St. George and St. Michael

by George MacDonald

  CHAPTER XVI.

  DOROTHY'S INITIATION.

  There was much about the castle itself to interest Dorothy. She hadalready begun the attempt to gather a clear notion of its many parts andtheir relations, but the knowledge of the building could not welladvance more rapidly than her acquaintance with its inmates, for littlewas to be done from the outside alone, and she could not bear to be metin strange places by strange people. So that part of her education--Iuse the word advisedly, for to know all about the parts of an oldbuilding may do more for the education of minds of a certain stamp thanthe severest course of logic--must wait upon time and opportunity.

  Every day, often twice, sometimes thrice, she would visit thestable-yard, and have an interview first with the chained Marquis, andthen with her little horse. After that she would seldom miss looking inat the armourer's shop, and spending a few minutes in watching him athis work, so that she was soon familiar with all sorts of armourfavoured in the castle. The blacksmiths' and the carpenters' shops werealso an attraction to her, and it was not long before she knew all theartisans about the place. There were the farm and poultry yards too,with which kinds of place she was familiar--especially with theiranimals and all their ways. The very wild beasts in their dens in thesolid basement of the kitchen tower--a panther, two leopards, an ounce,and a toothless old lion had already begun to know her a little, for shenever went near their cages without carrying them something to eat. Forall these visits there was plenty of room, lady Margaret never requiringmuch of her time in the early part of the day, and finding the reportsshe brought of what was going on always amusing. And now the orchardsand gardens would soon be inviting, for the heart of the world wasalready sending up its blood to dye the apple blossoms.

  But all the opportunities she yet had were less than was needful for thedevelopment of such a mind as Dorothy's, which, powerful in itself,needed to be roused, and was slow in its movements except when excitedby a quick succession of objects, or the contact of a kindred but busiernature. It was lacking not only in generative, but in self-movingenergy. Of self-sustaining force she had abundance.

  There was a really fine library in the castle, to which she had freeaccess, and whence, now and then, lady Margaret would make her bring abook from which to read aloud, while she and her other ladies were atwork; but books were not enough to rouse Dorothy, and when inclined toread she would return too exclusively to what she already knew, makinglittle effort to extend her gleaning-ground.

  From this fragment of analysis it will be seen that the new resourcethus opened to her might prove of more consequence than, great as wereher expectations from it, she was yet able to anticipate. But infinitelygreater good than any knowledge of his mechanical triumphs could bringher, was on its way to Dorothy along the path of growing acquaintancewith the noble-minded inventor himself.

  The next morning, then, she was up before the sun, and, sitting at herwindow, awaited his arrival. The moment he shone upon the gilded cock ofthe bell tower, she rose and hastened out, eager to taste of the sweetspromised her; stood a moment to gaze on the limpid stream ever flowingfrom the mouth of the white horse, and wonder whence that and thewhale-spouts he so frequently sent aloft from his nostrils came; thenpassing through the archway and over the bridge, found herself at themagician's door. For a moment she hesitated: from within came such atumult of hammering, that plainly it was of no use to knock, and shecould not at once bring herself to enter unannounced and uninvited. Butconfidence in lord Herbert soon aroused her courage, and gently sheopened the door and peeped in. There he stood, in a linen frock thatreached from his neck to his knees, already hard at work at a smallanvil on a bench, while Caspar was still harder at work at a huge anvilon the ground in front of a forge. This, with the mighty bellowsattached to it, occupied one of the six sides of the room, and the greatroaring, hissing thing that had so frightened lady Margaret, now silentand cold, occupied another. Neither of the men saw her. So she entered,closed the door, and approached lord Herbert, but he continued unawareof her presence until she spoke. Then he ceased his hammering, turned,and greeted her with his usual smile of sincerity absolute.

  'Are you always as true to your appointments, cousin?' he said, andresumed his hammering.

  'It was hardly an appointment, my lord, and yet here I am,' saidDorothy.

  'And you mean to infer that----?'

  'An appointment is no slight matter, my lord, or one that admits ofbreaking.'

  'Right,' returned his lordship, still hammering at the thin plate ofwhitish metal growing thinner and thinner under his blows. Dorothyglanced around her for a moment.

  'I would not be troublesome, my lord,' she said; 'but would you tell mein a few words what it is you make here?'

  'Had I three tongues, and thou three ears,' answered lord Herbert, 'Icould not. But look round thee, cousin, and when thou spiest the thingthat draws thine eye more than another, ask me concerning that, and Iwill tell thee.'

  Hardly had Dorothy, in obedience, cast her eyes about the place, erethey lighted on the same huge wheel which had before chiefly attractedher notice.

  'What is that great wheel for, with such a number of weights hung toit?' she asked.

  'For a memorial,' replied lord Herbert, 'of the folly of the man whoplaceth his hopes in man. That wonderful engine; it is now nearly threeyears since I showed it to his blessed majesty in the Tower of London,also with him to the dukes of Richmond and Hamilton, and twoextraordinary ambassadors besides, but of them all no man hath eversought to look upon it again. It is a form of the Proteus-like perpetuummobile--a most incredible thing if not seen.'

  He then proceeded to show her how, as every spoke passed the highestpoint, the weight attached to it immediately hung a foot farther fromthe centre of the wheel, and as every spoke passed the lowest point, itsweight returned a foot nearer to the centre, thus causing the leverageto be greater always on one and the same side of the wheel. Few of myreaders will regret so much as myself that I am unable to give them theconstructive explanation his lordship gave Dorothy as to the shifting ofthe weights. Whether she understood it or not, I cannot tell either, butthat is of less consequence. Before she left the workshop that morning,she had learned that a thousand knowledges are needed to build up thepyramid on whose top alone will the bird of knowledge lay her new egg.

  When he had finished his explanation, lord Herbert returned to his work,leaving Dorothy again to her own observations. And now she would gladlyhave questioned him about the huge mass of brick and iron, which, nowstanding silent, cold, and motionless as death, had that night seemedalive with the fierce energy of flame, and yet sorely driven, sighing,and groaning, and furiously hissing; but as it was not now at work, shethought it would be better to wait an opportunity when it should be inthe agony of its wrestle with whatever unseen enemy it coped withal. Shedid not know that, the first of its race, it was not quite equal to thetask the magician had imposed upon it, but that its descendants would atlength become capable of doing a thousand times as much, with theswinging joy of conscious might, with the pant of the giant, not thegroan of the overtasked stripling urging his last effort.

  She was standing by a chest, examining the strangely elaborate andmysterious-looking scutcheon of its lock, when his lordship's hammeringceased, and presently she found that he was by her side.

  'That escutcheon is the best thing of the kind I have yet made,' hesaid. 'A humour I have, never to be contented to produce any inventionthe second time, without appearing refined. The lock and key of this arein themselves a marvel, for the little triangle screwed key weighs nomore than a shilling, and yet it bolts and unbolts an hundred boltsthrough fifty staples round about the chest, and as many more from bothsides and ends, and at the self-same time shall fasten it to a placebeyond a man's natural strength to take it away. But the best thing isthe escutcheon; for the owner of it, though a woman, may with her owndelicate hand vary the ways of coming to open the lock ten millions oftimes, beyond the knowledge of the smith that made it
, or of me whoinvented it. If a stranger open it, it setteth an alarm agoing, whichthe stranger cannot stop from running out; and besides, though noneshould be within hearing, yet it catcheth his hand, as a trap doth afox; and though far from maiming him, yet it leaveth such a mark behindit, as will discover him if suspected; the escutcheon or lock plainlyshowing what moneys he hath taken out of the box to a farthing, and howmany times opened since the owner hath been at it.'

  He then showed her how to set it, left the chest open, and gave her thekey off his bunch that she might use it more easily. Ere she returnedit, she had made herself mistress of the escutcheon as far as the mereworking of it was concerned, as she proved to the satisfaction of theinventor.

  Her docility and quickness greatly pleased him. He opened a cabinet, andafter a search in its drawers, took from it a little thing, in form andcolour like a plum, which he gave her, telling her to eat it. She sawfrom his smile that there was something at the back of the playfulrequest, and for a moment hesitated, but reading in his countenance thathe wished her at least to make the attempt, she put it in her mouth.

  She was gagged. She could neither open nor shut her mouth a hair'sbreadth, could neither laugh, cry out, nor make any noise beyond an uglyone she would not make twice. The tears came into her eyes, for herposition was ludicrous, and she imagined that his lordship was makinggame of her. A girl less serious or more merry would have been movedonly to laughter.

  But lord Herbert hastened to relieve her. On the application of a tinykey, fixed with a joint in a finger-ring, the little steel bolts it hadthrown out in every direction returned within the plum, and he drew itfrom her mouth.

  'You little fool!' he said, with indescribable sweetness, for he saw thetears in her eyes; 'did you think I would hurt you?'

  'No, my lord; but I did fear you were going to make game of me. I couldnot have borne Caspar to see me so.'

  'Alas, my poor child!' he rejoined, 'you have come to the wrong house ifyou cannot put up with a little chafing. There!' he added, putting theplum in her hand, 'it is an untoothsome thing, but the moment may comewhen you will find it useful enough to repay you for the annoyance of asmile that had in it ten times more friendship than merriment.'

  'I ask your pardon, my lord,' said Dorothy, by this time blushing deepwith shame of her mistrust and over-sensitiveness, and on the point ofcrying downright. But his lordship smiled so kindly that she took heartand smiled again.

  He then showed her how to raise the key hid in the ring, and how tounlock the plum.

  'Do not try it on yourself,' he said, as he put the ring on her finger;'you might find that awkward.'

  'Be sure I shall avoid it, my lord,' returned Dorothy.

  'And do not let any one know you have such a thing,' he said, 'or thatthere is a key in your ring.'

  'I will try not, my lord.'

  The breakfast bell rang.

  'If you will come again after supper,' he said, as he pulled off hislinen frock, 'I will show you my fire-engine at work, and tell you allthat is needful to the understanding thereof;--only you must not publishit to the world,' he added, 'for I mean to make much gain by myinvention.'

  Dorothy promised, and they parted--lord Herbert for the marquis'sparlour, Dorothy for the housekeeper's room, and Caspar for the thirdtable in the great hall.

  After breakfast Dorothy practised with her plum until she could manageit with as much readiness as ease. She found that it was made of steel,and that the bolts it threw out upon the slightest pressure were sorounded and polished that they could not hurt, while nothing but the keywould reduce them again within their former sheath.

  END OF VOLUME I.

  START OF VOLUME II