient name in
+      spite of the change in the line of descent. Its spacious apartments looked
+      dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter dwelt by
+      themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of life required.
+      He almost lived in his library, the western room on the ground-floor. Its
+      window looked upon a small plat of green, in the midst of which was a
+      single grave marked by a plain marble slab. Except this room, and the
+      chamber where he slept, and the servants' wing, the rest of the house was
+      all Elsie's. She was always a restless, wandering child from her early
+      years, and would have her little bed moved from one chamber to another,&mdash;flitting
+      round as the fancy took her. Sometimes she would drag a mat and a pillow
+      into one of the great empty rooms, and, wrapping herself in a shawl, coil
+      up and go to sleep in a corner. Nothing frightened her; the &ldquo;haunted&rdquo;
+       chamber, with the torn hangings that flapped like wings when there was air
+      stirring, was one of her favorite retreats. She had been a very hard
+      creature to manage. Her father could influence, but not govern her. Old
+      Sophy, born of a slave mother in the house, could do more with her than
+      anybody, knowing her by long instinctive study. The other servants were
+      afraid of her. Her father had sent for governesses, but none of them ever
+      stayed long. She made them nervous; one of them had a strange fit of
+      sickness; not one of them ever came back to the house to see her. A young
+      Spanish woman who taught her dancing succeeded best with her, for she had
+      a passion for that exercise, and had mastered some of the most difficult
+      dances. Long before this period, she had manifested some most
+      extraordinary singularities of taste or instinct. The extreme
+      sensitiveness of her father on this point prevented any allusion to them;
+      but there were stories floating round, some of them even getting into the
+      papers,&mdash;without her name, of course,&mdash;which were of a kind to
+      excite intense curiosity, if not more anxious feelings. This thing was
+      certain, that at the age of twelve she was missed one night, and was found
+      sleeping in the open air under a tree, like a wild creature. Very often
+      she would wander off by day, always without a companion, bringing home
+      with her a nest, a flower, or even a more questionable trophy of her
+      ramble, such as showed that there was no place where she was afraid to
+      venture. Once in a while she had stayed out over night, in which case the
+      alarm was spread, and men went in search of her, but never successfully,&mdash;so&mdash;that
+      some said she hid herself in trees, and others that she had found one of
+      the old Tory caves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some, of course, said she was a crazy girl, and ought to be sent to an
+      Asylum. But old Dr. Kittredge had shaken his head, and told them to bear
+      with her, and let her have her way as much as they could, but watch her,
+      as far as possible, without making her suspicious of them. He visited her
+      now and then, under the pretext of seeing her father on business, or of
+      only making a friendly call.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor fastened his horse outside the gate, and walked up the
+      garden-alley. He stopped suddenly with a start. A strange sound had jarred
+      upon his ear. It was a sharp prolonged rattle, continuous, but rising and
+      falling as if in rhythmical cadence. He moved softly towards the open
+      window from which the sound seemed to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie was alone in the room, dancing one of those wild Moorish fandangos,
+      such as a matador hot from the Plaza de Toros of Seville or Madrid might
+      love to lie and gaze at. She was a figure to look upon in silence. The
+      dancing frenzy must have seized upon her while she was dressing; for she
+      was in her bodice, bare-armed, her hair floating unbound far below the
+      waist of her barred or banded skirt. She had caught up her castanets, and
+      rattled them as she danced with a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe
+      body undulating with flexuous grace, her diamond eyes glittering, her
+      round arms wreathing and unwinding, alive and vibrant to the tips of the
+      slender fingers. Some passion seemed to exhaust itself in this dancing
+      paroxysm; for all at once she reeled from the middle of the floor, and
+      flung herself, as it were in a careless coil, upon a great tiger's-skin
+      which was spread out in one corner of the apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor stood motionless, looking at her as she lay panting on the
+      tawny, black-lined robe of the dead monster which stretched out beneath
+      her, its rude flattened outline recalling the Terror of the Jungle as he
+      crouched for his fatal spring. In a few moments her head drooped upon her
+      arm, and her glittering eyes closed,&mdash;she was sleeping. He stood
+      looking at her still, steadily, thoughtfully, tenderly. Presently he
+      lifted his hand to his forehead, as if recalling some fading remembrance
+      of other years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Catalina!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was all he said. He shook his head,&mdash;implying that his visit
+      would be in vain to-day,&mdash;returned to his sulky, and rode away, as if
+      in a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI. COUSIN RICHARD'S VISIT.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor was roused from his revery by the clatter of approaching hoofs.
+      He looked forward and saw a young fellow galloping rapidly towards him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A common New-England rider with his toes turned out, his elbows jerking
+      and the daylight showing under him at every step, bestriding a cantering
+      beast of the plebeian breed, thick at every point where he should be thin,
+      and thin at every point where he should be thick, is not one of those
+      noble objects that bewitch the world. The best horsemen outside of the
+      cities are the unshod countryboys, who ride &ldquo;bareback,&rdquo; with only a halter
+      round the horse's neck, digging their brown heels into his ribs, and
+      slanting over backwards, but sticking on like leeches, and taking the
+      hardest trot as if they loved it.&mdash;This was a different sight on
+      which the Doctor was looking. The streaming mane and tail of the unshorn,
+      savage-looking, black horse, the dashing grace with which the young fellow
+      in the shadowy sombrero, and armed with the huge spurs, sat in his
+      high-peaked saddle, could belong only to the mustang of the Pampas and his
+      master. This bold rider was a young man whose sudden apparition in the
+      quiet inland town had reminded some of the good people of a bright,
+      curly-haired boy they had known some eight or ten years before as little
+      Dick Venner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This boy had passed several of his early years at the Dudley mansion, the
+      playmate of Elsie, being her cousin, two or three years older than
+      herself, the son of Captain Richard Venner, a South American trader, who,
+      as he changed his residence often, was glad to leave the boy in his
+      brother's charge. The Captain's wife, this boy's mother, was a lady of
+      Buenos Ayres, of Spanish descent, and had died while the child was in his
+      cradle. These two motherless children were as strange a pair as one roof
+      could well cover. Both handsome, wild, impetuous, unmanageable, they
+      played and fought together like two young leopards, beautiful, but
+      dangerous, their lawless instincts showing through all their graceful
+      movements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy was little else than a young Gaucho when he first came to
+      Rockland; for he had learned to ride almost as soon as to walk, and could
+      jump on his pony and trip up a runaway pig with the bolas or noose him
+      with his miniature lasso at an age when some city-children would hardly be
+      trusted out of sight of a nursery-maid. It makes men imperious to sit a
+      horse; no man governs his fellows so well as from this living throne. And
+      so, from Marcus Aurelius in Roman bronze, down to the &ldquo;man on horseback&rdquo;
+       in General Cushing's prophetic speech, the saddle has always been the true
+      seat of empire. The absolute tyranny of the human will over a noble and
+      powerful beast develops the instinct of personal prevalence and dominion;
+      so that horse-subduer and hero were almost synonymous in simpler times,
+      and are closely related still. An ancestry of wild riders naturally enough
+      bequeaths also those other tendencies which we see in the Tartars, the
+      Cossacks, and our own Indian Centaurs, and as well, perhaps, in the
+      old-fashioned fox-hunting squire as in any of these. Sharp alternations of
+      violent action and self-indulgent repose; a hard run, and a long revel
+      after it; this is what over-much horse tends to animalize a man into. Such
+      antecedents may have helped to make little Dick Venner a self-willed,
+      capricious boy, and a rough playmate for Elsie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie was the wilder of the two. Old Sophy, who used to watch them with
+      those quick, animal-looking eyes of hers,&mdash;she was said to be the
+      granddaughter of a cannibal chief, and inherited the keen senses belonging
+      to all creatures which are hunted as game, Old Sophy, who watched them in
+      their play and their quarrels, always seemed to be more afraid for the boy
+      than the girl. &ldquo;Masse Dick! Masse Dick! don' you be too rough wi' dat gal!
+      She scratch you las' week, 'n' some day she bite you; 'n' if she bite you,
+      Masse Dick!&rdquo; Old Sophy nodded her head ominously, as if she could say a
+      great deal more; while, in grateful acknowledgment of her caution, Master
+      Dick put his two little fingers in the angles of his mouth, and his
+      forefingers on his lower eyelids, drawing upon these features until his
+      expression reminded her of something she vaguely recollected in her
+      infancy,&mdash;the face of a favorite deity executed in wood by an African
+      artist for her grandfather, brought over by her mother, and burned when
+      she became a Christian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two wild children had much in common. They loved to ramble together,
+      to build huts, to climb trees for nests, to ride the colts, to dance, to
+      race, and to play at boys' rude games as if both were boys. But wherever
+      two natures have a great deal in common, the conditions of a first-rate
+      quarrel are furnished ready-made. Relations are very apt to hate each
+      other just because they are too much alike. It is so frightful to be in an
+      atmosphere of family idiosyncrasies; to see all the hereditary
+      uncomeliness or infirmity of body, all the defects of speech, all the
+      failings of temper, intensified by concentration, so that every fault of
+      our own finds itself multiplied by reflections, like our images in a
+      saloon lined with mirrors! Nature knows what she is about. The centrifugal
+      principle which grows out of the antipathy of like to like is only the
+      repetition in character of the arrangement we see expressed materially in
+      certain seed-capsules, which burst and throw the seed to all points of the
+      compass. A house is a large pod with a human germ or two in each of its
+      cells or chambers; it opens by dehiscence of the front-door by and by, and
+      projects one of its germs to Kansas, another to San Francisco, another to
+      Chicago, and so on; and this that Smith may not be Smithed to death and
+      Brown may not be Browned into a mad-house, but mix in with the world again
+      and struggle back to average humanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie's father, whose fault was to indulge her in everything, found that
+      it would never do to let these children grow up together. They would
+      either love each other as they got older, and pair like wild creatures, or
+      take some fierce antipathy, which might end nobody could tell where. It
+      was not safe to try. The boy must be sent away. A sharper quarrel than
+      common decided this point. Master Dick forgot Old Sophy's caution, and
+      vexed the girl into a paroxysm of wrath, in which she sprang at him and
+      bit his arm. Perhaps they made too much of it; for they sent for the old
+      Doctor, who came at once when he heard what had happened. He had a good
+      deal to say about the danger there was from the teeth of animals or human
+      beings when enraged; and as he emphasized his remarks by the application
+      of a pencil of lunar caustic to each of the marks left by the sharp white
+      teeth, they were like to be remembered by at least one of his hearers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Master Dick went off on his travels, which led him into strange places
+      and stranger company. Elsie was half pleased and half sorry to have him
+      go; the children had a kind of mingled liking and hate for each other,
+      just such as is very common among relations. Whether the girl had most
+      satisfaction in the plays they shared, or in teasing him, or taking her
+      small revenge upon him for teasing her, it would have been hard to say. At
+      any rate, she was lonely without him. She had more fondness for the old
+      black woman than anybody; but Sophy could not follow her far beyond her
+      own old rocking-chair. As for her father, she had made him afraid of her,
+      not for his sake, but for her own. Sometimes she would seem to be fond of
+      him, and the parent's heart would yearn within him as she twined her
+      supple arms about him; and then some look she gave him, some
+      half-articulated expression, would turn his cheek pale and almost make him
+      shiver, and he would say kindly, &ldquo;Now go, Elsie, dear,&rdquo; and smile upon her
+      as she went, and close and lock the door softly after her. Then his
+      forehead would knot and furrow itself, and the drops of anguish stand
+      thick upon it. He would go to the western window of his study and look at
+      the solitary mound with the marble slab for its head-stone. After his
+      grief had had its way, he would kneel down and pray for his child as one
+      who has no hope save in that special grace which can bring the most
+      rebellious spirit into sweet subjection. All this might seem like weakness
+      in a parent having the charge of one sole daughter of his house and heart;
+      but he had tried authority and tenderness by turns so long without any
+      good effect, that he had become sore perplexed, and, surrounding her with
+      cautious watchfulness as he best might, left her in the main to her own
+      guidance and the merciful influences which Heaven might send down to
+      direct her footsteps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime the boy grew up to youth and early manhood through a strange
+      succession of adventures. He had been at school at Buenos Ayres,&mdash;had
+      quarrelled with his mother's relatives,&mdash;had run off to the Pampas,
+      and lived with the Gauchos;&mdash;had made friends with the Indians, and
+      ridden with them, it was rumored, in some of their savage forays,&mdash;had
+      returned and made up his quarrel,&mdash;had got money by inheritance or
+      otherwise,&mdash;had troubled the peace of certain magistrates,&mdash;had
+      found it convenient to leave the City of Wholesome Breezes for a time, and
+      had galloped off on a fast horse of his, (so it was said,) with some
+      officers riding after him, who took good care (but this was only the
+      popular story) not to catch him. A few days after this he was taking his
+      ice on the Alameda of Mendoza, and a week or two later sailed from
+      Valparaiso for New York, carrying with him the horse with which he had
+      scampered over the Plains, a trunk or two with his newly purchased outfit
+      of, clothing and other conveniences, and a belt heavy with gold and with a
+      few Brazilian diamonds sewed in it, enough in value to serve him for a
+      long journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick Venner had seen life enough to wear out the earlier sensibilities of
+      adolescence. He was tired of worshipping or tyrannizing over the bistred
+      or umbered beauties of mingled blood among whom he had been living. Even
+      that piquant exhibition which the Rio de Mendoza presents to the amateur
+      of breathing sculpture failed to interest him. He was thinking of a
+      far-off village on the other side of the equator, and of the wild girl
+      with whom he used to play and quarrel, a creature of a different race from
+      these degenerate mongrels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A game little devil she was, sure enough!&rdquo;&mdash;And as Dick spoke, he
+      bared his wrist to look for the marks she had left on it: two small white
+      scars, where the two small sharp upper teeth had struck when she flashed
+      at him with her eyes sparkling as bright as those glittering stones sewed
+      up in the belt he wore. &ldquo;That's a filly worth noosing!&rdquo; said Dick to
+      himself, as he looked in admiration at the sign of her spirit and passion.
+      &ldquo;I wonder if she will bite at eighteen as she did at eight! She shall have
+      a chance to try, at any rate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the self-sacrificing disposition with which Richard Venner, Esq.,
+      a passenger by the Condor from Valparaiso, set foot upon his native shore,
+      and turned his face in the direction of Rockland, The Mountain, and the
+      mansion-house. He had heard something, from time to time, of his
+      New-England relatives, and knew that they were living together as he left
+      them. And so he heralded himself to &ldquo;My dear Uncle&rdquo; by a letter signed
+      &ldquo;Your loving nephew, Richard Venner,&rdquo; in which letter he told a very frank
+      story of travel and mercantile adventure, expressed much gratitude for the
+      excellent counsel and example which had helped to form his character and
+      preserve him in the midst of temptation, inquired affectionately after his
+      uncle's health, was much interested to know whether his lively cousin who
+      used to be his playmate had grown up as handsome as she promised to be,
+      and announced his intention of paying his respects to them both at
+      Rockland. Not long after this came the trunks marked R. V. which he had
+      sent before him, forerunners of his advent: he was not going to wait for a
+      reply or an invitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a sound that is,&mdash;the banging down of the preliminary trunk,
+      without its claimant to give it the life which is borrowed by all personal
+      appendages, so long as the owner's hand or eye is on them! If it announce
+      the coming of one loved and longed for, how we delight to look at it, to
+      sit down on it, to caress it in our fancies, as a lone exile walking out
+      on a windy pier yearns towards the merchantman lying alongside, with the
+      colors of his own native land at her peak, and the name of the port he
+      sailed from long ago upon her stern! But if it tell the near approach of
+      the undesired, inevitable guest, what sound short of the muffled noises
+      made by the undertakers as they turn the corners in the dim-lighted house,
+      with low shuffle of feet and whispered cautions, carries such a sense of
+      knocking-kneed collapse with it as the thumping down in the front entry of
+      the heavy portmanteau, rammed with the changes of uncounted coming weeks?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether the R. V. portmanteaus brought one or the other of these emotions
+      to the tenants of the Dudley mansion, it might not be easy to settle.
+      Elsie professed to be pleased with the thought of having an adventurous
+      young stranger, with stories to tell, an inmate of their quiet, not to say
+      dull, family. Under almost any other circumstances, her father would have
+      been unwilling to take a young fellow of whom he knew so little under his
+      roof; but this was his nephew, and anything that seemed like to amuse or
+      please Elsie was agreeable to him. He had grown almost desperate, and felt
+      as if any change in the current of her life and feelings might save her
+      from some strange paroxysm of dangerous mental exaltation or sullen
+      perversion of disposition, from which some fearful calamity might come to
+      herself or others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick had been several weeks at the Dudley mansion. A few days before, he
+      had made a sudden dash for the nearest large city,&mdash;and when the
+      Doctor met him, he was just returning from his visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had been a curious meeting between the two young persons, who had
+      parted so young and after such strange relations with each other. When
+      Dick first presented himself at the mansion, not one in the house would
+      have known him for the boy who had left them all so suddenly years ago. He
+      was so dark, partly from his descent, partly from long habits of exposure,
+      that Elsie looked almost fair beside him. He had something of the family
+      beauty which belonged to his cousin, but his eye had a fierce passion in
+      it, very unlike the cold glitter of Elsie's. Like many people of strong
+      and imperious temper, he was soft-voiced and very gentle in his address,
+      when he had no special reason for being otherwise. He soon found reasons
+      enough to be as amiable as he could force himself to be with his uncle and
+      his cousin. Elsie was to his fancy. She had a strange attraction for him,
+      quite unlike anything he had ever known in other women. There was
+      something, too, in early associations: when those who parted as children
+      meet as man and woman, there is always a renewal of that early experience
+      which followed the taste of the forbidden fruit,&mdash;a natural blush of
+      consciousness, not without its charm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could be more becoming than the behavior of &ldquo;Richard Venner,
+      Esquire, the guest of Dudley Venner, Esquire, at his noble mansion,&rdquo; as he
+      was announced in the Court column of the &ldquo;Rockland Weekly Universe.&rdquo; He
+      was pleased to find himself treated with kindness and attention as a
+      relative. He made himself very agreeable by abundant details concerning
+      the religious, political, social, commercial, and educational progress of
+      the South American cities and states. He was himself much interested in
+      everything that was going on about the Dudley mansion, walked all over it,
+      noticed its valuable wood-lots with special approbation, was delighted
+      with the grand old house and its furniture, and would not be easy until he
+      had seen all the family silver and heard its history. In return, he had
+      much to tell of his father, now dead,&mdash;the only one of the Venners,
+      beside themselves, in whose fate his uncle was interested. With Elsie, he
+      was subdued and almost tender in his manner; with the few visitors whom
+      they saw, shy and silent,&mdash;perhaps a little watchful, if any young
+      man happened to be among them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Young fellows placed on their good behavior are apt to get restless and
+      nervous, all ready to fly off into some mischief or other. Dick Venner had
+      his half-tamed horse with him to work off his suppressed life with. When
+      the savage passion of his young blood came over him, he would fetch out
+      the mustang, screaming and kicking as these amiable beasts are wont to do,
+      strap the Spanish saddle tight to his back, vault into it, and, after
+      getting away from the village, strike the long spurs into his sides and
+      whirl away in a wild gallop, until the black horse was flecked with white
+      foam, and the cruel steel points were red with his blood. When horse and
+      rider were alike fired, he would fling the bridle on his neck and saunter
+      homeward, always contriving to get to the stable in a quiet way, and
+      coming into the house as calm as a bishop after a sober trot on his
+      steady-going cob.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a few weeks of this kind of life, he began to want some more fierce
+      excitement. He had tried making downright love to Elsie, with no great
+      success as yet, in his own opinion. The girl was capricious in her
+      treatment of him, sometimes scowling and repellent, sometimes familiar,
+      very often, as she used to be of old, teasing and malicious. All this,
+      perhaps, made her more interesting to a young man who was tired of easy
+      conquests. There was a strange fascination in her eyes, too, which at
+      times was quite irresistible, so that he would feel himself drawn to her
+      by a power which seemed to take away his will for the moment. It may have
+      been nothing but the common charm of bright eyes; but he had never before
+      experienced the same kind of attraction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps she was not so very different from what she had been as a child,
+      after all. At any rate, so it seemed to Dick Venner, who, as was said
+      before, had tried making love to her. They were sitting alone in the study
+      one day; Elsie had round her neck that somewhat peculiar ornament, the
+      golden torque, which she had worn to the great party. Youth is adventurous
+      and very curious about necklaces, brooches, chains, and other such
+      adornments, so long as they are worn by young persons of the female sex.
+      Dick was seized with a great passion for examining this curious chain,
+      and, after some preliminary questions, was rash enough to lean towards her
+      and put out his hand toward the neck that lay in the golden coil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She threw her head back, her eyes narrowing and her forehead drawing down
+      so that Dick thought her head actually flattened itself. He started
+      involuntarily; for she looked so like the little girl who had struck him
+      with those sharp flashing teeth, that the whole scene came back, and he
+      felt the stroke again as if it had just been given, and the two white
+      scars began to sting as they did after the old Doctor had burned them with
+      that stick of gray caustic, which looked so like a slate pencil, and felt
+      so much like the end of a red-hot poker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It took something more than a gallop to set him right after this. The next
+      day he mentioned having received a letter from a mercantile agent with
+      whom he had dealings. What his business was is, perhaps, none of our
+      business. At any rate, it required him to go at once to the city where his
+      correspondent resided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Independently of this &ldquo;business&rdquo; which called him, there may have been
+      other motives, such as have been hinted at. People who have been living
+      for a long time in dreary country-places, without any emotion beyond such
+      as are occasioned by a trivial pleasure or annoyance, often get crazy at
+      last for a vital paroxysm of some kind or other. In this state they rush
+      to the great cities for a plunge into their turbid life-baths, with a
+      frantic thirst for every exciting pleasure, which makes them the willing
+      and easy victims of all those who sell the Devil's wares on commission.
+      The less intelligent and instructed class of unfortunates, who venture
+      with their ignorance and their instincts into what is sometimes called the
+      &ldquo;life&rdquo; of great cities, are put through a rapid course of instruction
+      which entitles them very commonly to a diploma from the police court. But
+      they only illustrate the working of the same tendency in mankind at large
+      which has been occasionally noticed in the sons of ministers and other
+      eminently worthy people, by many ascribed to that intense congenital
+      hatred for goodness which distinguishes human nature from that of the
+      brute, but perhaps as readily accounted for by considering it as the
+      yawning and stretching of a young soul cramped too long in one moral
+      posture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard Venner was a young man of remarkable experience for his years. He
+      ran less risk, therefore, in exposing himself to the temptations and
+      dangers of a great city than many older men, who, seeking the livelier
+      scenes of excitement to be found in large towns as a relaxation after the
+      monotonous routine of family life, are too often taken advantage of and
+      made the victims of their sentiments or their generous confidence in their
+      fellow-creatures. Such was not his destiny. There was something about him
+      which looked as if he would not take bullying kindly. He had also the
+      advantage of being acquainted with most of those ingenious devices by
+      which the proverbial inconstancy of fortune is steadied to something more
+      nearly approaching fixed laws, and the dangerous risks which have so often
+      led young men to ruin and suicide are practically reduced to somewhat less
+      than nothing. So that Mr. Richard Venner worked off his nervous energies
+      without any troublesome adventure, and was ready to return to Rockland in
+      less than a week, without having lightened the money-belt he wore round
+      his body, or tarnished the long glittering knife he carried in his boot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick had sent his trunk to the nearest town through which the railroad
+      leading to the city passed. He rode off on his black horse and left him at
+      the place where he took the cars. On arriving at the city station, he took
+      a coach and drove to one of the great hotels. Thither drove also a
+      sagacious-looking, middle-aged man, who entered his name as &ldquo;W. Thompson&rdquo;
+       in the book at the office immediately after that of &ldquo;R. Venner.&rdquo; Mr.
+      &ldquo;Thompson&rdquo; kept a carelessly observant eye upon Mr. Venner during his stay
+      at the hotel, and followed him to the cars when he left, looking over his
+      shoulder when he bought his ticket at the station, and seeing him fairly
+      off without obtruding himself in any offensive way upon his attention. Mr.
+      Thompson, known in other quarters as Detective Policeman Terry, got very
+      little by his trouble. Richard Venner did not turn out to be the
+      wife-poisoner, the defaulting cashier, the river-pirate, or the great
+      counterfeiter. He paid his hotel-bill as a gentleman should always do, if
+      he has the money and can spare it. The detective had probably overrated
+      his own sagacity when he ventured to suspect Mr. Venner. He reported to
+      his chief that there was a knowing-looking fellow he had been round after,
+      but he rather guessed he was nothing more than &ldquo;one o' them Southern
+      sportsmen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor fellows at the stable where Dick had left his horse had had
+      trouble enough with him. One of the ostlers was limping about with a lame
+      leg, and another had lost a mouthful of his coat, which came very near
+      carrying a piece of his shoulder with it. When Mr. Venner came back for
+      his beast, he was as wild as if he had just been lassoed, screaming,
+      kicking, rolling over to get rid of his saddle, and when his rider was at
+      last mounted, jumping about in a way to dislodge any common horseman. To
+      all this Dick replied by sticking his long spurs deeper and deeper into
+      his flanks, until the creature found he was mastered, and dashed off as if
+      all the thistles of the Pampas were pricking him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One more gallop, Juan?&rdquo; This was in the last mile of the road before he
+      came to the town which brought him in sight of the mansion-house. It was
+      in this last gallop that the fiery mustang and his rider flashed by the
+      old Doctor. Cassia pointed her sharp ears and shied to let them pass. The
+      Doctor turned and looked through the little round glass in the back of his
+      sulky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick Turpin, there, will find more than his match!&rdquo; said the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII. THE APOLLINEAN INSTITUTE. (With Extracts from the &ldquo;Reporto f
+      the committee.&rdquo;)
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The readers of this narrative will hardly expect any elaborate details of
+      the educational management of the Apollinean Institute. They cannot be
+      supposed to take the same interest in its affairs as was shown by the
+      Annual Committees who reported upon its condition and prospects. As these
+      Committees were, however, an important part of the mechanism of the
+      establishment, some general account of their organization and a few
+      extracts from the Report of the one last appointed may not be out of
+      place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether Mr. Silas Peckham had some contrivance for packing his Committees,
+      whether they happened always to be made up of optimists by nature, whether
+      they were cajoled into good-humor by polite attentions, or whether they
+      were always really delighted with the wonderful acquirements of the pupils
+      and the admirable order of the school, it is certain that their Annual
+      Reports were couched in language which might warm the heart of the most
+      cold-blooded and calculating father that ever had a family of daughters to
+      educate. In fact, these Annual Reports were considered by Mr. Peckham as
+      his most effective advertisements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first thing, therefore, was to see that the Committee was made up of
+      persons known to the public.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some worn-out politician, in that leisurely and amiable transition-state
+      which comes between official extinction and the paralysis which will
+      finish him as soon as his brain gets a little softer, made an admirable
+      Chairman for Mr. Peckham, when he had the luck to pick up such an article.
+      Old reputations, like old fashions, are more prized in the grassy than in
+      the stony districts. An effete celebrity, who would never be heard of
+      again in the great places until the funeral sermon waked up his memory for
+      one parting spasm, finds himself in full flavor of renown a little farther
+      back from the changing winds of the sea-coast. If such a public character
+      was not to be had, so that there was no chance of heading the Report with
+      the name of the Honorable Mr. Somebody, the next best thing was to get the
+      Reverend Dr. Somebody to take that conspicuous position. Then would follow
+      two or three local worthies with Esquire after their names. If any stray
+      literary personage from one of the great cities happened to be within
+      reach, he was pounced upon by Mr. Silas Peckham. It was a hard case for
+      the poor man, who had travelled a hundred miles or two to the outside
+      suburbs after peace and unwatered milk, to be pumped for a speech in this
+      unexpected way. It was harder still, if he had been induced to venture a
+      few tremulous remarks, to be obliged to write them out for the &ldquo;Rockland
+      Weekly Universe,&rdquo; with the chance of seeing them used as an advertising
+      certificate as long as he lived, if he lived as long as the late Dr.
+      Waterhouse did after giving his certificate in favor of Whitwell's
+      celebrated Cephalic Snuff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Report of the last Committee had been signed by the Honorable,
+      ___________late __________ of ___________, as Chairman. (It is with
+      reluctance that the name and titles are left in blank; but our public
+      characters are so familiarly known to the whole community that this
+      reserve becomes necessary.) The other members of the Committee were the
+      Reverend Mr. Butters, of a neighboring town, who was to make the prayer
+      before the Exercises of the Exhibition, and two or three notabilities of
+      Rockland, with geoponic eyes, and glabrous, bumpless foreheads. A few
+      extracts from the Report are subjoined:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Committee have great pleasure in recording their unanimous opinion,
+      that the Institution was never in so flourishing a condition....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The health of the pupils is excellent; the admirable quality of food
+      supplied shows itself in their appearance; their blooming aspect excited
+      the admiration of the Committee, and bears testimony to the assiduity of
+      the excellent Matron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;.... moral and religious condition most encouraging, which they cannot
+      but attribute to the personal efforts and instruction of the faithful
+      Principal, who considers religious instruction a solemn duty which he
+      cannot commit to other people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;.... great progress in their studies, under the intelligent
+      superintendence of the accomplished Principal, assisted by Mr. Badger,
+      [Mr. Langdon's predecessor,] Miss Darley, the lady who superintends the
+      English branches, Miss Crabs, her assistant and teacher of Modern
+      Languages, and Mr. Schneider, teacher of French, German, Latin, and
+      Music....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Education is the great business of the Institute. Amusements are objects
+      of a secondary nature; but these are by no means neglected....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;.... English compositions of great originality and beauty, creditable
+      alike to the head and heart of their accomplished authors.... several
+      poems of a very high order of merit, which would do honor to the
+      literature of any age or country.... life-like drawings, showing great
+      proficiency.... Many converse fluently in various modern languages....
+      perform the most difficult airs with the skill of professional
+      musicians....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;.... advantages unsurpassed, if equalled by those of any Institution in
+      the country, and reflecting the highest honor on the distinguished Head of
+      the Establishment, SILAS PECKHAM, Esquire, and his admirable Lady, the
+      MATRON, with their worthy assistants....&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The perusal of this Report did Mr. Bernard more good than a week's
+      vacation would have done: It gave him such a laugh as he had not had for a
+      month. The way in which Silas Peckham had made his Committee say what he
+      wanted them to&mdash;for he recognized a number of expressions in the
+      Report as coming directly from the lips of his principal, and could not
+      help thinking how cleverly he had forced his phrases, as jugglers do the
+      particular card they wish their dupe to take&mdash;struck him as
+      particularly neat and pleasing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had passed through the sympathetic and emotional stages in his new
+      experience, and had arrived at the philosophical and practical state,
+      which takes things coolly, and goes to work to set them right. He had
+      breadth enough of view to see that there was nothing so very exceptional
+      in this educational trader's dealings with his subordinates, but he had
+      also manly feeling enough to attack the particular individual instance of
+      wrong before him. There are plenty of dealer's in morals, as in ordinary
+      traffic, who confine themselves to wholesale business. They leave the
+      small necessity of their next-door neighbor to the retailers, who are
+      poorer in statistics and general facts, but richer in the every-day
+      charities. Mr. Bernard felt, at first, as one does who sees a gray rat
+      steal out of a drain and begin gnawing at the bark of some tree loaded
+      with fruit or blossoms, which he will soon girdle, if he is let alone. The
+      first impulse is to murder him with the nearest ragged stone. Then one
+      remembers that he is a rodent, acting after the law of his kind, and cools
+      down and is contented to drive him off and guard the tree against his
+      teeth for the future. As soon as this is done, one can watch his attempts
+      at mischief with a certain amusement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the kind of process Mr. Bernard had gone through. First, the
+      indignant surprise of a generous nature, when it comes unexpectedly into
+      relations with a mean one. Then the impulse of extermination,&mdash;a
+      divine instinct, intended to keep down vermin of all classes to their
+      working averages in the economy of Nature. Then a return of cheerful
+      tolerance,&mdash;a feeling, that, if the Deity could bear with rats and
+      sharpers, he could; with a confident trust, that, in the long run,
+      terriers and honest men would have the upperhand, and a grateful
+      consciousness that he had been sent just at the right time to come between
+      a patient victim and the master who held her in peonage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having once made up his mind what to do, Mr. Bernard was as good-natured
+      and hopeful as ever. He had the great advantage, from his professional
+      training, of knowing how to recognize and deal with the nervous
+      disturbances to which overtasked women are so liable. He saw well enough
+      that Helen Darley would certainly kill herself or lose her wits, if he
+      could not lighten her labors and lift off a large part of her weight of
+      cares. The worst of it was, that she was one of those women who naturally
+      overwork themselves, like those horses who will go at the top of their
+      pace until they drop. Such women are dreadfully unmanageable. It is as
+      hard reasoning with them as it would have been reasoning with Io, when she
+      was flying over land and sea, driven by the sting of the never-sleeping
+      gadfly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a delicate, interesting game that he played. Under one innocent
+      pretext or another, he invaded this or that special province she had made
+      her own. He would collect the themes and have them all read and marked,
+      answer all the puzzling questions in mathematics, make the other teachers
+      come to him for directions, and in this way gradually took upon himself
+      not only all the general superintendence that belonged to his office, but
+      stole away so many of the special duties which might fairly have belonged
+      to his assistant, that, before she knew it, she was looking better and
+      feeling more cheerful than for many and many a month before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the nervous energy is depressed by any bodily cause, or exhausted by
+      overworking, there follow effects which have often been misinterpreted by
+      moralists, and especially by theologians. The conscience itself becomes
+      neuralgic, sometimes actually inflamed, so that the least touch is agony.
+      Of all liars and false accusers, a sick conscience is the most inventive
+      and indefatigable. The devoted daughter, wife, mother, whose life has been
+      given to unselfish labors, who has filled a place which it seems to others
+      only an angel would make good, reproaches herself with incompetence and
+      neglect of duty. The humble Christian, who has been a model to others,
+      calls himself a worm of the dust on one page of his diary, and arraigns
+      himself on the next for coming short of the perfection of an archangel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conscience itself requires a conscience, or nothing can be more
+      unscrupulous. It told Saul that he did well in persecuting the Christians.
+      It has goaded countless multitudes of various creeds to endless forms of
+      self-torture. The cities of India are full of cripples it has made. The
+      hill-sides of Syria are riddled with holes, where miserable hermits, whose
+      lives it had palsied, lived and died like the vermin they harbored. Our
+      libraries are crammed with books written by spiritual hypochondriacs, who
+      inspected all their moral secretions a dozen times a day. They are full of
+      interest, but they should be transferred from the shelf of the theologian
+      to that of the medical man who makes a study of insanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the state into which too much work and too much responsibility
+      were bringing Helen Darley, when the new master came and lifted so much of
+      the burden that was crushing her as must be removed before she could have
+      a chance to recover her natural elasticity and buoyancy. Many of the
+      noblest women, suffering like her, but less fortunate in being relieved at
+      the right moment, die worried out of life by the perpetual teasing of this
+      inflamed, neuralgic conscience. So subtile is the line which separates the
+      true and almost angelic sensibility of a healthy, but exalted nature, from
+      the soreness of a soul which is sympathizing with a morbid state of the
+      body that it is no wonder they are often confounded. And thus many good
+      women are suffered to perish by that form of spontaneous combustion in
+      which the victim goes on toiling day and night with the hidden fire
+      consuming her, until all at once her cheek whitens, and, as we look upon
+      her, she drops away, a heap of ashes. The more they overwork themselves,
+      the more exacting becomes the sense of duty,&mdash;as the draught of the
+      locomotive's furnace blows stronger and makes the fire burn more fiercely,
+      the faster it spins along the track.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not very likely, as was said at the beginning of this chapter, that
+      we shall trouble ourselves a great deal about the internal affairs of the
+      Apollinean Institute. These schools are, in the nature of things, not so
+      very unlike each other as to require a minute description for each
+      particular one among them. They have all very much the same general
+      features, pleasing and displeasing. All feeding-establishments have
+      something odious about them,&mdash;from the wretched country-houses where
+      paupers are farmed out to the lowest bidder, up to the commons-tables at
+      colleges and even the fashionable boarding-house. A person's appetite
+      should be at war with no other purse than his own. Young people,
+      especially, who have a bone-factory at work in them, and have to feed the
+      living looms of innumerable growing tissues, should be provided for, if
+      possible, by those who love them like their own flesh and blood. Elsewhere
+      their appetites will be sure to make them enemies, or, what are almost as
+      bad, friends whose interests are at variance with the claims of their
+      exacting necessities and demands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides, all commercial transactions in regard to the most sacred
+      interests of life are hateful even to those who profit by them. The
+      clergyman, the physician, the teacher, must be paid; but each of them, if
+      his duty be performed in the true spirit, can hardly help a shiver of
+      disgust when money is counted out to him for administering the
+      consolations of religion, for saving some precious life, for sowing the
+      seeds of Christian civilization in young ingenuous souls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet all these schools, with their provincial French and their
+      mechanical accomplishments, with their cheap parade of diplomas and
+      commencements and other public honors, have an ever fresh interest to all
+      who see the task they are performing in our new social order. These girls
+      are not being educated for governesses, or to be exported, with other
+      manufactured articles, to colonies where there happens to be a surplus of
+      males. Most of them will be wives, and every American-born husband is a
+      possible President of these United States. Any one of these girls may be a
+      four-years' queen. There is no sphere of human activity so exalted that
+      she may not be called upon to fill it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there is another consideration of far higher interest. The education
+      of our community to all that is beautiful is flowing in mainly through its
+      women, and that to a considerable extent by the aid of these large
+      establishments, the least perfect of which do something to stimulate the
+      higher tastes and partially instruct them. Sometimes there is, perhaps,
+      reason to fear that girls will be too highly educated for their own
+      happiness, if they are lifted by their culture out of the range of the
+      practical and every-day working youth by whom they are surrounded. But
+      this is a risk we must take. Our young men come into active life so early,
+      that, if our girls were not educated to something beyond mere practical
+      duties, our material prosperity would outstrip our culture; as it often
+      does in large places where money is made too rapidly. This is the meaning,
+      therefore, of that somewhat ambitious programme common to most of these
+      large institutions, at which we sometimes smile, perhaps unwisely or
+      uncharitably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We shall take it for granted that the routine of instruction went on at
+      the Apollinean Institute much as it does in other schools of the same
+      class. People, young or old, are wonderfully different, if we contrast
+      extremes in pairs. They approach much nearer, if we take them in groups of
+      twenty. Take two separate hundreds as they come, without choosing, and you
+      get the gamut of human character in both so completely that you can strike
+      many chords in each which shall be in perfect unison with corresponding
+      ones in the other. If we go a step farther, and compare the population of
+      two villages of the same race and region, there is such a regularly
+      graduated distribution and parallelism of character, that it seems as if
+      Nature must turn out human beings in sets like chessmen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be confessed that the position in which Mr. Bernard now found
+      himself had a pleasing danger about it which might well justify all the
+      fears entertained on his account by more experienced friends, when they
+      learned that he was engaged in a Young Ladies' Seminary. The school never
+      went on more smoothly than during the first period of his administration,
+      after he had arranged its duties, and taken his share, and even more than
+      his share, upon himself. But human nature does not wait for the diploma of
+      the Apollinean Institute to claim the exercise of it, instincts and
+      faculties. These young girls saw but little of the youth of the
+      neighborhood. The mansion-house young men were off at college or in the
+      cities, or making love to each other's sisters, or at any rate unavailable
+      for some reason or other. There were a few &ldquo;clerks,&rdquo;&mdash;that is, young
+      men who attended shops, commonly called &ldquo;stores,&rdquo;&mdash;who were fond of
+      walking by the Institute, when they were off duty, for the sake of
+      exchanging a word or a glance with any one of the young ladies they might
+      happen to know, if any such were stirring abroad: crude young men, mostly,
+      with a great many &ldquo;Sirs&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ma'ams&rdquo; in their speech, and with that style
+      of address sometimes acquired in the retail business, as if the salesman
+      were recommending himself to a customer, &ldquo;First-rate family article,
+      Ma'am; warranted to wear a lifetime; just one yard and three quarters in
+      this pattern, Ma'am; sha'n't I have the pleasure?&rdquo; and so forth. If there
+      had been ever so many of them, and if they had been ever so fascinating,
+      the quarantine of the Institute was too rigorous to allow any romantic
+      infection to be introduced from without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anybody might see what would happen, with a good-looking, well-dressed,
+      well-bred young man, who had the authority of a master, it is true, but
+      the manners of a friend and equal, moving about among these young girls
+      day after day, his eyes meeting theirs, his breath mingling with theirs,
+      his voice growing familiar to them, never in any harsh tones, often
+      soothing, encouraging, always sympathetic, with its male depth and breadth
+      of sound among the chorus of trebles, as if it were a river in which a
+      hundred of these little piping streamlets-might lose themselves; anybody
+      might see what would happen. Young girls wrote home to their parents that
+      they enjoyed themselves much, this term, at the Institute, and thought
+      they were making rapid progress in their studies. There was a great
+      enthusiasm for the young master's reading-classes in English poetry. Some
+      of the poor little things began to adorn themselves with an extra ribbon,
+      or a bit of such jewelry as they had before kept for great occasions. Dear
+      souls! they only half knew what they were doing it for. Does the bird know
+      why its feathers grow more brilliant and its voice becomes musical in the
+      pairing season?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so, in the midst of this quiet inland town, where a mere accident had
+      placed Mr. Bernard Langdon, there was a concentration of explosive
+      materials which might at any time change its Arcadian and academic repose
+      into a scene of dangerous commotion. What said Helen Darley, when she saw
+      with her woman's glance that more than one girl, when she should be
+      looking at her book, was looking over it toward the master's desk? Was her
+      own heart warmed by any livelier feeling than gratitude, as its life began
+      to flow with fuller pulses, and the morning sky again looked bright and
+      the flowers recovered their lost fragrance? Was there any strange,
+      mysterious affinity between the master and the dark girl who sat by
+      herself? Could she call him at will by looking at him? Could it be that&mdash;?
+      It made her shiver to think of it.&mdash;And who was that strange horseman
+      who passed Mr. Bernard at dusk the other evening, looking so like
+      Mephistopheles galloping hard to be in season at the witches'
+      Sabbath-gathering? That must be the cousin of Elsie's who wants to marry
+      her, they say. A dangerous-looking fellow for a rival, if one took a fancy
+      to the dark girl! And who is she, and what?&mdash;by what demon is she
+      haunted, by what taint is she blighted, by what curse is she followed, by
+      what destiny is she marked, that her strange beauty has such a terror in
+      it, and that hardly one shall dare to love her, and her eye glitters
+      always, but warms for none?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of these questions are ours. Some were Helen Darley's. Some of them
+      mingled with the dreams of Bernard Langdon, as he slept the night after
+      meeting the strange horseman. In the morning he happened to be a little
+      late in entering the schoolroom. There was something between the leaves of
+      the Virgil which lay upon his desk. He opened it and saw a freshly
+      gathered mountain-flower. He looked at Elsie, instinctively,
+      involuntarily. She had another such flower on her breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A young girl's graceful compliment,&mdash;that is all,&mdash;no doubt,&mdash;no
+      doubt. It was odd that the flower should have happened to be laid between
+      the leaves of the Fourth Book of the &ldquo;AEneid,&rdquo; and at this line,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          &ldquo;Incipit effari, mediaque in voce resistit.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      A remembrance of an ancient superstition flashed through the master's
+      mind, and he determined to try the Sortes Virgilianae. He shut the volume,
+      and opened it again at a venture.&mdash;The story of Laocoon!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He read with a strange feeling of unwilling fascination, from &ldquo;Horresco
+      referees&rdquo; to &ldquo;Bis medium amplexi,&rdquo; and flung the book from him, as if its
+      leaves had been steeped in the subtle poisons that princes die of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII. CURIOSITY.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      People will talk. 'Ciascun lo dice' is a tune that is played oftener than
+      the national air of this country or any other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That 's what they say. Means to marry her, if she is his cousin. Got
+      money himself,&mdash;that 's the story,&mdash;but wants to come and live
+      in the old place, and get the Dudley property by and by.&rdquo; &ldquo;Mother's folks
+      was wealthy.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Twenty-three to twenty-five year old.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;He
+      a'n't more 'n twenty, or twenty-one at the outside.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Looks as if he
+      knew too much to be only twenty year old.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Guess he's been through
+      the mill,&mdash;don't look so green, anyhow, hey? Did y' ever mind that
+      cut over his left eyebrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they gossiped in Rockland. The young fellows could make nothing of Dick
+      Venner. He was shy and proud with the few who made advances to him. The
+      young ladies called him handsome and romantic, but he looked at them like
+      a many-tailed pacha who was in the habit of, ordering his wives by the
+      dozen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you think of the young man over there at the Venners'?&rdquo; said Miss
+      Arabella Thornton to her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Handsome,&rdquo; said the Judge, &ldquo;but dangerous-looking. His face is indictable
+      at common law. Do you know, my dear, I think there is a blank at the
+      Sheriff's office, with a place for his name in it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge paused and looked grave, as if he had just listened to the
+      verdict of the jury and was going to pronounce sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you heard anything against him?&rdquo; said the Judge's daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing. But I don't like these mixed bloods and half-told stories.
+      Besides, I have seen a good many desperate fellows at the bar, and I have
+      a fancy they all have a look belonging to them. The worst one I ever
+      sentenced looked a good deal like this fellow. A wicked mouth. All our
+      other features are made for us; but a man makes his own mouth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was the person you sentenced?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a young fellow that undertook to garrote a man who had won his
+      money at cards. The same slender shape, the same cunning, fierce look,
+      smoothed over with a plausible air. Depend upon it, there is an expression
+      in all the sort of people who live by their wits when they can, and by
+      worse weapons when their wits fail them, that we old law-doctors know just
+      as well as the medical counsellors know the marks of disease in a man's
+      face. Dr. Kittredge looks at a man and says he is going to die; I look at
+      another man and say he is going to be hanged, if nothing happens. I don't
+      say so of this one, but I don't like his looks. I wonder Dudley Venner
+      takes to him so kindly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all for Elsie's sake,&rdquo; said Miss Thornton. &ldquo;I feel quite sure of
+      that. He never does anything that is not meant for her in some way. I
+      suppose it amuses her to have her cousin about the house. She rides a good
+      deal since he has been here. Have you seen them galloping about together?
+      He looks like my idea of a Spanish bandit on that wild horse of his.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly he has been one,&mdash;or is one,&rdquo; said the Judge,&mdash;smiling
+      as men smile whose lips have often been freighted with the life and death
+      of their fellow-creatures. &ldquo;I met them riding the other day. Perhaps
+      Dudley is right, if it pleases her to have a companion. What will happen,
+      though, if he makes love to her? Will Elsie be easily taken with such a
+      fellow? You young folks are supposed to know more about these matters than
+      we middle-aged people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nobody can tell. Elsie is not like anybody else. The girls who have seen
+      most of her think she hates men, all but 'Dudley,' as she calls her
+      father. Some of them doubt whether she loves him. They doubt whether she
+      can love anything human, except perhaps the old black woman who has taken
+      care of her since she was a baby. The village people have the strangest
+      stories about her; you know what they call her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She whispered three words in her father's ear. The Judge changed color as
+      she spoke, sighed deeply, and was silent as if lost in thought for a
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember her mother,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;so well! A sweeter creature never
+      lived. Elsie has something of her in her look, but those are not her
+      mother's eyes. They were dark, but soft, as in all I ever saw of her race.
+      Her father's are dark too, but mild, and even tender, I should say. I
+      don't know what there is about Elsie's,&mdash;but do you know, my dear, I
+      find myself curiously influenced by them? I have had to face a good many
+      sharp eyes and hard ones,&mdash;murderers' eyes and pirates',&mdash;men
+      who had to be watched in the bar, where they stood on trial, for fear they
+      should spring on the prosecuting officers like tigers,&mdash;but I never
+      saw such eyes as Elsie's; and yet they have a kind of drawing virtue or
+      power about them,&mdash;I don't know what else to call it: have you never
+      observed this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His daughter smiled in her turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never observed it? Why, of course, nobody could be with Elsie Venner and
+      not observe it. There are a good many other strange things about her: did
+      you ever notice how she dresses?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, handsomely enough, I should think,&rdquo; the Judge answered. &ldquo;I suppose
+      she dresses as she likes, and sends to the city for what she wants. What
+      do you mean in particular? We men notice effects in dress, but not much in
+      detail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never noticed the colors and patterns of her dresses? You never
+      remarked anything curious about her ornaments? Well! I don't believe you
+      men know, half the time, whether a lady wears a nine-penny collar or a
+      thread-lace cape worth a thousand dollars. I don't believe you know a silk
+      dress from a bombazine one. I don't believe you can tell whether a woman
+      is in black or in colors, unless you happen to know she is a widow. Elsie
+      Venner has a strange taste in dress, let me tell you. She sends for the
+      oddest patterns of stuffs, and picks out the most curious things at the
+      jeweller's, whenever she goes to town with her father. They say the old
+      Doctor tells him to let her have her way about such matters. Afraid of her
+      mind, if she is contradicted, I suppose. You've heard about her going to
+      school at that place,&mdash;the 'Institoot,' as those people call it? They
+      say she's bright enough in her way,&mdash;has studied at home, you know,
+      with her father a good deal, knows some modern languages and Latin, I
+      believe: at any rate, she would have it so,&mdash;she must go to the
+      'Institoot.' They have a very good female teacher there, I hear; and the
+      new master, that young Mr. Langdon, looks and talks like a well-educated
+      young man. I wonder what they 'll make of Elsie, between them!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they talked at the Judge's, in the calm, judicial-looking
+      mansion-house, in the grave, still library, with the troops of wan-hued
+      law-books staring blindly out of their titles at them as they talked, like
+      the ghosts of dead attorneys fixed motionless and speechless, each with a
+      thin, golden film over his unwinking eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, everything went on quietly enough after Cousin Richard's
+      return. A man of sense,&mdash;that is, a man who knows perfectly well that
+      a cool head is worth a dozen warm hearts in carrying the fortress of a
+      woman's affections, (not yours, &ldquo;Astarte,&rdquo; nor yours, &ldquo;Viola,&rdquo;)&mdash;who
+      knows that men are rejected by women every day because they, the men, love
+      them, and are accepted every day because they do not, and therefore can
+      study the arts of pleasing,&mdash;a man of sense, when he finds he has
+      established his second parallel too soon, retires quietly to his first,
+      and begins working on his covered ways again. The whole art of love may be
+      read in any Encyclopaedia under the title Fortification, where the terms
+      just used are explained. After the little adventure of the necklace, Dick
+      retreated at once to his first parallel. Elsie loved riding,&mdash;and
+      would go off with him on a gallop now and then. He was a master of all
+      those strange Indian horseback-feats which shame the tricks of the
+      circus-riders, and used to astonish and almost amuse her sometimes by
+      disappearing from his saddle, like a phantom horseman lying flat against
+      the side of the bounding creature that bore him, as if he were a hunting
+      leopard with his claws in the horse's flank and flattening himself out
+      against his heaving ribs. Elsie knew a little Spanish too, which she had
+      learned from the young person who had taught her dancing, and Dick
+      enlarged her vocabulary with a few soft phrases, and would sing her a song
+      sometimes, touching the air upon an ancient-looking guitar they had found
+      with the ghostly things in the garret,&mdash;a quaint old instrument,
+      marked E. M. on the back, and supposed to have belonged to a certain
+      Elizabeth Mascarene, before mentioned in connection with a work of art,&mdash;a
+      fair, dowerless lady, who smiled and sung and faded away, unwedded, a
+      hundred years ago, as dowerless ladies, not a few, are smiling and singing
+      and fading now,&mdash;God grant each of them His love,&mdash;and one human
+      heart as its interpreter!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for school, Elsie went or stayed away as she liked. Sometimes, when
+      they thought she was at her desk in the great schoolroom, she would be on
+      The Mountain,&mdash;alone always. Dick wanted to go with her, but she
+      would never let him. Once, when she had followed the zigzag path a little
+      way up, she looked back and caught a glimpse of him following her. She
+      turned and passed him without a word, but giving him a look which seemed
+      to make the scars on his wrist tingle, went to her room, where she locked
+      herself up, and did not come out again till evening, Old Sophy having
+      brought her food, and set it down, not speaking, but looking into her eyes
+      inquiringly, like a dumb beast trying to feel out his master's will in his
+      face. The evening was clear and the moon shining. As Dick sat at his
+      chamber-window, looking at the mountain-side, he saw a gray-dressed figure
+      flit between the trees and steal along the narrow path which led upward.
+      Elsie's pillow was unpressed that night, but she had not been missed by
+      the household,&mdash;for Dick knew enough to keep his own counsel. The
+      next morning she avoided him and went off early to school. It was the same
+      morning that the young master found the flower between the leaves of his
+      Virgil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl got over her angry fit, and was pleasant enough with her cousin
+      for a few days after this; but she shunned rather than sought him. She had
+      taken a new interest in her books, and especially in certain poetical
+      readings which the master conducted with the elder scholars. This gave
+      Master Langdon a good chance to study her ways when her eye was on her
+      book, to notice the inflections of her voice, to watch for any expression
+      of her sentiments; for, to tell the truth, he had a kind of fear that the
+      girl had taken a fancy to him, and, though she interested him, he did not
+      wish to study her heart from the inside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The more he saw her, the more the sadness of her beauty wrought upon him.
+      She looked as if she might hate, but could not love. She hardly smiled at
+      anything, spoke rarely, but seemed to feel that her natural power of
+      expression lay all in her bright eyes, the force of which so many had
+      felt, but none perhaps had tried to explain to themselves. A person
+      accustomed to watch the faces of those who were ailing in body or mind,
+      and to search in every line and tint for some underlying source of
+      disorder, could hardly help analyzing the impression such a face produced
+      upon him. The light of those beautiful eyes was like the lustre of ice; in
+      all her features there was nothing of that human warmth which shows that
+      sympathy has reached the soul beneath the mask of flesh it wears. The look
+      was that of remoteness, of utter isolation. There was in its stony apathy,
+      it seemed to him, the pathos which we find in the blind who show no film
+      or speck over the organs of sight; for Nature had meant her to be lovely,
+      and left out nothing but love. And yet the master could not help feeling
+      that some instinct was working in this girl which was in some way leading
+      her to seek his presence. She did not lift her glittering eyes upon him as
+      at first. It seemed strange that she did not, for they were surely her
+      natural weapons of conquest. Her color did not come and go like that of
+      young girls under excitement. She had a clear brunette complexion, a
+      little sun-touched, it may be,&mdash;for the master noticed once, when her
+      necklace was slightly displaced, that a faint ring or band of a little
+      lighter shade than the rest of the surface encircled her neck. What was
+      the slight peculiarity of her enunciation, when she read? Not a lisp,
+      certainly, but the least possible imperfection in articulating some of the
+      lingual sounds,&mdash;just enough to be noticed at first, and quite
+      forgotten after being a few times heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a word about the flower on either side. It was not uncommon for the
+      schoolgirls to leave a rose or pink or wild flower on the teacher's desk.
+      Finding it in the Virgil was nothing, after all; it was a little delicate
+      flower, which looked as if it were made to press, and it was probably shut
+      in by accident at the particular place where he found it. He took it into
+      his head to examine it in a botanical point of view. He found it was not
+      common,&mdash;that it grew only in certain localities,&mdash;and that one
+      of these was among the rocks of the eastern spur of The Mountain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened to come into his head how the Swiss youth climb the sides of
+      the Alps to find the flower called the Edelweiss for the maidens whom they
+      wish to please. It is a pretty fancy, that of scaling some dangerous
+      height before the dawn, so as to gather the flower in its freshness, that
+      the favored maiden may wear it to church on Sunday morning, a proof at
+      once of her lover's devotion and his courage. Mr. Bernard determined to
+      explore the region where this flower was said to grow, that he might see
+      where the wild girl sought the blossoms of which Nature was so jealous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on a warm, fair Saturday afternoon that he undertook his
+      land-voyage of discovery. He had more curiosity, it may be, than he would
+      have owned; for he had heard of the girl's wandering habits, and the
+      guesses about her sylvan haunts, and was thinking what the chances were
+      that he should meet her in some strange place, or come upon traces of her
+      which would tell secrets she would not care to have known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woods are all alive to one who walks through them with his mind in an
+      excited state, and his eyes and ears wide open. The trees are always
+      talking, not merely whispering with their leaves, (for every tree talks to
+      itself in that way, even when it stands alone in the middle of a pasture,)
+      but grating their boughs against each other, as old horn-handed farmers
+      press their dry, rustling palms together, dropping a nut or a leaf or a
+      twig, clicking to the tap of a woodpecker, or rustling as a squirrel
+      flashes along a branch. It was now the season of singing-birds, and the
+      woods were haunted with mysterious, tender music. The voices of the birds
+      which love the deeper shades of the forest are sadder than those of the
+      open fields: these are the nuns who have taken the veil, the hermits that
+      have hidden themselves away from the world and tell their griefs to the
+      infinite listening Silences of the wilderness,&mdash;for the one deep
+      inner silence that Nature breaks with her fitful superficial sounds
+      becomes multiplied as the image of a star in ruffled waters. Strange! The
+      woods at first convey the impression of profound repose, and yet, if you
+      watch their ways with open ear, you find the life which is in them is
+      restless and nervous as that of a woman: the little twigs are crossing and
+      twining and separating like slender fingers that cannot be still; the
+      stray leaf is to be flattened into its place like a truant curl; the limbs
+      sway and twist, impatient of their constrained attitude; and the rounded
+      masses of foliage swell upward and subside from time to time with long
+      soft sighs, and, it may be, the falling of a few rain-drops which had lain
+      hidden among the deeper shadows. I pray you, notice, in the sweet summer
+      days which will soon see you among the mountains, this inward tranquillity
+      that belongs to the heart of the woodland, with this nervousness, for I do
+      not know what else to call it, of outer movement. One would say, that
+      Nature, like untrained persons, could not sit still without nestling about
+      or doing something with her limbs or features, and that high breeding was
+      only to be looked for in trim gardens, where the soul of the trees is ill
+      at ease perhaps, but their manners are unexceptionable, and a rustling
+      branch or leaf falling out of season is an indecorum. The real forest is
+      hardly still except in the Indian summer; then there is death in the
+      house, and they are waiting for the sharp shrunken months to come with
+      white raiment for the summer's burial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were many hemlocks in this neighborhood, the grandest and most
+      solemn of all the forest-trees in the mountain regions. Up to a certain
+      period of growth they are eminently beautiful, their boughs disposed in
+      the most graceful pagoda-like series of close terraces, thick and dark
+      with green crystalline leaflets. In spring the tender shoots come out of a
+      paler green, finger-like, as if they were pointing to the violets at their
+      feet. But when the trees have grown old, and their rough boles measure a
+      yard and more through their diameter, they are no longer beautiful, but
+      they have a sad solemnity all their own, too full of meaning to require
+      the heart's comment to be framed in words. Below, all their
+      earthward-looking branches are sapless and shattered, splintered by the
+      weight of many winters' snows; above, they are still green and full of
+      life, but their summits overtop all the deciduous trees around them, and
+      in their companionship with heaven they are alone. On these the lightning
+      loves to fall. One such Mr. Bernard saw,&mdash;or rather, what had been
+      one such; for the bolt had torn the tree like an explosion from within,
+      and the ground was strewed all around the broken stump with flakes of
+      rough bark and strips and chips of shivered wood, into which the old tree
+      had been rent by the bursting rocket from the thunder-cloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;The master had struck up The Mountain obliquely from the western
+      side of the Dudley mansion-house. In this way he ascended until he reached
+      a point many hundred feet above the level of the plain, and commanding all
+      the country beneath and around. Almost at his feet he saw the
+      mansion-house, the chimney standing out of the middle of the roof, or
+      rather, like a black square hole in it,&mdash;the trees almost directly
+      over their stems, the fences as lines, the whole nearly as an architect
+      would draw a ground-plan of the house and the inclosures round it. It
+      frightened him to see how the huge masses of rock and old forest-growths
+      hung over the home below. As he descended a little and drew near the ledge
+      of evil name, he was struck with the appearance of a long narrow fissure
+      that ran parallel with it and above it for many rods, not seemingly of
+      very old standing,&mdash;for there were many fibres of roots which had
+      evidently been snapped asunder when the rent took place, and some of which
+      were still succulent in both separated portions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard had made up his mind, when he set forth, not to come back
+      before he had examined the dreaded ledge. He had half persuaded himself
+      that it was scientific curiosity. He wished to examine the rocks, to see
+      what flowers grew there, and perhaps to pick up an adventure in the
+      zoological line; for he had on a pair of high, stout boots, and he carried
+      a stick in his hand, which was forked at one extremity, so as to be very
+      convenient to hold down a crotalus with, if he should happen to encounter
+      one. He knew the aspect of the ledge from a distance; for its bald and
+      leprous-looking declivities stood out in their nakedness from the wooded
+      sides of The Mountain, when this was viewed from certain points of the
+      village. But the nearer aspect of the blasted region had something
+      frightful in it. The cliffs were water-worn, as if they had been gnawed
+      for thousands of years by hungry waves. In some places they overhung their
+      base so as to look like leaning towers which might topple over at any
+      minute. In other parts they were scooped into niches or caverns. Here and
+      there they were cracked in deep fissures, some of them of such width that
+      one might enter them, if he cared to run the risk of meeting the regular
+      tenants, who might treat him as an intruder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Parts of the ledge were cloven perpendicularly, with nothing but cracks or
+      slightly projecting edges in which or on which a foot could find hold.
+      High up on one of these precipitous walls of rock he saw some tufts of
+      flowers, and knew them at once for the same that he had found between the
+      leaves of his Virgil. Not there, surely! No woman would have clung against
+      that steep, rough parapet to gather an idle blossom. And yet the master
+      looked round everywhere, and even up the side of that rock, to see if
+      there were no signs of a woman's footstep. He peered about curiously, as
+      if his eye might fall on some of those fragments of dress which women
+      leave after them, whenever they run against each other or against anything
+      else,&mdash;in crowded ballrooms, in the brushwood after picnics, on the
+      fences after rambles, scattered round over every place which has witnessed
+      an act of violence, where rude hands have been laid upon them. Nothing&mdash;Stop,
+      though, one moment. That stone is smooth and polished, as if it had been
+      somewhat worn by the pressure of human feet. There is one twig broken
+      among the stems of that clump of shrubs. He put his foot upon the stone
+      and took hold of the close-clinging shrub. In this way he turned a sharp
+      angle of the rock and found himself on a natural platform, which lay in
+      front of one of the wider fissures,&mdash;whether the mouth of a cavern or
+      not he could not yet tell. A flat stone made an easy seat, upon which he
+      sat down, as he was very glad to do, and looked mechanically about him. A
+      small fragment splintered from the rock was at his feet. He took it and
+      threw it down the declivity a little below where he sat. He looked about
+      for a stem or a straw of some kind to bite upon,&mdash;a country-instinct,&mdash;relic,
+      no doubt, of the old vegetable-feeding habits of Eden. Is that a stem or a
+      straw? He picked it up. It was a hair-pin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To say that Mr. Langdon had a strange sort of thrill shoot through him at
+      the sight of this harmless little implement would be a statement not at
+      variance with the fact of the case. That smooth stone had been often
+      trodden, and by what foot he could not doubt. He rose up from his seat to
+      look round for other signs of a woman's visits. What if there is a cavern
+      here, where she has a retreat, fitted up, perhaps, as anchorites fitted
+      their cells,&mdash;nay, it may be, carpeted and mirrored, and with one of
+      those tiger-skins for a couch, such as they, say the girl loves to lie on?
+      Let us look, at any rate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard walked to the mouth of the cavern or fissure and looked into
+      it. His look was met by the glitter of two diamond eyes, small, sharp,
+      cold, shining out of the darkness, but gliding with a smooth, steady
+      motion towards the light, and himself. He stood fixed, struck dumb,
+      staring back into them with dilating pupils and sudden numbness of fear
+      that cannot move, as in the terror of dreams. The two sparks of light came
+      forward until they grew to circles of flame, and all at once lifted
+      themselves up as if in angry surprise. Then for the first time thrilled in
+      Mr. Bernard's ears the dreadful sound that nothing which breathes, be it
+      man or brute, can hear unmoved,&mdash;the long, loud, stinging whirr, as
+      the huge, thick bodied reptile shook his many-jointed rattle and adjusted
+      his loops for the fatal stroke. His eyes were drawn as with magnets toward
+      the circles of flame. His ears rung as in the overture to the swooning
+      dream of chloroform. Nature was before man with her anaesthetics: the
+      cat's first shake stupefies the mouse; the lion's first shake deadens the
+      man's fear and feeling; and the crotalus paralyzes before he strikes. He
+      waited as in a trance,&mdash;waited as one that longs to have the blow
+      fall, and all over, as the man who shall be in two pieces in a second
+      waits for the axe to drop. But while he looked straight into the flaming
+      eyes, it seemed to him that they were losing their light and terror, that
+      they were growing tame and dull; the charm was dissolving, the numbness
+      was passing away, he could move once more. He heard a light breathing
+      close to his ear, and, half turning, saw the face of Elsie Venner, looking
+      motionless into the reptile's eyes, which had shrunk and faded under the
+      stronger enchantment of her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV. FAMILY SECRETS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was commonly understood in the town of Rockland that Dudley Venner had
+      had a great deal of trouble with that daughter of his, so handsome, yet so
+      peculiar, about whom there were so many strange stories. There was no end
+      to the tales which were told of her extraordinary doings. Yet her name was
+      never coupled with that of any youth or man, until this cousin had
+      provoked remark by his visit; and even then it was oftener in the shape of
+      wondering conjectures whether he would dare to make love to her, than in
+      any pretended knowledge of their relations to each other, that the public
+      tongue exercised its village-prerogative of tattle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The more common version of the trouble at the mansion-house was this:
+      Elsie was not exactly in her right mind. Her temper was singular, her
+      tastes were anomalous, her habits were lawless, her antipathies were many
+      and intense, and she was liable to explosions of ungovernable anger. Some
+      said that was not the worst of it. At nearly fifteen years old, when she
+      was growing fast, and in an irritable state of mind and body, she had had
+      a governess placed over her for whom she had conceived an aversion. It was
+      whispered among a few who knew more of the family secrets than others,
+      that, worried and exasperated by the presence and jealous oversight of
+      this person, Elsie had attempted to get finally rid of her by unlawful
+      means, such as young girls have been known to employ in their straits, and
+      to which the sex at all ages has a certain instinctive tendency, in
+      preference to more palpable instruments for the righting of its wrongs. At
+      any rate, this governess had been taken suddenly ill, and the Doctor had
+      been sent for at midnight. Old Sophy had taken her master into a room
+      apart, and said a few words to him which turned him as white as a sheet.
+      As soon as he recovered himself, he sent Sophy out, called in the old
+      Doctor, and gave him some few hints, on which he acted at once, and had
+      the satisfaction of seeing his patient out of danger before he left in the
+      morning. It is proper to say, that, during the following days, the most
+      thorough search was made in every nook and cranny of those parts of the
+      house which Elsie chiefly haunted, but nothing was found which might be
+      accused of having been the intentional cause of the probably accidental
+      sudden illness of the governess. From this time forward her father was
+      never easy. Should he keep her apart, or shut her up, for fear of risk to
+      others, and so lose every chance of restoring her mind to its healthy tone
+      by kindly influences and intercourse with wholesome natures? There was no
+      proof, only presumption, as to the agency of Elsie in the matter referred
+      to. But the doubt was worse, perhaps, than certainty would have been,&mdash;for
+      then he would have known what to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took the old Doctor as his adviser. The shrewd old man listened to the
+      father's story, his explanations of possibilities, of probabilities, of
+      dangers, of hopes. When he had got through, the Doctor looked him in the
+      face steadily, as if he were saying, Is that all?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The father's eyes fell. This was not all. There was something at the
+      bottom of his soul which he could not bear to speak of,&mdash;nay, which,
+      as often as it reared itself through the dark waves of unworded
+      consciousness into the breathing air of thought, he trod down as the
+      ruined angels tread down a lost soul, trying to come up out of the
+      seething sea of torture. Only this one daughter! No! God never would have
+      ordained such a thing. There was nothing ever heard of like it; it could
+      not be; she was ill,&mdash;she would outgrow all these singularities; he
+      had had an aunt who was peculiar; he had heard that hysteric girls showed
+      the strangest forms of moral obliquity for a time, but came right at last.
+      She would change all at once, when her health got more firmly settled in
+      the course of her growth. Are there not rough buds that open into sweet
+      flowers? Are there not fruits, which, while unripe, are not to be tasted
+      or endured, which mature into the richest taste and fragrance? In God's
+      good time she would come to her true nature; her eyes would lose that
+      frightful, cold glitter; her lips would not feel so cold when she pressed
+      them against his cheek; and that faint birth-mark, her mother swooned when
+      she first saw, would fade wholly out,&mdash;it was less marked, surely,
+      now than it used to be!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Dudley Venner felt, and would have thought, if he had let his thoughts
+      breathe the air of his soul. But the Doctor read through words and
+      thoughts and all into the father's consciousness. There are states of mind
+      which may be shared by two persons in presence of each other, which remain
+      not only unworded, but unthoughted, if such a word may be coined for our
+      special need. Such a mutually interpenetrative consciousness there was
+      between the father and the old physician. By a common impulse, both of
+      them rose in a mechanical way and went to the western window, where each
+      started, as he saw the other's look directed towards the white stone which
+      stood in the midst of the small plot of green turf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor had, for a moment, forgotten himself but he looked up at the
+      clouds, which were angry, and said, as if speaking of the weather, &ldquo;It is
+      dark now, but we hope it will clear up by and by. There are a great many
+      more clouds than rains, and more rains than strokes of lightning, and more
+      strokes of lightning than there are people killed. We must let this girl
+      of ours have her way, as far as it is safe. Send away this woman she
+      hates, quietly. Get her a foreigner for a governess, if you can,&mdash;one
+      that can dance and sing and will teach her. In the house old Sophy will
+      watch her best. Out of it you must trust her, I am afraid,&mdash;for she
+      will not be followed round, and she is in less danger than you think. If
+      she wanders at night, find her, if you can; the woods are not absolutely
+      safe. If she will be friendly with any young people, have them to see her,&mdash;young
+      men especially. She will not love any one easily, perhaps not at all; yet
+      love would be more like to bring her right than anything else. If any
+      young person seems in danger of falling in love with her, send him to me
+      for counsel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dry, hard advice, but given from a kind hewn, with a moist eye, and in
+      tones which tried to be cheerful and were full of sympathy. This advice
+      was the key to the more than indulgent treatment which, as we have seen,
+      the girl had received from her father and all about her. The old Doctor
+      often came in, in the kindest, most natural sort of way, got into pleasant
+      relations with Elsie by always treating her in the same easy manner as at
+      the great party, encouraging all her harmless fancies, and rarely
+      reminding her that he was a professional adviser, except when she came out
+      of her own accord, as in the talk they had at the party, telling him of
+      some wild trick she had been playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her go to the girls' school, by all means,&rdquo; said the Doctor, when she
+      had begun to talk about it. &ldquo;Possibly she may take to some of the girls or
+      of the teachers. Anything to interest her. Friendship, love, religion,
+      whatever will set her nature at work. We must have headway on, or there
+      will be no piloting her. Action first of all, and then we will see what to
+      do with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, when Cousin Richard came along, the Doctor, though he did not like his
+      looks any too well, told her father to encourage his staying for a time.
+      If she liked him, it was good; if she only tolerated him, it was better
+      than nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know something about that nephew of yours, during these last years, I
+      suppose?&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;Looks as if he had seen life. Has a scar that
+      was made by a sword-cut, and a white spot on the side of his neck that
+      looks like a bullet-mark. I think he has been what folks call a 'hard
+      customer.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner owned that he had heard little or nothing of him of late
+      years. He had invited himself, and of course it would not be decent not to
+      receive him as a relative. He thought Elsie rather liked having him about
+      the house for a while. She was very capricious,&mdash;acted as if she
+      fancied him one day and disliked him the next. He did not know,&mdash;but
+      sometimes thought that this nephew of his might take a serious liking to
+      Elsie. What should he do about it, if it turned out so?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor lifted his eyebrows a little. He thought there was no fear.
+      Elsie was naturally what they call a man-hater, and there was very little
+      danger of any sudden passion springing up between two such young persons.
+      Let him stay awhile; it gives her something to think about. So he stayed
+      awhile, as we have seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The more Mr. Richard became acquainted with the family,&mdash;that is,
+      with the two persons of whom it consisted,&mdash;the more favorably the
+      idea of a permanent residence in the mansion-house seemed to impress him.
+      The estate was large,&mdash;hundreds of acres, with woodlands and meadows
+      of great value. The father and daughter had been living quietly, and there
+      could not be a doubt that the property which came through the Dudleys must
+      have largely increased of late years. It was evident enough that they had
+      an abundant income, from the way in which Elsie's caprices were indulged.
+      She had horses and carriages to suit herself; she sent to the great city
+      for everything she wanted in the way of dress. Even her diamonds&mdash;and
+      the young man knew something about these gems&mdash;must be of
+      considerable value; and yet she wore them carelessly, as it pleased her
+      fancy. She had precious old laces, too, almost worth their weight in
+      diamonds; laces which had been snatched from altars in ancient Spanish
+      cathedrals during the wars, and which it would not be safe to leave a
+      duchess alone with for ten minutes. The old house was fat with the
+      deposits of rich generations which had gone before. The famous &ldquo;golden&rdquo;
+       fire-set was a purchase of one of the family who had been in France during
+      the Revolution, and must have come from a princely palace, if not from one
+      of the royal residences. As for silver, the iron closet which had been
+      made in the dining-room wall was running over with it: tea-kettles,
+      coffee-pots, heavy-lidded tankards, chafing-dishes, punch-bowls, all that
+      all the Dudleys had ever used, from the caudle-cup which used to be handed
+      round the young mother's chamber, and the porringer from which children
+      scooped their bread-and-milk with spoons as solid as ingots, to that
+      ominous vessel, on the upper shelf, far back in the dark, with a spout
+      like a slender italic S, out of which the sick and dying, all along the
+      last century, and since, had taken the last drops that passed their lips.
+      Without being much of a scholar, Dick could see well enough, too, that the
+      books in the library had been ordered from the great London houses, whose
+      imprint they bore, by persons who knew what was best and meant to have it.
+      A man does not require much learning to feel pretty sure, when he takes
+      one of those solid, smooth, velvet-leaved quartos, say a Baskerville
+      Addison, for instance, bound in red morocco, with a margin of gold as rich
+      as the embroidery of a prince's collar, as Vandyck drew it,&mdash;he need
+      not know much to feel pretty sure that a score or two of shelves full of
+      such books mean that it took a long purse, as well as a literary taste, to
+      bring them together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To all these attractions the mind of this thoughtful young gentleman may
+      be said to have been fully open. He did not disguise from himself,
+      however, that there were a number of drawbacks in the way of his becoming
+      established as the heir of the Dudley mansion-house and fortune. In the
+      first place, Cousin Elsie was, unquestionably, very piquant, very
+      handsome, game as a hawk, and hard to please, which made her worth trying
+      for. But then there was something about Cousin Elsie,&mdash;(the small,
+      white scars began stinging, as he said this to himself, and he pushed his
+      sleeve up to look at them)&mdash;there was something about Cousin Elsie he
+      couldn't make out. What was the matter with her eyes, that they sucked
+      your life out of you in that strange way? What did she always wear a
+      necklace for? Had she some such love-token on her neck as the old Don's
+      revolver had left on his? How safe would anybody feel to live with her?
+      Besides, her father would last forever, if he was left to himself. And he
+      may take it into his head to marry again. That would be pleasant!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So talked Cousin Richard to himself, in the calm of the night and in the
+      tranquillity of his own soul. There was much to be said on both sides. It
+      was a balance to be struck after the two columns were added up. He struck
+      the balance, and came to the conclusion that he would fall in love with
+      Elsie Venner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The intelligent reader will not confound this matured and serious
+      intention of falling in love with the young lady with that mere impulse of
+      the moment before mentioned as an instance of making love. On the
+      contrary, the moment Mr. Richard had made up his mind that he should fall
+      in love with Elsie, he began to be more reserved with her, and to try to
+      make friends in other quarters. Sensible men, you know, care very little
+      what a girl's present fancy is. The question is: Who manages her, and how
+      can you get at that person or those persons? Her foolish little sentiments
+      are all very well in their way; but business is business, and we can't
+      stop for such trifles. The old political wire-pullers never go near the
+      man they want to gain, if they can help it; they find out who his
+      intimates and managers are, and work through them. Always handle any
+      positively electrical body, whether it is charged with passion or power,
+      with some non-conductor between you and it, not with your naked hands.
+      &mdash;The above were some of the young gentleman's working axioms; and he
+      proceeded to act in accordance with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He began by paying his court more assiduously to his uncle. It was not
+      very hard to ingratiate himself in that quarter; for his manners were
+      insinuating, and his precocious experience of life made him entertaining.
+      The old neglected billiard&mdash;room was soon put in order, and Dick, who
+      was a magnificent player, had a series of games with his uncle, in which,
+      singularly enough, he was beaten, though his antagonist had been out of
+      play for years. He evinced a profound interest in the family history,
+      insisted on having the details of its early alliances, and professed a
+      great pride in it, which he had inherited from his father, who, though he
+      had allied himself with the daughter of an alien race, had yet chosen one
+      with the real azure blood in her veins, as proud as if she had Castile and
+      Aragon for her dower and the Cid for her grand-papa. He also asked a great
+      deal of advice, such as inexperienced young persons are in need of, and
+      listened to it with due reverence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not very strange that uncle Dudley took a kinder view of his nephew
+      than the Judge, who thought he could read a questionable history in his
+      face,&mdash;or the old Doctor, who knew men's temperaments and
+      organizations pretty well, and had his prejudices about races, and could
+      tell an old sword-cut and a ballet-mark in two seconds from a scar got by
+      falling against the fender, or a mark left by king's evil. He could not be
+      expected to share our own prejudices; for he had heard nothing of the wild
+      youth's adventures, or his scamper over the Pampas at short notice. So,
+      then, &ldquo;Richard Venner, Esquire, guest of Dudley Venner, Esquire, at his
+      elegant mansion,&rdquo; prolonged his visit until his presence became something
+      like a matter of habit, and the neighbors began to think that the fine old
+      house would be illuminated before long for a grand marriage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had done pretty well with the father: the next thing was to gain over
+      the nurse. Old Sophy was as cunning as a red fox or a gray woodchuck. She
+      had nothing in the world to do but to watch Elsie; she had nothing to care
+      for but this girl and her father. She had never liked Dick too well; for
+      he used to make faces at her and tease her when he was a boy, and now he
+      was a man there was something about him&mdash;she could not tell what&mdash;that
+      made her suspicious of him. It was no small matter to get her over to his
+      side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The jet-black Africans know that gold never looks so well as on the foil
+      of their dark skins. Dick found in his trunk a string of gold beads, such
+      as are manufactured in some of our cities, which he had brought from the
+      gold region of Chili,&mdash;so he said,&mdash;for the express purpose of
+      giving them to old Sophy. These Africans, too, have a perfect passion for
+      gay-colored clothing; being condemned by Nature, as it were, to a
+      perpetual mourning-suit, they love to enliven it with all sorts of
+      variegated stuffs of sprightly patterns, aflame with red and yellow. The
+      considerate young man had remembered this, too, and brought home for Sophy
+      some handkerchiefs of rainbow hues, which had been strangely overlooked
+      till now, at the bottom of one of his trunks. Old Sophy took his gifts,
+      but kept her black eyes open and watched every movement of the young
+      people all the more closely. It was through her that the father had always
+      known most of the actions and tendencies of his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time the strange adventure on The Mountain had brought the
+      young master into new relations with Elsie. She had led him out of,
+      danger; perhaps saved him from death by the strange power she exerted. He
+      was grateful, and yet shuddered at the recollection of the whole scene. In
+      his dreams he was pursued by the glare of cold glittering eyes, whether
+      they were in the head of a woman or of a reptile he could not always tell,
+      the images had so run together. But he could not help seeing that the eyes
+      of the young girl had been often, very often, turned upon him when he had
+      been looking away, and fell as his own glance met them. Helen Darley told
+      him very plainly that this girl was thinking about him more than about her
+      book. Dick Venner found she was getting more constant in her attendance at
+      school. He learned, on inquiry, that there was a new master, a handsome
+      young man. The handsome young man would not have liked the look that, came
+      over Dick's face when he heard this fact mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In short, everything was getting tangled up together, and there would be
+      no chance of disentangling the threads in this chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV. PHYSIOLOGICAL.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      If Master Bernard felt a natural gratitude to his young pupil for saving
+      him from an imminent peril, he was in a state of infinite perplexity to
+      know why he should have needed such aid. He, an active, muscular,
+      courageous, adventurous young fellow, with&mdash;a stick in his hand,
+      ready to hold down the Old Serpent himself, if he had come in his way, to
+      stand still, staring into those two eyes, until they came up close to him,
+      and the strange, terrible sound seemed to freeze him stiff where he stood,&mdash;what
+      was the meaning of it? Again, what was the influence this girl had
+      seemingly exerted, under which the venomous creature had collapsed in such
+      a sudden way? Whether he had been awake or dreaming he did not feel quite
+      sure. He knew he had gone up The Mountain, at any rate; he knew he had
+      come down The Mountain with the girl walking just before him;&mdash;there
+      was no forgetting her figure, as she walked on in silence, her braided
+      locks falling a little, for want of the lost hairpin, perhaps, and looking
+      like a wreathing coil of&mdash;Shame on such fancies!&mdash;to wrong that
+      supreme crowning gift of abounding Nature, a rush of shining black hair,
+      which, shaken loose, would cloud her all round, like Godiva, from brow to
+      instep! He was sure he had sat down before the fissure or cave. He was
+      sure that he was led softly away from the place, and that it was Elsie who
+      had led him. There was the hair-pin to show that so far it was not a
+      dream. But between these recollections came a strange confusion; and the
+      more the master thought, the more he was perplexed to know whether she had
+      waked him, sleeping, as he sat on the stone, from some frightful dream,
+      such as may come in a very brief slumber, or whether she had bewitched him
+      into a trance with those strange eyes of hers, or whether it was all true,
+      and he must solve its problem as he best might.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another recollection connected with this mountain adventure. As
+      they approached the mansion-house, they met a young man, whom Mr. Bernard
+      remembered having seen once at least before, and whom he had heard of as a
+      cousin of the young girl. As Cousin Richard Venner, the person in
+      question, passed them, he took the measure, so to speak, of Mr. Bernard,
+      with a look so piercing, so exhausting, so practised, so profoundly
+      suspicious, that the young master felt in an instant that he had an enemy
+      in this handsome youth,&mdash;an enemy, too, who was like to be subtle and
+      dangerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard had made up his mind, that, come what might, enemy or no
+      enemy, live or die, he would solve the mystery of Elsie Venner, sooner or
+      later. He was not a man to be frightened out of his resolution by a scowl,
+      or a stiletto, or any unknown means of mischief, of which a whole armory
+      was hinted at in that passing look Dick Venner had given him. Indeed, like
+      most adventurous young persons, he found a kind of charm in feeling that
+      there might be some dangers in the way of his investigations. Some rumors
+      which had reached him about the supposed suitor of Elsie Venner, who was
+      thought to be a desperate kind of fellow, and whom some believed to be an
+      unscrupulous adventurer, added a curious, romantic kind of interest to the
+      course of physiological and psychological inquiries he was about
+      instituting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The afternoon on The Mountain was still upper-most in his mind. Of course
+      he knew the common stories&mdash;about fascination. He had once been
+      himself an eyewitness of the charming of a small bird by one of our common
+      harmless serpents. Whether a human being could be reached by this subtile
+      agency, he had been skeptical, notwithstanding the mysterious relation
+      generally felt to exist between man and this creature, &ldquo;cursed above all
+      cattle and above every beast of the field,&rdquo;&mdash;a relation which some
+      interpret as the fruit of the curse, and others hold to be so instinctive
+      that this animal has been for that reason adopted as the natural symbol of
+      evil. There was another solution, however, supplied him by his
+      professional reading. The curious work of Mr. Braid of Manchester had made
+      him familiar with the phenomena of a state allied to that produced by
+      animal magnetism, and called by that writer by the name of hypnotism. He
+      found, by referring to his note-book, the statement was, that, by fixing
+      the eyes on a bright object so placed as to produce a strain upon the eyes
+      and eyelids, and to maintain a steady fixed stare, there comes on in a few
+      seconds a very singular condition, characterized by muscular rigidity and
+      inability to move, with a strange exaltation of most of the senses, and
+      generally a closure of the eyelids,&mdash;this condition being followed by
+      torpor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now this statement of Mr. Braid's, well known to the scientific world, and
+      the truth of which had been confirmed by Mr. Bernard in certain
+      experiments he had instituted, as it has been by many other experimenters,
+      went far to explain the strange impressions, of which, waking or dreaming,
+      he had certainly been the subject. His nervous system had been in a high
+      state of exaltation at the time. He remembered how the little noises that
+      made rings of sound in the silence of the woods, like pebbles dropped in
+      still waters, had reached his inner consciousness. He remembered that
+      singular sensation in the roots of the hair, when he came on the traces of
+      the girl's presence, reminding him of a line in a certain poem which he
+      had read lately with a new and peculiar interest. He even recalled a
+      curious evidence of exalted sensibility and irritability, in the twitching
+      of the minute muscles of the internal ear at every unexpected sound,
+      producing an odd little snap in the middle of the head, which proved to
+      him that he was getting very nervous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next thing was to find out whether it were possible that the venomous
+      creature's eyes should have served the purpose of Mr. Braid's &ldquo;bright
+      object&rdquo; held very close to the person experimented on, or whether they had
+      any special power which could be made the subject of exact observation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For this purpose Mr. Bernard considered it necessary to get a live
+      crotalus or two into his possession, if this were possible. On inquiry, he
+      found that there was a certain family living far up the mountainside, not
+      a mile from the ledge, the members of which were said to have taken these
+      creatures occasionally, and not to be in any danger, or at least in any
+      fear, of being injured by them. He applied to these people, and offered a
+      reward sufficient to set them at work to capture some of these animals, if
+      such a thing were possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days after this, a dark, gypsy-looking woman presented herself at
+      his door. She held up her apron as if it contained something precious in
+      the bag she made with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Y' wanted some rattlers,&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;Here they be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She opened her apron and showed a coil of rattlesnakes lying very
+      peaceably in its fold. They lifted their heads up, as if they wanted to
+      see what was going on, but showed no sign of anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you crazy?&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard. &ldquo;You're dead in an hour, if one of
+      those creatures strikes you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew back a little, as he spoke; it might be simple disgust; it might
+      be fear; it might be what we call antipathy, which is different from
+      either, and which will sometimes show itself in paleness, and even
+      faintness, produced by objects perfectly harmless and not in themselves
+      offensive to any sense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord bless you,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;rattlers never touches our folks. I'd
+      jest 'z lieves handle them creaturs as so many striped snakes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she put their heads down with her hand, and packed them
+      together in her apron as if they had been bits of cart-rope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard had never heard of the power, or, at least, the belief in the
+      possession of a power by certain persons, which enables them to handle
+      these frightful reptiles with perfect impunity. The fact, however, is well
+      known to others, and more especially to a very distinguished Professor in
+      one of the leading institutions of the great city of the land, whose
+      experiences in the neighborhood of Graylock, as he will doubtless inform
+      the curious, were very much like those of the young master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard had a wired cage ready for his formidable captives, and
+      studied their habits and expression with a strange sort of interest. What
+      did the Creator mean to signify, when he made such shapes of horror, and,
+      as if he had doubly cursed this envenomed wretch, had set a mark upon him
+      and sent him forth the Cain of the brotherhood of serpents? It was a very
+      curious fact that the first train of thoughts Mr. Bernard's small
+      menagerie suggested to him was the grave, though somewhat worn, subject of
+      the origin of evil. There is now to be seen in a tall glass jar, in the
+      Museum of Comparative Anatomy at Cantabridge in the territory of the
+      Massachusetts, a huge crotalus, of a species which grows to more frightful
+      dimensions than our own, under the hotter skies of South America. Look at
+      it, ye who would know what is the tolerance, the freedom from prejudice,
+      which can suffer such an incarnation of all that is devilish to lie
+      unharmed in the cradle of Nature! Learn, too, that there are many things
+      in this world which we are warned to shun, and are even suffered to slay,
+      if need be, but which we must not hate, unless we would hate what God
+      loves and cares for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever fascination the creature might exercise in his native haunts, Mr.
+      Bernard found himself not in the least nervous or affected in any way
+      while looking at his caged reptiles. When their cage was shaken, they
+      would lift their heads and spring their rattles; but the sound was by no
+      means so formidable to listen to as when it reverberated among the chasms
+      of the echoing rocks. The expression of the creatures was watchful, still,
+      grave, passionless, fate-like, suggesting a cold malignity which seemed to
+      be waiting for its opportunity. Their awful, deep-cut mouths were sternly
+      closed over the long hollow fangs which rested their roots against the
+      swollen poison-gland, where the venom had been hoarding up ever since the
+      last stroke had emptied it. They never winked, for ophidians have no
+      movable eyelids, but kept up that awful fixed stare which made the two
+      unwinking gladiators the survivors of twenty pairs matched by one of the
+      Roman Emperors, as Pliny tells us, in his &ldquo;Natural History.&rdquo; Their eyes
+      did not flash, but shone with a cold still light. They were of a
+      pale-golden or straw color, horrible to look into, with their stony
+      calmness, their pitiless indifference, hardly enlivened by the almost
+      imperceptible vertical slit of the pupil, through which Death seemed to be
+      looking out like the archer behind the long narrow loop-hole in a blank
+      turret-wall. On the whole, the caged reptiles, horrid as they were, hardly
+      matched his recollections of what he had seen or dreamed he save at the
+      cavern. These looked dangerous enough, but yet quiet. A treacherous
+      stillness, however,&mdash;as the unfortunate New York physician found,
+      when he put his foot out to wake up the torpid creature, and instantly the
+      fang flashed through his boot, carrying the poison into his blood, and
+      death with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard kept these strange creatures, and watched all their habits
+      with a natural curiosity. In any collection of animals the venomous beasts
+      are looked at with the greatest interest, just as the greatest villains
+      are most run after by the unknown public. Nobody troubles himself for a
+      common striped snake or a petty thief, but a cobra or a wife-killer is a
+      centre of attraction to all eyes. These captives did very little to earn
+      their living, but, on the other hand, their living was not expensive,
+      their diet being nothing but air, au naturel. Months and months these
+      creatures will live and seem to thrive well enough, as any showman who has
+      then in his menagerie will testify, though they never touch anything to
+      eat or drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time Mr. Bernard had become very curious about a class of
+      subjects not treated of in any detail in those text-books accessible in
+      most country-towns, to the exclusion of the more special treatises, and
+      especially of the rare and ancient works found on the shelves of the
+      larger city-libraries. He was on a visit to old Dr. Kittredge one day,
+      having been asked by him to call in for a few moments as soon as
+      convenient. The Doctor smiled good-humoredly when he asked him if he had
+      an extensive collection of medical works.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, no,&rdquo; said the old Doctor, &ldquo;I haven't got a great many printed books;
+      and what I have I don't read quite as often as I might, I'm afraid. I read
+      and studied in the time of it, when I was in the midst of the young men
+      who were all at work with their books; but it's a mighty hard matter, when
+      you go off alone into the country, to keep up with all that's going on in
+      the Societies and the Colleges. I'll tell you, though, Mr. Langdon, when a
+      man that's once started right lives among sick folks for five-and-thirty
+      years, as I've done, if he has n't got a library of five-and-thirty
+      volumes bound up in his head at the end of that time, he'd better stop
+      driving round and sell his horse and sulky. I know the bigger part of the
+      families within a dozen miles' ride. I know the families that have a way
+      of living through everything, and I know the other set that have the trick
+      of dying without any kind of reason for it. I know the years when the
+      fevers and dysenteries are in earnest, and when they're only making
+      believe. I know the folks that think they're dying as soon as they're
+      sick, and the folks that never find out they 're sick till they're dead. I
+      don't want to undervalue your science, Mr. Langdon. There are things I
+      never learned, because they came in after my day, and I am very glad to
+      send my patients to those that do know them, when I am at fault; but I
+      know these people about here, fathers and mothers, and children and
+      grandchildren, so as all the science in the world can't know them, without
+      it takes time about it, and sees them grow up and grow old, and how the
+      wear and tear of life comes to them. You can't tell a horse by driving him
+      once, Mr. Langdon, nor a patient by talking half an hour with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know much about the Venner family?&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard, in a natural
+      way enough, the Doctor's talk having suggested the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor lifted his head with his accustomed movement, so as to command
+      the young man through his spectacles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know all the families of this place and its neighborhood,&rdquo; he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have the young lady studying with us at the Institute,&rdquo; said Mr.
+      Bernard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it,&rdquo; the Doctor answered. &ldquo;Is she a good scholar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time the Doctor's eyes were fixed steadily on Mr. Bernard,
+      looking through the glasses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is a good scholar enough, but I don't know what to make of her.
+      Sometimes I think she is a little out of her head. Her father, I believe,
+      is sensible enough;&mdash;what sort of a woman was her mother, Doctor?&mdash;I
+      suppose, of course, you remember all about her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I knew her mother. She was a very lovely young woman.&rdquo;&mdash;The
+      Doctor put his hand to his forehead and drew a long breath.&mdash;&ldquo;What is
+      there you notice out of the way about Elsie Venner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good many things,&rdquo; the master answered. &ldquo;She shuns all the other girls.
+      She is getting a strange influence over my fellow-teacher, a young lady,&mdash;you
+      know Miss Helen Darley, perhaps? I am afraid this girl will kill her. I
+      never saw or heard of anything like it, in prose at least;&mdash;do you
+      remember much of Coleridge's Poems, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The good old Doctor had to plead a negative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, no matter. Elsie would have been burned for a witch in old times. I
+      have seen the girl look at Miss Darley when she had not the least idea of
+      it, and all at once I would see her grow pale and moist, and sigh, and
+      move round uneasily, and turn towards Elsie, and perhaps get up and go to
+      her, or else have slight spasmodic movements that looked like hysterics;&mdash;do
+      you believe in the evil eye, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Langdon,&rdquo; the Doctor said, solemnly, &ldquo;there are strange things about
+      Elsie Venner,&mdash;very strange things. This was what I wanted to speak
+      to you about. Let me advise you all to be very patient with the girl, but
+      also very careful. Her love is not to be desired, and &ldquo;&mdash;he spoke in
+      a lower tone&mdash;&ldquo;her hate is to be dreaded. Do you think she has any
+      special fancy for anybody else in the school besides Miss Darley?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard could not stand the old Doctor's spectacled eyes without
+      betraying a little of the feeling natural to a young man to whom a home
+      question involving a possible sentiment is put suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have suspected,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;I have had a kind of feeling&mdash;that
+      she&mdash;Well, come, Doctor,&mdash;I don't know that there 's any use in
+      disguising the matter,&mdash;I have thought Elsie Venner had rather a
+      fancy for somebody else,&mdash;I mean myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something so becoming in the blush with which the young man made
+      this confession, and so manly, too, in the tone with which he spoke, so
+      remote from any shallow vanity, such as young men who are incapable of
+      love are apt to feel, when some loose tendril of a woman's fancy which a
+      chance wind has blown against them twines about them for the want of
+      anything better, that the old Doctor looked at him admiringly, and could
+      not help thinking that it was no wonder any young girl should be pleased
+      with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a man of nerve, Mr. Langdon?&rdquo; said the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought so till very lately,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;I am not easily frightened,
+      but I don't know but I might be bewitched or magnetized, or whatever it is
+      when one is tied up and cannot move. I think I can find nerve enough,
+      however, if there is any special use you want to put it to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me ask you one more question, Mr. Langdon. Do you find yourself
+      disposed to take a special interest in Elsie,&mdash;to fall in love with
+      her, in a word? Pardon me, for I do not ask from curiosity, but a much
+      more serious motive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Elsie interests me,&rdquo; said the young man, &ldquo;interests me strangely. She has
+      a wild flavor in her character which is wholly different from that of any
+      human creature I ever saw. She has marks of genius, poetic or dramatic,&mdash;I
+      hardly know which. She read a passage from Keats's 'Lamia' the other day,
+      in the schoolroom, in such a way that I declare to you I thought some of
+      the girls would faint or go into fits. Miss Darley got up and left the
+      room, trembling all over. Then, I pity her, she is so lonely. The girls
+      are afraid of her, and she seems to have either a dislike or a fear of
+      them. They have all sorts of painful stories about her. They give her a
+      name which no human creature ought to bear. They say she hides a mark on
+      her neck by always wearing a necklace. She is very graceful, you know, and
+      they will have it that she can twist herself into all sorts of shapes, or
+      tie herself in a knot, if she wants to. There is not one of them that will
+      look her in the eyes. I pity the poor girl; but, Doctor, I do not love
+      her. I would risk my life for her, if it would do her any good, but it
+      would be in cold blood. If her hand touches mine, it is not a thrill of
+      passion I feel running through me, but a very different emotion. Oh,
+      Doctor! there must be something in that creature's blood which has killed
+      the humanity in her. God only knows the cause that has blighted such a
+      soul in so beautiful a body! No, Doctor, I do not love the girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Langdon,&rdquo; said the Doctor, &ldquo;you are young, and I am old. Let me talk
+      to you with an old man's privilege, as an adviser. You have come to this
+      country-town without suspicion, and you are moving in the midst of perils.
+      There are things which I must not tell you now; but I may warn you. Keep
+      your eyes open and your heart shut. If, through pitying that girl, you
+      ever come to love her, you are lost. If you deal carelessly with her,
+      beware! This is not all. There are other eyes on you beside Elsie
+      Venner's. Do you go armed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do!&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard,&mdash;and he &ldquo;put his hands up&rdquo; in the shape of
+      fists, in such a way as to show that he was master of the natural weapons
+      at any rate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor could not help smiling. But his face fell in an instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may want something more than those tools to work with. Come with me
+      into my sanctum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor led Mr. Bernard into a small room opening out of the study. It
+      was a place such as anybody but a medical man would shiver to enter. There
+      was the usual tall box with its bleached, rattling tenant; there were jars
+      in rows where &ldquo;interesting cases&rdquo; outlived the grief of widows and heirs
+      in alcoholic immortality,&mdash;for your &ldquo;preparation-jar&rdquo; is the true
+      &ldquo;monumentum aere perennius;&rdquo; there were various semi-possibilities of
+      minute dimensions and unpromising developments; there were shining
+      instruments of evil aspect, and grim plates on the walls, and on one shelf
+      by itself, accursed and apart, coiled in a long cylinder of spirit, a huge
+      crotalus, rough-scaled, flatheaded, variegated with dull bands, one of
+      which partially encircled the neck like a collar,&mdash;an awful wretch to
+      look upon, with murder written all over him in horrid hieroglyphics. Mr.
+      Bernard's look was riveted on this creature,&mdash;not fascinated
+      certainly, for its eyes looked like white beads, being clouded by the
+      action of the spirits in which it had been long kept,&mdash;but fixed by
+      some indefinite sense of the renewal of a previous impression;&mdash;everybody
+      knows the feeling, with its suggestion of some past state of existence.
+      There was a scrap of paper on the jar, with something written on it. He
+      was reaching up to read it when the Doctor touched him lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here, Mr. Langdon!&rdquo; he said, with a certain vivacity of manner, as
+      if wishing to call away his attention,&mdash;&ldquo;this is my armory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor threw open the door of a small cabinet, where were disposed in
+      artistic patterns various weapons of offence and defence,&mdash;for he was
+      a virtuoso in his way, and by the side of the implements of the art of
+      healing had pleased himself with displaying a collection of those other
+      instruments, the use of which renders the first necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See which of these weapons you would like best to carry about you,&rdquo; said
+      the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard laughed, and looked at the Doctor as if he half doubted
+      whether he was in earnest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This looks dangerous enough,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;for the man who carries it,
+      at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took down one of the prohibited Spanish daggers or knives which a
+      traveller may, occasionally get hold of and smuggle out of the country.
+      The blade was broad, trowel-like, but the point drawn out several inches,
+      so as to look like a skewer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This must be a jealous bull-fighter's weapon,&rdquo; he said, and put it back
+      in its place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he took down an ancient-looking broad-bladed dagger, with a complex
+      aspect about it, as if it had some kind of mechanism connected with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care!&rdquo; said the Doctor; &ldquo;there is a trick to that dagger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took it and touched a spring. The dagger split suddenly into three
+      blades, as when one separates the forefinger and the ring-finger from the
+      middle one. The outside blades were sharp on their outer edge. The stab
+      was to be made with the dagger shut, then the spring touched and the split
+      blades withdrawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard replaced it, saying, that it would have served for sidearm to
+      old Suwarrow, who told his men to work their bayonets back and forward
+      when they pinned a Turk, but to wriggle them about in the wound when they
+      stabbed a Frenchman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here,&rdquo; said the Doctor, &ldquo;this is the thing you want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took down a much more modern and familiar implement,&mdash;a small,
+      beautifully finished revolver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want you to carry this,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;and more than that, I want you to
+      practise with it often, as for amusement, but so that it maybe seen and
+      understood that you are apt to have a pistol about you. Pistol-shooting is
+      pleasant sport enough, and there is no reason why you should not practise
+      it like other young fellows. And now,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;I have one other,
+      weapon to give you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took a small piece of parchment and shook a white powder into it from
+      one of his medicine-jars. The jar was marked with the name of a mineral
+      salt, of a nature to have been serviceable in case of sudden illness in
+      the time of the Borgias. The Doctor folded the parchment carefully, and
+      marked the Latin name of the powder upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here,&rdquo; he said, handing it to Mr. Bernard, &ldquo;you see what it is, and you
+      know what service it can render. Keep these two protectors about your
+      person day and night; they will not harm you, and you may want one or the
+      other or both before you think of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard thought it was very odd, and not very old-gentlemanlike, to be
+      fitting him out for treason, stratagem, and spoils, in this way. There was
+      no harm, however, in carrying a doctor's powder in his pocket, or in
+      amusing himself with shooting at a mark, as he had often done before. If
+      the old gentleman had these fancies, it was as well to humor him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he thanked old Doctor Kittredge, and shook his hand warmly as he left
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fellow's hand did not tremble, nor his color change,&rdquo; the Doctor
+      said, as he watched him walking away. &ldquo;He is one of the right sort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI. EPISTOLARY.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Mr. Langdon to the Professor.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      MY DEAR PROFESSOR, You were kind enough to promise me that you would
+      assist me in any professional or scientific investigations in which I
+      might become engaged. I have of late become deeply interested in a class
+      of subjects which present peculiar difficulty, and I must exercise the
+      privilege of questioning you on some points upon which I desire
+      information I cannot otherwise obtain. I would not trouble you, if I could
+      find any person or books competent to enlighten me on some of these
+      singular matters which have so excited me. The leading doctor here is a
+      shrewd, sensible man, but not versed in the curiosities of medical
+      literature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I proceed, with your leave, to ask a considerable number of questions,&mdash;hoping
+      to get answers to some of them, at least.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is there any evidence that human beings can be infected or wrought upon by
+      poisons, or otherwise, so that they shall manifest any of the
+      peculiarities belonging to beings of a lower nature? Can such
+      peculiarities&mdash;be transmitted by inheritance? Is there anything to
+      countenance the stories, long and widely current, about the &ldquo;evil eye&rdquo;? or
+      is it a mere fancy that such a power belongs to any human being? Have you
+      any personal experience as to the power of fascination said to be
+      exercised by certain animals? What can you make of those circumstantial
+      statements we have seen in the papers, of children forming mysterious
+      friendships with ophidians of different species, sharing their food with
+      them, and seeming to be under some subtile influence exercised by those
+      creatures? Have you read, critically, Coleridge's poem of &ldquo;Christabel,&rdquo;
+       and Keats's &ldquo;Lamia&rdquo;?&mdash;If so, can you understand them, or find any
+      physiological foundation for the story of either?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is another set of questions of a different nature I should like to
+      ask, but it is hardly fair to put so many on a single sheet. There is one,
+      however, you must answer. Do you think there may be predispositions,
+      inherited or ingrafted, but at any rate constitutional, which shall take
+      out certain apparently voluntary determinations from the control of the
+      will, and leave them as free from moral responsibility as the instincts of
+      the lower animals? Do you not think there may be a crime which is not a
+      sin?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pardon me, my dear Sir, for troubling you with such a list of notes of
+      interrogation. There are some very strange things going on here in this
+      place, country-town as it is. Country-life is apt to be dull; but when it
+      once gets going, it beats the city hollow, because it gives its whole mind
+      to what it is about. These rural sinners make terrible work with the
+      middle of the Decalogue, when they get started. However, I hope I shall
+      live through my year's school-keeping without catastrophes, though there
+      are queer doings about me which puzzle me and might scare some people. If
+      anything should happen, you will be one of the first to hear of it, no
+      doubt. But I trust not to help out the editors of the &ldquo;Rockland Weekly
+      Universe&rdquo; with an obituary of the late lamented, who signed himself in
+      life&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your friend and pupil, BERNARD C. LANGDON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Professor to Mr. Langdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MY DEAR MR. LANGDON, I do not wonder that you find no answer from your
+      country friends to the curious questions you put. They belong to that
+      middle region between science and poetry which sensible men, as they are
+      called, are very shy of meddling with. Some people think that truth and
+      gold are always to be washed for; but the wiser sort are of opinion, that,
+      unless there are so many grains to the peck of sand or nonsense
+      respectively, it does not pay to wash for either, so long as one can find
+      anything else to do. I don't doubt there is some truth in the phenomena of
+      animal magnetism, for instance; but when you ask me to cradle for it, I
+      tell you that the hysteric girls cheat so, and the professionals are such
+      a set of pickpockets, that I can do something better than hunt for the
+      grains of truth among their tricks and lies. Do you remember what I used
+      to say in my lectures?&mdash;or were you asleep just then, or cutting your
+      initials on the rail? (You see I can ask questions, my young friend.)
+      Leverage is everything,&mdash;was what I used to say;&mdash;don't begin to
+      pry till you have got the long arm on your side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To please you, and satisfy your doubts as far as possible, I have looked
+      into the old books,&mdash;into Schenckius and Turner and Kenelm. Digby and
+      the rest, where I have found plenty of curious stories which you must take
+      for what they are worth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your first question I can answer in the affirmative upon pretty good
+      authority. Mizaldus tells, in his &ldquo;Memorabilia,&rdquo; the well-known story of
+      the girl fed on poisons, who was sent by the king of the Indies to
+      Alexander the Great. &ldquo;When Aristotle saw her eyes sparkling and snapping
+      like those of serpents, he said, 'Look out for yourself, Alexander! this
+      is a dangerous companion for you!'&rdquo;&mdash;and sure enough, the young lady
+      proved to be a very unsafe person to her friends. Cardanus gets a story
+      from Avicenna, of a certain man bit by a serpent, who recovered of his
+      bite, the snake dying therefrom. This man afterwards had a daughter whom
+      venomous serpents could not harm, though she had a fatal power over them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I suppose you may remember the statements of old authors about
+      Zycanthropy, the disease in which men took on the nature and aspect of
+      wolves. Actius and Paulus, both men of authority, describe it. Altomaris
+      gives a horrid case; and Fincelius mentions one occurring as late as 1541,
+      the subject of which was captured, still insisting that he was a wolf,
+      only that the hair of his hide was turned in! Versipelles, it may be
+      remembered, was the Latin name for these &ldquo;were-wolves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the cases where rabid persons have barked and bit like dogs, there
+      are plenty of such on record.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More singular, or at least more rare, is the account given by Andreas
+      Baccius, of a man who was struck in the hand by a cock, with his beak, and
+      who died on the third day thereafter, looking for all the world like a
+      fighting-cock, to the great horror of the spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to impressions transmitted at a very early period of existence, every
+      one knows the story of King James's fear of a naked sword, and the way it
+      is accounted for. Sir Kenelm Digby says,&mdash;&ldquo;I remember when he dubbed
+      me Knight, in the ceremony of putting the point of a naked sword upon my
+      shoulder, he could not endure to look upon it, but turned his face another
+      way, insomuch, that, in lieu of touching my shoulder, he had almost thrust
+      the point into my eyes, had not the Duke of Buckingham guided his hand
+      aright.&rdquo; It is he, too, who tells the story of the mulberry mark upon the
+      neck of a certain lady of high condition, which &ldquo;every year, to mulberry
+      season, did swell, grow big, and itch.&rdquo; And Gaffarel mentions the case of
+      a girl born with the figure of a fish on one of her limbs, of which the
+      wonder was, that, when the girl did eat fish, this mark put her to
+      sensible pain. But there is no end to cases of this kind, and I could give
+      some of recent date, if necessary, lending a certain plausibility at least
+      to the doctrine of transmitted impressions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I never saw a distinct case of evil eye, though I have seen eyes so bad
+      that they might produce strange effects on very sensitive natures. But the
+      belief in it under various names, fascination, jettcztura, etc., is so
+      permanent and universal, from Egypt to Italy, and from the days of Solomon
+      to those of Ferdinand of Naples, that there must be some peculiarity, to
+      say the least, on which the opinion is based. There is very strong
+      evidence that some such power is exercised by certain of the lower
+      animals. Thus, it is stated on good authority that &ldquo;almost every animal
+      becomes panic-struck at the sight of the rattlesnake, and seems at once
+      deprived of the power of motion, or the exercise of its usual instinct of
+      self-preservation.&rdquo; Other serpents seem to share this power of
+      fascination, as the Cobra and the Buccephalus Capensis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some think that it is nothing but fright; others attribute it to the
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+               &ldquo;strange powers that lie
+          Within the magic circle of the eye,&rdquo;&mdash;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      as Churchill said, speaking of Garrick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You ask me about those mysterious and frightful intimacies between
+      children and serpents, of which so many instances have been recorded. I am
+      sure I cannot tell what to make of them. I have seen several such accounts
+      in recent papers, but here is one published in the seventeenth century,
+      which is as striking as any of the more modern ones:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Herbert Tones of Monmouth, when he was a little Boy, was used to eat
+      his Milk in a Garden in the Morning, and was no sooner there, but a large
+      Snake always came, and eat out of the Dish with him, and did so for a
+      considerable time, till one Morning, he striking the Snake on the Head, it
+      hissed at him. Upon which he told his Mother that the Baby (for so he
+      call'd it) cry'd Hiss at him. His Mother had it kill'd, which occasioned
+      him a great Fit of Sickness, and 'twas thought would have dy'd, but did
+      recover.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was likewise one &ldquo;William Writtle, condemned at Maidston Assizes for
+      a double murder, told a Minister that was with him after he was condemned,
+      that his mother told him, that when he was a Child, there crept always to
+      him a Snake, wherever she laid him. Sometimes she would convey him up
+      Stairs, and leave him never so little, she should be sure to find a Snake
+      in the Cradle with him, but never perceived it did him any harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the most striking alleged facts connected with the mysterious
+      relation existing between the serpent and-the human species is the
+      influence which the poison of the Crotulus, taken internally, seemed to
+      produce over the moral faculties, in the experiments instituted by Dr.
+      Hering at Surinam. There is something frightful in the disposition of
+      certain ophidians, as the whipsnake, which darts at the eyes of cattle
+      without any apparent provocation or other motive. It is natural enough
+      that the evil principle should have been represented in the form of a
+      serpent, but it is strange to think of introducing it into a human being
+      like cow-pox by vaccination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You know all about the Psylli, or ancient serpent tamers, I suppose.
+      Savary gives an account of the modern serpent-tamers in his &ldquo;Letters on
+      Egypt.&rdquo; These modern jugglers are in the habit of making the venomous Naja
+      counterfeit death, lying out straight and stiff, changing it into a rod,
+      as the ancient magicians did with their serpents, (probably the same
+      animal,) in the time of Moses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am afraid I cannot throw much light on &ldquo;Christabel&rdquo; or &ldquo;Lamia&rdquo; by any
+      criticism I can offer. Geraldine, in the former, seems to be simply a
+      malignant witch-woman with the evil eye, but with no absolute ophidian
+      relationship. Lamia is a serpent transformed by magic into a woman. The
+      idea of both is mythological, and not in any sense physiological. Some
+      women unquestionably suggest the image of serpents; men rarely or never. I
+      have been struck, like many others, with the ophidian head and eye of the
+      famous Rachel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your question about inherited predispositions, as limiting the sphere of
+      the will, and, consequently, of moral accountability, opens a very wide
+      range of speculation. I can give you only a brief abstract of my own
+      opinions on this delicate and difficult subject. Crime and sin, being the
+      preserves of two great organized interests, have been guarded against all
+      reforming poachers with as great jealousy as the Royal Forests. It is so
+      easy to hang a troublesome fellow! It is so much simpler to consign a soul
+      to perdition, or say masses, for money, to save it, than to take the blame
+      on ourselves for letting it grow up in neglect and run to ruin for want of
+      humanizing influences! They hung poor, crazy Bellingham for shooting Mr.
+      Perceval. The ordinary of Newgate preached to women who were to swing at
+      Tyburn for a petty theft as if they were worse than other people,&mdash;just
+      as though he would not have been a pickpocket or shoplifter, himself, if
+      he had been born in a den of thieves and bred up to steal or starve! The
+      English law never began to get hold of the idea that a crime was not
+      necessarily a sin, till Hadfield, who thought he was the Saviour of
+      mankind, was tried for shooting at George the Third;&mdash;lucky for him
+      that he did not hit his Majesty!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is very singular that we recognize all the bodily defects that unfit a
+      man for military service, and all the intellectual ones that limit his
+      range of thought, but always talk at him as if all his moral powers were
+      perfect. I suppose we must punish evil-doers as we extirpate vermin; but I
+      don't know that we have any more right to judge them than we have to judge
+      rats and mice, which are just as good as cats and weasels, though we think
+      it necessary to treat them as criminals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The limitations of human responsibility have never been properly studied,
+      unless it be by the phrenologists. You know from my lectures that I
+      consider phrenology, as taught, a pseudo-science, and not a branch of
+      positive knowledge; but, for all that, we owe it an immense debt. It has
+      melted the world's conscience in its crucible, and cast it in a new mould,
+      with features less like those of Moloch and more like those of humanity.
+      If it has failed to demonstrate its system of special correspondences, it
+      has proved that there are fixed relations between organization and mind
+      and character. It has brought out that great doctrine of moral insanity,
+      which has done more to make men charitable and soften legal and
+      theological barbarism than any one doctrine that I can think of since the
+      message of peace and good-will to men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Automatic action in the moral world; the reflex movement which seems to be
+      self-determination, and has been hanged and howled at as such
+      (metaphorically) for nobody knows how many centuries: until somebody shall
+      study this as Marshall Hall has studied reflex nervous action in the
+      bodily system, I would not give much for men's judgments of each others'
+      characters. Shut up the robber and the defaulter, we must. But what if
+      your oldest boy had been stolen from his cradle and bred in a North-Street
+      cellar? What if you are drinking a little too much wine and smoking a
+      little too much tobacco, and your son takes after you, and so your poor
+      grandson's brain being a little injured in physical texture, he loses the
+      fine moral sense on which you pride yourself, and doesn't see the
+      difference between signing another man's name to a draft and his own?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I suppose the study of automatic action in the moral world (you see what I
+      mean through the apparent contradiction of terms) may be a dangerous one
+      in the view of many people. It is liable to abuse, no doubt. People are
+      always glad to, get hold of anything which limits their responsibility.
+      But remember that our moral estimates come down to us from ancestors who
+      hanged children for stealing forty shillings' worth, and sent their souls
+      to perdition for the sin of being born,&mdash;who punished the unfortunate
+      families of suicides, and in their eagerness for justice executed one
+      innocent person every three years, on the average, as Sir James Mackintosh
+      tells us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not know in what shape the practical question may present itself to
+      you; but I will tell you my rule in life, and I think you will find it a
+      good one. Treat bad men exactly as if they were insane. They are in-sane,
+      out of health, morally. Reason, which is food to sound minds, is not
+      tolerated, still less assimilated, unless administered with the greatest
+      caution; perhaps, not at all. Avoid collision with them, so far as you
+      honorably can; keep your temper, if you can,&mdash;for one angry man is as
+      good as another; restrain them from violence, promptly, completely, and
+      with the least possible injury, just as in the case of maniacs,&mdash;and
+      when you have got rid of them, or got them tied hand and foot so that they
+      can do no mischief, sit down and contemplate them charitably, remembering
+      that nine tenths of their' perversity comes from outside influences,
+      drunken ancestors, abuse in childhood, bad company, from which you have
+      happily been preserved, and for some of which you, as a member of society,
+      may be fractionally responsible. I think also that there are special
+      influences which work in the brood lake ferments, and I have a suspicion
+      that some of those curious old stories I cited may have more recent
+      parallels. Have you ever met with any cases which admitted of a solution
+      like that which I have mentioned?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours very truly, _____________ _____________
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+               Bernard Langdon to Philip Staples.
+MY DEAR PHILIP,&mdash;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I have been for some months established in this place, turning the main
+      crank of the machinery for the manufactory of accomplishments
+      superintended by, or rather worked to the profit of, a certain Mr. Silas
+      Peckham. He is a poor wretch, with a little thin fishy blood in his body,
+      lean and flat, long-armed and large-handed, thick-jointed and
+      thin-muscled,&mdash;you know those unwholesome, weak-eyed, half-fed
+      creatures, that look not fit to be round among live folks, and yet not
+      quite dead enough to bury. If you ever hear of my being in court to answer
+      to a charge of assault and battery, you may guess that I have been giving
+      him a thrashing to settle off old scores; for he is a tyrant, and has come
+      pretty near killing his principal lady-assistant with overworking her and
+      keeping her out of all decent privileges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen Darley is this lady's name,&mdash;twenty two or three years old, I
+      should think,&mdash;a very sweet, pale woman,&mdash;daughter of the usual
+      country-clergyman,&mdash;thrown on her own resources from an early age,
+      and the rest: a common story, but an uncommon person,&mdash;very. All
+      conscience and sensibility, I should say,&mdash;a cruel worker,&mdash;no
+      kind of regard for herself, seems as fragile and supple as a young
+      willow-shoot, but try her and you find she has the spring in her of a
+      steel cross-bow. I am glad I happened to come to this place, if it were
+      only for her sake. I have saved that girl's life; I am as sure of it as if
+      I had pulled her out of the fire or water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course I'm in love with her, you say,&mdash;we always love those whom
+      we have benefited; &ldquo;saved her life,&mdash;her love was the reward of his
+      devotion,&rdquo; etc., etc., as in a regular set novel. In love, Philip? Well,
+      about that,&mdash;I love Helen Darley&mdash;very much: there is hardly
+      anybody I love so well. What a noble creature she is! One of those that
+      just go right on, do their own work and everybody else's, killing
+      themselves inch by inch without ever thinking about it,&mdash;singing and
+      dancing at their toil when they begin, worn and saddened after a while,
+      but pressing steadily on, tottering by and by, and catching at the rail by
+      the way-side to help them lift one foot before the other, and at last
+      falling, face down, arms stretched forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Philip, my boy, do you know I am the sort of man that locks his door
+      sometimes and cries his heart out of his eyes,&mdash;that can sob like a
+      woman and not be ashamed of it? I come of fighting-blood on one side, you
+      know; I think I could be savage on occasion. But I am tender,&mdash;more
+      and more tender as I come into my fulness of manhood. I don't like to
+      strike a man, (laugh, if you like,&mdash;I know I hit hard when I do
+      strike,)&mdash;but what I can't stand is the sight of these poor, patient,
+      toiling women, who never find out in this life how good they are, and
+      never know what it is to be told they are angels while they still wear the
+      pleasing incumbrances of humanity. I don't know what to make of these
+      cases. To think that a woman is never to be a woman again, whatever she
+      may come to as an unsexed angel,&mdash;and that she should die unloved!
+      Why does not somebody come and carry off this noble woman, waiting here
+      all ready to make a man happy? Philip, do you know the pathos there is in
+      the eyes of unsought women, oppressed with the burden of an inner life
+      unshared? I can see into them now as I could not in those 'earlier days. I
+      sometimes think their pupils dilate on purpose to let my consciousness
+      glide through them; indeed, I dread them, I come so close to the nerve of
+      the soul itself in these momentary intimacies. You used to tell me I was a
+      Turk,&mdash;that my heart was full of pigeon-holes, with accommodations
+      inside for a whole flock of doves. I don't know but I am still as Youngish
+      as ever in my ways,&mdash;Brigham-Youngish, I mean; at any rate, T. always
+      want to give a little love to all the poor things that cannot have a whole
+      man to themselves. If they would only be contented with a little!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here now are two girls in this school where I am teaching. One of them,
+      Rosa M., is not more than sixteen years old, I think they say; but Nature
+      has forced her into a tropical luxuriance of beauty, as if it were July
+      with her, instead of May. I suppose it is all natural enough that this
+      girl should like a young man's attention, even if he were a grave
+      schoolmaster; but the eloquence of this young thing's look is
+      unmistakable,&mdash;and yet she does not know the language it is talking,&mdash;they
+      none of them do; and there is where a good many poor creatures of our
+      good-for-nothing sex are mistaken. There is no danger of my being rash,
+      but I think this girl will cost somebody his life yet. She is one of those
+      women men make a quarrel about and fight to the death for,&mdash;the old
+      feral instinct, you know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pray, don't think I am lost in conceit, but there is another girl here who
+      I begin to think looks with a certain kindness on me. Her name is Elsie
+      V., and she is the only daughter and heiress of an old family in this
+      place. She is a portentous and almost fearful creature. If I should tell
+      you all I know and half of what I fancy about her, you would tell me to
+      get my life insured at once. Yet she is the most painfully interesting
+      being,&mdash;so handsome! so lonely!&mdash;for she has no friends among
+      the girls, and sits apart from them,&mdash;with black hair like the flow
+      of a mountain-brook after a thaw, with a low-browed, scowling beauty of
+      face, and such eyes as were never seen before, I really believe, in any
+      human creature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Philip, I don't know what to say about this Elsie. There is something
+      about her I have not fathomed. I have conjectures which I could not utter
+      to any living soul. I dare not even hint the possibilities which have
+      suggested themselves to me. This I will say, that I do take the most
+      intense interest in this young person, an interest much more like pity
+      than love in its common sense. If what I guess at is true, of all the
+      tragedies of existence I ever knew this is the saddest, and yet so full of
+      meaning! Do not ask me any questions,&mdash;I have said more than I meant
+      to already; but I am involved in strange doubts and perplexities,&mdash;in
+      dangers too, very possibly,&mdash;and it is a relief just to speak ever so
+      guardedly of them to an early and faithful friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours ever, BERNARD.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. I remember you had a copy of Fortunius Licetus' &ldquo;De Monstris&rdquo; among
+      your old books. Can't you lend it to me for a while? I am curious, and it
+      will amuse me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII. OLD SOPHY CALLS ON THE REVEREND DOCTOR.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The two meeting-houses which faced each other like a pair of
+      fighting-cocks had not flapped their wings or crowed at each other for a
+      considerable time. The Reverend Mr. Fairweather had been dyspeptic and
+      low-spirited of late, and was too languid for controversy. The Reverend
+      Doctor Honeywood had been very busy with his benevolent associations, and
+      had discoursed chiefly on practical matters, to the neglect of special
+      doctrinal subjects. His senior deacon ventured to say to him that some of
+      his people required to be reminded of the great fundamental doctrine of
+      the worthlessness of all human efforts and motives. Some of them were
+      altogether too much pleased with the success of the Temperance Society and
+      the Association for the Relief of the Poor. There was a pestilent heresy
+      about, concerning the satisfaction to be derived from a good conscience,
+      as if, anybody ever did anything which was not to be hated, loathed,
+      despised, and condemned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old minister listened gravely, with an inward smile, and told his
+      deacon that he would attend to his suggestion. After the deacon had gone,
+      he tumbled over his manuscripts, until at length he came upon his
+      first-rate old sermon on &ldquo;Human Nature.&rdquo; He had read a great deal of hard
+      theology, and had at last reached that curious state which is so common in
+      good ministers,&mdash;that, namely, in which they contrive to switch off
+      their logical faculties on the narrow sidetrack of their technical dogmas,
+      while the great freight-train of their substantial human qualities keeps
+      in the main highway of common-sense, in which kindly souls are always
+      found by all who approach them by their human side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor read his sermon with a pleasant, paternal interest: it was well
+      argued from his premises. Here and there he dashed his pen through a harsh
+      expression. Now and then he added an explanation or qualified abroad
+      statement. But his mind was on the logical side-track, and he followed the
+      chain of reasoning without fairly perceiving where it would lead him, if
+      he carried it into real life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was just touching up the final proposition, when his granddaughter,
+      Letty, once before referred to, came into the room with her smiling face
+      and lively movement. Miss Letty or Letitia Forrester was a city-bred girl
+      of some fifteen or sixteen years old, who was passing the summer with her
+      grandfather for the sake of country air and quiet. It was a sensible
+      arrangement; for, having the promise of figuring as a belle by and by, and
+      being a little given to dancing, and having a voice which drew a pretty
+      dense circle around the piano when she sat down to play and sing, it was
+      hard to keep her from being carried into society before her time, by the
+      mere force of mutual attraction. Fortunately, she had some quiet as well
+      as some social tastes, and was willing enough to pass two or three of the
+      summer months in the country, where she was much better bestowed than she
+      would have been at one of those watering-places where so many half-formed
+      girls get prematurely hardened in the vice of self-consciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Letty was altogether too wholesome, hearty, and high-strung a young
+      girl to be a model, according to the flat-chested and cachectic pattern
+      which is the classical type of certain excellent young females, often the
+      subjects of biographical memoirs. But the old minister was proud of his
+      granddaughter for all that. She was so full of life, so graceful, so
+      generous, so vivacious, so ready always to do all she could for him and
+      for everybody, so perfectly frank in her avowed delight in the pleasures
+      which this miserable world offered her in the shape of natural beauty, of
+      poetry, of music, of companionship, of books, of cheerful cooperation in
+      the tasks of those about her, that the Reverend Doctor could not find it
+      in his heart to condemn her because she was deficient in those particular
+      graces and that signal other-worldliness he had sometimes noticed in
+      feeble young persons suffering from various chronic diseases which
+      impaired their vivacity and removed them from the range of temptation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Letty, therefore, came bounding into the old minister's study, he
+      glanced up from his manuscript, and, as his eye fell upon her, it flashed
+      across him that there was nothing so very monstrous and unnatural about
+      the specimen of congenital perversion he was looking at, with his features
+      opening into their pleasantest sunshine. Technically, according to the
+      fifth proposition of the sermon on Human Nature, very bad, no doubt.
+      Practically, according to the fact before him, a very pretty piece of the
+      Creator's handiwork, body and soul. Was it not a conceivable thing that
+      the divine grace might show itself in different forms in a fresh young
+      girl like Letitia, and in that poor thing he had visited yesterday,
+      half-grown, half-colored, in bed for the last year with hip-disease?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was it to be supposed that this healthy young girl, with life throbbing
+      all over her, could, without a miracle, be good according to the invalid
+      pattern and formula?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet there were mysteries in human nature which pointed to some
+      tremendous perversion of its tendencies,&mdash;to some profound, radical
+      vice of moral constitution, native or transmitted, as you will have it,
+      but positive, at any rate, as the leprosy, breaking out in the blood of
+      races, guard them ever so carefully. Did he not know the case of a young
+      lady in Rockland, daughter of one of the first families in the place, a
+      very beautiful and noble creature to look at, for whose bringing up
+      nothing had been spared,&mdash;a girl who had had governesses to teach her
+      at the house, who had been indulged almost too kindly,&mdash;a girl whose
+      father had given himself, up to her, he being himself a pure and
+      high-souled man?&mdash;and yet this girl was accused in whispers of having
+      been on the very verge of committing a fatal crime; she was an object of
+      fear to all who knew the dark hints which had been let fall about her, and
+      there were some that believed&mdash;Why, what was this but an instance of
+      the total obliquity and degeneration of the moral principle? and to what
+      could it be owing, but to an innate organic tendency?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Busy, grandpapa?&rdquo; said Letty, and without waiting for an answer kissed
+      his cheek with a pair of lips made on purpose for that little function,&mdash;fine,
+      but richly turned out, the corners tucked in with a finish of pretty
+      dimples, the rose-bud lips of girlhood's June.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old gentleman looked at his granddaughter. Nature swelled up from his
+      heart in a wave that sent a glow to his cheek and a sparkle to his eye.
+      But it is very hard to be interrupted just as we are winding up a string
+      of propositions with the grand conclusion which is the statement in brief
+      of all that has gone before: our own starting-point, into which we have
+      been trying to back our reader or listener as one backs a horse into the
+      shafts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Video meliora, proboque,&mdash;I see the better, and approve it;
+      deteriora sequor, I follow after the worse; 't is that natural dislike to
+      what is good, pure, holy, and true, that inrooted selfishness, totally
+      insensible to the claims of&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the worthy man was interrupted by Miss Letty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do come, if you can, grandpapa,&rdquo; said the young girl; &ldquo;here is a poor old
+      black woman wants to see you so much!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The good minister was as kind-hearted as if he had never groped in the
+      dust and ashes of those cruel old abstractions which have killed out so
+      much of the world's life and happiness. &ldquo;With the heart man believeth unto
+      righteousness;&rdquo; a man's love is the measure of his fitness for good or bad
+      company here or elsewhere. Men are tattooed with their special beliefs
+      like so many South-Sea Islanders; but a real human heart, with Divine love
+      in it, beats with the same glow under all, the patterns of all earth's
+      thousand tribes!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor sighed, and folded the sermon, and laid the Quarto Cruden on
+      it. He rose from his desk, and, looking once more at the young girl's
+      face, forgot his logical conclusions, and said to himself that she was a
+      little angel,&mdash;which was in violent contradiction to the leading
+      doctrine of his sermon on Human Nature. And so he followed her out of the
+      study into the wide entry of the old-fashioned country-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An old black woman sat on the plain oaken settle which humble visitors
+      waiting to see the minister were wont to occupy. She was old, but how old
+      it would be very hard to guess. She might be seventy. She might be ninety.
+      One could not swear she was not a hundred. Black women remain at a
+      stationary age (to the eyes of white people, at least) for thirty years.
+      They do not appear to change during this period any more than so many
+      Trenton trilobites. Bent up, wrinkled, yellow-eyed, with long upper-lip,
+      projecting jaws, retreating chin, still meek features, long arms, large
+      flat hands with uncolored palms and slightly webbed fingers, it was
+      impossible not to see in this old creature a hint of the gradations by
+      which life climbs up through the lower natures to the highest human
+      developments. We cannot tell such old women's ages because we do not
+      understand the physiognomy of a race so unlike our own. No doubt they see
+      a great deal in each other's faces that we cannot,&mdash;changes of color
+      and expression as real as our own, blushes and sudden betrayals of
+      feeling,&mdash;just as these two canaries know what their single notes and
+      short sentences and full song with this or that variation mean, though it
+      is a mystery to us unplumed mortals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This particular old black woman was a striking specimen of her class. Old
+      as she looked, her eye was bright and knowing. She wore a red-and-yellow
+      turban, which set off her complexion well, and hoops of gold in her ears,
+      and beads of gold about her neck, and an old funeral ring upon her finger.
+      She had that touching stillness about her which belongs to animals that
+      wait to be spoken to and then look up with a kind of sad humility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Sophy!&rdquo; said the good minister, &ldquo;is this you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked up with the still expression on her face. &ldquo;It's ol' Sophy,&rdquo; she
+      said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said the Doctor, &ldquo;I did not believe you could walk so far as this
+      to save the Union. Bring Sophy a glass of wine, Letty. Wine's good for old
+      folks like Sophy and me, after walking a good way, or preaching a good
+      while.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young girl stepped into the back-parlor, where she found the great
+      pewter flagon in which the wine that was left after each communion-service
+      was brought to the minister's house. With much toil she managed to tip it
+      so as to get a couple of glasses filled. The minister tasted his, and made
+      old Sophy finish hers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wan' to see you 'n' talk wi' you all alone,&rdquo; she said presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister got up and led the way towards his study. &ldquo;To be sure,&rdquo; he
+      said; he had only waited for her to rest a moment before he asked her into
+      the library. The young girl took her gently by the arm, and helped her
+      feeble steps along the passage. When they reached the study, she smoothed
+      the cushion of a rocking-chair, and made the old woman sit down in it.
+      Then she tripped lightly away, and left her alone with the minister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Sophy was a member of the Reverend Doctor Honeywood's church. She had
+      been put through the necessary confessions in a tolerably satisfactory
+      manner. To be sure, as her grandfather had been a cannibal chief,
+      according to the common story, and, at any rate, a terrible wild savage,
+      and as her mother retained to the last some of the prejudices of her early
+      education, there was a heathen flavor in her Christianity which had often
+      scandalized the elder of the minister's two deacons. But, the good
+      minister had smoothed matters over: had explained that allowances were to
+      be made for those who had been long sitting without the gate of Zion,&mdash;that,
+      no doubt, a part of the curse which descended to the children of Ham
+      consisted in &ldquo;having the understanding darkened,&rdquo; as well as the skin,&mdash;and
+      so had brought his suspicious senior deacon to tolerate old Sophy as one
+      of the communion of fellow-sinners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;Poor things! How little we know the simple notions with which these
+      rudiments of souls are nourished by the Divine Goodness! Did not Mrs.
+      Professor come home this very blessed morning with a story of one of her
+      old black women?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how do you feel to-day, Mrs. Robinson?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my dear, I have this singing in my head all the time.&rdquo; (What doctors
+      call tinnitus aurium.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She 's got a cold in the head,&rdquo; said old Mrs. Rider.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, my dear! Whatever I'm thinking about, it's all this singing, this
+      music. When I'm thinking of the dear Redeemer, it all turns into this
+      singing and music. When the clark came to see me, I asked him if he
+      couldn't cure me, and he said, No,&mdash;it was the Holy Spirit in me,
+      singing to me; and all the time I hear this beautiful music, and it's the
+      Holy Spirit a-singing to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The good man waited for Sophy to speak; but she did not open her lips as
+      yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you are not troubled in mind or body,&rdquo; he said to her at length,
+      finding she did not speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor old woman took out a white handkerchief, and lifted it&mdash;to
+      her black face. She could not say a word for her tears and sobs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister would have consoled her; he was used to tears, and could in
+      most cases withstand their contagion manfully; but something choked his
+      voice suddenly, and when he called upon it, he got no answer, but a
+      tremulous movement of the muscles, which was worse than silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last she spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, no, no! It's my poor girl, my darling, my beauty, my baby, that
+      's grown up to be a woman; she will come to a bad end; she will do
+      something that will make them kill her or shut her up all her life. Or,
+      Doctor, Doctor, save her, pray for her! It a'n't her fault. It a'n't her
+      fault. If they knew all that I know, they would n' blame that poor child.
+      I must tell you, Doctor: if I should die, perhaps nobody else would tell
+      you. Massa Venner can't talk about it. Doctor Kittredge won't talk about
+      it. Nobody but old Sophy to tell you, Doctor; and old Sophy can't die
+      without telling you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The kind minister soothed the poor old soul with those gentle, quieting
+      tones which had carried peace and comfort to so many chambers of sickness
+      and sorrow, to so many hearts overburdened by the trials laid upon them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Sophy became quiet in a few minutes, and proceeded to tell her story.
+      She told it in the low half-whisper which is the natural voice of lips
+      oppressed wish grief and fears; with quick glances around the apartment
+      from time to time, as if she dreaded lest the dim portraits on the walls
+      and the dark folios on the shelves might overhear her words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not one of those conversations which a third person can report
+      minutely, unless by that miracle of clairvoyance known to the readers of
+      stories made out of authors' brains. Yet its main character can be
+      imparted in a much briefer space than the old black woman took to give all
+      its details.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went far back to the time when Dudley Venner was born,&mdash;she being
+      then a middle-aged woman. The heir and hope of a family which had been
+      narrowing down as if doomed to extinction, he had been surrounded with
+      every care and trained by the best education he could have in New England.
+      He had left college, and was studying the profession which gentlemen of
+      leisure most affect, when he fell in love with a young girl left in the
+      world almost alone, as he was. The old woman told the story of his young
+      love and his joyous bridal with a tenderness which had something more,
+      even, than her family sympathies to account for it. Had she not hanging
+      over her bed a paper-cutting of a profile,&mdash;jet black, but not
+      blacker than the face it represented&mdash;of one who would have been her
+      own husband in the small years of this century, if the vessel in which he
+      went to sea, like Jamie in the ballad, had not sailed away and never come
+      back to land? Had she not her bits of furniture stowed away which had been
+      got ready for her own wedding,&mdash;two rocking-chairs, one worn with
+      long use, one kept for him so long that it had grown a superstition with
+      her never to sit in it,&mdash;and might he not come back yet, after all?
+      Had she not her chest of linen ready for her humble house-keeping with
+      store of serviceable huckaback and piles of neatly folded kerchiefs,
+      wherefrom this one that showed so white against her black face was taken,
+      for that she knew her eyes would betray her in &ldquo;the presence&rdquo;?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the first part of the story the old woman told tenderly, and yet
+      dwelling upon every incident with a loving pleasure. How happy this young
+      couple had been, what plans and projects of improvement they had formed,
+      how they lived in each other, always together, so young and fresh and
+      beautiful as she remembered them in that one early summer when they walked
+      arm in arm through the wilderness of roses that ran riot in the garden,&mdash;she
+      told of this as loath to leave it and come to the woe that lay beneath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She told the whole story;-shall I repeat it? Not now. If, in the course of
+      relating the incidents I have undertaken to report, it tells itself,
+      perhaps this will be better than to run the risk of producing a painful
+      impression on some of those susceptible readers whom it would be
+      ill-advised to disturb or excite, when they rather require to be amused
+      and soothed. In our pictures of life, we must show the flowering-out of
+      terrible growths which have their roots deep, deep underground. Just how
+      far we shall lay bare the unseemly roots themselves is a matter of
+      discretion and taste, and which none of us are infallible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman told the whole story of Elsie, of her birth, of her
+      peculiarities of person and disposition, of the passionate fears and hopes
+      with which her father had watched the course of her development. She
+      recounted all her strange ways, from the hour when she first tried to
+      crawl across the carpet, and her father's look as she worked her way
+      towards him. With the memory of Juliet's nurse she told the story of her
+      teething, and how, the woman to whose breast she had clung dying suddenly
+      about that time, they had to struggle hard with the child before she would
+      learn the accomplishment of feeding with a spoon. And so of her fierce
+      plays and fiercer disputes with that boy who had been her companion, and
+      the whole scene of the quarrel when she struck him with those sharp white
+      teeth, frightening her, old Sophy, almost to death; for, as she said, the
+      boy would have died, if it hadn't been for the old Doctor's galloping over
+      as fast as he could gallop and burning the places right out of his arm.
+      Then came the story of that other incident, sufficiently alluded to
+      already, which had produced such an ecstasy of fright and left such a
+      nightmare of apprehension in the household. And so the old woman came down
+      to this present time. That boy she never loved nor trusted was grown to a
+      dark, dangerous-looking man, and he was under their roof. He wanted to
+      marry our poor Elsie, and Elsie hated him, and sometimes she would look at
+      him over her shoulder just as she used to look at that woman she hated;
+      and she, old Sophy, couldn't sleep for thinking she should hear a scream
+      from the white chamber some night and find him in spasms such as that
+      woman came so near dying with. And then there was something about Elsie
+      she did not know what to make of: she would sit and hang her head
+      sometimes, and look as if she were dreaming; and she brought home books
+      they said a young gentleman up at the great school lent her; and once she
+      heard her whisper in her sleep, and she talked as young girls do to
+      themselves when they're thinking about somebody they have a liking for and
+      think nobody knows it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She finished her long story at last. The minister had listened to it in
+      perfect silence. He sat still even when she had done speaking,&mdash;still,
+      and lost in thought. It was a very awkward matter for him to have a hand
+      in. Old Sophy was his parishioner, but the Venners had a pew in the
+      Reverend Mr. Fairweather's meeting-house. It would seem that he, Mr.
+      Fairweather, was the natural adviser of the parties most interested. Had
+      he sense and spirit enough to deal with such people? Was there enough
+      capital of humanity in his somewhat limited nature to furnish sympathy and
+      unshrinking service for his friends in an emergency? or was he too busy
+      with his own attacks of spiritual neuralgia, and too much occupied with
+      taking account of stock of his own thin-blooded offences, to forget
+      himself and his personal interests on the small scale and the large, and
+      run a risk of his life, if need were, at any rate give himself up without
+      reserve to the dangerous task of guiding and counselling these distressed
+      and imperilled fellow-creatures?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good minister thought the best thing to do would be to call and talk
+      over some of these matters with Brother Fairweather,&mdash;for so he would
+      call him at times, especially if his senior deacon were not within
+      earshot. Having settled this point, he comforted Sophy with a few words of
+      counsel and a promise of coming to see her very soon. He then called his
+      man to put the old white horse into the chaise and drive Sophy back to the
+      mansion-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Doctor sat down to his sermon again, it looked very differently
+      from the way it had looked at the moment he left it. When he came to think
+      of it, he did not feel quite so sure practically about that matter of the
+      utter natural selfishness of everybody. There was Letty, now, seemed to
+      take a very unselfish interest in that old black woman, and indeed in poor
+      people generally; perhaps it would not be too much to say that she was
+      always thinking of other people. He thought he had seen other young
+      persons naturally unselfish, thoughtful for others; it seemed to be a
+      family trait in some he had known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But most of all he was exercised about this poor girl whose story Sophy
+      had been telling. If what the old woman believed was true,&mdash;and it
+      had too much semblance of probability,&mdash;what became of his theory of
+      ingrained moral obliquity applied to such a case? If by the visitation of
+      God a person receives any injury which impairs the intellect or the moral
+      perceptions, is it not monstrous to judge such a person by our common
+      working standards of right and wrong? Certainly, everybody will answer, in
+      cases where there is a palpable organic change brought about, as when a
+      blow on the head produces insanity. Fools! How long will it be before we
+      shall learn that for every wound which betrays itself to the sight by a
+      scar, there are a thousand unseen mutilations that cripple, each of them,
+      some one or more of our highest faculties? If what Sophy told and believed
+      was the real truth, what prayers could be agonizing enough, what
+      tenderness could be deep enough, for this poor, lost, blighted, hapless,
+      blameless child of misfortune, struck by such a doom as perhaps no living
+      creature in all the sisterhood of humanity shared with her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister thought these matters over until his mind was bewildered with
+      doubts and tossed to and fro on that stormy deep of thought heaving
+      forever beneath the conflict of windy dogmas. He laid by his old sermon.
+      He put back a pile of old commentators with their eyes and mouths and
+      hearts full of the dust of the schools. Then he opened the book of Genesis
+      at the eighteenth chapter and read that remarkable argument of Abraham's
+      with his Maker in which he boldly appeals to first principles. He took as
+      his text, &ldquo;Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?&rdquo; and began to
+      write his sermon, afterwards so famous, &ldquo;On the Obligations of an Infinite
+      Creator to a Finite Creature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It astonished the good people, who had been accustomed so long to repeat
+      mechanically their Oriental hyperboles of self-abasement, to hear their
+      worthy minister maintaining that the dignified attitude of the old
+      Patriarch, insisting on what was reasonable and fair with reference to his
+      fellow-creatures, was really much more respectful to his Maker, and a
+      great deal manlier and more to his credit, than if he had yielded the
+      whole matter, and pretended that men had not rights as well as duties. The
+      same logic which had carried him to certain conclusions with reference to
+      human nature, this same irresistible logic carried him straight on from
+      his text until he arrived at those other results, which not only
+      astonished his people, as was said, but surprised himself. He went so far
+      in defence of the rights of man, that he put his foot into several
+      heresies, for which men had been burned so often, it was time, if ever it
+      could be, to acknowledge the demonstration of the argumentum ad ignem. He
+      did not believe in the responsibility of idiots. He did not believe a
+      new-born infant was morally answerable for other people's acts. He thought
+      a man with a crooked spine would never be called to account for not
+      walking erect. He thought if the crook was in his brain, instead of his
+      back, he could not fairly be blamed for any consequence of this natural
+      defect, whatever lawyers or divines might call it. He argued, that, if a
+      person inherited a perfect mind, body, and disposition, and had perfect
+      teaching from infancy, that person could do nothing more than keep the
+      moral law perfectly. But supposing that the Creator allows a person to be
+      born with an hereditary or ingrafted organic tendency, and then puts this
+      person into the hands of teachers incompetent or positively bad, is not
+      what is called sin or transgression of the law necessarily involved in the
+      premises? Is not a Creator bound to guard his children against the ruin
+      which inherited ignorance might entail on them? Would it be fair for a
+      parent to put into a child's hands the title-deeds to all its future
+      possessions, and a bunch of matches? And are not men children, nay, babes,
+      in the eye of Omniscience?&mdash;The minister grew bold in his questions.
+      Had not he as good right to ask questions as Abraham?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the dangerous vein of speculation in which the Reverend Doctor
+      Honeywood found himself involved, as a consequence of the suggestions
+      forced upon him by old Sophy's communication. The truth was, the good man
+      had got so humanized by mixing up with other people in various benevolent
+      schemes, that, the very moment he could escape from his old scholastic
+      abstractions, he took the side of humanity instinctively, just as the
+      Father of the Faithful did,&mdash;all honor be to the noble old Patriarch
+      for insisting on the worth of an honest man, and making the best terms he
+      could for a very ill-conditioned metropolis, which might possibly,
+      however, have contained ten righteous people, for whose sake it should be
+      spared!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The consequence of all this was, that he was in a singular and seemingly
+      self-contradictory state of mind when he took his hat and cane and went
+      forth to call on his heretical brother. The old minister took it for
+      granted that the Reverend Mr. Fairweather knew the private history of his
+      parishioner's family. He did not reflect that there are griefs men never
+      put into words,&mdash;that there are fears which must not be spoken,&mdash;intimate
+      matters of consciousness which must be carried, as bullets which have been
+      driven deep into the living tissues are sometimes carried, for a whole
+      lifetime,&mdash;encysted griefs, if we may borrow the chirurgeon's term,
+      never to be reached, never to be seen, never to be thrown out, but to go
+      into the dust with the frame that bore them about with it, during long
+      years of anguish, known only to the sufferer and his Maker. Dudley Venner
+      had talked with his minister about this child of his. But he had talked
+      cautiously, feeling his way for sympathy, looking out for those
+      indications of tact and judgment which would warrant him in some partial
+      communication, at least, of the origin of his doubts and fears, and never
+      finding them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something about the Reverend Mr. Fairweather which repressed all
+      attempts at confidential intercourse. What this something was, Dudley
+      Venner could hardly say; but he felt it distinctly, and it sealed his
+      lips. He never got beyond certain generalities connected with education
+      and religious instruction. The minister could not help discovering,
+      however, that there were difficulties connected with this girl's
+      management, and he heard enough outside of the family to convince him that
+      she had manifested tendencies, from an early age, at variance with the
+      theoretical opinions he was in the habit of preaching, and in a dim way of
+      holding for truth, as to the natural dispositions of the human being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this terrible fact of congenital obliquity his new beliefs began to
+      cluster as a centre, and to take form as a crystal around its nucleus.
+      Still, he might perhaps have struggled against them, had it not been for
+      the little Roman Catholic chapel he passed every Sunday, on his way to the
+      meeting-house. Such a crowd of worshippers, swarming into the pews like
+      bees, filling all the aisles, running over at the door like berries heaped
+      too full in the measure,&mdash;some kneeling on the steps, some standing
+      on the sidewalk, hats off, heads down, lips moving, some looking on
+      devoutly from the other side of the street! Oh, could he have followed his
+      own Bridget, maid of all work, into the heart of that steaming throng, and
+      bowed his head while the priests intoned their Latin prayers! could he
+      have snuffed up the cloud of frankincense, and felt that he was in the
+      great ark which holds the better half of the Christian world, while all
+      around it are wretched creatures, some struggling against the waves in
+      leaky boats, and some on ill-connected rafts, and some with their heads
+      just above water, thinking to ride out the flood which is to sweep the
+      earth clean of sinners, upon their own private, individual
+      life-preservers!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the present state of mind of the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather,
+      when his clerical brother called upon him to talk over the questions to
+      which old Sophy had called his attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII. THE REVEREND DOCTOR CALLS ON BROTHER FAIRWEATHER.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      For the last few months, while all these various matters were going on in
+      Rockland, the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had been busy with the records
+      of ancient councils and the writings of the early fathers. The more he
+      read, the more discontented he became with the platform upon which he and
+      his people were standing. They and he were clearly in a minority, and his
+      deep inward longing to be with the majority was growing into an engrossing
+      passion. He yearned especially towards the good old unquestioning,
+      authoritative Mother Church, with her articles of faith which took away
+      the necessity for private judgment, with her traditional forms and
+      ceremonies, and her whole apparatus of stimulants and anodynes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this time he procured a breviary and kept it in his desk under the
+      loose papers. He sent to a Catholic bookstore and obtained a small
+      crucifix suspended from a string of beads. He ordered his new coat to be
+      cut very narrow in the collar and to be made single-breasted. He began an
+      informal series of religious conversations with Miss O'Brien, the young
+      person of Irish extraction already referred to as Bridget, maid of all
+      work. These not proving very satisfactory, he managed to fall in with
+      Father McShane, the Catholic priest of the Rockland church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Father McShane encouraged his nibble very scientifically. It would be such
+      a fine thing to bring over one of those Protestant heretics, and a
+      &ldquo;liberal&rdquo; one too!&mdash;not that there was any real difference between
+      them, but it sounded better, to say that one of these rationalizing
+      free-and-equal religionists had been made a convert than any of those
+      half-way Protestants who were the slaves of catechisms instead of
+      councils, and of commentators instead of popes. The subtle priest played
+      his disciple with his finest tackle. It was hardly necessary: when
+      anything or anybody wishes to be caught, a bare hook and a coarse line are
+      all that is needed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If a man has a genuine, sincere, hearty wish to get rid of his liberty, if
+      he is really bent upon becoming a slave, nothing can stop him. And the
+      temptation is to some natures a very great one. Liberty is often a heavy
+      burden on a man. It involves that necessity for perpetual choice which is
+      the kind of labor men have always dreaded. In common life we shirk it by
+      forming habits, which take the place of self-determination. In politics
+      party-organization saves us the pains of much thinking before deciding how
+      to cast our vote. In religious matters there are great multitudes watching
+      us perpetually, each propagandist ready with his bundle of finalities,
+      which having accepted we may be at peace. The more absolute the submission
+      demanded, the stronger the temptation becomes to those who have been long
+      tossed among doubts and conflicts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it is that in all the quiet bays which indent the shores of the great
+      ocean of thought, at every sinking wharf, we see moored the hulks and the
+      razees of enslaved or half-enslaved intelligences. They rock peacefully as
+      children in their cradles on the subdued swell which comes feebly in over
+      the bar at the harbor's mouth, slowly crusting with barnacles, pulling at
+      their iron cables as if they really wanted to be free; but better
+      contented to remain bound as they are. For these no more the round
+      unwalled horizon of the open sea, the joyous breeze aloft, the furrow, the
+      foam, the sparkle, that track the rushing keel! They have escaped the
+      dangers of the wave, and lie still henceforth, evermore. Happiest of
+      souls, if lethargy is bliss, and palsy the chief beatitude!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      America owes its political freedom to religious Protestantism. But
+      political freedom is reacting on religious prescription with still
+      mightier force. We wonder, therefore, when we find a soul which was born
+      to a full sense of individual liberty, an unchallenged right of
+      self-determination on every new alleged truth offered to its intelligence,
+      voluntarily surrendering any portion of its liberty to a spiritual
+      dictatorship which always proves to rest, in the last analysis, on a
+      majority vote, nothing more nor less, commonly an old one, passed in those
+      barbarous times when men cursed and murdered each other for differences of
+      opinion, and of course were not in a condition to settle the beliefs of a
+      comparatively civilized community.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In our disgust, we are liable to be intolerant. We forget that weakness is
+      not in itself a sin. We forget that even cowardice may call for our most
+      lenient judgment, if it spring from innate infirmity, Who of us does not
+      look with great tenderness on the young chieftain in the &ldquo;Fair Maid of
+      Perth,&rdquo; when he confesses his want of courage? All of us love
+      companionship and sympathy; some of us may love them too much. All of us
+      are more or less imaginative in our theology.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of us may find the aid of material symbols a comfort, if not a
+      necessity. The boldest thinker may have his moments of languor and
+      discouragement, when he feels as if he could willingly exchange faiths
+      with the old beldame crossing herself at the cathedral-door,&mdash;nay,
+      that, if he could drop all coherent thought, and lie in the flowery meadow
+      with the brown-eyed solemnly unthinking cattle, looking up to the sky, and
+      all their simple consciousness staining itself blue, then down to the
+      grass, and life turning to a mere greenness, blended with confused scents
+      of herbs,&mdash;no individual mind-movement such as men are teased with,
+      but the great calm cattle-sense of all time and all places that know the
+      milky smell of herds,&mdash;if he could be like these, he would be content
+      to be driven home by the cow-boy, and share the grassy banquet of the king
+      of ancient Babylon. Let us be very generous, then, in our judgment of
+      those who leave the front ranks of thought for the company of the meek
+      non-combatants who follow with the baggage and provisions. Age, illness,
+      too much wear and tear, a half-formed paralysis, may bring any of us to
+      this pass. But while we can think and maintain the rights of our own
+      individuality against every human combination, let us not forget to
+      caution all who are disposed to waver that there is a cowardice which is
+      criminal, and a longing for rest which it is baseness to indulge. God help
+      him, over whose dead soul in his living body must be uttered the sad
+      supplication, Requiescat in pace!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A knock at the Reverend Mr. Fairweather's study door called his eyes from
+      the book on which they were intent. He looked up, as if expecting a
+      welcome guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Pierrepont Honeywood, D. D., entered the study of the
+      Reverend Chauncy Fairweather. He was not the expected guest. Mr.
+      Fairweather slipped the book he was reading into a half-open drawer, and
+      pushed in the drawer. He slid something which rattled under a paper lying
+      on the table. He rose with a slight change of color, and welcomed, a
+      little awkwardly, his unusual visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-evening, Brother Fairweather!&rdquo; said the Reverend Doctor, in a very
+      cordial, good-humored way. &ldquo;I hope I am not spoiling one of those eloquent
+      sermons I never have a chance to hear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all, not at all,&rdquo; the younger clergyman answered, in a languid
+      tone, with a kind of habitual half-querulousness which belonged to it,&mdash;the
+      vocal expression which we meet with now and then, and which says as
+      plainly as so many words could say it, &ldquo;I am a suffering individual. I am
+      persistently undervalued, wronged, and imposed upon by mankind and the
+      powers of the universe generally. But I endure all. I endure you. Speak. I
+      listen. It is a burden to me, but I even approve. I sacrifice myself.
+      Behold this movement of my lips! It is a smile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Doctor knew this forlorn way of Mr. Fairweather's, and was
+      not troubled by it. He proceeded to relate the circumstances of his visit
+      from the old black woman, and the fear she was in about the young girl,
+      who being a parishioner of Mr. Fairweather's, he had thought it best to
+      come over and speak to him about old Sophy's fears and fancies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In telling the old woman's story, he alluded only vaguely to those
+      peculiar circumstances to which she had attributed so much importance,
+      taking it for granted that the other minister must be familiar with the
+      whole series of incidents she had related. The old minister was mistaken,
+      as we have before seen. Mr. Fairweather had been settled in the place only
+      about ten years, and, if he had heard a strange hint now and then about
+      Elsie, had never considered it as anything more than idle and ignorant, if
+      not malicious, village-gossip. All that he fully understood was that this
+      had been a perverse and unmanageable child, and that the extraordinary
+      care which had been bestowed on her had been so far thrown away that she
+      was a dangerous, self-willed girl, whom all feared and almost all shunned,
+      as if she carried with her some malignant influence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He replied, therefore, after hearing the story, that Elsie had always
+      given trouble. There seemed to be a kind of natural obliquity about her.
+      Perfectly unaccountable. A very dark case. Never amenable to good
+      influences. Had sent her good books from the Sunday-school library.
+      Remembered that she tore out the frontispiece of one of them, and kept it,
+      and flung the book out of the window. It was a picture of Eve's
+      temptation; and he recollected her saying that Eve was a good woman,&mdash;and
+      she'd have done just so, if she'd been there. A very sad child, very sad;
+      bad from infancy. He had talked himself bold, and said all at once,
+      &ldquo;Doctor, do you know I am almost ready to accept your doctrine of the
+      congenital sinfulness of human nature? I am afraid that is the only thing
+      which goes to the bottom of the difficulty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old minister's face did not open so approvingly as Mr. Fairweather had
+      expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes,&mdash;well,&mdash;many find comfort in it,&mdash;I believe;&mdash;there
+      is much to be said,&mdash;there are many bad people,&mdash;and bad
+      children,&mdash;I can't be so sure about bad babies,&mdash;though they cry
+      very malignantly at times,&mdash;especially if they have the stomach-ache.
+      But I really don't know how to condemn this poor Elsie; she may have
+      impulses that act in her like instincts in the lower animals, and so not
+      come under the bearing of our ordinary rules of judgment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this depraved tendency, Doctor,&mdash;this unaccountable
+      perverseness. My dear Sir, I am afraid your school is in the right about
+      human nature. Oh, those words of the Psalmist, 'shapen in iniquity,' and
+      the rest! What are we to do with them,&mdash;we who teach that the soul of
+      a child is an unstained white tablet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;King David was very subject to fits of humility, and much given to
+      self-reproaches,&rdquo; said the Doctor, in a rather dry way. &ldquo;We owe you and
+      your friends a good deal for calling attention to the natural graces,
+      which, after all, may, perhaps, be considered as another form of
+      manifestation of the divine influence. Some of our writers have pressed
+      rather too hard on the tendencies of the human soul toward evil as such.
+      It maybe questioned whether these views have not interfered with the sound
+      training of certain young persons, sons of clergymen and others. I am
+      nearer of your mind about the possibility of educating children so that
+      they shall become good Christians without any violent transition. That is
+      what I should hope for from bringing them up 'in the nurture and
+      admonition of the Lord.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The younger minister looked puzzled, but presently answered, &ldquo;Possibly we
+      may have called attention to some neglected truths; but, after all, I fear
+      we must go to the old school, if we want to get at the root of the matter.
+      I know there is an outward amiability about many young persons, some young
+      girls especially, that seems like genuine goodness; but I have been
+      disposed of late to lean toward your view, that these human affections, as
+      we see them in our children,&mdash;ours, I say, though I have not the
+      fearful responsibility of training any of my own,&mdash;are only a kind of
+      disguised and sinful selfishness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old minister groaned in spirit. His heart had been softened by the
+      sweet influences of children and grandchildren. He thought of a half-sized
+      grave in the burial-ground, and the fine, brave, noble-hearted boy he laid
+      in it thirty years before,&mdash;the sweet, cheerful child who had made
+      his home all sunshine until the day when he was brought into it, his long
+      curls dripping, his fresh lips purpled in death,&mdash;foolish dear little
+      blessed creature to throw himself into the deep water to save the drowning
+      boy, who clung about him and carried him under! Disguised selfishness! And
+      his granddaughter too, whose disguised selfishness was the light of his
+      household!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't call it my view!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Abstractly, perhaps, all natures may be
+      considered vitiated; but practically, as I see it in life, the divine
+      grace keeps pace with the perverted instincts from infancy in many
+      natures. Besides, this perversion itself may often be disease, bad habits
+      transmitted, like drunkenness, or some hereditary misfortune, as with this
+      Elsie we were talking about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The younger minister was completely mystified. At every step he made
+      towards the Doctor's recognized theological position, the Doctor took just
+      one step towards his. They would cross each other soon at this rate, and
+      might as well exchange pulpits,&mdash;as Colonel Sprowle once wished they
+      would, it may be remembered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor, though a much clearer-headed man, was almost equally puzzled.
+      He turned the conversation again upon Elsie, and endeavored to make her
+      minister feel the importance of bringing every friendly influence to bear
+      upon her at this critical period of her life. His sympathies did not seem
+      so lively as the Doctor could have wished. Perhaps he had vastly more
+      important objects of solicitude in his own spiritual interests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A knock at the door interrupted them. The Reverend Mr. Fairweather rose
+      and went towards it. As he passed the table, his coat caught something,
+      which came rattling to the floor. It was a crucifix with a string of beads
+      attached. As he opened the door, the Milesian features of Father McShane
+      presented themselves, and from their centre proceeded the clerical
+      benediction in Irish-sounding Latin, Pax vobiscum!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Doctor Honeywood rose and left the priest and his disciple
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX. THE SPIDER ON HIS THREAD.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was nobody, then, to counsel poor Elsie, except her father, who had
+      learned to let her have her own way so as not to disturb such relations as
+      they had together, and the old black woman, who had a real, though limited
+      influence over the girl. Perhaps she did not need counsel. To look upon
+      her, one might well suppose that she was competent to defend herself
+      against any enemy she was like to have. That glittering, piercing eye was
+      not to be softened by a few smooth words spoken in low tones, charged with
+      the common sentiments which win their way to maidens' hearts. That round,
+      lithe, sinuous figure was as full of dangerous life as ever lay under the
+      slender flanks and clean-shaped limbs of a panther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were particular times when Elsie was in such a mood that it must
+      have been a bold person who would have intruded upon her with reproof or
+      counsel. &ldquo;This is one of her days,&rdquo; old Sophy would say quietly to her
+      father, and he would, as far as possible, leave her to herself. These days
+      were more frequent, as old Sophy's keen, concentrated watchfulness had
+      taught her, at certain periods of the year. It was in the heats of summer
+      that they were most common and most strongly characterized. In winter, on
+      the other hand, she was less excitable, and even at times heavy and as if
+      chilled and dulled in her sensibilities. It was a strange, paroxysmal kind
+      of life that belonged to her. It seemed to come and go with the sunlight.
+      All winter long she would be comparatively quiet, easy to manage,
+      listless, slow in her motions; her eye would lose something of its strange
+      lustre; and the old nurse would feel so little anxiety, that her whole
+      expression and aspect would show the change, and people would say to her,
+      &ldquo;Why, Sophy, how young you're looking!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the spring came on, Elsie would leave the fireside, have her tiger-skin
+      spread in the empty southern chamber next the wall, and lie there basking
+      for whole hours in the sunshine. As the season warmed, the light would
+      kindle afresh in her eyes, and the old woman's sleep would grow restless
+      again,&mdash;for she knew, that, so long as the glitter was fierce in the
+      girl's eyes, there was no trusting her impulses or movements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, when the veins of the summer were hot and swollen, and the juices
+      of all the poison-plants and the blood of all the creatures that feed upon
+      them had grown thick and strong,&mdash;about the time when the second
+      mowing was in hand, and the brown, wet-faced men were following up the
+      scythes as they chased the falling waves of grass, (falling as the waves
+      fall on sickle-curved beaches; the foam-flowers dropping as the
+      grass-flowers drop,&mdash;with sharp semivowel consonantal sounds,&mdash;frsh,&mdash;for
+      that is the way the sea talks, and leaves all pure vowel-sounds for the
+      winds to breathe over it, and all mutes to the unyielding earth,)&mdash;about
+      this time of over-ripe midsummer, the life of Elsie seemed fullest of its
+      malign and restless instincts. This was the period of the year when the
+      Rockland people were most cautious of wandering in the leafier coverts
+      which skirted the base of The Mountain, and the farmers liked to wear
+      thick, long boots, whenever they went into the bushes. But Elsie was never
+      so much given to roaming over The Mountain as at this season; and as she
+      had grown more absolute and uncontrollable, she was as like to take the
+      night as the day for her rambles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this season, too, all her peculiar tastes in dress and ornament came
+      out in a more striking way than at other times. She was never so superb as
+      then, and never so threatening in her scowling beauty. The barred skirts
+      she always fancied showed sharply beneath her diaphanous muslins; the
+      diamonds often glittered on her breast as if for her own pleasure rather
+      than to dazzle others; the asp-like bracelet hardly left her arm. She was
+      never seen without some necklace,&mdash;either the golden cord she wore at
+      the great party, or a chain of mosaics, or simply a ring of golden scales.
+      Some said that Elsie always slept in a necklace, and that when she died
+      she was to be buried in one. It was a fancy of hers,&mdash;but many
+      thought there was a reason for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nobody watched Elsie with a more searching eye than her cousin, Dick
+      Venner. He had kept more out of her way of late, it is true, but there was
+      not a movement she made which he did not carefully observe just so far as
+      he could without exciting her suspicion. It was plain enough to him that
+      the road to fortune was before him, and that the first thing was to marry
+      Elsie. What course he should take with her, or with others interested,
+      after marrying her, need not be decided in a hurry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had now done all he could expect to do at present in the way of
+      conciliating the other members of the household. The girl's father
+      tolerated him, if he did not even like him. Whether he suspected his
+      project or not Dick did not feel sure; but it was something to have got a
+      foothold in the house, and to have overcome any prepossession against him
+      which his uncle might have entertained. To be a good listener and a bad
+      billiard-player was not a very great sacrifice to effect this object. Then
+      old Sophy could hardly help feeling well-disposed towards him, after the
+      gifts he had bestowed on her and the court he had paid her. These were the
+      only persons on the place of much importance to gain over. The people
+      employed about the house and farm-lands had little to do with Elsie,
+      except to obey her without questioning her commands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Richard began to think of reopening his second parallel. But he had
+      lost something of the coolness with which he had begun his system of
+      operations. The more he had reflected upon the matter, the more he had
+      convinced himself that this was his one great chance in life. If he
+      suffered this girl to escape him, such an opportunity could hardly, in the
+      nature of things, present itself a second time. Only one life between
+      Elsie and her fortune,&mdash;and lives are so uncertain! The girl might
+      not suit him as a wife. Possibly. Time enough to find out after he had got
+      her. In short, he must have the property, and Elsie Venner, as she was to
+      go with it,&mdash;and then, if he found it convenient and agreeable to,
+      lead a virtuous life, he would settle down and raise children and
+      vegetables; but if he found it inconvenient and disagreeable, so much the
+      worse for those who made it so. Like many other persons, he was not
+      principled against virtue, provided virtue were a better investment than
+      its opposite; but he knew that there might be contingencies in which the
+      property would be better without its incumbrances, and he contemplated
+      this conceivable problem in the light of all its possible solutions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One thing Mr. Richard could not conceal from himself: Elsie had some new
+      cause of indifference, at least, if not of aversion to him. With the
+      acuteness which persons who make a sole business of their own interest
+      gain by practice, so that fortune-hunters are often shrewd where real
+      lovers are terribly simple, he fixed at once on the young man up at the
+      school where the girl had been going of late, as probably at the bottom of
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cousin Elsie in love!&rdquo; so he communed with himself upon his lonely
+      pillow. &ldquo;In love with a Yankee schoolmaster! What else can it be? Let him
+      look out for himself! He'll stand but a bad chance between us. What makes
+      you think she's in love with him? Met her walking with him. Don't like her
+      looks and ways;&mdash;she's thinking about something, anyhow. Where does
+      she get those books she is reading so often? Not out of our library, that
+      's certain. If I could have ten minutes' peep into her chamber now, I
+      would find out where she got them, and what mischief she was up to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that instant, as if some tributary demon had heard his wish, a shape
+      which could be none but Elsie's flitted through a gleam of moonlight into
+      the shadow of the trees. She was setting out on one of her midnight
+      rambles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick felt his heart stir in its place, and presently his cheeks flushed
+      with the old longing for an adventure. It was not much to invade a young
+      girl's deserted chamber, but it would amuse a wakeful hour, and tell him
+      some little matters he wanted to know. The chamber he slept in was over
+      the room which Elsie chiefly occupied at this season. There was no great
+      risk of his being seen or heard, if he ventured down-stairs to her
+      apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Richard Venner, in the pursuit of his interesting project, arose and
+      lighted a lamp. He wrapped himself in a dressing-gown and thrust his feet
+      into a pair of cloth slippers. He stole carefully down the stair, and
+      arrived safely at the door of Elsie's room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young lady had taken the natural precaution to leave it fastened,
+      carrying the key with her, no doubt,&mdash;unless; indeed, she had got out
+      by the window, which was not far from the ground. Dick could get in at
+      this window easily enough, but he did not like the idea of leaving his
+      footprints in the flower-bed just under it. He returned to his own
+      chamber, and held a council of war with himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his head out of his own window and looked at that beneath. It was
+      open. He then went to one of his trunks, which he unlocked, and began
+      carefully removing its contents. What these were we need not stop to
+      mention,&mdash;only remarking that there were dresses of various patterns,
+      which might afford an agreeable series of changes, and in certain
+      contingencies prove eminently useful. After removing a few of these, he
+      thrust his hand to the very bottom of the remaining pile and drew out a
+      coiled strip of leather many yards in length, ending in a noose,&mdash;a
+      tough, well-seasoned lasso, looking as if it had seen service and was none
+      the worse for it. He uncoiled a few yards of this and fastened it to the
+      knob of a door. Then he threw the loose end out of the window so that it
+      should hang by the open casement of Elsie's room. By this he let himself
+      down opposite her window, and with a slight effort swung himself inside
+      the room. He lighted a match, found a candle, and, having lighted that,
+      looked curiously about him, as Clodius might have done when he smuggled
+      himself in among the Vestals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie's room was almost as peculiar as her dress and ornaments. It was a
+      kind of museum of objects, such as the woods are full of to those who have
+      eyes to see them, but many of them such as only few could hope to reach,
+      even if they knew where to look for them. Crows' nests, which are never
+      found but in the tall trees, commonly enough in the forks of ancient
+      hemlocks, eggs of rare birds, which must have taken a quick eye and a hard
+      climb to find and get hold of, mosses and ferns of unusual aspect, and
+      quaint monstrosities of vegetable growth, such as Nature delights in,
+      showed that Elsie had her tastes and fancies like any naturalist or poet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nature, when left to her own freaks in the forest, is grotesque and
+      fanciful to the verge of license, and beyond it. The foliage of trees does
+      not always require clipping to make it look like an image of life. From
+      those windows at Canoe Meadow, among the mountains, we could see all
+      summer long a lion rampant, a Shanghai chicken, and General Jackson on
+      horseback, done by Nature in green leaves, each with a single tree. But to
+      Nature's tricks with boughs and roots and smaller vegetable growths there
+      is no end. Her fancy is infinite, and her humor not always refined. There
+      is a perpetual reminiscence of animal life in her rude caricatures, which
+      sometimes actually reach the point of imitating the complete human figure,
+      as in that extraordinary specimen which nobody will believe to be genuine,
+      except the men of science, and of which the discreet reader may have a
+      glimpse by application in the proper quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie had gathered so many of these sculpture-like monstrosities, that one
+      might have thought she had robbed old Sophy's grandfather of his fetishes.
+      They helped to give her room a kind of enchanted look, as if a witch had
+      her home in it. Over the fireplace was a long, staff-like branch,
+      strangled in the spiral coils of one of those vines which strain the
+      smaller trees in their clinging embraces, sinking into the bark until the
+      parasite becomes almost identified with its support. With these sylvan
+      curiosities were blended objects of art, some of them not less singular,
+      but others showing a love for the beautiful in form and color, such as a
+      girl of fine organization and nice culture might naturally be expected to
+      feel and to indulge, in adorning her apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All these objects, pictures, bronzes, vases, and the rest, did not detain
+      Mr. Richard Venner very long, whatever may have been his sensibilities to
+      art. He was more curious about books and papers. A copy of Keats lay on
+      the table. He opened it and read the name of Bernard C. Langdon on the
+      blank leaf. An envelope was on the table with Elsie's name written in a
+      similar hand; but the envelope was empty, and he could not find the note
+      it contained. Her desk was locked, and it would not be safe to tamper with
+      it. He had seen enough; the girl received books and notes from this fellow
+      up at the school, this usher, this Yankee quill-driver;&mdash;he was
+      aspiring to become the lord of the Dudley domain, then, was he?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie had been reasonably careful. She had locked up her papers, whatever
+      they might be. There was little else that promised to reward his
+      curiosity, but he cast his eye on everything. There was a clasp-Bible
+      among her books. Dick wondered if she ever unclasped it. There was a book
+      of hymns; it had her name in it, and looked as if it might have been often
+      read;&mdash;what the diablo had Elsie to do with hymns?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Richard Venner was in an observing and analytical state of mind, it
+      will be noticed, or he might perhaps have been touched with the innocent
+      betrayals of the poor girl's chamber. Had she, after all, some human
+      tenderness in her heart? That was not the way he put the question,&mdash;but
+      whether she would take seriously to this schoolmaster, and if she did,
+      what would be the neatest and surest and quickest way of putting a stop to
+      all that nonsense. All this, however, he could think over more safely in
+      his own quarters. So he stole softly to the window, and, catching the end
+      of the leathern thong, regained his own chamber and drew in the lasso.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It needs only a little jealousy to set a man on who is doubtful in love or
+      wooing, or to make him take hold of his courting in earnest. As soon as
+      Dick had satisfied himself that the young schoolmaster was his rival in
+      Elsie's good graces, his whole thoughts concentrated themselves more than
+      ever on accomplishing his great design of securing her for himself. There
+      was no time to be lost. He must come into closer relations with her, so as
+      to withdraw her thoughts from this fellow, and to find out more exactly
+      what was the state of her affections, if she had any. So he began to court
+      her company again, to propose riding with her, to sing to her, to join her
+      whenever she was strolling about the grounds, to make himself agreeable,
+      according to the ordinary understanding of that phrase, in every way which
+      seemed to promise a chance for succeeding in that amiable effort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl treated him more capriciously than ever. She would be sullen and
+      silent, or she would draw back fiercely at some harmless word or gesture,
+      or she would look at him with her eyes narrowed in such a strange way and
+      with such a wicked light in them that Dick swore to himself they were too
+      much for him, and would leave her for the moment. Yet she tolerated him,
+      almost as a matter of necessity, and sometimes seemed to take a kind of
+      pleasure in trying her power upon him. This he soon found out, and humored
+      her in the fancy that she could exercise a kind of fascination over him,
+      though there were times in which he actually felt an influence he could
+      not understand, an effect of some peculiar expression about her, perhaps,
+      but still centring in those diamond eyes of hers which it made one feel so
+      curiously to look into.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether Elsie saw into his object or not was more than he could tell. His
+      idea was, after having conciliated the good-will of all about her as far
+      as possible, to make himself first a habit and then a necessity with the
+      girl,&mdash;not to spring any trap of a declaration upon her until
+      tolerance had grown into such a degree of inclination as her nature was
+      like to admit. He had succeeded in the first part of his plan. He was at
+      liberty to prolong his visit at his own pleasure. This was not strange;
+      these three persons, Dudley Venner, his daughter, and his nephew,
+      represented all that remained of an old and honorable family. Had Elsie
+      been like other girls, her father might have been less willing to
+      entertain a young fellow like Dick as an inmate; but he had long outgrown
+      all the slighter apprehensions which he might have had in common with all
+      parents, and followed rather than led the imperious instincts of his
+      daughter. It was not a question of sentiment, but of life and death, or
+      more than that,&mdash;some dark ending, perhaps, which would close the
+      history of his race with disaster and evil report upon the lips of all
+      coming generations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the thought of his nephew's making love to his daughter, it had
+      almost passed from his mind. He had been so long in the habit of looking
+      at Elsie as outside of all common influences and exceptional in the law of
+      her nature, that it was difficult for him to think of her as a girl to be
+      fallen in love with. Many persons are surprised, when others court their
+      female relatives; they know them as good young or old women enough,&mdash;aunts,
+      sisters, nieces, daughters, whatever they may be,&mdash;but never think of
+      anybody's falling in love with them, any more than of their being struck
+      by lightning. But in this case there were special reasons, in addition to
+      the common family delusion,&mdash;reasons which seemed to make it
+      impossible that she should attract a suitor. Who would dare to marry
+      Elsie? No, let her have the pleasure, if it was one, at any rate the
+      wholesome excitement, of companionship; it might save her from lapsing
+      into melancholy or a worse form of madness. Dudley Venner had a kind of
+      superstition, too, that, if Elsie could only outlive three septenaries,
+      twenty-one years, so that, according to the prevalent idea, her whole
+      frame would have been thrice made over, counting from her birth, she would
+      revert to the natural standard of health of mind and feelings from which
+      she had been so long perverted. The thought of any other motive than love
+      being sufficient to induce Richard to become her suitor had not occurred
+      to him. He had married early, at that happy period when interested motives
+      are least apt to influence the choice; and his single idea of marriage
+      was, that it was the union of persons naturally drawn towards each other
+      by some mutual attraction. Very simple, perhaps; but he had lived lonely
+      for many years since his wife's death, and judged the hearts of others,
+      most of all of his brother's son, by his own. He had often thought
+      whether, in case of Elsie's dying or being necessarily doomed to
+      seclusion, he might not adopt this nephew and make him his heir; but it
+      had not occurred to him that Richard might wish to become his son-in-law
+      for the sake of his property.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is very easy to criticise other people's modes of dealing with their
+      children. Outside observers see results; parents see processes. They
+      notice the trivial movements and accents which betray the blood of this or
+      that ancestor; they can detect the irrepressible movement of hereditary
+      impulse in looks and acts which mean nothing to the common observer. To be
+      a parent is almost to be a fatalist. This boy sits with legs crossed, just
+      as his uncle used to whom he never saw; his grandfathers both died before
+      he was born, but he has the movement of the eyebrows which we remember in
+      one of them, and the gusty temper of three different generations, can tell
+      pretty nearly the range of possibilities and the limitations of a child,
+      actual or potential, of a given stock,&mdash;errors excepted always,
+      because children of the same stock are not bred just alike, because the
+      traits of some less known ancestor are liable to break out at any time,
+      and because each human being has, after all, a small fraction of
+      individuality about him which gives him a flavor, so that he is
+      distinguishable from others by his friends or in a court of justice, and
+      which occasionally makes a genius or a saint or a criminal of him. It is
+      well that young persons cannot read these fatal oracles of Nature. Blind
+      impulse is her highest wisdom, after all. We make our great jump, and then
+      she takes the bandage off our eyes. That is the way the broad sea-level of
+      average is maintained, and the physiological democracy is enabled to fight
+      against the principle of selection which would disinherit all the weaker
+      children. The magnificent constituency of mediocrities of which the world
+      is made up,&mdash;the people without biographies, whose lives have made a
+      clear solution in the fluid menstruum of time, instead of being
+      precipitated in the opaque sediment of history&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this is a narrative, and not a disquisition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX. FROM WITHOUT AND FROM WITHIN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There were not wanting people who accused Dudley VENNER of weakness and
+      bad judgment in his treatment of his daughter. Some were of opinion that
+      the great mistake was in not &ldquo;breaking her will&rdquo; when she was a little
+      child. There was nothing the matter with her, they said, but that she had
+      been spoiled by indulgence. If they had had the charge of her, they'd have
+      brought her down. She'd got the upperhand of her father now; but if he'd
+      only taken hold of her in season! There are people who think that
+      everything may be done, if the doer, be he educator or physician, be only
+      called &ldquo;in season.&rdquo; No doubt,&mdash;but in season would often be a hundred
+      or two years before the child was born; and people never send so early as
+      that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The father of Elsie Venner knew his duties and his difficulties too well
+      to trouble himself about anything others might think or say. So soon as he
+      found that he could not govern his child, he gave his life up to following
+      her and protecting her as far as he could. It was a stern and terrible
+      trial for a man of acute sensibility, and not without force of intellect
+      and will, and the manly ambition for himself and his family-name which
+      belonged to his endowments and his position. Passive endurance is the
+      hardest trial to persons of such a nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What made it still more a long martyrdom was the necessity for bearing his
+      cross in utter loneliness. He could not tell his griefs. He could not talk
+      of them even with those who knew their secret spring. His minister had the
+      unsympathetic nature which is common in the meaner sort of devotees,&mdash;persons
+      who mistake spiritual selfishness for sanctity, and grab at the infinite
+      prize of the great Future and Elsewhere with the egotism they
+      excommunicate in its hardly more odious forms of avarice and
+      self-indulgence. How could he speak with the old physician and the old
+      black woman about a sorrow and a terror which but to name was to strike
+      dumb the lips of Consolation?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the dawn of his manhood he had found that second consciousness for
+      which young men and young women go about looking into each other's faces,
+      with their sweet, artless aim playing in every feature, and making them
+      beautiful to each other, as to all of us. He had found his other self
+      early, before he had grown weary in the search and wasted his freshness in
+      vain longings: the lot of many, perhaps we may say of most, who infringe
+      the patent of our social order by intruding themselves into a life already
+      upon half allowance of the necessary luxuries of existence. The life he
+      had led for a brief space was not only beautiful in outward circumstance,
+      as old Sophy had described it to the Reverend Doctor. It was that
+      delicious process of the tuning of two souls to each other, string by
+      string, not without little half-pleasing discords now and then when some
+      chord in one or the other proves to be overstrained or over-lax, but
+      always approaching nearer and nearer to harmony, until they become at last
+      as two instruments with a single voice. Something more than a year of this
+      blissful doubled consciousness had passed over him when he found himself
+      once more alone,&mdash;alone, save for the little diamond-eyed child lying
+      in the old black woman's arms, with the coral necklace round&mdash;her
+      throat and the rattle in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He would not die by his own act. It was not the way in his family. There
+      may have been other, perhaps better reasons, but this was enough; he did
+      not come of suicidal stock. He must live for this child's sake, at any
+      rate; and yet,&mdash;oh, yet, who could tell with what thoughts he looked
+      upon her? Sometimes her little features would look placid, and something
+      like a smile would steal over them; then all his tender feelings would
+      rush up, into his eyes, and he would put his arms out to take her from the
+      old woman,&mdash;but all at once her eyes would narrow and she would throw
+      her head back, and a shudder would seize him as he stooped over his child,&mdash;he
+      could not look upon her,&mdash;he could not touch his lips to her cheek;
+      nay, there would sometimes come into his soul such frightful suggestions
+      that he would hurry from the room lest the hinted thought should become a
+      momentary madness and he should lift his hand against the hapless infant
+      which owed him life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In those miserable days he used to wander all over The Mountain in his
+      restless endeavor to seek some relief for inward suffering in outward
+      action. He had no thought of throwing himself from the summit of any of
+      the broken cliffs, but he clambered over them recklessly, as having no
+      particular care for his life. Sometimes he would go into the accursed
+      district where the venomous reptiles were always to be dreaded, and court
+      their worst haunts, and kill all he could come near with a kind of blind
+      fury which was strange in a person of his gentle nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One overhanging cliff was a favorite haunt of his. It frowned upon his
+      home beneath in a very menacing way; he noticed slight seams and fissures
+      that looked ominous;&mdash;what would happen, if it broke off some time or
+      other and came crashing down on the fields and roofs below? He thought of
+      such a possible catastrophe with a singular indifference, in fact with a
+      feeling almost like pleasure. It would be such a swift and thorough
+      solution of this great problem of life he was working out in
+      ever-recurring daily anguish! The remote possibility of such a catastrophe
+      had frightened some timid dwellers beneath The Mountain to other places of
+      residence; here the danger was most imminent, and yet he loved to dwell
+      upon the chances of its occurrence. Danger is often the best
+      counterirritant in cases of mental suffering; he found a solace in
+      careless exposure of his life, and learned to endure the trials of each
+      day better by dwelling in imagination on the possibility that it might be
+      the last for him and the home that was his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Time, the great consoler, helped these influences, and he gradually fell
+      into more easy and less dangerous habits of life. He ceased from his more
+      perilous rambles. He thought less of the danger from the great overhanging
+      rocks and forests; they had hung there for centuries; it was not very
+      likely they would crash or slide in his time. He became accustomed to all
+      Elsie's strange looks and ways. Old Sophy dressed her with ruffles round
+      her neck, and hunted up the red coral branch with silver bells which the
+      little toothless Dudleys had bitten upon for a hundred years. By an
+      infinite effort, her father forced himself to become the companion of this
+      child, for whom he had such a mingled feeling, but whose presence was
+      always a trial to him, and often a terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a cost which no human being could estimate, he had done his duty, and
+      in some degree reaped his reward. Elsie grew up with a kind of filial
+      feeling for him, such as her nature was capable of. She never would obey
+      him; that was not to be looked for. Commands, threats, punishments, were
+      out of the question with her; the mere physical effects of crossing her
+      will betrayed themselves in such changes of expression and manner that it
+      would have been senseless to attempt to govern her in any such way.
+      Leaving her mainly to herself, she could be to some extent indirectly
+      influenced,&mdash;not otherwise. She called her father &ldquo;Dudley,&rdquo; as if he
+      had been her brother. She ordered everybody and would be ordered by none.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who could know all these things, except the few people of the household?
+      What wonder, therefore, that ignorant and shallow persons laid the blame
+      on her father of those peculiarities which were freely talked about,&mdash;of
+      those darker tendencies which were hinted of in whispers? To all this
+      talk, so far as it reached him, he was supremely indifferent, not only
+      with the indifference which all gentlemen feel to the gossip of their
+      inferiors, but with a charitable calmness which did not wonder or blame.
+      He knew that his position was not simply a difficult, but an impossible
+      one, and schooled himself to bear his destiny as well as he might, and
+      report himself only at Headquarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had grown gentle under this discipline. His hair was just beginning to
+      be touched with silver, and his expression was that of habitual sadness
+      and anxiety. He had no counsellor, as we have seen, to turn to, who did
+      not know either too much or too little. He had no heart to rest upon and
+      into which he might unburden himself of the secrets and the sorrows that
+      were aching in his own breast. Yet he had not allowed himself to run to
+      waste in the long time since he was left alone to his trials and fears. He
+      had resisted the seductions which always beset solitary men with restless
+      brains overwrought by depressing agencies. He disguised no misery to
+      himself with the lying delusion of wine. He sought no sleep from
+      narcotics, though he lay with throbbing, wide-open eyes through all the
+      weary hours of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was understood between Dudley Venner and old Doctor Kittredge that
+      Elsie was a subject of occasional medical observation, on account of
+      certain mental peculiarities which might end in a permanent affection of
+      her reason. Beyond this nothing was said, whatever may have been in the
+      mind of either. But Dudley Venner had studied Elsie's case in the light of
+      all the books he could find which might do anything towards explaining it.
+      As in all cases where men meddle with medical science for a special
+      purpose, having no previous acquaintance with it, his imagination found
+      what it wanted in the books he read, and adjusted it to the facts before
+      him. So it was he came to cherish those two fancies before alluded to that
+      the ominous birthmark she had carried from infancy might fade and become
+      obliterated, and that the age of complete maturity might be signalized by
+      an entire change in her physical and mental state. He held these vague
+      hopes as all of us nurse our only half-believed illusions. Not for the
+      world would he have questioned his sagacious old medical friend as to the
+      probability or possibility of their being true. We are very shy of asking
+      questions of those who know enough to destroy with one word the hopes we
+      live on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this life of comparative seclusion to which the father had doomed
+      himself for the sake of his child, he had found time for large and varied
+      reading. The learned Judge Thornton confessed himself surprised at the
+      extent of Dudley Venner's information. Doctor Kittredge found that he was
+      in advance of him in the knowledge of recent physiological discoveries. He
+      had taken pains to become acquainted with agricultural chemistry; and the
+      neighboring farmers owed him some useful hints about the management of
+      their land. He renewed his old acquaintance with the classic authors. He
+      loved to warm his pulses with Homer and calm them down with Horace. He
+      received all manner of new books and periodicals, and gradually gained an
+      interest in the events of the passing time. Yet he remained almost a
+      hermit, not absolutely refusing to see his neighbors, nor even churlish
+      towards them, but on the other hand not cultivating any intimate relations
+      with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had retired from the world a young man, little more than a youth,
+      indeed, with sentiments and aspirations all of them suddenly extinguished.
+      The first had bequeathed him a single huge sorrow, the second a single
+      trying duty. In due time the anguish had lost something of its poignancy,
+      the light of earlier and happier memories had begun to struggle with and
+      to soften its thick darkness, and even that duty which he had confronted
+      with such an effort had become an endurable habit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a period of life when many have been living on the capital of their
+      acquired knowledge and their youthful stock of sensibilities until their
+      intellects are really shallower and their hearts emptier than they were at
+      twenty, Dudley Venner was stronger in thought and tenderer in soul than in
+      the first freshness of his youth, when he counted but half his present
+      years. He had entered that period which marks the decline of men who have
+      ceased growing in knowledge and strength: from forty to fifty a man must
+      move upward, or the natural falling off in the vigor of life will carry
+      him rapidly downward. At this time his inward: nature was richer and
+      deeper than in any earlier period of his life. If he could only be
+      summoned to action, he was capable of noble service. If his sympathies
+      could only find an outlet, he was never so capable of love as now; for his
+      natural affections had been gathering in the course of all these years,
+      and the traces of that ineffaceable calamity of his life were softened and
+      partially hidden by new growths of thought and feeling, as the wreck left
+      by a mountainslide is covered over by the gentle intrusion of the
+      soft-stemmed herbs which will prepare it for the stronger vegetation that
+      will bring it once more into harmony with the peaceful slopes around it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps Dudley Venner had not gained so much in worldly wisdom as if he
+      had been more in society and less in his study. The indulgence with which
+      he treated his nephew was, no doubt, imprudent. A man more in the habit of
+      dealing with men would have been more guarded with a person with Dick's
+      questionable story and unquestionable physiognomy. But he was singularly
+      unsuspicious, and his natural kindness was an additional motive to the
+      wish for introducing some variety into the routine of Elsie's life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Dudley Venner did not know just what he wanted at this period of his
+      life, there were a great many people in the town of Rockland who thought
+      they did know. He had been a widower long enough, &ldquo;&mdash;nigh twenty
+      year, wa'n't it? He'd been aout to Spraowles's party,&mdash;there wa'n't
+      anything to hender him why he shouldn't stir raound l'k other folks. What
+      was the reason he did n't go abaout to taown-meetin's 'n'
+      Sahbath-meetin's, 'n' lyceums, 'n' school 'xaminations, 'n'
+      s'prise-parties, 'n' funerals,&mdash;and other entertainments where the
+      still-faced two-story folks were in the habit of looking round to see if
+      any of the mansion-house gentry were present?&mdash;Fac' was, he was
+      livin' too lonesome daown there at the mansion-haouse. Why shouldn't he
+      make up to the Jedge's daughter? She was genteel enough for him, and&mdash;let's
+      see, haow old was she? Seven-'n'itwenty,&mdash;no, six-'n'-twenty,&mdash;born
+      the same year we buried our little Anny Marl&rdquo;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no possible objection to this arrangement, if the parties
+      interested had seen fit to make it or even to think of it. But &ldquo;Portia,&rdquo;
+       as some of the mansion-house people called her, did not happen to awaken
+      the elective affinities of the lonely widower. He met her once in a while,
+      and said to himself that she was a good specimen of the grand style of
+      woman; and then the image came back to him of a woman not quite so large,
+      not quite so imperial in her port, not quite so incisive in her speech,
+      not quite so judicial in her opinions, but with two or three more joints
+      in her frame, and two or three soft inflections in her voice, which for
+      some absurd reason or other drew him to her side and so bewitched him that
+      he told her half his secrets and looked into her eyes all that he could
+      not tell, in less time than it would have takes him to discuss the
+      champion paper of the last Quarterly with the admirable &ldquo;Portia.&rdquo; Heu,
+      quanto minus! How much more was that lost image to him than all it left on
+      earth!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The study of love is very much like that of meteorology. We know that just
+      about so much rain will fall in a season; but on what particular day it
+      will shower is more than we can tell. We know that just about so much love
+      will be made every year in a given population; but who will rain his young
+      affections upon the heart of whom is not known except to the astrologers
+      and fortune-tellers. And why rain falls as it does and why love is made
+      just as it is are equally puzzling questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman a man loves is always his own daughter, far more his daughter
+      than the female children born to him by the common law of life. It is not
+      the outside woman, who takes his name, that he loves: before her image has
+      reached the centre of his consciousness, it has passed through fifty
+      many-layered nerve-strainers, been churned over by ten thousand
+      pulse-beats, and reacted upon by millions of lateral impulses which bandy
+      it about through the mental spaces as a reflection is sent back and
+      forward in a saloon lined with mirrors. With this altered image of the
+      woman before him, his preexisting ideal becomes blended. The object of his
+      love is in part the offspring of her legal parents, but more of her
+      lover's brain. The difference between the real and the ideal objects of
+      love must not exceed a fixed maximum. The heart's vision cannot unite them
+      stereoscopically into a single image, if the divergence passes certain
+      limits. A formidable analogy, much in the nature of a proof, with very
+      serious consequences, which moralists and match-makers would do well to
+      remember! Double vision with the eyes of the heart is a dangerous
+      physiological state, and may lead to missteps and serious falls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether Dudley Venner would ever find a breathing image near enough to his
+      ideal one, to fill the desolate chamber of his heart, or not, was very
+      doubtful. Some gracious and gentle woman, whose influence would steal upon
+      him as the first low words of prayer after that interval of silent mental
+      supplication known to one of our simpler forms of public worship, gliding
+      into his consciousness without hurting its old griefs, herself knowing the
+      chastening of sorrow, and subdued into sweet acquiescence with the Divine
+      will,&mdash;some such woman as this, if Heaven should send him such, might
+      call him back to the world of happiness, from which he seemed forever
+      exiled. He could never again be the young lover who walked through the
+      garden-alleys all red with roses in the old dead and buried June of long
+      ago. He could never forget the bride of his youth, whose image, growing
+      phantomlike with the lapse of years, hovered over him like a dream while
+      waking and like a reality in dreams. But if it might be in God's good
+      providence that this desolate life should come under the influence of
+      human affections once more, what an ecstasy of renewed existence was in
+      store for him! His life had not all been buried under that narrow ridge of
+      turf with the white stone at its head. It seemed so for a while; but it
+      was not and could not and ought not to be so. His first passion had been a
+      true and pure one; there was no spot or stain upon it. With all his grief
+      there blended no cruel recollection of any word or look he would have
+      wished to forget. All those little differences, such as young married
+      people with any individual flavor in their characters must have, if they
+      are tolerably mated, had only added to the music of existence, as the
+      lesser discords admitted into some perfect symphony, fitly resolved, add
+      richness and strength to the whole harmonious movement. It was a deep
+      wound that Fate had inflicted on him; nay, it seemed like a mortal one;
+      but the weapon was clean, and its edge was smooth. Such wounds must heal
+      with time in healthy natures, whatever a false sentiment may say, by the
+      wise and beneficent law of our being. The recollection of a deep and true
+      affection is rather a divine nourishment for a life to grow strong upon
+      than a poison to destroy it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner's habitual sadness could not be laid wholly to his early
+      bereavement. It was partly the result of the long struggle between natural
+      affection and duty, on one side, and the involuntary tendencies these had
+      to overcome, on the other,&mdash;between hope and fear, so long in
+      conflict that despair itself would have been like an anodyne, and he would
+      have slept upon some final catastrophe with the heavy sleep of a bankrupt
+      after his failure is proclaimed. Alas! some new affection might perhaps
+      rekindle the fires of youth in his heart; but what power could calm that
+      haggard terror of the parent which rose with every morning's sun and
+      watched with every evening star,&mdash;what power save alone that of him
+      who comes bearing the inverted torch, and leaving after him only the ashes
+      printed with his footsteps?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI. THE WIDOW ROWENS GIVES A TEA-PARTY.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was a good deal of interest felt, as has been said, in the lonely
+      condition of Dudley Venner in that fine mansion-house of his, and with
+      that strange daughter, who would never be married, as many people thought,
+      in spite of all the stories. The feelings expressed by the good folks who
+      dated from the time when they &ldquo;buried aour little Anny Mari',&rdquo; and others
+      of that homespun stripe, were founded in reason, after all. And so it was
+      natural enough that they should be shared by various ladies, who, having
+      conjugated the verb to live as far as the preterpluperfect tense, were
+      ready to change one of its vowels and begin with it in the present
+      indicative. Unfortunately, there was very little chance of showing
+      sympathy in its active form for a gentleman who kept himself so much out
+      of the way as the master of the Dudley Mansion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Various attempts had been made, from time to time, of late years, to get
+      him out of his study, which had, for the most part, proved failures. It
+      was a surprise, therefore, when he was seen at the Great Party at the
+      Colonel's. But it was an encouragement to try him again, and the
+      consequence had been that he had received a number of notes inviting him
+      to various smaller entertainments, which, as neither he nor Elsie had any
+      fancy for them, he had politely declined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the state of things when he received an invitation to take tea
+      sociably, with a few friends, at Hyacinth Cottage, the residence of the
+      Widow Rowens, relict of the late Beeri Rowens, Esquire, better known as
+      Major Rowens. Major Rowens was at the time of his decease a promising
+      officer in the militia, in the direct line of promotion, as his waistband
+      was getting tighter every year; and, as all the world knows, the
+      militia-officer who splits off most buttons and fills the largest
+      sword-belt stands the best chance of rising, or, perhaps we might say,
+      spreading, to be General.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Rowens united in his person certain other traits which help a man to
+      eminence in the branch of public service referred to. He ran to high
+      colors, to wide whiskers, to open pores; he had the saddle-leather skin
+      common in Englishmen, rarer in Americans,&mdash;never found in the Brahmin
+      caste, oftener in the military and the commodores: observing people know
+      what is meant; blow the seed-arrows from the white-kid-looking button
+      which holds them on a dandelion-stalk, and the pricked-pincushion surface
+      shows you what to look for. He had the loud gruff voice which implies the
+      right to command. He had the thick hand, stubbed fingers, with bristled
+      pads between their joints, square, broad thumb-nails, and sturdy limbs,
+      which mark a constitution made to use in rough out-door work. He had the
+      never-failing predilection for showy switch-tailed horses that step high,
+      and sidle about, and act as if they were going to do something fearful the
+      next minute, in the face of awed and admiring multitudes gathered at
+      mighty musters or imposing cattle-shows. He had no objection, either, to
+      holding the reins in a wagon behind another kind of horse,&mdash;a
+      slouching, listless beast, with a strong slant to his shoulder; and a
+      notable depth to his quarter and an emphatic angle at the hock, who
+      commonly walked or lounged along in a lazy trot of five or six miles an
+      hour; but, if a lively colt happened to come rattling up alongside, or a
+      brandy-faced old horse-jockey took the road to show off a fast nag, and
+      threw his dust into the Major's face, would pick his legs up all at once,
+      and straighten his body out, and swing off into a three-minute gait, in a
+      way that &ldquo;Old Blue&rdquo; himself need not have been ashamed of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some reason which must be left to the next generation of professors to
+      find out, the men who are knowing in horse-flesh have an eye also for, let
+      a long dash separate the brute creation from the angelic being now to be
+      named,&mdash;for lovely woman. Of this fact there can be no possible
+      doubt; and therefore you shall notice, that, if a fast horse trots before
+      two, one of the twain is apt to be a pretty bit of muliebrity, with shapes
+      to her, and eyes flying about in all directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Rowens, at that time Lieutenant of the Rockland Fusileers, had
+      driven and &ldquo;traded&rdquo; horses not a few before he turned his acquired skill
+      as a judge of physical advantages in another direction. He knew a neat,
+      snug hoof, a delicate pastern, a broad haunch, a deep chest, a close
+      ribbed-up barrel, as well as any other man in the town. He was not to be
+      taken in by your thick-jointed, heavy-headed cattle, without any go to
+      them, that suit a country-parson, nor yet by the &ldquo;gaanted-up,&rdquo; long-legged
+      animals, with all their constitutions bred out of them, such as rich
+      greenhorns buy and cover up with their plated trappings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether his equine experience was of any use to him in the selection of
+      the mate with whom he was to go in double harness so long as they both
+      should live, we need not stop to question. At any rate, nobody could find
+      fault with the points of Miss Marilla Van Deusen, to whom he offered the
+      privilege of becoming Mrs. Rowens. The Van must have been crossed out of
+      her blood, for she was an out-and-out brunette, with hair and eyes black
+      enough for a Mohawk's daughter. A fine style of woman, with very striking
+      tints and outlines,&mdash;an excellent match for the Lieutenant, except
+      for one thing. She was marked by Nature for a widow. She was evidently got
+      up for mourning, and never looked so well as in deep black, with jet
+      ornaments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man who should dare to marry her would doom himself; for how could she
+      become the widow she was bound to be, unless he could retire and give her
+      a chance? The Lieutenant lived, however, as we have seen, to become
+      Captain and then Major, with prospects of further advancement. But Mrs.
+      Rowens often said she should never look well in colors. At last her
+      destiny fulfilled itself, and the justice of Nature was vindicated. Major
+      Rowens got overheated galloping about the field on the day of the Great
+      Muster, and had a rush of blood to the head, according to the common
+      report,&mdash;at any rate, something which stopped him short in his career
+      of expansion and promotion, and established Mrs. Rowens in her normal
+      condition of widowhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Widow Rowens was now in the full bloom of ornamental sorrow. A very
+      shallow crape bonnet, frilled and froth-like, allowed the parted raven
+      hair to show its glossy smoothness. A jet pin heaved upon her bosom with
+      every sigh of memory, or emotion of unknown origin. Jet bracelets shone
+      with every movement of her slender hands, cased in close-fitting black
+      gloves. Her sable dress was ridged with manifold flounces, from beneath
+      which a small foot showed itself from time to time, clad in the same hue
+      of mourning. Everything about her was dark, except the whites of her eyes
+      and the enamel of her teeth. The effect was complete. Gray's Elegy was not
+      a more perfect composition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Much as the Widow was pleased with the costume belonging to her condition,
+      she did not disguise from herself that under certain circumstances she
+      might be willing to change her name again. Thus, for instance, if a
+      gentleman not too far gone in maturity, of dignified exterior, with an
+      ample fortune, and of unexceptionable character, should happen to set his
+      heart upon her, and the only way to make him happy was to give up her
+      weeds and go into those unbecoming colors again for his sake,&mdash;why,
+      she felt that it was in her nature to make the sacrifice. By a singular
+      coincidence it happened that a gentleman was now living in Rockland who
+      united in himself all these advantages. Who he was, the sagacious reader
+      may very probably have divined. Just to see how it looked, one day, having
+      bolted her door, and drawn the curtains close, and glanced under the sofa,
+      and listened at the keyhole to be sure there was nobody in the entry,&mdash;just
+      to see how it looked, she had taken out an envelope and written on the
+      back of it Mrs. Manilla Venner. It made her head swim and her knees
+      tremble. What if she should faint, or die, or have a stroke of palsy, and
+      they should break into the room and find that name written! How she caught
+      it up and tore it into little shreds, and then could not be easy until she
+      had burned the small heap of pieces&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these are things which every honorable reader will consider imparted
+      in strict confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Widow Rowens, though not of the mansion house set, was among the most
+      genteel of the two-story circle, and was in the habit of visiting some of
+      the great people. In one of these visits she met a dashing young fellow
+      with an olive complexion at the house of a professional gentleman who had
+      married one of the white necks and pairs of fat arms from a distinguished
+      family before referred to. The professional gentleman himself was out, but
+      the lady introduced the olive-complexioned young man as Mr. Richard
+      Venner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Widow was particularly pleased with this accidental meeting. Had heard
+      Mr. Venner's name frequently mentioned. Hoped his uncle was well, and his
+      charming cousin,&mdash;was she as original as ever? Had often admired that
+      charming creature he rode: we had had some fine horses. Had never got over
+      her taste for riding, but could find nobody that liked a good long gallop
+      since&mdash;well&mdash;she could n't help wishing she was alongside of
+      him, the other day, when she saw him dashing by, just at twilight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Widow paused; lifted a flimsy handkerchief with a very deep black
+      border so as to play the jet bracelet; pushed the tip of her slender foot
+      beyond the lowest of her black flounces; looked up; looked down; looked at
+      Mr. Richard, the very picture of artless simplicity,&mdash;as represented
+      in well-played genteel comedy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good bit of stuff,&rdquo; Dick said to himself, &ldquo;and something of it left
+      yet; caramba!&rdquo; The Major had not studied points for nothing, and the Widow
+      was one of the right sort. The young man had been a little restless of
+      late, and was willing to vary his routine by picking up an acquaintance
+      here and there. So he took the Widow's hint. He should like to have a
+      scamper of half a dozen miles with her some fine morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Widow was infinitely obliged; was not sure that she could find any
+      horse in the village to suit her; but it was so kind in him! Would he not
+      call at Hyacinth Cottage, and let her thank him again there?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus began an acquaintance which the Widow made the most of, and on the
+      strength of which she determined to give a tea-party and invite a number
+      of persons of whom we know something already. She took a half-sheet of
+      note-paper and made out her list as carefully as a country &ldquo;merchant's
+      clerk&rdquo; adds up two and threepence (New-England nomenclature) and twelve
+      and a half cents, figure by figure, and fraction by fraction, before he
+      can be sure they will make half a dollar, without cheating somebody. After
+      much consideration the list reduced itself to the following names: Mr.
+      Richard Venner and Mrs. Blanche Creamer, the lady at whose house she had
+      met him,&mdash;mansion-house breed,&mdash;but will come,&mdash;soft on
+      Dick; Dudley Venner,&mdash;take care of him herself; Elsie,&mdash;Dick
+      will see to her,&mdash;won't it fidget the Creamer woman to see him round
+      her? the old Doctor,&mdash;he 's always handy; and there's that young
+      master there, up at the school,&mdash;know him well enough to ask him,&mdash;oh,
+      yes, he'll come. One, two, three, four, five, six,&mdash;seven; not room
+      enough, without the leaf in the table; one place empty, if the leaf's in.
+      Let's see,&mdash;Helen Darley,&mdash;she 'll do well enough to fill it up,&mdash;why,
+      yes, just the thing,&mdash;light brown hair, blue eyes,&mdash;won't my
+      pattern show off well against her? Put her down,&mdash;she 's worth her
+      tea and toast ten times over,&mdash;nobody knows what a
+      &ldquo;thunder-and-lightning woman,&rdquo; as poor Major used to have it, is, till she
+      gets alongside of one of those old-maidish girls, with hair the color of
+      brown sugar, and eyes like the blue of a teacup.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Widow smiled with a feeling of triumph at having overcome her
+      difficulties and arranged her party,&mdash;arose and stood before her
+      glass, three-quarters front, one-quarter profile, so as to show the whites
+      of the eyes and the down of the upper lip. &ldquo;Splendid!&rdquo; said the Widow&mdash;and
+      to tell the truth, she was not far out of the way, and with Helen Darley
+      as a foil anybody would know she must be foudroyant and pyramidal,&mdash;if
+      these French adjectives may be naturalized for this one particular
+      exigency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the Widow sent out her notes. The black grief which had filled her
+      heart and had overflowed in surges of crape around her person had left a
+      deposit half an inch wide at the margin of her note-paper. Her seal was a
+      small youth with an inverted torch, the same on which Mrs. Blanche Creamer
+      made her spiteful remark, that she expected to see that boy of the Widow's
+      standing on his head yet; meaning, as Dick supposed, that she would get
+      the torch right-side up as soon as she had a chance. That was after Dick
+      had made the Widow's acquaintance, and Mrs. Creamer had got it into her
+      foolish head that she would marry that young fellow, if she could catch
+      him. How could he ever come to fancy such a quadroon-looking thing as
+      that, she should like to know?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is easy enough to ask seven people to a party; but whether they will
+      come or not is an open question, as it was in the case of the spirits of
+      the vasty deep. If the note issues from a three-story mansion-house, and
+      goes to two-story acquaintances, they will all be in an excellent state of
+      health, and have much pleasure in accepting this very polite invitation.
+      If the note is from the lady of a two-story family to three-story ones,
+      the former highly respectable person will very probably find that an
+      endemic complaint is prevalent, not represented in the weekly bills of
+      mortality, which occasions numerous regrets in the bosoms of eminently
+      desirable parties that they cannot have the pleasure of and-so-forthing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this case there was room for doubt,&mdash;mainly as to whether Elsie
+      would take a fancy to come or not. If she should come, her father would
+      certainly be with her. Dick had promised, and thought he could bring
+      Elsie. Of course the young schoolmaster will come, and that poor tired-out
+      looking Helen, if only to get out of sight of those horrid Peckham
+      wretches. They don't get such invitations every day. The others she felt
+      sure of,&mdash;all but the old Doctor,&mdash;he might have some horrid
+      patient or other to visit; tell him Elsie Venner's going to be there,&mdash;he
+      always likes to have an eye on her, they say,&mdash;oh, he'd come fast
+      enough, without any more coaxing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She wanted the Doctor, particularly. It was odd, but she was afraid of
+      Elsie. She felt as if she should be safe enough, if the old Doctor were
+      there to see to the girl; and then she should have leisure to devote
+      herself more freely to the young lady's father, for whom all her
+      sympathies were in a state of lively excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a long time since the Widow had seen so many persons round her
+      table as she had now invited. Better have the plates set and see how they
+      will fill it up with the leaf in.&mdash;A little too scattering with only
+      eight plates set: if she could find two more people, now, that would bring
+      the chairs a little closer,&mdash;snug, you know,&mdash;which makes the
+      company sociable. The Widow thought over her acquaintances. Why how
+      stupid! there was her good minister, the same who had married her, and
+      might&mdash;might&mdash;bury her for aught she anew, and his granddaughter
+      staying with him,&mdash;nice little girl, pretty, and not old enough to be
+      dangerous;&mdash;for the Widow had no notion of making a tea-party and
+      asking people to it that would be like to stand between her and any little
+      project she might happen to have on anybody's heart,&mdash;not she! It was
+      all right now; Blanche was married and so forth; Letty was a child; Elsie
+      was his daughter; Helen Darley was a nice, worthy drudge,&mdash;poor
+      thing!&mdash;faded, faded,&mdash;colors wouldn't wash, just what she
+      wanted to show off against. Now, if the Dudley mansion-house people would
+      only come,&mdash;that was the great point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's a note for us, Elsie,&rdquo; said her father, as they sat round the
+      breakfast-table. &ldquo;Mrs. Rowens wants us all to come to tea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was one of &ldquo;Elsie's days,&rdquo; as old Sophy called them. The light in her
+      eyes was still, but very bright. She looked up so full of perverse and
+      wilful impulses, that Dick knew he could make her go with him and her
+      father. He had his own motives for bringing her to this determination,&mdash;and
+      his own way of setting about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to go,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What do you say, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To tell the truth, Richard, I don't mach fancy the Major's widow. I don't
+      like to see her weeds flowering out quite so strong. I suppose you don't
+      care about going, Elsie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie looked up in her father's face with an expression which he knew but
+      too well. She was just in the state which the plain sort of people call
+      &ldquo;contrary,&rdquo; when they have to deal with it in animals. She would insist on
+      going to that tea-party; he knew it just as well before she spoke as after
+      she had spoken. If Dick had said he wanted to go and her father had
+      seconded his wishes, she would have insisted on staying at home. It was no
+      great matter, her father said to himself, after all; very likely it would
+      amuse her; the Widow was a lively woman enough,&mdash;perhaps a little
+      comme il ne faut pas socially, compared with the Thorntons and some other
+      families; but what did he care for these petty village distinctions?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean to go. You must go with me, Dudley. You may do as you like, Dick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That settled the Dudley-mansion business, of course. They all three
+      accepted, as fortunately did all the others who had been invited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hyacinth Cottage was a pretty place enough, a little too much choked round
+      with bushes, and too much overrun with climbing-roses, which, in the
+      season of slugs and rose-bugs, were apt to show so brown about the leaves
+      and so coleopterous about the flowers, that it might be questioned whether
+      their buds and blossoms made up for these unpleasant animal combinations,&mdash;especially
+      as the smell of whale-oil soap was very commonly in the ascendant over
+      that of the roses. It had its patch of grass called &ldquo;the lawn,&rdquo; and its
+      glazed closet known as &ldquo;the conservatory,&rdquo; according to that system of
+      harmless fictions characteristic of the rural imagination and shown in the
+      names applied to many familiar objects. The interior of the cottage was
+      more tasteful and ambitious than that of the ordinary two-story dwellings.
+      In place of the prevailing hair-cloth covered furniture, the visitor had
+      the satisfaction of seating himself upon a chair covered with some of the
+      Widow's embroidery, or a sofa luxurious with soft caressing plush. The
+      sporting tastes of the late Major showed in various prints on the wall:
+      Herring's &ldquo;Plenipotentiary,&rdquo; the &ldquo;red bullock&rdquo; of the '34 Derby; &ldquo;Cadland&rdquo;
+       and &ldquo;The Colonel;&rdquo; &ldquo;Crucifix;&rdquo; &ldquo;West-Australian,&rdquo; fastest of modern
+      racers; and among native celebrities, ugly, game old &ldquo;Boston,&rdquo; with his
+      straight neck and ragged hips; and gray &ldquo;Lady Suffolk,&rdquo; queen, in her day,
+      not of the turf but of the track, &ldquo;extending&rdquo; herself till she measured a
+      rod, more or less, skimming along within a yard of the ground, her legs
+      opening and shutting under her with a snap, like the four blades of a
+      compound jack-knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These pictures were much more refreshing than those dreary fancy death-bed
+      scenes, common in two-story country-houses, in which Washington and other
+      distinguished personages are represented as obligingly devoting their last
+      moments to taking a prominent part in a tableau, in which weeping
+      relatives, attached servants, professional assistants, and celebrated
+      personages who might by a stretch of imagination be supposed present, are
+      grouped in the most approved style of arrangement about the chief actor's
+      pillow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A single glazed bookcase held the family library, which was hidden from
+      vulgar eyes by green silk curtains behind the glass. It would have been
+      instructive to get a look at it, as it always is to peep into one's
+      neighbor's book-shelves. From other sources and opportunities a partial
+      idea of it has been obtained. The Widow had inherited some books from her
+      mother, who was something of a reader: Young's &ldquo;Night-Thoughts;&rdquo; &ldquo;The
+      Preceptor;&rdquo; &ldquo;The Task, a Poem,&rdquo; by William Cowper; Hervey's &ldquo;Meditations;&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;Alonzo and Melissa;&rdquo; &ldquo;Buccaneers of America;&rdquo; &ldquo;The Triumphs of Temper;&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;La Belle Assemblee;&rdquo; Thomson's &ldquo;Seasons;&rdquo; and a few others. The Major had
+      brought in &ldquo;Tom Jones&rdquo; and &ldquo;Peregrine Pickle;&rdquo; various works by Mr. Pierce
+      Egan; &ldquo;Boxiana,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Racing Calendar;&rdquo; and a &ldquo;Book of Lively Songs and
+      Jests.&rdquo; The Widow had added the Poems of Lord Byron and T. Moore; &ldquo;Eugene
+      Aram;&rdquo; &ldquo;The Tower of London,&rdquo; by Harrison Ainsworth; some of Scott's
+      Novels; &ldquo;The Pickwick Papers;&rdquo; a volume of Plays, by W. Shakespeare;
+      &ldquo;Proverbial Philosophy;&rdquo; &ldquo;Pilgrim's Progress;&rdquo; &ldquo;The Whole Duty of Man&rdquo; (a
+      present when she was married); with two celebrated religious works, one by
+      William Law and the other by Philip Doddridge, which were sent her after
+      her husband's death, and which she had tried to read, but found that they
+      did not agree with her. Of course the bookcase held a few school manuals
+      and compendiums, and one of Mr. Webster's Dictionaries. But the gilt-edged
+      Bible always lay on the centre-table, next to the magazine with the
+      fashion-plates and the scrap-book with pictures from old annuals and
+      illustrated papers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader need not apprehend the recital, at full length, of such
+      formidable preparations for the Widow's tea-party as were required in the
+      case of Colonel Sprowle's Social Entertainment. A tea-party, even in the
+      country, is a comparatively simple and economical piece of business. As
+      soon as the Widow found that all her company were coming, she set to work,
+      with the aid of her &ldquo;smart&rdquo; maid-servant and a daughter of her own, who
+      was beginning to stretch and spread at a fearful rate, but whom she
+      treated as a small child, to make the necessary preparations. The silver
+      had to be rubbed; also the grand plated urn,&mdash;her mother's before
+      hers,&mdash;style of the Empire,&mdash;looking as if it might have been
+      made to hold the Major's ashes. Then came the making and baking of cake
+      and gingerbread, the smell whereof reached even as far as the sidewalk in
+      front of the cottage, so that small boys returning from school snuffed it
+      in the breeze, and discoursed with each other on its suggestions; so that
+      the Widow Leech, who happened to pass, remembered she had n't called on
+      Marilly Raowens for a consid'ble spell, and turned in at the gate and rang
+      three times with long intervals,&mdash;but all in vain, the inside Widow
+      having &ldquo;spotted&rdquo; the outside one through the blinds, and whispered to her
+      aides-de-camp to let the old thing ring away till she pulled the bell out
+      by the roots, but not to stir to open the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Widow Rowens was what they called a real smart, capable woman, not very
+      great on books, perhaps, but knew what was what and who was who as well as
+      another,&mdash;knew how to make the little cottage look pretty, how to set
+      out a tea-table, and, what a good many women never can find out, knew her
+      own style and &ldquo;got herself up tip-top,&rdquo; as our young friend Master
+      Geordie, Colonel Sprowle's heir-apparent, remarked to his friend from one
+      of the fresh-water colleges. Flowers were abundant now, and she had
+      dressed her rooms tastefully with them. The centre-table had two or three
+      gilt-edged books lying carelessly about on it, and some prints and a
+      stereoscope with stereographs to match, chiefly groups of picnics,
+      weddings, etc., in which the same somewhat fatigued looking ladies of
+      fashion and brides received the attentions of the same unpleasant-looking
+      young men, easily identified under their different disguises, consisting
+      of fashionable raiment such as gentlemen are supposed to wear habitually.
+      With these, however, were some pretty English scenes,&mdash;pretty except
+      for the old fellow with the hanging under-lip who infests every one of
+      that interesting series; and a statue or two, especially that famous one
+      commonly called the Lahcoon, so as to rhyme with moon and spoon, and
+      representing an old man with his two sons in the embraces of two monstrous
+      serpents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no denying that it was a very dashing achievement of the Widow's
+      to bring together so considerable a number of desirable guests. She felt
+      proud of her feat; but as to the triumph of getting Dudley Venner to come
+      out for a visit to Hyacinth Cottage, she was surprised and almost
+      frightened at her own success. So much might depend on the impressions of
+      that evening!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next thing was to be sure that everybody should be in the right place
+      at the tea-table, and this the Widow thought she could manage by a few
+      words to the older guests and a little shuffling about and shifting when
+      they got to the table. To settle everything the Widow made out a diagram,
+      which the reader should have a chance of inspecting in an authentic copy,
+      if these pages were allowed under any circumstances to be the vehicle of
+      illustrations. If, however, he or she really wishes to see the way the
+      pieces stood as they were placed at the beginning of the game, (the
+      Widow's gambit,) he or she had better at once take a sheet of paper, draw
+      an oval, and arrange the characters according to the following schedule.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the head of the table, the Hostess, Widow Marilla Rowens. Opposite her,
+      at the other end, Rev. Dr. Honeywood. At the right of the Hostess, Dudley
+      Venner, next him Helen Darley, next her Dr. Kittredge, next him Mrs.
+      Blanche Creamer, then the Reverend Doctor. At the left of the Hostess,
+      Bernard Langdon, next him Letty Forrester, next Letty Mr. Richard Venner,
+      next him Elsie, and so to the Reverend Doctor again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The company came together a little before the early hour at which it was
+      customary to take tea in Rockland. The Widow knew everybody, of course:
+      who was there in Rockland she did not know? But some of them had to be
+      introduced: Mr. Richard Venner to Mr. Bernard, Mr. Bernard to Miss Letty,
+      Dudley Venner to Miss Helen Darley, and so on. The two young men looked
+      each other straight in the eyes, both full of youthful life, but one of
+      frank and fearless aspect, the other with a dangerous feline beauty alien
+      to the New England half of his blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guests talked, turned over the prints, looked at the flowers, opened
+      the &ldquo;Proverbial Philosophy&rdquo; with gilt edges, and the volume of Plays by W.
+      Shakespeare, examined the horse-pictures on the walls, and so passed away
+      the time until tea was announced, when they paired off for the room where
+      it was in readiness. The Widow had managed it well; everything was just as
+      she wanted it. Dudley Venner was between herself and the poor
+      tired-looking schoolmistress with her faded colors. Blanche Creamer, a
+      lax, tumble-to-pieces, Greuze-ish looking blonde, whom the Widow hated
+      because the men took to her, was purgatoried between the two old Doctors,
+      and could see all the looks that passed between Dick Venner and his
+      cousin. The young schoolmaster could talk to Miss Letty: it was his
+      business to know how to talk to schoolgirls. Dick would amuse himself with
+      his cousin Elsie. The old Doctors only wanted to be well fed and they
+      would do well enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be very pleasant to describe the tea-table; but in reality, it
+      did not pretend to offer a plethoric banquet to the guests. The Widow had
+      not visited the mansion-houses for nothing, and she had learned there that
+      an overloaded tea-table may do well enough for farm-hands when they come
+      in at evening from their work and sit down unwashed in their shirtsleeves,
+      but that for decently bred people such an insult to the memory of a dinner
+      not yet half-assimilated is wholly inadmissible. Everything was delicate,
+      and almost everything of fair complexion: white bread and biscuits,
+      frosted and sponge cake, cream, honey, straw-colored butter; only a shadow
+      here and there, where the fire had crisped and browned the surfaces of a
+      stack of dry toast, or where a preserve had brought away some of the red
+      sunshine of the last year's summer. The Widow shall have the credit of her
+      well-ordered tea-table, also of her bountiful cream-pitchers; for it is
+      well known that city-people find cream a very scarce luxury in a good many
+      country-houses of more pretensions than Hyacinth Cottage. There are no
+      better maims for ladies who give tea-parties than these:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cream is thicker than water. Large heart never loved little cream pot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a common feeling in genteel families that the third meal of the
+      day is not so essential a part of the daily bread as to require any
+      especial acknowledgment to the Providence which bestows it. Very devout
+      people, who would never sit down to a breakfast or a dinner without the
+      grace before meat which honors the Giver of it, feel as if they thanked
+      Heaven enough for their tea and toast by partaking of them cheerfully
+      without audible petition or ascription. But the Widow was not exactly
+      mansion-house-bred, and so thought it necessary to give the Reverend
+      Doctor a peculiar look which he understood at once as inviting his
+      professional services. He, therefore, uttered a few simple words of
+      gratitude, very quietly,&mdash;much to the satisfaction of some of the
+      guests, who had expected one of those elaborate effusions, with rolling up
+      of the eyes and rhetorical accents, so frequent with eloquent divines when
+      they address their Maker in genteel company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody began talking with the person sitting next at hand. Mr. Bernard
+      naturally enough turned his attention first to the Widow; but somehow or
+      other the right side of the Widow seemed to be more wide awake than the
+      left side, next him, and he resigned her to the courtesies of Mr. Dudley
+      Venner, directing himself, not very unwillingly, to the young girl next
+      him on the other side. Miss Letty Forrester, the granddaughter of the
+      Reverend Doctor, was city-bred, as anybody might see, and city-dressed, as
+      any woman would know at sight; a man might only feel the general effect of
+      clear, well-matched colors, of harmonious proportions, of the cut which
+      makes everything cling like a bather's sleeve where a natural outline is
+      to be kept, and ruffle itself up like the hackle of a pitted fighting-cock
+      where art has a right to luxuriate in silken exuberance. How this citybred
+      and city-dressed girl came to be in Rockland Mr. Bernard did not know, but
+      he knew at any rate that she was his next neighbor and entitled to his
+      courtesies. She was handsome, too, when he came to look, very handsome
+      when he came to look again,&mdash;endowed with that city beauty which is
+      like the beauty of wall-fruit, something finer in certain respects than
+      can be reared off the pavement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The miserable routinists who keep repeating invidiously Cowper's
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;God made the country and man made the town,&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      as if the town were a place to kill out the race in, do not know what they
+      are talking about. Where could they raise such Saint-Michael pears, such
+      Saint-Germains, such Brown-Beurres, as we had until within a few years
+      growing within the walls of our old city-gardens? Is the dark and damp
+      cavern where a ragged beggar hides himself better than a town-mansion
+      which fronts the sunshine and backs on its own cool shadow, with gas and
+      water and all appliances to suit all needs? God made the cavern and man
+      made the house! What then?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no doubt that the pavement keeps a deal of mischief from coming
+      up out of the earth, and, with a dash off of it in summer, just to cool
+      the soles of the feet when it gets too hot, is the best place for many
+      constitutions, as some few practical people have already discovered. And
+      just so these beauties that grow and ripen against the city-walls, these
+      young fellows with cheeks like peaches and young girls with cheeks like
+      nectarines, show that the most perfect forms of artificial life can do as
+      much for the human product as garden-culture for strawberries and
+      blackberries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Mr. Bernard had philosophized or prosed in this way, with so pretty,
+      nay, so lovely a neighbor as Miss Letty Forrester waiting for him to speak
+      to her, he would have to be dropped from this narrative as a person
+      unworthy of his good-fortune, and not deserving the kind reader's further
+      notice. On the contrary, he no sooner set his eyes fairly on her than he
+      said to himself that she was charming, and that he wished she were one of
+      his scholars at the Institute. So he began talking with her in an easy
+      way; for he knew something of young girls by this time, and, of course,
+      could adapt himself to a young lady who looked as if she might be not more
+      than fifteen or sixteen years old, and therefore could hardly be a match
+      in intellectual resources for the seventeen and eighteen year-old
+      first-class scholars of the Apollinean Institute. But city-wall-fruit
+      ripens early, and he soon found that this girl's training had so sharpened
+      her wits and stored her memory, that he need not be at the trouble to
+      stoop painfully in order to come down to her level.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The beauty of good-breeding is that it adjusts itself to all relations
+      without effort, true to itself always however the manners of those around
+      it may change. Self-respect and respect for others,&mdash;the sensitive
+      consciousness poises itself in these as the compass in the ship's binnacle
+      balances itself and maintains its true level within the two concentric
+      rings which suspend it on their pivots. This thorough-bred school-girl
+      quite enchanted Mr. Bernard. He could not understand where she got her
+      style, her way of dress, her enunciation, her easy manners. The minister
+      was a most worthy gentleman, but this was not the Rockland native-born
+      manner; some new element had come in between the good, plain, worthy man
+      and this young girl, fit to be a Crown Prince's partner where there were a
+      thousand to choose from.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked across to Helen Darley, for he knew she would understand the
+      glance of admiration with which he called her attention to the young
+      beauty at his side; and Helen knew what a young girl could be, as compared
+      with what too many a one is, as well as anybody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This poor, dear Helen of ours! How admirable the contrast between her and
+      the Widow on the other side of Dudley Venner! But, what was very odd, that
+      gentleman apparently thought the contrast was to the advantage of this
+      poor, dear Helen. At any rate, instead of devoting himself solely to the
+      Widow, he happened to be just at that moment talking in a very interested
+      and, apparently, not uninteresting way to his right-hand neighbor, who, on
+      her part, never looked more charmingly,&mdash;as Mr. Bernard could not
+      help saying to himself,&mdash;but, to be sure, he had just been looking at
+      the young girl next him, so that his eyes were brimful of beauty, and may
+      have spilled some of it on the first comer: for you know M. Becquerel has
+      been showing us lately how everything is phosphorescent; that it soaks
+      itself with light in an instant's exposure, so that it is wet with liquid
+      sunbeams, or, if you will, tremulous with luminous vibrations, when first
+      plunged into the negative bath of darkness, and betrays itself by the
+      light which escapes from its surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever were the reason, this poor, dear Helen never looked so sweetly.
+      Her plainly parted brown hair, her meek, blue eyes, her cheek just a
+      little tinged with color, the almost sad simplicity of her dress, and that
+      look he knew so well,&mdash;so full of cheerful patience, so sincere, that
+      he had trusted her from the first moment as the believers of the larger
+      half of Christendom trust the Blessed Virgin,&mdash;Mr. Bernard took this
+      all in at a glance, and felt as pleased as if it had been his own sister
+      Dorothea Elizabeth that he was looking at. As for Dudley Venner, Mr.
+      Bernard could not help being struck by the animated expression of his
+      countenance. It certainly showed great kindness, on his part, to pay so
+      much attention to this quiet girl, when he had the thunder-and-lightning
+      Widow on the other side of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Marilla Rowens did not know what to make of it. She had made her
+      tea-party expressly for Mr. Dudley Venner. She had placed him just as she
+      wanted, between herself and a meek, delicate woman who dressed in gray,
+      wore a plain breastpin with hair in it, who taught a pack of girls up
+      there at the school, and looked as if she were born for a teacher,&mdash;the
+      very best foil that she could have chosen; and here was this man, polite
+      enough to herself, to be sure, but turning round to that very
+      undistinguished young person as if he rather preferred her conversation of
+      the two!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth was that Dudley Venner and Helen Darley met as two travellers
+      might meet in the desert, wearied, both of them, with their long journey,
+      one having food, but no water, the other water, but no food. Each saw that
+      the other had been in long conflict with some trial; for their voices were
+      low and tender, as patiently borne sorrow and humbly uttered prayers make
+      every human voice. Through these tones, more than by what they said, they
+      came into natural sympathetic relations with each other. Nothing could be
+      more unstudied. As for Dudley Venner, no beauty in all the world could
+      have so soothed and magnetized him as the very repose and subdued
+      gentleness which the Widow had thought would make the best possible
+      background for her own more salient and effective attractions. No doubt,
+      Helen, on her side, was almost too readily pleased with the confidence
+      this new acquaintance she was making seemed to show her from the very
+      first. She knew so few men of any condition! Mr. Silas Peckham: he was her
+      employer, and she ought to think of him as well as she could; but every
+      time she thought of him it was with a shiver of disgust. Mr. Bernard
+      Langdon: a noble young man, a true friend, like a brother to her,&mdash;God
+      bless him, and send him some young heart as fresh as his own! But this
+      gentleman produced a new impression upon her, quite different from any to
+      which she was accustomed. His rich, low tones had the strangest
+      significance to her; she felt sure he must have lived through long
+      experiences, sorrowful like her own. Elsie's father! She looked into his
+      dark eyes, as she listened to him, to see if they had any glimmer of that
+      peculiar light, diamond-bright, but cold and still, which she knew so well
+      in Elsie's. Anything but that! Never was there more tenderness, it seemed
+      to her, than in the whole look and expression of Elsie's father. She must
+      have been a great trial to him; yet his face was that of one who had been
+      saddened, not soured, by his discipline. Knowing what Elsie must be to
+      him, how hard she must make any parent's life, Helen could not but be
+      struck with the interest Mr. Dudley Venner showed in her as his daughter's
+      instructress. He was too kind to her; again and again she meekly turned
+      from him, so as to leave him free to talk to the showy lady at his other
+      side, who was looking all the while
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                         &ldquo;like the night
+          Of cloudless realms and starry skies;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      but still Mr. Dudley Venner, after a few courteous words, came back to the
+      blue eyes and brown hair; still he kept his look fixed upon her, and his
+      tones grew sweeter and lower as he became more interested in talk, until
+      this poor, dear Helen, what with surprise, and the bashfulness natural to
+      one who had seen little of the gay world, and the stirring of deep,
+      confused sympathies with this suffering father, whose heart seemed so full
+      of kindness, felt her cheeks glowing with unwonted flame, and betrayed the
+      pleasing trouble of her situation by looking so sweetly as to arrest Mr.
+      Bernard's eye for a moment, when he looked away from the young beauty
+      sitting next him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie meantime had been silent, with that singular, still, watchful look
+      which those who knew her well had learned to fear. Her head just a little
+      inclined on one side, perfectly motionless for whole minutes, her eyes
+      seeming to, grow small and bright, as always when she was under her evil
+      influence, she was looking obliquely at the young girl on the other side
+      of her cousin Dick and next to Bernard Langdon. As for Dick himself, she
+      seemed to be paying very little attention to him. Sometimes her eyes would
+      wander off to Mr. Bernard, and their expression, as old Dr. Kittredge, who
+      watched her for a while pretty keenly, noticed, would change perceptibly.
+      One would have said that she looked with a kind of dull hatred at the
+      girl, but with a half-relenting reproachful anger at Mr. Bernard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Letty Forrester, at whom Elsie had been looking from time to time in
+      this fixed way, was conscious meanwhile of some unusual influence. First
+      it was a feeling of constraint,&mdash;then, as it were, a diminished power
+      over the muscles, as if an invisible elastic cobweb were spinning round
+      her,&mdash;then a tendency to turn away from Mr. Bernard, who was making
+      himself very agreeable, and look straight into those eyes which would not
+      leave her, and which seemed to be drawing her towards them, while at the
+      same time they chilled the blood in all her veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard saw this influence coming over her. All at once he noticed
+      that she sighed, and that some little points of moisture began to glisten
+      on her forehead. But she did not grow pale perceptibly; she had no
+      involuntary or hysteric movements; she still listened to him and smiled
+      naturally enough. Perhaps she was only nervous at being stared at. At any
+      rate, she was coming under some unpleasant influence or other, and Mr.
+      Bernard had seen enough of the strange impression Elsie sometimes produced
+      to wish this young girl to be relieved from it, whatever it was. He turned
+      toward Elsie and looked at her in such a way as to draw her eyes upon him.
+      Then he looked steadily and calmly into them. It was a great effort, for
+      some perfectly inexplicable reason. At one instant he thought he could not
+      sit where he was; he must go and speak to Elsie. Then he wanted to take
+      his eyes away from hers; there was something intolerable in the light that
+      came from them. But he was determined to look her down, and he believed he
+      could do it, for he had seen her countenance change more than once when he
+      had caught her gaze steadily fixed on him. All this took not minutes, but
+      seconds. Presently she changed color slightly,&mdash;lifted her head,
+      which was inclined a little to one side,&mdash;shut and opened her eyes
+      two or three times, as if they had been pained or wearied,&mdash;and
+      turned away baffled, and shamed, as it would seem, and shorn for the time
+      of her singular and formidable or at least evil-natured power of swaying
+      the impulses of those around her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It takes too long to describe these scenes where a good deal of life is
+      concentrated into a few silent seconds. Mr. Richard Venner had sat quietly
+      through it all, although this short pantomime had taken place literally
+      before his face. He saw what was going on well enough, and understood it
+      all perfectly well. Of course the schoolmaster had been trying to make
+      Elsie jealous, and had succeeded. The little schoolgirl was a decoy-duck,&mdash;that
+      was all. Estates like the Dudley property were not to be had every day,
+      and no doubt the Yankee usher was willing to take some pains to make sure
+      of Elsie. Does n't Elsie look savage? Dick involuntarily moved his chair a
+      little away from her, and thought he felt a pricking in the small white
+      scars on his wrist. A dare-devil fellow, but somehow or other this girl
+      had taken strange hold of his imagination, and he often swore to himself,
+      that, when he married her, he would carry a loaded revolver with him to
+      his bridal chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Blanche Creamer raged inwardly at first to find herself between the
+      two old gentlemen of the party. It very soon gave her great comfort,
+      however, to see that Marilla, Rowens had just missed it in her
+      calculations, and she chuckled immensely to find Dudley Venner devoting
+      himself chiefly to Helen Darley. If the Rowens woman should hook Dudley,
+      she felt as if she should gnaw all her nails off for spite. To think of
+      seeing her barouching about Rockland behind a pair of long-tailed bays and
+      a coachman with a band on his hat, while she, Blanche Creamer, was driving
+      herself about in a one-horse &ldquo;carriage&rdquo;! Recovering her spirits by
+      degrees, she began playing her surfaces off at the two old Doctors, just
+      by way of practice. First she heaved up a glaring white shoulder, the
+      right one, so that the Reverend Doctor should be stunned by it, if such a
+      thing might be. The Reverend Doctor was human, as the Apostle was not
+      ashamed to confess himself. Half-devoutly and half-mischievously he
+      repeated inwardly, &ldquo;Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.&rdquo; As the
+      Reverend Doctor did not show any lively susceptibility, she thought she
+      would try the left shoulder on old Dr. Kittredge. That worthy and
+      experienced student of science was not at all displeased with the
+      manoeuvre, and lifted his head so as to command the exhibition through his
+      glasses. &ldquo;Blanche is good for half a dozen years or so, if she is
+      careful,&rdquo; the Doctor said to himself, &ldquo;and then she must take to her
+      prayer-book.&rdquo; After this spasmodic failure of Mrs. Blanche Creamer's to
+      stir up the old Doctors, she returned again to the pleasing task of
+      watching the Widow in her evident discomfiture. But dark as the Widow
+      looked in her half-concealed pet, she was but as a pale shadow, compared
+      to Elsie in her silent concentration of shame and anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there is one good thing,&rdquo; said Mrs. Blanche Creamer; &ldquo;Dick doesn't
+      get much out of that cousin of his this evening! Does n't he look
+      handsome, though?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Mrs. Blanche, being now a good deal taken up with her observations of
+      those friends of hers and ours, began to be rather careless of her two old
+      Doctors, who naturally enough fell into conversation with each other
+      across the white surfaces of that lady, perhaps not very politely, but,
+      under the circumstances, almost as a matter of necessity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When a minister and a doctor get talking together, they always have a
+      great deal to say; and so it happened that the company left the table just
+      as the two Doctors were beginning to get at each other's ideas about
+      various interesting matters. If we follow them into the other parlor, we
+      can, perhaps, pick up something of their conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII. WHY DOCTORS DIFFER.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The company rearranged itself with some changes after leaving the
+      tea-table. Dudley Venner was very polite to the Widow; but that lady
+      having been called off for a few moments for some domestic arrangement, he
+      slid back to the side of Helen Darley, his daughter's faithful teacher.
+      Elsie had got away by herself, and was taken up in studying the
+      stereoscopic Laocoon. Dick, being thus set free, had been seized upon by
+      Mrs. Blanche Creamer, who had diffused herself over three-quarters of a
+      sofa and beckoned him to the remaining fourth. Mr. Bernard and Miss Letty
+      were having a snug fete-'a-fete in the recess of a bay-window. The two
+      Doctors had taken two arm-chairs and sat squared off against each other.
+      Their conversation is perhaps as well worth reporting as that of the rest
+      of the company, and, as it was carried on in a louder tone, was of course
+      more easy to gather and put on record.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a curious sight enough to see those two representatives of two
+      great professions brought face to face to talk over the subjects they had
+      been looking at all their lives from such different points of view. Both
+      were old; old enough to have been moulded by their habits of thought and
+      life; old enough to have all their beliefs &ldquo;fretted in,&rdquo; as vintners say,&mdash;thoroughly
+      worked up with their characters. Each of them looked his calling. The
+      Reverend Doctor had lived a good deal among books in his study; the
+      Doctor, as we will call the medical gentleman, had been riding about the
+      country for between thirty and forty years. His face looked tough and
+      weather-worn; while the Reverend Doctor's, hearty as it appeared, was of
+      finer texture. The Doctor's was the graver of the two; there was something
+      of grimness about it, partly owing to the northeasters he had faced for so
+      many years, partly to long companionship with that stern personage who
+      never deals in sentiment or pleasantry. His speech was apt to be brief and
+      peremptory; it was a way he had got by ordering patients; but he could
+      discourse somewhat, on occasion, as the reader may find out. The Reverend
+      Doctor had an open, smiling expression, a cheery voice, a hearty laugh,
+      and a cordial way with him which some thought too lively for his cloth,
+      but which children, who are good judges of such matters, delighted in, so
+      that he was the favorite of all the little rogues about town. But he had
+      the clerical art of sobering down in a moment, when asked to say grace
+      while somebody was in the middle of some particularly funny story; and
+      though his voice was so cheery in common talk, in the pulpit, like almost
+      all preachers, he had a wholly different and peculiar way of speaking,
+      supposed to be more acceptable to the Creator than the natural manner. In
+      point of fact, most of our anti-papal and anti-prelatical clergymen do
+      really intone their prayers, without suspecting in the least that they
+      have fallen into such a Romish practice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the way the conversation between the Doctor of Divinity and the
+      Doctor of Medicine was going on at the point where these notes take it up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Obi tres medici, duo athei, you know, Doctor. Your profession has always
+      had the credit of being lax in doctrine,&mdash;though pretty stringent in
+      practice, ha! ha!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some priest said that,&rdquo; the Doctor answered, dryly. &ldquo;They always talked
+      Latin when they had a bigger lie than common to get rid of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; said the Reverend Doctor; &ldquo;I'm afraid they would lie a little
+      sometimes. But isn't there some truth in it, Doctor? Don't you think your
+      profession is apt to see 'Nature' in the place of the God of Nature,&mdash;to
+      lose sight of the great First Cause in their daily study of secondary
+      causes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've thought about that,&rdquo; the Doctor answered, &ldquo;and I've talked about it
+      and read about it, and I've come to the conclusion that nobody believes in
+      God and trusts in God quite so much as the doctors; only it is n't just
+      the sort of Deity that some of your profession have wanted them to take up
+      with. There was a student of mine wrote a dissertation on the Natural
+      Theology of Health and Disease, and took that old lying proverb for his
+      motto. He knew a good deal more about books than ever I did, and had
+      studied in other countries. I'll tell you what he said about it. He said
+      the old Heathen Doctor, Galen, praised God for his handiwork in the human
+      body, just as if he had been a Christian, or the Psalmist himself. He said
+      they had this sentence set up in large letters in the great lecture-room
+      in Paris where he attended: I dressed his wound and God healed him. That
+      was an old surgeon's saying. And he gave a long list of doctors who were
+      not only Christians, but famous ones. I grant you, though, ministers and
+      doctors are very apt to see differently in spiritual matters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's it,&rdquo; said the Reverend Doctor; &ldquo;you are apt to see 'Nature' where
+      we see God, and appeal to 'Science' where we are contented with
+      Revelation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We don't separate God and Nature, perhaps, as you do,&rdquo; the Doctor
+      answered. &ldquo;When we say that God is omnipresent and omnipotent and
+      omniscient, we are a little more apt to mean it than your folks are. We
+      think, when a wound heals, that God's presence and power and knowledge are
+      there, healing it, just as that old surgeon did. We think a good many
+      theologians, working among their books, don't see the facts of the world
+      they live in. When we tell 'em of these facts, they are apt to call us
+      materialists and atheists and infidels, and all that. We can't help seeing
+      the facts, and we don't think it's wicked to mention 'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do tell me,&rdquo; the Reverend Doctor said, &ldquo;some of these facts we are in the
+      habit of overlooking, and which your profession thinks it can see and
+      understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's very easy,&rdquo; the Doctor replied. &ldquo;For instance: you don't
+      understand or don't allow for idiosyncrasies as we learn to. We know that
+      food and physic act differently with different people; but you think the
+      same kind of truth is going to suit, or ought to suit, all minds. We don't
+      fight with a patient because he can't take magnesia or opium; but you are
+      all the time quarrelling over your beliefs, as if belief did not depend
+      very much on race and constitution, to say nothing of early training.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean to say that every man is not absolutely free to choose his
+      beliefs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The men you write about in your studies are, but not the men we see in
+      the real world. There is some apparently congenital defect in the Indians,
+      for instance, that keeps them from choosing civilization and Christianity.
+      So with the Gypsies, very likely. Everybody knows that Catholicism or
+      Protestantism is a good deal a matter of race. Constitution has more to do
+      with belief than people think for. I went to a Universalist church, when I
+      was in the city one day, to hear a famous man whom all the world knows,
+      and I never saw such pews-full of broad shoulders and florid faces, and
+      substantial, wholesome-looking persons, male and female, in all my life.
+      Why, it was astonishing. Either their creed made them healthy, or they
+      chose it because they were healthy. Your folks have never got the hang of
+      human nature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid this would be considered a degrading and dangerous view of
+      human beliefs and responsibility for them,&rdquo; the Reverend Doctor replied.
+      &ldquo;Prove to a man that his will is governed by something outside of himself,
+      and you have lost all hold on his moral and religious nature. There is
+      nothing bad men want to believe so much as that they are governed by
+      necessity. Now that which is at once degrading and dangerous cannot be
+      true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt,&rdquo; the Doctor replied, &ldquo;all large views of mankind limit our
+      estimate of the absolute freedom of the will. But I don't think it
+      degrades or endangers us, for this reason, that, while it makes us
+      charitable to the rest of mankind, our own sense of freedom, whatever it
+      is, is never affected by argument. Conscience won't be reasoned with. We
+      feel that we can practically do this of that, and if we choose the wrong,
+      we know we are responsible; but observation teaches us that this or that
+      other race or individual has not the same practical freedom of choice. I
+      don't see how we can avoid this conclusion in the instance of the American
+      Indians. The science of Ethnology has upset a good many theoretical
+      notions about human nature.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Science!&rdquo; said the Reverend Doctor, &ldquo;science! that was a word the Apostle
+      Paul did not seem to think much of, if we may judge by the Epistle to
+      Timothy: 'Oppositions of science falsely so called.' I own that I am
+      jealous of that word and the pretensions that go with it. Science has
+      seemed to me to be very often only the handmaid of skepticism.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor!&rdquo; the physician said, emphatically, &ldquo;science is knowledge. Nothing
+      that is not known properly belongs to science. Whenever knowledge obliges
+      us to doubt, we are always safe in doubting. Astronomers foretell
+      eclipses, say how long comets are to stay with us, point out where a new
+      planet is to be found. We see they know what they assert, and the poor old
+      Roman Catholic Church has at last to knock under. So Geology proves a
+      certain succession of events, and the best Christian in the world must
+      make the earth's history square with it. Besides, I don't think you
+      remember what great revelations of himself the Creator has made in the
+      minds of the men who have built up science. You seem to me to hold his
+      human masterpieces very cheap. Don't you think the 'inspiration of the
+      Almighty' gave Newton and Cuvier 'understanding'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Doctor was not arguing for victory. In fact, what he wanted
+      was to call out the opinions of the old physician by a show of opposition,
+      being already predisposed to agree with many of them. He was rather trying
+      the common arguments, as one tries tricks of fence merely to learn the way
+      of parrying. But just here he saw a tempting opening, and could not resist
+      giving a home-thrust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; but you surely would not consider it inspiration of the same kind as
+      that of the writers of the Old Testament?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That cornered the Doctor, and he paused a moment before he replied. Then
+      he raised his head, so as to command the Reverend Doctor's face through
+      his spectacles, and said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not say that. You are clear, I suppose, that the Omniscient spoke
+      through Solomon, but that Shakespeare wrote without his help?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Doctor looked very grave. It was a bold, blunt way of putting
+      the question. He turned it aside with the remark, that Shakespeare seemed
+      to him at times to come as near inspiration as any human being not
+      included among the sacred writers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor,&rdquo; the physician began, as from a sudden suggestion, &ldquo;you won't
+      quarrel with me, if I tell you some of my real thoughts, will you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say on, my dear Sir, say on,&rdquo; the minister answered, with his most genial
+      smile; &ldquo;your real thoughts are just what I want to get at. A man's real
+      thoughts are a great rarity. If I don't agree with you, I shall like to
+      hear you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor began; and in order to give his thoughts more connectedly, we
+      will omit the conversational breaks, the questions and comments of the
+      clergyman, and all accidental interruptions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When the old ecclesiastics said that where there were three doctors there
+      were two atheists, they lied, of course. They called everybody who
+      differed from them atheists, until they found out that not believing in
+      God was n't nearly so ugly a crime as not believing in some particular
+      dogma; then they called them heretics, until so many good people had been
+      burned under that name that it began to smell too strong of roasting
+      flesh,&mdash;and after that infidels, which properly means people without
+      faith, of whom there are not a great many in any place or time. But then,
+      of course, there was some reason why doctors shouldn't think about
+      religion exactly as ministers did, or they never would have made that
+      proverb. It 's very likely that something of the same kind is true now;
+      whether it is so or not, I am going to tell you the reasons why it would
+      not be strange, if doctors should take rather different views from
+      clergymen about some matters of belief. I don't, of course, mean all
+      doctors nor all clergymen. Some doctors go as far as any old New England
+      divine, and some clergymen agree very well with the doctors that think
+      least according to rule.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To begin with their ideas of the Creator himself. They always see him
+      trying to help his creatures out of their troubles. A man no sooner gets a
+      cut, than the Great Physician, whose agency we often call Nature, goes to
+      work, first to stop the blood, and then to heal the wound, and then to
+      make the scar as small as possible. If a man's pain exceeds a certain
+      amount, he faints, and so gets relief. If it lasts too long, habit comes
+      in to make it tolerable. If it is altogether too bad, he dies. That is the
+      best thing to be done under the circumstances. So you see, the doctor is
+      constantly in presence of a benevolent agency working against a settled
+      order of things, of which pain and disease are the accidents, so to speak.
+      Well, no doubt they find it harder than clergymen to believe that there
+      can be any world or state from which this benevolent agency is wholly
+      excluded. This may be very wrong; but it is not unnatural.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They can hardly conceive of a permanent state of being in which cuts
+      would never try to heal, nor habit render suffering endurable. This is one
+      effect of their training.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, again, their attention is very much called to human limitations.
+      Ministers work out the machinery of responsibility in an abstract kind of
+      way; they have a sort of algebra of human nature, in which friction and
+      strength (or weakness) of material are left out. You see, a doctor is in
+      the way of studying children from the moment of birth upwards. For the
+      first year or so he sees that they are just as much pupils of their Maker
+      as the young of any other animals. Well, their Maker trains them to pure
+      selfishness. Why? In order that they may be sure to take care of
+      themselves. So you see, when a child comes to be, we will say a year and a
+      day old, and makes his first choice between right and wrong, he is at a
+      disadvantage; for he, has that vis a tergo, as we doctors call it, that
+      force from behind, of a whole year's life of selfishness, for which he is
+      no more to blame than a calf is to blame for having lived in the same way,
+      purely to gratify his natural appetites. Then we see that baby grow up to
+      a child, and, if he is fat and stout and red and lively, we expect to find
+      him troublesome and noisy, and, perhaps, sometimes disobedient more or
+      less; that's the way each new generation breaks its egg-shell; but if he
+      is very weak and thin, and is one of the kind that may be expected to die
+      early, he will very likely sit in the house all day and read good books
+      about other little sharp-faced children just like himself, who died early,
+      having always been perfectly indifferent to all the out-door amusements of
+      the wicked little red-cheeked children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some of the little folks we watch grow up to be young women, and
+      occasionally one of them gets nervous, what we call hysterical, and then
+      that girl will begin to play all sorts of pranks,&mdash;to lie and cheat,
+      perhaps, in the most unaccountable way, so that she might seem to a
+      minister a good example of total depravity. We don't see her in that
+      light. We give her iron and valerian, and get her on horseback, if we can,
+      and so expect to make her will come all right again. By and by we are
+      called in to see an old baby, threescore years and ten or more old. We
+      find this old baby has never got rid of that first year's teaching which
+      led him to fill his stomach with all he could pump into it, and his hands
+      with everything he could grab. People call him a miser. We are sorry for
+      him; but we can't help remembering his first year's training, and the
+      natural effect of money on the great majority of those that have it. So
+      while the ministers say he 'shall hardly enter into the kingdom of
+      heaven,' we like to remind them that 'with God all things are possible.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once more, we see all kinds of monomania and insanity. We learn from them
+      to recognize all sorts of queer tendencies in minds supposed to be sane,
+      so that we have nothing but compassion for a large class of persons
+      condemned as sinners by theologians, but considered by us as invalids. We
+      have constant reasons for noticing the transmission of qualities from
+      parents to offspring, and we find it hard to hold a child accountable in
+      any moral point of view for inherited bad temper or tendency to
+      drunkenness,&mdash;as hard as we should to blame him for inheriting gout
+      or asthma. I suppose we are more lenient with human nature than
+      theologians generally are. We know that the spirits of men and their views
+      of the present and the future go up and down with the barometer, and that
+      a permanent depression of one inch in the mercurial column would affect
+      the whole theology of Christendom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ministers talk about the human will as if it stood on a high look-out,
+      with plenty of light, and elbowroom reaching to the horizon. Doctors are
+      constantly noticing how it is tied up and darkened by inferior
+      organization, by disease, and all sorts of crowding interferences, until
+      they get to look upon Hottentots and Indians&mdash;and a good many of
+      their own race as a kind of self-conscious blood-clocks with very limited
+      power of self-determination. That's the tendency, I say, of a doctor's
+      experience. But the people to whom they address their statements of the
+      results of their observation belong to the thinking class of the highest
+      races, and they are conscious of a great deal of liberty of will. So in
+      the face of the fact that civilization with all it offers has proved a
+      dead failure with the aboriginal races of this country,&mdash;on the
+      whole, I say, a dead failure,&mdash;they talk as if they knew from their
+      own will all about that of a Digger Indian! We are more apt to go by
+      observation of the facts in the case. We are constantly seeing weakness
+      where you see depravity. I don't say we're right; I only tell what you
+      must often find to be the fact, right or wrong, in talking with doctors.
+      You see, too, our notions of bodily and moral disease, or sin, are apt to
+      go together. We used to be as hard on sickness as you were on sin. We know
+      better now. We don't look at sickness as we used to, and try to poison it
+      with everything that is offensive, burnt toads and earth-worms and
+      viper-broth, and worse things than these. We know that disease has
+      something back of it which the body isn't to blame for, at least in most
+      cases, and which very often it is trying to get rid of. Just so with sin.
+      I will agree to take a hundred new-born babes of a certain stock and
+      return seventy-five of them in a dozen years true and honest, if not
+      'pious' children. And I will take another hundred, of a different stock,
+      and put them in the hands of certain Ann-Street or Five-Points teachers,
+      and seventy-five of them will be thieves and liars at the end of the same
+      dozen years. I have heard of an old character, Colonel Jaques, I believe
+      it was, a famous cattle-breeder, who used to say he could breed to pretty
+      much any pattern he wanted to. Well, we doctors see so much of families,
+      how the tricks of the blood keep breaking out, just as much in character
+      as they do in looks, that we can't help feeling as if a great many people
+      hadn't a fair chance to be what is called 'good,' and that there isn't a
+      text in the Bible better worth keeping always in mind than that one,
+      'Judge not, that ye be not judged.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As for our getting any quarter at the hands of theologians, we don't
+      expect it, and have no right to. You don't give each other any quarter. I
+      have had two religious books sent me by friends within a week or two. One
+      is Mr. Brownson's; he is as fair and square as Euclid; a real honest,
+      strong thinker, and one that knows what he is talking about,&mdash;for he
+      has tried all sorts of religions, pretty much. He tells us that the Roman
+      Catholic Church is the one 'through which alone we can hope for heaven.'
+      The other is by a worthy Episcopal rector, who appears to write as if he
+      were in earnest, and he calls the Papacy the 'Devil's Masterpiece,' and
+      talks about the 'Satanic scheme' of that very Church 'through which
+      alone,' as Mr. Brownson tells us, 'we can hope for heaven.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the use in our caring about hard words after this,&mdash;'atheists,'
+      heretics, infidels, and the like? They're, after all, only the cinders
+      picked up out of those heaps of ashes round the stumps of the old stakes
+      where they used to burn men, women, and children for not thinking just
+      like other folks. They 'll 'crock' your fingers, but they can't burn us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctors are the best-natured people in the world, except when they get
+      fighting with each other. And they have some advantages over you. You
+      inherit your notions from a set of priests that had no wives and no
+      children, or none to speak of, and so let their humanity die out of them.
+      It did n't seem much to them to condemn a few thousand millions of people
+      to purgatory or worse for a mistake of judgment. They didn't know what it
+      was to have a child look up in their faces and say 'Father!' It will take
+      you a hundred or two more years to get decently humanized, after so many
+      centuries of de-humanizing celibacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides, though our libraries are, perhaps, not commonly quite so big as
+      yours, God opens one book to physicians that a good many of you don't know
+      much about,&mdash;the Book of Life. That is none of your dusty folios with
+      black letters between pasteboard and leather, but it is printed in bright
+      red type, and the binding of it is warm and tender to every touch. They
+      reverence that book as one of the Almighty's infallible revelations. They
+      will insist on reading you lessons out of it, whether you call them names
+      or not. These will always be lessons of charity. No doubt, nothing can be
+      more provoking to listen to. But do beg your folks to remember that the
+      Smithfield fires are all out, and that the cinders are very dirty and not
+      in the least dangerous. They'd a great deal better be civil, and not be
+      throwing old proverbs in the doctors' faces, when they say that the man of
+      the old monkish notions is one thing and the man they watch from his
+      cradle to his coffin is something very different.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It has cost a good deal of trouble to work the Doctor's talk up into this
+      formal shape. Some of his sentences have been rounded off for him, and the
+      whole brought into a more rhetorical form than it could have pretended to,
+      if taken as it fell from his lips. But the exact course of his remarks has
+      been followed, and as far as possible his expressions have been retained.
+      Though given in the form of a discourse, it must be remembered that this
+      was a conversation, much more fragmentary and colloquial than it seems as
+      just read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Doctor was very far from taking offence at the old
+      physician's freedom of speech. He knew him to be honest, kind, charitable,
+      self-denying, wherever any sorrow was to be alleviated, always
+      reverential, with a cheerful trust in the great Father of all mankind. To
+      be sure, his senior deacon, old Deacon Shearer,&mdash;who seemed to have
+      got his Scripture-teachings out of the &ldquo;Vinegar Bible,&rdquo; (the one where
+      Vineyard is misprinted Vinegar; which a good many people seem to have
+      adopted as the true reading,)&mdash;his senior deacon had called Dr.
+      Kittredge an &ldquo;infidel.&rdquo; But the Reverend Doctor could not help feeling,
+      that, unless the text, &ldquo;By their fruits ye shall know them,&rdquo; were an
+      interpolation, the Doctor was the better Christian of the two. Whatever
+      his senior deacon might think about it, he said to himself that he
+      shouldn't be surprised if he met the Doctor in heaven yet, inquiring
+      anxiously after old Deacon Shearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was on the point of expressing himself very frankly to the Doctor, with
+      that benevolent smile on his face which had sometimes come near giving
+      offence to the readers of the &ldquo;Vinegar&rdquo; edition, but he saw that the
+      physician's attention had been arrested by Elsie. He looked in the same
+      direction himself, and could not help being struck by her attitude and
+      expression. There was something singularly graceful in the curves of her
+      neck and the rest of her figure, but she was so perfectly still that it
+      seemed as if she were hardly breathing. Her eyes were fixed on the young
+      girl with whom Mr. Bernard was talking. He had often noticed their
+      brilliancy, but now it seemed to him that they appeared dull, and the look
+      on her features was as of some passion which had missed its stroke. Mr.
+      Bernard's companion seemed unconscious that she was the object of this
+      attention, and was listening to the young master as if he had succeeded in
+      making himself very agreeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course Dick Venner had not mistaken the game that was going on. The
+      schoolmaster meant to make Elsie jealous,&mdash;and he had done it. That
+      's it: get her savage first, and then come wheedling round her,&mdash;a
+      sure trick, if he isn't headed off somehow. But Dick saw well enough that
+      he had better let Elsie alone just now, and thought the best way of
+      killing the evening would be to amuse himself in a little lively talk with
+      Mrs. Blanche Creamer, and incidentally to show Elsie that he could make
+      himself acceptable to other women, if not to herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor presently went up to Elsie, determined to engage her in
+      conversation and get her out of her thoughts, which he saw, by her look,
+      were dangerous. Her father had been on the point of leaving Helen Darley
+      to go to her, but felt easy enough when he saw the old Doctor at her side,
+      and so went on talking. The Reverend Doctor, being now left alone, engaged
+      the Widow Rowens, who put the best face on her vexation she could, but was
+      devoting herself to all the underground deities for having been such a
+      fool as to ask that pale-faced thing from the Institute to fill up her
+      party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no space left to report the rest of the conversation. If there
+      was anything of any significance in it, it will turn up by and by, no
+      doubt. At ten o'clock the Reverend Doctor called Miss Letty, who had no
+      idea it was so late; Mr. Bernard gave his arm to Helen; Mr. Richard saw to
+      Mrs. Blanche Creamer; the Doctor gave Elsie a cautioning look, and went
+      off alone, thoughtful; Dudley Venner and his daughter got into their
+      carriage and were whirled away. The Widow's gambit was played, and she had
+      not won the game.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII. THE WILD HUNTSMAN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The young master had not forgotten the old Doctor's cautions. Without
+      attributing any great importance to the warning he had given him, Mr.
+      Bernard had so far complied with his advice that he was becoming a pretty
+      good shot with the pistol. It was an amusement as good as many others to
+      practise, and he had taken a fancy to it after the first few days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The popping of a pistol at odd hours in the backyard of the Institute was
+      a phenomenon more than sufficiently remarkable to be talked about in
+      Rockland. The viscous intelligence of a country-village is not easily
+      stirred by the winds which ripple the fluent thought of great cities, but
+      it holds every straw and entangles every insect that lights upon it. It
+      soon became rumored in the town that the young master was a wonderful shot
+      with the pistol. Some said he could hit a fo'pence-ha'penny at three rod;
+      some, that he had shot a swallow, flying, with a single ball; some, that
+      he snuffed a candle five times out of six at ten paces, and that he could
+      hit any button in a man's coat he wanted to. In other words, as in all
+      such cases, all the common feats were ascribed to him, as the current
+      jokes of the day are laid at the door of any noted wit, however innocent
+      he may be of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the natural course of things, Mr. Richard Venner, who had by this time
+      made some acquaintances, as we have seen, among that class of the
+      population least likely to allow a live cinder of gossip to go out for
+      want of air, had heard incidentally that the master up there at the
+      Institute was all the time practising with a pistol, that they say he can
+      snuff a candle at ten rods, (that was Mrs. Blanche Creamer's version,) and
+      that he could hit anybody he wanted to right in the eye, as far as he
+      could see the white of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick did not like the sound of all this any too well. Without believing
+      more than half of it, there was enough to make the Yankee schoolmaster too
+      unsafe to be trifled with. However, shooting at a mark was pleasant work
+      enough; he had no particular objection to it himself. Only he did not care
+      so much for those little popgun affairs that a man carries in his pocket,
+      and with which you could n't shoot a fellow,&mdash;a robber, say,&mdash;without
+      getting the muzzle under his nose. Pistols for boys; long-range rifles for
+      men. There was such a gun lying in a closet with the fowling-pieces. He
+      would go out into the fields and see what he could do as a marksman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nature of the mark which Dick chose for experimenting upon was
+      singular. He had found some panes of glass which had been removed from an
+      old sash, and he placed these successively before his target, arranging
+      them at different angles. He found that a bullet would go through the
+      glass without glancing or having its force materially abated. It was an
+      interesting fact in physics, and might prove of some practical
+      significance hereafter. Nobody knows what may turn up to render these
+      out-of-the-way facts useful. All this was done in a quiet way in one of
+      the bare spots high up the side of The Mountain. He was very thoughtful in
+      taking the precaution to get so far away; rifle-bullets are apt to glance
+      and come whizzing about people's ears, if they are fired in the
+      neighborhood of houses. Dick satisfied himself that he could be tolerably
+      sure of hitting a pane of glass at a distance of thirty rods, more or
+      less, and that, if there happened to be anything behind it, the glass
+      would not materially alter the force or direction of the bullet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this time it occurred to him also that there was an old
+      accomplishment of his which he would be in danger of losing for want of
+      practice, if he did not take some opportunity to try his hand and regain
+      its cunning, if it had begun to be diminished by disuse. For his first
+      trial, he chose an evening when the moon was shining, and after the hour
+      when the Rockland people were like to be stirring abroad. He was so far
+      established now that he could do much as he pleased without exciting
+      remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prairie horse he rode, the mustang of the Pampas, wild as he was, had
+      been trained to take part in at least one exercise. This was the
+      accomplishment in which Mr. Richard now proposed to try himself. For this
+      purpose he sought the implement of which, as it may be remembered, he had
+      once made an incidental use,&mdash;the lasso, or long strip of hide with a
+      slip-noose at the end of it. He had been accustomed to playing with such a
+      thong from his boyhood, and had become expert in its use in capturing wild
+      cattle in the course of his adventures. Unfortunately, there were no wild
+      bulls likely to be met with in the neighborhood, to become the subjects of
+      his skill. A stray cow in the road, an ox or a horse in a pasture, must
+      serve his turn,&mdash;dull beasts, but moving marks to aim at, at any
+      rate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never, since he had galloped in the chase over the Pampas, had Dick Venner
+      felt such a sense of life and power as when he struck the long spurs into
+      his wild horse's flanks, and dashed along the road with the lasso lying
+      like a coiled snake at the saddle-bow. In skilful hands, the silent,
+      bloodless noose, flying like an arrow, but not like that leaving a wound
+      behind it,&mdash;sudden as a pistol-shot, but without the telltale
+      explosion,&mdash;is one of the most fearful and mysterious weapons that
+      arm the hand of man. The old Romans knew how formidable, even in contest
+      with a gladiator equipped with sword, helmet, and shield, was the almost
+      naked retiarius, with his net in one hand and his three-pronged javelin in
+      the other. Once get a net over a man's head, or a cord round his neck, or,
+      what is more frequently done nowadays, bonnet him by knocking his hat down
+      over his eyes, and he is at the mercy of his opponent. Our soldiers who
+      served against the Mexicans found this out too well. Many a poor fellow
+      has been lassoed by the fierce riders from the plains, and fallen an easy
+      victim to the captor who had snared him in the fatal noose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, imposing as the sight of the wild huntsmen of the Pampas might have
+      been, Dick could not help laughing at the mock sublimity of his situation,
+      as he tried his first experiment on an unhappy milky mother who had
+      strayed from her herd and was wandering disconsolately along the road,
+      laying the dust, as slue went, with thready streams from her swollen,
+      swinging udders. &ldquo;Here goes the Don at the windmill!&rdquo; said Dick, and
+      tilted full speed at her, whirling the lasso round his head as he rode.
+      The creature swerved to one side of the way, as the wild horse and his
+      rider came rushing down upon her, and presently turned and ran, as only
+      cows and it would n't be safe to say it&mdash;can run. Just before he
+      passed,&mdash;at twenty or thirty feet from her,&mdash;the lasso shot from
+      his hand, uncoiling as it flew, and in an instant its loop was round her
+      horns. &ldquo;Well cast!&rdquo; said Dick, as he galloped up to her side and
+      dexterously disengaged the lasso. &ldquo;Now for a horse on the run!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had the good luck to find one, presently, grazing in a pasture at the
+      road-side. Taking down the rails of the fence at one point, he drove the
+      horse into the road and gave chase. It was a lively young animal enough,
+      and was easily roused to a pretty fast pace. As his gallop grew more and
+      more rapid, Dick gave the reins to the mustang, until the two horses
+      stretched themselves out in their longest strides. If the first feat
+      looked like play, the one he was now to attempt had a good deal the
+      appearance of real work. He touched the mustang with the spur, and in a
+      few fierce leaps found himself nearly abreast of the frightened animal he
+      was chasing. Once more he whirled the lasso round and round over his head,
+      and then shot it forth, as the rattlesnake shoots his head from the loops
+      against which it rests. The noose was round the horse's neck, and in
+      another instant was tightened so as almost to stop his breath. The prairie
+      horse knew the trick of the cord, and leaned away from the captive, so as
+      to keep the thong tensely stretched between his neck and the peak of the
+      saddle to which it was fastened. Struggling was of no use with a halter
+      round his windpipe, and he very soon began to tremble and stagger,&mdash;blind,
+      no doubt, and with a roaring in his ears as of a thousand battle-trumpets,&mdash;at
+      any rate, subdued and helpless. That was enough. Dick loosened his lasso,
+      wound it up again, laid it like a pet snake in a coil at his saddle-bow,
+      turned his horse, and rode slowly along towards the mansion-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place had never looked more stately and beautiful to him than as he
+      now saw it in the moonlight. The undulations of the land,&mdash;the grand
+      mountain screen which sheltered the mansion from the northern blasts,
+      rising with all its hanging forests and parapets of naked rock high
+      towards the heavens,&mdash;the ancient mansion, with its square chimneys,
+      and bodyguard of old trees, and cincture of low walls with marble-pillared
+      gateways,&mdash;the fields, with their various coverings,&mdash;the beds
+      of flowers,&mdash;the plots of turf, one with a gray column in its centre
+      bearing a sundial on which the rays of the moon were idly shining, another
+      with a white stone and a narrow ridge of turf,&mdash;over all these
+      objects, harmonized with all their infinite details into one fair whole by
+      the moonlight, the prospective heir, as he deemed himself, looked with
+      admiring eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But while he looked, the thought rose up in his mind like waters from a
+      poisoned fountain, that there was a deep plot laid to cheat him of the
+      inheritance which by a double claim he meant to call his own. Every day
+      this ice-cold beauty, this dangerous, handsome cousin of his, went up to
+      that place,&mdash;that usher's girl-trap. Everyday,&mdash;regularly now,&mdash;it
+      used to be different. Did she go only to get out of his, her cousin's,
+      reach? Was she not rather becoming more and more involved in the toils of
+      this plotting Yankee?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Mr. Bernard had shown himself at that moment a few rods in advance, the
+      chances are that in less than one minute he would have found himself with
+      a noose round his neck, at the heels of a mounted horseman. Providence
+      spared him for the present. Mr. Richard rode his horse quietly round to
+      the stable, put him up, and proceeded towards the house. He got to his bed
+      without disturbing the family, but could not sleep. The idea had fully
+      taken possession of his mind that a deep intrigue was going on which would
+      end by bringing Elsie and the schoolmaster into relations fatal to all his
+      own hopes. With that ingenuity which always accompanies jealousy, he
+      tortured every circumstance of the last few weeks so as to make it square
+      with this belief. From this vein of thought he naturally passed to a
+      consideration of every possible method by which the issue he feared might
+      be avoided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Richard talked very plain language with himself in all these inward
+      colloquies. Supposing it came to the worst, what could be done then?
+      First, an accident might happen to the schoolmaster which should put a
+      complete and final check upon his projects and contrivances. The
+      particular accident which might interrupt his career must, evidently, be
+      determined by circumstances; but it must be of a nature to explain itself
+      without the necessity of any particular person's becoming involved in the
+      matter. It would be unpleasant to go into particulars; but everybody knows
+      well enough that men sometimes get in the way of a stray bullet, and that
+      young persons occasionally do violence to themselves in various modes,&mdash;by
+      firearms, suspension, and other means,&mdash;in consequence of
+      disappointment in love, perhaps, oftener than from other motives. There
+      was still another kind of accident which might serve his purpose. If
+      anything should happen to Elsie, it would be the most natural thing in the
+      world that his uncle should adopt him, his nephew and only near relation,
+      as his heir. Unless, indeed, uncle Dudley should take it into his head to
+      marry again. In that case, where would he, Dick, be? This was the most
+      detestable complication which he could conceive of. And yet he had noticed&mdash;he
+      could not help noticing&mdash;that his uncle had been very attentive to,
+      and, as it seemed, very much pleased with, that young woman from the
+      school. What did that mean? Was it possible that he was going to take a
+      fancy to her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It made him wild to think of all the several contingencies which might
+      defraud him of that good-fortune which seemed but just now within his
+      grasp. He glared in the darkness at imaginary faces: sometimes at that of
+      the handsome, treacherous schoolmaster; sometimes at that of the
+      meek-looking, but no doubt, scheming, lady-teacher; sometimes at that of
+      the dark girl whom he was ready to make his wife; sometimes at that of his
+      much respected uncle, who, of course, could not be allowed to peril the
+      fortunes of his relatives by forming a new connection. It was a frightful
+      perplexity in which he found himself, because there was no one single life
+      an accident to which would be sufficient to insure the fitting and natural
+      course of descent to the great Dudley property. If it had been a simple
+      question of helping forward a casualty to any one person, there was
+      nothing in Dick's habits of thought and living to make that a serious
+      difficulty. He had been so much with lawless people, that a life between
+      his wish and his object seemed only as an obstacle to be removed, provided
+      the object were worth the risk and trouble. But if there were two or three
+      lives in the way, manifestly that altered the case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His Southern blood was getting impatient. There was enough of the
+      New-Englander about him to make him calculate his chances before he
+      struck; but his plans were liable to be defeated at any moment by a
+      passionate impulse such as the dark-hued races of Southern Europe and
+      their descendants are liable to. He lay in his bed, sometimes arranging
+      plans to meet the various difficulties already mentioned, sometimes
+      getting into a paroxysm of blind rage in the perplexity of considering
+      what object he should select as the one most clearly in his way. On the
+      whole, there could be no doubt where the most threatening of all his
+      embarrassments lay. It was in the probable growing relation between Elsie
+      and the schoolmaster. If it should prove, as it seemed likely, that there
+      was springing up a serious attachment tending to a union between them, he
+      knew what he should do, if he was not quite so sure how he should do it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was one thing at least which might favor his projects, and which, at
+      any rate, would serve to amuse him. He could, by a little quiet
+      observation, find out what were the schoolmaster's habits of life: whether
+      he had any routine which could be calculated upon; and under what
+      circumstances a strictly private interview of a few minutes with him might
+      be reckoned on, in case it should be desirable. He could also very
+      probably learn some facts about Elsie, whether the young man was in the
+      habit of attending her on her way home from school; whether she stayed
+      about the schoolroom after the other girls had gone; and any incidental
+      matters of interest which might present themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was getting more and more restless for want of some excitement. A mad
+      gallop, a visit to Mrs. Blanche Creamer, who had taken such a fancy to
+      him, or a chat with the Widow Rowens, who was very lively in her talk, for
+      all her sombre colors, and reminded him a good deal of same of his earlier
+      friends, the senoritas,&mdash;all these were distractions, to be sure, but
+      not enough to keep his fiery spirit from fretting itself in longings for
+      more dangerous excitements. The thought of getting a knowledge of all Mr.
+      Bernard's ways, so that he would be in his power at any moment, was a
+      happy one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some days after this he followed Elsie at a long distance behind, to
+      watch her until she got to the schoolhouse. One day he saw Mr. Bernard
+      join her: a mere accident, very probably, for it was only once this
+      happened. She came on her homeward way alone,&mdash;quite apart from the
+      groups of girls who strolled out of the schoolhouse yard in company.
+      Sometimes she was behind them all,&mdash;which was suggestive. Could she
+      have stayed to meet the schoolmaster?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he could have smuggled himself into the school, he would have liked to
+      watch her there, and see if there was not some understanding between her
+      and the master which betrayed itself by look or word. But this was beyond
+      the limits of his audacity, and he had to content himself with such
+      cautious observations as could be made at a distance. With the aid of a
+      pocket-glass he could make out persons without the risk of being observed
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Silos Peckham's corps of instructors was not expected to be off duty
+      or to stand at ease for any considerable length of time. Sometimes Mr.
+      Bernard, who had more freedom than the rest, would go out for a ramble in
+      the daytime, but more frequently it would be in the evening, after the
+      hour of &ldquo;retiring,&rdquo; as bedtime was elegantly termed by the young ladies of
+      the Apollinean Institute. He would then not unfrequently walk out alone in
+      the common roads, or climb up the sides of The Mountain, which seemed to
+      be one of his favorite resorts. Here, of course, it was impossible to
+      follow him with the eye at a distance. Dick had a hideous, gnawing
+      suspicion that somewhere in these deep shades the schoolmaster might meet
+      Elsie, whose evening wanderings he knew so well. But of this he was not
+      able to assure himself. Secrecy was necessary to his present plans, and he
+      could not compromise himself by over-eager curiosity. One thing he learned
+      with certainty. The master returned, after his walk one evening, and
+      entered the building where his room was situated. Presently a light
+      betrayed the window of his apartment. From a wooded bank, some thirty or
+      forty rods from this building, Dick Venner could see the interior of the
+      chamber, and watch the master as he sat at his desk, the light falling
+      strongly upon his face, intent upon the book or manuscript before him.
+      Dick contemplated him very long in this attitude. The sense of watching
+      his every motion, himself meanwhile utterly unseen, was delicious. How
+      little the master was thinking what eyes were on him!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well,&mdash;there were two things quite certain. One was, that, if he
+      chose, he could meet the schoolmaster alone, either in the road or in a
+      more solitary place, if he preferred to watch his chance for an evening or
+      two. The other was, that he commanded his position, as he sat at his desk
+      in the evening, in such a way that there would be very little difficulty,&mdash;so
+      far as that went; of course, however, silence is always preferable to
+      noise, and there is a great difference in the marks left by different
+      casualties. Very likely nothing would come of all this espionage; but, at
+      any rate, the first thing to be done with a man you want to have in your
+      power is to learn his habits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since the tea-party at the Widow Rowens's, Elsie had been more fitful and
+      moody than ever. Dick understood all this well enough, you know. It was
+      the working of her jealousy against that young schoolgirl to whom the
+      master had devoted himself for the sake of piquing the heiress of the
+      Dudley mansion. Was it possible, in any way, to exasperate her irritable
+      nature against him, and in this way to render her more accessible to his
+      own advances? It was difficult to influence her at all. She endured his
+      company without seeming to enjoy it. She watched him with that strange
+      look of hers, sometimes as if she were on her guard against him, sometimes
+      as if she would like to strike at him as in that fit of childish passion.
+      She ordered him about with a haughty indifference which reminded him of
+      his own way with the dark-eyed women whom he had known so well of old. All
+      this added a secret pleasure to the other motives he had for worrying her
+      with jealous suspicions. He knew she brooded silently on any grief that
+      poisoned her comfort,&mdash;that she fed on it, as it were, until it ran
+      with every drop of blood in her veins,&mdash;and that, except in some
+      paroxysm of rage, of which he himself was not likely the second time to be
+      the object, or in some deadly vengeance wrought secretly, against which he
+      would keep a sharp lookout, so far as he was concerned, she had no outlet
+      for her dangerous, smouldering passions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beware of the woman who cannot find free utterance for all her stormy
+      inner life either in words or song! So long as a woman can talk, there is
+      nothing she cannot bear. If she cannot have a companion to listen to her
+      woes, and has no musical utterance, vocal or instrumental,&mdash;then, if
+      she is of the real woman sort, and has a few heartfuls of wild blood in
+      her, and you have done her a wrong,&mdash;double-bolt the door which she
+      may enter on noiseless slipper at midnight,&mdash;look twice before you
+      taste of any cup whose draught the shadow of her hand may have darkened!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But let her talk, and, above all, cry, or, if she is one of the
+      coarser-grained tribe, give her the run of all the red-hot expletives in
+      the language, and let her blister her lips with them until she is tired,
+      she will sleep like a lamb after it, and you may take a cup of coffee from
+      her without stirring it up to look for its sediment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, if she can sing, or play on any musical instrument, all her wickedness
+      will run off through her throat or the tips of her fingers. How many
+      tragedies find their peaceful catastrophe in fierce roulades and strenuous
+      bravuras! How many murders are executed in double-quick time upon the keys
+      which stab the air with their dagger-strokes of sound! What would our
+      civilization be without the piano? Are not Erard and Broadwood and
+      Chickering the true humanizers of our time? Therefore do I love to hear
+      the all-pervading tum tum jarring the walls of little parlors in houses
+      with double door-plates on their portals, looking out on streets and
+      courts which to know is to be unknown, and where to exist is not to live,
+      according to any true definition of living. Therefore complain I not of
+      modern degeneracy, when, even from the open window of the small unlovely
+      farmhouse, tenanted by the hard-handed man of bovine flavors and the
+      flat-patterned woman of broken-down countenance, issue the same familiar
+      sounds. For who knows that Almira, but for these keys, which throb away
+      her wild impulses in harmless discords would not have been floating, dead,
+      in the brown stream which slides through the meadows by her father's door,&mdash;or
+      living, with that other current which runs beneath the gas-lights over the
+      slimy pavement, choking with wretched weeds that were once in spotless
+      flower?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Elsie! She never sang nor played. She never shaped her inner life in
+      words: such utterance was as much denied to her nature as common
+      articulate speech to the deaf mute. Her only language must be in action.
+      Watch her well by day and by night, old Sophy! watch her well! or the long
+      line of her honored name may close in shame, and the stately mansion of
+      the Dudleys remain a hissing and a reproach till its roof is buried in its
+      cellar!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV. ON HIS TRACKS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Able!&rdquo; said the old Doctor, one morning, &ldquo;after you've harnessed Caustic,
+      come into the study a few minutes, will you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel nodded. He was a man of few words, and he knew that the &ldquo;will you&rdquo;
+       did not require an answer, being the true New-England way of rounding the
+      corners of an employer's order,&mdash;a tribute to the personal
+      independence of an American citizen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hired man came into the study in the course of a few minutes. His face
+      was perfectly still, and he waited to be spoken to; but the Doctor's eye
+      detected a certain meaning in his expression, which looked as if he had
+      something to communicate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; said the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's up to mischief o' some kind, I guess,&rdquo; said Abel. &ldquo;I jest happened
+      daown by the mansion-haouse last night, 'n' he come aout o' the gate on
+      that queer-lookin' creator' o' his. I watched him, 'n' he rid, very slow,
+      all raoun' by the Institoot, 'n' acted as ef he was spyin' abaout. He
+      looks to me like a man that's calc'latin' to do some kind of ill-turn to
+      somebody. I should n't like to have him raoun' me, 'f there wa'n't a
+      pitchfork or an eel-spear or some sech weep'n within reach. He may be all
+      right; but I don't like his looks, 'n' I don't see what he's lurkin'
+      raoun' the Institoot for, after folks is abed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you watched him pretty close for the last few days?&rdquo; said the
+      Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;W'll, yes,&mdash;I've had my eye on him consid'ble o' the time. I haf to
+      be pooty shy abaout it, or he'll find aout th't I'm on his tracks. I don'
+      want him to get a spite ag'inst me, 'f I c'n help it; he looks to me like
+      one o' them kind that kerries what they call slung-shot, 'n' hits ye on
+      the side o' th' head with 'em so suddin y' never know what hurts ye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said the Doctor, sharply,&mdash;&ldquo;have you ever seen him with any
+      such weapon about him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;W'll, no,&mdash;I caan't say that I hev,&rdquo; Abel answered. &ldquo;On'y he looks
+      kin' o' dangerous. Maybe he's all jest 'z he ought to be,&mdash;I caan't
+      say that he a'n't,&mdash;but he's aout late nights, 'n' lurkin' raonn'
+      jest 'z ef he was spyin' somebody, 'n' somehaow I caan't help mistrustin'
+      them Portagee-lookin' fellahs. I caan't keep the run o' this chap all the
+      time; but I've a notion that old black woman daown 't the mansion-haouse
+      knows 'z much abaout him 'z anybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor paused a moment, after hearing this report from his private
+      detective, and then got into his chaise, and turned Caustic's head in the
+      direction of the Dudley mansion. He had been suspicious of Dick from the
+      first. He did not like his mixed blood, nor his looks, nor his ways. He
+      had formed a conjecture about his projects early. He had made a shrewd
+      guess as to the probable jealousy Dick would feel of the schoolmaster, had
+      found out something of his movements, and had cautioned Mr. Bernard,&mdash;as
+      we have seen. He felt an interest in the young man,&mdash;a student of his
+      own profession, an intelligent and ingenuously unsuspecting young fellow,
+      who had been thrown by accident into the companionship or the neighborhood
+      of two persons, one of whom he knew to be dangerous, and the other he
+      believed instinctively might be capable of crime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor rode down to the Dudley mansion solely for the sake of seeing
+      old Sophy. He was lucky enough to find her alone in her kitchen. He began
+      taking with her as a physician; he wanted to know how her rheumatism had
+      been. The shrewd old woman saw through all that with her little beady
+      black eyes. It was something quite different he had come for, and old
+      Sophy answered very briefly for her aches and ails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old folks' bones a'n't like young folks',&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It's the Lord's
+      doin's, 'n' 't a'n't much matter. I sha'n' be long roan' this kitchen.
+      It's the young Missis, Doctor,&mdash;it 's our Elsie,&mdash;it 's the
+      baby, as we use' t' call her,&mdash;don' you remember, Doctor? Seventeen
+      year ago, 'n' her poor mother cryin' for her,&mdash;'Where is she? where
+      is she? Let me see her! '&mdash;'n' how I run up-stairs,&mdash;I could run
+      then,&mdash;'n' got the coral necklace 'n' put it round her little neck,
+      'n' then showed her to her mother,&mdash;'n' how her mother looked at her,
+      'n' looked, 'n' then put out her poor thin fingers 'n' lifted the
+      necklace,&mdash;'n' fell right back on her piller, as white as though she
+      was laid out to bury?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor answered her by silence and a look of grave assent. He had
+      never chosen to let old Sophy dwell upon these matters, for obvious
+      reasons. The girl must not grow up haunted by perpetual fears and
+      prophecies, if it were possible to prevent it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, how has Elsie seemed of late?&rdquo; he said, after this brief pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman shook her head. Then she looked up at the Doctor so steadily
+      and searchingly that the diamond eyes of Elsie herself could hardly have
+      pierced more deeply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor raised his head, by his habitual movement, and met the old
+      woman's look with his own calm and scrutinizing gaze, sharpened by the
+      glasses through which he now saw her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sophy spoke presently in an awed tone, as if telling a vision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall be havin' trouble before long. The' 's somethin' comin' from the
+      Lord. I've had dreams, Doctor. It's many a year I've been a-dreamin', but
+      now they're comin' over 'n' over the same thing. Three times I've dreamed
+      one thing, Doctor,&mdash;one thing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what was that?&rdquo; the Doctor said, with that shade of curiosity in his
+      tone which a metaphysician would probably say is an index of a certain
+      tendency to belief in the superstition to which the question refers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ca'n' jestly tell y' what it was, Doctor,&rdquo; the old woman answered, as
+      if bewildered and trying to clear up her recollections; &ldquo;but it was
+      somethin' fearful, with a great noise 'n' a great cryin' o' people,&mdash;like
+      the Las' Day, Doctor! The Lord have mercy on my poor chil', 'n' take care
+      of her, if anything happens! But I's feared she'll never live to see the
+      Las' Day, 'f 't don' come pooty quick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Sophy, only the third generation from cannibalism, was, not
+      unnaturally, somewhat confused in her theological notions. Some of the
+      Second-Advent preachers had been about, and circulated their predictions
+      among the kitchen&mdash;population of Rockland. This was the way in which
+      it happened that she mingled her fears in such a strange manner with their
+      doctrines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor answered solemnly, that of the day and hour we knew not, but it
+      became us to be always ready.&mdash;&ldquo;Is there anything going on in the
+      household different from common?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Sophy's wrinkled face looked as full of life and intelligence, when
+      she turned it full upon the Doctor, as if she had slipped off her
+      infirmities and years like an outer garment. All those fine instincts of
+      observation which came straight to her from her savage grandfather looked
+      out of her little eyes. She had a kind of faith that the Doctor was a
+      mighty conjurer, who, if he would, could bewitch any of them. She had
+      relieved her feelings by her long talk with the minister, but the Doctor
+      was the immediate adviser of the family, and had watched them through all
+      their troubles. Perhaps he could tell them what to do. She had but one
+      real object of affection in the world,&mdash;this child that she had
+      tended from infancy to womanhood. Troubles were gathering thick round her;
+      how soon they would break upon her, and blight or destroy her, no one
+      could tell; but there was nothing in all the catalogue of terrors which
+      might not come upon the household at any moment. Her own wits had
+      sharpened themselves in keeping watch by day and night, and her face had
+      forgotten its age in the excitement which gave life to its features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor,&rdquo; old Sophy said, &ldquo;there's strange things goin' on here by night
+      and by day. I don' like that man,&mdash;that Dick,&mdash;I never liked
+      him. He giv' me some o' these things I' got on; I take 'em 'cos I know it
+      make him mad, if I no take 'em; I wear 'em, so that he need n' feel as if
+      I did n' like him; but, Doctor, I hate him,&mdash;jes' as much as a member
+      of the church has the Lord's leave to hate anybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her eyes sparkled with the old savage light, as if her ill-will to Mr.
+      Richard Venner might perhaps go a little farther than the Christian limit
+      she had assigned. But remember that her grandfather was in the habit of
+      inviting his friends to dine with him upon the last enemy he had bagged,
+      and that her grandmother's teeth were filed down to points, so that they
+      were as sharp as a shark's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that you have seen about Mr. Richard Venner that gives you such a
+      spite against him, Sophy?&rdquo; asked the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I' seen 'bout Dick Venner?&rdquo; she replied, fiercely. &ldquo;I'll tell y'
+      what I' seen. Dick wan's to marry our Elsie,&mdash;that 's what he wan's;
+      'n' he don' love her, Doctor,&mdash;he hates her, Doctor, as bad as I hate
+      him! He wan's to marry our Elsie, In' live here in the big house, 'n' have
+      nothin' to do but jes' lay still 'n' watch Massa Venner 'n' see how long
+      't Ill take him to die, 'n' 'f he don' die fas' 'puff, help him some way
+      t' die fasser!&mdash;Come close up t' me, Doctor! I wan' t' tell you
+      somethin' I tol' th' minister t' other day. Th' minister, he come down 'n'
+      prayed 'n' talked good,&mdash;he's a good man, that Doctor Honeywood, 'n'
+      I tol' him all 'bout our Elsie, but he did n' tell nobody what to do to
+      stop all what I' been dreamin' about happenin'. Come close up to me,
+      Doctor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor drew his chair close up to that of the old woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor, nobody mus'n' never marry our Elsie 's longs she lives! Nobody
+      mus' n' never live with Elsie but ol Sophy; 'n' ol Sophy won't never die
+      's long 's Elsie 's alive to be took care of. But I's feared, Doctor, I's
+      greatly feared Elsie wan' to marry somebody. The' 's a young gen'l'm'n up
+      at that school where she go,&mdash;so some of 'em tells me, 'n' she loves
+      t' see him 'n' talk wi' him, 'n' she talks about him when she 's asleep
+      sometimes. She mus 'n' never marry nobody, Doctor! If she do, he die,
+      certain!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If she has a fancy for the young man up at the school there,&rdquo; the Doctor
+      said, &ldquo;I shouldn't think there would be much danger from Dick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor, nobody know nothin' 'bout Elsie but of Sophy. She no like any
+      other creator' th't ever drawed the bref o' life. If she ca'n' marry one
+      man 'cos she love him, she marry another man 'cos she hate him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marry a man because she hates him, Sophy? No woman ever did such a thing
+      as that, or ever will do it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who tol' you Elsie was a woman, Doctor?&rdquo; said old Sophy, with a flash of
+      strange intelligence in her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor's face showed that he was startled. The old woman could not
+      know much about Elsie that he did not know; but what strange superstition
+      had got into her head, he was puzzled to guess. He had better follow
+      Sophy's lead and find out what she meant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should call Elsie a woman, and a very handsome one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You
+      don't mean that she has any mark about her, except&mdash;you know&mdash;under
+      the necklace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman resented the thought of any deformity about her darling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did n' say she had nothin'&mdash;but jes' that&mdash;you know. My
+      beauty have anything ugly? She's the beautifullest-shaped lady that ever
+      had a shinin' silk gown drawed over her shoulders. On'y she a'n't like no
+      other woman in none of her ways. She don't cry 'n' laugh like other women.
+      An' she ha'n' got the same kind o' feelin's as other women.&mdash;Do you
+      know that young gen'l'm'n up at the school, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Sophy, I've met him sometimes. He's a very nice sort of young man,
+      handsome, too, and I don't much wonder Elsie takes to him. Tell me, Sophy,
+      what do you think would happen, if he should chance to fall in love with
+      Elsie, and she with him, and he should marry her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put your ear close to my lips, Doctor, dear!&rdquo; She whispered a little to
+      the Doctor, then added aloud, &ldquo;He die,&mdash;that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely, Sophy, you a'n't afraid to have Dick marry her, if she would
+      have him for any reason, are you? He can take care of himself, if anybody
+      can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor!&rdquo; Sophy answered, &ldquo;nobody can take care of hisself that live wi'
+      Elsie! Nobody never in all this worl' mus' live wi' Elsie but of Sophy, I
+      tell you. You don' think I care for Dick? What do I care, if Dick Venner
+      die? He wan's to marry our Elsie so 's to live in the big house 'n' get
+      all the money 'n' all the silver things 'n' all the chists full o' linen
+      'n' beautiful clothes. That's what Dick wan's. An' he hates Elsie 'cos she
+      don' like him. But if he marry Elsie, she 'll make him die some wrong way
+      or other, 'n' they'll take her 'n' hang her, or he'll get mad with her 'n'
+      choke her.&mdash;Oh, I know his chokin' tricks!&mdash;he don' leave his
+      keys roun' for nothin.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that you say, Sophy? Tell me what you mean by all that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So poor Sophy had to explain certain facts not in all respects to her
+      credit. She had taken the opportunity of his absence to look about his
+      chamber, and, having found a key in one of his drawers, had applied it to
+      a trunk, and, finding that it opened the trunk, had made a kind of
+      inspection for contraband articles, and, seeing the end of a leather
+      thong, had followed it up until she saw that it finished with a noose,
+      which, from certain appearances, she inferred to have seen service of at
+      least doubtful nature. An unauthorized search; but old Sophy considered
+      that a game of life and death was going on in the household, and that she
+      was bound to look out for her darling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor paused a moment to think over this odd piece of information.
+      Without sharing Sophy's belief as to the kind of use this
+      mischievous-looking piece of property had been put to, it was certainly
+      very odd that Dick should have such a thing at the bottom of his trunk.
+      The Doctor remembered reading or hearing something about the lasso and the
+      lariat and the bolas, and had an indistinct idea that they had been
+      sometimes used as weapons of warfare or private revenge; but they were
+      essentially a huntsman's implements, after all, and it was not very
+      strange that this young man had brought one of them with him. Not strange,
+      perhaps, but worth noting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you really think Dick means mischief to anybody, that he has such
+      dangerous-looking things?&rdquo; the Doctor said, presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you, Doctor. Dick means to have Elsie. If he ca'n' get her, he
+      never let nobody else have her! Oh, Dick 's a dark man, Doctor! I know
+      him! I 'member him when he was little boy,&mdash;he always cunin'. I think
+      he mean mischief to somebody. He come home late nights,&mdash;come in
+      softly,&mdash;oh, I hear him! I lay awake, 'n' got sharp ears,&mdash;I
+      hear the cats walkin' over the roofs,&mdash;'n' I hear Dick Venner, when
+      he comes up in his stockin'-feet as still as a cat. I think he mean'
+      mischief to somebody. I no like his looks these las' days.&mdash;Is that a
+      very pooty gen'l'm'n up at the schoolhouse, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told you he was good-looking. What if he is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to see him, Doctor,&mdash;I should like to see the pooty
+      gen'l'm'n that my poor Elsie loves. She mus 'n' never marry nobody,
+      &mdash;but, oh, Doctor, I should like to see him, 'n' jes' think a little
+      how it would ha' been, if the Lord had n' been so hard on Elsie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She wept and wrung her hands. The kind Doctor was touched, and left her a
+      moment to her thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how does Mr. Dudley Venner take all this?&rdquo; he said, by way of
+      changing the subject a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Massa Venner, he good man, but he don' know nothin' 'bout Elsie, as
+      of Sophy do. I keep close by her; I help her when she go to bed, 'n' set
+      by her sometime when she&mdash;'sleep; I come to her in th' mornin' 'n'
+      help her put on her things.&rdquo;&mdash;Then, in a whisper;&mdash;&ldquo;Doctor,
+      Elsie lets of Sophy take off that necklace for her. What you think she do,
+      'f anybody else tech it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know, I'm sure, Sophy,&mdash;strike the person, perhaps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, strike 'em! but not with her han's, Doctor!&rdquo;&mdash;The old
+      woman's significant pantomime must be guessed at.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you haven't told me, Sophy, what Mr. Dudley Venner thinks of his
+      nephew, nor whether he has any notion that Dick wants to marry Elsie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you. Massa Venner, he good man, but he no see nothin' 'bout what
+      goes on here in the house. He sort o' broken-hearted, you know,&mdash;sort
+      o' giv up,&mdash;don' know what to do wi' Elsie, 'xcep' say 'Yes, yes.'
+      Dick always look smilin' 'n' behave well before him. One time I thought
+      Massa Venner b'lieve Dick was goin' to take to Elsie; but now he don' seem
+      to take much notice,&mdash;he kin' o' stupid-' like 'bout sech things.
+      It's trouble, Doctor; 'cos Massa Venner bright man naterally,&mdash;'n'
+      he's got a great heap o' books. I don' think Massa Venner never been jes'
+      heself sence Elsie 's born. He done all he know how,&mdash;but, Doctor,
+      that wa'n' a great deal. You men-folks don' know nothin' 'bout these young
+      gals; 'n' 'f you knowed all the young gals that ever lived, y' would n'
+      know nothin' 'bout our Elsie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&mdash;but, Sophy, what I want to know is, whether you think Mr.
+      Venner has any kind of suspicion about his nephew,&mdash;whether he has
+      any notion that he's a dangerous sort of fellow,&mdash;or whether he feels
+      safe to have him about, or has even taken a sort of fancy to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lar' bless you, Doctor, Massa Venner no more idee 'f any mischief 'bout
+      Dick than he has 'bout you or me. Y' see, he very fond o' the Cap'n,&mdash;that
+      Dick's father,&mdash;'n' he live so long alone here, 'long wi' us, that he
+      kin' o' like to see mos' anybody 't 's got any o' th' of family-blood in
+      'em. He ha'n't got no more suspicions 'n a baby,&mdash;y' never see sech a
+      man 'n y'r life. I kin' o' think he don' care for nothin' in this world
+      'xcep' jes' t' do what Elsie wan's him to. The fus' year after young Madam
+      die he do nothin' but jes' set at the window 'n' look out at her grave,
+      'n' then come up 'n' look at the baby's neck 'n' say, 'It's fadin', Sophy,
+      a'n't it? 'n' then go down in the study 'n' walk 'n' walk, 'n' them kneel
+      down 'n' pray. Doctor, there was two places in the old carpet that was all
+      threadbare, where his knees had worn 'em. An' sometimes, you remember
+      'bout all that,&mdash;he'd go off up into The Mountain, 'n' be gone all
+      day, 'n' kill all the Ugly Things he could find up there.&mdash;Oh,
+      Doctor, I don' like to think o' them days!&mdash;An' by 'n' by he grew
+      kin' o' still, 'n' begun to read a little, 'n' 't las' he got 's quiet's a
+      lamb, 'n' that's the way he is now. I think he's got religion, Doctor; but
+      he a'n't so bright about what's goin' on, 'n' I don' believe he never
+      suspec' nothin' till somethin' happens; for the' 's somethin' goin' to
+      happen, Doctor, if the Las' Day does n' come to stop it; 'n' you mus' tell
+      us what to do, 'n' save my poor Elsie, my baby that the Lord has n' took
+      care of like all his other childer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor assured the old woman that he was thinking a great deal about
+      them all, and that there were other eyes on Dick besides her own. Let her
+      watch him closely about the house, and he would keep a look-out elsewhere.
+      If there was anything new, she must let him know at once. Send up one of
+      the menservants, and he would come down at a moment's warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was really nothing definite against this young man; but the Doctor
+      was sure that he was meditating some evil design or other. He rode
+      straight up to the Institute. There he saw Mr. Bernard, and had a brief
+      conversation with him, principally on matters relating to his personal
+      interests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening, for some unknown reason, Mr. Bernard changed the place of
+      his desk and drew down the shades of his windows. Late that night Mr.
+      Richard Venner drew the charge of a rifle, and put the gun back among the
+      fowling-pieces, swearing that a leather halter was worth a dozen of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV. THE PERILOUS HOUR.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Up to this time Dick Venner had not decided on the particular mode and the
+      precise period of relieving himself from the unwarrantable interference
+      which threatened to defeat his plans. The luxury of feeling that he had
+      his man in his power was its own reward. One who watches in the dark,
+      outside, while his enemy, in utter unconsciousness, is illuminating his
+      apartment and himself so that every movement of his head and every button
+      on his coat can be seen and counted, experiences a peculiar kind of
+      pleasure, if he holds a loaded rifle in his hand, which he naturally hates
+      to bring to its climax by testing his skill as a marksman upon the object
+      of his attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides, Dick had two sides in his nature, almost as distinct as we
+      sometimes observe in those persons who are the subjects of the condition
+      known as double consciousness. On his New England side he was cunning and
+      calculating, always cautious, measuring his distance before he risked his
+      stroke, as nicely as if he were throwing his lasso. But he was liable to
+      intercurrent fits of jealousy and rage, such as the light-hued races are
+      hardly capable of conceiving, blinding paroxysms of passion, which for the
+      time overmastered him, and which, if they found no ready outlet,
+      transformed themselves into the more dangerous forces that worked through
+      the instrumentality of his cool craftiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had failed as yet in getting any positive evidence that there was any
+      relation between Elsie and the schoolmaster other than such as might exist
+      unsuspected and unblamed between a teacher and his pupil. A book, or a
+      note, even, did not prove the existence of any sentiment. At one time he
+      would be devoured by suspicions, at another he would try to laugh himself
+      out of them. And in the mean while he followed Elsie's tastes as closely
+      as he could, determined to make some impression upon her,&mdash;to become
+      a habit, a convenience, a necessity,&mdash;whatever might aid him in the
+      attainment of the one end which was now the aim of his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was to humor one of her tastes already known to the reader, that he
+      said to her one morning,&mdash;&ldquo;Come, Elsie, take your castanets, and let
+      us have a dance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had struck the right vein in the girl's fancy, for she was in the mood
+      for this exercise, and very willingly led the way into one of the more
+      empty apartments. What there was in this particular kind of dance which
+      excited her it might not be easy to guess; but those who looked in with
+      the old Doctor, on a former occasion, and saw her, will remember that she
+      was strangely carried away by it, and became almost fearful in the
+      vehemence of her passion. The sound of the castanets seemed to make her
+      alive all over. Dick knew well enough what the exhibition would be, and
+      was almost afraid of her at these moments; for it was like the dancing
+      mania of Eastern devotees, more than the ordinary light amusement of
+      joyous youth,&mdash;a convulsion of the body and the mind, rather than a
+      series of voluntary modulated motions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie rattled out the triple measure of a saraband. Her eyes began to
+      glitter more brilliantly, and her shape to undulate in freer curves.
+      Presently she noticed that Dick's look was fixed upon her necklace. His
+      face betrayed his curiosity; he was intent on solving the question, why
+      she always wore something about her neck. The chain of mosaics she had on
+      at that moment displaced itself at every step, and he was peering with
+      malignant, searching eagerness to see if an unsunned ring of fairer hue
+      than the rest of the surface, or any less easily explained peculiarity,
+      were hidden by her ornaments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stopped suddenly, caught the chain of mosaics and settled it hastily
+      in its place, flung down her castanets, drew herself back, and stood
+      looking at him, with her head a little on one side, and her eyes narrowing
+      in the way he had known so long and well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the matter, Cousin Elsie? What do you stop for?&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie did not answer, but kept her eyes on him, full of malicious light.
+      The jealousy which lay covered up under his surface-thoughts took this
+      opportunity to break out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would n't act so, if you were dancing with Mr. Langdon,&mdash;would
+      you, Elsie?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was with some effort that he looked steadily at her to see the effect
+      of his question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie colored,&mdash;not much, but still perceptibly. Dick could not
+      remember that he had ever seen her show this mark of emotion before, in
+      all his experience of her fitful changes of mood. It had a singular depth
+      of significance, therefore, for him; he knew how hardly her color came.
+      Blushing means nothing, in some persons; in others, it betrays a profound
+      inward agitation,&mdash;a perturbation of the feelings far more trying
+      than the passions which with many easily moved persons break forth in
+      tears. All who have observed much are aware that some men, who have seen a
+      good deal of life in its less chastened aspects and are anything but
+      modest, will blush often and easily, while there are delicate and
+      sensitive women who can faint, or go into fits, if necessary, but are very
+      rarely seen to betray their feelings in their cheeks, even when their
+      expression shows that their inmost soul is blushing scarlet. Presently she
+      answered, abruptly and scornfully, &ldquo;Mr. Langdon is a gentleman, and would
+      not vex me as you do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A gentleman!&rdquo; Dick answered, with the most insulting accent,&mdash;&ldquo;a
+      gentleman! Come, Elsie, you 've got the Dudley blood in your veins, and it
+      does n't do for you to call this poor, sneaking schoolmaster a gentleman!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped short. Elsie's bosom was heaving, the faint flush on her cheek
+      was becoming a vivid glow. Whether it were shame or wrath, he saw that he
+      had reached some deep-lying centre of emotion. There was no longer any
+      doubt in his mind. With another girl these signs of confusion might mean
+      little or nothing; with her they were decisive and final. Elsie Venner
+      loved Bernard Langdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sudden conviction, absolute, overwhelming, which rushed upon him, had
+      well-nigh led to an explosion of wrath, and perhaps some terrible scene
+      which might have fulfilled some of old Sophy's predictions. This, however,
+      would never do. Dick's face whitened with his thoughts, but he kept still
+      until he could speak calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've nothing against the young fellow,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;only I don't think
+      there's anything quite good enough to keep the company of people that have
+      the Dudley blood in them. You a'n't as proud as I am. I can't quite make
+      up my mind to call a schoolmaster a gentleman, though this one may be well
+      enough. I 've nothing against him, at any rate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie made no answer, but glided out of the room and slid away to her own
+      apartment. She bolted the door and drew her curtains close. Then she threw
+      herself on the floor, and fell into a dull, slow ache of passion, without
+      tears, without words, almost without thoughts. So she remained, perhaps,
+      for a half-hour, at the end of which time it seemed that her passion had
+      become a sullen purpose. She arose, and, looking cautiously round, went to
+      the hearth, which was ornamented with curious old Dutch tiles, with
+      pictures of Scripture subjects. One of these represented the lifting of
+      the brazen serpent. She took a hair-pin from one of her braids, and,
+      insinuating its points under the edge of the tile, raised it from its
+      place. A small leaden box lay under the tile, which she opened, and,
+      taking from it a little white powder, which she folded in a scrap of
+      paper, replaced the box and the tile over it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether Dick had by any means got a knowledge of this proceeding, or
+      whether he only suspected some unmentionable design on her part, there is
+      no sufficient means of determining. At any rate, when they met, an hour or
+      two after these occurrences, he could not help noticing how easily she
+      seemed to have got over her excitement. She was very pleasant with him,&mdash;too
+      pleasant, Dick thought. It was not Elsie's way to come out of a fit of
+      anger so easily as that. She had contrived some way of letting off her
+      spite; that was certain. Dick was pretty cunning, as old Sophy had said,
+      and, whether or not he had any means of knowing Elsie's private
+      intentions, watched her closely, and was on his guard against accidents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the first time, he took certain precautions with reference to his
+      diet, such as were quite alien to his common habits. On coming to the
+      dinner-table, that day, he complained of headache, took but little food,
+      and refused the cup of coffee which Elsie offered him, saying that it did
+      not agree with him when he had these attacks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here was a new complication. Obviously enough, he could not live in this
+      way, suspecting everything but plain bread and water, and hardly feeling
+      safe in meddling with them. Not only had this school-keeping wretch come
+      between him and the scheme by which he was to secure his future fortune,
+      but his image had so infected his cousin's mind that she was ready to try
+      on him some of those tricks which, as he had heard hinted in the village,
+      she had once before put in practice upon a person who had become odious to
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something must be done, and at once, to meet the double necessities of
+      this case. Every day, while the young girl was in these relations with the
+      young man, was only making matters worse. They could exchange words and
+      looks, they could arrange private interviews, they would be stooping
+      together over the same book, her hair touching his cheek, her breath
+      mingling with his, all the magnetic attractions drawing them together with
+      strange, invisible effluences. As her passion for the schoolmaster
+      increased, her dislike to him, her cousin, would grow with it, and all his
+      dangers would be multiplied. It was a fearful point he had, reached. He
+      was tempted at one moment to give up all his plans and to disappear
+      suddenly from the place, leaving with the schoolmaster, who had come
+      between him and his object, an anonymous token of his personal sentiments
+      which would be remembered a good while in the history of the town of
+      Rockland. This was but a momentary thought; the great Dudley property
+      could not be given up in that way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something must happen at once to break up all this order of things. He
+      could think of but one Providential event adequate to the emergency,&mdash;an
+      event foreshadowed by various recent circumstances, but hitherto floating
+      in his mind only as a possibility. Its occurrence would at once change the
+      course of Elsie's feelings, providing her with something to think of
+      besides mischief, and remove the accursed obstacle which was thwarting all
+      his own projects. Every possible motive, then,&mdash;his interest, his
+      jealousy, his longing for revenge, and now his fears for his own safety,&mdash;urged
+      him to regard the happening of a certain casualty as a matter of simple
+      necessity. This was the self-destruction of Mr. Bernard Langdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such an event, though it might be surprising to many people, would not be
+      incredible, nor without many parallel cases. He was poor, a miserable fag,
+      under the control of that mean wretch up there at the school, who looked
+      as if he had sour buttermilk in his veins instead of blood. He was in love
+      with a girl above his station, rich, and of old family, but strange in all
+      her ways, and it was conceivable that he should become suddenly jealous of
+      her. Or she might have frightened him with some display of her
+      peculiarities which had filled him with a sudden repugnance in the place
+      of love. Any of these things were credible, and would make a probable
+      story enough,&mdash;so thought Dick over to himself with the New-England
+      half of his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unfortunately, men will not always take themselves out of the way when, so
+      far as their neighbors are concerned, it would be altogether the most
+      appropriate and graceful and acceptable service they could render. There
+      was at this particular moment no special reason for believing that the
+      schoolmaster meditated any violence to his own person. On the contrary,
+      there was good evidence that he was taking some care of himself. He was
+      looking well and in good spirits, and in the habit of amusing himself and
+      exercising, as if to keep up his standard of health, especially of taking
+      certain evening-walks, before referred to, at an hour when most of the
+      Rockland people had &ldquo;retired,&rdquo; or, in vulgar language, &ldquo;gone to bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick Venner settled it, however, in his own mind, that Mr. Bernard Langdon
+      must lay violent hands upon himself. He even went so far as to determine
+      the precise hour, and the method in which the &ldquo;rash act,&rdquo; as it would
+      undoubtedly be called in the next issue of &ldquo;The Rockland Weekly Universe,&rdquo;
+       should be committed. Time,&mdash;this evening. Method, asphyxia, by
+      suspension. It was, unquestionably, taking a great liberty with a man to
+      decide that he should become felo de se without his own consent. Such,
+      however, was the decision of Mr. Richard Venner with regard to Mr. Bernard
+      Langdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If everything went right, then, there would be a coroner's inquest
+      to-morrow upon what remained of that gentleman, found suspended to the
+      branch of a tree somewhere within a mile of the Apollinean Institute. The
+      &ldquo;Weekly Universe&rdquo; would have a startling paragraph announcing a &ldquo;SAD
+      EVENT!!!&rdquo; which had &ldquo;thrown the town into an intense state of excitement.
+      Mr. Barnard Langden, a well-known teacher at the Appolinian Institute, was
+      found, etc., etc. The vital spark was extinct. The motive to the rash act
+      can only be conjectured, but is supposed to be disappointed affection. The
+      name of an accomplished young lady of the highest respectability and great
+      beauty is mentioned in connection with this melancholy occurrence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick Venner was at the tea-table that evening, as usual.&mdash;No, he
+      would take green tea, if she pleased,&mdash;the same that her father
+      drank. It would suit his headache better.&mdash;Nothing,&mdash;he was much
+      obliged to her. He would help himself,&mdash;which he did in a little
+      different way from common, naturally enough, on account of his headache.
+      He noticed that Elsie seemed a little nervous while she was rinsing some
+      of the teacups before their removal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's something going on in that witch's head,&rdquo; he said to himself. &ldquo;I
+      know her,&mdash;she 'd be savage now, if she had n't got some trick in
+      hand. Let 's see how she looks to-morrow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick announced that he should go to bed early that evening, on account of
+      this confounded headache which had been troubling him so much. In fact, he
+      went up early, and locked his door after him, with as much noise as he
+      could make. He then changed some part of his dress, so that it should be
+      dark throughout, slipped off his boots, drew the lasso out from the bottom
+      of the contents of his trunk, and, carrying that and his boots in his
+      hand, opened his door softly, locked it after him, and stole down the
+      back-stairs, so as to get out of the house unnoticed. He went straight to
+      the stable and saddled the mustang. He took a rope from the stable with
+      him, mounted his horse, and set forth in the direction of the Institute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard, as we have seen, had not been very profoundly impressed by
+      the old Doctor's cautions,&mdash;enough, however, to follow out some of
+      his hints which were not troublesome to attend to. He laughed at the idea
+      of carrying a loaded pistol about with him; but still it seemed only fair,
+      as the old Doctor thought so much of the matter, to humor him about it. As
+      for not going about when and where he liked, for fear he might have some
+      lurking enemy, that was a thing not to be listened to nor thought of.
+      There was nothing to be ashamed of or troubled about in any of his
+      relations with the school-girls. Elsie, no doubt, showed a kind of
+      attraction towards him, as did perhaps some others; but he had been
+      perfectly discreet, and no father or brother or lover had any just cause
+      of quarrel with him. To be sure, that dark young man at the Dudley
+      mansion-house looked as if he were his enemy, when he had met him; but
+      certainly there was nothing in their relations to each other, or in his
+      own to Elsie, that would be like to stir such malice in his mind as would
+      lead him to play any of his wild Southern tricks at his, Mr. Bernard's,
+      expense. Yet he had a vague feeling that this young man was dangerous, and
+      he had been given to understand that one of the risks he ran was from that
+      quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this particular evening, he had a strange, unusual sense of some
+      impending peril. His recent interview with the Doctor, certain remarks
+      which had been dropped in his hearing, but above all an unaccountable
+      impression upon his spirits, all combined to fill his mind with a
+      foreboding conviction that he was very near some overshadowing danger. It
+      was as the chill of the ice-mountain toward which the ship is steering
+      under full sail. He felt a strong impulse to see Helen Darley and talk
+      with her. She was in the common parlor, and, fortunately, alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Helen,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;for they were almost like brother and sister now,&mdash;&ldquo;I
+      have been thinking what you would do, if I should have to leave the school
+      at short notice, or be taken away suddenly by any accident.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do?&rdquo; she said, her cheek growing paler than its natural delicate hue,&mdash;&ldquo;why,
+      I do not know how I could possibly consent to live here, if you left us.
+      Since you came, my life has been almost easy; before, it was getting
+      intolerable. You must not talk about going, my dear friend; you have
+      spoiled me for my place. Who is there here that I can have any true
+      society with, but you? You would not leave us for another school, would
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, my dear Helen,&rdquo; Mr. Bernard said, &ldquo;if it depends on myself, I
+      shall stay out my full time, and enjoy your company and friendship. But
+      everything is uncertain in this world. I have been thinking that I might
+      be wanted elsewhere, and called when I did not think of it;&mdash;it was a
+      fancy, perhaps,&mdash;but I can't keep it out of my mind this evening. If
+      any of my fancies should come true, Helen, there are two or three messages
+      I want to leave with you. I have marked a book or two with a cross in
+      pencil on the fly-leaf;&mdash;these are for you. There is a little
+      hymn-book I should like to have you give to Elsie from me;&mdash;it may be
+      a kind of comfort to the poor girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen's eyes glistened as she interrupted him,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean? You must not talk so, Mr. Langdon. Why, you never
+      looked better in your life. Tell me now, you are not in earnest, are you,
+      but only trying a little sentiment on me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard smiled, but rather sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About half in earnest,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have had some fancies in my head,&mdash;superstitions,
+      I suppose,&mdash;at any rate, it does no harm to tell you what I should
+      like to have done, if anything should happen,&mdash;very likely nothing
+      ever will. Send the rest of the books home, if you please, and write a
+      letter to my mother. And, Helen, you will find one small volume in my desk
+      enveloped and directed, you will see to whom;&mdash;give this with your
+      own hands; it is a keepsake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The tears gathered in her eyes; she could not speak at first. Presently,
+      &ldquo;Why, Bernard, my dear friend, my brother, it cannot be that you are in
+      danger? Tell me what it is, and, if I can share it with you, or counsel
+      you in any way, it will only be paying back the great debt I owe you. No,
+      no,&mdash;it can't be true,&mdash;you are tired and worried, and your
+      spirits have got depressed. I know what that is;&mdash;I was sure, one
+      winter, that I should die before spring; but I lived to see the dandelions
+      and buttercups go to seed. Come, tell me it was nothing but your
+      imagination.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She felt a tear upon her cheek, but would not turn her face away from him;
+      it was the tear of a sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am really in earnest, Helen,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don't know that there is the
+      least reason in the world for these fancies. If they all go off and
+      nothing comes of them, you may laugh at me, if you like. But if there
+      should be any occasion, remember my requests. You don't believe in
+      presentiments, do you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, don't ask-me, I beg you,&rdquo; Helen answered. &ldquo;I have had a good many
+      frights for every one real misfortune I have suffered. Sometimes I have
+      thought I was warned beforehand of coming trouble, just as many people are
+      of changes in the weather, by some unaccountable feeling,&mdash;but not
+      often, and I don't like to talk about such things. I wouldn't think about
+      these fancies of yours. I don't believe you have exercised enough;&mdash;don't
+      you think it's confinement in the school has made you nervous?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it has; but it happens that I have thought more of exercise
+      lately, and have taken regular evening walks, besides playing my old
+      gymnastic tricks every day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They talked on many subjects, but through all he said Helen perceived a
+      pervading tone of sadness, and an expression as of a dreamy foreboding of
+      unknown evil. They parted at the usual hour, and went to their several
+      rooms. The sadness of Mr. Bernard had sunk into the heart of Helen, and
+      she mingled many tears with her prayers that evening, earnestly entreating
+      that he might be comforted in his days of trial and protected in his hour
+      of danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard stayed in his room a short time before setting out for his
+      evening walk. His eye fell upon the Bible his mother had given him when he
+      left home, and he opened it in the New Testament at a venture. It happened
+      that the first words he read were these,&mdash;&ldquo;Lest, coming suddenly, he
+      find you sleeping.&rdquo; In the state of mind in which he was at the moment,
+      the text startled him. It was like a supernatural warning. He was not
+      going to expose himself to any particular danger this evening; a walk in a
+      quiet village was as free from risk as Helen Darley or his own mother
+      could ask; yet he had an unaccountable feeling of apprehension, without
+      any definite object. At this moment he remembered the old Doctor's
+      counsel, which he had sometimes neglected, and, blushing at the feeling
+      which led him to do it, he took the pistol his suspicious old friend had
+      forced upon him, which he had put away loaded, and, thrusting it into his
+      pocket, set out upon his walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was shining at intervals, for the night was partially clouded.
+      There seemed to be nobody stirring, though his attention was unusually
+      awake, and he could hear the whirr of the bats overhead, and the pulsating
+      croak of the frogs in the distant pools and marshes. Presently he detected
+      the sound of hoofs at some distance, and, looking forward, saw a horseman
+      coming in his direction. The moon was under a cloud at the moment, and he
+      could only observe that the horse and his rider looked like a single dark
+      object, and that they were moving along at an easy pace. Mr. Bernard was
+      really ashamed of himself, when he found his hand on the butt of his
+      pistol. When the horseman was within a hundred and fifty yards of him, the
+      moon shone out suddenly and revealed each of them to the other. The rider
+      paused for a moment, as if carefully surveying the pedestrian, then
+      suddenly put his horse to the full gallop, and dashed towards him, rising
+      at the same instant in his stirrups and swinging something round his head,
+      what, Mr. Bernard could not make out. It was a strange manoeuvre,&mdash;so
+      strange and threatening in aspect that the young man forgot his
+      nervousness in an instant, cocked his pistol, and waited to see what
+      mischief all this meant. He did not wait long. As the rider came rushing
+      towards him, he made a rapid motion and something leaped five-and-twenty
+      feet through the air, in Mr. Bernard's direction. In an instant he felt a
+      ring, as of a rope or thong, settle upon his shoulders. There was no time
+      to think, he would be lost in another second. He raised his pistol and
+      fired,&mdash;not at the rider, but at the horse. His aim was true; the
+      mustang gave one bound and fell lifeless, shot through the head. The lasso
+      was fastened to his saddle, and his last bound threw Mr. Bernard violently
+      to the earth, where he lay motionless, as if stunned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, Dick Venner, who had been dashed down with his horse,
+      was trying to extricate himself,&mdash;one of his legs being held fast
+      under the animal, the long spur on his boot having caught in the
+      saddle-cloth. He found, however, that he could do nothing with his right
+      arm, his shoulder having been in some way injured in his fall. But his
+      Southern blood was up, and, as he saw Mr. Bernard move as if he were
+      coming to his senses, he struggled violently to free himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll have the dog, yet,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;only let me get at him with the
+      knife!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had just succeeded in extricating his imprisoned leg, and was ready to
+      spring to his feet, when he was caught firmly by the throat, and looking
+      up, saw a clumsy barbed weapon, commonly known as a hay fork, within an
+      inch of his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold on there! What 'n thunder 'r' y' abaout, y' darned Portagee?&rdquo; said a
+      voice, with a decided nasal tone in it, but sharp and resolute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick looked from the weapon to the person who held it, and saw a sturdy,
+      plain man standing over him, with his teeth clinched, and his aspect that
+      of one all ready for mischief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lay still, naow!&rdquo; said Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man; &ldquo;'f y' don't,
+      I'll stick ye, 'z sure 'z y' 'r' alive! I been arfter ye f'r a week, 'n' I
+      got y' naow! I knowed I'd ketch ye at some darned trick or 'nother 'fore
+      I'd done 'ith ye!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick lay perfectly still, feeling that he was crippled and helpless,
+      thinking all the time with the Yankee half of his mind what to do about
+      it. He saw Mr. Bernard lift his head and look around him. He would get his
+      senses again in a few minutes, very probably, and then he, Mr. Richard
+      Venner, would be done for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me up! let me up!&rdquo; he cried, in a low, hurried voice,&mdash;&ldquo;I 'll
+      give you a hundred dollars in gold to let me go. The man a'n't hurt,&mdash;don't
+      you see him stirring? He'll come to himself in two minutes. Let me up!
+      I'll give you a hundred and fifty dollars in gold, now, here on the spot,&mdash;and
+      the watch out of my pocket; take it yourself, with your own hands!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll see y' darned fust! Ketch me lett'n' go!&rdquo; was Abel's emphatic
+      answer. &ldquo;Yeou lay still, 'n' wait t'll that man comes tew.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He kept the hay-fork ready for action at the slightest sign of resistance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard, in the mean time, had been getting, first his senses, and
+      then some few of his scattered wits, a little together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo;&mdash;he said. &ldquo;Who'shurt? What's happened?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come along here 'z quick 'z y' ken,&rdquo; Abel answered, &ldquo;'n' haalp me fix
+      this fellah. Y' been hurt, y'rself, 'n' the' 's murder come pooty nigh
+      happenin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard heard the answer, but presently stared about and asked again,
+      &ldquo;Who's hurt? What's happened?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Y' 'r' hurt, y'rself, I tell ye,&rdquo; said Abel; &ldquo;'n' the' 's been a murder,
+      pooty nigh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard felt something about his neck, and, putting his hands up,
+      found the loop of the lasso, which he loosened, but did not think to slip
+      over his head, in the confusion of his perceptions and thoughts. It was a
+      wonder that it had not choked him, but he had fallen forward so as to
+      slacken it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time he was getting some notion of what he was about, and
+      presently began looking round for his pistol, which had fallen. He found
+      it lying near him, cocked it mechanically, and walked, somewhat
+      unsteadily, towards the two men, who were keeping their position as still
+      as if they were performing in a tableau.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quick, naow!&rdquo; said Abel, who had heard the click of cocking the pistol,
+      and saw that he held it in his hand, as he came towards him. &ldquo;Gi' me that
+      pistil, and yeou fetch that 'ere rope layin' there. I 'll have this here
+      fellah fixed 'n less 'n two minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard did as Abel said,&mdash;stupidly and mechanically, for he was
+      but half right as yet. Abel pointed the pistol at Dick's head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Naow hold up y'r hands, yeou fellah,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;'n' keep 'em up, while
+      this man puts the rope mound y'r wrists.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick felt himself helpless, and, rather than have his disabled arm roughly
+      dealt with, held up his hands. Mr. Bernard did as Abel said; he was in a
+      purely passive state, and obeyed orders like a child. Abel then secured
+      the rope in a most thorough and satisfactory complication of twists and
+      knots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Naow get up, will ye?&rdquo; he said; and the unfortunate Dick rose to his
+      feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's hurt? What's happened?&rdquo; asked poor Mr. Bernard again, his memory
+      having been completely jarred out of him for the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, look here naow, yeou, don' Stan' askin' questions over 'n' over;&mdash;'t
+      beats all! ha'n't I tol' y' a dozen times?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Abel spoke, he turned and looked at Mr. Bernard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hullo! What 'n thunder's that 'ere raoun' y'r neck? Ketched ye 'ith a
+      slippernoose, hey? Wal, if that a'n't the craowner! Hol' on a minute,
+      Cap'n, 'n' I'll show ye what that 'ere halter's good for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel slipped the noose over Mr. Bernard's head, and put it round the neck
+      of the miserable Dick Venner, who made no sign of resistance,&mdash;whether
+      on account of the pain he was in, or from mere helplessness, or because he
+      was waiting for some unguarded moment to escape,&mdash;since resistance
+      seemed of no use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'm go'n' to kerry y' home,&rdquo; said Abel; &ldquo;'T' th' ol Doctor, he's got a
+      gre't cur'osity t' see ye. Jes' step along naow,&mdash;off that way, will
+      ye?&mdash;'n' I Ill hol' on t' th' bridle, f' fear y' sh'd run away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took hold of the leather thong, but found that it was fastened at the
+      other end to the saddle. This was too much for Abel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wal, naow, yeou be a pooty chap to hev raound! A fellah's neck in a
+      slippernoose at one eend of a halter, 'n' a hors on th' full spring at t'
+      other eend!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at him from' head to foot as a naturalist inspects a new
+      specimen. His clothes had suffered in his fall, especially on the leg
+      which had been caught under the horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hullo! look o' there, naow! What's that 'ere stickin' aout o' y'r boot?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was nothing but the handle of an ugly knife, which Abel instantly
+      relieved him of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party now took up the line of march for old Doctor Kittredge's house,
+      Abel carrying the pistol and knife, and Mr. Bernard walking in silence,
+      still half-stunned, holding the hay-fork, which Abel had thrust into his
+      hand. It was all a dream to him as yet. He remembered the horseman riding
+      at him, and his firing the pistol; but whether he was alive, and these
+      walls around him belonged to the village of Rockland, or whether he had
+      passed the dark river, and was in a suburb of the New Jerusalem, he could
+      not as yet have told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were in the street where the Doctor's house was situated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess I'll fire off one o' these here berrils,&rdquo; said Abel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He fired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently there was a noise of opening windows, and the nocturnal
+      head-dresses of Rockland flowered out of them like so many developments of
+      the Nightblooming Cereus. White cotton caps and red bandanna handkerchiefs
+      were the prevailing forms of efflorescence. The main point was that the
+      village was waked up. The old Doctor always waked easily, from long habit,
+      and was the first among those who looked out to see what had happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Abel!&rdquo; he called out, &ldquo;what have you got there? and what 's all this
+      noise about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We've ketched the Portagee!&rdquo; Abel answered, as laconically as the hero of
+      Lake Erie, in his famous dispatch. &ldquo;Go in there, you fellah!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prisoner was marched into the house, and the Doctor, who had bewitched
+      his clothes upon him in a way that would have been miraculous in anybody
+      but a physician, was down in presentable form as soon as if it had been a
+      child in a fit that he was sent for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richard Venner!&rdquo; the Doctor exclaimed. &ldquo;What is the meaning of all this?
+      Mr. Langdon, has anything happened to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard put his hand to his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My mind is confused,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I've had a fall.&mdash;Oh, yes!&mdash;wait
+      a minute and it will all come back to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit down, sit down,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;Abel will tell me about it. Slight
+      concussion of the brain. Can't remember very well for an hour or two,&mdash;will
+      come right by to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Been stunded,&rdquo; Abel said. &ldquo;He can't tell nothin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel then proceeded to give a Napoleonic bulletin of the recent combat of
+      cavalry and infantry and its results,&mdash;none slain, one captured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor looked at the prisoner through his spectacles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What 's the matter with your shoulder, Venner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick answered sullenly, that he didn't know, fell on it when his horse
+      came down. The Doctor examined it as carefully as he could through his
+      clothes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of joint. Untie his hands, Abel&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time a small alarm had spread among the neighbors, and there was a
+      circle around Dick, who glared about on the assembled honest people like a
+      hawk with a broken wing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Doctor said, &ldquo;Untie his hands,&rdquo; the circle widened perceptibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't it a leetle rash to give him the use of his hands? I see there's
+      females and children standin' near.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the remark of our old friend, Deacon Soper, who retired from the
+      front row, as he spoke, behind a respectable-looking, but somewhat hastily
+      dressed person of the defenceless sex, the female help of a neighboring
+      household, accompanied by a boy, whose unsmoothed shock of hair looked
+      like a last year's crow's-nest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Abel untied his hands, in spite of the Deacon's considerate
+      remonstrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said the Doctor, &ldquo;the first thing is to put the joint back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop,&rdquo; said Deacon Soper,&mdash;&ldquo;stop a minute. Don't you think it will
+      be safer&mdash;for the women-folks&mdash;jest to wait till mornin', afore
+      you put that j'int into the socket?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Colonel Sprowle, who had been called by a special messenger, spoke up at
+      this moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let the women-folks and the deacons go home, if they're scared, and put
+      the fellah's j'int in as quick as you like. I 'll resk him, j'int in or
+      out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want one of you to go straight down to Dudley Venner's with a message,&rdquo;
+       the Doctor said. &ldquo;I will have the young man's shoulder in quick enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't send that message!&rdquo; said Dick, in a hoarse voice;&mdash;&ldquo;do what
+      you like with my arm, but don't send that message! Let me go,&mdash;I can
+      walk, and I'll be off from this place. There's nobody hurt but myself.
+      Damn the shoulder!&mdash;let me go! You shall never hear of me again!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard came forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friends,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I am not injured,&mdash;seriously, at least.
+      Nobody need complain against this man, if I don't. The Doctor will treat
+      him like a human being, at any rate; and then, if he will go, let him.
+      There are too many witnesses against him here for him to want to stay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor, in the mean time, without saying a word to all this, had got a
+      towel round the shoulder and chest and another round the arm, and had the
+      bone replaced in a very few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Abel, put Cassia into the new chaise,&rdquo; he said, quietly. &ldquo;My friends and
+      neighbors, leave this young man to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Colonel Sprowle, you're a justice of the peace,&rdquo; said Deacon Soper, &ldquo;and
+      you know what the law says in cases like this. It a'n't so clear that it
+      won't have to come afore the Grand Jury, whether we will or no.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess we'll set that j'int to-morrow mornin',&rdquo; said Colonel Sprowle,&mdash;which
+      made a laugh at the Deacon's expense, and virtually settled the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now trust this young man in my care,&rdquo; said the old Doctor, &ldquo;and go home
+      and finish your naps. I knew him when he was a boy and I'll answer for it,
+      he won't trouble you any more. The Dudley blood makes folks proud, I can
+      tell you, whatever else they are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The good people so respected and believed in the Doctor that they left the
+      prisoner with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently, Cassia, the fast Morgan mare, came up to the front-door, with
+      the wheels of the new, light chaise flashing behind her in the moonlight.
+      The Doctor drove Dick forty miles at a stretch that night, out of the
+      limits of the State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want money?&rdquo; he said, before he left him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick told him the secret of his golden belt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall I send your trunk after you from your uncle's?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dick gave him a direction to a seaport town to which he himself was going,
+      to take passage for a port in South America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-bye, Richard,&rdquo; said the Doctor. &ldquo;Try to learn something from
+      to-night's lesson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Southern impulses in Dick's wild blood overcame him, and he kissed the
+      old Doctor on both cheeks, crying as only the children of the sun can cry,
+      after the first hours in the dewy morning of life. So Dick Venner
+      disappears from this story. An hour after dawn, Cassia pointed her fine
+      ears homeward, and struck into her square, honest trot, as if she had not
+      been doing anything more than her duty during her four hours' stretch of
+      the last night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel was not in the habit of questioning the Doctor's decisions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all right,&rdquo; he said to Mr. Bernard. &ldquo;The fellah 's Squire Venner's
+      relation, anyhaow. Don't you want to wait here, jest a little while, till
+      I come back? The's a consid'able nice saddle 'n' bridle on a dead boss
+      that's layin' daown there in the road 'n' I guess the' a'n't no use in
+      lettin' on 'em spite,&mdash;so I'll jest step aout 'n' fetch 'em along. I
+      kind o' calc'late 't won't pay to take the cretur's shoes 'n' hide off
+      to-night,&mdash;'n' the' won't be much iron on that hose's huffs an haour
+      after daylight, I'll bate ye a quarter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll walk along with you,&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard; &ldquo;I feel as if I could get
+      along well enough now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they set off together. There was a little crowd round the dead mustang
+      already, principally consisting of neighbors who had adjourned from the
+      Doctor's house to see the scene of the late adventure. In addition to
+      these, however, the assembly was honored by the presence of Mr. Principal
+      Silas Peckham, who had been called from his slumbers by a message that
+      Master Langdon was shot through the head by a highway-robber, but had
+      learned a true version of the story by this time. His voice was at that
+      moment heard above the rest,&mdash;sharp, but thin, like bad
+      cider-vinegar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I take charge of that property, I say. Master Langdon 's actin' under my
+      orders, and I claim that hoss and all that's on him. Hiram! jest slip off
+      that saddle and bridle, and carry 'em up to the Institoot, and bring down
+      a pair of pinchers and a file,&mdash;and&mdash;stop&mdash;fetch a pair of
+      shears, too; there's hosshair enough in that mane and tail to stuff a
+      bolster with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You let that hoss alone!&rdquo; spoke up Colonel Sprowle. &ldquo;When a fellah goes
+      out huntin' and shoots a squirrel, do you think he's go'n' to let another
+      fellah pick him up and kerry him off? Not if he's got a double-berril gun,
+      and t'other berril ha'n't been fired off yet! I should like to see the
+      mahn that'll take off that seddle 'n' bridle, excep' the one th't hez a
+      fair right to the whole concern!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hiram was from one of the lean streaks in New Hampshire, and, not being
+      overfed in Mr. Silas Peckham's kitchen, was somewhat wanting in stamina,
+      as well as in stomach, for so doubtful an enterprise, as undertaking to
+      carry out his employer's orders in the face of the Colonel's defiance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Mr. Bernard and Abel came up together. &ldquo;Here they be,&rdquo; said the
+      Colonel. &ldquo;Stan' beck, gentlemen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard, who was pale and still a little confused, but gradually
+      becoming more like himself, stood and looked in silence for a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All his thoughts seemed to be clearing themselves in this interval. He
+      took in the whole series of incidents: his own frightful risk; the
+      strange, instinctive, nay, Providential impulse, which had led him so
+      suddenly to do the one only thing which could possibly have saved him; the
+      sudden appearance of the Doctor's man, but for which he might yet have
+      been lost; and the discomfiture and capture of his dangerous enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was all past now, and a feeling of pity rose in Mr. Bernard's heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He loved that horse, no doubt,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;and no wonder. A
+      beautiful, wild&mdash;looking creature! Take off those things that are on
+      him, Abel, and have them carried to Mr. Dudley Venner's. If he does not
+      want them, you may keep them yourself, for all that I have to say. One
+      thing more. I hope nobody will lift his hand against this noble creature
+      to mutilate him in any way. After you have taken off the saddle and
+      bridle, Abel, bury him just as he is. Under that old beech-tree will be a
+      good place. You'll see to it,&mdash;won't you, Abel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel nodded assent, and Mr. Bernard returned to the Institute, threw
+      himself in his clothes on the bed, and slept like one who is heavy with
+      wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Following Mr. Bernard's wishes, Abel at once took off the high-peaked
+      saddle and the richly ornamented bridle from the mustang. Then, with the
+      aid of two or three others, he removed him to the place indicated. Spades
+      and shovels were soon procured, and before the moon had set, the wild
+      horse of the Pampas was at rest under the turf at the wayside, in the far
+      village among the hills of New England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI. THE NEWS REACHES THE DUDLEY MANSION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Early the next morning Abel Stebbins made his appearance at Dudley
+      Venner's, and requested to see the maan o' the haouse abaout somethin' o'
+      consequence. Mr. Venner sent word that the messenger should wait below,
+      and presently appeared in the study, where Abel was making himself at
+      home, as is the wont of the republican citizen, when he hides the purple
+      of empire beneath the apron of domestic service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good mornin', Squire!&rdquo; said Abel, as Mr. Venner entered. &ldquo;My name's
+      Stebbins, 'n' I'm stoppin' f'r a spell 'ith of Doctor Kittredge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Stebbins,&rdquo; said Mr. Dudley Venner, &ldquo;have you brought any special
+      message from the Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Y' ha'n't heerd nothin' abaout it, Squire, d' ye mean t' say?&rdquo; said Abel,&mdash;beginning
+      to suspect that he was the first to bring the news of last evening's
+      events.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About what?&rdquo; asked Mr. Venner, with some interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dew tell, naow! Waal, that beats all! Why, that 'ere Portagee relation o'
+      yourn 'z been tryin' t' ketch a fellah 'n a slippernoose, 'n' got ketched
+      himself,&mdash;that's all. Y' ha'n't heerd noth'n' abaout it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit down,&rdquo; said Mr. Dudley Venner, calmly, &ldquo;and tell me all you have to
+      say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Abel sat down and gave him an account of the events of the last
+      evening. It was a strange and terrible surprise to Dudley Venner to find
+      that his nephew, who had been an inmate of his house and the companion of
+      his daughter, was to all intents and purposes guilty of the gravest of
+      crimes. But the first shock was no sooner over than he began to think what
+      effect the news would have on Elsie. He imagined that there was a kind of
+      friendly feeling between them, and he feared some crisis would be provoked
+      in his daughter's mental condition by the discovery. He would wait,
+      however, until she came from her chamber, before disturbing her with the
+      evil tidings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel did not forget his message with reference to the equipments of the
+      dead mustang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The' was some things on the hoss, Squire, that the man he ketched said he
+      did n' care no gre't abaout; but perhaps you'd like to have 'em fetched to
+      the mansion-haouse. Ef y' did n' care abaout 'em, though, I should n' min'
+      keepin' on 'em; they might come handy some time or 'nother; they say, holt
+      on t' anything for ten year 'n' there 'll be some kin' o' use for 't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep everything,&rdquo; said Dudley Venner. &ldquo;I don't want to see anything
+      belonging to that young man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Abel nodded to Mr. Venner, and left the study to find some of the men
+      about the stable to tell and talk over with them the events of the last
+      evening. He presently came upon Elbridge, chief of the equine department,
+      and driver of the family-coach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good mornin', Abe,&rdquo; said Elbridge. &ldquo;What's fetched y' daown here so
+      all-fired airly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a darned pooty lot daown here, you be!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel answered. &ldquo;Better keep your Portagees t' home nex' time, ketchin'
+      folks 'ith slippernooses raoun' their necks, 'n' kerryin' knives 'n their
+      boots!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What 'r' you jawin' abaout?&rdquo; Elbridge said, looking up to see if he was
+      in earnest, and what he meant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jawin' abaout? You'll find aout'z soon 'z y' go into that 'ere stable o'
+      yourn! Y' won't curry that 'ere long-tailed black hoss no more; 'n' y'
+      won't set y'r eyes on the fellah that rid him, ag'in, in a hurry!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elbridge walked straight to the stable, without saying a word, found the
+      door unlocked, and went in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Th' critter's gone, sure enough!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Glad on 't! The darndest,
+      kickin'est, bitin'est beast th't ever I see, 'r ever wan' t' see ag'in!
+      Good reddance! Don' wan' no snappin'-turkles in my stable! Whar's the man
+      gone th't brought the critter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whar he's gone? Guess y' better go 'n ask my ol man; he kerried him off
+      lass' night; 'n' when he comes back, mebbe he 'll tell ye whar he's gone
+      tew!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time Elbridge had found out that Abel was in earnest, and had
+      something to tell. He looked at the litter in the mustang's stall, then at
+      the crib.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha'n't eat b't haalf his feed. Ha'n't been daown on his straw. Must ha'
+      been took aout somewhere abaout ten 'r 'levee o'clock. I know that 'ere
+      critter's ways. The fellah's had him aout nights afore; b't I never
+      thought nothin' o' no mischief. He 's a kin' o' haalf Injin. What is 't
+      the chap's been a-doin' on? Tell 's all abaout it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel sat down on a meal-chest, picked up a straw and put it into his
+      mouth. Elbridge sat down at the other end, pulled out his jack-knife,
+      opened the penknife-blade, and began sticking it into the lid of the
+      meal-chest. The Doctor's man had a story to tell, and he meant to get all
+      the enjoyment out of it. So he told it with every luxury of circumstance.
+      Mr. Venner's man heard it all with open mouth. No listener in the gardens
+      of Stamboul could have found more rapture in a tale heard amidst the
+      perfume of roses and the voices of birds and tinkling of fountains than
+      Elbridge in following Abel's narrative, as they sat there in the aromatic
+      ammoniacal atmosphere of the stable, the grinding of the horses' jaws
+      keeping evenly on through it all, with now and then the interruption of a
+      stamping hoof, and at intervals a ringing crow from the barn-yard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elbridge stopped a minute to think, after Abel had finished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's took care o' them things that was on the hoss?&rdquo; he said, gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal, Langden, he seemed to kin 'o' think I'd ought to have 'em,&mdash;'n'
+      the Squire; he did n' seem to have no 'bjection; 'n' so,&mdash;waal, I
+      calc'late I sh'll jes' holt on to 'em myself; they a'n't good f 'r much,
+      but they're cur'ous t' keep t' look at.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Venner's man did not appear much gratified by this arrangement,
+      especially as he had a shrewd suspicion that some of the ornaments of the
+      bridle were of precious metal, having made occasional examinations of them
+      with the edge of a file. But he did not see exactly what to do about it,
+      except to get them from Abel in the way of bargain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal, no,&mdash;they a'n't good for much 'xcep' to look at. 'F y' ever
+      rid on that seddle once, y' would n' try it ag'in, very spry,&mdash;not 'f
+      y' c'd haalp y'rsaalf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tried it,&mdash;darned 'f I sot daown f'r th' nex' week,&mdash;eat all
+      my victuals stan'in'. I sh'd like t' hev them things wal enough to heng up
+      'n the stable; 'f y' want t' trade some day, fetch 'em along daown.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Abel rather expected that Elbridge would have laid claim to the saddle and
+      bridle on the strength of some promise or other presumptive title, and
+      thought himself lucky to get off with only offering to think abaout
+      tradin'.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Elbridge returned to the house, he found the family in a state of
+      great excitement. Mr. Venner had told Old Sophy, and she had informed the
+      other servants. Everybody knew what had happened, excepting Elsie. Her
+      father had charged them all to say nothing about it to her; he would tell
+      her, when she came down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard her step at last,&mdash;alight, gliding step,&mdash;so light that
+      her coming was often unheard, except by those who perceived the faint
+      rustle that went with it. She was paler than common this morning, as she
+      came into her father's study.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a few words of salutation, he said quietly, &ldquo;Elsie, my dear, your
+      cousin Richard has left us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She grew still paler, as she asked,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he dead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner started to see the expression with which Elsie put this
+      question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is living,&mdash;but dead to us from this day forward,&rdquo; said her
+      father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He proceeded to tell her, in a general way, the story he had just heard
+      from Abel. There could be no doubting it;&mdash;he remembered him as the
+      Doctor's man; and as Abel had seen all with his own eyes, as Dick's
+      chamber, when unlocked with a spare key, was found empty, and his bed had
+      not been slept in, he accepted the whole account as true.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he told of Dick's attempt on the young schoolmaster, (&ldquo;You know Mr.
+      Langdon very well, Elsie,&mdash;a perfectly inoffensive young man, as I
+      understand,&rdquo;) Elsie turned her face away and slid along by the wall to the
+      window which looked out oh the little grass-plot with the white stone
+      standing in it. Her father could not see her face, but he knew by her
+      movements that her dangerous mood was on her. When she heard the sequel of
+      the story, the discomfiture and capture of Dick, she turned round for an
+      instant, with a look of contempt and of something like triumph upon her
+      face. Her father saw that her cousin had become odious to her: He knew
+      well, by every change of her countenance, by her movements, by every
+      varying curve of her graceful figure, the transitions front passion to
+      repose, from fierce excitement to the dull languor which often succeeded
+      her threatening paroxysms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She remained looking out at the window. A group of white fan-tailed
+      pigeons had lighted on the green plot before it and clustered about one of
+      their companions who lay on his back, fluttering in a strange way, with
+      outspread wings and twitching feet. Elsie uttered a faint cry; these were
+      her special favorites and often fed from her hand. She threw open the long
+      window, sprang out, caught up the white fantail, and held it to her bosom.
+      The bird stretched himself out, and then lay still, with open eyes,
+      lifeless. She looked at him a moment, and, sliding in through the open
+      window and through the study, sought her own apartment, where she locked
+      herself in, and began to sob and moan like those that weep. But the
+      gracious solace of tears seemed to be denied her, and her grief, like her
+      anger, was a dull ache, longing, like that, to finish itself with a fierce
+      paroxysm, but wanting its natural outlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This seemingly trifling incident of the death of her favorite appeared to
+      change all the current of her thought. Whether it were the sight of the
+      dying bird, or the thought that her own agency might have beep concerned
+      in it, or some deeper grief, which took this occasion to declare itself,&mdash;some
+      dark remorse or hopeless longing,&mdash;whatever it might be, there was an
+      unwonted tumult in her soul. To whom should she go in her vague misery?
+      Only to Him who knows all His creatures' sorrows, and listens to the
+      faintest human cry. She knelt, as she had been taught to kneel from her
+      childhood, and tried to pray. But her thoughts refused to flow in the
+      language of supplication. She could not plead for herself as other women
+      plead in their hours of anguish. She rose like one who should stoop to
+      drink, and find dust in the place of water. Partly from restlessness,
+      partly from an attraction she hardly avowed to herself, she followed her
+      usual habit and strolled listlessly along to the school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course everybody at the Institute was full of the terrible adventure of
+      the preceding evening. Mr. Bernard felt poorly enough; but he had made it
+      a point to show himself the next morning, as if nothing had happened.
+      Helen Darley knew nothing of it all until she hard risen, when the gossipy
+      matron of the establishment made her acquainted with all its details,
+      embellished with such additional ornamental appendages as it had caught up
+      in transmission from lip to lip. She did not love to betray her
+      sensibilities, but she was pale and tremulous and very nearly tearful when
+      Mr. Bernard entered the sitting-room, showing on his features traces of
+      the violent shock he had received and the heavy slumber from which he had
+      risen with throbbing brows. What the poor girl's impulse was, on seeing
+      him, we need not inquire too curiously. If he had been her own brother,
+      she would have kissed him and cried on his neck; but something held her
+      back. There is no galvanism in kiss-your-brother; it is copper against
+      copper: but alien bloods develop strange currents, when they flow close to
+      each other, with only the films that cover lip and cheek between them. Mr.
+      Bernard, as some of us may remember, violated the proprieties and laid
+      himself open to reproach by his enterprise with a bouncing village-girl,
+      to whose rosy cheek an honest smack was not probably an absolute novelty.
+      He made it all up by his discretion and good behavior now. He saw by
+      Helen's moist eye and trembling lip that her woman's heart was off its
+      guard, and he knew, by the infallible instinct of sex, that he should be
+      forgiven, if he thanked her for her sisterly sympathies in the most
+      natural way,&mdash;expressive, and at the same time economical of breath
+      and utterance. He would not give a false look to their friendship by any
+      such demonstration. Helen was a little older than himself, but the aureole
+      of young womanhood had not yet begun to fade from around her. She was
+      surrounded by that enchanted atmosphere into which the girl walks with
+      dreamy eyes, and out of which the woman passes with a story written on her
+      forehead. Some people think very little of these refinements; they have
+      not studied magnetism and the law of the square of the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Mr. Bernard thanked Helen for her interest without the aid of the
+      twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet,&mdash;the love labial,&mdash;the
+      limping consonant which it takes two to speak plain. Indeed, he scarcely
+      let her say a word, at first; for he saw that it was hard for her to
+      conceal her emotion. No wonder; he had come within a hair's-breadth of
+      losing his life, and he had been a very kind friend and a very dear
+      companion to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were some curious spiritual experiences connected with his last
+      evening's adventure which were working very strongly in his mind. It was
+      borne in upon him irresistibly that he had been dead since he had seen
+      Helen,&mdash;as dead as the son of the Widow of Nain before the bier was
+      touched and he sat up and began to speak. There was an interval between
+      two conscious moments which appeared to him like a temporary annihilation,
+      and the thoughts it suggested were worrying him with strange perplexities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He remembered seeing the dark figure on horseback rise in the saddle and
+      something leap from its hand. He remembered the thrill he felt as the coil
+      settled on his shoulders, and the sudden impulse which led him to fire as
+      he did. With the report of the pistol all became blank, until he found
+      himself in a strange, bewildered state, groping about for the weapon,
+      which he had a vague consciousness of having dropped. But, according to
+      Abel's account, there must have been an interval of some minutes between
+      these recollections, and he could not help asking, Where was the mind, the
+      soul, the thinking principle, all this time?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man is stunned by a blow with a stick on the head. He becomes
+      unconscious. Another man gets a harder blow on the head from a bigger
+      stick, and it kills him. Does he become unconscious, too? If so, when does
+      he come to his consciousness? The man who has had a slight or moderate
+      blow comes to himself when the immediate shock passes off and the organs
+      begin to work again, or when a bit of the skull is pried up, if that
+      happens to be broken. Suppose the blow is hard enough to spoil the brain
+      and stop the play of the organs, what happens them?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A British captain was struck by a cannon-ball on the head, just as he was
+      giving an order, at the Battle of the Nile. Fifteen months afterwards he
+      was trephined at Greenwich Hospital, having been insensible all that time.
+      Immediately after the operation his consciousness returned, and he at once
+      began carrying out the order he was giving when the shot struck him.
+      Suppose he had never been trephined, when would his consciousness have
+      returned? When his breath ceased and his heart stopped beating?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mr. Bernard said to Helen, &ldquo;I have been dead since I saw you,&rdquo; it
+      startled her not a little; for his expression was that of perfect good
+      faith, and she feared that his mind was disordered. When he explained, not
+      as has been done just now, at length, but in a hurried, imperfect way, the
+      meaning of his strange assertion, and the fearful Sadduceeisms which it
+      had suggested to his mind, she looked troubled at first, and then
+      thoughtful. She did not feel able to answer all the difficulties he
+      raised, but she met them with that faith which is the strength as well as
+      the weakness of women,&mdash;which makes them weak in the hands of man,
+      but strong in the presence of the Unseen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a strange experience,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;but I once had something like it.
+      I fainted, and lost some five or ten minutes out of my life, as much as if
+      I had been dead. But when I came to myself, I was the same person every
+      way, in my recollections and character. So I suppose that loss of
+      consciousness is not death. And if I was born out of unconsciousness into
+      infancy with many family-traits of mind and body, I can believe, from my
+      own reason, even without help from Revelation, that I shall be born again
+      out of the unconsciousness of death with my individual traits of mind and
+      body. If death is, as it should seem to be, a loss of consciousness, that
+      does not shake my faith; for I have been put into a body once already to
+      fit me for living here, and I hope to be in some way fitted after this
+      life to enjoy a better one. But it is all trust in God and in his Word.
+      These are enough for me; I hope they are for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen was a minister's daughter, and familiar from her childhood with this
+      class of questions, especially with all the doubts and perplexities which
+      are sure to assail every thinking child bred in any inorganic or not
+      thoroughly vitalized faith,&mdash;as is too often the case with the
+      children of professional theologians. The kind of discipline they are
+      subjected to is like that of the Flat-Head Indian pappooses. At five or
+      ten or fifteen years old they put their hands up to their foreheads and
+      ask, What are they strapping down my brains in this way for? So they tear
+      off the sacred bandages of the great Flat-Head tribe, and there follows a
+      mighty rush of blood to the long-compressed region. This accounts, in the
+      most lucid manner, for those sudden freaks with which certain children of
+      this class astonish their worthy parents at the period of life when they
+      are growing fast, and, the frontal pressure beginning to be felt as
+      something intolerable, they tear off the holy compresses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hour for school came, and they went to the great hall for study. It
+      would not have occurred to Mr. Silas Peckham to ask his assistant whether
+      he felt well enough to attend to his duties; and Mr. Bernard chose to be
+      at his post. A little headache and confusion were all that remained of his
+      symptoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later, in the course of the forenoon, Elsie Venner came and took her
+      place. The girls all stared at her&mdash;naturally enough; for it was
+      hardly to have been expected that she would show herself, after such an
+      event in the household to which she belonged. Her expression was somewhat
+      peculiar, and, of course, was attributed to the shock her feelings had
+      undergone on hearing of the crime attempted by her cousin and daily
+      companion. When she was looking on her book, or on any indifferent object,
+      her countenance betrayed some inward disturbance, which knitted her dark
+      brows, and seemed to throw a deeper shadow over her features. But, from
+      time to time, she would lift her eyes toward Mr. Bernard, and let them
+      rest upon him, without a thought, seemingly, that she herself was the
+      subject of observation or remark. Then they seemed to lose their cold
+      glitter, and soften into a strange, dreamy tenderness. The deep instincts
+      of womanhood were striving to grope their way to the surface of her being
+      through all the alien influences which overlaid them. She could be secret
+      and cunning in working out any of her dangerous impulses, but she did not
+      know how to mask the unwonted feeling which fixed her eyes and her
+      thoughts upon the only person who had ever reached the spring of her
+      hidden sympathies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls all looked at Elsie, whenever they could steal a glance
+      unperceived, and many of them were struck with this singular expression
+      her features wore. They had long whispered it around among each other that
+      she had a liking for the master; but there were too many of them of whom
+      something like this could be said, to make it very remarkable. Now,
+      however, when so many little hearts were fluttering at the thought of the
+      peril through which the handsome young master had so recently passed, they
+      were more alive than ever to the supposed relation between him and the
+      dark school-girl. Some had supposed there was a mutual attachment between
+      them; there was a story that they were secretly betrothed, in accordance
+      with the rumor which had been current in the village. At any rate, some
+      conflict was going on in that still, remote, clouded soul, and all the
+      girls who looked upon her face were impressed and awed as they had never
+      been before by the shadows that passed over it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of these girls was more strongly arrested by Elsie's look than the
+      others. This was a delicate, pallid creature, with a high forehead, and
+      wide-open pupils, which looked as if they could take in all the shapes
+      that flit in what, to common eyes, is darkness,&mdash;a girl said to be
+      clairvoyant under certain influences. In the recess, as it was called, or
+      interval of suspended studies in the middle of the forenoon, this girl
+      carried her autograph-book,&mdash;for she had one of those indispensable
+      appendages of the boarding-school miss of every degree,&mdash;and asked
+      Elsie to write her name in it. She had an irresistible feeling, that,
+      sooner or later, and perhaps very soon, there would attach an unusual
+      interest to this autograph. Elsie took the pen and wrote, in her sharp
+      Italian hand,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie Venner, Infelix.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a remembrance, doubtless, of the forlorn queen of the &ldquo;AEneid&rdquo;; but
+      its coming to her thought in this way confirmed the sensitive school-girl
+      in her fears for Elsie, and she let fall a tear upon the page before she
+      closed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, the keen and practised observation of Helen Darley could not
+      fail to notice the change of Elsie's manner and expression. She had long
+      seen that she was attracted to the young master, and had thought, as the
+      old Doctor did, that any impression which acted upon her affections might
+      be the means of awakening a new life in her singularly isolated nature.
+      Now, however, the concentration of the poor girl's thoughts upon the one
+      object which had had power to reach her deeper sensibilities was so
+      painfully revealed in her features, that Helen began to fear once more,
+      lest Mr. Bernard, in escaping the treacherous violence of an assassin, had
+      been left to the equally dangerous consequences of a violent, engrossing
+      passion in the breast of a young creature whose love it would be ruin to
+      admit and might be deadly to reject. She knew her own heart too well to
+      fear that any jealousy might mingle with her new apprehensions. It was
+      understood between Bernard and Helen that they were too good friends to
+      tamper with the silences and edging proximities of lovemaking. She knew,
+      too, the simply human, not masculine, interest which Mr. Bernard took in
+      Elsie; he had been frank with Helen, and more than satisfied her that with
+      all the pity and sympathy which overflowed his soul, when he thought of
+      the stricken girl, there mingled not one drop of such love as a youth may
+      feel for a maiden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may help the reader to gain some understanding of the anomalous nature
+      of Elsie Venner, if we look with Helen into Mr. Bernard's opinions and
+      feelings with reference to her, as they had shaped themselves in his
+      consciousness at the period of which we are speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first he had been impressed by her wild beauty, and the contrast of all
+      her looks and ways with those of the girls around her. Presently a sense
+      of some ill-defined personal element, which half-attracted and
+      half-repelled those who looked upon her, and especially those on whom she
+      looked, began to make itself obvious to him, as he soon found it was
+      painfully sensible to his more susceptible companion, the lady-teacher. It
+      was not merely in the cold light of her diamond eyes, but in all her
+      movements, in her graceful postures as she sat, in her costume, and, he
+      sometimes thought, even in her speech, that this obscure and exceptional
+      character betrayed itself. When Helen had said, that, if they were living
+      in times when human beings were subject to possession, she should have
+      thought there was something not human about Elsie, it struck an
+      unsuspected vein of thought in his own mind, which he hated to put in
+      words, but which was continually trying to articulate itself among the
+      dumb thoughts which lie under the perpetual stream of mental whispers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard's professional training had made him slow to accept marvellous
+      stories and many forms of superstition. Yet, as a man of science, he well
+      knew that just on the verge of the demonstrable facts of physics and
+      physiology there is a nebulous border-land which what is called &ldquo;common
+      sense&rdquo; perhaps does wisely not to enter, but which uncommon sense, or the
+      fine apprehension of privileged intelligences, may cautiously explore, and
+      in so doing find itself behind the scenes which make up for the gazing
+      world the show which is called Nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was with something of this finer perception, perhaps with some degree
+      of imaginative exaltation, that he set himself to solving the problem of
+      Elsie's influence to attract and repel those around her. His letter
+      already submitted to the reader hints in what direction his thoughts were
+      disposed to turn. Here was a magnificent organization, superb in vigorous
+      womanhood, with a beauty such as never comes but after generations of
+      culture; yet through all this rich nature there ran some alien current of
+      influence, sinuous and dark, as when a clouded streak seams the white
+      marble of a perfect statue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be needless to repeat the particular suggestions which had come
+      into his mind, as they must probably have come into that of the reader who
+      has noted the singularities of Elsie's tastes and personal traits. The
+      images which certain poets had dreamed of seemed to have become a reality
+      before his own eyes. Then came that unexplained adventure of The Mountain,&mdash;almost
+      like a dream in recollection, yet assuredly real in some of its main
+      incidents,&mdash;with all that it revealed or hinted. This girl did not
+      fear to visit the dreaded region, where danger lurked in every nook and
+      beneath every tuft of leaves. Did the tenants of the fatal ledge recognize
+      some mysterious affinity which made them tributary to the cold glitter of
+      her diamond eyes? Was she from her birth one of those frightful children,
+      such as he had read about, and the Professor had told him of, who form
+      unnatural friendships with cold, writhing ophidians? There was no need of
+      so unwelcome a thought as this; she had drawn him away from the dark
+      opening in the rock at the moment when he seemed to be threatened by one
+      of its malignant denizens; that was all he could be sure of; the
+      counter-fascination might have been a dream, a fancy, a coincidence. All
+      wonderful things soon grow doubtful in our own minds, as do even common
+      events, if great interests prove suddenly to attach to their truth or
+      falsehood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;I, who am telling of these occurrences, saw a friend in the great
+      city, on the morning of a most memorable disaster, hours after the time
+      when the train which carried its victims to their doom had left. I talked
+      with him, and was for some minutes, at least, in his company. When I
+      reached home, I found that the story had gone before that he was among the
+      lost, and I alone could contradict it to his weeping friends and
+      relatives. I did contradict it; but, alas! I began soon to doubt myself,
+      penetrated by the contagion of their solicitude; my recollection began to
+      question itself; the order of events became dislocated; and when I heard
+      that he had reached home in safety, the relief was almost as great to me
+      as to those who had expected to see their own brother's face no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard was disposed, then, not to accept the thought of any odious
+      personal relationship of the kind which had suggested itself to him when
+      he wrote the letter referred to. That the girl had something of the feral
+      nature, her wild, lawless rambles in forbidden and blasted regions of The
+      Mountain at all hours, her familiarity with the lonely haunts where any
+      other human foot was so rarely seen, proved clearly enough. But the more
+      he thought of all her strange instincts and modes of being, the more he
+      became convinced that whatever alien impulse swayed her will and modulated
+      or diverted or displaced her affections came from some impression that
+      reached far back into the past, before the days when the faithful Old
+      Sophy had rocked her in the cradle. He believed that she had brought her
+      ruling tendency, whatever it was, into the world with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the school was over and the girls had all gone, Helen lingered in the
+      schoolroom to speak with Mr. Bernard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you remark Elsie's ways this forenoon?&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not particularly; I have not noticed anything as sharply as I
+      commonly do; my head has been a little queer, and I have been thinking
+      over what we were talking about, and how near I came to solving the great
+      problem which every day makes clear to such multitudes of people. What
+      about Elsie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bernard, her liking for you is growing into a passion. I have studied
+      girls for a long while, and I know the difference between their passing
+      fancies and their real emotions. I told you, you remember, that Rosa would
+      have to leave us; we barely missed a scene, I think, if not a whole
+      tragedy, by her going at the right moment. But Elsie is infinitely more
+      dangerous to herself and others. Women's love is fierce enough, if it once
+      gets the mastery of them, always; but this poor girl does not know what to
+      do with a passion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard had never told Helen the story of the flower in his Virgil, or
+      that other adventure&mdash;which he would have felt awkwardly to refer to;
+      but it had been perfectly understood between them that Elsie showed in her
+      own singular way a well-marked partiality for the young master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't they take her away from the school, if she is in such a
+      strange, excitable state?&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe they are afraid of her,&rdquo; Helen answered. &ldquo;It is just one of
+      those cases that are ten thousand thousand times worse than insanity. I
+      don't think from what I hear, that her father has ever given up hoping
+      that she will outgrow her peculiarities. Oh, these peculiar children for
+      whom parents go on hoping every morning and despairing every night! If I
+      could tell you half that mothers have told me, you would feel that the
+      worst of all diseases of the moral sense and the will are those which all
+      the Bedlams turn away from their doors as not being cases of insanity!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think her father has treated her judiciously?&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; said Helen, with a little hesitation, which Mr. Bernard did not
+      happen to notice,&mdash;&ldquo;I think he has been very kind and indulgent, and
+      I do not know that he could have treated her otherwise with a better
+      chance of success.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must of course be fond of her,&rdquo; Mr. Bernard said; &ldquo;there is nothing
+      else in the world for him to love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen dropped a book she held in her hand, and, stooping to pick it up,
+      the blood rushed into her cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is getting late,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;you must not stay any longer in this
+      close schoolroom. Pray, go and get a little fresh air before dinner-time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII. A SOUL IN DISTRESS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The events told in the last two chapters had taken place toward the close
+      of the week. On Saturday evening the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather received
+      a note which was left at his door by an unknown person who departed
+      without saying a word. Its words were these: &ldquo;One who is in distress of
+      mind requests the prayers of this congregation that God would be pleased
+      to look in mercy upon the soul that he has afflicted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing to show from whom the note came, or the sex or age or
+      special source of spiritual discomfort or anxiety of the writer. The
+      handwriting was delicate and might well be a woman's. The clergyman was
+      not aware of any particular affliction among his parishioners which was
+      likely to be made the subject of a request of this kind. Surely neither of
+      the Venners would advertise the attempted crime of their relative in this
+      way. But who else was there? The more he thought about it, the more it
+      puzzled him, and as he did not like to pray in the dark, without knowing
+      for whom he was praying, he could think of nothing better than to step
+      into old Doctor Kittredge's and see what he had to say about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor was sitting alone in his study when the Reverend Mr.
+      Fairweather was ushered in. He received his visitor very pleasantly,
+      expecting, as a matter of course, that he would begin with some new
+      grievance, dyspeptic, neuralgic, bronchitic, or other. The minister,
+      however, began with questioning the old Doctor about the sequel of the
+      other night's adventure; for he was already getting a little Jesuitical,
+      and kept back the object of his visit until it should come up as if
+      accidentally in the course of conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a pretty bold thing to go off alone with that reprobate, as you
+      did,&rdquo; said the minister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know what there was bold about it,&rdquo; the Doctor answered. &ldquo;All he
+      wanted was to get away. He was not quite a reprobate, you see; he didn't
+      like the thought of disgracing his family or facing his uncle. I think he
+      was ashamed to see his cousin, too, after what he had done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he talk with you on the way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not much. For half an hour or so he did n't speak a word. Then he asked
+      where I was driving him. I told him, and he seemed to be surprised into a
+      sort of grateful feeling. Bad enough, no doubt, but might be worse. Has
+      some humanity left in him yet. Let him go. God can judge him,&mdash;I
+      can't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too charitable, Doctor,&rdquo; the minister said. &ldquo;I condemn him just
+      as if he had carried out his project, which, they say, was to make it
+      appear as if the schoolmaster had committed suicide. That's what people
+      think the rope found by him was for. He has saved his neck,&mdash;but his
+      soul is a lost one, I am afraid, beyond question.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't judge men's souls,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;I can judge their acts, and
+      hold them responsible for those,&mdash;but I don't know much about their
+      souls. If you or I had found our soul in a half-breed body; and been
+      turned loose to run among the Indians, we might have been playing just
+      such tricks as this fellow has been trying. What if you or I had inherited
+      all the tendencies that were born with his cousin Elsie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that reminds me,&rdquo;&mdash;the minister said, in a sudden way,&mdash;&ldquo;I
+      have received a note, which I am requested to read from the pulpit
+      tomorrow. I wish you would just have the kindness to look at it and see
+      where you think it came from.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor examined it carefully. It was a woman's or girl's note, he
+      thought. Might come from one of the school-girls who was anxious about her
+      spiritual condition. Handwriting was disguised; looked a little like Elsie
+      Venner's, but not characteristic enough to make it certain. It would be a
+      new thing, if she had asked public prayers for herself, and a very
+      favorable indication of a change in her singular moral nature. It was just
+      possible Elsie might have sent that note. Nobody could foretell her
+      actions. It would be well to see the girl and find out whether any unusual
+      impression had been produced on her mind by the recent occurrence or by
+      any other cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Mr. Fairweather folded the note and put it into his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been a good deal exercised in mind lately, myself,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor looked at him through his spectacles, and said, in his
+      usual professional tone,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put out your tongue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister obeyed him in that feeble way common with persons of weak
+      character,&mdash;for people differ as much in their mode of performing
+      this trifling act as Gideon's soldiers in their way of drinking at the
+      brook. The Doctor took his hand and placed a finger mechanically on his
+      wrist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is more spiritual, I think, than bodily,&rdquo; said the Reverend Mr.
+      Fairweather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is your appetite as good as usual?&rdquo; the Doctor asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty good,&rdquo; the minister answered; &ldquo;but my sleep, my sleep, Doctor,&mdash;I
+      am greatly troubled at night with lying awake and thinking of my future, I
+      am not at ease in mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked round at all the doors, to be sure they were shut, and moved his
+      chair up close to the Doctor's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not know the mental trials I have been going through for the last
+      few months.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I do,&rdquo; the old Doctor said. &ldquo;You want to get out of the new
+      church into the old one, don't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister blushed deeply; he thought he had been going on in a very
+      quiet way, and that nobody suspected his secret. As the old Doctor was his
+      counsellor in sickness, and almost everybody's confidant in trouble, he
+      had intended to impart cautiously to him some hints of the change of
+      sentiments through which he had been passing. He was too late with his
+      information, it appeared, and there was nothing to be done but to throw
+      himself on the Doctor's good sense and kindness, which everybody knew, and
+      get what hints he could from him as to the practical course he should
+      pursue. He began, after an awkward pause,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would not have me stay in a communion which I feel to be alien to the
+      true church, would you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you stay, my friend?&rdquo; said the Doctor, with a pleasant, friendly
+      look,&mdash;&ldquo;have you stay? Not a month, nor a week, nor a day, if I could
+      help it. You have got into the wrong pulpit, and I have known it from the
+      first. The sooner you go where you belong, the better. And I'm very glad
+      you don't mean to stop half-way. Don't you know you've always come to me
+      when you've been dyspeptic or sick anyhow, and wanted to put yourself
+      wholly into my hands, so that I might order you like a child just what to
+      do and what to take? That 's exactly what you want in religion. I don't
+      blame you for it. You never liked to take the responsibility of your own
+      body; I don't see why you should want to have the charge of your own soul.
+      But I'm glad you're going to the Old Mother of all. You wouldn't have been
+      contented short of that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Mr. Fairweather breathed with more freedom. The Doctor saw
+      into his soul through those awful spectacles of his,&mdash;into it and
+      beyond it, as one sees through a thin fog. But it was with a real human
+      kindness, after all. He felt like a child before a strong man; but the
+      strong man looked on him with a father's indulgence. Many and many a time,
+      when he had come desponding and bemoaning himself on account of some
+      contemptible bodily infirmity, the old Doctor had looked at him through
+      his spectacles, listened patiently while he told his ailments, and then,
+      in his large parental way, given him a few words of wholesome advice, and
+      cheered him up so that he went off with a light heart, thinking that the
+      heaven he was so much afraid of was not so very near, after all. It was
+      the same thing now. He felt, as feeble natures always do in the presence
+      of strong ones, overmastered, circumscribed, shut in, humbled; but yet it
+      seemed as if the old Doctor did not despise him any more for what he
+      considered weakness of mind than he used to despise him when he complained
+      of his nerves or his digestion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Men who see into their neighbors are very apt to be contemptuous; but men
+      who see through them find something lying behind every human soul which it
+      is not for them to sit in judgment on, or to attempt to sneer out of the
+      order of God's manifold universe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little as the Doctor had said out of which comfort could be extracted, his
+      genial manner had something grateful in it. A film of gratitude came over
+      the poor man's cloudy, uncertain eye, and a look of tremulous relief and
+      satisfaction played about his weak mouth. He was gravitating to the
+      majority, where he hoped to find &ldquo;rest&rdquo;; but he was dreadfully sensitive
+      to the opinions of the minority he was on the point of leaving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor saw plainly enough what was going on in his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sha'n't quarrel with you,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;you know that very well; but
+      you mustn't quarrel with me, if I talk honestly with you; it isn't
+      everybody that will take the trouble. You flatter yourself that you will
+      make a good many enemies by leaving your old communion. Not so many as you
+      think. This is the way the common sort of people will talk:&mdash;'You
+      have got your ticket to the feast of life, as much as any other man that
+      ever lived. Protestantism says,&mdash;&ldquo;Help yourself; here's a clean
+      plate, and a knife and fork of your own, and plenty of fresh dishes to
+      choose from.&rdquo; The Old Mother says,&mdash;&ldquo;Give me your ticket, my dear,
+      and I'll feed you with my gold spoon off these beautiful old wooden
+      trenchers. Such nice bits as those good old gentlemen have left for you!&rdquo;
+       There is no quarrelling with a man who prefers broken victuals. That's
+      what the rougher sort will say; and then, where one scolds, ten will
+      laugh. But, mind you, I don't either scold or laugh. I don't feel sure
+      that you could very well have helped doing what you will soon do. You know
+      you were never easy without some medicine to take when you felt ill in
+      body. I'm afraid I've given you trashy stuff sometimes, just to keep you
+      quiet. Now, let me tell you, there is just the same difference in
+      spiritual patients that there is in bodily ones. One set believes in
+      wholesome ways of living, and another must have a great list of specifics
+      for all the soul's complaints. You belong with the last, and got
+      accidentally shuffled in with the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister smiled faintly, but did not reply. Of course, he considered
+      that way of talking as the result of the Doctor's professional training.
+      It would not have been worth while to take offence at his plain speech, if
+      he had been so disposed; for he might wish to consult him the next day as
+      to &ldquo;what he should take&rdquo; for his dyspepsia or his neuralgia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He left the Doctor with a hollow feeling at the bottom of his soul, as if
+      a good piece of his manhood had been scooped out of him. His hollow aching
+      did not explain itself in words, but it grumbled and worried down among
+      the unshaped thoughts which lie beneath them. He knew that he had been
+      trying to reason himself out of his birthright of reason. He knew that the
+      inspiration which gave him understanding was losing its throne in his
+      intelligence, and the almighty Majority-Vote was proclaiming itself in its
+      stead. He knew that the great primal truths, which each successive
+      revelation only confirmed, were fast becoming hidden beneath the
+      mechanical forms of thought, which, as with all new converts, engrossed so
+      large a share of his attention. The &ldquo;peace,&rdquo; the &ldquo;rest,&rdquo; which he had
+      purchased were dearly bought to one who had been trained to the arms of
+      thought, and whose noble privilege it might have been to live in perpetual
+      warfare for the advancing truth which the next generation will claim as
+      the legacy of the present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was getting careless about his sermons. He
+      must wait the fitting moment to declare himself; and in the mean time he
+      was preaching to heretics. It did not matter much what he preached, under
+      such circumstances. He pulled out two old yellow sermons from a heap of
+      such, and began looking over that for the forenoon. Naturally enough, he
+      fell asleep over it, and, sleeping, he began to dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He dreamed that he was under the high arches of an old cathedral, amidst a
+      throng of worshippers. The light streamed in through vast windows, dark
+      with the purple robes of royal saints, or blazing with yellow glories
+      around the heads of earthly martyrs and heavenly messengers. The billows
+      of the great organ roared among the clustered columns, as the sea breaks
+      amidst the basaltic pillars which crowd the stormy cavern of the Hebrides.
+      The voice of the alternate choirs of singing boys swung back and forward,
+      as the silver censer swung in the hands of the white-robed children. The
+      sweet cloud of incense rose in soft, fleecy mists, full of penetrating
+      suggestions of the East and its perfumed altars. The knees of twenty
+      generations had worn the pavement; their feet had hollowed the steps;
+      their shoulders had smoothed the columns. Dead bishops and abbots lay
+      under the marble of the floor in their crumbled vestments; dead warriors,
+      in rusted armor, were stretched beneath their sculptured effigies. And all
+      at once all the buried multitudes who had ever worshipped there came
+      thronging in through the aisles. They choked every space, they swarmed
+      into all the chapels, they hung in clusters over the parapets of the
+      galleries, they clung to the images in every niche, and still the vast
+      throng kept flowing and flowing in, until the living were lost in the rush
+      of the returning dead who had reclaimed their own. Then, as his dream
+      became more fantastic, the huge cathedral itself seemed to change into the
+      wreck of some mighty antediluvian vertebrate; its flying-buttresses arched
+      round like ribs, its piers shaped themselves into limbs, and the sound of
+      the organ-blast changed to the wind whistling through its thousand-jointed
+      skeleton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And presently the sound lulled, and softened and softened, until it was as
+      the murmur of a distant swarm of bees. A procession of monks wound along
+      through an old street, chanting, as they walked. In his dream he glided in
+      among them and bore his part in the burden of their song. He entered with
+      the long train under a low arch, and presently he was kneeling in a narrow
+      cell before an image of the Blessed Maiden holding the Divine Child in her
+      arms, and his lips seemed to whisper,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+               Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He turned to the crucifix, and, prostrating himself before the spare,
+      agonizing shape of the Holy Sufferer, fell into a long passion of tears
+      and broken prayers. He rose and flung himself, worn-out, upon his hard
+      pallet, and, seeming to slumber, dreamed again within his dream. Once more
+      in the vast cathedral, with throngs of the living choking its aisles,
+      amidst jubilant peals from the cavernous depths of the great organ, and
+      choral melodies ringing from the fluty throats of the singing boys. A day
+      of great rejoicings,&mdash;for a prelate was to be consecrated, and the
+      bones of the mighty skeleton-minster were shaking with anthems, as if
+      there were life of its own within its buttressed ribs. He looked down at
+      his feet; the folds of the sacred robe were flowing about them: he put his
+      hand to his head; it was crowned with the holy mitre. A long sigh, as of
+      perfect content in the consummation of all his earthly hopes, breathed
+      through the dreamer's lips, and shaped itself, as it escaped, into the
+      blissful murmur,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+               Ego sum Episcopus!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      One grinning gargoyle looked in from beneath the roof through an opening
+      in a stained window. It was the face of a mocking fiend, such as the old
+      builders loved to place under the eaves to spout the rain through their
+      open mouths. It looked at him, as he sat in his mitred chair, with its
+      hideous grin growing broader and broader, until it laughed out aloud, such
+      a hard, stony, mocking laugh, that he awoke out of his second dream
+      through his first into his common consciousness, and shivered, as he
+      turned to the two yellow sermons which he was to pick over and weed of the
+      little thought they might contain, for the next day's service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather was too much taken up with his own bodily
+      and spiritual condition to be deeply mindful of others. He carried the
+      note requesting the prayers of the congregation in his pocket all day; and
+      the soul in distress, which a single tender petition might have soothed,
+      and perhaps have saved from despair or fatal error, found no voice in the
+      temple to plead for it before the Throne of Mercy!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII. THE SECRET IS WHISPERED.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather's congregation was not large, but select.
+      The lines of social cleavage run through religious creeds as if they were
+      of a piece with position and fortune. It is expected of persons of a
+      certain breeding, in some parts of New England, that they shall be either
+      Episcopalians or Unitarians. The mansion-house gentry of Rockland were
+      pretty fairly divided between the little chapel, with the stained window
+      and the trained rector, and the meeting-house where the Reverend Mr.
+      Fairweather officiated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in the latter that Dudley Venner worshipped, when he attended
+      service anywhere,&mdash;which depended very much on the caprice of Elsie.
+      He saw plainly enough that a generous and liberally cultivated nature
+      might find a refuge and congenial souls in either of these two
+      persuasions, but he objected to some points of the formal creed of the
+      older church, and especially to the mechanism which renders it hard to get
+      free from its outworn and offensive formulae,&mdash;remembering how
+      Archbishop Tillotson wished in vain that it could be &ldquo;well rid of&rdquo; the
+      Athanasian Creed. This, and the fact that the meeting-house was nearer
+      than the chapel, determined him, when the new rector, who was not quite up
+      to his mark in education, was appointed, to take a pew in the &ldquo;liberal&rdquo;
+       worshippers' edifice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie was very uncertain in her feeling about going to church. In summer,
+      she loved rather to stroll over The Mountain, on Sundays. There was even a
+      story, that she had one of the caves before mentioned fitted up as an
+      oratory, and that she had her own wild way of worshipping the God whom she
+      sought in the dark chasms of the dreaded cliffs. Mere fables, doubtless;
+      but they showed the common belief, that Elsie, with all her strange and
+      dangerous elements of character, had yet strong religious feeling mingled
+      with them. The hymn-book which Dick had found, in his midnight invasion of
+      her chamber, opened to favorite hymns, especially some of the Methodist
+      and Quietist character. Many had noticed, that certain tunes, as sung by
+      the choir, seemed to impress her deeply; and some said, that at such times
+      her whole expression would change, and her stormy look would soften so as
+      to remind them of her poor, sweet mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the Sunday morning after the talk recorded in the last chapter, Elsie
+      made herself ready to go to meeting. She was dressed much as usual,
+      excepting that she wore a thick veil, turned aside, but ready to conceal
+      her features. It was natural enough that she should not wish to be looked
+      in the face by curious persons who would be staring to see what effect the
+      occurrence of the past week had had on her spirits. Her father attended
+      her willingly; and they took their seats in the pew, somewhat to the
+      surprise of many, who had hardly expected to see them, after so
+      humiliating a family development as the attempted crime of their kinsman
+      had just been furnishing for the astonishment of the public.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was now in his coldest mood. He had passed
+      through the period of feverish excitement which marks a change of
+      religious opinion. At first, when he had began to doubt his own
+      theological positions, he had defended them against himself with more
+      ingenuity and interest, perhaps, than he could have done against another;
+      because men rarely take the trouble to understand anybody's difficulties
+      in a question but their own. After this, as he began to draw off from
+      different points of his old belief, the cautious disentangling of himself
+      from one mesh after another gave sharpness to his intellect, and the
+      tremulous eagerness with which he seized upon the doctrine which, piece by
+      piece, under various pretexts and with various disguises, he was
+      appropriating, gave interest and something like passion to his words. But
+      when he had gradually accustomed his people to his new phraseology, and
+      was really adjusting his sermons and his service to disguise his thoughts,
+      he lost at once all his intellectual acuteness and all his spiritual
+      fervor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie sat quietly through the first part of the service, which was
+      conducted in the cold, mechanical way to be expected. Her face was hidden
+      by her veil; but her father knew her state of feeling, as well by her
+      movements and attitudes as by the expression of her features. The hymn had
+      been sung, the short prayer offered, the Bible read, and the long prayer
+      was about to begin. This was the time at which the &ldquo;notes&rdquo; of any who were
+      in affliction from loss of friends, the sick who were doubtful of
+      recovery, those who had cause to be grateful for preservation of life or
+      other signal blessing, were wont to be read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then it was that Dudley Venner noticed that his daughter was
+      trembling,&mdash;a thing so rare, so unaccountable, indeed, under the
+      circumstances, that he watched her closely, and began to fear that some
+      nervous paroxysm, or other malady, might have just begun to show itself in
+      this way upon her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister had in his pocket two notes. One, in the handwriting of
+      Deacon Soper, was from a member of this congregation, returning thanks for
+      his preservation through a season of great peril, supposed to be the
+      exposure which he had shared with others, when standing in the circle
+      around Dick Venner. The other was the anonymous one, in a female hand,
+      which he had received the evening before. He forgot them both. His
+      thoughts were altogether too much taken up with more important matters. He
+      prayed through all the frozen petitions of his expurgated form of
+      supplication, and not a single heart was soothed or lifted, or reminded
+      that its sorrows were struggling their way up to heaven, borne on the
+      breath from a human soul that was warm with love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people sat down as if relieved when the dreary prayer was finished.
+      Elsie alone remained standing until her father touched her. Then she sat
+      down, lifted her veil, and looked at him with a blank, sad look, as if she
+      had suffered some pain or wrong, but could not give any name or expression
+      to her vague trouble. She did not tremble any longer, but remained
+      ominously still, as if she had been frozen where she sat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;Can a man love his own soul too well? Who, on the whole, constitute
+      the nobler class of human beings? those who have lived mainly to make sure
+      of their own personal welfare in another and future condition of
+      existence, or they who have worked with all their might for their race,
+      for their country, for the advancement of the kingdom of God, and left all
+      personal arrangements concerning themselves to the sole charge of Him who
+      made them and is responsible to himself for their safe-keeping? Is an
+      anchorite who has worn the stone floor of his cell into basins with his
+      knees bent in prayer, more acceptable than the soldier who gives his life
+      for the maintenance of any sacred right or truth, without thinking what
+      will specially become of him in a world where there are two or three
+      million colonists a month, from this one planet, to be cared for? These
+      are grave questions, which must suggest themselves to those who know that
+      there are many profoundly selfish persons who are sincerely devout and
+      perpetually occupied with their own future, while there are others who are
+      perfectly ready to sacrifice themselves for any worthy object in this
+      world, but are really too little occupied with their exclusive personality
+      to think so much as many do about what is to become of them in another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather did not, most certainly, belong to this
+      latter class. There are several kinds of believers, whose history we find
+      among the early converts to Christianity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was the magistrate, whose social position was such that he preferred
+      a private interview in the evening with the Teacher to following him&mdash;with
+      the street-crowd. He had seen extraordinary facts which had satisfied him
+      that the young Galilean had a divine commission. But still he
+      cross-questioned the Teacher himself. He was not ready to accept
+      statements without explanation. That was the right kind of man. See how he
+      stood up for the legal rights of his Master, when the people were for
+      laying hands on him!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And again, there was the government official, intrusted with public money,
+      which, in those days, implied that he was supposed to be honest. A single
+      look of that heavenly countenance, and two words of gentle command, were
+      enough for him. Neither of these men, the early disciple, nor the
+      evangelist, seems to have been thinking primarily about his own personal
+      safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But now look at the poor, miserable turnkey, whose occupation shows what
+      he was like to be, and who had just been thrusting two respectable
+      strangers, taken from the hands of a mob, covered with stripes and
+      stripped of clothing, into the inner prison, and making their feet fast in
+      the stocks. His thought, in the moment of terror, is for himself: first,
+      suicide; then, what he shall do,&mdash;not to save his household,&mdash;not
+      to fulfil his duty to his office,&mdash;not to repair the outrage he has
+      been committing,&mdash;but to secure his own personal safety. Truly,
+      character shows itself as much in a man's way of becoming a Christian as
+      in any other!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;Elsie sat, statue-like, through the sermon. It would not be fair to
+      the reader to give an abstract of that. When a man who has been bred to
+      free thought and free speech suddenly finds himself stepping about, like a
+      dancer amidst his eggs, among the old addled majority-votes which he must
+      not tread upon, he is a spectacle for men and angels. Submission to
+      intellectual precedent and authority does very well for those who have
+      been bred to it; we know that the underground courses of their minds are
+      laid in the Roman cement of tradition, and that stately and splendid
+      structures may be reared on such a foundation. But to see one laying a
+      platform over heretical quicksands, thirty or forty or fifty years deep,
+      and then beginning to build upon it, is a sorry sight. A new convert from
+      the reformed to the ancient faith may be very strong in the arms, but he
+      will always have weak legs and shaky knees. He may use his hands well, and
+      hit hard with his fists, but he will never stand on his legs in the way
+      the man does who inherits his belief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The services were over at last, and Dudley Venner and his daughter walked
+      home together in silence. He always respected her moods, and saw clearly
+      enough that some inward trouble was weighing upon her. There was nothing
+      to be said in such cases, for Elsie could never talk of her griefs. An
+      hour, or a day, or a week of brooding, with perhaps a sudden flash of
+      violence: this was the way in which the impressions which make other women
+      weep, and tell their griefs by word or letter, showed their effects in her
+      mind and acts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She wandered off up into the remoter parts of The Mountain, that day,
+      after their return. No one saw just where she went,&mdash;indeed, no one
+      knew its forest-recesses and rocky fastnesses as she did. She was gone
+      until late at night; and when Old Sophy, who had watched for her, bound up
+      her long hair for her sleep, it was damp with the cold dews.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old black woman looked at her without speaking, but questioning her
+      with every feature as to the sorrow that was weighing on her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly she turned to Old Sophy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You want to know what there is troubling me;&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Nobody loves me.
+      I cannot love anybody. What is love, Sophy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's what poor Ol' Sophy's got for her Elsie,&rdquo; the old woman answered.
+      &ldquo;Tell me, darlin',&mdash;don' you love somebody?&mdash;don' you love? you
+      know,&mdash;oh, tell me, darlin', don' you love to see the gen'l'man that
+      keeps up at the school where you go? They say he's the pootiest gen'l'man
+      that was ever in the town here. Don' be 'fraid of poor Ol' Sophy, darlin',&mdash;she
+      loved a man once,&mdash;see here! Oh, I've showed you this often enough!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took from her pocket a half of one of the old Spanish silver coins,
+      such as were current in the earlier part of this century. The other half
+      of it had been lying in the deep sea-sand for more than fifty years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie looked her in the face, but did not answer in words. What strange
+      intelligence was that which passed between them through the diamond eyes
+      and the little beady black ones?&mdash;what subtile intercommunication,
+      penetrating so much deeper than articulate speech? This was the nearest
+      approach to sympathetic relations that Elsie ever had: a kind of dumb
+      intercourse of feeling, such as one sees in the eyes of brute mothers
+      looking on their young. But, subtile as it was, it was narrow and
+      individual; whereas an emotion which can shape itself in language opens
+      the gate for itself into the great community of human affections; for
+      every word we speak is the medal of a dead thought or feeling, struck in
+      the die of some human experience, worn smooth by innumerable contacts, and
+      always transferred warm from one to another. By words we share the common
+      consciousness of the race, which has shaped itself in these symbols. By
+      music we reach those special states of consciousness which, being without
+      form, cannot be shaped with the mosaics of the vocabulary. The language of
+      the eyes runs deeper into the personal nature, but it is purely
+      individual, and perishes in the expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we consider them all as growing out of the consciousness as their root,
+      language is the leaf, music is the flower; but when the eyes meet and
+      search each other, it is the uncovering of the blanched stem through which
+      the whole life runs, but which has never taken color or form from the
+      sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For three days Elsie did not return to the school. Much of the time she
+      was among the woods and rocks. The season was now beginning to wane, and
+      the forest to put on its autumnal glory. The dreamy haze was beginning to
+      soften the landscape, and the mast delicious days of the year were lending
+      their attraction to the scenery of The Mountain. It was not very singular
+      that Elsie should be lingering in her old haunts, from which the change of
+      season must soon drive her. But Old Sophy saw clearly enough that some
+      internal conflict was going on, and knew very well that it must have its
+      own way and work itself out as it best could. As much as looks could tell
+      Elsie had told her. She had said in words, to be sure, that she could not
+      love. Something warped and thwarted the emotion which would have been love
+      in another, no doubt; but that such an emotion was striving with her
+      against all malign influences which interfered with it the old woman had a
+      perfect certainty in her own mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody who has observed the working of emotions in persons of various
+      temperaments knows well enough that they have periods of incubation, which
+      differ with the individual, and with the particular cause and degree of
+      excitement, yet evidently go through a strictly self-limited series of
+      evolutions, at the end of which, their result&mdash;an act of violence, a
+      paroxysm of tears, a gradual subsidence into repose, or whatever it may be&mdash;declares
+      itself, like the last stage of an attack of fever and ague. No one can
+      observe children without noticing that there is a personal equation, to
+      use the astronomer's language, in their tempers, so that one sulks an hour
+      over an offence which makes another a fury for five minutes, and leaves
+      him or her an angel when it is over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of three days, Elsie braided her long, glossy, black hair, and
+      shot a golden arrow through it. She dressed herself with more than usual
+      care, and came down in the morning superb in her stormy beauty. The
+      brooding paroxysm was over, or at least her passion had changed its phase.
+      Her father saw it with great relief; he had always many fears for her in
+      her hours and days of gloom, but, for reasons before assigned, had felt
+      that she must be trusted to herself, without appealing to actual
+      restraint, or any other supervision than such as Old Sophy could exercise
+      without offence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went off at the accustomed hour to the school. All the girls had their
+      eyes on her. None so keen as these young misses to know an inward movement
+      by an outward sign of adornment: if they have not as many signals as the
+      ships that sail the great seas, there is not an end of ribbon or a turn of
+      a ringlet which is not a hieroglyphic with a hidden meaning to these
+      little cruisers over the ocean of sentiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls all looked at Elsie with a new thought; for she was more
+      sumptuously arrayed than perhaps ever before at the school; and they said
+      to themselves that she had come meaning to draw the young master's eyes
+      upon her. That was it; what else could it be? The beautiful cold girl with
+      the diamond eyes meant to dazzle the handsome young gentleman. He would be
+      afraid to love her; it couldn't be true, that which some people had said
+      in the village; she was n't the kind of young lady to make Mr. Langdon
+      happy. Those dark people are never safe: so one of the young blondes said
+      to herself. Elsie was not literary enough for such a scholar: so thought
+      Miss Charlotte Ann Wood, the young poetess. She couldn't have a good
+      temper, with those scowling eyebrows: this was the opinion of several
+      broad-faced, smiling girls, who thought, each in her own snug little
+      mental sanctum, that, if, etc., etc., she could make him so happy!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie had none of the still, wicked light in her eyes, that morning. She
+      looked gentle, but dreamy; played with her books; did not trouble herself
+      with any of the exercises,&mdash;which in itself was not very remarkable,
+      as she was always allowed, under some pretext or other, to have her own
+      way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The school-hours were over at length. The girls went out, but she lingered
+      to the last. She then came up to Mr. Bernard, with a book in her hand, as
+      if to ask a question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you walk towards my home with me today?&rdquo; she said, in a very low
+      voice, little more than a whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard was startled by the request, put in such a way. He had a
+      presentiment of some painful scene or other. But there was nothing to be
+      done but to assure her that it would give him great pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they walked along together on their way toward the Dudley mansion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no friend,&rdquo; Elsie said, all at once. &ldquo;Nothing loves me but one old
+      woman. I cannot love anybody. They tell me there is something in my eyes
+      that draws people to me and makes them faint: Look into them, will you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned her face toward him. It was very pale, and the diamond eyes
+      were glittering with a film, such as beneath other lids would have rounded
+      into a tear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beautiful eyes, Elsie,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;sometimes very piercing,&mdash;but
+      soft now, and looking as if there were something beneath them that
+      friendship might draw out. I am your friend, Elsie. Tell me what I can do
+      to render your life happier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love me!&rdquo; said Elsie Venner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What shall a man do, when a woman makes such a demand, involving such an
+      avowal? It was the tenderest, cruellest, humblest moment of Mr. Bernard's
+      life. He turned pale, he trembled almost, as if he had been a woman
+      listening to her lover's declaration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Elsie,&rdquo; he said, presently, &ldquo;I so long to be of some use to you, to have
+      your confidence and sympathy, that I must not let you say or do anything
+      to put us in false relations. I do love you, Elsie, as a suffering sister
+      with sorrows of her own,&mdash;as one whom I would save at the risk of my
+      happiness and life,&mdash;as one who needs a true friend more than&mdash;any
+      of all the young girls I have known. More than this you would not ask me
+      to say. You have been through excitement and trouble lately, and it has
+      made you feel such a need more than ever. Give me your hand, dear Elsie,
+      and trust me that I will be as true a friend to you as if we were children
+      of the same mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie gave him her hand mechanically. It seemed to him that a cold aura
+      shot from it along his arm and chilled the blood running through his
+      heart. He pressed it gently, looked at her with a face full of grave
+      kindness and sad interest, then softly relinquished it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was all over with poor Elsie. They walked almost in silence the rest of
+      the way. Mr. Bernard left her at the gate of the mansion-house, and
+      returned with sad forebodings. Elsie went at once to her own room, and did
+      not come from it at the usual hours. At last Old Sophy began to be alarmed
+      about her, went to her apartment, and, finding the door unlocked, entered
+      cautiously. She found Elsie lying on her bed, her brows strongly
+      contracted, her eyes dull, her whole look that of great suffering. Her
+      first thought was that she had been doing herself a harm by some deadly
+      means or other. But Elsie, saw her fear, and reassured her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;there is nothing wrong, such as you are thinking of; I am
+      not dying. You may send for the Doctor; perhaps he can take the pain from
+      my head. That is all I want him to do. There is no use in the pain, that I
+      know of; if he can stop it, let him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they sent for the old Doctor. It was not long before the solid trot of
+      Caustic, the old bay horse, and the crashing of the gravel under the
+      wheels, gave notice that the physician was driving up the avenue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor was a model for visiting practitioners. He always came into
+      the sick-room with a quiet, cheerful look, as if he had a consciousness
+      that he was bringing some sure relief with him. The way a patient snatches
+      his first look at his doctor's face, to see whether he is doomed, whether
+      he is reprieved, whether he is unconditionally pardoned, has really
+      something terrible about it. It is only to be met by an imperturbable mask
+      of serenity, proof against anything and everything in a patient's aspect.
+      The physician whose face reflects his patient's condition like a mirror
+      may do well enough to examine people for a life-insurance office, but does
+      not belong to the sickroom. The old Doctor did not keep people waiting in
+      dread suspense, while he stayed talking about the case,&mdash;the patient
+      all the time thinking that he and the friends are discussing some alarming
+      symptom or formidable operation which he himself is by-and-by&mdash;to
+      hear of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was in Elsie's room almost before she knew he was in the house. He came
+      to her bedside in such a natural, quiet way, that it seemed as if he were
+      only a friend who had dropped in for a moment to say a pleasant word. Yet
+      he was very uneasy about Elsie until he had seen her; he never knew what
+      might happen to her or those about her, and came prepared for the worst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sick, my child?&rdquo; he said, in a very soft, low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie nodded, without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor took her hand,&mdash;whether with professional views, or only
+      in a friendly way, it would have been hard to tell. So he sat a few
+      minutes, looking at her all the time with a kind of fatherly interest, but
+      with it all noting how she lay, how she breathed, her color, her
+      expression, all that teaches the practised eye so much without a single
+      question being asked. He saw she was in suffering, and said presently,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have pain somewhere; where is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She put her hand to her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she was not disposed to talk, he watched her for a while, questioned
+      Old Sophy shrewdly a few minutes, and so made up his mind as to the
+      probable cause of disturbance and the proper remedies to be used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some very silly people thought the old Doctor did not believe in medicine,
+      because he gave less than certain poor half-taught creatures in the
+      smaller neighboring towns, who took advantage of people's sickness to
+      disgust and disturb them with all manner of ill-smelling and ill-behaving
+      drugs. In truth, he hated to give anything noxious or loathsome to those
+      who were uncomfortable enough already, unless he was very sure it would do
+      good,&mdash;in which case, he never played with drugs, but gave good,
+      honest, efficient doses. Sometimes he lost a family of the more boorish
+      sort, because they did not think they got their money's worth out of him,
+      unless they had something more than a taste of everything he carried in
+      his saddlebags.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He ordered some remedies which he thought would relieve Elsie, and left
+      her, saying he would call the next day, hoping to find her better. But the
+      next day came, and the next, and still Elsie was on her bed, feverish,
+      restless, wakeful, silent. At night she tossed about and wandered, and it
+      became at length apparent that there was a settled attack, something like
+      what they called, formerly, a &ldquo;nervous fever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On the fourth day she was more restless than common. One of the women of
+      the house came in to help to take care of her; but she showed an aversion
+      to her presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send me Helen Darley,&rdquo; she said, at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor told them, that, if possible, they must indulge this fancy
+      of hers. The caprices of sick people were never to be despised, least of
+      all of such persons as Elsie, when rendered irritable and exacting by pain
+      and weakness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So a message was sent to Mr. Silas Peckham at the Apollinean Institute, to
+      know if he could not spare Miss Helen Darley for a few days, if required,
+      to give her attention to a young lady who attended his school and who was
+      now lying ill,&mdash;no other person than the daughter of Dudley Venner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A mean man never agrees to anything without deliberately turning it over,
+      so that he may see its dirty side, and, if he can, sweating the coin he
+      pays for it. If an archangel should offer to save his soul for sixpence,
+      he would try to find a sixpence with a hole in it. A gentleman says yes to
+      a great many things without stopping to think: a shabby fellow is known by
+      his caution in answering questions, for fear of, compromising his pocket
+      or himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Silas Peckham looked very grave at the request. The dooties of Miss
+      Darley at the Institoot were important, very important. He paid her large
+      sums of money for her time,&mdash;more than she could expect to get in any
+      other institootion for the edoocation of female youth. A deduction from
+      her selary would be necessary, in case she should retire from the sphere
+      of her dooties for a season. He should be put to extry expense, and have
+      to perform additional labors himself. He would consider of the matter. If
+      any arrangement could be made, he would send word to Squire Venner's
+      folks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Darley,&rdquo; said Silas Peckham, &ldquo;the' 's a message from Squire Venner's
+      that his daughter wants you down at the mansion-house to see her. She's
+      got a fever, so they inform me. If it's any kind of ketchin' fever, of
+      course you won't think of goin' near the mansion-house. If Doctor
+      Kittredge says it's safe, perfec'ly safe, I can't object to your goin', on
+      sech conditions as seem to be fair to all' concerned. You will give up
+      your pay for the whole time you are absent,&mdash;portions of days to be
+      caounted as whole days. You will be charged with board the same as if you
+      eat your victuals with the household. The victuals are of no use after
+      they're cooked but to be eat, and your bein' away is no savin' to our
+      folks. I shall charge you a reasonable compensation for the demage to the
+      school by the absence of a teacher. If Miss Crabs undertakes any dooties
+      belongin' to your department of instruction, she will look to you for sech
+      pecooniary considerations as you may agree upon between you. On these
+      conditions I am willin' to give my consent to your temporary absence from
+      the post of dooty. I will step down to Doctor Kittredge's myself, and make
+      inquiries as to the natur' of the complaint.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Peckham took up a rusty and very narrow-brimmed hat, which he cocked
+      upon one side of his head, with an air peculiar to the rural gentry. It
+      was the hour when the Doctor expected to be in his office, unless he had
+      some special call which kept him from home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather just taking leave of the Doctor.
+      His hand was on the pit of his stomach, and his countenance was expressive
+      of inward uneasiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shake it before using,&rdquo; said the Doctor; &ldquo;and the sooner you make up your
+      mind to speak right out, the better it will be for your digestion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Peckham! Walk in, Mr. Peckham! Nobody sick up at the school, I
+      hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The haalth of the school is fust-rate,&rdquo; replied Mr. Peckham. &ldquo;The
+      sitooation is uncommonly favorable to saloobrity.&rdquo; (These last words were
+      from the Annual Report of the past year.) &ldquo;Providence has spared our
+      female youth in a remarkable measure. I've come with reference to another
+      consideration. Dr. Kittredge, is there any ketchin' complaint goin' about
+      in the village?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, yes,&rdquo; said the Doctor, &ldquo;I should say there was something of that
+      sort. Measles. Mumps. And Sin,&mdash;that's always catching.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor's eye twinkled; once in a while he had his little touch of
+      humor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silas Peckham slanted his eye up suspiciously at the Doctor, as if he was
+      getting some kind of advantage over him. That is the way people of his
+      constitution are apt to take a bit of pleasantry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't mean sech things, Doctor; I mean fevers. Is there any ketchin'
+      fevers&mdash;bilious, or nervous, or typus, or whatever you call 'em&mdash;now
+      goin' round this village? That's what I want to ascertain, if there's no
+      impropriety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor looked at Silas through his spectacles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hard and sour as a green cider-apple,&rdquo; he thought to himself. &ldquo;No,&rdquo;; he
+      said,&mdash;&ldquo;I don't know any such cases.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter with Elsie Venner?&rdquo; asked Silas, sharply, as if he
+      expected to have him this time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A mild feverish attack, I should call it in anybody else; but she has a
+      peculiar constitution, and I never feel so safe about her as I should
+      about most people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything ketchin' about it?&rdquo; Silas asked, cunningly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, indeed!&rdquo; said the Doctor,&mdash;&ldquo;catching? no,&mdash;what put that
+      into your head, Mr. Peckham?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Doctor,&rdquo; the conscientious Principal answered, &ldquo;I naterally feel a
+      graat responsibility, a very graaat responsibility, for the noomerous and
+      lovely young ladies committed to my charge. It has been a question,
+      whether one of my assistants should go, accordin' to request, to stop with
+      Miss Venner for a season. Nothin' restrains my givin' my full and free
+      consent to her goin' but the fear lest contagious maladies should be
+      introdooced among those lovely female youth. I shall abide by your
+      opinion,&mdash;I understan' you to say distinc'ly, her complaint is not
+      ketchin'?&mdash;and urge upon Miss Darley to fulfil her dooties to a
+      sufferin' fellow-creature at any cost to myself and my establishment. We
+      shall miss her very much; but it is a good cause, and she shall go,&mdash;and
+      I shall trust that Providence will enable us to spare her without
+      permanent demage to the interests of the Institootion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Saying this, the excellent Principal departed, with his rusty
+      narrow-brimmed hat leaning over, as if it had a six-knot breeze abeam, and
+      its gunwale (so to speak) was dipping into his coat-collar. He announced
+      the result of his inquiries to Helen, who had received a brief note in the
+      mean time from a poor relation of Elsie's mother, then at the
+      mansion-house, informing her of the critical situation of Elsie and of her
+      urgent desire that Helen should be with her. She could not hesitate. She
+      blushed as she thought of the comments that might be made; but what were
+      such considerations in a matter of life and death? She could not stop to
+      make terms with Silas Peckham. She must go. He might fleece her, if he
+      would; she would not complain,&mdash;not even to Bernard, who, she knew,
+      would bring the Principal to terms, if she gave the least hint of his
+      intended extortions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Helen made up her bundle of clothes to be sent after her, took a book
+      or two with her to help her pass the time, and departed for the Dudley
+      mansion. It was with a great inward effort that she undertook the sisterly
+      task which was thus forced upon her. She had a kind of terror of Elsie;
+      and the thought of having charge of her, of being alone with her, of
+      coming under the full influence of those diamond eyes,&mdash;if, indeed,
+      their light were not dimmed by suffering and weariness,&mdash;was one she
+      shrank from. But what could she do? It might be a turning-point in the
+      life of the poor girl; and she must overcome all her fears, all her
+      repugnance, and go to her rescue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Helen come?&rdquo; said Elsie, when she heard, with her fine sense quickened
+      by the irritability of sickness, a light footfall on the stair, with a
+      cadence unlike that of any inmate of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a strange woman's step,&rdquo; said Old Sophy, who, with her exclusive
+      love for Elsie, was naturally disposed to jealousy of a new-comer. &ldquo;Let
+      Ol' Sophy set at 'th' foot o' th' bed, if th' young missis sets by th'
+      piller,&mdash;won' y', darlin'? The' 's nobody that's white can love y' as
+      th' of black woman does;&mdash;don' sen' her away, now, there 's a dear
+      soul!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie motioned her to sit in the place she had pointed to, and Helen at
+      that moment entered the room. Dudley Venner followed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is your patient,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;except while the Doctor is here. She has
+      been longing to have you with her, and we shall expect you to make her
+      well in a few days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Helen Darley found herself established in the most unexpected manner as
+      an inmate of the Dudley mansion. She sat with Elsie most of the time, by
+      day and by night, soothing her, and trying to enter into her confidence
+      and affections, if it should prove that this strange creature was really
+      capable of truly sympathetic emotions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was this unexplained something which came between her soul and that
+      of every other human being with whom she was in relations? Helen
+      perceived, or rather felt, that she had, folded up in the depths of her
+      being, a true womanly nature. Through the cloud that darkened her aspect,
+      now and then a ray would steal forth, which, like the smile of stern and
+      solemn people, was all the more impressive from its contrast with the
+      expression she wore habitually. It might well be that pain and fatigue had
+      changed her aspect; but, at any rate, Helen looked into her eyes without
+      that nervous agitation which their cold glitter had produced on her when
+      they were full of their natural light. She felt sure that her mother must
+      have been a lovely, gentle woman. There were gleams of a beautiful nature
+      shining through some ill-defined medium which disturbed and made them
+      flicker and waver, as distant images do when seen through the rippling
+      upward currents of heated air. She loved, in her own way, the old black
+      woman, and seemed to keep up a kind of silent communication with her, as
+      if they did not require the use of speech. She appeared to be
+      tranquillized by the presence of Helen, and loved to have her seated at
+      the bedside. Yet something, whatever it was, prevented her from opening
+      her heart to her kind companion; and even now there were times when she
+      would lie looking at her, with such a still, watchful, almost dangerous
+      expression, that Helen would sigh, and change her place, as persons do
+      whose breath some cunning orator had been sucking out of them with his
+      spongy eloquence, so that, when he stops, they must get some air and stir
+      about, or they feel as if they should be half smothered and palsied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was too much to keep guessing what was the meaning of all this. Helen
+      determined to ask Old Sophy some questions which might probably throw
+      light upon her doubts. She took the opportunity one evening when Elsie was
+      lying asleep and they were both sitting at some distance from her bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, Sophy,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;was Elsie always as shy as she seems to be
+      now, in talking with those to whom she is friendly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alway jes' so, Miss Darlin', ever sense she was little chil'. When she
+      was five, six year old, she lisp some,&mdash;call me Thophy; that make her
+      kin' o' 'shamed, perhaps: after she grow up, she never lisp, but she kin'
+      o' got the way o' not talkin' much. Fac' is, she don' like talkin' as
+      common gals do, 'xcep' jes' once in a while wi' some partic'lar folks,&mdash;'n'
+      then not much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How old is Elsie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eighteen year this las' September.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long ago did her mother die?&rdquo; Helen asked, with a little trembling in
+      her voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eighteen year ago this October,&rdquo; said Old Sophy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen was silent for a moment. Then she whispered, almost inaudibly,&mdash;for
+      her voice appeared to fail her,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did her mother die of, Sophy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman's small eyes dilated until a ring of white showed round
+      their beady centres. She caught Helen by the hand and clung to it, as if
+      in fear. She looked round at Elsie, who lay sleeping, as of she might be
+      listening. Then she drew Helen towards her and led her softly out of the
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Sh!&mdash;'sh!&rdquo; she said, as soon as they were outside the door. &ldquo;Don'
+      never speak in this house 'bout what Elsie's mother died of!&rdquo; she said.
+      &ldquo;Nobody never says nothin' 'bout it. Oh, God has made Ugly Things wi'
+      death in their mouths, Miss Darlin', an' He knows what they're for; but my
+      poor Elsie!&mdash;to have her blood changed in her before&mdash;It was in
+      July Mistress got her death, but she liv' till three week after my poor
+      Elsie was born.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She could speak no more. She had said enough. Helen remembered the stories
+      she had heard on coming to the village, and among them one referred to in
+      an early chapter of this narrative. All the unaccountable looks and tastes
+      and ways of Elsie came back to her in the light of an ante-natal
+      impression which had mingled an alien element in her nature. She knew the
+      secret of the fascination which looked out of her cold, glittering eyes.
+      She knew the significance of the strange repulsion which she felt in her
+      own intimate consciousness underlying the inexplicable attraction which
+      drew her towards the young girl in spite of this repugnance. She began to
+      look with new feelings on the contradictions in her moral nature,&mdash;the
+      longing for sympathy, as shown by her wishing for Helen's company, and the
+      impossibility of passing beyond the cold circle of isolation within which
+      she had her being. The fearful truth of that instinctive feeling of hers,
+      that there was something not human looking out of Elsie's eyes, came upon
+      her with a sudden flash of penetrating conviction. There were two warring
+      principles in that superb organization and proud soul. One made her a
+      woman, with all a woman's powers and longings. The other chilled all the
+      currents of outlet for her emotions. It made her tearless and mute, when
+      another woman would have wept and pleaded. And it infused into her soul
+      something&mdash;it was cruel now to call it malice&mdash;which was still
+      and watchful and dangerous, which waited its opportunity, and then shot
+      like an arrow from its bow out of the coil of brooding premeditation. Even
+      those who had never seen the white scars on Dick Venner's wrist, or heard
+      the half-told story of her supposed attempt to do a graver mischief, knew
+      well enough by looking at her that she was one of the creatures not to be
+      tampered with,&mdash;silent in anger and swift in vengeance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen could not return to the bedside at once after this communication. It
+      was with altered eyes that she must look on the poor girl, the victim of
+      such an unheard-of fatality. All was explained to her now. But it opened
+      such depths of solemn thought in her awakened consciousness, that it
+      seemed as if the whole mystery of human life were coming up again before
+      her for trial and judgment. &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; she thought, &ldquo;if, while the will lies
+      sealed in its fountain, it may be poisoned at its very source, so that it
+      shall flow dark and deadly through its whole course, who are we that we
+      should judge our fellow-creatures by ourselves?&rdquo; Then came the terrible
+      question, how far the elements themselves are capable of perverting the
+      moral nature: if valor, and justice, and truth, the strength of man and
+      the virtue of woman, may not be poisoned out of a race by the food of the
+      Australian in his forest, by the foul air and darkness of the Christians
+      cooped up in the &ldquo;tenement-houses&rdquo; close by those who live in the palaces
+      of the great cities?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked out into the garden, lost in thought upon these dark and deep
+      matters. Presently she heard a step behind her, and Elsie's father came up
+      and joined her. Since his introduction to Helen at the distinguished
+      tea-party given by the Widow Rowens, and before her coming to sit with
+      Elsie, Mr. Dudley Venner had in the most accidental way in the world met
+      her on several occasions: once after church, when she happened to be
+      caught in a slight shower and he insisted on holding his umbrella over her
+      on her way home;&mdash;once at a small party at one of the mansion-houses,
+      where the quick-eyed lady of the house had a wonderful knack of bringing
+      people together who liked to see each other;&mdash;perhaps at other times
+      and places; but of this there is no certain evidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They naturally spoke of Elsie, her illness, and the aspect it had taken.
+      But Helen noticed in all that Dudley Venner said about his daughter a
+      morbid sensitiveness, as it seemed to her, an aversion to saying much
+      about her physical condition or her peculiarities,&mdash;a wish to feel
+      and speak as a parent should, and yet a shrinking, as if there were
+      something about Elsie which he could not bear to dwell upon. She thought
+      she saw through all this, and she could interpret it all charitably. There
+      were circumstances about his daughter which recalled the great sorrow of
+      his life; it was not strange that this perpetual reminder should in some
+      degree have modified his feelings as a father. But what a life he must
+      have been leading for so many years, with this perpetual source of
+      distress which he could not name! Helen knew well enough, now, the meaning
+      of the sadness which had left such traces in his features and tones, and
+      it made her feel very kindly and compassionate towards him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they walked over the crackling leaves in the garden, between the lines
+      of box breathing its fragrance of eternity;&mdash;for this is one of the
+      odors which carry us out of time into the abysses of the unbeginning past;
+      if we ever lived on another ball of stone than this, it must be that there
+      was box growing on it. So they walked, finding their way softly to each
+      other's sorrows and sympathies, each matching some counterpart to the
+      other's experience of life, and startled to see how the different, yet
+      parallel, lessons they had been taught by suffering had led them step by
+      step to the same serene acquiescence in the orderings of that Supreme
+      Wisdom which they both devoutly recognized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Sophy was at the window and saw them walking up and down the
+      garden-alleys. She watched them as her grandfather the savage watched the
+      figures that moved among the trees when a hostile tribe was lurking about
+      his mountain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There'll be a weddin' in the ol house,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;before there's roses
+      on them bushes ag'in. But it won' be my poor Elsie's weddin', 'n' ol'
+      Sophy won' be there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Helen prayed in the silence of her soul that evening, it was not that
+      Elsie's life might be spared. She dared not ask that as a favor of Heaven.
+      What could life be to her but a perpetual anguish, and to those about her
+      but an ever-present terror? Might she but be so influenced by divine
+      grace, that what in her was most truly human, most purely woman-like,
+      should overcome the dark, cold, unmentionable instinct which had pervaded
+      her being like a subtile poison that was all she could ask, and the rest
+      she left to a higher wisdom and tenderer love than her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX. THE WHITE ASH.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When Helen returned to Elsie's bedside, it was with a new and still deeper
+      feeling of sympathy, such as the story told by Old Sophy might well
+      awaken. She understood, as never before, the singular fascination and as
+      singular repulsion which she had long felt in Elsie's presence. It had not
+      been without a great effort that she had forced herself to become the
+      almost constant attendant of the sick girl; and now she was learning, but
+      not for the first time, the blessed truth which so many good women have
+      found out for themselves, that the hardest duty bravely performed soon
+      becomes a habit, and tends in due time to transform itself into a
+      pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor was beginning to look graver, in spite of himself. The
+      fever, if such it was, went gently forward, wasting the young girl's
+      powers of resistance from day to day; yet she showed no disposition to
+      take nourishment, and seemed literally to be living on air. It was
+      remarkable that with all this her look was almost natural, and her
+      features were hardly sharpened so as to suggest that her life was burning
+      away. He did not like this, nor various other unobtrusive signs of danger
+      which his practised eye detected. A very small matter might turn the
+      balance which held life and death poised against each other. He surrounded
+      her with precautions, that Nature might have every opportunity of
+      cunningly shifting the weights from the scale of death to the scale of
+      life, as she will often do if not rudely disturbed or interfered with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little tokens of good-will and kind remembrance were constantly coming to
+      her from the girls in the school and the good people in the village. Some
+      of the mansion-house people obtained rare flowers which they sent her, and
+      her table was covered with fruits which tempted her in vain. Several of
+      the school-girls wished to make her a basket of their own handiwork, and,
+      filling it with autumnal flowers, to send it as a joint offering. Mr.
+      Bernard found out their project accidentally, and, wishing to have his
+      share in it, brought home from one of his long walks some boughs full of
+      variously tinted leaves, such as were still clinging to the stricken
+      trees. With these he brought also some of the already fallen leaflets of
+      the white ash, remarkable for their rich olive-purple color, forming a
+      beautiful contrast with some of the lighter-hued leaves. It so happened
+      that this particular tree, the white ash, did not grow upon The Mountain,
+      and the leaflets were more welcome for their comparative rarity. So the
+      girls made their basket, and the floor of it they covered with the rich
+      olive-purple leaflets. Such late flowers as they could lay their hands
+      upon served to fill it, and with many kindly messages they sent it to Miss
+      Elsie Venner at the Dudley mansion-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie was sitting up in her bed when it came, languid, but tranquil, and
+      Helen was by her, as usual, holding her hand, which was strangely cold,
+      Helen thought, for one who was said to have some kind of fever. The
+      school-girls' basket was brought in with its messages of love and hopes
+      for speedy recovery. Old Sophy was delighted to see that it pleased Elsie,
+      and laid it on the bed before her. Elsie began looking at the flowers, and
+      taking them from the basket, that she might see the leaves. All at once
+      she appeared to be agitated; she looked at the basket, then around, as if
+      there were some fearful presence about her which she was searching for
+      with her eager glances. She took out the flowers, one by one, her
+      breathing growing hurried, her eyes staring, her hands trembling,&mdash;till,
+      as she came near the bottom of the basket, she flung out all the rest with
+      a hasty movement, looked upon the olive-purple leaflets as if paralyzed
+      for a moment, shrunk up, as it were, into herself in a curdling terror,
+      dashed the basket from her, and fell back senseless, with a faint cry
+      which chilled the blood of the startled listeners at her bedside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take it away!&mdash;take it away!&mdash;quick!&rdquo; said Old Sophy, as she
+      hastened to her mistress's pillow. &ldquo;It 's the leaves of the tree that was
+      always death to her,&mdash;take it away! She can't live wi' it in the
+      room!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor old woman began chafing Elsie's hands, and Helen to try to rouse
+      her with hartshorn, while a third frightened attendant gathered up the
+      flowers and the basket and carried them out of the apartment, She came to
+      herself after a time, but exhausted and then wandering. In her delirium
+      she talked constantly as if she were in a cave, with such exactness of
+      circumstance that Helen could not doubt at all that she had some such
+      retreat among the rocks of The Mountain, probably fitted up in her own
+      fantastic way, where she sometimes hid herself from all human eyes, and of
+      the entrance to which she alone possessed the secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this passed away, and left her, of course, weaker than before. But
+      this was not the only influence the unexplained paroxysm had left behind
+      it. From this time forward there was a change in her whole expression and
+      her manner. The shadows ceased flitting over her features, and the old
+      woman, who watched her from day to day and from hour to hour as a mother
+      watches her child, saw the likeness she bore to her mother coming forth
+      more and more, as the cold glitter died out of the diamond eyes, and the
+      stormy scowl disappeared from the dark brows and low forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With all the kindness and indulgence her father had bestowed upon her,
+      Elsie had never felt that he loved her. The reader knows well enough what
+      fatal recollections and associations had frozen up the springs of natural
+      affection in his breast. There was nothing in the world he would not do
+      for Elsie. He had sacrificed his whole life to her. His very seeming
+      carelessness about restraining her was all calculated; he knew that
+      restraint would produce nothing but utter alienation. Just so far as she
+      allowed him, he shared her studies, her few pleasures, her thoughts; but
+      she was essentially solitary and uncommunicative. No person, as was said
+      long ago, could judge him, because his task was not merely difficult, but
+      simply impracticable to human powers. A nature like Elsie's had
+      necessarily to be studied by itself, and to be followed in its laws where
+      it could not be led.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every day, at different hours, during the whole of his daughter's illness,
+      Dudley Venner had sat by her, doing all he could to soothe and please her.
+      Always the same thin film of some emotional non-conductor between them;
+      always that kind of habitual regard and family-interest, mingled with the
+      deepest pity on one side and a sort of respect on the other, which never
+      warmed into outward evidences of affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was after this occasion, when she had been so profoundly agitated by a
+      seemingly insignificant cause, that her father and Old Sophy were sitting,
+      one at one side of her bed and one at the other. She had fallen into a
+      light slumber. As they were looking at her, the same thought came into
+      both their minds at the same moment. Old Sophy spoke for both, as she
+      said, in a low voice,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It 's her mother's look,&mdash;it 's her mother's own face right over
+      again,&mdash;she never look' so before, the Lord's hand is on her! His
+      will be done!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Elsie woke and lifted her languid eyes upon her father's face, she
+      saw in it a tenderness, a depth of affection, such as she remembered at
+      rare moments of her childhood, when she had won him to her by some unusual
+      gleam of sunshine in her fitful temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Elsie, dear,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we were thinking how much your expression was
+      sometimes like that of your sweet mother. If you could but have seen her,
+      so as to remember her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The tender look and tone, the yearning of the daughter's heart for the
+      mother she had never seen, save only with the unfixed, undistinguishing
+      eyes of earliest infancy, perhaps the under-thought that she might soon
+      rejoin her in another state of being,&mdash;all came upon her with a
+      sudden overflow of feeling which broke through all the barriers between
+      her heart and her eyes, and Elsie wept. It seemed to her father as if the
+      malign influence&mdash;evil spirit it might almost be called&mdash;which
+      had pervaded her being, had at last been driven forth or exorcised, and
+      that these tears were at once the sign and the pledge of her redeemed
+      nature. But now she was to be soothed, and not excited. After her tears
+      she slept again, and the look her face wore was peaceful as never before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Sophy met the Doctor at the door and told him all the circumstances
+      connected with the extraordinary attack from which Elsie had suffered. It
+      was the purple leaves, she said. She remembered that Dick once brought
+      home a branch of a tree with some of the same leaves on it, and Elsie
+      screamed and almost fainted then. She, Sophy, had asked her, after she had
+      got quiet, what it was in the leaves that made her feel so bad. Elsie
+      could n't tell her,&mdash;did n't like to speak about it,&mdash;shuddered
+      whenever Sophy mentioned it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This did not sound so strangely to the old Doctor as it does to some who
+      listen to his narrative. He had known some curious examples of
+      antipathies, and remembered reading of others still more singular. He had
+      known those who could not bear the presence of a cat, and recollected the
+      story, often told, of a person's hiding one in a chest when one of these
+      sensitive individuals came into the room, so as not to disturb him; but he
+      presently began to sweat and turn pale, and cried out that there must be a
+      cat hid somewhere. He knew people who were poisoned by strawberries, by
+      honey, by different meats, many who could not endure cheese,&mdash;some
+      who could not bear the smell of roses. If he had known all the stories in
+      the old books, he would have found that some have swooned and become as
+      dead men at the smell of a rose,&mdash;that a stout soldier has been known
+      to turn and run at the sight or smell of rue,&mdash;that cassia and even
+      olive-oil have produced deadly faintings in certain individuals,&mdash;in
+      short, that almost everything has seemed to be a poison to somebody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring me that basket, Sophy,&rdquo; said the old Doctor, &ldquo;if you can find it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sophy brought it to him,&mdash;for he had not yet entered Elsie's
+      apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These purple leaves are from the white ash,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You don't know the
+      notion that people commonly have about that tree, Sophy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know they say the Ugly Things never go where the white ash grows,&rdquo;
+       Sophy answered. &ldquo;Oh, Doctor dear, what I'm thinkin' of a'n't true, is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor smiled sadly, but did not answer. He went directly to Elsie's
+      room. Nobody would have known by his manner that he saw any special change
+      in his patient. He spoke with her as usual, made some slight alteration in
+      his prescriptions, and left the room with a kind, cheerful look. He met
+      her father on the stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it as I thought?&rdquo; said Dudley Venner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is everything to fear,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;and not much, I am
+      afraid, to hope. Does not her face recall to you one that you remember, as
+      never before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; her father answered,&mdash;&ldquo;oh, yes! What is the meaning of this
+      change which has come over her features, and her voice, her temper, her
+      whole being? Tell me, oh, tell me, what is it? Can it be that the curse is
+      passing away, and my daughter is to be restored to me,&mdash;such as her
+      mother would have had her,&mdash;such as her mother was?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Walk out with me into the garden,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;and I will tell you
+      all I know and all I think about this great mystery of Elsie's life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked out together, and the Doctor began: &ldquo;She has lived a double
+      being, as it were,&mdash;the consequence of the blight which fell upon her
+      in the dim period before consciousness. You can see what she might have
+      been but for this. You know that for these eighteen years her whole
+      existence has taken its character from that influence which we need not
+      name. But you will remember that few of the lower forms of life last as
+      human beings do; and thus it might have been hoped and trusted with some
+      show of reason, as I have always suspected you hoped and trusted, perhaps
+      more confidently than myself, that the lower nature which had become
+      engrafted on the higher would die out and leave the real woman's life she
+      inherited to outlive this accidental principle which had so poisoned her
+      childhood and youth. I believe it is so dying out; but I am afraid,&mdash;yes,
+      I must say it, I fear it has involved the centres of life in its own
+      decay. There is hardly any pulse at Elsie's wrist; no stimulants seem to
+      rouse her; and it looks as if life were slowly retreating inwards, so that
+      by-and-by she will sleep as those who lie down in the cold and never
+      wake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Strange as it may seem, her father heard all this not without deep sorrow,
+      and such marks of it as his thoughtful and tranquil nature, long schooled
+      by suffering, claimed or permitted, but with a resignation itself the
+      measure of his past trials. Dear as his daughter might become to him, all
+      he dared to ask of Heaven was that she might be restored to that truer
+      self which lay beneath her false and adventitious being. If he could once
+      see that the icy lustre in her eyes had become a soft, calm light,&mdash;that
+      her soul was at peace with all about her and with Him; above,&mdash;this
+      crumb from the children's table was enough for him, as it was for the
+      Syro-Phoenician woman who asked that the dark spirit might go out from her
+      daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was little change the next day, until all at once she said in a
+      clear voice that she should like to see her master at the school, Mr.
+      Langdon. He came accordingly, and took the place of Helen at her bedside.
+      It seemed as if Elsie had forgotten the last scene with him. Might it be
+      that pride had come in, and she had sent for him only to show how superior
+      she had grown to the weakness which had betrayed her into that
+      extraordinary request, so contrary to the instincts and usages of her sex?
+      Or was it that the singular change which had come over her had involved
+      her passionate fancy for him and swept it away with her other habits of
+      thought and feeling? Or could it be that she felt that all earthly
+      interests were becoming of little account to her, and wished to place
+      herself right with one to whom she had displayed a wayward movement of her
+      unbalanced imagination? She welcomed Mr. Bernard as quietly as she had
+      received Helen Darley. He colored at the recollection of that last scene,
+      when he came into her presence; but she smiled with perfect tranquillity.
+      She did not speak to him of any apprehension; but he saw that she looked
+      upon herself as doomed. So friendly, yet so calm did she seem through all
+      their interview, that Mr. Bernard could only look back upon her
+      manifestation of feeling towards him on their walk from the school as a
+      vagary of a mind laboring under some unnatural excitement, and wholly at
+      variance with the true character of Elsie Venner as he saw her before him
+      in her subdued, yet singular beauty. He looked with almost scientific
+      closeness of observation into the diamond eyes; but that peculiar light
+      which he knew so well was not there. She was the same in one sense as on
+      that first day when he had seen her coiling and uncoiling her golden
+      chain; yet how different in every aspect which revealed her state of mind
+      and emotion! Something of tenderness there was, perhaps, in her tone
+      towards him; she would not have sent for him, had she not felt more than
+      an ordinary interest in him. But through the whole of his visit she never
+      lost her gracious self-possession. The Dudley race might well be proud of
+      the last of its daughters, as she lay dying, but unconquered by the
+      feeling of the present or the fear of the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Mr. Bernard, he found it very hard to look upon her, and listen to
+      her unmoved. There was nothing that reminded him of the stormy&mdash;browed,
+      almost savage girl he remembered in her fierce loveliness,&mdash;nothing
+      of all her singularities of air and of costume. Nothing? Yes, one thing.
+      Weak and suffering as she was, she had never parted with one particular
+      ornament, such as a sick person would naturally, as it might be supposed,
+      get rid of at once. The golden cord which she wore round her neck at the
+      great party was still there. A bracelet was lying by her pillow; she had
+      unclasped it from her wrist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before Mr. Bernard left her, she said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall never see you again. Some time or other, perhaps, you will
+      mention my name to one whom you love. Give her this from your scholar and
+      friend Elsie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took the bracelet, raised her hand to his lips, then turned his face
+      away; in that moment he was the weaker of the two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-bye,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;thank you for coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice died away in his throat, as he tried to answer her. She followed
+      him with her eyes as he passed from her sight through the door, and when
+      it closed after him sobbed tremulously once or twice, but stilled herself,
+      and met Helen, as she entered, with a composed countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have had a very pleasant visit from Mr. Langdon,&rdquo; Elsie said. &ldquo;Sit by
+      me, Helen, awhile without speaking; I should like to sleep, if I can,&mdash;and
+      to dream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX. THE GOLDEN CORD IS LOOSED.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather, hearing that his parishioner's daughter,
+      Elsie, was very ill, could do nothing less than come to the mansion-house
+      and tender such consolations as he was master of. It was rather remarkable
+      that the old Doctor did not exactly approve of his visit. He thought that
+      company of every sort might be injurious in her weak state. He was of
+      opinion that Mr. Fairweather, though greatly interested in religious
+      matters, was not the most sympathetic person that could be found; in fact,
+      the old Doctor thought he was too much taken up with his own interests for
+      eternity to give himself quite 'so heartily to the need of other people as
+      some persons got up on a rather more generous scale (our good neighbor Dr.
+      Honeywood, for instance) could do. However, all these things had better be
+      arranged to suit her wants; if she would like to talk with a clergyman,
+      she had a great deal better see one as often as she liked, and run the
+      risk of the excitement, than have a hidden wish for such a visit and
+      perhaps find herself too weak to see him by-and-by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Doctor knew by sad experience that dreadful mistake against which
+      all medical practitioners should be warned. His experience may well be a
+      guide for others. Do not overlook the desire for spiritual advice and
+      consolation which patients sometimes feel, and, with the frightful
+      mauvaise honte peculiar to Protestantism, alone among all human beliefs,
+      are ashamed to tell. As a part of medical treatment, it is the physician's
+      business to detect the hidden longing for the food of the soul, as much as
+      for any form of bodily nourishment. Especially in the higher walks of
+      society, where this unutterably miserable false shame of Protestantism
+      acts in proportion to the general acuteness of the cultivated
+      sensibilities, let no unwillingness to suggest the sick person's real need
+      suffer him to languish between his want and his morbid sensitiveness. What
+      an infinite advantage the Mussulmans and the Catholics have over many of
+      our more exclusively spiritual sects in the way they keep their religion
+      always by them and never blush for it! And besides this spiritual longing,
+      we should never forget that
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          &ldquo;On some fond breast the parting soul relies,&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      and the minister of religion, in addition to the sympathetic nature which
+      we have a right to demand in him, has trained himself to the art of
+      entering into the feelings of others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader must pardon this digression, which introduces the visit of the
+      Reverend Chauncy Fairweather to Elsie Venner. It was mentioned to her that
+      he would like to call and see how she was, and she consented,&mdash;not
+      with much apparent interest, for she had reasons of her own for not
+      feeling any very deep conviction of his sympathy for persons in sorrow.
+      But he came, and worked the conversation round to religion, and confused
+      her with his hybrid notions, half made up of what he had been believing
+      and teaching all his life, and half of the new doctrines which he had
+      veneered upon the surface of his old belief. He got so far as to make a
+      prayer with her,&mdash;a cool, well-guarded prayer, which compromised his
+      faith as little as possible, and which, if devotion were a game played
+      against Providence, might have been considered a cautious and sagacious
+      move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had gone, Elsie called Old Sophy to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sophy,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;don't let them send that cold hearted man to me any
+      more. If your old minister comes&mdash;to see you, I should like to hear
+      him talk. He looks as if he cared for everybody, and would care for me.
+      And, Sophy, if I should die one of these days, I should like to have that
+      old minister come and say whatever is to be said over me. It would comfort
+      Dudley more, I know, than to have that hard man here, when you're in
+      trouble, for some of you will be sorry when I'm gone,&mdash;won't you,
+      Sophy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor old black woman could not stand this question. The cold minister
+      had frozen Elsie until she felt as if nobody cared for her or would regret
+      her,&mdash;and her question had betrayed this momentary feeling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don' talk so! don' talk so, darlin'!&rdquo; she cried, passionately. &ldquo;When you
+      go, Ol' Sophy'll go; 'n' where you go, Ol' Sophy'll go: 'n' we'll both go
+      t' th' place where th' Lord takes care of all his children, whether their
+      faces are white or black. Oh, darlin', darlin'! if th' Lord should let me
+      die firs', you shall fin' all ready for you when you come after me. On'y
+      don' go 'n' leave poor Ol' Sophy all 'lone in th' world!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen came in at this moment and quieted the old woman with a look. Such
+      scenes were just what were most dangerous, in the state in which Elsie was
+      lying: but that is one of the ways in which an affectionate friend
+      sometimes unconsciously wears out the life which a hired nurse, thinking
+      of nothing but her regular duties and her wages, would have spared from
+      all emotional fatigue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The change which had come over Elsie's disposition was itself the cause of
+      new excitements. How was it possible that her father could keep away from
+      her, now that she was coming back to the nature and the very look of her
+      mother, the bride of his youth? How was it possible to refuse her, when
+      she said to Old Sophy, that she should like to have her minister come in
+      and sit by her, even though his presence might perhaps prove a new source
+      of excitement?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Reverend Doctor did come and sit by her, and spoke such soothing
+      words to her, words of such peace and consolation, that from that hour she
+      was tranquil as never before. All true hearts are alike in the hour of
+      need; the Catholic has a reserved fund of faith for his fellow-creature's
+      trying moment, and the Calvinist reveals those springs of human
+      brotherhood and charity in his soul which are only covered over by the
+      iron tables inscribed with the harder dogmas of his creed. It was enough
+      that the Reverend Doctor knew all Elsie's history. He could not judge her
+      by any formula, like those which have been moulded by past ages out of
+      their ignorance. He did not talk with her as if she were an outside sinner
+      worse than himself. He found a bruised and languishing soul, and bound up
+      its wounds. A blessed office,&mdash;one which is confined to no sect or
+      creed, but which good men in all times, under various names and with
+      varying ministries, to suit the need of each age, of each race, of each
+      individual soul, have come forward to discharge for their suffering
+      fellow-creatures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this there was little change in Elsie, except that her heart beat
+      more feebly every day,&mdash;so that the old Doctor himself, with all his
+      experience, could see nothing to account for the gradual failing of the
+      powers of life, and yet could find no remedy which seemed to arrest its
+      progress in the smallest degree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be very careful,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that she is not allowed to make any muscular
+      exertion. Any such effort, when a person is so enfeebled, may stop the
+      heart in a moment; and if it stops, it will never move again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen enforced this rule with the greatest care. Elsie was hardly allowed
+      to move her hand or to speak above a whisper. It seemed to be mainly the
+      question now, whether this trembling flame of life would be blown out by
+      some light breath of air, or whether it could be so nursed and sheltered
+      by the hollow of these watchful hands that it would have a chance to
+      kindle to its natural brightness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;Her father came in to sit with her in the evening. He had never
+      talked so freely with her as during the hour he had passed at her bedside,
+      telling her little circumstances of her mother's life, living over with
+      her all that was pleasant in the past, and trying to encourage her with
+      some cheerful gleams of hope for the future. A faint smile played over her
+      face, but she did not answer his encouraging suggestions. The hour came
+      for him to leave her with those who watched by her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-night, my dear child,&rdquo; he said, and stooping down, kissed her cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elsie rose by a sudden effort, threw her arms round his neck, kissed him,
+      and said, &ldquo;Good-night, my dear father!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The suddenness of her movement had taken him by surprise, or he would have
+      checked so dangerous an effort. It was too late now. Her arms slid away
+      from him like lifeless weights,&mdash;her head fell back upon her pillow,&mdash;along
+      sigh breathed through her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is faint,&rdquo; said Helen, doubtfully; &ldquo;bring me the hartshorn, Sophy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman had started from her place, and was now leaning over her,
+      looking in her face, and listening for the sound of her breathing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She 's dead! Elsie 's dead! My darlin 's dead!&rdquo; she cried aloud, filling
+      the room with her utterance of anguish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner drew her away and silenced her with a voice of authority,
+      while Helen and an assistant plied their restoratives. It was all in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The solemn tidings passed from the chamber of death through the family.
+      The daughter, the hope of that old and honored house, was dead in the
+      freshness of her youth, and the home of its solitary representative was
+      hereafter doubly desolate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A messenger rode hastily out of the avenue. A little after this the people
+      of the village and the outlying farm-houses were startled by the sound of
+      a bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One,&mdash;two,&mdash;three,&mdash;four,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stopped in every house, as far as the wavering vibrations reached,
+      and listened&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      five,&mdash;six,&mdash;seven,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not the little child which had been lying so long at the point of
+      death; that could not be more than three or four years old&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      eight,&mdash;nine,&mdash;ten,&mdash;and so on to fifteen, sixteen,&mdash;seventeen,
+      &mdash;eighteen&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pulsations seemed to keep on,&mdash;but it was the brain, and not the
+      bell, that was throbbing now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Elsie 's dead!&rdquo; was the exclamation at a hundred firesides.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eighteen year old,&rdquo; said old Widow Peake, rising from her chair.
+      &ldquo;Eighteen year ago I laid two gold eagles on her mother's eyes,&mdash;he
+      wouldn't have anything but gold touch her eyelids,&mdash;and now Elsie's
+      to be straightened,&mdash;the Lord have mercy on her poor sinful soul!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner prayed that night that he might be forgiven, if he had
+      failed in any act of duty or kindness to this unfortunate child of his,
+      now freed from all the woes born with her and so long poisoning her soul.
+      He thanked God for the brief interval of peace which had been granted her,
+      for the sweet communion they had enjoyed in these last days, and for the
+      hope of meeting her with that other lost friend in a better world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen mingled a few broken thanks and petitions with her tears: thanks
+      that she had been permitted to share the last days and hours of this poor
+      sister in sorrow; petitions that the grief of bereavement might be
+      lightened to the lonely parent and the faithful old servant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Sophy said almost nothing, but sat day and night by her dead darling.
+      But sometimes her anguish would find an outlet in strange sounds,
+      something between a cry and a musical note,&mdash;such as noise had ever
+      heard her utter before. These were old remembrances surging up from her
+      childish days, coming through her mother from the cannibal chief, her
+      grandfather,&mdash;death-wails, such as they sing in the mountains of
+      Western Africa, when they see the fires on distant hill-sides and know
+      that their own wives and children are undergoing the fate of captives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time came when Elsie was to be laid by her mother in the small square
+      marked by the white stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not unwillingly that the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had
+      relinquished the duty of conducting the service to the Reverend Doctor
+      Honeywood, in accordance with Elsie's request. He could not, by any
+      reasoning, reconcile his present way of thinking with a hope for the
+      future of his unfortunate parishioner. Any good old Roman Catholic priest,
+      born and bred to his faith and his business, would have found a loophole
+      into some kind of heaven for her, by virtue of his doctrine of &ldquo;invincible
+      ignorance,&rdquo; or other special proviso; but a recent convert cannot enter
+      into the working conditions of his new creed. Beliefs must be lived in for
+      a good while, before they accommodate themselves to the soul's wants, and
+      wear loose enough to be comfortable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reverend Doctor had no such scruples. Like thousands of those who are
+      classed nominally with the despairing believers, he had never prayed over
+      a departed brother or sister without feeling and expressing a guarded hope
+      that there was mercy in store for the poor sinner, whom parents, wives,
+      children, brothers and sisters could not bear to give up to utter ruin
+      without a word,&mdash;and would not, as he knew full well, in virtue of
+      that human love and sympathy which nothing can ever extinguish. And in
+      this poor Elsie's history he could read nothing which the tears of the
+      recording angel might not wash away. As the good physician of the place
+      knew the diseases that assailed the bodies of men and women, so he had
+      learned the mysteries of the sickness of the soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So many wished to look upon Elsie's face once more, that her father would
+      not deny them; nay, he was pleased that those who remembered her living
+      should see her in the still beauty of death. Helen and those with her
+      arrayed her for this farewell-view. All was ready for the sad or curious
+      eyes which were to look upon her. There 'was no painful change to be
+      concealed by any artifice. Even her round neck was left uncovered, that
+      she might be more like one who slept. Only the golden cord was left in its
+      place: some searching eye might detect a trace of that birthmark which it
+      was whispered she had always worn a necklace to conceal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the last moment, when all the preparations were completed, Old Sophy
+      stooped over her, and, with trembling hand, loosed the golden cord. She
+      looked intently; for some little space: there was no shade nor blemish
+      where the ring of gold had encircled her throat. She took it gently away
+      and laid it in the casket which held her ornaments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord be praised!&rdquo; the old woman cried, aloud. &ldquo;He has taken away the
+      mark that was on her; she's fit to meet his holy angels now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Elsie lay for hours in the great room, in a kind of state, with flowers
+      all about her,&mdash;her black hair braided as in life,&mdash;her brows
+      smooth, as if they had never known the scowl of passion,&mdash;and on her
+      lips the faint smile with which she had uttered her last &ldquo;Good&mdash;night.&rdquo;
+       The young girls from the school looked at her, one after another, and
+      passed on, sobbing, carrying in their hearts the picture that would be
+      with them all their days. The great people of the place were all there
+      with their silent sympathy. The lesser kind of gentry, and many of the
+      plainer folk of the village, half-pleased to find themselves passing
+      beneath the stately portico of the ancient mansion-house, crowded in,
+      until the ample rooms were overflowing. All the friends whose acquaintance
+      we have made were there, and many from remoter villages and towns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a deep silence at last. The hour had come for the parting words
+      to be spoken over the dead. The good old minister's voice rose out of the
+      stillness, subdued and tremulous at first, but growing firmer and clearer
+      as he went on, until it reached the ears of the visitors who were in the
+      far, desolate chambers, looking at the pictured hangings and the old dusty
+      portraits. He did not tell her story in his prayer. He only spoke of our
+      dear departed sister as one of many whom Providence in its wisdom has seen
+      fit to bring under bondage from their cradles. It was not for us to judge
+      them by any standard of our own. He who made the heart alone knew the
+      infirmities it inherited or acquired. For all that our dear sister had
+      presented that was interesting and attractive in her character we were to
+      be grateful; for whatever was dark or inexplicable we must trust that the
+      deep shadow which rested on the twilight dawn of her being might render a
+      reason before the bar of Omniscience; for the grace which had lightened
+      her last days we should pour out our hearts in thankful acknowledgment.
+      From the life and the death of this our dear sister we should learn a
+      lesson of patience with our fellow-creatures in their inborn
+      peculiarities, of charity in judging what seem to us wilful faults of
+      character, of hope and trust, that, by sickness or affliction, or such
+      inevitable discipline as life must always bring with it, if by no gentler
+      means, the soul which had been left by Nature to wander into the path of
+      error and of suffering might be reclaimed and restored to its true aim,
+      and so led on by divine grace to its eternal welfare. He closed his prayer
+      by commending each member of the afflicted family to the divine blessing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then all at once rose the clear sound of the girls' voices, in the sweet,
+      sad melody of a funeral hymn,&mdash;one of those which Elsie had marked,
+      as if prophetically, among her own favorites.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so they laid her in the earth, and showered down flowers upon her, and
+      filled her grave, and covered it with green sods. By the side of it was
+      another oblong ridge, with a white stone standing at its head. Mr. Bernard
+      looked upon it, as he came close to the place where Elsie was laid, and
+      read the inscription,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                         CATALINA
+
+                  WIFE TO DUDLEY VENNER
+
+                          DIED
+                    OCTOBER 13TH 1840
+
+                      AGED XX YEARS
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A gentle rain fell on the turf after it was laid. This was the beginning
+      of a long and dreary autumnal storm, a deferred &ldquo;equinoctial,&rdquo; as many
+      considered it. The mountain streams were all swollen and turbulent, and
+      the steep declivities were furrowed in every direction by new channels. It
+      made the house seem doubly desolate to hear the wind howling and the rain
+      beating upon the roofs. The poor relation who was staying at the house
+      would insist on Helen's remaining a few days: Old Sophy was in such a
+      condition, that it kept her in continual anxiety, and there were many
+      cares which Helen could take off from her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old black woman's life was buried in her darling's grave. She did
+      nothing but moan and lament for her. At night she was restless, and would
+      get up and wander to Elsie's apartment and look for her and call her by
+      name. At other times she would lie awake and listen to the wind and the
+      rain,&mdash;sometimes with such a wild look upon her face, and with such
+      sudden starts and exclamations, that it seemed as if she heard
+      spirit-voices and were answering the whispers of unseen visitants. With
+      all this were mingled hints of her old superstition,&mdash;forebodings of
+      something fearful about to happen,&mdash;perhaps the great final
+      catastrophe of all things, according to the prediction current in the
+      kitchens of Rockland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark!&rdquo; Old Sophy would say,&mdash;&ldquo;don' you hear th' crackin' 'n' th'
+      snappin' up in Th' Mountain, 'n' th' rollin' o' th' big stones? The' 's
+      somethin' stirrin' among th' rocks; I hear th' soun' of it in th' night,
+      when th' wind has stopped blowin'. Oh, stay by me a little while, Miss
+      Darlin'! stay by me! for it's th' Las' Day, maybe, that's close on us, 'n'
+      I feel as if I could n' meet th' Lord all alone!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was curious,&mdash;but Helen did certainly recognize sounds, during the
+      lull of the storm, which were not of falling rain or running streams,&mdash;short
+      snapping sounds, as of tense cords breaking,&mdash;long uneven sounds, as
+      of masses rolling down steep declivities. But the morning came as usual;
+      and as the others said nothing of these singular noises, Helen did not
+      think it necessary to speak of them. All day long she and the humble
+      relative of Elsie's mother, who had appeared as poor relations are wont to
+      in the great prises of life, were busy in arranging the disordered house,
+      and looking over the various objects which Elsie's singular tastes had
+      brought together, to dispose of them as her father might direct. They all
+      met together at the usual hour for tea. One of the servants came in,
+      looking very blank, and said to the poor relation,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The well is gone dry; we have nothing but rainwater.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner's countenance changed; he sprang to, his feet and went to&mdash;assure
+      himself of the fact, and, if he could, of the reason of it. For a well to
+      dry up during such a rain-storm was extraordinary,&mdash;it was ominous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came back, looking very anxious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did any of you notice any remarkable sounds last night,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;or
+      this morning? Hark! do you hear anything now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They listened in perfect silence for a few moments. Then there came a
+      short cracking sound, and two or three snaps, as of parting cords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner called all his household together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are in danger here, as I think, to-night,&rdquo; he said,&mdash;&ldquo;not very
+      great danger, perhaps, but it is a risk I do not wish you to run. These
+      heavy rains have loosed some of the rocks above, and they may come down
+      and endanger the house. Harness the horses, Elbridge, and take all the
+      family away. Miss Darley will go to the Institute; the others will pass
+      the night at the Mountain House. I shall stay here, myself: it is not at
+      all likely that anything will come of these warnings; but if there should,
+      I choose to be there and take my chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It needs little, generally, to frighten servants, and they were all ready
+      enough to go. The poor relation was one of the timid sort, and was
+      terribly uneasy to be got out of the house. This left no alternative, of
+      course, for Helen, but to go also. They all urged upon Dudley Venner to go
+      with them: if there was danger, why should he remain to risk it, when he
+      sent away the others?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Sophy said nothing until the time came for her to go with the second
+      of Elbridge's carriage-loads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Sophy,&rdquo; said Dudley Venner, &ldquo;get your things and go. They will take
+      good care of you at the Mountain House; and when we have made sure that
+      there is no real danger, you shall come back at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Masse!&rdquo; Sophy answered. &ldquo;I've seen Elsie into th' ground, 'n' I a'n't
+      goin' away to come back 'n' fin' Masse Venner buried under th' rocks. My
+      darlin' 's gone; 'n' now, if Masse goes, 'n' th' of place goes, it's time
+      for Ol' Sophy to go, too. No, Masse Venner, we'll both stay in th' of
+      mansion 'n' wait for th' Lord!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could change the old woman's determination; and her master, who
+      only feared, but did not really expect the long-deferred catastrophe, was
+      obliged to consent to her staying. The sudden drying of the well at such a
+      time was the most alarming sign; for he remembered that the same thing had
+      been observed just before great mountain-slides. This long rain, too, was
+      just the kind of cause which was likely to loosen the strata of rock piled
+      up in the ledges; if the dreaded event should ever come to pass, it would
+      be at such a time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paced his chamber uneasily until long past midnight. If the morning
+      came without accident, he meant to have a careful examination made of all
+      the rents and fissures above, of their direction and extent, and
+      especially whether, in case of a mountain-slide, the huge masses would be
+      like to reach so far to the east and so low down the declivity as the
+      mansion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At two o'clock in the morning he was dozing in his chair. Old Sophy had
+      lain down on her bed, and was muttering in troubled dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All at once a loud crash seemed to rend the very heavens above them: a
+      crack as of the thunder that follows close upon the bolt,&mdash;a rending
+      and crashing as of a forest snapped through all its stems, torn, twisted,
+      splintered, dragged with all its ragged boughs into one chaotic ruin. The
+      ground trembled under them as in an earthquake; the old mansion shuddered
+      so that all its windows chattered in their casements; the great chimney
+      shook off its heavy cap-stones, which came down on the roof with
+      resounding concussions; and the echoes of The Mountain roared and bellowed
+      in long reduplication, as if its whole foundations were rent, and this
+      were the terrible voice of its dissolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner rose from his chair, folded his arms, and awaited his fate.
+      There was no knowing where to look for safety; and he remembered too well
+      the story of the family that was lost by rushing out of the house, and so
+      hurrying into the very jaws of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had stood thus but for a moment, when he heard the voice of Old Sophy
+      in a wild cry of terror:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's th' Las' Day! It's th' Las' Day! The Lord is comin' to take us all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sophy!&rdquo; he called; but she did not hear him or heed him, and rushed out
+      of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The worst danger was over. If they were to be destroyed, it would
+      necessarily be in a few seconds from the first thrill of the terrible
+      convulsion. He waited in awful suspense, but calm. Not more than one or
+      two minutes could have passed before the frightful tumult and all its
+      sounding echoes had ceased. He called Old Sophy; but she did not answer.
+      He went to the western window and looked forth into the darkness. He could
+      not distinguish the outlines of the landscape, but the white stone was
+      clearly visible, and by its side the new-made mound. Nay, what was that
+      which obscured its outline, in shape like a human figure? He flung open
+      the window and sprang through. It was all that there was left of poor Old
+      Sophy, stretched out lifeless, upon her darling's grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had scarcely composed her limbs and drawn the sheet over her, when the
+      neighbors began to arrive from all directions. Each was expecting to hear
+      of houses overwhelmed and families destroyed; but each came with the story
+      that his own household was safe. It was not until the morning dawned that
+      the true nature and extent of the sudden movement was ascertained. A great
+      seam had opened above the long cliff, and the terrible Rattlesnake Ledge,
+      with all its envenomed reptiles, its dark fissures and black caverns, was
+      buried forever beneath a mighty incumbent mass of ruin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXI. MR. SILAS PECKHAM RENDERS HIS ACCOUNT.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The morning rose clear and bright. The long storm was over, and the calm
+      autumnal sunshine was now to return, with all its infinite repose and
+      sweetness. With the earliest dawn exploring parties were out in every
+      direction along the southern slope of The Mountain, tracing the ravages of
+      the great slide and the track it had followed. It proved to be not so much
+      a slide as the breaking off and falling of a vast line of cliff, including
+      the dreaded Ledge. It had folded over like the leaves of a half-opened
+      book when they close, crushing the trees below, piling its ruins in a
+      glacis at the foot of what had been the overhanging wall of the cliff, and
+      filling up that deep cavity above the mansion-house which bore the
+      ill-omened name of Dead Man's Hollow. This it was which had saved the
+      Dudley mansion. The falling masses, or huge fragments breaking off from
+      them, would have swept the house and all around it to destruction but for
+      this deep shelving dell, into which the stream of ruin was happily
+      directed. It was, indeed, one of Nature's conservative revolutions; for
+      the fallen masses made a kind oz shelf, which interposed a level break
+      between the inclined planes above and below it, so that the
+      nightmare-fancies of the dwellers in the Dudley mansion, and in many other
+      residences under the shadow of The Mountain, need not keep them lying
+      awake hereafter to listen for the snapping of roots and the splitting of
+      the rocks above them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twenty-four hours after the falling of the cliff, it seemed as if it had
+      happened ages ago. The new fact had fitted itself in with all the old
+      predictions, forebodings, fears, and acquired the solidarity belonging to
+      all events which have slipped out of the fingers of Time and dissolved in
+      the antecedent eternity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Sophy was lying dead in the Dudley mansion. If there were tears shed
+      for her, they could not be bitter ones; for she had lived out her full
+      measure of days, and gone&mdash;who could help fondly believing it?&mdash;to
+      rejoin her beloved mistress. They made a place for her at the foot of the
+      two mounds. It was thus she would have chosen to sleep, and not to have
+      wronged her humble devotion in life by asking to lie at the side of those
+      whom she had served so long and faithfully. There were very few present at
+      the simple ceremony. Helen Darley was one of these few. The old black
+      woman had been her companion in all the kind offices of which she had been
+      the ministering angel to Elsie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After it was all over, Helen was leaving with the rest, when Dudley Venner
+      begged her to stay a little, and he would send her back: it was a long
+      walk; besides, he wished to say some things to her, which he had not had
+      the opportunity of speaking. Of course Helen could not refuse him; there
+      must be many thoughts coming into his mind which he would wish to share
+      with her who had known his daughter so long and been with filer in her
+      last days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She returned into the great parlor with the wrought cornices and the
+      medallion-portraits on the ceiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am now alone in the world,&rdquo; Dudley Venner said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen must have known that before he spoke. But the tone in which he said
+      it had so much meaning, that she could not find a word to answer him with.
+      They sat in silence, which the old tall clock counted out in long seconds;
+      but it was silence which meant more than any words they had ever spoken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alone in the world. Helen, the freshness of my life is gone, and there is
+      little left of the few graces which in my younger days might have fitted
+      me to win the love of women. Listen to me,&mdash;kindly, if you can;
+      forgive me, at least. Half my life has been passed in constant fear and
+      anguish, without any near friend to share my trials. My task is done now;
+      my fears have ceased to prey upon me; the sharpness of early sorrows has
+      yielded something of its edge to time. You have bound me to you by
+      gratitude in the tender care you have taken of my poor child. More than
+      this. I must tell you all now, out of the depth of this trouble through
+      which I am passing. I have loved you from the moment we first met; and if
+      my life has anything left worth accepting, it is yours. Will you take the
+      offered gift?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen looked in his face, surprised, bewildered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not for me,&mdash;not for me,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I am but a poor faded
+      flower, not worth the gathering, of such a one as you. No, no,&mdash;I
+      have been bred to humble toil all my days, and I could not be to you what
+      you ought to ask. I am accustomed to a kind of loneliness and
+      self-dependence. I have seen nothing, almost, of the world, such as you
+      were born to move in. Leave me to my obscure place and duties; I shall at
+      least have peace;&mdash;and you&mdash;you will surely find in due time
+      some one better fitted by Nature and training to make you happy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Miss Darley!&rdquo; Dudley Venner said, almost sternly. &ldquo;You must not speak
+      to a man, who has lived through my experiences, of looking about for a new
+      choice after his heart has once chosen. Say that you can never love me;
+      say that I have lived too long to share your young life; say that sorrow
+      has left nothing in me for Love to find his pleasure in; but do not mock
+      me with the hope of a new affection for some unknown object. The first
+      look of yours brought me to your side. The first tone of your voice sunk
+      into my heart. From this moment my life must wither out or bloom anew. My
+      home is desolate. Come under my roof and make it bright once more,&mdash;share
+      my life with me,&mdash;or I shall give the halls of the old mansion to the
+      bats and the owls, and wander forth alone without a hope or a friend!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To find herself with a man's future at the disposal of a single word of
+      hers!&mdash;a man like this, too, with a fascination for her against which
+      she had tried to shut her heart, feeling that he lived in another sphere
+      than hers, working as she was for her bread a poor operative in the
+      factory of a hard master and jealous overseer, the salaried drudge of Mr.
+      Silas Peckham! Why, she had thought he was grateful to her as a friend of
+      his daughter; she had even pleased herself with the feeling that he liked
+      her, in her humble place, as a woman of some cultivation and many
+      sympathetic points of relation with himself; but that he loved her,&mdash;that
+      this deep, fine nature, in a man so far removed from her in outward
+      circumstance, should have found its counterpart in one whom life had
+      treated so coldly as herself,&mdash;that Dudley Venner should stake his
+      happiness on a breath of hers,&mdash;poor Helen Darley's,&mdash;it was all
+      a surprise, a confusion, a kind of fear not wholly fearful. Ah, me! women
+      know what it is, that mist over the eyes, that trembling in the limbs,
+      that faltering of the voice, that sweet, shame-faced, unspoken confession
+      of weakness which does not wish to be strong, that sudden overflow in the
+      soul where thoughts loose their hold on each other and swim single and
+      helpless in the flood of emotion,&mdash;women know what it is!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No doubt she was a little frightened and a good deal bewildered, and that
+      her sympathies were warmly excited for a friend to whom she had been
+      brought so near, and whose loneliness she saw and pitied. She lost that
+      calm self-possession she had hoped to maintain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I thought that I could make you happy,&mdash;if I should speak from my
+      heart, and not my reason,&mdash;I am but a weak woman,&mdash;yet if I can
+      be to you&mdash;What can I say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What more could this poor, dear Helen say?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Elbridge, harness the horses and take Miss Darley back to the school.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What conversation had taken place since Helen's rhetorical failure is not
+      recorded in the minutes from which this narrative is constructed. But when
+      the man who had been summoned had gone to get the carriage ready, Helen
+      resumed something she had been speaking of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not for the world. Everything must go on just as it has gone on, for the
+      present. There are proprieties to be consulted. I cannot be hard with you,
+      that out of your very affliction has sprung this&mdash;this well&mdash;you
+      must name it for me,&mdash;but the world will never listen to
+      explanations. I am to be Helen Darley, lady assistant in Mr. Silas
+      Peckham's school, as long as I see fit to hold my office. And I mean to
+      attend to my scholars just as before; so that I shall have very little
+      time for visiting or seeing company. I believe, though, you are one of the
+      Trustees and a Member of the Examining Committee; so that, if you should
+      happen to visit the school, I shall try to be civil to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Every lady sees, of course, that Helen was quite right; but perhaps here
+      and there one will think that Dudley Venner was all wrong,&mdash;that he
+      was too hasty,&mdash;that he should have been too full of his recent grief
+      for such a confession as he has just made, and the passion from which it
+      sprung. Perhaps they do not understand the sudden recoil of a strong
+      nature long compressed. Perhaps they have not studied the mystery of
+      allotropism in the emotions of the human heart. Go to the nearest chemist
+      and ask him to show you some of the dark-red phosphorus which will not
+      burn without fierce heating, but at 500 deg. Fahrenheit, changes back
+      again to the inflammable substance we know so well. Grief seems more like
+      ashes than like fire; but as grief has been love once, so it may become
+      love again. This is emotional allotropism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen rode back to the Institute and inquired for Mr. Peckham. She had not
+      seen him during the brief interval between her departure from the
+      mansion-house and her return to Old Sophy's funeral. There were various
+      questions about the school she wished to ask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how's your haalth, Miss Darley?&rdquo; Silas began. &ldquo;We've missed you
+      consid'able. Glad to see you back at the post of dooty. Hope the Squire
+      treated you hahnsomely,&mdash;liberal pecooniary compensation,&mdash;hey?
+      A'n't much of a loser, I guess, by acceptin' his propositions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen blushed at this last question, as if Silas had meant something by it
+      beyond asking what money she had received; but his own double-meaning
+      expression and her blush were too nice points for him to have taken
+      cognizance of. He was engaged in a mental calculation as to the amount of
+      the deduction he should make under the head of &ldquo;demage to the
+      institootion,&rdquo;&mdash;this depending somewhat on that of the &ldquo;pecooniary
+      compensation&rdquo; she might have received for her services as the friend of
+      Elsie Venner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Helen slid back at once into her routine, the same faithful, patient
+      creature she had always been. But what was this new light which seemed to
+      have kindled in her eyes? What was this look of peace, which nothing could
+      disturb, which smiled serenely through all the little meannesses with
+      which the daily life of the educational factory surrounded her, which not
+      only made her seem resigned, but overflowed all her features with a
+      thoughtful, subdued happiness? Mr. Bernard did not know,&mdash;perhaps he
+      did not guess. The inmates of the Dudley mansion were not scandalized by
+      any mysterious visits of a veiled or unveiled lady. The vibrating tongues
+      of the &ldquo;female youth&rdquo; of the Institute were not set in motion by the
+      standing of an equipage at the gate, waiting for their lady-teacher. The
+      servants at the mansion did not convey numerous letters with
+      superscriptions in a bold, manly hand, sealed with the arms of a
+      well-known house, and directed to Miss Helen Darley; nor, on the other
+      hand, did Hiram, the man from the lean streak in New Hampshire, carry
+      sweet-smelling, rose-hued, many-layered, criss-crossed,
+      fine-stitch-lettered packages of note-paper directed to Dudley Venner,
+      Esq., and all too scanty to hold that incredible expansion of the famous
+      three words which a woman was born to say,&mdash;that perpetual miracle
+      which astonishes all the go-betweens who wear their shoes out in carrying
+      a woman's infinite variations on the theme&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;I love you.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      But the reader must remember that there are walks in country-towns where
+      people are liable to meet by accident, and that the hollow of an old tree
+      has served the purpose of a post-office sometimes; so that he has her
+      choice (to divide the pronouns impartially) of various hypotheses to
+      account for the new glory of happiness which seemed to have irradiated our
+      poor Helen's features, as if her dreary life were awakening in the dawn of
+      a blessed future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With all the alleviations which have been hinted at, Mr. Dudley Venner
+      thought that the days and the weeks had never moved so slowly as through
+      the last period of the autumn that was passing. Elsie had been a perpetual
+      source of anxiety to him, but still she had been a companion. He could not
+      mourn for her; for he felt that she was safer with her mother, in that
+      world where there are no more sorrows and dangers, than she could have
+      been with him. But as he sat at his window and looked at the three mounds,
+      the loneliness of the great house made it seem more like the sepulchre
+      than these narrow dwellings where his beloved and her daughter lay close
+      to each other, side by side,&mdash;Catalina, the bride of his youth, and
+      Elsie, the child whom he had nurtured, with poor Old Sophy, who had
+      followed them like a black shadow, at their feet, under the same soft
+      turf, sprinkled with the brown autumnal leaves. It was not good for him to
+      be thus alone. How should he ever live through the long months of November
+      and December?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The months of November and December did, in some way or other, get rid of
+      themselves at last, bringing with them the usual events of village-life
+      and a few unusual ones. Some of the geologists had been up to look at the
+      great slide, of which they gave those prolix accounts which everybody
+      remembers who read the scientific journals of the time. The engineers
+      reported that there was little probability of any further convulsion along
+      the line of rocks which overhung the more thickly settled part of the
+      town. The naturalists drew up a paper on the &ldquo;Probable Extinction of the
+      Crotalus Durissus in the Township of Rockland.&rdquo; The engagement of the
+      Widow Rowens to a Little Millionville merchant was announced,&mdash;&ldquo;Sudding
+      'n' onexpected,&rdquo; Widow Leech said,&mdash;&ldquo;waalthy, or she wouldn't ha'
+      looked at him,&mdash;fifty year old, if he is a day, 'n' hu'n't got a
+      white hair in his head.&rdquo; The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had publicly
+      announced that he was going to join the Roman Catholic communion,&mdash;not
+      so much to the surprise or consternation of the religious world as he had
+      supposed. Several old ladies forthwith proclaimed their intention of
+      following him; but, as one or two of them were deaf, and another had been
+      threatened with an attack of that mild, but obstinate complaint, dementia
+      senilis, many thought it was not so much the force of his arguments as a
+      kind of tendency to jump as the bellwether jumps, well known in flocks not
+      included in the Christian fold. His bereaved congregation immediately
+      began pulling candidates on and off, like new boots, on trial. Some
+      pinched in tender places; some were too loose; some were too square-toed;
+      some were too coarse, and did n't please; some were too thin, and would
+      n't last;&mdash;in short, they could n't possibly find a fit. At last,
+      people began to drop in to hear old Doctor Honeywood. They were quite
+      surprised to find what a human old gentleman he was, and went back and
+      told the others, that, instead of being a case of confluent sectarianism,
+      as they supposed, the good old minister had been so well vaccinated with
+      charitable virus that he was now a true, open-souled Christian of the
+      mildest type. The end of all which was, that the liberal people went over
+      to the old minister almost in a body, just at the time that Deacon Shearer
+      and the &ldquo;Vinegar-Bible&rdquo; party split off, and that not long afterwards they
+      sold their own meeting-house to the malecontents, so that Deacon Soper
+      used often to remind Colonel Sprowle of his wish that &ldquo;our little man and
+      him [the Reverend Doctor] would swop pulpits,&rdquo; and tell him it had &ldquo;pooty
+      nigh come trew.&rdquo;&mdash;But this is anticipating the course of events,
+      which were much longer in coming about; for we have but just got through
+      that terrible long month, as Mr. Dudley Venner found it, of December.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the first of January, Mr. Silas Peckham was in the habit of settling
+      his quarterly accounts, and making such new arrangements as his
+      convenience or interest dictated. New Year was a holiday at the Institute.
+      No doubt this accounted for Helen's being dressed so charmingly,&mdash;always,
+      to be sure in, her own simple way, but yet with such a true lady's air,
+      that she looked fit to be the mistress of any mansion in the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was in the parlor alone, a little before noon, when Mr. Peckham came
+      in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm ready to settle my accaount with you now, Miss Darley,&rdquo; said Silas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you please, Mr. Peckham,&rdquo; Helen answered, very graciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before payin' you your selary,&rdquo; the Principal continued, &ldquo;I wish to come
+      to an understandin' as to the futur'. I consider that I've been payin'
+      high, very high, for the work you do. Women's wages can't be expected to
+      do more than feed and clothe 'em, as a gineral thing, with a little
+      savin', in case of sickness, and to bury 'em, if they break daown, as all
+      of 'em are liable to do at any time. If I a'n't misinformed, you not only
+      support yourself out of my establishment, but likewise relatives of yours,
+      who I don't know that I'm called upon to feed and clothe. There is a young
+      woman, not burdened with destitute relatives, has signified that she would
+      be glad to take your dooties for less pecooniary compensation, by a
+      consid'able amaount, than you now receive. I shall be willin', however, to
+      retain your services at sech redooced rate as we shall fix upon,&mdash;provided
+      sech redooced rate be as low or lower than the same services can be
+      obtained elsewhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you please, Mr. Peckham,&rdquo; Helen answered, with a smile so sweet that
+      the Principal (who of course had trumped up this opposition-teacher for
+      the occasion) said to himself she would stand being cut down a quarter,
+      perhaps a half, of her salary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is your accaount, Miss Darley, and the balance doo you,&rdquo; said Silas
+      Peckham, handing her a paper and a small roll of infectious-flavored bills
+      wrapping six poisonous coppers of the old coinage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took the paper and began looking at it. She could not quite make up
+      her mind to touch the feverish bills with the cankering coppers in them,
+      and left them airing themselves on the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The document she held ran as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silas Peckham, Esq., Principal of the Apollinean Institute, In Account
+      with Helen Darley, Assist. Teacher.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            Dr.                                Cr.
+
+  To salary for quarter              By Deduction for absence
+  ending Jan 1st @ $75 per             1 week 3 days........... $10.00
+  quarter................ $75.00
+                                     &ldquo;Board, lodging, etc for
+                                       10 days @ 75 cts per day.. 7.50
+
+                                     &ldquo;Damage to Institution by
+                                       absence of teacher from
+                                       duties, say.............. 25.00
+
+                                     &ldquo;Stationary furnished......... 43
+
+                                     &ldquo;Postage-stamp................ 01
+
+                                     &ldquo;Balance due Helen Darley.  32.06
+                           &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;                             &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+                           $75.00                               $75.00
+
+  ROCKLAND, Jan. 1st, 1859.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Now Helen had her own private reasons for wishing to receive the small sum
+      which was due her at this time without any unfair deduction,&mdash;reasons
+      which we need not inquire into too particularly, as we may be very sure
+      that they were right and womanly. So, when she looked over this account of
+      Mr. Silas Peckham's, and saw that he had contrived to pare down her salary
+      to something less than half its stipulated amount, the look which her
+      countenance wore was as near to that of righteous indignation as her
+      gentle features and soft blue eyes would admit of its being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Mr. Peckham,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;do you mean this? If I am of so much value
+      to you that you must take off twenty-five dollars for ten days' absence,
+      how is it that my salary is to be cut down to less than seventy-five
+      dollars a quarter, if I remain here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I gave you fair notice,&rdquo; said Silas. &ldquo;I have a minute of it I took down
+      immed'ately after the intervoo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He lugged out his large pocket-book with the strap going all round it, and
+      took from it a slip of paper which confirmed his statement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides,&rdquo; he added, slyly, &ldquo;I presoom you have received a liberal
+      pecooniary compensation from Squire Venner for nussin' his daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Helen was looking over the bill while he was speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Board and lodging for ten days, Mr. Peckham,&mdash;whose board and
+      lodging, pray?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened before Silas Peckham could answer, and Mr. Bernard walked
+      into the parlor. Helen was holding the bill in her hand, looking as any
+      woman ought to look who has been at once wronged and insulted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The last turn of the thumbscrew!&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Helen? You look troubled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She handed him the account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at the footing of it. Then he looked at the items. Then he
+      looked at Silas Peckham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment Silas was sublime. He was so transcendently unconscious of
+      the emotions going on in Mr. Bernard's mind at the moment, that he had
+      only a single thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The accaount's correc'ly cast, I presoom;&mdash;if the' 's any mistake of
+      figgers or addin' 'em up, it'll be made all right. Everything's accordin'
+      to agreement. The minute written immed'ately after the intervoo is here in
+      my possession.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard looked at Helen. Just what would have happened to Silas
+      Peckham, as he stood then and there, but for the interposition of a
+      merciful Providence, nobody knows or ever will know; for at that moment
+      steps were heard upon the stairs, and Hiram threw open the parlor-door for
+      Mr. Dudley Venner to enter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saluted them all gracefully with the good-wishes of the season, and
+      each of them returned his compliment,&mdash;Helen blushing fearfully, of
+      course, but not particularly noticed in her embarrassment by more than
+      one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silas Peckham reckoned with perfect confidence on his Trustees, who had
+      always said what he told them to, and done what he wanted. It was a good
+      chance now to show off his power, and, by letting his instructors know the
+      unstable tenure of their offices, make it easier to settle his accounts
+      and arrange his salaries. There was nothing very strange in Mr. Venner's
+      calling; he was one of the Trustees, and this was New Year's Day. But he
+      had called just at the lucky moment for Mr. Peckham's object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have thought some of makin' changes in the department of instruction,&rdquo;
+       he began. &ldquo;Several accomplished teachers have applied to me, who would be
+      glad of sitooations. I understand that there never have been so many
+      fust-rate teachers, male and female, out of employment as doorin' the
+      present season. If I can make sahtisfahctory arrangements with my present
+      corpse of teachers, I shall be glad to do so; otherwise I shell, with the
+      permission of the Trustees, make sech noo arrangements as circumstahnces
+      compel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may make arrangements for a new assistant in my department, Mr.
+      Peckham,&rdquo; said Mr. Bernard, &ldquo;at once,&mdash;this day,&mdash;this hour. I
+      am not safe to be trusted with your person five minutes out of this lady's
+      presence,&mdash;of whom I beg pardon for this strong language. Mr. Venner,
+      I must beg you, as one of the Trustees of this Institution, to look at the
+      manner in which its Principal has attempted to swindle this faithful
+      teacher whose toils and sacrifices and self-devotion to the school have
+      made it all that it is, in spite of this miserable trader's incompetence.
+      Will you look at the paper I hold?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner took the account and read it through, without changing a
+      feature. Then he turned to Silas Peckham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may make arrangements for a new assistant in the branches this lady
+      has taught. Miss Helen Darley is to be my wife. I had hoped to have
+      announced this news in a less abrupt and ungraceful manner. But I came to
+      tell you with my own lips what you would have learned before evening from
+      my friends in the village.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard went to Helen, who stood silent, with downcast eyes, and took
+      her hand warmly, hoping she might find all the happiness she deserved.
+      Then he turned to Dudley Venner, and said, &ldquo;She is a queen, but has never
+      found it out. The world has nothing nobler than this dear woman, whom you
+      have discovered in the disguise of a teacher. God bless her and you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dudley Venner returned his friendly grasp, without answering a word in
+      articulate speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silas remained dumb and aghast for a brief space. Coming to himself a
+      little, he thought there might have been some mistake about the items,&mdash;would
+      like to have Miss barley's bill returned,&mdash;would make it all right,&mdash;had
+      no idee that Squire Venner had a special int'rest in Miss barley,&mdash;was
+      sorry he had given offence,&mdash;if he might take that bill and look it
+      over&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Mr. Peckham,&rdquo; said Mr. Dudley Venner, &ldquo;there will be a full meeting
+      of the Board next week, and the bill, and such evidence with reference to
+      the management of the Institution and the treatment of its instructors as
+      Mr. Langdon sees fit to bring forward will be laid before them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Helen Darley became that very day the guest of Miss Arabella
+      Thornton, the Judge's daughter. Mr. Bernard made his appearance a week or
+      two later at the Lectures, where the Professor first introduced him to the
+      reader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stayed after the class had left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Mr. Langdon! how do you do? Very glad to see you back again. How have
+      you been since our correspondence on Fascination and other curious
+      scientific questions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the Professor who spoke,&mdash;whom the reader will recognize as
+      myself, the teller of this story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been well,&rdquo; Mr. Bernard answered, with a serious look which
+      invited a further question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you have had none of those painful or dangerous experiences you
+      seemed to be thinking of when you wrote; at any rate, you have escaped
+      having your obituary written.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen some things worth remembering. Shall I call on you this
+      evening and tell you about them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be most happy to see you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the way in which I, the Professor, became acquainted with some of
+      the leading events of this story. They interested me sufficiently to lead
+      me to avail myself of all those other extraordinary methods of obtaining
+      information well known to writers of narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Langdon seemed to me to have gained in seriousness and strength of
+      character by his late experiences. He threw his whole energies into his
+      studies with an effect which distanced all his previous efforts.
+      Remembering my former hint, he employed his spare hours in writing for the
+      annual prizes, both of which he took by a unanimous vote of the judges.
+      Those who heard him read his Thesis at the Medical Commencement will not
+      soon forget the impression made by his fine personal appearance and
+      manners, nor the universal interest excited in the audience, as he read,
+      with his beautiful enunciation, that striking paper entitled &ldquo;Unresolved
+      Nebulae in Vital Science.&rdquo; It was a general remark of the Faculty,&mdash;and
+      old Doctor Kittredge, who had come down on purpose to hear Mr. Langdon,
+      heartily agreed to it,&mdash;that there had never been a diploma filled
+      up, since the institution which conferred upon him the degree of Doctor
+      Medicdnce was founded, which carried with it more of promise to the
+      profession than that which bore the name of
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                    BERNARDUS CARYL LANGDON
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXII. CONCLUSION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard Langdon had no sooner taken his degree, than, in accordance
+      with the advice of one of his teachers whom he frequently consulted, he
+      took an office in the heart of the city where he had studied. He had
+      thought of beginning in a suburb or some remoter district of the city
+      proper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said his teacher,&mdash;to wit, myself,&mdash;&ldquo;don't do any such
+      thing. You are made for the best kind of practice; don't hamper yourself
+      with an outside constituency, such as belongs to a practitioner of the
+      second class. When a fellow like you chooses his beat, he must look ahead
+      a little. Take care of all the poor that apply to you, but leave the
+      half-pay classes to a different style of doctor,&mdash;the people who
+      spend one half their time in taking care of their patients, and the other
+      half in squeezing out their money. Go for the swell-fronts and
+      south-exposure houses; the folks inside are just as good as other people,
+      and the pleasantest, on the whole, to take care of. They must have
+      somebody, and they like a gentleman best. Don't throw yourself away. You
+      have a good presence and pleasing manners. You wear white linen by
+      inherited instinct. You can pronounce the word view. You have all the
+      elements of success; go and take it. Be polite and generous, but don't
+      undervalue yourself. You will be useful, at any rate; you may just as well
+      be happy, while you are about it. The highest social class furnishes
+      incomparably the best patients, taking them by and large. Besides, when
+      they won't get well and bore you to death, you can send 'em off to travel.
+      Mind me now, and take the tops of your sparrowgrass. Somebody must have
+      'em,&mdash;why shouldn't you? If you don't take your chance, you'll get
+      the butt-ends as a matter of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Bernard talked like a young man full of noble sentiments. He wanted to
+      be useful to his fellow-beings. Their social differences were nothing to
+      him. He would never court the rich,&mdash;he would go where he was called.
+      He would rather save the life of a poor mother of a family than that of
+      half a dozen old gouty millionaires whose heirs had been yawning and
+      stretching these ten years to get rid of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Generous emotions!&rdquo; I exclaimed. &ldquo;Cherish 'em; cling to 'em till you are
+      fifty, till you are seventy, till you are ninety! But do as I tell you,&mdash;strike
+      for the best circle of practice, and you 'll be sure to get it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Langdon did as I told him,&mdash;took a genteel office, furnished it
+      neatly, dressed with a certain elegance, soon made a pleasant circle of
+      acquaintances, and began to work his way into the right kind of business.
+      I missed him, however, for some days, not long after he had opened his
+      office. On his return, he told me he had been up at Rockland, by special
+      invitation, to attend the wedding of Mr. Dudley Venner and Miss Helen
+      Darley. He gave me a full account of the ceremony, which I regret that I
+      cannot relate in full. &ldquo;Helen looked like an angel,&rdquo;&mdash;that, I am
+      sure, was one of his expressions. As for her dress, I should like to give
+      the details, but am afraid of committing blunders, as men always do, when
+      they undertake to describe such matters. White dress, anyhow,&mdash;that I
+      am sure of,&mdash;with orange-flowers, and the most wonderful lace veil
+      that was ever seen or heard of. The Reverend Doctor Honeywood performed
+      the ceremony, of course. The good people seemed to have forgotten they
+      ever had had any other minister, except Deacon Shearer and his set of
+      malcontents, who were doing a dull business in the meeting-house lately
+      occupied by the Reverend Mr. Fairweather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was at the wedding?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everybody, pretty much. They wanted to keep it quiet, but it was of no
+      use. Married at church. Front pews, old Dr. Kittredge and all the
+      mansionhouse people and distinguished strangers,&mdash;Colonel Sprowle and
+      family, including Matilda's young gentleman, a graduate of one of the
+      fresh-water colleges,&mdash;Mrs. Pickins (late Widow Rowens) and husband,&mdash;Deacon
+      Soper and numerous parishioners. A little nearer the door, Abel, the
+      Doctor's man, and Elbridge, who drove them to church in the family-coach.
+      Father Fairweather, as they all call him now, came in late with Father
+      McShane.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Silas Peckham?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Silas had left The School and Rockland. Cut up altogether too badly
+      in the examination instituted by the Trustees. Had removed over to
+      Tamarack, and thought of renting a large house and 'farming' the
+      town-poor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Some time after this, as I was walking with a young friend along by the
+      swell-fronts and south-exposures, whom should I see but Mr. Bernard
+      Langdon, looking remarkably happy, and keeping step by the side of a very
+      handsome and singularly well-dressed young lady? He bowed and lifted his
+      hat as we passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that pretty girl my young doctor has got there?&rdquo; I said to my
+      companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that?&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;You don't know? Why, that is neither more nor
+      less than Miss Letitia Forrester, daughter of&mdash;of&mdash;why, the
+      great banking firm, you know, Bilyuns Brothers &amp; Forrester. Got
+      acquainted with her in the country, they say. There 's a story that
+      they're engaged, or like to be, if the firm consents.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not like the look of it in the least. Too young,&mdash;too young.
+      Has not taken any position yet. No right to ask for the hand of Bilyuns
+      Brothers &amp; Co.'s daughter. Besides, it will spoil him for practice, if
+      he marries a rich girl before he has formed habits of work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked in at his office the other day. A box of white kids was lying
+      open on the table. A three-cornered note, directed in a very delicate
+      lady's-hand, was distinguishable among a heap of papers. I was just going
+      to call him to account for his proceedings, when he pushed the
+      three-cornered note aside and took up a letter with a great
+      corporation-seal upon it. He had received the offer of a professor's chair
+      in an ancient and distinguished institution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty well for three-and-twenty, my boy,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;I suppose you'll
+      think you must be married one of these days, if you accept this office.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Langdon blushed.&mdash;There had been stories about him, he knew. His
+      name had been mentioned in connection with that of a very charming young
+      lady. The current reports were not true. He had met this young lady, and
+      been much pleased with her, in the country, at the house of her
+      grandfather, the Reverend Doctor Honeywood,&mdash;you remember Miss
+      Letitia Forrester, whom I have mentioned repeatedly? On coming to town, he
+      found his country-acquaintance in a social position which seemed to
+      discourage his continued intimacy. He had discovered, however; that he was
+      a not unwelcome visitor, and had kept up friendly relations with her. But
+      there was no truth in the current reports,&mdash;none at all.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some months had passed, after this visit, when I happened one evening to
+      stroll into a box in one of the principal theatres of the city. A small
+      party sat on the seats before me: a middle-aged gentleman and his lady, in
+      front, and directly behind them my young doctor and the same very handsome
+      young lady I had seen him walking with on the sidewalk before the
+      swell-fronts and south-exposures. As Professor Langdon seemed to be very
+      much taken up with his companion, and both of them looked as if they were
+      enjoying themselves, I determined not to make my presence known to my
+      young friend, and to withdraw quietly after feasting my eyes with the
+      sight of them for a few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks as if something might come of it,&rdquo; I said to myself. At that
+      moment the young lady lifted her arm accidentally in such a way that the
+      light fell upon the clasp of a chain which encircled her wrist. My eyes
+      filled with tears as I read upon the clasp, in sharp-cut Italic letters,
+      E. V. They were tears at once of sad remembrance and of joyous
+      anticipation; for the ornament on which I looked was the double pledge of
+      a dead sorrow and a living affection. It was the golden bracelet,&mdash;the
+      parting-gift of Elsie Venner, the golden bracelet,&mdash;the parting-gift
+      of Elsie Venner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+  </body>
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+Project Gutenberg's Etext Elsie Venner, by Oliver Wendell Holmes
+#5 in our series by Oliver Wendell Holmes
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+Title:  Elsie Venner
+
+Author:  Oliver Wendell Holmes
+
+July, 2001  [Etext #2696]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
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+Project Gutenberg's Etext Elsie Venner, by Oliver Wendell Holmes
+******This file should be named elsie10.txt or elsie10.zip******
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+Etext prepared for Gutenberg by David Widger,  widger@cecomet.net
+
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE VENNER
+
+by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+This tale was published in successive parts in the "Atlantic
+Monthly," under the name of "The Professor's Story," the first number
+having appeared in the third week of December, 1859.  The critic who
+is curious in coincidences must refer to the Magazine for the date of
+publication of the chapter he is examining.
+
+In calling this narrative a "romance," the Author wishes to make sure
+of being indulged in the common privileges of the poetic license.
+Through all the disguise of fiction a grave scientific doctrine may
+be detected lying beneath some of the delineations of character.  He
+has used this doctrine as a part of the machinery of his story
+without pledging his absolute belief in it to the extent to which it
+is asserted or implied.  It was adopted as a convenient medium of
+truth rather than as an accepted scientific conclusion.  The reader
+must judge for himself what is the value of various stories cited
+from old authors.  He must decide how much of what has been told he
+can accept either as having actually happened, or as possible and
+more or less probable.  The Author must be permitted, however, to say
+here, in his personal character, and as responsible to the students
+of the human mind and body, that since this story has been in
+progress he has received the most startling confirmation of the
+possibility of the existence of a character like that which he had
+drawn as a purely imaginary conception in Elsie Venner.
+
+BOSTON, January, 1861.
+
+
+
+
+A SECOND PREFACE.
+
+This is the story which a dear old lady, my very good friend, spoke
+of as "a medicated novel," and quite properly refused to read.  I was
+always pleased with her discriminating criticism.  It is a medicated
+novel, and if she wished to read for mere amusement and helpful
+recreation there was no need of troubling herself with a story
+written with a different end in view.
+
+This story has called forth so many curious inquiries that it seems
+worth while to answer the more important questions which have
+occurred to its readers.
+
+In the first place, it is not based on any well-ascertained
+physiological fact.  There are old fables about patients who have
+barked like dogs or crowed like cocks, after being bitten or wounded
+by those animals.  There is nothing impossible in the idea that
+Romulus and Remus may have imbibed wolfish traits of character from
+the wet nurse the legend assigned them, but the legend is not sound
+history, and the supposition is nothing more than a speculative
+fancy.  Still, there is a limbo of curious evidence bearing on the
+subject of pre-natal influences sufficient to form the starting-point
+of an imaginative composition.
+
+The real aim, of the story was to test the doctrine of "original sin"
+and human responsibility for the disordered volition coming under
+that technical denomination.  Was Elsie Venner, poisoned by the venom
+of a crotalus before she was born, morally responsible for the
+"volitional" aberrations, which translated into acts become what is
+known as sin, and, it may be, what is punished as crime?  If, on
+presentation of the evidence, she becomes by the verdict of the human
+conscience a proper object of divine pity and not of divine wrath, as
+a subject of moral poisoning, wherein lies the difference between her
+position at the bar of judgment, human or divine, and that of the
+unfortunate victim who received a moral poison from a remote ancestor
+before he drew his first breath?
+
+It might be supposed that the character of Elsie Veneer was suggested
+by some of the fabulous personages of classical or mediaeval story.
+I remember that a French critic spoke of her as cette pauvre
+Melusine.  I ought to have been ashamed, perhaps, but I had, not the
+slightest idea who Melusina was until I hunted up the story, and
+found that she was a fairy, who for some offence was changed every
+Saturday to a serpent from her waist downward.  I was of course
+familiar with Keats's Lamia, another imaginary being, the subject of
+magical transformation into a serpent.  My story was well advanced
+before Hawthorne's wonderful "Marble Faun," which might be thought to
+have furnished me with the hint of a mixed nature,--human, with an
+alien element,--was published or known to me.  So that my poor
+heroine found her origin, not in fable or romance, but in a
+physiological conception fertilized by a theological dogma.
+
+I had the dissatisfaction of enjoying from a quiet corner a well-
+meant effort to dramatize "Elsie Veneer."  Unfortunately, a
+physiological romance, as I knew beforehand, is hardly adapted for
+the melodramatic efforts of stage representation.  I can therefore
+say, with perfect truth, that I was not disappointed.  It is to the
+mind, and not to the senses, that such a story must appeal, and all
+attempts to render the character and events objective on the stage,
+or to make them real by artistic illustrations, are almost of
+necessity failures.  The story has won the attention and enjoyed the
+favor of a limited class of readers, and if it still continues to
+interest others of the same tastes and habits of thought I can ask
+nothing more of it.
+
+January 23, 1883.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.
+
+I have nothing of importance to add to the two preceding Prefaces.
+The continued call for this story, which was not written for
+popularity, but with a very serious purpose, has somewhat surprised
+and, I need not add, gratified me.  I can only restate the motive
+idea of the tale in a little different language.  Believing, as I do,
+that our prevailing theologies are founded upon an utterly false view
+of the relation of man to his Creator, I attempted to illustrate the
+doctrine of inherited moral responsibility for other people's
+misbehavior.  I tried to make out a case for my poor Elsie, whom the
+most hardened theologian would find it hard to blame for her
+inherited ophidian tastes and tendencies.  How, then, is he to blame
+mankind for inheriting "sinfulness" from their first parents?  May
+not the serpent have bitten Eve before the birth of Cain, her first-
+born?  That would have made an excuse for Cain's children, as Elsie's
+ante-natal misfortune made an excuse for her.  But what difference
+does it make in the child's responsibility whether his inherited
+tendencies come from a snake-bite or some other source which he knew
+nothing about and could not have prevented from acting?  All this is
+plain enough, and the only use of the story is to bring the dogma of
+inherited guilt and its consequences into a clearer point of view.
+
+But, after all, the tale must have proved readable as a story to
+account for the large number of editions which it has reached.
+
+Some readers have been curious about the locality the writer was
+thought to have in view.  No particular place was intended.  Some of
+the characters may have been thought to have been drawn from life;
+but the personages mentioned are mostly composites, like Mr. Galton's
+compound photographic likenesses, and are not calculated to provoke
+scandal or suits for libel.
+
+O.  W.  H.
+
+BEVERLY FARMS, MASS., August 3, 1891.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE VENNER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BRAHMIN CASTE OF NEW ENGLAND.
+
+There is nothing in New England corresponding at all to the feudal
+aristocracies of the Old World.  Whether it be owing to the stock
+from which we were derived, or to the practical working of our
+institutions, or to the abrogation of the technical "law of honor,"
+which draws a sharp line between the personally responsible class of
+"gentlemen" and the unnamed multitude of those who are not expected
+to risk their lives for an abstraction,--whatever be the cause, we
+have no such aristocracy here as that which grew up out of the
+military systems of the Middle Ages.
+
+What we mean by "aristocracy" is merely the richer part of the
+community, that live in the tallest houses, drive real carriages,
+(not "kerridges,") kidglove their hands, and French-bonnet their
+ladies' heads, give parties where the persons who call them by the
+above title are not invited, and have a provokingly easy way of
+dressing, walking, talking, and nodding to people, as if they felt
+entirely at home, and would not be embarrassed in the least, if they
+met the Governor, or even the President of the United States, face to
+face.  Some of these great folks are really well-bred, some of them
+are only purse-proud and assuming,--but they form a class, and are
+named as above in the common speech.
+
+It is in the nature of large fortunes to diminish rapidly, when
+subdivided and distributed.  A million is the unit of wealth, now and
+here in America.  It splits into four handsome properties; each of
+these into four good inheritances; these, again, into scanty
+competences for four ancient maidens,--with whom it is best the
+family should die out, unless it can begin again as its great-
+grandfather did.  Now a million is a kind of golden cheese, which
+represents in a compendious form the summer's growth of a fat meadow
+of craft or commerce; and as this kind of meadow rarely bears more
+than one crop, it is pretty certain that sons and grandsons will not
+get another golden cheese out of it, whether they milk the same cows
+or turn in new ones.  In other words, the millionocracy, considered
+in a large way, is not at all an affair of persons and families, but
+a perpetual fact of money with a variable human element, which a
+philosopher might leave out of consideration without falling into
+serious error.  Of course, this trivial and, fugitive fact of
+personal wealth does not create a permanent class, unless some
+special means are taken to arrest the process of disintegration in
+the third generation.  This is so rarely done, at least successfully,
+that one need not live a very long life to see most of the rich
+families he knew in childhood more or less reduced, and the millions
+shifted into the hands of the country-boys who were sweeping stores
+and carrying parcels when the now decayed gentry were driving their
+chariots, eating their venison over silver chafing-dishes, drinking
+Madeira chilled in embossed coolers, wearing their hair in powder,
+and casing their legs in long boots with silken tassels.
+
+There is, however, in New England, an aristocracy, if you choose to
+call it so, which has a far greater character of permanence.  It has
+grown to be a caste,--not in any odious sense;--but, by the
+repetition of the same influences, generation after generation, it
+has acquired a distinct organization and physiognomy, which not to
+recognize is mere stupidity, and not to be willing to describe would
+show a distrust of the good-nature and intelligence of our readers,
+who like to have us see all we can and tell all we see.
+
+If you will look carefully at any class of students in one of our
+colleges, you will have no difficulty in selecting specimens of two
+different aspects of youthful manhood.  Of course I shall choose
+extreme cases to illustrate the contrast between them.  In the first,
+the figure is perhaps robust, but often otherwise,--inelegant, partly
+from careless attitudes, partly from ill-dressing,--the face is
+uncouth in feature, or at least common,--the mouth coarse and
+unformed,--the eye unsympathetic, even if bright,--the movements of
+the face are clumsy, like those of the limbs,--the voice is
+unmusical,--and the enunciation as if the words were coarse castings,
+instead of fine carvings.  The youth of the other aspect is commonly
+slender, his face is smooth, and apt to be pallid,--his features are
+regular and of a certain delicacy,--his eye is bright and quick,--his
+lips play over the thought he utters as a pianist's fingers dance
+over their music, and his whole air, though it may be timid, and even
+awkward, has nothing clownish.  If you are a teacher, you know what
+to expect from each of these young men.  With equal willingness, the
+first will be slow at learning; the second will take to his books as
+a pointer or a setter to his field-work.
+
+The first youth is the common country-boy, whose race has been bred
+to bodily labor.  Nature has adapted the family organization to the
+kind of life it has lived.  The hands and feet by constant use have
+got more than their share of development,--the organs of thought and
+expression less than their share.  The finer instincts are latent and
+must be developed.  A youth of this kind is raw material in its first
+stage of elaboration.  You must not expect too much of any such.
+Many of them have force of will and character, and become
+distinguished in practical life; but very few of them ever become
+great scholars.  A scholar is, in a large proportion of cases, the
+son of scholars or scholarly persons.
+
+That is exactly what the other young man is.  He comes of the Brahmin
+caste of New England.  This is the harmless, inoffensive, untitled
+aristocracy referred to, and which many readers will at once
+acknowledge.  There are races of scholars among us, in which aptitude
+for learning, and all these marks of it I have spoken of, are
+congenital and hereditary.  Their names are always on some college
+catalogue or other.  They break out every generation or two in some
+learned labor which calls them up after they seem to have died out.
+At last some newer name takes their place, it maybe,--but you inquire
+a little and you find it is the blood of the Edwardses or the
+Chauncys or the Ellerys or some of the old historic scholars,
+disguised under the altered name of a female descendant.
+
+There probably is not an experienced instructor anywhere in our
+Northern States who will not recognize at once the truth of this
+general distinction.  But the reader who has never been a teacher
+will very probably object, that some of our most illustrious public
+men have come direct from the homespun-clad class of the people,--and
+he may, perhaps, even find a noted scholar or two whose parents were
+masters of the English alphabet, but of no other.
+
+It is not fair to pit a few chosen families against the great
+multitude of those who are continually working their way up into the
+intellectual classes.  The results which are habitually reached by
+hereditary training are occasionally brought about without it.  There
+are natural filters as well as artificial ones; and though the great
+rivers are commonly more or less turbid, if you will look long
+enough, you may find a spring that sparkles as no water does which
+drips through your apparatus of sands and sponges.  So there are
+families which refine themselves into intellectual aptitude without
+having had much opportunity for intellectual acquirements.  A series
+of felicitous crosses develops an improved strain of blood, and
+reaches its maximum perfection at last in the large uncombed youth
+who goes to college and startles the hereditary class-leaders by
+striding past them all.  That is Nature's republicanism; thank God
+for it, but do not let it make you illogical.  The race of the
+hereditary scholar has exchanged a certain portion of its animal
+vigor for its new instincts, and it is hard to lead men without a
+good deal of animal vigor.  The scholar who comes by Nature's special
+grace from an unworn stock of broad-chested sires and deep-bosomed
+mothers must always overmatch an equal intelligence with a
+compromised and lowered vitality.  A man's breathing and digestive
+apparatus (one is tempted to add muscular) are just as important to
+him on the floor of the Senate as his thinking organs.  You broke
+down in your great speech, did you?  Yes, your grandfather had an
+attack of dyspepsia in '82, after working too hard on his famous
+Election Sermon.  All this does not touch the main fact: our scholars
+come chiefly from a privileged order, just as our best fruits come
+from well-known grafts, though now and then a seedling apple, like
+the Northern Spy, or a seedling pear, like the Seckel, springs from a
+nameless ancestry and grows to be the pride of all the gardens in the
+land.
+
+Let me introduce you to a young man who belongs to the Brahmin caste
+of New England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE STUDENT AND HIS CERTIFICATE.
+
+Bernard C. Langdon, a young man attending Medical Lectures at the
+school connected with one of our principal colleges, remained after
+the Lecture one day and wished to speak with the Professor.  He was a
+student of mark,--first favorite of his year, as they say of the
+Derby colts.  There are in every class half a dozen bright faces to
+which the teacher naturally, directs his discourse, and by the
+intermediation of whose attention he seems to hold that of the mass
+of listeners.  Among these some one is pretty sure to take the lead,
+by virtue of a personal magnetism, or some peculiarity of expression,
+which places the face in quick sympathetic relations with the
+lecturer.  This was a young man with such a face; and I found,--for
+you have guessed that I was the "Professor" above-mentioned,--that,
+when there was anything difficult to be explained, or when I was
+bringing out some favorite illustration of a nice point, (as, for
+instance; when I compared the cell-growth, by which Nature builds up
+a plant or an animal, to the glassblower's similar mode of
+beginning,--always with a hollow sphere, or vesicle, whatever he is
+going to make,) I naturally looked in his face and gauged my success
+by its expression.
+
+It was a handsome face,--a little too pale, perhaps, and would have
+borne something more of fulness without becoming heavy.  I put the
+organization to which it belongs in Section B of Class 1 of my Anglo-
+American Anthropology (unpublished).  The jaw in this section is but
+slightly narrowed,--just enough to make the width of the forehead
+tell more decidedly.  The moustache often grows vigorously, but the
+whiskers are thin.  The skin is like that of Jacob, rather than like
+Esau's.  One string of the animal nature has been taken away, but
+this gives only a greater predominance to the intellectual chords.
+To see just how the vital energy has been toned down, you must
+contrast one of this section with a specimen of Section A of the same
+class,--say, for instance, one of the old-fashioned, full-whiskered,
+red-faced, roaring, big Commodores of the last generation, whom you
+remember, at least by their portraits, in ruffled shirts, looking as
+hearty as butchers and as plucky as bull-terriers, with their hair
+combed straight up from their foreheads, which were not commonly very
+high or broad.  The special form of physical life I have been
+describing gives you a right to expect more delicate perceptions and
+a more reflective, nature than you commonly find in shaggy-throated
+men, clad in heavy suits of muscles.
+
+The student lingered in the lecture-room, looking all the time as if
+he wanted to say something in private, and waiting for two or three
+others, who were still hanging about, to be gone.
+
+Something is wrong!---I said to myself, when I noticed his
+expression. --Well, Mr.  Langdon,--I said to him, when we were
+alone,--can I do anything for you to-day?
+
+You can, Sir,--he said.---I am going to leave the class, for the
+present, and keep school.
+
+Why, that 's a pity, and you so near graduating!  You'd better stay
+and finish this course and take your degree in the spring, rather
+than break up your whole plan of study.
+
+I can't help myself, Sir,--the young man answered.---There 's trouble
+at home, and they cannot keep me here as they have done.  So I must
+look out for myself for a while.  It's what I've done before, and am
+ready to do again.  I came to ask you for a certificate of my fitness
+to teach a common school, or a high school, if you think I am up to
+that.  Are you willing to give it to me?
+
+Willing?  Yes, to be sure,--but I don't want you to go.  Stay; we'll
+make it easy for you.  There's a fund will do something for you,
+perhaps.  Then you can take both the annual prizes, if you like,--and
+claim them in money, if you want that more than medals.
+
+I have thought it all over,--he answered,--and have pretty much made
+up my mind to go.
+
+A perfectly gentlemanly young man, of courteous address and mild
+utterance, but means at least as much as he says.  There are some
+people whose rhetoric consists of a slight habitual under-statement.
+I often tell Mrs. Professor that one of her "I think it's sos" is
+worth the Bible-oath of all the rest of the household that they "know
+it's so."  When you find a person a little better than his word, a
+little more liberal than his promise, a little more than borne out in
+his statement by his facts, a little larger in deed than in speech,
+you recognize a kind of eloquence in that person's utterance not laid
+down in Blair or Campbell.
+
+This was a proud fellow, self-trusting, sensitive, with family-
+recollections that made him unwilling to accept the kind of aid which
+many students would have thankfully welcomed.  I knew him too well to
+urge him, after the few words which implied that he was determined to
+go.  Besides, I have great confidence in young men who believe in
+themselves, and are accustomed to rely on their own resources from an
+early period.  When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great
+bully, the World, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often
+surprised to find it come off in his hand, and that it was only tied
+on to scare away timid adventurers.  I have seen young men more than
+once, who came to a great city without a single friend, support
+themselves and pay for their education, lay up money in a few years,
+grow rich enough to travel, and establish themselves in life, without
+ever asking a dollar of any person which they had not earned.  But
+these are exceptional cases.  There are horse-tamers, born so,--as we
+all know; there are woman-tamers, who bewitch the sex as the pied
+piper bedeviled the children of Hamelin; and there are world-tamers,
+who can make any community, even a Yankee one, get down and let them
+jump on its back as easily as Mr. Rarey saddled Cruiser.
+
+Whether Langdon was of this sort or not I could not say positively;
+but he had spirit, and, as I have said, a family-pride which would
+not let him be dependent.  The New England Brahmin caste often gets
+blended with connections of political influence or commercial
+distinction.  It is a charming thing for the scholar, when his
+fortune carries him in this way into some of the "old families" who
+have fine old houses, and city-lots that have risen in the market,
+and names written in all the stock-books of all the dividend-paying
+companies.  His narrow study expands into a stately library, his
+books are counted by thousands instead of hundreds, and his favorites
+are dressed in gilded calf in place of plebeian sheepskin or its
+pauper substitutes of cloth and paper.
+
+The Reverend Jedediah Langdon, grandfather of our young gentleman,
+had made an advantageous alliance of this kind.  Miss Dorothea
+Wentworth had read one of his sermons which had been printed "by
+request," and became deeply interested in the young author, whom she
+had never seen.  Out of this circumstance grew a correspondence, an
+interview, a declaration, a matrimonial alliance, and a family of
+half a dozen children.  Wentworth Langdon, Esquire, was the oldest of
+these, and lived in the old family-mansion.  Unfortunately, that
+principle of the diminution of estates by division, to which I have
+referred, rendered it somewhat difficult to maintain the
+establishment upon the fractional income which the proprietor
+received from his share of the property.  Wentworth Langdon, Esq.,
+represented a certain intermediate condition of life not at all
+infrequent in our old families.  He was the connecting link between
+the generation which lived in ease, and even a kind of state, upon
+its own resources, and the new brood, which must live mainly by its
+wits or industry, and make itself rich, or shabbily subside into that
+lower stratum known to social geologists by a deposit of
+Kidderminster carpets and the peculiar aspect of the fossils
+constituting the family furniture and wardrobe.  This slack-water
+period of a race, which comes before the rapid ebb of its prosperity,
+is familiar to all who live in cities.  There are no more quiet,
+inoffensive people than these children of rich families, just above
+the necessity of active employment, yet not in a condition to place
+their own children advantageously, if they happen to have families.
+Many of them are content to live unmarried.  Some mend their broken
+fortunes by prudent alliances, and some leave a numerous progeny to
+pass into the obscurity from which their ancestors emerged; so that
+you may see on handcarts and cobblers' stalls names which, a few
+generations back, were upon parchments with broad seals, and
+tombstones with armorial bearings.
+
+In a large city, this class of citizens is familiar to us in the
+streets.  They are very courteous in their salutations; they have
+time enough to bow and take their hats off,--which, of course, no
+businessman can afford to do.  Their beavers are smoothly brushed,
+and their boots well polished; all their appointments are tidy; they
+look the respectable walking gentleman to perfection.  They are prone
+to habits,--they frequent reading-rooms,--insurance-offices,--they
+walk the same streets at the same hours,--so that one becomes
+familiar with their faces and persons, as a part of the street-
+furniture.
+
+There is one curious circumstance, that all city-people must have
+noticed, which is often illustrated in our experience of the slack-
+water gentry.  We shall know a certain person by his looks,
+familiarly, for years, but never have learned his name.  About this
+person we shall have accumulated no little circumstantial knowledge;
+--thus, his face, figure, gait, his mode of dressing, of saluting,
+perhaps even of speaking, may be familiar to us; yet who he is we
+know not.  In another department of our consciousness, there is a
+very familiar name, which we have never found the person to match.
+We have heard it so often, that it has idealized itself, and become
+one of that multitude of permanent shapes which walk the chambers of
+the brain in velvet slippers in the company of Falstaff and Hamlet
+and General Washington and Mr. Pickwick.  Sometimes the person dies,
+but the name lives on indefinitely.  But now and then it happens,
+perhaps after years of this independent existence of the name and its
+shadowy image in the brain, on the one part, and the person and all
+its real attributes, as we see them daily, on the other, that some
+accident reveals their relation, and we find the name we have carried
+so long in our memory belongs to the person we have known so long as
+a fellow-citizen.  Now the slack--water gentry are among the persons
+most likely to be the subjects of this curious divorce of title and
+reality,--for the reason, that, playing no important part in the
+community, there is nothing to tie the floating name to the actual
+individual, as is the case with the men who belong in any way to the
+public, while yet their names have a certain historical currency, and
+we cannot help meeting them, either in their haunts, or going to and
+from them.
+
+To this class belonged Wentworth Langdon, Esq.  He had been "dead-
+headed" into the world some fifty years ago, and had sat with his
+hands in his pockets staring at the show ever since.  I shall not
+tell you, for reasons before hinted, the whole name of the place in
+which he lived.  I will only point you in the right direction, by
+saying that there are three towns lying in a line with each other, as
+you go "down East," each of them with a Port in its name, and each of
+them having a peculiar interest which gives it individuality, in
+addition to the Oriental character they have in common.  I need not
+tell you that these towns are Newburyport, Portsmouth, and Portland.
+The Oriental character they have in common consists in their large,
+square, palatial mansions, with sunny gardens round them.  The two
+first have seen better days.  They are in perfect harmony with the
+condition of weakened, but not impoverished, gentility.  Each of them
+is a "paradise of demi-fortunes."  Each of them is of that
+intermediate size between a village and a city which any place has
+outgrown when the presence of a well-dressed stranger walking up and
+down the main street ceases to be a matter of public curiosity and
+private speculation, as frequently happens, during the busier months
+of the year, in considerable commercial centres like Salem.  They
+both have grand old recollections to fall back upon,--times when they
+looked forward to commercial greatness, and when the portly gentlemen
+in cocked hats, who built their now decaying wharves and sent out
+their ships all over the world, dreamed that their fast-growing port
+was to be the Tyre or the Carthage of the rich British Colony.  Great
+houses, like that once lived in by Lord Timothy Dexter, in
+Newburyport, remain as evidence of the fortunes amassed in these
+places of old.  Other mansions--like the Rockingham House in
+Portsmouth (look at the white horse's tail before you mount the broad
+staircase)--show that there was not only wealth, but style and state,
+in these quiet old towns during the last century.  It is not with any
+thought of pity or depreciation that we speak of them as in a certain
+sense decayed towns; they did not fulfil their early promise of
+expansion, but they remain incomparably the most interesting places
+of their size in any of the three northernmost New England States.
+They have even now prosperity enough to keep them in good condition,
+and offer the most attractive residences for quiet families, which,
+if they had been English, would have lived in a palazzo at Genoa or
+Pisa, or some other Continental Newburyport or Portsmouth.
+
+As for the last of the three Ports, or Portland, it is getting too
+prosperous to be as attractive as its less northerly neighbors.
+Meant for a fine old town, to ripen like a Cheshire cheese within its
+walls of ancient rind, burrowed by crooked alleys and mottled with
+venerable mould, it seems likely to sacrifice its mellow future to a
+vulgar material prosperity.  Still it remains invested with many of
+its old charms, as yet, and will forfeit its place among this
+admirable trio only when it gets a hotel with unequivocal marks of
+having been built and organized in the present century.
+
+--It was one of the old square palaces of the North, in which Bernard
+Langdon, the son of Wentworth, was born.  If he had had the luck to
+be an only child, he might have lived as his father had done, letting
+his meagre competence smoulder on almost without consuming, like the
+fuel in an air-tight stove.  But after Master Bernard came Miss
+Dorothea Elizabeth Wentworth Langdon, and then Master William
+Pepperell Langdon, and others, equally well named,--a string of them,
+looking, when they stood in a row in prayer-time, as if they would
+fit a set of Pandean pipes, of from three feet upward in dimensions.
+The door of the air-tight stove has to be opened, under such
+circumstances, you may well suppose!  So it happened that our young
+man had been obliged, from an early period, to do something to
+support himself, and found himself stopped short in his studies by
+the inability of the good people at home to furnish him the present
+means of support as a student.
+
+You will understand now why the young man wanted me to give him a
+certificate of his fitness to teach, and why I did not choose to urge
+him to accept the aid which a meek country-boy from a family without
+ante-Revolutionary recollections would have thankfully received.  Go
+he must,--that was plain enough.  He would not be content otherwise.
+He was not, however, to give up his studies; and as it is customary
+to allow half-time to students engaged in school-keeping,--that is,
+to count a year, so employed, if the student also keep on with his
+professional studies, as equal to six months of the three years he is
+expected to be under an instructor before applying for his degree,--
+he would not necessarily lose more than a few months of time.  He had
+a small library of professional books, which he could take with him.
+
+So he left my teaching and that of my estimable colleagues, carrying
+with him my certificate, that Mr. Bernard C. Langdon was a young
+gentleman of excellent moral character, of high intelligence and good
+education, and that his services would be of great value in any
+school, academy, or other institution, where young persons of-either
+sex were to be instructed.
+
+I confess, that expression, "either sex," ran a little thick, as I
+may say, from my pen.  For, although the young man bore a very fair
+character, and there was no special cause for doubting his
+discretion, I considered him altogether too good-looking, in the
+first place, to be let loose in a roomful of young girls.  I didn't
+want him to fall in love just then--and if half a dozen girls fell in
+love with him, as they most assuredly would, if brought into too near
+relations with him, why, there was no telling what gratitude and
+natural sensibility might bring about.
+
+Certificates are, for the most part, like ostrich-eggs; the giver
+never knows what is hatched out of them.  But once in a thousand
+times they act as curses are said to,--come home to roost.  Give them
+often enough, until it gets to be a mechanical business, and, some
+day or other, you will get caught warranting somebody's ice not to
+melt in any climate, or somebody's razors to be safe in the hands of
+the youngest children.
+
+I had an uneasy feeling, after giving this certificate.  It might be
+all right enough; but if it happened to end badly, I should always
+reproach myself.  There was a chance, certainly, that it would lead
+him or others into danger or wretchedness.  Any one who looked at
+this young man could not fail to see that he was capable of
+fascinating and being fascinated.  Those large, dark eyes of his
+would sink into the white soul of a young girl as the black cloth
+sunk into the snow in Franklin's famous experiment.  Or, on the other
+hand, if the rays of a passionate nature should ever be concentrated
+on them, they would be absorbed into the very depths of his nature,
+and then his blood would turn to flame and burn his life out of him,
+until his cheeks grew as white as the ashes that cover a burning
+coal.
+
+I wish I had not said either sex in my certificate.  An academy for
+young gentlemen, now; that sounds cool and unimaginative.  A boys'
+school, that would be a very good place for him;--some of them are
+pretty rough, but there is nerve enough in that old Wentworth strain
+of blood; he can give any country fellow, of the common stock, twenty
+pounds, and hit him out of time in ten minutes.  But to send such a
+young fellow as that out a girl's-nesting! to give this falcon a free
+pass into all the dove-cotes!  I was a fool,--that's all.
+
+I brooded over the mischief which might come out of these two words
+until it seemed to me that they were charged with destiny.  I could
+hardly sleep for thinking what a train I might have been laying,
+which might take a spark any day, and blow up nobody knows whose
+peace or prospects.  What I dreaded most was one of those miserable
+matrimonial misalliances where a young fellow who does not know
+himself as yet flings his magnificent future into the checked apron-
+lap of some fresh-faced, half-bred country-girl, no more fit to be
+mated with him than her father's horse to go in double harness with
+Flora Temple.  To think of the eagle's wings, being clipped so that
+he shall never lift himself over the farm-yard fence!  Such things
+happen, and always must,--because, as one of us said awhile ago, a
+man always loves, a woman, and a woman a man, unless some good reason
+exists to the contrary.  You think yourself a very fastidious young
+man, my friend; but there are probably at least five-thousand young
+women in these United States, any one of whom you would certainly
+marry, if you were thrown much into her company, and nobody more
+attractive were near, and she had no objection.  And you, my dear
+young lady, justly pride yourself on your discerning delicacy; but if
+I should say that there are twenty thousand young men, any one of
+whom, if he offered his hand and heart under favorable circumstances,
+you would
+
+          "First endure, then pity, then embrace,"
+
+I should be much more imprudent than I mean to be, and you would, no
+doubt, throw down a story in which I hope to interest you.
+
+I had settled it in my mind that this young fellow had a career
+marked out for him.  He should begin in the natural way, by taking
+care of poor patients in one of the public charities, and work his
+way up to a better kind of practice,--better, that is, in the vulgar,
+worldly sense.  The great and good Boerhaave used to say, as I
+remember very well, that the poor were his best patients; for God was
+their paymaster.  But everybody is not as patient as Boerhaave, nor
+as deserving; so that the rich, though not, perhaps, the best
+patients, are good enough for common practitioners.  I suppose
+Boerhaave put up with them when he could not get poor ones, as he
+left his daughter two millions of florins when he died.
+
+Now if this young man once got into the wide streets, he would sweep
+them clear of his rivals of the same standing; and as I was getting
+indifferent to business, and old Dr. Kilham was growing careless, and
+had once or twice prescribed morphine when he meant quinine, there
+would soon be an opening into the Doctor's Paradise,--the streets
+with only one side to them.  Then I would have him strike a bold
+stroke,--set up a nice little coach, and be driven round like a
+first-class London doctor, instead of coasting about in a shabby one-
+horse concern and casting anchor opposite his patients' doors like a
+Cape Ann fishing-smack.  By the time he was thirty, he would have
+knocked the social pawns out of his way, and be ready to challenge a
+wife from the row of great pieces in the background.  I would not
+have a man marry above his level, so as to become the appendage of a
+powerful family-connection; but I would not have him marry until he
+knew his level,--that is, again, looking at the matter in a purely
+worldly point of view, and not taking the sentiments at all into
+consideration.  But remember, that a young man, using large
+endowments wisely and fortunately, may put himself on a level with
+the highest in the land in ten brilliant years of spirited,
+unflagging labor.  And to stand at the very top of your calling in a
+great city is something in itself,--that is, if you like money, and
+influence, and a seat on the platform at public lectures, and
+gratuitous tickets to all sorts of places where you don't want to go,
+and, what is a good deal better than any of these things, a sense of
+power, limited, it may be, but absolute in its range, so that all the
+Caesars and Napoleons would have to stand aside, if they came between
+you and the exercise of your special vocation.
+
+That is what I thought this young fellow might have come to; and now
+I have let him go off into the country with my certificate, that he
+is fit to teach in a school for either sex!  Ten to one he will run
+like a moth into a candle, right into one of those girls'-nests, and
+get tangled up in some sentimental folly or other, and there will be
+the end of him.  Oh, yes!  country doctor,--half a dollar a visit,--
+drive, drive, drive all day,--get up at night and harness your own
+horse,--drive again ten miles in a snow-storm, shake powders out of
+two phials, (pulv.  glycyrrhiz., pulv.  gum.  acac.  as partes
+equates,)--drive back again, if you don't happen to get stuck in a
+drift, no home, no peace, no continuous meals, no unbroken sleep, no
+Sunday, no holiday, no social intercourse, but one eternal jog, jog,
+jog, in a sulky, until you feel like the mummy of an Indian who had
+been buried in the sitting posture, and was dug up a hundred years
+afterwards!  Why did n't I warn him about love and all that nonsense?
+Why didn't I tell him he had nothing to do with it, yet awhile?  Why
+did n't I hold up to him those awful examples I could have cited,
+where poor young fellows who could just keep themselves afloat have
+hung a matrimonial millstone round their necks, taking it for a life-
+preserver?  All this of two words in a certificate!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MR. BERNARD TRIES HIS HAND.
+
+Whether the Student advertised for a school, or whether he fell in
+with the advertisement of a school-committee, is not certain.  At any
+rate, it was not long before he found himself the head of a large
+district, or, as it was called by the inhabitants, "deestric "
+school, in the flourishing inland village of Pequawkett, or, as it is
+commonly spelt, Pigwacket Centre.  The natives of this place would be
+surprised, if they should hear that any of the readers of a work
+published in Boston were unacquainted with so remarkable a locality.
+As, however, some copies of it may be read at a distance from this
+distinguished metropolis, it may be well to give a few particulars
+respecting the place, taken from the Universal Gazetteer.
+
+"PIGWACKET, sometimes spelt Pequawkett.  A post-village and township
+in _________ Co., State of _________,situated in a fine agricultural
+region, 2 thriving villages, Pigwacket Centre and Smithville, 3
+churches, several school houses, and many handsome private
+residences.  Mink River runs through the town, navigable for small
+boats after heavy rains.  Muddy Pond at N. E.  section, well stocked
+with horn pouts, eels, and shiners.  Products, beef, pork, butter,
+cheese.  Manufactures, shoe-pegs, clothes-pins, and tin-ware.  Pop.
+1373."
+
+The reader may think there is nothing very remarkable implied in this
+description.  If, however he had read the town-history, by the Rev.
+Jabez Grubb, he would have learned, that, like the celebrated Little
+Pedlington, it was distinguished by many very remarkable advantages.
+Thus:
+
+"The situation of Pigwacket is eminently beautiful, looking down the
+lovely valley of Mink River, a tributary of the Musquash.  The air is
+salubrious, and many of the inhabitants have attained great age,
+several having passed the allotted period of 'three-score years and
+ten' before succumbing to any of the various 'ills that flesh is heir
+to.' Widow Comfort Leevins died in 1836 AEt.  LXXXVII.  years.
+Venus, an African, died in 1841, supposed to be C. years old.  The
+people are distinguished for intelligence, as has been frequently
+remarked by eminent lyceum-lecturers, who have invariably spoken in
+the highest terms of a Pigwacket audience.  There is a public
+library, containing nearly a hundred volumes, free to all
+subscribers.  The preached word is well attended, there is a
+flourishing temperance society, and the schools are excellent.  It is
+a residence admirably adapted to refined families who relish the
+beauties of Nature and the charms of society.  The Honorable John
+Smith, formerly a member of the State Senate, was a native of this
+town."
+
+That is the way they all talk.  After all, it is probably pretty much
+like other inland New England towns in point of "salubrity,"--that
+is, gives people their choice of dysentery or fever every autumn,
+with a season-ticket for consumption, good all the year round.  And
+so of the other pretences.  "Pigwacket audience," forsooth!  Was
+there ever an audience anywhere, though there wasn't a pair of eyes
+in it brighter than pickled oysters, that did n't think it was
+"distinguished for intelligence"?--  "The preached word"!  That means
+the Rev. Jabez Grubb's sermons.  "Temperance society"!  "Excellent
+schools"!  Ah, that is just what we were talking about.
+
+The truth was, that District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre, had had a good
+deal of trouble of late with its schoolmasters.  The committee had
+done their best, but there were a number of well-grown and pretty
+rough young fellows who had got the upper-hand of the masters, and
+meant to keep it.  Two dynasties had fallen before the uprising of
+this fierce democracy.  This was a thing that used to be not very
+uncommon; but in so "intelligent" a community as that of Pigwacket
+Centre, in an era of public libraries and lyceum-lectures, it was
+portentous and alarming.
+
+The rebellion began under the ferule of Master Weeks, a slender youth
+from a country college, underfed, thin-blooded, sloping-shouldered,
+knock-kneed, straight-haired, weak-bearded, pale-eyed, wide-pupilled,
+half-colored; a common type enough in in-door races, not rich enough
+to pick and choose in their alliances.  Nature kills off a good many
+of this sort in the first teething-time, a few in later childhood, a
+good many again in early adolescence; but every now and then one runs
+the gauntlet of her various diseases, or rather forms of one disease,
+and grows up, as Master Weeks had done.
+
+It was a very foolish thing for him to try to inflict personal
+punishment on such a lusty young fellow as Abner Briggs, Junior, one
+of the "hardest customers " in the way of a rough-and-tumble fight
+that there were anywhere round.  No doubt he had been insolent, but
+it would have been better to overlook it.  It pains me to report the
+events which took place when the master made his rash attempt to
+maintain his authority.  Abner Briggs, Junior, was a great, hulking
+fellow, who had been bred to butchering, but urged by his parents to
+attend school, in order to learn the elegant accomplishments of
+reading and writing, in which he was sadly deficient.  He was in the
+habit of talking and laughing pretty loud in school-hours, of
+throwing wads of paper reduced to a pulp by a natural and easy
+process, of occasional insolence and general negligence.  One of the
+soft, but unpleasant missiles just alluded to flew by the master's
+head one morning, and flattened itself against the wall, where it
+adhered in the form of a convex mass in alto rilievo.  The master
+looked round and saw the young butcher's arm in an attitude which
+pointed to it unequivocally as the source from which the projectile
+had taken its flight.
+
+Master Weeks turned pale.  He must "lick" Abner Briggs, Junior, or
+abdicate.  So he determined to lick Abner Briggs, Junior.
+
+"Come here, Sir!" he said; "you have insulted me and outraged the
+decency of the schoolroom often enough!  Hold out your hand!"
+
+The young fellow grinned and held it out.  The master struck at it
+with his black ruler, with a will in the blow and a snapping of the
+eyes, as much as to say that he meant to make him smart this time.
+The young fellow pulled his hand back as the ruler came down, and the
+master hit himself a vicious blow with it on the right knee.  There
+are things no man can stand.  The master caught the refractory youth
+by the collar and began shaking him, or rather shaking himself
+against him.
+
+"Le' go o' that are coat, naow," said the fellow, "or I 'll make ye!
+'T 'll take tew on yet' handle me, I tell ye, 'n' then ye caant dew
+it!"--and the young pupil returned the master's attention by catching
+hold of his collar.
+
+When it comes to that, the best man, not exactly in the moral sense,
+but rather in the material, and more especially the muscular point of
+view, is very apt to have the best of it, irrespectively of the
+merits of the case.  So it happened now.  The unfortunate
+schoolmaster found himself taking the measure of the sanded floor,
+amidst the general uproar of the school.  From that moment his ferule
+was broken, and the school-committee very soon had a vacancy to fill.
+
+Master Pigeon, the successor of Master Weeks, was of better stature,
+but loosely put together, and slender-limbed.  A dreadfully nervous
+kind of man he was, walked on tiptoe, started at sudden noises, was
+distressed when he heard a whisper, had a quick, suspicious look, and
+was always saying, "Hush?" and putting his hands to his ears.  The
+boys were not long in finding out this nervous weakness, of course.
+In less than a week a regular system of torments was inaugurated,
+full of the most diabolical malice and ingenuity.  The exercises of
+the conspirators varied from day to day, but consisted mainly of
+foot-scraping, solos on the slate-pencil, (making it screech on the
+slate,) falling of heavy books, attacks of coughing, banging of desk-
+lids, boot-creaking, with sounds as of drawing a cork from time to
+time, followed by suppressed chuckles.
+
+Master Pigeon grew worse and worse under these inflictions.  The
+rascally boys always had an excuse for any one trick they were caught
+at.  "Could n' help coughin', Sir."  "Slipped out o' m' han', Sir."
+"Did n' go to, Sir."  "Did n' dew't o' purpose, Sir."  And so on,--
+always the best of reasons for the most outrageous of behavior.  The
+master weighed himself at the grocer's on a platform balance, some
+ten days after he began keeping the school.  At the end of a week he
+weighed himself again.  He had lost two pounds.  At the end of
+another week he had lost five.  He made a little calculation, based
+on these data, from which he learned that in a certain number of
+months, going on at this rate, he should come to weigh precisely
+nothing at all; and as this was a sum in subtraction he did not care
+to work out in practice, Master Pigeon took to himself wings and left
+the school-committee in possession of a letter of resignation and a
+vacant place to fill once more.
+
+This was the school to which Mr. Bernard Langdon found himself
+appointed as master.  He accepted the place conditionally, with the
+understanding that he should leave it at the end of a month, if he
+were tired of it.
+
+The advent of Master Langdon to Pigwacket Centre created a much more
+lively sensation than had attended that of either of his
+predecessors.  Looks go a good way all the world over, and though
+there were several good-looking people in the place, and Major Bush
+was what the natives of the town called a "hahnsome mahn," that is,
+big, fat, and red, yet the sight of a really elegant young fellow,
+with the natural air which grows up with carefully-bred young
+persons, was a novelty.  The Brahmin blood which came from his
+grandfather as well as from his mother, a direct descendant of the
+old Flynt family, well known by the famous tutor, Henry Flynt, (see
+Cat.  Harv.  Anno 1693,) had been enlivened and enriched by that of
+the Wentworths, which had had a good deal of ripe old Madeira and
+other generous elements mingled with it, so that it ran to gout
+sometimes in the old folks and to high spirit, warm complexion, and
+curly hair in some of the younger ones.  The soft curling hair Mr.
+Bernard had inherited,--something, perhaps, of the high spirit; but
+that we shall have a chance of finding out by and by.  But the long
+sermons and the frugal board of his Brahmin ancestry, with his own
+habits of study, had told upon his color, which was subdued to
+something more of delicacy than one would care to see in a young
+fellow with rough work before him.  This, however, made him look more
+interesting, or, as the young ladies at Major Bush's said,
+"interestin'."
+
+When Mr. Bernard showed himself at meeting, on the first Sunday after
+his arrival, it may be supposed that a good many eyes were turned
+upon the young schoolmaster.  There was something heroic in his
+coming forward so readily to take a place which called for a strong
+hand, and a prompt, steady will to guide it.  In fact, his position
+was that of a military chieftain on the eve of a battle.  Everybody
+knew everything in Pigwacket Centre; and it was an understood thing
+that the young rebels meant to put down the new master, if they
+could.  It was natural that the two prettiest girls in the village,
+called in the local dialect, as nearly as our limited alphabet will
+represent it, Alminy Cutterr, and Arvilly Braowne, should feel and
+express an interest in the good-looking stranger, and that, when
+their flattering comments were repeated in the hearing of their
+indigenous admirers, among whom were some of the older "boys " of the
+school, it should not add to the amiable dispositions of the
+turbulent youth.
+
+Monday came, and the new schoolmaster was in his chair at the upper
+end of the schoolhouse, on the raised platform.  The rustics looked
+at his handsome face, thoughtful, peaceful, pleasant, cheerful, but
+sharply cut round the lips and proudly lighted about the eyes.  The
+ringleader of the mischief-makers, the young butcher who has before
+figured in this narrative, looked at him stealthily, whenever he got
+a chance to study him unobserved; for the truth was, he felt
+uncomfortable, whenever he found the large, dark eyes fixed on his
+own little, sharp, deep-set, gray ones.  But he managed to study him
+pretty well,--first his face, then his neck and shoulders, the set of
+his arms, the narrowing at the loins, the make of his legs, and the
+way he moved.  In short, he examined him as he would have examined a
+steer, to see what he could do and how he would cut up.  If he could
+only have gone to him and felt of his muscles, he would have been
+entirely satisfied.  He was not a very wise youth, but he did know
+well enough, that, though big arms and legs are very good things,
+there is something besides size that goes to make a man; and he had
+heard stories of a fighting-man, called "The Spider," from his
+attenuated proportions, who was yet a terrible hitter in the ring,
+and had whipped many a big-limbed fellow, in and out of the roped
+arena.
+
+Nothing could be smoother than the way in which everything went on
+for the first day or two.  The new master was so kind and courteous,
+he seemed to take everything in such a natural, easy way, that there
+was no chance to pick a quarrel with him.  He in the mean time
+thought it best to watch the boys and young men for a day or two with
+as little show of authority as possible.  It was easy enough to see
+that he would have occasion for it before long.
+
+The schoolhouse was a grim, old, red, one-story building, perched on
+a bare rock at the top of a hill,--partly because this was a
+conspicuous site for the temple of learning, and partly because land
+is cheap where there is no chance even for rye or buckwheat, and the
+very sheep find nothing to nibble.  About the little porch were
+carved initials and dates, at various heights, from the stature of
+nine to that of eighteen.  Inside were old unpainted desks,--
+unpainted, but browned with the umber of human contact,--and hacked
+by innumerable jack-knives.  It was long since the walls had been
+whitewashed, as might be conjectured by the various traces left upon
+them, wherever idle hands or sleepy heads could reach them.  A
+curious appearance was noticeable on various higher parts of the
+wall: namely, a wart-like eruption, as one would be tempted to call
+it, being in reality a crop of the soft missiles before mentioned,
+which, adhering in considerable numbers, and hardening after the
+usual fashion of papier-mache, formed at last permanent ornaments of
+the edifice.
+
+The young master's quick eye soon noticed that a particular part of
+the wall was most favored with these ornamental appendages.  Their
+position pointed sufficiently clearly to the part of the room they
+came from.  In fact, there was a nest of young mutineers just there,
+which must be broken up by a coup d'etat.  This was easily effected
+by redistributing the seats and arranging the scholars according to
+classes, so that a mischievous fellow, charged full of the rebellious
+imponderable, should find himself between two non-conductors, in the
+shape of small boys of studious habits.  It was managed quietly
+enough, in such a plausible sort of way that its motive was not
+thought of.  But its effects were soon felt; and then began a system
+of correspondence by signs, and the throwing of little scrawls done
+up in pellets, and announced by preliminary a'h'ms! to call the
+attention of the distant youth addressed.  Some of these were
+incendiary documents, devoting the schoolmaster to the lower
+divinities, as "a stuck-up dandy," as "a purse-proud aristocrat," as
+"a sight too big for his, etc.," and holding him up in a variety of
+equally forcible phrases to the indignation of the youthful community
+of School District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre.
+
+Presently the draughtsman of the school set a caricature in
+circulation, labelled, to prevent mistakes, with the schoolmaster's
+name.  An immense bell-crowned hat, and a long, pointed, swallow-
+tailed coat showed that the artist had in his mind the conventional
+dandy, as shown in prints of thirty or forty years ago, rather than
+any actual human aspect of the time.  But it was passed round among
+the boys and made its laugh, helping of course to undermine the
+master's authority, as "Punch" or the "Charivari" takes the dignity
+out of an obnoxious minister.  One morning, on going to the
+schoolroom, Master Langdon found an enlarged copy of this sketch,
+with its label, pinned on the door.  He took it down, smiled a
+little, put it into his pocket, and entered the schoolroom.  An
+insidious silence prevailed, which looked as if some plot were
+brewing.  The boys were ripe for mischief, but afraid.  They had
+really no fault to find with the master, except that he was dressed
+like a gentleman, which a certain class of fellows always consider a
+personal insult to themselves.  But the older ones were evidently
+plotting, and more than once the warning a'h'm! was heard, and a
+dirty little scrap of paper rolled into a wad shot from one seat to
+another.  One of these happened to strike the stove-funnel, and
+lodged on the master's desk.  He was cool enough not to seem to
+notice it.  He secured it, however, and found an opportunity to look
+at it, without being observed by the boys.  It required no immediate
+notice.
+
+He who should have enjoyed the privilege of looking upon Mr. Bernard
+Langdon the next morning, when his toilet was about half finished,
+would have had a very pleasant gratuitous exhibition.  First he
+buckled the strap of his trousers pretty tightly.  Then he took up a
+pair of heavy dumb-bells, and swung them for a few minutes; then two
+great "Indian clubs," with which he enacted all sorts of impossible-
+looking feats.  His limbs were not very large, nor his shoulders
+remarkably broad; but if you knew as much of the muscles as all
+persons who look at statues and pictures with a critical eye ought to
+have learned,--if you knew the trapezius, lying diamond-shaped over
+the back and shoulders like a monk's cowl,--or the deltoid, which
+caps the shoulder like an epaulette,--or the triceps, which furnishes
+the calf of the upper arm,--or the hard-knotted biceps,--any of the
+great sculptural landmarks, in fact,--you would have said there was a
+pretty show of them, beneath the white satiny skin of Mr. Bernard
+Langdon.  And if you had seen him, when he had laid down the Indian
+clubs, catch hold of a leather strap that hung from the beam of the
+old-fashioned ceiling,--and lift and lower himself over and over
+again by his left hand alone, you might have thought it a very simple
+and easy thing to do, until you tried to do it yourself.  Mr. Bernard
+looked at himself with the eye of an expert.  "Pretty well!" he
+said;--"not so much fallen off as I expected."  Then he set up his
+bolster in a very knowing sort of way, and delivered two or three
+blows straight as rulers and swift as winks.  "That will do," he
+said.  Then, as if determined to make a certainty of his condition,
+he took a dynamometer from one of the drawers in his old veneered
+bureau.  First he squeezed it with his two hands.  Then he placed it
+on the floor and lifted, steadily, strongly.  The springs creaked and
+cracked; the index swept with a great stride far up into the high
+figures of the scale; it was a good lift.  He was satisfied.  He sat
+down on the edge of his bed and looked at his cleanly-shaped arms.
+"If I strike one of those boobies, I am afraid I shall spoil him," he
+said.  Yet this young man, when weighed with his class at the
+college, could barely turn one hundred and forty-two pounds in the
+scale,--not a heavy weight, surely; but some of the middle weights,
+as the present English champion, for instance, seem to be of a far
+finer quality of muscle than the bulkier fellows.
+
+The master took his breakfast with a good appetite that morning, but
+was perhaps rather more quiet than usual.  After breakfast he went
+up-stairs and put, on a light loose frock, instead of that which he
+commonly wore, which was a close-fitting and rather stylish one.  On
+his way to school he met Alminy Cutterr, who happened to be walking
+in the other direction.  "Good-morning, Miss Cutter," he said; for
+she and another young lady had been introduced to him, on a former
+occasion, in the usual phrase of polite society in presenting ladies
+to gentlemen,--"Mr. Langdon, let me make y' acquainted with Miss
+Cutterr;--let me make y' acquainted with Miss Braowne."  So he said,
+"Good-morning"; to which she replied, "Good-mornin', Mr. Langdon.
+Haow's your haalth?"  The answer to this question ought naturally to
+have been the end of the talk; but Alminy Cutterr lingered and looked
+as if she had something more on her mind.
+
+A young fellow does not require a great experience to read a simple
+country-girl's face as if it were a sign-board.  Alminy was a good
+soul, with red cheeks and bright eyes, kind-hearted as she could be,
+and it was out of the question for her to hide her thoughts or
+feelings like a fine lady.  Her bright eyes were moist and her red
+cheeks paler than their wont, as she said, with her lips quivering,
+"Oh, Mr. Langdon, them boys 'll be the death of ye, if ye don't take
+caar!"
+
+"Why, what's the matter, my dear?"  said Mr. Bernard.---Don't think
+there was anything very odd in that "my dear," at the second
+interview with a village belle;--some of these woman-tamers call a
+girl "My dear," after five minutes' acquaintance, and it sounds all
+right as they say it.  But you had better not try it at a venture.
+
+It sounded all right to Alminy, as Mr. Bernard said it.---"I 'll tell
+ye what's the mahtterr," she said, in a frightened voice.  "Ahbner 's
+go'n' to car' his dog, 'n' he'll set him on ye'z sure 'z y' 'r'
+alive.  'T's the same cretur that haaf eat up Eben Squires's little
+Jo, a year come nex' Faast day."
+
+Now this last statement was undoubtedly overcolored; as little Jo
+Squires was running about the village,--with an ugly scar on his arm,
+it is true, where the beast had caught him with his teeth, on the
+occasion of the child's taking liberties with him, as he had been
+accustomed to do with a good-tempered Newfoundland dog, who seemed to
+like being pulled and hauled round by children.  After this the
+creature was commonly muzzled, and, as he was fed on raw meat
+chiefly, was always ready for a fight, which he was occasionally
+indulged in, when anything stout enough to match him could be found
+in any of the neighboring villages.
+
+Tiger, or, more briefly, Tige, the property of Abner Briggs, Junior,
+belonged to a species not distinctly named in scientific books, but
+well known to our country-folks under the name "Yallah dog."  They do
+not use this expression as they would say black dog or white dog, but
+with almost as definite a meaning as when they speak of a terrier or
+a spaniel.  A "yallah dog " is a large canine brute, of a dingy old-
+flannel color, of no particular breed except his own, who hangs round
+a tavern or a butcher's shop, or trots alongside of a team, looking
+as if he were disgusted with the world, and the world with him.  Our
+inland population, while they tolerate him, speak of him with
+contempt.  Old ______ , of Meredith Bridge, used to twit the sun for
+not shining on cloudy days, swearing, that, if he hung up his "yallah
+dog," he would make a better show of daylight.  A country fellow,
+abusing a horse of his neighbor's, vowed, that, "if he had such a
+hoss, he'd swap him for a `yallah dog,'--and then shoot the dog."
+
+Tige was an ill-conditioned brute by nature, and art had not improved
+him by cropping his ears and tail and investing him with a spiked
+collar.  He bore on his person, also, various not ornamental scars,
+marks of old battles; for Tige had fight in him, as was said before,
+and as might be guessed by a certain bluntness about the muzzle, with
+a projection of the lower jaw, which looked as if there might be a
+bull-dog stripe among the numerous bar-sinisters of his lineage.
+
+It was hardly fair, however, to leave Alminy Cutterr waiting while
+this piece of natural history was telling. --As she spoke of little
+Jo, who had been "haaf eat up" by Tige, she could not contain her
+sympathies, and began to cry.
+
+"Why, my dear little soul," said Mr. Bernard, "what are you worried
+about?  I used to play with a bear when I was a boy; and the bear
+used to hug me, and I used to kiss him,--so!"
+
+It was too bad of Mr. Bernard, only the second time he had seen
+Alminy; but her kind feelings had touched him, and that seemed the
+most natural way of expressing his gratitude.  Ahniny looked round to
+see if anybody was near; she saw nobody, so of course it would do no
+good to "holler."  She saw nobody; but a stout young fellow, leading
+a yellow dog, muzzled, saw her through a crack in a picket fence, not
+a great way off the road.  Many a year he had been "hangin' 'raoun'"
+Alminy, and never did he see any encouraging look, or hear any
+"Behave, naow!" or "Come, naow, a'n't ye 'shamed?" or other
+forbidding phrase of acquiescence, such as village belles under stand
+as well as ever did the nymph who fled to the willows in the eclogue
+we all remember.
+
+No wonder he was furious, when he saw the school master, who had
+never seen the girl until within a week, touching with his lips those
+rosy cheeks which he had never dared to approach.  But that was all;
+it was a sudden impulse; and the master turned away from the young
+girl, laughing, and telling her not to fret herself about him,--he
+would take care of himself.
+
+So Master Langdon walked on toward his school-house, not displeased,
+perhaps, with his little adventure, nor immensely elated by it; for
+he was one of the natural class of the sex-subduers, and had had many
+a smile without asking, which had been denied to the feeble youth who
+try to win favor by pleading their passion in rhyme, and even to the
+more formidable approaches of young officers in volunteer companies,
+considered by many to be quite irresistible to the fair who have once
+beheld them from their windows in the epaulettes and plumes and
+sashes of the "Pigwacket Invincibles," or the "Hackmatack Rangers."
+
+Master Langdon took his seat and began the exercises of his school.
+The smaller boys recited their lessons well enough, but some of the
+larger ones were negligent and surly.  He noticed one or two of them
+looking toward the door, as if expecting somebody or something in
+that direction.  At half past nine o'clock, Abner Briggs, Junior, who
+had not yet shown himself, made his appearance.  He was followed by
+his "yallah dog," without his muzzle, who squatted down very grimly
+near the door, and gave a wolfish look round the room, as if he were
+considering which was the plumpest boy to begin with.  The young
+butcher, meanwhile, went to his seat, looking somewhat flushed,
+except round the lips, which were hardly as red as common, and set
+pretty sharply.
+
+"Put out that dog, Abner Briggs!"--The master spoke as the captain
+speaks to the helmsman, when there are rocks foaming at the lips,
+right under his lee.
+
+Abner Briggs answered as the helmsman answers, when he knows he has a
+mutinous crew round him that mean to run the ship on the reef, and is
+one of the mutineers himself.  "Put him aout y'rself, 'f ye a'n't
+afeard on him!"
+
+The master stepped into the aisle: The great cur showed his teeth,--
+and the devilish instincts of his old wolf-ancestry looked out of his
+eyes, and flashed from his sharp tusks, and yawned in his wide mouth
+and deep red gullet.
+
+The movements of animals are so much quicker than those of human
+beings commonly are, that they avoid blows as easily as one of us
+steps out of the way of an ox-cart.  It must be a very stupid dog
+that lets himself be run over by a fast driver in his gig; he can
+jump out of the wheel's way after the tire has already touched him.
+So, while one is lifting a stick to strike or drawing back his foot
+to kick, the beast makes his spring, and the blow or the kick comes
+too late.
+
+It was not so this time.  The master was a fencer, and something of a
+boxer; he had played at singlestick, and was used to watching an
+adversary's eye and coming down on him without any of those
+premonitory symptoms by which unpractised persons show long
+beforehand what mischief they meditate.
+
+"Out with you!" he said, fiercely,--and explained what he meant by a
+sudden flash of his foot that clashed the yellow dog's white teeth
+together like the springing of a bear-trap.  The cur knew he had
+found his master at the first word and glance, as low animals on four
+legs, or a smaller number, always do; and the blow took him so by
+surprise, that it curled him up in an instant, and he went bundling
+out of the open schoolhouse-door with a most pitiable yelp, and his
+stump of a tail shut down as close as his owner ever shut the short,
+stubbed blade of his jack-knife.
+
+It was time for the other cur to find who his master.
+
+"Follow your dog, Abner Briggs!" said Master Langdon.
+
+The stout butcher-youth looked round, but the rebels were all cowed
+and sat still.
+
+"I'll go when I'm ready," he said,--"'n' I guess I won't go afore I'm
+ready."
+
+"You're ready now," said Master Langdon, turning up his cuffs so that
+the little boys noticed the yellow gleam of a pair of gold sleeve-
+buttons, once worn by Colonel Percy Wentworth, famous in the Old
+French War.
+
+Abner Briggs, Junior, did not apparently think he was ready, at any
+rate; for he rose up in his place, and stood with clenched fists,
+defiant, as the master strode towards him.  The master knew the
+fellow was really frightened, for all his looks, and that he must
+have no time to rally.  So he caught him suddenly by the collar, and,
+with one great pull, had him out over his desk and on the open floor.
+He gave him a sharp fling backwards and stood looking at him.
+
+The rough-and-tumble fighters all clinch, as everybody knows; and
+Abner Briggs, Junior, was one of that kind.  He remembered how he had
+floored Master Weeks, and he had just "spunk" enough left in him to
+try to repeat his former successful experiment an the new master.  He
+sprang at him, open-handed, to clutch him.  So the master had to
+strike,--once, but very hard, and just in the place to tell.  No
+doubt, the authority that doth hedge a schoolmaster added to the
+effect of the blow; but the blow was itself a neat one, and did not
+require to be repeated.
+
+"Now go home," said the master, "and don't let me see you or your dog
+here again."  And he turned his cuffs down over the gold sleeve-
+buttons.
+
+This finished the great Pigwacket Centre School rebellion.  What
+could be done with a master who was so pleasant as long as the boys
+behaved decently, and such a terrible fellow when he got "riled," as
+they called it?  In a week's time everything was reduced to order,
+and the school-committee were delighted.  The master, however, had
+received a proposition so much more agreeable and advantageous, that
+he informed the committee he should leave at the end of his month,
+having in his eye a sensible and energetic young college-graduate who
+would be willing and fully competent to take his place.
+
+So, at the expiration of the appointed time, Bernard Langdon, late
+master of the School District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre, took his
+departure from that place for another locality, whither we shall
+follow him, carrying with him the regrets of the committee, of most
+of the scholars, and of several young ladies; also two locks of hair,
+sent unbeknown to payrents, one dark and one warmish auburn,
+inscribed with the respective initials of Alminy Cutterr and Arvilly
+Braowne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE MOTH FLIES INTO THE CANDLE.
+
+The invitation which Mr. Bernard Langdon had accepted came from the
+Board of Trustees of the "Apollinean Female Institute," a school for
+the education of young ladies, situated in the flourishing town of
+Rockland.  This was an establishment on a considerable scale, in
+which a hundred scholars or thereabouts were taught the ordinary
+English branches, several of the modern languages, something of
+Latin, if desired, with a little natural philosophy, metaphysics, and
+rhetoric, to finish off with in the last year, and music at any time
+when they would pay for it.  At the close of their career in the
+Institute, they were submitted to a grand public examination, and
+received diplomas tied in blue ribbons, which proclaimed them with a
+great flourish of capitals to be graduates of the Apollinean Female
+Institute.
+
+Rockland was a town of no inconsiderable pretensions.  It was
+ennobled by lying at the foot of a mountain,--called by the working-
+folks of the place "the Maounting,"--which sufficiently showed that
+it was the principal high land of the district in which it was
+situated.  It lay to the south of this, and basked in the sunshine as
+Italy stretches herself before the Alps.  To pass from the town of
+Tamarack on the north of the mountain to Rockland on the south was
+like crossing from Coire to Chiavenna.
+
+There is nothing gives glory and grandeur and romance and mystery to
+a place like the impending presence of a high mountain.  Our
+beautiful Northampton with its fair meadows and noble stream is
+lovely enough, but owes its surpassing attraction to those twin
+summits which brood over it like living presences, looking down into
+its streets as if they were its tutelary divinities, dressing and
+undressing their green shrines, robing themselves in jubilant
+sunshine or in sorrowing clouds, and doing penance in the snowy
+shroud of winter, as if they had living hearts under their rocky ribs
+and changed their mood like the children of the soil at their feet,
+who grow up under their almost parental smiles and frowns.  Happy is
+the child whose first dreams of heaven are blended with the evening
+glories of Mount Holyoke, when the sun is firing its treetops, and
+gilding the white walls that mark its one human dwelling!  If the
+other and the wilder of the two summits has a scowl of terror in its
+overhanging brows, yet is it a pleasing fear to look upon its savage
+solitudes through the barred nursery-windows in the heart of the
+sweet, companionable village.---And how the mountains love their
+children!  The sea is of a facile virtue, and will run to kiss the
+first comer in any port he visits; but the chaste mountains sit
+apart, and show their faces only in the midst of their own families.
+
+The Mountain which kept watch to the north of Rockland lay waste and
+almost inviolate through much of its domain.  The catamount still
+glared from the branches of its old hemlocks on the lesser beasts
+that strayed beneath him.  It was not long since a wolf had wandered
+down, famished in the winter's dearth, and left a few bones and some
+tufts of wool of what had been a lamb in the morning.  Nay, there
+were broad-footed tracks in the snow only two years previously, which
+could not be mistaken;--the black bear alone could have set that
+plantigrade seal, and little children must come home early from
+school and play, for he is an indiscriminate feeder when he is
+hungry, and a little child would not come amiss when other game was
+wanting.
+
+But these occasional visitors may have been mere wanderers, which,
+straying along in the woods by day, and perhaps stalking through the
+streets of still villages by night, had worked their way along down
+from the ragged mountain-spurs of higher latitudes.  The one feature
+of The Mountain that shed the brownest horror on its woods was the
+existence of the terrible region known as Rattlesnake Ledge, and
+still tenanted by those damnable reptiles, which distil a fiercer
+venom under our cold northern sky than the cobra himself in the land
+of tropical spices and poisons.
+
+>From the earliest settlement of the place, this fact had been, next
+to the Indians, the reigning nightmare of the inhabitants.  It was
+easy enough, after a time, to drive away the savages; for
+"a screeching Indian Divell," as our fathers called him, could not
+crawl into the crack of a rock to escape from his pursuers.  But the
+venomous population of Rattlesnake Ledge had a Gibraltar for their
+fortress that might have defied the siege-train dragged to the walls
+of Sebastopol.  In its deep embrasures and its impregnable easemates
+they reared their families, they met in love or wrath, they twined
+together in family knots, they hissed defiance in hostile clans, they
+fed, slept, hibernated, and in due time died in peace.  Many a foray
+had the towns-people made, and many a stuffed skin was shown as a
+trophy,--nay, there were families where the children's first toy was
+made from the warning appendage that once vibrated to the wrath of
+one of these "cruel serpents."  Sometimes one of them, coaxed out by
+a warm sun, would writhe himself down the hillside into the roads, up
+the walks that led to houses,--worse than this, into the long grass,
+where the barefooted mowers would soon pass with their swinging
+scythes,--more rarely into houses, and on one memorable occasion,
+early in the last century, into the meeting-house, where he took a
+position on the pulpit-stairs,--as is narrated in the "Account of
+Some Remarkable Providences," etc., where it is suggested that a
+strong tendency of the Rev. Didymus Bean, the Minister at that time,
+towards the Arminian Heresy may have had something to do with it, and
+that the Serpent supposed to have been killed on the Pulpit-Stairs
+was a false show of the Daemon's Contrivance, he having come in to
+listen to a Discourse which was a sweet Savour in his Nostrils, and,
+of course, not being capable of being killed Himself.  Others said,
+however, that, though there was good Reason to think it was a Damon,
+yet he did come with Intent to bite the Heel of that faithful
+Servant,--etc.
+
+One Gilson is said to have died of the bite of a rattlesnake in this
+town early in the present century.  After this there was a great
+snake-hunt, in which very many of these venomous beasts were killed,
+--one in particular, said to have been as big round as a stout man's
+arm, and to have had no less than forty joints to his rattle,--
+indicating, according to some, that he had lived forty years, but, if
+we might put any faith in the Indian tradition, that he had killed
+forty human beings,--an idle fancy, clearly.  This hunt, however, had
+no permanent effect in keeping down the serpent population.
+Viviparous, creatures are a kind of specie-paying lot, but oviparous
+ones only give their notes, as it were, for a future brood,--an egg
+being, so to speak, a promise to pay a young one by and by, if
+nothing happen.  Now the domestic habits of the rattlesnake are not
+studied very closely, for obvious reasons; but it is, no doubt, to
+all intents and purposes oviparous.  Consequently it has large
+families, and is not easy to kill out.
+
+In the year 184-, a melancholy proof was afforded to the inhabitants
+of Rockland, that the brood which infested The Mountain was not
+extirpated.  A very interesting young married woman, detained at home
+at the time by the state of her health, was bitten in the entry of
+her own house by a rattlesnake which had found its way down from The
+Mountain.  Owing to the almost instant employment of powerful
+remedies, the bite did not prove immediately fatal; but she died
+within a few months of the time when she was bitten.
+
+All this seemed to throw a lurid kind of shadow over The Mountain.
+Yet, as many years passed without any accident, people grew
+comparatively careless, and it might rather be said to add a fearful
+kind of interest to the romantic hillside, that the banded reptiles,
+which had been the terror of the red men for nobody knows how many
+thousand years, were there still, with the same poison-bags and
+spring-teeth at the white men's service, if they meddled with them.
+
+The other natural features of Rockland were such as many of our
+pleasant country-towns can boast of.  A brook came tumbling down the
+mountain-side and skirted the most thickly settled portion of the
+village.  In the parts of its course where it ran through the woods,
+the water looked almost as brown as coffee flowing from its urn,--to
+say like smoky quartz would perhaps give a better idea,--but in the
+open plain it sparkled over the pebbles white as a queen's diamonds.
+There were huckleberry-pastures on the lower flanks of The Mountain,
+with plenty of the sweet-scented bayberry mingled with the other
+bushes.  In other fields grew great store of high-bush blackberries.
+Along the roadside were bayberry-bushes, hung all over with bright
+red coral pendants in autumn and far into the winter.  Then there
+were swamps set thick with dingy alders, where the three-leaved arum
+and the skunk's-cabbage grew broad and succulent, shelving down into
+black boggy pools here and there at the edge of which the green frog,
+stupidest of his tribe, sat waiting to be victimized by boy or
+snapping-turtle long after the shy and agile leopard-frog had taken
+the six-foot spring that plumped him into the middle of the pool.
+And on the neighboring banks the maiden-hair spread its flat disk of
+embroidered fronds on the wire-like stem that glistened polished and
+brown as the darkest tortoise-shell, and pale violets, cheated by the
+cold skies of their hues and perfume, sunned themselves like white-
+cheeked invalids.  Over these rose the old forest-trees,--the maple,
+scarred with the wounds which had drained away its sweet life-blood,
+--the beech, its smooth gray bark mottled so as to look like the body
+of one of those great snakes of old that used to frighten armies,
+always the mark of lovers' knives, as in the days of Musidora and her
+swain,--the yellow birch, rough as the breast of Silenus in old
+marbles,--the wild cherry, its little bitter fruit lying unheeded at
+its foot,--and, soaring over all, the huge, coarse-barked, splintery-
+limbed, dark-mantled hemlock, in the depth of whose aerial solitudes
+the crow brooded on her nest unscared, and the gray squirrel lived
+unharmed till his incisors grew to look like ram's-horns.
+
+Rockland would have been but half a town without its pond; Guinnepeg
+Pond was the name of it, but the young ladies of the Apollinean
+Institute were very anxious that it should be called Crystalline
+Lake.  It was here that the young folks used to sail in summer and
+skate in winter; here, too, those queer, old, rum-scented good-for-
+nothing, lazy, story-telling, half-vagabonds, who sawed a little wood
+or dug a few potatoes now and then under the pretence of working for
+their living, used to go and fish through the ice for pickerel every
+winter.  And here those three young people were drowned, a few
+summers ago, by the upsetting of a sail-boat in a sudden flaw of
+wind.  There is not one of these smiling ponds which has not devoured
+more youths and maidens than any of those monsters the ancients used
+to tell such lies about.  But it was a pretty pond, and never looked
+more innocent--so the native "bard" of Rockland said in his elegy--
+than on the morning when they found Sarah Jane and Ellen Maria
+floating among the lily-pads.
+
+The Apollinean Institute, or Institoot, as it was more commonly
+called, was, in the language of its Prospectus, a "first-class
+Educational Establishment."  It employed a considerable corps of
+instructors to rough out and finish the hundred young lady scholars
+it sheltered beneath its roof.  First, Mr. and Mrs. Peckham, the
+Principal and the Matron of the school.  Silas Peckham was a thorough
+Yankee, born on a windy part of the coast, and reared chiefly on
+salt-fish.  Everybody knows the type of Yankee produced by this
+climate and diet: thin, as if he had been split and dried; with an
+ashen kind of complexion, like the tint of the food he is made of;
+and about as sharp, tough, juiceless, and biting to deal with as the
+other is to the taste.  Silas Peckham kept a young ladies' school
+exactly as he would have kept a hundred head of cattle,--for the
+simple, unadorned purpose of making just as much money in just as few
+years as could be safely done.  Mr. Peckham gave very little personal
+attention to the department of instruction, but was always busy with
+contracts for flour and potatoes, beef and pork, and other nutritive
+staples, the amount of which required for such an establishment was
+enough to frighten a quartermaster.  Mrs. Peckham was from the West,
+raised on Indian corn and pork, which give a fuller outline and a
+more humid temperament, but may perhaps be thought to render people a
+little coarse-fibred.  Her specialty was to look after the
+feathering, cackling, roosting, rising, and general behavior of these
+hundred chicks.  An honest, ignorant woman, she could not have passed
+an examination in the youngest class.  So this distinguished
+institution was under the charge of a commissary and a housekeeper,
+and its real business was making money by taking young girls in as
+boarders.
+
+Connected with this, however, was the incidental fact, which the
+public took for the principal one, namely, the business of
+instruction.  Mr. Peckham knew well enough that it was just as well
+to have good instructors as bad ones, so far as cost was concerned,
+and a great deal better for the reputation of his feeding-
+establishment.  He tried to get the best he could without paying too
+much, and, having got them, to screw all the work out of them that
+could possibly be extracted.
+
+There was a master for the English branches, with a young lady
+assistant.  There was another young lady who taught French, of the
+ahvaung and baundahng style, which does not exactly smack of the
+asphalt of the Boulevards.  There was also a German teacher of music,
+who sometimes helped in French of the ahfaung and bauntaung style,--
+so that, between the two, the young ladies could hardly have been
+mistaken for Parisians, by a Committee of the French Academy.  The
+German teacher also taught a Latin class after his fashion,--benna, a
+ben, gahboot, ahead, and so forth.
+
+The master for the English branches had lately left the school for
+private reasons, which need not be here mentioned,--but he had gone,
+at any rate, and it was his place which had been offered to Mr.
+Bernard Langdon.  The offer came just in season,--as, for various
+causes, he was willing to leave the place where he had begun his new
+experience.
+
+It was on a fine morning that Mr. Bernard, ushered in by Mr. Peckham,
+made his appearance in the great schoolroom of the Apollinean
+Institute.  A general rustle ran all round the seats when the
+handsome young man was introduced.  The principal carried him to the
+desk of the young lady English assistant, Miss Darley by name, and
+introduced him to her.
+
+There was not a great deal of study done that day.  The young lady
+assistant had to point out to the new master the whole routine in
+which the classes were engaged when their late teacher left, and
+which had gone on as well as it could since.  Then Master Langdon had
+a great many questions to ask, some relating to his new duties, and
+some, perhaps, implying a degree of curiosity not very unnatural
+under the circumstances.  The truth is, the general effect of the
+schoolroom, with its scores of young girls, all their eyes naturally
+centring on him with fixed or furtive glances, was enough to bewilder
+and confuse a young man like Master Langdon, though he was not
+destitute of self-possession, as we have already seen.
+
+You cannot get together a hundred girls, taking them as they come,
+from the comfortable and affluent classes, probably anywhere,
+certainly not in New England, without seeing a good deal of beauty.
+In fact, we very commonly mean by beauty the way young girls look
+when there is nothing to hinder their looking as Nature meant them
+to.  And the great schoolroom of the Apollinean Institute did really
+make so pretty a show on the morning when Master Langdon entered it,
+that he might be pardoned for asking Miss Darley more questions about
+his scholars than about their lessons.
+
+There were girls of all ages: little creatures, some pallid and
+delicate-looking, the offspring of invalid parents,--much given to
+books, not much to mischief, commonly spoken of as particularly good
+children, and contrasted with another sort, girls of more vigorous
+organization, who were disposed to laughing and play, and required a
+strong hand to manage them; then young growing misses of every shade
+of Saxon complexion, and here and there one of more Southern hue:
+blondes, some of them so translucent-looking that it seemed as if you
+could see the souls in their bodies, like bubbles in glass, if souls
+were objects of sight; brunettes, some with rose-red colors, and some
+with that swarthy hue which often carries with it a heavily-shaded
+lip, and which, with pure outlines and outspoken reliefs, gives us
+some of our handsomest women,--the women whom ornaments of plain gold
+adorn more than any other parures; and again, but only here and
+there, one with dark hair and gray or blue eyes, a Celtic type,
+perhaps, but found in our native stock occasionally; rarest of all, a
+light-haired girl with dark eyes, hazel, brown, or of the color of
+that mountain-brook spoken of in this chapter, where it ran through
+shadowy woodlands.  With these were to be seen at intervals some of
+maturer years, full-blown flowers among the opening buds, with that
+conscious look upon their faces which so many women wear during the
+period when they never meet a single man without having his
+monosyllable ready for him,--tied as they are, poor things! on the
+rock of expectation, each of them an Andromeda waiting for her
+Perseus.
+
+"Who is that girl in ringlets,--the fourth in the third row on the
+right?" said Master Langdon.
+
+"Charlotte Ann Wood," said Miss Darley; "writes very pretty poems."
+
+"Oh!--And the pink one, three seats from her?  Looks bright; anything
+in her?"
+
+"Emma Dean,--day-scholar,--Squire Dean's daughter,--nice girl,--
+second medal last year."
+
+The master asked these two questions in a careless kind of way, and
+did not seem to pay any too much attention to the answers.
+
+"And who and what is that," he said,--"sitting a little apart
+there,--that strange, wild-looking girl?  "
+
+This time he put the real question he wanted answered;--the other two
+were asked at random, as masks for the third.
+
+The lady-teacher's face changed;--one would have said she was
+frightened or troubled.  She looked at the girl doubtfully, as if she
+might hear the master's question and its answer.  But the girl did
+not look up;--she was winding a gold chain about her wrist, and then
+uncoiling it, as if in a kind of reverie.
+
+Miss Darley drew close to the master and placed her hand so as to
+hide her lips.  "Don't look at her as if we were talking about her,"
+she whispered softly; "that is Elsie Venner."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+AN OLD-FASHIONED DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTER.
+
+It was a comfort to get to a place with something like society, with
+residences which had pretensions to elegance, with people of some
+breeding, with a newspaper, and "stores" to advertise in it, and with
+two or three churches to keep each other alive by wholesome
+agitation.  Rockland was such a place.
+
+Some of the natural features of the town have been described already.
+The Mountain, of course, was what gave it its character, and redeemed
+it from wearing the commonplace expression which belongs to ordinary
+country-villages.  Beautiful, wild, invested with the mystery which
+belongs to untrodden spaces, and with enough of terror to give it
+dignity, it had yet closer relations with the town over which it
+brooded than the passing stranger knew of.  Thus, it made a local
+climate by cutting off the northern winds and holding the sun's heat
+like a garden-wall.  Peachtrees, which, on the northern side of the
+mountain, hardly ever came to fruit, ripened abundant crops in
+Rockland.
+
+But there was still another relation between the mountain and the
+town at its foot, which strangers were not likely to hear alluded to,
+and which was oftener thought of than spoken of by its inhabitants.
+Those high-impending forests,--"hangers," as White of Selborne would
+have called them,--sloping far upward and backward into the distance,
+had always an air of menace blended with their wild beauty.  It
+seemed as if some heaven-scaling Titan had thrown his shaggy robe
+over the bare, precipitous flanks of the rocky summit, and it might
+at any moment slide like a garment flung carelessly on the nearest
+chance-support, and, so sliding, crush the village out of being, as
+the Rossberg when it tumbled over on the valley of Goldau.
+
+Persons have been known to remove from the place, after a short
+residence in it, because they were haunted day and night by the
+thought of this awful green wall, piled up into the air over their
+heads.  They would lie awake of nights, thinking they heard the
+muffed snapping of roots, as if a thousand acres of the mountain-side
+were tugging to break away, like the snow from a house-roof, and a
+hundred thousand trees were clinging with all their fibres to hold
+back the soil just ready to peel away and crash down with all its
+rocks and forest-growths.  And yet, by one of those strange
+contradictions we are constantly finding in human nature, there were
+natives of the town who would come back thirty or forty years after
+leaving it, just to nestle under this same threatening mountainside,
+as old men sun themselves against southward-facing walls.  The old
+dreams and legends of danger added to the attraction.  If the
+mountain should ever slide, they had a kind of feeling as if they
+ought to be there.  It was a fascination like that which the
+rattlesnake is said to exert.
+
+This comparison naturally suggests the recollection of that other
+source of danger which was an element in the every-day life of the
+Rockland people.  The folks in some of the neighboring towns had a
+joke against them, that a Rocklander could n't hear a beanpod rattle
+without saying, "The Lord have mercy on us!  "It is very true, that
+many a nervous old lady has had a terrible start, caused by some
+mischievous young rogue's giving a sudden shake to one of these noisy
+vegetable products in her immediate vicinity.  Yet, strangely enough,
+many persons missed the excitement of the possibility of a fatal bite
+in other regions, where there were nothing but black and green and
+striped snakes, mean ophidians, having the spite of the nobler
+serpent without his venom,--poor crawling creatures, whom Nature
+would not trust with a poison-bag.  Many natives of Rockland did
+unquestionably experience a certain gratification in this
+infinitesimal sense of danger.  It was noted that the old people
+retained their hearing longer than in other places.  Some said it was
+the softened climate, but others believed it was owing to the habit
+of keeping their ears open whenever they were walking through the
+grass or in the woods.  At any rate, a slight sense of danger is
+often an agreeable stimulus.  People sip their creme de noyau with a
+peculiar tremulous pleasure, because there is a bare possibility that
+it may contain prussic acid enough to knock them over; in which case
+they will lie as dead as if a thunder-cloud had emptied itself into
+the earth through their brain and marrow.
+
+But Rockland had other features which helped to give it a special
+character.  First of all, there was one grand street which was its
+chief glory.  Elm Street it was called, naturally enough, for its
+elms made a long, pointed-arched gallery of it through most of its
+extent.  No natural Gothic arch compares, for a moment, with that
+formed by two American elms, where their lofty jets of foliage shoot
+across each other's ascending curves, to intermingle their showery
+flakes of green.  When one looks through a long double row of these,
+as in that lovely avenue which the poets of Yale remember so well,
+
+"Oh, could the vista of my life but now as bright appear
+As when I first through Temple Street looked down thine espalier!"
+
+he beholds a temple not built with hands, fairer than any minster,
+with all its clustered stems and flowering capitals, that ever grew
+in stone.
+
+Nobody knows New England who is not on terms of intimacy with one of
+its elms.  The elm comes nearer to having a soul than any other
+vegetable creature among us.  It loves man as man loves it.  It is
+modest and patient.  It has a small flake of a seed which blows in
+everywhere and makes arrangements for coming up by and by.  So, in
+spring, one finds a crop of baby-elms among his carrots and parsnips,
+very weak and small compared to those succulent vegetables.  The
+baby-elms die, most of them, slain, unrecognized or unheeded, by hand
+or hoe, as meekly as Herod's innocents.  One of them gets overlooked,
+perhaps, until it has established a kind of right to stay.  Three
+generations of carrot and parsnip consumers have passed away,
+yourself among them, and now let your great-grandson look for the
+baby-elm.  Twenty-two feet of clean girth, three hundred and sixty
+feet in the line that bounds its leafy circle, it covers the boy with
+such a canopy as neither glossy-leafed oak nor insect-haunted linden
+ever lifted into the summer skies.
+
+Elm Street was the pride of Rockland, but not only on account of its
+Gothic-arched vista.  In this street  were most of the great houses,
+or "mansion-houses," as it was usual to call them.  Along this
+street, also, the more nicely kept and neatly painted dwellings were
+chiefly congregated.  It was the correct thing for a Rockland
+dignitary to have a house in Elm Street.  A New England "mansion-
+house" is naturally square, with dormer windows projecting from the
+roof, which has a balustrade with turned posts round it.  It shows a
+good breadth of front-yard before its door, as its owner shows a
+respectable expanse of a clean shirt-front.  It has a lateral margin
+beyond its stables and offices, as its master wears his white wrist
+bands showing beyond his coat-cuffs.  It may not have what can
+properly be called grounds, but it must have elbow-room, at any rate.
+Without it, it is like a man who is always tight-buttoned for want of
+any linen to show.  The mansion-house which has had to "button itself
+up tight in fences, for want of green or gravel margin, will be
+advertising for boarders presently.  The old English pattern of the
+New England mansion-house, only on a somewhat grander scale, is Sir
+Thomas Abney's place, where dear, good Dr. Watts said prayers for the
+family, and wrote those blessed hymns of his that sing us into
+consciousness in our cradles, and come back to us in sweet, single
+verses, between the moments of wandering and of stupor, when we lie
+dying, and sound over us when we can no longer hear them, bringing
+grateful tears to the hot, aching eyes beneath the thick, black
+veils, and carrying the holy calm with them which filled the good
+man's heart, as he prayed and sung under the shelter of the old
+English mansion-house.  Next to the mansion-houses, came the two-
+story trim, white-painted, "genteel" houses, which, being more
+gossipy and less nicely bred, crowded close up to the street, instead
+of standing back from it with arms akimbo, like the mansion-houses.
+Their little front-yards were very commonly full of lilac and syringa
+and other bushes, which were allowed to smother the lower story
+almost to the exclusion of light and airy so that, what with small
+windows and small windowpanes, and the darkness made by these choking
+growths of shrubbery, the front parlors of some of these houses were
+the most tomb-like, melancholy places that could be found anywhere
+among the abodes of the living.  Their garnishing was apt to assist
+this impression.  Large-patterned carpets, which always look
+discontented in little rooms, haircloth furniture, black and shiny as
+beetles' wing cases, and centre-tables, with a sullen oil-lamp of the
+kind called astral by our imaginative ancestors, in the centre,--
+these things were inevitable.  In set piles round the lamp was ranged
+the current literature of the day, in the form of Temperance
+Documents, unbound numbers of one of the Unknown Public's Magazines
+with worn-out steel engravings and high-colored fashion-plates, the
+Poems of a distinguished British author whom it is unnecessary to
+mention, a volume of sermons, or a novel or two, or both, according
+to the tastes of the family, and the Good Book, which is always
+Itself in the cheapest and commonest company.  The father of the
+family with his hand in the breast of his coat, the mother of the
+same in a wide-bordered cap, sometimes a print of the Last Supper, by
+no means Morghen's, or the Father of his Country, or the old General,
+or the Defender of the Constitution, or an unknown clergyman with an
+open book before him,--these were the usual ornaments of the walls,
+the first two a matter of rigor, the others according to politics and
+other tendencies.
+
+This intermediate class of houses, wherever one finds them in New
+England towns, are very apt to be cheerless and unsatisfactory.  They
+have neither the luxury of the mansion-house nor the comfort of the
+farm-house.  They are rarely kept at an agreeable temperature.  The
+mansion-house has large fireplaces and generous chimneys, and is open
+to the sunshine.  The farm-house makes no pretensions, but it has a
+good warm kitchen, at any rate, and one can be comfortable there with
+the rest of the family, without fear and without reproach.  These
+lesser country-houses of genteel aspirations are much given to patent
+subterfuges of one kind and another to get heat without combustion.
+The chilly parlor and the slippery hair-cloth seat take the life out
+of the warmest welcome.  If one would make these places wholesome,
+happy, and cheerful, the first precept would be,--The dearest fuel,
+plenty of it, and let half the heat go up the chimney.  If you can't
+afford this, don't try to live in a "genteel " fashion, but stick to
+the ways of the honest farm-house.
+
+There were a good many comfortable farm-houses scattered about
+Rockland.  The best of them were something of the following pattern,
+which is too often superseded of late by a more pretentious, but
+infinitely less pleasing kind of rustic architecture.  A little back
+from the road, seated directly on the green sod, rose a plain wooden
+building, two stories in front, with a long roof sloping backwards to
+within a few feet of the ground.  This, like the "mansion-house," is
+copied from an old English pattern.  Cottages of this model may be
+seen in Lancashire, for instance, always with the same honest, homely
+look, as if their roofs acknowledged their relationship to the soil
+out of which they sprung.  The walls were unpainted, but turned by
+the slow action of sun and air and rain to a quiet dove or slate
+color.  An old broken millstone at the door,--a well-sweep pointing
+like a finger to the heavens, which the shining round of water
+beneath looked up at like a dark unsleeping eye,--a single large elm
+a little at one side,--a barn twice as big as the house,--a cattle-
+yard, with
+
+     "The white horns tossing above the wall,"--
+
+some fields, in pasture or in crops, with low stone walls round
+them,--a row of beehives,--a gardenpatch, with roots, and currant-
+bushes, and many-hued hollyhocks, and swollen-stemmed, globe-headed,
+seedling onions, and marigolds and flower-de-luces, and lady's-
+delights, and peonies, crowding in together, with southernwood in the
+borders, and woodbine and hops and morning-glories climbing as they
+got a chance,--these were the features by which the Rockland-born
+children remembered the farm-house, when they had grown to be men.
+Such are the recollections that come over poor sailor-boys crawling
+out on reeling yards to reef topsails as their vessels stagger round
+the stormy Cape; and such are the flitting images that make the eyes
+of old country-born merchants look dim and dreamy, as they sit in
+their city palaces, warm with the after-dinner flush of the red wave
+out of which Memory arises, as Aphrodite arose from the green waves
+of the ocean.
+
+Two meeting-houses stood on two eminences, facing each other, and
+looking like a couple of fighting-cocks with their necks straight up
+in the air,--as if they would flap their roofs, the next thing, and
+crow out of their upstretched steeples, and peck at each other's
+glass eyes with their sharp-pointed weathercocks.
+
+The first was a good pattern of the real old-fashioned New England
+meeting-house.  It was a large barn with windows, fronted by a square
+tower crowned with a kind of wooden bell inverted and raised on legs,
+out of which rose a slender spire with the sharp-billed weathercock
+at its summit.  Inside, tall, square pews with flapping seats, and a
+gallery running round three sides of the building.  On the fourth
+side the pulpit, with a huge, dusty sounding-board hanging over it.
+Here preached the Reverend Pierrepont Honeywood, D. D., successor,
+after a number of generations, to the office and the parsonage of the
+Reverend Didymus Bean, before mentioned, but not suspected of any of
+his alleged heresies.  He held to the old faith of the Puritans, and
+occasionally delivered a discourse which was considered by the hard-
+headed theologians of his parish to have settled the whole matter
+fully and finally, so that now there was a good logical basis laid
+down for the Millennium, which might begin at once upon the platform
+of his demonstrations.  Yet the Reverend Dr. Honeywood was fonder of
+preaching plain, practical sermons about the duties of life, and
+showing his Christianity in abundant good works among his people.  It
+was noticed by some few of his flock, not without comment, that the
+great majority of his texts came from the Gospels, and this more and
+more as he became interested in various benevolent enterprises which
+brought him into relations with-ministers and kindhearted laymen of
+other denominations.  He was in fact a man of a very warm, open, and
+exceedingly human disposition, and, although bred by a clerical
+father, whose motto was "Sit anima mea cum Puritanis," he exercised
+his human faculties in the harness of his ancient faith with such
+freedom that the straps of it got so loose they did not interfere
+greatly with the circulation of the warm blood through his system.
+Once in a while he seemed to think it necessary to come out with a
+grand doctrinal sermon, and them he would lapse away for a while into
+preaching on men's duties to each other and to society, and hit hard,
+perhaps, at some of the actual vices of the time and place, and
+insist with such tenderness and eloquence on the great depth and
+breadth of true Christian love and charity, that his oldest deacon
+shook his head, and wished he had shown as much interest when he was
+preaching, three Sabbaths back, on Predestinaticn, or in his
+discourse against the Sabellians.  But he was sound in the faith; no
+doubt of that.  Did he not preside at the council held in the town of
+Tamarack, on the other side of the mountain, which expelled its
+clergyman for maintaining heretical doctrines?  As presiding officer,
+he did not vote, of course, but there was no doubt that he was all
+right; he had some of the Edwards blood in him, and that couldn't
+very well let him go wrong.
+
+The meeting-house on the other and opposite summit was of a more
+modern style, considered by many a great improvement on the old New
+England model, so that it is not uncommon for a country parish to
+pull down its old meeting-house, which has been preached in for a
+hundred years or so, and put up one of these more elegant edifices.
+The new building was in what may be called the florid shingle-Gothic
+manner.  Its pinnacles and crockets and other ornaments were, like
+the body of the building, all of pine wood,--an admirable material,
+as it is very soft and easily worked, and can be painted of any color
+desired.  Inside, the walls were stuccoed in imitation of stone,--
+first a dark brown square, then two light brown squares, then another
+dark brown square, and so on, to represent the accidental differences
+of shade always noticeable in the real stones of which walls are
+built.  To be sure, the architect could not help getting his party-
+colored squares in almost as regular rhythmical order as those of a
+chess-board; but nobody can avoid doing things in a systematic and
+serial way; indeed, people who wish to plant trees in natural chimps
+know very well that they cannot keep from making regular lines and
+symmetrical figures, unless by some trick or other, as that one of
+throwing a peck of potatoes up into the air and sticking in a tree
+wherever a potato happens to fall.  The pews of this meeting-house
+were the usual oblong ones, where people sit close together, with a
+ledge before them to support their hymn-books, liable only to
+occasional contact with the back of the next pew's heads or bonnets,
+and a place running under the seat of that pew where hats could be
+deposited,--always at the risk of the owner, in case of injury by
+boots or crickets.
+
+In this meeting-house preached the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather, a
+divine of the "Liberal" school, as it is commonly called, bred at
+that famous college which used to be thought, twenty or thirty years
+ago, to have the monopoly of training young men in the milder forms
+of heresy.  His ministrations were attended with decency, but not
+followed with enthusiasm.  "The beauty of virtue" got to be an old
+story at last.  "The moral dignity of human nature" ceased to excite
+a thrill of satisfaction, after some hundred repetitions.  It grew to
+be a dull business, this preaching against stealing and intemperance,
+while he knew very well that the thieves were prowling round orchards
+and empty houses, instead of being there to hear the sermon, and that
+the drunkards, being rarely church-goers, get little good by the
+statistics and eloquent appeals of the preacher.  Every now and then,
+however, the Reverend Mr. Fairweather let off a polemic discourse
+against his neighbor opposite, which waked his people up a little;
+but it was a languid congregation, at best,--very apt to stay away
+from meeting in the afternoon, and not at all given to extra evening
+services.  The minister, unlike his rival of the other side of the
+way, was a down-hearted and timid kind of man.  He went on preaching
+as he had been taught to preach, but he had misgivings at times.
+There was a little Roman Catholic church at the foot of the hill
+where his own was placed, which he always had to pass on Sundays.  He
+could never look on the thronging multitudes that crowded its pews
+and aisles or knelt bare-headed on its steps, without a longing to
+get in among them and go down on his knees and enjoy that luxury of
+devotional contact which makes a worshipping throng as different from
+the same numbers praying apart as a bed of coals is from a trail of
+scattered cinders.
+
+"Oh, if I could but huddle in with those poor laborers and working-
+women!  "he would say to himself.  "If I could but breathe that
+atmosphere, stifling though it be, yet made holy by ancient litanies,
+and cloudy with the smoke of hallowed incense, for one hour, instead
+of droning over these moral precepts to my half-sleeping
+congregation!"  The intellectual isolation of his sect preyed upon
+him; for, of all terrible things to natures like his, the most
+terrible is to belong to a minority.  No person that looked at his
+thin and sallow cheek, his sunken and sad eye, his tremulous lip, his
+contracted forehead, or who heard his querulous, though not unmusical
+voice, could fail to see that his life was an uneasy one, that he was
+engaged in some inward conflict.  His dark, melancholic aspect
+contrasted with his seemingly cheerful creed, and was all the more
+striking, as the worthy Dr. Honeywood, professing a belief which made
+him a passenger on board a shipwrecked planet, was yet a most good-
+humored and companionable gentleman, whose laugh on week-days did one
+as much good to listen to as the best sermon he ever delivered on a
+Sunday.
+
+A mile or two from the centre of Rockland was a pretty little
+Episcopal church, with a roof like a wedge of cheese, a square tower,
+a stained window, and a trained rector, who read the service with
+such ventral depth of utterance and rrreduplication of the rrresonant
+letter, that his own mother would not have known him for her son, if
+the good woman had not ironed his surplice and put it on with her own
+hands.
+
+There were two public-houses in the place: one dignified with the
+name of the Mountain House, somewhat frequented by city people in the
+summer months, large-fronted, three-storied, balconied, boasting a
+distinct ladies'-drawing-room, and spreading a table d'hote of some
+pretensions; the other, "Pollard's Tahvern," in the common speech,--a
+two-story building, with a bar-room, once famous, where there was a
+great smell of hay and boots and pipes and all other bucolic-flavored
+elements,--where games of checkers were played on the back of the
+bellows with red and white kernels of corn, or with beans and coffee,
+where a man slept in a box-settle at night, to wake up early
+passengers,--where teamsters came in, with wooden-handled whips and
+coarse frocks, reinforcing the bucolic flavor of the atmosphere, and
+middle-aged male gossips, sometimes including the squire of the
+neighboring law-office, gathered to exchange a question or two about
+the news, and then fall into that solemn state of suspended animation
+which the temperance bar-rooms of modern days produce in human
+beings, as the Grotta del Cane does in dogs in the well-known
+experiments related by travellers.  This bar-room used to be famous
+for drinking and storytelling, and sometimes fighting, in old times.
+That was when there were rows of decanters on the shelf behind the
+bar, and a hissing vessel of hot water ready, to make punch, and
+three or four loggerheads (long irons clubbed at the end) were always
+lying in the fire in the cold season, waiting to be plunged into
+sputtering and foaming mugs of flip,--a goodly compound; speaking
+according to the flesh, made with beer and sugar, and a certain
+suspicion of strong waters, over which a little nutmeg being grated,
+and in it the hot iron being then allowed to sizzle, there results a
+peculiar singed aroma, which the wise regard as a warning to remove
+themselves at once out of the reach of temptation.
+
+But the bar of Pollard's Tahvern no longer presented its old
+attractions, and the loggerheads had long disappeared from the fire.
+In place of the decanters, were boxes containing "lozengers," as they
+were commonly called, sticks of candy in jars, cigars in tumblers, a
+few lemons, grown hard-skinned and marvellously shrunken by long
+exposure, but still feebly suggestive of possible lemonade,--the
+whole ornamented by festoons of yellow and blue cut flypaper.  On the
+front shelf of the bar stood a large German-silver pitcher of water,
+and scattered about were ill-conditioned lamps, with wicks that
+always wanted picking, which burned red and smoked a good deal, and
+were apt to go out without any obvious cause, leaving strong
+reminiscences of the whale-fishery in the circumambient air.
+
+The common schoolhouses of Rockland were dwarfed by the grandeur of
+the Apollinean Institute.  The master passed one of them, in a walk
+he was taking, soon after his arrival at Rockland.  He looked in at
+
+the rows of desks, and recalled his late experiences.  He could not
+help laughing, as he thought how neatly he had knocked the young
+butcher off his pins.
+
+"A little science is a dangerous thing,' as well as a little
+'learning,'"  he said to himself; "only it's dangerous to the fellow
+you' try it on."  And he cut him a good stick, and began climbing the
+side of The Mountain to get a look at that famous Rattlesnake Ledge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE SUNBEAM AND THE SHADOW.
+
+The virtue of the world is not mainly in its leaders.  In the midst
+of the multitude which follows there is often something better than
+in the one that goes before.  Old generals wanted to take Toulon, but
+one of their young colonels showed them how.  The junior counsel has
+been known not unfrequently to make a better argument than his senior
+fellow,--if, indeed, he did not make both their arguments.  Good
+ministers will tell you they have parishioners who beat them in the
+practice of the virtues.  A great establishment, got up on commercial
+principles, like the Apollinean Institute, might yet be well carried
+on, if it happened to get good teachers.  And when Master Langdon
+came to see its management, he recognized that there must be fidelity
+and intelligence somewhere among the instructors.  It was only
+necessary to look for a moment at the fair, open forehead, the still,
+tranquil eye of gentle, habitual authority, the sweet gravity that
+lay upon the lips, to hear the clear answers to the pupils'
+questions, to notice how every request had the force without the form
+of a command, and the young man could not doubt that the good genius
+of the school stood before him in the person of Helen barley.
+
+It was the old story.  A poor country-clergyman dies, and leaves a
+widow and a daughter.  In Old England the daughter would have eaten
+the bitter bread of a governess in some rich family.  In New England
+she must keep a school.  So, rising from one sphere to another, she
+at length finds herself the prima donna in the department of
+instruction in Mr. Silas Peckham's educational establishment.
+
+What a miserable thing it is to be poor.  She was dependent, frail,
+sensitive, conscientious.  She was in the power of a hard, grasping,
+thin-blooded, tough-fibred, trading educator, who neither knew nor
+cared for a tender woman's sensibilities, but who paid her and meant
+to have his money's worth out of her brains, and as much more than
+his money's worth as he could get.  She was consequently, in plain
+English, overworked, and an overworked woman is always a sad sight,--
+sadder a great deal than an overworked man, because she is so much
+more fertile in capacities of suffering than a man.  She has so many
+varieties of headache,--sometimes as if Jael were driving the nail
+that killed Sisera into her temples,--sometimes letting her work with
+half her brain while the other half throbs as if it would go to
+pieces,--sometimes tightening round the brows as if her cap-band were
+a ring of iron,--and then her neuralgias, and her backaches, and her
+fits of depression, in which she thinks she is nothing and less than
+nothing, and those paroxysms which men speak slightingly of as
+hysterical,--convulsions, that is all, only not commonly fatal ones,
+--so many trials which belong to her fine and mobile structure,--that
+she is always entitled to pity, when she is placed in conditions
+which develop her nervous tendencies.
+
+The poor young lady's work had, of course, been doubled since the
+departure of Master Langdon's predecessor.  Nobody knows what the
+weariness of instruction is, as soon as the teacher's faculties begin
+to be overtasked, but those who have tried it.  The relays of fresh
+pupils, each new set with its exhausting powers in full action,
+coming one after another, take out all the reserved forces and
+faculties of resistance from the subject of their draining process.
+
+The day's work was over, and it was late in the evening, when she sat
+down, tired and faint, with a great bundle of girls' themes or
+compositions to read over before she could rest her weary head on the
+pillow of her narrow trundle-bed, and forget for a while the
+treadmill stair of labor she was daily climbing.
+
+How she dreaded this most forlorn of all a teacher's tasks!  She was
+conscientious in her duties, and would insist on reading every
+sentence,--there was no saying where she might find faults of grammar
+or bad spelling.  There might have been twenty or thirty of these
+themes in the bundle before her.  Of course she knew pretty well the
+leading sentiments they could contain: that beauty was subject to the
+accidents of time; that wealth was inconstant, and existence
+uncertain; that virtue was its own reward; that youth exhaled, like
+the dewdrop from the flower, ere the sun had reached its meridian;
+that life was o'ershadowed with trials; that the lessons of virtue
+instilled by our beloved teachers were to be our guides through all
+our future career.  The imagery employed consisted principally of
+roses, lilies, birds, clouds, and brooks, with the celebrated
+comparison of wayward genius to meteor.  Who does not know the small,
+slanted, Italian hand of these girls'-compositions, their stringing
+together of the good old traditional copy-book phrases; their
+occasional gushes of sentiment, their profound estimates of the
+world, sounding to the old folks that read them as the experience of
+a bantam pullet's last-hatched young one with the chips of its shell
+on its head would sound to a Mother Cary's chicken, who knew the
+great ocean with all its typhoons and tornadoes?  Yet every now and
+then one is liable to be surprised with strange clairvoyant flashes,
+that can hardly be explained, except by the mysterious inspiration
+which every now and then seizes a young girl and exalts her
+intelligence, just as hysteria in other instances exalts the
+sensibility,--a little something of that which made Joan of Arc, and
+the Burney girl who prophesied "Evelina," and the Davidson sisters.
+In the midst of these commonplace exercises which Miss Darley read
+over so carefully were two or three that had something of individual
+flavor about them, and here and there there was an image or an
+epithet which showed the footprint of a passionate nature, as a
+fallen scarlet feather marks the path the wild flamingo has trodden.
+
+The young lady-teacher read them with a certain indifference of
+manner, as one reads proofs--noting defects of detail, but not
+commonly arrested by the matters treated of.  Even Miss Charlotte Ann
+Wood's poem, beginning
+
+          "How sweet at evening's balmy hour,"
+
+did not excite her.  She marked the inevitable false rhyme of Cockney
+and Yankee beginners, morn and dawn, and tossed the verses on the
+pile of papers she had finished.  She was looking over some of the
+last of them in a rather listless way,--for the poor thing was
+getting sleepy in spite of herself,--when she came to one which
+seemed to rouse her attention, and lifted her drooping lids.  She
+looked at it a moment before she would touch it.  Then she took hold
+of it by one corner and slid it off from the rest.  One would have
+said she was afraid of it, or had some undefined antipathy which made
+it hateful to her.  Such odd fancies are common enough in young
+persons in her nervous state.  Many of these young people will jump
+up twenty times a day and run to dabble the tips of their fingers in
+water, after touching the most inoffensive objects.
+
+This composition was written in a singular, sharp-pointed, long,
+slender hand, on a kind of wavy, ribbed paper.  There was something
+strangely suggestive about the look of it, but exactly of what, Miss
+barley either could not or did not try to think.  The subject of the
+paper was The Mountain,--the composition being a sort of descriptive
+rhapsody.  It showed a startling familiarity with some of the savage
+scenery of the region.  One would have said that the writer must have
+threaded its wildest solitudes by the light of the moon and stars as
+well as by day.  As the teacher read on, her color changed, and a
+kind of tremulous agitation came over her.  There were hints in this
+strange paper she did not know what to make of.  There was something
+in its descriptions and imagery that recalled,--Miss Darley could not
+say what,--but it made her frightfully nervous.  Still she could not
+help reading, till she came to one passage which so agitated her,
+that the tired and over-wearied girl's self-control left her
+entirely.  She sobbed once or twice, then laughed convulsively; and
+flung herself on the bed, where she worked out a set hysteric spasm
+as she best might, without anybody to rub her hands and see that she
+did not hurt herself.
+
+By and by she got quiet, rose and went to her bookcase, took down a
+volume of Coleridge, and read a short time, and so to bed, to sleep
+and wake from time to time with a sudden start out of uneasy dreams.
+
+Perhaps it is of no great consequence what it was in the composition
+which set her off into this nervous paroxysm.  She was in such a
+state that almost any slight agitation would have brought on the
+attack, and it was the accident of her transient excitability, very
+probably, which made a trifling cause the seeming occasion of so much
+disturbance.  The theme was signed, in the same peculiar, sharp,
+slender hand, E. Venner, and was, of course, written by that wild-
+looking girl who had excited the master's curiosity and prompted his
+question, as before mentioned.  The next morning the lady-teacher
+looked pale and wearied, naturally enough, but she was in her place
+at the usual hour, and Master Langdon in his own.
+
+The girls had not yet entered the school room.
+
+"You have been ill, I am afraid," said Mr. Bernard.
+
+"I was not well yesterday," she, answered.  "I had a worry and a kind
+of fright.  It is so dreadful to have the charge of all these young
+souls and bodies.  Every young girl ought to walk locked close, arm
+in arm, between two guardian angels.  Sometimes I faint almost with
+the thought of all that I ought to do, and of my own weakness and
+wants. --Tell me, are there not natures born so out of parallel with
+the lines of natural law that nothing short of a miracle can bring
+them right?"
+
+Mr. Bernard had speculated somewhat, as all thoughtful persons of his
+profession are forced to do, on the innate organic tendencies with
+which individuals, families, and races are born.  He replied,
+therefore, with a smile, as one to whom the question suggested a very
+familiar class of facts.
+
+"Why, of course.  Each of us is only the footing-up of a double
+column of figures that goes back to the first pair.  Every unit
+tells,--and some of them are plus, and some minus.  If the columns
+don't add up right, it is commonly because we can't make out all the
+figures.  I don't mean to say that something may not be added by
+Nature to make up for losses and keep the race to its average, but we
+are mainly nothing but the answer to a long sum in addition and
+subtraction.  No doubt there are people born with impulses at every
+possible angle to the parallels of Nature, as you call them.  If they
+happen to cut these at right angles, of course they are beyond the
+reach of common influences.  Slight obliquities are what we have most
+to do with in education.  Penitentiaries and insane asylums take care
+of most of the right-angle cases. --I am afraid I have put it too
+much like a professor, and I am only a student, you know.  Pray, what
+set you to asking me this?  Any strange cases among the scholars?"
+
+The meek teacher's blue eyes met the luminous glance that came with
+the question.  She, too, was of gentle blood,--not meaning by that
+that she was of any noted lineage, but that she came of a cultivated
+stock, never rich, but long trained to intellectual callings.  A
+thousand decencies, amenities, reticences, graces, which no one
+thinks of until he misses them, are the traditional right of those
+who spring from such families.  And when two persons of this
+exceptional breeding meet in the midst of the common multitude, they
+seek each other's company at once by the natural law of elective
+affinity.  It is wonderful how men and women know their peers.  If
+two stranger queens, sole survivors of two shipwrecked vessels, were
+cast, half-naked, on a rock together, each would at once address the
+other as "Our Royal Sister."
+
+Helen Darley looked into the dark eyes of Bernard Langdon glittering
+with the light which flashed from them with his question.  Not as
+those foolish, innocent country-girls of the small village did she
+look into them, to be fascinated and bewildered, but to sound them
+with a calm, steadfast purpose.  "A gentleman," she said to herself,
+as she read his expression and his features with a woman's rapid, but
+exhausting glance.  "A lady," he said to himself, as he met her
+questioning look,--so brief, so quiet, yet so assured, as of one whom
+necessity had taught to read faces quickly without offence, as
+children read the faces of parents, as wives read the faces of hard-
+souled husbands.  All this was but a few seconds' work, and yet the
+main point was settled.  If there had been any vulgar curiosity or
+coarseness of any kind lurking in his expression, she would have
+detected it.  If she had not lifted her eyes to his face so softly
+and kept them there so calmly and withdrawn them so quietly, he would
+not have said to himself, "She is a LADY," for that word meant a good
+deal to the descendant of the courtly Wentworths and the scholarly
+Langdons.
+
+"There are strange people everywhere, Mr. Langdon," she said, "and I
+don't think our schoolroom is an exception.  I am glad you believe in
+the force of transmitted tendencies.  It would break my heart, if I
+did not think that there are faults beyond the reach of everything
+but God's special grace.  I should die, if I thought that my
+negligence or incapacity was alone responsible for the errors and
+sins of those I have charge of.  Yet there are mysteries I do not
+know how to account for."  She looked all round the schoolroom, and
+then said, in a whisper, "Mr. Langdon, we had a girl that stole, in
+the school, not long ago.  Worse than that, we had a girl who tried
+to set us on fire.  Children of good people, both of them.  And we
+have a girl now that frightens me so"--
+
+The door opened, and three misses came in to take their seats: three
+types, as it happened, of certain classes, into which it would not
+have been difficult to distribute the greater number of the girls in
+the school.---Hannah Martin.  Fourteen years and three months old.
+Short-necked, thick-waisted, round-cheeked, smooth, vacant forehead,
+large, dull eyes.  Looks good-natured, with little other expression.
+Three buns in her bag, and a large apple.  Has a habit of attacking
+her provisions in school-hours.  --Rosa Milburn.  Sixteen.  Brunette,
+with a rare-ripe flush in her cheeks.  Color comes and goes easily.
+Eyes wandering, apt to be downcast.  Moody at times.  Said to be
+passionate, if irritated.  Finished in high relief.  Carries
+shoulders well back and walks well, as if proud of her woman's life,
+with a slight rocking movement, being one of the wide-flanged
+pattern, but seems restless,--a hard girl to look after.  Has a
+romance in her pocket, which she means to read in school-time.
+--Charlotte Ann Wood.  Fifteen.  The poetess before mentioned.  Long,
+light ringlets, pallid complexion, blue eyes.  Delicate child, half
+unfolded.  Gentle, but languid and despondent.  Does not go much with
+the other girls, but reads a good deal, especially poetry,
+underscoring favorite passages.  Writes a great many verses, very
+fast, not very correctly; full of the usual human sentiments,
+expressed in the accustomed phrases.  Under-vitalized.  Sensibilities
+not covered with their normal integuments.  A negative condition,
+often confounded with genius, and sometimes running into it.  Young
+people who fall out of line through weakness of the active faculties
+are often confounded with those who step out of it through strength
+of the intellectual ones.
+
+The girls kept coming in, one after another, or in pairs or groups,
+until the schoolroom was nearly full.  Then there was a little pause,
+and a light step was heard in the passage.  The lady-teacher's eyes
+turned to the door, and the master's followed them in the same
+direction.
+
+A girl of about seventeen entered.  She was tall and slender, but
+rounded, with a peculiar undulation of movement, such as one
+sometimes sees in perfectly untutored country-girls, whom Nature, the
+queen of graces, has taken in hand, but more commonly in connection
+with the very highest breeding of the most thoroughly trained
+society.  She was a splendid scowling beauty, black-browed, with a
+flash of white teeth which was always like a surprise when her lips
+parted.  She wore a checkered dress, of a curious pattern, and a
+camel's-hair scarf twisted a little fantastically about her.  She
+went to her seat, which she had moved a short distance apart from the
+rest, and, sitting down, began playing listlessly with her gold
+chain, as was a common habit with her, coiling it and uncoiling it
+about her slender wrist, and braiding it in with her long, delicate
+fingers.  Presently she looked up.  Black, piercing eyes, not large,
+--a low forehead, as low as that of Clytie in the Townley bust,--
+black hair, twisted in heavy braids,--a face that one could not help
+looking at for its beauty, yet that one wanted to look away from for
+something in its expression, and could not for those diamond eyes.
+They were fixed on the lady-teacher now.  The latter turned her own
+away, and let them wander over the other scholars.'4 But they could
+not help coming back again for a sin gle glance at the wild beauty.
+The diamond eyes were on her still.  She turned the leaves of several
+of her books, as if in search of some passage, and, when she thought
+she had waited long enough to be safe, once more stole a quick look
+at the dark girl. The diamond eyes were still upon her.  She put her
+kerchief to her forehead, which had grown,slightly moist; she sighed
+once, almost shivered, for she felt cold; then, following some ill-
+defined impulse, which she could not resist, she left her place and
+went to the young girl's desk.
+
+"What do you want of me, Elsie Venner?"  It was a strange question to
+put, for the girl had not signified that she wished the teacher to
+come to her.
+
+"Nothing," she said.  "I thought I could make you come."  The girl
+spoke in a low tone, a kind of half-whisper.  She did not lisp, yet
+her articulation of one or two consonants was not absolutely perfect.
+
+"Where did you get that flower, Elsie?" said Miss Darley.  It was a
+rare alpine flower, which was found only in one spot among the rocks
+of The Mountain.
+
+"Where it grew," said Elsie Veneer.  "Take it." The teacher could not
+refuse her.  The girl's finger tips touched hers as she took it.  How
+cold they were for a girl of such an organization!
+
+The teacher went back to her seat.  She made an excuse for quitting
+the schoolroom soon afterwards.  The first thing she did was to fling
+the flower into her fireplace and rake the ashes over it.  The second
+was to wash the tips of her fingers, as if she had been another Lady
+Macbeth.  A poor, over-tasked, nervous creature,--we must not think
+too much of her fancies.
+
+After school was done, she finished the talk with the master which
+had been so suddenly interrupted.  There were things spoken of which
+may prove interesting by and by, but there are other matters we must
+first attend to.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE EVENT OF THE SEASON.
+
+"Mr. and Mrs. Colonel Sprowle's compliments to Mr. Langdon and
+requests the pleasure of his company at a social entertainment on
+Wednesday evening next.
+
+" Elm St. Monday."
+
+
+On paper of a pinkish color and musky smell, with a large "S" at the
+top, and an embossed border.  Envelop adherent, not sealed.
+Addressed
+
+          LANGDON ESQ.
+          Present.
+
+Brought by H. Frederic Sprowle, youngest son of the Colonel,--the H.
+of course standing for the paternal Hezekiah, put in to please the
+father, and reduced to its initial to please the mother, she having a
+marked preference for Frederic.  Boy directed to wait for an answer.
+
+"Mr. Langdon has the pleasure of accepting Mr. and Mrs. Colonel
+Sprowle's polite invitation for Wednesday evening."
+
+On plain paper, sealed with an initial.
+
+In walking along the main street, Mr. Bernard had noticed a large
+house of some pretensions to architectural display, namely,
+unnecessarily projecting eaves, giving it a mushroomy aspect, wooden
+mouldings at various available points, and a grandiose arched
+portico.  It looked a little swaggering by the side of one or two of
+the mansion-houses that were not far from it, was painted too bright
+for Mr. Bernard's taste, had rather too fanciful a fence before it,
+and had some fruit-trees planted in the front-yard, which to this
+fastidious young gentleman implied a defective sense of the fitness
+of things, not promising in people who lived in so large a house,
+with a mushroom roof and a triumphal arch for its entrance.
+
+This place was known as "Colonel Sprowle's villa," (genteel
+friends,)--as "the elegant residence of our distinguished fellow-
+citizen, Colonel Sprowle," (Rockland Weekly Universe,)--as "the neew
+haouse," (old settlers,)--as "Spraowle's Folly, "(disaffected and
+possibly envious neighbors,)--and in common discourse, as "the
+Colonel's."
+
+Hezekiah Sprowle, Esquire, Colonel Sprowle of the Commonwealth's
+Militia, was a retired "merchant."  An India merchant he might,
+perhaps, have been properly called; for he used to deal in West India
+goods, such as coffee, sugar, and molasses, not to speak of rum,--
+also in tea, salt fish, butter and cheese, oil and candles, dried
+fruit, agricultural "p'doose " generally, industrial products, such
+as boots and shoes, and various kinds of iron and wooden ware, and at
+one end of the establishment in calicoes and other stuffs,--to say
+nothing of miscellaneous objects of the most varied nature, from
+sticks of candy, which tempted in the smaller youth with coppers in
+their fists, up to ornamental articles of apparel, pocket-books,
+breast-pins, gilt-edged Bibles, stationery, in short, everything
+which was like to prove seductive to the rural population.  The
+Colonel had made money in trade, and also by matrimony.  He had
+married Sarah, daughter and heiress of the late Tekel Jordan, Esq.,
+an old miser, who gave the town-clock, which carries his name to
+posterity in large gilt letters as a generous benefactor of his
+native place.  In due time the Colonel reaped the reward of well-
+placed affections.  When his wife's inheritance fell in, he thought
+he had money enough to give up trade, and therefore sold out his
+"store," called in some dialects of the English language shop, and
+his business.
+
+Life became pretty hard work to him, of course, as soon as he had
+nothing particular to do.  Country people with money enough not to
+have to work are in much more danger than city people in the same
+condition.  They get a specific look and character, which are the
+same in all the villages where one studies them.  They very commonly
+fall into a routine, the basis of which is going to some lounging-
+place or other, a bar-room, a reading-room, or something of the kind.
+They grow slovenly in dress, and wear the same hat forever.  They
+have a feeble curiosity for news perhaps, which they take daily as a
+man takes his bitters, and then fall silent and think they are
+thinking.  But the mind goes out under this regimen, like a fire
+without a draught; and it is not very strange, if the instinct of
+mental self-preservation drives them to brandy-and-water, which makes
+the hoarse whisper of memory musical for a few brief moments, and
+puts a weak leer of promise on the features of the hollow-eyed
+future.  The Colonel was kept pretty well in hand as yet by his wife,
+and though it had happened to him once or twice to come home rather
+late at night with a curious tendency to say the same thing twice and
+even three times over, it had always been in very cold weather,--and
+everybody knows that no one is safe to drink a couple of glasses of
+wine in a warm room and go suddenly out into the cold air.
+
+Miss Matilda Sprowle, sole daughter of the house, had reached the age
+at which young ladies are supposed in technical language to have come
+out, and thereafter are considered to be in company.
+
+"There's one piece o' goods," said the Colonel to his wife, "that we
+ha'n't disposed of, nor got a customer for yet.  That 's Matildy.  I
+don't mean to set HER up at vaandoo.  I guess she can have her pick
+of a dozen."
+
+"She 's never seen anybody yet," said Mrs. Sprowle, who had had a
+certain project for some time, but had kept quiet about it.  "Let's
+have a party, and give her a chance to show herself and see some of
+the young folks."
+
+The Colonel was not very clear-headed, and he thought, naturally
+enough, that the party was his own suggestion, because his remark led
+to the first starting of the idea.  He entered into the plan,
+therefore, with a feeling of pride as well as pleasure, and the great
+project was resolved upon in a family council without a dissentient
+voice.  This was the party, then, to which Mr. Bernard was going.
+The town had been full of it for a week.  "Everybody was asked."  So
+everybody said that was invited.  But how in respect of those who
+were not asked?  If it had been one of the old mansion-houses that
+was giving a party, the boundary between the favored and the slighted
+families would have been known pretty well beforehand, and there
+would have been no great amount of grumbling.  But the Colonel, for
+all his title, had a forest of poor relations and a brushwood swamp
+of shabby friends, for he had scrambled up to fortune, and now the
+time was come when he must define his new social position.
+
+This is always an awkward business in town or country.  An exclusive
+alliance between two powers is often the same thing as a declaration
+of war against a third.  Rockland was soon split into a triumphant
+minority, invited to Mrs. Sprowle's party, and a great majority,
+uninvited, of which the fraction just on the border line between
+recognized "gentility" and the level of the ungloved masses was in an
+active state of excitement and indignation.
+
+"Who is she, I should like to know?"  said Mrs. Saymore, the tailor's
+wife.  "There was plenty of folks in Rockland as good as ever Sally
+Jordan was, if she had managed to pick up a merchant.  Other folks
+could have married merchants, if their families was n't as wealthy as
+them old skinflints that willed her their money," etc., etc.  Mrs.
+Saymore expressed the feeling of many beside herself.  She had,
+however, a special right to be proud of the name she bore.  Her
+husband was own cousin to the Saymores of Freestone Avenue (who write
+the name Seymour, and claim to be of the Duke of Somerset's family,
+showing a clear descent from the Protector to Edward Seymour,
+(1630,)--then a jump that would break a herald's neck to one Seth
+Saymore,(1783,)--from whom to the head of the present family the line
+is clear again).  Mrs. Saymore, the tailor's wife, was not invited,
+because her husband mended clothes.  If he had confined himself
+strictly to making them, it would have put a different face upon the
+matter.
+
+The landlord of the Mountain House and his lady were invited to Mrs.
+Sprowle's party.  Not so the landlord of Pollard's Tahvern and his
+lady.  Whereupon the latter vowed that they would have a party at
+their house too, and made arrangements for a dance of twenty or
+thirty couples, to be followed by an entertainment.  Tickets to this
+"Social Ball" were soon circulated, and, being accessible to all at a
+moderate price, admission to the "Elegant Supper" included, this
+second festival promised to be as merry, if not as select, as the
+great party.
+
+Wednesday came.  Such doings had never been heard of in Rockland as
+went on that day at the "villa."  The carpet had been taken up in the
+long room, so that the young folks might have a dance.  Miss
+Matilda's piano had been moved in, and two fiddlers and a clarionet-
+player engaged to make music.  All kinds of lamps had been put in
+requisition, and even colored wax-candles figured on the mantel-
+pieces.  The costumes of the family had been tried on the day before:
+the Colonel's black suit fitted exceedingly well; his lady's velvet
+dress displayed her contours to advantage; Miss Matilda's flowered
+silk was considered superb; the eldest son of the family, Mr. T.
+Jordan Sprowle, called affectionately and elegantly "Geordie," voted
+himself "stunnin'"; and even the small youth who had borne Mr.
+Bernard's invitation was effective in a new jacket and trousers,
+buttony in front, and baggy in the reverse aspect, as is wont to be
+the case with the home-made garments of inland youngsters.
+
+Great preparations had been made for the refection which was to be
+part of the entertainment.  There was much clinking of borrowed
+spoons, which were to be carefully counted, and much clicking of
+borrowed china, which was to be tenderly handled, for nobody in the
+country keeps those vast closets full of such things which one may
+see in rich city-houses.  Not a great deal could be done in the way
+of flowers, for there were no greenhouses, and few plants were out as
+yet; but there were paper ornaments for the candlesticks, and colored
+mats for the lamps, and all the tassels of the curtains and bells
+were taken out of those brown linen bags, in which, for reasons
+hitherto undiscovered, they are habitually concealed in some
+households.  In the remoter apartments every imaginable operation was
+going on at once,--roasting, boiling, baking, beating, rolling,
+pounding in mortars, frying, freezing; for there was to be ice-cream
+to-night of domestic manufacture;--and in the midst of all these
+labors, Mrs. Sprowle and Miss Matilda were moving about, directing
+and helping as they best might, all day long.  When the evening came,
+it might be feared they would not be in just the state of mind and
+body to entertain company.
+
+--One would like to give a party now and then, if one could be a
+billionnaire.--"Antoine, I am going to have twenty people to dine to-
+day."  "Biens, Madame."  Not a word or thought more about it, but get
+home in season to dress, and come down to your own table, one of your
+own guests.--"Giuseppe, we are to have a party a week from to-night,
+--five hundred invitations--there is the list."  The day comes.
+"Madam, do you remember you have your party tonight?"  "Why, so I
+have!  Everything right?  supper and all?"  "All as it should be,
+Madam."
+
+"Send up Victorine."  "Victorine, full toilet for this evening,--
+pink, diamonds, and emeralds.  Coiffeur at seven.  Allez."--
+Billionism, or even millionism, must be a blessed kind of state, with
+health and clear conscience and youth and good looks,--but most
+blessed is this, that it takes off all the mean cares which give
+people the three wrinkles between the eyebrows, and leaves them free
+to have a good time and make others have a good time, all the way
+along from the charity that tips up unexpected loads of wood before
+widows' houses, and leaves foundling turkeys upon poor men's door-
+steps, and sets lean clergymen crying at the sight of anonymous
+fifty-dollar bills, to the taste which orders a perfect banquet in
+such sweet accord with every sense that everybody's nature flowers
+out full--blown in its golden--glowing, fragrant atmosphere.
+
+--A great party given by the smaller gentry of the interior is a kind
+of solemnity, so to speak.  It involves so much labor and anxiety,--
+its spasmodic splendors are so violently contrasted with the
+homeliness of every-day family-life,--it is such a formidable matter
+to break in the raw subordinates to the manege of the cloak-room and
+the table,--there is such a terrible uncertainty in the results of
+unfamiliar culinary operations,--so many feuds are involved in
+drawing that fatal line which divides the invited from the uninvited
+fraction of the local universe,--that, if the notes requested the
+pleasure of the guests' company on "this solemn occasion," they would
+pretty nearly express the true state of things.
+
+The Colonel himself had been pressed into the service.  He had
+pounded something in the great mortar.  He had agitated a quantity of
+sweetened and thickened milk in what was called a cream-freezer.  At
+eleven o'clock, A. M., he retired for a space.  On returning, his
+color was noted to be somewhat heightened, and he showed a
+disposition to be jocular with the female help,--which tendency,
+displaying itself in livelier demonstrations than were approved at
+head-quarters, led to his being detailed to out-of-door duties, such
+as raking gravel, arranging places for horses to be hitched to, and
+assisting in the construction of an arch of wintergreen at the porch
+of the mansion.
+
+A whiff from Mr. Geordie's cigar refreshed the toiling females from
+time to time; for the windows had to be opened occasionally, while
+all these operations were going on, and the youth amused himself with
+inspecting the interior, encouraging the operatives now and then in
+the phrases commonly employed by genteel young men,--for he had
+perused an odd volume of "Verdant Green," and was acquainted with a
+Sophomore from one of the fresh-water colleges.  "Go it on the feed!"
+exclaimed this spirited young man.  "Nothin' like a good spread.
+Grub enough and good liquor, that's the ticket.  Guv'nor'll do the
+heavy polite, and let me alone for polishin' off the young charmers."
+And Mr. Geordie looked expressively at a handmaid who was rolling
+gingerbread, as if he were rehearsing for "Don Giovanni."
+
+Evening came at last, and the ladies were forced to leave the scene
+of their labors to array themselves for the coming festivities.  The
+tables had been set in a back room, the meats were ready, the pickles
+were displayed, the cake was baked, the blanc-mange had stiffened,
+and the ice-cream had frozen.
+
+At half past seven o'clock, the Colonel, in costume, came into the
+front parlor, and proceeded to light the lamps.  Some were good-
+humored enough and took the hint of a lighted match at once.  Others
+were as vicious as they could be,--would not light on any terms, any
+more than if they were filled with water, or lighted and smoked one
+side of the chimney, or spattered a few sparks and sulked themselves
+out, or kept up a faint show of burning, so that their ground glasses
+looked as feebly phosphorescent as so many invalid fireflies.  With
+much coaxing and screwing and pricking, a tolerable illumination was
+at last achieved.  At eight there was a grand rustling of silks, and
+Mrs. and Miss Sprowle descended from their respective bowers or
+boudoirs.  Of course they were pretty well tired by this time, and
+very glad to sit down,--having the prospect before them of being
+obliged to stand for hours.  The Colonel walked about the parlor,
+inspecting his regiment of lamps.  By and by Mr. Geordie entered.
+
+"Mph! mph!"  he sniffed, as he came in.  "You smell of lamp-smoke
+here."
+
+That always galls people,--to have a new-comer accuse them of smoke
+or close air, which they have got used to and do not perceive.  The
+Colonel raged at the thought of his lamps' smoking, and tongued a few
+anathemas inside of his shut teeth, but turned down two or three
+wicks that burned higher than the rest.
+
+Master H. Frederic next made his appearance, with questionable marks
+upon his fingers and countenance.  Had been tampering with something
+brown and sticky.  His elder brother grew playful, and caught him by
+the baggy reverse of his more essential garment.
+
+"Hush!" said Mrs. Sprowle,--"there 's the bell!"
+
+Everybody took position at once, and began to look very smiling and
+altogether at ease. --False alarm.  Only a parcel of spoons,--
+"loaned," as the inland folks say when they mean lent, by a neighbor.
+
+"Better late than never!" said the Colonel, "let me heft them
+spoons."
+
+Mrs. Sprowle came down into her chair again as if all her bones had
+been bewitched out of her.
+
+"I'm pretty nigh beat out a'ready," said she, "before any of the
+folks has come."
+
+They sat silent awhile, waiting for the first arrival.  How nervous
+they got! and how their senses were sharpened!
+
+"Hark!"  said Miss Matilda,--"what 's that rumblin'?"
+
+It was a cart going over a bridge more than a mile off, which at any
+other time they would not have heard.  After this there was a lull,
+and poor Mrs. Sprowle's head nodded once or twice.  Presently a
+crackling and grinding of gravel;--how much that means, when we are
+waiting for those whom we long or dread to see!  Then a change in the
+tone of the gravel-crackling.
+
+"Yes, they have turned in at our gate.  They're comin'!  Mother!
+mother!"
+
+Everybody in position, smiling and at ease.  Bell rings.  Enter the
+first set of visitors.  The Event of the Season has begun.
+
+"Law! it's nothin' but the Cranes' folks!  I do believe Mahala 's
+come in that old green de-laine she wore at the Surprise Party!"
+
+Miss Matilda had peeped through a crack of the door and made this
+observation and the remark founded thereon.  Continuing her attitude
+of attention, she overheard Mrs. Crane and her two daughters
+conversing in the attiring-room, up one flight.
+
+"How fine everything is in the great house!"  said Mrs. Crane,--"jest
+look at the picters!"
+
+"Matildy Sprowle's drawin's," said Ada Azuba, the eldest daughter.
+
+"I should think so," said Mahala Crane, her younger sister,--a wide-
+awake girl, who had n't been to school for nothing, and performed a
+little on the lead pencil herself.  "I should like to know whether
+that's a hay-cock or a mountain!"
+
+Miss Matilda winced; for this must refer to her favorite monochrome,
+executed by laying on heavy shadows and stumping them down into
+mellow harmony,--the style of drawing which is taught in six lessons,
+and the kind of specimen which is executed in something less than one
+hour.  Parents and other very near relatives are sometimes gratified
+with these productions, and cause them to be framed and hung up, as
+in the present instance.
+
+"I guess we won't go down jest yet," said Mrs. Crane, "as folks don't
+seem to have come."
+
+So she began a systematic inspection of the dressing-room and its
+conveniences.
+
+"Mahogany four-poster;--come from the Jordans', I cal'la,te.
+Marseilles quilt.  Ruffles all round the piller.  Chintz curtings,--
+jest put up,--o' purpose for the party, I'll lay ye a dollar.---What
+a nice washbowl!" (Taps it with a white knuckle belonging to a red
+finger.) "Stone chaney. --Here's a bran'-new brush and comb,--and
+here's a scent-bottle.  Come here, girls, and fix yourselves in the
+glass, and scent your pocket-handkerchers."
+
+And Mrs. Crane bedewed her own kerchief with some of the eau de
+Cologne of native manufacture,--said on its label to be much superior
+to the German article.
+
+It was a relief to Mrs. and the Miss Cranes when the bell rang and
+the next guests were admitted.  Deacon and Mrs. Soper,--Deacon Soper
+of the Rev. Mr. Fairweather's church, and his lady.  Mrs. Deacon
+Soper was directed, of course, to the ladies' dressing-room, and her
+husband to the other apartment, where gentlemen were to leave their
+outside coats and hats.  Then came Mr. and Mrs. Briggs, and then the
+three Miss Spinneys, then Silas Peckham, Head of the Apollinean
+Institute, and Mrs. Peckham, and more after them, until at last the
+ladies' dressing-room got so full that one might have thought it was
+a trap none of them could get out of.  In truth, they all felt a
+little awkwardly.  Nobody wanted to be first to venture down-stairs.
+At last Mr. Silas Peckham thought it was time to make a move for the
+parlor, and for this purpose presented himself at the door of the
+ladies' dressing-room.
+
+"Lorindy, my dear!"  he exclaimed to Mrs. Peckham,--"I think there
+can be no impropriety in our joining the family down-stairs."
+
+Mrs. Peckham laid her large, flaccid arm in the sharp angle made by
+the black sleeve which held the bony limb her husband offered, and
+the two took the stair and struck out for the parlor.  The ice was
+broken, and the dressing-room began to empty itself into the
+spacious, lighted apartments below.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham slid into the room with Mrs. Peckham alongside,
+like a shad convoying a jelly-fish.
+
+"Good-evenin', Mrs. Sprowle!  I hope I see you well this evenin'.
+How 's your haalth, Colonel Sprowle?"
+
+"Very well, much obleeged to you.  Hope you and your good lady are
+well.  Much pleased to see you.  Hope you'll enjoy yourselves.  We've
+laid out to have everything in good shape,--spared no trouble nor
+ex"---
+
+"pence,"--said Silas Peckham.
+
+Mrs. Colonel Sprowle, who, you remember, was a Jordan, had nipped the
+Colonel's statement in the middle of the word Mr. Peckham finished,
+with a look that jerked him like one of those sharp twitches women
+keep giving a horse when they get a chance to drive one.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Crane, Miss Ada Azuba, and Miss Mahala Crane made their
+entrance.  There had been a discussion about the necessity and
+propriety of inviting this family, the head of which kept a small
+shop for hats and boots and shoes.  The Colonel's casting vote had
+carried it in the affirmative. --How terribly the poor old green
+de-laine did cut up in the blaze of so many lamps and candles.
+
+--Deluded little wretch, male or female, in town or country, going to
+your first great party, how little you know the nature of the
+ceremony in which you are to bear the part of victim!  What! are not
+these garlands and gauzy mists and many-colored streamers which adorn
+you, is not this music which welcomes you, this radiance that glows
+about you, meant solely for your enjoyment, young miss of seventeen
+or eighteen summers, now for the first time swimming unto the frothy,
+chatoyant, sparkling, undulating sea of laces and silks and satins,
+and white-armed, flower-crowned maidens struggling in their waves
+beneath the lustres that make the false summer of the drawing-room?
+
+Stop at the threshold!  This is a hall of judgment you are entering;
+the court is in session; and if you move five steps forward, you will
+be at its bar.
+
+There was a tribunal once in France, as you may remember, called the
+Chambre Ardente, the Burning Chamber.  It was hung all round with
+lamps, and hence its name.  The burning chamber for the trial of
+young maidens is the blazing ball-room.  What have they full-dressed
+you, or rather half-dressed you for, do you think?  To make you look
+pretty, of course!  Why have they hung a chandelier above you,
+flickering all over with flames, so that it searches you like the
+noonday sun, and your deepest dimple cannot hold a shadow?  To give
+brilliancy to the gay scene, no doubt!--No, my clear!  Society is
+inspecting you, and it finds undisguised surfaces and strong lights a
+convenience in the process.  The dance answers the purpose of the
+revolving pedestal upon which the "White Captive" turns, to show us
+the soft, kneaded marble, which looks as if it had never been hard,
+in all its manifold aspects of living loveliness.  No mercy for you,
+my love!  Justice, strict justice, you shall certainly have,--neither
+more nor less.  For, look you, there are dozens, scores, hundreds,
+with whom you must be weighed in the balance; and you have got to
+learn that the "struggle for life" Mr. Charles Darwin talks about
+reaches to vertebrates clad in crinoline, as well as to mollusks in
+shells, or articulates in jointed scales, or anything that fights for
+breathing-room and food and love in any coat of fur or feather!
+Happy they who can flash defiance from bright eyes and snowy
+shoulders back into the pendants of the insolent lustres !
+
+--Miss Mahala Crane did not have these reflections; and no young girl
+ever did, or ever will, thank Heaven!  Her keen eyes sparkled under
+her plainly parted hair and the green de-laine moulded itself in
+those unmistakable lines of natural symmetry in which Nature indulges
+a small shopkeeper's daughter occasionally as well as a wholesale
+dealer's young ladies.  She would have liked a new dress as much as
+any other girl, but she meant to go and have a good time at any rate.
+
+The guests were now arriving in the drawing-room pretty fast, and the
+Colonel's hand began to burn a good deal with the sharp squeezes
+which many of the visitors gave it.  Conversation, which had begun
+like a summer-shower, in scattering drops, was fast becoming
+continuous, and occasionally rising into gusty swells, with now and
+then a broad-chested laugh from some Captain or Major or other
+military personage,--for it may be noted that all large and loud men
+in the unpaved districts bear military titles.
+
+Deacon Soper came up presently, and entered into conversation with
+Colonel Sprowle.
+
+"I hope to see our pastor present this evenin'," said the Deacon.
+
+"I don't feel quite sure," the Colonel answered.  "His dyspepsy has
+been bad on him lately.  He wrote to say, that, Providence
+permittin', it would be agreeable to him to take a part in the
+exercises of the evenin' ; but I mistrusted he did n't mean to come.
+To tell the truth, Deacon Soper, I rather guess he don't like the
+idee of dancin', and some of the other little arrangements."
+
+"Well," said the Deacon, "I know there's some condemns dancin'.  I've
+heerd a good deal of talk about it among the folks round.  Some have
+it that it never brings a blessin' on a house to have dancin' in it.
+Judge Tileston died, you remember, within a month after he had his
+great ball, twelve year ago, and some thought it was in the natur' of
+a judgment.  I don't believe in any of them notions.  If a man
+happened to be struck dead the night after he'd been givin' a ball,"
+(the Colonel loosened his black stock a little, and winked and
+swallowed two or three times,) "I should n't call it a judgment,--I
+should call it a coincidence.  But I 'm a little afraid our pastor
+won't come.  Somethin' or other's the matter with Mr. Fairweather.  I
+should sooner expect to see the old Doctor come over out of the
+Orthodox parsonage-house."
+
+"I've asked him," said the Colonel.
+
+"Well?"  said Deacon Soper.
+
+"He said he should like to come, but he did n't know what his people
+would say.  For his part, he loved to see young folks havin' their
+sports together, and very often felt as if he should like to be one
+of 'em himself.  'But,' says I, 'Doctor, I don't say there won't be a
+little dancin'.'  ' Don't!' says he, 'for I want Letty to go,' (she's
+his granddaughter that's been stayin' with him,) 'and Letty 's mighty
+fond of dancin'.  You know,' says the Doctor, 'it is n't my business
+to settle whether other people's children should dance or not.'  And
+the Doctor looked as if he should like to rigadoon and sashy across
+as well as the young one he was talkin' about.  He 's got blood in
+him, the old Doctor has.  I wish our little man and him would swop
+pulpits."
+
+Deacon Soper started and looked up into the Colonel's face, as if to
+see whether he was in earnest.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham and his lady joined the group.
+
+"Is this to be a Temperance Celebration, Mrs. Sprowle?" asked Mr.
+Silas Peckham.
+
+Mrs. Sprowle replied, "that there would be lemonade and srub for
+those that preferred such drinks, but that the Colonel had given
+folks to understand that he did n't mean to set in judgment on the
+marriage in Canaan, and that those that didn't like srub and such
+things would find somethin' that would suit them better."
+
+Deacon Soper's countenance assumed a certain air of restrained
+cheerfulness.  The conversation rose into one of its gusty paroxysms
+just then.  Master H. Frederic got behind a door and began performing
+the experiment of stopping and unstopping his ears in rapid
+alternation, greatly rejoicing in the singular effect of mixed
+conversation chopped very small, like the contents of a mince-pie, or
+meat-pie, as it is more forcibly called in the deep-rutted villages
+lying along the unsalted streams.  All at once it grew silent just
+round the door, where it had been loudest,--and the silence spread
+itself like a stain, till it hushed everything but a few corner-
+duets.  A dark, sad-looking, middle-aged gentleman entered the
+parlor, with a young lady on his arm,--his daughter, as it seemed,
+for she was not wholly unlike him in feature, and of the same dark
+complexion.
+
+"Dudley Venner," exclaimed a dozen people, in startled, but half-
+suppressed tones.
+
+"What can have brought Dudley out to-night?" said Jefferson Buck, a
+young fellow, who had been interrupted in one of the corner-duets
+which he was executing in concert with Miss Susy Pettingill.
+
+"How do I know, Jeff?"  was Miss Susy's answer.  Then, after a
+pause,--"Elsie made him come, I guess.  Go ask Dr. Kittredge; he
+knows all about 'em both, they say."
+
+Dr. Kittredge, the leading physician of Rockland, was a shrewd old
+man, who looked pretty keenly into his patients through his
+spectacles, and pretty widely at men, women, and things in general
+over them.  Sixty-three years old,--just the year of the grand
+climacteric.  A bald crown, as every doctor should have.  A
+consulting practitioner's mouth; that is, movable round the corners
+while the case is under examination, but both corners well drawn down
+and kept so when the final opinion is made up.  In fact, the Doctor
+was often sent for to act as "caounsel," all over the county, and
+beyond it.  He kept three or four horses, sometimes riding in the
+saddle, commonly driving in a sulky, pretty fast, and looking
+straight before him, so that people got out of the way of bowing to
+him as he passed on the road.  There was some talk about his not
+being so long-sighted as other folks, but his old patients laughed
+and looked knowing when this was spoken of.
+
+The Doctor knew a good many things besides how to drop tinctures and
+shake out powders.  Thus, he knew a horse, and, what is harder to
+understand, a horse-dealer, and was a match for him.  He knew what a
+nervous woman is, and how to manage her.  He could tell at a glance
+when she is in that condition of unstable equilibrium in which a
+rough word is like a blow to her, and the touch of unmagnetized
+fingers reverses all her nervous currents.  It is not everybody that
+enters into the soul of Mozart's or Beethoven's harmonies; and there
+are vital symphonies in B flat, and other low, sad keys, which a
+doctor may know as little of as a hurdy-gurdy player of the essence
+of those divine musical mysteries.  The Doctor knew the difference
+between what men say and what they mean as well as most people.  When
+he was listening to common talk, he was in the habit of looking over
+his spectacles; if he lifted his head so as to look through them at
+the person talking, he was busier with that person's thoughts than
+with his words.
+
+Jefferson Buck was not bold enough to confront the Doctor with Miss
+Susy's question, for he did not look as if he were in the mood to
+answer queries put by curious young people.  His eyes were fixed
+steadily on the dark girl, every movement of whom he seemed to
+follow.
+
+She was, indeed, an apparition of wild beauty, so unlike the girls
+about her that it seemed nothing more than natural, that, when she
+moved, the groups should part to let her pass through them, and that
+she should carry the centre of all looks and thoughts with her.  She
+was dressed to please her own fancy, evidently, with small regard to
+the modes declared correct by the Rockland milliners and mantua-
+makers.  Her heavy black hair lay in a braided coil, with a long gold
+pin shat through it like a javelin.  Round her neck was a golden
+torque, a round, cord-like chain, such as the Gaols used to wear; the
+"Dying Gladiator" has it.  Her dress was a grayish watered silk; her
+collar was pinned with a flashing diamond brooch, the stones looking
+as fresh as morning dew-drops, but the silver setting of the past
+generation; her arms were bare, round, but slender rather than large,
+in keeping with her lithe round figure.  On her wrists she wore
+bracelets: one was a circlet of enamelled scales; the other looked as
+if it might have been Cleopatra's asp, with its body turned to gold
+and its, eyes to emeralds.
+
+Her father--for Dudley Venner was her father--looked like a man of
+culture and breeding, but melancholy and with a distracted air, as
+one whose life had met some fatal cross or blight.  He saluted hardly
+anybody except his entertainers and the Doctor.  One would have said,
+to look at him, that he was not at the party by choice; and it was
+natural enough to think, with Susy Pettingill, that it must have been
+a freak of the dark girl's which brought him there, for he had the
+air of a shy and sad-hearted recluse.
+
+It was hard to say what could have brought Elsie Venner to the party.
+Hardly anybody seemed to know her, and she seemed not at all disposed
+to make acquaintances.  Here and there was one of the older girls
+from the Institute, but she appeared to have nothing in common with
+them.  Even in the schoolroom, it may be remembered, she sat apart by
+her own choice, and now in the midst of the crowd she made a circle
+of isolation round herself.  Drawing her arm out of her father's, she
+stood against the wall, and looked, with a strange, cold glitter in
+her eyes, at the crowd which moved and babbled before her.
+
+The old Doctor came up to her by and by.
+
+"Well, Elsie, I am quite surprised to find you here.  Do tell me how
+you happened to do such a good-natured thing as to let us see you at
+such a great party."
+
+"It's been dull at the mansion-house," she said, "and I wanted to get
+out of it.  It's too lonely there,--there's nobody to hate since
+Dick's gone."
+
+The Doctor laughed good-naturedly, as if this were an amusing bit of
+pleasantry,--but he lifted his head and dropped his eyes a little, so
+as to see her through his spectacles.  She narrowed her lids
+slightly, as one often sees a sleepy cat narrow hers,--somewhat as
+you may remember our famous Margaret used to, if you remember her at
+all,--so that her eyes looked very small, but bright as the diamonds
+on her breast.  The old Doctor felt very oddly as she looked at him;
+be did not like the feeling, so he dropped his head and lifted his
+eyes and looked at her over his spectacles again.
+
+"And how have you all been at the mansion house?" said the Doctor.
+
+"Oh, well enough.  But Dick's gone, and there's nobody left but
+Dudley and I and the people.  I'm tired of it.  What kills anybody
+quickest, Doctor?"  Then, in a whisper, "I ran away again the other
+day, you know."
+
+"Where did you go?"  The Doctor spoke in a low, serious tone.
+
+"Oh, to the old place.  Here, I brought this for you."
+
+The Doctor started as she handed him a flower of the Atragene
+Americana, for he knew that there was only one spot where it grew,
+and that not one where any rash foot, least of all a thin-shod
+woman's foot, should venture.
+
+"How long were you gone?" said the Doctor.
+
+"Only one night.  You should have heard the horns blowing and the
+guns firing.  Dudley was frightened out of his wits.  Old Sophy told
+him she'd had a dream, and that I should be found in Dead-Man's
+Hollow, with a great rock lying on me.  They hunted all over it, but
+they did n't find me,--I was farther up."
+
+Doctor Kittredge looked cloudy and worried while she was speaking,
+but forced a pleasant professional smile, as he said cheerily, and as
+if wishing to change the subject,
+
+"Have a good dance this evening, Elsie.  The fiddlers are tuning up.
+Where 's the young master? has he come yet? or is he going to be
+late, with the other great folks?"
+
+The girl turned away without answering, and looked toward the door.
+
+The "great folks," meaning the mansion-house gentry, were just
+beginning to come; Dudley Venner and his daughter had been the first
+of them.  Judge Thornton, white-headed, fresh-faced, as good at sixty
+as he was at forty, with a youngish second wife, and one noble
+daughter, Arabella, who, they said, knew as much law as her father, a
+stately, Portia like girl, fit for a premier's wife, not like to find
+her match even in the great cities she sometimes visited; the
+Trecothicks, the family of a merchant, (in the larger sense,) who,
+having made himself rich enough by the time he had reached middle
+life, threw down his ledger as Sylla did his dagger, and retired to
+make a little paradise around him in one of the stateliest residences
+of the town, a family inheritance; the Vaughans, an old Rockland
+race, descended from its first settlers, Toryish in tendency in
+Revolutionary times, and barely escaping confiscation or worse; the
+Dunhams, a new family, dating its gentility only as far back as the
+Honorable Washington Dunham, M. C., but turning out a clever boy or
+two that went to college; and some showy girls with white necks and
+fat arms who had picked up professional husbands: these were the
+principal mansion-house people.  All of them had made it a point to
+come; and as each of them entered, it seemed to Colonel and Mrs.
+Sprowle that the lamps burned up with a more cheerful light, and that
+the fiddles which sounded from the uncarpeted room were all half a
+tone higher and half a beat quicker.
+
+Mr. Bernard came in later than any of them; he had been busy with his
+new duties.  He looked well and that is saying a good deal; for
+nothing but a gentleman is endurable in full dress.  Hair that masses
+well, a head set on with an air, a neckerchief tied cleverly by an
+easy, practised hand, close-fitting gloves, feet well shaped and well
+covered,---these advantages can make us forgive the odious sable
+broadcloth suit, which appears to have been adopted by society on the
+same principle that condemned all the Venetian gondolas to perpetual
+and uniform blackness.  Mr. Bernard, introduced by Mr. Geordie, made
+his bow to the Colonel and his lady and to Miss Matilda, from whom he
+got a particularly gracious curtsy, and then began looking about him
+for acquaintances.  He found two or three faces he knew,--many more
+strangers.  There was Silas Peckham,--there was no mistaking him;
+there was the inelastic amplitude of Mrs. Peckham; few of the
+Apollinean girls, of course, they not being recognized members of
+society,--but there is one with the flame in her cheeks and the fire
+in her eyes, the girl of vigorous tints and emphatic outlines, whom
+we saw entering the schoolroom the other day.  Old Judge Thornton has
+his eyes on her, and the Colonel steals a look every now and then at
+the red brooch which lifts itself so superbly into the light, as if
+he thought it a wonderfully becoming ornament.  Mr. Bernard himself
+was not displeased with the general effect of the rich-blooded
+schoolgirl, as she stood under the bright lamps, fanning herself in
+the warm, languid air, fixed in a kind of passionate surprise at the
+new life which seemed to be flowering out in her consciousness.
+Perhaps he looked at her somewhat steadily, as some others had done;
+at any rate, she seemed to feel that she was looked at, as people
+often do, and, turning her eyes suddenly on him, caught his own on
+her face, gave him a half-bashful smile, and threw in a blush
+involuntarily which made it more charming.
+
+"What can I do better," he said to himself, "than have a dance with
+Rosa Milburn?  "So he carried his handsome pupil into the next room
+and took his place with her in a cotillon.  Whether the breath of the
+Goddess of Love could intoxicate like the cup of Circe,--whether a
+woman is ever phosphorescent with the luminous vapor of life that she
+exhales,--these and other questions which relate to occult influences
+exercised by certain women we will not now discuss.  It is enough
+that Mr. Bernard was sensible of a strange fascination, not wholly
+new to him, nor unprecedented in the history of human experience, but
+always a revelation when it comes over us for the first or the
+hundredth time, so pale is the most recent memory by the side of the
+passing moment with the flush of any new-born passion on its cheek.
+Remember that Nature makes every man love all women, and trusts the
+trivial matter of special choice to the commonest accident.
+
+If Mr. Bernard had had nothing to distract his attention, he might
+have thought too much about his handsome partner, and then gone home
+and dreamed about her, which is always dangerous, and waked up
+thinking of her still, and then begun to be deeply interested in her
+studies, and so on, through the whole syllogism which ends in
+Nature's supreme quod erat demonstrandum.  What was there to distract
+him or disturb him?  He did not know,--but there was something.  This
+sumptuous creature, this Eve just within the gate of an untried
+Paradise, untutored in the ways of the world, but on tiptoe to reach
+the fruit of the tree of knowledge,--alive to the moist vitality of
+that warm atmosphere palpitating with voices and music, as the flower
+of some dioecious plant which has grown in a lone corner and suddenly
+unfolding its corolla on some hot-breathing June evening, feels that
+the air is perfumed with strange odors and loaded with golden dust
+wafted from those other blossoms with which its double life is
+shared,--this almost over-womanized woman might well have bewitched
+him, but that he had a vague sense of a counter-charm.  It was,
+perhaps, only the same consciousness that some one was looking at him
+which he himself had just given occasion to in his partner.
+Presently, in one of the turns of the dance, he felt his eyes drawn
+to a figure he had not distinctly recognized, though he had dimly
+felt its presence, and saw that Elsie Venner was looking at him as if
+she saw nothing else but him.  He was not a nervous person, like the
+poor lady-teacher, yet the glitter of the diamond eyes affected him
+strangely.  It seemed to disenchant the air, so full a moment before
+of strange attractions.  He became silent, and dreamy, as it were.
+The round-limbed beauty at his side crushed her gauzy draperies
+against him, as they trod the figure of the dance together, but it
+was no more to him than if an old nurse had laid her hand on his
+sleeve.  The young girl chafed at his seeming neglect, and her
+imperious blood mounted into her cheeks; but he appeared unconscious
+of it.
+
+"There is one of our young ladies I must speak to," he said,--and was
+just leaving his partner's side.
+
+"Four hands all round?" shouted the first violin,--and Mr. Bernard
+found himself seized and whirled in a circle out of which he could
+not escape, and then forced to "cross over," and then to "dozy do,"
+as the maestro had it,--and when, on getting back to his place, he
+looked for Elsie Venner, she was gone.
+
+The dancing went on briskly.  Some of the old folks looked on, others
+conversed in groups and pairs, and so the evening wore along, until a
+little after ten o'clock.  About this time there was noticed an
+increased bustle in the passages, with a considerable opening and
+shutting of doors.  Presently it began to be whispered about that
+they were going to have supper.  Many, who had never been to any
+large party before, held their breath for a moment at this
+announcement.  It was rather with a tremulous interest than with open
+hilarity that the rumor was generally received.
+
+One point the Colonel had entirely forgotten to settle.  It was a
+point involving not merely propriety, but perhaps principle also, or
+at least the good report of the house,--and he had never thought to
+arrange it.  He took Judge Thornton aside and whispered the important
+question to him,--in his distress of mind, mistaking pockets and
+taking out his bandanna instead of his white handkerchief to wipe his
+forehead.
+
+"Judge," he said, "do you think, that, before we commence refreshing
+ourselves at the tables, it would be the proper thing to--crave a--to
+request Deacon Soper or some other elderly person--to ask a
+blessing?"
+
+The Judge looked as grave as if he were about giving the opinion of
+the Court in the great India-rubber case.
+
+"On the whole," he answered, after a pause, "I should think it might,
+perhaps, be dispensed with on this occasion.  Young folks are noisy,
+and it is awkward to have talking and laughing going on while
+blessing is being asked.  Unless a clergyman is present and makes a
+point of it, I think it will hardly be expected."
+
+The Colonel was infinitely relieved.  "Judge, will you take Mrs.
+Sprowle in to supper?  "And the Colonel returned the compliment by
+offering his arm to Mrs. Judge Thornton.
+
+The door of the supper-room was now open, and the company, following
+the lead of the host and hostess, began to stream into it, until it
+was pretty well filled.
+
+There was an awful kind of pause.  Many were beginning to drop their
+heads and shut their eyes, in anticipation of the usual petition
+before a meal; some expected the music to strike up,--others, that an
+oration would now be delivered by the Colonel.
+
+"Make yourselves at home, ladies and gentlemen," said the Colonel;
+"good things were made to eat, and you're welcome to all you see
+before you."
+
+So saying he attacked a huge turkey which stood at the head of the
+table; and his example being followed first by the bold, then by the
+doubtful, and lastly by the timid, the clatter soon made the circuit
+of the tables.  Some were shocked, however, as the Colonel had feared
+they would be, at the want of the customary invocation.  Widow Leech,
+a kind of relation, who had to be invited, and who came with her old,
+back-country-looking string of gold beads round her neck, seemed to
+feel very serious about it.
+
+"If she'd ha' known that folks would begrutch cravin' a blessin' over
+sech a heap o' provisions, she'd rather ha' staid t' home.  It was a
+bad sign, when folks was n't grateful for the baounties of
+Providence."
+
+The elder Miss Spinney, to whom she made this remark, assented to it,
+at the same time ogling a piece of frosted cake, which she presently
+appropriated with great refinement of manner,--taking it between her
+thumb and forefinger, keeping the others well spread and the little
+finger in extreme divergence, with a graceful undulation of the neck,
+and a queer little sound in her throat, as of an M that wanted to get
+out and perished in the attempt.
+
+The tables now presented an animated spectacle.  Young fellows of the
+more dashing sort, with high stand-up collars and voluminous bows to
+their neckerchiefs, distinguished themselves by cutting up fowls and
+offering portions thereof to the buxom girls these knowing ones had
+commonly selected.
+
+"A bit of the wing, Roxy, or of the--under limb?"
+
+The first laugh broke out at this, but it was premature, a sporadic
+laugh, as Dr. Kittredge would have said, which did not become
+epidemic.  People were very solemn as yet, many of them being new to
+such splendid scenes, and crushed, as it were, in the presence of so
+much crockery and so many silver spoons, and such a variety of
+unusual viands and beverages.  When the laugh rose around Roxy and
+her saucy beau, several looked in that direction with an anxious
+expression, as if something had happened, a lady fainted, for
+instance, or a couple of lively fellows come to high words.
+
+"Young folks will be young folks," said Deacon Soper.  "No harm done.
+Least said soonest mended."
+
+"Have some of these shell-oysters?"  said the Colonel to Mrs.
+Trecothick.
+
+A delicate emphasis on the word shell implied that the Colonel knew
+what was what.  To the New England inland native, beyond the reach of
+the east winds, the oyster unconditioned, the oyster absolute,
+without a qualifying adjective, is the pickled oyster.  Mrs.
+Trecothick, who knew very well that an oyster long out of his shell
+(as is apt to be the case with the rural bivalve) gets homesick and
+loses his sprightliness, replied, with the pleasantest smile in the
+world, that the chicken she had been helped to was too delicate to be
+given up even for the greater rarity.  But the word "shell-oysters "
+had been overheard; and there was a perceptible crowding movement
+towards their newly discovered habitat, a large soup-tureen.
+
+Silas Peckham had meantime fallen upon another locality of these
+recent mollusks.  He said nothing, but helped himself freely, and
+made a sign to Mrs. Peckham.
+
+"Lorindy," he whispered, "shell-oysters"
+
+And ladled them out to her largely, without betraying any emotion,
+just as if they had been the natural inland or pickled article.
+
+After the more solid portion of the banquet had been duly honored,
+the cakes and sweet preparations of various kinds began to get their
+share of attention.  There were great cakes and little cakes, cakes
+with raisins in them, cakes with currants, and cakes without either;
+there were brown cakes and yellow cakes, frosted cakes, glazed cakes,
+hearts and rounds, and jumbles, which playful youth slip over the
+forefinger before spoiling their annular outline.  There were mounds
+of blo'monje, of the arrowroot variety,--that being undistinguishable
+from such as is made with Russia isinglass.  There were jellies,
+which had been shaking, all the time the young folks were dancing in
+the next room, as if they were balancing to partners.  There were
+built-up fabrics, called Charlottes, caky externally, pulpy within;
+there were also marangs, and likewise custards,--some of the
+indolent-fluid sort, others firm, in which every stroke of the
+teaspoon left a smooth, conchoidal surface like the fracture of
+chalcedony, with here and there a little eye like what one sees in
+cheeses.  Nor was that most wonderful object of domestic art called
+trifle wanting, with its charming confusion of cream and cake and
+almonds and jam and jelly and wine and cinnamon and froth; nor yet
+the marvellous floating-island,---name suggestive of all that is
+romantic in the imaginations of youthful palates.
+
+"It must have cost you a sight of work, to say nothin' of money, to
+get all this beautiful confectionery made for the party," said Mrs.
+Crane to Mrs. Sprowle.
+
+"Well, it cost some consid'able labor, no doubt," said Mrs. Sprowle.
+"Matilda and our girls and I made 'most all the cake with our own
+hands, and we all feel some tired; but if folks get what suits 'em,
+we don't begrudge the time nor the work.  But I do feel thirsty,"
+said the poor lady, "and I think a glass of srub would do my throat
+good; it's dreadful dry.  Mr. Peckham, would you be so polite as to
+pass me a glass of srub?"
+
+Silas Peckham bowed with great alacrity, and took from the table a
+small glass cup, containing a fluid reddish in hue and subacid in
+taste.  This was srub, a beverage in local repute, of questionable
+nature, but suspected of owing its tint and sharpness to some kind of
+syrup derived from the maroon-colored fruit of the sumac.  There were
+similar small cups on the table filled with lemonade, and here and
+there a decanter of Madeira wine, of the Marsala kind, which some
+prefer to, and many more cannot distinguish from, that which comes
+from the Atlantic island.
+
+"Take a glass of wine, Judge," said, the Colonel; "here is an article
+that I rather think 'll suit you."
+
+The Judge knew something of wines, and could tell all the famous old
+Madeiras from each other, "Eclipse," "Juno," the almost fabulously
+scarce and precious "White-top," and the rest.  He struck the
+nativity of the Mediterranean Madeira before it had fairly moistened
+his lip.
+
+"A sound wine, Colonel, and I should think of a genuine vintage.
+Your very good health."
+
+"Deacon Soper," said the Colonel, "here is some Madary Judge Thornton
+recommends.  Let me fill you a glass of it."
+
+The Deacon's eyes glistened.  He was one of those consistent
+Christians who stick firmly by the first miracle and Paul's advice to
+Timothy.
+
+"A little good wine won't hurt anybody," said the Deacon.  "Plenty,--
+plenty,--plenty.  There!"  He had not withdrawn his glass, while the
+Colonel was pouring, for fear it should spill, and now it was running
+over.
+
+--It is very odd how all a man's philosophy and theology are at the
+mercy of a few drops of a fluid which the chemists say consists of
+nothing but C4,O2, H6.  The Deacon's theology fell off several points
+towards latitudinarianism in the course of the next ten minutes.  He
+had a deep inward sense that everything was as it should be, human
+nature included.  The little accidents of humanity, known
+collectively to moralists as sin, looked very venial to his growing
+sense of universal brotherhood and benevolence.
+
+"It will all come right," the Deacon said to himself,--"I feel a
+joyful conviction that everything is for the best.  I am favored with
+a blessed peace of mind, and a very precious season of good feelin'
+toward my fellow-creturs."
+
+A lusty young fellow happened to make a quick step backward just at
+that instant, and put his heel, with his weight on top of it, upon
+the Deacon's toes.
+
+"Aigh!  What the d' d' didos are y' abaout with them great huffs o'
+yourn?" said the Deacon, with an expression upon his features not
+exactly that of peace and good-will to men.  The lusty young fellow
+apologized; but the Deacon's face did not come right, and his
+theology backed round several points in the direction of total
+depravity.
+
+Some of the dashing young men in stand-up collars and extensive
+neckties, encouraged by Mr. Geordie, made quite free with the
+"Ma,dary," and even induced some of the more stylish girls--not of
+the mansion-house set, but of the tip-top two-story families--to
+taste a little.  Most of these young ladies made faces at it, and
+declared it was "perfectly horrid," with that aspect of veracity
+peculiar to their age and sex.
+
+About this time a movement was made on the part of some of the
+mansion-house people to leave the supper-table.  Miss Jane Trecothick
+had quietly hinted to her mother that she had had enough of it.  Miss
+Arabella Thornton had whispered to her father that he had better
+adjourn this court to the next room.  There were signs of migration,
+--a loosening of people in their places,--a looking about for arms to
+hitch on to.
+
+"Stop!"  said the Colonel.  "There's something coming yet.
+--Ice-cream!"
+
+The great folks saw that the play was not over yet, and that it was
+only polite to stay and see it out.  The word "ice-cream" was no
+sooner whispered than it passed from one to another all down the
+tables.  The effect was what might have been anticipated.  Many of
+the guests had never seen this celebrated product of human skill, and
+to all the two-story population of Rockland it was the last
+expression of the art of pleasing and astonishing the human palate.
+Its appearance had been deferred for several reasons: first, because
+everybody would have attacked it, if it had come in with the other
+luxuries; secondly, because undue apprehensions were entertained
+(owing to want of experience) of its tendency to deliquesce and
+resolve itself with alarming rapidity into puddles of creamy fluid;
+and, thirdly, because the surprise would make a grand climax to
+finish off the banquet.
+
+There is something so audacious in the conception of ice-cream, that
+it is not strange that a population undebauched by the luxury of
+great cities looks upon it with a kind of awe and speaks of it with a
+certain emotion.  This defiance of the seasons, forcing Nature to do
+her work of congelation in the face of her sultriest noon, might well
+inspire a timid mind with fear lest human art were revolting against
+the Higher Powers, and raise the same scruples which resisted the use
+of ether and chloroform in certain contingencies.  Whatever may be
+the cause, it is well known that the announcement at any private
+rural entertainment that there is to be ice-cream produces an
+immediate and profound impression.  It may be remarked, as aiding
+this impression, that exaggerated ideas are entertained as to the
+dangerous effects this congealed food may produce on persons not in
+the most robust health.
+
+There was silence as the pyramids of ice were placed on the table,
+everybody looking on in admiration.  The Colonel took a knife and
+assailed the one at the head of the table.  When he tried to cut off
+a slice, it didn't seem to understand it, however, and only tipped,
+as if it wanted to upset.  The Colonel attacked it on the other side,
+and it tipped just as badly the other way.  It was awkward for the
+Colonel.  "Permit me," said the Judge,--and he took the knife and
+struck a sharp slanting stroke which sliced off a piece just of the
+right size, and offered it to Mrs. Sprowle.  This act of dexterity
+was much admired by the company.
+
+The tables were all alive again.
+
+"Lorindy, here's a plate of ice-cream," said Silas Peckham.
+
+"Come, Mahaly," said a fresh-looking young-fellow with a saucerful in
+each hand, "here's your ice-cream;--let's go in the corner and have a
+celebration, us two."  And the old green de-lame, with the young
+curves under it to make it sit well, moved off as pleased apparently
+as if it had been silk velvet with thousand-dollar laces over it.
+
+"Oh, now, Miss Green! do you think it's safe to put that cold stuff
+into your stomick?" said the Widow Leech to a young married lady,
+who, finding the air rather warm, thought a little ice would cool her
+down very nicely.  "It's jest like eatin' snowballs.  You don't look
+very rugged; and I should be dreadful afeard, if I was you "
+
+"Carrie," said old Dr. Kittredge, who had overheard this,--"how well
+you're looking this evening!  But you must be tired and heated;--sit
+down here, and let me give you a good slice of ice-cream.  How you
+young folks do grow up, to be sure!  I don't feel quite certain
+whether it's you or your older sister, but I know it 's somebody I
+call Carrie, and that I 've known ever since "
+
+A sound something between a howl and an oath startled the company and
+broke off the Doctor's sentence.  Everybody's eyes turned in the
+direction from which it came.  A group instantly gathered round the
+person who had uttered it, who was no other than Deacon Soper.
+
+"He's chokin'! he's chokin'!" was the first exclamation,--"slap him
+on the back!"
+
+Several heavy fists beat such a tattoo on his spine that the Deacon
+felt as if at least one of his vertebrae would come up.
+
+"He's black in the face," said Widow Leech, "he 's swallered
+somethin' the wrong way.  Where's the Doctor?--let the Doctor get to
+him, can't ye?  "
+
+"If you will move, my good lady, perhaps I can," said Doctor
+Kittredge, in a calm tone of voice.  "He's not choking, my friends,"
+the Doctor added immediately, when he got sight of him.
+
+"It 's apoplexy,--I told you so,--don't you see how red he is in the
+face?" said old Mrs. Peake, a famous woman for "nussin" sick folks,
+--determined to be a little ahead of the Doctor.
+
+"It's not apoplexy," said Dr. Kittredge.
+
+"What is it, Doctor? what is it?  Will he die?  Is he dead? --Here's
+his poor wife, the Widow Soper that is to be, if she a'n't a'ready"
+
+"Do be quiet, my good woman," said Dr. Kittredge. --"Nothing serious,
+I think, Mrs. Soper.  Deacon!"
+
+The sudden attack of Deacon Soper had begun with the extraordinary
+sound mentioned above.  His features had immediately assumed an
+expression of intense pain, his eyes staring wildly, and, clapping
+his hands to his face, he had rocked his head backward and forward in
+speechless agony.
+
+At the Doctor's sharp appeal the Deacon lifted his head.
+
+"It's all right," said the Doctor, as soon as he saw his face.  "The
+Deacon had a smart attack of neuralgic pain.  That 's all.  Very
+severe, but not at all dangerous."
+
+The Doctor kept his countenance, but his diaphragm was shaking the
+change in iris waistcoat-pockets with subterranean laughter.  He had
+looked through his spectacles and seen at once what had happened.
+The Deacon, not being in the habit of taking his nourishment in the
+congealed state, had treated the ice-cream as a pudding of a rare
+species, and, to make sure of doing himself justice in its
+distribution, had taken a large mouthful of it without the least
+precaution.  The consequence was a sensation as if a dentist were
+killing the nerves of twenty-five teeth at once with hot irons, or
+cold ones, which would hurt rather worse.
+
+The Deacon swallowed something with a spasmodic effort, and recovered
+pretty soon and received the congratulations of his friends.  There
+were different versions of the expressions he had used at the onset
+of his complaint,--some of the reported exclamations involving a
+breach of propriety, to say the least,--but it was agreed that a man
+in an attack of neuralgy wasn't to be judged of by the rules that
+applied to other folks.
+
+The company soon after this retired from the supper-room.  The
+mansion-house gentry took their leave, and the two-story people soon
+followed.  Mr. Bernard had stayed an hour or two, and left soon after
+he found that Elsie Venner and her father had disappeared.  As he
+passed by the dormitory of the Institute, he saw a light glimmering
+from one of its upper rooms, where the lady-teacher was still waking.
+His heart ached, when he remembered, that, through all these hours of
+gayety, or what was meant for it, the patient girl had been at work
+in her little chamber; and he looked up at the silent stars, as if to
+see that they were watching over her.  The planet Mars was burning
+like a red coal; the northern constellation was slanting downward
+about its central point of flame; and while he looked, a falling star
+slid from the zenith and was lost.
+
+He reached his chamber and was soon dreaming over the Event of the
+Season.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE MORNING AFTER.
+
+Colonel Sprowle's family arose late the next morning.  The fatigues
+and excitements of the evening and the preparation for it were
+followed by a natural collapse, of which somnolence was a leading
+symptom.  The sun shone into the window at a pretty well opened angle
+when the Colonel first found himself sufficiently awake to address
+his yet slumbering spouse.
+
+"Sally!"  said the Colonel, in a voice that was a little husky,--for
+he had finished off the evening with an extra glass or two of
+"Madary," and had a somewhat rusty and headachy sense of renewed
+existence, on greeting the rather advanced dawn,--"Sally!"
+
+"Take care o' them custard-cups!  There they go!"
+
+Poor Mrs. Sprowle was fighting the party over in her dream; and as
+the visionary custard-cups crashed down through one lobe of her brain
+into another, she gave a start as if an inch of lightning from a
+quart Leyden jar had jumped into one of her knuckles with its sudden
+and lively poonk!
+
+"Sally!" said the Colonel,--"wake up, wake up.  What 'r' y' dreamin'
+abaout?"
+
+Mrs. Sprowle raised herself, by a sort of spasm, sur son seant, as
+they say in France,--up on end, as we have it in New England.  She
+looked first to the left, then to the right, then straight before
+her, apparently without seeing anything, and at last slowly settled
+down, with her two eyes, blank of any particular meaning, directed
+upon the Colonel.
+
+"What time is 't?"  she said.
+
+"Ten o'clock.  What y' been dreamin' abaout?  Y' giv a jump like a
+hopper-grass.  Wake up, wake UP!  Th' party 's over, and y' been
+asleep all the mornin'.  The party's over, I tell ye!  Wake up!"
+
+"Over!"  said Mrs. Sprowle, who began to define her position at
+last,--"over!  I should think 't was time 't was over!  It's lasted a
+hundud year.  I've been workin' for that party longer 'n Methuselah's
+lifetime, sence I been asleep.  The pies would n' bake, and the
+blo'monje would n' set, and the ice-cream would n' freeze, and all
+the folks kep' comin' 'n' comin' 'n' comin',--everybody I ever knew
+in all my life,--some of 'em 's been dead this twenty year 'n' more,
+--'n' nothin' for 'em to eat nor drink.  The fire would n' burn to
+cook anything, all we could do.  We blowed with the belluses, 'n' we
+stuffed in paper 'n' pitch-pine kindlin's, but nothin' could make
+that fire burn; 'n' all the time the folks kep' comin', as if they'd
+never stop,--'n' nothin' for 'em but empty dishes, 'n' all the
+borrowed chaney slippin' round on the waiters 'n' chippin' 'n'
+crackin',--I would n' go through what I been through t'-night for all
+th' money in th' Bank,--I do believe it's harder t' have a party than
+t'"---
+
+Mrs. Sprowle stated the case strongly.
+
+The Colonel said he did n't know how that might be.  She was a better
+judge than he was.  It was bother enough, anyhow, and he was glad
+that it was over.  After this, the worthy pair commenced preparations
+for rejoining the waking world, and in due time proceeded downstairs.
+
+Everybody was late that morning, and nothing had got put to rights.
+The house looked as if a small army had been quartered in it over
+night.  The tables were of course in huge disorder, after the
+protracted assault they had undergone.  There had been a great battle
+evidently, and it had gone against the provisions.  Some points had
+been stormed, and all their defences annihilated, but here and there
+were centres of resistance which had held out against all attacks,--
+large rounds of beef, and solid loaves of cake, against which the
+inexperienced had wasted their energies in the enthusiasm of youth or
+uninformed maturity, while the longer-headed guests were making
+discoveries of "shell-oysters" and "patridges" and similar
+delicacies.
+
+The breakfast was naturally of a somewhat fragmentary character.  A
+chicken that had lost his legs in the service of the preceding
+campaign was once more put on duty.  A great ham stuck with cloves,
+as Saint Sebastian was with arrows, was again offered for martyrdom.
+It would have been a pleasant sight for a medical man of a
+speculative turn to have seen the prospect before the Colonel's
+family of the next week's breakfasts, dinners, and suppers.  The
+trail that one of these great rural parties leaves after it is one of
+its most formidable considerations.  Every door-handle in the house
+is suggestive of sweetmeats for the next week, at least.  The most
+unnatural articles of diet displace the frugal but nutritious food of
+unconvulsed periods of existence.  If there is a walking infant about
+the house, it will certainly have a more or less fatal fit from
+overmuch of some indigestible delicacy.  Before the week is out,
+everybody will be tired to death of sugary forms of nourishment and
+long to see the last of the remnants of the festival.
+
+The family had not yet arrived at this condition.  On the contrary,
+the first inspection of the tables suggested the prospect of days of
+unstinted luxury; and the younger portion of the household,
+especially, were in a state of great excitement as the account of
+stock was taken with reference to future internal investments.  Some
+curious facts came to light during these researches.
+
+"Where's all the oranges gone to?"  said Mrs. Sprowle.  "I expected
+there'd be ever so many of 'em left.  I did n't see many of the folks
+eatin' oranges.  Where's the skins of 'em?  There ought to be six
+dozen orange-skins round on the plates, and there a'n't one dozen.
+And all the small cakes, too, and all the sugar things that was stuck
+on the big cakes.  Has anybody counted the spoons?  Some of 'em got
+swallered, perhaps.  I hope they was plated ones, if they did!"
+
+The failure of the morning's orange-crop and the deficit in other
+expected residual delicacies were not very difficult to account for.
+In many of the two-story Rockland families, and in those favored
+households of the neighboring villages whose members had been invited
+to the great party, there was a very general excitement among the
+younger people on the morning after the great event.  "Did y' bring
+home somethin' from the party?  What is it?  What is it?  Is it frut-
+cake?  Is it nuts and oranges and apples?  Give me some!  Give me
+some!"  Such a concert of treble voices uttering accents like these
+had not been heard since the great Temperance Festival with the
+celebrated "colation" in the open air under the trees of the
+Parnassian Grove,--as the place was christened by the young ladies of
+the Institute.  The cry of the children was not in vain.  From the
+pockets of demure fathers, from the bags of sharp-eyed spinsters,
+from the folded handkerchiefs of light-fingered sisters, from the
+tall hats of sly-winking brothers, there was a resurrection of the
+missing oranges and cakes and sugar-things in many a rejoicing
+family-circle, enough to astonish the most hardened "caterer" that
+ever contracted to feed a thousand people under canvas.
+
+The tender recollections of those dear little ones whom extreme youth
+or other pressing considerations detain from scenes of festivity--a
+trait of affection by no means uncommon among our thoughtful people--
+dignifies those social meetings where it is manifested, and sheds a
+ray of sunshine on our common nature.  It is "an oasis in the
+desert,"--to use the striking expression of the last year's
+"Valedictorian" of the Apollinean Institute.  In the midst of so much
+that is purely selfish, it is delightful to meet such disinterested
+care for others.  When a large family of children are expecting a
+parent's return from an entertainment, it will often require great
+exertions on his part to freight himself so as to meet their
+reasonable expectations.  A few rules are worth remembering by all
+who attend anniversary dinners in Faneuil Hall or elsewhere.  Thus:
+Lobsters' claws are always acceptable to children of all ages.
+Oranges and apples are to be taken one at a time, until the coat-
+pockets begin to become inconveniently heavy.  Cakes are injured by
+sitting upon them; it is, therefore, well to carry a stout tin box of
+a size to hold as many pieces as there are children in the domestic
+circle.  A very pleasant amusement, at the close of one of these
+banquets, is grabbing for the flowers with which the table is
+embellished.  These will please the ladies at home very greatly, and,
+if the children are at the same time abundantly supplied with fruits,
+nuts, cakes, and any little ornamental articles of confectionery
+which are of a nature to be unostentatiously removed, the kind-
+hearted parent will make a whole household happy, without any
+additional expense beyond the outlay for his ticket.
+
+There were fragmentary delicacies enough left, of one kind and
+another, at any rate, to make all the Colonel's family uncomfortable
+for the next week.  It bid fair to take as long to get rid of the
+remains of the great party as it had taken to make ready for it.
+
+In the mean time Mr. Bernard had been dreaming, as young men dream,
+of gliding shapes with bright eyes and burning cheeks, strangely
+blended with red planets and hissing meteors, and, shining over all,
+the white, un-wandering star of the North, girt with its tethered
+constellations.
+
+After breakfast he walked into the parlor, where he found Miss
+Darley.  She was alone, and, holding a school-book in her hand, was
+at work with one of the morning's lessons.  She hardly noticed him as
+he entered, being very busy with her book,--and he paused a moment
+before speaking, and looked at her with a kind of reverence.  It
+would not have been strictly true to call her beautiful.  For years,
+--since her earliest womanhood,--those slender hands had taken the
+bread which repaid the toil of heart and brain from the coarse palms
+which offered it in the world's rude market.  It was not for herself
+alone that she had bartered away the life of her youth, that she had
+breathed the hot air of schoolrooms, that she had forced her
+intelligence to posture before her will, as the exigencies of her
+place required,--waking to mental labor,--sleeping to dream of
+problems,--rolling up the stone of education for an endless
+twelvemonth's term, to find it at the bottom of the hill again when
+another year called her to its renewed duties, schooling her temper
+in unending inward and outward conflicts, until neither dulness nor
+obstinacy nor ingratitude nor insolence could reach her serene self-
+possession.  Not for herself alone.  Poorly as her prodigal labors
+were repaid in proportion to the waste of life they cost, her value
+was too well established to leave her without what, under other
+circumstances, would have been a more than sufficient compensation.
+But there were others who looked to her in their need, and so the
+modest fountain which might have been filled to its brim was
+continually drained through silent-flowing, hidden sluices.
+
+Out of such a life, inherited from a race which had lived in
+conditions not unlike her own, beauty, in the common sense of the
+term, could hardly find leisure to develop and shape itself.  For it
+must be remembered, that symmetry and elegance of features and
+figure, like perfectly formed crystals in the mineral world, are
+reached only by insuring a certain necessary repose to individuals
+and to generations.  Human beauty is an agricultural product in the
+country, growing up in men and women as in corn and cattle, where the
+soil is good.  It is a luxury almost monopolized by the rich in
+cities, bred under glass like their forced pine-apples and peaches.
+Both in city and country, the evolution of the physical harmonies
+which make music to our eyes requires a combination of favorable
+circumstances, of which alternations of unburdened tranquillity with
+intervals of varied excitement of mind and body are among the most
+important.  Where sufficient excitement is wanting, as often happens
+in the country, the features, however rich in red and white, get
+heavy, and the movements sluggish; where excitement is furnished in
+excess, as is frequently the case in cities, the contours and colors
+are impoverished, and the nerves begin to make their existence known
+to the consciousness, as the face very soon informs us.
+
+Helen Darley could not, in the nature of things, have possessed the
+kind of beauty which pleases the common taste.  Her eye was calm,
+sad-looking, her features very still, except when her pleasant smile
+changed them for a moment, all her outlines were delicate, her voice
+was very gentle, but somewhat subdued by years of thoughtful labor,
+and on her smooth forehead one little hinted line whispered already
+that Care was beginning to mark the trace which Time sooner or later
+would make a furrow.  She could not be a beauty; if she had been, it
+would have been much harder for many persons to be interested in her.
+For, although in the abstract we all love beauty, and although, if we
+were sent naked souls into some ultramundane warehouse of soulless
+bodies and told to select one to our liking, we should each choose a
+handsome one, and never think of the consequences,--it is quite
+certain that beauty carries an atmosphere of repulsion as well as of
+attraction with it, alike in both sexes.  We may be well assured that
+there are many persons who no more think of specializing their love
+of the other sex upon one endowed with signal beauty, than they think
+of wanting great diamonds or thousand-dollar horses.  No man or woman
+can appropriate beauty without paying for it,--in endowments, in
+fortune, in position, in self-surrender, or other valuable stock; and
+there are a great many who are too poor, too ordinary, too humble,
+too busy, too proud, to pay any of these prices for it.  So the
+unbeautiful get many more lovers than the beauties; only, as there
+are more of them, their lovers are spread thinner and do not make so
+much show.
+
+The young master stood looking at Helen Darley with a kind of tender
+admiration.  She was such a picture of the martyr by the slow social
+combustive process, that it almost seemed to him he could see a pale
+lambent nimbus round her head.
+
+"I did not see you at the great party last evening," he said,
+presently.
+
+She looked up and answered, "No.  I have not much taste for such
+large companies.  Besides, I do not feel as if my time belonged to me
+after it has been paid for.  There is always something to do, some
+lesson or exercise,--and it so happened, I was very busy last night
+with the new problems in geometry.  I hope you had a good time."
+
+"Very.  Two or three of our girls were there.  Rosa Milburn.  What a
+beauty she is!  I wonder what she feeds on!  Wine and musk and
+chloroform and coals of fire, I believe; I didn't think there was
+such color and flavor in a woman outside the tropics."
+
+Miss Darley smiled rather faintly; the imagery was not just to her
+taste: femineity often finds it very hard to accept the fact of
+muliebrity.
+
+"Was"--?
+
+She stopped short; but her question had asked itself.
+
+
+"Elsie there?  She was, for an hour or so.  She looked frightfully
+handsome.  I meant to have spoken to her, but she slipped away before
+I knew it."
+
+"I thought she meant to go to the party," said Miss Darley.  "Did she
+look at you?"
+
+"She did.  Why?"
+
+"And you did not speak to her?"
+
+"No.  I should have spoken to her, but she was gone when I looked for
+her.  A strange creature!  Is n't there an odd sort of fascination
+about her?  You have not explained all the mystery about the girl.
+What does she come to this school for?  She seems to do pretty much
+as she likes about studying."
+
+Miss Darley answered in very low tones.  "It was a fancy of hers to
+come, and they let her have her way.  I don't know what there is
+about her, except that she seems to take my life out of me when she
+looks at me.  I don't like to ask other people about our girls.  She
+says very little to anybody, and studies, or makes believe to study,
+almost what she likes.  I don't know what she is," (Miss Darley laid
+her hand, trembling, on the young master's sleeve,) "but I can tell
+when she is in the room without seeing or hearing her.  Oh, Mr.
+Langdon, I am weak and nervous, and no doubt foolish,--but--if there
+were women now, as in the days of our Saviour, possessed of devils, I
+should think there was something not human looking out of Elsie
+Venner's eyes!"
+
+The poor girl's breast rose and fell tumultuously as she spoke, and
+her voice labored, as if some obstruction were rising in her throat.
+
+A scene might possibly have come of it, but the door opened.  Mr.
+Silas Peckham.  Miss Darley got away as soon as she well could.
+
+"Why did not Miss Darley go to the party last evening?" said Mr.
+Bernard.
+
+"Well, the fact is," answered Mr. Silas Peckham, "Miss Darley, she's
+pooty much took up with the school.  She's an industris young.
+woman, --yis, she is industris,--but perhaps she a'n't quite so spry
+a worker as some.  Maybe, considerin' she's paid for her time, she is
+n't fur out o' the way in occoopyin' herself evenin's,--that--is, if
+so be she a'n't smart enough to finish up all her work in the
+daytime.  Edoocation is the great business of the Institoot.
+Amoosements are objec's of a secondary natur', accordin' to my v'oo."
+[The unspellable pronunciation of this word is the touchstone of New
+England Brahminism.]
+
+Mr. Bernard drew a deep breath, his thin nostrils dilating, as if the
+air did not rush in fast enough to cool his blood, while Silas
+Peckham was speaking.  The Head of the Apollinean Institute delivered
+himself of these judicious sentiments in that peculiar acid,
+penetrating tone, thickened with a nasal twang, which not rarely
+becomes hereditary after three or four generations raised upon east
+winds, salt fish, and large, white-bellied, pickled cucumbers.  He
+spoke deliberately, as if weighing his words well, so that, during
+his few remarks, Mr. Bernard had time for a mental accompaniment with
+variations, accented by certain bodily changes, which escaped Mr.
+Peckham's observation.  First there was a feeling of disgust and
+shame at hearing Helen Darley spoken of like a dumb working animal.
+That sent the blood up into his cheeks.  Then the slur upon her
+probable want of force--her incapacity, who made the character of the
+school and left this man to pocket its profits--sent a thrill of the
+old Wentworth fire through him, so that his muscles hardened, his
+hands closed, and he took the measure of Mr. Silas Peckham, to see if
+his head would strike the wall in case he went over backwards all of
+a sudden.  This would not do, of course, and so the thrill passed off
+and the muscles softened again.  Then came that state of tenderness
+in the heart, overlying wrath in the stomach, in which the eyes grow
+moist like a woman's, and there is also a great boiling-up of
+objectionable terms out of the deep-water vocabulary, so that
+Prudence and Propriety and all the other pious P's have to jump upon
+the lid of speech to keep them from boiling over into fierce
+articulation.  All this was internal, chiefly, and of course not
+recognized by Mr. Silas Peckham.  The idea, that any full-grown,
+sensible man should have any other notion than that of getting the
+most work for the least money out of his assistants, had never
+suggested itself to him.
+
+Mr. Bernard had gone through this paroxysm, and cooled down, in the
+period while Mr. Peckham was uttering these words in his thin,
+shallow whine, twanging up into the frontal sinuses.  What was the
+use of losing his temper and throwing away his place, and so, among
+the consequences which would necessarily follow, leaving the poor
+lady-teacher without a friend to stand by her ready to lay his hand
+on the grand-inquisitor before the windlass of his rack had taken one
+turn too many?
+
+"No doubt, Mr. Peckham," he said, in a grave, calm voice, "there is a
+great deal of work to be done in the school; but perhaps we can
+distribute the duties a little more evenly after a time.  I shall
+look over the girls' themes myself, after this week.  Perhaps there
+will be some other parts of her labor that I can take on myself.  We
+can arrange a new programme of studies and recitations."
+
+"We can do that," said Mr. Silas Peckham.  "But I don't propose
+mater'lly alterin' Miss Darley's dooties.  I don't think she works to
+hurt herself.  Some of the Trustees have proposed interdoosin' new
+branches of study, and I expect you will be pooty much occoopied with
+the dooties that belong to your place.  On the Sahbath you will be
+able to attend divine service three times, which is expected of our
+teachers.  I shall continoo myself to give Sahbath Scriptur' readin's
+to the young ladies.  That is a solemn dooty I can't make up my mind
+to commit to other people.  My teachers enjoy the Lord's day as a day
+of rest.  In it they do no manner of work, except in cases of
+necessity or mercy, such as fillin' out diplomas, or when we git
+crowded jest at the end of a term, or when there is an extry number
+of p'oopils, or other Providential call to dispense with the
+ordinance."
+
+Mr. Bernard had a fine glow in his cheeks by this time,--doubtless
+kindled by the thought of the kind consideration Mr. Peckham showed
+for his subordinates in allowing them the between meeting-time on
+Sundays except for some special reason.  But the morning was wearing
+away; so he went to the schoolroom, taking leave very properly of his
+respected principal, who soon took his hat and departed.
+
+Mr. Peckham visited certain "stores" or shops, where he made
+inquiries after various articles in the provision-line, and effected
+a purchase or two.  Two or three barrels of potatoes, which had
+sprouted in a promising way, he secured at a bargain.  A side of
+feminine beef was also obtained at a low figure.  He was entirely
+satisfied with a couple of barrels of flour, which, being invoiced
+"slightly damaged," were to be had at a reasonable price.
+
+After this, Silas Peckham felt in good spirits.  He had done a pretty
+stroke of business.  It came into his head whether he might not
+follow it up with a still more brilliant speculation.  So he turned
+his steps in the direction of Colonel Sprowle's.
+
+It was now eleven o'clock, and the battle-field of last evening was
+as we left it.  Mr. Peckham's visit was unexpected, perhaps not very
+well timed, but the Colonel received him civilly.
+
+"Beautifully lighted,--these rooms last night!" said Mr. Peckham.
+"Winter-strained?"
+
+The Colonel nodded.
+
+"How much do you pay for your winter-strained?"
+
+The Colonel told him the price.
+
+"Very hahnsome supper,--very hahnsome.  Nothin' ever seen like it in
+Rockland.  Must have been a great heap of things leftover."
+
+The compliment was not ungrateful, and the Colonel acknowledged it by
+smiling and saying, "I should think the' was a trifle?  Come and
+look."
+
+When Silas Peckham saw how many delicacies had survived the evening's
+conflict, his commercial spirit rose at once to the point of a
+proposal.
+
+"Colonel Sprowle," said he, "there's 'meat and cakes and pies and
+pickles enough on that table to spread a hahnsome colation.  If you'd
+like to trade reasonable, I think perhaps I should be willin' to take
+'em off your hands.  There's been a talk about our havin' a
+celebration in the Parnassian Grove, and I think I could work in what
+your folks don't want and make myself whole by chargin' a small sum
+for tickets.  Broken meats, of course, a'n't of the same valoo as
+fresh provisions; so I think you might be willin' to trade
+reasonable."
+
+Mr. Peckham paused and rested on his proposal.  It would not,
+perhaps, have been very extraordinary, if Colonel Sprowle had
+entertained the proposition.  There is no telling beforehand how such
+things will strike people.  It didn't happen to strike the Colonel
+favorably.  He had a little red-blooded manhood in him.
+
+"Sell you them things to make a colation out of?" the Colonel
+replied.  "Walk up to that table, Mr. Peckham, and help yourself!
+Fill your pockets; Mr. Peckham!  Fetch a basket, and our hired folks
+shall fill it full for ye!  Send a cart, if y' like, 'n' carry off
+them leavin's to make a celebration for your pupils with!  Only let
+me tell ye this:--as sure 's my name's Hezekiah Spraowle, you 'll be
+known through the taown 'n' through the caounty, from that day
+forrard, as the Principal of the Broken-Victuals Institoot!"
+
+Even provincial human-nature sometimes has a touch of sublimity about
+it.  Mr. Silas Peckham had gone a little deeper than he meant, and
+come upon the "hard pan," as the well-diggers call it, of the
+Colonel's character, before he thought of it.  A militia-colonel
+standing on his sentiments is not to be despised.  That was shown
+pretty well in New England two or three generations ago.  There were
+a good many plain officers that talked about their "rigiment " and
+their "caounty" who knew very well how to say "Make ready!" "Take
+aim!" "Fire! --in the face of a line of grenadiers with bullets in
+their guns and bayonets on them.  And though a rustic uniform is not
+always unexceptionable in its cut and trimmings, yet there was many
+an ill-made coat in those old times that was good enough to be shown
+to the enemy's front rank too often to be left on the field with a
+round hole in its left lapel that matched another going right through
+the brave heart of the plain country captain or major or colonel who
+was buried in it under the crimson turf.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham said little or nothing.  His sensibilities were not
+acute, but he perceived that he had made a miscalculation.  He hoped
+that there was no offence,--thought it might have been mutooally
+agreeable, conclooded he would give up the idee of a colation, and
+backed himself out as if unwilling to expose the less guarded aspect
+of his person to the risk of accelerating impulses.
+
+The Colonel shut the door,--cast his eye on the toe of his right
+boot, as if it had had a strong temptation,--looked at his watch,
+then round the room, and, going to a cupboard, swallowed a glass of
+deep-red brandy and water to compose his feelings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE DOCTOR ORDERS THE BEST SULKY.
+(With a Digression on "Hired Help.")
+
+"ABEL!  Slip Cassia into the new sulky, and fetch her round."
+
+Abel was Dr. Kittredge's hired man.  He was born in New Hampshire, a
+queer sort of State, with fat streaks of soil and population where
+they breed giants in mind and body, and lean streaks which export
+imperfectly nourished young men with promising but neglected
+appetites, who may be found in great numbers in all the large towns,
+or could be until of late years, when they have been half driven out
+of their favorite basement-stories by foreigners, and half coaxed
+away from them by California.  New Hampshire is in more than one
+sense the Switzerland of New England.  The "Granite State" being
+naturally enough deficient in pudding-stone, its children are apt to
+wander southward in search of that deposit,--in the unpetrified
+condition.
+
+Abel Stebbins was a good specimen of that extraordinary hybrid or
+mule between democracy and chrysocracy, a native-born New-England
+serving-man.  The Old World has nothing at all like him.  He is at
+once an emperor and a subordinate.  In one hand he holds one five-
+millionth part (be the same more or less) of the power that sways the
+destinies of the Great Republic.  His other hand is in your boot,
+which he is about to polish.  It is impossible to turn a fellow
+citizen whose vote may make his master--say, rather, employer--
+Governor or President, or who may be one or both himself, into a
+flunky.  That article must be imported ready-made from other centres
+of civilization.  When a New Englander has lost his self-respect as a
+citizen and as a man, he is demoralized, and cannot be trusted with
+the money to pay for a dinner.
+
+It may be supposed, therefore, that this fractional emperor, this
+continent-shaper, finds his position awkward when he goes into
+service, and that his employer is apt to find it still more
+embarrassing.  It is always under protest that the hired man does his
+duty.  Every act of service is subject to the drawback, "I am as good
+as you are."  This is so common, at least, as almost to be the rule,
+and partly accounts for the rapid disappearance of the indigenous
+"domestic" from the basements above mentioned.  Paleontologists will
+by and by be examining the floors of our kitchens for tracks of the
+extinct native species of serving-man.  The female of the same race
+is fast dying out; indeed, the time is not far distant when all the
+varieties of young woman will have vanished from New England, as the
+dodo has perished in the Mauritius.  The young lady is all that we
+shall have left, and the mop and duster of the last Ahnira or Loizy
+will be stared at by generations of Bridgets and Noras as that famous
+head and foot of the lost bird are stared at in the Ashmolean Museum.
+
+Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his
+difficult position.  He sold his time to the Doctor, and, having sold
+it, he took care to fulfil his half of the bargain.  The Doctor, on
+his part, treated him, not like a gentleman, because one does not
+order a gentleman to bring up his horse or run his errands, but he
+treated him like a man.  Every order was given in courteous terms.
+His reasonable privileges were respected as much as if they had been
+guaranteed under hand and seal.  The Doctor lent him books from his
+own library, and gave him all friendly counsel, as if he were a son
+or a younger brother.
+
+Abel had Revolutionary blood in his veins, and though he saw fit to
+"hire out," he could never stand the word "servant," or consider
+himself the inferior one of the two high contracting parties.  When
+he came to live with the Doctor, he made up his mind he would dismiss
+the old gentleman, if he did not behave according to his notions of
+propriety.  But he soon found that the Doctor was one of the right
+sort, and so determined to keep him.  The Doctor soon found, on his
+side, that he had a trustworthy, intelligent fellow, who would be
+invaluable to him, if he only let him have his own way of doing what
+was to be done.
+
+The Doctor's hired man had not the manners of a French valet.  He was
+grave and taciturn for the most part, he never bowed and rarely
+smiled, but was always at work in the daytime, and always reading in
+the evening.  He was hostler, and did all the housework that a man
+could properly do, would go to the door or "tend table," bought the
+provisions for the family,--in short, did almost everything for them
+but get their clothing.  There was no office in a perfectly appointed
+household, from that of steward down to that of stable-boy, which he
+did not cheerfully assume.  His round of work not consuming all his
+energies, he must needs cultivate the Doctor's garden, which he kept
+in one perpetual bloom, from the blowing of the first crocus to the
+fading of the last dahlia.
+
+This garden was Abel's poem.  Its half-dozen beds were so many
+cantos.  Nature crowded them for him with imagery such as no Laureate
+could copy in the cold mosaic of language.  The rhythm of alternating
+dawn and sunset, the strophe and antistrophe still perceptible
+through all the sudden shifts of our dithyrambic seasons and echoed
+in corresponding floral harmonies, made melody in the soul of Abel,
+the plain serving-man.  It softened his whole otherwise rigid aspect.
+He worshipped God according to the strict way of his fathers; but a
+florist's Puritanism is always colored by the petals of his flowers,
+--and Nature never shows him a black corolla.
+
+He may or may not figure again in this narrative; but as there must
+be some who confound the New England hired man, native-born, with the
+servant of foreign birth, and as there is the difference of two
+continents and two civilizations between them, it did not seem fair
+to let Abel bring round the Doctor's mare and sulky without touching
+his features in half-shadow into our background.
+
+The Doctor's mare, Cassia, was so called by her master from her
+cinnamon color, cassia being one of the professional names for that
+spice or drug.  She was of the shade we call sorrel, or, as an
+Englishman would perhaps say, chestnut,--a genuine "Morgan" mare,
+with a low forehand, as is common in this breed, but with strong
+quarters and flat hocks, well ribbed up, with a good eye and a pair
+of lively ears,--a first-rate doctor's beast, would stand until her
+harness dropped off her back at the door of a tedious case, and trot
+over hill and dale thirty miles in three hours, if there was a child
+in the next county with a bean in its windpipe and the Doctor gave
+her a hint of the fact.  Cassia was not large, but she had a good
+deal of action, and was the Doctor's show-horse.  There were two.
+other animals in his stable: Quassia or Quashy, the black horse, and
+Caustic, the old bay, with whom he jogged round the village.
+
+"A long ride to-day?" said Abel, as he brought up the equipage.
+
+"Just out of the village,--that 's all.---There 's a kink in her
+mane,--pull it out, will you?"
+
+"Goin' to visit some of the great folks," Abel said to himself."
+Wonder who it is."--Then to the Doctor,--"Anybody get sick at
+Sprowles's?  They say Deacon Soper had a fit, after eatin' some o'
+their frozen victuals."
+
+The Doctor smiled.  He guessed the Deacon would do well enough.  He
+was only going to ride over to the Dudley mansion-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE DOCTOR CALLS ON ELSIE VENNER.
+
+If that primitive physician, Chiron, M. D., appears as a Centaur, as
+we look at him through the lapse of thirty centuries, the modern
+country-doctor, if he could be seen about thirty miles off, could not
+be distinguished from a wheel-animalcule.  He inhabits a wheel-
+carriage.  He thinks of stationary dwellings as Long Tom Coffin did
+of land in general; a house may be well enough for incidental
+purposes, but for a "stiddy" residence give him a "kerridge."  If he
+is classified in the Linnaean scale, he must be set down thus: Genus
+Homo; Species Rotifer infusorius, the wheel-animal of infusions.
+
+The Dudley mansion was not a mile from the Doctor's; but it never
+occurred to him to think of walking to see any of his patients'
+families, if he had any professional object in his visit.  Whenever
+the narrow sulky turned in at a gate, the rustic who was digging
+potatoes, or hoeing corn, or swishing through the grass with his
+scythe, in wave-like crescents, or stepping short behind a loaded
+wheelbarrow, or trudging lazily by the side of the swinging, loose-
+throated, short-legged oxen, rocking along the road as if they had
+just been landed after a three-months' voyage, the toiling native,
+whatever he was doing, stopped and looked up at the house the Doctor
+was visiting.
+
+"Somebody sick over there t' Haynes's.  Guess th' old man's ailin'
+ag'in.  Winder's half-way open in the chamber,--should n' wonder 'f
+he was dead and laid aout.  Docterin' a'n't no use, when y' see th'
+winders open like that.  Wahl, money a'n't much to speak of to th'
+old man naow!  He don' want but tew cents,--'n' old Widah Peake, she
+knows what he wants them for!"
+
+Or again,--
+
+"Measles raound pooty thick.  Briggs's folks buried two children with
+'em lass' week.  Th' of Doctor, he'd h' ker'd 'em threugh.  Struck in
+'n' p'dooced mo't'f'cation,--so they say."
+
+This is only meant as a sample of the kind of way they used to think
+or talk, when the narrow sulky turned in at the gate of some house
+where there was a visit to be made.
+
+Oh, that narrow sulky!  What hopes, what fears, what comfort, what
+anguish, what despair, in the roll of its coming or its parting
+wheels!  In the spring, when the old people get the coughs which give
+them a few shakes and their lives drop in pieces like the ashes of a
+burned thread which have kept the threadlike shape until they were
+stirred,--in the hot summer noons, when the strong man comes in from
+the fields, like the son of the Shunamite, crying, "My head, my
+head,"--in the dying autumn days, when youth and maiden lie fever-
+stricken in many a household, still-faced, dull-eyed, dark-flushed,
+dry-lipped, low-muttering in their daylight dreams, their fingers
+moving singly like those of slumbering harpers,--in the dead winter,
+when the white plague of the North has caged its wasted victims,
+shuddering as they think of the frozen soil which must be quarried
+like rock to receive them, if their perpetual convalescence should
+happen to be interfered with by any untoward accident,--at every
+season, the narrow sulky rolled round freighted with unmeasured
+burdens of joy and woe.
+
+The Doctor drove along the southern foot of The Mountain.  The
+"Dudley Mansion" was near the eastern edge of this declivity, where
+it rose steepest, with baldest cliffs and densest patches of
+overhanging wood.  It seemed almost too steep to climb, but a
+practised eye could see from a distance the zigzag lines of the
+sheep-paths which scaled it like miniature Alpine roads.  A few
+hundred feet up The Mountain's side was a dark deep dell, unwooded,
+save for a few spindling, crazy-looking hackmatacks or native
+larches, with pallid green tufts sticking out fantastically all over
+them.  It shelved so deeply, that, while the hemlock-tassels were
+swinging on the trees around its border, all would be still at its
+springy bottom, save that perhaps a single fern would wave slowly
+backward and forward like a sabre with a twist as of a feathered
+oar,--and this when not a breath could be felt, and every other stem
+and blade were motionless.  There was an old story of one having
+perished here in the winter of '86, and his body having been found in
+the spring,--whence its common name of "Dead-Man's Hollow."  Higher
+up there were huge cliffs with chasms, and, it was thought, concealed
+caves, where in old times they said that Tories lay hid,--some hinted
+not without occasional aid and comfort from the Dudleys then living
+in the mansion-house.  Still higher and farther west lay the accursed
+ledge,--shunned by all, unless it were now and then a daring youth,
+or a wandering naturalist who ventured to its edge in the hope of
+securing some infantile Crotalus durissus, who had not yet cut his
+poison teeth.
+
+Long, long ago, in old Colonial times, the Honorable Thomas Dudley,
+Esquire, a man of note and name and great resources, allied by
+descent to the family of "Tom Dudley," as the early Governor is
+sometimes irreverently called by our most venerable, but still
+youthful antiquary,--and to the other public Dudleys, of course,--of
+all of whom he made small account, as being himself an English
+gentleman, with little taste for the splendors of provincial office,
+early in the last century, Thomas Dudley had built this mansion.  For
+several generations it had been dwelt in by descendants of the same
+name, but soon after the Revolution it passed by marriage into the
+hands of the Venners, by whom it had ever since been held and
+tenanted.
+
+As the doctor turned an angle in the road, all at once the stately
+old house rose before him.  It was a skilfully managed effect, as it
+well might be, for it was no vulgar English architect who had planned
+the mansion and arranged its position and approach.  The old house
+rose before the Doctor, crowning a terraced garden, flanked at the
+left by an avenue of tall elms.  The flower-beds were edged with box,
+which diffused around it that dreamy balsamic odor, full of ante-
+natal reminiscences of a lost Paradise, dimly fragrant as might be
+the bdellium of ancient Havilah, the land compassed by the river
+Pison that went out of Eden.  The garden was somewhat neglected, but
+not in disgrace,--and in the time of tulips and hyacinths, of roses,
+of "snowballs," of honeysuckles, of lilacs, of syringas, it was rich
+with blossoms.
+
+>From the front-windows of the mansion the eye reached a far blue
+mountain-summit,--no rounded heap, such as often shuts in a village-
+landscape, but a sharp peak, clean-angled as Ascutney from the
+Dartmouth green.  A wide gap through miles of woods had opened this
+distant view, and showed more, perhaps, than all the labors of the
+architect and the landscape-gardener the large style of the early
+Dudleys.
+
+The great stone-chimney of the mansion-house was the centre from
+which all the artificial features of the scene appeared to flow.  The
+roofs, the gables, the dormer-windows, the porches, the clustered
+offices in the rear, all seemed to crowd about the great chimney.  To
+this central pillar the paths all converged.  The single poplar
+behind the house,--Nature is jealous of proud chimneys, and always
+loves to put a poplar near one, so that it may fling a leaf or two
+down its black throat every autumn,--the one tall poplar behind the
+house seemed to nod and whisper to the grave square column, the elms
+to sway their branches towards it.  And when the blue smoke rose from
+its summit, it seemed to be wafted away to join the azure haze which
+hung around the peak in the far distance, so that both should bathe
+in a common atmosphere.
+
+Behind the house were clumps of lilacs with a century's growth upon
+them, and looking more like trees than like shrubs.  Shaded by a
+group of these was the ancient well, of huge circuit, and with a low
+arch opening out of its wall about ten feet below the surface,--
+whether the door of a crypt for the concealment of treasure, or of a
+subterranean passage, or merely of a vault for keeping provisions
+cool in hot weather, opinions differed.
+
+On looking at the house, it was plain that it was built with Old-
+World notions of strength and durability, and, so far as might be,
+with Old-World materials.  The hinges of the doors stretched out like
+arms, instead of like hands, as we make them.  The bolts were massive
+enough for a donjon-keep.  The small window-panes were actually
+inclosed in the wood of the sashes instead of being stuck to them
+with putty, as in our modern windows.  The broad staircase was of
+easy ascent, and was guarded by quaintly turned and twisted
+balusters.  The ceilings of the two rooms of state were moulded with
+medallion-portraits and rustic figures, such as may have been seen by
+many readers in the famous old Philipse house,--Washington's head-
+quarters,--in the town of Yorkers.  The fire-places, worthy of the
+wide-throated central chimney, were bordered by pictured tiles, some
+of them with Scripture stories, some with Watteau-like figures,--tall
+damsels in slim waists and with spread enough of skirt for a modern
+ballroom, with bowing, reclining, or musical swains of what everybody
+calls the "conventional" sort,--that is, the swain adapted to genteel
+society rather than to a literal sheep-compelling existence.
+
+The house was furnished, soon after it was completed, with many heavy
+articles made in London from a rare wood just then come into fashion,
+not so rare now, and commonly known as mahogany.  Time had turned it
+very dark, and the stately bedsteads and tall cabinets and claw-
+footed chairs and tables were in keeping with the sober dignity of
+the ancient mansion.  The old "hangings" were yet preserved in the
+chambers, faded, but still showing their rich patterns,--properly
+entitled to their name, for they were literally hung upon flat wooden
+frames like trellis-work, which again were secured to the naked
+partitions.
+
+There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various
+apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in
+one sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly
+symbols, with a legend signifying that E. M. (supposed to be
+Elizabeth Mascarene) wished not to be "forgot"
+
+         "When I am dead and lay'd in dust
+          And all my bones are"---
+
+Poor E. M.!  Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a
+planet with a core of fire and a crust of fossils!
+
+Such was the Dudley mansion-house,--for it kept its ancient name in
+spite of the change in the line of descent.  Its spacious apartments
+looked dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter
+dwelt by themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of
+life required.  He almost lived in his library, the western room on
+the ground-floor.  Its window looked upon a small plat of green, in
+the midst of which was a single grave marked by a plain marble slab.
+Except this room, and the chamber where he slept, and the servants'
+wing, the rest of the house was all Elsie's.  She was always a
+restless, wandering child from her early years, and would have her
+little bed moved from one chamber to another,--flitting round as the
+fancy took her.  Sometimes she would drag a mat and a pillow into one
+of the great empty rooms, and, wrapping herself in a shawl, coil up
+and go to sleep in a corner.  Nothing frightened her; the "haunted"
+chamber, with the torn hangings that flapped like wings when there
+was air stirring, was one of her favorite retreats.  She had been a
+very hard creature to manage.  Her father could influence, but not
+govern her.  Old Sophy, born of a slave mother in the house, could do
+more with her than anybody, knowing her by long instinctive study.
+The other servants were afraid of her.  Her father had sent for
+governesses, but none of them ever stayed long.  She made them
+nervous; one of them had a strange fit of sickness; not one of them
+ever came back to the house to see her.  A young Spanish woman who
+taught her dancing succeeded best with her, for she had a passion for
+that exercise, and had mastered some of the most difficult dances.
+Long before this period, she had manifested some most extraordinary
+singularities of taste or instinct.  The extreme sensitiveness of her
+father on this point prevented any allusion to them; but there were
+stories floating round, some of them even getting into the papers,--
+without her name, of course,--which were of a kind to excite intense
+curiosity, if not more anxious feelings.  This thing was certain,
+that at the age of twelve she was missed one night, and was found
+sleeping in the open air under a tree, like a wild creature.  Very
+often she would wander off by day, always without a companion,
+bringing home with her a nest, a flower, or even a more questionable
+trophy of her ramble, such as showed that there was no place where
+she was afraid to venture.  Once in a while she had stayed out over
+night, in which case the alarm was spread, and men went in search of
+her, but never successfully,--so--that some said she hid herself in
+trees, and others that she had found one of the old Tory caves.
+
+Some, of course, said she was a crazy girl, and ought to be sent to
+an Asylum.  But old Dr. Kittredge had shaken his head, and told them
+to bear with her, and let her have her way as much as they could, but
+watch her, as far as possible, without making her suspicious of them.
+He visited her now and then, under the pretext of seeing her father
+on business, or of only making a friendly call.
+
+The Doctor fastened his horse outside the gate, and walked up the
+garden-alley.  He stopped suddenly ,with a start.  A strange sound
+had jarred upon his ear.  It was a sharp prolonged rattle,
+continuous, but rising and falling as if in rhythmical cadence.  He
+moved softly towards the open window from which the sound seemed to
+proceed.
+
+Elsie was alone in the room, dancing one of those wild Moorish
+fandangos, such as a matador hot from the Plaza de Toros of Seville
+or Madrid might love to lie and gaze at.  She was a figure to look
+upon in silence.  The dancing frenzy must have seized upon her while
+she was dressing; for she was in her bodice, bare-armed, her hair
+floating unbound far below the waist of her barred or banded skirt.
+She had caught up her castanets, and rattled them as she danced with
+a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with
+flexuous grace, her diamond eyes glittering, her round arms wreathing
+and unwinding, alive and vibrant to the tips of the slender fingers.
+Some passion seemed to exhaust itself in this dancing paroxysm; for
+all at once she reeled from the middle of the floor, and flung
+herself, as it were in a careless coil, upon a great tiger's-skin
+which was spread out in one corner of the apartment.
+
+The old Doctor stood motionless, looking at her as she lay panting on
+the tawny, black-lined robe of the dead monster which stretched out
+beneath her, its rude flattened outline recalling the Terror of the
+Jungle as he crouched for his fatal spring.  In a few moments her
+head drooped upon her arm, and her glittering eyes closed,--she was
+sleeping.  He stood looking at her still, steadily, thoughtfully,
+tenderly.  Presently he lifted his hand to his forehead, as if
+recalling some fading remembrance of other years.
+
+"Poor Catalina!"
+
+This was all he said.  He shook his head,--implying that his visit
+would be in vain to-day,--returned to his sulky, and rode away, as if
+in a dream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+COUSIN RICHARD'S VISIT.
+
+The Doctor was roused from his revery by the clatter of approaching
+hoofs.  He looked forward and saw a young fellow galloping rapidly
+towards him.
+
+A common New-England rider with his toes turned out, his elbows
+jerking and the daylight showing under him at every step, bestriding
+a cantering beast of the plebeian breed, thick at every point where
+he should be thin, and thin at every point where he should be thick,
+is not one of those noble objects that bewitch the world.  The best
+horsemen outside of the cities are the unshod countryboys, who ride
+"bareback," with only a halter round the horse's neck, digging their
+brown heels into his ribs, and slanting over backwards, but sticking
+on like leeches, and taking the hardest trot as if they loved it.---
+This was a different sight on which the Doctor was looking.  The
+streaming mane and tail of the unshorn, savage-looking, black horse,
+the dashing grace with which the young fellow in the shadowy
+sombrero, and armed with the huge spurs, sat in his high-peaked
+saddle, could belong only to the mustang of the Pampas and his
+master.  This bold rider was a young man whose sudden apparition in
+the quiet inland town had reminded some of the good people of a
+bright, curly-haired boy they had known some eight or ten years
+before as little Dick Venner.
+
+This boy had passed several of his early years at the Dudley mansion,
+the playmate of Elsie, being her cousin, two or three years older
+than herself, the son of Captain Richard Venner, a South American
+trader, who, as he changed his residence often, was glad to leave the
+boy in his brother's charge.  The Captain's wife, this boy's mother,
+was a lady of Buenos Ayres, of Spanish descent, and had died while
+the child was in his cradle.  These two motherless children were as
+strange a pair as one roof could well cover.  Both handsome, wild,
+impetuous, unmanageable, they played and fought together like two
+young leopards, beautiful, but dangerous, their lawless instincts
+showing through all their graceful movements.
+
+The boy was little else than a young Gaucho when he first came to
+Rockland; for he had learned to ride almost as soon as to walk, and
+could jump on his pony and trip up a runaway pig with the bolas or
+noose him with his miniature lasso at an age when some city-children
+would hardly be trusted out of sight of a nursery-maid.  It makes men
+imperious to sit a horse; no man governs his fellows so well as from
+this living throne.  And so, from Marcus Aurelius in Roman bronze,
+down to the "man on horseback" in General Cushing's prophetic speech,
+the saddle has always been the true seat of empire.  The absolute
+tyranny of the human will over a noble and powerful beast develops
+the instinct of personal prevalence and dominion; so that horse-
+subduer and hero were almost synonymous in simpler times, and are
+closely related still.  An ancestry of wild riders naturally enough
+bequeaths also those other tendencies which we see in the Tartars,
+the Cossacks, and our own Indian Centaurs, and as well, perhaps, in
+the old-fashioned fox-hunting squire as in any of these.  Sharp
+alternations of violent action and self-indulgent repose; a hard run,
+and a long revel after it; this is what over-much horse tends to
+animalize a man into.  Such antecedents may have helped to make
+little Dick Venner a self-willed, capricious boy, and a rough
+playmate for Elsie.
+
+Elsie was the wilder of the two.  Old Sophy, who used to watch them
+with those quick, animal-looking eyes of hers,--she was said to be
+the granddaughter of a cannibal chief, and inherited the keen senses
+belonging to all creatures which are hunted as game, Old Sophy, who
+watched them in their play and their quarrels, always seemed to be
+more afraid for the boy than the girl.  "Masse Dick!  Masse Dick!
+don' you be too rough wi' dat gal!  She scratch you las' week, 'n'
+some day she bite you; 'n' if she bite you, Masse Dick!  "Old Sophy
+nodded her head ominously, as if she could say a great deal more;
+while, in grateful acknowledgment of her caution, Master Dick put his
+two little fingers in the angles of his mouth, and his forefingers on
+his lower eyelids, drawing upon these features until his expression
+reminded her of something she vaguely recollected in her infancy,--
+the face of a favorite deity executed in wood by an African artist
+for her grandfather, brought over by her mother, and burned when she
+became a Christian.
+
+These two wild children had much in common.  They loved to ramble
+together, to build huts, to climb trees for nests, to ride the colts,
+to dance, to race, and to play at boys' rude games as if both were
+boys.  But wherever two natures have a great deal in common, the
+conditions of a first-rate quarrel are furnished ready-made.
+Relations are very apt to hate each other just because they are too
+much alike.  It is so frightful to be in an atmosphere of family
+idiosyncrasies; to see all the hereditary uncomeliness or infirmity
+of body, all the defects of speech, all the failings of temper,
+intensified by concentration, so that every fault of our own finds
+itself multiplied by reflections, like our images in a saloon lined.
+with mirrors!  Nature knows what she is about.  The centrifugal
+principle which grows out of the antipathy of like to like is only
+the repetition in character of the arrangement we see expressed
+materially in certain seed-capsules, which burst and throw the seed
+to all points of the compass.  A house is a large pod with a human
+germ or two in each of its cells or chambers; it opens by dehiscence
+of the front-door by and by, and projects one of its germs to Kansas,
+another to San Francisco, another to Chicago, and so on; and this
+that Smith may not be Smithed to death and Brown may not be Browned
+into a mad-house, but mix in with the world again and struggle back
+to average humanity.
+
+Elsie's father, whose fault was to indulge her in everything, found
+that it would never do to let these children grow up together.  They
+would either love each other as they got older, and pair like wild
+creatures, or take some fierce antipathy, which might end nobody
+could tell where.  It was not safe to try.  The boy must be sent
+away.  A sharper quarrel than common decided this point.  Master Dick
+forgot Old Sophy's caution, and vexed the girl into a paroxysm of
+wrath, in which she sprang at him and bit his arm.  Perhaps they made
+too much of it; for they sent for the old Doctor, who came at once
+when he heard what had happened.  He had a good deal to say about the
+danger there was from the teeth of animals or human beings when
+enraged; and as he emphasized his remarks by the application of a
+pencil of lunar caustic to each of the marks left by the sharp white
+teeth, they were like to be remembered by at least one of his
+hearers.
+
+So Master Dick went off on his travels, which led him into strange
+places and stranger company.  Elsie was half pleased and half sorry
+to have him go; the children had a kind of mingled liking and hate
+for each other, just such as is very common among relations.  Whether
+the girl had most satisfaction in the plays they shared, or in
+teasing him, or taking her small revenge upon him for teasing her, it
+would have been hard to say.  At any rate, she was lonely without
+him.  She had more fondness for the old black woman than anybody; but
+Sophy could not follow her far beyond her own old rocking-chair.  As
+for her father, she had made him afraid of her, not for his sake, but
+for her own.  Sometimes she would seem to be fond of him, and the
+parent's heart would yearn within him as she twined her supple arms
+about him; and then some look she gave him, some half-articulated
+expression, would turn his cheek pale and almost make him shiver, and
+he would say kindly, "Now go, Elsie, dear,"  and smile upon her as
+she went, and close and lock the door softly after her.  Then his
+forehead would knot and furrow itself, and the drops of anguish stand
+thick upon it.  He would go to the western window of his study and
+look at the solitary mound with the marble slab for its head-stone.
+After his grief had had its way, he would kneel down and pray for his
+child as one who has no hope save in that special grace which can
+bring the most rebellious spirit into sweet subjection.  All this
+might seem like weakness in a parent having the charge of one sole
+daughter of his house and heart; but he had tried authority and
+tenderness by turns so long without any good effect, that he had
+become sore perplexed, and, surrounding her with cautious
+watchfulness as he best might, left her in the main to her own
+guidance and the merciful influences which Heaven might send down to
+direct her footsteps.
+
+Meantime the boy grew up to youth and early manhood through a strange
+succession of adventures.  He had been at school at Buenos Ayres,--
+had quarrelled with his mother's relatives,--had run off to the
+Pampas, and lived with the Gauchos;--had made friends with the
+Indians, and ridden with them, it was rumored, in some of their
+savage forays,--had returned and made up his quarrel,--had got money
+by inheritance or otherwise,--had troubled the peace of certain
+magistrates,--had found it convenient to leave the City of Wholesome
+Breezes for a time, and had galloped off on a fast horse of his, (so
+it was said,) with some officers riding after him, who took good care
+(but this was only the popular story) not to catch him.  A few days
+after this he was taking his ice on the Alameda of Mendoza, and a
+week or two later sailed from Valparaiso for New York, carrying with
+him the horse with which he had scampered over the Plains, a trunk or
+two with his newly purchased outfit of, clothing and other
+conveniences, and a belt heavy with gold and with a few Brazilian
+diamonds sewed in it, enough in value to serve him for a long
+journey.
+
+Dick Venner had seen life enough to wear out the earlier
+sensibilities of adolescence.  He was tired of worshipping or
+tyrannizing over the bistred or umbered beauties of mingled blood
+among whom he had been living.  Even that piquant exhibition which
+the Rio de Mendoza presents to the amateur of breathing sculpture
+failed to interest him.  He was thinking of a far-off village on the
+other side of the equator, and of the wild girl with whom he used to
+play and quarrel, a creature of a different race from these
+degenerate mongrels.
+
+"A game little devil she was, sure enough!" --And as Dick spoke, he
+bared his wrist to look for the marks she had left on it: two small
+white scars, where the two small sharp upper teeth had struck when
+she flashed at him with her eyes sparkling as bright as those
+glittering stones sewed up in the belt he wore.  "That's a filly
+worth noosing!" said Dick to himself, as he looked in admiration at
+the sign of her spirit and passion.  "I wonder if she will bite at
+eighteen as she did at eight!  She shall have a chance to try, at any
+rate!"
+
+Such was the self-sacrificing disposition with which Richard Venner,
+Esq., a passenger by the Condor from Valparaiso, set foot upon his
+native shore, and turned his face in the direction of Rockland, The
+Mountain, and the mansion-house.  He had heard something, from time
+to time, of his New-England relatives, and knew that they were living
+together as he left them.  And so he heralded himself to "My dear
+Uncle" by a letter signed "Your loving nephew, Richard Venner," in
+which letter he told a very frank story of travel and mercantile
+adventure, expressed much gratitude for the excellent counsel and
+example which had helped to form his character and preserve him in
+the midst of temptation, inquired affectionately after his uncle's
+health, was much interested to know whether his lively cousin who
+used to be his playmate had grown up as handsome as she promised to
+be, and announced his intention of paying his respects to them both
+at Rockland.  Not long after this came the trunks marked R. V. which
+he had sent before him, forerunners of his advent: he was not going
+to wait for a reply or an invitation.
+
+What a sound that is,--the banging down of the preliminary trunk,
+without its claimant to give it the life which is borrowed by all
+personal appendages, so long as the owner's hand or eye is on them!
+If it announce the coming of one loved and longed for, how we delight
+to look at it, to sit down on it, to caress it in our fancies, as a
+lone exile walking out on a windy pier yearns towards the merchantman
+lying alongside, with the colors of his own native land at her peak,
+and the name of the port he sailed from long ago upon her stern!  But
+if it tell the near approach of the undesired, inevitable guest, what
+sound short of the muffled noises made by the undertakers as they
+turn the corners in the dim-lighted house, with low shuffle of feet
+and whispered cautions, carries such a sense of knocking-kneed
+collapse with it as the thumping down in the front entry of the heavy
+portmanteau, rammed with the changes of uncounted coming weeks?
+
+Whether the R. V. portmanteaus brought one or the other of these
+emotions to the tenants of the Dudley mansion, it might not be easy
+to settle.  Elsie professed to be pleased with the thought of having
+an adventurous young stranger, with stories to tell, an inmate of
+their quiet, not to say dull, family.  Under almost any other
+circumstances, her father would have been unwilling to take a young
+fellow of whom he knew so little under his roof; but this was his
+nephew, and anything that seemed like to amuse or please Elsie was
+agreeable to him.  He had grown almost desperate, and felt as if any
+change in the current of her life and feelings might save her from
+some strange paroxysm of dangerous mental exaltation or sullen
+perversion of disposition, from which some fearful calamity might
+come to herself or others.
+
+Dick had been several weeks at the Dudley mansion.  A few days
+before, he had made a sudden dash for the nearest large city,--and
+when the Doctor met him, he was just returning from his visit.
+
+It had been a curious meeting between the two young persons, who had
+parted so young and after such strange relations with each other.
+When Dick first presented himself at the mansion, not one in the
+house would have known him for the boy who had left them all so
+suddenly years ago.  He was so dark, partly from his descent, partly
+from long habits of exposure, that Elsie looked almost fair beside
+him.  He had something of the family beauty which belonged to his
+cousin, but his eye had a fierce passion in it, very unlike the cold
+glitter of Elsie's.  Like many people of strong and imperious temper,
+he was soft-voiced and very gentle in his address, when he had no
+special reason for being otherwise.  He soon found reasons enough to
+be as amiable as he could force himself to be with his uncle and his
+cousin.  Elsie was to his fancy.  She had a strange attraction for
+him, quite unlike anything he had ever known in other women.  There
+was something, too, in early associations: when those who parted as
+children meet as man and woman, there is always a renewal of that
+early experience which followed the taste of the forbidden fruit,--a
+natural blush of consciousness, not without its charm.
+
+Nothing could be more becoming than the behavior of "Richard Venner,
+Esquire, the guest of Dudley Venner, Esquire, at his noble mansion,"
+as he was announced in the Court column of the "Rockland Weekly
+Universe."  He was pleased to find himself treated with kindness and
+attention as a relative.  He made himself very agreeable by abundant
+details concerning the religious, political, social, commercial, and
+educational progress of the South American cities and states.  He was
+himself much interested in everything that was going on about the
+Dudley mansion, walked all over it, noticed its valuable wood-lots
+with special approbation, was delighted with the grand old house and
+its furniture, and would not be easy until he had seen all the family
+silver and heard its history.  In return, he had much to tell of his
+father, now dead,--the only one of the Venners, beside themselves, in
+whose fate his uncle was interested.  With Elsie, he was subdued and
+almost tender in his manner; with the few visitors whom they saw, shy
+and silent,--perhaps a little watchful, if any young man happened to
+be among them.
+
+Young fellows placed on their good behavior are apt to get restless
+and nervous, all ready to fly off into some mischief or other.  Dick
+Venner had his half-tamed horse with him to work off his suppressed
+life with.  When the savage passion of his young blood came over him,
+he would fetch out the mustang, screaming and kicking as these
+amiable beasts are wont to do, strap the Spanish saddle tight to his
+back, vault into it, and, after getting away from the village, strike
+the long spurs into his sides and whirl away in a wild gallop, until
+the black horse was flecked with white foam, and the cruel steel
+points were red with his blood.  When horse and rider were alike
+fired, he would fling the bridle on his neck and saunter homeward,
+always contriving to get to the stable in a quiet way, and coming
+into the house as calm as a bishop after a sober trot on his steady-
+going cob.
+
+After a few weeks of this kind of life, he began to want some more
+fierce excitement.  He had tried making downright love to Elsie, with
+no great success as yet, in his own opinion.  The girl was capricious
+in her treatment of him, sometimes scowling and repellent, sometimes
+familiar, very often, as she used to be of old, teasing and
+malicious.  All this, perhaps, made her more interesting to a young
+man who was tired of easy conquests.  There was a strange fascination
+in her eyes, too, which at times was quite irresistible, so that he
+would feel himself drawn to her by a power which seemed to take away
+his will for the moment.  It may have been nothing but the common
+charm of bright eyes; but he had never before experienced the same
+kind of attraction.
+
+Perhaps she was not so very different from what she had been as a
+child, after all.  At any rate, so it seemed to Dick Venner, who, as
+was said before, had tried making love to her.  They were sitting
+alone in the study one day; Elsie had round her neck that somewhat
+peculiar ornament, the golden torque, which she had worn to the great
+party.  Youth is adventurous and very curious about necklaces,
+brooches, chains, and other such adornments, so long as they are worn
+by young persons of the female sex.  Dick was seized with a great
+passion for examining this curious chain, and, after some preliminary
+questions, was rash enough to lean towards her and put out his hand
+toward the neck that lay in the golden coil.
+
+She threw her head back, her eyes narrowing and her forehead drawing
+down so that Dick thought her head actually flattened itself.  He
+started involuntarily; for she looked so like the little girl who had
+struck him with those sharp flashing teeth, that the whole scene came
+back, and he felt the stroke again as if it had just been given, and
+the two white scars began to sting as they did after the old Doctor
+had burned them with that stick of gray caustic, which looked so like
+a slate pencil, and felt so much like the end of a red-hot poker.
+
+It took something more than a gallop to set him right after this.
+The next day he mentioned having received a letter from a mercantile
+agent with whom he had dealings.  What his business was is, perhaps,
+none of our business.  At any rate, it required him to go at once to
+the city where his correspondent resided.
+
+Independently of this "business" which called him, there may have
+been other motives, such as have been hinted at.  People who have
+been living for a long time in dreary country-places, without any
+emotion beyond such as are occasioned by a trivial pleasure or
+annoyance, often get crazy at last for a vital paroxysm of some kind
+or other.  In this state they rush to the great cities for a plunge
+into their turbid life-baths, with a frantic thirst for every
+exciting pleasure, which makes them the willing and easy victims of
+all those who sell the Devil's wares on commission.  The less
+intelligent and instructed class of unfortunates, who venture with
+their ignorance and their instincts into what is sometimes called the
+"life" of great cities, are put through a rapid course of instruction
+which entitles them very commonly to a diploma from the police court.
+But they only illustrate the working of the same tendency in mankind
+at large which has been occasionally noticed in the sons of ministers
+and other eminently worthy people, by many ascribed to that intense
+congenital hatred for goodness which distinguishes human nature from
+that of the brute, but perhaps as readily accounted for by
+considering it as the yawning and stretching of a young soul cramped
+too long in one moral posture.
+
+Richard Veneer was a young man of remarkable experience for his
+years.  He ran less risk, therefore, in exposing himself to the
+temptations and dangers of a great city than many older men, who,
+seeking the livelier scenes of excitement to be found in large towns
+as a relaxation after the monotonous routine of family life, are too
+often taken advantage of and made the victims of their sentiments or
+their generous confidence in their fellow-creatures.  Such was not
+his destiny.  There was something about him which looked as if he
+would not take bullying kindly.  He had also the advantage of being
+acquainted with most of those ingenious devices by which the
+proverbial inconstancy of fortune is steadied to something more
+nearly approaching fixed laws, and the dangerous risks which have so
+often led young men to ruin and suicide are practically reduced to
+somewhat less than nothing.  So that Mr. Richard Veneer worked off
+his nervous energies without any troublesome adventure, and was ready
+to return to Rockland in less than a week, without having lightened
+the money-belt he wore round his body, or tarnished the long
+glittering knife he carried in his boot.
+
+Dick had sent his trunk to the nearest town through which the
+railroad leading to the city passed.  He rode off on his black horse
+and left him at the place where he took the cars.  On arriving at the
+city station, he took a coach and drove to one of the great hotels.
+Thither drove also a sagacious-looking, middle-aged man, who entered
+his name as "W. Thompson " in the book at the office immediately
+after that of "R. Venner."  Mr. "Thompson" kept a carelessly
+observant eye upon Mr. Venner during his stay at the hotel, and
+followed him to the cars when he left, looking over his shoulder when
+he bought his ticket at the station, and seeing him fairly off
+without obtruding himself in any offensive way upon his attention.
+Mr. Thompson, known in other quarters as Detective Policeman Terry,
+got very little by his trouble.  Richard Venner did not turn out to
+be the wife-poisoner, the defaulting cashier, the river-pirate, or
+the great counterfeiter.  He paid his hotel-bill as a gentleman
+should always do, if he has the money and can spare it.  The
+detective had probably overrated his own sagacity when he ventured to
+suspect Mr. Venner.  He reported to his chief that there was a
+knowing-looking fellow he had been round after, but he rather guessed
+he was nothing more than "one o' them Southern sportsmen."
+
+The poor fellows at the stable where Dick had left his horse had had
+trouble enough with him.  One of the ostlers was limping about with a
+lame leg, and another had lost a mouthful of his coat, which came
+very near carrying a piece of his shoulder with it.  When Mr. Venner
+came back for his beast, he was as wild as if he had just been
+lassoed, screaming, kicking, rolling over to get rid of his saddle,
+and when his rider was at last mounted, jumping about in a way to
+dislodge any common horseman.  To all this Dick replied by sticking
+his long spurs deeper and deeper into his flanks, until the creature
+found he was mastered, and dashed off as if all the thistles of the
+Pampas were pricking him.
+
+"One more gallop, Juan?"  This was in the last mile of the road
+before he came to the town which brought him in sight of the mansion-
+house.  It was in this last gallop that the fiery mustang and his
+rider flashed by the old Doctor.  Cassia pointed her sharp ears and
+shied to let them pass.  The Doctor turned and looked through the
+little round glass in the back of his sulky.
+
+"Dick Turpin, there, will find more than his match!" said the Doctor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE APOLLINEAN INSTITUTE.
+(With Extracts from the "Report of the committee.")
+
+The readers of this narrative will hardly expect any elaborate
+details of the educational management of the Apollinean Institute.
+They cannot be supposed to take the same interest in its affairs as
+was shown by the Annual Committees who reported upon its condition
+and prospects.  As these Committees were, however, an important part
+of the mechanism of the establishment, some general account of their
+organization and a few extracts from the Report of the one last
+appointed may not be out of place.
+
+Whether Mr. Silas Peckham had some contrivance for packing his
+Committees, whether they happened always to be made up of optimists
+by nature, whether they were cajoled into good-humor by polite
+attentions, or whether they were always really delighted with the
+wonderful acquirements of the pupils and the admirable order of the
+school, it is certain that their Annual Reports were couched in
+language which might warm the heart of the most cold-blooded and
+calculating father that ever had a family of daughters to educate.
+In fact, these Annual Reports were considered by Mr. Peckham as his
+most effective advertisements.
+
+The first thing, therefore, was to see that the Committee was made up
+of persons known to the public.
+
+Some worn-out politician, in that leisurely and amiable transition-
+state which comes between official extinction and the paralysis which
+will finish him as soon as his brain gets a little softer, made an
+admirable Chairman for Mr. Peckham, when he had the luck to pick up
+such an article.  Old reputations, like old fashions, are more prized
+in the grassy than in the stony districts.  An effete celebrity, who
+would never be heard of again in the great places until the funeral
+sermon waked up his memory for one parting spasm, finds himself in
+full flavor of renown a little farther back from the changing winds
+of the sea-coast.  If such a public character was not to be had, so
+that there was no chance of heading the Report with the name of the
+Honorable Mr. Somebody, the next best thing was to get the Reverend
+Dr. Somebody to take that conspicuous position.  Then would follow
+two or three local worthies with Esquire after their names.  If any
+stray literary personage from one of the great cities happened to be
+within reach, he was pounced upon by Mr. Silas Peckham.  It was a
+hard case for the poor man, who had travelled a hundred miles or two
+to the outside suburbs after peace and unwatered milk, to be pumped
+for a speech in this unexpected way.  It was harder still, if he had
+been induced to venture a few tremulous remarks, to be obliged to
+write them out for the "Rockland Weekly Universe," with the chance of
+seeing them used as an advertising certificate as long as he lived,
+if he lived as long as the late Dr. Waterhouse did after giving his
+certificate in favor of Whitwell's celebrated Cephalic Snuff.
+
+The Report of the last Committee had been signed by the Honorable,
+___________late __________ of ____________, as Chairman. (It is with
+reluctance that the name and titles are left in blank; but our public
+characters are so familiarly known to the whole community that this
+reserve becomes necessary.)  The other members of the Committee were
+the Reverend Mr. Butters, of a neighboring town, who was to make the
+prayer before the Exercises of the Exhibition, and two or three
+notabilities of Rockland, with geoponic eyes, and glabrous, bumpless
+foreheads.  A few extracts from the Report are subjoined:
+
+
+"The Committee have great pleasure in recording their unanimous
+opinion, that the Institution was never in so flourishing a
+condition....
+
+"The health of the pupils is excellent; the admirable quality of food
+supplied shows itself in their appearance; their blooming aspect
+excited the admiration of the Committee, and bears testimony to the
+assiduity of the excellent Matron.
+
+"......moral and religious condition most encouraging, which they
+cannot but attribute to the personal efforts and instruction of the
+faithful Principal, who considers religious instruction a solemn duty
+which he cannot commit to other people.
+
+"......great progress in their studies, under the intelligent
+superintendence of the accomplished Principal, assisted by Mr.
+Badger, [Mr. Langdon's predecessor,] Miss Darley, the lady who
+superintends the English branches, Miss Crabs, her assistant and
+teacher of Modern Languages, and Mr. Schneider, teacher of French,
+German, Latin, and Music....
+
+"Education is the great business of the Institute.  Amusements are
+objects of a secondary nature; but these are by no means
+neglected....
+
+"......English compositions of great originality and beauty,
+creditable alike to the head and heart of their accomplished
+authors.... several poems of a very high order of merit, which would
+do honor to the literature of any age or country.... life-like
+drawings, showing great proficiency....  Many converse fluently in
+various modern languages....  perform the most difficult airs with
+the skill of professional musicians....
+
+"......advantages unsurpassed, if equalled by those of any
+Institution in the country, and reflecting the highest honor on the
+distinguished Head of the Establishment, SILAS PECKHAM, Esquire, and
+his admirable Lady, the MATRON, with their worthy assistants...."
+
+
+The perusal of this Report did Mr. Bernard more good than a week's
+vacation would have done: It gave him such a laugh as he had not had
+for a month.  The way in which Silas Peckham had made his Committee
+say what he wanted them to--for he recognized a number of expressions
+in the Report as coming directly from the lips of his principal, and
+could not help thinking how cleverly he had forced his phrases, as
+jugglers do the particular card they wish their dupe to take--struck
+him as particularly neat and pleasing.
+
+He had passed through the sympathetic and emotional stages in his new
+experience, and had arrived at the philosophical and practical state,
+which takes things coolly, and goes to work to set them right.  He
+had breadth enough of view to see that there was nothing so very
+exceptional in this educational trader's dealings with his
+subordinates, but he had also manly feeling enough to attack the
+particular individual instance of wrong before him.  There are plenty
+of dealer's in morals, as in ordinary traffic, who confine themselves
+to wholesale business.  They leave the small necessity of their next-
+door neighbor to the retailers, who are poorer in statistics and
+general facts, but richer in the every-day charities.  Mr. Bernard
+felt, at first, as one does who sees a gray rat steal out of a drain
+and begin gnawing at the bark of some tree loaded with fruit or
+blossoms, which he will soon girdle, if he is let alone.  The first
+impulse is to murder him with the nearest ragged stone.  Then one
+remembers that he is a rodent, acting after the law of his kind, and
+cools down and is contented to drive him off and guard the tree
+against his teeth for the future.  As soon as this is done, one can
+watch his attempts at mischief with a certain amusement.
+
+This was the kind of process Mr. Bernard had gone through.  First,
+the indignant surprise of a generous nature, when it comes
+unexpectedly into relations with a mean one.  Then the impulse of
+extermination,--a divine instinct, intended to keep down vermin of
+all classes to their working averages in the economy of Nature.  Then
+a return of cheerful tolerance,--a feeling, that, if the Deity could
+bear with rats and sharpers, he could; with a confident trust, that,
+in the long run, terriers and honest men would have the upperhand,
+and a grateful consciousness that he had been sent just at the right
+time to come between a patient victim and the master who held her in
+peonage.
+
+Having once made up his mind what to do, Mr. Bernard was as good-
+natured and hopeful as ever.  He had the great advantage, from his
+professional training, of knowing how to recognize and deal with
+the nervous disturbances to which overtasked women are so liable.  He
+saw well enough that Helen Darley would certainly kill herself or
+lose her wits, if he could not lighten her labors and lift off a
+large part of her weight of cares.  The worst of it was, that she was
+one of those women who naturally overwork themselves, like those
+horses who will go at the top of their pace until they drop.  Such
+women are dreadfully unmanageable.  It is as hard reasoning with them
+as it would have been reasoning with Io, when she was flying over
+land and sea, driven by the sting of the never-sleeping gadfly.
+
+This was a delicate, interesting game that he played.  Under one
+innocent pretext or another, he invaded this or that special province
+she had made her own.  He would collect the themes and have them all
+read and marked, answer all the puzzling questions in mathematics,
+make the other teachers come to him for directions, and in this way
+gradually took upon himself not only all the general superintendence
+that belonged to his office, but stole away so many of the special
+duties which might fairly have belonged to his assistant, that,
+before she knew it, she was looking better and feeling more cheerful
+than for many and many a month before.
+
+When the nervous energy is depressed by any bodily cause, or
+exhausted by overworking, there follow effects which have often been
+misinterpreted by moralists, and especially by theologians.  The
+conscience itself becomes neuralgic, sometimes actually inflamed, so
+that the least touch is agony.  Of all liars and false accusers, a
+sick conscience is the most inventive and indefatigable.  The devoted
+daughter, wife, mother, whose life has been given to unselfish
+labors, who has filled a place which it seems to others only an angel
+would make good, reproaches herself with incompetence and neglect of
+duty.  The humble Christian, who has been a model to others, calls
+himself a worm of the dust on one page of his diary, and arraigns
+himself on the next for coming short of the perfection of an
+archangel.
+
+Conscience itself requires a conscience, or nothing can be more
+unscrupulous.  It told Saul that he did well in persecuting the
+Christians.  It has goaded countless multitudes of various creeds to
+endless forms of self-torture.  The cities of India are full of
+cripples it has made.  The hill-sides of Syria are riddled with
+holes, where miserable hermits, whose lives it had palsied, lived and
+died like the vermin they harbored.  Our libraries are crammed with
+books written by spiritual hypochondriacs, who inspected all their
+moral secretions a dozen times a day.  They are full of interest, but
+they should be transferred from the shelf of the theologian to that
+of the medical man who makes a study of insanity.
+
+This was the state into which too much work and too much
+responsibility were bringing Helen Darley, when the new master came
+and lifted so much of the burden that was crushing her as must be
+removed before she could have a chance to recover her natural
+elasticity and buoyancy.  Many of the noblest women, suffering like
+her, but less fortunate in being relieved at the right moment, die
+worried out of life by the perpetual teasing of this inflamed,
+neuralgic conscience.  So subtile is the line which separates the
+true and almost angelic sensibility of a healthy, but exalted nature,
+from the soreness of a soul which is sympathizing with a morbid state
+of the body that it is no wonder they are often confounded.  And thus
+many good women are suffered to perish by that form of spontaneous
+combustion in which the victim goes on toiling day and night with the
+hidden fire consuming her, until all at once her cheek whitens, and,
+as we look upon her, she drops away, a heap of ashes.  The more they
+overwork themselves, the more exacting becomes the sense of duty,--as
+the draught of the locomotive's furnace blows stronger and makes the
+fire burn more fiercely, the faster it spins along the track.
+
+It is not very likely, as was said at the beginning of this chapter,
+that we shall trouble ourselves a great deal about the internal
+affairs of the Apollinean Institute.  These schools are, in the
+nature of things, not so very unlike each other as to require a
+minute description for each particular one among them.  They have all
+very much the same general features, pleasing and displeasing.  All
+feeding-establishments have something odious about them,--from the
+wretched country-houses where paupers are farmed out to the lowest
+bidder, up to the commons-tables at colleges and even the fashionable
+boarding-house.  A person's appetite should be at war with no other
+purse than his own.  Young people, especially, who have a bone-
+factory at work in them, and have to feed the living looms of
+innumerable growing tissues, should be provided for, if possible, by
+those who love them like their own flesh and blood.  Elsewhere their
+appetites will be sure to make them enemies, or, what are almost as
+bad, friends whose interests are at variance with the claims of their
+exacting necessities and demands.
+
+Besides, all commercial transactions in regard to the most sacred
+interests of life are hateful even to those who profit by them.  The
+clergyman, the physician, the teacher, must be paid; but each of
+them, if his duty be performed in the true spirit, can hardly help a
+shiver of disgust when money is counted out to him for administering
+the consolations of religion, for saving some precious life, for
+sowing the seeds of Christian civilization in young ingenuous souls.
+
+And yet all these schools, with their provincial French and their
+mechanical accomplishments, with their cheap parade of diplomas and
+commencements and other public honors, have an ever fresh interest to
+all who see the task they are performing in our new social order.
+These girls are not being educated for governesses, or to be
+exported, with other manufactured articles, to colonies where there
+happens to be a surplus of males.  Most of them will be wives, and
+every American-born husband is a possible President of these United
+States.  Any one of these girls may be a four-years' queen.  There is
+no sphere of human activity so exalted that she may not be called
+upon to fill it.
+
+But there is another consideration of far higher interest.  The
+education of our community to all that is beautiful is flowing in
+mainly through its women, and that to a considerable extent by the
+aid of these large establishments, the least perfect of which do
+something to stimulate the higher tastes and partially instruct them.
+Sometimes there is, perhaps, reason to fear that girls will be too
+highly educated for their own happiness, if they are lifted by their
+culture out of the range of the practical and every-day working youth
+by whom they are surrounded.  But this is a risk we must take.  Our
+young men come into active life so early, that, if our girls were not
+educated to something beyond mere practical duties, our material
+prosperity would outstrip our culture; as it often does in large
+places where money is made too rapidly.  This is the meaning,
+therefore, of that somewhat ambitious programme common to most of
+these large institutions, at which we sometimes smile, perhaps
+unwisely or uncharitably.
+
+We shall take it for granted that the routine of instruction went on
+at the Apollinean Institute much as it does in other schools of the
+same class.  People, young or old, are wonderfully different, if we
+contrast extremes in pairs.  They approach much nearer, if we take
+them in groups of twenty.  Take two separate hundreds as they come,
+without choosing, and you get the gamut of human character in both so
+completely that you can strike many chords in each which shall be in
+perfect unison with corresponding ones in the other.  If we go a step
+farther, and compare the population of two villages of the same race
+and region, there is such a regularly graduated distribution and
+parallelism of character, that it seems as if Nature must turn out
+human beings in sets like chessmen.
+
+It must be confessed that the position in which Mr. Bernard now found
+himself had a pleasing danger about it which might well justify all
+the fears entertained on his account by more experienced friends,
+when they learned that he was engaged in a Young Ladies' Seminary.
+The school never went on more smoothly than during the first period
+of his administration, after he had arranged its duties, and taken
+his share, and even more than his share, upon himself.  But human
+nature does not wait for the diploma of the Apollinean Institute to
+claim the exercise of it, instincts and faculties.  These young girls
+saw but little of the youth of the neighborhood.  The mansion-house
+young men were off at college or in the cities, or making love to
+each other's sisters, or at any rate unavailable for some reason or
+other.  There were a few "clerks,"--that is, young men who attended
+shops, commonly called "stores,"--who were fond of walking by the
+Institute, when they were off duty, for the sake of exchanging a word
+or a glance with any one of the young ladies they might happen to
+know, if any such were stirring abroad: crude young men, mostly, with
+a great many "Sirs" and "Ma'ams" in their speech, and with that style
+of address sometimes acquired in the retail business, as if the
+salesman were recommending himself to a customer, "First-rate family
+article, Ma'am; warranted to wear a lifetime; just one yard and three
+quarters in this pattern, Ma'am; sha'n't I have the pleasure?" and so
+forth.  If there had been ever so many of them, and if they had been
+ever so fascinating, the quarantine of the Institute was too rigorous
+to allow any romantic infection to be introduced from without.
+
+Anybody might see what would happen, with a good-looking, well-
+dressed, well-bred young man, who had the authority of a master, it
+is true, but the manners of a friend and equal, moving about among
+these young girls day after day, his eyes meeting theirs, his breath
+mingling with theirs, his voice growing familiar to them, never in
+any harsh tones, often soothing, encouraging, always sympathetic,
+with its male depth and breadth of sound among the chorus of trebles,
+as if it were a river in which a hundred of these little piping
+streamlets-might lose themselves; anybody might see what would
+happen.  Young girls wrote home to their parents that they enjoyed
+themselves much, this term, at the Institute, and thought they were
+making rapid progress in their studies.  There was a great enthusiasm
+for the young master's reading-classes in English poetry.  Some of
+the poor little things began to adorn themselves with an extra
+ribbon, or a bit of such jewelry as they had before kept for great
+occasions.  Dear souls! they only half knew what they were doing it
+for.  Does the bird know why its feathers grow more brilliant and its
+voice becomes musical in the pairing season?
+
+And so, in the midst of this quiet inland town, where a mere accident
+had placed Mr. Bernard Langdon, there was a concentration of
+explosive materials which might at any time change its Arcadian and
+academic repose into a scene of dangerous commotion.  What said Helen
+Darley, when she saw with her woman's glance that more than one girl,
+when she should be looking at her book, was looking over it toward
+the master's desk?  Was her own heart warmed by any livelier feeling
+than gratitude, as its life began to flow with fuller pulses, and the
+morning sky again looked bright and the flowers recovered their lost
+fragrance?  Was there any strange, mysterious affinity between the
+master and the dark girl who sat by herself?  Could she call him at
+will by looking at him?  Could it be that--?  It made her shiver to
+think of it.---And who was that strange horseman who passed Mr.
+Bernard at dusk the other evening, looking so like Mephistopheles
+galloping hard to be in season at the witches' Sabbath-gathering?
+That must be the cousin of Elsie's who wants to marry her, they say.
+A dangerous-looking fellow for a rival, if one took a fancy to the
+dark girl!  And who is she, and what?---by what demon is she haunted,
+by what taint is she blighted, by what curse is she followed, by what
+destiny is she marked, that her strange beauty has such a terror in
+it, and that hardly one shall dare to love her, and her eye glitters
+always, but warms for none?
+
+Some of these questions are ours.  Some were Helen Darley's.  Some of
+them mingled with the dreams of Bernard Langdon, as he slept the
+night after meeting the strange horseman.  In the morning he happened
+to be a little late in entering the schoolroom.  There was something
+between the leaves of the Virgil which lay upon his desk.  He opened
+it and saw a freshly gathered mountain-flower.  He looked at Elsie,
+instinctively, involuntarily.  She had another such flower on her
+breast.
+
+A young girl's graceful compliment,--that is all,--no doubt,--no
+doubt.  It was odd that the flower should have happened to be laid
+between the leaves of the Fourth Book of the "AEneid," and at this
+line,
+
+          "Incipit effari, mediaque in voce resistit."
+
+A remembrance of an ancient superstition flashed through the master's
+mind, and he determined to try the Sortes Virgilianae.  He shut the
+volume, and opened it again at a venture.---The story of Laocoon!
+
+He read with a strange feeling of unwilling fascination, from
+"Horresco referees" to "Bis medium amplexi," and flung the book from
+him, as if its leaves had been steeped in the subtle poisons that
+princes die of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CURIOSITY.
+
+People will talk.  Ciascun lo dice is a tune that is played oftener
+than the national air of this country or any other.
+
+"That 's what they say.  Means to marry her, if she is his cousin.
+Got money himself,--that 's the story,--but wants to come and live in
+the old place, and get the Dudley property by and by."  "Mother's
+folks was wealthy.'! --"Twenty-three to twenty-five year old." --"He
+a'n't more 'n twenty, or twenty-one at the outside." --"Looks as if
+he knew too much to be only twenty year old." --"Guess he's been
+through the mill,--don't look so green, anyhow, hey?  Did y' ever
+mind that cut over his left eyebrow?"
+
+So they gossiped in Rockland.  The young fellows could make nothing
+of Dick Venner.  He was shy and proud with the few who made advances
+to him.  The young ladies called him handsome and romantic, but he
+looked at them like a many-tailed pacha who was in the habit of,
+ordering his wives by the dozen.
+
+"What do you think of the young man over there at the Veneers'?" said
+Miss Arabella Thornton to her father.
+
+"Handsome," said the Judge, "but dangerous-looking.  His face is
+indictable at common law.  Do you know, my dear, I think there is a
+blank at the Sheriff's office, with a place for his name in it?"
+
+The Judge paused and looked grave, as if he had just listened to the
+verdict of the jury and was going to pronounce sentence.
+
+"Have you heard anything against him?"  said the Judge's daughter.
+
+"Nothing.  But I don't like these mixed bloods and half-told stories.
+Besides, I have seen a good many desperate fellows at the bar, and I
+have a fancy they all have a look belonging to them.  The worst one I
+ever sentenced looked a good deal like this fellow.  A wicked mouth.
+All our other features are made for us; but a man makes his own
+mouth."
+
+"Who was the person you sentenced?"
+
+"He was a young fellow that undertook to garrote a man who had won
+his money at cards.  The same slender shape, the same cunning, fierce
+look, smoothed over with a plausible air.  Depend upon it, there is
+an expression in all the sort of people who live by their wits when
+they can, and by worse weapons when their wits fail them, that we old
+law-doctors know just as well as the medical counsellors know the
+marks of disease in a man's face.  Dr. Kittredge looks at a man and
+says he is going to die; I look at another man and say he is going to
+be hanged, if nothing happens.  I don't say so of this one, but I
+don't like his looks.  I wonder Dudley Veneer takes to him so
+kindly."
+
+"It's all for Elsie's sake," said Miss Thornton.  "I feel quite sure
+of that.  He never does anything that is not meant for her in some
+way.  I suppose it amuses her to have her cousin about the house.
+She rides a good deal since he has been here.  Have you seen them
+galloping about together?  He looks like my idea of a Spanish bandit
+on that wild horse of his."
+
+"Possibly he has been one,--or is one," said the Judge,--smiling as
+men smile whose lips have often been freighted with the life and
+death of their fellow-creatures.  "I met them riding the other day.
+Perhaps Dudley is right, if it pleases her to have a companion.  What
+will happen, though, if he makes love to her?  Will Elsie be easily
+taken with such a fellow?  You young folks are supposed to know more
+about these matters than we middle-aged people."
+
+"Nobody can tell.  Elsie is not like anybody else.  The girls who
+have seen most of her think she hates men, all but 'Dudley,' as she
+calls her father.  Some of them doubt whether she loves him.  They
+doubt whether she can love anything human, except perhaps the old
+black woman who has taken care of her since she was a baby.  The
+village people have the strangest stories about her; you know what
+they call her?"
+
+She whispered three words in her father's ear.  The Judge changed
+color as she spoke, sighed deeply, and was silent as if lost in
+thought for a moment.
+
+"I remember her mother," he said, "so well!  A sweeter creature never
+lived.  Elsie has something of her in her look, but those are not her
+mother's eyes.  They were dark, but soft, as in all I ever saw of her
+race.  Her father's are dark too, but mild, and even tender, I should
+say.  I don't know what there is about Elsie's,--but do you know, my
+dear, I find myself curiously influenced by them?  I have had to face
+a good many sharp eyes and hard ones,--murderers' eyes and pirates',
+--men who had to be watched in the bar, where they stood on trial,
+for fear they should spring on the prosecuting officers like tigers,
+--but I never saw such eyes as Elsie's; and yet they have a kind of
+drawing virtue or power about them,--I don't know what else to call
+it: have you never observed this?"
+
+His daughter smiled in her turn.
+
+"Never observed it?  Why, of course, nobody could be with Elsie
+Venner and not observe it.  There are a good many other strange
+things about her: did you ever notice how she dresses?"
+
+"Why, handsomely enough, I should think," the Judge answered.  "I
+suppose she dresses as she likes, and sends to the city for what she
+wants.  What do you mean in particular?  We men notice effects in
+dress, but not much in detail."
+
+"You never noticed the colors and patterns of her dresses?  You never
+remarked anything curious about her ornaments?  Well!  I don't
+believe you men know, half the time, whether a lady wears a nine-
+penny collar or a thread-lace cape worth a thousand dollars.  I don't
+believe you know a silk dress from a bombazine one.  I don't believe
+you can tell whether a woman is in black or in colors, unless you
+happen to know she is a widow.  Elsie Venner has a strange taste in
+dress, let me tell you.  She sends for the oddest patterns of stuffs,
+and picks out the most curious things at the jeweller's, whenever she
+goes to town with her father.  They say the old Doctor tells him to
+let her have her way about such matters.  Afraid of her mind, if she
+is contradicted, I suppose.  You've heard about her going to school
+at that place,--the 'Institoot,' as those people call it?  They say
+she's bright enough in her way,--has studied at home, you know, with
+her father a good deal, knows some modern languages and Latin, I
+believe: at any rate, she would have it so,--she must go to the
+'Institoot.'  They have a very good female teacher there, I hear; and
+the new master, that young Mr. Langdon, looks and talks like a well-
+educated young man.  I wonder what they 'll make of Elsie, between
+them!"
+
+So they talked at the Judge's, in the calm, judicial-looking mansion-
+house, in the grave, still library, with the troops of wan-hued law-
+books staring blindly out of their titles at them as they talked,
+like the ghosts of dead attorneys fixed motionless and speechless,
+each with a thin, golden film over his unwinking eyes.
+
+In the mean time, everything went on quietly enough after Cousin
+Richard's return.  A man of sense,--that is, a man who knows
+perfectly well that a cool head is worth a dozen warm hearts in
+carrying the fortress of a woman's affections, (not yours, "Astarte,"
+nor yours, "Viola,")--who knows that men are rejected by women every
+day because they, the men, love them, and are accepted every day
+because they do not, and therefore can study the arts of pleasing,--a
+man of sense, when he finds he has established his second parallel
+too soon, retires quietly to his first, and begins working on his
+covered ways again.  [The whole art of love may be read in any
+Encyclopaedia under the title Fortification, where the terms just
+used are explained.  After the little adventure of the necklace, Dick
+retreated at once to his first parallel.  Elsie loved riding,--and
+would go off with him on a gallop now and then.  He was a master of
+all those strange Indian horseback-feats which shame the tricks of
+the circus-riders, and used to astonish and almost amuse her
+sometimes by disappearing from his saddle, like a phantom horseman
+lying flat against the side of the bounding creature that bore him,
+as if he were a hunting leopard with his claws in the horse's flank
+and flattening himself out against his heaving ribs.  Elsie knew a
+little Spanish too, which she had learned from the young person who
+had taught her dancing, and Dick enlarged her vocabulary with a few
+soft phrases, and would sing her a song sometimes, touching the air
+upon an ancient-looking guitar they had found with the ghostly things
+in the garret,--a quaint old instrument, marked E. M. on the back,
+and supposed to have belonged to a certain Elizabeth Mascarene,
+before mentioned in connection with a work of art,--a fair, dowerless
+lady, who smiled and sung and faded away, unwedded, a hundred years
+ago, as dowerless ladies, not a few, are smiling and singing and
+fading now,--God grant each of them His love,--and one human heart as
+its interpreter!
+
+As for school, Elsie went or stayed away as she liked.  Sometimes,
+when they thought she was at her desk in the great schoolroom, she
+would be on The Mountain,--alone always.  Dick wanted to go with her,
+but she would never let him.  Once, when she had followed the zigzag
+path a little way up, she looked back and caught a glimpse of him
+following her.  She turned and passed him without a word, but giving
+him a look which seemed to make the scars on his wrist tingle, went
+to her room, where she locked herself up, and did not come out again
+till evening, Old Sophy having brought her food, and set it down, not
+speaking, but looking into her eyes inquiringly, like a dumb beast
+trying to feel out his master's will in his face.  The evening was
+clear and the moon shining.  As Dick sat at his chamber-window,
+looking at the mountain-side, he saw a gray-dressed figure flit
+between the trees and steal along the narrow path which led upward.
+Elsie's pillow was unpressed that night, but she had not been missed
+by the household,--for Dick knew enough to keep his own counsel.  The
+next morning she avoided him and went off early to school.  It was
+the same morning that the young master found the flower between the
+leaves of his Virgil.
+
+The girl got over her angry fit, and was pleasant enough with her
+cousin for a few days after this; but she shunned rather than sought
+him.  She had taken a new interest in her books, and especially in
+certain poetical readings which the master conducted with the elder
+scholars.  This gave Master Langdon a good chance to study her ways
+when her eye was on her book, to notice the inflections of her voice,
+to watch for any expression of her sentiments; for, to tell the
+truth, he had a kind of fear that the girl had taken a fancy to him,
+and, though she interested him, he did not wish to study her heart
+from the inside.
+
+The more he saw her, the more the sadness of her beauty wrought upon
+him.  She looked as if she might hate, but could not love.  She
+hardly smiled at anything, spoke rarely, but seemed to feel that her
+natural power of expression lay all in her bright eyes, the force of
+which so many had felt, but none perhaps had tried to explain to
+themselves.  A person accustomed to watch the faces of those who were
+ailing in body or mind, and to search in every line and tint for some
+underlying source of disorder, could hardly help analyzing the
+impression such a face produced upon him.  The light of those
+beautiful eyes was like the lustre of ice; in all her features there
+was nothing of that human warmth which shows that sympathy has
+reached the soul beneath the mask of flesh it wears.  The look was
+that of remoteness, of utter isolation.  There was in its stony
+apathy, it seemed to him, the pathos which we find in the blind who
+show no film or speck over the organs of sight; for Nature had meant
+her to be lovely, and left out nothing but love.  And yet the master
+could not help feeling that some instinct was working in this girl
+which was in some way leading her to seek his presence.  She did not
+lift her glittering eyes upon him as at first.  It seemed strange
+that she did not, for they were surely her natural weapons of
+conquest.  Her color did not come and go like that of young girls
+under excitement.  She had a clear brunette complexion, a little sun-
+touched, it may be,--for the master noticed once, when her necklace
+was slightly displaced, that a faint ring or band of a little lighter
+shade than the rest of the surface encircled her neck.  What was the
+slight peculiarity of her enunciation, when she read?  Not a lisp,
+certainly, but the least possible imperfection in articulating some
+of the lingual sounds,--just enough to be noticed at first, and quite
+forgotten after being a few times heard.
+
+Not a word about the flower on either side.  It was not uncommon for
+the schoolgirls to leave a rose or pink or wild flower on the
+teacher's desk.  Finding it in the Virgil was nothing, after all; it
+was a little delicate flower, which looked as if it were made to
+press, and it was probably shut in by accident at the particular
+place where he found it.  He took it into his head to examine it in a
+botanical point of view.  He found it was not common,--that it grew
+only in certain localities,--and that one of these was among the
+rocks of the eastern spur of The Mountain.
+
+It happened to come into his head how the Swiss youth climb the sides
+of the Alps to find the flower called the Edelweiss for the maidens
+whom they wish to please.  It is a pretty fancy, that of scaling some
+dangerous height before the dawn, so as to gather the flower in its
+freshness, that the favored maiden may wear it to church on Sunday
+morning, a proof at once of her lover's devotion and his courage.
+Mr. Bernard determined to explore the region where this flower was
+said to grow, that he might see where the wild girl sought the
+blossoms of which Nature was so jealous.
+
+It was on a warm, fair Saturday afternoon that he undertook his land-
+voyage of discovery.  He had more curiosity, it may be, than he would
+have owned; for he had heard of the girl's wandering habits, and the
+guesses about her sylvan haunts, and was thinking what the chances
+were that he should meet her in some strange place, or come upon
+traces of her which would tell secrets she would not care to have
+known.
+
+The woods are all alive to one who walks through them with his mind
+in an excited state, and his eyes and ears wide open.  The trees are
+always talking, not merely whispering with their leaves, (for every
+tree talks to itself in that way, even when it stands alone in the
+middle of a pasture,) but grating their boughs against each other, as
+old horn-handed farmers press their dry, rustling palms together,
+dropping a nut or a leaf or a twig, clicking to the tap of a
+woodpecker, or rustling as a squirrel flashes along a branch.  It was
+now the season of singing-birds, and the woods were haunted with
+mysterious, tender music.  The voices of the birds which love the
+deeper shades of the forest are sadder than those of the open fields:
+these are the nuns who have taken the veil, the hermits that have
+hidden themselves away from the world and tell their griefs to the
+infinite listening Silences of the wilderness,--for the one deep
+inner silence that Nature breaks with her fitful superficial sounds
+becomes multiplied as the image of a star in ruffled waters.
+Strange!  The woods at first convey the impression of profound
+repose, and yet, if you watch their ways with open ear, you find the
+life which is in them is restless and nervous as that of a woman: the
+little twigs are crossing and twining and separating like slender
+fingers that cannot be still; the stray leaf is to be flattened into
+its place like a truant curl; the limbs sway and twist, impatient of
+their constrained attitude; and the rounded masses of foliage swell
+upward and subside from time to time with long soft sighs, and, it
+may be, the falling of a few rain-drops which had lain hidden among
+the deeper shadows.  I pray you, notice, in the sweet summer days
+which will soon see you among the mountains, this inward tranquillity
+that belongs to the heart of the woodland, with this nervousness, for
+I do not know what else to call it, of outer movement.  One would
+say, that Nature, like untrained persons, could not sit still without
+nestling about or doing something with her limbs or features, and
+that high breeding was only to be looked for in trim gardens, where
+the soul of the trees is ill at ease perhaps, but their manners are
+unexceptionable, and a rustling branch or leaf falling out of season
+is an indecorum.  The real forest is hardly still except in the
+Indian summer; then there is death in the house, and they are waiting
+for the sharp shrunken months to come with white raiment for the
+summer's burial.
+
+There were many hemlocks in this neighborhood, the grandest and most
+solemn of all the forest-trees in the mountain regions.  Up to a
+certain period of growth they are eminently beautiful, their boughs
+disposed in the most graceful pagoda-like series of close terraces,
+thick and dark with green crystalline leaflets.  In spring the tender
+shoots come out of a paler green, finger-like, as if they were
+pointing to the violets at their feet.  But when the trees have grown
+old, and their rough boles measure a yard and more through their
+diameter, they are no longer beautiful, but they have a sad solemnity
+all their own, too full of meaning to require the heart's comment to
+be framed in words.  Below, all their earthward-looking branches are
+sapless and shattered, splintered by the weight of many winters'
+snows; above, they are still green and full of life, but their
+summits overtop all the deciduous trees around them, and in their
+companionship with heaven they are alone.  On these the lightning
+loves to fall.  One such Mr. Bernard saw,--or rather, what had been
+one such; for the bolt had torn the tree like an explosion from
+within, and the ground was strewed all around the broken stump with
+flakes of rough bark and strips and chips of shivered wood, into
+which the old tree had been rent by the bursting rocket from the
+thunder-cloud.
+
+--The master had struck up The Mountain obliquely from the western
+side of the Dudley mansion-house.  In this way he ascended until he
+reached a point many hundred feet above the level of the plain, and
+commanding all the country beneath and around.  Almost at his feet he
+saw the mansion-house, the chimney standing out of the middle of the
+roof, or rather, like a black square hole in it,--the trees almost
+directly over their stems, the fences as lines, the whole nearly as
+an architect would draw a ground-plan of the house and the inclosures
+round it.  It frightened him to see how the huge masses of rock and
+old forest-growths hung over the home below.  As he descended a
+little and drew near the ledge of evil name, he was struck with the
+appearance of a long narrow fissure that ran parallel with it and
+above it for many rods, not seemingly of very old standing,--for
+there were many fibres of roots which had evidently been snapped
+asunder when the rent took place, and some of which were still
+succulent in both separated portions.
+
+Mr. Bernard had made up his mind, when he set forth, not to come back
+before he had examined the dreaded ledge. He had half persuaded
+himself that it was scientific curiosity. He wished to examine the
+rocks, to see what flowers grew there, and perhaps to pick up an
+adventure in the zoological line; for he had on a pair of high, stout
+boots, and he carried a stick in his hand, which was forked at one
+extremity, so as to be very convenient to hold down a crotalus with,
+if he should happen to encounter one.  He knew the aspect of the
+ledge from a distance; for its bald and leprous-looking declivities
+stood out in their nakedness from the wooded sides of The Mountain,
+when this was viewed from certain points of the village.  But the
+nearer aspect of the blasted region had something frightful in it.
+The cliffs were water-worn, as if they had been gnawed for thousands
+of years by hungry waves.  In some places they overhung their base so
+as to look like leaning towers which might topple over at any minute.
+In other parts they were scooped into niches or caverns.  Here and
+there they were cracked in deep fissures, some of them of such width
+that one might enter them, if he cared to run the risk of meeting the
+regular tenants, who might treat him as an intruder.
+
+Parts of the ledge were cloven perpendicularly, with nothing but
+cracks or slightly projecting edges in which or on which a foot could
+find hold.  High up on one of these precipitous walls of rock he saw
+some tufts of flowers, and knew them at once for the same that he had
+found between the leaves of his Virgil.  Not there, surely!  No woman
+would have clung against that steep, rough parapet to gather an idle
+blossom.  And yet the master looked round everywhere, and even up the
+side of that rock, to see if there were no signs of a woman's
+footstep. He peered about curiously, as if his eye might fall on some
+of those fragments of dress which women leave after them, whenever
+they run against each other or against anything else,--in crowded
+ballrooms, in the brushwood after picnics, on the fences after
+rambles, scattered round over every place which has witnessed an act
+of violence, where rude hands have been laid upon them.  Nothing--
+Stop, though, one moment.  That stone is smooth and polished, as if
+it had been somewhat worn by the pressure of human feet.  There is
+one twig broken among the stems of that clump of shrubs.  He put his
+foot upon the stone and took hold of the close-clinging shrub.  In
+this way he turned a sharp angle of the rock and found himself on a
+natural platform, which lay in front of one of the wider fissures,--
+whether the mouth of a cavern or not he could not yet tell.  A flat
+stone made an easy seat, upon which he sat down, as he was very glad
+to do, and looked mechanically about him.  A small fragment
+splintered from the rock was at his feet.  He took it and threw it
+down the declivity a little below where he sat.  He looked about for
+a stem or a straw of some kind to bite upon,--a country-instinct,--
+relic, no doubt, of the old vegetable-feeding habits of Eden.  Is
+that a stem or a straw?  He picked it up.  It was a hair-pin.
+
+To say that Mr. Langdon had a strange sort of thrill shoot through
+him at the sight of this harmless little implement would be a
+statement not at variance with the fact of the case.  That smooth
+stone had been often trodden, and by what foot he could not doubt.
+He rose up from his seat to look round for other signs of a woman's
+visits.  What if there is a cavern here, where she has a retreat,
+fitted up, perhaps, as anchorites fitted their cells,--nay, it may
+be, carpeted and mirrored, and with one of those tiger-skins for a
+couch, such as they, say the girl loves to lie on?  Let us look, at
+any rate.
+
+Mr. Bernard walked to the mouth of the cavern or fissure and looked
+into it.  His look was met by the glitter of two diamond eyes, small,
+sharp, cold, shining out of the darkness, but gliding with a smooth,
+steady motion towards the light, and himself.  He stood fixed, struck
+dumb, staring back into them with dilating pupils and sudden numbness
+of fear that cannot move, as in the terror of dreams.  The two sparks
+of light came forward until they grew to circles of flame, and all at
+once lifted themselves up as if in angry surprise.  Then for the
+first time thrilled in Mr. Bernard's ears the dreadful sound that
+nothing which breathes, be it man or brute, can hear unmoved,--the
+long, loud, stinging whirr, as the huge, thick bodied reptile shook
+his many-jointed rattle and adjusted his loops for the fatal stroke.
+His eyes were drawn as with magnets toward the circles of flame.  His
+ears rung as in the overture to the swooning dream of chloroform.
+Nature was before man with her anaesthetics: the cat's first shake
+stupefies the mouse; the lion's first shake deadens the man's fear
+and feeling; and the crotalus paralyzes before he strikes.  He waited
+as in a trance,--waited as one that longs to have the blow fall, and
+all over, as the man who shall be in two pieces in a second waits for
+the axe to drop.  But while he looked straight into the flaming eyes,
+it seemed to him that they were losing their light and terror, that
+they were growing tame and dull; the charm was dissolving, the
+numbness was passing away, he could move once more.  He heard a light
+breathing close to his ear, and, half turning, saw the face of Elsie
+Venner, looking motionless into the reptile's eyes, which had shrunk
+and faded under the stronger enchantment of her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+FAMILY SECRETS.
+
+It was commonly understood in the town of Rockland that Dudley Venner
+had had a great deal of trouble with that daughter of his, so
+handsome, yet so peculiar, about whom there were so many strange
+stories.  There was no end to the tales which were told of her
+extraordinary doings.  Yet her name was never coupled with that of
+any youth or man, until this cousin had provoked remark by his visit;
+and even then it was oftener in the shape of wondering conjectures
+whether he would dare to make love to her, than in any pretended
+knowledge of their relations to each other, that the public tongue
+exercised its village-prerogative of tattle.
+
+The more common version of the trouble at the mansion-house was this:
+Elsie was not exactly in her right mind.  Her temper was singular,
+her tastes were anomalous, her habits were lawless, her antipathies
+were many and intense, and she was liable to explosions of
+ungovernable anger.  Some said that was not the worst of it.  At
+nearly fifteen years old, when she was growing fast, and in an
+irritable state of mind and body, she had had a governess placed over
+her for whom she had conceived an aversion.  It was whispered among a
+few who knew more of the family secrets than others, that, worried
+and exasperated by the presence and jealous oversight of this person,
+Elsie had attempted to get finally rid of her by unlawful means, such
+as young girls have been known to employ in their straits, and to
+which the sex at all ages has a certain instinctive tendency, in
+preference to more palpable instruments for the righting of its
+wrongs.  At any rate, this governess had been taken suddenly ill, and
+the Doctor had been sent for at midnight.  Old Sophy had taken her
+master into a room apart, and said a few words to him which turned
+him as white as a sheet.  As soon as he recovered himself, he sent
+Sophy out, called in the old Doctor, and gave him some few hints, on
+which he acted at once, and had the satisfaction of seeing his
+patient out of danger before he left in the morning.  It is proper to
+say, that, during the following days, the most thorough search was
+made in every nook and cranny of those parts of the house which Elsie
+chiefly haunted, but nothing was found which might be accused of
+having been the intentional cause of the probably accidental sudden
+illness of the governess.  From this time forward her father was
+never easy.  Should he keep her apart, or shut her up, for fear of
+risk to others, and so lose every chance of restoring her mind to its
+healthy tone by kindly influences and intercourse with wholesome
+natures?  There was no proof, only presumption, as to the agency of
+Elsie in the matter referred to.  But the doubt was worse, perhaps,
+than certainty would have been,--for then he would have known what to
+do.
+
+He took the old Doctor as his adviser.  The shrewd old man listened
+to the father's story, his explanations of possibilities, of
+probabilities, of dangers, of hopes.  When he had got through, the
+Doctor looked him in the face steadily, as if he were saying, Is that
+all?
+
+The father's eyes fell.  This was not all.  There was something at
+the bottom of his soul which he could not bear to speak of,--nay,
+which, as often as it reared itself through the dark waves of
+unworded consciousness into the breathing air of thought, he trod
+down as the ruined angels tread down a lost soul, trying to come up
+out of the seething sea of torture.  Only this one daughter!  No!
+God never would have ordained such a thing.  There was nothing ever
+heard of like it; it could not be; she was ill,--she would outgrow
+all these singularities; he had had an aunt who was peculiar; he had
+heard that hysteric girls showed the strangest forms of moral
+obliquity for a time, but came right at last.  She would change all
+at once, when her health got more firmly settled in the course of her
+growth.  Are there not rough buds that open into sweet flowers?  Are
+there not fruits, which, while unripe, are not to be tasted or
+endured, which mature into the richest taste and fragrance?  In God's
+good time she would come to her true nature; her eyes would lose that
+frightful, cold glitter; her lips would not feel so cold when she
+pressed them against his cheek; and that faint birth-mark, her mother
+swooned when she first saw, would fade wholly out,--it was less
+marked, surely, now than it used to be!
+
+So Dudley Venner felt, and would have thought, if he had let his
+thoughts breathe the air of his soul.  But the Doctor read through
+words and thoughts and all into the father's consciousness.  There
+are states of mind which may be shared by two persons in presence of
+each other, which remain not only unworded, but unthoughted, if such
+a word may be coined for our special need.  Such a mutually
+interpenetrative consciousness there was between the father and the
+old physician.  By a common impulse, both of them rose in a
+mechanical way and went to the western window, where each started, as
+he saw the other's look directed towards the white stone which stood
+in the midst of the small plot of green turf.
+
+The Doctor had, for a moment, forgotten himself but he looked up at
+the clouds, which were angry, and said, as if speaking of the
+weather, "It is dark now, but we hope it will clear up by and by.
+There are a great many more clouds than rains, and more rains than
+strokes of lightning, and more strokes of lightning than there are
+people killed.  We must let this girl of ours have her way, as far as
+it is safe.  Send away this woman she hates, quietly.  Get her a
+foreigner for a governess, if you can,--one that can dance and sing
+and will teach her.  In the house old Sophy will watch her best.  Out
+of it you must trust her, I am afraid,--for she will not be followed
+round, and she is in less danger than you think.  If she wanders at
+night, find her, if you can; the woods are not absolutely safe.  If
+she will be friendly with any young people, have them to see her,--
+young men especially.  She will not love any one easily, perhaps not
+at all; yet love would be more like to bring her right than anything
+else.  If any young person seems in danger of falling in love with
+her, send him to me for counsel."
+
+Dry, hard advice, but given from a kind hewn, with a moist eye, and
+in tones which tried to be cheerful and were full of sympathy.  This
+advice was the key to the more than indulgent treatment which, as we
+have seen, the girl had received from her father and all about her.
+The old Doctor often came in, in the kindest, most natural sort of
+way, got into pleasant relations with Elsie by always treating her in
+the same easy manner as at the great party, encouraging all her
+harmless fancies, and rarely reminding her that he was a professional
+adviser, except when she came out of her own accord, as in the talk
+they had at the party, telling him of some wild trick she had been
+playing.
+
+"Let her go to the girls' school, by all means," said the Doctor,
+when she had begun to talk about it.  "Possibly she may take to some
+of the girls or of the teachers.  Anything to interest her.
+Friendship, love, religion, whatever will set her nature at work.  We
+must have headway on, or there will be no piloting her.  Action first
+of all, and then we will see what to do with it."
+
+So, when Cousin Richard came along, the Doctor, though he did not
+like his looks any too well, told her father to encourage his staying
+for a time.  If she liked him, it was good; if she only tolerated
+him, it was better than nothing.
+
+"You know something about that nephew of yours, during these last
+years, I suppose?" the Doctor said.  "Looks as if he had seen life.
+Has a scar that was made by a sword-cut, and a white spot on the side
+of his neck that looks like a bullet-mark.  I think he has been what
+folks call a 'hard customer.'"
+
+Dudley Venner owned that he had heard little or nothing of him of
+late years.  He had invited himself, and of course it would not be
+decent not to receive him as a relative.  He thought Elsie rather
+liked having him about the house for a while.  She was very
+capricious,--acted as if she fancied him one day and disliked him the
+next.  He did not know,--but sometimes thought that this nephew of
+his might take a serious liking to Elsie.  What should he do about
+it, if it turned out so?
+
+The Doctor lifted his eyebrows a little.  He thought there was no
+fear.  Elsie was naturally what they call a man-hater, and there was
+very little danger of any sudden passion springing up between two
+such young persons.  Let him stay awhile; it gives her something to
+think about.  So he stayed awhile, as we have seen.
+
+The more Mr. Richard became acquainted with the family,--that is,
+with the two persons of whom it consisted,--the more favorably the
+idea of a permanent residence in the mansion-house seemed to impress
+him.  The estate was large,--hundreds of acres, with woodlands and
+meadows of great value.  The father and daughter had been living
+quietly, and there could not be a doubt that the property which came
+through the Dudleys must have largely increased of late years.  It
+was evident enough that they had an abundant income, from the way in
+which Elsie's caprices were indulged.  She had horses and carriages
+to suit herself; she sent to the great city for everything she wanted
+in the way of dress.  Even her diamonds--and the young man knew
+something about these gems--must be of considerable value; and yet
+she wore them carelessly, as it pleased her fancy.  She had precious
+old laces, too, almost worth their weight in diamonds; laces which
+had been snatched from altars in ancient Spanish cathedrals during
+the wars, and which it would not be safe to leave a duchess alone
+with for ten minutes.  The old house was fat with the deposits of
+rich generations which had gone before.  The famous "golden" fire-set
+was a purchase of one of the family who had been in France during the
+Revolution, and must have come from a princely palace, if not from
+one of the royal residences.  As for silver, the iron closet which
+had been made in the dining-room wall was running over with it: tea-
+kettles, coffee-pots, heavy-lidded tankards, chafing-dishes, punch-
+bowls, all that all the Dudleys had ever used, from the caudle-cup
+which used to be handed round the young mother's chamber, and the
+porringer from which children scooped their bread-and-milk with
+spoons as solid as ingots, to that ominous vessel, on the upper
+shelf, far back in the dark, with a spout like a slender italic S,
+out of which the sick and dying, all along the last century, and
+since, had taken the last drops that passed their lips.  Without
+being much of a scholar, Dick could see well enough, too, that the
+books in the library had been ordered from the great London houses,
+whose imprint they bore, by persons who knew what was best and meant
+to have it.  A man does not require much learning to feel pretty
+sure, when he takes one of those solid, smooth, velvet-leaved
+quartos, say a Baskerville Addison, for instance, bound in red
+morocco, with a margin of gold as rich as the embroidery of a
+prince's collar, as Vandyck drew it,--he need not know much to feel
+pretty sure that a score or two of shelves full of such books mean
+that it took a long purse, as well as a literary taste, to bring them
+together.
+
+To all these attractions the mind of this thoughtful young gentleman
+may be said to have been fully open.  He did not disguise from
+himself, however, that there were a number of drawbacks in the way of
+his becoming established as the heir of the Dudley mansion-house and
+fortune.  In the first place, Cousin Elsie was, unquestionably, very
+piquant, very handsome, game as a hawk, and hard to please, which
+made her worth trying for.  But then there was something about Cousin
+Elsie,--(the small, white scars began stinging, as he said this to
+himself, and he pushed his sleeve up to look at them)--there was
+something about Cousin Elsie he couldn't make out.  What was the
+matter with her eyes, that they sucked your life out of you in that
+strange way?  What did she always wear a necklace for?  Had she some
+such love-token on her neck as the old Don's revolver had left on
+his?  How safe would anybody feel to live with her?  Besides, her
+father would last forever, if he was left to himself.  And he may
+take it into his head to marry again.  That would be pleasant!
+
+So talked Cousin Richard to himself, in the calm of the night and in
+the tranquillity of his own soul.  There was much to be said on both
+sides.  It was a balance to be struck after the two columns were
+added up.  He struck the balance, and came to the conclusion that he
+would fall in love with Elsie Venner.
+
+The intelligent reader will not confound this matured and serious
+intention of falling in love with the young lady with that mere
+impulse of the moment before mentioned as an instance of making love.
+On the contrary, the moment Mr. Richard had made up his mind that he
+should fall in love with Elsie, he began to be more reserved with
+her, and to try to make friends in other quarters.  Sensible men, you
+know, care very little what a girl's present fancy is.  The question
+is: Who manages her, and how can you get at that person or those
+persons?  Her foolish little sentiments are all very well in their
+way; but business is business, and we can't stop for such trifles.
+The old political wire-pullers never go near the man they want to
+gain, if they can help it; they find out who his intimates and
+managers are, and work through them.  Always handle any positively
+electrical body, whether it is charged with passion or power, with
+some non-conductor between you and it, not with your naked hands.---
+The above were some of the young gentleman's working axioms; and he
+proceeded to act in accordance with them.
+
+He began by paying his court more assiduously to his uncle.  It was
+not very hard to ingratiate himself in that quarter; for his manners
+were insinuating, and his precocious experience of life made him
+entertaining.  The old neglected billiard--room was soon put in
+order, and Dick, who was a magnificent player, had a series of games
+with his uncle, in which, singularly enough, he was beaten, though
+his antagonist had been out of play for years.  He evinced a profound
+interest in the family history, insisted on having the details of its
+early alliances, and professed a great pride in it, which he had
+inherited from his father, who, though he had allied himself with the
+daughter of an alien race, had yet chosen one with the real azure
+blood in her veins, as proud as if she had Castile and Aragon for her
+dower and the Cid for her grand-papa.  He also asked a great deal of
+advice, such as inexperienced young persons are in need of, and
+listened to it with due reverence.
+
+It is not very strange that uncle Dudley took a kinder view of his
+nephew than the Judge, who thought he could read a questionable
+history in his face,--or the old Doctor, who knew men's temperaments
+and organizations pretty well, and had his prejudices about races,
+and could tell an old sword-cut and a ballet-mark in two seconds from
+a scar got by falling against the fender, or a mark left by king's
+evil.  He could not be expected to share our own prejudices; for he
+had heard nothing of the wild youth's adventures, or his scamper over
+the Pampas at short notice.  So, then, "Richard Venner, Esquire,
+guest of Dudley Venner, Esquire, at his elegant mansion," prolonged
+his visit until his presence became something like a matter of habit,
+and the neighbors began to think that the fine old house would be
+illuminated before long for a grand marriage.
+
+He had done pretty well with the father: the next thing was to gain
+over the nurse.  Old Sophy was as cunning as a red fox or a gray
+woodchuck.  She had nothing in the world to do but to watch Elsie;
+she had nothing to care for but this girl and her father.  She had
+never liked Dick too well; for he used to make faces at her and tease
+her when he was a boy, and now he was a man there was something about
+him.---she could not tell what--that made her suspicious of him.  It
+was no small matter to get her over to his side.
+
+The jet-black Africans know that gold never looks so well as on the
+foil of their dark skins.  Dick found in his trunk a string of gold
+beads, such as are manufactured in some of our cities, which he had
+brought from the gold region of Chili,--so he said,--for the express
+purpose of giving them to old Sophy.  These Africans, too, have a
+perfect passion for gay-colored clothing; being condemned by Nature,
+as it were, to a perpetual mourning-suit, they love to enliven it
+with all sorts of variegated stuffs of sprightly patterns, aflame
+with red and yellow.  The considerate young man had remembered this,
+too, and brought home for Sophy some handkerchiefs of rainbow hues,
+which had been strangely overlooked till now, at the bottom of one of
+his trunks.  Old Sophy took his gifts, but kept her black eyes open
+and watched every movement of the young people all the more closely.
+It was through her that the father had always known most of the
+actions and tendencies of his daughter.
+
+In the mean time the strange adventure on The Mountain had brought
+the young master into new relations with Elsie.  She had led him out
+of, danger; perhaps saved him from death by the strange power she
+exerted.  He was grateful, and yet shuddered at the recollection of
+the whole scene.  In his dreams he was pursued by the glare of cold
+glittering eyes, whether they were in the head of a woman or of a
+reptile he could not always tell, the images had so run together.
+But he could not help seeing that the eyes of the young girl had been
+often, very often, turned upon him when he had been looking away, and
+fell as his own glance met them.  Helen Darley told him very plainly
+that this girl was thinking about him more than about her book.  Dick
+Venner found she was getting more constant in her attendance at
+school.  He learned, on inquiry, that there was a new master, a
+handsome young man.  The handsome young man would not have liked the
+look that, came over Dick's face when he heard this fact mentioned.
+
+In short, everything was getting tangled up together, and there would
+be no chance of disentangling the threads in this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+PHYSIOLOGICAL.
+
+If Master Bernard felt a natural gratitude to his young pupil for
+saving him from an imminent peril, he was in a state of infinite
+perplexity to know why he should have needed such aid.  He, an
+active, muscular, courageous, adventurous young fellow, with--a stick
+in his hand, ready to hold down the Old Serpent himself, if he had
+come in his way, to stand still, staring into those two eyes, until
+they came up close to him, and the strange, terrible sound seemed to
+freeze him stiff where he stood,--what was the meaning of it?  Again,
+what was the influence this girl had seemingly exerted, under which
+the venomous creature had collapsed in such a sudden way?  Whether he
+had been awake or dreaming he did not feel quite sure.  He knew he
+had gone up The Mountain, at any rate; he knew he had come down The
+Mountain with the girl walking just before him;--there was no
+forgetting her figure, as she walked on in silence, her braided locks
+falling a little, for want of the lost hairpin, perhaps, and looking
+like a wreathing coil of--Shame on such fancies!--to wrong that
+supreme crowning gift of abounding Nature, a rush of shining black
+hair, which, shaken loose, would cloud her all round, like Godiva,
+from brow to instep!  He was sure he had sat down before the fissure
+or cave.  He was sure that he was led softly away from the place, and
+that it was Elsie who had led him.  There was the hair-pin to show
+that so far it was not a dream.  But between these recollections came
+a strange confusion; and the more the master thought, the more he was
+perplexed to know whether she had waked him, sleeping, as he sat on
+the stone, from some frightful dream, such as may come in a very
+brief slumber, or whether she had bewitched him into a trance with
+those strange eyes of hers, or whether it was all true, and he must
+solve its problem as he best might.
+
+There was another recollection connected with this mountain
+adventure.  As they approached the mansion-house, they met a young
+man, whom Mr. Bernard remembered having seen once at least before,
+and whom he had heard of as a cousin of the young girl.  As Cousin
+Richard Venner, the person in question, passed them, he took the
+measure, so to speak, of Mr. Bernard, with a look so piercing, so
+exhausting, so practised, so profoundly suspicious, that the young
+master felt in an instant that he had an enemy in this handsome
+youth,--an enemy, too, who was like to be subtle and dangerous.
+
+Mr. Bernard had made up his mind, that, come what might, enemy or no
+enemy, live or die, he would solve the mystery of Elsie Venner,
+sooner or later.  He was not a man to be frightened out of his
+resolution by a scowl, or a stiletto, or any unknown means of
+mischief, of which a whole armory was hinted at in that passing look
+Dick Venner had given him.  Indeed, like most adventurous young
+persons, he found a kind of charm in feeling that there might be some
+dangers in the way of his investigations.  Some rumors which had
+reached him about the supposed suitor of Elsie Venner, who was
+thought to be a desperate kind of fellow, and whom some believed to
+be an unscrupulous adventurer, added a curious, romantic kind of
+interest to the course of physiological and psychological inquiries
+he was about instituting.
+
+The afternoon on The Mountain was still upper-most in his mind.  Of
+course he knew the common stories--about fascination.  He had once
+been himself an eyewitness of the charming of a small bird by one of
+our common harmless serpents.  Whether a human being could be reached
+by this subtile agency, he had been skeptical, notwithstanding the
+mysterious relation generally felt to exist between man and this
+creature, "cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the
+field,"--a relation which some interpret as the fruit of the curse,
+and others hold to be so instinctive that this animal has been for
+that reason adopted as the natural symbol of evil.  There was another
+solution, however, supplied him by his professional reading.  The
+curious work of Mr. Braid of Manchester had made him familiar with
+the phenomena of a state allied to that produced by animal magnetism,
+and called by that writer by the name of hypnotism.  He found, by
+referring to his note-book, the statement was, that, by fixing the
+eyes on a bright object so placed as to produce a strain upon the
+eyes and eyelids, and to maintain a steady fixed stare, there comes
+on in a few seconds a very singular condition, characterized by
+muscular rigidity and inability to move, with a strange exaltation of
+most of the senses, and generally a closure of the eyelids,--this
+condition being followed by torpor.
+
+Now this statement of Mr. Braid's, well known to the scientific
+world, and the truth of which had been confirmed by Mr. Bernard in
+certain experiments he had instituted, as it has been by many other
+experimenters, went far to explain the strange impressions, of which,
+waking or dreaming, he had certainly been the subject.  His nervous
+system had been in a high state of exaltation at the time.  He
+remembered how the little noises that made rings of sound in the
+silence of the woods, like pebbles dropped in still waters, had
+reached his inner consciousness.  He remembered that singular
+sensation in the roots of the hair, when he came on the traces of the
+girl's presence, reminding him of a line in a certain poem which he
+had read lately with a new and peculiar interest.  He even recalled a
+curious evidence of exalted sensibility and irritability, in the
+twitching of the minute muscles of the internal ear at every
+unexpected sound, producing an odd little snap in the middle of the
+head, which proved to him that he was getting very nervous.
+
+The next thing was to find out whether it were possible that the
+venomous creature's eyes should have served the purpose of Mr.
+Braid's "bright object" held very close to the person experimented
+on, or whether they had any special power which could be made the
+subject of exact observation.
+
+For this purpose Mr. Bernard considered it necessary to get a live
+crotalus or two into his possession, if this were possible.  On
+inquiry, he found that there was a certain family living far up the
+mountainside, not a mile from the ledge, the members of which were
+said to have taken these creatures occasionally, and not to be in any
+danger, or at least in any fear, of being injured by them.  He
+applied to these people, and offered a reward sufficient to set them
+at work to capture some of these animals, if such a thing were
+possible.
+
+A few days after this, a dark, gypsy-looking woman presented herself
+at his door.  She held up her apron as if it contained something
+precious in the bag she made with it.
+
+"Y' wanted some rattlers," said the woman.  "Here they be."
+
+She opened her apron and showed a coil of rattlesnakes lying very
+peaceably in its fold.  They lifted their heads up, as if they wanted
+to see what was going on, but showed no sign of anger.
+
+"Are you crazy?"  said Mr. Bernard.  "You're dead in an hour, if one
+of those creatures strikes you!"
+
+He drew back a little, as he spoke; it might be simple disgust; it
+might be fear; it might be what we call antipathy, which is different
+from either, and which will sometimes show itself in paleness, and
+even faintness, produced by objects perfectly harmless and not in
+themselves offensive to any sense.
+
+"Lord bless you," said the woman, "rattlers never touches our folks.
+I'd jest 'z lieves handle them creaturs as so many striped snakes."
+
+So saying, she put their heads down with her hand, and packed them
+together in her apron as if they had been bits of cart-rope.
+
+Mr. Bernard had never heard of the power, or, at least, the belief in
+the possession of a power by certain persons, which enables them to
+handle these frightful reptiles with perfect impunity.  The fact,
+however, is well known to others, and more especially to a very
+distinguished Professor in one of the leading institutions of the
+great city of the land, whose experiences in the neighborhood of
+Graylock, as he will doubtless inform the curious, were very much
+like those of the young master.
+
+Mr. Bernard had a wired cage ready for his formidable captives, and
+studied their habits and expression with a strange sort of interest.
+What did the Creator mean to signify, when he made such shapes of
+horror, and, as if he had doubly cursed this envenomed wretch, had
+set a mark upon him and sent him forth the Cain of the brotherhood of
+serpents?  It was a very curious fact that the first train of
+thoughts Mr. Bernard's small menagerie suggested to him was the
+grave, though somewhat worn, subject of the origin of evil.  There is
+now to be seen in a tall glass jar, in the Museum of Comparative
+Anatomy at Cantabridge in the territory of the Massachusetts, a huge
+crotalus, of a species which grows to more frightful dimensions than
+our own, under the hotter skies of South America.  Look at it, ye who
+would know what is the tolerance, the freedom from prejudice, which
+can suffer such an incarnation of all that is devilish to lie
+unharmed in the cradle of Nature!  Learn, too, that there are many
+things in this world which we are warned to shun, and are even
+suffered to slay, if need be, but which we must not hate, unless we
+would hate what God loves and cares for.
+
+Whatever fascination the creature might exercise in his native
+haunts, Mr. Bernard found himself not in the least nervous or
+affected in any way while looking at his caged reptiles.  When their
+cage was shaken, they would lift their heads and spring their
+rattles; but the sound was by no means so formidable to listen to as
+when it reverberated among the chasms of the echoing rocks.  The
+expression of the creatures was watchful, still, grave, passionless,
+fate-like, suggesting a cold malignity which seemed to be waiting for
+its opportunity.  Their awful, deep-cut mouths were sternly closed
+over the long hollow fangs which rested their roots against the
+swollen poison-gland, where the venom had been hoarding up ever since
+the last stroke had emptied it.  They never winked, for ophidians
+have no movable eyelids, but kept up that awful fixed stare which
+made the two unwinking gladiators the survivors of twenty pairs
+matched by one of the Roman Emperors, as Pliny tells us, in his
+"Natural History."  Their eyes did not flash, but shone with a cold
+still light.  They were of a pale-golden or straw color, horrible to
+look into, with their stony calmness, their pitiless indifference,
+hardly enlivened by the almost imperceptible vertical slit of the
+pupil, through which Death seemed to be looking out like the archer
+behind the long narrow loop-hole in a blank turret-wall.  On the
+whole, the caged reptiles, horrid as they were, hardly matched his
+recollections of what he had seen or dreamed he save at the cavern.
+These looked dangerous enough, but yet quiet.  A treacherous
+stillness, however,--as the unfortunate New York physician found,
+when he put his foot out to wake up the torpid creature, and
+instantly the fang flashed through his boot, carrying the poison into
+his blood, and death with it.
+
+Mr. Bernard kept these strange creatures, and watched all their
+habits with a natural curiosity.  In any collection of animals the
+venomous beasts are looked at with the greatest interest, just as the
+greatest villains are most run after by the unknown public.  Nobody
+troubles himself for a common striped snake or a petty thief, but a
+cobra or a wife-killer is a centre of attraction to all eyes.  These
+captives did very little to earn their living, but, on the other
+hand, their living was not expensive, their diet being nothing but
+air, au naturel.  Months and months these creatures will live and
+seem to thrive well enough, as any showman who has then in his
+menagerie will testify, though they never touch anything to eat or
+drink.
+
+In the mean time Mr. Bernard had become very curious about a class of
+subjects not treated of in any detail in those text-books accessible
+in most country-towns, to the exclusion of the more special
+treatises, and especially of the rare and ancient works found on the
+shelves of the larger city-libraries.  He was on a visit to old Dr.
+Kittredge one day, having been asked by him to call in for a few
+moments as soon as convenient.  The Doctor smiled good-humoredly when
+he asked him if he had an extensive collection of medical works.
+
+"Why, no," said the old Doctor, "I haven't got a great many printed
+books; and what I have I don't read quite as often as I might, I'm
+afraid.  I read and studied in the time of it, when I was in the
+midst of the young men who were all at work with their books; but
+it's a mighty hard matter, when you go off alone into the country, to
+keep up with all that's going on in the Societies and the Colleges.
+I'll tell you, though, Mr. Langdon, when a man that's once started
+right lives among sick folks for five-and-thirty years, as I've done,
+if he has n't got a library of five-and-thirty volumes bound up in
+his head at the end of that time, he'd better stop driving round and
+sell his horse and sulky.  I know the bigger part of the families
+within a dozen miles' ride.  I know the families that have a way of
+living through everything, and I know the other set that have the
+trick of dying without any kind of reason for it.  I know the years
+when the fevers and dysenteries are in earnest, and when they're only
+making believe.  I know the folks that think they're dying as soon as
+they're sick, and the folks that never find out they 're sick till
+they're dead.  I don't want to undervalue your science, Mr. Langdon.
+There are things I never learned, because they came in after my day,
+and I am very glad to send my patients to those that do know them,
+when I am at fault; but I know these people about here, fathers and
+mothers, and children and grandchildren, so as all the science in the
+world can't know them, without it takes time about it, and sees them
+grow up and grow old, and how the wear and tear of life comes to
+them.  You can't tell a horse by driving him once, Mr. Langdon, nor a
+patient by talking half an hour with him."
+
+"Do you know much about the Veneer family?"  said Mr. Bernard, in a
+natural way enough, the Doctor's talk having suggested the question.
+
+The Doctor lifted his head with his accustomed movement, so as to
+command the young man through his spectacles.
+
+"I know all the families of this place and its neighborhood," he
+answered.
+
+"We have the young lady studying with us at the Institute," said Mr.
+Bernard.
+
+"I know it," the Doctor answered.  "Is she a good scholar?"
+
+All this time the Doctor's eyes were fixed steadily on Mr. Bernard,
+looking through the glasses.
+
+"She is a good scholar enough, but I don't know what to make of her.
+Sometimes I think she is a little out of her head.  Her father,
+I believe, is sensible enough;--what sort of a woman was her mother,
+Doctor?---I suppose, of course, you remember all about her?"
+
+"Yes, I knew her mother.  She was a very lovely young woman." --The
+Doctor put his hand to his forehead and drew a long breath. --"What
+is there you notice out of the way about Elsie Venner?"
+
+"A good many things," the master answered.  "She shuns all the other
+girls.  She is getting a strange influence over my fellow-teacher, a
+young lady,--you know Miss Helen Darley, perhaps?  I am afraid this
+girl will kill her.  I never saw or heard of anything like it, in
+prose at least;--do you remember much of Coleridge's Poems, Doctor?"
+
+The good old Doctor had to plead a negative.
+
+"Well, no matter.  Elsie would have been burned for a witch in old
+times.  I have seen the girl look at Miss Darley when she had not the
+least idea of it, and all at once I would see her grow pale and
+moist, and sigh, and move round uneasily, and turn towards Elsie, and
+perhaps get up and go to her, or else have slight spasmodic movements
+that looked like hysterics;--do you believe in the evil eye, Doctor?"
+
+"Mr. Langdon," the Doctor said, solemnly, "there are strange things
+about Elsie Veneer,--very strange things.  This was what I wanted to
+speak to you about.  Let me advise you all to be very patient with
+the girl, but also very careful.  Her love is not to be desired, and
+"--he spoke in a lower tone--"her hate is to be dreaded.  Do you
+think she has any special fancy for anybody else in the school
+besides Miss Darley?"
+
+Mr. Bernard could not stand the old Doctor's spectacled eyes without
+betraying a little of the feeling natural to a young man to whom a
+home question involving a possible sentiment is put suddenly.
+
+"I have suspected," he said,--"I have had a kind of feeling--that
+she--Well, come, Doctor,--I don't know that there 's any use in
+disguising the matter,--I have thought Elsie Veneer had rather a
+fancy for somebody else,--I mean myself."
+
+There was something so becoming in the blush with which the young man
+made this confession, and so manly, too, in the tone with which he
+spoke, so remote from any shallow vanity, such as young men who are
+incapable of love are apt to feel, when some loose tendril of a
+woman's fancy which a chance wind has blown against them twines about
+them for the want of anything better, that the old Doctor looked at
+him admiringly, and could not help thinking that it was no wonder any
+young girl should be pleased with him.
+
+"You are a man of nerve, Mr. Langdon?" said the Doctor.
+
+"I thought so till very lately," he replied.  "I am not easily
+frightened, but I don't know but I might be bewitched or magnetized,
+or whatever it is when one is tied up and cannot move.  I think I can
+find nerve enough, however, if there is any special use you want to
+put it to."
+
+"Let me ask you one more question, Mr. Langdon.  Do you find yourself
+disposed to take a special interest in Elsie,--to fall in love with
+her, in a word?  Pardon me, for I do not ask from curiosity, but a
+much more serious motive."
+
+"Elsie interests me," said the young man, "interests me strangely.
+She has a wild flavor in her character which is wholly different from
+that of any human creature I ever saw.  She has marks of genius,
+poetic or dramatic,--I hardly know which.  She read a passage from
+Keats's 'Lamia' the other day, in the schoolroom, in such a way that
+I declare to you I thought some of the girls would faint or go into
+fits.  Miss Darley got up and left the room, trembling all over.
+Then, I pity her, she is so lonely.  The girls are afraid of her, and
+she seems to have either a dislike or a fear of them.  They have all
+sorts of painful stories about her.  They give her a name which no
+human creature ought to bear.  They say she hides a mark on her neck
+by always wearing a necklace.  She is very graceful, you know, and
+they will have it that she can twist herself into all sorts of
+shapes, or tie herself in a knot, if she wants to.  There is not one
+of them that will look her in the eyes.  I pity the poor girl; but,
+Doctor, I do not love her.  I would risk my life for her, if it would
+do her any good, but it would be in cold blood.  If her hand touches
+mine, it is not a thrill of passion I feel running through me, but a
+very different emotion.  Oh, Doctor! there must be something in that
+creature's blood which has killed the humanity in her.  God only
+knows the cause that has blighted such a soul in so beautiful a body!
+No, Doctor, I do not love the girl."
+
+"Mr. Langdon," said the Doctor, "you are young, and I am old.  Let me
+talk to you with an old man's privilege, as an adviser.  You have
+come to this country-town without suspicion, and you are moving in
+the midst of perils.  There are things which I must not tell you now;
+but I may warn you.  Keep your eyes open and your heart shut.  If,
+through pitying that girl, you ever come to love her, you are lost.
+If you deal carelessly with her, beware!  This is not all.  There are
+other eyes on you beside Elsie Venner's.  Do you go armed?"
+
+"I do!" said Mr. Bernard,--and he "put his hands up" in the shape of
+fists, in such a way as to show that he was master of the natural
+weapons at any rate.
+
+The Doctor could not help smiling.  But his face fell in an instant.
+
+"You may want something more than those tools to work with.  Come
+with me into my sanctum."
+
+The Doctor led Mr. Bernard into a small room opening out of the
+study.  It was a place such as anybody but a medical man would shiver
+to enter.  There was the usual tall box with its bleached, rattling
+tenant; there were jars in rows where "interesting cases" outlived
+the grief of widows and heirs in alcoholic immortality, --for your
+"preparation-jar" is the true "monumentum aere perennius;" there were
+various semi-possibilities of minute dimensions and unpromising
+developments; there were shining instruments of evil aspect, and grim
+plates on the walls, and on one shelf by itself, accursed and apart,
+coiled in a long cylinder of spirit, a huge crotalus, rough-scaled,
+flatheaded, variegated with dull bands, one of which partially
+encircled the neck like a collar,--an awful wretch to look upon, with
+murder written all over him in horrid hieroglyphics.  Mr. Bernard's
+look was riveted on this creature,--not fascinated certainly, for its
+eyes looked like white beads, being clouded by the action of the
+spirits in which it had been long kept,--but fixed by some indefinite
+sense of the renewal of a previous impression;--everybody knows the
+feeling, with its suggestion of some past state of existence.  There
+was a scrap of paper on the jar, with something written on it.  He
+was reaching up to read it when the Doctor touched him lightly.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Langdon!" he said, with a certain vivacity of manner,
+as if wishing to call away his attention,--"this is my armory."
+
+The Doctor threw open the door of a small cabinet, where were
+disposed in artistic patterns various weapons of offence and
+defence,--for he was a virtuoso in his way, and by the side of the
+implements of the art of healing had pleased himself with displaying
+a collection of those other instruments, the use of which renders the
+first necessary.
+
+"See which of these weapons you would like best to carry about you,"
+said the Doctor.
+
+Mr. Bernard laughed, and looked at the Doctor as if he half doubted
+whether he was in earnest.
+
+"This looks dangerous enough," he said,--"for the man who carries it,
+at least."
+
+He took down one of the prohibited Spanish daggers or knives which a
+traveller may, occasionally get hold of and smuggle out of the
+country.  The blade was broad, trowel-like, but the point drawn out
+several inches, so as to look like a skewer.
+
+"This must be a jealous bull-fighter's weapon," he said, and put it
+back in its place.
+
+Then he took down an ancient-looking broad-bladed dagger, with a
+complex aspect about it, as if it had some kind of mechanism
+connected with it.
+
+"Take care!" said the Doctor; "there is a trick to that dagger."
+
+He took it and touched a spring.  The dagger split suddenly into
+three blades, as when one separates the forefinger and the ring-
+finger from the middle one.  The outside blades were sharp on their
+outer edge.  The stab was to be made with the dagger shut, then the
+spring touched and the split blades withdrawn.
+
+Mr. Bernard replaced it, saying, that it would have served for side-
+arm to old Suwarrow, who told his men to work their bayonets back and
+forward when they pinned a Turk, but to wriggle them about in the
+wound when they stabbed a Frenchman.
+
+"Here," said the Doctor, "this is the thing you want."
+
+He took down a much more modern and familiar implement,--a small,
+beautifully finished revolver.
+
+"I want you to carry this," he said; "and more than that, I want you
+to practise with it often, as for amusement, but so that it maybe
+seen and understood that you are apt to have a pistol about you.
+Pistol-shooting is pleasant sport enough, and there is no reason why
+you should not practise it like other young fellows.  And now," the
+Doctor said, "I have one other, weapon to give you."
+
+He took a small piece of parchment and shook a white powder into it
+from one of his medicine-jars.  The jar was marked with the name of a
+mineral salt, of a nature to have been serviceable in case of sudden
+illness in the time of the Borgias.  The Doctor folded the parchment
+carefully, and marked the Latin name of the powder upon it.
+
+"Here," he said, handing it to Mr. Bernard, "you see what it is, and
+you know what service it can render.  Keep these two protectors about
+your person day and night; they will not harm you, and you may want
+one or the other or both before you think of it."
+
+Mr. Bernard thought it was very odd, and not very old-gentlemanlike,
+to be fitting him out for treason, stratagem, and spoils, in this
+way.  There was no harm, however, in carrying a doctor's powder in
+his pocket, or in amusing himself with shooting at a mark, as he had
+often done before.  If the old gentleman had these fancies, it was as
+well to humor him.
+
+So he thanked old Doctor Kittredge, and shook his hand warmly as he
+left him.
+
+"The fellow's hand did not tremble, nor his color change," the Doctor
+said, as he watched him walking away.  "He is one of the right sort."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+EPISTOLARY.
+
+Mr. Langdon to the Professor.
+
+MY DEAR PROFESSOR,
+You were kind enough to promise me that you would assist me in any
+professional or scientific investigations in which I might become
+engaged.  I have of late become deeply interested in a class of
+subjects which present peculiar difficulty, and I must exercise the
+privilege of questioning you on some points upon which I desire
+information I cannot otherwise obtain.  I would not trouble you, if I
+could find any person or books competent to enlighten me on some of
+these singular matters which have so excited me.  The leading doctor
+here is a shrewd, sensible man, but not versed in the curiosities of
+medical literature.
+
+I proceed, with your leave, to ask a considerable number of
+questions,--hoping to get answers to some of them, at least.
+
+Is there any evidence that human beings can be infected or wrought
+upon by poisons, or otherwise, so that they shall manifest any of the
+peculiarities belonging to beings of a lower nature?  Can such
+peculiarities--be transmitted by inheritance?  Is there anything to
+countenance the stories, long and widely current, about the "evil
+eye"? or is it a mere fancy that such a power belongs to any human
+being?  Have you any personal experience as to the power of
+fascination said to be exercised by certain animals?  What can you
+make of those circumstantial statements we have seen in the papers,
+of children forming mysterious friendships with ophidians of
+different species, sharing their food with them, and seeming to be
+under some subtile influence exercised by those creatures?  Have you
+read, critically, Coleridge's poem of "Christabel," and Keats's
+"Lamia"? --If so, can you understand them, or find any physiological
+foundation for the story of either?
+
+There is another set of questions of a different nature I should like
+to ask, but it is hardly fair to put so many on a single sheet.
+There is one, however, you must answer.  Do you think there may be
+predispositions, inherited or ingrafted, but at any rate
+constitutional, which shall take out certain apparently voluntary
+determinations from the control of the will, and leave them as free
+from moral responsibility as the instincts of the lower animals?  Do
+you not think there may be a crime which is not a sin?
+
+Pardon me, my dear Sir, for troubling you with such a list of notes
+of interrogation.  There are some very strange things going on here
+in this place, country-town as it is.  Country-life is apt to be
+dull; but when it once gets going, it beats the city hollow, because
+it gives its whole mind to what it is about.  These rural sinners
+make terrible work with the middle of the Decalogue, when they get
+started.  However, I hope I shall live through my year's school-
+keeping without catastrophes, though there are queer doings about me
+which puzzle me and might scare some people.  If anything should
+happen, you will be one of the first to hear of it, no doubt.  But I
+trust not to help out the editors of the "Rockland Weekly Universe"
+with an obituary of the late lamented, who signed himself in life
+
+Your friend and pupil,
+
+BERNARD C.  LANGDON.
+
+
+
+The Professor to Mr. Langdon.
+
+MY DEAR MR. LANGDON,
+I do not wonder that you find no answer from your country friends to
+the curious questions you put.  They belong to that middle region
+between science and poetry which sensible men, as they are called,
+are very shy of meddling with.  Some people think that truth and gold
+are always to be washed for; but the wiser sort are of opinion, that,
+unless there are so many grains to the peck of sand or nonsense
+respectively, it does not pay to wash for either, so long as one can
+find anything else to do.  I don't doubt there is some truth in the
+phenomena of animal magnetism, for instance; but when you ask me to
+cradle for it, I tell you that the hysteric girls cheat so, and the
+professionals are such a set of pickpockets, that I can do something
+better than hunt for the grains of truth among their tricks and lies.
+Do you remember what I used to say in my lectures?---or were you
+asleep just then, or cutting your initials on the rail?  (You see I
+can ask questions, my young friend.) Leverage is everything,--was
+what I used to say;--don't begin to pry till you have got the long
+arm on your side.
+
+To please you, and satisfy your doubts as far as possible, I have
+looked into the old books,--into Schenckius and Turner and Kenelm.
+Digby and the rest, where I have found plenty of curious stories
+which you must take for what they are worth.
+
+Your first question I can answer in the affirmative upon pretty good
+authority.  Mizaldus tells, in his "Memorabilia," the well-known
+story of the girl fed on poisons, who was sent by the king of the
+Indies to Alexander the Great.  "When Aristotle saw her eyes
+sparkling and snapping like those of serpents, he said, 'Look out for
+yourself, Alexander!  this is a dangerous companion for you!'"--and
+sure enough, the young lady proved to be a very unsafe person to her
+friends.  Cardanus gets a story from Avicenna, of a certain man bit
+by a serpent, who recovered of his bite, the snake dying therefrom.
+This man afterwards had a daughter whom venomous serpents could not
+harm, though she had a fatal power over them.
+
+I suppose you may remember the statements of old authors about
+Zycanthropy, the disease in which men took on the nature and aspect
+of wolves.  Actius and Paulus, both men of authority, describe it.
+Altomaris gives a horrid case; and Fincelius mentions one occurring
+as late as 1541, the subject of which was captured, still insisting
+that he was a wolf, only that the hair of his hide was turned in!
+Versipelles, it may be remembered, was the Latin name for these
+"were-wolves."
+
+As for the cases where rabid persons have barked and bit like dogs,
+there are plenty of such on record.
+
+More singular, or at least more rare, is the account given by Andreas
+Baccius, of a man who was struck in the hand by a cock, with his
+beak, and who died on the third day thereafter, looking for all the
+world like a fighting-cock, to the great horror of the spectators.
+
+As to impressions transmitted at a very early period of existence,
+every one knows the story of King James's fear of a naked sword, and
+the way it is accounted for.  Sir Kenelm Digby says,--"I remember
+when he dubbed me Knight, in the ceremony of putting the point of a
+naked sword upon my shoulder, he could not endure to look upon it,
+but turned his face another way, insomuch, that, in lieu of touching
+my shoulder, he had almost thrust the point into my eyes, had not the
+Duke of Buckingham guided his hand aright."  It is he, too, who tells
+the story of the mulberry mark upon the neck of a certain lady of
+high condition, which "every year, to mulberry season, did swell,
+grow big, and itch."  And Gaffarel mentions the case of a girl born
+with the figure of a fish on one of her limbs, of which the wonder
+was, that, when the girl did eat fish, this mark put her to sensible
+pain.  But there is no end to cases of this kind, and I could give
+some of recent date, if necessary, lending a certain plausibility at
+least to the doctrine of transmitted impressions.
+
+I never saw a distinct case of evil eye, though I have seen eyes so
+bad that they might produce strange effects on very sensitive
+natures.  But the belief in it under various names, fascination,
+jettcztura, etc., is so permanent and universal, from Egypt to Italy,
+and from the days of Solomon to those of Ferdinand of Naples, that
+there must be some peculiarity, to say the least, on which the
+opinion is based.  There is very strong evidence that some such power
+is exercised by certain of the lower animals.  Thus, it is stated on
+good authority that "almost every animal becomes panic-struck at the
+sight of the rattlesnake, and seems at once deprived of the power of
+motion, or the exercise of its usual instinct of self-preservation."
+Other serpents seem to share this power of fascination, as the Cobra
+and the Buccephalus Capensis.
+
+Some think that it is nothing but fright; others attribute it to the
+
+               "strange powers that lie
+          Within the magic circle of the eye,"--
+
+as Churchill said, speaking of Garrick.
+
+You ask me about those mysterious and frightful intimacies between
+children and serpents, of which so many instances have been recorded.
+I am sure I cannot tell what to make of them.  I have seen several
+such accounts in recent papers, but here is one published in the
+seventeenth century, which is as striking as any of the more modern
+ones:
+
+"Mr. Herbert Tones of Monmouth, when he was a little Boy, was used to
+eat his Milk in a Garden in the Morning, and was no sooner there, but
+a large Snake always came, and eat out of the Dish with him, and did
+so for a considerable time, till one Morning, he striking the Snake
+on the Head, it hissed at him.  Upon which he told his Mother that
+the Baby (for so he call'd it) cry'd Hiss at him.  His Mother had it
+kill'd, which occasioned him a great Fit of Sickness, and 'twas
+thought would have dy'd, but did recover."
+
+There was likewise one "William Writtle, condemned at Maidston
+Assizes for a double murder, told a Minister that was with him after
+he was condemned, that his mother told him, that when he was a Child,
+there crept always to him a Snake, wherever she laid him.  Sometimes
+she would convey him up Stairs, and leave him never so little, she
+should be sure to find a Snake in the Cradle with him, but never
+perceived it did him any harm."
+
+One of the most striking alleged facts connected with the mysterious
+relation existing between the serpent and-the human species is the
+influence which the poison of the Crotulus, taken internally, seemed
+to produce over the moral faculties, in the experiments instituted by
+Dr. Hering at Surinam.  There is something frightful in the
+disposition of certain ophidians, as the whipsnake, which darts at
+the eyes of cattle without any apparent provocation or other motive.
+It is natural enough that the evil principle should have been
+represented in the form of a serpent, but it is strange to think of
+introducing it into a human being like cow-pox by vaccination.
+
+You know all about the Psylli, or ancient serpent tamers, I suppose.
+Savary gives an account of the modern serpent-tamers in his "Letters
+on Egypt."  These modern jugglers are in the habit of making the
+venomous Naja counterfeit death, lying out straight and stiff,
+changing it into a rod, as the ancient magicians did with their
+serpents, (probably the same animal,) in the time of Moses.
+
+I am afraid I cannot throw much light on "Christabel " or "Lamia " by
+any criticism I can offer.  Geraldine, in the former, seems to be
+simply a malignant witch-woman with the evil eye, but with no
+absolute ophidian relationship.  Lamia is a serpent transformed by
+magic into a woman.  The idea of both is mythological, and not in any
+sense physiological.  Some women unquestionably suggest the image of
+serpents; men rarely or never.   I have been struck, like many
+others, with the ophidian head and eye of the famous Rachel.
+
+Your question about inherited predispositions, as limiting the sphere
+of the will, and, consequently, of moral accountability, opens a very
+wide range of speculation.  I can give you only a brief abstract of
+my own opinions on this delicate and difficult subject.  Crime and
+sin, being the preserves of two great organized interests, have been
+guarded against all reforming poachers with as great jealousy as the
+Royal Forests.  It is so easy to hang a troublesome fellow!  It is so
+much simpler to consign a soul to perdition, or say masses, for
+money, to save it, than to take the blame on ourselves for letting it
+grow up in neglect and run to ruin for want of humanizing influences!
+They hung poor, crazy Bellingham for shooting Mr. Perceval.  The
+ordinary of Newgate preached to women who were to swing at Tyburn for
+a petty theft as if they were worse than other people,--just as
+though he would not have been a pickpocket or shoplifter, himself, if
+he had been born in a den of thieves and bred up to steal or starve!
+The English law never began to get hold of the idea that a crime was
+not necessarily a sin, till Hadfield, who thought he was the Saviour
+of mankind, was tried for shooting at George the Third;--lucky for
+him that he did not hit his Majesty!
+
+It is very singular that we recognize all the bodily defects that
+unfit a man for military service, and all the intellectual ones that
+limit his range of thought, but always talk at him as if all his
+moral powers were perfect.  I suppose we must punish evil-doers as we
+extirpate vermin; but I don't know that we have any more right to
+judge them than we have to judge rats and mice, which are just as
+good as cats and weasels, though we think it necessary to treat them
+as criminals.
+
+The limitations of human responsibility have never been properly
+studied, unless it be by the phrenologists. You know from my lectures
+that I consider phrenology, as taught, a pseudo-science, and not a
+branch of positive knowledge; but, for all that, we owe it an immense
+debt.  It has melted the world's conscience in its crucible, and cast
+it in a new mould, with features less like those of Moloch and more
+like those of humanity.  If it has failed to demonstrate its system
+of special correspondences, it has proved that there are fixed
+relations between organization and mind and character.  It has
+brought out that great doctrine of moral insanity, which has done
+more to make men charitable and soften legal and theological
+barbarism than any one doctrine that I can think of since the message
+of peace and good-will to men.
+
+Automatic action in the moral world; the reflex movement which seems
+to be self-determination, and has been hanged and howled at as such
+(metaphorically) for nobody knows how many centuries: until somebody
+shall study this as Marshall Hall has studied reflex nervous action
+in the bodily system, I would not give much for men's judgments of
+each others' characters.  Shut up the robber and the defaulter, we
+must.  But what if your oldest boy had been stolen from his cradle
+and bred in a North-Street cellar?  What if you are drinking a little
+too much wine and smoking a little too much tobacco, and your son
+takes after you, and so your poor grandson's brain being a little
+injured in physical texture, he loses the fine moral sense on which
+you pride yourself, and doesn't see the difference between signing
+another man's name to a draft and his own?
+
+I suppose the study of automatic action in the moral world (you see
+what I mean through the apparent contradiction of terms) may be a
+dangerous one in the view of many people.  It is liable to abuse, no
+doubt.  People are always glad to, get hold of anything which limits
+their responsibility.  But remember that our moral estimates come
+down to us from ancestors who hanged children for stealing forty
+shillings' worth, and sent their souls to perdition for the sin of
+being born,--who punished the unfortunate families of suicides, and
+in their eagerness for justice executed one innocent person every
+three years, on the average, as Sir James Mackintosh tells us.
+
+I do not know in what shape the practical question may present itself
+to you; but I will tell you my rule in life, and I think you will
+find it a good one.  Treat bad men exactly as if they were insane.
+They are in-sane, out of health, morally.  Reason, which is food to
+sound minds, is not tolerated, still less assimilated, unless
+administered with the greatest caution; perhaps, not at all.  Avoid
+collision with them, so far as you honorably can; keep your temper,
+if you can,--for one angry man is as good as another; restrain them
+from violence, promptly, completely, and with the least possible
+injury, just as in the case of maniacs,--and when you have got rid of
+them, or got them tied hand and foot so that they can do no mischief,
+sit down and contemplate them charitably, remembering that nine
+tenths of their' perversity comes from outside influences, drunken
+ancestors, abuse in childhood, bad company, from which you have
+happily been preserved, and for some of which you, as a member of
+society, may be fractionally responsible.  I think also that there
+are special influences which work in the brood lake ferments, and I
+have a suspicion that some of those curious old stories I cited may
+have more recent parallels.  Have you ever met with any cases which
+admitted of a solution like that which I have mentioned?,
+
+Yours very truly,
+
+_____________   _____________
+
+
+
+               Bernard Langdon to Philip Staples.
+
+MY DEAR PHILIP,--
+
+I have been for some months established in this place, turning the
+main crank of the machinery for the manufactory of accomplishments
+superintended by, or rather worked to the profit of, a certain Mr.
+Silas Peckham.  He is a poor wretch, with a little thin fishy blood
+in his body, lean and flat, long-armed and large-handed, thick-
+jointed and thin-muscled,--you know those unwholesome, weak-eyed,
+half-fed creatures, that look not fit to be round among live folks,
+and yet not quite dead enough to bury.  If you ever hear of my being
+in court to answer to a charge of assault and battery, you may guess
+that I have been giving him a thrashing to settle off old scores; for
+he is a tyrant, and has come pretty near killing his principal lady-
+assistant with overworking her and keeping her out of all decent
+privileges.
+
+Helen Darley is this lady's name,--twenty two or three years old, I
+should think,--a very sweet, pale woman,--daughter of the usual
+country-clergyman,--thrown on her own resources from an early age,
+and the rest: a common story, but an uncommon person,--very.  All
+conscience and sensibility, I should say,--a cruel worker,--no kind
+of regard for herself, seems as fragile and supple as a young willow-
+shoot, but try her and you find she has the spring in her of a steel
+cross-bow.  I am glad I happened to come to this place, if it were
+only for her sake.  I have saved that girl's life; I am as sure of it
+as if I had pulled her out of the fire or water.
+
+Of course I'm in love with her, you say,--we always love those whom
+we have benefited; "saved her life,--her love was the reward of his
+devotion," etc., etc., as in a regular set novel.  In love, Philip?
+Well, about that,--I love Helen Darley--very much: there is hardly
+anybody I love so well.  What a noble creature she is!  One of those
+that just go right on, do their own work and everybody else's,
+killing themselves inch by inch without ever thinking about it,--
+singing and dancing at their toil when they begin, worn and saddened
+after a while, but pressing steadily on, tottering by and by, and
+catching at the rail by the way-side to help them lift one foot
+before the other, and at last falling, face down, arms stretched
+forward
+
+Philip, my boy, do you know I am the sort of man that locks his door
+sometimes and cries his heart out of his eyes,--that can sob like a
+woman and not be ashamed of it?  I come of fighting-blood on one
+side, you know; I think I could be savage on occasion.  But I am
+tender,--more and more tender as I come into my fulness of manhood.
+I don't like to strike a man, (laugh, if you like,--I know I hit hard
+when I do strike,)--but what I can't stand is the sight of these
+poor, patient, toiling women, who never find out in this life how
+good they are, and never know what it is to be told they are angels
+while they still wear the pleasing incumbrances of humanity.  I don't
+know what to make of these cases.  To think that a woman is never to
+be a woman again, whatever she may come to as an unsexed angel,--and
+that she should die unloved!  Why does not somebody come and carry
+off this noble woman, waiting here all ready to make a man happy?
+Philip, do you know the pathos there is in the eyes of unsought
+women, oppressed with the burden of an inner life unshared?  I can
+see into them now as I could not in those 'earlier days.  I sometimes
+think their pupils dilate on purpose to let my consciousness glide
+through them; indeed, I dread them, I come so close to the nerve of
+the soul itself in these momentary intimacies.  You used to tell me I
+was a Turk,--that my heart was full of pigeon-holes, with
+accommodations inside for a whole flock of doves.  I don't know but I
+am still as Youngish as ever in my ways,--Brigham-Youngish, I mean;
+at any rate, T. always want to give a little love to all the poor
+things that cannot have a whole man to themselves.  If they would
+only be contented with a little!
+
+Here now are two girls in this school where I am teaching.  One of
+them, Rosa M., is not more than sixteen years old, I think they say;
+but Nature has forced her into a tropical luxuriance of beauty, as if
+it were July with her, instead of May.  I suppose it is all natural
+enough that this girl should like a young man's attention, even if he
+were a grave schoolmaster; but the eloquence of this young thing's
+look is unmistakable,--and yet she does not know the language it is
+talking,--they none of them do; and there is where a good many poor
+creatures of our good-for-nothing sex are mistaken.  There is no
+danger of my being rash, but I think this girl will cost somebody his
+life yet.  She is one of those women men make a quarrel about and
+fight to the death for,--the old feral instinct, you know.
+
+Pray, don't think I am lost in conceit, but there is another girl
+here who I begin to think looks with a certain kindness on me.  Her
+name is Elsie V., and she is the only daughter and heiress of an old
+family in this place.  She is a portentous and almost fearful
+creature.  If I should tell you all I know and half of what I fancy
+about her, you would tell me to get my life insured at once.  Yet she
+is the most painfully interesting being,--so handsome!  so lonely!---
+for she has no friends among the girls, and sits apart from them,--
+with black hair like the flow of a mountain-brook after a thaw, with
+a low-browed, scowling beauty of face, and such eyes as were never
+seen before, I really believe, in any human creature.
+
+Philip, I don't know what to say about this Elsie.  There is
+something about her I have not fathomed.  I have conjectures which I
+could not utter to any living soul.  I dare not even hint the
+possibilities which have suggested themselves to me.  This I will
+say, that I do take the most intense interest in this young person,
+an interest much more like pity than love in its common sense.  If
+what I guess at is true, of all the tragedies of existence I ever
+knew this is the saddest, and yet so full of meaning!  Do not ask me
+any questions,--I have said more than I meant to already; but I am
+involved in strange doubts and perplexities,--in dangers too, very
+possibly,--and it is a relief just to speak ever so guardedly of them
+to an early and faithful friend.
+
+Yours ever, BERNARD.
+
+P. S.  I remember you had a copy of Fortunius Licetus' "De Monstris "
+among your old books.  Can't you lend it to me for a while?  I am
+curious, and it will amuse me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+OLD SOPHY CALLS ON THE REVEREND DOCTOR.
+
+The two meeting-houses which faced each other like a pair of
+fighting-cocks had not flapped their wings or crowed at each other
+for a considerable time.  The Reverend Mr. Fairweather had been
+dyspeptic and low-spirited of late, and was too languid for
+controversy.  The Reverend Doctor Honeywood had been very busy with
+his benevolent associations, and had discoursed chiefly on practical
+matters, to the neglect of special doctrinal subjects.  His senior
+deacon ventured to say to him that some of his people required to be
+reminded of the great fundamental doctrine of the worthlessness of
+all human efforts and motives.  Some of them were altogether too much
+pleased with the success of the Temperance Society and the
+Association for the Relief of the Poor.  There was a pestilent heresy
+about, concerning the satisfaction to be derived from a good
+conscience, as if, anybody ever did anything which was not to be
+hated, loathed, despised, and condemned.
+
+The old minister listened gravely, with an inward smile, and told his
+deacon that he would attend to his suggestion.  After the deacon had
+gone, he tumbled over his manuscripts, until at length he came upon
+his first-rate old sermon on "Human Nature."  He had read a great
+deal of hard theology, and had at last reached that curious state
+which is so common in good ministers,--that, namely, in which they
+contrive to switch off their logical faculties on the narrow
+sidetrack of their technical dogmas, while the great freight-train of
+their substantial human qualities keeps in the main highway of
+common-sense, in which kindly souls are always found by all who
+approach them by their human side.
+
+The Doctor read his sermon with a pleasant, paternal interest: it was
+well argued from his premises.  Here and there he dashed his pen
+through a harsh expression.  Now and then he added an explanation or
+qualified abroad statement.  But his mind was on the logical side-
+track, and he followed the chain of reasoning without fairly
+perceiving where it would lead him, if he carried it into real life.
+
+He was just touching up the final proposition, when his
+granddaughter, Letty, once before referred to, came into the room
+with her smiling face and lively movement.  Miss Letty or Letitia
+Forrester was a city-bred girl of some fifteen or sixteen years old,
+who was passing the summer with her grandfather for the sake of
+country air and quiet.  It was a sensible arrangement; for, having
+the promise of figuring as a belle by and by, and being a little
+given to dancing, and having a voice which drew a pretty dense circle
+around the piano when she sat down to play and sing, it was hard to
+keep her from being carried into society before her time, by the mere
+force of mutual attraction.  Fortunately, she had some quiet as well
+as some social tastes, and was willing enough to pass two or three of
+the summer months in the country, where she was much better bestowed
+than she would have been at one of those watering-places where so
+many half-formed girls get prematurely hardened in the vice of self-
+consciousness.
+
+Miss Letty was altogether too wholesome, hearty, and high-strung a
+young girl to be a model, according to the flat-chested and cachectic
+pattern which is the classical type of certain excellent young
+females, often the subjects of biographical memoirs.  But the old
+minister was proud of his granddaughter for all that.  She was so
+full of life, so graceful, so generous, so vivacious, so ready always
+to do all she could for him and for everybody, so perfectly frank in
+her avowed delight in the pleasures which this miserable world
+offered her in the shape of natural beauty, of poetry, of music, of
+companionship, of books, of cheerful cooperation in the tasks of
+those about her, that the Reverend Doctor could not find it in his
+heart to condemn her because she was deficient in those particular
+graces and that signal other-worldliness he had sometimes noticed in
+feeble young persons suffering from various chronic diseases which
+impaired their vivacity and removed them from the range of
+temptation.
+
+When Letty, therefore, came bounding into the old minister's study,
+he glanced up from his manuscript, and, as his eye fell upon her, it
+flashed across him that there was nothing so very monstrous and
+unnatural about the specimen of congenital perversion he was looking
+at, with his features opening into their pleasantest sunshine.
+Technically, according to the fifth proposition of the sermon on
+Human Nature, very bad, no doubt.  Practically, according to the fact
+before him, a very pretty piece of the Creator's handiwork, body and
+soul.  Was it not a conceivable thing that the divine grace might
+show itself in different forms in a fresh young girl like Letitia,
+and in that poor thing he had visited yesterday, half-grown, half-
+colored, in bed for the last year with hip-disease?
+
+Was it to be supposed that this healthy young girl, with life
+throbbing all over her, could, without a miracle, be good according
+to the invalid pattern and formula?
+
+And yet there were mysteries in human nature which pointed to some
+tremendous perversion of its tendencies,--to some profound, radical
+vice of moral constitution, native or transmitted, as you will have
+it, but positive, at any rate, as the leprosy, breaking out in the
+blood of races, guard them ever so carefully.  Did he not know the
+case of a young lady in Rockland, daughter of one of the first
+families in the place, a very beautiful and noble creature to look
+at, for whose bringing up nothing had been spared,--a girl who had
+had governesses to teach her at the house, who had been indulged
+almost too kindly,--a girl whose father had given himself, up to her,
+he being himself a pure and high-souled man?--and yet this girl was
+accused in whispers of having been on the very verge of committing a
+fatal crime; she was an object of fear to all who knew the dark hints
+which had been let fall about her, and there were some that believed
+--Why, what was this but an instance of the total obliquity and
+degeneration of the moral principle? and to what could it be owing,
+but to an innate organic tendency?
+
+"Busy, grandpapa?" said Letty, and without waiting for an answer
+kissed his cheek with a pair of lips made on purpose for that little
+function,--fine, but richly turned out, the corners tucked in with a
+finish of pretty dimples, the rose-bud lips of girlhood's June.
+
+The old gentleman looked at his granddaughter.  Nature swelled up
+from his heart in a wave that sent a glow to his cheek and a sparkle
+to his eye.  But it is very hard to be interrupted just as we are
+winding up a string of propositions with the grand conclusion which
+is the statement in brief of all that has gone before: our own
+starting-point, into which we have been trying to back our reader or
+listener as one backs a, horse into the shafts.
+
+"Video meliora, proboque,--I see the better, and approve it;
+deteriora sequor, I follow after the worse; 't is that natural
+dislike to what is good, pure, holy, and true, that inrooted
+selfishness, totally insensible to the claims of"---
+
+Here the worthy man was interrupted by Miss Letty.
+
+"Do come, if you can, grandpapa," said the young girl; "here is a
+poor old black woman wants to see you so much!"
+
+The good minister was as kind-hearted as if he had never groped in
+the dust and ashes of those cruel old abstractions which have killed
+out so much of the world's life and happiness.  "With the heart man
+believeth unto righteousness; " a man's love is the measure of his
+fitness for good or bad company here or elsewhere.  Men are tattooed
+with their special beliefs like so many South-Sea Islanders; but a
+real human heart, with Divine love in it, beats with the same glow
+under all, the patterns of all earth's thousand tribes!
+
+The Doctor sighed, and folded the sermon, and laid the Quarto Cruden
+on it.  He rose from his desk, and, looking once more at the young
+girl's face, forgot his logical conclusions, and said to himself that
+she was a little angel,--which was in violent contradiction to the
+leading doctrine of his sermon on Human Nature.  And so he followed
+her out of the study into the wide entry of the old-fashioned
+country-house.
+
+An old black woman sat on the plain oaken settle which humble
+visitors waiting to see the minister were wont to occupy.  She was
+old, but how old it would be very hard to guess.  She might be
+seventy.  She might be ninety.  One could not swear she was not a
+hundred.  Black women remain at a stationary age (to the eyes of
+white people, at least) for thirty years.  They do not appear to
+change during this period any more than so many Trenton trilobites.
+Bent up, wrinkled, yellow-eyed, with long upper-lip, projecting jaws,
+retreating chin, still meek features, long arms, large flat hands
+with uncolored palms and slightly webbed fingers, it was impossible
+not to see in this old creature a hint of the gradations by which
+life climbs up through the lower natures to the highest human
+developments.  We cannot tell such old women's ages because we do not
+understand the physiognomy of a race so unlike our own.  No doubt
+they see a great deal in each other's faces that we cannot,--changes
+of color and expression as real as our own, blushes and sudden
+betrayals of feeling,--just as these two canaries know what their
+single notes and short sentences and full song with this or that
+variation mean, though it is a mystery to us unplumed mortals.
+
+This particular old black woman was a striking specimen of her class.
+Old as she looked, her eye was bright and knowing.  She wore a red-
+and-yellow turban, which set off her complexion well, and hoops of
+gold in her ears, and beads of gold about her neck, and an old
+funeral ring upon her finger.  She had that touching stillness about
+her which belongs to animals that wait to be spoken to and then look
+up with a kind of sad humility.
+
+"Why, Sophy!"  said the good minister, "is this you?"
+
+She looked up with the still expression on her face.  "It's ol'
+Sophy," she said.
+
+"Why," said the Doctor, "I did not believe you could walk so far as
+this to save the Union.  Bring Sophy a glass of wine, Letty.  Wine's
+good for old folks like Sophy and me, after walking a good way, or
+preaching a good while."
+
+The young girl stepped into the back-parlor, where she found the
+great pewter flagon in which the wine that was left after each
+communion-service was brought to the minister's house.  With much
+toil she managed to tip it so as to get a couple of glasses filled.
+The minister tasted his, and made old Sophy finish hers.
+
+"I wan' to see you 'n' talk wi' you all alone," she said presently.
+
+The minister got up and led the way towards his study.  "To be sure,"
+he said; he had only waited for her to rest a moment before he asked
+her into the library.  The young girl took her gently by the arm, and
+helped her feeble steps along the passage.  When they reached the
+study, she smoothed the cushion of a rocking-chair, and made the old
+woman sit down in it.  Then she tripped lightly away, and left her
+alone with the minister.
+
+Old Sophy was a member of the Reverend Doctor Honeywood's church.
+She had been put through the necessary confessions in a tolerably
+satisfactory manner.  To be sure, as her grandfather had been a
+cannibal chief, according to the common story, and, at any rate, a
+terrible wild savage, and as her mother retained to the last some of
+the prejudices of her early education, there was a heathen flavor in
+her Christianity which had often scandalized the elder of the
+minister's two deacons.  But, the good minister had smoothed matters
+over: had explained that allowances were to be made for those who had
+been long sitting without the gate of Zion,--that, no doubt, a part
+of the curse which descended to the children of Ham consisted in
+"having the understanding darkened," as well as the skin,--and so had
+brought his suspicious senior deacon to tolerate old Sophy as one of
+the communion of fellow-sinners.
+
+--Poor things!  How little we know the simple notions with which
+these rudiments of souls are nourished by the Divine Goodness!  Did
+not Mrs. Professor come home this very blessed morning with a story
+of one of her old black women?
+
+"And how do you feel to-day, Mrs. Robinson?"
+
+"Oh, my dear, I have this singing in my head all the time."  (What
+doctors call tinnitus aurium.)
+
+"She 's got a cold in the head," said old Mrs. Rider.
+
+"Oh, no, my dear!  Whatever I'm thinking about, it's all this
+singing, this music.  When I'm thinking of the dear Redeemer, it all
+turns into this singing and music.  When the clark came to see me, I
+asked him if he couldn't cure me, and he said, No,--it was the Holy
+Spirit in me, singing to me; and all the time I hear this beautiful
+music, and it's the Holy Spirit a-singing to me."
+
+
+The good man waited for Sophy to speak; but she did not open her lips
+as yet.
+
+"I hope you are not troubled in mind or body," he said to her at
+length, finding she did not speak.
+
+The poor old woman took out a white handkerchief, and lifted it--to
+her black face.  She could not say a word for her tears and sobs.
+
+The minister would have consoled her; he was used to tears, and could
+in most cases withstand their contagion manfully; but something
+choked his voice suddenly, and when he called upon it, he got no
+answer, but a tremulous movement of the muscles, which was worse than
+silence.
+
+At last she spoke.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!  It's my poor girl, my darling, my beauty, my baby,
+that 's grown up to be a woman; she will come to a bad end; she will
+do something that will make them kill her or shut her up all her
+life.  Or, Doctor, Doctor, save her, pray for her!  It a'n't her
+fault.  It a'n't her fault.  If they knew all that I know, they would
+n' blame that poor child.  I must tell you, Doctor: if I should die,
+perhaps nobody else would tell you.  Massa Veneer can't talk about
+it.  Doctor Kittredge won't talk about it.  Nobody but old Sophy to
+tell you, Doctor; and old Sophy can't die without telling you."
+
+The kind minister soothed the poor old soul with those gentle,
+quieting tones which had carried peace and comfort to so many
+chambers of sickness and sorrow, to so many hearts overburdened by
+the trials laid upon them.
+
+Old Sophy became quiet in a few minutes, and proceeded to tell her
+story.  She told it in the low half-whisper which is the natural
+voice of lips oppressed wish grief and fears; with quick glances
+around the apartment from time to time, as if she dreaded lest the
+dim portraits on the walls and the dark folios on the shelves might
+overhear her words.
+
+It was not one of those conversations which a third person can report
+minutely, unless by that miracle of clairvoyance known to the readers
+of stories made out of authors' brains.  Yet its main character can
+be imparted in a much briefer space than the old black woman took to
+give all its details.
+
+She went far back to the time when Dudley Venner was born,--she being
+then a middle-aged woman.  The heir and hope of a family which had
+been narrowing down as if doomed to extinction, he had been
+surrounded with every care and trained by the best education he could
+have in New England.  He had left college, and was studying the
+profession which gentlemen of leisure most affect, when he fell in
+love with a young girl left in the world almost alone, as he was.
+The old woman told the story of his young love and his joyous bridal
+with a tenderness which had something more, even, than her family
+sympathies to account for it.  Had she not hanging over her bed a
+paper-cutting of a profile,--jet black, but not blacker than the face
+it represented--of one who would have been her own husband in the
+small years of this century, if the vessel in which he went to sea,
+like Jamie in the ballad, had not sailed away and never come back to
+land?  Had she not her bits of furniture stowed away which had been
+got ready for her own wedding,--two rocking-chairs, one worn with
+long use, one kept for him so long that it had grown a superstition
+with her never to sit in it,--and might he not come back yet, after
+all?  Had she not her chest of linen ready for her humble house-
+keeping with store of serviceable huckaback and piles of neatly
+folded kerchiefs, wherefrom this one that showed so white against her
+black face was taken, for that she knew her eyes would betray her in
+"the presence"?
+
+All the first part of the story the old woman told tenderly, and yet
+dwelling upon every incident with a loving pleasure.  How happy this
+young couple had been, what plans and projects of improvement they
+had formed, how they lived in each other, always together, so young
+and fresh and beautiful as she remembered them in that one early
+summer when they walked arm in arm through the wilderness of roses
+that ran riot in the garden,--she told of this as loath to leave it
+and come to the woe that lay beneath.
+
+She told the whole story;-shall I repeat it?  Not now.  If, in the
+course of relating the incidents I have undertaken to report, it
+tells itself, perhaps this will be better than to run the risk of
+producing a painful impression on some of those susceptible readers
+whom it would be ill-advised to disturb or excite, when they rather
+require to be amused and soothed.  In our pictures of life, we must
+show the flowering-out of terrible growths which have their roots
+deep, deep underground.  Just how far we shall lay bare the unseemly
+roots themselves is a matter of discretion and taste, and which none
+of us are infallible.
+
+The old woman told the whole story of Elsie, of her birth, of her
+peculiarities of person and disposition, of the passionate fears and
+hopes with which her father had watched the course of her
+development.  She recounted all her strange ways, from the hour when
+she first tried to crawl across the carpet, and her father's look as
+she worked her way towards him.  With the memory of Juliet's nurse
+she told the story of her teething, and how, the woman to whose
+breast she had clung dying suddenly about that time, they had to
+struggle hard with the child before she would learn the
+accomplishment of feeding with a spoon.  And so of her fierce plays
+and fiercer disputes with that boy who had been her companion, and
+the whole scene of the quarrel when she struck him with those sharp
+white teeth, frightening her, old Sophy, almost to death; for, as she
+said, the boy would have died, if it hadn't been for the old Doctor's
+galloping over as fast as he could gallop and burning the places
+right out of his arm.  Then came the story of that other incident,
+sufficiently alluded to already, which had produced such an ecstasy
+of fright and left such a nightmare of apprehension in the household.
+And so the old woman came down to this present time.  That boy she
+never loved nor trusted was grown to a dark, dangerous-looking man,
+and he was under their roof.  He wanted to marry our poor Elsie, and
+Elsie hated him, and sometimes she would look at him over her
+shoulder just as she used to look at that woman she hated; and she,
+old Sophy, couldn't sleep for thinking she should hear a scream from
+the white chamber some night and find him in spasms such as that
+woman came so near dying with.  And then there was something about
+Elsie she did not know what to make of: she would sit and hang her
+head sometimes, and look as if she were dreaming; and she brought
+home books they said a young gentleman up at the great school lent
+her; and once she heard her whisper in her sleep, and she talked as
+young girls do to themselves when they're thinking about somebody
+they have a liking for and think nobody knows it.
+
+She finished her long story at last.  The minister had listened to it
+in perfect silence.  He sat still even when she had done speaking,--
+still, and lost in thought.  It was a very awkward matter for him to
+have a hand in.  Old Sophy was his parishioner, but the Veneers had a
+pew in the Reverend Mr. Fairweather's meeting-house.  It would seem
+that he, Mr. Fairweather, was the natural adviser of the parties most
+interested.  Had he sense and spirit enough to deal with such people?
+Was there enough capital of humanity in his somewhat limited nature
+to furnish sympathy and unshrinking service for his friends in an
+emergency? or was he too busy with his own attacks of spiritual
+neuralgia, and too much occupied with taking account of stock of his
+own thin-blooded offences, to forget himself and his personal
+interests on the small scale and the large, and run a risk of his
+life, if need were, at any rate give himself up without reserve to
+the dangerous task of guiding and counselling these distressed and
+imperilled fellow-creatures?
+
+The good minister thought the best thing to do would be to call and
+talk over some of these matters with Brother Fairweather,--for so he
+would call him at times, especially if his senior deacon were not
+within earshot.  Having settled this point, he comforted Sophy with a
+few words of counsel and a promise of coming to see her very soon.
+He then called his man to put the old white horse into the chaise and
+drive Sophy back to the mansion-house.
+
+When the Doctor sat down to his sermon again, it looked very
+differently from the way it had looked at the moment he left it.
+When he came to think of it, he did not feel quite so sure
+practically about that matter of the utter natural selfishness of
+everybody.  There was Letty, now, seemed to take a very unselfish
+interest in that old black woman, and indeed in poor people
+generally; perhaps it would not be too much to say that she was
+always thinking of other people.  He thought he had seen other young
+persons naturally unselfish, thoughtful for others; it seemed to be a
+family trait in some he had known.
+
+But most of all he was exercised about this poor girl whose story
+Sophy had been telling.  If what the old woman believed was true,--
+and it had too much semblance of probability,--what became of his
+theory of ingrained moral obliquity applied to such a case?  If by
+the visitation of God a person receives any injury which impairs the
+intellect or the moral perceptions, is it not monstrous to judge such
+a person by our common working standards of right and wrong?
+Certainly, everybody will answer, in cases where there is a palpable
+organic change brought about, as when a blow on the head produces
+insanity.  Fools!  How long will it be before we shall learn that for
+every wound which betrays itself to the sight by a scar, there are a
+thousand unseen mutilations that cripple, each of them, some one or
+more of our highest faculties?  If what Sophy told and believed was
+the real truth, what prayers could be agonizing enough, what
+tenderness could be deep enough, for this poor, lost, blighted,
+hapless, blameless child of misfortune, struck by such a doom as
+perhaps no living creature in all the sisterhood of humanity shared
+with her?
+
+The minister thought these matters over until his mind was bewildered
+with doubts and tossed to and fro on that stormy deep of thought
+heaving forever beneath the conflict of windy dogmas.  He laid by his
+old sermon.  He put back a pile of old commentators with their eyes
+and mouths and hearts full of the dust of the schools.  Then he
+opened the book of Genesis at the eighteenth chapter and read that
+remarkable argument of Abraham's with his Maker in which he boldly
+appeals to first principles.  He took as his text, "Shall not the
+Judge of all the earth do right?" and began to write his sermon,
+afterwards so famous, "On the Obligations of an Infinite Creator to a
+Finite Creature."
+
+It astonished the good people, who had been accustomed so long to
+repeat mechanically their Oriental hyperboles of self-abasement, to
+hear their worthy minister maintaining that the dignified attitude of
+the old Patriarch, insisting on what was reasonable and fair with
+reference to his fellow-creatures, was really much more respectful to
+his Maker, and a great deal manlier and more to his credit, than if
+he had yielded the whole matter, and pretended that men had not
+rights as well as duties.  The same logic which had carried him to
+certain conclusions with reference to human nature, this same
+irresistible logic carried him straight on from his text until he
+arrived at those other results, which not only astonished his people,
+as was said, but surprised himself.  He went so far in defence of the
+rights of man, that he put his foot into several heresies, for which
+men had been burned so often, it was time, if ever it could be, to
+acknowledge the demonstration of the argumentum ad ignem.  He did not
+believe in the responsibility of idiots.  He did not believe a new-
+born infant was morally answerable for other people's acts.  He
+thought a man with a crooked spine would never be called to account
+for not walking erect.  He thought if the crook was in his brain,
+instead of his back, he could not fairly be blamed for any
+consequence of this natural defect, whatever lawyers or divines might
+call it.  He argued, that, if a person inherited a perfect mind,
+body, and disposition, and had perfect teaching from infancy, that
+person could do nothing more than keep the moral law perfectly.  But
+supposing that the Creator allows a person to be born with an
+hereditary or ingrafted organic tendency, and then puts this person
+into the hands of teachers incompetent or positively bad, is not what
+is called sin or transgression of the law necessarily involved in the
+premises?  Is not a Creator bound to guard his children against the
+ruin which inherited ignorance might entail on them?  Would it be
+fair for a parent to put into a child's hands the title-deeds to all
+its future possessions, and a bunch of matches?  And are not men
+children, nay, babes, in the eye of Omniscience? --The minister grew
+bold in his questions.  Had not he as good right to ask questions as
+Abraham?
+
+This was the dangerous vein of speculation in which the Reverend
+Doctor Honeywood found himself involved, as a consequence of the
+suggestions forced upon him by old Sophy's communication.  The truth
+was, the good man had got so humanized by mixing up with other people
+in various benevolent schemes, that, the very moment he could escape
+from his old scholastic abstractions, he took the side of humanity
+instinctively, just as the Father of the Faithful did,--all honor be
+to the noble old Patriarch for insisting on the worth of an honest
+man, and making the best terms he could for a very ill-conditioned
+metropolis, which might possibly, however, have contained ten
+righteous people, for whose sake it should be spared!
+
+The consequence of all this was, that he was in a singular and
+seemingly self-contradictory state of mind when he took his hat and
+cane and went forth to call on his heretical brother.  The old
+minister took it for granted that the Reverend Mr. Fairweather knew
+the private history of his parishioner's family.  He did not reflect
+that there are griefs men never put into words,--that there are fears
+which must not be spoken,--intimate matters of consciousness which
+must be carried, as bullets which have been driven deep into the
+living tissues are sometimes carried, for a whole lifetime,--encysted
+griefs, if we may borrow the chirurgeon's term, never to be reached,
+never to be seen, never to be thrown out, but to go into the dust
+with the frame that bore them about with it, during long years of
+anguish, known only to the sufferer and his Maker.  Dudley Venner had
+talked with his minister about this child of his.  But he had talked
+cautiously, feeling his way for sympathy, looking out for those
+indications of tact and judgment which would warrant him in some
+partial communication, at least, of the origin of his doubts and
+fears, and never finding them.
+
+There was something about the Reverend Mr. Fairweather which
+repressed all attempts at confidential intercourse.  What this
+something was, Dudley Venner could hardly say; but he felt it
+distinctly, and it sealed his lips.  He never got beyond certain
+generalities connected with education and religious instruction.  The
+minister could not help discovering, however, that there were
+difficulties connected with this girl's management, and he heard
+enough outside of the family to convince him that she had manifested
+tendencies, from an early age, at variance with the theoretical
+opinions he was in the habit of preaching, and in a dim way of
+holding for truth, as to the natural dispositions of the human being.
+
+About this terrible fact of congenital obliquity his new beliefs
+began to cluster as a centre, and to take form as a crystal around
+its nucleus.  Still, he might perhaps have struggled against them,
+had it not been for the little Roman Catholic chapel he passed every
+Sunday, on his way to the meeting-house.  Such a crowd of
+worshippers, swarming into the pews like bees, filling all the
+aisles, running over at the door like berries heaped too full in the
+measure,--some kneeling on the steps, some standing on the sidewalk,
+hats off, heads down, lips moving, some looking on devoutly from the
+other side of the street!  Oh, could he have followed his own
+Bridget, maid of all work, into the heart of that steaming throng,
+and bowed his head while the priests intoned their Latin prayers!
+could he have snuffed up the cloud of frankincense, and felt that he
+was in the great ark which holds the better half of the Christian
+world, while all around it are wretched creatures, some struggling
+against the waves in leaky boats, and some on ill-connected rafts,
+and some with their heads just above water, thinking to ride out the
+flood which is to sweep the earth clean of sinners, upon their own
+private, individual life-preservers!
+
+Such was the present state of mind of the Reverend Chauncy
+Fairweather, when his clerical brother called upon him to talk over
+the questions to which old Sophy had called his attention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE REVEREND DOCTOR CALLS ON BROTHER FAIRWEATHER.
+
+For the last few months, while all these various matters were going
+on in Rockland, the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had been busy with
+the records of ancient councils and the writings of the early
+fathers.  The more he read, the more discontented he became with the
+platform upon which he and his people were standing.  They and he
+were clearly in a minority, and his deep inward longing to be with
+the majority was growing into an engrossing passion.  He yearned
+especially towards the good old unquestioning, authoritative Mother
+Church, with her articles of faith which took away the necessity for
+private judgment, with her traditional forms and ceremonies, and her
+whole apparatus of stimulants and anodynes.
+
+About this time he procured a breviary and kept it in his desk under
+the loose papers.  He sent to a Catholic bookstore and obtained a
+small crucifix suspended from a string of beads.  He ordered his new
+coat to be cut very narrow in the collar and to be made single-
+breasted.  He began an informal series of religious conversations
+with Miss O'Brien, the young person of Irish extraction already
+referred to as Bridget, maid of all work.  These not proving very
+satisfactory, he managed to fall in with Father McShane, the Catholic
+priest of the Rockland church.
+
+Father McShane encouraged his nibble very scientifically.  It would
+be such a fine thing to bring over one of those Protestant heretics,
+and a "liberal" one too!---not that there was any real difference
+between them, but it sounded better, to say that one of these
+rationalizing free-and-equal religionists had been made a convert
+than any of those half-way Protestants who were the slaves of
+catechisms instead of councils, and of commentators instead of popes.
+The subtle priest played his disciple with his finest tackle.  It was
+hardly necessary: when anything or anybody wishes to be caught, a
+bare hook and a coarse line are all that is needed.
+
+If a man has a genuine, sincere, hearty wish to get rid of his
+liberty, if he is really bent upon becoming a slave, nothing can stop
+him.  And the temptation is to some natures a very great one.
+Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man.  It involves that necessity
+for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always
+dreaded.  In common life we shirk it by forming habits, which take
+the place of self-determination.  In politics party-organization
+saves us the pains of much thinking before deciding how to cast our
+vote.  In religious matters there are great multitudes watching us
+perpetually, each propagandist ready with his bundle of finalities,
+which having accepted we may be at peace.  The more absolute the
+submission demanded, the stronger the temptation becomes to those who
+have been long tossed among doubts and conflicts.
+
+So it is that in all the quiet bays which indent the shores of the
+great ocean of thought, at every sinking wharf, we see moored the
+hulks and the razees of enslaved or half-enslaved intelligences.
+They rock peacefully as children in their cradles on the subdued
+swell which comes feebly in over the bar at the harbor's mouth,
+slowly crusting with barnacles, pulling at their iron cables as if
+they really wanted to be free; but better contented to remain bound
+as they are.  For these no more the round unwalled horizon of the
+open sea, the joyous breeze aloft, the furrow, the foam, the sparkle,
+that track the rushing keel!  They have escaped the dangers of the
+wave, and lie still henceforth, evermore.  Happiest of souls, if
+lethargy is bliss, and palsy the chief beatitude!
+
+America owes its political freedom to religious Protestantism.  But
+political freedom is reacting on religious prescription with still
+mightier force.  We wonder, therefore, when we find a soul which was
+born to a full sense of individual liberty, an unchallenged right of
+self-determination on every new alleged truth offered to its
+intelligence, voluntarily surrendering any portion of its liberty to
+a spiritual dictatorship which always proves to rest, in the last
+analysis, on a majority vote, nothing more nor less, commonly an old
+one, passed in those barbarous times when men cursed and murdered
+each other for differences of opinion, and of course were not in a
+condition to settle the beliefs of a comparatively civilized
+community.
+
+In our disgust, we are liable to be intolerant.  We forget that
+weakness is not in itself a sin.  We forget that even cowardice may
+call for our most lenient judgment, if it spring from innate
+infirmity, Who of us does not look with great tenderness on the young
+chieftain in the "Fair Maid of Perth," when he confesses his want of
+courage?  All of us love companionship and sympathy; some of us may
+love them too much.  All of us are more or less imaginative in our
+theology.
+
+Some of us may find the aid of material symbols a comfort, if not a
+necessity.  The boldest thinker may have his moments of languor and
+discouragement, when he feels as if he could willingly exchange
+faiths with the old beldame crossing herself at the cathedral-door,--
+nay, that, if he could drop all coherent thought, and lie in the
+flowery meadow with the brown-eyed solemnly unthinking cattle,
+looking up to the sky, and all their simple consciousness staining
+itself blue, then down to the grass, and life turning to a mere
+greenness, blended with confused scents of herbs,--no individual
+mind-movement such as men are teased with, but the great calm cattle-
+sense of all time and all places that know the milky smell of herds,
+--if he could be like these, he would be content to be driven home by
+the cow-boy, and share the grassy banquet of the king of ancient
+Babylon.  Let us be very generous, then, in our judgment of those who
+leave the front ranks of thought for the company of the meek non-
+combatants who follow with the baggage and provisions.  Age, illness,
+too much wear and tear, a half-formed paralysis, may bring any of us
+to this pass.  But while we can think and maintain the rights of our
+own individuality against every human combination, let us not forget
+to caution all who are disposed to waver that there is a cowardice
+which is criminal, and a longing for rest which it is baseness to
+indulge.  God help him, over whose dead soul in his living body must
+be uttered the sad supplication, Requiescat in pace!
+
+A knock at the Reverend Mr. Fairweather's study door called his eyes
+from the book on which they were intent.  He looked up, as if
+expecting a welcome guest.
+
+The Reverend Pierrepont Honeywood, D. D., entered the study of the
+Reverend Chauncy Fairweather.  He was not the expected guest.  Mr.
+Fairweather slipped the book he was reading into a half-open drawer,
+and pushed in the drawer.  He slid something which rattled under a
+paper lying on the table.  He rose with a slight change of color, and
+welcomed, a little awkwardly, his unusual visitor.
+
+"Good-evening, Brother Fairweather!" said the Reverend Doctor, in a
+very cordial, good-humored way.  "I hope I am not spoiling one of
+those eloquent sermons I never have a chance to hear."
+
+"Not at all, not at all," the younger clergyman answered, in a
+languid tone, with a kind of habitual half-querulousness which
+belonged to it,--the vocal expression which we meet with now and
+then, and which says as plainly as so many words could say it, "I am
+a suffering individual.  I am persistently undervalued, wronged, and
+imposed upon by mankind and the powers of the universe generally.
+But I endure all.  I endure you.  Speak.  I listen.  It is a burden
+to me, but I even approve.  I sacrifice myself.  Behold this movement
+of my lips!  It is a smile."
+
+The Reverend Doctor knew this forlorn way of Mr. Fairweather's, and
+was not troubled by it.  He proceeded to relate the circumstances of
+his visit from the old black woman, and the fear she was in about the
+young girl, who being a parishioner of Mr. Fairweather's, he had
+thought it best to come over and speak to him about old Sophy's fears
+and fancies.
+
+In telling the old woman's story, he alluded only vaguely to those
+peculiar circumstances to which she had attributed so much
+importance, taking it for granted that the other minister must be
+familiar with the whole series of incidents she had related.  The old
+minister was mistaken, as we have before seen.  Mr. Fairweather had
+been settled in the place only about ten years, and, if he had heard
+a strange hint now and then about Elsie, had never considered it as
+anything more than idle and ignorant, if not malicious, village-
+gossip.  All that he fully understood was that this had been a
+perverse and unmanageable child, and that the extraordinary care
+which had been bestowed on her had been so far thrown away that she
+was a dangerous, self-willed girl, whom all feared and almost all
+shunned, as if she carried with her some malignant influence.
+
+He replied, therefore, after hearing the story, that Elsie had always
+given trouble.  There seemed to be a kind of natural obliquity about
+her.  Perfectly unaccountable.  A very dark case.  Never amenable to
+good influences.  Had sent her good books from the Sunday-school
+library.  Remembered that she tore out the frontispiece of one of
+them, and kept it, and flung the book out of the window.  It was a
+picture of Eve's temptation; and he recollected her saying that Eve
+was a good woman,--and she'd have done just so, if she'd been there.
+A very sad child, very sad; bad from infancy.  He had talked himself
+bold, and said all at once,  "Doctor, do you know I am almost ready
+to accept your doctrine of the congenital sinfulness of human nature?
+I am afraid that is the only thing which goes to the bottom of the
+difficulty."
+
+The old minister's face did not open so approvingly as Mr.
+Fairweather had expected.
+
+"Why, yes,--well,--many find comfort in it,--I believe;--there is
+much to be said,--there are many bad people,--and bad children,
+--I can't be so sure about bad babies,--though they cry very
+malignantly at times,--especially if they have the stomach-ache.
+But I really don't know how to condemn this poor Elsie; she may have
+impulses that act in her like instincts in the lower animals, and so
+not come under the bearing of our ordinary rules of judgment."
+
+"But this depraved tendency, Doctor,--this unaccountable
+perverseness.  My dear Sir, I am afraid your school is in the right
+about human nature.  Oh, those words of the Psalmist, 'shapen in
+iniquity,' and the rest!  What are we to do with them,--we who teach
+that the soul of a child is an unstained white tablet?"
+
+"King David was very subject to fits of humility, and much given to
+self-reproaches," said the Doctor, in a rather dry way.  "We owe you
+and your friends a good deal for calling attention to the natural
+graces, which, after all, may, perhaps, be considered as another form
+of manifestation of the divine influence.  Some of our writers have
+pressed rather too hard on the tendencies of the human soul toward
+evil as such.  It maybe questioned whether these views have not
+interfered with the sound training of certain young persons, sons of
+clergymen and others.  I am nearer of your mind about the possibility
+of educating children so that they shall become good Christians
+without any violent transition.  That is what I should hope for from
+bringing them up 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.'"
+
+The younger minister looked puzzled, but presently answered,
+"Possibly we may have called attention to some neglected truths; but,
+after all, I fear we must go to the old school, if we want to get at
+the root of the matter.  I know there is an outward amiability about
+many young persons, some young girls especially, that seems like
+genuine goodness; but I have been disposed of late to lean toward
+your view, that these human affections, as we see them in our
+children,--ours, I say, though I have not the fearful responsibility
+of training any of my own,--are only a kind of disguised and sinful
+selfishness."
+
+The old minister groaned in spirit.  His heart had been softened by
+the sweet influences of children and grandchildren.  He thought of a
+half-sized grave in the burial-ground, and the fine, brave, noble-
+hearted boy he laid in it thirty years before,--the sweet, cheerful
+child who had made his home all sunshine until the day when he was
+brought into it, his long curls dripping, his fresh lips purpled in
+death,--foolish dear little blessed creature to throw himself into
+the deep water to save the drowning boy, who clung about him and
+carried him under!  Disguised selfishness!  And his granddaughter
+too, whose disguised selfishness was the light of his household!
+
+"Don't call it my view!" he said.  "Abstractly, perhaps, all natures
+may be considered vitiated; but practically, as I see it in life, the
+divine grace keeps pace with the perverted instincts from infancy in
+many natures.  Besides, this perversion itself may often be disease,
+bad habits transmitted, like drunkenness, or some hereditary
+misfortune, as with this Elsie we were talking about."
+
+The younger minister was completely mystified. At every step he made
+towards the Doctor's recognized theological position, the Doctor took
+just one step towards his.  They would cross each other soon at this
+rate, and might as well exchange pulpits,--as Colonel Sprowle once
+wished they would, it may be remembered.
+
+The Doctor, though a much clearer-headed man, was almost equally
+puzzled.  He turned the conversation again upon Elsie, and endeavored
+to make her minister feel the importance of bringing every friendly
+influence to bear upon her at this critical period of her life.  His
+sympathies did not seem so lively as the Doctor could have wished.
+Perhaps he had vastly more important objects of solicitude in his own
+spiritual interests.
+
+A knock at the door interrupted them.  The Reverend Mr. Fairweather
+rose and went towards it.  As he passed the table, his coat caught
+something, which came rattling to the floor.  It was a crucifix with
+a string of beads attached.  As he opened the door, the Milesian
+features of Father McShane presented themselves, and from their
+centre proceeded the clerical benediction in Irish-sounding Latin,
+Pax vobiscum!
+
+The Reverend Doctor Honeywood rose and left the priest and his
+disciple together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE SPIDER ON HIS THREAD.
+
+There was nobody, then, to counsel poor Elsie, except her father, who
+had learned to let her have her own way so as not to disturb such
+relations as they had together, and the old black woman, who had a
+real, though limited influence over the girl.  Perhaps she did not
+need counsel.  To look upon her, one might well suppose that she was
+competent to defend herself against any enemy she was like to have.
+That glittering, piercing eye was not to be softened by a few smooth
+words spoken in low tones, charged with the common sentiments which
+win their way to maidens' hearts.  That round, lithe, sinuous figure
+was as full of dangerous life as ever lay under the slender flanks
+and clean-shaped limbs of a panther.
+
+There were particular times when Elsie was in such a mood that it
+must have been a bold person who would have intruded upon her with
+reproof or counsel.  "This is one of her days," old Sophy would say
+quietly to her father, and he would, as far as possible, leave her to
+herself.  These days were more frequent, as old Sophy's keen,
+concentrated watchfulness had taught her, at certain periods of the
+year.  It was in the heats of summer that they were most common and
+most strongly characterized.  In winter, on the other hand, she was
+less excitable, and even at times heavy and as if chilled and dulled
+in her sensibilities.  It was a strange, paroxysmal kind of life that
+belonged to her.  It seemed to come and go with the sunlight.  All
+winter long she would be comparatively quiet, easy to manage,
+listless, slow in her motions; her eye would lose something of its
+strange lustre; and the old nurse would feel so little anxiety, that
+her whole expression and aspect would show the change, and people
+would say to her, "Why, Sophy, how young you're looking!"
+
+As the spring came on, Elsie would leave the fireside, have her
+tiger-skin spread in the empty southern chamber next the wall, and
+lie there basking for whole hours in the sunshine.  As the season
+warmed, the light would kindle afresh in her eyes, and the old
+woman's sleep would grow restless again,--for she knew, that, so long
+as the glitter was fierce in the girl's eyes, there was no trusting
+her impulses or movements.
+
+At last, when the veins of the summer were hot and swollen, and the
+juices of all the poison-plants and the blood of all the creatures
+that feed upon them had grown thick and strong,--about the time when
+the second mowing was in hand, and the brown, wet-faced men were
+following up the scythes as they chased the falling waves of grass,
+(falling as the waves fall on sickle-curved beaches; the foam-flowers
+dropping as the grass-flowers drop,--with sharp semivowel consonantal
+sounds,--frsh,--for that is the way the sea talks, and leaves all
+pure vowel-sounds for the winds to breathe over it, and all mutes to
+the unyielding earth,)--about this time of over-ripe midsummer, the
+life of Elsie seemed fullest of its malign and restless instincts.
+This was the period of the year when the Rockland people were most
+cautious of wandering in the leafier coverts which skirted the base
+of The Mountain, and the farmers liked to wear thick, long boots,
+whenever they went into the bushes.  But Elsie was never so much
+given to roaming over The Mountain as at this season; and as she had
+grown more absolute and uncontrollable, she was as like to take the
+night as the day for her rambles.
+
+At this season, too, all her peculiar tastes in dress and ornament
+came out in a more striking way than at other times.  She was never
+so superb as then, and never so threatening in her scowling beauty.
+The barred skirts she always fancied showed sharply beneath her
+diaphanous muslins; the diamonds often glittered on her breast as if
+for her own pleasure rather than to dazzle others; the asp-like
+bracelet hardly left her arm.  She was never seen without some
+necklace,--either the golden cord she wore at the great party, or a
+chain of mosaics, or simply a ring of golden scales.  Some said that
+Elsie always slept in a necklace, and that when she died she was to
+be buried in one.  It was a fancy of hers,--but many thought there
+was a reason for it.
+
+Nobody watched Elsie with a more searching eye than her cousin, Dick
+Venner.  He had kept more out of her way of late, it is true, but
+there was not a movement she made which he did not carefully observe
+just so far as he could without exciting her suspicion.  It was plain
+enough to him that the road to fortune was before him, and that the
+first thing was to marry Elsie.  What course he should take with her,
+or with others interested, after marrying her, need not be decided in
+a hurry.
+
+He had now done all he could expect to do at present in the way of
+conciliating the other members of the household.  The girl's father
+tolerated him, if he did not even like him.  Whether he suspected his
+project or not Dick did not feel sure; but it was something to have
+got a foothold in the house, and to have overcome any prepossession
+against him which his uncle might have entertained.  To be a good
+listener and a bad billiard-player was not a very great sacrifice to
+effect this object.  Then old Sophy could hardly help feeling
+well-disposed towards him, after the gifts he had bestowed on her and
+the court he had paid her.  These were the only persons on the place
+of much importance to gain over.  The people employed about the house
+and farm-lands had little to do with Elsie, except to obey her
+without questioning her commands.
+
+Mr. Richard began to think of reopening his second parallel.  But he
+had lost something of the coolness with which he had begun his system
+of operations.  The more he had reflected upon the matter, the more
+he had convinced himself that this was his one great chance in life.
+If he suffered this girl to escape him, such an opportunity could
+hardly, in the nature of things, present itself a second time.  Only
+one life between Elsie and her fortune,--and lives are so uncertain!
+The girl might not suit him as a wife.  Possibly.  Time enough to
+find out after he had got her.  In short, he must have the property,
+and Elsie Venner, as she was to go with it,--and then, if he found it
+convenient and agreeable to, lead a virtuous life, he would settle
+down and raise children and vegetables; but if he found it
+inconvenient and disagreeable, so much the worse for those who made
+it so.  Like many other persons, he was not principled against
+virtue, provided virtue were a better investment than its opposite;
+but he knew that there might be contingencies in which the property
+would be better without its incumbrances, and he contemplated this
+conceivable problem in the light of all its possible solutions.
+
+One thing Mr. Richard could not conceal from himself: Elsie had some
+new cause of indifference, at least, if not of aversion to him.  With
+the acuteness which persons who make a sole business of their own
+interest gain by practice, so that fortune-hunters are often shrewd
+where real lovers are terribly simple, he fixed at once on the young
+man up at the school where the girl had been going of late, as
+probably at the bottom of it.
+
+"Cousin Elsie in love!"  so he communed with himself upon his lonely
+pillow.  "In love with a Yankee schoolmaster!  What else can it be?
+Let him look out for himself!  He'll stand but a bad chance between
+us.  What makes you think she's in love with him?  Met her walking
+with him.  Don't like her looks and ways;--she's thinking about
+something, anyhow.  Where does she get those books she is reading so
+often?  Not out of our library, that 's certain.  If I could have ten
+minutes' peep into her chamber now, I would find out where she got
+them, and what mischief she was up to."
+
+At that instant, as if some tributary demon had heard his wish, a
+shape which could be none but Elsie's flitted through a gleam of
+moonlight into the shadow of the trees.  She was setting out on one
+of her midnight rambles.
+
+Dick felt his heart stir in its place, and presently his cheeks
+flushed with the old longing for an adventure.  It was not much to
+invade a young girl's deserted chamber, but it would amuse a wakeful
+hour, and tell him some little matters he wanted to know.  The
+chamber he slept in was over the room which Elsie chiefly occupied at
+this season.  There was no great risk of his being seen or heard, if
+he ventured down-stairs to her apartment.
+
+Mr. Richard Venner, in the pursuit of his interesting project, arose
+and lighted a lamp.  He wrapped himself in a dressing-gown and thrust
+his feet into a pair of cloth slippers.  He stole carefully down the
+stair, and arrived safely at the door of Elsie's room.
+
+The young lady had taken the natural precaution to leave it fastened,
+carrying the key with her, no doubt,--unless; indeed, she had got out
+by the window, which was not far from the ground.  Dick could get in
+at this window easily enough, but he did not like the idea of leaving
+his footprints in the flower-bed just under it.  He returned to his
+own chamber, and held a council of war with himself.
+
+He put his head out of his own window and looked at that beneath.  It
+was open.  He then went to one of his trunks, which he unlocked, and
+began carefully removing its contents.  What these were we need not
+stop to mention,--only remarking that there were dresses of various
+patterns, which might afford an agreeable series of changes, and in
+certain contingencies prove eminently useful.  After removing a few
+of these, he thrust his hand to the very bottom of the remaining pile
+and drew out a coiled strip of leather many yards in length, ending
+in a noose,--a tough, well-seasoned lasso, looking as if it had seen
+service and was none the worse for it.  He uncoiled a few yards of
+this and fastened it to the knob of a door.  Then he threw the loose
+end out of the window so that it should hang by the open casement of
+Elsie's room.  By this he let himself down opposite her window, and
+with a slight effort swung himself inside the room.  He lighted a
+match, found a candle, and, having lighted that, looked curiously
+about him, as Clodius might have done when he smuggled himself in
+among the Vestals.
+
+Elsie's room was almost as peculiar as her dress and ornaments.  It
+was a kind of museum of objects, such as the woods are full of to
+those who have eyes to see them, but many of them such as only few
+could hope to reach, even if they knew where to look for them.
+Crows' nests, which are never found but in the tall trees, commonly
+enough in the forks of ancient hemlocks, eggs of rare birds, which
+must have taken a quick eye and a hard climb to find and get hold of,
+mosses and ferns of unusual aspect, and quaint monstrosities of
+vegetable growth, such as Nature delights in, showed that Elsie had
+her tastes and fancies like any naturalist or poet.
+
+Nature, when left to her own freaks in the forest, is grotesque and
+fanciful to the verge of license, and beyond it.  The foliage of
+trees does not always require clipping to make it look like an image
+of life.  From those windows at Canoe Meadow, among the mountains, we
+could see all summer long a lion rampant, a Shanghai chicken, and
+General Jackson on horseback, done by Nature in green leaves, each
+with a single tree.  But to Nature's tricks with boughs and roots and
+smaller vegetable growths there is no end.  Her fancy is infinite,
+and her humor not always refined.  There is a perpetual reminiscence
+of animal life in her rude caricatures, which sometimes actually
+reach the point of imitating the complete human figure, as in that
+extraordinary specimen which nobody will believe to be genuine,
+except the men of science, and of which the discreet reader may have
+a glimpse by application in the proper quarter.
+
+Elsie had gathered so many of these sculpture-like monstrosities,
+that one might have thought she had robbed old Sophy's grandfather of
+his fetishes.  They helped to give her room a kind of enchanted look,
+as if a witch had her home in it.  Over the fireplace was a long,
+staff-like branch, strangled in the spiral coils of one of those
+vines which strain the smaller trees in their clinging embraces,
+sinking into the bark until the parasite becomes almost identified
+with its support.  With these sylvan curiosities were blended objects
+of art, some of them not less singular, but others showing a love for
+the beautiful in form and color, such as a girl of fine organization
+and nice culture might naturally be expected to feel and to indulge,
+in adorning her apartment.
+
+All these objects, pictures, bronzes, vases, and the rest, did not
+detain Mr. Richard Veneer very long, whatever may have been his
+sensibilities to art.  He was more curious about books and papers.  A
+copy of Keats lay on the table.  He opened it and read the name of
+Bernard C. Langdon on the blank leaf.  An envelope was on the table
+with Elsie's name written in a similar hand; but the envelope was
+empty, and he could not find the note it contained.  Her desk was
+locked, and it would not be safe to tamper with it.  He had seen
+enough; the girl received books and notes from this fellow up at the
+school, this usher, this Yankee quill-driver;--he was aspiring to
+become the lord of the Dudley domain, then, was he?
+
+Elsie had been reasonably careful.  She had locked up her papers,
+whatever they might be.  There was little else that promised to
+reward his curiosity, but he cast his eye on everything.  There was a
+clasp-Bible among her books.  Dick wondered if she ever unclasped it.
+There was a book of hymns; it had her name in it, and looked as if it
+might have been often read;--what the diablo had Elsie to do with
+hymns?
+
+Mr. Richard Venner was in an observing and analytical state of mind,
+it will be noticed, or he might perhaps have been touched with the
+innocent betrayals of the poor girl's chamber.  Had she, after all,
+some human tenderness in her heart?  That was not the way he put the
+question,--but whether she would take seriously to this schoolmaster,
+and if she did, what would be the neatest and surest and quickest way
+of putting a stop to all that nonsense.  All this, however, he could
+think over more safely in his own quarters.  So he stole softly to
+the window, and, catching the end of the leathern thong, regained his
+own chamber and drew in the lasso.
+
+It needs only a little jealousy to set a man on who is doubtful in
+love or wooing, or to make him take hold of his courting in earnest.
+As soon as Dick had satisfied himself that the young schoolmaster was
+his rival in Elsie's good graces, his whole thoughts concentrated
+themselves more than ever on accomplishing his great design of
+securing her for himself.  There was no time to be lost.  He must
+come into closer relations with her, so as to withdraw her thoughts
+from this fellow, and to find out more exactly what was the state of
+her affections, if she had any.  So he began to court her company
+again, to propose riding with her, to sing to her, to join her
+whenever she was strolling about the grounds, to make himself
+agreeable, according to the ordinary understanding of that phrase, in
+every way which seemed to promise a chance for succeeding in that
+amiable effort.
+
+The girl treated him more capriciously than ever.  She would be
+sullen and silent, or she would draw back fiercely at some harmless
+word or gesture, or she would look at him with her eyes narrowed in
+such a strange way and with such a wicked light in them that Dick
+swore to himself they were too much for him, and would leave her for
+the moment.  Yet she tolerated him, almost as a matter of necessity,
+and sometimes seemed to take a kind of pleasure in trying her power
+upon him.  This he soon found out, and humored her in the fancy that
+she could exercise a kind of fascination over him, though there were
+times in which he actually felt an influence he could not understand,
+an effect of some peculiar expression about her, perhaps, but still
+centring in those diamond eyes of hers which it made one feel so
+curiously to look into.
+
+Whether Elsie saw into his object or not was more than he could tell.
+His idea was, after having conciliated the good-will of all about her
+as far as possible, to make himself first a habit and then a
+necessity with the girl,--not to spring any trap of a declaration
+upon her until tolerance had grown into such a degree of inclination
+as her nature was like to admit.  He had succeeded in the first part
+of his plan.  He was at liberty to prolong his visit at his own
+pleasure.  This was not strange; these three persons, Dudley Venner,
+his daughter, and his nephew, represented all that remained of an old
+and honorable family.  Had Elsie been like other girls, her father
+might have been less willing to entertain a young fellow like Dick as
+an inmate; but he had long outgrown all the slighter apprehensions
+which he might have had in common with all parents, and followed
+rather than led the imperious instincts of his daughter.  It was not
+a question of sentiment, but of life and death, or more than that,--
+some dark ending, perhaps, which would close the history of his race
+with disaster and evil report upon the lips of all coming
+generations.
+
+As to the thought of his nephew's making love to his daughter, it had
+almost passed from his mind.  He had been so long in the habit of
+looking at Elsie as outside of all common influences and exceptional
+in the law of her nature, that it was difficult for him to think of
+her as a girl to be fallen in love with.  Many persons are surprised,
+when others court their female relatives; they know them as good
+young or old women enough,--aunts, sisters, nieces, daughters,
+whatever they may be,--but never think of anybody's falling in love
+with them, any more than of their being struck by lightning.  But in
+this case there were special reasons, in addition to the common
+family delusion,--reasons which seemed to make it impossible that she
+should attract a suitor.  Who would dare to marry Elsie?  No, let her
+have the pleasure, if it was one, at any rate the wholesome
+excitement, of companionship; it might save her from lapsing into
+melancholy or a worse form of madness.  Dudley Venner had a kind of
+superstition, too, that, if Elsie could only outlive three
+septenaries, twenty-one years, so that, according to the prevalent
+idea, her whole frame would have been thrice made over, counting from
+her birth, she would revert to the natural standard of health of mind
+and feelings from which she had been so long perverted.  The thought
+of any other motive than love being sufficient to induce Richard to
+become her suitor had not occurred to him.  He had married early, at
+that happy period when interested motives are least apt to influence
+the choice; and his single idea of marriage was, that it was the
+union of persons naturally drawn towards each other by some mutual
+attraction.  Very simple, perhaps; but he had lived lonely for many
+years since his wife's death, and judged the hearts of others, most
+of all of his brother's son, by his own.  He had often thought
+whether, in case of Elsie's dying or being necessarily doomed to
+seclusion, he might not adopt this nephew and make him his heir; but
+it had not occurred to him that Richard might wish to become his son-
+in-law for the sake of his property.
+
+It is very easy to criticise other people's modes of dealing with
+their children.  Outside observers see results; parents see
+processes.  They notice the trivial movements and accents which
+betray the blood of this or that ancestor; they can detect the
+irrepressible movement of hereditary impulse in looks and acts which
+mean nothing to the common observer.  To be a parent is almost to be
+a fatalist.  This boy sits with legs crossed, just as his uncle used
+to whom he never saw; his grandfathers both died before he was born,
+but he has the movement of the eyebrows which we remember in one of
+them, and the gusty temper of three different generations, can tell
+pretty nearly the range of possibilities and the limitations of a
+child, actual or potential, of a given stock,--errors excepted
+always, because children of the same stock are not bred just alike,
+because the traits of some less known ancestor are liable to break
+out at any time, and because each human being has, after all, a small
+fraction of individuality about him which gives him a flavor, so that
+he is distinguishable from others by his friends or in a court of
+justice, and which occasionally makes a genius or a saint or a
+criminal of him.  It is well that young persons cannot read these
+fatal oracles of Nature.  Blind impulse is her highest wisdom, after
+all.  We make our great jump, and then she takes the bandage off our
+eyes.  That is the way the broad sea-level of average is maintained,
+and the physiological democracy is enabled to fight against the
+principle of selection which would disinherit all the weaker
+children.  The magnificent constituency of mediocrities of which the
+world is made up,--the people without biographies, whose lives have
+made a clear solution in the fluid menstruum of time, instead of
+being precipitated in the opaque sediment of history
+
+But this is a narrative, and not a disquisition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+FROM WITHOUT AND FROM WITHIN.
+
+There were not wanting people who accused Dudley VENNER of weakness
+and bad judgment in his treatment of his daughter.  Some were of
+opinion that the great mistake was in not "breaking her will" when
+she was a little child.  There was nothing the matter with her, they
+said, but that she had been spoiled by indulgence.  If they had had
+the charge of her, they'd have brought her down.  She'd got the
+upperhand of her father now; but if he'd only taken hold of her in
+season!  There are people who think that everything may be done, if
+the doer, be he educator or physician, be only called "in season."
+No doubt,--but in season would often be a hundred or two years before
+the child was born; and people never send so early as that.
+
+The father of Elsie Veneer knew his duties and his difficulties too
+well to trouble himself about anything others might think or say.  So
+soon as he found that he could not govern his child, he gave his life
+up to following her and protecting her as far as he could.  It was a
+stern and terrible trial for a man of acute sensibility, and not
+without force of intellect and will, and the manly ambition for
+himself and his family-name which belonged to his endowments and his
+position.  Passive endurance is the hardest trial to persons of such
+a nature.
+
+What made it still more a long martyrdom was the necessity for
+bearing his cross in utter loneliness.  He could not tell his griefs.
+He could not talk of them even with those who knew their secret
+spring.  His minister had the unsympathetic nature which is common in
+the meaner sort of devotees,--persons who mistake spiritual
+selfishness for sanctity, and grab at the infinite prize of the great
+Future and Elsewhere with the egotism they excommunicate in its
+hardly more odious forms of avarice and self-indulgence.  How could
+he speak with the old physician and the old black woman about a
+sorrow and a terror which but to name was to strike dumb the lips of
+Consolation?
+
+In the dawn of his manhood he had found that second consciousness for
+which young men and young women go about looking into each other's
+faces, with their sweet, artless aim playing in every feature, and
+making them beautiful to each other, as to all of us.  He had found
+his other self early, before he had grown weary in the search and
+wasted his freshness in vain longings: the lot of many, perhaps we
+may say of most, who infringe the patent of our social order by
+intruding themselves into a life already upon half allowance of the
+necessary luxuries of existence.  The life he had led for a brief
+space was not only beautiful in outward circumstance, as old Sophy
+had described it to the Reverend Doctor.  It was that delicious
+process of the tuning of two souls to each other, string by string,
+not without little half-pleasing discords now and then when some
+chord in one or the other proves to be overstrained or over-lax, but
+always approaching nearer and nearer to harmony, until they become at
+last as two instruments with a single voice.  Something more than a
+year of this blissful doubled consciousness had passed over him when
+he found himself once more alone,--alone, save for the little
+diamond-eyed child lying in the old black woman's arms, with the
+coral necklace round--her throat and the rattle in her hand.
+
+He would not die by his own act.  It was not the way in his family.
+There may have been other, perhaps better reasons, but this was
+enough; he did not come of suicidal stock.  He must live for this
+child's sake, at any rate; and yet,--oh, yet, who could tell with
+what thoughts he looked upon her?  Sometimes her little features
+would look placid, and something like a smile would steal over them;
+then all his tender feelings would rush up, into his eyes, and he
+would put his arms out to take her from the old woman,--but all at
+once her eyes would narrow and she would throw her head back, and a
+shudder would seize him as he stooped over his child,--he could not
+look upon her,--he could not touch his lips to her cheek; nay, there
+would sometimes come into his soul such frightful suggestions that he
+would hurry from the room lest the hinted thought should become a
+momentary madness and he should lift his hand against the hapless
+infant which owed him life.
+
+In those miserable days he used to wander all over The Mountain in
+his restless endeavor to seek some relief for inward suffering in
+outward action.  He had no thought of throwing himself from the
+summit of any of the broken cliffs, but he clambered over them
+recklessly, as having no particular care for his life.  Sometimes he
+would go into the accursed district where the venomous reptiles were
+always to be dreaded, and court their worst haunts, and kill all he
+could come near with a kind of blind fury which was strange in a
+person of his gentle nature.
+
+One overhanging cliff was a favorite haunt of his.  It frowned upon
+his home beneath in a very menacing way; he noticed slight seams and
+fissures that looked ominous;--what would happen, if it broke off
+some time or other and came crashing down on the fields and roofs
+below?  He thought of such a possible catastrophe with a singular
+indifference, in fact with a feeling almost like pleasure.  It would
+be such a swift and thorough solution of this great problem of life
+he was working out in ever-recurring daily anguish!  The remote
+possibility of such a catastrophe had frightened some timid dwellers
+beneath The Mountain to other places of residence; here the danger
+was most imminent, and yet he loved to dwell upon the chances of its
+occurrence.  Danger is often the best counterirritant in cases of
+mental suffering; he found a solace in careless exposure of his life,
+and learned to endure the trials of each day better by dwelling in
+imagination on the possibility that it might be the last for him and
+the home that was his.
+
+Time, the great consoler, helped these influences, and he gradually
+fell into more easy and less dangerous habits of life.  He ceased
+from his more perilous rambles.  He thought less of the danger from
+the great overhanging rocks and forests; they had hung there for
+centuries; it was not very likely they would crash or slide in his
+time.  He became accustomed to all Elsie's strange looks and ways.
+Old Sophy dressed her with ruffles round her neck, and hunted up the
+red coral branch with silver bells which the little toothless Dudleys
+had bitten upon for a hundred years.  By an infinite effort, her
+father forced himself to become the companion of this child, for whom
+he had such a mingled feeling, but whose presence was always a trial
+to him, and often a terror.
+
+At a cost which no human being could estimate, he had done his duty,
+and in some degree reaped his reward.  Elsie grew up with a kind of
+filial feeling for him, such as her nature was capable of.  She never
+would obey him; that was not to be looked for.  Commands, threats,
+punishments, were out of the question with her; the mere physical
+effects of crossing her will betrayed themselves in such changes of
+expression and manner that it would have been senseless to attempt to
+govern her in any such way.  Leaving her mainly to herself, she could
+be to some extent indirectly influenced,--not otherwise.  She called
+her father "Dudley," as if he had been her brother.  She ordered
+everybody and would be ordered by none.
+
+Who could know all these things, except the few people of the
+household?  What wonder, therefore, that ignorant and shallow persons
+laid the blame on her father of those peculiarities which were freely
+talked about,--of those darker tendencies which were hinted of in
+whispers?  To all this talk, so far as it reached him, he was
+supremely indifferent, not only with the indifference which all
+gentlemen feel to the gossip of their inferiors, but with a
+charitable calmness which did not wonder or blame.  He knew that his
+position was not simply a difficult, but an impossible one, and
+schooled himself to bear his destiny as well as he might, and report
+himself only at Headquarters.
+
+He had grown gentle under this discipline.  His hair was just
+beginning to be touched with silver, and his expression was that of
+habitual sadness and anxiety.  He had no counsellor, as we have seen,
+to turn to, who did not know either too much or too little.  He had
+no heart to rest upon and into which he might unburden himself of the
+secrets and the sorrows that were aching in his own breast.  Yet he
+had not allowed himself to run to waste in the long time since he was
+left alone to his trials and fears.  He had resisted the seductions
+which always beset solitary men with restless brains overwrought by
+depressing agencies.  He disguised no misery to himself with the
+lying delusion of wine.  He sought no sleep from narcotics, though he
+lay with throbbing, wide-open eyes through all the weary hours of the
+night.
+
+It was understood between Dudley Veneer and old Doctor Kittredge that
+Elsie was a subject of occasional medical observation, on account of
+certain mental peculiarities which might end in a permanent affection
+of her reason.  Beyond this nothing was said, whatever may have been
+in the mind of either.  But Dudley Veneer had studied Elsie's case in
+the light of all the books he could find which might do anything
+towards explaining it.  As in all cases where men meddle with medical
+science for a special purpose, having no previous acquaintance with
+it, his imagination found what it wanted in the books he read, and
+adjusted it to the facts before him.  So it was he came to cherish
+those two fancies before alluded to that the ominous birthmark she
+had carried from infancy might fade and become obliterated, and that
+the age of complete maturity might be signalized by an entire change
+in her physical and mental state.  He held these vague hopes as all
+of us nurse our only half-believed illusions.  Not for the world
+would he have questioned his sagacious old medical friend as to the
+probability or possibility of their being true.  We are very shy of
+asking questions of those who know enough to destroy with one word
+the hopes we live on.
+
+In this life of comparative seclusion to which the father had doomed
+himself for the sake of his child, he had found time for large and
+varied reading.  The learned Judge Thornton confessed himself
+surprised at the extent of Dudley Veneer's information.  Doctor
+Kittredge found that he was in advance of him in the knowledge of
+recent physiological discoveries.  He had taken pains to become
+acquainted with agricultural chemistry; and the neighboring farmers
+owed him some useful hints about the management of their land.  He
+renewed his old acquaintance with the classic authors.  He loved to
+warm his pulses with Homer and calm them down with Horace.  He
+received all manner of new books and periodicals, and gradually
+gained an interest in the events of the passing time.  Yet he
+remained almost a hermit, not absolutely refusing to see his
+neighbors, nor even churlish towards them, but on the other hand not
+cultivating any intimate relations with them.
+
+He had retired from the world a young man, little more than a youth,
+indeed, with sentiments and aspirations all of them suddenly
+extinguished.  The first had bequeathed him a single huge sorrow, the
+second a single trying duty.  In due time the anguish had lost
+something of its poignancy, the light of earlier and happier memories
+had begun to struggle with and to soften its thick darkness, and even
+that duty which he had confronted with such an effort had become an
+endurable habit.
+
+At a period of life when many have been living on the capital of
+their acquired knowledge and their youthful stock of sensibilities
+until their intellects are really shallower and their hearts emptier
+than they were at twenty, Dudley Veneer was stronger in thought and
+tenderer in soul than in the first freshness of his youth, when he
+counted but half his present years.  He had entered that period which
+marks the decline of men who have ceased growing in knowledge and
+strength: from forty to fifty a man must move upward, or the natural
+falling off in the vigor of life will carry him rapidly downward.  At
+this time his inward: nature was richer and deeper than in any
+earlier period of his life.  If he could only be summoned to action,
+he was capable of noble service.  If his sympathies could only find
+an outlet, he was never so capable of love as now; for his natural
+affections had been gathering in the course of all these years, and
+the traces of that ineffaceable calamity of his life were softened
+and partially hidden by new growths of thought and feeling, as the
+wreck left by a mountainslide is covered over by the gentle intrusion
+of the soft-stemmed herbs which will prepare it for the stronger
+vegetation that will bring it once more into harmony with the
+peaceful slopes around it.
+
+Perhaps Dudley Veneer had not gained so much in worldly wisdom as if
+he had been more in society and less in his study.  The indulgence
+with which he treated his nephew was, no doubt, imprudent.  A man
+more in the habit of dealing with men would have been more guarded
+with a person with Dick's questionable story and unquestionable
+physiognomy.  But he was singularly unsuspicious, and his natural
+kindness was an additional motive to the wish for introducing some
+variety into the routine of Elsie's life.
+
+If Dudley Veneer did not know just what he wanted at this period of
+his life, there were a great many people in the town of Rockland who
+thought they did know.  He had been a widower long enough,--nigh
+twenty year, wa'n't it?  He'd been aout to Spraowles's party,--there
+wa'n't anything to hender him why he shouldn't stir raound l'k other
+folks.  What was the reason he did n't go abaout to taown-meetin's
+'n' Sahbath-meetin's, 'n' lyceums, 'n' school 'xaminations, 'n'
+s'prise-parties, 'n' funerals,--and other entertainments where the
+still-faced two-story folks were in the habit of looking round to see
+if any of the mansion-house gentry were present?---Fac' was, he was
+livin' too lonesome daown there at the mansion-haouse.  Why shouldn't
+he make up to the Jedge's daughter?  She was genteel enough for him,
+and-let's see, haow old was she?  Seven-'n'itwenty,--no, six-'n'-
+twenty,--born the same year we buried our little Anny Marl".
+
+There was no possible objection to this arrangement, if the parties
+interested had seen fit to make it or even to think of it.  But
+"Portia," as some of the mansion-house people called her, did not
+happen to awaken the elective affinities of the lonely widower.  He
+met her once in a while, and said to himself that she was a good
+specimen of the grand style of woman; and then the image came back to
+him of a woman not quite so large, not quite so imperial in her port,
+not quite so incisive in her speech, not quite so judicial in her
+opinions, but with two or three more joints in her frame, and two or
+three soft inflections in her voice, which for some absurd reason or
+other drew him to her side and so bewitched him that he told her half
+his secrets and looked into her eyes all that he could not tell, in
+less time than it would have takes him to discuss the champion paper
+of the last Quarterly with the admirable "Portia."  Heu, quanto
+minus!  How much more was that lost image to him than all it left on
+earth!
+
+The study of love is very much like that of meteorology.  We know
+that just about so much rain will fall in a season; but on what
+particular day it will shower is more than we can tell.  We know that
+just about so much love will be made every year in a given
+population; but who will rain his young affections upon the heart of
+whom is not known except to the astrologers and fortune-tellers.  And
+why rain falls as it does and why love is made just as it is are
+equally puzzling questions.
+
+The woman a man loves is always his own daughter, far more his
+daughter than the female children born to him by the common law of
+life.  It is not the outside woman, who takes his name, that he
+loves: before her image has reached the centre of his consciousness,
+it has passed through fifty many-layered nerve-strainers, been
+churned over by ten thousand pulse-beats, and reacted upon by
+millions of lateral impulses which bandy it about through the mental
+spaces as a reflection is sent back and forward in a saloon lined
+with mirrors.  With this altered image of the woman before him, his
+preexisting ideal becomes blended.  The object of his love is in part
+the offspring of her legal parents, but more of her lover's brain.
+The difference between the real and the ideal objects of love must
+not exceed a fixed maximum.  The heart's vision cannot unite them
+stereoscopically into a single image, if the divergence passes
+certain limits.  A formidable analogy, much in the nature of a proof,
+with very serious consequences, which moralists and match-makers
+would do well to remember!  Double vision with the eyes of the heart
+is a dangerous physiological state, and may lead to missteps and
+serious falls.
+
+Whether Dudley Veneer would ever find a breathing image near enough
+to his ideal one, to fill the desolate chamber of his heart, or not,
+was very doubtful.  Some gracious and gentle woman, whose influence
+would steal upon him as the first low words of prayer after that
+interval of silent mental supplication known to one of our simpler
+forms of public worship, gliding into his consciousness without
+hurting its old griefs, herself knowing the chastening of sorrow, and
+subdued into sweet acquiescence with the Divine will,--some such
+woman as this, if Heaven should send him such, might call him back to
+the world of happiness, from which he seemed forever exiled.  He
+could never again be the young lover who walked through the garden-
+alleys all red with roses in the old dead and buried June of long
+ago.  He could never forget the bride of his youth, whose image,
+growing phantomlike with the lapse of years, hovered over him like a
+dream while waking and like a reality in dreams.  But if it might be
+in God's good providence that this desolate life should come under
+the influence of human affections once more, what an ecstasy of
+renewed existence was in store for him!  His life had not all been
+buried under that narrow ridge of turf with the white stone at its
+head.  It seemed so for a while; but it was not and could not and
+ought not to be so.  His first passion had been a true and pure one;
+there was no spot or stain upon it.  With all his grief there blended
+no cruel recollection of any word or look he would have wished to
+forget.  All those little differences, such as young married people
+with any individual flavor in their characters must have, if they are
+tolerably mated, had only added to the music of existence, as the
+lesser discords admitted into some perfect symphony, fitly resolved,
+add richness and strength to the whole harmonious movement.  It was a
+deep wound that Fate had inflicted on him; nay, it seemed like a
+mortal one; but the weapon was clean, and its edge was smooth.  Such
+wounds must heal with time in healthy natures, whatever a false
+sentiment may say, by the wise and beneficent law of our being.  The
+recollection of a deep and true affection is rather a divine
+nourishment for a life to grow strong upon than a poison to destroy
+it.
+
+Dudley Venner's habitual sadness could not be laid wholly to his
+early bereavement.  It was partly the result of the long struggle
+between natural affection and duty, on one side, and the involuntary
+tendencies these had to overcome, on the other,--between hope and
+fear, so long in conflict that despair itself would have been like an
+anodyne, and he would have slept upon some final catastrophe with the
+heavy sleep of a bankrupt after his failure is proclaimed.  Alas!
+some new affection might perhaps rekindle the fires of youth in his
+heart; but what power could calm that haggard terror of the parent
+which rose with every morning's sun and watched with every evening
+star,--what power save alone that of him who comes bearing the
+inverted torch, and leaving after him only the ashes printed with his
+footsteps?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE WIDOW ROWENS GIVES A TEA-PARTY.
+
+There was a good deal of interest felt, as has been said, in the
+lonely condition of Dudley Venner in that fine mansion-house of his,
+and with that strange daughter, who would never be married, as many
+people thought, in spite of all the stories.  The feelings expressed
+by the good folks who dated from the time when they "buried aour
+little Anny Mari'," and others of that homespun stripe, were founded
+in reason, after all.  And so it was natural enough that they should
+be shared by various ladies, who, having conjugated the verb to live
+as far as the preterpluperfect tense, were ready to change one of its
+vowels and begin with it in the present indicative.  Unfortunately,
+there was very little chance of showing sympathy in its active form
+for a gentleman who kept himself so much out of the way as the master
+of the Dudley Mansion.
+
+Various attempts had been made, from time to time, of late years, to
+get him out of his study, which had, for the most part, proved
+failures.  It was a surprise, therefore, when he was seen at the
+Great Party at the Colonel's.  But it was an encouragement to try him
+again, and the consequence had been that he had received a number of
+notes inviting him to various smaller entertainments, which, as
+neither he nor Elsie had any fancy for them, he had politely
+declined.
+
+Such was the state of things when he received an invitation to take
+tea sociably, with a few friends, at Hyacinth Cottage, the residence
+of the Widow Rowens, relict of the late Beeri Rowens, Esquire, better
+known as Major Rowens.  Major Rowens was at the time of his decease a
+promising officer in the militia, in the direct line of promotion, as
+his waistband was getting tighter every year; and, as all the world
+knows, the militia-officer who splits off most buttons and fills the
+largest sword-belt stands the best chance of rising, or, perhaps we
+might say, spreading, to be General.
+
+Major Rowens united in his person certain other traits which help a
+man to eminence in the branch of public service referred to.  He ran
+to high colors, to wide whiskers, to open pores; he had the saddle-
+leather skin common in Englishmen, rarer in Americans,--never found
+in the Brahmin caste, oftener in the military and the commodores:
+observing people know what is meant; blow the seed-arrows from the
+white-kid-looking button which holds them on a dandelion-stalk, and
+the pricked-pincushion surface shows you what to look for.  He had
+the loud gruff voice which implies the right to command.  He had the
+thick hand, stubbed fingers, with bristled pads between their joints,
+square, broad thumb-nails, and sturdy limbs, which mark a
+constitution made to use in rough out-door work.  He had the never-
+failing predilection for showy switch-tailed horses that step high,
+and sidle about, and act as if they were going to do something
+fearful the next minute, in the face of awed and admiring multitudes
+gathered at mighty musters or imposing cattle-shows.  He had no
+objection, either, to holding the reins in a wagon behind another
+kind of horse,--a slouching, listless beast, with a strong slant to
+his shoulder; and a notable depth to his quarter and an emphatic
+angle at the hock, who commonly walked or lounged along in a lazy
+trot of five or six miles an hour; but, if a lively colt happened to
+come rattling up alongside, or a brandy-faced old horse-jockey took
+the road to show off a fast nag, and threw his dust into the Major's
+face, would pick his legs up all at once, and straighten his body
+out, and swing off into a three-minute gait, in a way that "Old Blue"
+himself need not have been ashamed of.
+
+For some reason which must be left to the next generation of
+professors to find out, the men who are knowing in horse-flesh have
+an eye also for, let a long dash separate the brute creation from the
+angelic being now to be named,--for lovely woman.  Of this fact there
+can be no possible doubt; and therefore you shall notice, that, if a
+fast horse trots before two, one of the twain is apt to be a pretty
+bit of muliebrity, with shapes to her, and eyes flying about in all
+directions.
+
+Major Rowens, at that time Lieutenant of the Rockland Fusileers, had
+driven and "traded" horses not a few before he turned his acquired
+skill as a judge of physical advantages in another direction.  He
+knew a neat, snug hoof, a delicate pastern, a broad haunch, a deep
+chest, a close ribbed-up barrel, as well as any other man in the
+town.  He was not to be taken in by your thick-jointed, heavy-headed
+cattle, without any go to them, that suit a country-parson, nor yet
+by the "gaanted-up," long-legged animals, with all their
+constitutions bred out of them, such as rich greenhorns buy and cover
+up with their plated trappings.
+
+Whether his equine experience was of any use to him in the selection
+of the mate with whom he was to go in double harness so long as they
+both should live, we need not stop to question.  At any rate, nobody
+could find fault with the points of Miss Marilla Van Deusen, to whom
+he offered the privilege of becoming Mrs. Rowens.  The Van must have
+been crossed out of her blood, for she was an out-and-out brunette,
+with hair and eyes black enough for a Mohawk's daughter.  A fine
+style of woman, with very striking tints and outlines,--an excellent
+match for the Lieutenant, except for one thing.  She was marked by
+Nature for a widow.  She was evidently got up for mourning, and never
+looked so well as in deep black, with jet ornaments.
+
+The man who should dare to marry her would doom himself; for how
+could she become the widow she was bound to be, unless he could
+retire and give her a chance?  The Lieutenant lived, however, as we
+have seen, to become Captain and then Major, with prospects of
+further advancement.  But Mrs. Rowens often said she should never
+look well in colors.  At last her destiny fulfilled itself, and the
+justice of Nature was vindicated.  Major Rowens got overheated
+galloping about the field on the day of the Great Muster, and had a
+rush of blood to the head, according to the common report,--at any
+rate, something which stopped him short in his career of expansion
+and promotion, and established Mrs. Rowens in her normal condition of
+widowhood.
+
+The Widow Rowens was now in the full bloom of ornamental sorrow.  A
+very shallow crape bonnet, frilled and froth-like, allowed the parted
+raven hair to show its glossy smoothness.  A jet pin heaved upon her
+bosom with every sigh of memory, or emotion of unknown origin.  Jet
+bracelets shone with every movement of her slender hands, cased in
+close-fitting black gloves.  Her sable dress was ridged with manifold
+flounces, from beneath which a small foot showed itself from time to
+time, clad in the same hue of mourning.  Everything about her was
+dark, except the whites of her eyes and the enamel of her teeth.  The
+effect was complete.  Gray's Elegy was not a more perfect
+composition.
+
+Much as the Widow was pleased with the costume belonging to her
+condition, she did not disguise from herself that under certain
+circumstances she might be willing to change her name again.  Thus,
+for instance, if a gentleman not too far gone in maturity, of
+dignified exterior, with an ample fortune, and of unexceptionable
+character, should happen to set his heart upon her, and the only way
+to make him happy was to give up her weeds and go into those
+unbecoming colors again for his sake,--why, she felt that it was in
+her nature to make the sacrifice.  By a singular coincidence it
+happened that a gentleman was now living in Rockland who united in
+himself all these advantages.  Who he was, the sagacious reader may
+very probably have divined.  Just to see how it looked, one day,
+having bolted her door, and drawn the curtains close, and glanced
+under the sofa, and listened at the keyhole to be sure there was
+nobody in the entry,--just to see how it looked, she had taken out an
+envelope and written on the back of it Mrs. Manilla Veneer.  It made
+her head swim and her knees tremble.  What if she should faint, or
+die, or have a stroke of palsy, and they should break into the room
+and find that name written!  How she caught it up and tore it into
+little shreds, and then could not be easy until she had burned the
+small heap of pieces
+
+But these are things which every honorable reader will consider
+imparted in strict confidence.
+
+The Widow Rowens, though not of the mansion house set, was among the
+most genteel of the two-story circle, and was in the habit of
+visiting some of the great people.  In one of these visits she met a
+dashing young fellow with an olive complexion at the house of a
+professional gentleman who had married one of the white necks and
+pairs of fat arms from a distinguished family before referred to.
+The professional gentleman himself was out, but the lady introduced
+the olive-complexioned young man as Mr. Richard Venner.
+
+The Widow was particularly pleased with this accidental meeting.  Had
+heard Mr. Venner's name frequently mentioned.  Hoped his uncle was
+well, and his charming cousin,--was she as original as ever?  Had
+often admired that charming creature he rode: we had had some fine
+horses.  Had never got over her taste for riding, but could find
+nobody that liked a good long gallop since--well--she could n't help
+wishing she was alongside of him, the other day, when she saw him
+dashing by, just at twilight.
+
+The Widow paused; lifted a flimsy handkerchief with a very deep black
+border so as to play the jet bracelet; pushed the tip of her slender
+foot beyond the lowest of her black flounces; looked up; looked down;
+looked at Mr. Richard, the very picture of artless simplicity,--as
+represented in well-played genteel comedy.
+
+"A good bit of stuff," Dick said to himself, "and something of it
+left yet; caramba!  "The Major had not studied points for nothing,
+and the Widow was one of the right sort.  The young man had been a
+little restless of late, and was willing to vary his routine by
+picking up an acquaintance here and there.  So he took the Widow's
+hint.  He should like to have a scamper of half a dozen miles with
+her some fine morning.
+
+The Widow was infinitely obliged; was not sure that she could find
+any horse in the village to suit her; but it was so kind in him!
+Would he not call at Hyacinth Cottage, and let her thank him again
+there?
+
+Thus began an acquaintance which the Widow made the most of, and on
+the strength of which she determined to give a tea-party and invite a
+number of persons of whom we know something already.  She took a
+half-sheet of note-paper and made out her list as carefully as a
+country "merchant's clerk" adds up two and threepence (New-England
+nomenclature) and twelve and a half cents, figure by figure, and
+fraction by fraction, before he can be sure they will make half a
+dollar, without cheating somebody.  After much consideration the list
+reduced itself to the following names: Mr. Richard Venner and Mrs.
+Blanche Creamer, the lady at whose house she had met him,--mansion-
+house breed,--but will come,--soft on Dick; Dudley Venner,--take care
+of him herself; Elsie,--Dick will see to her,--won't it fidget the
+Creamer woman to see him round her?  the old Doctor,--he 's always
+handy; and there's that young master there, up at the school,--know
+him well enough to ask him,--oh, yes, he'll come.  One, two, three,
+four, five, six,--seven; not room enough, without the leaf in the
+table; one place empty, if the leaf's in.  Let's see,--Helen Darley,
+--she 'll do well enough to fill it up,--why, yes, just the thing,--
+light brown hair, blue eyes,--won't my pattern show off well against
+her?  Put her down,--she 's worth her tea and toast ten times over,--
+nobody knows what a "thunder-and-lightning woman," as poor Major used
+to have it, is, till she gets alongside of one of those old-maidish
+girls, with hair the color of brown sugar, and eyes like the blue of
+a teacup.
+
+The Widow smiled with a feeling of triumph at having overcome her
+difficulties and arranged her party,--arose and stood before her
+glass, three-quarters front, one-quarter profile, so as to show the
+whites of the eyes and the down of the upper lip.  "Splendid!" said
+the Widow--and to tell the truth, she was not far out of the way, and
+with Helen Darley as a foil anybody would know she must be foudroyant
+and pyramidal,--if these French adjectives may be naturalized for
+this one particular exigency.
+
+So the Widow sent out her notes.  The black grief which had filled
+her heart and had overflowed in surges of crape around her person had
+left a deposit half an inch wide at the margin of her note-paper.
+Her seal was a small youth with an inverted torch, the same on which
+Mrs. Blanche Creamer made her spiteful remark, that she expected to
+see that boy of the Widow's standing on his head yet; meaning, as
+Dick supposed, that she would get the torch right-side up as soon as
+she had a chance.  That was after Dick had made the Widow's
+acquaintance, and Mrs. Creamer had got it into her foolish head that
+she would marry that young fellow, if she could catch him.  How could
+he ever come to fancy such a quadroon-looking thing as that, she
+should like to know?
+
+It is easy enough to ask seven people to a party; but whether they
+will come or not is an open question, as it was in the case of the
+spirits of the vasty deep.  If the note issues from a three-story
+mansion-house, and goes to two-story acquaintances, they will all be
+in an excellent state of health, and have much pleasure in accepting
+this very polite invitation.  If the note is from the lady of a two-
+story family to three-story ones, the former highly respectable
+person will very probably find that an endemic complaint is
+prevalent, not represented in the weekly bills of mortality, which
+occasions numerous regrets in the bosoms of eminently desirable
+parties that they cannot have the pleasure of and-so-forthing.
+
+In this case there was room for doubt,--mainly as to whether Elsie
+would take a fancy to come or not.  If she should come, her father
+would certainly be with her.  Dick had promised, and thought he could
+bring Elsie.  Of course the young schoolmaster will come, and that
+poor tired-out looking Helen, if only to get out of sight of those
+horrid Peckham wretches.  They don't get such invitations every day.
+The others she felt sure of,--all but the old Doctor,--he might have
+some horrid patient or other to visit; tell him Elsie Venner's going
+to be there,--he always likes to have an eye on her, they say,--oh,
+he'd come fast enough, without any more coaxing.
+
+She wanted the Doctor, particularly.  It was odd, but she was afraid
+of Elsie.  She felt as if she should be safe enough, if the old
+Doctor were there to see to the girl; and then she should have
+leisure to devote herself more freely to the young lady's father, for
+whom all her sympathies were in a state of lively excitement.
+
+It was a long time since the Widow had seen so many persons round her
+table as she had now invited.  Better have the plates set and see how
+they will fill it up with the leaf in. --A little too scattering with
+only eight plates set: if she could find two more people, now, that
+would bring the chairs a little closer,--snug, you know,--which makes
+the company sociable.  The Widow thought over her acquaintances.  Why
+how stupid! there was her good minister, the same who had married
+her, and might--might--bury her for aught she anew, and his
+granddaughter staying with him,--nice little girl, pretty, and not
+old enough to be dangerous;--for the Widow had no notion of making a
+tea-party and asking people to it that would be like to stand between
+her and any little project she might happen to have on anybody's
+heart,--not she!  It was all right now; Blanche was married and so
+forth; Letty was a child; Elsie was his daughter; Helen Darley was a
+nice, worthy drudge,--poor thing!--faded, faded,--colors wouldn't
+wash, just what she wanted to show off against.  Now, if the Dudley
+mansion-house people would only come,--that was the great point.
+
+"Here's a note for us, Elsie," said her father, as they sat round the
+breakfast-table.  "Mrs. Rowens wants us all to come to tea."
+
+It was one of "Elsie's days," as old Sophy called them.  The light in
+her eyes was still, but very bright.  She looked up so full of
+perverse and wilful impulses, that Dick knew he could make her go
+with him and her father.  He had his own motives for bringing her to
+this determination,--and his own way of setting about it.
+
+"I don't want to go," he said.  "What do you say, uncle?"
+
+"To tell the truth, Richard, I don't mach fancy the Major's widow.  I
+don't like to see her weeds flowering out quite so strong.  I suppose
+you don't care about going, Elsie?"
+
+Elsie looked up in her father's face with an expression which he knew
+but too well.  She was just in the state which the plain sort of
+people call "contrary," when they have to deal with it in animals.
+She would insist on going to that tea-party; he knew it just as well
+before she spoke as after she had spoken.  If Dick had said he wanted
+to go and her father had seconded his wishes, she would have insisted
+on staying at home.  It was no great matter, her father said to
+himself, after all; very likely it would amuse her; the Widow was a
+lively woman enough,--perhaps a little comme il ne faut pas socially,
+compared with the Thorntons and some other families; but what did he
+care for these petty village distinctions?
+
+Elsie spoke.
+
+"I mean to go.  You must go with me, Dudley.  You may do as you like,
+Dick."
+
+That settled the Dudley-mansion business, of course.  They all three
+accepted, as fortunately did all the others who had been invited.
+
+Hyacinth Cottage was a pretty place enough, a little too much choked
+round with bushes, and too much overrun with climbing-roses, which,
+in the season of slugs and rose-bugs, were apt to show so brown about
+the leaves and so coleopterous about the flowers, that it might be
+questioned whether their buds and blossoms made up for these
+unpleasant animal combinations,--especially as the smell of whale-oil
+soap was very commonly in the ascendant over that of the roses.  It
+had its patch of grass called "the lawn," and its glazed closet known
+as "the conservatory," according to that system of harmless fictions
+characteristic of the rural imagination and shown in the names
+applied to many familiar objects.  The interior of the cottage was
+more tasteful and ambitious than that of the ordinary two-story
+dwellings.  In place of the prevailing hair-cloth covered furniture,
+the visitor had the satisfaction of seating himself upon a chair
+covered with some of the Widow's embroidery, or a sofa luxurious with
+soft caressing plush.  The sporting tastes of the late Major showed
+in various prints on the wall: Herring's "Plenipotentiary," the "red
+bullock" of the '34 Derby; "Cadland" and "The Colonel;" "Crucifix;"
+"West-Australian," fastest of modern racers; and among native
+celebrities, ugly, game old "Boston," with his straight neck and
+ragged hips; and gray "Lady Suffolk," queen, in her day, not of the
+turf but of the track, "extending" herself till she measured a rod,
+more or less, skimming along within a yard of the ground, her legs
+opening and shutting under her with a snap, like the four blades of a
+compound jack-knife.
+
+These pictures were much more refreshing than those dreary fancy
+death-bed scenes, common in two-story country-houses, in which
+Washington and other distinguished personages are represented as
+obligingly devoting their last moments to taking a prominent part in
+a tableau, in which weeping relatives, attached servants,
+professional assistants, and celebrated personages who might by a
+stretch of imagination be supposed present, are grouped in the most
+approved style of arrangement about the chief actor's pillow.
+
+A single glazed bookcase held the family library, which was hidden
+from vulgar eyes by green silk curtains behind the glass.  It would
+have been instructive to get a look at it, as it always is to peep
+into one's neighbor's book-shelves.  From other sources and
+opportunities a partial idea of it has been obtained.  The Widow had
+inherited some books from her mother, who was something of a reader:
+Young's "Night-Thoughts;" "The Preceptor;" "The Task, a Poem," by
+William Cowper; Hervey's "Meditations;" "Alonzo and Melissa;"
+"Buccaneers of America;" "The Triumphs of Temper;" "La Belle
+Assemblee;" Thomson's "Seasons;" and a few others.  The Major had
+brought in "Tom Jones" and "Peregrine Pickle;" various works by Mr.
+Pierce Egan; "Boxiana," "The Racing Calendar;" and a "Book of Lively
+Songs and Jests."  The Widow had added the Poems of Lord Byron and
+T. Moore; "Eugene Aram;" "The Tower of London," by Harrison
+Ainsworth; some of Scott's Novels; "The Pickwick Papers;" a volume of
+Plays, by W. Shakespeare; "Proverbial Philosophy;" "Pilgrim's
+Progress;" "The Whole Duty of Man" (a present when she was married);
+with two celebrated religious works, one by William Law and the other
+by Philip Doddridge, which were sent her after her husband's death,
+and which she had tried to read, but found that they did not agree
+with her.  Of course the bookcase held a few school manuals and
+compendiums, and one of Mr. Webster's Dictionaries.  But the gilt-
+edged Bible always lay on the centre-table, next to the magazine with
+the fashion-plates and the scrap-book with pictures from old annuals
+and illustrated papers.
+
+The reader need not apprehend the recital, at full length, of such
+formidable preparations for the Widow's tea-party as were required in
+the case of Colonel Sprowle's Social Entertainment.  A tea-party,
+even in the country, is a comparatively simple and economical piece
+of business.  As soon as the Widow found that all her company were
+coming, she set to work, with the aid of her "smart" maid-servant and
+a daughter of her own, who was beginning to stretch and spread at a
+fearful rate, but whom she treated as a small child, to make the
+necessary preparations.  The silver had to be rubbed; also the grand
+plated urn,--her mother's before hers,--style of the Empire,--looking
+as if it might have been made to hold the Major's ashes.  Then came
+the making and baking of cake and gingerbread, the smell whereof
+reached even as far as the sidewalk in front of the cottage, so that
+small boys returning from school snuffed it in the breeze, and
+discoursed with each other on its suggestions; so that the Widow
+Leech, who happened to pass, remembered she had n't called on Marilly
+Raowens for a consid'ble spell, and turned in at the gate and rang
+three times with long intervals,--but all in vain, the inside Widow
+having "spotted" the outside one through the blinds, and whispered to
+her aides-de-camp to let the old thing ring away till she pulled the
+bell out by the roots, but not to stir to open the door.
+
+Widow Rowens was what they called a real smart, capable woman, not
+very great on books, perhaps, but knew what was what and who was who
+as well as another,--knew how to make the little cottage look pretty,
+how to set out a tea-table, and, what a good many women never can
+find out, knew her own style and "got herself up tip-top," as our
+young friend Master Geordie, Colonel Sprowle's heir-apparent,
+remarked to his friend from one of the fresh-water colleges.  Flowers
+were abundant now, and she had dressed her rooms tastefully with
+them.  The centre-table had two or three gilt-edged books lying
+carelessly about on it, and some prints and a stereoscope with
+stereographs to match, chiefly groups of picnics, weddings, etc., in
+which the same somewhat fatigued looking ladies of fashion and brides
+received the attentions of the same unpleasant-looking young men,
+easily identified under their different disguises, consisting of
+fashionable raiment such as gentlemen are supposed to wear
+habitually.  With these, however, were some pretty English scenes,--
+pretty except for the old fellow with the hanging under-lip who
+infests every one of that interesting series; and a statue or two,
+especially that famous one commonly called the Lahcoon, so as to
+rhyme with moon and spoon, and representing an old man with his two
+sons in the embraces of two monstrous serpents.
+
+There is no denying that it was a very dashing achievement of the
+Widow's to bring together so considerable a number of desirable
+guests.  She felt proud of her feat; but as to the triumph of getting
+Dudley Venner to come out for a visit to Hyacinth Cottage, she was
+surprised and almost frightened at her own success.  So much might
+depend on the impressions of that evening!
+
+The next thing was to be sure that everybody should be in the right
+place at the tea-table, and this the Widow thought she could manage
+by a few words to the older guests and a little shuffling about and
+shifting when they got to the table.  To settle everything the Widow
+made out a diagram, which the reader should have a chance of
+inspecting in an authentic copy, if these pages were allowed under
+any circumstances to be the vehicle of illustrations.  If, however,
+he or she really wishes to see the way the pieces stood as they were
+placed at the beginning of the game, (the Widow's gambit,) he or she
+had better at once take a sheet of paper, draw an oval, and arrange
+the characters according to the following schedule.
+
+At the head of the table, the Hostess, Widow Marilla Rowens.
+Opposite her, at the other end, Rev.  Dr. Honeywood.  At the right of
+the Hostess, Dudley Veneer, next him Helen Darley, next her Dr.
+Kittredge, next him Mrs. Blanche Creamer, then the Reverend Doctor.
+At the left of the Hostess, Bernard Langdon, next him Letty
+Forrester, next Letty Mr. Richard Veneer, next him Elsie, and so to
+the Reverend Doctor again.
+
+The company came together a little before the early hour at which it
+was customary to take tea in Rockland.  The Widow knew everybody, of
+course: who was there in Rockland she did not know?  But some of them
+had to be introduced: Mr. Richard Veneer to Mr. Bernard, Mr. Bernard
+to Miss Letty, Dudley Veneer to Miss Helen Darley, and so on.  The
+two young men looked each other straight in the eyes, both full of
+youthful life, but one of frank and fearless aspect, the other with a
+dangerous feline beauty alien to the New England half of his blood.
+
+The guests talked, turned over the prints, looked at the flowers,
+opened the "Proverbial Philosophy" with gilt edges, and the volume of
+Plays by W.  Shakespeare, examined the horse-pictures on the walls,
+and so passed away the time until tea was announced, when they paired
+off for the room where it was in readiness.  The Widow had managed it
+well; everything was just as she wanted it.  Dudley Veneer was
+between herself and the poor tired-looking schoolmistress with her
+faded colors.  Blanche Creamer, a lax, tumble-to-pieces, Greuze-ish
+looking blonde, whom the Widow hated because the men took to her, was
+purgatoried between the two old Doctors, and could see all the looks
+that passed between Dick Venner and his cousin.  The young
+schoolmaster could talk to Miss Letty: it was his business to know
+how to talk to schoolgirls.  Dick would amuse himself with his cousin
+Elsie.  The old Doctors only wanted to be well fed and they would do
+well enough.
+
+It would be very pleasant to describe the tea-table; but in reality,
+it did not pretend to offer a plethoric banquet to the guests.  The
+Widow had not visited the mansion-houses for nothing, and she had
+learned there that an overloaded tea-table may do well enough for
+farm-hands when they come in at evening from their work and sit down
+unwashed in their shirtsleeves, but that for decently bred people
+such an insult to the memory of a dinner not yet half-assimilated is
+wholly inadmissible.  Everything was delicate, and almost everything
+of fair complexion: white bread and biscuits, frosted and sponge
+cake, cream, honey, straw-colored butter; only a shadow here and
+there, where the fire had crisped and browned the surfaces of a stack
+of dry toast, or where a preserve had brought away some of the red
+sunshine of the last year's summer.  The Widow shall have the credit
+of her well-ordered tea-table, also of her bountiful cream-pitchers;
+for it is well known that city-people find cream a very scarce luxury
+in a good many country-houses of more pretensions than Hyacinth
+Cottage.  There are no better maims for ladies who give tea-parties
+than these:
+
+Cream is thicker than water.
+Large heart never loved little cream pot.
+
+There is a common feeling in genteel families that the third meal of
+the day is not so essential a part of the daily bread as to require
+any especial acknowledgment to the Providence which bestows it.  Very
+devout people, who would never sit down to a breakfast or a dinner
+without the grace before meat which honors the Giver of it, feel as
+if they thanked Heaven enough for their tea and toast by partaking of
+them cheerfully without audible petition or ascription.  But the
+Widow was not exactly mansion-house-bred, and so thought it necessary
+to give the Reverend Doctor a peculiar look which he understood at
+once as inviting his professional services.  He, therefore, uttered a
+few simple words of gratitude, very quietly,--much to the
+satisfaction of some of the guests, who had expected one of those
+elaborate effusions, with rolling up of the eyes and rhetorical
+accents, so frequent with eloquent divines when they address their
+Maker in genteel company.
+
+Everybody began talking with the person sitting next at hand.  Mr.
+Bernard naturally enough turned his attention first to the Widow; but
+somehow or other the right side of the Widow seemed to be more wide
+awake than the left side, next him, and he resigned her to the
+courtesies of Mr. Dudley Venner, directing himself, not very
+unwillingly, to the young girl next him on the other side.  Miss
+Letty Forrester, the granddaughter of the Reverend Doctor, was city-
+bred, as anybody might see, and city-dressed, as any woman would know
+at sight; a man might only feel the general effect of clear, well-
+matched colors, of harmonious proportions, of the cut which makes
+everything cling like a bather's sleeve where a natural outline is to
+be kept, and ruffle itself up like the hackle of a pitted fighting-
+cock where art has a right to luxuriate in silken exuberance.  How
+this citybred and city-dressed girl came to be in Rockland Mr.
+Bernard did not know, but he knew at any rate that she was his next
+neighbor and entitled to his courtesies.  She was handsome, too, when
+he came to look, very handsome when he came to look again,--endowed
+with that city beauty which is like the beauty of wall-fruit,
+something finer in certain respects than can be reared off the
+pavement.
+
+The miserable routinists who keep repeating invidiously Cowper's
+
+"God made the country and man made the town,"
+
+as if the town were a place to kill out the race in, do not know what
+they are talking about.  Where could they raise such Saint-Michael
+pears, such Saint-Germains, such Brown-Beurres, as we had until
+within a few years growing within the walls of our old city-gardens?
+Is the dark and damp cavern where a ragged beggar hides himself
+better than a town-mansion which fronts the sunshine and backs on its
+own cool shadow, with gas and water and all appliances to suit all
+needs?  God made the cavern and man made the house!  What then?
+
+There is no doubt that the pavement keeps a deal of mischief from
+coming up out of the earth, and, with a dash off of it in summer,
+just to cool the soles of the feet when it gets too hot, is the best
+place for many constitutions, as some few practical people have
+already discovered.  And just so these beauties that grow and ripen
+against the city-walls, these young fellows with cheeks like peaches
+and young girls with cheeks like nectarines, show that the most
+perfect forms of artificial life can do as much for the human product
+as garden-culture for strawberries and blackberries.
+
+If Mr. Bernard had philosophized or prosed in this way, with so
+pretty, nay, so lovely a neighbor as Miss Letty Forrester waiting for
+him to speak to her, he would have to be dropped from this narrative
+as a person unworthy of his good-fortune, and not deserving the kind
+reader's further notice.  On the contrary, he no sooner set his eyes
+fairly on her than he said to himself that she was charming, and that
+he wished she were one of his scholars at the Institute.  So he began
+talking with her in an easy way; for he knew something of young girls
+by this time, and, of course, could adapt himself to a young lady who
+looked as if she might be not more than fifteen or sixteen years old,
+and therefore could hardly be a match in intellectual resources for
+the seventeen and eighteen year-old first-class scholars of the
+Apollinean Institute.  But city-wall-fruit ripens early, and he soon
+found that this girl's training had so sharpened her wits and stored
+her memory, that he need not be at the trouble to stoop painfully in
+order to come down to her level.
+
+The beauty of good-breeding is that it adjusts itself to all
+relations without effort, true to itself always however the manners
+of those around it may change.  Self-respect and respect for others,
+--the sensitive consciousness poises itself in these as the compass
+in the ship's binnacle balances itself and maintains its true level
+within the two concentric rings which suspend it on their pivots.
+This thorough-bred school-girl quite enchanted Mr. Bernard.  He could
+not understand where she got her style, her way of dress, her
+enunciation, her easy manners.  The minister was a most worthy
+gentleman, but this was not the Rockland native-born manner; some new
+element had come in between the good, plain, worthy man and this
+young girl, fit to be a Crown Prince's partner where there were a
+thousand to choose from.
+
+He looked across to Helen Darley, for he knew she would understand
+the glance of admiration with which he called her attention to the
+young beauty at his side; and Helen knew what a young girl could be,
+as compared with what too many a one is, as well as anybody.
+
+This poor, dear Helen of ours!  How admirable the contrast between
+her and the Widow on the other side of Dudley Venner!  But, what was
+very odd, that gentleman apparently thought the contrast was to the
+advantage of this poor, dear Helen.  At any rate, instead of devoting
+himself solely to the Widow, he happened to be just at that moment
+talking in a very interested and, apparently, not uninteresting way
+to his right-hand neighbor, who, on her part, never looked more
+charmingly,--as Mr. Bernard could not help saying to himself,--but,
+to be sure, he had just been looking at the young girl next him, so
+that his eyes were brimful of beauty, and may have spilled some of it
+on the first comer: for you know M. Becquerel has been showing us
+lately how everything is phosphorescent; that it soaks itself with
+light in an instant's exposure, so that it is wet with liquid
+sunbeams, or, if you will, tremulous with luminous vibrations, when
+first plunged into the negative bath of darkness, and betrays itself
+by the light which escapes from its surface.
+
+Whatever were the reason, this poor, dear Helen never looked so
+sweetly.  Her plainly parted brown hair, her meek, blue eyes, her
+cheek just a little tinged with color, the almost sad simplicity of
+her dress, and that look he knew so well,--so full of cheerful
+patience, so sincere, that he had trusted her from the first moment
+as the believers of the larger half of Christendom trust the Blessed
+Virgin,--Mr. Bernard took this all in at a glance, and felt as
+pleased as if it had been his own sister Dorothea Elizabeth that he
+was looking at.  As for Dudley Veneer, Mr. Bernard could not help
+being struck by the animated expression of his countenance.  It
+certainly showed great kindness, on his part, to pay so much
+attention to this quiet girl, when he had the thunder-and-lightning
+Widow on the other side of him.
+
+Mrs. Marilla Rowens did not know what to make of it.  She had made
+her tea-party expressly for Mr. Dudley Veneer.  She had placed him
+just as she wanted, between herself and a meek, delicate woman who
+dressed in gray, wore a plain breastpin with hair in it, who taught a
+pack of girls up there at the school, and looked as if she were born
+for a teacher,--the very best foil that she could have chosen; and
+here was this man, polite enough to herself, to be sure, but turning
+round to that very undistinguished young person as if he rather
+preferred her conversation of the two!
+
+The truth was that Dudley Veneer and Helen Darley met as two
+travellers might meet in the desert, wearied, both of them, with
+their long journey, one having food, but no water, the other water,
+but no food.  Each saw that the other had been in long conflict with
+some trial; for their voices were low and tender, as patiently borne
+sorrow and humbly uttered prayers make every human voice.  Through
+these tones, more than by what they said, they came into natural
+sympathetic relations with each other.  Nothing could be more
+unstudied.  As for Dudley Venner, no beauty in all the world could
+have so soothed and magnetized him as the very repose and subdued
+gentleness which the Widow had thought would make the best possible
+background for her own more salient and effective attractions.  No
+doubt, Helen, on her side, was almost too readily pleased with the
+confidence this new acquaintance she was making seemed to show her
+from the very first.  She knew so few men of any condition!  Mr.
+Silas Peckham: he was her employer, and she ought to think of him as
+well as she could; but every time she thought of him it was with a
+shiver of disgust.  Mr. Bernard Langdon: a noble young man, a true
+friend, like a brother to her,--God bless him, and send him some
+young heart as fresh as his own!  But this gentleman produced a new
+impression upon her, quite different from any to which she was
+accustomed.  His rich, low tones had the strangest significance to
+her; she felt sure he must have lived through long experiences,
+sorrowful like her own.  Elsie's father!  She looked into his dark
+eyes, as she listened to him, to see if they had any glimmer of that
+peculiar light, diamond-bright, but cold and still, which she knew so
+well in Elsie's.  Anything but that!  Never was there more
+tenderness, it seemed to her, than in the whole look and expression
+of Elsie's father.  She must have been a great trial to him; yet his
+face was that of one who had been saddened, not soured, by his
+discipline.  Knowing what Elsie must be to him, how hard she must
+make any parent's life, Helen could not but be struck with the
+interest Mr. Dudley Venner showed in her as his daughter's
+instructress.  He was too kind to her; again and again she meekly
+turned from him, so as to leave him free to talk to the showy lady at
+his other side, who was looking all the while
+
+                         "like the night
+          Of cloudless realms and starry skies;"
+
+but still Mr. Dudley Venner, after a few courteous words, came back
+to the blue eyes and brown hair; still he kept his look fixed upon
+her, and his tones grew sweeter and lower as he became more
+interested in talk, until this poor, dear Helen, what with surprise,
+and the bashfulness natural to one who had seen little of the gay
+world, and the stirring of deep, confused sympathies with this
+suffering father, whose heart seemed so full of kindness, felt her
+cheeks glowing with unwonted flame, and betrayed the pleasing trouble
+of her situation by looking so sweetly as to arrest Mr. Bernard's eye
+for a moment, when he looked away from the young beauty sitting next
+him.
+
+Elsie meantime had been silent, with that singular, still, watchful
+look which those who knew her well had learned to fear.  Her head
+just a little inclined on one side, perfectly motionless for whole
+minutes, her eyes seeming to, grow small and bright, as always when
+she was under her evil influence, she was looking obliquely at the
+young girl on the other side of her cousin Dick and next to Bernard
+Langdon.  As for Dick himself, she seemed to be paying very little
+attention to him.  Sometimes her eyes would wander off to Mr.
+Bernard, and their expression, as old Dr. Kittredge, who watched her
+for a while pretty keenly, noticed, would change perceptibly.  One
+would have said that she looked with a kind of dull hatred at the
+girl, but with a half-relenting reproachful anger at Mr. Bernard.
+
+Miss Letty Forrester, at whom Elsie had been looking from time to
+time in this fixed way, was conscious meanwhile of some unusual
+influence.  First it was a feeling of constraint,--then, as it were,
+a diminished power over the muscles, as if an invisible elastic
+cobweb were spinning round her,--then a tendency to turn away from
+Mr. Bernard, who was making himself very agreeable, and look straight
+into those eyes which would not leave her, and which seemed to be
+drawing her towards them, while at the same time they chilled the
+blood in all her veins.
+
+Mr. Bernard saw this influence coming over her.  All at once he
+noticed that she sighed, and that some little points of moisture
+began to glisten on her forehead.  But she did not grow pale
+perceptibly; she had no involuntary or hysteric movements; she still
+listened to him and smiled naturally enough.  Perhaps she was only
+nervous at being stared at.  At any rate, she was coming under some
+unpleasant influence or other, and Mr. Bernard had seen enough of the
+strange impression Elsie sometimes produced to wish this young girl
+to be relieved from it, whatever it was.  He turned toward Elsie and
+looked at her in such a way as to draw her eyes upon him.  Then he
+looked steadily and calmly into them.  It was a great effort, for
+some perfectly inexplicable reason.  At one instant he thought he
+could not sit where he was; he must go and speak to Elsie.  Then he
+wanted to take his eyes away from hers; there was something
+intolerable in the light that came from them.  But he was determined
+to look her down, and he believed he could do it, for he had seen her
+countenance change more than once when he had caught her gaze
+steadily fixed on him.  All this took not minutes, but seconds.
+Presently she changed color slightly,--lifted her head, which was
+inclined a little to one side,--shut and opened her eyes two or three
+times, as if they had been pained or wearied,--and turned away
+baffled, and shamed, as it would seem, and shorn for the time of her
+singular and formidable or at least evil-natured power of swaying the
+impulses of those around her.
+
+It takes too long to describe these scenes where a good deal of life
+is concentrated into a few silent seconds.  Mr. Richard Veneer had
+sat quietly through it all, although this short pantomime had taken
+place literally before his face.  He saw what was going on well
+enough, and understood it all perfectly well.  Of course the
+schoolmaster had been trying to make Elsie jealous, and had
+succeeded.  The little schoolgirl was a decoy-duck,--that was all.
+Estates like the Dudley property were not to be had every day, and no
+doubt the Yankee usher was willing to take some pains to make sure of
+Elsie.  Does n't Elsie look savage?  Dick involuntarily moved his
+chair a little away from her, and thought he felt a pricking in the
+small white scars on his wrist.  A dare-devil fellow, but somehow or
+other this girl had taken strange hold of his imagination, and he
+often swore to himself, that, when he married her, he would carry a
+loaded revolver with him to his bridal chamber.
+
+Mrs. Blanche Creamer raged inwardly at first to find herself between
+the two old gentlemen of the party.  It very soon gave her great
+comfort, however, to see that Marilla, Rowens had just missed it in
+her calculations, and she chuckled immensely to find Dudley Veneer
+devoting himself chiefly to Helen Darley.  If the Rowens woman should
+hook Dudley, she felt as if she should gnaw all her nails off for
+spite.  To think of seeing her barouching about Rockland behind a
+pair of long-tailed bays and a coachman with a band on his hat, while
+she, Blanche Creamer, was driving herself about in a one-horse
+"carriage"!  Recovering her spirits by degrees, she began playing her
+surfaces off at the two old Doctors, just by way of practice.  First
+she heaved up a glaring white shoulder, the right one, so that the
+Reverend Doctor should be stunned by it, if such a thing might be.
+The Reverend Doctor was human, as the Apostle was not ashamed to
+confess himself.  Half-devoutly and half-mischievously he repeated
+inwardly, "Resist the Devil and he will flee from you."  As the
+Reverend Doctor did not show any lively susceptibility, she thought
+she would try the left shoulder on old Dr. Kittredge.  That worthy
+and experienced student of science was not at all displeased with the
+manoeuvre, and lifted his head so as to command the exhibition
+through his glasses.  "Blanche is good for half a dozen years or so,
+if she is careful," the Doctor said to himself, "and then she must
+take to her prayer-book."  After this spasmodic failure of Mrs.
+Blanche Creamer's to stir up the old Doctors, she returned again to
+the pleasing task of watching the Widow in her evident discomfiture.
+But dark as the Widow looked in her half-concealed pet, she was but
+as a pale shadow, compared to Elsie in her silent concentration of
+shame and anger.
+
+"Well, there is one good thing," said Mrs. Blanche Creamer; "Dick
+doesn't get much out of that cousin of his this evening!  Does n't he
+look handsome, though?"
+
+So Mrs. Blanche, being now a good deal taken up with her observations
+of those friends of hers and ours, began to be rather careless of her
+two old Doctors, who naturally enough fell into conversation with
+each other across the white surfaces of that lady, perhaps not very
+politely, but, under the, circumstances, almost as a matter of
+necessity.
+
+When a minister and a doctor get talking together, they always have a
+great deal to say; and so it happened that the company left the table
+just as the two Doctors were beginning to get at each other's ideas
+about various interesting matters.  If we follow them into the other
+parlor, we can, perhaps, pick up something of their conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+WHY DOCTORS DIFFER.
+
+The company rearranged itself with some changes after leaving the
+tea-table.  Dudley Veneer was very polite to the Widow; but that lady
+having been called off for a few moments for some domestic
+arrangement, he slid back to the side of Helen Darley, his daughter's
+faithful teacher.  Elsie had got away by herself, and was taken up in
+studying the stereoscopic Laocoon.  Dick, being thus set free, had
+been seized upon by Mrs. Blanche Creamer, who had diffused herself
+over three-quarters of a sofa and beckoned him to the remaining
+fourth.  Mr. Bernard and Miss Letty were having a snug fete-'a-fete
+in the recess of a bay-window.  The two Doctors had taken two arm-
+chairs and sat squared off against each other.  Their conversation is
+perhaps as well worth reporting as that of the rest of the company,
+and, as it was carried on in a louder tone, was of course more easy
+to gather and put on record.
+
+It was a curious sight enough to see those two representatives of two
+great professions brought face to face to talk over the subjects they
+had been looking at all their lives from such different points of
+view.  Both were old; old enough to have been moulded by their habits
+of thought and life; old enough to have all their beliefs "fretted
+in," as vintners say,--thoroughly worked up with their characters.
+Each of them looked his calling.  The Reverend Doctor had lived a
+good deal among books in his study; the Doctor, as we will call the
+medical gentleman, had been riding about the country for between
+thirty and forty years.  His face looked tough and weather-worn;
+while the Reverend Doctor's, hearty as it appeared, was of finer
+texture.  The Doctor's was the graver of the two; there was something
+of grimness about it, partly owing to the northeasters he had faced
+for so many years, partly to long companionship with that stern
+personage who never deals in sentiment or pleasantry.  His speech was
+apt to be brief and peremptory; it was a way he had got by ordering
+patients; but he could discourse somewhat, on occasion, as the reader
+may find out.  The Reverend Doctor had an open, smiling expression, a
+cheery voice, a hearty laugh, and a cordial way with him which some
+thought too lively for his cloth, but which children, who are good
+judges of such matters, delighted in, so that he was the favorite of
+all the little rogues about town.  But he had the clerical art of
+sobering down in a moment, when asked to say grace while somebody was
+in the middle of some particularly funny story; and though his voice
+was so cheery in common talk, in the pulpit, like almost all
+preachers, he had a wholly different and peculiar way of speaking,
+supposed to be more acceptable to the Creator than the natural
+manner.  In point of fact, most of our anti-papal and anti-prelatical
+clergymen do really intone their prayers, without suspecting in the
+least that they have fallen into such a Romish practice.
+
+This is the way the conversation between the Doctor of Divinity and
+the Doctor of Medicine was going on at the point where these notes
+take it up.
+
+"Obi tres medici, duo athei, you know, Doctor.  Your profession has
+always had the credit of being lax in doctrine,--though pretty
+stringent in practice, ha!  ha!"
+
+"Some priest said that," the Doctor answered, dryly.  "They always
+talked Latin when they had a bigger lie than common to get rid of."
+
+"Good!"  said the Reverend Doctor; "I'm afraid they would lie a
+little sometimes.  But isn't there some truth in it, Doctor?  Don't
+you think your profession is apt to see 'Nature' in the place of the
+God of Nature,--to lose sight of the great First Cause in their daily
+study of secondary causes?"
+
+"I've thought about that," the Doctor answered, "and I've talked
+about it and read about it, and I've come to the conclusion that
+nobody believes in God and trusts in God quite so much as the
+doctors; only it is n't just the sort of Deity that some of your
+profession have wanted them to take up with.  There was a student of
+mine wrote a dissertation on the Natural Theology of Health and
+Disease, and took that old lying proverb for his motto.  He knew a
+good deal more about books than ever I did, and had studied in other
+countries.  I'll tell you what he said about it.  He said the old
+Heathen Doctor, Galen, praised God for his handiwork in the human
+body, just as if he had been a Christian, or the Psalmist himself.
+He said they had this sentence set up in large letters in the great
+lecture-room in Paris where he attended: I dressed his wound and God
+healed him.  That was an old surgeon's saying.  And he gave a long
+list of doctors who were not only Christians, but famous ones.  I
+grant you, though, ministers and doctors are very apt to see
+differently in spiritual matters."
+
+"That's it," said the Reverend Doctor; "you are apt to see 'Nature'
+where we see God, and appeal to 'Science' where we are contented with
+Revelation."
+
+"We don't separate God and Nature, perhaps, as you do," the Doctor
+answered.  "When we say that God is omnipresent and omnipotent and
+omniscient, we are a little more apt to mean it than your folks are.
+We think, when a wound heals, that God's presence and power and
+knowledge are there, healing it, just as that old surgeon did.  We
+think a good many theologians, working among their books, don't see
+the facts of the world they live in.  When we tell 'em of these
+facts, they are apt to call us materialists and atheists and
+infidels, and all that.  We can't help seeing the facts, and we don't
+think it's wicked to mention 'em."
+
+"Do tell me," the Reverend Doctor said, "some of these facts we are
+in the habit of overlooking, and which your profession thinks it can
+see and understand."
+
+"That's very easy," the Doctor replied.  "For instance: you don't
+understand or don't allow for idiosyncrasies as we learn to.  We know
+that food and physic act differently with different people; but you
+think the same kind of truth is going to suit, or ought to suit, all
+minds.  We don't fight with a patient because he can't take magnesia
+or opium; but you are all the time quarrelling over your beliefs, as
+if belief did not depend very much on race and constitution, to say
+nothing of early training."
+
+"Do you mean to say that every man is not absolutely free to choose
+his beliefs?"
+
+"The men you write about in your studies are, but not the men we see
+in the real world.  There is some apparently congenital defect in the
+Indians, for instance, that keeps them from choosing civilization and
+Christianity.  So with the Gypsies, very likely.  Everybody knows
+that Catholicism or Protestantism is a good deal a matter of race.
+Constitution has more to do with belief than people think for.  I
+went to a Universalist church, when I was in the city one day, to
+hear a famous man whom all the world knows, and I never saw such
+pews-full of broad shoulders and florid faces, and substantial,
+wholesome-looking persons, male and female, in all my life.  Why, it
+was astonishing.  Either their creed made them healthy, or they chose
+it because they were healthy.  Your folks have never got the hang of
+human nature."
+
+"I am afraid this would be considered a degrading and dangerous view
+of human beliefs and responsibility for them," the Reverend Doctor
+replied.  "Prove to a man that his will is governed by something
+outside of himself, and you have lost all hold on his moral and
+religious nature.  There is nothing bad men want to believe so much
+as that they are governed by necessity.  Now that which is at once
+degrading and dangerous cannot be true."
+
+"No doubt," the Doctor replied, "all large views of mankind limit our
+estimate of the absolute freedom of the will.  But I don't think it
+degrades or endangers us, for this reason, that, while it makes us
+charitable to the rest of mankind, our own sense of freedom, whatever
+it is, is never affected by argument.  Conscience won't be reasoned
+with.  We feel that we can practically do this of that, and if we
+choose the wrong, we know we are responsible; but observation teaches
+us that this or that other race or individual has not the same
+practical freedom of choice.  I don't see how we can avoid this
+conclusion in the instance of the American Indians.  The science of
+Ethnology has upset a good many theoretical notions about human
+nature."
+
+"Science!"  said the Reverend Doctor, "science!  that was a word the
+Apostle Paul did not seem to think much of, if we may judge by the
+Epistle to Timothy: 'Oppositions of science falsely so called.'
+I own that I am jealous of that word and the pretensions that go with
+it.  Science has seemed to me to be very often only the handmaid of
+skepticism."
+
+"Doctor!" the physician said, emphatically, "science is knowledge.
+Nothing that is not known properly belongs to science.  Whenever
+knowledge obliges us to doubt, we are always safe in doubting.
+Astronomers foretell eclipses, say how long comets are to stay with
+us, point out where a new planet is to be found.  We see they know
+what they assert, and the poor old Roman Catholic Church has at last
+to knock under.  So Geology proves a certain succession of events,
+and the best Christian in the world must make the earth's history
+square with it.  Besides, I don't think you remember what great
+revelations of himself the Creator has made in the minds of the men
+who have built up science.  You seem to me to hold his human
+masterpieces very cheap.  Don't you think the 'inspiration of the
+Almighty' gave Newton and Cuvier 'understanding'?"
+
+The Reverend Doctor was not arguing for victory.  In fact, what he
+wanted was to call out the opinions of the old physician by a show of
+opposition, being already predisposed to agree with many of them.  He
+was rather trying the common arguments, as one tries tricks of fence
+merely to learn the way of parrying.  But just here he saw a tempting
+opening, and could not resist giving a home-thrust.
+
+"Yes; but you surely would not consider it inspiration of the same
+kind as that of the writers of the Old Testament?"
+
+That cornered the Doctor, and he paused a moment before he replied.
+Then he raised his head, so as to command the Reverend Doctor's face
+through his spectacles, and said,
+
+"I did not say that.  You are clear, I suppose, that the Omniscient
+spoke through Solomon, but that Shakespeare wrote without his help?"
+
+The Reverend Doctor looked very grave.  It was a bold, blunt way of
+putting the question.  He turned it aside with the remark, that
+Shakespeare seemed to him at times to come as near inspiration as any
+human being not included among the sacred writers.
+
+"Doctor," the physician began, as from a sudden suggestion, "you
+won't quarrel with me, if I tell you some of my real thoughts, will
+you?"
+
+"Say on, my dear Sir, say on," the minister answered, with his most
+genial smile; "your real thoughts are just what I want to get at.  A
+man's real thoughts are a great rarity.  If I don't agree with you, I
+shall like to hear you."
+
+The Doctor began; and in order to give his thoughts more connectedly,
+we will omit the conversational breaks, the questions and comments of
+the clergyman, and all accidental interruptions.
+
+"When the old ecclesiastics said that where there were three doctors
+there were two atheists, they lied, of course.  They called everybody
+who differed from them atheists, until they found out that not
+believing in God was n't nearly so ugly a crime as not believing in
+some particular dogma; then they called them heretics, until so many
+good people had been burned under that name that it began to smell
+too strong of roasting flesh,--and after that infidels, which
+properly means people without faith, of whom there are not a great
+many in any place or time.  But then, of course, there was some
+reason why doctors shouldn't think about religion exactly as
+ministers did, or they never would have made that proverb.  It 's
+very likely that something of the same kind is true now; whether it
+is so or not, I am going to tell you the reasons why it would not be
+strange, if doctors should take rather different views from clergymen
+about some matters of belief.  I don't, of course, mean all doctors
+nor all clergymen.  Some doctors go as far as any old New England
+divine, and some clergymen agree very well with the doctors that
+think least according to rule.
+
+"To begin with their ideas of the Creator himself.  They always see
+him trying to help his creatures out of their troubles.  A man no
+sooner gets a cut, than the Great Physician, whose agency we often
+call Nature, goes to work, first to stop the blood, and then to heal
+the wound, and then to make the scar as small as possible.  If a
+man's pain exceeds a certain amount, he faints, and so gets relief.
+If it lasts too long, habit comes in to make it tolerable.  If it is
+altogether too bad, he dies.  That is the best thing to be done under
+the circumstances.  So you see, the doctor is constantly in presence
+of a benevolent agency working against a settled order of things, of
+which pain and disease are the accidents, so to speak.  Well, no
+doubt they find it harder than clergymen to believe that there can be
+any world or state from which this benevolent agency is wholly
+excluded.  This may be very wrong; but it is not unnatural.
+
+They can hardly conceive of a permanent state of being in which cuts
+would never try to heal, nor habit render suffering endurable.  This
+is one effect of their training.
+
+"Then, again, their attention is very much called to human
+limitations.  Ministers work out the machinery of responsibility in
+an abstract kind of way; they have a sort of algebra of human nature,
+in which friction and strength (or weakness) of material are left
+out.  You see, a doctor is in the way of studying children from the
+moment of birth upwards.  For the first year or so he sees that they
+are just as much pupils of their Maker as the young of any other
+animals.  Well, their Maker trains them to pure selfishness.  Why?
+In order that they may be sure to take care of themselves.  So you
+see, when a child comes to be, we will say a year and a day old, and
+makes his first choice between right and wrong, he is at a
+disadvantage; for he, has that vis a tergo, as we doctors call it,
+that force from behind, of a whole year's life of selfishness, for
+which he is no more to blame than a calf is to blame for having lived
+in the same way, purely to gratify his natural appetites.  Then we
+see that baby grow up to a child, and, if he is fat and stout and red
+and lively, we expect to find him troublesome and noisy, and,
+perhaps, sometimes disobedient more or less; that's the way each new
+generation breaks its egg-shell; but if he is very weak and thin, and
+is one of the kind that may be expected to die early, he will very
+likely sit in the house all day and read good books about other
+little sharp-faced children just like himself, who died early, having
+always been perfectly indifferent to all the out-door amusements of
+the wicked little red-cheeked children.
+
+Some of the little folks we watch grow up to be young women, and
+occasionally one of them gets nervous, what we call hysterical, and
+then that girl will begin to play all sorts of pranks,--to lie and
+cheat, perhaps, in the most unaccountable way, so that she might seem
+to a minister a good example of total depravity.  We don't see her in
+that light.  We give her iron and valerian, and get her on horseback,
+if we can, and so expect to make her will come all right again.  By
+and by we are called in to see an old baby, threescore years and ten
+or more old.  We find this old baby has never got rid of that first
+year's teaching which led him to fill his stomach with all he could.
+pump into it, and his hands with everything he could grab.  People
+call him a miser.  We are sorry for him; but we can't help
+remembering his first year's training, and the natural effect of
+money on the great majority of those that have it.  So while the
+ministers say he 'shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven,' we
+like to remind them that 'with God all things are possible.'
+
+"Once more, we see all kinds of monomania and insanity.  We learn
+from them to recognize all sorts of queer tendencies in minds
+supposed to be sane, so that we have nothing but compassion for a
+large class of persons condemned as sinners by theologians, but
+considered by us as invalids.  We have constant reasons for noticing
+the transmission of qualities from parents to offspring, and we find
+it hard to hold a child accountable in any moral point of view for
+inherited bad temper or tendency to drunkenness,--as hard as we
+should to blame him for inheriting gout or asthma.  I suppose we are
+more lenient with human nature than theologians generally are.  We
+know that the spirits of men and their views of the present and the
+future go up and down with the barometer, and that a permanent
+depression of one inch in the mercurial column would affect the whole
+theology of Christendom.
+
+"Ministers talk about the human will as if it stood on a high look-
+out, with plenty of light, and elbowroom reaching to the horizon.
+Doctors are constantly noticing how it is tied up and darkened by
+inferior organization, by disease, and all sorts of crowding
+interferences, until they get to look upon Hottentots and Indians--
+and a good many of their own race as a kind of self-conscious blood-
+clocks with very limited power of self-determination.  That's the
+tendency, I say, of a doctor's experience.  But the people to whom
+they address their statements of the results of their observation
+belong to the thinking class of the highest races, and they are
+conscious of a great deal of liberty of will.  So in the face of the
+fact that civilization with all it offers has proved a dead failure
+with the aboriginal races of this country,--on the whole, I say, a
+dead failure,--they talk as if they knew from their own will all
+about that of a Digger Indian!  We are more apt to go by observation
+of the facts in the case.  We are constantly seeing weakness where
+you see depravity.  I don't say we're right; I only tell what you
+must often find to be the fact, right or wrong, in talking with
+doctors.  You see, too, our notions of bodily and moral disease, or
+sin, are apt to go together.  We used to be as hard on sickness as
+you were on sin.  We know better now.  We don't look at sickness as
+we used to, and try to poison it with everything that is offensive,
+burnt toads and earth-worms and viper-broth, and worse things than
+these.  We know that disease has something back of it which the body
+isn't to blame for, at least in most cases, and which very often it
+is trying to get rid of.  Just so with sin.  I will agree to take a
+hundred new-born babes of a certain stock and return seventy-five of
+them in a dozen years true and honest, if not 'pious' children.  And
+I will take another hundred, of a different stock, and put them in
+the hands of certain Ann-Street or Five-Points teachers, and seventy-
+five of them will be thieves and liars at the end of the same dozen
+years.  I have heard of an old character, Colonel Jaques, I believe
+it was, a famous cattle-breeder, who used to say he could breed to
+pretty much any pattern he wanted to.  Well, we doctors see so much
+of families, how the tricks of the blood keep breaking out, just as
+much in character as they do in looks, that we can't help feeling as
+if a great many people hadn't a fair chance to be what is called
+'good,' and that there isn't a text in the Bible better worth keeping
+always in mind than that one, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.'
+
+"As for our getting any quarter at the hands of theologians, we don't
+expect it, and have no right to.  You don't give each other any
+quarter.  I have had two religious books sent me by friends within a
+week or two.  One is Mr. Brownson's; he is as fair and square as
+Euclid; a real honest, strong thinker, and one that knows what he is
+talking about,--for he has tried all sorts of religions, pretty much.
+He tells us that the Roman Catholic Church is the one 'through which
+alone we can hope for heaven.' The other is by a worthy Episcopal
+rector, who appears to write as if he were in earnest, and he calls
+the Papacy the 'Devil's Masterpiece,' and talks about the 'Satanic
+scheme' of that very Church 'through which alone,' as Mr. Brownson
+tells us, 'we can hope for heaven'
+
+What's the use in our caring about hard words after this,--
+'atheists,' heretics, infidels, and the like?  They're, after all,
+only the cinders picked up out of those heaps of ashes round the
+stumps of the old stakes where they used to burn men, women, and
+children for not thinking just like other folks.  They 'll 'crock'
+your fingers, but they can't burn us.
+
+"Doctors are the best-natured people in the world, except when they
+get fighting with each other.  And they have some advantages over
+you.  You inherit your notions from a set of priests that had no
+wives and no children, or none to speak of, and so let their humanity
+die out of them.  It did n't seem much to them to condemn a few
+thousand millions of people to purgatory or worse for a mistake of
+judgment.  They didn't know what it was to have a child look up in
+their faces and say 'Father!' It will take you a hundred or two more
+years to get decently humanized, after so many centuries of de-
+humanizing celibacy.
+
+"Besides, though our libraries are, perhaps, not commonly quite so
+big as yours, God opens one book to physicians that a good many of
+you don't know much about,--the Book of Life.  That is none of your
+dusty folios with black letters between pasteboard and leather, but
+it is printed in bright red type, and the binding of it is warm and
+tender to every touch.  They reverence that book as one of the
+Almighty's infallible revelations.  They will insist on reading you
+lessons out of it, whether you call them names or not.  These will
+always be lessons of charity.  No doubt, nothing can be more
+provoking to listen to.  But do beg your folks to remember that the
+Smithfield fires are all out, and that the cinders are very dirty and
+not in the least dangerous.  They'd a great deal better be civil, and
+not be throwing old proverbs in the doctors' faces, when they say
+that the man of the old monkish notions is one thing and the man they
+watch from his cradle to his coffin is something very different."
+
+It has cost a good deal of trouble to work the Doctor's talk up into
+this formal shape.  Some of his sentences have been rounded off for
+him, and the whole brought into a more rhetorical form than it could
+have pretended to, if taken as it fell from his lips.  But the exact
+course of his remarks has been followed, and as far as possible his
+expressions have been retained.  Though given in the form of a
+discourse, it must be remembered that this was a conversation, much
+more fragmentary and colloquial than it seems as just read.
+
+The Reverend Doctor was very far from taking offence at the old
+physician's freedom of speech.  He knew him to be honest, kind,
+charitable, self-denying, wherever any sorrow was to be alleviated,
+always reverential, with a cheerful trust in the great Father of all
+mankind.  To be sure, his senior deacon, old Deacon Shearer,--who
+seemed to have got his Scripture-teachings out of the "Vinegar
+Bible," (the one where Vineyard is misprinted Vinegar; which a good
+many people seem to have adopted as the true reading,)--his senior
+deacon had called Dr. Kittredge an "infidel."  But the Reverend
+Doctor could not help feeling, that, unless the text, "By their
+fruits ye shall know them," were an interpolation, the Doctor was the
+better Christian of the two.  Whatever his senior deacon might think
+about it, he said to himself that he shouldn't be surprised if he met
+the Doctor in heaven yet, inquiring anxiously after old Deacon
+Shearer.
+
+He was on the point of expressing himself very frankly to the Doctor,
+with that benevolent smile on his face which had sometimes come near
+giving offence to the readers of the "Vinegar" edition, but he saw
+that the physician's attention had been arrested by Elsie.  He looked
+in the same direction himself, and could not help being struck by her
+attitude and expression.  There was something singularly graceful in
+the curves of her neck and the rest of her figure, but she was so
+perfectly still that it seemed as if she were hardly breathing.  Her
+eyes were fixed on the young girl with whom Mr. Bernard was talking.
+He had often noticed their brilliancy, but now it seemed to him that
+they appeared dull, and the look on her features was as of some
+passion which had missed its stroke.  Mr. Bernard's companion seemed
+unconscious that she was the object of this attention, and was
+listening to the young master as if he had succeeded in making
+himself very agreeable.
+
+Of course Dick Veneer had not mistaken the game that was going on.
+The schoolmaster meant to make Elsie jealous,--and he had done it.
+That 's it: get her savage first, and then come wheedling round her,
+--a sure trick, if he isn't headed off somehow.  But Dick saw well
+enough that he had better let Elsie alone just now, and thought the
+best way of killing the evening would be to amuse himself in a little
+lively talk with Mrs. Blanche Creamer, and incidentally to show Elsie
+that he could make himself acceptable to other women, if not to
+herself.
+
+The Doctor presently went up to Elsie, determined to engage her in
+conversation and get her out of her thoughts, which he saw, by her
+look, were dangerous.  Her father had been on the point of leaving
+Helen Darley to go to her, but felt easy enough when he saw the old
+Doctor at her side, and so went on talking.  The Reverend Doctor,
+being now left alone, engaged the Widow Rowens, who put the best face
+on her vexation she could, but was devoting herself to all the
+underground deities for having been such a fool as to ask that pale-
+faced thing from the Institute to fill up her party.
+
+There is no space left to report the rest of the conversation.  If
+there was anything of any significance in it, it will turn up by and
+by, no doubt.  At ten o'clock the Reverend Doctor called Miss Letty,
+who had no idea it was so late; Mr. Bernard gave his arm to Helen;
+Mr. Richard saw to Mrs. Blanche Creamer; the Doctor gave Elsie a
+cautioning look, and went off alone, thoughtful; Dudley Venner and
+his daughter got into their carriage and were whirled away.  The
+Widow's gambit was played, and she had not won the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE WILD HUNTSMAN.
+
+The young master had not forgotten the old Doctor's cautions.
+Without attributing any great importance to the warning he had given
+him, Mr. Bernard had so far complied with his advice that he was
+becoming a pretty good shot with the pistol.  It was an amusement as
+good as many others to practise, and he had taken a fancy to it after
+the first few days.
+
+The popping of a pistol at odd hours in the backyard of the Institute
+was a phenomenon more than sufficiently remarkable to be talked about
+in Rockland.  The viscous intelligence of a country-village is not
+easily stirred by the winds which ripple the fluent thought of great
+cities, but it holds every straw and entangles every insect that
+lights upon it.  It soon became rumored in the town that the young
+master was a wonderful shot with the pistol.  Some said he could hit
+a fo'pence-ha'penny at three rod; some, that he had shot a swallow,
+flying, with a single ball; some, that he snuffed a candle five times
+out of six at ten paces, and that he could hit any button in a man's
+coat he wanted to.  In other words, as in all such cases, all the
+common feats were ascribed to him, as the current jokes of the day
+are laid at the door of any noted wit, however innocent he may be of
+them.
+
+In the natural course of things, Mr. Richard Venner, who had by this
+time made some acquaintances, as we have seen, among that class of
+the population least likely to allow a live cinder of gossip to go
+out for want of air, had heard incidentally that the master up there
+at the Institute was all the time practising with a pistol, that they
+say he can snuff a candle at ten rods, (that was Mrs. Blanche
+Creamer's version,) and that he could hit anybody he wanted to right
+in the eye, as far as he could see the white of it.
+
+Dick did not like the sound of all this any too well.  Without
+believing more than half of it, there was enough to make the Yankee
+schoolmaster too unsafe to be trifled with.  However, shooting at a
+mark was pleasant work enough; he had no particular objection to it
+himself.  Only he did not care so much for those little popgun
+affairs that a man carries in his pocket, and with which you could
+n't shoot a fellow,--a robber, say,--without getting the muzzle under
+his nose.  Pistols for boys; long-range rifles for men.  There was
+such a gun lying in a closet with the fowling-pieces.  He would go
+out into the fields and see what he could do as a marksman.
+
+The nature of the mark which Dick chose for experimenting upon was
+singular.  He had found some panes of glass which had been removed
+from an old sash, and he placed these successively before his target,
+arranging them at different angles.  He found that a bullet would go
+through the glass without glancing or having its force materially
+abated.  It was an interesting fact in physics, and might prove of
+some practical significance hereafter.  Nobody knows what may turn up
+to render these out-of-the-way facts useful.  All this was done in a
+quiet way in one of the bare spots high up the side of The Mountain.
+He was very thoughtful in taking the precaution to get so far away;
+rifle-bullets are apt to glance and come whizzing about people's
+ears, if they are fired in the neighborhood of houses.  Dick
+satisfied himself that he could be tolerably sure of hitting a pane
+of glass at a distance of thirty rods, more or less, and that, if
+there happened to be anything behind it, the glass would not
+materially alter the force or direction of the bullet.
+
+About this time it occurred to him also that there was an old
+accomplishment of his which he would be in danger of losing for want
+of practice, if he did not take some opportunity to try his hand and
+regain its cunning, if it had begun to be diminished by disuse.  For
+his first trial, he chose an evening when the moon was shining, and
+after the hour when the Rockland people were like to be stirring
+abroad.  He was so far established now that he could do much as he
+pleased without exciting remark.
+
+The prairie horse he rode, the mustang of the Pampas, wild as he was,
+had been trained to take part in at least one exercise.  This was the
+accomplishment in which Mr. Richard now proposed to try himself.  For
+this purpose he sought the implement of which, as it may be
+remembered, he had once made an incidental use,--the lasso, or long
+strip of hide with a slip-noose at the end of it.  He had been
+accustomed to playing with such a thong from his boyhood, and had
+become expert in its use in capturing wild cattle in the course of
+his adventures.  Unfortunately, there were no wild bulls likely to be
+met with in the neighborhood, to become the subjects of his skill.  A
+stray cow in the road, an ox or a horse in a pasture, must serve his
+turn,--dull beasts, but moving marks to aim at, at any rate.
+
+Never, since he had galloped in the chase over the Pampas, had Dick
+Venner felt such a sense of life and power as when he struck the long
+spurs into his wild horse's flanks, and dashed along the road with
+the lasso lying like a coiled snake at the saddle-bow.  In skilful
+hands, the silent, bloodless noose, flying like an arrow, but not
+like that leaving a wound behind it,--sudden as a pistol-shot, but
+without the telltale explosion,--is one of the most fearful and
+mysterious weapons that arm the hand of man.  The old Romans knew how
+formidable, even in contest with a gladiator equipped with sword,
+helmet, and shield, was the almost naked retiarius, with his net in
+one hand and his three-pronged javelin in the other.  Once get a net
+over a man's head, or a cord round his neck, or, what is more
+frequently done nowadays, bonnet him by knocking his hat down over
+his eyes, and he is at the mercy of his opponent.  Our soldiers who
+served against the Mexicans found this out too well.  Many a poor
+fellow has been lassoed by the fierce riders from the plains, and
+fallen an easy victim to the captor who had snared him in the fatal
+noose.
+
+But, imposing as the sight of the wild huntsmen of the Pampas might
+have been, Dick could not help laughing at the mock sublimity of his
+situation, as he tried his first experiment on an unhappy milky
+mother who had strayed from her herd and was wandering disconsolately
+along the road, laying the dust, as slue went, with thready streams
+from her swollen, swinging udders.  "Here goes the Don at the
+windmill!" said Dick, and tilted full speed at her, whirling the
+lasso round his head as he rode.  The creature swerved to one side of
+the way, as the wild horse and his rider came rushing down upon her,
+and presently turned and ran, as only cows and it would n't be safe
+to say it--can run.  Just before he passed,--at twenty or thirty feet
+from her,--the lasso shot from his hand, uncoiling as it flew, and in
+an instant its loop was round her horns.  "Well cast!" said Dick, as
+he galloped up to her side and dexterously disengaged the lasso.
+"Now for a horse on the run!"
+
+He had the good luck to find one, presently, grazing in a pasture at
+the road-side.  Taking down the rails of the fence at one point, he
+drove the horse into the road and gave chase.  It was a lively young
+animal enough, and was easily roused to a pretty fast pace.  As his
+gallop grew more and more rapid, Dick gave the reins to the mustang,
+until the two horses stretched themselves out in their longest
+strides.  If the first feat looked like play, the one he was now to
+attempt had a good deal the appearance of real work.  He touched the
+mustang with the spur, and in a few fierce leaps found himself nearly
+abreast of the frightened animal he was chasing.  Once more he
+whirled the lasso round and round over his head, and then shot it
+forth, as the rattlesnake shoots his head from the loops against
+which it rests.  The noose was round the horse's neck, and in another
+instant was tightened so as almost to stop his breath.  The prairie
+horse knew the trick of the cord, and leaned away from the captive,
+so as to keep the thong tensely stretched between his neck and the
+peak of the saddle to which it was fastened.  Struggling was of no
+use with a halter round his windpipe, and he very soon began to
+tremble and stagger,--blind, no doubt, and with a roaring in his ears
+as of a thousand battle-trumpets,--at any rate, subdued and helpless.
+That was enough.  Dick loosened his lasso, wound it up again, laid it
+like a pet snake in a coil at his saddle-bow, turned his horse, and
+rode slowly along towards the mansion-house.
+
+The place had never looked more stately and beautiful to him than as
+he now saw it in the moonlight.  The undulations of the land,--the
+grand mountain screen which sheltered the mansion from the northern
+blasts, rising with all its hanging forests and parapets of naked
+rock high towards the heavens,--the ancient mansion, with its square
+chimneys, and bodyguard of old trees, and cincture of low walls with
+marble-pillared gateways,--the fields, with their various coverings,
+--the beds of flowers,--the plots of turf, one with a gray column in
+its centre bearing a sundial on which the rays of the moon were idly
+shining, another with a white stone and a narrow ridge of turf,--over
+all these objects, harmonized with all their infinite details into
+one fair whole by the moonlight, the prospective heir, as he deemed
+himself, looked with admiring eyes.
+
+But while he looked, the thought rose up in his mind like waters from
+a poisoned fountain, that there was a deep plot laid to cheat him of
+the inheritance which by a double claim he meant to call his own.
+Every day this ice-cold beauty, this dangerous, handsome cousin of
+his, went up to that place,--that usher's girl-trap.  Everyday,--
+regularly now,--it used to be different.  Did she go only to get out
+of his, her cousin's, reach?  Was she not rather becoming more and
+more involved in the toils of this plotting Yankee?
+
+If Mr. Bernard had shown himself at that moment a few rods in
+advance, the chances are that in less than one minute he would have
+found himself with a noose round his neck, at the heels of a mounted
+horseman.  Providence spared him for the present.  Mr. Richard rode
+his horse quietly round to the stable, put him up, and proceeded
+towards the house.  He got to his bed without disturbing the family,
+but could not sleep.  The idea had fully taken possession of his mind
+that a deep intrigue was going on which would end by bringing Elsie
+and the schoolmaster into relations fatal to all his own hopes.  With
+that ingenuity which always accompanies jealousy, he tortured every
+circumstance of the last few weeks so as to make it square with this
+belief.  From this vein of thought he naturally passed to a
+consideration of every possible method by which the issue he feared
+might be avoided.
+
+Mr. Richard talked very plain language with himself in all these
+inward colloquies.  Supposing it came to the worst, what could be
+done then?  First, an accident might happen to the schoolmaster which
+should put a complete and final check upon his projects and
+contrivances.  The particular accident which might interrupt his
+career must, evidently, be determined by circumstances; but it must
+be of a nature to explain itself without the necessity of any
+particular person's becoming involved in the matter.  It would be
+unpleasant to go into particulars; but everybody knows well enough
+that men sometimes get in the way of a stray bullet, and that young
+persons occasionally do violence to themselves in various modes,--by
+firearms, suspension, and other means,--in consequence of
+disappointment in love, perhaps, oftener than from other motives.
+There was still another kind of accident which might serve his
+purpose.  If anything should happen to Elsie, it would be the most
+natural thing in the world that his uncle should adopt him, his
+nephew and only near relation, as his heir.  Unless, indeed, uncle
+Dudley should take it into his head to marry again.  In that case,
+where would he, Dick, be?  This was the most detestable complication
+which he could conceive of.  And yet he had noticed--he could not
+help noticing--that his uncle had been very attentive to, and, as it
+seemed, very much pleased with, that young woman from the school.
+What did that mean?  Was it possible that he was going to take a
+fancy to her?
+
+It made him wild to think of all the several contingencies which
+might defraud him of that good-fortune which seemed but just now
+within his grasp.  He glared in the darkness at imaginary faces:
+sometimes at that of the handsome, treacherous schoolmaster;
+sometimes at that of the meek-looking, but no doubt, scheming, lady-
+teacher; sometimes at that of the dark girl whom he was ready to make
+his wife; sometimes at that of his much respected uncle, who, of
+course, could not be allowed to peril the fortunes of his relatives
+by forming a new connection.  It was a frightful perplexity in which
+he found himself, because there was no one single life an accident to
+which would be sufficient to insure the fitting and natural course of
+descent to the great Dudley property.  If it had been a simple
+question of helping forward a casualty to any one person, there was
+nothing in Dick's habits of thought and living to make that a serious
+difficulty.  He had been so much with lawless people, that a life
+between his wish and his object seemed only as an obstacle to be
+removed, provided the object were worth the risk and trouble.  But if
+there were two or three lives in the way, manifestly that altered the
+case.
+
+His Southern blood was getting impatient.  There was enough of the
+New-Englander about him to make him calculate his chances before he
+struck; but his plans were liable to be defeated at any moment by a
+passionate impulse such as the dark-hued races of Southern Europe and
+their descendants are liable to.  He lay in his bed, sometimes
+arranging plans to meet the various difficulties already mentioned,
+sometimes getting into a paroxysm of blind rage in the perplexity of
+considering what object he should select as the one most clearly in
+his way.  On the whole, there could be no doubt where the most
+threatening of all his embarrassments lay.  It was in the probable
+growing relation between Elsie and the schoolmaster.  If it should
+prove, as it seemed likely, that there was springing up a serious
+attachment tending to a union between them, he knew what he should
+do, if he was not quite so sure how he should do it.
+
+There was one thing at least which might favor his projects, and
+which, at any rate, would serve to amuse him.  He could, by a little
+quiet observation, find out what were the schoolmaster's habits of
+life: whether he had any routine which could be calculated upon; and
+under what circumstances a strictly private interview of a few
+minutes with him might be reckoned on, in case it should be
+desirable.  He could also very probably learn some facts about Elsie.
+whether the young man was in the habit of attending her on her way
+home from school; whether she stayed about the schoolroom after the
+other girls had gone; and any incidental matters of interest which
+might present themselves.
+
+He was getting more and more restless for want of some excitement.  A
+mad gallop, a visit to Mrs. Blanche Creamer, who had taken such a
+fancy to him, or a chat with the Widow Rowens, who was very lively in
+her talk, for all her sombre colors, and , reminded him a good deal
+of same of his earlier friends, the senoritas,--all these were
+distractions, to be sure, but not enough to keep his fiery spirit
+from fretting itself in longings for more dangerous excitements.  The
+thought of getting a knowledge of all Mr. Bernard's ways, so that he
+would be in his power at any moment, was a happy one.
+
+For some days after this he followed Elsie at a long distance behind,
+to watch her until she got to the schoolhouse.  One day he saw Mr.
+Bernard join her: a mere accident, very probably, for it was only
+once this happened.  She came on her homeward way alone,--quite apart
+from the groups of girls who strolled out of the schoolhouse yard in
+company.  Sometimes she was behind them all,--which was suggestive.
+Could she have stayed to meet the schoolmaster?
+
+If he could have smuggled himself into the school, he would have
+liked to watch her there, and see if there was not some understanding
+between her and the master which betrayed itself by look or word.
+But this was beyond the limits of his audacity, and he had to content
+himself with such cautious observations as could be made at a
+distance.  With the aid of a pocket-glass he could make out persons
+without the risk of being observed himself.
+
+Mr. Silos Peckham's corps of instructors was not expected to be off
+duty or to stand at ease for any considerable length of time.
+Sometimes Mr. Bernard, who had more freedom than the rest, would go
+out for a ramble in the daytime, but more frequently it would be in
+the evening, after the hour of "retiring," as bedtime was elegantly
+termed by the young ladies of the Apollinean Institute.  He would
+then not unfrequently walk out alone in the common roads, or climb up
+the sides of The Mountain, which seemed to be one of his favorite
+resorts.  Here, of course, it was impossible to follow him with the
+eye at a distance.  Dick had a hideous, gnawing suspicion that
+somewhere in these deep shades the schoolmaster might meet Elsie,
+whose evening wanderings he knew so well.  But of this he was not
+able to assure himself.  Secrecy was necessary to his present plans,
+and he could not compromise himself by over-eager curiosity.  One
+thing he learned with certainty.  The master returned, after his walk
+one evening, and entered the building where his room was situated.
+Presently a light betrayed the window of his apartment.  From a
+wooded bank, some thirty or forty rods from this building, Dick
+Venner could see the interior of the chamber, and watch the master as
+he sat at his desk, the light falling strongly upon his face, intent
+upon the book or manuscript before him.  Dick contemplated him very
+long in this attitude.  The sense of watching his every motion,
+himself meanwhile utterly unseen, was delicious.  How little the
+master was thinking what eyes were on him!
+
+Well,--there were two things quite certain.  One was, that, if he
+chose, he could meet the schoolmaster alone, either in the road or in
+a more solitary place, if he preferred to watch his chance for an
+evening or two.  The other was, that he commanded his position, as he
+sat at his desk in the evening, in such a way that there would be
+very little difficulty,--so far as that went; of course, however,
+silence is always preferable to noise, and there is a great
+difference in the marks left by different casualties.  Very likely
+nothing would come of all this espionage; but, at any rate, the first
+thing to be done with a man you want to have in your power is to
+learn his habits.
+
+Since the tea-party at the Widow Rowens's, Elsie had been more fitful
+and moody than ever.  Dick understood all this well enough, you know.
+It was the working of her jealousy against that young schoolgirl to
+whom the master had devoted himself for the sake of piquing the
+heiress of the Dudley mansion.  Was it possible, in any way, to
+exasperate her irritable nature against him, and in this way to
+render her more accessible to his own advances?  It was difficult to
+influence her at all.  She endured his company without seeming to
+enjoy it.  She watched him with that strange look of hers, sometimes
+as if she were on her guard against him, sometimes as if she would
+like to strike at him as in that fit of childish passion.  She
+ordered him about with a haughty indifference which reminded him of
+his own way with the dark-eyed women whom he had known so well of
+old.  All this added a secret pleasure to the other motives he had
+for worrying her with jealous suspicions.  He knew she brooded
+silently on any grief that poisoned her comfort,--that she fed on it,
+as it were, until it ran with every drop of blood in her veins,--and
+that, except in some paroxysm of rage, of which he himself was not
+likely the second time to be the object, or in some deadly vengeance
+wrought secretly, against which he would keep a sharp lookout, so far
+as he was concerned, she had no outlet for her dangerous, smouldering
+passions.
+
+Beware of the woman who cannot find free utterance for all her stormy
+inner life either in words or song!  So long as a woman can talk,
+there is nothing she cannot bear.  If she cannot have a companion to
+listen to her woes, and has no musical utterance, vocal or
+instrumental,--then, if she is of the real woman sort, and has a few
+heartfuls of wild blood in her, and you have done her a wrong,--
+double-bolt the door which she may enter on noiseless slipper at
+midnight,--look twice before you taste of any cup whose draught the
+shadow of her hand may have darkened!
+
+But let her talk, and, above all, cry, or, if she is one of the
+coarser-grained tribe, give her the run of all the red-hot expletives
+in the language, and let her blister her lips with them until she is
+tired, she will sleep like a lamb after it, and you may take a cup of
+coffee from her without stirring it up to look for its sediment.
+
+So, if she can sing, or play on any musical instrument, all her
+wickedness will run off through her throat or the tips of her
+fingers.  How many tragedies find their peaceful catastrophe in
+fierce roulades and strenuous bravuras!  How many murders are
+executed in double-quick time upon the keys which stab the air with
+their dagger-strokes of sound!  What would our civilization be
+without the piano?  Are not Erard and Broadwood and Chickering the
+true humanizers of our time?  Therefore do I love to hear the all-
+pervading tum tum jarring the walls of little parlors in houses with
+double door-plates on their portals, looking out on streets and
+courts which to know is to be unknown, and where to exist is not to
+live, according to any true definition of living.  Therefore complain
+I not of modern degeneracy, when, even from the open window of the
+small unlovely farmhouse, tenanted by the hard-handed man of bovine
+flavors and the flat-patterned woman of broken-down countenance,
+issue the same familiar sounds.  For who knows that Almira, but for
+these keys, which throb away her wild impulses in harmless discords
+would not have been floating, dead, in the brown stream which slides
+through the meadows by her father's door,--or living, with that other
+current which runs beneath the gas-lights over the slimy pavement,
+choking with wretched weeds that were once in spotless flower?
+
+Poor Elsie!  She never sang nor played.  She never shaped her inner
+life in words: such utterance was as much denied to her nature as
+common articulate speech to the deaf mute.  Her only language must be
+in action.  Watch her well by day and by night, old Sophy! watch her
+well! or the long line of her honored name may close in shame, and
+the stately mansion of the Dudleys remain a hissing and a reproach
+till its roof is buried in its cellar!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+ON HIS TRACKS.
+
+"Able!"  said the old Doctor, one morning, "after you've harnessed
+Caustic, come into the study a few minutes, will you?"
+
+Abel nodded.  He was a man of few words, and he knew that the "will
+you" did not require an answer, being the true New-England way of
+rounding the corners of an employer's order,--a tribute to the
+personal independence of an American citizen.
+
+The hired man came into the study in the course of a few minutes.
+His face was perfectly still, and he waited to be spoken to; but the
+Doctor's eye detected a certain meaning in his expression, which
+looked as if he had something to communicate.
+
+"Well?" said the Doctor.
+
+"He's up to mischief o' some kind, I guess," said Abel.  "I jest
+happened daown by the mansion-haouse last night, 'n' he come aout o'
+the gate on that queer-lookin' creator' o' his.  I watched him, 'n'
+he rid, very slow, all raoun' by the Institoot, 'n' acted as ef he
+was spyin' abaout.  He looks to me like a man that's calc'latin' to
+do some kind of ill-turn to somebody.  I should n't like to have him
+raoun' me, 'f there wa'n't a pitchfork or an eel-spear or some sech
+weep'n within reach.  He may be all right; but I don't like his
+looks, 'n' I don't see what he's lurkin' raoun' the Institoot for,
+after folks is abed."
+
+"Have you watched him pretty close for the last few days?" said the
+Doctor.
+
+"W'll, yes,--I've had my eye on him consid'ble o' the time.  I haf to
+be pooty shy abaout it, or he'll find aout th't I'm on his tracks.  I
+don' want him to get a spite ag'inst me, 'f I c'n help it; he looks
+to me like one o' them kind that kerries what they call slung-shot,
+'n' hits ye on the side o' th' head with 'em so suddin y' never know
+what hurts ye."
+
+"Why," said the Doctor, sharply,--"have you ever seen him with any
+such weapon about him?"
+
+"W'll, no,--I caan't say that I hev," Abel answered.  "On'y he looks
+kin' o' dangerous.  Maybe he's all jest 'z he ought to be,--I caan't
+say that he a'n't,--but he's aout late nights, 'n' lurkin' raonn'
+jest 'z ef he was spyin' somebody, 'n' somehaow I caan't help
+mistrustin' them Portagee-lookin' fellahs.  I caan't keep the run o'
+this chap all the time; but I've a notion that old black woman daown
+'t the mansion-haouse knows 'z much abaout him 'z anybody."
+
+The Doctor paused a moment, after hearing this report from his
+private detective, and then got into his chaise, and turned Caustic's
+head in the direction of the Dudley mansion.  He had been suspicious
+of Dick from the first.  He did not like his mixed blood, nor his
+looks, nor his ways.  He had formed a conjecture about his projects
+early.  He had made a shrewd guess as to the probable jealousy Dick
+would feel of the schoolmaster, had found out something of his
+movements, and had cautioned Mr. Bernard,--as we have seen.  He felt
+an interest in the young man,--a student of his own profession, an
+intelligent and ingenuously unsuspecting young fellow, who had been
+thrown by accident into the companionship or the neighborhood of two
+persons, one of whom he knew to be dangerous, and the other he
+believed instinctively might be capable of crime.
+
+The Doctor rode down to the Dudley mansion solely for the sake of
+seeing old Sophy.  He was lucky enough to find her alone in her
+kitchen.  He began taking with her as a physician; he wanted to know
+how her rheumatism had been.  The shrewd old woman saw through all
+that with her little beady black eyes.  It was something quite
+different he had come for, and old Sophy answered very briefly for
+her aches and ails.
+
+"Old folks' bones a'n't like young folks'," she said.  "It's the
+Lord's doin's, 'n' 't a'n't much matter.  I sha'n' be long roan' this
+kitchen.  It's the young Missis, Doctor,--it 's our Elsie,--it 's the
+baby, as we use' t' call her,--don' you remember, Doctor?  Seventeen
+year ago, 'n' her poor mother cryin' for her,--'Where is she?  where
+is she?  Let me see her!  '--'n' how I run up-stairs,--I could run
+then,--'n' got the coral necklace 'n' put it round her little neck,
+'n' then showed her to her mother,--'n' how her mother looked at her,
+'n' looked, 'n' then put out her poor thin fingers 'n' lifted the
+necklace,--'n' fell right back on her piller, as white as though she
+was laid out to bury?"
+
+The Doctor answered her by silence and a look of grave assent.  He
+had never chosen to let old Sophy dwell upon these matters, for
+obvious reasons.  The girl must not grow up haunted by perpetual
+fears and prophecies, if it were possible to prevent it.
+
+"Well, how has Elsie seemed of late?"  he said, after this brief
+pause.
+
+The old woman shook her head.  Then she looked up at the Doctor so
+steadily and searchingly that the diamond eyes of Elsie herself could
+hardly have pierced more deeply.
+
+The Doctor raised his head, by his habitual movement, and met the old
+woman's look with his own calm and scrutinizing gaze, sharpened by
+the glasses through which he now saw her.
+
+Sophy spoke presently in an awed tone, as if telling a vision.
+
+"We shall be havin' trouble before long.  The' 's somethin' comin'
+from the Lord.  I've had dreams, Doctor.  It's many a year I've been
+a-dreamin', but now they're comin' over 'n' over the same thing.
+Three times I've dreamed one thing, Doctor,--one thing!  "
+
+"And what was that?" the Doctor said, with that shade of curiosity in
+his tone which a metaphysician would probably say is an index of a
+certain tendency to belief in the superstition to which the question
+refers.
+
+"I ca'n' jestly tell y' what it was, Doctor," the old woman answered,
+as if bewildered and trying to clear up her recollections; "but it
+was somethin' fearful, with a great noise 'n' a great cryin' o'
+people,--like the Las' Day, Doctor!  The Lord have mercy on my poor
+chil', 'n' take care of her, if anything happens!  But I's feared
+she'll never live to see the Las' Day, 'f 't don' come pooty quick."
+
+Poor Sophy, only the third generation from cannibalism, was, not
+unnaturally, somewhat confused in her theological notions.  Some of
+the Second-Advent preachers had been about, and circulated their
+predictions among the kitchen--population of Rockland.  This was the
+way in which it happened that she mingled her fears in such a strange
+manner with their doctrines.
+
+The Doctor answered solemnly, that of the day and hour we knew not,
+but it became us to be always ready. --"Is there anything going on in
+the household different from common?"
+
+Old Sophy's wrinkled face looked as full of life and intelligence,
+when she turned it full upon the Doctor, as if she had slipped off
+her infirmities and years like an outer garment.  All those fine
+instincts of observation which came straight to her from her savage
+grandfather looked out of her little eyes.  She had a kind of faith
+that the Doctor was a mighty conjurer, who, if he would, could
+bewitch any of them.  She had relieved her feelings by her long talk
+with the minister, but the Doctor was the immediate adviser of the
+family, and had watched them through all their troubles.  Perhaps he
+could tell them what to do.  She had but one real object of affection
+in the world,--this child that she had tended from infancy to
+womanhood.  Troubles were gathering thick round her; how soon they
+would break upon her, and blight or destroy her, no one could tell;
+but there was nothing in all the catalogue of terrors which might not
+come upon the household at any moment.  Her own wits had sharpened
+themselves in keeping watch by day and night, and her face had
+forgotten its age in the excitement which gave life to its features.
+
+"Doctor," old Sophy said, "there's strange things goin' on here by
+night and by day.  I don' like that man,--that Dick,--I never liked
+him.  He giv' me some o' these things I ' got on; I take 'em 'cos I
+know it make him mad, if I no take 'em; I wear 'em, so that he need
+n' feel as if I did n' like him; but, Doctor, I hate him,--jes' as
+much as a member of the church has the Lord's leave to hate anybody."
+
+Her eyes sparkled with the old savage light, as if her ill-will to
+Mr. Richard Veneer might perhaps go a little farther than the
+Christian limit she had assigned.  But remember that her grandfather
+was in the habit of inviting his friends to dine with him upon the
+last enemy he had bagged, and that her grandmother's teeth were filed
+down to points, so that they were as sharp as a shark's.
+
+"What is that you have seen about Mr. Richard Veneer that gives you
+such a spite against him, Sophy?"  asked the Doctor.
+
+"What I' seen 'bout Dick Veneer?"  she replied, fiercely.  "I'll tell
+y' what I' seen.  Dick wan's to marry our Elsie,--that 's what he
+wan's; 'n' he don' love her, Doctor,--he hates her, Doctor, as bad as
+I hate him!  He wan's to marry our Elsie, In' live here in the big
+house, 'n' have nothin' to do but jes' lay still 'n' watch.  Massa
+Venner 'n' see how long 't Ill take him to die, 'n' 'f he don' die
+fas' 'puff, help him some way t' die fasser !---Come close up t' me,
+Doctor!  I wan' t' tell you somethin' I tol' th' minister t' other
+day.  Th' minister, he come down 'n' prayed 'n' talked good,--he's a
+good man, that Doctor Honeywood, 'n' I tol' him all 'bout our Elsie,
+but he did n' tell nobody what to do to stop all what I ' been
+dreamin' about happenin'.  Come close up to me, Doctor!"
+
+The Doctor drew his chair close up to that of the old woman.
+
+"Doctor, nobody mus'n' never marry our Elsie 's longs she lives!
+Nobody mus' n' never live with Elsie but ol Sophy; 'n' ol Sophy won't
+never die 's long 's Elsie 's alive to be took care of.  But I's
+feared, Doctor, I's greatly feared Elsie wan' to marry somebody.
+The' 's a young gen'l'm'n up at that school where she go,--so some of
+'em tells me, 'n' she loves t' see him 'n' talk wi' him, 'n' she
+talks about him when she 's asleep sometimes.  She mus 'n' never
+marry nobody, Doctor!  If she do, he die, certain!"
+
+"If she has a fancy for the young man up at the school there," the
+Doctor said, "I shouldn't think there would be much danger from
+Dick."
+
+"Doctor, nobody know nothin' 'bout Elsie but of Sophy.  She no like
+any other creator' th't ever drawed the bref o' life.  If she ca'n'
+marry one man 'cos she love him, she marry another man 'cos she hate
+him."
+
+"Marry a man because she hates him, Sophy?  No woman ever did such a
+thing as that, or ever will do it."
+
+"Who tol' you Elsie was a woman, Doctor?"  said old Sophy, with a
+flash of strange intelligence in her eyes.
+
+The Doctor's face showed that he was startled.  The old woman could
+not know much about Elsie that he did not know; but what strange
+superstition had got into her head, he was puzzled to guess.  He had
+better follow Sophy's lead and find out what she meant.
+
+"I should call Elsie a woman, and a very handsome one," he said.
+"You don't mean that she has any mark about her, except--you know--
+under the necklace?"
+
+The old woman resented the thought of any deformity about her
+darling.
+
+"I did n' say she had nothin'--but j es' that--you know.  My beauty
+have anything ugly?  She's the beautifullest-shaped lady that ever
+had a shinin' silk gown drawed over her shoulders.  On'y she a'n't
+like no other woman in none of her ways.  She don't cry 'n' laugh
+like other women.  An' she ha'n' got the same kind o' feelin's as
+other women.---Do you know that young gen'1'm'n up at the school,
+Doctor?"
+
+"Yes, Sophy, I've met him sometimes.  He's a very nice sort of young
+man, handsome, too, and I don't much wonder Elsie takes to him.  Tell
+me, Sophy, what do you think would happen, if he should chance to
+fall in love with Elsie, and she with him, and he should marry her?"
+
+"Put your ear close to my lips, Doctor, dear!"  She whispered a
+little to the Doctor, then added aloud, "He die,--that's all."
+
+"But surely, Sophy, you a'n't afraid to have Dick marry her, if she
+would have him for any reason, are you?  He can take care of himself,
+if anybody can."
+
+"Doctor!" Sophy answered, "nobody can take care of hisself that live
+wi' Elsie!  Nobody never in all this worl' mus' live wi' Elsie but of
+Sophy, I tell you.  You don' think I care for Dick?  What do I care,
+if Dick Venner die?  He wam's to marry our Elsie so 's to live in the
+big house 'n' get all the money 'n' all the silver things 'n' all the
+chists full o' linen 'n' beautiful clothes.  That's what Dick wan's.
+An' he hates Elsie 'cos she don' like him.  But if he marry Elsie,
+she 'll make him die some wrong way or other, 'n' they'll take her
+'n' hang her, or he'll get mad with her 'n' choke her. --Oh, I know
+his chokin' tricks!--he don' leave his keys roun' for nothin'"
+
+"What's that you say, Sophy?  Tell me what you mean by all that."
+
+So poor Sophy had to explain certain facts not in all respects to her
+credit.  She had taken the opportunity of his absence to look about
+his chamber, and, having found a key in one of his drawers, had
+applied it to a trunk, and, finding that it opened the trunk, had
+made a kind of inspection for contraband articles, and, seeing the
+end of a leather thong, had followed it up until she saw that it
+finished with a noose, which, from certain appearances, she inferred
+to have seen service of at least doubtful nature.  An unauthorized
+search; but old Sophy considered that a game of life and death was
+going on in the household, and that she was bound to look out for her
+darling.
+
+The Doctor paused a moment to think over this odd piece of
+information.  Without sharing Sophy's belief as to the kind of use
+this mischievous-looking piece of property had been put to, it was
+certainly very odd that Dick should have such a thing at the bottom
+of his trunk.  The Doctor remembered reading or hearing something
+about the lasso and the lariat and the bolas, and had an indistinct
+idea that they had been sometimes used as weapons of warfare or
+private revenge; but they were essentially a huntsman's implements,
+after all, and it was not very strange that this young man had
+brought one of them with him.  Not strange, perhaps, but worth
+noting.
+
+"Do you really think Dick means mischief to anybody, that he has such
+dangerous-looking things?"  the Doctor said, presently.
+
+"I tell you, Doctor. Dick means to have Elsie.  If he ca'n' get her,
+he never let nobody else have her!  Oh, Dick 's a dark man, Doctor!
+I know him!  I 'member him when he was little boy,--he always cunin'.
+I think he mean mischief to somebody.  He come home late nights,--
+come in softly,--oh, I hear him!  I lay awake, 'n' got sharp ears,--I
+hear the cats walkin' over the roofs,--'n' I hear Dick Veneer, when
+he comes up in his stockin'-feet as still as a cat.  I think he mean'
+mischief to somebody.  I no like his looks these las' days. --Is that
+a very pooty gen'l'm'n up at the schoolhouse, Doctor?  "
+
+"I told you he was good-looking.  What if he is?"
+
+"I should like to see him, Doctor,--I should like to see the pooty
+gen'l'm'n that my poor Elsie loves.  She mus 'n' never marry nobody,
+--but, oh, Doctor, I should like to see him, 'n' jes' think a little
+how it would ha' been, if the Lord had n' been so hard on Elsie."
+
+She wept and wrung her hands.  The kind Doctor was touched, and left
+her a moment to her thoughts.
+
+"And how does Mr. Dudley Veneer take all this?" he said, by way of
+changing the subject a little.
+
+"Oh, Massa Veneer, he good man, but he don' know nothin' 'bout Elsie,
+as of Sophy do.  I keep close by her; I help her when she go to bed,
+'n' set by her sometime when she--'sleep; I come to her in th'
+mornin' 'n' help her put on her things." --Then, in a whisper;--
+"Doctor, Elsie lets of Sophy take off that necklace for her.  What
+you think she do, 'f anybody else tech it?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure, Sophy,--strike the person, perhaps."
+
+"Oh, yes, strike 'em!  but not with her han's, Doctor!" --The old
+woman's significant pantomime must be guessed at.
+
+"But you haven't told me, Sophy, what Mr. Dudley Veneer thinks of his
+nephew, nor whether he has any notion that Dick wants to marry
+Elsie."
+
+"I tell you.  Massa Venner, he good man, but he no see nothin' 'bout
+what goes on here in the house.  He sort o' broken-hearted, you
+know,--sort o' giv up,--don' know what to do wi' Elsie, 'xcep' say
+'Yes, yes.'  Dick always look smilin' 'n' behave well before him.
+One time I thought Massa Veneer b'lieve Dick was goin' to take to
+Elsie; but now he don' seem to take much notice,--he kin' o' stupid-'
+like 'bout sech things.  It's trouble, Doctor; 'cos Massa Veneer
+bright man naterally,--'n' he's got a great heap o' books.  I don'
+think Massa Veneer never been jes' heself sence Elsie 's born.  He
+done all he know how,--but, Doctor, that wa'n' a great deal.  You
+men-folks don' know nothin' 'bout these young gals; 'n' 'f you knowed
+all the young gals that ever lived, y' would n' know nothin' 'bout
+our Elsie."
+
+"No,--but, Sophy, what I want to know is, whether you think Mr.
+Veneer has any kind of suspicion about his nephew,--whether he has
+any notion that he's a dangerous sort of fellow,--or whether he feels
+safe to have him about, or has even taken a sort of fancy to him."
+
+"Lar' bless you, Doctor, Massa Veneer no more idee 'f any mischief
+'bout Dick than he has 'bout you or me.  Y' see, he very fond o' the
+Cap'n,--that Dick's father,--'n' he live so long alone here, 'long
+wi' us, that he kin' o' like to see mos' anybody 't 's got any o' th'
+of family-blood in 'em.  He ha'n't got no more suspicions 'n a baby,
+--y' never see sech a man 'n y'r life.  I kin' o' think he don' care
+for nothin' in this world 'xcep' jes' t' do what Elsie wan's him to.
+The fus' year after young Madam die he do nothin' but jes' set at the
+window 'n' look out at her grave, 'n' then come up 'n' look at the
+baby's neck 'n' say, 'It's fadin', Sophy, a'n't it? 'n' then go down
+in the study 'n' walk 'n' walk, 'n' them kneel down 'n' pray.
+Doctor, there was two places in the old carpet that was all
+threadbare, where his knees had worn 'em.  An' sometimes, you
+remember 'bout all that,--he'd go off up into The Mountain, 'n' be
+gone all day, 'n' kill all the Ugly Things he could find up there.---
+Oh, Doctor, I don' like to think o' them days! --An' by 'n' by he
+grew kin' o' still, 'n' begun to read a little, 'n' 't las' he got 's
+quiet's a lamb, 'n' that's the way he is now.  I think he's got
+religion, Doctor; but he a'n't so bright about what's goin' on, 'n' I
+don' believe he never suspec' nothin' till somethin' happens; for
+the' 's somethin' goin' to happen, Doctor, if the Las' Day does n'
+come to stop it; 'n' you mus' tell us what to do, 'n' save my poor
+Elsie, my baby that the Lord has n' took care of like all his other
+childer."
+
+The Doctor assured the old woman that he was thinking a great deal
+about them all, and that there were other eyes on Dick besides her
+own.  Let her watch him closely about the house, and he would keep a
+look-out elsewhere.  If there was anything new, she must let him know
+at once.  Send up one of the menservants, and he would come down at a
+moment's warning.
+
+There was really nothing definite against this young man; but the
+Doctor was sure that he was meditating some evil design or other.  He
+rode straight up to the Institute.  There he saw Mr. Bernard, and had
+a brief conversation with him, principally on matters relating to his
+personal interests.
+
+That evening, for some unknown reason, Mr. Bernard changed the place
+of his desk and drew down the shades of his windows.  Late that night
+Mr. Richard Venner drew the charge of a rifle, and put the gun back
+among the fowling-pieces, swearing that a leather halter was worth a
+dozen of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE PERILOUS HOUR.
+
+Up to this time Dick Venner had not decided on the particular mode
+and the precise period of relieving himself from the unwarrantable
+interference which threatened to defeat his plans.  The luxury of
+feeling that he had his man in his power was its own reward.  One who
+watches in the dark, outside, while his enemy, in utter
+unconsciousness, is illuminating his apartment and himself so that
+every movement of his head and every button on his coat can be seen
+and counted, experiences a peculiar kind of pleasure, if he holds a
+loaded rifle in his hand, which he naturally hates to bring to its
+climax by testing his skill as a marksman upon the object of his
+attention.
+
+Besides, Dick had two sides in his nature, almost as distinct as we
+sometimes observe in those persons who are the subjects of the
+condition known as double consciousness.  On his New England side he
+was cunning and calculating, always cautious, measuring his distance
+before he risked his stroke, as nicely as if he were throwing his
+lasso.  But he was liable to intercurrent fits of jealousy and rage,
+such as the light-hued races are hardly capable of conceiving,
+blinding paroxysms of passion, which for the time overmastered him,
+and which, if they found no ready outlet, transformed themselves into
+the more dangerous forces that worked through the instrumentality of
+his cool craftiness.
+
+He had failed as yet in getting any positive evidence that there was
+any relation between Elsie and the schoolmaster other than such as
+might exist unsuspected and unblamed between a teacher and his pupil.
+A book, or a note, even, did not prove the existence of any
+sentiment.  At one time he would be devoured by suspicions, at
+another he would try to laugh himself out of them.  And in the mean
+while he followed Elsie's tastes as closely as he could, determined
+to make some impression upon her,--to become a habit, a convenience,
+a necessity,--whatever might aid him in the attainment of the one end
+which was now the aim of his life.
+
+It was to humor one of her tastes already known to the reader, that
+he said to her one morning,--"Come, Elsie, take your castanets, and
+let us have a dance."
+
+He had struck the right vein in the girl's fancy, for she was in the
+mood for this exercise, and very willingly led the way into one of
+the more empty apartments.  What there was in this particular kind of
+dance which excited her it might not be easy to guess; but those who
+looked in with the old Doctor, on a former occasion, and saw her,
+will remember that she was strangely carried away by it, and became
+almost fearful in the vehemence of her passion.  The sound of the
+castanets seemed to make her alive all over.  Dick knew well enough
+what the exhibition would be, and was almost afraid of her at these
+moments; for it was like the dancing mania of Eastern devotees, more
+than the ordinary light amusement of joyous youth,--a convulsion of
+the body and the mind, rather than a series of voluntary modulated
+motions.
+
+Elsie rattled out the triple measure of a saraband.  Her eyes began
+to glitter more brilliantly, and her shape to undulate in freer
+curves.  Presently she noticed that Dick's look was fixed upon her
+necklace.  His face betrayed his curiosity; he was intent on solving
+the question, why she always wore something about her neck.  The
+chain of mosaics she had on at that moment displaced itself at every
+step, and he was peering with malignant, searching eagerness to see
+if an unsunned ring of fairer hue than the rest of the surface, or
+any less easily explained peculiarity, were hidden by her ornaments.
+
+She stopped suddenly, caught the chain of mosaics and settled it
+hastily in its place, flung down her castanets, drew herself back,
+and stood looking at him, with her head a little on one side, and her
+eyes narrowing in the way he had known so long and well.
+
+"What is the matter, Cousin Elsie?  What do you stop for?"  he said.
+
+Elsie did not answer, but kept her eyes on him, full of malicious
+light.  The jealousy which lay covered up under his surface-thoughts
+took this opportunity to break out.
+
+"You would n't act so, if you were dancing with Mr. Langdon,--would
+you, Elsie?" he asked.
+
+It was with some effort that he looked steadily at her to see the
+effect of his question.
+
+Elsie colored,--not much, but still perceptibly.  Dick could not
+remember that he had ever seen her show this mark of emotion before,
+in all his experience of her fitful changes of mood.  It had a
+singular depth of significance, therefore, for him; he knew how
+hardly her color came.  Blushing means nothing, in some persons; in
+others, it betrays a profound inward agitation,--a perturbation of
+the feelings far more trying than the passions which with many easily
+moved persons break forth in tears.  All who have observed much are
+aware that some men, who have seen a good deal of life in its less
+chastened aspects and are anything but modest, will blush often and
+easily, while there are delicate and sensitive women who can faint,
+or go into fits, if necessary, but are very rarely seen to betray
+their feelings in their cheeks, even when their expression shows that
+their inmost soul is blushing scarlet.  Presently she answered,
+abruptly and scornfully,  "Mr. Langdon is a gentleman, and would not
+vex me as you do."
+
+"A gentleman!"  Dick answered, with the most insulting accent,--
+"a gentleman!  Come, Elsie, you 've got the Dudley blood in your
+veins, and it does n't do for you to call this poor, sneaking
+schoolmaster a gentleman!"
+
+He stopped short.  Elsie's bosom was heaving, the faint flush on her
+cheek was becoming a vivid glow.  Whether it were shame or wrath, he
+saw that he had reached some deep-lying centre of emotion.  There was
+no longer any doubt in his mind.  With another girl these signs of
+confusion might mean little or nothing; with her they were decisive
+and final.  Elsie Venner loved Bernard Langdon.
+
+The sudden conviction, absolute, overwhelming, which rushed upon him,
+had well-nigh led to an explosion of wrath, and perhaps some terrible
+scene which might have fulfilled some of old Sophy's predictions.
+This, however, would never do.  Dick's face whitened with his
+thoughts, but he kept still until he could speak calmly.
+
+"I've nothing against the young fellow," he said; "only I don't think
+there's anything quite good enough to keep the company of people that
+have the Dudley blood in them.  You a'n't as proud as I am.  I can't
+quite make up my mind to call a schoolmaster a gentleman, though this
+one may be well enough.  I 've nothing against him, at any rate."
+
+Elsie made no answer, but glided out of the room and slid away to her
+own apartment.  She bolted the door and drew her curtains close.
+Then she threw herself on the floor, and fell into a dull, slow ache
+of passion, without tears, without words, almost without thoughts.
+So she remained, perhaps, for a half-hour, at the end of which time
+it seemed that her passion had become a sullen purpose.  She arose,
+and, looking cautiously round, went to the hearth, which was
+ornamented with curious old Dutch tiles, with pictures of Scripture
+subjects.  One of these represented the lifting of the brazen
+serpent.  She took a hair-pin from one of her braids, and,
+insinuating its points under the edge of the tile, raised it from its
+place.  A small leaden box lay under the tile, which she opened, and,
+taking from it a little white powder, which she folded in a scrap of
+paper, replaced the box and the tile over it.
+
+Whether Dick had by any means got a knowledge of this proceeding, or
+whether he only suspected some unmentionable design on her part,
+there is no sufficient means of determining.  At any rate, when they
+met, an hour or two after these occurrences, he could not help
+noticing how easily she seemed to have got over her excitement.  She
+was very pleasant with him,--too pleasant, Dick thought.  It was not
+Elsie's way to come out of a fit of anger so easily as that.  She had
+contrived some way of letting off her spite; that was certain.  Dick
+was pretty cunning, as old Sophy had said, and, whether or not he had
+any means of knowing Elsie's private intentions, watched her closely,
+and was on his guard against accidents.
+
+For the first time, he took certain precautions with reference to his
+diet, such as were quite alien to his common habits.  On coming to
+the dinner-table, that day, he complained of headache, took but
+little food, and refused the cup of coffee which Elsie offered him,
+saying that it did not agree with him when he had these attacks.
+
+Here was a new complication.  Obviously enough, he could not live in
+this way, suspecting everything but plain bread and water, and hardly
+feeling safe in meddling with them.  Not only had this school-keeping
+wretch come between him and the scheme by which he was to secure his
+future fortune, but his image had so infected his cousin's mind that
+she was ready to try on him some of those tricks which, as he had
+heard hinted in the village, she had once before put in practice upon
+a person who had become odious to her.
+
+Something must be done, and at once, to meet the double necessities
+of this case.  Every day, while the young girl was in these relations
+with the young man, was only making matters worse.  They could
+exchange words and looks, they could arrange private interviews, they
+would be stooping together over the same book, her hair touching his
+cheek, her breath mingling with his, all the magnetic attractions
+drawing them together with strange, invisible effluences.  As her
+passion for the schoolmaster increased, her dislike to him, her
+cousin, would grow with it, and all his dangers would be multiplied.
+It was a fearful point he had, reached.  He was tempted at one moment
+to give up all his plans and to disappear suddenly from the place,
+leaving with the schoolmaster, who had come between him and his
+object, an anonymous token of his personal sentiments which would be
+remembered a good while in the history of the town of Rockland.  This
+was but a momentary thought; the great Dudley property could not be
+given up in that way.
+
+Something must happen at once to break up all this order of things.
+He could think of but one Providential event adequate to the
+emergency,--an event foreshadowed by various recent circumstances,
+but hitherto floating in his mind only as a possibility.  Its
+occurrence would at once change the course of Elsie's feelings,
+providing her with something to think of besides mischief, and remove
+the accursed obstacle which was thwarting all his own projects.
+Every possible motive, then,--his interest, his jealousy, his longing
+for revenge, and now his fears for his own safety,--urged him to
+regard the happening of a certain casualty as a matter of simple
+necessity.  This was the self-destruction of Mr. Bernard Langdon.
+
+Such an event, though it might be surprising to many people, would
+not be incredible, nor without many parallel cases.  He was poor, a
+miserable fag, under the control of that mean wretch up there at the
+school, who looked as if he had sour buttermilk in his veins instead
+of blood.  He was in love with a girl above his station, rich, and of
+old family, but strange in all her ways, and it was conceivable that
+he should become suddenly jealous of her.  Or she might have
+frightened him with some display of her peculiarities which had
+filled him with a sudden repugnance in the place of love.  Any of
+these things were credible, and would make a probable story enough,--
+so thought Dick over to himself with the New-England half of his
+mind.
+
+Unfortunately, men will not always take themselves out of the way
+when, so far as their neighbors are concerned, it would be altogether
+the most appropriate and graceful and acceptable service they could
+render.  There was at this particular moment no special reason for
+believing that the schoolmaster meditated any violence to his own
+person.  On the contrary, there was good evidence that he was taking
+some care of himself.  He was looking well and in good spirits, and
+in the habit of amusing himself and exercising, as if to keep up his
+standard of health, especially of taking certain evening-walks,
+before referred to, at an hour when most of the Rockland people had
+"retired," or, in vulgar language, "gone to bed."
+
+Dick Veneer settled it, however, in his own mind, that Mr. Bernard
+Langdon must lay violent hands upon himself.  He even went so far as
+to determine the precise hour, and the method in which the "rash
+act," as it would undoubtedly be called in the next issue of "The
+Rockland Weekly Universe," should be committed.  Time,--this evening.
+Method, asphyxia, by suspension.  It was, unquestionably, taking a
+great liberty with a man to decide that he should become felo de se
+without his own consent.  Such, however, was the decision of Mr.
+Richard Veneer with regard to Mr. Bernard Langdon.
+
+If everything went right, then, there would be a coroner's inquest
+to-morrow upon what remained of that gentleman, found suspended to
+the branch of a tree somewhere within a mile of the Apollinean
+Institute.  The "Weekly Universe " would have a startling paragraph
+announcing a "SAD EVENT!!!" which had "thrown the town into an
+intense state of excitement.  Mr. Barnard Langden, a well-known
+teacher at the Appolinian Institute, was found, etc., etc.  The vital
+spark was extinct.  The motive to the rash act can only be
+conjectured, but is supposed to be disappointed affection.  The name
+of an accomplished young lady of the highest respectability and great
+beauty is mentioned in connection with this melancholy occurrence."
+
+Dick Venner was at the tea-table that evening, as usual.---No, he
+would take green tea, if she pleased,--the same that her father
+drank.  It would suit his headache better. --Nothing,--he was much
+obliged to her.  He would help himself,--which he did in a little
+different way from common, naturally enough, on account of his
+headache.  He noticed that Elsie seemed a little nervous while she
+was rinsing some of the teacups before their removal.
+
+"There's something going on in that witch's head," he said to
+himself.  "I know her,--she 'd be savage now, if she had n't got some
+trick in hand.  Let 's see how she looks to-morrow!"
+
+Dick announced that he should go to bed early that evening, on
+account of this confounded headache which had been troubling him so
+much.  In fact, he went up early, and locked his door after him, with
+as much noise as he could make.  He then changed some part of his
+dress, so that it should be dark throughout, slipped off his boots,
+drew the lasso out from the bottom of the contents of his trunk, and,
+carrying that and his boots in his hand, opened his door softly,
+locked it after him, and stole down the back-stairs, so as to get out
+of the house unnoticed.  He went straight to the stable and saddled
+the mustang.  He took a rope from the stable with him, mounted his
+horse, and set forth in the direction of the Institute.
+
+Mr. Bernard, as we have seen, had not been very profoundly impressed
+by the old Doctor's cautions,--enough, however, to follow out some of
+his hints which were not troublesome to attend to.  He laughed at the
+idea of carrying a loaded pistol about with him; but still it seemed
+only fair, as the old Doctor thought so much of the matter, to humor
+him about it.  As for not going about when and where he liked, for
+fear he might have some lurking enemy, that was a thing not to be
+listened to nor thought of.  There was nothing to be ashamed of or
+troubled about in any of his relations with the school-girls.  Elsie,
+no doubt, showed a kind of attraction towards him, as did perhaps
+some others; but he had been perfectly discreet, and no father or
+brother or lover had any just cause of quarrel with him.  To be sure,
+that dark young man at the Dudley mansion-house looked as if he were
+his enemy, when he had met him; but certainly there was nothing in
+their relations to each other, or in his own to Elsie, that would be
+like to stir such malice in his mind as would lead him to play any of
+his wild Southern tricks at his, Mr. Bernard's, expense.  Yet he had
+a vague feeling that this young man was dangerous, and he had been
+given to understand that one of the risks he ran was from that
+quarter.
+
+On this particular evening, he had a strange, unusual sense of some
+impending peril.  His recent interview with the Doctor, certain
+remarks which had been dropped in his hearing, but above all an
+unaccountable impression upon his spirits, all combined to fill his
+mind with a foreboding conviction that he was very near some
+overshadowing danger.  It was as the chill of the ice-mountain toward
+which the ship is steering under full sail.  He felt a strong impulse
+to see Helen Darley and talk with her.  She was in the common parlor,
+and, fortunately, alone.
+
+"Helen," he said,--for they were almost like brother and sister now,
+--"I have been thinking what you would do, if I should have to leave
+the school at short notice, or be taken away suddenly by any
+accident."
+
+"Do?" she said, her cheek growing paler than its natural delicate
+hue,--"why, I do not know how I could possibly consent to live here,
+if you left us.  Since you came, my life has been almost easy;
+before, it was getting intolerable.  You must not talk about going,
+my dear friend; you have spoiled me for my place.  Who is there here
+that I can have any true society with, but you?  You would not leave
+us for another school, would you?"
+
+"No, no, my dear Helen," Mr. Bernard said, "if it depends on myself,
+I shall stay out my full time, and enjoy your company and friendship.
+But everything is uncertain in this world.  I have been thinking that
+I might be wanted elsewhere, and called when I did not think of it;--
+it was a fancy, perhaps,--but I can't keep it out of my mind this
+evening.  If any of my fancies should come true, Helen, there are two
+or three messages I want to leave with you.  I have marked a book or
+two with a cross in pencil on the :Ly-leaf ;--these are for you.
+There is a little hymn-book I should like to have you give to Elsie
+from me;--it may be a kind of comfort to the poor girl."
+
+Helen's eyes glistened as she interrupted him,--
+
+"What do you mean?  You must not talk so, Mr. Langdon.  Why, you
+never looked better in your life.  Tell me now, you are not in
+earnest, are you, but only trying a little sentiment on me?"
+
+Mr. Bernard smiled, but rather sadly.
+
+"About half in earnest," he said.  "I have had some fancies in my
+head,--superstitions, I suppose,--at any rate, it does no harm to
+tell you what I should like to have done, if anything should happen,
+--very likely nothing ever will.  Send the rest of the books home, if
+you please, and write a letter to my mother.  And, Helen, you will
+find one small volume in my desk enveloped and directed, you will see
+to whom;--give this with your own hands; it is a keepsake."
+
+The tears gathered in her eyes; she could not speak at first.
+Presently, "Why, Bernard, my dear friend, my brother, it cannot be
+that you are in danger?  Tell me what it is, and, if I can share it
+with you, or counsel you in any way, it will only be paying back the
+great debt I owe you.  No, no,--it can't be true,--you are tired and
+worried, and your spirits have got depressed.  I know what that is;--
+I was sure, one winter, that I should die before spring; but I lived
+to see the dandelions and buttercups go to seed.  Come, tell me it
+was nothing but your imagination."
+
+She felt a tear upon her cheek, but would not turn her face away from
+him; it was the tear of a sister.
+
+"I am really in earnest, Helen," he said.  "I don't know that there
+is the least reason in the world for these fancies.  If they all go
+off and nothing comes of them, you may laugh at me, if you like.  But
+if there should be any occasion, remember my requests.  You don't
+believe in presentiments, do you?"
+
+"Oh, don't ask-me, I beg you," Helen answered.  "I have had a good
+many frights for every one real misfortune I have suffered.
+Sometimes I have thought I was warned beforehand of coming trouble,
+just as many people are of changes in the weather, by some
+unaccountable feeling,--but not often, and I don't like to talk about
+such things.  I wouldn't think about these fancies of yours.  I don't
+believe you have exercised enough;--don't you think it's confinement
+in the school has made you nervous?"
+
+"Perhaps it has; but it happens that I have thought more of exercise
+lately, and have taken regular evening walks, besides playing my old
+gymnastic tricks every day."
+
+They talked on many subjects, but through all he said Helen perceived
+a pervading tone of sadness, and an expression as of a dreamy
+foreboding of unknown evil.  They parted at the usual hour, and went
+to their several rooms.  The sadness of Mr. Bernard had sunk into the
+heart of Helen, and she mingled many tears with her prayers that
+evening, earnestly entreating that he might be comforted in his days
+of trial and protected in his hour of danger.
+
+Mr. Bernard stayed in his room a short time before setting out for
+his evening walk.  His eye fell upon the Bible his mother had given
+him when he left home, and he opened it in the New Testament at a
+venture.  It happened that the first words he read were these,--
+"Lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping."  In the state of mind
+in which he was at the moment, the text startled him.  It was like a
+supernatural warning.  He was not going to expose himself to any
+particular danger this evening; a walk in a quiet village was as free
+from risk as Helen Darley or his own mother could ask; yet he had an
+unaccountable feeling of apprehension, without any definite object.
+At this moment he remembered the old Doctor's counsel, which he had
+sometimes neglected, and, blushing at the feeling which led him to do
+it, he took the pistol his suspicious old friend had forced upon him,
+which he had put away loaded, and, thrusting it into his pocket, set
+out upon his walk.
+
+The moon was shining at intervals, for the night was partially
+clouded.  There seemed to be nobody stirring, though his attention
+was unusually awake, and he could hear the whirr of the bats
+overhead, and the pulsating croak of the frogs in the distant pools
+and marshes.  Presently he detected the sound of hoofs at some
+distance, and, looking forward, saw a horseman coming in his
+direction.  The moon was under a cloud at the moment, and he could
+only observe that the horse and his rider looked like a single dark
+object, and that they were moving along at an easy pace.  Mr. Bernard
+was really ashamed of himself, when he found his hand on the butt of
+his pistol.  When the horseman was within a hundred and fifty yards
+of him, the moon shone out suddenly and revealed each of them to the
+other.  The rider paused for a moment, as if carefully surveying the
+pedestrian, then suddenly put his horse to the full gallop, and
+dashed towards him, rising at the same instant in his stirrups and
+swinging something round his head, what, Mr. Bernard could not make
+out.  It was a strange manoeuvre,--so strange and threatening in
+aspect that the young man forgot his nervousness in an instant,
+cocked his pistol, and waited to see what mischief all this meant.
+He did not wait long.  As the rider came rushing towards him, he made
+a rapid motion and something leaped five-and-twenty feet through the
+air, in Mr. Bernard's direction.  In an instant he felt a ring, as of
+a rope or thong, settle upon his shoulders.  There was no time to
+think, he would be lost in another second.  He raised his pistol and
+fired,--not at the rider, but at the horse.  His aim was true; the
+mustang gave one bound and fell lifeless, shot through the head.  The
+lasso was fastened to his saddle, and his last bound threw Mr.
+Bernard violently to the earth, where he lay motionless, as if
+stunned.
+
+In the mean time, Dick Venner, who had been dashed down with his
+horse, was trying to extricate himself,--one of his legs being held
+fast under the animal, the long spur on his boot having caught in the
+saddle-cloth.  He found, however, that he could do nothing with his
+right arm, his shoulder having been in some way injured in his fall.
+But his Southern blood was up, and, as he saw Mr. Bernard move as if
+he were coming to his senses, he struggled violently to free himself.
+
+"I 'll have the dog, yet," he said,--"only let me get at him with the
+knife!  "
+
+He had just succeeded in extricating his imprisoned leg, and was
+ready to spring to his feet, when he was caught firmly by the throat,
+and looking up, saw a clumsy barbed weapon, commonly known as a hay
+fork, within an inch of his breast.
+
+"Hold on there!  What 'n thunder 'r' y' abaout, y' darned Portagee?"
+said a voice, with a decided nasal tone in it, but sharp and
+resolute.
+
+Dick looked from the weapon to the person who held it, and saw a
+sturdy, plain man standing over him, with his teeth clinched, and his
+aspect that of one all ready for mischief.
+
+"Lay still, naow!" said Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man; "'f y'
+don't, I'll stick ye, 'z sure 'z y' 'r' alive!  I been aafter ye f'r
+a week, 'n' I got y' naow !  I knowed I'd ketch ye at some darned
+trick or 'nother 'fore I'd done 'ith ye!"
+
+Dick lay perfectly still, feeling that he was crippled and helpless,
+thinking all the time with the Yankee half of his mind what to do
+about it.  He saw Mr. Bernard lift his head and look around him.  He
+would get his senses again in a few minutes, very probably, and then
+he, Mr. Richard Venner, would be done for.
+
+"Let me up!  let me up!" he cried, in a low, hurried voice,--"I 'll
+give you a hundred dollars in gold to let me go.  The man a'n't
+hurt,--don't you see him stirring?  He'll come to himself in two
+minutes.  Let me up!  I'll give you a hundred and fifty dollars in
+gold, now, here on the spot,--and the watch out of my pocket; take it
+yourself, with your own hands!"
+
+"I'll see y' darned fust!  Ketch me lett'n' go!"  was Abel's emphatic
+answer.  "Yeou lay still, 'n' wait t'll that man comes tew."
+
+He kept the hay-fork ready for action at the slightest sign of
+resistance.
+
+Mr. Bernard, in the mean time, had been getting, first his senses,
+and then some few of his scattered wits, a little together.
+
+"What is it?"--he said.  "Who'shurt?  What's happened?"
+
+"Come along here 'z quick 'z y' ken," Abel answered, "'n' haalp me
+fix this fellah.  Y' been hurt, y'rself, 'n' the' 's murder come
+pooty nigh happenin'."
+
+Mr. Bernard heard the answer, but presenth stared about and asked
+again, "Who's hurt?  What's hay)pened?"
+
+"Y' 'r' hurt, y'rself, I tell ye," said Abel; "'n' the' 's been a
+murder, pooty nigh."
+
+Mr. Bernard felt something about his neck, and, putting his hands up,
+found the loop of the lasso, which he loosened, but did not think to
+slip over his head, in the confusion of his perceptions and thoughts.
+It was a wonder that it had not choked him, but he had fallen forward
+so as to slacken it.
+
+By this time he was getting some notion of what he was about, and
+presently began looking round for his pistol, which had fallen.  He
+found it lying near him, cocked it mechanically, and walked, somewhat
+unsteadily, towards the two men, who were keeping their position as
+still as if they were performing in a tableau.
+
+"Quick, naow!  " said Abel, who had heard the click of cocking the
+pistol, and saw that he held it in his hand, as he came towards him.
+"Gi' me that pistil, and yeou fetch that 'ere rope layin' there.  I
+'ll have this here fella,h fixed 'n less 'n two minutes."
+
+Mr. Bernard did as Abel said,--stupidly and mechanically, for he was
+but half right as yet.  Abel pointed the pistol at Dick's head.
+
+"Naow hold up y'r hands, yeou fellah," he said, "'n' keep 'em up,
+while this man puts the rope mound y'r wrists."
+
+Dick felt himself helpless, and, rather than have his disabled arm
+roughly dealt with, held up his hands.  Mr. Bernard did as Abel said;
+he was in a purely passive state, and obeyed orders like a child.
+Abel then secured the rope in a most thorough and satisfactory
+complication of twists and knots.
+
+"Naow get up, will ye?  " he said; and the unfortunate Dick rose to
+his feet.
+
+"Who's hurt?  What's happened?"  asked poor Mr. Bernard again, his
+memory having been completely jarred out of him for the time.
+
+"Come, look here naow, yeou, don' Stan' askin' questions over 'n'
+over;--'t beats all!  ha'n't I tol' y' a dozen times?"
+
+As Abel spoke, he turned and looked at Mr. Bernard.
+
+"Hullo!  What 'n thunder's that 'ere raoun' y'r neck?  Ketched ye
+'ith a slippernoose, hey?  Wal, if that a'n't the craowner I Hol' on
+a minute, Cap'n, 'n' I'll show ye what that 'ere halter's good for."
+
+Abel slipped the noose over Mr. Bernard's head, and put it round the
+neck of the miserable Dick Veneer, who made no sign of resistance,--
+whether on account of the pain he was in, or from mere helplessness,
+or because he was waiting for some unguarded moment to escape,--since
+resistance seemed of no use.
+
+"I 'm go'n' to kerry y' home," said Abel; 'T' th' ol Doctor, he's got
+a gre't cur'osity t' see ye.  Jes' step along naow,--off that way,
+will ye?--'n' I Ill hol' on t' th' bridle, f' fear y' sh'd run
+away."
+
+He took hold of the leather thong, but found that it was fastened at
+the other end to the saddle.  This was too much for Abel.
+
+"Wal, naow, yeou be a pooty chap to hev raound!  A fellah's neck in a
+slippernoose at one eend of a halter, 'n' a hors on th' full spring
+at t' other eend!"
+
+He looked at him from' head to foot as a naturalist inspects a new
+specimen.  His clothes had suffered in his fall, especially on the
+leg which had been caught under the horse.
+
+"Hullo!  look o' there, naow!  What's that 'ere stickin' aout o' y'r
+boot?"
+
+It was nothing but the handle of an ugly knife, which Abel instantly
+relieved him of.
+
+The party now took up the line of march for old Doctor Kittredge's
+house, Abel carrying the pistol and knife, and Mr. Bernard walking in
+silence, still half-stunned, holding the hay-fork, which Abel had
+thrust into his hand.  It was all a dream to him as yet.  He
+remembered the horseman riding at him, and his firing the pistol; but
+whether he was alive, and these walls around him belonged to the
+village of Rockland, or whether he had passed the dark river, and was
+in a suburb of the New Jerusalem, he could not as yet have told.
+
+They were in the street where the Doctor's house was situated.
+
+"I guess I'll fire off one o' these here berrils," said Abel.
+
+He fired.
+
+Presently there was a noise of opening windows, and the nocturnal
+head-dresses of Rockland flowered out of them like so many
+developments of the Nightblooming Cereus.  White cotton caps and red
+bandanna handkerchiefs were the prevailing forms of efflorescence.
+The main point was that the village was waked up.  The old Doctor
+always waked easily, from long habit, and was the first among those
+who looked out to see what had happened.
+
+"Why, Abel!" he called out, "what have you got there?  and what 's
+all this noise about?  "
+
+"We've ketched the Portagee!  "Abel answered, as laconically as the
+hero of Lake Erie, in his famous dispatch.  "Go in there, you
+fellah!"
+
+The prisoner was marched into the house, and the Doctor, who had
+bewitched his clothes upon him in a way that would have been
+miraculous in anybody but a physician, was down in presentable form
+as soon as if it had been a child in a fit that he was sent for.
+
+"Richard Veneer!" the Doctor exclaimed.  "What is the meaning of all
+this?  Mr. Langdon, has anything happened to you?"
+
+Mr. Bernard put his hand to his head.
+
+"My mind is confused," he said.  "I've had a fall.---Oh, yes!---wait
+a minute and it will all come back to me."
+
+"Sit down, sit down,"the Doctor said.  "Abel will tell me about it.
+Slight concussion of the brain.  Can't remember very well for an hour
+or two,--will come right by to-morrow."
+
+"Been stunded," Abel said.  "He can't tell nothin'."
+
+Abel then proceeded to give a Napoleonic bulletin of the recent
+combat of cavalry and infantry and its results,--none slain, one
+captured.
+
+The Doctor looked at the prisoner through his spectacles.
+
+"What 's the matter with your shoulder, Venner?"
+
+Dick answered sullenly, that he didn't know, fell on it when his
+horse came down.  The Doctor examined it as carefully as he could
+through his clothes.
+
+"Out of joint.  Untie his hands, Abel"
+
+By this time a small alarm had spread among the neighbors, and there
+was a circle around Dick, who glared about on the assembled honest
+people like a hawk with a broken wing.
+
+When the Doctor said, "Untie his hands," the circle widened
+perceptibly.
+
+"Isn't it a leetle rash to give him the use of his hands?  I see
+there's females and children standin' near."
+
+This was the remark of our old friend, Deacon Soper, who retired from
+the front row, as he spoke, behind a respectable-looking, but
+somewhat hastily dressed person of the defenceless sex, the female
+help of a neighboring household, accompanied by a boy, whose
+unsmoothed shock of hair looked like a last year's crow's-nest.
+
+But Abel untied his hands, in spite of the Deacon's considerate
+remonstrance.
+
+"Now," said the Doctor, "the first thing is to put the joint back."
+
+"Stop," said Deacon Soper,--"stop a minute.  Don't you think it will
+be safer--for the women-folks--jest to wait till mornin', afore you
+put that j'int into the socket?"
+
+Colonel Sprowle, who had been called by a special messenger, spoke up
+at this moment.
+
+"Let the women-folks and the deacons go home, if they're scared, and
+put the fellah's j'int in as quick as you like.  I 'll resk him,
+j'int in or out."
+
+"I want one of you to go straight down to Dudley Venner's with a
+message," the Doctor said.  "I will have the young man's shoulder in
+quick enough."
+
+"Don't send that message!" said Dick, in a hoarse voice;--"do what
+you like with my arm, but don't send that message!  Let me go,--I can
+walk, and I'll be off from this place.  There's nobody hurt but
+myself.  Damn the shoulder! --let me go!  You shall never hear of me
+again!"
+
+Mr. Bernard came forward.
+
+"My friends," he said, "I am not injured,--seriously, at least.
+Nobody need complain against this man, if I don't.  The Doctor will
+treat him like a human being, at any rate; and then, if he will go,
+let him.  There are too many witnesses against him here for him to
+want to stay."
+
+The Doctor, in the mean time, without saying a word to all this, had
+got a towel round the shoulder and chest and another round the arm,
+and had the bone replaced in a very few minutes.
+
+"Abel, put Cassia into the new chaise," he said, quietly.  "My
+friends and neighbors, leave this young man to me."
+
+"Colonel Sprowle, you're a justice of the peace," said Deacon Soper,
+"and you know what the law says in cases like this.  It a'n't so
+clear that it won't have to come afore the Grand Jury, whether we
+will or no."
+
+"I guess we'll set that j'int to-morrow mornin'," said Colonel
+Sprowle,--which made a laugh at the Deacon's expense, and virtually
+settled the question.
+
+"Now trust this young man in my care," said the old Doctor, "and go
+home and finish your naps.  I knew him when he was a boy and I'll
+answer for it, he won't trouble you any more.  The Dudley blood makes
+folks proud, I can tell you, whatever else they are."
+
+The good people so respected and believed in the Doctor that they
+left the prisoner with him.
+
+Presently, Cassia, the fast Morgan mare, came up to the front-door,
+with the wheels of the new, light chaise flashing behind her in the
+moonlight.  The Doctor drove Dick forty miles at a stretch that
+night, out of the limits of the State.
+
+"Do you want money?"  he said, before he left him.
+
+Dick told him the secret of his golden belt.
+
+"Where shall I send your trunk after you from your uncle's?"
+
+Dick gave him a direction to a seaport town to which he himself was
+going, to take passage for a port in South America.
+
+"Good-bye, Richard," said the Doctor.  "Try to learn something from
+to-night's lesson."
+
+The Southern impulses in Dick's wild blood overcame him, and he
+kissed the old Doctor on both cheeks, crying as only the children of
+the sun can cry, after the first hours in the dewy morning of life.
+So Dick Venner disappears from this story.  An hour after dawn,
+Cassia pointed her fine ears homeward, and struck into her square,
+honest trot, as if she had not been doing anything more than her duty
+during her four hours' stretch of the last night.
+
+Abel was not in the habit of questioning the Doctor's decisions.
+
+"It's all right," he said to Mr. Bernard.  "The fellah 's Squire
+Venner's relation, anyhaow.  Don't you want to wait here, jest a
+little while, till I come back?  The's a consid'able nice saddle 'n'
+bridle on a dead boss that's layin' daown there in the road 'n' I
+guess the' a'n't no use in lettin' on 'em spite,--so I'll jest step
+aout 'n' fetch 'em along.  I kind o' calc'late 't won't pay to take
+the cretur's shoes 'n' hide off to-night,--'n' the' won't be much
+iron on that hose's huffs an haour after daylight, I'll bate ye a
+quarter."
+
+"I'll walk along with you," said Mr. Bernard; "I feel as if I could
+get along well enough now."
+
+So they set off together.  There was a little crowd round the dead
+mustang already, principally consisting of neighbors who had
+adjourned from the Doctor's house to see the scene of the late
+adventure.  In addition to these, however, the assembly was honored
+by the presence of Mr. Principal Silas Peckham, who had been called
+from his slumbers by a message that Master Langdon was shot through
+the head by a highway-robber, but had learned a true version of the
+story by this time.  His voice was at that moment heard above the
+rest,--sharp, but thin, like bad cider-vinegar.
+
+"I take charge of that property, I say.  Master Langdon 's actin'
+under my orders, and I claim that hoss and all that's on him.  Hiram!
+jest slip off that saddle and bridle, and carry 'em up to the
+Institoot, and bring down a pair of pinchers and a file,--and--stop--
+fetch a pair of shears, too; there's hosshair enough in that mane and
+tail to stuff a bolster with."
+
+"You let that hoss alone!" spoke up Colonel Sprowle.  "When a fellah
+goes out huntin' and shoots a squirrel, do you think he's go'n' to
+let another fellah pick him up and kerry him off?  Not if he's got a
+double-berril gun, and t'other berril ha'n't been fired off yet!  I
+should like to see the mahn that'll take off that seddle 'n' bridle,
+excep' the one th't hez a fair right to the whole concern!"
+
+Hiram was from one of the lean streaks in New Hampshire, and, not
+being overfed in Mr. Silas Peckham's kitchen, was somewhat wanting in
+stamina, as well as in stomach, for so doubtful an enterprise, as
+undertaking to carry out his employer's orders in the face of the
+Colonel's defiance.
+
+Just then Mr. Bernard and Abel came up together.  "Here they be,"
+said the Colonel.  "Stan' beck, gentlemen!  "
+
+Mr. Bernard, who was pale and still a little confused, but gradually
+becoming more like himself, stood and looked in silence for a moment.
+
+All his thoughts seemed to be clearing themselves in this interval.
+He took in the whole series of incidents: his own frightful risk; the
+strange, instinctive, nay, Providential impulse, which had led him so
+suddenly to do the one only thing which could possibly have saved
+him; the sudden appearance of the Doctor's man, but for which he
+might yet have been lost; and the discomfiture and capture of his
+dangerous enemy.
+
+It was all past now, and a feeling of pity rose in Mr. Bernard's
+heart.
+
+"He loved that horse, no doubt," he said,--"and no wonder.  A
+beautiful, wild--looking creature!  Take off those things that are on
+him, Abel, and have them carried to Mr. Dudley Veneer's.  If he does
+not want them, you may keep them yourself, for all that I have to
+say.  One thing more.  I hope nobody will lift his hand against this
+noble creature to mutilate him in any way.  After you have taken off
+the saddle and bridle, Abel, bury him just as he is.  Under that old
+beech-tree will be a good place.  You'll see to it,--won't yon,
+Abel?"
+
+Abel nodded assent, and Mr. Bernard returned to the Institute, threw
+himself in his clothes on the bed, and slept like one who is heavy
+with wine.
+
+Following Mr. Bernard's wishes, Abel at once took off the high-peaked
+saddle and the richly ornamented bridle from the mustang.  Then, with
+the aid of two or three others, he removed him to the place
+indicated.  Spades and shovels were soon procured, and before the
+moon had set, the wild horse of the Pampas was at rest under the turf
+at the wayside, in the far village among the hills of New England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE NEWS REACHES THE DUDLEY MANSION.
+
+Early the next morning Abel Stebbins made his appearance at Dudley
+Veneer's, and requested to see the maan o' the haouse abaout
+somethin' o' consequence.  Mr. Veneer sent word that the messenger
+should wait below, and presently appeared in the study, where Abel
+was making himself at home, as is the wont of the republican citizen,
+when he hides the purple of empire beneath the apron of domestic
+service.
+
+"Good mornin', Squire!" said Abel, as Mr. Venner entered.  "My name's
+Stebbins, 'n' I'm stoppin' f'r a spell 'ith of Doctor Kittredge."
+
+"Well, Stebbins," said Mr. Dudley Veneer, "have you brought any
+special message from the Doctor?"
+
+"Y' ha'n't heerd nothin' abaout it, Squire, d' ye mean t' say?" said
+Abel,--beginning to suspect that he was the first to bring the news
+of last evening's events.
+
+"About what?"  asked Mr. Veneer, with some interest.
+
+"Dew tell, naow!  Waal, that beats all!  Why, that 'ere Portagee
+relation o' yourn 'z been tryin' t' ketch a fellah 'n a slippernoose,
+'n' got ketched himself,---that's all.  Y' ha'n't heerd noth'n'
+abaout it?"
+
+"Sit down," said Mr. Dudley Veneer, calmly, "and tell me all you have
+to say."
+
+So Abel sat down and gave him an account of the events of the last
+evening.  It was a strange and terrible surprise to Dudley Veneer to
+find that his nephew, who had been an inmate of his house and the
+companion of his daughter, was to all intents and purposes guilty of
+the gravest of crimes.  But the first shock was no sooner over than
+he began to think what effect the news would have on Elsie.  He
+imagined that there was a kind of friendly feeling between them, and
+he feared some crisis would be provoked in his daughter's mental
+condition by the discovery.  He would wait, however, until she came
+from her chamber, before disturbing her with the evil tidings.
+
+Abel did not forget his message with reference to the equipments of
+the dead mustang.
+
+"The' was some things on the hoss, Squire, that the man he ketched
+said he did n' care no gre't abaout; but perhaps you'd like to have
+'em fetched to the mansion-haouse.  Ef y' did n' care abaout 'em,
+though, I should n' min' keepin' on 'em; they might come handy some
+time or 'nother : they say, holt on t' anything for ten year 'n'
+there 'll be some kin' o' use for 't."
+
+"Keep everything," said Dudley Veneer.  "I don't want to see anything
+belonging to that young man."
+
+So Abel nodded to Mr. Veneer, and left the study to find some of the
+men about the stable to tell and talk over with them the events of
+the last evening.  He presently came upon Elbridge, chief of the
+equine department, and driver of the family-coach.
+
+"Good mornin', Abe," said Elbridge.  "What's fetched y' daown here so
+all-fired airly? "
+
+"You're a darned pooty lot daown here, you be!"
+
+Abel answered.  "Better keep your Portagees t' home nex' time,
+ketchin' folks 'ith slippernooses raoun' their necks, 'n' kerryin'
+knives 'n their boots!  "
+
+"What 'r' you jawin' abaout?"  Elbridge said, looking up to see if he
+was in earnest, and what he meant.
+
+"Jawin' abaout?  You'll find aout'z soon 'z y' go into that 'ere
+stable o' yourn!  Y' won't curry that 'ere long-tailed black hoss no
+more; 'n' y' won't set y'r eyes on the fellah that rid him, ag'in, in
+a hurry!"
+
+Elbridge walked straight to the stable, without saying a word, found
+the door unlocked, and went in.
+
+"Th' critter's gone, sure enough!" he said.  "Glad on 't!  The
+darndest, kickin'est, bitin'est beast th't ever I see, 'r ever wan'
+t' see ag'in!  Good reddance!  Don' wan' no snappin'-turkles in my
+stable!  Whar's the man gone th't brought the critter?"
+
+"Whar he's gone?  Guess y' better go 'n ask my ol man; he kerried him
+off lass' night; 'n' when he comes back, mebbe he 'll tell ye whar
+he's gone tew!"
+
+By this time Elbridge had found out that Abel was in earnest, and had
+something to tell.  He looked at the litter in the mustang's stall,
+then at the crib.
+
+"Ha'n't eat b't haalf his feed.  Ha'n't been daown on his straw.
+Must ha' been took aout somewhere abaout ten 'r 'levee o'clock.  I
+know that 'ere critter's ways.  The fellah's had him aout nights
+afore; b't I never thought nothin' o' no mischief.  He 's a kin' o'
+haalf Injin.  What is 't the chap's been a-doin' on?  Tell 's all
+abaout it."
+
+Abel sat down on a meal-chest, picked up a straw and put it into his
+mouth.  Elbridge sat down at the other end, pulled out his jack-
+knife, opened the penknife-blade, and began sticking it into the lid
+of the meal-chest.  The Doctor's man had a story to tell, and he
+meant to get all the enjoyment out of it.  So he told it with every
+luxury of circumstance.  Mr. Veneer's man heard it all with open
+mouth.  No listener in the gardens of Stamboul could have found more
+rapture in a tale heard amidst the perfume of roses and the voices of
+birds and tinkling of fountains than Elbridge in following Abel's
+narrative, as they sat there in the aromatic ammoniacal atmosphere of
+the stable, the grinding of the horses' jaws keeping evenly on
+through it all, with now and then the interruption of a stamping
+hoof, and at intervals a ringing crow from the barn-yard.
+
+Elbridge stopped a minute to think, after Abel had finished.
+
+"Who's took care o' them things that was on the hoss?  "he said,
+gravely.
+
+"Waal, Langden, he seemed to kin 'o' think I'd ought to have 'em,--
+'n' the Squire; he did n' seem to have no 'bjection; 'n' so,--waal, I
+calc'late I sh'll jes' holt on to 'em myself; they a'n't good f 'r
+much, but they're cur'ous t' keep t' look at."
+
+Mr. Veneer's man did not appear much gratified by this arrangement,
+especially as he had a shrewd suspicion that some of the ornaments of
+the bridle were of precious metal, having made occasional
+examinations of them with the edge of a file.  But he did not see
+exactly what to do about it, except to get them from Abel in the way
+of bargain.
+
+"Waal, no,--they a'n't good for much 'xcep' to look at.  'F y' ever
+rid on that seddle once, y' would n' try it ag'in, very spry,--not 'f
+y' c'd haalp y'rsaalf.
+
+I tried it,--darned 'f I sot daown f'r th' nex' week,--eat all my
+victuals stan'in'.  I sh'd like t' hev them things wal enough to heng
+up 'n the stable; 'f y' want t' trade some day, fetch 'em along
+daown."
+
+Abel rather expected that Elbridge would have laid claim to the
+saddle and bridle on the strength of some promise or other
+presumptive title, and thought himself lucky to get off with only
+offering to think abaout tradin'.
+
+When Elbridge returned to the house, he found the family in a state
+of great excitement.  Mr. Venner had told Old Sophy, and she had
+informed the other servants.  Everybody knew what had happened,
+excepting Elsie.  Her father had charged them all to say nothing
+about it to her; he would tell her, when she came down.
+
+He heard her step at last,--alight, gliding step,--so light that her
+coming was often unheard, except by those who perceived the faint
+rustle that went with it.  She was paler than common this morning, as
+she came into her father's study.
+
+After a few words of salutation, he said quietly,  "Elsie, my dear,
+your cousin Richard has left us."
+
+She grew still paler, as she asked,
+
+"Is he dead?"
+
+Dudley Venner started to see the expression with which Elsie put this
+question.
+
+"He is living,--but dead to us from this day forward," said her
+father.
+
+He proceeded to tell her, in a general way, the story he had just
+heard from Abel.  There could be no doubting it;--he remembered him
+as the Doctor's man; and as Abel had seen all with his own eyes, as
+Dick's chamber, when unlocked with a spare key, was found empty, and
+his bed had not been slept in, he accepted the whole account as true.
+
+When he told of Dick's attempt on the young schoolmaster, ("You know
+Mr. Langdon very well, Elsie,--a perfectly inoffensive young man, as
+I understand,") Elsie turned her face away and slid along by the wall
+to the window which looked out oh the little grass-plot with the
+white stone standing in it.  Her father could not see her face, but
+he knew by her movements that her dangerous mood was on her.  When
+she heard the sequel of the story, the discomfiture and capture of
+Dick, she turned round for an instant, with a look of contempt and of
+something like triumph upon her face.  Her father saw that her cousin
+had become odious to her: He knew well, by every change of her
+countenance, by her movements, by every varying curve of her graceful
+figure, the transitions front passion to repose, from fierce
+excitement to the dull languor which often succeeded her threatening
+paroxysms.
+
+She remained looking out at the window.  A group of white fan-tailed
+pigeons had lighted on the green plot before it and clustered about
+one of their companions who lay on his back, fluttering in a strange
+way, with outspread wings and twitching feet.  Elsie uttered a faint
+cry; these were her special favorites and often fed from her hand.
+She threw open the long window, sprang out, caught up the white
+fantail, and held it to her bosom.  The bird stretched himself out,
+and then lay still, with open eyes, lifeless.  She looked at him a
+moment, and, sliding in through the open window and through the
+study, sought her own apartment, where she locked herself in, and
+began to sob and moan like those that weep.  But the gracious solace
+of tears seemed to be denied her, and her grief, like her anger, was
+a dull ache, longing, like that, to finish itself with a fierce
+paroxysm, but wanting its natural outlet.
+
+This seemingly trifling incident of the death of her favorite
+appeared to change all the current of her thought.  Whether it were
+the sight of the dying bird, or the thought that her own agency might
+have beep concerned in it, or some deeper grief, which took this
+occasion to declare itself,--some dark remorse or hopeless longing,--
+whatever it might be, there was an unwonted tumult in her soul.  To
+whom should she go in her vague misery?  Only to Him who knows all
+His creatures' sorrows, and listens to the faintest human cry.  She
+knelt, as she had  been taught to kneel from her childhood, and tried
+to pray.  But her thoughts refused to flow in the language of
+supplication.  She could not plead for herself as other women plead
+in their hours of anguish.  She rose like one who should stoop to
+drink, and find dust in the place of water.  Partly from
+restlessness, partly from an attraction she hardly avowed to herself,
+she followed her usual habit and strolled listlessly along to the
+school.
+
+Of course everybody at the Institute was full of the terrible
+adventure of the preceding evening.  Mr. Bernard felt poorly enough;
+but he had made it a point to show himself the next morning, as if
+nothing had happened.  Helen Darley knew nothing of it all until she
+hard risen, when the gossipy matron of the establishment made her
+acquainted with all its details, embellished with such additional
+ornamental appendages as it had caught up in transmission from lip to
+lip.  She did not love to betray her sensibilities, but she was pale
+and tremulous and very nearly tearful when Mr. Bernard entered the
+sitting-room, showing on his features traces of the violent shock he
+had received and the heavy slumber from which he had risen with
+throbbing brows.  What the poor girl's impulse was, on seeing him, we
+need not inquire too curiously.  If he had been her own brother, she
+would have kissed him and cried on his neck; but something held her
+back.  There is no galvanism in kiss-your-brother; it is copper
+against copper: but alien bloods develop strange currents, when they
+flow close to each other, with only the films that cover lip and
+cheek between them.  Mr. Bernard, as some of us may remember,
+violated the proprieties and laid himself open to reproach by his
+enterprise with a bouncing village-girl, to whose rosy cheek an
+honest smack was not probably an absolute novelty.  He made it all up
+by his discretion and good behavior now.  He saw by Helen's moist eye
+and trembling lip that her woman's heart was off its guard, and he
+knew, by the infallible instinct of sex, that he should be forgiven,
+if he thanked her for her sisterly sympathies in the most natural
+way,--expressive, and at the same time economical of breath and
+utterance.  He would not give a false look to their friendship by any
+such demonstration.  Helen was a little older than himself, but the
+aureole of young womanhood had not yet begun to fade from around her.
+She was surrounded by that enchanted atmosphere into which the girl
+walks with dreamy eyes, and out of which the woman passes with a
+story written on her forehead.  Some people think very little of
+these refinements; they have not studied magnetism and the law of the
+square of the distance.
+
+So Mr. Bernard thanked Helen for her interest without the aid of the
+twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet,--the love labial,--the limping
+consonant which it takes two to speak plain.  Indeed, he scarcely let
+her say a word, at first; for he saw that it was hard for her to
+conceal her emotion.  No wonder; he had come within a hair's-breadth
+of losing his life, and he had been a very kind friend and a very
+dear companion to her.
+
+There were some curious spiritual experiences connected with his last
+evening's adventure which were working very strongly in his mind.  It
+was borne in upon him irresistibly that he had been dead since he had
+seen Helen,--as dead as the son of the Widow of Nain before the bier
+was touched and he sat up and began to speak.  There was an interval
+between two conscious moments which appeared to him like a temporary
+annihilation, and the thoughts it suggested were worrying him with
+strange perplexities.
+
+He remembered seeing the dark figure on horseback rise in the saddle
+and something leap from its hand.  He remembered the thrill he felt
+as the coil settled on his shoulders, and the sudden impulse which
+led him to fire as he did.  With the report of the pistol all became
+blank, until he found himself in a strange, bewildered state, groping
+about for the weapon, which he had a vague consciousness of having
+dropped.  But, according to Abel's account, there must have been an
+interval of some minutes between these recollections, and he could
+not help asking, Where was the mind, the soul, the thinking
+principle, all this time?
+
+A man is stunned by a blow with a stick on the head.  He becomes
+unconscious.  Another man gets a harder blow on the head from a
+bigger stick, and it kills him.  Does he become unconscious, too?  If
+so, when does he come to his consciousness?  The man who has had a
+slight or moderate blow comes to himself when the immediate shock
+passes off and the organs begin to work again, or when a bit of the
+skull is pried up, if that happens to be broken.  Suppose the blow is
+hard enough to spoil the brain and stop the play of the organs, what
+happens them?
+
+A British captain was struck by a cannon-ball on the head, just as he
+was giving an order, at the Battle of the Nile.  Fifteen months
+afterwards he was trephined at Greenwich Hospital, having been
+insensible all that time.  Immediately after the operation his
+consciousness returned, and he at once began carrying out the order
+he was giving when the shot struck him.  Suppose he had never been
+trephined, when would his consciousness have returned?  When his
+breath ceased and his heart stopped beating?
+
+When Mr. Bernard said to Helen, "I have been dead since I saw you,"
+it startled her not a little; for his expression was that of perfect
+good faith, and she feared that his mind was disordered.  When he
+explained, not as has been done just now, at length, but in a
+hurried, imperfect way, the meaning of his strange assertion, and the
+fearful Sadduceeisms which it had suggested to his mind, she looked
+troubled at first, and then thoughtful.  She did not feel able to
+answer all the difficulties he raised, but she met them with that
+faith which is the strength as well as the weakness of women,--which
+makes them weak in the hands of man, but strong in the presence of
+the Unseen.
+
+"It is a strange experience," she said; "but I once had something
+like it.  I fainted, and lost some five or ten minutes out of my
+life, as much as if I had been dead.  But when I came to myself, I
+was the same person every way, in my recollections and character.  So
+I suppose that loss of consciousness is not death.  And if I was born
+out of unconsciousness into infancy with many family-traits of mind
+and body, I can believe, from my own reason, even without help from
+Revelation, that I shall be born again out of the unconsciousness of
+death with my individual traits of mind and body.  If death is, as it
+should seem to be, a loss of consciousness, that does not shake my
+faith; for I have been put into a body once already to fit me for
+living here, and I hope to be in some way fitted after this life to
+enjoy a better one.  But it is all trust in God and in his Word.
+These are enough for me; I hope they are for you."
+
+Helen was a minister's daughter, and familiar from her childhood with
+this class of questions, especially with all the doubts and
+perplexities which are sure to assail every thinking child bred in
+any inorganic or not thoroughly vitalized faith,--as is too often the
+case with the children of professional theologians.  The kind of
+discipline they are subjected to is like that of the Flat-Head Indian
+pappooses.  At five or ten or fifteen years old they put their hands
+up to their foreheads and ask, What are they strapping down my brains
+in this way for?  So they tear off the sacred bandages of the great
+Flat-Head tribe, and there follows a mighty rush of blood to the
+long-compressed region.  This accounts, in the most lucid manner, for
+those sudden freaks with which certain children of this class
+astonish their worthy parents at the period ,of life when they are
+growing fast, and, the frontal pressure beginning to be felt as
+something intolerable, they tear off the holy compresses.
+
+The hour for school came, and they went to the great hall for study.
+It would not have occurred to Mr. Silas Peckham to ask his assistant
+whether he felt well enough to attend to his duties; and Mr. Bernard
+chose to be at his post.  A little headache and confusion were all
+that remained of his symptoms.
+
+Later, in the course of the forenoon, Elsie Venner came and took her
+place.  The girls all stared at her--naturally enough; for it was
+hardly to have been expected that she would show herself, after such
+an event in the household to which she belonged.  Her expression was
+somewhat peculiar, and, of course, was attributed to the shock her
+feelings had undergone on hearing of the crime attempted by her
+cousin and daily companion.  When she was looking on her book, or on
+any indifferent object, her countenance betrayed some inward
+disturbance, which knitted her dark brows, and seemed to throw a
+deeper shadow over her features.  But, from time to time, she would
+lift her eyes toward Mr. Bernard, and let them rest upon him, without
+a thought, seemingly, that she herself was the subject of observation
+or remark.  Then they seemed to lose their cold glitter, and soften
+into a strange, dreamy tenderness.  The deep instincts of womanhood
+were striving to grope their way to the surface of her being through
+all the alien influences which overlaid them.  She could be secret
+and cunning in working out any of her dangerous impulses, but she did
+not know how to mask the unwonted feeling which fixed her eyes and
+her thoughts upon the only person who had ever reached the spring of
+her hidden sympathies.
+
+The girls all looked at Elsie, whenever they could steal a glance
+unperceived, and many of them were struck with this singular
+expression her features wore.  They had long whispered it around
+among each other that she had a liking for the master; but there were
+too many of them of whom something like this could be said, to make
+it very remarkable.  Now, however, when so many little hearts were
+fluttering at the thought of the peril through which the handsome
+young master had so recently passed, they were more alive than ever
+to the supposed relation between him and the dark school-girl.  Some
+had supposed there was a mutual attachment between them; there was a
+story that they were secretly betrothed, in accordance with the rumor
+which had been current in the village.  At any rate, some conflict
+was going on in that still, remote, clouded soul, and all the girls
+who looked upon her face were impressed and awed as they had never
+been before by the shadows that passed over it.
+
+One of these girls was more strongly arrested by Elsie's look than
+the others.  This was a delicate, pallid creature, with a high
+forehead, and wide-open pupils, which looked as if they could take in
+all the shapes that flit in what, to common eyes, is darkness,--a
+girl said to be clairvoyant under certain influences.  In the recess,
+as it was called, or interval of suspended studies in the middle of
+the forenoon, this girl carried her autograph-book,--for she had one
+of those indispensable appendages of the boarding-school miss of
+every degree,--and asked Elsie to write her name in it.  She had an
+irresistible feeling, that, sooner or later, and perhaps very soon,
+there would attach an unusual interest to this autograph.  Elsie took
+the pen and wrote, in her sharp Italian hand,
+
+Elsie Venner, Infelix.
+
+It was a remembrance, doubtless, of the forlorn queen of the
+"AEneid"; but its coming to her thought in this way confirmed the
+sensitive school-girl in her fears for Elsie, and she let fall a tear
+upon the page before she closed it.
+
+Of course, the keen and practised observation of Helen Darley could
+not fail to notice the change of Elsie's manner and expression.  She
+had long seen that she was attracted to the young master, and had
+thought, as the old Doctor did, that any impression which acted upon
+her affections might be the means of awakening a new life in her
+singularly isolated nature.  Now, however, the concentration of the
+poor girl's thoughts upon the one object which had had power to reach
+her deeper sensibilities was so painfully revealed in her features,
+that Helen began to fear once more, lest Mr. Bernard, in escaping the
+treacherous violence of an assassin, had been left to the equally
+dangerous consequences of a violent, engrossing passion in the breast
+of a young creature whose love it would be ruin to admit and might be
+deadly to reject.  She knew her own heart too well to fear that any
+jealousy might mingle with her new apprehensions.  It was understood
+between Bernard and Helen that they were too good friends to tamper
+with the silences and edging proximities of lovemaking.  She knew,
+too, the simply human, not masculine, interest which Mr. Bernard took
+in Elsie; he had been frank with Helen, and more than satisfied her
+that with all the pity and sympathy which overflowed his soul, when
+he thought of the stricken girl, there mingled not one drop of such
+love as a youth may feel for a maiden.
+
+It may help the reader to gain some understanding of the anomalous
+nature of Elsie Veneer, if we look with Helen into Mr. Bernard's
+opinions and feelings with reference to her, as they had shaped
+themselves in his consciousness at the period of which we are
+speaking.
+
+At first he had been impressed by her wild beauty, and the contrast
+of all her looks and ways with those of the girls around her.
+Presently a sense of some ill-defined personal element, which half-
+attracted and half-repelled those who looked upon her, and especially
+those on whom she looked, began to make itself obvious to him, as he
+soon found it was painfully sensible to his more susceptible
+companion, the lady-teacher.  It was not merely in the cold light of
+her diamond eyes, but in all her movements, in her graceful postures
+as she sat, in her costume, and, he sometimes thought, even in her
+speech, that this obscure and exceptional character betrayed itself.
+When Helen had said, that, if they were living in times when human
+beings were subject to possession, she should have thought there was
+something not human about Elsie, it struck an unsuspected vein of
+thought in his own mind, which he hated to put in words, but which
+was continually trying to articulate itself among the dumb thoughts
+which lie under the perpetual stream of mental whispers.
+
+Mr. Bernard's professional training had made him slow to accept
+marvellous stories and many forms of superstition.  Yet, as a man of
+science, he well knew that just on the verge of the demonstrable
+facts of physics and physiology there is a nebulous border-land which
+what is called "common sense" perhaps does wisely not to enter, but
+which uncommon sense, or the fine apprehension of privileged
+intelligences, may cautiously explore, and in so doing find itself
+behind the scenes which make up for the gazing world the show which
+is called Nature.
+
+It was with something of this finer perception, perhaps with some
+degree of imaginative exaltation, that he set himself to solving the
+problem of Elsie's influence to attract and repel those around her.
+His letter already submitted to the reader hints in what direction
+his thoughts were disposed to turn.  Here was a magnificent
+organization, superb in vigorous womanhood, with a beauty such as
+never comes but after generations of culture; yet through all this
+rich nature there ran some alien current of influence, sinuous and
+dark, as when a clouded streak seams the white marble of a perfect
+statue.
+
+It would be needless to repeat the particular suggestions which had
+come into his mind, as they must probably have come into that of the
+reader who has noted the singularities of Elsie's tastes and personal
+traits.  The images which certain poets had dreamed of seemed to have
+become a reality before his own eyes.  Then came that unexplained
+adventure of The Mountain,--almost like a dream in recollection, yet
+assuredly real in some of its main incidents,--with all that it
+revealed or hinted.  This girl did not fear to visit the dreaded
+region, where danger lurked in every nook and beneath every tuft of
+leaves.  Did the tenants of the fatal ledge recognize some mysterious
+affinity which made them tributary to the cold glitter of her diamond
+eyes,?  Was she from her birth one of those frightful children, such
+as he had read about, and the Professor had told him of, who form
+unnatural friendships with cold, writhing ophidians?  There was no
+need of so unwelcome a thought as this; she had drawn him away from
+the dark opening in the rock at the moment when he seemed to be
+threatened by one of its malignant denizens; that was all he could be
+sure of; the counter-fascination might have been a dream, a fancy, a
+coincidence.  All wonderful things soon grow doubtful in our own
+minds, as do even common events, if great interests prove suddenly to
+attach to their truth or falsehood.
+
+--I, who am telling of these occurrences, saw a friend in the great
+city, on the morning of a most memorable disaster, hours after the
+time when the train which carried its victims to their doom had left.
+I talked with him, and was for some minutes, at least, in his
+company.  When I reached home, I found that the story had gone before
+that he was among the lost, and I alone could contradict it to his
+weeping friends and relatives.  I did contradict it; but, alas!  I
+began soon to doubt myself, penetrated by the contagion of their
+solicitude; my recollection began to question itself; the order of
+events became dislocated; and when I heard that he had reached home
+in safety, the relief was almost as great to me as to those who had
+expected to see their own brother's face no more.
+
+Mr. Bernard was disposed, then, not to accept the thought of any
+odious personal relationship of the kind which had suggested itself
+to him when he wrote the letter referred to.  That the girl had
+something of the feral nature, her wild, lawless rambles in forbidden
+and blasted regions of The Mountain at all hours, her familiarity
+with the lonely haunts where any other human foot was so rarely seen,
+proved clearly enough.  But the more he thought of all her strange
+instincts and modes of being, the more he became convinced that
+whatever alien impulse swayed her will and modulated or diverted or
+displaced her affections came from some impression that reached far
+back into the past, before the days when the faithful Old Sophy had
+rocked her in the cradle.  He believed that she had brought her
+ruling tendency, whatever it was, into the world with her.
+
+When the school was over and the girls had all gone, Helen lingered
+in the schoolroom to speak with Mr. Bernard.
+
+"Did you remark Elsie's ways this forenoon?"  she said.
+
+"No, not particularly; I have not noticed anything as sharply as I
+commonly do; my head has been a little queer, and I have been
+thinking over what we were talking about, and how near I came to
+solving the great problem which every day makes clear to such
+multitudes of people.  What about Elsie?"
+
+"Bernard, her liking for you is growing into a passion.  I have
+studied girls for a long while, and I know the difference between
+their passing fancies and their real emotions.  I told you, you
+remember, that Rosa would have to leave us; we barely missed a scene,
+I think, if not a whole tragedy, by her going at the right moment.
+But Elsie is infinitely more dangerous to herself and others.
+Women's love is fierce enough, if it once gets the mastery of them,
+always; but this poor girl does not know what to do with a passion."
+
+Mr. Bernard had never told Helen the story of the flower in his
+Virgil, or that other adventure--which he would have felt awkwardly
+to refer to; but it had been perfectly understood between them that
+Elsie showed in her own singular way a well-marked partiality for the
+young master.
+
+"Why don't they take her away from the school, if she is in such a
+strange, excitable state?" said Mr. Bernard.
+
+"I believe they are afraid of her," Helen answered.  "It is just one
+of those cases that are ten thousand thousand times worse than
+insanity.  I don't think from what I hear, that her father has ever
+given up hoping that she will outgrow her peculiarities.  Oh, these
+peculiar children for whom parents go on hoping every morning and
+despairing every night!  If I could tell you half that mothers have
+told me, you would feel that the worst of all diseases of the moral
+sense and the will are those which all the Bedlams turn away from
+their doors as not being cases of insanity!"
+
+"Do you think her father has treated her judiciously?" said Mr.
+Bernard.
+
+"I think," said Helen, with a little hesitation, which Mr. Bernard
+did not happen to notice,--"I think he has been very kind and
+indulgent, and I do not know that he could have treated her otherwise
+with a better chance of success."
+
+"He must of course be fond of her," Mr. Bernard said; "there is
+nothing else in the world for him to love."
+
+Helen dropped a book she held in her hand, and, stooping to pick it
+up, the blood rushed into her cheeks.
+
+"It is getting late," she said; "you must not stay any longer in this
+close schoolroom.  Pray, go and get a little fresh air before dinner-
+time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A SOUL IN DISTRESS.
+
+The events told in the last two chapters had taken place toward the
+close of the week.  On Saturday evening the Reverend Chauncy
+Fairweather received a note which was left at his door by an unknown
+person who departed without saying a word.  Its words were these:
+"One who is in distress of mind requests the prayers of this
+congregation that God would be pleased to look in mercy upon the soul
+that he has afflicted."
+
+There was nothing to show from whom the note came, or the sex or age
+or special source of spiritual discomfort or anxiety of the writer.
+The handwriting was delicate and might well be a woman's.  The
+clergyman was not aware of any particular affliction among his
+parishioners which was likely to be made the subject of a request of
+this kind.  Surely neither of the Venners would advertise the
+attempted crime of their relative in this way.  But who else was
+there?  The more he thought about it, the more it puzzled him, and as
+he did not like to pray in the dark, without knowing for whom he was
+praying, he could think of nothing better than to step into old
+Doctor Kittredge's and see what he had to say about it.
+
+The old Doctor was sitting alone in his study when the Reverend Mr.
+Fairweather was ushered in.  He received his visitor very pleasantly,
+expecting, as a matter of course, that he would begin with some new
+grievance, dyspeptic, neuralgic, bronchitic, or other.  The minister,
+however, began with questioning the old Doctor about the sequel of
+the other night's adventure; for he was already getting a little
+Jesuitical, and kept back the object of his visit until it should
+come up as if accidentally in the course of conversation.
+
+"It was a pretty bold thing to go off alone with that reprobate, as
+you did," said the minister.
+
+"I don't know what there was bold about it," the Doctor answered.
+"All he wanted was to get away.  He was not quite a reprobate, you
+see; he didn't like the thought of disgracing his family or facing
+his uncle.  I think he was ashamed to see his cousin, too, after what
+he had done."
+
+"Did he talk with you on the way?"
+
+"Not much.  For half an hour or so he did n't speak a word.  Then he
+asked where I was driving him.  I told him, and he seemed to be
+surprised into a sort of grateful feeling.  Bad enough, no doubt, but
+might be worse.  Has some humanity left in him yet.  Let him go.  God
+can judge him,--I can't."
+
+"You are too charitable, Doctor," the minister said.  "I condemn him
+just as if he had carried out his project, which, they say, was to
+make it appear as if the schoolmaster had committed suicide.  That's
+what people think the rope found by him was for.  He has saved his
+neck,--but his soul is a lost one, I am afraid, beyond question."
+
+"I can't judge men's souls," the Doctor said.  "I can judge their
+acts, and hold them responsible for those,--but I don't know much
+about their souls.  If you or I had found our soul in a half-breed
+body; and been turned loose to run among the Indians, we might have
+been playing just such tricks as this fellow has been trying.  What
+if you or I had inherited all the tendencies that were born with his
+cousin Elsie?"
+
+"Oh, that reminds me,"--the minister said, in a sudden way,--"I have
+received a note, which I am requested to read from the pulpit
+tomorrow.  I wish you would just have the kindness to look at it and
+see where you think it came from."
+
+The Doctor examined it carefully.  It was a woman's or girl's note,
+he thought.  Might come from one of the school-girls who was anxious
+about her spiritual condition.  Handwriting was disguised; looked a
+little like Elsie Veneer's, but not characteristic enough to make it
+certain.  It would be a new thing, if she had asked public prayers
+for herself, and a very favorable indication of a change in her
+singular moral nature.  It was just possible Elsie might have sent
+that note.  Nobody could foretell her actions.  It would be well to
+see the girl and find out whether any unusual impression had been
+produced on her mind by the recent occurrence or by any other cause.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather folded the note and put it into his
+pocket.
+
+"I have been a good deal exercised in mind lately, myself," he said.
+
+The old Doctor looked at him through his spectacles, and said, in his
+usual professional tone,
+
+"Put out your tongue."
+
+The minister obeyed him in that feeble way common with persons of
+weak character,--for people differ as much in their mode of
+performing this trifling act as Gideon's soldiers in their way of
+drinking at the brook.  The Doctor took his hand and placed a finger
+mechanically on his wrist.
+
+"It is more spiritual, I think, than bodily," said the Reverend Mr.
+Fairweather.
+
+"Is your appetite as good as usual?"  the Doctor asked.
+
+"Pretty good," the minister answered; "but my sleep, my sleep,
+Doctor,--I am greatly troubled at night with lying awake and thinking
+of my future, I am not at ease in mind."
+
+He looked round at all the doors, to be sure they were shut, and
+moved his chair up close to the Doctor's.
+
+"You do not know the mental trials I have been going through for the
+last few months."
+
+"I think I do," the old Doctor said.  "You want to get out of the new
+church into the old one, don't you?"
+
+The minister blushed deeply; he thought he had been going on in a
+very quiet way, and that nobody suspected his secret.  As the old
+Doctor was his counsellor in sickness, and almost everybody's
+confidant in trouble, he had intended to impart cautiously to him
+some hints of the change of sentiments through which he had been
+passing.  He was too late with his information, it appeared, and
+there was nothing to be done but to throw himself on the Doctor's
+good sense and kindness, which everybody knew, and get what hints he
+could from him as to the practical course he should pursue.  He
+began, after an awkward pause,
+
+"You would not have me stay in a communion which I feel to be alien
+to the true church, would you?"
+
+"Have you stay, my friend?" said the Doctor, with a pleasant,
+friendly look,--"have you stay?  Not a month, nor a week, nor a day,
+if I could help it.  You have got into the wrong pulpit, and I have
+known it from the first.  The sooner you go where you belong, the
+better.  And I'm very glad you don't mean to stop half-way.  Don't
+you know you've always come to me when you've been dyspeptic or sick
+anyhow, and wanted to put yourself wholly into my hands, so that I
+might order you like a child just what to do and what to take?  That
+'s exactly what you want in religion.  I don't blame you for it.  You
+never liked to take the responsibility of your own body; I don't see
+why you should want to have the charge of your own soul.  But I'm
+glad you're going to the Old Mother of all.  You wouldn't have been
+contented short of that."
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather breathed with more freedom.  The Doctor
+saw into his soul through those awful spectacles of his,--into it and
+beyond it, as one sees through a thin fog.  But it was with a real
+human kindness, after all.  He felt like a child before a strong man;
+but the strong man looked on him with a father's indulgence.  Many
+and many a time, when he had come desponding and bemoaning himself on
+account of some contemptible bodily infirmity, the old Doctor had
+looked at him through his spectacles, listened patiently while he
+told his ailments, and then, in his large parental way, given him a
+few words of wholesome advice, and cheered him up so that he went off
+with a light heart, thinking that the heaven he was so much afraid of
+was not so very near, after all.  It was the same thing now.  He
+felt, as feeble natures always do in the presence of strong ones,
+overmastered, circumscribed, shut in, humbled; but yet it seemed as
+if the old Doctor did not despise him any more for what he considered
+weakness of mind than he used to despise him when he complained of
+his nerves or his digestion.
+
+Men who see into their neighbors are very apt to be contemptuous; but
+men who see through them find something lying behind every human soul
+which it is not for them to sit in judgment on, or to attempt to
+sneer out of the order of God's manifold universe.
+
+Little as the Doctor had said out of which comfort could be
+extracted, his genial manner had something grateful in it.  A film of
+gratitude came over the poor man's cloudy, uncertain eye, and a look
+of tremulous relief and satisfaction played about his weak mouth.  He
+was gravitating to the majority, where he hoped to find "rest"; but
+he was dreadfully sensitive to the opinions of the minority he was on
+the point of leaving.
+
+The old Doctor saw plainly enough what was going on in his mind.
+
+"I sha'n't quarrel with you," he said,--"you know that very well; but
+you mustn't quarrel with me, if I talk honestly with you; it isn't
+everybody that will take the trouble.  You flatter yourself that you
+will make a good many enemies by leaving your old communion.  Not so
+many as you think.  This is the way the common sort of people will
+talk:--'You have got your ticket to the feast of life, as much as any
+other man that ever lived.  Protestantism says,--"Help yourself;
+here's a clean plate, and a knife and fork of your own, and plenty of
+fresh dishes to choose from."  The Old Mother says,--"Give me your
+ticket, my dear, and I'll feed you with my gold spoon off these
+beautiful old wooden trenchers.  Such nice bits as those good old
+gentlemen have left for you!"  There is no quarrelling with a man who
+prefers broken victuals.'  That's what the rougher sort will say; and
+then, where one scolds, ten will laugh.  But, mind you, I don't
+either scold or laugh.  I don't feel sure that you could very well
+have helped doing what you will soon do.  You know you were never
+easy without some medicine to take when you felt ill in body.  I'm
+afraid I've given you trashy stuff sometimes, just to keep you quiet.
+Now, let me tell you, there is just the same difference in spiritual
+patients that there is in bodily ones.  One set believes in wholesome
+ways of living, and another must have a great list of specifics for
+all the soul's complaints.  You belong with the last, and got
+accidentally shuffled in with the others."
+
+The minister smiled faintly, but did not reply.  Of course, he
+considered that way of talking as the result of the Doctor's
+professional training.  It would not have been worth while to take
+offence at his plain speech, if he had been so disposed; for he might
+wish to consult him the next day as to "what he should take" for his
+dyspepsia or his neuralgia.
+
+He left the Doctor with a hollow feeling at the bottom of his soul,
+as if a good piece of his manhood had been scooped out of him.  His
+hollow aching did not explain itself in words, but it grumbled and
+worried down among the unshaped thoughts which lie beneath them.  He
+knew that he had been trying to reason himself out of his birthright
+of reason.  He knew that the inspiration which gave him understanding
+was losing its throne in his intelligence, and the almighty Majority-
+Vote was proclaiming itself in its stead.  He knew that the great
+primal truths, which each successive revelation only confirmed, were
+fast becoming hidden beneath the mechanical forms of thought, which,
+as with all new converts, engrossed so large a share of his
+attention.  The "peace," the "rest," which he had purchased were
+dearly bought to one who had been trained to the arms of thought, and
+whose noble privilege it might have been to live in perpetual warfare
+for the advancing truth which the next generation will claim as the
+legacy of the present.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was getting careless about his sermons.
+He must wait the fitting moment to declare himself; and in the mean
+time he was preaching to heretics.  It did not matter much what he
+preached, under such circumstances.  He pulled out two old yellow
+sermons from a heap of such, and began looking over that for the
+forenoon.  Naturally enough, he fell asleep over it, and, sleeping,
+he began to dream.
+
+He dreamed that he was under the high arches of an old cathedral,
+amidst a throng of worshippers.  The light streamed in through vast
+windows, dark with the purple robes of royal saints, or blazing with
+yellow glories around the heads of earthly martyrs and heavenly
+messengers.  The billows of the great organ roared among the
+clustered columns, as the sea breaks amidst the basaltic pillars
+which crowd the stormy cavern of the Hebrides.  The voice of the
+alternate choirs of singing boys swung back and forward, as the
+silver censer swung in the hands of the whiterobed children.  The
+sweet cloud of incense rose in soft, fleecy mists, full of
+penetrating suggestions of the East and its perfumed altars.  The
+knees of twenty generations had worn the pavement; their feet had
+hollowed the steps; their shoulders had smoothed the columns.  Dead
+bishops and abbots lay under the marble of the floor in their
+crumbled vestments; dead warriors, in rusted armor, were stretched
+beneath their sculptured effigies.  And all at once all the buried
+multitudes who had ever worshipped there came thronging in through
+the aisles.  They choked every space, they swarmed into all the
+chapels, they hung in clusters over the parapets of the galleries,
+they clung to the images in every niche, and still the vast throng
+kept flowing and flowing in, until the living were lost in the rush
+of the returning dead who had reclaimed their own.  Then, as his
+dream became more fantastic, the huge cathedral itself seemed to
+change into the wreck of some mighty antediluvian vertebrate; its
+flying-buttresses arched round like ribs, its piers shaped themselves
+into limbs, and the sound of the organ-blast changed to the wind
+whistling through its thousand-jointed skeleton.
+
+And presently the sound lulled, and softened and softened, until it
+was as the murmur of a distant swarm of bees.  A procession of monks
+wound along through an old street, chanting, as they walked.  In his
+dream he glided in among them and bore his part in the burden of
+their song.  He entered with the long train under a low arch, and
+presently he was kneeling in a narrow cell before an image of the
+Blessed Maiden holding the Divine Child in her arms, and his lips
+seemed to whisper,
+
+               Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!
+
+He turned to the crucifix, and, prostrating himself before the spare,
+agonizing shape of the Holy Sufferer, fell into a long passion of
+tears and broken prayers.  He rose and flung himself, worn-out, upon
+his hard pallet, and, seeming to slumber, dreamed again within his
+dream.  Once more in the vast cathedral, with throngs of the living
+choking its aisles, amidst jubilant peals from the cavernous depths
+of the great organ, and choral melodies ringing from the fluty
+throats of the singing boys.  A day of great rejoicings,--for a
+prelate was to be consecrated, and the bones of the mighty skeleton-
+minster were shaking with anthems, as if there were life of its own
+within its buttressed ribs.  He looked down at his feet; the folds of
+the sacred robe were flowing about them: he put his hand to his head;
+it was crowned with the holy mitre.  A long sigh, as of perfect
+content in the consummation of all his earthly hopes, breathed
+through the dreamer's lips, and shaped itself, as it escaped, into
+the blissful murmur,
+
+               Ego sum Episcopus!
+
+One grinning gargoyle looked in from beneath the roof through an
+opening in a stained window.  It was the face of a mocking fiend,
+such as the old builders loved to place under the eaves to spout the
+rain through their open mouths.  It looked at him, as he sat in his
+mitred chair, with its hideous grin growing broader and broader,
+until it laughed out aloud, such a hard, stony, mocking laugh, that
+he awoke out of his second dream through his first into his common
+consciousness, and shivered, as he turned to the two yellow sermons
+which he was to pick over and weed of the little thought they might
+contain, for the next day's service.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather was too much taken up with his own
+bodily and spiritual condition to be deeply mindful of others.  He
+carried the note requesting the prayers of the congregation in his
+pocket all day; and the soul in distress, which a single tender
+petition might have soothed, and perhaps have saved from despair or
+fatal error, found no voice in the temple to plead for it before the
+Throne of Mercy!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE SECRET IS WHISPERED.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather's congregation was not large, but
+select.  The lines of social cleavage run through religious creeds as
+if they were of a piece with position and fortune.  It is expected of
+persons of a certain breeding, in some parts of New England, that
+they shall be either Episcopalians or Unitarians.  The mansion-house
+gentry of Rockland were pretty fairly divided between the little
+chapel, with the stained window and the trained rector, and the
+meeting-house where the Reverend Mr. Fairweather officiated.
+
+It was in the latter that Dudley Venner worshipped, when he attended
+service anywhere,--which depended very much on the caprice of Elsie.
+He saw plainly enough that a generous and liberally cultivated nature
+might find a refuge and congenial souls in either of these two
+persuasions, but he objected to some points of the formal creed of
+the older church, and especially to the mechanism which renders it
+hard to get free from its outworn and offensive formulae,--
+remembering how Archbishop Tillotson wished in vain that it could be
+"well rid of" the Athanasian Creed.  This, and the fact that the
+meeting-house was nearer than the chapel, determined him, when the
+new rector, who was not quite up to his mark in education, was
+appointed, to take a pew in the "liberal" worshippers' edifice.
+
+Elsie was very uncertain in her feeling about going to church.  In
+summer, she loved rather to stroll over The Mountain, on Sundays.
+There was even a story, that she had one of the caves before
+mentioned fitted up as an oratory, and that she had her own wild way
+of worshipping the God whom she sought in the dark chasms of the
+dreaded cliffs.  Mere fables, doubtless; but they showed the common
+belief, that Elsie, with all her strange and dangerous elements of
+character, had yet strong religious feeling mingled with them.  The
+hymn-book which Dick had found, in his midnight invasion of her
+chamber, opened to favorite hymns, especially some of the Methodist
+and Quietist character.  Many had noticed, that certain tunes, as
+sung by the choir, seemed to impress her deeply; and some said, that
+at such times her whole expression would change, and her stormy look
+would soften so as to remind them of her poor, sweet mother.
+
+On the Sunday morning after the talk recorded in the last chapter,
+Elsie made herself ready to go to meeting.  She was dressed much as
+usual, excepting that she wore a thick veil, turned aside, but ready
+to conceal her features.  It was natural enough that she should not
+wish to be looked in the face by curious persons who would be staring
+to see what effect the occurrence of the past week had had on her
+spirits.  Her father attended her willingly; and they took their
+seats in the pew, somewhat to the surprise of many, who had hardly
+expected to see them, after so humiliating a family development as
+the attempted crime of their kinsman had just been furnishing for the
+astonishment of the public.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was now in his coldest mood.  He had
+passed through the period of feverish excitement which marks a change
+of religious opinion.  At first, when he had began to doubt his own
+theological positions, he had defended them against himself with more
+ingenuity and interest, perhaps, than he could have done against
+another; because men rarely take the trouble to understand anybody's
+difficulties in a question but their own.  After this, as he began to
+draw off from different points of his old belief, the cautious
+disentangling of himself from one mesh after another gave sharpness
+to his intellect, and the tremulous eagerness with which he seized
+upon the doctrine which, piece by piece, under various pretexts and
+with various disguises, he was appropriating, gave interest and
+something like passion to his words.  But when he had gradually
+accustomed his people to his new phraseology, and was really
+adjusting his sermons and his service to disguise his thoughts, he
+lost at once all his intellectual acuteness and all his spiritual
+fervor.
+
+Elsie sat quietly through the first part of the service, which was
+conducted in the cold, mechanical way to be expected.  Her face was
+hidden by her veil; but her father knew her state of feeling, as well
+by her movements and attitudes as by the expression of her features.
+The hymn had been sung, the short prayer offered, the Bible read, and
+the long prayer was about to begin.  This was the time at which the
+"notes" of any who were in affliction from loss of friends, the sick
+who were doubtful of recovery, those who had cause to be grateful for
+preservation of life or other signal blessing, were wont to be read.
+
+Just then it was that Dudley Veneer noticed that his daughter was
+trembling,--a thing so rare, so unaccountable, indeed, under the
+circumstances, that he watched her closely, and began to fear that
+some nervous paroxysm, or other malady, might have just begun to show
+itself in this way upon her.
+
+The minister had in his pocket two notes.  One, in the handwriting of
+Deacon Soper, was from a member of this congregation, returning
+thanks for his preservation through a season of great peril, supposed
+to be the exposure which he had shared with others, when standing in
+the circle around Dick Veneer.  The other was the anonymous one, in a
+female hand, which he had received the evening before.  He forgot
+them both.  His thoughts were altogether too much taken up with more
+important matters.  He prayed through all the frozen petitions of his
+expurgated form of supplication, and not a single heart was soothed
+or lifted, or reminded that its sorrows were struggling their way up
+to heaven, borne on the breath from a human soul that was warm with
+love.
+
+The people sat down as if relieved when the dreary prayer was
+finished.  Elsie alone remained standing until her father touched
+her.  Then she sat down, lifted her veil, and looked at him with a
+blank, sad look, as if she had suffered some pain or wrong, but could
+not give any name or expression to her vague trouble.  She did not
+tremble any longer, but remained ominously still, as if she had been
+frozen where she sat.
+
+--Can a man love his own soul too well?  Who, on the whole,
+constitute the nobler class of human beings? those who have lived
+mainly to make sure of their own personal welfare in another and
+future condition of existence, or they who have worked with all their
+might for their race, for their country, for the advancement of the
+kingdom of God, and left all personal arrangements concerning
+themselves to the sole charge of Him who made them and is responsible
+to himself for their safe-keeping?  Is an anchorite who has worn the
+stone floor of his cell into basins with his knees bent in prayer,
+more acceptable than the soldier who gives his life for the
+maintenance of any sacred right or truth, without thinking what will
+specially become of him in a world where there are two or three
+million colonists a month, from this one planet, to be cared for?
+These are grave questions, which must suggest themselves to those who
+know that there are many profoundly selfish persons who are sincerely
+devout and perpetually occupied with their own future, while there
+are others who are perfectly ready to sacrifice themselves for any
+worthy object in this world, but are really too little occupied with
+their exclusive personality to think so much as many do about what is
+to become of them in another.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather did not, most certainly, belong to
+this latter class.  There are several kinds of believers, whose
+history we find among the early converts to Christianity.
+
+There was the magistrate, whose social position was such that he
+preferred a private interview in the evening with the Teacher to
+following him--with the street-crowd.  He had seen extraordinary
+facts which had satisfied him that the young Galilean had a divine
+commission.  But still he cross-questioned the Teacher himself.  He
+was not ready to accept statements without explanation.  That was the
+right kind of man.  See how he stood up for the legal rights of his
+Master, when the people were for laying hands on him!
+
+And again, there was the government official, intrusted with public
+money, which, in those days, implied that he was supposed to be
+honest.  A single look of that heavenly countenance, and two words of
+gentle command, were enough for him.  Neither of these men, the early
+disciple, nor the evangelist, seems to have been thinking primarily
+about his own personal safety.
+
+But now look at the poor, miserable turnkey, whose occupation shows
+what he was like to be, and who had just been thrusting two
+respectable strangers, taken from the hands of a mob, covered with
+stripes and stripped of clothing, into the inner prison, and making
+their feet fast in the stocks.  His thought, in the moment of terror,
+is for himself: first, suicide; then, what he shall do,--not to save
+his household,--not to fulfil his duty to his office,--not to repair
+the outrage he has been committing,--but to secure his own personal
+safety.  Truly, character shows itself as much in a man's way of
+becoming a Christian as in any other!
+
+--Elsie sat, statue-like, through the sermon.  It would not be fair
+to the reader to give an abstract of that.  When a man who has been
+bred to free thought and free speech suddenly finds himself stepping
+about, like a dancer amidst his eggs, among the old addled majority-
+votes which he must not tread upon, he is a spectacle for men and
+angels.  Submission to intellectual precedent and authority does very
+well for those who have been bred to it; we know that the underground
+courses of their minds are laid in the Roman cement of tradition, and
+that stately and splendid structures may be reared on such a
+foundation.  But to see one laying a platform over heretical
+quicksands, thirty or forty or fifty years deep, and then beginning
+to build upon it, is a sorry sight.  A new convert from the reformed
+to the ancient faith may be very strong in the arms, but he will
+always have weak legs and shaky knees.  He may use his hands well,
+and hit hard with his fists, but he will never stand on his legs in
+the way the man does who inherits his belief.
+
+The services were over at last, and Dudley Venner and his daughter
+walked home together in silence.  He always respected her moods, and
+saw clearly enough that some inward trouble was weighing upon her.
+There was nothing to be said in such cases, for Elsie could never
+talk of her griefs.  An hour, or a day, or a week of brooding, with
+perhaps a sudden flash of violence: this was the way in which the
+impressions which make other women weep, and tell their griefs by
+word or letter, showed their effects in her mind and acts.
+
+She wandered off up into the remoter parts of The Mountain, that day,
+after their return.  No one saw just where she went,--indeed, no one
+knew its forest-recesses and rocky fastnesses as she did.  She was
+gone until late at night; and when Old Sophy, who had watched for
+her, bound up her long hair for her sleep, it was damp with the cold
+dews.
+
+The old black woman looked at her without speaking, but questioning
+her with every feature as to the sorrow that was weighing on her.
+
+Suddenly she turned to Old Sophy.
+
+"You want to know what there is troubling me;" she said.  "Nobody
+loves me.  I cannot love anybody.  What is love, Sophy?"
+
+"It's what poor Ol' Sophy's got for her Elsie," the old woman
+answered.  "Tell me, darlin',--don' you love somebody?---don' you
+love? you know,--oh, tell me, darlin', don' you love to see the
+gen'l'man that keeps up at the school where you go?  They say he's
+the pootiest gen'l'man that was ever in the town here.  Don' be
+'fraid of poor Ol' Sophy, darlin',--she loved a man once,--see here!
+Oh, I've showed you this often enough!"
+
+She took from her pocket a half of one of the old Spanish silver
+coins, such as were current in the earlier part of this century.  The
+other half of it had been lying in the deep sea-sand for more than
+fifty years.
+
+Elsie looked her in the face, but did not answer in words.  What
+strange intelligence was that which passed between them through the
+diamond eyes and the little beady black ones?---what subtile
+intercommunication, penetrating so much deeper than articulate
+speech?  This was the nearest approach to sympathetic relations that
+Elsie ever had: a kind of dumb intercourse of feeling, such as one
+sees in the eyes of brute mothers looking on their young.  But,
+subtile as it was, it was narrow and individual; whereas an emotion
+which can shape itself in language opens the gate for itself into the
+great community of human affections; for every word we speak is the
+medal of a dead thought or feeling, struck in the die of some human
+experience, worn smooth by innumerable contacts, and always
+transferred warm from one to another.  By words we share the common
+consciousness of the race, which has shaped itself in these symbols.
+By music we reach those special states of consciousness which, being
+without form, cannot be shaped with the mosaics of the vocabulary.
+The language of the eyes runs deeper into the personal nature, but it
+is purely individual, and perishes in the expression.
+
+If we consider them all as growing out of the consciousness as their
+root, language is the leaf, music is the flower; but when the eyes
+meet and search each other, it is the uncovering of the blanched stem
+through which the whole life runs, but which has never taken color or
+form from the sunlight.
+
+For three days Elsie did not return to the school.  Much of the time
+she was among the woods and rocks.  The season was now beginning to
+wane, and the forest to put on its autumnal glory.  The dreamy haze
+was beginning to soften the landscape, and the mast delicious days of
+the year were lending their attraction to the scenery of The
+Mountain.  It was not very singular that Elsie should be lingering in
+her old haunts, from which the change of season must soon drive her.
+But Old Sophy saw clearly enough that some internal conflict was
+going on, and knew very well that it must have its own way and work
+itself out as it best could.  As much as looks could tell Elsie had
+told her.  She had said in words, to be sure, that she could not
+love.  Something warped and thwarted the emotion which would have
+been love in another, no doubt; but that such an emotion was striving
+with her against all malign influences which interfered with it the
+old woman had a perfect certainty in her own mind.
+
+Everybody who has observed the working of emotions in persons of
+various temperaments knows well enough that they have periods of
+incubation, which differ with the individual, and with the particular
+cause and degree of excitement, yet evidently go through a strictly
+self-limited series of evolutions, at the end of which, their result
+--an act of violence, a paroxysm of tears, a gradual subsidence into
+repose, or whatever it may be--declares itself, like the last stage
+of an attack of fever and ague.  No one can observe children without
+noticing that there is a personal equation, to use the astronomer's
+language, in their tempers, so that one sulks an hour over an offence
+which makes another a fury for five minutes, and leaves him or her an
+angel when it is over.
+
+At the end of three days, Elsie braided her long, glossy, black hair,
+and shot a golden arrow through it.  She dressed herself with more
+than usual care, and came down in the morning superb in her stormy
+beauty.  The brooding paroxysm was over, or at least her passion had
+changed its phase.  Her father saw it with great relief; he had
+always many fears for her in her hours and days of gloom, but, for
+reasons before assigned, had felt that she must be trusted to
+herself, without appealing to actual restraint, or any other
+supervision than such as Old Sophy could exercise without offence.
+
+She went off at the accustomed hour to the school.  All the girls had
+their eyes on her.  None so keen as these young misses to know an
+inward movement by an outward sign of adornment: if they have not as
+many signals as the ships that sail the great seas, there is not an
+end of ribbon or a turn of a ringlet which is not a hieroglyphic with
+a hidden meaning to these little cruisers over the ocean of
+sentiment.
+
+The girls all looked at Elsie with a new thought; for she was more
+sumptuously arrayed than perhaps ever before at the school; and they
+said to themselves that she had come meaning to draw the young
+master's eyes upon her.  That was it; what else could it be?  The
+beautiful cold girl with the diamond eyes meant to dazzle the
+handsome young gentleman.  He would be afraid to love her; it
+couldn't be true, that which some people had said in the village; she
+was n't the kind of young lady to make Mr. Langdon happy.  Those dark
+people are never safe: so one of the young blondes said to herself.
+Elsie was not literary enough for such a scholar: so thought Miss
+Charlotte Ann Wood, the young poetess.  She couldn't have ,a good
+temper, with those scowling eyebrows: this was the opinion of several
+broad-faced, smiling girls, who thought, each in her own snug little
+mental sanctum, that, if, etc., etc., she could make him so happy!
+
+Elsie had none of the still, wicked light in her eyes, that morning.
+She looked gentle, but dreamy; played with her books; did not trouble
+herself with any of the exercises,--which in itself was not very
+remarkable, as she was always allowed, under some pretext or other,
+to have her own way.
+
+The school-hours were over at length.  The girls went out, but she
+lingered to the last.  She then came up to Mr. Bernard, with a book
+in her hand, as if to ask a question.
+
+"Will you walk towards my home with me today?  "she said, in a very
+low voice, little more than a whisper.
+
+Mr. Bernard was startled by the request, put in such a way.  He had a
+presentiment of some painful scene or other.  But there was nothing
+to be done but to assure her that it would give him great pleasure.
+
+So they walked along together on their way toward the Dudley mansion.
+
+"I have no friend," Elsie said, all at once.  "Nothing loves me but
+one old woman.  I cannot love anybody.  They tell me there is
+something in my eyes that draws people to me and makes them faint:
+Look into them, will you?"
+
+She turned her face toward him.  It was very pale, and the diamond
+eyes were glittering with a film, such as beneath other lids would
+have rounded into a tear.
+
+"Beautiful eyes, Elsie," he said,--"sometimes very piercing,--but
+soft now, and looking as if there were something beneath them that
+friendship might draw out.  I am your friend, Elsie.  Tell me what I
+can do to render your life happier."
+
+"Love me!" said Elsie Venner.
+
+What shall a man do, when a woman makes such a demand, involving such
+an avowal?  It was the tenderest, cruellest, humblest moment of Mr.
+Bernard's life.  He turned pale, he trembled almost, as if he had
+been a woman listening to her lover's declaration.
+
+"Elsie," he said, presently, "I so long to be of some use to you, to
+have your confidence and sympathy, that I must not let you say or do
+anything to put us in false relations.  I do love you, Elsie, as a
+suffering sister with sorrows of her own,--as one whom I would save
+at the risk of my happiness and life,--as one who needs a true friend
+more than--any of all the young girls I have known.  More than this
+you would not ask me to say.  You have been through excitement and
+trouble lately, and it has made you feel such a need more than ever.
+Give me your hand, dear Elsie, and trust me that I will be as true a
+friend to you as if we were children of the same mother."
+
+Elsie gave him her hand mechanically.  It seemed to him that a cold
+aura shot from it along his arm and chilled the blood running through
+his heart.  He pressed it gently, looked at her with a face full of
+grave kindness and sad interest, then softly relinquished it.
+
+It was all over with poor Elsie.  They walked almost in silence the
+rest of the way.  Mr. Bernard left her at the gate of the mansion-
+house, and returned with sad forebodings.  Elsie went at once to her
+own room, and did not come from it at the usual hours.  At last Old
+Sophy began to be alarmed about her, went to her apartment, and,
+finding the door unlocked, entered cautiously.  She found Elsie lying
+on her bed, her brows strongly contracted, her eyes dull, her whole
+look that of great suffering.  Her first thought was that she had
+been doing herself a harm by some deadly means or other.  But Elsie,
+saw her fear, and reassured her.
+
+"No," she said, "there is nothing wrong, such as you are thinking of;
+I am not dying.  You may send for the Doctor; perhaps he can take the
+pain from my head.  That is all I want him to do.  There is no use in
+the pain, that I know of; if he can stop it, let him."
+
+So they sent for the old Doctor.  It was not long before the solid
+trot of Caustic, the old bay horse, and the crashing of the gravel
+under the wheels, gave notice that the physician was driving up the
+avenue.
+
+The old Doctor was a model for visiting practitioners.  He always
+came into the sick-room with a quiet, cheerful look, as if he had a
+consciousness that he was bringing some sure relief with him.  The
+way a patient snatches his first look at his doctor's face, to see
+whether he is doomed, whether he is reprieved, whether he is
+unconditionally pardoned, has really something terrible about it.  It
+is only to be met by an imperturbable mask of serenity, proof against
+anything and everything in a patient's aspect.  The physician whose
+face reflects his patient's condition like a mirror may do well
+enough to examine people for a life-insurance office, but does not
+belong to the sickroom.  The old Doctor did not keep people waiting
+in dread suspense, while he stayed talking about the case,--the
+patient all the time thinking that he and the friends are discussing
+some alarming symptom or formidable operation which he himself is by-
+and-by--to hear of.
+
+He was in Elsie's room almost before she knew he was in the house.
+He came to her bedside in such a natural, quiet way, that it seemed
+as if he were only a friend who had dropped in for a moment to say a
+pleasant word.  Yet he was very uneasy about Elsie until he had seen
+her; he never knew what might happen to her or those about her, and
+came prepared for the worst.
+
+"Sick, my child?" he said, in a very soft, low voice.
+
+Elsie nodded, without speaking.
+
+The Doctor took her hand,--whether with professional views, or only
+in a friendly way, it would have been hard to tell.  So he sat a few
+minutes, looking at her all the time with a kind of fatherly
+interest, but with it all noting how she lay, how she breathed, her
+color, her expression, all that teaches the practised eye so much
+without a single question being asked.  He saw she was in suffering,
+and said presently,
+
+"You have pain somewhere; where is it?"
+
+She put her hand to her head.
+
+As she was not disposed to talk, he watched her for a while,
+questioned Old Sophy shrewdly a few minutes, and so made up his mind
+as to the probable cause of disturbance and the proper remedies to be
+used.
+
+Some very silly people thought the old Doctor did not believe in
+medicine, because he gave less than certain poor half-taught
+creatures in the smaller neighboring towns, who took advantage of
+people's sickness to disgust and disturb them with all manner of ill-
+smelling and ill-behaving drugs.  In truth, he hated to give anything
+noxious or loathsome to those who were uncomfortable enough already,
+unless he was very sure it would do good,--in which case, he never
+played with drugs, but gave good, honest, efficient doses.  Sometimes
+he lost a family of the more boorish sort, because they did not think
+they got their money's worth out of him, unless they had something
+more than a taste of everything he carried in his saddlebags.
+
+He ordered some remedies which he thought would relieve Elsie, and
+left her, saying he would call the next day, hoping to find her
+better.  But the next day came, and the next, and still Elsie was on
+her bed, feverish, restless, wakeful, silent.  At night she tossed
+about and wandered, and it became at length apparent that there was a
+settled attack, something like what they called, formerly, a "nervous
+fever."
+
+On the fourth day she was more restless than common.  One of the
+women of the house came in to help to take care of her; but she
+showed an aversion to her presence.
+
+"Send me Helen Darley," she said, at last.
+
+The old Doctor told them, that, if possible, they must indulge this
+fancy of hers.  The caprices of sick people were never to be
+despised, least of all of such persons as Elsie, when rendered
+irritable and exacting by pain and weakness.
+
+So a message was sent to Mr. Silas Peckham at the Apollinean
+Institute, to know if he could not spare Miss Helen Darley for a few
+days, if required, to give her attention to a young lady who attended
+his school and who was now lying ill,--no other person than the
+daughter of Dudley Venner.
+
+A mean man never agrees to anything without deliberately turning it
+over, so that he may see its dirty side, and, if he can, sweating the
+coin he pays for it.  If an archangel should offer to save his soul
+for sixpence, he would try to find a sixpence with a hole in it.  A
+gentleman says yes to a great many things without stopping to think:
+a shabby fellow is known by his caution in answering questions, for
+fear of, compromising his pocket or himself.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham looked very grave at the request.  The dooties of
+Miss Darley at the Institoot were important, very important.  He paid
+her large sums of money for her time,--more than she could expect to
+get in any other institootion for the edoocation of female youth.  A
+deduction from her selary would be necessary, in case she should
+retire from the sphere of her dooties for a season.  He should be put
+to extry expense, and have to perform additional labors himself.  He
+would consider of the matter.  If any arrangement could be made, he
+would send word to Squire Venner's folks.
+
+"Miss Darley," said Silas Peckham, "the' 's a message from Squire
+Venner's that his daughter wants you down at the mansion-house to see
+her.  She's got a fever, so they inform me.  If it's any kind of
+ketchin' fever, of course you won't think of goin' near the mansion-
+house.  If Doctor Kittredge says it's safe, perfec'ly safe, I can't
+object to your goin', on sech conditions as seem to be fair to all'
+concerned.  You will give up your pay for the whole time you are.
+absent,--portions of days to be caounted as whole days.  You will be
+charged with board the same as if you eat your victuals with the
+household.  The victuals are of no use after they're cooked but to be
+eat, and your bein' away is no savin' to our folks.  I shall charge
+you a reasonable compensation for the demage to the school by the
+absence of a teacher.  If Miss Crabs undertakes any dooties belongin'
+to your department of instruction, she will look to you for sech
+pecooniary considerations as you may agree upon between you.  On
+these conditions I am willin' to give my consent to your temporary
+absence from the post of dooty.  I will step down to Doctor
+Kittredge's myself, and make inquiries as to the natur' of the
+complaint."
+
+Mr. Peckham took up a rusty and very narrow-brimmed hat, which he
+cocked upon one side of his head, with an air peculiar to the rural
+gentry.  It was the hour when the Doctor expected to be in his
+office, unless he had some special call which kept him from home.
+
+He found the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather just taking leave of the
+Doctor.  His hand was on the pit of his stomach, and his countenance
+was expressive of inward uneasiness.
+
+"Shake it before using," said the Doctor; "and the sooner you make up
+your mind to speak right out, the better it will be for your
+digestion."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Peckham!  Walk in, Mr. Peckham!  Nobody sick up at the
+school, I hope?"
+
+"The haalth of the school is fust-rate," replied Mr. Peckham.  "The
+sitooation is uncommonly favorable to saloobrity."  (These last words
+were from the Annual Report of the past year.) "Providence has spared
+our female youth in a remarkable measure.  I've come with reference
+to another consideration.  Dr. Kittredge, is there any ketchin'
+complaint goin' about in the village?"
+
+"Well, yes," said the Doctor, "I should say there was something of
+that sort.  Measles.  Mumps.  And Sin,--that's always catching."
+
+The old Doctor's eye twinkled; once in a while he had his little
+touch of humor.
+
+Silas Peckham slanted his eye up suspiciously at the Doctor, as if he
+was getting some kind of advantage over him.  That is the way people
+of his constitution are apt to take a bit of pleasantry.
+
+"I don't mean sech things, Doctor; I mean fevers.  Is there any
+ketchin' fevers--bilious, or nervous, or typus, or whatever you call
+'em--now goin' round this village?  That's what I want to ascertain,
+if there's no impropriety."
+
+The old Doctor looked at Silas through his spectacles.
+
+"Hard and sour as a green cider-apple," he thought to himself.
+"No,"; he said,--"I don't know any such cases."
+
+"What's the matter with Elsie Venner?"  asked Silas, sharply, as if
+he expected to have him this time.
+
+"A mild feverish attack, I should call it in anybody else; but she
+has a peculiar constitution, and I never feel so safe about her as I
+should about most people."
+
+"Anything ketchin' about it?  " Silas asked, cunningly.
+
+"No, indeed!  " said the Doctor,--"catching?  no,--what put that into
+your head, Mr. Peckham?"
+
+"Well, Doctor," the conscientious Principal answered, "I naterally
+feel a graat responsibility, a very gmaaat responsibility, for the
+noomerous and lovely young ladies committed to my charge.  It has
+been a question, whether one of my assistants should go, accordin' to
+request, to stop with Miss Venner for a season.  Nothin' restrains my
+givin' my full and free consent to her goin' but the fear lest
+contagious maladies should be introdooced among those lovely female
+youth.  I shall abide by your opinion,--I understan' you to say
+distinc'ly, her complaint is not ketchin'?---and urge upon Miss
+Darley to fulfil her dooties to a sufferin' fellow-creature at any
+cost to myself and my establishment.  We shall miss her very much;
+but it is a good cause, and she shall go,--and I shall trust that
+Providence will enable us to spare her without permanent demage to
+the interests of the Institootion."
+
+Saying this, the excellent Principal departed, with his rusty narrow-
+brimmed hat leaning over, as if it had a six-knot breeze abeam, and
+its gunwale (so to speak) was dipping into his coat-collar.  He
+announced the result of his inquiries to Helen, who had received a
+brief note in the mean time from a poor relation of Elsie's mother,
+then at the mansion-house, informing her of the critical situation of
+Elsie and of her urgent desire that Helen should be with her.  She
+could not hesitate.  She blushed as she thought of the comments that
+might be made; but what were such considerations in a matter of life
+and death?  She could not stop to make terms with Silas Peckham.  She
+must go.  He might fleece her, if he would; she would not complain,--
+not even to Bernard, who, she knew, would bring the Principal to
+terms, if she gave the least hint of his intended extortions.
+
+So Helen made up her bundle of clothes to be sent after her, took a
+book or two with her to help her pass the time, and departed for the
+Dudley mansion.  It was with a great inward effort that she undertook
+the sisterly task which was thus forced upon her.  She had a kind of
+terror of Elsie; and the thought of having charge of her, of being
+alone with her, of coming under the full influence of those diamond
+eyes,--if, indeed, their light were not dimmed by suffering and
+weariness,--was one she shrank from.  But what could she do?  It
+might be a turning-point in the life of the poor girl; and she must
+overcome all her fears, all her repugnance, and go to her rescue.
+
+"Is Helen come?" said Elsie, when she heard, with her fine sense
+quickened by the irritability of sickness, a light footfall on the
+stair, with a cadence unlike that of any inmate of the house.
+
+"It's a strange woman's step," said Old Sophy, who, with her
+exclusive love for Elsie, was naturally disposed to jealousy of a
+new-comer.  "Let Ol' Sophy set at 'th' foot o' th' bed, if th' young
+missis sets by th' piller,--won' y', darlin'?  The' 's nobody that's
+white can love y' as th' of black woman does;--don' sen' her away,
+now, there 's a dear soul!"
+
+Elsie motioned her to sit in the place she had pointed to, and Helen
+at that moment entered the room.  Dudley Venner followed her.
+
+"She is your patient," he said, "except while the Doctor is here.
+She has been longing to have you with her, and we shall expect you to
+make her well in a few days."
+
+So Helen Darley found herself established in the most unexpected
+manner as an inmate of the Dudley mansion.  She sat with Elsie most
+of the time, by day and by night, soothing her, and trying to enter
+into her confidence and affections, if it should prove that this
+strange creature was really capable of truly sympathetic emotions.
+
+What was this unexplained something which came between her soul and
+that of every other human being with whom she was in relations?
+Helen perceived, or rather felt, that she had, folded up in the
+depths of her being, a true womanly nature.  Through the cloud that
+darkened her aspect, now and then a ray would steal forth, which,
+like the smile of stern and solemn people, was all the more
+impressive from its contrast with the expression she wore habitually.
+It might well be that pain and fatigue had changed her aspect; but,
+at any rate, Helen looked into her eyes without that nervous
+agitation which their cold glitter had produced on her when they were
+full of their natural light.  She felt sure that her mother must have
+been a lovely, gentle woman.  There were gleams of a beautiful nature
+shining through some ill-defined medium which disturbed and made them
+flicker and waver, as distant images do when seen through the
+rippling upward currents of heated air.  She loved, in her own way,
+the old black woman, and seemed to keep up a kind of silent
+communication with her, as if they did not require the use of speech.
+She appeared to be tranquillized by the presence of Helen, and loved
+to have her seated at the bedside.  Yet something, whatever it was,
+prevented her from opening her heart to her kind companion; and even
+now there were times when she would lie looking at her, with such a
+still, watchful, almost dangerous expression, that Helen would sigh,
+and change her place, as persons do whose breath some cunning orator
+had been sucking out of them with his spongy eloquence, so that, when
+he stops, they must get some air and stir about, or they feel as if
+they should be half smothered and palsied.
+
+It was too much to keep guessing what was the meaning of all this.
+Helen determined to ask Old Sophy some questions which might probably
+throw light upon her doubts.  She took the opportunity one evening
+when Elsie was lying asleep and they were both sitting at some
+distance from her bed.
+
+"Tell me, Sophy," she said, "was Elsie always as shy as she seems to
+be now, in talking with those to whom she is friendly?"
+
+"Alway jes' so, Miss Darlin', ever sense she was little chil'.  When
+she was five, six year old, she lisp some,--call me Thophy; that make
+her kin' o' 'shamed, perhaps: after she grow up, she never lisp, but
+she kin' o' got the way o' not talkin' much.  Fac' is, she don' like
+talkin' as common gals do, 'xcep' jes' once in a while wi' some
+partic'lar folks,--'n' then not much."
+
+"How old is Elsie?"
+
+"Eighteen year this las' September."
+
+"How long ago did her mother die?" Helen asked, with a little
+trembling in her voice.
+
+"Eighteen year ago this October," said Old Sophy.
+
+Helen was silent for a moment.  Then she whispered, almost
+inaudibly,--for her voice appeared to fail her,
+
+"What did her mother die of, Sophy?"
+
+The old woman's small eyes dilated until a ring of white showed round
+their beady centres.  She caught Helen by the hand and clung to it,
+as if in fear.  She looked round at Elsie, who lay sleeping, as of
+she might be listening.  Then she drew Helen towards her and led her
+softly out of the room.
+
+"'Sh !---'sh!  " she said, as soon as they were outside the door.
+"Don' never speak in this house 'bout what Elsie's mother died of!"
+she said.  "Nobody never says nothin' 'bout it.  Oh, God has made
+Ugly Things wi' death in their mouths, Miss Darlin', an' He knows
+what they're for; but my poor Elsie!---to have her blood changed in
+her before--It was in July Mistress got her death, but she liv' till
+three week after my poor Elsie was born."
+
+She could speak no more.  She had said enough.  Helen remembered the
+stories she had heard on coming to the village, and among them one
+referred to in an early chapter of this narrative.  All the
+unaccountable looks and tastes and ways of Elsie came back to her in
+the light of an ante-natal impression which had mingled an alien
+element in her nature.  She knew the secret of the fascination which
+looked out of her cold, glittering eyes.  She knew the significance
+of the strange repulsion which she felt in her own intimate
+consciousness underlying the inexplicable attraction which drew her
+towards the young girl in spite of this repugnance.  She began to
+look with new feelings on the contradictions in her moral nature,--
+the longing for sympathy, as shown by her wishing for Helen's
+company, and the impossibility of passing beyond the cold circle of
+isolation within which she had her being.  The fearful truth of that
+instinctive feeling of hers, that there was something not human
+looking out of Elsie's eyes, came upon her with a sudden flash of
+penetrating conviction.  There were two warring principles in that
+superb organization and proud soul.  One made her a woman, with all a
+woman's powers and longings.  The other chilled all the currents of
+outlet for her emotions.  It made her tearless and mute, when another
+woman would have wept and pleaded.  And it infused into her soul
+something--it was cruel now to call it malice--which was still and
+watchful and dangerous, which waited its opportunity, and then shot
+like an arrow from its bow out of the coil of brooding premeditation.
+Even those who had never seen the white scars on Dick Venner's wrist,
+or heard the half-told story of her supposed attempt to do a graver
+mischief, knew well enough by looking at her that she was one of the
+creatures not to be tampered with,--silent in anger and swift in
+vengeance.
+
+Helen could not return to the bedside at once after this
+communication.  It was with altered eyes that she must look on the
+poor girl, the victim of such an unheard-of fatality.  All was
+explained to her now.  But it opened such depths of solemn thought in
+her awakened consciousness, that it seemed as if the whole mystery of
+human life were coming up again before her for trial and judgment.
+"Oh," she thought, "if, while the will lies sealed in its fountain,
+it may be poisoned at its very source, so that it shall flow dark and
+deadly through its whole course, who are we that we should judge our
+fellow-creatures by ourselves?"  Then came the terrible question, how
+far the elements themselves are capable of perverting the moral
+nature: if valor, and justice, and truth, the strength of man and the
+virtue of woman, may not be poisoned out of a race by the food of the
+Australian in his forest, by the foul air and darkness of the
+Christians cooped up in the "tenement-houses" close by those who live
+in the palaces of the great cities?
+
+She walked out into the garden, lost in thought upon these dark and
+deep matters.  Presently she heard a step behind her, and Elsie's
+father came up and joined her.  Since his introduction to Helen at
+the distinguished tea-party given by the Widow Rowens, and before her
+coming to sit with Elsie, Mr. Dudley Venner had in the most
+accidental way in the world met her on several occasions: once after
+church, when she happened to be caught in a slight shower and he
+insisted on holding his umbrella over her on her way home;--once at a
+small party at one of the mansion-houses, where the quick-eyed lady
+of the house had a wonderful knack of bringing people together who
+liked to see each other;--perhaps at other times and places; but of
+this there is no certain evidence.
+
+They naturally spoke of Elsie, her illness, and the aspect it had
+taken.  But Helen noticed in all that Dudley Venner said about his
+daughter a morbid sensitiveness, as it seemed to her, an aversion to
+saying much about her physical condition or her peculiarities,
+--a wish to feel and speak as a parent should, and yet a shrinking,
+as if there were something about Elsie which he could not bear to
+dwell upon.  She thought she saw through all this, and she could
+interpret it all charitably.  There were circumstances about his
+daughter which recalled the great sorrow of his life; it was not
+strange that this perpetual reminder should in some degree have
+modified his feelings as a father.  But what a life he must have been
+leading for so many years, with this perpetual source of distress
+which he could not name!  Helen knew well enough, now, the meaning of
+the sadness which had left such traces in his features and tones, and
+it made her feel very kindly and compassionate towards him.
+
+So they walked over the crackling leaves in the garden, between the
+lines of box breathing its fragrance of eternity;--for this is one of
+the odors which carry us out of time into the abysses of the
+unbeginning past; if we ever lived on another ball of stone than
+this, it must be that there was box growing on it.  So they walked,
+finding their way softly to each other's sorrows and sympathies, each
+matching some counterpart to the other's experience of life, and
+startled to see how the different, yet parallel, lessons they had
+been taught by suffering had led them step by step to the same serene
+acquiescence in the orderings of that Supreme Wisdom which they both
+devoutly recognized.
+
+Old Sophy was at the window and saw them walking up and down the
+garden-alleys.  She watched them as her grandfather the savage
+watched the figures that moved among the trees when a hostile tribe
+was lurking about his mountain.
+
+"There'll be a weddin' in the ol house," she said, "before there's
+roses on them bushes ag'in.  But it won' be my poor Elsie's weddin',
+'n' ol' Sophy won' be there."
+
+When Helen prayed in the silence of her soul that evening, it was not
+that Elsie's life might be spared.  She dared not ask that as a favor
+of Heaven.  What could life be to her but a perpetual anguish, and to
+those about her but an ever-present terror?  Might she but be so
+influenced by divine grace, that what in her was most truly human,
+most purely woman-like, should overcome the dark, cold, unmentionable
+instinct which had pervaded her being like a subtile poison that was
+all she could ask, and the rest she left to a higher wisdom and
+tenderer love than her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+THE WHITE ASH.
+
+When Helen returned to Elsie's bedside, it was with a new and still
+deeper feeling of sympathy, such as the story told by Old Sophy might
+well awaken.  She understood, as never before, the singular
+fascination and as singular repulsion which she had long felt in
+Elsie's presence.  It had not been without a great effort that she
+had forced herself to become the almost constant attendant of the
+sick girl; and now she was learning, but not for the first time, the
+blessed truth which so many good women have found out for themselves,
+that the hardest duty bravely performed soon becomes a habit, and
+tends in due time to transform itself into a pleasure.
+
+The old Doctor was beginning to look graver, in spite of himself.
+The fever, if such it was, went gently forward, wasting the young
+girl's powers of resistance from day to day; yet she showed no
+disposition to take nourishment, and seemed literally to be living on
+air.  It was remarkable that with all this her look was almost
+natural, and her features were hardly sharpened so as to suggest that
+her life was burning away.  He did not like this, nor various other
+unobtrusive signs of danger which his practised eye detected.  A very
+small matter might turn the balance which held life and death poised
+against each other. He surrounded her with precautions, that Nature
+might have every opportunity of cunningly shifting the weights from
+the scale of death to the scale of life, as she will often do if not
+rudely disturbed or interfered with.
+
+Little tokens of good-will and kind remembrance were constantly
+coming to her from the girls in the school and the good people in the
+village. Some of the mansion-house people obtained rare flowers which
+they sent her, and her table was covered with fruits which tempted
+her in vain.  Several of the school-girls wished to make her a basket
+of their own handiwork, and, filling it with autumnal flowers, to
+send it as a joint offering.  Mr. Bernard found out their project
+accidentally, and, wishing to have his share in it, brought home from
+one of his long walks some boughs full of variously tinted leaves,
+such as were still clinging to the stricken trees.  With these he
+brought also some of the already fallen leaflets of the white ash,
+remarkable for their rich olive-purple color, forming a beautiful
+contrast with some of the lighter-hued leaves.  It so happened that
+this particular tree, the white ash, did not grow upon The Mountain,
+and the leaflets were more welcome for their comparative rarity.  So
+the girls made their basket, and the floor of it they covered with
+the rich olive-purple leaflets.  Such late flowers as they could lay
+their hands upon served to fill it, and with many kindly messages
+they sent it to Miss Elsie Venner at the Dudley mansion-house.
+
+Elsie was sitting up in her bed when it came, languid, but tranquil,
+and Helen was by her, as usual, holding her hand, which was strangely
+cold, Helen thought, for one who was said to have some kind of fever.
+The school-girls' basket was brought in with its messages of love and
+hopes for speedy recovery.  Old Sophy was delighted to see that it
+pleased Elsie, and laid it on the bed before her.  Elsie began
+looking at the flowers, and taking them from the basket, that she
+might see the leaves.  All at once she appeared to be agitated; she
+looked at the basket, then around, as if there were some fearful
+presence about her which she was searching for with her eager
+glances.  She took out the flowers, one by one, her breathing growing
+hurried, her eyes staring, her hands trembling,--till, as she came
+near the bottom of the basket, she flung out all the rest with a
+hasty movement, looked upon the olive-purple leaflets as if paralyzed
+for a moment, shrunk up, as it were, into herself in a curdling
+terror, dashed the basket from her, and fell back senseless, with a
+faint cry which chilled the blood of the startled listeners at her
+bedside.
+
+"Take it away!---take it away!---quick!" said Old Sophy, as she
+hastened to her mistress's pillow.  "It 's the leaves of the tree
+that was always death to her,--take it away!  She can't live wi' it
+in the room!"
+
+The poor old woman began chafing Elsie's hands, and Helen to try to
+rouse her with hartshorn, while a third frightened attendant gathered
+up the flowers and the basket and carried them out of the apartment,
+She came to herself after a time, but exhausted and then wandering.
+In her delirium she talked constantly as if she were in a cave, with
+such exactness of circumstance that Helen could not doubt at all that
+she had some such retreat among the rocks of The Mountain, probably
+fitted up in her own fantastic way, where she sometimes hid herself
+from all human eyes, and of the entrance to which she alone possessed
+the secret.
+
+All this passed away, and left her, of course, weaker than before.
+But this was not the only influence the unexplained paroxysm had left
+behind it.  From this time forward there was a change in her whole
+expression and her manner.  The shadows ceased flitting over her
+features, and the old woman, who watched her from day to day and from
+hour to hour as a mother watches her child, saw the likeness she bore
+to her mother coming forth more and more, as the cold glitter died
+out of the diamond eyes, and the stormy scowl disappeared from the
+dark brows and low forehead.
+
+With all the kindness and indulgence her father had bestowed upon
+her, Elsie had never felt that he loved her.  The reader knows well
+enough what fatal recollections and associations had frozen up the
+springs of natural affection in his breast.  There was nothing in the
+world he would not do for Elsie.  He had sacrificed his whole life to
+her.  His very seeming carelessness about restraining her was all
+calculated; he knew that restraint would produce nothing but utter
+alienation.  Just so far as she allowed him, he shared her studies,
+her few pleasures, her thoughts; but she was essentially solitary and
+uncommunicative.  No person, as was said long ago, could judge him,
+because his task was not merely difficult, but simply impracticable
+to human powers.  A nature like Elsie's had necessarily to be studied
+by itself, and to be followed in its laws where it could not be led.
+
+Every day, at different hours, during the whole of his daughter's
+illness, Dudley Venner had sat by her, doing all he could to soothe
+and please her.  Always the same thin film of some emotional non-
+conductor between them; always that kind of habitual regard and
+family-interest, mingled with the deepest pity on one side and a sort
+of respect on the other, which never warmed into outward evidences of
+affection.
+
+It was after this occasion, when she had been so profoundly agitated
+by a seemingly insignificant cause, that her father and Old Sophy
+were sitting, one at one side of her bed and one at the other.  She
+had fallen into a light slumber.  As they were looking at her, the
+same thought came into both their minds at the same moment.  Old
+Sophy spoke for both, as she said, in a low voice,
+
+"It 's her mother's look,--it 's her mother's own face right over
+again,--she never look' so before, the Lord's hand is on her!  His
+will be done!"
+
+When Elsie woke and lifted her languid eyes upon her father's face,
+she saw in it a tenderness, a depth of affection, such as she
+remembered at rare moments of her childhood, when she had won him to
+her by some unusual gleam of sunshine in her fitful temper.
+
+"Elsie, dear," he said, "we were thinking how much your expression
+was sometimes like that of your sweet mother.  If you could but have
+seen her, so as to remember her!"
+
+The tender look and tone, the yearning of the daughter's heart for
+the mother she had never seen, save only with the unfixed,
+undistinguishing eyes of earliest infancy, perhaps the under-thought
+that she might soon rejoin her in another state of being,--all came
+upon her with a sudden overflow of feeling which broke through all
+the barriers between her heart and her eyes, and Elsie wept.  It
+seemed to her father as if the malign influence--evil spirit it might
+almost be called--which had pervaded her being, had at last been
+driven forth or exorcised, and that these tears were at once the sign
+and the pledge of her redeemed nature.  But now she was to be
+soothed, and not excited.  After her tears she slept again, and the
+look her face wore was peaceful as never before.
+
+Old Sophy met the Doctor at the door and told him all the
+circumstances connected with the extraordinary attack from which
+Elsie had suffered.  It was the purple leaves, she said.  She
+remembered that Dick once brought home a branch of a tree with some
+of the same leaves on it, and Elsie screamed and almost fainted then.
+She, Sophy, had asked her, after she had got quiet, what it was in
+the leaves that made her feel so bad.  Elsie could n't tell her,--did
+n't like to speak about it,--shuddered whenever Sophy mentioned it.
+
+This did not sound so strangely to the old Doctor as it does to some
+who listen to his narrative.  He had known some curious examples of
+antipathies, and remembered reading of others still more singular.
+He had known those who could not bear the presence of a cat, and
+recollected the story, often told, of a person's hiding one in a
+chest when one of these sensitive individuals came into the room, so
+as not to disturb him; but he presently began to sweat and turn pale,
+and cried out that there must be a cat hid somewhere.  He knew people
+who were poisoned by strawberries, by honey, by different meats, many
+who could not endure cheese,--some who could not bear the smell of
+roses.  If he had known all the stories in the old books, he would
+have found that some have swooned and become as dead men at the smell
+of a rose,--that a stout soldier has been known to turn and run at
+the sight or smell of rue,--that cassia and even olive-oil have
+produced deadly faintings in certain.  individuals,--in short, that
+almost everything has seemed to be a poison to somebody.
+
+"Bring me that basket, Sophy," said the old Doctor, "if you can find
+it."
+
+Sophy brought it to him,--for he had not yet entered Elsie's
+apartment.
+
+"These purple leaves are from the white ash," he said.  "You don't
+know the notion that people commonly have about that tree, Sophy?"
+
+"I know they say the Ugly Things never go where the white ash grows,"
+Sophy answered.  "Oh, Doctor dear, what I'm thinkin' of a'n't true,
+is it?  "
+
+The Doctor smiled sadly, but did not answer.  He went directly to
+Elsie's room.  Nobody would have known by his manner that he saw any
+special change in his patient.  He spoke with her as usual, made some
+slight alteration in his prescriptions, and left the room with a
+kind, cheerful look.  He met her father on the stairs.
+
+"Is it as I thought?  " said Dudley Veneer.
+
+"There is everything to fear," the Doctor said, "and not much, I am
+afraid, to hope.  Does not her face recall to you one that you
+remember, as never before?"
+
+"Yes," her father answered,--"oh, yes!  What is the meaning of this
+change which has come over her features, and her voice, her temper,
+her whole being?  Tell me, oh, tell me, what is it?  Can it be that
+the curse is passing away, and my daughter is to be restored to me,--
+such as her mother would have had her,--such as her mother was?"
+
+"Walk out with me into the garden," the Doctor said, "and I will tell
+you all I know and all I think about this great mystery of Elsie's
+life."
+
+They walked out together, and the Doctor began: "She has lived a
+double being, as it were,--the consequence of the blight which fell
+upon her in the dim period before consciousness.  You can see what
+she might have been but for this.  You know that for these eighteen
+years her whole existence has taken its character from that influence
+which we need not name.  But you will remember that few of the lower
+forms of life last as human beings do; and thus it might have been
+hoped and trusted with some show of reason, as I have always
+suspected you hoped and trusted, perhaps more confidently than
+myself, that the lower nature which had become engrafted on the
+higher would die out and leave the real woman's life she inherited to
+outlive this accidental principle which had so poisoned her childhood
+and youth.  I believe it is so dying out; but I am afraid,--yes, I
+must say it, I fear it has involved the centres of life in its own
+decay.  There is hardly any pulse at Elsie's wrist; no stimulants
+seem to rouse her; and it looks as if life were slowly retreating
+inwards, so that by-and-by she will sleep as those who lie down in
+the cold and never wake."
+
+Strange as it may seem, her father heard all this not without deep
+sorrow, and such marks of it as his thoughtful and tranquil nature,
+long schooled by suffering, claimed or permitted, but with a
+resignation itself the measure of his past trials.  Dear as his
+daughter might become to him, all he dared to ask of Heaven was that
+she might be restored to that truer self which lay beneath her false
+and adventitious being.  If he could once see that the icy lustre in
+her eyes had become a soft, calm light,--that her soul was at peace
+with all about her and with Him; above,--this crumb from the
+children's table was enough for him, as it was for the Syro-
+Phoenician woman who asked that the dark spirit might go out from her
+daughter.
+
+There was little change the next day, until all at once she said in a
+clear voice that she should like to see her master at the school, Mr.
+Langdon.  He came accordingly, and took the place of Helen at her
+bedside.  It seemed as if Elsie had forgotten the last scene with
+him.  Might it be that pride had come in, and she had sent for him
+only to show how superior she had grown to the weakness which had
+betrayed her into that extraordinary request, so contrary to the
+instincts and usages of her sex?  Or was it that the singular change
+which had come over her had involved her passionate fancy for him and
+swept it away with her other habits of thought and feeling?  Or could
+it be that she felt that all earthly interests were becoming of
+little account to her, and wished to place herself right with one to
+whom she had displayed a wayward movement of her unbalanced
+imagination?  She welcomed Mr. Bernard as quietly as she had received
+Helen Darley.  He colored at the recollection of that last scene,
+when he came into her presence; but she smiled with perfect
+tranquillity.  She did not speak to him of any apprehension; but he
+saw that she looked upon herself as doomed.  So friendly, yet so calm
+did she seem through all their interview, that Mr. Bernard could only
+look back upon her manifestation of feeling towards him on their walk
+from the school as a vagary of a mind laboring under some unnatural
+excitement, and wholly at variance with the true character of Elsie
+Venner as he saw her before him in her subdued, yet singular beauty.
+He looked with almost scientific closeness of observation into the
+diamond eyes; but that peculiar light which he knew so well was not
+there.  She was the same in one sense as on that first day when he
+had seen her coiling and uncoiling her golden chain; yet how
+different in every aspect which revealed her state of mind and
+emotion!  Something of tenderness there was, perhaps, in her tone
+towards him; she would not have sent for him, had she not felt more
+than an ordinary interest in him.  But through the whole of his visit
+she never lost her gracious self-possession.  The Dudley race might
+well be proud of the last of its daughters, as she lay dying, but
+unconquered by the feeling of the present or the fear of the future.
+
+As for Mr. Bernard, he found it very hard to look upon her, and
+listen to her unmoved.  There was nothing that reminded him of the
+stormy--browed, almost savage girl he remembered in her fierce
+loveliness,--nothing of all her singularities of air and of costume.
+Nothing?  Yes, one thing.  Weak and suffering as she was, she had
+never parted with one particular ornament, such as a sick person
+would naturally, as it might be supposed, get rid of at once.  The
+golden cord which she wore round her neck at the great party was
+still there.  A bracelet was lying by her pillow; she had unclasped
+it from her wrist.
+
+Before Mr. Bernard left her, she said,
+
+"I shall never see you again.  Some time or other, perhaps, you will
+mention my name to one whom you love.  Give her this from your
+scholar and friend Elsie."
+
+He took the bracelet, raised her hand to his lips, then turned his
+face away; in that moment he was the weaker of the two.
+
+"Good-bye," she said; "thank you for coming."
+
+His voice died away in his throat, as he tried to answer her.  She
+followed him with her eyes as he passed from her sight through the
+door, and when it closed after him sobbed tremulously once or twice,
+but stilled herself, and met Helen, as she entered, with a composed
+countenance.
+
+"I have had a very pleasant visit from Mr. Langdon," Elsie said.
+"Sit by me, Helen, awhile without speaking; I should like to sleep,
+if I can,--and to dream."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE GOLDEN CORD IS LOOSED.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather, hearing that his parishioner's
+daughter, Elsie, was very ill, could do nothing less than come to the
+mansion-house and tender such consolations as he was master of.  It
+was rather remarkable that the old Doctor did not exactly approve of
+his visit.  He thought that company of every sort might be injurious
+in her weak state.  He was of opinion that Mr. Fairweather, though
+greatly interested in religious matters, was not the most sympathetic
+person that could be found; in fact, the old Doctor thought he was
+too much taken up with his own interests for eternity to give himself
+quite 'so heartily to the need of other people as some persons got up
+on a rather more generous scale (our good neighbor Dr. Honeywood, for
+instance) could do.  However, all these things had better be arranged
+to suit her wants; if she would like to talk with a clergyman, she
+had a great deal better see one as often as she liked, and run the
+risk of the excitement, than have a hidden wish for such a visit and
+perhaps find herself too weak to see him by-and-by.
+
+The old Doctor knew by sad experience that dreadful mistake against
+which all medical practitioners should be warned.  His experience may
+well be a guide for others.  Do not overlook the desire for spiritual
+advice and consolation which patients sometimes feel, and, with the
+frightful mauvaise honte peculiar to Protestantism, alone among all
+human beliefs, are ashamed to tell.  As a part of medical treatment,
+it is the physician's business to detect the hidden longing for the
+food of the soul, as much as for any form of bodily nourishment.
+Especially in the higher walks of society, where this unutterably
+miserable false shame of Protestantism acts in proportion to the
+general acuteness of the cultivated sensibilities, let no
+unwillingness to suggest the sick person's real need suffer him to
+languish between his want and his morbid sensitiveness.  What an
+infinite advantage the Mussulmans and the Catholics have over many of
+our more exclusively spiritual sects in the way they keep their
+religion always by them and never blush for it!  And besides this
+spiritual longing, we should never forget that
+
+          "On some fond breast the parting soul relies,"
+
+and the minister of religion, in addition to the sympathetic nature
+which we have a right to demand in him, has trained himself to the
+art of entering into the feelings of others.
+
+The reader must pardon this digression, which introduces the visit of
+the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather to Elsie Veneer.  It was mentioned
+to her that he would like to call and see how she was, and she
+consented,--not with much apparent interest, for she had reasons of
+her own for not feeling any very deep conviction of his sympathy for
+persons in sorrow.  But he came, and worked the conversation round to
+religion, and confused her with his hybrid notions, half made up of
+what he had been believing and teaching all his life, and half of the
+new doctrines which he had veneered upon the surface of his old
+belief.  He got so far as to make a prayer with her,--a cool, well-
+guarded prayer, which compromised his faith as little as possible,
+and which, if devotion were a game played against Providence, might
+have been considered a cautious and sagacious move.
+
+When he had gone, Elsie called Old Sophy to her.
+
+"Sophy," she said, "don't let them send that cold hearted man to me
+any more.  If your old minister comes--to see you, I should like to
+hear him talk.  He looks as if he cared for everybody, and would care
+for me.  And, Sophy, if I should die one of these days, I should like
+to have that old minister come and say whatever is to be said over
+me.  It would comfort Dudley more, I know, than to have that hard man
+here, when you're in trouble, for some of you will be sorry when I'm
+gone,--won't you, Sophy?"
+
+The poor old black.  woman could not stand this question.  The cold
+minister had frozen Elsie until she felt as if nobody cared for her
+or would regret her,--and her question had betrayed this momentary
+feeling.
+
+"Don' talk so!  don' talk so, darlin'!" she cried, passionately.
+"When you go, Ol' Sophy'll go; 'n' where you go, Ol' Sophy'll go: 'n'
+we'll both go t' th' place where th' Lord takes care of all his
+children, whether their faces are white or black.  Oh, darlin',
+darlin'!  if th' Lord should let me die firs', you shall fin' all
+ready for you when you come after me.  On'y don' go 'n' leave poor
+Ol' Sophy all 'lone in th' world!"
+
+Helen came in at this moment and quieted the old woman with a look.
+Such scenes were just what were most dangerous, in the state in which
+Elsie was lying: but that is one of the ways in which an affectionate
+friend sometimes unconsciously wears out the life which a hired
+nurse, thinking of nothing but her regular duties and her wages,
+would have spared from all emotional fatigue.
+
+The change which had come over Elsie's disposition was itself the
+cause of new excitements.  How was it possible that her father could
+keep away from her, now that she was coming back to the nature and
+the very look of her mother, the bride of his youth?  How was it
+possible to refuse her, when she said to Old Sophy, that she should
+like to have her minister come in and sit by her, even though his
+presence might perhaps prove a new source of excitement?
+
+But the Reverend Doctor did come and sit by her, and spoke such
+soothing words to her, words of such peace and consolation, that from
+that hour she was tranquil as never before.  All true hearts are
+alike in the hour of need; the Catholic has a reserved fund of faith
+for his fellow-creature's trying moment, and the Calvinist reveals
+those springs of human brotherhood and charity in his soul which are
+only covered over by the iron tables inscribed with the harder dogmas
+of his creed.  It was enough that the Reverend Doctor knew all
+Elsie's history.  He could not judge her by any formula, like those
+which have been moulded by past ages out of their ignorance.  He did
+not talk with her as if she were an outside sinner worse than
+himself.  He found a bruised and languishing soul, and bound up its
+wounds.  A blessed office,--one which is confined to no sect or
+creed, but which good men in all times, under various names and with
+varying ministries, to suit the need of each age, of each race, of
+each individual soul, have come forward to discharge for their
+suffering fellow-creatures.
+
+After this there was little change in Elsie, except that her heart
+beat more feebly every day,--so that the old Doctor himself, with all
+his experience, could see nothing to account for the gradual failing
+of the powers of life, and yet could find no remedy which seemed to
+arrest its progress in the smallest degree.
+
+"Be very careful," he said, "that she is not allowed to make any
+muscular exertion.  Any such effort, when a person is so enfeebled,
+may stop the heart in a moment; and if it stops, it will never move
+again."
+
+Helen enforced this rule with the greatest care.  Elsie was hardly
+allowed to move her hand or to speak above a whisper.  It seemed to
+be mainly the question now, whether this trembling flame of life
+would be blown out by some light breath of air, or whether it could
+be so nursed and sheltered by the hollow of these watchful hands that
+it would have a chance to kindle to its natural brightness.
+
+--Her father came in to sit with her in the evening.  He had never
+talked so freely with her as during the hour he had passed at her
+bedside, telling her little circumstances of her mother's life,
+living over with her all that was pleasant in the past, and trying to
+encourage her with some cheerful gleams of hope for the future.  A
+faint smile played over her face, but she did not answer his
+encouraging suggestions.  The hour came for him to leave her with
+those who watched by her.
+
+"Good-night, my dear child," he said, and stooping down, kissed her
+cheek.
+
+Elsie rose by a sudden effort, threw her arms round his neck, kissed
+him, and said, "Good-night, my dear father!"
+
+The suddenness of her movement had taken him by surprise, or he would
+have checked so dangerous an effort.  It was too late now.  Her arms
+slid away from him like lifeless weights,--her head fell back upon
+her pillow,--along sigh breathed through her lips.
+
+"She is faint," said Helen, doubtfully; "bring me the hartshorn,
+Sophy."
+
+The old woman had started from her place, and was now leaning over
+her, looking in her face, and listening for the sound of her
+breathing.
+
+"She 's dead!  Elsie 's dead!  My darlin 's dead!"  she cried aloud,
+filling the room with her utterance of anguish.
+
+Dudley Venner drew her away and silenced her with a voice of
+authority, while Helen and an assistant plied their restoratives.  It
+was all in vain.
+
+The solemn tidings passed from the chamber of death through the
+family.  The daughter, the hope of that old and honored house, was
+dead in the freshness of her youth, and the home of its solitary
+representative was hereafter doubly desolate.
+
+A messenger rode hastily out of the avenue.  A little after this the
+people of the village and the outlying farm-houses were startled by
+the sound of a bell.
+
+One,--two,--three,--four,
+
+They stopped in every house, as far as the wavering vibrations
+reached, and listened
+
+five,--six,--seven,--
+
+It was not the little child which had been lying so long at the point
+of death; that could not be more than three or four years old
+
+eight,--nine,--ten,--and so on to fifteen, sixteen,--seventeen,--
+eighteen
+
+The pulsations seemed to keep on,--but it was the brain, and not the
+bell, that was throbbing now.
+
+"Elsie 's dead!" was the exclamation at a hundred firesides.
+
+"Eighteen year old," said old Widow Peake, rising from her chair.
+"Eighteen year ago I laid two gold eagles on her mother's eyes,--he
+wouldn't have anything but gold touch her eyelids,--and now Elsie's
+to be straightened,--the Lord have mercy on her poor sinful soul!"
+
+Dudley Venner prayed that night that he might be forgiven, if he had
+failed in any act of duty or kindness to this unfortunate child of
+his, now freed from all the woes born with her and so long poisoning
+her soul.  He thanked God for the brief interval of peace which had
+been granted her, for the sweet communion they had enjoyed in these
+last days, and for the hope of meeting her with that other lost
+friend in a better world.
+
+Helen mingled a few broken thanks and petitions with her tears:
+thanks that she had been permitted to share the last days and hours
+of this poor sister in sorrow; petitions that the grief of
+bereavement might be lightened to the lonely parent and the faithful
+old servant.
+
+Old Sophy said almost nothing, but sat day and night by her dead
+darling.  But sometimes her anguish would find an outlet in strange
+sounds, something between a cry and a musical note,--such as noise
+had ever heard her utter before.  These were old remembrances surging
+up from her childish days, coming through her mother from the
+cannibal chief, her grandfather,--death-wails, such as they sing in
+the mountains of Western Africa, when they see the fires on distant
+hill-sides and know that their own wives and children are undergoing
+the fate of captives.
+
+The time came when Elsie was to be laid by her mother in the small
+square marked by the white stone.
+
+It was not unwillingly that the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had
+relinquished the duty of conducting the service to the Reverend
+Doctor Honeywood, in accordance with Elsie's request.  He could not,
+by any reasoning, reconcile his present way of thinking with a hope
+for the future of his unfortunate parishioner.  Any good old Roman
+Catholic priest, born and bred to his faith and his business, would
+have found a loophole into some kind of heaven for her, by virtue of
+his doctrine of "invincible ignorance," or other special proviso; but
+a recent convert cannot enter into the working conditions of his new
+creed.  Beliefs must be lived in for a good while, before they
+accommodate themselves to the soul's wants, and wear loose enough to
+be comfortable.
+
+The Reverend Doctor had no such scruples.  Like thousands of those
+who are classed nominally with the despairing believers, he had never
+prayed over a departed brother or sister without feeling and
+expressing a guarded hope that there was mercy in store for the poor
+sinner, whom parents, wives, children, brothers and sisters could not
+bear to give up to utter ruin without a word,--and would not, as he
+knew full well, in virtue of that human love and sympathy which
+nothing can ever extinguish.  And in this poor Elsie's history he
+could read nothing which the tears of the recording angel might not
+wash away.  As the good physician of the place knew the diseases that
+assailed the bodies of men and women, so he had learned the mysteries
+of the sickness of the soul.
+
+So many wished to look upon Elsie's face once more, that her father
+would not deny them; nay, he was pleased that those who remembered
+her living should see her in the still beauty of death.  Helen and
+those with her arrayed her for this farewell-view.  All was ready for
+the sad or curious eyes which were to look upon her.  There 'was no
+painful change to be concealed by any artifice.  Even her round neck
+was left uncovered, that she might be more like one who slept.  Only
+the golden cord was left in its place: some searching eye might
+detect a trace of that birthmark which it was whispered she had
+always worn a necklace to conceal.
+
+At the last moment, when all the preparations were completed, Old
+Sophy stooped over her, and, with trembling hand, loosed the golden
+cord.  She looked intently; for some little space: there was no shade
+nor blemish where the ring of gold had encircled her throat.  She
+took it gently away and laid it in the casket which held her
+ornaments.
+
+"The Lord be praised!" the old woman cried, aloud.  "He has taken
+away the mark that was on her; she's fit to meet his holy angels
+now!"
+
+So Elsie lay for hours in the great room, in a kind of state, with
+flowers all about her,--her black hair braided as in life,--her brows
+smooth, as if they had never known the scowl of passion,--and on her
+lips the faint smile with which she had uttered her last "Good--
+night."  The young girls from the school looked at her, one after
+another, and passed on, sobbing, carrying in their hearts the picture
+that would be with them all their days.  The great people of the
+place were all there with their silent sympathy.  The lesser kind of
+gentry, and many of the plainer folk of the village, half-pleased to
+find themselves passing beneath the stately portico of the ancient
+mansion-house, crowded in, until the ample rooms were overflowing.
+All the friends whose acquaintance we have made were there, and many
+from remoter villages and towns.
+
+There was a deep silence at last.  The hour had come for the parting
+words to be spoken over the dead.  The good old minister's voice rose
+out of the stillness, subdued and tremulous at first, but growing
+firmer and clearer as he went on, until it reached the ears of the
+visitors who were in the far, desolate chambers, looking at the
+pictured hangings and the old dusty portraits.  He did not tell her
+story in his prayer.  He only spoke of our dear departed sister as
+one of many whom Providence in its wisdom has seen fit to bring under
+bondage from their cradles.  It was not for us to judge them by any
+standard of our own.  He who made the heart alone knew the
+infirmities it inherited or acquired.  For all that our dear sister
+had presented that was interesting and attractive in her character we
+were to be grateful; for whatever was dark or inexplicable we must
+trust that the deep shadow which rested on the twilight dawn of her
+being might render a reason before the bar of Omniscience; for the
+grace which had lightened her last days we should pour out our hearts
+in thankful acknowledgment.  From the life and the death of this our
+dear sister we should learn a lesson of patience with our fellow-
+creatures in their inborn peculiarities, of charity in judging what
+seem to us wilful faults of character, of hope and trust, that, by
+sickness or affliction, or such inevitable discipline as life must
+always bring with it, if by no gentler means, the soul which had been
+left by Nature to wander into the path of error and of suffering
+might be reclaimed and restored to its true aim, and so led on by
+divine grace to its eternal welfare.  He closed his prayer by
+commending each member of the afflicted family to the divine
+blessing.
+
+Then all at once rose the clear sound of the girls' voices, in the
+sweet, sad melody of a funeral hymn,--one of those which Elsie had
+marked, as if prophetically, among her own favorites.
+
+And so they laid her in the earth, and showered down flowers upon
+her, and filled her grave, and covered it with green sods.  By the
+side of it was another oblong ridge, with a white stone standing at
+its head.  Mr. Bernard looked upon it, as he came close to the place
+where Elsie was laid, and read the inscription,
+
+                         CATALINA
+
+                  WIFE TO DUDLEY VENNER
+
+                          DIED
+                    OCTOBER 13TH 1840
+
+                      AGED XX YEARS
+
+A gentle rain fell on the turf after it was laid.  This was the
+beginning of a long and dreary autumnal storm, a deferred
+"equinoctial," as many considered it.  The mountain streams were all
+swollen and turbulent, and the steep declivities were furrowed in
+every direction by new channels.  It made the house seem doubly
+desolate to hear the wind howling and the rain beating upon the
+roofs.  The poor relation who was staying at the house would insist
+on Helen's remaining a few days: Old Sophy was in such a condition,
+that it kept her in continual anxiety, and there were many cares
+which Helen could take off from her.
+
+The old black woman's life was buried in her darling's grave.  She
+did nothing but moan and lament for her.  At night she was restless,
+and would get up and wander to Elsie's apartment and look for her and
+call her by name.  At other times she would lie awake and listen to
+the wind and the rain,--sometimes with such a wild look upon her
+face, and with such sudden starts and exclamations, that it seemed as
+if she heard spirit-voices and were answering the whispers of unseen
+visitants.  With all this were mingled hints of her old
+superstition,--forebodings of something fearful about to happen,--
+perhaps the great final catastrophe of all things, according to the
+prediction current in the kitchens of Rockland.
+
+"Hark!" Old Sophy would say,--"don' you hear th' crackin' 'n' th'
+snappin' up in Th' Mountain, 'n' th' rollin' o' th' big stones?  The'
+'s somethin' stirrin' among th' rocks; I hear th' soun' of it in th'
+night, when th' wind has stopped blowin'.  Oh, stay by me a little
+while, Miss Darlin'!  stay by me!  for it's th' Las' Day, maybe,
+that's close on us, 'n' I feel as if I could n' meet th' Lord all
+alone!"
+
+It was curious,--but Helen did certainly recognize sounds, during the
+lull of the storm, which were not of falling rain or running
+streams,--short snapping sounds, as of tense cords breaking,--long
+uneven sounds, as of masses rolling down steep declivities.  But the
+morning came as usual; and as the others said nothing of these
+singular noises, Helen did not think it necessary to speak of them.
+All day long she and the humble relative of Elsie's mother, who had
+appeared as poor relations are wont to in the great prises of life,
+were busy in arranging the disordered house, and looking over the
+various objects which Elsie's singular tastes had brought together,
+to dispose of them as her father might direct.  They all met together
+at the usual hour for tea.  One of the servants came in, looking very
+blank, and said to the poor relation,
+
+"The well is gone dry; we have nothing but rainwater."
+
+Dudley Venner's countenance changed; he sprang to, his feet and went
+to--assure himself of the fact, and, if he could, of the reason of
+it.  For a well to dry up during such a rain-storm was
+extraordinary,--it was ominous.
+
+He came back, looking very anxious.
+
+"Did any of you notice any remarkable sounds last night," he said,--
+"or this morning?  Hark!  do you hear anything now?"
+
+They listened in perfect silence for a few moments.  Then there came
+a short cracking sound, and two or three snaps, as of parting cords.
+
+Dudley Venner called all his household together.
+
+"We are in danger here, as I think, to-night," he said,--"not very
+great danger, perhaps, but it is a risk I do not wish you to run.
+These heavy rains have loosed some of the rocks above, and they may
+come down and endanger the house.  Harness the horses, Elbridge, and
+take all the family away.  Miss Darley will go to the Institute; the
+others will pass the night at the Mountain House.  I shall stay here,
+myself: it is not at all likely that anything will come of these
+warnings; but if there should, I choose to be there and take my
+chance."
+
+It needs little, generally, to frighten servants, and they were all
+ready enough to go.  The poor relation was one of the timid sort, and
+was terribly uneasy to be got out of the house.  This left no
+alternative, of course, for Helen, but to go also.  They all urged
+upon Dudley Veneer to go with them: if there was danger, why should
+he remain to risk it, when he sent away the others?
+
+Old Sophy said nothing until the time came for her to go with the
+second of Elbridge's carriage-loads.
+
+"Come, Sophy," said Dudley Veneer, "get your things and go.  They
+will take good care of you at the Mountain House; and when we have
+made sure that there is no real danger, you shall come back at once."
+
+"No, Masse!"  Sophy answered.  "I've seen Elsie into th' ground, 'n'
+I a'n't goin' away to come back 'n' fin' Masse Veneer buried under
+th' rocks.  My darlin' 's gone; 'n' now, if Masse goes, 'n' th' of
+place goes, it's time for Ol' Sophy to go, too.  No, Masse Veneer,
+we'll both stay in th' of mansion 'n' wait for th' Lord!"
+
+Nothing could change the old woman's determination; and her master,
+who only feared, but did not really expect the long-deferred
+catastrophe, was obliged to consent to her staying.  The sudden
+drying of the well at such a time was the most alarming sign; for he
+remembered that the same thing had been observed just before great
+mountain-slides.  This long rain, too, was just the kind of cause
+which was likely to loosen the strata of rock piled up in the ledges;
+if the dreaded event should ever come to pass, it would be at such a
+time.
+
+He paced his chamber uneasily until long past midnight.  If the
+morning came without accident, he meant to have a careful examination
+made of all the rents and fissures above, of their direction and
+extent, and especially whether, in case of a mountain-slide, the huge
+masses would be like to reach so far to the east and so low down the
+declivity as the mansion.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning he was dozing in his chair.  Old Sophy
+had lain down on her bed, and was muttering in troubled dreams.
+
+All at once a loud crash seemed to rend the very heavens above them:
+a crack as of the thunder that follows close upon the bolt,--a
+rending and crashing as of a forest snapped through all its stems,
+torn, twisted, splintered, dragged with all its ragged boughs into
+one chaotic ruin.  The ground trembled under them as in an
+earthquake; the old mansion shuddered so that all its windows
+chattered in their casements; the great chimney shook off its heavy
+cap-stones, which came down on the roof with resounding concussions;
+and the echoes of The Mountain roared and bellowed in long
+reduplication, as if its whole foundations were rent, and this were
+the terrible voice of its dissolution.
+
+Dudley Venner rose from his chair, folded his arms, and awaited his
+fate.  There was no knowing where to look for safety; and he
+remembered too well the story of the family that was lost by rushing
+out of the house, and so hurrying into the very jaws of death.
+
+He had stood thus but for a moment, when he heard the voice of Old
+Sophy in a wild cry of terror:
+
+"It's th' Las' Day!  It's th' Las' Day!  The Lord is comin' to take
+us all!"
+
+"Sophy!"  he called; but she did not hear him or heed him, and rushed
+out of the house.
+
+The worst danger was over.  If they were to be destroyed, it would
+necessarily be in a few seconds from the first thrill of the terrible
+convulsion.  He waited in awful suspense, but calm.  Not more than
+one or two minutes could have passed before the frightful tumult and
+all its sounding echoes had ceased.  He called Old Sophy; but she did
+not answer.  He went to the western window and looked forth into the
+darkness.  He could not distinguish the outlines of the landscape,
+but the white stone was clearly visible, and by its side the new-made
+mound.  Nay, what was that which obscured its outline, in shape like
+a human figure?  He flung open the window and sprang through.  It was
+all that there was left of poor Old Sophy, stretched out lifeless,
+upon her darling's grave.
+
+He had scarcely composed her limbs and drawn the sheet over her, when
+the neighbors began to arrive from all directions.  Each was
+expecting to hear of houses overwhelmed and families destroyed; but
+each came with the story that his own household was safe.  It was not
+until the morning dawned that the true nature and extent of the
+sudden movement was ascertained.  A great seam had opened above the
+long cliff, and the terrible Rattlesnake Ledge, with all its
+envenomed reptiles, its dark fissures and black caverns, was buried
+forever beneath a mighty incumbent mass of ruin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+MR. SILAS PECKHAM RENDERS HIS ACCOUNT.
+
+The morning rose clear and bright.  The long storm was over, and the
+calm autumnal sunshine was now to return, with all its infinite
+repose and sweetness.  With the earliest dawn exploring parties were
+out in every direction along the southern slope of The Mountain,
+tracing the ravages of the great slide and the track it had followed.
+It proved to be not so much a slide as the breaking off and falling
+of a vast line of cliff, including the dreaded Ledge.  It had folded
+over like the leaves of a half-opened book when they close, crushing
+the trees below, piling its ruins in a glacis at the foot of what had
+been the overhanging wall of the cliff, and filling up that deep
+cavity above the mansion-house which bore the ill-omened name of Dead
+Man's Hollow.  This it was which had saved the Dudley mansion.  The
+falling masses, or huge fragments breaking off from them, would have
+swept the house and all around it to destruction but for this deep
+shelving dell, into which the stream of ruin was happily directed.
+It was, indeed, one of Nature's conservative revolutions; for the
+fallen masses made a kind oz shelf, which interposed a level break
+between the inclined planes above and below it, so that the
+nightmare-fancies of the dwellers in the Dudley mansion, and in many
+other residences under the shadow of The Mountain, need not keep them
+lying awake hereafter to listen for the snapping of roots and the
+splitting of the rocks above them.
+
+Twenty-four hours after the falling of the cliff, it seemed as if it
+had happened ages ago.  The new fact had fitted itself in with all
+the old predictions, forebodings, fears, and acquired the solidarity
+belonging to all events which have slipped out of the fingers of Time
+and dissolved in the antecedent eternity.
+
+Old Sophy was lying dead in the Dudley mansion.  If there were tears
+shed for her, they could not be bitter ones; for she had lived out
+her full measure of days, and gone--who could help fondly believing
+it?--to rejoin her beloved mistress.  They made a place for her at
+the foot of the two mounds.  It was thus she would have chosen to
+sleep, and not to have wronged her humble devotion in life by asking
+to lie at the side of those whom she had served so long and
+faithfully.  There were very few present at the simple ceremony.
+Helen Darley was one of these few.  The old black woman had been her
+companion in all the kind offices of which she had been the
+ministering angel to Elsie.
+
+After it was all over, Helen was leaving with the rest, when Dudley
+Veneer begged her to stay a little, and he would send her back: it
+was a long walk; besides, he wished to say some things to her, which
+he had not had the opportunity of speaking.  Of course Helen could
+not refuse him; there must be many thoughts coming into his mind
+which he would wish to share with her who had known his daughter so
+long and been with filer in her last days.
+
+She returned into the great parlor with the wrought cornices and the
+medallion-portraits on the ceiling.
+
+"I am now alone in the world," Dudley Veneer said.
+
+Helen must have known that before he spoke.  But the tone in which he
+said it had so much meaning, that she could not find a word to answer
+him with.  They sat in silence, which the old tall clock counted out
+in long seconds; but it was silence which meant more than any words
+they had ever spoken.
+
+"Alone in the world.  Helen, the freshness of my life is gone, and
+there is little left of the few graces which in my younger days might
+have fitted me to win the love of women.  Listen to me,--kindly, if
+you can; forgive me, at least.  Half my life has been passed in
+constant fear and anguish, without any near friend to share my
+trials.  My task is done now; my fears have ceased to prey upon me;
+the sharpness of early sorrows has yielded something of its edge to
+time.  You have bound me to you by gratitude in the tender care you
+have taken of my poor child.  More than this.  I must tell you all
+now, out of the depth of this trouble through which I am passing.  I
+have loved you from the moment we first met; and if my life has
+anything left worth accepting, it is yours.  Will you take the
+offered gift?"
+
+Helen looked in his face, surprised, bewildered.
+
+"This is not for me,--not for me," she said.  "I am but a poor faded
+flower, not worth the gathering, of such a one as you.  No, no,--I
+have been bred to humble toil all my days, and I could not be to you
+what you ought to ask.  I am accustomed to a kind of loneliness and
+self-dependence.  I have seen nothing, almost, of the world, such as
+you were born to move in.  Leave me to my obscure place and duties; I
+shall at least have peace;--and you--you will surely find in due time
+some one better fitted by Nature and training to make you happy."
+
+"No, Miss Darley!  "Dudley Venner said, almost sternly.  "You must
+not speak to a man, who has lived through my experiences, of looking
+about for a new choice after his heart has once chosen.  Say that you
+can never love me; say that I have lived too long to share your young
+life; say that sorrow has left nothing in me for Love to find his
+pleasure in; but do not mock me with the hope of a new affection for
+some unknown object.  The first look of yours brought me to your
+side.  The first tone of your voice sunk into my heart.  From this
+moment my life must wither out or bloom anew.  My home is desolate.
+Come under my roof and make it bright once more,--share my life with
+me,--or I shall give the halls of the old mansion to the bats and the
+owls, and wander forth alone without a hope or a friend!"
+
+To find herself with a man's future at the disposal of a single word
+of hers!---a man like this, too, with a fascination for her against
+which she had tried to shut her heart, feeling that he lived in
+another sphere than hers, working as she was for her bread a poor
+operative in the factory of a hard master and jealous overseer, the
+salaried drudge of Mr. Silas Peckham!  Why, she had thought he was
+grateful to her as a friend of his daughter; she had even pleased
+herself with the feeling that he liked her, in her humble place, as a
+woman of some cultivation and many sympathetic points of relation
+with himself; but that he loved her,--that this deep, fine nature, in
+a man so far removed from her in outward circumstance, should have
+found its counterpart in one whom life had treated so coldly as
+herself,--that Dudley Venner should stake his happiness on a breath
+of hers,--poor Helen Darley's,---it was all a surprise, a confusion,
+a kind of fear not wholly fearful.  Ah, me!  women know what it is,
+that mist over the eyes, that trembling in the limbs, that faltering
+of the voice, that sweet, shame-faced, unspoken confession of
+weakness which does not wish to be strong, that sudden overflow in
+the soul where thoughts loose their hold on each other and swim
+single and helpless in the flood of emotion,--women know what it is!
+
+No doubt she was a little frightened and a good deal bewildered, and
+that her sympathies were warmly excited for a friend to whom she had
+been brought so near, and whose loneliness she saw and pitied.  She
+lost that calm self-possession she had hoped to maintain.
+
+"If I thought that I could make you happy,--if I should speak from my
+heart, and not my reason,--I am but a weak woman,--yet if I can be to
+you--What can I say?"
+
+What more could this poor, dear Helen say?
+
+
+"Elbridge, harness the horses and take Miss Darley back to the
+school."
+
+What conversation had taken place since Helen's rhetorical failure is
+not recorded in the minutes from which this narrative is constructed.
+But when the man who had been summoned had gone to get the carriage
+ready, Helen resumed something she had been speaking of.
+
+"Not for the world.  Everything must go on just as it has gone on,
+for the present.  There are proprieties to be consulted.  I cannot be
+hard with you, that out of your very affliction has sprung this--this
+well--you must name it for me,--but the world will never listen to
+explanations.  I am to be Helen Darley, lady assistant in Mr. Silas
+Peckham's school, as long as I see fit to hold my office.  And I mean
+to attend to my scholars just as before; so that I shall have very
+little time for visiting or seeing company.  I believe, though, you
+are one of the Trustees and a Member of the Examining Committee; so
+that, if you should happen to visit the school, I shall try to be
+civil to you."
+
+Every lady sees, of course, that Helen was quite right; but perhaps
+here and there one will think that Dudley Venner was all wrong,--that
+he was too hasty,--that he should have been too full of his recent
+grief for such a confession as he has just made, and the passion from
+which it sprung.  Perhaps they do not understand the sudden recoil of
+a strong nature long compressed.  Perhaps they have not studied the
+mystery of allotropism in the emotions of the human heart.  Go to the
+nearest chemist and ask him to show you some of the dark-red
+phosphorus which will not burn without fierce heating, but at
+500 deg. Fahrenheit, changes back again to the inflammable substance
+we know so well.  Grief seems more like ashes than like fire; but as
+grief has been love once, so it may become love again.  This is
+emotional allotropism.
+
+Helen rode back to the Institute and inquired for Mr. Peckham. She
+had not seen him during the brief interval between her departure from
+the mansion-house and her return to Old Sophy's funeral.  There were
+various questions about the school she wished to ask.
+
+"Oh, how's your haalth, Miss Darley?" Silas began.  "We've missed you
+consid'able.  Glad to see you back at the post of dooty.  Hope the
+Squire treated you hahnsomely,--liberal pecooniary compensation,
+--hey?  A'n't much of a loser, I guess, by acceptin' his
+propositions?"
+
+Helen blushed at this last question, as if Silas had meant something
+by it beyond asking what money she had received; but his own
+double-meaning expression and her blush were too nice points for him
+to have taken cognizance of.  He was engaged in a mental calculation
+as to the amount of the deduction he should make under the head of
+"demage to the institootion,"--this depending somewhat on that of the
+"pecooniary compensation" she might have received for her services as
+the friend of Elsie Venner.
+
+So Helen slid back at once into her routine, the same faithful,
+patient creature she had always been.  But what was this new light
+which seemed to have kindled in her eyes?  What was this look of
+peace, which nothing could disturb, which smiled serenely through all
+the little meannesses with which the daily life of the educational
+factory surrounded her, which not only made her seem resigned, but
+overflowed all her features with a thoughtful, subdued happiness? Mr.
+Bernard did not know,--perhaps he did not guess.  The inmates of the
+Dudley mansion were not scandalized by any mysterious visits of a
+veiled or unveiled lady.  The vibrating tongues of the "female youth"
+of the Institute were not set in motion by the standing of an
+equipage at the gate, waiting for their lady-teacher.  The servants
+at the mansion did not convey numerous letters with superscriptions
+in a bold, manly hand, sealed with the arms of a well-known house,
+and directed to Miss Helen Darley; nor, on the other hand, did Hiram,
+the man from the lean streak in New Hampshire, carry sweet-smelling,
+rose-hued, many-layered, criss-crossed, fine-stitch-lettered packages
+of note-paper directed to Dudley Venner, Esq., and all too scanty to
+hold that incredible expansion of the famous three words which a
+woman was born to say,--that perpetual miracle which astonishes all
+the go-betweens who wear their shoes out in carrying a woman's
+infinite variations on the theme
+
+"I love you."
+
+But the reader must remember that there are walks in country-towns
+where people are liable to meet by accident, and that the hollow of
+an old tree has served the purpose of a post-office sometimes; so
+that he has her choice (to divide the pronouns impartially) of
+various hypotheses to account for the new glory of happiness which
+seemed to have irradiated our poor Helen's features, as if her dreary
+life were awakening in the dawn of a blessed future.
+
+With all the alleviations which have been hinted at, Mr. Dudley
+Venner thought that the days and the weeks had never moved so slowly
+as through the last period of the autumn that was passing.  Elsie had
+been a perpetual source of anxiety to him, but still she had been a
+companion.  He could not mourn for her; for he felt that she was
+safer with her mother, in that world where there are no more sorrows
+and dangers, than she could have been with him.  But as he sat at his
+window and looked at the three mounds, the loneliness of the great
+house made it seem more like the sepulchre than these narrow
+dwellings where his beloved and her daughter lay close to each other,
+side by side,--Catalina, the bride of his youth, and Elsie, the child
+whom he had nurtured, with poor Old Sophy, who had followed them like
+a black shadow, at their feet, under the same soft turf, sprinkled
+with the brown autumnal leaves.  It was not good for him to be thus
+alone.  How should he ever live through the long months of November
+and December?
+
+The months of November and December did, in some way or other, get
+rid of themselves at last, bringing with them the usual events of
+village-life and a few unusual ones.  Some of the geologists had been
+up to look at the great slide, of which they gave those prolix
+accounts which everybody remembers who read the scientific journals
+of the time.  The engineers reported that there was little
+probability of any further convulsion along the line of rocks which
+overhung the more thickly settled part of the town.  The naturalists
+drew up a paper on the "Probable Extinction of the Crotalus Durissus
+in the Township of Rockland."  The engagement of the Widow Rowens to
+a Little Millionville merchant was announced,--"Sudding 'n'
+onexpected," Widow Leech said,--"waalthy, or she wouldn't ha' looked
+at him,--fifty year old, if he is a day, 'n' hu'n't got a white hair
+in his head."  The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had publicly
+announced that he was going to join the Roman Catholic communion,--
+not so much to the surprise or consternation of the religious world
+as he had supposed.  Several old ladies forthwith proclaimed their
+intention of following him; but, as one or two of them were deaf, and
+another had been threatened with an attack of that mild, but
+obstinate complaint, dementia senilis, many thought it was not so
+much the force of his arguments as a kind of tendency to jump as the
+bellwether jumps, well known in flocks not included in the Christian
+fold.  His bereaved congregation immediately began pulling candidates
+on and off, like new boots, on trial.  Some pinched in tender places;
+some were too loose; some were too square-toed; some were too coarse,
+and did n't please; some were too thin, and would n't last;--in
+short, they could n't possibly find a fit.  At last, people began to
+drop in to hear old Doctor Honeywood.  They were quite surprised to
+find what a human old gentleman he was, and went back and told the
+others, that, instead of being a case of confluent sectarianism, as
+they supposed, the good old minister had been so well vaccinated with
+charitable virus that he was now a true, open-souled Christian of the
+mildest type.  The end of all which was, that the liberal people went
+over to the old minister almost in a body, just at the time that
+Deacon Shearer and the "Vinegar-Bible" party split off, and that not
+long afterwards they sold their own meeting-house to the
+malecontents, so that Deacon Soper used often to remind Colonel
+Sprowle of his wish that "our little man and him [the Reverend Doctor
+would swop pulpits," and tell him it had "pooty nigh come trew."---
+But this is anticipating the course of events, which were much longer
+in coming about; for we have but just got through that terrible long
+month, as Mr. Dudley Venner found it, of December.
+
+On the first of January, Mr. Silas Peckham was in the habit of
+settling his quarterly accounts, and making such new arrangements as
+his convenience or interest dictated.  New Year was a holiday at the
+Institute.  No doubt this accounted for Helen's being dressed so
+charmingly,--always, to be sure in, her own simple way, but yet with
+such a true lady's air, that she looked fit to be the mistress of any
+mansion in the land.
+
+She was in the parlor alone, a little before noon, when Mr. Peckham
+came in.
+
+"I'm ready to settle my accaount with you now, Miss Darley," said
+Silas.
+
+"As you please, Mr. Peckham," Helen answered, very graciously.
+
+"Before payin' you your selary," the Principal continued, "I wish to
+come to an understandin' as to the futur'.  I consider that I've been
+payin' high, very high, for the work you do.  Women's wages can't be
+expected to do more than feed and clothe 'em, as a gineral thing,
+with a little savin', in case of sickness, and to bury 'em, if they
+break daown, as all of 'em are liable to do at any time.  If I a'n't
+misinformed, you not only support yourself out of my establishment,
+but likewise relatives of yours, who I don't know that I'm called
+upon to feed and clothe.  There is a young woman, not burdened with
+destitute relatives, has signified that she would be glad to take
+your dooties for less pecooniary compensation, by a consid'able
+amaount, than you now receive.  I shall be willin', however, to
+retain your services at sech redooced rate as we shall fix upon,--
+provided sech redooced rate be as low or lower than the same services
+can be obtained elsewhere."
+
+"As you please, Mr. Peckham," Helen answered, with a smile so sweet
+that the Principal (who of course had trumped up this opposition-
+teacher for the occasion) said to himself she would stand being cut
+down a quarter, perhaps a half, of her salary.
+
+"Here is your accaount, Miss Darley, and the balance doo you," said
+Silas Peckham, handing her a paper and a small roll of infectious-
+flavored bills wrapping six poisonous coppers of the old coinage.
+
+She took the paper and began looking at it.  She could not quite make
+up her mind to touch the feverish bills with the cankering coppers in
+them, and left them airing themselves on the table.
+
+The document she held ran as follows:
+
+Silas Peckham, Esq., Principal of the Apollinean Institute,
+In Account with Helen Darley, Assist.  Teacher.
+
+          Dr.                                Cr.
+
+To salary for quarter              By Deduction for absence
+ending Jan 1st @ $75 per             1 week 3 days ...........$10.00
+quarter ................ $75.00
+                                   " Board, lodging, etc for
+                                     10 days @ 75 cts per day.. 7.50
+
+                                   " Damage to Institution by
+                                     absence of teacher from
+                                     duties, say ............. 25.00
+
+                                   " Stationary furnished ....    43
+
+                                   " Postage-stamp ...........    01
+
+                                   " Balance due Helen Darley. 32.06
+                          ------                              ------
+                          $75.00                              $75.00
+
+ROCKLAND, Jan. 1st, 1859.
+
+
+Now Helen had her own private reasons for wishing to receive the
+small sum which was due her at this time without any unfair
+deduction,--reasons which we need not inquire into too particularly,
+as we may be very sure that they were right and womanly.  So, when
+she looked over this account of Mr. Silas Peckham's, and saw that he
+had contrived to pare down her salary to something less than half its
+stipulated amount, the look which her countenance wore was as near to
+that of righteous indignation as her gentle features and soft blue
+eyes would admit of its being.
+
+"Why, Mr. Peckham," she said, "do you mean this?  If I am of so much
+value to you that you must take off twenty-five dollars for ten days'
+absence, how is it that my salary is to be cut down to less than
+seventy-five dollars a quarter, if I remain here?"
+
+"I gave you fair notice," said Silas.  "I have a minute of it I took
+down immed'ately after the intervoo."
+
+He lugged out his large pocket-book with the strap going all round
+it, and took from it a slip of paper which confirmed his statement.
+
+"Besides," he added, slyly, "I presoom you have received a liberal
+pecooniary compensation from Squire Venner for nussin' his daughter."
+
+Helen was looking over the bill while he was speaking.
+
+"Board and lodging for ten days, Mr. Peckham,--whose board and
+lodging, pray?"
+
+The door opened before Silas Peckham could answer, and Mr. Bernard
+walked into the parlor.  Helen was holding the bill in her hand,
+looking as any woman ought to look who has been at once wronged and
+insulted.
+
+"The last turn of the thumbscrew!" said Mr. Bernard to himself.
+
+"What is it, Helen?  You look troubled."
+
+She handed him the account.
+
+He looked at the footing of it.  Then he looked at the items.  Then
+he looked at Silas Peckham.
+
+At this moment Silas was sublime.  He was so transcendently
+unconscious of the emotions going on in Mr. Bernard's mind at the
+moment, that he had only a single thought.
+
+"The accaount's correc'ly cast, I presoom;--if the' 's any mistake of
+figgers or addin' 'em up, it'll be made all right.  Everything's
+accordin' to agreement.  The minute written immed'ately after the
+intervoo is here in my possession."
+
+Mr. Bernard looked at Helen.  Just what would have happened to Silas
+Peckham, as he stood then and there, but for the interposition of a
+merciful Providence, nobody knows or ever will know; for at that
+moment steps were heard upon the stairs, and Hiram threw open the
+parlor-door for Mr. Dudley Venner to enter.
+
+He saluted them all gracefully with the good-wishes of the season,
+and each of them returned his compliment,--Helen blushing fearfully,
+of course, but not particularly noticed in her embarrassment by more
+than one.
+
+Silas Peckham reckoned with perfect confidence on his Trustees, who
+had always said what he told them to, and done what he wanted.  It
+was a good chance now to show off his power, and, by letting his
+instructors know the unstable tenure of their offices, make it easier
+to settle his accounts and arrange his salaries.  There was nothing
+very strange in Mr. Venner's calling; he was one of the Trustees, and
+this was New Year's Day.  But he had called just at the lucky moment
+for Mr. Peckham's object.
+
+"I have thought some of makin' changes in the department of
+instruction," he began.  "Several accomplished teachers have applied
+to me, who would be glad of sitooations.  I understand that there
+never have been so many fust-rate teachers, male and female, out of
+employment as doorin' the present season.  If I can make
+sahtisfahctory arrangements with my present corpse of teachers, I
+shall be glad to do so; otherwise I shell, with the permission of the
+Trustees, make sech noo arrangements as circumstahnces compel."
+
+"You may make arrangements for a new assistant in my department, Mr.
+Peckham," said Mr. Bernard, "at once,--this day,--this hour.  I am
+not safe to be trusted with your person five minutes out of this
+lady's presence,--of whom I beg pardon for this strong language.  Mr.
+Venner, I must beg you, as one of the Trustees of this Institution,
+to look at the manner in which its Principal has attempted to swindle
+this faithful teacher whose toils and sacrifices and self-devotion to
+the school have made it all that it is, in spite of this miserable
+trader's incompetence.  Will you look at the paper I hold?"
+
+Dudley Venner took the account and read it through, without changing
+a feature.  Then he turned to Silas Peckham.
+
+"You may make arrangements for anew assistant in the branches this
+lady has taught.  Miss Helen Darley is to be my wife.  I had hoped to
+have announced this news in a less abrupt and ungraceful manner.  But
+I came to tell you with my own lips what you would have learned
+before evening from my friends in the village."
+
+Mr. Bernard went to Helen, who stood silent, with downcast eyes, and
+took her hand warmly, hoping she might find all the happiness she
+deserved.  Then he turned to Dudley Venner, and said,
+"She is a queen, but has never found it out.  The world has nothing
+nobler than this dear woman, whom you have discovered in the disguise
+of a teacher.  God bless her and you!"
+
+Dudley Venner returned his friendly grasp, without answering a word
+in articulate speech.
+
+Silas remained dumb and aghast for a brief space.  Coming to himself
+a little, he thought there might have been some mistake about the
+items,--would like to have Miss barley's bill returned,--would make
+it all right,--had no idee that Squire Venner had a special int'rest
+in Miss barley,--was sorry he had given offence,--if he might take
+that bill and look it over--
+
+"No.  Mr. Peckham, " said Mr. Dudley Venner, "there will be a full
+meeting of the Board next week, and the bill, and such evidence with
+reference to the management of the Institution and the treatment of
+its instructors as Mr. Langdon sees fit to bring forward will be laid
+before them."
+
+Miss Helen Darley became that very day the guest of Miss Arabella
+Thornton, the Judge's daughter.  Mr. Bernard made his appearance a
+week or two later at the Lectures, where the Professor first
+introduced him to the reader.
+
+He stayed after the class had left the room.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Langdon! how do you do?  Very glad to see you back again.
+How have you been since our correspondence on Fascination and other
+curious scientific questions?"
+
+It was the Professor who spoke,--whom the reader will recognize as
+myself, the teller of this story.
+
+"I have been well," Mr. Bernard answered, with a serious look which
+invited a further question.
+
+"I hope you have had none of those painful or dangerous experiences
+you seemed to be thinking of when you wrote; at any rate, you have
+escaped having your obituary written."
+
+"I have seen some things worth remembering.  Shall I call on you this
+evening and tell you about them?"
+
+"I shall be most happy to see you."
+
+This was the way in which I, the Professor, became acquainted with
+some of the leading events of this story.  They interested me
+sufficiently to lead me to avail myself of all those other
+extraordinary methods of obtaining information well known to writers
+of narrative.
+
+Mr. Langdon seemed to me to have gained in seriousness and strength
+of character by his late experiences.  He threw his whole energies
+into his studies with an effect which distanced all his previous
+efforts.  Remembering my former hint, he employed his spare hours in
+writing for the annual prizes, both of which he took by a unanimous
+vote of the judges.  Those who heard him read his Thesis at the
+Medical Commencement will not soon forget the impression made by his
+fine personal appearance and manners, nor the universal interest
+excited in the audience, as he read, with his beautiful enunciation,
+that striking paper entitled "Unresolved Nebulae in Vital Science."
+It was a general remark of the Faculty,--and old Doctor Kittredge,
+who had come down on purpose to hear Mr. Langdon, heartily agreed to
+it,--that there had never been a diploma filled up, since the
+institution which conferred upon him the degree of Doctor Medicdnce
+was founded, which carried with it more of promise to the profession
+than that which bore the name of
+
+                    BERNARDUS CARYL LANGDON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+Mr. Bernard Langdon had no sooner taken his degree, than, in
+accordance with the advice of one of his teachers whom he frequently
+consulted, he took an office in the heart of the city where he had
+studied.  He had thought of beginning in a suburb or some remoter
+district of the city proper.
+
+"No," said his teacher,--to wit, myself,--"don't do any such thing.
+You are made for the best kind of practice; don't hamper yourself
+with an outside constituency, such as belongs to a practitioner of
+the second class.  When a fellow like you chooses his beat, he must
+look ahead a little.  Take care of all the poor that apply to you,
+but leave the half-pay classes to a different style of doctor,--the
+people who spend one half their time in taking care of their
+patients, and the other half in squeezing out their money.  Go for
+the swell-fronts and south-exposure houses; the folks inside are just
+as good as other people, and the pleasantest, on the whole, to take
+care of.  They must have somebody, and they like a gentleman best.
+Don't throw yourself away.  You have a good presence and pleasing
+manners.  You wear white linen by inherited instinct.  You can
+pronounce the word view.  You have all the elements of success; go
+and take it.  Be polite and generous, but don't undervalue yourself.
+You will be useful, at any rate; you may just as well be happy, while
+you are about it.  The highest social class furnishes incomparably
+the best patients, taking them by and large.  Besides, when they
+won't get well and bore you to death, you can send 'em off to travel.
+Mind me now, and take the tops of your sparrowgrass.  Somebody must
+have ' em,--why shouldn't you?  If you don't take your chance, you'll
+get the butt-ends as a matter of course."
+
+Mr. Bernard talked like a young man full of noble sentiments.  He
+wanted to be useful to his fellow-beings.  Their social differences
+were nothing to him.  He would never court the rich,--he would go
+where he was called.  He would rather save the life of a poor mother
+of a family than that of half a dozen old gouty millionnaires whose
+heirs had been yawning and stretching these ten years to get rid of
+them.
+
+"Generous emotions!  "I exclaimed.  "Cherish 'em; cling to 'em till
+you are fifty, till you are seventy, till you are ninety!  But do as
+I tell you,--strike for the best circle of practice, and you 'll be
+sure to get it!"
+
+Mr. Langdon did as I told him,--took a genteel office, furnished it
+neatly, dressed with a certain elegance, soon made a pleasant circle
+of acquaintances, and began to work his way into the right kind of
+business.  I missed him, however, for some days, not long after he
+had opened his office.  On his return, he told me he had been up at
+Rockland, by special invitation, to attend the wedding of Mr. Dudley
+Venner and Miss Helen Darley.  He gave me a full account of the
+ceremony, which I regret that I cannot relate in full.  "Helen looked
+like an angel,"--that, I am sure, was one of his expressions.  As for
+her dress, I should like to give the details, but am afraid of
+committing blunders, as men always do, when they undertake to
+describe such matters.  White dress, anyhow,--that I am sure of,--
+with orange-flowers, and the most wonderful lace veil that was ever
+seen or heard of.  The Reverend Doctor Honeywood performed the
+ceremony, of course.  The good people seemed to have forgotten they
+ever had had any other minister, except Deacon Shearer and his set of
+malcontents, who were doing a dull business in the meeting-house
+lately occupied by the Reverend Mr. Fairweather.
+
+"Who was at the wedding?"
+
+"Everybody, pretty much.  They wanted to keep it quiet, but it was of
+no use.  Married at church.  Front pews, old Dr. Kittredge and all
+the mansionhouse people and distinguished strangers,--Colonel Sprowle
+and family, including Matilda's young gentleman, a graduate of one of
+the fresh-water colleges,--Mrs. Pickins (late Widow Rowens) and
+husband,--Deacon Soper and numerous parishioners.  A little nearer
+the door, Abel, the Doctor's man, and Elbridge, who drove them to
+church in the family-coach.  Father Fairweather, as they all call him
+now, came in late with Father McShane."
+
+"And Silas Peckham?"
+
+"Oh, Silas had left The School and Rockland.  Cut up altogether too
+badly in the examination instituted by the Trustees.  Had removed
+over to Tamarack, and thought of renting a large house and "'farming'
+the town-poor."
+
+
+Some time after this, as I was walking with a young friend along by
+the swell-fronts and south-exposures, whom should I see but Mr.
+Bernard Langdon, looking remarkably happy, and keeping step by the
+side of a very handsome and singularly well-dressed young lady?  He
+bowed and lifted his hat as we passed.
+
+"Who is that pretty girl my young doctor has got there?" I said to my
+companion.
+
+"Who is that?"  he answered.  "You don't know?  Why, that is neither
+more nor less than Miss Letitia Forrester, daughter of--of--why, the
+great banking firm, you know, Bilyuns Brothers & Forrester.  Got
+acquainted with her in the country, they say.  There 's a story that
+they're engaged, or like to be, if the firm consents."
+
+"Oh" I said.
+
+I did not like the look of it in the least.  Too young,--too young.
+Has not taken any position yet.  No right to ask for the hand of
+Bilyuns Brothers & Co.'s daughter.  Besides, it will spoil him for
+practice, if he marries a rich girl before he has formed habits of
+work.
+
+I looked in at his office the other day.  A box of white kids was
+lying open on the table.  A three-cornered note, directed in a very
+delicate lady's-hand, was distinguishable among a heap of papers.  I
+was just going to call him to account for his proceedings, when he
+pushed the three-cornered note aside and took up a letter with a
+great corporation-seal upon it.  He had received the offer of a
+professor's chair in an ancient and distinguished institution.
+
+"Pretty well for three-and-twenty, my boy," I said.  "I suppose
+you'll think you must be married one of these days, if you accept
+this office."
+
+Mr. Langdon blushed. --There had been stories about him, he knew.
+His name had been mentioned in connection with that of a very
+charming young lady.  The current reports were not true.  He had met
+this young lady, and been much pleased with her, in the country, at
+the house of her grandfather, the Reverend Doctor Honeywood,--you
+remember Miss Letitia Forrester, whom I have mentioned repeatedly?
+On coming to town, he found his country-acquaintance in a social
+position which seemed to discourage his continued intimacy.  He had
+discovered, however; that he was a not unwelcome visitor, and had
+kept up friendly relations with her.  But there was no truth in the
+current reports,--none at all.'
+
+Some months had passed, after this visit, when I happened one evening
+to stroll into a box in one of the principal theatres of the city.  A
+small party sat on the seats before me: a middle-aged gentleman and
+his lady, in front, and directly behind them my young doctor and the
+same very handsome young lady I had seen him walking with on the
+sidewalk before the swell-fronts and south-exposures.  As Professor
+Langdon seemed to be very much taken up with his companion, and both
+of them looked as if they were enjoying themselves, I determined not
+to make my presence known to my young friend, and to withdraw quietly
+after feasting my eyes with the sight of them for a few minutes.
+
+"It looks as if something might come of it," I said to myself.  At
+that moment the young lady lifted her arm accidentally in such a way
+that the light fell upon the clasp of a chain which encircled her
+wrist.  My eyes filled with tears as I read upon the clasp, in sharp-
+cut Italic letters, E. Y.  They were tears at once of sad remembrance
+and of joyous anticipation; for the ornament on which I looked was
+the double pledge of a dead sorrow and a living affection.  It was
+the golden bracelet,--the parting-gift of Elsie Venner.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext Elsie Venner, by Oliver Wendell Holmes
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Elsie Venner, by O. W. Holmes, Sr.
+#5 in our series by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet)
+
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+Title: Elsie Venner
+
+Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet)
+(Not the Jurist O. W. Holmes, Jr.)
+
+Release Date: July, 2001 [Etext #2696]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Elsie Venner, by Oliver W. Holmes
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+This etext was produced by David Widger  <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE VENNER
+
+By Oliver Wendell Holmes
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+This tale was published in successive parts in the "Atlantic
+Monthly," under the name of "The Professor's Story," the first number
+having appeared in the third week of December, 1859.  The critic who
+is curious in coincidences must refer to the Magazine for the date of
+publication of the chapter he is examining.
+
+In calling this narrative a "romance," the Author wishes to make sure
+of being indulged in the common privileges of the poetic license.
+Through all the disguise of fiction a grave scientific doctrine may
+be detected lying beneath some of the delineations of character.  He
+has used this doctrine as a part of the machinery of his story
+without pledging his absolute belief in it to the extent to which it
+is asserted or implied.  It was adopted as a convenient medium of
+truth rather than as an accepted scientific conclusion.  The reader
+must judge for himself what is the value of various stories cited
+from old authors.  He must decide how much of what has been told he
+can accept either as having actually happened, or as possible and
+more or less probable.  The Author must be permitted, however, to say
+here, in his personal character, and as responsible to the students
+of the human mind and body, that since this story has been in
+progress he has received the most startling confirmation of the
+possibility of the existence of a character like that which he had
+drawn as a purely imaginary conception in Elsie Venner.
+
+BOSTON, January, 1861.
+
+
+
+
+A SECOND PREFACE.
+
+This is the story which a dear old lady, my very good friend, spoke
+of as "a medicated novel," and quite properly refused to read.  I was
+always pleased with her discriminating criticism.  It is a medicated
+novel, and if she wished to read for mere amusement and helpful
+recreation there was no need of troubling herself with a story
+written with a different end in view.
+
+This story has called forth so many curious inquiries that it seems
+worth while to answer the more important questions which have
+occurred to its readers.
+
+In the first place, it is not based on any well-ascertained
+physiological fact.  There are old fables about patients who have
+barked like dogs or crowed like cocks, after being bitten or wounded
+by those animals.  There is nothing impossible in the idea that
+Romulus and Remus may have imbibed wolfish traits of character from
+the wet nurse the legend assigned them, but the legend is not sound
+history, and the supposition is nothing more than a speculative
+fancy.  Still, there is a limbo of curious evidence bearing on the
+subject of pre-natal influences sufficient to form the starting-point
+of an imaginative composition.
+
+The real aim, of the story was to test the doctrine of "original sin"
+and human responsibility for the disordered volition coming under
+that technical denomination.  Was Elsie Venner, poisoned by the venom
+of a crotalus before she was born, morally responsible for the
+"volitional" aberrations, which translated into acts become what is
+known as sin, and, it may be, what is punished as crime?  If, on
+presentation of the evidence, she becomes by the verdict of the human
+conscience a proper object of divine pity and not of divine wrath, as
+a subject of moral poisoning, wherein lies the difference between her
+position at the bar of judgment, human or divine, and that of the
+unfortunate victim who received a moral poison from a remote ancestor
+before he drew his first breath?
+
+It might be supposed that the character of Elsie Veneer was suggested
+by some of the fabulous personages of classical or mediaeval story.
+I remember that a French critic spoke of her as cette pauvre
+Melusine.  I ought to have been ashamed, perhaps, but I had, not the
+slightest idea who Melusina was until I hunted up the story, and
+found that she was a fairy, who for some offence was changed every
+Saturday to a serpent from her waist downward.  I was of course
+familiar with Keats's Lamia, another imaginary being, the subject of
+magical transformation into a serpent.  My story was well advanced
+before Hawthorne's wonderful "Marble Faun," which might be thought to
+have furnished me with the hint of a mixed nature,--human, with an
+alien element,--was published or known to me.  So that my poor
+heroine found her origin, not in fable or romance, but in a
+physiological conception fertilized by a theological dogma.
+
+I had the dissatisfaction of enjoying from a quiet corner a well-
+meant effort to dramatize "Elsie Veneer."  Unfortunately, a
+physiological romance, as I knew beforehand, is hardly adapted for
+the melodramatic efforts of stage representation.  I can therefore
+say, with perfect truth, that I was not disappointed.  It is to the
+mind, and not to the senses, that such a story must appeal, and all
+attempts to render the character and events objective on the stage,
+or to make them real by artistic illustrations, are almost of
+necessity failures.  The story has won the attention and enjoyed the
+favor of a limited class of readers, and if it still continues to
+interest others of the same tastes and habits of thought I can ask
+nothing more of it.
+
+January 23, 1883.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.
+
+I have nothing of importance to add to the two preceding Prefaces.
+The continued call for this story, which was not written for
+popularity, but with a very serious purpose, has somewhat surprised
+and, I need not add, gratified me.  I can only restate the motive
+idea of the tale in a little different language.  Believing, as I do,
+that our prevailing theologies are founded upon an utterly false view
+of the relation of man to his Creator, I attempted to illustrate the
+doctrine of inherited moral responsibility for other people's
+misbehavior.  I tried to make out a case for my poor Elsie, whom the
+most hardened theologian would find it hard to blame for her
+inherited ophidian tastes and tendencies.  How, then, is he to blame
+mankind for inheriting "sinfulness" from their first parents?  May
+not the serpent have bitten Eve before the birth of Cain, her first-
+born?  That would have made an excuse for Cain's children, as Elsie's
+ante-natal misfortune made an excuse for her.  But what difference
+does it make in the child's responsibility whether his inherited
+tendencies come from a snake-bite or some other source which he knew
+nothing about and could not have prevented from acting?  All this is
+plain enough, and the only use of the story is to bring the dogma of
+inherited guilt and its consequences into a clearer point of view.
+
+But, after all, the tale must have proved readable as a story to
+account for the large number of editions which it has reached.
+
+Some readers have been curious about the locality the writer was
+thought to have in view.  No particular place was intended.  Some of
+the characters may have been thought to have been drawn from life;
+but the personages mentioned are mostly composites, like Mr. Galton's
+compound photographic likenesses, and are not calculated to provoke
+scandal or suits for libel.
+
+O.  W.  H.
+
+BEVERLY FARMS, MASS., August 3, 1891.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE VENNER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BRAHMIN CASTE OF NEW ENGLAND.
+
+There is nothing in New England corresponding at all to the feudal
+aristocracies of the Old World.  Whether it be owing to the stock
+from which we were derived, or to the practical working of our
+institutions, or to the abrogation of the technical "law of honor,"
+which draws a sharp line between the personally responsible class of
+"gentlemen" and the unnamed multitude of those who are not expected
+to risk their lives for an abstraction,--whatever be the cause, we
+have no such aristocracy here as that which grew up out of the
+military systems of the Middle Ages.
+
+What we mean by "aristocracy" is merely the richer part of the
+community, that live in the tallest houses, drive real carriages,
+(not "kerridges,") kidglove their hands, and French-bonnet their
+ladies' heads, give parties where the persons who call them by the
+above title are not invited, and have a provokingly easy way of
+dressing, walking, talking, and nodding to people, as if they felt
+entirely at home, and would not be embarrassed in the least, if they
+met the Governor, or even the President of the United States, face to
+face.  Some of these great folks are really well-bred, some of them
+are only purse-proud and assuming,--but they form a class, and are
+named as above in the common speech.
+
+It is in the nature of large fortunes to diminish rapidly, when
+subdivided and distributed.  A million is the unit of wealth, now and
+here in America.  It splits into four handsome properties; each of
+these into four good inheritances; these, again, into scanty
+competences for four ancient maidens,--with whom it is best the
+family should die out, unless it can begin again as its great-
+grandfather did.  Now a million is a kind of golden cheese, which
+represents in a compendious form the summer's growth of a fat meadow
+of craft or commerce; and as this kind of meadow rarely bears more
+than one crop, it is pretty certain that sons and grandsons will not
+get another golden cheese out of it, whether they milk the same cows
+or turn in new ones.  In other words, the millionocracy, considered
+in a large way, is not at all an affair of persons and families, but
+a perpetual fact of money with a variable human element, which a
+philosopher might leave out of consideration without falling into
+serious error.  Of course, this trivial and, fugitive fact of
+personal wealth does not create a permanent class, unless some
+special means are taken to arrest the process of disintegration in
+the third generation.  This is so rarely done, at least successfully,
+that one need not live a very long life to see most of the rich
+families he knew in childhood more or less reduced, and the millions
+shifted into the hands of the country-boys who were sweeping stores
+and carrying parcels when the now decayed gentry were driving their
+chariots, eating their venison over silver chafing-dishes, drinking
+Madeira chilled in embossed coolers, wearing their hair in powder,
+and casing their legs in long boots with silken tassels.
+
+There is, however, in New England, an aristocracy, if you choose to
+call it so, which has a far greater character of permanence.  It has
+grown to be a caste,--not in any odious sense;--but, by the
+repetition of the same influences, generation after generation, it
+has acquired a distinct organization and physiognomy, which not to
+recognize is mere stupidity, and not to be willing to describe would
+show a distrust of the good-nature and intelligence of our readers,
+who like to have us see all we can and tell all we see.
+
+If you will look carefully at any class of students in one of our
+colleges, you will have no difficulty in selecting specimens of two
+different aspects of youthful manhood.  Of course I shall choose
+extreme cases to illustrate the contrast between them.  In the first,
+the figure is perhaps robust, but often otherwise,--inelegant, partly
+from careless attitudes, partly from ill-dressing,--the face is
+uncouth in feature, or at least common,--the mouth coarse and
+unformed,--the eye unsympathetic, even if bright,--the movements of
+the face are clumsy, like those of the limbs,--the voice is
+unmusical,--and the enunciation as if the words were coarse castings,
+instead of fine carvings.  The youth of the other aspect is commonly
+slender, his face is smooth, and apt to be pallid,--his features are
+regular and of a certain delicacy,--his eye is bright and quick,--his
+lips play over the thought he utters as a pianist's fingers dance
+over their music, and his whole air, though it may be timid, and even
+awkward, has nothing clownish.  If you are a teacher, you know what
+to expect from each of these young men.  With equal willingness, the
+first will be slow at learning; the second will take to his books as
+a pointer or a setter to his field-work.
+
+The first youth is the common country-boy, whose race has been bred
+to bodily labor.  Nature has adapted the family organization to the
+kind of life it has lived.  The hands and feet by constant use have
+got more than their share of development,--the organs of thought and
+expression less than their share.  The finer instincts are latent and
+must be developed.  A youth of this kind is raw material in its first
+stage of elaboration.  You must not expect too much of any such.
+Many of them have force of will and character, and become
+distinguished in practical life; but very few of them ever become
+great scholars.  A scholar is, in a large proportion of cases, the
+son of scholars or scholarly persons.
+
+That is exactly what the other young man is.  He comes of the Brahmin
+caste of New England.  This is the harmless, inoffensive, untitled
+aristocracy referred to, and which many readers will at once
+acknowledge.  There are races of scholars among us, in which aptitude
+for learning, and all these marks of it I have spoken of, are
+congenital and hereditary.  Their names are always on some college
+catalogue or other.  They break out every generation or two in some
+learned labor which calls them up after they seem to have died out.
+At last some newer name takes their place, it maybe,--but you inquire
+a little and you find it is the blood of the Edwardses or the
+Chauncys or the Ellerys or some of the old historic scholars,
+disguised under the altered name of a female descendant.
+
+There probably is not an experienced instructor anywhere in our
+Northern States who will not recognize at once the truth of this
+general distinction.  But the reader who has never been a teacher
+will very probably object, that some of our most illustrious public
+men have come direct from the homespun-clad class of the people,--and
+he may, perhaps, even find a noted scholar or two whose parents were
+masters of the English alphabet, but of no other.
+
+It is not fair to pit a few chosen families against the great
+multitude of those who are continually working their way up into the
+intellectual classes.  The results which are habitually reached by
+hereditary training are occasionally brought about without it.  There
+are natural filters as well as artificial ones; and though the great
+rivers are commonly more or less turbid, if you will look long
+enough, you may find a spring that sparkles as no water does which
+drips through your apparatus of sands and sponges.  So there are
+families which refine themselves into intellectual aptitude without
+having had much opportunity for intellectual acquirements.  A series
+of felicitous crosses develops an improved strain of blood, and
+reaches its maximum perfection at last in the large uncombed youth
+who goes to college and startles the hereditary class-leaders by
+striding past them all.  That is Nature's republicanism; thank God
+for it, but do not let it make you illogical.  The race of the
+hereditary scholar has exchanged a certain portion of its animal
+vigor for its new instincts, and it is hard to lead men without a
+good deal of animal vigor.  The scholar who comes by Nature's special
+grace from an unworn stock of broad-chested sires and deep-bosomed
+mothers must always overmatch an equal intelligence with a
+compromised and lowered vitality.  A man's breathing and digestive
+apparatus (one is tempted to add muscular) are just as important to
+him on the floor of the Senate as his thinking organs.  You broke
+down in your great speech, did you?  Yes, your grandfather had an
+attack of dyspepsia in '82, after working too hard on his famous
+Election Sermon.  All this does not touch the main fact: our scholars
+come chiefly from a privileged order, just as our best fruits come
+from well-known grafts, though now and then a seedling apple, like
+the Northern Spy, or a seedling pear, like the Seckel, springs from a
+nameless ancestry and grows to be the pride of all the gardens in the
+land.
+
+Let me introduce you to a young man who belongs to the Brahmin caste
+of New England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE STUDENT AND HIS CERTIFICATE.
+
+Bernard C. Langdon, a young man attending Medical Lectures at the
+school connected with one of our principal colleges, remained after
+the Lecture one day and wished to speak with the Professor.  He was a
+student of mark,--first favorite of his year, as they say of the
+Derby colts.  There are in every class half a dozen bright faces to
+which the teacher naturally, directs his discourse, and by the
+intermediation of whose attention he seems to hold that of the mass
+of listeners.  Among these some one is pretty sure to take the lead,
+by virtue of a personal magnetism, or some peculiarity of expression,
+which places the face in quick sympathetic relations with the
+lecturer.  This was a young man with such a face; and I found,--for
+you have guessed that I was the "Professor" above-mentioned,--that,
+when there was anything difficult to be explained, or when I was
+bringing out some favorite illustration of a nice point, (as, for
+instance; when I compared the cell-growth, by which Nature builds up
+a plant or an animal, to the glassblower's similar mode of
+beginning,--always with a hollow sphere, or vesicle, whatever he is
+going to make,) I naturally looked in his face and gauged my success
+by its expression.
+
+It was a handsome face,--a little too pale, perhaps, and would have
+borne something more of fulness without becoming heavy.  I put the
+organization to which it belongs in Section B of Class 1 of my Anglo-
+American Anthropology (unpublished).  The jaw in this section is but
+slightly narrowed,--just enough to make the width of the forehead
+tell more decidedly.  The moustache often grows vigorously, but the
+whiskers are thin.  The skin is like that of Jacob, rather than like
+Esau's.  One string of the animal nature has been taken away, but
+this gives only a greater predominance to the intellectual chords.
+To see just how the vital energy has been toned down, you must
+contrast one of this section with a specimen of Section A of the same
+class,--say, for instance, one of the old-fashioned, full-whiskered,
+red-faced, roaring, big Commodores of the last generation, whom you
+remember, at least by their portraits, in ruffled shirts, looking as
+hearty as butchers and as plucky as bull-terriers, with their hair
+combed straight up from their foreheads, which were not commonly very
+high or broad.  The special form of physical life I have been
+describing gives you a right to expect more delicate perceptions and
+a more reflective, nature than you commonly find in shaggy-throated
+men, clad in heavy suits of muscles.
+
+The student lingered in the lecture-room, looking all the time as if
+he wanted to say something in private, and waiting for two or three
+others, who were still hanging about, to be gone.
+
+Something is wrong!---I said to myself, when I noticed his
+expression.--Well, Mr.  Langdon,--I said to him, when we were
+alone,--can I do anything for you to-day?
+
+You can, Sir,--he said.---I am going to leave the class, for the
+present, and keep school.
+
+Why, that 's a pity, and you so near graduating!  You'd better stay
+and finish this course and take your degree in the spring, rather
+than break up your whole plan of study.
+
+I can't help myself, Sir,--the young man answered.---There 's trouble
+at home, and they cannot keep me here as they have done.  So I must
+look out for myself for a while.  It's what I've done before, and am
+ready to do again.  I came to ask you for a certificate of my fitness
+to teach a common school, or a high school, if you think I am up to
+that.  Are you willing to give it to me?
+
+Willing?  Yes, to be sure,--but I don't want you to go.  Stay; we'll
+make it easy for you.  There's a fund will do something for you,
+perhaps.  Then you can take both the annual prizes, if you like,--and
+claim them in money, if you want that more than medals.
+
+I have thought it all over,--he answered,--and have pretty much made
+up my mind to go.
+
+A perfectly gentlemanly young man, of courteous address and mild
+utterance, but means at least as much as he says.  There are some
+people whose rhetoric consists of a slight habitual under-statement.
+I often tell Mrs. Professor that one of her "I think it's sos" is
+worth the Bible-oath of all the rest of the household that they "know
+it's so."  When you find a person a little better than his word, a
+little more liberal than his promise, a little more than borne out in
+his statement by his facts, a little larger in deed than in speech,
+you recognize a kind of eloquence in that person's utterance not laid
+down in Blair or Campbell.
+
+This was a proud fellow, self-trusting, sensitive, with family-
+recollections that made him unwilling to accept the kind of aid which
+many students would have thankfully welcomed.  I knew him too well to
+urge him, after the few words which implied that he was determined to
+go.  Besides, I have great confidence in young men who believe in
+themselves, and are accustomed to rely on their own resources from an
+early period.  When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great
+bully, the World, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often
+surprised to find it come off in his hand, and that it was only tied
+on to scare away timid adventurers.  I have seen young men more than
+once, who came to a great city without a single friend, support
+themselves and pay for their education, lay up money in a few years,
+grow rich enough to travel, and establish themselves in life, without
+ever asking a dollar of any person which they had not earned.  But
+these are exceptional cases.  There are horse-tamers, born so,--as we
+all know; there are woman-tamers, who bewitch the sex as the pied
+piper bedeviled the children of Hamelin; and there are world-tamers,
+who can make any community, even a Yankee one, get down and let them
+jump on its back as easily as Mr. Rarey saddled Cruiser.
+
+Whether Langdon was of this sort or not I could not say positively;
+but he had spirit, and, as I have said, a family-pride which would
+not let him be dependent.  The New England Brahmin caste often gets
+blended with connections of political influence or commercial
+distinction.  It is a charming thing for the scholar, when his
+fortune carries him in this way into some of the "old families" who
+have fine old houses, and city-lots that have risen in the market,
+and names written in all the stock-books of all the dividend-paying
+companies.  His narrow study expands into a stately library, his
+books are counted by thousands instead of hundreds, and his favorites
+are dressed in gilded calf in place of plebeian sheepskin or its
+pauper substitutes of cloth and paper.
+
+The Reverend Jedediah Langdon, grandfather of our young gentleman,
+had made an advantageous alliance of this kind.  Miss Dorothea
+Wentworth had read one of his sermons which had been printed "by
+request," and became deeply interested in the young author, whom she
+had never seen.  Out of this circumstance grew a correspondence, an
+interview, a declaration, a matrimonial alliance, and a family of
+half a dozen children.  Wentworth Langdon, Esquire, was the oldest of
+these, and lived in the old family-mansion.  Unfortunately, that
+principle of the diminution of estates by division, to which I have
+referred, rendered it somewhat difficult to maintain the
+establishment upon the fractional income which the proprietor
+received from his share of the property.  Wentworth Langdon, Esq.,
+represented a certain intermediate condition of life not at all
+infrequent in our old families.  He was the connecting link between
+the generation which lived in ease, and even a kind of state, upon
+its own resources, and the new brood, which must live mainly by its
+wits or industry, and make itself rich, or shabbily subside into that
+lower stratum known to social geologists by a deposit of
+Kidderminster carpets and the peculiar aspect of the fossils
+constituting the family furniture and wardrobe.  This slack-water
+period of a race, which comes before the rapid ebb of its prosperity,
+is familiar to all who live in cities.  There are no more quiet,
+inoffensive people than these children of rich families, just above
+the necessity of active employment, yet not in a condition to place
+their own children advantageously, if they happen to have families.
+Many of them are content to live unmarried.  Some mend their broken
+fortunes by prudent alliances, and some leave a numerous progeny to
+pass into the obscurity from which their ancestors emerged; so that
+you may see on handcarts and cobblers' stalls names which, a few
+generations back, were upon parchments with broad seals, and
+tombstones with armorial bearings.
+
+In a large city, this class of citizens is familiar to us in the
+streets.  They are very courteous in their salutations; they have
+time enough to bow and take their hats off,--which, of course, no
+businessman can afford to do.  Their beavers are smoothly brushed,
+and their boots well polished; all their appointments are tidy; they
+look the respectable walking gentleman to perfection.  They are prone
+to habits,--they frequent reading-rooms,--insurance-offices,--they
+walk the same streets at the same hours,--so that one becomes
+familiar with their faces and persons, as a part of the street-
+furniture.
+
+There is one curious circumstance, that all city-people must have
+noticed, which is often illustrated in our experience of the slack-
+water gentry.  We shall know a certain person by his looks,
+familiarly, for years, but never have learned his name.  About this
+person we shall have accumulated no little circumstantial knowledge;
+--thus, his face, figure, gait, his mode of dressing, of saluting,
+perhaps even of speaking, may be familiar to us; yet who he is we
+know not.  In another department of our consciousness, there is a
+very familiar name, which we have never found the person to match.
+We have heard it so often, that it has idealized itself, and become
+one of that multitude of permanent shapes which walk the chambers of
+the brain in velvet slippers in the company of Falstaff and Hamlet
+and General Washington and Mr. Pickwick.  Sometimes the person dies,
+but the name lives on indefinitely.  But now and then it happens,
+perhaps after years of this independent existence of the name and its
+shadowy image in the brain, on the one part, and the person and all
+its real attributes, as we see them daily, on the other, that some
+accident reveals their relation, and we find the name we have carried
+so long in our memory belongs to the person we have known so long as
+a fellow-citizen.  Now the slack--water gentry are among the persons
+most likely to be the subjects of this curious divorce of title and
+reality,--for the reason, that, playing no important part in the
+community, there is nothing to tie the floating name to the actual
+individual, as is the case with the men who belong in any way to the
+public, while yet their names have a certain historical currency, and
+we cannot help meeting them, either in their haunts, or going to and
+from them.
+
+To this class belonged Wentworth Langdon, Esq.  He had been "dead-
+headed" into the world some fifty years ago, and had sat with his
+hands in his pockets staring at the show ever since.  I shall not
+tell you, for reasons before hinted, the whole name of the place in
+which he lived.  I will only point you in the right direction, by
+saying that there are three towns lying in a line with each other, as
+you go "down East," each of them with a Port in its name, and each of
+them having a peculiar interest which gives it individuality, in
+addition to the Oriental character they have in common.  I need not
+tell you that these towns are Newburyport, Portsmouth, and Portland.
+The Oriental character they have in common consists in their large,
+square, palatial mansions, with sunny gardens round them.  The two
+first have seen better days.  They are in perfect harmony with the
+condition of weakened, but not impoverished, gentility.  Each of them
+is a "paradise of demi-fortunes."  Each of them is of that
+intermediate size between a village and a city which any place has
+outgrown when the presence of a well-dressed stranger walking up and
+down the main street ceases to be a matter of public curiosity and
+private speculation, as frequently happens, during the busier months
+of the year, in considerable commercial centres like Salem.  They
+both have grand old recollections to fall back upon,--times when they
+looked forward to commercial greatness, and when the portly gentlemen
+in cocked hats, who built their now decaying wharves and sent out
+their ships all over the world, dreamed that their fast-growing port
+was to be the Tyre or the Carthage of the rich British Colony.  Great
+houses, like that once lived in by Lord Timothy Dexter, in
+Newburyport, remain as evidence of the fortunes amassed in these
+places of old.  Other mansions--like the Rockingham House in
+Portsmouth (look at the white horse's tail before you mount the broad
+staircase)--show that there was not only wealth, but style and state,
+in these quiet old towns during the last century.  It is not with any
+thought of pity or depreciation that we speak of them as in a certain
+sense decayed towns; they did not fulfil their early promise of
+expansion, but they remain incomparably the most interesting places
+of their size in any of the three northernmost New England States.
+They have even now prosperity enough to keep them in good condition,
+and offer the most attractive residences for quiet families, which,
+if they had been English, would have lived in a palazzo at Genoa or
+Pisa, or some other Continental Newburyport or Portsmouth.
+
+As for the last of the three Ports, or Portland, it is getting too
+prosperous to be as attractive as its less northerly neighbors.
+Meant for a fine old town, to ripen like a Cheshire cheese within its
+walls of ancient rind, burrowed by crooked alleys and mottled with
+venerable mould, it seems likely to sacrifice its mellow future to a
+vulgar material prosperity.  Still it remains invested with many of
+its old charms, as yet, and will forfeit its place among this
+admirable trio only when it gets a hotel with unequivocal marks of
+having been built and organized in the present century.
+
+--It was one of the old square palaces of the North, in which Bernard
+Langdon, the son of Wentworth, was born.  If he had had the luck to
+be an only child, he might have lived as his father had done, letting
+his meagre competence smoulder on almost without consuming, like the
+fuel in an air-tight stove.  But after Master Bernard came Miss
+Dorothea Elizabeth Wentworth Langdon, and then Master William
+Pepperell Langdon, and others, equally well named,--a string of them,
+looking, when they stood in a row in prayer-time, as if they would
+fit a set of Pandean pipes, of from three feet upward in dimensions.
+The door of the air-tight stove has to be opened, under such
+circumstances, you may well suppose!  So it happened that our young
+man had been obliged, from an early period, to do something to
+support himself, and found himself stopped short in his studies by
+the inability of the good people at home to furnish him the present
+means of support as a student.
+
+You will understand now why the young man wanted me to give him a
+certificate of his fitness to teach, and why I did not choose to urge
+him to accept the aid which a meek country-boy from a family without
+ante-Revolutionary recollections would have thankfully received.  Go
+he must,--that was plain enough.  He would not be content otherwise.
+He was not, however, to give up his studies; and as it is customary
+to allow half-time to students engaged in school-keeping,--that is,
+to count a year, so employed, if the student also keep on with his
+professional studies, as equal to six months of the three years he is
+expected to be under an instructor before applying for his degree,--
+he would not necessarily lose more than a few months of time.  He had
+a small library of professional books, which he could take with him.
+
+So he left my teaching and that of my estimable colleagues, carrying
+with him my certificate, that Mr. Bernard C. Langdon was a young
+gentleman of excellent moral character, of high intelligence and good
+education, and that his services would be of great value in any
+school, academy, or other institution, where young persons of-either
+sex were to be instructed.
+
+I confess, that expression, "either sex," ran a little thick, as I
+may say, from my pen.  For, although the young man bore a very fair
+character, and there was no special cause for doubting his
+discretion, I considered him altogether too good-looking, in the
+first place, to be let loose in a roomful of young girls.  I didn't
+want him to fall in love just then--and if half a dozen girls fell in
+love with him, as they most assuredly would, if brought into too near
+relations with him, why, there was no telling what gratitude and
+natural sensibility might bring about.
+
+Certificates are, for the most part, like ostrich-eggs; the giver
+never knows what is hatched out of them.  But once in a thousand
+times they act as curses are said to,--come home to roost.  Give them
+often enough, until it gets to be a mechanical business, and, some
+day or other, you will get caught warranting somebody's ice not to
+melt in any climate, or somebody's razors to be safe in the hands of
+the youngest children.
+
+I had an uneasy feeling, after giving this certificate.  It might be
+all right enough; but if it happened to end badly, I should always
+reproach myself.  There was a chance, certainly, that it would lead
+him or others into danger or wretchedness.  Any one who looked at
+this young man could not fail to see that he was capable of
+fascinating and being fascinated.  Those large, dark eyes of his
+would sink into the white soul of a young girl as the black cloth
+sunk into the snow in Franklin's famous experiment.  Or, on the other
+hand, if the rays of a passionate nature should ever be concentrated
+on them, they would be absorbed into the very depths of his nature,
+and then his blood would turn to flame and burn his life out of him,
+until his cheeks grew as white as the ashes that cover a burning
+coal.
+
+I wish I had not said either sex in my certificate.  An academy for
+young gentlemen, now; that sounds cool and unimaginative.  A boys'
+school, that would be a very good place for him;--some of them are
+pretty rough, but there is nerve enough in that old Wentworth strain
+of blood; he can give any country fellow, of the common stock, twenty
+pounds, and hit him out of time in ten minutes.  But to send such a
+young fellow as that out a girl's-nesting! to give this falcon a free
+pass into all the dove-cotes!  I was a fool,--that's all.
+
+I brooded over the mischief which might come out of these two words
+until it seemed to me that they were charged with destiny.  I could
+hardly sleep for thinking what a train I might have been laying,
+which might take a spark any day, and blow up nobody knows whose
+peace or prospects.  What I dreaded most was one of those miserable
+matrimonial misalliances where a young fellow who does not know
+himself as yet flings his magnificent future into the checked apron-
+lap of some fresh-faced, half-bred country-girl, no more fit to be
+mated with him than her father's horse to go in double harness with
+Flora Temple.  To think of the eagle's wings, being clipped so that
+he shall never lift himself over the farm-yard fence!  Such things
+happen, and always must,--because, as one of us said awhile ago, a
+man always loves, a woman, and a woman a man, unless some good reason
+exists to the contrary.  You think yourself a very fastidious young
+man, my friend; but there are probably at least five-thousand young
+women in these United States, any one of whom you would certainly
+marry, if you were thrown much into her company, and nobody more
+attractive were near, and she had no objection.  And you, my dear
+young lady, justly pride yourself on your discerning delicacy; but if
+I should say that there are twenty thousand young men, any one of
+whom, if he offered his hand and heart under favorable circumstances,
+you would
+
+          "First endure, then pity, then embrace,"
+
+I should be much more imprudent than I mean to be, and you would, no
+doubt, throw down a story in which I hope to interest you.
+
+I had settled it in my mind that this young fellow had a career
+marked out for him.  He should begin in the natural way, by taking
+care of poor patients in one of the public charities, and work his
+way up to a better kind of practice,--better, that is, in the vulgar,
+worldly sense.  The great and good Boerhaave used to say, as I
+remember very well, that the poor were his best patients; for God was
+their paymaster.  But everybody is not as patient as Boerhaave, nor
+as deserving; so that the rich, though not, perhaps, the best
+patients, are good enough for common practitioners.  I suppose
+Boerhaave put up with them when he could not get poor ones, as he
+left his daughter two millions of florins when he died.
+
+Now if this young man once got into the wide streets, he would sweep
+them clear of his rivals of the same standing; and as I was getting
+indifferent to business, and old Dr. Kilham was growing careless, and
+had once or twice prescribed morphine when he meant quinine, there
+would soon be an opening into the Doctor's Paradise,--the streets
+with only one side to them.  Then I would have him strike a bold
+stroke,--set up a nice little coach, and be driven round like a
+first-class London doctor, instead of coasting about in a shabby one-
+horse concern and casting anchor opposite his patients' doors like a
+Cape Ann fishing-smack.  By the time he was thirty, he would have
+knocked the social pawns out of his way, and be ready to challenge a
+wife from the row of great pieces in the background.  I would not
+have a man marry above his level, so as to become the appendage of a
+powerful family-connection; but I would not have him marry until he
+knew his level,--that is, again, looking at the matter in a purely
+worldly point of view, and not taking the sentiments at all into
+consideration.  But remember, that a young man, using large
+endowments wisely and fortunately, may put himself on a level with
+the highest in the land in ten brilliant years of spirited,
+unflagging labor.  And to stand at the very top of your calling in a
+great city is something in itself,--that is, if you like money, and
+influence, and a seat on the platform at public lectures, and
+gratuitous tickets to all sorts of places where you don't want to go,
+and, what is a good deal better than any of these things, a sense of
+power, limited, it may be, but absolute in its range, so that all the
+Caesars and Napoleons would have to stand aside, if they came between
+you and the exercise of your special vocation.
+
+That is what I thought this young fellow might have come to; and now
+I have let him go off into the country with my certificate, that he
+is fit to teach in a school for either sex!  Ten to one he will run
+like a moth into a candle, right into one of those girls'-nests, and
+get tangled up in some sentimental folly or other, and there will be
+the end of him.  Oh, yes!  country doctor,--half a dollar a visit,--
+drive, drive, drive all day,--get up at night and harness your own
+horse,--drive again ten miles in a snow-storm, shake powders out of
+two phials, (pulv.  glycyrrhiz., pulv.  gum.  acac.  as partes
+equates,)--drive back again, if you don't happen to get stuck in a
+drift, no home, no peace, no continuous meals, no unbroken sleep, no
+Sunday, no holiday, no social intercourse, but one eternal jog, jog,
+jog, in a sulky, until you feel like the mummy of an Indian who had
+been buried in the sitting posture, and was dug up a hundred years
+afterwards!  Why did n't I warn him about love and all that nonsense?
+Why didn't I tell him he had nothing to do with it, yet awhile?  Why
+did n't I hold up to him those awful examples I could have cited,
+where poor young fellows who could just keep themselves afloat have
+hung a matrimonial millstone round their necks, taking it for a life-
+preserver?  All this of two words in a certificate!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MR. BERNARD TRIES HIS HAND.
+
+Whether the Student advertised for a school, or whether he fell in
+with the advertisement of a school-committee, is not certain.  At any
+rate, it was not long before he found himself the head of a large
+district, or, as it was called by the inhabitants, "deestric"
+school, in the flourishing inland village of Pequawkett, or, as it is
+commonly spelt, Pigwacket Centre.  The natives of this place would be
+surprised, if they should hear that any of the readers of a work
+published in Boston were unacquainted with so remarkable a locality.
+As, however, some copies of it may be read at a distance from this
+distinguished metropolis, it may be well to give a few particulars
+respecting the place, taken from the Universal Gazetteer.
+
+"PIGWACKET, sometimes spelt Pequawkett.  A post-village and township
+in _________ Co., State of _________,situated in a fine agricultural
+region, 2 thriving villages, Pigwacket Centre and Smithville, 3
+churches, several school houses, and many handsome private
+residences.  Mink River runs through the town, navigable for small
+boats after heavy rains.  Muddy Pond at N. E.  section, well stocked
+with horn pouts, eels, and shiners.  Products, beef, pork, butter,
+cheese.  Manufactures, shoe-pegs, clothes-pins, and tin-ware.  Pop.
+1373."
+
+The reader may think there is nothing very remarkable implied in this
+description.  If, however he had read the town-history, by the Rev.
+Jabez Grubb, he would have learned, that, like the celebrated Little
+Pedlington, it was distinguished by many very remarkable advantages.
+Thus:
+
+"The situation of Pigwacket is eminently beautiful, looking down the
+lovely valley of Mink River, a tributary of the Musquash.  The air is
+salubrious, and many of the inhabitants have attained great age,
+several having passed the allotted period of 'three-score years and
+ten' before succumbing to any of the various 'ills that flesh is heir
+to.' Widow Comfort Leevins died in 1836 AEt.  LXXXVII.  years.
+Venus, an African, died in 1841, supposed to be C. years old.  The
+people are distinguished for intelligence, as has been frequently
+remarked by eminent lyceum-lecturers, who have invariably spoken in
+the highest terms of a Pigwacket audience.  There is a public
+library, containing nearly a hundred volumes, free to all
+subscribers.  The preached word is well attended, there is a
+flourishing temperance society, and the schools are excellent.  It is
+a residence admirably adapted to refined families who relish the
+beauties of Nature and the charms of society.  The Honorable John
+Smith, formerly a member of the State Senate, was a native of this
+town."
+
+That is the way they all talk.  After all, it is probably pretty much
+like other inland New England towns in point of "salubrity,"--that
+is, gives people their choice of dysentery or fever every autumn,
+with a season-ticket for consumption, good all the year round.  And
+so of the other pretences.  "Pigwacket audience," forsooth!  Was
+there ever an audience anywhere, though there wasn't a pair of eyes
+in it brighter than pickled oysters, that did n't think it was
+"distinguished for intelligence"?--"The preached word"!  That means
+the Rev. Jabez Grubb's sermons.  "Temperance society"!  "Excellent
+schools"!  Ah, that is just what we were talking about.
+
+The truth was, that District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre, had had a good
+deal of trouble of late with its schoolmasters.  The committee had
+done their best, but there were a number of well-grown and pretty
+rough young fellows who had got the upper-hand of the masters, and
+meant to keep it.  Two dynasties had fallen before the uprising of
+this fierce democracy.  This was a thing that used to be not very
+uncommon; but in so "intelligent" a community as that of Pigwacket
+Centre, in an era of public libraries and lyceum-lectures, it was
+portentous and alarming.
+
+The rebellion began under the ferule of Master Weeks, a slender youth
+from a country college, underfed, thin-blooded, sloping-shouldered,
+knock-kneed, straight-haired, weak-bearded, pale-eyed, wide-pupilled,
+half-colored; a common type enough in in-door races, not rich enough
+to pick and choose in their alliances.  Nature kills off a good many
+of this sort in the first teething-time, a few in later childhood, a
+good many again in early adolescence; but every now and then one runs
+the gauntlet of her various diseases, or rather forms of one disease,
+and grows up, as Master Weeks had done.
+
+It was a very foolish thing for him to try to inflict personal
+punishment on such a lusty young fellow as Abner Briggs, Junior, one
+of the "hardest customers" in the way of a rough-and-tumble fight
+that there were anywhere round.  No doubt he had been insolent, but
+it would have been better to overlook it.  It pains me to report the
+events which took place when the master made his rash attempt to
+maintain his authority.  Abner Briggs, Junior, was a great, hulking
+fellow, who had been bred to butchering, but urged by his parents to
+attend school, in order to learn the elegant accomplishments of
+reading and writing, in which he was sadly deficient.  He was in the
+habit of talking and laughing pretty loud in school-hours, of
+throwing wads of paper reduced to a pulp by a natural and easy
+process, of occasional insolence and general negligence.  One of the
+soft, but unpleasant missiles just alluded to flew by the master's
+head one morning, and flattened itself against the wall, where it
+adhered in the form of a convex mass in alto rilievo.  The master
+looked round and saw the young butcher's arm in an attitude which
+pointed to it unequivocally as the source from which the projectile
+had taken its flight.
+
+Master Weeks turned pale.  He must "lick" Abner Briggs, Junior, or
+abdicate.  So he determined to lick Abner Briggs, Junior.
+
+"Come here, Sir!" he said; "you have insulted me and outraged the
+decency of the schoolroom often enough!  Hold out your hand!"
+
+The young fellow grinned and held it out.  The master struck at it
+with his black ruler, with a will in the blow and a snapping of the
+eyes, as much as to say that he meant to make him smart this time.
+The young fellow pulled his hand back as the ruler came down, and the
+master hit himself a vicious blow with it on the right knee.  There
+are things no man can stand.  The master caught the refractory youth
+by the collar and began shaking him, or rather shaking himself
+against him.
+
+"Le' go o' that are coat, naow," said the fellow, "or I 'll make ye!
+'T 'll take tew on yet' handle me, I tell ye, 'n' then ye caant dew
+it!"--and the young pupil returned the master's attention by catching
+hold of his collar.
+
+When it comes to that, the best man, not exactly in the moral sense,
+but rather in the material, and more especially the muscular point of
+view, is very apt to have the best of it, irrespectively of the
+merits of the case.  So it happened now.  The unfortunate
+schoolmaster found himself taking the measure of the sanded floor,
+amidst the general uproar of the school.  From that moment his ferule
+was broken, and the school-committee very soon had a vacancy to fill.
+
+Master Pigeon, the successor of Master Weeks, was of better stature,
+but loosely put together, and slender-limbed.  A dreadfully nervous
+kind of man he was, walked on tiptoe, started at sudden noises, was
+distressed when he heard a whisper, had a quick, suspicious look, and
+was always saying, "Hush?" and putting his hands to his ears.  The
+boys were not long in finding out this nervous weakness, of course.
+In less than a week a regular system of torments was inaugurated,
+full of the most diabolical malice and ingenuity.  The exercises of
+the conspirators varied from day to day, but consisted mainly of
+foot-scraping, solos on the slate-pencil, (making it screech on the
+slate,) falling of heavy books, attacks of coughing, banging of desk-
+lids, boot-creaking, with sounds as of drawing a cork from time to
+time, followed by suppressed chuckles.
+
+Master Pigeon grew worse and worse under these inflictions.  The
+rascally boys always had an excuse for any one trick they were caught
+at.  "Could n' help coughin', Sir."  "Slipped out o' m' han', Sir."
+"Did n' go to, Sir."  "Did n' dew't o' purpose, Sir."  And so on,--
+always the best of reasons for the most outrageous of behavior.  The
+master weighed himself at the grocer's on a platform balance, some
+ten days after he began keeping the school.  At the end of a week he
+weighed himself again.  He had lost two pounds.  At the end of
+another week he had lost five.  He made a little calculation, based
+on these data, from which he learned that in a certain number of
+months, going on at this rate, he should come to weigh precisely
+nothing at all; and as this was a sum in subtraction he did not care
+to work out in practice, Master Pigeon took to himself wings and left
+the school-committee in possession of a letter of resignation and a
+vacant place to fill once more.
+
+This was the school to which Mr. Bernard Langdon found himself
+appointed as master.  He accepted the place conditionally, with the
+understanding that he should leave it at the end of a month, if he
+were tired of it.
+
+The advent of Master Langdon to Pigwacket Centre created a much more
+lively sensation than had attended that of either of his
+predecessors.  Looks go a good way all the world over, and though
+there were several good-looking people in the place, and Major Bush
+was what the natives of the town called a "hahnsome mahn," that is,
+big, fat, and red, yet the sight of a really elegant young fellow,
+with the natural air which grows up with carefully-bred young
+persons, was a novelty.  The Brahmin blood which came from his
+grandfather as well as from his mother, a direct descendant of the
+old Flynt family, well known by the famous tutor, Henry Flynt, (see
+Cat.  Harv.  Anno 1693,) had been enlivened and enriched by that of
+the Wentworths, which had had a good deal of ripe old Madeira and
+other generous elements mingled with it, so that it ran to gout
+sometimes in the old folks and to high spirit, warm complexion, and
+curly hair in some of the younger ones.  The soft curling hair Mr.
+Bernard had inherited,--something, perhaps, of the high spirit; but
+that we shall have a chance of finding out by and by.  But the long
+sermons and the frugal board of his Brahmin ancestry, with his own
+habits of study, had told upon his color, which was subdued to
+something more of delicacy than one would care to see in a young
+fellow with rough work before him.  This, however, made him look more
+interesting, or, as the young ladies at Major Bush's said,
+"interestin'."
+
+When Mr. Bernard showed himself at meeting, on the first Sunday after
+his arrival, it may be supposed that a good many eyes were turned
+upon the young schoolmaster.  There was something heroic in his
+coming forward so readily to take a place which called for a strong
+hand, and a prompt, steady will to guide it.  In fact, his position
+was that of a military chieftain on the eve of a battle.  Everybody
+knew everything in Pigwacket Centre; and it was an understood thing
+that the young rebels meant to put down the new master, if they
+could.  It was natural that the two prettiest girls in the village,
+called in the local dialect, as nearly as our limited alphabet will
+represent it, Alminy Cutterr, and Arvilly Braowne, should feel and
+express an interest in the good-looking stranger, and that, when
+their flattering comments were repeated in the hearing of their
+indigenous admirers, among whom were some of the older "boys" of the
+school, it should not add to the amiable dispositions of the
+turbulent youth.
+
+Monday came, and the new schoolmaster was in his chair at the upper
+end of the schoolhouse, on the raised platform.  The rustics looked
+at his handsome face, thoughtful, peaceful, pleasant, cheerful, but
+sharply cut round the lips and proudly lighted about the eyes.  The
+ringleader of the mischief-makers, the young butcher who has before
+figured in this narrative, looked at him stealthily, whenever he got
+a chance to study him unobserved; for the truth was, he felt
+uncomfortable, whenever he found the large, dark eyes fixed on his
+own little, sharp, deep-set, gray ones.  But he managed to study him
+pretty well,--first his face, then his neck and shoulders, the set of
+his arms, the narrowing at the loins, the make of his legs, and the
+way he moved.  In short, he examined him as he would have examined a
+steer, to see what he could do and how he would cut up.  If he could
+only have gone to him and felt of his muscles, he would have been
+entirely satisfied.  He was not a very wise youth, but he did know
+well enough, that, though big arms and legs are very good things,
+there is something besides size that goes to make a man; and he had
+heard stories of a fighting-man, called "The Spider," from his
+attenuated proportions, who was yet a terrible hitter in the ring,
+and had whipped many a big-limbed fellow, in and out of the roped
+arena.
+
+Nothing could be smoother than the way in which everything went on
+for the first day or two.  The new master was so kind and courteous,
+he seemed to take everything in such a natural, easy way, that there
+was no chance to pick a quarrel with him.  He in the mean time
+thought it best to watch the boys and young men for a day or two with
+as little show of authority as possible.  It was easy enough to see
+that he would have occasion for it before long.
+
+The schoolhouse was a grim, old, red, one-story building, perched on
+a bare rock at the top of a hill,--partly because this was a
+conspicuous site for the temple of learning, and partly because land
+is cheap where there is no chance even for rye or buckwheat, and the
+very sheep find nothing to nibble.  About the little porch were
+carved initials and dates, at various heights, from the stature of
+nine to that of eighteen.  Inside were old unpainted desks,--
+unpainted, but browned with the umber of human contact,--and hacked
+by innumerable jack-knives.  It was long since the walls had been
+whitewashed, as might be conjectured by the various traces left upon
+them, wherever idle hands or sleepy heads could reach them.  A
+curious appearance was noticeable on various higher parts of the
+wall: namely, a wart-like eruption, as one would be tempted to call
+it, being in reality a crop of the soft missiles before mentioned,
+which, adhering in considerable numbers, and hardening after the
+usual fashion of papier-mache, formed at last permanent ornaments of
+the edifice.
+
+The young master's quick eye soon noticed that a particular part of
+the wall was most favored with these ornamental appendages.  Their
+position pointed sufficiently clearly to the part of the room they
+came from.  In fact, there was a nest of young mutineers just there,
+which must be broken up by a coup d'etat.  This was easily effected
+by redistributing the seats and arranging the scholars according to
+classes, so that a mischievous fellow, charged full of the rebellious
+imponderable, should find himself between two non-conductors, in the
+shape of small boys of studious habits.  It was managed quietly
+enough, in such a plausible sort of way that its motive was not
+thought of.  But its effects were soon felt; and then began a system
+of correspondence by signs, and the throwing of little scrawls done
+up in pellets, and announced by preliminary a'h'ms! to call the
+attention of the distant youth addressed.  Some of these were
+incendiary documents, devoting the schoolmaster to the lower
+divinities, as "a stuck-up dandy," as "a purse-proud aristocrat," as
+"a sight too big for his, etc.," and holding him up in a variety of
+equally forcible phrases to the indignation of the youthful community
+of School District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre.
+
+Presently the draughtsman of the school set a caricature in
+circulation, labelled, to prevent mistakes, with the schoolmaster's
+name.  An immense bell-crowned hat, and a long, pointed, swallow-
+tailed coat showed that the artist had in his mind the conventional
+dandy, as shown in prints of thirty or forty years ago, rather than
+any actual human aspect of the time.  But it was passed round among
+the boys and made its laugh, helping of course to undermine the
+master's authority, as "Punch" or the "Charivari" takes the dignity
+out of an obnoxious minister.  One morning, on going to the
+schoolroom, Master Langdon found an enlarged copy of this sketch,
+with its label, pinned on the door.  He took it down, smiled a
+little, put it into his pocket, and entered the schoolroom.  An
+insidious silence prevailed, which looked as if some plot were
+brewing.  The boys were ripe for mischief, but afraid.  They had
+really no fault to find with the master, except that he was dressed
+like a gentleman, which a certain class of fellows always consider a
+personal insult to themselves.  But the older ones were evidently
+plotting, and more than once the warning a'h'm! was heard, and a
+dirty little scrap of paper rolled into a wad shot from one seat to
+another.  One of these happened to strike the stove-funnel, and
+lodged on the master's desk.  He was cool enough not to seem to
+notice it.  He secured it, however, and found an opportunity to look
+at it, without being observed by the boys.  It required no immediate
+notice.
+
+He who should have enjoyed the privilege of looking upon Mr. Bernard
+Langdon the next morning, when his toilet was about half finished,
+would have had a very pleasant gratuitous exhibition.  First he
+buckled the strap of his trousers pretty tightly.  Then he took up a
+pair of heavy dumb-bells, and swung them for a few minutes; then two
+great "Indian clubs," with which he enacted all sorts of impossible-
+looking feats.  His limbs were not very large, nor his shoulders
+remarkably broad; but if you knew as much of the muscles as all
+persons who look at statues and pictures with a critical eye ought to
+have learned,--if you knew the trapezius, lying diamond-shaped over
+the back and shoulders like a monk's cowl,--or the deltoid, which
+caps the shoulder like an epaulette,--or the triceps, which furnishes
+the calf of the upper arm,--or the hard-knotted biceps,--any of the
+great sculptural landmarks, in fact,--you would have said there was a
+pretty show of them, beneath the white satiny skin of Mr. Bernard
+Langdon.  And if you had seen him, when he had laid down the Indian
+clubs, catch hold of a leather strap that hung from the beam of the
+old-fashioned ceiling,--and lift and lower himself over and over
+again by his left hand alone, you might have thought it a very simple
+and easy thing to do, until you tried to do it yourself.  Mr. Bernard
+looked at himself with the eye of an expert.  "Pretty well!" he
+said;--"not so much fallen off as I expected."  Then he set up his
+bolster in a very knowing sort of way, and delivered two or three
+blows straight as rulers and swift as winks.  "That will do," he
+said.  Then, as if determined to make a certainty of his condition,
+he took a dynamometer from one of the drawers in his old veneered
+bureau.  First he squeezed it with his two hands.  Then he placed it
+on the floor and lifted, steadily, strongly.  The springs creaked and
+cracked; the index swept with a great stride far up into the high
+figures of the scale; it was a good lift.  He was satisfied.  He sat
+down on the edge of his bed and looked at his cleanly-shaped arms.
+"If I strike one of those boobies, I am afraid I shall spoil him," he
+said.  Yet this young man, when weighed with his class at the
+college, could barely turn one hundred and forty-two pounds in the
+scale,--not a heavy weight, surely; but some of the middle weights,
+as the present English champion, for instance, seem to be of a far
+finer quality of muscle than the bulkier fellows.
+
+The master took his breakfast with a good appetite that morning, but
+was perhaps rather more quiet than usual.  After breakfast he went
+up-stairs and put, on a light loose frock, instead of that which he
+commonly wore, which was a close-fitting and rather stylish one.  On
+his way to school he met Alminy Cutterr, who happened to be walking
+in the other direction.  "Good-morning, Miss Cutter," he said; for
+she and another young lady had been introduced to him, on a former
+occasion, in the usual phrase of polite society in presenting ladies
+to gentlemen,--"Mr. Langdon, let me make y' acquainted with Miss
+Cutterr;--let me make y' acquainted with Miss Braowne."  So he said,
+"Good-morning"; to which she replied, "Good-mornin', Mr. Langdon.
+Haow's your haalth?"  The answer to this question ought naturally to
+have been the end of the talk; but Alminy Cutterr lingered and looked
+as if she had something more on her mind.
+
+A young fellow does not require a great experience to read a simple
+country-girl's face as if it were a sign-board.  Alminy was a good
+soul, with red cheeks and bright eyes, kind-hearted as she could be,
+and it was out of the question for her to hide her thoughts or
+feelings like a fine lady.  Her bright eyes were moist and her red
+cheeks paler than their wont, as she said, with her lips quivering,
+"Oh, Mr. Langdon, them boys 'll be the death of ye, if ye don't take
+caar!"
+
+"Why, what's the matter, my dear?"  said Mr. Bernard.---Don't think
+there was anything very odd in that "my dear," at the second
+interview with a village belle;--some of these woman-tamers call a
+girl "My dear," after five minutes' acquaintance, and it sounds all
+right as they say it.  But you had better not try it at a venture.
+
+It sounded all right to Alminy, as Mr. Bernard said it.---"I 'll tell
+ye what's the mahtterr," she said, in a frightened voice.  "Ahbner 's
+go'n' to car' his dog, 'n' he'll set him on ye'z sure 'z y' 'r'
+alive.  'T's the same cretur that haaf eat up Eben Squires's little
+Jo, a year come nex' Faast day."
+
+Now this last statement was undoubtedly overcolored; as little Jo
+Squires was running about the village,--with an ugly scar on his arm,
+it is true, where the beast had caught him with his teeth, on the
+occasion of the child's taking liberties with him, as he had been
+accustomed to do with a good-tempered Newfoundland dog, who seemed to
+like being pulled and hauled round by children.  After this the
+creature was commonly muzzled, and, as he was fed on raw meat
+chiefly, was always ready for a fight, which he was occasionally
+indulged in, when anything stout enough to match him could be found
+in any of the neighboring villages.
+
+Tiger, or, more briefly, Tige, the property of Abner Briggs, Junior,
+belonged to a species not distinctly named in scientific books, but
+well known to our country-folks under the name "Yallah dog."  They do
+not use this expression as they would say black dog or white dog, but
+with almost as definite a meaning as when they speak of a terrier or
+a spaniel.  A "yallah dog" is a large canine brute, of a dingy old-
+flannel color, of no particular breed except his own, who hangs round
+a tavern or a butcher's shop, or trots alongside of a team, looking
+as if he were disgusted with the world, and the world with him.  Our
+inland population, while they tolerate him, speak of him with
+contempt.  Old ______ , of Meredith Bridge, used to twit the sun for
+not shining on cloudy days, swearing, that, if he hung up his "yallah
+dog," he would make a better show of daylight.  A country fellow,
+abusing a horse of his neighbor's, vowed, that, "if he had such a
+hoss, he'd swap him for a `yallah dog,'--and then shoot the dog."
+
+Tige was an ill-conditioned brute by nature, and art had not improved
+him by cropping his ears and tail and investing him with a spiked
+collar.  He bore on his person, also, various not ornamental scars,
+marks of old battles; for Tige had fight in him, as was said before,
+and as might be guessed by a certain bluntness about the muzzle, with
+a projection of the lower jaw, which looked as if there might be a
+bull-dog stripe among the numerous bar-sinisters of his lineage.
+
+It was hardly fair, however, to leave Alminy Cutterr waiting while
+this piece of natural history was telling.--As she spoke of little
+Jo, who had been "haaf eat up" by Tige, she could not contain her
+sympathies, and began to cry.
+
+"Why, my dear little soul," said Mr. Bernard, "what are you worried
+about?  I used to play with a bear when I was a boy; and the bear
+used to hug me, and I used to kiss him,--so!"
+
+It was too bad of Mr. Bernard, only the second time he had seen
+Alminy; but her kind feelings had touched him, and that seemed the
+most natural way of expressing his gratitude.  Ahniny looked round to
+see if anybody was near; she saw nobody, so of course it would do no
+good to "holler."  She saw nobody; but a stout young fellow, leading
+a yellow dog, muzzled, saw her through a crack in a picket fence, not
+a great way off the road.  Many a year he had been "hangin' 'raoun'"
+Alminy, and never did he see any encouraging look, or hear any
+"Behave, naow!" or "Come, naow, a'n't ye 'shamed?" or other
+forbidding phrase of acquiescence, such as village belles under stand
+as well as ever did the nymph who fled to the willows in the eclogue
+we all remember.
+
+No wonder he was furious, when he saw the school master, who had
+never seen the girl until within a week, touching with his lips those
+rosy cheeks which he had never dared to approach.  But that was all;
+it was a sudden impulse; and the master turned away from the young
+girl, laughing, and telling her not to fret herself about him,--he
+would take care of himself.
+
+So Master Langdon walked on toward his school-house, not displeased,
+perhaps, with his little adventure, nor immensely elated by it; for
+he was one of the natural class of the sex-subduers, and had had many
+a smile without asking, which had been denied to the feeble youth who
+try to win favor by pleading their passion in rhyme, and even to the
+more formidable approaches of young officers in volunteer companies,
+considered by many to be quite irresistible to the fair who have once
+beheld them from their windows in the epaulettes and plumes and
+sashes of the "Pigwacket Invincibles," or the "Hackmatack Rangers."
+
+Master Langdon took his seat and began the exercises of his school.
+The smaller boys recited their lessons well enough, but some of the
+larger ones were negligent and surly.  He noticed one or two of them
+looking toward the door, as if expecting somebody or something in
+that direction.  At half past nine o'clock, Abner Briggs, Junior, who
+had not yet shown himself, made his appearance.  He was followed by
+his "yallah dog," without his muzzle, who squatted down very grimly
+near the door, and gave a wolfish look round the room, as if he were
+considering which was the plumpest boy to begin with.  The young
+butcher, meanwhile, went to his seat, looking somewhat flushed,
+except round the lips, which were hardly as red as common, and set
+pretty sharply.
+
+"Put out that dog, Abner Briggs!"--The master spoke as the captain
+speaks to the helmsman, when there are rocks foaming at the lips,
+right under his lee.
+
+Abner Briggs answered as the helmsman answers, when he knows he has a
+mutinous crew round him that mean to run the ship on the reef, and is
+one of the mutineers himself.  "Put him aout y'rself, 'f ye a'n't
+afeard on him!"
+
+The master stepped into the aisle: The great cur showed his teeth,--
+and the devilish instincts of his old wolf-ancestry looked out of his
+eyes, and flashed from his sharp tusks, and yawned in his wide mouth
+and deep red gullet.
+
+The movements of animals are so much quicker than those of human
+beings commonly are, that they avoid blows as easily as one of us
+steps out of the way of an ox-cart.  It must be a very stupid dog
+that lets himself be run over by a fast driver in his gig; he can
+jump out of the wheel's way after the tire has already touched him.
+So, while one is lifting a stick to strike or drawing back his foot
+to kick, the beast makes his spring, and the blow or the kick comes
+too late.
+
+It was not so this time.  The master was a fencer, and something of a
+boxer; he had played at singlestick, and was used to watching an
+adversary's eye and coming down on him without any of those
+premonitory symptoms by which unpractised persons show long
+beforehand what mischief they meditate.
+
+"Out with you!" he said, fiercely,--and explained what he meant by a
+sudden flash of his foot that clashed the yellow dog's white teeth
+together like the springing of a bear-trap.  The cur knew he had
+found his master at the first word and glance, as low animals on four
+legs, or a smaller number, always do; and the blow took him so by
+surprise, that it curled him up in an instant, and he went bundling
+out of the open schoolhouse-door with a most pitiable yelp, and his
+stump of a tail shut down as close as his owner ever shut the short,
+stubbed blade of his jack-knife.
+
+It was time for the other cur to find who his master.
+
+"Follow your dog, Abner Briggs!" said Master Langdon.
+
+The stout butcher-youth looked round, but the rebels were all cowed
+and sat still.
+
+"I'll go when I'm ready," he said,--"'n' I guess I won't go afore I'm
+ready."
+
+"You're ready now," said Master Langdon, turning up his cuffs so that
+the little boys noticed the yellow gleam of a pair of gold sleeve-
+buttons, once worn by Colonel Percy Wentworth, famous in the Old
+French War.
+
+Abner Briggs, Junior, did not apparently think he was ready, at any
+rate; for he rose up in his place, and stood with clenched fists,
+defiant, as the master strode towards him.  The master knew the
+fellow was really frightened, for all his looks, and that he must
+have no time to rally.  So he caught him suddenly by the collar, and,
+with one great pull, had him out over his desk and on the open floor.
+He gave him a sharp fling backwards and stood looking at him.
+
+The rough-and-tumble fighters all clinch, as everybody knows; and
+Abner Briggs, Junior, was one of that kind.  He remembered how he had
+floored Master Weeks, and he had just "spunk" enough left in him to
+try to repeat his former successful experiment an the new master.  He
+sprang at him, open-handed, to clutch him.  So the master had to
+strike,--once, but very hard, and just in the place to tell.  No
+doubt, the authority that doth hedge a schoolmaster added to the
+effect of the blow; but the blow was itself a neat one, and did not
+require to be repeated.
+
+"Now go home," said the master, "and don't let me see you or your dog
+here again."  And he turned his cuffs down over the gold sleeve-
+buttons.
+
+This finished the great Pigwacket Centre School rebellion.  What
+could be done with a master who was so pleasant as long as the boys
+behaved decently, and such a terrible fellow when he got "riled," as
+they called it?  In a week's time everything was reduced to order,
+and the school-committee were delighted.  The master, however, had
+received a proposition so much more agreeable and advantageous, that
+he informed the committee he should leave at the end of his month,
+having in his eye a sensible and energetic young college-graduate who
+would be willing and fully competent to take his place.
+
+So, at the expiration of the appointed time, Bernard Langdon, late
+master of the School District No. 1, Pigwacket Centre, took his
+departure from that place for another locality, whither we shall
+follow him, carrying with him the regrets of the committee, of most
+of the scholars, and of several young ladies; also two locks of hair,
+sent unbeknown to payrents, one dark and one warmish auburn,
+inscribed with the respective initials of Alminy Cutterr and Arvilly
+Braowne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE MOTH FLIES INTO THE CANDLE.
+
+The invitation which Mr. Bernard Langdon had accepted came from the
+Board of Trustees of the "Apollinean Female Institute," a school for
+the education of young ladies, situated in the flourishing town of
+Rockland.  This was an establishment on a considerable scale, in
+which a hundred scholars or thereabouts were taught the ordinary
+English branches, several of the modern languages, something of
+Latin, if desired, with a little natural philosophy, metaphysics, and
+rhetoric, to finish off with in the last year, and music at any time
+when they would pay for it.  At the close of their career in the
+Institute, they were submitted to a grand public examination, and
+received diplomas tied in blue ribbons, which proclaimed them with a
+great flourish of capitals to be graduates of the Apollinean Female
+Institute.
+
+Rockland was a town of no inconsiderable pretensions.  It was
+ennobled by lying at the foot of a mountain,--called by the working-
+folks of the place "the Maounting,"--which sufficiently showed that
+it was the principal high land of the district in which it was
+situated.  It lay to the south of this, and basked in the sunshine as
+Italy stretches herself before the Alps.  To pass from the town of
+Tamarack on the north of the mountain to Rockland on the south was
+like crossing from Coire to Chiavenna.
+
+There is nothing gives glory and grandeur and romance and mystery to
+a place like the impending presence of a high mountain.  Our
+beautiful Northampton with its fair meadows and noble stream is
+lovely enough, but owes its surpassing attraction to those twin
+summits which brood over it like living presences, looking down into
+its streets as if they were its tutelary divinities, dressing and
+undressing their green shrines, robing themselves in jubilant
+sunshine or in sorrowing clouds, and doing penance in the snowy
+shroud of winter, as if they had living hearts under their rocky ribs
+and changed their mood like the children of the soil at their feet,
+who grow up under their almost parental smiles and frowns.  Happy is
+the child whose first dreams of heaven are blended with the evening
+glories of Mount Holyoke, when the sun is firing its treetops, and
+gilding the white walls that mark its one human dwelling!  If the
+other and the wilder of the two summits has a scowl of terror in its
+overhanging brows, yet is it a pleasing fear to look upon its savage
+solitudes through the barred nursery-windows in the heart of the
+sweet, companionable village.---And how the mountains love their
+children!  The sea is of a facile virtue, and will run to kiss the
+first comer in any port he visits; but the chaste mountains sit
+apart, and show their faces only in the midst of their own families.
+
+The Mountain which kept watch to the north of Rockland lay waste and
+almost inviolate through much of its domain.  The catamount still
+glared from the branches of its old hemlocks on the lesser beasts
+that strayed beneath him.  It was not long since a wolf had wandered
+down, famished in the winter's dearth, and left a few bones and some
+tufts of wool of what had been a lamb in the morning.  Nay, there
+were broad-footed tracks in the snow only two years previously, which
+could not be mistaken;--the black bear alone could have set that
+plantigrade seal, and little children must come home early from
+school and play, for he is an indiscriminate feeder when he is
+hungry, and a little child would not come amiss when other game was
+wanting.
+
+But these occasional visitors may have been mere wanderers, which,
+straying along in the woods by day, and perhaps stalking through the
+streets of still villages by night, had worked their way along down
+from the ragged mountain-spurs of higher latitudes.  The one feature
+of The Mountain that shed the brownest horror on its woods was the
+existence of the terrible region known as Rattlesnake Ledge, and
+still tenanted by those damnable reptiles, which distil a fiercer
+venom under our cold northern sky than the cobra himself in the land
+of tropical spices and poisons.
+
+From the earliest settlement of the place, this fact had been, next
+to the Indians, the reigning nightmare of the inhabitants.  It was
+easy enough, after a time, to drive away the savages; for
+"a screeching Indian Divell," as our fathers called him, could not
+crawl into the crack of a rock to escape from his pursuers.  But the
+venomous population of Rattlesnake Ledge had a Gibraltar for their
+fortress that might have defied the siege-train dragged to the walls
+of Sebastopol.  In its deep embrasures and its impregnable easemates
+they reared their families, they met in love or wrath, they twined
+together in family knots, they hissed defiance in hostile clans, they
+fed, slept, hibernated, and in due time died in peace.  Many a foray
+had the towns-people made, and many a stuffed skin was shown as a
+trophy,--nay, there were families where the children's first toy was
+made from the warning appendage that once vibrated to the wrath of
+one of these "cruel serpents."  Sometimes one of them, coaxed out by
+a warm sun, would writhe himself down the hillside into the roads, up
+the walks that led to houses,--worse than this, into the long grass,
+where the barefooted mowers would soon pass with their swinging
+scythes,--more rarely into houses, and on one memorable occasion,
+early in the last century, into the meeting-house, where he took a
+position on the pulpit-stairs,--as is narrated in the "Account of
+Some Remarkable Providences," etc., where it is suggested that a
+strong tendency of the Rev. Didymus Bean, the Minister at that time,
+towards the Arminian Heresy may have had something to do with it, and
+that the Serpent supposed to have been killed on the Pulpit-Stairs
+was a false show of the Daemon's Contrivance, he having come in to
+listen to a Discourse which was a sweet Savour in his Nostrils, and,
+of course, not being capable of being killed Himself.  Others said,
+however, that, though there was good Reason to think it was a Damon,
+yet he did come with Intent to bite the Heel of that faithful
+Servant,--etc.
+
+One Gilson is said to have died of the bite of a rattlesnake in this
+town early in the present century.  After this there was a great
+snake-hunt, in which very many of these venomous beasts were killed,
+--one in particular, said to have been as big round as a stout man's
+arm, and to have had no less than forty joints to his rattle,--
+indicating, according to some, that he had lived forty years, but, if
+we might put any faith in the Indian tradition, that he had killed
+forty human beings,--an idle fancy, clearly.  This hunt, however, had
+no permanent effect in keeping down the serpent population.
+Viviparous, creatures are a kind of specie-paying lot, but oviparous
+ones only give their notes, as it were, for a future brood,--an egg
+being, so to speak, a promise to pay a young one by and by, if
+nothing happen.  Now the domestic habits of the rattlesnake are not
+studied very closely, for obvious reasons; but it is, no doubt, to
+all intents and purposes oviparous.  Consequently it has large
+families, and is not easy to kill out.
+
+In the year 184-, a melancholy proof was afforded to the inhabitants
+of Rockland, that the brood which infested The Mountain was not
+extirpated.  A very interesting young married woman, detained at home
+at the time by the state of her health, was bitten in the entry of
+her own house by a rattlesnake which had found its way down from The
+Mountain.  Owing to the almost instant employment of powerful
+remedies, the bite did not prove immediately fatal; but she died
+within a few months of the time when she was bitten.
+
+All this seemed to throw a lurid kind of shadow over The Mountain.
+Yet, as many years passed without any accident, people grew
+comparatively careless, and it might rather be said to add a fearful
+kind of interest to the romantic hillside, that the banded reptiles,
+which had been the terror of the red men for nobody knows how many
+thousand years, were there still, with the same poison-bags and
+spring-teeth at the white men's service, if they meddled with them.
+
+The other natural features of Rockland were such as many of our
+pleasant country-towns can boast of.  A brook came tumbling down the
+mountain-side and skirted the most thickly settled portion of the
+village.  In the parts of its course where it ran through the woods,
+the water looked almost as brown as coffee flowing from its urn,--to
+say like smoky quartz would perhaps give a better idea,--but in the
+open plain it sparkled over the pebbles white as a queen's diamonds.
+There were huckleberry-pastures on the lower flanks of The Mountain,
+with plenty of the sweet-scented bayberry mingled with the other
+bushes.  In other fields grew great store of high-bush blackberries.
+Along the roadside were bayberry-bushes, hung all over with bright
+red coral pendants in autumn and far into the winter.  Then there
+were swamps set thick with dingy alders, where the three-leaved arum
+and the skunk's-cabbage grew broad and succulent, shelving down into
+black boggy pools here and there at the edge of which the green frog,
+stupidest of his tribe, sat waiting to be victimized by boy or
+snapping-turtle long after the shy and agile leopard-frog had taken
+the six-foot spring that plumped him into the middle of the pool.
+And on the neighboring banks the maiden-hair spread its flat disk of
+embroidered fronds on the wire-like stem that glistened polished and
+brown as the darkest tortoise-shell, and pale violets, cheated by the
+cold skies of their hues and perfume, sunned themselves like white-
+cheeked invalids.  Over these rose the old forest-trees,--the maple,
+scarred with the wounds which had drained away its sweet life-blood,
+--the beech, its smooth gray bark mottled so as to look like the body
+of one of those great snakes of old that used to frighten armies,
+always the mark of lovers' knives, as in the days of Musidora and her
+swain,--the yellow birch, rough as the breast of Silenus in old
+marbles,--the wild cherry, its little bitter fruit lying unheeded at
+its foot,--and, soaring over all, the huge, coarse-barked, splintery-
+limbed, dark-mantled hemlock, in the depth of whose aerial solitudes
+the crow brooded on her nest unscared, and the gray squirrel lived
+unharmed till his incisors grew to look like ram's-horns.
+
+Rockland would have been but half a town without its pond; Guinnepeg
+Pond was the name of it, but the young ladies of the Apollinean
+Institute were very anxious that it should be called Crystalline
+Lake.  It was here that the young folks used to sail in summer and
+skate in winter; here, too, those queer, old, rum-scented good-for-
+nothing, lazy, story-telling, half-vagabonds, who sawed a little wood
+or dug a few potatoes now and then under the pretence of working for
+their living, used to go and fish through the ice for pickerel every
+winter.  And here those three young people were drowned, a few
+summers ago, by the upsetting of a sail-boat in a sudden flaw of
+wind.  There is not one of these smiling ponds which has not devoured
+more youths and maidens than any of those monsters the ancients used
+to tell such lies about.  But it was a pretty pond, and never looked
+more innocent--so the native "bard" of Rockland said in his elegy--
+than on the morning when they found Sarah Jane and Ellen Maria
+floating among the lily-pads.
+
+The Apollinean Institute, or Institoot, as it was more commonly
+called, was, in the language of its Prospectus, a "first-class
+Educational Establishment."  It employed a considerable corps of
+instructors to rough out and finish the hundred young lady scholars
+it sheltered beneath its roof.  First, Mr. and Mrs. Peckham, the
+Principal and the Matron of the school.  Silas Peckham was a thorough
+Yankee, born on a windy part of the coast, and reared chiefly on
+salt-fish.  Everybody knows the type of Yankee produced by this
+climate and diet: thin, as if he had been split and dried; with an
+ashen kind of complexion, like the tint of the food he is made of;
+and about as sharp, tough, juiceless, and biting to deal with as the
+other is to the taste.  Silas Peckham kept a young ladies' school
+exactly as he would have kept a hundred head of cattle,--for the
+simple, unadorned purpose of making just as much money in just as few
+years as could be safely done.  Mr. Peckham gave very little personal
+attention to the department of instruction, but was always busy with
+contracts for flour and potatoes, beef and pork, and other nutritive
+staples, the amount of which required for such an establishment was
+enough to frighten a quartermaster.  Mrs. Peckham was from the West,
+raised on Indian corn and pork, which give a fuller outline and a
+more humid temperament, but may perhaps be thought to render people a
+little coarse-fibred.  Her specialty was to look after the
+feathering, cackling, roosting, rising, and general behavior of these
+hundred chicks.  An honest, ignorant woman, she could not have passed
+an examination in the youngest class.  So this distinguished
+institution was under the charge of a commissary and a housekeeper,
+and its real business was making money by taking young girls in as
+boarders.
+
+Connected with this, however, was the incidental fact, which the
+public took for the principal one, namely, the business of
+instruction.  Mr. Peckham knew well enough that it was just as well
+to have good instructors as bad ones, so far as cost was concerned,
+and a great deal better for the reputation of his feeding-
+establishment.  He tried to get the best he could without paying too
+much, and, having got them, to screw all the work out of them that
+could possibly be extracted.
+
+There was a master for the English branches, with a young lady
+assistant.  There was another young lady who taught French, of the
+ahvaung and baundahng style, which does not exactly smack of the
+asphalt of the Boulevards.  There was also a German teacher of music,
+who sometimes helped in French of the ahfaung and bauntaung style,--
+so that, between the two, the young ladies could hardly have been
+mistaken for Parisians, by a Committee of the French Academy.  The
+German teacher also taught a Latin class after his fashion,--benna, a
+ben, gahboot, ahead, and so forth.
+
+The master for the English branches had lately left the school for
+private reasons, which need not be here mentioned,--but he had gone,
+at any rate, and it was his place which had been offered to Mr.
+Bernard Langdon.  The offer came just in season,--as, for various
+causes, he was willing to leave the place where he had begun his new
+experience.
+
+It was on a fine morning that Mr. Bernard, ushered in by Mr. Peckham,
+made his appearance in the great schoolroom of the Apollinean
+Institute.  A general rustle ran all round the seats when the
+handsome young man was introduced.  The principal carried him to the
+desk of the young lady English assistant, Miss Darley by name, and
+introduced him to her.
+
+There was not a great deal of study done that day.  The young lady
+assistant had to point out to the new master the whole routine in
+which the classes were engaged when their late teacher left, and
+which had gone on as well as it could since.  Then Master Langdon had
+a great many questions to ask, some relating to his new duties, and
+some, perhaps, implying a degree of curiosity not very unnatural
+under the circumstances.  The truth is, the general effect of the
+schoolroom, with its scores of young girls, all their eyes naturally
+centring on him with fixed or furtive glances, was enough to bewilder
+and confuse a young man like Master Langdon, though he was not
+destitute of self-possession, as we have already seen.
+
+You cannot get together a hundred girls, taking them as they come,
+from the comfortable and affluent classes, probably anywhere,
+certainly not in New England, without seeing a good deal of beauty.
+In fact, we very commonly mean by beauty the way young girls look
+when there is nothing to hinder their looking as Nature meant them
+to.  And the great schoolroom of the Apollinean Institute did really
+make so pretty a show on the morning when Master Langdon entered it,
+that he might be pardoned for asking Miss Darley more questions about
+his scholars than about their lessons.
+
+There were girls of all ages: little creatures, some pallid and
+delicate-looking, the offspring of invalid parents,--much given to
+books, not much to mischief, commonly spoken of as particularly good
+children, and contrasted with another sort, girls of more vigorous
+organization, who were disposed to laughing and play, and required a
+strong hand to manage them; then young growing misses of every shade
+of Saxon complexion, and here and there one of more Southern hue:
+blondes, some of them so translucent-looking that it seemed as if you
+could see the souls in their bodies, like bubbles in glass, if souls
+were objects of sight; brunettes, some with rose-red colors, and some
+with that swarthy hue which often carries with it a heavily-shaded
+lip, and which, with pure outlines and outspoken reliefs, gives us
+some of our handsomest women,--the women whom ornaments of plain gold
+adorn more than any other parures; and again, but only here and
+there, one with dark hair and gray or blue eyes, a Celtic type,
+perhaps, but found in our native stock occasionally; rarest of all, a
+light-haired girl with dark eyes, hazel, brown, or of the color of
+that mountain-brook spoken of in this chapter, where it ran through
+shadowy woodlands.  With these were to be seen at intervals some of
+maturer years, full-blown flowers among the opening buds, with that
+conscious look upon their faces which so many women wear during the
+period when they never meet a single man without having his
+monosyllable ready for him,--tied as they are, poor things! on the
+rock of expectation, each of them an Andromeda waiting for her
+Perseus.
+
+"Who is that girl in ringlets,--the fourth in the third row on the
+right?" said Master Langdon.
+
+"Charlotte Ann Wood," said Miss Darley; "writes very pretty poems."
+
+"Oh!--And the pink one, three seats from her?  Looks bright; anything
+in her?"
+
+"Emma Dean,--day-scholar,--Squire Dean's daughter,--nice girl,--
+second medal last year."
+
+The master asked these two questions in a careless kind of way, and
+did not seem to pay any too much attention to the answers.
+
+"And who and what is that," he said,--"sitting a little apart
+there,--that strange, wild-looking girl?"
+
+This time he put the real question he wanted answered;--the other two
+were asked at random, as masks for the third.
+
+The lady-teacher's face changed;--one would have said she was
+frightened or troubled.  She looked at the girl doubtfully, as if she
+might hear the master's question and its answer.  But the girl did
+not look up;--she was winding a gold chain about her wrist, and then
+uncoiling it, as if in a kind of reverie.
+
+Miss Darley drew close to the master and placed her hand so as to
+hide her lips.  "Don't look at her as if we were talking about her,"
+she whispered softly; "that is Elsie Venner."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+AN OLD-FASHIONED DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTER.
+
+It was a comfort to get to a place with something like society, with
+residences which had pretensions to elegance, with people of some
+breeding, with a newspaper, and "stores" to advertise in it, and with
+two or three churches to keep each other alive by wholesome
+agitation.  Rockland was such a place.
+
+Some of the natural features of the town have been described already.
+The Mountain, of course, was what gave it its character, and redeemed
+it from wearing the commonplace expression which belongs to ordinary
+country-villages.  Beautiful, wild, invested with the mystery which
+belongs to untrodden spaces, and with enough of terror to give it
+dignity, it had yet closer relations with the town over which it
+brooded than the passing stranger knew of.  Thus, it made a local
+climate by cutting off the northern winds and holding the sun's heat
+like a garden-wall.  Peachtrees, which, on the northern side of the
+mountain, hardly ever came to fruit, ripened abundant crops in
+Rockland.
+
+But there was still another relation between the mountain and the
+town at its foot, which strangers were not likely to hear alluded to,
+and which was oftener thought of than spoken of by its inhabitants.
+Those high-impending forests,--"hangers," as White of Selborne would
+have called them,--sloping far upward and backward into the distance,
+had always an air of menace blended with their wild beauty.  It
+seemed as if some heaven-scaling Titan had thrown his shaggy robe
+over the bare, precipitous flanks of the rocky summit, and it might
+at any moment slide like a garment flung carelessly on the nearest
+chance-support, and, so sliding, crush the village out of being, as
+the Rossberg when it tumbled over on the valley of Goldau.
+
+Persons have been known to remove from the place, after a short
+residence in it, because they were haunted day and night by the
+thought of this awful green wall, piled up into the air over their
+heads.  They would lie awake of nights, thinking they heard the
+muffed snapping of roots, as if a thousand acres of the mountain-side
+were tugging to break away, like the snow from a house-roof, and a
+hundred thousand trees were clinging with all their fibres to hold
+back the soil just ready to peel away and crash down with all its
+rocks and forest-growths.  And yet, by one of those strange
+contradictions we are constantly finding in human nature, there were
+natives of the town who would come back thirty or forty years after
+leaving it, just to nestle under this same threatening mountainside,
+as old men sun themselves against southward-facing walls.  The old
+dreams and legends of danger added to the attraction.  If the
+mountain should ever slide, they had a kind of feeling as if they
+ought to be there.  It was a fascination like that which the
+rattlesnake is said to exert.
+
+This comparison naturally suggests the recollection of that other
+source of danger which was an element in the every-day life of the
+Rockland people.  The folks in some of the neighboring towns had a
+joke against them, that a Rocklander could n't hear a beanpod rattle
+without saying, "The Lord have mercy on us!  "It is very true, that
+many a nervous old lady has had a terrible start, caused by some
+mischievous young rogue's giving a sudden shake to one of these noisy
+vegetable products in her immediate vicinity.  Yet, strangely enough,
+many persons missed the excitement of the possibility of a fatal bite
+in other regions, where there were nothing but black and green and
+striped snakes, mean ophidians, having the spite of the nobler
+serpent without his venom,--poor crawling creatures, whom Nature
+would not trust with a poison-bag.  Many natives of Rockland did
+unquestionably experience a certain gratification in this
+infinitesimal sense of danger.  It was noted that the old people
+retained their hearing longer than in other places.  Some said it was
+the softened climate, but others believed it was owing to the habit
+of keeping their ears open whenever they were walking through the
+grass or in the woods.  At any rate, a slight sense of danger is
+often an agreeable stimulus.  People sip their creme de noyau with a
+peculiar tremulous pleasure, because there is a bare possibility that
+it may contain prussic acid enough to knock them over; in which case
+they will lie as dead as if a thunder-cloud had emptied itself into
+the earth through their brain and marrow.
+
+But Rockland had other features which helped to give it a special
+character.  First of all, there was one grand street which was its
+chief glory.  Elm Street it was called, naturally enough, for its
+elms made a long, pointed-arched gallery of it through most of its
+extent.  No natural Gothic arch compares, for a moment, with that
+formed by two American elms, where their lofty jets of foliage shoot
+across each other's ascending curves, to intermingle their showery
+flakes of green.  When one looks through a long double row of these,
+as in that lovely avenue which the poets of Yale remember so well,
+
+"Oh, could the vista of my life but now as bright appear
+As when I first through Temple Street looked down thine espalier!"
+
+he beholds a temple not built with hands, fairer than any minster,
+with all its clustered stems and flowering capitals, that ever grew
+in stone.
+
+Nobody knows New England who is not on terms of intimacy with one of
+its elms.  The elm comes nearer to having a soul than any other
+vegetable creature among us.  It loves man as man loves it.  It is
+modest and patient.  It has a small flake of a seed which blows in
+everywhere and makes arrangements for coming up by and by.  So, in
+spring, one finds a crop of baby-elms among his carrots and parsnips,
+very weak and small compared to those succulent vegetables.  The
+baby-elms die, most of them, slain, unrecognized or unheeded, by hand
+or hoe, as meekly as Herod's innocents.  One of them gets overlooked,
+perhaps, until it has established a kind of right to stay.  Three
+generations of carrot and parsnip consumers have passed away,
+yourself among them, and now let your great-grandson look for the
+baby-elm.  Twenty-two feet of clean girth, three hundred and sixty
+feet in the line that bounds its leafy circle, it covers the boy with
+such a canopy as neither glossy-leafed oak nor insect-haunted linden
+ever lifted into the summer skies.
+
+Elm Street was the pride of Rockland, but not only on account of its
+Gothic-arched vista.  In this street  were most of the great houses,
+or "mansion-houses," as it was usual to call them.  Along this
+street, also, the more nicely kept and neatly painted dwellings were
+chiefly congregated.  It was the correct thing for a Rockland
+dignitary to have a house in Elm Street.  A New England "mansion-
+house" is naturally square, with dormer windows projecting from the
+roof, which has a balustrade with turned posts round it.  It shows a
+good breadth of front-yard before its door, as its owner shows a
+respectable expanse of a clean shirt-front.  It has a lateral margin
+beyond its stables and offices, as its master wears his white wrist
+bands showing beyond his coat-cuffs.  It may not have what can
+properly be called grounds, but it must have elbow-room, at any rate.
+Without it, it is like a man who is always tight-buttoned for want of
+any linen to show.  The mansion-house which has had to "button itself
+up tight in fences, for want of green or gravel margin," will be
+advertising for boarders presently.  The old English pattern of the
+New England mansion-house, only on a somewhat grander scale, is Sir
+Thomas Abney's place, where dear, good Dr. Watts said prayers for the
+family, and wrote those blessed hymns of his that sing us into
+consciousness in our cradles, and come back to us in sweet, single
+verses, between the moments of wandering and of stupor, when we lie
+dying, and sound over us when we can no longer hear them, bringing
+grateful tears to the hot, aching eyes beneath the thick, black
+veils, and carrying the holy calm with them which filled the good
+man's heart, as he prayed and sung under the shelter of the old
+English mansion-house.  Next to the mansion-houses, came the two-
+story trim, white-painted, "genteel" houses, which, being more
+gossipy and less nicely bred, crowded close up to the street, instead
+of standing back from it with arms akimbo, like the mansion-houses.
+Their little front-yards were very commonly full of lilac and syringa
+and other bushes, which were allowed to smother the lower story
+almost to the exclusion of light and airy so that, what with small
+windows and small windowpanes, and the darkness made by these choking
+growths of shrubbery, the front parlors of some of these houses were
+the most tomb-like, melancholy places that could be found anywhere
+among the abodes of the living.  Their garnishing was apt to assist
+this impression.  Large-patterned carpets, which always look
+discontented in little rooms, haircloth furniture, black and shiny as
+beetles' wing cases, and centre-tables, with a sullen oil-lamp of the
+kind called astral by our imaginative ancestors, in the centre,--
+these things were inevitable.  In set piles round the lamp was ranged
+the current literature of the day, in the form of Temperance
+Documents, unbound numbers of one of the Unknown Public's Magazines
+with worn-out steel engravings and high-colored fashion-plates, the
+Poems of a distinguished British author whom it is unnecessary to
+mention, a volume of sermons, or a novel or two, or both, according
+to the tastes of the family, and the Good Book, which is always
+Itself in the cheapest and commonest company.  The father of the
+family with his hand in the breast of his coat, the mother of the
+same in a wide-bordered cap, sometimes a print of the Last Supper, by
+no means Morghen's, or the Father of his Country, or the old General,
+or the Defender of the Constitution, or an unknown clergyman with an
+open book before him,--these were the usual ornaments of the walls,
+the first two a matter of rigor, the others according to politics and
+other tendencies.
+
+This intermediate class of houses, wherever one finds them in New
+England towns, are very apt to be cheerless and unsatisfactory.  They
+have neither the luxury of the mansion-house nor the comfort of the
+farm-house.  They are rarely kept at an agreeable temperature.  The
+mansion-house has large fireplaces and generous chimneys, and is open
+to the sunshine.  The farm-house makes no pretensions, but it has a
+good warm kitchen, at any rate, and one can be comfortable there with
+the rest of the family, without fear and without reproach.  These
+lesser country-houses of genteel aspirations are much given to patent
+subterfuges of one kind and another to get heat without combustion.
+The chilly parlor and the slippery hair-cloth seat take the life out
+of the warmest welcome.  If one would make these places wholesome,
+happy, and cheerful, the first precept would be,--The dearest fuel,
+plenty of it, and let half the heat go up the chimney.  If you can't
+afford this, don't try to live in a "genteel" fashion, but stick to
+the ways of the honest farm-house.
+
+There were a good many comfortable farm-houses scattered about
+Rockland.  The best of them were something of the following pattern,
+which is too often superseded of late by a more pretentious, but
+infinitely less pleasing kind of rustic architecture.  A little back
+from the road, seated directly on the green sod, rose a plain wooden
+building, two stories in front, with a long roof sloping backwards to
+within a few feet of the ground.  This, like the "mansion-house," is
+copied from an old English pattern.  Cottages of this model may be
+seen in Lancashire, for instance, always with the same honest, homely
+look, as if their roofs acknowledged their relationship to the soil
+out of which they sprung.  The walls were unpainted, but turned by
+the slow action of sun and air and rain to a quiet dove or slate
+color.  An old broken millstone at the door,--a well-sweep pointing
+like a finger to the heavens, which the shining round of water
+beneath looked up at like a dark unsleeping eye,--a single large elm
+a little at one side,--a barn twice as big as the house,--a cattle-
+yard, with
+
+     "The white horns tossing above the wall,"--
+
+some fields, in pasture or in crops, with low stone walls round
+them,--a row of beehives,--a gardenpatch, with roots, and currant-
+bushes, and many-hued hollyhocks, and swollen-stemmed, globe-headed,
+seedling onions, and marigolds and flower-de-luces, and lady's-
+delights, and peonies, crowding in together, with southernwood in the
+borders, and woodbine and hops and morning-glories climbing as they
+got a chance,--these were the features by which the Rockland-born
+children remembered the farm-house, when they had grown to be men.
+Such are the recollections that come over poor sailor-boys crawling
+out on reeling yards to reef topsails as their vessels stagger round
+the stormy Cape; and such are the flitting images that make the eyes
+of old country-born merchants look dim and dreamy, as they sit in
+their city palaces, warm with the after-dinner flush of the red wave
+out of which Memory arises, as Aphrodite arose from the green waves
+of the ocean.
+
+Two meeting-houses stood on two eminences, facing each other, and
+looking like a couple of fighting-cocks with their necks straight up
+in the air,--as if they would flap their roofs, the next thing, and
+crow out of their upstretched steeples, and peck at each other's
+glass eyes with their sharp-pointed weathercocks.
+
+The first was a good pattern of the real old-fashioned New England
+meeting-house.  It was a large barn with windows, fronted by a square
+tower crowned with a kind of wooden bell inverted and raised on legs,
+out of which rose a slender spire with the sharp-billed weathercock
+at its summit.  Inside, tall, square pews with flapping seats, and a
+gallery running round three sides of the building.  On the fourth
+side the pulpit, with a huge, dusty sounding-board hanging over it.
+Here preached the Reverend Pierrepont Honeywood, D. D., successor,
+after a number of generations, to the office and the parsonage of the
+Reverend Didymus Bean, before mentioned, but not suspected of any of
+his alleged heresies.  He held to the old faith of the Puritans, and
+occasionally delivered a discourse which was considered by the hard-
+headed theologians of his parish to have settled the whole matter
+fully and finally, so that now there was a good logical basis laid
+down for the Millennium, which might begin at once upon the platform
+of his demonstrations.  Yet the Reverend Dr. Honeywood was fonder of
+preaching plain, practical sermons about the duties of life, and
+showing his Christianity in abundant good works among his people.  It
+was noticed by some few of his flock, not without comment, that the
+great majority of his texts came from the Gospels, and this more and
+more as he became interested in various benevolent enterprises which
+brought him into relations with-ministers and kindhearted laymen of
+other denominations.  He was in fact a man of a very warm, open, and
+exceedingly human disposition, and, although bred by a clerical
+father, whose motto was "Sit anima mea cum Puritanis," he exercised
+his human faculties in the harness of his ancient faith with such
+freedom that the straps of it got so loose they did not interfere
+greatly with the circulation of the warm blood through his system.
+Once in a while he seemed to think it necessary to come out with a
+grand doctrinal sermon, and them he would lapse away for a while into
+preaching on men's duties to each other and to society, and hit hard,
+perhaps, at some of the actual vices of the time and place, and
+insist with such tenderness and eloquence on the great depth and
+breadth of true Christian love and charity, that his oldest deacon
+shook his head, and wished he had shown as much interest when he was
+preaching, three Sabbaths back, on Predestinaticn, or in his
+discourse against the Sabellians.  But he was sound in the faith; no
+doubt of that.  Did he not preside at the council held in the town of
+Tamarack, on the other side of the mountain, which expelled its
+clergyman for maintaining heretical doctrines?  As presiding officer,
+he did not vote, of course, but there was no doubt that he was all
+right; he had some of the Edwards blood in him, and that couldn't
+very well let him go wrong.
+
+The meeting-house on the other and opposite summit was of a more
+modern style, considered by many a great improvement on the old New
+England model, so that it is not uncommon for a country parish to
+pull down its old meeting-house, which has been preached in for a
+hundred years or so, and put up one of these more elegant edifices.
+The new building was in what may be called the florid shingle-Gothic
+manner.  Its pinnacles and crockets and other ornaments were, like
+the body of the building, all of pine wood,--an admirable material,
+as it is very soft and easily worked, and can be painted of any color
+desired.  Inside, the walls were stuccoed in imitation of stone,--
+first a dark brown square, then two light brown squares, then another
+dark brown square, and so on, to represent the accidental differences
+of shade always noticeable in the real stones of which walls are
+built.  To be sure, the architect could not help getting his party-
+colored squares in almost as regular rhythmical order as those of a
+chess-board; but nobody can avoid doing things in a systematic and
+serial way; indeed, people who wish to plant trees in natural chimps
+know very well that they cannot keep from making regular lines and
+symmetrical figures, unless by some trick or other, as that one of
+throwing a peck of potatoes up into the air and sticking in a tree
+wherever a potato happens to fall.  The pews of this meeting-house
+were the usual oblong ones, where people sit close together, with a
+ledge before them to support their hymn-books, liable only to
+occasional contact with the back of the next pew's heads or bonnets,
+and a place running under the seat of that pew where hats could be
+deposited,--always at the risk of the owner, in case of injury by
+boots or crickets.
+
+In this meeting-house preached the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather, a
+divine of the "Liberal" school, as it is commonly called, bred at
+that famous college which used to be thought, twenty or thirty years
+ago, to have the monopoly of training young men in the milder forms
+of heresy.  His ministrations were attended with decency, but not
+followed with enthusiasm.  "The beauty of virtue" got to be an old
+story at last.  "The moral dignity of human nature" ceased to excite
+a thrill of satisfaction, after some hundred repetitions.  It grew to
+be a dull business, this preaching against stealing and intemperance,
+while he knew very well that the thieves were prowling round orchards
+and empty houses, instead of being there to hear the sermon, and that
+the drunkards, being rarely church-goers, get little good by the
+statistics and eloquent appeals of the preacher.  Every now and then,
+however, the Reverend Mr. Fairweather let off a polemic discourse
+against his neighbor opposite, which waked his people up a little;
+but it was a languid congregation, at best,--very apt to stay away
+from meeting in the afternoon, and not at all given to extra evening
+services.  The minister, unlike his rival of the other side of the
+way, was a down-hearted and timid kind of man.  He went on preaching
+as he had been taught to preach, but he had misgivings at times.
+There was a little Roman Catholic church at the foot of the hill
+where his own was placed, which he always had to pass on Sundays.  He
+could never look on the thronging multitudes that crowded its pews
+and aisles or knelt bare-headed on its steps, without a longing to
+get in among them and go down on his knees and enjoy that luxury of
+devotional contact which makes a worshipping throng as different from
+the same numbers praying apart as a bed of coals is from a trail of
+scattered cinders.
+
+"Oh, if I could but huddle in with those poor laborers and working-
+women!  "he would say to himself.  "If I could but breathe that
+atmosphere, stifling though it be, yet made holy by ancient litanies,
+and cloudy with the smoke of hallowed incense, for one hour, instead
+of droning over these moral precepts to my half-sleeping
+congregation!"  The intellectual isolation of his sect preyed upon
+him; for, of all terrible things to natures like his, the most
+terrible is to belong to a minority.  No person that looked at his
+thin and sallow cheek, his sunken and sad eye, his tremulous lip, his
+contracted forehead, or who heard his querulous, though not unmusical
+voice, could fail to see that his life was an uneasy one, that he was
+engaged in some inward conflict.  His dark, melancholic aspect
+contrasted with his seemingly cheerful creed, and was all the more
+striking, as the worthy Dr. Honeywood, professing a belief which made
+him a passenger on board a shipwrecked planet, was yet a most good-
+humored and companionable gentleman, whose laugh on week-days did one
+as much good to listen to as the best sermon he ever delivered on a
+Sunday.
+
+A mile or two from the centre of Rockland was a pretty little
+Episcopal church, with a roof like a wedge of cheese, a square tower,
+a stained window, and a trained rector, who read the service with
+such ventral depth of utterance and rrreduplication of the rrresonant
+letter, that his own mother would not have known him for her son, if
+the good woman had not ironed his surplice and put it on with her own
+hands.
+
+There were two public-houses in the place: one dignified with the
+name of the Mountain House, somewhat frequented by city people in the
+summer months, large-fronted, three-storied, balconied, boasting a
+distinct ladies'-drawing-room, and spreading a table d'hote of some
+pretensions; the other, "Pollard's Tahvern," in the common speech,--a
+two-story building, with a bar-room, once famous, where there was a
+great smell of hay and boots and pipes and all other bucolic-flavored
+elements,--where games of checkers were played on the back of the
+bellows with red and white kernels of corn, or with beans and coffee,
+where a man slept in a box-settle at night, to wake up early
+passengers,--where teamsters came in, with wooden-handled whips and
+coarse frocks, reinforcing the bucolic flavor of the atmosphere, and
+middle-aged male gossips, sometimes including the squire of the
+neighboring law-office, gathered to exchange a question or two about
+the news, and then fall into that solemn state of suspended animation
+which the temperance bar-rooms of modern days produce in human
+beings, as the Grotta del Cane does in dogs in the well-known
+experiments related by travellers.  This bar-room used to be famous
+for drinking and storytelling, and sometimes fighting, in old times.
+That was when there were rows of decanters on the shelf behind the
+bar, and a hissing vessel of hot water ready, to make punch, and
+three or four loggerheads (long irons clubbed at the end) were always
+lying in the fire in the cold season, waiting to be plunged into
+sputtering and foaming mugs of flip,--a goodly compound; speaking
+according to the flesh, made with beer and sugar, and a certain
+suspicion of strong waters, over which a little nutmeg being grated,
+and in it the hot iron being then allowed to sizzle, there results a
+peculiar singed aroma, which the wise regard as a warning to remove
+themselves at once out of the reach of temptation.
+
+But the bar of Pollard's Tahvern no longer presented its old
+attractions, and the loggerheads had long disappeared from the fire.
+In place of the decanters, were boxes containing "lozengers," as they
+were commonly called, sticks of candy in jars, cigars in tumblers, a
+few lemons, grown hard-skinned and marvellously shrunken by long
+exposure, but still feebly suggestive of possible lemonade,--the
+whole ornamented by festoons of yellow and blue cut flypaper.  On the
+front shelf of the bar stood a large German-silver pitcher of water,
+and scattered about were ill-conditioned lamps, with wicks that
+always wanted picking, which burned red and smoked a good deal, and
+were apt to go out without any obvious cause, leaving strong
+reminiscences of the whale-fishery in the circumambient air.
+
+The common schoolhouses of Rockland were dwarfed by the grandeur of
+the Apollinean Institute.  The master passed one of them, in a walk
+he was taking, soon after his arrival at Rockland.  He looked in at
+
+the rows of desks, and recalled his late experiences.  He could not
+help laughing, as he thought how neatly he had knocked the young
+butcher off his pins.
+
+"A little science is a dangerous thing,' as well as a little
+'learning,'"  he said to himself; "only it's dangerous to the fellow
+you' try it on."  And he cut him a good stick, and began climbing the
+side of The Mountain to get a look at that famous Rattlesnake Ledge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE SUNBEAM AND THE SHADOW.
+
+The virtue of the world is not mainly in its leaders.  In the midst
+of the multitude which follows there is often something better than
+in the one that goes before.  Old generals wanted to take Toulon, but
+one of their young colonels showed them how.  The junior counsel has
+been known not unfrequently to make a better argument than his senior
+fellow,--if, indeed, he did not make both their arguments.  Good
+ministers will tell you they have parishioners who beat them in the
+practice of the virtues.  A great establishment, got up on commercial
+principles, like the Apollinean Institute, might yet be well carried
+on, if it happened to get good teachers.  And when Master Langdon
+came to see its management, he recognized that there must be fidelity
+and intelligence somewhere among the instructors.  It was only
+necessary to look for a moment at the fair, open forehead, the still,
+tranquil eye of gentle, habitual authority, the sweet gravity that
+lay upon the lips, to hear the clear answers to the pupils'
+questions, to notice how every request had the force without the form
+of a command, and the young man could not doubt that the good genius
+of the school stood before him in the person of Helen barley.
+
+It was the old story.  A poor country-clergyman dies, and leaves a
+widow and a daughter.  In Old England the daughter would have eaten
+the bitter bread of a governess in some rich family.  In New England
+she must keep a school.  So, rising from one sphere to another, she
+at length finds herself the prima donna in the department of
+instruction in Mr. Silas Peckham's educational establishment.
+
+What a miserable thing it is to be poor.  She was dependent, frail,
+sensitive, conscientious.  She was in the power of a hard, grasping,
+thin-blooded, tough-fibred, trading educator, who neither knew nor
+cared for a tender woman's sensibilities, but who paid her and meant
+to have his money's worth out of her brains, and as much more than
+his money's worth as he could get.  She was consequently, in plain
+English, overworked, and an overworked woman is always a sad sight,--
+sadder a great deal than an overworked man, because she is so much
+more fertile in capacities of suffering than a man.  She has so many
+varieties of headache,--sometimes as if Jael were driving the nail
+that killed Sisera into her temples,--sometimes letting her work with
+half her brain while the other half throbs as if it would go to
+pieces,--sometimes tightening round the brows as if her cap-band were
+a ring of iron,--and then her neuralgias, and her backaches, and her
+fits of depression, in which she thinks she is nothing and less than
+nothing, and those paroxysms which men speak slightingly of as
+hysterical,--convulsions, that is all, only not commonly fatal ones,
+--so many trials which belong to her fine and mobile structure,--that
+she is always entitled to pity, when she is placed in conditions
+which develop her nervous tendencies.
+
+The poor young lady's work had, of course, been doubled since the
+departure of Master Langdon's predecessor.  Nobody knows what the
+weariness of instruction is, as soon as the teacher's faculties begin
+to be overtasked, but those who have tried it.  The relays of fresh
+pupils, each new set with its exhausting powers in full action,
+coming one after another, take out all the reserved forces and
+faculties of resistance from the subject of their draining process.
+
+The day's work was over, and it was late in the evening, when she sat
+down, tired and faint, with a great bundle of girls' themes or
+compositions to read over before she could rest her weary head on the
+pillow of her narrow trundle-bed, and forget for a while the
+treadmill stair of labor she was daily climbing.
+
+How she dreaded this most forlorn of all a teacher's tasks!  She was
+conscientious in her duties, and would insist on reading every
+sentence,--there was no saying where she might find faults of grammar
+or bad spelling.  There might have been twenty or thirty of these
+themes in the bundle before her.  Of course she knew pretty well the
+leading sentiments they could contain: that beauty was subject to the
+accidents of time; that wealth was inconstant, and existence
+uncertain; that virtue was its own reward; that youth exhaled, like
+the dewdrop from the flower, ere the sun had reached its meridian;
+that life was o'ershadowed with trials; that the lessons of virtue
+instilled by our beloved teachers were to be our guides through all
+our future career.  The imagery employed consisted principally of
+roses, lilies, birds, clouds, and brooks, with the celebrated
+comparison of wayward genius to meteor.  Who does not know the small,
+slanted, Italian hand of these girls'-compositions, their stringing
+together of the good old traditional copy-book phrases; their
+occasional gushes of sentiment, their profound estimates of the
+world, sounding to the old folks that read them as the experience of
+a bantam pullet's last-hatched young one with the chips of its shell
+on its head would sound to a Mother Cary's chicken, who knew the
+great ocean with all its typhoons and tornadoes?  Yet every now and
+then one is liable to be surprised with strange clairvoyant flashes,
+that can hardly be explained, except by the mysterious inspiration
+which every now and then seizes a young girl and exalts her
+intelligence, just as hysteria in other instances exalts the
+sensibility,--a little something of that which made Joan of Arc, and
+the Burney girl who prophesied "Evelina," and the Davidson sisters.
+In the midst of these commonplace exercises which Miss Darley read
+over so carefully were two or three that had something of individual
+flavor about them, and here and there there was an image or an
+epithet which showed the footprint of a passionate nature, as a
+fallen scarlet feather marks the path the wild flamingo has trodden.
+
+The young lady-teacher read them with a certain indifference of
+manner, as one reads proofs--noting defects of detail, but not
+commonly arrested by the matters treated of.  Even Miss Charlotte Ann
+Wood's poem, beginning
+
+          "How sweet at evening's balmy hour,"
+
+did not excite her.  She marked the inevitable false rhyme of Cockney
+and Yankee beginners, morn and dawn, and tossed the verses on the
+pile of papers she had finished.  She was looking over some of the
+last of them in a rather listless way,--for the poor thing was
+getting sleepy in spite of herself,--when she came to one which
+seemed to rouse her attention, and lifted her drooping lids.  She
+looked at it a moment before she would touch it.  Then she took hold
+of it by one corner and slid it off from the rest.  One would have
+said she was afraid of it, or had some undefined antipathy which made
+it hateful to her.  Such odd fancies are common enough in young
+persons in her nervous state.  Many of these young people will jump
+up twenty times a day and run to dabble the tips of their fingers in
+water, after touching the most inoffensive objects.
+
+This composition was written in a singular, sharp-pointed, long,
+slender hand, on a kind of wavy, ribbed paper.  There was something
+strangely suggestive about the look of it, but exactly of what, Miss
+barley either could not or did not try to think.  The subject of the
+paper was The Mountain,--the composition being a sort of descriptive
+rhapsody.  It showed a startling familiarity with some of the savage
+scenery of the region.  One would have said that the writer must have
+threaded its wildest solitudes by the light of the moon and stars as
+well as by day.  As the teacher read on, her color changed, and a
+kind of tremulous agitation came over her.  There were hints in this
+strange paper she did not know what to make of.  There was something
+in its descriptions and imagery that recalled,--Miss Darley could not
+say what,--but it made her frightfully nervous.  Still she could not
+help reading, till she came to one passage which so agitated her,
+that the tired and over-wearied girl's self-control left her
+entirely.  She sobbed once or twice, then laughed convulsively; and
+flung herself on the bed, where she worked out a set hysteric spasm
+as she best might, without anybody to rub her hands and see that she
+did not hurt herself.
+
+By and by she got quiet, rose and went to her bookcase, took down a
+volume of Coleridge, and read a short time, and so to bed, to sleep
+and wake from time to time with a sudden start out of uneasy dreams.
+
+Perhaps it is of no great consequence what it was in the composition
+which set her off into this nervous paroxysm.  She was in such a
+state that almost any slight agitation would have brought on the
+attack, and it was the accident of her transient excitability, very
+probably, which made a trifling cause the seeming occasion of so much
+disturbance.  The theme was signed, in the same peculiar, sharp,
+slender hand, E. Venner, and was, of course, written by that wild-
+looking girl who had excited the master's curiosity and prompted his
+question, as before mentioned.  The next morning the lady-teacher
+looked pale and wearied, naturally enough, but she was in her place
+at the usual hour, and Master Langdon in his own.
+
+The girls had not yet entered the school room.
+
+"You have been ill, I am afraid," said Mr. Bernard.
+
+"I was not well yesterday," she, answered.  "I had a worry and a kind
+of fright.  It is so dreadful to have the charge of all these young
+souls and bodies.  Every young girl ought to walk locked close, arm
+in arm, between two guardian angels.  Sometimes I faint almost with
+the thought of all that I ought to do, and of my own weakness and
+wants.--Tell me, are there not natures born so out of parallel with
+the lines of natural law that nothing short of a miracle can bring
+them right?"
+
+Mr. Bernard had speculated somewhat, as all thoughtful persons of his
+profession are forced to do, on the innate organic tendencies with
+which individuals, families, and races are born.  He replied,
+therefore, with a smile, as one to whom the question suggested a very
+familiar class of facts.
+
+"Why, of course.  Each of us is only the footing-up of a double
+column of figures that goes back to the first pair.  Every unit
+tells,--and some of them are plus, and some minus.  If the columns
+don't add up right, it is commonly because we can't make out all the
+figures.  I don't mean to say that something may not be added by
+Nature to make up for losses and keep the race to its average, but we
+are mainly nothing but the answer to a long sum in addition and
+subtraction.  No doubt there are people born with impulses at every
+possible angle to the parallels of Nature, as you call them.  If they
+happen to cut these at right angles, of course they are beyond the
+reach of common influences.  Slight obliquities are what we have most
+to do with in education.  Penitentiaries and insane asylums take care
+of most of the right-angle cases.--I am afraid I have put it too
+much like a professor, and I am only a student, you know.  Pray, what
+set you to asking me this?  Any strange cases among the scholars?"
+
+The meek teacher's blue eyes met the luminous glance that came with
+the question.  She, too, was of gentle blood,--not meaning by that
+that she was of any noted lineage, but that she came of a cultivated
+stock, never rich, but long trained to intellectual callings.  A
+thousand decencies, amenities, reticences, graces, which no one
+thinks of until he misses them, are the traditional right of those
+who spring from such families.  And when two persons of this
+exceptional breeding meet in the midst of the common multitude, they
+seek each other's company at once by the natural law of elective
+affinity.  It is wonderful how men and women know their peers.  If
+two stranger queens, sole survivors of two shipwrecked vessels, were
+cast, half-naked, on a rock together, each would at once address the
+other as "Our Royal Sister."
+
+Helen Darley looked into the dark eyes of Bernard Langdon glittering
+with the light which flashed from them with his question.  Not as
+those foolish, innocent country-girls of the small village did she
+look into them, to be fascinated and bewildered, but to sound them
+with a calm, steadfast purpose.  "A gentleman," she said to herself,
+as she read his expression and his features with a woman's rapid, but
+exhausting glance.  "A lady," he said to himself, as he met her
+questioning look,--so brief, so quiet, yet so assured, as of one whom
+necessity had taught to read faces quickly without offence, as
+children read the faces of parents, as wives read the faces of hard-
+souled husbands.  All this was but a few seconds' work, and yet the
+main point was settled.  If there had been any vulgar curiosity or
+coarseness of any kind lurking in his expression, she would have
+detected it.  If she had not lifted her eyes to his face so softly
+and kept them there so calmly and withdrawn them so quietly, he would
+not have said to himself, "She is a LADY," for that word meant a good
+deal to the descendant of the courtly Wentworths and the scholarly
+Langdons.
+
+"There are strange people everywhere, Mr. Langdon," she said, "and I
+don't think our schoolroom is an exception.  I am glad you believe in
+the force of transmitted tendencies.  It would break my heart, if I
+did not think that there are faults beyond the reach of everything
+but God's special grace.  I should die, if I thought that my
+negligence or incapacity was alone responsible for the errors and
+sins of those I have charge of.  Yet there are mysteries I do not
+know how to account for."  She looked all round the schoolroom, and
+then said, in a whisper, "Mr. Langdon, we had a girl that stole, in
+the school, not long ago.  Worse than that, we had a girl who tried
+to set us on fire.  Children of good people, both of them.  And we
+have a girl now that frightens me so"--
+
+The door opened, and three misses came in to take their seats: three
+types, as it happened, of certain classes, into which it would not
+have been difficult to distribute the greater number of the girls in
+the school.---Hannah Martin.  Fourteen years and three months old.
+Short-necked, thick-waisted, round-cheeked, smooth, vacant forehead,
+large, dull eyes.  Looks good-natured, with little other expression.
+Three buns in her bag, and a large apple.  Has a habit of attacking
+her provisions in school-hours.--Rosa Milburn.  Sixteen.  Brunette,
+with a rare-ripe flush in her cheeks.  Color comes and goes easily.
+Eyes wandering, apt to be downcast.  Moody at times.  Said to be
+passionate, if irritated.  Finished in high relief.  Carries
+shoulders well back and walks well, as if proud of her woman's life,
+with a slight rocking movement, being one of the wide-flanged
+pattern, but seems restless,--a hard girl to look after.  Has a
+romance in her pocket, which she means to read in school-time.
+--Charlotte Ann Wood.  Fifteen.  The poetess before mentioned.  Long,
+light ringlets, pallid complexion, blue eyes.  Delicate child, half
+unfolded.  Gentle, but languid and despondent.  Does not go much with
+the other girls, but reads a good deal, especially poetry,
+underscoring favorite passages.  Writes a great many verses, very
+fast, not very correctly; full of the usual human sentiments,
+expressed in the accustomed phrases.  Under-vitalized.  Sensibilities
+not covered with their normal integuments.  A negative condition,
+often confounded with genius, and sometimes running into it.  Young
+people who fall out of line through weakness of the active faculties
+are often confounded with those who step out of it through strength
+of the intellectual ones.
+
+The girls kept coming in, one after another, or in pairs or groups,
+until the schoolroom was nearly full.  Then there was a little pause,
+and a light step was heard in the passage.  The lady-teacher's eyes
+turned to the door, and the master's followed them in the same
+direction.
+
+A girl of about seventeen entered.  She was tall and slender, but
+rounded, with a peculiar undulation of movement, such as one
+sometimes sees in perfectly untutored country-girls, whom Nature, the
+queen of graces, has taken in hand, but more commonly in connection
+with the very highest breeding of the most thoroughly trained
+society.  She was a splendid scowling beauty, black-browed, with a
+flash of white teeth which was always like a surprise when her lips
+parted.  She wore a checkered dress, of a curious pattern, and a
+camel's-hair scarf twisted a little fantastically about her.  She
+went to her seat, which she had moved a short distance apart from the
+rest, and, sitting down, began playing listlessly with her gold
+chain, as was a common habit with her, coiling it and uncoiling it
+about her slender wrist, and braiding it in with her long, delicate
+fingers.  Presently she looked up.  Black, piercing eyes, not large,
+--a low forehead, as low as that of Clytie in the Townley bust,--
+black hair, twisted in heavy braids,--a face that one could not help
+looking at for its beauty, yet that one wanted to look away from for
+something in its expression, and could not for those diamond eyes.
+They were fixed on the lady-teacher now.  The latter turned her own
+away, and let them wander over the other scholars. But they could
+not help coming back again for a single glance at the wild beauty.
+The diamond eyes were on her still.  She turned the leaves of several
+of her books, as if in search of some passage, and, when she thought
+she had waited long enough to be safe, once more stole a quick look
+at the dark girl. The diamond eyes were still upon her.  She put her
+kerchief to her forehead, which had grown slightly moist; she sighed
+once, almost shivered, for she felt cold; then, following some ill-
+defined impulse, which she could not resist, she left her place and
+went to the young girl's desk.
+
+"What do you want of me, Elsie Venner?"  It was a strange question to
+put, for the girl had not signified that she wished the teacher to
+come to her.
+
+"Nothing," she said.  "I thought I could make you come."  The girl
+spoke in a low tone, a kind of half-whisper.  She did not lisp, yet
+her articulation of one or two consonants was not absolutely perfect.
+
+"Where did you get that flower, Elsie?" said Miss Darley.  It was a
+rare alpine flower, which was found only in one spot among the rocks
+of The Mountain.
+
+"Where it grew," said Elsie Veneer.  "Take it."  The teacher could not
+refuse her.  The girl's finger tips touched hers as she took it.  How
+cold they were for a girl of such an organization!
+
+The teacher went back to her seat.  She made an excuse for quitting
+the schoolroom soon afterwards.  The first thing she did was to fling
+the flower into her fireplace and rake the ashes over it.  The second
+was to wash the tips of her fingers, as if she had been another Lady
+Macbeth.  A poor, over-tasked, nervous creature,--we must not think
+too much of her fancies.
+
+After school was done, she finished the talk with the master which
+had been so suddenly interrupted.  There were things spoken of which
+may prove interesting by and by, but there are other matters we must
+first attend to.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE EVENT OF THE SEASON.
+
+"Mr. and Mrs. Colonel Sprowle's compliments to Mr. Langdon and
+requests the pleasure of his company at a social entertainment on
+Wednesday evening next.
+
+" Elm St. Monday."
+
+
+On paper of a pinkish color and musky smell, with a large "S" at the
+top, and an embossed border.  Envelop adherent, not sealed.
+Addressed
+
+          LANGDON ESQ.
+          Present.
+
+Brought by H. Frederic Sprowle, youngest son of the Colonel,--the H.
+of course standing for the paternal Hezekiah, put in to please the
+father, and reduced to its initial to please the mother, she having a
+marked preference for Frederic.  Boy directed to wait for an answer.
+
+"Mr. Langdon has the pleasure of accepting Mr. and Mrs. Colonel
+Sprowle's polite invitation for Wednesday evening."
+
+On plain paper, sealed with an initial.
+
+In walking along the main street, Mr. Bernard had noticed a large
+house of some pretensions to architectural display, namely,
+unnecessarily projecting eaves, giving it a mushroomy aspect, wooden
+mouldings at various available points, and a grandiose arched
+portico.  It looked a little swaggering by the side of one or two of
+the mansion-houses that were not far from it, was painted too bright
+for Mr. Bernard's taste, had rather too fanciful a fence before it,
+and had some fruit-trees planted in the front-yard, which to this
+fastidious young gentleman implied a defective sense of the fitness
+of things, not promising in people who lived in so large a house,
+with a mushroom roof and a triumphal arch for its entrance.
+
+This place was known as "Colonel Sprowle's villa," (genteel
+friends,)--as "the elegant residence of our distinguished fellow-
+citizen, Colonel Sprowle," (Rockland Weekly Universe,)--as "the neew
+haouse," (old settlers,)--as "Spraowle's Folly, "(disaffected and
+possibly envious neighbors,)--and in common discourse, as "the
+Colonel's."
+
+Hezekiah Sprowle, Esquire, Colonel Sprowle of the Commonwealth's
+Militia, was a retired "merchant."  An India merchant he might,
+perhaps, have been properly called; for he used to deal in West India
+goods, such as coffee, sugar, and molasses, not to speak of rum,--
+also in tea, salt fish, butter and cheese, oil and candles, dried
+fruit, agricultural "p'doose" generally, industrial products, such
+as boots and shoes, and various kinds of iron and wooden ware, and at
+one end of the establishment in calicoes and other stuffs,--to say
+nothing of miscellaneous objects of the most varied nature, from
+sticks of candy, which tempted in the smaller youth with coppers in
+their fists, up to ornamental articles of apparel, pocket-books,
+breast-pins, gilt-edged Bibles, stationery, in short, everything
+which was like to prove seductive to the rural population.  The
+Colonel had made money in trade, and also by matrimony.  He had
+married Sarah, daughter and heiress of the late Tekel Jordan, Esq.,
+an old miser, who gave the town-clock, which carries his name to
+posterity in large gilt letters as a generous benefactor of his
+native place.  In due time the Colonel reaped the reward of well-
+placed affections.  When his wife's inheritance fell in, he thought
+he had money enough to give up trade, and therefore sold out his
+"store," called in some dialects of the English language shop, and
+his business.
+
+Life became pretty hard work to him, of course, as soon as he had
+nothing particular to do.  Country people with money enough not to
+have to work are in much more danger than city people in the same
+condition.  They get a specific look and character, which are the
+same in all the villages where one studies them.  They very commonly
+fall into a routine, the basis of which is going to some lounging-
+place or other, a bar-room, a reading-room, or something of the kind.
+They grow slovenly in dress, and wear the same hat forever.  They
+have a feeble curiosity for news perhaps, which they take daily as a
+man takes his bitters, and then fall silent and think they are
+thinking.  But the mind goes out under this regimen, like a fire
+without a draught; and it is not very strange, if the instinct of
+mental self-preservation drives them to brandy-and-water, which makes
+the hoarse whisper of memory musical for a few brief moments, and
+puts a weak leer of promise on the features of the hollow-eyed
+future.  The Colonel was kept pretty well in hand as yet by his wife,
+and though it had happened to him once or twice to come home rather
+late at night with a curious tendency to say the same thing twice and
+even three times over, it had always been in very cold weather,--and
+everybody knows that no one is safe to drink a couple of glasses of
+wine in a warm room and go suddenly out into the cold air.
+
+Miss Matilda Sprowle, sole daughter of the house, had reached the age
+at which young ladies are supposed in technical language to have come
+out, and thereafter are considered to be in company.
+
+"There's one piece o' goods," said the Colonel to his wife, "that we
+ha'n't disposed of, nor got a customer for yet.  That 's Matildy.  I
+don't mean to set HER up at vaandoo.  I guess she can have her pick
+of a dozen."
+
+"She 's never seen anybody yet," said Mrs. Sprowle, who had had a
+certain project for some time, but had kept quiet about it.  "Let's
+have a party, and give her a chance to show herself and see some of
+the young folks."
+
+The Colonel was not very clear-headed, and he thought, naturally
+enough, that the party was his own suggestion, because his remark led
+to the first starting of the idea.  He entered into the plan,
+therefore, with a feeling of pride as well as pleasure, and the great
+project was resolved upon in a family council without a dissentient
+voice.  This was the party, then, to which Mr. Bernard was going.
+The town had been full of it for a week.  "Everybody was asked."  So
+everybody said that was invited.  But how in respect of those who
+were not asked?  If it had been one of the old mansion-houses that
+was giving a party, the boundary between the favored and the slighted
+families would have been known pretty well beforehand, and there
+would have been no great amount of grumbling.  But the Colonel, for
+all his title, had a forest of poor relations and a brushwood swamp
+of shabby friends, for he had scrambled up to fortune, and now the
+time was come when he must define his new social position.
+
+This is always an awkward business in town or country.  An exclusive
+alliance between two powers is often the same thing as a declaration
+of war against a third.  Rockland was soon split into a triumphant
+minority, invited to Mrs. Sprowle's party, and a great majority,
+uninvited, of which the fraction just on the border line between
+recognized "gentility" and the level of the ungloved masses was in an
+active state of excitement and indignation.
+
+"Who is she, I should like to know?"  said Mrs. Saymore, the tailor's
+wife.  "There was plenty of folks in Rockland as good as ever Sally
+Jordan was, if she had managed to pick up a merchant.  Other folks
+could have married merchants, if their families was n't as wealthy as
+them old skinflints that willed her their money," etc., etc.  Mrs.
+Saymore expressed the feeling of many beside herself.  She had,
+however, a special right to be proud of the name she bore.  Her
+husband was own cousin to the Saymores of Freestone Avenue (who write
+the name Seymour, and claim to be of the Duke of Somerset's family,
+showing a clear descent from the Protector to Edward Seymour,
+(1630,)--then a jump that would break a herald's neck to one Seth
+Saymore,(1783,)--from whom to the head of the present family the line
+is clear again).  Mrs. Saymore, the tailor's wife, was not invited,
+because her husband mended clothes.  If he had confined himself
+strictly to making them, it would have put a different face upon the
+matter.
+
+The landlord of the Mountain House and his lady were invited to Mrs.
+Sprowle's party.  Not so the landlord of Pollard's Tahvern and his
+lady.  Whereupon the latter vowed that they would have a party at
+their house too, and made arrangements for a dance of twenty or
+thirty couples, to be followed by an entertainment.  Tickets to this
+"Social Ball" were soon circulated, and, being accessible to all at a
+moderate price, admission to the "Elegant Supper" included, this
+second festival promised to be as merry, if not as select, as the
+great party.
+
+Wednesday came.  Such doings had never been heard of in Rockland as
+went on that day at the "villa."  The carpet had been taken up in the
+long room, so that the young folks might have a dance.  Miss
+Matilda's piano had been moved in, and two fiddlers and a clarionet-
+player engaged to make music.  All kinds of lamps had been put in
+requisition, and even colored wax-candles figured on the mantel-
+pieces.  The costumes of the family had been tried on the day before:
+the Colonel's black suit fitted exceedingly well; his lady's velvet
+dress displayed her contours to advantage; Miss Matilda's flowered
+silk was considered superb; the eldest son of the family, Mr. T.
+Jordan Sprowle, called affectionately and elegantly "Geordie," voted
+himself "stunnin'"; and even the small youth who had borne Mr.
+Bernard's invitation was effective in a new jacket and trousers,
+buttony in front, and baggy in the reverse aspect, as is wont to be
+the case with the home-made garments of inland youngsters.
+
+Great preparations had been made for the refection which was to be
+part of the entertainment.  There was much clinking of borrowed
+spoons, which were to be carefully counted, and much clicking of
+borrowed china, which was to be tenderly handled, for nobody in the
+country keeps those vast closets full of such things which one may
+see in rich city-houses.  Not a great deal could be done in the way
+of flowers, for there were no greenhouses, and few plants were out as
+yet; but there were paper ornaments for the candlesticks, and colored
+mats for the lamps, and all the tassels of the curtains and bells
+were taken out of those brown linen bags, in which, for reasons
+hitherto undiscovered, they are habitually concealed in some
+households.  In the remoter apartments every imaginable operation was
+going on at once,--roasting, boiling, baking, beating, rolling,
+pounding in mortars, frying, freezing; for there was to be ice-cream
+to-night of domestic manufacture;--and in the midst of all these
+labors, Mrs. Sprowle and Miss Matilda were moving about, directing
+and helping as they best might, all day long.  When the evening came,
+it might be feared they would not be in just the state of mind and
+body to entertain company.
+
+--One would like to give a party now and then, if one could be a
+billionnaire.--"Antoine, I am going to have twenty people to dine to-
+day."  "Biens, Madame."  Not a word or thought more about it, but get
+home in season to dress, and come down to your own table, one of your
+own guests.--"Giuseppe, we are to have a party a week from to-night,
+--five hundred invitations--there is the list."  The day comes.
+"Madam, do you remember you have your party tonight?"  "Why, so I
+have!  Everything right?  supper and all?"  "All as it should be,
+Madam."
+
+"Send up Victorine."  "Victorine, full toilet for this evening,--
+pink, diamonds, and emeralds.  Coiffeur at seven.  Allez."--
+Billionism, or even millionism, must be a blessed kind of state, with
+health and clear conscience and youth and good looks,--but most
+blessed is this, that it takes off all the mean cares which give
+people the three wrinkles between the eyebrows, and leaves them free
+to have a good time and make others have a good time, all the way
+along from the charity that tips up unexpected loads of wood before
+widows' houses, and leaves foundling turkeys upon poor men's door-
+steps, and sets lean clergymen crying at the sight of anonymous
+fifty-dollar bills, to the taste which orders a perfect banquet in
+such sweet accord with every sense that everybody's nature flowers
+out full--blown in its golden--glowing, fragrant atmosphere.
+
+--A great party given by the smaller gentry of the interior is a kind
+of solemnity, so to speak.  It involves so much labor and anxiety,--
+its spasmodic splendors are so violently contrasted with the
+homeliness of every-day family-life,--it is such a formidable matter
+to break in the raw subordinates to the manege of the cloak-room and
+the table,--there is such a terrible uncertainty in the results of
+unfamiliar culinary operations,--so many feuds are involved in
+drawing that fatal line which divides the invited from the uninvited
+fraction of the local universe,--that, if the notes requested the
+pleasure of the guests' company on "this solemn occasion," they would
+pretty nearly express the true state of things.
+
+The Colonel himself had been pressed into the service.  He had
+pounded something in the great mortar.  He had agitated a quantity of
+sweetened and thickened milk in what was called a cream-freezer.  At
+eleven o'clock, A. M., he retired for a space.  On returning, his
+color was noted to be somewhat heightened, and he showed a
+disposition to be jocular with the female help,--which tendency,
+displaying itself in livelier demonstrations than were approved at
+head-quarters, led to his being detailed to out-of-door duties, such
+as raking gravel, arranging places for horses to be hitched to, and
+assisting in the construction of an arch of wintergreen at the porch
+of the mansion.
+
+A whiff from Mr. Geordie's cigar refreshed the toiling females from
+time to time; for the windows had to be opened occasionally, while
+all these operations were going on, and the youth amused himself with
+inspecting the interior, encouraging the operatives now and then in
+the phrases commonly employed by genteel young men,--for he had
+perused an odd volume of "Verdant Green," and was acquainted with a
+Sophomore from one of the fresh-water colleges.  "Go it on the feed!"
+exclaimed this spirited young man.  "Nothin' like a good spread.
+Grub enough and good liquor, that's the ticket.  Guv'nor'll do the
+heavy polite, and let me alone for polishin' off the young charmers."
+And Mr. Geordie looked expressively at a handmaid who was rolling
+gingerbread, as if he were rehearsing for "Don Giovanni."
+
+Evening came at last, and the ladies were forced to leave the scene
+of their labors to array themselves for the coming festivities.  The
+tables had been set in a back room, the meats were ready, the pickles
+were displayed, the cake was baked, the blanc-mange had stiffened,
+and the ice-cream had frozen.
+
+At half past seven o'clock, the Colonel, in costume, came into the
+front parlor, and proceeded to light the lamps.  Some were good-
+humored enough and took the hint of a lighted match at once.  Others
+were as vicious as they could be,--would not light on any terms, any
+more than if they were filled with water, or lighted and smoked one
+side of the chimney, or spattered a few sparks and sulked themselves
+out, or kept up a faint show of burning, so that their ground glasses
+looked as feebly phosphorescent as so many invalid fireflies.  With
+much coaxing and screwing and pricking, a tolerable illumination was
+at last achieved.  At eight there was a grand rustling of silks, and
+Mrs. and Miss Sprowle descended from their respective bowers or
+boudoirs.  Of course they were pretty well tired by this time, and
+very glad to sit down,--having the prospect before them of being
+obliged to stand for hours.  The Colonel walked about the parlor,
+inspecting his regiment of lamps.  By and by Mr. Geordie entered.
+
+"Mph! mph!"  he sniffed, as he came in.  "You smell of lamp-smoke
+here."
+
+That always galls people,--to have a new-comer accuse them of smoke
+or close air, which they have got used to and do not perceive.  The
+Colonel raged at the thought of his lamps' smoking, and tongued a few
+anathemas inside of his shut teeth, but turned down two or three
+wicks that burned higher than the rest.
+
+Master H. Frederic next made his appearance, with questionable marks
+upon his fingers and countenance.  Had been tampering with something
+brown and sticky.  His elder brother grew playful, and caught him by
+the baggy reverse of his more essential garment.
+
+"Hush!" said Mrs. Sprowle,--"there 's the bell!"
+
+Everybody took position at once, and began to look very smiling and
+altogether at ease.--False alarm.  Only a parcel of spoons,--
+"loaned," as the inland folks say when they mean lent, by a neighbor.
+
+"Better late than never!" said the Colonel, "let me heft them
+spoons."
+
+Mrs. Sprowle came down into her chair again as if all her bones had
+been bewitched out of her.
+
+"I'm pretty nigh beat out a'ready," said she, "before any of the
+folks has come."
+
+They sat silent awhile, waiting for the first arrival.  How nervous
+they got! and how their senses were sharpened!
+
+"Hark!"  said Miss Matilda,--"what 's that rumblin'?"
+
+It was a cart going over a bridge more than a mile off, which at any
+other time they would not have heard.  After this there was a lull,
+and poor Mrs. Sprowle's head nodded once or twice.  Presently a
+crackling and grinding of gravel;--how much that means, when we are
+waiting for those whom we long or dread to see!  Then a change in the
+tone of the gravel-crackling.
+
+"Yes, they have turned in at our gate.  They're comin'!  Mother!
+mother!"
+
+Everybody in position, smiling and at ease.  Bell rings.  Enter the
+first set of visitors.  The Event of the Season has begun.
+
+"Law! it's nothin' but the Cranes' folks!  I do believe Mahala 's
+come in that old green de-laine she wore at the Surprise Party!"
+
+Miss Matilda had peeped through a crack of the door and made this
+observation and the remark founded thereon.  Continuing her attitude
+of attention, she overheard Mrs. Crane and her two daughters
+conversing in the attiring-room, up one flight.
+
+"How fine everything is in the great house!"  said Mrs. Crane,--"jest
+look at the picters!"
+
+"Matildy Sprowle's drawin's," said Ada Azuba, the eldest daughter.
+
+"I should think so," said Mahala Crane, her younger sister,--a wide-
+awake girl, who had n't been to school for nothing, and performed a
+little on the lead pencil herself.  "I should like to know whether
+that's a hay-cock or a mountain!"
+
+Miss Matilda winced; for this must refer to her favorite monochrome,
+executed by laying on heavy shadows and stumping them down into
+mellow harmony,--the style of drawing which is taught in six lessons,
+and the kind of specimen which is executed in something less than one
+hour.  Parents and other very near relatives are sometimes gratified
+with these productions, and cause them to be framed and hung up, as
+in the present instance.
+
+"I guess we won't go down jest yet," said Mrs. Crane, "as folks don't
+seem to have come."
+
+So she began a systematic inspection of the dressing-room and its
+conveniences.
+
+"Mahogany four-poster;--come from the Jordans', I cal'la,te.
+Marseilles quilt.  Ruffles all round the piller.  Chintz curtings,--
+jest put up,--o' purpose for the party, I'll lay ye a dollar.---What
+a nice washbowl!" (Taps it with a white knuckle belonging to a red
+finger.) "Stone chaney.--Here's a bran'-new brush and comb,--and
+here's a scent-bottle.  Come here, girls, and fix yourselves in the
+glass, and scent your pocket-handkerchers."
+
+And Mrs. Crane bedewed her own kerchief with some of the eau de
+Cologne of native manufacture,--said on its label to be much superior
+to the German article.
+
+It was a relief to Mrs. and the Miss Cranes when the bell rang and
+the next guests were admitted.  Deacon and Mrs. Soper,--Deacon Soper
+of the Rev. Mr. Fairweather's church, and his lady.  Mrs. Deacon
+Soper was directed, of course, to the ladies' dressing-room, and her
+husband to the other apartment, where gentlemen were to leave their
+outside coats and hats.  Then came Mr. and Mrs. Briggs, and then the
+three Miss Spinneys, then Silas Peckham, Head of the Apollinean
+Institute, and Mrs. Peckham, and more after them, until at last the
+ladies' dressing-room got so full that one might have thought it was
+a trap none of them could get out of.  In truth, they all felt a
+little awkwardly.  Nobody wanted to be first to venture down-stairs.
+At last Mr. Silas Peckham thought it was time to make a move for the
+parlor, and for this purpose presented himself at the door of the
+ladies' dressing-room.
+
+"Lorindy, my dear!"  he exclaimed to Mrs. Peckham,--"I think there
+can be no impropriety in our joining the family down-stairs."
+
+Mrs. Peckham laid her large, flaccid arm in the sharp angle made by
+the black sleeve which held the bony limb her husband offered, and
+the two took the stair and struck out for the parlor.  The ice was
+broken, and the dressing-room began to empty itself into the
+spacious, lighted apartments below.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham slid into the room with Mrs. Peckham alongside,
+like a shad convoying a jelly-fish.
+
+"Good-evenin', Mrs. Sprowle!  I hope I see you well this evenin'.
+How 's your haalth, Colonel Sprowle?"
+
+"Very well, much obleeged to you.  Hope you and your good lady are
+well.  Much pleased to see you.  Hope you'll enjoy yourselves.  We've
+laid out to have everything in good shape,--spared no trouble nor
+ex"---
+
+"pence,"--said Silas Peckham.
+
+Mrs. Colonel Sprowle, who, you remember, was a Jordan, had nipped the
+Colonel's statement in the middle of the word Mr. Peckham finished,
+with a look that jerked him like one of those sharp twitches women
+keep giving a horse when they get a chance to drive one.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Crane, Miss Ada Azuba, and Miss Mahala Crane made their
+entrance.  There had been a discussion about the necessity and
+propriety of inviting this family, the head of which kept a small
+shop for hats and boots and shoes.  The Colonel's casting vote had
+carried it in the affirmative.--How terribly the poor old green
+de-laine did cut up in the blaze of so many lamps and candles.
+
+--Deluded little wretch, male or female, in town or country, going to
+your first great party, how little you know the nature of the
+ceremony in which you are to bear the part of victim!  What! are not
+these garlands and gauzy mists and many-colored streamers which adorn
+you, is not this music which welcomes you, this radiance that glows
+about you, meant solely for your enjoyment, young miss of seventeen
+or eighteen summers, now for the first time swimming unto the frothy,
+chatoyant, sparkling, undulating sea of laces and silks and satins,
+and white-armed, flower-crowned maidens struggling in their waves
+beneath the lustres that make the false summer of the drawing-room?
+
+Stop at the threshold!  This is a hall of judgment you are entering;
+the court is in session; and if you move five steps forward, you will
+be at its bar.
+
+There was a tribunal once in France, as you may remember, called the
+Chambre Ardente, the Burning Chamber.  It was hung all round with
+lamps, and hence its name.  The burning chamber for the trial of
+young maidens is the blazing ball-room.  What have they full-dressed
+you, or rather half-dressed you for, do you think?  To make you look
+pretty, of course!  Why have they hung a chandelier above you,
+flickering all over with flames, so that it searches you like the
+noonday sun, and your deepest dimple cannot hold a shadow?  To give
+brilliancy to the gay scene, no doubt!--No, my clear!  Society is
+inspecting you, and it finds undisguised surfaces and strong lights a
+convenience in the process.  The dance answers the purpose of the
+revolving pedestal upon which the "White Captive" turns, to show us
+the soft, kneaded marble, which looks as if it had never been hard,
+in all its manifold aspects of living loveliness.  No mercy for you,
+my love!  Justice, strict justice, you shall certainly have,--neither
+more nor less.  For, look you, there are dozens, scores, hundreds,
+with whom you must be weighed in the balance; and you have got to
+learn that the "struggle for life" Mr. Charles Darwin talks about
+reaches to vertebrates clad in crinoline, as well as to mollusks in
+shells, or articulates in jointed scales, or anything that fights for
+breathing-room and food and love in any coat of fur or feather!
+Happy they who can flash defiance from bright eyes and snowy
+shoulders back into the pendants of the insolent lustres!
+
+--Miss Mahala Crane did not have these reflections; and no young girl
+ever did, or ever will, thank Heaven!  Her keen eyes sparkled under
+her plainly parted hair and the green de-laine moulded itself in
+those unmistakable lines of natural symmetry in which Nature indulges
+a small shopkeeper's daughter occasionally as well as a wholesale
+dealer's young ladies.  She would have liked a new dress as much as
+any other girl, but she meant to go and have a good time at any rate.
+
+The guests were now arriving in the drawing-room pretty fast, and the
+Colonel's hand began to burn a good deal with the sharp squeezes
+which many of the visitors gave it.  Conversation, which had begun
+like a summer-shower, in scattering drops, was fast becoming
+continuous, and occasionally rising into gusty swells, with now and
+then a broad-chested laugh from some Captain or Major or other
+military personage,--for it may be noted that all large and loud men
+in the unpaved districts bear military titles.
+
+Deacon Soper came up presently, and entered into conversation with
+Colonel Sprowle.
+
+"I hope to see our pastor present this evenin'," said the Deacon.
+
+"I don't feel quite sure," the Colonel answered.  "His dyspepsy has
+been bad on him lately.  He wrote to say, that, Providence
+permittin', it would be agreeable to him to take a part in the
+exercises of the evenin'; but I mistrusted he did n't mean to come.
+To tell the truth, Deacon Soper, I rather guess he don't like the
+idee of dancin', and some of the other little arrangements."
+
+"Well," said the Deacon, "I know there's some condemns dancin'.  I've
+heerd a good deal of talk about it among the folks round.  Some have
+it that it never brings a blessin' on a house to have dancin' in it.
+Judge Tileston died, you remember, within a month after he had his
+great ball, twelve year ago, and some thought it was in the natur' of
+a judgment.  I don't believe in any of them notions.  If a man
+happened to be struck dead the night after he'd been givin' a ball,"
+(the Colonel loosened his black stock a little, and winked and
+swallowed two or three times,) "I should n't call it a judgment,--I
+should call it a coincidence.  But I 'm a little afraid our pastor
+won't come.  Somethin' or other's the matter with Mr. Fairweather.  I
+should sooner expect to see the old Doctor come over out of the
+Orthodox parsonage-house."
+
+"I've asked him," said the Colonel.
+
+"Well?"  said Deacon Soper.
+
+"He said he should like to come, but he did n't know what his people
+would say.  For his part, he loved to see young folks havin' their
+sports together, and very often felt as if he should like to be one
+of 'em himself.  'But,' says I, 'Doctor, I don't say there won't be a
+little dancin'.'  'Don't!' says he, 'for I want Letty to go,' (she's
+his granddaughter that's been stayin' with him,) 'and Letty 's mighty
+fond of dancin'.  You know,' says the Doctor, 'it is n't my business
+to settle whether other people's children should dance or not.'  And
+the Doctor looked as if he should like to rigadoon and sashy across
+as well as the young one he was talkin' about.  He 's got blood in
+him, the old Doctor has.  I wish our little man and him would swop
+pulpits."
+
+Deacon Soper started and looked up into the Colonel's face, as if to
+see whether he was in earnest.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham and his lady joined the group.
+
+"Is this to be a Temperance Celebration, Mrs. Sprowle?" asked Mr.
+Silas Peckham.
+
+Mrs. Sprowle replied, "that there would be lemonade and srub for
+those that preferred such drinks, but that the Colonel had given
+folks to understand that he did n't mean to set in judgment on the
+marriage in Canaan, and that those that didn't like srub and such
+things would find somethin' that would suit them better."
+
+Deacon Soper's countenance assumed a certain air of restrained
+cheerfulness.  The conversation rose into one of its gusty paroxysms
+just then.  Master H. Frederic got behind a door and began performing
+the experiment of stopping and unstopping his ears in rapid
+alternation, greatly rejoicing in the singular effect of mixed
+conversation chopped very small, like the contents of a mince-pie, or
+meat-pie, as it is more forcibly called in the deep-rutted villages
+lying along the unsalted streams.  All at once it grew silent just
+round the door, where it had been loudest,--and the silence spread
+itself like a stain, till it hushed everything but a few corner-
+duets.  A dark, sad-looking, middle-aged gentleman entered the
+parlor, with a young lady on his arm,--his daughter, as it seemed,
+for she was not wholly unlike him in feature, and of the same dark
+complexion.
+
+"Dudley Venner," exclaimed a dozen people, in startled, but half-
+suppressed tones.
+
+"What can have brought Dudley out to-night?" said Jefferson Buck, a
+young fellow, who had been interrupted in one of the corner-duets
+which he was executing in concert with Miss Susy Pettingill.
+
+"How do I know, Jeff?"  was Miss Susy's answer.  Then, after a
+pause,--"Elsie made him come, I guess.  Go ask Dr. Kittredge; he
+knows all about 'em both, they say."
+
+Dr. Kittredge, the leading physician of Rockland, was a shrewd old
+man, who looked pretty keenly into his patients through his
+spectacles, and pretty widely at men, women, and things in general
+over them.  Sixty-three years old,--just the year of the grand
+climacteric.  A bald crown, as every doctor should have.  A
+consulting practitioner's mouth; that is, movable round the corners
+while the case is under examination, but both corners well drawn down
+and kept so when the final opinion is made up.  In fact, the Doctor
+was often sent for to act as "caounsel," all over the county, and
+beyond it.  He kept three or four horses, sometimes riding in the
+saddle, commonly driving in a sulky, pretty fast, and looking
+straight before him, so that people got out of the way of bowing to
+him as he passed on the road.  There was some talk about his not
+being so long-sighted as other folks, but his old patients laughed
+and looked knowing when this was spoken of.
+
+The Doctor knew a good many things besides how to drop tinctures and
+shake out powders.  Thus, he knew a horse, and, what is harder to
+understand, a horse-dealer, and was a match for him.  He knew what a
+nervous woman is, and how to manage her.  He could tell at a glance
+when she is in that condition of unstable equilibrium in which a
+rough word is like a blow to her, and the touch of unmagnetized
+fingers reverses all her nervous currents.  It is not everybody that
+enters into the soul of Mozart's or Beethoven's harmonies; and there
+are vital symphonies in B flat, and other low, sad keys, which a
+doctor may know as little of as a hurdy-gurdy player of the essence
+of those divine musical mysteries.  The Doctor knew the difference
+between what men say and what they mean as well as most people.  When
+he was listening to common talk, he was in the habit of looking over
+his spectacles; if he lifted his head so as to look through them at
+the person talking, he was busier with that person's thoughts than
+with his words.
+
+Jefferson Buck was not bold enough to confront the Doctor with Miss
+Susy's question, for he did not look as if he were in the mood to
+answer queries put by curious young people.  His eyes were fixed
+steadily on the dark girl, every movement of whom he seemed to
+follow.
+
+She was, indeed, an apparition of wild beauty, so unlike the girls
+about her that it seemed nothing more than natural, that, when she
+moved, the groups should part to let her pass through them, and that
+she should carry the centre of all looks and thoughts with her.  She
+was dressed to please her own fancy, evidently, with small regard to
+the modes declared correct by the Rockland milliners and mantua-
+makers.  Her heavy black hair lay in a braided coil, with a long gold
+pin shat through it like a javelin.  Round her neck was a golden
+torque, a round, cord-like chain, such as the Gaols used to wear; the
+"Dying Gladiator" has it.  Her dress was a grayish watered silk; her
+collar was pinned with a flashing diamond brooch, the stones looking
+as fresh as morning dew-drops, but the silver setting of the past
+generation; her arms were bare, round, but slender rather than large,
+in keeping with her lithe round figure.  On her wrists she wore
+bracelets: one was a circlet of enamelled scales; the other looked as
+if it might have been Cleopatra's asp, with its body turned to gold
+and its, eyes to emeralds.
+
+Her father--for Dudley Venner was her father--looked like a man of
+culture and breeding, but melancholy and with a distracted air, as
+one whose life had met some fatal cross or blight.  He saluted hardly
+anybody except his entertainers and the Doctor.  One would have said,
+to look at him, that he was not at the party by choice; and it was
+natural enough to think, with Susy Pettingill, that it must have been
+a freak of the dark girl's which brought him there, for he had the
+air of a shy and sad-hearted recluse.
+
+It was hard to say what could have brought Elsie Venner to the party.
+Hardly anybody seemed to know her, and she seemed not at all disposed
+to make acquaintances.  Here and there was one of the older girls
+from the Institute, but she appeared to have nothing in common with
+them.  Even in the schoolroom, it may be remembered, she sat apart by
+her own choice, and now in the midst of the crowd she made a circle
+of isolation round herself.  Drawing her arm out of her father's, she
+stood against the wall, and looked, with a strange, cold glitter in
+her eyes, at the crowd which moved and babbled before her.
+
+The old Doctor came up to her by and by.
+
+"Well, Elsie, I am quite surprised to find you here.  Do tell me how
+you happened to do such a good-natured thing as to let us see you at
+such a great party."
+
+"It's been dull at the mansion-house," she said, "and I wanted to get
+out of it.  It's too lonely there,--there's nobody to hate since
+Dick's gone."
+
+The Doctor laughed good-naturedly, as if this were an amusing bit of
+pleasantry,--but he lifted his head and dropped his eyes a little, so
+as to see her through his spectacles.  She narrowed her lids
+slightly, as one often sees a sleepy cat narrow hers,--somewhat as
+you may remember our famous Margaret used to, if you remember her at
+all,--so that her eyes looked very small, but bright as the diamonds
+on her breast.  The old Doctor felt very oddly as she looked at him;
+be did not like the feeling, so he dropped his head and lifted his
+eyes and looked at her over his spectacles again.
+
+"And how have you all been at the mansion house?" said the Doctor.
+
+"Oh, well enough.  But Dick's gone, and there's nobody left but
+Dudley and I and the people.  I'm tired of it.  What kills anybody
+quickest, Doctor?"  Then, in a whisper, "I ran away again the other
+day, you know."
+
+"Where did you go?"  The Doctor spoke in a low, serious tone.
+
+"Oh, to the old place.  Here, I brought this for you."
+
+The Doctor started as she handed him a flower of the Atragene
+Americana, for he knew that there was only one spot where it grew,
+and that not one where any rash foot, least of all a thin-shod
+woman's foot, should venture.
+
+"How long were you gone?" said the Doctor.
+
+"Only one night.  You should have heard the horns blowing and the
+guns firing.  Dudley was frightened out of his wits.  Old Sophy told
+him she'd had a dream, and that I should be found in Dead-Man's
+Hollow, with a great rock lying on me.  They hunted all over it, but
+they did n't find me,--I was farther up."
+
+Doctor Kittredge looked cloudy and worried while she was speaking,
+but forced a pleasant professional smile, as he said cheerily, and as
+if wishing to change the subject,
+
+"Have a good dance this evening, Elsie.  The fiddlers are tuning up.
+Where 's the young master? has he come yet? or is he going to be
+late, with the other great folks?"
+
+The girl turned away without answering, and looked toward the door.
+
+The "great folks," meaning the mansion-house gentry, were just
+beginning to come; Dudley Venner and his daughter had been the first
+of them.  Judge Thornton, white-headed, fresh-faced, as good at sixty
+as he was at forty, with a youngish second wife, and one noble
+daughter, Arabella, who, they said, knew as much law as her father, a
+stately, Portia like girl, fit for a premier's wife, not like to find
+her match even in the great cities she sometimes visited; the
+Trecothicks, the family of a merchant, (in the larger sense,) who,
+having made himself rich enough by the time he had reached middle
+life, threw down his ledger as Sylla did his dagger, and retired to
+make a little paradise around him in one of the stateliest residences
+of the town, a family inheritance; the Vaughans, an old Rockland
+race, descended from its first settlers, Toryish in tendency in
+Revolutionary times, and barely escaping confiscation or worse; the
+Dunhams, a new family, dating its gentility only as far back as the
+Honorable Washington Dunham, M. C., but turning out a clever boy or
+two that went to college; and some showy girls with white necks and
+fat arms who had picked up professional husbands: these were the
+principal mansion-house people.  All of them had made it a point to
+come; and as each of them entered, it seemed to Colonel and Mrs.
+Sprowle that the lamps burned up with a more cheerful light, and that
+the fiddles which sounded from the uncarpeted room were all half a
+tone higher and half a beat quicker.
+
+Mr. Bernard came in later than any of them; he had been busy with his
+new duties.  He looked well and that is saying a good deal; for
+nothing but a gentleman is endurable in full dress.  Hair that masses
+well, a head set on with an air, a neckerchief tied cleverly by an
+easy, practised hand, close-fitting gloves, feet well shaped and well
+covered,---these advantages can make us forgive the odious sable
+broadcloth suit, which appears to have been adopted by society on the
+same principle that condemned all the Venetian gondolas to perpetual
+and uniform blackness.  Mr. Bernard, introduced by Mr. Geordie, made
+his bow to the Colonel and his lady and to Miss Matilda, from whom he
+got a particularly gracious curtsy, and then began looking about him
+for acquaintances.  He found two or three faces he knew,--many more
+strangers.  There was Silas Peckham,--there was no mistaking him;
+there was the inelastic amplitude of Mrs. Peckham; few of the
+Apollinean girls, of course, they not being recognized members of
+society,--but there is one with the flame in her cheeks and the fire
+in her eyes, the girl of vigorous tints and emphatic outlines, whom
+we saw entering the schoolroom the other day.  Old Judge Thornton has
+his eyes on her, and the Colonel steals a look every now and then at
+the red brooch which lifts itself so superbly into the light, as if
+he thought it a wonderfully becoming ornament.  Mr. Bernard himself
+was not displeased with the general effect of the rich-blooded
+schoolgirl, as she stood under the bright lamps, fanning herself in
+the warm, languid air, fixed in a kind of passionate surprise at the
+new life which seemed to be flowering out in her consciousness.
+Perhaps he looked at her somewhat steadily, as some others had done;
+at any rate, she seemed to feel that she was looked at, as people
+often do, and, turning her eyes suddenly on him, caught his own on
+her face, gave him a half-bashful smile, and threw in a blush
+involuntarily which made it more charming.
+
+"What can I do better," he said to himself, "than have a dance with
+Rosa Milburn?  "So he carried his handsome pupil into the next room
+and took his place with her in a cotillon.  Whether the breath of the
+Goddess of Love could intoxicate like the cup of Circe,--whether a
+woman is ever phosphorescent with the luminous vapor of life that she
+exhales,--these and other questions which relate to occult influences
+exercised by certain women we will not now discuss.  It is enough
+that Mr. Bernard was sensible of a strange fascination, not wholly
+new to him, nor unprecedented in the history of human experience, but
+always a revelation when it comes over us for the first or the
+hundredth time, so pale is the most recent memory by the side of the
+passing moment with the flush of any new-born passion on its cheek.
+Remember that Nature makes every man love all women, and trusts the
+trivial matter of special choice to the commonest accident.
+
+If Mr. Bernard had had nothing to distract his attention, he might
+have thought too much about his handsome partner, and then gone home
+and dreamed about her, which is always dangerous, and waked up
+thinking of her still, and then begun to be deeply interested in her
+studies, and so on, through the whole syllogism which ends in
+Nature's supreme quod erat demonstrandum.  What was there to distract
+him or disturb him?  He did not know,--but there was something.  This
+sumptuous creature, this Eve just within the gate of an untried
+Paradise, untutored in the ways of the world, but on tiptoe to reach
+the fruit of the tree of knowledge,--alive to the moist vitality of
+that warm atmosphere palpitating with voices and music, as the flower
+of some dioecious plant which has grown in a lone corner and suddenly
+unfolding its corolla on some hot-breathing June evening, feels that
+the air is perfumed with strange odors and loaded with golden dust
+wafted from those other blossoms with which its double life is
+shared,--this almost over-womanized woman might well have bewitched
+him, but that he had a vague sense of a counter-charm.  It was,
+perhaps, only the same consciousness that some one was looking at him
+which he himself had just given occasion to in his partner.
+Presently, in one of the turns of the dance, he felt his eyes drawn
+to a figure he had not distinctly recognized, though he had dimly
+felt its presence, and saw that Elsie Venner was looking at him as if
+she saw nothing else but him.  He was not a nervous person, like the
+poor lady-teacher, yet the glitter of the diamond eyes affected him
+strangely.  It seemed to disenchant the air, so full a moment before
+of strange attractions.  He became silent, and dreamy, as it were.
+The round-limbed beauty at his side crushed her gauzy draperies
+against him, as they trod the figure of the dance together, but it
+was no more to him than if an old nurse had laid her hand on his
+sleeve.  The young girl chafed at his seeming neglect, and her
+imperious blood mounted into her cheeks; but he appeared unconscious
+of it.
+
+"There is one of our young ladies I must speak to," he said,--and was
+just leaving his partner's side.
+
+"Four hands all round?" shouted the first violin,--and Mr. Bernard
+found himself seized and whirled in a circle out of which he could
+not escape, and then forced to "cross over," and then to "dozy do,"
+as the maestro had it,--and when, on getting back to his place, he
+looked for Elsie Venner, she was gone.
+
+The dancing went on briskly.  Some of the old folks looked on, others
+conversed in groups and pairs, and so the evening wore along, until a
+little after ten o'clock.  About this time there was noticed an
+increased bustle in the passages, with a considerable opening and
+shutting of doors.  Presently it began to be whispered about that
+they were going to have supper.  Many, who had never been to any
+large party before, held their breath for a moment at this
+announcement.  It was rather with a tremulous interest than with open
+hilarity that the rumor was generally received.
+
+One point the Colonel had entirely forgotten to settle.  It was a
+point involving not merely propriety, but perhaps principle also, or
+at least the good report of the house,--and he had never thought to
+arrange it.  He took Judge Thornton aside and whispered the important
+question to him,--in his distress of mind, mistaking pockets and
+taking out his bandanna instead of his white handkerchief to wipe his
+forehead.
+
+"Judge," he said, "do you think, that, before we commence refreshing
+ourselves at the tables, it would be the proper thing to--crave a--to
+request Deacon Soper or some other elderly person--to ask a
+blessing?"
+
+The Judge looked as grave as if he were about giving the opinion of
+the Court in the great India-rubber case.
+
+"On the whole," he answered, after a pause, "I should think it might,
+perhaps, be dispensed with on this occasion.  Young folks are noisy,
+and it is awkward to have talking and laughing going on while
+blessing is being asked.  Unless a clergyman is present and makes a
+point of it, I think it will hardly be expected."
+
+The Colonel was infinitely relieved.  "Judge, will you take Mrs.
+Sprowle in to supper?  "And the Colonel returned the compliment by
+offering his arm to Mrs. Judge Thornton.
+
+The door of the supper-room was now open, and the company, following
+the lead of the host and hostess, began to stream into it, until it
+was pretty well filled.
+
+There was an awful kind of pause.  Many were beginning to drop their
+heads and shut their eyes, in anticipation of the usual petition
+before a meal; some expected the music to strike up,--others, that an
+oration would now be delivered by the Colonel.
+
+"Make yourselves at home, ladies and gentlemen," said the Colonel;
+"good things were made to eat, and you're welcome to all you see
+before you."
+
+So saying he attacked a huge turkey which stood at the head of the
+table; and his example being followed first by the bold, then by the
+doubtful, and lastly by the timid, the clatter soon made the circuit
+of the tables.  Some were shocked, however, as the Colonel had feared
+they would be, at the want of the customary invocation.  Widow Leech,
+a kind of relation, who had to be invited, and who came with her old,
+back-country-looking string of gold beads round her neck, seemed to
+feel very serious about it.
+
+"If she'd ha' known that folks would begrutch cravin' a blessin' over
+sech a heap o' provisions, she'd rather ha' staid t' home.  It was a
+bad sign, when folks was n't grateful for the baounties of
+Providence."
+
+The elder Miss Spinney, to whom she made this remark, assented to it,
+at the same time ogling a piece of frosted cake, which she presently
+appropriated with great refinement of manner,--taking it between her
+thumb and forefinger, keeping the others well spread and the little
+finger in extreme divergence, with a graceful undulation of the neck,
+and a queer little sound in her throat, as of an M that wanted to get
+out and perished in the attempt.
+
+The tables now presented an animated spectacle.  Young fellows of the
+more dashing sort, with high stand-up collars and voluminous bows to
+their neckerchiefs, distinguished themselves by cutting up fowls and
+offering portions thereof to the buxom girls these knowing ones had
+commonly selected.
+
+"A bit of the wing, Roxy, or of the--under limb?"
+
+The first laugh broke out at this, but it was premature, a sporadic
+laugh, as Dr. Kittredge would have said, which did not become
+epidemic.  People were very solemn as yet, many of them being new to
+such splendid scenes, and crushed, as it were, in the presence of so
+much crockery and so many silver spoons, and such a variety of
+unusual viands and beverages.  When the laugh rose around Roxy and
+her saucy beau, several looked in that direction with an anxious
+expression, as if something had happened, a lady fainted, for
+instance, or a couple of lively fellows come to high words.
+
+"Young folks will be young folks," said Deacon Soper.  "No harm done.
+Least said soonest mended."
+
+"Have some of these shell-oysters?"  said the Colonel to Mrs.
+Trecothick.
+
+A delicate emphasis on the word shell implied that the Colonel knew
+what was what.  To the New England inland native, beyond the reach of
+the east winds, the oyster unconditioned, the oyster absolute,
+without a qualifying adjective, is the pickled oyster.  Mrs.
+Trecothick, who knew very well that an oyster long out of his shell
+(as is apt to be the case with the rural bivalve) gets homesick and
+loses his sprightliness, replied, with the pleasantest smile in the
+world, that the chicken she had been helped to was too delicate to be
+given up even for the greater rarity.  But the word "shell-oysters"
+had been overheard; and there was a perceptible crowding movement
+towards their newly discovered habitat, a large soup-tureen.
+
+Silas Peckham had meantime fallen upon another locality of these
+recent mollusks.  He said nothing, but helped himself freely, and
+made a sign to Mrs. Peckham.
+
+"Lorindy," he whispered, "shell-oysters"
+
+And ladled them out to her largely, without betraying any emotion,
+just as if they had been the natural inland or pickled article.
+
+After the more solid portion of the banquet had been duly honored,
+the cakes and sweet preparations of various kinds began to get their
+share of attention.  There were great cakes and little cakes, cakes
+with raisins in them, cakes with currants, and cakes without either;
+there were brown cakes and yellow cakes, frosted cakes, glazed cakes,
+hearts and rounds, and jumbles, which playful youth slip over the
+forefinger before spoiling their annular outline.  There were mounds
+of blo'monje, of the arrowroot variety,--that being undistinguishable
+from such as is made with Russia isinglass.  There were jellies,
+which had been shaking, all the time the young folks were dancing in
+the next room, as if they were balancing to partners.  There were
+built-up fabrics, called Charlottes, caky externally, pulpy within;
+there were also marangs, and likewise custards,--some of the
+indolent-fluid sort, others firm, in which every stroke of the
+teaspoon left a smooth, conchoidal surface like the fracture of
+chalcedony, with here and there a little eye like what one sees in
+cheeses.  Nor was that most wonderful object of domestic art called
+trifle wanting, with its charming confusion of cream and cake and
+almonds and jam and jelly and wine and cinnamon and froth; nor yet
+the marvellous floating-island,---name suggestive of all that is
+romantic in the imaginations of youthful palates.
+
+"It must have cost you a sight of work, to say nothin' of money, to
+get all this beautiful confectionery made for the party," said Mrs.
+Crane to Mrs. Sprowle.
+
+"Well, it cost some consid'able labor, no doubt," said Mrs. Sprowle.
+"Matilda and our girls and I made 'most all the cake with our own
+hands, and we all feel some tired; but if folks get what suits 'em,
+we don't begrudge the time nor the work.  But I do feel thirsty,"
+said the poor lady, "and I think a glass of srub would do my throat
+good; it's dreadful dry.  Mr. Peckham, would you be so polite as to
+pass me a glass of srub?"
+
+Silas Peckham bowed with great alacrity, and took from the table a
+small glass cup, containing a fluid reddish in hue and subacid in
+taste.  This was srub, a beverage in local repute, of questionable
+nature, but suspected of owing its tint and sharpness to some kind of
+syrup derived from the maroon-colored fruit of the sumac.  There were
+similar small cups on the table filled with lemonade, and here and
+there a decanter of Madeira wine, of the Marsala kind, which some
+prefer to, and many more cannot distinguish from, that which comes
+from the Atlantic island.
+
+"Take a glass of wine, Judge," said, the Colonel; "here is an article
+that I rather think 'll suit you."
+
+The Judge knew something of wines, and could tell all the famous old
+Madeiras from each other, "Eclipse," "Juno," the almost fabulously
+scarce and precious "White-top," and the rest.  He struck the
+nativity of the Mediterranean Madeira before it had fairly moistened
+his lip.
+
+"A sound wine, Colonel, and I should think of a genuine vintage.
+Your very good health."
+
+"Deacon Soper," said the Colonel, "here is some Madary Judge Thornton
+recommends.  Let me fill you a glass of it."
+
+The Deacon's eyes glistened.  He was one of those consistent
+Christians who stick firmly by the first miracle and Paul's advice to
+Timothy.
+
+"A little good wine won't hurt anybody," said the Deacon.  "Plenty,--
+plenty,--plenty.  There!"  He had not withdrawn his glass, while the
+Colonel was pouring, for fear it should spill, and now it was running
+over.
+
+--It is very odd how all a man's philosophy and theology are at the
+mercy of a few drops of a fluid which the chemists say consists of
+nothing but C4, O2, H6.  The Deacon's theology fell off several points
+towards latitudinarianism in the course of the next ten minutes.  He
+had a deep inward sense that everything was as it should be, human
+nature included.  The little accidents of humanity, known
+collectively to moralists as sin, looked very venial to his growing
+sense of universal brotherhood and benevolence.
+
+"It will all come right," the Deacon said to himself,--"I feel a
+joyful conviction that everything is for the best.  I am favored with
+a blessed peace of mind, and a very precious season of good feelin'
+toward my fellow-creturs."
+
+A lusty young fellow happened to make a quick step backward just at
+that instant, and put his heel, with his weight on top of it, upon
+the Deacon's toes.
+
+"Aigh!  What the d' d' didos are y' abaout with them great huffs o'
+yourn?" said the Deacon, with an expression upon his features not
+exactly that of peace and good-will to men.  The lusty young fellow
+apologized; but the Deacon's face did not come right, and his
+theology backed round several points in the direction of total
+depravity.
+
+Some of the dashing young men in stand-up collars and extensive
+neckties, encouraged by Mr. Geordie, made quite free with the
+"Ma,dary," and even induced some of the more stylish girls--not of
+the mansion-house set, but of the tip-top two-story families--to
+taste a little.  Most of these young ladies made faces at it, and
+declared it was "perfectly horrid," with that aspect of veracity
+peculiar to their age and sex.
+
+About this time a movement was made on the part of some of the
+mansion-house people to leave the supper-table.  Miss Jane Trecothick
+had quietly hinted to her mother that she had had enough of it.  Miss
+Arabella Thornton had whispered to her father that he had better
+adjourn this court to the next room.  There were signs of migration,
+--a loosening of people in their places,--a looking about for arms to
+hitch on to.
+
+"Stop!"  said the Colonel.  "There's something coming yet.
+--Ice-cream!"
+
+The great folks saw that the play was not over yet, and that it was
+only polite to stay and see it out.  The word "ice-cream" was no
+sooner whispered than it passed from one to another all down the
+tables.  The effect was what might have been anticipated.  Many of
+the guests had never seen this celebrated product of human skill, and
+to all the two-story population of Rockland it was the last
+expression of the art of pleasing and astonishing the human palate.
+Its appearance had been deferred for several reasons: first, because
+everybody would have attacked it, if it had come in with the other
+luxuries; secondly, because undue apprehensions were entertained
+(owing to want of experience) of its tendency to deliquesce and
+resolve itself with alarming rapidity into puddles of creamy fluid;
+and, thirdly, because the surprise would make a grand climax to
+finish off the banquet.
+
+There is something so audacious in the conception of ice-cream, that
+it is not strange that a population undebauched by the luxury of
+great cities looks upon it with a kind of awe and speaks of it with a
+certain emotion.  This defiance of the seasons, forcing Nature to do
+her work of congelation in the face of her sultriest noon, might well
+inspire a timid mind with fear lest human art were revolting against
+the Higher Powers, and raise the same scruples which resisted the use
+of ether and chloroform in certain contingencies.  Whatever may be
+the cause, it is well known that the announcement at any private
+rural entertainment that there is to be ice-cream produces an
+immediate and profound impression.  It may be remarked, as aiding
+this impression, that exaggerated ideas are entertained as to the
+dangerous effects this congealed food may produce on persons not in
+the most robust health.
+
+There was silence as the pyramids of ice were placed on the table,
+everybody looking on in admiration.  The Colonel took a knife and
+assailed the one at the head of the table.  When he tried to cut off
+a slice, it didn't seem to understand it, however, and only tipped,
+as if it wanted to upset.  The Colonel attacked it on the other side,
+and it tipped just as badly the other way.  It was awkward for the
+Colonel.  "Permit me," said the Judge,--and he took the knife and
+struck a sharp slanting stroke which sliced off a piece just of the
+right size, and offered it to Mrs. Sprowle.  This act of dexterity
+was much admired by the company.
+
+The tables were all alive again.
+
+"Lorindy, here's a plate of ice-cream," said Silas Peckham.
+
+"Come, Mahaly," said a fresh-looking young-fellow with a saucerful in
+each hand, "here's your ice-cream;--let's go in the corner and have a
+celebration, us two."  And the old green de-lame, with the young
+curves under it to make it sit well, moved off as pleased apparently
+as if it had been silk velvet with thousand-dollar laces over it.
+
+"Oh, now, Miss Green! do you think it's safe to put that cold stuff
+into your stomick?" said the Widow Leech to a young married lady,
+who, finding the air rather warm, thought a little ice would cool her
+down very nicely.  "It's jest like eatin' snowballs.  You don't look
+very rugged; and I should be dreadful afeard, if I was you."
+
+"Carrie," said old Dr. Kittredge, who had overheard this,--"how well
+you're looking this evening!  But you must be tired and heated;--sit
+down here, and let me give you a good slice of ice-cream.  How you
+young folks do grow up, to be sure!  I don't feel quite certain
+whether it's you or your older sister, but I know it 's somebody I
+call Carrie, and that I 've known ever since."
+
+A sound something between a howl and an oath startled the company and
+broke off the Doctor's sentence.  Everybody's eyes turned in the
+direction from which it came.  A group instantly gathered round the
+person who had uttered it, who was no other than Deacon Soper.
+
+"He's chokin'! he's chokin'!" was the first exclamation,--"slap him
+on the back!"
+
+Several heavy fists beat such a tattoo on his spine that the Deacon
+felt as if at least one of his vertebrae would come up.
+
+"He's black in the face," said Widow Leech, "he 's swallered
+somethin' the wrong way.  Where's the Doctor?--let the Doctor get to
+him, can't ye?"
+
+"If you will move, my good lady, perhaps I can," said Doctor
+Kittredge, in a calm tone of voice.  "He's not choking, my friends,"
+the Doctor added immediately, when he got sight of him.
+
+"It 's apoplexy,--I told you so,--don't you see how red he is in the
+face?" said old Mrs. Peake, a famous woman for "nussin" sick folks,
+--determined to be a little ahead of the Doctor.
+
+"It's not apoplexy," said Dr. Kittredge.
+
+"What is it, Doctor? what is it?  Will he die?  Is he dead?--Here's
+his poor wife, the Widow Soper that is to be, if she a'n't a'ready"
+
+"Do be quiet, my good woman," said Dr. Kittredge.--"Nothing serious,
+I think, Mrs. Soper.  Deacon!"
+
+The sudden attack of Deacon Soper had begun with the extraordinary
+sound mentioned above.  His features had immediately assumed an
+expression of intense pain, his eyes staring wildly, and, clapping
+his hands to his face, he had rocked his head backward and forward in
+speechless agony.
+
+At the Doctor's sharp appeal the Deacon lifted his head.
+
+"It's all right," said the Doctor, as soon as he saw his face.  "The
+Deacon had a smart attack of neuralgic pain.  That 's all.  Very
+severe, but not at all dangerous."
+
+The Doctor kept his countenance, but his diaphragm was shaking the
+change in iris waistcoat-pockets with subterranean laughter.  He had
+looked through his spectacles and seen at once what had happened.
+The Deacon, not being in the habit of taking his nourishment in the
+congealed state, had treated the ice-cream as a pudding of a rare
+species, and, to make sure of doing himself justice in its
+distribution, had taken a large mouthful of it without the least
+precaution.  The consequence was a sensation as if a dentist were
+killing the nerves of twenty-five teeth at once with hot irons, or
+cold ones, which would hurt rather worse.
+
+The Deacon swallowed something with a spasmodic effort, and recovered
+pretty soon and received the congratulations of his friends.  There
+were different versions of the expressions he had used at the onset
+of his complaint,--some of the reported exclamations involving a
+breach of propriety, to say the least,--but it was agreed that a man
+in an attack of neuralgy wasn't to be judged of by the rules that
+applied to other folks.
+
+The company soon after this retired from the supper-room.  The
+mansion-house gentry took their leave, and the two-story people soon
+followed.  Mr. Bernard had stayed an hour or two, and left soon after
+he found that Elsie Venner and her father had disappeared.  As he
+passed by the dormitory of the Institute, he saw a light glimmering
+from one of its upper rooms, where the lady-teacher was still waking.
+His heart ached, when he remembered, that, through all these hours of
+gayety, or what was meant for it, the patient girl had been at work
+in her little chamber; and he looked up at the silent stars, as if to
+see that they were watching over her.  The planet Mars was burning
+like a red coal; the northern constellation was slanting downward
+about its central point of flame; and while he looked, a falling star
+slid from the zenith and was lost.
+
+He reached his chamber and was soon dreaming over the Event of the
+Season.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE MORNING AFTER.
+
+Colonel Sprowle's family arose late the next morning.  The fatigues
+and excitements of the evening and the preparation for it were
+followed by a natural collapse, of which somnolence was a leading
+symptom.  The sun shone into the window at a pretty well opened angle
+when the Colonel first found himself sufficiently awake to address
+his yet slumbering spouse.
+
+"Sally!"  said the Colonel, in a voice that was a little husky,--for
+he had finished off the evening with an extra glass or two of
+"Madary," and had a somewhat rusty and headachy sense of renewed
+existence, on greeting the rather advanced dawn,--"Sally!"
+
+"Take care o' them custard-cups!  There they go!"
+
+Poor Mrs. Sprowle was fighting the party over in her dream; and as
+the visionary custard-cups crashed down through one lobe of her brain
+into another, she gave a start as if an inch of lightning from a
+quart Leyden jar had jumped into one of her knuckles with its sudden
+and lively poonk!
+
+"Sally!" said the Colonel,--"wake up, wake up.  What 'r' y' dreamin'
+abaout?"
+
+Mrs. Sprowle raised herself, by a sort of spasm, sur son seant, as
+they say in France,--up on end, as we have it in New England.  She
+looked first to the left, then to the right, then straight before
+her, apparently without seeing anything, and at last slowly settled
+down, with her two eyes, blank of any particular meaning, directed
+upon the Colonel.
+
+"What time is 't?"  she said.
+
+"Ten o'clock.  What y' been dreamin' abaout?  Y' giv a jump like a
+hopper-grass.  Wake up, wake UP!  Th' party 's over, and y' been
+asleep all the mornin'.  The party's over, I tell ye!  Wake up!"
+
+"Over!"  said Mrs. Sprowle, who began to define her position at
+last,--"over!  I should think 't was time 't was over!  It's lasted a
+hundud year.  I've been workin' for that party longer 'n Methuselah's
+lifetime, sence I been asleep.  The pies would n' bake, and the
+blo'monje would n' set, and the ice-cream would n' freeze, and all
+the folks kep' comin' 'n' comin' 'n' comin',--everybody I ever knew
+in all my life,--some of 'em 's been dead this twenty year 'n' more,
+--'n' nothin' for 'em to eat nor drink.  The fire would n' burn to
+cook anything, all we could do.  We blowed with the belluses, 'n' we
+stuffed in paper 'n' pitch-pine kindlin's, but nothin' could make
+that fire burn; 'n' all the time the folks kep' comin', as if they'd
+never stop,--'n' nothin' for 'em but empty dishes, 'n' all the
+borrowed chaney slippin' round on the waiters 'n' chippin' 'n'
+crackin',--I would n' go through what I been through t'-night for all
+th' money in th' Bank,--I do believe it's harder t' have a party than
+t'"---
+
+Mrs. Sprowle stated the case strongly.
+
+The Colonel said he did n't know how that might be.  She was a better
+judge than he was.  It was bother enough, anyhow, and he was glad
+that it was over.  After this, the worthy pair commenced preparations
+for rejoining the waking world, and in due time proceeded downstairs.
+
+Everybody was late that morning, and nothing had got put to rights.
+The house looked as if a small army had been quartered in it over
+night.  The tables were of course in huge disorder, after the
+protracted assault they had undergone.  There had been a great battle
+evidently, and it had gone against the provisions.  Some points had
+been stormed, and all their defences annihilated, but here and there
+were centres of resistance which had held out against all attacks,--
+large rounds of beef, and solid loaves of cake, against which the
+inexperienced had wasted their energies in the enthusiasm of youth or
+uninformed maturity, while the longer-headed guests were making
+discoveries of "shell-oysters" and "patridges" and similar
+delicacies.
+
+The breakfast was naturally of a somewhat fragmentary character.  A
+chicken that had lost his legs in the service of the preceding
+campaign was once more put on duty.  A great ham stuck with cloves,
+as Saint Sebastian was with arrows, was again offered for martyrdom.
+It would have been a pleasant sight for a medical man of a
+speculative turn to have seen the prospect before the Colonel's
+family of the next week's breakfasts, dinners, and suppers.  The
+trail that one of these great rural parties leaves after it is one of
+its most formidable considerations.  Every door-handle in the house
+is suggestive of sweetmeats for the next week, at least.  The most
+unnatural articles of diet displace the frugal but nutritious food of
+unconvulsed periods of existence.  If there is a walking infant about
+the house, it will certainly have a more or less fatal fit from
+overmuch of some indigestible delicacy.  Before the week is out,
+everybody will be tired to death of sugary forms of nourishment and
+long to see the last of the remnants of the festival.
+
+The family had not yet arrived at this condition.  On the contrary,
+the first inspection of the tables suggested the prospect of days of
+unstinted luxury; and the younger portion of the household,
+especially, were in a state of great excitement as the account of
+stock was taken with reference to future internal investments.  Some
+curious facts came to light during these researches.
+
+"Where's all the oranges gone to?"  said Mrs. Sprowle.  "I expected
+there'd be ever so many of 'em left.  I did n't see many of the folks
+eatin' oranges.  Where's the skins of 'em?  There ought to be six
+dozen orange-skins round on the plates, and there a'n't one dozen.
+And all the small cakes, too, and all the sugar things that was stuck
+on the big cakes.  Has anybody counted the spoons?  Some of 'em got
+swallered, perhaps.  I hope they was plated ones, if they did!"
+
+The failure of the morning's orange-crop and the deficit in other
+expected residual delicacies were not very difficult to account for.
+In many of the two-story Rockland families, and in those favored
+households of the neighboring villages whose members had been invited
+to the great party, there was a very general excitement among the
+younger people on the morning after the great event.  "Did y' bring
+home somethin' from the party?  What is it?  What is it?  Is it frut-
+cake?  Is it nuts and oranges and apples?  Give me some!  Give me
+some!"  Such a concert of treble voices uttering accents like these
+had not been heard since the great Temperance Festival with the
+celebrated "colation" in the open air under the trees of the
+Parnassian Grove,--as the place was christened by the young ladies of
+the Institute.  The cry of the children was not in vain.  From the
+pockets of demure fathers, from the bags of sharp-eyed spinsters,
+from the folded handkerchiefs of light-fingered sisters, from the
+tall hats of sly-winking brothers, there was a resurrection of the
+missing oranges and cakes and sugar-things in many a rejoicing
+family-circle, enough to astonish the most hardened "caterer" that
+ever contracted to feed a thousand people under canvas.
+
+The tender recollections of those dear little ones whom extreme youth
+or other pressing considerations detain from scenes of festivity--a
+trait of affection by no means uncommon among our thoughtful people--
+dignifies those social meetings where it is manifested, and sheds a
+ray of sunshine on our common nature.  It is "an oasis in the
+desert,"--to use the striking expression of the last year's
+"Valedictorian" of the Apollinean Institute.  In the midst of so much
+that is purely selfish, it is delightful to meet such disinterested
+care for others.  When a large family of children are expecting a
+parent's return from an entertainment, it will often require great
+exertions on his part to freight himself so as to meet their
+reasonable expectations.  A few rules are worth remembering by all
+who attend anniversary dinners in Faneuil Hall or elsewhere.  Thus:
+Lobsters' claws are always acceptable to children of all ages.
+Oranges and apples are to be taken one at a time, until the coat-
+pockets begin to become inconveniently heavy.  Cakes are injured by
+sitting upon them; it is, therefore, well to carry a stout tin box of
+a size to hold as many pieces as there are children in the domestic
+circle.  A very pleasant amusement, at the close of one of these
+banquets, is grabbing for the flowers with which the table is
+embellished.  These will please the ladies at home very greatly, and,
+if the children are at the same time abundantly supplied with fruits,
+nuts, cakes, and any little ornamental articles of confectionery
+which are of a nature to be unostentatiously removed, the kind-
+hearted parent will make a whole household happy, without any
+additional expense beyond the outlay for his ticket.
+
+There were fragmentary delicacies enough left, of one kind and
+another, at any rate, to make all the Colonel's family uncomfortable
+for the next week.  It bid fair to take as long to get rid of the
+remains of the great party as it had taken to make ready for it.
+
+In the mean time Mr. Bernard had been dreaming, as young men dream,
+of gliding shapes with bright eyes and burning cheeks, strangely
+blended with red planets and hissing meteors, and, shining over all,
+the white, un-wandering star of the North, girt with its tethered
+constellations.
+
+After breakfast he walked into the parlor, where he found Miss
+Darley.  She was alone, and, holding a school-book in her hand, was
+at work with one of the morning's lessons.  She hardly noticed him as
+he entered, being very busy with her book,--and he paused a moment
+before speaking, and looked at her with a kind of reverence.  It
+would not have been strictly true to call her beautiful.  For years,
+--since her earliest womanhood,--those slender hands had taken the
+bread which repaid the toil of heart and brain from the coarse palms
+which offered it in the world's rude market.  It was not for herself
+alone that she had bartered away the life of her youth, that she had
+breathed the hot air of schoolrooms, that she had forced her
+intelligence to posture before her will, as the exigencies of her
+place required,--waking to mental labor,--sleeping to dream of
+problems,--rolling up the stone of education for an endless
+twelvemonth's term, to find it at the bottom of the hill again when
+another year called her to its renewed duties, schooling her temper
+in unending inward and outward conflicts, until neither dulness nor
+obstinacy nor ingratitude nor insolence could reach her serene self-
+possession.  Not for herself alone.  Poorly as her prodigal labors
+were repaid in proportion to the waste of life they cost, her value
+was too well established to leave her without what, under other
+circumstances, would have been a more than sufficient compensation.
+But there were others who looked to her in their need, and so the
+modest fountain which might have been filled to its brim was
+continually drained through silent-flowing, hidden sluices.
+
+Out of such a life, inherited from a race which had lived in
+conditions not unlike her own, beauty, in the common sense of the
+term, could hardly find leisure to develop and shape itself.  For it
+must be remembered, that symmetry and elegance of features and
+figure, like perfectly formed crystals in the mineral world, are
+reached only by insuring a certain necessary repose to individuals
+and to generations.  Human beauty is an agricultural product in the
+country, growing up in men and women as in corn and cattle, where the
+soil is good.  It is a luxury almost monopolized by the rich in
+cities, bred under glass like their forced pine-apples and peaches.
+Both in city and country, the evolution of the physical harmonies
+which make music to our eyes requires a combination of favorable
+circumstances, of which alternations of unburdened tranquillity with
+intervals of varied excitement of mind and body are among the most
+important.  Where sufficient excitement is wanting, as often happens
+in the country, the features, however rich in red and white, get
+heavy, and the movements sluggish; where excitement is furnished in
+excess, as is frequently the case in cities, the contours and colors
+are impoverished, and the nerves begin to make their existence known
+to the consciousness, as the face very soon informs us.
+
+Helen Darley could not, in the nature of things, have possessed the
+kind of beauty which pleases the common taste.  Her eye was calm,
+sad-looking, her features very still, except when her pleasant smile
+changed them for a moment, all her outlines were delicate, her voice
+was very gentle, but somewhat subdued by years of thoughtful labor,
+and on her smooth forehead one little hinted line whispered already
+that Care was beginning to mark the trace which Time sooner or later
+would make a furrow.  She could not be a beauty; if she had been, it
+would have been much harder for many persons to be interested in her.
+For, although in the abstract we all love beauty, and although, if we
+were sent naked souls into some ultramundane warehouse of soulless
+bodies and told to select one to our liking, we should each choose a
+handsome one, and never think of the consequences,--it is quite
+certain that beauty carries an atmosphere of repulsion as well as of
+attraction with it, alike in both sexes.  We may be well assured that
+there are many persons who no more think of specializing their love
+of the other sex upon one endowed with signal beauty, than they think
+of wanting great diamonds or thousand-dollar horses.  No man or woman
+can appropriate beauty without paying for it,--in endowments, in
+fortune, in position, in self-surrender, or other valuable stock; and
+there are a great many who are too poor, too ordinary, too humble,
+too busy, too proud, to pay any of these prices for it.  So the
+unbeautiful get many more lovers than the beauties; only, as there
+are more of them, their lovers are spread thinner and do not make so
+much show.
+
+The young master stood looking at Helen Darley with a kind of tender
+admiration.  She was such a picture of the martyr by the slow social
+combustive process, that it almost seemed to him he could see a pale
+lambent nimbus round her head.
+
+"I did not see you at the great party last evening," he said,
+presently.
+
+She looked up and answered, "No.  I have not much taste for such
+large companies.  Besides, I do not feel as if my time belonged to me
+after it has been paid for.  There is always something to do, some
+lesson or exercise,--and it so happened, I was very busy last night
+with the new problems in geometry.  I hope you had a good time."
+
+"Very.  Two or three of our girls were there.  Rosa Milburn.  What a
+beauty she is!  I wonder what she feeds on!  Wine and musk and
+chloroform and coals of fire, I believe; I didn't think there was
+such color and flavor in a woman outside the tropics."
+
+Miss Darley smiled rather faintly; the imagery was not just to her
+taste: femineity often finds it very hard to accept the fact of
+muliebrity.
+
+"Was"--?
+
+She stopped short; but her question had asked itself.
+
+
+"Elsie there?  She was, for an hour or so.  She looked frightfully
+handsome.  I meant to have spoken to her, but she slipped away before
+I knew it."
+
+"I thought she meant to go to the party," said Miss Darley.  "Did she
+look at you?"
+
+"She did.  Why?"
+
+"And you did not speak to her?"
+
+"No.  I should have spoken to her, but she was gone when I looked for
+her.  A strange creature!  Is n't there an odd sort of fascination
+about her?  You have not explained all the mystery about the girl.
+What does she come to this school for?  She seems to do pretty much
+as she likes about studying."
+
+Miss Darley answered in very low tones.  "It was a fancy of hers to
+come, and they let her have her way.  I don't know what there is
+about her, except that she seems to take my life out of me when she
+looks at me.  I don't like to ask other people about our girls.  She
+says very little to anybody, and studies, or makes believe to study,
+almost what she likes.  I don't know what she is," (Miss Darley laid
+her hand, trembling, on the young master's sleeve,) "but I can tell
+when she is in the room without seeing or hearing her.  Oh, Mr.
+Langdon, I am weak and nervous, and no doubt foolish,--but--if there
+were women now, as in the days of our Saviour, possessed of devils, I
+should think there was something not human looking out of Elsie
+Venner's eyes!"
+
+The poor girl's breast rose and fell tumultuously as she spoke, and
+her voice labored, as if some obstruction were rising in her throat.
+
+A scene might possibly have come of it, but the door opened.  Mr.
+Silas Peckham.  Miss Darley got away as soon as she well could.
+
+"Why did not Miss Darley go to the party last evening?" said Mr.
+Bernard.
+
+"Well, the fact is," answered Mr. Silas Peckham, "Miss Darley, she's
+pooty much took up with the school.  She's an industris young.
+woman,--yis, she is industris,--but perhaps she a'n't quite so spry
+a worker as some.  Maybe, considerin' she's paid for her time, she is
+n't fur out o' the way in occoopyin' herself evenin's,--that--is, if
+so be she a'n't smart enough to finish up all her work in the
+daytime.  Edoocation is the great business of the Institoot.
+Amoosements are objec's of a secondary natur', accordin' to my v'oo."
+[The unspellable pronunciation of this word is the touchstone of New
+England Brahminism.]
+
+Mr. Bernard drew a deep breath, his thin nostrils dilating, as if the
+air did not rush in fast enough to cool his blood, while Silas
+Peckham was speaking.  The Head of the Apollinean Institute delivered
+himself of these judicious sentiments in that peculiar acid,
+penetrating tone, thickened with a nasal twang, which not rarely
+becomes hereditary after three or four generations raised upon east
+winds, salt fish, and large, white-bellied, pickled cucumbers.  He
+spoke deliberately, as if weighing his words well, so that, during
+his few remarks, Mr. Bernard had time for a mental accompaniment with
+variations, accented by certain bodily changes, which escaped Mr.
+Peckham's observation.  First there was a feeling of disgust and
+shame at hearing Helen Darley spoken of like a dumb working animal.
+That sent the blood up into his cheeks.  Then the slur upon her
+probable want of force--her incapacity, who made the character of the
+school and left this man to pocket its profits--sent a thrill of the
+old Wentworth fire through him, so that his muscles hardened, his
+hands closed, and he took the measure of Mr. Silas Peckham, to see if
+his head would strike the wall in case he went over backwards all of
+a sudden.  This would not do, of course, and so the thrill passed off
+and the muscles softened again.  Then came that state of tenderness
+in the heart, overlying wrath in the stomach, in which the eyes grow
+moist like a woman's, and there is also a great boiling-up of
+objectionable terms out of the deep-water vocabulary, so that
+Prudence and Propriety and all the other pious P's have to jump upon
+the lid of speech to keep them from boiling over into fierce
+articulation.  All this was internal, chiefly, and of course not
+recognized by Mr. Silas Peckham.  The idea, that any full-grown,
+sensible man should have any other notion than that of getting the
+most work for the least money out of his assistants, had never
+suggested itself to him.
+
+Mr. Bernard had gone through this paroxysm, and cooled down, in the
+period while Mr. Peckham was uttering these words in his thin,
+shallow whine, twanging up into the frontal sinuses.  What was the
+use of losing his temper and throwing away his place, and so, among
+the consequences which would necessarily follow, leaving the poor
+lady-teacher without a friend to stand by her ready to lay his hand
+on the grand-inquisitor before the windlass of his rack had taken one
+turn too many?
+
+"No doubt, Mr. Peckham," he said, in a grave, calm voice, "there is a
+great deal of work to be done in the school; but perhaps we can
+distribute the duties a little more evenly after a time.  I shall
+look over the girls' themes myself, after this week.  Perhaps there
+will be some other parts of her labor that I can take on myself.  We
+can arrange a new programme of studies and recitations."
+
+"We can do that," said Mr. Silas Peckham.  "But I don't propose
+mater'lly alterin' Miss Darley's dooties.  I don't think she works to
+hurt herself.  Some of the Trustees have proposed interdoosin' new
+branches of study, and I expect you will be pooty much occoopied with
+the dooties that belong to your place.  On the Sahbath you will be
+able to attend divine service three times, which is expected of our
+teachers.  I shall continoo myself to give Sahbath Scriptur' readin's
+to the young ladies.  That is a solemn dooty I can't make up my mind
+to commit to other people.  My teachers enjoy the Lord's day as a day
+of rest.  In it they do no manner of work, except in cases of
+necessity or mercy, such as fillin' out diplomas, or when we git
+crowded jest at the end of a term, or when there is an extry number
+of p'oopils, or other Providential call to dispense with the
+ordinance."
+
+Mr. Bernard had a fine glow in his cheeks by this time,--doubtless
+kindled by the thought of the kind consideration Mr. Peckham showed
+for his subordinates in allowing them the between meeting-time on
+Sundays except for some special reason.  But the morning was wearing
+away; so he went to the schoolroom, taking leave very properly of his
+respected principal, who soon took his hat and departed.
+
+Mr. Peckham visited certain "stores" or shops, where he made
+inquiries after various articles in the provision-line, and effected
+a purchase or two.  Two or three barrels of potatoes, which had
+sprouted in a promising way, he secured at a bargain.  A side of
+feminine beef was also obtained at a low figure.  He was entirely
+satisfied with a couple of barrels of flour, which, being invoiced
+"slightly damaged," were to be had at a reasonable price.
+
+After this, Silas Peckham felt in good spirits.  He had done a pretty
+stroke of business.  It came into his head whether he might not
+follow it up with a still more brilliant speculation.  So he turned
+his steps in the direction of Colonel Sprowle's.
+
+It was now eleven o'clock, and the battle-field of last evening was
+as we left it.  Mr. Peckham's visit was unexpected, perhaps not very
+well timed, but the Colonel received him civilly.
+
+"Beautifully lighted,--these rooms last night!" said Mr. Peckham.
+"Winter-strained?"
+
+The Colonel nodded.
+
+"How much do you pay for your winter-strained?"
+
+The Colonel told him the price.
+
+"Very hahnsome supper,--very hahnsome.  Nothin' ever seen like it in
+Rockland.  Must have been a great heap of things leftover."
+
+The compliment was not ungrateful, and the Colonel acknowledged it by
+smiling and saying, "I should think the' was a trifle?  Come and
+look."
+
+When Silas Peckham saw how many delicacies had survived the evening's
+conflict, his commercial spirit rose at once to the point of a
+proposal.
+
+"Colonel Sprowle," said he, "there's 'meat and cakes and pies and
+pickles enough on that table to spread a hahnsome colation.  If you'd
+like to trade reasonable, I think perhaps I should be willin' to take
+'em off your hands.  There's been a talk about our havin' a
+celebration in the Parnassian Grove, and I think I could work in what
+your folks don't want and make myself whole by chargin' a small sum
+for tickets.  Broken meats, of course, a'n't of the same valoo as
+fresh provisions; so I think you might be willin' to trade
+reasonable."
+
+Mr. Peckham paused and rested on his proposal.  It would not,
+perhaps, have been very extraordinary, if Colonel Sprowle had
+entertained the proposition.  There is no telling beforehand how such
+things will strike people.  It didn't happen to strike the Colonel
+favorably.  He had a little red-blooded manhood in him.
+
+"Sell you them things to make a colation out of?" the Colonel
+replied.  "Walk up to that table, Mr. Peckham, and help yourself!
+Fill your pockets; Mr. Peckham!  Fetch a basket, and our hired folks
+shall fill it full for ye!  Send a cart, if y' like, 'n' carry off
+them leavin's to make a celebration for your pupils with!  Only let
+me tell ye this:--as sure 's my name's Hezekiah Spraowle, you 'll be
+known through the taown 'n' through the caounty, from that day
+forrard, as the Principal of the Broken-Victuals Institoot!"
+
+Even provincial human-nature sometimes has a touch of sublimity about
+it.  Mr. Silas Peckham had gone a little deeper than he meant, and
+come upon the "hard pan," as the well-diggers call it, of the
+Colonel's character, before he thought of it.  A militia-colonel
+standing on his sentiments is not to be despised.  That was shown
+pretty well in New England two or three generations ago.  There were
+a good many plain officers that talked about their "rigiment" and
+their "caounty" who knew very well how to say "Make ready!"  "Take
+aim!"  "Fire!"--in the face of a line of grenadiers with bullets in
+their guns and bayonets on them.  And though a rustic uniform is not
+always unexceptionable in its cut and trimmings, yet there was many
+an ill-made coat in those old times that was good enough to be shown
+to the enemy's front rank too often to be left on the field with a
+round hole in its left lapel that matched another going right through
+the brave heart of the plain country captain or major or colonel who
+was buried in it under the crimson turf.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham said little or nothing.  His sensibilities were not
+acute, but he perceived that he had made a miscalculation.  He hoped
+that there was no offence,--thought it might have been mutooally
+agreeable, conclooded he would give up the idee of a colation, and
+backed himself out as if unwilling to expose the less guarded aspect
+of his person to the risk of accelerating impulses.
+
+The Colonel shut the door,--cast his eye on the toe of his right
+boot, as if it had had a strong temptation,--looked at his watch,
+then round the room, and, going to a cupboard, swallowed a glass of
+deep-red brandy and water to compose his feelings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE DOCTOR ORDERS THE BEST SULKY.
+(With a Digression on "Hired Help.")
+
+"ABEL!  Slip Cassia into the new sulky, and fetch her round."
+
+Abel was Dr. Kittredge's hired man.  He was born in New Hampshire, a
+queer sort of State, with fat streaks of soil and population where
+they breed giants in mind and body, and lean streaks which export
+imperfectly nourished young men with promising but neglected
+appetites, who may be found in great numbers in all the large towns,
+or could be until of late years, when they have been half driven out
+of their favorite basement-stories by foreigners, and half coaxed
+away from them by California.  New Hampshire is in more than one
+sense the Switzerland of New England.  The "Granite State" being
+naturally enough deficient in pudding-stone, its children are apt to
+wander southward in search of that deposit,--in the unpetrified
+condition.
+
+Abel Stebbins was a good specimen of that extraordinary hybrid or
+mule between democracy and chrysocracy, a native-born New-England
+serving-man.  The Old World has nothing at all like him.  He is at
+once an emperor and a subordinate.  In one hand he holds one five-
+millionth part (be the same more or less) of the power that sways the
+destinies of the Great Republic.  His other hand is in your boot,
+which he is about to polish.  It is impossible to turn a fellow
+citizen whose vote may make his master--say, rather, employer--
+Governor or President, or who may be one or both himself, into a
+flunky.  That article must be imported ready-made from other centres
+of civilization.  When a New Englander has lost his self-respect as a
+citizen and as a man, he is demoralized, and cannot be trusted with
+the money to pay for a dinner.
+
+It may be supposed, therefore, that this fractional emperor, this
+continent-shaper, finds his position awkward when he goes into
+service, and that his employer is apt to find it still more
+embarrassing.  It is always under protest that the hired man does his
+duty.  Every act of service is subject to the drawback, "I am as good
+as you are."  This is so common, at least, as almost to be the rule,
+and partly accounts for the rapid disappearance of the indigenous
+"domestic" from the basements above mentioned.  Paleontologists will
+by and by be examining the floors of our kitchens for tracks of the
+extinct native species of serving-man.  The female of the same race
+is fast dying out; indeed, the time is not far distant when all the
+varieties of young woman will have vanished from New England, as the
+dodo has perished in the Mauritius.  The young lady is all that we
+shall have left, and the mop and duster of the last Ahnira or Loizy
+will be stared at by generations of Bridgets and Noras as that famous
+head and foot of the lost bird are stared at in the Ashmolean Museum.
+
+Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his
+difficult position.  He sold his time to the Doctor, and, having sold
+it, he took care to fulfil his half of the bargain.  The Doctor, on
+his part, treated him, not like a gentleman, because one does not
+order a gentleman to bring up his horse or run his errands, but he
+treated him like a man.  Every order was given in courteous terms.
+His reasonable privileges were respected as much as if they had been
+guaranteed under hand and seal.  The Doctor lent him books from his
+own library, and gave him all friendly counsel, as if he were a son
+or a younger brother.
+
+Abel had Revolutionary blood in his veins, and though he saw fit to
+"hire out," he could never stand the word "servant," or consider
+himself the inferior one of the two high contracting parties.  When
+he came to live with the Doctor, he made up his mind he would dismiss
+the old gentleman, if he did not behave according to his notions of
+propriety.  But he soon found that the Doctor was one of the right
+sort, and so determined to keep him.  The Doctor soon found, on his
+side, that he had a trustworthy, intelligent fellow, who would be
+invaluable to him, if he only let him have his own way of doing what
+was to be done.
+
+The Doctor's hired man had not the manners of a French valet.  He was
+grave and taciturn for the most part, he never bowed and rarely
+smiled, but was always at work in the daytime, and always reading in
+the evening.  He was hostler, and did all the housework that a man
+could properly do, would go to the door or "tend table," bought the
+provisions for the family,--in short, did almost everything for them
+but get their clothing.  There was no office in a perfectly appointed
+household, from that of steward down to that of stable-boy, which he
+did not cheerfully assume.  His round of work not consuming all his
+energies, he must needs cultivate the Doctor's garden, which he kept
+in one perpetual bloom, from the blowing of the first crocus to the
+fading of the last dahlia.
+
+This garden was Abel's poem.  Its half-dozen beds were so many
+cantos.  Nature crowded them for him with imagery such as no Laureate
+could copy in the cold mosaic of language.  The rhythm of alternating
+dawn and sunset, the strophe and antistrophe still perceptible
+through all the sudden shifts of our dithyrambic seasons and echoed
+in corresponding floral harmonies, made melody in the soul of Abel,
+the plain serving-man.  It softened his whole otherwise rigid aspect.
+He worshipped God according to the strict way of his fathers; but a
+florist's Puritanism is always colored by the petals of his flowers,
+--and Nature never shows him a black corolla.
+
+He may or may not figure again in this narrative; but as there must
+be some who confound the New England hired man, native-born, with the
+servant of foreign birth, and as there is the difference of two
+continents and two civilizations between them, it did not seem fair
+to let Abel bring round the Doctor's mare and sulky without touching
+his features in half-shadow into our background.
+
+The Doctor's mare, Cassia, was so called by her master from her
+cinnamon color, cassia being one of the professional names for that
+spice or drug.  She was of the shade we call sorrel, or, as an
+Englishman would perhaps say, chestnut,--a genuine "Morgan" mare,
+with a low forehand, as is common in this breed, but with strong
+quarters and flat hocks, well ribbed up, with a good eye and a pair
+of lively ears,--a first-rate doctor's beast, would stand until her
+harness dropped off her back at the door of a tedious case, and trot
+over hill and dale thirty miles in three hours, if there was a child
+in the next county with a bean in its windpipe and the Doctor gave
+her a hint of the fact.  Cassia was not large, but she had a good
+deal of action, and was the Doctor's show-horse.  There were two.
+other animals in his stable: Quassia or Quashy, the black horse, and
+Caustic, the old bay, with whom he jogged round the village.
+
+"A long ride to-day?" said Abel, as he brought up the equipage.
+
+"Just out of the village,--that 's all.---There 's a kink in her
+mane,--pull it out, will you?"
+
+"Goin' to visit some of the great folks," Abel said to himself."
+Wonder who it is."--Then to the Doctor,--"Anybody get sick at
+Sprowles's?  They say Deacon Soper had a fit, after eatin' some o'
+their frozen victuals."
+
+The Doctor smiled.  He guessed the Deacon would do well enough.  He
+was only going to ride over to the Dudley mansion-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE DOCTOR CALLS ON ELSIE VENNER.
+
+If that primitive physician, Chiron, M. D., appears as a Centaur, as
+we look at him through the lapse of thirty centuries, the modern
+country-doctor, if he could be seen about thirty miles off, could not
+be distinguished from a wheel-animalcule.  He inhabits a wheel-
+carriage.  He thinks of stationary dwellings as Long Tom Coffin did
+of land in general; a house may be well enough for incidental
+purposes, but for a "stiddy" residence give him a "kerridge."  If he
+is classified in the Linnaean scale, he must be set down thus: Genus
+Homo; Species Rotifer infusorius, the wheel-animal of infusions.
+
+The Dudley mansion was not a mile from the Doctor's; but it never
+occurred to him to think of walking to see any of his patients'
+families, if he had any professional object in his visit.  Whenever
+the narrow sulky turned in at a gate, the rustic who was digging
+potatoes, or hoeing corn, or swishing through the grass with his
+scythe, in wave-like crescents, or stepping short behind a loaded
+wheelbarrow, or trudging lazily by the side of the swinging, loose-
+throated, short-legged oxen, rocking along the road as if they had
+just been landed after a three-months' voyage, the toiling native,
+whatever he was doing, stopped and looked up at the house the Doctor
+was visiting.
+
+"Somebody sick over there t' Haynes's.  Guess th' old man's ailin'
+ag'in.  Winder's half-way open in the chamber,--should n' wonder 'f
+he was dead and laid aout.  Docterin' a'n't no use, when y' see th'
+winders open like that.  Wahl, money a'n't much to speak of to th'
+old man naow!  He don' want but tew cents,--'n' old Widah Peake, she
+knows what he wants them for!"
+
+Or again,--
+
+"Measles raound pooty thick.  Briggs's folks buried two children with
+'em lass' week.  Th' of Doctor, he'd h' ker'd 'em threugh.  Struck in
+'n' p'dooced mo't'f'cation,--so they say."
+
+This is only meant as a sample of the kind of way they used to think
+or talk, when the narrow sulky turned in at the gate of some house
+where there was a visit to be made.
+
+Oh, that narrow sulky!  What hopes, what fears, what comfort, what
+anguish, what despair, in the roll of its coming or its parting
+wheels!  In the spring, when the old people get the coughs which give
+them a few shakes and their lives drop in pieces like the ashes of a
+burned thread which have kept the threadlike shape until they were
+stirred,--in the hot summer noons, when the strong man comes in from
+the fields, like the son of the Shunamite, crying, "My head, my
+head,"--in the dying autumn days, when youth and maiden lie fever-
+stricken in many a household, still-faced, dull-eyed, dark-flushed,
+dry-lipped, low-muttering in their daylight dreams, their fingers
+moving singly like those of slumbering harpers,--in the dead winter,
+when the white plague of the North has caged its wasted victims,
+shuddering as they think of the frozen soil which must be quarried
+like rock to receive them, if their perpetual convalescence should
+happen to be interfered with by any untoward accident,--at every
+season, the narrow sulky rolled round freighted with unmeasured
+burdens of joy and woe.
+
+The Doctor drove along the southern foot of The Mountain.  The
+"Dudley Mansion" was near the eastern edge of this declivity, where
+it rose steepest, with baldest cliffs and densest patches of
+overhanging wood.  It seemed almost too steep to climb, but a
+practised eye could see from a distance the zigzag lines of the
+sheep-paths which scaled it like miniature Alpine roads.  A few
+hundred feet up The Mountain's side was a dark deep dell, unwooded,
+save for a few spindling, crazy-looking hackmatacks or native
+larches, with pallid green tufts sticking out fantastically all over
+them.  It shelved so deeply, that, while the hemlock-tassels were
+swinging on the trees around its border, all would be still at its
+springy bottom, save that perhaps a single fern would wave slowly
+backward and forward like a sabre with a twist as of a feathered
+oar,--and this when not a breath could be felt, and every other stem
+and blade were motionless.  There was an old story of one having
+perished here in the winter of '86, and his body having been found in
+the spring,--whence its common name of "Dead-Man's Hollow."  Higher
+up there were huge cliffs with chasms, and, it was thought, concealed
+caves, where in old times they said that Tories lay hid,--some hinted
+not without occasional aid and comfort from the Dudleys then living
+in the mansion-house.  Still higher and farther west lay the accursed
+ledge,--shunned by all, unless it were now and then a daring youth,
+or a wandering naturalist who ventured to its edge in the hope of
+securing some infantile Crotalus durissus, who had not yet cut his
+poison teeth.
+
+Long, long ago, in old Colonial times, the Honorable Thomas Dudley,
+Esquire, a man of note and name and great resources, allied by
+descent to the family of "Tom Dudley," as the early Governor is
+sometimes irreverently called by our most venerable, but still
+youthful antiquary,--and to the other public Dudleys, of course,--of
+all of whom he made small account, as being himself an English
+gentleman, with little taste for the splendors of provincial office,
+early in the last century, Thomas Dudley had built this mansion.  For
+several generations it had been dwelt in by descendants of the same
+name, but soon after the Revolution it passed by marriage into the
+hands of the Venners, by whom it had ever since been held and
+tenanted.
+
+As the doctor turned an angle in the road, all at once the stately
+old house rose before him.  It was a skilfully managed effect, as it
+well might be, for it was no vulgar English architect who had planned
+the mansion and arranged its position and approach.  The old house
+rose before the Doctor, crowning a terraced garden, flanked at the
+left by an avenue of tall elms.  The flower-beds were edged with box,
+which diffused around it that dreamy balsamic odor, full of ante-
+natal reminiscences of a lost Paradise, dimly fragrant as might be
+the bdellium of ancient Havilah, the land compassed by the river
+Pison that went out of Eden.  The garden was somewhat neglected, but
+not in disgrace,--and in the time of tulips and hyacinths, of roses,
+of "snowballs," of honeysuckles, of lilacs, of syringas, it was rich
+with blossoms.
+
+From the front-windows of the mansion the eye reached a far blue
+mountain-summit,--no rounded heap, such as often shuts in a village-
+landscape, but a sharp peak, clean-angled as Ascutney from the
+Dartmouth green.  A wide gap through miles of woods had opened this
+distant view, and showed more, perhaps, than all the labors of the
+architect and the landscape-gardener the large style of the early
+Dudleys.
+
+The great stone-chimney of the mansion-house was the centre from
+which all the artificial features of the scene appeared to flow.  The
+roofs, the gables, the dormer-windows, the porches, the clustered
+offices in the rear, all seemed to crowd about the great chimney.  To
+this central pillar the paths all converged.  The single poplar
+behind the house,--Nature is jealous of proud chimneys, and always
+loves to put a poplar near one, so that it may fling a leaf or two
+down its black throat every autumn,--the one tall poplar behind the
+house seemed to nod and whisper to the grave square column, the elms
+to sway their branches towards it.  And when the blue smoke rose from
+its summit, it seemed to be wafted away to join the azure haze which
+hung around the peak in the far distance, so that both should bathe
+in a common atmosphere.
+
+Behind the house were clumps of lilacs with a century's growth upon
+them, and looking more like trees than like shrubs.  Shaded by a
+group of these was the ancient well, of huge circuit, and with a low
+arch opening out of its wall about ten feet below the surface,--
+whether the door of a crypt for the concealment of treasure, or of a
+subterranean passage, or merely of a vault for keeping provisions
+cool in hot weather, opinions differed.
+
+On looking at the house, it was plain that it was built with Old-
+World notions of strength and durability, and, so far as might be,
+with Old-World materials.  The hinges of the doors stretched out like
+arms, instead of like hands, as we make them.  The bolts were massive
+enough for a donjon-keep.  The small window-panes were actually
+inclosed in the wood of the sashes instead of being stuck to them
+with putty, as in our modern windows.  The broad staircase was of
+easy ascent, and was guarded by quaintly turned and twisted
+balusters.  The ceilings of the two rooms of state were moulded with
+medallion-portraits and rustic figures, such as may have been seen by
+many readers in the famous old Philipse house,--Washington's head-
+quarters,--in the town of Yorkers.  The fire-places, worthy of the
+wide-throated central chimney, were bordered by pictured tiles, some
+of them with Scripture stories, some with Watteau-like figures,--tall
+damsels in slim waists and with spread enough of skirt for a modern
+ballroom, with bowing, reclining, or musical swains of what everybody
+calls the "conventional" sort,--that is, the swain adapted to genteel
+society rather than to a literal sheep-compelling existence.
+
+The house was furnished, soon after it was completed, with many heavy
+articles made in London from a rare wood just then come into fashion,
+not so rare now, and commonly known as mahogany.  Time had turned it
+very dark, and the stately bedsteads and tall cabinets and claw-
+footed chairs and tables were in keeping with the sober dignity of
+the ancient mansion.  The old "hangings" were yet preserved in the
+chambers, faded, but still showing their rich patterns,--properly
+entitled to their name, for they were literally hung upon flat wooden
+frames like trellis-work, which again were secured to the naked
+partitions.
+
+There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various
+apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in
+one sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly
+symbols, with a legend signifying that E. M. (supposed to be
+Elizabeth Mascarene) wished not to be "forgot"
+
+         "When I am dead and lay'd in dust
+          And all my bones are"---
+
+Poor E. M.!  Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a
+planet with a core of fire and a crust of fossils!
+
+Such was the Dudley mansion-house,--for it kept its ancient name in
+spite of the change in the line of descent.  Its spacious apartments
+looked dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter
+dwelt by themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of
+life required.  He almost lived in his library, the western room on
+the ground-floor.  Its window looked upon a small plat of green, in
+the midst of which was a single grave marked by a plain marble slab.
+Except this room, and the chamber where he slept, and the servants'
+wing, the rest of the house was all Elsie's.  She was always a
+restless, wandering child from her early years, and would have her
+little bed moved from one chamber to another,--flitting round as the
+fancy took her.  Sometimes she would drag a mat and a pillow into one
+of the great empty rooms, and, wrapping herself in a shawl, coil up
+and go to sleep in a corner.  Nothing frightened her; the "haunted"
+chamber, with the torn hangings that flapped like wings when there
+was air stirring, was one of her favorite retreats.  She had been a
+very hard creature to manage.  Her father could influence, but not
+govern her.  Old Sophy, born of a slave mother in the house, could do
+more with her than anybody, knowing her by long instinctive study.
+The other servants were afraid of her.  Her father had sent for
+governesses, but none of them ever stayed long.  She made them
+nervous; one of them had a strange fit of sickness; not one of them
+ever came back to the house to see her.  A young Spanish woman who
+taught her dancing succeeded best with her, for she had a passion for
+that exercise, and had mastered some of the most difficult dances.
+Long before this period, she had manifested some most extraordinary
+singularities of taste or instinct.  The extreme sensitiveness of her
+father on this point prevented any allusion to them; but there were
+stories floating round, some of them even getting into the papers,--
+without her name, of course,--which were of a kind to excite intense
+curiosity, if not more anxious feelings.  This thing was certain,
+that at the age of twelve she was missed one night, and was found
+sleeping in the open air under a tree, like a wild creature.  Very
+often she would wander off by day, always without a companion,
+bringing home with her a nest, a flower, or even a more questionable
+trophy of her ramble, such as showed that there was no place where
+she was afraid to venture.  Once in a while she had stayed out over
+night, in which case the alarm was spread, and men went in search of
+her, but never successfully,--so--that some said she hid herself in
+trees, and others that she had found one of the old Tory caves.
+
+Some, of course, said she was a crazy girl, and ought to be sent to
+an Asylum.  But old Dr. Kittredge had shaken his head, and told them
+to bear with her, and let her have her way as much as they could, but
+watch her, as far as possible, without making her suspicious of them.
+He visited her now and then, under the pretext of seeing her father
+on business, or of only making a friendly call.
+
+The Doctor fastened his horse outside the gate, and walked up the
+garden-alley.  He stopped suddenly with a start.  A strange sound
+had jarred upon his ear.  It was a sharp prolonged rattle,
+continuous, but rising and falling as if in rhythmical cadence.  He
+moved softly towards the open window from which the sound seemed to
+proceed.
+
+Elsie was alone in the room, dancing one of those wild Moorish
+fandangos, such as a matador hot from the Plaza de Toros of Seville
+or Madrid might love to lie and gaze at.  She was a figure to look
+upon in silence.  The dancing frenzy must have seized upon her while
+she was dressing; for she was in her bodice, bare-armed, her hair
+floating unbound far below the waist of her barred or banded skirt.
+She had caught up her castanets, and rattled them as she danced with
+a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with
+flexuous grace, her diamond eyes glittering, her round arms wreathing
+and unwinding, alive and vibrant to the tips of the slender fingers.
+Some passion seemed to exhaust itself in this dancing paroxysm; for
+all at once she reeled from the middle of the floor, and flung
+herself, as it were in a careless coil, upon a great tiger's-skin
+which was spread out in one corner of the apartment.
+
+The old Doctor stood motionless, looking at her as she lay panting on
+the tawny, black-lined robe of the dead monster which stretched out
+beneath her, its rude flattened outline recalling the Terror of the
+Jungle as he crouched for his fatal spring.  In a few moments her
+head drooped upon her arm, and her glittering eyes closed,--she was
+sleeping.  He stood looking at her still, steadily, thoughtfully,
+tenderly.  Presently he lifted his hand to his forehead, as if
+recalling some fading remembrance of other years.
+
+"Poor Catalina!"
+
+This was all he said.  He shook his head,--implying that his visit
+would be in vain to-day,--returned to his sulky, and rode away, as if
+in a dream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+COUSIN RICHARD'S VISIT.
+
+The Doctor was roused from his revery by the clatter of approaching
+hoofs.  He looked forward and saw a young fellow galloping rapidly
+towards him.
+
+A common New-England rider with his toes turned out, his elbows
+jerking and the daylight showing under him at every step, bestriding
+a cantering beast of the plebeian breed, thick at every point where
+he should be thin, and thin at every point where he should be thick,
+is not one of those noble objects that bewitch the world.  The best
+horsemen outside of the cities are the unshod countryboys, who ride
+"bareback," with only a halter round the horse's neck, digging their
+brown heels into his ribs, and slanting over backwards, but sticking
+on like leeches, and taking the hardest trot as if they loved it.---
+This was a different sight on which the Doctor was looking.  The
+streaming mane and tail of the unshorn, savage-looking, black horse,
+the dashing grace with which the young fellow in the shadowy
+sombrero, and armed with the huge spurs, sat in his high-peaked
+saddle, could belong only to the mustang of the Pampas and his
+master.  This bold rider was a young man whose sudden apparition in
+the quiet inland town had reminded some of the good people of a
+bright, curly-haired boy they had known some eight or ten years
+before as little Dick Venner.
+
+This boy had passed several of his early years at the Dudley mansion,
+the playmate of Elsie, being her cousin, two or three years older
+than herself, the son of Captain Richard Venner, a South American
+trader, who, as he changed his residence often, was glad to leave the
+boy in his brother's charge.  The Captain's wife, this boy's mother,
+was a lady of Buenos Ayres, of Spanish descent, and had died while
+the child was in his cradle.  These two motherless children were as
+strange a pair as one roof could well cover.  Both handsome, wild,
+impetuous, unmanageable, they played and fought together like two
+young leopards, beautiful, but dangerous, their lawless instincts
+showing through all their graceful movements.
+
+The boy was little else than a young Gaucho when he first came to
+Rockland; for he had learned to ride almost as soon as to walk, and
+could jump on his pony and trip up a runaway pig with the bolas or
+noose him with his miniature lasso at an age when some city-children
+would hardly be trusted out of sight of a nursery-maid.  It makes men
+imperious to sit a horse; no man governs his fellows so well as from
+this living throne.  And so, from Marcus Aurelius in Roman bronze,
+down to the "man on horseback" in General Cushing's prophetic speech,
+the saddle has always been the true seat of empire.  The absolute
+tyranny of the human will over a noble and powerful beast develops
+the instinct of personal prevalence and dominion; so that horse-
+subduer and hero were almost synonymous in simpler times, and are
+closely related still.  An ancestry of wild riders naturally enough
+bequeaths also those other tendencies which we see in the Tartars,
+the Cossacks, and our own Indian Centaurs, and as well, perhaps, in
+the old-fashioned fox-hunting squire as in any of these.  Sharp
+alternations of violent action and self-indulgent repose; a hard run,
+and a long revel after it; this is what over-much horse tends to
+animalize a man into.  Such antecedents may have helped to make
+little Dick Venner a self-willed, capricious boy, and a rough
+playmate for Elsie.
+
+Elsie was the wilder of the two.  Old Sophy, who used to watch them
+with those quick, animal-looking eyes of hers,--she was said to be
+the granddaughter of a cannibal chief, and inherited the keen senses
+belonging to all creatures which are hunted as game, Old Sophy, who
+watched them in their play and their quarrels, always seemed to be
+more afraid for the boy than the girl.  "Masse Dick!  Masse Dick!
+don' you be too rough wi' dat gal!  She scratch you las' week, 'n'
+some day she bite you; 'n' if she bite you, Masse Dick!  "Old Sophy
+nodded her head ominously, as if she could say a great deal more;
+while, in grateful acknowledgment of her caution, Master Dick put his
+two little fingers in the angles of his mouth, and his forefingers on
+his lower eyelids, drawing upon these features until his expression
+reminded her of something she vaguely recollected in her infancy,--
+the face of a favorite deity executed in wood by an African artist
+for her grandfather, brought over by her mother, and burned when she
+became a Christian.
+
+These two wild children had much in common.  They loved to ramble
+together, to build huts, to climb trees for nests, to ride the colts,
+to dance, to race, and to play at boys' rude games as if both were
+boys.  But wherever two natures have a great deal in common, the
+conditions of a first-rate quarrel are furnished ready-made.
+Relations are very apt to hate each other just because they are too
+much alike.  It is so frightful to be in an atmosphere of family
+idiosyncrasies; to see all the hereditary uncomeliness or infirmity
+of body, all the defects of speech, all the failings of temper,
+intensified by concentration, so that every fault of our own finds
+itself multiplied by reflections, like our images in a saloon lined.
+with mirrors!  Nature knows what she is about.  The centrifugal
+principle which grows out of the antipathy of like to like is only
+the repetition in character of the arrangement we see expressed
+materially in certain seed-capsules, which burst and throw the seed
+to all points of the compass.  A house is a large pod with a human
+germ or two in each of its cells or chambers; it opens by dehiscence
+of the front-door by and by, and projects one of its germs to Kansas,
+another to San Francisco, another to Chicago, and so on; and this
+that Smith may not be Smithed to death and Brown may not be Browned
+into a mad-house, but mix in with the world again and struggle back
+to average humanity.
+
+Elsie's father, whose fault was to indulge her in everything, found
+that it would never do to let these children grow up together.  They
+would either love each other as they got older, and pair like wild
+creatures, or take some fierce antipathy, which might end nobody
+could tell where.  It was not safe to try.  The boy must be sent
+away.  A sharper quarrel than common decided this point.  Master Dick
+forgot Old Sophy's caution, and vexed the girl into a paroxysm of
+wrath, in which she sprang at him and bit his arm.  Perhaps they made
+too much of it; for they sent for the old Doctor, who came at once
+when he heard what had happened.  He had a good deal to say about the
+danger there was from the teeth of animals or human beings when
+enraged; and as he emphasized his remarks by the application of a
+pencil of lunar caustic to each of the marks left by the sharp white
+teeth, they were like to be remembered by at least one of his
+hearers.
+
+So Master Dick went off on his travels, which led him into strange
+places and stranger company.  Elsie was half pleased and half sorry
+to have him go; the children had a kind of mingled liking and hate
+for each other, just such as is very common among relations.  Whether
+the girl had most satisfaction in the plays they shared, or in
+teasing him, or taking her small revenge upon him for teasing her, it
+would have been hard to say.  At any rate, she was lonely without
+him.  She had more fondness for the old black woman than anybody; but
+Sophy could not follow her far beyond her own old rocking-chair.  As
+for her father, she had made him afraid of her, not for his sake, but
+for her own.  Sometimes she would seem to be fond of him, and the
+parent's heart would yearn within him as she twined her supple arms
+about him; and then some look she gave him, some half-articulated
+expression, would turn his cheek pale and almost make him shiver, and
+he would say kindly, "Now go, Elsie, dear,"  and smile upon her as
+she went, and close and lock the door softly after her.  Then his
+forehead would knot and furrow itself, and the drops of anguish stand
+thick upon it.  He would go to the western window of his study and
+look at the solitary mound with the marble slab for its head-stone.
+After his grief had had its way, he would kneel down and pray for his
+child as one who has no hope save in that special grace which can
+bring the most rebellious spirit into sweet subjection.  All this
+might seem like weakness in a parent having the charge of one sole
+daughter of his house and heart; but he had tried authority and
+tenderness by turns so long without any good effect, that he had
+become sore perplexed, and, surrounding her with cautious
+watchfulness as he best might, left her in the main to her own
+guidance and the merciful influences which Heaven might send down to
+direct her footsteps.
+
+Meantime the boy grew up to youth and early manhood through a strange
+succession of adventures.  He had been at school at Buenos Ayres,--
+had quarrelled with his mother's relatives,--had run off to the
+Pampas, and lived with the Gauchos;--had made friends with the
+Indians, and ridden with them, it was rumored, in some of their
+savage forays,--had returned and made up his quarrel,--had got money
+by inheritance or otherwise,--had troubled the peace of certain
+magistrates,--had found it convenient to leave the City of Wholesome
+Breezes for a time, and had galloped off on a fast horse of his, (so
+it was said,) with some officers riding after him, who took good care
+(but this was only the popular story) not to catch him.  A few days
+after this he was taking his ice on the Alameda of Mendoza, and a
+week or two later sailed from Valparaiso for New York, carrying with
+him the horse with which he had scampered over the Plains, a trunk or
+two with his newly purchased outfit of, clothing and other
+conveniences, and a belt heavy with gold and with a few Brazilian
+diamonds sewed in it, enough in value to serve him for a long
+journey.
+
+Dick Venner had seen life enough to wear out the earlier
+sensibilities of adolescence.  He was tired of worshipping or
+tyrannizing over the bistred or umbered beauties of mingled blood
+among whom he had been living.  Even that piquant exhibition which
+the Rio de Mendoza presents to the amateur of breathing sculpture
+failed to interest him.  He was thinking of a far-off village on the
+other side of the equator, and of the wild girl with whom he used to
+play and quarrel, a creature of a different race from these
+degenerate mongrels.
+
+"A game little devil she was, sure enough!"--And as Dick spoke, he
+bared his wrist to look for the marks she had left on it: two small
+white scars, where the two small sharp upper teeth had struck when
+she flashed at him with her eyes sparkling as bright as those
+glittering stones sewed up in the belt he wore.  "That's a filly
+worth noosing!" said Dick to himself, as he looked in admiration at
+the sign of her spirit and passion.  "I wonder if she will bite at
+eighteen as she did at eight!  She shall have a chance to try, at any
+rate!"
+
+Such was the self-sacrificing disposition with which Richard Venner,
+Esq., a passenger by the Condor from Valparaiso, set foot upon his
+native shore, and turned his face in the direction of Rockland, The
+Mountain, and the mansion-house.  He had heard something, from time
+to time, of his New-England relatives, and knew that they were living
+together as he left them.  And so he heralded himself to "My dear
+Uncle" by a letter signed "Your loving nephew, Richard Venner," in
+which letter he told a very frank story of travel and mercantile
+adventure, expressed much gratitude for the excellent counsel and
+example which had helped to form his character and preserve him in
+the midst of temptation, inquired affectionately after his uncle's
+health, was much interested to know whether his lively cousin who
+used to be his playmate had grown up as handsome as she promised to
+be, and announced his intention of paying his respects to them both
+at Rockland.  Not long after this came the trunks marked R. V. which
+he had sent before him, forerunners of his advent: he was not going
+to wait for a reply or an invitation.
+
+What a sound that is,--the banging down of the preliminary trunk,
+without its claimant to give it the life which is borrowed by all
+personal appendages, so long as the owner's hand or eye is on them!
+If it announce the coming of one loved and longed for, how we delight
+to look at it, to sit down on it, to caress it in our fancies, as a
+lone exile walking out on a windy pier yearns towards the merchantman
+lying alongside, with the colors of his own native land at her peak,
+and the name of the port he sailed from long ago upon her stern!  But
+if it tell the near approach of the undesired, inevitable guest, what
+sound short of the muffled noises made by the undertakers as they
+turn the corners in the dim-lighted house, with low shuffle of feet
+and whispered cautions, carries such a sense of knocking-kneed
+collapse with it as the thumping down in the front entry of the heavy
+portmanteau, rammed with the changes of uncounted coming weeks?
+
+Whether the R. V. portmanteaus brought one or the other of these
+emotions to the tenants of the Dudley mansion, it might not be easy
+to settle.  Elsie professed to be pleased with the thought of having
+an adventurous young stranger, with stories to tell, an inmate of
+their quiet, not to say dull, family.  Under almost any other
+circumstances, her father would have been unwilling to take a young
+fellow of whom he knew so little under his roof; but this was his
+nephew, and anything that seemed like to amuse or please Elsie was
+agreeable to him.  He had grown almost desperate, and felt as if any
+change in the current of her life and feelings might save her from
+some strange paroxysm of dangerous mental exaltation or sullen
+perversion of disposition, from which some fearful calamity might
+come to herself or others.
+
+Dick had been several weeks at the Dudley mansion.  A few days
+before, he had made a sudden dash for the nearest large city,--and
+when the Doctor met him, he was just returning from his visit.
+
+It had been a curious meeting between the two young persons, who had
+parted so young and after such strange relations with each other.
+When Dick first presented himself at the mansion, not one in the
+house would have known him for the boy who had left them all so
+suddenly years ago.  He was so dark, partly from his descent, partly
+from long habits of exposure, that Elsie looked almost fair beside
+him.  He had something of the family beauty which belonged to his
+cousin, but his eye had a fierce passion in it, very unlike the cold
+glitter of Elsie's.  Like many people of strong and imperious temper,
+he was soft-voiced and very gentle in his address, when he had no
+special reason for being otherwise.  He soon found reasons enough to
+be as amiable as he could force himself to be with his uncle and his
+cousin.  Elsie was to his fancy.  She had a strange attraction for
+him, quite unlike anything he had ever known in other women.  There
+was something, too, in early associations: when those who parted as
+children meet as man and woman, there is always a renewal of that
+early experience which followed the taste of the forbidden fruit,--a
+natural blush of consciousness, not without its charm.
+
+Nothing could be more becoming than the behavior of "Richard Venner,
+Esquire, the guest of Dudley Venner, Esquire, at his noble mansion,"
+as he was announced in the Court column of the "Rockland Weekly
+Universe."  He was pleased to find himself treated with kindness and
+attention as a relative.  He made himself very agreeable by abundant
+details concerning the religious, political, social, commercial, and
+educational progress of the South American cities and states.  He was
+himself much interested in everything that was going on about the
+Dudley mansion, walked all over it, noticed its valuable wood-lots
+with special approbation, was delighted with the grand old house and
+its furniture, and would not be easy until he had seen all the family
+silver and heard its history.  In return, he had much to tell of his
+father, now dead,--the only one of the Venners, beside themselves, in
+whose fate his uncle was interested.  With Elsie, he was subdued and
+almost tender in his manner; with the few visitors whom they saw, shy
+and silent,--perhaps a little watchful, if any young man happened to
+be among them.
+
+Young fellows placed on their good behavior are apt to get restless
+and nervous, all ready to fly off into some mischief or other.  Dick
+Venner had his half-tamed horse with him to work off his suppressed
+life with.  When the savage passion of his young blood came over him,
+he would fetch out the mustang, screaming and kicking as these
+amiable beasts are wont to do, strap the Spanish saddle tight to his
+back, vault into it, and, after getting away from the village, strike
+the long spurs into his sides and whirl away in a wild gallop, until
+the black horse was flecked with white foam, and the cruel steel
+points were red with his blood.  When horse and rider were alike
+fired, he would fling the bridle on his neck and saunter homeward,
+always contriving to get to the stable in a quiet way, and coming
+into the house as calm as a bishop after a sober trot on his steady-
+going cob.
+
+After a few weeks of this kind of life, he began to want some more
+fierce excitement.  He had tried making downright love to Elsie, with
+no great success as yet, in his own opinion.  The girl was capricious
+in her treatment of him, sometimes scowling and repellent, sometimes
+familiar, very often, as she used to be of old, teasing and
+malicious.  All this, perhaps, made her more interesting to a young
+man who was tired of easy conquests.  There was a strange fascination
+in her eyes, too, which at times was quite irresistible, so that he
+would feel himself drawn to her by a power which seemed to take away
+his will for the moment.  It may have been nothing but the common
+charm of bright eyes; but he had never before experienced the same
+kind of attraction.
+
+Perhaps she was not so very different from what she had been as a
+child, after all.  At any rate, so it seemed to Dick Venner, who, as
+was said before, had tried making love to her.  They were sitting
+alone in the study one day; Elsie had round her neck that somewhat
+peculiar ornament, the golden torque, which she had worn to the great
+party.  Youth is adventurous and very curious about necklaces,
+brooches, chains, and other such adornments, so long as they are worn
+by young persons of the female sex.  Dick was seized with a great
+passion for examining this curious chain, and, after some preliminary
+questions, was rash enough to lean towards her and put out his hand
+toward the neck that lay in the golden coil.
+
+She threw her head back, her eyes narrowing and her forehead drawing
+down so that Dick thought her head actually flattened itself.  He
+started involuntarily; for she looked so like the little girl who had
+struck him with those sharp flashing teeth, that the whole scene came
+back, and he felt the stroke again as if it had just been given, and
+the two white scars began to sting as they did after the old Doctor
+had burned them with that stick of gray caustic, which looked so like
+a slate pencil, and felt so much like the end of a red-hot poker.
+
+It took something more than a gallop to set him right after this.
+The next day he mentioned having received a letter from a mercantile
+agent with whom he had dealings.  What his business was is, perhaps,
+none of our business.  At any rate, it required him to go at once to
+the city where his correspondent resided.
+
+Independently of this "business" which called him, there may have
+been other motives, such as have been hinted at.  People who have
+been living for a long time in dreary country-places, without any
+emotion beyond such as are occasioned by a trivial pleasure or
+annoyance, often get crazy at last for a vital paroxysm of some kind
+or other.  In this state they rush to the great cities for a plunge
+into their turbid life-baths, with a frantic thirst for every
+exciting pleasure, which makes them the willing and easy victims of
+all those who sell the Devil's wares on commission.  The less
+intelligent and instructed class of unfortunates, who venture with
+their ignorance and their instincts into what is sometimes called the
+"life" of great cities, are put through a rapid course of instruction
+which entitles them very commonly to a diploma from the police court.
+But they only illustrate the working of the same tendency in mankind
+at large which has been occasionally noticed in the sons of ministers
+and other eminently worthy people, by many ascribed to that intense
+congenital hatred for goodness which distinguishes human nature from
+that of the brute, but perhaps as readily accounted for by
+considering it as the yawning and stretching of a young soul cramped
+too long in one moral posture.
+
+Richard Veneer was a young man of remarkable experience for his
+years.  He ran less risk, therefore, in exposing himself to the
+temptations and dangers of a great city than many older men, who,
+seeking the livelier scenes of excitement to be found in large towns
+as a relaxation after the monotonous routine of family life, are too
+often taken advantage of and made the victims of their sentiments or
+their generous confidence in their fellow-creatures.  Such was not
+his destiny.  There was something about him which looked as if he
+would not take bullying kindly.  He had also the advantage of being
+acquainted with most of those ingenious devices by which the
+proverbial inconstancy of fortune is steadied to something more
+nearly approaching fixed laws, and the dangerous risks which have so
+often led young men to ruin and suicide are practically reduced to
+somewhat less than nothing.  So that Mr. Richard Veneer worked off
+his nervous energies without any troublesome adventure, and was ready
+to return to Rockland in less than a week, without having lightened
+the money-belt he wore round his body, or tarnished the long
+glittering knife he carried in his boot.
+
+Dick had sent his trunk to the nearest town through which the
+railroad leading to the city passed.  He rode off on his black horse
+and left him at the place where he took the cars.  On arriving at the
+city station, he took a coach and drove to one of the great hotels.
+Thither drove also a sagacious-looking, middle-aged man, who entered
+his name as "W. Thompson" in the book at the office immediately
+after that of "R. Venner."  Mr. "Thompson" kept a carelessly
+observant eye upon Mr. Venner during his stay at the hotel, and
+followed him to the cars when he left, looking over his shoulder when
+he bought his ticket at the station, and seeing him fairly off
+without obtruding himself in any offensive way upon his attention.
+Mr. Thompson, known in other quarters as Detective Policeman Terry,
+got very little by his trouble.  Richard Venner did not turn out to
+be the wife-poisoner, the defaulting cashier, the river-pirate, or
+the great counterfeiter.  He paid his hotel-bill as a gentleman
+should always do, if he has the money and can spare it.  The
+detective had probably overrated his own sagacity when he ventured to
+suspect Mr. Venner.  He reported to his chief that there was a
+knowing-looking fellow he had been round after, but he rather guessed
+he was nothing more than "one o' them Southern sportsmen."
+
+The poor fellows at the stable where Dick had left his horse had had
+trouble enough with him.  One of the ostlers was limping about with a
+lame leg, and another had lost a mouthful of his coat, which came
+very near carrying a piece of his shoulder with it.  When Mr. Venner
+came back for his beast, he was as wild as if he had just been
+lassoed, screaming, kicking, rolling over to get rid of his saddle,
+and when his rider was at last mounted, jumping about in a way to
+dislodge any common horseman.  To all this Dick replied by sticking
+his long spurs deeper and deeper into his flanks, until the creature
+found he was mastered, and dashed off as if all the thistles of the
+Pampas were pricking him.
+
+"One more gallop, Juan?"  This was in the last mile of the road
+before he came to the town which brought him in sight of the mansion-
+house.  It was in this last gallop that the fiery mustang and his
+rider flashed by the old Doctor.  Cassia pointed her sharp ears and
+shied to let them pass.  The Doctor turned and looked through the
+little round glass in the back of his sulky.
+
+"Dick Turpin, there, will find more than his match!" said the Doctor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE APOLLINEAN INSTITUTE.
+(With Extracts from the "Report of the committee.")
+
+The readers of this narrative will hardly expect any elaborate
+details of the educational management of the Apollinean Institute.
+They cannot be supposed to take the same interest in its affairs as
+was shown by the Annual Committees who reported upon its condition
+and prospects.  As these Committees were, however, an important part
+of the mechanism of the establishment, some general account of their
+organization and a few extracts from the Report of the one last
+appointed may not be out of place.
+
+Whether Mr. Silas Peckham had some contrivance for packing his
+Committees, whether they happened always to be made up of optimists
+by nature, whether they were cajoled into good-humor by polite
+attentions, or whether they were always really delighted with the
+wonderful acquirements of the pupils and the admirable order of the
+school, it is certain that their Annual Reports were couched in
+language which might warm the heart of the most cold-blooded and
+calculating father that ever had a family of daughters to educate.
+In fact, these Annual Reports were considered by Mr. Peckham as his
+most effective advertisements.
+
+The first thing, therefore, was to see that the Committee was made up
+of persons known to the public.
+
+Some worn-out politician, in that leisurely and amiable transition-
+state which comes between official extinction and the paralysis which
+will finish him as soon as his brain gets a little softer, made an
+admirable Chairman for Mr. Peckham, when he had the luck to pick up
+such an article.  Old reputations, like old fashions, are more prized
+in the grassy than in the stony districts.  An effete celebrity, who
+would never be heard of again in the great places until the funeral
+sermon waked up his memory for one parting spasm, finds himself in
+full flavor of renown a little farther back from the changing winds
+of the sea-coast.  If such a public character was not to be had, so
+that there was no chance of heading the Report with the name of the
+Honorable Mr. Somebody, the next best thing was to get the Reverend
+Dr. Somebody to take that conspicuous position.  Then would follow
+two or three local worthies with Esquire after their names.  If any
+stray literary personage from one of the great cities happened to be
+within reach, he was pounced upon by Mr. Silas Peckham.  It was a
+hard case for the poor man, who had travelled a hundred miles or two
+to the outside suburbs after peace and unwatered milk, to be pumped
+for a speech in this unexpected way.  It was harder still, if he had
+been induced to venture a few tremulous remarks, to be obliged to
+write them out for the "Rockland Weekly Universe," with the chance of
+seeing them used as an advertising certificate as long as he lived,
+if he lived as long as the late Dr. Waterhouse did after giving his
+certificate in favor of Whitwell's celebrated Cephalic Snuff.
+
+The Report of the last Committee had been signed by the Honorable,
+___________late __________ of ____________, as Chairman. (It is with
+reluctance that the name and titles are left in blank; but our public
+characters are so familiarly known to the whole community that this
+reserve becomes necessary.)  The other members of the Committee were
+the Reverend Mr. Butters, of a neighboring town, who was to make the
+prayer before the Exercises of the Exhibition, and two or three
+notabilities of Rockland, with geoponic eyes, and glabrous, bumpless
+foreheads.  A few extracts from the Report are subjoined:
+
+
+"The Committee have great pleasure in recording their unanimous
+opinion, that the Institution was never in so flourishing a
+condition....
+
+"The health of the pupils is excellent; the admirable quality of food
+supplied shows itself in their appearance; their blooming aspect
+excited the admiration of the Committee, and bears testimony to the
+assiduity of the excellent Matron.
+
+"......moral and religious condition most encouraging, which they
+cannot but attribute to the personal efforts and instruction of the
+faithful Principal, who considers religious instruction a solemn duty
+which he cannot commit to other people.
+
+"......great progress in their studies, under the intelligent
+superintendence of the accomplished Principal, assisted by Mr.
+Badger, [Mr. Langdon's predecessor,] Miss Darley, the lady who
+superintends the English branches, Miss Crabs, her assistant and
+teacher of Modern Languages, and Mr. Schneider, teacher of French,
+German, Latin, and Music....
+
+"Education is the great business of the Institute.  Amusements are
+objects of a secondary nature; but these are by no means
+neglected....
+
+"......English compositions of great originality and beauty,
+creditable alike to the head and heart of their accomplished
+authors.... several poems of a very high order of merit, which would
+do honor to the literature of any age or country.... life-like
+drawings, showing great proficiency....  Many converse fluently in
+various modern languages....  perform the most difficult airs with
+the skill of professional musicians....
+
+"......advantages unsurpassed, if equalled by those of any
+Institution in the country, and reflecting the highest honor on the
+distinguished Head of the Establishment, SILAS PECKHAM, Esquire, and
+his admirable Lady, the MATRON, with their worthy assistants...."
+
+
+The perusal of this Report did Mr. Bernard more good than a week's
+vacation would have done: It gave him such a laugh as he had not had
+for a month.  The way in which Silas Peckham had made his Committee
+say what he wanted them to--for he recognized a number of expressions
+in the Report as coming directly from the lips of his principal, and
+could not help thinking how cleverly he had forced his phrases, as
+jugglers do the particular card they wish their dupe to take--struck
+him as particularly neat and pleasing.
+
+He had passed through the sympathetic and emotional stages in his new
+experience, and had arrived at the philosophical and practical state,
+which takes things coolly, and goes to work to set them right.  He
+had breadth enough of view to see that there was nothing so very
+exceptional in this educational trader's dealings with his
+subordinates, but he had also manly feeling enough to attack the
+particular individual instance of wrong before him.  There are plenty
+of dealer's in morals, as in ordinary traffic, who confine themselves
+to wholesale business.  They leave the small necessity of their next-
+door neighbor to the retailers, who are poorer in statistics and
+general facts, but richer in the every-day charities.  Mr. Bernard
+felt, at first, as one does who sees a gray rat steal out of a drain
+and begin gnawing at the bark of some tree loaded with fruit or
+blossoms, which he will soon girdle, if he is let alone.  The first
+impulse is to murder him with the nearest ragged stone.  Then one
+remembers that he is a rodent, acting after the law of his kind, and
+cools down and is contented to drive him off and guard the tree
+against his teeth for the future.  As soon as this is done, one can
+watch his attempts at mischief with a certain amusement.
+
+This was the kind of process Mr. Bernard had gone through.  First,
+the indignant surprise of a generous nature, when it comes
+unexpectedly into relations with a mean one.  Then the impulse of
+extermination,--a divine instinct, intended to keep down vermin of
+all classes to their working averages in the economy of Nature.  Then
+a return of cheerful tolerance,--a feeling, that, if the Deity could
+bear with rats and sharpers, he could; with a confident trust, that,
+in the long run, terriers and honest men would have the upperhand,
+and a grateful consciousness that he had been sent just at the right
+time to come between a patient victim and the master who held her in
+peonage.
+
+Having once made up his mind what to do, Mr. Bernard was as good-
+natured and hopeful as ever.  He had the great advantage, from his
+professional training, of knowing how to recognize and deal with
+the nervous disturbances to which overtasked women are so liable.  He
+saw well enough that Helen Darley would certainly kill herself or
+lose her wits, if he could not lighten her labors and lift off a
+large part of her weight of cares.  The worst of it was, that she was
+one of those women who naturally overwork themselves, like those
+horses who will go at the top of their pace until they drop.  Such
+women are dreadfully unmanageable.  It is as hard reasoning with them
+as it would have been reasoning with Io, when she was flying over
+land and sea, driven by the sting of the never-sleeping gadfly.
+
+This was a delicate, interesting game that he played.  Under one
+innocent pretext or another, he invaded this or that special province
+she had made her own.  He would collect the themes and have them all
+read and marked, answer all the puzzling questions in mathematics,
+make the other teachers come to him for directions, and in this way
+gradually took upon himself not only all the general superintendence
+that belonged to his office, but stole away so many of the special
+duties which might fairly have belonged to his assistant, that,
+before she knew it, she was looking better and feeling more cheerful
+than for many and many a month before.
+
+When the nervous energy is depressed by any bodily cause, or
+exhausted by overworking, there follow effects which have often been
+misinterpreted by moralists, and especially by theologians.  The
+conscience itself becomes neuralgic, sometimes actually inflamed, so
+that the least touch is agony.  Of all liars and false accusers, a
+sick conscience is the most inventive and indefatigable.  The devoted
+daughter, wife, mother, whose life has been given to unselfish
+labors, who has filled a place which it seems to others only an angel
+would make good, reproaches herself with incompetence and neglect of
+duty.  The humble Christian, who has been a model to others, calls
+himself a worm of the dust on one page of his diary, and arraigns
+himself on the next for coming short of the perfection of an
+archangel.
+
+Conscience itself requires a conscience, or nothing can be more
+unscrupulous.  It told Saul that he did well in persecuting the
+Christians.  It has goaded countless multitudes of various creeds to
+endless forms of self-torture.  The cities of India are full of
+cripples it has made.  The hill-sides of Syria are riddled with
+holes, where miserable hermits, whose lives it had palsied, lived and
+died like the vermin they harbored.  Our libraries are crammed with
+books written by spiritual hypochondriacs, who inspected all their
+moral secretions a dozen times a day.  They are full of interest, but
+they should be transferred from the shelf of the theologian to that
+of the medical man who makes a study of insanity.
+
+This was the state into which too much work and too much
+responsibility were bringing Helen Darley, when the new master came
+and lifted so much of the burden that was crushing her as must be
+removed before she could have a chance to recover her natural
+elasticity and buoyancy.  Many of the noblest women, suffering like
+her, but less fortunate in being relieved at the right moment, die
+worried out of life by the perpetual teasing of this inflamed,
+neuralgic conscience.  So subtile is the line which separates the
+true and almost angelic sensibility of a healthy, but exalted nature,
+from the soreness of a soul which is sympathizing with a morbid state
+of the body that it is no wonder they are often confounded.  And thus
+many good women are suffered to perish by that form of spontaneous
+combustion in which the victim goes on toiling day and night with the
+hidden fire consuming her, until all at once her cheek whitens, and,
+as we look upon her, she drops away, a heap of ashes.  The more they
+overwork themselves, the more exacting becomes the sense of duty,--as
+the draught of the locomotive's furnace blows stronger and makes the
+fire burn more fiercely, the faster it spins along the track.
+
+It is not very likely, as was said at the beginning of this chapter,
+that we shall trouble ourselves a great deal about the internal
+affairs of the Apollinean Institute.  These schools are, in the
+nature of things, not so very unlike each other as to require a
+minute description for each particular one among them.  They have all
+very much the same general features, pleasing and displeasing.  All
+feeding-establishments have something odious about them,--from the
+wretched country-houses where paupers are farmed out to the lowest
+bidder, up to the commons-tables at colleges and even the fashionable
+boarding-house.  A person's appetite should be at war with no other
+purse than his own.  Young people, especially, who have a bone-
+factory at work in them, and have to feed the living looms of
+innumerable growing tissues, should be provided for, if possible, by
+those who love them like their own flesh and blood.  Elsewhere their
+appetites will be sure to make them enemies, or, what are almost as
+bad, friends whose interests are at variance with the claims of their
+exacting necessities and demands.
+
+Besides, all commercial transactions in regard to the most sacred
+interests of life are hateful even to those who profit by them.  The
+clergyman, the physician, the teacher, must be paid; but each of
+them, if his duty be performed in the true spirit, can hardly help a
+shiver of disgust when money is counted out to him for administering
+the consolations of religion, for saving some precious life, for
+sowing the seeds of Christian civilization in young ingenuous souls.
+
+And yet all these schools, with their provincial French and their
+mechanical accomplishments, with their cheap parade of diplomas and
+commencements and other public honors, have an ever fresh interest to
+all who see the task they are performing in our new social order.
+These girls are not being educated for governesses, or to be
+exported, with other manufactured articles, to colonies where there
+happens to be a surplus of males.  Most of them will be wives, and
+every American-born husband is a possible President of these United
+States.  Any one of these girls may be a four-years' queen.  There is
+no sphere of human activity so exalted that she may not be called
+upon to fill it.
+
+But there is another consideration of far higher interest.  The
+education of our community to all that is beautiful is flowing in
+mainly through its women, and that to a considerable extent by the
+aid of these large establishments, the least perfect of which do
+something to stimulate the higher tastes and partially instruct them.
+Sometimes there is, perhaps, reason to fear that girls will be too
+highly educated for their own happiness, if they are lifted by their
+culture out of the range of the practical and every-day working youth
+by whom they are surrounded.  But this is a risk we must take.  Our
+young men come into active life so early, that, if our girls were not
+educated to something beyond mere practical duties, our material
+prosperity would outstrip our culture; as it often does in large
+places where money is made too rapidly.  This is the meaning,
+therefore, of that somewhat ambitious programme common to most of
+these large institutions, at which we sometimes smile, perhaps
+unwisely or uncharitably.
+
+We shall take it for granted that the routine of instruction went on
+at the Apollinean Institute much as it does in other schools of the
+same class.  People, young or old, are wonderfully different, if we
+contrast extremes in pairs.  They approach much nearer, if we take
+them in groups of twenty.  Take two separate hundreds as they come,
+without choosing, and you get the gamut of human character in both so
+completely that you can strike many chords in each which shall be in
+perfect unison with corresponding ones in the other.  If we go a step
+farther, and compare the population of two villages of the same race
+and region, there is such a regularly graduated distribution and
+parallelism of character, that it seems as if Nature must turn out
+human beings in sets like chessmen.
+
+It must be confessed that the position in which Mr. Bernard now found
+himself had a pleasing danger about it which might well justify all
+the fears entertained on his account by more experienced friends,
+when they learned that he was engaged in a Young Ladies' Seminary.
+The school never went on more smoothly than during the first period
+of his administration, after he had arranged its duties, and taken
+his share, and even more than his share, upon himself.  But human
+nature does not wait for the diploma of the Apollinean Institute to
+claim the exercise of it, instincts and faculties.  These young girls
+saw but little of the youth of the neighborhood.  The mansion-house
+young men were off at college or in the cities, or making love to
+each other's sisters, or at any rate unavailable for some reason or
+other.  There were a few "clerks,"--that is, young men who attended
+shops, commonly called "stores,"--who were fond of walking by the
+Institute, when they were off duty, for the sake of exchanging a word
+or a glance with any one of the young ladies they might happen to
+know, if any such were stirring abroad: crude young men, mostly, with
+a great many "Sirs" and "Ma'ams" in their speech, and with that style
+of address sometimes acquired in the retail business, as if the
+salesman were recommending himself to a customer, "First-rate family
+article, Ma'am; warranted to wear a lifetime; just one yard and three
+quarters in this pattern, Ma'am; sha'n't I have the pleasure?" and so
+forth.  If there had been ever so many of them, and if they had been
+ever so fascinating, the quarantine of the Institute was too rigorous
+to allow any romantic infection to be introduced from without.
+
+Anybody might see what would happen, with a good-looking, well-
+dressed, well-bred young man, who had the authority of a master, it
+is true, but the manners of a friend and equal, moving about among
+these young girls day after day, his eyes meeting theirs, his breath
+mingling with theirs, his voice growing familiar to them, never in
+any harsh tones, often soothing, encouraging, always sympathetic,
+with its male depth and breadth of sound among the chorus of trebles,
+as if it were a river in which a hundred of these little piping
+streamlets-might lose themselves; anybody might see what would
+happen.  Young girls wrote home to their parents that they enjoyed
+themselves much, this term, at the Institute, and thought they were
+making rapid progress in their studies.  There was a great enthusiasm
+for the young master's reading-classes in English poetry.  Some of
+the poor little things began to adorn themselves with an extra
+ribbon, or a bit of such jewelry as they had before kept for great
+occasions.  Dear souls! they only half knew what they were doing it
+for.  Does the bird know why its feathers grow more brilliant and its
+voice becomes musical in the pairing season?
+
+And so, in the midst of this quiet inland town, where a mere accident
+had placed Mr. Bernard Langdon, there was a concentration of
+explosive materials which might at any time change its Arcadian and
+academic repose into a scene of dangerous commotion.  What said Helen
+Darley, when she saw with her woman's glance that more than one girl,
+when she should be looking at her book, was looking over it toward
+the master's desk?  Was her own heart warmed by any livelier feeling
+than gratitude, as its life began to flow with fuller pulses, and the
+morning sky again looked bright and the flowers recovered their lost
+fragrance?  Was there any strange, mysterious affinity between the
+master and the dark girl who sat by herself?  Could she call him at
+will by looking at him?  Could it be that--?  It made her shiver to
+think of it.---And who was that strange horseman who passed Mr.
+Bernard at dusk the other evening, looking so like Mephistopheles
+galloping hard to be in season at the witches' Sabbath-gathering?
+That must be the cousin of Elsie's who wants to marry her, they say.
+A dangerous-looking fellow for a rival, if one took a fancy to the
+dark girl!  And who is she, and what?---by what demon is she haunted,
+by what taint is she blighted, by what curse is she followed, by what
+destiny is she marked, that her strange beauty has such a terror in
+it, and that hardly one shall dare to love her, and her eye glitters
+always, but warms for none?
+
+Some of these questions are ours.  Some were Helen Darley's.  Some of
+them mingled with the dreams of Bernard Langdon, as he slept the
+night after meeting the strange horseman.  In the morning he happened
+to be a little late in entering the schoolroom.  There was something
+between the leaves of the Virgil which lay upon his desk.  He opened
+it and saw a freshly gathered mountain-flower.  He looked at Elsie,
+instinctively, involuntarily.  She had another such flower on her
+breast.
+
+A young girl's graceful compliment,--that is all,--no doubt,--no
+doubt.  It was odd that the flower should have happened to be laid
+between the leaves of the Fourth Book of the "AEneid," and at this
+line,
+
+          "Incipit effari, mediaque in voce resistit."
+
+A remembrance of an ancient superstition flashed through the master's
+mind, and he determined to try the Sortes Virgilianae.  He shut the
+volume, and opened it again at a venture.---The story of Laocoon!
+
+He read with a strange feeling of unwilling fascination, from
+"Horresco referees" to "Bis medium amplexi," and flung the book from
+him, as if its leaves had been steeped in the subtle poisons that
+princes die of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CURIOSITY.
+
+People will talk.  'Ciascun lo dice' is a tune that is played oftener
+than the national air of this country or any other.
+
+"That 's what they say.  Means to marry her, if she is his cousin.
+Got money himself,--that 's the story,--but wants to come and live in
+the old place, and get the Dudley property by and by."  "Mother's
+folks was wealthy."--"Twenty-three to twenty-five year old."--"He
+a'n't more 'n twenty, or twenty-one at the outside."--"Looks as if
+he knew too much to be only twenty year old."--"Guess he's been
+through the mill,--don't look so green, anyhow, hey?  Did y' ever
+mind that cut over his left eyebrow?"
+
+So they gossiped in Rockland.  The young fellows could make nothing
+of Dick Venner.  He was shy and proud with the few who made advances
+to him.  The young ladies called him handsome and romantic, but he
+looked at them like a many-tailed pacha who was in the habit of,
+ordering his wives by the dozen.
+
+"What do you think of the young man over there at the Veneers'?" said
+Miss Arabella Thornton to her father.
+
+"Handsome," said the Judge, "but dangerous-looking.  His face is
+indictable at common law.  Do you know, my dear, I think there is a
+blank at the Sheriff's office, with a place for his name in it?"
+
+The Judge paused and looked grave, as if he had just listened to the
+verdict of the jury and was going to pronounce sentence.
+
+"Have you heard anything against him?"  said the Judge's daughter.
+
+"Nothing.  But I don't like these mixed bloods and half-told stories.
+Besides, I have seen a good many desperate fellows at the bar, and I
+have a fancy they all have a look belonging to them.  The worst one I
+ever sentenced looked a good deal like this fellow.  A wicked mouth.
+All our other features are made for us; but a man makes his own
+mouth."
+
+"Who was the person you sentenced?"
+
+"He was a young fellow that undertook to garrote a man who had won
+his money at cards.  The same slender shape, the same cunning, fierce
+look, smoothed over with a plausible air.  Depend upon it, there is
+an expression in all the sort of people who live by their wits when
+they can, and by worse weapons when their wits fail them, that we old
+law-doctors know just as well as the medical counsellors know the
+marks of disease in a man's face.  Dr. Kittredge looks at a man and
+says he is going to die; I look at another man and say he is going to
+be hanged, if nothing happens.  I don't say so of this one, but I
+don't like his looks.  I wonder Dudley Veneer takes to him so
+kindly."
+
+"It's all for Elsie's sake," said Miss Thornton.  "I feel quite sure
+of that.  He never does anything that is not meant for her in some
+way.  I suppose it amuses her to have her cousin about the house.
+She rides a good deal since he has been here.  Have you seen them
+galloping about together?  He looks like my idea of a Spanish bandit
+on that wild horse of his."
+
+"Possibly he has been one,--or is one," said the Judge,--smiling as
+men smile whose lips have often been freighted with the life and
+death of their fellow-creatures.  "I met them riding the other day.
+Perhaps Dudley is right, if it pleases her to have a companion.  What
+will happen, though, if he makes love to her?  Will Elsie be easily
+taken with such a fellow?  You young folks are supposed to know more
+about these matters than we middle-aged people."
+
+"Nobody can tell.  Elsie is not like anybody else.  The girls who
+have seen most of her think she hates men, all but 'Dudley,' as she
+calls her father.  Some of them doubt whether she loves him.  They
+doubt whether she can love anything human, except perhaps the old
+black woman who has taken care of her since she was a baby.  The
+village people have the strangest stories about her; you know what
+they call her?"
+
+She whispered three words in her father's ear.  The Judge changed
+color as she spoke, sighed deeply, and was silent as if lost in
+thought for a moment.
+
+"I remember her mother," he said, "so well!  A sweeter creature never
+lived.  Elsie has something of her in her look, but those are not her
+mother's eyes.  They were dark, but soft, as in all I ever saw of her
+race.  Her father's are dark too, but mild, and even tender, I should
+say.  I don't know what there is about Elsie's,--but do you know, my
+dear, I find myself curiously influenced by them?  I have had to face
+a good many sharp eyes and hard ones,--murderers' eyes and pirates',
+--men who had to be watched in the bar, where they stood on trial,
+for fear they should spring on the prosecuting officers like tigers,
+--but I never saw such eyes as Elsie's; and yet they have a kind of
+drawing virtue or power about them,--I don't know what else to call
+it: have you never observed this?"
+
+His daughter smiled in her turn.
+
+"Never observed it?  Why, of course, nobody could be with Elsie
+Venner and not observe it.  There are a good many other strange
+things about her: did you ever notice how she dresses?"
+
+"Why, handsomely enough, I should think," the Judge answered.  "I
+suppose she dresses as she likes, and sends to the city for what she
+wants.  What do you mean in particular?  We men notice effects in
+dress, but not much in detail."
+
+"You never noticed the colors and patterns of her dresses?  You never
+remarked anything curious about her ornaments?  Well!  I don't
+believe you men know, half the time, whether a lady wears a nine-
+penny collar or a thread-lace cape worth a thousand dollars.  I don't
+believe you know a silk dress from a bombazine one.  I don't believe
+you can tell whether a woman is in black or in colors, unless you
+happen to know she is a widow.  Elsie Venner has a strange taste in
+dress, let me tell you.  She sends for the oddest patterns of stuffs,
+and picks out the most curious things at the jeweller's, whenever she
+goes to town with her father.  They say the old Doctor tells him to
+let her have her way about such matters.  Afraid of her mind, if she
+is contradicted, I suppose.  You've heard about her going to school
+at that place,--the 'Institoot,' as those people call it?  They say
+she's bright enough in her way,--has studied at home, you know, with
+her father a good deal, knows some modern languages and Latin, I
+believe: at any rate, she would have it so,--she must go to the
+'Institoot.'  They have a very good female teacher there, I hear; and
+the new master, that young Mr. Langdon, looks and talks like a well-
+educated young man.  I wonder what they 'll make of Elsie, between
+them!"
+
+So they talked at the Judge's, in the calm, judicial-looking mansion-
+house, in the grave, still library, with the troops of wan-hued law-
+books staring blindly out of their titles at them as they talked,
+like the ghosts of dead attorneys fixed motionless and speechless,
+each with a thin, golden film over his unwinking eyes.
+
+In the mean time, everything went on quietly enough after Cousin
+Richard's return.  A man of sense,--that is, a man who knows
+perfectly well that a cool head is worth a dozen warm hearts in
+carrying the fortress of a woman's affections, (not yours, "Astarte,"
+nor yours, "Viola,")--who knows that men are rejected by women every
+day because they, the men, love them, and are accepted every day
+because they do not, and therefore can study the arts of pleasing,--a
+man of sense, when he finds he has established his second parallel
+too soon, retires quietly to his first, and begins working on his
+covered ways again.  The whole art of love may be read in any
+Encyclopaedia under the title Fortification, where the terms just
+used are explained.  After the little adventure of the necklace, Dick
+retreated at once to his first parallel.  Elsie loved riding,--and
+would go off with him on a gallop now and then.  He was a master of
+all those strange Indian horseback-feats which shame the tricks of
+the circus-riders, and used to astonish and almost amuse her
+sometimes by disappearing from his saddle, like a phantom horseman
+lying flat against the side of the bounding creature that bore him,
+as if he were a hunting leopard with his claws in the horse's flank
+and flattening himself out against his heaving ribs.  Elsie knew a
+little Spanish too, which she had learned from the young person who
+had taught her dancing, and Dick enlarged her vocabulary with a few
+soft phrases, and would sing her a song sometimes, touching the air
+upon an ancient-looking guitar they had found with the ghostly things
+in the garret,--a quaint old instrument, marked E. M. on the back,
+and supposed to have belonged to a certain Elizabeth Mascarene,
+before mentioned in connection with a work of art,--a fair, dowerless
+lady, who smiled and sung and faded away, unwedded, a hundred years
+ago, as dowerless ladies, not a few, are smiling and singing and
+fading now,--God grant each of them His love,--and one human heart as
+its interpreter!
+
+As for school, Elsie went or stayed away as she liked.  Sometimes,
+when they thought she was at her desk in the great schoolroom, she
+would be on The Mountain,--alone always.  Dick wanted to go with her,
+but she would never let him.  Once, when she had followed the zigzag
+path a little way up, she looked back and caught a glimpse of him
+following her.  She turned and passed him without a word, but giving
+him a look which seemed to make the scars on his wrist tingle, went
+to her room, where she locked herself up, and did not come out again
+till evening, Old Sophy having brought her food, and set it down, not
+speaking, but looking into her eyes inquiringly, like a dumb beast
+trying to feel out his master's will in his face.  The evening was
+clear and the moon shining.  As Dick sat at his chamber-window,
+looking at the mountain-side, he saw a gray-dressed figure flit
+between the trees and steal along the narrow path which led upward.
+Elsie's pillow was unpressed that night, but she had not been missed
+by the household,--for Dick knew enough to keep his own counsel.  The
+next morning she avoided him and went off early to school.  It was
+the same morning that the young master found the flower between the
+leaves of his Virgil.
+
+The girl got over her angry fit, and was pleasant enough with her
+cousin for a few days after this; but she shunned rather than sought
+him.  She had taken a new interest in her books, and especially in
+certain poetical readings which the master conducted with the elder
+scholars.  This gave Master Langdon a good chance to study her ways
+when her eye was on her book, to notice the inflections of her voice,
+to watch for any expression of her sentiments; for, to tell the
+truth, he had a kind of fear that the girl had taken a fancy to him,
+and, though she interested him, he did not wish to study her heart
+from the inside.
+
+The more he saw her, the more the sadness of her beauty wrought upon
+him.  She looked as if she might hate, but could not love.  She
+hardly smiled at anything, spoke rarely, but seemed to feel that her
+natural power of expression lay all in her bright eyes, the force of
+which so many had felt, but none perhaps had tried to explain to
+themselves.  A person accustomed to watch the faces of those who were
+ailing in body or mind, and to search in every line and tint for some
+underlying source of disorder, could hardly help analyzing the
+impression such a face produced upon him.  The light of those
+beautiful eyes was like the lustre of ice; in all her features there
+was nothing of that human warmth which shows that sympathy has
+reached the soul beneath the mask of flesh it wears.  The look was
+that of remoteness, of utter isolation.  There was in its stony
+apathy, it seemed to him, the pathos which we find in the blind who
+show no film or speck over the organs of sight; for Nature had meant
+her to be lovely, and left out nothing but love.  And yet the master
+could not help feeling that some instinct was working in this girl
+which was in some way leading her to seek his presence.  She did not
+lift her glittering eyes upon him as at first.  It seemed strange
+that she did not, for they were surely her natural weapons of
+conquest.  Her color did not come and go like that of young girls
+under excitement.  She had a clear brunette complexion, a little sun-
+touched, it may be,--for the master noticed once, when her necklace
+was slightly displaced, that a faint ring or band of a little lighter
+shade than the rest of the surface encircled her neck.  What was the
+slight peculiarity of her enunciation, when she read?  Not a lisp,
+certainly, but the least possible imperfection in articulating some
+of the lingual sounds,--just enough to be noticed at first, and quite
+forgotten after being a few times heard.
+
+Not a word about the flower on either side.  It was not uncommon for
+the schoolgirls to leave a rose or pink or wild flower on the
+teacher's desk.  Finding it in the Virgil was nothing, after all; it
+was a little delicate flower, which looked as if it were made to
+press, and it was probably shut in by accident at the particular
+place where he found it.  He took it into his head to examine it in a
+botanical point of view.  He found it was not common,--that it grew
+only in certain localities,--and that one of these was among the
+rocks of the eastern spur of The Mountain.
+
+It happened to come into his head how the Swiss youth climb the sides
+of the Alps to find the flower called the Edelweiss for the maidens
+whom they wish to please.  It is a pretty fancy, that of scaling some
+dangerous height before the dawn, so as to gather the flower in its
+freshness, that the favored maiden may wear it to church on Sunday
+morning, a proof at once of her lover's devotion and his courage.
+Mr. Bernard determined to explore the region where this flower was
+said to grow, that he might see where the wild girl sought the
+blossoms of which Nature was so jealous.
+
+It was on a warm, fair Saturday afternoon that he undertook his land-
+voyage of discovery.  He had more curiosity, it may be, than he would
+have owned; for he had heard of the girl's wandering habits, and the
+guesses about her sylvan haunts, and was thinking what the chances
+were that he should meet her in some strange place, or come upon
+traces of her which would tell secrets she would not care to have
+known.
+
+The woods are all alive to one who walks through them with his mind
+in an excited state, and his eyes and ears wide open.  The trees are
+always talking, not merely whispering with their leaves, (for every
+tree talks to itself in that way, even when it stands alone in the
+middle of a pasture,) but grating their boughs against each other, as
+old horn-handed farmers press their dry, rustling palms together,
+dropping a nut or a leaf or a twig, clicking to the tap of a
+woodpecker, or rustling as a squirrel flashes along a branch.  It was
+now the season of singing-birds, and the woods were haunted with
+mysterious, tender music.  The voices of the birds which love the
+deeper shades of the forest are sadder than those of the open fields:
+these are the nuns who have taken the veil, the hermits that have
+hidden themselves away from the world and tell their griefs to the
+infinite listening Silences of the wilderness,--for the one deep
+inner silence that Nature breaks with her fitful superficial sounds
+becomes multiplied as the image of a star in ruffled waters.
+Strange!  The woods at first convey the impression of profound
+repose, and yet, if you watch their ways with open ear, you find the
+life which is in them is restless and nervous as that of a woman: the
+little twigs are crossing and twining and separating like slender
+fingers that cannot be still; the stray leaf is to be flattened into
+its place like a truant curl; the limbs sway and twist, impatient of
+their constrained attitude; and the rounded masses of foliage swell
+upward and subside from time to time with long soft sighs, and, it
+may be, the falling of a few rain-drops which had lain hidden among
+the deeper shadows.  I pray you, notice, in the sweet summer days
+which will soon see you among the mountains, this inward tranquillity
+that belongs to the heart of the woodland, with this nervousness, for
+I do not know what else to call it, of outer movement.  One would
+say, that Nature, like untrained persons, could not sit still without
+nestling about or doing something with her limbs or features, and
+that high breeding was only to be looked for in trim gardens, where
+the soul of the trees is ill at ease perhaps, but their manners are
+unexceptionable, and a rustling branch or leaf falling out of season
+is an indecorum.  The real forest is hardly still except in the
+Indian summer; then there is death in the house, and they are waiting
+for the sharp shrunken months to come with white raiment for the
+summer's burial.
+
+There were many hemlocks in this neighborhood, the grandest and most
+solemn of all the forest-trees in the mountain regions.  Up to a
+certain period of growth they are eminently beautiful, their boughs
+disposed in the most graceful pagoda-like series of close terraces,
+thick and dark with green crystalline leaflets.  In spring the tender
+shoots come out of a paler green, finger-like, as if they were
+pointing to the violets at their feet.  But when the trees have grown
+old, and their rough boles measure a yard and more through their
+diameter, they are no longer beautiful, but they have a sad solemnity
+all their own, too full of meaning to require the heart's comment to
+be framed in words.  Below, all their earthward-looking branches are
+sapless and shattered, splintered by the weight of many winters'
+snows; above, they are still green and full of life, but their
+summits overtop all the deciduous trees around them, and in their
+companionship with heaven they are alone.  On these the lightning
+loves to fall.  One such Mr. Bernard saw,--or rather, what had been
+one such; for the bolt had torn the tree like an explosion from
+within, and the ground was strewed all around the broken stump with
+flakes of rough bark and strips and chips of shivered wood, into
+which the old tree had been rent by the bursting rocket from the
+thunder-cloud.
+
+--The master had struck up The Mountain obliquely from the western
+side of the Dudley mansion-house.  In this way he ascended until he
+reached a point many hundred feet above the level of the plain, and
+commanding all the country beneath and around.  Almost at his feet he
+saw the mansion-house, the chimney standing out of the middle of the
+roof, or rather, like a black square hole in it,--the trees almost
+directly over their stems, the fences as lines, the whole nearly as
+an architect would draw a ground-plan of the house and the inclosures
+round it.  It frightened him to see how the huge masses of rock and
+old forest-growths hung over the home below.  As he descended a
+little and drew near the ledge of evil name, he was struck with the
+appearance of a long narrow fissure that ran parallel with it and
+above it for many rods, not seemingly of very old standing,--for
+there were many fibres of roots which had evidently been snapped
+asunder when the rent took place, and some of which were still
+succulent in both separated portions.
+
+Mr. Bernard had made up his mind, when he set forth, not to come back
+before he had examined the dreaded ledge. He had half persuaded
+himself that it was scientific curiosity. He wished to examine the
+rocks, to see what flowers grew there, and perhaps to pick up an
+adventure in the zoological line; for he had on a pair of high, stout
+boots, and he carried a stick in his hand, which was forked at one
+extremity, so as to be very convenient to hold down a crotalus with,
+if he should happen to encounter one.  He knew the aspect of the
+ledge from a distance; for its bald and leprous-looking declivities
+stood out in their nakedness from the wooded sides of The Mountain,
+when this was viewed from certain points of the village.  But the
+nearer aspect of the blasted region had something frightful in it.
+The cliffs were water-worn, as if they had been gnawed for thousands
+of years by hungry waves.  In some places they overhung their base so
+as to look like leaning towers which might topple over at any minute.
+In other parts they were scooped into niches or caverns.  Here and
+there they were cracked in deep fissures, some of them of such width
+that one might enter them, if he cared to run the risk of meeting the
+regular tenants, who might treat him as an intruder.
+
+Parts of the ledge were cloven perpendicularly, with nothing but
+cracks or slightly projecting edges in which or on which a foot could
+find hold.  High up on one of these precipitous walls of rock he saw
+some tufts of flowers, and knew them at once for the same that he had
+found between the leaves of his Virgil.  Not there, surely!  No woman
+would have clung against that steep, rough parapet to gather an idle
+blossom.  And yet the master looked round everywhere, and even up the
+side of that rock, to see if there were no signs of a woman's
+footstep. He peered about curiously, as if his eye might fall on some
+of those fragments of dress which women leave after them, whenever
+they run against each other or against anything else,--in crowded
+ballrooms, in the brushwood after picnics, on the fences after
+rambles, scattered round over every place which has witnessed an act
+of violence, where rude hands have been laid upon them.  Nothing--
+Stop, though, one moment.  That stone is smooth and polished, as if
+it had been somewhat worn by the pressure of human feet.  There is
+one twig broken among the stems of that clump of shrubs.  He put his
+foot upon the stone and took hold of the close-clinging shrub.  In
+this way he turned a sharp angle of the rock and found himself on a
+natural platform, which lay in front of one of the wider fissures,--
+whether the mouth of a cavern or not he could not yet tell.  A flat
+stone made an easy seat, upon which he sat down, as he was very glad
+to do, and looked mechanically about him.  A small fragment
+splintered from the rock was at his feet.  He took it and threw it
+down the declivity a little below where he sat.  He looked about for
+a stem or a straw of some kind to bite upon,--a country-instinct,--
+relic, no doubt, of the old vegetable-feeding habits of Eden.  Is
+that a stem or a straw?  He picked it up.  It was a hair-pin.
+
+To say that Mr. Langdon had a strange sort of thrill shoot through
+him at the sight of this harmless little implement would be a
+statement not at variance with the fact of the case.  That smooth
+stone had been often trodden, and by what foot he could not doubt.
+He rose up from his seat to look round for other signs of a woman's
+visits.  What if there is a cavern here, where she has a retreat,
+fitted up, perhaps, as anchorites fitted their cells,--nay, it may
+be, carpeted and mirrored, and with one of those tiger-skins for a
+couch, such as they, say the girl loves to lie on?  Let us look, at
+any rate.
+
+Mr. Bernard walked to the mouth of the cavern or fissure and looked
+into it.  His look was met by the glitter of two diamond eyes, small,
+sharp, cold, shining out of the darkness, but gliding with a smooth,
+steady motion towards the light, and himself.  He stood fixed, struck
+dumb, staring back into them with dilating pupils and sudden numbness
+of fear that cannot move, as in the terror of dreams.  The two sparks
+of light came forward until they grew to circles of flame, and all at
+once lifted themselves up as if in angry surprise.  Then for the
+first time thrilled in Mr. Bernard's ears the dreadful sound that
+nothing which breathes, be it man or brute, can hear unmoved,--the
+long, loud, stinging whirr, as the huge, thick bodied reptile shook
+his many-jointed rattle and adjusted his loops for the fatal stroke.
+His eyes were drawn as with magnets toward the circles of flame.  His
+ears rung as in the overture to the swooning dream of chloroform.
+Nature was before man with her anaesthetics: the cat's first shake
+stupefies the mouse; the lion's first shake deadens the man's fear
+and feeling; and the crotalus paralyzes before he strikes.  He waited
+as in a trance,--waited as one that longs to have the blow fall, and
+all over, as the man who shall be in two pieces in a second waits for
+the axe to drop.  But while he looked straight into the flaming eyes,
+it seemed to him that they were losing their light and terror, that
+they were growing tame and dull; the charm was dissolving, the
+numbness was passing away, he could move once more.  He heard a light
+breathing close to his ear, and, half turning, saw the face of Elsie
+Venner, looking motionless into the reptile's eyes, which had shrunk
+and faded under the stronger enchantment of her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+FAMILY SECRETS.
+
+It was commonly understood in the town of Rockland that Dudley Venner
+had had a great deal of trouble with that daughter of his, so
+handsome, yet so peculiar, about whom there were so many strange
+stories.  There was no end to the tales which were told of her
+extraordinary doings.  Yet her name was never coupled with that of
+any youth or man, until this cousin had provoked remark by his visit;
+and even then it was oftener in the shape of wondering conjectures
+whether he would dare to make love to her, than in any pretended
+knowledge of their relations to each other, that the public tongue
+exercised its village-prerogative of tattle.
+
+The more common version of the trouble at the mansion-house was this:
+Elsie was not exactly in her right mind.  Her temper was singular,
+her tastes were anomalous, her habits were lawless, her antipathies
+were many and intense, and she was liable to explosions of
+ungovernable anger.  Some said that was not the worst of it.  At
+nearly fifteen years old, when she was growing fast, and in an
+irritable state of mind and body, she had had a governess placed over
+her for whom she had conceived an aversion.  It was whispered among a
+few who knew more of the family secrets than others, that, worried
+and exasperated by the presence and jealous oversight of this person,
+Elsie had attempted to get finally rid of her by unlawful means, such
+as young girls have been known to employ in their straits, and to
+which the sex at all ages has a certain instinctive tendency, in
+preference to more palpable instruments for the righting of its
+wrongs.  At any rate, this governess had been taken suddenly ill, and
+the Doctor had been sent for at midnight.  Old Sophy had taken her
+master into a room apart, and said a few words to him which turned
+him as white as a sheet.  As soon as he recovered himself, he sent
+Sophy out, called in the old Doctor, and gave him some few hints, on
+which he acted at once, and had the satisfaction of seeing his
+patient out of danger before he left in the morning.  It is proper to
+say, that, during the following days, the most thorough search was
+made in every nook and cranny of those parts of the house which Elsie
+chiefly haunted, but nothing was found which might be accused of
+having been the intentional cause of the probably accidental sudden
+illness of the governess.  From this time forward her father was
+never easy.  Should he keep her apart, or shut her up, for fear of
+risk to others, and so lose every chance of restoring her mind to its
+healthy tone by kindly influences and intercourse with wholesome
+natures?  There was no proof, only presumption, as to the agency of
+Elsie in the matter referred to.  But the doubt was worse, perhaps,
+than certainty would have been,--for then he would have known what to
+do.
+
+He took the old Doctor as his adviser.  The shrewd old man listened
+to the father's story, his explanations of possibilities, of
+probabilities, of dangers, of hopes.  When he had got through, the
+Doctor looked him in the face steadily, as if he were saying, Is that
+all?
+
+The father's eyes fell.  This was not all.  There was something at
+the bottom of his soul which he could not bear to speak of,--nay,
+which, as often as it reared itself through the dark waves of
+unworded consciousness into the breathing air of thought, he trod
+down as the ruined angels tread down a lost soul, trying to come up
+out of the seething sea of torture.  Only this one daughter!  No!
+God never would have ordained such a thing.  There was nothing ever
+heard of like it; it could not be; she was ill,--she would outgrow
+all these singularities; he had had an aunt who was peculiar; he had
+heard that hysteric girls showed the strangest forms of moral
+obliquity for a time, but came right at last.  She would change all
+at once, when her health got more firmly settled in the course of her
+growth.  Are there not rough buds that open into sweet flowers?  Are
+there not fruits, which, while unripe, are not to be tasted or
+endured, which mature into the richest taste and fragrance?  In God's
+good time she would come to her true nature; her eyes would lose that
+frightful, cold glitter; her lips would not feel so cold when she
+pressed them against his cheek; and that faint birth-mark, her mother
+swooned when she first saw, would fade wholly out,--it was less
+marked, surely, now than it used to be!
+
+So Dudley Venner felt, and would have thought, if he had let his
+thoughts breathe the air of his soul.  But the Doctor read through
+words and thoughts and all into the father's consciousness.  There
+are states of mind which may be shared by two persons in presence of
+each other, which remain not only unworded, but unthoughted, if such
+a word may be coined for our special need.  Such a mutually
+interpenetrative consciousness there was between the father and the
+old physician.  By a common impulse, both of them rose in a
+mechanical way and went to the western window, where each started, as
+he saw the other's look directed towards the white stone which stood
+in the midst of the small plot of green turf.
+
+The Doctor had, for a moment, forgotten himself but he looked up at
+the clouds, which were angry, and said, as if speaking of the
+weather, "It is dark now, but we hope it will clear up by and by.
+There are a great many more clouds than rains, and more rains than
+strokes of lightning, and more strokes of lightning than there are
+people killed.  We must let this girl of ours have her way, as far as
+it is safe.  Send away this woman she hates, quietly.  Get her a
+foreigner for a governess, if you can,--one that can dance and sing
+and will teach her.  In the house old Sophy will watch her best.  Out
+of it you must trust her, I am afraid,--for she will not be followed
+round, and she is in less danger than you think.  If she wanders at
+night, find her, if you can; the woods are not absolutely safe.  If
+she will be friendly with any young people, have them to see her,--
+young men especially.  She will not love any one easily, perhaps not
+at all; yet love would be more like to bring her right than anything
+else.  If any young person seems in danger of falling in love with
+her, send him to me for counsel."
+
+Dry, hard advice, but given from a kind hewn, with a moist eye, and
+in tones which tried to be cheerful and were full of sympathy.  This
+advice was the key to the more than indulgent treatment which, as we
+have seen, the girl had received from her father and all about her.
+The old Doctor often came in, in the kindest, most natural sort of
+way, got into pleasant relations with Elsie by always treating her in
+the same easy manner as at the great party, encouraging all her
+harmless fancies, and rarely reminding her that he was a professional
+adviser, except when she came out of her own accord, as in the talk
+they had at the party, telling him of some wild trick she had been
+playing.
+
+"Let her go to the girls' school, by all means," said the Doctor,
+when she had begun to talk about it.  "Possibly she may take to some
+of the girls or of the teachers.  Anything to interest her.
+Friendship, love, religion, whatever will set her nature at work.  We
+must have headway on, or there will be no piloting her.  Action first
+of all, and then we will see what to do with it."
+
+So, when Cousin Richard came along, the Doctor, though he did not
+like his looks any too well, told her father to encourage his staying
+for a time.  If she liked him, it was good; if she only tolerated
+him, it was better than nothing.
+
+"You know something about that nephew of yours, during these last
+years, I suppose?" the Doctor said.  "Looks as if he had seen life.
+Has a scar that was made by a sword-cut, and a white spot on the side
+of his neck that looks like a bullet-mark.  I think he has been what
+folks call a 'hard customer.'"
+
+Dudley Venner owned that he had heard little or nothing of him of
+late years.  He had invited himself, and of course it would not be
+decent not to receive him as a relative.  He thought Elsie rather
+liked having him about the house for a while.  She was very
+capricious,--acted as if she fancied him one day and disliked him the
+next.  He did not know,--but sometimes thought that this nephew of
+his might take a serious liking to Elsie.  What should he do about
+it, if it turned out so?
+
+The Doctor lifted his eyebrows a little.  He thought there was no
+fear.  Elsie was naturally what they call a man-hater, and there was
+very little danger of any sudden passion springing up between two
+such young persons.  Let him stay awhile; it gives her something to
+think about.  So he stayed awhile, as we have seen.
+
+The more Mr. Richard became acquainted with the family,--that is,
+with the two persons of whom it consisted,--the more favorably the
+idea of a permanent residence in the mansion-house seemed to impress
+him.  The estate was large,--hundreds of acres, with woodlands and
+meadows of great value.  The father and daughter had been living
+quietly, and there could not be a doubt that the property which came
+through the Dudleys must have largely increased of late years.  It
+was evident enough that they had an abundant income, from the way in
+which Elsie's caprices were indulged.  She had horses and carriages
+to suit herself; she sent to the great city for everything she wanted
+in the way of dress.  Even her diamonds--and the young man knew
+something about these gems--must be of considerable value; and yet
+she wore them carelessly, as it pleased her fancy.  She had precious
+old laces, too, almost worth their weight in diamonds; laces which
+had been snatched from altars in ancient Spanish cathedrals during
+the wars, and which it would not be safe to leave a duchess alone
+with for ten minutes.  The old house was fat with the deposits of
+rich generations which had gone before.  The famous "golden" fire-set
+was a purchase of one of the family who had been in France during the
+Revolution, and must have come from a princely palace, if not from
+one of the royal residences.  As for silver, the iron closet which
+had been made in the dining-room wall was running over with it: tea-
+kettles, coffee-pots, heavy-lidded tankards, chafing-dishes, punch-
+bowls, all that all the Dudleys had ever used, from the caudle-cup
+which used to be handed round the young mother's chamber, and the
+porringer from which children scooped their bread-and-milk with
+spoons as solid as ingots, to that ominous vessel, on the upper
+shelf, far back in the dark, with a spout like a slender italic S,
+out of which the sick and dying, all along the last century, and
+since, had taken the last drops that passed their lips.  Without
+being much of a scholar, Dick could see well enough, too, that the
+books in the library had been ordered from the great London houses,
+whose imprint they bore, by persons who knew what was best and meant
+to have it.  A man does not require much learning to feel pretty
+sure, when he takes one of those solid, smooth, velvet-leaved
+quartos, say a Baskerville Addison, for instance, bound in red
+morocco, with a margin of gold as rich as the embroidery of a
+prince's collar, as Vandyck drew it,--he need not know much to feel
+pretty sure that a score or two of shelves full of such books mean
+that it took a long purse, as well as a literary taste, to bring them
+together.
+
+To all these attractions the mind of this thoughtful young gentleman
+may be said to have been fully open.  He did not disguise from
+himself, however, that there were a number of drawbacks in the way of
+his becoming established as the heir of the Dudley mansion-house and
+fortune.  In the first place, Cousin Elsie was, unquestionably, very
+piquant, very handsome, game as a hawk, and hard to please, which
+made her worth trying for.  But then there was something about Cousin
+Elsie,--(the small, white scars began stinging, as he said this to
+himself, and he pushed his sleeve up to look at them)--there was
+something about Cousin Elsie he couldn't make out.  What was the
+matter with her eyes, that they sucked your life out of you in that
+strange way?  What did she always wear a necklace for?  Had she some
+such love-token on her neck as the old Don's revolver had left on
+his?  How safe would anybody feel to live with her?  Besides, her
+father would last forever, if he was left to himself.  And he may
+take it into his head to marry again.  That would be pleasant!
+
+So talked Cousin Richard to himself, in the calm of the night and in
+the tranquillity of his own soul.  There was much to be said on both
+sides.  It was a balance to be struck after the two columns were
+added up.  He struck the balance, and came to the conclusion that he
+would fall in love with Elsie Venner.
+
+The intelligent reader will not confound this matured and serious
+intention of falling in love with the young lady with that mere
+impulse of the moment before mentioned as an instance of making love.
+On the contrary, the moment Mr. Richard had made up his mind that he
+should fall in love with Elsie, he began to be more reserved with
+her, and to try to make friends in other quarters.  Sensible men, you
+know, care very little what a girl's present fancy is.  The question
+is: Who manages her, and how can you get at that person or those
+persons?  Her foolish little sentiments are all very well in their
+way; but business is business, and we can't stop for such trifles.
+The old political wire-pullers never go near the man they want to
+gain, if they can help it; they find out who his intimates and
+managers are, and work through them.  Always handle any positively
+electrical body, whether it is charged with passion or power, with
+some non-conductor between you and it, not with your naked hands.---
+The above were some of the young gentleman's working axioms; and he
+proceeded to act in accordance with them.
+
+He began by paying his court more assiduously to his uncle.  It was
+not very hard to ingratiate himself in that quarter; for his manners
+were insinuating, and his precocious experience of life made him
+entertaining.  The old neglected billiard--room was soon put in
+order, and Dick, who was a magnificent player, had a series of games
+with his uncle, in which, singularly enough, he was beaten, though
+his antagonist had been out of play for years.  He evinced a profound
+interest in the family history, insisted on having the details of its
+early alliances, and professed a great pride in it, which he had
+inherited from his father, who, though he had allied himself with the
+daughter of an alien race, had yet chosen one with the real azure
+blood in her veins, as proud as if she had Castile and Aragon for her
+dower and the Cid for her grand-papa.  He also asked a great deal of
+advice, such as inexperienced young persons are in need of, and
+listened to it with due reverence.
+
+It is not very strange that uncle Dudley took a kinder view of his
+nephew than the Judge, who thought he could read a questionable
+history in his face,--or the old Doctor, who knew men's temperaments
+and organizations pretty well, and had his prejudices about races,
+and could tell an old sword-cut and a ballet-mark in two seconds from
+a scar got by falling against the fender, or a mark left by king's
+evil.  He could not be expected to share our own prejudices; for he
+had heard nothing of the wild youth's adventures, or his scamper over
+the Pampas at short notice.  So, then, "Richard Venner, Esquire,
+guest of Dudley Venner, Esquire, at his elegant mansion," prolonged
+his visit until his presence became something like a matter of habit,
+and the neighbors began to think that the fine old house would be
+illuminated before long for a grand marriage.
+
+He had done pretty well with the father: the next thing was to gain
+over the nurse.  Old Sophy was as cunning as a red fox or a gray
+woodchuck.  She had nothing in the world to do but to watch Elsie;
+she had nothing to care for but this girl and her father.  She had
+never liked Dick too well; for he used to make faces at her and tease
+her when he was a boy, and now he was a man there was something about
+him.---she could not tell what--that made her suspicious of him.  It
+was no small matter to get her over to his side.
+
+The jet-black Africans know that gold never looks so well as on the
+foil of their dark skins.  Dick found in his trunk a string of gold
+beads, such as are manufactured in some of our cities, which he had
+brought from the gold region of Chili,--so he said,--for the express
+purpose of giving them to old Sophy.  These Africans, too, have a
+perfect passion for gay-colored clothing; being condemned by Nature,
+as it were, to a perpetual mourning-suit, they love to enliven it
+with all sorts of variegated stuffs of sprightly patterns, aflame
+with red and yellow.  The considerate young man had remembered this,
+too, and brought home for Sophy some handkerchiefs of rainbow hues,
+which had been strangely overlooked till now, at the bottom of one of
+his trunks.  Old Sophy took his gifts, but kept her black eyes open
+and watched every movement of the young people all the more closely.
+It was through her that the father had always known most of the
+actions and tendencies of his daughter.
+
+In the mean time the strange adventure on The Mountain had brought
+the young master into new relations with Elsie.  She had led him out
+of, danger; perhaps saved him from death by the strange power she
+exerted.  He was grateful, and yet shuddered at the recollection of
+the whole scene.  In his dreams he was pursued by the glare of cold
+glittering eyes, whether they were in the head of a woman or of a
+reptile he could not always tell, the images had so run together.
+But he could not help seeing that the eyes of the young girl had been
+often, very often, turned upon him when he had been looking away, and
+fell as his own glance met them.  Helen Darley told him very plainly
+that this girl was thinking about him more than about her book.  Dick
+Venner found she was getting more constant in her attendance at
+school.  He learned, on inquiry, that there was a new master, a
+handsome young man.  The handsome young man would not have liked the
+look that, came over Dick's face when he heard this fact mentioned.
+
+In short, everything was getting tangled up together, and there would
+be no chance of disentangling the threads in this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+PHYSIOLOGICAL.
+
+If Master Bernard felt a natural gratitude to his young pupil for
+saving him from an imminent peril, he was in a state of infinite
+perplexity to know why he should have needed such aid.  He, an
+active, muscular, courageous, adventurous young fellow, with--a stick
+in his hand, ready to hold down the Old Serpent himself, if he had
+come in his way, to stand still, staring into those two eyes, until
+they came up close to him, and the strange, terrible sound seemed to
+freeze him stiff where he stood,--what was the meaning of it?  Again,
+what was the influence this girl had seemingly exerted, under which
+the venomous creature had collapsed in such a sudden way?  Whether he
+had been awake or dreaming he did not feel quite sure.  He knew he
+had gone up The Mountain, at any rate; he knew he had come down The
+Mountain with the girl walking just before him;--there was no
+forgetting her figure, as she walked on in silence, her braided locks
+falling a little, for want of the lost hairpin, perhaps, and looking
+like a wreathing coil of--Shame on such fancies!--to wrong that
+supreme crowning gift of abounding Nature, a rush of shining black
+hair, which, shaken loose, would cloud her all round, like Godiva,
+from brow to instep!  He was sure he had sat down before the fissure
+or cave.  He was sure that he was led softly away from the place, and
+that it was Elsie who had led him.  There was the hair-pin to show
+that so far it was not a dream.  But between these recollections came
+a strange confusion; and the more the master thought, the more he was
+perplexed to know whether she had waked him, sleeping, as he sat on
+the stone, from some frightful dream, such as may come in a very
+brief slumber, or whether she had bewitched him into a trance with
+those strange eyes of hers, or whether it was all true, and he must
+solve its problem as he best might.
+
+There was another recollection connected with this mountain
+adventure.  As they approached the mansion-house, they met a young
+man, whom Mr. Bernard remembered having seen once at least before,
+and whom he had heard of as a cousin of the young girl.  As Cousin
+Richard Venner, the person in question, passed them, he took the
+measure, so to speak, of Mr. Bernard, with a look so piercing, so
+exhausting, so practised, so profoundly suspicious, that the young
+master felt in an instant that he had an enemy in this handsome
+youth,--an enemy, too, who was like to be subtle and dangerous.
+
+Mr. Bernard had made up his mind, that, come what might, enemy or no
+enemy, live or die, he would solve the mystery of Elsie Venner,
+sooner or later.  He was not a man to be frightened out of his
+resolution by a scowl, or a stiletto, or any unknown means of
+mischief, of which a whole armory was hinted at in that passing look
+Dick Venner had given him.  Indeed, like most adventurous young
+persons, he found a kind of charm in feeling that there might be some
+dangers in the way of his investigations.  Some rumors which had
+reached him about the supposed suitor of Elsie Venner, who was
+thought to be a desperate kind of fellow, and whom some believed to
+be an unscrupulous adventurer, added a curious, romantic kind of
+interest to the course of physiological and psychological inquiries
+he was about instituting.
+
+The afternoon on The Mountain was still upper-most in his mind.  Of
+course he knew the common stories--about fascination.  He had once
+been himself an eyewitness of the charming of a small bird by one of
+our common harmless serpents.  Whether a human being could be reached
+by this subtile agency, he had been skeptical, notwithstanding the
+mysterious relation generally felt to exist between man and this
+creature, "cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the
+field,"--a relation which some interpret as the fruit of the curse,
+and others hold to be so instinctive that this animal has been for
+that reason adopted as the natural symbol of evil.  There was another
+solution, however, supplied him by his professional reading.  The
+curious work of Mr. Braid of Manchester had made him familiar with
+the phenomena of a state allied to that produced by animal magnetism,
+and called by that writer by the name of hypnotism.  He found, by
+referring to his note-book, the statement was, that, by fixing the
+eyes on a bright object so placed as to produce a strain upon the
+eyes and eyelids, and to maintain a steady fixed stare, there comes
+on in a few seconds a very singular condition, characterized by
+muscular rigidity and inability to move, with a strange exaltation of
+most of the senses, and generally a closure of the eyelids,--this
+condition being followed by torpor.
+
+Now this statement of Mr. Braid's, well known to the scientific
+world, and the truth of which had been confirmed by Mr. Bernard in
+certain experiments he had instituted, as it has been by many other
+experimenters, went far to explain the strange impressions, of which,
+waking or dreaming, he had certainly been the subject.  His nervous
+system had been in a high state of exaltation at the time.  He
+remembered how the little noises that made rings of sound in the
+silence of the woods, like pebbles dropped in still waters, had
+reached his inner consciousness.  He remembered that singular
+sensation in the roots of the hair, when he came on the traces of the
+girl's presence, reminding him of a line in a certain poem which he
+had read lately with a new and peculiar interest.  He even recalled a
+curious evidence of exalted sensibility and irritability, in the
+twitching of the minute muscles of the internal ear at every
+unexpected sound, producing an odd little snap in the middle of the
+head, which proved to him that he was getting very nervous.
+
+The next thing was to find out whether it were possible that the
+venomous creature's eyes should have served the purpose of Mr.
+Braid's "bright object" held very close to the person experimented
+on, or whether they had any special power which could be made the
+subject of exact observation.
+
+For this purpose Mr. Bernard considered it necessary to get a live
+crotalus or two into his possession, if this were possible.  On
+inquiry, he found that there was a certain family living far up the
+mountainside, not a mile from the ledge, the members of which were
+said to have taken these creatures occasionally, and not to be in any
+danger, or at least in any fear, of being injured by them.  He
+applied to these people, and offered a reward sufficient to set them
+at work to capture some of these animals, if such a thing were
+possible.
+
+A few days after this, a dark, gypsy-looking woman presented herself
+at his door.  She held up her apron as if it contained something
+precious in the bag she made with it.
+
+"Y' wanted some rattlers," said the woman.  "Here they be."
+
+She opened her apron and showed a coil of rattlesnakes lying very
+peaceably in its fold.  They lifted their heads up, as if they wanted
+to see what was going on, but showed no sign of anger.
+
+"Are you crazy?"  said Mr. Bernard.  "You're dead in an hour, if one
+of those creatures strikes you!"
+
+He drew back a little, as he spoke; it might be simple disgust; it
+might be fear; it might be what we call antipathy, which is different
+from either, and which will sometimes show itself in paleness, and
+even faintness, produced by objects perfectly harmless and not in
+themselves offensive to any sense.
+
+"Lord bless you," said the woman, "rattlers never touches our folks.
+I'd jest 'z lieves handle them creaturs as so many striped snakes."
+
+So saying, she put their heads down with her hand, and packed them
+together in her apron as if they had been bits of cart-rope.
+
+Mr. Bernard had never heard of the power, or, at least, the belief in
+the possession of a power by certain persons, which enables them to
+handle these frightful reptiles with perfect impunity.  The fact,
+however, is well known to others, and more especially to a very
+distinguished Professor in one of the leading institutions of the
+great city of the land, whose experiences in the neighborhood of
+Graylock, as he will doubtless inform the curious, were very much
+like those of the young master.
+
+Mr. Bernard had a wired cage ready for his formidable captives, and
+studied their habits and expression with a strange sort of interest.
+What did the Creator mean to signify, when he made such shapes of
+horror, and, as if he had doubly cursed this envenomed wretch, had
+set a mark upon him and sent him forth the Cain of the brotherhood of
+serpents?  It was a very curious fact that the first train of
+thoughts Mr. Bernard's small menagerie suggested to him was the
+grave, though somewhat worn, subject of the origin of evil.  There is
+now to be seen in a tall glass jar, in the Museum of Comparative
+Anatomy at Cantabridge in the territory of the Massachusetts, a huge
+crotalus, of a species which grows to more frightful dimensions than
+our own, under the hotter skies of South America.  Look at it, ye who
+would know what is the tolerance, the freedom from prejudice, which
+can suffer such an incarnation of all that is devilish to lie
+unharmed in the cradle of Nature!  Learn, too, that there are many
+things in this world which we are warned to shun, and are even
+suffered to slay, if need be, but which we must not hate, unless we
+would hate what God loves and cares for.
+
+Whatever fascination the creature might exercise in his native
+haunts, Mr. Bernard found himself not in the least nervous or
+affected in any way while looking at his caged reptiles.  When their
+cage was shaken, they would lift their heads and spring their
+rattles; but the sound was by no means so formidable to listen to as
+when it reverberated among the chasms of the echoing rocks.  The
+expression of the creatures was watchful, still, grave, passionless,
+fate-like, suggesting a cold malignity which seemed to be waiting for
+its opportunity.  Their awful, deep-cut mouths were sternly closed
+over the long hollow fangs which rested their roots against the
+swollen poison-gland, where the venom had been hoarding up ever since
+the last stroke had emptied it.  They never winked, for ophidians
+have no movable eyelids, but kept up that awful fixed stare which
+made the two unwinking gladiators the survivors of twenty pairs
+matched by one of the Roman Emperors, as Pliny tells us, in his
+"Natural History."  Their eyes did not flash, but shone with a cold
+still light.  They were of a pale-golden or straw color, horrible to
+look into, with their stony calmness, their pitiless indifference,
+hardly enlivened by the almost imperceptible vertical slit of the
+pupil, through which Death seemed to be looking out like the archer
+behind the long narrow loop-hole in a blank turret-wall.  On the
+whole, the caged reptiles, horrid as they were, hardly matched his
+recollections of what he had seen or dreamed he save at the cavern.
+These looked dangerous enough, but yet quiet.  A treacherous
+stillness, however,--as the unfortunate New York physician found,
+when he put his foot out to wake up the torpid creature, and
+instantly the fang flashed through his boot, carrying the poison into
+his blood, and death with it.
+
+Mr. Bernard kept these strange creatures, and watched all their
+habits with a natural curiosity.  In any collection of animals the
+venomous beasts are looked at with the greatest interest, just as the
+greatest villains are most run after by the unknown public.  Nobody
+troubles himself for a common striped snake or a petty thief, but a
+cobra or a wife-killer is a centre of attraction to all eyes.  These
+captives did very little to earn their living, but, on the other
+hand, their living was not expensive, their diet being nothing but
+air, au naturel.  Months and months these creatures will live and
+seem to thrive well enough, as any showman who has then in his
+menagerie will testify, though they never touch anything to eat or
+drink.
+
+In the mean time Mr. Bernard had become very curious about a class of
+subjects not treated of in any detail in those text-books accessible
+in most country-towns, to the exclusion of the more special
+treatises, and especially of the rare and ancient works found on the
+shelves of the larger city-libraries.  He was on a visit to old Dr.
+Kittredge one day, having been asked by him to call in for a few
+moments as soon as convenient.  The Doctor smiled good-humoredly when
+he asked him if he had an extensive collection of medical works.
+
+"Why, no," said the old Doctor, "I haven't got a great many printed
+books; and what I have I don't read quite as often as I might, I'm
+afraid.  I read and studied in the time of it, when I was in the
+midst of the young men who were all at work with their books; but
+it's a mighty hard matter, when you go off alone into the country, to
+keep up with all that's going on in the Societies and the Colleges.
+I'll tell you, though, Mr. Langdon, when a man that's once started
+right lives among sick folks for five-and-thirty years, as I've done,
+if he has n't got a library of five-and-thirty volumes bound up in
+his head at the end of that time, he'd better stop driving round and
+sell his horse and sulky.  I know the bigger part of the families
+within a dozen miles' ride.  I know the families that have a way of
+living through everything, and I know the other set that have the
+trick of dying without any kind of reason for it.  I know the years
+when the fevers and dysenteries are in earnest, and when they're only
+making believe.  I know the folks that think they're dying as soon as
+they're sick, and the folks that never find out they 're sick till
+they're dead.  I don't want to undervalue your science, Mr. Langdon.
+There are things I never learned, because they came in after my day,
+and I am very glad to send my patients to those that do know them,
+when I am at fault; but I know these people about here, fathers and
+mothers, and children and grandchildren, so as all the science in the
+world can't know them, without it takes time about it, and sees them
+grow up and grow old, and how the wear and tear of life comes to
+them.  You can't tell a horse by driving him once, Mr. Langdon, nor a
+patient by talking half an hour with him."
+
+"Do you know much about the Veneer family?"  said Mr. Bernard, in a
+natural way enough, the Doctor's talk having suggested the question.
+
+The Doctor lifted his head with his accustomed movement, so as to
+command the young man through his spectacles.
+
+"I know all the families of this place and its neighborhood," he
+answered.
+
+"We have the young lady studying with us at the Institute," said Mr.
+Bernard.
+
+"I know it," the Doctor answered.  "Is she a good scholar?"
+
+All this time the Doctor's eyes were fixed steadily on Mr. Bernard,
+looking through the glasses.
+
+"She is a good scholar enough, but I don't know what to make of her.
+Sometimes I think she is a little out of her head.  Her father,
+I believe, is sensible enough;--what sort of a woman was her mother,
+Doctor?---I suppose, of course, you remember all about her?"
+
+"Yes, I knew her mother.  She was a very lovely young woman."--The
+Doctor put his hand to his forehead and drew a long breath.--"What
+is there you notice out of the way about Elsie Venner?"
+
+"A good many things," the master answered.  "She shuns all the other
+girls.  She is getting a strange influence over my fellow-teacher, a
+young lady,--you know Miss Helen Darley, perhaps?  I am afraid this
+girl will kill her.  I never saw or heard of anything like it, in
+prose at least;--do you remember much of Coleridge's Poems, Doctor?"
+
+The good old Doctor had to plead a negative.
+
+"Well, no matter.  Elsie would have been burned for a witch in old
+times.  I have seen the girl look at Miss Darley when she had not the
+least idea of it, and all at once I would see her grow pale and
+moist, and sigh, and move round uneasily, and turn towards Elsie, and
+perhaps get up and go to her, or else have slight spasmodic movements
+that looked like hysterics;--do you believe in the evil eye, Doctor?"
+
+"Mr. Langdon," the Doctor said, solemnly, "there are strange things
+about Elsie Veneer,--very strange things.  This was what I wanted to
+speak to you about.  Let me advise you all to be very patient with
+the girl, but also very careful.  Her love is not to be desired, and
+"--he spoke in a lower tone--"her hate is to be dreaded.  Do you
+think she has any special fancy for anybody else in the school
+besides Miss Darley?"
+
+Mr. Bernard could not stand the old Doctor's spectacled eyes without
+betraying a little of the feeling natural to a young man to whom a
+home question involving a possible sentiment is put suddenly.
+
+"I have suspected," he said,--"I have had a kind of feeling--that
+she--Well, come, Doctor,--I don't know that there 's any use in
+disguising the matter,--I have thought Elsie Veneer had rather a
+fancy for somebody else,--I mean myself."
+
+There was something so becoming in the blush with which the young man
+made this confession, and so manly, too, in the tone with which he
+spoke, so remote from any shallow vanity, such as young men who are
+incapable of love are apt to feel, when some loose tendril of a
+woman's fancy which a chance wind has blown against them twines about
+them for the want of anything better, that the old Doctor looked at
+him admiringly, and could not help thinking that it was no wonder any
+young girl should be pleased with him.
+
+"You are a man of nerve, Mr. Langdon?" said the Doctor.
+
+"I thought so till very lately," he replied.  "I am not easily
+frightened, but I don't know but I might be bewitched or magnetized,
+or whatever it is when one is tied up and cannot move.  I think I can
+find nerve enough, however, if there is any special use you want to
+put it to."
+
+"Let me ask you one more question, Mr. Langdon.  Do you find yourself
+disposed to take a special interest in Elsie,--to fall in love with
+her, in a word?  Pardon me, for I do not ask from curiosity, but a
+much more serious motive."
+
+"Elsie interests me," said the young man, "interests me strangely.
+She has a wild flavor in her character which is wholly different from
+that of any human creature I ever saw.  She has marks of genius,
+poetic or dramatic,--I hardly know which.  She read a passage from
+Keats's 'Lamia' the other day, in the schoolroom, in such a way that
+I declare to you I thought some of the girls would faint or go into
+fits.  Miss Darley got up and left the room, trembling all over.
+Then, I pity her, she is so lonely.  The girls are afraid of her, and
+she seems to have either a dislike or a fear of them.  They have all
+sorts of painful stories about her.  They give her a name which no
+human creature ought to bear.  They say she hides a mark on her neck
+by always wearing a necklace.  She is very graceful, you know, and
+they will have it that she can twist herself into all sorts of
+shapes, or tie herself in a knot, if she wants to.  There is not one
+of them that will look her in the eyes.  I pity the poor girl; but,
+Doctor, I do not love her.  I would risk my life for her, if it would
+do her any good, but it would be in cold blood.  If her hand touches
+mine, it is not a thrill of passion I feel running through me, but a
+very different emotion.  Oh, Doctor! there must be something in that
+creature's blood which has killed the humanity in her.  God only
+knows the cause that has blighted such a soul in so beautiful a body!
+No, Doctor, I do not love the girl."
+
+"Mr. Langdon," said the Doctor, "you are young, and I am old.  Let me
+talk to you with an old man's privilege, as an adviser.  You have
+come to this country-town without suspicion, and you are moving in
+the midst of perils.  There are things which I must not tell you now;
+but I may warn you.  Keep your eyes open and your heart shut.  If,
+through pitying that girl, you ever come to love her, you are lost.
+If you deal carelessly with her, beware!  This is not all.  There are
+other eyes on you beside Elsie Venner's.  Do you go armed?"
+
+"I do!" said Mr. Bernard,--and he "put his hands up" in the shape of
+fists, in such a way as to show that he was master of the natural
+weapons at any rate.
+
+The Doctor could not help smiling.  But his face fell in an instant.
+
+"You may want something more than those tools to work with.  Come
+with me into my sanctum."
+
+The Doctor led Mr. Bernard into a small room opening out of the
+study.  It was a place such as anybody but a medical man would shiver
+to enter.  There was the usual tall box with its bleached, rattling
+tenant; there were jars in rows where "interesting cases" outlived
+the grief of widows and heirs in alcoholic immortality,--for your
+"preparation-jar" is the true "monumentum aere perennius;" there were
+various semi-possibilities of minute dimensions and unpromising
+developments; there were shining instruments of evil aspect, and grim
+plates on the walls, and on one shelf by itself, accursed and apart,
+coiled in a long cylinder of spirit, a huge crotalus, rough-scaled,
+flatheaded, variegated with dull bands, one of which partially
+encircled the neck like a collar,--an awful wretch to look upon, with
+murder written all over him in horrid hieroglyphics.  Mr. Bernard's
+look was riveted on this creature,--not fascinated certainly, for its
+eyes looked like white beads, being clouded by the action of the
+spirits in which it had been long kept,--but fixed by some indefinite
+sense of the renewal of a previous impression;--everybody knows the
+feeling, with its suggestion of some past state of existence.  There
+was a scrap of paper on the jar, with something written on it.  He
+was reaching up to read it when the Doctor touched him lightly.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Langdon!" he said, with a certain vivacity of manner,
+as if wishing to call away his attention,--"this is my armory."
+
+The Doctor threw open the door of a small cabinet, where were
+disposed in artistic patterns various weapons of offence and
+defence,--for he was a virtuoso in his way, and by the side of the
+implements of the art of healing had pleased himself with displaying
+a collection of those other instruments, the use of which renders the
+first necessary.
+
+"See which of these weapons you would like best to carry about you,"
+said the Doctor.
+
+Mr. Bernard laughed, and looked at the Doctor as if he half doubted
+whether he was in earnest.
+
+"This looks dangerous enough," he said,--"for the man who carries it,
+at least."
+
+He took down one of the prohibited Spanish daggers or knives which a
+traveller may, occasionally get hold of and smuggle out of the
+country.  The blade was broad, trowel-like, but the point drawn out
+several inches, so as to look like a skewer.
+
+"This must be a jealous bull-fighter's weapon," he said, and put it
+back in its place.
+
+Then he took down an ancient-looking broad-bladed dagger, with a
+complex aspect about it, as if it had some kind of mechanism
+connected with it.
+
+"Take care!" said the Doctor; "there is a trick to that dagger."
+
+He took it and touched a spring.  The dagger split suddenly into
+three blades, as when one separates the forefinger and the ring-
+finger from the middle one.  The outside blades were sharp on their
+outer edge.  The stab was to be made with the dagger shut, then the
+spring touched and the split blades withdrawn.
+
+Mr. Bernard replaced it, saying, that it would have served for side-
+arm to old Suwarrow, who told his men to work their bayonets back and
+forward when they pinned a Turk, but to wriggle them about in the
+wound when they stabbed a Frenchman.
+
+"Here," said the Doctor, "this is the thing you want."
+
+He took down a much more modern and familiar implement,--a small,
+beautifully finished revolver.
+
+"I want you to carry this," he said; "and more than that, I want you
+to practise with it often, as for amusement, but so that it maybe
+seen and understood that you are apt to have a pistol about you.
+Pistol-shooting is pleasant sport enough, and there is no reason why
+you should not practise it like other young fellows.  And now," the
+Doctor said, "I have one other, weapon to give you."
+
+He took a small piece of parchment and shook a white powder into it
+from one of his medicine-jars.  The jar was marked with the name of a
+mineral salt, of a nature to have been serviceable in case of sudden
+illness in the time of the Borgias.  The Doctor folded the parchment
+carefully, and marked the Latin name of the powder upon it.
+
+"Here," he said, handing it to Mr. Bernard, "you see what it is, and
+you know what service it can render.  Keep these two protectors about
+your person day and night; they will not harm you, and you may want
+one or the other or both before you think of it."
+
+Mr. Bernard thought it was very odd, and not very old-gentlemanlike,
+to be fitting him out for treason, stratagem, and spoils, in this
+way.  There was no harm, however, in carrying a doctor's powder in
+his pocket, or in amusing himself with shooting at a mark, as he had
+often done before.  If the old gentleman had these fancies, it was as
+well to humor him.
+
+So he thanked old Doctor Kittredge, and shook his hand warmly as he
+left him.
+
+"The fellow's hand did not tremble, nor his color change," the Doctor
+said, as he watched him walking away.  "He is one of the right sort."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+EPISTOLARY.
+
+Mr. Langdon to the Professor.
+
+MY DEAR PROFESSOR,
+You were kind enough to promise me that you would assist me in any
+professional or scientific investigations in which I might become
+engaged.  I have of late become deeply interested in a class of
+subjects which present peculiar difficulty, and I must exercise the
+privilege of questioning you on some points upon which I desire
+information I cannot otherwise obtain.  I would not trouble you, if I
+could find any person or books competent to enlighten me on some of
+these singular matters which have so excited me.  The leading doctor
+here is a shrewd, sensible man, but not versed in the curiosities of
+medical literature.
+
+I proceed, with your leave, to ask a considerable number of
+questions,--hoping to get answers to some of them, at least.
+
+Is there any evidence that human beings can be infected or wrought
+upon by poisons, or otherwise, so that they shall manifest any of the
+peculiarities belonging to beings of a lower nature?  Can such
+peculiarities--be transmitted by inheritance?  Is there anything to
+countenance the stories, long and widely current, about the "evil
+eye"? or is it a mere fancy that such a power belongs to any human
+being?  Have you any personal experience as to the power of
+fascination said to be exercised by certain animals?  What can you
+make of those circumstantial statements we have seen in the papers,
+of children forming mysterious friendships with ophidians of
+different species, sharing their food with them, and seeming to be
+under some subtile influence exercised by those creatures?  Have you
+read, critically, Coleridge's poem of "Christabel," and Keats's
+"Lamia"?--If so, can you understand them, or find any physiological
+foundation for the story of either?
+
+There is another set of questions of a different nature I should like
+to ask, but it is hardly fair to put so many on a single sheet.
+There is one, however, you must answer.  Do you think there may be
+predispositions, inherited or ingrafted, but at any rate
+constitutional, which shall take out certain apparently voluntary
+determinations from the control of the will, and leave them as free
+from moral responsibility as the instincts of the lower animals?  Do
+you not think there may be a crime which is not a sin?
+
+Pardon me, my dear Sir, for troubling you with such a list of notes
+of interrogation.  There are some very strange things going on here
+in this place, country-town as it is.  Country-life is apt to be
+dull; but when it once gets going, it beats the city hollow, because
+it gives its whole mind to what it is about.  These rural sinners
+make terrible work with the middle of the Decalogue, when they get
+started.  However, I hope I shall live through my year's school-
+keeping without catastrophes, though there are queer doings about me
+which puzzle me and might scare some people.  If anything should
+happen, you will be one of the first to hear of it, no doubt.  But I
+trust not to help out the editors of the "Rockland Weekly Universe"
+with an obituary of the late lamented, who signed himself in life
+
+Your friend and pupil,
+
+BERNARD C.  LANGDON.
+
+
+
+The Professor to Mr. Langdon.
+
+MY DEAR MR. LANGDON,
+I do not wonder that you find no answer from your country friends to
+the curious questions you put.  They belong to that middle region
+between science and poetry which sensible men, as they are called,
+are very shy of meddling with.  Some people think that truth and gold
+are always to be washed for; but the wiser sort are of opinion, that,
+unless there are so many grains to the peck of sand or nonsense
+respectively, it does not pay to wash for either, so long as one can
+find anything else to do.  I don't doubt there is some truth in the
+phenomena of animal magnetism, for instance; but when you ask me to
+cradle for it, I tell you that the hysteric girls cheat so, and the
+professionals are such a set of pickpockets, that I can do something
+better than hunt for the grains of truth among their tricks and lies.
+Do you remember what I used to say in my lectures?---or were you
+asleep just then, or cutting your initials on the rail?  (You see I
+can ask questions, my young friend.) Leverage is everything,--was
+what I used to say;--don't begin to pry till you have got the long
+arm on your side.
+
+To please you, and satisfy your doubts as far as possible, I have
+looked into the old books,--into Schenckius and Turner and Kenelm.
+Digby and the rest, where I have found plenty of curious stories
+which you must take for what they are worth.
+
+Your first question I can answer in the affirmative upon pretty good
+authority.  Mizaldus tells, in his "Memorabilia," the well-known
+story of the girl fed on poisons, who was sent by the king of the
+Indies to Alexander the Great.  "When Aristotle saw her eyes
+sparkling and snapping like those of serpents, he said, 'Look out for
+yourself, Alexander!  this is a dangerous companion for you!'"--and
+sure enough, the young lady proved to be a very unsafe person to her
+friends.  Cardanus gets a story from Avicenna, of a certain man bit
+by a serpent, who recovered of his bite, the snake dying therefrom.
+This man afterwards had a daughter whom venomous serpents could not
+harm, though she had a fatal power over them.
+
+I suppose you may remember the statements of old authors about
+Zycanthropy, the disease in which men took on the nature and aspect
+of wolves.  Actius and Paulus, both men of authority, describe it.
+Altomaris gives a horrid case; and Fincelius mentions one occurring
+as late as 1541, the subject of which was captured, still insisting
+that he was a wolf, only that the hair of his hide was turned in!
+Versipelles, it may be remembered, was the Latin name for these
+"were-wolves."
+
+As for the cases where rabid persons have barked and bit like dogs,
+there are plenty of such on record.
+
+More singular, or at least more rare, is the account given by Andreas
+Baccius, of a man who was struck in the hand by a cock, with his
+beak, and who died on the third day thereafter, looking for all the
+world like a fighting-cock, to the great horror of the spectators.
+
+As to impressions transmitted at a very early period of existence,
+every one knows the story of King James's fear of a naked sword, and
+the way it is accounted for.  Sir Kenelm Digby says,--"I remember
+when he dubbed me Knight, in the ceremony of putting the point of a
+naked sword upon my shoulder, he could not endure to look upon it,
+but turned his face another way, insomuch, that, in lieu of touching
+my shoulder, he had almost thrust the point into my eyes, had not the
+Duke of Buckingham guided his hand aright."  It is he, too, who tells
+the story of the mulberry mark upon the neck of a certain lady of
+high condition, which "every year, to mulberry season, did swell,
+grow big, and itch."  And Gaffarel mentions the case of a girl born
+with the figure of a fish on one of her limbs, of which the wonder
+was, that, when the girl did eat fish, this mark put her to sensible
+pain.  But there is no end to cases of this kind, and I could give
+some of recent date, if necessary, lending a certain plausibility at
+least to the doctrine of transmitted impressions.
+
+I never saw a distinct case of evil eye, though I have seen eyes so
+bad that they might produce strange effects on very sensitive
+natures.  But the belief in it under various names, fascination,
+jettcztura, etc., is so permanent and universal, from Egypt to Italy,
+and from the days of Solomon to those of Ferdinand of Naples, that
+there must be some peculiarity, to say the least, on which the
+opinion is based.  There is very strong evidence that some such power
+is exercised by certain of the lower animals.  Thus, it is stated on
+good authority that "almost every animal becomes panic-struck at the
+sight of the rattlesnake, and seems at once deprived of the power of
+motion, or the exercise of its usual instinct of self-preservation."
+Other serpents seem to share this power of fascination, as the Cobra
+and the Buccephalus Capensis.
+
+Some think that it is nothing but fright; others attribute it to the
+
+               "strange powers that lie
+          Within the magic circle of the eye,"--
+
+as Churchill said, speaking of Garrick.
+
+You ask me about those mysterious and frightful intimacies between
+children and serpents, of which so many instances have been recorded.
+I am sure I cannot tell what to make of them.  I have seen several
+such accounts in recent papers, but here is one published in the
+seventeenth century, which is as striking as any of the more modern
+ones:
+
+"Mr. Herbert Tones of Monmouth, when he was a little Boy, was used to
+eat his Milk in a Garden in the Morning, and was no sooner there, but
+a large Snake always came, and eat out of the Dish with him, and did
+so for a considerable time, till one Morning, he striking the Snake
+on the Head, it hissed at him.  Upon which he told his Mother that
+the Baby (for so he call'd it) cry'd Hiss at him.  His Mother had it
+kill'd, which occasioned him a great Fit of Sickness, and 'twas
+thought would have dy'd, but did recover."
+
+There was likewise one "William Writtle, condemned at Maidston
+Assizes for a double murder, told a Minister that was with him after
+he was condemned, that his mother told him, that when he was a Child,
+there crept always to him a Snake, wherever she laid him.  Sometimes
+she would convey him up Stairs, and leave him never so little, she
+should be sure to find a Snake in the Cradle with him, but never
+perceived it did him any harm."
+
+One of the most striking alleged facts connected with the mysterious
+relation existing between the serpent and-the human species is the
+influence which the poison of the Crotulus, taken internally, seemed
+to produce over the moral faculties, in the experiments instituted by
+Dr. Hering at Surinam.  There is something frightful in the
+disposition of certain ophidians, as the whipsnake, which darts at
+the eyes of cattle without any apparent provocation or other motive.
+It is natural enough that the evil principle should have been
+represented in the form of a serpent, but it is strange to think of
+introducing it into a human being like cow-pox by vaccination.
+
+You know all about the Psylli, or ancient serpent tamers, I suppose.
+Savary gives an account of the modern serpent-tamers in his "Letters
+on Egypt."  These modern jugglers are in the habit of making the
+venomous Naja counterfeit death, lying out straight and stiff,
+changing it into a rod, as the ancient magicians did with their
+serpents, (probably the same animal,) in the time of Moses.
+
+I am afraid I cannot throw much light on "Christabel" or "Lamia " by
+any criticism I can offer.  Geraldine, in the former, seems to be
+simply a malignant witch-woman with the evil eye, but with no
+absolute ophidian relationship.  Lamia is a serpent transformed by
+magic into a woman.  The idea of both is mythological, and not in any
+sense physiological.  Some women unquestionably suggest the image of
+serpents; men rarely or never.   I have been struck, like many
+others, with the ophidian head and eye of the famous Rachel.
+
+Your question about inherited predispositions, as limiting the sphere
+of the will, and, consequently, of moral accountability, opens a very
+wide range of speculation.  I can give you only a brief abstract of
+my own opinions on this delicate and difficult subject.  Crime and
+sin, being the preserves of two great organized interests, have been
+guarded against all reforming poachers with as great jealousy as the
+Royal Forests.  It is so easy to hang a troublesome fellow!  It is so
+much simpler to consign a soul to perdition, or say masses, for
+money, to save it, than to take the blame on ourselves for letting it
+grow up in neglect and run to ruin for want of humanizing influences!
+They hung poor, crazy Bellingham for shooting Mr. Perceval.  The
+ordinary of Newgate preached to women who were to swing at Tyburn for
+a petty theft as if they were worse than other people,--just as
+though he would not have been a pickpocket or shoplifter, himself, if
+he had been born in a den of thieves and bred up to steal or starve!
+The English law never began to get hold of the idea that a crime was
+not necessarily a sin, till Hadfield, who thought he was the Saviour
+of mankind, was tried for shooting at George the Third;--lucky for
+him that he did not hit his Majesty!
+
+It is very singular that we recognize all the bodily defects that
+unfit a man for military service, and all the intellectual ones that
+limit his range of thought, but always talk at him as if all his
+moral powers were perfect.  I suppose we must punish evil-doers as we
+extirpate vermin; but I don't know that we have any more right to
+judge them than we have to judge rats and mice, which are just as
+good as cats and weasels, though we think it necessary to treat them
+as criminals.
+
+The limitations of human responsibility have never been properly
+studied, unless it be by the phrenologists. You know from my lectures
+that I consider phrenology, as taught, a pseudo-science, and not a
+branch of positive knowledge; but, for all that, we owe it an immense
+debt.  It has melted the world's conscience in its crucible, and cast
+it in a new mould, with features less like those of Moloch and more
+like those of humanity.  If it has failed to demonstrate its system
+of special correspondences, it has proved that there are fixed
+relations between organization and mind and character.  It has
+brought out that great doctrine of moral insanity, which has done
+more to make men charitable and soften legal and theological
+barbarism than any one doctrine that I can think of since the message
+of peace and good-will to men.
+
+Automatic action in the moral world; the reflex movement which seems
+to be self-determination, and has been hanged and howled at as such
+(metaphorically) for nobody knows how many centuries: until somebody
+shall study this as Marshall Hall has studied reflex nervous action
+in the bodily system, I would not give much for men's judgments of
+each others' characters.  Shut up the robber and the defaulter, we
+must.  But what if your oldest boy had been stolen from his cradle
+and bred in a North-Street cellar?  What if you are drinking a little
+too much wine and smoking a little too much tobacco, and your son
+takes after you, and so your poor grandson's brain being a little
+injured in physical texture, he loses the fine moral sense on which
+you pride yourself, and doesn't see the difference between signing
+another man's name to a draft and his own?
+
+I suppose the study of automatic action in the moral world (you see
+what I mean through the apparent contradiction of terms) may be a
+dangerous one in the view of many people.  It is liable to abuse, no
+doubt.  People are always glad to, get hold of anything which limits
+their responsibility.  But remember that our moral estimates come
+down to us from ancestors who hanged children for stealing forty
+shillings' worth, and sent their souls to perdition for the sin of
+being born,--who punished the unfortunate families of suicides, and
+in their eagerness for justice executed one innocent person every
+three years, on the average, as Sir James Mackintosh tells us.
+
+I do not know in what shape the practical question may present itself
+to you; but I will tell you my rule in life, and I think you will
+find it a good one.  Treat bad men exactly as if they were insane.
+They are in-sane, out of health, morally.  Reason, which is food to
+sound minds, is not tolerated, still less assimilated, unless
+administered with the greatest caution; perhaps, not at all.  Avoid
+collision with them, so far as you honorably can; keep your temper,
+if you can,--for one angry man is as good as another; restrain them
+from violence, promptly, completely, and with the least possible
+injury, just as in the case of maniacs,--and when you have got rid of
+them, or got them tied hand and foot so that they can do no mischief,
+sit down and contemplate them charitably, remembering that nine
+tenths of their' perversity comes from outside influences, drunken
+ancestors, abuse in childhood, bad company, from which you have
+happily been preserved, and for some of which you, as a member of
+society, may be fractionally responsible.  I think also that there
+are special influences which work in the brood lake ferments, and I
+have a suspicion that some of those curious old stories I cited may
+have more recent parallels.  Have you ever met with any cases which
+admitted of a solution like that which I have mentioned?
+
+Yours very truly,
+
+_____________   _____________
+
+
+
+               Bernard Langdon to Philip Staples.
+
+MY DEAR PHILIP,--
+
+I have been for some months established in this place, turning the
+main crank of the machinery for the manufactory of accomplishments
+superintended by, or rather worked to the profit of, a certain Mr.
+Silas Peckham.  He is a poor wretch, with a little thin fishy blood
+in his body, lean and flat, long-armed and large-handed, thick-
+jointed and thin-muscled,--you know those unwholesome, weak-eyed,
+half-fed creatures, that look not fit to be round among live folks,
+and yet not quite dead enough to bury.  If you ever hear of my being
+in court to answer to a charge of assault and battery, you may guess
+that I have been giving him a thrashing to settle off old scores; for
+he is a tyrant, and has come pretty near killing his principal lady-
+assistant with overworking her and keeping her out of all decent
+privileges.
+
+Helen Darley is this lady's name,--twenty two or three years old, I
+should think,--a very sweet, pale woman,--daughter of the usual
+country-clergyman,--thrown on her own resources from an early age,
+and the rest: a common story, but an uncommon person,--very.  All
+conscience and sensibility, I should say,--a cruel worker,--no kind
+of regard for herself, seems as fragile and supple as a young willow-
+shoot, but try her and you find she has the spring in her of a steel
+cross-bow.  I am glad I happened to come to this place, if it were
+only for her sake.  I have saved that girl's life; I am as sure of it
+as if I had pulled her out of the fire or water.
+
+Of course I'm in love with her, you say,--we always love those whom
+we have benefited; "saved her life,--her love was the reward of his
+devotion," etc., etc., as in a regular set novel.  In love, Philip?
+Well, about that,--I love Helen Darley--very much: there is hardly
+anybody I love so well.  What a noble creature she is!  One of those
+that just go right on, do their own work and everybody else's,
+killing themselves inch by inch without ever thinking about it,--
+singing and dancing at their toil when they begin, worn and saddened
+after a while, but pressing steadily on, tottering by and by, and
+catching at the rail by the way-side to help them lift one foot
+before the other, and at last falling, face down, arms stretched
+forward
+
+Philip, my boy, do you know I am the sort of man that locks his door
+sometimes and cries his heart out of his eyes,--that can sob like a
+woman and not be ashamed of it?  I come of fighting-blood on one
+side, you know; I think I could be savage on occasion.  But I am
+tender,--more and more tender as I come into my fulness of manhood.
+I don't like to strike a man, (laugh, if you like,--I know I hit hard
+when I do strike,)--but what I can't stand is the sight of these
+poor, patient, toiling women, who never find out in this life how
+good they are, and never know what it is to be told they are angels
+while they still wear the pleasing incumbrances of humanity.  I don't
+know what to make of these cases.  To think that a woman is never to
+be a woman again, whatever she may come to as an unsexed angel,--and
+that she should die unloved!  Why does not somebody come and carry
+off this noble woman, waiting here all ready to make a man happy?
+Philip, do you know the pathos there is in the eyes of unsought
+women, oppressed with the burden of an inner life unshared?  I can
+see into them now as I could not in those 'earlier days.  I sometimes
+think their pupils dilate on purpose to let my consciousness glide
+through them; indeed, I dread them, I come so close to the nerve of
+the soul itself in these momentary intimacies.  You used to tell me I
+was a Turk,--that my heart was full of pigeon-holes, with
+accommodations inside for a whole flock of doves.  I don't know but I
+am still as Youngish as ever in my ways,--Brigham-Youngish, I mean;
+at any rate, T. always want to give a little love to all the poor
+things that cannot have a whole man to themselves.  If they would
+only be contented with a little!
+
+Here now are two girls in this school where I am teaching.  One of
+them, Rosa M., is not more than sixteen years old, I think they say;
+but Nature has forced her into a tropical luxuriance of beauty, as if
+it were July with her, instead of May.  I suppose it is all natural
+enough that this girl should like a young man's attention, even if he
+were a grave schoolmaster; but the eloquence of this young thing's
+look is unmistakable,--and yet she does not know the language it is
+talking,--they none of them do; and there is where a good many poor
+creatures of our good-for-nothing sex are mistaken.  There is no
+danger of my being rash, but I think this girl will cost somebody his
+life yet.  She is one of those women men make a quarrel about and
+fight to the death for,--the old feral instinct, you know.
+
+Pray, don't think I am lost in conceit, but there is another girl
+here who I begin to think looks with a certain kindness on me.  Her
+name is Elsie V., and she is the only daughter and heiress of an old
+family in this place.  She is a portentous and almost fearful
+creature.  If I should tell you all I know and half of what I fancy
+about her, you would tell me to get my life insured at once.  Yet she
+is the most painfully interesting being,--so handsome!  so lonely!---
+for she has no friends among the girls, and sits apart from them,--
+with black hair like the flow of a mountain-brook after a thaw, with
+a low-browed, scowling beauty of face, and such eyes as were never
+seen before, I really believe, in any human creature.
+
+Philip, I don't know what to say about this Elsie.  There is
+something about her I have not fathomed.  I have conjectures which I
+could not utter to any living soul.  I dare not even hint the
+possibilities which have suggested themselves to me.  This I will
+say, that I do take the most intense interest in this young person,
+an interest much more like pity than love in its common sense.  If
+what I guess at is true, of all the tragedies of existence I ever
+knew this is the saddest, and yet so full of meaning!  Do not ask me
+any questions,--I have said more than I meant to already; but I am
+involved in strange doubts and perplexities,--in dangers too, very
+possibly,--and it is a relief just to speak ever so guardedly of them
+to an early and faithful friend.
+
+Yours ever, BERNARD.
+
+P. S.  I remember you had a copy of Fortunius Licetus' "De Monstris"
+among your old books.  Can't you lend it to me for a while?  I am
+curious, and it will amuse me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+OLD SOPHY CALLS ON THE REVEREND DOCTOR.
+
+The two meeting-houses which faced each other like a pair of
+fighting-cocks had not flapped their wings or crowed at each other
+for a considerable time.  The Reverend Mr. Fairweather had been
+dyspeptic and low-spirited of late, and was too languid for
+controversy.  The Reverend Doctor Honeywood had been very busy with
+his benevolent associations, and had discoursed chiefly on practical
+matters, to the neglect of special doctrinal subjects.  His senior
+deacon ventured to say to him that some of his people required to be
+reminded of the great fundamental doctrine of the worthlessness of
+all human efforts and motives.  Some of them were altogether too much
+pleased with the success of the Temperance Society and the
+Association for the Relief of the Poor.  There was a pestilent heresy
+about, concerning the satisfaction to be derived from a good
+conscience, as if, anybody ever did anything which was not to be
+hated, loathed, despised, and condemned.
+
+The old minister listened gravely, with an inward smile, and told his
+deacon that he would attend to his suggestion.  After the deacon had
+gone, he tumbled over his manuscripts, until at length he came upon
+his first-rate old sermon on "Human Nature."  He had read a great
+deal of hard theology, and had at last reached that curious state
+which is so common in good ministers,--that, namely, in which they
+contrive to switch off their logical faculties on the narrow
+sidetrack of their technical dogmas, while the great freight-train of
+their substantial human qualities keeps in the main highway of
+common-sense, in which kindly souls are always found by all who
+approach them by their human side.
+
+The Doctor read his sermon with a pleasant, paternal interest: it was
+well argued from his premises.  Here and there he dashed his pen
+through a harsh expression.  Now and then he added an explanation or
+qualified abroad statement.  But his mind was on the logical side-
+track, and he followed the chain of reasoning without fairly
+perceiving where it would lead him, if he carried it into real life.
+
+He was just touching up the final proposition, when his
+granddaughter, Letty, once before referred to, came into the room
+with her smiling face and lively movement.  Miss Letty or Letitia
+Forrester was a city-bred girl of some fifteen or sixteen years old,
+who was passing the summer with her grandfather for the sake of
+country air and quiet.  It was a sensible arrangement; for, having
+the promise of figuring as a belle by and by, and being a little
+given to dancing, and having a voice which drew a pretty dense circle
+around the piano when she sat down to play and sing, it was hard to
+keep her from being carried into society before her time, by the mere
+force of mutual attraction.  Fortunately, she had some quiet as well
+as some social tastes, and was willing enough to pass two or three of
+the summer months in the country, where she was much better bestowed
+than she would have been at one of those watering-places where so
+many half-formed girls get prematurely hardened in the vice of self-
+consciousness.
+
+Miss Letty was altogether too wholesome, hearty, and high-strung a
+young girl to be a model, according to the flat-chested and cachectic
+pattern which is the classical type of certain excellent young
+females, often the subjects of biographical memoirs.  But the old
+minister was proud of his granddaughter for all that.  She was so
+full of life, so graceful, so generous, so vivacious, so ready always
+to do all she could for him and for everybody, so perfectly frank in
+her avowed delight in the pleasures which this miserable world
+offered her in the shape of natural beauty, of poetry, of music, of
+companionship, of books, of cheerful cooperation in the tasks of
+those about her, that the Reverend Doctor could not find it in his
+heart to condemn her because she was deficient in those particular
+graces and that signal other-worldliness he had sometimes noticed in
+feeble young persons suffering from various chronic diseases which
+impaired their vivacity and removed them from the range of
+temptation.
+
+When Letty, therefore, came bounding into the old minister's study,
+he glanced up from his manuscript, and, as his eye fell upon her, it
+flashed across him that there was nothing so very monstrous and
+unnatural about the specimen of congenital perversion he was looking
+at, with his features opening into their pleasantest sunshine.
+Technically, according to the fifth proposition of the sermon on
+Human Nature, very bad, no doubt.  Practically, according to the fact
+before him, a very pretty piece of the Creator's handiwork, body and
+soul.  Was it not a conceivable thing that the divine grace might
+show itself in different forms in a fresh young girl like Letitia,
+and in that poor thing he had visited yesterday, half-grown, half-
+colored, in bed for the last year with hip-disease?
+
+Was it to be supposed that this healthy young girl, with life
+throbbing all over her, could, without a miracle, be good according
+to the invalid pattern and formula?
+
+And yet there were mysteries in human nature which pointed to some
+tremendous perversion of its tendencies,--to some profound, radical
+vice of moral constitution, native or transmitted, as you will have
+it, but positive, at any rate, as the leprosy, breaking out in the
+blood of races, guard them ever so carefully.  Did he not know the
+case of a young lady in Rockland, daughter of one of the first
+families in the place, a very beautiful and noble creature to look
+at, for whose bringing up nothing had been spared,--a girl who had
+had governesses to teach her at the house, who had been indulged
+almost too kindly,--a girl whose father had given himself, up to her,
+he being himself a pure and high-souled man?--and yet this girl was
+accused in whispers of having been on the very verge of committing a
+fatal crime; she was an object of fear to all who knew the dark hints
+which had been let fall about her, and there were some that believed
+--Why, what was this but an instance of the total obliquity and
+degeneration of the moral principle? and to what could it be owing,
+but to an innate organic tendency?
+
+"Busy, grandpapa?" said Letty, and without waiting for an answer
+kissed his cheek with a pair of lips made on purpose for that little
+function,--fine, but richly turned out, the corners tucked in with a
+finish of pretty dimples, the rose-bud lips of girlhood's June.
+
+The old gentleman looked at his granddaughter.  Nature swelled up
+from his heart in a wave that sent a glow to his cheek and a sparkle
+to his eye.  But it is very hard to be interrupted just as we are
+winding up a string of propositions with the grand conclusion which
+is the statement in brief of all that has gone before: our own
+starting-point, into which we have been trying to back our reader or
+listener as one backs a, horse into the shafts.
+
+"Video meliora, proboque,--I see the better, and approve it;
+deteriora sequor, I follow after the worse; 't is that natural
+dislike to what is good, pure, holy, and true, that inrooted
+selfishness, totally insensible to the claims of"---
+
+Here the worthy man was interrupted by Miss Letty.
+
+"Do come, if you can, grandpapa," said the young girl; "here is a
+poor old black woman wants to see you so much!"
+
+The good minister was as kind-hearted as if he had never groped in
+the dust and ashes of those cruel old abstractions which have killed
+out so much of the world's life and happiness.  "With the heart man
+believeth unto righteousness;" a man's love is the measure of his
+fitness for good or bad company here or elsewhere.  Men are tattooed
+with their special beliefs like so many South-Sea Islanders; but a
+real human heart, with Divine love in it, beats with the same glow
+under all, the patterns of all earth's thousand tribes!
+
+The Doctor sighed, and folded the sermon, and laid the Quarto Cruden
+on it.  He rose from his desk, and, looking once more at the young
+girl's face, forgot his logical conclusions, and said to himself that
+she was a little angel,--which was in violent contradiction to the
+leading doctrine of his sermon on Human Nature.  And so he followed
+her out of the study into the wide entry of the old-fashioned
+country-house.
+
+An old black woman sat on the plain oaken settle which humble
+visitors waiting to see the minister were wont to occupy.  She was
+old, but how old it would be very hard to guess.  She might be
+seventy.  She might be ninety.  One could not swear she was not a
+hundred.  Black women remain at a stationary age (to the eyes of
+white people, at least) for thirty years.  They do not appear to
+change during this period any more than so many Trenton trilobites.
+Bent up, wrinkled, yellow-eyed, with long upper-lip, projecting jaws,
+retreating chin, still meek features, long arms, large flat hands
+with uncolored palms and slightly webbed fingers, it was impossible
+not to see in this old creature a hint of the gradations by which
+life climbs up through the lower natures to the highest human
+developments.  We cannot tell such old women's ages because we do not
+understand the physiognomy of a race so unlike our own.  No doubt
+they see a great deal in each other's faces that we cannot,--changes
+of color and expression as real as our own, blushes and sudden
+betrayals of feeling,--just as these two canaries know what their
+single notes and short sentences and full song with this or that
+variation mean, though it is a mystery to us unplumed mortals.
+
+This particular old black woman was a striking specimen of her class.
+Old as she looked, her eye was bright and knowing.  She wore a red-
+and-yellow turban, which set off her complexion well, and hoops of
+gold in her ears, and beads of gold about her neck, and an old
+funeral ring upon her finger.  She had that touching stillness about
+her which belongs to animals that wait to be spoken to and then look
+up with a kind of sad humility.
+
+"Why, Sophy!"  said the good minister, "is this you?"
+
+She looked up with the still expression on her face.  "It's ol'
+Sophy," she said.
+
+"Why," said the Doctor, "I did not believe you could walk so far as
+this to save the Union.  Bring Sophy a glass of wine, Letty.  Wine's
+good for old folks like Sophy and me, after walking a good way, or
+preaching a good while."
+
+The young girl stepped into the back-parlor, where she found the
+great pewter flagon in which the wine that was left after each
+communion-service was brought to the minister's house.  With much
+toil she managed to tip it so as to get a couple of glasses filled.
+The minister tasted his, and made old Sophy finish hers.
+
+"I wan' to see you 'n' talk wi' you all alone," she said presently.
+
+The minister got up and led the way towards his study.  "To be sure,"
+he said; he had only waited for her to rest a moment before he asked
+her into the library.  The young girl took her gently by the arm, and
+helped her feeble steps along the passage.  When they reached the
+study, she smoothed the cushion of a rocking-chair, and made the old
+woman sit down in it.  Then she tripped lightly away, and left her
+alone with the minister.
+
+Old Sophy was a member of the Reverend Doctor Honeywood's church.
+She had been put through the necessary confessions in a tolerably
+satisfactory manner.  To be sure, as her grandfather had been a
+cannibal chief, according to the common story, and, at any rate, a
+terrible wild savage, and as her mother retained to the last some of
+the prejudices of her early education, there was a heathen flavor in
+her Christianity which had often scandalized the elder of the
+minister's two deacons.  But, the good minister had smoothed matters
+over: had explained that allowances were to be made for those who had
+been long sitting without the gate of Zion,--that, no doubt, a part
+of the curse which descended to the children of Ham consisted in
+"having the understanding darkened," as well as the skin,--and so had
+brought his suspicious senior deacon to tolerate old Sophy as one of
+the communion of fellow-sinners.
+
+--Poor things!  How little we know the simple notions with which
+these rudiments of souls are nourished by the Divine Goodness!  Did
+not Mrs. Professor come home this very blessed morning with a story
+of one of her old black women?
+
+"And how do you feel to-day, Mrs. Robinson?"
+
+"Oh, my dear, I have this singing in my head all the time."  (What
+doctors call tinnitus aurium.)
+
+"She 's got a cold in the head," said old Mrs. Rider.
+
+"Oh, no, my dear!  Whatever I'm thinking about, it's all this
+singing, this music.  When I'm thinking of the dear Redeemer, it all
+turns into this singing and music.  When the clark came to see me, I
+asked him if he couldn't cure me, and he said, No,--it was the Holy
+Spirit in me, singing to me; and all the time I hear this beautiful
+music, and it's the Holy Spirit a-singing to me."
+
+
+The good man waited for Sophy to speak; but she did not open her lips
+as yet.
+
+"I hope you are not troubled in mind or body," he said to her at
+length, finding she did not speak.
+
+The poor old woman took out a white handkerchief, and lifted it--to
+her black face.  She could not say a word for her tears and sobs.
+
+The minister would have consoled her; he was used to tears, and could
+in most cases withstand their contagion manfully; but something
+choked his voice suddenly, and when he called upon it, he got no
+answer, but a tremulous movement of the muscles, which was worse than
+silence.
+
+At last she spoke.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!  It's my poor girl, my darling, my beauty, my baby,
+that 's grown up to be a woman; she will come to a bad end; she will
+do something that will make them kill her or shut her up all her
+life.  Or, Doctor, Doctor, save her, pray for her!  It a'n't her
+fault.  It a'n't her fault.  If they knew all that I know, they would
+n' blame that poor child.  I must tell you, Doctor: if I should die,
+perhaps nobody else would tell you.  Massa Veneer can't talk about
+it.  Doctor Kittredge won't talk about it.  Nobody but old Sophy to
+tell you, Doctor; and old Sophy can't die without telling you."
+
+The kind minister soothed the poor old soul with those gentle,
+quieting tones which had carried peace and comfort to so many
+chambers of sickness and sorrow, to so many hearts overburdened by
+the trials laid upon them.
+
+Old Sophy became quiet in a few minutes, and proceeded to tell her
+story.  She told it in the low half-whisper which is the natural
+voice of lips oppressed wish grief and fears; with quick glances
+around the apartment from time to time, as if she dreaded lest the
+dim portraits on the walls and the dark folios on the shelves might
+overhear her words.
+
+It was not one of those conversations which a third person can report
+minutely, unless by that miracle of clairvoyance known to the readers
+of stories made out of authors' brains.  Yet its main character can
+be imparted in a much briefer space than the old black woman took to
+give all its details.
+
+She went far back to the time when Dudley Venner was born,--she being
+then a middle-aged woman.  The heir and hope of a family which had
+been narrowing down as if doomed to extinction, he had been
+surrounded with every care and trained by the best education he could
+have in New England.  He had left college, and was studying the
+profession which gentlemen of leisure most affect, when he fell in
+love with a young girl left in the world almost alone, as he was.
+The old woman told the story of his young love and his joyous bridal
+with a tenderness which had something more, even, than her family
+sympathies to account for it.  Had she not hanging over her bed a
+paper-cutting of a profile,--jet black, but not blacker than the face
+it represented--of one who would have been her own husband in the
+small years of this century, if the vessel in which he went to sea,
+like Jamie in the ballad, had not sailed away and never come back to
+land?  Had she not her bits of furniture stowed away which had been
+got ready for her own wedding,--two rocking-chairs, one worn with
+long use, one kept for him so long that it had grown a superstition
+with her never to sit in it,--and might he not come back yet, after
+all?  Had she not her chest of linen ready for her humble house-
+keeping with store of serviceable huckaback and piles of neatly
+folded kerchiefs, wherefrom this one that showed so white against her
+black face was taken, for that she knew her eyes would betray her in
+"the presence"?
+
+All the first part of the story the old woman told tenderly, and yet
+dwelling upon every incident with a loving pleasure.  How happy this
+young couple had been, what plans and projects of improvement they
+had formed, how they lived in each other, always together, so young
+and fresh and beautiful as she remembered them in that one early
+summer when they walked arm in arm through the wilderness of roses
+that ran riot in the garden,--she told of this as loath to leave it
+and come to the woe that lay beneath.
+
+She told the whole story;-shall I repeat it?  Not now.  If, in the
+course of relating the incidents I have undertaken to report, it
+tells itself, perhaps this will be better than to run the risk of
+producing a painful impression on some of those susceptible readers
+whom it would be ill-advised to disturb or excite, when they rather
+require to be amused and soothed.  In our pictures of life, we must
+show the flowering-out of terrible growths which have their roots
+deep, deep underground.  Just how far we shall lay bare the unseemly
+roots themselves is a matter of discretion and taste, and which none
+of us are infallible.
+
+The old woman told the whole story of Elsie, of her birth, of her
+peculiarities of person and disposition, of the passionate fears and
+hopes with which her father had watched the course of her
+development.  She recounted all her strange ways, from the hour when
+she first tried to crawl across the carpet, and her father's look as
+she worked her way towards him.  With the memory of Juliet's nurse
+she told the story of her teething, and how, the woman to whose
+breast she had clung dying suddenly about that time, they had to
+struggle hard with the child before she would learn the
+accomplishment of feeding with a spoon.  And so of her fierce plays
+and fiercer disputes with that boy who had been her companion, and
+the whole scene of the quarrel when she struck him with those sharp
+white teeth, frightening her, old Sophy, almost to death; for, as she
+said, the boy would have died, if it hadn't been for the old Doctor's
+galloping over as fast as he could gallop and burning the places
+right out of his arm.  Then came the story of that other incident,
+sufficiently alluded to already, which had produced such an ecstasy
+of fright and left such a nightmare of apprehension in the household.
+And so the old woman came down to this present time.  That boy she
+never loved nor trusted was grown to a dark, dangerous-looking man,
+and he was under their roof.  He wanted to marry our poor Elsie, and
+Elsie hated him, and sometimes she would look at him over her
+shoulder just as she used to look at that woman she hated; and she,
+old Sophy, couldn't sleep for thinking she should hear a scream from
+the white chamber some night and find him in spasms such as that
+woman came so near dying with.  And then there was something about
+Elsie she did not know what to make of: she would sit and hang her
+head sometimes, and look as if she were dreaming; and she brought
+home books they said a young gentleman up at the great school lent
+her; and once she heard her whisper in her sleep, and she talked as
+young girls do to themselves when they're thinking about somebody
+they have a liking for and think nobody knows it.
+
+She finished her long story at last.  The minister had listened to it
+in perfect silence.  He sat still even when she had done speaking,--
+still, and lost in thought.  It was a very awkward matter for him to
+have a hand in.  Old Sophy was his parishioner, but the Veneers had a
+pew in the Reverend Mr. Fairweather's meeting-house.  It would seem
+that he, Mr. Fairweather, was the natural adviser of the parties most
+interested.  Had he sense and spirit enough to deal with such people?
+Was there enough capital of humanity in his somewhat limited nature
+to furnish sympathy and unshrinking service for his friends in an
+emergency? or was he too busy with his own attacks of spiritual
+neuralgia, and too much occupied with taking account of stock of his
+own thin-blooded offences, to forget himself and his personal
+interests on the small scale and the large, and run a risk of his
+life, if need were, at any rate give himself up without reserve to
+the dangerous task of guiding and counselling these distressed and
+imperilled fellow-creatures?
+
+The good minister thought the best thing to do would be to call and
+talk over some of these matters with Brother Fairweather,--for so he
+would call him at times, especially if his senior deacon were not
+within earshot.  Having settled this point, he comforted Sophy with a
+few words of counsel and a promise of coming to see her very soon.
+He then called his man to put the old white horse into the chaise and
+drive Sophy back to the mansion-house.
+
+When the Doctor sat down to his sermon again, it looked very
+differently from the way it had looked at the moment he left it.
+When he came to think of it, he did not feel quite so sure
+practically about that matter of the utter natural selfishness of
+everybody.  There was Letty, now, seemed to take a very unselfish
+interest in that old black woman, and indeed in poor people
+generally; perhaps it would not be too much to say that she was
+always thinking of other people.  He thought he had seen other young
+persons naturally unselfish, thoughtful for others; it seemed to be a
+family trait in some he had known.
+
+But most of all he was exercised about this poor girl whose story
+Sophy had been telling.  If what the old woman believed was true,--
+and it had too much semblance of probability,--what became of his
+theory of ingrained moral obliquity applied to such a case?  If by
+the visitation of God a person receives any injury which impairs the
+intellect or the moral perceptions, is it not monstrous to judge such
+a person by our common working standards of right and wrong?
+Certainly, everybody will answer, in cases where there is a palpable
+organic change brought about, as when a blow on the head produces
+insanity.  Fools!  How long will it be before we shall learn that for
+every wound which betrays itself to the sight by a scar, there are a
+thousand unseen mutilations that cripple, each of them, some one or
+more of our highest faculties?  If what Sophy told and believed was
+the real truth, what prayers could be agonizing enough, what
+tenderness could be deep enough, for this poor, lost, blighted,
+hapless, blameless child of misfortune, struck by such a doom as
+perhaps no living creature in all the sisterhood of humanity shared
+with her?
+
+The minister thought these matters over until his mind was bewildered
+with doubts and tossed to and fro on that stormy deep of thought
+heaving forever beneath the conflict of windy dogmas.  He laid by his
+old sermon.  He put back a pile of old commentators with their eyes
+and mouths and hearts full of the dust of the schools.  Then he
+opened the book of Genesis at the eighteenth chapter and read that
+remarkable argument of Abraham's with his Maker in which he boldly
+appeals to first principles.  He took as his text, "Shall not the
+Judge of all the earth do right?" and began to write his sermon,
+afterwards so famous, "On the Obligations of an Infinite Creator to a
+Finite Creature."
+
+It astonished the good people, who had been accustomed so long to
+repeat mechanically their Oriental hyperboles of self-abasement, to
+hear their worthy minister maintaining that the dignified attitude of
+the old Patriarch, insisting on what was reasonable and fair with
+reference to his fellow-creatures, was really much more respectful to
+his Maker, and a great deal manlier and more to his credit, than if
+he had yielded the whole matter, and pretended that men had not
+rights as well as duties.  The same logic which had carried him to
+certain conclusions with reference to human nature, this same
+irresistible logic carried him straight on from his text until he
+arrived at those other results, which not only astonished his people,
+as was said, but surprised himself.  He went so far in defence of the
+rights of man, that he put his foot into several heresies, for which
+men had been burned so often, it was time, if ever it could be, to
+acknowledge the demonstration of the argumentum ad ignem.  He did not
+believe in the responsibility of idiots.  He did not believe a new-
+born infant was morally answerable for other people's acts.  He
+thought a man with a crooked spine would never be called to account
+for not walking erect.  He thought if the crook was in his brain,
+instead of his back, he could not fairly be blamed for any
+consequence of this natural defect, whatever lawyers or divines might
+call it.  He argued, that, if a person inherited a perfect mind,
+body, and disposition, and had perfect teaching from infancy, that
+person could do nothing more than keep the moral law perfectly.  But
+supposing that the Creator allows a person to be born with an
+hereditary or ingrafted organic tendency, and then puts this person
+into the hands of teachers incompetent or positively bad, is not what
+is called sin or transgression of the law necessarily involved in the
+premises?  Is not a Creator bound to guard his children against the
+ruin which inherited ignorance might entail on them?  Would it be
+fair for a parent to put into a child's hands the title-deeds to all
+its future possessions, and a bunch of matches?  And are not men
+children, nay, babes, in the eye of Omniscience?--The minister grew
+bold in his questions.  Had not he as good right to ask questions as
+Abraham?
+
+This was the dangerous vein of speculation in which the Reverend
+Doctor Honeywood found himself involved, as a consequence of the
+suggestions forced upon him by old Sophy's communication.  The truth
+was, the good man had got so humanized by mixing up with other people
+in various benevolent schemes, that, the very moment he could escape
+from his old scholastic abstractions, he took the side of humanity
+instinctively, just as the Father of the Faithful did,--all honor be
+to the noble old Patriarch for insisting on the worth of an honest
+man, and making the best terms he could for a very ill-conditioned
+metropolis, which might possibly, however, have contained ten
+righteous people, for whose sake it should be spared!
+
+The consequence of all this was, that he was in a singular and
+seemingly self-contradictory state of mind when he took his hat and
+cane and went forth to call on his heretical brother.  The old
+minister took it for granted that the Reverend Mr. Fairweather knew
+the private history of his parishioner's family.  He did not reflect
+that there are griefs men never put into words,--that there are fears
+which must not be spoken,--intimate matters of consciousness which
+must be carried, as bullets which have been driven deep into the
+living tissues are sometimes carried, for a whole lifetime,--encysted
+griefs, if we may borrow the chirurgeon's term, never to be reached,
+never to be seen, never to be thrown out, but to go into the dust
+with the frame that bore them about with it, during long years of
+anguish, known only to the sufferer and his Maker.  Dudley Venner had
+talked with his minister about this child of his.  But he had talked
+cautiously, feeling his way for sympathy, looking out for those
+indications of tact and judgment which would warrant him in some
+partial communication, at least, of the origin of his doubts and
+fears, and never finding them.
+
+There was something about the Reverend Mr. Fairweather which
+repressed all attempts at confidential intercourse.  What this
+something was, Dudley Venner could hardly say; but he felt it
+distinctly, and it sealed his lips.  He never got beyond certain
+generalities connected with education and religious instruction.  The
+minister could not help discovering, however, that there were
+difficulties connected with this girl's management, and he heard
+enough outside of the family to convince him that she had manifested
+tendencies, from an early age, at variance with the theoretical
+opinions he was in the habit of preaching, and in a dim way of
+holding for truth, as to the natural dispositions of the human being.
+
+About this terrible fact of congenital obliquity his new beliefs
+began to cluster as a centre, and to take form as a crystal around
+its nucleus.  Still, he might perhaps have struggled against them,
+had it not been for the little Roman Catholic chapel he passed every
+Sunday, on his way to the meeting-house.  Such a crowd of
+worshippers, swarming into the pews like bees, filling all the
+aisles, running over at the door like berries heaped too full in the
+measure,--some kneeling on the steps, some standing on the sidewalk,
+hats off, heads down, lips moving, some looking on devoutly from the
+other side of the street!  Oh, could he have followed his own
+Bridget, maid of all work, into the heart of that steaming throng,
+and bowed his head while the priests intoned their Latin prayers!
+could he have snuffed up the cloud of frankincense, and felt that he
+was in the great ark which holds the better half of the Christian
+world, while all around it are wretched creatures, some struggling
+against the waves in leaky boats, and some on ill-connected rafts,
+and some with their heads just above water, thinking to ride out the
+flood which is to sweep the earth clean of sinners, upon their own
+private, individual life-preservers!
+
+Such was the present state of mind of the Reverend Chauncy
+Fairweather, when his clerical brother called upon him to talk over
+the questions to which old Sophy had called his attention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE REVEREND DOCTOR CALLS ON BROTHER FAIRWEATHER.
+
+For the last few months, while all these various matters were going
+on in Rockland, the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had been busy with
+the records of ancient councils and the writings of the early
+fathers.  The more he read, the more discontented he became with the
+platform upon which he and his people were standing.  They and he
+were clearly in a minority, and his deep inward longing to be with
+the majority was growing into an engrossing passion.  He yearned
+especially towards the good old unquestioning, authoritative Mother
+Church, with her articles of faith which took away the necessity for
+private judgment, with her traditional forms and ceremonies, and her
+whole apparatus of stimulants and anodynes.
+
+About this time he procured a breviary and kept it in his desk under
+the loose papers.  He sent to a Catholic bookstore and obtained a
+small crucifix suspended from a string of beads.  He ordered his new
+coat to be cut very narrow in the collar and to be made single-
+breasted.  He began an informal series of religious conversations
+with Miss O'Brien, the young person of Irish extraction already
+referred to as Bridget, maid of all work.  These not proving very
+satisfactory, he managed to fall in with Father McShane, the Catholic
+priest of the Rockland church.
+
+Father McShane encouraged his nibble very scientifically.  It would
+be such a fine thing to bring over one of those Protestant heretics,
+and a "liberal" one too!---not that there was any real difference
+between them, but it sounded better, to say that one of these
+rationalizing free-and-equal religionists had been made a convert
+than any of those half-way Protestants who were the slaves of
+catechisms instead of councils, and of commentators instead of popes.
+The subtle priest played his disciple with his finest tackle.  It was
+hardly necessary: when anything or anybody wishes to be caught, a
+bare hook and a coarse line are all that is needed.
+
+If a man has a genuine, sincere, hearty wish to get rid of his
+liberty, if he is really bent upon becoming a slave, nothing can stop
+him.  And the temptation is to some natures a very great one.
+Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man.  It involves that necessity
+for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always
+dreaded.  In common life we shirk it by forming habits, which take
+the place of self-determination.  In politics party-organization
+saves us the pains of much thinking before deciding how to cast our
+vote.  In religious matters there are great multitudes watching us
+perpetually, each propagandist ready with his bundle of finalities,
+which having accepted we may be at peace.  The more absolute the
+submission demanded, the stronger the temptation becomes to those who
+have been long tossed among doubts and conflicts.
+
+So it is that in all the quiet bays which indent the shores of the
+great ocean of thought, at every sinking wharf, we see moored the
+hulks and the razees of enslaved or half-enslaved intelligences.
+They rock peacefully as children in their cradles on the subdued
+swell which comes feebly in over the bar at the harbor's mouth,
+slowly crusting with barnacles, pulling at their iron cables as if
+they really wanted to be free; but better contented to remain bound
+as they are.  For these no more the round unwalled horizon of the
+open sea, the joyous breeze aloft, the furrow, the foam, the sparkle,
+that track the rushing keel!  They have escaped the dangers of the
+wave, and lie still henceforth, evermore.  Happiest of souls, if
+lethargy is bliss, and palsy the chief beatitude!
+
+America owes its political freedom to religious Protestantism.  But
+political freedom is reacting on religious prescription with still
+mightier force.  We wonder, therefore, when we find a soul which was
+born to a full sense of individual liberty, an unchallenged right of
+self-determination on every new alleged truth offered to its
+intelligence, voluntarily surrendering any portion of its liberty to
+a spiritual dictatorship which always proves to rest, in the last
+analysis, on a majority vote, nothing more nor less, commonly an old
+one, passed in those barbarous times when men cursed and murdered
+each other for differences of opinion, and of course were not in a
+condition to settle the beliefs of a comparatively civilized
+community.
+
+In our disgust, we are liable to be intolerant.  We forget that
+weakness is not in itself a sin.  We forget that even cowardice may
+call for our most lenient judgment, if it spring from innate
+infirmity, Who of us does not look with great tenderness on the young
+chieftain in the "Fair Maid of Perth," when he confesses his want of
+courage?  All of us love companionship and sympathy; some of us may
+love them too much.  All of us are more or less imaginative in our
+theology.
+
+Some of us may find the aid of material symbols a comfort, if not a
+necessity.  The boldest thinker may have his moments of languor and
+discouragement, when he feels as if he could willingly exchange
+faiths with the old beldame crossing herself at the cathedral-door,--
+nay, that, if he could drop all coherent thought, and lie in the
+flowery meadow with the brown-eyed solemnly unthinking cattle,
+looking up to the sky, and all their simple consciousness staining
+itself blue, then down to the grass, and life turning to a mere
+greenness, blended with confused scents of herbs,--no individual
+mind-movement such as men are teased with, but the great calm cattle-
+sense of all time and all places that know the milky smell of herds,
+--if he could be like these, he would be content to be driven home by
+the cow-boy, and share the grassy banquet of the king of ancient
+Babylon.  Let us be very generous, then, in our judgment of those who
+leave the front ranks of thought for the company of the meek non-
+combatants who follow with the baggage and provisions.  Age, illness,
+too much wear and tear, a half-formed paralysis, may bring any of us
+to this pass.  But while we can think and maintain the rights of our
+own individuality against every human combination, let us not forget
+to caution all who are disposed to waver that there is a cowardice
+which is criminal, and a longing for rest which it is baseness to
+indulge.  God help him, over whose dead soul in his living body must
+be uttered the sad supplication, Requiescat in pace!
+
+A knock at the Reverend Mr. Fairweather's study door called his eyes
+from the book on which they were intent.  He looked up, as if
+expecting a welcome guest.
+
+The Reverend Pierrepont Honeywood, D. D., entered the study of the
+Reverend Chauncy Fairweather.  He was not the expected guest.  Mr.
+Fairweather slipped the book he was reading into a half-open drawer,
+and pushed in the drawer.  He slid something which rattled under a
+paper lying on the table.  He rose with a slight change of color, and
+welcomed, a little awkwardly, his unusual visitor.
+
+"Good-evening, Brother Fairweather!" said the Reverend Doctor, in a
+very cordial, good-humored way.  "I hope I am not spoiling one of
+those eloquent sermons I never have a chance to hear."
+
+"Not at all, not at all," the younger clergyman answered, in a
+languid tone, with a kind of habitual half-querulousness which
+belonged to it,--the vocal expression which we meet with now and
+then, and which says as plainly as so many words could say it, "I am
+a suffering individual.  I am persistently undervalued, wronged, and
+imposed upon by mankind and the powers of the universe generally.
+But I endure all.  I endure you.  Speak.  I listen.  It is a burden
+to me, but I even approve.  I sacrifice myself.  Behold this movement
+of my lips!  It is a smile."
+
+The Reverend Doctor knew this forlorn way of Mr. Fairweather's, and
+was not troubled by it.  He proceeded to relate the circumstances of
+his visit from the old black woman, and the fear she was in about the
+young girl, who being a parishioner of Mr. Fairweather's, he had
+thought it best to come over and speak to him about old Sophy's fears
+and fancies.
+
+In telling the old woman's story, he alluded only vaguely to those
+peculiar circumstances to which she had attributed so much
+importance, taking it for granted that the other minister must be
+familiar with the whole series of incidents she had related.  The old
+minister was mistaken, as we have before seen.  Mr. Fairweather had
+been settled in the place only about ten years, and, if he had heard
+a strange hint now and then about Elsie, had never considered it as
+anything more than idle and ignorant, if not malicious, village-
+gossip.  All that he fully understood was that this had been a
+perverse and unmanageable child, and that the extraordinary care
+which had been bestowed on her had been so far thrown away that she
+was a dangerous, self-willed girl, whom all feared and almost all
+shunned, as if she carried with her some malignant influence.
+
+He replied, therefore, after hearing the story, that Elsie had always
+given trouble.  There seemed to be a kind of natural obliquity about
+her.  Perfectly unaccountable.  A very dark case.  Never amenable to
+good influences.  Had sent her good books from the Sunday-school
+library.  Remembered that she tore out the frontispiece of one of
+them, and kept it, and flung the book out of the window.  It was a
+picture of Eve's temptation; and he recollected her saying that Eve
+was a good woman,--and she'd have done just so, if she'd been there.
+A very sad child, very sad; bad from infancy.  He had talked himself
+bold, and said all at once,  "Doctor, do you know I am almost ready
+to accept your doctrine of the congenital sinfulness of human nature?
+I am afraid that is the only thing which goes to the bottom of the
+difficulty."
+
+The old minister's face did not open so approvingly as Mr.
+Fairweather had expected.
+
+"Why, yes,--well,--many find comfort in it,--I believe;--there is
+much to be said,--there are many bad people,--and bad children,
+--I can't be so sure about bad babies,--though they cry very
+malignantly at times,--especially if they have the stomach-ache.
+But I really don't know how to condemn this poor Elsie; she may have
+impulses that act in her like instincts in the lower animals, and so
+not come under the bearing of our ordinary rules of judgment."
+
+"But this depraved tendency, Doctor,--this unaccountable
+perverseness.  My dear Sir, I am afraid your school is in the right
+about human nature.  Oh, those words of the Psalmist, 'shapen in
+iniquity,' and the rest!  What are we to do with them,--we who teach
+that the soul of a child is an unstained white tablet?"
+
+"King David was very subject to fits of humility, and much given to
+self-reproaches," said the Doctor, in a rather dry way.  "We owe you
+and your friends a good deal for calling attention to the natural
+graces, which, after all, may, perhaps, be considered as another form
+of manifestation of the divine influence.  Some of our writers have
+pressed rather too hard on the tendencies of the human soul toward
+evil as such.  It maybe questioned whether these views have not
+interfered with the sound training of certain young persons, sons of
+clergymen and others.  I am nearer of your mind about the possibility
+of educating children so that they shall become good Christians
+without any violent transition.  That is what I should hope for from
+bringing them up 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.'"
+
+The younger minister looked puzzled, but presently answered,
+"Possibly we may have called attention to some neglected truths; but,
+after all, I fear we must go to the old school, if we want to get at
+the root of the matter.  I know there is an outward amiability about
+many young persons, some young girls especially, that seems like
+genuine goodness; but I have been disposed of late to lean toward
+your view, that these human affections, as we see them in our
+children,--ours, I say, though I have not the fearful responsibility
+of training any of my own,--are only a kind of disguised and sinful
+selfishness."
+
+The old minister groaned in spirit.  His heart had been softened by
+the sweet influences of children and grandchildren.  He thought of a
+half-sized grave in the burial-ground, and the fine, brave, noble-
+hearted boy he laid in it thirty years before,--the sweet, cheerful
+child who had made his home all sunshine until the day when he was
+brought into it, his long curls dripping, his fresh lips purpled in
+death,--foolish dear little blessed creature to throw himself into
+the deep water to save the drowning boy, who clung about him and
+carried him under!  Disguised selfishness!  And his granddaughter
+too, whose disguised selfishness was the light of his household!
+
+"Don't call it my view!" he said.  "Abstractly, perhaps, all natures
+may be considered vitiated; but practically, as I see it in life, the
+divine grace keeps pace with the perverted instincts from infancy in
+many natures.  Besides, this perversion itself may often be disease,
+bad habits transmitted, like drunkenness, or some hereditary
+misfortune, as with this Elsie we were talking about."
+
+The younger minister was completely mystified. At every step he made
+towards the Doctor's recognized theological position, the Doctor took
+just one step towards his.  They would cross each other soon at this
+rate, and might as well exchange pulpits,--as Colonel Sprowle once
+wished they would, it may be remembered.
+
+The Doctor, though a much clearer-headed man, was almost equally
+puzzled.  He turned the conversation again upon Elsie, and endeavored
+to make her minister feel the importance of bringing every friendly
+influence to bear upon her at this critical period of her life.  His
+sympathies did not seem so lively as the Doctor could have wished.
+Perhaps he had vastly more important objects of solicitude in his own
+spiritual interests.
+
+A knock at the door interrupted them.  The Reverend Mr. Fairweather
+rose and went towards it.  As he passed the table, his coat caught
+something, which came rattling to the floor.  It was a crucifix with
+a string of beads attached.  As he opened the door, the Milesian
+features of Father McShane presented themselves, and from their
+centre proceeded the clerical benediction in Irish-sounding Latin,
+Pax vobiscum!
+
+The Reverend Doctor Honeywood rose and left the priest and his
+disciple together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE SPIDER ON HIS THREAD.
+
+There was nobody, then, to counsel poor Elsie, except her father, who
+had learned to let her have her own way so as not to disturb such
+relations as they had together, and the old black woman, who had a
+real, though limited influence over the girl.  Perhaps she did not
+need counsel.  To look upon her, one might well suppose that she was
+competent to defend herself against any enemy she was like to have.
+That glittering, piercing eye was not to be softened by a few smooth
+words spoken in low tones, charged with the common sentiments which
+win their way to maidens' hearts.  That round, lithe, sinuous figure
+was as full of dangerous life as ever lay under the slender flanks
+and clean-shaped limbs of a panther.
+
+There were particular times when Elsie was in such a mood that it
+must have been a bold person who would have intruded upon her with
+reproof or counsel.  "This is one of her days," old Sophy would say
+quietly to her father, and he would, as far as possible, leave her to
+herself.  These days were more frequent, as old Sophy's keen,
+concentrated watchfulness had taught her, at certain periods of the
+year.  It was in the heats of summer that they were most common and
+most strongly characterized.  In winter, on the other hand, she was
+less excitable, and even at times heavy and as if chilled and dulled
+in her sensibilities.  It was a strange, paroxysmal kind of life that
+belonged to her.  It seemed to come and go with the sunlight.  All
+winter long she would be comparatively quiet, easy to manage,
+listless, slow in her motions; her eye would lose something of its
+strange lustre; and the old nurse would feel so little anxiety, that
+her whole expression and aspect would show the change, and people
+would say to her, "Why, Sophy, how young you're looking!"
+
+As the spring came on, Elsie would leave the fireside, have her
+tiger-skin spread in the empty southern chamber next the wall, and
+lie there basking for whole hours in the sunshine.  As the season
+warmed, the light would kindle afresh in her eyes, and the old
+woman's sleep would grow restless again,--for she knew, that, so long
+as the glitter was fierce in the girl's eyes, there was no trusting
+her impulses or movements.
+
+At last, when the veins of the summer were hot and swollen, and the
+juices of all the poison-plants and the blood of all the creatures
+that feed upon them had grown thick and strong,--about the time when
+the second mowing was in hand, and the brown, wet-faced men were
+following up the scythes as they chased the falling waves of grass,
+(falling as the waves fall on sickle-curved beaches; the foam-flowers
+dropping as the grass-flowers drop,--with sharp semivowel consonantal
+sounds,--frsh,--for that is the way the sea talks, and leaves all
+pure vowel-sounds for the winds to breathe over it, and all mutes to
+the unyielding earth,)--about this time of over-ripe midsummer, the
+life of Elsie seemed fullest of its malign and restless instincts.
+This was the period of the year when the Rockland people were most
+cautious of wandering in the leafier coverts which skirted the base
+of The Mountain, and the farmers liked to wear thick, long boots,
+whenever they went into the bushes.  But Elsie was never so much
+given to roaming over The Mountain as at this season; and as she had
+grown more absolute and uncontrollable, she was as like to take the
+night as the day for her rambles.
+
+At this season, too, all her peculiar tastes in dress and ornament
+came out in a more striking way than at other times.  She was never
+so superb as then, and never so threatening in her scowling beauty.
+The barred skirts she always fancied showed sharply beneath her
+diaphanous muslins; the diamonds often glittered on her breast as if
+for her own pleasure rather than to dazzle others; the asp-like
+bracelet hardly left her arm.  She was never seen without some
+necklace,--either the golden cord she wore at the great party, or a
+chain of mosaics, or simply a ring of golden scales.  Some said that
+Elsie always slept in a necklace, and that when she died she was to
+be buried in one.  It was a fancy of hers,--but many thought there
+was a reason for it.
+
+Nobody watched Elsie with a more searching eye than her cousin, Dick
+Venner.  He had kept more out of her way of late, it is true, but
+there was not a movement she made which he did not carefully observe
+just so far as he could without exciting her suspicion.  It was plain
+enough to him that the road to fortune was before him, and that the
+first thing was to marry Elsie.  What course he should take with her,
+or with others interested, after marrying her, need not be decided in
+a hurry.
+
+He had now done all he could expect to do at present in the way of
+conciliating the other members of the household.  The girl's father
+tolerated him, if he did not even like him.  Whether he suspected his
+project or not Dick did not feel sure; but it was something to have
+got a foothold in the house, and to have overcome any prepossession
+against him which his uncle might have entertained.  To be a good
+listener and a bad billiard-player was not a very great sacrifice to
+effect this object.  Then old Sophy could hardly help feeling
+well-disposed towards him, after the gifts he had bestowed on her and
+the court he had paid her.  These were the only persons on the place
+of much importance to gain over.  The people employed about the house
+and farm-lands had little to do with Elsie, except to obey her
+without questioning her commands.
+
+Mr. Richard began to think of reopening his second parallel.  But he
+had lost something of the coolness with which he had begun his system
+of operations.  The more he had reflected upon the matter, the more
+he had convinced himself that this was his one great chance in life.
+If he suffered this girl to escape him, such an opportunity could
+hardly, in the nature of things, present itself a second time.  Only
+one life between Elsie and her fortune,--and lives are so uncertain!
+The girl might not suit him as a wife.  Possibly.  Time enough to
+find out after he had got her.  In short, he must have the property,
+and Elsie Venner, as she was to go with it,--and then, if he found it
+convenient and agreeable to, lead a virtuous life, he would settle
+down and raise children and vegetables; but if he found it
+inconvenient and disagreeable, so much the worse for those who made
+it so.  Like many other persons, he was not principled against
+virtue, provided virtue were a better investment than its opposite;
+but he knew that there might be contingencies in which the property
+would be better without its incumbrances, and he contemplated this
+conceivable problem in the light of all its possible solutions.
+
+One thing Mr. Richard could not conceal from himself: Elsie had some
+new cause of indifference, at least, if not of aversion to him.  With
+the acuteness which persons who make a sole business of their own
+interest gain by practice, so that fortune-hunters are often shrewd
+where real lovers are terribly simple, he fixed at once on the young
+man up at the school where the girl had been going of late, as
+probably at the bottom of it.
+
+"Cousin Elsie in love!"  so he communed with himself upon his lonely
+pillow.  "In love with a Yankee schoolmaster!  What else can it be?
+Let him look out for himself!  He'll stand but a bad chance between
+us.  What makes you think she's in love with him?  Met her walking
+with him.  Don't like her looks and ways;--she's thinking about
+something, anyhow.  Where does she get those books she is reading so
+often?  Not out of our library, that 's certain.  If I could have ten
+minutes' peep into her chamber now, I would find out where she got
+them, and what mischief she was up to."
+
+At that instant, as if some tributary demon had heard his wish, a
+shape which could be none but Elsie's flitted through a gleam of
+moonlight into the shadow of the trees.  She was setting out on one
+of her midnight rambles.
+
+Dick felt his heart stir in its place, and presently his cheeks
+flushed with the old longing for an adventure.  It was not much to
+invade a young girl's deserted chamber, but it would amuse a wakeful
+hour, and tell him some little matters he wanted to know.  The
+chamber he slept in was over the room which Elsie chiefly occupied at
+this season.  There was no great risk of his being seen or heard, if
+he ventured down-stairs to her apartment.
+
+Mr. Richard Venner, in the pursuit of his interesting project, arose
+and lighted a lamp.  He wrapped himself in a dressing-gown and thrust
+his feet into a pair of cloth slippers.  He stole carefully down the
+stair, and arrived safely at the door of Elsie's room.
+
+The young lady had taken the natural precaution to leave it fastened,
+carrying the key with her, no doubt,--unless; indeed, she had got out
+by the window, which was not far from the ground.  Dick could get in
+at this window easily enough, but he did not like the idea of leaving
+his footprints in the flower-bed just under it.  He returned to his
+own chamber, and held a council of war with himself.
+
+He put his head out of his own window and looked at that beneath.  It
+was open.  He then went to one of his trunks, which he unlocked, and
+began carefully removing its contents.  What these were we need not
+stop to mention,--only remarking that there were dresses of various
+patterns, which might afford an agreeable series of changes, and in
+certain contingencies prove eminently useful.  After removing a few
+of these, he thrust his hand to the very bottom of the remaining pile
+and drew out a coiled strip of leather many yards in length, ending
+in a noose,--a tough, well-seasoned lasso, looking as if it had seen
+service and was none the worse for it.  He uncoiled a few yards of
+this and fastened it to the knob of a door.  Then he threw the loose
+end out of the window so that it should hang by the open casement of
+Elsie's room.  By this he let himself down opposite her window, and
+with a slight effort swung himself inside the room.  He lighted a
+match, found a candle, and, having lighted that, looked curiously
+about him, as Clodius might have done when he smuggled himself in
+among the Vestals.
+
+Elsie's room was almost as peculiar as her dress and ornaments.  It
+was a kind of museum of objects, such as the woods are full of to
+those who have eyes to see them, but many of them such as only few
+could hope to reach, even if they knew where to look for them.
+Crows' nests, which are never found but in the tall trees, commonly
+enough in the forks of ancient hemlocks, eggs of rare birds, which
+must have taken a quick eye and a hard climb to find and get hold of,
+mosses and ferns of unusual aspect, and quaint monstrosities of
+vegetable growth, such as Nature delights in, showed that Elsie had
+her tastes and fancies like any naturalist or poet.
+
+Nature, when left to her own freaks in the forest, is grotesque and
+fanciful to the verge of license, and beyond it.  The foliage of
+trees does not always require clipping to make it look like an image
+of life.  From those windows at Canoe Meadow, among the mountains, we
+could see all summer long a lion rampant, a Shanghai chicken, and
+General Jackson on horseback, done by Nature in green leaves, each
+with a single tree.  But to Nature's tricks with boughs and roots and
+smaller vegetable growths there is no end.  Her fancy is infinite,
+and her humor not always refined.  There is a perpetual reminiscence
+of animal life in her rude caricatures, which sometimes actually
+reach the point of imitating the complete human figure, as in that
+extraordinary specimen which nobody will believe to be genuine,
+except the men of science, and of which the discreet reader may have
+a glimpse by application in the proper quarter.
+
+Elsie had gathered so many of these sculpture-like monstrosities,
+that one might have thought she had robbed old Sophy's grandfather of
+his fetishes.  They helped to give her room a kind of enchanted look,
+as if a witch had her home in it.  Over the fireplace was a long,
+staff-like branch, strangled in the spiral coils of one of those
+vines which strain the smaller trees in their clinging embraces,
+sinking into the bark until the parasite becomes almost identified
+with its support.  With these sylvan curiosities were blended objects
+of art, some of them not less singular, but others showing a love for
+the beautiful in form and color, such as a girl of fine organization
+and nice culture might naturally be expected to feel and to indulge,
+in adorning her apartment.
+
+All these objects, pictures, bronzes, vases, and the rest, did not
+detain Mr. Richard Veneer very long, whatever may have been his
+sensibilities to art.  He was more curious about books and papers.  A
+copy of Keats lay on the table.  He opened it and read the name of
+Bernard C. Langdon on the blank leaf.  An envelope was on the table
+with Elsie's name written in a similar hand; but the envelope was
+empty, and he could not find the note it contained.  Her desk was
+locked, and it would not be safe to tamper with it.  He had seen
+enough; the girl received books and notes from this fellow up at the
+school, this usher, this Yankee quill-driver;--he was aspiring to
+become the lord of the Dudley domain, then, was he?
+
+Elsie had been reasonably careful.  She had locked up her papers,
+whatever they might be.  There was little else that promised to
+reward his curiosity, but he cast his eye on everything.  There was a
+clasp-Bible among her books.  Dick wondered if she ever unclasped it.
+There was a book of hymns; it had her name in it, and looked as if it
+might have been often read;--what the diablo had Elsie to do with
+hymns?
+
+Mr. Richard Venner was in an observing and analytical state of mind,
+it will be noticed, or he might perhaps have been touched with the
+innocent betrayals of the poor girl's chamber.  Had she, after all,
+some human tenderness in her heart?  That was not the way he put the
+question,--but whether she would take seriously to this schoolmaster,
+and if she did, what would be the neatest and surest and quickest way
+of putting a stop to all that nonsense.  All this, however, he could
+think over more safely in his own quarters.  So he stole softly to
+the window, and, catching the end of the leathern thong, regained his
+own chamber and drew in the lasso.
+
+It needs only a little jealousy to set a man on who is doubtful in
+love or wooing, or to make him take hold of his courting in earnest.
+As soon as Dick had satisfied himself that the young schoolmaster was
+his rival in Elsie's good graces, his whole thoughts concentrated
+themselves more than ever on accomplishing his great design of
+securing her for himself.  There was no time to be lost.  He must
+come into closer relations with her, so as to withdraw her thoughts
+from this fellow, and to find out more exactly what was the state of
+her affections, if she had any.  So he began to court her company
+again, to propose riding with her, to sing to her, to join her
+whenever she was strolling about the grounds, to make himself
+agreeable, according to the ordinary understanding of that phrase, in
+every way which seemed to promise a chance for succeeding in that
+amiable effort.
+
+The girl treated him more capriciously than ever.  She would be
+sullen and silent, or she would draw back fiercely at some harmless
+word or gesture, or she would look at him with her eyes narrowed in
+such a strange way and with such a wicked light in them that Dick
+swore to himself they were too much for him, and would leave her for
+the moment.  Yet she tolerated him, almost as a matter of necessity,
+and sometimes seemed to take a kind of pleasure in trying her power
+upon him.  This he soon found out, and humored her in the fancy that
+she could exercise a kind of fascination over him, though there were
+times in which he actually felt an influence he could not understand,
+an effect of some peculiar expression about her, perhaps, but still
+centring in those diamond eyes of hers which it made one feel so
+curiously to look into.
+
+Whether Elsie saw into his object or not was more than he could tell.
+His idea was, after having conciliated the good-will of all about her
+as far as possible, to make himself first a habit and then a
+necessity with the girl,--not to spring any trap of a declaration
+upon her until tolerance had grown into such a degree of inclination
+as her nature was like to admit.  He had succeeded in the first part
+of his plan.  He was at liberty to prolong his visit at his own
+pleasure.  This was not strange; these three persons, Dudley Venner,
+his daughter, and his nephew, represented all that remained of an old
+and honorable family.  Had Elsie been like other girls, her father
+might have been less willing to entertain a young fellow like Dick as
+an inmate; but he had long outgrown all the slighter apprehensions
+which he might have had in common with all parents, and followed
+rather than led the imperious instincts of his daughter.  It was not
+a question of sentiment, but of life and death, or more than that,--
+some dark ending, perhaps, which would close the history of his race
+with disaster and evil report upon the lips of all coming
+generations.
+
+As to the thought of his nephew's making love to his daughter, it had
+almost passed from his mind.  He had been so long in the habit of
+looking at Elsie as outside of all common influences and exceptional
+in the law of her nature, that it was difficult for him to think of
+her as a girl to be fallen in love with.  Many persons are surprised,
+when others court their female relatives; they know them as good
+young or old women enough,--aunts, sisters, nieces, daughters,
+whatever they may be,--but never think of anybody's falling in love
+with them, any more than of their being struck by lightning.  But in
+this case there were special reasons, in addition to the common
+family delusion,--reasons which seemed to make it impossible that she
+should attract a suitor.  Who would dare to marry Elsie?  No, let her
+have the pleasure, if it was one, at any rate the wholesome
+excitement, of companionship; it might save her from lapsing into
+melancholy or a worse form of madness.  Dudley Venner had a kind of
+superstition, too, that, if Elsie could only outlive three
+septenaries, twenty-one years, so that, according to the prevalent
+idea, her whole frame would have been thrice made over, counting from
+her birth, she would revert to the natural standard of health of mind
+and feelings from which she had been so long perverted.  The thought
+of any other motive than love being sufficient to induce Richard to
+become her suitor had not occurred to him.  He had married early, at
+that happy period when interested motives are least apt to influence
+the choice; and his single idea of marriage was, that it was the
+union of persons naturally drawn towards each other by some mutual
+attraction.  Very simple, perhaps; but he had lived lonely for many
+years since his wife's death, and judged the hearts of others, most
+of all of his brother's son, by his own.  He had often thought
+whether, in case of Elsie's dying or being necessarily doomed to
+seclusion, he might not adopt this nephew and make him his heir; but
+it had not occurred to him that Richard might wish to become his son-
+in-law for the sake of his property.
+
+It is very easy to criticise other people's modes of dealing with
+their children.  Outside observers see results; parents see
+processes.  They notice the trivial movements and accents which
+betray the blood of this or that ancestor; they can detect the
+irrepressible movement of hereditary impulse in looks and acts which
+mean nothing to the common observer.  To be a parent is almost to be
+a fatalist.  This boy sits with legs crossed, just as his uncle used
+to whom he never saw; his grandfathers both died before he was born,
+but he has the movement of the eyebrows which we remember in one of
+them, and the gusty temper of three different generations, can tell
+pretty nearly the range of possibilities and the limitations of a
+child, actual or potential, of a given stock,--errors excepted
+always, because children of the same stock are not bred just alike,
+because the traits of some less known ancestor are liable to break
+out at any time, and because each human being has, after all, a small
+fraction of individuality about him which gives him a flavor, so that
+he is distinguishable from others by his friends or in a court of
+justice, and which occasionally makes a genius or a saint or a
+criminal of him.  It is well that young persons cannot read these
+fatal oracles of Nature.  Blind impulse is her highest wisdom, after
+all.  We make our great jump, and then she takes the bandage off our
+eyes.  That is the way the broad sea-level of average is maintained,
+and the physiological democracy is enabled to fight against the
+principle of selection which would disinherit all the weaker
+children.  The magnificent constituency of mediocrities of which the
+world is made up,--the people without biographies, whose lives have
+made a clear solution in the fluid menstruum of time, instead of
+being precipitated in the opaque sediment of history
+
+But this is a narrative, and not a disquisition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+FROM WITHOUT AND FROM WITHIN.
+
+There were not wanting people who accused Dudley VENNER of weakness
+and bad judgment in his treatment of his daughter.  Some were of
+opinion that the great mistake was in not "breaking her will" when
+she was a little child.  There was nothing the matter with her, they
+said, but that she had been spoiled by indulgence.  If they had had
+the charge of her, they'd have brought her down.  She'd got the
+upperhand of her father now; but if he'd only taken hold of her in
+season!  There are people who think that everything may be done, if
+the doer, be he educator or physician, be only called "in season."
+No doubt,--but in season would often be a hundred or two years before
+the child was born; and people never send so early as that.
+
+The father of Elsie Veneer knew his duties and his difficulties too
+well to trouble himself about anything others might think or say.  So
+soon as he found that he could not govern his child, he gave his life
+up to following her and protecting her as far as he could.  It was a
+stern and terrible trial for a man of acute sensibility, and not
+without force of intellect and will, and the manly ambition for
+himself and his family-name which belonged to his endowments and his
+position.  Passive endurance is the hardest trial to persons of such
+a nature.
+
+What made it still more a long martyrdom was the necessity for
+bearing his cross in utter loneliness.  He could not tell his griefs.
+He could not talk of them even with those who knew their secret
+spring.  His minister had the unsympathetic nature which is common in
+the meaner sort of devotees,--persons who mistake spiritual
+selfishness for sanctity, and grab at the infinite prize of the great
+Future and Elsewhere with the egotism they excommunicate in its
+hardly more odious forms of avarice and self-indulgence.  How could
+he speak with the old physician and the old black woman about a
+sorrow and a terror which but to name was to strike dumb the lips of
+Consolation?
+
+In the dawn of his manhood he had found that second consciousness for
+which young men and young women go about looking into each other's
+faces, with their sweet, artless aim playing in every feature, and
+making them beautiful to each other, as to all of us.  He had found
+his other self early, before he had grown weary in the search and
+wasted his freshness in vain longings: the lot of many, perhaps we
+may say of most, who infringe the patent of our social order by
+intruding themselves into a life already upon half allowance of the
+necessary luxuries of existence.  The life he had led for a brief
+space was not only beautiful in outward circumstance, as old Sophy
+had described it to the Reverend Doctor.  It was that delicious
+process of the tuning of two souls to each other, string by string,
+not without little half-pleasing discords now and then when some
+chord in one or the other proves to be overstrained or over-lax, but
+always approaching nearer and nearer to harmony, until they become at
+last as two instruments with a single voice.  Something more than a
+year of this blissful doubled consciousness had passed over him when
+he found himself once more alone,--alone, save for the little
+diamond-eyed child lying in the old black woman's arms, with the
+coral necklace round--her throat and the rattle in her hand.
+
+He would not die by his own act.  It was not the way in his family.
+There may have been other, perhaps better reasons, but this was
+enough; he did not come of suicidal stock.  He must live for this
+child's sake, at any rate; and yet,--oh, yet, who could tell with
+what thoughts he looked upon her?  Sometimes her little features
+would look placid, and something like a smile would steal over them;
+then all his tender feelings would rush up, into his eyes, and he
+would put his arms out to take her from the old woman,--but all at
+once her eyes would narrow and she would throw her head back, and a
+shudder would seize him as he stooped over his child,--he could not
+look upon her,--he could not touch his lips to her cheek; nay, there
+would sometimes come into his soul such frightful suggestions that he
+would hurry from the room lest the hinted thought should become a
+momentary madness and he should lift his hand against the hapless
+infant which owed him life.
+
+In those miserable days he used to wander all over The Mountain in
+his restless endeavor to seek some relief for inward suffering in
+outward action.  He had no thought of throwing himself from the
+summit of any of the broken cliffs, but he clambered over them
+recklessly, as having no particular care for his life.  Sometimes he
+would go into the accursed district where the venomous reptiles were
+always to be dreaded, and court their worst haunts, and kill all he
+could come near with a kind of blind fury which was strange in a
+person of his gentle nature.
+
+One overhanging cliff was a favorite haunt of his.  It frowned upon
+his home beneath in a very menacing way; he noticed slight seams and
+fissures that looked ominous;--what would happen, if it broke off
+some time or other and came crashing down on the fields and roofs
+below?  He thought of such a possible catastrophe with a singular
+indifference, in fact with a feeling almost like pleasure.  It would
+be such a swift and thorough solution of this great problem of life
+he was working out in ever-recurring daily anguish!  The remote
+possibility of such a catastrophe had frightened some timid dwellers
+beneath The Mountain to other places of residence; here the danger
+was most imminent, and yet he loved to dwell upon the chances of its
+occurrence.  Danger is often the best counterirritant in cases of
+mental suffering; he found a solace in careless exposure of his life,
+and learned to endure the trials of each day better by dwelling in
+imagination on the possibility that it might be the last for him and
+the home that was his.
+
+Time, the great consoler, helped these influences, and he gradually
+fell into more easy and less dangerous habits of life.  He ceased
+from his more perilous rambles.  He thought less of the danger from
+the great overhanging rocks and forests; they had hung there for
+centuries; it was not very likely they would crash or slide in his
+time.  He became accustomed to all Elsie's strange looks and ways.
+Old Sophy dressed her with ruffles round her neck, and hunted up the
+red coral branch with silver bells which the little toothless Dudleys
+had bitten upon for a hundred years.  By an infinite effort, her
+father forced himself to become the companion of this child, for whom
+he had such a mingled feeling, but whose presence was always a trial
+to him, and often a terror.
+
+At a cost which no human being could estimate, he had done his duty,
+and in some degree reaped his reward.  Elsie grew up with a kind of
+filial feeling for him, such as her nature was capable of.  She never
+would obey him; that was not to be looked for.  Commands, threats,
+punishments, were out of the question with her; the mere physical
+effects of crossing her will betrayed themselves in such changes of
+expression and manner that it would have been senseless to attempt to
+govern her in any such way.  Leaving her mainly to herself, she could
+be to some extent indirectly influenced,--not otherwise.  She called
+her father "Dudley," as if he had been her brother.  She ordered
+everybody and would be ordered by none.
+
+Who could know all these things, except the few people of the
+household?  What wonder, therefore, that ignorant and shallow persons
+laid the blame on her father of those peculiarities which were freely
+talked about,--of those darker tendencies which were hinted of in
+whispers?  To all this talk, so far as it reached him, he was
+supremely indifferent, not only with the indifference which all
+gentlemen feel to the gossip of their inferiors, but with a
+charitable calmness which did not wonder or blame.  He knew that his
+position was not simply a difficult, but an impossible one, and
+schooled himself to bear his destiny as well as he might, and report
+himself only at Headquarters.
+
+He had grown gentle under this discipline.  His hair was just
+beginning to be touched with silver, and his expression was that of
+habitual sadness and anxiety.  He had no counsellor, as we have seen,
+to turn to, who did not know either too much or too little.  He had
+no heart to rest upon and into which he might unburden himself of the
+secrets and the sorrows that were aching in his own breast.  Yet he
+had not allowed himself to run to waste in the long time since he was
+left alone to his trials and fears.  He had resisted the seductions
+which always beset solitary men with restless brains overwrought by
+depressing agencies.  He disguised no misery to himself with the
+lying delusion of wine.  He sought no sleep from narcotics, though he
+lay with throbbing, wide-open eyes through all the weary hours of the
+night.
+
+It was understood between Dudley Veneer and old Doctor Kittredge that
+Elsie was a subject of occasional medical observation, on account of
+certain mental peculiarities which might end in a permanent affection
+of her reason.  Beyond this nothing was said, whatever may have been
+in the mind of either.  But Dudley Veneer had studied Elsie's case in
+the light of all the books he could find which might do anything
+towards explaining it.  As in all cases where men meddle with medical
+science for a special purpose, having no previous acquaintance with
+it, his imagination found what it wanted in the books he read, and
+adjusted it to the facts before him.  So it was he came to cherish
+those two fancies before alluded to that the ominous birthmark she
+had carried from infancy might fade and become obliterated, and that
+the age of complete maturity might be signalized by an entire change
+in her physical and mental state.  He held these vague hopes as all
+of us nurse our only half-believed illusions.  Not for the world
+would he have questioned his sagacious old medical friend as to the
+probability or possibility of their being true.  We are very shy of
+asking questions of those who know enough to destroy with one word
+the hopes we live on.
+
+In this life of comparative seclusion to which the father had doomed
+himself for the sake of his child, he had found time for large and
+varied reading.  The learned Judge Thornton confessed himself
+surprised at the extent of Dudley Veneer's information.  Doctor
+Kittredge found that he was in advance of him in the knowledge of
+recent physiological discoveries.  He had taken pains to become
+acquainted with agricultural chemistry; and the neighboring farmers
+owed him some useful hints about the management of their land.  He
+renewed his old acquaintance with the classic authors.  He loved to
+warm his pulses with Homer and calm them down with Horace.  He
+received all manner of new books and periodicals, and gradually
+gained an interest in the events of the passing time.  Yet he
+remained almost a hermit, not absolutely refusing to see his
+neighbors, nor even churlish towards them, but on the other hand not
+cultivating any intimate relations with them.
+
+He had retired from the world a young man, little more than a youth,
+indeed, with sentiments and aspirations all of them suddenly
+extinguished.  The first had bequeathed him a single huge sorrow, the
+second a single trying duty.  In due time the anguish had lost
+something of its poignancy, the light of earlier and happier memories
+had begun to struggle with and to soften its thick darkness, and even
+that duty which he had confronted with such an effort had become an
+endurable habit.
+
+At a period of life when many have been living on the capital of
+their acquired knowledge and their youthful stock of sensibilities
+until their intellects are really shallower and their hearts emptier
+than they were at twenty, Dudley Veneer was stronger in thought and
+tenderer in soul than in the first freshness of his youth, when he
+counted but half his present years.  He had entered that period which
+marks the decline of men who have ceased growing in knowledge and
+strength: from forty to fifty a man must move upward, or the natural
+falling off in the vigor of life will carry him rapidly downward.  At
+this time his inward: nature was richer and deeper than in any
+earlier period of his life.  If he could only be summoned to action,
+he was capable of noble service.  If his sympathies could only find
+an outlet, he was never so capable of love as now; for his natural
+affections had been gathering in the course of all these years, and
+the traces of that ineffaceable calamity of his life were softened
+and partially hidden by new growths of thought and feeling, as the
+wreck left by a mountainslide is covered over by the gentle intrusion
+of the soft-stemmed herbs which will prepare it for the stronger
+vegetation that will bring it once more into harmony with the
+peaceful slopes around it.
+
+Perhaps Dudley Veneer had not gained so much in worldly wisdom as if
+he had been more in society and less in his study.  The indulgence
+with which he treated his nephew was, no doubt, imprudent.  A man
+more in the habit of dealing with men would have been more guarded
+with a person with Dick's questionable story and unquestionable
+physiognomy.  But he was singularly unsuspicious, and his natural
+kindness was an additional motive to the wish for introducing some
+variety into the routine of Elsie's life.
+
+If Dudley Veneer did not know just what he wanted at this period of
+his life, there were a great many people in the town of Rockland who
+thought they did know.  He had been a widower long enough, "--nigh
+twenty year, wa'n't it?  He'd been aout to Spraowles's party,--there
+wa'n't anything to hender him why he shouldn't stir raound l'k other
+folks.  What was the reason he did n't go abaout to taown-meetin's
+'n' Sahbath-meetin's, 'n' lyceums, 'n' school 'xaminations, 'n'
+s'prise-parties, 'n' funerals,--and other entertainments where the
+still-faced two-story folks were in the habit of looking round to see
+if any of the mansion-house gentry were present?---Fac' was, he was
+livin' too lonesome daown there at the mansion-haouse.  Why shouldn't
+he make up to the Jedge's daughter?  She was genteel enough for him,
+and--let's see, haow old was she?  Seven-'n'itwenty,--no, six-'n'-
+twenty,--born the same year we buried our little Anny Marl".
+
+There was no possible objection to this arrangement, if the parties
+interested had seen fit to make it or even to think of it.  But
+"Portia," as some of the mansion-house people called her, did not
+happen to awaken the elective affinities of the lonely widower.  He
+met her once in a while, and said to himself that she was a good
+specimen of the grand style of woman; and then the image came back to
+him of a woman not quite so large, not quite so imperial in her port,
+not quite so incisive in her speech, not quite so judicial in her
+opinions, but with two or three more joints in her frame, and two or
+three soft inflections in her voice, which for some absurd reason or
+other drew him to her side and so bewitched him that he told her half
+his secrets and looked into her eyes all that he could not tell, in
+less time than it would have takes him to discuss the champion paper
+of the last Quarterly with the admirable "Portia."  Heu, quanto
+minus!  How much more was that lost image to him than all it left on
+earth!
+
+The study of love is very much like that of meteorology.  We know
+that just about so much rain will fall in a season; but on what
+particular day it will shower is more than we can tell.  We know that
+just about so much love will be made every year in a given
+population; but who will rain his young affections upon the heart of
+whom is not known except to the astrologers and fortune-tellers.  And
+why rain falls as it does and why love is made just as it is are
+equally puzzling questions.
+
+The woman a man loves is always his own daughter, far more his
+daughter than the female children born to him by the common law of
+life.  It is not the outside woman, who takes his name, that he
+loves: before her image has reached the centre of his consciousness,
+it has passed through fifty many-layered nerve-strainers, been
+churned over by ten thousand pulse-beats, and reacted upon by
+millions of lateral impulses which bandy it about through the mental
+spaces as a reflection is sent back and forward in a saloon lined
+with mirrors.  With this altered image of the woman before him, his
+preexisting ideal becomes blended.  The object of his love is in part
+the offspring of her legal parents, but more of her lover's brain.
+The difference between the real and the ideal objects of love must
+not exceed a fixed maximum.  The heart's vision cannot unite them
+stereoscopically into a single image, if the divergence passes
+certain limits.  A formidable analogy, much in the nature of a proof,
+with very serious consequences, which moralists and match-makers
+would do well to remember!  Double vision with the eyes of the heart
+is a dangerous physiological state, and may lead to missteps and
+serious falls.
+
+Whether Dudley Veneer would ever find a breathing image near enough
+to his ideal one, to fill the desolate chamber of his heart, or not,
+was very doubtful.  Some gracious and gentle woman, whose influence
+would steal upon him as the first low words of prayer after that
+interval of silent mental supplication known to one of our simpler
+forms of public worship, gliding into his consciousness without
+hurting its old griefs, herself knowing the chastening of sorrow, and
+subdued into sweet acquiescence with the Divine will,--some such
+woman as this, if Heaven should send him such, might call him back to
+the world of happiness, from which he seemed forever exiled.  He
+could never again be the young lover who walked through the garden-
+alleys all red with roses in the old dead and buried June of long
+ago.  He could never forget the bride of his youth, whose image,
+growing phantomlike with the lapse of years, hovered over him like a
+dream while waking and like a reality in dreams.  But if it might be
+in God's good providence that this desolate life should come under
+the influence of human affections once more, what an ecstasy of
+renewed existence was in store for him!  His life had not all been
+buried under that narrow ridge of turf with the white stone at its
+head.  It seemed so for a while; but it was not and could not and
+ought not to be so.  His first passion had been a true and pure one;
+there was no spot or stain upon it.  With all his grief there blended
+no cruel recollection of any word or look he would have wished to
+forget.  All those little differences, such as young married people
+with any individual flavor in their characters must have, if they are
+tolerably mated, had only added to the music of existence, as the
+lesser discords admitted into some perfect symphony, fitly resolved,
+add richness and strength to the whole harmonious movement.  It was a
+deep wound that Fate had inflicted on him; nay, it seemed like a
+mortal one; but the weapon was clean, and its edge was smooth.  Such
+wounds must heal with time in healthy natures, whatever a false
+sentiment may say, by the wise and beneficent law of our being.  The
+recollection of a deep and true affection is rather a divine
+nourishment for a life to grow strong upon than a poison to destroy
+it.
+
+Dudley Venner's habitual sadness could not be laid wholly to his
+early bereavement.  It was partly the result of the long struggle
+between natural affection and duty, on one side, and the involuntary
+tendencies these had to overcome, on the other,--between hope and
+fear, so long in conflict that despair itself would have been like an
+anodyne, and he would have slept upon some final catastrophe with the
+heavy sleep of a bankrupt after his failure is proclaimed.  Alas!
+some new affection might perhaps rekindle the fires of youth in his
+heart; but what power could calm that haggard terror of the parent
+which rose with every morning's sun and watched with every evening
+star,--what power save alone that of him who comes bearing the
+inverted torch, and leaving after him only the ashes printed with his
+footsteps?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE WIDOW ROWENS GIVES A TEA-PARTY.
+
+There was a good deal of interest felt, as has been said, in the
+lonely condition of Dudley Venner in that fine mansion-house of his,
+and with that strange daughter, who would never be married, as many
+people thought, in spite of all the stories.  The feelings expressed
+by the good folks who dated from the time when they "buried aour
+little Anny Mari'," and others of that homespun stripe, were founded
+in reason, after all.  And so it was natural enough that they should
+be shared by various ladies, who, having conjugated the verb to live
+as far as the preterpluperfect tense, were ready to change one of its
+vowels and begin with it in the present indicative.  Unfortunately,
+there was very little chance of showing sympathy in its active form
+for a gentleman who kept himself so much out of the way as the master
+of the Dudley Mansion.
+
+Various attempts had been made, from time to time, of late years, to
+get him out of his study, which had, for the most part, proved
+failures.  It was a surprise, therefore, when he was seen at the
+Great Party at the Colonel's.  But it was an encouragement to try him
+again, and the consequence had been that he had received a number of
+notes inviting him to various smaller entertainments, which, as
+neither he nor Elsie had any fancy for them, he had politely
+declined.
+
+Such was the state of things when he received an invitation to take
+tea sociably, with a few friends, at Hyacinth Cottage, the residence
+of the Widow Rowens, relict of the late Beeri Rowens, Esquire, better
+known as Major Rowens.  Major Rowens was at the time of his decease a
+promising officer in the militia, in the direct line of promotion, as
+his waistband was getting tighter every year; and, as all the world
+knows, the militia-officer who splits off most buttons and fills the
+largest sword-belt stands the best chance of rising, or, perhaps we
+might say, spreading, to be General.
+
+Major Rowens united in his person certain other traits which help a
+man to eminence in the branch of public service referred to.  He ran
+to high colors, to wide whiskers, to open pores; he had the saddle-
+leather skin common in Englishmen, rarer in Americans,--never found
+in the Brahmin caste, oftener in the military and the commodores:
+observing people know what is meant; blow the seed-arrows from the
+white-kid-looking button which holds them on a dandelion-stalk, and
+the pricked-pincushion surface shows you what to look for.  He had
+the loud gruff voice which implies the right to command.  He had the
+thick hand, stubbed fingers, with bristled pads between their joints,
+square, broad thumb-nails, and sturdy limbs, which mark a
+constitution made to use in rough out-door work.  He had the never-
+failing predilection for showy switch-tailed horses that step high,
+and sidle about, and act as if they were going to do something
+fearful the next minute, in the face of awed and admiring multitudes
+gathered at mighty musters or imposing cattle-shows.  He had no
+objection, either, to holding the reins in a wagon behind another
+kind of horse,--a slouching, listless beast, with a strong slant to
+his shoulder; and a notable depth to his quarter and an emphatic
+angle at the hock, who commonly walked or lounged along in a lazy
+trot of five or six miles an hour; but, if a lively colt happened to
+come rattling up alongside, or a brandy-faced old horse-jockey took
+the road to show off a fast nag, and threw his dust into the Major's
+face, would pick his legs up all at once, and straighten his body
+out, and swing off into a three-minute gait, in a way that "Old Blue"
+himself need not have been ashamed of.
+
+For some reason which must be left to the next generation of
+professors to find out, the men who are knowing in horse-flesh have
+an eye also for, let a long dash separate the brute creation from the
+angelic being now to be named,--for lovely woman.  Of this fact there
+can be no possible doubt; and therefore you shall notice, that, if a
+fast horse trots before two, one of the twain is apt to be a pretty
+bit of muliebrity, with shapes to her, and eyes flying about in all
+directions.
+
+Major Rowens, at that time Lieutenant of the Rockland Fusileers, had
+driven and "traded" horses not a few before he turned his acquired
+skill as a judge of physical advantages in another direction.  He
+knew a neat, snug hoof, a delicate pastern, a broad haunch, a deep
+chest, a close ribbed-up barrel, as well as any other man in the
+town.  He was not to be taken in by your thick-jointed, heavy-headed
+cattle, without any go to them, that suit a country-parson, nor yet
+by the "gaanted-up," long-legged animals, with all their
+constitutions bred out of them, such as rich greenhorns buy and cover
+up with their plated trappings.
+
+Whether his equine experience was of any use to him in the selection
+of the mate with whom he was to go in double harness so long as they
+both should live, we need not stop to question.  At any rate, nobody
+could find fault with the points of Miss Marilla Van Deusen, to whom
+he offered the privilege of becoming Mrs. Rowens.  The Van must have
+been crossed out of her blood, for she was an out-and-out brunette,
+with hair and eyes black enough for a Mohawk's daughter.  A fine
+style of woman, with very striking tints and outlines,--an excellent
+match for the Lieutenant, except for one thing.  She was marked by
+Nature for a widow.  She was evidently got up for mourning, and never
+looked so well as in deep black, with jet ornaments.
+
+The man who should dare to marry her would doom himself; for how
+could she become the widow she was bound to be, unless he could
+retire and give her a chance?  The Lieutenant lived, however, as we
+have seen, to become Captain and then Major, with prospects of
+further advancement.  But Mrs. Rowens often said she should never
+look well in colors.  At last her destiny fulfilled itself, and the
+justice of Nature was vindicated.  Major Rowens got overheated
+galloping about the field on the day of the Great Muster, and had a
+rush of blood to the head, according to the common report,--at any
+rate, something which stopped him short in his career of expansion
+and promotion, and established Mrs. Rowens in her normal condition of
+widowhood.
+
+The Widow Rowens was now in the full bloom of ornamental sorrow.  A
+very shallow crape bonnet, frilled and froth-like, allowed the parted
+raven hair to show its glossy smoothness.  A jet pin heaved upon her
+bosom with every sigh of memory, or emotion of unknown origin.  Jet
+bracelets shone with every movement of her slender hands, cased in
+close-fitting black gloves.  Her sable dress was ridged with manifold
+flounces, from beneath which a small foot showed itself from time to
+time, clad in the same hue of mourning.  Everything about her was
+dark, except the whites of her eyes and the enamel of her teeth.  The
+effect was complete.  Gray's Elegy was not a more perfect
+composition.
+
+Much as the Widow was pleased with the costume belonging to her
+condition, she did not disguise from herself that under certain
+circumstances she might be willing to change her name again.  Thus,
+for instance, if a gentleman not too far gone in maturity, of
+dignified exterior, with an ample fortune, and of unexceptionable
+character, should happen to set his heart upon her, and the only way
+to make him happy was to give up her weeds and go into those
+unbecoming colors again for his sake,--why, she felt that it was in
+her nature to make the sacrifice.  By a singular coincidence it
+happened that a gentleman was now living in Rockland who united in
+himself all these advantages.  Who he was, the sagacious reader may
+very probably have divined.  Just to see how it looked, one day,
+having bolted her door, and drawn the curtains close, and glanced
+under the sofa, and listened at the keyhole to be sure there was
+nobody in the entry,--just to see how it looked, she had taken out an
+envelope and written on the back of it Mrs. Manilla Veneer.  It made
+her head swim and her knees tremble.  What if she should faint, or
+die, or have a stroke of palsy, and they should break into the room
+and find that name written!  How she caught it up and tore it into
+little shreds, and then could not be easy until she had burned the
+small heap of pieces
+
+But these are things which every honorable reader will consider
+imparted in strict confidence.
+
+The Widow Rowens, though not of the mansion house set, was among the
+most genteel of the two-story circle, and was in the habit of
+visiting some of the great people.  In one of these visits she met a
+dashing young fellow with an olive complexion at the house of a
+professional gentleman who had married one of the white necks and
+pairs of fat arms from a distinguished family before referred to.
+The professional gentleman himself was out, but the lady introduced
+the olive-complexioned young man as Mr. Richard Venner.
+
+The Widow was particularly pleased with this accidental meeting.  Had
+heard Mr. Venner's name frequently mentioned.  Hoped his uncle was
+well, and his charming cousin,--was she as original as ever?  Had
+often admired that charming creature he rode: we had had some fine
+horses.  Had never got over her taste for riding, but could find
+nobody that liked a good long gallop since--well--she could n't help
+wishing she was alongside of him, the other day, when she saw him
+dashing by, just at twilight.
+
+The Widow paused; lifted a flimsy handkerchief with a very deep black
+border so as to play the jet bracelet; pushed the tip of her slender
+foot beyond the lowest of her black flounces; looked up; looked down;
+looked at Mr. Richard, the very picture of artless simplicity,--as
+represented in well-played genteel comedy.
+
+"A good bit of stuff," Dick said to himself, "and something of it
+left yet; caramba!  "The Major had not studied points for nothing,
+and the Widow was one of the right sort.  The young man had been a
+little restless of late, and was willing to vary his routine by
+picking up an acquaintance here and there.  So he took the Widow's
+hint.  He should like to have a scamper of half a dozen miles with
+her some fine morning.
+
+The Widow was infinitely obliged; was not sure that she could find
+any horse in the village to suit her; but it was so kind in him!
+Would he not call at Hyacinth Cottage, and let her thank him again
+there?
+
+Thus began an acquaintance which the Widow made the most of, and on
+the strength of which she determined to give a tea-party and invite a
+number of persons of whom we know something already.  She took a
+half-sheet of note-paper and made out her list as carefully as a
+country "merchant's clerk" adds up two and threepence (New-England
+nomenclature) and twelve and a half cents, figure by figure, and
+fraction by fraction, before he can be sure they will make half a
+dollar, without cheating somebody.  After much consideration the list
+reduced itself to the following names: Mr. Richard Venner and Mrs.
+Blanche Creamer, the lady at whose house she had met him,--mansion-
+house breed,--but will come,--soft on Dick; Dudley Venner,--take care
+of him herself; Elsie,--Dick will see to her,--won't it fidget the
+Creamer woman to see him round her?  the old Doctor,--he 's always
+handy; and there's that young master there, up at the school,--know
+him well enough to ask him,--oh, yes, he'll come.  One, two, three,
+four, five, six,--seven; not room enough, without the leaf in the
+table; one place empty, if the leaf's in.  Let's see,--Helen Darley,
+--she 'll do well enough to fill it up,--why, yes, just the thing,--
+light brown hair, blue eyes,--won't my pattern show off well against
+her?  Put her down,--she 's worth her tea and toast ten times over,--
+nobody knows what a "thunder-and-lightning woman," as poor Major used
+to have it, is, till she gets alongside of one of those old-maidish
+girls, with hair the color of brown sugar, and eyes like the blue of
+a teacup.
+
+The Widow smiled with a feeling of triumph at having overcome her
+difficulties and arranged her party,--arose and stood before her
+glass, three-quarters front, one-quarter profile, so as to show the
+whites of the eyes and the down of the upper lip.  "Splendid!" said
+the Widow--and to tell the truth, she was not far out of the way, and
+with Helen Darley as a foil anybody would know she must be foudroyant
+and pyramidal,--if these French adjectives may be naturalized for
+this one particular exigency.
+
+So the Widow sent out her notes.  The black grief which had filled
+her heart and had overflowed in surges of crape around her person had
+left a deposit half an inch wide at the margin of her note-paper.
+Her seal was a small youth with an inverted torch, the same on which
+Mrs. Blanche Creamer made her spiteful remark, that she expected to
+see that boy of the Widow's standing on his head yet; meaning, as
+Dick supposed, that she would get the torch right-side up as soon as
+she had a chance.  That was after Dick had made the Widow's
+acquaintance, and Mrs. Creamer had got it into her foolish head that
+she would marry that young fellow, if she could catch him.  How could
+he ever come to fancy such a quadroon-looking thing as that, she
+should like to know?
+
+It is easy enough to ask seven people to a party; but whether they
+will come or not is an open question, as it was in the case of the
+spirits of the vasty deep.  If the note issues from a three-story
+mansion-house, and goes to two-story acquaintances, they will all be
+in an excellent state of health, and have much pleasure in accepting
+this very polite invitation.  If the note is from the lady of a two-
+story family to three-story ones, the former highly respectable
+person will very probably find that an endemic complaint is
+prevalent, not represented in the weekly bills of mortality, which
+occasions numerous regrets in the bosoms of eminently desirable
+parties that they cannot have the pleasure of and-so-forthing.
+
+In this case there was room for doubt,--mainly as to whether Elsie
+would take a fancy to come or not.  If she should come, her father
+would certainly be with her.  Dick had promised, and thought he could
+bring Elsie.  Of course the young schoolmaster will come, and that
+poor tired-out looking Helen, if only to get out of sight of those
+horrid Peckham wretches.  They don't get such invitations every day.
+The others she felt sure of,--all but the old Doctor,--he might have
+some horrid patient or other to visit; tell him Elsie Venner's going
+to be there,--he always likes to have an eye on her, they say,--oh,
+he'd come fast enough, without any more coaxing.
+
+She wanted the Doctor, particularly.  It was odd, but she was afraid
+of Elsie.  She felt as if she should be safe enough, if the old
+Doctor were there to see to the girl; and then she should have
+leisure to devote herself more freely to the young lady's father, for
+whom all her sympathies were in a state of lively excitement.
+
+It was a long time since the Widow had seen so many persons round her
+table as she had now invited.  Better have the plates set and see how
+they will fill it up with the leaf in.--A little too scattering with
+only eight plates set: if she could find two more people, now, that
+would bring the chairs a little closer,--snug, you know,--which makes
+the company sociable.  The Widow thought over her acquaintances.  Why
+how stupid! there was her good minister, the same who had married
+her, and might--might--bury her for aught she anew, and his
+granddaughter staying with him,--nice little girl, pretty, and not
+old enough to be dangerous;--for the Widow had no notion of making a
+tea-party and asking people to it that would be like to stand between
+her and any little project she might happen to have on anybody's
+heart,--not she!  It was all right now; Blanche was married and so
+forth; Letty was a child; Elsie was his daughter; Helen Darley was a
+nice, worthy drudge,--poor thing!--faded, faded,--colors wouldn't
+wash, just what she wanted to show off against.  Now, if the Dudley
+mansion-house people would only come,--that was the great point.
+
+"Here's a note for us, Elsie," said her father, as they sat round the
+breakfast-table.  "Mrs. Rowens wants us all to come to tea."
+
+It was one of "Elsie's days," as old Sophy called them.  The light in
+her eyes was still, but very bright.  She looked up so full of
+perverse and wilful impulses, that Dick knew he could make her go
+with him and her father.  He had his own motives for bringing her to
+this determination,--and his own way of setting about it.
+
+"I don't want to go," he said.  "What do you say, uncle?"
+
+"To tell the truth, Richard, I don't mach fancy the Major's widow.  I
+don't like to see her weeds flowering out quite so strong.  I suppose
+you don't care about going, Elsie?"
+
+Elsie looked up in her father's face with an expression which he knew
+but too well.  She was just in the state which the plain sort of
+people call "contrary," when they have to deal with it in animals.
+She would insist on going to that tea-party; he knew it just as well
+before she spoke as after she had spoken.  If Dick had said he wanted
+to go and her father had seconded his wishes, she would have insisted
+on staying at home.  It was no great matter, her father said to
+himself, after all; very likely it would amuse her; the Widow was a
+lively woman enough,--perhaps a little comme il ne faut pas socially,
+compared with the Thorntons and some other families; but what did he
+care for these petty village distinctions?
+
+Elsie spoke.
+
+"I mean to go.  You must go with me, Dudley.  You may do as you like,
+Dick."
+
+That settled the Dudley-mansion business, of course.  They all three
+accepted, as fortunately did all the others who had been invited.
+
+Hyacinth Cottage was a pretty place enough, a little too much choked
+round with bushes, and too much overrun with climbing-roses, which,
+in the season of slugs and rose-bugs, were apt to show so brown about
+the leaves and so coleopterous about the flowers, that it might be
+questioned whether their buds and blossoms made up for these
+unpleasant animal combinations,--especially as the smell of whale-oil
+soap was very commonly in the ascendant over that of the roses.  It
+had its patch of grass called "the lawn," and its glazed closet known
+as "the conservatory," according to that system of harmless fictions
+characteristic of the rural imagination and shown in the names
+applied to many familiar objects.  The interior of the cottage was
+more tasteful and ambitious than that of the ordinary two-story
+dwellings.  In place of the prevailing hair-cloth covered furniture,
+the visitor had the satisfaction of seating himself upon a chair
+covered with some of the Widow's embroidery, or a sofa luxurious with
+soft caressing plush.  The sporting tastes of the late Major showed
+in various prints on the wall: Herring's "Plenipotentiary," the "red
+bullock" of the '34 Derby; "Cadland" and "The Colonel;" "Crucifix;"
+"West-Australian," fastest of modern racers; and among native
+celebrities, ugly, game old "Boston," with his straight neck and
+ragged hips; and gray "Lady Suffolk," queen, in her day, not of the
+turf but of the track, "extending" herself till she measured a rod,
+more or less, skimming along within a yard of the ground, her legs
+opening and shutting under her with a snap, like the four blades of a
+compound jack-knife.
+
+These pictures were much more refreshing than those dreary fancy
+death-bed scenes, common in two-story country-houses, in which
+Washington and other distinguished personages are represented as
+obligingly devoting their last moments to taking a prominent part in
+a tableau, in which weeping relatives, attached servants,
+professional assistants, and celebrated personages who might by a
+stretch of imagination be supposed present, are grouped in the most
+approved style of arrangement about the chief actor's pillow.
+
+A single glazed bookcase held the family library, which was hidden
+from vulgar eyes by green silk curtains behind the glass.  It would
+have been instructive to get a look at it, as it always is to peep
+into one's neighbor's book-shelves.  From other sources and
+opportunities a partial idea of it has been obtained.  The Widow had
+inherited some books from her mother, who was something of a reader:
+Young's "Night-Thoughts;" "The Preceptor;" "The Task, a Poem," by
+William Cowper; Hervey's "Meditations;" "Alonzo and Melissa;"
+"Buccaneers of America;" "The Triumphs of Temper;" "La Belle
+Assemblee;" Thomson's "Seasons;" and a few others.  The Major had
+brought in "Tom Jones" and "Peregrine Pickle;" various works by Mr.
+Pierce Egan; "Boxiana," "The Racing Calendar;" and a "Book of Lively
+Songs and Jests."  The Widow had added the Poems of Lord Byron and
+T. Moore; "Eugene Aram;" "The Tower of London," by Harrison
+Ainsworth; some of Scott's Novels; "The Pickwick Papers;" a volume of
+Plays, by W. Shakespeare; "Proverbial Philosophy;" "Pilgrim's
+Progress;" "The Whole Duty of Man" (a present when she was married);
+with two celebrated religious works, one by William Law and the other
+by Philip Doddridge, which were sent her after her husband's death,
+and which she had tried to read, but found that they did not agree
+with her.  Of course the bookcase held a few school manuals and
+compendiums, and one of Mr. Webster's Dictionaries.  But the gilt-
+edged Bible always lay on the centre-table, next to the magazine with
+the fashion-plates and the scrap-book with pictures from old annuals
+and illustrated papers.
+
+The reader need not apprehend the recital, at full length, of such
+formidable preparations for the Widow's tea-party as were required in
+the case of Colonel Sprowle's Social Entertainment.  A tea-party,
+even in the country, is a comparatively simple and economical piece
+of business.  As soon as the Widow found that all her company were
+coming, she set to work, with the aid of her "smart" maid-servant and
+a daughter of her own, who was beginning to stretch and spread at a
+fearful rate, but whom she treated as a small child, to make the
+necessary preparations.  The silver had to be rubbed; also the grand
+plated urn,--her mother's before hers,--style of the Empire,--looking
+as if it might have been made to hold the Major's ashes.  Then came
+the making and baking of cake and gingerbread, the smell whereof
+reached even as far as the sidewalk in front of the cottage, so that
+small boys returning from school snuffed it in the breeze, and
+discoursed with each other on its suggestions; so that the Widow
+Leech, who happened to pass, remembered she had n't called on Marilly
+Raowens for a consid'ble spell, and turned in at the gate and rang
+three times with long intervals,--but all in vain, the inside Widow
+having "spotted" the outside one through the blinds, and whispered to
+her aides-de-camp to let the old thing ring away till she pulled the
+bell out by the roots, but not to stir to open the door.
+
+Widow Rowens was what they called a real smart, capable woman, not
+very great on books, perhaps, but knew what was what and who was who
+as well as another,--knew how to make the little cottage look pretty,
+how to set out a tea-table, and, what a good many women never can
+find out, knew her own style and "got herself up tip-top," as our
+young friend Master Geordie, Colonel Sprowle's heir-apparent,
+remarked to his friend from one of the fresh-water colleges.  Flowers
+were abundant now, and she had dressed her rooms tastefully with
+them.  The centre-table had two or three gilt-edged books lying
+carelessly about on it, and some prints and a stereoscope with
+stereographs to match, chiefly groups of picnics, weddings, etc., in
+which the same somewhat fatigued looking ladies of fashion and brides
+received the attentions of the same unpleasant-looking young men,
+easily identified under their different disguises, consisting of
+fashionable raiment such as gentlemen are supposed to wear
+habitually.  With these, however, were some pretty English scenes,--
+pretty except for the old fellow with the hanging under-lip who
+infests every one of that interesting series; and a statue or two,
+especially that famous one commonly called the Lahcoon, so as to
+rhyme with moon and spoon, and representing an old man with his two
+sons in the embraces of two monstrous serpents.
+
+There is no denying that it was a very dashing achievement of the
+Widow's to bring together so considerable a number of desirable
+guests.  She felt proud of her feat; but as to the triumph of getting
+Dudley Venner to come out for a visit to Hyacinth Cottage, she was
+surprised and almost frightened at her own success.  So much might
+depend on the impressions of that evening!
+
+The next thing was to be sure that everybody should be in the right
+place at the tea-table, and this the Widow thought she could manage
+by a few words to the older guests and a little shuffling about and
+shifting when they got to the table.  To settle everything the Widow
+made out a diagram, which the reader should have a chance of
+inspecting in an authentic copy, if these pages were allowed under
+any circumstances to be the vehicle of illustrations.  If, however,
+he or she really wishes to see the way the pieces stood as they were
+placed at the beginning of the game, (the Widow's gambit,) he or she
+had better at once take a sheet of paper, draw an oval, and arrange
+the characters according to the following schedule.
+
+At the head of the table, the Hostess, Widow Marilla Rowens.
+Opposite her, at the other end, Rev.  Dr. Honeywood.  At the right of
+the Hostess, Dudley Veneer, next him Helen Darley, next her Dr.
+Kittredge, next him Mrs. Blanche Creamer, then the Reverend Doctor.
+At the left of the Hostess, Bernard Langdon, next him Letty
+Forrester, next Letty Mr. Richard Veneer, next him Elsie, and so to
+the Reverend Doctor again.
+
+The company came together a little before the early hour at which it
+was customary to take tea in Rockland.  The Widow knew everybody, of
+course: who was there in Rockland she did not know?  But some of them
+had to be introduced: Mr. Richard Veneer to Mr. Bernard, Mr. Bernard
+to Miss Letty, Dudley Veneer to Miss Helen Darley, and so on.  The
+two young men looked each other straight in the eyes, both full of
+youthful life, but one of frank and fearless aspect, the other with a
+dangerous feline beauty alien to the New England half of his blood.
+
+The guests talked, turned over the prints, looked at the flowers,
+opened the "Proverbial Philosophy" with gilt edges, and the volume of
+Plays by W.  Shakespeare, examined the horse-pictures on the walls,
+and so passed away the time until tea was announced, when they paired
+off for the room where it was in readiness.  The Widow had managed it
+well; everything was just as she wanted it.  Dudley Veneer was
+between herself and the poor tired-looking schoolmistress with her
+faded colors.  Blanche Creamer, a lax, tumble-to-pieces, Greuze-ish
+looking blonde, whom the Widow hated because the men took to her, was
+purgatoried between the two old Doctors, and could see all the looks
+that passed between Dick Venner and his cousin.  The young
+schoolmaster could talk to Miss Letty: it was his business to know
+how to talk to schoolgirls.  Dick would amuse himself with his cousin
+Elsie.  The old Doctors only wanted to be well fed and they would do
+well enough.
+
+It would be very pleasant to describe the tea-table; but in reality,
+it did not pretend to offer a plethoric banquet to the guests.  The
+Widow had not visited the mansion-houses for nothing, and she had
+learned there that an overloaded tea-table may do well enough for
+farm-hands when they come in at evening from their work and sit down
+unwashed in their shirtsleeves, but that for decently bred people
+such an insult to the memory of a dinner not yet half-assimilated is
+wholly inadmissible.  Everything was delicate, and almost everything
+of fair complexion: white bread and biscuits, frosted and sponge
+cake, cream, honey, straw-colored butter; only a shadow here and
+there, where the fire had crisped and browned the surfaces of a stack
+of dry toast, or where a preserve had brought away some of the red
+sunshine of the last year's summer.  The Widow shall have the credit
+of her well-ordered tea-table, also of her bountiful cream-pitchers;
+for it is well known that city-people find cream a very scarce luxury
+in a good many country-houses of more pretensions than Hyacinth
+Cottage.  There are no better maims for ladies who give tea-parties
+than these:
+
+Cream is thicker than water.
+Large heart never loved little cream pot.
+
+There is a common feeling in genteel families that the third meal of
+the day is not so essential a part of the daily bread as to require
+any especial acknowledgment to the Providence which bestows it.  Very
+devout people, who would never sit down to a breakfast or a dinner
+without the grace before meat which honors the Giver of it, feel as
+if they thanked Heaven enough for their tea and toast by partaking of
+them cheerfully without audible petition or ascription.  But the
+Widow was not exactly mansion-house-bred, and so thought it necessary
+to give the Reverend Doctor a peculiar look which he understood at
+once as inviting his professional services.  He, therefore, uttered a
+few simple words of gratitude, very quietly,--much to the
+satisfaction of some of the guests, who had expected one of those
+elaborate effusions, with rolling up of the eyes and rhetorical
+accents, so frequent with eloquent divines when they address their
+Maker in genteel company.
+
+Everybody began talking with the person sitting next at hand.  Mr.
+Bernard naturally enough turned his attention first to the Widow; but
+somehow or other the right side of the Widow seemed to be more wide
+awake than the left side, next him, and he resigned her to the
+courtesies of Mr. Dudley Venner, directing himself, not very
+unwillingly, to the young girl next him on the other side.  Miss
+Letty Forrester, the granddaughter of the Reverend Doctor, was city-
+bred, as anybody might see, and city-dressed, as any woman would know
+at sight; a man might only feel the general effect of clear, well-
+matched colors, of harmonious proportions, of the cut which makes
+everything cling like a bather's sleeve where a natural outline is to
+be kept, and ruffle itself up like the hackle of a pitted fighting-
+cock where art has a right to luxuriate in silken exuberance.  How
+this citybred and city-dressed girl came to be in Rockland Mr.
+Bernard did not know, but he knew at any rate that she was his next
+neighbor and entitled to his courtesies.  She was handsome, too, when
+he came to look, very handsome when he came to look again,--endowed
+with that city beauty which is like the beauty of wall-fruit,
+something finer in certain respects than can be reared off the
+pavement.
+
+The miserable routinists who keep repeating invidiously Cowper's
+
+"God made the country and man made the town,"
+
+as if the town were a place to kill out the race in, do not know what
+they are talking about.  Where could they raise such Saint-Michael
+pears, such Saint-Germains, such Brown-Beurres, as we had until
+within a few years growing within the walls of our old city-gardens?
+Is the dark and damp cavern where a ragged beggar hides himself
+better than a town-mansion which fronts the sunshine and backs on its
+own cool shadow, with gas and water and all appliances to suit all
+needs?  God made the cavern and man made the house!  What then?
+
+There is no doubt that the pavement keeps a deal of mischief from
+coming up out of the earth, and, with a dash off of it in summer,
+just to cool the soles of the feet when it gets too hot, is the best
+place for many constitutions, as some few practical people have
+already discovered.  And just so these beauties that grow and ripen
+against the city-walls, these young fellows with cheeks like peaches
+and young girls with cheeks like nectarines, show that the most
+perfect forms of artificial life can do as much for the human product
+as garden-culture for strawberries and blackberries.
+
+If Mr. Bernard had philosophized or prosed in this way, with so
+pretty, nay, so lovely a neighbor as Miss Letty Forrester waiting for
+him to speak to her, he would have to be dropped from this narrative
+as a person unworthy of his good-fortune, and not deserving the kind
+reader's further notice.  On the contrary, he no sooner set his eyes
+fairly on her than he said to himself that she was charming, and that
+he wished she were one of his scholars at the Institute.  So he began
+talking with her in an easy way; for he knew something of young girls
+by this time, and, of course, could adapt himself to a young lady who
+looked as if she might be not more than fifteen or sixteen years old,
+and therefore could hardly be a match in intellectual resources for
+the seventeen and eighteen year-old first-class scholars of the
+Apollinean Institute.  But city-wall-fruit ripens early, and he soon
+found that this girl's training had so sharpened her wits and stored
+her memory, that he need not be at the trouble to stoop painfully in
+order to come down to her level.
+
+The beauty of good-breeding is that it adjusts itself to all
+relations without effort, true to itself always however the manners
+of those around it may change.  Self-respect and respect for others,
+--the sensitive consciousness poises itself in these as the compass
+in the ship's binnacle balances itself and maintains its true level
+within the two concentric rings which suspend it on their pivots.
+This thorough-bred school-girl quite enchanted Mr. Bernard.  He could
+not understand where she got her style, her way of dress, her
+enunciation, her easy manners.  The minister was a most worthy
+gentleman, but this was not the Rockland native-born manner; some new
+element had come in between the good, plain, worthy man and this
+young girl, fit to be a Crown Prince's partner where there were a
+thousand to choose from.
+
+He looked across to Helen Darley, for he knew she would understand
+the glance of admiration with which he called her attention to the
+young beauty at his side; and Helen knew what a young girl could be,
+as compared with what too many a one is, as well as anybody.
+
+This poor, dear Helen of ours!  How admirable the contrast between
+her and the Widow on the other side of Dudley Venner!  But, what was
+very odd, that gentleman apparently thought the contrast was to the
+advantage of this poor, dear Helen.  At any rate, instead of devoting
+himself solely to the Widow, he happened to be just at that moment
+talking in a very interested and, apparently, not uninteresting way
+to his right-hand neighbor, who, on her part, never looked more
+charmingly,--as Mr. Bernard could not help saying to himself,--but,
+to be sure, he had just been looking at the young girl next him, so
+that his eyes were brimful of beauty, and may have spilled some of it
+on the first comer: for you know M. Becquerel has been showing us
+lately how everything is phosphorescent; that it soaks itself with
+light in an instant's exposure, so that it is wet with liquid
+sunbeams, or, if you will, tremulous with luminous vibrations, when
+first plunged into the negative bath of darkness, and betrays itself
+by the light which escapes from its surface.
+
+Whatever were the reason, this poor, dear Helen never looked so
+sweetly.  Her plainly parted brown hair, her meek, blue eyes, her
+cheek just a little tinged with color, the almost sad simplicity of
+her dress, and that look he knew so well,--so full of cheerful
+patience, so sincere, that he had trusted her from the first moment
+as the believers of the larger half of Christendom trust the Blessed
+Virgin,--Mr. Bernard took this all in at a glance, and felt as
+pleased as if it had been his own sister Dorothea Elizabeth that he
+was looking at.  As for Dudley Veneer, Mr. Bernard could not help
+being struck by the animated expression of his countenance.  It
+certainly showed great kindness, on his part, to pay so much
+attention to this quiet girl, when he had the thunder-and-lightning
+Widow on the other side of him.
+
+Mrs. Marilla Rowens did not know what to make of it.  She had made
+her tea-party expressly for Mr. Dudley Veneer.  She had placed him
+just as she wanted, between herself and a meek, delicate woman who
+dressed in gray, wore a plain breastpin with hair in it, who taught a
+pack of girls up there at the school, and looked as if she were born
+for a teacher,--the very best foil that she could have chosen; and
+here was this man, polite enough to herself, to be sure, but turning
+round to that very undistinguished young person as if he rather
+preferred her conversation of the two!
+
+The truth was that Dudley Veneer and Helen Darley met as two
+travellers might meet in the desert, wearied, both of them, with
+their long journey, one having food, but no water, the other water,
+but no food.  Each saw that the other had been in long conflict with
+some trial; for their voices were low and tender, as patiently borne
+sorrow and humbly uttered prayers make every human voice.  Through
+these tones, more than by what they said, they came into natural
+sympathetic relations with each other.  Nothing could be more
+unstudied.  As for Dudley Venner, no beauty in all the world could
+have so soothed and magnetized him as the very repose and subdued
+gentleness which the Widow had thought would make the best possible
+background for her own more salient and effective attractions.  No
+doubt, Helen, on her side, was almost too readily pleased with the
+confidence this new acquaintance she was making seemed to show her
+from the very first.  She knew so few men of any condition!  Mr.
+Silas Peckham: he was her employer, and she ought to think of him as
+well as she could; but every time she thought of him it was with a
+shiver of disgust.  Mr. Bernard Langdon: a noble young man, a true
+friend, like a brother to her,--God bless him, and send him some
+young heart as fresh as his own!  But this gentleman produced a new
+impression upon her, quite different from any to which she was
+accustomed.  His rich, low tones had the strangest significance to
+her; she felt sure he must have lived through long experiences,
+sorrowful like her own.  Elsie's father!  She looked into his dark
+eyes, as she listened to him, to see if they had any glimmer of that
+peculiar light, diamond-bright, but cold and still, which she knew so
+well in Elsie's.  Anything but that!  Never was there more
+tenderness, it seemed to her, than in the whole look and expression
+of Elsie's father.  She must have been a great trial to him; yet his
+face was that of one who had been saddened, not soured, by his
+discipline.  Knowing what Elsie must be to him, how hard she must
+make any parent's life, Helen could not but be struck with the
+interest Mr. Dudley Venner showed in her as his daughter's
+instructress.  He was too kind to her; again and again she meekly
+turned from him, so as to leave him free to talk to the showy lady at
+his other side, who was looking all the while
+
+                         "like the night
+          Of cloudless realms and starry skies;"
+
+but still Mr. Dudley Venner, after a few courteous words, came back
+to the blue eyes and brown hair; still he kept his look fixed upon
+her, and his tones grew sweeter and lower as he became more
+interested in talk, until this poor, dear Helen, what with surprise,
+and the bashfulness natural to one who had seen little of the gay
+world, and the stirring of deep, confused sympathies with this
+suffering father, whose heart seemed so full of kindness, felt her
+cheeks glowing with unwonted flame, and betrayed the pleasing trouble
+of her situation by looking so sweetly as to arrest Mr. Bernard's eye
+for a moment, when he looked away from the young beauty sitting next
+him.
+
+Elsie meantime had been silent, with that singular, still, watchful
+look which those who knew her well had learned to fear.  Her head
+just a little inclined on one side, perfectly motionless for whole
+minutes, her eyes seeming to, grow small and bright, as always when
+she was under her evil influence, she was looking obliquely at the
+young girl on the other side of her cousin Dick and next to Bernard
+Langdon.  As for Dick himself, she seemed to be paying very little
+attention to him.  Sometimes her eyes would wander off to Mr.
+Bernard, and their expression, as old Dr. Kittredge, who watched her
+for a while pretty keenly, noticed, would change perceptibly.  One
+would have said that she looked with a kind of dull hatred at the
+girl, but with a half-relenting reproachful anger at Mr. Bernard.
+
+Miss Letty Forrester, at whom Elsie had been looking from time to
+time in this fixed way, was conscious meanwhile of some unusual
+influence.  First it was a feeling of constraint,--then, as it were,
+a diminished power over the muscles, as if an invisible elastic
+cobweb were spinning round her,--then a tendency to turn away from
+Mr. Bernard, who was making himself very agreeable, and look straight
+into those eyes which would not leave her, and which seemed to be
+drawing her towards them, while at the same time they chilled the
+blood in all her veins.
+
+Mr. Bernard saw this influence coming over her.  All at once he
+noticed that she sighed, and that some little points of moisture
+began to glisten on her forehead.  But she did not grow pale
+perceptibly; she had no involuntary or hysteric movements; she still
+listened to him and smiled naturally enough.  Perhaps she was only
+nervous at being stared at.  At any rate, she was coming under some
+unpleasant influence or other, and Mr. Bernard had seen enough of the
+strange impression Elsie sometimes produced to wish this young girl
+to be relieved from it, whatever it was.  He turned toward Elsie and
+looked at her in such a way as to draw her eyes upon him.  Then he
+looked steadily and calmly into them.  It was a great effort, for
+some perfectly inexplicable reason.  At one instant he thought he
+could not sit where he was; he must go and speak to Elsie.  Then he
+wanted to take his eyes away from hers; there was something
+intolerable in the light that came from them.  But he was determined
+to look her down, and he believed he could do it, for he had seen her
+countenance change more than once when he had caught her gaze
+steadily fixed on him.  All this took not minutes, but seconds.
+Presently she changed color slightly,--lifted her head, which was
+inclined a little to one side,--shut and opened her eyes two or three
+times, as if they had been pained or wearied,--and turned away
+baffled, and shamed, as it would seem, and shorn for the time of her
+singular and formidable or at least evil-natured power of swaying the
+impulses of those around her.
+
+It takes too long to describe these scenes where a good deal of life
+is concentrated into a few silent seconds.  Mr. Richard Veneer had
+sat quietly through it all, although this short pantomime had taken
+place literally before his face.  He saw what was going on well
+enough, and understood it all perfectly well.  Of course the
+schoolmaster had been trying to make Elsie jealous, and had
+succeeded.  The little schoolgirl was a decoy-duck,--that was all.
+Estates like the Dudley property were not to be had every day, and no
+doubt the Yankee usher was willing to take some pains to make sure of
+Elsie.  Does n't Elsie look savage?  Dick involuntarily moved his
+chair a little away from her, and thought he felt a pricking in the
+small white scars on his wrist.  A dare-devil fellow, but somehow or
+other this girl had taken strange hold of his imagination, and he
+often swore to himself, that, when he married her, he would carry a
+loaded revolver with him to his bridal chamber.
+
+Mrs. Blanche Creamer raged inwardly at first to find herself between
+the two old gentlemen of the party.  It very soon gave her great
+comfort, however, to see that Marilla, Rowens had just missed it in
+her calculations, and she chuckled immensely to find Dudley Veneer
+devoting himself chiefly to Helen Darley.  If the Rowens woman should
+hook Dudley, she felt as if she should gnaw all her nails off for
+spite.  To think of seeing her barouching about Rockland behind a
+pair of long-tailed bays and a coachman with a band on his hat, while
+she, Blanche Creamer, was driving herself about in a one-horse
+"carriage"!  Recovering her spirits by degrees, she began playing her
+surfaces off at the two old Doctors, just by way of practice.  First
+she heaved up a glaring white shoulder, the right one, so that the
+Reverend Doctor should be stunned by it, if such a thing might be.
+The Reverend Doctor was human, as the Apostle was not ashamed to
+confess himself.  Half-devoutly and half-mischievously he repeated
+inwardly, "Resist the Devil and he will flee from you."  As the
+Reverend Doctor did not show any lively susceptibility, she thought
+she would try the left shoulder on old Dr. Kittredge.  That worthy
+and experienced student of science was not at all displeased with the
+manoeuvre, and lifted his head so as to command the exhibition
+through his glasses.  "Blanche is good for half a dozen years or so,
+if she is careful," the Doctor said to himself, "and then she must
+take to her prayer-book."  After this spasmodic failure of Mrs.
+Blanche Creamer's to stir up the old Doctors, she returned again to
+the pleasing task of watching the Widow in her evident discomfiture.
+But dark as the Widow looked in her half-concealed pet, she was but
+as a pale shadow, compared to Elsie in her silent concentration of
+shame and anger.
+
+"Well, there is one good thing," said Mrs. Blanche Creamer; "Dick
+doesn't get much out of that cousin of his this evening!  Does n't he
+look handsome, though?"
+
+So Mrs. Blanche, being now a good deal taken up with her observations
+of those friends of hers and ours, began to be rather careless of her
+two old Doctors, who naturally enough fell into conversation with
+each other across the white surfaces of that lady, perhaps not very
+politely, but, under the, circumstances, almost as a matter of
+necessity.
+
+When a minister and a doctor get talking together, they always have a
+great deal to say; and so it happened that the company left the table
+just as the two Doctors were beginning to get at each other's ideas
+about various interesting matters.  If we follow them into the other
+parlor, we can, perhaps, pick up something of their conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+WHY DOCTORS DIFFER.
+
+The company rearranged itself with some changes after leaving the
+tea-table.  Dudley Veneer was very polite to the Widow; but that lady
+having been called off for a few moments for some domestic
+arrangement, he slid back to the side of Helen Darley, his daughter's
+faithful teacher.  Elsie had got away by herself, and was taken up in
+studying the stereoscopic Laocoon.  Dick, being thus set free, had
+been seized upon by Mrs. Blanche Creamer, who had diffused herself
+over three-quarters of a sofa and beckoned him to the remaining
+fourth.  Mr. Bernard and Miss Letty were having a snug fete-'a-fete
+in the recess of a bay-window.  The two Doctors had taken two arm-
+chairs and sat squared off against each other.  Their conversation is
+perhaps as well worth reporting as that of the rest of the company,
+and, as it was carried on in a louder tone, was of course more easy
+to gather and put on record.
+
+It was a curious sight enough to see those two representatives of two
+great professions brought face to face to talk over the subjects they
+had been looking at all their lives from such different points of
+view.  Both were old; old enough to have been moulded by their habits
+of thought and life; old enough to have all their beliefs "fretted
+in," as vintners say,--thoroughly worked up with their characters.
+Each of them looked his calling.  The Reverend Doctor had lived a
+good deal among books in his study; the Doctor, as we will call the
+medical gentleman, had been riding about the country for between
+thirty and forty years.  His face looked tough and weather-worn;
+while the Reverend Doctor's, hearty as it appeared, was of finer
+texture.  The Doctor's was the graver of the two; there was something
+of grimness about it, partly owing to the northeasters he had faced
+for so many years, partly to long companionship with that stern
+personage who never deals in sentiment or pleasantry.  His speech was
+apt to be brief and peremptory; it was a way he had got by ordering
+patients; but he could discourse somewhat, on occasion, as the reader
+may find out.  The Reverend Doctor had an open, smiling expression, a
+cheery voice, a hearty laugh, and a cordial way with him which some
+thought too lively for his cloth, but which children, who are good
+judges of such matters, delighted in, so that he was the favorite of
+all the little rogues about town.  But he had the clerical art of
+sobering down in a moment, when asked to say grace while somebody was
+in the middle of some particularly funny story; and though his voice
+was so cheery in common talk, in the pulpit, like almost all
+preachers, he had a wholly different and peculiar way of speaking,
+supposed to be more acceptable to the Creator than the natural
+manner.  In point of fact, most of our anti-papal and anti-prelatical
+clergymen do really intone their prayers, without suspecting in the
+least that they have fallen into such a Romish practice.
+
+This is the way the conversation between the Doctor of Divinity and
+the Doctor of Medicine was going on at the point where these notes
+take it up.
+
+"Obi tres medici, duo athei, you know, Doctor.  Your profession has
+always had the credit of being lax in doctrine,--though pretty
+stringent in practice, ha!  ha!"
+
+"Some priest said that," the Doctor answered, dryly.  "They always
+talked Latin when they had a bigger lie than common to get rid of."
+
+"Good!"  said the Reverend Doctor; "I'm afraid they would lie a
+little sometimes.  But isn't there some truth in it, Doctor?  Don't
+you think your profession is apt to see 'Nature' in the place of the
+God of Nature,--to lose sight of the great First Cause in their daily
+study of secondary causes?"
+
+"I've thought about that," the Doctor answered, "and I've talked
+about it and read about it, and I've come to the conclusion that
+nobody believes in God and trusts in God quite so much as the
+doctors; only it is n't just the sort of Deity that some of your
+profession have wanted them to take up with.  There was a student of
+mine wrote a dissertation on the Natural Theology of Health and
+Disease, and took that old lying proverb for his motto.  He knew a
+good deal more about books than ever I did, and had studied in other
+countries.  I'll tell you what he said about it.  He said the old
+Heathen Doctor, Galen, praised God for his handiwork in the human
+body, just as if he had been a Christian, or the Psalmist himself.
+He said they had this sentence set up in large letters in the great
+lecture-room in Paris where he attended: I dressed his wound and God
+healed him.  That was an old surgeon's saying.  And he gave a long
+list of doctors who were not only Christians, but famous ones.  I
+grant you, though, ministers and doctors are very apt to see
+differently in spiritual matters."
+
+"That's it," said the Reverend Doctor; "you are apt to see 'Nature'
+where we see God, and appeal to 'Science' where we are contented with
+Revelation."
+
+"We don't separate God and Nature, perhaps, as you do," the Doctor
+answered.  "When we say that God is omnipresent and omnipotent and
+omniscient, we are a little more apt to mean it than your folks are.
+We think, when a wound heals, that God's presence and power and
+knowledge are there, healing it, just as that old surgeon did.  We
+think a good many theologians, working among their books, don't see
+the facts of the world they live in.  When we tell 'em of these
+facts, they are apt to call us materialists and atheists and
+infidels, and all that.  We can't help seeing the facts, and we don't
+think it's wicked to mention 'em."
+
+"Do tell me," the Reverend Doctor said, "some of these facts we are
+in the habit of overlooking, and which your profession thinks it can
+see and understand."
+
+"That's very easy," the Doctor replied.  "For instance: you don't
+understand or don't allow for idiosyncrasies as we learn to.  We know
+that food and physic act differently with different people; but you
+think the same kind of truth is going to suit, or ought to suit, all
+minds.  We don't fight with a patient because he can't take magnesia
+or opium; but you are all the time quarrelling over your beliefs, as
+if belief did not depend very much on race and constitution, to say
+nothing of early training."
+
+"Do you mean to say that every man is not absolutely free to choose
+his beliefs?"
+
+"The men you write about in your studies are, but not the men we see
+in the real world.  There is some apparently congenital defect in the
+Indians, for instance, that keeps them from choosing civilization and
+Christianity.  So with the Gypsies, very likely.  Everybody knows
+that Catholicism or Protestantism is a good deal a matter of race.
+Constitution has more to do with belief than people think for.  I
+went to a Universalist church, when I was in the city one day, to
+hear a famous man whom all the world knows, and I never saw such
+pews-full of broad shoulders and florid faces, and substantial,
+wholesome-looking persons, male and female, in all my life.  Why, it
+was astonishing.  Either their creed made them healthy, or they chose
+it because they were healthy.  Your folks have never got the hang of
+human nature."
+
+"I am afraid this would be considered a degrading and dangerous view
+of human beliefs and responsibility for them," the Reverend Doctor
+replied.  "Prove to a man that his will is governed by something
+outside of himself, and you have lost all hold on his moral and
+religious nature.  There is nothing bad men want to believe so much
+as that they are governed by necessity.  Now that which is at once
+degrading and dangerous cannot be true."
+
+"No doubt," the Doctor replied, "all large views of mankind limit our
+estimate of the absolute freedom of the will.  But I don't think it
+degrades or endangers us, for this reason, that, while it makes us
+charitable to the rest of mankind, our own sense of freedom, whatever
+it is, is never affected by argument.  Conscience won't be reasoned
+with.  We feel that we can practically do this of that, and if we
+choose the wrong, we know we are responsible; but observation teaches
+us that this or that other race or individual has not the same
+practical freedom of choice.  I don't see how we can avoid this
+conclusion in the instance of the American Indians.  The science of
+Ethnology has upset a good many theoretical notions about human
+nature."
+
+"Science!"  said the Reverend Doctor, "science!  that was a word the
+Apostle Paul did not seem to think much of, if we may judge by the
+Epistle to Timothy: 'Oppositions of science falsely so called.'
+I own that I am jealous of that word and the pretensions that go with
+it.  Science has seemed to me to be very often only the handmaid of
+skepticism."
+
+"Doctor!" the physician said, emphatically, "science is knowledge.
+Nothing that is not known properly belongs to science.  Whenever
+knowledge obliges us to doubt, we are always safe in doubting.
+Astronomers foretell eclipses, say how long comets are to stay with
+us, point out where a new planet is to be found.  We see they know
+what they assert, and the poor old Roman Catholic Church has at last
+to knock under.  So Geology proves a certain succession of events,
+and the best Christian in the world must make the earth's history
+square with it.  Besides, I don't think you remember what great
+revelations of himself the Creator has made in the minds of the men
+who have built up science.  You seem to me to hold his human
+masterpieces very cheap.  Don't you think the 'inspiration of the
+Almighty' gave Newton and Cuvier 'understanding'?"
+
+The Reverend Doctor was not arguing for victory.  In fact, what he
+wanted was to call out the opinions of the old physician by a show of
+opposition, being already predisposed to agree with many of them.  He
+was rather trying the common arguments, as one tries tricks of fence
+merely to learn the way of parrying.  But just here he saw a tempting
+opening, and could not resist giving a home-thrust.
+
+"Yes; but you surely would not consider it inspiration of the same
+kind as that of the writers of the Old Testament?"
+
+That cornered the Doctor, and he paused a moment before he replied.
+Then he raised his head, so as to command the Reverend Doctor's face
+through his spectacles, and said,
+
+"I did not say that.  You are clear, I suppose, that the Omniscient
+spoke through Solomon, but that Shakespeare wrote without his help?"
+
+The Reverend Doctor looked very grave.  It was a bold, blunt way of
+putting the question.  He turned it aside with the remark, that
+Shakespeare seemed to him at times to come as near inspiration as any
+human being not included among the sacred writers.
+
+"Doctor," the physician began, as from a sudden suggestion, "you
+won't quarrel with me, if I tell you some of my real thoughts, will
+you?"
+
+"Say on, my dear Sir, say on," the minister answered, with his most
+genial smile; "your real thoughts are just what I want to get at.  A
+man's real thoughts are a great rarity.  If I don't agree with you, I
+shall like to hear you."
+
+The Doctor began; and in order to give his thoughts more connectedly,
+we will omit the conversational breaks, the questions and comments of
+the clergyman, and all accidental interruptions.
+
+"When the old ecclesiastics said that where there were three doctors
+there were two atheists, they lied, of course.  They called everybody
+who differed from them atheists, until they found out that not
+believing in God was n't nearly so ugly a crime as not believing in
+some particular dogma; then they called them heretics, until so many
+good people had been burned under that name that it began to smell
+too strong of roasting flesh,--and after that infidels, which
+properly means people without faith, of whom there are not a great
+many in any place or time.  But then, of course, there was some
+reason why doctors shouldn't think about religion exactly as
+ministers did, or they never would have made that proverb.  It 's
+very likely that something of the same kind is true now; whether it
+is so or not, I am going to tell you the reasons why it would not be
+strange, if doctors should take rather different views from clergymen
+about some matters of belief.  I don't, of course, mean all doctors
+nor all clergymen.  Some doctors go as far as any old New England
+divine, and some clergymen agree very well with the doctors that
+think least according to rule.
+
+"To begin with their ideas of the Creator himself.  They always see
+him trying to help his creatures out of their troubles.  A man no
+sooner gets a cut, than the Great Physician, whose agency we often
+call Nature, goes to work, first to stop the blood, and then to heal
+the wound, and then to make the scar as small as possible.  If a
+man's pain exceeds a certain amount, he faints, and so gets relief.
+If it lasts too long, habit comes in to make it tolerable.  If it is
+altogether too bad, he dies.  That is the best thing to be done under
+the circumstances.  So you see, the doctor is constantly in presence
+of a benevolent agency working against a settled order of things, of
+which pain and disease are the accidents, so to speak.  Well, no
+doubt they find it harder than clergymen to believe that there can be
+any world or state from which this benevolent agency is wholly
+excluded.  This may be very wrong; but it is not unnatural.
+
+"They can hardly conceive of a permanent state of being in which cuts
+would never try to heal, nor habit render suffering endurable.  This
+is one effect of their training.
+
+"Then, again, their attention is very much called to human
+limitations.  Ministers work out the machinery of responsibility in
+an abstract kind of way; they have a sort of algebra of human nature,
+in which friction and strength (or weakness) of material are left
+out.  You see, a doctor is in the way of studying children from the
+moment of birth upwards.  For the first year or so he sees that they
+are just as much pupils of their Maker as the young of any other
+animals.  Well, their Maker trains them to pure selfishness.  Why?
+In order that they may be sure to take care of themselves.  So you
+see, when a child comes to be, we will say a year and a day old, and
+makes his first choice between right and wrong, he is at a
+disadvantage; for he, has that vis a tergo, as we doctors call it,
+that force from behind, of a whole year's life of selfishness, for
+which he is no more to blame than a calf is to blame for having lived
+in the same way, purely to gratify his natural appetites.  Then we
+see that baby grow up to a child, and, if he is fat and stout and red
+and lively, we expect to find him troublesome and noisy, and,
+perhaps, sometimes disobedient more or less; that's the way each new
+generation breaks its egg-shell; but if he is very weak and thin, and
+is one of the kind that may be expected to die early, he will very
+likely sit in the house all day and read good books about other
+little sharp-faced children just like himself, who died early, having
+always been perfectly indifferent to all the out-door amusements of
+the wicked little red-cheeked children.
+
+"Some of the little folks we watch grow up to be young women, and
+occasionally one of them gets nervous, what we call hysterical, and
+then that girl will begin to play all sorts of pranks,--to lie and
+cheat, perhaps, in the most unaccountable way, so that she might seem
+to a minister a good example of total depravity.  We don't see her in
+that light.  We give her iron and valerian, and get her on horseback,
+if we can, and so expect to make her will come all right again.  By
+and by we are called in to see an old baby, threescore years and ten
+or more old.  We find this old baby has never got rid of that first
+year's teaching which led him to fill his stomach with all he could.
+pump into it, and his hands with everything he could grab.  People
+call him a miser.  We are sorry for him; but we can't help
+remembering his first year's training, and the natural effect of
+money on the great majority of those that have it.  So while the
+ministers say he 'shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven,' we
+like to remind them that 'with God all things are possible.'
+
+"Once more, we see all kinds of monomania and insanity.  We learn
+from them to recognize all sorts of queer tendencies in minds
+supposed to be sane, so that we have nothing but compassion for a
+large class of persons condemned as sinners by theologians, but
+considered by us as invalids.  We have constant reasons for noticing
+the transmission of qualities from parents to offspring, and we find
+it hard to hold a child accountable in any moral point of view for
+inherited bad temper or tendency to drunkenness,--as hard as we
+should to blame him for inheriting gout or asthma.  I suppose we are
+more lenient with human nature than theologians generally are.  We
+know that the spirits of men and their views of the present and the
+future go up and down with the barometer, and that a permanent
+depression of one inch in the mercurial column would affect the whole
+theology of Christendom.
+
+"Ministers talk about the human will as if it stood on a high look-
+out, with plenty of light, and elbowroom reaching to the horizon.
+Doctors are constantly noticing how it is tied up and darkened by
+inferior organization, by disease, and all sorts of crowding
+interferences, until they get to look upon Hottentots and Indians--
+and a good many of their own race as a kind of self-conscious blood-
+clocks with very limited power of self-determination.  That's the
+tendency, I say, of a doctor's experience.  But the people to whom
+they address their statements of the results of their observation
+belong to the thinking class of the highest races, and they are
+conscious of a great deal of liberty of will.  So in the face of the
+fact that civilization with all it offers has proved a dead failure
+with the aboriginal races of this country,--on the whole, I say, a
+dead failure,--they talk as if they knew from their own will all
+about that of a Digger Indian!  We are more apt to go by observation
+of the facts in the case.  We are constantly seeing weakness where
+you see depravity.  I don't say we're right; I only tell what you
+must often find to be the fact, right or wrong, in talking with
+doctors.  You see, too, our notions of bodily and moral disease, or
+sin, are apt to go together.  We used to be as hard on sickness as
+you were on sin.  We know better now.  We don't look at sickness as
+we used to, and try to poison it with everything that is offensive,
+burnt toads and earth-worms and viper-broth, and worse things than
+these.  We know that disease has something back of it which the body
+isn't to blame for, at least in most cases, and which very often it
+is trying to get rid of.  Just so with sin.  I will agree to take a
+hundred new-born babes of a certain stock and return seventy-five of
+them in a dozen years true and honest, if not 'pious' children.  And
+I will take another hundred, of a different stock, and put them in
+the hands of certain Ann-Street or Five-Points teachers, and seventy-
+five of them will be thieves and liars at the end of the same dozen
+years.  I have heard of an old character, Colonel Jaques, I believe
+it was, a famous cattle-breeder, who used to say he could breed to
+pretty much any pattern he wanted to.  Well, we doctors see so much
+of families, how the tricks of the blood keep breaking out, just as
+much in character as they do in looks, that we can't help feeling as
+if a great many people hadn't a fair chance to be what is called
+'good,' and that there isn't a text in the Bible better worth keeping
+always in mind than that one, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.'
+
+"As for our getting any quarter at the hands of theologians, we don't
+expect it, and have no right to.  You don't give each other any
+quarter.  I have had two religious books sent me by friends within a
+week or two.  One is Mr. Brownson's; he is as fair and square as
+Euclid; a real honest, strong thinker, and one that knows what he is
+talking about,--for he has tried all sorts of religions, pretty much.
+He tells us that the Roman Catholic Church is the one 'through which
+alone we can hope for heaven.' The other is by a worthy Episcopal
+rector, who appears to write as if he were in earnest, and he calls
+the Papacy the 'Devil's Masterpiece,' and talks about the 'Satanic
+scheme' of that very Church 'through which alone,' as Mr. Brownson
+tells us, 'we can hope for heaven'
+
+"What's the use in our caring about hard words after this,--
+'atheists,' heretics, infidels, and the like?  They're, after all,
+only the cinders picked up out of those heaps of ashes round the
+stumps of the old stakes where they used to burn men, women, and
+children for not thinking just like other folks.  They 'll 'crock'
+your fingers, but they can't burn us.
+
+"Doctors are the best-natured people in the world, except when they
+get fighting with each other.  And they have some advantages over
+you.  You inherit your notions from a set of priests that had no
+wives and no children, or none to speak of, and so let their humanity
+die out of them.  It did n't seem much to them to condemn a few
+thousand millions of people to purgatory or worse for a mistake of
+judgment.  They didn't know what it was to have a child look up in
+their faces and say 'Father!' It will take you a hundred or two more
+years to get decently humanized, after so many centuries of de-
+humanizing celibacy.
+
+"Besides, though our libraries are, perhaps, not commonly quite so
+big as yours, God opens one book to physicians that a good many of
+you don't know much about,--the Book of Life.  That is none of your
+dusty folios with black letters between pasteboard and leather, but
+it is printed in bright red type, and the binding of it is warm and
+tender to every touch.  They reverence that book as one of the
+Almighty's infallible revelations.  They will insist on reading you
+lessons out of it, whether you call them names or not.  These will
+always be lessons of charity.  No doubt, nothing can be more
+provoking to listen to.  But do beg your folks to remember that the
+Smithfield fires are all out, and that the cinders are very dirty and
+not in the least dangerous.  They'd a great deal better be civil, and
+not be throwing old proverbs in the doctors' faces, when they say
+that the man of the old monkish notions is one thing and the man they
+watch from his cradle to his coffin is something very different."
+
+It has cost a good deal of trouble to work the Doctor's talk up into
+this formal shape.  Some of his sentences have been rounded off for
+him, and the whole brought into a more rhetorical form than it could
+have pretended to, if taken as it fell from his lips.  But the exact
+course of his remarks has been followed, and as far as possible his
+expressions have been retained.  Though given in the form of a
+discourse, it must be remembered that this was a conversation, much
+more fragmentary and colloquial than it seems as just read.
+
+The Reverend Doctor was very far from taking offence at the old
+physician's freedom of speech.  He knew him to be honest, kind,
+charitable, self-denying, wherever any sorrow was to be alleviated,
+always reverential, with a cheerful trust in the great Father of all
+mankind.  To be sure, his senior deacon, old Deacon Shearer,--who
+seemed to have got his Scripture-teachings out of the "Vinegar
+Bible," (the one where Vineyard is misprinted Vinegar; which a good
+many people seem to have adopted as the true reading,)--his senior
+deacon had called Dr. Kittredge an "infidel."  But the Reverend
+Doctor could not help feeling, that, unless the text, "By their
+fruits ye shall know them," were an interpolation, the Doctor was the
+better Christian of the two.  Whatever his senior deacon might think
+about it, he said to himself that he shouldn't be surprised if he met
+the Doctor in heaven yet, inquiring anxiously after old Deacon
+Shearer.
+
+He was on the point of expressing himself very frankly to the Doctor,
+with that benevolent smile on his face which had sometimes come near
+giving offence to the readers of the "Vinegar" edition, but he saw
+that the physician's attention had been arrested by Elsie.  He looked
+in the same direction himself, and could not help being struck by her
+attitude and expression.  There was something singularly graceful in
+the curves of her neck and the rest of her figure, but she was so
+perfectly still that it seemed as if she were hardly breathing.  Her
+eyes were fixed on the young girl with whom Mr. Bernard was talking.
+He had often noticed their brilliancy, but now it seemed to him that
+they appeared dull, and the look on her features was as of some
+passion which had missed its stroke.  Mr. Bernard's companion seemed
+unconscious that she was the object of this attention, and was
+listening to the young master as if he had succeeded in making
+himself very agreeable.
+
+Of course Dick Veneer had not mistaken the game that was going on.
+The schoolmaster meant to make Elsie jealous,--and he had done it.
+That 's it: get her savage first, and then come wheedling round her,
+--a sure trick, if he isn't headed off somehow.  But Dick saw well
+enough that he had better let Elsie alone just now, and thought the
+best way of killing the evening would be to amuse himself in a little
+lively talk with Mrs. Blanche Creamer, and incidentally to show Elsie
+that he could make himself acceptable to other women, if not to
+herself.
+
+The Doctor presently went up to Elsie, determined to engage her in
+conversation and get her out of her thoughts, which he saw, by her
+look, were dangerous.  Her father had been on the point of leaving
+Helen Darley to go to her, but felt easy enough when he saw the old
+Doctor at her side, and so went on talking.  The Reverend Doctor,
+being now left alone, engaged the Widow Rowens, who put the best face
+on her vexation she could, but was devoting herself to all the
+underground deities for having been such a fool as to ask that pale-
+faced thing from the Institute to fill up her party.
+
+There is no space left to report the rest of the conversation.  If
+there was anything of any significance in it, it will turn up by and
+by, no doubt.  At ten o'clock the Reverend Doctor called Miss Letty,
+who had no idea it was so late; Mr. Bernard gave his arm to Helen;
+Mr. Richard saw to Mrs. Blanche Creamer; the Doctor gave Elsie a
+cautioning look, and went off alone, thoughtful; Dudley Venner and
+his daughter got into their carriage and were whirled away.  The
+Widow's gambit was played, and she had not won the game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE WILD HUNTSMAN.
+
+The young master had not forgotten the old Doctor's cautions.
+Without attributing any great importance to the warning he had given
+him, Mr. Bernard had so far complied with his advice that he was
+becoming a pretty good shot with the pistol.  It was an amusement as
+good as many others to practise, and he had taken a fancy to it after
+the first few days.
+
+The popping of a pistol at odd hours in the backyard of the Institute
+was a phenomenon more than sufficiently remarkable to be talked about
+in Rockland.  The viscous intelligence of a country-village is not
+easily stirred by the winds which ripple the fluent thought of great
+cities, but it holds every straw and entangles every insect that
+lights upon it.  It soon became rumored in the town that the young
+master was a wonderful shot with the pistol.  Some said he could hit
+a fo'pence-ha'penny at three rod; some, that he had shot a swallow,
+flying, with a single ball; some, that he snuffed a candle five times
+out of six at ten paces, and that he could hit any button in a man's
+coat he wanted to.  In other words, as in all such cases, all the
+common feats were ascribed to him, as the current jokes of the day
+are laid at the door of any noted wit, however innocent he may be of
+them.
+
+In the natural course of things, Mr. Richard Venner, who had by this
+time made some acquaintances, as we have seen, among that class of
+the population least likely to allow a live cinder of gossip to go
+out for want of air, had heard incidentally that the master up there
+at the Institute was all the time practising with a pistol, that they
+say he can snuff a candle at ten rods, (that was Mrs. Blanche
+Creamer's version,) and that he could hit anybody he wanted to right
+in the eye, as far as he could see the white of it.
+
+Dick did not like the sound of all this any too well.  Without
+believing more than half of it, there was enough to make the Yankee
+schoolmaster too unsafe to be trifled with.  However, shooting at a
+mark was pleasant work enough; he had no particular objection to it
+himself.  Only he did not care so much for those little popgun
+affairs that a man carries in his pocket, and with which you could
+n't shoot a fellow,--a robber, say,--without getting the muzzle under
+his nose.  Pistols for boys; long-range rifles for men.  There was
+such a gun lying in a closet with the fowling-pieces.  He would go
+out into the fields and see what he could do as a marksman.
+
+The nature of the mark which Dick chose for experimenting upon was
+singular.  He had found some panes of glass which had been removed
+from an old sash, and he placed these successively before his target,
+arranging them at different angles.  He found that a bullet would go
+through the glass without glancing or having its force materially
+abated.  It was an interesting fact in physics, and might prove of
+some practical significance hereafter.  Nobody knows what may turn up
+to render these out-of-the-way facts useful.  All this was done in a
+quiet way in one of the bare spots high up the side of The Mountain.
+He was very thoughtful in taking the precaution to get so far away;
+rifle-bullets are apt to glance and come whizzing about people's
+ears, if they are fired in the neighborhood of houses.  Dick
+satisfied himself that he could be tolerably sure of hitting a pane
+of glass at a distance of thirty rods, more or less, and that, if
+there happened to be anything behind it, the glass would not
+materially alter the force or direction of the bullet.
+
+About this time it occurred to him also that there was an old
+accomplishment of his which he would be in danger of losing for want
+of practice, if he did not take some opportunity to try his hand and
+regain its cunning, if it had begun to be diminished by disuse.  For
+his first trial, he chose an evening when the moon was shining, and
+after the hour when the Rockland people were like to be stirring
+abroad.  He was so far established now that he could do much as he
+pleased without exciting remark.
+
+The prairie horse he rode, the mustang of the Pampas, wild as he was,
+had been trained to take part in at least one exercise.  This was the
+accomplishment in which Mr. Richard now proposed to try himself.  For
+this purpose he sought the implement of which, as it may be
+remembered, he had once made an incidental use,--the lasso, or long
+strip of hide with a slip-noose at the end of it.  He had been
+accustomed to playing with such a thong from his boyhood, and had
+become expert in its use in capturing wild cattle in the course of
+his adventures.  Unfortunately, there were no wild bulls likely to be
+met with in the neighborhood, to become the subjects of his skill.  A
+stray cow in the road, an ox or a horse in a pasture, must serve his
+turn,--dull beasts, but moving marks to aim at, at any rate.
+
+Never, since he had galloped in the chase over the Pampas, had Dick
+Venner felt such a sense of life and power as when he struck the long
+spurs into his wild horse's flanks, and dashed along the road with
+the lasso lying like a coiled snake at the saddle-bow.  In skilful
+hands, the silent, bloodless noose, flying like an arrow, but not
+like that leaving a wound behind it,--sudden as a pistol-shot, but
+without the telltale explosion,--is one of the most fearful and
+mysterious weapons that arm the hand of man.  The old Romans knew how
+formidable, even in contest with a gladiator equipped with sword,
+helmet, and shield, was the almost naked retiarius, with his net in
+one hand and his three-pronged javelin in the other.  Once get a net
+over a man's head, or a cord round his neck, or, what is more
+frequently done nowadays, bonnet him by knocking his hat down over
+his eyes, and he is at the mercy of his opponent.  Our soldiers who
+served against the Mexicans found this out too well.  Many a poor
+fellow has been lassoed by the fierce riders from the plains, and
+fallen an easy victim to the captor who had snared him in the fatal
+noose.
+
+But, imposing as the sight of the wild huntsmen of the Pampas might
+have been, Dick could not help laughing at the mock sublimity of his
+situation, as he tried his first experiment on an unhappy milky
+mother who had strayed from her herd and was wandering disconsolately
+along the road, laying the dust, as slue went, with thready streams
+from her swollen, swinging udders.  "Here goes the Don at the
+windmill!" said Dick, and tilted full speed at her, whirling the
+lasso round his head as he rode.  The creature swerved to one side of
+the way, as the wild horse and his rider came rushing down upon her,
+and presently turned and ran, as only cows and it would n't be safe
+to say it--can run.  Just before he passed,--at twenty or thirty feet
+from her,--the lasso shot from his hand, uncoiling as it flew, and in
+an instant its loop was round her horns.  "Well cast!" said Dick, as
+he galloped up to her side and dexterously disengaged the lasso.
+"Now for a horse on the run!"
+
+He had the good luck to find one, presently, grazing in a pasture at
+the road-side.  Taking down the rails of the fence at one point, he
+drove the horse into the road and gave chase.  It was a lively young
+animal enough, and was easily roused to a pretty fast pace.  As his
+gallop grew more and more rapid, Dick gave the reins to the mustang,
+until the two horses stretched themselves out in their longest
+strides.  If the first feat looked like play, the one he was now to
+attempt had a good deal the appearance of real work.  He touched the
+mustang with the spur, and in a few fierce leaps found himself nearly
+abreast of the frightened animal he was chasing.  Once more he
+whirled the lasso round and round over his head, and then shot it
+forth, as the rattlesnake shoots his head from the loops against
+which it rests.  The noose was round the horse's neck, and in another
+instant was tightened so as almost to stop his breath.  The prairie
+horse knew the trick of the cord, and leaned away from the captive,
+so as to keep the thong tensely stretched between his neck and the
+peak of the saddle to which it was fastened.  Struggling was of no
+use with a halter round his windpipe, and he very soon began to
+tremble and stagger,--blind, no doubt, and with a roaring in his ears
+as of a thousand battle-trumpets,--at any rate, subdued and helpless.
+That was enough.  Dick loosened his lasso, wound it up again, laid it
+like a pet snake in a coil at his saddle-bow, turned his horse, and
+rode slowly along towards the mansion-house.
+
+The place had never looked more stately and beautiful to him than as
+he now saw it in the moonlight.  The undulations of the land,--the
+grand mountain screen which sheltered the mansion from the northern
+blasts, rising with all its hanging forests and parapets of naked
+rock high towards the heavens,--the ancient mansion, with its square
+chimneys, and bodyguard of old trees, and cincture of low walls with
+marble-pillared gateways,--the fields, with their various coverings,
+--the beds of flowers,--the plots of turf, one with a gray column in
+its centre bearing a sundial on which the rays of the moon were idly
+shining, another with a white stone and a narrow ridge of turf,--over
+all these objects, harmonized with all their infinite details into
+one fair whole by the moonlight, the prospective heir, as he deemed
+himself, looked with admiring eyes.
+
+But while he looked, the thought rose up in his mind like waters from
+a poisoned fountain, that there was a deep plot laid to cheat him of
+the inheritance which by a double claim he meant to call his own.
+Every day this ice-cold beauty, this dangerous, handsome cousin of
+his, went up to that place,--that usher's girl-trap.  Everyday,--
+regularly now,--it used to be different.  Did she go only to get out
+of his, her cousin's, reach?  Was she not rather becoming more and
+more involved in the toils of this plotting Yankee?
+
+If Mr. Bernard had shown himself at that moment a few rods in
+advance, the chances are that in less than one minute he would have
+found himself with a noose round his neck, at the heels of a mounted
+horseman.  Providence spared him for the present.  Mr. Richard rode
+his horse quietly round to the stable, put him up, and proceeded
+towards the house.  He got to his bed without disturbing the family,
+but could not sleep.  The idea had fully taken possession of his mind
+that a deep intrigue was going on which would end by bringing Elsie
+and the schoolmaster into relations fatal to all his own hopes.  With
+that ingenuity which always accompanies jealousy, he tortured every
+circumstance of the last few weeks so as to make it square with this
+belief.  From this vein of thought he naturally passed to a
+consideration of every possible method by which the issue he feared
+might be avoided.
+
+Mr. Richard talked very plain language with himself in all these
+inward colloquies.  Supposing it came to the worst, what could be
+done then?  First, an accident might happen to the schoolmaster which
+should put a complete and final check upon his projects and
+contrivances.  The particular accident which might interrupt his
+career must, evidently, be determined by circumstances; but it must
+be of a nature to explain itself without the necessity of any
+particular person's becoming involved in the matter.  It would be
+unpleasant to go into particulars; but everybody knows well enough
+that men sometimes get in the way of a stray bullet, and that young
+persons occasionally do violence to themselves in various modes,--by
+firearms, suspension, and other means,--in consequence of
+disappointment in love, perhaps, oftener than from other motives.
+There was still another kind of accident which might serve his
+purpose.  If anything should happen to Elsie, it would be the most
+natural thing in the world that his uncle should adopt him, his
+nephew and only near relation, as his heir.  Unless, indeed, uncle
+Dudley should take it into his head to marry again.  In that case,
+where would he, Dick, be?  This was the most detestable complication
+which he could conceive of.  And yet he had noticed--he could not
+help noticing--that his uncle had been very attentive to, and, as it
+seemed, very much pleased with, that young woman from the school.
+What did that mean?  Was it possible that he was going to take a
+fancy to her?
+
+It made him wild to think of all the several contingencies which
+might defraud him of that good-fortune which seemed but just now
+within his grasp.  He glared in the darkness at imaginary faces:
+sometimes at that of the handsome, treacherous schoolmaster;
+sometimes at that of the meek-looking, but no doubt, scheming, lady-
+teacher; sometimes at that of the dark girl whom he was ready to make
+his wife; sometimes at that of his much respected uncle, who, of
+course, could not be allowed to peril the fortunes of his relatives
+by forming a new connection.  It was a frightful perplexity in which
+he found himself, because there was no one single life an accident to
+which would be sufficient to insure the fitting and natural course of
+descent to the great Dudley property.  If it had been a simple
+question of helping forward a casualty to any one person, there was
+nothing in Dick's habits of thought and living to make that a serious
+difficulty.  He had been so much with lawless people, that a life
+between his wish and his object seemed only as an obstacle to be
+removed, provided the object were worth the risk and trouble.  But if
+there were two or three lives in the way, manifestly that altered the
+case.
+
+His Southern blood was getting impatient.  There was enough of the
+New-Englander about him to make him calculate his chances before he
+struck; but his plans were liable to be defeated at any moment by a
+passionate impulse such as the dark-hued races of Southern Europe and
+their descendants are liable to.  He lay in his bed, sometimes
+arranging plans to meet the various difficulties already mentioned,
+sometimes getting into a paroxysm of blind rage in the perplexity of
+considering what object he should select as the one most clearly in
+his way.  On the whole, there could be no doubt where the most
+threatening of all his embarrassments lay.  It was in the probable
+growing relation between Elsie and the schoolmaster.  If it should
+prove, as it seemed likely, that there was springing up a serious
+attachment tending to a union between them, he knew what he should
+do, if he was not quite so sure how he should do it.
+
+There was one thing at least which might favor his projects, and
+which, at any rate, would serve to amuse him.  He could, by a little
+quiet observation, find out what were the schoolmaster's habits of
+life: whether he had any routine which could be calculated upon; and
+under what circumstances a strictly private interview of a few
+minutes with him might be reckoned on, in case it should be
+desirable.  He could also very probably learn some facts about Elsie.
+whether the young man was in the habit of attending her on her way
+home from school; whether she stayed about the schoolroom after the
+other girls had gone; and any incidental matters of interest which
+might present themselves.
+
+He was getting more and more restless for want of some excitement.  A
+mad gallop, a visit to Mrs. Blanche Creamer, who had taken such a
+fancy to him, or a chat with the Widow Rowens, who was very lively in
+her talk, for all her sombre colors, and reminded him a good deal
+of same of his earlier friends, the senoritas,--all these were
+distractions, to be sure, but not enough to keep his fiery spirit
+from fretting itself in longings for more dangerous excitements.  The
+thought of getting a knowledge of all Mr. Bernard's ways, so that he
+would be in his power at any moment, was a happy one.
+
+For some days after this he followed Elsie at a long distance behind,
+to watch her until she got to the schoolhouse.  One day he saw Mr.
+Bernard join her: a mere accident, very probably, for it was only
+once this happened.  She came on her homeward way alone,--quite apart
+from the groups of girls who strolled out of the schoolhouse yard in
+company.  Sometimes she was behind them all,--which was suggestive.
+Could she have stayed to meet the schoolmaster?
+
+If he could have smuggled himself into the school, he would have
+liked to watch her there, and see if there was not some understanding
+between her and the master which betrayed itself by look or word.
+But this was beyond the limits of his audacity, and he had to content
+himself with such cautious observations as could be made at a
+distance.  With the aid of a pocket-glass he could make out persons
+without the risk of being observed himself.
+
+Mr. Silos Peckham's corps of instructors was not expected to be off
+duty or to stand at ease for any considerable length of time.
+Sometimes Mr. Bernard, who had more freedom than the rest, would go
+out for a ramble in the daytime, but more frequently it would be in
+the evening, after the hour of "retiring," as bedtime was elegantly
+termed by the young ladies of the Apollinean Institute.  He would
+then not unfrequently walk out alone in the common roads, or climb up
+the sides of The Mountain, which seemed to be one of his favorite
+resorts.  Here, of course, it was impossible to follow him with the
+eye at a distance.  Dick had a hideous, gnawing suspicion that
+somewhere in these deep shades the schoolmaster might meet Elsie,
+whose evening wanderings he knew so well.  But of this he was not
+able to assure himself.  Secrecy was necessary to his present plans,
+and he could not compromise himself by over-eager curiosity.  One
+thing he learned with certainty.  The master returned, after his walk
+one evening, and entered the building where his room was situated.
+Presently a light betrayed the window of his apartment.  From a
+wooded bank, some thirty or forty rods from this building, Dick
+Venner could see the interior of the chamber, and watch the master as
+he sat at his desk, the light falling strongly upon his face, intent
+upon the book or manuscript before him.  Dick contemplated him very
+long in this attitude.  The sense of watching his every motion,
+himself meanwhile utterly unseen, was delicious.  How little the
+master was thinking what eyes were on him!
+
+Well,--there were two things quite certain.  One was, that, if he
+chose, he could meet the schoolmaster alone, either in the road or in
+a more solitary place, if he preferred to watch his chance for an
+evening or two.  The other was, that he commanded his position, as he
+sat at his desk in the evening, in such a way that there would be
+very little difficulty,--so far as that went; of course, however,
+silence is always preferable to noise, and there is a great
+difference in the marks left by different casualties.  Very likely
+nothing would come of all this espionage; but, at any rate, the first
+thing to be done with a man you want to have in your power is to
+learn his habits.
+
+Since the tea-party at the Widow Rowens's, Elsie had been more fitful
+and moody than ever.  Dick understood all this well enough, you know.
+It was the working of her jealousy against that young schoolgirl to
+whom the master had devoted himself for the sake of piquing the
+heiress of the Dudley mansion.  Was it possible, in any way, to
+exasperate her irritable nature against him, and in this way to
+render her more accessible to his own advances?  It was difficult to
+influence her at all.  She endured his company without seeming to
+enjoy it.  She watched him with that strange look of hers, sometimes
+as if she were on her guard against him, sometimes as if she would
+like to strike at him as in that fit of childish passion.  She
+ordered him about with a haughty indifference which reminded him of
+his own way with the dark-eyed women whom he had known so well of
+old.  All this added a secret pleasure to the other motives he had
+for worrying her with jealous suspicions.  He knew she brooded
+silently on any grief that poisoned her comfort,--that she fed on it,
+as it were, until it ran with every drop of blood in her veins,--and
+that, except in some paroxysm of rage, of which he himself was not
+likely the second time to be the object, or in some deadly vengeance
+wrought secretly, against which he would keep a sharp lookout, so far
+as he was concerned, she had no outlet for her dangerous, smouldering
+passions.
+
+Beware of the woman who cannot find free utterance for all her stormy
+inner life either in words or song!  So long as a woman can talk,
+there is nothing she cannot bear.  If she cannot have a companion to
+listen to her woes, and has no musical utterance, vocal or
+instrumental,--then, if she is of the real woman sort, and has a few
+heartfuls of wild blood in her, and you have done her a wrong,--
+double-bolt the door which she may enter on noiseless slipper at
+midnight,--look twice before you taste of any cup whose draught the
+shadow of her hand may have darkened!
+
+But let her talk, and, above all, cry, or, if she is one of the
+coarser-grained tribe, give her the run of all the red-hot expletives
+in the language, and let her blister her lips with them until she is
+tired, she will sleep like a lamb after it, and you may take a cup of
+coffee from her without stirring it up to look for its sediment.
+
+So, if she can sing, or play on any musical instrument, all her
+wickedness will run off through her throat or the tips of her
+fingers.  How many tragedies find their peaceful catastrophe in
+fierce roulades and strenuous bravuras!  How many murders are
+executed in double-quick time upon the keys which stab the air with
+their dagger-strokes of sound!  What would our civilization be
+without the piano?  Are not Erard and Broadwood and Chickering the
+true humanizers of our time?  Therefore do I love to hear the all-
+pervading tum tum jarring the walls of little parlors in houses with
+double door-plates on their portals, looking out on streets and
+courts which to know is to be unknown, and where to exist is not to
+live, according to any true definition of living.  Therefore complain
+I not of modern degeneracy, when, even from the open window of the
+small unlovely farmhouse, tenanted by the hard-handed man of bovine
+flavors and the flat-patterned woman of broken-down countenance,
+issue the same familiar sounds.  For who knows that Almira, but for
+these keys, which throb away her wild impulses in harmless discords
+would not have been floating, dead, in the brown stream which slides
+through the meadows by her father's door,--or living, with that other
+current which runs beneath the gas-lights over the slimy pavement,
+choking with wretched weeds that were once in spotless flower?
+
+Poor Elsie!  She never sang nor played.  She never shaped her inner
+life in words: such utterance was as much denied to her nature as
+common articulate speech to the deaf mute.  Her only language must be
+in action.  Watch her well by day and by night, old Sophy! watch her
+well! or the long line of her honored name may close in shame, and
+the stately mansion of the Dudleys remain a hissing and a reproach
+till its roof is buried in its cellar!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+ON HIS TRACKS.
+
+"Able!"  said the old Doctor, one morning, "after you've harnessed
+Caustic, come into the study a few minutes, will you?"
+
+Abel nodded.  He was a man of few words, and he knew that the "will
+you" did not require an answer, being the true New-England way of
+rounding the corners of an employer's order,--a tribute to the
+personal independence of an American citizen.
+
+The hired man came into the study in the course of a few minutes.
+His face was perfectly still, and he waited to be spoken to; but the
+Doctor's eye detected a certain meaning in his expression, which
+looked as if he had something to communicate.
+
+"Well?" said the Doctor.
+
+"He's up to mischief o' some kind, I guess," said Abel.  "I jest
+happened daown by the mansion-haouse last night, 'n' he come aout o'
+the gate on that queer-lookin' creator' o' his.  I watched him, 'n'
+he rid, very slow, all raoun' by the Institoot, 'n' acted as ef he
+was spyin' abaout.  He looks to me like a man that's calc'latin' to
+do some kind of ill-turn to somebody.  I should n't like to have him
+raoun' me, 'f there wa'n't a pitchfork or an eel-spear or some sech
+weep'n within reach.  He may be all right; but I don't like his
+looks, 'n' I don't see what he's lurkin' raoun' the Institoot for,
+after folks is abed."
+
+"Have you watched him pretty close for the last few days?" said the
+Doctor.
+
+"W'll, yes,--I've had my eye on him consid'ble o' the time.  I haf to
+be pooty shy abaout it, or he'll find aout th't I'm on his tracks.  I
+don' want him to get a spite ag'inst me, 'f I c'n help it; he looks
+to me like one o' them kind that kerries what they call slung-shot,
+'n' hits ye on the side o' th' head with 'em so suddin y' never know
+what hurts ye."
+
+"Why," said the Doctor, sharply,--"have you ever seen him with any
+such weapon about him?"
+
+"W'll, no,--I caan't say that I hev," Abel answered.  "On'y he looks
+kin' o' dangerous.  Maybe he's all jest 'z he ought to be,--I caan't
+say that he a'n't,--but he's aout late nights, 'n' lurkin' raonn'
+jest 'z ef he was spyin' somebody, 'n' somehaow I caan't help
+mistrustin' them Portagee-lookin' fellahs.  I caan't keep the run o'
+this chap all the time; but I've a notion that old black woman daown
+'t the mansion-haouse knows 'z much abaout him 'z anybody."
+
+The Doctor paused a moment, after hearing this report from his
+private detective, and then got into his chaise, and turned Caustic's
+head in the direction of the Dudley mansion.  He had been suspicious
+of Dick from the first.  He did not like his mixed blood, nor his
+looks, nor his ways.  He had formed a conjecture about his projects
+early.  He had made a shrewd guess as to the probable jealousy Dick
+would feel of the schoolmaster, had found out something of his
+movements, and had cautioned Mr. Bernard,--as we have seen.  He felt
+an interest in the young man,--a student of his own profession, an
+intelligent and ingenuously unsuspecting young fellow, who had been
+thrown by accident into the companionship or the neighborhood of two
+persons, one of whom he knew to be dangerous, and the other he
+believed instinctively might be capable of crime.
+
+The Doctor rode down to the Dudley mansion solely for the sake of
+seeing old Sophy.  He was lucky enough to find her alone in her
+kitchen.  He began taking with her as a physician; he wanted to know
+how her rheumatism had been.  The shrewd old woman saw through all
+that with her little beady black eyes.  It was something quite
+different he had come for, and old Sophy answered very briefly for
+her aches and ails.
+
+"Old folks' bones a'n't like young folks'," she said.  "It's the
+Lord's doin's, 'n' 't a'n't much matter.  I sha'n' be long roan' this
+kitchen.  It's the young Missis, Doctor,--it 's our Elsie,--it 's the
+baby, as we use' t' call her,--don' you remember, Doctor?  Seventeen
+year ago, 'n' her poor mother cryin' for her,--'Where is she?  where
+is she?  Let me see her!  '--'n' how I run up-stairs,--I could run
+then,--'n' got the coral necklace 'n' put it round her little neck,
+'n' then showed her to her mother,--'n' how her mother looked at her,
+'n' looked, 'n' then put out her poor thin fingers 'n' lifted the
+necklace,--'n' fell right back on her piller, as white as though she
+was laid out to bury?"
+
+The Doctor answered her by silence and a look of grave assent.  He
+had never chosen to let old Sophy dwell upon these matters, for
+obvious reasons.  The girl must not grow up haunted by perpetual
+fears and prophecies, if it were possible to prevent it.
+
+"Well, how has Elsie seemed of late?"  he said, after this brief
+pause.
+
+The old woman shook her head.  Then she looked up at the Doctor so
+steadily and searchingly that the diamond eyes of Elsie herself could
+hardly have pierced more deeply.
+
+The Doctor raised his head, by his habitual movement, and met the old
+woman's look with his own calm and scrutinizing gaze, sharpened by
+the glasses through which he now saw her.
+
+Sophy spoke presently in an awed tone, as if telling a vision.
+
+"We shall be havin' trouble before long.  The' 's somethin' comin'
+from the Lord.  I've had dreams, Doctor.  It's many a year I've been
+a-dreamin', but now they're comin' over 'n' over the same thing.
+Three times I've dreamed one thing, Doctor,--one thing!"
+
+"And what was that?" the Doctor said, with that shade of curiosity in
+his tone which a metaphysician would probably say is an index of a
+certain tendency to belief in the superstition to which the question
+refers.
+
+"I ca'n' jestly tell y' what it was, Doctor," the old woman answered,
+as if bewildered and trying to clear up her recollections; "but it
+was somethin' fearful, with a great noise 'n' a great cryin' o'
+people,--like the Las' Day, Doctor!  The Lord have mercy on my poor
+chil', 'n' take care of her, if anything happens!  But I's feared
+she'll never live to see the Las' Day, 'f 't don' come pooty quick."
+
+Poor Sophy, only the third generation from cannibalism, was, not
+unnaturally, somewhat confused in her theological notions.  Some of
+the Second-Advent preachers had been about, and circulated their
+predictions among the kitchen--population of Rockland.  This was the
+way in which it happened that she mingled her fears in such a strange
+manner with their doctrines.
+
+The Doctor answered solemnly, that of the day and hour we knew not,
+but it became us to be always ready.--"Is there anything going on in
+the household different from common?"
+
+Old Sophy's wrinkled face looked as full of life and intelligence,
+when she turned it full upon the Doctor, as if she had slipped off
+her infirmities and years like an outer garment.  All those fine
+instincts of observation which came straight to her from her savage
+grandfather looked out of her little eyes.  She had a kind of faith
+that the Doctor was a mighty conjurer, who, if he would, could
+bewitch any of them.  She had relieved her feelings by her long talk
+with the minister, but the Doctor was the immediate adviser of the
+family, and had watched them through all their troubles.  Perhaps he
+could tell them what to do.  She had but one real object of affection
+in the world,--this child that she had tended from infancy to
+womanhood.  Troubles were gathering thick round her; how soon they
+would break upon her, and blight or destroy her, no one could tell;
+but there was nothing in all the catalogue of terrors which might not
+come upon the household at any moment.  Her own wits had sharpened
+themselves in keeping watch by day and night, and her face had
+forgotten its age in the excitement which gave life to its features.
+
+"Doctor," old Sophy said, "there's strange things goin' on here by
+night and by day.  I don' like that man,--that Dick,--I never liked
+him.  He giv' me some o' these things I' got on; I take 'em 'cos I
+know it make him mad, if I no take 'em; I wear 'em, so that he need
+n' feel as if I did n' like him; but, Doctor, I hate him,--jes' as
+much as a member of the church has the Lord's leave to hate anybody."
+
+Her eyes sparkled with the old savage light, as if her ill-will to
+Mr. Richard Veneer might perhaps go a little farther than the
+Christian limit she had assigned.  But remember that her grandfather
+was in the habit of inviting his friends to dine with him upon the
+last enemy he had bagged, and that her grandmother's teeth were filed
+down to points, so that they were as sharp as a shark's.
+
+"What is that you have seen about Mr. Richard Veneer that gives you
+such a spite against him, Sophy?"  asked the Doctor.
+
+"What I' seen 'bout Dick Veneer?"  she replied, fiercely.  "I'll tell
+y' what I' seen.  Dick wan's to marry our Elsie,--that 's what he
+wan's; 'n' he don' love her, Doctor,--he hates her, Doctor, as bad as
+I hate him!  He wan's to marry our Elsie, In' live here in the big
+house, 'n' have nothin' to do but jes' lay still 'n' watch.  Massa
+Venner 'n' see how long 't Ill take him to die, 'n' 'f he don' die
+fas' 'puff, help him some way t' die fasser !---Come close up t' me,
+Doctor!  I wan' t' tell you somethin' I tol' th' minister t' other
+day.  Th' minister, he come down 'n' prayed 'n' talked good,--he's a
+good man, that Doctor Honeywood, 'n' I tol' him all 'bout our Elsie,
+but he did n' tell nobody what to do to stop all what I' been
+dreamin' about happenin'.  Come close up to me, Doctor!"
+
+The Doctor drew his chair close up to that of the old woman.
+
+"Doctor, nobody mus'n' never marry our Elsie 's longs she lives!
+Nobody mus' n' never live with Elsie but ol Sophy; 'n' ol Sophy won't
+never die 's long 's Elsie 's alive to be took care of.  But I's
+feared, Doctor, I's greatly feared Elsie wan' to marry somebody.
+The' 's a young gen'l'm'n up at that school where she go,--so some of
+'em tells me, 'n' she loves t' see him 'n' talk wi' him, 'n' she
+talks about him when she 's asleep sometimes.  She mus 'n' never
+marry nobody, Doctor!  If she do, he die, certain!"
+
+"If she has a fancy for the young man up at the school there," the
+Doctor said, "I shouldn't think there would be much danger from
+Dick."
+
+"Doctor, nobody know nothin' 'bout Elsie but of Sophy.  She no like
+any other creator' th't ever drawed the bref o' life.  If she ca'n'
+marry one man 'cos she love him, she marry another man 'cos she hate
+him."
+
+"Marry a man because she hates him, Sophy?  No woman ever did such a
+thing as that, or ever will do it."
+
+"Who tol' you Elsie was a woman, Doctor?"  said old Sophy, with a
+flash of strange intelligence in her eyes.
+
+The Doctor's face showed that he was startled.  The old woman could
+not know much about Elsie that he did not know; but what strange
+superstition had got into her head, he was puzzled to guess.  He had
+better follow Sophy's lead and find out what she meant.
+
+"I should call Elsie a woman, and a very handsome one," he said.
+"You don't mean that she has any mark about her, except--you know--
+under the necklace?"
+
+The old woman resented the thought of any deformity about her
+darling.
+
+"I did n' say she had nothin'--but j es' that--you know.  My beauty
+have anything ugly?  She's the beautifullest-shaped lady that ever
+had a shinin' silk gown drawed over her shoulders.  On'y she a'n't
+like no other woman in none of her ways.  She don't cry 'n' laugh
+like other women.  An' she ha'n' got the same kind o' feelin's as
+other women.---Do you know that young gen'1'm'n up at the school,
+Doctor?"
+
+"Yes, Sophy, I've met him sometimes.  He's a very nice sort of young
+man, handsome, too, and I don't much wonder Elsie takes to him.  Tell
+me, Sophy, what do you think would happen, if he should chance to
+fall in love with Elsie, and she with him, and he should marry her?"
+
+"Put your ear close to my lips, Doctor, dear!"  She whispered a
+little to the Doctor, then added aloud, "He die,--that's all."
+
+"But surely, Sophy, you a'n't afraid to have Dick marry her, if she
+would have him for any reason, are you?  He can take care of himself,
+if anybody can."
+
+"Doctor!" Sophy answered, "nobody can take care of hisself that live
+wi' Elsie!  Nobody never in all this worl' mus' live wi' Elsie but of
+Sophy, I tell you.  You don' think I care for Dick?  What do I care,
+if Dick Venner die?  He wam's to marry our Elsie so 's to live in the
+big house 'n' get all the money 'n' all the silver things 'n' all the
+chists full o' linen 'n' beautiful clothes.  That's what Dick wan's.
+An' he hates Elsie 'cos she don' like him.  But if he marry Elsie,
+she 'll make him die some wrong way or other, 'n' they'll take her
+'n' hang her, or he'll get mad with her 'n' choke her.--Oh, I know
+his chokin' tricks!--he don' leave his keys roun' for nothin'"
+
+"What's that you say, Sophy?  Tell me what you mean by all that."
+
+So poor Sophy had to explain certain facts not in all respects to her
+credit.  She had taken the opportunity of his absence to look about
+his chamber, and, having found a key in one of his drawers, had
+applied it to a trunk, and, finding that it opened the trunk, had
+made a kind of inspection for contraband articles, and, seeing the
+end of a leather thong, had followed it up until she saw that it
+finished with a noose, which, from certain appearances, she inferred
+to have seen service of at least doubtful nature.  An unauthorized
+search; but old Sophy considered that a game of life and death was
+going on in the household, and that she was bound to look out for her
+darling.
+
+The Doctor paused a moment to think over this odd piece of
+information.  Without sharing Sophy's belief as to the kind of use
+this mischievous-looking piece of property had been put to, it was
+certainly very odd that Dick should have such a thing at the bottom
+of his trunk.  The Doctor remembered reading or hearing something
+about the lasso and the lariat and the bolas, and had an indistinct
+idea that they had been sometimes used as weapons of warfare or
+private revenge; but they were essentially a huntsman's implements,
+after all, and it was not very strange that this young man had
+brought one of them with him.  Not strange, perhaps, but worth
+noting.
+
+"Do you really think Dick means mischief to anybody, that he has such
+dangerous-looking things?"  the Doctor said, presently.
+
+"I tell you, Doctor. Dick means to have Elsie.  If he ca'n' get her,
+he never let nobody else have her!  Oh, Dick 's a dark man, Doctor!
+I know him!  I 'member him when he was little boy,--he always cunin'.
+I think he mean mischief to somebody.  He come home late nights,--
+come in softly,--oh, I hear him!  I lay awake, 'n' got sharp ears,--I
+hear the cats walkin' over the roofs,--'n' I hear Dick Veneer, when
+he comes up in his stockin'-feet as still as a cat.  I think he mean'
+mischief to somebody.  I no like his looks these las' days.--Is that
+a very pooty gen'l'm'n up at the schoolhouse, Doctor?"
+
+"I told you he was good-looking.  What if he is?"
+
+"I should like to see him, Doctor,--I should like to see the pooty
+gen'l'm'n that my poor Elsie loves.  She mus 'n' never marry nobody,
+--but, oh, Doctor, I should like to see him, 'n' jes' think a little
+how it would ha' been, if the Lord had n' been so hard on Elsie."
+
+She wept and wrung her hands.  The kind Doctor was touched, and left
+her a moment to her thoughts.
+
+"And how does Mr. Dudley Veneer take all this?" he said, by way of
+changing the subject a little.
+
+"Oh, Massa Veneer, he good man, but he don' know nothin' 'bout Elsie,
+as of Sophy do.  I keep close by her; I help her when she go to bed,
+'n' set by her sometime when she--'sleep; I come to her in th'
+mornin' 'n' help her put on her things."--Then, in a whisper;--
+"Doctor, Elsie lets of Sophy take off that necklace for her.  What
+you think she do, 'f anybody else tech it?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure, Sophy,--strike the person, perhaps."
+
+"Oh, yes, strike 'em!  but not with her han's, Doctor!"--The old
+woman's significant pantomime must be guessed at.
+
+"But you haven't told me, Sophy, what Mr. Dudley Veneer thinks of his
+nephew, nor whether he has any notion that Dick wants to marry
+Elsie."
+
+"I tell you.  Massa Venner, he good man, but he no see nothin' 'bout
+what goes on here in the house.  He sort o' broken-hearted, you
+know,--sort o' giv up,--don' know what to do wi' Elsie, 'xcep' say
+'Yes, yes.'  Dick always look smilin' 'n' behave well before him.
+One time I thought Massa Veneer b'lieve Dick was goin' to take to
+Elsie; but now he don' seem to take much notice,--he kin' o' stupid-'
+like 'bout sech things.  It's trouble, Doctor; 'cos Massa Veneer
+bright man naterally,--'n' he's got a great heap o' books.  I don'
+think Massa Veneer never been jes' heself sence Elsie 's born.  He
+done all he know how,--but, Doctor, that wa'n' a great deal.  You
+men-folks don' know nothin' 'bout these young gals; 'n' 'f you knowed
+all the young gals that ever lived, y' would n' know nothin' 'bout
+our Elsie."
+
+"No,--but, Sophy, what I want to know is, whether you think Mr.
+Veneer has any kind of suspicion about his nephew,--whether he has
+any notion that he's a dangerous sort of fellow,--or whether he feels
+safe to have him about, or has even taken a sort of fancy to him."
+
+"Lar' bless you, Doctor, Massa Veneer no more idee 'f any mischief
+'bout Dick than he has 'bout you or me.  Y' see, he very fond o' the
+Cap'n,--that Dick's father,--'n' he live so long alone here, 'long
+wi' us, that he kin' o' like to see mos' anybody 't 's got any o' th'
+of family-blood in 'em.  He ha'n't got no more suspicions 'n a baby,
+--y' never see sech a man 'n y'r life.  I kin' o' think he don' care
+for nothin' in this world 'xcep' jes' t' do what Elsie wan's him to.
+The fus' year after young Madam die he do nothin' but jes' set at the
+window 'n' look out at her grave, 'n' then come up 'n' look at the
+baby's neck 'n' say, 'It's fadin', Sophy, a'n't it? 'n' then go down
+in the study 'n' walk 'n' walk, 'n' them kneel down 'n' pray.
+Doctor, there was two places in the old carpet that was all
+threadbare, where his knees had worn 'em.  An' sometimes, you
+remember 'bout all that,--he'd go off up into The Mountain, 'n' be
+gone all day, 'n' kill all the Ugly Things he could find up there.---
+Oh, Doctor, I don' like to think o' them days!--An' by 'n' by he
+grew kin' o' still, 'n' begun to read a little, 'n' 't las' he got 's
+quiet's a lamb, 'n' that's the way he is now.  I think he's got
+religion, Doctor; but he a'n't so bright about what's goin' on, 'n' I
+don' believe he never suspec' nothin' till somethin' happens; for
+the' 's somethin' goin' to happen, Doctor, if the Las' Day does n'
+come to stop it; 'n' you mus' tell us what to do, 'n' save my poor
+Elsie, my baby that the Lord has n' took care of like all his other
+childer."
+
+The Doctor assured the old woman that he was thinking a great deal
+about them all, and that there were other eyes on Dick besides her
+own.  Let her watch him closely about the house, and he would keep a
+look-out elsewhere.  If there was anything new, she must let him know
+at once.  Send up one of the menservants, and he would come down at a
+moment's warning.
+
+There was really nothing definite against this young man; but the
+Doctor was sure that he was meditating some evil design or other.  He
+rode straight up to the Institute.  There he saw Mr. Bernard, and had
+a brief conversation with him, principally on matters relating to his
+personal interests.
+
+That evening, for some unknown reason, Mr. Bernard changed the place
+of his desk and drew down the shades of his windows.  Late that night
+Mr. Richard Venner drew the charge of a rifle, and put the gun back
+among the fowling-pieces, swearing that a leather halter was worth a
+dozen of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE PERILOUS HOUR.
+
+Up to this time Dick Venner had not decided on the particular mode
+and the precise period of relieving himself from the unwarrantable
+interference which threatened to defeat his plans.  The luxury of
+feeling that he had his man in his power was its own reward.  One who
+watches in the dark, outside, while his enemy, in utter
+unconsciousness, is illuminating his apartment and himself so that
+every movement of his head and every button on his coat can be seen
+and counted, experiences a peculiar kind of pleasure, if he holds a
+loaded rifle in his hand, which he naturally hates to bring to its
+climax by testing his skill as a marksman upon the object of his
+attention.
+
+Besides, Dick had two sides in his nature, almost as distinct as we
+sometimes observe in those persons who are the subjects of the
+condition known as double consciousness.  On his New England side he
+was cunning and calculating, always cautious, measuring his distance
+before he risked his stroke, as nicely as if he were throwing his
+lasso.  But he was liable to intercurrent fits of jealousy and rage,
+such as the light-hued races are hardly capable of conceiving,
+blinding paroxysms of passion, which for the time overmastered him,
+and which, if they found no ready outlet, transformed themselves into
+the more dangerous forces that worked through the instrumentality of
+his cool craftiness.
+
+He had failed as yet in getting any positive evidence that there was
+any relation between Elsie and the schoolmaster other than such as
+might exist unsuspected and unblamed between a teacher and his pupil.
+A book, or a note, even, did not prove the existence of any
+sentiment.  At one time he would be devoured by suspicions, at
+another he would try to laugh himself out of them.  And in the mean
+while he followed Elsie's tastes as closely as he could, determined
+to make some impression upon her,--to become a habit, a convenience,
+a necessity,--whatever might aid him in the attainment of the one end
+which was now the aim of his life.
+
+It was to humor one of her tastes already known to the reader, that
+he said to her one morning,--"Come, Elsie, take your castanets, and
+let us have a dance."
+
+He had struck the right vein in the girl's fancy, for she was in the
+mood for this exercise, and very willingly led the way into one of
+the more empty apartments.  What there was in this particular kind of
+dance which excited her it might not be easy to guess; but those who
+looked in with the old Doctor, on a former occasion, and saw her,
+will remember that she was strangely carried away by it, and became
+almost fearful in the vehemence of her passion.  The sound of the
+castanets seemed to make her alive all over.  Dick knew well enough
+what the exhibition would be, and was almost afraid of her at these
+moments; for it was like the dancing mania of Eastern devotees, more
+than the ordinary light amusement of joyous youth,--a convulsion of
+the body and the mind, rather than a series of voluntary modulated
+motions.
+
+Elsie rattled out the triple measure of a saraband.  Her eyes began
+to glitter more brilliantly, and her shape to undulate in freer
+curves.  Presently she noticed that Dick's look was fixed upon her
+necklace.  His face betrayed his curiosity; he was intent on solving
+the question, why she always wore something about her neck.  The
+chain of mosaics she had on at that moment displaced itself at every
+step, and he was peering with malignant, searching eagerness to see
+if an unsunned ring of fairer hue than the rest of the surface, or
+any less easily explained peculiarity, were hidden by her ornaments.
+
+She stopped suddenly, caught the chain of mosaics and settled it
+hastily in its place, flung down her castanets, drew herself back,
+and stood looking at him, with her head a little on one side, and her
+eyes narrowing in the way he had known so long and well.
+
+"What is the matter, Cousin Elsie?  What do you stop for?"  he said.
+
+Elsie did not answer, but kept her eyes on him, full of malicious
+light.  The jealousy which lay covered up under his surface-thoughts
+took this opportunity to break out.
+
+"You would n't act so, if you were dancing with Mr. Langdon,--would
+you, Elsie?" he asked.
+
+It was with some effort that he looked steadily at her to see the
+effect of his question.
+
+Elsie colored,--not much, but still perceptibly.  Dick could not
+remember that he had ever seen her show this mark of emotion before,
+in all his experience of her fitful changes of mood.  It had a
+singular depth of significance, therefore, for him; he knew how
+hardly her color came.  Blushing means nothing, in some persons; in
+others, it betrays a profound inward agitation,--a perturbation of
+the feelings far more trying than the passions which with many easily
+moved persons break forth in tears.  All who have observed much are
+aware that some men, who have seen a good deal of life in its less
+chastened aspects and are anything but modest, will blush often and
+easily, while there are delicate and sensitive women who can faint,
+or go into fits, if necessary, but are very rarely seen to betray
+their feelings in their cheeks, even when their expression shows that
+their inmost soul is blushing scarlet.  Presently she answered,
+abruptly and scornfully,  "Mr. Langdon is a gentleman, and would not
+vex me as you do."
+
+"A gentleman!"  Dick answered, with the most insulting accent,--
+"a gentleman!  Come, Elsie, you 've got the Dudley blood in your
+veins, and it does n't do for you to call this poor, sneaking
+schoolmaster a gentleman!"
+
+He stopped short.  Elsie's bosom was heaving, the faint flush on her
+cheek was becoming a vivid glow.  Whether it were shame or wrath, he
+saw that he had reached some deep-lying centre of emotion.  There was
+no longer any doubt in his mind.  With another girl these signs of
+confusion might mean little or nothing; with her they were decisive
+and final.  Elsie Venner loved Bernard Langdon.
+
+The sudden conviction, absolute, overwhelming, which rushed upon him,
+had well-nigh led to an explosion of wrath, and perhaps some terrible
+scene which might have fulfilled some of old Sophy's predictions.
+This, however, would never do.  Dick's face whitened with his
+thoughts, but he kept still until he could speak calmly.
+
+"I've nothing against the young fellow," he said; "only I don't think
+there's anything quite good enough to keep the company of people that
+have the Dudley blood in them.  You a'n't as proud as I am.  I can't
+quite make up my mind to call a schoolmaster a gentleman, though this
+one may be well enough.  I 've nothing against him, at any rate."
+
+Elsie made no answer, but glided out of the room and slid away to her
+own apartment.  She bolted the door and drew her curtains close.
+Then she threw herself on the floor, and fell into a dull, slow ache
+of passion, without tears, without words, almost without thoughts.
+So she remained, perhaps, for a half-hour, at the end of which time
+it seemed that her passion had become a sullen purpose.  She arose,
+and, looking cautiously round, went to the hearth, which was
+ornamented with curious old Dutch tiles, with pictures of Scripture
+subjects.  One of these represented the lifting of the brazen
+serpent.  She took a hair-pin from one of her braids, and,
+insinuating its points under the edge of the tile, raised it from its
+place.  A small leaden box lay under the tile, which she opened, and,
+taking from it a little white powder, which she folded in a scrap of
+paper, replaced the box and the tile over it.
+
+Whether Dick had by any means got a knowledge of this proceeding, or
+whether he only suspected some unmentionable design on her part,
+there is no sufficient means of determining.  At any rate, when they
+met, an hour or two after these occurrences, he could not help
+noticing how easily she seemed to have got over her excitement.  She
+was very pleasant with him,--too pleasant, Dick thought.  It was not
+Elsie's way to come out of a fit of anger so easily as that.  She had
+contrived some way of letting off her spite; that was certain.  Dick
+was pretty cunning, as old Sophy had said, and, whether or not he had
+any means of knowing Elsie's private intentions, watched her closely,
+and was on his guard against accidents.
+
+For the first time, he took certain precautions with reference to his
+diet, such as were quite alien to his common habits.  On coming to
+the dinner-table, that day, he complained of headache, took but
+little food, and refused the cup of coffee which Elsie offered him,
+saying that it did not agree with him when he had these attacks.
+
+Here was a new complication.  Obviously enough, he could not live in
+this way, suspecting everything but plain bread and water, and hardly
+feeling safe in meddling with them.  Not only had this school-keeping
+wretch come between him and the scheme by which he was to secure his
+future fortune, but his image had so infected his cousin's mind that
+she was ready to try on him some of those tricks which, as he had
+heard hinted in the village, she had once before put in practice upon
+a person who had become odious to her.
+
+Something must be done, and at once, to meet the double necessities
+of this case.  Every day, while the young girl was in these relations
+with the young man, was only making matters worse.  They could
+exchange words and looks, they could arrange private interviews, they
+would be stooping together over the same book, her hair touching his
+cheek, her breath mingling with his, all the magnetic attractions
+drawing them together with strange, invisible effluences.  As her
+passion for the schoolmaster increased, her dislike to him, her
+cousin, would grow with it, and all his dangers would be multiplied.
+It was a fearful point he had, reached.  He was tempted at one moment
+to give up all his plans and to disappear suddenly from the place,
+leaving with the schoolmaster, who had come between him and his
+object, an anonymous token of his personal sentiments which would be
+remembered a good while in the history of the town of Rockland.  This
+was but a momentary thought; the great Dudley property could not be
+given up in that way.
+
+Something must happen at once to break up all this order of things.
+He could think of but one Providential event adequate to the
+emergency,--an event foreshadowed by various recent circumstances,
+but hitherto floating in his mind only as a possibility.  Its
+occurrence would at once change the course of Elsie's feelings,
+providing her with something to think of besides mischief, and remove
+the accursed obstacle which was thwarting all his own projects.
+Every possible motive, then,--his interest, his jealousy, his longing
+for revenge, and now his fears for his own safety,--urged him to
+regard the happening of a certain casualty as a matter of simple
+necessity.  This was the self-destruction of Mr. Bernard Langdon.
+
+Such an event, though it might be surprising to many people, would
+not be incredible, nor without many parallel cases.  He was poor, a
+miserable fag, under the control of that mean wretch up there at the
+school, who looked as if he had sour buttermilk in his veins instead
+of blood.  He was in love with a girl above his station, rich, and of
+old family, but strange in all her ways, and it was conceivable that
+he should become suddenly jealous of her.  Or she might have
+frightened him with some display of her peculiarities which had
+filled him with a sudden repugnance in the place of love.  Any of
+these things were credible, and would make a probable story enough,--
+so thought Dick over to himself with the New-England half of his
+mind.
+
+Unfortunately, men will not always take themselves out of the way
+when, so far as their neighbors are concerned, it would be altogether
+the most appropriate and graceful and acceptable service they could
+render.  There was at this particular moment no special reason for
+believing that the schoolmaster meditated any violence to his own
+person.  On the contrary, there was good evidence that he was taking
+some care of himself.  He was looking well and in good spirits, and
+in the habit of amusing himself and exercising, as if to keep up his
+standard of health, especially of taking certain evening-walks,
+before referred to, at an hour when most of the Rockland people had
+"retired," or, in vulgar language, "gone to bed."
+
+Dick Veneer settled it, however, in his own mind, that Mr. Bernard
+Langdon must lay violent hands upon himself.  He even went so far as
+to determine the precise hour, and the method in which the "rash
+act," as it would undoubtedly be called in the next issue of "The
+Rockland Weekly Universe," should be committed.  Time,--this evening.
+Method, asphyxia, by suspension.  It was, unquestionably, taking a
+great liberty with a man to decide that he should become felo de se
+without his own consent.  Such, however, was the decision of Mr.
+Richard Veneer with regard to Mr. Bernard Langdon.
+
+If everything went right, then, there would be a coroner's inquest
+to-morrow upon what remained of that gentleman, found suspended to
+the branch of a tree somewhere within a mile of the Apollinean
+Institute.  The "Weekly Universe" would have a startling paragraph
+announcing a "SAD EVENT!!!" which had "thrown the town into an
+intense state of excitement.  Mr. Barnard Langden, a well-known
+teacher at the Appolinian Institute, was found, etc., etc.  The vital
+spark was extinct.  The motive to the rash act can only be
+conjectured, but is supposed to be disappointed affection.  The name
+of an accomplished young lady of the highest respectability and great
+beauty is mentioned in connection with this melancholy occurrence."
+
+Dick Venner was at the tea-table that evening, as usual.---No, he
+would take green tea, if she pleased,--the same that her father
+drank.  It would suit his headache better.--Nothing,--he was much
+obliged to her.  He would help himself,--which he did in a little
+different way from common, naturally enough, on account of his
+headache.  He noticed that Elsie seemed a little nervous while she
+was rinsing some of the teacups before their removal.
+
+"There's something going on in that witch's head," he said to
+himself.  "I know her,--she 'd be savage now, if she had n't got some
+trick in hand.  Let 's see how she looks to-morrow!"
+
+Dick announced that he should go to bed early that evening, on
+account of this confounded headache which had been troubling him so
+much.  In fact, he went up early, and locked his door after him, with
+as much noise as he could make.  He then changed some part of his
+dress, so that it should be dark throughout, slipped off his boots,
+drew the lasso out from the bottom of the contents of his trunk, and,
+carrying that and his boots in his hand, opened his door softly,
+locked it after him, and stole down the back-stairs, so as to get out
+of the house unnoticed.  He went straight to the stable and saddled
+the mustang.  He took a rope from the stable with him, mounted his
+horse, and set forth in the direction of the Institute.
+
+Mr. Bernard, as we have seen, had not been very profoundly impressed
+by the old Doctor's cautions,--enough, however, to follow out some of
+his hints which were not troublesome to attend to.  He laughed at the
+idea of carrying a loaded pistol about with him; but still it seemed
+only fair, as the old Doctor thought so much of the matter, to humor
+him about it.  As for not going about when and where he liked, for
+fear he might have some lurking enemy, that was a thing not to be
+listened to nor thought of.  There was nothing to be ashamed of or
+troubled about in any of his relations with the school-girls.  Elsie,
+no doubt, showed a kind of attraction towards him, as did perhaps
+some others; but he had been perfectly discreet, and no father or
+brother or lover had any just cause of quarrel with him.  To be sure,
+that dark young man at the Dudley mansion-house looked as if he were
+his enemy, when he had met him; but certainly there was nothing in
+their relations to each other, or in his own to Elsie, that would be
+like to stir such malice in his mind as would lead him to play any of
+his wild Southern tricks at his, Mr. Bernard's, expense.  Yet he had
+a vague feeling that this young man was dangerous, and he had been
+given to understand that one of the risks he ran was from that
+quarter.
+
+On this particular evening, he had a strange, unusual sense of some
+impending peril.  His recent interview with the Doctor, certain
+remarks which had been dropped in his hearing, but above all an
+unaccountable impression upon his spirits, all combined to fill his
+mind with a foreboding conviction that he was very near some
+overshadowing danger.  It was as the chill of the ice-mountain toward
+which the ship is steering under full sail.  He felt a strong impulse
+to see Helen Darley and talk with her.  She was in the common parlor,
+and, fortunately, alone.
+
+"Helen," he said,--for they were almost like brother and sister now,
+--"I have been thinking what you would do, if I should have to leave
+the school at short notice, or be taken away suddenly by any
+accident."
+
+"Do?" she said, her cheek growing paler than its natural delicate
+hue,--"why, I do not know how I could possibly consent to live here,
+if you left us.  Since you came, my life has been almost easy;
+before, it was getting intolerable.  You must not talk about going,
+my dear friend; you have spoiled me for my place.  Who is there here
+that I can have any true society with, but you?  You would not leave
+us for another school, would you?"
+
+"No, no, my dear Helen," Mr. Bernard said, "if it depends on myself,
+I shall stay out my full time, and enjoy your company and friendship.
+But everything is uncertain in this world.  I have been thinking that
+I might be wanted elsewhere, and called when I did not think of it;--
+it was a fancy, perhaps,--but I can't keep it out of my mind this
+evening.  If any of my fancies should come true, Helen, there are two
+or three messages I want to leave with you.  I have marked a book or
+two with a cross in pencil on the fly-leaf;--these are for you.
+There is a little hymn-book I should like to have you give to Elsie
+from me;--it may be a kind of comfort to the poor girl."
+
+Helen's eyes glistened as she interrupted him,--
+
+"What do you mean?  You must not talk so, Mr. Langdon.  Why, you
+never looked better in your life.  Tell me now, you are not in
+earnest, are you, but only trying a little sentiment on me?"
+
+Mr. Bernard smiled, but rather sadly.
+
+"About half in earnest," he said.  "I have had some fancies in my
+head,--superstitions, I suppose,--at any rate, it does no harm to
+tell you what I should like to have done, if anything should happen,
+--very likely nothing ever will.  Send the rest of the books home, if
+you please, and write a letter to my mother.  And, Helen, you will
+find one small volume in my desk enveloped and directed, you will see
+to whom;--give this with your own hands; it is a keepsake."
+
+The tears gathered in her eyes; she could not speak at first.
+Presently, "Why, Bernard, my dear friend, my brother, it cannot be
+that you are in danger?  Tell me what it is, and, if I can share it
+with you, or counsel you in any way, it will only be paying back the
+great debt I owe you.  No, no,--it can't be true,--you are tired and
+worried, and your spirits have got depressed.  I know what that is;--
+I was sure, one winter, that I should die before spring; but I lived
+to see the dandelions and buttercups go to seed.  Come, tell me it
+was nothing but your imagination."
+
+She felt a tear upon her cheek, but would not turn her face away from
+him; it was the tear of a sister.
+
+"I am really in earnest, Helen," he said.  "I don't know that there
+is the least reason in the world for these fancies.  If they all go
+off and nothing comes of them, you may laugh at me, if you like.  But
+if there should be any occasion, remember my requests.  You don't
+believe in presentiments, do you?"
+
+"Oh, don't ask-me, I beg you," Helen answered.  "I have had a good
+many frights for every one real misfortune I have suffered.
+Sometimes I have thought I was warned beforehand of coming trouble,
+just as many people are of changes in the weather, by some
+unaccountable feeling,--but not often, and I don't like to talk about
+such things.  I wouldn't think about these fancies of yours.  I don't
+believe you have exercised enough;--don't you think it's confinement
+in the school has made you nervous?"
+
+"Perhaps it has; but it happens that I have thought more of exercise
+lately, and have taken regular evening walks, besides playing my old
+gymnastic tricks every day."
+
+They talked on many subjects, but through all he said Helen perceived
+a pervading tone of sadness, and an expression as of a dreamy
+foreboding of unknown evil.  They parted at the usual hour, and went
+to their several rooms.  The sadness of Mr. Bernard had sunk into the
+heart of Helen, and she mingled many tears with her prayers that
+evening, earnestly entreating that he might be comforted in his days
+of trial and protected in his hour of danger.
+
+Mr. Bernard stayed in his room a short time before setting out for
+his evening walk.  His eye fell upon the Bible his mother had given
+him when he left home, and he opened it in the New Testament at a
+venture.  It happened that the first words he read were these,--
+"Lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping."  In the state of mind
+in which he was at the moment, the text startled him.  It was like a
+supernatural warning.  He was not going to expose himself to any
+particular danger this evening; a walk in a quiet village was as free
+from risk as Helen Darley or his own mother could ask; yet he had an
+unaccountable feeling of apprehension, without any definite object.
+At this moment he remembered the old Doctor's counsel, which he had
+sometimes neglected, and, blushing at the feeling which led him to do
+it, he took the pistol his suspicious old friend had forced upon him,
+which he had put away loaded, and, thrusting it into his pocket, set
+out upon his walk.
+
+The moon was shining at intervals, for the night was partially
+clouded.  There seemed to be nobody stirring, though his attention
+was unusually awake, and he could hear the whirr of the bats
+overhead, and the pulsating croak of the frogs in the distant pools
+and marshes.  Presently he detected the sound of hoofs at some
+distance, and, looking forward, saw a horseman coming in his
+direction.  The moon was under a cloud at the moment, and he could
+only observe that the horse and his rider looked like a single dark
+object, and that they were moving along at an easy pace.  Mr. Bernard
+was really ashamed of himself, when he found his hand on the butt of
+his pistol.  When the horseman was within a hundred and fifty yards
+of him, the moon shone out suddenly and revealed each of them to the
+other.  The rider paused for a moment, as if carefully surveying the
+pedestrian, then suddenly put his horse to the full gallop, and
+dashed towards him, rising at the same instant in his stirrups and
+swinging something round his head, what, Mr. Bernard could not make
+out.  It was a strange manoeuvre,--so strange and threatening in
+aspect that the young man forgot his nervousness in an instant,
+cocked his pistol, and waited to see what mischief all this meant.
+He did not wait long.  As the rider came rushing towards him, he made
+a rapid motion and something leaped five-and-twenty feet through the
+air, in Mr. Bernard's direction.  In an instant he felt a ring, as of
+a rope or thong, settle upon his shoulders.  There was no time to
+think, he would be lost in another second.  He raised his pistol and
+fired,--not at the rider, but at the horse.  His aim was true; the
+mustang gave one bound and fell lifeless, shot through the head.  The
+lasso was fastened to his saddle, and his last bound threw Mr.
+Bernard violently to the earth, where he lay motionless, as if
+stunned.
+
+In the mean time, Dick Venner, who had been dashed down with his
+horse, was trying to extricate himself,--one of his legs being held
+fast under the animal, the long spur on his boot having caught in the
+saddle-cloth.  He found, however, that he could do nothing with his
+right arm, his shoulder having been in some way injured in his fall.
+But his Southern blood was up, and, as he saw Mr. Bernard move as if
+he were coming to his senses, he struggled violently to free himself.
+
+"I 'll have the dog, yet," he said,--"only let me get at him with the
+knife!"
+
+He had just succeeded in extricating his imprisoned leg, and was
+ready to spring to his feet, when he was caught firmly by the throat,
+and looking up, saw a clumsy barbed weapon, commonly known as a hay
+fork, within an inch of his breast.
+
+"Hold on there!  What 'n thunder 'r' y' abaout, y' darned Portagee?"
+said a voice, with a decided nasal tone in it, but sharp and
+resolute.
+
+Dick looked from the weapon to the person who held it, and saw a
+sturdy, plain man standing over him, with his teeth clinched, and his
+aspect that of one all ready for mischief.
+
+"Lay still, naow!" said Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man; "'f y'
+don't, I'll stick ye, 'z sure 'z y' 'r' alive!  I been aafter ye f'r
+a week, 'n' I got y' naow!  I knowed I'd ketch ye at some darned
+trick or 'nother 'fore I'd done 'ith ye!"
+
+Dick lay perfectly still, feeling that he was crippled and helpless,
+thinking all the time with the Yankee half of his mind what to do
+about it.  He saw Mr. Bernard lift his head and look around him.  He
+would get his senses again in a few minutes, very probably, and then
+he, Mr. Richard Venner, would be done for.
+
+"Let me up!  let me up!" he cried, in a low, hurried voice,--"I 'll
+give you a hundred dollars in gold to let me go.  The man a'n't
+hurt,--don't you see him stirring?  He'll come to himself in two
+minutes.  Let me up!  I'll give you a hundred and fifty dollars in
+gold, now, here on the spot,--and the watch out of my pocket; take it
+yourself, with your own hands!"
+
+"I'll see y' darned fust!  Ketch me lett'n' go!"  was Abel's emphatic
+answer.  "Yeou lay still, 'n' wait t'll that man comes tew."
+
+He kept the hay-fork ready for action at the slightest sign of
+resistance.
+
+Mr. Bernard, in the mean time, had been getting, first his senses,
+and then some few of his scattered wits, a little together.
+
+"What is it?"--he said.  "Who'shurt?  What's happened?"
+
+"Come along here 'z quick 'z y' ken," Abel answered, "'n' haalp me
+fix this fellah.  Y' been hurt, y'rself, 'n' the' 's murder come
+pooty nigh happenin'."
+
+Mr. Bernard heard the answer, but presenth stared about and asked
+again, "Who's hurt?  What's happened?"
+
+"Y' 'r' hurt, y'rself, I tell ye," said Abel; "'n' the' 's been a
+murder, pooty nigh."
+
+Mr. Bernard felt something about his neck, and, putting his hands up,
+found the loop of the lasso, which he loosened, but did not think to
+slip over his head, in the confusion of his perceptions and thoughts.
+It was a wonder that it had not choked him, but he had fallen forward
+so as to slacken it.
+
+By this time he was getting some notion of what he was about, and
+presently began looking round for his pistol, which had fallen.  He
+found it lying near him, cocked it mechanically, and walked, somewhat
+unsteadily, towards the two men, who were keeping their position as
+still as if they were performing in a tableau.
+
+"Quick, naow!" said Abel, who had heard the click of cocking the
+pistol, and saw that he held it in his hand, as he came towards him.
+"Gi' me that pistil, and yeou fetch that 'ere rope layin' there.  I
+'ll have this here fella,h fixed 'n less 'n two minutes."
+
+Mr. Bernard did as Abel said,--stupidly and mechanically, for he was
+but half right as yet.  Abel pointed the pistol at Dick's head.
+
+"Naow hold up y'r hands, yeou fellah," he said, "'n' keep 'em up,
+while this man puts the rope mound y'r wrists."
+
+Dick felt himself helpless, and, rather than have his disabled arm
+roughly dealt with, held up his hands.  Mr. Bernard did as Abel said;
+he was in a purely passive state, and obeyed orders like a child.
+Abel then secured the rope in a most thorough and satisfactory
+complication of twists and knots.
+
+"Naow get up, will ye?" he said; and the unfortunate Dick rose to
+his feet.
+
+"Who's hurt?  What's happened?"  asked poor Mr. Bernard again, his
+memory having been completely jarred out of him for the time.
+
+"Come, look here naow, yeou, don' Stan' askin' questions over 'n'
+over;--'t beats all!  ha'n't I tol' y' a dozen times?"
+
+As Abel spoke, he turned and looked at Mr. Bernard.
+
+"Hullo!  What 'n thunder's that 'ere raoun' y'r neck?  Ketched ye
+'ith a slippernoose, hey?  Wal, if that a'n't the craowner I Hol' on
+a minute, Cap'n, 'n' I'll show ye what that 'ere halter's good for."
+
+Abel slipped the noose over Mr. Bernard's head, and put it round the
+neck of the miserable Dick Veneer, who made no sign of resistance,--
+whether on account of the pain he was in, or from mere helplessness,
+or because he was waiting for some unguarded moment to escape,--since
+resistance seemed of no use.
+
+"I 'm go'n' to kerry y' home," said Abel; "'T' th' ol Doctor, he's got
+a gre't cur'osity t' see ye.  Jes' step along naow,--off that way,
+will ye?--'n' I Ill hol' on t' th' bridle, f' fear y' sh'd run
+away."
+
+He took hold of the leather thong, but found that it was fastened at
+the other end to the saddle.  This was too much for Abel.
+
+"Wal, naow, yeou be a pooty chap to hev raound!  A fellah's neck in a
+slippernoose at one eend of a halter, 'n' a hors on th' full spring
+at t' other eend!"
+
+He looked at him from' head to foot as a naturalist inspects a new
+specimen.  His clothes had suffered in his fall, especially on the
+leg which had been caught under the horse.
+
+"Hullo!  look o' there, naow!  What's that 'ere stickin' aout o' y'r
+boot?"
+
+It was nothing but the handle of an ugly knife, which Abel instantly
+relieved him of.
+
+The party now took up the line of march for old Doctor Kittredge's
+house, Abel carrying the pistol and knife, and Mr. Bernard walking in
+silence, still half-stunned, holding the hay-fork, which Abel had
+thrust into his hand.  It was all a dream to him as yet.  He
+remembered the horseman riding at him, and his firing the pistol; but
+whether he was alive, and these walls around him belonged to the
+village of Rockland, or whether he had passed the dark river, and was
+in a suburb of the New Jerusalem, he could not as yet have told.
+
+They were in the street where the Doctor's house was situated.
+
+"I guess I'll fire off one o' these here berrils," said Abel.
+
+He fired.
+
+Presently there was a noise of opening windows, and the nocturnal
+head-dresses of Rockland flowered out of them like so many
+developments of the Nightblooming Cereus.  White cotton caps and red
+bandanna handkerchiefs were the prevailing forms of efflorescence.
+The main point was that the village was waked up.  The old Doctor
+always waked easily, from long habit, and was the first among those
+who looked out to see what had happened.
+
+"Why, Abel!" he called out, "what have you got there?  and what 's
+all this noise about?"
+
+"We've ketched the Portagee!  "Abel answered, as laconically as the
+hero of Lake Erie, in his famous dispatch.  "Go in there, you
+fellah!"
+
+The prisoner was marched into the house, and the Doctor, who had
+bewitched his clothes upon him in a way that would have been
+miraculous in anybody but a physician, was down in presentable form
+as soon as if it had been a child in a fit that he was sent for.
+
+"Richard Veneer!" the Doctor exclaimed.  "What is the meaning of all
+this?  Mr. Langdon, has anything happened to you?"
+
+Mr. Bernard put his hand to his head.
+
+"My mind is confused," he said.  "I've had a fall.---Oh, yes!---wait
+a minute and it will all come back to me."
+
+"Sit down, sit down," the Doctor said.  "Abel will tell me about it.
+Slight concussion of the brain.  Can't remember very well for an hour
+or two,--will come right by to-morrow."
+
+"Been stunded," Abel said.  "He can't tell nothin'."
+
+Abel then proceeded to give a Napoleonic bulletin of the recent
+combat of cavalry and infantry and its results,--none slain, one
+captured.
+
+The Doctor looked at the prisoner through his spectacles.
+
+"What 's the matter with your shoulder, Venner?"
+
+Dick answered sullenly, that he didn't know, fell on it when his
+horse came down.  The Doctor examined it as carefully as he could
+through his clothes.
+
+"Out of joint.  Untie his hands, Abel"
+
+By this time a small alarm had spread among the neighbors, and there
+was a circle around Dick, who glared about on the assembled honest
+people like a hawk with a broken wing.
+
+When the Doctor said, "Untie his hands," the circle widened
+perceptibly.
+
+"Isn't it a leetle rash to give him the use of his hands?  I see
+there's females and children standin' near."
+
+This was the remark of our old friend, Deacon Soper, who retired from
+the front row, as he spoke, behind a respectable-looking, but
+somewhat hastily dressed person of the defenceless sex, the female
+help of a neighboring household, accompanied by a boy, whose
+unsmoothed shock of hair looked like a last year's crow's-nest.
+
+But Abel untied his hands, in spite of the Deacon's considerate
+remonstrance.
+
+"Now," said the Doctor, "the first thing is to put the joint back."
+
+"Stop," said Deacon Soper,--"stop a minute.  Don't you think it will
+be safer--for the women-folks--jest to wait till mornin', afore you
+put that j'int into the socket?"
+
+Colonel Sprowle, who had been called by a special messenger, spoke up
+at this moment.
+
+"Let the women-folks and the deacons go home, if they're scared, and
+put the fellah's j'int in as quick as you like.  I 'll resk him,
+j'int in or out."
+
+"I want one of you to go straight down to Dudley Venner's with a
+message," the Doctor said.  "I will have the young man's shoulder in
+quick enough."
+
+"Don't send that message!" said Dick, in a hoarse voice;--"do what
+you like with my arm, but don't send that message!  Let me go,--I can
+walk, and I'll be off from this place.  There's nobody hurt but
+myself.  Damn the shoulder!--let me go!  You shall never hear of me
+again!"
+
+Mr. Bernard came forward.
+
+"My friends," he said, "I am not injured,--seriously, at least.
+Nobody need complain against this man, if I don't.  The Doctor will
+treat him like a human being, at any rate; and then, if he will go,
+let him.  There are too many witnesses against him here for him to
+want to stay."
+
+The Doctor, in the mean time, without saying a word to all this, had
+got a towel round the shoulder and chest and another round the arm,
+and had the bone replaced in a very few minutes.
+
+"Abel, put Cassia into the new chaise," he said, quietly.  "My
+friends and neighbors, leave this young man to me."
+
+"Colonel Sprowle, you're a justice of the peace," said Deacon Soper,
+"and you know what the law says in cases like this.  It a'n't so
+clear that it won't have to come afore the Grand Jury, whether we
+will or no."
+
+"I guess we'll set that j'int to-morrow mornin'," said Colonel
+Sprowle,--which made a laugh at the Deacon's expense, and virtually
+settled the question.
+
+"Now trust this young man in my care," said the old Doctor, "and go
+home and finish your naps.  I knew him when he was a boy and I'll
+answer for it, he won't trouble you any more.  The Dudley blood makes
+folks proud, I can tell you, whatever else they are."
+
+The good people so respected and believed in the Doctor that they
+left the prisoner with him.
+
+Presently, Cassia, the fast Morgan mare, came up to the front-door,
+with the wheels of the new, light chaise flashing behind her in the
+moonlight.  The Doctor drove Dick forty miles at a stretch that
+night, out of the limits of the State.
+
+"Do you want money?"  he said, before he left him.
+
+Dick told him the secret of his golden belt.
+
+"Where shall I send your trunk after you from your uncle's?"
+
+Dick gave him a direction to a seaport town to which he himself was
+going, to take passage for a port in South America.
+
+"Good-bye, Richard," said the Doctor.  "Try to learn something from
+to-night's lesson."
+
+The Southern impulses in Dick's wild blood overcame him, and he
+kissed the old Doctor on both cheeks, crying as only the children of
+the sun can cry, after the first hours in the dewy morning of life.
+So Dick Venner disappears from this story.  An hour after dawn,
+Cassia pointed her fine ears homeward, and struck into her square,
+honest trot, as if she had not been doing anything more than her duty
+during her four hours' stretch of the last night.
+
+Abel was not in the habit of questioning the Doctor's decisions.
+
+"It's all right," he said to Mr. Bernard.  "The fellah 's Squire
+Venner's relation, anyhaow.  Don't you want to wait here, jest a
+little while, till I come back?  The's a consid'able nice saddle 'n'
+bridle on a dead boss that's layin' daown there in the road 'n' I
+guess the' a'n't no use in lettin' on 'em spite,--so I'll jest step
+aout 'n' fetch 'em along.  I kind o' calc'late 't won't pay to take
+the cretur's shoes 'n' hide off to-night,--'n' the' won't be much
+iron on that hose's huffs an haour after daylight, I'll bate ye a
+quarter."
+
+"I'll walk along with you," said Mr. Bernard; "I feel as if I could
+get along well enough now."
+
+So they set off together.  There was a little crowd round the dead
+mustang already, principally consisting of neighbors who had
+adjourned from the Doctor's house to see the scene of the late
+adventure.  In addition to these, however, the assembly was honored
+by the presence of Mr. Principal Silas Peckham, who had been called
+from his slumbers by a message that Master Langdon was shot through
+the head by a highway-robber, but had learned a true version of the
+story by this time.  His voice was at that moment heard above the
+rest,--sharp, but thin, like bad cider-vinegar.
+
+"I take charge of that property, I say.  Master Langdon 's actin'
+under my orders, and I claim that hoss and all that's on him.  Hiram!
+jest slip off that saddle and bridle, and carry 'em up to the
+Institoot, and bring down a pair of pinchers and a file,--and--stop--
+fetch a pair of shears, too; there's hosshair enough in that mane and
+tail to stuff a bolster with."
+
+"You let that hoss alone!" spoke up Colonel Sprowle.  "When a fellah
+goes out huntin' and shoots a squirrel, do you think he's go'n' to
+let another fellah pick him up and kerry him off?  Not if he's got a
+double-berril gun, and t'other berril ha'n't been fired off yet!  I
+should like to see the mahn that'll take off that seddle 'n' bridle,
+excep' the one th't hez a fair right to the whole concern!"
+
+Hiram was from one of the lean streaks in New Hampshire, and, not
+being overfed in Mr. Silas Peckham's kitchen, was somewhat wanting in
+stamina, as well as in stomach, for so doubtful an enterprise, as
+undertaking to carry out his employer's orders in the face of the
+Colonel's defiance.
+
+Just then Mr. Bernard and Abel came up together.  "Here they be,"
+said the Colonel.  "Stan' beck, gentlemen!"
+
+Mr. Bernard, who was pale and still a little confused, but gradually
+becoming more like himself, stood and looked in silence for a moment.
+
+All his thoughts seemed to be clearing themselves in this interval.
+He took in the whole series of incidents: his own frightful risk; the
+strange, instinctive, nay, Providential impulse, which had led him so
+suddenly to do the one only thing which could possibly have saved
+him; the sudden appearance of the Doctor's man, but for which he
+might yet have been lost; and the discomfiture and capture of his
+dangerous enemy.
+
+It was all past now, and a feeling of pity rose in Mr. Bernard's
+heart.
+
+"He loved that horse, no doubt," he said,--"and no wonder.  A
+beautiful, wild--looking creature!  Take off those things that are on
+him, Abel, and have them carried to Mr. Dudley Veneer's.  If he does
+not want them, you may keep them yourself, for all that I have to
+say.  One thing more.  I hope nobody will lift his hand against this
+noble creature to mutilate him in any way.  After you have taken off
+the saddle and bridle, Abel, bury him just as he is.  Under that old
+beech-tree will be a good place.  You'll see to it,--won't yon,
+Abel?"
+
+Abel nodded assent, and Mr. Bernard returned to the Institute, threw
+himself in his clothes on the bed, and slept like one who is heavy
+with wine.
+
+Following Mr. Bernard's wishes, Abel at once took off the high-peaked
+saddle and the richly ornamented bridle from the mustang.  Then, with
+the aid of two or three others, he removed him to the place
+indicated.  Spades and shovels were soon procured, and before the
+moon had set, the wild horse of the Pampas was at rest under the turf
+at the wayside, in the far village among the hills of New England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE NEWS REACHES THE DUDLEY MANSION.
+
+Early the next morning Abel Stebbins made his appearance at Dudley
+Veneer's, and requested to see the maan o' the haouse abaout
+somethin' o' consequence.  Mr. Veneer sent word that the messenger
+should wait below, and presently appeared in the study, where Abel
+was making himself at home, as is the wont of the republican citizen,
+when he hides the purple of empire beneath the apron of domestic
+service.
+
+"Good mornin', Squire!" said Abel, as Mr. Venner entered.  "My name's
+Stebbins, 'n' I'm stoppin' f'r a spell 'ith of Doctor Kittredge."
+
+"Well, Stebbins," said Mr. Dudley Veneer, "have you brought any
+special message from the Doctor?"
+
+"Y' ha'n't heerd nothin' abaout it, Squire, d' ye mean t' say?" said
+Abel,--beginning to suspect that he was the first to bring the news
+of last evening's events.
+
+"About what?"  asked Mr. Veneer, with some interest.
+
+"Dew tell, naow!  Waal, that beats all!  Why, that 'ere Portagee
+relation o' yourn 'z been tryin' t' ketch a fellah 'n a slippernoose,
+'n' got ketched himself,---that's all.  Y' ha'n't heerd noth'n'
+abaout it?"
+
+"Sit down," said Mr. Dudley Veneer, calmly, "and tell me all you have
+to say."
+
+So Abel sat down and gave him an account of the events of the last
+evening.  It was a strange and terrible surprise to Dudley Veneer to
+find that his nephew, who had been an inmate of his house and the
+companion of his daughter, was to all intents and purposes guilty of
+the gravest of crimes.  But the first shock was no sooner over than
+he began to think what effect the news would have on Elsie.  He
+imagined that there was a kind of friendly feeling between them, and
+he feared some crisis would be provoked in his daughter's mental
+condition by the discovery.  He would wait, however, until she came
+from her chamber, before disturbing her with the evil tidings.
+
+Abel did not forget his message with reference to the equipments of
+the dead mustang.
+
+"The' was some things on the hoss, Squire, that the man he ketched
+said he did n' care no gre't abaout; but perhaps you'd like to have
+'em fetched to the mansion-haouse.  Ef y' did n' care abaout 'em,
+though, I should n' min' keepin' on 'em; they might come handy some
+time or 'nother; they say, holt on t' anything for ten year 'n'
+there 'll be some kin' o' use for 't."
+
+"Keep everything," said Dudley Veneer.  "I don't want to see anything
+belonging to that young man."
+
+So Abel nodded to Mr. Veneer, and left the study to find some of the
+men about the stable to tell and talk over with them the events of
+the last evening.  He presently came upon Elbridge, chief of the
+equine department, and driver of the family-coach.
+
+"Good mornin', Abe," said Elbridge.  "What's fetched y' daown here so
+all-fired airly?"
+
+"You're a darned pooty lot daown here, you be!"
+
+Abel answered.  "Better keep your Portagees t' home nex' time,
+ketchin' folks 'ith slippernooses raoun' their necks, 'n' kerryin'
+knives 'n their boots!"
+
+"What 'r' you jawin' abaout?"  Elbridge said, looking up to see if he
+was in earnest, and what he meant.
+
+"Jawin' abaout?  You'll find aout'z soon 'z y' go into that 'ere
+stable o' yourn!  Y' won't curry that 'ere long-tailed black hoss no
+more; 'n' y' won't set y'r eyes on the fellah that rid him, ag'in, in
+a hurry!"
+
+Elbridge walked straight to the stable, without saying a word, found
+the door unlocked, and went in.
+
+"Th' critter's gone, sure enough!" he said.  "Glad on 't!  The
+darndest, kickin'est, bitin'est beast th't ever I see, 'r ever wan'
+t' see ag'in!  Good reddance!  Don' wan' no snappin'-turkles in my
+stable!  Whar's the man gone th't brought the critter?"
+
+"Whar he's gone?  Guess y' better go 'n ask my ol man; he kerried him
+off lass' night; 'n' when he comes back, mebbe he 'll tell ye whar
+he's gone tew!"
+
+By this time Elbridge had found out that Abel was in earnest, and had
+something to tell.  He looked at the litter in the mustang's stall,
+then at the crib.
+
+"Ha'n't eat b't haalf his feed.  Ha'n't been daown on his straw.
+Must ha' been took aout somewhere abaout ten 'r 'levee o'clock.  I
+know that 'ere critter's ways.  The fellah's had him aout nights
+afore; b't I never thought nothin' o' no mischief.  He 's a kin' o'
+haalf Injin.  What is 't the chap's been a-doin' on?  Tell 's all
+abaout it."
+
+Abel sat down on a meal-chest, picked up a straw and put it into his
+mouth.  Elbridge sat down at the other end, pulled out his jack-
+knife, opened the penknife-blade, and began sticking it into the lid
+of the meal-chest.  The Doctor's man had a story to tell, and he
+meant to get all the enjoyment out of it.  So he told it with every
+luxury of circumstance.  Mr. Veneer's man heard it all with open
+mouth.  No listener in the gardens of Stamboul could have found more
+rapture in a tale heard amidst the perfume of roses and the voices of
+birds and tinkling of fountains than Elbridge in following Abel's
+narrative, as they sat there in the aromatic ammoniacal atmosphere of
+the stable, the grinding of the horses' jaws keeping evenly on
+through it all, with now and then the interruption of a stamping
+hoof, and at intervals a ringing crow from the barn-yard.
+
+Elbridge stopped a minute to think, after Abel had finished.
+
+"Who's took care o' them things that was on the hoss?  "he said,
+gravely.
+
+"Waal, Langden, he seemed to kin 'o' think I'd ought to have 'em,--
+'n' the Squire; he did n' seem to have no 'bjection; 'n' so,--waal, I
+calc'late I sh'll jes' holt on to 'em myself; they a'n't good f 'r
+much, but they're cur'ous t' keep t' look at."
+
+Mr. Veneer's man did not appear much gratified by this arrangement,
+especially as he had a shrewd suspicion that some of the ornaments of
+the bridle were of precious metal, having made occasional
+examinations of them with the edge of a file.  But he did not see
+exactly what to do about it, except to get them from Abel in the way
+of bargain.
+
+"Waal, no,--they a'n't good for much 'xcep' to look at.  'F y' ever
+rid on that seddle once, y' would n' try it ag'in, very spry,--not 'f
+y' c'd haalp y'rsaalf.
+
+"I tried it,--darned 'f I sot daown f'r th' nex' week,--eat all my
+victuals stan'in'.  I sh'd like t' hev them things wal enough to heng
+up 'n the stable; 'f y' want t' trade some day, fetch 'em along
+daown."
+
+Abel rather expected that Elbridge would have laid claim to the
+saddle and bridle on the strength of some promise or other
+presumptive title, and thought himself lucky to get off with only
+offering to think abaout tradin'.
+
+When Elbridge returned to the house, he found the family in a state
+of great excitement.  Mr. Venner had told Old Sophy, and she had
+informed the other servants.  Everybody knew what had happened,
+excepting Elsie.  Her father had charged them all to say nothing
+about it to her; he would tell her, when she came down.
+
+He heard her step at last,--alight, gliding step,--so light that her
+coming was often unheard, except by those who perceived the faint
+rustle that went with it.  She was paler than common this morning, as
+she came into her father's study.
+
+After a few words of salutation, he said quietly,  "Elsie, my dear,
+your cousin Richard has left us."
+
+She grew still paler, as she asked,
+
+"Is he dead?"
+
+Dudley Venner started to see the expression with which Elsie put this
+question.
+
+"He is living,--but dead to us from this day forward," said her
+father.
+
+He proceeded to tell her, in a general way, the story he had just
+heard from Abel.  There could be no doubting it;--he remembered him
+as the Doctor's man; and as Abel had seen all with his own eyes, as
+Dick's chamber, when unlocked with a spare key, was found empty, and
+his bed had not been slept in, he accepted the whole account as true.
+
+When he told of Dick's attempt on the young schoolmaster, ("You know
+Mr. Langdon very well, Elsie,--a perfectly inoffensive young man, as
+I understand,") Elsie turned her face away and slid along by the wall
+to the window which looked out oh the little grass-plot with the
+white stone standing in it.  Her father could not see her face, but
+he knew by her movements that her dangerous mood was on her.  When
+she heard the sequel of the story, the discomfiture and capture of
+Dick, she turned round for an instant, with a look of contempt and of
+something like triumph upon her face.  Her father saw that her cousin
+had become odious to her: He knew well, by every change of her
+countenance, by her movements, by every varying curve of her graceful
+figure, the transitions front passion to repose, from fierce
+excitement to the dull languor which often succeeded her threatening
+paroxysms.
+
+She remained looking out at the window.  A group of white fan-tailed
+pigeons had lighted on the green plot before it and clustered about
+one of their companions who lay on his back, fluttering in a strange
+way, with outspread wings and twitching feet.  Elsie uttered a faint
+cry; these were her special favorites and often fed from her hand.
+She threw open the long window, sprang out, caught up the white
+fantail, and held it to her bosom.  The bird stretched himself out,
+and then lay still, with open eyes, lifeless.  She looked at him a
+moment, and, sliding in through the open window and through the
+study, sought her own apartment, where she locked herself in, and
+began to sob and moan like those that weep.  But the gracious solace
+of tears seemed to be denied her, and her grief, like her anger, was
+a dull ache, longing, like that, to finish itself with a fierce
+paroxysm, but wanting its natural outlet.
+
+This seemingly trifling incident of the death of her favorite
+appeared to change all the current of her thought.  Whether it were
+the sight of the dying bird, or the thought that her own agency might
+have beep concerned in it, or some deeper grief, which took this
+occasion to declare itself,--some dark remorse or hopeless longing,--
+whatever it might be, there was an unwonted tumult in her soul.  To
+whom should she go in her vague misery?  Only to Him who knows all
+His creatures' sorrows, and listens to the faintest human cry.  She
+knelt, as she had  been taught to kneel from her childhood, and tried
+to pray.  But her thoughts refused to flow in the language of
+supplication.  She could not plead for herself as other women plead
+in their hours of anguish.  She rose like one who should stoop to
+drink, and find dust in the place of water.  Partly from
+restlessness, partly from an attraction she hardly avowed to herself,
+she followed her usual habit and strolled listlessly along to the
+school.
+
+Of course everybody at the Institute was full of the terrible
+adventure of the preceding evening.  Mr. Bernard felt poorly enough;
+but he had made it a point to show himself the next morning, as if
+nothing had happened.  Helen Darley knew nothing of it all until she
+hard risen, when the gossipy matron of the establishment made her
+acquainted with all its details, embellished with such additional
+ornamental appendages as it had caught up in transmission from lip to
+lip.  She did not love to betray her sensibilities, but she was pale
+and tremulous and very nearly tearful when Mr. Bernard entered the
+sitting-room, showing on his features traces of the violent shock he
+had received and the heavy slumber from which he had risen with
+throbbing brows.  What the poor girl's impulse was, on seeing him, we
+need not inquire too curiously.  If he had been her own brother, she
+would have kissed him and cried on his neck; but something held her
+back.  There is no galvanism in kiss-your-brother; it is copper
+against copper: but alien bloods develop strange currents, when they
+flow close to each other, with only the films that cover lip and
+cheek between them.  Mr. Bernard, as some of us may remember,
+violated the proprieties and laid himself open to reproach by his
+enterprise with a bouncing village-girl, to whose rosy cheek an
+honest smack was not probably an absolute novelty.  He made it all up
+by his discretion and good behavior now.  He saw by Helen's moist eye
+and trembling lip that her woman's heart was off its guard, and he
+knew, by the infallible instinct of sex, that he should be forgiven,
+if he thanked her for her sisterly sympathies in the most natural
+way,--expressive, and at the same time economical of breath and
+utterance.  He would not give a false look to their friendship by any
+such demonstration.  Helen was a little older than himself, but the
+aureole of young womanhood had not yet begun to fade from around her.
+She was surrounded by that enchanted atmosphere into which the girl
+walks with dreamy eyes, and out of which the woman passes with a
+story written on her forehead.  Some people think very little of
+these refinements; they have not studied magnetism and the law of the
+square of the distance.
+
+So Mr. Bernard thanked Helen for her interest without the aid of the
+twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet,--the love labial,--the limping
+consonant which it takes two to speak plain.  Indeed, he scarcely let
+her say a word, at first; for he saw that it was hard for her to
+conceal her emotion.  No wonder; he had come within a hair's-breadth
+of losing his life, and he had been a very kind friend and a very
+dear companion to her.
+
+There were some curious spiritual experiences connected with his last
+evening's adventure which were working very strongly in his mind.  It
+was borne in upon him irresistibly that he had been dead since he had
+seen Helen,--as dead as the son of the Widow of Nain before the bier
+was touched and he sat up and began to speak.  There was an interval
+between two conscious moments which appeared to him like a temporary
+annihilation, and the thoughts it suggested were worrying him with
+strange perplexities.
+
+He remembered seeing the dark figure on horseback rise in the saddle
+and something leap from its hand.  He remembered the thrill he felt
+as the coil settled on his shoulders, and the sudden impulse which
+led him to fire as he did.  With the report of the pistol all became
+blank, until he found himself in a strange, bewildered state, groping
+about for the weapon, which he had a vague consciousness of having
+dropped.  But, according to Abel's account, there must have been an
+interval of some minutes between these recollections, and he could
+not help asking, Where was the mind, the soul, the thinking
+principle, all this time?
+
+A man is stunned by a blow with a stick on the head.  He becomes
+unconscious.  Another man gets a harder blow on the head from a
+bigger stick, and it kills him.  Does he become unconscious, too?  If
+so, when does he come to his consciousness?  The man who has had a
+slight or moderate blow comes to himself when the immediate shock
+passes off and the organs begin to work again, or when a bit of the
+skull is pried up, if that happens to be broken.  Suppose the blow is
+hard enough to spoil the brain and stop the play of the organs, what
+happens them?
+
+A British captain was struck by a cannon-ball on the head, just as he
+was giving an order, at the Battle of the Nile.  Fifteen months
+afterwards he was trephined at Greenwich Hospital, having been
+insensible all that time.  Immediately after the operation his
+consciousness returned, and he at once began carrying out the order
+he was giving when the shot struck him.  Suppose he had never been
+trephined, when would his consciousness have returned?  When his
+breath ceased and his heart stopped beating?
+
+When Mr. Bernard said to Helen, "I have been dead since I saw you,"
+it startled her not a little; for his expression was that of perfect
+good faith, and she feared that his mind was disordered.  When he
+explained, not as has been done just now, at length, but in a
+hurried, imperfect way, the meaning of his strange assertion, and the
+fearful Sadduceeisms which it had suggested to his mind, she looked
+troubled at first, and then thoughtful.  She did not feel able to
+answer all the difficulties he raised, but she met them with that
+faith which is the strength as well as the weakness of women,--which
+makes them weak in the hands of man, but strong in the presence of
+the Unseen.
+
+"It is a strange experience," she said; "but I once had something
+like it.  I fainted, and lost some five or ten minutes out of my
+life, as much as if I had been dead.  But when I came to myself, I
+was the same person every way, in my recollections and character.  So
+I suppose that loss of consciousness is not death.  And if I was born
+out of unconsciousness into infancy with many family-traits of mind
+and body, I can believe, from my own reason, even without help from
+Revelation, that I shall be born again out of the unconsciousness of
+death with my individual traits of mind and body.  If death is, as it
+should seem to be, a loss of consciousness, that does not shake my
+faith; for I have been put into a body once already to fit me for
+living here, and I hope to be in some way fitted after this life to
+enjoy a better one.  But it is all trust in God and in his Word.
+These are enough for me; I hope they are for you."
+
+Helen was a minister's daughter, and familiar from her childhood with
+this class of questions, especially with all the doubts and
+perplexities which are sure to assail every thinking child bred in
+any inorganic or not thoroughly vitalized faith,--as is too often the
+case with the children of professional theologians.  The kind of
+discipline they are subjected to is like that of the Flat-Head Indian
+pappooses.  At five or ten or fifteen years old they put their hands
+up to their foreheads and ask, What are they strapping down my brains
+in this way for?  So they tear off the sacred bandages of the great
+Flat-Head tribe, and there follows a mighty rush of blood to the
+long-compressed region.  This accounts, in the most lucid manner, for
+those sudden freaks with which certain children of this class
+astonish their worthy parents at the period of life when they are
+growing fast, and, the frontal pressure beginning to be felt as
+something intolerable, they tear off the holy compresses.
+
+The hour for school came, and they went to the great hall for study.
+It would not have occurred to Mr. Silas Peckham to ask his assistant
+whether he felt well enough to attend to his duties; and Mr. Bernard
+chose to be at his post.  A little headache and confusion were all
+that remained of his symptoms.
+
+Later, in the course of the forenoon, Elsie Venner came and took her
+place.  The girls all stared at her--naturally enough; for it was
+hardly to have been expected that she would show herself, after such
+an event in the household to which she belonged.  Her expression was
+somewhat peculiar, and, of course, was attributed to the shock her
+feelings had undergone on hearing of the crime attempted by her
+cousin and daily companion.  When she was looking on her book, or on
+any indifferent object, her countenance betrayed some inward
+disturbance, which knitted her dark brows, and seemed to throw a
+deeper shadow over her features.  But, from time to time, she would
+lift her eyes toward Mr. Bernard, and let them rest upon him, without
+a thought, seemingly, that she herself was the subject of observation
+or remark.  Then they seemed to lose their cold glitter, and soften
+into a strange, dreamy tenderness.  The deep instincts of womanhood
+were striving to grope their way to the surface of her being through
+all the alien influences which overlaid them.  She could be secret
+and cunning in working out any of her dangerous impulses, but she did
+not know how to mask the unwonted feeling which fixed her eyes and
+her thoughts upon the only person who had ever reached the spring of
+her hidden sympathies.
+
+The girls all looked at Elsie, whenever they could steal a glance
+unperceived, and many of them were struck with this singular
+expression her features wore.  They had long whispered it around
+among each other that she had a liking for the master; but there were
+too many of them of whom something like this could be said, to make
+it very remarkable.  Now, however, when so many little hearts were
+fluttering at the thought of the peril through which the handsome
+young master had so recently passed, they were more alive than ever
+to the supposed relation between him and the dark school-girl.  Some
+had supposed there was a mutual attachment between them; there was a
+story that they were secretly betrothed, in accordance with the rumor
+which had been current in the village.  At any rate, some conflict
+was going on in that still, remote, clouded soul, and all the girls
+who looked upon her face were impressed and awed as they had never
+been before by the shadows that passed over it.
+
+One of these girls was more strongly arrested by Elsie's look than
+the others.  This was a delicate, pallid creature, with a high
+forehead, and wide-open pupils, which looked as if they could take in
+all the shapes that flit in what, to common eyes, is darkness,--a
+girl said to be clairvoyant under certain influences.  In the recess,
+as it was called, or interval of suspended studies in the middle of
+the forenoon, this girl carried her autograph-book,--for she had one
+of those indispensable appendages of the boarding-school miss of
+every degree,--and asked Elsie to write her name in it.  She had an
+irresistible feeling, that, sooner or later, and perhaps very soon,
+there would attach an unusual interest to this autograph.  Elsie took
+the pen and wrote, in her sharp Italian hand,
+
+Elsie Venner, Infelix.
+
+It was a remembrance, doubtless, of the forlorn queen of the
+"AEneid"; but its coming to her thought in this way confirmed the
+sensitive school-girl in her fears for Elsie, and she let fall a tear
+upon the page before she closed it.
+
+Of course, the keen and practised observation of Helen Darley could
+not fail to notice the change of Elsie's manner and expression.  She
+had long seen that she was attracted to the young master, and had
+thought, as the old Doctor did, that any impression which acted upon
+her affections might be the means of awakening a new life in her
+singularly isolated nature.  Now, however, the concentration of the
+poor girl's thoughts upon the one object which had had power to reach
+her deeper sensibilities was so painfully revealed in her features,
+that Helen began to fear once more, lest Mr. Bernard, in escaping the
+treacherous violence of an assassin, had been left to the equally
+dangerous consequences of a violent, engrossing passion in the breast
+of a young creature whose love it would be ruin to admit and might be
+deadly to reject.  She knew her own heart too well to fear that any
+jealousy might mingle with her new apprehensions.  It was understood
+between Bernard and Helen that they were too good friends to tamper
+with the silences and edging proximities of lovemaking.  She knew,
+too, the simply human, not masculine, interest which Mr. Bernard took
+in Elsie; he had been frank with Helen, and more than satisfied her
+that with all the pity and sympathy which overflowed his soul, when
+he thought of the stricken girl, there mingled not one drop of such
+love as a youth may feel for a maiden.
+
+It may help the reader to gain some understanding of the anomalous
+nature of Elsie Veneer, if we look with Helen into Mr. Bernard's
+opinions and feelings with reference to her, as they had shaped
+themselves in his consciousness at the period of which we are
+speaking.
+
+At first he had been impressed by her wild beauty, and the contrast
+of all her looks and ways with those of the girls around her.
+Presently a sense of some ill-defined personal element, which half-
+attracted and half-repelled those who looked upon her, and especially
+those on whom she looked, began to make itself obvious to him, as he
+soon found it was painfully sensible to his more susceptible
+companion, the lady-teacher.  It was not merely in the cold light of
+her diamond eyes, but in all her movements, in her graceful postures
+as she sat, in her costume, and, he sometimes thought, even in her
+speech, that this obscure and exceptional character betrayed itself.
+When Helen had said, that, if they were living in times when human
+beings were subject to possession, she should have thought there was
+something not human about Elsie, it struck an unsuspected vein of
+thought in his own mind, which he hated to put in words, but which
+was continually trying to articulate itself among the dumb thoughts
+which lie under the perpetual stream of mental whispers.
+
+Mr. Bernard's professional training had made him slow to accept
+marvellous stories and many forms of superstition.  Yet, as a man of
+science, he well knew that just on the verge of the demonstrable
+facts of physics and physiology there is a nebulous border-land which
+what is called "common sense" perhaps does wisely not to enter, but
+which uncommon sense, or the fine apprehension of privileged
+intelligences, may cautiously explore, and in so doing find itself
+behind the scenes which make up for the gazing world the show which
+is called Nature.
+
+It was with something of this finer perception, perhaps with some
+degree of imaginative exaltation, that he set himself to solving the
+problem of Elsie's influence to attract and repel those around her.
+His letter already submitted to the reader hints in what direction
+his thoughts were disposed to turn.  Here was a magnificent
+organization, superb in vigorous womanhood, with a beauty such as
+never comes but after generations of culture; yet through all this
+rich nature there ran some alien current of influence, sinuous and
+dark, as when a clouded streak seams the white marble of a perfect
+statue.
+
+It would be needless to repeat the particular suggestions which had
+come into his mind, as they must probably have come into that of the
+reader who has noted the singularities of Elsie's tastes and personal
+traits.  The images which certain poets had dreamed of seemed to have
+become a reality before his own eyes.  Then came that unexplained
+adventure of The Mountain,--almost like a dream in recollection, yet
+assuredly real in some of its main incidents,--with all that it
+revealed or hinted.  This girl did not fear to visit the dreaded
+region, where danger lurked in every nook and beneath every tuft of
+leaves.  Did the tenants of the fatal ledge recognize some mysterious
+affinity which made them tributary to the cold glitter of her diamond
+eyes?  Was she from her birth one of those frightful children, such
+as he had read about, and the Professor had told him of, who form
+unnatural friendships with cold, writhing ophidians?  There was no
+need of so unwelcome a thought as this; she had drawn him away from
+the dark opening in the rock at the moment when he seemed to be
+threatened by one of its malignant denizens; that was all he could be
+sure of; the counter-fascination might have been a dream, a fancy, a
+coincidence.  All wonderful things soon grow doubtful in our own
+minds, as do even common events, if great interests prove suddenly to
+attach to their truth or falsehood.
+
+--I, who am telling of these occurrences, saw a friend in the great
+city, on the morning of a most memorable disaster, hours after the
+time when the train which carried its victims to their doom had left.
+I talked with him, and was for some minutes, at least, in his
+company.  When I reached home, I found that the story had gone before
+that he was among the lost, and I alone could contradict it to his
+weeping friends and relatives.  I did contradict it; but, alas!  I
+began soon to doubt myself, penetrated by the contagion of their
+solicitude; my recollection began to question itself; the order of
+events became dislocated; and when I heard that he had reached home
+in safety, the relief was almost as great to me as to those who had
+expected to see their own brother's face no more.
+
+Mr. Bernard was disposed, then, not to accept the thought of any
+odious personal relationship of the kind which had suggested itself
+to him when he wrote the letter referred to.  That the girl had
+something of the feral nature, her wild, lawless rambles in forbidden
+and blasted regions of The Mountain at all hours, her familiarity
+with the lonely haunts where any other human foot was so rarely seen,
+proved clearly enough.  But the more he thought of all her strange
+instincts and modes of being, the more he became convinced that
+whatever alien impulse swayed her will and modulated or diverted or
+displaced her affections came from some impression that reached far
+back into the past, before the days when the faithful Old Sophy had
+rocked her in the cradle.  He believed that she had brought her
+ruling tendency, whatever it was, into the world with her.
+
+When the school was over and the girls had all gone, Helen lingered
+in the schoolroom to speak with Mr. Bernard.
+
+"Did you remark Elsie's ways this forenoon?"  she said.
+
+"No, not particularly; I have not noticed anything as sharply as I
+commonly do; my head has been a little queer, and I have been
+thinking over what we were talking about, and how near I came to
+solving the great problem which every day makes clear to such
+multitudes of people.  What about Elsie?"
+
+"Bernard, her liking for you is growing into a passion.  I have
+studied girls for a long while, and I know the difference between
+their passing fancies and their real emotions.  I told you, you
+remember, that Rosa would have to leave us; we barely missed a scene,
+I think, if not a whole tragedy, by her going at the right moment.
+But Elsie is infinitely more dangerous to herself and others.
+Women's love is fierce enough, if it once gets the mastery of them,
+always; but this poor girl does not know what to do with a passion."
+
+Mr. Bernard had never told Helen the story of the flower in his
+Virgil, or that other adventure--which he would have felt awkwardly
+to refer to; but it had been perfectly understood between them that
+Elsie showed in her own singular way a well-marked partiality for the
+young master.
+
+"Why don't they take her away from the school, if she is in such a
+strange, excitable state?" said Mr. Bernard.
+
+"I believe they are afraid of her," Helen answered.  "It is just one
+of those cases that are ten thousand thousand times worse than
+insanity.  I don't think from what I hear, that her father has ever
+given up hoping that she will outgrow her peculiarities.  Oh, these
+peculiar children for whom parents go on hoping every morning and
+despairing every night!  If I could tell you half that mothers have
+told me, you would feel that the worst of all diseases of the moral
+sense and the will are those which all the Bedlams turn away from
+their doors as not being cases of insanity!"
+
+"Do you think her father has treated her judiciously?" said Mr.
+Bernard.
+
+"I think," said Helen, with a little hesitation, which Mr. Bernard
+did not happen to notice,--"I think he has been very kind and
+indulgent, and I do not know that he could have treated her otherwise
+with a better chance of success."
+
+"He must of course be fond of her," Mr. Bernard said; "there is
+nothing else in the world for him to love."
+
+Helen dropped a book she held in her hand, and, stooping to pick it
+up, the blood rushed into her cheeks.
+
+"It is getting late," she said; "you must not stay any longer in this
+close schoolroom.  Pray, go and get a little fresh air before dinner-
+time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A SOUL IN DISTRESS.
+
+The events told in the last two chapters had taken place toward the
+close of the week.  On Saturday evening the Reverend Chauncy
+Fairweather received a note which was left at his door by an unknown
+person who departed without saying a word.  Its words were these:
+"One who is in distress of mind requests the prayers of this
+congregation that God would be pleased to look in mercy upon the soul
+that he has afflicted."
+
+There was nothing to show from whom the note came, or the sex or age
+or special source of spiritual discomfort or anxiety of the writer.
+The handwriting was delicate and might well be a woman's.  The
+clergyman was not aware of any particular affliction among his
+parishioners which was likely to be made the subject of a request of
+this kind.  Surely neither of the Venners would advertise the
+attempted crime of their relative in this way.  But who else was
+there?  The more he thought about it, the more it puzzled him, and as
+he did not like to pray in the dark, without knowing for whom he was
+praying, he could think of nothing better than to step into old
+Doctor Kittredge's and see what he had to say about it.
+
+The old Doctor was sitting alone in his study when the Reverend Mr.
+Fairweather was ushered in.  He received his visitor very pleasantly,
+expecting, as a matter of course, that he would begin with some new
+grievance, dyspeptic, neuralgic, bronchitic, or other.  The minister,
+however, began with questioning the old Doctor about the sequel of
+the other night's adventure; for he was already getting a little
+Jesuitical, and kept back the object of his visit until it should
+come up as if accidentally in the course of conversation.
+
+"It was a pretty bold thing to go off alone with that reprobate, as
+you did," said the minister.
+
+"I don't know what there was bold about it," the Doctor answered.
+"All he wanted was to get away.  He was not quite a reprobate, you
+see; he didn't like the thought of disgracing his family or facing
+his uncle.  I think he was ashamed to see his cousin, too, after what
+he had done."
+
+"Did he talk with you on the way?"
+
+"Not much.  For half an hour or so he did n't speak a word.  Then he
+asked where I was driving him.  I told him, and he seemed to be
+surprised into a sort of grateful feeling.  Bad enough, no doubt, but
+might be worse.  Has some humanity left in him yet.  Let him go.  God
+can judge him,--I can't."
+
+"You are too charitable, Doctor," the minister said.  "I condemn him
+just as if he had carried out his project, which, they say, was to
+make it appear as if the schoolmaster had committed suicide.  That's
+what people think the rope found by him was for.  He has saved his
+neck,--but his soul is a lost one, I am afraid, beyond question."
+
+"I can't judge men's souls," the Doctor said.  "I can judge their
+acts, and hold them responsible for those,--but I don't know much
+about their souls.  If you or I had found our soul in a half-breed
+body; and been turned loose to run among the Indians, we might have
+been playing just such tricks as this fellow has been trying.  What
+if you or I had inherited all the tendencies that were born with his
+cousin Elsie?"
+
+"Oh, that reminds me,"--the minister said, in a sudden way,--"I have
+received a note, which I am requested to read from the pulpit
+tomorrow.  I wish you would just have the kindness to look at it and
+see where you think it came from."
+
+The Doctor examined it carefully.  It was a woman's or girl's note,
+he thought.  Might come from one of the school-girls who was anxious
+about her spiritual condition.  Handwriting was disguised; looked a
+little like Elsie Veneer's, but not characteristic enough to make it
+certain.  It would be a new thing, if she had asked public prayers
+for herself, and a very favorable indication of a change in her
+singular moral nature.  It was just possible Elsie might have sent
+that note.  Nobody could foretell her actions.  It would be well to
+see the girl and find out whether any unusual impression had been
+produced on her mind by the recent occurrence or by any other cause.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather folded the note and put it into his
+pocket.
+
+"I have been a good deal exercised in mind lately, myself," he said.
+
+The old Doctor looked at him through his spectacles, and said, in his
+usual professional tone,
+
+"Put out your tongue."
+
+The minister obeyed him in that feeble way common with persons of
+weak character,--for people differ as much in their mode of
+performing this trifling act as Gideon's soldiers in their way of
+drinking at the brook.  The Doctor took his hand and placed a finger
+mechanically on his wrist.
+
+"It is more spiritual, I think, than bodily," said the Reverend Mr.
+Fairweather.
+
+"Is your appetite as good as usual?"  the Doctor asked.
+
+"Pretty good," the minister answered; "but my sleep, my sleep,
+Doctor,--I am greatly troubled at night with lying awake and thinking
+of my future, I am not at ease in mind."
+
+He looked round at all the doors, to be sure they were shut, and
+moved his chair up close to the Doctor's.
+
+"You do not know the mental trials I have been going through for the
+last few months."
+
+"I think I do," the old Doctor said.  "You want to get out of the new
+church into the old one, don't you?"
+
+The minister blushed deeply; he thought he had been going on in a
+very quiet way, and that nobody suspected his secret.  As the old
+Doctor was his counsellor in sickness, and almost everybody's
+confidant in trouble, he had intended to impart cautiously to him
+some hints of the change of sentiments through which he had been
+passing.  He was too late with his information, it appeared, and
+there was nothing to be done but to throw himself on the Doctor's
+good sense and kindness, which everybody knew, and get what hints he
+could from him as to the practical course he should pursue.  He
+began, after an awkward pause,
+
+"You would not have me stay in a communion which I feel to be alien
+to the true church, would you?"
+
+"Have you stay, my friend?" said the Doctor, with a pleasant,
+friendly look,--"have you stay?  Not a month, nor a week, nor a day,
+if I could help it.  You have got into the wrong pulpit, and I have
+known it from the first.  The sooner you go where you belong, the
+better.  And I'm very glad you don't mean to stop half-way.  Don't
+you know you've always come to me when you've been dyspeptic or sick
+anyhow, and wanted to put yourself wholly into my hands, so that I
+might order you like a child just what to do and what to take?  That
+'s exactly what you want in religion.  I don't blame you for it.  You
+never liked to take the responsibility of your own body; I don't see
+why you should want to have the charge of your own soul.  But I'm
+glad you're going to the Old Mother of all.  You wouldn't have been
+contented short of that."
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather breathed with more freedom.  The Doctor
+saw into his soul through those awful spectacles of his,--into it and
+beyond it, as one sees through a thin fog.  But it was with a real
+human kindness, after all.  He felt like a child before a strong man;
+but the strong man looked on him with a father's indulgence.  Many
+and many a time, when he had come desponding and bemoaning himself on
+account of some contemptible bodily infirmity, the old Doctor had
+looked at him through his spectacles, listened patiently while he
+told his ailments, and then, in his large parental way, given him a
+few words of wholesome advice, and cheered him up so that he went off
+with a light heart, thinking that the heaven he was so much afraid of
+was not so very near, after all.  It was the same thing now.  He
+felt, as feeble natures always do in the presence of strong ones,
+overmastered, circumscribed, shut in, humbled; but yet it seemed as
+if the old Doctor did not despise him any more for what he considered
+weakness of mind than he used to despise him when he complained of
+his nerves or his digestion.
+
+Men who see into their neighbors are very apt to be contemptuous; but
+men who see through them find something lying behind every human soul
+which it is not for them to sit in judgment on, or to attempt to
+sneer out of the order of God's manifold universe.
+
+Little as the Doctor had said out of which comfort could be
+extracted, his genial manner had something grateful in it.  A film of
+gratitude came over the poor man's cloudy, uncertain eye, and a look
+of tremulous relief and satisfaction played about his weak mouth.  He
+was gravitating to the majority, where he hoped to find "rest"; but
+he was dreadfully sensitive to the opinions of the minority he was on
+the point of leaving.
+
+The old Doctor saw plainly enough what was going on in his mind.
+
+"I sha'n't quarrel with you," he said,--"you know that very well; but
+you mustn't quarrel with me, if I talk honestly with you; it isn't
+everybody that will take the trouble.  You flatter yourself that you
+will make a good many enemies by leaving your old communion.  Not so
+many as you think.  This is the way the common sort of people will
+talk:--'You have got your ticket to the feast of life, as much as any
+other man that ever lived.  Protestantism says,--"Help yourself;
+here's a clean plate, and a knife and fork of your own, and plenty of
+fresh dishes to choose from."  The Old Mother says,--"Give me your
+ticket, my dear, and I'll feed you with my gold spoon off these
+beautiful old wooden trenchers.  Such nice bits as those good old
+gentlemen have left for you!"  There is no quarrelling with a man who
+prefers broken victuals.'  That's what the rougher sort will say; and
+then, where one scolds, ten will laugh.  But, mind you, I don't
+either scold or laugh.  I don't feel sure that you could very well
+have helped doing what you will soon do.  You know you were never
+easy without some medicine to take when you felt ill in body.  I'm
+afraid I've given you trashy stuff sometimes, just to keep you quiet.
+Now, let me tell you, there is just the same difference in spiritual
+patients that there is in bodily ones.  One set believes in wholesome
+ways of living, and another must have a great list of specifics for
+all the soul's complaints.  You belong with the last, and got
+accidentally shuffled in with the others."
+
+The minister smiled faintly, but did not reply.  Of course, he
+considered that way of talking as the result of the Doctor's
+professional training.  It would not have been worth while to take
+offence at his plain speech, if he had been so disposed; for he might
+wish to consult him the next day as to "what he should take" for his
+dyspepsia or his neuralgia.
+
+He left the Doctor with a hollow feeling at the bottom of his soul,
+as if a good piece of his manhood had been scooped out of him.  His
+hollow aching did not explain itself in words, but it grumbled and
+worried down among the unshaped thoughts which lie beneath them.  He
+knew that he had been trying to reason himself out of his birthright
+of reason.  He knew that the inspiration which gave him understanding
+was losing its throne in his intelligence, and the almighty Majority-
+Vote was proclaiming itself in its stead.  He knew that the great
+primal truths, which each successive revelation only confirmed, were
+fast becoming hidden beneath the mechanical forms of thought, which,
+as with all new converts, engrossed so large a share of his
+attention.  The "peace," the "rest," which he had purchased were
+dearly bought to one who had been trained to the arms of thought, and
+whose noble privilege it might have been to live in perpetual warfare
+for the advancing truth which the next generation will claim as the
+legacy of the present.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was getting careless about his sermons.
+He must wait the fitting moment to declare himself; and in the mean
+time he was preaching to heretics.  It did not matter much what he
+preached, under such circumstances.  He pulled out two old yellow
+sermons from a heap of such, and began looking over that for the
+forenoon.  Naturally enough, he fell asleep over it, and, sleeping,
+he began to dream.
+
+He dreamed that he was under the high arches of an old cathedral,
+amidst a throng of worshippers.  The light streamed in through vast
+windows, dark with the purple robes of royal saints, or blazing with
+yellow glories around the heads of earthly martyrs and heavenly
+messengers.  The billows of the great organ roared among the
+clustered columns, as the sea breaks amidst the basaltic pillars
+which crowd the stormy cavern of the Hebrides.  The voice of the
+alternate choirs of singing boys swung back and forward, as the
+silver censer swung in the hands of the whiterobed children.  The
+sweet cloud of incense rose in soft, fleecy mists, full of
+penetrating suggestions of the East and its perfumed altars.  The
+knees of twenty generations had worn the pavement; their feet had
+hollowed the steps; their shoulders had smoothed the columns.  Dead
+bishops and abbots lay under the marble of the floor in their
+crumbled vestments; dead warriors, in rusted armor, were stretched
+beneath their sculptured effigies.  And all at once all the buried
+multitudes who had ever worshipped there came thronging in through
+the aisles.  They choked every space, they swarmed into all the
+chapels, they hung in clusters over the parapets of the galleries,
+they clung to the images in every niche, and still the vast throng
+kept flowing and flowing in, until the living were lost in the rush
+of the returning dead who had reclaimed their own.  Then, as his
+dream became more fantastic, the huge cathedral itself seemed to
+change into the wreck of some mighty antediluvian vertebrate; its
+flying-buttresses arched round like ribs, its piers shaped themselves
+into limbs, and the sound of the organ-blast changed to the wind
+whistling through its thousand-jointed skeleton.
+
+And presently the sound lulled, and softened and softened, until it
+was as the murmur of a distant swarm of bees.  A procession of monks
+wound along through an old street, chanting, as they walked.  In his
+dream he glided in among them and bore his part in the burden of
+their song.  He entered with the long train under a low arch, and
+presently he was kneeling in a narrow cell before an image of the
+Blessed Maiden holding the Divine Child in her arms, and his lips
+seemed to whisper,
+
+               Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!
+
+He turned to the crucifix, and, prostrating himself before the spare,
+agonizing shape of the Holy Sufferer, fell into a long passion of
+tears and broken prayers.  He rose and flung himself, worn-out, upon
+his hard pallet, and, seeming to slumber, dreamed again within his
+dream.  Once more in the vast cathedral, with throngs of the living
+choking its aisles, amidst jubilant peals from the cavernous depths
+of the great organ, and choral melodies ringing from the fluty
+throats of the singing boys.  A day of great rejoicings,--for a
+prelate was to be consecrated, and the bones of the mighty skeleton-
+minster were shaking with anthems, as if there were life of its own
+within its buttressed ribs.  He looked down at his feet; the folds of
+the sacred robe were flowing about them: he put his hand to his head;
+it was crowned with the holy mitre.  A long sigh, as of perfect
+content in the consummation of all his earthly hopes, breathed
+through the dreamer's lips, and shaped itself, as it escaped, into
+the blissful murmur,
+
+               Ego sum Episcopus!
+
+One grinning gargoyle looked in from beneath the roof through an
+opening in a stained window.  It was the face of a mocking fiend,
+such as the old builders loved to place under the eaves to spout the
+rain through their open mouths.  It looked at him, as he sat in his
+mitred chair, with its hideous grin growing broader and broader,
+until it laughed out aloud, such a hard, stony, mocking laugh, that
+he awoke out of his second dream through his first into his common
+consciousness, and shivered, as he turned to the two yellow sermons
+which he was to pick over and weed of the little thought they might
+contain, for the next day's service.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather was too much taken up with his own
+bodily and spiritual condition to be deeply mindful of others.  He
+carried the note requesting the prayers of the congregation in his
+pocket all day; and the soul in distress, which a single tender
+petition might have soothed, and perhaps have saved from despair or
+fatal error, found no voice in the temple to plead for it before the
+Throne of Mercy!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE SECRET IS WHISPERED.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather's congregation was not large, but
+select.  The lines of social cleavage run through religious creeds as
+if they were of a piece with position and fortune.  It is expected of
+persons of a certain breeding, in some parts of New England, that
+they shall be either Episcopalians or Unitarians.  The mansion-house
+gentry of Rockland were pretty fairly divided between the little
+chapel, with the stained window and the trained rector, and the
+meeting-house where the Reverend Mr. Fairweather officiated.
+
+It was in the latter that Dudley Venner worshipped, when he attended
+service anywhere,--which depended very much on the caprice of Elsie.
+He saw plainly enough that a generous and liberally cultivated nature
+might find a refuge and congenial souls in either of these two
+persuasions, but he objected to some points of the formal creed of
+the older church, and especially to the mechanism which renders it
+hard to get free from its outworn and offensive formulae,--
+remembering how Archbishop Tillotson wished in vain that it could be
+"well rid of" the Athanasian Creed.  This, and the fact that the
+meeting-house was nearer than the chapel, determined him, when the
+new rector, who was not quite up to his mark in education, was
+appointed, to take a pew in the "liberal" worshippers' edifice.
+
+Elsie was very uncertain in her feeling about going to church.  In
+summer, she loved rather to stroll over The Mountain, on Sundays.
+There was even a story, that she had one of the caves before
+mentioned fitted up as an oratory, and that she had her own wild way
+of worshipping the God whom she sought in the dark chasms of the
+dreaded cliffs.  Mere fables, doubtless; but they showed the common
+belief, that Elsie, with all her strange and dangerous elements of
+character, had yet strong religious feeling mingled with them.  The
+hymn-book which Dick had found, in his midnight invasion of her
+chamber, opened to favorite hymns, especially some of the Methodist
+and Quietist character.  Many had noticed, that certain tunes, as
+sung by the choir, seemed to impress her deeply; and some said, that
+at such times her whole expression would change, and her stormy look
+would soften so as to remind them of her poor, sweet mother.
+
+On the Sunday morning after the talk recorded in the last chapter,
+Elsie made herself ready to go to meeting.  She was dressed much as
+usual, excepting that she wore a thick veil, turned aside, but ready
+to conceal her features.  It was natural enough that she should not
+wish to be looked in the face by curious persons who would be staring
+to see what effect the occurrence of the past week had had on her
+spirits.  Her father attended her willingly; and they took their
+seats in the pew, somewhat to the surprise of many, who had hardly
+expected to see them, after so humiliating a family development as
+the attempted crime of their kinsman had just been furnishing for the
+astonishment of the public.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was now in his coldest mood.  He had
+passed through the period of feverish excitement which marks a change
+of religious opinion.  At first, when he had began to doubt his own
+theological positions, he had defended them against himself with more
+ingenuity and interest, perhaps, than he could have done against
+another; because men rarely take the trouble to understand anybody's
+difficulties in a question but their own.  After this, as he began to
+draw off from different points of his old belief, the cautious
+disentangling of himself from one mesh after another gave sharpness
+to his intellect, and the tremulous eagerness with which he seized
+upon the doctrine which, piece by piece, under various pretexts and
+with various disguises, he was appropriating, gave interest and
+something like passion to his words.  But when he had gradually
+accustomed his people to his new phraseology, and was really
+adjusting his sermons and his service to disguise his thoughts, he
+lost at once all his intellectual acuteness and all his spiritual
+fervor.
+
+Elsie sat quietly through the first part of the service, which was
+conducted in the cold, mechanical way to be expected.  Her face was
+hidden by her veil; but her father knew her state of feeling, as well
+by her movements and attitudes as by the expression of her features.
+The hymn had been sung, the short prayer offered, the Bible read, and
+the long prayer was about to begin.  This was the time at which the
+"notes" of any who were in affliction from loss of friends, the sick
+who were doubtful of recovery, those who had cause to be grateful for
+preservation of life or other signal blessing, were wont to be read.
+
+Just then it was that Dudley Veneer noticed that his daughter was
+trembling,--a thing so rare, so unaccountable, indeed, under the
+circumstances, that he watched her closely, and began to fear that
+some nervous paroxysm, or other malady, might have just begun to show
+itself in this way upon her.
+
+The minister had in his pocket two notes.  One, in the handwriting of
+Deacon Soper, was from a member of this congregation, returning
+thanks for his preservation through a season of great peril, supposed
+to be the exposure which he had shared with others, when standing in
+the circle around Dick Veneer.  The other was the anonymous one, in a
+female hand, which he had received the evening before.  He forgot
+them both.  His thoughts were altogether too much taken up with more
+important matters.  He prayed through all the frozen petitions of his
+expurgated form of supplication, and not a single heart was soothed
+or lifted, or reminded that its sorrows were struggling their way up
+to heaven, borne on the breath from a human soul that was warm with
+love.
+
+The people sat down as if relieved when the dreary prayer was
+finished.  Elsie alone remained standing until her father touched
+her.  Then she sat down, lifted her veil, and looked at him with a
+blank, sad look, as if she had suffered some pain or wrong, but could
+not give any name or expression to her vague trouble.  She did not
+tremble any longer, but remained ominously still, as if she had been
+frozen where she sat.
+
+--Can a man love his own soul too well?  Who, on the whole,
+constitute the nobler class of human beings? those who have lived
+mainly to make sure of their own personal welfare in another and
+future condition of existence, or they who have worked with all their
+might for their race, for their country, for the advancement of the
+kingdom of God, and left all personal arrangements concerning
+themselves to the sole charge of Him who made them and is responsible
+to himself for their safe-keeping?  Is an anchorite who has worn the
+stone floor of his cell into basins with his knees bent in prayer,
+more acceptable than the soldier who gives his life for the
+maintenance of any sacred right or truth, without thinking what will
+specially become of him in a world where there are two or three
+million colonists a month, from this one planet, to be cared for?
+These are grave questions, which must suggest themselves to those who
+know that there are many profoundly selfish persons who are sincerely
+devout and perpetually occupied with their own future, while there
+are others who are perfectly ready to sacrifice themselves for any
+worthy object in this world, but are really too little occupied with
+their exclusive personality to think so much as many do about what is
+to become of them in another.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather did not, most certainly, belong to
+this latter class.  There are several kinds of believers, whose
+history we find among the early converts to Christianity.
+
+There was the magistrate, whose social position was such that he
+preferred a private interview in the evening with the Teacher to
+following him--with the street-crowd.  He had seen extraordinary
+facts which had satisfied him that the young Galilean had a divine
+commission.  But still he cross-questioned the Teacher himself.  He
+was not ready to accept statements without explanation.  That was the
+right kind of man.  See how he stood up for the legal rights of his
+Master, when the people were for laying hands on him!
+
+And again, there was the government official, intrusted with public
+money, which, in those days, implied that he was supposed to be
+honest.  A single look of that heavenly countenance, and two words of
+gentle command, were enough for him.  Neither of these men, the early
+disciple, nor the evangelist, seems to have been thinking primarily
+about his own personal safety.
+
+But now look at the poor, miserable turnkey, whose occupation shows
+what he was like to be, and who had just been thrusting two
+respectable strangers, taken from the hands of a mob, covered with
+stripes and stripped of clothing, into the inner prison, and making
+their feet fast in the stocks.  His thought, in the moment of terror,
+is for himself: first, suicide; then, what he shall do,--not to save
+his household,--not to fulfil his duty to his office,--not to repair
+the outrage he has been committing,--but to secure his own personal
+safety.  Truly, character shows itself as much in a man's way of
+becoming a Christian as in any other!
+
+--Elsie sat, statue-like, through the sermon.  It would not be fair
+to the reader to give an abstract of that.  When a man who has been
+bred to free thought and free speech suddenly finds himself stepping
+about, like a dancer amidst his eggs, among the old addled majority-
+votes which he must not tread upon, he is a spectacle for men and
+angels.  Submission to intellectual precedent and authority does very
+well for those who have been bred to it; we know that the underground
+courses of their minds are laid in the Roman cement of tradition, and
+that stately and splendid structures may be reared on such a
+foundation.  But to see one laying a platform over heretical
+quicksands, thirty or forty or fifty years deep, and then beginning
+to build upon it, is a sorry sight.  A new convert from the reformed
+to the ancient faith may be very strong in the arms, but he will
+always have weak legs and shaky knees.  He may use his hands well,
+and hit hard with his fists, but he will never stand on his legs in
+the way the man does who inherits his belief.
+
+The services were over at last, and Dudley Venner and his daughter
+walked home together in silence.  He always respected her moods, and
+saw clearly enough that some inward trouble was weighing upon her.
+There was nothing to be said in such cases, for Elsie could never
+talk of her griefs.  An hour, or a day, or a week of brooding, with
+perhaps a sudden flash of violence: this was the way in which the
+impressions which make other women weep, and tell their griefs by
+word or letter, showed their effects in her mind and acts.
+
+She wandered off up into the remoter parts of The Mountain, that day,
+after their return.  No one saw just where she went,--indeed, no one
+knew its forest-recesses and rocky fastnesses as she did.  She was
+gone until late at night; and when Old Sophy, who had watched for
+her, bound up her long hair for her sleep, it was damp with the cold
+dews.
+
+The old black woman looked at her without speaking, but questioning
+her with every feature as to the sorrow that was weighing on her.
+
+Suddenly she turned to Old Sophy.
+
+"You want to know what there is troubling me;" she said.  "Nobody
+loves me.  I cannot love anybody.  What is love, Sophy?"
+
+"It's what poor Ol' Sophy's got for her Elsie," the old woman
+answered.  "Tell me, darlin',--don' you love somebody?---don' you
+love? you know,--oh, tell me, darlin', don' you love to see the
+gen'l'man that keeps up at the school where you go?  They say he's
+the pootiest gen'l'man that was ever in the town here.  Don' be
+'fraid of poor Ol' Sophy, darlin',--she loved a man once,--see here!
+Oh, I've showed you this often enough!"
+
+She took from her pocket a half of one of the old Spanish silver
+coins, such as were current in the earlier part of this century.  The
+other half of it had been lying in the deep sea-sand for more than
+fifty years.
+
+Elsie looked her in the face, but did not answer in words.  What
+strange intelligence was that which passed between them through the
+diamond eyes and the little beady black ones?---what subtile
+intercommunication, penetrating so much deeper than articulate
+speech?  This was the nearest approach to sympathetic relations that
+Elsie ever had: a kind of dumb intercourse of feeling, such as one
+sees in the eyes of brute mothers looking on their young.  But,
+subtile as it was, it was narrow and individual; whereas an emotion
+which can shape itself in language opens the gate for itself into the
+great community of human affections; for every word we speak is the
+medal of a dead thought or feeling, struck in the die of some human
+experience, worn smooth by innumerable contacts, and always
+transferred warm from one to another.  By words we share the common
+consciousness of the race, which has shaped itself in these symbols.
+By music we reach those special states of consciousness which, being
+without form, cannot be shaped with the mosaics of the vocabulary.
+The language of the eyes runs deeper into the personal nature, but it
+is purely individual, and perishes in the expression.
+
+If we consider them all as growing out of the consciousness as their
+root, language is the leaf, music is the flower; but when the eyes
+meet and search each other, it is the uncovering of the blanched stem
+through which the whole life runs, but which has never taken color or
+form from the sunlight.
+
+For three days Elsie did not return to the school.  Much of the time
+she was among the woods and rocks.  The season was now beginning to
+wane, and the forest to put on its autumnal glory.  The dreamy haze
+was beginning to soften the landscape, and the mast delicious days of
+the year were lending their attraction to the scenery of The
+Mountain.  It was not very singular that Elsie should be lingering in
+her old haunts, from which the change of season must soon drive her.
+But Old Sophy saw clearly enough that some internal conflict was
+going on, and knew very well that it must have its own way and work
+itself out as it best could.  As much as looks could tell Elsie had
+told her.  She had said in words, to be sure, that she could not
+love.  Something warped and thwarted the emotion which would have
+been love in another, no doubt; but that such an emotion was striving
+with her against all malign influences which interfered with it the
+old woman had a perfect certainty in her own mind.
+
+Everybody who has observed the working of emotions in persons of
+various temperaments knows well enough that they have periods of
+incubation, which differ with the individual, and with the particular
+cause and degree of excitement, yet evidently go through a strictly
+self-limited series of evolutions, at the end of which, their result
+--an act of violence, a paroxysm of tears, a gradual subsidence into
+repose, or whatever it may be--declares itself, like the last stage
+of an attack of fever and ague.  No one can observe children without
+noticing that there is a personal equation, to use the astronomer's
+language, in their tempers, so that one sulks an hour over an offence
+which makes another a fury for five minutes, and leaves him or her an
+angel when it is over.
+
+At the end of three days, Elsie braided her long, glossy, black hair,
+and shot a golden arrow through it.  She dressed herself with more
+than usual care, and came down in the morning superb in her stormy
+beauty.  The brooding paroxysm was over, or at least her passion had
+changed its phase.  Her father saw it with great relief; he had
+always many fears for her in her hours and days of gloom, but, for
+reasons before assigned, had felt that she must be trusted to
+herself, without appealing to actual restraint, or any other
+supervision than such as Old Sophy could exercise without offence.
+
+She went off at the accustomed hour to the school.  All the girls had
+their eyes on her.  None so keen as these young misses to know an
+inward movement by an outward sign of adornment: if they have not as
+many signals as the ships that sail the great seas, there is not an
+end of ribbon or a turn of a ringlet which is not a hieroglyphic with
+a hidden meaning to these little cruisers over the ocean of
+sentiment.
+
+The girls all looked at Elsie with a new thought; for she was more
+sumptuously arrayed than perhaps ever before at the school; and they
+said to themselves that she had come meaning to draw the young
+master's eyes upon her.  That was it; what else could it be?  The
+beautiful cold girl with the diamond eyes meant to dazzle the
+handsome young gentleman.  He would be afraid to love her; it
+couldn't be true, that which some people had said in the village; she
+was n't the kind of young lady to make Mr. Langdon happy.  Those dark
+people are never safe: so one of the young blondes said to herself.
+Elsie was not literary enough for such a scholar: so thought Miss
+Charlotte Ann Wood, the young poetess.  She couldn't have a good
+temper, with those scowling eyebrows: this was the opinion of several
+broad-faced, smiling girls, who thought, each in her own snug little
+mental sanctum, that, if, etc., etc., she could make him so happy!
+
+Elsie had none of the still, wicked light in her eyes, that morning.
+She looked gentle, but dreamy; played with her books; did not trouble
+herself with any of the exercises,--which in itself was not very
+remarkable, as she was always allowed, under some pretext or other,
+to have her own way.
+
+The school-hours were over at length.  The girls went out, but she
+lingered to the last.  She then came up to Mr. Bernard, with a book
+in her hand, as if to ask a question.
+
+"Will you walk towards my home with me today?  "she said, in a very
+low voice, little more than a whisper.
+
+Mr. Bernard was startled by the request, put in such a way.  He had a
+presentiment of some painful scene or other.  But there was nothing
+to be done but to assure her that it would give him great pleasure.
+
+So they walked along together on their way toward the Dudley mansion.
+
+"I have no friend," Elsie said, all at once.  "Nothing loves me but
+one old woman.  I cannot love anybody.  They tell me there is
+something in my eyes that draws people to me and makes them faint:
+Look into them, will you?"
+
+She turned her face toward him.  It was very pale, and the diamond
+eyes were glittering with a film, such as beneath other lids would
+have rounded into a tear.
+
+"Beautiful eyes, Elsie," he said,--"sometimes very piercing,--but
+soft now, and looking as if there were something beneath them that
+friendship might draw out.  I am your friend, Elsie.  Tell me what I
+can do to render your life happier."
+
+"Love me!" said Elsie Venner.
+
+What shall a man do, when a woman makes such a demand, involving such
+an avowal?  It was the tenderest, cruellest, humblest moment of Mr.
+Bernard's life.  He turned pale, he trembled almost, as if he had
+been a woman listening to her lover's declaration.
+
+"Elsie," he said, presently, "I so long to be of some use to you, to
+have your confidence and sympathy, that I must not let you say or do
+anything to put us in false relations.  I do love you, Elsie, as a
+suffering sister with sorrows of her own,--as one whom I would save
+at the risk of my happiness and life,--as one who needs a true friend
+more than--any of all the young girls I have known.  More than this
+you would not ask me to say.  You have been through excitement and
+trouble lately, and it has made you feel such a need more than ever.
+Give me your hand, dear Elsie, and trust me that I will be as true a
+friend to you as if we were children of the same mother."
+
+Elsie gave him her hand mechanically.  It seemed to him that a cold
+aura shot from it along his arm and chilled the blood running through
+his heart.  He pressed it gently, looked at her with a face full of
+grave kindness and sad interest, then softly relinquished it.
+
+It was all over with poor Elsie.  They walked almost in silence the
+rest of the way.  Mr. Bernard left her at the gate of the mansion-
+house, and returned with sad forebodings.  Elsie went at once to her
+own room, and did not come from it at the usual hours.  At last Old
+Sophy began to be alarmed about her, went to her apartment, and,
+finding the door unlocked, entered cautiously.  She found Elsie lying
+on her bed, her brows strongly contracted, her eyes dull, her whole
+look that of great suffering.  Her first thought was that she had
+been doing herself a harm by some deadly means or other.  But Elsie,
+saw her fear, and reassured her.
+
+"No," she said, "there is nothing wrong, such as you are thinking of;
+I am not dying.  You may send for the Doctor; perhaps he can take the
+pain from my head.  That is all I want him to do.  There is no use in
+the pain, that I know of; if he can stop it, let him."
+
+So they sent for the old Doctor.  It was not long before the solid
+trot of Caustic, the old bay horse, and the crashing of the gravel
+under the wheels, gave notice that the physician was driving up the
+avenue.
+
+The old Doctor was a model for visiting practitioners.  He always
+came into the sick-room with a quiet, cheerful look, as if he had a
+consciousness that he was bringing some sure relief with him.  The
+way a patient snatches his first look at his doctor's face, to see
+whether he is doomed, whether he is reprieved, whether he is
+unconditionally pardoned, has really something terrible about it.  It
+is only to be met by an imperturbable mask of serenity, proof against
+anything and everything in a patient's aspect.  The physician whose
+face reflects his patient's condition like a mirror may do well
+enough to examine people for a life-insurance office, but does not
+belong to the sickroom.  The old Doctor did not keep people waiting
+in dread suspense, while he stayed talking about the case,--the
+patient all the time thinking that he and the friends are discussing
+some alarming symptom or formidable operation which he himself is by-
+and-by--to hear of.
+
+He was in Elsie's room almost before she knew he was in the house.
+He came to her bedside in such a natural, quiet way, that it seemed
+as if he were only a friend who had dropped in for a moment to say a
+pleasant word.  Yet he was very uneasy about Elsie until he had seen
+her; he never knew what might happen to her or those about her, and
+came prepared for the worst.
+
+"Sick, my child?" he said, in a very soft, low voice.
+
+Elsie nodded, without speaking.
+
+The Doctor took her hand,--whether with professional views, or only
+in a friendly way, it would have been hard to tell.  So he sat a few
+minutes, looking at her all the time with a kind of fatherly
+interest, but with it all noting how she lay, how she breathed, her
+color, her expression, all that teaches the practised eye so much
+without a single question being asked.  He saw she was in suffering,
+and said presently,
+
+"You have pain somewhere; where is it?"
+
+She put her hand to her head.
+
+As she was not disposed to talk, he watched her for a while,
+questioned Old Sophy shrewdly a few minutes, and so made up his mind
+as to the probable cause of disturbance and the proper remedies to be
+used.
+
+Some very silly people thought the old Doctor did not believe in
+medicine, because he gave less than certain poor half-taught
+creatures in the smaller neighboring towns, who took advantage of
+people's sickness to disgust and disturb them with all manner of ill-
+smelling and ill-behaving drugs.  In truth, he hated to give anything
+noxious or loathsome to those who were uncomfortable enough already,
+unless he was very sure it would do good,--in which case, he never
+played with drugs, but gave good, honest, efficient doses.  Sometimes
+he lost a family of the more boorish sort, because they did not think
+they got their money's worth out of him, unless they had something
+more than a taste of everything he carried in his saddlebags.
+
+He ordered some remedies which he thought would relieve Elsie, and
+left her, saying he would call the next day, hoping to find her
+better.  But the next day came, and the next, and still Elsie was on
+her bed, feverish, restless, wakeful, silent.  At night she tossed
+about and wandered, and it became at length apparent that there was a
+settled attack, something like what they called, formerly, a "nervous
+fever."
+
+On the fourth day she was more restless than common.  One of the
+women of the house came in to help to take care of her; but she
+showed an aversion to her presence.
+
+"Send me Helen Darley," she said, at last.
+
+The old Doctor told them, that, if possible, they must indulge this
+fancy of hers.  The caprices of sick people were never to be
+despised, least of all of such persons as Elsie, when rendered
+irritable and exacting by pain and weakness.
+
+So a message was sent to Mr. Silas Peckham at the Apollinean
+Institute, to know if he could not spare Miss Helen Darley for a few
+days, if required, to give her attention to a young lady who attended
+his school and who was now lying ill,--no other person than the
+daughter of Dudley Venner.
+
+A mean man never agrees to anything without deliberately turning it
+over, so that he may see its dirty side, and, if he can, sweating the
+coin he pays for it.  If an archangel should offer to save his soul
+for sixpence, he would try to find a sixpence with a hole in it.  A
+gentleman says yes to a great many things without stopping to think:
+a shabby fellow is known by his caution in answering questions, for
+fear of, compromising his pocket or himself.
+
+Mr. Silas Peckham looked very grave at the request.  The dooties of
+Miss Darley at the Institoot were important, very important.  He paid
+her large sums of money for her time,--more than she could expect to
+get in any other institootion for the edoocation of female youth.  A
+deduction from her selary would be necessary, in case she should
+retire from the sphere of her dooties for a season.  He should be put
+to extry expense, and have to perform additional labors himself.  He
+would consider of the matter.  If any arrangement could be made, he
+would send word to Squire Venner's folks.
+
+"Miss Darley," said Silas Peckham, "the' 's a message from Squire
+Venner's that his daughter wants you down at the mansion-house to see
+her.  She's got a fever, so they inform me.  If it's any kind of
+ketchin' fever, of course you won't think of goin' near the mansion-
+house.  If Doctor Kittredge says it's safe, perfec'ly safe, I can't
+object to your goin', on sech conditions as seem to be fair to all'
+concerned.  You will give up your pay for the whole time you are.
+absent,--portions of days to be caounted as whole days.  You will be
+charged with board the same as if you eat your victuals with the
+household.  The victuals are of no use after they're cooked but to be
+eat, and your bein' away is no savin' to our folks.  I shall charge
+you a reasonable compensation for the demage to the school by the
+absence of a teacher.  If Miss Crabs undertakes any dooties belongin'
+to your department of instruction, she will look to you for sech
+pecooniary considerations as you may agree upon between you.  On
+these conditions I am willin' to give my consent to your temporary
+absence from the post of dooty.  I will step down to Doctor
+Kittredge's myself, and make inquiries as to the natur' of the
+complaint."
+
+Mr. Peckham took up a rusty and very narrow-brimmed hat, which he
+cocked upon one side of his head, with an air peculiar to the rural
+gentry.  It was the hour when the Doctor expected to be in his
+office, unless he had some special call which kept him from home.
+
+He found the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather just taking leave of the
+Doctor.  His hand was on the pit of his stomach, and his countenance
+was expressive of inward uneasiness.
+
+"Shake it before using," said the Doctor; "and the sooner you make up
+your mind to speak right out, the better it will be for your
+digestion."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Peckham!  Walk in, Mr. Peckham!  Nobody sick up at the
+school, I hope?"
+
+"The haalth of the school is fust-rate," replied Mr. Peckham.  "The
+sitooation is uncommonly favorable to saloobrity."  (These last words
+were from the Annual Report of the past year.) "Providence has spared
+our female youth in a remarkable measure.  I've come with reference
+to another consideration.  Dr. Kittredge, is there any ketchin'
+complaint goin' about in the village?"
+
+"Well, yes," said the Doctor, "I should say there was something of
+that sort.  Measles.  Mumps.  And Sin,--that's always catching."
+
+The old Doctor's eye twinkled; once in a while he had his little
+touch of humor.
+
+Silas Peckham slanted his eye up suspiciously at the Doctor, as if he
+was getting some kind of advantage over him.  That is the way people
+of his constitution are apt to take a bit of pleasantry.
+
+"I don't mean sech things, Doctor; I mean fevers.  Is there any
+ketchin' fevers--bilious, or nervous, or typus, or whatever you call
+'em--now goin' round this village?  That's what I want to ascertain,
+if there's no impropriety."
+
+The old Doctor looked at Silas through his spectacles.
+
+"Hard and sour as a green cider-apple," he thought to himself.
+"No,"; he said,--"I don't know any such cases."
+
+"What's the matter with Elsie Venner?"  asked Silas, sharply, as if
+he expected to have him this time.
+
+"A mild feverish attack, I should call it in anybody else; but she
+has a peculiar constitution, and I never feel so safe about her as I
+should about most people."
+
+"Anything ketchin' about it?"  Silas asked, cunningly.
+
+"No, indeed!" said the Doctor,--"catching?  no,--what put that into
+your head, Mr. Peckham?"
+
+"Well, Doctor," the conscientious Principal answered, "I naterally
+feel a graat responsibility, a very gmaaat responsibility, for the
+noomerous and lovely young ladies committed to my charge.  It has
+been a question, whether one of my assistants should go, accordin' to
+request, to stop with Miss Venner for a season.  Nothin' restrains my
+givin' my full and free consent to her goin' but the fear lest
+contagious maladies should be introdooced among those lovely female
+youth.  I shall abide by your opinion,--I understan' you to say
+distinc'ly, her complaint is not ketchin'?---and urge upon Miss
+Darley to fulfil her dooties to a sufferin' fellow-creature at any
+cost to myself and my establishment.  We shall miss her very much;
+but it is a good cause, and she shall go,--and I shall trust that
+Providence will enable us to spare her without permanent demage to
+the interests of the Institootion."
+
+Saying this, the excellent Principal departed, with his rusty narrow-
+brimmed hat leaning over, as if it had a six-knot breeze abeam, and
+its gunwale (so to speak) was dipping into his coat-collar.  He
+announced the result of his inquiries to Helen, who had received a
+brief note in the mean time from a poor relation of Elsie's mother,
+then at the mansion-house, informing her of the critical situation of
+Elsie and of her urgent desire that Helen should be with her.  She
+could not hesitate.  She blushed as she thought of the comments that
+might be made; but what were such considerations in a matter of life
+and death?  She could not stop to make terms with Silas Peckham.  She
+must go.  He might fleece her, if he would; she would not complain,--
+not even to Bernard, who, she knew, would bring the Principal to
+terms, if she gave the least hint of his intended extortions.
+
+So Helen made up her bundle of clothes to be sent after her, took a
+book or two with her to help her pass the time, and departed for the
+Dudley mansion.  It was with a great inward effort that she undertook
+the sisterly task which was thus forced upon her.  She had a kind of
+terror of Elsie; and the thought of having charge of her, of being
+alone with her, of coming under the full influence of those diamond
+eyes,--if, indeed, their light were not dimmed by suffering and
+weariness,--was one she shrank from.  But what could she do?  It
+might be a turning-point in the life of the poor girl; and she must
+overcome all her fears, all her repugnance, and go to her rescue.
+
+"Is Helen come?" said Elsie, when she heard, with her fine sense
+quickened by the irritability of sickness, a light footfall on the
+stair, with a cadence unlike that of any inmate of the house.
+
+"It's a strange woman's step," said Old Sophy, who, with her
+exclusive love for Elsie, was naturally disposed to jealousy of a
+new-comer.  "Let Ol' Sophy set at 'th' foot o' th' bed, if th' young
+missis sets by th' piller,--won' y', darlin'?  The' 's nobody that's
+white can love y' as th' of black woman does;--don' sen' her away,
+now, there 's a dear soul!"
+
+Elsie motioned her to sit in the place she had pointed to, and Helen
+at that moment entered the room.  Dudley Venner followed her.
+
+"She is your patient," he said, "except while the Doctor is here.
+She has been longing to have you with her, and we shall expect you to
+make her well in a few days."
+
+So Helen Darley found herself established in the most unexpected
+manner as an inmate of the Dudley mansion.  She sat with Elsie most
+of the time, by day and by night, soothing her, and trying to enter
+into her confidence and affections, if it should prove that this
+strange creature was really capable of truly sympathetic emotions.
+
+What was this unexplained something which came between her soul and
+that of every other human being with whom she was in relations?
+Helen perceived, or rather felt, that she had, folded up in the
+depths of her being, a true womanly nature.  Through the cloud that
+darkened her aspect, now and then a ray would steal forth, which,
+like the smile of stern and solemn people, was all the more
+impressive from its contrast with the expression she wore habitually.
+It might well be that pain and fatigue had changed her aspect; but,
+at any rate, Helen looked into her eyes without that nervous
+agitation which their cold glitter had produced on her when they were
+full of their natural light.  She felt sure that her mother must have
+been a lovely, gentle woman.  There were gleams of a beautiful nature
+shining through some ill-defined medium which disturbed and made them
+flicker and waver, as distant images do when seen through the
+rippling upward currents of heated air.  She loved, in her own way,
+the old black woman, and seemed to keep up a kind of silent
+communication with her, as if they did not require the use of speech.
+She appeared to be tranquillized by the presence of Helen, and loved
+to have her seated at the bedside.  Yet something, whatever it was,
+prevented her from opening her heart to her kind companion; and even
+now there were times when she would lie looking at her, with such a
+still, watchful, almost dangerous expression, that Helen would sigh,
+and change her place, as persons do whose breath some cunning orator
+had been sucking out of them with his spongy eloquence, so that, when
+he stops, they must get some air and stir about, or they feel as if
+they should be half smothered and palsied.
+
+It was too much to keep guessing what was the meaning of all this.
+Helen determined to ask Old Sophy some questions which might probably
+throw light upon her doubts.  She took the opportunity one evening
+when Elsie was lying asleep and they were both sitting at some
+distance from her bed.
+
+"Tell me, Sophy," she said, "was Elsie always as shy as she seems to
+be now, in talking with those to whom she is friendly?"
+
+"Alway jes' so, Miss Darlin', ever sense she was little chil'.  When
+she was five, six year old, she lisp some,--call me Thophy; that make
+her kin' o' 'shamed, perhaps: after she grow up, she never lisp, but
+she kin' o' got the way o' not talkin' much.  Fac' is, she don' like
+talkin' as common gals do, 'xcep' jes' once in a while wi' some
+partic'lar folks,--'n' then not much."
+
+"How old is Elsie?"
+
+"Eighteen year this las' September."
+
+"How long ago did her mother die?" Helen asked, with a little
+trembling in her voice.
+
+"Eighteen year ago this October," said Old Sophy.
+
+Helen was silent for a moment.  Then she whispered, almost
+inaudibly,--for her voice appeared to fail her,
+
+"What did her mother die of, Sophy?"
+
+The old woman's small eyes dilated until a ring of white showed round
+their beady centres.  She caught Helen by the hand and clung to it,
+as if in fear.  She looked round at Elsie, who lay sleeping, as of
+she might be listening.  Then she drew Helen towards her and led her
+softly out of the room.
+
+"'Sh !---'sh!" she said, as soon as they were outside the door.
+"Don' never speak in this house 'bout what Elsie's mother died of!"
+she said.  "Nobody never says nothin' 'bout it.  Oh, God has made
+Ugly Things wi' death in their mouths, Miss Darlin', an' He knows
+what they're for; but my poor Elsie!---to have her blood changed in
+her before--It was in July Mistress got her death, but she liv' till
+three week after my poor Elsie was born."
+
+She could speak no more.  She had said enough.  Helen remembered the
+stories she had heard on coming to the village, and among them one
+referred to in an early chapter of this narrative.  All the
+unaccountable looks and tastes and ways of Elsie came back to her in
+the light of an ante-natal impression which had mingled an alien
+element in her nature.  She knew the secret of the fascination which
+looked out of her cold, glittering eyes.  She knew the significance
+of the strange repulsion which she felt in her own intimate
+consciousness underlying the inexplicable attraction which drew her
+towards the young girl in spite of this repugnance.  She began to
+look with new feelings on the contradictions in her moral nature,--
+the longing for sympathy, as shown by her wishing for Helen's
+company, and the impossibility of passing beyond the cold circle of
+isolation within which she had her being.  The fearful truth of that
+instinctive feeling of hers, that there was something not human
+looking out of Elsie's eyes, came upon her with a sudden flash of
+penetrating conviction.  There were two warring principles in that
+superb organization and proud soul.  One made her a woman, with all a
+woman's powers and longings.  The other chilled all the currents of
+outlet for her emotions.  It made her tearless and mute, when another
+woman would have wept and pleaded.  And it infused into her soul
+something--it was cruel now to call it malice--which was still and
+watchful and dangerous, which waited its opportunity, and then shot
+like an arrow from its bow out of the coil of brooding premeditation.
+Even those who had never seen the white scars on Dick Venner's wrist,
+or heard the half-told story of her supposed attempt to do a graver
+mischief, knew well enough by looking at her that she was one of the
+creatures not to be tampered with,--silent in anger and swift in
+vengeance.
+
+Helen could not return to the bedside at once after this
+communication.  It was with altered eyes that she must look on the
+poor girl, the victim of such an unheard-of fatality.  All was
+explained to her now.  But it opened such depths of solemn thought in
+her awakened consciousness, that it seemed as if the whole mystery of
+human life were coming up again before her for trial and judgment.
+"Oh," she thought, "if, while the will lies sealed in its fountain,
+it may be poisoned at its very source, so that it shall flow dark and
+deadly through its whole course, who are we that we should judge our
+fellow-creatures by ourselves?"  Then came the terrible question, how
+far the elements themselves are capable of perverting the moral
+nature: if valor, and justice, and truth, the strength of man and the
+virtue of woman, may not be poisoned out of a race by the food of the
+Australian in his forest, by the foul air and darkness of the
+Christians cooped up in the "tenement-houses" close by those who live
+in the palaces of the great cities?
+
+She walked out into the garden, lost in thought upon these dark and
+deep matters.  Presently she heard a step behind her, and Elsie's
+father came up and joined her.  Since his introduction to Helen at
+the distinguished tea-party given by the Widow Rowens, and before her
+coming to sit with Elsie, Mr. Dudley Venner had in the most
+accidental way in the world met her on several occasions: once after
+church, when she happened to be caught in a slight shower and he
+insisted on holding his umbrella over her on her way home;--once at a
+small party at one of the mansion-houses, where the quick-eyed lady
+of the house had a wonderful knack of bringing people together who
+liked to see each other;--perhaps at other times and places; but of
+this there is no certain evidence.
+
+They naturally spoke of Elsie, her illness, and the aspect it had
+taken.  But Helen noticed in all that Dudley Venner said about his
+daughter a morbid sensitiveness, as it seemed to her, an aversion to
+saying much about her physical condition or her peculiarities,
+--a wish to feel and speak as a parent should, and yet a shrinking,
+as if there were something about Elsie which he could not bear to
+dwell upon.  She thought she saw through all this, and she could
+interpret it all charitably.  There were circumstances about his
+daughter which recalled the great sorrow of his life; it was not
+strange that this perpetual reminder should in some degree have
+modified his feelings as a father.  But what a life he must have been
+leading for so many years, with this perpetual source of distress
+which he could not name!  Helen knew well enough, now, the meaning of
+the sadness which had left such traces in his features and tones, and
+it made her feel very kindly and compassionate towards him.
+
+So they walked over the crackling leaves in the garden, between the
+lines of box breathing its fragrance of eternity;--for this is one of
+the odors which carry us out of time into the abysses of the
+unbeginning past; if we ever lived on another ball of stone than
+this, it must be that there was box growing on it.  So they walked,
+finding their way softly to each other's sorrows and sympathies, each
+matching some counterpart to the other's experience of life, and
+startled to see how the different, yet parallel, lessons they had
+been taught by suffering had led them step by step to the same serene
+acquiescence in the orderings of that Supreme Wisdom which they both
+devoutly recognized.
+
+Old Sophy was at the window and saw them walking up and down the
+garden-alleys.  She watched them as her grandfather the savage
+watched the figures that moved among the trees when a hostile tribe
+was lurking about his mountain.
+
+"There'll be a weddin' in the ol house," she said, "before there's
+roses on them bushes ag'in.  But it won' be my poor Elsie's weddin',
+'n' ol' Sophy won' be there."
+
+When Helen prayed in the silence of her soul that evening, it was not
+that Elsie's life might be spared.  She dared not ask that as a favor
+of Heaven.  What could life be to her but a perpetual anguish, and to
+those about her but an ever-present terror?  Might she but be so
+influenced by divine grace, that what in her was most truly human,
+most purely woman-like, should overcome the dark, cold, unmentionable
+instinct which had pervaded her being like a subtile poison that was
+all she could ask, and the rest she left to a higher wisdom and
+tenderer love than her own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+THE WHITE ASH.
+
+When Helen returned to Elsie's bedside, it was with a new and still
+deeper feeling of sympathy, such as the story told by Old Sophy might
+well awaken.  She understood, as never before, the singular
+fascination and as singular repulsion which she had long felt in
+Elsie's presence.  It had not been without a great effort that she
+had forced herself to become the almost constant attendant of the
+sick girl; and now she was learning, but not for the first time, the
+blessed truth which so many good women have found out for themselves,
+that the hardest duty bravely performed soon becomes a habit, and
+tends in due time to transform itself into a pleasure.
+
+The old Doctor was beginning to look graver, in spite of himself.
+The fever, if such it was, went gently forward, wasting the young
+girl's powers of resistance from day to day; yet she showed no
+disposition to take nourishment, and seemed literally to be living on
+air.  It was remarkable that with all this her look was almost
+natural, and her features were hardly sharpened so as to suggest that
+her life was burning away.  He did not like this, nor various other
+unobtrusive signs of danger which his practised eye detected.  A very
+small matter might turn the balance which held life and death poised
+against each other. He surrounded her with precautions, that Nature
+might have every opportunity of cunningly shifting the weights from
+the scale of death to the scale of life, as she will often do if not
+rudely disturbed or interfered with.
+
+Little tokens of good-will and kind remembrance were constantly
+coming to her from the girls in the school and the good people in the
+village. Some of the mansion-house people obtained rare flowers which
+they sent her, and her table was covered with fruits which tempted
+her in vain.  Several of the school-girls wished to make her a basket
+of their own handiwork, and, filling it with autumnal flowers, to
+send it as a joint offering.  Mr. Bernard found out their project
+accidentally, and, wishing to have his share in it, brought home from
+one of his long walks some boughs full of variously tinted leaves,
+such as were still clinging to the stricken trees.  With these he
+brought also some of the already fallen leaflets of the white ash,
+remarkable for their rich olive-purple color, forming a beautiful
+contrast with some of the lighter-hued leaves.  It so happened that
+this particular tree, the white ash, did not grow upon The Mountain,
+and the leaflets were more welcome for their comparative rarity.  So
+the girls made their basket, and the floor of it they covered with
+the rich olive-purple leaflets.  Such late flowers as they could lay
+their hands upon served to fill it, and with many kindly messages
+they sent it to Miss Elsie Venner at the Dudley mansion-house.
+
+Elsie was sitting up in her bed when it came, languid, but tranquil,
+and Helen was by her, as usual, holding her hand, which was strangely
+cold, Helen thought, for one who was said to have some kind of fever.
+The school-girls' basket was brought in with its messages of love and
+hopes for speedy recovery.  Old Sophy was delighted to see that it
+pleased Elsie, and laid it on the bed before her.  Elsie began
+looking at the flowers, and taking them from the basket, that she
+might see the leaves.  All at once she appeared to be agitated; she
+looked at the basket, then around, as if there were some fearful
+presence about her which she was searching for with her eager
+glances.  She took out the flowers, one by one, her breathing growing
+hurried, her eyes staring, her hands trembling,--till, as she came
+near the bottom of the basket, she flung out all the rest with a
+hasty movement, looked upon the olive-purple leaflets as if paralyzed
+for a moment, shrunk up, as it were, into herself in a curdling
+terror, dashed the basket from her, and fell back senseless, with a
+faint cry which chilled the blood of the startled listeners at her
+bedside.
+
+"Take it away!---take it away!---quick!" said Old Sophy, as she
+hastened to her mistress's pillow.  "It 's the leaves of the tree
+that was always death to her,--take it away!  She can't live wi' it
+in the room!"
+
+The poor old woman began chafing Elsie's hands, and Helen to try to
+rouse her with hartshorn, while a third frightened attendant gathered
+up the flowers and the basket and carried them out of the apartment,
+She came to herself after a time, but exhausted and then wandering.
+In her delirium she talked constantly as if she were in a cave, with
+such exactness of circumstance that Helen could not doubt at all that
+she had some such retreat among the rocks of The Mountain, probably
+fitted up in her own fantastic way, where she sometimes hid herself
+from all human eyes, and of the entrance to which she alone possessed
+the secret.
+
+All this passed away, and left her, of course, weaker than before.
+But this was not the only influence the unexplained paroxysm had left
+behind it.  From this time forward there was a change in her whole
+expression and her manner.  The shadows ceased flitting over her
+features, and the old woman, who watched her from day to day and from
+hour to hour as a mother watches her child, saw the likeness she bore
+to her mother coming forth more and more, as the cold glitter died
+out of the diamond eyes, and the stormy scowl disappeared from the
+dark brows and low forehead.
+
+With all the kindness and indulgence her father had bestowed upon
+her, Elsie had never felt that he loved her.  The reader knows well
+enough what fatal recollections and associations had frozen up the
+springs of natural affection in his breast.  There was nothing in the
+world he would not do for Elsie.  He had sacrificed his whole life to
+her.  His very seeming carelessness about restraining her was all
+calculated; he knew that restraint would produce nothing but utter
+alienation.  Just so far as she allowed him, he shared her studies,
+her few pleasures, her thoughts; but she was essentially solitary and
+uncommunicative.  No person, as was said long ago, could judge him,
+because his task was not merely difficult, but simply impracticable
+to human powers.  A nature like Elsie's had necessarily to be studied
+by itself, and to be followed in its laws where it could not be led.
+
+Every day, at different hours, during the whole of his daughter's
+illness, Dudley Venner had sat by her, doing all he could to soothe
+and please her.  Always the same thin film of some emotional non-
+conductor between them; always that kind of habitual regard and
+family-interest, mingled with the deepest pity on one side and a sort
+of respect on the other, which never warmed into outward evidences of
+affection.
+
+It was after this occasion, when she had been so profoundly agitated
+by a seemingly insignificant cause, that her father and Old Sophy
+were sitting, one at one side of her bed and one at the other.  She
+had fallen into a light slumber.  As they were looking at her, the
+same thought came into both their minds at the same moment.  Old
+Sophy spoke for both, as she said, in a low voice,
+
+"It 's her mother's look,--it 's her mother's own face right over
+again,--she never look' so before, the Lord's hand is on her!  His
+will be done!"
+
+When Elsie woke and lifted her languid eyes upon her father's face,
+she saw in it a tenderness, a depth of affection, such as she
+remembered at rare moments of her childhood, when she had won him to
+her by some unusual gleam of sunshine in her fitful temper.
+
+"Elsie, dear," he said, "we were thinking how much your expression
+was sometimes like that of your sweet mother.  If you could but have
+seen her, so as to remember her!"
+
+The tender look and tone, the yearning of the daughter's heart for
+the mother she had never seen, save only with the unfixed,
+undistinguishing eyes of earliest infancy, perhaps the under-thought
+that she might soon rejoin her in another state of being,--all came
+upon her with a sudden overflow of feeling which broke through all
+the barriers between her heart and her eyes, and Elsie wept.  It
+seemed to her father as if the malign influence--evil spirit it might
+almost be called--which had pervaded her being, had at last been
+driven forth or exorcised, and that these tears were at once the sign
+and the pledge of her redeemed nature.  But now she was to be
+soothed, and not excited.  After her tears she slept again, and the
+look her face wore was peaceful as never before.
+
+Old Sophy met the Doctor at the door and told him all the
+circumstances connected with the extraordinary attack from which
+Elsie had suffered.  It was the purple leaves, she said.  She
+remembered that Dick once brought home a branch of a tree with some
+of the same leaves on it, and Elsie screamed and almost fainted then.
+She, Sophy, had asked her, after she had got quiet, what it was in
+the leaves that made her feel so bad.  Elsie could n't tell her,--did
+n't like to speak about it,--shuddered whenever Sophy mentioned it.
+
+This did not sound so strangely to the old Doctor as it does to some
+who listen to his narrative.  He had known some curious examples of
+antipathies, and remembered reading of others still more singular.
+He had known those who could not bear the presence of a cat, and
+recollected the story, often told, of a person's hiding one in a
+chest when one of these sensitive individuals came into the room, so
+as not to disturb him; but he presently began to sweat and turn pale,
+and cried out that there must be a cat hid somewhere.  He knew people
+who were poisoned by strawberries, by honey, by different meats, many
+who could not endure cheese,--some who could not bear the smell of
+roses.  If he had known all the stories in the old books, he would
+have found that some have swooned and become as dead men at the smell
+of a rose,--that a stout soldier has been known to turn and run at
+the sight or smell of rue,--that cassia and even olive-oil have
+produced deadly faintings in certain.  individuals,--in short, that
+almost everything has seemed to be a poison to somebody.
+
+"Bring me that basket, Sophy," said the old Doctor, "if you can find
+it."
+
+Sophy brought it to him,--for he had not yet entered Elsie's
+apartment.
+
+"These purple leaves are from the white ash," he said.  "You don't
+know the notion that people commonly have about that tree, Sophy?"
+
+"I know they say the Ugly Things never go where the white ash grows,"
+Sophy answered.  "Oh, Doctor dear, what I'm thinkin' of a'n't true,
+is it?"
+
+The Doctor smiled sadly, but did not answer.  He went directly to
+Elsie's room.  Nobody would have known by his manner that he saw any
+special change in his patient.  He spoke with her as usual, made some
+slight alteration in his prescriptions, and left the room with a
+kind, cheerful look.  He met her father on the stairs.
+
+"Is it as I thought?" said Dudley Veneer.
+
+"There is everything to fear," the Doctor said, "and not much, I am
+afraid, to hope.  Does not her face recall to you one that you
+remember, as never before?"
+
+"Yes," her father answered,--"oh, yes!  What is the meaning of this
+change which has come over her features, and her voice, her temper,
+her whole being?  Tell me, oh, tell me, what is it?  Can it be that
+the curse is passing away, and my daughter is to be restored to me,--
+such as her mother would have had her,--such as her mother was?"
+
+"Walk out with me into the garden," the Doctor said, "and I will tell
+you all I know and all I think about this great mystery of Elsie's
+life."
+
+They walked out together, and the Doctor began: "She has lived a
+double being, as it were,--the consequence of the blight which fell
+upon her in the dim period before consciousness.  You can see what
+she might have been but for this.  You know that for these eighteen
+years her whole existence has taken its character from that influence
+which we need not name.  But you will remember that few of the lower
+forms of life last as human beings do; and thus it might have been
+hoped and trusted with some show of reason, as I have always
+suspected you hoped and trusted, perhaps more confidently than
+myself, that the lower nature which had become engrafted on the
+higher would die out and leave the real woman's life she inherited to
+outlive this accidental principle which had so poisoned her childhood
+and youth.  I believe it is so dying out; but I am afraid,--yes, I
+must say it, I fear it has involved the centres of life in its own
+decay.  There is hardly any pulse at Elsie's wrist; no stimulants
+seem to rouse her; and it looks as if life were slowly retreating
+inwards, so that by-and-by she will sleep as those who lie down in
+the cold and never wake."
+
+Strange as it may seem, her father heard all this not without deep
+sorrow, and such marks of it as his thoughtful and tranquil nature,
+long schooled by suffering, claimed or permitted, but with a
+resignation itself the measure of his past trials.  Dear as his
+daughter might become to him, all he dared to ask of Heaven was that
+she might be restored to that truer self which lay beneath her false
+and adventitious being.  If he could once see that the icy lustre in
+her eyes had become a soft, calm light,--that her soul was at peace
+with all about her and with Him; above,--this crumb from the
+children's table was enough for him, as it was for the Syro-
+Phoenician woman who asked that the dark spirit might go out from her
+daughter.
+
+There was little change the next day, until all at once she said in a
+clear voice that she should like to see her master at the school, Mr.
+Langdon.  He came accordingly, and took the place of Helen at her
+bedside.  It seemed as if Elsie had forgotten the last scene with
+him.  Might it be that pride had come in, and she had sent for him
+only to show how superior she had grown to the weakness which had
+betrayed her into that extraordinary request, so contrary to the
+instincts and usages of her sex?  Or was it that the singular change
+which had come over her had involved her passionate fancy for him and
+swept it away with her other habits of thought and feeling?  Or could
+it be that she felt that all earthly interests were becoming of
+little account to her, and wished to place herself right with one to
+whom she had displayed a wayward movement of her unbalanced
+imagination?  She welcomed Mr. Bernard as quietly as she had received
+Helen Darley.  He colored at the recollection of that last scene,
+when he came into her presence; but she smiled with perfect
+tranquillity.  She did not speak to him of any apprehension; but he
+saw that she looked upon herself as doomed.  So friendly, yet so calm
+did she seem through all their interview, that Mr. Bernard could only
+look back upon her manifestation of feeling towards him on their walk
+from the school as a vagary of a mind laboring under some unnatural
+excitement, and wholly at variance with the true character of Elsie
+Venner as he saw her before him in her subdued, yet singular beauty.
+He looked with almost scientific closeness of observation into the
+diamond eyes; but that peculiar light which he knew so well was not
+there.  She was the same in one sense as on that first day when he
+had seen her coiling and uncoiling her golden chain; yet how
+different in every aspect which revealed her state of mind and
+emotion!  Something of tenderness there was, perhaps, in her tone
+towards him; she would not have sent for him, had she not felt more
+than an ordinary interest in him.  But through the whole of his visit
+she never lost her gracious self-possession.  The Dudley race might
+well be proud of the last of its daughters, as she lay dying, but
+unconquered by the feeling of the present or the fear of the future.
+
+As for Mr. Bernard, he found it very hard to look upon her, and
+listen to her unmoved.  There was nothing that reminded him of the
+stormy--browed, almost savage girl he remembered in her fierce
+loveliness,--nothing of all her singularities of air and of costume.
+Nothing?  Yes, one thing.  Weak and suffering as she was, she had
+never parted with one particular ornament, such as a sick person
+would naturally, as it might be supposed, get rid of at once.  The
+golden cord which she wore round her neck at the great party was
+still there.  A bracelet was lying by her pillow; she had unclasped
+it from her wrist.
+
+Before Mr. Bernard left her, she said,
+
+"I shall never see you again.  Some time or other, perhaps, you will
+mention my name to one whom you love.  Give her this from your
+scholar and friend Elsie."
+
+He took the bracelet, raised her hand to his lips, then turned his
+face away; in that moment he was the weaker of the two.
+
+"Good-bye," she said; "thank you for coming."
+
+His voice died away in his throat, as he tried to answer her.  She
+followed him with her eyes as he passed from her sight through the
+door, and when it closed after him sobbed tremulously once or twice,
+but stilled herself, and met Helen, as she entered, with a composed
+countenance.
+
+"I have had a very pleasant visit from Mr. Langdon," Elsie said.
+"Sit by me, Helen, awhile without speaking; I should like to sleep,
+if I can,--and to dream."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE GOLDEN CORD IS LOOSED.
+
+The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather, hearing that his parishioner's
+daughter, Elsie, was very ill, could do nothing less than come to the
+mansion-house and tender such consolations as he was master of.  It
+was rather remarkable that the old Doctor did not exactly approve of
+his visit.  He thought that company of every sort might be injurious
+in her weak state.  He was of opinion that Mr. Fairweather, though
+greatly interested in religious matters, was not the most sympathetic
+person that could be found; in fact, the old Doctor thought he was
+too much taken up with his own interests for eternity to give himself
+quite 'so heartily to the need of other people as some persons got up
+on a rather more generous scale (our good neighbor Dr. Honeywood, for
+instance) could do.  However, all these things had better be arranged
+to suit her wants; if she would like to talk with a clergyman, she
+had a great deal better see one as often as she liked, and run the
+risk of the excitement, than have a hidden wish for such a visit and
+perhaps find herself too weak to see him by-and-by.
+
+The old Doctor knew by sad experience that dreadful mistake against
+which all medical practitioners should be warned.  His experience may
+well be a guide for others.  Do not overlook the desire for spiritual
+advice and consolation which patients sometimes feel, and, with the
+frightful mauvaise honte peculiar to Protestantism, alone among all
+human beliefs, are ashamed to tell.  As a part of medical treatment,
+it is the physician's business to detect the hidden longing for the
+food of the soul, as much as for any form of bodily nourishment.
+Especially in the higher walks of society, where this unutterably
+miserable false shame of Protestantism acts in proportion to the
+general acuteness of the cultivated sensibilities, let no
+unwillingness to suggest the sick person's real need suffer him to
+languish between his want and his morbid sensitiveness.  What an
+infinite advantage the Mussulmans and the Catholics have over many of
+our more exclusively spiritual sects in the way they keep their
+religion always by them and never blush for it!  And besides this
+spiritual longing, we should never forget that
+
+          "On some fond breast the parting soul relies,"
+
+and the minister of religion, in addition to the sympathetic nature
+which we have a right to demand in him, has trained himself to the
+art of entering into the feelings of others.
+
+The reader must pardon this digression, which introduces the visit of
+the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather to Elsie Veneer.  It was mentioned
+to her that he would like to call and see how she was, and she
+consented,--not with much apparent interest, for she had reasons of
+her own for not feeling any very deep conviction of his sympathy for
+persons in sorrow.  But he came, and worked the conversation round to
+religion, and confused her with his hybrid notions, half made up of
+what he had been believing and teaching all his life, and half of the
+new doctrines which he had veneered upon the surface of his old
+belief.  He got so far as to make a prayer with her,--a cool, well-
+guarded prayer, which compromised his faith as little as possible,
+and which, if devotion were a game played against Providence, might
+have been considered a cautious and sagacious move.
+
+When he had gone, Elsie called Old Sophy to her.
+
+"Sophy," she said, "don't let them send that cold hearted man to me
+any more.  If your old minister comes--to see you, I should like to
+hear him talk.  He looks as if he cared for everybody, and would care
+for me.  And, Sophy, if I should die one of these days, I should like
+to have that old minister come and say whatever is to be said over
+me.  It would comfort Dudley more, I know, than to have that hard man
+here, when you're in trouble, for some of you will be sorry when I'm
+gone,--won't you, Sophy?"
+
+The poor old black.  woman could not stand this question.  The cold
+minister had frozen Elsie until she felt as if nobody cared for her
+or would regret her,--and her question had betrayed this momentary
+feeling.
+
+"Don' talk so!  don' talk so, darlin'!" she cried, passionately.
+"When you go, Ol' Sophy'll go; 'n' where you go, Ol' Sophy'll go: 'n'
+we'll both go t' th' place where th' Lord takes care of all his
+children, whether their faces are white or black.  Oh, darlin',
+darlin'!  if th' Lord should let me die firs', you shall fin' all
+ready for you when you come after me.  On'y don' go 'n' leave poor
+Ol' Sophy all 'lone in th' world!"
+
+Helen came in at this moment and quieted the old woman with a look.
+Such scenes were just what were most dangerous, in the state in which
+Elsie was lying: but that is one of the ways in which an affectionate
+friend sometimes unconsciously wears out the life which a hired
+nurse, thinking of nothing but her regular duties and her wages,
+would have spared from all emotional fatigue.
+
+The change which had come over Elsie's disposition was itself the
+cause of new excitements.  How was it possible that her father could
+keep away from her, now that she was coming back to the nature and
+the very look of her mother, the bride of his youth?  How was it
+possible to refuse her, when she said to Old Sophy, that she should
+like to have her minister come in and sit by her, even though his
+presence might perhaps prove a new source of excitement?
+
+But the Reverend Doctor did come and sit by her, and spoke such
+soothing words to her, words of such peace and consolation, that from
+that hour she was tranquil as never before.  All true hearts are
+alike in the hour of need; the Catholic has a reserved fund of faith
+for his fellow-creature's trying moment, and the Calvinist reveals
+those springs of human brotherhood and charity in his soul which are
+only covered over by the iron tables inscribed with the harder dogmas
+of his creed.  It was enough that the Reverend Doctor knew all
+Elsie's history.  He could not judge her by any formula, like those
+which have been moulded by past ages out of their ignorance.  He did
+not talk with her as if she were an outside sinner worse than
+himself.  He found a bruised and languishing soul, and bound up its
+wounds.  A blessed office,--one which is confined to no sect or
+creed, but which good men in all times, under various names and with
+varying ministries, to suit the need of each age, of each race, of
+each individual soul, have come forward to discharge for their
+suffering fellow-creatures.
+
+After this there was little change in Elsie, except that her heart
+beat more feebly every day,--so that the old Doctor himself, with all
+his experience, could see nothing to account for the gradual failing
+of the powers of life, and yet could find no remedy which seemed to
+arrest its progress in the smallest degree.
+
+"Be very careful," he said, "that she is not allowed to make any
+muscular exertion.  Any such effort, when a person is so enfeebled,
+may stop the heart in a moment; and if it stops, it will never move
+again."
+
+Helen enforced this rule with the greatest care.  Elsie was hardly
+allowed to move her hand or to speak above a whisper.  It seemed to
+be mainly the question now, whether this trembling flame of life
+would be blown out by some light breath of air, or whether it could
+be so nursed and sheltered by the hollow of these watchful hands that
+it would have a chance to kindle to its natural brightness.
+
+--Her father came in to sit with her in the evening.  He had never
+talked so freely with her as during the hour he had passed at her
+bedside, telling her little circumstances of her mother's life,
+living over with her all that was pleasant in the past, and trying to
+encourage her with some cheerful gleams of hope for the future.  A
+faint smile played over her face, but she did not answer his
+encouraging suggestions.  The hour came for him to leave her with
+those who watched by her.
+
+"Good-night, my dear child," he said, and stooping down, kissed her
+cheek.
+
+Elsie rose by a sudden effort, threw her arms round his neck, kissed
+him, and said, "Good-night, my dear father!"
+
+The suddenness of her movement had taken him by surprise, or he would
+have checked so dangerous an effort.  It was too late now.  Her arms
+slid away from him like lifeless weights,--her head fell back upon
+her pillow,--along sigh breathed through her lips.
+
+"She is faint," said Helen, doubtfully; "bring me the hartshorn,
+Sophy."
+
+The old woman had started from her place, and was now leaning over
+her, looking in her face, and listening for the sound of her
+breathing.
+
+"She 's dead!  Elsie 's dead!  My darlin 's dead!"  she cried aloud,
+filling the room with her utterance of anguish.
+
+Dudley Venner drew her away and silenced her with a voice of
+authority, while Helen and an assistant plied their restoratives.  It
+was all in vain.
+
+The solemn tidings passed from the chamber of death through the
+family.  The daughter, the hope of that old and honored house, was
+dead in the freshness of her youth, and the home of its solitary
+representative was hereafter doubly desolate.
+
+A messenger rode hastily out of the avenue.  A little after this the
+people of the village and the outlying farm-houses were startled by
+the sound of a bell.
+
+One,--two,--three,--four,
+
+They stopped in every house, as far as the wavering vibrations
+reached, and listened
+
+five,--six,--seven,--
+
+It was not the little child which had been lying so long at the point
+of death; that could not be more than three or four years old
+
+eight,--nine,--ten,--and so on to fifteen, sixteen,--seventeen,--
+eighteen
+
+The pulsations seemed to keep on,--but it was the brain, and not the
+bell, that was throbbing now.
+
+"Elsie 's dead!" was the exclamation at a hundred firesides.
+
+"Eighteen year old," said old Widow Peake, rising from her chair.
+"Eighteen year ago I laid two gold eagles on her mother's eyes,--he
+wouldn't have anything but gold touch her eyelids,--and now Elsie's
+to be straightened,--the Lord have mercy on her poor sinful soul!"
+
+Dudley Venner prayed that night that he might be forgiven, if he had
+failed in any act of duty or kindness to this unfortunate child of
+his, now freed from all the woes born with her and so long poisoning
+her soul.  He thanked God for the brief interval of peace which had
+been granted her, for the sweet communion they had enjoyed in these
+last days, and for the hope of meeting her with that other lost
+friend in a better world.
+
+Helen mingled a few broken thanks and petitions with her tears:
+thanks that she had been permitted to share the last days and hours
+of this poor sister in sorrow; petitions that the grief of
+bereavement might be lightened to the lonely parent and the faithful
+old servant.
+
+Old Sophy said almost nothing, but sat day and night by her dead
+darling.  But sometimes her anguish would find an outlet in strange
+sounds, something between a cry and a musical note,--such as noise
+had ever heard her utter before.  These were old remembrances surging
+up from her childish days, coming through her mother from the
+cannibal chief, her grandfather,--death-wails, such as they sing in
+the mountains of Western Africa, when they see the fires on distant
+hill-sides and know that their own wives and children are undergoing
+the fate of captives.
+
+The time came when Elsie was to be laid by her mother in the small
+square marked by the white stone.
+
+It was not unwillingly that the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had
+relinquished the duty of conducting the service to the Reverend
+Doctor Honeywood, in accordance with Elsie's request.  He could not,
+by any reasoning, reconcile his present way of thinking with a hope
+for the future of his unfortunate parishioner.  Any good old Roman
+Catholic priest, born and bred to his faith and his business, would
+have found a loophole into some kind of heaven for her, by virtue of
+his doctrine of "invincible ignorance," or other special proviso; but
+a recent convert cannot enter into the working conditions of his new
+creed.  Beliefs must be lived in for a good while, before they
+accommodate themselves to the soul's wants, and wear loose enough to
+be comfortable.
+
+The Reverend Doctor had no such scruples.  Like thousands of those
+who are classed nominally with the despairing believers, he had never
+prayed over a departed brother or sister without feeling and
+expressing a guarded hope that there was mercy in store for the poor
+sinner, whom parents, wives, children, brothers and sisters could not
+bear to give up to utter ruin without a word,--and would not, as he
+knew full well, in virtue of that human love and sympathy which
+nothing can ever extinguish.  And in this poor Elsie's history he
+could read nothing which the tears of the recording angel might not
+wash away.  As the good physician of the place knew the diseases that
+assailed the bodies of men and women, so he had learned the mysteries
+of the sickness of the soul.
+
+So many wished to look upon Elsie's face once more, that her father
+would not deny them; nay, he was pleased that those who remembered
+her living should see her in the still beauty of death.  Helen and
+those with her arrayed her for this farewell-view.  All was ready for
+the sad or curious eyes which were to look upon her.  There 'was no
+painful change to be concealed by any artifice.  Even her round neck
+was left uncovered, that she might be more like one who slept.  Only
+the golden cord was left in its place: some searching eye might
+detect a trace of that birthmark which it was whispered she had
+always worn a necklace to conceal.
+
+At the last moment, when all the preparations were completed, Old
+Sophy stooped over her, and, with trembling hand, loosed the golden
+cord.  She looked intently; for some little space: there was no shade
+nor blemish where the ring of gold had encircled her throat.  She
+took it gently away and laid it in the casket which held her
+ornaments.
+
+"The Lord be praised!" the old woman cried, aloud.  "He has taken
+away the mark that was on her; she's fit to meet his holy angels
+now!"
+
+So Elsie lay for hours in the great room, in a kind of state, with
+flowers all about her,--her black hair braided as in life,--her brows
+smooth, as if they had never known the scowl of passion,--and on her
+lips the faint smile with which she had uttered her last "Good--
+night."  The young girls from the school looked at her, one after
+another, and passed on, sobbing, carrying in their hearts the picture
+that would be with them all their days.  The great people of the
+place were all there with their silent sympathy.  The lesser kind of
+gentry, and many of the plainer folk of the village, half-pleased to
+find themselves passing beneath the stately portico of the ancient
+mansion-house, crowded in, until the ample rooms were overflowing.
+All the friends whose acquaintance we have made were there, and many
+from remoter villages and towns.
+
+There was a deep silence at last.  The hour had come for the parting
+words to be spoken over the dead.  The good old minister's voice rose
+out of the stillness, subdued and tremulous at first, but growing
+firmer and clearer as he went on, until it reached the ears of the
+visitors who were in the far, desolate chambers, looking at the
+pictured hangings and the old dusty portraits.  He did not tell her
+story in his prayer.  He only spoke of our dear departed sister as
+one of many whom Providence in its wisdom has seen fit to bring under
+bondage from their cradles.  It was not for us to judge them by any
+standard of our own.  He who made the heart alone knew the
+infirmities it inherited or acquired.  For all that our dear sister
+had presented that was interesting and attractive in her character we
+were to be grateful; for whatever was dark or inexplicable we must
+trust that the deep shadow which rested on the twilight dawn of her
+being might render a reason before the bar of Omniscience; for the
+grace which had lightened her last days we should pour out our hearts
+in thankful acknowledgment.  From the life and the death of this our
+dear sister we should learn a lesson of patience with our fellow-
+creatures in their inborn peculiarities, of charity in judging what
+seem to us wilful faults of character, of hope and trust, that, by
+sickness or affliction, or such inevitable discipline as life must
+always bring with it, if by no gentler means, the soul which had been
+left by Nature to wander into the path of error and of suffering
+might be reclaimed and restored to its true aim, and so led on by
+divine grace to its eternal welfare.  He closed his prayer by
+commending each member of the afflicted family to the divine
+blessing.
+
+Then all at once rose the clear sound of the girls' voices, in the
+sweet, sad melody of a funeral hymn,--one of those which Elsie had
+marked, as if prophetically, among her own favorites.
+
+And so they laid her in the earth, and showered down flowers upon
+her, and filled her grave, and covered it with green sods.  By the
+side of it was another oblong ridge, with a white stone standing at
+its head.  Mr. Bernard looked upon it, as he came close to the place
+where Elsie was laid, and read the inscription,
+
+                         CATALINA
+
+                  WIFE TO DUDLEY VENNER
+
+                          DIED
+                    OCTOBER 13TH 1840
+
+                      AGED XX YEARS
+
+A gentle rain fell on the turf after it was laid.  This was the
+beginning of a long and dreary autumnal storm, a deferred
+"equinoctial," as many considered it.  The mountain streams were all
+swollen and turbulent, and the steep declivities were furrowed in
+every direction by new channels.  It made the house seem doubly
+desolate to hear the wind howling and the rain beating upon the
+roofs.  The poor relation who was staying at the house would insist
+on Helen's remaining a few days: Old Sophy was in such a condition,
+that it kept her in continual anxiety, and there were many cares
+which Helen could take off from her.
+
+The old black woman's life was buried in her darling's grave.  She
+did nothing but moan and lament for her.  At night she was restless,
+and would get up and wander to Elsie's apartment and look for her and
+call her by name.  At other times she would lie awake and listen to
+the wind and the rain,--sometimes with such a wild look upon her
+face, and with such sudden starts and exclamations, that it seemed as
+if she heard spirit-voices and were answering the whispers of unseen
+visitants.  With all this were mingled hints of her old
+superstition,--forebodings of something fearful about to happen,--
+perhaps the great final catastrophe of all things, according to the
+prediction current in the kitchens of Rockland.
+
+"Hark!" Old Sophy would say,--"don' you hear th' crackin' 'n' th'
+snappin' up in Th' Mountain, 'n' th' rollin' o' th' big stones?  The'
+'s somethin' stirrin' among th' rocks; I hear th' soun' of it in th'
+night, when th' wind has stopped blowin'.  Oh, stay by me a little
+while, Miss Darlin'!  stay by me!  for it's th' Las' Day, maybe,
+that's close on us, 'n' I feel as if I could n' meet th' Lord all
+alone!"
+
+It was curious,--but Helen did certainly recognize sounds, during the
+lull of the storm, which were not of falling rain or running
+streams,--short snapping sounds, as of tense cords breaking,--long
+uneven sounds, as of masses rolling down steep declivities.  But the
+morning came as usual; and as the others said nothing of these
+singular noises, Helen did not think it necessary to speak of them.
+All day long she and the humble relative of Elsie's mother, who had
+appeared as poor relations are wont to in the great prises of life,
+were busy in arranging the disordered house, and looking over the
+various objects which Elsie's singular tastes had brought together,
+to dispose of them as her father might direct.  They all met together
+at the usual hour for tea.  One of the servants came in, looking very
+blank, and said to the poor relation,
+
+"The well is gone dry; we have nothing but rainwater."
+
+Dudley Venner's countenance changed; he sprang to, his feet and went
+to--assure himself of the fact, and, if he could, of the reason of
+it.  For a well to dry up during such a rain-storm was
+extraordinary,--it was ominous.
+
+He came back, looking very anxious.
+
+"Did any of you notice any remarkable sounds last night," he said,--
+"or this morning?  Hark!  do you hear anything now?"
+
+They listened in perfect silence for a few moments.  Then there came
+a short cracking sound, and two or three snaps, as of parting cords.
+
+Dudley Venner called all his household together.
+
+"We are in danger here, as I think, to-night," he said,--"not very
+great danger, perhaps, but it is a risk I do not wish you to run.
+These heavy rains have loosed some of the rocks above, and they may
+come down and endanger the house.  Harness the horses, Elbridge, and
+take all the family away.  Miss Darley will go to the Institute; the
+others will pass the night at the Mountain House.  I shall stay here,
+myself: it is not at all likely that anything will come of these
+warnings; but if there should, I choose to be there and take my
+chance."
+
+It needs little, generally, to frighten servants, and they were all
+ready enough to go.  The poor relation was one of the timid sort, and
+was terribly uneasy to be got out of the house.  This left no
+alternative, of course, for Helen, but to go also.  They all urged
+upon Dudley Veneer to go with them: if there was danger, why should
+he remain to risk it, when he sent away the others?
+
+Old Sophy said nothing until the time came for her to go with the
+second of Elbridge's carriage-loads.
+
+"Come, Sophy," said Dudley Veneer, "get your things and go.  They
+will take good care of you at the Mountain House; and when we have
+made sure that there is no real danger, you shall come back at once."
+
+"No, Masse!"  Sophy answered.  "I've seen Elsie into th' ground, 'n'
+I a'n't goin' away to come back 'n' fin' Masse Veneer buried under
+th' rocks.  My darlin' 's gone; 'n' now, if Masse goes, 'n' th' of
+place goes, it's time for Ol' Sophy to go, too.  No, Masse Veneer,
+we'll both stay in th' of mansion 'n' wait for th' Lord!"
+
+Nothing could change the old woman's determination; and her master,
+who only feared, but did not really expect the long-deferred
+catastrophe, was obliged to consent to her staying.  The sudden
+drying of the well at such a time was the most alarming sign; for he
+remembered that the same thing had been observed just before great
+mountain-slides.  This long rain, too, was just the kind of cause
+which was likely to loosen the strata of rock piled up in the ledges;
+if the dreaded event should ever come to pass, it would be at such a
+time.
+
+He paced his chamber uneasily until long past midnight.  If the
+morning came without accident, he meant to have a careful examination
+made of all the rents and fissures above, of their direction and
+extent, and especially whether, in case of a mountain-slide, the huge
+masses would be like to reach so far to the east and so low down the
+declivity as the mansion.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning he was dozing in his chair.  Old Sophy
+had lain down on her bed, and was muttering in troubled dreams.
+
+All at once a loud crash seemed to rend the very heavens above them:
+a crack as of the thunder that follows close upon the bolt,--a
+rending and crashing as of a forest snapped through all its stems,
+torn, twisted, splintered, dragged with all its ragged boughs into
+one chaotic ruin.  The ground trembled under them as in an
+earthquake; the old mansion shuddered so that all its windows
+chattered in their casements; the great chimney shook off its heavy
+cap-stones, which came down on the roof with resounding concussions;
+and the echoes of The Mountain roared and bellowed in long
+reduplication, as if its whole foundations were rent, and this were
+the terrible voice of its dissolution.
+
+Dudley Venner rose from his chair, folded his arms, and awaited his
+fate.  There was no knowing where to look for safety; and he
+remembered too well the story of the family that was lost by rushing
+out of the house, and so hurrying into the very jaws of death.
+
+He had stood thus but for a moment, when he heard the voice of Old
+Sophy in a wild cry of terror:
+
+"It's th' Las' Day!  It's th' Las' Day!  The Lord is comin' to take
+us all!"
+
+"Sophy!"  he called; but she did not hear him or heed him, and rushed
+out of the house.
+
+The worst danger was over.  If they were to be destroyed, it would
+necessarily be in a few seconds from the first thrill of the terrible
+convulsion.  He waited in awful suspense, but calm.  Not more than
+one or two minutes could have passed before the frightful tumult and
+all its sounding echoes had ceased.  He called Old Sophy; but she did
+not answer.  He went to the western window and looked forth into the
+darkness.  He could not distinguish the outlines of the landscape,
+but the white stone was clearly visible, and by its side the new-made
+mound.  Nay, what was that which obscured its outline, in shape like
+a human figure?  He flung open the window and sprang through.  It was
+all that there was left of poor Old Sophy, stretched out lifeless,
+upon her darling's grave.
+
+He had scarcely composed her limbs and drawn the sheet over her, when
+the neighbors began to arrive from all directions.  Each was
+expecting to hear of houses overwhelmed and families destroyed; but
+each came with the story that his own household was safe.  It was not
+until the morning dawned that the true nature and extent of the
+sudden movement was ascertained.  A great seam had opened above the
+long cliff, and the terrible Rattlesnake Ledge, with all its
+envenomed reptiles, its dark fissures and black caverns, was buried
+forever beneath a mighty incumbent mass of ruin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+MR. SILAS PECKHAM RENDERS HIS ACCOUNT.
+
+The morning rose clear and bright.  The long storm was over, and the
+calm autumnal sunshine was now to return, with all its infinite
+repose and sweetness.  With the earliest dawn exploring parties were
+out in every direction along the southern slope of The Mountain,
+tracing the ravages of the great slide and the track it had followed.
+It proved to be not so much a slide as the breaking off and falling
+of a vast line of cliff, including the dreaded Ledge.  It had folded
+over like the leaves of a half-opened book when they close, crushing
+the trees below, piling its ruins in a glacis at the foot of what had
+been the overhanging wall of the cliff, and filling up that deep
+cavity above the mansion-house which bore the ill-omened name of Dead
+Man's Hollow.  This it was which had saved the Dudley mansion.  The
+falling masses, or huge fragments breaking off from them, would have
+swept the house and all around it to destruction but for this deep
+shelving dell, into which the stream of ruin was happily directed.
+It was, indeed, one of Nature's conservative revolutions; for the
+fallen masses made a kind oz shelf, which interposed a level break
+between the inclined planes above and below it, so that the
+nightmare-fancies of the dwellers in the Dudley mansion, and in many
+other residences under the shadow of The Mountain, need not keep them
+lying awake hereafter to listen for the snapping of roots and the
+splitting of the rocks above them.
+
+Twenty-four hours after the falling of the cliff, it seemed as if it
+had happened ages ago.  The new fact had fitted itself in with all
+the old predictions, forebodings, fears, and acquired the solidarity
+belonging to all events which have slipped out of the fingers of Time
+and dissolved in the antecedent eternity.
+
+Old Sophy was lying dead in the Dudley mansion.  If there were tears
+shed for her, they could not be bitter ones; for she had lived out
+her full measure of days, and gone--who could help fondly believing
+it?--to rejoin her beloved mistress.  They made a place for her at
+the foot of the two mounds.  It was thus she would have chosen to
+sleep, and not to have wronged her humble devotion in life by asking
+to lie at the side of those whom she had served so long and
+faithfully.  There were very few present at the simple ceremony.
+Helen Darley was one of these few.  The old black woman had been her
+companion in all the kind offices of which she had been the
+ministering angel to Elsie.
+
+After it was all over, Helen was leaving with the rest, when Dudley
+Veneer begged her to stay a little, and he would send her back: it
+was a long walk; besides, he wished to say some things to her, which
+he had not had the opportunity of speaking.  Of course Helen could
+not refuse him; there must be many thoughts coming into his mind
+which he would wish to share with her who had known his daughter so
+long and been with filer in her last days.
+
+She returned into the great parlor with the wrought cornices and the
+medallion-portraits on the ceiling.
+
+"I am now alone in the world," Dudley Veneer said.
+
+Helen must have known that before he spoke.  But the tone in which he
+said it had so much meaning, that she could not find a word to answer
+him with.  They sat in silence, which the old tall clock counted out
+in long seconds; but it was silence which meant more than any words
+they had ever spoken.
+
+"Alone in the world.  Helen, the freshness of my life is gone, and
+there is little left of the few graces which in my younger days might
+have fitted me to win the love of women.  Listen to me,--kindly, if
+you can; forgive me, at least.  Half my life has been passed in
+constant fear and anguish, without any near friend to share my
+trials.  My task is done now; my fears have ceased to prey upon me;
+the sharpness of early sorrows has yielded something of its edge to
+time.  You have bound me to you by gratitude in the tender care you
+have taken of my poor child.  More than this.  I must tell you all
+now, out of the depth of this trouble through which I am passing.  I
+have loved you from the moment we first met; and if my life has
+anything left worth accepting, it is yours.  Will you take the
+offered gift?"
+
+Helen looked in his face, surprised, bewildered.
+
+"This is not for me,--not for me," she said.  "I am but a poor faded
+flower, not worth the gathering, of such a one as you.  No, no,--I
+have been bred to humble toil all my days, and I could not be to you
+what you ought to ask.  I am accustomed to a kind of loneliness and
+self-dependence.  I have seen nothing, almost, of the world, such as
+you were born to move in.  Leave me to my obscure place and duties; I
+shall at least have peace;--and you--you will surely find in due time
+some one better fitted by Nature and training to make you happy."
+
+"No, Miss Darley!  "Dudley Venner said, almost sternly.  "You must
+not speak to a man, who has lived through my experiences, of looking
+about for a new choice after his heart has once chosen.  Say that you
+can never love me; say that I have lived too long to share your young
+life; say that sorrow has left nothing in me for Love to find his
+pleasure in; but do not mock me with the hope of a new affection for
+some unknown object.  The first look of yours brought me to your
+side.  The first tone of your voice sunk into my heart.  From this
+moment my life must wither out or bloom anew.  My home is desolate.
+Come under my roof and make it bright once more,--share my life with
+me,--or I shall give the halls of the old mansion to the bats and the
+owls, and wander forth alone without a hope or a friend!"
+
+To find herself with a man's future at the disposal of a single word
+of hers!---a man like this, too, with a fascination for her against
+which she had tried to shut her heart, feeling that he lived in
+another sphere than hers, working as she was for her bread a poor
+operative in the factory of a hard master and jealous overseer, the
+salaried drudge of Mr. Silas Peckham!  Why, she had thought he was
+grateful to her as a friend of his daughter; she had even pleased
+herself with the feeling that he liked her, in her humble place, as a
+woman of some cultivation and many sympathetic points of relation
+with himself; but that he loved her,--that this deep, fine nature, in
+a man so far removed from her in outward circumstance, should have
+found its counterpart in one whom life had treated so coldly as
+herself,--that Dudley Venner should stake his happiness on a breath
+of hers,--poor Helen Darley's,---it was all a surprise, a confusion,
+a kind of fear not wholly fearful.  Ah, me!  women know what it is,
+that mist over the eyes, that trembling in the limbs, that faltering
+of the voice, that sweet, shame-faced, unspoken confession of
+weakness which does not wish to be strong, that sudden overflow in
+the soul where thoughts loose their hold on each other and swim
+single and helpless in the flood of emotion,--women know what it is!
+
+No doubt she was a little frightened and a good deal bewildered, and
+that her sympathies were warmly excited for a friend to whom she had
+been brought so near, and whose loneliness she saw and pitied.  She
+lost that calm self-possession she had hoped to maintain.
+
+"If I thought that I could make you happy,--if I should speak from my
+heart, and not my reason,--I am but a weak woman,--yet if I can be to
+you--What can I say?"
+
+What more could this poor, dear Helen say?
+
+
+"Elbridge, harness the horses and take Miss Darley back to the
+school."
+
+What conversation had taken place since Helen's rhetorical failure is
+not recorded in the minutes from which this narrative is constructed.
+But when the man who had been summoned had gone to get the carriage
+ready, Helen resumed something she had been speaking of.
+
+"Not for the world.  Everything must go on just as it has gone on,
+for the present.  There are proprieties to be consulted.  I cannot be
+hard with you, that out of your very affliction has sprung this--this
+well--you must name it for me,--but the world will never listen to
+explanations.  I am to be Helen Darley, lady assistant in Mr. Silas
+Peckham's school, as long as I see fit to hold my office.  And I mean
+to attend to my scholars just as before; so that I shall have very
+little time for visiting or seeing company.  I believe, though, you
+are one of the Trustees and a Member of the Examining Committee; so
+that, if you should happen to visit the school, I shall try to be
+civil to you."
+
+Every lady sees, of course, that Helen was quite right; but perhaps
+here and there one will think that Dudley Venner was all wrong,--that
+he was too hasty,--that he should have been too full of his recent
+grief for such a confession as he has just made, and the passion from
+which it sprung.  Perhaps they do not understand the sudden recoil of
+a strong nature long compressed.  Perhaps they have not studied the
+mystery of allotropism in the emotions of the human heart.  Go to the
+nearest chemist and ask him to show you some of the dark-red
+phosphorus which will not burn without fierce heating, but at
+500 deg. Fahrenheit, changes back again to the inflammable substance
+we know so well.  Grief seems more like ashes than like fire; but as
+grief has been love once, so it may become love again.  This is
+emotional allotropism.
+
+Helen rode back to the Institute and inquired for Mr. Peckham. She
+had not seen him during the brief interval between her departure from
+the mansion-house and her return to Old Sophy's funeral.  There were
+various questions about the school she wished to ask.
+
+"Oh, how's your haalth, Miss Darley?" Silas began.  "We've missed you
+consid'able.  Glad to see you back at the post of dooty.  Hope the
+Squire treated you hahnsomely,--liberal pecooniary compensation,
+--hey?  A'n't much of a loser, I guess, by acceptin' his
+propositions?"
+
+Helen blushed at this last question, as if Silas had meant something
+by it beyond asking what money she had received; but his own
+double-meaning expression and her blush were too nice points for him
+to have taken cognizance of.  He was engaged in a mental calculation
+as to the amount of the deduction he should make under the head of
+"demage to the institootion,"--this depending somewhat on that of the
+"pecooniary compensation" she might have received for her services as
+the friend of Elsie Venner.
+
+So Helen slid back at once into her routine, the same faithful,
+patient creature she had always been.  But what was this new light
+which seemed to have kindled in her eyes?  What was this look of
+peace, which nothing could disturb, which smiled serenely through all
+the little meannesses with which the daily life of the educational
+factory surrounded her, which not only made her seem resigned, but
+overflowed all her features with a thoughtful, subdued happiness? Mr.
+Bernard did not know,--perhaps he did not guess.  The inmates of the
+Dudley mansion were not scandalized by any mysterious visits of a
+veiled or unveiled lady.  The vibrating tongues of the "female youth"
+of the Institute were not set in motion by the standing of an
+equipage at the gate, waiting for their lady-teacher.  The servants
+at the mansion did not convey numerous letters with superscriptions
+in a bold, manly hand, sealed with the arms of a well-known house,
+and directed to Miss Helen Darley; nor, on the other hand, did Hiram,
+the man from the lean streak in New Hampshire, carry sweet-smelling,
+rose-hued, many-layered, criss-crossed, fine-stitch-lettered packages
+of note-paper directed to Dudley Venner, Esq., and all too scanty to
+hold that incredible expansion of the famous three words which a
+woman was born to say,--that perpetual miracle which astonishes all
+the go-betweens who wear their shoes out in carrying a woman's
+infinite variations on the theme
+
+"I love you."
+
+But the reader must remember that there are walks in country-towns
+where people are liable to meet by accident, and that the hollow of
+an old tree has served the purpose of a post-office sometimes; so
+that he has her choice (to divide the pronouns impartially) of
+various hypotheses to account for the new glory of happiness which
+seemed to have irradiated our poor Helen's features, as if her dreary
+life were awakening in the dawn of a blessed future.
+
+With all the alleviations which have been hinted at, Mr. Dudley
+Venner thought that the days and the weeks had never moved so slowly
+as through the last period of the autumn that was passing.  Elsie had
+been a perpetual source of anxiety to him, but still she had been a
+companion.  He could not mourn for her; for he felt that she was
+safer with her mother, in that world where there are no more sorrows
+and dangers, than she could have been with him.  But as he sat at his
+window and looked at the three mounds, the loneliness of the great
+house made it seem more like the sepulchre than these narrow
+dwellings where his beloved and her daughter lay close to each other,
+side by side,--Catalina, the bride of his youth, and Elsie, the child
+whom he had nurtured, with poor Old Sophy, who had followed them like
+a black shadow, at their feet, under the same soft turf, sprinkled
+with the brown autumnal leaves.  It was not good for him to be thus
+alone.  How should he ever live through the long months of November
+and December?
+
+The months of November and December did, in some way or other, get
+rid of themselves at last, bringing with them the usual events of
+village-life and a few unusual ones.  Some of the geologists had been
+up to look at the great slide, of which they gave those prolix
+accounts which everybody remembers who read the scientific journals
+of the time.  The engineers reported that there was little
+probability of any further convulsion along the line of rocks which
+overhung the more thickly settled part of the town.  The naturalists
+drew up a paper on the "Probable Extinction of the Crotalus Durissus
+in the Township of Rockland."  The engagement of the Widow Rowens to
+a Little Millionville merchant was announced,--"Sudding 'n'
+onexpected," Widow Leech said,--"waalthy, or she wouldn't ha' looked
+at him,--fifty year old, if he is a day, 'n' hu'n't got a white hair
+in his head."  The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather had publicly
+announced that he was going to join the Roman Catholic communion,--
+not so much to the surprise or consternation of the religious world
+as he had supposed.  Several old ladies forthwith proclaimed their
+intention of following him; but, as one or two of them were deaf, and
+another had been threatened with an attack of that mild, but
+obstinate complaint, dementia senilis, many thought it was not so
+much the force of his arguments as a kind of tendency to jump as the
+bellwether jumps, well known in flocks not included in the Christian
+fold.  His bereaved congregation immediately began pulling candidates
+on and off, like new boots, on trial.  Some pinched in tender places;
+some were too loose; some were too square-toed; some were too coarse,
+and did n't please; some were too thin, and would n't last;--in
+short, they could n't possibly find a fit.  At last, people began to
+drop in to hear old Doctor Honeywood.  They were quite surprised to
+find what a human old gentleman he was, and went back and told the
+others, that, instead of being a case of confluent sectarianism, as
+they supposed, the good old minister had been so well vaccinated with
+charitable virus that he was now a true, open-souled Christian of the
+mildest type.  The end of all which was, that the liberal people went
+over to the old minister almost in a body, just at the time that
+Deacon Shearer and the "Vinegar-Bible" party split off, and that not
+long afterwards they sold their own meeting-house to the
+malecontents, so that Deacon Soper used often to remind Colonel
+Sprowle of his wish that "our little man and him [the Reverend Doctor]
+would swop pulpits," and tell him it had "pooty nigh come trew."---
+But this is anticipating the course of events, which were much longer
+in coming about; for we have but just got through that terrible long
+month, as Mr. Dudley Venner found it, of December.
+
+On the first of January, Mr. Silas Peckham was in the habit of
+settling his quarterly accounts, and making such new arrangements as
+his convenience or interest dictated.  New Year was a holiday at the
+Institute.  No doubt this accounted for Helen's being dressed so
+charmingly,--always, to be sure in, her own simple way, but yet with
+such a true lady's air, that she looked fit to be the mistress of any
+mansion in the land.
+
+She was in the parlor alone, a little before noon, when Mr. Peckham
+came in.
+
+"I'm ready to settle my accaount with you now, Miss Darley," said
+Silas.
+
+"As you please, Mr. Peckham," Helen answered, very graciously.
+
+"Before payin' you your selary," the Principal continued, "I wish to
+come to an understandin' as to the futur'.  I consider that I've been
+payin' high, very high, for the work you do.  Women's wages can't be
+expected to do more than feed and clothe 'em, as a gineral thing,
+with a little savin', in case of sickness, and to bury 'em, if they
+break daown, as all of 'em are liable to do at any time.  If I a'n't
+misinformed, you not only support yourself out of my establishment,
+but likewise relatives of yours, who I don't know that I'm called
+upon to feed and clothe.  There is a young woman, not burdened with
+destitute relatives, has signified that she would be glad to take
+your dooties for less pecooniary compensation, by a consid'able
+amaount, than you now receive.  I shall be willin', however, to
+retain your services at sech redooced rate as we shall fix upon,--
+provided sech redooced rate be as low or lower than the same services
+can be obtained elsewhere."
+
+"As you please, Mr. Peckham," Helen answered, with a smile so sweet
+that the Principal (who of course had trumped up this opposition-
+teacher for the occasion) said to himself she would stand being cut
+down a quarter, perhaps a half, of her salary.
+
+"Here is your accaount, Miss Darley, and the balance doo you," said
+Silas Peckham, handing her a paper and a small roll of infectious-
+flavored bills wrapping six poisonous coppers of the old coinage.
+
+She took the paper and began looking at it.  She could not quite make
+up her mind to touch the feverish bills with the cankering coppers in
+them, and left them airing themselves on the table.
+
+The document she held ran as follows:
+
+Silas Peckham, Esq., Principal of the Apollinean Institute,
+In Account with Helen Darley, Assist.  Teacher.
+
+          Dr.                                Cr.
+
+To salary for quarter              By Deduction for absence
+ending Jan 1st @ $75 per             1 week 3 days ...........$10.00
+quarter ................ $75.00
+                                   "Board, lodging, etc for
+                                     10 days @ 75 cts per day.. 7.50
+
+                                   "Damage to Institution by
+                                     absence of teacher from
+                                     duties, say ............. 25.00
+
+                                   "Stationary furnished .....   .43
+
+                                   "Postage-stamp ............   .01
+
+                                   "Balance due Helen Darley.  32.06
+                         ------                             --------
+                          $75.00                              $75.00
+
+ROCKLAND, Jan. 1st, 1859.
+
+
+Now Helen had her own private reasons for wishing to receive the
+small sum which was due her at this time without any unfair
+deduction,--reasons which we need not inquire into too particularly,
+as we may be very sure that they were right and womanly.  So, when
+she looked over this account of Mr. Silas Peckham's, and saw that he
+had contrived to pare down her salary to something less than half its
+stipulated amount, the look which her countenance wore was as near to
+that of righteous indignation as her gentle features and soft blue
+eyes would admit of its being.
+
+"Why, Mr. Peckham," she said, "do you mean this?  If I am of so much
+value to you that you must take off twenty-five dollars for ten days'
+absence, how is it that my salary is to be cut down to less than
+seventy-five dollars a quarter, if I remain here?"
+
+"I gave you fair notice," said Silas.  "I have a minute of it I took
+down immed'ately after the intervoo."
+
+He lugged out his large pocket-book with the strap going all round
+it, and took from it a slip of paper which confirmed his statement.
+
+"Besides," he added, slyly, "I presoom you have received a liberal
+pecooniary compensation from Squire Venner for nussin' his daughter."
+
+Helen was looking over the bill while he was speaking.
+
+"Board and lodging for ten days, Mr. Peckham,--whose board and
+lodging, pray?"
+
+The door opened before Silas Peckham could answer, and Mr. Bernard
+walked into the parlor.  Helen was holding the bill in her hand,
+looking as any woman ought to look who has been at once wronged and
+insulted.
+
+"The last turn of the thumbscrew!" said Mr. Bernard to himself.
+
+"What is it, Helen?  You look troubled."
+
+She handed him the account.
+
+He looked at the footing of it.  Then he looked at the items.  Then
+he looked at Silas Peckham.
+
+At this moment Silas was sublime.  He was so transcendently
+unconscious of the emotions going on in Mr. Bernard's mind at the
+moment, that he had only a single thought.
+
+"The accaount's correc'ly cast, I presoom;--if the' 's any mistake of
+figgers or addin' 'em up, it'll be made all right.  Everything's
+accordin' to agreement.  The minute written immed'ately after the
+intervoo is here in my possession."
+
+Mr. Bernard looked at Helen.  Just what would have happened to Silas
+Peckham, as he stood then and there, but for the interposition of a
+merciful Providence, nobody knows or ever will know; for at that
+moment steps were heard upon the stairs, and Hiram threw open the
+parlor-door for Mr. Dudley Venner to enter.
+
+He saluted them all gracefully with the good-wishes of the season,
+and each of them returned his compliment,--Helen blushing fearfully,
+of course, but not particularly noticed in her embarrassment by more
+than one.
+
+Silas Peckham reckoned with perfect confidence on his Trustees, who
+had always said what he told them to, and done what he wanted.  It
+was a good chance now to show off his power, and, by letting his
+instructors know the unstable tenure of their offices, make it easier
+to settle his accounts and arrange his salaries.  There was nothing
+very strange in Mr. Venner's calling; he was one of the Trustees, and
+this was New Year's Day.  But he had called just at the lucky moment
+for Mr. Peckham's object.
+
+"I have thought some of makin' changes in the department of
+instruction," he began.  "Several accomplished teachers have applied
+to me, who would be glad of sitooations.  I understand that there
+never have been so many fust-rate teachers, male and female, out of
+employment as doorin' the present season.  If I can make
+sahtisfahctory arrangements with my present corpse of teachers, I
+shall be glad to do so; otherwise I shell, with the permission of the
+Trustees, make sech noo arrangements as circumstahnces compel."
+
+"You may make arrangements for a new assistant in my department, Mr.
+Peckham," said Mr. Bernard, "at once,--this day,--this hour.  I am
+not safe to be trusted with your person five minutes out of this
+lady's presence,--of whom I beg pardon for this strong language.  Mr.
+Venner, I must beg you, as one of the Trustees of this Institution,
+to look at the manner in which its Principal has attempted to swindle
+this faithful teacher whose toils and sacrifices and self-devotion to
+the school have made it all that it is, in spite of this miserable
+trader's incompetence.  Will you look at the paper I hold?"
+
+Dudley Venner took the account and read it through, without changing
+a feature.  Then he turned to Silas Peckham.
+
+"You may make arrangements for anew assistant in the branches this
+lady has taught.  Miss Helen Darley is to be my wife.  I had hoped to
+have announced this news in a less abrupt and ungraceful manner.  But
+I came to tell you with my own lips what you would have learned
+before evening from my friends in the village."
+
+Mr. Bernard went to Helen, who stood silent, with downcast eyes, and
+took her hand warmly, hoping she might find all the happiness she
+deserved.  Then he turned to Dudley Venner, and said,
+"She is a queen, but has never found it out.  The world has nothing
+nobler than this dear woman, whom you have discovered in the disguise
+of a teacher.  God bless her and you!"
+
+Dudley Venner returned his friendly grasp, without answering a word
+in articulate speech.
+
+Silas remained dumb and aghast for a brief space.  Coming to himself
+a little, he thought there might have been some mistake about the
+items,--would like to have Miss barley's bill returned,--would make
+it all right,--had no idee that Squire Venner had a special int'rest
+in Miss barley,--was sorry he had given offence,--if he might take
+that bill and look it over--
+
+"No.  Mr. Peckham," said Mr. Dudley Venner, "there will be a full
+meeting of the Board next week, and the bill, and such evidence with
+reference to the management of the Institution and the treatment of
+its instructors as Mr. Langdon sees fit to bring forward will be laid
+before them."
+
+Miss Helen Darley became that very day the guest of Miss Arabella
+Thornton, the Judge's daughter.  Mr. Bernard made his appearance a
+week or two later at the Lectures, where the Professor first
+introduced him to the reader.
+
+He stayed after the class had left the room.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Langdon! how do you do?  Very glad to see you back again.
+How have you been since our correspondence on Fascination and other
+curious scientific questions?"
+
+It was the Professor who spoke,--whom the reader will recognize as
+myself, the teller of this story.
+
+"I have been well," Mr. Bernard answered, with a serious look which
+invited a further question.
+
+"I hope you have had none of those painful or dangerous experiences
+you seemed to be thinking of when you wrote; at any rate, you have
+escaped having your obituary written."
+
+"I have seen some things worth remembering.  Shall I call on you this
+evening and tell you about them?"
+
+"I shall be most happy to see you."
+
+This was the way in which I, the Professor, became acquainted with
+some of the leading events of this story.  They interested me
+sufficiently to lead me to avail myself of all those other
+extraordinary methods of obtaining information well known to writers
+of narrative.
+
+Mr. Langdon seemed to me to have gained in seriousness and strength
+of character by his late experiences.  He threw his whole energies
+into his studies with an effect which distanced all his previous
+efforts.  Remembering my former hint, he employed his spare hours in
+writing for the annual prizes, both of which he took by a unanimous
+vote of the judges.  Those who heard him read his Thesis at the
+Medical Commencement will not soon forget the impression made by his
+fine personal appearance and manners, nor the universal interest
+excited in the audience, as he read, with his beautiful enunciation,
+that striking paper entitled "Unresolved Nebulae in Vital Science."
+It was a general remark of the Faculty,--and old Doctor Kittredge,
+who had come down on purpose to hear Mr. Langdon, heartily agreed to
+it,--that there had never been a diploma filled up, since the
+institution which conferred upon him the degree of Doctor Medicdnce
+was founded, which carried with it more of promise to the profession
+than that which bore the name of
+
+                    BERNARDUS CARYL LANGDON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+Mr. Bernard Langdon had no sooner taken his degree, than, in
+accordance with the advice of one of his teachers whom he frequently
+consulted, he took an office in the heart of the city where he had
+studied.  He had thought of beginning in a suburb or some remoter
+district of the city proper.
+
+"No," said his teacher,--to wit, myself,--"don't do any such thing.
+You are made for the best kind of practice; don't hamper yourself
+with an outside constituency, such as belongs to a practitioner of
+the second class.  When a fellow like you chooses his beat, he must
+look ahead a little.  Take care of all the poor that apply to you,
+but leave the half-pay classes to a different style of doctor,--the
+people who spend one half their time in taking care of their
+patients, and the other half in squeezing out their money.  Go for
+the swell-fronts and south-exposure houses; the folks inside are just
+as good as other people, and the pleasantest, on the whole, to take
+care of.  They must have somebody, and they like a gentleman best.
+Don't throw yourself away.  You have a good presence and pleasing
+manners.  You wear white linen by inherited instinct.  You can
+pronounce the word view.  You have all the elements of success; go
+and take it.  Be polite and generous, but don't undervalue yourself.
+You will be useful, at any rate; you may just as well be happy, while
+you are about it.  The highest social class furnishes incomparably
+the best patients, taking them by and large.  Besides, when they
+won't get well and bore you to death, you can send 'em off to travel.
+Mind me now, and take the tops of your sparrowgrass.  Somebody must
+have 'em,--why shouldn't you?  If you don't take your chance, you'll
+get the butt-ends as a matter of course."
+
+Mr. Bernard talked like a young man full of noble sentiments.  He
+wanted to be useful to his fellow-beings.  Their social differences
+were nothing to him.  He would never court the rich,--he would go
+where he was called.  He would rather save the life of a poor mother
+of a family than that of half a dozen old gouty millionnaires whose
+heirs had been yawning and stretching these ten years to get rid of
+them.
+
+"Generous emotions!  "I exclaimed.  "Cherish 'em; cling to 'em till
+you are fifty, till you are seventy, till you are ninety!  But do as
+I tell you,--strike for the best circle of practice, and you 'll be
+sure to get it!"
+
+Mr. Langdon did as I told him,--took a genteel office, furnished it
+neatly, dressed with a certain elegance, soon made a pleasant circle
+of acquaintances, and began to work his way into the right kind of
+business.  I missed him, however, for some days, not long after he
+had opened his office.  On his return, he told me he had been up at
+Rockland, by special invitation, to attend the wedding of Mr. Dudley
+Venner and Miss Helen Darley.  He gave me a full account of the
+ceremony, which I regret that I cannot relate in full.  "Helen looked
+like an angel,"--that, I am sure, was one of his expressions.  As for
+her dress, I should like to give the details, but am afraid of
+committing blunders, as men always do, when they undertake to
+describe such matters.  White dress, anyhow,--that I am sure of,--
+with orange-flowers, and the most wonderful lace veil that was ever
+seen or heard of.  The Reverend Doctor Honeywood performed the
+ceremony, of course.  The good people seemed to have forgotten they
+ever had had any other minister, except Deacon Shearer and his set of
+malcontents, who were doing a dull business in the meeting-house
+lately occupied by the Reverend Mr. Fairweather.
+
+"Who was at the wedding?"
+
+"Everybody, pretty much.  They wanted to keep it quiet, but it was of
+no use.  Married at church.  Front pews, old Dr. Kittredge and all
+the mansionhouse people and distinguished strangers,--Colonel Sprowle
+and family, including Matilda's young gentleman, a graduate of one of
+the fresh-water colleges,--Mrs. Pickins (late Widow Rowens) and
+husband,--Deacon Soper and numerous parishioners.  A little nearer
+the door, Abel, the Doctor's man, and Elbridge, who drove them to
+church in the family-coach.  Father Fairweather, as they all call him
+now, came in late with Father McShane."
+
+"And Silas Peckham?"
+
+"Oh, Silas had left The School and Rockland.  Cut up altogether too
+badly in the examination instituted by the Trustees.  Had removed
+over to Tamarack, and thought of renting a large house and 'farming'
+the town-poor."
+
+
+Some time after this, as I was walking with a young friend along by
+the swell-fronts and south-exposures, whom should I see but Mr.
+Bernard Langdon, looking remarkably happy, and keeping step by the
+side of a very handsome and singularly well-dressed young lady?  He
+bowed and lifted his hat as we passed.
+
+"Who is that pretty girl my young doctor has got there?" I said to my
+companion.
+
+"Who is that?"  he answered.  "You don't know?  Why, that is neither
+more nor less than Miss Letitia Forrester, daughter of--of--why, the
+great banking firm, you know, Bilyuns Brothers & Forrester.  Got
+acquainted with her in the country, they say.  There 's a story that
+they're engaged, or like to be, if the firm consents."
+
+"Oh" I said.
+
+I did not like the look of it in the least.  Too young,--too young.
+Has not taken any position yet.  No right to ask for the hand of
+Bilyuns Brothers & Co.'s daughter.  Besides, it will spoil him for
+practice, if he marries a rich girl before he has formed habits of
+work.
+
+I looked in at his office the other day.  A box of white kids was
+lying open on the table.  A three-cornered note, directed in a very
+delicate lady's-hand, was distinguishable among a heap of papers.  I
+was just going to call him to account for his proceedings, when he
+pushed the three-cornered note aside and took up a letter with a
+great corporation-seal upon it.  He had received the offer of a
+professor's chair in an ancient and distinguished institution.
+
+"Pretty well for three-and-twenty, my boy," I said.  "I suppose
+you'll think you must be married one of these days, if you accept
+this office."
+
+Mr. Langdon blushed.--There had been stories about him, he knew.
+His name had been mentioned in connection with that of a very
+charming young lady.  The current reports were not true.  He had met
+this young lady, and been much pleased with her, in the country, at
+the house of her grandfather, the Reverend Doctor Honeywood,--you
+remember Miss Letitia Forrester, whom I have mentioned repeatedly?
+On coming to town, he found his country-acquaintance in a social
+position which seemed to discourage his continued intimacy.  He had
+discovered, however; that he was a not unwelcome visitor, and had
+kept up friendly relations with her.  But there was no truth in the
+current reports,--none at all.'
+
+Some months had passed, after this visit, when I happened one evening
+to stroll into a box in one of the principal theatres of the city.  A
+small party sat on the seats before me: a middle-aged gentleman and
+his lady, in front, and directly behind them my young doctor and the
+same very handsome young lady I had seen him walking with on the
+sidewalk before the swell-fronts and south-exposures.  As Professor
+Langdon seemed to be very much taken up with his companion, and both
+of them looked as if they were enjoying themselves, I determined not
+to make my presence known to my young friend, and to withdraw quietly
+after feasting my eyes with the sight of them for a few minutes.
+
+"It looks as if something might come of it," I said to myself.  At
+that moment the young lady lifted her arm accidentally in such a way
+that the light fell upon the clasp of a chain which encircled her
+wrist.  My eyes filled with tears as I read upon the clasp, in sharp-
+cut Italic letters, E. Y.  They were tears at once of sad remembrance
+and of joyous anticipation; for the ornament on which I looked was
+the double pledge of a dead sorrow and a living affection.  It was
+the golden bracelet,--the parting-gift of Elsie Venner.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext Elsie Venner, by Oliver Wendell Holmes
+
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