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diff --git a/2696-0.txt b/2696-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b3f733 --- /dev/null +++ b/2696-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14105 @@ +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. + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE VENNER *** + +***** This file should be named 2696-0.txt or 2696-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/9/2696/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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