_THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION_(_Continued_).
As soon as the old lady had finished her relation, Somerset made haste tooffer her his compliments.
'Madam,' said he, 'your story is not only entertaining but instructive;and you have told it with infinite vivacity. I was much affected towardsthe end, as I held at one time very liberal opinions, and shouldcertainly have joined a secret society if I had been able to find one.But the whole tale came home to me; and I was the better able to feel foryou in your various perplexities, as I am myself of somewhat hastytemper.'
'I do not understand you,' said Mrs. Luxmore, with some marks ofirritation. 'You must have strangely misinterpreted what I have toldyou. You fill me with surprise.'
Somerset, alarmed by the old lady's change of tone and manner, hurried torecant.
'Dear Mrs. Luxmore,' said he, 'you certainly misconstrue my remark. As aman of somewhat fiery humour, my conscience repeatedly pricked me when Iheard what you had suffered at the hands of persons similarlyconstituted.'
'Oh, very well indeed,' replied the old lady; 'and a very proper spirit.I regret that I have met with it so rarely.'
'But in all this,' resumed the young man, 'I perceive nothing thatconcerns myself.'
'I am about to come to that,' she returned. 'And you have already beforeyou, in the pledge I gave Prince Florizel, one of the elements of theaffair. I am a woman of the nomadic sort, and when I have no case beforethe courts I make it a habit to visit continental spas: not that I haveever been ill; but then I am no longer young, and I am always happy in acrowd. Well, to come more shortly to the point, I am now on the wing forEvian; this incubus of a house, which I must leave behind and dare notlet, hangs heavily upon my hands; and I propose to rid myself of thatconcern, and do you a very good turn into the bargain, by lending you themansion, with all its fittings, as it stands. The idea was sudden; itappealed to me as humorous: and I am sure it will cause my relatives, ifthey should ever hear of it, the keenest possible chagrin. Here, then,is the key; and when you return at two to-morrow afternoon, you will findneither me nor my cats to disturb you in your new possession.'
So saying, the old lady arose, as if to dismiss her visitor; butSomerset, looking somewhat blankly on the key, began to protest.
'Dear Mrs. Luxmore,' said he, 'this is a most unusual proposal. You knownothing of me, beyond the fact that I displayed both impudence andtimidity. I may be the worst kind of scoundrel; I may sell yourfurniture--'
'You may blow up the house with gunpowder, for what I care!' cried Mrs.Luxmore. 'It is in vain to reason. Such is the force of my characterthat, when I have one idea clearly in my head, I do not care two strawsfor any side consideration. It amuses me to do it, and let that suffice.On your side, you may do what you please--let apartments, or keep aprivate hotel; on mine, I promise you a full month's warning before Ireturn, and I never fail religiously to keep my promises.'
The young man was about to renew his protest, when he observed a suddenand significant change in the old lady's countenance.
'If I thought you capable of disrespect!' she cried.
'Madam,' said Somerset, with the extreme fervour of asseveration, 'madam,I accept. I beg you to understand that I accept with joy and gratitude.'
'Ah well,' returned Mrs. Luxmore, 'if I am mistaken, let it pass. Andnow, since all is comfortably settled, I wish you a good-night.'
Thereupon, as if to leave him no room for repentance, she hurriedSomerset out of the front door, and left him standing, key in hand, uponthe pavement.
The next day, about the hour appointed, the young man found his way tothe square, which I will here call Golden Square, though that was not itsname. What to expect, he knew not; for a man may live in dreams, and yetbe unprepared for their realisation. It was already with a certain pangof surprise that he beheld the mansion, standing in the eye of day, asolid among solids. The key, upon trial, readily opened the front door;he entered that great house, a privileged burglar; and, escorted by theechoes of desertion, rapidly reviewed the empty chambers. Cats, servant,old lady, the very marks of habitation, like writing on a slate, had beenin these few hours obliterated. He wandered from floor to floor, andfound the house of great extent; the kitchen offices commodious and wellappointed; the rooms many and large; and the drawing-room, in particular,an apartment of princely size and tasteful decoration. Although the daywithout was warm, genial, and sunny, with a ruffling wind from thequarter of Torquay, a chill, as it were, of suspended animation inhabitedthe house. Dust and shadows met the eye; and but for the ominousprocession of the echoes, and the rumour of the wind among the gardentrees, the ear of the young man was stretched in vain.
Behind the dining-room, that pleasant library, referred to by the oldlady in her tale, looked upon the flat roofs and netted cupolas of thekitchen quarters; and on a second visit, this room appeared to greet himwith a smiling countenance. He might as well, he thought, avoid theexpense of lodging: the library, fitted with an iron bedstead which hehad remarked, in one of the upper chambers, would serve his purpose forthe night; while in the dining-room, which was large, airy, andlightsome, looking on the square and garden, he might very agreeably passhis days, cook his meals, and study to bring himself to some proficiencyin that art of painting which he had recently determined to adopt. Itdid not take him long to make the change: he had soon returned to themansion with his modest kit; and the cabman who brought him was readilyinduced, by the young man's pleasant manner and a small gratuity, toassist him in the installation of the iron bed. By six in the evening,when Somerset went forth to dine, he was able to look back upon themansion with a sense of pride and property. Four-square it stood, of animposing frontage, and flanked on either side by family hatchments. Hiseye, from where he stood whistling in the key, with his back to thegarden railings, reposed on every feature of reality; and yet his ownpossession seemed as flimsy as a dream.
In the course of a few days, the genteel inhabitants of the square beganto remark the customs of their neighbour. The sight of a young gentlemandiscussing a clay pipe, about four o'clock of the afternoon, in thedrawing-room balcony of so discreet a mansion; and perhaps still more,his periodical excursion to a decent tavern in the neighbourhood, and hisunabashed return, nursing the full tankard: had presently raised to ahigh pitch the interest and indignation of the liveried servants of thesquare. The disfavour of some of these gentlemen at first proceeded tothe length of insult; but Somerset knew how to be affable with any classof men; and a few rude words merrily accepted, and a few glasses amicablyshared, gained for him the right of toleration.
The young man had embraced the art of Raphael, partly from a notion ofits ease, partly from an inborn distrust of offices. He scorned to bearthe yoke of any regular schooling; and proceeded to turn one half of thedining-room into a studio for the reproduction of still life. There heamassed a variety of objects, indiscriminately chosen from the kitchen,the drawing-room, and the back garden; and there spent his days insmiling assiduity. Meantime, the great bulk of empty building overheadlay, like a load, upon his imagination. To hold so great a stake and todo nothing, argued some defect of energy; and he at length determined toact upon the hint given by Mrs. Luxmore herself, and to stick, withwafers, in the window of the dining-room, a small handbill announcingfurnished lodgings. At half-past six of a fine July morning, he affixedthe bill, and went forth into the square to study the result. It seemed,to his eye, promising and unpretentious; and he returned to thedrawing-room balcony, to consider, over a studious pipe, the knottyproblem of how much he was to charge.
Thereupon he somewhat relaxed in his devotion to the art of painting.Indeed, from that time forth, he would spend the best part of the day inthe front balcony, like the attentive angler poring on his float; and thebetter to support the tedium, he would frequently console himself withhis clay pipe. On several occasions, passers-by appeared to be arrestedby the ticket, and on several others ladies and gentlemen drove to thevery doorstep by the ca
rriageful; but it appeared there was somethingrepulsive in the appearance of the house; for with one accord, they wouldcast but one look upward, and hastily resume their onward progress ordirect the driver to proceed. Somerset had thus the mortification ofactually meeting the eye of a large number of lodging-seekers; and thoughhe hastened to withdraw his pipe, and to compose his features to an airof invitation, he was never rewarded by so much as an inquiry. 'Canthere,' he thought, 'be anything repellent in myself?' But a candidexamination in one of the pier-glasses of the drawing-room led him todismiss the fear.
Something, however, was amiss. His vast and accurate calculations on thefly-leaves of books, or on the backs of playbills, appeared to have beenan idle sacrifice of time. By these, he had variously computed theweekly takings of the house, from sums as modest as five-and-twentyshillings, up to the more majestic figure of a hundred pounds; and yet,in despite of the very elements of arithmetic, here he was makingliterally nothing.
This incongruity impressed him deeply and occupied his thoughtful leisureon the balcony; and at last it seemed to him that he had detected theerror of his method. 'This,' he reflected, 'is an age of generousdisplay: the age of the sandwich-man, of Griffiths, of Pears' legendarysoap, and of Eno's fruit salt, which, by sheer brass and notoriety, andthe most disgusting pictures I ever remember to have seen, has overlaidthat comforter of my childhood, Lamplough's pyretic saline. Lamploughwas genteel, Eno was omnipresent; Lamplough was trite, Eno original andabominably vulgar; and here have I, a man of some pretensions toknowledge of the world, contented myself with half a sheet of note-paper,a few cold words which do not directly address the imagination, and theadornment (if adornment it may be called) of four red wafers! Am I,then, to sink with Lamplough, or to soar with Eno? Am I to adopt thatmodesty which is doubtless becoming in a duke? or to take hold of the redfacts of life with the emphasis of the tradesman and the poet?'
Pursuant upon these meditations, he procured several sheets of the verylargest size of drawing-paper; and laying forth his paints, proceeded tocompose an ensign that might attract the eye, and at the same time, inhis own phrase, directly address the imagination of the passenger.Something taking in the way of colour, a good, savoury choice of words,and a realistic design setting forth the life a lodger might expect tolead within the walls of that palace of delight: these, he perceived,must be the elements of his advertisement. It was possible, upon the onehand, to depict the sober pleasures of domestic life, the evening fire,blond-headed urchins and the hissing urn; but on the other, it waspossible (and he almost felt as if it were more suited to his muse) toset forth the charms of an existence somewhat wider in its range or,boldly say, the paradise of the Mohammedan. So long did the artist waverbetween these two views, that, before he arrived at a conclusion, he hadfinally conceived and completed both designs. With the proverbiallytender heart of the parent, he found himself unable to sacrifice eitherof these offsprings of his art; and decided to expose them on alternatedays. 'In this way,' he thought, 'I shall address myself indifferentlyto all classes of the world.'
The tossing of a penny decided the only remaining point; and the moreimaginative canvas received the suffrages of fortune, and appeared firstin the window of the mansion. It was of a high fancy, the legendeloquently writ, the scheme of colour taking and bold; and but for theimperfection of the artist's drawing, it might have been taken for amodel of its kind. As it was, however, when viewed from his favouritepoint against the garden railings, and with some touch of distance, itcaused a pleasurable rising of the artist's heart. 'I have thrown away,'he ejaculated, 'an invaluable motive; and this shall be the subject of myfirst academy picture.'
The fate of neither of these works was equal to its merit. A crowd wouldcertainly, from time to time, collect before the area-railings; but theycame to jeer and not to speculate; and those who pushed their inquiriesfurther, were too plainly animated by the spirit of derision. The racierof the two cartoons displayed, indeed, no symptom of attractive merit;and though it had a certain share of that success called scandalous,failed utterly of its effect. On the day, however, of the secondappearance of the companion work, a real inquirer did actually presenthimself before the eyes of Somerset.
This was a gentlemanly man, with some marks of recent merriment, and hisvoice under inadequate control.
'I beg your pardon,' said he, 'but what is the meaning of yourextraordinary bill?'
'I beg yours,' returned Somerset hotly. 'Its meaning is sufficientlyexplicit.' And being now, from dire experience, fearful of ridicule, hewas preparing to close the door, when the gentleman thrust his cane intothe aperture.
'Not so fast, I beg of you,' said he. 'If you really let apartments,here is a possible tenant at your door; and nothing would give me greaterpleasure than to see the accommodation and to learn your terms.'
His heart joyously beating, Somerset admitted the visitor, showed himover the various apartments, and, with some return of his persuasiveeloquence, expounded their attractions. The gentleman was particularlypleased by the elegant proportions of the drawing-room.
'This,' he said, 'would suit me very well. What, may I ask, would beyour terms a week, for this floor and the one above it?'
'I was thinking,' returned Somerset, 'of a hundred pounds.'
'Surely not,' exclaimed the gentleman.
'Well, then,' returned Somerset, 'fifty.'
The gentleman regarded him with an air of some amazement. 'You seem tobe strangely elastic in your demands,' said he. 'What if I were toproceed on your own principle of division, and offer twenty-five?'
'Done!' cried Somerset; and then, overcome by a sudden embarrassment,'You see,' he added apologetically, 'it is all found money for me.'
'Really?' said the stranger, looking at him all the while with growingwonder. 'Without extras, then?'
'I--I suppose so,' stammered the keeper of the lodging-house.
'Service included?' pursued the gentleman.
'Service?' cried Somerset. 'Do you mean that you expect me to empty yourslops?'
The gentleman regarded him with a very friendly interest. 'My dearfellow,' said he, 'if you take my advice, you will give up thisbusiness.' And thereupon he resumed his hat and took himself away.
This smarting disappointment produced a strong effect on the artist ofthe cartoons; and he began with shame to eat up his rosier illusions.First one and then the other of his great works was condemned, withdrawnfrom exhibition, and relegated, as a mere wall-picture, to the decorationof the dining-room. Their place was taken by a replica of the originalwafered announcement, to which, in particularly large letters, he hadadded the pithy rubric: '_No service_.' Meanwhile he had fallen intosomething as nearly bordering on low spirits as was consistent with hisdisposition; depressed, at once by the failure of his scheme, thelaughable turn of his late interview, and the judicial blindness of thepublic to the merit of the twin cartoons.
Perhaps a week had passed before he was again startled by the note of theknocker. A gentleman of a somewhat foreign and somewhat military air,yet closely shaven and wearing a soft hat, desired in the politest termsto visit the apartments. He had (he explained) a friend, a gentleman intender health, desirous of a sedate and solitary life, apart frominterruptions and the noises of the common lodging-house. 'The unusualclause,' he continued, 'in your announcement, particularly struck me."This," I said, "is the place for Mr. Jones." You are yourself, sir, aprofessional gentleman?' concluded the visitor, looking keenly inSomerset's face.
'I am an artist,' replied the young man lightly.
'And these,' observed the other, taking a side glance through the opendoor of the dining-room, which they were then passing, 'these are some ofyour works. Very remarkable.' And he again and still more sharplypeered into the countenance of the young man.
Somerset, unable to suppress a blush, made the more haste to lead hisvisitor upstairs and to display the apartments.
'Excellent,' observed the stranger, as he looked
from one of the backwindows. 'Is that a mews behind, sir? Very good. Well, sir: see here.My friend will take your drawing-room floor; he will sleep in the backdrawing-room; his nurse, an excellent Irish widow, will attend on all hiswants and occupy a garret; he will pay you the round sum of ten dollars aweek; and you, on your part, will engage to receive no other lodger? Ithink that fair.'
Somerset had scarcely words in which to clothe his gratitude and joy.
'Agreed,' said the other; 'and to spare you trouble, my friend will bringsome men with him to make the changes. You will find him a retiringinmate, sir; receives but few, and rarely leaves the house, except atnight.'
'Since I have been in this house,' returned Somerset, 'I have myself,unless it were to fetch beer, rarely gone abroad except in the evening.But a man,' he added, 'must have some amusement.'
An hour was then agreed on; the gentleman departed; and Somerset sat downto compute in English money the value of the figure named. The result ofthis investigation filled him with amazement and disgust; but it was nowtoo late; nothing remained but to endure; and he awaited the arrival ofhis tenant, still trying, by various arithmetical expedients, to obtain amore favourable quotation for the dollar. With the approach of dusk,however, his impatience drove him once more to the front balcony. Thenight fell, mild and airless; the lamps shone around the central darknessof the garden; and through the tall grove of trees that intervened, manywarmly illuminated windows on the farther side of the square, told theirtale of white napery, choice wine, and genial hospitality. The starswere already thickening overhead, when the young man's eyes alighted on aprocession of three four-wheelers, coasting round the garden railing andbound for the Superfluous Mansion. They were laden with formidableboxes; moved in a military order, one following another; and, by theextreme slowness of their advance, inspired Somerset with the mostserious ideas of his tenant's malady.
By the time he had the door open, the cabs had drawn up beside thepavement; and from the two first, there had alighted the militarygentleman of the morning and two very stalwart porters. These proceededinstantly to take possession of the house; with their own hands, andfirmly rejecting Somerset's assistance, they carried in the variouscrates and boxes; with their own hands dismounted and transferred to theback drawing-room the bed in which the tenant was to sleep; and it wasnot until the bustle of arrival had subsided, and the arrangements werecomplete, that there descended, from the third of the three vehicles, agentleman of great stature and broad shoulders, leaning on the shoulderof a woman in a widow's dress, and himself covered by a long cloak andmuffled in a coloured comforter.
Somerset had but a glimpse of him in passing; he was soon shut into theback drawing-room; the other men departed; silence redescended on thehouse; and had not the nurse appeared a little before half-past ten, and,with a strong brogue, asked if there were a decent public-house in theneighbourhood, Somerset might have still supposed himself to be alone inthe Superfluous Mansion.
Day followed day; and still the young man had never come by speech orsight of his mysterious lodger. The doors of the drawing-room flat werenever open; and although Somerset could hear him moving to and fro, thetall man had never quitted the privacy of his apartments. Visitors,indeed, arrived; sometimes in the dusk, sometimes at intempestuous hoursof night or morning; men, for the most part; some meanly attired, somedecently; some loud, some cringing; and yet all, in the eyes of Somerset,displeasing. A certain air of fear and secrecy was common to them all;they were all voluble, he thought, and ill at ease; even the militarygentleman proved, on a closer inspection, to be no gentleman at all; andas for the doctor who attended the sick man, his manners were notsuggestive of a university career. The nurse, again, was scarcely adesirable house-fellow. Since her arrival, the fall of whisky in theyoung man's private bottle was much accelerated; and though nevercommunicative, she was at times unpleasantly familiar. When asked aboutthe patient's health, she would dolorously shake her head, and declarethat the poor gentleman was in a pitiful condition.
Yet somehow Somerset had early begun to entertain the notion that hiscomplaint was other than bodily. The ill-looking birds that gathered tothe house, the strange noises that sounded from the drawing-room in thedead hours of night, the careless attendance and intemperate habits ofthe nurse, the entire absence of correspondence, the entire seclusion ofMr. Jones himself, whose face, up to that hour, he could not have swornto in a court of justice--all weighed unpleasantly upon the young man'smind. A sense of something evil, irregular and underhand, haunted anddepressed him; and this uneasy sentiment was the more firmly rooted inhis mind, when, in the fulness of time, he had an opportunity ofobserving the features of his tenant. It fell in this way. The younglandlord was awakened about four in the morning by a noise in the hall.Leaping to his feet, and opening the door of the library, he saw the tallman, candle in hand, in earnest conversation with the gentleman who hadtaken the rooms. The faces of both were strongly illuminated; and inthat of his tenant, Somerset could perceive none of the marks of disease,but every sign of health, energy, and resolution. While he was stilllooking, the visitor took his departure; and the invalid, havingcarefully fastened the front door, sprang upstairs without a trace oflassitude.
That night upon his pillow, Somerset began to kindle once more into thehot fit of the detective fever; and the next morning resumed the practiceof his art with careless hand and an abstracted mind. The day wasdestined to be fertile in surprises; nor had he long been seated at theeasel ere the first of these occurred. A cab laden with baggage drew upbefore the door; and Mrs. Luxmore in person rapidly mounted the steps andbegan to pound upon the knocker. Somerset hastened to attend thesummons.
'My dear fellow,' she said, with the utmost gaiety, 'here I come droppingfrom the moon. I am delighted to find you faithful; and I have no doubtyou will be equally pleased to be restored to liberty.'
Somerset could find no words, whether of protest or welcome; and thespirited old lady pushed briskly by him and paused on the threshold ofthe dining-room. The sight that met her eyes was one well calculated toinspire astonishment. The mantelpiece was arrayed with saucepans andempty bottles; on the fire some chops were frying; the floor was litteredfrom end to end with books, clothes, walking-canes and the materials ofthe painter's craft; but what far outstripped the other wonders of theplace was the corner which had been arranged for the study of still-life.This formed a sort of rockery; conspicuous upon which, according to theprinciples of the art of composition, a cabbage was relieved against acopper kettle, and both contrasted with the mail of a boiled lobster.
'My gracious goodness!' cried the lady of the house; and then, turning inwrath on the young man, 'From what rank in life are you sprung?' shedemanded. 'You have the exterior of a gentleman; but from theastonishing evidences before me, I should say you can only be agreengrocer's man. Pray, gather up your vegetables, and let me see nomore of you.'
'Madam,' babbled Somerset, 'you promised me a month's warning.'
'That was under a misapprehension,' returned the old lady. 'I now giveyou warning to leave at once.'
'Madam,' said the young man, 'I wish I could; and indeed, as far as I amconcerned, it might be done. But then, my lodger!'
'Your lodger?' echoed Mrs. Luxmore.
'My lodger: why should I deny it?' returned Somerset. 'He is only by theweek.'
The old lady sat down upon a chair. 'You have a lodger?--you?' shecried. 'And pray, how did you get him?'
'By advertisement,' replied the young man. 'O madam, I have not livedunobservantly. I adopted'--his eyes involuntarily shifted to thecartoons--'I adopted every method.'
Her eyes had followed his; for the first time in Somerset's experience,she produced a double eye-glass; and as soon as the full merit of theworks had flashed upon her, she gave way to peal after peal of hertrilling and soprano laughter.
'Oh, I think you are perfectly delicious!' she cried. 'I do hope you hadthem in the window. M'Pherson,' she continued,
crying to her maid, whohad been all this time grimly waiting in the hall, 'I lunch with Mr.Somerset. Take the cellar key and bring some wine.'
In this gay humour she continued throughout the luncheon; presentedSomerset with a couple of dozen of wine, which she made M'Pherson bringup from the cellar--'as a present, my dear,' she said, with another burstof tearful merriment, 'for your charming pictures, which you must be sureto leave me when you go;' and finally, protesting that she dared notspoil the absurdest houseful of madmen in the whole of London, departed(as she vaguely phrased it) for the continent of Europe.
She was no sooner gone, than Somerset encountered in the corridor theIrish nurse; sober, to all appearance, and yet a prey to singularlystrong emotion. It was made to appear, from her account, that Mr. Joneshad already suffered acutely in his health from Mrs. Luxmore's visit, andthat nothing short of a full explanation could allay the invalid'suneasiness. Somerset, somewhat staring, told what he thought fit of theaffair.
'Is that all?' cried the woman. 'As God sees you, is that all?'
'My good woman,' said the young man, 'I have no idea what you can bedriving at. Suppose the lady were my friend's wife, suppose she were myfairy godmother, suppose she were the Queen of Portugal; and how shouldthat affect yourself or Mr. Jones?'
'Blessed Mary!' cried the nurse, 'it's he that will be glad to hear it!'
And immediately she fled upstairs.
Somerset, on his part, returned to the dining-room, and with a verythoughtful brow and ruminating many theories, disposed of the remainderof the bottle. It was port; and port is a wine, sole among its equalsand superiors, that can in some degree support the competition oftobacco. Sipping, smoking, and theorising, Somerset moved on fromsuspicion to suspicion, from resolve to resolve, still growing braver androsier as the bottle ebbed. He was a sceptic, none prouder of the name;he had no horror at command, whether for crimes or vices, but beheld andembraced the world, with an immoral approbation, the frequent consequenceof youth and health. At the same time, he felt convinced that he dweltunder the same roof with secret malefactors; and the unregenerateinstinct of the chase impelled him to severity. The bottle had run low;the summer sun had finally withdrawn; and at the same moment, night andthe pangs of hunger recalled him from his dreams.
He went forth, and dined in the Criterion: a dinner in consonance, not somuch with his purse, as with the admirable wine he had discussed. Whatwith one thing and another, it was long past midnight when he returnedhome. A cab was at the door; and entering the hall, Somerset foundhimself face to face with one of the most regular of the few who visitedMr. Jones: a man of powerful figure, strong lineaments, and a chin-beardin the American fashion. This person was carrying on one shoulder ablack portmanteau, seemingly of considerable weight. That he should finda visitor removing baggage in the dead of night, recalled some oddstories to the young man's memory; he had heard of lodgers who thusgradually drained away, not only their own effects, but the veryfurniture and fittings of the house that sheltered them; and now, in amood between pleasantry and suspicion, and aping the manner of adrunkard, he roughly bumped against the man with the chin-beard andknocked the portmanteau from his shoulder to the floor. With a facestruck suddenly as white as paper, the man with the chin-beard calledlamentably on the name of his maker, and fell in a mere heap on the matat the foot of the stairs. At the same time, though only for a singleinstant, the heads of the sick lodger and the Irish nurse popped out likerabbits over the banisters of the first floor; and on both the same scareand pallor were apparent.
The sight of this incredible emotion turned Somerset to stone, and hecontinued speechless, while the man gathered himself together, and, withthe help of the handrail and audibly thanking God, scrambled once moreupon his feet.
'What in Heaven's name ails you?' gasped the young man as soon as hecould find words and utterance.
'Have you a drop of brandy?' returned the other. 'I am sick.'
Somerset administered two drams, one after the other, to the man with thechin-beard; who then, somewhat restored, began to confound himself inapologies for what he called his miserable nervousness, the result, hesaid, of a long course of dumb ague; and having taken leave with a handthat still sweated and trembled, he gingerly resumed his burthen anddeparted.
Somerset retired to bed but not to sleep. What, he asked himself, hadbeen the contents of the black portmanteau? Stolen goods? the carcase ofone murdered? or--and at the thought he sat upright in bed--an infernalmachine? He took a solemn vow that he would set these doubts at rest;and with the next morning, installed himself beside the dining-roomwindow, vigilant with eye; and ear, to await and profit by the earliestopportunity.
The hours went heavily by. Within the house there was no circumstance ofnovelty; unless it might be that the nurse more frequently made littlejourneys round the corner of the square, and before afternoon wassomewhat loose of speech and gait. A little after six, however, therecame round the corner of the gardens a very handsome and elegantlydressed young woman, who paused a little way off, and for some time, andwith frequent sighs, contemplated the front of the Superfluous Mansion.It was not the first time that she had thus stood afar and looked uponit, like our common parents at the gates of Eden; and the young man hadalready had occasion to remark the lively slimness of her carriage, andhad already been the butt of a chance arrow from her eye. He hailed hercoming, then, with pleasant feelings, and moved a little nearer to thewindow to enjoy the sight. What was his surprise, however, when, as ifwith a sensible effort, she drew near, mounted the steps and tappeddiscreetly at the door! He made haste to get before the Irish nurse, whowas not improbably asleep, and had the satisfaction to receive thisgracious visitor in person.
She inquired for Mr. Jones; and then, without transition, asked the youngman if he were the person of the house (and at the words, he thought hecould perceive her to be smiling), 'because,' she added, 'if you are, Ishould like to see some of the other rooms.' Somerset told her he wasunder an engagement to receive no other lodgers; but she assured him thatwould be no matter, as these were friends of Mr. Jones's. 'And,' shecontinued, moving suddenly to the dining-room door, 'let us begin here.'Somerset was too late to prevent her entering, and perhaps he lacked thecourage to essay. 'Ah!' she cried, 'how changed it is!'
'Madam,' cried the young man, 'since your entrance, it is I who have theright to say so.'
She received this inane compliment with a demure and conscious droop ofthe eyelids, and gracefully steering her dress among the mingled litter,now with a smile, now with a sigh, reviewed the wonders of the twoapartments. She gazed upon the cartoons with sparkling eyes, and aheightened colour, and in a somewhat breathless voice, expressed a highopinion of their merits. She praised the effective disposition of therockery, and in the bedroom, of which Somerset had vainly endeavoured todefend the entry, she fairly broke forth in admiration. 'How simple andmanly!' she cried: 'none of that effeminacy of neatness, which is sodetestable in a man!' Hard upon this, telling him, before he had time toreply, that she very well knew her way, and would trouble him no further,she took her leave with an engaging smile, and ascended the staircasealone.
For more than an hour the young lady remained closeted with Mr. Jones;and at the end of that time, the night being now come completely, theyleft the house in company. This was the first time since the arrival ofhis lodger, that Somerset had found himself alone with the Irish widow;and without the loss of any more time than was required by decency, hestepped to the foot of the stairs and hailed her by her name. She cameinstantly, wreathed in weak smiles and with a nodding head; and when theyoung man politely offered to introduce her to the treasures of his art,she swore that nothing could afford her greater pleasure, for, though shehad never crossed the threshold, she had frequently observed hisbeautiful pictures through the door. On entering the dining-room, thesight of a bottle and two glasses prepared her to be a gentle critic; andas soon as the pictures had been viewed and praised, she was easil
ypersuaded to join the painter in a single glass. 'Here,' she said, 'aremy respects; and a pleasure it is, in this horrible house, to see agentleman like yourself, so affable and free, and a very nice painter, Iam sure.' One glass so agreeably prefaced, was sure to lead to theacceptance of a second; at the third, Somerset was free to cease from theaffectation of keeping her company; and as for the fourth, she asked itof her own accord. 'For indeed,' said she, 'what with all these clocksand chemicals, without a drop of the creature life would be impossibleentirely. And you seen yourself that even M'Guire was glad to beg forit. And even himself, when he is downhearted with all these crueldisappointments, though as temperate a man as any child, will besometimes crying for a glass of it. And I'll thank you for a thimblefulto settle what I got.' Soon after, she began with tears to narrate thedeathbed dispositions and lament the trifling assets of her husband.Then she declared she heard 'the master' calling her, rose to her feet,made but one lurch of it into the still-life rockery, and with her headupon the lobster, fell into stertorous slumbers.
Somerset mounted at once to the first story, and opened the door of thedrawing-room, which was brilliantly lit by several lamps. It was a greatapartment; looking on the square with three tall windows, and joined by apair of ample folding-doors to the next room; elegant in proportion,papered in sea-green, furnished in velvet of a delicate blue, and adornedwith a majestic mantelpiece of variously tinted marbles. Such was theroom that Somerset remembered; that which he now beheld was changed inalmost every feature: the furniture covered with a figured chintz; thewalls hung with a rhubarb-coloured paper, and diversified by thecurtained recesses for no less than seven windows. It seemed to himselfthat he must have entered, without observing the transition, into theadjoining house. Presently from these more specious changes, his eyecondescended to the many curious objects with which the floor waslittered. Here were the locks of dismounted pistols; clocks andclockwork in every stage of demolition, some still busily ticking, somereduced to their dainty elements; a great company of carboys, jars andbottles; a carpenter's bench and a laboratory-table.
The back drawing-room, to which Somerset proceeded, had likewiseundergone a change. It was transformed to the exact appearance of acommon lodging-house bedroom; a bed with green curtains occupied onecorner; and the window was blocked by the regulation table and mirror.The door of a small closet here attracted the young man's attention; andstriking a vesta, he opened it and entered. On a table several wigs andbeards were lying spread; about the walls hung an incongruous display ofsuits and overcoats; and conspicuous among the last the young manobserved a large overall of the most costly sealskin. In a flash hismind reverted to the advertisement in the _Standard_ newspaper. Thegreat height of his lodger, the disproportionate breadth of hisshoulders, and the strange particulars of his instalment, all pointed tothe same conclusion.
The vesta had now burned to his fingers; and taking the coat upon hisarm, Somerset hastily returned to the lighted drawing-room. There, witha mixture of fear and admiration, he pored upon its goodly proportionsand the regularity and softness of the pile. The sight of a largepier-glass put another fancy in his head. He donned the fur-coat; andstanding before the mirror in an attitude suggestive of a Russian prince,he thrust his hands into the ample pockets. There his fingersencountered a folded journal. He drew it out, and recognised the typeand paper of the _Standard_; and at the same instant, his eyes alightedon the offer of two hundred pounds. Plainly then, his lodger, now nolonger mysterious, had laid aside his coat on the very day of theappearance of the advertisement.
He was thus standing, the tell-tale coat upon his back, the incriminatingpaper in his hand, when the door opened and the tall lodger, with a firmbut somewhat pallid face, stepped into the room and closed the door againbehind him. For some time, the two looked upon each other in perfectsilence; then Mr. Jones moved forward to the table, took a seat, andstill without once changing the direction of his eyes, addressed theyoung man.
'You are right,' he said. 'It is for me the blood money is offered. Andnow what will you do?'
It was a question to which Somerset was far from being able to reply.Taken as he was at unawares, masquerading in the man's own coat, andsurrounded by a whole arsenal of diabolical explosives, the keeper of thelodging-house was silenced.
'Yes,' resumed the other, 'I am he. I am that man, whom with impotenthate and fear, they still hunt from den to den, from disguise todisguise. Yes, my landlord, you have it in your power, if you be poor,to lay the basis of your fortune; if you be unknown, to capture honour atone snatch. You have hocussed an innocent widow; and I find you here inmy apartment, for whose use I pay you in stamped money, searching mywardrobe, and your hand--shame, sir!--your hand in my very pocket. Youcan now complete the cycle of your ignominious acts, by what will be atonce the simplest, the safest, and the most remunerative.' The speakerpaused as if to emphasise his words; and then, with a great change oftone and manner, thus resumed: 'And yet, sir, when I look upon your face,I feel certain that I cannot be deceived: certain that in spite of all, Ihave the honour and pleasure of speaking to a gentleman. Take off mycoat, sir--which but cumbers you. Divest yourself of this confusion:that which is but thought upon, thank God, need be no burthen to theconscience; we have all harboured guilty thoughts: and if it flashed intoyour mind to sell my flesh and blood, my anguish in the dock, and thesweat of my death agony--it was a thought, dear sir, you were asincapable of acting on, as I of any further question of your honour.' Atthese words, the speaker, with a very open, smiling countenance, like aforgiving father, offered Somerset his hand.
It was not in the young man's nature to refuse forgiveness or dissectgenerosity. He instantly, and almost without thought, accepted theproffered grasp.
'And now,' resumed the lodger, 'now that I hold in mine your loyal hand,I lay by my apprehensions, I dismiss suspicion, I go further--by aneffort of will, I banish the memory of what is past. How you came here,I care not: enough that you are here--as my guest. Sit ye down; and letus, with your good permission, improve acquaintance over a glass ofexcellent whisky.'
So speaking, he produced glasses and a bottle: and the pair pledged eachother in silence.
'Confess,' observed the smiling host, 'you were surprised at theappearance of the room.'
'I was indeed,' said Somerset; 'nor can I imagine the purpose of thesechanges.'
'These,' replied the conspirator, 'are the devices by which I continue toexist. Conceive me now, accused before one of your unjust tribunals;conceive the various witnesses appearing, and the singular variety oftheir reports! One will have visited me in this drawing-room as itoriginally stood; a second finds it as it is to-night; and to-morrow ornext day, all may have been changed. If you love romance (as artistsdo), few lives are more romantic than that of the obscure individual nowaddressing you. Obscure yet famous. Mine is an anonymous, infernalglory. By infamous means, I work towards my bright purpose. I found theliberty and peace of a poor country, desperately abused; the futuresmiles upon that land; yet, in the meantime, I lead the existence of ahunted brute, work towards appalling ends, and practice hell'sdexterities.'
Somerset, glass in hand, contemplated the strange fanatic before him, andlistened to his heated rhapsody, with indescribable bewilderment. Helooked him in the face with curious particularity; saw there the marks ofeducation; and wondered the more profoundly.
'Sir,' he said--'for I know not whether I should still address you as Mr.Jones--'
'Jones, Breitman, Higginbotham, Pumpernickel, Daviot, Henderland, by allor any of these you may address me,' said the plotter; 'for all I have atsome time borne. Yet that which I most prize, that which is most feared,hated, and obeyed, is not a name to be found in your directories; it isnot a name current in post-offices or banks; and, indeed, like thecelebrated clan M'Gregor, I may justly describe myself as being namelessby day. But,' he continued, rising to his feet, 'by night, and among mydesperate followers, I am the redoubted Zero.'
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Somerset was unacquainted with the name, but he politely expressedsurprise and gratification. 'I am to understand,' he continued, 'that,under this alias, you follow the profession of a dynamiter?' {176}
The plotter had resumed his seat and now replenished the glasses.
'I do,' he said. 'In this dark period of time, a star--the star ofdynamite--has risen for the oppressed; and among those who practise itsuse, so thick beset with dangers and attended by such incredibledifficulties and disappointments, few have been more assiduous, and notmany--' He paused, and a shade of embarrassment appeared upon hisface--'not many have been more successful than myself.'
'I can imagine,' observed Somerset, 'that, from the sweeping consequenceslooked for, the career is not devoid of interest. You have, besides,some of the entertainment of the game of hide and seek. But it wouldstill seem to me--I speak as a layman--that nothing could be simpler orsafer than to deposit an infernal machine and retire to an adjacentcounty to await the painful consequences.'
'You speak, indeed,' returned the plotter, with some evidence of warmth,'you speak, indeed, most ignorantly. Do you make nothing, then, of sucha peril as we share this moment? Do you think it nothing to occupy ahouse like this one, mined, menaced, and, in a word, literally totteringto its fall?'
'Good God!' ejaculated Somerset.
'And when you speak of ease,' pursued Zero, 'in this age of scientificstudies, you fill me with surprise. Are you not aware that chemicals areproverbially fickle as woman, and clockwork as capricious as the verydevil? Do you see upon my brow these furrows of anxiety? Do you observethe silver threads that mingle with my hair? Clockwork, clockwork hasstamped them on my brow--chemicals have sprinkled them upon my locks!No, Mr. Somerset,' he resumed, after a moment's pause, his voice stillquivering with sensibility, 'you must not suppose the dynamiter's life tobe all gold. On the contrary, you cannot picture to yourself thebloodshot vigils and the staggering disappointments of a life like mine.I have toiled (let us say) for months, up early and down late; my bag isready, my clock set; a daring agent has hurried with white face todeposit the instrument of ruin; we await the fall of England, themassacre of thousands, the yell of fear and execration; and lo! a snaplike that of a child's pistol, an offensive smell, and the entire loss ofso much time and plant! If,' he concluded, musingly, 'we had been merelyable to recover the lost bags, I believe with but a touch or two, I couldhave remedied the peccant engine. But what with the loss of plant andthe almost insuperable scientific difficulties of the task, our friendsin France are almost ready to desert the chosen medium. They propose,instead, to break up the drainage system of cities and sweep off wholepopulations with the devastating typhoid pestilence: a tempting and ascientific project: a process, indiscriminate indeed, but of idyllicalsimplicity. I recognise its elegance; but, sir, I have something of thepoet in my nature; something, possibly, of the tribune. And, for mysmall part, I shall remain devoted to that more emphatic, more striking,and (if you please) more popular method, of the explosive bomb. Yes,' hecried, with unshaken hope, 'I will still continue, and, I feel it in mybosom, I shall yet succeed.'
'Two things I remark,' said Somerset. 'The first somewhat staggers me.Have you, then--in all this course of life, which you have sketched sovividly--have you not once succeeded?'
'Pardon me,' said Zero. 'I have had one success. You behold in me theauthor of the outrage of Red Lion Court.'
'But if I remember right,' objected Somerset, 'the thing was a _fiasco_.A scavenger's barrow and some copies of the _Weekly Budget_--these werethe only victims.'
'You will pardon me again,' returned Zero with positive asperity: 'achild was injured.'
'And that fitly brings me to my second point,' said Somerset. 'For Iobserved you to employ the word "indiscriminate." Now, surely, ascavenger's barrow and a child (if child there were) represent the veryacme and top pin-point of indiscriminate, and, pardon me, of ineffectualreprisal.'
'Did I employ the word?' asked Zero. 'Well, I will not defend it. Butfor efficiency, you touch on graver matters; and before entering upon sovast a subject, permit me once more to fill our glasses. Disputation isdry work,' he added, with a charming gaiety of manner.
Once more accordingly the pair pledged each other in a stalwart grog; andZero, leaning back with an air of some complacency, proceeded morelargely to develop his opinions.
'The indiscriminate?' he began. 'War, my dear sir, is indiscriminate.War spares not the child; it spares not the barrow of the harmlessscavenger. No more,' he concluded, beaming, 'no more do I. Whatever maystrike fear, whatever may confound or paralyse the activities of theguilty nation, barrow or child, imperial Parliament or excursion steamer,is welcome to my simple plans. You are not,' he inquired, with a shadeof sympathetic interest, 'you are not, I trust, a believer?'
'Sir, I believe in nothing,' said the young man.
'You are then,' replied Zero, 'in a position to grasp my argument. Weagree that humanity is the object, the glorious triumph of humanity; andbeing pledged to labour for that end, and face to face with the bandedopposition of kings, parliaments, churches, and the members of the force,who am I--who are we, dear sir--to affect a nicety about the toolsemployed? You might, perhaps, expect us to attack the Queen, thesinister Gladstone, the rigid Derby, or the dexterous Granville; butthere you would be in error. Our appeal is to the body of the people; itis these that we would touch and interest. Now, sir, have you observedthe English housemaid?'
'I should think I had,' cried Somerset.
'From a man of taste and a votary of art, I had expected it,' returnedthe conspirator politely. 'A type apart; a very charming figure; andthoroughly adapted to our ends. The neat cap, the clean print, thecomely person, the engaging manner; her position between classes, parentsin one, employers in another; the probability that she will have at leastone sweet-heart, whose feelings we shall address:--yes, I have aleaning--call it, if you will, a weakness--for the housemaid. Not that Iwould be understood to despise the nurse. For the child is a veryinteresting feature: I have long since marked out the child as thesensitive point in society.' He wagged his head, with a wise, pensivesmile. 'And talking, sir, of children and of the perils of our trade,let me now narrate to you a little incident of an explosive bomb, thatfell out some weeks ago under my own observation. It fell out thus.'
And Zero, leaning back in his chair, narrated the following simple tale.
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