Datasets:

NicholasSynovic
/

Modified-VEAA

Dataset card Data Studio Files Files and versions Community

Split (2)

train · 42.9k rows

text stringlengths 1.96k 5.76k	author int64 1 50
the art of letter writing has been lost but if quantity may for quality you must confess that for your sins you have a friend who has retained it when i wrote to you last i was on the eve of going down to join the at with every hope that he had found some opening for me i must tell you at some length the particulars of that expedition i travelled down part of the way with young whom i think you know he was gracious enough to consider that a third class carriage and my company were to be preferred to a first class with solitude you know that he came the letters into his uncle s money a little time ago and after a first outbreak he has now into that dead heavy state of despair which is caused by having everything which one can wish for how absurd are the of life when i think that i who am fairly happy and as keen as a edge should be struggling for that which i can see has brought neither profit nor happiness to and yet if i can read my own nature it is not the of money which is my real aim but only that i may acquire so much as will relieve my mind of sordid cares and enable me to develop any gifts which i may have undisturbed my tastes are so simple that i cannot imagine any advantage which wealth can give save indeed the exquisite pleasure of helping a good man or a good cause why should people ever take credit for charity when they must know that they cannot gain as much pleasure out of their guineas in any other fashion i gave my watch to a broken the other day having no change in my pocket and the could not quite determine whether it was a trait of madness or of nobility i could have told her with absolute confidence that it was neither the one nor the other the letters but a sort of selfishness with perhaps a little dash of away down at the bottom of it what had i ever had from my like the quiet thrill of satisfaction when the fellow brought me the ticket and told me that the thirty shillings had been useful got out at and i was left alone with a hale white haired old roman catholic priest who had sat quietly reading his office in the corner we fell into the most intimate talk which lasted all the way to indeed so interested was i that i very nearly passed through the place without knowing it father for that was his name seemed to me to be a beautiful type of what a priest should be self sacrificing and pure minded with a kind of simple cunning about him and a deal of innocent fun he had the defects as well as the virtues of his class for he was absolutely in his views we discussed religion with and his was somewhere about the early he might have the matter over with a priest of s court and they would have shaken hands after every sentence he would acknowledge this and claim it as the letters a merit it was in his eyes if our and and law had been equally consistent where would modern be is religion the only domain of thought which is non and to be referred for ever to a standard set two thousand years ago can they not see that as the human brain it must take a wider outlook a half formed brain makes a half formed god and who shall say that our brains are even half formed yet the truly inspired priest is the man or woman with the big brain it is not the shaven patch on the outside but it is the sixty within which is the real mark of election you know that you are turning up your nose at me i can see you do it but ril come off the thin ice and you shall have nothing but facts now fm afraid that i should never do for a story for the first stray character that comes along puts his arm in mine and walks me off with my poor story straggling away to nothing behind me well then it was night when we reached and as i my head out of the carriage window the first thing that my the letters eyes rested upon was old standing in the circle of light under a gas lamp his frock coat was flying open his waistcoat at the top and his hat a top hat this time on the back of his head with his hair out in front of it in every way save that he wore a collar he was the same as ever he gave a roar of recognition when he saw me me out of my carriage seized my carpet bag or as you used to call it and a minute later we were along together through the streets i was as you may imagine all in a to know what it was that he wanted with me however as he made no allusion to it i did not care to ask and during our walk we talked about indifferent matters it was first i remember whether had a chance against and the way in which the new passing game was the old then he got on to inventions and became so excited that he had to give me back my bag in order that he might be able to slap all his points home with his fist upon the letters his palm i can see him now stopping with his face leaning forward and his yellow gleaming in the my dear this was the style of the thing why was abandoned eh what ru tell you why it was because	4
he had got over his you have probably heard in fact i have told you myself that my father had the finest practice in scotland as far as i could judge he was a man of no capacity but still there you are he had it i nodded and smoked well he s been dead seven years and fifty dipping into his little fish pond however when i passed i thought my best move was to come down to the old place and see whether i couldn t piece the thing together again the name ought to be worth something i thought but it was no use doing the thing in a half hearted way not a bit of use in that the kind of people who came to him were wealthy and must see a fine house and a man in livery what the letters chance was there of gathering them into a forty pound a year house with a maid at the door what do you suppose i did my boy i took the governor s old house that was the very house that he kept up at five thousand a year off i started in rare style and sank my last cent in furniture but it s no use i can t hold on any longer i got two accidents and an twenty two pounds eight and sixpence that s the lot what will you do then that s what i wanted your advice about that s why i for you i always respected your opinion my boy and i thought that now was the time to have it it struck me that if he had asked for it nine months before there would have been more sense in it what on earth could i do when affairs were in such a however i could not help feeling when so independent a fellow as turned to me in this way you really think said i that it is no use holding on here he jumped up and began pacing the room in his swift way the letters you take warning from it said he you ve got to start yet take my tip and go where no one knows you people will trust a stranger quick enough but if they can remember you as a little chap who ran about in and got with a hair brush for stealing they are not going to put their lives in your keeping it s all very well to talk about friendship and family connections but when a man has a pain in the stomach he doesn t care a toss about all that stick it up in gold letters in every medical class room have it carved across the gate of the university that if a man wants friends he must go among strangers it s all up here so there s no use in me to hold on i asked him how much he owed it came to about seven hundred pounds the rent alone was two hundred he had already raised money on the furniture and his whole came to less than a of course there was only one possible thing that i could advise you must call your together said i they can see for themselves that you are young and energetic sure to succeed sooner or the letters later if they push you into a corner now they can get nothing make that clear to them but if you make a fresh start elsewhere and succeed you may pay them all in full i see no other possible way out of it i knew that you d say that and it s just what i thought myself isn t it well then that settles it and i am much obliged to you for your advice and that s all we ll say about the matter to night i ve made my shot and missed next time i shall hit and it won t be long either his failure did not seem to weigh very heavily on his mind for in a few minutes he was shouting away as as ever and hot water were brought in that we might all drink luck to second venture and this led us to what might have been a troublesome affair who had drunk off a couple of glasses waited until his wife had left the room and then began to talk of the difficulty of getting any exercise now that he had to wait in all day in the hope of this led us round to the ways in which a man might take his exercise indoors and that to took a couple the letters of pairs of gloves out of a cupboard and proposed that we should fight a round or two then and there if i hadn t been a fool i should never have consented it s one of my many weaknesses that whether it s a woman or a man anything like a challenge sets me but i knew s ways and i told you in my last what a lamb of a temper he has none the less we pushed back the table put the lamp on a high and stood up to one another the moment i looked him in the face i mischief he had a gleam of settled malice in his eye i believe it was my refusal to back his paper which was running in his head anyway he looked as dangerous as he could look with his face sunk forward a little his hands down near his for his like everything else about him is and his jaw set like a rat trap i led off and then in he came with both hands and like a pig at every blow from what i could see of him he was no at all but just a formidable	4
rough and the letters tumble i was guarding with both hands for half a minute and then was rushed clean oflf my legs and up against the door with my head nearly through one of the he wouldn t stop then though he saw that i had no space to get my elbows back and he let fly a right which would have put me into the hall if i hadn t slipped it and got back to the middle of the room look here said i there s not much about this game yes i hit pretty hard don t i if you come into me like that i m bound to hit you out again i said i want to play light if you ll let me the words were not out of my mouth before he was on me like a flash i slipped him again but the room was so small and he as active as a cat that there was no getting away from him he was on me once more with a regular rush that knocked me off my balance before i knew where i was he got his left on the mark and his right on my ear i tripped over a and then before i could get my balance he had me on the same ear the letters again and my head was singing like a he was as pleased as possible with himself blowing out his chest and it with his palms as he took his place in the middle of the room say when youve had enough said he this was pretty stiff considering that i had two inches the better of him in height and as many stone in weight besides being the better his energy and the size of the room had been against me so far but he wasn t to have all the to himself in the next round if i could help it in he came with one of his rushes but i was on the look out for him this time i landed him with my left a regular nose as he came and then under his left i got him a cross counter on the jaw that laid him flat across his own he was up in an instant with a face like a madman you swine he shouted take those gloves off and put your hands up he was at his own to get them the letters go on you silly ass said i what is there to fight about he was mad with passion and his gloves down under the table by god he cried if you don t take those gloves fu go for you whether you have them on or not have a glass of water said i he made a crack at me you re afraid of me that s what s the matter with you he this was getting too hot i saw all the folly of the thing i believed that i might whip him but at the same time i knew that we were so much of a match that we would both get pretty badly cut up without any possible object to serve for all that i took my gloves off and i think perhaps it was the wisest course after all if once thought he had the of you you might be sorry for it afterwards but as fate would have it our little was in the bud mrs came into the room at that instant and screamed out when she saw her husband his nose was the letters bleeding and his chin was all with blood so that i don t wonder that it gave her a turn james she screamed and then to me what is the meaning of this mr you should have seen the hatred in her dove s eyes i felt an insane impulse to pick her up and kiss her we ve only been having a little mrs said i your husband was complaining that he never got any exercise it s all right said he pulling his coat on again don t be a little stupid are the servants gone to bed well you might bring some water in a basin from the kitchen sit down and light your pipe again i have a hundred things that i want to talk to you about so that was the end of it and all went smoothly for the rest of the evening but for all that the little wife will always look upon me as a brute and a bully while as to well it s rather difficult to say what thinks about the matter when i woke next morning he was in my the letters room and a funny looking object he was his dressing gown lay on a chair and he was putting up a fifty six pound dumb bell without a rag to cover him nature didn t give him a very face nor the sweetest of but he has a figure like a greek statue i was amused to see that both his eyes had a touch of shadow to them it was his turn to grin when i sat up and found that my ear was about the shape and of a however he was all for peace that morning and away in the most amiable manner possible i was to go back to my father s that day but i had a couple of hours with in his consulting room before i left he was in his best form and full of a hundred fantastic schemes by which i was to help him his great object was to get his name into the newspapers that was the basis of all success according to his views it seemed to me that he was cause with effect but i did not argue the point i laughed until my sides ached over	4
the grotesque suggestions which poured from him i was to lie senseless in the and to be carried into him by a the letters crowd while the footman ran with a paragraph to the newspapers but there was the that the crowd might carry me in to the rival opposite in various i was to fits at his very door and so furnish fresh copy for the local press then i was to die absolutely to and all scotland was to with how dr of had me his ingenious brain rang a thousand changes out of the idea and his own impending was crowded right out of his thoughts by the flood of half serious devices but the thing that took the fun out of him and made him his teeth and stride cursing about the room was to see a patient walking up the steps which led to the door of his opposite neighbour had a fairly busy practice and received his people at home from ten to twelve so that i got quite used to seeing fly out of his chair and rush to the window he would the cases too and estimate their money value until he was hardly articulate there you are he would suddenly yell see that man with a limp every morning he i the letters goes and a three months job the man s worth thirty five shillings a week and there tm hanged if the woman with the isn t round in her bath chair again she s all and it s simply sickening to see how they crowd to that man and such a man you haven t seen him all the better for you i don t know what the devil you are laughing at i can t see where the fun comes in myself well it was a short experience that visit to but i think that i shall remember it all my life goodness knows you must be sick enough of the subject but when i started with so much detail i was tempted to go it ended by my going back again in the afternoon assuring me that he would call his together as i had advised and that he would let me know the result in a few days mrs c would hardly shake hands with me when i said but i like her the better for that he must have a great deal of good in him or he could not have won her love and confidence so completely perhaps there is another behind the scenes a softer man who can love and the letters invite love if there is i have never got near him and yet i may only have been tapping at the shell who knows for that matter it is likely enough that he has never got at the real but you have and i think that you ve had a little too much of him this time only you encourage me to this sort of excess by your sympathetic replies well done as much as the general post office will carry for so i ll conclude by merely remarking that a fortnight has passed and that i have had no news from which does not in the very slightest degree surprise me if i ever do hear anything which is exceedingly doubtful you may be sure that i will put a finish to this long story iii home i th october j j without any figure of speech i feel quite ashamed when i think of you i send you one or two long letters as far as i can remember them with all sorts of useless detail then in spite of your kindly answers and your sympathy which i have done so little to deserve i drop you completely for more than six months by this j pen i swear that it shall not happen again and this letter may serve to bridge the gap and to bring you up to date in my poor affairs in which of all outer mankind you alone take an interest to commence with what is of most moment you may rest assured that what you said in your last letter about religion has had my most earnest attention i am sorry that i have not got it by me to refer to i lent it to but i think i have the contents in my head it is notorious as the letters you say that an may be as as any of the and that a man may be very in his opposition to such men are the real enemies of free thought if anything could persuade me to turn traitor to my reason it would for example be the and foolish pictures displayed in some of the journals but every movement has its crowd of camp followers who and scatter we are like a bright at the head but away into mere gas behind however every man may speak for himself arid i do not feel that your charge comes home to me i am only against and that i hold to be as legitimate as violence to the violent when one considers what effect the of the religious instinct has had during the history of the world the bitter wars christian and catholic and the the the domestic the petty with all equally blood guilty one cannot but be amazed that the voice of mankind has not placed at the very head of the deadly sins it is surely a to say that neither the letters nor the plague have brought the same misery upon mankind i cannot be my dear boy when i say from the bottom of my heart that i respect every good catholic and every good and that i recognise that each of these forms of faith has been a powerful instrument in the hands of that inscrutable providence which rules all	4
fact i have come to in his existence and to look upon the word as a mere term of reproach it may represent a temporary condition a passing mental phase a defiant reaction against an ideal but i cannot conceive that any man can continue to survey nature and to deny that there are laws at work which display intelligence and power the very existence of a world carries with it the proof of a world maker as the table the pre existence of the carpenter this one may form what conception one will of that maker but one cannot be an wisdom and power and means directed to an end run all through the scheme of nature the letters what proof do we want then from a book if the man who the stars and considers that they and their innumerable move in their serene dignity through the heavens each swinging clear of the other s if i say the man who sees this cannot the creator s attributes without the help of the book of job then his view of things is beyond my understanding nor is it only in the large things that we see the ever present solicitude of some intelligent force nothing is too tiny for that care we see the minute of the insect carefully adjusted to fit into the of the flower the most hair and each with its definite function to perform what matter whether these came by special creation or by we know as a matter of fact that they came by but that only the law it does not explain it but if this power has cared for the bee so as to furnish it with its honey bag and its collecting and for the lowly seed so as to have a thousand devices by which it reaches a congenial soil then is it conceivable that we the letters the highest product of all are overlooked it is not conceivable the idea is inconsistent with the scheme of creation as we see it i say again that no faith is needed to attain the certainty of a most watchful providence and with this certainty surely we have all that is necessary for an religion come what may after death our duties lie clearly defined before us in this life and the standard of all so far that there is not likely to be any difference of opinion as to that the last the coming one will and when the world is ripe for it another will come and that the ever improving brain will give us an ever creed is it not glorious to think that is still living and acting that if we have an as an we may have for our posterity well i really never intended to inflict all this upon you i thought i could have made my position clear in a page or so but you can see how one point has brought up another even now i am leaving so much i can see with the letters such certainty exactly what you will say if you a good providence from the good things in nature what do you make of the evil that s what you will say suffice it that i am inclined to deny the existence of evil not another word will i say upon the subject but if you come back to it yourself then be it on your own head you remember that when i wrote last i had just returned from visiting the at and that he had promised to let me know what steps he took in his as i expected i have not had one word from him since but in a way i did get some news as to what happened from this account which was second hand and may have been exaggerated did exactly what i had recommended and calling all his together he made them a long statement as to his position the good people were so touched by the picture that he drew of a worthy man fighting against that several of them wept and there was not only complete as to letting their bills stand over but even some talk of collection then and there to help the letters on his way he has i understand left but no one has any idea what has become of him it is generally supposed that he has gone to england he is a strange fellow but i wish him luck wherever he goes when i came back i settled down once more to the routine of my father s practice holding on there until something may turn up and for six months i have had to wait a weary six months they have been you see i cannot ask my father for money or at least i cannot bring myself to take an unnecessary penny of his money for i know how hard a fight it is with him to keep the roof over our heads and pay for the modest little horse and trap which are as necessary to his trade as a goose is to a tailor foul fare the grasping who a couple of guineas from us on the plea that it is a luxury we can just hold on and i would not have him a pound the poorer for me but you can understand that it is humiliating for a man of my age to have to go about without any money in my pocket it affects me in so many petty ways a poor man may do me a kindness and i have to seem mean in his eyes i may want a flower for a girl and must be the letters content to appear i don t know why i should be ashamed of this since it is no fault of mine and i hope that i don t show it to any	4
one else that i am ashamed of it but to you my dear i don t mind that it hurts my self respect terribly i have often wondered why some of those writing fellows don t try their hands at drawing the inner life of a young man from about the age of until he begins to find his feet a little men are very fond of the feelings of their which they cannot possibly know anything about while they have little to say of the inner development of their heroes which is an experience which they have themselves undergone i should like to try it myself but it would need with fiction and i never had a spark of imagination but i have a vivid recollection of what i went through myself at the time i thought as everybody thinks that it was a unique experience but since i have heard the confidences of my father s i am convinced that it is the common lot the shrinking horrible shyness with occasional absurd fits of audacity which represent the reaction against the letters it the longing for close friendship the agonies over imaginary the extraordinary doubts the deadly fears caused by non diseases the vague emotion produced by all women and the half frightened thrill by particular ones the caused by fear of being afraid the sudden the profound i dare bet that you have felt every one of them just as i have and that the first lad of eighteen whom you see out of your window is from them now this is all a however from the fact that i have been six months at home and am weary of it and pleased at the new development of which i shall have to tell you the practice here although is very busy with its three and visits and guinea so that both the governor and i have had plenty to do you know how i admire him and yet i fear there is little intellectual sympathy between us he appears to think that those opinions of mine upon religion and politics which come hot from my inmost soul have been assumed either out of indifference or so i have ceased to talk on vital subjects with him and though we the letters affect to it we both know that there is a barrier there now with my mother ah but my mother must have a paragraph to herself you met her you must remember her sweet face her sensitive mouth her peering short sighted eyes her general suggestion of a plump little hen who is still on the alert about her chickens but you cannot all that she is to me in our domestic life those fingers that sympathetic brain ever since i can remember her she has been the mixture of the and the woman of letters with the spirited lady as a basis for either character always a lady whether she was with the butcher or breaking in a or stirring the which i can see her doing with the stick in one hand and the other holding her des within two inches of her dear nose that was always her favourite reading and i can never think of her without the association of its yellow cover she is a very well read woman is the mother she keeps up to date in french literature as well as in english and can talk by the hour about the the letters and and yet she is always hard at work and how she all her knowledge is a mystery she reads when she she reads when she she even reads w hen she her babies we have a little joke against her that at an interesting passage she deposited a of and milk into my little sister s ear hole the child having turned her head at the critical instant her hands are worn with work and yet where is the idle woman who has read as much then there is her family pride that is a very vital portion of the mother you know how little i think of such things if the were to be once and for ever from the tail of my name i should be the lighter for it but ma foil to use her own favourite it would not do to say this to her on the side she is a the family can boast of some fairly good men i mean on the direct line but when we get on the side branches there is not a monarch upon earth who does not on that huge family tree not once nor twice but thrice did the with us the of our alliance and the o the letters of themselves with our whole illustrious record so in my boyhood she would the matter with in one hand and a glove full of in the other while i would sit swinging my legs swelling with pride until my waistcoat was as tight as a skin as i contemplated the gulf which separated me from all other little boys who their legs upon tables to this day if i chance to do anything of which she strongly the dear heart can say no more than that i am a thorough while if i fall away from the straight path she says with a sigh that there are points in which i take after the she is broad minded and intensely practical in her ordinary moods though open to attacks of romance i can recollect her coming to see me at a through which my train passed with a six months absence on either side of the incident we had five minutes conversation my head out of the carriage window wear flannel next your skin my dear boy and never believe in eternal punishment was her last item of advice as we rolled out of the station	4
the letters l then to finish her portrait i need not tell you who have seen her that she is young looking and comely to be the mother of about thirty five feet of humanity she was in the railway carriage and i on the platform the other day your husband had better get in or we ll go without him said the guard as we went off the mother was furiously in her pocket and i know that she was looking for a shilling ah what a gossip i have been and all to lead up to the one sentence that could not have stayed at home this six months if it had not been for the company and the sympathy of my mother well now i want to tell you about the scrape that i got myself into i suppose that i ought to pull a long face over it but for the life of me i can t help laughing i have you almost up to date in my history now for what i am going to tell you happened only last week i must mention no names here even to you for the curse of which eight and forty minor be upon the head of the man who kisses and tells you must know then that within the bound the letters of this city there are two ladies a mother and a daughter whom i shall call mrs and miss they are of the governor s and have become to some extent friends of the family madame is charming in appearance dignified in her manners and high church in her convictions the daughter is rather taller than the mother but otherwise they are strikingly alike the mother is and the daughter eighteen both are exceedingly charming had i to choose between them i think that the mother would have attracted me most for i am thoroughly of s opinion as to the woman of thirty however fate was to will it otherwise it was the coming home from a dance which first brought and me together you know how easily and suddenly these things happen beginning in playful and ending in something a little warmer than friendship you squeeze the slender arm which is passed through yours you venture to take the little hand you say good night at absurd length in the shadow of the door it is innocent and very i interesting love trying his wings in a first little the letters flutter he will keep his sustained flight later on the better for the practice there was never any question of engagements between us nor any suggestion of harm she knew that i was a poor devil with neither means nor prospects and i knew that her mother s will was her law and that her course was already marked out for her however we exchanged our little confidences and met occasionally by appointment and tried to make our lives brighter without darkening those of any one else i can see you shake your head here and growl like the comfortable married man that you are that such relations are very dangerous so they are my boy but neither of us cared she out of innocence and i out of for from the beginning all the fault in the matter was mine well matters were in this state when one day last week a note came up to the saying that mrs servant was ill and would he come at once the old man had a touch of so i my professional coat and forth thinking that perhaps i might combine pleasure with business and have a few words with sure enough as i passed the letters up the gravel drive which curves round to the door i glanced through the drawing room window and saw her sitting painting with her back to the light it was clear that she had not heard me the hall door was and when i pushed it open no one was in the hall a sudden fit of came over me pushed the drawing room door very slowly wider crept in on stole quietly across and bending down i kissed the artist upon the of her neck she turned round with a and it was the mother i don t know whether you have ever been in a corner than that it was quite tight enough for me i remember that i smiled as i stole across the carpet on that insane venture i did not smile again that evening it makes me hot now when i think of it well i made the most dreadful fool of myself at first the good lady who as i think i told you is very dignified and rather reserved could not believe her senses then as the full force of my came upon her she reared herself up until she seemed the and the the letters woman i had ever seen it was an interview with a she asked me what i had ever observed in her conduct which had encouraged me to subject her to such an outrage i saw of course that any excuses upon my part would put her on the right track and give poor away so i stood with my hair and my top hat in my hand presenting i am sure a most extraordinary figure indeed she looked rather funny herself with her in one hand her brush in the other and the blank astonishment on her face i stammered out something about hoping that she did not mind which made her more angry than ever the only possible excuse for your conduct sir is that you are under the influence of drink said she i need not say that we do not require the services of a medical man in that condition i did not try to her of the idea for really i could see no better explanation so i beat	4
a retreat in a very condition she wrote a letter to my father about it in the evening and the old man was very angry indeed as to the mother she is as as steel and quite prepared to the letters prove that poor mrs a was a very deep person who had laid a trap for innocent so there has been a grand row and not a soul upon earth has the least idea of what it all means except only yourself as you read this letter you can imagine that this has not contributed to make life here more pleasant for my father cannot bring himself to forgive me of course i don t wonder at his anger i should be just the same myself it does look like a shocking breach of professional honour and a sad disregard of his interests if he knew the truth he would see that it was nothing w than a silly ill timed boyish joke however he never shall know the truth and now there is some chance of my getting something to do we had a letter to night from the writers to the saying that they desire an interview with me in view of a possible appointment we can t imagine what it means but i am full of hopes i go to morrow morning to see them and i shall t you know the result the letters good bye my dear your life flows in a steady stream and mine in a broken torrent yet i would have every detail of what happens to you iv home ist december i may be doing you an injustice but it seemed to me in your last that there were indications that the free expression of my religious views had been distasteful to you that you should with me i am prepared for but that you should object to free and honest discussion of those subjects which above all others men should be honest over would i confess be a disappointment the is placed at this disadvantage in ordinary society that whereas it would be considered very bad taste upon his part to his opinion no such consideration those with whom he there was a time when it took a brave man to be a christian now it takes a brave man not to be but if we are to wear a and hide our thoughts when writing in confidence to our most intimate no but i f the letters won t believe it you and i have put up too many thoughts together and chased them they would double so just write to me like a good fellow and tell me that i am an ass until i have that comforting assurance i shall place a upon everything which could be offensive to you does not strike you as being a very thing it is a disease of the soul to think that you may have a man of noble mind full of every lofty and that a gross physical cause such as the fall of a of bone from the inner table of his skull on to the surface of the which covers his brain may have the ultimate effect of turning him into an creature with every attribute that a man s individuality should swing round from pole to pole and yet that one life should contain these two contradictory is it not a wondrous thing i ask myself where is the man the very very inmost essence of the man see how much you may from him without touching it it does not lie in the limbs which serve him as tools nor in the apparatus by which he the letters is to nor in that by which he is to all these are mere the slaves of the lord within where then is he he does not lie in the features which are to express his emotions nor in the eyes and ears which can be with by the blind and deaf nor is he in the bony which is the rack over which nature hangs her veil of flesh in none of these things lies the essence of the man and now what is left an arched like mass some fifty odd in weight with a number of white hanging down from it looking not unlike the which float in our summer seas but these only serve to conduct nerve force to muscles and to organs which serve secondary purposes they may themselves therefore be disregarded nor can we top here in our this central mass of nervous matter may be down on all sides before we seem to get at the very seat of the soul have shot away the front of the brain and have lived to repent it have cut down upon it and have removed sections much of it is merely for the the letters purpose of furnishing the springs of motion and much for the reception of impressions all this may be put aside as we search for the physical seat of what we call the soul the spiritual part of the man and what is left then a little of matter a handful of nervous a few of but there somewhere there that seed to which the rest of our frame is but the the old philosophers who put the soul in the were not right but after all they were uncommonly near the mark you ll find my even worse than my i have a way of telling stories backwards to you which is natural enough when you consider that i always sit down to write under the influence of the last impressions which have come upon me all this talk about the soul and the brain arises simply from the fact that i have been spending the last few weeks with a lunatic and how it came about i will tell you as	4
a great gray house with two towers out above the fir woods like a hare s ears from a of grass as we drove up to the door i felt pretty solemn not at all as the main line should do when it to visit the branch into the hall as i entered came a grave learned looking man with whom in my i was about to shake hands cordially fortunately he the impending embrace by explaining that he was the butler he showed me into a small study where everything of and leather there to await the great man he proved when he came to be a much less formidable figure than his indeed i felt thoroughly at my ease with him from the moment he opened his mouth he is red faced sharp with a and yet benevolent expression very human and just a trifle vulgar his wife however to whom i was afterwards introduced is a most person pale cold faced with drooping eyelids and very prominent blue veins at her temples she me up again just as i was out under the influence of her husband however the thing that interested me most of all was to the letters see my patient to whose room i was taken by lord after we had had a cup of tea the room was a large bare one at the end of a long corridor near the door was seated a footman placed there to fill up the gap between two doctors and looking considerably relieved at my advent over by the window which was furnished with a wooden guard like that of a nursery sat a tall yellow haired yellow bearded young man who raised a pair of startled blue eyes as we entered he was turning over the pages of a bound copy of the illustrated london news james said lord this is dr who has come to look after you my patient something in his beard which seemed to me suspiciously like damn dr the peer evidently thought the same for he led me aside by the elbow i don t know whether you have been told that james is a little rough in his ways at present said he his whole nature has very much since this calamity came upon him you must not be offended by anything he may say or do not in the least said i there is a taint of this sort upon my wife s the letters side whispered the little lord her uncle s symptoms were identical dr says that the was only the cause the was already there i may tell you that the footman will always be in the next room so that you can call him if you need his assistance well it ended by lord and moving off and leaving me with my patient i thought that i should lose no time in establishing a kindly relation with him so i drew a chair over to his sofa and began to ask him a few questions about his health and habits not a word could i get out of him in reply he sat as sullen as a mule with a kind of sneer about his handsome face which showed me very well that he had heard everything i tried this and tried that but not a syllable could i get from him so at last i turned from him and began to look over some illustrated papers on the table he doesn t read it seems and will do nothing but look at pictures well i was sitting like this with my back half turned when you can imagine my surprise to feel something gently at me and to see a great i the letters brown hand trying to slip its way into my coat pocket i caught at the wrist and turned swiftly round but too late to prevent my handkerchief being out and concealed behind the hon james who sat grinning at me like a mischievous monkey come i may want that said i trying to treat the matter as a joke he used some language which was more than religious i saw that he did not mean giving it up but i was determined not to let him get the upper hand over me i for the handkerchief and he with a caught my hand in both of his he had a powerful grip but i managed to get his wrist and to give it a round until with a howl he dropped my property what fun said i pretending to laugh let us try again now you take it up and see if i can get it again but he had had enough of that game yet he appeared to be better humoured than before the incident and i got a few short answers to the questions which i put to him and here comes in the text which started me preaching the letters about at the beginning of this letter what a marvellous thing it is this man from all i can learn of him has suddenly swung clean over from one extreme of character to the other every has in an instant become a he s another man but in the same case i am told that he used to be only a few months ago mind you most fastidious in dress and speech now he is a foul rough he had a nice taste in literature now he at you if you speak of shakespeare of all he used to be a very high and dry tory in his opinions he is fond now of the most views and in a offensive way when i did get on terms with him at last i found that there was nothing on which he could be drawn on to talk so soon as on politics in substance i am bound to say that i think his	4
new views are probably than his old ones but the insanity lies in his sudden change and in his violent of speech it was some weeks however before i gained his confidence so far as to be able to hold a real conversation with him for a long time he the letters was very sullen and suspicious the constant watch which i kept upon him this could not be relaxed for he was full of the most tricks one day he got hold of my tobacco and stuffed two of my tobacco into the long barrel of an eastern gun which hangs on the wall he it all down with the and i was never able to get it up again another time he threw an through the window and would have sent the clock after it had i not prevented him every day i took him for a two hours constitutional save when it rained and then we walked for the same space up and down the room but it was a deadly dreary kind of life i was supposed to have my eye upon him all day with a two hour interval every afternoon and an evening to myself upon but then what was the use of an evening to myself when there was no town near and i had no friends whom i could visit i did a fair amount of reading for lord let me have the run of his library gave me a couple of weeks you know the the letters effect that he produces you seem to be serenely floating upon a cloud and looking down on all these armies and with a wise ever at your side to whisper to you the inner meaning of all that majestic now and again young introduced some excitement into my dull life on one occasion when we were walking in the grounds he suddenly snatched up a from a and rushed at an under gardener the man ran screaming for his life with my patient cursing at his very heels and me within a few paces of him when i at last laid my hand on his collar he threw down his weapon and burst into shrieks of laughter it was only mischief and not ferocity but when that under gardener saw us coming after that he was off with a face like a cream cheese at night the attendant slept in a camp bed at the foot of the patient s and my room was next door so that i could be called if necessary no it was not a very life we used to go down to family meals when there were no visitors and there we made a the letters curious as he wished me to call him and silent i with the tail of my eye always twisted round to him lady with her eyelids and her blue veins and the good natured peer and genial but always rather subdued in the presence of his wife she looked as if a glass of good wine would do her good and he as if he would be the better for and so in accordance with the usual of life he drank freely and she took nothing but and water you cannot imagine a more ignorant narrow minded woman than she if she had only been content to be silent and hidden that small brain of hers it would not have mattered but there was no end to her bitter and what was she after all but a thin pipe for conveying disease from one generation to another she was bounded by insanity upon the north and upon the south i resolutely set myself to avoid all argument with her but she knew with her woman s instinct that we were as far apart as the poles and took a pleasure in waving the red flag before me one day she was the letters eloquent as to the crime of a minister of an church performing any service in a chapel some neighbouring minister had done it it seems and if he had been marked down in a pot house she could not have spoken with greater i suppose that my eyes were less under control than my tongue for she suddenly turned upon me with i see that you don t agree with me dr i replied quietly that i did not and tried to change the conversation but she was not to be shaken off why not may i ask i explained that in my opinion the tendency of the age was to break down those ridiculous points which are so useless and which have for so long set people by the ears i added that i hoped the time was soon coming when good men of all would throw this lumber overboard and join hands together she half rose almost speechless with indignation i presume said she that you are one of the letters those people who would separate the church from the state most certainly i answered she stood erect in a kind of cold fury and swept out of the room began to chuckle and his father looked perplexed i am sorry that my opinions are to lady i remarked yes yes it s a pity a pity said he well well we must say what we think but it s a pity you think it a very great pity i quite expected to get my dismissal over this business and indeed indirectly i may say that i did so from that day lady was as rude to me as she could be and never lost an opportunity of making attacks upon what she imagined to be my opinions of these i never took the slightest notice but at last on an evil day she went for me point blank so that there was no getting away from her it was just at the end of lunch when	4
the footman had left the room she had been talking about lord s going up to london to vote upon some question in the house of lords perhaps dr said she turning the letters upon me that is also an institution which has not been fortunate enough to win your approval it is a question lady which i should much prefer not to discuss i answered oh you might just as well have the courage of your convictions said she since you desire to the national church it is natural enough that you should wish also to break up the constitution i have heard that an is always a red republican lord rose wishing i have no doubt to put an end to the conversation and i rose also and suddenly i saw that instead of moving towards the door he was going to his mother knowing his little tricks i passed my hand under his arm and tried to steer him away she noticed it however and interfered did you wish to speak to me james i want to whisper in your ear mother pray don t excite yourself sir said i again attempting to detain him lady arched her aristocratic eyebrows i think dr that you push your the letters authority rather far when you venture to interfere between a mother and her son said she what was it my poor dear boy bent down and whispered something in her ear the blood rushed into her pale face and she sprang from him as if he had struck her began to this is your doing dr she cried furiously you have my son s mind and encouraged him to insult his mother my dear my dear said her husband soothingly and i quietly led the upstairs i asked him what it was that he had said to his mother but got only in reply i had a that i should hear more of the matter and i was not wrong lord called me into his study in the evening the fact is doctor said he that lady has been extremely annoyed and grieved about what occurred at lunch to day of course you can imagine that such an expression coming from her own son shocked her more than i can tell the letters i assure you lord said i that i have no idea at all what passed between lady and my patient well said he without going into details i may say that what he whispered was a most expressed as to the future of that upper house to which i have the honor to belong i am very sorry said i and i assure you that i have never encouraged him in his extreme political views which seem to me to be symptoms of his disease i am quite convinced that what you say is true he answered but lady is unhappily of the opinion that you have these ideas into him you know that it is a little difficult sometimes to reason with a lady however i have no doubt that all may be smoothed over if you would see lady and assure her that she has misunderstood your views upon this point and that you are personally a of a hereditary chamber it put me in a tight corner but my mind was instantly made up from the first go the letters word i had read my dismissal in every uneasy glance of his little eyes i am afraid said i that that is rather further than i am prepared to go i think that since there has been for some weeks a certain between lady and myself it would perhaps be as well that i should resign the post which i hold in your household i shall be happy however to remain here until you have found some one to take over my duties well i am sorry it has come to this and yet it may be that you are right said he with an expression of relief as to james there need be no difficulty about that for dr could come in to morrow morning then to morrow morning let it be i answered very good dr i will see that you have your before you go so there was the end of all my fine dreams about aristocratic and wonderful i believe the only person in the whole house who regretted me was who was quite downcast at the news his grief the letters however did not prevent him from brushing my new top hat the wrong way on the morning that i left i did not notice it until i reached the station and a most object i must have looked when i took my departure so ends the history of a failure i am as you know inclined to and do not believe that such a thing as chance exists so i am bound to think that this experience was given to me for some end it was a preliminary for the big race perhaps my mother was disappointed but tried to show it as little as possible my father was a little over the matter i fear that the gap between us by the way an extraordinary card arrived from during my absence you are my man said he mind that i am to have you when i want you there was no date and no address but the was in the north of england does it mean nothing or may it mean everything we must wait and see good bye old man let me hear equally fully about your own affairs how did the business go v on the th march i was so delighted my dear chap to have your assurance that nothing that i have said or could say upon the subject of religion could you it is difficult to tell you how pleased and relieved i was at your cordial letter i	4
have no one to whom i can talk upon such matters i am all driven and thought turns sour when one lets it like that it is a grand thing to be able to tell it all to a sympathetic listener and the more so perhaps when he looks at it all from another it and one those whom i love best are those who have least sympathy with my struggles they talk about having faith as if it could be done by an act of they might as well tell me to have hair instead of red i might it refusing to use my reason at all in the letters matters but i will never be traitor to the highest thing that god has given me i will use it it is more moral to use it and go wrong than to forego it and be right it is only a little and i have to measure mount with it but it s all i have and til never give it up while there s breath between my lips with all respect to you it is very to be a man who wanted mental peace and material advancement in this world would certainly choose to be so as smiles says a dead fish can float with the stream but it takes a man to swim against it what could be more noble than the start and the of christianity how beautiful the upward struggle of an idea like some sweet flower out amongst and but alas to say that this idea was a final idea that this scheme of thought was above the reason that this gentle philosopher was that supreme intelligence to which we cannot even imagine a personality without all this will come to rank with the strangest of mankind and then how clouded has become that fine daybreak of christianity its representatives have risen from the to the palace the letters from the fishing to the house of lords nor is that other old in the with his art treasures his guards and his of wine in a more logical position they are all good and men and in the market of brains are worth perhaps as much as they get but how can they bring themselves to pose as the representatives of a creed which as they themselves it is based upon humility poverty and not one of them who would not quote with approval the of the wedding guest but try putting one of them out of their due at the next court reception it happened some little time ago with a cardinal and england rang with his how blind not to see how they would spring at one leap into the real first place if they would but resolutely claim the last as the special of their master what can we know what are we all poor silly half things peering out at the infinite with the aspirations of angels and the instincts of beasts but surely all will be well with us if not then he who made us is evil which is not to be thought surely then all must go very well with us the letters i feel ashamed when i read this over my mind fills in all the trains of thought of which you have the rude ends peeping out from this make what you can of it dear and believe that it all comes from my heart above all may i be kept from becoming a and with truth in order to sustain a case let me but get a hand on her skirt and she may drag me where she will if she will but turn her face from time to time that i may know her you ll see from the address of this letter that i have left scotland and am in i have been here three months and am now on the eve of leaving under the strangest circumstances and with the prospects good old has turned out a as i always knew he would but as usual i am beginning at the wrong end so here goes to give you an idea of what has been happening i told you in my last about my adventure and my return from castle when i had settled for the flannel which my mother had ordered so i had only five pounds left out of my pay with this g the letters as it was the first money that i had ever earned im my life i bought her a gold so behold me reduced at once to my usual empty condition well it was something just to feel that i liad earned money it gave me an assurance that i might again i had not been at home more than a few days when my father called me into the study after breakfast one morning and spoke very seriously as to our financial position he began the interview by his waistcoat and asking me to listen at his fifth space two inches from the left line i did so and was shocked to hear a well marked murmur it is of old standing said he but of late i have had a about the ankles and some symptoms which show me that it is beginning to tell i tried to express my grief and sympathy but he cut me short with some the point is said he that no office would accept my life and that i have been unable owing to competition and increased expenses to lay anything by if i die soon which the letters between ourselves is by no means improbable i must leave to your care your mother and the children my practice is so entirely a personal one that i cannot hope to be able to hand over to you enough to afford a living i thought of s advice about going where you are least	4
known i think said i that my chances would be better away from here then you must lose no time in establishing yourself said he your position would be one of great responsibility if anything were to happen to me just now i had hoped that you had found an excellent opening with the but i fear that you can hardly expect to get on in the world my boy if you insult your employer s religious and political view at his own table it wasn t a time to argue so i said nothing my father took a copy of the out of his desk and turned up an advertisement which he had marked with a blue pencil read this said he got it before me as i write it runs thus qualified assistant wanted at once in a large country and practice thorough i g the letters edge of and indispensable ride and drive jo sl year apply dr on the there might be an opening there said he i know and i am convinced that i can get you the appointment it would at least give you the opportunity of looking round and seeing whether there was any there how do you think it would suit you of course i could only answer that i was willing to turn my hand to anything but that interview has left a mark upon me a heavy gloom away at the back of my soul which i am conscious of even when the cause of it has for a moment gone out of my thoughts i had enough to make a man serious before when i had to face the world without money or interest but now to think of the mother and my sisters and little paul all leaning upon me when i cannot stand myself it is a nightmare could there be anything more dreadful in life than to have those whom you love looking to you for help and to be unable to give it but perhaps it won t come to that perhaps my father may hold his own for years come what may i am bound to the letters think that all things are ordered for the best though when the good is a and we with our eyes can only see three inches it takes some confidence in general principles to pull us through well it was all fixed up and down i came to i wasn t in the best of spirits when i started but they went down and down as i my destination how people can dwell in such places passes my comprehension what can life offer them to make up for these of the face of nature no woods little grass chimneys streams sloping of and by the great wheels and of the mines strewn paths black as though stained by the weary who toil along them lead through the fields to the rows of smoke stained cottages how can any young unmarried man accept such a lot while there s an empty in the navy or a berth in a merchant how many shillings a week is the breath of the ocean worth it seems to me that if i were a poor man well upon my word that if is rather i the letters funny when i think that many of the in those smoky cottages have twice my salary with half my expenses well as i said my spirits sank lower and lower until they got down into the when on looking through the gathering gloom i saw printed on the lamps of a dreary dismal station i got out and was standing beside my trunk and my hat box waiting for a porter when up came a cheery looking fellow and asked me whether i was dr tm said he and shook hands cordially in that melancholy place the sight of him was like a fire on a frosty night he was gaily dressed in the first place check trousers white waistcoat a flower in his button hole but the look of the man was very much to my heart he was ruddy and black eyed with a jolly stout figure and an honest genial smile i felt as we hands in the station that i had met a man and a friend his carriage was waiting and we drove out to his residence the where i was speedily introduced both to his family and his the letters loi practice the former is small and the latter enormous the wife is dead but her mother mrs white keeps house for him and there are two dear little girls about five and seven then there is an assistant a young irish student who with the three maids the coachman and the stable boy make up the whole establishment when i tell you that we give four horses quite as much as they can do you will have an idea of the ground we cover the house a large square brick one standing in its own grounds is built on a small hill in an of green fields beyond this however on every side the veil of smoke hangs over the country with the mine and the chimneys out of it it would be a dreadful place for an idle man but we are all so busy that we have hardly time to think whether there s a view or not day and night we are at work and yet the three months have been very pleasant ones to look back upon ru give you an idea of what a day s work is like we breakfast about nine o clock and i the letters immediately afterwards the morning begin to drop in many of them are very poor people belonging to the clubs the principle of which is that the members pay a little over a a week all the year round well	4
profession in the abstract and so rather hurt your dignity they will be as and true as possible to yourself if you can win their respect i like the grip of their greasy and blackened hands another peculiarity of the district is that many of the and owners have risen from the workmen and have in some cases at least retained their old manners and even their old dress the other day mrs white s mother in law had a violent sick headache and as we are all very fond of the kind old lady we were trying to keep things as quiet as possible down stairs suddenly there came a bang bang bang at the and then in an instant another rattling series of as if a donkey were trying to kick in the after all our efforts for silence it was i rushed to the door to find a looking person just raising his hand to commence a fresh what on earth s the matter i asked only i may have been a little more emphatic pain in the jaw said he you needn t make such a noise said i other people are ill besides you if i pay my money young man i ll make such noise as i like and i the letters actually in cold blood he commenced a fresh assault upon the door he would have gone on with his devil s all morning if i had not led him down the path and seen him off the premises an hour afterwards whirled into the with a trail of doors behind him what s this about mr he asked he says that you were violent towards him there was a club patient here who kept on the said i i was afraid that he would disturb mrs white and so i made him stop s eyes began to twinkle my boy said he that club patient as you call him is the richest man in and worth a hundred a year to me i have no doubt that he appeased him by some tale of my disgrace and degradation but i have not heard anything of the matter since it has been good for me to be here it has brought me in close contact with the working classes and made me what fine people they are because one goes home howling on a saturday night we are too apt to overlook the ninety nine decent folk by their own i shall not make that mistake any more the letters the of the poor to the poor makes a man sick of himself and their sweet patience depend upon it if ever there is a popular rising the wrongs which lead to it must be monstrous and i think the of the french revolution are dreadful enough in themselves but much more so as an index to the slow centuries of misery against which they were a mad protest and then the wisdom of the poor it is amusing to read the newspaper man writing about the ignorance of the masses they don t know the date of or whom john of gaunt married but put a practical up problem before them and see how they take the right side didn t they put the reform bill through in the teeth of the opposition of the majority of the so called educated classes didn t they back the north against the south when nearly all our leaders went wrong when universal and the of the liquor traffic comes is it not sure to be from the pressure of these humble folks they look at life with clearer and more unselfish eyes it s an i think that to a nation s wisdom you must lower its no the letters i often have my doubts if there is such a thing as the existence of evil if we could honestly convince ourselves that there was not it would help us so much in a rational religion but don t let us strain truth even for such an object as that i must confess that there are some forms of vice cruelty for example for which it is hard to find any explanation save indeed that it is a of that warlike ferocity which may once have been of service in helping to protect the community no let me be frank and say that i can t make cruelty fit into my scheme but when you find that other evils which seem at first sight black enough really tend in the long run to the good of mankind it may be hoped that those which continue to puzzle us may at last be found to serve the same end in some fashion which is now inexplicable it seems to me that the study of life by the physician the moral principles of right and wrong but when you look closely it is a question whether that which is a wrong to the present community may not prove to have been a right to the interests of posterity that sounds a little but i will make my the letters m meaning more clear when i say that i think right and wrong are both tools which are being by those great hands which are the of the universe that both are making for improvement but that the action of the one is immediate and that of the other more slow but none the less certain our own distinction of right and wrong is founded too much upon the immediate convenience of the community and does not inquire sufficiently deeply into the ultimate effect i have my own views about nature s methods though i feel that it is rather like a giving his opinions upon the way however they have the merit of being for if we could see that sin served a purpose and a good one it would take some of the blackness out	4
of life it seems to me then that nature still working on the lines of the race in two ways the one is by improving those who are morally strong which is done by increased knowledge and religious views the other and hardly less important is by the killing off and of those who are morally the letters weak this is accomplished by drink and these are really two of the most important forces which work for the ultimate perfection of the race i picture them as two great invisible hands hovering over the garden of life and up the weeds looked at in one s own day one can only see that they produce degradation and misery but at the end of a third generation from then what has happened the line of the and of the physically as well as morally weakened is either extinct or on the way towards it nervous disease have all lent a hand towards the off of that rotten branch and the average of the race is thereby improved i believe from the little that i have seen of life that it is a law which acts with startling swiftness that a majority of never their species at all and that when the curse is hereditary the second generation generally sees the end of it don t me and quote me as saying that it is a good thing for a nation that it should have many nothing of the kind what i say is that if a nation has the letters many morally weak people then it is good that there should be a means for checking those weaker strains nature has her devices and drink is among them when there are no more and it means that the race is so advanced that it no longer needs such rough treatment then the all wise engineer will speed us along in some other fashion i ve been thinking a good deal lately about this question of the uses of evil and of how powerful a tool it is in the hands of the creator last night the whole thing out quite suddenly into a small set of verses please jump them if they bore you with either hand i god s own best will bide the test and god s own worst will fall but best or worst or last or first he it all for all is good if understood ah could we understand and right and ill are tools of skill held in his either hand the letters the and the the martyr and the he fashions each aright its vital part to take wisdom he makes to guide the sap where the high blossoms be and lust to kill the weaker branch and drink to trim the tree and that so the be solid at the core and plague and fever that the whole be changing he the in the the blood in the brain with test and test he the best then them once again he the body and the mind he rings them o er and o er and if they crack he throws them back and fashions them once more the letters he the infant throat with he sets the free he the tiny of lime that blocks the he lets the youthful store great projects in his brain until he drops the that them out again he stores the milk that the babe he the tortured nerve he gives a hundred joys of sense where few or none might serve ii and still he trains the branch of good where the high blossoms be and still the of ill to and his tree so read i this and as i try to write it clear again i feel a second finger lie above mine on the pen il the letters dim are these peering eyes of mine and dark what i have seen but be i wrong the wrong is thine else had it never been i am quite ashamed of having been so but it is fine to think that sin may have an object and work towards good my father says that i seem to look upon the universe as if it were my property and can t be happy until i know that all is right with it well it does send a glow through me when i seem to catch a glimpse of the light behind the clouds and now for my big bit of news which is going to change my whole life whom do you think i had a letter from last tuesday week from no less it had no beginning no end was addressed all wrong and written with a very thick pen upon the back of a how it ever reached me is a wonder this is what he had to say started here in last june colossal success my example must medical practice rapidly making fortune the letters have invention which is worth millions unless our take it up shall make the leading naval power come down by next train on receiving this have plenty for you to do that was the whole of this extraordinary letter it had no name to it which was certainly reasonable enough since no one else could have written it knowing as well as i did i took it with and how could he have made so rapid and complete a success in a town in which he must have been a complete stranger it was incredible and yet there must be some truth in it or he would not invite me to come down and test it on the whole i thought that i had better move very cautiously in the matter for i was happy and snug where i was and kept on putting a little by which i hoped would form a to start me in practice it is only a few pounds up to	4
two wrists don t be alarmed i cried it s and will soon pass glancing up i saw that the little girl was sitting very pale and quiet in the corner the mother had pulled a bottle out of her bag and was quite cool and he often has them said she this is he is coming out i answered you look after i it out because her head seemed to rock as if she were going off but the absurdity of the letters the thing struck us all next moment and the mother burst into a laugh in which the daughter and i joined the son had opened his eyes and had ceased to struggle i must really beg your pardon said i as i helped him up again i had not the advantage of knowing your other name and i was in such a hurry that i had no time to think what i was saying they laughed again in the most way and as soon as the young fellow had recovered we all joined in quite a confidential conversation it is wonderful how the intrusion of any of the realities of life away the of etiquette in half an hour we knew all about each other or at any rate i knew all about them mrs la force was the mother s name a widow with these two children they had given up housekeeping and found it more pleasant to live in apartments travelling from one watering place to another their one trouble was the nervous weakness of the son they were now on their way to where they hoped that he might get some good from the air i was able to recommend the letters which i have found to act like a charm in such cases we had quite a spirited conversation and i think that we were sorry on both sides when we came to the where they had to change mrs la force gave me her card and i promised to call if ever i should be in however all this must be stupid enough to you you know my little ways by this time and you don t expect me to keep on the main line of my story however i am back on the rails now and i shall try to remain there well it was nearly six o clock and evening was just creeping in when we drew up in station the first thing i saw when i looked out of the window was exactly the same as ever in his way down the platform his coat flying open his chin thrust forward he is the most under hung man i have ever seen and his great teeth all gleaming like a good natured blood hound he roared with delight when he saw me wrung my hand and me upon the shoulder my dear chap said he we ll clear this the letters town out i tell you we won t leave a doctor in it it s all they can do now to get butter to their bread and when we get to work together they ll have to eat it dry listen to me my boy there are a hundred and twenty thousand folk in this town all shrieking for advice and there isn t a doctor who knows a from a man we only have to gather them in i stand and take the money until my arm but how is it i asked as we pushed our way through the crowd are there so few other doctors few he roared by the streets are blocked with them you couldn t fall out of a window in this town without killing a doctor but of all the well there you ll see them for yourself you walked to my house at i don t let my friends walk to my house at eh what a well appointed carriage with two fine black horses was drawn up at the station entrance the smart coachman touched his hat as opened the door which of the houses sir he asked the letters s eyes shot round to me to see what thought of such a between ourselves i have not the slightest doubt that he had instructed the man to ask it he always had a fine eye for effect but he usually by the intelligence of those around him ah said he rubbing his chin like a man in doubt well i dinner will be nearly ready drive to the town good gracious said i as we started how many houses do you it sounds as if you had bought the town well well said he laughing we are driving to the house where i usually live it suits us very well though i have not been able to get all the rooms furnished yet then i have a little farm of a few hundred acres just outside the city it is a pleasant place for the week ends and we send the nurse and the child my dear chap i did not know that you had started a family yes it s an infernal nuisance but still the the letters fact remains we get our butter and things from the farm then of course i have my house of business in the heart of the city consulting and waiting room i suppose he looked at me with a sort of half vexed half amused expression you cannot rise to a situation said he i never met a low with such a imagination i d trust you to describe a thing when you have seen it but never to build up an idea of it beforehand what s the trouble now i asked well i have written to you about my practice and ive to you about it and here you sit asking me if i work it in two rooms ril have to hire the market square	4
before finished and then i won t have space to wag my elbows can your imagination rise to a great house with people waiting in every room in as tight as they ll fit and two of them in the cellar well that s my house of business on an average day the folk come in from the county fifty miles and eat bread and on the so as to be first in when the housekeeper comes down the letters the medical officer of health made an official complaint of the over crowding of my they wait in the stables and sit along the and under the horses til turn some of em on to you my boy and then you ll know a little more about it well all this puzzled me a good deal as you can imagine for making every allowance for s way of talking there must be something at the back of it i was thinking to myself that i must keep my head cool and have a look at everything with my own eyes when the carriage pulled up and we got out this is my little place said it was the corner house of a line of fine buildings and looked to me much more like a good sized hotel than a private mansion it had a broad sweep of steps leading to the door and away up to five or six stories with and a on the top as a matter of fact i learned that before took it it had been one of the chief clubs in the town but the committee had abandoned it on account of the heavy rent a smart i the letters maid opened the door and a moment later i was shaking hands with mrs who was all and cordiality she has i forgotten the little business when her husband and i fell out the inside of the house was even than i had thought from the look of the exterior there were over thirty informed me as he helped me to carry my upstairs the hall and first stair were most furnished and but it all run to nothing at the landing my own bedroom had a little iron bed and a small basin standing on a packing case took a hammer from the and began to knock in nails behind the door these will do to hang your clothes on said he you don t mind it a little until we get things in order not in the least you see he explained there s no good my putting a forty pound into a bed room and then having to it all out of the window in order to make room for a one no sense in that eh the letters what going to furnish this house as no house has ever been furnished by tu bring the folk a hundred miles round just to have leave to look at it but i must do it room by room come down with me and look at the dining room you must be hungry after your journey it really was furnished in a marvellous way nothing flash and everything magnificent the carpet was so rich that my feet seemed to sink into it as into deep moss the soup was on the table and mrs sitting down but he kept me round to look at something else go on he cried over his shoulder i just want to show this now these plain dining room chairs what d you think they cost each eh what five pounds said i at a venture exactly he cried in great delight thirty pounds for the six you hear guessed the price first shot now my boy what for the pair of curtains they were a magnificent pair of stamped crimson velvet with a two foot gilt above the letters them i thought that i had better not my newly gained reputation by eighty pounds he roared them with the back of his hand eighty pounds what d ye think of that everything that i have in this house is going to be of the best why look at this waiting maid did you ever see a one he swung the girl towards me by the arm don t be silly said mrs mildly while he roared with laughter with all his flashing under his moustache the girl edged closer to her mistress looking and half angry all right mary no harm he cried sit down old chap get a bottle of champagne mary and we ll drink to more luck well we had a very pleasant little dinner it is never slow if is about he is one of those men who make a kind of atmosphere so that you feel and stimulated in their presence his mind is so and his thoughts so extravagant that your own break away from their usual and the letters surprise you by their activity you feel pleased at your own and originality when you are really like the when it took a lift on the eagle s shoulder old you remember used to have a similar effect upon you in the days in the middle of dinner he plunged oflf and came back with a round bag about the size of a in his hand what d ye think this is eh i have no idea our day s take eh he a string and in an instant a pile of gold and silver rattled down upon the cloth the whirling and among the dishes one rolled oflf the table and was by the maid from some distant corner what is it mary a half sovereign put it in your pocket what did the lot come to thirty one pound eight you see one day s work he plunged his h nd into his pocket and brought out a pile of sovereigns which he balanced in his palm look at	4
that the letters rather from my form eh what it will be good news for them i suggested he was at me in an instant with all his old ferocity you cannot imagine a more savage looking creature than is when his temper goes wrong he gets a perfectly expression in his light blue eyes and all his hair up like a striking he isn t a beauty at his best but at his worst he s really at the first danger signal his wife had ordered the maid from the room what rot you do talk he cried do you suppose i am going to myself for years by letting those debts hang on to me i understood that you had promised said i still of course it is no business of mine i should hope not he cried a stands to win or to lose he allows a margin for bad debts i would have paid it if i could i couldn t and so i wiped the slate clean no one in his senses would dream of spending the letters all the money that i make in upon the of suppose they come down upon you well we ll see about that when they do meanwhile i am paying ready money for every mortal thing that comes up the door steps they think so well of me here that i could have had the whole place furnished like a palace from the drain pipes to the only i determined to take each room in turn when i was ready for it there s nearly four hundred pounds under this one ceiling there came a tap at the door and in walked a boy in buttons if you please sir mr wishes to see you give my compliments to mr and tell him he may go to the devil my dear cried mrs tell him i am at dinner and if all the kings in europe were waiting in the hall with their crowns in their hands i wouldn t cross that door mat to see them the boy vanished but was back in an instant h the letters please sir he won t go won t go what d you mean sat with his mouth open and his knife and fork sticking up what d you mean you what are you about it s his bill sir said the frightened boy s face grew dusky and the veins began to swell on his forehead his bill eh look here he took his watch out and laid it on the table it s two minutes to eight at eight tm coming out and if i find him there the street with him tell him i ll him over the parish he has two minutes to save his life in and one of them is nearly gone the boy bolted from the room and in an instant afterwards we heard the bang of the front door with a clatter of steps down the stairs lay back in his chair and roared until the tears shone on his while his wife quivered all over with sympathetic merriment ril drive him mad sobbed at last he s a nervous chicken kind of man and when i look at him he turns the the letters colour of if i pass his shop i usually just drop in and stand and look at him i never speak but just look it him sometimes the shop is full of people but it is just the same who is he then i asked he s my corn merchant i was saying that i paid my as i go but he is the only exception he has done me once or twice you see and so i try to take it out of him by the way you might send him down twenty pounds to morrow it s time for an what a gossip you will think me but when i begin my memory brings everything back so clearly and i write on and on almost unconsciously besides this fellow is such a mixture of qualities that i could never give you any idea of him by myself and so i just try to repeat to you what he says and what he does so that you may build up your own picture of the man i know that he has always interested you and that he does so more now than ever since our have drawn us together again the letters after dinner we went into the back room which was the most extraordinary contrast to the front one having only a plain deal table and half a dozen kitchen chairs scattered about on a floor at one end was an electric battery and a big at the other a packing case with several pistols and a litter of upon it a was leaning up against it and looking round i saw that the walls were all with bullet marks what s this then i asked rolling my eyes round what s this he asked with his pipe in his hand and his head cocked sideways naval and the command of the seas said she like a child repeating a lesson that s it he shouted at me with the naval and command of the seas it s all here right under your nose i tell you i could go to to morrow and i could say to them look here you haven t got a and you haven t got a port but just find me a ship and your flag on it and i ll give you every ocean under heaven i d sweep the seas the letters until there wasn t a match box floating on them or i could make them over to a limited company and join the board after i hold the salt water in the cup of this hand every drop of it his wife put her	4
hands on his shoulder with admiration in her eyes i turned to knock out my pipe and grinned over the grate oh you may grin said he he was wonderfully quick at what you were doing you ll grin a little wider when you see the coming in what s the value of that a pound a million pounds not a penny under and dirt cheap to the nation that it i shall let it go at that though i could make ten times as much if i held on i shall take it up to the secretary of the navy in a week or two and if he seems to be a civil deserving sort of person i shall do business with him it s not every day that a man comes into his office with the atlantic under one arm and the pacific under the other eh what i knew it would make him savage but i lay ho the letters t back in my chair and laughed until i was tired his wife looked at me reproachfully but he after a moment of blackness burst out laughing also stamping up and down the room and waving his arms of course it seems absurd to you he cried well i it would to me if any other fellow had worked it out but you may take my word for it that it s all right here will answer for it won t you it s splendid my dear now ril show you what an jew you are trying to look interested and at the back of your throat in the first place i have discovered a method which i won t tell you of increasing the attractive power of a a hundred fold have you grasped that yes very good you are also aware i presume that modern are either made of or tipped with steel it may possibly have come to your ears that attract steel permit me now to show you a small experiment he bent over his apparatus and i suddenly heard the letters the snapping of this he continued going across to the packing case is a saloon pistol and will be exhibited in the of the next century as being the weapon with which the new era was into the i place a specially provided for purposes with a steel bullet i aim point blank at the of red wax upon the wall which is four inches above the i am an absolutely dead shot i fire you will now advance and satisfy yourself that the bullet is upon the end of the after which you will to me for that grin i looked and it certainly was as he had said i ll tell you what i would do he cried i am prepared to put that in s bonnet and to let you fire six shots straight at her face how s that for a test you wouldn t mind eh what i don t think she would have objected but i hastened to any share in such an experiment of course you see that the whole thing is the letters i to scale my of the future carries at her and stern a which shall be as much larger than that as the big shell will be larger than this tiny bullet or i might have a separate possibly to carry my apparatus my ship goes into action what happens then eh what every shot fired at her goes on to the there s a below into which they drop when the electric circuit is broken after every action they are sold by for old metal and the result divided as prize money among the crew but think of it man i tell you it is an absolute impossibility for a shot to strike any ship which is provided with my apparatus and then look at the you don t want you want nothing any ship that becomes with one of these the war ship of the future will cost anything from seven pound ten you re grinning again but if you give me a and a with a seven gun i ll show sport to the finest battle ship afloat well there must be some flaw about this i suggested if your is so strong as all the letters that you would have your own back upon you not a bit of it there s a big difference between a shot flying away from you with all its and another one which is coming towards you and only needs a slight to strike the besides by breaking the circuit i can take off the influence when i am firing my own then i connect and instantly become and your nails and the of the future will be bolted together by wood well he would talk of nothing else the whole evening but of this wonderful invention of his perhaps there is nothing in it probably there is not and yet it the many sided nature of the man that he should not say one word about his success here of which i am naturally most anxious to hear not a word either upon the important subject of our but will think and talk of nothing but this extraordinary naval idea in a week he will have tossed it aside in all probability and be in some plan for the jews and settling them in the letters car yet from all he has said and all i have seen there can be no doubt that he has in some inexplicable way made a tremendous hit and to morrow i shall let you know all about it come what may am delighted that i came for things promise to be interesting regard this not as the end of a letter but of a paragraph you shall have the conclusion to morrow or on thursday at	4
the latest and my remembrance to if you see him how s your friend from vii i the parade march well you see i am as good as my word and here is a full account of this queer little out of real life never to be seen i should fancy by any eye save your own have written to also and of course to my mother but i don t go into detail with them as i have got into the way of doing with you you keep on assuring me that you like it so on your own head be it if you find my experiences gradually developing into a weariness when i woke in the morning and looked round at the bare walls and the basin on the packing case i hardly knew where i was came charging into the room in his dressing gown however and roused me effectually by putting his hands on the rail at the end of the bed and throwing a over it which brought his heels on to my pillow with a he was in great i the letters spirits and on the bed he held forth about his plans while i dressed i tell you one of the first things i mean to do said he i mean to have a paper of my own we ll start a weekly paper here you and i and we ll make them sit up all round we ll have an organ of our own just like every french if any one crosses us we ll make them wish they had never been born eh what what d you think so clever that every body s bound to read it and so that it will just fetch out every time don t you think we could what politics i asked oh curse the politics red well rubbed in that s my idea of a paper call it the the mayor and the council until they call a meeting and hang themselves i d do the and you would do the fiction and poetry i thought about it during the night and has written to s to get an estimate for the we might get our first number out this day week my dear chap i gasped i want you to start a novel this morning the letters you won t get many at first and you ll have lots of time but i never wrote a line in my life a properly balanced man can do anything he sets his hand to he s got every possible quality inside him and all he wants is the will to develop it could you write a novel yourself i asked of course i could such a novel that when they d read the first chapter the folk would just sit groaning until the second came out they d wait in rows outside my door in the hope of hearing what was coming next by i ll go and begin it now and with another over the end of the bed he rushed from the room with the of his dressing gown flying behind him i you ve quite come to the conclusion by this time that is simply an interesting study a man in the first stage of or general you might not be so sure about it if you were in close contact with him he his wildest flights by what he does it sounds grotesque when put down in black and white but then it would have sounded the letters equally grotesque a year ago if he had said that he would build up a huge practice in a now we see that he has done it his possibilities are immense he has such huge energy at the back of his of invention i am afraid on thinking over all that i have written to you that i may have given you a false impression of the man by dwelling too much on those incidents in which he has shown the strange and violent side of his character and the stretches between where his wisdom and judgment have had a chance his conversation when he does not fly off at a is full of and idea the greatest monument ever erected to napoleon was the british national debt said he yesterday again we must never forget that the principal of great britain to the united states is the united states again speaking ot christianity what is cannot be morally sound he shoots off a whole column of in a single evening i should like to have a man with a note book always beside him to gather up his waste no you must not let me give you a false impression of the man s capacity on the other hand it would be the letters est to deny that i think him thoroughly and full of very sinister traits i am much mistaken however if he has not fine in his nature he is capable of rising to heights as well as of sinking to depths well when we had we got into the carriage and drove off to the place of business i suppose you are surprised at coming with us said me on the knee is wondering what the devil you are here for only he is too polite to ask in fact it had struck me as rather strange that she should as a matter of course accompany us to business you ll see when we get there he cried we run this affair on lines of our own it was not very far and we soon found ourselves outside a square building which had a huge dr on a great brass plate at the side of the door underneath was printed may be consulted from ten to four the door was open and i i jo the letters caught a glimpse of a crowd of people waiting in	4
the hall how many here asked of the page boy a hundred and forty sir all the waiting rooms full yes sir full yes sir stable full yes sir coach house full there s still room in the coach house sir ah i m sorry we haven t got a crowded day for you said he of course we can t command these things and must take them as they come now then now then make a can t you this to his come here and see the waiting room what an atmosphere why on earth can t you open the windows for yourselves never saw such folk there are thirty people in this room and not one with sense enough to open a window to save himself from the letters i tried sir but there s a screw through the cried one fellow ah my boy you ll never get on in the world if you can t open a window without raising a said him on the shoulder he took the man s umbrella and stuck it through two of the panes of glass that s the way he said boy see that the screw is taken out now then come along and we ll get to work we went up a wooden stair leaving every room beneath us as far as i could see crowded with at the top was a bare passage which had two rooms opposite to each other at one end and a single one at the other this is my consulting room said he leading the way into one of these it was a square chamber perfectly empty save for two plain wooden chairs and an table with two books and a upon it it doesn t look like four or five thousand a year does it now there is an exactly similar one opposite which you can have for yourself til send across any cases which may turn the letters up to day however i think you had better stay with me and see how i work things i should very much like to said i there are one or two rules to be observed in the way of handling he remarked himself on the table and swinging his legs the most obvious is that you must never let them see that you want them it should be pure condescension on your part seeing them at all and the more difficulties you throw in the way of it the more they think of it break your in early and keep them well to heel never make the fatal mistake of being polite to them many foolish young men fall into this habit and are ruined in consequence now this is my form he sprang to the door and putting his two hands to his mouth he stop your confounded down there i might as well be living above a poultry show there you see he added to me they will think ever so much more of me for that but don t they get offended i asked tm afraid not i have a name for this sort of thing now and they have come to expect it the letters but an offended patient i mean a thoroughly insulted one is the finest advertisement in the world if it is a woman she runs about among her friends until your name becomes a household word and they all pretend to with her and agree among themselves that you must be a remarkably man i quarrelled with one man about the state of his and it ended by my throwing him down the stairs what was the result he talked so much about it that the whole village from which he came sick and well to see me the little country who had been them up for a quarter of a century found that he might as well put up his shutters it s human nature my boy and you can t alter it eh what you make yourself cheap and you become cheap you put a high price on yourself and they rate you at that price suppose i set up in street to morrow and made it all nice and easy with hours from ten to three do you think i should get a patient i might starve first how would i work it i should let it be known that i only saw from midnight ii p the letters until two in the morning and that bald headed people must pay double that would set people talking their curiosity would be stimulated and in four months the street would be blocked all night eh what you d go yourself that s my principle here i often come in of a morning and send them all about their business tell them i m going oflf to the country for a day i turn away forty pounds and it s worth four hundred as an advertisement but i understood from the plate that the were so they are but they have to pay for the medicine and if a patient wishes to come out of turn he has to pay half a guinea for the privilege there are generally about twenty every day who would rather pay that than wait several hours but mind you don t you make any mistake about this all this would go for nothing if you had not something solid behind i cure them that s the point i take cases that others have of and i cure them right off all the rest is only to bring them here but once here keep them on my merits it would all be a flash in the the letters pan but for that now come along and see s department we walked down the passage to the other room it was fitted up as a and there with a little apron mrs was busy	4
making up with her sleeves turned up and a litter of glasses and bottles all round her she was laughing away like a little child among its toys the best in the world cried patting her on the shoulder you see how i do it i write on a what the is and make a sign which shows how much is to be charged the man comes along the passage and passes the through the pigeon hole makes it up passes out the bottle and takes the money now come on and clear some of these folk out of the house it is impossible for me to give you any idea of that long line of hour after hour through the room and departing some amused and some frightened with their in their hands s are beyond belief i laughed until i thought the wooden chair under me would have come to pieces he roared the letters he he swore he pushed them about them on the back them against the wall and occasionally rushed out to the head of the stair to address them en at the same time behind all this i watching his could see a quickness of a scientific insight and a daring and use of which satisfied me that he was right in saying that under all this there lay solid reasons for his success indeed is a word in this connection for it would describe the doctor who puts on an artificial and conventional manner with his rather than one who is absolutely frank and true to his own extraordinary nature to some of his he neither said one word nor did he allow them to say one with a loud hush he would rush at them them on the listen to their hearts write their and then run them out of the room by their shoulders one poor old lady he greeted with a perfect scream youve been drinking too much tea he cried you are suffering from tea then without allowing her to get a word in he clutched her by her black the letters mantle dragged her up to the table and held out a copy of s medical which was lying there put your hand on the book he thundered and swear that for fourteen days you will drink nothing but she swore with eyes and was instantly whirled off with her in her hand to the i could imagine that to the last day of her life the old lady would talk of her interview with and i could well understand how the village from which she came would send fresh to block up his waiting rooms another person was seized by the two of his waistcoat just as he was opening his mouth to explain his symptoms and was rushed backward down the passage down the stairs and finally into the street to the immense delight of the assembled you eat too much drink too much and sleep too much roared after him knock down a policeman and come again when they let you out another patient complained of a sinking feeling my dear said he take your medicine and if that does no good swallow the cork for there is nothing better when you are sinking the letters as far as i could judge the bulk of the looked upon a morning at s as a most public entertainment tempered only by a thrill lest it should be their turn next to be made an exhibition of well with half an hour for lunch this extraordinary business went on till a quarter to four in the afternoon when the last patient had departed led the way into the where all the had been arranged upon the counter in the order of their value there were seventeen half sovereigns seventy three shillings and forty six or thirty two pounds eight and sixpence in all counted it up and then mixing the gold and silver into one heap he sat running his fingers through it and playing with it finally he it into the canvas bag which i had seen the night before and lashed the neck up with a boot lace we walked home and that walk struck me as the most extraordinary part of all that extraordinary day slowly through the principal streets with his canvas bag full of money outstretched at the full length of his arm his wife and i walked on either side like two the letters supporting a priest and so we made our way solemnly the people stopping to see us pass i always make a point of walking through the doctor s quarter said we are passing through it now they all come to their windows and their teeth and dance until i am out of sight why should you quarrel with them what is the matter with them i asked what s the use of being mouthed about it said he we are all trying to cut each other s throats and why should we be over it they haven t got a good word for me any one of them so i like to take a rise out of them i must say that i can see no sense in that they are your brothers in the profession with the same education and the same knowledge why should you take an offensive attitude towards them that s what i say dr cried his wife it is so very unpleasant to feel that one is surrounded by enemies on every side s because their wives wouldn t l o the letters call upon her he cried look at that my dear his bag that is better than having a lot of women drinking tea and in your drawing room had a big card printed saying that we don t desire to increase the circle of our acquaintance the maid has orders to show it to every suspicious person who calls	4
for gallantry in saving life said i you never told me about this he was off in an instant in his most extravagant style what the haven t you got one i thought every one had you prefer to be select i suppose it was a little boy youve no idea the trouble i had to get him in get him out you mean my dear chap you don t understand any one could get a child out it s getting one in that s the bother one deserves a for it then there are the witnesses four shillings a day i had to pay them and a of beer in the evenings you see you can t pick up a the letters child and carry it to the edge of a pier and throw it in you d have all sorts of with the parents you must be patient and wait until you get a legitimate chance i caught a walking up and down pier before i saw my opportunity he was rather a stolid fat boy and he was sitting on the very edge fishing i got the sole of my foot on to the small of his back and shot him an incredible distance i had some little difficulty in getting him out for his fishing line got twice round my legs but it all ended well and the witnesses were as as possible the boy came up to thank me next day and said that he was quite save for a on the back his parents always send me a brace of fowls every christmas i was sitting with my finger in the hot water listening to this when he had finished he ran off to get his tobacco box and we could hear the of his laughter up the stair i was still looking at the which from the all over it had evidently been often used as a when i felt a timid touch upon my sleeve it was mrs i felt upon m sleeve the letters who was looking earnestly at me with a very distressed expression upon her face you believe far too much what james says said she you don t know him in the least mr you don t look at a thing from his point of view and you will never understand him until you do it is not of course that he means to say anything that is but his fancy is excited and he is quite carried away by the humour of any idea whether it tells against himself or not it hurts me mr to see the only man in the world towards whom he has any feeling of friendship misunderstanding him so completely for very often when you say nothing your face shows very clearly what you think i could only answer that i was very sorry if i had her husband in any way and that no one had a appreciation of some of his qualities than i had i saw how gravely you looked when he told you that absurd story about pushing a little boy into the water she continued and as she spoke she drew from somewhere in the l the letters front of her dress a much slip of paper just glance at that please dr it was a newspaper cutting which gave the true account of the incident suffice it that it was an ice accident and that had really behaved in a heroic way and had been drawn out himself insensible with the child so clasped in his arms that it was not until he had recovered his senses that they were able to separate them had hardly finished reading it when we heard his step on the stairs and she thrusting the paper back into her bosom became in an instant the same silently watchful woman as ever is he not a if he interests you at a distance and i take for granted that what you say in your letters is not merely conventional compliment you can think how he is in actual life i must confess however that i can never shake off the feeling that i am living with some capricious creature who frequently and may possibly bite well it won t be very long before i write again and by that time shall probably know whether i am likely to find any permanent here or not i am so sorry the letters to hear about mrs s you know that i take the deepest interest in everything that affects you they tell me here that i am looking very fit though i think they ought to spell it with an a viii i the parade th april i am writing this my dear at a little table which has been fitted up in the window of my bedroom every one in the house is asleep except myself and all the noise of the city is hushed yet my own brain is singularly active and i feel that i am better employed in sitting up and writing to you than in tossing about upon my bed i am often accused of being sleepy in the but every now and then nature gets level by making me at night are you conscious of the influence which the stars exert to me they are the most soothing things in nature i am proud to say that i don t know the name of one of them the and romance would pass away from them if they were all and in one s brain but when a man is hot and and full of the letters his own little and misfortunes then a star bath is the finest thing in the world they are so big and so serene and so lovely they tell me that the spaces are full of the of shattered so perhaps even among them there are such things as disease and death	4
yet just to look at them must remind a man of what a of a thing he is the whole human race like some of powder upon the surface of one of the most insignificant fly wheels of a monstrous machine but there s order in it there s order and where there is order there must be mind and where there is mind there must be sense of justice i don t allow that there can be any doubt as to the existence of that central mind or as to the possession by it of certain attributes the stars help me to these it is strange when one looks upon them to think that the churches are still down here over such questions as whether the almighty is most gratified by our a tea of water over our babies heads or by our waiting a few years and then plunging them bodily into a it would be comic if it were not so tragic the letters this train of thought is the after swell from an argument with this evening he holds that the human race is mentally and morally he calls out at the which the creator with a young philosopher i tried to show him that this is no proof of since the philosopher at least represented a moral idea and was therefore on an infinitely higher plane than the of the his own views of the creator seem to me to be a more evident he declares that looking round at nature he can see nothing but and either the creator is not all powerful or else he is not all good says he either he can stop these and won t in which case he is not all good or else he would stop them but can t in which case he is not it was a difficult for a man who to stick to reason to get out of of course if you plead faith you can always slip out of anything i was forced to get behind a corner of that with which you have so often turned my own i said that the arose from our taking it for granted that that the letters which seemed evil really was evil it lies with you to prove that it isn t said he we may hope that it isn t said i wait until some one tells you that you have of the end of the stomach said he and he shouted it out again every time tried to renew the argument but in all i really do think that very much which seems to be in life might be very different if we could it properly i tried to give you my views about this in the case of drink and but physically i fancy that it applies more obviously than it does morally all the physical evils of life seem to in death and yet death as i have seen it has not been a painful or terrible process in many cases a man dies without having incurred nearly as much pain during the whole of his fatal illness as would have arisen from a or an of the jaw and it is often those deaths which seem most terrible to the which are least so to the sufferer when a man is overtaken by an express and shivered into fragments or when he drops from a fourth floor window and is smashed into a bag of the unfortunate spectators are with horror and find a the letters text for views about the providence which allows such things to be and yet it is very doubtful whether the deceased could his tongue be loosened would remember anything at all about the matter we know as students of medicine that though pain is usually associated w ith and with complaints still in the various in in blood in diseases and in short in the greater proportion of serious there is little suffering i remember how struck i was when first i saw the actual applied in a case of disease the white hot iron was pressed firmly into the patient s back without the use of any and what with the sight and the smell of burned flesh i felt faint and ill yet to my astonishment the patient never nor moved a muscle of his face and on my inquiring afterwards he assured me that the proceeding was absolutely a remark which was by the surgeon the nerves are so completely and destroyed he explained that they have no time to convey a painful impression but then if this be so what be the letters comes of all the at the stake and the victims of red indians and other poor folk over whose sufferings and constancy we have wondered it may be that providence is not only not cruel itself but will not allow man to be cruel either do your worst and it will step in with a no i won t allow this poor child of mine to be hurt and then comes the of the nerve and the which takes the victim out of the reach of the david under the claws of the lion must have looked like an object lesson of the evil side of things and yet he has left it upon record that his own sensations were rather than otherwise i am well convinced that if the newly born infant and the man who had just died could compare their experiences the former would have proved to be the sufferer it is not for nothing that the first thing the into this planet does is to open its mouth and protest against fate has written a which makes a paragraph for our wonderful new weekly paper the little cheese held debate he says the letters as to who made the cheese some thought that they had no to go upon and some	4
that it had come together by a of or by the attraction of a few that the might have something to do with it but the wisest of them could not the existence of a cow we are at one he and i in thinking that the infinite is beyond our perception we differ only in that he sees evil and i see good in the working of the universe ah what a mystery it all is let us be honest and humble and think kindly of each other there s a line of stars all at me over the opposite roof at the silly little person with the pen and paper who is so earnest about what he can never understand well now ru come back to something practical it is nearly a month since i wrote to you last the date is impressed upon my memory because it was the day after shot the air dart into my finger the place and prevented my writing to any one for a week or two but it is all right again now i have ever so much of different sorts to tell you but really when i come the letters to think of it it does not amount to very much after all first of all about the practice i told you that i was to have a room immediately opposite to s arid that all the cases were to be turned over to me for a few days i had nothing to do except to listen to him and with his or making speeches to them from the top of the stairs however a great dr surgeon has been to the side of the door downstairs opposite s plate and a proud man was i when first my eyes lit upon it on the fourth day however in came a case he little knew that he was the first that i had ever had all to myself in my life perhaps he would not have looked quite so cheerful if he had it poor chap he had little enough to be cheery over either he was an old soldier who had lost a good many teeth but who had continued to find room between his nose and chin for a short black clay pipe lately there appeared a small sore on his nose which had spread and become on feeling it i found it as hard as a streak of with constant darting pains passing through it the letters n of course there could be no question as to it was caused by the irritation of the hot tobacco smoke i sent him back to his village and two days after i drove over in s dog cart and removed the growth i only got a sovereign for it but it may be a for cases the old fellow did most admirably and he has just been in with a most aristocratic curl to his nostrils to tell me that he has bought a box full of it was my first operation and i i was more nervous about it than my patient but the result has given me confidence i have fully made up my mind to let nothing pass me come what may i am prepared to do it why should a man wait of course i know that many men do but surely one s nerve is more likely to be strong and one s knowledge fresh now than in twenty years cases came in from day to day all very poor people and able to pay very poor but still most welcome to me the first week i took including that operation fee one pound seventeen and sixpence the second i got two pounds exactly the third i had two pounds five and now i find that this last week the letters has brought in two pounds eighteen so i am moving in the right direction of course it enough with s twenty pound a day and my little quiet back water seems a strange contrast to the noisy stream which for ever through his room still i am quite satisfied and i have no doubt at all that his original estimate of three hundred pounds for the first year will be amply justified it would be a pleasant thing to think that if anything were really to happen at home i should be able to be of some use to them if things go on as they have begun i shall soon have my feet firmly planted i was compelled by the way to forego an opening which a few months ago would have been the very summit of my ambition you must know possibly i told you that immediately after i passed i put my name down as a candidate for a on the books of several of the big lines it was done as a forlorn hope for a man has usually to wait several years before comes round well just a week after i started here i got a one night from liverpool join the to morrow as surgeon not later than eight in the evening it was from l o the letters the famous south american firm and the is a fine ton passenger boat doing the round journey by and to and i had a bad quarter of an hour i can tell you i don t think i was ever so about anything in my life was dead against my going and his influence carried the day my dear chap said he you d knock down the chief mate and he d spread you out with a you d get tied by your to the you d be fed on water and i ve been reading a novel about the merchant service and i know when i laughed at his ideas of modern sea going he tried another line you re a bigger fool than	4
i take you for if you go said he why what can it lead to all the money you earn goes to buy a blue coat and it with lace you think you re bound for and you find yourself at the poor house you ve got a rare opening here and everything ready to your hand you ll never get such another again and so it ended by my letting them have a the letters i l wire to say that i could not come it is strange when you come to a point where the road of your life obviously and you take one turning or the other after vainly trying to be sure about the finger post i think after all i chose rightly a ship s surgeon must remain a ship s surgeon while here there is no horizon to my possibilities as to old he is along as merrily as ever you say in your last that what you cannot understand is how he got his hold of the public in so short a time that is just the point which i have found it hard to get light upon he told me that after his first coming he had not a patient for a month and that he was so that he very nearly made a moonlight at last however a few cases came his way and he made such extraordinary of them or else impressed them so by his that they would do nothing but talk of him some of his wonderful results got into the local press though after my experience i should not like to that he did not himself convey them there he showed me an which had a great circulation in the district it had an entry in this way l the letters reform bill passed birth of caesar extraordinary cure by dr of a case of in battle of it reads as if it were one of the of the latter half of the century i asked him how on earth it got there but i could only learn that the woman was fifty six inches round the waist and that he had treated her with that leads me to another point you ask me whether his are really remarkable and if so what his system is i answer that his are very remarkable indeed and that i look upon him as a sort of napoleon of medicine his view is that the are in nearly every instance much too low excessive timidity has cut down the dose until it has ceased to produce a real effect upon the disease medical men according to his view have been afraid of producing a poisonous effect with their with him on the contrary the whole art of medicine lies in judicious and when the letters the case is serious his are heroic where in i should have given of or every four hours he would give two every three no doubt it will seem to you very kill or cure and i am myself afraid that a succession of may check s career but hitherto he has had no public scandal while the cases which he has brought back to life have been numerous he is the most fearless fellow i have seen him pour into a patient until my hair but either his knowledge or his luck always brings him out right then there are other which depend i think upon his own personal he is so robust and loud and hearty that a weak nervous patient goes away from him with vitality he is so perfectly confident that he can cure them that he makes them perfectly confident that they can be cured and you know how in nervous cases the mind upon the body if he chose to preserve and sticks as they do in the churches he might i am sure paper his con the letters room with them a favourite device of his with an patient is to name the exact hour of their cure my dear he will say swaying some girl about by the shoulders with his nose about three inches from hers you ll feel better to morrow at a quarter to ten and at twenty past you ll be as well as ever you were in your life now keep your eye on the clock and see if i am not right next day as likely as not her mother will be in weeping tears of joy and another miracle has been added to s record it may smell of but it is exceedingly useful to the patient still i must confess that there is nothing about which me so much as the low view which he takes of our profession i can never reconcile myself to his ideas and yet i can never convert him to mine so there will be a chasm there which sooner or later may open to divide us altogether he will not acknowledge any side to the question a profession in his view is a means of earning a and the doing good to our fellow mortals is quite a secondary one the letters why the devil should we do all the good he shouts eh what a butcher would do good to the race would he not if he served his out through the window he d be a real benefactor but he goes on selling them at a shilling the pound for all that take the case of a doctor who himself to science he out and keeps down you call him a well i call him a traitor that s it a traitor and a did you ever hear of a of lawyers for the law and what are the medical association and the general council and all these bodies for eh for encouraging the best interests of the profession do you suppose they do that by making the population healthy	4
it s about time we had a among the general if i had the use of half the funds which the association has i should spend part of them in drain and the rest in the cultivation of disease and the of drinking water of course i told him that his views were the letters but especially since that warning which i had from his wife i everything that he says he begins in earnest but as he goes on the humour of exaggeration gets hold of him and he winds up with things which he would never in cold blood however the fact remains that we differ widely in our views of professional life and i fear that we may come to grief over the question what do you think we have been doing lately building a stable no less wanted to have another one at the business place as much i think for his as his horses and in his audacious way he determined that he would bi it himself so at it we went he i the coachman mrs and the coachman s wife we dug foundations got bricks in by the made our own mortar and i think that we shall end by making a very fair job of it it s not quite as flat as we could wish and i think that if i were a horse inside it i should be careful about brushing against the walls but still it will keep the wind and rain out when it is finished talks of our building a the letters new house for ourselves but as we have three large ones already there does not seem to be any pressing need talking about horses we had no end of a fuss here the other day got it into his head that he wanted a first class riding horse and as neither of the carriage ones would satisfy him he a horse dealer to get him one the man told us of a which one of the officers in the garrison was trying to get rid of he did not conceal the fact that the reason why he wished to sell it was because he considered it to be dangerous but he added that captain had given j iso for it and was prepared to sell it at seventy this excited and he ordered the creature to be and brought round it was a beautiful animal coal black with a magnificent neck and shoulders but with a nasty backward to its ears and an unpleasant way of looking at you the horse dealer said that our yard was too small to try the creature in but up upon its back and formally took possession of it by it between the ears with the bone the letters handle of his whip then ensued one of the most lively ten minutes that i can remember the beast justified his reputation but although he was no stuck to him like a backwards forwards sideways on his fore feet on his hind feet with his back curved with his back sunk and kicking there was nothing the creature did not try was sitting alternately on his mane and on the root of his tail never by any chance in the saddle he had lost both and his knees were drawn up and his heels dug into the creature s ribs while his hands at mane saddle or ears whichever he saw in front of him he kept his whip however and whenever the brute down him once more with the bone handle his idea i suppose was to break its spirit but he had taken a larger contract than he could carry through the animal his four feet together down his head arched his back like a yawning cat and gave three springs into the air at the first s knees were above the saddle at the second his ankles were retaining a the letters grip at the third he flew forward like a stone out of a narrowly missed the of the wall broke with his head the iron bar which held some wire and back with a into the yard up he bounded with the blood streaming down his face and running into our half finished stables he seized a and with a of rage rushed at the horse i caught him by the coat and put on a fourteen stone drag while the horse dealer who was as white as a cheese ran off with his horse into the street broke away from my grip and cursing his face with blood and his waving over his head he rushed out of the yard the most looking you can imagine however luckily for the dealer he had got a good start and was persuaded to come back and wash his face we bound up his cut and found him little the worse except in his temper but for me he would most certainly have paid seventy pounds for his insane outburst of rage against the animal i you think it strange that i should write so much about this fellow and so little the letters about anybody else but the fact is that i know nobody else and that my whole circle is bounded by my and his wife they visit nobody and nobody visits them my living with them brings the same from my brother doctors upon my head although i have never done anything myself who should i see in the street the other day but the whom you will remember at i was foolish enough to propose to once and she was sensible enough to refuse me what i should have done had she accepted me i can t imagine for that was three years ago and i have more ties and less prospect of marriage now than then well there s no use yearning for what you can t have	4
and there s no other man living to whom i would speak about the matter at all but life is a deadly lonely thing when a man has no one on his side but himself why is it that i am sitting here in the moonlight writing to you except that i am craving for sympathy and fellowship i get it from you too as much as one friend ever got from another and yet there are some sides who should see in the the day the the letters to my nature with which neither wife nor friend nor any one else can share if you cut your own path you must expect to find yourself alone upon it ho it s nearly dawn and i as as ever it is chilly and i have draped a blanket round me heard that this is the favourite hour of the suicide and i see that been off in the direction of melancholy myself let me wind up on a lighter by quoting worth s latest article i must tell you that he is still by the idea of his own paper and his brain is in full sending out a perpetual stream of poems social and articles he brings them all to me and my table is already piled with them here is his latest brought up to my room after he had it was the of some remarks i had made about the difficulty which our far off descendants may have in what the meaning is of some of the commonest objects of our and as a how careful we should be before we become about the old or the letters at the third annual meeting of the new guinea society a paper was read upon recent on the supposed site of london together with some observations upon hollow in use among the ancient several examples of these or were on exhibition in the hall and were passed round for inspection among the audience the learned his remarks by observing that on account of the enormous interval of time which separated them from the days when london was a flourishing city it them to be very guarded in any conclusions to which they might come as to the habits of the inhabitants recent appeared to have satisfactorily established the fact that the date of the final fall of london was somewhat later than that of the of the egyptian a large building had recently been near the dried up bed of the river thames and there could be no question from existing records that this was the seat of the law making council among the ancient or as they were sometimes called the proceeded to the letters point out that the bed of the thames had been under by a monarch named who is supposed by some authorities to have succeeded alfred the great the open spaces of london he went on to remark must have been far from safe as the bones of lions and other extinct forms of had been discovered in the s park having briefly referred to the mysterious known as pillar boxes which are scattered thickly over the city and which are either religious in their origin or else may be taken as marking the of chiefs the passed on to the this had been explained by the school as being a universal system of lightning he the could not assent to this theory in a series of observations extending over several months he had discovered the important fact that these lines of if followed out invariably led to large hollow which were connected with no one who knew how the ancient were to the use of tobacco could doubt what this meant evidently large quantities of the the letters were burned in the central chamber and the and was carried through the to the house of every citizen so that he might it at will having illustrated his remarks by a series of the concluded by saying that although true science was invariably cautious and it was none the less an fact that so much light had been thrown upon old london that every action of the citizens daily life was known from the taking of a tub in the morning until after a draught of porter he painted himself blue before retiring to rest after all i this explanation of the london gas pipes is not more absurd than some of our shots about the or ideas of life among the well good bye old chap this is a stupid letter but life has been more quiet and less interesting just of late i may have something a little more moving for my next ix i the parade rd april i have some recollection my dear that when i wrote you a rambling sort of letter about three weeks ago i wound up by saying that i might have something more interesting to tell you next time well so it has turned out the whole game is up here and i am off upon a fresh line of rails altogether is to go one way and i another and yet i am glad to say that there has not been any quarrel between us as usual i have begun my letter at the end but ru work up to it more deliberately now and let you know exactly how it came about and first of all a thousand thanks for your two long letters which lie before me as i write there is little enough personal news in them but i can quite understand that the quiet happy routine of your life off very smoothly from the letters week to week on the other hand you give me plenty of proof of that inner life which is to me so very much more interesting after all we may very well agree to differ you think some things are proved which	4
i don t believe in you think some things which do not appear to me to be so well i know that you are perfectly honest in your belief i am sure you give me credit for being the same the future will decide which of us is right the of the truest is a constant law i fancy though it must be acknowledged that it is very slow in action you make a mistake however in assuming that those who think as i do are such a miserable the whole essence of our thought is independence and individual judgment so that we don t get into single bodies as the churches do and have no opportunity of our own strength there are no doubt all shades of opinion among us but if you merely include those who in their private hearts the doctrines usually accepted and think that churches tend to evil rather than good i fancy that the figures would the letters be rather surprising when i read your letter i made a list of all those men with whom i ever had intimate talk upon such matters i got seventeen names with four tried and got twelve names with one from all sides one hears that every church of the absence of men in the the women three to one is it that women are more earnest than men i think it is quite the other way but the men are following their reason and the women their emotion it is the women only who keep alive no you mustn t be too sure of that majority of yours taking the scientific the medical the professional classes i question whether it exists at all the clergy busy in their own limited circles and coming in contact only with those who agree with them have not how largely the rising generation has them and with exceptions like yourself it is not the most but the best of the younger men the larger and the larger hearted who have shaken themselves most clear of the old they cannot abide its want of the letters charity it s of god s its claims for a special providence its about what seems to be false its conflict with what we know to be true we know that man has ascended not descended so what is the value of a scheme of thought which depends upon the supposition of his fall we know that the world was not made in six days that the sun could never be stopped since it was never moving and that no man ever lived three days in a fish so what becomes of the inspiration of a book which contains such statements truth though it crush me there now you see what comes of waving the red rag let me make a concession to you i do believe that christianity in its different forms has been the very best thing for the world during all this long barbarous epoch of course it has been the best thing else providence would not have permitted it the engineer knows best what tools to use in his own machine but when you say that this is the best and last tool which will be used you are laying down the law a little too much now first of all i want to tell you about how the letters the practice has been going on the week after i wrote last showed a slight i only took two pounds but on the next i took a sudden jump up to three pounds seven shillings and this last week i took three pounds ten so it was steadily creeping up and i really thought that i saw my road clear in front of me when the bolt suddenly fell from the blue there were reasons however which prevented my being very disappointed when it did come down and these i must make clear to you i think that i mentioned when i gave you a short sketch of my dear old mother that she has a very high standard of family honour she really tries to live up to the which is said to flow in our veins and it is only our empty pockets which prevent her from sailing through life like the dame that she is throwing to right and left with her head in the air and her soul in the clouds i have often heard her say and i am quite convinced that she meant it that she would far rather see any one of us in our graves than know that we had committed a action yes for all her softness and n the letters she could iron hard at the suspicion of and i have seen the blood flush from her white cap to her lace collar when she has heard of an act of meanness well she had heard some details about the which displeased her when i first knew them then came the up at and my mother liked them less and less she was averse to my joining them in and it was only by my sudden movement at the end that i escaped a regular when i got there the very first question she asked when i told her of their prosperity was whether they had paid their i was compelled to answer that they had not in reply she wrote imploring me to come away and saying that poor as our family was none of them had ever fallen so low as to enter into a business with a man of character and doubtful i answered that spoke sometimes of paying his that mrs was in favour of it also and that it seemed to me to be unreasonable to expect that i should sacrifice a good opening on account of things with which i had no con the letters oi i assured her that if did anything from	4
possible provocation taking a most offensive tone and then when he sees he has me to the edge of my endurance turning the whole thing to this has occurred again and again recently and when coupled with the change in mrs s makes one feel that something has o the letters happened to change one s relations what that something may be i give you my word that i have no more idea than you have between their coldness however and my unpleasant correspondence with my mother i was often very sorry that i had not taken the south american is preparing for the issue of our new paper he has carried the matter through with his usual energy but he doesn t know enough about local affairs to be able to write about them and it is a question whether he can interest the people here in anything else at present we are prepared to run the paper single handed we are working seven hours a day at the practice we are building a stable and in our odd hours we are at our ship protector with which is still well pleased though he wants to get it more perfect before it to the his mind runs rather on naval architecture at present and he has been an ingenious method of preventing wooden sided vessels from being crippled by fire i did not the letters think much of his because it seemed to me that even if it had all the success that he claimed for it it would merely have the of some other metal for steel in the manufacture of shells this new project has however more to recommend it this is the idea as put in his own words and as he has been speaking of little else for the last two days i ought to remember them if youve got your there it will be pierced says he put up forty feet thick of steel and fu build a gun that will knock it into tooth powder it would blow away and set the folk after i had one shot at it but you can t pierce which only drops after the shot has passed through what s the good of it why it keeps out the water that s the main thing after all i call it the spring screen eh what i wouldn t take a quarter of a million for the idea you see how it would work spring shutters are all along the top of the where the used to be they are in sections three feet broad we will say and capable when let down of o the letters reaching the very well enemy sends a shot through section a of the side section a is lowered only a thin you see but enough to form a temporary enemy s ram in sections b c d of the side what do you do founder not a bit you lower sections b c and d of s spring screen or you knock a hole on a rock the same thing again it s a ludicrous sight to see a big ship founder when so simple a precaution would absolutely save her and it s equally good for also a shot often starts their plates and admits water without breaking them down go your shutters and all is well that s his idea and he is busy on a model made out of the of his wife s stays it sounds plausible but he has the of making anything plausible when he is allowed to slap his hands and we are both writing novels but i fear that the results don t bear out his theory that a man may do anything which he sets his will to i thought mine was not so bad i have done nine chapters but says he has read it the letters all before and that it is much too conventional we must the attention of the public from the start he says certainly his own is calculated to do so for it seems to me to be wild rubbish the end of his first chapter is the only tolerable point that he has made a old is running race horses on the cross his son who is just coming of age is an innocent youth the news of the great race of the year has just been received sir robert into the room with dry lips and a ghastly face my poor boy he cried prepare for the worst our horse has lost cried the young heir springing from his chair the old man threw himself in agony upon the rug no no he screamed has won most of it however is poor stuff and we are each agreed that the other was never meant for a so much for our domestic proceedings and all these little details you say you like to hear of now i must tell you of the great the letters big change in my affairs and how it came about i have told you about the strange sulky behaviour of which has been deepening from day to day well it seemed to reach a climax this morning and on our way to the rooms i could hardly get a word out of him the place was fairly crowded with but my own share was rather below the average when i had finished i added a chapter to my novel and waited until he and his wife were ready for the daily bag carrying it was half past three before he had done i heard him stamp out into the passage and a moment later he came into my room i saw in an instant that some sort of a crisis had come he cried this practice is going to the devil ah said i how s that it s going to little pieces been taking figures and i know what	4
i am talking about a month ago i was seeing six hundred a week then i dropped to five hundred and the letters eighty then to five seventy five and now to what do you think of that to be honest i don t think much of it i answered the summer is coming on you are losing all your and and sore throats every practice must at this time of year that s all very well said he pacing up and down the room with his hands thrust into his pockets and his great shaggy eyebrows knotted together you may put it down to that but i think quite differently about it what do you put it down to then to you how s that i asked well said he you must allow that it is a very queer coincidence if it is a coincidence that from the day when your plate was put up my practice has taken a turn for the worse i should be very sorry to think it was cause and effect i answered how do you think that my presence could have hurt you i ll tell you frankly old chap said he putting on suddenly that sort of forced smile which always seems to me to have a touch of a sneer the letters in it you see many of my are simple country folk half for the most part but then the half crown of an is as good as any other half crown they come to my door and they see two names and their silly jaws begin to drop and they say to each other there s two of em here it s dr we want to see but if we go in we ll be shown as likely as not to dr so it ends in some cases in their not coming at all then there are the women women don t care a toss whether you are a solomon or whether you are hot from an asylum it s all personal with them you fetch them or you don t fetch them i know how to work them but they won t come if they think they are going to be turned over to anybody else that s what i put the falling away down to well said i that s easily set right i marched out of the room and downstairs with both and his wife behind me into the yard i went and picking up a big hammer i started for the front door with the pair still at my heels i got the end of the hammer under my plate and with a good i the letters brought the whole thing on to the pavement that won t interfere with you any more said i what do you intend to do now he asked oh i shall find plenty to do don t you worry about that i answered oh but this is all rot said he picking up the plate come along upstairs and let us see where we stand we filed off once more he leading with the huge brass dr under his arm then the little woman and then this rather and young man he and his wife sat on the deal table in the consulting room like a hawk and a dove on the same perch while i leaned against the with my hands in my pockets nothing could be more and but i knew very well that i was at a crisis of my life before it was only a choosing between two roads now my main track had run suddenly to nothing and i must go back or find a bye path it s this way said i i am very much obliged to you and to you mrs the letters for all your kindness and good wishes but i did not come here to spoil your practice and after what you have told me it is quite impossible for me to work with you any more well my boy said he i am inclined myself to think that we should do better apart and that s s idea also only she is too polite to say so it is a time for plain speaking i answered and we may as well thoroughly understand each other if i have done your practice any harm i assure you that i am heartily sorry and i shall do all i can to repair it i cannot say more what are you going to do then asked worth i shall either go to sea or else start a practice on my own account but you have no money neither had you when you started ah that was different still it may be that you are right you ll find ij a stiff pull at first oh i am quite prepared for that well you know i feel that i am responsible to you to some extent since i persuaded you not to take that ship the other day it was a pity but it can t be helped the letters we must do what we can to make up now i tell you what i am prepared to do i was talking about it with this morning and she thought as i did if we were to allow you one pound a week until you got your legs under you it would encourage you to start for yourself and you could pay it back as soon as you were able it is very kind of you said i if you would let the matter stand just now i should like just to take a short walk by myself and to think it all over so the did their bag procession through the doctors quarter alone to day and i walked to the park where i sat down on one of the seats lit a cigar and thought the whole matter	4
of his open and an acute angle of hairy chest exposed he had a sheet of paper a pencil and a upon the in front of him interesting thing said he come and look at this temperature been taking it every quarter of an hour since i couldn t sleep and it s up and down till it looks like the mountains in the geography books we ll have some in eh what and by we ll all their ideas about write a from personal experiment that will make all their books clean out of date and they ll have to tear them up and wrap in them the letters he was talking in the rapid way of a man who has trouble coming i looked at his and saw that he was over degrees his pulse rub a under my fingers and his skin sent a glow into my hand any symptoms i asked sitting down on the side of his bed tongue like a said he thrusting it out headache pains no appetite and a mouse inside my left elbow that s as far as we ve got at present ru tell you what it is said i you have a touch of fever and you will have to lie by for a bit lie by be hanged he cried got a hundred people to see to day my boy i must be down there if i have the rattle in my throat i didn t build up a practice to have it ruined by a few of james dear you can easily build up another one said his wife in her voice you must do what dr tells you well said i you ll want looking after and your practice will want looking after and i am quite ready to do both but i won t take the letters the responsibility unless you give me your word that you will do what you are told if tm to have any it must come from you he said for if i was to turn my toes up in the public square there s not a man here who would do more than sign my by they might get the and mixed up if they came to treat me for there s no love lost between us but i want to go down to the practice all the same it s out of the question you know the of this complaint you ll have you know the danger as well as i do he sank back into his bed laughing i take my complaints one at a time thank you said he i wouldn t be so greedy as to have all those eh what when many another poor devil hasn t got an ache to his back the four posts of his bed quivered with his laughter do what you like but i say mind if anything should happen no over my grave if you put so much as a stone there by come the letters back in the dead of the night and plant it on the pit of your stomach nearly three weeks passed before he could set his foot to the ground again he wasn t such a bad patient after all but he rather complicated my treatment by getting in all sorts of and and trying experiments upon his own symptoms it was impossible to keep him quiet and our only means of retaining him in bed was to allow him all the work that he could do there he wrote built up models of his patent screen and off pistols at his which he had up on the nature has given him a constitution of steel however and he shook off his malady more quickly and more thoroughly than the most of in the meantime mrs and i ran the practice together as a substitute for him i was a dreadful failure they would not believe in me in the least i felt that i was as flat as water after champagne i could not address them from the stairs nor push them about nor to the women i was much the letters too solemn and after what they had been accustomed to however i held the thing together as best i could and i don t think that he found the practice much the worse when he was able to take it over i could not descend to what i thought was but i did my very best to keep the wheels turning well i know that am a shocking bad but i just try to get things as near the truth as i can manage it if i only knew how to colour it up i could make some of this better reading i can get along when i am on one line but it is when i have to bring in a second line of events that i understand what c means when he says that i will never be able to keep myself in by what i earn in literature the second line is this that i had written to my mother on the same night that i wrote to you last telling her that there need no longer be a shadow of a between us because everything was arranged and i was going to leave worth at once then within a couple of posts i had to write again and announce that my departure was postponed and that i was actually doing his whole practice well the letters the dear old lady was very angry i don t suppose she quite understood how temporary the necessity was and how impossible it would have been to leave in the she was silent for nearly three weeks and then she wrote a very letter and she handles her most when she likes she went so far as to say that was a	4
and that i had dragged the family honour in the dirt by my prolonged association with him this letter came on the morning of the very last day that my patient was confined to the house when i returned from work i found him sitting in his dressing gown downstairs his wife who had driven home was beside him to my surprise when i congratulated him on being fit for work again his manner which had been most genial during his illness was as as before our last explanation his wife too seemed to avoid my eye and cocked her chin at me when she spoke yes ril take it over to morrow said he what do i owe you for looking after it oh it was all in the day s work said i thank you i had rather have strict business the letters he answered you know where you are then but a favour is a thing with no end to it what d you put it at i never thought about it in that light well think about it now a would have cost me four guineas a week four sixteen make it twenty well i promised to allow you a pound a week and you were to pay it back ru put twenty pounds to your credit account and you ll have it every week as sure as saturday thank you said i if you are so anxious to make a business matter of it you can arrange it so i could not make out and cannot make out now what had happened to them up so but i supposed that they had been talking it over and came to the conclusion that i was settling down too much upon the old lines and that they must remind me that i was under orders to quit they might have done it with more tact to cut a long story short on the very day that was able to resume his work i started for taking with me only a bag for it was merely a expedition and i intended to return for my luggage if i saw k the letters reason for hope alas there was not the faintest the sight of the place would have the most sanguine man that ever lived it is one of those picturesque little english towns with a history and little else a roman and a keep are its principal but to me the most amazing thing about it was the cloud of doctors which had settled upon it a double row of brass plates the principal street where their came from could not imagine unless they practised upon each other the host of the bull where i had my modest lunch explained the mystery to some extent by saying that as there was pure country with hardly a hamlet for nearly twelve miles in every direction it was in these scattered farm houses that the doctors found their as with him a middle aged dusty man up the street there s dr adam said he he s only a new comer but they say that some o these days he ll be starting his carriage what do you mean by a new comer i asked oh he s scarcely been here ten years said the landlord thank you said i can you tell me when the next train leaves for the letters field so back came rather heavy at heart and having spent ten or twelve shillings which i could ill afford my fruitless journey seemed a small thing however when i thought of the rising with his ten years and his dusty boots i can along a path however rough if it will but lead to something but may kindly fate keep me out of all de the did not receive me cordially upon my return there was a singular look upon both their faces which seemed to me to mean that they were disappointed at this in getting rid of me when i think of their absolute a few days ago and their reserved manner now i can make no sense out of it i asked point blank what it meant but he only turned it off with a forced laugh and some nonsense about my thin skin i think that i am the last man in the world to take offence where none is meant but at any rate i determined to end the matter by leaving at once it had struck me during my journey back from that would be a good place so on the very next day i started off taking my luggage with me and jo the letters bidding a final good bye to and his wife you rely upon me said c with something of his old as we shook hands on parting you get a good house in a central position put up your plate and hold on by your toe nails charge little or nothing until you get a connection and none of your professional or you are a broken man i ll see that you don t stop steaming for want of coal so with that comforting assurance i left them on the platform of the station the words seem kind do they not and yet taking this money every nerve in my body when i find that i can live on bread and water without it i will have no more of it but to do without it now would be for the man who cannot swim to throw off his life belt i had plenty of time on my way to to reflect upon my prospects and present situation my baggage consisted of a large a small leather trunk and a hat box the plate with my name engraved upon it was balanced upon the rack above my head in my box were a several medical books a sec the letters pair of boots two suits	4
more like what might happen to a man in a book but you may take it from me that it worked out just as i set it down here when i had finished my tea i wrote a few letters one to and one to then as it was a lovely evening i determined to stroll out and see what sort of a place it was upon which fate had washed me up best begin as you mean to go on thought i so i my frock coat put on my top hat and forth with my very respectable metal headed walking stick in my hand i walked down to the park which is the chief centre of the place and i found that i liked everything i saw of it it was a lovely evening and the air was fresh and sweet i sat down and listened to the band for an hour watching all the family parties and feeling particularly lonely music nearly always puts me into the minor key so there came a time when i could stand it no longer and i set off to find my way back to my lodgings on the whole i the letters felt that was a place in which a man might very well spend a happy life at one end of terrace where i am lodging there is a wide open space where streets meet in the centre of this stands a large lamp in the middle of a broad stone a foot or so high and ten or twelve across well as i strolled along i saw there was something going on round this lamp post a crowd of people had gathered with a in the centre i was of course absolutely determined not to get mixed up in any row but i could not help pushing my way through the crowd to see what was the matter it wasn t a pretty sight a woman pinched and with a baby on her arm was being knocked about by a brute of a fellow i judged to be her husband from the way in which he cherished her he was one of those dark eyed men who can look peculiarly malignant when they choose it was clear that he was half mad with drink and that she had been trying to him away from some den i was just in time to see him take a flying kick at her amid cries of shame from the crowd and then the letters forward again with the evident intention of having another the mob still vaguely if it had been old student days i should have sailed straight in as you or any other fellow would have done my flesh crept with my for the brute but i had also to think of what i was and where i was and what i had come there to do however there are some things which a man cannot stand so i took a couple of steps forward put my hand on the fellow s shoulder and said in as and genial a voice as i could muster come come my lad pull yourself together instead of pulling himself together he very nearly knocked me asunder i was all abroad for an instant he had turned on me like a flash and had struck me on the throat just under the chin my head being a little back at the moment it made me swallow once or twice i can tell you sudden as the blow was i had in the sort of way that a man who knows anything of does it was only from the elbow with no body behind it but it served to him off for the moment while i was making inquiries the letters about my then in he came with a rush and the crowd round with shrieks of delight we were pushed almost locked in each other s arms on to that big of which i have spoken go it little un give him beans the mob who had lost all sight of the origin of the and could only see that my opponent was two inches the shorter man so there my dear was i within a few hours of my entrance into this town with my top hat down to my ears my highly professional and my kid gloves fighting some low on a in one of the most public places in the heart of a yelling and hostile mob i ask you whether that was cruel luck or not told me before i started that was a lively place for the next few minutes it struck me as the i had ever seen the fellow was a round hand but so strong that he needed watching a round blow is as you know more dangerous than a straight one if it gets home for the angle of the jaw the ear and the temple are the three points which you present however i took particular care that my man did not get home but on the the letters other hand i tear that i did not do him much harm either he bored in with his head down and i like a fool broke my over the top of his impenetrable skull of course i should either have stepped back and tried an or else taken him into but i must confess to feeling and rattled from the blow i had had as as from the suddenness of the whole affair however i was down and i should in time have done something rational when the came to a sudden and unexpected end this was from the impatience and excitement of the crowd the folk behind wishing to see all that was going on pushed against those in front until half a dozen of the foremost with i think a woman among them were flung right up against us one of	4
these a rough sailor like fellow in a got between us and my in his blind rage got one of his swinging blows home upon this new comer s ear what you the sailor and in an instant he had taken over the whole contract and was at it hammer and with my beauty i my stick which had fallen among the crowd and the letters backed my way out rather but very glad to get off so from the shouting which i could hear some time after i reached the door of ray lodgings i gathered that a good battle was still raging you see it was the merest piece of luck in the world that my first appearance in was not in the dock of the police court i should have had no one to answer for me if i had been arrested and should have been put quite on a level with my adversary i you think i made a great fool of myself but i should like to know how i could have acted otherwise the only thing that i feel now is my loneliness what a lucky fellow you are with your wife and child after all i see more and more clearly that both men and women are creatures as long as they are single do what they may to persuade themselves that their state is the happiest they are still full of vague of dim ill defined of a tendency to narrow ways and selfish thoughts alone each is a half made being with every instinct and feeling yearning for its missing together they form a complete and the letters whole the minds of each strongest where that of the other needs i often think that if our souls survive death and i believe they do though i base my believe on very different grounds from yours every male soul will have a female one attached to or combined with it to round it off and give it so thought the old you remember who used it as an argument for his creed you cannot take your railway stocks into the next world with you he said but with all our wives and children we should make a good start in the world to come you are smiling at me as you read this from the ground of your two of matrimony it will be long before i shall be able to put my views into practice well good bye my dear old chap as i said at the beginning of my letter the very thought of you is good for me and never more so than at this moment when i am alone in a strange city with very prospects and an uncertain future we differ as widely as the poles you and i and have done ever since i have known you you are true to your faith i to my reason you to your family belief i to my own ideas but our friend the letters ship shows that the real of a man and his for others depends upon quite other things than views on abstract questions anyway i can say with all my heart that i wish i saw you with that old of yours between your teeth sitting in that american leather with the lodging house over the back of it it is good of you to tell me how interested you are in my commonplace adventures though if had not known that you were so you may be sure that i should never have ventured to inflict any of them upon you my future is now all involved in obscurity but it is obvious that the first thing i must do is to find a fitting house and my second to the landlord into letting me enter into possession of it without any to that i will turn myself to morrow morning and you shall know the result whom should i hear from the other day but of course it was a begging letter you can judge how far i am in a state to lose money but in a hot fit i sent him ten shillings which now in my cold i bitterly regret with every good wish to you and yours including your town your state and your great country yours as ever xi may is really a delightful place dear and i ought to know something about it seeing that i have a good hundred miles through its streets during the last seven days its springs used to be quite the mode a century or more ago and it many traces of its aristocratic past carrying it with a certain grace too as an might wear the faded dress which had once in i forget the new roaring with their out going and their wealth and i live in the queer health giving old city of the past the wave of fashion has long passed over it but a deposit of dreary respectability has been left behind in the high street you can see the long iron upon the where the link boys used to put out their instead of stamping upon them or the letters them on the pavement as was the custom in less high toned quarters there are the very high too so that lady or mrs could step out of coach or chair without her dainty satin shoes it brings home to me what an compound man is here are the stage as good as ever while the players have all split up into and and and with traces of iron and and a tray full of and three of water there is the raw material of my lady in the chair it s a curious double picture if one could but it up on the one side the high born the ladies the pushing and planning and striving every one of them to attain his own	4
petty object then for a jump of a hundred years what is this in the corner of the old vault and and we turn from it in and as we go we carry with us that from which we fly but mind you i have a very high respect for the human body and i hold that it has and by and the letters our gross frames and our miserable mortal clay are phrases which to my mind partake more of than of piety it is no compliment to the creator to his whatever theory or belief we may hold about the soul there can i suppose be no doubt that the body is immortal matter may be transformed in which case it may be re transformed but it can never be destroyed if a were to strike this of ours and to knock it into a fragments which were all over the system if its fiery breath were to up the earth s surface until it was like an orange still at the end of a hundred millions of years every of our bodies would exist in other forms and it is true but still those very which now form the forefinger which traces these words so the child with the same wooden bricks will build a wall then them on the table then a tower then once more and so ever with the same bricks but then our individuality i often wonder whether something of that will cling to our whether the dust of will ever the letters have something of him about it and be from that of i think it is possible that we do impress ourselves upon the of our own structure there are facts which tend to show that every tiny cell of which a man is composed contains in its a complete miniature of the individual of which it forms a part the itself from which we are all produced is as you know too small to be upon the point of a fine needle and yet within that narrow globe lies the not only for the features of two individuals but even their smallest tricks of habit and of thought well if a single cell contains so much perhaps a single and has more than we think have you ever had any personal experience of we had one in s practice just before his illness and we were both much excited about it they seem to me to be one of those little through which one may see deep into nature s workings in this case the fellow who was a clerk in the post office came to us with a swelling over his we opened it under the impression that it was an the letters and found inside some hair and a jaw with teeth in it you know that such cases are common enough in and that no museum is without an example but what are we to understand by it so startling a phenomenon must have a deep meaning that can only be i think that every cell in the body has the power latent in it by which it may the whole individual and that occasionally under some special circumstances some obscure nervous or excitement one of these of structure actually does make a clumsy attempt in that direction but my goodness where have i got to all this comes from the lamp posts and stones and i sat down to write such a practical letter too however i give you leave to be as and as you like in return says my head is like a bursting with all the seeds getting loose poor seed too i fear but some of it may lodge somewhere or not as fate pleases i wrote to you last on the night that i reached here next morning i set to work upon my task you would be surprised at least the letters i was to see how practical and i can be first of all i walked down to the and i bought a large shilling map of the town then back i came and pinned this out upon the lodging house table this done i set to work to study it and to arrange a series of walks by which i should pass through every street of the place you have no idea what that means until you try to do it i used to have breakfast get out about ten walk till one have a cheap luncheon i can do well on walk till four get back and note results on my map i put a cross for every empty house and a circle for every doctor so at the end of that time i had a complete of the whole place and could see at a glance where there was a possible opening and what opposition there was at each point in the meantime i had a most unexpected ally on the second evening a card was solemnly brought up by the landlady s daughter from the who occupied the room below on it was inscribed captain and then underneath in armed transport on the back of the card was written the letters captain armed transport presents his compliments to dr and would be glad of his company to supper at to this i answered dr presents his compliments to captain armed transport and will be most happy to accept his kind invitation what armed transport might mean i had not an idea but i thought it well to include it as he seemed so particular about it himself on descending i found a curious looking figure in a gray dressing gown with a purple cord he was an elderly his hair not quite white yet but well past mouse colour his beard and moustache however were of a brown and his face all and shot with wrinkles spare and	4
yet with hanging bags under his singular light blue eyes by god dr sir said he as he shook my hand i take it as very kind of you that you should accept an invitation i do sir by god this sentence was as it proved a very one for he nearly always began and ended each with an oath while the centre was as a on descending i found a outlook ing figure in a gray dressing the letters rule remarkable for a certain courtesy so regular was his that i may omit it and you suppose it every time that he opened his mouth a dash here and there will remind you it s been my practice dr sir to make friends with my neighbours through life and some strange neighbours i have had by sir humble as you see me i have sat with a general on my right and an admiral on my left and my toes up against a british that was when i commanded the armed transport in the black sea in burst up in the great gale in bay sir and not as much left as you could pick your teeth with there was a strong smell of in the room and an bottle upon the the captain himself spoke with a curious which i put down at first to a natural defect but his as he turned back to his showed me that he had had as much as he could carry not much to offer you dr sir the hind leg of a duck and a sailor s the letters come not royal navy sir though i have a sight better manners than many that are no sir i fly no false colours and put no r n after my name but tm the queen s servant by no marine about me have a wet sir it s the right stuff and i have drunk enough to know the difference well as the supper i warmed with the liquor and the food and i told my new acquaintance all about my plans and intentions i didn t how lonely i had been until i found the pleasure of talking he listened to it all with much sympathy and to my horror tossed off a whole full of neat to my success so enthusiastic was he that it was all i could do to prevent him from a second one you ll do it dr sir he cried i know a man when i see one and you ll do it there s my hand sir i m with you you needn t be ashamed to grasp it for by though i say it myself it s been open to the poor and shut to a bully ever since i could milk yes sir you ll make a good ship the letters mate and tm glad to have you on my for the remainder of the evening his fixed delusion was that i had come to serve under him and he read me long rambling lectures about ship s discipline still always addressing me as dr sir at last however his conversation became a foul young man is odious but a foul old one is surely the most sickening thing on earth one feels that the white upon the hair like that upon the mountain should signify a height attained i rose and bade him good night with a last impression of him leaning back in his a cigar end in the corner of his mouth his beard all with and his half glazed eyes looking sideways after me with the of a i had to go into the street and walk up and down for half an hour before i felt clean enough to go to bed well i wanted to see no more of my neighbour but in he came as i was sitting at breakfast smelling like a bar parlour with stale at every pore good morning dr sir said he the letters holding out a hand i compliment you sir you look fresh fresh and me with a head like a toy shop we had a pleasant quiet evening and i took nothing to hurt but it is the air of this place that settles me i can t bear up against it last year it gave me the horrors and i expect it will again youve off house hunting i suppose i start immediately after breakfast i take a cursed interest in the whole thing you may think it a impertinence but that s the way tm made as long as i can steam fu throw a rope to whoever wants a tow til tell you what til do dr sir fu stand on one tack if you ll stand on the other and tu let you know if i come across anything that will do there seemed to be no alternative between taking him with me or letting him go alone so i could only thank him and let him have every night he would turn up as a rule having i believe walked his ten or fifteen miles as as i had done he came with the most grotesque suggestions the letters once he had actually entered into with the owner of a huge shop a place that had been a s with a counter about sixty feet long his reason was that he knew an who had done very well a little further down on the other side poor old armed transport worked so hard that i could not help being touched and grateful yet i longed from my heart that he would stop for he was a most agent and i never knew what extraordinary step he might take in my name he introduced me to two other men one of them a singular looking creature named who was struggling along upon a wound having when only a senior lost the sight	4
overpowering here was a new chapter of my life about to be opened what was to be the end of it i had strength i had gifts what was i going to do with them all the world the street the the houses seemed to fall away and the of a figure and the unspeakable guide of the universe were for an instant face to face i was on my knees hurled down all against my own will as it were and even then i could find no words to say only vague and emotions and a wish to put my shoulder to the great wheel of good the letters what could i say every prayer seemed based on the idea that god was a man that he needed asking and and thanking should the of the wheel praise to the engineer let it rather harder and less yet i did i confess try to put the agitation of my soul into words i meant it for a prayer but when i considered afterwards the supposing and in case with which it was sprinkled it must have been more like a legal document and yet i felt soothed and happier as i went downstairs again i tell you this because if i put reason above emotion i would not have you think that i am not open to attacks of the latter also i feel that what i say about religion is too cold and i feel that there should be something warmer and sweeter and more comforting but if you ask me to buy this at the price of making myself believe a thing to be true which all that is nearest the divine in me cries out against then you are selling your too high i m a for god s own forlorn hope and i ll up the as long as i think i y the letters can see the flag of truth waving in front of me well my next two cares were to get and furniture the former i was sure that i could obtain on long credit while the latter i was absolutely determined not to get into debt over i wrote to the company giving the names of and of my father and ordering twelve pounds worth of and bottles must i should think have been one of their very largest customers so i knew very well that my order would meet with prompt attention there remained the more serious matter of the furniture i calculated that when my lodgings were paid for i might without quite my purse four pounds upon furniture not a large allowance for a good sized villa that would leave me a few shillings to go on with and before they were exhausted s pound would come in those pounds however would be needed for the rent so i could hardly reckon upon them at all as far as my immediate wants went i found in the the letters columns of the post that there was to be a sale of furniture that evening and i went down to the s rooms accompanied much against my will by captain who was very drunk and affectionate by god dr sir tm the man that s going to stick to you tm only an old sir with perhaps more liquor than sense but tm the queen s servant and touch my every quarter day i don t claim to be r n but i m not merchant service either here i am in lodgings but by dr sir i carried seven thousand from to bay i m with you dr and we put this thing through together we came to the rooms and we stood on the fringe of the crowd waiting for our chance presently up went a very neat little table i gave a nod and got it for nine shillings then three rather striking looking chairs black wood and cane four shillings each i gave for those then a metal four and sixpence that was a mere luxury but i was warming to the work a job the letters lot of curtains all tied together in a bundle went up somebody bid five shillings the s eye came round to me and i nodded mine again for five and sixpence then i bought a square of red for half a crown a small iron bed for nine shillings three paintings spring the player and castle for five shillings a tiny half a crown a toilet set five shillings another very small square table three and sixpence whenever i bid for anything thrust his black thorn up into the air and presently i found him doing so on my behalf when i had no intention of buying i narrowly escaped having to give fourteen and sixpence for a stuffed in a glass case it would do to hang in your hall dr sir said he when i remonstrated with him i should have to hang myself in my hall soon if i spent my money like that said i i ve got as much as i can afford now and i must stop when the was over i paid my bill and had my goods hoisted on to a the the letters porter undertaking to deliver them for two shillings i found that i had over estimated the co j of furnishing for the total expense was little more than three pounds we walked round to villa and i proudly deposited all my goods in the hall and here came another extraordinary example of the kindness of the poorer classes the porter when i had paid him went out to his and returned with a huge mat of as ugly a thing as i have ever set eyes upon this he laid down inside my door and then without a word brushing aside every remonstrance or attempt at thanks he vanished away with his into	4
happen to come your way he was on the when last i heard xii i when i had made all those dispositions which i described with such painful in my last letter my dear i sat down on my study chair and i laid out the whole of my worldly wealth upon the table in front of me i was startled when i looked at it three half crowns a and four or eleven and sixpence in all i had expected to hear from before this but at least he was always there a friend at my back immediately upon engaging the house i had written him a very full letter telling him that i had committed myself to keeping it for one year but assuring him that i was quite convinced that with the help which he had promised me i should be able to hold my own easily i described the favourable position of the house and gave him every detail of the rent and neighbourhood that letter would j s the letters i was sure bring a reply from him which would contain my weekly one thing i had above all determined upon that was that whatever hardships might lie before me i would fight through them without help from home i knew of course that my mother would have sold everything down to her gold eye glasses to help me and that no thought of our recent would have weighed with her for an instant but still a man has his feelings you know and i did not propose to act against her judgment and then run howling for help i sat in my house all day with that sense of privacy and novelty which had thrilled me when i first shut the street door behind me at evening i out and bought a loaf of bread half a pound of tea they call it and it cost a tin kettle a pound of sugar a tin of milk and a tin of american meat i had often heard my mother groan over the expenses of housekeeping and now i began to understand what she meant two and went like a flash but at least i had enough to keep myself going for some days the letters there was a convenient gas in the back room i a of wood into the wall above it and so made an arm upon which i could hang my little kettle and boil it over the flame the attraction of the idea was that there was no immediate expense and many things would have happened before i was called upon to pay the gas bill the back room was converted then into both kitchen and dining room the sole furniture consisted of my box which served both as cupboard as table and as chair my were all kept inside and when i wished for a meal i had only to pick them out and lay them on the lid leaving room for myself to sit beside them it was only when i went to my bedroom that i the which i had made in my furnishing there was no and no pillow or bed clothes my mind had been so upon the for the practice that i had never given a thought to ray own private wants i slept that night upon the irons of my bed and rose up like st from the my second suit of clothes with s principles of medicine made an the letters excellent pillow while on a warm june night a man can do well wrapped in his overcoat i had no fancy for second hand bed clothes and determined until i could buy some new ones to make myself a straw pillow and to put on both my suits of clothes on the colder nights two days later however the problem was solved in more luxurious style by the arrival of a big brown tin box from my mother which was as welcome to me and as much of a as the spanish wreck to robinson there were too pairs of thick blankets two sheets a a pillow a camp stool two stuffed bears of all things in this world two a tea two pictures in frames several books an ornamental ink pot and a number of and coloured it is not until you own a table with a deal top and mahogany legs that you understand what the true inner meaning of an ornamental cloth is right on the top of this treasure came a huge from the society with the which i had ordered when they were laid out in line the bottles extended right down one side of the the letters dining room and half down the other as i walked through my house and viewed my varied possessions i felt less radical in my views and begun to think that there might be something in the rights of property after all and i added to my effects in a marvellous way i made myself an excellent out of some and the straw in which the medicine bottles had been packed again out of three shutters which belonged to the room i up a very effective side table for my own den which when covered with a red cloth and ornamented with the bears might have cost twenty guineas for all that the patient could say to the contrary i had done all this with a light heart and a good spirit before the blow which i shall have to tell you about came upon me of course it was obvious from the first that a servant was out of the question i could not feed one far less pay one and i had no kitchen furniture i must open my door to my own let them think what they would of it i must clean my own plate and brush down my own front and these	4
duties must be thoroughly the letters done come what might for i must show a outside to the public well there was no great hardship in that for i could do it under the cover of night but i had had a suggestion from my mother which matters immensely she had written to say that if i wished she would send my little brother paul to keep me company i wrote back eagerly to agree he was a hardy cheery little fellow of nine who would i knew gladly share hard times with me while if they became so i could always have him taken home again some weeks must pass before he could come but it cheered me to think of him apart from his company there were a thousand ways in which he might be useful who should come in on the second day but old captain i was in the back room trying how many i could make out of a pound of beef when he rang my bell and i only just shut my mouth in time to prevent my heart jumping out how that bell through the empty house i saw who it was however when i went into the hall for the middle of my the letters door are of glazed glass so that i can always study a of my visitors before coming to closer quarters i was not quite sure yet whether i the man or liked him he was the most extraordinary mixture of charity and and self sacrifice that i had ever come across but he brought into the house with him a of and hope for which could not but be grateful he had a large brown paper parcel under his arm which he upon my table displaying a great brown jar this he carried over and deposited on the centre of my mantel piece you will permit me dr sir to place this trifle in your room it s sir from and made in by you may think its empty dr sir but it is full of my best wishes and when youve got the best practice in this town you may point to that and tell how it came from a of an armed transport who backed you from the start i tell you the tears started to my eyes and i could hardly out a word or the letters two of thanks what a cross of qualities in one human soul it was not the deed or the words but it was the almost womanly look in the eyes of this broken drink old the sympathy and the craving for sympathy which i read there only for an instant though for he hardened again into his usual reckless and half defiant manner there s another thing sir been thinking for some time back of having a medical opinion on myself td be glad to put myself under your hands if you would take a survey of me what s the matter i asked dr sir said he i am a walking museum you could fit what the matter with me on to the back of a visiting card if there s any complaint you want to make a special study of just you come to me sir and see what i can do for you it s not every one that can say that he has had three times and cured himself by living on red and brandy if you can only set the little they ll soon leave you alone that s my theory about and you the letters should make a note of it dr sir for i was with fifty dead men when i was commanding the armed transport in the black sea and i know well what i am talking about i fill in s oaths with because i feel how hopeless it is to their energy and variety i was amazed when he stripped for his whole body was covered with a perfect of with a big blue right over his heart you may knock said he when i began to his chest but i am sure there s no one at home they ve all gone visiting one another sir john had a try some years ago why man where s your liver said he seems to me that some one has stirred you up with a stick said he nothing is in its right place except my heart sir john said i aye by that will never lose its while it has a left well i examined him and i found his own account not very far from the truth i went over him carefully from head to foot and there was not much left as nature made it he had o the letters of the liver bright s disease an enlarged and i gave him a lecture about the necessity of if not of total but i fear that my words made no impression he chuckled and made a kind of noise in his throat all the time that i was speaking but whether in assent or remonstrance i cannot say he pulled out his purse when i had finished but i begged him to look on my small service as a mere little act of friendship this would not do at all however and he seemed so determined about it that i was forced to give way my fee is five shillings then since you insist upon making it a business matter dr sir he broke out i have been examined by men whom i wouldn t throw a bucket of water over if they were burning and i never paid them less than a guinea now that i have come to a gentleman and a friend me purple if i pay one less so after much argument it ended in the kind fellow going off and leaving a sovereign and a shilling on the edge	4
of my table the money burned my fingers for i knew that his the letters was not a very large one and yet since i could not avoid taking it there was no denying that it was exceedingly useful out i and spent sixteen shillings of it upon a new which should go under the straw upon my bed already you see i was getting to a state of luxury in my household arrangements and i could only lull my conscience by reminding myself that little paul would have to sleep with me when he came however i had not quite got to the end of s visit yet when i went back i took down the beautiful and inside i found his card on the back was written you have gone into action sir it may be your fate to sink or to swim but it can never be our degradation to strike die on the last plank and be damned to you or come into port with your flying mast high was it not fine it stirred my blood and the words rang like a call in my head it me and the time was coming when all the i could get would not be too much i copied it out and pinned it on one side of my mantel piece on the other i stuck up a the letters from which i is as familiar to you as to me one way or another all the light energy and available virtue which we have does come out of us and goes very into god s treasury living and working through there we are not lost not a single of us of one of us now there is a religious sentence which is satisfying and therefore morally sound this last quotation leads to my second visitor such a row we had i make a mistake in telling you about it for i know your sympathies will be against me but at least it will have the good effect of making you boil over into a letter of remonstrance and argument than which nothing could please me better well the second person whom i admitted through ray door was the high church of the parish at least i high church from his collar and the cross which from his watch chain he seemed to be a fine manly fellow in fact i am bound in honesty to admit that i have never met the outside the pages of punch as a body i think they would compare very well in the letters i do not say in brains with as many young lawyers or doctors still i have no love for the cloth just as cotton which is in itself the most harmless substance in the world becomes dangerous on being dipped into so the of mortals is to be feared if he is once soaked in religion if he has any or hardness in him it will bring it out i was therefore by no means to see my visitor though i trust that i received him with fitting courtesy the quick little glance of surprise which he shot round him as he entered my consulting room told me that it was not quite what he had expected you see the has been away for two years he explained and we have to look after things in his absence his chest is weak and he can t stand i live just opposite and seeing your plate go up i thought i would call and welcome you into our parish i told him that i was very much obliged for the attention if he had stopped there all would have been well and we should have had a pleasant little chat but i suppose it was his sense of duty which would not permit it the letters i trust said he that we shall see you at st joseph s i was compelled to explain that it was not probable a roman catholic he asked in a not voice i shook my head but nothing would him not a he exclaimed with a sudden of his genial face i shook my head again ah a little a little he said and with an expression of relief professional men get into these ways they have much to them at least you cling fast no doubt to the truths of christianity i believe from the bottom of my heart said i that the founder of it was the best and sweetest character of whom we have any record in the history of this planet but instead of soothing him my answer seemed to be taken as a challenge i trust said he severely that your belief goes further than that you are surely prepared to the letters admit that he was an of the i began to feel like the old in his hole who to have a scratch at the black which is so eager to draw him does it not strike you i said that if he were but a frail mortal like ourselves his life a much deeper significance it then becomes a standard towards which we might work if on the other hand he was of a different nature to ourselves then his existence loses its point since we and he start upon a different basis to my mind it is obvious that such a supposition takes away the beauty and the moral of his life if he was divine then he could not sin and there was an end of the matter we who are not divine and can sin have little to learn from a life like that he over sin said my visitor as if a text or a phrase were an argument a cheap triumph i said you remember that roman emperor who used to descend into the fully armed and pit himself against some poor wretch who	4
had only a the letters leaden foil which would double up at a thrust according to your theory of your master s life you would have it that he faced the temptations of this world at such an advantage that they were only harmless leaden things and not the sharp which we find them i confess in my own case that my sympathy is as strong when i think of his weaknesses as of his wisdom and his virtue they come more home to me i suppose since i am weak myself perhaps you would be good enough to tell me what has impressed you as weak in his conduct asked my visitor stiffly well the more human traits weak is hardly the word i should have used his rebuke of the his personal violence to the his against the his rather against the fig tree because it bore no fruit at the wrong season of the year his very human feeling towards the who about when he was talking his gratification that the should have been used for him instead of being devoted to the poor his self distrust the letters before the crisis these make me and love the man you are a then or rather perhaps a mere said the with a flush you may me as you like i answered and by this time i fear that i had got my preaching stop fairly out i don t pretend to know what truth is for it is infinite and i but i know particularly well what it is not it is not true that religion reached its nineteen hundred years ago and that we are for ever to refer back to what was written and said in those days no sir religion is a vital living thing still growing and working capable of endless extension and development like all other fields of thought there were many eternal truths spoken of old and handed down to us in a book some parts of which may indeed be called holy but there are others yet to be revealed and if we are to reject them because they are not in those pages we should act as wisely as the who would take no notice of analysis because there is no mention of it in the letters a modern prophet may wear a coat and write to the magazines but none the less he may be the little pipe which a tiny from the of truth look at this i cried rising and reading my text that comes from no hebrew prophet but from a in he and are also among the the almighty has not said his last say to the human race and he can speak through a or a new as easily as through a jew the bible sir is a book which comes out in and to be continued not is written at the end of it my visitor had been showing every sign of acute uneasiness during this long speech of mine finally he sprang to his feet and took his hat from the table your opinions are highly dangerous sir said he it is duty to tell you so you believe in nothing nothing which limits the power or the goodness of the almighty i answered you have all this from your own the letters spiritual pride and self said he hotly why do you not turn to that deity whose name you use why do you not humble yourself before him how do you know i don t you said yourself that you never went to church i carry my own church about under my own hat said i bricks and mortar won t make a staircase to heaven i believe with your master that the human heart is the best temple i am sorry to see that you differ from him upon the point perhaps it was too bad of me to say that i might have guarded without anyhow it had the effect of ending an interview which was becoming oppressive my visitor was too indignant to answer and swept out of the room without a word from my window i could see him hurry down the street a little black angry thing very hot and troubled because he cannot measure the whole universe with his pocket square and think of it and think of what he is an among standing at the meeting point of two the letters but what am i a brother that i should judge him after all i own to you that it might have been better had i listened to what he had to say and refused to give my own views on the other hand truth must be as broad as the universe which it is to explain and therefore far broader than anything which the mind of man can conceive a protest against thought must always be an towards truth who shall dare to claim a of the almighty it would be an insolence on the part of a system and yet it is done every day by a hundred little of mystery there lies the real well the of it all is my dear that i have begun my practice by making an enemy of the man who of the whole parish has the most power to injure me i know what my father would think about it if he knew and now i come to the great event of this morning from which i am still gasping that villain has cut the painter and left me to drift as best i may the letters my post comes at eight o clock in the morning and i usually get my letters and take them into bed to read them there was only one this morning addressed in his strange unmistakable hand i made sure of course that it was my promised and i opened it with a feeling of	4
expectation this is a copy of what i read when the maid was arranging your room after your departure she cleared some pieces of torn paper from under the grate seeing my name upon them she brought them as in duty bound to her mistress who them together and found that they formed a letter from your mother to you in which i am referred to in the terms such as a and the i can only say that we are astonished that you could have been a party to such a correspondence while you were a guest under our roof and we refuse to have anything more to do with you in any shape or form that was a nice little morning greeting was it not after i had on the strength of his i the letters promise started in practice and engaged a house for a year with a few shillings in my pocket i have given up smoking for reasons of economy but i felt that the situation was worthy of a pipe so i climbed out of bed gathered a little heap of tobacco dust from the of my pocket and smoked the whole thing over that life belt of which i had spoken so had burst and left me to kick as best i might in very deep water i read the note over and over again and for all my i could not help laughing at the mingled meanness and stupidity of the thing the picture of the host and hostess themselves in together the torn letters of their departed guest struck me as one of the things i could remember and there was the stupidity of it because surely a child could have seen that my mother s attack was in answer to my defence why should we write a each saying the same thing well i m still very confused about it all and i don t in the least know what i am going to more likely to die on the last plank than to get into port with my the letters mast high i must think it out and let you know the result come what may one thing only is sure and that is that in or woe i remain ever your affectionate and friend xiii i i ta ss when i wrote my last letter my dear i was still gasping like a on a sand bank after my final dismissal by the mere setting of it all down in black and white seemed to clear the matter up and i felt much more cheery by the time i had finished my letter i was just addressing the envelope observe what a continuous narrative you get of my proceedings when i was set jumping out of my carpet slippers by a ring at the bell through the glass i observed that it was a respectable looking bearded individual with a top hat it was a patient it must be a patient then first i what an entirely different thing it is to treat the patient of another man as i had done with or to work a branch of another man s practice as i had done with and the letters to have to do with a complete stranger on your own account i had been thrilling to have one now that he had come i felt for an instant as if i would not open the door but of course that was only a momentary weakness i answered his ring with i fear rather a air of as though i had happened to find myself in the hall and did not care to trouble the maid to ascend the stairs dr he asked pray step in i answered and waved him into the consulting room he was a heavy stepping thick sort of person but to me he was an angel from on high i was nervous and at the same time so afraid that he should detect my and lose confidence in me that i found myself drifting into an extravagant he seated himself at my invitation and gave a cough ah said i i always myself on being quick at i perceive these summer are a little trying yes said he had it some time with a little care and treatment i suggested the letters he did not seem sanguine but groaned and shook his head it s not about that come said he no my heart turned to lead no doctor he took out a it s about a small sum that s due on the you ll laugh but it was no laughing matter to me he wanted eight and sixpence on account of something that the last tenant either had or had not done otherwise the company would remove the gas how little he could have guessed that the alternative he was presenting to me was either to pay away more than half my capital or to give up cooking my food i at last appeased him by a promise that i should look into the matter and so escaped for the moment badly shaken but still he gave me a good deal of information about the state of his his own not the gas company s before he departed but i had rather lost interest in the subject since i had learned that he was being treated by his club doctor that was the first of my morning incidents the letters my second followed hard upon the heels of it another ring came and from my post of observation i saw that a s van hung with baskets and chairs had drawn up at the door two or three people appeared to be standing outside i understood that they wished me to purchase some of their wares so merely opened the door about three inches said no thank you and closed it they seemed not to have heard	4
me for they rang again upon which i opened the door wider and spoke more decidedly imagine my surprise when they rang again i flung the door open and was about to ask them what they meant by their impudence when one of the little group upon my said if you please sir it s the baby never was there such a change from the outraged to the professional man pray step in madam said i in quite my most style and in they all came the husband the brother the wife and the baby the latter was in the early stage of they were poor outcast sort of people and seemed not to have sixpence among them so my demands for a fee at the end of the consultation ended first in my the letters giving the medicine for nothing and finally adding in which was all the small change i had a few more such and i am a broken man however the two incidents together had the effect of taking up my attention and breaking the blow which i had had in the letter it made me laugh to think that the apparent should prove to be a patient and the apparent patient an so back i went in a much more frame of mind to read that precious document over again and to make up my mind what it was that i should do and now i came to my first real insight into the depths which lie in the character of i began by trying to recall how i could have torn up my mother s letters for it is not usual for me to destroy papers in this manner i have often been about the way in which i allow them to until my pockets become the more i thought about it the more convinced i was that i could not have done anything of the sort so finally i got out the little house jacket which i had usually worn at and i examined the the letters of letters which it contained it was there almost the very first one that i opened was the identical one from which was quoting in which my mother had described him in those rather forcible terms well this made me sit down and gasp i am i think one of the most men upon earth and through a certain easy going of disposition i never even think of the possibility of those with whom i am brought in contact trying to deceive me it does not occur to me but let me once get on that line of thought let me have proof that there is reason for suspicion and then all faith slips completely away from me now could see an explanation for much which had puzzled me at those sudden fits of ill temper the occasional ill concealed of did they not mark the arrival of each of my mother s letters i was convinced that they did he had read them then read them from the pockets of the little house coat which i used to leave carelessly in the hall when i put on my professional one to go out i could remember for example how at the end of his illness his the letters manner had suddenly changed on the very day when that final letter of my mother s had arrived yes it was certain that he had read them from the beginning but a depth of treachery lay beyond if he had read them and if he had been insane enough to think that i was acting towards him why had he not said so at the time why had he contented himself with and quarrelling over breaking too into forced smiles when i had asked him point blank what was the matter one obvious reason was that he could not tell his grievance without telling also how he had acquired his information but i knew enough of s resource to feel that he could easily have got over such a difficulty as that in fact in this last letter he had got over it by his tale about the grate and the maid he must have had some stronger reason for restraint as i thought over the course of our relations i was convinced that his scheme was to me on by promises until i had committed myself and then to abandon me so that i should myself have no resource but to compound with my the letters i to be in fact that which my mother had called him but in that case he must have been planning it out almost from the beginning of my stay with him for my mother s letters his conduct had begun very early for some time he had been uncertain how to proceed then he had invented the excuse which seemed to me at the time if you remember to be quite inadequate about the slight weekly decline in the practice in order to get me out of it his next move was to persuade me to start for myself and as this would be impossible without money he had encouraged me to it by the promise of a small weekly loan i remembered how he had told me not to be afraid about ordering furniture and other things because gave long credit to and i could always fall back upon him if necessary he knew too from his own experience that the landlord would require at least a year s then he waited to spring his mine until i had written to say that i had finally committed myself on which by return of post came his letter breaking the connection it was so long and so the letters elaborate a course of deceit that i for the first time felt something like fear as i thought of it was as	4
though in the guise and dress of a man i had caught a sudden glimpse of something sub human of something so outside my own range of thought that i was powerless against it well i wrote him a little note only a short one but with i hope a bit of a to it i said that his letter had been a source of gratification to me as it removed the only cause for between my mother and myself she had always thought him a and i had always defended him but i was forced now to confess that she had been right from the beginning i said enough to show him that i saw through his whole plot and i wound up by assuring him that if he thought he had done me any harm he had made a great mistake for i had every reason to believe that he had forced me into the very opening which i had most desired myself after this bit of i felt better and i thought over the situation i was alone in a strange town without connections without in the letters with less than a pound in my pocket and with no possibility of myself from my i had no one at all to look to for help for all my recent letters from home had given a dreary account of the state of things there my poor father s health and his income were together on the other hand i reflected that there were some points in my favour i was young i was energetic i had been brought up hard and was quite prepared to rough it i was well up in my work and believed i could get on with my house was an excellent one for my purpose and i had already put the of furniture into it the game was not played out yet i jumped to my feet and clenched my hand and swore to the that it never should be played out until i had to for help from the window for the next three days i had not a single ring at the bell of any sort whatever a man could not be more isolated from his kind it used to amuse me to sit upstairs and count how many of the by stopped to look at my plate once on a sunday morning there were the letters over a hundred in an hour and often i could see from their glancing over their shoulders as they walked on that they were thinking or talking of the new doctor this used to cheer me up and make me feel that something was going on every night between nine and ten i slip out and do my modest having already made my for the coming day i come back usually with a loaf of bread a paper of fish or a bundle of then when i think things are sufficiently quiet i go out and brush down the front with my leaning it against the wall and looking up at the stars whenever anyone passes then later still i bring out my my rag and my leather and i assure you that if practice went by the brilliancy of one s plate i should sweep the town who do you think was the first person who broke this spell of silence the whom i had fought under the lamp post he is a it seems and rang to know if i had a job for him i could not help grinning at him when i opened the door and saw who it the letters was he showed no sign of me however which is hardly to be wondered at the next comer was a real patient a very modest one she was a little old maid a i should judge who had probably worked her way round every doctor in the town and was anxious to this novelty i don t know whether i gave her satisfaction she said that she would come again on wednesday but her eyes shifted as she said it one and sixpence was as much as she could pay but it was very welcome i can live three days on one and sixpence i think that i have brought economy down to its finest point no doubt for a short spell i could manage to live on a couple of pence a day but what i am doing now is not to be a mere but my regular mode of life for many a month to come my tea and sugar and milk come to one penny a day the loaf is at three and i one a day my dinner consists in of one third of a pound of bacon o the letters cooked over the gas or two or two pieces of fish or a quarter of an tin of beef any one of these with a due allowance of bread and water makes a most substantial meal butter i have discarded for the present my actual board therefore comes well under sixpence a day but i am a patron of literature to the extent of a a day which i upon an evening paper for with events hurrying on like this in i cannot bear to be without the news still i often reproach myself with that for if i went out in the evening and looked at the i might save it and yet have a general idea of what is going on of course a a night sounds nothing but think of a shilling a month perhaps you picture me as and pulled down on this diet i am thin it is true but i never felt more fit in my life so full of energy am i that i start off sometimes at ten at night and walk hard until two or three in the morning i dare not go	4
out during the day you see for fear that i should miss a patient i have asked my the letters mother not to send little paul down yet until i see my way more clearly old came in to see me the other day the object of his visit was to invite me to dinner and the object of the dinner to my starting in practice if i w ere the kind old fellow s son he could not take a deeper interest in me and my prospects by dr sir said he i ve asked every man in that s got anything the matter with him you ll have the lot as within a week there s who s got a touch of s three star he s coming and there s who talks about nothing but his i m sick of his but i asked him and there s s wound this wet weather sets it and his own surgeon can do nothing but it with he ll be there and there s who is drinking himself to death he has not much for the doctors but what there is you may as well have all next day he kept in to ask me questions about the dinner should we have clear soup or ox tail didn t i think that o the letters was better than port and the day after was the itself and he was in with a immediately after breakfast the cooking was to be done at a neighbouring s the landlady s son was coming in to wait i was sorry to see that was already his words together and had evidently been himself heavily he looked in again in the afternoon to tell me what a good time we should have so and so could talk well and the other man could sing a song he was so far gone by now that i ventured in the capacity of medical adviser to speak to him about it it s not the liquor dr sir said he earnestly it s the air of this town but i ll go home and lie i ll down and be as fresh as paint to welcome my guests but the excitement of the impending event must have been too much for him when i arrived at five minutes to seven the wounded lieutenant met me in the hall with a face of ill omen it s all up with said he what s the matter on the sofa was our unfortunate host the letters blind speechless and come and look the table in his room was nicely laid for dinner and several with a large cold lay upon the on the sofa was stretched our unfortunate host his head back his beard pointing to the and a half finished of upon the chair beside him all our shakes and shouts could not break in upon that serene what are we to do gasped we must not let him make an exhibition of himself we had better get him away before any one else arrives so we bore him off all in and curves like a dead and deposited him upon his bed when we returned three other guests had arrived you ll be sorry to hear that is not very well said dr thought it would be better that he should not come down in fact i have ordered him to bed said i then i move that mr be called io the letters upon to act as host said one of the new comers and so it was at once agreed presently the other men arrived but there was no sign of the dinner we waited for a quarter of an hour but nothing appeared the landlady was summoned but could give no information captain ordered it from a s sir said she in reply to the lieutenant s cross examination he did not tell me which s it might have been any one of four or five he only said that it would all come right and that i should an apple another quarter of an hour passed and we were all it was evident that had made some mistake we began to roll our eyes towards the apple pie as the boat s crew does towards the boy in the stories of a large hairy man with an anchor upon his hand rose and set the pie in front of what d you say gentlemen shall i serve it out we all drew up at the table with a decision the letters which made words superfluous in five minutes the pie dish was as clean as when the cook first saw it and our ill luck vanished with the pie a minute later the landlady s son entered with the soup and s head roast beef game and ice followed in due succession it all came from some misunderstanding about time but we did them justice in spite of the curious d with which we had started and a pleasanter dinner or a more evening i have seldom had sorry i was so over dr sir said next morning i need country and a air not a lawn like this well i m glad to hear that you gentlemen enjoyed yourselves and i hope you found everything to your satisfaction i assured him that we did but i had not the heart to tell him about the apple pie i tell you these trivial matters my dear just to show you that i am not down on my luck and that my life is not pitched in the minor key altogether in spite of my queer situation but to turn to graver things i was the letters right glad to get your letter and to read all your about science don t imagine that my are wrung by what you say for i agree almost every word of it the man who	4
claims that we can know nothing is to my mind as unreasonable as he who that everything has been revealed to us i know nothing more than the complacent type of who knows very exactly all that he does know but has not imagination enough to understand what a speck his little of doubtful is when compared with the of our ignorance he is the person who thinks that the universe can be explained by laws as if a not require construction as well as a world the motion of the engine can be explained by the laws of but that has not made the foregoing presence of an engineer less obvious in this world however part of the beautiful of things depends upon the fact that whenever you have an exaggerated of any sort his exact opposite at once springs up to him you have a up a cm the letters you have a up an every force has its and so these more hide bound must be set against those gentlemen who still believe that the world was created in the year b c after all true science must be with religion since science is the of fact and facts are all that we have from which to what we are and why we are here but surely the more we into the methods by which results are about the more and wonderful becomes the great unseen power which lies behind the power which the system in safety through space and yet the length of the insects to the depth of the honey bearing flower what is that central intelligence you may fit up your with a and with a with a six foot but neither near nor far can he get a trace of that great driving power what should we say of a man who has a great and beautiful picture submitted to him and who having satisfied himself that the account given of the painting of the picture is at once the letters that no one ever painted it or at least that he has no possible means of knowing whether an artist has produced it or not that is as it seems to me a fair statement of the position of some of the more extreme is not the mere existence of the picture in itself a proof that a skilful artist has been busied upon it one might ask why no says the it is possible that the picture produced itself by the aid of certain rules besides when the picture was first submitted to me i was assured that it had all been produced within a week but by examining it i am able to say with certainty that it has taken a considerable time to put together i am therefore of opinion that it is questionable whether any one ever painted it at all leaving this exaggerated scientific caution on the one side and faith on the other as being equally there remains the clear line of reasoning that a universe the existence of a universe maker and that we may from it some of his attributes his power his wisdom his for small wants his providing of luxuries for his creatures on the other hand do not let us be enough to the the letters mystery which lies in pain in cruelty in all which seems to be a upon his work the best that we can say for them is to hope that they are not as bad as they seem and possibly lead to some higher end the voices of the ill used child and of the tortured animal are the hardest of all for the philosopher to answer good bye old chap it is quite delightful to think that on one point at least we are in agreement xiv i i th january you write reproachfully my dear and you say that absence must have weakened our close friendship since i have not sent you a line during this long seven months the real truth of the matter is that i had not the heart to write to you until i could tell you something cheery and something cheery has been terribly long in coming at present i can only claim that the cloud has perhaps a little at the edges you see by the address of this letter that i still hold my ground but between ourselves it has been a terrible fight and there have been times when that last plank of which old wrote seemed to be slipping out of my clutch i have and flowed sometimes with a little money sometimes without at my best i was living hard at my worst i was very close upon starvation i have lived for a whole day upon the crust of a the letters loaf when i had ten pounds in silver in the drawer of my table but those ten pounds had been most painfully scraped together for my quarter s rent and would have tried twenty four hours with a tight leather belt before i would have broken in upon it for two days i could not raise a stamp to send a letter i have smiled when i have read in my evening paper of the of our fellows in egypt their broken would have been a banquet to me however what odds how you take your and and as long as you do get it the garrison of villa has passed the worst and there is no talk of surrender it was not that i have had no they have come in as well as could be expected some like the little old maid who was the first never returned i fancy that a doctor who opened his own door their confidence others have become warm but they have nearly all been very poor people and when you consider how many one and are necessary in order to make up the	4
fifteen pounds which i must find every quarter for rent taxes gas and water you will understand that even with some success i the letters i have still found it a hard matter to keep anything in the which serves me as however my boy two quarters are paid up and i enter upon a third one with my courage i have lost about a stone but not my heart i have rather a vague recollection of when it was exactly that my last was written i fancy that it must have been a fortnight after my start immediately after my breach with it s rather hard to know where to begin when one has so many events to from each other and trivial in themselves yet which have each loomed large as i came upon them though they look small enough now that they are so far as i have mentioned i may as well say first the little that is to be said about him i answered his letter in the way which i have i think already described i hardly expected to hear from him again but my note had evidently stung him and i had a message in which he said that if i wished him to believe in my whatever he may have meant by that i would return the money which i had had during the time that i was with him at the letters to this i replied that the sum was about twelve pounds that i still retained the message in which he had me three hundred pounds if i came to that the balance in my favour was two hundred and eighty eight pounds and that unless i had a by return i should put the matter into the hands of my this put a final end to our correspondence there was one other incident however one day after i had been in practice about two months i observed a bearded commonplace looking person lounging about on the other side of the road in the afternoon he was again visible from my consulting room window when i saw him there once more next morning my suspicions were aroused and they became when a day or so afterwards i came out of a patient s house in a poor street and saw the same fellow looking into a s shop upon the other side i walked to the end of the street waited round the corner and met him as he came hurrying after you can go back to dr and tell him that i have as much to do as i care for said i if you spy upon me after this it will be at your own risk the letters he and coloured but i walked on and saw him no more there was no one on earth who could have had a motive for wanting to what i was doing except and the man s silence was enough in itself to prove that i was right i have heard nothing of since i had a letter from my uncle in the sir alexander shortly after my start telling me that he had heard of my proceedings from my mother and that he hoped to learn of my success he is as i think you know an ardent like all my father s people and he told me that the chief minister in the town was an old friend of his own that he had learned from him that there was no doctor and that being of a stock myself if i would present the enclosed letter of introduction to the minister i should certainly find it very much to my advantage i thought it over and it seemed to me that it would be playing it rather low down to use a religious to my own advantage when i condemned them in the abstract it was a sore temptation but i destroyed the letter the letters i had one or two pieces of luck in the way of accidental cases one which was of immense importance to me was that of a named who fell down in a fit outside the floor of his shop was passing on my way to see a poor with you may believe that i saw my chance in treated the man the wife the child and gained over the whole household he had these attacks and made an arrangement with me by w hich i was to deal with him and we were to balance bills against each other it was a compact by which a fit to him meant butter and bacon to me while a spell of health for sent me back to dry bread and however it enabled me to put by for the rent many a shilling which must otherwise have gone in food at last however the poor fellow died and there was our final settlement two small accidents occurred near my door it was a busy crossing and though i got little enough from either of them i ran down to the newspaper office on each occasion and had the gratification of seeing in the evening edition that the driver though much shaken is pronounced the letters by dr of villa to have suffered no serious injury as used to say it is hard enough for the young doctor to push his name into any and he must take what little chances he has perhaps the fathers of the profession would shake their heads over such a proceeding in a little provincial journal but i was never able to see that any of them were very averse from seeing their own names to the of some sick in the times and then there came another and a more serious accident this would be about two months after the beginning though already i find it hard to put things in their due order a lawyer in the town	4
named was riding past my windows when the horse reared up and fell upon him i was eating in the back room at the time but i heard the noise and rushed to the door in time to meet the crowd who were carrying him in they into my house thronged my hall my consulting room and even pushed their way into my back room which they found furnished with a a lump of bread and a cold however i had no thought for any one but my the letters patient who was groaning most dreadfully i saw that his ribs were right tested his joints ran my hand down his limbs and concluded that there was no break or he had strained himself in such a way however that it was very painful to him to sit or to walk i sent for an open carriage therefore and conveyed him to his home i sitting with my most professional air and he standing straight up between my hands the carriage went at a walk and the crowd behind with all the folk looking out of the windows so that a more glorious advertisement could not be conceived it looked like the advance guard of a at his house however professional etiquette demanded that i should hand the case over to the family attendant which i did with as good a grace as possible not without some lingering hope that the old established might say you have taken such very good care of my patient dr that i should not dream of removing him from your hands on the contrary he snatched it away from me with and i retired some credit an excellent advertisement and a guinea these are one or two of the points of interest the letters which show above the dead monotony of my life small enough as you see but even a large in holland in the main it is a dreary sordid record of shillings gained and shillings spent of for this and for that with ever some fresh slip of blue paper fluttering down upon me left so by the tax and meaning such a dead weight pull to me the irony of my paying a poor rate used to amuse me i should have been collecting it thrice at a crisis i my watch and thrice i rallied and rescued it but how am i to interest you in the details of such a career now if a fair had been so good as to slip on a piece of orange before my door or if the chief merchant in the town had been saved by some tour de force upon my part or if i had been summoned out at midnight to attend some nameless person in a lonely house with a fee for silence then i should have something worthy of your attention but the long months and months during which i listened to the throb of the s heart and the rustle of the s lungs present little which is not dull and dreary no good angels came my way the letters wait a bit though one did i was at six in the morning one day by a ringing at my bell and creeping to the angle of the stair i saw through the glass a stout gentleman in a outside much excited with a thousand one another in my head i ran back pulled on some clothes rushed down opened the door and found myself in the grey morning light face to face with the good fellow had come down from in an excursion train and had been travelling all night he had an umbrella under his arm and two great straw baskets in each hand which contained when a cold leg of mutton half a dozen of beer a bottle of port and all sorts of and luxuries we had a great day together and when he rejoined his excursion in the evening he left a very much man than he had found talking of you me if you think as you seem to imply that i take a dark view of things it is true that i some which you possess because i cannot convince myself that they are genuine but in this world at least i see immense reason for hope and as to the next i am confident the letters that all will be for the best from to i am ready to myself to whatever the great s secret plan my be but there is much in the prospects of this world to set a man s heart singing good is rising and evil sinking like oil and water in a bottle the race is improving there are far fewer criminal convictions there is far more education people sin less and think more when i meet a brutal looking fellow i often think that he and his type may soon be as extinct as the great i am not sure that in the interest of the we ought not to a few specimens of bill to show our children s children what sort of a person he was and then the more we progress the more we tend to progress we advance not in but in we draw compound interest on the whole capital of knowledge and virtue which has been accumulated since the dawning of time some eighty thousand years are supposed to have existed between and man yet in all that time he to grind his flint stones instead of them but within our father s lives what the letters changes have there not been the railway and the telegraph and applied ten years now go further than a thousand then not so much on account of our finer as because the light we have shows us the way to more man stumbled along with peering eyes and slow uncertain footsteps now we walk briskly towards	4
our unknown goal and i wonder what that goal is to be i mean of course as far as this world is concerned ever since man first scratched upon an or with upon he must have wondered as we wonder to day i suppose that we do know a little more than they we have an arc of about three thousand years given us from which to calculate out the course to be described by our descendants but that arc is so tiny when compared to the vast ages which providence uses in working out its designs that our from it must i think be uncertain will be by it happened once before because the were tiny of light in the midst of darkness but what for example could break down the great country in which you dwell no our the letters will endure and grow more complex man will live in the air and below the water medicine will develop until old age shall become the sole cause of death education and a more scheme of society will do away with crime the english speaking races will unite with their centre in the united states gradually the european states will follow their example war will become rare but more terrible the forms of religion will be abandoned but the essence will be maintained so that one universal creed will embrace the whole earth which will preach trust in that central power which will be as unknown then as now that s my and after that the system may be ripe for picking but and will be blowing about on the west wind and the panes of careful long before the half of it has come to pass and then man himself will change of course the teeth are going rapidly youve only to count the brass plates in to be sure of that and the hair also and the sight instinctively when we think of the more advanced type of young man we picture him as the letters bald and with double eye glasses i am an absolute animal myself and my only sign of advance is that two of my back teeth are going on the other hand there is some evidence in favour of the development of a sixth sense that of perception if i had it now i should know that you are heartily weary of all my and and certainly there must be a of in it when we begin laying down laws about the future for how do we know that there are not phases of nature coming upon us of which we have formed no conception after all a few seconds are a longer of a day than an average life is of the period during which we know that the world has been in existence but if a man lived only for a few seconds of daylight his son the same and his son the same what would their united experiences after a hundred generations tell them of the phenomenon which we call night so all our history and knowledge is no that our earth is not destined for experiences of which we can form no conception but to drop down from the universe to my own s of an existence i think i have told you everything that might interest you of the letters the first six months of my venture towards the end of that time my little brother paul came down and the best of companions he is he shares the of my little in the spirit takes me out of my goes long walks with me is interested in all that interests me i always talk to him exactly as if he were of my own age and is quite ready to turn his hand to anything from boot to medicine carrying his one is cutting out of paper or buying in lead on the rare occasion when we find a an army of little soldiers i have brought a patient into the consulting room and found a torrent of cavalry and pouring across the table i have been myself attacked as i sat silently writing and have looked up to find of sharp pushing up towards me columns of in reserve a troop of cavalry on my flank while a battery of on the ridge of my medical dictionary has my whole position with the round smiling face of the general behind it all i don t know how many he has on a peace footing but if serious trouble were the letters to break out i am convinced that every sheet of paper in the house would spring to arms one morning i had a great idea which has had the effect of our domestic economy it was at the time when the worst pinch was over and when we had got back as far as butter and occasional tobacco with a calling daily which gives you a great sense of when you have not been used to it paul my boy said i i see my way to fitting up this house with a whole of servants for nothing he looked pleased but not surprised he had a wholly confidence in my powers so that if i had suddenly declared that i saw my way to queen victoria from her throne and myself upon it he would have come without a question to aid and i took a piece of paper and wrote to let a floor in exchange for services apply i there paul said i run down to the the letters evening news office and pay a shilling for three there was no need of three one would have been ample within half an hour of the appearance of the first edition i had an at the end of my bell wire and for the remainder of the evening paul was them in and i them with hardly a break	4
i should have been prepared at the outset to take anything in a but as we saw the demand increase our conditions went up and up white proper dress for answering door doing beds and boots cooking we became more and more so at last we made our selection a miss who asked leave to bring her sister with her she was a hard faced person whose appearance in a bachelor s household was not likely to cause a scandal her nose was in itself a of virtue she was to bring her furniture into the and i was to give her and her sister one of the two upper rooms for a bedroom they moved in a few days later i was out at the time and the first intimation i had was the letters finding three little dogs in my hall when i returned i had her up and explained that this was a breach of contract and that i had no thoughts of running a she pleaded very hard for her little dogs which it seems are a mother and two daughters of some rare breed so i at last gave in on the point the other sister appeared to lead a sort of existence for though i caught a glimpse of her round the corner at times it was a good month before i could have sworn to her in a police court for a time the arrangement worked well and then there came one morning coming down earlier than usual i saw a small bearded man the inside chain of my door i captured him before he could get it open well said i what s this if you please sir said he tm miss s husband dreadful doubts of my housekeeper flashed across my mind but i thought of her nose and was reassured an examination revealed everything she was a married woman the lines were solemnly produced her husband was a the letters seaman she had passed as a miss because she thought i was more likely to take a housekeeper without her husband had come home unexpectedly from a long voyage and had returned last night and then plot within plot the other woman was not her sister but a friend whose name was miss she thought i was more likely to take two sisters than two friends so we all came to know who the other was and i having given jack permission to remain assigned the other top room to miss from absolute solitude i seemed to be rapidly developing into the keeper of a casual ward it was a never failing source of joy to us to see the procession pass on the way to their rooms at night first came a dog then miss with a candle then jack then another dog and finally mrs with her candle in one hand and another dog under her arm jack was with us for three weeks and as i made him the whole place down twice a week until the boards were like a quarter deck we got something out of him in return for his lodging the letters about this time finding a few shillings over and no expense imminent i laid down a cellar in the shape of a four and a half of beer with a firm resolution that it should never be touched save on high days and holidays or when guests had to be entertained shortly afterwards jack went away to sea again and after his departure there were several furious quarrels between the women down below which filled the whole house with reproaches and at last one evening miss the quiet one came to me and announced with sobs that she must go mrs made her life she said she was determined to be independent and had fitted up a small shop in a poor quarter of the town she was going now at once to take possession of it i was sorry because i liked miss and i said a few words to that effect she got as far as the hall door and then came rustling back again into the consulting room take a drink of your own beer she cried and vanished it sounded like some sort of if she had said oh pull up your the letters i should have been less surprised and then suddenly the words took a dreadful meaning in my mind and i rushed to the cellar the was forward on the i struck it and it like a drum i turned the tap and not one drop appeared let us draw a veil over the painful scene suffice it that mrs got her marching orders then and there and that next day paul and i found ourselves alone in the empty house once more but we were by luxury we could no longer manage without a especially now in the winter time when fires had to be lit the most heart breaking task that a man can undertake i me of the quiet miss and hunted her up in her shop she was quite willing to come and saw how she could get out of the rent but the difficulty lay with her stock this sounded formidable at first but when i came to learn that the whole thing had cost eleven shillings it did not appear in half an hour my watch was and the affair concluded i returned with an excellent housekeeper and with a larger of inferior the letters matches of black lead and little figures made of sugar than i should have thought it possible to get for the money so now we have settled down and i hope that a period of comparative peace lies before us good bye old chap and never think that i forget you your letters are read and re read with i think i have every line	4
you ever wrote me you simply knock out every time i am so glad that you got out of that business all right for a time i was really afraid that you must either lose your money or else risk more upon the shares i can only thank you for your kind offer of blank it is wonderful that you should have slipped back into your american life so easily after your english as you say however it is not a change but only a since the root idea is the same in each is it not strange how the two great brothers are led to each other a man is punished for private over here at any rate although the consequences can only be slight but a man may which is a the letters very and far reaching offence and there is no law in the world which can punish him think of the contemptible crew of and who for ever picture the englishman as haughty and h dropping or the american as vulgar and if some would give them all a trip round the world we should have some rest and if the came out of the boat it would be more still and your vote hunting with their tail twisting and our of the with their tone of superiority if they were all aboard how much clearer we should be once more adieu and good luck xv i august i j do you think that such a thing as chance exists rather an sentence to start a letter with but pray cast your mind back over your own life and tell me if you think that we really are the sports of chance you know how often the turning down this street or that the accepting or of an invitation may the whole current of our lives into some other channel are we mere leaves fluttered hither and thither by the wind or are we rather with every conviction that we are free agents carried steadily along to a definite and pre determined end i confess that as i advance through life i become more and more confirmed in that to which i have always had an inclination look at it in this way we know that many the letters of the permanent facts of the universe are not chance it is not chance that the heavenly bodies swing clear of each other that the seed is furnished with the apparatus which will drift it to a congenial soil that the creature is adapted to its show me a whale with its great coat of fat and i want no further proof of design but as it seems to me all must be design or all must be chance i do not see how one can a line right across the universe and say that all to the right of that is chance and all to the left is pre ordained you would then have to contend that things which on the face of them are of the same class are really divided by an gulf and that the lower are regulated while the higher are not you would for example be forced to contend that the number of in a s hind leg has engaged the direct of the creator while the which killed a thousand people in a theatre depended upon the dropping of a wax upon the floor and was an flaw in the chain of life this seems to me to be it is a very superficial argument to say that the letters if a man holds the views of a he will therefore cease to strive and will wait for what fate may send him the forgets that among the other things fated is that we of northern blood should strive and should not sit down with folded hands but when a man has when he has done all he knows and when in spite of it a thing comes to pass let him wait ten years before he says that it is a misfortune it is part of the main line of his destiny then and is working to an end a man loses his fortune he gains earnestness his goes it leads him to a the girl loses her beauty she becomes more sympathetic we think we are pushing our own way bravely but there is a great hand in ours all the time you ll wonder what has taken me off on this line only that i seem to see it all in action in my own life but as usual i have started merrily off with an so i shall go back and begin my report as nearly as possible where i ended the last first of all i may say generally that the clouds were then and that they broke shortly afterwards during the the letters last few months we have never once quite lost sight of the sun you remember that we paul and i had just engaged a certain miss to come and keep house for us i felt that on the principle i had not control enough so we now entered upon a more business like arrangement by which a sum though alas an small one was to be paid her for her services i would it had been ten times as much for a better and a more loyal servant man never had our fortunes seemed to turn from the hour that she re entered the house slowly week by week and month by month the practice began to spread and to strengthen there were when never a ring came to the bell and it seemed as though all our labour had gone for nothing but then would come other days when eight and ten names would aj in my where did it come from you will ask some from old and his circle of some from accident cases some from	4
so that we could see every day or so the only thing is that he must be taken at once for really my brother has reached the end of his patience i rang the bell for my housekeeper miss said i do you think we can furnish a bedroom by to night so as to take in a gentleman who is ill never have i so admired that wonderful woman s self command why easily sir if the will only let me alone but with that bell going thirty times an hour it s hard to say what you are going to do this with her funny manner set the ladies the letters laughing and the whole business seemed lighter and easier i promised to have the room ready by eight o clock mrs la force arranged to bring her son round at that hour and both ladies thanked me a very great deal more than i deserved for after all it was a business matter and a resident patient was the very thing that i needed i was able to assure mrs la force that i had had a similar case under my charge before meaning of course poor the son of lord miss escorted them to the door and took occasion to whisper to them that it was wonderful how i got through with it and that i was within sight of my carriage it was a short notice but we got everything ready by the hour carpet bed curtains all came together and were fixed in their places by the united efforts of miss paul and myself sharp at eight a cab arrived and was conducted by me into his bedroom the moment i looked at him i could see that he was much worse than when i saw him with dr porter the brain trouble had taken a sudden acute turn his eyes were the letters wild his cheeks flushed his lips drawn slightly away from his teeth his temperature was and he muttered to himself continually and paid no attention to my questions it was evident to me at a glance that the responsibility which i had taken upon myself was to be no light one however we could but do our best i him and got him safely to bed while miss prepared some for his supper he would eat nothing however but seemed more disposed to dose so having seen him settle down we left him his room was the one next to mine and as the wall was thin i could hear the least movement two or three times he muttered and groaned but finally he became quiet and i was able to drop to sleep at three in the morning i was awakened by a dreadful crash bounding out of bed i rushed into the other room poor was standing in his long gown a pathetic little figure in the grey light of the dawning day he had pulled over his washing stand with what object only his mind could say and the whole place was a of water with islands of broken i picked him up and put him the letters back into his bed again his body glowing through his night dress and his eyes staring wildly about him it was evidently impossible to leave him and so i spent the rest of the night nodding and shivering in the no it was certainly not a that i had undertaken in the morning i went round to mrs la force and gave her a her brother had recovered his serenity now that the patient had left he had the victoria cross it seems and was one of the desperate little garrison who held in that hell whirl of a and now the sudden opening of a door sets him shaking and a dropped gives him are we not the strangest kind of beings was a little better during the day and even seemed in a dull sort of way to recognise his sister who brought him flowers in the afternoon towards evening his temperature sank to and he fell into a kind of stupor as it happened dr porter came in about supper time and i asked him if he would step up and have a look at my patient he did so and we found him peacefully you would hardly think the letters that that small incident may have been one of the most momentous in my life it was the merest chance in the world that porter went up at all was taking medicine with a little in it at this time i gave him his usual dose last thing at night and then as he seemed to be sleeping peacefully i went to my own room for the rest which i badly needed i did not wake until eight in the morning when i was roused by the of a spoon in a and the step of miss passing my door she was taking him the which i had ordered over night i heard her open the door and the next moment my heart sprang into my mouth as she gave a hoarse scream and her cup and upon the floor an instant later she had burst into my room with her face with terror my god she cried he s gone i caught up my dressing gown and rushed into the next room poor little was stretched sideways across his bed quite dead he looked as if he had been rising and had fallen backwards his face the letters was so peaceful and smiling that i could hardly have recognised the worried fever worn features of yesterday there is great promise i think on the faces of the dead they say it is but the post of the muscles but it is one of the points on which i should like to see science wrong miss and i stood	4
life s highway ready to upon us as we pass and so you really are going a well i won t write again until i hear that you are back from the islands and then i hope to have something a little more cheery to talk about xvi i th november i face my study window as i write slate coloured clouds with ragged are drifting slowly overhead between them one has a glimpse of higher clouds of a lighter gray i can hear the gentle of the rain striking a clearer note on the gravel path and a among the leaves sometimes it falls straight and heavy till the air is full of the delicate gray and for half a foot above the ground there is a haze from the of a million tiny then without any change in the clouds it off again pools line my walk and lie thick upon the their surface by the falling drops as i sit i can smell the heavy perfume of the wet earth and the laurel bushes gleam where the light strikes sideways upon them the gate outside shines above as though it were new the letters and along the lower edge of the upper bar there hangs a fringe of great clear drops that is the best that november can do for us in our dripping little island you i suppose sitting among the dying glories of an american fall think that this must needs be don t make any mistake about that my dear boy you may take the states from to the gulf and you won t find a happier man than this one what do you suppose i ve got at this moment in my consulting room a a no i know you ve guessed my secret already she is sitting in my big and she is the best the kindest the sweetest little woman in england yes i ve been married six months now the says months though i should have thought weeks i should of course have sent cake and cards but had an idea that you were not home from the islands yet it is a good year since i wrote to you but when you give an address of that sort what can you expect i ve thought of you and talked of you often enough the letters well i with the of an old married man you have guessed who the lady is as well we surely know by some nameless instinct more about our than we think we know i can remember for example that years ago the name of used to strike with a familiarity upon my ear and since then as you know the course of my life has flowed through it and so when i first saw la force in the railway carriage before i had spoken to her or knew her name i felt an inexplicable sympathy for and interest in her have you had no experience of the sort in your life or was it merely that she was obviously gentle and retiring and so made a silent claim upon all that was and manly in me at any rate i was conscious of it and again and every time that i met her how good is that saying of some russian writer that he who loves one woman knows more of the whole sex than he who has had passing relations with a thousand i thought i knew something of women i suppose every medical student does but now i can see that i really knew nothing my knowledge was all the letters external i did not know the woman soul that crowning gift of providence to man which if we do not ourselves it will set an edge to all that is good in us i did not know how the love of a woman will tinge a man s whole life and every action with i did not know how easy it is to be noble when some one else takes it for granted that one will be so or how wide and interesting life becomes when viewed by four eyes instead of two i had much to learn you see but i think i have learned it it was natural that the death of poor la force should make me intimate with the family it was really that cold hand which i grasped that morning as i sat by his bed which drew me towards my happiness i visited them frequently and we often went little excursions together then my dear mother came down to stay with me for a spell and turned miss gray by looking for dust in all sorts of improbable corners or advancing with a terrible silence a in one hand and a in the other to the attack of a spider s web which she had marked down in the beer cellar the letters her presence enabled me to return some of the hospitality which i had received from the la forces and brought us still nearer together i had never yet reminded them of our previous meeting one evening however the talk turned upon and mrs la force was expressing the utmost in it i borrowed her ring and holding it to my forehead i pretended to be peering into her past i see you in a railway carriage said l you are wearing a red feather ip your bonnet miss la force is dressed in something dark there is a young man there he is rude enough to address your daughter as before he has ever been oh mother she cried of course it is he the face haunted me and i could not think where we had met it well there are some things that we don t talk about to another man even when we know each other as well as i know you why should we when that which is	4
so as to be ready for my opening when the letters it comes there are times when i that i may not play a part upon some larger stage than this but my happiness is complete and if fate has no further use for me i am content now from my heart to live and to die where i am you will wonder perhaps how we get on my wife and i in the matter of religion well we both go our own ways why should i i would not for the sake of abstract truth take away her child like faith which serves to make life easier and brighter to her i have made myself ill understood by you in these letters if you have read in them any bitterness against the far from saying that they are all false it would express my position better to say that they are all true providence would not have used them were they not the best available tools and in that sense divine that they are final i deny a and more universal creed will take their place when the mind of man is ready for it and i believe it will be a creed founded upon those lines of absolute and truth which i have indicated but the old are still the best suited to certain minds and to certain ages if the letters they are good enough for providence to use they are good enough for us to endure we have but to wait upon the of the truest if i have seemed to say anything against them it was directed at those who wish to limit the almighty s favour to their own little or who wish to build a chinese wall round religion with no of fresh truths and no hope of in the future it is with these that the of progress can hold no as for my wife i would as soon think of breaking in upon her innocent prayers as she would of carrying off the works of philosophy from my study table she is not narrow in her views but if one could stand upon the very of broad one would doubtless see from it that even the narrow have their mission about a year ago i had news of from who was in the same team at college and who had called when he was passing through his report was not a very favourable one the practice had declined considerably people had no doubt accustomed themselves to his and these had the letters ceased to impress them again there had been one or two s which had spread the impression that he had been rash in the use of powerful if the could have seen the hundreds of which had effected by that same he would have been less confident with his but as you can understand c s rival medical men were not disposed to cover him in any way he had never had much consideration for them besides this decline in his practice i was sorry to hear that had shown renewed signs of that curious vein of suspicion which had always seemed to me to be the most insane of all his traits his whole frame of mind towards me had been an example of it but as far back as i can remember it had been a characteristic even in those early days when they lived in four little rooms above a s shop i recollect that he insisted upon up every of one bedroom for fear of some imaginary he was haunted too with a perpetual dread of which used to make him fly at the door and fling it open in the middle of his conversation out into the passage with the the letters idea of catching somebody in the act once it was the maid with the tea tray that he caught i remember and i can see her astonished face now with an of flying cups and of sugar tells me that this has now taken the form of imagining that some one is to poison him with copper against which he takes the most extravagant precautions it is the strangest sight he says to see at his meals for he sits with an elaborate apparatus and numerous and bottles at his elbow with which he of every course i could not help laughing at s description and yet it was a laugh with a groan it of all ruins that of a fine man is the i never thought i should have seen again but fate has brought us together i have always had a kindly feeling for him though i feel that he used me often i have wondered whether if i were placed before him i should take him by the throat or by the hand you will be interested to hear what actually occurred one day just a week or so back i was start the letters ing on my round when a boy arrived with a note it fairly took my breath away when i saw the familiar writing and that was in i called and we read it together dear it said james is in lodgings here for a few days we are on the point of leaving england he would be glad for the sake of old times to have a chat with you before he goes yours faithfully the writing was his and the style of address so that it was evidently one of those queer little bits of transparent cunning which were characteristic of him to make it come from his wife that he might not lay himself open to a direct the address curiously enough was that very terrace at which i had lodged but two doors higher up well i was averse from going myself but was all for peace and forgiveness women who claim nothing invariably get everything and so my	4
gentle little wife always carries her point half an hour later i was in the letters terrace with very mixed feelings but the ones at the top i tried to think that s treatment of me had been the result of a brain if a man had struck me i should not have been angry with him that must be my way of looking at it if still bore any resentment he concealed it most admirably but then i knew by experience that that genial loud john bull manner of his could conceal many things his wife was more open and i could read in her lips and cold grey eyes that she at least stood fast to the old quarrel was little changed and seemed to be as sanguine and as full of spirits as ever sound as a my boy he cried on his chest with his hands played for the london in their opening match last week and was on the ball from whistle to whistle not so quick on a you find that yourself eh what but a good hard working forward last match i shall have for many a day for i am off to south america next week the letters you have given up altogether then too provincial my boy what s the good of a village practice with a miserable three thousand or so a year for a man that wants room to spread my head was sticking out at one end of and my feet at the other why there wasn t room for in the place let alone me taken to the eye my boy there s a fortune in the eye a man a half crown to cure his chest or his throat but he d spend his last dollar over his eye there s money in ears but the eye is a gold mine what said i in south america just exactly in south america he cried pacing with his quick little steps up and down the dingy room look here there s a great continent from the to the and not a man in it who could correct an what do they know of modern eye and why they don t know much about it in the provinces of england yet let alone man if you could only see it there s a fringe of sitting ten deep round the whole the letters continent with their money in their hands waiting for an eh what by ril come back and til buy and ril give it away as a tip to a waiter you propose to settle in some large city then city what use would a city be to me tm there to squeeze the continent i work a town at a time i send on an agent to the next to say that i am coming here s the chance of a lifetime says he no need to go back to europe here s europe come to you what you like here s the great right up to date and ready for anything in they come of course of them and then i arrive and take the money here s my luggage he pointed to two great in the corner of the room those are glasses my boy and hundreds of them i test an eye fit him on the spot and send him away shouting then i load up a steamer and come home unless i elect to buy one of their little states and run it of course it sounded absurd as he put it the letters but i could soon see that he had worked out his details and that there was a very practical side to his visions i work said he my agent when is squeezed dry i move on to and the agent ships to so we work our way round with a trail of spectacles behind us it ll go like clock work you will need to speak spanish said i tut it does not take any spanish to stick a knife into a man s eye all i shall want to know is money down no credit that s spanish enough for me we had a long and interesting talk about all that had happened to both of us without however any allusion to our past quarrel he would not admit that he had left on account of a falling off in his practice or for any reason except that he found the place too small his spring screen invention had he said been reported upon by one of the first private on the and there was every probability of their it as to the said he fm very sorry the letters for my country but there is no more command of the seas for her fu have to let the thing go to the it s not my fault they must not blame me when the comes put the thing before the and i could have made a board school understand it in half the time such letters on blue paper when the war comes and i show those letters somebody will be hanged questions about this questions about that at last they asked me what proposed to fasten my to i answered to any solid impenetrable object such as the head of an official well that broke the whole thing up they wrote with their compliments and they were returning my apparatus i wrote with my compliments and they might go to the devil and so ends a great historical incident eh what we parted very good friends but with i fancy on both sides his last advice to me was to clear out of you can do better ou can do better said he look round the whole world and when you see a little round hole jump in the letters feet foremost there s a lot of	4
em about if a man keeps himself ready so those were the last words of and the last that i may ever see of him also for he starts almost immediately upon his strange venture he must succeed he is a man whom nothing could hold down i wish him luck and have a kindly feeling towards him and yet i distrust him from the bottom of my heart and shall be just as pleased to know that the atlantic rolls between us well my dear a happy and tranquil if not very ambitious existence stretches before us we are both in our twenty fifth year and suppose that without presumption we can reckon that thirty five more years lie in front of us i can foresee the gradually increasing routine of work the wider circle of friends the with this or that local movement with perhaps a seat on the bench or at least in the council in my later years it s not a very startling programme is it but it lies to my hand and i see no other i should dearly love that the world should be ever so little better for my presence even on this small the letters stage we have our two sides and something might be done by throwing all one s weight on the scale of breadth charity peace and to man and beast we can t all strike very big blows and even the little ones count for something so good bye my dear boy and remember that when you come to england our home would be the brighter for your presence in any case now that i have your address i shall write again in a very few weeks my kindest regards to mrs yours ever j this is the last letter which i was destined to receive from my poor friend he started to spend the christmas of that year with his people and on the journey was involved in the fatal railroad accident at where the express ran into a freight train which was standing in the t dr and mrs were the only occupants of the car next the and were killed as were the and one other passenger it was i the letters such an end as both he and his wife would have chosen and no one who knew them would regret that neither was left to mourn the other his policy of eleven hundred pounds was sufficient to provide for the wants of his own family which as his father was sick was the one worldly matter which could have caused him concern h s the end r d co s o und the red lamp by a author of the white company the adventures of the etc i mo cloth the red lamp the trade mark as it were of the english country s office is the central point of these dramatic stories of professional life there are no secrets for the surgeon and a surgeon himself as well as a the author has made a most artistic use of the motives and springs of action revealed to him in a field of which he is the master a volume of bright clever sketches an array of facts and fancies of medical life and contains some of the gifted author s best work daily news a flash of summer by mrs w k author of love letters of a worldly woman aunt anne etc i mo cloth the story is well written and interesting the style is and pure as fresh water and is so done that it is only a second thought that notices it san call a lave story by s r author of the minister the etc i mo cloth a love story pure and simple one of the old wholesome kind with a pure minded d hero and a heroine who is merely a good and beautiful woman and if any other love story so sweet has been written this year it has escaped us new york times ji by the hon lawless author of i etc i mo cloth a of literary genius it is not a history and yet has more of the stuff of history in it more of the true national character and fate any historical we know it is not a novel and yet us more than any novel spectator t he land of the sun by christian author of the land of the sky a comedy of etc illustrated i mo cloth in this picturesque travel romance the author of the land of the sky takes her characters from new to fascinating cities like and of course the city of what they see and what they do described in a style which renders the book most valuable to those who wish an interesting travel book with details while the story as a the high reputation of this author new york d co fifth avenue d co s t he gods some mortals and lord by john with portrait i mo cloth the author of some emotions and a moral presents in this book her most ambitious work she has written not a study nor a collection of but a complete novel in which she has gone deeper and further than in any previous essay her brilliancy of thought and style is familiar but her admirers will find a new force in the sustained power with which she has drawn some le characters and worked out an impressive theme dog and by s r uniform with the i mo cloth the charm of the in this fascinating picture of the quaint humor the stem conviction and the passing shadows of life mr has made his place and readers need no introduction to his work tn the fire of the a romance of old by author of an egyptian princess etc in i mo dr s new romance	4
the reader to and life in the imperial free city at the commencement of the its pages glow with vivid pictures of the days of chivalry and its characters are knights fair maidens and the merchants whose stately homes still lend their picturesque charm to the of to day a novel by louis by a de and i mo cloth no whom we can call to mind has ever given the world such a of royal as louis s striking romance entitled majesty philadelphia record a very powerful and cleverly written romance new york times and man by count i mo cloth cents in its simplicity force and this new work of fiction by will take a high rank among his shorter tales there is no upon a moral but the impression left by the tale is none the less profound n he by l author of the beggars all etc i mo cloth cents miss has written a charming and thoughtful story in the which will not be forgotten by the reader its suggestions are of interest at a time when the subjects touched upon are in so many minds new york d co fifth avenue i t d co s novels by hall he i mo cloth a of dramatic intensity and in its meaning has a force only to s scarlet letter boston a work of power which is another stone added to the foundation of enduring fame to which mr is yearly adding public o a wonderfully strong study of character a powerful analysis of those elements which go to make up the strength and weakness of a man which are at fierce warfare within the same breast against each other as it were the one to raise him to fame and power the other to drag him down to degradation and shame never in the whole range of literature have we seen the struggle between these forces for over the man more powerfully more than mr pictures it boston home journal t he a romance of the isle of man i mo cloth hall has already given us some very strong and fine work and the is a story of unusual power certain passages and chapters have an intensely dramatic grasp and hold the fascinated reader with a force rarely excited nowadays in literature the critic one of the strongest novels which has appeared in many a day san chronicle the mind like the gathering and bursting of a storm illustrated london news deserves to be among the remarkable novels of the day times t he new edition i mo cloth the welcome given to this story has cheered and touched me but i am conscious that to win a reception so warm such a book must have had readers who brought to it as much as they took away i have called my story a merely because it follows the method and i must not claim for it at any point the responsibility of history or serious obligations to the world of fact but it matters not to me what may call the ik if they will honor me by reading it in the open hearted spirit and with the mind with which they are content to read of and of his fights with the the a s preface r aft n s a i mo paper cents cloth a new departure by this author unlike his previous works this tale is almost wholly humorous with however a current of pathos underneath it is not always that an author can succeed equally well in tragedy and in comedy but it looks as though mr hall would be one of the exceptions london literary world it is pleasant to meet the author of the in a brightly humorous little story like this it shows the same observation of character and much of the same artistic skill philadelphia times new york d co fifth avenue m d co s any inventions by containing fourteen stories several of which are n w published for the first and two poems i mo pages cloth reader turns from its pages with the conviction that the author has no to day in animated narrative and of style he remains master of a h which none of his approach him the ability to select out of countless details the few vital ones which create the finished picture he knows how with a phrase or a word to make you see his characters as he sees them to make you feel toe full meaning of a dramatic situation new york many inventions will confirm mr s reputation we would with pleasure sentences fi om almost every page and extract incidents from almost every story but to what end here is the book that mr has yet given us m the and most humane in breadth of view mr s powers as a story are evidently not we advise everybody to buy many inventions and to profit by some of the best entertainment that modem fiction has to offer york sun many inventions will be welcomed wherever the english language is spoken every one of the stories bears the of a master who up incident as if by magic and who character scenery and feeling with an ease which is only exceeded by the boldness of force boston globe the book will get and hold the attention of the reader american mr s place in the world of letters is unique he sits quite aloof and alone the and master of the fine art of writing mr robert louis has perhaps written several tales which match the run of mr s work but the best of mr s tales are and his latest collection many inventions contains several s press of late essays in fiction the work of can be compared to	4
the watch which had belonged to three generations of de was now lying in the shop of a little enough too he cried harshly down i sail jim and bring her to now master you can step over the side or you can come back to but i don t take the a cable s length nearer to beef with this gale coming up from i the sou west j in that case i shall go said i you can lay your life on that he answered and laughed in so a fashion that i half turned upon him vith the intention of him one is very helpless with these fellows however for a serious affair is of course out of the question while if one uses a cane upon them they have a vile habit of striking with their hands which gives them an advantage the de by the coast of france told me that when he first settled in at the time of the he lost a tooth when an peasant i made the best of a necessity therefore and my shoulders i passed over the side of the into the httle boat my bundle was dropped in after conceive to yourself the heir of all the de travelling with a single bundle for his baggage and two pushed her off pulling with long slow strokes towards the low lying shore there was certainly every promise of a wild night for the dark cloud which had rolled up over the setting sun was now and ragged at the edges extending a good third of the way across the heavens it had split low down near the horizon and the crimson glare of the sunset beat through the gap so that there was the appearance of fire with a monstrous of smoke a red dancing belt of light lay across the broad slate coloured ocean and in the centre of it the uttle black craft was and tumbling the two kept looking up at the heavens and then over their shoulders at the land and i feared every moment that they would put back before the gale burst i by ic uncle ac was filled with apprehension every time when the end of their pull turned their faces and it was to draw their attention away from the that i asked them what the lights were which had begun to twinkle through the dusk both to the right and to the left of us that s to the north and upon the south said one of the how the words came back to me it was to that in my boyhood we had gone down for the summer bathing could i not remember as a little lad trotting along by my father s side as he paced the beach and wondering why every s cap flew oflf at our approach and as to it was thence that we had fled for england when the folks came to the pier head as we passed and i joined my thin voice to my father s as he shrieked back at them for a stone had broken my mother s knee and we were all with our fear and our hatred and here they were these places of my childhood twinkling to the north and south of me while there in the darkness between them and only ten miles off at the lay my own castle by the coast of france my own land of where the men of my blood had lived and died long before some of us had gone across with duke william to conquer the proud over the water how i strained my eager eyes through the darkness as i thought that the distant black keep of our might even now be visible yes sir said the seaman fine stretch of coast and many is the cock of your that i have helped ashore there what do you take me for then i asked well tis no business of mine sir he answered there are some trades that had best not even be spoken about you think that i am a well master since you have put a to it lor love you sir we re used to it i give you my word that i am none an escaped prisoner then no nor that either the man leaned upon his oar and i could see in the gloom that his face w as thrust forward and that it was wrinkled with suspicion if you re one of s he cried by uncle i a spy the tone of my voice was enough to convince him well said he i m if i know what you are but if you d been a spy i d ha had no hand in landing you whatever the might say mind you i ve no word to say against said the other seaman speaking in a very thick voice he s been a rare good friend to the poor it surprised mo to hear him speak so for the of feeling against the new french emperor in england exceeded all belief and high and low were united in their hatred of him but the sailor soon gave me a clue to his politics if the poor can run in his little bit of coffee and sugar and run out his silk and his brandy he has to thank for it said he the merchants have had their spell and now it s the turn of the poor i remembered then that was personally very popular amongst the as well he might be seeing that he had made over into their hands all the trade of the channel the seaman continued to pull with his left hand but by the coast of france he pointed with his right over the slate coloured dancing waters there s himself said he you who live in a age cannot conceive the thrill which these	4
the china of across the gulf which my old age from theirs i can still see those ill clad grave men and i raise my hat to the noblest group of that our history can show to visit a coast town therefore before i had seen my uncle or learnt whether my return had been would be simply to deliver myself into the hands of the d who were ever on the look out for strangers from england to go before the new emperor was one thing and to be dragged before him another on the whole it seemed to me that my best course was to wander inland in the hope of finding some empty barn or out house where i could pass the night unseen and undisturbed then in the morning i should consider how it was best for me to approach my uncle and through him the new master of france the wind had meanwhile into a gale and it was so dark upon the side that i could only catch the white flash of a leaping wave here and there in the blackness of the which had brought me from i could see no by sign on the land side of me there seemed as far as i could make it out to be a line of low hills but when i came to them i found that the dim had exaggerated their size and that they were mere scattered sand with patches of over these i toiled with my bundle over my shoulder heavily through the loose sand and over the but forgetting my clothes and my hands as i recalled the many hardships and adventures which my ancestors had undergone it amused me to think that the day might come when my own descendants might themselves by the recollection of that which was happening to me for in a great family like ours the individual is always subordinate to the race it seemed to me that i should never get to the end of the sand but when at last i did come off them i heartily wished that i was back upon them again for the sea in that part comes by some creek up the back of tlie beach forming at low tide a great desolate salt marsh which must be a forlorn place even in the but upon such a night as that it was a most dreary by the salt ness at first it was but a softness of the ground causing me to slip as i walked but soon the mud was over my ankles and half way up to my knees so that each foot gave a loud as i raised it and a dull splash as i set it down again i would willingly have made my way out even if i had to return to the sand but in trying to pick my path i had lost all my bearings and the air was so full of the sounds of the storm that the sea seemed to be on every side of me i had heard of how one may steer by observation of the stars but my quiet english life had not taught me how such things were done and had i known i could scarcely have by it since the few stars which were visible peeped out here and there in the of the flying storm clouds i wandered on then wet and weary trusting to fortune but always deeper and deeper into this horrible until i began to think that my first night in france was destined also to be my last and that the heir of the de was destined to perish of cold and misery in the depths of this i must have toiled for many miles in this dreary fashion sometimes coming upon by uncle mud and sometimes upon deeper but never making my way on to the dry when i perceived through the gloom something which turned my heart even heavier than it had been before this was a curious of some cotton grass of a variety which suddenly before me in the darkness now an hour earlier i had passed just such a square headed so that i was confirmed in the opinion which i had already begun to form that i was wandering in a circle to make it certain i stooped down striking a momentary flash from my box and there sure enough was my own old track very clearly marked in the brown mud in front of me at this confirmation of my worst fears i threw my eyes up to heaven in my despair and there i saw something which for the first time gave me a clue in the uncertainty which surrounded me it was nothing else than a glimpse of the moon two flowing clouds this in itself might have been of small avail to me but over its white face was marked a long thin v which shot swiftly across like a arrow it was a flock ef by the salt marsh d and its flight was in the same direction as that towards which my face was turned now i had observed in how all these creatures come further inland when there is rough weather breaking so i made no doubt that their course indicated the path which would lead me away from the sea i struggled on therefore taking every precaution to walk in a straight line above all being very careful to make a stride of equal length with either leg until at last after half an hour or so my perseverance was rewarded by the welcome sight of a little yellow light as from a cottage window glimmering through the darkness ah how it shone through my eyes and down into my heart glowing and twinkling there that little golden speck which meant food and rest and life itself to the wanderer i towards it through	4
the mud and the as fast as my weary legs would bear me i was too cold and miserable to refuse any shelter and i had no doubt that for the sake of one of my gold pieces the or peasant who lived in this strange situation would shut his eyes to whatever might be suspicious in my presence or appearance by e as i approached it became more and more wonderful to me that any one should live there at all for the grew worse rather than better and in the occasional of i could make out that the water lay in glimmering pools all round the low dark cottage from which the light was breaking i could see now that it shone through a small square window as i approached the gleam was suddenly obscured and there in a yellow frame appeared the round black outline of a man s head peering out into the darkness a second time it appeared before i reached the cottage and there was something in the stealthy manner in which it peeped and away and peeped once more which filled me with surprise and with a certain vague apprehension so cautious were the movements of this and so singular the position of his watch house that i determined in spite of my misery to see something more of him before i trusted myself to the shelter of his roof and indeed the amount of shelter which i might hope for was not very great for as i drew softly nearer i could see that the light from within was beating through at by ic the salt several points and that the whole cottage was in the most crazy state of for a moment i paused thinking that even the salt marsh might perhaps be a safer resting place for the night than the of some desperate for such i that this lonely dwelling must be the however had covered the moon once more and the darkness was so black that i felt that i might a little more closely without fear of discovery walking on i approached the little window and looked in what i saw reassured me vastly a small wood fire was in one of those old fashioned country and beside it was seated a strikingly handsome young man who was reading earnestly out of a fat little book he had an oval face with long black hair in a and there was something of the poet or of the artist in his whole appearance the sight of that refined face and of the warm yellow beat upon it was a very cheering to a cold and traveller i stood for an instant gazing at him and noticing the way in which his full and somewhat loose fitting lower lip quivered by uncle continually as if he were repeating to himself that which he was reading i was still looking at him when he put his book down upon the table and approached the window catching a glimpse of my figure in the darkness he called out something which i could not hear and waved his hand in a gesture of welcome an instant later the door flew open and there was his thin tall figure standing upon the threshold with his skirts flapping in the wind my dear friends he cried peering out into the gloom with his hand over his eyes to screen them from the salt laden wind and driving sand i had given you up i thought that you were never coming i ve been waiting for two hours for answer i stepped out in front of him so that the light fell upon my face i am afraid sir said i but i had no time to finish my sentence he struck at me with both hands like an angry cat and springing back into the room he the door with a crash in my face the swiftness of his movements and the of his gesture were in such singular contrast with his appearance that i was struck by tiie salt marsh speechless with surprise but as i stood there with the door in front of me i was a witness to something which filled me with even greater astonishment i have already said that the cottage was in the last stage of amidst the many and cracks through which the light was breaking there was one along the whole of the side of the door which gave me from where i was standing a view of the further end of the room at which the fire was burning as i gazed then i saw this man in front of the fire furiously with both his hands in his bosom and then with a spring he disappeared up the chimney so that i could only see his shoes and half of his black as he stood upon the at the side of the grate in an instant he was down again and at the door who are you he cried in a voice which seemed to me to be thrilling with some strong emotion i am a traveller and have lost my way there was a pause as if he were thinking what course he should pursue by uncle you ul find little here to tempt you to stay he at last i am weary and spent sir and surely you will not refuse me shelter i have been wandering for hours in the salt marsh did you meet anyone there he asked eagerly no stand back a little from the door this is a wild place and the times are a man must take some precautions i took a few steps back and he then opened the door sufficiently to allow his head to come through he said nothing but he looked at me for a long time in a very searching manner what is your name louis said i thinking that it might	4
sound less dangerous in this form whither are you going i wish to some shelter you are from england i am from the coast he shook his head slowly to show me how little my replies had satisfied him you cannot come in here said he by the salt but surely no no it is impossible show me then how to find my way out of the marsh it is easy enough if you go a few hundred paces in that direction you will perceive the lights of a village you are already almost free of the marsh he stepped a pace or two from the door in order to point the way for me and then turned upon his heel i had already taken a stride or two away from him and his hut when he suddenly called after me come said he with quite a different ring in his voice i really cannot permit you to leave me upon so a night a warm by my fire and a glass of brandy will you upon your way you may think that i did not feel disposed to contradict him though i could make nothing of this sudden and welcome change in his manner i am much obliged to sir said i and i followed him into the hut by uncle chapter iii the ruined it was delightful to see the glow and twinkle of the fire and to escape from the wet wind and the cold but my curiosity had already risen so high about this lonely man and his singular dwelling that my thoughts ran rather upon that than upon my personal comfort there was his remarkable appearance the fact that he should be awaiting company within that miserable ruin in the heart of the at so sinister an hour and finally the inexplicable incident of the chimney all of which excited my imagination it was beyond my comprehension why he should at one moment charge me sternly to continue my journey and then in almost the same breath invite me most cordially to seek the shelter of his hut on all these points i was keenly on the alert for an explanation yet i endeavoured to conceal my feelings and to assume the air of a man who finds everything quite natural by ic the ruined cottage about him and who is much too absorbed in his own personal wants to have a thought to spare upon anything outside himself a glance at the inside of the cottage as i entered confirmed me in the conjecture which the appearance of the outside had already given rise to that it was not used for human residence and that this man was only here for a prolonged moisture had the plaster in from the walls and had covered the stones with and of the whole place was rotten and like a the single large room was save for a crazy table three wooden boxes which might be used as and a great pile of decayed fishing net in the corner the of a fourth box with a hand axe which leaned against the wall showed how the wood for the fire had been gathered but it was to the table that my gaze was chiefly drawn for there beside the lamp and the book lay an open basket from which projected the end of a ham the corner of a loaf of bread and the black neck of a bottle if my host had been suspicious and cold at our first meeting he was now for his by ic uncle by an cordiality even harder for me to explain with many over my and condition he drew a box close to the blaze and cat me off a corner of the bread and ham i could not help observing however that though his loose under mouth was with smiles his beautiful dark eyes were continually running over me and my attire asking and what my business might be as for myself said he with an air of false you will very well understand that in these days a worthy merchant must do the best he can to get his wares and if the emperor god save him sees fit in his wisdom to put an end to open trade one must come to such places as these to get into touch with those who bring across the coffee and the tobacco i promise you that in the itself there is no about getting either one or the other and the emperor drinks his ten cups a day of the real without asking questions though he must know that it is not grown within the of france the vegetable kingdom still remains one of the few napoleon has not yet conquered and if it by the ruined cottage were not for who are at some risk and inconvenience it is hard to say what we should do for our supplies i suppose sir that you are not yourself either in the or in the trading line i contented myself by answering that i was not by which i could see that i only excited his curiosity the more as to his account of himself i read a lie in those tell tale eyes all the time that he was talking as i looked at him now in the full light of the lamp and the fire i could see that he was even more good looking than i had at first thought but with a type of beauty which has never been to my taste his features were so refined as to be almost and so regular that they would have been perfect if it had not been for that mouth it was a clever and yet it was a weak face full of a sort of enthusiasm and feeble i felt that the more i knew him the less reason i should probably find either to like him	4
or to fear him and in my first conclusion i was right although i had occasion to change my views upon the second you will forgive me if i was a little cold at first said he since the emperor by ic uncle has been upon the coast the place with police agents so that a must look to his own interests you will allow that my fears of you were not unnatural since neither your dress nor your appearance were such as one would expect to meet with in such a place and at such a time it was on my lips to return the remark but i refrained i can assure you said i that i am merely a traveller who have lost my way now that i am refreshed and rested i will not further upon your except to ask you to point out the way to the nearest village tut you had best stay where you are for the night grows every instant as he spoke there came a and scream of wind in the chimney as if the old place were coming down about our ears he walked across to the window and looked very earnestly out of it just as i had seen him do upon my first approach the fact is said he looking round at me with his false air of good fellowship you may be of some good service to me if you will wait here for half an hour or so by ic the ruined how so i asked wavering between my distrust and my curiosity well to be frank with you and never did a man look less frank as he spoke i am waiting here for some of those people with whom i do business but in some way they have not come yet and i am inclined to take a walk round the marsh on the chance of finding them if they have lost their way on the other hand it would be exceedingly awkward for me if they were to come here in my absence and imagine that i am gone i should take it as a favour then if you would remain here for half an hour or so that you may tell them how matters stand if i should chance to miss them the request seemed reasonable enough and yet there was that same glance which told me that it was false still i could not see what harm could come to me by with his request and certainly i could not have devised any arrangement which would give me such an opportunity of satisfying my curiosity what was in that wide stone chimney and why had he up there upon the sight of me my adventure would be indeed if i did not settle that point before i went on with my journey by uncle well said he up his black hat and running very briskly to the door i am sure that you will not refuse me my request and i must delay no longer or i shall never get my business finished he closed the door hurriedly behind him and i heard the of his footsteps until they were lost in the howling of the gale and so the mysterious cottage was mine to if i could pluck its secrets from it i lifted the book which had been left upon the table it was s social contract excellent literature but hardly what one would expect a to carry with him whilst awaiting an appointment with on the fly leaf was and beneath it in a woman s hand from then was the name of my good looking but sinister acquaintance it only remained for me now to discover what it was which he had concealed up the chimney i listened intently and as there was no sound from without save the cry of the storm i stepped on to the edge of the grate as i had seen him do and sprang up by the side of the fire by the ruined cottage it was a very broad old fashioned cottage chimney so that standing on one side i was not either by the heat or by the smoke and the bright glare from below showed me in an instant that for which i sought there was a recess at the back caused by the fall or removal of one of the stones and in this was lying a small bundle there could not be the least doubt that it was this which the fellow had so to conceal upon the first alarm of the approach of a stranger i took it down and held it to the light it was a small square of yellow glazed cloth tied round with white upon my opening it a number of letters appeared and a single large paper folded up the addresses upon the letters took my breath away the first that i glanced at was to citizen the others were in the style addressed to citizen to citizen to citizen to citizen and so on through the whole of famous names in war and in who were the pillars of the new empire what in the world could this pretended merchant of coffee have to write to all these great about the other by uncle paper would explain no doubt i laid the letters upon the shelf and i unfolded the paper which had been enclosed with them it did not take more than the opening sentence to convince me that the salt marsh outside might prove to be a very much safer place than this accursed cottage these were the words which met my eyes fellow citizens of france the deed of to day has proved that even in the midst of his troops a tyrant is unable to escape the vengeance of an outraged people the committee of three acting temporarily for the has to	4
the same fate which has already befallen louis in the outrage of the th so far i had got when my heart sprang suddenly into my mouth and the paper fluttered down from my fingers a grip of iron had closed suddenly round each of my ankles and there in the of the fire i saw two hands which even in that terrified glance i perceived to be covered with black hair and of an enormous size so my friend cried a thundering voice this time at least we have been too many for you by ic iv men of the i had little time given me to the extraordinary and humiliating position in which i found myself for i was lifted up by my ankles as if i were a fowl pulled a perch and jerked roughly down into the room my back striking upon the stone floor with a which shook the breath from my body don t kill him yet said a soft voice let us make sure who he is first i felt the pressure of a thumb upon my chin and of fingers upon my throat and my head was slowly forced round until the strain became quarter of an inch does it and no mark said the voice you can trust my old turn don t don t said the same gentle voice which had spoken first i saw you do it once by uncle before and the horrible that it made haunted me for a long time to think that the sacred flame of life can be so readily out by that great material finger and thumb mind can indeed conquer matter but the fighting must not be at close quarters my neck was so twisted that i could not see any of these people who were discussing my fate i could only lie and listen the fact remains my dear charles that the fellow has our all important secret and that it is our lives or his i recognised in the voice which was now speaking that of the man of the cottage we owe it to ourselves to put it out of his power to harm us let him sit up for there is no possibility of his escaping some irresistible force at the back of my neck dragged me instantly into a sitting position and so for the first time i was able to look round me in a dazed fashion and to see these men into whose hands i had fallen that they were in the past and had plans for the future i already gathered from what i had heard and seen i understood also that in the heart of that lonely by men of the night marsh i was absolutely in their power none the less i remembered the name that i bore and i concealed as far as i could the sickening terror which lay at my heart there were three of them in the room my former acquaintance and two new comers stood by the table with his fat brown book in his hand looking at me with a composed face but with that humorous questioning twinkle in his eyes which a master player might assume when he had left his opponent without a move on the top of the box beside him sat a very faced yellow hollow eyed man of fifty with lips and a skin which hung loosely over the long under his prominent chin he was dressed in snuff coloured clothes and his legs under his knee breeches were of a ludicrous he shook his head at me with an air of sad wisdom and i could read little comfort in his grey eyes but it was the man called who alarmed me most he was a rather than tall but from his excess of muscle his huge legs were crooked like those of a great and indeed there was by ic uncle something animal about his whole appearance for he was bearded up to his eyes and it was a rather than a hand which still clutched me by the collar as to his expression he was too with hair to show one but his large black eyes looked with a sinister questioning from me to the others if they were the judge and jury it was clear who was to be whence did he come what is his business how came he to know the hiding place asked the thin man when he first came i him for you in the darkness answered you will acknowledge that it was not a night on which one would expect to meet many people in the on discovering my mistake i shut the door and concealed the papers in the chimney i had forgotten that he might see me do this crack by the hinges but when i went out again to show him his way and so get rid of him my eye caught the gap and i at once that he had seen my action and that it must have aroused his curiosity to such an extent that it would be quite certain that he would think and speak of it i by by by ic men of tiie night called him back into the hut therefore in order that i might have time to consider what i had best do with him a couple of cuts of that wood axe and a bed in the corner of the marsh would have settled the business at once said the fellow by my side quite true my good but it is not usual to lead off with your ace of a a little let us hear what you did then it was my first object to learn whether this man what did you say his name was cried the thin man his name according to his account is my first object then was to find out whether he had in truth	4
seen me conceal the papers or not it was an important question for us and as things have turned out more important still for him i made my little plan therefore i waited until i saw you approach and i then left him alone in the hut i watched through the window and saw him fly tp the place we then entered and i by uncle asked you to be good enough to lift him down and there he lies the young fellow looked proudly round for the applause of his comrades and the thin man clapped his hands softly together looking very hard at me while he did so my dear said he you have certainly yourself when our new republic looks for its minister of police we shall know where to find him i confess that when after guiding to this shelter i followed you in and perceived a gentleman s legs projecting from the fireplace even my wits which are usually none of the hardly grasped the situation however grasped the legs he is always practical the good enough words growled the hairy creature beside me it is because we have talked instead of acting that this has a crown upon his head or a head upon his shoulders let us have done with the fellow and come to business the refined features of made me look toward him as to a possible protector but his by men of the night large dark eyes were as cold and hard as jet as he looked back at me what says is right said he we our own safety if he goes with our secret the devil take our own safety cried what has that to do with the matter we the success of our plans that is of more importance the two things go together replied there is no doubt that of our exactly what should be done in such a case any responsibility must rest with the of my heart had turned cold when this man with his poet s face supported the savage at my side but my hopes were raised again when the thin man who had said little hitherto though he had continued to stare at me very intently began now to show some signs of alarm at the proposals of his comrades my dear said he in a soothing voice laying his hand upon the young man s arm we philosophers and must have a respect e by uncle for human life the is not to be lightly we have frequently agreed that if it were not for the of i have every respect for your opinion charles the other interrupted you will allow that i have always been a willing and obedient but i again say that our personal safety is involved and that as far as i see there is no middle course no one could be more averse from cruelty than i am bat you were present with me some months ago when silenced the man from bow street and certainly it was done with such dexterity that the process was probably more painful to the spectators than to the victim he could not have been aware of the horrible sound which announced his own dissolution if you and i had constancy enough to endure this and if i remember right it was chiefly at your that the deed was done then surely on this more vital occasion no no stop cried the thin man his voice rising from its soft tones to a perfect scream as the giant s hairy hand me by the chin once more i appeal to you upon practical as well as upon grounds not by men of the night to let this deed be done consider that if things should go against us this will cut us off from all hopes of mercy consider also this argument seemed for a moment to the younger man whose olive complexion had turned a shade there will be no hope for us in any case charles said he we have no choice but to obey rule some latitude is allowed to us we are upon the inner committee but it takes a to change a rule and we have no powers to do it his lip was quivering but there was no softening in his eyes slowly under the pressure of those cruel fingers my chin began to sweep round to my shoulder and i commended my soul to the virgin and to saint who has always been the especial patron of my family but this man charles who had already me darted forwards and began to tear at s hands with a vehemence which was very different from his former philosophic calm you shall not kill him he cried angrily by i uncle who are you to set your wills up against mine let him go take your thumb from his chin i won t have it done i tell you v then as he saw by the faces of his companions that would not help him he turned suddenly to tones of entreaty see now make you a promise said he listen to me let me examine him if he is a police spy he shall die you may have him then but if he is only harmless traveller who has in here by an evil chance and who has been led by a to inquire into our business then you will leave him to me you will observe that from the beginning of this affair i had never once opened my mouth nor said a word in my defence which made me pleased with myself afterwards though my silence came rather from pride than from courage to lose life and self respect together was more than i could face but now at this appeal from my advocate i turned my eyes from the monster who held me to the	4
other who condemned me the of the one alarmed me less than the attitude of the other for a man is never by men of thb night bo as when he is afraid and of all judges the judge who has cause to fear you is the most my life depended upon the answer which was to come to the appeal of my champion tapped his fingers upon his teeth and smiled at the of his companion he kept repeating in that voice of his i will take all responsibility i ll tell you what said in his savage voice there s another rule besides and that s the one that says that if any man an he shall be treated as if he was himself guilty of the this attack did not shake the serenity of my champion in the least you are an excellent man of action said he calmly but when it comes to choosing the right course you must leave it to wiser heads than your own his air of tranquil superiority seemed to the fierce creature who held me he shrugged his huge shoulders in silent by uncle as to you my friend continued i am surprised considering the position to which you in my family that you should for an instant stand in the way of any wish which i may express if you have grasped the true principles of liberty and if you are privileged to be one of the small band who have never of the republic to whom is it that you owe it yes yes charles i acknowledge what you say the young man answered with much agitation i am sure that i should be the last to oppose any wish which you might express but in this case i fear lest your tenderness of heart may be leading you astray by all means ask him any questions that you like but it seems to me that there can be only one end to the matter so i thought also for with the full secret of these desperate men in my possession what hope was there that they would ever me to leave the hut alive and yet so sweet is human life and so dear a be it ever so short a one that when that hand was taken from my chin i heard a sudden of little bells and the lamp blazed up into a strange fantastic by men of the night it was but for a moment and then my mind was clear again and i was looking up at the strange gaunt face of my whence have you come he asked from england but you are french yes when did you arrive to night how in a from the fellow is speaking the truth growled s til say that for him that he is speaking the truth we saw the and was landed from it just after the boat that brought me over pushed off i remembered boat which had been the first thing which i had seen upon the coast of france how little i had thought what it would mean to me and now my advocate began asking questions vague useless questions in a slow hesitating fashion which set grumbling this appeared to me to be a useless farce by uncle and yet there was a certain eagerness and intensity in my s manner which gave me the assurance that he had some end in view was it merely that he wished to gain time time for what and then suddenly with that quick perception which comes upon those whose nerves are strained by an extremity of danger i became convinced that he really was awaiting that he was tense with i read it upon his drawn face upon his head with his ear into his hand above all in his restless eyes ho expected an interruption and he was talking talking talking in order to gain time for it i was as sure of it as if he had whispered his secret in my ear and down in my cold heart a warm little spring of hope began to and run but had at all this word and now with an oath he broke in upon our dialogue i have had enough of this he cried it is not for child s play of this sort that i risked my head in coming over here have we nothing better to talk about than this fellow do you sup by men of the night pose i came from london to listen to your fine phrases have done with it i say and get to business very good said my champion there s an excellent little cupboard here which makes as fine a prison as one could wish for let us put him in here and pass on to business we can deal with him when we have finished and have him all that we say said i don t know what the devil has come over you cried turning suspicious eyes upon my protector i never knew you before and certainly you were not backward in the affair of the man from bow street this fellow has our secret and he must either die or we shall see him at our trial what is the sense of arranging a plot and then at the last moment turning a man loose who will ruin us all let us snap his neck and have done with it the great hairy hands were stretched towards me again but had sprung suddenly to his feet his face had turned very white and he stood listening with his forefinger up and his head by uncle it was a long thin delicate hand and it was quivering like a leaf in the wind i heard something he whispered and i said the older man what was it silence listen for a minute or more we all stayed with	4
light from the hut struck upon the heads of two beautiful horses and upon the heavy red of the who stood at their heads in the doorway stood another a man of high rank as could be seen from the richness of his dress and the distinction of his bearing he was to the knees with a uniform of light blue and silver which his tall slim light cavalry figure suited to a marvel i could not but admire the way in which he carried himself for he never to draw the sword by uncle which shone at his side but he stood in the doorway glancing round the blood hut and staring at its occupants with a very cool and alert expression he had a handsome face pale and clear cut with a moustache which cut across the brass chain of his well said he well the older man had put his pistol back into the breast of his brown coat this is said he the looked with disgust at the prostrate figure upon the floor a pretty said he get up you hound here take charge of him and bring him into camp a younger officer with two at his heels came in to the hut and the wretched creature half was dragged out into the darkness where is the other the man called i he killed the hound and escaped would have got away also had i not prevented him if you had kept the dog in we by ic by but who is this asked general pointing at me by the law should have had them both but as it is colonel i think that you may congratulate me he held out his hand as he spoke but the other turned abruptly on his heel you hear that general said he looking out of the door has escaped a tall dark young man appeared within the circle of light cast by the lamp the agitation of his handsome face showed the effect which the news had upon him where is he then it is a quarter of an hour since he got away but he is the only dangerous man of them all the emperor will be furious in which direction did he fly it must have been inland but who is this asked general pointing at me i understood from your information that there were only two besides yourself i i had rather no names were mentioned said the other abruptly i can well understand that general answered with a sneer by uncle i would have told you that the cottage was the but it was not decided upon until the last moment i gave you the means of but you let the hound slip i certainly think that you will have to answer to the emperor for the way in which you have managed the business that sir is our affair said general sternly in the meantime you have not told us who this person is it seemed useless for me to conceal my identity since i had a letter in my pocket which would reveal it my name is louis de said i proudly i may confess that i think we had exaggerated our own importance over in england we had thought that all france was wondering whether we should return whereas in the quick march of events france had really almost forgotten our existence this young general was not in the least impressed by my aristocratic name but he it down in his de has nothing whatever to do with the matter said the spy he has by ic the law d into it entirely by chance and i will answer for his safe keeping in case he should be wanted he will certainly be wanted said general in the meantime i need every that i have for the chase so if you make yourself personally responsible and bring him to the camp when needed i see no objection to his remaining in your keeping i shall send to you if i require him he will be at the emperor s orders are there any papers in the cottage they have been burned that is unfortunate but i have excellent come every minute counts and there is nothing to be done here let the men scatter and we may still ride him down the two tall soldiers out of the cottage without taking any further notice of my companion and i heard the sharp stern order and the of metal as the sprang back into their once more an instant later by b uncle ac they were off and i listened to the dull beat of their hoofs dying rapidly into a confused murmur my little snuff coloured champion went to the door of the hut and peered after them through the darkness then he came back and looked me up and down with his usual dry smile well young man said he we have played some pretty for your amusement and you can thank me for that nice seat in the front row of the i am under a very deep obligation to you sir i answered struggling between my gratitude and my aversion i hardly know how to thank you he looked at me with a singular expression in his eyes you will have the opportunity for thanking me later said he in the meantime as you say that you are a stranger upon our coast and as i am responsible for your safe keeping you cannot do better than follow me and i will take you to a place where you may sleep in safety by chapter vi the passage the fire had already down and my companion blew out the lamp so that we had not taken ten paces before we had lost sight of the cottage in which i had received so singular a welcome upon my home coming the wind had softened down but	4
a fine rain and came drifting up from the sea had i been left to myself i should have found myself as much at a loss as i had been when i first landed but my companion walked with a brisk and assured step so that it was evident that he guided himself by which were invisible to me for my part wet and miserable with my forlorn bundle under my arm and my nerves all by my terrible experiences i in silence by his side turning over in my mind all that had occurred to me by uncle young as i was i had heard much political discussion amongst my elders in england and the state of affairs in france was perfectly familiar to me i was aware that the recent elevation of to the throne had enraged the small but formidable section of and extreme who saw that all their efforts to a kingdom had only ended in it into an empire it was indeed a pitiable result of their that a crown with eight de lis should be changed into a higher crown surmounted by a cross and ball on the other hand the followers of the in whose company i had spent my youth were equally disappointed at the manner in which the mass of the french people hailed this final step in the return from chaos to order contradictory as were their motives the more violent spirits of both parties were united in their hatred to napoleon and in their fierce determination to get rid of him by any means hence a series of most of them with their base in england and hence also a large use of and upon the part of and of upon whom the by ic the secret passage responsibility of the safety of the emperor lay a strange chance had landed me upon the french coast at the very same time as a and had afterwards enabled me to see the weapons with which the police contrived to and him and his associates when i looked back upon my series of adventures my wanderings in the salt marsh my entrance into the cottage my discovery of the papers my capture by the the long period of suspense with s dreadful thumb upon my chin and finally the moving scenes which i had witnessed the killing of the hound the capture of and the arrival of the soldiers i could not wonder that my nerves were and that i surprised myself in little gestures like those of a frightened child the chief thought which now filled my mind was what my relations were with this dangerous man who walked by my side his conduct and bearing had filled me with i had seen the depth of cunning with which he had and betrayed his companions and i had read in his lean smiling face the cold deliberate cruelty of by uncle his nature as he stood pistol in hand over the coward whom he had yet i could not deny that when through my own foolish curiosity i had placed myself in a most hopeless position it was he who had the wrath of the formidable in order to me it was evident also that he might have made his achievement more striking by delivering up two prisoners instead of one to the it is true that i was not a but i might have found it difficult to prove it so inconsistent did such conduct seem in this little yellow of a man that after walking a mile or two in silence i asked him suddenly what the meaning of it might be i heard a dry chuckle in the darkness as if he were amused by the and of my question you are a most amusing person let me see what did you say your name was de ah quite so de you have the and the of youth by the secret passage you want to know what is up a chimney you jump up the chimney you want to know the reason of a thing and you out a question i have been in the habit of among people who keep their thoughts to themselves and i find you very refreshing whatever the motives of your conduct there is no doubt that you saved my life said i i am much obliged to you for your it is the most difficult thing in the world to express gratitude to a person who fills you with and i fear that my speech was another instance of that of which he accused me i can do without your thanks said he coldly you are perfectly right when you think that if it had suited my purpose i should have let you perish and i am perfectly right when i think that if it were not that you are under an obligation you would fail to see my hand if i stretched it out to you just as that overgrown did it is very honourable he thinks to serve the emperor upon the field of battle and to risk life in his behalf but when it comes to living amidst danger by uncle as i have done with desperate men and knowing well that the least slip would mean death why then one is beneath the notice of a fine clean handed gentleman why he continued in a burst of bitter passion i have dared more and endured more with and a few of his for comrades than this has done in all the childish cavalry charges that ever he undertook as to service all his put together have not rendered the emperor as pressing a service as i have done but i it does not strike you in that light de quite so it is curious how that name escapes me i you take the same view as colonel it is not a question upon	4
which i can offer an opinion said i i only know that i owe my life to your i do not know what reply he might have made to this but at that moment we heard a couple of pistol shots and a distant shouting from far away in the darkness we stopped for a few minutes but all was silent once more by ic the secret passage s they must have caught sight of said my companion i am afraid that he is too strong and too cunning to be taken by them i do not know what impression he left upon you but i can tell you that you will go far to meet a more dangerous man i answered that i would go far to avoid meeting one unless i had the means of defending myself and my companion s dry chuckle showed that he appreciated my feelings yet he is an absolutely honest man which is no very common thing in these days said he he is one of those who at the outbreak of the revolution embraced it with the whole strength of his simple nature he believed what the writers and the told him and he was convinced that after a little disturbance and a few necessary france was to become a heaven upon earth the centre of peace and comfort and love a good many people got those fine ideas into their heads but the heads have mostly dropped into the basket by this time was true to them and when instead of peace he found war instead of comfort a grinding poverty a by ic uncle and instead of equality an empire it drove him mad he became the fierce creature you see with the one idea of his huge body and giant s strength to the destruction of those who had interfered with his ideal he is fearless and i have no doubt at all that he will kill me for the part that i have played to night it was in the voice that my companion uttered the remark and it made me understand that it was no boast when he said there was more courage needed to carry on his trade than to play the part of a beau like he paused a little and then went on as if speaking to himself yes said he i missed my chance i certainly ought to have shot him when he was struggling with the hound but if i had only wounded him he would have torn me into bits like an over boiled so perhaps it is as well as it is we had left the salt marsh behind us and for some time i had felt the soft of the beneath my feet and our path had risen and dipped over the curves of the low coast hills by the secret passage in spite of the darkness my companion walked with great assurance never hesitating for an instant and keeping up a stiff pace which was welcome to me in my and condition i had been so young when i left my native place that it is doubtful whether even in daylight i should have recognised the but now in the darkness half by my adventures i could not form the least idea as to where we were or what we were making for a certain had taken possession of me and i cared little where i went as long as i could gain the rest and shelter of which i stood in need i do not know how long we had walked i only know that i had and woke and again whilst still keeping pace with my comrade when i was at last aroused by his coming to a dead stop the rain had ceased and although the moon was still obscured the heavens had cleared somewhat and i could see for a little distance in every direction a huge white basin in front of us and i made out that it was a deserted chalk with and growing thickly all round the edges my companion after a stealthy by glance round to make sure that no one was observing us picked his way amongst the scattered of bushes until he reached the wall of chalk this he skirted for some distance between the cliff and the until he came at last to a spot where all further progress appeared to be impossible can you see a light behind us asked my companion i turned round and looked carefully in every direction but was unable to see one never mind said he you go first and i will follow in some way during the instant that my back had been turned he had swung aside or plucked out the of bush which had barred our way when i turned there was a square dark opening in the white glimmering wall in front of us it is small at the entrance but it grows larger further in said he i hesitated for an instant whither was it that this strange man was leading me did he live in a cave like a wild beast or was this some trap into which he was me the moon shone out at by ic the secret passage the instant and in its silver light this black silent looked cheerless and menacing you have gone rather far to turn back my good friend said my companion you must either trust me altogether or not trust me at all i am at your disposal pass in then and i shall follow i crept into the narrow passage which was so low that i had to crawl down it upon my hands and knees my neck round i could see the black of my companion as he came after me he paused at the entrance and then with a rustling of branches and snapping of twigs the faint light was suddenly shut off from	4
outside and we were left in darkness i heard the of his knees as he crawled up behind me go on until you come to a step down said he we shall have more room there and we can strike a light the ceiling was so low that by my back i could easily strike it and my elbows touched the wall upon either side in those days i was slim and however so that i found no difficulty in by ic uncle making my way until at the end of a hundred paces or it may have been a hundred and fifty i felt with my hands that there was a dip ia front of me down this i and was instantly conscious from the purer air that i was in some larger i heard the snapping of my companion s flint and the red glow of the paper leaped suddenly into the clear yellow flame of the at first i could only see that stern face like some grotesque carving in wood with the ceaseless of the muscles of his jaw the light beat full upon it and it stood strangely out with a dim round it in the darkness then he raised the and swept it slowly round at arm s length so as to the place in which we stood i found that we were in a which appeared to extend into the of the earth it was so high that i could stand erect with ease and the old stones which lined the walls told of its great age at the spot where we stood the ceiling had fallen in and the passage been blocked but a cutting had been made from this point through the chalk by ic the secret passage form the narrow along which we had come this cutting appeared to be quite recent for a mound of and some tools were still lying in the passage my companion in hand started off down the and i followed at his heels stepping over the great stones which had fallen from the roof or the walls and now the path well said he grinning at me over his shoulder have you ever seen anything like this in england never i answered these are the precautions and devices which men adopted in rough days long ago now that rough days have come again they are very useful to those who know of such places whither does it lead then i asked to this said he stopping before an old wooden door powerfully with iron he with the metal work keeping himself between me and it so that i could not see what he was doing there was a sharp and the door slowly upon its hinges within there was a steep flight of time worn steps leading upwards he by me on and closed the door behind us at the head of the stair there was a second wooden gate which he opened in a similar manner i had been dazed before ever i came into the chalk pit but now at this succession of incidents i began to rub my eyes and ask myself whether this was young louis de late of in or whether it was some dream of the adventures of a hero of these massive moss grown arches and mighty iron doors were indeed uke the dim shadowy background of a vision but the my bundle and all the sordid details of my toilet assured me only too clearly of their reality above all the swift brisk business like manner of my companion and his occasional abrupt remarks brought my fancies back to the ground once more he held the door open for me now and closed it again when i had passed through we found ourselves in a long corridor with a stone floor and a dim oil lamp burning at the further end two iron barred windows showed that we had come above the earth s surface once more down this corridor we passed and by the passage then through passages and up a short winding stair at the head of it was an open door which led into a small but comfortable bedroom i presume that this will satisfy your wants for to night said he i asked for nothing better than to throw myself down damp clothes and all upon that snowy but for the instant my curiosity overcame my fatigue i am much indebted to you sir said i perhaps you will add to your by letting me know where i am you are in my house and that must suffice you for to night in the morning we shall go further into the matter he rang a small bell and a gaunt shock headed country man servant came running at the call your mistress has retired i suppose yes sir a good two hours ago very good i shall call you myself in the morning he closed my door and the echo of his steps seemed hardly to have died from my ears before i had sunk into that deep and sleep which only youth and fatigue can give by uncle vii the of mr host was as good as his word for when a noise in my room awoke me in the morning it was to find him standing by the side of my bed so composed in his features and so in his attire that it was hard to associate him with the stirring scenes of yesterday and with the repulsive part which he had played in them now in the fresh morning he presented rather the appearance of a an impression which was increased by the and yet benevolent smile with which he regarded me in spite of his smile i was more conscious than ever that my whole soul shrank from him and that i should not be at my ease until i had broken this companionship which had been	4
i had heard and all that i could remember of those dreadful days when we the lords of the country side had been chased across it as if we had been wolves with the howling mob still at the pier head to shake their fists and their stones at us i too that it was this very who was speaking to me who had thrown oil upon the flames in those days and whose fortunes had been s by uncle founded upon our ruin as i looked across at him i found that his keen grey eyes were fixed upon me and i could see that he had read the thought in my mind we must let be said he those are quarrels of the last generation and and you represent a new one my cousin had not said one word or taken any notice of presence but at this joining of our names she glanced at me with the same hostile expression which i had already remarked come said her father you can assure your cousin louis that so far as you are d any family misunderstanding is at an end it is very well for us to talk in that way father she answered it is not your picture that in the hall or your coat that i the wall we hold the castle and the land but it is for the heir of the de to tell us if h is satisfied with this her dark scornful eyes were fi ed upon me as she waited for my reply father hastened to f r c is not a very to e in which io greet your cousin said he harshly it has so by the owner of chanced that louis has fallen to us but it is not for us to remind him of the fact he needs no reminding said she you do me an injustice i cried for the evident and malignant scorn of this girl me to the quick it is true that i cannot forget that this castle and these grounds belonged to my ancestors i should be a indeed if i forget it but if you think that i harbour any bitterness you are mistaken for my own part i ask nothing better than to open up a career for myself with my own sword and never was there a time when it could be more easily and more brilliantly done cried my uncle there are great things about to happen in the world and if you are at the emperor s you will be in the middle of them i understand that you are content to serve him i wish to serve my country by serving the emperor you do so for without him the country becomes chaos from all we hear it is not a very easy service my cousin i should have thought that you would have been very much more comfortable in ir by uncle england and then you would have been so much safer also everything which the girl said seemed to be meant as an insult to me and yet i could not imagine how i had ever offended her never had i met a woman for whom i conceived so hearty and rapid a dislike i could see that her remarks were as offensive to her father as they were to me for he looked at her with eyes which were as angry as her own your cousin is a brave man and that is more than can be said for else that i could mention said he for whom she asked never mind he snapped and jumping up with the air of a man who is afraid that his rage may master him and that he may say more than he wished he ran from the room she seemed startled by this retort of his and rose as if she would follow him then she tossed her head and laughed i suppose that you have never met your uncle before said she after a few minutes of embarrassed silence by ic the owner of never answered i well what do you think of him now you have met him such a question from a daughter about her father filled me with a certain vague horror i felt that he must be even a worse man than i had taken him for if he had so completely the loyalty of his own nearest and dearest your silence is a answer said she as i hesitated for a reply i do not know how you came to meet him last night or what passed between you for we do not share each other s confidences i think however that you have read him aright now i have something to ask you you had a letter from him inviting you to leave england and to come here had you not yes i had did you observe nothing on the outside i thought of those two sinister words which had puzzled me so much what it was you who warned me not to come yes it was l i had no other means of doing it by uncle bat why did you do it because i did not wish you to come here did you think that i would harm you she sat silent for a few seconds like one who is afraid of saying too much when her answer came it was a very unexpected one i was afraid that you would be you think that i am in danger here i am sure of it you advise me to leave without losing an instant from whom is the danger then again she hesitated and then with a reckless motion hke one who throws prudence to the winds she turned upon me it is from my father said she but why should he harm me that is for your sagacity to discover	4
but i assure you that in this matter you him said i as it happens he interfered to save my life last night to save your life from whom from two whose plans i had chanced to discover by ic the owner of she looked at me in surprise they would have killed if he had not it is not his interest that you should be yet awhile he had reasons for wishing you to come to castle but i have been very frank with you and i wish you to be equally so with me does it happen does it happen that during your youth in england you have you have ever had an affair of the heart everything which this cousin of mine said appeared to me to be stranger than the last and this question coming at the end of so serious a conversation was the strangest of all but frankness frankness and i did not hesitate i have left the very best and truest girl in the world behind me in england said i is her name de the niece of the old duke my reply seemed to give my cousin great satisfaction her large dark eyes shone with pleasure you are very attached she asked i shall never be happy until i see her by uncle and you would not give her up god forbid not for the castle of not even for that my cousin held out her hand to me with a frank you will forgive me for my said she i see that we are to be and not enemies and our hands were still clasped when her father re entered the room by ic vm cousin i could see in my uncle s grim face as he looked at us the keenest satisfaction with surprise at this sign of our sudden reconciliation all trace of his recent anger seemed to have left him as he addressed his daughter but in spite of his altered tone i noticed that her eyes looked defiance and distrust i have some papers of importance to look over said he for an hour or so i shall be engaged i can guess that louis would like to see the old place once again and i am sure that he could not have a better guide than you if you will take him over it she raised no objection and for my part i was at the proposal as it gave me an opportunity of learning more of this singular cousin of who had told me so much and yet seemed to by know so much more what was the meaning of this obscure warning which she had given me against her father and why was she so frankly anxious to know about my love affairs these were the two questions which pressed for an answer so out we went together into the sweet coast land air the sweeter for the gale of the night before and we walked through the old lined paths and out into the park and so round the castle looking up at the the grey the oak windows the ancient wing with its walls and its windows the modern with its pleasant and veil of and as she showed me each fresh little detail with a which made me understand how dear the place had become to her she would still keep offering her apologies for the fact that she should be the hostess and i the visitor it is not against you but against ourselves that i was bitter said she for are we not the who have taken a strange nest and driven out those who built it it makes me blush to think that my father should invite you to your own house perhaps we had been rooted here too long by cousin answered perhaps it is for our own good that we are driven out to our own fortunes as i intend to do you say that you are going to the emperor yes you know that he is in camp near here v so i have heard but your family is still i have done him no harm i will go bold to him and ask him to admit me into his service well said she there are some who call him a and wish him all evil but for my own part i have never heard of anything that he has said and done which was not great and noble but i had expected that you would be quite an englishman cousin and come over here with your pockets full of s guineas and your heart of treason i have met nothing but hospitality from the english i answered but my heart has always been french but your father fought against us at let each generation settle its own quarrels by uncle said i i am quite of your father s opinion about that do not judge my father by his words but by his deeds said she with a warning finger and above all cousin louis unless you wish to have my life upon your conscience never let him suspect that i have said a word to set you on your guard your life i gasped oh yes he would not stick at that she cried he killed my mother i do not say that he her but i mean that his cold broke her gentle heart now perhaps you begin to understand why i can talk of him in this fashion as she spoke i could see the secret of years the bitter crushed down in her silent soul rising suddenly to flush her dark cheeks and to gleam in her splendid eyes i at that moment that in that tall slim figure there dwelt an spirit you must think that i speak very freely to you since i have only known you a few hours cousin louis said she by	4
ic cousin to whom should you speak freely if not to your own relative it is true and yet i never expected that i should be on such terms with you i looked forward to your coming with dread and sorrow no doubt i showed something of my feelings when my father brought you in indeed you did i answered i feared that my presence was unwelcome to you most unwelcome both for your own sake and for mine said she for your sake because i suspected as i have told you that my father s intentions might be for mine why for yours i asked in surprise for she had stopped in embarrassment you have told me that your heart is another s i may tell you that my hand is also promised and that my love has gone with it may all happiness attend it said i but why should this make my coming unwelcome i that thick english air has your wits cousin said she shaking her stately head at me but i can speak freely now that i know that this plan would be as hateful to you as to me you by uncle must know then that if my father could have married us he would have united all claims to the succession of then come what might or nothing could shake his position i thought of the solicitude which he had shown over my toilet in the morning his anxiety that i should make a favourable impression his displeasure when she had been cold to me and the smile upon his face when he had seen us hand in hand i believe you are right i cried eight of course i am right look at him watching us now we were walking on the edge of the dried and as i looked up there sure enough was the little yellow face towards us in the angle of one of the windows seeing that i was watching him he rose and waved his hand merrily now you know why he saved your life since you say that he saved it said she it would suit his plans best that you should marry his daughter and so be wished you to live but when once he understands that that is impossible why by cousin then my poor cousin louis his only way of guarding against the return of the de must lie in that there are none to return it was those words of hers coupled with that yellow face still lurking at the window which made me the of my danger no one in france had any reason to take an interest in me if i were to pass away there was no one who could make inquiry i was in his power my memory told me what a and dangerous man it was with whom i had to deal but said i he must have known that your affections were already engaged he did she answered it was that which made me most uneasy of all i was afraid for you and afraid for myself but most of all i was afraid for no man can stand in the way of his plans the name was like a lightning flash upon a dark night i bad heard of the of a woman s love but was ii that this spirited woman loved that poor creature whom i had last ni t in a frenzy of by ic uncle but now i remembered also where i had seen the name it was upon the fly leaf of his book from was the inscription i recalled also that my uncle had said something to him about his aspirations is hot headed and easily carried away said she my father has seen a great deal of him lately they sit for hours in his and will say nothing of what passes between them i fear that there is something going forward which may lead to evil is a student rather than a man of the world but he has strong opinions about politics i was at my wit s ends what to do whether to be silent or to tell her of the terrible position in which her lover was placed but even as i hesitated she with the quick of a woman read the doubts which were in my mind you know something of him she cried i understood that he had gone to paris for god s sake tell me what you know about him his name is yes yes i have i have seen him i stammered by by she me by the wrist in her anxiety by cousin you have seen him and you only arrived in france last night where did you see him what has happened to him she me by the wrist in her anxiety it was cruel to tell her and yet it seemed more cruel still to keep silent i looked round in my bewilderment and there was my uncle himself coming along over the close green lawn by his side with a merry of steel and of spurs there walked a handsome young the same to whom the charge of the prisoner had been committed upon the night before never hesitated for an instant but with a set face and blazing eyes she swept towards them father said she what have you done with i saw his face for a moment before the passionate hatred and contempt which he read in her eyes we will discuss this at some future time said he i will know here and now she cried what have you done with gentlemen said he turning to the young r by uncle and me i am sorry that we should intrude our little domestic differences upon your attention you will i am sure make lieutenant when i tell you that your prisoner of last night was a very	4
dear friend of my daughter s such family considerations do not prevent me from doing my duty to the emperor but they make that duty more painful than it would otherwise be you have my sympathy said the young it was to him that my cousin had now turned do i understand that you took him prisoner she asked it was unfortunately my duty from you i will get the truth whither did you take him to the emperor s camp and why ah it is not for me to go into politics my duties are but to a sword and sit a horse and obey my orders both these gentlemen will be my witnesses that i received my instructions from colonel but on what charge was he arrested by ic cousin tut tut child we have had enough of this said my uncle harshly if you insist upon knowing i will tell you once and for all that has been seized for being concerned in a plot against the life of the emperor and that it was my privilege to the would be to him cried the girl i know that it was you who set him on who encouraged him who held him to it whenever he tried to draw back oh you villain you villain what have i ever done what sin of my ancestors am i that i should be compelled to call such a man father my uncle shrugged his shoulders as if to say that it was useless to argue with a woman s the and i made as if we would stroll away for it was embarrassing to stand listening to such words but in her fury she called to us to stop and be witnesses against him never have i seen such a of passion as blazed in her dry wide opened eyes you have deceived others but you have never deceived me she cried i know you as your own conscience knows you you may murder me as z by uncle you murdered my mother before me but you can never frighten me into being your you proclaimed yourself a republican that you might creep into a house and estate which do not belong to you and now you try to make a friend of by betraying your old associates who still trust in you and you have sent to his death but i know your plans and my cousin louis knows them also and i can assure you that there is just as much chance of his agreeing to them as there is of my doing so i d rather lie in my grave than be the wife of any man but if you had seen the pitiful that he proved himself you would not say so said my uncle coolly you are not yourself at present but when you return to your right mind you will be ashamed of having made this public exposure of your weakness and now lieutenant you have something to say my message was to you de said the young turning his back contemptuously upon my uncle the emperor has sent me to you to him at once at the camp at by cousin my heart at the thought of escaping from my uncle i ask nothing better i cried a horse and an escort are waiting at the gates i am ready to start at this instant nay there can be no such very great hurry said my uncle surely you will wait for luncheon lieutenant the emperor s sir are not carried out in such a manner said the young sternly i have already wasted too much time we must he upon our way in five minutes my uncle placed his hand upon my arm and led me slowly towards the through my cousin had already passed there is one matter that i wish to speak to you about before you go since my time is so short you will forgive me if i introduce it without you have seen your cousin and though her behaviour this morning is such as to prejudice you against her yet i can assure you that she is a very amiable girl she spoke just now as if she had mentioned the plan which i had by uncle conceived to you i confess to you that i cannot imagine anything more convenient than that we should unite in order to settle once for all every question as to which branch of the family shall hold the estates unfortunately said i there are objections and pray what are they the fact that my cousin s hand as i have just learned is promised to another that need not hinder us said he with a sour smile i will undertake that he never claims the promise i fear that i have the english idea of marriage that it should go by love and not by convenience but in any case your scheme is out of the question for my own affections are pledged to a young lady in england he looked at me out of the corners of his gi ey eyes think well what you are doing louis said he in a whisper which was as menacing as a serpent s hiss you are my plans and that is not done with it is not a matter in which i have any choice by cousin he me by the sleeve and waved his hand round as satan may have done when he showed the and look at the park he cried the fields the woods look at the old castle in which your fathers have lived for eight hundred years you have but to say the word and it is all yours once more there flashed up into my memory the little house at and s sweet pale face looking over the laurel bushes which grew by the window it is impossible said i there must have been	4
something in my manner which made him comprehend that it really was so for his face darkened with anger and his persuasion changed in an instant to menace if i had known this they might have done what they wished with you last night said he i would never have put out a finger to save you i am glad to hear you say so i answered for it makes it easier for me to say that i wish to go my own way and to have nothing more to do with you what you have just said me from the bond of gratitude which held me back by uncle i have no doubt that you would like to have nothing more to do with me he cried you will wish it more heartily still before you finish very well sir go your own way and i will go mine and we shall see who comes out the best in the end a group of were standing by their horses heads in the in a few minutes i had packed my scanty possessions and i was hastening with them down the corridor when a chill struck suddenly through my heart at the thought of my cousin how could i leave her alone with this grim companion in the old castle had she not herself told me that her very life might be at stake i had stopped in my perplexity and suddenly there was a of feet and there she was running towards me good bye cousin louis she cried with outstretched hands i was thinking of you said i your father and i have had an explanation and a quarrel thank god she cried your only chance was to get away from him but beware for he will do you an injury if he can by cousin he may do his worst but how can i leave you here in his power j have no fears about me he has more reason to avoid me than i him but they are calling for you cousin louis good bye and god be with you by ic uncle ix the camp of mt uncle was still standing at the castle the very picture of a with our own old coat of arms of the bend and the three blue engraved upon the stones at either side of him he gave me no sign of greeting as i mounted the large grey horse which was awaiting me but he looked thoughtfully at me from under his down drawn brows and his jaw muscles still with that stealthy movement i read a cold and settled malice in his set yellow face and his stern eyes for my own part i sprang readily enough into the saddle for the man s presence had from the first been to me and i was right glad to be able to turn my back upon him and so with a stern quick order from the lieutenant and a and clatter from the we were off upon our journey as i by by by the camp of glanced back at the black keep pf and at the sinister figure who stood looking after us from beside the i saw from over his head a white handkerchief gleam for an instant in a last greeting from one of the gloomy windows and again a chill ran through me as i thought of the fearless girl and of the hands in which we were leaving her but sorrow from the mind of youth like the of breath upon glass and who could carry a heavy heart upon so a horse and through so sweet an air the white glimmering road wound over the downs with the sea far upon the left and between lay that great which had been the scene of our adventures i could even see as i fancied a dull black spot in the distance to mark the position of that terrible cottage far away the little clusters of houses showed the positions of and the other fishing villages whilst i could see that the point which had seemed last night to glow like a half red hot sword blade was now white as a snow field with the camp of a great army far far away a little dim cloud upon by uncle ac the water stood for the land where i had spent days the pleasant homely land which will always rank next to my own in my affections and now i turned my attention from the downs and the sea to the who rode beside me forming as i could perceive a guard rather than an escort save for the last night they were the first of the famous soldiers of napoleon whom i had ever seen and it was with admiration and curiosity that i looked upon men who had won a world wide reputation for their discipline and their gallantry their appearance was by no means gorgeous and their dress and was much more modest than that of the east which rode every saturday through but the stained the worn and the rough hardy horses gave them a very appearance they were small light brown faced fellows heavily and many of wearing ear rings in their ears it surprised me that even the youngest and most boyish looking of them should be so with hair until upon a second look i perceived that his whiskers were by ic the camp of formed of of black wax stuck on to the sides of his face the tall young lieutenant noticed the astonishment with which i gazed at his boyish yes yes said he they are artificial sure enough but what can you expect from a lad of seventeen on the other hand we cannot spoil the appearance of the regiment upon parade by having a girl s cheeks in the ranks it terribly in this warm weather lieutenant said the joining	4
in the conversation with the freedom which was one of the characteristics of napoleon s troops well well in a year or two you will dispense with them who knows perhaps he will have with his head also by that time said a in front and they all laughed together in a manner which in england would have meant a court martial this seemed to me to be one of the of the ee that officer and private were left upon a very familiar footing which was increased no doubt by the freedom with which the emperor would chat with his old soldiers and the liberties by uncle s he would allow them to take with him it was no thing for a shower of to come from the ranks directed at their own commanding officers and i am sorry to say also that it was no very unusual thing for a shower of bullets to come also officers were continually by their own men at the battle of it is well known that every officer with the exception of one lieutenant belonging to the th was shot down from behind but this was a of the bad times and as the emperor gained more complete control a better feeling was established the history of our army at that time proved at any rate that the highest could be maintained without the which was still used in the and the english service and it was shown for the first time that great bodies of men could be induced to act from a sense of duty and a love of country without hope of reward or fear of punishment when a french general could suffer his division to as they would over the face of the country with the certainty that they would upon the by the camp of day of battle he proved that he had soldiers who were worthy of his trust one thing had struck me as curious about these that they pronounced french with the utmost i remarked it to the lieutenant as he rode by my side and i asked him from what foreign country his men were since i could perceive that they were not my faith you must not let them hear you say so said he for they would answer you as like as not by a thrust from their we are the regiment of the french cavalry the first of and though it is true that our men are all in and few of them can speak anything but german they are as good as or who came from the same parts our men are all picked and our ofi he added pulling at his light moustache are the finest in the service the vanity of the fellow amused me for he cocked his swung the blue which hung from his shoulder sat his horse and his in a manner which told of his boyish delight and pride in himself and his by uncle regiment as i looked at his figure and his fearless bearing i could quite imagine that he did himself no more than justice while his frank smile and his merry blue eyes assured me that he would prove a good comrade he had himself been taking observations of me for he suddenly placed his hand upon my knee as we rode side by side i trust that the emperor is not displeased with you said he with a very grave face i cannot think that he can be so i answered for i have come from england to put my services at his disposal when the report was presented last night and he heard of your presence in that den of thieves he was very anxious that you should be brought to him perhaps it is that he wishes you to be guide to us in england no doubt you know your way all over the island the s idea of an island seemed to be limited to the little patches which lie off the or coast i tried to explain to him that this was a great country not much smaller than france well well said he we shall know all about by the of l it presently for we are going to conquer it they bay in the camp that we shall probably enter london either next wednesday evening or else on the thursday morning we are to have a week for the town and then one corps is to take possession of scotland and another of ireland his serene confidence made me smile but how do you know you can do all this i asked oh said he the emperor has arranged it but they have an army and they are well prepared they are brave men and they will fight there would be no use their doing that for the emperor is going over himself said he and in the simple answer i understood for the first time the absolute trust and confidence which these soldiers had in their leader their feeling for him was and its strength was religion and never did nerve the arms of his and strengthen them against pain and death more absolutely than this little grey idol did to those who worshipped him if he had chosen and he was more than once the point of it to assert that he was indeed above humanity he by uncle to grant bis claim tou who have beard of bim as a stout gentleman in a straw bat as bo was in bis later days may find it bard to understand it but if you bad seen bis soldiers still with their dying breath crying out to bim and turning livid faces towards him as he passed you would have the hold which be h d over the minds of men you have been over there asked the presently bis thumb towards the distant cloud upon the water	4
yes i have spent my life there but why did you stay there when there was such good fighting to be had in the french service i my father was driven out of the country as an it was only after bis death that i could offer my sword to the emperor you have missed a great deal but i have no doubt that we shall still have plenty of fine wars and you think that the english will offer us battle have no doubt of it we feared that when they understood that it was the emperor in person who bad come they by the camp of would throw down their arms i have beard that there are some fine women over there the women are beautiful he said nothing but for some time he his shoulders and puffed out his chest curling up the ends of his little yellow moustache but they will escape in boats he muttered at last and could see that he had still that picture of a little island in his imagination if they could but see us they might remain it has been said of the of that they can set a whole population running the women towards us the men away we are as you have no doubt observed a very fine body of men and the officers are the pick of the service though the are hardly up to the same standard as the rest of us with all his self confidence this officer did not seem to me to more than my own age so i asked him whether he had seen any service his moustache with indignation at my question and he looked me up and down with a severe eye i have had the good fortune to be present at nine battles sir and at more than forty said he i have also fought a considerable k by uncle ac number of and i can assure you that i am always ready to meet anyone even a who may wish to put me to the proof i assured him that he was very fortunate to be so young and yet to have seen so much upon which his ill temper vanished as quickly as it came and he explained that he had served in the campaign under as well as in napoleon s passage of the and the campaign of when you have been with the army for a little time the name of will not be so to you said he i believe that i may claim to be the hero of one or two little stories which the soldiers love to tell about their camp fires you will hear of my with the six masters and you will be told how single handed i charged the of and brought their silver back upon the of my mare i can assure you that it was not by accident that i was present last night but it was because colonel was very anxious to be sure of any prisoners whom he might make as it turned out however i only had the one poor by ic the camp of chicken hearted creature whom i handed over to the and the other ah he seems to have been a man of another breed i could have asked nothing better than to have had him at my sword point but he has escaped they caught sight of him and fired a pistol or two but he knew the too well and they could not follow him and what will be done to your prisoner i asked lieutenant shrugged his shoulders i am very sorry for your cousin said he but a fine girl should not love such a man when there are so many gallant soldiers upon the country side i hear that the emperor is weary of these endless and that an example will be made of him whilst the young and i had been talking we had been down the broad white road until we were now quite close to the camp which we could see lying in its arrangement of and beneath us our approach lay over the high ground so that we could see down into by uncle this canvas city with its lines of horses its of and its of soldiers in the centre was a clear space with one very large tent and a cluster of low wooden houses in the middle of it with the banner waving above them that is the emperor s quarters and the smaller tent there is the of general who commands this corps you understand that this is only one of several armies dotted along from in the north to this which is the most the emperor goes from one to the other each in its turn but this is the main body and contains most of the picked troops so that it is we who see most of him especially now that the and the court have come to de he is in there at the present moment he added in a hushed voice pointing to the great white tent in the centre the road into the camp ran through a considerable plain which was covered by bodies of cavalry and engaged upon their we had heard so much in england about napoleon s troops and their had appeared so extraordinary that by by those fellows on the black horses with the great blue upon their are the by the camp of my imagination had prepared me for men of very striking appearance as a matter of fact the ordinary of the line in their blue coats and white breeches and were quite little fellows and even their high brass covered hats and red could not make them very imposing in spite of their size however they were tough and and after their eighteen months in camp they were trained to the highest pitch	4
of perfection the ranks were full df and all the had seen much service while the in command have never been equalled in ability so that it was no mean foe which lay with its menacing eyes fixed upon the distant of england if had not been able to place the first navy in the world between the two shores the history of europe might be very different to day lieutenant seeing the interest with which i gazed at the troops was good enough to satisfy my curiosity about such of them as approached the road along which we were those fellows on the black horses with the gi eat blue upon their are the by uncle said he they are so heavy that they cannot raise more than a trot so when they charge we manage that there shall be a of or behind them to follow up the advantage who is the who is them i asked that is not a but it is general st who is one of those whom they called the of the they were of opinion that simplicity of life and of dress were part of a good soldier and so they would wear no uniform beyond a simple blue riding coat such as you see st is an excellent officer but he is not popular for he seldom speaks to anyone and he sometimes himself up for days on end iii his tent where he plays upon his i think myself that a soldier is none the worse because he a glass of good wine or has a smart jacket and a few across his chest for my part i do both and yet who know me would tell you that it has not my you see this upon the left the men with the yellow precisely those are s famous by the camp of and the other with the red shoulder knots and the fur hats above their are the imperial guard the of the old guard who won for us eighteen hundred of them got the cross of honour after the battle there is the th of the line which has been named the terrible and there is the th light who come from the and who are well known to be the best and the greatest in the army the light cavalry in green are the horse of the guard sometimes called the guides who are said to be the emperor s favourite troops although he makes a great mistake if he prefers them to the of the other cavalry with the green are also but i cannot tell from here what regiment they are their colonel handles them admirably they are moving to a flank in open column of half and then into to charge we could not do it better ourselves and now de here we are at the gates of the camp of and it is my duty to take you straight to the emperor s quarters by uncle x the boom the camp of at that time one and fifty thousand with fifty thousand so that its population was second only to paris among the cities cf france it was divided into four sections the right camp the left camp the camp of and the camp of the whole being about a mile in depth and extending along the for a length of about seven miles on the land side it was open but on the sea side it was fringed by powerful containing and cannon of a size never seen before these were placed along the edges of the high cliffs and their lofty position increased their range and enabled them to drop their upon the decks of the english ships it was a pretty sight to ride through the camp by the room for the men had been there for more than a year and had done all that was possible to and ornament their tents most of them had little gardens in front or around them and the sun burned fellows might be seen as we passed kneeling in their shirt sleeves with their and their watering in the midst of their flower beds others sat in the sunshine at the of the tents tying up their their and their arms hardly a glance upon us as we passed of cavalry were coming and going in every direction the endless lines were formed into streets with their names printed up upon boards thus we had passed through the d the de the d and the d before we found ourselves in the great central square in which of the army were situated the emperor at this time used to sleep at a village called de some four miles inland but his days were spent at the camp and his continual of war were held there here also were his ministers and the of by uncle the army corps which were scattered up and down the coast came thither to make their reports and to receive their orders for these a plain wooden house had been constructed containing one very large room and three small ones the which we had observed from the downs served as an chamber to the house in which those who sought audience with the emperor might it was at the door of this where a strong guard of announced napoleon s presence that my guardian sprang down from his horse and signed to me to follow his example an officer of the guard took our names and returned to us accompanied by general a thin hard dry man of forty with a formal manner and a suspicious eye is this louis de he asked with a stiff smile i bowed the emperor is very anxious to see you you are no longer needed lieutenant i am personally responsible for bringing him safely general very good you may come in if you prefer by a the room it and	4
he passed us into the huge tent which was save for a row of wooden benches round the sides a number of men in naval and military were seated upon these and numerous groups were standing about in subdued tones at the far end was a door which led into the imperial council chamber now and then i saw some man in official dress walk up to this door scratch gently upon it with his nail and then as it instantly opened slip through closing it softly behind him over the whole assembly there hung an air of the court rather than of the camp an atmosphere of awe and of reverence which was the more impressive when it affected these bluff soldiers and sailors the emperor had seemed to me to be formidable in the distance but i found him even more overwhelming now that he was close at hand you need have no fears de said my companion you are going to have a good reception how do you know that from general s manner in these by uncle cursed courts if the emperor smiles upon you smiles down to that in the red velvet coat yonder but if the emperor hy you have only to look at the face of the man who the imperial plates and yon will see the frown reflected upon it and the worst of it is that if you are a plain man you may never find out what earned you either the frown or the smile that is why i had rather wear the shoulder of a lieutenant and be at the side of my with a good horse between my knees and my against my than have s grand hotel in the saint and his hundred thousand of income i was still wondering whether the could be right and if the smile with which d greeted me could mean that the emperor s tions towards me were friendly when a very tall and handsome young man in a brilliant uniform came towards me in spite of the change in his dress i recognised him at once as the general who had commanded the expedition of the night before by ic the well de said he shaking hands with me very pleasantly you have heard no doubt that this fellow escaped us he was really the only one whom we were anxious to seize for the other is evidently a mere and but we shall have him yet and between ourselves we shall keep a very strict guard upon the emperor s person until we do for master is not a man to be despised i seemed to feel his great rough thumb upon my chin as i answered that i thought he was a very dangerous man indeed the emperor will see you presently said he is very busy this morning but he bade me say that you should have an audience he smiled and passed on assuredly you are getting on whispered there are a good many men here who would risk something to have address them as he addressed you the emperor is certainly going to do something for you but attention friend for here is de himself coming towards us a singular looking person was shuffling in our by uncle direction he was a man about fifty years of age largely made about the shoulders and chest but stooping a good deal and heavily in one leg he walked slowly leaning upon a stick and his sober suit of black with silk stockings of the same hue looked strangely staid among the brilliant which surrounded him but in spite of his plain dress there was an expression of great authority upon his shrewd face and every one drew back with bows and as he moved across the tent louis de said he as he stopped in front of me and his cold grey eyes played over me from head to heel i bowed and with some coldness for i shared the which my father used to profess for this priest and but his manner was so polished and engaging that it was hard to hold out against it i knew your cousin de very well indeed said he we were two together when the world was not quite so serious as it is at present i believe that you are related to the cardinal de de who is also an old friend by the room of mine i understand that you are about to offer your services to the emperor i have come from england for that purpose sir and met with some little adventure immediately upon your arrival as i understand i have heard the story of the worthy police agent the two and the lonely hut well you have seen the danger to which the emperor is exposed and it may make you the more zealous in his service where is your uncle he is at the castle of do you know him well i had not seen him until yesterday he is a very useful servant of the emperor but but he inclined his head downward to my ear some more congenial service will be found for you de and so with a bow he round and tapped his way across the tent again why my friend you are certainly destined for something great said the lieutenant de does not waste his smiles and his bows i promise you he knows which way the wind blows before he flies his and i foresee that i shall be asking for your interest l by uncle to get me my in this english campaign ah the council of war is at an end as he spoke the inner door at the end of the great tent opened and a small knot of men came through dressed in the dark blue coats with of gold oak leaves which marked the of the empire they	4
were all but one men who had hardly reached their middle age and who in any other army might have been considered fortunate if they had gained the command of a regiment but the continuous wars and the open system by which rules of yielded to merit had opened up a rapid career to a successful soldier each carried his curved cocked hat under his arm and now leaning upon their sword they fell into a little circle and eagerly among themselves you are a man of family are you not asked my i am of the same blood as the de and the so i had understood well then you will understand that there have been some changes in this country when i tell you that those men who by ic the under the emperor axe the greatest in the country have been the one a waiter the next a wine the next a of barrels and the next a house painter those are the trades which gave us and as i was no names had ever thrilled me as those did and i eagerly asked him to point me out each of these famous soldiers h there are many famous soldiers in the room said he besides he added twisting his moustache there may be junior officers here who have it in them to rise higher than any of them but there is to the right i saw a man with close red hair and a large square face such as i have seen upon an english prize we call him peter the and sometimes the red lion in the army said my companion he is said to be the man in the army though i cannot admit that he is than some other people whom i could mention still he is undoubtedly a very good leader and the general next him i asked why does he carry his head all upon one side l by uncle that is general and he carries his head upon his left shoulder because he was shot through the neck at the siege of st d acre he is a like myself and i fear that he gives some ground to those who accuse my countrymen of being a little and but smiles you are mistaken i thought that perhaps something which i had said might have amused i thought that possibly he meant that really were instead of being as i contend the race in france an opinion which i am always ready to in any way which may be suggested but as i say is a very man though occasionally perhaps a trifle the next man is i looked with interest upon the hero of who had taken command upon the one occasion when napoleon s heart and spirit had failed him he was a man i should judge who would shine rather in war than in peace for with his long goat s face and his brandy nose he looked in spite of his golden oak leaves just such a long by the legged vulgar foul mouthed old soldier as every room can show he was an older man than the others and his sudden promotion had come too late for him to change he was always the of the guard under the hat of the french yes yes he is a rough fellow said in answer to my remark he is one of those whom the emperor had to warn that he wished them to be soldiers only with the army he and and with their big boots and their were too much for the s drawing room at the there is also the dark man with the heavy face heaven help the english village that he finds his quarters in it was he who got into trouble because he broke the jaw of a priest who could not find him a second bottle of and that is i suppose yes that is with the black whiskers and the red thick lips and the brown of egypt upon his face he is the man for me my word when you have seen him in front of a of light cavalry with his tossing and by uncle his flashing you would not wish to see anything finer i have known a square of break and scatter at the very sight of him in egypt the emperor kept away from him for the would not look at the little general when this fine and was before in my opinion is the better light cavalry officer but there is no one whom the men will follow as they do and who is the stern looking man leaning on the oriental sword oh that is he is the most obstinate man in the world he with the emperor the handsome man beside him is is leaning against the tent pole i looked with interest at the extraordinary face of this adventurer who after starting with a and a in the ranks was not contented with the of a but passed on afterwards to grasp the of a king and it might be said of him that his fellows he gained his throne in spite of napoleon rather than by his aid any man who looked at his singular pronounced features the of which pro by the room claimed his half spanish origin must have read in his flashing black eyes and in that huge nose that he was reserved for a strange destiny of all the fierce and men who surrounded the emperor there was none with greater gifts and none also whose he more than those of and yet fierce and as these men were having as boasted fear neither of god nor of the devil there was something which thrilled or them in the pale smile or black frown of the little man who ruled them for as i watched them there suddenly over the assembly a start and	4
i assure that i have nearly fainted from hunger and from thirst but how does the emperor manage himself i asked this de had such a kindly human appearance that i already felt much at my ease with him by uncle oh he he ib a man of iron de we must not set our watches by his i have known him work for eighteen hours on end and take nothing but a cup or two of coffee he wears everybody out around him even the soldiers cannot keep up with him i assure you that i look upon it as the very highest honour to have charge of his papers but there are times when it is very all the same sometimes it is eleven o clock at night de and i am writing to his with my head aching for want of sleep it is dreadful work for he as quickly as he can talk and he never anything now says he suddenly we shall stop here and have a good night s rest and then just as i am myself he adds and we shall continue with the at three to morrow morning that is what he means by a good night s rest but has he no hours for his meals de i asked as i accompanied the unhappy secretary out of the tent oh yes he has hours but he will not observe them you see that it is already long after dinner by the secretary l time but he has gone to this review after the review something else will probably take up his attention and then something else until suddenly in the evening it will occur to him that he has had no dinner my dinner constant this instant he will cry and poor constant has to see that it is there but it must be unfit to eat by that time said i the secretary laughed in the discreet way of a man who has always been obliged to control his emotions this is the imperial kitchen said he indicating a large tent just outside the here is the second cook at the door how many to day ah de it is cried the cook behold them and drawing back the of the entrance he showed us seven dishes each of them containing a cold fowl the eighth is now on the fire and done to a turn but i hear that his majesty has started for the review bo we must put on a ninth that is how it is managed said my companion as we turned from the tent i have known by twenty three fowls got ready for him before he asked for his meal that day he called for his dinner at eleven at night he cares little what he eats or drinks but he will not be kept waiting half a bottle of a red or a a la satisfy every need but it is unwise to put or cream upon the table because he is as likely as not to eat it before the fowl ah that is a curious sight is it not i had halted with an exclamation of astonishment a groom was a very beautiful horse down one of the lanes between the tents as it passed a who was standing with a small pig under his arm hurled it down under the feet of the horse the pig vigorously and away but the horse on without changing its step what does that mean i asked that is the head groom breaking in a for the emperor s use they are first trained by having a cannon fired in their ears then they are struck suddenly by heavy objects and finally they have the test of the pig being thrown under their feet the emperor has not a very by the firm seat and he very often loses himself in a reverie when he is riding so it might not be very safe if the horse were not well trained do you see that young man asleep at the door of a tent yes i see him you would not think that he is at the present moment serving the emperor it seems a very easy service i wish all our services were as easy de that is joseph whose foot is the exact size of the emperor s he wears his new boots and shoes for three days before they are given to his master you can see by the gold that he has a pair on at the present moment ah de will you not join us at dinner in my tent a tall handsome man very dressed came across and greeted us it is rare to find you at rest de i have no very light task myself as head of the household but i think i have more leisure than you have we time for dinner before the emperor returns yes yes here is the tent and everything m by ic uncle ready we can see when the emperor returns and be in the room before he can reach it this is camp fare de but no doubt you will excuse it for my own part i had an excellent appetite for the and the but what i above all was to hear the talk of my companions for i was full of curiosity as to everything which concerned this singular man whose genius had elevated him so rapidly to the highest position in the world the head of his household discussed him with an extraordinary frankness what do they of him in england de he asked nothing very good so i have gathered from their papers they drive the emperor frantic and yet he will insist upon reading them i am willing to lay a that the very first thing which he does when he enters london will be to send cavalry to the various newspaper offices and	4
to endeavour ta seize the and the next the next said he laughing will be to issue by the a long to prove that we have conquered england entirely for the good of the english and very much against our own inclinations and then perhaps the emperor will allow the english to understand that if they absolutely demand a for a ruler it is possible that there are a few little points in which he from holy church too bad too bad cried de looking amused and yet rather frightened at his companion s audacity no doubt for state reasons the emperor had to a uttle with and i he would attend this church of st paul s as readily as he did the at but it would not do for a ruler to be a after all the emperor has to think for all he thinks too much said gravely he thinks so much that other people in france are getting out of the way of thinking at all you know what i mean de for you have s n it as much as i have yes yes answered the secretary he certainly does not encourage among m by uncle those him i have beard him say many a time that he desired nothing but which was a poor compliment it must be confessed to us who have the honour of serving him a clever man at his court shows his cleverness best by pretending to be dull said with some bitterness and yet there are many famous characters there i remarked if so it is only by concealing their characters that they remain there his ministers are clerks his are superior de camp they are all agents you have this wonderful man in the middle and all around you have so many which reflect different sides of him in one you see him as a and you call it in another you have him as a and you name it or in yet another he figures as a and is called you see different figures but it is really the same man there is a de for example who the household but he cannot dismiss a servant with by the out permission it is still always the emperor and he plays upon us we must confess de that he plays upon us in nothing else do i see so clearly his wonderful cleverness he will not let us be too friendly lest we combine he has set his against each other until there are hardly two of them on speaking terms look how hates or and or and it is all they can do to keep their in their when they meet and then he knows our weak points s thirst for money s vanity s s foolishness s s for speculation they are all so many tools in his hand i do not know what my own greatest weakness may be but i am sure that he does and that he uses his knowledge but how he must work i exclaimed ah you may say so said de what energy eighteen hours out of twenty four for weeks on end he has presided over the council until they were fainting at their as to me he will be the death of me just as he wore by uncle out de but i will die at my post without a murmur for if he is hard upon us he is hard upon himself also he was the man for france said de he is the very genius of system and of order and of discipline when one remembers the chaos in which our poor country found itself after the revolution when no one would be governed and wanted to govern else you will that only napoleon could have saved us we were all longing for something fixed to secure ourselves to and then we came upon this iron pillar of a man and what a man he was in those days de you see him now when he has got all that he can want he is and easy but at that time he had got nothing but everything his glance frightened women he walked the streets like a wolf people looked after him as he passed his face was quite it was hollow with an menacing gaze and the jaws of a oh yes this little lieutenant from the military school of was a singular figure there is a man said i when i saw him who by the will sit upon a throne or kneel upon a and now look at him and that is ten years ago i exclaimed only ten years and they have brought him from a room to the but he was born for it you could not keep him down de told me that when he was a little fellow at he had the grand imperial manner and would praise or blame glare or smile exactly as he does now have you seen his mother de she is a tragedy queen tall stern reserved silent there is the spring from which he flowed i could see in the gentle eyes of the secretary that he was disturbed by the frankness of de s remarks you can tell that we do not live under a very terrible tyranny de said he or we should hardly venture to discuss our ruler so frankly the fact is that we have said nothing which he would not have listened to with pleasure and perhaps with approval he has his little or he would not be human but take his qualities as a ruler and i would ask you if there has by uncle ever been a man who has justified the choice of a nation so completely he works harder than any of his subjects he is a general beloved by his soldiers he is a master beloved by his servants he never has	4
a holiday and he is always ready for his work there is not under the roof of the a more or he educated his brothers at his own expense when he was a very poor man and he has caused even his most distant relatives to share in his prosperity in a word he is economical hard working and temperate we read in the london papers about this prince of wales de and i do not think that he comes very well out of the comparison i thought of the long record of london and i had to leave george as i understand it said i it is not the emperor s private life but his public ambition that the english attack the fact is said de that the emperor knows and we all know that there is not room enough in the world for both france and england one or other must be supreme if by ic the secretary england were once crushed we could then lay the foundations of a permanent peace italy is ours we can crush again as we have crushed her before germany is divided can to the south and east america we can take at our leisure finding our pretext in or in canada there is a world empire waiting for us and there is the only thing that stops us he pointed out through the opening of the tent at the broad blue channel far away like snow white in the distance were the sails of the fleet i thought again of what i had seen the night before the lights of the ships upon the sea and the glow of the camp upon the shore the powers of the land and of the ocean were face to face whilst a waiting world stood round to see what would come of it by uncle chapter the of action de s tent had been pitched in such a way that he could overlook the royal but whether it was that we were too absorbed in the interest of our conversation or that the emperor had used the other entrance in returning from the review we were suddenly startled by the appearance of a captain dressed in the green jacket of the of the guard who had come to say that napoleon was waiting for his secretary poor de s face turned as white as his beautiful as he sprang to his feet hardly able to speak for agitation i should have been there he gasped oh what a misfortune de you must excuse me where is my hat and my sword come de not an instant is to be lost by the man of action i judge from the terror of de as well as from the scene which i had witnessed with admiral what the influence was which the emperor exercised over those who were around him they were never at their ease always upon the brink of a catastrophe encouraged one day only to be rudely the next in public and in private and yet in spite of it all the singular fact remains that they loved him and served him as no monarch has been loved and served perhaps i had best stay here said i when we had come to the chamber which was still crowded with people no no i am responsible for you you must come with me oh i trust he is not with me how could he have got in without my seeing him my frightened companion scratched at the door which was opened instantly by the who guarded it within the room into which we passed was of considerable size but was furnished with extreme simplicity it was of a silver grey colour with a sky blue ceiling in by uncle ac the centre of which was the imperial eagle in gold holding a in spite of the warm weather a large fire was burning at one side and the air was heavy with heat and the smell of in the middle of the room was a large oval table covered with green cloth and with a number of letters and papers a raised writing desk was at one side of the table and behind it in a green chair with curved arms there sat the emperor a number of officials were standing round the walls but he took no notice of them in his hand he had a small with which he the wooden at the end of his chair he glanced up as we entered and shook his head coldly at de i have had to wait for you de said he i cannot remember that i ever waited for my late secretary de that is enough no excuses take this report which i have written in your absence and make a copy of it poor de took the paper with a shaking hand and carried it to the little side table which was reserved for his use napoleon rose and by the man of action paced slowly up and down the room with his hands behind his back and his big round head stooping a little forwards it was certainly as well that he had a secretary for i observed that in writing this single document he had the whole place with ink and it was obvious that he had twice used his white knee breeches as a as for me i stood quietly beside at the door and he took not the notice of my presence well he cried presently is it ready de we have something more to do the secretary half turned in his chair and his face was more agitated than ever if it please you he stammered well well what is the matter now if it please you i find some little difficulty in reading what you have written tut tut sir you see what the report is about yes it is about for the	4
cavalry horses i napoleon smiled and the action made his face look quite boyish by uncle you remind me of de when i wrote him an account of the battle of he thought that my letter was a rough plan of the engagement it is incredible how much difficulty you appear to have in reading what i write this document has nothing to do with horses but it contains the instructions to admiral as to the of his fleet so as to obtain command of the channel give it to me and i will read it to you he snatched the paper up in the quick impulsive way which was characteristic of him but after a long fierce stare he it up and hurled it under the table i will dictate it to you said he and pacing up and down the long room he poured forth a torrent of words which poor de his face with his exertions strove hard to put upon paper as he grew excited by his own ideas napoleon s voice became his step faster and he seized his right in the fingers of the same hand and twisted his right arm in the singular gesture which was peculiar to him but by the man of action his thoughts and plans were so admirably clear that even i who knew nothing of the matter could readily follow them while above all i was impressed by the marvellous grasp of fact which enabled him to speak with confidence not only of the line ships but of the and at and with the exact strength of each in men and in guns while the names and force of the english vessels were equally at his fingers ends such familiarity would have been remarkable in a naval ofl but when i thought that this question of the ships was only one out of fifty with which this man had to deal i began to the immense grasp of that mind he did not appear to be paying the least attention to me but it seems that he was really watching me closely for he turned upon me when he had finished his you appear to be surprised de that i should be able to my naval having my of marine at my elbow is one of my rules to know and to do things for myself perhaps ii these good had by uncle had the same habit they would not now be living amidst the of england one must have your majesty s memory in order to do it i observed it is the result of system said he it is as if i had drawers in my brain so that when i opened one i could close the others it is seldom that i fail to find what i want there i have a poor memory for names or dates but an excellent one for facts or faces there is a good deal to bear in mind de for example i have as you have seen my one little drawer full of the ships upon the sea i have another which contains all the and of france as an example i may tell you that when my minister of war was reading me a report of all the coast i was able to point out to him that he had omitted two guns in a battery near in yet another of my brain drawers i have the of france is that drawer in order a clean shaven man who had stood biting his nails in the window bowed at the emperor s question by ic tiie man of action i am sometimes tempted to believe that you know the name of every man in the ranks aid he i think that i know most of my old egyptian said he and then de th re is another drawer for bridges roads and every detail of internal administration the law italy the colonies holland all these things demand drawers of their own in these days de france asks something more of its ruler than that he should carry eight yards of with dignity or ride after a in the forest of i thought of the helpless gentle louis whom my father had once taken me to visit and i understood that france after her and her sufferings did indeed require another and a stronger head do you not think so de asked the emperor he had halted for a moment by the fire and was grinding his dainty gold into one of the burning logs you have come to a very wise decision said he when i had answered his question but you have n by uncle always been of this way of thinking have you is it not true that you once defended me when some young englishman was drinking to my at an inn in this village in which you lived i remembered the incident although i could not imagine how it had reached his ears why should you have done this i did it on impulse on impulse he cried in a tone of contempt i do not know what people mean when they say that they do things upon impulse in things are doubtless done upon impulse but not amongst sane people why should you risk your life over there in defending me when at the time you had nothing to hope for from me it was because i felt that you stood for france during this conversation he had still walked up and down the room twisting his right arm about and occasionally looking at one or other of us with his for his sight was so weak that he always needed a single glass indoors and outside sometimes he stopped and helped himself to great of snuff from a by the man of action shell box but i observed that none of it ever reached his nose for he dropped it all	4
from between his fingers on to his waistcoat and the floor my answer to please him for he suddenly seized my ear and pulled it with considerable violence you are quite right my friend said he i stand for france just as the second stood for i will make her the great power of the world so that every monarch in europe will find it necessary to keep a palace in paris and they will all come to hold the train at the of my descendants a of pain passed suddenly over his face my god for whom am i building who will be my descendants i heard him and he passed his hand over his forehead do they seem frightened in england about my approaching invasion he asked suddenly have you heard them express fears lest f get across the channel i was forced in truth to say that the only fears which i had ever heard expressed were lest he should not get across n by uncle the are very jealous that the sailors should always have the honour said i but they have a very army nearly every man is a he cried and made sl motion with his hands as if to sweep them from before him i will land with a hundred thousand men in or in i will fight a great battle which i will win with a loss of ten thousand men on the third day i shall be in london i will seize the the the merchants the newspaper men i will impose an of a hundred millions of their pounds i will favour the poor at the expense of the rich and so i shall have a party i will scotland and by giving them which will put them in a superior condition to england thus i will sow everywhere then as a price for leaving the island i will claim their fleet and their colonies in this way i shall secure the command of the world to france at least a century to come in this short sketch i could perceive the quality which i have since heard remarked in napoleon by tiie man of action that his mind could both conceive a large scheme and at the same time those practical details which would seem to bring it within the bounds of possibility one instant it would be a wild dream of the the next it was a of the ships the ports the stores the troops which would be needed to turn dream into fact he the heart of a question with the same decision which made him strike straight an enemy s capital the soul of a poet and the mind of a man of business of the first order that is the combination which may make a man dangerous to the world i think that it may have been his for he never did anything without a purpose to give me an object lesson of his own capacity for governing with the idea perhaps that i might in turn influence others of the by what i told them at any rate he left me there to stand and to watch the curious succession of points upon which he had to give an opinion during a few hours nothing seemed to be either too large or too small for that extraordinary mind at one instant it was the arrangements for the by uncle of two hundred thousand men at the next he was discussing with de the of the expenses of the household and the possibility of some of the carriages it is my desire to be economical at home so as to a good show abroad said he for myself when t had the honour to be a i found that i could live very well upon a year and it would be no hardship to me to go back to it this extravagance of the palace must be stopped for example i see upon your accounts that cups of coffee are drunk a day which with sugar at and coffee at a pound come to a cup it would be better to make an allowance for coffee the stable bills are also too high at the present price of seven or eight a week should be enough for each horse in a stable of two hundred i will not have any waste at the thus within a few minutes he would pass from a question of to a question of and from the management of a empire to that of a stable from time to time i could observe that he threw a little glance at me as if to ask by ic the man of action what i thought of it all and at the time i wondered very much why my approval should be of any consequence to him but now when i look back and bee that my following his fortunes brought over so many others of the young nobility i understand that he saw very much further than i did well de said he suddenly you have seen something of my methods are you prepared to enter my service assuredly i answered i can be a very hard master when i like said he smiling you were there when i spoke to admiral we have all our duty to do and discipline is as necessary in the highest as in the lowest ranks but anger with me never rises above here and he drew his hand across his throat i never permit it to cloud my brain dr here would tell you that i have the pulse of all his and that you are the said a large faced benevolent looking person who had been whispering to you rascal you that up against me by uncle ac do you the doctor will not forgive me because i tell him when i am that i had rather die of	4
the disease than of the if i eat too fast it is the fault of the state which does not allow me more than a few minutes for my which reminds me that it must be rather after my dinner hour constant it is four hours after it serve it up then at once yes is outside with his ah shall see them at once show in k man entered who had evidently just arrived from a journey under his arm he carried a large flat basket it is two days since i sent for you the arrived yesterday i been travelling from paris ever since have you the models there yes then you may lay them out on that table i could not at first imagine what it when i saw upon opening his basket that by the man of action it was with little about a foot high all of them dressed in the most gorgeous silk and velvet with of and of gold lace but presently as the took them out one by one and placed them on the table i understood that the emperor with his extraordinary passion for detail and for directly everything in his court had had these dressed in order to judge the effect of the gorgeous which had been ordered for his grand upon state occasions what is this he asked holding up a lady in hunting costume of and gold with a and of white feathers that is for the s hunt you should have the waist rather lower said napoleon who had very definite opinions about ladies dresses these cursed fashions seem to be the only thing in my which i cannot my takes three inches from my coat tails and all the armies and of france cannot prevent him who is this he had picked up a very gorgeous figure in a green coat by uncle that the grand master of the hunt then it is you how do you like your new costume and this in red that is the arch and the violet that is the grand the emperor was as much amused as a child with a new toy he formed little groups of the figures upon the table so that he might have an idea of how the would look when they together then he threw them all back into the basket very good said he you and david have done your work very well you will submit these designs to the court and have an estimate for the expense you may tell that if she to send in such an account as the last which she sent to the she shall see the inside of you would not think it right de to spend twenty five thousand upon a single dress even though it were for de was there anything which this of a man by the man of action did not know what could my love affairs be to him amidst the clash of armies and the struggles of nations when i looked at him half in amazement and half in fe ir that pleasant boyish smile lit up his pale face and his plump hand rested for an instant upon my shoulder his eyes were of a bright blue when he amused though they would turn dark when he was thoughtful and steel grey in moments of excitement you were surprised when i told you a little ago about your encounter with the in the village inn you are still more surprised now when i tell you about a certain young lady you must certainly have thought that i was very badly served by my agents in england if i did not know such important details as these i cannot conceive why such trifles should be reported to you or why you should for one instant remember them you are certainly a very modest young man and i hope you will not lose that charming quality when you have been for a little time at my court so you think that your own private affairs are of no importance to me by uncle i do not know why they should be what is the name of your great uncle he is the cardinal de de precisely and where is he he is in germany quite so in germany and not at dame where i should have placed him who is your first cousin the duke de and where is he in london yes in london and not at the where he might have had what he liked for the asking i wonder if i were to fall whether i should have followers as faithful as those of the would the men that i have made go into exile and refuse all offers until i should return come here he took his favourite by the with the caressing gesture which was to him could i count upon you you eh i do not understand you our conversation had been carried on in a voice which had made it to the other people in the room by the man of action but now they were all listening to what had to say if i were driven out would you go into also no at least you are frank i could not go into exile f and why because i should be dead napoleon began to laugh and there are some who say that our is dull said he well j think i am pretty sure of you for although i am fond of you for reasons of my own i do not think that you would be of much value to anyone else now i could not say that of you you would change very quickly to a new master as you have changed from an old one you have a genius you know for yourself there was nothing which the emperor loved more than to suddenly produce little scenes of	4
have flushed with shame as i acknowledged it for the emperor read my feelings well well he has not a very trade it is true and yet i can assure you that it is one which is very necessary to me by the way this uncle of yours as i understand holds the estates which should have descended to you does he not yes his eyes flashed suspicion at me o by uncle ac i trust that you are not joining my service merely in the hope of having them restored to you no it is my ambition to make a career for myself it is a thing said the emperor to found a family than merely to one i could not restore your estates de for things have come to such a pitch in france that if one once begins the affair is endless it would shake all public confidence i have no more devoted than the men who hold land which does not belong to them as long as they serve me as your uncle serves me the land must remain with them but what can this young lady require of me show her in constant an instant later my cousin was conducted into the room her face was pale and set but her large dark eyes were filled with resolution and she carried herself like a princess well why do you come here what is it that you want asked the emperor in the manner which he adopted to women even if he were them by m the man of action glanced round and as our eyes met for an instant i felt that my presence had renewed her courage she looked bravely at the emperor as she answered him i come to a favour of you your father s daughter has certainly claims upon me what is it that you wish i do not ask it in my father s name but in my own i you to spare the life of who was arrested yesterday upon a charge of treason he is a student a mere who has lived away from the world and has been made a tool by men a cried the emperor harshly they are the most dangerous of all he took a bundle ot notes from his table and glanced them over i presume that he is fortunate enough to be your lover s pale face flushed and she looked down before the emperor s keen glance i have his examination here he does not come well out of it confess that from what i by uncle see of the young man s character i should not say that he is worthy of your love i you to spare him what you ask is impossible i have been against from two sides by the and by the hitherto i have been too long suffering and they have been encouraged by my patience since and the due d died the have been quiet now i must teach the same lesson to these others i was astonished and am still astonished at the passion with which my brave and pure cousin loved this cowardly and low minded man though it is but in accordance with that strange law which draws the extremes of nature together as she heard the emperor s stern reply the last sign of colour faded from her pale face and her eyes were with despairing tears which gleamed upon her white cheeks uke dew upon the of a lily for god s sake for the love of your mother spare him she cried falling upon her knees at the emperor s feet i will answer for him that he never you again tut tut cried napoleon angrily turning by the man of action upon his heel and walking impatiently up and down the room i cannot grant you what you ask when i say so once it is finished i cannot have my in high matters of state affected by the intrusion of women the have been dangerous of late and an example must be made or we shall have the st upon our hands once more the emperor s set face and firm manner showed it was hopeless and yet my cousin as no one but a woman who for her lover would have dared to do he is harmless his death will frighten others spare him and i will answer for his loyalty what you ask is impossible constant and i raised her from the ground that right de said the emperor this interview can lead to nothing remove your cousin from the room but she had again turned to him with a face which showed that even now all hope had not been abandoned by uncle she cried you say that an example must be made there is ah if i could lay my hands upon he is the dangerous man it was he and my father who led on if an example must be made it should be an example of the guilty rather than of the innocent they are both guilty and besides we have our hands upon the one but not upon the other but if i could find hun napoleon thought for a moment if you do said he will be forgiven but i cannot do it in a day how long do you ask a week at the least then he has a of a week if you can find in the time will be if not he will die upon the eighth day it is enough de remove your cousin for i have matters of more importance to attend to i shall expect you one evening at the de when you are ready to be presented to the by ic she you say that an must be made there is by by ic chapter xiii thb man of when i had escorted my cousin from the presence of	4
the emperor i was surprised to find the same young officer waiting outside who bad commanded the guard which had brought me to the camp well what luck he asked excitedly towards us for answer shook her head ah i feared as much for the emperor is a terrible man it was brave indeed of you to attempt it i had rather charge an square upon a pent horse than ask him for anything but my heart is heavy that you should have been unsuccessful his boyish blue eyes with tears and his fair moustache drooped in such a deplorable fashion that i could have laughed had the matter been less serious by uncle lieutenant chanced to meet me and escorted me through the camp said my cousin he has been kind enough to give me sympathy in my trouble and bo do i i cried you carried yourself like an angel and it is a lucky man who is blessed with your love i trust that he may be worthy of it she turned cold and proud in an instant when anyone threw a doubt upon this wretched lover of hers i know him as neither the emperor nor you can do said she he has the heart and soul of a poet and he is too high minded to suspect the to which he has fallen a victim but as to i should have no pity upon him for i know him to be a murderer five times over and i know also that there will be no peace in france until he has been taken cousin louis will you help me to do it the lieutenant had been at his moustache and looking me up and down with a jealous eye by the man of surely you will permit me to help you he cried in a piteous i may need you both said she i will come to you if i do now i will ask you to ride with me to the edge of the camp and there to leave me she had a quick imperative way which came from those sweet womanly lips the grey horse upon which i had come to the camp was waiting beside that of the so we were soon in the saddle when we were clear of the huts my cousin turned to us i had rather go alone now said she it is understood then that i can rely upon you entirely said i to the death cried it is everything to me to have two brave men at my back said she and so with a smile gave her horse its head and off over the in the direction of for my part i remained in thought for some time wondering what plan she could have in her head by which she hoped to get upon the track of a woman s wit by the danger by uncle of her lover might perhaps succeed where and had failed when at last i turned my horse i found my young still staring after the distant rider my faith there is the woman for you he kept repeating what an eye w hat a smile what a rider and she is not afraid of the emperor oh here is the woman who is worthy of you these were the little sentences which he kept muttering to himself until she vanished over the hill when he became conscious at last of my presence you are s cousin he asked you are joined with me in doing something for her i do not yet know what it is but i am perfectly ready to do it it is to capture excellent in order to save the life of her lover there was a struggle in the face of the young but his more generous nature won i will do even that if it will make her the happier he cried and he shook the hand by the man of dreams which i extended towards him the of are over yonder where you see the lines of horses if you will send for lieutenant you will find a sure blade always at your disposal let me hear from you then and the sooner the better he shook his bridle and was off with youth and gallantry in every line of him from his red and flowing to the spur which on his heel but for four long days no word came from my cousin as to her quest nor did i hear from this grim uncle of mine at the of for myself i had gone into the town of and had hired such a room as my thin purse could afford over the shop of a baker named next to the church of st in the des only last year i went back there under that strange impulse which leads the old to tread once more with dragging feet the same spots which have sounded to the crisp tread of their youth the room is still there the very pictures and the plaster head of which used to stand upon the side table as i stood with my back to the narrow window i had around me every smallest by uncle detail upon which my young eyes had looked nor was i conscious that my own heart and feelings had undergone much change and yet there in the little round glass which faced me was the long drawn weary face of an aged man and out of the window when i turned were the bare and lonely downs which had been peopled by that mighty host of a hundred and fifty thousand men to think that the grand army should have vanished away like a cloud upon a windy day and yet that every sordid detail of a lodging should remain unchanged truly if man is not humble it is not for want of having his lesson taught to	4
one must claim to be divine alexander declared himself to be the son of and no one questioned it but the world has grown old and has lost its what would happen if i were to make the same claim de would smile behind his hand and the would write little upon the walls he did not appear to be addressing us but rather to be expressing his thoughts aloud while t by uncle allowing them to run to the most fantastic and extravagant this it was which he called because it recalled to him the wild vague dreams of the whose poems had always had a fascination for him de has told me that for an hour at a time he has sometimes talked in this strain of the most intimate thoughts and aspirations of his heart while his have stood round in silence waiting for the instant when he would return once more to his practical and self the great ruler said he must have the power of religion behind him as well as the power of the sword it is more important to command the souls than the bodies of men the for example is the head of the faith as well as of the army so were some of the my position must be until this is accomplished at the present instant there are thirty in france where the pope is more powerful than i am it is only by universal dominion that peace can be assured in the world when there is only one authority in europe seated at paris and when all the kings are so by the man of dreams many who hold their crowns from the central power of france it is then that the reign of peace will be established many powers of equal strength must always lead to struggles until one becomes her central position her wealth and her history all mark france out as being the power which will control and the others germany is divided is barbarous england is france only remains i began to understand as i listened to him that my friends in england had not been so far wrong when they had declared that as long as he lived this little thirty six year old there could not possibly be any peace in the world he drank some which constant had placed upon the small round table at his elbow then he leaned back in his chair once more still staring at the red glow of the fire with his chin sunk upon his chest in those days said he the kings of europe will walk behind the emperor of france in order to hold up his train at his each of them will have to maintain a palace in paris and by uncle the city will as far as these are the plans which i have made for paris if she wiu show herself to be worthy of them but i have no love for them these and they have none for me for they cannot forget that i turned my guns upon them once before and they know that i am ready to do so again i have made them admire me and fear me but i have never made them like me look what i have done for them where are the treasures of the pictures and statues of and of the they are in the the spoils of my have gone to her but they must always be changing always chattering they wave their hats at me now but they would soon be waving their fists if i did not give them something to talk over and to wonder at when other things are quiet i have the dome of the to keep their thoughts from mischief louis xiv gave them wars louis xv gave them the and of his court louis xvi gave them nothing so they cut off his head it was you who helped to bring him to the by ic the man of no i was always a moderate at least you did not regret his death the less so since it has made room for you nothing could have held me down i was born to reach the highest it has always been the same with me i remember when we were arranging the treaty of i a young general under thirty there was a high vacant throne with the imperial arms in the s tent i instantly sprang up the steps and threw myself down upon it i could not endure to think that there was anything above myself and all the time i knew in my heart all that was going to happen to me even in the days when my brother and i lived in a little room upon a few a week i knew perfectly well that the day would come when i should stand where i am now and yet i had no prospects and reason for any great hopes i was not clever at school i was only the forty second out of at i had perhaps some ability but at nothing else the truth is that i was always dreaming when the others were working by uncle there was nothing to encourage my ambition for the only thing which i inherited from my father was a weak stomach once when i was very young i went up to paris with my father and my sister we were in the and we saw the king pass in his carriage who would have thought that the little boy from who took his hat off and stared was destined to be the next monarch of france and yet even then i felt as if that carriage ought to belong to me what is it constant the discreet bent down and whispered something to the emperor ah of course said he it was an appointment i had forgotten it	4
is she there yes in the side room yes and exchanged glances and the minister to move towards the door no no you can remain here said the emperor light the lamps constant and have the carriages ready in half an hour look over this of a letter to the emperor of by the man of dreams and let me have your observations upon it de there is a report here as to the new at extract what is essential from it and leave it upon my desk at five o clock to morrow morning i will have the whole army into the boats at seven we will see if they can within three hours de you will wait here until we start for de so with a crisp order to of us he walked with httle swift steps across the room and i saw his square green back and white legs framed for an instant in the doorway there was the flutter of a pink skirt beyond and then the curtains closed behind him stood biting his nails while looked at him with a slight raising of his eyebrows de with a face was turning over the great bundle of papers which had to be copied by morning constant with a noiseless tread was lighting the candles upon the round the room which is it i heard the minister whisper the girl from the imperial opera said by is the little spanish lady oat of favour then no i think not she was here yesterday and the other the she has a cottage at but we must have no scandal about the court said with a sour smile recalling the moral sentiments with which the emperor had him and now de he added drawing me aside i very much wish to hear from you about the party in england you must have heard their views do they imagine that they have any chance of success and so for ten minutes he me with questions which showed me clearly that the emperor had read him aright and that he was determined come what might to be upon the side which won we were still talking when constant entered hurriedly with a look of anxiety and perplexity which i could not have imagined upon so smooth and a face good heavens he cried by the man of dreams and his hands such a misfortune who could have expected it what is it then constant oh i dare not intrude upon the emperor and yet and yet the is outside and she is coming in by uncle chapter xiv at this unexpected announcement and looked at each other in silence and for once the trained features of the great who lived behind a mask betrayed the fact that he was still capable of emotion the which passed over them was caused however rather by mischievous amusement than by consternation while who had an honest affection for both napoleon and ran to the door as if to bar the from entering constant rushed towards the curtains which the emperor s room and then losing courage although he was known to be a man he came running back to for advice it was too late now however for the had opened the door and two ladies had entered the room the first was by tall and graceful with a smiling face and an though dignified manner she was dressed in a black velvet cloak with white lace at the neck and sleeves and she wore a black hat with a curling white feather her companion was shorter with a countenance which would have been plain had it not been for the alert expression and large eyes which gave it charm and character a small black dog had followed them in but the first lady turned and handed the thin steel chain which she led it to the attendant you had better keep fortune outside said she in a sweet musical voice the emperor is not very fond of dogs and if we intrude upon his quarters we cannot do less than consult his tastes good evening de madame de and i have driven all along the cliffs and we have stopped as we passed to know if the emperor is coming to de but perhaps he has already started i had expected to find him here his imperial majesty was here a short time ago said bowing and rubbing his hands by uncle i hold my such a as de is capable of this evening and the emperor promised me that he would set his work aside for once and favour us with his presence i wish we could persuade him to work less de he has a frame of iron but he cannot continue in this way these nervous attacks come more frequently upon him he will insist upon doing everything everything himself it ib noble but it is to be a martyr i have no doubt that at the present but you have not yet told me where he is de we expect him every instant your majesty in that case we shall sit down and await his return ah de how i pity you when i see you among all those papers i was desolate when de deserted the emperor but you have more than taken his place come up to the fire madame de yes yes i insist upon it for i know that you must be cold constant come and put the rug under madame de s feet it was by little acts of and kind by ness like this that the so herself that she had really no enemies in france even among those who were most bitterly opposed to her husband whether as the of the first man in europe or as the lonely woman eating her heart out at she was always praised and beloved by those who knew her of	4
all the sacrifices which the emperor ever made to his ambition that of his wife was the one which cost him the greatest struggle and the keenest regret now as she sat before the fire in the same chair which had so recently been occupied by the emperor i had an opportunity of studying this person whose strange fate had raised her from being the daughter of a lieutenant of to the first position among the women of europe she was six years older than napoleon and on this occasion when i saw her first she was in her forty second year but at a little distance or in a discreet light it was no s flattery to say that she might very well have passed for thirty her tall elegant figure was girlish in its and she had an easy and natural grace in every movement by uncle which she inherited with her tropical west indian blood her features were delicate and i have heard that in her youth she was strikingly beautiful but like most women she bad become in early middle age she had made a brave fight however with art as her ally against the attacks of time and her success had been such that when she sat aloof upon a or drove past in a procession she might still pass as a lovely woman in a small room however or in a good light the crude and with which she had concealed her sallow cheeks became painfully harsh and artificial her own natural beauty however still lingered in that last refuge of beauty tlie eyes which were large dark and sympathetic her mouth too was small and amiable and her most frequent expression was a smile which seldom into a laugh as she had her own reasons for preferring that her teeth should not be seen as to her bearing it was so dignified that if this little west indian had come straight from the of it could not have been improved upon her walk her glance the sweep of her dress the wave of her hand they had all the by happiest mixture of the sweetness of a woman and the condescension of a queen i watched her with admiration as she leaned forward picking little pieces of wood out of the basket and throwing them on to the fire i napoleon likes the smell of burning said she there was never anyone who had such a nose as he for he can detect things which are quite hidden from me the emperor has an excellent nose for many things said the state have found that out to their cost oh it is dreadful when he comes to examine dreadful de nothing escapes him he will make no everything must be exact but who is this young gentleman de i do not think that he has been presented to me the minister explained in a few words that i had been received into the emperor s personal service and congratulated me upon it with the most kindly sympathy i it my mind so to know that he has brave and loyal men round him ever since that q by uncle dreadful affair of the infernal machine i have always been uneasy if he is away from me he is really safest in time of war for it is only then that he is away from the who hate him and now i understand that a new plot has only just been discovered this is the same de who was there when the was taken said the overwhelmed me with questions hardly waiting for the answers in her anxiety but this dreadful man has not been taken yet she cried have i not heard that a young lady is endeavouring to do what has baffled the secret police and that the freedom of her is to be the reward of her success she is my cousin your imperial majesty is her name you have only been in france a few days de said smiling but it seems to me that all the affairs of the empire are already revolving round you tou must bring pretty cousin of yours the emperor said tha t she is pretty to court with you and present her to by me madame de yon will take a note of the name the had stooped again to the basket of wood which stood beside the fireplace suddenly i saw her stare hard at something and then with a little cry of surprise she stooped and lifted an object from the carpet it was the emperor s soft flat with the little sprang up and looked from the hat in her hand to the face of the minister how is this de she cried and the dark eyes began to shine with anger and suspicion tou said to me that the emperor was out and here is his hat pardon me your imperial majesty i did not say that he was out what did you say then i said that he left the room a short time before you are endeavouring to conceal something from me she cried the quick instinct of a woman i assure you that i tell you all i know a by uncle the s eyes darted from face to face she cried i insist upon your telling me this instant where the emperor is and what he is doing the slow soldier stammered and twisted his cocked hat about i know no more than de does said he the emperor left us some time ago by which door poor was more confused than ever your imperial majesty i cannot undertake to say by which door it was that the emperor quitted the apartment s eyes flashed round at me and my heart shrunk within me as i thought that she was about to ask me that same dreadful question but i	4
had just time to breathe one prayer to the good who has always been gracious to our family and the danger passed madame de said she if these gentlemen will not tell us we shall very soon find out for ourselves she swept with great dignity towards the cur by ic door followed at the distance of a few yards by her waiting lady whose frightened face and unwilling steps showed that she perfectly appreciated the situation indeed the emperor s open the public scenes to which they gave rise were so notorious that even in they had reached our ears napoleon s self confidence and his contempt of the world had the effect of making him careless as to what was thought or said of him while when she was carried away by jealousy lost all the dignity and restraint which usually marked her conduct so between them they gave some embarrassing moments to those who were about them turned away with his fingers over his lips while in an agony of apprehension continued to double up and to twist the cocked hat which he held between his hands only constant the faithful ventured to between his mistress and the fatal door if your majesty will resume your seat i shall inform the emperor that you are here said he with two hands outstretched ah then he w there she cried furiously i by uncle see it all i it all bat i will expose him i will reproach him with his let me pass constant how dare you stand in my way allow me to announce yon your majesty i shall announce myself with swift of her beautiful figure she darted past the protesting parted the curtains threw open the door and vanished into the next room she had seemed a creature full of fire and of spirit as with a flush which broke through the paint upon her cheeks and with which gleamed with the just anger of an outraged wife she forced her way into her husband s presence but she was a woman of change and impulse full of little of courage and corresponding into cowardice she had hardly vanished from our sight when there was a harsh roar like an angry beast and next instant came flying into the room again with the emperor inarticulate with passion at her heels so frightened was she that she began to run towards the fireplace upon which madame de who had no wish to form a upon such an occasion began running by also and the two of them like a pair of startled came rustling and flattering back to the seats which they had left there they whilst the emperor with a face and a torrent of camp fire oaths stamped and raged about the room you constant you he shouted is this the way in which you serve me have you no sense then no discretion am i never to have any privacy must i submit to be upon by women is else to have liberty and i only to have none as to you it all i had before but now have none this brings everything to an end between us we would all i am sure have given a good deal to slip from the room at least my own embarrassment far exceeded my interest but the emperor from his lofty cared as little about our presence as if we had been so many articles of furniture in fact it was one of this strange man s peculiarities that it was just those delicate and personal scenes with which privacy is usually associated that he preferred to have in by uncle public for he knew that his reproaches had an additional sting when they fell upon other ears besides those of his victim from his wife to his groom there was not one of those who were about him who did not live in dread of being held up to ridicule and before a smiling crowd whose amusement was only tempered by the reflection that each of them might be the next to endure the same exposure as to she had taken refuge in a woman s last resource and was crying bitterly with her graceful neck stooping towards her knees and her two hands over her face madame do was weeping also and in every pause of his hoarse scolding for his voice was very hoarse and when he was angry there came the soft hissing and of their sobs sometimes his fierce would bring some reply from the some gentle reproof to him for his but each remonstrance only excited him to a fresh rush of in one of his he threw his box with a crash upon the floor as a spoiled child would down its toys morality he cried morality was not made by for me and i was not made for morality i am a man apart and i accept nobody s conditions i tell you always that these are the foolish phrases of people who wish to the great they do not apply to me i will never consent to frame my conduct by the arrangements of society have you no feeling then sobbed the a great man is not made for feeling it is for him to decide what he shall do and then to do it without interference from anyone it is your place to submit to all my fancies and you should think it quite natural that i should allow myself some latitude it was a favourite device of the emperor s when he was in the wrong upon one point to turn the conversation round so as to get upon some other one on which he was in the right having worked off the first explosion of his passion he now assumed the offensive for in argument as in war his instinct was always to attack i	4
have been looking over d accounts said he are you aware how by uncle many dresses you have had last year you have had a hundred and forty no and many of them as much as twenty five thousand i am told that you have six hundred dresses in your many of which have hardly ever been used madame de knows that what i say is true she cannot deny it you uke me to well napoleon i will not have such monstrous extravagance i could have two of or a fleet of with the money which you upon foolish and it might turn the fortunes of a campaign then again who gave you permission to order that of diamonds and from the bill has been sent to me and i have refused to pay for it if he again i shall have him marched to prison between a file of and your shall accompany him there the emperor s fits of anger although were never very prolonged the curious of his which always showed when he was excited gradually died away and after looking for some time at the papers of by de who had written away like an during all this uproar he came across to the fire with a smile upon his lips and a brow from which the shadow had departed you have no excuse for extravagance said he laying his hand upon her shoulder diamonds and fine dresses are very necessary to an ugly woman in order to make her attractive but you cannot need them for such a purpose you had no fine dresses when first i saw you in the and yet there was no woman in the world who ever attracted me so why will you vex me and make me say things which seem unkind drive back little one to de and see that you do not catch cold you will come to the napoleon asked the whose bitterest resentment seemed to vanish in an instant at the first kindly touch from his hand she still held her handkerchief before her eyes but it was chiefly i think to conceal the effect which her tears had had upon her cheeks yes yes i will come our carriages will follow yours see the ladies into the by uncle constant have you ordered the of the come here for i v to describe my views the future of spain and de you may escort the to de where i shall see you at the reception by ic t chapter xv the of the de is but a small village and this sudden arrival of the court which was to remain for some weeks had crammed it with visitors it would have been very much to have come to where there were more suitable buildings and better accommodation but napoleon had named de so de it had to be the word impossible was not permitted amongst those who had to carry out his wishes so an army of and settled upon the little place and then there arrived the of the new empire and then the ladies of the and then their admirers from the camp the had a for her accommodation the rest themselves in cottages or where they best might and waited for the moment which was to take them by uncle back to the comforts of or the had graciously offered me a seat in her and all the way to the village entirely forgetful apparently of the scene through which she passed she away asking me a thousand personal questions about myself and my affairs for a kindly curiosity in the doings of around her was one of her most marked characteristics especially was she interested in and as the subject was one upon which i was equally interested in talking it ended in a upon my part amid little sympathetic from the and from madame de but you must certainly bring her over to the court cried the kindly woman such a of beauty and of virtue must not be allowed to waste herself in this english village have you spoken about her to the emperor i found that he knew all about her your majesty he knows all about everything oh what a man he is you heard him about those by the of the and gave me his word that no one should know of it but ourselves and that i should pay at my leisure and yet you see that the emperor knew but what did he say de he said that my marriage should be his affair shook her head and groaned but this is serious de he is capable of out any one of the ladies of the court and marrying you to her within a week it is a subject upon which he will not listen to argument he has brought about some extraordinary matches in this way but i will speak to the emperor before i return to paris and i will see what i can arrange for you i was still endeavouring to thank her for her sympathy and kindness when the rattled the drive and pulled up at the entrance to the where the knot of scarlet and the of two from the guards announced the imperial quarters the and her lady hurried away to prepare their for the evening and i was shown at once into the by uncle in which the guests had already began to this was a large square room as modestly as the sitting room of a provincial gentleman be likely to be the wall paper was gloomy and the was of dark mahogany in faded blue but there were numerous candles in upon the tables and in upon the walls which gave an air of even to these sombre surroundings out of the large central room were several smaller ones in which card tables had been laid out and the	4
between had been draped with oriental a number of ladies and gentlemen were standing about the former in the high evening dresses to which the emperor had given his sanction the latter about equally divided between the in black court and the soldiers in their bright colours and graceful for in spite of his lectures about economy the emperor was very harsh to any lady who did not dress in a manner which would sustain the brilliancy of his court the prevailing fashions by the of the gave an opening to taste and to display for the simple classical had died out with the and oriental dresses had taken their place as a compliment to the conqueror of egypt had changed to and the which had reflected the of old had turned suddenly into so many eastern on entering the room i had retired into a corner fearing that i should find none there whom i knew but plucked at my arm and turning round i found myself looking into the yellow inscrutable of my uncle he seized my hand and wrung it with a false cordiality my dear louis said he it was really the hope of meeting you here which brought me over from although you can understand that living so far from paris i cannot afford to miss such an opportunity of showing myself at court nevertheless i can assure you that it was of you principally that i was thinking i hear that you have had a splendid reception from the emperor and that you have been taken into his personal service i had spoken to him about you and i b by uncle made him fully that if he treats you he is likely to some of the other young into his service i convinced that he was lying but none the less i had to bow and utter a few words of cold thanks i see that you still bear me some grudge for what passed between us the other day said he but really my dear louis you have no occasion to do so it was your own good which i had chiefly at heart i am neither a young nor a strong man louis and my profession as you have seen is a dangerous one there is my child and there is my estate who takes one takes both is a charming girl and you must not allow yourself to be prejudiced against her by any ill temper which she may have shown towards me i will confess that she had some reason to be annoyed at the turn which things had taken but i hope to hear that you have now thought better upon this matter i have never thought about it at all and i beg that you will not discuss it said i he stood in deep thought for a few moments by the reception of the and then he raised his evil face and his cruel grey eyes to mine well well that is settled then said he but you cannot bear me a grudge for having wished you to be my successor be reasonable louis you must acknowledge that you would now be six feet deep in the salt marsh with your neck broken if i had not stood your friend at some risk to myself is that not true you had your own motive for that said i very likely but none the less i saved you why should you bear me ill will it is no fault of mine if i hold your estate it is not on account of that why is it then i could have explained that it was because he had betrayed his comrades because his daughter hated him because he had ill used his wife because my father regarded him as the source of all his troubles but the of the was no place for a family quarrel so i merely shrugged my shoulders and was silent well i am very sorry said he for i had the best of intentions towards you i could have r by uncle advanced yon for there are few men in france who exercise more influence but i have one request to make to you what is that sir i have a number of personal articles belonging to your father his sword his a of letters some silver plate such things in short as you would wish to keep in memory of him i should be glad if you will come to if it is only for one night and look over these things choosing what you wish to take away my conscience will then be clear about them i promised readily that i would do so and when would you come he asked eagerly something in the tone of his voice aroused my suspicions and glancing at him i saw exultation in his eyes i remembered the warning of i cannot come until i have learned what my duties with the emperor are to be when that is settled i shall come very good next week perhaps or the week afterwards i shall expect you eagerly louis i rely upon your promise for a was never by the reception of the known to break one with another squeeze of my hand he slipped oflf among the crowd which was growing every instant in the i was standing in silence thinking over this sinister invitation of my uncle s when i heard my own name and looking up i saw de with his brown handsome face and tall elegant figure making his way towards me it is your first entrance at court is it not de said he in his high bred cordial manner you should not feel lonely for there are certainly many friends of your father here who will be to make the acquaintance of your father s son from what de told me i gather	4
that you know hardly anyone even by sight i know the said i i saw them all at the council in the emperor s tent there is with the red head and there is with his singular mouth and with the of a bird of prey precisely and that is with the round bullet head he is talking to the handsome by uncle dark man with the whiskers these poor soldiers are very unhappy why so i asked because they are all who have risen from nothing this society and etiquette them much more than all the dangers of war when they can hear their against their big boots they feel at home but when they have to stand about with their cocked hats under their arms and have to pick their spurs out of the ladies trains and talk about david s picture or s opera it them the emperor will not even permit them to swear although he has no scruples upon his own account he tells them to be soldiers with the army and with the court but the poor fellows cannot help being soldiers all the time look at with his twenty wounds endeavouring to exchange little with that young lady there you see he has said something which would have passed very well with a but it has made her fly to her mamma and he is scratching his head for he cannot imagine how he has o her by ic the reception of the who is the beautiful woman with the white dress and the of diamonds i asked that is madame who is the sister of the emperor is beautiful but she is not as pretty as her sister whom you see over yonder in the corner do you see the tall stately dark eyed old lady with whom she is talking that is napoleon s mother a wonderful woman the source of all their strength shrewd brave vigorous forcing respect from who knows her she is as careful and as saving as when she was the wife of a small country gentleman in and it is no secret that she has little confidence in the of the present state of things and that she is always laying by for an evil day the emperor does not know whether to be amused or exasperated by her precautions well i suppose we sha ll see you riding across the hop fields ns the famous soldier had paused opposite to us and shook hands witli my companion his elegant well knit figure large fiery eyes and noble bearing made this s boy a man who would have drawn attention and admiration to himself in any by uncle assembly in europe his of curly hair and thick red lips gave that touch of character and individuality to his appearance which redeem a handsome e from i am told that it is devilish bad country for cavalry r l cut up into hedges and said he the roads are good but the fields are impossible i hope that we are going soon de for our men will all down as if this continues they are learning more about watering pots and than about horses and the army i hear is to to morrow yes yes you know very well that they will again upon the wrong side of the channel unless the english fleet nothing can be attempted constant tells me that the emperor was all the time that he was dressing this morning and that usually comes before a move it was very clever of constant to tell what tune it was which the emperor was whistling said laughing for my part i do not by the of the think that he knows the difference between the and the ah here is the and how charming she is looking had entered with several of her ladies in her train and the whole assembly rose to do her honour the was dressed in an evening gown of rose coloured with silver stars an effect which might have seemed and theatrical in another woman but which she carried off with great grace and dignity a little of diamond wheat ears rose above her head and swayed gently as she walked no one could entertain more than she for she moved about among the people with her amiable smile setting everybody at ease by her kindly natural manner and by the conviction which she gave them that she was thoroughly at her ease herself how amiable she is i exclaimed who could help loving her there is only one family which can resist her said de glancing round to see that was out of hearing look at the faces of the emperor s sisters by uncle i was shocked when i followed his direction to see the malignant glances with which these two beautiful women were following the as she walked about the room they whispered together and then madame turned to her mother behind her and the stem old lady tossed her haughty head in derision and contempt they feel that napoleon is theirs and that they ought to have everything they cannot bear to think that she is her imperial majesty and they are only her they all hate her joseph all of them when they had to carry her train at the they tried to trip her up and the emperor had to interfere oh yes they have the real blood and they are not very comfortable people to get along with but in spite of the evident hatred of her husband s family the appeared to be entirely and at her ease as she strolled about among the groups of her guests with a kindly glance and a pleasant word for each of them a tall man brown faced and by the reception of the walked beside her and she occasionally laid her hand with a caressing motion	4
upon his arm that is her son de said my companion her son i exclaimed for he seemed to me to be the older of the two de smiled at my surprise you know she married when she was very young in fact she was hardly sixteen she has been sitting in her while her son has been in egypt and so that they have pretty well over the gap between them do you see the tall handsome man who has just kissed s hand that is the famous actor he once helped napoleon at a critical moment of his career and the emperor has never forgotten the debt which the contracted that is really the secret of s power he lent napoleon a hundred thousand before he set out for egypt and now however much he him the emperor cannot forget that old kindness i have never known him to abandon a friend or to forgive an enemy by uncle if you have once served him well you may do what you like afterwards there is one of his who is drunk from morning to night but he gained the cross at and so he is safe de had moved on to speak with some lady and i was again left to my own thoughts which turned upon this extraordinary man who presented himself at one moment as a hero and at another as a spoiled child with his nobler and his worse side so rapidly that i had no sooner made up my mind about him than some new revelation would destroy my views and drive me to some fresh conclusion that he was necessary to france was evident and that in serving him one was serving one s country but was it an honour or a penance to serve him was he worthy merely of obedience or might love and esteem be added to it these were the questions which we found it difficult to answer and some of us will never have answered them up to the end of time the company had now lost all appearance of formality and even the soldiers seemed to be at their ease many had gone into the side rooms by ic the reception of the where they had formed tables for and for un for my own part i was quite entertained by watching the people the beautiful women the handsome men the of names which had been heard of in no previous generation but which now rung round the world immediately in front of me were and together and laughing with the freedom of the camp of the three two were destined to be executed in cold blood and the third to die upon the battle field but no coming shadow ever cast a gloom upon their cheery full blooded lives a small silent middle aged man who looked unhappy and ill at ease had been leaning against the wall beside me seeing that he was as great a stranger as myself i addressed some observation to him to which he replied with great good will but in the most french you don t happen to understand english he asked i ve never met one living soul in this country who did oh yes i understand it very well for i have lived most of my life over yonder but surely you are not english sir i understood that every by ic uncle englishman in france was under lock and key ever since the breach of the treaty of no i am not english he answered i am an american my name is and i have to come to these because it is the only way in which i can keep myself in the memory of the emperor who is examining some inventions of mine which will make great changes in naval warfare having nothing else to do i asked this curious american what his inventions might be and his replies very soon convinced me that i had to do with a madman he had some idea of making a ship go against the wind and against the current by means of coal or wood which was to be burned inside of her there was some other nonsense about floating barrels full of which would blow a ship to pieces if she struck against them i listened to him at the time with an indulgent smile but now looking back from the point of of my old age i can see that not all the warriors and in that room no not even the emperor himself have had as great an effect upon the history of the world by the reception of the as that silent american who looked so and so commonplace among the gold and the oriental dresses but suddenly our conversation was interrupted by a hush in the room such a cold uncomfortable hush as comes over a of happy children when a grave faced elder comes amongst them the and the laughter died away the sound of the rustling cards and of the had ceased in the other rooms men and women had risen to their feet with a constrained expectant expression upon their faces and there in the doorway were the pale face and the green coat with the red across the white waistcoat there was no saying how he might behave upon these occasions sometimes he was capable of being the and most of the company but this was rather in his than in his imperial days on the other hand he might be absolutely ferocious with an insulting observation for with whom he came in contact as a rule he was between these two extremes ent ill at ease shooting out little by uncle remarks which made uncomfortable there was always a sigh of relief when he would pass from one room into the next on this occasion he seemed to have not wholly recovered from	4
the storm of the afternoon and he looked about him with a brooding eye and a lowering brow it chanced that i was not very far from the door and that his glance fell upon me come here de said he he laid his hand upon my shoulder and turned to a big gaunt man who had accompanied hun into the room look here you said he you always said that the old families would never come back and they would settle in england as the have done you see that as usual you have for here is the heir of the de come to offer his services de you are now my de camp and i beg you to keep with me wherever i go this was promotion indeed and yet i had sense enough to know that it was not for my own sweet sake that the emperor had done it but in order to encourage others to follow me my by the reception of the conscience approved what i had done for no sordid motive and nothing but the love of my country had prompted me but now as i walked round behind napoleon i felt and ashamed like a prisoner led behind the car of his and soon there was something else to make me ashamed and that was the conduct of him whose servant i had become his manners were outrageous as he had himself said it was his nature to be always first and this being so he resented those and by which men are accustomed to disguise from women the fact that they are the weaker sex the emperor unlike louis xiv felt that even a temporary and conventional attitude of humility towards a woman was too great a condescension from his own absolute chivalry was among those conditions of society which he refused to accept to the soldiers he was amiable enough with a nod and a joke for each of them to his sisters also he said a few words though rather in the tone of a to a pair of it was only when the had joined him that his ill humour came to a head s by i wish you would not wear those of pink about your head said he all that women have to think about is how to dress themselves and yet they cannot even do that with moderation or taste if i see you again in such a thing i will thrust it in the fire as i did your shawl the other day you are so hard to please napoleon you like one day what you cannot abide the next but i will certainly change it if it you said with admirable patience the emperor took a few steps between the people who had formed a lane for us to pass through then he stopped and looked over his shoulder at the how often have i told you that i cannot fat women i always bear it in mind napoleon then why is madame de present but surely napoleon madame is not very fat she is than she should be i should prefer not to see her who is this he had paused before a young lady in a blue dress whose by ic the reception of the knees seemed to be giving way under her as the terrible emperor her with his searching eyes this is de how old are you twenty three it is time that you were married every woman should be married at twenty three how is it that you are not married the poor girl appeared to be incapable of answering so the gently remarked that it was to the young men that that question should be addressed h that is the difficulty is it said the emperor we must look about and find a husband for you he turned and to my horror i found his eyes fixed with a questioning gaze upon my face we have to find you a wife also de said he well well we shall see we shall see what is your name to a quiet refined man in black i am the yes yes i remember you i have seen you by uncle a hundred times bat i can never recall your name who are you i am joseph de of course i have seen your tragedy i have forgotten the name of it but it was not good you have written some other poetry have you not yes sh e i had your permission to my last volume to you very likely but i have not had time to read it it is a pity that we have no poets now in france for the deeds of the last few years would have given a subject for a or a it seems that i can create but not poets whom do you consider to be the greatest french writer then you are a for was infinitely greater i have no ear for or of the kind but i can with the spirit of poetry and i am conscious that is far the greatest of poets i would have made him my prime minister had he had the good fortune to in my epoch it is his intellect by the reception of the which i his knowledge of the human heart and his profound feeling are you writing anything at present i am writing a tragedy upon henry iv it will not do sir it is too near the present day and i will not have upon the stage write a play about alexander what is your name he had pitched upon the same person whom he had already addressed i am still the said he meekly the emperor flushed for an instant at the implied rebuke he said nothing however but passed on to where several ladies were standing together near the door of the card room well madame said	4
he to the nearest of them i hope you are rather better when last i heard from paris your doings were furnishing the st with a good deal of amusement and gossip i beg that your majesty will explain what you mean said she with spirit by uncle they had coupled name with that of colonel it is a fool yery possibly but it is awkward when so many cluster round one person tou are certainly a most unfortunate lady in that respect tou had a scandal once before with general s de camp this must come to an end what is your name he continued turning to another de your age twenty you are very thin and your elbows are red my god madame are we never to see anything but this same grey gown and the red with the diamond i have never worn it before then you had another the same for i am weary of the sight of it let me never see you in it again de i make you a good allowance why do you not spend it i do i hear that you have been putting down your by the reception of the carriage i do not give you money to in a bank but i give it to you that you may keep up a fitting appearance with it let me hear that your carriage is back in the coach house when i return to paris you rascal i hear that you have been gambling and losing the most infernal run of luck said the soldier i give you my word that the ace fell four times running ta ta you are a child with no sense of the value of money how much do you owe forty thousand well well go to and see what he can do for you after all we were together at a thousand thanks tut you and and are the spoiled children of the army but no more cards you rascal i do not like low dresses madame they spoil even pretty women but in you they are now i am going to my room and you can come in half an hour and read me to sleep i am tired to night but i to your since you desired that i should by uncle help you in and entertaining your guests you can remain here de for your presence will not be necessary until i send you my orders and so the door closed behind him and with a long sigh of relief from from the to the waiter with the the friendly chatter began once more with the click of the and the rustle of the cards just as they had been before he came to help in the entertainment by chapter xvi the library of and now my friends i am coming to the end of those singular adventures which i encountered upon my arrival in france adventures which might have been of some interest in themselves had i not introduced the figure of the emperor who has them all as completely as the sun the stars even now you see after all these years in an old man s the emperor is still true to his traditions and will not brook any opposition as i draw his words and his deeds i feel that my own poor story before them and yet if it had not been for that story i should not have had an excuse for describing to you my first and most vivid impressions of him and so it has served a purpose after all you must bear with me now while i tell by uncle you of our expedition to the bed mill and of what in the library of two days had passed away since the reception of the and only one remained of the time which had been allowed to my cousin in which she might save her lover and capture the terrible for my own part i was not so very anxious that she should save this lover of hers whose handsome face the poor spirit within him and yet this lonely beautiful woman with the strong will and the loyal heart had touched my feelings and i felt that i would help her to anything even against my own better judgment if she should desire it it was then with a mixture of feelings that late in the afternoon i saw her and general enter the little room in which i lodged at one glance at her flushed cheeks and triumphant eyes told me that she was confident in her own success i told you that i would find him cousin louis she cried i have come straight to you because you said that you would help in the taking of him by ic the library of upon it that i should not use soldiers said his shoulders no no no she cried with vehemence it has to be done with discretion and at the sight of a soldier he would fly to some hiding place where you would never be able to follow him i cannot afford to run a risk there is too much already at stake in such an affair three men are as useful as thirty said i should not in any case have employed more you say that you have another friend lieutenant lieutenant of the of quite so there is not a more gallant officer in the grand army than the three of us de should be equal to any adventure i am at your disposal tell us then where is hiding he is hiding at the bed mill but we have searched it i assure you that he is not there when did you search it by uncle two days ago then he has come there since i knew that loved him i have watched her for six days last night she stole down to	4
the bed mill with a basket of wine and fruit all the morning i have seen her eyes sweeping the country side and i have read the terror in them whenever she has seen the twinkle of a i am as sure that is in the mill as if i had seen him with my own eyes in that case there is not an instant to be lost cried if he knows of a boat upon the coast he is as likely as not to slip away after dark and make his escape for england from tie bed mill one can see all the surrounding country and is right in thinking that a large body of soldiers would only warn him to escape what do you propose then i asked that you meet us at the south gate of the camp in an hour s time dressed as you are you might be any gentleman travelling upon the high road i shall see and we shall adopt some suitable disguise bring your pistols for it is with by the of the most desperate man in france we have to do we shall have a horse at your disposal the setting sun lay dull and red upon the western horizon and the white chalk cliffs of the french coast had all flushed into pink when i found myself once more at the gate of the camp there was no sign of my companions but a tall man dressed in a blue coat with brass buttons like a small country farmer was the of a magnificent black horse whilst a little further on a slim young was waiting by the roadside holding the of two others it was only when i recognised one of the pair as the horse which i had ridden on my first coming to camp that i answered the smile upon the keen handsome face of the and saw the features of under the broad hat of the farmer i think that we may travel without fearing to excite suspicion said he that straight back of yours a little and now we shall push upon our way or we may find that we are too late my life has had its share of adventures and yet somehow this ride stands out above the others by uncle there over the waters i dimly see the loom of the english coast with its of dreamy villages humming bees and the of bells i thought of the long white high street of with its red brick houses and the inn with the great swinging sign all my life had been spent in these peaceful surroundings and now here i was with a spirited horse between my knees two pistols peeping out of my and a commission upon which my whole future might depend to arrest the most in france no wonder that looking back over many dangers and many it is still that evening ride over the short crisp turf of the downs which stands out most clearly in my memory one becomes to adventure as one becomes to all else which the world can give save only the simple joys of home and to taste the full relish of such an expedition one must approach it with the hot blood of youth still throbbing in one s veins our route when we had left the of behind us lay along the skirts of that desolate marsh in which i had wandered and so inland through plains of and until the by the of familiar black keep of the castle of rose upon the left then under the guidance of we struck to the right down a sunken road and so over the shoulder of a hill until on a further slope beyond we saw the old black against the evening sky its upper window burned red like a spot of blood in the last rays of the setting sun close by the door stood a cart full of grain with the shafts pointing downwards and the horse at some distance as we gazed a woman appeared upon the downs and stared round with her hand over her eyes see that said eagerly he is there sure enough or why should they be on their guard let us take this road which winds round the hill and they will not see us until we are at the very door should we not gallop forward i suggested the ground is too cut up the longer way is the safer as long as we are upon the road they cannot tell us from any other travellers we walked our horses along the path therefore with as an air as we could assume but a sharp exclamation made us glance suddenly by uncle round and there was the woman standing on a by the roadside and gazing down at us with a face that was rigid with suspicion the sight of the military bearing of my companions changed all her fear into in an instant she had whipped the shawl from her shoulders and was waving it over her head with a hearty curse his horse up the bank and galloped straight for the mill with and myself at his heels it was only just in time we were still a hundred paces from the door when a man sprang out from it and gazed about him his head this way and that there could be no the huge beard the broad chest and the rounded shoulders of a glance showed him that we would ride him down before he could get away and he sprang back into the mill closing the heavy door with a behind him the window the window cried there was a small square window opening into the room of the mill the young disengaged himself from the saddle and flew through by the of it as the goes through the at s an instant later he had opened the	4
door for us with the blood streaming from his face and hands he has fled up the stair said he then we need be in no hurry since he cannot pass us said as we sprang from our horses you have carried his first line of most gallantly lieutenant i hope you are not hurt a few general nothing more get your pistols then where is the miller here i am said a rough little fellow appearing in the open doorway what do you mean you by entering my mill in this fashion i am sitting reading my paper and smoking my pipe of as my custom is about this time of the evening and suddenly without a word a man comes flying through my window covers me with glass and opens my door to his friends outside i ve had trouble enough with my one all day without three more of you turning up by ic uncle you have the in house cried the miller nothing of the kind his name is and he is a merchant in he is the man we want we come in the emperor s name the miller s jaw dropped as he listened i don t know who he is but he offered a good price for a bed and i asked no more questions in these days one cannot a of character from every but of course if it is a matter of state why it is not for me to interfere but to do him justice he was a quiet gentleman enough until he had that letter just now what letter be careful what you say you rascal your own head may find its way into the basket it was a woman who brought it i can only tell you what i know he has been talking like a madman ever since it made my blood run cold to hear him there s whom he he will murder i shall be very glad to see the last of him by the library of now gentlemen said drawing his we may leave our horses here there is no window for forty feet so he cannot escape from us if you will see that your pistols are we shall soon bring the fellow to terms the stair was a narrow winding one made of wood which to a small lighted from a in the wall some remains of wood and a of straw showed that this was where had spent his day there was however no sign of him now and it was evident that he had ascended the next flight of steps we climbed them only to find our way barred by a heavy door surrender cried it is useless to attempt to escape us a hoarse laugh sounded from behind the door i am not a man who but i will make a with you i have a small matter of business to do to night if you will leave me alone i will give you my solemn pledge to surrender at the camp to morrow i have a little debt that i wish to pay it is only to day that i understood to whom i owed it t by l what you ask is impossible it would save you a great deal of trouble we cannot grant such a request you must surrender you ll have some work first come come you cannot escape us put your shoulders against the door now all together there was the hot flash of a pistol from the and a bullet against the wall between us we hurled ourselves against the door it was massive but rotten with age with a and it gave way before us we rushed in weapons in hand to find ourselves in an empty room the devil has he got to cried him this is the top room of all there is nothing above it it wa a square empty space with a few uttered about at the further side was an open window and beside it lay a pistol still smoking from the discharge we all rushed across and as we our heads over a cry of astonishment escaped from us the distance to the ground was so great that no by we rushed in weapons in hand to find ourselves in an empty room by by the of one could have survived the fall but had taken advantage of the presence of that cart full of grain which i have described as having lain close to the mill this had both the distance and given him an excellent means of breaking the fall even so however the shock had been tremendous and as we looked out he was lying panting heavily upon the top of the bags hearing our cry however he looked up shook his fist and rolling from the cart he sprang on to the back of s black horse and galloped off across the downs his great beard flying in the wind untouched by the pistol bullets with which we tried to bring him down how we flew down those creaking wooden stairs and out through the open door of the mill quick as we were he had a good start and by the time and i were in the saddle he had become a tiny man upon a small horse galloping up the green slope of the opposite hill the shades of evening too were drawing in and upon his left was the huge salt marsh where we should have found it difficult to follow him the chances were certainly in his favour and yet he never from his by u course but kept straight on across the downs on a which took him farther and farther from the sea every instant we feared to see him dart away in the but still he held his horse s head against the hill side what could he be making for he	4

Subsets and Splits

No saved queries yet

Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.