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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75692 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
+
+OF
+
+POPULAR
+
+LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART
+
+Fifth Series
+
+ESTABLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, 1832
+
+CONDUCTED BY R. CHAMBERS (SECUNDUS)
+
+NO. 151.—VOL. III.      SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1886.        PRICE 1½_d._]
+
+
+
+
+NOTHING NEW.
+
+
+Antiquaries are always delighted to remind us that there is nothing new
+under the sun. When we boast of the great European art of printing,
+they bring in the Chinese as evidence against us. Certain it is,
+however, that the Romans used movable types to mark their pottery
+and bread, and even to indorse their scroll-books. But if this is
+to be called printing, then the Accadians, and their successors the
+Assyrians, did the like on a grand scale many centuries before. To the
+last-named people, moreover, must be ascribed, so far as we at present
+know, the invention of a magnifying lens of rock-crystal, a thing
+so well made, that Sir David Brewster pronounced it a true optical
+instrument. It was found amid the ruins of Nimroud by Layard.
+
+It is curious to see also how great natural laws have been dimly
+apprehended centuries before they were rendered demonstrable. The law
+of gravitation was undoubtedly discerned by Sir Isaac Newton; but it is
+remarkable that in Cary’s translation of Dante’s _Inferno_ an idea very
+like it occurs, namely:
+
+    Thou wast on the other side, so long as I
+    Descended; when I turned, thou did’st o’erpass
+    That point, to which from every part is dragged
+    All heavy substance.
+
+Of this passage, Monti remarks that if it had met the eye of Newton,
+it might better have awakened his thought to conceive the system of
+attraction than the accidental fall of an apple.
+
+For fifty or sixty years before any real light was thrown upon the
+nature of gravitation, Pedro Mexia of Seville had a clear and correct
+idea of its action. Thus, in his _Silva de Varia Leccion_ (published
+in 1542, and which in various translations was in great demand until
+the middle of the seventeenth century), the following appears: ‘The
+sky is above in all parts of the earth, and the centre of the earth
+is below, towards which all heavy things naturally tend from whatever
+side of the earth; so that if God had made a hole, which by a true
+diameter passing through the whole earth, from the point where we are,
+as far as the other opposite and contrary to this, on the other side
+of the earth, passed through the centre of it: then if one dropped a
+plummet, as masons do, know that it would not pass to the other side of
+the earth, but would stop and place itself in the centre of it; and if
+from the other side one let fall another, they would meet together in
+the very centre, and there they would stop. It is quite true that the
+force might well cause the plummet to pass somewhat beyond, because its
+movement, so long as it was going towards the centre, would naturally
+be accelerated, passing somewhat beyond, but in the end it would return
+to its place.’
+
+Of this old Spanish work, an English translation was made by T.
+Fortescue, and printed in London in 1576, entitled _The Forest,
+or Collection of Historyes, no less profitable than pleasant and
+necessary_. Another appeared in 1613 with sundry essays by other
+authors, entitled _The Treasurie of Ancient and Modern Times_.
+Considering that London publishing was on a small scale two and three
+centuries ago, it is difficult to believe that Newton missed seeing
+these works, even if he had not heard of the original. At anyrate, he
+must in all probability have read what Shakspeare, borrowing probably
+from the same source, puts into the mouth of Cressida:
+
+    But the strong base and building of my love
+    Is as the very centre of the earth,
+    Drawing all things to it.
+
+            _Troilus and Cressida_, act iv. scene 2.
+
+Some anticipations of telegraphy are also very interesting. Galileo, in
+his _Dialogues on the Two Systems of the World_, that is, the Ptolemaic
+and Copernican, and which he wrote in 1632, makes Sagredo say: ‘You
+remind me of one who offered to sell me a secret art, by which, through
+the attraction of a certain magnet needle, it would be possible to
+converse across a space of two or three thousand miles. I said to him
+that I would willingly become the purchaser, provided only that I might
+first make a trial of the art, and that it would be sufficient for the
+purpose if I were to place myself in one corner of the sofa and he in
+the other. He replied that in so short a distance the action would be
+scarcely discernible; so I dismissed the fellow, and said that it was
+not convenient for me just then to travel into Egypt or Muscovy for
+the purpose of trying the experiment; but that if he chose to go there
+himself, I would remain in Venice and attend to the rest.’
+
+It appears, however, that telegraphy took form as an idea two thousand
+years ago, for Addison, in one of his delightful essays in the
+_Spectator_ (No. 241), tells us that ‘Strada, in one of his Prolusions,
+gives an account of a chimerical correspondence between two friends
+by the help of a certain lodestone, which had such virtue in it, that
+if it touched two several needles, when one of the needles so touched
+began to move, the other, though at never so great a distance, moved
+at the same time, and in the same manner. He tells us that the two
+friends, being each of them possessed of one of these needles, made a
+kind of a dial-plate, inscribing it with the four-and-twenty letters,
+in the same manner as the hours of the day are marked upon the ordinary
+dial-plate. They then fixed one of the needles on each of these plates
+in such a manner that it could move round without impediment, so as to
+touch any of the four-and-twenty letters. Upon their separating from
+one another into distant countries, they agreed to withdraw themselves
+punctually into their closets at a certain hour of the day and to
+converse with one another by means of this their invention.’
+
+In Homer’s _Odyssey_, translated by Pope, the following curious
+description—originally detected by an ingenious mechanic—of the
+Phœacian ships of old, has been well observed by the late Dr Birkbeck
+to be no inaccurate description of steam-navigation:
+
+    So shalt thou instant reach the realm assigned
+    In wondrous ships, self-moved, instinct with mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Though clouds and darkness veil the encumbered sky,
+    Fearless, through darkness and through clouds they fly;
+    Though tempests rage—though rolls the swelling main,
+    The seas may roll, the tempests swell in vain.
+    E’en the stern god that o’er the waves presides,
+    Safe as they pass, and safe repass the tides,
+    With fury burns; whilst careless they convey
+    Promiscuous every guest to every bay.
+
+It would almost appear from the above passage, which for ages was
+considered merely a bold flight of the imagination, that the ancients
+were not unacquainted with some method beyond that of the ordinary
+sail, of propelling vessels through water with safety and celerity.
+
+Even that horror of naval warfare, the fish-torpedo, seems to have been
+once afloat in the mind of Ben Jonson, although there are good reasons
+for thinking he derived the idea itself from Drummond the inventor,
+whom he visited at Hawthornden in 1619. In Jonson’s play, _The Staple
+of News_ (act iii. scene 1), we read:
+
+    _Thomas._ They write here one Cornelius’ son
+    Hath made the Hollanders an invisible eel
+    To swim the Haven at Dunkirk, and sink all
+    The shipping there.
+
+    _Pennyboy._ But how is’t done?
+
+    _Cymbal._ I’ll show you, sir.
+    It’s an automa, runs under water
+    With a snug nose, and has a nimble tail
+    Made like an auger, with which tail she wriggles
+    Betwixt the coats of a ship, and sinks it straight.
+
+    _Pennyboy._ A most brave device
+    To murder their flat bottoms!
+
+Some of the most beneficent and useful discoveries in medical science
+appear to have been anticipated years ago. For example, certain skulls
+of prehistoric man have afforded the clearest evidence that even at
+that remote period the art of _trepanning_ must have been practised
+upon them. A skull found in the tomb of the Incas, near the city of
+Cuzco, exhibited distinct marks of having undergone a like operation.
+According to a reputed discovery by M. Stanislaus Julien, it appears
+that as far back as the third century of our era, the Chinese were in
+possession of an anæsthetic agent which they employed during surgical
+operations. A description of this was discovered by M. Julien in a work
+preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, called _Kou-kin-i-tong_, or
+a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Medicines, which appears
+to have been published in the sixteenth century. In a biographical
+notice of Hoa-tho, who flourished under the dynasty of Wei, between the
+years 220 and 230 of our era, it is stated that he gave the patient a
+preparation of _cannabis_ (_Ma-yo_), who in a few moments became as
+insensible as one plunged in drunkenness or deprived of life; then,
+according to the case, he made incisions, amputations, &c. After a
+certain number of days, the patient found himself re-established,
+without having experienced the slightest pain during the operation. It
+appears from the biography of Han that this _cannabis_ was prepared by
+boiling and distillation.
+
+Of the Germ Theory of disease, it must also be said, it is no
+novelty. That noted physician, Athanasius Kircher, in his work on the
+plague—published at Rome in 1658—attributed the origin of epidemics to
+germs, or, as he termed them, animalcules. He argued that each kind of
+putrefaction gives rise to a special virus, which produces a definite
+species of malady.
+
+Even sticking-plaster is not a modern surgical appliance. One of
+the highest living authorities in organic chemistry states that the
+ordinary lead-plaster now so commonly used was said to be discovered by
+the Roman physician Menecrates in the middle of the first century.
+
+Some readers of this _Journal_ will remember that while the British
+Association was in progress at Montreal (1884), a telegram was received
+from Mr Caldwell in Australia, notifying that he had found _monotremes
+oviparous with mesoblastic ovum_—that is, that the ornithorhynchus,
+the duck-bill or water mole, laid eggs. This piece of news greatly
+interested naturalists, since it was justly regarded as furnishing one
+more link in the chain of evidence tending to support the evolution
+hypothesis. However, in a work entitled _The Literary Pancratium_,
+by Robert and Thomas Swinburn Carr, published in London in 1832, a
+quotation in the form of a footnote appears on page 8, as follows: ‘But
+this is New Holland, where it is summer with us when it is winter in
+Europe, and _vice versâ_; where the barometer rises before bad weather,
+and falls before good; where the north is the hot wind, and the south
+the cold; where the humblest house is fitted up with cedar; where
+the fields are fenced with mahogany, and myrtle-trees are burnt for
+firewood; where the _swans are black_ and the eagles white; where the
+kangaroo, an animal between the squirrel and the deer, has five claws
+on its forepaws and three talons on its hind-legs, like a bird, and
+yet hops on its tail; where the mole lays eggs, and has a duck’s bill;
+where there is a bird with a broom in its mouth instead of a tongue;
+where there is a fish, one half belonging to the genus _Raja_, and the
+other to that of _Squalus_; where the pears are made of wood, with the
+stalk at the broader end; and where the cherry grows with the stone on
+the outside.’—(Field’s _New South Wales_, page 461.)
+
+In striking contrast to all the above-named instances of rediscovery,
+is that fact furnished by some Assyrian bas-reliefs—that is, that the
+lion, or at least the Asiatic species, has a _claw_ in the tuft of
+his tail. This fact, which, strangely enough, was disputed in classic
+times, although forty years before the birth of Christ, Didymus
+of Alexandria discovered it, had been quite overlooked by modern
+naturalists. Soon after the finding of the sculpture, Mr Bennett, an
+English zoologist, verified the observation.
+
+Homer’s famous story of the battle between the frogs and the mice is
+doubtless a political satire. That the story was originally suggested
+by actual observation is not an unreasonable fancy. Homer may even have
+seen the mimic campaign for himself, for it is but a tradition that he
+was blind. In a recent number of _Nature_, a correspondent states that
+he saw a short time since several mice pursuing some frogs in a shed.
+The alacrity of the reptiles rendered the attacks of the mice futile
+for some time. ‘Again and again the frogs escaped from the clutches of
+their foes, but only to be recaptured, severely shaken, and bitten.’
+They were at length ‘overpowered by the mice, which devoured a part of
+them.’
+
+The first scientific expedition on record is one in which Aristotle
+was sent by Alexander the Great (more than 300 B.C.) for the purpose
+of collecting subjects for a History of Animals. In this enterprise he
+met with both the paper and the pearly nautilus; for in the _Historia
+Animalium_, he says, after describing different forms of Cephalopods,
+which no doubt abounded in Asiatic seas: ‘There are also two other
+kinds of polypes which are in shells, the one [that is, the paper
+nautilus] has a shell which is not naturally adherent to it; it feeds
+very frequently near the land, and being cast by the waves on the sand,
+the shell slips, and it dies; but the other [the pearly nautilus]
+is in a shell in which it exists after the manner of a snail, and
+outwardly extends its arms.’—(_Scaliger’s translation._) Nothing was
+added to this account during the dark ages that succeeded, nor even
+till some time after the revival of literature. No further information
+respecting the nautilus was obtained until the discovery of a living
+specimen early in the eighteenth century by Rumphius, a Dutch merchant
+and naturalist, resident at Amboyna. His drawing of the soft parts
+separated from the shell was greatly valued for more than a century
+before another specimen was found, although the shells were cast ashore
+in comparative abundance. This specimen was sent to Professor Owen, and
+formed the subject of an elaborate memoir by him in 1832. It may be
+said to have been the first to confirm the history of this remarkable
+organism given more than two thousand years before.
+
+Here, then, we have another instance of modern research simply
+verifying that which was an ancient discovery.
+
+It is even said that the stereoscope, which is Professor Wheatstone’s
+invention, was known to Euclid, and minutely described by Galen,
+the physician, sixteen centuries ago; moreover, it was still more
+completely defined in the works of Baptista Porta in the year 1599.
+As for photography, its discovery is by common consent referred to
+Daguerre, who announced it to the Academy of Sciences in 1839. This
+beautiful art has, however, been found clearly described by M. Jobard
+in his _Nouvelles Inventions aux Expositions Universelles_, 1857, taken
+from a translation from the German three hundred years ago.
+
+An ancient gold coin _recast_ is, after all, the same precious metal;
+even so, truths long lost are, when found, restamped by human thought
+and made current again for the world’s good. How few are privileged, or
+have the genius, to enrich mankind with an original discovery!
+
+
+
+
+BY ORDER OF THE LEAGUE.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Le Gautier followed the footman into the drawing-room, where Enid
+was engaged with some visitors—three tall showy-looking girls, with
+an extremely vivacious mother. Le Gautier stood looking out of one
+of the windows, and noticed with satisfaction their intention of a
+speedy exit. For some moments the visitors remained chattering, and
+then, after a profusion of compliments, accompanied by much laughter,
+their voluminous skirts were heard switching down the broad staircase.
+It has often been a matter of speculation as to whether a man can be
+in love with two women at the same time; but without going into this
+delicate question, it is possible to imagine a man with a penchant for
+two women, though the experiment probably would be attended with great
+hazard and danger. Le Gautier forgot the dark-eyed Marie, as he gazed
+upon Enid’s fairer charms.
+
+‘You have heard nothing of Maxwell?’ he asked after a pause in the
+desultory conversation. ‘A strange thing he does not write. Many men
+would imagine that such a thing is not altogether an accident; there
+are occasions when a little absence from the gaze of man is desirable,
+Miss Charteris.’
+
+‘Many men, as usual, would be wrong,’ Enid answered coldly. ‘You should
+not shield your want of charity by these generalities, Monsieur le
+Gautier, though perhaps you have derived benefit from these absences
+yourself, you seem to understand the subject so thoroughly.’
+
+Enid was angry at his cool insolence, and replied to his want of taste
+by a little plain language herself; and her random shaft went home.
+
+‘You are severe; but really, while sorry for Maxwell, there is
+something in it which is comforting to me. Can you not guess what I
+mean?’
+
+Enid Charteris, though guileless and pure as woman can be, had not
+mixed with the great world for nothing. She had had suitors enough to
+know what a proposal was, and above all things she dreaded one from
+this man. Some instinct told her he would be a dangerous enemy. ‘You
+speak in riddles,’ she said calmly. ‘I have not been educated to the
+language of diplomacy. Pray, explain yourself.’
+
+‘Then I must be more explicit. Maxwell’s absence rids me of a dangerous
+rival. Now he is away, the path is all the smoother for me. Need I tell
+you, Miss Charteris—Enid—that I love you? Surely you must have known
+that for a long time past. While another was in the way, I sealed my
+lips; but I can restrain myself no longer now.’
+
+‘It would be affectation not to understand you,’ Enid replied with a
+calmness that boded ill for Le Gautier’s success. ‘I am sorry to hear
+it. If you are wise, you will not put me to the pain of a refusal.’
+
+‘I will take no refusal,’ Le Gautier burst out passionately; ‘for I
+swear that if you are not mine, you shall wed no other man. Enid, you
+must, you shall be mine! You may look upon me coldly now, but the time
+will come when you shall love me well enough.’
+
+‘The time will come when I shall—love—you?’ The bitter scorn in
+these words stung Le Gautier to madness, stirring up a desperate
+passion in his veins, now that the prize seemed like slipping from
+his grasp. He fell at her feet on his knees. ‘Hear me!’ he exclaimed
+passionately—‘only listen to me, Enid. I have vowed that you are the
+only woman I have chosen—the only girl I could really love. Such love
+as mine must win a return some day; only try; only give me a little
+chance of hope.’
+
+‘If you are a man, you will rise from that absurd position. Who am I,
+that you should kneel to me? You must take my word for it; and if you
+have any consideration for my feelings, you will change the subject.’
+
+‘And this is your absolute and final decision?’
+
+‘Yes, it is my absolute and final decision.’
+
+Le Gautier rose to his feet, pale but smiling, and there was a darkly
+evil look upon his white set face. When he spoke again his words were
+cold and incisive. ‘Consider, before you wilfully make an enemy of
+me.’ He uttered the words with a low sibilation. ‘I have made you an
+offer—the highest compliment I could pay, and you have scornfully
+rejected it. The next favour you ask from me you may seek for on your
+knees.’
+
+‘And to what purpose, sir, shall _I_ ask a favour from _you_?’
+
+‘For your father,’ Le Gautier answered quietly, though his tones were
+deep and earnest. ‘You have guessed that Maxwell has gone away on a
+dangerous mission. Why should not Sir Geoffrey be chosen in his turn?
+And if so, who can save him? I, Hector le Gautier, and no other man.’
+
+‘And by whose evil counsel has my poor father been dragged into your
+infamous Brotherhood?—By yours alone! He would be a happy man now, if
+he had never known you’——
+
+‘On the contrary,’ Le Gautier interrupted, ‘I tried to save him. He has
+joined on his own wish. You do not credit my words. Go and ask him now
+if my words are not true, and that, if it is not his dearest wish that
+you should become my wife.’
+
+‘He might think so,’ Enid answered haughtily; ‘but he does not wish it
+in his heart. Monsieur le Gautier, if you are a gentleman, you will
+cease this discussion. The subject is painful to me.’ She stood there,
+looking at him coldly and scornfully.
+
+But her very iciness only served to increase the warmth of his passion.
+‘I cannot!’ he exclaimed. ‘I will not cease! For five years, ever since
+I first met you at Rome, I have never ceased to love you. Bid me do
+anything in reason; ask me any favour; but to forget you is impossible!’
+
+‘I am sorry for you,’ Enid said gently, touched a little by the ring of
+genuine passion in his voice—‘I am sorry; but it cannot be. I do not
+break my pledges so lightly, even if I wished to do so.’
+
+‘Which you do not,’ Le Gautier bitterly remarked. ‘I do not care.
+I am desperate now. You despise and scorn me; but I will not be
+rejected thus. If you will not be my wife for my sake, you must for
+your father’s and the honour of your house.’ He stopped abruptly, for
+standing in the room was Sir Geoffrey, his face pale, and his whole
+aspect downcast and degraded to a pitiable degree.
+
+Enid turned to her father eagerly. ‘Did you hear these words?’ she
+asked. ‘Can it be possible that you—that I—that the honour of our house
+is in any man’s hands? Can it be your wish, father, that I—I—should
+form an alliance with Monsieur le Gautier? Speak, and show him how
+mistaken he can be!’
+
+But Sir Geoffrey never spoke. His head sank lower upon his breast.
+For the first time, he realised the sacrifice he had imposed upon his
+daughter, and so he stood there, an English gentleman no longer, but a
+poor enfeebled, shamefaced old man.
+
+A wild feeling of alarm took possession of Enid as she saw this thing.
+‘Why do you not speak?’ she demanded. ‘What cause have you to hesitate
+in indorsing my words?’
+
+Still the baronet never spoke, never raised his head.
+
+Enid ran swiftly to his side and threw one arm round his shoulder.
+She could feel the spasm that struck him as he encountered her touch.
+‘Father,’ she asked in a dull even voice, ‘does your silence mean that
+he is right?’
+
+‘Yes, my dear child; he is right. There is no alternative.’
+
+There is a providence which helps us in such times as these, a numbness
+of the senses that for a time deadens pain. Enid’s voice was very
+calm as she turned to Le Gautier, standing there trying to disguise
+his triumph. ‘I do not know what all this means,’ she said. ‘I do not
+understand whence you derive your power. I cannot think now. For his
+sake,’ she continued, pointing to her father, ‘I consent.’
+
+Le Gautier sprang forward; but she repelled him with a glance.
+
+‘Listen to my conditions,’ she continued. ‘I have said I consent; but
+I warn you that if there is any loophole for escape from you, I shall
+take it. You are going away, you say. Nothing must be done till your
+return, and then the contract shall be fulfilled. Now, go.’
+
+When Lucrece entered the room a few moments later, she found her
+mistress lying unconscious upon the floor. Looking out of the window,
+she saw the slim figure of Le Gautier disappearing in the distance, and
+smiled. He was smiling, too, as he walked away. Nothing remained now
+but only the final interview with Marie, and to regain possession of
+the lost moidore. A few weeks at Warsaw, and then——
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Maxwell had been gone a week now, and no tidings of him had reached
+England, save one letter to say he was in Rome. As Le Gautier turned
+away from Grosvenor Square, his heart one glow of triumph, he
+determined that, come what may, the artist should never see England
+again. When he returned from Warsaw, he calculated that, through Marie
+St Jean’s assistance, all information concerning the League would be
+in the hands of the police, freeing him from any further bondage, and
+throwing all the odium and danger on her. Full of these schemes, he
+arrived at his lodgings. A telegram was lying on the table. He took it
+up mechanically, and tore it open. The contents were terse: ‘Visci died
+this morning from heart disease.’ Le Gautier was wild with rage. Here
+was a pretty combination, he thought. Nothing now to detain Maxwell
+in Rome. The victim had fallen by a higher Hand than that of man, and
+Maxwell was free.
+
+As a Head Centre of the Order, Le Gautier wielded much power, and even
+now he did not despair, with the command of nearly all the desperadoes
+in Rome at his command. He had only to get Maxwell arrested in Rome
+on some false charge and carried to the mountains; and there—after a
+little delay and a packed meeting of the League—shot. Desperate men
+such as Le Gautier, especially with such a prize in their grasp, do
+not long hesitate over such a trifling matter as a human life, and he
+trusted to his own good luck and native audacity to pull him through.
+
+It was getting dark the same night as he despatched a telegram to Rome,
+and then turned in the direction of Fitzroy Square. He was as eager now
+to see Isodore as he had been to encounter Enid in the afternoon, and
+looked forward not only to a pleasant evening but a remunerative one.
+
+She did not keep him long waiting in the drawing-room ere she sailed in
+all smiles and welcome. She was looking radiantly beautiful to-night;
+there was a deeper flush on her face, and a glitter in her glorious
+eyes not usually seen there—signs of a loving welcome, Le Gautier
+imagined in his egotistical way. There was, besides, a warmth in her
+manner and a gladness in the pressure of her hand which inspired him,
+and sent an electric thrill coursing through his veins.
+
+‘You are looking more transcendently lovely than usual, Marie!’ he
+exclaimed with a fervour unusual even to him. ‘Every time I see you,
+there is some additional charm in you to note.’
+
+‘It depends upon whether the observing eye is a prejudiced one,’ she
+replied with a caressing smile, which brought him at once to her side.
+‘You say that now, Hector. How long will you continue to think so?’
+
+‘As long as I have power to think at all—as long as memory serves me. I
+shall remember you to the last day of my life.’
+
+‘I believe you will,’ Isodore smiled bewilderingly. ‘And yet, strange
+as it may seem, the time will perhaps come when you will wish you had
+never seen my face.’
+
+‘You are more than usually enigmatical to-night, Marie. You are a
+puzzle to me. I do not even know who you are. Tell me something about
+yourself, and why you are living in this solitude here.’
+
+‘No; not to-night; but, as I have often promised you, I will tell you
+some time. I will tell you who I am before you go away; and then, when
+your curiosity is satisfied, you will leave me.’
+
+‘Never!’ Le Gautier exclaimed passionately. ‘Leave you!—the only woman
+I ever saw that I could really love. Leave you, Marie! How can you
+entertain the bare idea!’
+
+He would have approached her nearer, but she waved him gently but
+firmly aside. The distance she kept him fanned his passion all the
+more. ‘Tell me something about yourself,’ she said. ‘That is a topic
+which never fails to interest me. How about the League, this Maxwell’s
+journey? Has he accomplished his mission yet?’
+
+‘He is not likely to, now. Visci is dead!—Gracious powers, Marie! what
+ails you? Are you ill?’
+
+Isodore uttered a sharp exclamation, and then reeled forward in her
+chair. Her face was white and drawn, her lips trembled. Gradually her
+bosom ceased to heave so painfully, and she turned to Le Gautier with
+a white wan smile, though he could see the fan still trembling in her
+hands. ‘It is nothing,’ she said with an effort. ‘I am subject to these
+attacks of the heart, and any news of sudden death always affects me
+so.—Do not look distressed; it is past now.’
+
+‘There is nothing in the name to cause you any distress?’ Le Gautier
+asked suspiciously.
+
+‘I have heard the name before, if that is what you mean. Tell me all
+you know of this Carlo Visci.’
+
+‘I did not say his name was Carlo,’ Le Gautier observed, somewhat
+sharply. ‘I can tell you nothing more. When I reached home this
+afternoon, I had a telegram to say he was dead.’
+
+‘And this Maxwell, what of him? I suppose he will return home now?’
+
+‘He has been somewhat dilatory in obeying orders. No; he will not
+return. He will be detained at Rome for the present.’
+
+‘Tell me why you hate this Englishman so.’
+
+Le Gautier started. ‘How do you know I hate him?’ he asked. ‘I have
+never said so.’
+
+‘Not in so many words; but in gesture and look, when you speak of him,
+your actions are eloquent, my friend. He has crossed your path. Ah,
+well, I like a good hater. Maxwell will suffer yet.’
+
+‘Yes,’ Le Gautier exclaimed involuntarily, ‘he will.’
+
+Isodore rose and walked to the piano, where she sat for a moment
+striking the chords idly. ‘When do you go to Warsaw?’ she asked.
+
+‘I have six days remaining to me.—Marie, the time has come when we must
+no longer delay. The pear is ripe now; all my plans are matured. I have
+only to hold up my hand and the League will vanish.’
+
+All this time, Isodore played on softly, musingly, the music serving
+like the accompaniment of a song to force the speaker’s voice. As he
+stood there, and she answered him, she never ceased to play the soft
+chords.
+
+‘Then you have everything prepared?’
+
+‘Yes, everything is ready.’ He drew a low seat to her side, and seated
+himself there. ‘All the names are made out, the whole plot prepared.’
+
+‘And you propose to hand them over to me. It is a great compliment; and
+I suppose I must take them. I would run greater risks than this for
+your sake and—my own.’
+
+She took one hand from the ivory keys and held it out to him. Drawing a
+packet from his pocket, he gave it to her. She thrust it in her bosom,
+and ran her fingers over the keys again.
+
+‘All is there, I suppose,’ she asked, ‘down to the minutest detail,
+everything necessary to betray the League and pull it up root and
+branch? You have taken good care to shield yourself, I presume?’
+
+‘Of course.—And now, to talk of more pleasant things. You know I am
+going away in a few days; and when I return, I shall expect to find
+myself perfectly free.’
+
+‘You may depend upon me. I will do all I can for you.’
+
+Le Gautier looked up sharply—the words were coldly, sternly uttered,
+but the quiet placid smile never left her face.
+
+‘How strangely you speak! But oh, Marie—my Marie, the only woman I ever
+loved, you will stand by me now, and help me, for both our sakes! Look
+at me, and say you will do what I ask!’
+
+Isodore looked down, smiling brightly. ‘Yes, I will do what you ask,’
+she said. ‘And so you really love me?’
+
+‘Passionately and sincerely, such as I never expected to love woman
+yet.’
+
+‘I am glad to hear you say that,’ Isodore replied with a thrill of
+exultation in her voice. ‘I have waited and hoped for the time to come;
+but never in my wildest dreams did I look for this.’
+
+‘With your nobleness and beauty, how could it be otherwise? I should be
+more than a man—or less—if I looked upon you unmoved.’
+
+‘Then, for the first time for years, I am happy.’
+
+Le Gautier started to his feet rapturously. He did not understand her
+yet; he thought the soft earnest words all for him. He would have
+caught her there and then in his eager arms, but again she repulsed
+him. ‘No, no!’ she cried; ‘I have not proved you yet. Let things remain
+as they are till you return again to England.’
+
+How strange, Le Gautier thought vaguely, that she should use words
+so similar to those of Enid to a precisely similar plea. Despite his
+passion, he had not thrown all prudence to the winds.
+
+‘You had better leave me now,’ Isodore continued—‘leave me to think and
+dwell over this thing.’
+
+‘But what about my badge of membership? I dare not leave England
+without that.’
+
+‘I had almost forgotten it in this interesting conversation. It is not
+in my possession; it is in Paris. You have a meeting of the League
+before you go for final instructions. Come to me after that, and you
+shall have it. I am going to Paris to-morrow, and will bring it with
+me.’
+
+‘You are a witch!’ Le Gautier exclaimed with admiration. ‘You seem to
+know as much as the mysterious Isodore, that princess who never shows
+herself unless danger besets the League. If she is the wonder men who
+have seen her say she is, they stand in dire need of her now.’
+
+‘Beware how you talk so lightly of her—she has the gift of fernseed. At
+this very moment she may know of your perfidy.’
+
+‘Perfidy is a hard word, my queen, and sounds not prettily.—And now,
+good-night. And you will not fail me?’
+
+‘I will _not_ fail you,’ Isodore replied with the stern inflection Le
+Gautier had noticed before, and marvelled over. ‘I never fail.’
+
+‘A woman, and never fail!’
+
+‘Not in my promises. If I make a vow or pledge my word, I can wait five
+years or ten to fulfil it.—Good-night. And when we meet again, you will
+not say I have belied my contract.’
+
+When Valerie entered some minutes later, she found Isodore with
+firm-set face and gleaming eyes. ‘My brother is dead,’ she said
+quietly. ‘Poor Carlo! And he loved me so at one time. Now, he can never
+know.’
+
+‘Dead!’ Valerie exclaimed. ‘You do not mean to say’——
+
+‘That Maxwell killed him?—No. His heart has been failing for years,
+long before I left Rome; his life was not worth an hour’s purchase. But
+I have no time to mourn over him now.—Let me see if I can do a little
+good with my useless occupation. I start for Rome to-morrow.’
+
+Valerie looked at her friend in stupid astonishment.
+
+‘I cannot explain to you now. Maxwell is free to return home. As you
+know, it means destruction to Le Gautier’s plans, if he does. I dared
+not press him too closely to-night; but Maxwell will be detained in
+Rome, in all probability by Paulo Lucci, till some charge can be
+trumped up for his destruction. But Lucci and his band dare not cross
+me; my power is too great for that. To-morrow, I leave for Rome, and
+pray heaven that I may not be too late!’
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN TRAITS.
+
+
+It is usual in this country to regard the Americans as a homogeneous
+people, and to accept the Yankee as a fair type of the whole nation.
+But this is a fallacy. The inhabitants of the South, and more
+especially the descendants of the early French and Spanish colonists
+to be found in the Gulf States, differ radically in their morals,
+manners, and customs from the population of other sections of the
+Union. It is not, however, our purpose in this paper to enter into an
+extended disquisition upon the characteristics of the people of the
+United States, our object being simply to touch briefly upon a few
+of their more prominent traits. The Puritan element in the character
+of the first settlers of New England has exercised an influence upon
+social life there which has not been confined to that limited area,
+but has made itself felt, in a more or less marked degree, throughout
+the whole of the Northern States. The differences of race and climate
+have, however, not only been obstacles to the inhabitants of the South
+accepting the Puritan standard of morals, but have also prevented
+the development of those traits of character to be found in the
+population of other parts of the country, and which are more peculiarly
+distinctive of the Americans as a people. We shall therefore limit
+ourselves to dealing with those national characteristics which have
+come under our observation in the Northern States.
+
+That submission to the will of the majority which is inculcated by
+democratic institutions has exercised a marked influence upon the
+social no less than upon the political life of the people of the United
+States, save in the late Slave States. It has not only had the result
+of preventing the development of individuality of character, but
+likewise has considerably modified that obstinacy of temper and dogged
+tenacity of opinion which are to be found in the Anglo-Saxon race. The
+late Lord Beaconsfield on one occasion said in the House of Commons
+that a gentleman who had spent several years in America had declared to
+him that it was his belief that ‘the citizens of the republic were the
+most tractable people in the world, and the readiest open to conviction
+by argument.’
+
+In the United States, the absence of that segregation of the various
+grades of society which exist in Europe is evinced by the habits and
+manners of the masses in that country. If the national independence of
+character be occasionally pushed too far, and degenerate into offensive
+self-assertion, at least it prevents any approach to servility. No
+inequality of position or circumstances will induce a native of any
+of the Northern States to submit to being dealt with in the manner
+or spoken to in the tone which, in England, the man in broadcloth
+too frequently adopts, as a matter of course, towards the man in
+fustian. The late Sydney Godolphin Osborne used to relate how, once, a
+respectable artisan said to him: ‘I like you, my lord; there is nothing
+of the gentleman about you.’ The meaning of the speaker was undoubtedly
+that Lord Osborne did not treat him in the patronising manner that
+members of the higher class usually address those whom they regard as
+their social inferiors. Now, no one perhaps has a keener appreciation
+of the advantages of wealth and education than the American; but that
+the possessor of them should feel himself justified in using towards
+the man who lacks these adventitious gifts the language of a superior
+to an inferior, is what he cannot understand, and which he will not
+for one moment put up with. An anecdote Thackeray used to relate of an
+experience of his when in the United States well illustrates this trait
+of the people. While in New York, he expressed to a friend a desire
+to see some of the ‘Bowery Bhoys,’ who, he had heard, were a class of
+the community peculiar to that city. So one evening he was taken to
+the Bowery, and he was shown a ‘Bhoy.’ The young man, the business
+of the day being over, had changed his attire. He wore a dress-coat,
+black trousers, and a satin waistcoat; whilst a tall hat rested on the
+back of his head, which was adorned with long well-greased hair—known
+as ‘soap-locks’—a style which the rowdies of that day affected. The
+youth was leaning against a lamp-post, smoking an enormous cigar; and
+his whole aspect was one of ineffable self-satisfaction. The eminent
+novelist, after contemplating him for a few moments with silent
+admiration, said to the gentleman by whom he was accompanied: ‘This is
+a great and gorgeous creature!’ adding: ‘Can I speak to him without his
+taking offence?’
+
+Receiving an answer in the affirmative, Thackeray went up to the
+fellow, on the pretext of asking his way, and said: ‘My good man, I
+want to go to Broome Street.’
+
+But the unlucky phrase, ‘My good man,’ roused the gall of the
+individual spoken to. Instead, therefore, of affording the information
+sought, the ‘Bhoy’—a diminutive specimen of humanity, scarcely over
+five feet in height—eyeing the tall form of his interlocutor askance,
+answered the query in the sense that his permission had been asked
+for the speaker to visit the locality in question, and he said,
+patronisingly: ‘Well, sonny, yer kin go thar.’
+
+When Thackeray subsequently related the incident, he laughingly
+declared that he was so disconcerted by the unexpected response, that
+he had not the courage to continue the dialogue.
+
+The question, however, differently put would, in all probability,
+have elicited a civil answer from ninety-nine out of a hundred of
+the members of the class to which the man belonged. In fact, the
+discourtesy, and even rudeness, of which some travellers in the
+United States complain have arisen from the fact of their failing to
+appreciate the difference existing between the social systems of that
+country and their own.
+
+The wide gulf in culture which in England separates the upper and
+middle classes from the lower orders, does not exist in America. This
+has arisen from various causes. In the first place, the great bulk of
+the people of the Union are much better educated than is as yet the
+case in this country. The admirable system of common or, as they are
+termed, ‘public’ schools which prevails in America affords facilities
+for all children obtaining a sound English education without the
+payment by their parents of any school fees, and at a trifling cost to
+the taxpayer in all sections of the Union, and especially in the West,
+where large grants have been made of the State lands in support of the
+public schools. In the second place, the social status of the working
+classes who are _natives_ of the United States has been raised by the
+fact that the Americans are almost exclusively engaged in avocations
+demanding intelligence and skilled labour. This has been owing to the
+circumstance that upon the coloured population and the Irish and German
+immigrants have devolved those coarse and irksome occupations which
+have to be followed by a portion of the inhabitants of other countries.
+To give one instance of this alone, it may be stated that rarely is a
+native American citizen, man or woman, found occupying the position of
+a domestic servant in any of the Atlantic cities.
+
+The wages, too, commanded by artisans and mechanics averaging nearly
+double those of the same class in other countries, it follows,
+necessarily, that vice and crime—the inevitable concomitants of a state
+of society in which the condition of the mass of the lower classes is
+but one step removed from absolute indigence, as is the case in most
+European countries—are not nearly so prevalent in America. In the New
+England States, where the foreign population is small, there is not a
+country in Europe—possibly with the exception of Holland—where there is
+so little crime. Few persons, indeed, are aware how much the foreign
+element in the community, in many of the States, contributes to the
+statistics of the offences which come under the cognisance of the
+criminal tribunals. In the State of New York alone, seventy per cent.
+of the infractions of the law are committed by the Irish, whilst the
+fair ratio of this class in proportion to the whole population would be
+a little less than twenty per cent.
+
+One of the most marked characteristics of the Americans is their rooted
+determination to resist any legislation which shall recognise any class
+distinctions in the community. Of course, no one contends that the man
+of wealth, education, and culture is not the superior, in one sense of
+the word, of him who lacks these. The equality insisted upon is simply
+this: that no class of society shall make the circumstance of enjoying
+these adventitious advantages a ground for the members of it basing a
+claim to be a separate caste, possessing rights and privileges—fenced
+in by law—denied to the bulk of their countrymen. This sentiment found
+expression in the opposition which the proposal met with, a few years
+ago, that persons in the Civil Service of the Federal government should
+be irremovable, save for misconduct, instead of being turned out of
+their places after every change of administration, as had previously
+been the case. It was argued that fixity of tenure of office would
+have the result of creating a bureaucracy, the members of which would
+come in time to regard themselves as a privileged class. That these
+apprehensions were unfounded, experience of the practical working of
+the new system of government patronage has proved. But the very fact
+of the objection having been raised at all shows how sensitive public
+opinion was on the subject.
+
+One noticeable feature of American society is that in none of the
+Northern States does an officer in the army or navy enjoy the social
+status that he commands in all European countries. Holmes, in _The
+Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_, has commented upon this trait of his
+countrymen. He says: ‘It is curious to observe of how small account
+military folk are held among our Northern people. Our young men must
+gild their spurs, but they need not win them. The equal division of
+property keeps the younger sons of rich people above the necessity of
+military service. Thus, the army loses one element of refinement, and
+the moneyed upper classes forget what it is to count heroism amongst
+their virtues. Still, I don’t believe in any aristocracy without pluck
+as its backbone. Ours may show it when the day comes, if ever it does
+come.’
+
+The opportunity for young men of the wealthier class proving their
+manhood came sooner than Holmes anticipated when he penned the above
+remarks; for less than three years later, the civil war broke out,
+and then this class were not slack in responding to the call of their
+country for their services. Numerous instances occurred of young
+men reared in luxury—unable to obtain commissions owing to their
+want of military training—shouldering muskets in the ranks of the
+Federal armies; and their patriotism received due recognition from
+their fellow-citizens. But in time of peace it is the members of the
+community who are engaged in those pursuits best remunerated who are
+held in the highest estimation—a necessary result of a condition of
+society in which wealth is the standard by which social position is
+measured and defined. The girl who in the French song exclaims, ‘Oh!
+que j’aime les militaires!’ utters a sentiment which as a rule finds no
+echo in the hearts of the American fair. An odd illustration of this
+fact came under the observation of the writer when he was resident in
+New York. A lady—whose brother had been educated at the government
+Military Academy at West Point—gave, in all seriousness, the reason
+why this gentleman, after graduating, had not accepted a commission in
+the army, in these words: ‘He had a higher ambition than to be a mere
+soldier, so he has become a dry-goods merchant.’
+
+In New York, and indeed in all the larger Atlantic cities, a class has
+sprung up of late years which affects to look down upon the political
+and social institutions of their country. Mr Howells, in his novel _A
+Woman’s Reason_, speaking of one of the Upper Ten, says: ‘He saw what
+a humbug democracy and equality really were. He must have seen that
+nobody practically believes in them.’ This sentiment may accurately
+reflect the opinions of a limited class, but it is an absolute fallacy
+to assert that such views are generally entertained. On the contrary,
+they have not to any appreciable extent permeated the people at large,
+and there is not the slightest likelihood of their affecting the
+national life or changing its standards.
+
+In closing these desultory observations upon some of the characteristic
+traits of the Americans, the writer may state that they are based upon
+personal observation during a residence of several years in the United
+States.
+
+
+
+
+COUSIN GEORGE.
+
+
+IN TWO CHAPTERS.—CHAP. I.
+
+Mr Nicholas Smethby lived, in pretty easy circumstances, at a town some
+thirty or forty miles distant from London, from which metropolis he had
+retired on leaving off business. His profession had been, nominally,
+that of an accountant; but he had seldom troubled himself greatly
+about accounts, and had not received many commissions to investigate
+them. He had really been a speculator in stocks and shares, in a small
+but profitable way; and while he lent but little of his own money
+in loans, had made a great deal of profit as agent, or ‘middleman,’
+between those who wished to borrow and those who were able to lend. So
+Mr Smethby had lived in a circle in which it was necessary for him
+to have his wits about him, and in which a somewhat decided hankering
+for gain was likely to be developed; yet in this he was perhaps no
+worse than most of his neighbours; while, ’cute as he was, he was not
+a bad sort of fellow, take him altogether. He was pleasant and social
+enough in his family circle, a pretty large one, but reduced, as far as
+his own household was concerned, to one daughter, Harriet, the other
+members having married. Two of these had settled in the neighbourhood
+of Valeborough, the town referred to; while Mr Smethby had long been
+a widower. He had no other relations, that he knew of, and, as he was
+wont to say when speaking on the subject, he did not want to hear of
+any. His cousin, George Styles, was the last he had had much to do
+with, and, ah!—Mr Smethby would exclaim at such times as the subject
+was brought up—he did not care about any more like him.
+
+‘Twenty years ago, sir,’ he would explain, ‘he called on me with a
+cock-and-bull story of his being in trouble and wanting to get to
+Australia; and I was fool enough to lend him twenty pounds. Yes, sir,
+lent twenty pounds to a man I did not care two straws for, and had seen
+barely a dozen times in my life. What was the consequence? Why, I never
+heard any more of him or my twenty pounds either, and don’t know to
+this day whether he went to Australia or not. I should decidedly say
+_not_. That is all I know about my relations.’
+
+It must be owned that it was at the best a selfish kind of
+cheerfulness, which was derived from the belief that he had no kith or
+kin out of his own household; but Smethby was rather a selfish man. He
+certainly was too fond of talking in this strain.
+
+It happened that, towards the close of a bright June day, Mr Smethby
+was at a railway station some two or three miles from his residence.
+To aid in identifying the town, we may say that there was another line
+which ran through or at least close to it; but from the station in
+question, an omnibus plied to Valeborough, and it was for this vehicle
+that Mr Smethby waited on the little platform.
+
+‘We shall have a wet night, I expect,’ said a voice in his ear.
+
+He looked round, and saw a sailor-like man, whom he had already
+noticed, and who was scanning the horizon in a sailor-like manner.
+Mr Smethby made a fitting reply to this remark, and a desultory
+conversation ensued. The expected omnibus now coming into sight as it
+crossed a rise in the road at some distance, Smethby instinctively
+shifted his valise a little nearer to the gate. The man good-naturedly
+helped him, as he was close to the bag, and exclaimed, as he saw the
+label upon it: ‘Smethby! It is odd that I should see that name to-day,
+for it is not a common one.’
+
+‘I do not think it is often met with,’ said Mr Smethby. ‘But what is
+there odd in your seeing it to-day?’
+
+‘Well, perhaps not much,’ replied the man, with a smile; ‘but I was
+talking about that name a good deal yesterday, and for weeks before.’
+
+‘Indeed! May I ask how that was?’ said his listener.
+
+‘I have just come from Australia,’ returned the sailor. (Mr Smethby
+could not help growing suddenly attentive at this.) ‘I landed yesterday
+at Gravesend, and bade good-bye to an old chum. Ah! he was a good chum
+too! Five years had I worked in the next claim to old George, as we
+called him. His right name was George Styles.’
+
+‘George Styles!’ exclaimed Mr Smethby.—‘But I must apologise for
+interrupting you.’
+
+‘He had done well—better than any of us,’ continued the sailor. ‘Some
+folks said he was worth a quarter of a million of money; but I never
+believed that; about half the figure would be nigher. He said he had
+no friends in England he cared for now, except one Mr Smethby. That
+is why the name startled me. He was always talking about him. It was
+on purpose to see him he went on to London with the ship; he lives
+somewhere in the City.’
+
+‘O—h!’ said Mr Smethby. This was a long-sustained syllable, the
+gentleman having a curiously complicated rush of thought just then.
+
+‘Yes, he lives in London; and I think old George means playing a rare
+trick on him,’ said the sailor, whose smile broke into a laugh here.
+‘He used to say what a game it would be to go and pretend he was poor
+and broken down, so as to see who were his real friends and who were
+not. It is my belief he will do it too; and when I go back to London,
+I’ll try to find him out, to hear all about it. Ha, ha, ha!’
+
+The omnibus drew up at this moment; and the sailor, knowing their
+conference must end, touched his cap and drew back.
+
+‘A—was this George Styles really so rich? I ask, because your story has
+interested me,’ said Mr Smethby hurriedly. ‘He must be a droll fellow!’
+
+‘Rich! Why, I’ve seen with my own eyes the banker’s receipts for the
+best part of a ton of gold of his, first and last,’ returned the
+sailor; ‘and that was only a part of his luck. His last words to me
+were: “Bill”—my name is Bill Brown—“Bill, as long as I live, you shall
+never want a friend.” Nor I shan’t, I know.—Good-day, sir.’
+
+Mr Smethby entered the vehicle, and had a silent, thoughtful ride to
+Valeborough. The sailor’s conversation, helter-skelter and rattle-brain
+as it was, had furnished him with much food for thought; and finding
+that his son was at his house, when he arrived there—this son was
+married and settled at Valeborough—he immediately took him, with Miss
+Harriet, into council. During his narrative, repeated exclamations of
+astonishment broke from his hearers.
+
+‘Why, father,’ cried his daughter as he finished, ‘this must be your
+cousin George; and you are the Mr Smethby he is looking for.’
+
+‘Of course I am; I saw that at once,’ replied her father.
+
+‘But what is to be done?’ asked Mr Joe, the son. ‘You have left London
+for years; he may be looking about for you till doomsday, and be no
+nearer finding you.’
+
+‘I suppose he will go to my old address. The people there know where I
+am, and will send him down,’ said Mr Smethby. ‘I expect that is how it
+will be.’
+
+‘I hope so, I am sure,’ continued his son; ‘otherwise, we may lose a
+splendid chance.’
+
+Smethby could not help admitting the possibility of this, which seemed
+to disturb him a good deal, yet nothing could be done to avert it.
+
+‘We must be careful to show him every kindness,’ said Harriet. ‘After
+having been away from England so long, he will feel pleased at’——
+
+‘Leave me alone,’ interposed Smethby, with a nod and a wink, which
+meant much. ‘I flatter myself I can see my way here pretty clearly. I
+only hope he comes, that is all.’
+
+Mr Smethby would have written to his successors in London, asking them
+to give his address to any inquirer; but he abstained, partly because
+he felt sure they would do this in any case, but chiefly from the
+danger that his request might be mentioned to his cousin, and so show
+that he, Mr Smethby, had a knowledge of his arrival in England.
+
+No days in the lives of Mr Smethby and his family had ever appeared
+so long as each of the next two or three which followed their little
+family interview. The suspense was—as the elder gentleman pronounced it
+to be—‘excruciating;’ but it came to an end in time.
+
+Mr Smethby was in his front-garden in the afternoon, trying to occupy
+himself; but his mind was busy on a subject very different from botany,
+when, happening to look up from his flower-beds, he met the eyes of
+a man who was watching him over the fence, as this man stood on the
+footpath. He smiled when he met the glance of Smethby, who actually
+recoiled in his astonishment; for although he had been thinking without
+cessation of his cousin, yet it was like an electric shock in its
+suddenness to look round and find the very man face to face with him;
+for this was, must be, he felt, George Styles. He did not know him,
+had no recollection of his features; but the bronzed, bushy-whiskered,
+bushy-bearded man, dressed something like a sailor, yet not to be
+mistaken for one, who smiled at him across the garden fence, was his
+cousin, there could be no doubt of that.
+
+‘Well, Nick, old fellow!’ began the stranger; ‘I see you know me,
+although it is many years since we parted.’
+
+‘Why, it is George Styles!’ exclaimed Mr Smethby, with an assumption
+of surprise and ‘gush’ which did him infinite credit, and of which he
+felt secretly proud for a good while. He seized the other’s hand and
+wrung it over the fence with a prolonged heartiness, as though he could
+not bear to relinquish it. ‘My dear old boy, how glad I am to see you!’
+he resumed, as soon, it appeared, as his feelings would allow him to
+speak. ‘Come in. How did you find me out? But never mind that now. Come
+in! I shall have a thousand things to talk about.—This is Harriet; the
+only unmarried one now; she was in arms when you went away, so I don’t
+expect you to remember her.—Now, Harriet, let us have a cup of tea; and
+put the best we have in the house on the table to-day, if we never do
+so again.’
+
+‘You are almost too kind, Nick,’ said the other, and there was really
+a little catch in his voice as he spoke. ‘I did not expect—indeed, I
+don’t deserve such generosity. I think I had first better run down to
+the _Railway Tap_ and bespeak my room there, for I hope to stay three
+or four days at Valeborough.’
+
+‘Three or four days!’ exclaimed Mr Smethby; ‘bespeak a room at the
+_Railway Tap_! I don’t mean to part with you, now I have found you
+again, under three or four months; and if you do not make this your
+home for everything, I—I—I’ll never forgive you.’
+
+Miss Harriet, in an equally gratifying strain, indorsed these
+sentiments, at which Styles was evidently affected.
+
+‘I did not expect—could not have hoped for this,’ he returned; ‘and
+seeing that I have returned a—a poor man’—the awkward stop he made, ere
+he could get this out, amused Smethby—‘it is so kind of you. If it will
+not cause any inconvenience, I will stay here a little while, and I
+will do anything I can to repay your generosity’——
+
+Here he was interrupted by the good-tempered laughter which such an
+idea excited, and the evening passed off merrily.
+
+Mr Joe and his wife looked in—by chance, as they explained; as did Mr
+Brooks and his wife—formerly Miss Susy Smethby—who came also by chance;
+the result being that there was quite a jovial party, and that Mr
+Styles received the warmest invitations to become a frequent visitor at
+the house of Mr Joe and at that of Mr Brooks.
+
+After this night, too, there was unwonted pleasantry at Mr Smethby’s,
+for not only his family but some of the neighbours were constantly
+dropping in, and it was wonderful what an interest they all took in
+the gentleman from Australia. The latter was very guarded—kept up his
+character well, did him great credit, Mr Joe said. But no one can avoid
+an occasional flaw, and one or two were detected even in him. He was
+wont to deplore the hardships which unsuccessful men suffered in a
+colony—in fact, he did not like to enter on any detail of his painful
+experiences—never would do so.
+
+‘Your hardships do not seem greatly to have injured you, George,’ his
+host would answer; ‘you look a good ten years younger than your age;
+and many a man who has never been fifty miles from London shows the
+wear and tear of toil and worry, of which you complain so much, more
+than you do.’
+
+‘Ah! but it is the future!’ Mr Styles would say, when such a debate
+arose—he would say it with a sad shake of the head—‘it is the future
+which preys on my mind, what I am to do for the rest of my life.’
+
+It was difficult for Mr Smethby, knowing so much as he did, to listen
+gravely to such arguments as these; but he was grave, and his manner
+encouraged Styles to confide in him—after a fashion.
+
+He soon showed an interest in speaking of certain Australian
+investments which it appeared some friend of his thought highly of; a
+shallow ruse, not likely to deceive such a man as his cousin. Styles
+further mentioned that a gold-miner whom he knew had put ten thousand
+pounds into one of these specs less than two years before, and he could
+now sell out for thirty thousand any day he chose; but he was too good
+a judge to do that, as in another two years the present value would be
+doubled, and then, perhaps, he might be tempted to realise. This same
+miner, as he had heard, held five or six other investments, nearly all
+as good, and was in expectation of hearing news which would enable him
+to employ the other half of his capital, which was now lying idle—only
+making a paltry three per cent.—quite as well. All this Mr Styles had
+heard from his friend.
+
+All this amused Smethby, who read his visitor the more thoroughly in
+proportion as the latter sought to envelop himself in these far-fetched
+disguises. No additional proof was needed to satisfy Smethby; but the
+evidence was in a manner forced upon him to expose most completely the
+absurd trick which his cousin was attempting to play off upon him.
+
+Harriet found a letter on the floor of their visitor’s room: it would
+have been expecting too much from the feminine, or perhaps from any
+temperament, to suppose she would not read it. Its contents were so
+interesting, although exceedingly brief, that she showed the note to
+her father. It was from a firm in London, a stockbroker’s evidently,
+referring to some inquiry from ‘George Styles, Esq.’ as to the purchase
+of shares to the amount of twenty thousand pounds, in the Bodgamaree
+mines—the very speculation that Smethby had heard his cousin refer to
+in their last conversation as being in great favour with the unnamed
+gold-miner! The shares were low at present, the letter said, and could
+be bought at about eighty per cent., so that a little over sixteen
+thousand pounds would be sufficient.
+
+‘That settles it, then,’ said Smethby. ‘Be sure to put the letter back
+where you found it, Harriet; and mind what I told you the other day.
+Play your cards properly, and I am sure you will win.’
+
+This utterance was rather obscure; but his daughter understood it well
+enough to induce her to pout and frown a little, and to move with what
+is generally described as a ‘flounce.’
+
+‘Ah! it is all very well,’ said the gentleman; ‘but you ought to know
+better than to dream of allowing a quarter of a million of money to go
+out of the family.—Who is Robert Crewe, I should like to know?’
+
+This speech would have been, to a third party, equally obscure with
+that which had gone before; but as we do not wish to have any mystery,
+we may explain that, almost from the first, Cousin George had appeared
+much impressed by Harriet’s good looks, and had shown her attentions
+which gradually became more marked. He was five-and-twenty years older
+than the girl, it was true; but as he had himself said to Smethby, a
+man ought to be a good deal older than a woman, when they marry; and
+when a man had been abroad, knocking about the world best part of his
+time, he then knew what a home was, and felt the want of a young and
+cheerful wife.
+
+All this Smethby had pointed out to his daughter before; but was
+shocked to find—for he really considered her a sensible, clear-headed
+girl, as a rule—that a ridiculous friendship with one Robert Crewe, a
+doctor’s assistant in the town, blocked the way of this new road to
+wealth and position.
+
+Robert Crewe! Smethby had not ordinary patience with the idea. He
+admitted that he had known of, and in some sort of way approved, or,
+rather, had not forbidden this intimacy—it was in this roundabout
+manner he now described his conduct—and the young fellow, in his
+place, might be well enough; but to compare him and his miserable
+gallipot and sticking-plaster prospects, with George Styles, was enough
+to put any man out of temper. Robert Crewe, forsooth!
+
+Yet, with all this natural indignation and in spite of this sarcasm,
+Miss Harriet could not quite make up her mind to renounce the young
+doctor; but it might come in time.
+
+That very night—after the discovery of the letter, we mean—Mr Styles
+on his return broached two subjects which were strongly suggestive,
+especially when his hearers were behind the scenes to a degree he did
+not suspect. These hearers were only Mr Smethby and his daughter. It
+was a quiet night, such as delighted Mr Styles; he really appeared to
+enjoy himself pretty well under all conditions; but he declared this
+evening that a snug little family chat was sweeter than anything else,
+to an old wanderer like himself. Port, sherry, and claret were at
+hand; for while Smethby was, as a rule, strictly economical, so that
+wine rarely appeared at his table, his hospitality to his cousin led
+him into a freer display of such luxuries now, than of old. But the
+taste of Mr Styles was simple—old-fashioned, he said; and he drank
+scarcely anything but cold brandy-and-water, to which he was remarkably
+partial. It was over a glass of this innocent beverage—always mixed
+half and half, at which, even in his bloom of hospitality, Mr Smethby
+winced—that he spoke of the subjects indicated. He referred to a friend
+of his—it was odd how satisfied he seemed with this shallow artifice,
+and how often he resorted to it—who was about to buy a small property
+near London. This property was at Richmond—only a mere toy, a little
+villa, with coachhouse and stables; a pretty conservatory, with a
+couple of acres of land—that was all. It was freehold—his friend would
+have nothing else—and it commanded the prettiest view on the river.
+
+Now, what was Miss Harriet’s opinion? Did she prefer living in the
+country outright, or near London? What did she think of his friend’s
+choice? Harriet hesitated, and her colour went and came; but Smethby
+spoke up for her, and said that, like every other young girl, she would
+prefer living near the great metropolis, with its theatres, its balls,
+its parks and the like.—O yes! of course. Harriet but feebly echoed
+this opinion, which was repeated and enlarged on by Smethby.
+
+Later in the evening, when the elders were alone, Styles brought up his
+friend again; it was, as before, in reference to an investment, and Mr
+George said how he wished his cousin had a little money to spare, as he
+knew—his friend knew, that was—of a chance for doubling and trebling
+every penny invested.
+
+Smethby, with his usual good-tempered laugh—he was always
+good-tempered, when with Styles—said that for all George knew he
+might have a trifle by him. On hearing this, his cousin expressed his
+pleasure, and said that his friend was going to invest nearly twenty
+thousand pounds in the spec. Such figures were beyond Smethby, as that
+gentleman owned; but one, or even two thousand, he might command. In
+short, ere they parted that night, he had resolved to remove his cash
+from his deposit account at the town bank and join this friend in his
+speculation.
+
+Styles was pleased to hear this; and when Smethby said he should like
+to see his friend, laughed, and confusedly said he would tell his
+cousin more about him soon.
+
+
+
+
+ECONOMY OF FUEL.
+
+
+Mr Hull, a celebrated geologist, has calculated that there is still
+a quantity of coal in store in England and Wales sufficient to
+afford a supply of one hundred and twenty millions of tons for about
+five hundred years. This would be a cheerful estimate, if we could
+cordially and unquestioningly accept it. But, unfortunately, we cannot,
+other competent observers having affirmed that the coal deposits of
+this country will be exhausted in less than two hundred years. We
+would, therefore, urge with all earnestness, that the people and the
+government should pay more especial attention to this vital subject
+than they have hitherto done.
+
+Of course, there are two chief points on which any interference could
+be effectual: these are, the exportation of coal, and the wasteful
+processes of mining now in vogue. The former of these involves the
+great question of free-trade, and the right of each coal-proprietor to
+sell the produce of his land and labour at the best possible price. The
+latter is even a still more difficult thing to meddle with, and must,
+perhaps, be met rather by the provisions made on the part of landed
+proprietors, when leasing their subterranean property to practical
+miners, than by anything government can do. At present, the proprietor,
+having a life-interest in his estate, desires to obtain from the mines
+the largest amount of the most valuable coal at the smallest working
+loss. The result is, that vast quantities of inferior but yet valuable
+material are left in the pits; quantities that would do something
+towards meeting the growing consumption in this kingdom.
+
+Selfish, narrow-minded people might exclaim: ‘Oh! there will be quite
+enough of coal to last us our time. We don’t expect or want to live for
+ever; therefore, we won’t bother ourselves about the economy of fuel.’
+
+Let us remind such unpatriotic mortals that our manufacturing
+and commercial interests rest upon our supplies of coal as their
+foundation-stone. Our commercial rivals across the Atlantic possess
+magnificent coal-fields, that are practically of indefinite extent.
+Exhaust _our_ coal-fields, and their supremacy will become complete. It
+behoves each and every one of us to think of the future of our country
+and of the interests of those who come after us.
+
+Perchance some cynic may say: ‘What has posterity ever done for me? Let
+posterity take care of itself.’
+
+‘Very well,’ we reply; ‘let posterity do for itself. Let us only be
+influenced by selfish and non-altruistic principles, and think only of
+ourselves. The question is, how can we put money into our own pockets
+by using less coal than we do?’
+
+First, we can do so by using proper grates. Down to the time of Count
+Rumford, the modern world of coal-burners never thought of the true
+theory of caloric in connection with grates. Burners of wood had not
+tried to be economical; they did not expect to be warm on more than one
+side. When their bodies were scorched and their eyes smarted, they had
+what they bargained for. Rumford appeared as a new teacher; he laid
+down the principles of heat and combustion with admirable clearness,
+and flooded England with grates of his favourite type. But in spite of
+the teachings of the Count, coal-fires of to-day are as dirty, chilly,
+and as wasteful as ever.
+
+The waste of coal in Britain is positively disgraceful. One hundred
+and twenty millions of tons are consumed every year. Of this, one half
+might be saved by the adoption of improved appliances. About thirty
+million pounds sterling might thus be kept in our banks, instead
+of being turned into cinders and smoke. The pall of smoke and fog
+that broods over London contains in a single day fifty tons of coal!
+The fact is that we burn coal in house-fires on an entirely false
+principle—that is, on the principle of a blast-furnace, letting cold
+air pass through the centre of the fire, to blaze the coal rapidly
+away, and hurry the heat and half-burnt gases unused up the chimney.
+We have to go back to the good old principle of the embers on the
+earth, when the hearth was, as it is at the present day in many Irish
+cottages, a true ‘focus,’ a centre of accumulated heat. We must, then,
+return to truer lines, and make our fireplace again a ‘focus’ or ‘well’
+of stored heat, into which we put our fuel, first to be distilled into
+gas, which, rising at a high temperature from its hot bed, meets the
+air gliding towards the chimney, and bursts into flame, communicating
+heat to the firebrick back and to the room. Then, when all the gases
+have been burnt off, the red-hot coke remains, and burns away in the
+bottom of the grate at a slow rate, yet radiating abundant heat into
+the room.
+
+This desirable end is gained by using Mr Teale’s ‘Economiser.’ The
+‘Coal Economiser’ is simply a shield of sheet-iron which stands on the
+hearth, and rises as high as the lowest bar of the grate, against which
+it should fit accurately, so as to shut in the space under the fire.
+Any ordinary blacksmith can make the ‘Economiser.’ It is applicable to
+any range, whether in the cottages of the poor or the mansions of the
+rich. Those who wish for greater elegance can have it made of steel or
+brass. Its chief purpose is to cut off the under current, and to keep
+the chamber under the fire hot.
+
+Count Rumford affirmed that seven-eighths of the heat was carried up
+the chimney. Heat is wasted in three ways: by combustion under the
+influence of a strong draught; by imperfect combustion; by the escape
+of heat through the sides and the back of the fireplace. By using the
+‘Economiser’ all this is altered. If there is plenty of heat round the
+fuel, then but little oxygen will do. But burn coal with a chilling
+jacket, and it needs a fierce draught of oxygen to sustain it. High
+temperature does not imply complete combustion, for in making gas,
+coke is left. When the ‘Economiser’ is applied, the fire burns with an
+orange colour, for the stream of oxygen is slow and steady, and the
+coal undergoes complete combustion; consequently, there is an entire
+absence of cinders, and only a little fine snuff-like powder falls
+into the ‘economised’ chamber. Smoke is also conspicuous by its absence.
+
+In a recent lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Mr Teale
+mentioned several additional points about the structure of fireplaces,
+which tend to the saving of fuel. (1) As much firebrick and as little
+iron as possible should be used. Iron absorbs the heat, and chiefly in
+directions in which the heat is least wanted. Firebrick retains and
+accumulates heat. (2) The back of the fireplace should lean or arch
+over the fire, so as to become heated by the rising flame. The heated
+back sends forth abundant radiant heat into the room. ‘Milner’s’ back
+is a capital arrangement; so is the Nelson ‘Rifle’ back. (3) The bottom
+of the grating should be deep from before backwards. (4) The slits in
+the grating should be narrow; this prevents small cinders from falling
+through. (5) The bars in front should be narrow.
+
+If the foregoing instructions are attended to, there will be an
+enormous saving of fuel. Soot and smoke will be diminished, and there
+will be no half-burnt cinders.
+
+The late Sir William Siemens was an ardent advocate for the use of gas
+as a heating agent. At the British Association of 1882, he said: ‘The
+time is not far distant when both rich and poor will largely resort to
+gas, the most convenient, the cleanest, and cheapest of heating agents,
+and when raw coal will only be seen at the colliery or gasworks. In all
+cases where the town to be supplied is within, say, thirty miles of
+the colliery, the gasworks may with advantage be placed at the mouth,
+or, still better, at the bottom of the pit, whereby all haulage of
+fuel would be avoided, and the gas in its ascent from the bottom of
+the colliery would acquire an onward pressure sufficient, probably,
+to impel it to its destination.’ No doubt, if this scheme could be
+realised, we would all be deeply indebted to the great man who first
+suggested it. More than one half of the coal now consumed would be
+saved by its adoption. At present, we must be content with the old
+order of things.
+
+It is astonishing, however, that so few people employ gas instead of
+coal as a cooking agent, especially in summer. It secures an immense
+saving of labour, not to speak of its superiority over coal in respect
+to coolness. In the hot summer days, cooking with a coal-fire in an
+ordinary range is a tremendous trial to the poor cook. The kitchen
+is like an oven. What a difference if gas is used! The moment it is
+no longer required it can be turned off, and the temperature of the
+kitchen is soon lowered. By using a gas-stove, no coal is required
+during the summer. It is less expensive than coal. Of course, care must
+be taken to have it turned off directly it is no longer required, and a
+proper economy exercised in its use. Mr Fletcher, of Warrington, a high
+authority on gas for cooking and heating purposes, says: ‘The cost of
+gas, even if wastefully used, must be considered not only as regards
+the saving of coal, but also, what is far greater, the saving in weight
+of meat roasted, which is considerable, and the reduced wear and tear,
+waste, dirt, and consequent labour. Taken altogether as affecting the
+total housekeeping expenses, gas is cheaper than coal for cooking
+at any price not exceeding twelve or fourteen shillings per thousand
+cubic feet; coal being, say, twelve to fourteen shillings per ton.’ The
+majority of people, however, pay very much less for their gas, and more
+for coal; in which case, gas will be much cheaper than coal.
+
+Asbestos heated by gas makes a suitable fire. It is cleanly, quiet,
+free from dust, and convenient; and it can be turned on or extinguished
+in an instant.
+
+Enough has been written to show that economy of fuel is not merely
+theoretical and fanciful, but that it is practicable and worthy of
+earnest attention.
+
+
+
+
+THE SIGN OF THE _RED INDIAN_.
+
+
+Just on the outskirts of the seaport and garrison town of Chubleigh,
+in the south-west of England, stands a little old-fashioned hostelry
+called the _Red Indian_. How it came by its name is involved in
+obscurity. The antiquity of the inn is undoubted, and a tradition
+is current in the district, that during the unfortunate Monmouth’s
+rebellion it was used as the temporary head-quarters of Colonel
+Kirke. In its back-garden, a wooden seat is still shown to visitors
+on which that bloodthirsty officer, surrounded by his ‘lambs,’ is
+alleged to have sat in judgment, and thence ruthlessly consigned to
+the gallows scores of the unoffending rustics of the locality. From
+time immemorial, the _Red Indian_ has been in the hands of a family
+named Slade. The present proprietor, though, generally speaking, as
+deliberate in manner as John Willet, is yet apt to be garrulously
+communicative in talking of his inn and its interesting historical
+associations. Above the rustic porch over the door there is fixed a
+large, rudely carved, wooden figure of a savage holding in its hand a
+tomahawk. The Indian’s nose was long ago knocked off by a well-directed
+stone thrown by some mischievous urchin; his original coat of paint has
+peeled off, and large cracks are visible, which run the whole length
+of the figure. Altogether, this Indian is as disreputable-looking a
+sign as a traveller might perceive throughout the length and breadth of
+England. Nevertheless, it is in connection with this dilapidated timber
+savage that the writer obtained, from the landlord of the _Red Indian_,
+materials for the following story.
+
+When the present century was in its infancy, the son of the then
+proprietor, and grand-uncle of the present landlord, was engaged in
+the capacity of boatswain of a privateer, which had been fitted out
+with the object of preying on the French merchant service. In the
+Mediterranean, the privateer captured a large vessel, which in part was
+laden with the product of the labours of a Parisian curiosity-hunter,
+who had been despoiling ancient Grecian temples, with the object of
+supplying the virtuosi of the French metropolis with antique sculptures
+and bronzes, and thereby securing a large profit to himself. The
+privateersmen were greatly disappointed at not finding specie, and what
+they considered marketable merchandise, on board the Frenchman, and
+attached but little value to the battered though priceless bas-reliefs
+and statues. Boatswain Slade took a great fancy to a life-sized bronze
+gladiator, which he considered would prove an acceptable addition to
+the attractions of the back-garden of his father’s inn, and managed,
+for a few shillings, to effect its purchase from the captain.
+
+Shortly after the glorious victory of Trafalgar, the privateer was
+paid off at Chubleigh; and the boatswain conveyed the statue on shore
+to his father’s inn. The gladiator was placed on a brick pedestal,
+flanked on either side by two rusty carronades; and the bareness of
+the surroundings was relieved by the artistic disposal of a number
+of huge shells which the boatswain had brought from ‘foreign parts.’
+The host of the _Red Indian_, however, was soon struck by the idea
+of making the figure a sign for his hostelry. He had but little
+sentimental regard for the rich green mould of antiquity, so, with
+execrable vandalism, carefully scraped it off the statue, and had the
+gladiator painted a bright scarlet by a local artist, who took payment
+for his work in the old ale for which the hostelry was famous. This
+operation performed, the metamorphosed gladiator was removed to a
+prominent position in front of the inn door, and for years did duty
+as a Red Indian. Its brilliant appearance was a perpetual source of
+gratification and delight to the host and his numerous customers; while
+inquiring strangers were proudly informed that it had been captured
+from the frog-eaters. Once a year the extemporised Indian received a
+fresh coat of paint; and save when its head was decorated at times with
+a disused tin pail or an old hat by some facetious individuals, it was
+not otherwise interfered with.
+
+At the close of the year 1815, Chubleigh was _en fête_ in connection
+with the disembarkation of the 31st Regiment of Light Dragoons, which
+during that year had performed doughty service at Waterloo, and which
+had just returned from the occupation of Paris. The piping times of
+peace had again returned, and, naturally enough, the officers and men
+who had assisted to destroy the power of the once dreaded ‘Boney’ were
+the objects of popular pride and enthusiasm among the inhabitants of
+the town. When the regiment settled down in quarters, invitations to
+the houses of the principal townsmen were showered on the officers, and
+each vied with the other to entertain these heroes of Waterloo.
+
+The younger officers, several of whom had left school to join their
+regiment in Belgium, gave themselves prodigious airs; but no one
+considered himself of so much importance as a raw young Connaught-man,
+a cornet named Mike Macnamara. Mike, a warrior of about nine months’
+service, created great amusement both in the officers’ mess and in
+the houses to which he was invited by boasting about the number of
+Frenchmen whom he had placed _hors de combat_ in the late short but
+eventful campaign. His bounce together with his extreme simplicity
+rendered him the butt of his brother-officers, and he was in
+consequence the victim of numerous practical jokes. In these days, and
+for many years subsequently, rough horseplay and the perpetration of
+the most uncomfortable imaginable practical jokes were characteristic
+of the spirited gentlemen who officered the regiments of British
+cavalry. Those of our readers who took the trouble, some years ago, to
+wade through the evidence at the Tichborne trial, will remember the
+description of the ruthless tricks played on the simple undoubted Roger
+by his brother-carabineers. At the present day, military practical
+joking is somewhat out of fashion, and any games that may be played are
+curtailed of their former disagreeable proportions, and have assumed a
+comparatively mild character.
+
+Cornet Macnamara’s room was the favourite arena for a display of the
+ingenious tricks of his facetiously inclined brother-officers. Thistles
+and dead cats were placed between his sheets; trapfuls of live rats
+were let loose in the apartment; the nuts of his iron bedstead were
+unscrewed, so that when the poor fellow turned in, the framework of the
+couch tumbled to pieces and landed the mattress on the floor, while at
+the same time he was douched by a tub of water from the shelf above,
+which was fastened with cord to the mattress, and upset simultaneously
+with the collapse of the bed. On such occasions Mike was naturally
+wroth, and expressed himself as anxious to call out the offenders; but
+despite his utmost vigilance and caution, he could never capture his
+tormentors.
+
+Late one evening, a party of revellers from barracks were passing the
+_Red Indian_, when they espied the vermilioned gladiator. Nothing
+would satisfy them but to feloniously remove the statue and return
+with it to quarters—a work of considerable difficulty, as the figure
+was heavy. Arrived thither with their load, some one suggested that it
+should be placed in Cornet Macnamara’s room; and this idea was hailed
+with general enthusiasm. A scout was despatched to the messroom, in
+order to keep watch on Mike’s movements, and give the alarm in case
+he should appear on the scene. With great labour the gladiator was
+hoisted to the top of the staircase of the officer’s house; and Mike’s
+room door having been forced open, the jokers placed the statue in
+front of his dressing-table, on the top of an inverted iron coal-box.
+The staircase at the time was in process of being whitewashed, so the
+officers obtained possession of a tub of the mixture, and smeared the
+‘Red Indian’ a dirty white; then taking the sheets from Mike’s bed,
+they hung them about the figure, turning it into a respectable-looking
+ghost. Afterwards, the officers dropped one by one into the messroom,
+and joined a group who were listening with great amusement to a
+new-fangled story which was being retailed by Macnamara regarding his
+prowess at Waterloo.
+
+Mike, after clapping an additional two Frenchmen to the previous grand
+total of the number who had fallen by his sword, as narrated in his
+tale of the previous night, left the messroom in order to proceed to
+his quarters, whither, in a minute or two, he was stealthily followed
+by the whole of the officers, who anticipated great fun from the
+consternation of their victim when beholding the ghastly apparition in
+his bedroom. Mike gaily entered the apartment, singing a love ditty of
+his native land, and began to fumble for his tinder-box. After several
+attempts, he at last managed to light his candle, and of course at
+once perceived the ghost. The cornet was filled with the superstitious
+notions of a certain section of his countrymen, and started back nearly
+overcome with terror. ‘Ye saints in glory! what’s that?’ he cried;
+then leaving the room, he plunged madly down the staircase, and rushed
+yelling across the parade ground in the direction of the messroom. In
+his headlong progress, poor Mike did not observe a party of two ladies
+and a gentleman, who happened to be the colonel, accompanied by his
+wife and daughter, who had just returned from a dinner-party. Mike ran
+full tilt against his commanding officer, and knocked him into a puddle
+in the barrack square. The ladies screamed loudly; and the colonel,
+with many objurgations, got on his feet and confronted his assailant.
+
+‘You—Cornet Macnamara!’ he angrily exclaimed. ‘What do you mean, sir,
+rushing about like a madman at this time of night? Consider yourself
+under arrest, sir.’
+
+‘Faith, colonel,’ answered the unfortunate Mike, ‘I am very sorry,
+sorr, but I did not percaive ye. But, sorr, I wint up to me room just
+now, and as I hope for salvation, I found the divil in it, wid a big
+white shate wrapped round him!’
+
+The irate colonel at once surmised that another trick had been played
+on his subordinate; so he sent the ladies home to quarters, and then
+called loudly for the sergeant of the guard with a file of men.
+
+When this detachment of the guard appeared on the scene, the colonel
+ordered them to follow him to Macnamara’s room, where, by the light of
+the sergeant’s lantern, he showed the trembling cornet that there was
+nothing supernatural in the character of the figure that had frightened
+him so much. He then, under the circumstances, relieved Mike from
+arrest and proceeded home.
+
+Mike waited until the commanding officer and the men of the guard were
+clear of the staircase, and then slid the gladiator off the coal-box.
+He edged the statue to the top of the stair, and by main strength
+toppled it over the banister; and an instant later, with a loud crash,
+the gladiator was smashed into fragments on the flagstones of the
+lobby, four stories beneath.
+
+It is needless to say that there was great anger and consternation
+in the breast of the worthy host of the _Red Indian_ when, next
+morning, he awoke and found that his cherished statue had mysteriously
+disappeared. It was not long, however, before he obtained a clew to its
+whereabouts, as a customer informed him that late the previous night
+he ‘met a lot of milingtary chaps carrying summut’ in the direction
+of the barracks. This ‘summut’ Mr Slade shrewdly conjectured was his
+‘Red Indian;’ and he at once wrote to the regimental quarters to make
+inquiries into the matter.
+
+When the poor landlord discovered the gladiator in its fragmentary
+state, he became most angry and abusive; but was somewhat consoled when
+an emissary from the mess informed him that the officers would make
+good the damage, and requested him to inform them by letter next day
+the price at which he valued his statue. The landlord then procured
+the services of a passing cart and had the pieces removed to the inn.
+After a long consultation with his wife, he decided to assess the
+damage at ten guineas; and by way of making the most of the business,
+communicated with a marine store-dealer in town, intending to sell the
+smashed gladiator as old metal.
+
+The colonel made the most strenuous though unavailing efforts to
+discover the practical jokers, and roundly abused the whole of the mess
+for their treatment of poor Mike; but after a while, the affair passed
+off in a general laugh.
+
+Affairs, however, were speedily fated to take a turn which caused the
+implicated parties to laugh the other way. A large vessel arrived in
+the port of Chubleigh from Alexandria, which had among her passengers a
+celebrated London virtuoso, who, some months before, had been induced
+to pay a visit to Egypt by reason of the excitement produced in
+antiquarian circles by the discoveries of the celebrated Belzoni. This
+gentleman was posting to London when his chaise broke down opposite the
+_Red Indian_, and he entered the hostelry while the vehicle was being
+repaired. After partaking of a little refreshment, he took a walk in
+the garden, and his eye caught the fragments of the gladiator, which
+had been shot in a corner while waiting the arrival of the marine
+store-dealer’s cart. Having elicited the story of the statue from the
+host, the antiquary submitted the pieces to a most careful examination;
+and despite the whitewash and coats of paint with which the figure
+had been adorned, he recognised it as a specimen of the work of the
+renowned ancient Greek sculptor Lysippus; and in answer to the excited
+inquiry of the astonished landlord, appraised its value at six hundred
+pounds!
+
+Having, at the host’s urgent request, given a written opinion on the
+matter, the virtuoso departed on his journey, and then Mr Slade hurried
+with his certificate to a Chubleigh attorney, in whose hands he placed
+the matter, with instructions to leave no stone unturned to recover the
+full amount from the officers.
+
+Words could scarcely express the chagrin of the purloiners of the
+gladiator, when the colonel of the 31st Light Dragoons read at mess
+the contents of the letter he received from the legal adviser of
+the landlord of the _Red Indian_. The commanding officer further
+significantly hinted that the implicated parties would have to uphold
+their reputation as officers and gentlemen by paying the amount
+demanded, or run the risk of being cashiered.
+
+At first, the jokers were inclined to dispute the claim, and invited
+the opinion of an expert; but that authority, when he had inspected
+the figure, corroborated the London man’s decision, with a further
+assurance that the statue was cheap at the money.
+
+Cornet Macnamara, with reasonable show of justification, stoutly
+declined to pay a farthing of the six hundred pounds. It was, however,
+with a very bad grace, indeed, that the sum was subscribed by the
+interested parties; and served as a valuable lesson to them to modify
+for the future their spirit of mischief.
+
+When Mike discovered the identity of his tormentors, he sent a
+challenge to each, and an arrangement was come to by which a
+representative was selected by ballot to meet the Irishman. The old
+trick of leadless pistols was resorted to; the combatants fired three
+shots at each other without any perceptible result, and then the
+seconds interfered, and declared honour satisfied.
+
+A Jew purchased the fragments of the gladiator from the officers for a
+few guineas; but the wily Israelite well knew that a genuine Lysippus
+is almost as valuable broken as whole. He had the pieces skilfully
+rejoined, and disposed of the statue to a local virtuoso for a large
+sum, who in turn bequeathed it to the Chubleigh Museum.
+
+With part of the money the lucky landlord of the _Red Indian_ received
+for his gladiator, he invested in a wooden figure, which did duty for
+a sign equally well, and which he placed above the porch out of the
+reach of predatory officers, and where, as has been mentioned, it still
+stands, battered, cracked, and mouldy.
+
+Shortly after the episode of the gladiator, the 31st Light Dragoons
+were hurriedly despatched to Lancashire, in order to quell the bread
+riots which had broken out in that county; and the actors in the comedy
+just narrated were heard of no more by the good folks of Chubleigh.
+
+A little more remains to be told of the statue by Lysippus. We must
+come down to 1851, the year in which the Great Exhibition was held in
+Hyde Park. A middle-aged Frenchman landed at Chubleigh from Havre on
+his way to London, and while taking a walk about the town, entered
+the _Red Indian_. The landlord, who had profited so handsomely by
+his statue, had years before gone to his rest, and his son the
+ex-boatswain, then an aged man, reigned in his stead. The Frenchman
+was interested in learning that his host had taken a share in the old
+war, and after a time, he had narrated to him the whole history of the
+statue.
+
+‘Vat vas de name of de vessel you took?’ he eagerly asked.
+
+‘The _Hercules_, sir.’
+
+To the landlord’s astonishment, Monsieur leant back in his chair and
+indulged in a fit of uncontrollable laughter, and recovering himself,
+asked to be directed to the Museum. Having reached that establishment,
+he was not long in picking out the Lysippus, of which the learned in
+Chubleigh were so proud. The Frenchman put on his glasses and examined
+the gladiator’s toe-nail, and then gave vent to another guffaw, which
+speedily brought round him the officials of the establishment. He
+asked to see the secretary; and when introduced to the presence of
+that functionary, exclaimed: ‘Begar, sir, dat gladiateur is no more a
+Lysippus dan I am de Czar Nicholas of all de Russias. My oncle, who die
+ven I vas a leetle boy, keep vat you call a foundree in Athens, and
+have casts, or _replicas_ you call dem, made of all de antiques. He den
+put dem down a sewer until dey get a green magnifique; dey look like
+de real article; and he make heaps of money by selling dem as such in
+Paris. Your gladiateur is one of dem!’
+
+‘But, my dear sir,’ asked the astounded secretary, ‘how are you going
+to substantiate your statement?’
+
+‘Come wit me,’ said the Frenchman; and the twain proceeded to the
+statue. ‘My oncle,’ resumed the Frenchman, ‘deal in de antique, as I
+have told you; and in case he himself be cheated wit his own spurious
+statues, he have a private mark. Here is dis mark—a leetle hole drilled
+under dis toe-nail!’
+
+The secretary communicated the purport of Monsieur’s statement to the
+Museum directors; experts were called who substantiated the Frenchman’s
+assertion that the work was spurious, and was no more the production of
+Lysippus than an Italian moulder’s plaster-cast of Venus is the work of
+Phidias. In disgust, the directors ordered the statue to be transferred
+to the lumber-room of the establishment, and its description,
+‘Gladiator, by Lysippus, B.C. about 324; bequeathed by the late ——,
+Esq.,’ disappeared from the Museum catalogue.
+
+
+
+
+ANOTHER ‘SHIP-CANAL.’
+
+
+Another has been proposed, although the idea is not new, but seems
+to have been an old idea revived, and that is, to cut a canal from
+the sea to Birkenhead Docks across the low flat country lying between
+the outfalls of the Dee and Mersey, and thus getting a wide passage
+which will enable ships to avoid the bar of the Mersey. Elaborate
+plans have been prepared by an eminent engineer; and as the whole
+scheme seems feasible, and as money for great schemes seems to be
+readily forthcoming in this wealth-producing country, there can be
+no reason why the ‘ship-canal of Birkenhead’ should not be carried
+out as well as the ‘ship-canal of Manchester.’ It would have a great
+and reviving effect on the town of Birkenhead, which by this means
+may one day become an important commercial city, a rival to, instead
+of a mere suburb of, her wealthy sister on the opposite Lancastrian
+shore; and the expectations of half a century ago of a grand city, with
+magnificent streets, and squares, and splendid commercial docks, may
+even yet be realised.
+
+
+
+
+THIS IS ALL.
+
+
+    Just a saunter in the twilight,
+    Just a whisper in the hall,
+    Just a sail on sea or river,
+    Just a dance at rout or ball,
+    Just a glance that hearts enthral—
+    This is all—and this is all.
+
+    Just a few harsh words of doubting,
+    Just a silence proud and cold,
+    Just a spiteful breath of slander,
+    Just a wrong that is not told,
+    Just a word beyond recall—
+    This is all—and this is all.
+
+    Just a life robbed of its brightness,
+    Just a heart by sorrow filled,
+    Just a faith that trusts no longer,
+    Just a love by doubting chilled,
+    Just a few hot tears that fall—
+    This is all—ah! this is all.
+
+            ROSIE CHURCHILL.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON,
+and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_All Rights Reserved._
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75692 ***
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+      Chambers’s Journal, November 20, 1886 | Project Gutenberg
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75692 ***</div>
+
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<h1>CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL<br>
+OF<br>
+POPULAR<br>
+LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.</h1>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#NOTHING_NEW">NOTHING NEW.</a><br>
+<a href="#BY_ORDER_OF_THE_LEAGUE">BY ORDER OF THE LEAGUE.</a><br>
+<a href="#AMERICAN_TRAITS">AMERICAN TRAITS.</a><br>
+<a href="#COUSIN_GEORGE">COUSIN GEORGE.</a><br>
+<a href="#ECONOMY_OF_FUEL">ECONOMY OF FUEL.</a><br>
+<a href="#THE_SIGN_OF_THE_RED_INDIAN">THE SIGN OF THE <i>RED INDIAN</i>.</a><br>
+<a href="#ANOTHER_SHIP-CANAL">ANOTHER ‘SHIP-CANAL.’</a><br>
+<a href="#THIS_IS_ALL">THIS IS ALL.</a><br>
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_737">{737}</span></p>
+
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="header" style="max-width: 37.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/header.jpg"  alt="Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science,
+and Art. Fifth Series. Established by William and Robert Chambers, 1832. Conducted by R. Chambers (Secundus).">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full">
+<div class="center">
+<div class="header">
+<p class="floatl"><span class="smcap">No. 151.—Vol. III.</span></p>
+<p class="floatr"><span class="smcap">Price</span> 1½<em>d.</em></p>
+<p class="floatc">SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1886.</p>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+
+<div class="chapter"><h2 class="nobreak" id="NOTHING_NEW">NOTHING NEW.</h2></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Antiquaries</span> are always delighted to remind us
+that there is nothing new under the sun. When
+we boast of the great European art of printing,
+they bring in the Chinese as evidence against
+us. Certain it is, however, that the Romans used
+movable types to mark their pottery and bread,
+and even to indorse their scroll-books. But if
+this is to be called printing, then the Accadians,
+and their successors the Assyrians, did the like
+on a grand scale many centuries before. To the
+last-named people, moreover, must be ascribed,
+so far as we at present know, the invention of
+a magnifying lens of rock-crystal, a thing so
+well made, that Sir David Brewster pronounced
+it a true optical instrument. It was found amid
+the ruins of Nimroud by Layard.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious to see also how great natural laws
+have been dimly apprehended centuries before
+they were rendered demonstrable. The law of
+gravitation was undoubtedly discerned by Sir
+Isaac Newton; but it is remarkable that in
+Cary’s translation of Dante’s <i>Inferno</i> an idea very
+like it occurs, namely:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0">Thou wast on the other side, so long as I</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Descended; when I turned, thou did’st o’erpass</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">That point, to which from every part is dragged</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">All heavy substance.</div></div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Of this passage, Monti remarks that if it had
+met the eye of Newton, it might better have
+awakened his thought to conceive the system of
+attraction than the accidental fall of an apple.</p>
+
+<p>For fifty or sixty years before any real light
+was thrown upon the nature of gravitation, Pedro
+Mexia of Seville had a clear and correct idea of
+its action. Thus, in his <i>Silva de Varia Leccion</i>
+(published in 1542, and which in various translations
+was in great demand until the middle of
+the seventeenth century), the following appears:
+‘The sky is above in all parts of the earth, and
+the centre of the earth is below, towards which
+all heavy things naturally tend from whatever
+side of the earth; so that if God had made a
+hole, which by a true diameter passing through the
+whole earth, from the point where we are, as far
+as the other opposite and contrary to this, on the
+other side of the earth, passed through the centre
+of it: then if one dropped a plummet, as masons
+do, know that it would not pass to the other side
+of the earth, but would stop and place itself
+in the centre of it; and if from the other side
+one let fall another, they would meet together
+in the very centre, and there they would stop.
+It is quite true that the force might well cause
+the plummet to pass somewhat beyond, because
+its movement, so long as it was going towards
+the centre, would naturally be accelerated, passing
+somewhat beyond, but in the end it would return
+to its place.’</p>
+
+<p>Of this old Spanish work, an English translation
+was made by T. Fortescue, and printed in
+London in 1576, entitled <i>The Forest, or Collection
+of Historyes, no less profitable than pleasant and
+necessary</i>. Another appeared in 1613 with sundry
+essays by other authors, entitled <i>The Treasurie
+of Ancient and Modern Times</i>. Considering that
+London publishing was on a small scale two and
+three centuries ago, it is difficult to believe that
+Newton missed seeing these works, even if he
+had not heard of the original. At anyrate, he
+must in all probability have read what Shakspeare,
+borrowing probably from the same source,
+puts into the mouth of Cressida:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0">But the strong base and building of my love</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Is as the very centre of the earth,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Drawing all things to it.</div>
+<div class="attrib"><i>Troilus and Cressida</i>, act iv. scene 2.</div></div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Some anticipations of telegraphy are also very
+interesting. Galileo, in his <i>Dialogues on the Two
+Systems of the World</i>, that is, the Ptolemaic and
+Copernican, and which he wrote in 1632, makes
+Sagredo say: ‘You remind me of one who offered
+to sell me a secret art, by which, through the
+attraction of a certain magnet needle, it would be
+possible to converse across a space of two or three
+thousand miles. I said to him that I would
+willingly become the purchaser, provided only
+that I might first make a trial of the art, and
+that it would be sufficient for the purpose if I
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_738">{738}</span>were to place myself in one corner of the sofa
+and he in the other. He replied that in so short
+a distance the action would be scarcely discernible;
+so I dismissed the fellow, and said that
+it was not convenient for me just then to travel
+into Egypt or Muscovy for the purpose of trying
+the experiment; but that if he chose to go there
+himself, I would remain in Venice and attend
+to the rest.’</p>
+
+<p>It appears, however, that telegraphy took form
+as an idea two thousand years ago, for Addison,
+in one of his delightful essays in the <i>Spectator</i>
+(No. 241), tells us that ‘Strada, in one of his
+Prolusions, gives an account of a chimerical
+correspondence between two friends by the help
+of a certain lodestone, which had such virtue in
+it, that if it touched two several needles, when
+one of the needles so touched began to move, the
+other, though at never so great a distance, moved
+at the same time, and in the same manner.
+He tells us that the two friends, being each
+of them possessed of one of these needles, made
+a kind of a dial-plate, inscribing it with the
+four-and-twenty letters, in the same manner as
+the hours of the day are marked upon the ordinary
+dial-plate. They then fixed one of the
+needles on each of these plates in such a manner
+that it could move round without impediment, so
+as to touch any of the four-and-twenty letters.
+Upon their separating from one another into
+distant countries, they agreed to withdraw themselves
+punctually into their closets at a certain
+hour of the day and to converse with one another
+by means of this their invention.’</p>
+
+<p>In Homer’s <i>Odyssey</i>, translated by Pope, the
+following curious description—originally detected
+by an ingenious mechanic—of the Phœacian
+ships of old, has been well observed by the late
+Dr Birkbeck to be no inaccurate description of
+steam-navigation:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0">So shalt thou instant reach the realm assigned</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">In wondrous ships, self-moved, instinct with mind.</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Though clouds and darkness veil the encumbered sky,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Fearless, through darkness and through clouds they fly;</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Though tempests rage—though rolls the swelling main,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">The seas may roll, the tempests swell in vain.</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">E’en the stern god that o’er the waves presides,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Safe as they pass, and safe repass the tides,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">With fury burns; whilst careless they convey</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Promiscuous every guest to every bay.</div></div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It would almost appear from the above passage,
+which for ages was considered merely a bold flight
+of the imagination, that the ancients were not
+unacquainted with some method beyond that of
+the ordinary sail, of propelling vessels through
+water with safety and celerity.</p>
+
+<p>Even that horror of naval warfare, the fish-torpedo,
+seems to have been once afloat in the
+mind of Ben Jonson, although there are good
+reasons for thinking he derived the idea itself
+from Drummond the inventor, whom he visited
+at Hawthornden in 1619. In Jonson’s play, <i>The
+Staple of News</i> (act iii. scene 1), we read:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0"><i>Thomas.</i> They write here one Cornelius’ son</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Hath made the Hollanders an invisible eel</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">To swim the Haven at Dunkirk, and sink all</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">The shipping there.</div></div>
+
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0"><i>Pennyboy.</i> But how is’t done?</div></div>
+
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0"><i>Cymbal.</i> I’ll show you, sir.</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">It’s an automa, runs under water</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">With a snug nose, and has a nimble tail</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Made like an auger, with which tail she wriggles</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Betwixt the coats of a ship, and sinks it straight.</div></div>
+
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0"><i>Pennyboy.</i> A most brave device</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">To murder their flat bottoms!</div></div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Some of the most beneficent and useful discoveries
+in medical science appear to have been
+anticipated years ago. For example, certain
+skulls of prehistoric man have afforded the
+clearest evidence that even at that remote period
+the art of <i>trepanning</i> must have been practised
+upon them. A skull found in the tomb of the
+Incas, near the city of Cuzco, exhibited distinct
+marks of having undergone a like operation.
+According to a reputed discovery by M. Stanislaus
+Julien, it appears that as far back as the third
+century of our era, the Chinese were in possession
+of an anæsthetic agent which they employed
+during surgical operations. A description of this
+was discovered by M. Julien in a work preserved
+in the Bibliothèque Nationale, called <i>Kou-kin-i-tong</i>,
+or a General Collection of Ancient and
+Modern Medicines, which appears to have been
+published in the sixteenth century. In a biographical
+notice of Hoa-tho, who flourished under
+the dynasty of Wei, between the years 220 and
+230 of our era, it is stated that he gave the patient
+a preparation of <i>cannabis</i> (<i>Ma-yo</i>), who in a few
+moments became as insensible as one plunged in
+drunkenness or deprived of life; then, according
+to the case, he made incisions, amputations, &amp;c.
+After a certain number of days, the patient found
+himself re-established, without having experienced
+the slightest pain during the operation. It
+appears from the biography of Han that this
+<i>cannabis</i> was prepared by boiling and distillation.</p>
+
+<p>Of the Germ Theory of disease, it must also be
+said, it is no novelty. That noted physician,
+Athanasius Kircher, in his work on the plague—published
+at Rome in 1658—attributed the origin
+of epidemics to germs, or, as he termed them,
+animalcules. He argued that each kind of putrefaction
+gives rise to a special virus, which produces
+a definite species of malady.</p>
+
+<p>Even sticking-plaster is not a modern surgical
+appliance. One of the highest living authorities
+in organic chemistry states that the ordinary
+lead-plaster now so commonly used was said to
+be discovered by the Roman physician Menecrates
+in the middle of the first century.</p>
+
+<p>Some readers of this <i>Journal</i> will remember
+that while the British Association was in progress
+at Montreal (1884), a telegram was received from
+Mr Caldwell in Australia, notifying that he had
+found <i>monotremes oviparous with mesoblastic ovum</i>—that
+is, that the ornithorhynchus, the duck-bill
+or water mole, laid eggs. This piece of news
+greatly interested naturalists, since it was justly
+regarded as furnishing one more link in the chain
+of evidence tending to support the evolution
+hypothesis. However, in a work entitled <i>The
+Literary Pancratium</i>, by Robert and Thomas
+Swinburn Carr, published in London in 1832,
+a quotation in the form of a footnote appears on
+page 8, as follows: ‘But this is New Holland,
+where it is summer with us when it is winter in
+Europe, and <i>vice versâ</i>; where the barometer rises
+before bad weather, and falls before good; where
+the north is the hot wind, and the south the
+cold; where the humblest house is fitted up
+with cedar; where the fields are fenced with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_739">{739}</span>mahogany, and myrtle-trees are burnt for firewood;
+where the <i>swans are black</i> and the eagles
+white; where the kangaroo, an animal between
+the squirrel and the deer, has five claws on its
+forepaws and three talons on its hind-legs, like a
+bird, and yet hops on its tail; where the mole
+lays eggs, and has a duck’s bill; where there is
+a bird with a broom in its mouth instead of a
+tongue; where there is a fish, one half belonging
+to the genus <i>Raja</i>, and the other to that of
+<i>Squalus</i>; where the pears are made of wood, with
+the stalk at the broader end; and where the
+cherry grows with the stone on the outside.’—(Field’s
+<i>New South Wales</i>, page 461.)</p>
+
+<p>In striking contrast to all the above-named
+instances of rediscovery, is that fact furnished
+by some Assyrian bas-reliefs—that is, that the
+lion, or at least the Asiatic species, has a <i>claw</i>
+in the tuft of his tail. This fact, which, strangely
+enough, was disputed in classic times, although
+forty years before the birth of Christ, Didymus of
+Alexandria discovered it, had been quite overlooked
+by modern naturalists. Soon after the
+finding of the sculpture, Mr Bennett, an English
+zoologist, verified the observation.</p>
+
+<p>Homer’s famous story of the battle between
+the frogs and the mice is doubtless a political
+satire. That the story was originally suggested
+by actual observation is not an unreasonable
+fancy. Homer may even have seen the mimic
+campaign for himself, for it is but a tradition
+that he was blind. In a recent number of
+<i>Nature</i>, a correspondent states that he saw a short
+time since several mice pursuing some frogs in
+a shed. The alacrity of the reptiles rendered
+the attacks of the mice futile for some time.
+‘Again and again the frogs escaped from the
+clutches of their foes, but only to be recaptured,
+severely shaken, and bitten.’ They were at length
+‘overpowered by the mice, which devoured a
+part of them.’</p>
+
+<p>The first scientific expedition on record is one
+in which Aristotle was sent by Alexander the
+Great (more than 300 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>) for the purpose of collecting
+subjects for a History of Animals. In this
+enterprise he met with both the paper and the
+pearly nautilus; for in the <i>Historia Animalium</i>,
+he says, after describing different forms of Cephalopods,
+which no doubt abounded in Asiatic seas:
+‘There are also two other kinds of polypes which
+are in shells, the one [that is, the paper nautilus]
+has a shell which is not naturally adherent to
+it; it feeds very frequently near the land, and
+being cast by the waves on the sand, the shell
+slips, and it dies; but the other [the pearly
+nautilus] is in a shell in which it exists after
+the manner of a snail, and outwardly extends
+its arms.’—(<i>Scaliger’s translation.</i>) Nothing was
+added to this account during the dark ages that
+succeeded, nor even till some time after the
+revival of literature. No further information
+respecting the nautilus was obtained until the
+discovery of a living specimen early in the
+eighteenth century by Rumphius, a Dutch merchant
+and naturalist, resident at Amboyna. His
+drawing of the soft parts separated from the
+shell was greatly valued for more than a century
+before another specimen was found, although the
+shells were cast ashore in comparative abundance.
+This specimen was sent to Professor Owen, and
+formed the subject of an elaborate memoir by
+him in 1832. It may be said to have been the
+first to confirm the history of this remarkable
+organism given more than two thousand years
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, we have another instance of modern
+research simply verifying that which was an
+ancient discovery.</p>
+
+<p>It is even said that the stereoscope, which is
+Professor Wheatstone’s invention, was known to
+Euclid, and minutely described by Galen, the
+physician, sixteen centuries ago; moreover, it was
+still more completely defined in the works of
+Baptista Porta in the year 1599. As for photography,
+its discovery is by common consent
+referred to Daguerre, who announced it to the
+Academy of Sciences in 1839. This beautiful
+art has, however, been found clearly described
+by M. Jobard in his <i>Nouvelles Inventions aux
+Expositions Universelles</i>, 1857, taken from a translation
+from the German three hundred years
+ago.</p>
+
+<p>An ancient gold coin <i>recast</i> is, after all, the
+same precious metal; even so, truths long lost
+are, when found, restamped by human thought
+and made current again for the world’s good.
+How few are privileged, or have the genius, to
+enrich mankind with an original discovery!</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><h2 class="nobreak x-ebookmaker-important" id="BY_ORDER_OF_THE_LEAGUE">BY ORDER OF THE LEAGUE.</h2></div>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XIV.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Le Gautier</span> followed the footman into the
+drawing-room, where Enid was engaged with
+some visitors—three tall showy-looking girls, with
+an extremely vivacious mother. Le Gautier stood
+looking out of one of the windows, and noticed
+with satisfaction their intention of a speedy
+exit. For some moments the visitors remained
+chattering, and then, after a profusion of compliments,
+accompanied by much laughter, their
+voluminous skirts were heard switching down
+the broad staircase. It has often been a matter
+of speculation as to whether a man can be in
+love with two women at the same time; but
+without going into this delicate question, it
+is possible to imagine a man with a penchant
+for two women, though the experiment probably
+would be attended with great hazard and danger.
+Le Gautier forgot the dark-eyed Marie, as he
+gazed upon Enid’s fairer charms.</p>
+
+<p>‘You have heard nothing of Maxwell?’ he
+asked after a pause in the desultory conversation.
+‘A strange thing he does not write.
+Many men would imagine that such a thing is
+not altogether an accident; there are occasions
+when a little absence from the gaze of man is
+desirable, Miss Charteris.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Many men, as usual, would be wrong,’ Enid
+answered coldly. ‘You should not shield your
+want of charity by these generalities, Monsieur
+le Gautier, though perhaps you have derived
+benefit from these absences yourself, you seem
+to understand the subject so thoroughly.’</p>
+
+<p>Enid was angry at his cool insolence, and
+replied to his want of taste by a little plain
+language herself; and her random shaft went
+home.</p>
+
+<p>‘You are severe; but really, while sorry for
+Maxwell, there is something in it which is comforting
+to me. Can you not guess what I mean?’</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_740">{740}</span></p>
+<p>Enid Charteris, though guileless and pure as
+woman can be, had not mixed with the great
+world for nothing. She had had suitors enough
+to know what a proposal was, and above all
+things she dreaded one from this man. Some
+instinct told her he would be a dangerous enemy.
+‘You speak in riddles,’ she said calmly. ‘I have
+not been educated to the language of diplomacy.
+Pray, explain yourself.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Then I must be more explicit. Maxwell’s
+absence rids me of a dangerous rival. Now he
+is away, the path is all the smoother for me.
+Need I tell you, Miss Charteris—Enid—that I
+love you? Surely you must have known that
+for a long time past. While another was in
+the way, I sealed my lips; but I can restrain
+myself no longer now.’</p>
+
+<p>‘It would be affectation not to understand
+you,’ Enid replied with a calmness that boded
+ill for Le Gautier’s success. ‘I am sorry to hear
+it. If you are wise, you will not put me to
+the pain of a refusal.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I will take no refusal,’ Le Gautier burst out
+passionately; ‘for I swear that if you are not
+mine, you shall wed no other man. Enid, you
+must, you shall be mine! You may look upon
+me coldly now, but the time will come when
+you shall love me well enough.’</p>
+
+<p>‘The time will come when I shall—love—you?’
+The bitter scorn in these words stung
+Le Gautier to madness, stirring up a desperate
+passion in his veins, now that the prize seemed
+like slipping from his grasp. He fell at her
+feet on his knees. ‘Hear me!’ he exclaimed
+passionately—‘only listen to me, Enid. I have
+vowed that you are the only woman I have
+chosen—the only girl I could really love. Such
+love as mine must win a return some day; only
+try; only give me a little chance of hope.’</p>
+
+<p>‘If you are a man, you will rise from that
+absurd position. Who am I, that you should
+kneel to me? You must take my word for it;
+and if you have any consideration for my feelings,
+you will change the subject.’</p>
+
+<p>‘And this is your absolute and final decision?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, it is my absolute and final decision.’</p>
+
+<p>Le Gautier rose to his feet, pale but smiling,
+and there was a darkly evil look upon his
+white set face. When he spoke again his words
+were cold and incisive. ‘Consider, before you
+wilfully make an enemy of me.’ He uttered the
+words with a low sibilation. ‘I have made you
+an offer—the highest compliment I could pay,
+and you have scornfully rejected it. The next
+favour you ask from me you may seek for on
+your knees.’</p>
+
+<p>‘And to what purpose, sir, shall <i>I</i> ask a favour
+from <i>you</i>?’</p>
+
+<p>‘For your father,’ Le Gautier answered quietly,
+though his tones were deep and earnest. ‘You
+have guessed that Maxwell has gone away on a
+dangerous mission. Why should not Sir Geoffrey
+be chosen in his turn? And if so, who can save
+him? I, Hector le Gautier, and no other man.’</p>
+
+<p>‘And by whose evil counsel has my poor father
+been dragged into your infamous Brotherhood?—By
+yours alone! He would be a happy man
+now, if he had never known you’——</p>
+
+<p>‘On the contrary,’ Le Gautier interrupted, ‘I
+tried to save him. He has joined on his own
+wish. You do not credit my words. Go and
+ask him now if my words are not true, and
+that, if it is not his dearest wish that you should
+become my wife.’</p>
+
+<p>‘He might think so,’ Enid answered haughtily;
+‘but he does not wish it in his heart. Monsieur
+le Gautier, if you are a gentleman, you will cease
+this discussion. The subject is painful to me.’
+She stood there, looking at him coldly and scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>But her very iciness only served to increase
+the warmth of his passion. ‘I cannot!’ he exclaimed.
+‘I will not cease! For five years,
+ever since I first met you at Rome, I have never
+ceased to love you. Bid me do anything in
+reason; ask me any favour; but to forget you
+is impossible!’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sorry for you,’ Enid said gently, touched
+a little by the ring of genuine passion in his
+voice—‘I am sorry; but it cannot be. I do not
+break my pledges so lightly, even if I wished
+to do so.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Which you do not,’ Le Gautier bitterly remarked.
+‘I do not care. I am desperate now.
+You despise and scorn me; but I will not be
+rejected thus. If you will not be my wife for
+my sake, you must for your father’s and the
+honour of your house.’ He stopped abruptly,
+for standing in the room was Sir Geoffrey, his
+face pale, and his whole aspect downcast and
+degraded to a pitiable degree.</p>
+
+<p>Enid turned to her father eagerly. ‘Did you
+hear these words?’ she asked. ‘Can it be possible
+that you—that I—that the honour of our
+house is in any man’s hands? Can it be your
+wish, father, that I—I—should form an alliance
+with Monsieur le Gautier? Speak, and show
+him how mistaken he can be!’</p>
+
+<p>But Sir Geoffrey never spoke. His head sank
+lower upon his breast. For the first time, he
+realised the sacrifice he had imposed upon his
+daughter, and so he stood there, an English
+gentleman no longer, but a poor enfeebled,
+shamefaced old man.</p>
+
+<p>A wild feeling of alarm took possession of Enid
+as she saw this thing. ‘Why do you not speak?’
+she demanded. ‘What cause have you to hesitate
+in indorsing my words?’</p>
+
+<p>Still the baronet never spoke, never raised his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>Enid ran swiftly to his side and threw one
+arm round his shoulder. She could feel the
+spasm that struck him as he encountered her
+touch. ‘Father,’ she asked in a dull even voice,
+‘does your silence mean that he is right?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, my dear child; he is right. There is
+no alternative.’</p>
+
+<p>There is a providence which helps us in such
+times as these, a numbness of the senses that for
+a time deadens pain. Enid’s voice was very calm
+as she turned to Le Gautier, standing there
+trying to disguise his triumph. ‘I do not know
+what all this means,’ she said. ‘I do not understand
+whence you derive your power. I cannot
+think now. For his sake,’ she continued, pointing
+to her father, ‘I consent.’</p>
+
+<p>Le Gautier sprang forward; but she repelled
+him with a glance.</p>
+
+<p>‘Listen to my conditions,’ she continued. ‘I
+have said I consent; but I warn you that if
+there is any loophole for escape from you, I shall
+take it. You are going away, you say. Nothing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_741">{741}</span>must be done till your return, and then the contract
+shall be fulfilled. Now, go.’</p>
+
+<p>When Lucrece entered the room a few moments
+later, she found her mistress lying unconscious
+upon the floor. Looking out of the window,
+she saw the slim figure of Le Gautier disappearing
+in the distance, and smiled. He was smiling,
+too, as he walked away. Nothing remained now
+but only the final interview with Marie, and to
+regain possession of the lost moidore. A few
+weeks at Warsaw, and then——</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XV.</h3>
+
+<p>Maxwell had been gone a week now, and no
+tidings of him had reached England, save one
+letter to say he was in Rome. As Le Gautier
+turned away from Grosvenor Square, his heart
+one glow of triumph, he determined that, come
+what may, the artist should never see England
+again. When he returned from Warsaw, he
+calculated that, through Marie St Jean’s assistance,
+all information concerning the League
+would be in the hands of the police, freeing
+him from any further bondage, and throwing
+all the odium and danger on her. Full of these
+schemes, he arrived at his lodgings. A telegram
+was lying on the table. He took it up mechanically,
+and tore it open. The contents were terse:
+‘Visci died this morning from heart disease.’
+Le Gautier was wild with rage. Here was a
+pretty combination, he thought. Nothing now
+to detain Maxwell in Rome. The victim had
+fallen by a higher Hand than that of man, and
+Maxwell was free.</p>
+
+<p>As a Head Centre of the Order, Le Gautier
+wielded much power, and even now he did not
+despair, with the command of nearly all the
+desperadoes in Rome at his command. He had
+only to get Maxwell arrested in Rome on some
+false charge and carried to the mountains; and
+there—after a little delay and a packed meeting
+of the League—shot. Desperate men such as
+Le Gautier, especially with such a prize in their
+grasp, do not long hesitate over such a trifling
+matter as a human life, and he trusted to his
+own good luck and native audacity to pull him
+through.</p>
+
+<p>It was getting dark the same night as he
+despatched a telegram to Rome, and then turned
+in the direction of Fitzroy Square. He was as
+eager now to see Isodore as he had been to
+encounter Enid in the afternoon, and looked
+forward not only to a pleasant evening but a
+remunerative one.</p>
+
+<p>She did not keep him long waiting in the
+drawing-room ere she sailed in all smiles and
+welcome. She was looking radiantly beautiful
+to-night; there was a deeper flush on her face,
+and a glitter in her glorious eyes not usually
+seen there—signs of a loving welcome, Le Gautier
+imagined in his egotistical way. There was,
+besides, a warmth in her manner and a gladness
+in the pressure of her hand which inspired him,
+and sent an electric thrill coursing through his
+veins.</p>
+
+<p>‘You are looking more transcendently lovely
+than usual, Marie!’ he exclaimed with a fervour
+unusual even to him. ‘Every time I see you,
+there is some additional charm in you to note.’</p>
+
+<p>‘It depends upon whether the observing eye
+is a prejudiced one,’ she replied with a caressing
+smile, which brought him at once to her side.
+‘You say that now, Hector. How long will you
+continue to think so?’</p>
+
+<p>‘As long as I have power to think at all—as
+long as memory serves me. I shall remember
+you to the last day of my life.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I believe you will,’ Isodore smiled bewilderingly.
+‘And yet, strange as it may seem, the
+time will perhaps come when you will wish you
+had never seen my face.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You are more than usually enigmatical to-night,
+Marie. You are a puzzle to me. I do
+not even know who you are. Tell me something
+about yourself, and why you are living in this
+solitude here.’</p>
+
+<p>‘No; not to-night; but, as I have often
+promised you, I will tell you some time. I will
+tell you who I am before you go away; and
+then, when your curiosity is satisfied, you will
+leave me.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Never!’ Le Gautier exclaimed passionately.
+‘Leave you!—the only woman I ever saw that
+I could really love. Leave you, Marie! How
+can you entertain the bare idea!’</p>
+
+<p>He would have approached her nearer, but
+she waved him gently but firmly aside. The
+distance she kept him fanned his passion all the
+more. ‘Tell me something about yourself,’ she
+said. ‘That is a topic which never fails to
+interest me. How about the League, this Maxwell’s
+journey? Has he accomplished his mission
+yet?’</p>
+
+<p>‘He is not likely to, now. Visci is dead!—Gracious
+powers, Marie! what ails you? Are
+you ill?’</p>
+
+<p>Isodore uttered a sharp exclamation, and then
+reeled forward in her chair. Her face was white
+and drawn, her lips trembled. Gradually her
+bosom ceased to heave so painfully, and she
+turned to Le Gautier with a white wan smile,
+though he could see the fan still trembling in
+her hands. ‘It is nothing,’ she said with an
+effort. ‘I am subject to these attacks of the
+heart, and any news of sudden death always
+affects me so.—Do not look distressed; it is past
+now.’</p>
+
+<p>‘There is nothing in the name to cause you any
+distress?’ Le Gautier asked suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>‘I have heard the name before, if that is what
+you mean. Tell me all you know of this Carlo
+Visci.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I did not say his name was Carlo,’ Le Gautier
+observed, somewhat sharply. ‘I can tell you
+nothing more. When I reached home this afternoon,
+I had a telegram to say he was dead.’</p>
+
+<p>‘And this Maxwell, what of him? I suppose
+he will return home now?’</p>
+
+<p>‘He has been somewhat dilatory in obeying
+orders. No; he will not return. He will be
+detained at Rome for the present.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Tell me why you hate this Englishman so.’</p>
+
+<p>Le Gautier started. ‘How do you know I
+hate him?’ he asked. ‘I have never said so.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Not in so many words; but in gesture and
+look, when you speak of him, your actions are
+eloquent, my friend. He has crossed your path.
+Ah, well, I like a good hater. Maxwell will
+suffer yet.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes,’ Le Gautier exclaimed involuntarily, ‘he
+will.’</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_742">{742}</span></p>
+<p>Isodore rose and walked to the piano, where
+she sat for a moment striking the chords idly.
+‘When do you go to Warsaw?’ she asked.</p>
+
+<p>‘I have six days remaining to me.—Marie, the
+time has come when we must no longer delay.
+The pear is ripe now; all my plans are matured.
+I have only to hold up my hand and the League
+will vanish.’</p>
+
+<p>All this time, Isodore played on softly, musingly,
+the music serving like the accompaniment
+of a song to force the speaker’s voice. As he
+stood there, and she answered him, she never
+ceased to play the soft chords.</p>
+
+<p>‘Then you have everything prepared?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, everything is ready.’ He drew a low
+seat to her side, and seated himself there. ‘All
+the names are made out, the whole plot prepared.’</p>
+
+<p>‘And you propose to hand them over to me.
+It is a great compliment; and I suppose I must
+take them. I would run greater risks than this
+for your sake and—my own.’</p>
+
+<p>She took one hand from the ivory keys and
+held it out to him. Drawing a packet from his
+pocket, he gave it to her. She thrust it in her
+bosom, and ran her fingers over the keys again.</p>
+
+<p>‘All is there, I suppose,’ she asked, ‘down to
+the minutest detail, everything necessary to
+betray the League and pull it up root and
+branch? You have taken good care to shield
+yourself, I presume?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Of course.—And now, to talk of more pleasant
+things. You know I am going away in
+a few days; and when I return, I shall expect
+to find myself perfectly free.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You may depend upon me. I will do all
+I can for you.’</p>
+
+<p>Le Gautier looked up sharply—the words were
+coldly, sternly uttered, but the quiet placid smile
+never left her face.</p>
+
+<p>‘How strangely you speak! But oh, Marie—my
+Marie, the only woman I ever loved, you
+will stand by me now, and help me, for both
+our sakes! Look at me, and say you will do
+what I ask!’</p>
+
+<p>Isodore looked down, smiling brightly. ‘Yes,
+I will do what you ask,’ she said. ‘And so
+you really love me?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Passionately and sincerely, such as I never
+expected to love woman yet.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am glad to hear you say that,’ Isodore
+replied with a thrill of exultation in her voice.
+‘I have waited and hoped for the time to come;
+but never in my wildest dreams did I look for
+this.’</p>
+
+<p>‘With your nobleness and beauty, how could
+it be otherwise? I should be more than a man—or
+less—if I looked upon you unmoved.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Then, for the first time for years, I am happy.’</p>
+
+<p>Le Gautier started to his feet rapturously.
+He did not understand her yet; he thought the
+soft earnest words all for him. He would have
+caught her there and then in his eager arms,
+but again she repulsed him. ‘No, no!’ she cried;
+‘I have not proved you yet. Let things remain
+as they are till you return again to England.’</p>
+
+<p>How strange, Le Gautier thought vaguely,
+that she should use words so similar to those of
+Enid to a precisely similar plea. Despite his
+passion, he had not thrown all prudence to the
+winds.</p>
+
+<p>‘You had better leave me now,’ Isodore continued—‘leave
+me to think and dwell over this
+thing.’</p>
+
+<p>‘But what about my badge of membership? I
+dare not leave England without that.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I had almost forgotten it in this interesting
+conversation. It is not in my possession; it is
+in Paris. You have a meeting of the League
+before you go for final instructions. Come to
+me after that, and you shall have it. I am going
+to Paris to-morrow, and will bring it with me.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You are a witch!’ Le Gautier exclaimed with
+admiration. ‘You seem to know as much as the
+mysterious Isodore, that princess who never shows
+herself unless danger besets the League. If she
+is the wonder men who have seen her say she is,
+they stand in dire need of her now.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Beware how you talk so lightly of her—she
+has the gift of fernseed. At this very moment
+she may know of your perfidy.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Perfidy is a hard word, my queen, and sounds
+not prettily.—And now, good-night. And you
+will not fail me?’</p>
+
+<p>‘I will <i>not</i> fail you,’ Isodore replied with the
+stern inflection Le Gautier had noticed before,
+and marvelled over. ‘I never fail.’</p>
+
+<p>‘A woman, and never fail!’</p>
+
+<p>‘Not in my promises. If I make a vow or
+pledge my word, I can wait five years or ten to
+fulfil it.—Good-night. And when we meet again,
+you will not say I have belied my contract.’</p>
+
+<p>When Valerie entered some minutes later, she
+found Isodore with firm-set face and gleaming
+eyes. ‘My brother is dead,’ she said quietly.
+‘Poor Carlo! And he loved me so at one time.
+Now, he can never know.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Dead!’ Valerie exclaimed. ‘You do not mean
+to say’——</p>
+
+<p>‘That Maxwell killed him?—No. His heart
+has been failing for years, long before I left
+Rome; his life was not worth an hour’s purchase.
+But I have no time to mourn over him
+now.—Let me see if I can do a little good with
+my useless occupation. I start for Rome to-morrow.’</p>
+
+<p>Valerie looked at her friend in stupid astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>‘I cannot explain to you now. Maxwell is
+free to return home. As you know, it means
+destruction to Le Gautier’s plans, if he does.
+I dared not press him too closely to-night;
+but Maxwell will be detained in Rome, in all
+probability by Paulo Lucci, till some charge can
+be trumped up for his destruction. But Lucci
+and his band dare not cross me; my power is
+too great for that. To-morrow, I leave for Rome,
+and pray heaven that I may not be too late!’</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><h2 class="nobreak" id="AMERICAN_TRAITS">AMERICAN TRAITS.</h2></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is usual in this country to regard the Americans
+as a homogeneous people, and to accept the
+Yankee as a fair type of the whole nation. But
+this is a fallacy. The inhabitants of the South,
+and more especially the descendants of the early
+French and Spanish colonists to be found in
+the Gulf States, differ radically in their morals,
+manners, and customs from the population of
+other sections of the Union. It is not, however,
+our purpose in this paper to enter into an
+extended disquisition upon the characteristics
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_743">{743}</span>of the people of the United States, our object
+being simply to touch briefly upon a few of
+their more prominent traits. The Puritan element
+in the character of the first settlers of New
+England has exercised an influence upon social
+life there which has not been confined to that
+limited area, but has made itself felt, in a more
+or less marked degree, throughout the whole of
+the Northern States. The differences of race
+and climate have, however, not only been obstacles
+to the inhabitants of the South accepting the
+Puritan standard of morals, but have also prevented
+the development of those traits of character
+to be found in the population of other parts of
+the country, and which are more peculiarly distinctive
+of the Americans as a people. We shall
+therefore limit ourselves to dealing with those
+national characteristics which have come under
+our observation in the Northern States.</p>
+
+<p>That submission to the will of the majority
+which is inculcated by democratic institutions has
+exercised a marked influence upon the social no
+less than upon the political life of the people of
+the United States, save in the late Slave States.
+It has not only had the result of preventing the
+development of individuality of character, but
+likewise has considerably modified that obstinacy
+of temper and dogged tenacity of opinion which
+are to be found in the Anglo-Saxon race. The
+late Lord Beaconsfield on one occasion said in the
+House of Commons that a gentleman who had
+spent several years in America had declared to
+him that it was his belief that ‘the citizens of
+the republic were the most tractable people in
+the world, and the readiest open to conviction
+by argument.’</p>
+
+<p>In the United States, the absence of that segregation
+of the various grades of society which exist
+in Europe is evinced by the habits and manners
+of the masses in that country. If the national
+independence of character be occasionally pushed
+too far, and degenerate into offensive self-assertion,
+at least it prevents any approach to servility. No
+inequality of position or circumstances will induce
+a native of any of the Northern States to submit
+to being dealt with in the manner or spoken to
+in the tone which, in England, the man in broadcloth
+too frequently adopts, as a matter of course,
+towards the man in fustian. The late Sydney
+Godolphin Osborne used to relate how, once, a
+respectable artisan said to him: ‘I like you, my
+lord; there is nothing of the gentleman about
+you.’ The meaning of the speaker was undoubtedly
+that Lord Osborne did not treat him
+in the patronising manner that members of the
+higher class usually address those whom they
+regard as their social inferiors. Now, no one perhaps
+has a keener appreciation of the advantages
+of wealth and education than the American;
+but that the possessor of them should feel himself
+justified in using towards the man who lacks these
+adventitious gifts the language of a superior to
+an inferior, is what he cannot understand, and
+which he will not for one moment put up with.
+An anecdote Thackeray used to relate of an
+experience of his when in the United States
+well illustrates this trait of the people. While
+in New York, he expressed to a friend a desire to
+see some of the ‘Bowery Bhoys,’ who, he had
+heard, were a class of the community peculiar to
+that city. So one evening he was taken to the
+Bowery, and he was shown a ‘Bhoy.’ The young
+man, the business of the day being over, had
+changed his attire. He wore a dress-coat, black
+trousers, and a satin waistcoat; whilst a tall
+hat rested on the back of his head, which was
+adorned with long well-greased hair—known as
+‘soap-locks’—a style which the rowdies of that
+day affected. The youth was leaning against a
+lamp-post, smoking an enormous cigar; and his
+whole aspect was one of ineffable self-satisfaction.
+The eminent novelist, after contemplating him
+for a few moments with silent admiration,
+said to the gentleman by whom he was accompanied:
+‘This is a great and gorgeous creature!’
+adding: ‘Can I speak to him without his taking
+offence?’</p>
+
+<p>Receiving an answer in the affirmative, Thackeray
+went up to the fellow, on the pretext of
+asking his way, and said: ‘My good man, I want
+to go to Broome Street.’</p>
+
+<p>But the unlucky phrase, ‘My good man,’
+roused the gall of the individual spoken to.
+Instead, therefore, of affording the information
+sought, the ‘Bhoy’—a diminutive specimen of
+humanity, scarcely over five feet in height—eyeing
+the tall form of his interlocutor askance,
+answered the query in the sense that his permission
+had been asked for the speaker to visit
+the locality in question, and he said, patronisingly:
+‘Well, sonny, yer kin go thar.’</p>
+
+<p>When Thackeray subsequently related the incident,
+he laughingly declared that he was so disconcerted
+by the unexpected response, that he
+had not the courage to continue the dialogue.</p>
+
+<p>The question, however, differently put would,
+in all probability, have elicited a civil answer
+from ninety-nine out of a hundred of the members
+of the class to which the man belonged. In fact,
+the discourtesy, and even rudeness, of which some
+travellers in the United States complain have
+arisen from the fact of their failing to appreciate
+the difference existing between the social systems
+of that country and their own.</p>
+
+<p>The wide gulf in culture which in England
+separates the upper and middle classes from the
+lower orders, does not exist in America. This
+has arisen from various causes. In the first
+place, the great bulk of the people of the Union
+are much better educated than is as yet the
+case in this country. The admirable system of
+common or, as they are termed, ‘public’ schools
+which prevails in America affords facilities for
+all children obtaining a sound English education
+without the payment by their parents of any
+school fees, and at a trifling cost to the taxpayer
+in all sections of the Union, and especially in the
+West, where large grants have been made of the
+State lands in support of the public schools. In
+the second place, the social status of the working
+classes who are <i>natives</i> of the United States has
+been raised by the fact that the Americans are
+almost exclusively engaged in avocations demanding
+intelligence and skilled labour. This has
+been owing to the circumstance that upon the
+coloured population and the Irish and German
+immigrants have devolved those coarse and irksome
+occupations which have to be followed by
+a portion of the inhabitants of other countries.
+To give one instance of this alone, it may be
+stated that rarely is a native American citizen,
+man or woman, found occupying the position
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_744">{744}</span>of a domestic servant in any of the Atlantic
+cities.</p>
+
+<p>The wages, too, commanded by artisans and
+mechanics averaging nearly double those of the
+same class in other countries, it follows, necessarily,
+that vice and crime—the inevitable concomitants
+of a state of society in which the
+condition of the mass of the lower classes is but
+one step removed from absolute indigence, as is
+the case in most European countries—are not
+nearly so prevalent in America. In the New
+England States, where the foreign population is
+small, there is not a country in Europe—possibly
+with the exception of Holland—where there is
+so little crime. Few persons, indeed, are aware
+how much the foreign element in the community,
+in many of the States, contributes to the statistics
+of the offences which come under the cognisance
+of the criminal tribunals. In the State of New
+York alone, seventy per cent. of the infractions
+of the law are committed by the Irish, whilst
+the fair ratio of this class in proportion to the
+whole population would be a little less than
+twenty per cent.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most marked characteristics of the
+Americans is their rooted determination to resist
+any legislation which shall recognise any class
+distinctions in the community. Of course, no one
+contends that the man of wealth, education, and
+culture is not the superior, in one sense of the
+word, of him who lacks these. The equality
+insisted upon is simply this: that no class of
+society shall make the circumstance of enjoying
+these adventitious advantages a ground for the
+members of it basing a claim to be a separate
+caste, possessing rights and privileges—fenced in
+by law—denied to the bulk of their countrymen.
+This sentiment found expression in the opposition
+which the proposal met with, a few years ago,
+that persons in the Civil Service of the Federal
+government should be irremovable, save for misconduct,
+instead of being turned out of their places
+after every change of administration, as had previously
+been the case. It was argued that fixity
+of tenure of office would have the result of
+creating a bureaucracy, the members of which
+would come in time to regard themselves as a
+privileged class. That these apprehensions were
+unfounded, experience of the practical working of
+the new system of government patronage has
+proved. But the very fact of the objection having
+been raised at all shows how sensitive public
+opinion was on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>One noticeable feature of American society is
+that in none of the Northern States does an officer
+in the army or navy enjoy the social status that he
+commands in all European countries. Holmes, in
+<i>The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table</i>, has commented
+upon this trait of his countrymen. He says: ‘It
+is curious to observe of how small account military
+folk are held among our Northern people. Our
+young men must gild their spurs, but they need
+not win them. The equal division of property
+keeps the younger sons of rich people above the
+necessity of military service. Thus, the army
+loses one element of refinement, and the moneyed
+upper classes forget what it is to count heroism
+amongst their virtues. Still, I don’t believe in
+any aristocracy without pluck as its backbone.
+Ours may show it when the day comes, if ever it
+does come.’</p>
+
+<p>The opportunity for young men of the wealthier
+class proving their manhood came sooner than
+Holmes anticipated when he penned the above
+remarks; for less than three years later, the
+civil war broke out, and then this class were not
+slack in responding to the call of their country
+for their services. Numerous instances occurred
+of young men reared in luxury—unable to
+obtain commissions owing to their want of military
+training—shouldering muskets in the ranks
+of the Federal armies; and their patriotism received
+due recognition from their fellow-citizens.
+But in time of peace it is the members of the community
+who are engaged in those pursuits best
+remunerated who are held in the highest estimation—a
+necessary result of a condition of society
+in which wealth is the standard by which social
+position is measured and defined. The girl who
+in the French song exclaims, ‘Oh! que j’aime les
+militaires!’ utters a sentiment which as a rule
+finds no echo in the hearts of the American fair.
+An odd illustration of this fact came under the
+observation of the writer when he was resident in
+New York. A lady—whose brother had been
+educated at the government Military Academy
+at West Point—gave, in all seriousness, the reason
+why this gentleman, after graduating, had not
+accepted a commission in the army, in these
+words: ‘He had a higher ambition than to be a
+mere soldier, so he has become a dry-goods
+merchant.’</p>
+
+<p>In New York, and indeed in all the larger
+Atlantic cities, a class has sprung up of late years
+which affects to look down upon the political and
+social institutions of their country. Mr Howells,
+in his novel <i>A Woman’s Reason</i>, speaking of one
+of the Upper Ten, says: ‘He saw what a humbug
+democracy and equality really were. He must
+have seen that nobody practically believes in
+them.’ This sentiment may accurately reflect
+the opinions of a limited class, but it is an absolute
+fallacy to assert that such views are generally
+entertained. On the contrary, they have not to
+any appreciable extent permeated the people at
+large, and there is not the slightest likelihood of
+their affecting the national life or changing its
+standards.</p>
+
+<p>In closing these desultory observations upon
+some of the characteristic traits of the Americans,
+the writer may state that they are based upon
+personal observation during a residence of several
+years in the United States.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><h2 class="nobreak" id="COUSIN_GEORGE">COUSIN GEORGE.</h2></div>
+
+
+<h3 title="CHAP. I.">IN TWO CHAPTERS.—CHAP. I.</h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mr Nicholas Smethby</span> lived, in pretty easy
+circumstances, at a town some thirty or forty
+miles distant from London, from which metropolis
+he had retired on leaving off business.
+His profession had been, nominally, that of an
+accountant; but he had seldom troubled himself
+greatly about accounts, and had not received
+many commissions to investigate them. He had
+really been a speculator in stocks and shares, in
+a small but profitable way; and while he lent
+but little of his own money in loans, had made
+a great deal of profit as agent, or ‘middleman,’
+between those who wished to borrow and those
+who were able to lend. So Mr Smethby had
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_745">{745}</span>lived in a circle in which it was necessary for
+him to have his wits about him, and in which
+a somewhat decided hankering for gain was likely
+to be developed; yet in this he was perhaps no
+worse than most of his neighbours; while, ’cute
+as he was, he was not a bad sort of fellow, take
+him altogether. He was pleasant and social
+enough in his family circle, a pretty large one,
+but reduced, as far as his own household was
+concerned, to one daughter, Harriet, the other
+members having married. Two of these had
+settled in the neighbourhood of Valeborough, the
+town referred to; while Mr Smethby had long
+been a widower. He had no other relations, that
+he knew of, and, as he was wont to say when
+speaking on the subject, he did not want to hear
+of any. His cousin, George Styles, was the last
+he had had much to do with, and, ah!—Mr
+Smethby would exclaim at such times as the
+subject was brought up—he did not care about
+any more like him.</p>
+
+<p>‘Twenty years ago, sir,’ he would explain, ‘he
+called on me with a cock-and-bull story of his
+being in trouble and wanting to get to Australia;
+and I was fool enough to lend him twenty pounds.
+Yes, sir, lent twenty pounds to a man I did not
+care two straws for, and had seen barely a dozen
+times in my life. What was the consequence?
+Why, I never heard any more of him or my
+twenty pounds either, and don’t know to this
+day whether he went to Australia or not. I
+should decidedly say <i>not</i>. That is all I know
+about my relations.’</p>
+
+<p>It must be owned that it was at the best a
+selfish kind of cheerfulness, which was derived
+from the belief that he had no kith or kin out
+of his own household; but Smethby was rather
+a selfish man. He certainly was too fond of
+talking in this strain.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that, towards the close of a bright
+June day, Mr Smethby was at a railway station
+some two or three miles from his residence. To
+aid in identifying the town, we may say that
+there was another line which ran through or
+at least close to it; but from the station in question,
+an omnibus plied to Valeborough, and it
+was for this vehicle that Mr Smethby waited on
+the little platform.</p>
+
+<p>‘We shall have a wet night, I expect,’ said a
+voice in his ear.</p>
+
+<p>He looked round, and saw a sailor-like man,
+whom he had already noticed, and who was
+scanning the horizon in a sailor-like manner.
+Mr Smethby made a fitting reply to this remark,
+and a desultory conversation ensued. The expected
+omnibus now coming into sight as it
+crossed a rise in the road at some distance,
+Smethby instinctively shifted his valise a little
+nearer to the gate. The man good-naturedly
+helped him, as he was close to the bag, and
+exclaimed, as he saw the label upon it: ‘Smethby!
+It is odd that I should see that name to-day, for
+it is not a common one.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I do not think it is often met with,’ said Mr
+Smethby. ‘But what is there odd in your seeing
+it to-day?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Well, perhaps not much,’ replied the man,
+with a smile; ‘but I was talking about that
+name a good deal yesterday, and for weeks before.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Indeed! May I ask how that was?’ said his
+listener.</p>
+
+<p>‘I have just come from Australia,’ returned
+the sailor. (Mr Smethby could not help growing
+suddenly attentive at this.) ‘I landed yesterday
+at Gravesend, and bade good-bye to an old chum.
+Ah! he was a good chum too! Five years had
+I worked in the next claim to old George, as we
+called him. His right name was George Styles.’</p>
+
+<p>‘George Styles!’ exclaimed Mr Smethby.—‘But
+I must apologise for interrupting you.’</p>
+
+<p>‘He had done well—better than any of us,’
+continued the sailor. ‘Some folks said he was
+worth a quarter of a million of money; but I
+never believed that; about half the figure would
+be nigher. He said he had no friends in England
+he cared for now, except one Mr Smethby. That
+is why the name startled me. He was always
+talking about him. It was on purpose to see
+him he went on to London with the ship; he
+lives somewhere in the City.’</p>
+
+<p>‘O—h!’ said Mr Smethby. This was a long-sustained
+syllable, the gentleman having a curiously
+complicated rush of thought just then.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, he lives in London; and I think old
+George means playing a rare trick on him,’ said
+the sailor, whose smile broke into a laugh here.
+‘He used to say what a game it would be to go
+and pretend he was poor and broken down, so
+as to see who were his real friends and who were
+not. It is my belief he will do it too; and when
+I go back to London, I’ll try to find him out,
+to hear all about it. Ha, ha, ha!’</p>
+
+<p>The omnibus drew up at this moment; and
+the sailor, knowing their conference must end,
+touched his cap and drew back.</p>
+
+<p>‘A—was this George Styles really so rich?
+I ask, because your story has interested me,’
+said Mr Smethby hurriedly. ‘He must be a
+droll fellow!’</p>
+
+<p>‘Rich! Why, I’ve seen with my own eyes
+the banker’s receipts for the best part of a ton
+of gold of his, first and last,’ returned the sailor;
+‘and that was only a part of his luck. His last
+words to me were: “Bill”—my name is Bill
+Brown—“Bill, as long as I live, you shall never
+want a friend.” Nor I shan’t, I know.—Good-day,
+sir.’</p>
+
+<p>Mr Smethby entered the vehicle, and had a
+silent, thoughtful ride to Valeborough. The
+sailor’s conversation, helter-skelter and rattle-brain
+as it was, had furnished him with much
+food for thought; and finding that his son was
+at his house, when he arrived there—this son
+was married and settled at Valeborough—he immediately
+took him, with Miss Harriet, into
+council. During his narrative, repeated exclamations
+of astonishment broke from his hearers.</p>
+
+<p>‘Why, father,’ cried his daughter as he finished,
+‘this must be your cousin George; and you are
+the Mr Smethby he is looking for.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Of course I am; I saw that at once,’ replied
+her father.</p>
+
+<p>‘But what is to be done?’ asked Mr Joe, the
+son. ‘You have left London for years; he may
+be looking about for you till doomsday, and be
+no nearer finding you.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I suppose he will go to my old address. The
+people there know where I am, and will send
+him down,’ said Mr Smethby. ‘I expect that
+is how it will be.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I hope so, I am sure,’ continued his son;
+‘otherwise, we may lose a splendid chance.’</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_746">{746}</span></p>
+<p>Smethby could not help admitting the possibility
+of this, which seemed to disturb him a
+good deal, yet nothing could be done to avert it.</p>
+
+<p>‘We must be careful to show him every kindness,’
+said Harriet. ‘After having been away from
+England so long, he will feel pleased at’——</p>
+
+<p>‘Leave me alone,’ interposed Smethby, with
+a nod and a wink, which meant much. ‘I flatter
+myself I can see my way here pretty clearly. I
+only hope he comes, that is all.’</p>
+
+<p>Mr Smethby would have written to his successors
+in London, asking them to give his address
+to any inquirer; but he abstained, partly because
+he felt sure they would do this in any case, but
+chiefly from the danger that his request might
+be mentioned to his cousin, and so show that he,
+Mr Smethby, had a knowledge of his arrival in
+England.</p>
+
+<p>No days in the lives of Mr Smethby and his
+family had ever appeared so long as each of the
+next two or three which followed their little
+family interview. The suspense was—as the
+elder gentleman pronounced it to be—‘excruciating;’
+but it came to an end in time.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Smethby was in his front-garden in the
+afternoon, trying to occupy himself; but his mind
+was busy on a subject very different from botany,
+when, happening to look up from his flower-beds,
+he met the eyes of a man who was watching him
+over the fence, as this man stood on the footpath.
+He smiled when he met the glance of Smethby,
+who actually recoiled in his astonishment; for
+although he had been thinking without cessation
+of his cousin, yet it was like an electric shock in
+its suddenness to look round and find the very
+man face to face with him; for this was, must
+be, he felt, George Styles. He did not know him,
+had no recollection of his features; but the
+bronzed, bushy-whiskered, bushy-bearded man,
+dressed something like a sailor, yet not to be
+mistaken for one, who smiled at him across
+the garden fence, was his cousin, there could be
+no doubt of that.</p>
+
+<p>‘Well, Nick, old fellow!’ began the stranger;
+‘I see you know me, although it is many years
+since we parted.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Why, it is George Styles!’ exclaimed Mr
+Smethby, with an assumption of surprise and
+‘gush’ which did him infinite credit, and of
+which he felt secretly proud for a good while.
+He seized the other’s hand and wrung it over
+the fence with a prolonged heartiness, as though
+he could not bear to relinquish it. ‘My dear
+old boy, how glad I am to see you!’ he resumed,
+as soon, it appeared, as his feelings would allow
+him to speak. ‘Come in. How did you find
+me out? But never mind that now. Come in!
+I shall have a thousand things to talk about.—This
+is Harriet; the only unmarried one now;
+she was in arms when you went away, so I don’t
+expect you to remember her.—Now, Harriet, let
+us have a cup of tea; and put the best we have
+in the house on the table to-day, if we never
+do so again.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You are almost too kind, Nick,’ said the other,
+and there was really a little catch in his voice as
+he spoke. ‘I did not expect—indeed, I don’t
+deserve such generosity. I think I had first
+better run down to the <i>Railway Tap</i> and bespeak
+my room there, for I hope to stay three or four
+days at Valeborough.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Three or four days!’ exclaimed Mr Smethby;
+‘bespeak a room at the <i>Railway Tap</i>! I don’t
+mean to part with you, now I have found you
+again, under three or four months; and if you
+do not make this your home for everything, I—I—I’ll
+never forgive you.’</p>
+
+<p>Miss Harriet, in an equally gratifying strain,
+indorsed these sentiments, at which Styles was
+evidently affected.</p>
+
+<p>‘I did not expect—could not have hoped for
+this,’ he returned; ‘and seeing that I have returned
+a—a poor man’—the awkward stop he
+made, ere he could get this out, amused Smethby—‘it
+is so kind of you. If it will not cause any
+inconvenience, I will stay here a little while,
+and I will do anything I can to repay your
+generosity’——</p>
+
+<p>Here he was interrupted by the good-tempered
+laughter which such an idea excited, and the
+evening passed off merrily.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Joe and his wife looked in—by chance, as
+they explained; as did Mr Brooks and his wife—formerly
+Miss Susy Smethby—who came also by
+chance; the result being that there was quite a
+jovial party, and that Mr Styles received the
+warmest invitations to become a frequent visitor
+at the house of Mr Joe and at that of Mr
+Brooks.</p>
+
+<p>After this night, too, there was unwonted pleasantry
+at Mr Smethby’s, for not only his family
+but some of the neighbours were constantly
+dropping in, and it was wonderful what an interest
+they all took in the gentleman from Australia.
+The latter was very guarded—kept up his character
+well, did him great credit, Mr Joe said.
+But no one can avoid an occasional flaw, and one
+or two were detected even in him. He was wont
+to deplore the hardships which unsuccessful men
+suffered in a colony—in fact, he did not like to
+enter on any detail of his painful experiences—never
+would do so.</p>
+
+<p>‘Your hardships do not seem greatly to have
+injured you, George,’ his host would answer;
+‘you look a good ten years younger than your age;
+and many a man who has never been fifty miles
+from London shows the wear and tear of toil and
+worry, of which you complain so much, more
+than you do.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Ah! but it is the future!’ Mr Styles would
+say, when such a debate arose—he would say it
+with a sad shake of the head—‘it is the future
+which preys on my mind, what I am to do for
+the rest of my life.’</p>
+
+<p>It was difficult for Mr Smethby, knowing so
+much as he did, to listen gravely to such arguments
+as these; but he was grave, and his manner
+encouraged Styles to confide in him—after a
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>He soon showed an interest in speaking of certain
+Australian investments which it appeared
+some friend of his thought highly of; a shallow
+ruse, not likely to deceive such a man as his
+cousin. Styles further mentioned that a gold-miner
+whom he knew had put ten thousand
+pounds into one of these specs less than two years
+before, and he could now sell out for thirty thousand
+any day he chose; but he was too good a
+judge to do that, as in another two years the
+present value would be doubled, and then,
+perhaps, he might be tempted to realise. This
+same miner, as he had heard, held five or six
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_747">{747}</span>other investments, nearly all as good, and was in
+expectation of hearing news which would enable
+him to employ the other half of his capital,
+which was now lying idle—only making a paltry
+three per cent.—quite as well. All this Mr
+Styles had heard from his friend.</p>
+
+<p>All this amused Smethby, who read his visitor
+the more thoroughly in proportion as the latter
+sought to envelop himself in these far-fetched
+disguises. No additional proof was needed to
+satisfy Smethby; but the evidence was in a
+manner forced upon him to expose most completely
+the absurd trick which his cousin was
+attempting to play off upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Harriet found a letter on the floor of their
+visitor’s room: it would have been expecting too
+much from the feminine, or perhaps from any
+temperament, to suppose she would not read it.
+Its contents were so interesting, although exceedingly
+brief, that she showed the note to her father.
+It was from a firm in London, a stockbroker’s
+evidently, referring to some inquiry from ‘George
+Styles, Esq.’ as to the purchase of shares to the
+amount of twenty thousand pounds, in the Bodgamaree
+mines—the very speculation that Smethby
+had heard his cousin refer to in their last conversation
+as being in great favour with the
+unnamed gold-miner! The shares were low at
+present, the letter said, and could be bought at
+about eighty per cent., so that a little over sixteen
+thousand pounds would be sufficient.</p>
+
+<p>‘That settles it, then,’ said Smethby. ‘Be sure
+to put the letter back where you found it, Harriet;
+and mind what I told you the other day. Play
+your cards properly, and I am sure you will
+win.’</p>
+
+<p>This utterance was rather obscure; but his
+daughter understood it well enough to induce her
+to pout and frown a little, and to move with what
+is generally described as a ‘flounce.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Ah! it is all very well,’ said the gentleman;
+‘but you ought to know better than to dream of
+allowing a quarter of a million of money to go
+out of the family.—Who is Robert Crewe, I should
+like to know?’</p>
+
+<p>This speech would have been, to a third party,
+equally obscure with that which had gone before;
+but as we do not wish to have any mystery, we
+may explain that, almost from the first, Cousin
+George had appeared much impressed by Harriet’s
+good looks, and had shown her attentions which
+gradually became more marked. He was five-and-twenty
+years older than the girl, it was true;
+but as he had himself said to Smethby, a man
+ought to be a good deal older than a woman,
+when they marry; and when a man had been
+abroad, knocking about the world best part of
+his time, he then knew what a home was, and
+felt the want of a young and cheerful wife.</p>
+
+<p>All this Smethby had pointed out to his
+daughter before; but was shocked to find—for
+he really considered her a sensible, clear-headed
+girl, as a rule—that a ridiculous friendship with
+one Robert Crewe, a doctor’s assistant in the
+town, blocked the way of this new road to
+wealth and position.</p>
+
+<p>Robert Crewe! Smethby had not ordinary
+patience with the idea. He admitted that he
+had known of, and in some sort of way approved,
+or, rather, had not forbidden this intimacy—it
+was in this roundabout manner he now described
+his conduct—and the young fellow, in his place,
+might be well enough; but to compare him and
+his miserable gallipot and sticking-plaster prospects,
+with George Styles, was enough to put any
+man out of temper. Robert Crewe, forsooth!</p>
+
+<p>Yet, with all this natural indignation and in
+spite of this sarcasm, Miss Harriet could not
+quite make up her mind to renounce the young
+doctor; but it might come in time.</p>
+
+<p>That very night—after the discovery of the
+letter, we mean—Mr Styles on his return broached
+two subjects which were strongly suggestive,
+especially when his hearers were behind the
+scenes to a degree he did not suspect. These
+hearers were only Mr Smethby and his daughter.
+It was a quiet night, such as delighted Mr Styles;
+he really appeared to enjoy himself pretty well
+under all conditions; but he declared this evening
+that a snug little family chat was sweeter
+than anything else, to an old wanderer like himself.
+Port, sherry, and claret were at hand; for
+while Smethby was, as a rule, strictly economical,
+so that wine rarely appeared at his table, his
+hospitality to his cousin led him into a freer
+display of such luxuries now, than of old. But
+the taste of Mr Styles was simple—old-fashioned,
+he said; and he drank scarcely anything but
+cold brandy-and-water, to which he was remarkably
+partial. It was over a glass of this innocent
+beverage—always mixed half and half, at which,
+even in his bloom of hospitality, Mr Smethby
+winced—that he spoke of the subjects indicated.
+He referred to a friend of his—it was odd how
+satisfied he seemed with this shallow artifice, and
+how often he resorted to it—who was about to
+buy a small property near London. This property
+was at Richmond—only a mere toy, a little villa,
+with coachhouse and stables; a pretty conservatory,
+with a couple of acres of land—that was
+all. It was freehold—his friend would have
+nothing else—and it commanded the prettiest
+view on the river.</p>
+
+<p>Now, what was Miss Harriet’s opinion? Did
+she prefer living in the country outright, or near
+London? What did she think of his friend’s
+choice? Harriet hesitated, and her colour went
+and came; but Smethby spoke up for her, and
+said that, like every other young girl, she would
+prefer living near the great metropolis, with its
+theatres, its balls, its parks and the like.—O
+yes! of course. Harriet but feebly echoed this
+opinion, which was repeated and enlarged on by
+Smethby.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the evening, when the elders were
+alone, Styles brought up his friend again; it
+was, as before, in reference to an investment,
+and Mr George said how he wished his cousin
+had a little money to spare, as he knew—his
+friend knew, that was—of a chance for doubling
+and trebling every penny invested.</p>
+
+<p>Smethby, with his usual good-tempered laugh—he
+was always good-tempered, when with
+Styles—said that for all George knew he might
+have a trifle by him. On hearing this, his cousin
+expressed his pleasure, and said that his friend
+was going to invest nearly twenty thousand
+pounds in the spec. Such figures were beyond
+Smethby, as that gentleman owned; but one,
+or even two thousand, he might command. In
+short, ere they parted that night, he had resolved
+to remove his cash from his deposit account at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_748">{748}</span>the town bank and join this friend in his speculation.</p>
+
+<p>Styles was pleased to hear this; and when
+Smethby said he should like to see his friend,
+laughed, and confusedly said he would tell his
+cousin more about him soon.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><h2 class="nobreak" id="ECONOMY_OF_FUEL">ECONOMY OF FUEL.</h2></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mr Hull</span>, a celebrated geologist, has calculated
+that there is still a quantity of coal in store in
+England and Wales sufficient to afford a supply
+of one hundred and twenty millions of tons for
+about five hundred years. This would be a
+cheerful estimate, if we could cordially and
+unquestioningly accept it. But, unfortunately,
+we cannot, other competent observers having
+affirmed that the coal deposits of this country
+will be exhausted in less than two hundred years.
+We would, therefore, urge with all earnestness,
+that the people and the government should pay
+more especial attention to this vital subject than
+they have hitherto done.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there are two chief points on which
+any interference could be effectual: these are,
+the exportation of coal, and the wasteful processes
+of mining now in vogue. The former of
+these involves the great question of free-trade,
+and the right of each coal-proprietor to sell the
+produce of his land and labour at the best possible
+price. The latter is even a still more difficult
+thing to meddle with, and must, perhaps,
+be met rather by the provisions made on the
+part of landed proprietors, when leasing their
+subterranean property to practical miners, than
+by anything government can do. At present,
+the proprietor, having a life-interest in his estate,
+desires to obtain from the mines the largest
+amount of the most valuable coal at the smallest
+working loss. The result is, that vast quantities
+of inferior but yet valuable material are left in
+the pits; quantities that would do something
+towards meeting the growing consumption in
+this kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Selfish, narrow-minded people might exclaim:
+‘Oh! there will be quite enough of coal to last
+us our time. We don’t expect or want to live
+for ever; therefore, we won’t bother ourselves
+about the economy of fuel.’</p>
+
+<p>Let us remind such unpatriotic mortals that
+our manufacturing and commercial interests rest
+upon our supplies of coal as their foundation-stone.
+Our commercial rivals across the Atlantic
+possess magnificent coal-fields, that are practically
+of indefinite extent. Exhaust <i>our</i> coal-fields,
+and their supremacy will become complete.
+It behoves each and every one of us to
+think of the future of our country and of the
+interests of those who come after us.</p>
+
+<p>Perchance some cynic may say: ‘What has
+posterity ever done for me? Let posterity take
+care of itself.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Very well,’ we reply; ‘let posterity do for
+itself. Let us only be influenced by selfish and
+non-altruistic principles, and think only of ourselves.
+The question is, how can we put money
+into our own pockets by using less coal than
+we do?’</p>
+
+<p>First, we can do so by using proper grates.
+Down to the time of Count Rumford, the modern
+world of coal-burners never thought of the true
+theory of caloric in connection with grates.
+Burners of wood had not tried to be economical;
+they did not expect to be warm on more than
+one side. When their bodies were scorched and
+their eyes smarted, they had what they bargained
+for. Rumford appeared as a new teacher; he
+laid down the principles of heat and combustion
+with admirable clearness, and flooded England
+with grates of his favourite type. But in spite
+of the teachings of the Count, coal-fires of to-day
+are as dirty, chilly, and as wasteful as ever.</p>
+
+<p>The waste of coal in Britain is positively disgraceful.
+One hundred and twenty millions of
+tons are consumed every year. Of this, one half
+might be saved by the adoption of improved
+appliances. About thirty million pounds sterling
+might thus be kept in our banks, instead of
+being turned into cinders and smoke. The pall
+of smoke and fog that broods over London contains
+in a single day fifty tons of coal! The
+fact is that we burn coal in house-fires on an
+entirely false principle—that is, on the principle
+of a blast-furnace, letting cold air pass through
+the centre of the fire, to blaze the coal rapidly
+away, and hurry the heat and half-burnt gases
+unused up the chimney. We have to go back
+to the good old principle of the embers on the
+earth, when the hearth was, as it is at the present
+day in many Irish cottages, a true ‘focus,’ a centre
+of accumulated heat. We must, then, return to
+truer lines, and make our fireplace again a ‘focus’
+or ‘well’ of stored heat, into which we put our
+fuel, first to be distilled into gas, which, rising
+at a high temperature from its hot bed, meets
+the air gliding towards the chimney, and bursts
+into flame, communicating heat to the firebrick
+back and to the room. Then, when all the gases
+have been burnt off, the red-hot coke remains,
+and burns away in the bottom of the grate at
+a slow rate, yet radiating abundant heat into the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>This desirable end is gained by using Mr Teale’s
+‘Economiser.’ The ‘Coal Economiser’ is simply
+a shield of sheet-iron which stands on the hearth,
+and rises as high as the lowest bar of the grate,
+against which it should fit accurately, so as to
+shut in the space under the fire. Any ordinary
+blacksmith can make the ‘Economiser.’ It is
+applicable to any range, whether in the cottages
+of the poor or the mansions of the rich. Those
+who wish for greater elegance can have it made
+of steel or brass. Its chief purpose is to cut off
+the under current, and to keep the chamber under
+the fire hot.</p>
+
+<p>Count Rumford affirmed that seven-eighths of
+the heat was carried up the chimney. Heat is
+wasted in three ways: by combustion under the
+influence of a strong draught; by imperfect combustion;
+by the escape of heat through the sides
+and the back of the fireplace. By using the
+‘Economiser’ all this is altered. If there is
+plenty of heat round the fuel, then but little
+oxygen will do. But burn coal with a chilling
+jacket, and it needs a fierce draught of oxygen
+to sustain it. High temperature does not imply
+complete combustion, for in making gas, coke is
+left. When the ‘Economiser’ is applied, the
+fire burns with an orange colour, for the stream
+of oxygen is slow and steady, and the coal undergoes
+complete combustion; consequently, there
+is an entire absence of cinders, and only a little
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_749">{749}</span>fine snuff-like powder falls into the ‘economised’
+chamber. Smoke is also conspicuous by its
+absence.</p>
+
+<p>In a recent lecture delivered at the Royal
+Institution, Mr Teale mentioned several additional
+points about the structure of fireplaces,
+which tend to the saving of fuel. (1) As much
+firebrick and as little iron as possible should be
+used. Iron absorbs the heat, and chiefly in
+directions in which the heat is least wanted.
+Firebrick retains and accumulates heat. (2) The
+back of the fireplace should lean or arch over
+the fire, so as to become heated by the rising
+flame. The heated back sends forth abundant
+radiant heat into the room. ‘Milner’s’ back is
+a capital arrangement; so is the Nelson ‘Rifle’
+back. (3) The bottom of the grating should be
+deep from before backwards. (4) The slits in
+the grating should be narrow; this prevents
+small cinders from falling through. (5) The
+bars in front should be narrow.</p>
+
+<p>If the foregoing instructions are attended to,
+there will be an enormous saving of fuel. Soot
+and smoke will be diminished, and there will
+be no half-burnt cinders.</p>
+
+<p>The late Sir William Siemens was an ardent
+advocate for the use of gas as a heating agent.
+At the British Association of 1882, he said: ‘The
+time is not far distant when both rich and poor
+will largely resort to gas, the most convenient,
+the cleanest, and cheapest of heating agents, and
+when raw coal will only be seen at the colliery
+or gasworks. In all cases where the town to
+be supplied is within, say, thirty miles of the
+colliery, the gasworks may with advantage be
+placed at the mouth, or, still better, at the bottom
+of the pit, whereby all haulage of fuel would
+be avoided, and the gas in its ascent from the
+bottom of the colliery would acquire an onward
+pressure sufficient, probably, to impel it to its
+destination.’ No doubt, if this scheme could be
+realised, we would all be deeply indebted to the
+great man who first suggested it. More than
+one half of the coal now consumed would be
+saved by its adoption. At present, we must be
+content with the old order of things.</p>
+
+<p>It is astonishing, however, that so few people
+employ gas instead of coal as a cooking agent,
+especially in summer. It secures an immense
+saving of labour, not to speak of its superiority
+over coal in respect to coolness. In the
+hot summer days, cooking with a coal-fire in
+an ordinary range is a tremendous trial to
+the poor cook. The kitchen is like an oven.
+What a difference if gas is used! The moment
+it is no longer required it can be turned off,
+and the temperature of the kitchen is soon
+lowered. By using a gas-stove, no coal is required
+during the summer. It is less expensive
+than coal. Of course, care must be taken to have
+it turned off directly it is no longer required,
+and a proper economy exercised in its use. Mr
+Fletcher, of Warrington, a high authority on
+gas for cooking and heating purposes, says: ‘The
+cost of gas, even if wastefully used, must be considered
+not only as regards the saving of coal,
+but also, what is far greater, the saving in weight
+of meat roasted, which is considerable, and the
+reduced wear and tear, waste, dirt, and consequent
+labour. Taken altogether as affecting the
+total housekeeping expenses, gas is cheaper than
+coal for cooking at any price not exceeding twelve
+or fourteen shillings per thousand cubic feet;
+coal being, say, twelve to fourteen shillings per
+ton.’ The majority of people, however, pay very
+much less for their gas, and more for coal; in
+which case, gas will be much cheaper than
+coal.</p>
+
+<p>Asbestos heated by gas makes a suitable fire.
+It is cleanly, quiet, free from dust, and convenient;
+and it can be turned on or extinguished
+in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>Enough has been written to show that economy
+of fuel is not merely theoretical and
+fanciful, but that it is practicable and worthy
+of earnest attention.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SIGN_OF_THE_RED_INDIAN">THE SIGN OF THE <i>RED INDIAN</i>.</h2></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Just</span> on the outskirts of the seaport and garrison
+town of Chubleigh, in the south-west of England,
+stands a little old-fashioned hostelry called the
+<i>Red Indian</i>. How it came by its name is involved
+in obscurity. The antiquity of the inn is undoubted,
+and a tradition is current in the
+district, that during the unfortunate Monmouth’s
+rebellion it was used as the temporary head-quarters
+of Colonel Kirke. In its back-garden,
+a wooden seat is still shown to visitors on which
+that bloodthirsty officer, surrounded by his
+‘lambs,’ is alleged to have sat in judgment, and
+thence ruthlessly consigned to the gallows scores
+of the unoffending rustics of the locality. From
+time immemorial, the <i>Red Indian</i> has been in
+the hands of a family named Slade. The present
+proprietor, though, generally speaking, as
+deliberate in manner as John Willet, is yet
+apt to be garrulously communicative in talking
+of his inn and its interesting historical associations.
+Above the rustic porch over the door
+there is fixed a large, rudely carved, wooden
+figure of a savage holding in its hand a tomahawk.
+The Indian’s nose was long ago knocked
+off by a well-directed stone thrown by some mischievous
+urchin; his original coat of paint has
+peeled off, and large cracks are visible, which run
+the whole length of the figure. Altogether, this
+Indian is as disreputable-looking a sign as a
+traveller might perceive throughout the length
+and breadth of England. Nevertheless, it is in
+connection with this dilapidated timber savage
+that the writer obtained, from the landlord of
+the <i>Red Indian</i>, materials for the following
+story.</p>
+
+<p>When the present century was in its infancy,
+the son of the then proprietor, and grand-uncle
+of the present landlord, was engaged in the
+capacity of boatswain of a privateer, which had
+been fitted out with the object of preying on
+the French merchant service. In the Mediterranean,
+the privateer captured a large vessel,
+which in part was laden with the product of the
+labours of a Parisian curiosity-hunter, who had
+been despoiling ancient Grecian temples, with the
+object of supplying the virtuosi of the French
+metropolis with antique sculptures and bronzes,
+and thereby securing a large profit to himself.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_750">{750}</span>The privateersmen were greatly disappointed at
+not finding specie, and what they considered
+marketable merchandise, on board the Frenchman,
+and attached but little value to the battered
+though priceless bas-reliefs and statues. Boatswain
+Slade took a great fancy to a life-sized
+bronze gladiator, which he considered would
+prove an acceptable addition to the attractions
+of the back-garden of his father’s inn, and
+managed, for a few shillings, to effect its purchase
+from the captain.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the glorious victory of Trafalgar,
+the privateer was paid off at Chubleigh; and
+the boatswain conveyed the statue on shore to
+his father’s inn. The gladiator was placed on
+a brick pedestal, flanked on either side by two
+rusty carronades; and the bareness of the surroundings
+was relieved by the artistic disposal
+of a number of huge shells which the boatswain
+had brought from ‘foreign parts.’ The host of
+the <i>Red Indian</i>, however, was soon struck by the
+idea of making the figure a sign for his hostelry.
+He had but little sentimental regard for the rich
+green mould of antiquity, so, with execrable
+vandalism, carefully scraped it off the statue,
+and had the gladiator painted a bright scarlet
+by a local artist, who took payment for his work
+in the old ale for which the hostelry was famous.
+This operation performed, the metamorphosed
+gladiator was removed to a prominent position
+in front of the inn door, and for years did duty
+as a Red Indian. Its brilliant appearance was a
+perpetual source of gratification and delight to
+the host and his numerous customers; while
+inquiring strangers were proudly informed that
+it had been captured from the frog-eaters. Once
+a year the extemporised Indian received a fresh
+coat of paint; and save when its head was decorated
+at times with a disused tin pail or an old
+hat by some facetious individuals, it was not
+otherwise interfered with.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of the year 1815, Chubleigh was
+<i>en fête</i> in connection with the disembarkation of
+the 31st Regiment of Light Dragoons, which
+during that year had performed doughty service
+at Waterloo, and which had just returned from
+the occupation of Paris. The piping times of
+peace had again returned, and, naturally enough,
+the officers and men who had assisted to destroy
+the power of the once dreaded ‘Boney’ were the
+objects of popular pride and enthusiasm among
+the inhabitants of the town. When the regiment
+settled down in quarters, invitations to the houses
+of the principal townsmen were showered on the
+officers, and each vied with the other to entertain
+these heroes of Waterloo.</p>
+
+<p>The younger officers, several of whom had
+left school to join their regiment in Belgium,
+gave themselves prodigious airs; but no one
+considered himself of so much importance as
+a raw young Connaught-man, a cornet named
+Mike Macnamara. Mike, a warrior of about
+nine months’ service, created great amusement
+both in the officers’ mess and in the houses to
+which he was invited by boasting about the
+number of Frenchmen whom he had placed
+<i>hors de combat</i> in the late short but eventful
+campaign. His bounce together with his extreme
+simplicity rendered him the butt of his brother-officers,
+and he was in consequence the victim
+of numerous practical jokes. In these days,
+and for many years subsequently, rough horseplay
+and the perpetration of the most uncomfortable
+imaginable practical jokes were characteristic
+of the spirited gentlemen who officered
+the regiments of British cavalry. Those of our
+readers who took the trouble, some years ago,
+to wade through the evidence at the Tichborne
+trial, will remember the description of the ruthless
+tricks played on the simple undoubted Roger
+by his brother-carabineers. At the present day,
+military practical joking is somewhat out of
+fashion, and any games that may be played are
+curtailed of their former disagreeable proportions,
+and have assumed a comparatively mild character.</p>
+
+<p>Cornet Macnamara’s room was the favourite
+arena for a display of the ingenious tricks of his
+facetiously inclined brother-officers. Thistles and
+dead cats were placed between his sheets; trapfuls
+of live rats were let loose in the apartment;
+the nuts of his iron bedstead were unscrewed,
+so that when the poor fellow turned in, the
+framework of the couch tumbled to pieces and
+landed the mattress on the floor, while at the
+same time he was douched by a tub of water
+from the shelf above, which was fastened with
+cord to the mattress, and upset simultaneously
+with the collapse of the bed. On such occasions
+Mike was naturally wroth, and expressed himself
+as anxious to call out the offenders; but
+despite his utmost vigilance and caution, he could
+never capture his tormentors.</p>
+
+<p>Late one evening, a party of revellers from
+barracks were passing the <i>Red Indian</i>, when
+they espied the vermilioned gladiator. Nothing
+would satisfy them but to feloniously remove
+the statue and return with it to quarters—a
+work of considerable difficulty, as the figure
+was heavy. Arrived thither with their load,
+some one suggested that it should be placed in
+Cornet Macnamara’s room; and this idea was
+hailed with general enthusiasm. A scout was
+despatched to the messroom, in order to keep
+watch on Mike’s movements, and give the alarm
+in case he should appear on the scene. With
+great labour the gladiator was hoisted to the
+top of the staircase of the officer’s house; and
+Mike’s room door having been forced open, the
+jokers placed the statue in front of his dressing-table,
+on the top of an inverted iron coal-box.
+The staircase at the time was in process of being
+whitewashed, so the officers obtained possession
+of a tub of the mixture, and smeared the ‘Red
+Indian’ a dirty white; then taking the sheets
+from Mike’s bed, they hung them about the
+figure, turning it into a respectable-looking ghost.
+Afterwards, the officers dropped one by one into
+the messroom, and joined a group who were
+listening with great amusement to a new-fangled
+story which was being retailed by Macnamara
+regarding his prowess at Waterloo.</p>
+
+<p>Mike, after clapping an additional two Frenchmen
+to the previous grand total of the number
+who had fallen by his sword, as narrated in
+his tale of the previous night, left the messroom
+in order to proceed to his quarters, whither,
+in a minute or two, he was stealthily followed
+by the whole of the officers, who anticipated
+great fun from the consternation of their victim
+when beholding the ghastly apparition in his bedroom.
+Mike gaily entered the apartment, singing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_751">{751}</span>a love ditty of his native land, and began to
+fumble for his tinder-box. After several attempts,
+he at last managed to light his candle, and of
+course at once perceived the ghost. The cornet
+was filled with the superstitious notions of a
+certain section of his countrymen, and started
+back nearly overcome with terror. ‘Ye saints
+in glory! what’s that?’ he cried; then leaving
+the room, he plunged madly down the staircase,
+and rushed yelling across the parade ground in
+the direction of the messroom. In his headlong
+progress, poor Mike did not observe a party
+of two ladies and a gentleman, who happened
+to be the colonel, accompanied by his wife and
+daughter, who had just returned from a dinner-party.
+Mike ran full tilt against his commanding
+officer, and knocked him into a puddle in the
+barrack square. The ladies screamed loudly;
+and the colonel, with many objurgations, got on
+his feet and confronted his assailant.</p>
+
+<p>‘You—Cornet Macnamara!’ he angrily exclaimed.
+‘What do you mean, sir, rushing about
+like a madman at this time of night? Consider
+yourself under arrest, sir.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Faith, colonel,’ answered the unfortunate
+Mike, ‘I am very sorry, sorr, but I did not
+percaive ye. But, sorr, I wint up to me room
+just now, and as I hope for salvation, I found
+the divil in it, wid a big white shate wrapped
+round him!’</p>
+
+<p>The irate colonel at once surmised that another
+trick had been played on his subordinate; so
+he sent the ladies home to quarters, and then
+called loudly for the sergeant of the guard with
+a file of men.</p>
+
+<p>When this detachment of the guard appeared
+on the scene, the colonel ordered them to follow
+him to Macnamara’s room, where, by the light
+of the sergeant’s lantern, he showed the trembling
+cornet that there was nothing supernatural in the
+character of the figure that had frightened him
+so much. He then, under the circumstances,
+relieved Mike from arrest and proceeded home.</p>
+
+<p>Mike waited until the commanding officer and
+the men of the guard were clear of the staircase,
+and then slid the gladiator off the coal-box.
+He edged the statue to the top of the
+stair, and by main strength toppled it over the
+banister; and an instant later, with a loud crash,
+the gladiator was smashed into fragments on the
+flagstones of the lobby, four stories beneath.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to say that there was great
+anger and consternation in the breast of the
+worthy host of the <i>Red Indian</i> when, next
+morning, he awoke and found that his cherished
+statue had mysteriously disappeared. It was
+not long, however, before he obtained a clew to
+its whereabouts, as a customer informed him
+that late the previous night he ‘met a lot
+of milingtary chaps carrying summut’ in the
+direction of the barracks. This ‘summut’ Mr
+Slade shrewdly conjectured was his ‘Red Indian;’
+and he at once wrote to the regimental quarters
+to make inquiries into the matter.</p>
+
+<p>When the poor landlord discovered the gladiator
+in its fragmentary state, he became most angry
+and abusive; but was somewhat consoled when
+an emissary from the mess informed him that
+the officers would make good the damage, and
+requested him to inform them by letter next
+day the price at which he valued his statue. The
+landlord then procured the services of a passing
+cart and had the pieces removed to the inn.
+After a long consultation with his wife, he
+decided to assess the damage at ten guineas;
+and by way of making the most of the business,
+communicated with a marine store-dealer in
+town, intending to sell the smashed gladiator as
+old metal.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel made the most strenuous though
+unavailing efforts to discover the practical jokers,
+and roundly abused the whole of the mess for
+their treatment of poor Mike; but after a while,
+the affair passed off in a general laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Affairs, however, were speedily fated to take
+a turn which caused the implicated parties to
+laugh the other way. A large vessel arrived in
+the port of Chubleigh from Alexandria, which
+had among her passengers a celebrated London
+virtuoso, who, some months before, had been
+induced to pay a visit to Egypt by reason of
+the excitement produced in antiquarian circles
+by the discoveries of the celebrated Belzoni.
+This gentleman was posting to London when his
+chaise broke down opposite the <i>Red Indian</i>, and
+he entered the hostelry while the vehicle was
+being repaired. After partaking of a little
+refreshment, he took a walk in the garden, and
+his eye caught the fragments of the gladiator,
+which had been shot in a corner while waiting
+the arrival of the marine store-dealer’s cart.
+Having elicited the story of the statue from
+the host, the antiquary submitted the pieces to
+a most careful examination; and despite the
+whitewash and coats of paint with which the
+figure had been adorned, he recognised it as
+a specimen of the work of the renowned ancient
+Greek sculptor Lysippus; and in answer to
+the excited inquiry of the astonished landlord,
+appraised its value at six hundred pounds!</p>
+
+<p>Having, at the host’s urgent request, given a
+written opinion on the matter, the virtuoso
+departed on his journey, and then Mr Slade
+hurried with his certificate to a Chubleigh
+attorney, in whose hands he placed the matter,
+with instructions to leave no stone unturned to
+recover the full amount from the officers.</p>
+
+<p>Words could scarcely express the chagrin of
+the purloiners of the gladiator, when the colonel
+of the 31st Light Dragoons read at mess the
+contents of the letter he received from the legal
+adviser of the landlord of the <i>Red Indian</i>. The
+commanding officer further significantly hinted
+that the implicated parties would have to uphold
+their reputation as officers and gentlemen by
+paying the amount demanded, or run the risk
+of being cashiered.</p>
+
+<p>At first, the jokers were inclined to dispute
+the claim, and invited the opinion of an expert;
+but that authority, when he had inspected the
+figure, corroborated the London man’s decision,
+with a further assurance that the statue was
+cheap at the money.</p>
+
+<p>Cornet Macnamara, with reasonable show of
+justification, stoutly declined to pay a farthing of
+the six hundred pounds. It was, however, with
+a very bad grace, indeed, that the sum was subscribed
+by the interested parties; and served as
+a valuable lesson to them to modify for the future
+their spirit of mischief.</p>
+
+<p>When Mike discovered the identity of his tormentors,
+he sent a challenge to each, and an
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_752">{752}</span>arrangement was come to by which a representative
+was selected by ballot to meet the Irishman.
+The old trick of leadless pistols was
+resorted to; the combatants fired three shots
+at each other without any perceptible result, and
+then the seconds interfered, and declared honour
+satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>A Jew purchased the fragments of the gladiator
+from the officers for a few guineas; but the wily
+Israelite well knew that a genuine Lysippus is
+almost as valuable broken as whole. He had
+the pieces skilfully rejoined, and disposed of the
+statue to a local virtuoso for a large sum,
+who in turn bequeathed it to the Chubleigh
+Museum.</p>
+
+<p>With part of the money the lucky landlord
+of the <i>Red Indian</i> received for his gladiator, he
+invested in a wooden figure, which did duty for
+a sign equally well, and which he placed above
+the porch out of the reach of predatory officers,
+and where, as has been mentioned, it still stands,
+battered, cracked, and mouldy.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the episode of the gladiator, the
+31st Light Dragoons were hurriedly despatched
+to Lancashire, in order to quell the bread riots
+which had broken out in that county; and the
+actors in the comedy just narrated were heard
+of no more by the good folks of Chubleigh.</p>
+
+<p>A little more remains to be told of the statue
+by Lysippus. We must come down to 1851, the
+year in which the Great Exhibition was held in
+Hyde Park. A middle-aged Frenchman landed
+at Chubleigh from Havre on his way to London,
+and while taking a walk about the town, entered
+the <i>Red Indian</i>. The landlord, who had profited
+so handsomely by his statue, had years before
+gone to his rest, and his son the ex-boatswain,
+then an aged man, reigned in his stead. The
+Frenchman was interested in learning that his
+host had taken a share in the old war, and after
+a time, he had narrated to him the whole history
+of the statue.</p>
+
+<p>‘Vat vas de name of de vessel you took?’ he
+eagerly asked.</p>
+
+<p>‘The <i>Hercules</i>, sir.’</p>
+
+<p>To the landlord’s astonishment, Monsieur leant
+back in his chair and indulged in a fit of uncontrollable
+laughter, and recovering himself, asked
+to be directed to the Museum. Having reached
+that establishment, he was not long in picking
+out the Lysippus, of which the learned in Chubleigh
+were so proud. The Frenchman put on his
+glasses and examined the gladiator’s toe-nail, and
+then gave vent to another guffaw, which speedily
+brought round him the officials of the establishment.
+He asked to see the secretary; and when
+introduced to the presence of that functionary,
+exclaimed: ‘Begar, sir, dat gladiateur is no more
+a Lysippus dan I am de Czar Nicholas of all
+de Russias. My oncle, who die ven I vas a
+leetle boy, keep vat you call a foundree in Athens,
+and have casts, or <i>replicas</i> you call dem, made
+of all de antiques. He den put dem down a
+sewer until dey get a green magnifique; dey
+look like de real article; and he make heaps of
+money by selling dem as such in Paris. Your
+gladiateur is one of dem!’</p>
+
+<p>‘But, my dear sir,’ asked the astounded secretary,
+‘how are you going to substantiate your
+statement?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Come wit me,’ said the Frenchman; and the
+twain proceeded to the statue. ‘My oncle,’ resumed
+the Frenchman, ‘deal in de antique, as I
+have told you; and in case he himself be cheated
+wit his own spurious statues, he have a private
+mark. Here is dis mark—a leetle hole drilled
+under dis toe-nail!’</p>
+
+<p>The secretary communicated the purport of
+Monsieur’s statement to the Museum directors;
+experts were called who substantiated the Frenchman’s
+assertion that the work was spurious, and
+was no more the production of Lysippus than
+an Italian moulder’s plaster-cast of Venus is
+the work of Phidias. In disgust, the directors
+ordered the statue to be transferred to the lumber-room
+of the establishment, and its description,
+‘Gladiator, by Lysippus, <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> about 324; bequeathed
+by the late ——, Esq.,’ disappeared from
+the Museum catalogue.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><h2 class="nobreak smalltext" id="ANOTHER_SHIP-CANAL">ANOTHER ‘SHIP-CANAL.’</h2></div>
+
+
+<p>Another has been proposed, although the idea
+is not new, but seems to have been an old idea
+revived, and that is, to cut a canal from the sea
+to Birkenhead Docks across the low flat country
+lying between the outfalls of the Dee and Mersey,
+and thus getting a wide passage which will
+enable ships to avoid the bar of the Mersey.
+Elaborate plans have been prepared by an eminent
+engineer; and as the whole scheme seems feasible,
+and as money for great schemes seems to be
+readily forthcoming in this wealth-producing
+country, there can be no reason why the ‘ship-canal
+of Birkenhead’ should not be carried out
+as well as the ‘ship-canal of Manchester.’ It
+would have a great and reviving effect on the
+town of Birkenhead, which by this means may
+one day become an important commercial city, a
+rival to, instead of a mere suburb of, her
+wealthy sister on the opposite Lancastrian shore;
+and the expectations of half a century ago of a
+grand city, with magnificent streets, and squares,
+and splendid commercial docks, may even yet be
+realised.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><h2 class="nobreak" id="THIS_IS_ALL">THIS IS ALL.</h2></div>
+
+
+<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0">Just a saunter in the twilight,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a whisper in the hall,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a sail on sea or river,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a dance at rout or ball,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a glance that hearts enthral—</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">This is all—and this is all.</div></div>
+
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0">Just a few harsh words of doubting,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a silence proud and cold,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a spiteful breath of slander,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a wrong that is not told,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a word beyond recall—</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">This is all—and this is all.</div></div>
+
+<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0">Just a life robbed of its brightness,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a heart by sorrow filled,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a faith that trusts no longer,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a love by doubting chilled,</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">Just a few hot tears that fall—</div>
+<div class="verse indent0">This is all—ah! this is all.</div>
+<div class="attrib"><span class="smcap">Rosie Churchill.</span></div></div>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<p class="center">Printed and Published by <span class="smcap">W. &amp; R. Chambers</span>, 47 Paternoster
+Row, <span class="smcap">London</span>, and 339 High Street, <span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved.</i></p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75692 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+book #75692 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75692)