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Racketty-Packetty House and other stories · Racketty-Packetty House and other stories

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Rackety Packety House. Part one. Now, this is the story about the
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doll family I liked and the doll family I didn't. When you read it,
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you are to remember something I am going to tell you. This is
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it. If you think dolls never do anything you don't see them do,
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you are very much mistaken. When people are not looking at them, they
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can do anything they choose. They can dance and sing and play on the
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piano and have all sorts of fun. But they can only move about and
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talk when people turn their backs and are not looking. If any one looks,
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they just stop. Fairies know this, and of course fairies visit in
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all the dolls houses. Where the dolls are agreeable. They will not associate,
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though, with dolls who are not nice. They never call or leave
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their cards at a doll's house. Where the dolls are proud or bad tempered,
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they are very particular. If you are conceited or ill tempered yourself,
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you will never know a fairy as long as you live. Queen Cross Patch
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Rackety Packetty House. Racketty Packetty House was in a corner of Cynthia's nursery,
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and it was not in the best corner either. It was in the corner
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behind the door, and that was not at all a fashionable neighborhood. Rackety
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packetty house had been pushed there to be out of the way when Tidy Castle
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was brought in on Cynthia's birthday. As soon as she saw Tidy Castle,
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Cynthia did not care for rackety packetty house, and indeed was quite ashamed of
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it. She thought the corner behind the door quite good enough for such a
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shabby old doll's house, when there was the beautiful, big new one,
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built like a castle, and furnished with most elegant chairs and tables and carpets
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and curtains and ornaments and pictures and beds and baths and lamps and bookcases,
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and with a knocker on the front door, and a stable with a pony
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cart in it at the back. The minute she saw it she called out,
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oh, what a beautiful doll castle. What shall we do with that
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untidy old rackety packety house now? It is too shabby an old fashioned to
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stand near it. In fact, that was the way in which the old
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dolls House got its non It had always been called the doll's house before,
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but after that it was pushed into the unfashionable neighborhood behind the door, and
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ever afterwards, when it was spoken of at all, it was just called
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rackety packety house and nothing else. Of course, Tidy Castle was grand,
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and Tidy Castle was new and had all the modern improvements in it, and
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rackety packety House was as old fashioned as it could be. It had belonged
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to Cynthia's grandmamma and had been made in the days when Queen Victoria was a
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little girl, and then there was no electricity even in Princess's doll houses.
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Cynthia's grandmamma had kept it very neat because she had been a good housekeeper,
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even when she was seven years old. But Cynthia was not a good housekeeper,
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and she did not recover the furniture when it got dingy, or repaper
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the walls, or mend the carpets and bedclothes, And she never thought of
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such a thing as making new clothes for the doll family. So of course
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their early Victorian frocks and capes and bonnets grew in time to be too shabby
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for words. You see, when Queen Victoria was a little girl, dolls
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wore queer frocks and long pantalets, and boy dolls wore funny, frilled trousers
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and coats which would almost make you laugh to look at. But the rackety
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packety house family had known better days. I and my fairies had known them
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when they were quite new, and had been a birthday present, just as
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tidy Castle was when Cynthia turned eight years old. And there was as much
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fuss about them when their house arrived as Cynthia made when she saw Tidy Castle.
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Cynthia's Grandmamma had danced about and clapped her hands with delight, and she
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had scrambled down upon her knees and taken the dolls out one by one,
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and thought their clothes beautiful. And she had given each of them a grand
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name. This one shall be Amelia, she said, and this one is
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Charlotte, and this one is Victoria Lapoudina, and this one is Aurelia Matilda.
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And this one shall be Leontine, and this one Clotilda. And these
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boys shall be Augustus and Rowland and Vincent and Charles Edward Stewart. For a
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long time they led a very gay and fashionable life. They had parties and
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balls, and were presented at court, and went to royal christenings and weddings
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and were married themselves, and families and scarlet fever and whooping cough and funerals
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and every luxury. But that was long long ago, and now all was
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changed. Their house had grown shabbier and shabbier, and their clothes had grown
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simply awful. And Aurelia Matilda and Victoria Lipoldina had been broken into bits and
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thrown into the dust bin. And Leontine, who had really been the beauty
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of the family, had been dragged out on the hearth rug one night and
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had nearly all her paint lick Dolph and a leg chewed up by a Newfoundland
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puppy, so that she was a sight to behold. As for the boys,
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Rouand and Vincent had quite disappeared, and Charlotte and Amelia always believed they
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had run away to seek their fortunes because things were in such a state at
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home. So the only one left were Cootilda and Amelia and Charlotte and poor
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Liantine and Augustus and Charles Edward Stuart. Even they had their names changed after
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Leontine had her paint lickedolf so that her head had white bald spots on it,
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and she had scarcely any features. A boy cousin of Cynthia's had put
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a bright red spot on each cheek and painted her turned up nose and round
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saucer blue eyes and a comical mouth. He and Cynthia had called her ridic'less
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instead of Leontine, and she had been called that ever since. All the
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dolls were jointed at Dutch dolls, so it was easy to paint any kind
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of features on them and stick out their arms and legs in any way you
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liked, and Leontine did look funny after Cynthia's cousin had finished. She certainly
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was not a beauty, but her turned up nose and her round eyes and
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funny mouths always seemed to be laughing, so she really was the most good
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natured looking creature you ever saw. Charlotte and Amelia Cynthia called Meg and Peg,
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and Clotilda she called Kilmenskegg, and Augustus she called Gustibus, and Charles
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Edward Stewart was nothing but Peter Piper, so that was the end of their
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grand names. The truth was, they went through all sorts of things,
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and if they had not been such a jolly lot of dolls. They might
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have all had fits and appendicitis and died of grief, but not a bit
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of it, if you will believe it. They got fun out of everything.
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They used to just scream with laughter over the new names, and they
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laughed so much over them that they got quite fond of them. When Meg's
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pink silk flounces were torn, she pinned them up and didn't mind in the
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least. And when PEG's lace mantilla was played with by a kitten and brought
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back to were in rags and tatters, she just put a few stitches in
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it and put it on again. And when Peter Piper lost almost the whole
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leg of one of his trousers, he just laughed and said it made it
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easier for him to kick about and turn somersaults, and he wished the other
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leg would tear off too. You never saw a family have such fun.
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They could make up stories and pretend things and invent games out of nothing.
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And my fairies were so fond of them that I couldn't keep them away from
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the doll's house. They would go and have fun with Meg and Peg and
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Gilman's Keg and Gustabus and Peter Piper, even when I had work for them
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to do in Fairyland. But there I was so fond of that shabby,
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disrespectable family myself that I never would scold much about them, and often I
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went to see them. That is how I know so much about them.
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They were so fond of each other and so good natured, and always in
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such spirits that everybody who knew them was fond of them. And it was
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really only Cynthia who didn't know them and thought them only a lot of old,
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disreputable looking Dutch dolls, and Dutch dolls were really quite out of fashion.
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The truth was that Cynthia was not a particularly nice little girl and did
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not care much for anything unless it was quite new. But the kitten who
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had torn the lace, Mantilla, got to know the family and simply loved
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them all. And the Newfoundland puppy was so sorry about Liantine's paint and her
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left leg that he could never do enough to make it up. He wanted
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to marry Liantine as soon as he grew old enough to wear a collar,
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but Liantine said she would never desert her family because now that she wasn't the
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beauty any more. She became the useful one and did all the kitchen work,
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and sat up and made poultices and beef tea when any of the rest
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were ill. And the Newfoundland puppy saw she was right for the whole family
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simply adored for Dicklas and could not possibly have done without her. Meg and
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Peg and Kilmen'skegg could have married any minute if they had liked. There were
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two cock sparrows and a gentleman mouse who proposed to them over and over again.
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They all three said they did not want fashionable wives, but cheerful dispositions
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and a happy home. But Meg and Peg were like Ridiclus and could not
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bear to leave their families, besides not wanting to live in nests and hatch
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eggs, and Kilmenskegg said she would die of her broken heart if she couldn't
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be with Ridic'lus, and Ridic'lus did not like cheese and crumbs and mousy things,
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so they could never live together in a mouse hole. But neither the
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gentleman mouse nor the sparrows were offended because the news was broken to them so
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sweetly, and they went on visiting just as before. Everything was as shabby
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and disrespectable, and as gay and as happy as it could be, until
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tidy Castle was brought into the nursery, and then the whole family had rather
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a fright. It happened in this way when the doll's house was lifted by
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the nurse and carried into the corner behind the door. Of course, it
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was rather an exciting and shaky thing for Meg and Peg and kilmen's Keg and
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gusta bus and Peter Piper ridic'lus was out shopping. The furniture tumbled about,
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and everybody had to hold on to anything they could catch hold of. As
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it was, kilmen Skegg slid under a table, and Peter Piper sat down
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in the coal box. But notwithstanding all this they did not lose their tempers.
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And when the nurse sat down their house on the floor with a bump,
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they all got up and began to laugh. Then they ran and peeped
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out of the windows, and then they ran back and laughed again. Well,
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said Peter Piper. We have been called Meg and Peg, and Kilmanskeg,
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and Gustubus and Peter Piper instead of our grand names, And now we
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live in a place called a rackety packety house. Who cares, Let's join
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hands and have a dance. And they joined hands and danced round and round,
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and kicked up their heels, and their rags and tatters flew about them,
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and they laughed until they fell down, one on top of the other.
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It was just at this minute that ridic'lous came back. The nurse had
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found her under a chair and stuck her in through a window. She sat
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on the drawing room sofa, which had holes in its covering and the stuffing
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coming out, and her one whole leg stuck out straight in front of her,
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and her bonnet and shawl were on one side, and her basket was
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on her left arm. Full of thinks she had got cheap at market.
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She was out of breath and rather pale through the being lifted up and swift
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through the air so suddenly, but her saucer eyes and her funny mouth looked
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as cheerful as ever. Good gracious, if you knew what I had just
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heard, she said. They all scrambled up and called out together, hallo,
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what is it? The nurse said, the most awful thing? She
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answered them. When Cynthia asked what we should do with raggety packety house,
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She said, Oh, I'll put it behind the door for the present,
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and then it'll be carried downstairs and burned. It's too disgraceful to keep in
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any decent nursery, Oh, cried Peter Piper. Oh, said Gustabus.
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Oh oh, oh, said Meg and Peg and kilmen Skegg. Well they
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burn our dear old shabby house. Do you think they will? And actual
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tears began to run down their cheeks. Peter Piper sat down on the floor
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all at once with his hands stuffed in his pockets. I don't care how
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shabby it is, he said. It's a jolly nice old place, and
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it's the only house we've ever had. I don't want to have any others,
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said Meg. Gustabus leaned against the wall with his hands stuffed in his
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pockets. I wouldn't move if I was made King of England, he said.
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Buckingham Palace wouldn't be half as nice. We've had such fun here,
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said Peg. And Kilmen Skegg shook her head from side to side and wiped
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her eyes on her ragged pocket handkerchief. There is no knowing what would have
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happened to them if Peter Piper hadn't cheered up as he always did, I
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say, he said, do you hear that noise? They all listened and
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heard a rumbling. Peter Piper ran to the window and looked out, and
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then ran back again, grinning. It's the nurse rolling up the arm chair
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before the house to hide it so that it won't disgrace the castle. Hooray,
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hooray. If they don't see us, they will forget all about us,
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and we shall not be burned up at all. Our nice old rackety
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packety house will be left alone, and we can enjoy ourselves more than ever
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because we shan't be bothered with Cynthia. Hello, let's all join hands and
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have a dance. So they all joined hands and danced round in a ring
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again, and they were so relieved that they laughed and laughed until they all
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tumbled down in a heap, just as they had done before, and rolled
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about giggling and squealing. It certainly seemed as if they were quite safe for
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some time. At least, the big easy chair hid them, and both
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the nurse and Cynthia seemed to forget that there was such a thing as a
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rackety packety house in the neighborhood. Cynthia was so delighted with tidy castle that
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she played with nothing else for days and days, And instead of being jealous
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of their grand neighbors, the rackety packetty house people began to get all sorts
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of fun out of watching them from their own windows. Several of their windows
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were broken, and some had rags and paper stuffed inside the broken panes.
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But mag and Peg and Peter Piper would go and peep out of one,
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and gusta bus and kilmen'skegg would peep out of the other. And Ridiclus could
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hardly get her dishes washed and her potatoes paired because she could see the castle
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kitchen from her scullery window. It was so exciting. The castle dolls were
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grand beyond words, and they were all lords and ladies. These were their
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names. There was Lady Gwendolen Vere de Vere. She was haughty and had
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dark eyes and hair, and carried her head thrown back and her nose in
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the air. There was Lady Muriel Vere de Vere, and she was cold
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and lovely and indifferent, and looked down the bridge of her delicate nose,
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And there was Lady Doris, who had fluffy golden hair and laughed mockingly at
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every one. And there was Lord Hubert and Lord Rupert and Lord Francis,
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who were all handsome enough to make you feel as if you could faint.
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And there was their mother, the Duchess of tidy Shire. And of course
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there were all sorts of maids and footmen, and cooks and scullery maids and
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even gardeners. We never thought of living to see such grand society, said
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Peter Piper to his brother and sisters. It's quite kind of blessing. It's
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almost like being grand ourselves. Just to be able to watch them, said
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Meg and Peg and Kilmen'skegg, squeezing together and flattening their noses against the attic
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windows. They could see bits of the sumptuous white and gold drawing room,
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with the Duchess sitting near the fire, her golden glasses upon her nose,
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and Lady Gwendolen playing haughtily upon the harp, and Lady Muriel coldly listening to
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her. Lady Dorris was having her golden hair dressed by her maid in her
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bedroom, and Lord Hubert was reading the newspaper with a high bred air,
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while Lord Francis was writing letters to noblemen of his acquaintance, and Lord Rupert
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was in an aristocratic manner glancing over his love letters from ladies of title.
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End of Part one, Rackety Packetty House, Part two. Kilmen'skeag and Peter
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Piper just pinched each other with glee and squealed with delight. Isn't it fun?
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Said Peter Piper, I say, aren't they awful swells? But Lord
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Francis can't kick about it trousers as I can in mind, and neither can
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the others. I'd like to see them try to do this. And he
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turned three sumrsaults in the middle of the room and stood on his head on
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the biggest hole in the carpet, and wiggled his legs and wiggled his toes
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at them until they shouted so with laughing that ridiculous ran in with a saucepan
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in her hand and perspiration on her forehead because she was cooking turnips, which
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was all they had for dinner. You mustn't laugh so loud, she cried
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out. If we make so much noise, the tidy castle people will begin
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complaining of this being a little neighborhood, and they might insist on moving away.
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Oh scrump, said Peter Piper, who sometimes invented dull slang, though
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there wasn't really a bit of harm in him. I wouldn't have them move
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away for anything. They are meat and drink to me. They're going to
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have a dinner of ten courses, sighed ridic'lous. I can see them cooking
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it from my scullery window, and I have nothing but turnips to give you.
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Who cares, said Peter Piper. Let's have ten courses of turnips and
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pretend each course is exactly like the one they're having at the castle. I
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like turnips almost, but than anything almost, perhaps not quite, said Gustubus.
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I can eat ten courses of turnips like a shot. Let's go and
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find out what their courses are, said Meg and Peg and Kilmenskeg, And
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then we will write a menu on a piece of peak tissue paper. And
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if you'll believe it, that was what they did. They divided their turnips
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into ten courses, and they called the first horde vores, and the last
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ices with a French name. And Peter Piper kept jumping up from the table
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and pretending he was a footman, and flourishing about in his flapping rags of
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trousers, and announcing the names of the dishes in such a grand way that
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they laughed till they nearly died, and said they had never had such a
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splendid dinner in their lives, and they would rather live behind the door and
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watch the tidy Castle people than be the tidy Castle people themselves. And then,
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of course they all joined hands and danced round and round and kicked up
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their heels for joy, because they always did that whenever there was a least
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excuse for it, and quite often when there wasn't any at all, just
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because it was such good exercise, and worked off their high spirits so that
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they could settle down for a while. This was the way things went on
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after that day. They almost lived at their windows. They watched the tidy
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Castle family get up and be dressed by their maids and valets in different clothes.
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Almost every day. They saw them drive out in their carriages and have
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parties and go to balls. They on nearly had brain fever with delight the
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day they watched Lady Gwendolen and Lady Muriel and Lady Doris dressed in their court
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trains and feathers, going to be presented at the first drawing room. After
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the lovely creatures had gone, the whole family sat down in a circle round
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the rackety packety house library fire, and Ridiculous read aloud to them about drawing
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rooms out of the scrap of the ladies pictorial she had found. And after
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that they had a court drawing room of their own, and they made tissue
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paper trains and glass beat crowns of diamond tiaras, and sometimes Gustus pretended to
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be the royal family, and the others were presented to him and kissed his
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hand, and then the others took turns, and he was presented, And
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suddenly the most delightful thing occurred to Peter Piper. He thought it would be
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rather nice to make them all into lords and ladies. And he did it
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by touching them on the shoulder with the drawing room, which he had straightened,
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because it was so crooked it was almost meant double. It was not
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exactly the way such things are done at court, but Peter Piper thought it
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would do, and at any rate, it was great fun. So he
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made them all kneel down in a row, and he touched each on the
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shoulder with the poker, and said, rise up, Lady Meg, and
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Lady Peg, and Lady kilmen's Keg, and Lady ridic'liss of rackety packetty house,
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and also the right Honorable Lord Gustavus Rags. And they all jumped up
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at once and made bows and curtseyed to each other. But they made Peter
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Piper into a duke, and he was called the Duke of Tags. He
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knelt down on the big hole in the carpet, and each one of them
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gave him a little thump on the shoulder with the poker, because it took
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more thumps to make a duke than a common or garden lord. The day
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after this, another much more exciting event took place. The nurse was in
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a bad temper, and when she was tidying the nursery, she pushed the
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easy chair aside and saw rackety packety house. Oh, she said, there
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is that rackety packety old thing. Still I had forgotten it. It must
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be carried downstairs and burned. I will go and tell one of the footmen
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to come for it. Meg and Peg and Kilmenskegg were in their attic,
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and they all rushed out in such a hurry to get downstairs. As they
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rolled all the way down the staircase, and Peter Piper and Gustupus had to
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dart out of the drawing room and pick them up. Ridic'lus came staggering up
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from the kitchen, quite out of breath. Oh, our house is going
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to be burned. Our house is going to be burned, cried Meg and
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Peg, clutching their brothers. Let's go and throw ourselves out of the window,
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cried kilmen Skegg. I don't see how they can have the heart to
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burn a person's home, said ridic'lus, wiping her eyes with her kitchen duster.
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Peter Piper was rather pale, but he was extremely brave and remembered that
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he was the head of the family now, Lady Meg and Lady Peg and
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Lady Kilmenskeg. He said, let's all keep cool. We shall keep cool
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when they set our house on fire, said Gustubus. Peter Piper just snapped
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his fingers. Pooh, he said, We're only made of wood and it
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won't hurt a bit. We shall just snap and crackle and go off almost
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like fireworks, and then we shall be ashes and fly away into the air
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and see all sorts of things. Perhaps it may be more fun than anything
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we have done yet. But I'm nice old house. I'm nice, old
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rackety packety house, said ridic'lus. I do so love it. The kitchen
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is so convenient, even though the oven won't bake any more. And things
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looked most serious because the nurse was really beginning to push the arm chair away,
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but it would not move. And I will tell you why. One
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of my fairies, who had come down the chimney when they were talking,
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had called me, and I had come in a second with a whole army
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of my workers, And though the nurse couldn't see them, they were all
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holding the chair tight down on the carpet so that it would not stir.
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And I, Queen Cross patched myself, flew downstairs and made the footman remember
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that minute that a box had come for Cynthia, and that he must take
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it upstairs to her nursery. If I had not been on the spot,
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he would have forgotten it until it was too late. But just in the
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very nick of time, up he came and Cynthia sprang up as soon as
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she saw him. Oh, she cried, it must be the doll who
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broke her little leg and was sent to the hospital. It must be Lady
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Patsy. And she opened the box and gave a little scream of joy,
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for there lay Lady Patsy, her whole name was Patricia, in a lace
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frilled nightgown, with her lovely leg and bandages, and a pair of tiny
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crutches, and a trained nurse by her side. That was how I saved
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them that time. There was such excitement over Lady Patsy and her little crutches
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and her nurse that nothing else was thought of. And my fairies pushed the
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arm chair back, and a rackety packetty house was hidden and forgotten once more.
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The whole rackety packetty family gave a great gasp of joy and sat down
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in a ring, all at once on the floor, mopping their foreheads with
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anything they could get hold of. Peter Piper used, Naunty mac cassar.
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Oh, we are obliged to you, Queen cross Patch, he panted out.
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But these all arms all fire her upsetting you leave them to me,
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I said, and I'll attend to them. Tip, I commanded the fairy
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nearest me, you will have to stay here and be ready to give the
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alarm when anything threatens to happen. And I flew away, feeling I had
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done a good morning's work. Well, that was the beginning of a great
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many things, and many of them were connected with Lady Patsy, And but
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for me there might have been unpleasantness. Of course, the rackety packetty dolls
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forgot about their fright directly and began to enjoy themselves again as usual. That
21:08
was their way. They never sat up all night with trouble, Peter Piper
21:11
used to say, And I told him they were quite right. If you
21:15
make a fuss over trouble and put it to bed and nurse it and give
21:17
it beef tea and gruel, you can never get rid of it. Their
21:21
great delight now was Lady Patsy. They thought she was prettier than any of
21:25
the other tidy castle dolls. She neither turned her nose up, nor looked
21:29
down the bridge of it, nor laughed mockingly. She had dimples in the
21:32
corner of her mouth and long curly lashes, and her nose was saucy,
21:36
and her eyes were bright and full of laughs. She's the clever one of
21:40
the family, said Peter Piper. I'm sure of that. She was treated
21:42
as an invalid at first, of course, and kept in her room,
21:45
but they could see her sitting up in her frilled night gown. After a
21:49
few days, she was carried to a soft chair by the window, and
21:52
there she used to sit and look out, and the rackety packety dolls crowded
21:56
round their window and adored her. After after a few days, they noticed
22:00
that Peter Piper was often missing, and one morning ridic'lus went up into the
22:04
attic and found him sitting at a window all by himself and staring and staring.
22:08
Oh, duke, she said, you see, they always tried to
22:11
remember each other's titles. Dear me, duke, what are you doing here?
22:15
I'm looking at her, he answered, I'm in love. I fell
22:19
in love with her the minute Cynthia took her out of her box. I'm
22:22
going to marry her. But she's a lady of high degree, said ridic'lus,
22:26
quite alarmed. That's why she'll have me, said Peter Piper, in
22:29
his most cheerful manner. Ladies of high degree always married the good looking ones
22:33
in rags and tatters. If I had a whole suit of clothes on,
22:34
she wouldn't look at me. I'm very good looking, you know. And
22:38
he turned round and winked at Ridiculous in such a delightful, saucy way that
22:41
she suddenly felt as if he were a very good looking though she had never
22:45
thought of it before. Hullo, he said, all at once. I've
22:48
just thought of something to attract her attention. Where's the ball of string?
22:52
Cynthia's kitten had made them a present of a ball of string, which had
22:56
been most useful. Ridic'lous ran and got it, and all the others came
23:00
him upstairs to see what Peter Piper was going to do. They were all
23:03
delighted to hear he had fallen in love with the lovely, funny lady Patsy.
23:07
They found him standing in the middle of the attic and rolling the bowl
23:08
of string. What are you going to do, duke, they all shouted.
23:14
Just you watch, he said, and he began to make the string
23:15
into a rope ladder as fast as lightning. When he had finished it,
23:19
he fastened one end to a beam and swung the other end out of the
23:22
window. From her window, he said, she can see the rackety packety
23:26
house, and I'll tell you something, She's always looking at it. She
23:30
watches us as much as we watch her. And I've seen her giggling and
23:33
giggling. When we were having fun yesterday, when I chased Lady Meg and
23:36
Lady Peg and Lady kilmen'skeg round and round the front of the house and turned
23:38
somersault every five steps. She laughed until she got to stuff her handkerchief into
23:42
her mouth. When we joined hands and danced and laughed until we fell in
23:45
heaps, I thought she was going to have a kind of rosy, dimpled,
23:48
lovely little fit. She giggled. So if I ran down the side
23:52
of the house on this rope ladder, it will attract her attention, and
23:55
then I shall begin to do things. He ran down the ladder, and
23:59
that fair a minute. They saw Lady Patsy at her window give a start
24:02
and lean forward to look. They all crowded round their window and chuckled and
24:04
chuckled as they watched him. He turned three stately summersaults and stood on his
24:10
feet and made a cheerful bow. The rackety packety saw Lady Patsy begin to
24:15
giggle that minute. Then he took an anti macassar out of his pocket and
24:18
fastened it round the edge of his torn trouser leg, as if it were
24:22
laced trimming, and began to walk about like a duke, with his arms
24:25
folded over his chest and his ragged old hat cocked on one side over his
24:27
ear. Then the rackety packety saw Lady Patsy begin to laugh. Then Peter
24:33
Piper stood on his head and kissed his hand, and Lady Patsy covered her
24:37
face and rocked backwards and forwards in her chair, laughing and laughing. Then
24:41
he struck an attitude with his tattered leg, put forward gracefully, and he
24:45
pretended he had a guitar, and he sang right up at her window from
24:48
rackety packety house, I come. It stands, dear lady, in a
24:52
slum, a low, low slum. Behind the door, the stout armchair
24:56
is placed before. Just take a look at it, my lady. The
25:00
house itself is a perfect sight, and everybody's dressed like a perfect fright.
25:06
But no one cares a single jot, and each one giggles over his lot.
25:10
And as for me, I'm in love with you. I can't make
25:12
up another verse, and if I did, it would be worse. But
25:17
I could stand and sing all day if I could think of things to say.
25:19
But the fact is I just wanted to make you look at me.
25:23
And then he danced such a lively jing that his rags and tatters flew about
25:26
him. And then he made another bow and kissed his hand again, and
25:30
ran up the ladder like a flash, and jumped into the attic. After
25:33
that, Lady Patty sat at her window all the time and would not let
25:37
the trained nurse put her to bed at all, and Lady Gwendolen and Lady
25:41
Muriel and Lady Doris could not understand it. Once, Lady Gwendolen said,
25:45
haughtily and disdainfully and scornfully and scathingly, if you sit there so much there's
25:49
little rackety packetty house, people will think you are looking at them. I
25:53
am, said Lady Patty, showing all her dimples at once. They are
25:57
such fun. And Lady Wwindolin swooned haughtily away, and the trained nurse could
26:02
scarcely restore her. When the castle dolls drove out or walked in their garden.
26:07
The instant they caught sight of one of the rackedy packete's, they turned
26:11
up their noses and sniffed aloud, and several times the Duchess said she would
26:15
remove because the neighborhood was absolutely low. They all scorned the rackety packete's.
26:19
They just scorned them. One moonlight night, Lady Patsy was sitting at her
26:25
window and he heard a whistle in the garden. When she peeped out carefully,
26:30
there stood Peter Piper waving his ragged cap at her, and he had
26:33
his rope ladder under his arm. Hello, he whispered as loud as he
26:37
could. Could you catch a bit of rope if I threw it up to
26:38
you? Yes, she whispered back. Then catch this, he whispered again.
26:44
And he threw up the end of a string, and she caught it
26:45
in the first throw. It was fastened to the rope ladder. Now pull,
26:48
he said. She pulled and pulled until the rope ladder reached her window,
26:52
and then she fastened to a hook that ran under the sill. And
26:56
the first thing that happened, just like lightning, was that Peter Piper ran
26:59
up the ladder and leaned over her window. Ledge, will you marry me?
27:03
He said? I haven't anything to give you to eat, and I'm
27:04
as ragged as a scarecrow. But will you end of Part two Racketty Packety
27:11
House, Part three. She clapped her little hands. I eat very little,
27:18
she said, and I would do without anything at all if I could
27:21
only live in your funny, old shabby house. It is a ridiculous tumble
27:26
down old barn, isn't it, he said? But every one of us
27:29
is as nice as we can be. We are perfect Turkish delights. It's
27:33
laughing the does it. Would you like to come down the ladder and see
27:36
what a jolly shabby old hole the place is? Oh, do take me,
27:40
said Lady Patsy. So he helped her down the ladder and took her
27:44
under the armchair and into Rackety Packety House, and Meg and Peg and kilmen'skeg
27:48
and Ridiculous and Gustibus all crowded round her and gave little screams of joy at
27:52
the sight of her. They were afraid to kiss her at first, even
27:56
though she was engaged to Peter Piper. She was so pretty and her frock
28:00
had so much lace on it that they were afraid their old rags might spoil
28:03
her, but she did not care about her lace, and flew at them
28:06
and kissed and hugged them, every one. I have so wanted to come
28:10
here, she said. It's so dull that the castle. I had to
28:11
break my leg just to get a change. The Duchess sits reading near the
28:15
fire with her gold eyeglasses on her nose, and Lady Gwendolen plays haughtily on
28:19
the harp, and Lady Muriel coldly listens to her, and Lady Doris is
28:23
always laughing mockingly, and Lord Hubert reads the newspaper with the high bred air,
28:27
and Lord Francis writes letters to noblemen of his acquaintance, and Lord Rupert
28:32
glances over his love letters from ladies of title in an aristocratic manner, until
28:36
I could scream. Just to see you DearS, dancing about in your rags
28:40
and tatters, and laughing and inventing games as if you didn't mind anything.
28:44
Such a relief. She nearly laughed her little curly head off when they went
28:48
all round the house with her, and Peter Piper showed her the holes and
28:51
the carpet and the stuffing coming out of the sofas, and the feathers out
28:53
of the beds, and the legs tumbling off the chairs. She had never
28:56
seen anything like it before at the castle. Well, nothing is funny at
29:00
all, she said, And nothing ever sticks out or hangs down or tumbles
29:03
off. It's so plain and new. But I think we ought to tell
29:07
her. Duke Ridicklus said we may have our house burned over our heads any
29:11
day. She really stopped laughing for a whole minute when she heard that,
29:15
But she was rather like Peter Piper in disposition, and she said almost immediately,
29:19
Oh, they'll never do it, they've forgotten you. And Peter Piper
29:22
said, don't, let's thick of it. Let's all join hands and dance
29:26
round and round and kick up our heels and laugh as hard as ever we
29:27
can. And they did, and Lady Patsy laughed harder than anyone else.
29:33
After that, she was always stealing away from tidy castle and coming in and
29:36
having fun. Sometimes she stayed all night and slept with Meg and Peg,
29:41
and everybody invented new games and stories, and they really never went to bed
29:44
until daylight. But the castle dolls grew more and more scornful every day and
29:48
tossed their heads higher and higher, and sniffed louder and louder, until it
29:53
sounded as if they all had influenza. They never lost an opportunity of saying
29:57
disdainful things. And once the Duchess wrote a letter to Cynthia saying that she
30:02
insisted on removing to a decent neighborhood. She laid the letter in her desk,
30:06
but the gentleman mouse came in the night and carried it away, so
30:08
Cynthia never saw it. And I don't believe she could have read it if
30:11
she had seen it, because the Duchess wrote very badly, even for a
30:15
doll. And then what do you suppose happened? One morning Cynthia began to
30:22
play that all the tidy Castle dolls had scarlet fever. She said it had
30:25
broken out in the night, and she undressed them all and put them into
30:27
bed and gave them medicine. She could not find Lady Patsy, so she
30:32
escaped the contagion. The truth was that Lady Patsy had stayed all night at
30:36
Rackety Packetty House, where they were giving an imitation court ball with Peter Piper
30:38
in a tin crown and shavings for supper, because they had nothing else,
30:42
and in fact, the gentleman Mouse had brought the shavings from his nest as
30:45
a present. Cynthia played nearly all day, and the Duchess and Lady Gwendolen
30:49
and Lady Muriel and Lady Doris, and Lord Hubert and Lord Francis and Lord
30:52
Rupert got worse and worse. By evening they were all raging in delirium,
30:57
and Lord Francis and Lady Gwendolen had strong mustard plasters on their chests. And
31:03
right in the middle of their agony, Cynthia suddenly got up and went away
31:07
and left them to their fate, just as if it didn't matter in the
31:08
least. Well, in the middle of the night, Meg and Peg and
31:11
Lady Patsy wakened all at once. Do you hear noise? Said Meg,
31:15
lifting her head from her ragged old pillow. Yes I do, said Peg,
31:19
sitting up and holding her ragged blanket up to her chin. Lady Patsy
31:23
jumped up, with feathers sticking up all over her hair because they had come
31:26
out of the holes in the ragged old bed. She ran to the window
31:30
and listened oh, Meg and Peg, she cried out, it comes from
31:33
the castle. Cynthia has left them all raving and delirium, and they are
31:37
all shouting and groaning and screaming. Meg and Peg jumped up too. Let's
31:41
go and call Kilmen'skegg and Ridic'lus and Gustabus and Peter Piper, they said,
31:45
And they rushed down the staircase and met Kilmen'skegg and ridic'lous and Gustibus and Peter
31:49
Piper coming scrambling up panting because the noise had wakened them as well. They
31:53
were all over at Tidy Castle in a minute. They just tumbled over each
31:56
other to get there. The kind hearted things. The servants were, every
32:00
one fast asleep. Though the noise was awful. The loudest groans came from
32:04
Lady Gwendolen and Lord Francis because their mustard plasters were blistering them. Frightfully,
32:08
Ridic'lus took charge because she was the one who knew most about illness. She
32:13
sent Gustibus to waken the servants, and then ordered hot water and cold water
32:15
and ice and brandy and poultices, and shook the trained nurse for not attending
32:20
to her business and took off the mustard plasters and gave gruel and broths and
32:23
cough syrup and castor oil and ipecacuanha, and every one of the rackety packety's
32:28
massaged and soothed and patted and put wet clothes on heads until the fever was
32:34
gone, and the castle dolls all lay back on their pillows, pale and
32:37
weak, but smiling faintly at every rackety packety they saw. Instead of turning
32:40
up their noses and tossing their heads and sniffing loudly and just scorning them,
32:45
Lady Gwendolen spoke first, and instead of being haughty and disdainful, she was
32:49
as humble as a new born kitten. Oh you dear, shabby, disrespectable
32:53
darling things, she said. Never never will I scorn you again. Never
32:58
never, that's right, said Peter Piper, in his cheerful, rather slangy
33:01
way. You take my tip, never scorn any one again. It's a
33:05
mistake. Just watch me stand on my head. It'll cheer you up.
33:07
And he turned six somersaults just like lightning, and stood on his head and
33:12
wiggled his ragged legs at them until Suddenly they heard a snort from one of
33:15
the beds, and it was Lord Hubert beginning to laugh, And then Lord
33:16
Francis laughed, and then Lord Hubert shouted, and then Lady dor squealed,
33:21
and Lady Muriel screamed, and Lady Gwendolen. Then the Duchess rolled over and
33:24
over in their beds, laughing as if they would have fits. Oh,
33:29
you delightful, funny, shabby old loves. Lady Gwendolen kept saying, to
33:34
think that we scorned you. They'll be all right after this, said Peter
33:37
Piper. There's nothing cure scarlet fever like cheering up. Let's all join heads
33:42
and dance round and round once for them before we go back to bed.
33:45
It'll throw them into a nice like perspiration and they'll drop off and sleep like
33:50
tops. And they did it, and before they had finished, the whole
33:52
lot of them were perspiring gently and snoring as softly as lambs. When they
33:58
went back to rackety packety house, they talked a good deal about Cynthia and
34:00
wondered and wondered why she had left her scarlet fever. So suddenly, and
34:05
at last, ridic'lus made up her mind to tell them something she had heard.
34:08
The Duchess told me, she said rather slowly, because it was bad
34:13
news. The Duchess said that Cynthia went away because her mamma had sent for
34:16
her, and her mamma had sent for her to tell her that a little
34:20
girl princess is coming to see her tomorrow. Cynthia's mammy used to be a
34:23
maid of honor to the queen, and that's why the little girl princess is
34:27
coming, the Duchess said, And here ridiculous spoke very slowly. Indeed,
34:32
that the nurse was so excited. She said she didn't know whether she stood
34:36
on her head or on her heels. And she was tidy up the nursery.
34:39
And to have that ragckety packet the old doll's house carried downstairs and burned
34:43
early tomorrow morning, that's what the Duchess said. Meg and Peg and Kilmen's
34:46
kegg clutched at their hearts and gasped, and Gustopus groaned, and Lady Patsy
34:52
caught Peter Piper by the arm to keep him from falling. Peter Piper gulped,
34:55
and then he had a sudden cheerful thought, perhaps she was raving in
34:59
deliver he said, No, she wasn't, said ridic'lus, shaking her head.
35:04
I had just given her hot water and cold and gruel and broth and
35:07
castor oil, and I peck a kouana and put ice almost all over her.
35:12
She was as sensible as any of us. Tomorrow morning, we shall
35:14
not have any house over our heads. And she put her ragged old apron
35:16
over her face and cried. If she wasn't raving in delirium, said Peter
35:22
Piper, we shall not have any heads. You had better go back to
35:24
the castle to night, Patsy, raggedy, packety house is no place for
35:28
you. Then Lady Patsy drew herself up so straight that she nearly fell over
35:31
backwards. I will never leave you, she said, and Peter Piper couldn't
35:37
make her. You can just imagine what a doleful night it was. They
35:42
went all over the house together and looked at every hole in the carpet,
35:45
and every piece of stuffing sticking out of the dear old shabby sofas, and
35:47
every broken window and chair leg and table and ragged blanket, and the tears
35:52
ran down their faces for the first times in their lives. About six o'clock
35:55
in the morning. Peter Piper made a last effort. That's so, we'll
36:00
join hands in a circle, he said, quite faintly, and dance round
36:04
and round once more. But it was no use. When they joined hands,
36:07
they could not dance. And when they found that they could not dance,
36:09
they all tumbled down in a heap and cried instead of laughing, And
36:13
Lady Patty lay with her arms round Peter Piper's neck. Now Here is where
36:16
I come in again, Queen Crosspatch, who is telling you the story?
36:21
I always come in just at the nick of time, when people like the
36:23
Rackety Packetys are in trouble. I walked in at seven o'clock. Get up
36:28
off the floor, I said to them all, and they got up and
36:30
stared at me. They actually thought I did not know what had happened.
36:35
A little girl princess is coming this morning, said Peter Piper, and our
36:37
house is going to be burned over our heads. This is the end of
36:39
Rackety Packety house. No it isn't, I said, you leave this to
36:44
me. I told the princess to come, though she doesn't know it in
36:46
the least. A whole army of my working fairies began to swarm in at
36:51
the nursery window. The nurse was working very hard to put things in order,
36:54
and she had not sense enough to see fairies at all, so she
36:58
did not see mine, though there were hundreds of them. As soon as
37:00
she made one corner tidy, they ran after her and made it untidy.
37:04
They held her back by her dress and hung and swung on a rapron until
37:07
she could scarcely move, and kept wondering why she was so slow. She
37:09
could not make the nursery tidy. As she was so flurried she forgot all
37:13
about Rackedy packetty house again, especially as my working fairies pushed the arm chair
37:16
close up to it so it was quite hidden. And there it was when
37:21
the little girl Princess came with her ladies in waiting. My fairies had only
37:24
just allowed the nurse to finish the nursery. Meg and Peg and Kilmut's Gag
37:29
and Ridiculous and Gustibus and Peter Piper and Lady Patsy were all huddled up together
37:32
looking out one window. They could not bear to be parted. I sat
37:37
on the arm of the big chair and ordered my working fairies to stand ready
37:40
to obey me the instant I spoke. The princess was a nice child and
37:44
very polite to Cynthia when she showed her all her dolls, and last,
37:46
but not least, tidy castle itself. She looked at all the rooms and
37:51
the furniture and said polite and admiring things about each of them. But Cynthia
37:54
realized she was not so much interested in it as she had thought she would
37:58
be. The fact was that the princess had so many grand doll's houses in
38:01
her palace that tidy castle did not surprise her at all. It was just
38:06
when Cynthia was finding this out that I gave the order to my work,
38:08
and the fairies push the arm chair away, I commanded, and very slowly,
38:13
so that no one will know it is being moved. So they moved
38:15
it away, very very slowly, and no one saw that it had stirred.
38:21
But the next minute the little girl princess gave a delightful start. Oh
38:23
what is that? She cried, hurrying towards the unfashionable neighborhood behind the door.
38:29
Cynthia blushed all over, and the nurse actually turned pale. The rackety
38:32
packetyes tumbled down in a heap beneath their window, and began to say their
38:36
prayers very fast. It's only a shabby old doll's house, your highness,
38:39
Cynthia stammered out. It belonged to my grandmamma, and it ought not to
38:44
be in the nursery. I thought you had hadn't burned, nurse burned,
38:46
The little girl princess cried out in the most shocked way. Why if it
38:51
was mine, I wouldn't have it burned for worlds. Oh, please push
38:54
the chair away and let me look at it. There are no dolls houses
38:58
like it anywhere in these days. And when the arm chair was pushed aside,
39:01
she scrambled down on her knees, just as if she were not a
39:04
little girl princess at all. Oh, oh, oh, she said,
39:07
how funny and dear, what a darling old doll's house. It is shabby,
39:10
and one's mending, of course, but it's almost exactly like one my
39:14
grandmamma had she kept in among her treasures, and only let me look at
39:16
it as a great great treat. Cynthia gave a gasp. For the little
39:22
girl princesses grandmamma had been the queen and people had knelt down and kissed her
39:24
hand, and been obliged to go out of the room backwards before her.
39:29
The little girl Princess was simply filled with joy. She picked up Meg and
39:32
Peg and Kilmut's Keg and Gustavus and Peter Piper as if they had really been
39:36
a queen's dolls. Oh, the darling dear, she said, just look
39:39
at their nice queer faces, and their funny clothes, just just like Grandmamma's
39:45
dolly's clothes. Only these poor things do want new ones. So oh how
39:50
I should like to dress them again just as they used to be dressed,
39:52
and have the whole house all made up just as it used to be when
39:55
it was new, that old raggety paggety house, said Cynthia, losing her
40:00
breath. If it were mine, I should make it just like Grandmamma's,
40:04
and I should love it more than any other doll's house I had. I
40:07
never, never, never saw anything as nice and laughing and good natured as
40:10
these dolls faces. They look as if they had been having fun ever since
40:15
they were born. Oh, if you burned them in their home, I
40:17
could never forgive you. I I never will your Highness stammered Cynthia, quite
40:23
overwhelmed. Suddenly she started forward. Why there is the lost doll, she
40:28
cried out, there is Lady Patsy. How did she get back into rackety
40:30
Packetty House. Perhaps she went there to see them because they were so poor
40:35
and shabby, said the little girl princess. Perhaps she likes this one,
40:38
and she pointed to Peter Piper. Do you know when I picked him up,
40:42
their arms were about each other. Please let her stay with him?
40:45
Oh, she cried out the next instant and jumped a little. I felt
40:49
as if the boy one was kicking his leg. And it was actually true,
40:52
because Peter Piper could not help it, and he had kicked out his
40:55
ragged leg for joy. He had to be very careful not to kick any
40:59
more when he heard what happened next. As the princess liked Raggedy Packetty House
41:02
so much, Cynthia gave it to her for a present, And the princess
41:07
was really happy. And before she went away, she made a little speech
41:09
to the whole rackety packetty family, whom she had set all in a row
41:13
in the ragged old, dear, old, shabby old drawing room. Where
41:15
they had had so much fun. You are going to come and live with
41:19
me, funny, good natured loves, she said, And you shall all
41:22
be dressed beautifully again, and your house shall be mended and papered and painted
41:25
and made as lovely as ever it was. And I'm going to like you
41:29
better than all my other dolls houses, just as Grandmama said she liked hers.
41:32
And then she was gone, and every bit of it came true.
41:37
Rackety Packety House was carried to a splendid nursery in a palace, and Meg
41:40
and Peg and Kilmut's Gag and ridic'lus and Gustumus and Peter Piper were made so
41:45
gorgeous that if they had not been so nice, they would have grown proud,
41:49
but they didn't. They only grew jollier and Jollier and Peter Piper married
41:52
Lady Patsy, and Ridiculous's left leg was mended, and she was painted into
41:55
a beauty again, But she always remained a useful one. And the dolls
42:00
in the other dolls houses used to make deep curtsies when a rockety packety house
42:04
doll passed them, and Peter Piper could scarcely stand it. Because it always
42:07
made him want to stand on his head and laugh. And so when they
42:09
were curtsied at because they were related to the Royal Doll's house, they used
42:13
to run into their drawing room and fall into fits of giggles. And they
42:15
could only stop them by all joining hands together in a ring and dancing round
42:20
and round and round, and kicking up their heels and laughing until they tumbled
42:22
down in a heap. And what do you think of that for a story?
42:27
And doesn't it prove to you what a valuable friend a fairy is,
42:30
particularly a queen one, surly tim part one, Sorry to hear my fellow
42:39
workmen speak so disparaging of me. Well, mester, that's as it may
42:45
be. You know, happened my fellow workmen, and made a bit of
42:47
mistake, happen what seemed like crustiness to them, being so much crostiness as
42:52
somebody else happen. I might do my own bit of complaining too. You
42:58
might not trust all your ear, miss, That's all I can say.
43:02
I looked at the man's bent face quite curiously, and judging from its rather
43:07
heavy but still not unprepossessing outline, I could not really call it a bad
43:13
face, or even a sulky one. And yet both managers and hands had
43:17
given me a bad account of Tim Hibblethwaite. Surly Tim, they called him,
43:23
and each had something to say about his sullen disposition to silence and his
43:28
short answers. Not that he was accused of anything like misdemeanor, but he
43:32
was glum, like the factory people said, and a sorly fellow, well
43:39
deserving his name, As the master of the room had told me, I
43:44
had come to Lancashire to take control of my father's spinning factory a short time
43:49
before, being anxious to do my best towards the hands, and I often
43:53
talked to one and another in a friendly way, so that I could better
43:58
understand their grievances and remedy them with justice to all parties concerned. So in
44:04
conversing with men, women and children, I gradually found out that Tim Hibbelothwhite
44:08
was in bad odor, and that he held himself doggedly aloof from all.
44:14
And this was how, in the course of time I came to speak to
44:16
him about the matter. And the opening words of my story are the words
44:22
of his answer. But they did not satisfy me. By any means,
44:25
I wanted to do the man justice myself and see that justice was done to
44:30
him by others. And then again, when after my curious look at him,
44:35
he lifted his head from his work and drew the back of his hand
44:37
across his warm face, I noticed that he gave his eyes a brush,
44:42
and glancing at him once more, I recognized that the presence of a moisture
44:45
in them. In my anxiety to conceal that I had noticed anything unusual,
44:51
I am afraid I spoke to him quite hurriedly. I was a young man
44:54
then, and by no means as self possessed as I ought to have been.
45:00
You won't misunderstand me, hibbileth Wait, I said, I don't mean
45:04
to complain. Indeed, I have nothing to complain of, for Foxley tells
45:07
me you're the steadiest and most orderly hand he has under him. But the
45:12
fact is I should like to make friends with you all and see that no
45:15
one is treated badly. And somehow or other I found out that you were
45:21
not disposed to feel friendly toward the rest, and I was sorry for it.
45:24
But I suppose you have some reason of your own. The man bent
45:29
down over his work again, silent for a minute, to my discomfiture,
45:32
but at last he spoke, almost huskily. Thank you, mister, he
45:37
said, you're a kindly chapel. You wouldn't have noticed, and you're not
45:42
for wrong either. I have reasoned my own, though I like to keep
45:45
them to myself most the times. The fellows as throws their slurs on me,
45:50
would not understand him if I will like to gab, which I never
45:53
wore. But happen the time will come when surly Tim will tell his own
45:59
tale, though I often think it's like it won't not come till the day
46:02
of judgment. I hope it comes before then, I said cheerfully. I
46:07
hope the time is not far away when we shall all understand you. Hibbleth
46:09
wait. I think it's been misunderstanding so far which has separated you from the
46:15
rest, and it cannot last always, you know. But he shook his
46:19
head, not after a surly fashion, but as I thought, a trifle
46:22
sadly or heavily. So I did not ask any more questions or try to
46:27
force the subject upon him. But I noticed him pretty closely as time went
46:30
on, and the more I saw of him, the more fully I was
46:35
convinced that he was not so surly as people imagined. He never interfered with
46:39
the most active of his enemies, nor made any reply when they taunted him,
46:45
And more than once I saw him perform a silent, half secret act
46:49
of kindness. Once I caught him throwing half his dinner to a wretched little
46:52
lad who had just come to the factory and worked near him. And once
46:58
again, as I was leaving the building on a rainy night, I came
47:00
upon him on the stone steps at the door, bending down with an almost
47:05
pathetic clumsiness to pin the woolen shawl of a poor little mite, who,
47:10
like so many others, worked with her shiftless father and mother to add to
47:15
their weekly earnings. It was always the poorest and least cared for of the
47:20
children whom he seemed to befriend, and very often I noticed that, even
47:24
when he was kindness in his awkward man fashion, the little waives were afraid
47:30
of him and showed their fear plainly. The factory was situated on the outskirts
47:35
of a thriving country town near Manchester, and at the end of the lane
47:40
that led from it to the more thickly populated part. There was a path
47:45
crossing a field to the pretty church and churchyard, and this path was a
47:50
short cut homeward for me. Being so pretty and quiet, the place had
47:54
a sort of attraction for me, and I was in the habit of frequently
47:58
passing through it on my way, partly because it was pretty and quiet,
48:02
and partly because I have no doubt, because I was inclined to be weak
48:07
and melancholy at the time, my health being broken down under hard study.
48:12
It so happened that in passing here one night, and glancing in among the
48:15
graves and marble monuments as usual, I caught sight of a dark figure sitting
48:21
upon a little mound under a tree and resting its head upon its hands.
48:25
And in this sad looking figure I recognized the muscular outline of my friend,
48:31
Surly Tim. He did not see me at first, and I was almost
48:37
inclined to think it best to leave him alone. But as I half turned
48:40
away, he stirred with something like a faint moan, and then lifted his
48:45
head and saw me standing in the bright, clear moonlight. Who's there,
48:51
he said, dost thou want out? It's only doncast he will wait.
48:55
I returned as I sprangled with a low stone wall to join him. What
49:00
is the matter, old fellow, I thought I heard you groan just now.
49:05
You might have done, mister, he answered, heavily happened? But
49:07
did I? I dunno myself. Not the matter, though, as I
49:13
knows on only, I'm a bit out of thoughts. He turned his head
49:16
aside slightly and began to pull out the blades of grass on the mound,
49:21
and all at once I saw that his hand was trembling nervously. It was
49:25
almost three minutes before he spoke again. That and belongs to me, he
49:31
said, suddenly at last, pointing to a longer mound at his feet,
49:35
and this little un signifying with an indescribable gesture, the small one upon which
49:40
he sat. Poor fellow, I said, I see now a little lad
49:45
o mine, he said, slowly and tremulously, A little lad o mine
49:51
man and his mother what I exclaimed, I never knew that you were a
49:55
married man. Tim He dropped his head upon his hand, again, still
50:00
pulling nervously at the grass with the other. The law says, I beant,
50:04
master, he answered, in a painful, strained fashion. I couldnt
50:08
tell myself what God Almighty d say about it. I don't understand. I
50:14
faltered. You don't mean to say the poor girl never was your wife,
50:17
Hibblethwaite, That's what the law says. Slowly, I fought different, my
50:23
son, and so did the poor lass. That's what's the matter, Mester,
50:29
that's the trouble. The other nervous hand went up to his bent face
50:31
for a minute and hid it. But I did not speak. There was
50:36
so much of strange grief in his simple movement that I felt words would be
50:40
out of place. It was not my dogged, inexplicable hand who was sitting
50:46
before me in the bright moonlight on the baby's grave. It was a man
50:51
with a hidden history of some tragic sorrow, long kept secret in his homely
50:55
breast, perhaps a history very few of us could read or write. I
51:00
would not question him, though I fancied he meant to explain himself. I
51:06
knew that if he was willing to tell me the truth, it was best
51:08
that he should choose his own time for it, And so I let him
51:13
alone. And before I had waited very long, he broke the silence himself,
51:19
as I had thought he would. It were welly about six years ago,
51:23
I come here, he said, more or less. Welly about six
51:27
years. I were a quiet chap then mester, and had not many friends.
51:31
But i'd mourn I am now happened. I were better natured, but
51:37
just as Lloyke, I were lighter hearted. But that's not to do with
51:40
it. I had not been h more than a week when there come a
51:45
young woman to mind the loom in the next room to me. And this
51:49
young woman, being pretty and modest, takes my fancy. She were not
51:53
like the rest of the wench's loud talking and slattered ill ways. She we
51:59
was just quiet like and no else. First time I seed her, I
52:02
says to my son, there's a lass at seed trouble. And somehow every
52:07
time I seed her after, I says to my son, there's a lass
52:12
at seed trouble. It were ear awrye. She had a soft like brown
52:16
eye, mister, and it were eer voice her Her voice were soft like
52:21
too. I sometimes thought it were plain to be seed, even eer dress.
52:25
If she'd been born a lady, she'd have been one of fine sort.
52:30
And as she'd been born a factory lass, she wore one of a
52:32
fine sort. Still, so I took to watching her and trying to make
52:37
friends wear, but I never had much luck were till one need. I
52:40
was going home through the snow, and I seed her afore tightened the drift.
52:45
We're not but a thin shawl o'er a head. And so I goes
52:50
up behind her, and I says to her steady and respectful, so she
52:52
wouldn't be a feared I says, las, let me see thee home.
52:58
It's bad weather for thee to be out in, by thy sin, take
53:00
my coat and wrap thee up in it, and take hold o my arm,
53:05
and let me help thee along. She looks up right straight forward in
53:08
my face with her brown eyes, and I tell you, mister, I
53:12
were glad I were an honest man stead of a rascal for them quiet eyes
53:16
erda found me out before i'd a done. Sayin my say if i'd a
53:21
meant harm, thank you kindly, Master hibbileth Wait, she says, But
53:27
do not take off the coat for me. I'm doing pretty nicely. It
53:30
is mister hibbileth Wait. Mean't it ay alas I answers, it's him mort
53:37
i ax yer name ay, to be sure, said she. My name's
53:40
Rosanna Sannah Brent. The folk at the mill all us cold me. I
53:45
work a p loom in next room to thine. I've seed thee often and
53:49
often so we walks home to her lodgin's, and on the way we talks
53:53
together, friendly and quiet like. And the more we talks, the more
53:58
sees she's had trouble. And by and by beIN only common workin folk were
54:02
straightforward to each other in our plain way, it comes out what her trouble
54:07
has been. You'll perhaps wouldn't think I've been a married woman, mister,
54:12
she says, bra Hah, And I wedded and rude and married a soldier
54:16
when I were a giddy young wench four years ago, and it were the
54:21
worst thing as ever I did in all my days. He were one of
54:23
your handsome, fastest chaps. And he tired o me as many of his
54:28
stripe always do, tire o poor lasses. And then he ill treated me.
54:32
He went to the crimea after we'd been wedd a year and left me
54:37
to shift and myself, and I heard six months after he were dead.
54:40
He never ricked back to me, nor sent me no help. But I
54:44
could not think he were dead till the letter come he would kill the first
54:47
month he were out fighting the Rusians, poor fellow, poor phil blaw and
54:52
mercy on him. And that were how I found out about her trouble,
54:57
And somehow it seemed to draw me to her and make me feel kindly towards
55:01
her. Twas so pitiful to hear her talk about the rascal, so sorrowful
55:07
and gentle, and not give a real hard word for what he done.
55:10
But that's all yus the way wi woman folk, the more you're harry of
55:15
them, the more they pity yo and pray for you. Why she want
55:19
o more than twenty two? Then she must have been naught but a slippable
55:22
alas when they were wed. How sever Rosanna Breadt and me got to be
55:27
good friends, and we walked home together at nights and talked about our bits
55:31
of wage and our bits of dead, and the way that wind should keep
55:35
up her spirits when I were a bit down arded about out, were just
55:38
a wonder. She was so quiet and steady, and when she set out,
55:43
she meant it, and she never said too much or too little.
55:45
Her brown eyes always reminded me of my mother, though the old woman deed
55:51
when I would know but a little chap, but I never seed Santabrand's smiled.
55:54
I'll thinking o how my mother looked when I were kneeling down sayin my
55:59
prayers, and being as the last word so dear to me, I made
56:02
up my mind to axe her to be somewhat dearer. So once going home
56:07
along weer, I takes older hand and lifts it up and kisses it gentle,
56:12
as gentle as were somewhat the same feelin' as I'd kissed the good book.
56:15
Sannah, I says, Being as you've had so much trouble with your
56:20
first chance, would you be afeared to try a second? Could you trust
56:24
a man again, such a man as me, Sannah, I wouldn't be
56:29
feared to trust thee. Tim She answers back, soft and gentle, after
56:32
a manner, I would not be feared to trust THEE. Any time I
56:37
kisses her hand again, gentler, still, God blessed thee, less,
56:40
I says, Does that mean yes? She crept up closer to me her
56:45
sweet quiet way. Aye, lad, She answers. It means yes,
56:50
And I'll bide by it, and thou shalt never rue it. Last said
56:52
I that's given thy life to me, and I'll give mine to THEE.
56:57
Sure and true. So we asked if a church the next Sunday and the
57:02
month for then we were wed. And if ever a God's son shone on
57:07
a happy man, it shone on one that day when we come out of
57:12
church together, me and Rosanna, and went to our bit of a home
57:15
to begin life again. I could not tell thee, mister, THEE beat
57:20
no words to tell how happy and peaceful we live. For two years after
57:24
that, my last never altered her sweet ways, and I just loved her
57:29
to make up to her for what had gone by. I thank God Almighty
57:34
for his blessing every day, and every day I pray to be made worthy
57:37
of it. And here's just where I'd like to ask a question, mister,
57:43
about some AD's worried me a good deal. I don't want to question
57:49
the maker, but I would like to know how it is at. Sometimes
57:52
it seems as we're clean, forgot, as if he could not fash histen
57:58
about our troubles, and most like left them to work out their sins.
58:02
Yo, see mester, and we all see. Sometimes he thinks on us
58:07
and gives us a lift, but has not thy thy sins seen times when
58:10
thou stopped short and axed, thy send, Where's God Almighty? At e
58:16
is' streatent? Things out a bit? The world's a power of snarl,
58:22
the righteous is forsaken in his seeds, beggin bread, and the devil's topmost
58:27
Again. I've talked to my Lass about it sometimes, and I dunnot think
58:30
I meant harm Mester, for I felt humble enough. And when I talked
58:36
my Lass, she'd listen and smile soft and sorrowful. But she never give
58:40
me but one answer, surly Tim Part two Tim. She'd say, this
58:50
is only the school and where the scholars, and he's teaching us his way.
58:55
We might not be like the children. Always real I the wilderness and
59:00
turn away from the cross coss of a serpent. We mun not say there
59:05
is a snake. We mun say there's the cross, and the Lord's give
59:08
it to us. The teacher wouldn't be a much use to him if the
59:13
scholars knew as much as he did. And I always think it's the best
59:16
to comfort my son with saying the Lord Almighty he knows and she all.
59:23
He has comforted me too. When I were worded, life looked smooth.
59:28
Somehow them three year happened, the Lord send him to me to make up
59:32
for what were comin. At the end of the first year the child were
59:37
born. The little lad here touching the turf with his hand, wee what
59:42
he his mother caught him, and he wore a fine, lightsome little chap.
59:47
He filled the whole house with music day in and day out, croan
59:52
and crowing and crying too sometime. But if ever you're a feather mister,
59:58
you find out at a baby's cry music often enough, and you'll find too,
1:00:02
if you'll ever lose one, and you give all you'd getting just to
1:00:07
hear even the worst a cryin' Rosanna, she couldna find ear her heart to
1:00:13
set a little one out of her arms a minute, and she'd go about
1:00:16
the room, where eyes all leading up, and her face bloomin' like a
1:00:21
slip o'er girl's. And if she laid him ill a cradle, her head
1:00:24
'd be turned o'er her shoulder all the time, lookin at him, and
1:00:29
singing bits of sweet soundin foolish women folks songs. I thought then at them
1:00:34
old nursery songs were the happiest music I ever heard. And when Sanna sung
1:00:38
em, they minded me a hymn tunes well mester. Before the spring were
1:00:44
out, we wat was toddling round, holding to his mother's gown. And
1:00:49
by the middle or next year he was cooing like a dove and prattling words
1:00:53
er a voice like hers. His eyes were big an brown, and straightforward
1:00:58
like hers, and his mind was like hers, and his curls were the
1:01:01
color o'er brown. Bee's back happened we set too much store by him,
1:01:07
or happen it were only the teacher again teaching us his way. But however
1:01:10
that were. I came home one sunny morning from the factory, and my
1:01:15
dear last met me at the door, all white and cold, but tryin
1:01:19
hard to be brave and help me to bear what she had to tell.
1:01:22
Tim said she, the Lord has sent us a trouble, but we can
1:01:27
bear it together. Conner, we dear lad That were all, but I
1:01:30
knew what it meant. Though the poor little lamb had been well enough when
1:01:34
I kissed him last. I went in and saw him lying there on his
1:01:37
pillows, struggling and gasping in hard convulsions, and I seed all was over,
1:01:44
and in half an hour. Just as the sun crept across the room
1:01:47
and touched his curls, the pretty little chap opens his eyes or at once,
1:01:52
Daddy, he crows out sit he daddy, and he lifts himself up
1:01:57
and catches at the floating sunshine, laughs at it, and falls back dead.
1:02:01
Mister, I've always thought at the Lord Almighty knew what he were doin
1:02:07
when he give the woman to Adam in the gardener Eden. He knowed he
1:02:12
were not but a poor chap as could not do for his'n. And I
1:02:15
suppose that's the reason he give the woman the strength to bear trouble when it
1:02:20
come. I'd agin clean in if I had not been for my lass.
1:02:23
When the little chap deed, I never tackled out e. All my days
1:02:28
had hurt me as heavy as losin him did. I could not abear the
1:02:31
sight o his cradle, And if ever I come across any of his bits
1:02:36
of playthings, I thought a cryin an shakin like a baby, I kept
1:02:40
out of the way of the neighbor's children. Even I was not like Rosanna.
1:02:45
I could not see quite clear what the Lord meant, and I could
1:02:49
not help murmuring sad and heavy that's just likeless men, mister, just as
1:02:53
if the dear wench As had given him her life of food day and Neat
1:02:59
had ner f we're the best reed of a two to be weak and heavy
1:03:02
hearted. But I gettin' welly over it at last. And we was beginning
1:03:07
to come round a bit and look forward to the time when we'll see him
1:03:12
again, instead of looking back to the time we shut the round bit of
1:03:15
a face under the coffin lid. The day come when we could bear to
1:03:19
talk about him and mine things he'd said, and trying to say it is
1:03:22
broken, baby ways. And so we were creeping back again to the old
1:03:28
happy quiet, and we had been welly six months when summat fresh come.
1:03:32
I'll never forget it, mister. The neat it happened. I'd kissed Rosanna
1:03:37
at the door and left her standin there when I went up to the village
1:03:40
to buy summut. She wanted it were a bright moonlight, neat just such
1:03:45
a need as this, and the lass had followed me out to see the
1:03:47
moonshine. It was so bright and clear, and just before I starts,
1:03:52
she folds both her hands on my shoulder and says soft and thoughtful. Tim,
1:03:58
I wonder if a little chap seize us. I'd like to know,
1:04:01
dear Lass, I answers back, and then she speaks again. Tim,
1:04:06
I wonder if he'd know he was ours, if he could see, or
1:04:11
if he'd ha forgot he was such a little fellow. Then were the last
1:04:15
peaceful words I ever heard her speak. I went up to the village and
1:04:19
gettin what she sent me for, and then I come back. The moon
1:04:24
was shining as bright as ever, and the flowers e'er a little sliper garden,
1:04:28
or a sparkling with dew. I seed him as I went up the
1:04:31
walk, and I thought again of what she'd set about the little lad.
1:04:35
She was not outside, and I could not see a leap about the house,
1:04:40
but I heard voices, so I walked straight in into the entry,
1:04:45
into the kitchen, and there she were, mister, my poor wench,
1:04:48
crouching down by the table, hiding her face, e her hands, and
1:04:53
close beside her were a man, a man a red soldier clothes. My
1:04:58
heart leaped into my throat, and for a minute I had not a word,
1:05:01
for I saw summat whin up, though I could not tell where it
1:05:04
were but at last my voice came back. Good evening, mester, I
1:05:09
says to him, I hope you had not brought an ill news. What
1:05:13
else thee dear Lass? She stirs a little and gives a moan like a
1:05:16
dying child, and then she lifts up her wand broken hearted face and stretches
1:05:20
out both her hands to me. Tim, She says, do not hate
1:05:25
me, Lad, Dunno. I thought he were dead long sin. I
1:05:30
thought that the Russians killed him, and I were free. But I am
1:05:32
na. I never were. He never deed, Tim, And there he
1:05:36
is the mon as I were wed to and left by God forgim oh,
1:05:43
and O God, forgive me there, mister, there's a story for thee.
1:05:47
What dost thou think art? My poor Lass was now my wife at
1:05:51
awe the little Chap's mother was not his favor's wife, and never had been.
1:05:59
That there worthless fellow as beat and starved her and left her to fight
1:06:02
the world alone, had come back alive and well ready to begin again.
1:06:08
He could take away from me at any hour of the day, and I
1:06:11
could not say a word to bury him. The law said my wife.
1:06:15
The little dead Lad's mother belonged to him body and soul. There was no
1:06:20
law to help us. It were awe on his side. We're no use
1:06:26
going o'er all, we said to each other in that dark room. There.
1:06:30
I raved and prayed and pled with the lass to let me carry her
1:06:32
across the seas, where I'd heard there were help for such like. But
1:06:39
she pled back her broken patient way that it would not be read and happened
1:06:44
it were the lord's will. She didna say much to the soldier. I
1:06:47
scarce heard her speak to him more than once, when she axed him to
1:06:51
let her go away by her sin that kanna want me now fill She said,
1:06:57
thakana care for me. Thou must know I'm more this man's wife than
1:07:00
thine. But I dunnot axe thee to give me to him, because I
1:07:04
know thou would not be rat I only axe thee to let me alone.
1:07:09
I'll go fur enough off and never see him more. But the villain held
1:07:14
to her. If she did not come wi him, he said, he
1:07:16
he er up before the court for bigamy. I could have done murder than
1:07:20
mister, and I would ha done it had not been for the last runnin
1:07:25
betwixt us and Pleadin with all her might. If we'd been rich folk,
1:07:30
there might have been some help for her. At least the law might have
1:07:32
been brought to make him leave her bee. But being poor workin folk,
1:07:38
there were only one thing. The wife mount go wi a husband, And
1:07:42
there the husband stood a scoundrel, cursin' with his black heart on his tongue.
1:07:48
Well, says the Lass. At last, fair wearied out wi grief.
1:07:51
I'll go with thee, Phil, and I'll do my best to please
1:07:56
thee. But I will not promise to forget the man has been true to
1:08:00
me and has stood betwixt me and the world. And then she turned round
1:08:04
to me. Tim, she said to me as if she were half feared.
1:08:09
I fear to him and me standing by three hours afore the Lord had
1:08:15
let me mill any mon ad feared her, Tim, she says, surely
1:08:19
he would not refuse to let us go together to the little lad's grave for
1:08:24
the last time. She did not speak to him but to me, and
1:08:29
she spoke still and strained, as if she were too heart broke to be
1:08:32
wild. Her face was as white as the dead, but she did not
1:08:36
cry as any other woman would have done. Come, Tim, she said,
1:08:42
he canna say no to that, And so out we went without another
1:08:46
word, and left the black hearted rascal behind sitting the very room, The
1:08:51
little undeed in his cradle stood there in the corner. We went out into
1:08:57
the moonlight about speaking, and we did not say a word until we come
1:09:00
to this very place. Mister. We stood here for a minute silent,
1:09:04
and then I sees her begin to shake, and she throws her send down
1:09:09
on the grass, where arms flung o'er the grave, and she cries out
1:09:13
as if her death wound had been given to her. Little lad. She
1:09:16
says, little lad, dost us see thy mother? Canst not thou hear
1:09:21
her callin thee little lad get nigh to the throne, and plead. I
1:09:28
fell down beside, oh the poor crushed wench, and sobbed weather I could
1:09:32
not comfort her, for where would there any comfort for us? There were
1:09:36
none left. There were no hope. We were shamed and broke down.
1:09:42
Our lives was lost. The past were not The future were worse, O
1:09:46
my poor lass. How hard she tried to pray for me, mister,
1:09:50
Yes, for me, as she lay there with her arms round her dead
1:09:55
baby's grave and her cheek on the grass as grew o'er his breast, Lord
1:10:00
God Almighty, she says, help us don gil us up. Dunno,
1:10:04
dunnot. We cannot do without THEE. Now if the time ever were when
1:10:10
we could, the little chap must be with THEE. I might the bit
1:10:14
of comfort about gathering the lambs. It is bosom and Lord, if I
1:10:18
could spare him a minute, send him down to us with a bit of
1:10:21
leat, oh favor, help the poor lad here, help him. Let
1:10:27
the wait for on me, not on him. Just help the poor lad
1:10:30
to bear it. If ever I did out as were worthy of thy sight,
1:10:34
let that be my reward, Dear Lord Almighty, I be willing to
1:10:40
give up a bit o my own heavenly glory for the dear lad's sake.
1:10:44
Well, mister, she lay there on the grass, prayin and cryin' wild
1:10:47
but gentle, for ny half an hour, and then it seemed as she
1:10:51
got quiet like, and she got up. Happened the Lord had hearkened and
1:10:57
sent the child happen he had for when she getting up, her face looked
1:11:00
to me, all white and shinin' ive a clear moonlight. Sit down by
1:11:05
me, dear lad, she said, and hold my hand a minute.
1:11:10
I set down and took hold her hand as she bid me tim. She
1:11:14
said, this were why the little chap deed. Dost not thou see now
1:11:18
at the Lord knew best? Yes, lass, I answers humble, and
1:11:23
lays my face on her hand, breaking down again. Hush, dear Lad,
1:11:28
she whispers, we had not time for that. I want to talk
1:11:31
to THEE. Will to listen, yes, wife, I says, And
1:11:35
I heard her sob when I said it, But she catches her sin up
1:11:39
again. I want THEE to make me a promise, said she. I
1:11:43
want THEE to promise never to forget what peace we ha had. I want
1:11:46
THEE to remember it all us, and to mind him at stead, and
1:11:50
let his little hand hold THEE back fro sin and hard thoughts. I pray
1:11:57
for THEE need and day tim, and thou shall pray for me, and
1:12:00
happen they'll come al eat. But if they do not, dear lad,
1:12:04
and I do not see how they could. If they do not, and
1:12:09
we never see each other again. I want THEE to make me a promise.
1:12:13
But if thas seized the little chap first, thou'lt mind him o me
1:12:17
and watch out wi him nigh the gate, and I'll promise THEE that if
1:12:23
I see him first, I'll mind him o THEE and watch out, true
1:12:28
and constant, I promised her, mister, as you can guess. And
1:12:31
we kneeled down and kissed the grass, and she took a bit of a
1:12:35
sound to put in her bosom, and then we stood up and looked at
1:12:39
each other, and at last she put her dear face on my breast and
1:12:43
kissed me as she had done every neat since we were man and wife.
1:12:46
Good Bye, dear Lad, she whispers, her voice all broken. Don't
1:12:51
come back to the house till I'm gone. Good Bye, dear dear lad,
1:12:57
And God blessed THEE. And she slipped out of my arms and were
1:13:00
gone in a moment, almost before I could cry out, there is now
1:13:04
much more to tell, mister. The end's coming now. And happened?
1:13:09
It'll shorten off the story so it it seemed sudden to THEE, but it
1:13:13
were not sudden to me. I lived alone here and worked and minded my
1:13:17
own business and answered no questions for nigh about a year here and out and
1:13:23
seeing out and open out, and till one time when the daisies were blown
1:13:28
off a little grave. Here there come to me a letter from Manchester,
1:13:31
from one of the medical chaps at the hospital. It were a short letter
1:13:36
with print on it, and the moment I seated, I knowed some it
1:13:40
were up, and I opened it trembling. Mister. There were a woman
1:13:45
lyon in one of the wards, dying of some long named heart disease,
1:13:48
and she prayed him to send for me, and one of the young soft
1:13:51
hearted ones had written me a line to let me know. I started almost
1:13:57
before I finished reading the letter. And when I go into the place,
1:14:00
I fun just what I knowed I should. I fun her my wife,
1:14:03
the blessed lass, And if it been an hour later, I wouldn'er seen
1:14:09
her alive, for she would nigh past known me then. But I knelt
1:14:13
down by the bedside, and I plead where as she lay there, until
1:14:16
I brought her back to the world again. For one moment her eyes flew
1:14:20
wide open all at once, and she seed me and smiled, her dear
1:14:25
face quivering to death. Dear lad, she whispered, The path was not
1:14:30
so long after all. The Lord knew he trod it hisn't once, you
1:14:33
know, I knowed that come, I prayed. So I've reached the very
1:14:38
inn now, Tim, and I shall see the little lad first. But
1:14:43
I wonna forget my promise. No, I'll look out for thee, for
1:14:46
thee at the gate. And her eyes shut, slow and quiet, and
1:14:51
I knowed she was dead. There, mister Duncaster, there it all is.
1:14:58
For there she lies under the daisies, closed by her child. For
1:15:02
I brought her here and buried her. The fellow has come betwixt us and
1:15:06
tortured her for a while and then left her again. I fell out,
1:15:11
and she was so feared of doing some harm that she would not come nigh
1:15:15
me. It were heart diseases killed her, the medical chap said. But
1:15:18
I knowed better. It were heartbreak, that's all. Sometimes I think o'er
1:15:24
it till I cannot stand it any longer, and then I'm fain to come
1:15:29
here and lay my hand on the grass. And sometimes I had queer dreams
1:15:33
about her. I had one last neat, I thought, as she'd come
1:15:38
to me all at once, just as she used to look only where,
1:15:42
her white face shining like a star. And she says, Tim, the
1:15:45
path is not so long, after all has come nigh to the inn an
1:15:49
me an. The little chap is waitin. He knows THEE, dear lad,
1:15:54
For I've taught him. That's why I come here to neat, mister,
1:15:57
And I believe that's why I've talked so free to THEE. If I'm
1:16:00
near the end, i'd like someone to know I have meant no hurt.
1:16:05
When I seemed grum and surly it were no ill will, but a heavy
1:16:10
heart. He stopped there, and his head drooped upon his hands again,
1:16:16
and for a minute or so there was another dead silence. Such a story
1:16:20
as this needed no comment. I could make none. It seemed to me
1:16:26
that the poor fellow's sore heart could bear none. At length, he rose
1:16:30
from the turf and stood up, looking out over the graves into the soft
1:16:35
light beyond, with a strange, wistful sadness. Well I mun go now,
1:16:41
he said, slowly. Good neat, mister, good neat, and
1:16:45
thank you for listenin good night, I returned, adding in an impulse of
1:16:49
pity that was almost a passion, and God help you. Thank you again,
1:16:56
mister, he said, and then turned away. And as I sat
1:17:00
pondering, I watched his heavy, drooping figure threding its way among the dark
1:17:03
mounds and white marble, and under the shadowy trees, and out into the
1:17:09
path beyond. I did not sleep well that night. The strained, heavy
1:17:14
tones of a man's voice were in my ears, and the homely yet tragic
1:17:18
story seemed to weave itself into all my thoughts and keep me from wrist.
1:17:24
I could not get it out of my mind. In consequence of the sleeplessness,
1:17:29
I was later than usual in going down to the factory, and when
1:17:32
I arrived at the gates, I found an unusual bustle there. Something out
1:17:38
of the ordinary routine had plainly occurred, for the whole place was in confusion.
1:17:44
There was a crowd of hands grouped around one corner of the yard,
1:17:46
and as I came in, a man ran against me and showed me a
1:17:50
terribly pale face. I ax, pardon, mister Doncaster, he said,
1:17:55
in a wild hurry, but there's an accident happened. One of the weavers
1:17:59
is her bed, and I'm going for the doctor. The loom caught and
1:18:02
crushed him afore we could stop it. For some reason or other, my
1:18:08
heart misgave me that very moment, I pushed forward to the group in the
1:18:12
yard corner, and made my way through it. A man was lying on
1:18:15
a pile of coats in the middle of the bystanders, a poor fellow,
1:18:20
crushed and torn and bruised, but lying quite quiet now, only for an
1:18:26
occasional little moan that was scarcely more than a quick gasp for breath. It
1:18:31
was surly, tim, He's nigh the end of it, now, said
1:18:35
one of the hands, pityingly, is nigh the last, now, poor
1:18:39
chap? What's that? He said? In lads for all at once,
1:18:43
some flickering sense seemed to have caught at one of the speaker's words, and
1:18:46
the wounded man stirred, murmuring faintly, but not to the watchers. Ah
1:18:53
no, to something far, far beyond their feeble human sight, to something
1:19:00
in the broad without the end. He said, Aye, this is the
1:19:04
end, dear lass, and the paths all shinin' er summit. And why
1:19:10
alas I can see thee plain and the little chap too. Another flutter of
1:19:15
the breath, one slight movement of a mangled hand, and I bent down
1:19:19
closer to the poor fellow, closer because my eyes were so dimmed that I
1:19:26
could not see lads, I said aloud. A few seconds later, you
1:19:30
can do no more for him. His pain is over, for with a
1:19:35
sudden glow of light which shone upon the shortened path, and the waiting figures
1:19:41
of his child and its mother. Surly, Tim's earthly trouble had ended.
1:19:46
The Land of the Blue Flower Part one. The Land of the Blue Flower
1:19:55
was not called by that name until the tall, strong, beautiful King More
1:20:00
came down from his castle on the mountain Crag and began to reign. Before
1:20:04
that time it was called King Mordrath's land, and as the first King Mordres
1:20:10
had been a fierce and cruel king, this seemed a gloomy name. A
1:20:15
few weeks before Moore was born, his weak, selfish boy father, whose
1:20:19
name was King Mordres, also had been killed while hunting, and his fair
1:20:24
mother with the clear eyes died when he was but a few hours old.
1:20:30
But early in that day she sent for her venerable friend and teacher, who
1:20:33
was said to be the oldest and wisest man in the world, and who
1:20:36
long ago had fled to a cave in the mountains, that he might see
1:20:41
no more of the famine and disorder and hatred in the country spread out on
1:20:45
the plains below. He was a marvelous old man, almost a giant in
1:20:49
size, and having great blue eyes like deep sea water. They too,
1:20:55
were clear eyes, like the fair queen's. They seemed to see all things,
1:20:59
and to hold in their depths no single thought which was not fine and
1:21:02
great. The people were a little afraid of him when they saw him go
1:21:06
striding majestically through their streets. They had no name for him, but the
1:21:12
ancient One. The lovely Queen, drew aside the embroidered coverlet of her gold
1:21:16
and ivory bed, and showed him the tiny baby sleeping by her side.
1:21:21
He was born a king, she said. No one can help him but
1:21:26
you. The ancient One looked down at him. He has long limbs and
1:21:31
strong ones. He will make a great king, he said, Give him
1:21:36
to me. The Queen held out the little new born one in her arms.
1:21:42
Take him away quickly, before he hears the people quarreling at the palace
1:21:45
gate. She said. Take him to the castle on the mountain crag.
1:21:49
Keep him there until he is old enough to come down and be king.
1:21:54
When the sun sinks behind the clouds, I shall die, But if he
1:21:58
is with you, he will learn what king should know. The Ancient One
1:22:02
took the child, folded him in his long gray robe, and strode majestically
1:22:06
through the palace gates, through the ugly city, and out over the plains
1:22:11
to the mountain. When he began to climb its steep sides, the sun
1:22:15
was setting and casting a golden rose color over the big rocks and the wild
1:22:18
flowers and bushes which grew on every side, so that there seemed no path
1:22:23
to be found. But the Ancient One knew his way anywhere in the world.
1:22:27
Without a path to guide him, he climbed and climbed, and little
1:22:30
King Amor slept soundly in the folds of his gray robe. He reached the
1:22:34
summit at last, and, pushing his way through a jungle of twisted vines,
1:22:39
starred all over with pale, sweet scented buds, he stood looking at
1:22:43
the castle, which was set on the very topmost crag, and looked out
1:22:46
over the mountain's edge at the sea and the sky and the spreading plains below.
1:22:51
The sky was dark blue now and lit by a myriad stars, and
1:22:56
all was so still that the world seemed to be thousands of miles away,
1:23:00
and ugliness and squalor, and people who quarreled seem things which were not true.
1:23:04
A sweet, cool wind blew about them, as the Ancient One took
1:23:09
King a Moore from the folds of his gray robe and laid him on the
1:23:12
carpet of scented moss. The stars are very near, he said. Waken,
1:23:17
young king, and see how near they are, and know they are
1:23:21
your brothers, your brother. The wind is bringing to you the breath of
1:23:26
your brothers, the trees. You are at home. Then King Amore opened
1:23:31
his eyes, and when he saw the stars in the dark blueness above him,
1:23:34
he smiled. And though he was not yet a whole day old,
1:23:39
he threw up his small hand, and it touched his forehead, like a
1:23:43
king and a soldier. He salutes them, said the ancient One, though
1:23:47
he does not know he did it. The castle was huge and splendid,
1:23:53
though it had been deserted for a hundred years. For three generations, the
1:23:57
royal owners had not cared to look out on the world from high places.
1:24:00
They knew nothing of the wind and the trees and the stars. They lived
1:24:04
on the plains and their cities, and hunted and rioted and levied heavy taxes
1:24:09
on their wretched people, and the castle had lived through its summers and winters
1:24:14
alone. It had battlements and towers which stood out clear against the sky,
1:24:18
and there was a great banquet hall and chambers for hundreds of guests, and
1:24:23
rooms for a thousand men at arms, and the courtyard was big enough to
1:24:26
hold a tournament in. In the midst of its space and splendor, the
1:24:30
little King Amoor lived alone but for the companionship of the ancient One and the
1:24:34
servant as old as himself. But they knew a secret which kept them young
1:24:39
in spite of the years they had passed through. They knew that they were
1:24:43
brothers of all things in the world, and that the man who never knows
1:24:46
an angered or evil thought can never know a foe. They were strong and
1:24:50
straight and wise, and the wildest creatures stopped to give them breeding as it
1:24:55
passed, and they understood its language when it spoke. Because they held dark
1:25:00
thoughts in their minds, they knew no fear, and because they knew no
1:25:03
fear, the wild creatures knew none, and the speech of each was clear
1:25:06
to the other. Each morning they went out on the battlements at dawn,
1:25:12
to see the splendid sun rise slowly out of the purple sea. One of
1:25:16
the very first things the child king Amore remembered in his life, And he
1:25:20
remembered it always was a dawning day when the ancient One wakened him gently,
1:25:25
and folding him in his long gray robe, carried him up the winding and
1:25:29
narrow stone staircase, until at last they stepped forth on the top of the
1:25:33
huge castle, which seemed to the little creature to be so high that it
1:25:36
was quite close to the wonderful sky itself. The sun is going to rise
1:25:42
and wake the world, said the ancient One, young king, watch the
1:25:46
wonder of it. Amour lifted his little head and looked. He was only
1:25:54
just old enough to be beginning to understand things, but he loved the ancient
1:25:58
One and all he said and did. Far below the mountain crag lay the
1:26:02
sea in the night. While it slept, it had looked dark blue or
1:26:06
violet, But now it was slowly changing its color. The sky was changing
1:26:12
too, It was growing paler and paler. Next it grew faintly bright,
1:26:16
so did the sea. Then a slight flush crept over the land and water,
1:26:21
and all the small floating clouds were rosy pink. King the Moore smiled
1:26:26
because birds voices were to be heard in the trees and bushes, and something
1:26:30
golden bright was rising out of the edge of the ocean, and sparkling light
1:26:33
danced on the waves. It rose higher and higher, and grew so dazzling
1:26:38
and wonderful that he threw out his little hand with a shout of joy.
1:26:42
The next moment he started back, because there rose near him a loud whir
1:26:45
and beating of powerful wings, as a great bird flew out of a crag
1:26:48
near by and soared high into the radiant morning heavens. It is the eagle
1:26:55
who is our neighbor, said the ancient One. He has awakened and gone
1:26:59
to give his great to the sun. And as the little king sat upright
1:27:02
enraptured, he saw that from the dazzling brightness at the edge of the world
1:27:06
there leapt forth a ball of living gold and fire. And even he knew
1:27:11
that the sun had risen at every day's dawn. It leaps forth like that,
1:27:15
said the ancient One. Let us watch together, and I will tell
1:27:19
you stories of it. So they sat by the battlements, and stories were
1:27:25
told. They were stories of the small grains lying hidden in the dark earth,
1:27:30
waiting for the golden heat of the sun to draw them forth into life,
1:27:32
until they covered the tilled fields with waving wheat to make bread for the
1:27:36
world. They were stories of the seeds of fair flowers warmed and ripened until
1:27:42
they burst into scented blossoms. There were stories of the roots of trees and
1:27:45
the rich sap drawn upward by the heat until great branches and thick leafage waved
1:27:50
in the summer air. There were stories of men, women and children walking
1:27:56
with light step and glad because of the gold of the sun. Every day
1:28:00
it warms, every day it draws, and every day it ripens and gives
1:28:05
life, And there are many who forget the wonder of it. Lift your
1:28:10
head high as you walk, young king, and often look upward, never
1:28:14
forget the sun. At every dawning they rose and saw together the wonder of
1:28:20
the day. In the first time, the sky was heavy with gray clouds,
1:28:25
and the sun did not leap upward from behind the edge of the world.
1:28:29
The ancient ones said another thing. The burning gold is behind the lowering
1:28:33
gray and purple. The clouds are heavy with soft rain. When they break,
1:28:39
they will drop it in showers or splendid storms, and the thirsty earth
1:28:43
will drink it up. The grains will drink it, and the seed and
1:28:46
the roots, and the world will be joyous and rich with fresh life.
1:28:50
The springs will bubble up like crystal, and the brooks will rush babbling through
1:28:55
the green of the forest. The drinking places for the cattle will be full
1:28:59
and clear, and men and women will feel rested and cool. Lift your
1:29:02
head high when you walk, young king, and often look upward. Never
1:29:08
forget the clouds. So hearing these things every day, King Amore learned the
1:29:14
meaning of both sun and cloud, and loved and felt himself brother to both.
1:29:19
The first time he remembered seeing a storm, the ancient one took him
1:29:24
to the battlements again, and together they watched the dark clouds pour down their
1:29:28
floods, while their purple was riven by the dazzling lances of the lightning.
1:29:31
And the thunder rolled and crashed and seemed to rend asunder things no human eye
1:29:35
could see. And the wind roared round the castle on the mountain crag and
1:29:40
beat against its towers, and tossed the branches of the hugest trees and whirled
1:29:45
the rain sheets over the land, and King Amore stood erect and strong like
1:29:48
some little soldier, though he wondered where the small birds were, and if
1:29:53
the eagle were in his nest. Through all the tumult, the Ancient One
1:29:58
stood still. He looked taller than ever in his long gray robe, and
1:30:01
his strange eyes were deep as the sea. At last, he said,
1:30:05
in a slow, calm voice, this is the voice of the power.
1:30:11
Men know not. No man has yet quite understood. Though it seems to
1:30:15
speak, hearken to it. Let your soul stand silent. Listen, young
1:30:23
king. Hold your head high as you walk, and look often upward.
1:30:28
Never forget the storm. So the king learned to love the storm and be
1:30:32
won with it, knowing no fear. But perhaps it might be because he
1:30:40
had been laid on the scented moss and had, without knowing it, saluted
1:30:44
them. On the first night of his life. He felt nearest to and
1:30:47
loved most his brothers, the stars, every fair knight. Through the king's
1:30:53
earliest years, the Ancient One carried him to the battlements and let him fall
1:30:57
asleep beneath the shining myriads. But first he would walk about, bearing him
1:31:02
in his arms, or sitting with him in the splendid silence, sometimes relating
1:31:06
wonders to him in a low voice, sometimes uttering no word, only looking
1:31:12
calmly into the high vault above, as if the star spoke to him and
1:31:15
told him of perfect peace. When a man looks long at them, he
1:31:20
said, he grows calm and forgets small things. They answer his questions and
1:31:27
show him that his earth is only one of the million worlds. Hold your
1:31:31
soul still, and look upward often, and you will understand their speech.
1:31:36
Never forget the stars. End of Part one of the Land of the Blue
1:31:45
Flower. Part two. So as the child King grew day by day,
1:31:53
the world seemed to grow fuller and fuller of wonders and beauties. There were
1:31:57
the sun and the moon, the storm and the stars, the straight falling
1:32:02
lances of rain, the springing of the growing things, the flight of the
1:32:06
eagle, the songs and nests of small bird creatures, the changing seasons,
1:32:12
and the work of the great brown earth giving its harvest and its fruits.
1:32:17
All these wonders in one world, And you, a man upon it,
1:32:23
said the ancient one. Hold your head I when you walk young king,
1:32:28
and often look upward, never forget one marvel among them all. He forgot
1:32:34
nothing. He lived looking out on all things from great, clear, joyous
1:32:40
eyes upon his mountain crag. He never heard of poultry or unbautiful word,
1:32:45
or knew of the existence of unfriendliness or baseness, and thought, as soon
1:32:49
as he was old enough to go out alone, he roamed about the great
1:32:54
mountain and fear neither storm nor wild beasts. Shaggy manned lions and their mates
1:32:59
drew near and fawned on him, as their kind had fallen on the young
1:33:01
Adam in the garden of Eden. There had never passed through his mind the
1:33:05
thought that they were not his friends. He did not know that there were
1:33:11
men who killed their wild brothers. In the huge courtyard of the castle,
1:33:15
he learned to ride and to perform great feats of strength. Because he had
1:33:19
not learned to be afraid. He never feared that he could not do a
1:33:24
thing. He grew so strong and beautiful that when he was ten years old
1:33:28
he was as tall as the youth of sixteen, and when he was sixteen
1:33:31
he was already like a young giant. This was because he had been brother
1:33:35
to the storm, and had lived close to the strength and splendor of the
1:33:40
stars. Only once, when he was a boy of twelve, a strange
1:33:45
and painful thing happened to him. From his kingdom in the plains below.
1:33:49
There had been sent to him a beautiful young horse, which had been bred
1:33:53
for him. Never had so magnificent an animal been born in the royal stable.
1:33:58
When he was brought into the courtyard, the boy King's eyes shone with
1:34:01
joy. He spent the greater part of the morning in exercising and leaping him
1:34:05
over barriers. The ancient One in his tower chamber heard his shouts of exultation
1:34:10
and encouragement. At last, the king went out to try him on the
1:34:14
winding mountain road. When he returned, he went at once to the tower
1:34:19
chamber to the ancient One, who, when he raised his eyes from his
1:34:24
great book, looked at him gravely. Let us climb to the battlements.
1:34:29
The boy said, we must talk together. So they went, and when
1:34:33
they stood looking out on the world below, the curving and turquoise sky above
1:34:38
them, the eyes of the ancient One were still more grave. Tell me,
1:34:43
young King, something strange has happened. King Moore answered, I have
1:34:48
felt something I have not felt before. I was riding my horse around the
1:34:53
field on the plateau, and he saw something which he refused to pass.
1:34:57
It was a young leopard watching us from a My horse reared and snorted.
1:35:01
He would not listen to me, but backed and wheeled around. I tried
1:35:05
in vain to persuade him, and suddenly, when I saw I could not
1:35:09
make him obey me, this strange new feeling rushed through all my body.
1:35:13
I grew hot and knew my face was scarlet. My heart beat faster,
1:35:16
and my blood seemed to boil in my veins. I shouted out harsh,
1:35:20
ugly words. I forgot all things are brothers. I lifted my hand and
1:35:25
clenched it and struck my horse again and again. I loved him no longer,
1:35:29
I felt that he no longer loved me. I am hot and wearied
1:35:32
and heavy from it. Still I feel no more joy. Was it pain?
1:35:36
I felt? I have never felt pain, and do not know was
1:35:41
it pain? It was a worse thing, answered the ancient one. It
1:35:46
was anger. When a man is overcome by anger, he is a poisoned
1:35:50
fever. He loses his strength, he loses his power over himself, and
1:35:56
over others he throws away tied in which he might might have gained the end
1:36:00
he most desires. There is no time for anger in the world. So
1:36:08
King Amore learned the uselessness of anger. For they sat long upon the battlements,
1:36:12
while the ancient One told him how its poison worked in the veins and
1:36:15
weakened the strongest man, until he was made a fool. That night or
1:36:19
more lay under the sky, looking at his myriad brothers, the stars,
1:36:24
and drawing calm from them. If you lie through the night upon the battlements
1:36:30
and think only of the stillness and the stars, you will forget your anger,
1:36:35
and its poison will die away. If you put into your mind a
1:36:40
beautiful thought, it will take the place of the evil one. There is
1:36:44
no room for darkness in the mind of him who thinks only of the stars.
1:36:48
This had been said to him by the ancient One. Upon the plateau,
1:36:55
at the foot of the crag on which the castle stood, there were
1:36:58
marvelous walled gardens. The sad young queen of the first King Marders planted them,
1:37:02
and after her death they had been left to run wild. Since the
1:37:06
baby King Amore had been brought to the mountain top. The ancient one and
1:37:11
his servitor had made them bloom again. As soon as he was old enough
1:37:15
to hold a small spade. The More had worked in the beds, All
1:37:18
things grew for him as if his touch were spelled. Birds and bees and
1:37:23
butterflies flocked round him as he labored. He knew what the bees hummed,
1:37:28
and where they flew to load themselves with honey. Butterflies lighted upon his hands
1:37:31
and taught him strange things. Birds told him of their travels, and brought
1:37:35
him seeds from far countries, which he planted in his gardens, and which
1:37:40
bloomed into Marble's flowers. A swallow, who loved him very much, and
1:37:45
who had seen many wonderful lands, once brought him a seed from an emperor's
1:37:47
secret garden, which none but four of his own slaves had ever seen.
1:37:53
These slaves had been born in the garden and would never leave it while they
1:37:57
lived. King More planted the seed, and the placealts of its own.
1:38:02
It grew into the most beautiful blue flower the world had ever known. It
1:38:06
was of a blue so pure and exquisitely intense, that it was raptured to
1:38:11
look at it. Its blossoms hung from a tall stem, and in its
1:38:15
first years it gave a thousand seeds. Each year a more planted more flowers,
1:38:19
and each year they grew taller and more wonderful, and blossomed a longer
1:38:24
time. When the summer wind blew, it shook out the clouds of delicate
1:38:29
fragrance, which sometimes floated down the mountain, until the wretched dwellers in King
1:38:32
Mordreth's land forgot their quarrels and misery, and even lifted their heavy heads to
1:38:36
inhale it, and asked each other what was being done upon the mountain.
1:38:42
Each year, King Amore gathered the seeds and stored them in an unused tower
1:38:45
of his castle. Taller and stronger he grew, and each day wiser and
1:38:50
more beautiful. Each plant, each weed, each four footed thing, each
1:38:57
wind, each star of heaven taught him its wonder in its wisdom. His
1:39:00
eyes were so marvelous in their straight glance splendor, that when he looked at
1:39:04
a man, they seemed to read his soul and command its truth to answer
1:39:09
him. It was so powerful that he could break an iron bar in two
1:39:12
pieces with his hands. When he was twenty years old. The ancient one
1:39:17
took him up on the battlements, and giving him a strong glass, told
1:39:20
him to look down upon the capital city on the plain and see what was
1:39:25
being done there. I see many people gathered in crowds, Amore said,
1:39:30
when he had looked for a few moments, I see bright colors and waving
1:39:34
pennance and triumphal arches. It is as if some great ceremony were being prepared
1:39:40
for. The people are making ready for your coronation, said the ancient one.
1:39:45
To morrow you will be laid in state down the mountain and acclaimed king.
1:39:49
It was to fit you to reign over your kingdom that I taught you
1:39:53
to know all the wonders of the world, and have shown you that no
1:39:56
thing is useless but folly and dishonoring thought, that which you have learned from
1:40:00
your brothers. Here you go down the mountain to teach your brothers. There
1:40:04
you will see things which are not beautiful, and those which are unclean.
1:40:10
But hold your head high when you walk, young king, and never forget
1:40:14
the sun, the wind, and the stars. To himself, as he
1:40:18
looked on him, the ancient One said, when he stands before them,
1:40:24
they will think he is a young God. The next morning, a splendid
1:40:29
procession wound its glittering way up the mountain road to the castle. There were
1:40:32
princes and nobles and chieftains. Rich colors glowed in their attire, and gorgeous
1:40:39
banners and pennants waved over them, while music from gold and silver trumpets accompanied
1:40:44
them as they rode, and their many followers marched behind. The Ancient One,
1:40:48
in his long robe of gray, stood by Kingamore on the broad stone
1:40:53
terrace, guarded by its crouching carved lions. This is your king, o
1:40:59
people, he said, And when the people looked, it was as he
1:41:03
said it would be. They drew back a little and gazed in fear,
1:41:08
and many of the followers fell upon their knees. They thought they saw a
1:41:12
beautiful, young giant and god. But he was only a splendid and powerful
1:41:15
young man who had never known a dark thought, and had lived near to
1:41:19
his brothers the stars. His horse, adorned with golden trappings, was brought
1:41:26
and he was led down the mountain side through the gates into the capital city
1:41:29
of his kingdom. He desired that the Ancient One should ride by his side.
1:41:35
What he saw as he rode to the place of coronation he had never
1:41:39
seen before. Notwithstanding the embroidered silk and velvet hangings decorating the fronts of rich
1:41:45
people's houses, he caught glimpses of filthy side streets, squalid alleys, and
1:41:50
tumble down tenements. He saw forlorn little children scuttle away like rats into their
1:41:56
holes. As he drew near and wretched, vicious looking men and women fighting
1:42:00
with each other for places in the crowd. Sharp miserable faces peered round corners
1:42:04
at him, and nobody smiled, because everyone hated or distrusted his neighbor.
1:42:10
And they dreaded and disliked the young king because all the king mordreates had been
1:42:14
evil and selfish, and he was their descendant. When they saw that he
1:42:17
was so tall and powerful, and carried his handsome head so high, often
1:42:21
looking upward, they feared him still more. As their own heads hung down.
1:42:27
They never saw anything but the dirt and dust beneath their feet. Were
1:42:30
the quarrels about them, so their minds were full of fears and ugly thoughts,
1:42:33
and they at once began to be afraid of him and suspect him of
1:42:36
being proud. He could do twice as much evil as other kings, they
1:42:41
said, since he was twice as strong and twice as handsome. It was
1:42:45
their nature to think an evil salt of anything or anybody, and to be
1:42:48
afraid of all things. At the outset, the princes and nobles who rode
1:42:55
in the procession tried to prevent King Amore seeing the wretched looking people and ill
1:42:59
kept streets. They pointed out the palaces and decoration, and beautiful ladies,
1:43:03
throwing flowers in his path from the balconies. He praised all the splendors and
1:43:08
saluted the balconies, looked up with such radiant and smiling eyes that the ladies
1:43:12
almost threw themselves after their flowers, and cried out that never, never had
1:43:15
there been crowned such a beautiful young king before. Do not look at the
1:43:20
rabble, your majesty, the Prime minister said. They are an evil,
1:43:25
ill tempered lot of worthless, malcontents and thieves. I would not look at
1:43:30
them, answered King Amore if I knew that I could not help them.
1:43:34
There is no time to look at dark things if one cannot make them brighter.
1:43:40
I look at these because there is something more to be done. I
1:43:45
do not yet know what. There is such hatred in their eyes that they
1:43:49
will only make you angry, sire, said a handsome young prince who rode
1:43:54
near. There is no time for anger, said Amour, holding his crowned
1:43:58
head high. It is a worthless thing. After sunset there was a great
1:44:03
banquet, and after it a great ball, and the courtiers and princes were
1:44:08
delighted by the beauty and grace of the new king. He was much brighter
1:44:13
and more charming than any of the king Mordrets had been. His laugh was
1:44:16
full of gaiety, and the people who stood near him felt happier that they
1:44:20
did not know why. But when the ball was at its height, he
1:44:25
stepped into the center of the room and spoke aloud to the splendid company.
1:44:30
I have seen the broad streets and the palaces, and all that is beautiful
1:44:34
in my capital, he said. Now I must go to the narrow streets
1:44:39
and the dark ones. I must see the miserable people, the cripples,
1:44:44
the wretches, the drunkards, and the thieves. Every one clamored and protested
1:44:49
these things they had hidden from him. They said, kings should not see
1:44:53
them. I will see them, he said, with a smile, which
1:44:58
was beautiful and strange. I go now on foot and unattended except for my
1:45:02
friend the ancient One. Let the ball go on. He strode through the
1:45:09
glittering throng, with the gray clad Ancient One at his side. He still
1:45:13
wore his crown upon his head, because he wished his people to know that
1:45:16
their king had come to them through dark and loathsome places. They went through,
1:45:23
narrow streets and back alleys and courts, where people scuttled away like rats,
1:45:28
as the gutter children had done in the daytime. Kingamore could not have
1:45:31
seen them, but that he had brought with him a bright lantern and held
1:45:34
it up in the air above his high head. The light shining down upon
1:45:39
his beautiful face and his crown bade him look more than ever like a young
1:45:43
god and giant. And the people cowered terrified before him, asking each other
1:45:47
what such a king would do to wretches like themselves. But just very few
1:45:53
little children smiled at him, because he was so young and bright and splendid.
1:45:58
No one in the black holes corners could understand why a king should come
1:46:01
walking among them on the night of his coronation day. Most of them thought
1:46:06
that the next morning he would order them all to be killed and their houses
1:46:10
burned, because he would only think of them as vermin. Once, as
1:46:15
he passed through a dark court, a madman darted out in his path,
1:46:18
shaking his fist. WI hate you, he cried, WUEI hate you.
1:46:24
The dwellers in the court gasped with terror, wondering what would happen. But
1:46:28
the tall young king stood, holding his lantern above his head and gazing at
1:46:31
the madman with deep thought in his eyes. There is no time for hatred
1:46:36
in the world, he said, There is no time, and then he
1:46:41
passed on. The look of deep thought was in his face throughout the hours
1:46:45
in which he strode on, until he had seen all he had come to
1:46:49
see. The Next day he rode back up the mountain to his castle on
1:46:55
the crag, and when night fell, he lay out upon the battles under
1:46:59
the sky, as he had done on so many nights. The soft wind
1:47:02
blew about him as he looked up at the stars. I do not know,
1:47:08
my brothers, he said to them, tell me, And he lay
1:47:11
silent until the great, sweet stillness of the night seemed to fill his soul,
1:47:15
And when the stars began to fade. He slept in rapturous peace.
1:47:20
The people in his kingdom on the plain waited, wondering what he would do.
1:47:26
During the next few days, they quarreled and hated each other more than
1:47:30
ever, the rich ones because they all wanted to gain his favor, and
1:47:33
each was jealous of the other, the poor ones because they were afraid of
1:47:36
him, and each man feared that his neighbor would betray things he had done
1:47:41
in the past. Only two boys working together in a field, having stopped
1:47:45
to wrangle and fight, one of them suddenly stood still, remembering something and
1:47:51
said a strange thing in a strange voice, there is no time for anger.
1:47:57
There is no time. And as he felt work again, his companion
1:48:00
did the same. And when they had finished their task of weeding, they
1:48:04
talked about the thing and remembered that when they had quarreled the day before,
1:48:09
they had not finished their task at all, and had not been paid,
1:48:13
and had gone home sore from the blows they had given each other, and
1:48:16
it had no supper. No, there is no time, they decided.
1:48:24
At the beginning of the following week, there were rumors that a strange law
1:48:28
had been made the strangest ever known in the world. It was something about
1:48:32
a blue flower. What had flowers to do with laws? Or what had
1:48:38
laws to do with flowers? People quarreled about what the meaning of such a
1:48:42
law might be. Those who thought first of evil things and fears began to
1:48:46
say that in the rich people's gardens was to be planted a blue flower whose
1:48:50
perfume would poison all the poor. The only ones who did not quarrel were
1:48:57
the two boys and their friends, who had already begun to make sort of
1:49:00
password of there is no time for anger. One of them, who was
1:49:04
clever, added a new idea to the same. There is no time for
1:49:09
fear, he cried out in the field. Let us go on with our
1:49:12
work. And they finished their task early and played games at last. One
1:49:18
morning it was made known that the new king was to give a feast in
1:49:23
the open air to all the people. It was to be on the plane
1:49:28
outside the city, and he himself was going to proclaim to them the law
1:49:31
of the blue flower. And now we shall know the worst. Growled and
1:49:36
shivered the afraid ones as they shuffled their way to the plane, and the
1:49:41
boys who used the password heard them. There is no time to think of
1:49:44
the worst, shouted the clever one at the top of his voice. There
1:49:46
is no time we shall be late for the feast, And a number of
1:49:50
people actually turned to listen, because there was a high, strong, gay
1:49:56
sound in his voice such as had never been heard in King Morgant's land before.
1:50:01
The plain was covered with thick green grasses, and beautiful spreading trees grew
1:50:05
on it. There was a richly dripped platform for King of Moore's gold and
1:50:11
ivory chair. But when the people gathered about, he stood up before them,
1:50:15
a beautiful young giant, with eyes like fixed stars, and head held
1:50:19
high, and he read his law in a voice which wonderful to relate.
1:50:25
Was heard by every man, woman and child, even by the little cripple
1:50:29
crouching alone in the grass on the very outskirts of the crowd, and not
1:50:32
expecting to hear or see anything. This is what he read in my pleasurence.
1:50:41
On the mountain top there grows a blue flower, one of my brothers.
1:50:45
The birds brought me as seed from an emperor's hidden garden. It is
1:50:49
as beautiful as the sky at dawn. It has a strange power. It
1:50:55
dispels evil, fortune and the dark thoughts which bring it. There is no
1:51:00
time for dark salts, There is no time for evil. Listen to my
1:51:04
law. To morrow seeds will be given to every man, woman and child
1:51:10
in my kingdom, even to the newborn. Every man, woman and child,
1:51:15
even the newborn, is commanded by the law to plant and feed and
1:51:19
watch over the blue flower. It is the work of each to make it
1:51:24
grow. The mother of the newborn child can hold its little hand and make
1:51:29
it drop the seeds into the earth. As the child grows, she must
1:51:33
show it the green shoots when they pierce the brown soil. She must babble
1:51:38
to it of its blue flower. By the time it is pleased by color,
1:51:43
it will love the blossoms, and the spell of happiness and good fortune
1:51:46
will begin to work for it. It is not one person here and there
1:51:50
who must plant the flower, but each and every one, to those who
1:51:56
have not land about them, all the land is free. You may plant
1:52:00
by the roadside, in a cranny of a wall, in an old box
1:52:03
or glass, or tub, in any bare space in any man's field or
1:52:09
garden. But each must plant his seeds and watch over and feed them.
1:52:15
Next year, when the blue flower blossoms. I shall ride through my kingdom
1:52:18
and bestow my rewards. This is my law. What will both all if
1:52:25
some of us do not make them grow? Groan some of the afraid ones.
1:52:29
There is no time to think of that, shouted the boy who was
1:52:30
clever plant them. When the prime Minister and his followers told the King that
1:52:38
larger and stronger prisons must be built from the many criminals, and that heavier
1:52:42
taxes must be laid upon the people to rescue the country from poverty, his
1:52:45
answer to them was wait until the blooming of the blue flower. In a
1:52:51
short time, every one was working in the open air, digging in the
1:52:56
soil. Tiny children as well as men and women, drunkards and thieves and
1:53:00
idlers who had never worked before, came out of their dark holes and corners
1:53:05
into the light of the sun. It was not a hard thing to plant
1:53:10
a few flower seeds. And because the King of More looked so much more
1:53:14
powerful than other men, and had eyes so wonderful and commanding, they did
1:53:17
not know what punishment he would invent for them, and were afraid to disobey
1:53:21
him. But somehow, after they had worked in the sweet scented earth for
1:53:26
a while and had seen others working. The light of the sun and the
1:53:30
freshness of the air made them feel in better humor. The wind blew away
1:53:34
their evil fancies and their headaches. And because there was so much talk and
1:53:40
wondering about the magic of the blue flower, they became interested and wanted to
1:53:44
see what it would do for them when it blossomed. Scarcely any of them
1:53:48
had ever tried to make a flower grow before, and they gradually thought of
1:53:53
it a great deal. There was less quarreling because conversation with neighbors all about
1:53:58
a blue flower gave no reason for hard words. The worst and idlest were
1:54:02
curious about it, and everyone tried experiments of his own. The children were
1:54:08
delighted and actually grew happy and rosy over their digging and watering and caretaking.
1:54:14
Gradually, all sorts of curious things happened. People who were growing blue flowers
1:54:19
began to keep the ground around them in order. He did not like to
1:54:24
see bits of paper and rubbish lying about, so they cleared them away.
1:54:29
One quite new thing which occurred was that sometimes people even helped each other a
1:54:32
little cripples, and those who were weak actually found that there were stronger ones
1:54:39
who would do things for them when their backs ached, and when it was
1:54:42
hard to carry water or dig up weeds. No one in King Mordert's land
1:54:46
had ever helped another before the boy who was clever did more than all the
1:54:53
rest. He gathered together all the children he could, and formed them into
1:54:57
a band using the passwords. In time it became quite like a little army.
1:55:02
They called themselves the Band of the Blue Flower, and each boy and
1:55:05
girl was bound to remember the passwords and apply them to all. They did
1:55:11
so. Often, when a number of people were together and things began to
1:55:15
go wrong, a clear, young voice would cry out somewhere, like a
1:55:18
silver battle cry, there is no time for anger, or there is no
1:55:23
time for hate, or there is no time to fret. There is no
1:55:27
time among the great and rich people. Also, singular things came to pass.
1:55:33
Those who had wasted their days loitering or rioting were obliged to get up
1:55:39
in the morning to work in their gardens, and, finding that exercise and
1:55:43
fresh air improved their health and spirits, they began to like it. Court
1:55:47
ladies found it good for their complexions and tempers. Busy merchants discovered that it
1:55:53
made their heads clearer. Ambitious students found that after an hour spent evening and
1:55:58
morning over their blue flags, they could study twice as long without fatigue.
1:56:03
The children of the princes and nobles became so full of work and talk of
1:56:08
their soil and their seeds that they quite forgot the squabble and be jealous of
1:56:12
each other's importance at court. Never in one story could it be told how
1:56:15
many unusual, interesting and wonderful things occurred in the once gloomy King Mortal's land,
1:56:21
just because every person in it, rich and poor, old and young,
1:56:27
good and bad, had to plant and care for and live every day
1:56:30
of life with a blue flower. Ho the corners and crannies and queer places
1:56:35
it was planted in, and hoh a thrill of excitement everywhere when the first
1:56:41
tender green shoots thrust their way through the earth, and the wave of excitement
1:56:45
which passed over the whole land when the first buds showed themselves. By that
1:56:50
time, every one was so interested that even the afraid ones had forgotten to
1:56:55
ask each other what caame are would do to them if they had no blue
1:56:58
flower. Somehow people had gained courage, and they knew the blue flower would
1:57:03
grow, and they knew there was no time to stop working. While they
1:57:06
worried and said, suppose it didn't there was no time. Sometimes the young
1:57:14
king was on the mountain top with the wind and the eagle and the stars,
1:57:18
and sometimes he was in his palace in the city, but he was
1:57:23
always working and thinking for his people. He was not seen by the people,
1:57:27
however, until a splendid summer day came, when it was proclaimed by
1:57:31
heralds in the streets that he would begin his journey through the land by riding
1:57:35
through the capital to see the blossoming of the blue flowers, and there would
1:57:40
be a feast once more upon the plain. It was a wonderful day.
1:57:45
The air was full of golden light, and the sky of such a blueness
1:57:48
as never had been seen before. Out of the palace gates he rode,
1:57:53
and he wore his crowd, and his eyes were more brilliant than the jewels
1:57:57
in it, and his smile was more radiant than the son rise as he
1:58:00
looked about him. For every breath he drew in was fragrant, every ugly
1:58:03
place was hidden, and every squalid corner filled with beauty. For it seemed
1:58:09
as if the whole world were waving with blue flowers, tumble down houses and
1:58:14
fences were covered with them, because some of them climbed like vines. Neglected
1:58:17
fields and gardens had been made neat so that they would grow. Rubbish and
1:58:23
dirt had been cleaned away to make room for clumps and patches of them.
1:58:27
You could not grow the blue flower among dirt and disorder, any more than
1:58:30
you could grow it while you were spending your time in drinking and quarreling.
1:58:34
By the roadsides, in courts, in windows, in cracks, in walls,
1:58:41
in broken places, in roofs, in great people's gardens, on the
1:58:44
window sills, or about the doorways of poor people's hovels. Fair and fragrant
1:58:48
and waving grew as a blue flower. Where it waved, there was no
1:58:54
room for dirt and rubbish. And suddenly even the dullest people began to see
1:58:58
that the face of the whole old land was changed, as if by some
1:59:01
strange magic, and the whole population seemed changed with it. Everybody looked fresher
1:59:06
and more cheerful. People had actually learned to smile and keep themselves clean,
1:59:13
and there was not one who was not healthier. They had in fact been
1:59:16
noticing this for some time, and they had said to each other, the
1:59:20
power of the blue flower of which the king had spoken was beginning to work.
1:59:26
The children had grown gay and rosy, and the boy who was clever,
1:59:30
and all his companions had found time to earn themselves new clothes because they
1:59:33
had never forgotten their passwords. All the farmers wanted them to work in their
1:59:38
fields, because they said there was no time to idle, no time to
1:59:42
fight, no time to play evil tricks. On the king rode and on
1:59:47
and on and on, and the further he went, the more splendid and
1:59:53
joyous his smile grew. But at no time during the day was it more
1:59:58
beautiful than when he met little Cripple, who had sat on the outside of
2:00:01
the crowd on the first feast day, not expecting to see or hear anything.
2:00:06
The cripple lived in a tiny hovel on the edge of the city,
2:00:11
and when the glittering procession drew near it, the small patch of garden was
2:00:14
quite bare and had not a blue flower in it, And the little cripple
2:00:18
was sitting huddled up on his broken doorstep, sobbing softly, with his face
2:00:24
hidden in his arms. King Amore drew up his white horse and looked at
2:00:29
him, and looked at his bare garden. What has happened here? He
2:00:33
said. This garden has not been neglected, it has been dug and kept
2:00:38
free of weeds. But my law has been broken. There is no blue
2:00:43
flower. Then the little cripple got up, trembling, and hobbled through his
2:00:47
rickety gait, and threw himself down upon the earth before the King's white horse,
2:00:53
sobbing hopelessly and heart brokenly. O King, he cried, I am
2:00:58
only a cripple, and small that I can easily be killed. I have
2:01:01
no flowers at all. When I opened my package of seeds, I was
2:01:04
so glad that I forgot the wind was blowing, and suddenly a great gust
2:01:09
carried them all away forever, and I had not even one left. I
2:01:13
was afraid to tell anybody. And then he cried so that he could not
2:01:16
speak. Go on, said the young king gently, What did you do?
2:01:23
I could do nothing, said the little cripple. Only I made my
2:01:26
garden eat and kept away the weeds. And sometimes I asked other people to
2:01:30
let me dig a little for them. And always when I went out,
2:01:34
I picked up the ugly things I saw lying about, the bits of paper
2:01:39
and rubbish, and I dug holes for them in the earth. But I
2:01:43
have broken your law. Then the people gasped for breath, for King Moore
2:01:47
dismounted from his horse and lifted the little cripple up in his arms and held
2:01:51
him against his breast. You shall ride with me to day, he said,
2:01:57
and go to my castle on the mountain crag, and live near the
2:02:00
stars and the sun. When you kept the weeds from your bare little garden,
2:02:04
and when you dug for others and hid away ugliness and disorder, you
2:02:09
planted a blue flower every day. You have planted more than all the rest.
2:02:14
And your reward shall be the sweetest, for you plant it without seeds.
2:02:18
And then the people shouted until the world seemed to ring with their joy.
2:02:23
And somehow they knew that King Mordreth's land had come into fair days.
2:02:27
And they thought it was the blue flower magic. But the earth is full
2:02:31
of magic, and more said to the ancient one, after the feast on
2:02:34
the plain was over. Most men know nothing of it, and so it
2:02:39
comes misery. The first law of the earth's magic is this one. If
2:02:44
you fill your mind with a beautiful thought. There will be no room in
2:02:46
it for an ugly one. This I learned from you and from my brothers
2:02:51
the stars. So I gave my people the blue flower to think of and
2:02:56
work for. It led them to see beauty, unto work happily, and
2:03:00
filled the land with bloom. I their king, am their brother. And
2:03:06
soon they will understand this, and I can help them, and all will
2:03:11
be well. They shall be wise and joyous, and no good fortune.
2:03:17
The little Cripple lived near the sun and the stars in the castle on the
2:03:20
mountain Crag until he grew strong and straight. Then he was the king's chief
2:03:28
guarden. The boy was clever, was made captain of his band, which
2:03:32
became the king's own guard, and never left him. And the gloom of
2:03:38
King Mordred's land was forgotten, because it was known throughout all the world as
2:03:42
the land of the blue Flower. The Little Hunchback Zia Part one. The
2:03:51
Little Hunchback Zia toiled slowly up the steep road, keeping in the deepest shadows,
2:03:57
even though the night had long fallen. Sometimes he staggered with weariness,
2:04:02
or struck his foot against the stone and smothered his involuntary cry of pain.
2:04:08
He was so full of terror that he was afraid to utter a sound which
2:04:12
might cause any traveler to glance toward him. This he feared more than any
2:04:17
other thing, that some man or woman might look at him too closely.
2:04:23
If such a one knew much and had keen eyes, he or she might
2:04:28
in some way guess even at what they might not yet see. Since he
2:04:31
had fled from the village in which his wretched short life had been spent,
2:04:36
he had hidden himself in thickets and behind walls or rocks or bushes during the
2:04:42
day, and had only come forth at night to stagger along his way in
2:04:45
the darkness. If he had not managed to steal some food before he began
2:04:50
his journey, and if he had not found in one place some beans dropped
2:04:56
from a camel's feeding bag, he would have starved for five nights he had
2:05:00
been wandering on. But in his desperate fear, he had lost count of
2:05:05
time. When he had left the place he had called his home, he
2:05:09
had not known where he was going, or where he might hide himself.
2:05:13
In the end, the old woman with whom he had lived, and for
2:05:16
whom he had begged and labored, had driven him out with a terror as
2:05:20
great as his own. Begone. She had cried, in a smothered shriek,
2:05:27
Get thee gone, a cursed Even now thou mayest have brought the curse
2:05:31
upon me. Also, a creature born a hunchback, comes on earth,
2:05:35
with the blight of Jehovah's wrath upon him. Go far, go as far
2:05:41
as thy limbs will carry thee. Let no man come near enough to thee
2:05:45
to see it. If thou go far enough away before it is known,
2:05:48
it will be forgotten that I have harbored thee. He had stood and looked
2:05:54
at her in the silence of the dead, his immense black Syrian eyes growing
2:06:00
wider and wider with childish horror. He had always regarded her with slavish fear.
2:06:06
What he was to her he did not know. Neither did he know
2:06:10
how he had fallen into her hands. He knew only that he was not
2:06:15
of her blood or of her country, and that he yet seemed to have
2:06:18
always belonged to her. In his first memory of his existence, a little
2:06:24
deformed creature rolling about on the littered floor of her uncleanly hovel, he had
2:06:30
trembled at the sound of her voice, and had obeyed it like a beaten
2:06:33
spaniel puppy. When he had grown older, he had seen that she lived
2:06:39
upon alms and thievery and witch like evil doings that made all decent folk avoid
2:06:45
her. She had no kinsfolk or friends, and only such visitors as came
2:06:49
to her in the dark hours of night and seemed to consult with her as
2:06:54
she sat and mumbled strange incantations while she stirred a boiling pot. Zea had
2:07:00
heard of soothsayers and dealers with evil spirits, and at such hours was either
2:07:06
asleep on his palate in a far corner, or if he lay awake,
2:07:11
hid his face under his wretched covering and stopped his ears. Once, when
2:07:16
she had drawn near and found his large eyes open and staring at her in
2:07:20
spellbound terror, she had beaten him horribly and cast him into the storm raging
2:07:27
outside. A strange passion in her seemed her hatred of his eyes. She
2:07:33
could not endure that he should look at her as if he were thinking.
2:07:38
He must not let his eyes rest on her for more than a moment when
2:07:42
he spoke. He must keep them fixed on the ground, or look away
2:07:45
from her, from his babyhood. This had been so a hundred times.
2:07:50
She had struck him when he was too young to understand her reason. The
2:07:55
first strange lesson he had learned was that she hated his eyes, and was
2:08:00
driven to fury when she found them resting innocently upon her. Before he was
2:08:05
three years old, he had learned this thing, and had formed the habit
2:08:09
of looking down upon the earth as he limped about. For long, he
2:08:13
thought that his eyes were as hideous as his body was. Distorted. In
2:08:18
her frenzies, she told him that evil spirits looked out from them, and
2:08:22
that he was possessed of devils. Without thought of rebellion or resentment, he
2:08:28
accepted with timorous humility as part of his existence. Her taunts and his twisted
2:08:33
limbs. What use in rebellion or anger. With the fatalism of the east,
2:08:39
He resigned himself to that which was. He had been born a deformity,
2:08:43
and even his glance carried evil. This was life. He knew no
2:08:48
other of his origin. He knew nothing except that from the old woman's rambling
2:08:52
outbursts he had gathered that he was of Syrian blood and the homeless outcast.
2:08:58
But though he had so long trained himself to look downward that it had at
2:09:03
last become an effort to lift his heavily lashed eyelids. There came a time
2:09:07
when he learned that his eyes were not so hideously evil as his task mistress
2:09:13
had convinced him that they were. When he was only seven years old,
2:09:16
she sent him out to beg arms for her, and on the first day
2:09:20
of his going forth, she said a strange thing, the meaning of which
2:09:24
he could not understand. Go not forth with thine eyes bent downward on the
2:09:30
dust, Lift them and look long at those from whom thou askest alms.
2:09:35
Lift them and look as I see thee. Look at the sky, when
2:09:39
thou knowest not I am near. I have seen thee hunchback, gaze at
2:09:43
the passer by, as if thou sawest their souls, and asked help of
2:09:48
them. She said it with a fierce laugh of derision. But when in
2:09:52
his astonishment he involuntarily lifted his gaze to hers, she struck at him,
2:09:58
her harsh laugh broken in two. Not at me, hunchback, not at
2:10:03
me, at those who are ready to give, she cried out. He
2:10:07
had gone out, stunned with amazement. He wondered so greatly that when he
2:10:13
at last sat down by the roadside under a fig tree, he sat in
2:10:16
a dream. He looked up at the blueness above him, as he always
2:10:20
did when he was alone. His eyelids did not seem heavy when he lifted
2:10:24
them to look at the sky. The blueness and the billows of white clouds
2:10:30
brought rest to him and made him forget what he was. The floating clouds
2:10:35
were his only friends. There was something, yes, there was something.
2:10:39
He did not know what. He wished he were a cloud himself and could
2:10:45
lose himself at last in the blueness, as the clouds did when they melted
2:10:48
away. Surely the blueness was the something. The soft, dull pad of
2:10:54
camels feet approached upon the road without his hearing them. He was not rouse
2:11:00
from his absorption until the camel stopped its tread so near him that he started
2:11:05
and looked up. It was necessary that he should look up a long way.
2:11:09
He was a deformed little child, and the camel was a tall and
2:11:13
splendid one, with rich trappings and golden bills. The man it carried was
2:11:18
dressed richly, and the expression of his dark face was at once restless and
2:11:24
curious. He was bending down and staring at Zea as if he were something
2:11:30
strange. What dost thou see, child? He said at last, and
2:11:35
he spoke, almost in a breathless whisper. What art thou waiting for?
2:11:39
Zea stumbled to his feet and held out his bag, frightened because he had
2:11:43
never begged before and did not know how, and if he did not carry
2:11:48
back money and food, he would be horribly beaten again. Alms arms,
2:11:52
he stammered, Master Lord, I beg for for her who keeps me.
2:11:58
She is poor and old. Alms, great Lord, for a woman who
2:12:01
is old. The man, with a restless face, still stared. He
2:12:07
spoke as if unaware that he uttered words, and as if he were afraid
2:12:11
the child's eyes. He said, I cannot pass him by. What is
2:12:16
it? I must not be held back? But the unearthly beauty of his
2:12:20
eyes. He caught his breath as he spoke, and then he seemed to
2:12:24
awaken, as one struggling against a spell. What is thine name? He
2:12:31
asked. Zea also had lost his breath. What had the man meant when
2:12:35
he spoke of his eyes? He told his name, But he could answer
2:12:39
no further questions. He did not know whose son he was. He had
2:12:43
no home of his mistress. He knew only that her name was Judith,
2:12:48
and that she lived on alms. Even while he related these things, he
2:12:52
remembered his lesson, and, dropping his eyelids, fixed his gaze on the
2:12:56
camel's feet. Why dost thou cast thine eyes downward? The man asked,
2:13:01
in a troubled and intense voice. Zea could not speak, being stricken with
2:13:05
fear and the dumbness of bewilderment. He stood quite silent, And as he
2:13:11
lifted his eyes and let them rest on the stranger's own, they became large
2:13:16
with tears, big piteous tears. Why persisted the man anxiously? Is it
2:13:22
because thou seest evil in my soul? No? No, sobbed Zea.
2:13:28
One taught me to look away, because I am hideous and my eyes are
2:13:31
evil evil, said the stranger. They have lied to thee. He was
2:13:37
trembling as he spoke, A man who has been pondering on sin, dare
2:13:43
not pass their beauty by? They draw him and show him his own soul.
2:13:48
Having seen them, I must turn my camel's feet backward. And go
2:13:52
no farther on this road, which was to lead me to a black deed.
2:13:58
He bent down and drawn the purse into the child's arms bag, still
2:14:03
staring at him and breathing hard. They have the look, he muttered,
2:14:07
of eyes that might behold the Messiah, who knows, who knows? And
2:14:15
he turned his camel's head, still shuddering a little, and he rode away
2:14:18
back towards the place from which he had come. There was gold in the
2:14:22
purse he had given, and when Zia carried it back to Judith, she
2:14:26
snatched it from him and asked him many questions. She made him repeat word
2:14:31
for word all that had passed. After that, he was sent out to
2:14:37
beg day after day, and in time he vaguely understood that the old woman
2:14:41
had spoken falsely when she had said that evil spirits looked forth hideously from his
2:14:46
eyes. People often said that they were beautiful and gave him money, because
2:14:52
something in his gaze drew them near to him. But this was not all.
2:14:58
At times there were those whose spoke under their breath to one another of
2:15:01
some wonder of light in them, some strange luminousness which was not earthly.
2:15:07
He surely sees that which we cannot. Perhaps when he is a man,
2:15:11
he will be a great silk sayer and reader of the stars. He heard
2:15:16
a woman whisper to a companion one day. Those who were evil were afraid
2:15:22
to meet his gaze and hated it, as old Juth did, though as
2:15:26
he was not their servant, they dare not strike him when he lifted his
2:15:31
soft, heavy eyelids. But Zea could not understand what people meant when they
2:15:35
whispered about him or turned away fiercely. A weight was lifted from his soul
2:15:41
when he realized that he was not as revolting as he had believed, and
2:15:45
when people spoke kindly to him, he began to know something like happiness for
2:15:50
the first time in his life. He brought home so much in his arms
2:15:54
bag that the old woman ceased to beat him and gave him all liberty.
2:15:58
He was allowed to go out at night and sleep under the stars. At
2:16:01
such times he used to lie and look up at the jeweled myriads until he
2:16:05
felt himself drawn upward and floating, nearer and nearer to that unknown something,
2:16:11
which he felt also in the high blueness of the day. When he first
2:16:16
began to feel as if some mysterious ailment was creeping upon him. He kept
2:16:20
himself out of Judith's way as much as possible. He dared not tell her
2:16:26
that sometimes he could scarcely crawl from one place to another. A miserable,
2:16:31
fevered weakness became his secret. As the old woman took no notice of him,
2:16:35
except when he brought back his day's earnings, it was easy to evade
2:16:39
her. One morning, however, she fixed her eyes upon him suddenly and
2:16:45
keenly. Why art thou so white? She said, and caught him by
2:16:50
the arm, whirling him toward the light. Art thou ailing? No,
2:16:54
No, cried Zea. She held him still for a few seconds, still
2:16:58
staring Thou art too white? She said, I will have no such whiteness.
2:17:05
It is the whiteness of of and accursed thing. Get thee gone.
2:17:09
He went away, feeling cold and shaken. He knew he was white.
2:17:13
One or two alms givers had spoken of it, and had looked at him
2:17:16
a little fearfully. He himself could see that the flesh of his thin body
2:17:20
was becoming an unearthly color. Now and then he had shuddered as he looked
2:17:26
at it, because because there was one curse so horrible beyond all others,
2:17:31
that the strongest man would have quailed in his dread of its drawing near him.
2:17:37
And he was a child, a twelve year old boy, a helpless,
2:17:41
little hunchback mendicant. When he saw the first white and red spot upon
2:17:46
his flesh, he stood still and stared at it, gasping, and the
2:17:50
sweat started out upon him and rolled down in great drops. Jehovah, he
2:17:56
whispered, God of Israel, thy servant, is but a child. But
2:18:03
there broke out upon him other spots, and every time he found a new
2:18:07
one, his flesh quaked, and he could not help looking at it in
2:18:09
secret, again and again. Every time he looked it was because he hoped
2:18:13
it might have faded away. But no spot faded away, and the skin
2:18:18
on the palms of his hands began to be rough and cracked, and the
2:18:22
show spots. Also. In a cave on a hillside, near the road
2:18:26
where he sat and begged, there lived a deathly being who, with face
2:18:31
swathed in linen and with bandaged stumps of limbs, hobbled forth now and then
2:18:37
and came down to beg also, but always keeping at a distance from all
2:18:43
human creatures, And as he approached, the pitiful rattled loudly his wooden clappers,
2:18:48
wailing out, unclean, unclean. It was the leper Bias whose hopeless
2:18:56
tale of awful days was almost done. Zia himself had sometimes limped up the
2:19:01
hillside and laid some of his own poor food upon a stone near his cave,
2:19:07
so that he might find it. One day, he had also taken
2:19:11
a branch of almond blossom in full flower, and had laid it by the
2:19:15
food. And when he had gone away, he stood at some distance,
2:19:18
watching to see the poor ghost come forth to take what he had given.
2:19:22
And he had seen him first clutch at the blossoming branch and fall upon his
2:19:28
face, holding it to his breast, a white, bound, shapeless thing,
2:19:33
sobbing and uttering, hoarse, croaking, unhuman cries, no alms giver.
2:19:39
But Zia had ever dreamed of bringing a flower to him, who was
2:19:43
forever cut off from all bloom and loveliness. It was this white, shuddering
2:19:48
creature that Zea remembered with a sick chill of horror. When he saw the
2:19:54
spots unclean, unclean. He heard the cracked voice cry to the sound of
2:20:00
wooden clappers, unclean, unclean. Judith was standing at the door of her
2:20:05
hovel one morning when Zea was going forth for the day. He had fearfully
2:20:11
been aware that for days she had been watching him, as he had never
2:20:15
known her to watch him before this morning. She had followed him to the
2:20:18
door, and had held him there a few moments in the light, with
2:20:22
some harsh speech, keeping her eyes fixed on him the while. Even as
2:20:28
they so stood, there fell upon the clear air of the morning a hollow,
2:20:31
far off sound, the sound of wooden clappers rattled together, and the
2:20:37
hopeless crying of two words unclean, unclean, And then silence fell upon Zea
2:20:45
descended, a fear beyond all power of words to utter. In his quaking,
2:20:50
young torment. He lifted his eyes and met the gaze of the old
2:20:54
woman as it flamed down upon him. Go within, she commanded suddenly,
2:20:58
and pointed to the wretched room inside. He who bade her, and she
2:21:03
followed him, closing the door behind them. Tear off thy garment, she
2:21:07
ordered, strip thyself to thy skin, to thy skin. He shook from
2:21:11
head to foot, his trembling hands, almost refusing to obey him. She
2:21:18
did not touch him, but stood apart, glaring. His garments fell from
2:21:22
him and lay in a heap at his feet, and he stood among them
2:21:24
naked. One look, and she broke forth, shaking with fear, herself
2:21:30
into a breathless storm of fury. Thou hast known this thing and hidden it?
2:21:35
She raved leper, Leper, a cursed hunchback thing. As he stood
2:21:41
in his nakedness and sobbed great heavy, childish sobs. She did not dare
2:21:46
to strike him and rage the more. If it were known that she had
2:21:50
harbored him, the priest would be upon her, and all that she had
2:21:56
would be taken from her and burned. She would not even let him his
2:22:00
clothes on in her house. Take thy rags, and be gone in thy
2:22:03
nakedness. Clothe thyself on the hill side. Let none see thee until thou
2:22:09
art far away. Rot as thou wilt, but dare not to name me.
2:22:13
Begone, begone, begone, And with his rags he fled naked through
2:22:18
the doorway and hid himself in the little wood beyond. Later, as he
2:22:24
went on his way, he had hidden himself in the daytime behind bushes by
2:22:28
the wayside or off the road, he had crouched behind rocks and boulders,
2:22:33
he had slept in caves when he found them, he had shrunk away from
2:22:37
all human sight. He knew it could not be long before he would be
2:22:39
discovered, and then he would be shut up, and afterward he would be
2:22:43
as Barias until he died along like unto Barias. To him, it seemed
2:22:50
as though shurely never child had sobbed before, as he sobbed, lying hidden
2:22:56
behind his boulders, among his bushes, on the bare hill, among the
2:23:01
rocks. For the first four nights of his wandering, he had not known
2:23:05
where he was going. But on this fifth night he discovered he was on
2:23:09
the way to Bethlehim, beautiful little Bethel. Him curving on the crest of
2:23:13
the Judaean mountains and smiling down upon the fairness of the fairest of sweet valleys,
2:23:20
rich with vines and figs and olives and almond trees. He dimly recalled
2:23:26
stories he had overheard of its loveliness, And when he found that he had
2:23:30
wandered unknowingly toward it, he was aware of a faint sense of peace.
2:23:35
He had seen nothing of any other part of the world than the poor village,
2:23:39
outside which the hovel of his bond mistress had clung to a low hill.
2:23:43
Since he was near it, he vaguely desired to see bethe Lahem.
2:23:48
He had learned of its nearness as he lay hidden in the undergrowth on the
2:23:52
mountain side that he had begun to climb the night before. Awakening from sleep,
2:23:56
he had heard many feet passing up the climbing road, the feet of
2:24:01
men and women, and children, of camels and dasses, and all had
2:24:05
seemed to be of a procession ascending the mountain side. Lying flat upon the
2:24:11
earth, he had parted the bushes cautiously and watched and listened to the shouts,
2:24:16
cries, laughter, and talk of those who were near enough to be
2:24:20
heard. So bit by bit he had heard the story of the passing Throng.
2:24:26
The great Emperor Augustus, who to the common herd seemed some strange omnipotent
2:24:31
in his remote and sumptuous paradise of Rome, had issued a decree that all
2:24:37
the world of his subjects should be enrolled, and every man, woman and
2:24:41
child must enroll himself in his own city and to the little town of Bethlehem.
2:24:46
All these travelers were wending their way to the place of their nativity,
2:24:52
in obedience to the Great Caesar's command. End of section eight The Little Hunchback
2:25:00
Zia, Part two. All through the day he watched them, men and
2:25:05
women and children who belonged to one another, who rode together on their beasts,
2:25:11
or walked together hand in hand, women on camels or asses, held
2:25:16
their little ones in their arms, or walked with the youngest slung on their
2:25:20
backs. He heard boys laugh and talk with their fathers, boys of his
2:25:24
own age, who trudged merrily along, and now and again ran forward,
2:25:28
shouting with glee. He saw more than one strong man swing his child up
2:25:33
to his shoulder and bare him along, as if he found joy in his
2:25:37
burden. Boy and girl companions played as they went and made holiday of their
2:25:43
journey. Young men or women who were friends, lovers, or brothers and
2:25:48
sisters bore one another company. No one is alone, said Zea, twisting
2:25:54
his thin fingers together. No one, no one, And there are no
2:25:58
lepers the great seas who would not count a leper. Perhaps if he saw
2:26:01
one, he would command him to be put to death. And then he
2:26:05
writhed upon the grass and sobbed again. His bent chest almost bursting with his
2:26:09
efforts to make no sound. He had always been alone, always, always,
2:26:16
but this loneliness was such as no young human thing could bear. He
2:26:22
was no longer alive, he was no longer a human being, unclean,
2:26:26
unclean, unclean. At last he slept, exhausted, and passed his piteous,
2:26:33
prostrate, childhood, and helplessness. The slow procession wound its way up
2:26:39
the mountain round toward the Crescent of Bethlehem, knowing nothing of his nearness to
2:26:45
its unburdened comfort and simple peace. When he awakened, the night had fallen,
2:26:50
and he opened his eyes upon a high vault of blue velvet darkness strewn
2:26:56
with great stars. He saw this at the first moment of his consciousness,
2:27:01
and then he realized that there was no longer to be heard the sound either
2:27:07
of passing hoofs or treading feet. The travelers who had gone by during the
2:27:11
day had probably reached their journey's end and gone to rest in their tents,
2:27:16
or had found refuge in the enclosing khan that gave shelter to wayfarers and their
2:27:22
beasts of burden. But though there was no human creature near, and no
2:27:28
sound of human voice or human tread. A strange change had taken place in
2:27:33
him. His loneliness had passed away and left him lying still and calm,
2:27:39
as though it had never existed, as though the crushed and broken child who
2:27:43
had plunged from a precipice of war and to deadly exhausted sleep was only a
2:27:48
vague memory of a creature in a dark past dream. Had it been himself
2:27:54
lying upon his back, seeing only the immensity of the deep blue above him,
2:28:00
and the greatness of the stars, he scarcely dared to draw breath lest
2:28:05
he should arouse himself to new anguish. It had not been he who had
2:28:09
so suffered. Surely it had been another zea what had come upon him,
2:28:15
what had come upon the world? All was so still that it was if
2:28:20
the earth waited, as if it waited to hear some word that would be
2:28:24
spoken out of the great space in which it hung. He was not hungry,
2:28:28
or cold or tired. It was as if he had never staggered and
2:28:33
stumbled up the mountain path and dropped, shuddering to hide behind the bushes before
2:28:39
the daylight came and men could see his white face. Surely he had rested
2:28:45
long. He had never felt like this before, and he had never seen
2:28:50
so wonderful a night. The stars had never been so many and so large.
2:28:56
What made them so soft and brilliant? That each one was almost like
2:29:00
a sun? And he strangely felt that each looked down at him as if
2:29:05
it said the word, though he did not know what the word was.
2:29:09
Why had he been so terror stricken? Why had he been so wretched?
2:29:13
There were no lepers, there were no hunchbacks. There was only zea,
2:29:18
and he was at peace and akin to the stars that looked down. How
2:29:24
heavenly still the waiting world was, how heavenly still? He lay and smiled
2:29:31
and smiled. Perhaps he lay so for an hour, and then, high
2:29:35
high above, he saw, or thought he saw, in the remoteness of
2:29:39
the vault of blue, a brilliant whiteness float. Was it a strange snowy
2:29:45
cloud or was he dreaming? It seemed to grow whiter, more brilliant.
2:29:50
His breath came fast, and his heart beat trembling in his breast, because
2:29:54
he had never seen clouds so strangely purely. There was another, higher,
2:30:01
farther, distant, and yet more dazzling. Still, another and another showed
2:30:07
its radiance, until at last an arch of splendor seemed to stream across the
2:30:13
sky. It is like the glory of the Ark of the Covenant. He
2:30:16
gasped and threw his arm across his blinded eyes, shuddering with rapture. He
2:30:22
could not uncover his face. And it was as he lay, quaking with
2:30:28
an unearthly joy that he first thought he heard sounds of music, as remotely
2:30:33
distant as the lights. Is it on earth? He panted? Is it
2:30:37
on earth? He struggled to his knees. He had heard of miracles and
2:30:43
wonders of old and of the past ages, when the sons of God visited
2:30:48
the earth. Glory to God in the Highest, he stammered, again and
2:30:52
again and again, Glory to the Great Jehovah. And he touched his forehead
2:30:56
seven times to the earth. Then he behaved held a singular thing. When
2:31:01
he had gone to sleep, a flock of sheep had been lying near him
2:31:05
on the grass. The flock was still there, but something seemed to be
2:31:09
happening to it. The creatures were awakening from their sleep as if they had
2:31:13
heard something. First one head was raised, and then another, and then
2:31:18
another, and another until every head was lifted and every one was turned toward
2:31:24
a certain point, as if listening. What were they listening for? Zea
2:31:30
could see nothing, though he turned his own face towards the climbing road and
2:31:35
listened with them. The floating radiance was so increasing in the sky that at
2:31:41
this point of the mountain side it seemed no longer to the night, and
2:31:46
the faraway peans held him breathless with mysterious Awe was the sound on earth?
2:31:52
Where did it come from? Where? Praised be Jehovah? He heard his
2:31:58
weak and shaking young voice quaver. Some belated travelers were coming slowly up the
2:32:03
road. He heard an ass his feet and low voices. The sheep heard
2:32:09
them also, had they been waiting for them? They rose, one by
2:32:13
one, the whole flock, to their feet, and turned in a body
2:32:18
toward the approaching sounds. Zia stood up with them. He waited also,
2:32:24
and it was as if at this moment his soul so lifted itself that it
2:32:30
almost broke away from his body. Almost around the curve. An ass came
2:32:35
slowly, bearing a woman and led by a man who walked by his side.
2:32:41
He was a man of sober years, and walked wearily. Zia's eyes
2:32:46
grew wide with awe and wondering as he gazed scarce breathing. The light upon
2:32:52
the hillside was so softly radiant and so clear that he could see that the
2:32:56
woman's robe was blue, and that she lifted her face to the stars as
2:33:01
she rode. It was a young face and pale with the pallor of lilies,
2:33:07
and their eyes were as stars of the morning. But this was not
2:33:11
all. A radiance shone from her pure pallor, and bordering her blue robe
2:33:16
and veil was a faint, steady glow of light. And as she passed
2:33:22
the standing and waiting sheep, they slowly bowed themselves upon their knees before her,
2:33:28
and so knelt until she had passed by and was out of sight.
2:33:33
Then they returned to their places and slept as before. When she was gone,
2:33:39
Zia found that he also was kneeling. He did not know when his
2:33:43
knees had bent. He was faint with ecstasy. She goes to Bethlehem,
2:33:48
he heard himself say, as he had heard himself speak before, I too,
2:33:54
I too. He stood a moment listening to the sound of the acid
2:34:00
retreating feet as it grew fainter in the distance. His breath came quick and
2:34:05
soft. The light had died away from the hillside, but the high,
2:34:09
floating radiance seemed to pass to and fro in the heavens. And now and
2:34:15
again he thought he heard the faint, far sound that was like music,
2:34:18
so distant that it was as a thing heard in a dream. Perhaps I
2:34:24
behold visions, he murmured. It may be that I shall awake. But
2:34:28
he found himself making his way through the bushes, and setting his feet upon
2:34:33
the road. He must follow, He must follow, howsoever steep the hill
2:34:39
he must climb to Bethlehem. But as he went on his way, it
2:34:43
did not seem steep, and he did not waver or toil, as he
2:34:48
usually did when walking. He felt no weariness or ache in his limbs,
2:34:52
and the high radiance gently lighted the path and dimly revealed that many white flowers
2:35:00
he had never seen before seemed to have sprung up by the roadside, and
2:35:03
to wave softly to and fro, giving forth a fragrance so remote and faint,
2:35:09
and yet so clear, that it did not seem of earth. It
2:35:13
was perhaps part of the vision of the distance. He climbed. His thought
2:35:18
took no cognizance. There was in this vision neither distance nor time. There
2:35:24
was only faint radiance, far strange sounds, and the breathing of air,
2:35:30
which made him feel an ecstasy of lightness. As he moved. The other
2:35:35
Zea had traveled painfully, had stumbled and struck his feet against wayside stones.
2:35:41
He seemed ten thousand miles, ten thousand years away. It was not he
2:35:46
who went to Bethlehem, led, as if by some power invisible, to
2:35:50
Bethlehem. To Bethlehem, where went the woman, whose blue robe was bordered
2:35:56
with a glow of fair luminousness, and whose face, like an uplifted lily,
2:36:01
softly shown. It was she he followed, knowing no reason but that
2:36:07
his soul was called. When he reached the little town and stood at last
2:36:13
near the gateway of the Khan, in which the day long procession of wayfarers
2:36:16
had crowded to take refuge for the night, he knew that he would find
2:36:20
no place among the multitude within its walls. Too many of the Great Caesar's
2:36:26
subjects had been born in Bethlehem and had come back for their enrollment. The
2:36:31
Khan was crowded to its utmost, and outside lingered many who had not been
2:36:37
able to gain admission, and who consulted plaintively with one another as to where
2:36:41
they might find the place to sleep and to eat the food they carried with
2:36:46
them. Zia had made his way to the entrance gate only because he knew
2:36:50
the travelers he had followed would seek shelter there, and that he might chance
2:36:54
to hear of them. He stood a little apart from the gate and waited
2:36:58
something would tell him what he must do. Almost as this thought entered his
2:37:03
mind, he heard voices speaking near him. Two women were talking together,
2:37:09
and soon he began to hear their words. Joseph of Nazareth, and marry
2:37:15
his wife, one said, both of the line of David. There was
2:37:18
no room for them, even as there was no room for others not of
2:37:22
royal lineage. To the mangers in the cave they've gone seeing the woman had
2:37:26
sore need of breast. She thou knowest Zea heard no more. He did
2:37:31
not ask where the cave lay. He had not needed to ask his way
2:37:35
to Bethlehem. That which had led him again directed his feet away from the
2:37:39
entrance gate of the Khan past the crowded court, and the long low wall
2:37:45
of stone, within the enclosure of which the camels and asses browsed, and
2:37:48
slept on at last to a pathway leading to the gray of rising rocks.
2:37:54
Beneath them was the cave he knew, though none had told him so.
2:38:00
Only a short distance and he saw what drew him trembling nearer at the open
2:38:05
entrance, through which he could see the rough mangers of stone, the heaps
2:38:09
of fodder, and the ass munching slowly. In a corner. The woman
2:38:13
who wore the blue robe stood, leaning wearily against the heavy wooden post,
2:38:18
and the soft light bordering her garments set her in a frame of faint radiance,
2:38:24
and glowed in a halo about her head the light. The light cried
2:38:31
Zea in a breathless whisper, and he crossed his hands upon his breast.
2:38:35
Her husband surely could not see it. He moved soberly about, unpacking the
2:38:41
burden the acid carried, and, seeming to see naught else, he heaped
2:38:46
straw in a corner with care, and threw his mantle upon it. Come,
2:38:50
he said, here thou canst rest, and I can watch by thy
2:38:54
side. The angels of the Lord be with thee. The woman turned from
2:38:58
the door and went toward him, walking with slow steps. He gazed at
2:39:03
her with mild, unillumined eyes. Does he not see the light? Panted
2:39:09
zea? Does he not see the light? Soon he himself no longer saw
2:39:15
it. Joseph of Nazareth came to the wooden doors and drew them together.
2:39:20
And the boy stood alone on the mountain side, trembling still and wet with
2:39:24
a dew of the night, but not weary, not hungered, not athirst
2:39:30
or afraid, only quaking with wonder and joy. He the little hunchback Zia,
2:39:37
who had known no joy before, since the hour of his birth.
2:39:41
He sank upon the earth slowly in an exquisite piece, a piece that thrilled
2:39:48
his whole being. As he stole over his limbs, deepening moment by moment,
2:39:54
his head drooped softly upon a cushion of moss. As his eyelids fell,
2:39:58
he saw a splendor of whiteness floating in the height of the purple vault
2:40:03
above him. The dawn was breaking, and yet the stars had not faded
2:40:09
away. This was his thought when his eyes first opened on a great one
2:40:13
greater than any other in the sky, and of so pure a brilliance that
2:40:18
it seemed as if even the sun would not be bright enough to put it
2:40:22
out. It hung high in the paling blue, high as the white radiance,
2:40:28
And as he lay and gazed, he thought it surely moved. What
2:40:33
new star was it that, in that one night had been born? He
2:40:37
had watched the stars through so many desolate hours that he knew each great one
2:40:41
as a friend, and this one he had never seen before. The morning
2:40:46
was cold, and his clothes were wet with dew, but he felt no
2:40:50
chill. He remembered, Yes, he remembered. If he had lived in
2:40:56
a vision the day before, he was surely living in one. Yet the
2:41:01
Zea who had been starved and beaten and driven out naked into the world,
2:41:05
who had clutched his thin breast and sobbed writhing upon the earth, where was
2:41:11
he? He looked down upon his hands and saw the cracked and scaling palms,
2:41:16
and it was as though they were not. He thrust back the covering
2:41:20
from his chest and saw the spots there. But there were no lepers,
2:41:24
there were no hunchbacks. There were only Zia and the light. He knelt
2:41:31
and turned himself towards the cave and prayed. And as he so knelt and
2:41:35
prayed, the man Joseph rolled open the heavy wooden door. Then Zea,
2:41:43
still kneeling, beat himself softly upon the breast, and prayed again, not
2:41:48
as before to Jehovah, but to that which he beheld. The light was
2:41:54
there, fair, radiant, wonderful. The cave was bathed in it.
2:42:00
The woman in the blue robe sat upon the straw, and in her arms
2:42:03
she held a new born child. Zia touched his forehead to the earth again,
2:42:09
again and again, unknowing that he did so. The child was the
2:42:15
light itself. He must rise and draw near that which had drawn him up
2:42:20
the mountain side drew him again. The child was the light itself. As
2:42:26
he crept near the cave's entrance, the woman's eyes rested upon him, soft
2:42:31
and wonderful. She spoke to him. She spoke, beat out afraid,
2:42:37
She said, draw a nigh and behold. Her voice was not as the
2:42:43
voice of other women. It was like her eyes. His body, through
2:42:46
his blood, threw every limb and fleshly at him. Of him he felt
2:42:50
it steel, new, life, warming, thrilling, wakening in his veins
2:42:56
new life. As he felt it. He knelt, quaking with rapture,
2:43:01
even as he had stood the night before, gazing at the light. The
2:43:05
new born hand lay still. He did not know how long he knelt.
2:43:09
He did not know that the woman leaned toward him, scarce drawing breath,
2:43:15
her wondrous eyes resting upon him as if she waited for a sign. Even
2:43:20
as she so gazed, she beheld it and spoke, whispering as in awed
2:43:26
prayer. Go forth, and cleanse thy flesh in running water, she said.
2:43:31
Go forth. He moved, He rose, He stood upright, the
2:43:35
hunchback Zear, who had never stood up right before. His body was straight,
2:43:41
his limbs were strong. He looked upon his hands, and there was
2:43:46
no blemish or spot to be seen. I am made whole, he cried,
2:43:50
in ecstasy, so wild that his boy's voice rang and echoed in the
2:43:56
cave's hollowed roof. I AM made whole. Go forth, she said,
2:44:01
softly, go forth and give praise. He turned and went into the dawning
2:44:07
day. He stood swaying, and heard himself sob forth a rapturous cry of
2:44:13
prayer. His flesh was fresh and pure, he stood, erect and tall.
2:44:18
He was as others whom God had not cursed. The light, the
2:44:22
light. He stretched forth his arms to the morning sky. Some shepherds,
2:44:28
roughly clothed in the skin of lambs and kids, were climbing the hill towards
2:44:33
the cave. They carried their crooks, and they talked eagerly, as though
2:44:37
in wonderment at some strange thing which had befallen them, looking up at the
2:44:41
heavens, and one pointed with his crook. Surely it draws nearer the star,
2:44:46
he said. Look. As they passed a thicket where a brook flowed
2:44:50
through the trees, a fair boy came forth, cleansed, fresh and radiant,
2:44:58
as if he had but just bathed it in its clear waters. It
2:45:01
was the boys there. Who is this? One, said the oldest shepherd.
2:45:05
How beautiful he is, how the light shines on him. He looks
2:45:11
like a king's son. And as they passed they made obeisance to him.
2:45:18
Part one of Esmeralda. To begin, I am a Frenchman, a teacher
2:45:24
of languages, and a poor man, necessarily a poor man, as the
2:45:30
great world would say, or I should not be a teacher of languages and
2:45:35
my wife, a copyist of great pictures, selling her copies at small prices.
2:45:39
In our own eyes, it is true we are not so poor,
2:45:43
my Lily and I. Looking back upon our past, we congratulate ourselves upon
2:45:48
our prosperous condition. There was a time when we were poorer than we are
2:45:52
now, and were not together, and were moreover in London instead of in
2:45:58
Parriques. These were indeed calamities to be poor, to teach, to live
2:46:03
apart, not even knowing each other. And in England. In England we
2:46:07
spent years we instructed imbeciles of all grades. We were chilled by east winds
2:46:15
and tortured by influenza. We vainly strove to conciliate the appalling English. We
2:46:20
were discouraged and desolate. But this, thank Le bon Dieu, is past.
2:46:26
We are united. We have our little apartment upon the fifth floor,
2:46:30
it is true, but still not hopelessly far from the Chensalize clely paints her
2:46:35
little pictures or copies those of some great artists, and fine sale for them.
2:46:41
She is not a great artist herself, and is charmingly conscious of the
2:46:45
fact. At fifteen, she says, I regretted that I was not a
2:46:50
genius at five and twenty. I rejoice that I made the discovery so early,
2:46:56
and so gave myself time to become great for the small gifts bestowed upon
2:47:01
me. Why should I eat out my heart with envy? Is not it
2:47:05
possible that I might be a less clever woman than I am and a less
2:47:09
lucky one. On my part, I have my pupils, French pupils who
2:47:15
take lessons in the English German, or Italian English, or American pupils who
2:47:20
generally learn French, and upon the whole I do not suffer from lack of
2:47:26
patrons. It is my habit, when clearly is at work upon a copy
2:47:30
in one of the great galleries, to accompany her to the scene of her
2:47:33
labor in the morning and call for her at noon. And in accordance with
2:47:37
this habit, I made my way to the louver at mid day. Upon
2:47:41
one occasion three years ago, I found my wife busy at riessel in the
2:47:46
Grand Gallery. And when I approached her and laid my hand upon the shoulder,
2:47:50
as was my wont she looked up at me with a smile and spoke
2:47:54
to me in a cautious undertone. I am glad, she said that you
2:48:00
or not ten minutes later, look at those extraordinary people. She still leaned
2:48:05
back in her chair and looked up at me, but made at the same
2:48:09
time one of those indescribable movements of the head which a clever woman can render.
2:48:13
So significant. This slight gesture directed me at once to the extraordinary people
2:48:20
to whom she referred. Are they not truly wonderful? She asked. There
2:48:26
were two of them, evidently, father and daughter, and they sat side
2:48:30
by side upon a seat placed in an archway, and regarded hopelessly one of
2:48:35
the finest works in the gallery. The father was a person undersized and elderly.
2:48:39
His face was tanned and seemed as if with years of rough outdoor labor.
2:48:46
The effect produced upon him by his clothes was plainly one of actual suffering,
2:48:50
both physical and mental. His stiff hands refused to meet the efforts of
2:48:54
his gloves to fit them, his body shrank from his garments. If he
2:48:58
had not been pathetic, he would have been ridiculous. But he was pathetic.
2:49:05
It was evident he was not so attired of his own free will that
2:49:09
only a patient nature inured by long custom to discomfort, sustained him. That
2:49:15
he was in the gallery under protest that he did not understand the paintings,
2:49:18
and that they perplexed overwhelmed him. The daughter is almost impossible to describe,
2:49:26
and yet I must attempt to describe her. She had a slender and pretty
2:49:31
figure. There were slight marks of the sun on her face also, and
2:49:35
as in her father's case, the richness of her dress was set at defiance
2:49:39
by a strong element of incongruousness. She had black hair and gray eyes,
2:49:45
and she sat with folded hands, staring at the picture before her in dumb
2:49:48
uninterestedness. Clely had taken up her brush again and was touching up her work.
2:49:54
Here and there they have been here two hours, she said, the
2:50:00
waiting for someone. At first they tried to look about them as others did.
2:50:03
They wandered from seat to seat, and sat down and looked as you
2:50:07
see them doing. Now what you think of them? To what nation should
2:50:11
you ascribe them? They are not French, I answered, And they are
2:50:16
not English. If she were English, said Clely, the girl would be
2:50:22
more conscious of herself and of what we might possibly be saying. She is
2:50:26
only conscious that she is out of place and miserable. She does not care
2:50:30
for us at all. I have never seen Americans like them before, but
2:50:35
I am convinced that they are Americans. She laid aside her working materials and
2:50:39
proceeded to draw on her gloves. We will go and look at that Tantacion
2:50:46
de Saint Antoine Artaignier, she said, and we may hear them speak.
2:50:50
I confess I am devoured by an anxiety to hear them speak. According a
2:50:56
few moments later, an amiable young couple stood before Tantarcion, regarding it with
2:51:01
absorbed and critical glances. But the father and daughter did not seem to see
2:51:07
us. They looked disconsolately about them or at the picture before which they sat.
2:51:13
Finally, however, we were rewarded by hearing them speak to each other.
2:51:18
The father addressed the young lady slowly and deliberately, and with an accent
2:51:22
which, but for my long residence in England and familiarity with some forms of
2:51:26
its patois, I should find it impossible to transcribe. As Moraldi, he
2:51:33
said, your mar's long time a common yes, answered the girl, with
2:51:41
the same accent, and in a voice wholly listless and melancholy. She's a
2:51:46
long time Clelli favored me with one of her rapid side glances. The study
2:51:52
of character is a grand patition, and her special weakness is a fancy for
2:51:58
the singular and incongruous. I have seen her stand in silence and regard with
2:52:03
positive interest one of her former patronesses, who was overwhelming her with gondumelius violence,
2:52:09
seeming entirely unconscious of all else, but that the woman was of a
2:52:13
species novel to her, and therefore worthy of delicate observation. It is,
2:52:20
as I said, she whispered, they are Americans, but of an order
2:52:24
entirely new. Almost the next instant, she touched my arm. Here is
2:52:31
the mother, she exclaimed. She is coming this way. See a woman
2:52:37
advanced rapidly toward our part of the gallery, A small, angry woman with
2:52:41
an ungraceful figure and a keen brown eye. She began to speak aloud,
2:52:46
while still several feet distant from the waiting couple. Come along, she said,
2:52:54
I've found a place at last, though I've been all the morning.
2:52:58
Ad It and the woman woman who keeps the door, speaks English, they
2:53:03
calumn remarked, the husband, meekly rising con sergs, I wonder why the
2:53:11
girl rose, also still with her hopeless abstracted air, and followed the mother,
2:53:18
who led the way to the door. Seeing her move forward, my
2:53:22
wife uttered an admiring exclamation. She is more beautiful than I thought, she
2:53:28
said. She holds herself marvelously. She moves with the freedom of some fine
2:53:33
wild creature. And as the party disappeared from view, her regret at losing
2:53:39
them drew from her a sigh. She disgusted them with characteristic enthusiasm. All
2:53:46
the way home. She even concocted a very probable little romance. One would
2:53:50
always imagine so many things concerning Americans. They were so extraordinary a people.
2:53:58
They acquired wealth by such peculi means, Their country was so immense, their
2:54:03
resources were so remarkable. These persons, for instance, were evidently persons of
2:54:09
wealth, and as plainly had risen from the people. The mother was not
2:54:13
quite so wholly untaught as the other two, but she was more objectionable.
2:54:20
One can bear with a large simplicity of utter ignorance, said my fair philosopher.
2:54:26
One frequently finds it gentle and unworldly, But the other is odious,
2:54:33
because it is always aggressive and narrow. She had taken a strong feminine dislike
2:54:39
to Madame la maire. She makes her family miserable, she said, she
2:54:46
drags them from place to place. Possibly there is a lover, more possibly
2:54:50
than not. The girl's eyes wore a peculiar look, as if they searched
2:54:56
for something far away. She had scarce concluded her charming little harangue when we
2:55:03
reached our destination. But as we passed through the entrance, she paused to
2:55:07
speak to the curly headed child of the concierge, whose mother held him by
2:55:13
the hand. We shall have new arrivals to morrow, said the good woman,
2:55:18
who was always ready for friendly gossip. The apartment upon the first floor,
2:55:24
and she nodded to me significantly and with good natured encouragement. Perhaps you
2:55:30
may get pupils, she added. They are Americans and speak only English,
2:55:35
and there is a young lady. Madame says Americans, exclaimed Claie with sudden
2:55:43
interest. Americans, answered the concierge. It was madame who came, mon
2:55:50
dieu. It was wonderful, so rich and so so, filling up the
2:55:54
blank by a shrug of deep meaning. It cannot have been long since they
2:56:00
were peasants, her voice dropping into a cautious whisper. Why not our friends
2:56:07
of the louver, said Cleie, as we went on upstairs, Why not,
2:56:13
I replied, it is very possible. The next day there arrived at
2:56:18
the house numberless trunks of large dimensions, superintended by the small, angry woman
2:56:24
and the maid. An hour later came a carriage, from whose door emerged
2:56:30
the young lady and her brother. Both looked pale and fagged. Both were
2:56:35
led upstairs in the midst of voluble comments and commands by the mother, and
2:56:41
both, entering the apartment seemed swallowed up by it. As we saw and
2:56:46
heard nothing further of them. Clee was indignant. It is plain that the
2:56:52
mother overwhelms them, she said. A girl of that age should speak and
2:56:58
be interested in any novelty. This one would be if she were not to
2:57:03
wretch it and the poor little husband. My dear, I remarked, you
2:57:09
are a feminine bayard. You engage yourself with such ardor in everybody's wrongs.
2:57:18
When I returned from my afternoon's work a few days later, I found Cleee
2:57:22
again excited. She had been summoned to the first floor by Madame. I
2:57:28
went into the room, said Clelye, and found the mother and daughter together
2:57:33
Mademoiselle, who stood by the fire, had evidently been weeping. Madame was
2:57:39
in an abrupt and angry mood. She wasted no words. I want you
2:57:45
to give her lessons, she said, making an ungraceful gesture in the direction
2:57:50
of her daughter. What do you charge a lesson? And on my telling
2:57:54
her, she engaged me at once. It's a great deal, but I
2:58:00
I guess I can pay as well as other people, she remarked. A
2:58:05
few of the lessons were given downstairs, and then Clayly preferred a request to
2:58:09
Madame. If you will permit Mademoiselle to come to my room, you will
2:58:16
confer a favor upon me, she said. Fortunately, her request was granted,
2:58:22
and so I used afterward to come home to find Mademoiselle Esmeralda in our
2:58:28
little salon at work. Disconsolately and tremulously. She found it difficult to hold
2:58:35
her pencil in the correct manner, and one morning she let it drop and
2:58:39
burst into tears. Don't you see I'll never do it, she answered,
2:58:46
miserably. Don't you see I couldn't even if my heart was in it,
2:58:50
and it ain't at all. She held out her little hands piteously for clely
2:58:56
to look at. They were well enough shaped and would have been pretty if
2:59:00
they had not been robbed of their useful suppleness by labor. I've been used
2:59:05
to work, she said, rough work all my life, and my hands
2:59:11
ain't like yours. But you must not be discouraged, Mademoiselle, said Clelie
2:59:16
gently. Time time interposed the girl with a frightened look in her pretty gray
2:59:24
eyes. That's what I can't bear to think of the time that's to come.
2:59:30
This was the first of many outbursts of confidence. Afterward, she related
2:59:35
to Clellie with the greatest naivete the whole history of the family affairs. They
2:59:41
had been the possessors of some barren mountain lands in North Carolina, and her
2:59:46
description of their former life was wonderful, indeed, to the ears of the
2:59:50
Parisian. She herself had been brought up with marvelous simplicity and hardihood, barely
2:59:58
learning to read and write, and in absolute ignorance of society. A year
3:00:03
ago, iron had been discovered upon their property, and the result had been
3:00:07
wealth and misery for father and daughter. The mother, who had some vague
3:00:13
fancies of the attractions of the great outside world, was ambitious and restless Monsieur,
3:00:18
who was a mild and accommodating person, could only give way before her
3:00:24
stronger will. She always had her way with us, said Mademoiselle Esmeralda,
3:00:31
scratching nervously upon the paper before her with her pencil. At this part of
3:00:35
the relation, we did not want to leave home, neither me nor father.
3:00:41
And father said more than I ever heard him say before. At one
3:00:46
time, Mother says, he let me and Esmeraldi stay at home, and
3:00:52
you go and enjoy your tower. You've had more schooling, and you'll be
3:00:56
more at home than we should. You're used to to sitity ways, having
3:01:00
lived in Lizabethville. But it only vexed her. People in town had been
3:01:05
talking to her about traveling and letting me learn thanks, and she'd set her
3:01:09
mind on it. She was very simple and unsophisticated. To the memory of
3:01:16
her former, truly singular life, she clung with unshaken fidelity. She recurred
3:01:22
to it constantly. The novel and luxury of her new existence seemed to have
3:01:26
no attractions for her. One thing, even my c Lily found incomprehensible.
3:01:31
While she fancied she understood the rest, she did not appear to be moved
3:01:35
to pleasure, even by our beloved Paris. It is a true malady,
3:01:41
dupay Clely remarked to me. And that is not all, Nor was it
3:01:48
all. One day the whole truth was told amid a flood of tears.
3:01:54
Ah, I was gone to be married, cried the poor child. I
3:02:00
was to have been married the week the ow was found. I was already
3:02:05
and mother mother shut right down on us. Clely glanced at me in amazed
3:02:11
questioning. It is a kind of argo which belongs only to Americans, I
3:02:16
answered, in an undertone. The alliance was broken off. Ciel, exclaimed
3:02:24
my Clellee between her small shut teeth. The woman is a fiend. She
3:02:30
was wholly absorbed in her study of this unworldly and untaught nature. She was
3:02:35
full of sympathy for its trials and tenderness, and for its pain. Even
3:02:41
the girl's peculiarities of speech were full of interest to her. She made serious
3:02:46
and intelligent efforts to understand them, as if she studied a new language.
3:02:52
It is not common argaux, she said. It has its subtleties. One
3:02:58
continually finds somewhere and original idea, the sometimes even of bon Mot which startles
3:03:03
one by its pointedness. As you say, however, it belongs only to
3:03:07
the Americans and their remarkable country. A French mind can only arrive at its
3:03:13
climaxes through a grave and occasionally tedious research, which would weary most persons,
3:03:18
but which however, does not weary me. The confidence of Mademoiselle Esmeralda was
3:03:26
easily won. She became attached to us both and particularly to Clelie. When
3:03:31
her mother was absent or occupied, she stole upstairs to our apartment and spent
3:03:37
with us the moments of leisure chance afforded her. She liked our rooms,
3:03:43
she told my wife, because they were small, and our society because we
3:03:46
were clever, which we discovered afterward meant amiable. But she was always pale
3:03:52
and out of spirits. She would sit before our fire, silent and abstracted.
3:03:58
Imma ties not mind if I don't talk, she would say, I
3:04:03
can't, and it seems to help me to get to see it and think
3:04:07
about things. Mother won't let me do it downstairs. We became also familiar
3:04:13
with the father. One day I met him upon the staircase, and to
3:04:18
my amazement, he stopped as if he wished to address me. I raised
3:04:22
my hat and bade him good morning. On his palt he drew forth a
3:04:26
large handkerchief and began to rub the palms of his hands with awkward timidity.
3:04:31
Howdy, he said, I confess that at the moment I was covered with
3:04:37
confusion. I, who was a teacher of English, and flattered myself that
3:04:41
I wrote and spoke it fluently, did not understand immediately, however, it
3:04:46
flashed across my mind that the word was a species of salutation, which I
3:04:50
finally discovered to be the case. I bowed again and thanked him hazarding the
3:04:56
reply that my health was excellent, and an inquiry as to the the state
3:05:00
of madame's. He rubbed his hands still more nervously and answered me in the
3:05:05
slow and deliberate manner I had observed at the louver. Thank ye, he
3:05:11
said, she's doing tallble well, is mother as well as Carmen. And
3:05:16
she's enjoying herself too. I wish we was all but there. He checked
3:05:22
himself and glanced hastily about him. Then he began again. Es Moraldi,
3:05:30
he said, es Moraldi, thanks a heap on you. She takes a
3:05:35
sad comfort out of miss de I can't call your name, but I mean
3:05:39
your wife, Madame de mart I replied, is rejoiced indeed to have won
3:05:46
the friendship of Mademoiselle. Yes, he proceeded, she takes a sadder comfort
3:05:54
in you and all, and she needs comfort, does es Moraldi. There
3:06:00
ensued a slight pause, which somewhat embarrassed me, for at every pause he
3:06:03
regarded me with an air of meek and hesitant appeal. She's a little down
3:06:09
spiritted, is Esmeraldi, he said, Anne, adding this suddenly in a
3:06:16
subdued and fearful tone. So am I? Having said this, he seemed
3:06:22
to feel that he had overstepped a barrier. He seized the lapel of my
3:06:26
coat and held me prisoner, pouring forth his confessions with a faith in my
3:06:31
interest by which I was at once amazed and touched. You see, it's
3:06:35
this way, he said, It's this way, mister. We're home folks,
3:06:41
me and Esmeraldi, and we're a long way from home, and it
3:06:45
sort of seems like we didn't get no use to to it than we was
3:06:48
at first. We're not like mother mother. She was raised in the town.
3:06:52
She was raised in Lizabethville, and she's ours took the town ways,
3:06:56
but me and Esmeraldi, we was raised in the mountains, right under the
3:07:00
shadow of old Bald and town goes hard with us. Seems like we're all
3:07:05
is a thinkin in North Carolina. And Mother she gets outed, which is
3:07:09
likely. She says, we are to fit ourselves fra high a pair,
3:07:15
and I dare say we'd are, but ye see, it goes sot hard
3:07:18
with us, and as Moraldi, she has her trouble, and I can't
3:07:22
help a sympathizing with her, for young folks will be young folks, and
3:07:26
I was young folks once myself. Once once I sought a heap of store
3:07:31
by mother. So you see how it is. It is very sad,
3:07:37
monsieur, I answered with gravity singular as it may appears, it was not
3:07:41
so laughable to me as it might seem. It was so apparent that he
3:07:46
did not anticipate ridicule, and my Clely's interest in these people also rendered them
3:07:52
sacred in my eyes. Yes, he returned, that's so. And sometimes
3:08:00
it's worse than you'd think when mother's outed. And that's why I'm glad,
3:08:05
as miss Daimar and as Moraldi is such friends it struck me at this moment
3:08:11
that he had some request to make of me. He grasped the lapel of
3:08:15
my coat somewhat more tightly, as if requiring additional support, and finally bent
3:08:20
forward and addressed me with caution, do you think, as miss Daimar would
3:08:24
mind it? If and now? And then? I was to step in
3:08:28
for Esmeraldi and said a little, just in a kind of neighboring way as
3:08:33
Moeraldi. She says, you're so sociable, and I hain't been sociable with
3:08:37
no one for for a right smart spell, and it seems like a kind
3:08:41
of hanker out of it. You've no idea, mister, how lonesome a
3:08:45
man can get when he hankers to be sociable and hain't no one to be
3:08:48
sociable with. Mother, She says, go out on the Champs el easy
3:08:54
and promenade. And I've done it, but some ways it don't reach the
3:08:56
spot. I don't seem to get sociable with no one I've spoke to,
3:09:01
maybe through us speaking different languages and not come to understanding. I've tried it
3:09:07
loud, and I've tried it low and encouraging, but some ways we never
3:09:11
seemed to get on, and r Miss Damar wouldn't take no exceptions at me
3:09:15
are droppin in. I feel as if I should be soort of uplifted if
3:09:20
she'd only allow it once a week or even fewer, Monsieur, I replied
3:09:26
with warmth, I beg you will consider ar salon at your disposal, not
3:09:31
once a week, but at all times. And Madame des mart would certainly
3:09:35
join me in the invitation if she were upon the spot. He released the
3:09:41
lapel of my coat and clasped my hand, shaking it with fervor. Now
3:09:46
that's clever, that is, he said, And it's friendly, and I'm
3:09:50
obligated to ye. Since he appeared to have nothing further to say, we
3:09:56
went downstairs together. At the door, we parted. I'm a goin,
3:10:01
he remarked, to the champs a lazy to promenade. Where are you going
3:10:07
to the boulevard Rossmann, monsieur to give a lesson? I returned, I
3:10:11
will wish you good morning. Good morning, he answered, bon reflecting deeply
3:10:18
for a moment, bon Geour, I am trying to learn it, you
3:10:22
see, with a view to beIN more sociable bon Geour, and thus took
3:10:28
his departure. After this, we saw him frequently. In fact, it
3:10:33
became his habit to follow Mademoiselle Esmeralda in all her visits to our apartment.
3:10:39
A few minutes after her arrival, we usually held a timid knock upon the
3:10:43
outer door, which proved to emanate from Monsieur, who always entered with a
3:10:48
laborers bonjour, and always slipped deprecatingly into the least comfortable chair near the fire,
3:10:56
hurriedly concealing his hat beneath it. In him also, my clearly became
3:11:01
much interested. On my own part. I could not cease to admire the
3:11:05
fine feeling and delicate tact she continually exhibited in her manner toward him. In
3:11:11
time, he even appealed to lose something of his first embarrassment and discomfort,
3:11:15
though he was always inclined to a reverent silence in her presence. He don't
3:11:20
say much, don't father, said Mademoiselle Esmeralda, with tears in her pretty
3:11:26
eyes. He's like me, but you don't know what comfort he's taken.
3:11:31
When he sits and listens and stirs his chocolate round and round without drinking it.
3:11:37
He doesn't drink it because he ain't used to it. But he likes
3:11:39
to have it when we do, because he says it makes him feel sociable.
3:11:45
He's trying to learn to drink it, too. He practices every day,
3:11:48
a little at a time. He was powerful, afraid at first that
3:11:52
you'd take exceptions to him. Doin nothin but stir it round. But I
3:11:56
told a man knew you wouldn't for you. Wasn't that kind? I find
3:12:01
him, said Clee to me, inexpressibly mournful, even though he excites one
3:12:07
to smile upon all occasions. Is it not mournful that his very suffering should
3:12:13
be absurd? Mon dieu? He does not wear his clothes. He bears
3:12:20
them about with him. He simply carries them. It was about this time
3:12:26
that Mademoiselle Esmeralda was rendered doubly unhappy. Since their residence in Paris, Madame
3:12:33
had been industriously occupied in making efforts to enter society. She had struggled violently
3:12:39
and indefatigably. She was at once persistent and ambitious. She had used every
3:12:46
means that lay in her power, and most of all, she had used
3:12:48
her money. Naturally. She had found people upon the outskirts of good circles,
3:12:54
who would accept her with her money. Consequently, she had obtained acquaintances
3:12:58
of a class, and was bold enough to employ them as stepping stones at
3:13:03
all events. She began to receive invitations, and to discover opportunities to pay
3:13:09
visits and to take her daughter with her. Accordingly, Mademoiselle Esmeralda was placed
3:13:16
upon exhibition. She was dressed by experienced artistes. She was forced from her
3:13:22
seclusion and obliged to drive, and call and promenade. Her condition was pitiable.
3:13:30
While all this was torture to her inexperienced and timidity, her fear of
3:13:35
her mother rendered her wholly submissive. Each day brought with it some new trial.
3:13:41
She was admired for many reasons, by some for her wealth, of
3:13:45
which all had heard rumors, by others for her freshness and beauty. The
3:13:50
silence and sensitiveness which arose from shyness and her ignorance of all social rules were
3:13:56
called naivete and modesty, And people who abhorred her mother, not unfrequently,
3:14:03
were charmed with her. And consequently Madame found her also an instrument of some
3:14:07
consequence in her determination to overcome all obstacles. Madame even condescended to apply to
3:14:15
my wife, whose influence over Mademoiselle, she was clever enough not to undervalue.
3:14:20
I want you to talk to Mademoiselle, she said. She thinks a
3:14:26
great deal of you, and I want you to give her some good advice.
3:14:31
You know what society is, and you know that she ought to be
3:14:35
proud of her advantages and not make a fool of herself. Many a girl
3:14:39
would be glad enough of what she has before her. She's got money,
3:14:45
and she has got chances, and I don't begrudge her anything. She can
3:14:48
spend all she likes on clothes and things, and I'll take her anywhere if
3:14:54
she'll behave herself. They wear me out. Her and her father. It's
3:14:58
her father that's ruined her and her living as she's done. Her father never
3:15:03
knew anything, and he's made a pet of her and got her into his
3:15:07
way of thinking. It's ridiculous how little ambition they have. And she might
3:15:13
marry as well as any girl. There's a marquis that's quite in love with
3:15:16
her at this moment, and she's as afraid of him as death, and
3:15:22
cries if I even mention him, though he's a nice enough man, if
3:15:26
he is a bit elderly. Now, I want you to reason with her,
3:15:31
this clearly told me afterward, and upon going away she ended she turned
3:15:37
round toward me, setting her face into an indescribable expression of hardness and obstinacy.
3:15:45
I want her to understand, she said, that she's cut off forever
3:15:48
from anything that's happened before. There's the Atlantic Ocean and many a mile of
3:15:54
land between her and North Carolina, and so she may as well give that
3:15:58
up Part two of Esmeralda. Two or three days after this, Mademoiselle came
3:16:09
to our apartment in great grief. She had left Madame in a violent,
3:16:13
ill temper. They had received invitations to a ball at which they were to
3:16:18
meet the Marquis. Madame had been elated, and the discovery of Mademoiselle's misery
3:16:22
and trepidation had roused her indignation. There had been a painful scene, and
3:16:28
Mademoiselle had been overwhelmed. As usual. She knelt before the fire and wept
3:16:33
despairingly. I'd rather die than go, she said. I can't stand it.
3:16:41
I can't get used to it. The light and the noise, and
3:16:43
the talk hurts me. And I don't know what I am doing, and
3:16:48
people stare at me, and I make mistakes, and I'm not fit for
3:16:52
it. And and I'd rather be dead fifty thousand times than let that man
3:16:58
come near me. I hate him, and I am afraid of him,
3:17:01
and I wish I was dead. At this juncture came the timid summons upon
3:17:07
the door, and the father entered with a disturbed and subdued air. He
3:17:13
did not conceal his hat, but held it in his hands and turned it
3:17:16
round and round in an agitated manner. As he seated himself beside his daughter
3:17:22
is Moraldi, He said, don't you take it so hard, honey,
3:17:28
mother. She's kind routed, and she's not at herself rightly. Don't you
3:17:33
never mind? Mother? She means well, but but she's got a sort
3:17:37
o curious way of showing it. She's got a high spirit, and we
3:17:41
not allow for it and not take it so much to heart. Miss Damar
3:17:45
here knows how high spirited people is. Sometimes, I dare say, and
3:17:50
mother, she's got a powerful high spirit. But the poor child only wept
3:17:54
more hopelessly. It was not only the cruelty of her mother which oppressed her.
3:17:58
It was the wound she bore in her heart. Clely's eyes filled with
3:18:03
tears as she regarded her. The father was also more broken in spirit than
3:18:09
he wished it to appear. His weather beaten face assumed an expression of deep
3:18:13
melancholy, which at last betrayed itself in an evidently inadvertent speech, A wish,
3:18:20
I wish he faltered. Lord, I'd give a heap to see wash.
3:18:26
Now, I'd give a heap to see him as Moeraldi. It was
3:18:31
as if the words were the last straw. The girl turned toward him and
3:18:35
flung herself upon his breast with a passionate cry, Oh, father, she
3:18:41
sobbed. We shan't never see him again, never never nor the mountains nor
3:18:48
the people that cared for us. We've lost it all and we can't get
3:18:52
back, and we haven't a soul that's near to us, and we're all
3:18:54
alone, You and me, father, and wash Wash. He thinks we
3:19:00
don't care. I must confess to a momentary spasm of alarm. Her grief
3:19:07
was so wild and overwhelming. One hand was flung about her father's neck,
3:19:11
and the other pressed itself against her side as if her heart was breaking,
3:19:16
Clelye bent down and lifted her up, consoling her tenderly. Mademoiselle, she
3:19:22
said, do not despair, le bon dieu, we'll surely have pity.
3:19:30
The father drew forth the large linen handkerchief, and, unfolding it, slowly,
3:19:35
applied it to his eyes. Yes, as Moraldi, he said,
3:19:41
don't let us give out. At least, don't you give out. It
3:19:43
doesn't matter for me as Moraldi, because you see I must hold on to
3:19:48
mother as a swe not to go back on. But you're young and likely
3:19:52
as Moraldi. And don't you give out yet, for the lord's sake.
3:19:58
But she did not cease weeping until she had wholly fatigued herself. And by
3:20:03
this time there arrived a message from Madame, who required her presence downstairs.
3:20:09
Monsieur was somewhat alarmed and rose precipitately, but Mademoiselle was too full of despair
3:20:16
to admit of fear. It's only the dressmaker. She said, you can
3:20:22
stay where are, father, and she won't guess. We've been together,
3:20:26
and it'll be better for us both, And accordingly she obeyed the summons alone.
3:20:35
Great were the preparations made by Madame for the entertainment my wife, to
3:20:39
whom she displayed the costumes and jewelry she had purchased, was aroused to an
3:20:43
admiration. Truly feminine, she had the discretion to trust to the taste of
3:20:50
the artist's and had restrained them in nothing. Consequently, all that was to
3:20:54
be desired in the appearance of Mademoiselle as Meraalda upon the event and ful evening
3:21:01
was happiness. With her mother's permission, she came to our room to display
3:21:05
herself, Monsieur following her, with an air of awe and admiration commingled.
3:21:11
Her costume was rich and exquisite, and her beauty beyond criticism. But as
3:21:16
she stood in the center of our little salon to be looked at, she
3:21:20
presented an appearance to move one's heart. The pretty young face, which had
3:21:26
by this time lost its slight traces of the sun, had also lost some
3:21:30
of its bloom. The slight figure was not so round nor so erect as
3:21:35
it had been, and moved with less spirit and girlishness. It appeared that
3:21:41
Monsieur observed this also, for he stood apart, regarding her with evident depression
3:21:46
and occasionally used his handkerchief with a violence that was evidently meant to conceal some
3:21:50
secret emotion. You're not so pert as he was as Moraldi, he remarked,
3:21:58
tremulously, an nod is purret by a light smile. And what with
3:22:01
that, and what with your fixings? Wash, I mean the home folks
3:22:07
hastily, they'd hardly know you. He followed her downstairs mournfully when she took
3:22:13
her departure, and Clely and myself, being left alone, interested ourselves in
3:22:18
various speculations concerning them, as was our habit. This, Monsieur Wash remarked,
3:22:26
Clely is clearly the lover poor child, how passionately she regrets him,
3:22:33
And thousands of miles lie between them, thousands of miles. It was not
3:22:39
long after this that, on my way downstairs to make a trifling purchase,
3:22:43
I met with something approaching an adventure. It's so chanced that as I descended
3:22:50
the staircase of the second floor, the door of the first floor apartment was
3:22:54
thrown open, and from it issued Mademoiselle Esmerda and her mother, on their
3:22:58
way to the waiting carriage. My interest in the appearance of Mademoiselle in her
3:23:03
white robes and sparkling jewels so absorbed me that I inadvertently brushed against the figure
3:23:09
which stood in a shadow regarding them, also turning at once to apologize,
3:23:13
I found myself confronting a young man, tall, powerful, but with a
3:23:18
sad and haggard face, and attired in a strange and homely dress which had
3:23:24
a foreign look. Monsieur, I exclaimed a thousand pardons, I was so
3:23:30
unlucky as not to see you, But he did not seem to hear.
3:23:33
He remained silent, gazing fixedly at the ladies until they had disappeared, And
3:23:39
then, on my addressing him again, he awakened, as it were,
3:23:43
with a start. It doesn't murter, he answered, in a heavy,
3:23:48
bewildered voice, and in English, and turning back, made his way slowly
3:23:52
up the stairs. But even the utterance of this brief sentence had betrayed,
3:23:56
to my practiced ear a peculiar accent, an accent which, strange to say,
3:24:01
bore a likeness to that of our friends downstairs, and which caused me
3:24:05
to stop a moment at the lodge of the concierge and ask her a question,
3:24:11
or so, have we a new occupant upon the fifth floor, I
3:24:15
inquired a person who speaks English. She answered me with a dubious expression,
3:24:22
You must mean the strange young man upon the sixth She said, he is
3:24:26
a new one and speaks English. Indeed, he does not speak anything else,
3:24:31
or even understand the word mon dieu. The trials one encounters with such
3:24:37
persons, endeavoring to comprehend poor creatures and failing always. And this one is
3:24:43
worse than a rest and looks more wretched as if he had not a friend
3:24:48
in the world. What is his name? I asked, How can one
3:24:54
remember their names? It is worse than impossible. This one is frightful,
3:24:58
but he has no letters. Think heaven. If there should arrive one with
3:25:03
an impossible name upon it, I should take it to him and run the
3:25:05
risk. Naturally, Clelye, to whom I related the incident, was much
3:25:11
interested, but it was some time before either of us saw the hero of
3:25:15
it again, though both of us confessed to having been upon the watch for
3:25:18
him. The concierge could only tell us that he lived a secluded life,
3:25:22
rarely leaving his room in the daytime, and seeming to be very poor.
3:25:28
He does not work, and he eats next to nothing, she said.
3:25:31
Late at night he occasionally carries up a loaf, and once he treated himself
3:25:35
to a cup of bouillon from the restaurant at the corner. But it was
3:25:39
only once, poor young man, He is at least very gentle and well
3:25:43
conducted, so it was not to be wondered at that we did not see
3:25:48
him. Clellie mentioned him to her young friend, but Mademoiselle's interest in him
3:25:54
was only faint and ephemeral. She had not the spirit to rouse herself to
3:25:58
any strong emotion. I daresay he is an American, she said. There
3:26:05
are plenty of Americans in Paris, but none of them seem a bit nearer
3:26:09
to me than if they were French. They are all rich and fine,
3:26:13
and they all like the life here better than the life at home. This
3:26:18
is the first poor one I have heard of. Each day brought fresh unhappiness
3:26:24
to her. Madame was inexorable. She spent a fortune upon toilette for her,
3:26:28
and insisted upon dragging her from place to place and wearying her with gaieties
3:26:33
from which her sad young heart shrank. Each afternoon. Their equipage was to
3:26:37
be seen upon the Chamsalise, and each evening it stood before the door,
3:26:43
waiting to bear them to some place of festivity. Mademoiselle Seberte Noir, the
3:26:48
marquis, who was a debilitated rue in search of a fortune, attached himself
3:26:54
to them upon all occasions, Bah said clely, with contempt. She amazes
3:27:00
one by her imbecility. This woman, Truly, one would imagine that her
3:27:05
vulgar sharpness would teach her that his object is to use her as a tool,
3:27:11
and that having gained Mademoiselle's fortune, he would treat them with brutality and
3:27:16
derision. But she did not seem to see. Possibly, she fancied that,
3:27:20
having obtained him for a son in law, she would be bold and
3:27:24
clever enough to outwit and control him. Consequently, he was encouraged and fond
3:27:30
upon, and Mademoiselle grew thin and pale and large eyed, and wore continually
3:27:35
an expression of secret terror. Only in her visits to our fifth floor did
3:27:41
she dare to give way to her grief. And truly at such times,
3:27:45
both my CLEARLYE and I were greatly affected. Upon one occasion, indeed,
3:27:50
she filled us both with alarm. Do you know what I shall do,
3:27:54
she said, stopping suddenly in the midst of her weeping. I'll bear it
3:27:58
is long as I can, and then I'll put an end to it.
3:28:03
There's there's always the sand left. And I have laid awake and thought of
3:28:07
it many and that father and me saw May and taken out of it one
3:28:11
day, and the people said he was a tyrolean and drown himself because he
3:28:16
was so poor and lonely, and and so far from home. Upon the
3:28:24
very morning she made this speech, I saw again our friend of the sixth
3:28:28
floor. In going downstairs, I came upon him sitting upon one of the
3:28:31
steps, as if exhausted, And when he turned his face upward, its
3:28:35
pallor and haggardness startled me. His tall form was wasted, his eyes were
3:28:41
hollow. The peculiarities I had before observed were doubly marked. He was even
3:28:46
emaciated. Monsieur I said in English, you appear indisposed, you have been
3:28:54
ill. Allow me to assist you to your room. No, thank you,
3:29:00
he answered, it's only weakness. Ah, I saw a gavou.
3:29:05
Don't trouble yourself. I shall get over it directly. Something in his face,
3:29:11
which was a very young and well looking one forced me to leave him
3:29:16
in silence, merely bowing as I did so. I felt instinctively that to
3:29:20
remain would be to give him additional pain. As I passed the room of
3:29:26
the concierge, however, the excellent woman beckoned to me to approach her.
3:29:31
Did you see the young man, she inquired, rather anxiously. He has
3:29:37
shown himself this morning for the first time in three days. There is something
3:29:41
wrong. It is my impression that he suffers want that he is starving himself
3:29:46
to death. Her rosy countenance absolutely paled as she uttered these last words,
3:29:52
retreating a pace from me and touching my arm with her forefinger. He has
3:29:58
carried up even less than usual during the last few weeks, she added,
3:30:03
and there has been no bouillon whatever. A young man cannot live only on
3:30:09
dry bread, and too little of that he will perish, and apart from
3:30:13
the inhumanity of the thing, it will be unpleasant for the other locretaire.
3:30:18
I wasted no time in returning to clearly, having indeed some hope that I
3:30:24
might find a poor fellow still occupying his former position upon the staircase. But
3:30:28
in this I met with disappointment. He was gone, and I could only
3:30:31
relate to my wife what I had heard and trust to her discretion. As
3:30:35
I had expected, she was deeply moved. It is terrible, she said,
3:30:41
and it is also a delicate and difficult matter to manage. But what
3:30:46
can one do? There is only one thing, I, who am a
3:30:50
woman and have suffered privation myself, may venture accordingly. She took her departure
3:30:56
for the floor above. I heard her light summon upon the door of one
3:31:01
of the rooms, but heard no reply. At last, however, the
3:31:03
door was opened gently and with a hesitance that led me to imagine that it
3:31:07
was Clelle herself who had pushed it open, And immediately afterwards I was sure
3:31:13
that she had uttered an alarmed exclamation. I stepped out upon the landing and
3:31:16
called to her in a subdued tone, Clellee, I said, did I
3:31:22
hear you speak? Yes, she returned from within the room, Come at
3:31:26
once and bring with you some brandy. In the shortest possible time, I
3:31:31
had joined her in the room, which was bare, cold and unfurnished,
3:31:35
a mere garret, in fact, containing nothing but a miserable bedstead upon the
3:31:39
floor near the window. Knelt Clelle, supporting with her knee and arm the
3:31:43
picture of the young man she had come to visit. Quick with the brandy,
3:31:48
she exclaimed, this may be a faint, but it looks like death.
3:31:52
She had found the door partially open, and, receiving no answer to
3:31:56
a knock, had pushed it farther Ajar and caught a glimpse of the fallen
3:32:00
figure, and hurried to its assistance to be as brief as possible. We
3:32:03
both remained at the young man's side during the whole of the night. As
3:32:07
the concierge had said he was perishing from inner nation, and the physician we
3:32:13
called in assured us that only the most constant attention would save his life.
3:32:18
Monsieur Claly explained to him, upon the first occasion upon which he opened his
3:32:22
eyes, you are ill and alone, and we wish to befriend you.
3:32:28
And he was too weak to require from her anything more definite. Physically,
3:32:33
he was a person to admire. In health, his muscular power must have
3:32:37
been immense. He possessed the frame of a young giant, and yet there
3:32:43
was in his face a look of innocence and experience amazing, even when one
3:32:46
recollected his youth. It is the look, said Clelie, regarding him attentively,
3:32:54
the look one sees in the faces of Monsieur and his daughter downstairs,
3:32:58
the look of a pearl who has lived a simple life and who knows absolutely
3:33:03
nothing of the world. It is possible that this may have prepared the reader
3:33:09
for the denouement which followed, But singular as it may appear, it did
3:33:13
not prepare either clearly or myself. Perhaps because we had seen the world,
3:33:18
and having learned to view it in a practical light, were not prepared to
3:33:22
encounter suddenly our romance almost unparalleled. The next morning, I was compelled to
3:33:30
go out to give my lessons as usual, and left pleaarly with our patients.
3:33:33
On my return, my wife, hearing my footsteps, came out and
3:33:37
met me upon the landing. She was moved by the strongest emotion and much
3:33:41
excited. Her cheeks were pale and her eyes shone. Do not go in
3:33:46
yet, she said, I have something to tell you. It is almost
3:33:50
incredible, but it is the lover. For a moment we remained silent,
3:33:56
standing looking at each other. To me, it seemed incredible. Indeed,
3:34:01
he could not give her up. Clely went on until he was sure she
3:34:07
wished to discard him. The mother had employed all her ingenuity to force him
3:34:11
to believe that such was the case. But he could not rest until he
3:34:15
had seen his betrothed face to face. So he followed her, poor,
3:34:18
inexperienced and miserable, And when at last he saw her at a distance,
3:34:24
the luxury with which she was surrounded caused his heart to fail him, and
3:34:28
he gave way to despair. I accompanied her into the room and held the
3:34:33
rest from his own lips. He gathered together all his small savings and made
3:34:37
his journey in the cheapest possible way, in the steerage of the vessel and
3:34:43
in third class carriages, so that he might have some trifle left to subsist
3:34:48
upon. I've a little farm, he said, and there's a house on
3:34:52
it. But I wouldn't sail there if she cared to go. It was
3:34:58
all I had to take, and I'd worked hard to buy it. That
3:35:03
worked hard, early and late, always thinking that some day we'd begin a
3:35:07
laugh there together, as Moraldi and me, since neither sea, nor land,
3:35:13
nor cruelty could separate them, said Clelie to me during the day.
3:35:18
It is not I who will help to hold them apart. So when Mademoiselle
3:35:24
came for her lessons that afternoon, it was Clelye's task to break the news
3:35:28
to her, to tell her that neither sea nor land lay between herself and
3:35:33
her lover, and that he was faithful. Still, she received the information
3:35:39
as she might have received a blow, staggering backward and whitening and losing her
3:35:43
breath. But almost immediately afterwards she uttered a sad cry of disbelief and anguish.
3:35:50
No, no, she said it it isn't true. I won't believe
3:35:56
it. A mus'n't there's half the world between us. Oh, don't try
3:36:01
to make me believe it when it can't be true. Come with me,
3:36:05
replied Clee. Never, never in my life has it been my fate to
3:36:11
see before or since a sight so touching as the meeting of these two young
3:36:16
hearts. When the door of the cold bare room opened and Mademoiselle as Maralda
3:36:22
entered, the lover held out his weak arms with a sob, a sob
3:36:28
of rapture and yet terrible to hear. I thought you'd gone back on me,
3:36:33
as Moraldi, he cried, I thought you'd gone back on me.
3:36:39
Clellie, and I turned away and left them, as the girl fell upon
3:36:43
her knees at his side. The effect produced upon the father, who had
3:36:48
followed Mademoiselle as usual, and whom we found patiently seated upon the bottom step
3:36:54
of the flight of stairs awaiting our arrival, was almost indescribable. He sank
3:37:00
back upon his seat with a gasp, clutching at his hat with both hands.
3:37:03
He also disbelieved w wash, he exclaimed weakly. Laurel, No,
3:37:11
Laurel, no, not wash. Wash. He is in North Carolina.
3:37:18
Lord no, he is upstairs, returned Clee, and Mademoiselle is with him.
3:37:26
During the recovery of Monsieur wash, though but little was said upon the
3:37:31
subject, it is my opinion that the minds of each of our number pointed
3:37:35
only toward one course in the future. In Mademoiselle's demeanor there appeared a certain
3:37:41
air of new courage and determination, though she was still pallid and anxious.
3:37:46
It was as if she had passed a climax and had gained strength. Monsieur
3:37:52
the Father was alternately nervous and ejected, or in feverishly high spirits. Occasionally
3:37:58
he sat for some time without speaking, merely gazing into the fire with a
3:38:03
hand upon each knee. And it was one evening after a more than usually
3:38:07
prolonged silence of this description, that he finally took upon himself the burden which
3:38:13
lay upon us unitedly. Is Moeraldi, he remarked, tremulously and with manifest
3:38:20
trepidation, as Moraldi, I've been thinking it's time we broke it to mother.
3:38:28
The girl lost color, but she lifted her head steadily. Yes,
3:38:33
father, she answered, it's time. Yes, he echoed, rubbing his
3:38:41
knees slowly, it's time. And is Moraldi it's a thing too? The
3:38:46
saurus set a man back. Yes, father, she answered again, yes,
3:38:54
as before, though his voice broke somewhat. And I dare say you
3:39:01
know how it'll be, as Moraldi, that you'll have to choose betwixt mother
3:39:07
and wash. She sat by her lover, and for answer she dropped her
3:39:11
face upon his hand with a sob N. And you've chose wash, aes
3:39:18
Moraldi. Yes, father, He hesitated a moment, and then took his
3:39:26
hat from his place of concealment and rose. It's natural, he said,
3:39:33
And it's right. I wouldn't want it no other way, and you mustn't
3:39:37
mind, des Moraldi. It's been kind of rough on me as can't go
3:39:41
back on mother Havin swore to cherish her till death. Do us part.
3:39:46
You've allays been a good gal to me an, we've thought a heap on
3:39:50
each other, and I reckon it. Can allers be the same way,
3:39:52
even though we're separated, For it's natural you should have chose wash an An.
3:40:00
I wouldn't have it no other way, as Moraldi. Now I'll go
3:40:03
and have it out with mother. We were all sufficiently unprepared for the announcement
3:40:09
to be startled by it. Mademoiselle Esmeralda, who was weeping bitterly, half
3:40:15
sprang to her feet to night She said, oh, father, yes,
3:40:22
he replied, I've been thinking over it, and I don't see no other
3:40:26
way, and it may as well be to ned as any other time.
3:40:31
After leaving us, he was absent for about an hour. When he returned,
3:40:37
there were traces in his appearance of the storm for which he had passed.
3:40:41
His hands trembled with agitation. He even looked weakened as he sank into
3:40:46
his chair. We regarded him with commiseration. It's over, he half whispered,
3:40:54
and it was even rougher than I thought it would be. She was
3:40:58
terrible auded, was mother. I reckon? I never see her so outed
3:41:03
before. She jest raged and tore. It was more than I could stand,
3:41:07
Desmeraldi, and he dropped his head upon his hands for support. Seemed
3:41:13
like it was the marquis as laid heaviest upon her. He proceeded. She
3:41:18
was terrible sot on the Marquess, and every time she think of him,
3:41:22
she'd just rear, sheest rear. I never stood up again, mother,
3:41:28
afore an I hope I sha'n't never have it to do again in my time.
3:41:33
I'm kind O wore out. Little by little, we leaned much of
3:41:37
what had passed, though he evidently withheld the most for the sake of Mademoiselle.
3:41:43
And it was some time before he broke the news to her that her
3:41:46
mother's doors were closed against her. I think you'll find it pleasanter a stoppin
3:41:52
here, he said. If miss day Marle bored ye until the time for
3:41:56
starting home, her spirit was so up that she said she didn't aim to
3:42:01
see you no more. And you know how she is as Moraldi when her
3:42:05
spirit's up. The girl went and clung around his neck, kneeling at his
3:42:09
side and shedding tears. Oh, father, she cried, You've bore a
3:42:15
great deal for me. You've born more than any one knows, and all
3:42:20
for me. He looked rather grave as he shook his head at the fire.
3:42:26
That's so, is Moraldi, he replied. But we allays seemed nigh
3:42:31
to each other somehow, and when it come to the worst, I was
3:42:35
bound to kinder to make a stand for you, as I couldn't have made
3:42:39
for myself. I couldn't have done it for myself. Lord No, So
3:42:46
Mademoiselle remained with us, and Cleille assisted her to prepare her simple outfit.
3:42:50
And in the evening, the tall young lover came into our apartment and sat
3:42:56
looking on which aspect of affairs I will confess was in highly knew to Clealy,
3:43:01
and yet did not displease her. Their candor moves me, she said.
3:43:07
He openly regards her with adoration. At parting, she accompanies him to
3:43:11
the door, and he embraces her tenderly. And yet one is not repelled.
3:43:18
It is the love of the lost Arcadia, serious and innocent. Finally
3:43:24
we went with them one morning to the American Chapel in the Rue de Baron,
3:43:28
and they were united in our presence and that of Monsieur, who was
3:43:33
indescribably affected. After the completion of the ceremony, he presented Monsieur Roche with
3:43:39
a package. It's papers as I've had drawed up for Esmeraldi. He said,
3:43:46
it'll start you well out in the world. Then after me and mother's
3:43:48
gone, there's no one but you and her to have rest the Lord.
3:43:54
May the Lord bless you. We accompanied them to have and did not to
3:44:00
leave them until the last moment. Monsieur was strangely excited and clung to the
3:44:05
hands of his daughter and son in law, talking fast and nervously and pouring
3:44:09
out messages to be delivered to his distant friends. Tell m I'd lack powerful
3:44:15
well to see em all, and I'd have come only only things were kind
3:44:20
or unconvenient sometime perhaps. But here he was obliged to clear his throat,
3:44:26
as his voice had become extremely husky, and having done this he added,
3:44:31
in an undertone, you see, Esmeralde, I couldn't because mother, as
3:44:37
I've sworn not to go back on wash, he wouldn't go back on you,
3:44:41
however high your spirit was, and I can't go back on mother.
3:44:46
The figures of the young couple standing at the side Monsieur Wash holding his wife
3:44:52
to his breast with one strong arm, were the last we saw as the
3:44:56
ship moved slowly away. It is obscurity to which they are returning, I
3:45:03
said, half unconsciously. It is love, said Cleie. The father,
3:45:11
who had been standing about came back to us, replacing in his pocket his
3:45:16
handkerchief. They are young and likely, you see, said Monsieur, and
3:45:22
life before them. And it's natural, as she should have chose Wash,
3:45:26
as was young too, and sought on her lord. It's natural, and
3:45:33
I wouldn't have it no other ways. End of Section eleven. My Robin,
3:45:43
They came to me among the letters I received last spring, one which
3:45:48
touched me very closely. It was a letter full of delightful things. But
3:45:52
the delightful thing which so reached my soul was a question. The writer had
3:45:58
been reading The Secret Garden, and her question was this, did you own
3:46:03
the original of the Robin? He could not have been a mere creature of
3:46:09
fantasy. I feel sure you owned him. I was thrilled to the center
3:46:13
of my being here was some one who plainly had been intimate with robins,
3:46:18
English robins. I wrote and explained as far as one could in a letter
3:46:24
what I am now going to relate in detail. I did not own the
3:46:31
robin. He owned me, or perhaps we owned each other. He was
3:46:37
an English robin, and he was a person, not a mere bird.
3:46:41
An English robin differs greatly from the American one. He is much smaller and
3:46:46
quite differently shaped. His body is daintily round and plump, His legs are
3:46:52
delicately slender. He is a graceful little patrician with an astonishing allurement of bearing.
3:46:58
His eye large and dark and dewy. He wears a tight little red
3:47:03
satin waistcoat on his full round breast, and every tilt of his head,
3:47:07
every flirt of his wing, is instinct with dramatic significance. He is fascinatingly
3:47:13
conceited. He burns with curiosity. He is determined to engage in social relations
3:47:20
at almost any cost, and his raging jealousy of attention paid to less worthy
3:47:26
objects than himself drives him at times to efforts to charm and distract, which
3:47:31
are irresistible. An intimacy with a robin. An English robin is a liberal
3:47:39
education. This particular one I knew in my rose garden in Kent. I
3:47:46
feel sure he was born there, and for a summer at least believed it
3:47:48
to be the world. It was a lovesome, mystic place, shut in
3:47:54
partly by old red brick walls against which fruit trees were trained, and partly
3:48:00
by a laurel hedge with a wood behind it. It was my habit to
3:48:03
sit and write there under an age rythen tree gray with lichen and festooned with
3:48:11
roses. The soft silence of it, the remoter aloofness, were the most
3:48:16
perfect ever dreamed of. But let me not be led astray by the garden.
3:48:22
I must be firm and confine myself to the robin. The garden shall
3:48:28
be another story. There were so many people in this garden, people with
3:48:33
feathers or fir, who, because I sat so quietly, did not mind
3:48:37
me in the least that it was not a surprising thing when I looked up
3:48:43
one summer morning to see a small bird hopping about the grass a yard or
3:48:46
so away from me. The surprise was not that he was there, but
3:48:52
that he stayed there, or rather he continued to hop with short, reflective
3:48:58
looking hops, and that while hoping, he looked at me not in a
3:49:01
furtive, flighty way, but rather as a person might tentatively regard a very
3:49:07
new acquaintance. The absolute truth of the matter, I had reason to believe
3:49:13
later was that he did not know I was a person. I may have
3:49:18
been the first of my species he had seen in this rose garden world of
3:49:20
his, and he thought I was only another kind of robin. I was,
3:49:26
too, though, that was a secret of mine, and nobody but
3:49:30
myself knew it. Because of this fact, I had the power of holding
3:49:35
myself still, quite still, and filling myself with softly alluring tenderness of the
3:49:43
tenderest when any little wild thing came near me, What do you do to
3:49:50
make him come to you like that? Some one asked me a month or
3:49:52
so later, What do you do? I don't know what I do,
3:49:58
exactly, said, except that I hold myself very still and feel like a
3:50:03
robin. You can only do that with a tiny wild thing by being so
3:50:09
tender of him, of his little timidities and feelings, so daringly anxious not
3:50:16
to startle him or suggest by any movement the possibility of your being a creature
3:50:22
who could hurt. That your very yearning to understand his tiny hopes and fears
3:50:26
and desires makes you, for the time cease to be quite a mere human
3:50:31
thing, and give you another and more exquisite sense, which speaks for you
3:50:37
without speech. As I sat and watched him, I held myself softly still,
3:50:43
and felt just that I did not know he was a robin. The
3:50:50
truth was that he was too young at that time to look like one.
3:50:54
But I did not know that either. He was plainly not a thrush or
3:50:58
a linet, a sparrow, or a starling or a blackbird. He was
3:51:03
a little indeterminate colored bird, and he had no red on his breast.
3:51:09
And as I sat and gazed at him, he gazed at me as one
3:51:13
quite without prejudice, unless it might be with the slightest tinge of favor,
3:51:18
and hopped and hopped and hopped. That was the thrill and wonder of it.
3:51:26
No bird, however evident his acknowledgment of my harmlessness, had ever hopped
3:51:31
and remained. Many had perched for a moment in the grass or on a
3:51:37
near by bow, had trilled or chirped or secured a scurrying golden green beetle,
3:51:41
and flown away. But none had stayed to inquire, to reflect,
3:51:48
even to seem if one dared to be so bold as to hope such a
3:51:52
thing to make mysterious almost occult advances towards intimacy. Also, I had never
3:52:01
before heard of such a thing happening to any one, howsoever. Bird loving
3:52:05
birds are creatures who must be wooed, and it must be delicate and careful
3:52:11
wooing which allures them into friendship. I held my soft stillness. Would he
3:52:18
stay? Could it be that the last hop was nearer? Yes? It
3:52:22
was. The moment was a breathless one. Dare one believe that the next
3:52:28
was nearer still, and the next and the next, And that the two
3:52:33
yards of distance had become scarcely one, and that within that radius he was
3:52:39
soberly hopping around my very feet, with his quite unafraid eye full upon me.
3:52:45
This was what was happening. It may not seem exciting, but it
3:52:50
was that a little wild thing should come to one unasked, was of a
3:52:54
thrillingness. Touched with awe, without stirring a muscle, I began to make
3:53:01
low, soft little sounds to him, very low and very caressing, indeed
3:53:07
softer than one makes to a baby. I wanted to weave a spell,
3:53:11
to establish mental communication, to make magic. And as I uttered the tiny
3:53:18
sounds, he hopped nearer and nearer. Oh, to think that you will
3:53:24
come as near as that, I whispered to him. You know, you
3:53:28
know that nothing in the world would make me put out my hand or startle
3:53:33
you in the least tiniest way. You know it because you are a real
3:53:39
person as well as a lovely, lovely little bird thing. You know it
3:53:43
because you are a soul. Because of this first morning, I knew years
3:53:50
later that this was what Mistress Mary thought when she bent down in the long
3:53:56
walk and tried to make Robin sounds. I said it all in a whisper,
3:54:03
and I think the words must have sounded like Robin sounds, because he
3:54:07
listened with interest, and at last, miracle of miracles, as it seemed
3:54:11
to me, he actually fluttered up on to a small shrub not two yards
3:54:16
away from my knee, and sat there as one who was pleased with the
3:54:20
topic of conversation. I did not move, of course, I sat still
3:54:26
and waited his pleasure. Not for mines of rubies, would I have lifted
3:54:31
a finger. I think he stayed near me altogether about half an hour.
3:54:37
Then he disappeared where or even exactly when, I did not know. One
3:54:43
moment he was hopping among some of the rose bushes, and then he was
3:54:46
gone. This, in fact, was his little mysterious way from first to
3:54:52
last, through all the months about delicious intimacy. He never let me know
3:54:58
where he lived. I knew it was in the rose garden, but that
3:55:01
was all. His extraordinary freedom from timorousness was something to think over. After
3:55:09
reflecting upon him a good deal, I thought I had reached an explanation.
3:55:13
He had been born in the rose garden, and being of a home loving
3:55:18
nature, he had declined to follow the rest of his family when they had
3:55:22
made their first flight over the wall into the rose walk, or over the
3:55:26
Laurel hedge into the pheasant cover behind. He had stayed in the rose world,
3:55:33
and then had felt lonely, without father or mother, or sisters or
3:55:37
brothers. Desolateness of spirit fell upon him. He saw a creature, I
3:55:43
insist on believing that. He thought it another order of Robin, and approached
3:55:46
to see what it would say. Its whole bearing was confidence inspiring. It
3:55:52
made softly, alluring, if unexplainable sounds. He felt its friendliness and affection.
3:56:00
It was curious to look at, and far too large for any ordinary
3:56:03
nest. It plainly could not fly, But there was not a shadow of
3:56:07
inimical sentiment in it. Instinct told him that it admired him, It wanted
3:56:15
him to remain near. There was a certain comfort in its caressing atmosphere.
3:56:20
He lightd it and felt less desolate. He would return to it again the
3:56:28
next day. Summer rains kept me in the house. The next I went
3:56:31
to the rose garden in the morning and sat down under my tree to work.
3:56:35
I had not been there half an hour when I felt I must lift
3:56:39
my eyes and look. A little indeterminate colored bird was hopping quietly about in
3:56:45
the grass, quite aware of me, as his dew bright eye manifested he
3:56:50
had come again of intention because we were mates. It was the beginning of
3:56:58
an intimacy not to be described unless one filled a small volume. From that
3:57:03
moment, we never doubted each other for one second. He knew, and
3:57:07
I knew. Each morning when I came into the rose garden, he came
3:57:11
to call on me and discover things he wanted to know concerning robins of my
3:57:16
size and unusual physical confirmation he did not understand, but he was attracted by
3:57:24
me. Each day I held myself still and tried to make Robin sounds expressive
3:57:28
of adoring tenderness, and he came each day a little nearer. At last
3:57:35
arrived a day when as I softly left my seat and moved about the garden,
3:57:41
he actually quietly hopped after me. I wish I could remember exactly what
3:57:46
length of time elapsed before I knew he was really a robin. An ornithologist
3:57:52
would doubtless know, but I do not. But one morning I was bending
3:57:58
over a bed of lorette messimiro, and I became aware that he had arrived
3:58:03
in his usual mysterious way without warning. He was standing in the grass,
3:58:09
and when I turned my eyes upon him, I only just saved myself from
3:58:13
starting, which would have meant disaster. I saw upon his breast the first
3:58:18
dawning of a flush of color, more tawny than actual red at that stage,
3:58:24
but it hinted at revelations further subterfusius Useless, I said to him,
3:58:31
you are betrayed. You are a robin, and he did not attempt to
3:58:35
deny it, either then or at any future time. In less than two
3:58:41
weeks he revealed a tight, glossy, little bright red satin waistcoat, and
3:58:46
with it a certain youthful maturity, such as one beholds in the wearer of
3:58:50
a first dress suit. His movements were more brisk and certain. He began
3:58:56
to make little flights and little sounds, though for some time he made no
3:59:01
attempt to sing. Instead of appearing suddenly in the grass at my feet,
3:59:05
a heaveny little rush of wings would bring him to a bough over my head,
3:59:09
or a twig quite near me, where he would tilt daintily, taking
3:59:15
his silent but quite responsive part in the conversations which always took place between us.
3:59:22
It was I who talked, telling him how I loved him, how
3:59:26
satin red his waistcoat was, how large and bright his eyes, how delicate
3:59:31
and elegant his slender legs. I flattered him a great deal. He adored
3:59:37
flattery, and I am sure he loved me most when I told him that
3:59:41
it was impossible to say anything which could flatter him. It gave him confidence
3:59:46
in my good taste. One morning, a heavenly sunny one, I was
3:59:52
conversing with him by the Lorette messimes again, and he was evidently much pleased
3:59:56
with the things I said. Perhaps he liked my hat, which was a
4:00:01
large white one with the wreath of roses round its crown. I saw him
4:00:05
look at it, and I gently hinted that I had worn it in the
4:00:09
hope that he would approve. I had broken off a handful of coral pink
4:00:13
lorettes and was arranging them idly when he spread his wings in a sudden upward
4:00:18
flight, A tiny swift flight which ended among the roses on my hat,
4:00:24
the very hat on my head. Did I make myself still? Then?
4:00:28
Did I stir by a single hair's breadth? Who does not know? I
4:00:33
scarcely let myself breathe. I could not believe that such a thing of pure
4:00:39
joy could be true. But in a minute I realized that he at least
4:00:45
was not afraid to move. He was perfectly at home. He hopped about
4:00:50
the brim and examined the roses with delicate pecks. That I was under the
4:00:54
hat apparently only gave him confidence. He knew me as well as that He
4:01:00
stayed until he had learnt all he wished to know about garden hats, and
4:01:03
then he lightly flew away. From that time, Each day drew us closer
4:01:09
to each other. He began to perch on twigs only a few inches from
4:01:13
my face and listen while I whispered to him. Yes, he listened and
4:01:18
made answer with chirps. Nothing else would describe it. As I wrote,
4:01:24
he would alight on my manuscript paper and try to read. Sometimes I thought
4:01:30
he was a little offended because he found my handwriting so bad that he could
4:01:33
not understand it. He would take crumbs out of my hand. He would
4:01:37
alight on my chair or my shoulder. The instant I opened a little door
4:01:43
in the leaf covered garden wall, I would be greeted by the darling little
4:01:46
rush of wings, And he was beside me. And he always came from
4:01:52
nowhere and disappeared into space. That through the whole summer was his rarest fascination.
4:02:01
Perhaps he was not a real robin, Perhaps he was a fairy.
4:02:05
Who knows. Among the many house parties staying with me, he was a
4:02:09
subject of thrilled interest. People knew of him who had not seen him,
4:02:15
and it became accustom with callers to say, may we go into the rose
4:02:18
garden and see the robin. One of my American guests said he was uncanny
4:02:24
and called him the goblin robin. No one had ever seen a thing so
4:02:30
curiously human, so much more than mere bird. When I took callers to
4:02:37
the rose garden, he was exquisitely polite. He always came when I stood
4:02:41
under my tree and called, but he never at such times met me with
4:02:46
his rush to the little door. He would perch near me and talk,
4:02:50
But there was a difference, certain exquisite intimate charms he kept for me alone.
4:02:56
I wondered when he would begin to sing. One morning, the sun
4:03:01
being strong enough to pierce through the leaves of my tree, I had a
4:03:05
large Japanese tent umbrella arranged so that it shaded my table. As I wrote.
4:03:11
Suddenly I heard a robin's song, which sounded as if it were being
4:03:13
trued from some tree at a little distance from where I sat. It was
4:03:18
so pretty that I leaned forward to see exactly where the singer perched. I
4:03:24
made a delicious discovery. He was not on a tree at all. He
4:03:28
was perched upon the very end of one of the bamboo ribs of my big
4:03:31
flowery umbrella. He was my own robin, And there he sat singing to
4:03:37
me his first tiny song, showing me that he had found out how to
4:03:41
do it. The effect of singing at a distance was produced by the curious
4:03:46
fact that he was singing with his bill closed, his darling scarlet throat puffed
4:03:54
out and tremulous with the captive trills. Perhaps a robin's first song is always
4:04:00
of this order. I do not know. I only know that this was
4:04:03
his earlier manner. My enraptured delight I expressed to him in my most eloquent
4:04:11
phrases. I praised him, I flattered him, I made him believe that
4:04:16
no robin had really ever sung before. He was much pleased, and flew
4:04:20
down on to the table to hear all about it and incite me to further
4:04:24
effort. In a few days he had learnt to sing perfectly, not with
4:04:31
the low, distant sounding note, but with open break and clear, brilliant
4:04:37
little roulades and trills. He grew prouder and prouder. When he saw I
4:04:43
was busy, he would tilt on a nearby bow and call me with flirtatious,
4:04:46
provocative, outbreaking of song. He knew that it was impossible for anyone
4:04:52
to resist him, any one in the world. Of course, I would
4:04:56
get up and stand beneath his tree with my face up turned, and tell
4:05:01
him that his charm, his beauty, his fascination, and my love were
4:05:05
beyond the power of words to express. He knew that would happen, and
4:05:09
reveled in it. His tiny airs and graces, his devices to attract and
4:05:16
absorb attention was unending. He invented new ones every day, and each was
4:05:22
more enslaving than the last. Could it be that he was guilty when he
4:05:28
met other robins, of boasting of his conquest of me and of my utter
4:05:33
subjugation. I cannot believe it possible. Also, I never saw other robins
4:05:39
accost him or linger in their passage through the rose garden to exchange civilities.
4:05:45
And yet a very strange thing occurred. On one occasion, I was sitting
4:05:50
at my table expecting him, and heard a familiar chirp. When I looked
4:05:54
up, he was a tilt upon the branch of an apple tree near by.
4:05:58
I greeted him with little whistles and twitters, thinking of course, that
4:06:03
he would fly down to me for our usual conversation. But though he chirped
4:06:09
a reply and put his head on one side engagingly, he did not move
4:06:13
from his bow. What is the matter with you? I said, come
4:06:18
down, Come down, little brother, But he did not come. He
4:06:22
only sidled and twitted and stayed where he was. This was so extraordinary that
4:06:28
I got up and went to him. As I looked, a curious doubt
4:06:33
came upon me. He looked like Tweety, which had become his baptismal name.
4:06:37
He tilted his head and flirted and twitted after the manner of Tweety.
4:06:41
But could it be that he was not what he pretended to be? Could
4:06:48
he be a stranger bird? That seemed out of the question, as no
4:06:52
stranger bird would have comported himself with such familiarity. No stranger surely would have
4:06:58
come so near an addressed me with such intimate twitterings and well known airs and
4:07:03
graces. I was mystified beyond measure. I exerted all my powers to lure
4:07:09
him from his branch, but descend from it he would not. He listened
4:07:15
and smiled and flirted his tail, but he stayed where he was listen.
4:07:20
I said, at last, I don't believe in you. There is a
4:07:24
mystery here. You pretend you know me, and yet you act as if
4:07:28
you were afraid of me, just like a common bird who is made of
4:07:33
nothing but feathers. I don't believe you are Tweety at all. You are
4:07:37
an impostor, believable or not. Just at that moment, when I stood
4:07:43
there under the bough, arguing, reproaching, and beguiling by turns, and
4:07:48
puzzled beyond measure, out of the nowhere darted a little scarlet flame of frenzy.
4:07:54
Tweaty himself with his feathers ruffled and on fire with fury. The robin
4:08:00
the branch actually was an impostor, and Tweaty had discovered him, red breasted,
4:08:05
if not red handed, with crime. Oh the sight it was to
4:08:09
behold him in his tiny berserker rage at his impudent rival. He flew at
4:08:16
him, He beat him, he smacked him, he pecked him, He
4:08:18
shrieked bad language at him. He drove him from the branch, from the
4:08:22
tree, from one tree after another. As the little traitor tried to take
4:08:26
refuge, he drove him from the rose garden, over the laurel hedge,
4:08:31
and into the pheasant cover in the wood. Perhaps he killed him and left
4:08:35
him slain in the bracken I could not see, but having beaten him once
4:08:39
and forever, he came back to me, panting, all fluffed up and
4:08:45
with bloodthirst, only just dying in his eye. He came down on to
4:08:48
my table, out of breath as he agitated, dear rearranged his untidy feathers,
4:08:54
and indignant, almost unreconcilable. Because I had been so undiscriminating and feeble
4:09:01
minded, imbecile as to be for one moment deceived, His righteous wrath was
4:09:09
awful to behold. I was so frightened that I felt quite pale, with
4:09:13
those whiles of the serpent which every noble woman finds herself forced to employ at
4:09:18
times. I endeavored to pacify him. Of course, I did not really
4:09:24
believe he was you, I said tremulously. He was your inferior in every
4:09:28
respect. His waistcoat was not nearly so beautiful as yours, his eyes were
4:09:33
not so soul compelling, his legs were not nearly so elegant and slender,
4:09:39
and there was an expression about his beak which I distrusted from the first you
4:09:45
heard me tell him he was an impostor. He began to listen, he
4:09:50
became calmer, he relented, He kindly ate a crumb out of my hand.
4:09:56
We began mutually to understand the inn for me of the situation. The
4:10:01
impostor had been secretly watching us. He had envied us our happiness into his
4:10:07
degenerate mind, had stolen the darkling and criminal thought that he, or dacious
4:10:13
scoundrel might impose upon me by pretending he was not merely a robin, but
4:10:18
the robin Tweaty himself, and that he might supplant him in my affections.
4:10:24
But he had been confounded and cast into outer darkness, and again we were
4:10:30
one. I will not attempt to deceive. He was jealous beyond bounds.
4:10:35
It was necessary for me to be most discreet in my demeanor towards the head
4:10:41
gardener, with whom I was obliged to consult frequently. When he came into
4:10:46
the rose garden for orders, tweaty At once appeared. He followed us hopping
4:10:50
in the grass, or from rose bush to rose bush. No word of
4:10:54
ours escaped him. If our conversation on the enthralling subject of fertilizer and aphids
4:11:01
seemed, in its earnest absorption, to verge upon the emotional and tender he
4:11:07
interfered. At once, he commanded my attention, He perched on nearby boughs,
4:11:11
and endeavored to distract me. He fluttered about and called me with chirps.
4:11:18
His last resource was always to fly to the topmost twig of an apple
4:11:22
tree and begin to sing his most brilliant song, in his most thrilling tone
4:11:26
and with an affected manner. Naturally we were obliged to listen and talk about
4:11:33
him. Even Old Barton's weather beaten apple face would wrinkle into smiles. He's
4:11:39
doing that to make us look at him, he would say, that's what
4:11:43
he's doing it for. He can't abide not to be noticed. But it
4:11:48
was not only his vanity which drew him to me. He loved me.
4:11:52
The low song trilled in his little pulsating scarlet throat was mine. He sang
4:11:58
it only to me, and he would never sing it when any one else
4:12:01
was there to hear, When we were quite alone, with only roses and
4:12:05
bees and sunshine and silence about us. When he swung on some spray quite
4:12:11
close to me, and I stood and talked to him in whispers. Then
4:12:16
he would answer me each time I paused, with the little, far away
4:12:22
sounding trills, the sweetest, most wonderful little sounds in the world. A
4:12:28
clever person who knew more of the habits of birds than I did, told
4:12:33
me a most curious thing, that is his little mating song. He said,
4:12:39
you have inspired a hopeless passion in a robin. Perhaps so he thought.
4:12:45
The rose garden was the world, and it seemed to me he never
4:12:48
went out of it during the summer months. At whatsoever hour I appeared and
4:12:54
called him, He came out of bushes, but from a different point each
4:12:58
time. In late autumn, however, one afternoon I saw him fly to
4:13:03
me from over a wall dividing the enclosed garden from the open ones. I
4:13:09
thought he looked guilty and fluttered when he alighted near me. I think he
4:13:13
did not want me to know. You have been making the acquaintance of a
4:13:18
young lady Robin. I said to him, perhaps you are already engaged to
4:13:22
her for the next season. He tried to persuade me that it was not
4:13:26
true, but I felt he was not entirely frank. After that, it
4:13:31
was plain that he had discovered that the rose Garden was not all the world.
4:13:35
He knew about the other side of the wall, but it did not
4:13:39
absorb him altogether. He was seldom absent when I came, and he never
4:13:43
failed to answer my call. I talked to him often about the young lady
4:13:48
Robin, But though he showed a gentlemanly reticence on the subject, I knew
4:13:54
quite well he loved me best. He loved my robin sounds, he loved
4:13:58
my whispers. His dewy dark eyes looked into mine as if he knew we
4:14:05
two understood strange, tender things others did not. I was only a mere
4:14:11
tenant of the beautiful place I had had for nine years, and that winter
4:14:16
the owner sold the estate. In December, I was to go to Montreux
4:14:20
for a couple of months. In March I was to return to Matham and
4:14:26
close it before leaving it finally until I left for Switzerland. I saw my
4:14:31
Robin every day before I went away. I called him to me and told
4:14:35
him where I was going. He was such a little thing. Two or
4:14:41
three months might seem a lifetime to him. He might not remember me so
4:14:46
long. I was not a real robin. I was only a human being.
4:14:50
I said a great many things to him, wondering if he would even
4:14:54
be in the garden when I came back. I went away wondering. When
4:15:01
I returned from the world of winter sports, of mountain snows, of tobogganing
4:15:05
and skis, I felt as if I had been absent a long time.
4:15:11
There had been snow even in Kent, and the park and gardens were white.
4:15:16
I arrived in the evening the next morning. I threw on my red
4:15:20
friezed garden cloak and went down the flagged terrace and the long walk through the
4:15:24
wall gardens to the beloved place where the rose bushes stood, dark and slender
4:15:30
and leafless among the whiteness. I went to my own tree and stood under
4:15:35
it and called, Are you gone? I said, in my heart,
4:15:39
are you gone? Little soul? Shall I never see you again? After
4:15:46
the call, I waited, and I had never waited before. The roses
4:15:50
were gone, and he was not in the rose world. I called again.
4:15:56
The call was sometimes a soft whistle and as near a rob and sound
4:16:00
as I could make it. Sometimes it was a chirp. Sometimes it was
4:16:06
a quick, clear repetition of sweet, sweet sweetie, which I fancied he
4:16:11
liked best. I made one after the other, and then something scarlet flashed
4:16:18
across the lawn, across the rose walk, over the wall, and he
4:16:22
was there. He had not forgotten. It had not been too long.
4:16:27
He alighted on the snowy brown grass at my feet. Then I knew he
4:16:33
was a little soul, and not only a bird. And the real parting,
4:16:37
which must come in a few weeks time, loomed up before me,
4:16:41
a strange, tragic thing. I do not often allow myself to think of
4:16:48
it. It was too final, and there was nothing to be done.
4:16:52
I was going thousands of miles across the sea. A little warm thing of
4:16:57
scarlet and brown feathers and pulsating trilling throat lived such a brief life, the
4:17:03
little soul in its black dewdrop eye. One knows nothing about it. For
4:17:10
myself, I sometimes believe strange things. We two were something weirdly near to
4:17:15
each other. At the end. I went down to the bare world of
4:17:19
roses one soft damp day and stood under the tree and called him for the
4:17:25
last time. He did not keep me waiting, and he flew to a
4:17:30
twig very near my face. I could not write all I said to him.
4:17:34
I tried with all my heart to explain, and he answered me between
4:17:40
his listenings with the far away love note. I talked to him as if
4:17:45
he knew all I knew. He put his head on one side and listened
4:17:49
so intently that I felt that he understood. I told him that I must
4:17:55
go away, and that we should not see each other again. And I
4:17:59
told him why. But you must not think when I do not come back,
4:18:03
it is because I have forgotten you, I said. Never since I
4:18:07
was born have I loved anything as I have loved you, except my two
4:18:11
babies. Never shall I love anything so much again, so long as I
4:18:15
am in the world. You are a little soul and I am a little
4:18:19
soul. And we shall love each other forever and ever. We won't say
4:18:23
good bye. We have been too near to each other, nearer than human
4:18:29
beings are. I love you, and love you, and love you,
4:18:33
little soul. Then I went out of the rose garden. I shall never
4:18:41
go into it again, Nay, she wrote, Little daughter Prue, said
4:18:48
Anna, her sabbots clattering loudly on the brick floor as she moves more rapidly
4:18:53
in her wrath prue, madam she rolled. Indeed, there was a time,
4:18:59
and it was but two years ago, that she was but plain Mare
4:19:03
Girod, and no better than the rest of us. And it seems to
4:19:07
me, neighbors, that it is not well to show pride because one has
4:19:11
the luck to be favored by fortune. Where forsoof would are Madam Girod stand
4:19:19
if luck had not given her a daughter pretty enough to win a witch husband.
4:19:25
True, indeed, echoed two of the gossips who were her admiring listeners,
4:19:30
True beyond doubt. Where indeed, but the third, a comely,
4:19:36
fresh skinned matron who leaned against the door and knitted a stout gray stocking with
4:19:41
fast clashing needles, did not acquiesce so readily. Well, Well, neighbors,
4:19:48
she said, for my part, I do not see much to complain
4:19:51
of Mayor Girod. She is still may Girod to me, is as honest
4:19:56
and kindly a soul as Ever, it is not she who is called herself
4:20:00
Madame Girod. It is others who are foolish enough to fancy that good luck
4:20:04
must change one's old ways. If she had the wish to be a grand
4:20:10
personage, she would not have left our village before this and have joined Madame
4:20:14
le Grande in Paris. On the contrary, however, she remains in her
4:20:18
cottage and is as good a neighbor as ever, even though she is fond
4:20:23
of talking of the carriages and jewels in Madame le Grande and her establishment on
4:20:27
the Boulevard Mauchcherbs. In fact, I ask you who of us would not
4:20:33
rejoice also to be the mother of our daughter, whose fortune had been so
4:20:37
good. That is also true, commented the amiable couple, nodding their white
4:20:44
capped heads with a sagacious air. True, without doubt. But Anno replied
4:20:52
her contemptuous sugar of her shoulders. Wait until Madame Girard is invited to visit
4:20:56
the Boulevard Mauchcherbs. She said, we have not heard that this has happened.
4:21:02
Yet she would not go if she were at least not to remain.
4:21:07
Her heart has grown to the old place sheep or her children in, as
4:21:11
she has herself said to me, most sensibly law is young and will learn
4:21:15
easily the ways of the great world. I am old, and cannot I
4:21:21
am battered at home among my neighbors. Doubtless, however, in course of
4:21:26
time she will pay Madame le Grand a visit at her home in Paris,
4:21:30
or at the chateau which Monsieur le Grand, of course possesses, as the
4:21:33
rich and aristocratic always do, doubtless, said Anna grimly. Doubtless honest Jean
4:21:42
Tallow passed us stare by and went on with stout gravity of demeanor. There
4:21:48
is only one thing for which I somewhat blamed margyand and that is that I
4:21:52
think she has scarcely done her duty toward Valentine. He disappointed her by being
4:21:56
an ugly lad instead of a pretty girl, and she had not paidatience with
4:22:00
him. Law was the favorite. Whatever Law did was right, and it
4:22:04
was not so with the other. Though I myself known that Valentin was a
4:22:08
good lad and tender hearted. Once put in a white cap, I saw
4:22:15
her beat him severely because he fell with the little girl in his arms and
4:22:19
scratched her cheek. And it was not his fault. His foot slipped upon
4:22:25
a stone. He was carrying the child carefully and tenderly. Enough. You
4:22:30
are right in calling him a good lad, neighbor, Tallow, he was
4:22:33
a good lad, Valentine Girod, and fond of his mother, notwithstanding that
4:22:37
she was not fond of him, Yes, added her companion. But it
4:22:41
is a truth that he was a great contrast to the girl mon Dieu,
4:22:47
his long limbs and awkward body, his great sad eyes and ugly face.
4:22:52
While law was she not tall and slender and white like a lily in a
4:22:56
garden, And her voice was like the ringing of silver, and her eyes
4:23:02
so soft and large as an infant. She reminded one of Little Jesus as
4:23:07
one sees him in the churches. No wonder that Mare Girord fettered at the
4:23:12
difference between the two, and Valentine was her first, And what mother does
4:23:18
not look for great things in her first? We cannot help feeling that something
4:23:23
must come of one's own charms, if one has any. And Mayor Girrod
4:23:27
was a handsome bride. An ugly bantling seems to offer one a sort of
4:23:32
insult, particularly at first when one is young and vain. There is no
4:23:38
more beautiful young girl than low Girrod at sixteen, said jean Tello, and
4:23:45
none more useless, said Anno loudly gave me a young girl who is industrious
4:23:51
and honest. My Margot is better provided for than low Girrod was before her
4:23:56
marriage. But her hands are not white, nor is her but a span
4:24:00
around. She has too much work to do. She is not a tall,
4:24:04
white, swaying creature who is too good to churn and tender creatures who
4:24:10
give her food. I have heard it said that Law would have worked if
4:24:15
her mother had permitted it, But I don't believe it. She had not
4:24:18
a working luck, Mademoiselle. Law was too good for the labor of humble
4:24:23
people. She must go to Paris and learn a fine, delicate trade.
4:24:29
But good came of it. Put in jean Tallow, it proved all the
4:24:32
better for her. Let her mother thanked the virgin, then cried Anna contemptuously.
4:24:38
It might not have proved the better. It might have proved the worse.
4:24:44
Evil might have come of it instead of good. Who among us has
4:24:48
not heard of such things? Did not marry Gaudier go to Paris too,
4:24:53
Ah, poor little one indeed sighed the white cups, and in two years,
4:25:00
added Anno. Her mother died of a broken heart, But said cheerful
4:25:06
Jeanne somewhat dryly, Law's mother is not dead yet. So let us congratulate
4:25:11
ourselves that to go to Paris has brought luck to one of our number at
4:25:14
least, And let us deal charitably with mere Giroud, who certainly means well
4:25:19
and is only naturally proud of her daughter's grandeur. For my part, I
4:25:23
can afford to rejoice with her. She rolled up her stout stocking into a
4:25:29
ball and stuck her needles through it, nodding at the free women. I
4:25:33
promised I would drop in and spend a few minutes with her this morning.
4:25:37
She said, so, I'll bid you good day, and she stepped across
4:25:41
the threshold and trudged off in the sunshine, her wooden shoes sounding bravely on
4:25:45
the path. It was only a little place, Saint Qui, as we
4:25:51
shall call it, for want of a better name, our little village of
4:25:53
one street, and of many vines and roses and orchards, and of much
4:25:57
gossip. The poor people inhabited it, simple ignorant folk who knew one another
4:26:04
and discussed one another's faults and grape crops with equal frankness, worked hard,
4:26:10
lived frugally, confessed regularly, and slept well. Devout people and ignorant,
4:26:17
who believed that the little shrines they erected in their vineyards brought blessings upon their
4:26:21
grapes, and who knew nothing of the great world beyond, and spoke of
4:26:26
Paris with awe and even with a shade of doubt. Living the same lives
4:26:30
generation after generation, tilling the same crops, and praying before the same stone
4:26:37
altar in a small, quaint church, it is not to be wondered at
4:26:41
that when a change occurred to any one of their number, it was regarded
4:26:45
as a sort of social era. There were those in Saint Croix who had
4:26:49
known Meagurrod's grandfather, a slow spoken, kindly old peasant who had drunk his
4:26:56
van ordinaire and smoked his pipe with the poor forest. And there was not
4:27:00
one who did not well know New Zerod herself, and who had not watched
4:27:07
the growth of the little law who had bloomed into a beauty not unlike the
4:27:11
beauty of the white Provence roses which climbed over and around her mother's cottage door.
4:27:18
May your Rod's little daughter, she had been called, even after she
4:27:22
grew into the wonderfully tall and wonderfully fair creature she became before she left the
4:27:27
village accompanying her brother Valentine to Paris. Ma FOI, said the man,
4:27:34
But she is truly a beauty. May's your Odd's little daughter. She would
4:27:40
be well looked to, said the wiseacres neare's your Od's little daughter. There
4:27:45
is one we must always give way before, said the best natured among the
4:27:49
girls, and that one is mayors Your's little daughter. The old Ciure the
4:27:56
parish took interest in her and gave her lessons, and as mar Girod would
4:28:00
have held her strictly to them. Even if she had not been tractable and
4:28:04
studious by nature, she was better educated and more gently trained than her companions.
4:28:11
The fact was, however, that she had not many companions. Some
4:28:15
element in her grace and beauty seemed to separate her from the rest of her
4:28:19
class. Village sports and festivities had little attraction for her, and upon the
4:28:26
whole she seemed out of place among them. Her stature, her fair still
4:28:32
face, and her slow, quiet movements suggested rather embarrassingly to the humble feasters
4:28:37
the presence of some young princess far above them. Pouf said a sharp tongued
4:28:44
bell. One day, I have no patience with her. She is so
4:28:48
tall this law, that one must be forever looking up to her, And
4:28:52
I, for one, do not care to be forever looking up. The
4:28:56
hint of refined pride in her demeanor was Mayor Girrod's greatest glory. She is
4:29:03
not like the rest my law, she would say to her son. One
4:29:07
can see it in the way in which she holds her head. She has
4:29:10
the quiet, grave air of a great personage. There were many who wondered
4:29:15
that Valentine showed no jealousy or distaste at hearing his sister's praises sounded so frequently
4:29:22
to his own detriment. There was no praise for him. The poor fond
4:29:27
mother's heart was full of law. Her son had been a bitter disappointment to
4:29:33
her, and to her mind, was fitted for nothing but to make himself
4:29:37
an adoring slave to his sister's beauty. And this the gentle, generous fellow
4:29:44
certainly was. He was always ready to serve her, always affectionate, always
4:29:49
faithful, And Ney Girrod, who was blind to or careless of all his
4:29:56
loving, constant labor for her own comfort, deigned to see that he did
4:30:00
his duty toward law. He has at least a sense to appreciate her as
4:30:06
far as he is able. She said. So. When Valentine, who
4:30:11
had a talent for engraving, was discovered by some one who understood his genius
4:30:15
and could make use of it, and was offered a place in a great
4:30:19
gay city, nere Girod formed an ambitious plan. He should take law and
4:30:26
find her a position. Also, she had the fingers of a fair magician
4:30:30
and could embroider marvelously. So she trusted law to him, and the two
4:30:37
bade farewell to Saint Croix and departed together. A month passed, and then
4:30:42
there came a letter containing good news. Valentine was doing well and law also
4:30:48
she had found a place in a great family, where she was to embroider
4:30:52
and wait upon a young lady. They were rich people and were kind and
4:30:56
paid her well, and she was happy. When they first saw her,
4:31:03
they were astonished, wrote the simple tender Valentine. I went with her to
4:31:07
present herself. My employer had recommended her. There is a son who is
4:31:11
past his youth, and who has evidently seen the world. He is aristocratic
4:31:17
and fair, and slightly bald, but extremely handsome. Still. He sat
4:31:22
holding a newspaper in his long white fingers, and when we entered, he
4:31:26
raised his eyes above it and looked at Law. And I heard him exclaim
4:31:30
under his breath, mon dieu, as if her beauty fairly startled him.
4:31:37
When the cure to whom the proud mother showed the letter read this part,
4:31:41
he did not seem as rejoiced as Margirod had expected. On the contrary,
4:31:47
he looked a little grave and rubbed his forehead. Ah ah, he said,
4:31:53
there lies the danger. Danger, exclaimed margiod starting he turned and regarded
4:32:00
her with a rather hesitant air, as if he were at once puzzled and
4:32:04
fearful, puzzled by her simplicity, and fearful of grieving her unnecessarily. Valentine
4:32:11
is a good lad, he said. Valentine will be watchful, though perhaps
4:32:17
he is too good to suspect evil. Mayor Girrod put her hand to her
4:32:22
heart. You are not afraid, she said, quite proudly, beginning at
4:32:26
last to comprehend you are not afraid of evil. To Law, no,
4:32:30
no, no, he answered, surely not. He said no more then,
4:32:37
But he always asked to see the letters and read them with great care,
4:32:42
sometimes over and over again. They came very regularly for six or seven
4:32:48
months, and then there was a gap of a few weeks, and then
4:32:52
came a strange, almost incomprehensible letter from Valentine, containing news which almost caused
4:32:57
Mayor Girod's heart to burst with joy and gratitude. Law was married and had
4:33:03
made such a marriage as could scarcely have been dreamed of. A rich aristocrat
4:33:08
who had visited her employers, had fallen in love with her and married her.
4:33:15
He had no family to restrain him, and her beauty had won him
4:33:18
completely from the first hour. He had carried her away with him to make
4:33:22
a prolonged tour. The family with whom she had lived had been lavish in
4:33:29
their gifts and kindness, but they had left Paris also and were voyaging.
4:33:33
The name of Law's bridegroom was LeGrande, and there came messages from Law,
4:33:40
and enclosed was a handsome present of money. Mayor Gerard was overwhelmed with joy.
4:33:47
Before three hours had passed, all Saint Croix knew the marvelous news.
4:33:52
She went from house to house showing a letter and the money, and it
4:33:56
was not until night that she cooled down sufficiently to labor through a long epistle
4:34:02
to Valentine. It was a year before Law returned to Paris, and during
4:34:07
that time she wrote but seldom. But Valentine wrote often and answered all his
4:34:12
mother's questions, though not as fluently nor with so many words as she often
4:34:18
wished. Law was rich and beautiful as ever. Her husband adored her and
4:34:23
showered gifts and luxuries upon her. She had equipages and jewels. She wore
4:34:30
her velvet and satin and lace every day. She was a great lady,
4:34:34
and had a house like a palace. Law herself did not say so much
4:34:41
in her secret heart. May she roared often longed for more, But she
4:34:47
was a discreet, unfa seeing woman. What would you do? She said?
4:34:52
She must drive out in her equipage, and she must dress and receive
4:34:56
great people. That I am not so blind a mother as not to see.
4:34:59
She will have many to learn. She is not time to write long
4:35:03
letters. And see how she cares for me money see you by every letter,
4:35:10
and a silk dress and lace cap. She herself has chosen in the
4:35:14
boulevard Capucines. And I must care for myself and furnish the cottage prettily,
4:35:19
and keep a servant. Her wealth and great fortune have not rendered her dutiful
4:35:23
my law. So she talked of Madame le Grand, and so all Saint
4:35:30
Croix talked of Madame le Grand. And some, of course were envious and
4:35:34
prophesied that the end had not come yet, and Mayor Giroud would find herself
4:35:40
forgotten some fine day. And others rejoiced with her and congratulated themselves that they
4:35:45
knew so aristocratic a person as Madame le Grand. Jeanne Tallow was one of
4:35:52
those who sympathized with her in all warm heartedness and candor, with her knitting
4:35:57
in her hand, ready for action, and friendly unceremoniousness. She presented herself
4:36:03
at the cottage door one morning, nodding and speaking before she had crossed the
4:36:07
threshold. Good day, neighbor Girrade, any letter from law this morning?
4:36:12
Mayor Girod, who sat before the window under the swinging cage of her bird,
4:36:17
looked up with an air a little more serious than usual. Ah,
4:36:22
she said, I am glad it is Eugene. I have been wishing to
4:36:26
see you. Jean seated herself smiling, then said she it is well.
4:36:30
I came. But suddenly she noticed the absent look of her friend and commented
4:36:37
upon it. You do not look your best this morning, she said,
4:36:41
how does it occur? I am thinking, said mar Girrod, with some
4:36:45
importance of manner. I am thinking of going to Paris. To Paris,
4:36:51
I am anxious, shaking her head seriously. I had last night a bad
4:36:56
dream. I wished to see Law. Then she turned and looked at Jeanne
4:37:00
most wistfully. It is a long time since I have seen her, yes,
4:37:06
answered Jeanne, in a little doubt. But Paris is a long way
4:37:10
off, yes, said Margirode. But it appears that all at once I
4:37:15
realize how long it is since I have seen my child. I am getting
4:37:19
old. You see, I was not very young when she was born,
4:37:22
and as one grows older, one becomes more uneasy and obstinate in one's fancies.
4:37:27
This morning, I feel that I must see my Law. My heart
4:37:32
yearns for her, and hastily she will undoubtedly be rejoiced to see me.
4:37:37
She has often said that she wished she might lay her head upon my breast
4:37:41
again. It seemed that she was resolved upon the journey. She was in
4:37:47
a singular uneasy mood and restless beyond measure. She who had never been twenty
4:37:52
miles from Saint Quaix, had made up her mind to leave it at once
4:37:56
and confront all the terrors of her journey to Paris. For there were terrors
4:38:03
in such a journey to the mind of a simple peasant who had so far
4:38:07
traveled but in one groove. She would not even wait to consult Monsieur le
4:38:11
Ciurais, who was unfortunately absent. Jeanne discovered, to her astonishment that she
4:38:18
had already made her small preparations, had packed her best garments in a little
4:38:22
wooden box, laying the silk gown and lace cap at the top, that
4:38:27
they might be in readiness. I will not interfere at all, and I
4:38:33
shall not remain long, she said, only long enough to see my law
4:38:37
and spend a few days of her quietly. It is not Paris I care
4:38:41
for, or the great sights. It is that I must see my child.
4:38:47
Saint Croix was fairly bewildered at the news it heard the next day Mayor
4:38:52
Aziord had gone to Paris to visit Madame le Grande had actually gone, sending
4:38:56
her little servant home and shutting up her small trim cottage. Let us hope
4:39:03
that Madame la grand will receive her as she expects to be received, said
4:39:07
Anno. For my part, I should have preferred to remain in Saint Croix.
4:39:11
Only yesterday she in tallowed her, as that she had no intention of
4:39:15
going. She will see wonderful things, said the more simple and amiable.
4:39:22
It is possible that she may be invited to the Tui l'a rise, and
4:39:26
without doubt she will drive to the Bois de Boulogne in Madame la Grande's carriage,
4:39:32
with servants in livery to attend her. My uncle's son, who is
4:39:36
a valet de place in a great family, tells us that the aristocracy drives
4:39:41
up and down the champsi Lisee every afternoon, and the sight is magnificent.
4:39:47
But mar Girrod did not look forward to such splendors as these. I shall
4:39:52
see my law as a great lady, she said to herself, I shall
4:39:56
hold her white hands and kiss her cheeks. The roar of vehicles, and
4:40:00
the rush and crowd and bustle bewildered her. The brightness and the rolling wheels
4:40:07
dazzled her old eyes, but she held herself bravely. People to whom she
4:40:11
spoke smiled at her patois and innocent questions, but she did not care.
4:40:17
She found the fiacre, which took her to her destination, and when after
4:40:22
she had paid the driver he left her. She entered the wide doors with
4:40:26
a beating heart, the blood rising on her cheek and glowing through the withered
4:40:32
skin. Madame le grand, she said a little proudly to the concierge,
4:40:37
and the woman stared at her. As she led up the staircase. She
4:40:41
was so eager that she scarcely saw the beauty around her, the thick,
4:40:45
soft carpets, the carved balustrades, the superb lamps. But when they stopped
4:40:52
before a door, she touched the concierge upon the arm. Do not say
4:40:56
my name, she said, I am her mother. The woman stared at
4:41:02
her more than ever. It is not my place to announce you, she
4:41:07
said, I only came up because I thought you would not find a way.
4:41:11
She could not have told why it was or how it happened. But
4:41:15
when at last she was ushered into the salon, a strange sense of oppression
4:41:19
fell upon her. The room was long and lofty, and so shadowed by
4:41:26
the heavy curtains falling across the windows, that it was almost dark. And
4:41:30
then all at once some one rose from a reclining chair at the farther end
4:41:36
of the apartment and advanced a few steps toward her, a tall and stately
4:41:41
figure moving slowly. Who she heard a cold, soft voice say, And
4:41:48
then came a sharp cry, and laurel white hands were thrown out in a
4:41:52
strange, desperate gesture, and she stopped and stood like a statue of stone.
4:41:57
Mother, Mother, Mother, she repeated again and again, as if
4:42:03
some indescribable pain shook her. If she had been beautiful before, now she
4:42:10
was more beautiful. Still. She was even taller than ever. She was
4:42:15
like a queen. Her long robe was of delicate gray velvet, and her
4:42:19
hair and froat and wrists were bound with pearls and gold. She was so
4:42:26
lovely and stately that for a moment mer Girod was half awed. But the
4:42:32
next it was as if her strong mother heart broke loose my law. She
4:42:37
cried out, Yes, it is I, my child, it is I
4:42:41
law. And she almost fell upon her knees as she embraced her trembling for
4:42:47
ecstasy. But Law scarcely spoke. She was white and cold, and at
4:42:52
last she gasped forth three words, where is Valentine? But Margirod did not
4:43:00
know it was not Valentine. She cared to see Valentine could wait since she
4:43:06
had her Law. She sat down beside her in one of the velvet chairs.
4:43:11
She held the fair hand in her own. It was covered with jewels,
4:43:15
but she did not notice them. Her affection only told her that it
4:43:18
was cold and tremulous. You are not well, Law, she said.
4:43:25
It was well that my dream warned me to come. Something is wrong.
4:43:30
I am quite well, said Law. I do not suffer at all.
4:43:33
She was so silent that if mar Giod had not had so much to say,
4:43:38
she would have been troubled. As it was. However, she was
4:43:42
content to pour forth her affectionate speeches, one after another, without waiting to
4:43:48
be answered. Where is Monsieur le Grand, she ventured? At last,
4:43:53
he is, said Law, in a hesitant voice. He is in Normandy.
4:44:00
Shall I not see him, asked Margiod. I'm afraid not. Unless
4:44:03
your visit is a long one will be absent for months. She did not
4:44:08
speak with any warmth. It was as if she did not care to speak
4:44:11
of him at all, as if the mention of him even embarrassed her a
4:44:17
little. Mayor Gerard felt a secret misgiving. I shall not stay long,
4:44:22
she said, but I could not remain anyway. I wished so eagerly to
4:44:26
see you and know that you are happy. You are happy, my law.
4:44:32
Law turned toward her and gave her a long look, a look which
4:44:36
seemed unconsciously to ask her a question. Happy, she answered, slowly and
4:44:41
deliberately. I suppose so, Yes, Mayor Giroud caressed her hand again and
4:44:48
again, yes, she said, it must be so. The good days
4:44:52
are always happy, and you, my Law, have always been dutiful and
4:44:57
virtuous, and consequently you are rewarded. You have never caused me a grief,
4:45:03
and now, fact of good God, you are prosperous. She looked
4:45:07
at her, almost adoringly, and at last touched the soft, thick gray
4:45:11
velvet of her drapery with reverence. Do you wear such things as this every
4:45:17
day? She asked? Yes, Law answered every day, Ah, sighed
4:45:22
the happy mother. How Monsieur le grand must adore you. At length,
4:45:27
she found time to ask a few questions concerning Valentine. I know that he
4:45:33
is well and prosperous, as one could expect him to be. But I
4:45:37
hope bridling a little with great seriousness. I hope he conducts himself in such
4:45:41
a manner as to cause you no embarrassment, though naturally you do not see
4:45:45
him often. No, was the answer. They did not see him often.
4:45:52
Well well, began new Giraude, becoming lenient in her great happiness.
4:45:56
He is not a bad lad, Valentine. He means well. But here
4:46:02
she stopped. Law checked her with a swift, impassioned movement. He is
4:46:07
what we cannot understand, she said, in a hushed, strained voice.
4:46:11
He is a saint, his new fort for himself, his whole life is
4:46:15
a sacrifice. It is not I you should adore. It is Valentine,
4:46:21
Valentine, echoed Margiroud. It quite bewildered her, the mere thought of adoring
4:46:27
Valentine, my child, she said, when she recovered herself. It is
4:46:33
your good heart which says this. The same night Valentine came, Law went
4:46:41
out into an antechamber to meet him, and each stood and looked at the
4:46:44
other with pale face and anguished eyes. Valentine's eyes were hollow and sunken.
4:46:49
As if with some great sorrow, and his large, awkward frame seemed wasted,
4:46:56
but there was no reproach. Mingled with the indescribable sadness of his gaze.
4:47:03
Your note came to me, he said, our mother. She is
4:47:07
in there, said Law in a low, hurried, shaken voice, and
4:47:11
she pointed to the salon. She has come to embrace me, to make
4:47:17
sure that I am happy. Ah, my God, and she covered her
4:47:21
deftly face with her hands. Valentine did not approach her. He could only
4:47:26
stand still and look on. One thought filled his mind. We have no
4:47:32
time to weep, Law, he said gently. We must go on as
4:47:36
we have begun. Give me your hand. This was all, and then
4:47:41
the two went in together, Law's hand upon her brother's arm. It was
4:47:47
a marvelous life mere Girouard lived during the next few days. Certainly she could
4:47:52
not complain that she was not treated with deference and affection. She wore a
4:47:56
silk dress. Every day, she sat at a wonderful table, and a
4:48:00
liveried servant stood behind her chair. She drove her here and there in a
4:48:06
luxurious carriage. She herself, in fact, lived the life of an aristocrat
4:48:11
and a great lady better than all the rest. She found her Law as
4:48:17
gracious and dutiful as her fond heart could have wished. She spent every hour
4:48:22
with her. She showed her all her grandeurs of jewelry and toilette. She
4:48:27
was not ashamed of her mother, untutored and simple as she might be.
4:48:33
Only she is very pale and quiet, she remarked to Valentine once, even
4:48:38
paler and more quiet than I should have expected. But then we know that
4:48:44
the rich and aristocratic are always somewhat reserved. It is only the peasantry and
4:48:48
provincials who are talkative and florid. It is natural that Law should have gained
4:48:53
the manner of the great world. But her happiness, poor soul did not
4:49:00
last long. And yet the blow God sent was a kindly one. One
4:49:06
morning, as they went out to their carriage, Law stopped to speak to
4:49:10
a woman who crouched upon the edge of the pavement with a child in her
4:49:14
arms. She bent down and touched the little one with her hand, and
4:49:18
mar Girard, looking on, thought of pictures she had seen of the blessed
4:49:22
Virgin and of lovely saints healing the sick. What is the matter asked Law.
4:49:30
The woman looked down at the child and shivered. I do not know,
4:49:34
she answered, hoarsely. Only we are ill, and God has forsaken
4:49:38
us. We have not tasted food for two days. Law took something from
4:49:44
her purse and laid it silently in a small child's fevered hand. The woman
4:49:49
burst into tears. Madame, she said, it is a twenty franc piece.
4:49:57
Yes, said Lord, when it is spent, come to me again,
4:50:03
and she went to her carriage. My child said, margirod, it
4:50:08
is you who are a saint. The good God did wisely in showering blessings
4:50:14
upon you. A few days longer, she was happy, and then she
4:50:18
awakened from her sleep one night and found Law standing at her bedside, looking
4:50:23
down at her and shuddering. She started up with an exclamation of terror.
4:50:30
Mon dieu, she said, what is it? She was answered in a
4:50:34
voice she had never heard before, Laws, but hoarse and shaken. Law
4:50:41
had fallen upon her knees and grasped the bedclothes, hiding her face in the
4:50:45
folds. I am ill, she answered, in a strange changed tone.
4:50:52
I am I am cold and burning, I am dying. In an instant,
4:51:00
mayr Gerod stood upon the floor, holding her already insensible form in her
4:51:04
arm. She was obliged to lay her upon the floor while she rang the
4:51:08
bell to alarm the servants. She sent for Valentine and the doctor. The
4:51:15
doctor, arriving, regarded her beautiful face with manifest surprise and alarm. It
4:51:21
was no longer pale, but darkly flushed, and a stamp of terrible pain
4:51:26
was upon it. She has been exposed to infection, she said, This
4:51:32
is surely the case. It is a malignant fever. Then ner Girrod thought
4:51:37
of the poor mother and child. Oh my God, she prayed, do
4:51:42
not let her die a martyr. But the next day there was not a
4:51:48
servant left in the house, but Valentine was there, and there had come
4:51:52
a sister of mercy. When she came, Valentine met her and led her
4:51:57
into the salon. They remained together for half an hour, and then came
4:52:03
out and went to the sick room. And there were traces of tears upon
4:52:07
the sister's face. She was a patient, tender creature who did her work
4:52:11
well and listened with untiring gentleness to mar Girrod's passionate plaints. So beautiful,
4:52:19
so young, so beloved, cried the poor mother, and Monsieur absent in
4:52:26
Normandy, though it is impossible to say where, And if death should come
4:52:30
before his return, who would confront him with the truth. So beautiful,
4:52:34
so happy, so adored, and law lay upon the bed, sometimes wildly
4:52:44
delirious, sometimes a dreadful statue of stone, on hearing, on seeing unmoving,
4:52:51
deaf, without death's rest, life in death's bonds of iron. But
4:52:56
while mar Girrod wept, Valentine had no He was faithful, untiring, but
4:53:03
silent. Even at the worst, one would think he had no heart,
4:53:07
said mar Girrod, that men are often so ready to work, but cold
4:53:11
and dumb. Ah, it is only a mother who bears the deepest grief.
4:53:18
She fought passionately, enough for a hope at first, but it was
4:53:22
forced from her grasp. In the end. Death had entered the house and
4:53:26
spoken to her in a change of voice, which had summoned her from her
4:53:30
sleep. Madame said the doctor one evening, as they stood over the bed
4:53:37
while the sun went down. I have done all that is possible. She
4:53:41
will not see the sunset again. She may not see it rise. Mar
4:53:47
Girrod fell upon her knees beside the bed, crossing herself and weeping. She
4:53:52
will die, she said, a blessed martyr, She will die the death
4:53:57
of a saint. That very night. Only a few hours later, there
4:54:03
came to them a friend one day had not, for one moment even hoped
4:54:07
to see a gentle, grave old man in a thin, well worn black
4:54:11
robe the cure of Saint Croix. Him Valentine met also, and when the
4:54:19
two saw each other, there were barriers that fell away in their first interchange
4:54:25
of looks. My son said, the old man, holding out his hands,
4:54:30
tell me the truth. Then Valentine fell into a chair and hid his
4:54:36
face. She is dying, he said, And I cannot ask that she
4:54:41
should live. What was my life, he cried, passionately, speaking again,
4:54:48
What was my life to me? That I should not have given it?
4:54:49
To save her, to save her to her beauty and honor and to
4:54:53
her mother's love. I would have given it cheerfully a thousand times, a
4:54:59
thousand times again and again. But it was not to be, And in
4:55:03
spite of my prayers, I lost her, Oh my God, with a
4:55:07
sob of agony. If to night she were in Saint Croix, and I
4:55:12
could hear the neighbors call her again, as they used Mayor Giraud's little daughter.
4:55:18
The eyes of the Cure had tears in them. Also. Yesterday I
4:55:23
returned to Saint Croix and found your mother absent, he said. I have
4:55:27
had terrible fears for months, and when I found her house closed, they
4:55:32
caused me to set out upon my journey at once. He did not ask
4:55:37
any questions. He remembered too well the man of whom Valentine had written,
4:55:42
the son who was passed his youth and had evidently seen the world, the
4:55:47
pale aristocrat who had exclaimed mon dieu at the sight of Law's wondrous beauty.
4:55:55
When the worst came to the worst, said Valentine, I vowed myself to
4:55:59
the labor of sparing our mother. I have worked early and late to sustain
4:56:03
myself in the part I played. It was not from Law. The money
4:56:07
came. My God. Do you think I would have permitted my mother's hand
4:56:11
to have touched a gift of hers? She wrote the letters? But the
4:56:15
money I had earned. Honestly, Heaven will justify me for my falsehood,
4:56:22
since I have suffered so much. Yees, responded the Cure, looking at
4:56:27
his bent form, with gentle, pitying eyes. Heaven will justify you,
4:56:33
my son. They watched by law until the morning, but she did not
4:56:37
see them. She saw nothing to night. It was the statue of Marble
4:56:44
which lay before them. But in that early morning, when the sky was
4:56:49
dappled with pink and gold, and the air was fresh and cool, and
4:56:55
a silence even more complete than that of the night, seemed to rain their
4:56:59
case a change. The eyes they had seen closed for so many hours were
4:57:06
opened, and the soft voice broke in upon the perfect stillness of the room.
4:57:11
The lilies in the garden are in bloom to day. They were never
4:57:15
so tall and white and fair before. I will gather them for the altar
4:57:22
to give to the Virgin at my confession. May I culper mayor, And
4:57:29
all was over, and Mayre. She rode fell upon her knees again,
4:57:33
crying as she had cried before, amid a passion of sobs and tears.
4:57:40
She has died, my child, the death of a blessed martyr. It
4:57:47
was rather strange. The villagers said that Madame le Grande should have been buried
4:57:52
in the little graveyard at Saint Croix instead of in some fine tomb at Pere
4:57:56
la Chaise, but it was terribly sad. Her husband was away. They
4:58:03
knew not where, and it was Valentine's wish, and mar Giraud's heart yearned
4:58:08
so over her beloved one. So she was laid there and the marble cross
4:58:15
was placed at her head, a tall, beautiful cross by Monsieur le Grande.
4:58:19
Of course, only it was singular that he never came, though perhaps
4:58:25
that is the way of the great, not to mourn long or deeply,
4:58:30
even for those who have been most lovely and whom they have most tenderly loved.