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 IDOLATRY 
 
 A ROMANCE.
 
 EXTRACTS FROM SOME PRESS NOTICES OF 
 
 By Julian Hawthorne, 
 In 2 vols., crown 8vo, price 2 is. 
 
 " The story as it stands is one of the most powerful with which we are 
 acquainted, and the contrast which it presents between sensuous passion 
 and the love which is stronger than death, has rarely, perhaps, been more 
 
 forcibly displayed The son's work, we venture to say, is worthy of 
 
 the sire." — Times. ■ 
 
 " Enough to make us hopeful that we shall once more have reason to 
 rejoice whenever we hear that a new work is coming out, written by one 
 who bears the honoured name of Hawthorne. There is a great deal of 
 clever and original description and good writing." — Saturday Review. 
 
 " Bressant " is a romance of the same school as " Transformation," but in 
 some respects superior to it in power." — Spectator. 
 
 "Mr Julian Hawthorne is endowed with a large share of his father's 
 peculiar genius. We trace in " Bressant " the same intense yearning after a 
 high and spiritual life, the same passionate love of nature, the same subtlety 
 and delicacy of remark, and also a little of the same tendency to indulge in 
 the use of a half-weird, half-fantastic imagery. The conception is excellent. 
 There are many passages scattered here and there, graceful, poetical, and 
 evincing great keenness of intuition, which we should have liked to quote 
 had our space permitted. But the book is full of promise, and we shall look 
 forward with interest to the next work by the same hand." — Pall Mall 
 Gazette. 
 
 " Bressant " is something more than a promise— it is a performance — a 
 work of art — a book which raises its author, at one step, into the ranks of 
 recognised American novelists." — Civil Service Gazette. 
 
 " A most original and artistic work." — Examiner. 
 
 " Mr Hawthorne's book forms a remarkable contrast in point of power 
 and interest, to the dreary mass of so-called romances through which the 
 reviewer works his way. . . . An interesting story." — Athencetim. 
 
 " The whole story from first to last is full of touches of real genius ; genius 
 so marked, and so true, that the interest of the reader, having been once 
 fairly roused, is riveted to the very end." — Standard. 
 
 HENRY S. KIN(; & CO., LONDON.
 
 IDOLATEY 
 
 Jk Bomance. 
 
 BY 
 
 JULIAN HAWTHORNE. 
 
 Volume I 
 
 Henry S. King & Co., 
 
 65 CoRNHiLL, & 12 Paternoster Row, London. 
 
 1874.
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 H 3 ISZ 
 ^■1 
 
 -"'. To Robert Carter Esq., of New York. 
 
 i 
 
 ^ Not the intrinsic merits of this story embolden 
 
 - me to inscribe it to you, my dear friend, but 
 
 ^ the fact that you, more than any man, are 
 
 ''^ responsible for its writing. Your advice and 
 
 encouragement first led me to book-making; so 
 
 it is only fair that you should partake of what- 
 
 \ever obloquy (or honour) the practice may 
 
 ■bring upon me. 
 
 ^ The ensuing pages may Incline you to suspect 
 
 ^their author of a repugnance to unvarnished 
 
 .-truth ; but — without prejudice to Othello — 
 
 since varnish brings out in wood veins of 
 
 ^beauty invisible before the application, why not 
 
 also in the sober facts of life ? When the 
 
 "transparent artifice has been penetrated, the 
 
 -familiar substance underneath will be greeted
 
 IV DEDICATION. 
 
 none the less kindly ; nay, the observer will 
 perhaps regard the disguise as an oblique com- 
 pliment to his powers of insight, and his atten- 
 tion may thus be better secured than had the 
 subject worn its every-day dress. Seriously, 
 the most matter-of-fact life has moods when 
 the light of romance seems to gild its earthern 
 chimney-pots into fairy minarets ; and were the 
 story-teller but sure of laying his hands on the 
 true gold, perhaps the more the story had of it, 
 the better ! 
 
 Here, however, comes in the grand difficulty ; 
 fact nor fancy is often reproduced in true 
 colours ; and while attempting justly to combine 
 life's elements, the writer has to beware that 
 they be not mere cheap imitations thereof. 
 Not seldom does it happen that what he 
 proffers as genuine arcana of imagination and 
 philosophy, affects the reader as a dose of Hiero- 
 glyphics and Balderdash. — Nevertheless, the 
 first duty of the fiction-monger — no less than of
 
 DEDICATION. V 
 
 the photographic artist doomed to produce 
 successful portraits of chlldren-In-arms — Is, to 
 be amusing ; to shrink at no shift which shall 
 beguile the patient Into procrastinating escape 
 until the critical moment be gone by. The 
 gentle reader will not too sternly set his face 
 against such artifices ; but, so they go not the 
 length of fantastically presenting phenomena 
 inexplicable upon any common-sense hypothesis, 
 — he will, rather, lend himself to his own begulle- 
 ment. The performance once over, let him, If 
 so inclined, strip the feathers from the flights of 
 imagination, and wash the colour from the 
 incidents ; if aught, save the driest and most 
 ordinary matters-of-fact reward his researches, 
 then let him be offended ! 
 
 De te Fabtcla does not apply here, my dear 
 friend ; for you will show me more indulgence 
 than I have skill to demand. And, should you 
 find matter of interest in this book, yours, 
 rather than the author's, will be the merit.
 
 VI DEDICATION. 
 
 As the beauty of nature is from the eye that 
 looks upon her, so would the story be dull and 
 barren, save for the life and colour of the 
 reader s sympathy. — Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Julian Hawthorne.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ENCHANTED RING, I 
 
 II. 
 
 OUT OF EGYPT, 15 
 
 III. 
 A MAY MORNING, 37 
 
 IV. 
 
 A BRAHMAN, 51 
 
 V. 
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE, . . . • ^3 
 
 VL 
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE, 9 1 
 
 VII. 
 
 A QUARREL, 108
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT, 1 1 6 
 
 IX. 
 THE VOICE OF DARKNESS, ...... I36 
 
 X. 
 
 HELWYSE RESISTS THE DEVIL, 149 
 
 XI. 
 A DEAD WEIGHT, 153 
 
 XII. 
 MORE VAGARIES, 1 63 
 
 XIIL 
 THROUGH A GLASS, 1 82 
 
 XIV. 
 THE TOWER OF BABEL, . ^ 202 
 
 XV. 
 CHARON'S FERRY, . . • u • • .211 
 
 XVI. 
 LEGENDS AND CHRONICLES, 230 
 
 XVII. 
 
 FACE TO FACE, 242
 
 IDOLATRY, 
 
 THE ENCHANTED RING. 
 
 One of the most imposing buildings in Boston, 
 twenty years ago, was a granite hotel, whose 
 western windows looked upon a grave- yard. 
 Passing up a flight of steps, and beneath a 
 portico of dignified granite columns, and so, 
 through an embarrassing pair of swinging doors 
 to the roomy vestibule ; — you would there pause 
 a moment to expectorate upon the black and 
 white tesselated pavement. Having thus as- 
 serted your title to Puritan ancestry, and to the 
 best accommodations the house afforded, you 
 
 I. A
 
 IDOLATRY. 
 
 would approach the desk and write your name 
 in the hotel-register. This done, you would be 
 apt to run your eye over the last dozen arrivals, 
 on the chance of lighting upon the autograph of 
 some acquaintance, — to be shunned or sought, 
 according to circumstances. 
 
 Let us, for the story's sake, suppose that the 
 gentle reader is a guest of this hotel on a 
 certain night during the latter part of May, in 
 the year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-three. 
 Turning to the ninety-ninth page of the register 
 above-mentioned, he will remark that the last 
 name thereon written is, " Doctor Hiero Gly- 
 phic ; Room 27." The natural inference is that, 
 unless so odd a name be an assumed one, Doc- 
 tor Glyphic occupies that room. Now, passing 
 on to page one hundred, the first entry reads as 
 follows; — " Balder Helwyse, Cosmopolis; Room 
 
 29." 
 
 In no trifling mood do we call attention to 
 these two names, and above all to their relative
 
 THE ENCHANTED RING. 3 
 
 position In the book. Had they both appeared 
 upon the same page, this Romance might never 
 have been written. On such seemingly frail 
 pegs hang consequences the most weighty! 
 Because Doctor Glyphic preferred the humble 
 foot of page 99 to the trouble of turning to a 
 leading position on page lOo; or because Mr 
 Helwyse, having begun the looth, was too 
 incurious to hunt up his next door neighbour 
 on the 99th ; ensued unparalleled adventures, 
 and this account of them ! 
 
 Our present purpose — by the reader's leave 
 and in his company — is to violate Doctor Hiero 
 Glyphlc's retirement, as he lies asleep in bed. 
 Nor shall we stop at his bedside ! we mean to 
 penetrate deep Into the darksome caves of his 
 memory, and to drag forth thence sundry odd- 
 looking secrets, which shall blink and look 
 strangely In the light of discovery — little 
 thought their keeper that our eyes should ever 
 behold them ! Yet will he not resent our in-
 
 4 IDOLATRY. 
 
 trusion ; for it is twenty years ago, and he lies 
 asleep! 
 
 Two o'clock sounds from the neighbouring 
 steeple of the Old South Church, as we noise- 
 lessly enter the chamber — noiselessly, for the 
 hush of the past is about us. We scarcely distin- 
 guish anything at first ; the moon has set on the 
 other side of the hotel ; and perhaps, too, some 
 of the dimness of these twenty intervening years 
 affects our eyesight. By degrees, however, ob- 
 jects begin to define themselves ; the bed shows 
 doubtfully white, and that dark blot upon the 
 pillow must be the face of our sleeping man. 
 It is turned towards the window; the mouth is 
 open, — probably the good Doctor snores, albeit 
 across this extent of time the sound fails to 
 reach us. 
 
 The room is as bare, square, and character- 
 less as other hotel rooms ; nevertheless, its oc- 
 cupant may have left a hint or two of himself 
 about which would be of use to us. There are
 
 THE ENCHANTED RING. 5 
 
 no trunks or other luggage ; evidently he will 
 be on his way again to-morrow. The window 
 is shut, for all that the night is warm and clear. 
 The door is carefully locked. The Doctor's 
 garments (which seem to be of rather a jaunty 
 and knowing cut for one of his grave profes- 
 sion) are lying disorderly about, on chair, table, 
 or floor. He carries no watch, but under his 
 pillow we see protruding the corner of a great 
 leathern pocket-book, which might contain a 
 fortune in bank-notes. 
 
 A couple of chairs are drawn up to the bed- 
 side, upon one of which stands a blown-out 
 candle, while the other supports an oblong, 
 coffin-shaped box, narrower at one end than at 
 the other, and painted black. Too small for a 
 coffin, however ; no human corpse, at least, is 
 contained in it. But the frame that lies so quiet 
 and motionless here, thrills, when awakened to 
 life, with a soul only less marvellous than 
 man's. The coffin, in short, is a violin-case,
 
 6 IDOLATRY. 
 
 and the mysterious frame the vIoHn. The 
 Doctor must have been fiddHng overnight, after 
 getting In bed ; to the dissatisfaction, probably, 
 of his neighbour on the other side of the thin 
 partition. 
 
 Little else In the room Is worthy notice, un- 
 less It be the pocket-comb which has escaped 
 from the Doctor's waistcoat, and the shaving 
 materials, also pocketable, upon the wash-stand. 
 Apparently he does not stand on much toilet- 
 ceremony. The room has nothing more of 
 significance to communicate, so now we come 
 to the room's occupant. Our eyes have got 
 enough accustomed to the imperfect light to 
 make out what manner of man he may be. 
 
 Barely middle-aged ; or, at a second glance, he 
 might be fifteen to five-and-twenty years older. 
 His face, while retaining the form of youth, 
 wears a subtle shadow which we feel might be 
 consistent even with extreme old age. Regular 
 eyebrows support the wide, low forehead ; the
 
 THE E^XHANTED RING. 7 
 
 long and narrow face beneath is of a dry and 
 swarthy complexion. In sleep, open-mouthed, 
 the expression is rather inane ; though we 
 can readily imagine the waking face to be not 
 devoid of a certain intensity and comeliness of 
 aspect, marred, however, by an air of guarded 
 secrecy apparent even now. 
 
 We prattle of the dead past, and use to fancy 
 that peace must dwell there, if nothing else. 
 Only in the past, say we, is security from jostle, 
 danofer, and disturbance; who would live at his 
 ease must number his days backwards ; no charm 
 so potent as the years, if read from right to left. 
 Living in the past, prophecy and memory are 
 at one ; care for the future can harass no man. 
 Overboard with that Jonah — Time — and the 
 winds of fortune shall cease to buffet us! And 
 more to the same effect. 
 
 And yet it is not so. The past, if more real 
 than the future, is no less so than is the 
 present ; the pain of a broken heart or head
 
 8 IDOLATRY. 
 
 never is annihilated, but becomes part and 
 parcel of eternity. This uneasy snorer here, 
 for instance, — his earthly troubles have been 
 over long ago ; yet as our fancy sees him, he is 
 none the calmer or the happier for that. Mark 
 him how he mumbles inarticulately, and makes 
 strengthless clutchings at the blanket with his 
 long slender fingers ! 
 
 But we delay too long over the external man, 
 when our avowed business is with the internal. 
 A sleeping man is truly a helpless crea- 
 ture ! They say that if you take his hand 
 in yours, and ask him questions, he has no 
 choice than to answer — or to awake. The 
 Doctor — as we know by virtue of the prophetic 
 advantages just remarked upon — will stay asleep 
 for some hours yet. Or, if you are clairvoyant, 
 you have only to fall in a trance and lay a hand 
 on his forehead, and you may read off all his 
 thoughts — provided he do his thinking in his 
 head ! The world, however, is now-a-days
 
 THE ENCHANTED RING. 9 
 
 growing too wise to put faith in old women's 
 nonsense like this. Again, there is (or used to 
 be) a curious theory that all matter is a sort of 
 photographic plate, whereon is registered — had 
 we but eyes to read it — the complete history of 
 itself. What an invaluable pair of eyes were 
 that ! In vain, arraigned before them, would 
 the criminal deny his guilt, — the lover the soft 
 impeachment. The whole scene would stand 
 forth, photographed in fatal minuteness and 
 indelibility upon face, hands, coat-sleeve, shirt- 
 bosom. Mankind would be its own book of 
 life, written in the primal hieroglyphic char- 
 acter — the language understood by all. Vocal 
 conversation would become obsolete, — unless 
 among the few superior persons able to discuss 
 abstract ideas ! 
 
 We speak of these things only to smile at 
 them ; far be it from us to Insult our reader's 
 understanding by asking him to regard them 
 seriously. But story-tellers labour under one
 
 lO IDOLATRY. 
 
 disadvantage peculiar to the profession — the 
 necessity of omniscience. It tends to make 
 them too arbitrary — leads them to disregard the 
 modesty of nature and the harmonies of reason 
 in their methods. They will pretend to know 
 things which they could never have seen or 
 heard of, and for the truth of which they bring 
 forward no evidence : thus forcing the reader to 
 reject, as lacking proper conformation, what he 
 would else — from its inherent grace and spright- 
 liness — be happy to accept. 
 
 That we shall be free from this reproach is 
 rather our good fortune than our merit. It is 
 by favour of our stars, not by virtue of our own, 
 that we turn not aside from the plain path of 
 truth to the byeways of supernaturalism and 
 improbability. Nevertheless we find it hard to 
 refrain from a breath of self-praise ; there is a 
 proud and solid satisfaction in holding an 
 unassailable position. Could we but catch the 
 world's eye, we would meet it calmly !
 
 THE ENXHAXTED RING. 1 1 
 
 Let US hasten to introduce our talisman. 
 You may see it at this very moment, encirding 
 the third finger of Doctor Glyphic's left hand ; 
 in fact, it is neither more nor less than a quaint 
 diamond ring. The stone, though not surpris- 
 ingly large, is surpassingly pure and brilliant ; as 
 its keen delicate ray sparkles on the eye, one 
 marvels whence, in the dead of night, it got 
 together so much celestial fire ! Observe the 
 setting, — the design is unique. Two fairy 
 serpents, one golden, the other fashioned from 
 black meteoric iron, are intertwined along their 
 whole length, forming the hoop of the ring. 
 Their heads approach the diamond from 
 opposite sides, and each makes a mighty bite 
 at it with tiny jaws studded with sharp little 
 teeth. Thus their contest holds the stone 
 firmly in place. The whole forms a pretty 
 symbol of the human soul, battled for by the 
 good and evil principles. But the diamond 
 seems in its entirety to be an awkward mouth-
 
 12 IDOLATRY. 
 
 ful for either. The snakes are wrought with 
 wondrous dexterity and finish ; each separate 
 scale is distinguishable upon their glistening 
 bodies, the wrinkling of the skin in the coils, the 
 sparkling points of eyes, and the minute 
 nostrils. Such works of art are not made now- 
 a-days. The ring is an antique — a relic of an 
 age when skill was out of all proportion to 
 liberty — a very distant time ! To deserve its 
 setting, the stone must possess very exceptional 
 qualities. Let us look more closely at it. 
 
 Fortunately, its own lustre makes it visible in 
 every part ; the minuteness of our scrutiny 
 need be limited only by our eye-power. It is 
 cut with many facets — twenty-seven, if you 
 choose to count them ; perhaps (though we 
 little credit such fantasies) some mystic signific- 
 ance may be intended in this number. Con- 
 centrating now our attention upon any single 
 facet, we see — either inscribed upon its surface, 
 or showing through from the interior of the
 
 THE ENCHANTED RING. 1 3 
 
 Stone — a sort of monogram or Intricately 
 designed character, not unlike those mysterious 
 Chinese letters on tea chests. Every facet has 
 a similar figure, though no two are identical. 
 But the central — the twenty-seventh facet — 
 which is larger than the others, has an Important 
 peculiarity. We find therein concentrated and 
 commingled the other twenty-six characters, 
 which, separately unintelligible, form where 
 thus united a plain and coherent narrative — the 
 complete history, in fact, of the ring itself! 
 
 A small part of this narrative — that, namely, 
 which concerns the present owner of the ring — 
 shall forthwith be read ; the rest must be 
 silence, although (going back as It does to the 
 earliest records of the human race), many an 
 Interesting page must be skipped perforce. 
 
 The advantages to a historian of a medium 
 such as this, are too patent to need pointing 
 out. Pretension and conjecture will be avoided, 
 because unnecessary. The most trifling
 
 14 IDOLATRY. 
 
 thought or deed of any person connected with 
 this ring's history, is open to direct inspection. 
 Were there more such talismans as this, the 
 profession of authorship would become no 
 less easy than delightful, and criticism would 
 sting itself to death in despair of better prey. 
 So far as is known, however, the enchanted 
 ring is unique of its kind, and, such as it is, has 
 long since vanished from the common reach.
 
 11. 
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 
 
 But the small hours of the morning are slipping 
 away ; we must construe our hieroglyphics 
 without further palaver. The sleeper lies on 
 his side, his left hand resting beside his face 
 upon the pillow. Were he to move It ever so 
 little during our investigation, the history of 
 years might be thrown Into confusion. Never- 
 theless we shall hope to touch on the more 
 important parts, and occasionally to go into 
 details. 
 
 Concentrating our attention upon the central 
 facet, Its clear ray strikes the Imagination, and 
 forthwith transports us to a distant age and 
 clime. The air is full of lazy warmth ; a full- 
 fed river, glassing the hot blue sky, slides In 
 long curves through a low-lying, illimitable
 
 1 6 ^ IDOLATRY. 
 
 plain. The rich earth, green with mighty 
 crops, everywhere exhales upward the quiver- 
 ing heat of her breath. An indolent, dark- 
 skinned race, turbaned and scantly clothed, 
 move through the meadows, splash in the river, 
 and rest beneath the palm trees, which meet in 
 graceful clusters here and there, as if striving to 
 get beneath one another's shadow. Dirty 
 villages swarm and babble on the river s brink. 
 Were there leisure to listen, the diamond 
 could readily relate the whole history of this 
 famous valley. For the stone was fashioned 
 to its present shape while yet the thought that 
 formed the pyramids was unborn, and while the 
 limestone and granite whereof they are built, 
 lay in their silent beds, dreaming, perchance, of 
 airy days before the deluge, long ere the heated 
 vapors stiffened into stone. Some great 
 patriarch of early days, founder of a race called 
 by his name, picked up this diamond in the 
 southern desert, and gave it its present form, — •
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. I 7 
 
 perhaps breathing into it the marvellous gift 
 which it retains to this day. Who was that 
 primal man ? how sounded his voice ? were his 
 eyes terrible or mild ? — Seems, as we speak, we 
 glimpse his majestic figure, the grandeur of his 
 face, his cloudlike beard ! 
 
 He passed away, but the enchanted stone re- 
 mained, and has sparkled along the splendid 
 march of successive dynasties, and has reflected 
 men and cities which to us are nameless, or but 
 a half deciphered name. It has seen mystic 
 ceremonies of Egyptian priests, and counts their 
 boasted wisdom a twice-told tale. It has 
 watched the unceasing toil of innumerable 
 slaves, piling up through many ardent years the 
 idle tombs of kings. It has beheld vast wind- 
 ing lengths of processions darken and glitter 
 across the plain, slowly devoured by the shin- 
 ing city, or issuing from her gates like a mon- 
 strous birth. 
 
 But whither wander we ? we must confine 
 
 I. B 
 
 r5 -^
 
 1 8 IDOLATRY. 
 
 our researches to a far later epoch than the 
 Pharaohs'. Step aside, and let the old history 
 sweep past, like the turbid and eddying current 
 of the mysterious Nile: forbearing to launch 
 our skiff earlier than at the beginning of the 
 present century. 
 
 The middle of June, Eighteen Hundred and 
 Sixteen : the river is just beginning to rise, and 
 the thirsty land spreads wide her lap to receive 
 him. Some miles to the north slumbers Cairo 
 in white heat, its outline jagged with minarets 
 and bulbous domes. Southward the shaded 
 Pyramids print their everlasting outlines 
 against the tremulous distance ; old as they are, 
 it seems as though a puff of the Khamsin might 
 dissolve them away. Near at hand is a naked, 
 noisy crowd of men and boys, plunging and 
 swimming in the water, sitting and standing 
 along the bank. They are watching and dis- 
 cussing the slow approach up stream of a large 
 boat with a broad lateen sail, and a strange
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 1 9 
 
 flag fluttering at the masthead. Rumor says 
 that this boat contains a company of strangers 
 from beyond the sea, — men who do not wear 
 turbans, whose dress is close-fitting and covers 
 them from head to foot, even the legs ! They 
 come to learn wisdom and civilisation from the 
 Pyramids, and amidst the ruins of Memphis. 
 
 A hundred yards below this shouting curious 
 crowd, waist-deep in the Nile, stands a slender- 
 limbed boy about ten years old. He belongs 
 to a superior caste, and holds himself above the 
 common rabble. Being perfectly naked, a care- 
 less eye might, however, rank him with the 
 rest, were it not for the talisman which he wears 
 suspended to a fine gold chain round his neck ; 
 a curiously-designed diamond ring, the inheri- 
 tance from a long line of priestly ancestors. 
 The boy's face is certainly full of intelligence, 
 and the features are finely moulded for so young 
 a lad. 
 
 He also is watching the upward progress of
 
 20 IDOLATRY. 
 
 the lateen sail; has heard, moreover, the report 
 concerning those on board. He wonders where 
 is the country from which they come? is it the 
 land the storks fly to, of which mother (before 
 the plague carried both her and father to a still 
 stranger land) used to tell such wonderful tales ? 
 Does the world really extend far beyond the 
 valley? is the world all valley and river, with 
 now and then hills, like those away up beyond 
 Memphis? Are there other cities besides 
 Cairo and that other of which he has heard but 
 has not seen — Alexandria? Wonders why the 
 strangers should dress in tight-fitting clothes, 
 with leg-coverings, and without turbans ! Would 
 like to find out about all these things, about all 
 things knowable besides these, if any there be. 
 Would like to go back with the strangers to 
 their country when they return, and so become 
 the wisest and most powerful of his race — wiser 
 even than those fabulously-learned priestly in- 
 structors of his, who are so strict with him.
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 21 
 
 Perhaps he might find all his forefathers there, 
 and his kind mother, who used to tell him 
 stories ! 
 
 Bah! how the sun blisters down on head and 
 shoulders ! will take a swim and a dive — a short 
 swim only, not far from shore ; for was not the 
 priest telling of a boy caught by a great croco- 
 dile, only a few days ago, and never seen since ? 
 But there Is no crocodile near to-day, and be- 
 sides, will not his precious talisman keep him 
 from all harm? 
 
 The subtle Nile catches him softly In his 
 cool arms, dandles him, kisses him, flatters him, 
 wooes him imperceptibly onward. Now, he 
 is far from shore, and the multitudinous feet of 
 the current are hurrying him away. The slow 
 moving boat Is much nearer than It was a 
 minute aofo — seems to be rushlnof towards him, 
 in spite of the laziness of the Impelling breeze. 
 The boy, as j^et unconscious of his peril, now 
 glances shorewards and sees the banks wheel
 
 2 2 IDOLATRY. 
 
 past. The crowd of bathers Is already far be- 
 yond hearing-, yet, frightened and weary, he 
 wastes his remaining strength In fruitless shouts. 
 Now the deceitful eddies, lately so soft and 
 friendly, whirl him down In ruthless exultation. 
 He will never reach the shore, good swimmer 
 though he be. 
 
 Hark! what plunged from the bank, — what 
 black thing moves towards him across the 
 water? The crocodile! coming with tears In 
 eyes, and a long grin of serried teeth. Coming! — 
 the ugly scaly head is always nearer and nearer. 
 The boy screams, but who should hear him ? 
 He feels whether the talisman be yet around 
 his neck. He screams again, calling In half- 
 delirium upon his dead mother. Meanwhile, 
 the scaly snout is close upon him. . . . 
 
 A many-voiced shout close at hand, a splash- 
 ing of poles in the water, a rippling of eddies 
 against the boat's bows ! As the boy drifts by, a 
 blue-eyed, yellow-bearded viking swings himself
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 23 
 
 from the halyard, catches him, pulls him on 
 board with a jerk and a shout — safe ! The long 
 grin snaps together in vain behind him. The 
 boy lies on the deck, a vision of people with 
 leg-coverings and other oddities of costume 
 swimming before his eyes: one of them sup- 
 ports his head, and bends over him a round, 
 good-natured, spectacled face. Above, a beau- 
 tiful flag, striped and starred with white, blue, 
 and red flaps indolently against the mast. — 
 
 Precisely at this point the sleeper stirs his 
 hand slightly, but enough to throw the record 
 of several succeeding years into disorder. Here 
 and there, however, we catch imperfect glimpses 
 of the Egyptian lad, steadily growing up to be 
 a tall young man. He dresses in European 
 clothes, and lives and moves amid civilised sur- 
 roundings : Egypt, with her Pyramids, palms, 
 and river, we see no more. The priest's son 
 seems now immersed in studies ; he develops a 
 genius for music and painting, and diligently
 
 24 IDOLATRY. 
 
 Stores his mind with other than Egyptian lore. 
 With him, or never far away, we see a person 
 considerably older than the student, good-na- 
 tured, whimsical, round of head and face, and 
 insignificant of feature. Towards him does the 
 student observe the profoundest deference, bows 
 before him, and addresses him as '' Master 
 Hiero," or " Master Glyphic." Master Hiero 
 for his part calls the Egyptian " Manetho," — 
 from which we might infer the latter s descent 
 from the renowned historian of that name — but 
 will not insist upon this genealogy. As for the 
 studies, we fancy they tend towards theology ; 
 the descendant of Egyptian priests is to become 
 a Christian clergyman ! Nevertheless, he still 
 wears his talismanic ring. Does he believe it 
 saved him from the Crocodile ? does his Chris- 
 tian enlightenment not set him free from such 
 superstition ? 
 
 So much we piece together from detached 
 glimpses; but now, as the magic ray steadies
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 25 
 
 again, things become once more distinct. 
 Judging from the style and appointments of 
 Master Glyphic's house, he is a wealthy man 
 and eccentric Into the bargain. The building 
 is full of strange incongruities and discords ; 
 beauties In abundance, but Ill-harmonised. One 
 half the house is built to represent an Egyptian 
 temple, and is enriched by many spoils from the 
 Nile valley ; and here a secret chamber is set 
 apart for Manetho, — Its very existence is known 
 to no one save HIero and himself. He spends 
 much of his time here, meditating and working 
 amidst his books and papers, playing on his 
 violin, or leaning idly back In his chair, 
 watching the narrow strip of sunlight through 
 the horizontal aperture high above his head, 
 creep stealthily across the opposite wall. 
 
 But these saintly and scholarly reveries are 
 disturbed anon. HIero Glyphic, though a con- 
 firmed bachelor, has a half-sister, — a pale hand- 
 some indolent young woman, with dark hair
 
 26 IDOLATRY. 
 
 and eyes, and a rather haughty manner. Helen 
 appears, and thenceforward the household lives 
 and breathes according to her languid bidding. 
 Manetho emerges from his retirement and 
 dances reverential attendance upon her. He is 
 twenty-five years old now (Helen cannot be much 
 less), tall, slender, and far from ill-looking, with 
 his dark narrow eyes, wide brows, and tapering 
 face. His manners are gentle, subdued, in- 
 sinuating, and altogether he seems to please 
 Helen ; she condescends to him — more than 
 condescends perhaps ! Meantime — alas ! there 
 is a secret opposition in progress, embodied in 
 the shapely person of the bright-eyed gypsey of 
 a girl, whom her mistress, Helen, calls *' Sa- 
 lome." There is no question as to Salome's 
 complete subjection to the attractions of the 
 young embryo clergyman ; she pursues him 
 with eyes and heart, and seeing him at Helen's 
 side is miserably, dumbly jealous. 
 
 How will this matter end ? Manetho's de-
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 27 
 
 votlon to Helen seems unwavering, yet some- 
 times it is hard not to suspect a secret under- 
 standing between him and Salome! He has 
 ceased wearing his ring, and once we caught a 
 diamond sparkle from beneath the thick folds of 
 lace which cover Helen's bosom. But, on the 
 other hand, w^e fear his arm has been round the 
 gypsey's graceful waist ; and she has learned 
 the secret of the private chamber! Is demure 
 Manetho a flirt, or do his affections run counter 
 to his ambition ? Helen would invest him with 
 the riches of this world, but what should a 
 clergyman care for such vanities ? — while 
 Salome, to our thinking, is far the prettier, 
 livelier, and more attractive woman of the two. 
 Brother Hiero, whimsical and pre-occupied, 
 sees nothing of what is going forward. He is 
 an antiquary — an Egyptologist — and thereto 
 his soul is wedded. He has no eyes nor ears 
 for the loves of other people for one another ! 
 Provoking ! the uneasy sleeper has moved
 
 28 IDOLATRY. 
 
 again, and disorganised beyond remedy the 
 events of a whole year ! Judging from such 
 fragments as reach us, it must have comprised 
 a momentous epoch in our history. From the 
 beginning a handsome stalwart man, with a 
 great beard like a sheaf of straw, shoulders 
 upon the scene, and thenceforth becomes 
 inextricably mixed up with dark-eyed Helen. 
 We recognise in him an old acquaintance ; he 
 was aboard the lateen-sailed boat that went up 
 the Nile : it was he who swung himself from the 
 vessel's side, and pulled Manetho out of the 
 jaws of death, — a circumstance, by the way, 
 with which Manetho remained unacquainted 
 until his dying day. With this new arrival, 
 Helen's supremacy in the household ends. 
 Xhor — so they call him — involuntarily com- 
 mands her, and so her subjects. Against him, 
 the Reverend Manetho has not the ghost of a 
 chance. To his credit is it that he conceals 
 whatever emotions of disappointment or
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 29 
 
 jealousy he might be supposed to feel, and is 
 no less winning towards Thor than towards the 
 rest of the world. But is it possible that the 
 talisman still hides in Helen's bosom ? Does 
 the conflict which it symbolises beset her 
 heart ? 
 
 The enchanted mirror is still once more, and 
 a curious scene is reflected from it. A largfe 
 and lofty room, windowless, lit by flaring 
 lamps, hung at intervals round the walls. The 
 panels contain carvings, in bas-relief, of 
 Egyptian emblems and devices ; columns sur- 
 round the central space, their capitals carved 
 with the lotos flower, their bases planted amidst 
 papyrus leaves. A border of hieroglyphic 
 inscription encircles the walls, just beneath the 
 ceiling. In each corner of the room rests a red 
 granite sarcophagus, and between each pair of 
 pillars stands a mummy upright in its wooden 
 case. At that end, the furthest from the low- 
 browed doorway (guarded by two great figures
 
 30 IDOLATRY. 
 
 of Isis and Osiris, sitting impassive with hands 
 on knees), is raised an ahar of black marble, on 
 which burns some incense : the perfumed smoke, 
 wavering upwards, mingles with that of the 
 lamps beneath the high ceiling. The prevail- 
 ing colour of the place is ruddy Indian red, 
 relieved by dark blue, and black ; while brighter 
 tints show here and there. Blocks of polished 
 stone form the floor, and dimly reflect the lights. 
 In front of the altar stands a priestly figure — 
 none other than Manetho, who must have taken 
 orders — and joins in holy matrimony, yellow- 
 bearded Thor and dark-haired Helen. Master 
 Hiero, his round snub-nosed face red with fussy 
 emotion, gives the bride away ; while Salome, 
 dressed In white satin, and looking very pretty 
 and lady-like, officiates as bridesmaid — such Is 
 her mistress's whim ! She seems in even 
 better spirits than the pale bride, and her black 
 eyes scarcely wander from the minister's rapt 
 countenance.
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 3 I 
 
 But, a few hours later, when bride and groom 
 are gone, Salome (who, on some plausible pre- 
 text of her own, has been allowed to remain 
 with brother Hiero during the wedding tour) — 
 Salome appears in the secret chamber where 
 the Reverend Manetho sits with his head 
 between his hands. We will not look too 
 closely at this interview. There are words 
 fierce and tender, tears and pleadings, feverish 
 caresses, incoherent promises, distrustful bar- 
 gains, — and it is late before they part. Salome 
 passes through the great tomb-like hall, where 
 all the lamps, save one, are burnt out, and the 
 young minister remains to pursue his holy medi- 
 tations alone. — 
 
 We are too discreet to meddle with the 
 honeymoon, but passing over some eight 
 months, behold husband and wife returned to 
 plume their wings before taking the final flight. 
 Another strange scene attracts us here. 
 
 The dusk of a summer evening. Helen,
 
 32 IDOLATRY. 
 
 with a more languid step and air than before 
 marriage, saunters along a path through the 
 trees, some distance from the house. She Is 
 clad In loose-flowing drapery, and has thrown a 
 white shawl over her head and shoulders. 
 Reaching a bench of rustic woodwork, she 
 droops weariedly down upon It. 
 
 Manetho comes out all at once and stands 
 before her — seems to have darkened together 
 from the shadow of the surrounding trees. 
 Perhaps a little startled at his so abrupt appear- 
 ance, she opens her eyes with an enquiring 
 haughtiness ; but at the same time the light 
 pressure of the enchanted ring against her 
 bosom feels like a dull sting, and her heart 
 beats uncomfortably. He begins to speak in 
 his usual tone of softest deference ; he sits 
 down by her ; and now she Is paler, — glances 
 anxiously up the path for her delaying 
 husband, — and the hand that lifts her handker- 
 chief to her lips, trembles a little. Is It at his
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 33 
 
 words ? or at their tone ? or at what she sees 
 lurking behind his dusky eyes — curdhng 
 beneath his thin dark skin — quivering down to 
 the tips of his slender fingers ? 
 
 All in a moment he bursts forth — without 
 warning — without restraint — the fire of the 
 Egyptian sun boiling in his blood and blazing 
 in his passion. He seizes her soft white 
 wrist, — then her waist ! presses against his her 
 bosom — what a throbbing ! her cheek to his — 
 how aghast ! He pours hot words in torrents 
 into her ears — all that his fretting heart has 
 hoarded up and brooded over for months and 
 years ! — all — sparing her not a thought — not a 
 passionate word ! She tries to repel him — to 
 escape — to scream for help ; but he looks down 
 her eyes with his own, holds her fast, and she 
 gasps for breath. So does the serpent coil 
 about the dove, and stamps his image upon her 
 bewildered brain. 
 
 Verily, the Reverend Manetho has much
 
 34 IDOLATRY. 
 
 forgotten himself! The Issue might have been 
 disastrous, had not Helen at a critical moment 
 lost consciousness, and fallen a dead weight in 
 his arms. He laid her gently on the bench, 
 fumbled for a moment In the bosom of her 
 dress, and drew forth the diamond ring. 
 Just then Is heard the solid step of Thor, 
 striding and whistling down the path. Man- 
 etho snaps the golden chain and vanishes 
 with his talisman ; and he Is the first 
 to appear, full of sympathy and concern, 
 when the distracted husband shouts for 
 help. 
 
 Next morning, two little struggling human 
 beings are blinking and crying in a darkened 
 room, and there is no mother to give them 
 milk and cherish them In her bosom. The 
 father sits, almost as cold and still as that form 
 which was his wife. To the last, she had not 
 spoken to him, or seemed to know him. He 
 will never learn the truth ; Manetho comes and
 
 OUT OF EGYPT. 35 
 
 goes, and reads the burial service, unsuspected 
 and unpunished. But Salome follows him 
 away from the grave, and some words pass 
 between them. The man is no longer what he 
 was. He turns suddenly upon her and strikes 
 out with savage force ; the diamond on his 
 finger bites into the flesh of the gipsey's breast 
 — she will carry the scar of that brutal blow as 
 long as she lives. So he drove his only lover 
 away, and looked upon her bright handsome 
 face no more. 
 
 Here Doctor Glyphic (or whoever this sleeping 
 man may be) turns heavily upon his face, draw- 
 ing his hand, with the blood-stained ring on its 
 finger, out of sight. We are glad to leave him 
 to his bad dreams ; the air oppresses us ; come ! 
 *tis time to go. The eastern horizon bows 
 before the sun, the air colours delicate pink, 
 and the very tombstones in the graveyard 
 blush for sympathy. The sparrows have been 
 awake for an hour past ; and up aloft the clouds;
 
 36 IDOLATRY. 
 
 which wander ceaselessly over the face of the 
 earth, alighting only on lonely mountain tops, 
 are tinted into rainbow-quarries by the glorious 
 spectacle.
 
 III. 
 
 A MAY MORNING. 
 
 King Arthur, in his Bohemian days, carried 
 an adamantine shield, the gift of some fairy- 
 relative ; not only was it impenetrable, but so 
 intolerable was its lustre, it overthrew all foes 
 before the lance's point could reach them. 
 Observing this, the chivalric monarch had a 
 cover made for it, which he never removed save 
 in the face of superhuman odds. 
 
 Here is an analogy. The imaginative reader 
 may regard our enchanted facet mirror as too 
 glaringly simple and direct a source of facts to 
 suit the needs of a professed romance. Be 
 there left — he would say — some room for fancy 
 and even for conjecture : let the author seem 
 occasionally to consult with his companion — 
 gracefully to defer to his judgment. Bare state-
 
 ^S IDOLATRY. 
 
 ment — the parade of indisputable evidence — Is 
 well enough In law, but appears ungentle in a 
 work of fiction. 
 
 How just is this mild censure ! how gladly 
 are its demands conceded ! Let dogmatism 
 retire, and blossom, flowers of fancy, on your 
 yielding stems ! Henceforward the reader is 
 our confidential counsellor. We will pretend 
 that our means of Information are no better 
 than other writers'. We will uniformly revel 
 in speculation, and dally with imaginative de- 
 lights. And only when hard-pressed for the 
 true path will we snatch off the veil, and let 
 forth, for a moment, a redeeming ray. 
 
 In this generous mood we pass through the 
 partition between 27 and 29. In the matter of 
 bedchambers — even hotel bedchambers — there 
 can be great diversity. The one we were in 
 just now was close and unwholesome, and wore 
 an air of feverishness and disorder. Here, on 
 the contrary, the air is fresh and brisk, for the
 
 A MAY MORNING. 39 
 
 breeze from Boston harbour (slightly flavoured, 
 it Is true, by Its journey across the northern 
 part of the city) has been blowing Into the room 
 all night long. Here are trunks and carpet 
 bags, well be-pasted with the names of foreign 
 towns and countries, famous and infamous. One 
 of the trunks Is a bathing-tub, fitted with a 
 cover, — an agreeable promise of refreshment 
 amidst the dust and weariness of travel. A 
 Russia-leather travelling-bag lies open on the 
 table, disgorging an abundant armament of 
 brushes and combs, and various toilet niceties. 
 Mr Helwyse must be a dandy ! 
 
 Cheek by jowl with the haversack lies a 
 cylindrical case of the same kind of leather, 
 with a strap attached to it, to sling over the 
 shoulder. This perhaps contains a telescope. 
 It would not be worth mentioning, save that 
 our prophetic vision sees it coming into use 
 by and by. Not to analyse too closely, every- 
 thing in this room speaks of life, health, and
 
 40 IDOLATRY. 
 
 movement. In spite of smallness, bareness and 
 angularity, It Is fit for a May morning to enter 
 in it, and expand to full-grown day. 
 
 It is now about half-past four, and the crisp 
 new sunshine, just above ground, has clambered 
 over the window-slll, taken a flying leap across 
 the narrow floor, and Is chuckling full in the 
 agreeable face asleep upon the pillow. The 
 face — feeling the warmth, and conscious through 
 its closed eyelids of the light, presently stretches 
 its eyebrows : then blinks : and finally yawns — 
 Ah-h ! — Thirty-two even white teeth In perfect 
 order : a great red healthy tongue, and a round 
 mellow roar, the parting remonstrance of the 
 sleepy god, taking flight for the day. There- 
 upon a voice, fetched from some profounder 
 source than the back of the head : — 
 
 " Stew-ard ! bring me my — Oh ! a land-lubber 
 again, am I ! " 
 
 Mr Balder Helwyse now sits up in bed, his 
 hair and beard (which are amazingly long and
 
 A MAY MORNING. 4 1 
 
 luxuriant, and will be treated at greater length 
 hereafter) his hair and beard in the wildest con- 
 fusion. He stares about him with a pair of 
 well-opened dark eyes, which contrast strangely 
 with his fair northern complexion. Next comes 
 a spasmodic stretching of arms and legs, a 
 whisking of bed-clothes, and the solid thump 
 of two feet upon the floor. Another survey of 
 the room, ending with a deep breathing-in of 
 the fresh air, and an appreciative smacking of 
 the lips. 
 
 '' O nose, eyes, ears, — all my godlike senses 
 and faculties ! what a sensation is this of mother 
 earth at sunrise. Better, seems to me, than 
 ocean, beloved of my Scandinavian forefathers. 
 Hear those birds ! look at those divine trees,— 
 the tall moist grass growing round them ! By 
 my head ! living is a glorious business. What, 
 ho ! slave, empty me here yon bath-tub, and 
 then ring the bell ! " 
 
 The slave (a handsome handy fellow, unusu-
 
 42 IDOLATRY. 
 
 ally docile, inseparable from his master, whose 
 life-long bondsman he was, and so much like 
 him in many ways — owing perhaps to the inti- 
 macy always subsisting between the two — that 
 he had more than once been confounded with 
 him) — this obedient menial — 
 
 No ! not even for a moment will we mislead 
 our reader. Are we not sworn confidants ! 
 What is he to think, then, of this abrupt intro- 
 duction, unheralded, unexplained ! Be it at 
 once confessed that Mr Helwyse travelled alone 
 and unattended — that there was no slave or 
 other person of any kind in the room — and that 
 this high-sounding order of his was a mere 
 ebullition of his peculiar humour. 
 
 He was a philosopher, and was in the habit 
 of making many of his tenets minister to his 
 amusement, when in his more sportive and 
 genial moods. Not to exhaust his characteristics 
 too early, it need only be observed here, that 
 he held body and soul to be distinct, and so far
 
 A MAY MORNING. 43 
 
 antagonistic that one or other must be master ; 
 furthermore, that the soul's was the more desir- 
 able supremacy. Whether it were also invari- 
 able and uncontested, there will be opportunity 
 of finding out later. Meantime, this dual con- 
 dition was productive of not a little harmless 
 entertainment to Mr Helwyse, at times when 
 persons less happily constituted would have be- 
 come victims of listlessness. Be the conditions 
 what they might, he was never without a com- 
 panion whose ways he knew, and whom he was 
 yet never weary of questioning and studying. 
 No subject so dull that its different aspects, as 
 viewed from soul and from body, would not 
 give it piquancy. No question so trivial that 
 its discussion on material and on spiritual 
 grounds would not lend it importance. Nor 
 was any enjoyment so keen, or sorrow so poig- 
 nant, as not to be enhanced by the contrast of 
 its physical with its spiritual phase. 
 
 Awaking, therefore, on this May morning,
 
 44 IDOLATRY. 
 
 and being in a charming humour, this young 
 man chose to look upon himself as the pro- 
 prietor of a body-servant, and gave his orders 
 with patrician imperiousness. The obedient 
 menial then — to resume the thread — sprang at 
 the throat of the tub-trunk, whipped off the lid, 
 and discharged the contents upon the bed in a 
 twinkling. This done, he stepped to the bell- 
 rope, and lent It a vigorous jerk, soon answered 
 by a brisk tapping at the door. 
 
 " Please, sir, did you ring ? 
 
 " Indeed, I did, my dear ! are you the pretty 
 chambermaid ? " 
 
 This bold venture is met by silence, modified 
 only by a low delighted giggle. Presently — 
 ** Did you want anything, sir, please ? " 
 
 " Ever so many things, my girl, — more than 
 my life is long enough to tell ! First, though, 
 I want to apologise to you for addressing you 
 from behind a closed door ; but circumstances 
 which are neither to be explained nor overcome
 
 A MAY MORNING. 45 
 
 forbid my opening it. Next, two palls full of 
 the best cold water at your earliest convenience. 
 Quick now — there's a Hebe ! " 
 
 *' Very good, sir ! " giggles Hebe, retreating 
 down the passage. 
 
 It Is to be supposed that It was the plebeian 
 body-servant who carried on this unldeal con- 
 versation, and that the patrician soul had 
 nothing to do with It. The ability to lay the 
 burden of lapses from good taste and from 
 other goods upon the shoulders of the flesh, is 
 sometimes convenient and comforting. 
 
 Balder Helwyse, master and man, turns 
 away from the door, and In so doing, catches 
 sight of a white-robed, hairy-headed spectre in 
 the looking-glass, the phantom face of which 
 at once expands In a genial expression of mirth ; 
 an impalpable arm Is stretched forth, and the 
 mouth seems thus to speak : 
 
 " Stick to your bath, my good fellow, and the 
 evil things of this life shall not get hold of you !
 
 46 IDOLATRY. 
 
 Water Is like truth, — purifying, transparent, — 
 tonic to those fouled and wearied with the dust 
 and vanity of this transitional phenomenon 
 called the world. Patronise It ! be thy acquaint- 
 ance with it constant and familiar ! Remember, 
 my dear Balder, that this slave of thine is the 
 medium through which something better than 
 he (thyself namely), is filtered to the world, and 
 the world to thee. Go to then ! if the filter be 
 foul, shall not that which is filtered become 
 unclean also ? " 
 
 Here the rhetorical phantom was Interrupted 
 by the sound of a very good violin, touched 
 with unusual skill, In the next room. The 
 phantom vanished, but Mr Helwyse seated 
 himself softly upon the bed, listening with full 
 enjoyment to every note, his very toes seeming 
 to partake of his appreciation. Music Is the 
 mysterious power which makes body and soul 
 — master and man — thrill as one string. The 
 musician played several bars, beautiful In them-
 
 A MAY MORNING. 47 
 
 selves but unconnected, and ever and anon 
 there sounded a discordant note, like a smirch 
 upon a fair picture. The execution, however, 
 showed a master hand, and the themes betrayed 
 the soul of a true musician, albeit tainted with 
 some subtle deformity. 
 
 " Heard him last night, and fell asleep dream- 
 ing of a man with the brain of a devil and an 
 angel's heart ! Will drop In on him presently 
 and have him down to breakfast. If young, 
 shall be our brother — so long as there's any- 
 thing in him. If — as I partly suspect — old, 
 and a father — marry his daughter. But no — 
 such a fiddler as he cannot be married, unless 
 unhappily." Mr Helwyse runs his hands 
 dreamily through his tangled mane, and shakes 
 it back. If philosophical, he seems also to be 
 romantic and imaginative, and impressionable 
 by other personalities. It is unfair, to be sure, 
 to judge a man from the testimony of such 
 unconsidered words as he may let fall during
 
 48 IDOLATRY. 
 
 the first half hour after waking up in the morn- 
 ing : otherwise we should infer that though he 
 might take a genuine interest in whomever he 
 meets, it would be too analytical to last long, 
 except where the vein was a very rich one. 
 He would pick the kernel out of the nut, but, 
 that done, would feel no sentimental interest in 
 the shell. Too much of this ; and yet who can 
 help drawing conclusions (and not always 
 incorrectly) from the first sight and sound of a 
 new acquaintance ? 
 
 There is a knock at the door, and Mr 
 Helwyse calls out, " hullo ? Ah ! the cold 
 water, emblem of truth. Thank you, Hebe! 
 and scamper away as fast as you can, for I'm 
 going to open the door ! " 
 
 We also will retire, fastidious reader, and 
 employ the leisure interval in packing an 
 imaginary portmanteau for a short journey. 
 The main business during the next few days is 
 with Mr Helwyse, and since there will be no
 
 A MAY MORNING. 49 
 
 telling what becomes of him after that, he must 
 be followed up pretty closely. A few days 
 does not seem much for getting a satisfactory 
 knowledge of a man ; nevertheless an hour 
 rightly used may be ample. If he will continue 
 his habit of thinking aloud, will affect situations 
 tending to bring out his leading traits of char- 
 acter ; if we may intrude upon him, note-book 
 in hand, in all his moods and crises ; — with all 
 this in addition to discretionary use of the 
 magic mirror — it will be our own fault if Mr 
 Helwyse be not turned inside out ! Properly 
 speaking, there is no mystery about men, but 
 only a great dullness and lethargy in our percep- 
 tions of them. The secret of the universe is no 
 more a secret than is the answer to a school-boy's 
 problem. A mathematician will draw you a tri- 
 angle and a circle, and show you the trigonometri- 
 cal science latent therein. But a profounder mathe- 
 matician would do as much with the equation man I 
 While Mr Helwyse is still lingering over the 
 
 I. D
 
 50 IDOLATRY. 
 
 elaboration of his toilet, his neighbour, the 
 fiddler, whom he had meant to ask to breakfast, 
 comes out of his room, violin-box in hand, and 
 is off down stairs. An odd-looking figure ! 
 those stylish clothes become him as little as 
 they would a long-limbed angular Egyptian 
 statue. Fashion is in some men an eccentricity, 
 or rather a violence done to their essential selves. 
 A born fop would have looked as little at home in 
 a toga and sandals, as did this swarthy musician, 
 doctor, priest, or whatever he was, in his fashion- 
 able costume. Then why did he wear it ? 
 
 There are other things to be followed up 
 before attending to that question. But the 
 man is gone, and Balder Helwyse has missed 
 the opportunity of making his acquaintance. 
 Had he been an hour earlier — had any one of 
 us for that matter been an hour earlier or later ! 
 who can tell how the destinies of the world 
 would be affected ? Luckily for our peace of 
 mind the hypothesis involves an impossibility.
 
 IV. 
 
 A BRAHMAN. 
 
 Whoever has been In Boston remembers or 
 has seen the old Beacon Hill Bank, which 
 stood — not on Beacon Hill indeed — but in that 
 part of School Street now occupied by the great 
 City Hall. You passed down by the dirty 
 old church on the north-east corner of School 
 and Tremont Streets, which stands trying to 
 hide its ugly face behind a row of columns like 
 sooty fingers, and whose School Street side is 
 quite bare and has the distracted appearance 
 peculiar to buildings erected on an incline : — 
 passing this, you came in sight of the Bank, a 
 darksome respectable edifice of brick, two-and- 
 a-half stories high and gambrel-roofed. It 
 stood a little back from the street, much as an 
 antiquated aristocrat might withdraw himself
 
 52 IDOLATRY. 
 
 from the stream of modern life and fancy him- 
 self exclusive. The poor old Bank ! Its re- 
 spectable brick walls have contributed a few 
 rubbish heaps to the new land In Back-bay, per- 
 haps ; and Its floors and gambrel-roof have long 
 since vanished up somebody's chimney ; only 
 its money — Its baser part, — still survives and 
 circulates ! Aristocracy and exclusivism do not 
 pay now. 
 
 The Bank, perhaps, took Its title from the 
 fact that It owed Its chief support to the old 
 Beacon Hill families — Boston's aristocracy: 
 and Boston's standard names appeared on Its 
 list of managers. If business led you that 
 way, you mounted the well-worn steps and en- 
 tered the rather strict and formal door, over 
 which clung the weather-worn sign — faded gold 
 lettering on a rusty black back-ground. No- 
 thing that met your eyes looked new, although 
 everything was scrupulously neat. Opposite 
 the doorway a flight of wooden stairs mounted
 
 A BRAHMAN. 53 
 
 to the next floor, where were the musty offices 
 of some old Puritan lawyers. Leaving the 
 stairs on your left, you passed down a dusky 
 passage, and through a glass door : when be- 
 hold ! the banking-room with its four grave 
 bald-headed clerks. But you came not to draw 
 or deposit, your business was with the Presi- 
 dent. '' Mr MacGentle in ? " " That way, 
 sir.*' You opened a door with " Private " 
 painted in black letters upon the ground-glass 
 panel. Another bald-headed gentleman, with a 
 grim determination about the mouth, rose up 
 from his table and barred your way. This was 
 Mr Dyke, the breakwater against which the 
 waves of would-be intruders into the inner se- 
 clusion, often broke themselves in vain; unless 
 you had a genuine pass, your expedition ended 
 there. 
 
 Our pass (for we, too, are to call on Mr Mac- 
 Gentle) would carry us through solider obstruc- 
 tions than Mr Dyke; it is the pass of imagina-
 
 54 IDOLATRY. 
 
 tlon. He does not so much as raise his head as 
 we brush by him. 
 
 But first let us inquire who (besides President 
 of the Beacon Hill Bank) this Mr MacGentle 
 is. He is a man of cultivation and refinement, 
 a scholar and a reader : he has travelled, and it 
 is said can handle a pen to better purpose than 
 the signing bank-notes. In his earlier years he 
 studied Law, and gained a certain degree of dis- 
 tinction in the profession ; although (owing per- 
 haps to his having entered it with too ideal and 
 high-strung views as to its nature and scope) he 
 never met with what is vulgarly called success. 
 Luckily for the ideal barrister, an ample pri- 
 vate estate made him independent of profes- 
 sional earnings. Later in life he trod the con- 
 fines of politics, still, however, enveloping him- 
 self in that theoretical, unpractical atmosphere 
 which was his most marked, and to some peo- 
 ple most incomprehensible characteristic. A 
 certain mild halo of statesmanship ever after
 
 A BRAHMAN. 55 
 
 invested him; not that he had at any time 
 actually borne a share In the government of the 
 nation, but It was understood that he might have 
 done so had he so chosen, or had his political 
 principles been tough and elastic enough to en- 
 dure the wear and strain of action. As It was, 
 some of the most renowned men In the Senate 
 were known to have been his intimates at Col- 
 lege, and he still met and conversed with them 
 on terms of equality. 
 
 Between law, literature and statesmanship, in 
 all which pursuits he had acquired respect and 
 goodwill without actually accomplishing any- 
 thing, — Mr MacGentle seated himself, no one 
 knew exactly why, in the presidential chair of 
 the Beacon Hill Bank. No sooner was he 
 there than everybody saw that there he be- 
 longed. His social position, his culture, his 
 honourable, albeit Intangible, record, suited the 
 old Bank well. He had an air of subdued wis- 
 dom, and people were fond of appealing to his
 
 56 IDOLATRY. 
 
 judgment and asking his advice — perhaps be- 
 cause he never seemed to expect them to follow 
 it when given (as indeed they seldom did). 
 The Board of Directors looked up to him, de- 
 ferred to him, nay, believed him to be as neces- 
 sary to the Bank's existence as the entire aggre- 
 gate of its supporters. But neither the Board 
 nor, what was more remarkable, the President 
 himself, ever dreamed of adopting Mr MacGen- 
 tle's financial theories, in the conduct of the 
 banking business. 
 
 Let no one hastily infer that the accomplished 
 gentleman of whom we speak was in any sense 
 a sham. No one could be more true to himself 
 and to his professions. Biit, if we may hazard 
 a conjecture, he never breathed the air that 
 other men breathed ; another sun than ours 
 shone for him ; the world that answered to his 
 senses was not our world. His life, in short, 
 was not human life, yet, so closely like it that 
 the two might be said to correspond as a face
 
 A BRAHMAN. 5 7 
 
 to Its reflection In the mirror : actual contact 
 being In both cases ahke impossible. No doubt 
 the world and he knew of the barrier between 
 them, though neither said so. The former, 
 with its usual happy temperament, was little 
 affected by the separation, smiled good-natured- 
 ly upon the latter, and never troubled itself 
 about the difficulties in the way of shaking 
 hands. But Mr MacGentle, being only a 
 single individual, perhaps felt lonely and sad. 
 Either he was a ghost, or the world was. In 
 youth he may have believed himself to be the 
 only real flesh and blood ; but In later years 
 the terrible weight of the world's majority 
 against him forced him to the opposite conclu- 
 sion. And here at last were he and the world 
 at one! 
 
 Suppose, instead of listening to a description 
 of this good old gentleman's person, we take a 
 look at him with our own eys ? There Is no 
 danger of disturbing him, however busy he may
 
 58 IDOLATRY. 
 
 be. The Inner retreat is very small, and as 
 neat as though an old maid lived in it. The 
 furniture looks as good as new, but is subdued 
 to a tone of sober maturity, and chimes in so 
 well with the general effect that one scarcely 
 notices it. The polished table is mounted in 
 dark morocco ; behind the horse-halr-covered 
 arm-chair is a grey marble mantel-piece, over- 
 shadowing an open grate with polished bars and 
 fire utensils in the English style. During the 
 winter months a lump of Cannel coal is always 
 burning there ; but the flame, even on the coldest 
 days, is too much on its good behaviour to give 
 out a very decided heat. Over the mantel- 
 piece hangs a crayon copy of Correggio's Read- 
 ing Magdalene, the only touch of sentiment in 
 the room, and that perhaps accidental ! 
 
 The concrete nature of the President's sur- 
 roundings is at first perplexing, in view of our 
 theory about his character. But it must be 
 evident that the world could never provide him
 
 A BRAHMAN. 59 
 
 with furniture corresponding to the texture of 
 his mind ; and hence he would instinctively lay- 
 hold of whatever w^as most common-place and 
 non-committal. If he could realise nothing 
 outside himself, he might at least remove what- 
 ever would distract him from inward contempla- 
 tion. There is, however, one article in this little 
 room w^hich we must not omit to notice. It is a 
 looking-glass, and it hangs — of all places In the 
 world — uQ-ht over Mr MacGentle's standinof 
 desk, In the embrasure of the window. As 
 often as he looks up he beholds the reflection of 
 his cultured and sad-lined physiognomy, with a 
 glimpse of dusky wall beyond. Is he a vain 
 man .'^ His worst enemy (had he one) would 
 not call him that. Nevertheless, Mr Mac- 
 Gentle takes a pathetic comfort in this small 
 mirror. No one, not even himself, could tell 
 wherefore ; but we fancy it to be like that an 
 exile feels in seeing a picture of his birth-place, 
 or hearing a strain of his native music. The
 
 60 IDOLATRY. 
 
 mirror shows him something more real, to his 
 sense, than Is anything outside of It ! 
 
 And there stands the old gentleman writing 
 at this desk in the window. All men, it has 
 been said, bear more or less resemblance to 
 some animal : Mr MacGentle, tall and rather 
 slender, with a slight stoop, and a black broad- 
 cloth frock-coat buttoned closely round his 
 waist, — brings to mind a refined grandfatherly 
 greyhound upon Its hind legs. He has thick 
 white hair, with a gentle curl In it, growing all 
 over his finely-moulded head. He is close- 
 shaven ; his mouth and nose are chiselled with 
 great delicacy ; his eyes, now somewhat faded, 
 yet show an occasional reminiscence of youthful 
 fire. The eyebrows are habitually lifted — a 
 result possibly of the growing infirmity of Mr 
 MacGentle's vision ; but It produces an expression 
 of half-plaintive resignation, which Is rendered 
 pathetic by the wrinkles across the forehead and 
 the dejected lines about the delicate mouth.
 
 A BRAHMAN. 6 1 
 
 He Is dressed with faultless nicety and 
 eleofance, thou^^h In a fashion now out of date. 
 Perhaps, In graceful recognition of the advance 
 of age, he has adhered to the style In vogue 
 when age first began to weigh upon his 
 shoulders. He gazes mildly out from the 
 embrasure of an upright collar and tall stock ; 
 below spreads a wide expanse of spotless shirt- 
 front. His trousers are always grey, except In 
 the height of summer, when they become snowy 
 white. They are uniformly too long, yet he 
 never dispenses with straps, nor with the 
 gaiters that crown his gentlemanly shoes. 
 
 Although not a stimulating companion, one 
 loves to be where Amos MacGentle Is, — to 
 watch his quiet movements and listen to his 
 meditative talk. What he says often bears the 
 stamp of thought and Intellectual capacity, 
 and at first, strikes the listener as rare good 
 sense. Yet, If reconsidered afterwards, or 
 applied to the practical tests of life, his wisdom.
 
 62 IDOLATRY. 
 
 is apt to fall mysteriously short! Is Mr Mac- 
 Gentle aware of this curious fact ? There is 
 sometimes a sadly humorous curving of the 
 lips and glimmering in the eyes, after he has 
 uttered something especially profound, which 
 almost warrants the supposition. The lack of 
 accord between the old gentleman and the world 
 has become to him, at last, a grave sort of jest! 
 But we might continue forever touching the 
 elusive chords of Mr MacGentle's being ; one 
 cannot help loving him, or if he be not real 
 enough to love, bestowing upon him such 
 affection as is inspired by some gentle 
 symphony. Unfortunately, he figures but little 
 in the coming pages, and in no active part ; 
 such, indeed, were unsuited to him. But it is 
 pleasant to have passed through his retired 
 little office on our way to scenes less quiet and 
 subdued ; and we would gladly look forward to 
 seeinor him once more, when the heat of the 
 day is over and the sun has gone down.
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE. 
 
 About an hour before noon on this same 2 7th 
 of May, Mr Dyke heard a voice In the outer 
 room. He had held his position as confidential 
 clerk in the house for nearly, or quite twenty- 
 five years, was blessed with a sound memory, 
 and was fond of saying that he never forgot a 
 face or a voice. So, as this voice from the 
 outer room reached his ears, he turned up one 
 eye towards the door, and muttered, 
 " Heard that before, somewhere ! " 
 The ground-glass panel darkened, and the 
 door was thrown wide open. Upon the 
 threshold stood a young man, about six feet in 
 height, of figure more graceful and harmonious 
 than massive. A black velveteen jacket fitted 
 closely to his shape ; he wore a Tyrolese hat ;
 
 64 IDOLATRY. 
 
 his boots, of fine pliant leather, reached above, 
 the knee. He carried a stout cane with a 
 handle of chamois horn : to a couple of straps 
 crossing each shoulder, were attached a travel- 
 ling-bag and a telescope case. 
 
 But neither his attire, nor the unusual size 
 and dark brilliancy of his eyes, was so notice- 
 able as his hair and beard, which outgrew the 
 bounds of ordinary experience. Beards, to be 
 sure, were far more rare twenty years ago than 
 they have since become. The hair was yellow, 
 with the true hyacinthine curl pervading it. 
 Rejoicing in luxuriant might, it clothed and 
 reclothed the head, and descending lower, 
 tumbled itself In bold masses on the young 
 man's shoulders. As for the beard, it was 
 well in keeping ; of a purer yellow than the 
 hair. It twisted down in crisp vigorous waves 
 below the point marked by mankind's third 
 shirt-stud. It was more than half as broad as 
 it was long, and lay to the right and left from
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE. 65 
 
 the centre-line of the face. The owner of this 
 oriflamme resembled a young Scandinavian god. 
 There seems to be a deeper significance in 
 hair than meets the eye ! Sons of Esau, whose 
 beards grow high up on their cheek bones — who 
 are hairy down to their ankles, and to the second 
 joints of their fingers, — are generally men of a 
 kindly and charitable nature, strong in what wc 
 call the human element. You remember 
 their stout hand-grip ; they look frankly in your 
 face ; and the heart is apt to go out to them, 
 more spontaneously than to the smooth-faced 
 Jacobs. Such a man was Samson, whose hair 
 was his strength — the strength of inborn truth 
 and goodness, whereby he was enabled to 
 smite the lying Philistines. And though once 
 by their sophistries they managed to get the 
 better of him for a while, they forgot that good 
 inborn is too vigorous a matter for any mere 
 razor finally to subdue. See, again, what a 
 great beard Saint Paul had, and what an
 
 66 IDOLATRY. 
 
 outspoken vigorous heart ! Was it from freak 
 that Greeks and Easterns reverenced beards as 
 symbols of manhood, dignity, and wisdom ? or 
 that Christian fathers thundered against the 
 barber as a violater of divine law ? No one 
 surely could accuse that handy, oily, easy little 
 personage of evil intent ; but he symbolised the 
 subtle principle which pares away the natural 
 virtue of man, and substitutes an artificial 
 polish which is hypocrisy ! It is to be observed, 
 however, that hair can be representative of 
 natural evil as well as of good. A tangle- 
 headed bushranger does not win our 
 sympathies. A Mussulman keeps his beard 
 religiously clean. 
 
 Meanwhile the yellow-haired Scandinavian, 
 whom we have already laid under the imputa- 
 tion of being a dandy, stood on the threshold 
 of Mr Dyke's office, and that gentleman con- 
 fronted him with a singularly inquisitive stare. 
 The visitor's face was a striking one, but can
 
 A NEW MAX WITH AN OLD FACE. 67 
 
 be described at present only in general terms. 
 He might not be called handsome, yet a very 
 handsome man would be apt to appear insig- 
 nificant beside him. His features showed 
 strength, and were at the same time cleanly and 
 finely cut. There was freedom in the arch of 
 his eyebrows, and plenty of eyeroom beneath 
 them. 
 
 He took off his hat to Mr Dyke, and smiled 
 upon him with artless superiority, insomuch 
 that the elderly clerk's sixty years were discon- 
 certed, and the cerberus seemed to dwindle 
 into the bumpkin ! This young fellow, a good 
 deal less than half Mr Dyke's age, was yet a 
 far older man of the world than he. Not that 
 his appearance suggested the kind of maturity 
 which results from abnormal or distorted de- 
 velopment ; on the contrary, he was thoroughly 
 genial and healthful. But that power and 
 assurance of eye and lip, generally bought only 
 at the price of many years buffetlngs given and
 
 68 IDOLATRY. 
 
 taken, were here wedded to the first flush and 
 vigour of young manhood. 
 
 '* My name Is Helwyse ; I have come from 
 Europe to see Mr Amos MacGentle," said the 
 visitor courteously. 
 
 '' Helwyse— Hel— ! " repeated Mr Dyke, 
 having seemingly quite forgotten himself. His 
 customary manner to strangers implied that he 
 knew, better than they did, who they were, and 
 what they wanted ; and that what he knew was 
 not much to their credit. But he could only 
 open his mouth and stare at this Helwyse. 
 
 '' Mr MacGentle is an old friend ; run In and 
 tell him I'm here, and you will see." The 
 young man put his hand kindly on the elderly 
 clerk's shoulder, much as though the latter were 
 a gaping schoolboy, and directed him gently 
 towards the Inner door. 
 
 Mr Dyke recovered his voice by an effort, 
 though still lacking complete self-command. 
 " I beg your pardon, Mr Helwyse, Sir, — of
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE. 69 
 
 course, of course — it didn't seem possible — so 
 long, you know — but I remembered the voice, 
 and the face, and the name — I never forget — 
 but, by George ! Sir, can you really be ? " 
 
 ** I see you have a good memory ; you're 
 Dyke, aren't you ? " and Helwyse threw back 
 his head and laughed, at the clerk's bewildered 
 face perhaps. At all events, the latter laughed 
 too, and they both shook hands cordially. 
 
 " Beg pardon again, Mr Helwyse, Sir — will 
 speak to the President," said the subdued 
 breakwater, and stepped into the sanctuary of 
 sanctuaries. 
 
 Mr MacGentle was taking a nap. He was 
 seventy years old, and dropped asleep easily. 
 When he slept, however lightly and briefly, he 
 was pretty ^sure to dream ; and, if awakened 
 suddenly, his dream would often prolong itself 
 and mingle with passing events, which would 
 themselves put on the semblance of unreality. 
 On the present occasion, the sound of Helwyse's
 
 70 IDOLATRY. 
 
 voice had probably crept through the door and 
 insinuated itself into his dreaming brain. 
 
 Mr Dyke was too much flustered to remark 
 the President's condition. Putting his mouth 
 close to the old gentleman's ear, he said in an 
 emphatic and penetrating undertone, — ■ 
 
 " Here's your old friend Helwyse, who died 
 in Europe two years ago, come back again, 
 yoicnger tha7i ever ! " 
 
 If the confidential clerk expected his supe- 
 rior to echo his own bewilderment, he was 
 disappointed. Amos MacGentle unclosed 
 his eyes, looked up, and answered rather 
 peevishly, — 
 
 " What nonsense are you talking about his 
 dying in Europe, Mr Dyke .^ He hasn't been 
 in Europe these six years. I was expecting 
 him ! Let him enter at once." 
 
 But he was already there ; and Mr Dyke 
 stepped out with consternation written upon 
 his solid features. Mr MacGentle found him-
 
 A NEW MAX WITH AX OLD FACE. 7 
 
 self with his thin old hand in the young man's 
 warm grasp. 
 
 " Helwyse, how do you do ? — how do you do ? 
 Ah ! you look as well as ever. I was just 
 thinking about you. Sit down — sit down ! " 
 
 The old President's voice had a strain of 
 melancholy in it, partly the result of chronic 
 asthma, and partly, no doubt of a melancholic 
 temperament. This strain being constant, had 
 sometimes a curiously incongruous effect as 
 contrasted with the subject or circumstances in 
 hand. Whether hailing the dawn of the mil- 
 lennium, holding playful converse with a child, 
 making an address to the Board, — under what- 
 ever rhetorical conditions, Mr MacGentle's in- 
 tonation was always pitched in the same mur- 
 murous and somewhat plaintive key. ^Moreover, 
 a corresponding immobility of facial expression 
 had grown upon him, so that altogether, though 
 he was the most sympathetic and sensitive of 
 men, a superficial observer might take him to
 
 72 IDOLATRY. 
 
 be lacking In the common feelings and Impulses 
 of humanity. 
 
 Perhaps the Incongruity alluded to had not 
 altogether escaped his own notice, and since 
 discord of any kind pained him, he had mended 
 the matter as best he could, by surrendering 
 himself entirely to his mournful voice ! — allow- 
 ing It to master his gestures, choice of language, 
 almost his thoughts. The result was a colour- 
 lessness of manner which did great injustice to 
 the gentle and delicate soul behind. 
 
 This conjecture might explain why Mr Mac- 
 Gentle (Instead of falling upon his friend's neck 
 and shedding tears of welcome there) only 
 uttered a few commonplace sentences, and then 
 drooped back in his chair. But how to account 
 for his remark about having expected the arrival 
 of a friend who. It would appear, had been two 
 years dead ? Helwyse may himself have been 
 puzzled by this : or, being a quick-witted young 
 man, he may have divined its explanation. He
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE. "] ^ 
 
 looked at his entertainer with critical sympathy, 
 not untlnofed with humour. 
 
 " I hope you are as well as I am ! " said he. 
 
 " A little tired this mornlnof, I believe. I 
 never was so strong a man as 3'ou, Helwyse. 
 I think I must have passed a bad night. I 
 remember dreaming I was an old man — an old 
 man with white hair, Helwyse ! " 
 
 " Were you glad to wake up again ?" asked 
 the young man, meeting the elder's faded eyes. 
 
 " I hardly know whether I'm quite awake 
 yet. And, after all, Thor, I'm not sure that I 
 don't wish the dream might have been true. 
 Were I really an old man, what a long lonely 
 future I should escape ! But as It is — as it is — ." 
 
 He relapsed into revery. Ah ! Amos Mac- 
 Gentle, are you again the tall and graceful 
 youth, full of romance and hre, who once 
 roamed the world In quest of adventures, with 
 your trusty friend, Thor Helwyse, the yellow- 
 bearded Scandinavian ? Do you fancy this fresh
 
 74 IDOLATRY. 
 
 unwrlnkled face a mate to your own ? And Is 
 it but the vision of a restless night — this long- 
 drawn life of dull routine and gradual disap- 
 pointment and decay ? Open those dim eyes 
 of yours, good Sir ! stir those thin old legs ! 
 inflate that sunken chest ! Ha ! is that cough 
 imaginary ? those trembling muscles — are they 
 a delusion ? Is that misty glance only a momen- 
 tary weakness ? There Is no youth left In you, 
 Mr MacGentle — not so much as would keep a 
 rose in bloom for an hour ! 
 
 *' Have you seen Doctor Glyphlc lately ? " 
 enquired Balder Helwyse, after a pause. 
 
 '' Hiero ? do you know I was thinking of 
 him too just now — of our first meeting with 
 him in the African desert ? You remember ! a 
 couple of Bedouins were carrying him off — 
 they had captured him on his way to some 
 apocryphal ruin among the sand heaps. What 
 a grand moment was that when you caught the 
 sheik round the throat with your umbrella-han-
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE. 75 
 
 die, and pulled him off his horse ! and then we 
 mounted poor Glyphlc upon it, mummied cat 
 and all, and away over the hot sand! What a 
 day was that! What a day was that! " 
 
 The speaker's eyes had kindled: for a mo- 
 ment one saw the far flat desert, the struggling 
 knot of men and horses, the stampede of the 
 three across the plain, and the high sun flaming 
 inextinguishable laughter over all. And It had 
 happened nigh forty years ago! 
 
 '* He never forgot that service," resumed Mr 
 MacGentle, his customary plaintive manner re- 
 turning. " To that, and to your saving that 
 Egyptian lad, Manetho, you owe your wife, 
 Helen. ... ah ! forgive me — I had forgotten 
 — she is dead — she is dead ! " 
 
 " I never could understand," remarked Hel- 
 wyse, aiming to lead the conversation away from 
 gloomy topics^ " why the Doctor made so much 
 of Manetho." 
 
 " That was only a phase of the Eg}^ptian
 
 76 IDOLATRY. 
 
 mania that possessed him, and began, you 
 know, with his changing his name from Henry 
 to Hiero ; and has gone on, until now, I suppose 
 he actually believes himself to be some old in- 
 scription, containing precious secrets not to be 
 found elsewhere. Before the adventure with 
 the boy, I remember, he had formed the idea 
 of building a miniature Egypt in New Jersey : 
 and Manetho served well as the living human 
 element in it. 'Though I take him to America,' 
 you know he said, ' he shall still live in Egypt! 
 He shall have a temple and an altar and Isis 
 and Orisis, and papyri, and palm-trees, and — a 
 crocodile : and when he dies I will embalm him 
 like a Pharaoh ! ' ' But what if you die first ? ' 
 said one of us. ' Then he shall embalm me ! ' 
 cried Hiero, ' and I will be the first American 
 mummy ! ' " 
 
 Mr MacGentle seemed to find a dreamy en- 
 joyment in w^orking this vein of reminiscence. 
 He sat back in his low arm-chair, his unsub-
 
 A NEW MAX WITH AN OLD FACE. ']'] 
 
 stantlal face turned meditatively towards the 
 Magdalene, his hands brought together to sup- 
 port his delicate chin. Helwyse, apprehending 
 that the vein miorht at last bring- the dreamer 
 down to the present day, encouraged him to 
 follow It. 
 
 *' It must have been a disappointment to the 
 Doctor that his protege took up the Christian 
 religion, instead of following the faith and rites 
 of his Egyptian ancestors for the last five 
 thousand years! " 
 
 "■ Why, perhaps it was, Thor, perhaps It was!" 
 murmured Mr MacGentle. " But Manetho 
 never entered the pulpit, you know ; it would 
 not have been to his Interest to do so; besides 
 that I fancy he is really devoted to Glyphic, 
 believing that it was he who saved him from 
 the crocodile. People are all the time making 
 such absurd mistakes ! Manetho Is a man who 
 would be unalterable either In gratitude or in 
 enmity — although his external manner is so mild.
 
 yS IDOLATRY. 
 
 And as to his taking orders — why, so long as 
 he wore an Egyptian robe, and said his prayers 
 in an Egyptian temple, it would be all the same 
 to Glyphlc what religion the man professed." 
 
 '' Doctor Glyphlc is still alive, then ? " 
 
 The old man looked at the young one with 
 an air half-perplexed, half-apprehensive, as if 
 scenting the far approach of some undefined 
 difficulty. He passed his white hand across 
 his forehead. 
 
 '* Everything seems out of joint to-day, Hel- 
 wyse. Nothing looks or seems natural — ex- 
 cept you ! What is the matter with me — what 
 is the matter with me ?" 
 
 Helwyse sat with both hands twisted in his 
 mighty beard, and one booted leg thrown across 
 the other. He was full of sympathy at the 
 spectacle of poor Amos MacGentle, blindly 
 groping after the phantom of a flower whose 
 bloom and fragrance had vanished so terribly 
 long ago : and yet, for some reason or other, he
 
 A NEW MAX WITH AN OLD FACE. 79 
 
 could hardly forbear a smile. Anything utterly 
 out of place (as Mr MacGentle was just now) is 
 no more pathetic than absurd ; moreover, young 
 men are always secretly inclined to laugh at old 
 ones ! 
 
 ** Why should not Glyphic be alive ?" continued 
 Mr MacGentle. '' Why not he, as well as you 
 or I ? Are we not all about an age?" 
 
 Helwyse drew his chair close to his com- 
 panion's, and took his hand, as if it had been a 
 young girl's. 
 
 " My dear friend," said he, " you said you 
 felt tired this morning, but you forget how far 
 you've travelled since we last met Doctor 
 Glyphic, if he be living now, must be more than 
 sixty years old ! Your dream of old age was 
 such as many have dreamed before, and not 
 awakened from in this world!" 
 
 *' Let me think — let me think ! " said the old 
 man ; and Helwyse drawing back there ensued 
 a silence, varied only by a long and tremulous
 
 So IDOLATRY. 
 
 sigh from his companion; whether of reUef or 
 dejection the visitor could not decide. But 
 when Mr MacGentle spoke again, it was with 
 more assurance. Either from mortification at 
 his illusion, or more probably from Imperfect 
 perception of it, he made no reference to what 
 had passed. Old age possesses a kind of 
 composure, arising from dulled sensibilities, 
 which the most self-possessed youth can never 
 rival. 
 
 ** We heard, through the London branch of 
 our house, that Thor Helwyse died some two 
 years ago." 
 
 " Drowned in the Baltic Sea! I am his son 
 Balder." 
 
 *' He was my friend," observed the old man, 
 simply : but the tone he used was a magnet to 
 attract the son's heart. '' You look very much 
 like him, only his eyes were blue, and yours, as 
 I now see, are dark ; but you might be mistaken 
 for him."
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE. 8 1 
 
 *' I sometimes have been !" rejoined Balder, 
 with a half-smile. 
 
 "And you are his son: you are most wel- 
 come ! " continued the other, with old-fashioned 
 courtesy. " Forgive me if I have — if anything 
 has occurred to annoy you. I am a very old 
 man, Mr Balder, so old that I believe I some- 
 times forget how old I am! And Thor is dead 
 — drowned, you say ? " 
 
 " The Baltic Sea, you know, has been the 
 grave of many of our forefathers. I think my 
 father was glad to follow them. I never 
 saw him in better spirits than during that 
 gale. We were bound to England from 
 Denmark." 
 
 " Helen's death saddened him — I know — I 
 know ! H e never was the same after that. 
 But how — how did ? " 
 
 "He would keep the deck, though the helms- 
 man had to be lashed to the wheel. I think 
 he never cared to see land again ; but he was 
 
 I. F
 
 82 IDOLATRY. 
 
 full of Spirits and life. He said this was 
 weather for a viking. 
 
 '' We were standing by the main-mast, hold- 
 ing on by a belaying-pin. The sea came over 
 the side and struck him overboard. I went 
 after him. Another wave brought me back — 
 but not my father ! I was knocked senseless, 
 and when I came to, It was too late." 
 
 Helwyse's voice, towards the end of this 
 story, became husky ; and Mr MacGentle's 
 eyes, as he listened, grew dimmer than ever. 
 
 " Ah !— I shall not die so," said he. " I 
 shall die away gradually, like a breeze that has 
 been blowing this way and that all day, and 
 falls at sunset no one knows how. Thor died 
 as became him, — and I shall die as becomes 
 me — as becomes me ! " And so, indeed, he 
 did, a few years later ; but not unknown nor 
 uncared for. 
 
 Balder Helwyse was a philosopher no doubt ; 
 but it was no part of his wisdom to be
 
 A NEW MAX WITH AN OLD FACE. 53 
 
 indifferent to unstrained sympathy. He went 
 on to speak further of his own concerns— a 
 thing he was Httle used to do. 
 
 It appeared that from the time he first 
 crossed the Atlantic — beinor then about four 
 years old — up to the time he had left Europe a 
 few weeks ago, he had been journeying to and 
 fro over the eastern hemisphere. His father 
 (who as well as himself, was American by birth) 
 was the descendant of a Danish family of high 
 station and antiquity, and inherited the restless 
 spirit of his ancestors. In the course of his 
 early wanderings, he had fallen in with Mac- 
 Gentle, who, though somewhat older than 
 Helwyse, was still a young man : and later, 
 these two had encountered HIero Glyphic. 
 About fifteen years after this it was that Thor 
 appeared at Glyphlc's house in New Jersey, 
 and was welcomed by that singular man as a 
 brother ; and here he fell In love with Glyphlc's 
 sister, Helen, and married her. With her, he
 
 84 IDOLATRY. 
 
 received a respectable fortune, which the 
 addition of his own made ample, and it was 
 understood that at Glyphic's death, Thor or his 
 heirs would inherit the bulk of the estate left 
 by him. 
 
 So Thor, being then in the first prime of life, 
 was prepared to settle down and become 
 domestic. But the sudden death of his wife, 
 and the subsequent loss of one of the children 
 she had borne him, drove him once more 
 abroad, with his baby-son, never again to take 
 root or to return. And here Balder's story, as 
 told by him, began. He seemed to have 
 matured very early, and to have taken hold of 
 knowledge in all its branches like a Titan. 
 The precise age at which he had learned all 
 that the European schools could teach him, it 
 is not necessary to specify ; since it is more 
 with the nature of his mind than with the list of 
 > his accomplishments, that we shall have to do. 
 It might be possible, by tracing his connection
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE. 85 
 
 with French, EngHsh, or German philosophers, 
 to make shrewd guesses at the quahty of his 
 own creed ; but this will perhaps reveal itself 
 less diffidently under other tests. 
 
 The latter four or five years of his life Balder 
 had spent in acquiring such culture as schools 
 could not give him. Where he went, what he 
 did and saw, we shall not exercise our power 
 categorically to reveal : remarking merely that 
 his means and social rank left him free to eo 
 both as high and as low as he pleased : to dine 
 with English dukes or with Russian serfs. 
 But a fine chastity inherent to his northern 
 blood had (whatever were his moral convic- 
 tions) kept him from the mire ; and the sudden 
 death of his father had given him a graver turn 
 than was normal to his years. Meanwhile, the 
 financial crash which at this time so largely 
 affected Europe, swallowed almost the whole of 
 Balder's fortune ; and with the residue (about 
 a thousand pounds sterling), and a potential
 
 86 IDOLATRY. 
 
 independence, In the shape of a learned profes- 
 sion, In his head, — he sailed for Boston. 
 
 " I knew you were my Uncle HIero's 
 bankers," he added, " and I supposed you 
 would be able to tell me about him. He Is my 
 only living relative." 
 
 '' Why, as to that, I believe It Is a long time 
 since the bank has had anything to do with his 
 concerns," returned the venerable president, 
 abstractedly gazing at Balder s high boots. 
 " But I'll ask Mr Dyke. He remembers every- 
 thing ! " 
 
 That gentleman (who had not passed an easy 
 moment since Mr Helwyse's arrival) was now 
 called in, and his suspense regarding the 
 mysterious visitor soon relieved. In respect to 
 Doctor Glyphlc's affair, he was ready and 
 explicit. 
 
 " No dollar of his money has been through 
 our hands since winter of 1835-6, Mr Helwyse, 
 Sir; winter following your respected father's
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE. 87 
 
 departure for foreign parts," stated Mr Dyke, 
 straightening his mouth and planting his fist 
 on his hip. 
 
 '' Hm — hm !" murmured the president, stand- 
 ing thin and bent before the empty fire-place, a 
 coat-tail over each arm. 
 
 '' You have heard nothing of him since 
 then ? " 
 
 ''Nothing, Mr Helwyse, Sir! Reverend 
 Manetho Glyphic — understood to be the 
 Doctor's adopted son — came here and effected 
 the transfer, — under authority, of course, of his 
 foster-father's signature. Where the property 
 is at this moment, how invested, with what 
 returns — neither the President nor I can inform 
 you, Sir ! " 
 
 " Hm — hm ! " was again President Mac- 
 Gentle's remark. It was a favourite comment 
 of his upon business topics. 
 
 ''It is possible I may be a very wealthy 
 man ! " said Balder, when Mr Dyke had made
 
 88 IDOLATRY. 
 
 his resolute bow and departed. '* But I really 
 hope my uncle Is alive. It would be a loss not 
 to have known so eccentric a man. I have a 
 miniature of him which I have often studied, so 
 that I shall know him when we meet. Can he 
 be married, do you think ? " 
 
 *' Why, no, Balder — no, I should hardly 
 think so ! " answered Mr MacGentle, who, at 
 the departure of his confidential clerk, had 
 relapsed into his unofficial manner and position. 
 '' By the way, do you contemplate that step ? " 
 
 '' It is said to be an impediment to great 
 enterprises. I could learn little by domestic 
 life that I could not learn better otherwise." 
 
 '* Hm — we couldn't do without woman, you 
 know ! " 
 
 " If I could marry Woman I would do it ! " 
 said the young man unblushingly. '' But a 
 single crumb from that great loaf would be of 
 no use to me." 
 
 '* Ah, you haven't learned to appreciate
 
 A NEW MAN WITH AN OLD FACE. 89 
 
 women ! You never knew your mother, Balder, 
 and your sister was lost before she was old 
 enough to be anything to you. By the way, I 
 have always cherished a hope that she might yet 
 be found. Perhaps she may — perhaps she may ! " 
 
 Balder looked perplexed, till thinking the 
 old gentleman might be referring to a reunion 
 in a future state, he said, 
 
 '' You believe that people recognise one an- 
 other In the next world, Mr MacGentle ? " 
 
 " Perhaps — perhaps ; but why not In this 
 world as well ? " murmured the other in reply : 
 and Balder, suspecting a return of absent-mind- 
 edness, yielded the point. He had grown up 
 in the belief that his twin sister had died In her 
 infancy ; but his venerable friend appeared to 
 be under a different Impression. 
 
 " I shall go to New York and try to find my 
 uncle, or some trace of him," he said. ** If I'm 
 unsuccessful, I mean to come back to Boston, 
 and settle as a physician."
 
 90 IDOLATRY. 
 
 ** What Is your specialty ? " 
 
 " I'm an eye doctor ; the Boston people are 
 not all clear-eyed, I hope ? " 
 
 '' Not all — I should say, not all ! perhaps you 
 may be able to help me, to begin with," said Mr 
 MacGentle with a gleam of melancholy humour. 
 *' I will ask Mr Dyke about the chances for a 
 practice — he knows everything. And, Balder," 
 he added, when the young man rose to go, 
 '' let me hear from you and see you again some- 
 times, whatever accident may happen to you In 
 the way of fortune. Tm rather a lonely old 
 man — a lonely old man. Balder ! " 
 
 '' ril be here again very soon, unless I get 
 married, or commit a murder, or some such 
 enormity," rejoined Helwyse, his long moustache 
 curving to his smile. They shook hands — the 
 vigorous young god of the sun, and the faded 
 old wraith of Brahmanism, with a friendly look 
 into each other's eyes.
 
 VI. 
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE. 
 
 Balder Helwyse was a man full of natural and 
 healthy instincts, not afraid to laugh uproariously 
 when so inclined, nor apt to counterfeit so much 
 as a smile, only because a smile would look 
 well. What showed a rarer audacity, he had 
 more than once dared to weep ! To, crush 
 down real emotions formed, in short, no part of 
 his ideal of a man. Not belonging to the Little- 
 pot-soon-hot family, he had perhaps never found 
 occasion to go beyond the control of his temper, 
 and blind rage he would in no wise allow him- 
 self ; but he delighted in antagonisms, and 
 though it came not within his rules to hate any 
 man, he was inclined to cultivate an enemy, as 
 more likely to be instructive than some friends. 
 His love of actual battle was intense ; he had
 
 92 IDOLATRY. 
 
 punched heads with many a hard-fisted English 
 schoolboy ; high up on his forehead he bore 
 the scar of a German Schlaeger ; and later, In 
 Paris, he had deliberately Invaded the suscep- 
 tibilities of a French journalist, had followed 
 him to the field of honour, and been there run 
 through the body with a small-sword, to the 
 satisfaction of both parties He was confined 
 to his bed for a while, but his overflowing 
 spirits healed the wound to the admiration of 
 his doctors. 
 
 These examples of self-indulgence have been 
 touched upon only by way of preparing the 
 gentle reader for a yet more serious shock. 
 Helwyse was a disciple of Brillat-Savarin — In 
 one word, a gourmand ! His appetite never 
 failed him, and he knew how wisely to direct It. 
 He never ate a careless or thoughtless meal, be 
 its elements simple as they might. He knew, 
 and was loved by the foremost cooks ;all over 
 Europe. Never did he allow coarseness or
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE. 93 
 
 intemperance to mar the refinement of his 
 palate. 
 
 *' Man," he was accustomed to say, " is but a 
 stomach, and the cook is the pope of stomachs, 
 in whose church are no respectable heretics. 
 Our happiness lies in his saucepan — at the 
 mercy of his spit ! Eating is the appropri- 
 ation to our needs of the good and truth of life 
 as existing in material manifestation : the cook 
 is the high-priest of that symbolic ceremony ! 
 I, and kings with me, bow before him ! But 
 his is a responsibility beneath which Atlas 
 might stagger : he before all men must be 
 honest, warm-hearted, quick of sympathy, full 
 of compassion towards his race. Let him re- 
 joice, for the world extols him for its well-being ! 
 yet tremble ! lest upon his head fall the curse 
 of the world's misery ! " 
 
 This speech was always received with ap- 
 plause, the peroration being delivered with a 
 vast controlled emphasis of eye and voice : and
 
 94 IDOLATRY. 
 
 it was followed by the drinking of the cook's 
 health. '' The generous virtues," Mr Helwyse 
 would then go on to say, '' arise from the culti- 
 vation of the stomach. Out of man's very 
 earthliness springs the flower of his spiritual 
 virtue. We affect to despise the flesh, as vile 
 and unworthy. What then is flesh made of? 
 of nothing ? — let who can prove that ! No, it 
 is made of spirit — of the divine everlasting sub- 
 stance ! it is the wall which holds heaven in 
 place ! If there be anything vile in it, it is of 
 the Devil's infusion, and enters not into the 
 argument ! " 
 
 A man who had expressed such views as 
 these at the most renowned tables of France 
 and England, was not likely to forget his prin- 
 ciples in the United States. Accordingly, he 
 arose early, as we have seen, on the morning 
 after his 'arrival, and compelled an astonished 
 waiter to marshal him to the kitchen and intro- 
 duce him to the cook. The cook of the Granite
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE. 95 
 
 Hotel at that time was a round, red-lipped 
 Italian, — an artist and enthusiast ; but his 
 temper had been much tried by lack of appre- 
 ciation : and, although his salary was good, he 
 contemplated throwing it over, abandoning the 
 Yankee nation to Its fate, and seeking some 
 more congenial field. Balder (who, when the 
 mood was on him, could wield a tongue as per- 
 suasive as Richard the Third's) talked to this 
 man, and in seven minutes won his whole heart. 
 The immediate result was a delectable break- 
 fast ; but the sequel was a triumph indeed ! It 
 seems that the aesthetic Italian had for several 
 days been watching over a brace of plump 
 truffled partridges ; this day had they reached 
 perfection, and were to have been eaten by no 
 Less a person than the cook himself These 
 cherished birds did he now actually offer to 
 make over to his eloquent and sympathetic 
 acquaintance. Balder was deeply moved, and 
 accepted the gift on one condition, that the
 
 96 IDOLATRY. 
 
 donor should share the feast ! *' When a man 
 serves me up his own heart — truffled, too, he 
 must help me eat it ! " said he with emotion. 
 The condition imposed was, after a faint resist-, 
 ance, agreed to : the other episodes of the BIll- 
 of-fare were decided upon, and the Italian and 
 the Scandinavian were to dine together that 
 afternoon. 
 
 It still lacked something of the dinner-hour 
 when Mr Helwyse came out through the dark 
 passage-way of the Beacon Hill Bank, and 
 paused for a few moments on the threshold, 
 looking up and down the street. Against the 
 dark back-ground he made a handsome picture, 
 tall, gallant, unique ! The May sunshine, fall- 
 ing athwart the face of the gloomy old build- 
 ing, was glad to light up the waves of his beard 
 and hair, and to cast the shadow of his hat-brim 
 over his forehead and eyes. The picture stays 
 just long enough to fix itself in the memory, 
 and then the young man goes lightly down the
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE. 97 
 
 worn steps, and is lost along the crowded 
 street. Such as he Is now, we shall not see 
 him standing in that dark frame again! 
 
 Wherever he went Balder Helwyse was sure 
 to be stared at, but to this he was admirably in- 
 different. He never thought of speculating 
 about what people thought of Mr Helwyse. 
 But to his own approval, something not lightly 
 to be had, he was by no means indifferent. 
 Towards mankind at large he showed a kindly 
 but Irreverent charity, excusing their imperfec- 
 tion not so much from a divine principle of love, 
 as from scepticism as to man's sufficient motive 
 or faculty to do well. Of himself, however, he 
 was a blunt and sarcastic critic, perhaps because 
 he expected more from that source than from 
 the rest of the world, and fancied that himself 
 only had ability to be his censor ! 
 
 Should the Christian reader regard this men- 
 tal attitude as unsound, far be it from us to de- 
 fend it! It must, nevertheless, be admitted 
 
 I. G
 
 98 IDOLATRY. 
 
 that whoever feels the strong stnTing of power 
 in his head and hands, will learn its limits from 
 no purely subjective source. The lesson must 
 begin from without, and the only argument will 
 be a deadly struggle. Until then, self-esteem, 
 however veiled beneath the garb of self-criticism, 
 cannot but increase. And if the man have had 
 wisdom and strength to abstain from vulgar 
 self-pollution, Satan must entrust his spear to 
 no half-fledged devil, but grasp it in his own 
 hand and join battle in his own person. 
 
 Undismayed by this fact, Helwyse reached 
 Washington Street and followed its westerly 
 meanderings, meaning to spend part of the in- 
 terval before dinner in exploring Boston. He 
 walked with an easy sideways-swaying of the 
 shoulders, whisking his cane, and smiling to 
 himself as he recalled the points of his inter- 
 view with the President. 
 
 '' Just the thing — to make MacGentle tute- 
 lary divinity of so elusive a matter as money !
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE. 99 
 
 wonder whether the Directors ever thous^ht of 
 that ? For all his unreality, though, he has 
 something more real In him than the heaviest 
 Director on the Board! 
 
 " How composedly he took me for my father! 
 and when he discovered his mistake, how com- 
 posedly he welcomed me In my own person ! 
 Was that the extreme of senility ? or was It a 
 subtle assertion of the fact that he who keeps In 
 the vanguard of the age, In a certain sense con- 
 tains his father — the past — within himself: and 
 Is a distinct person chiefly by virtue of that con- 
 taining power ? 
 
 *' Why didn't I ask him more about my fos- 
 ter-cousin, Manetho? Eg}^ptians are more 
 astute than affectionate. Would he cleave to 
 my poor uncle during these last eighteen years, 
 merely for love ? Why did he transfer that 
 property so soon after we sailed ? Ten to one 
 he has in his own hands the future as well as 
 the present disposal of Doctor Hiero Glyphlc's
 
 lOO IDOLATRY. 
 
 fortune ! The old gentleman has had time to 
 make a hundred wills since the one he showed 
 my father twenty years ago! 
 
 " Well, and what is that to you ? Ah! Balder 
 Helwyse, you lazy impostor, you are pining 
 for Egyptian flesh-pots. Don't tell me about 
 civility to relatives and study of human nature! 
 You are as bad as you accuse your poor cousin 
 of being — who may be dead or pastor of a small 
 parish, for all you know. And every school- 
 girl can prattle of the educational uses of 
 poverty and of having to make one's living. 
 I have a mind to take your thousand pounds 
 sterling out of your pocket and throw them in 
 Charles River — and then begin at the begin- 
 ning. By the time I'd learnt what poverty 
 can teach, it would be over — or I am no 
 true man! Only they who are ashamed of 
 themselves or afraid of other people need start 
 rich." 
 
 Nevertheless, he could not do otherwise than
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE. lOI 
 
 hunt up the only relative he had in America. 
 Subsequent events did not convict him of being 
 a mere egotist swayed only by the current of 
 base success. He did not despise prosperity, 
 but he cared yet more to find out truth about 
 things and men. This Is not the story of a for- 
 tune-hunter: not, at all events, of a hunter of 
 such fortunes as are made and lost now-a-days. 
 But when one half a man detects unworthy mo- 
 tives In the other half, the situation Is embarras- 
 sing. He acts most wisely, perhaps, who drops 
 discussion, and lets the balance of good and 
 evil at the given moment decide. Our com- 
 pound life makes many compromises, whereby 
 our progress, whether heavenward or hellward, 
 is made slow — and sure. 
 
 Here, or hereabouts, Balder lost his w^ay. 
 When thinking hard, he was beside himself; he 
 strode, and tossed his beard, and shouldered in- 
 offensive people aside, and drew his brows to- 
 gether, or smiled. Then, by-and-by, he would
 
 I02 IDOLATRY. 
 
 awake to realities and find himself he knew not 
 where. 
 
 This time it was in an unsavoury back street; 
 some dirty children were playing in the gutters, 
 and a tall, rather flashily-dressed man was walk- 
 ing along some distance ahead, carrying some- 
 thing in one hand. Helwyse at first mended 
 his pace to overtake the fellow, and ask the way 
 to the hotel. But he presently changed his 
 purpose, his attention being drawn to the oddity 
 of the other's behaviour. 
 
 The man was evidently one of those who 
 live much alone, and so contract unconscious 
 habits, against which society offers the only safe- 
 guard. He was absorbed in some imaginary 
 dialogue: and so imperfectly could his fleshly 
 veil conceal his mental processes, that he ges- 
 ticulated everything that passed through his 
 mind. These gestures, though perfectly ap- 
 parent to a steady observer, were so far kept 
 within bounds as not to get more than momen-
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE. IO3 
 
 tary notice from the passers-by, who, Indeed, 
 found metal more attractive to their gaze in 
 Helwyse. 
 
 Now did the man draw his head back and 
 spread out his arms, as in surprise or repudia- 
 tion ; now his shoulders rose high in depreca- 
 tion or disclaimer. Now his forefinger cun- 
 ningly sought the side of his nose ; now his fist 
 shook in an imaginary face. At times, he would 
 stretch out a pleading arm and neck ; the next 
 moment he was an inflexible tyrant spurning a 
 suppliant. Again, he would break into a sound- 
 less chuckle ; then, raising his hand to his fore- 
 head, seemed overcome with despair and anguish. 
 Occasionally he would walk some distance 
 quite passively, only glancing furtively about 
 him ; but soon he would forget himself again, 
 and the dialogfue would begin anew. 
 
 Balder watched the man curiously, but with- 
 out seeming to perceive the rather grisly simili- 
 tude between the latter's vagaries and his own.
 
 1 04 IDOLATRY. 
 
 **What an ugly thing the Inside of this 
 person seems to be ! " he said. " But then, 
 whose thoughts and emotions would not render 
 him a laughing-stock, could they be seen ? If 
 everyone looked to his fellow as he really Is, or 
 even as he seems to himself — mankind would 
 fly asunder, and think the stars hiding-places 
 not remote enough ! How many men In the 
 world could walk from one end of the street 
 they live In to the other, talking and acting 
 their Inmost thoughts all the way, — and retain 
 a bit of anybody's respect or love afterwards ? 
 No wonder heaven Is pure. If our spiritual 
 bodies are only thoughts and feelings ! and a 
 hell where each devil beheld his fellow's 
 deformity outwardly manifested, would be hell 
 indeed ! 
 
 " But that cannot be ! Angels may behold 
 their own loveliness, because doine so makes 
 them lovelier ; but no devil could know his own 
 vlleness and live They think their hideous-
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE. IO5 
 
 ness charming, and when the darkness is 
 thickest around them, they beheve themselves 
 most firmly to be In heaven. But the Hght of 
 heaven would indeed be darkness to them, for a 
 ray of It would strike them blind ! " 
 
 Helwyse was over-fond of moralising, and 
 shall not be quoted, save when to do so may 
 seem to serve an ulterior purpose. 
 
 " I would like to have the story that fellow is 
 so exercised about," muttered his pursuer. 
 *' How do I know It doesn't concern me ? 
 That violin box Is very much In his way : shall 
 I offer to carry It for him, and In return, hear 
 his story? If the music soothes his soul as 
 much as the box moderates his gestures — ." 
 
 Here the man abruptly turned into a door- 
 way, and was gone. On coming up, Helwyse 
 found that the doorway led In through a pair 
 of green folding-doors to some place unseen. 
 The house had an air of villainous respecta- 
 bility — a gambling-house air, or worse ! Hel-
 
 I06 IDOLATRY. 
 
 wyse paused but for a moment, and then 
 walked on : and thus, sagacious reader, the 
 meeting was, for the second time, put off! 
 
 When he reached his hotel, he had only 
 half-an-hour in which to dress for dinner ; but 
 he prepared himself faultlessly, chanting a sort of 
 hymn to appetite the while. *' Hunger," quoth 
 he, " is mightiest of magicians : breeds hope, 
 energy, brains : prompts to love and friendship. 
 Hunger gives day and night their meaning, and 
 causes the pulse of time to beat : creates society, 
 industry, and rank. Hunger moves man to 
 join in the work of creation — to harmonise him- 
 self with the music of the universe — to feel 
 ambition, joy, and sorrow. Hunger unites 
 man to nature in the ever-recurring inspiration 
 to food, followed by the ever-alternating ecstasy 
 of digestion. Morning tunes his heart to joy, 
 for the benison of breakfast awaits him. The 
 sun scales heaven to light him to his noonday 
 meal ; evening wooes him supperwards, and
 
 THE VAGARIES OF HELWYSE. lO/ 
 
 night brings timely sleep to waft him to another 
 dawn ! Eating is earth's first law, and heaven 
 itself could not subsist without it ! " 
 
 So Balder Helwyse and the cook feasted 
 gloriously that afternoon in the back pantry, 
 and they solemnly installed the partridges 
 among the constellations !
 
 VII. 
 
 A QUARREL. 
 
 That same afternoon Mr MacGentle put his 
 head into the outer office, and said, 
 
 " Mr Dyke, could I speak with you a mo- 
 ment?" 
 
 Mr Dyke scraped back his chair and went in, 
 with his polished bald head and square face and 
 figure — a block of common sense. He was 
 more common-sensible than usual that after- 
 noon, because he had so strangely forgotten 
 himself in the morning. Mr MacGentle was 
 in his usual position for talking with his con- 
 fidential clerk — standing with his back to 
 the fireplace and his coat-tails over his arms ; 
 experience had taught him that this attitude 
 was better adapted than any other to sustain 
 the crushing weight of Mr Dyke's sense. To
 
 A QUARREL. lOQ 
 
 have conversed with him in a sitting position 
 would have been to lose breath and vitality 
 before the end of five minutes. 
 
 " Mr Helwyse has thoughts of settling in Bos- 
 ton to practice his profession," began the Presi- 
 dent, gently. '' I told him you would be likely 
 to know what the chances are." 
 
 *' Profession is — what?" demanded Mr Dyke, 
 settling his fist on his hip. 
 
 " Oh — doctor — physician — eye-doctor, he 
 said, I think." 
 
 " Eye-doctor? Well, there's Dr. Schlemm 
 won't last the winter ; may drop any day. Just 
 the thing for Mr Helwyse — Dr Helwyse." And 
 the subject being discussed at some length be- 
 tween the gentlemen, took on a promising 
 aspect. His house was picked out for the new 
 incumbent, his earnings calculated, his success 
 foretold. Two characters so diverse as were 
 the President and his clerk, united, it seems, 
 in liking the young physician.
 
 no IDOLATRY. 
 
 " Married?" asked Mr Dyke, after a pause. 
 
 '' Why, no — no: and he doesn't seem indined 
 to marry. But he Is quite young; perhaps he 
 may later on in Hfe, Mr Dyke." 
 
 The elderly clerk straightened his mouth. 
 " Matter of taste, and policy! Gives solidity, 
 position; and Is an expense and a responsi- 
 bility." Mr Dyke was himself well known to 
 be the husband of an idolised wife and the 
 father of a despotic family. 
 
 "He never had the advantage of woman's 
 influence In his childhood, you know. His poor 
 mother died in giving him and his sister birth ; 
 and his sister was lost, stolen away, two or 
 three years later. He does not appreciate 
 woman at her true value," murmured Mac- 
 Gentle. 
 
 "Stolen away? His sister died in infancy, 
 so / understood, sir," said the clerk, whose ver- 
 sions of past events were apt to differ from the 
 President's.
 
 A QUARREL. I I I 
 
 But the President, perhaps because he was 
 conscious that his memory was treacherous re- 
 garding things of recent occurrence, was abnor- 
 mally sensitive as to the correctness of his more 
 distant reminiscences. 
 
 " Oh no, she was stolen — stolen by her nurse 
 just before Thor Helwyse went to Europe, I 
 think," said he. 
 
 " Beg your pardon, sir!" said Mr Dyke, with 
 an Iron smile. " Died; burnt to death In her 
 first year; yes, sir!" 
 
 *' Mr Dyke," rejoined MacGentle dignlfiedly, 
 lifting his chin high above his stock, '' I have 
 myself seen the little girl, then In her third 
 year, pulling her brother's hair on the nursery 
 floor. She was dark-eyed, a very lovely child. 
 As to the burning, I now recollect that when 
 the house In Brooklyn took fire, the child was 
 in danger, but was rescued unharmed by the 
 nurse, who herself received very severe In- 
 juries."
 
 I I 2 IDOLATRY. 
 
 Mr Dyke heaved a long deliberate sigh, and 
 allowed his eyes to wander slowly round the 
 room, before replying, 
 
 " You are not a family man, Mr MacGentle, 
 sir. Don't blame you, sir. Your memory, per- 
 haps — but no matter. — The nurse who stole the 
 child was, I presume, the same who rescued her 
 from the fire?" 
 
 Mr Dyke had perhaps intended to give a 
 delicately ironical emphasis to this question, but 
 his irony was much like himself, a very unwieldy 
 and unmistakable affair. The truth was, he 
 was a little staggered by the President's cir- 
 cumstantial statement, whence his deliberation, 
 and his not entirely pertinent rejoinder about 
 *' a family man." 
 
 " And why not the same, sir? I ask you, 
 why not the same?" demanded Mr MacGentle, 
 with slender imperiousness. 
 
 But by this time Mr Dyke had thought of a 
 new argument.
 
 A QUARREL. I I ■j 
 
 " The little girl, I understood you to say, 
 was dark? Since she was the twin-sister of 
 one of Mr Balder Helwyse's complexion, 
 that is odd, Mr MacGende, odd, sir." 
 And the solid family-man fixed his sharp 
 brown eyes full upon the unsubstantial ba- 
 chelor. The latter's delicate nostrils expan- 
 ded, and a pink flush rose to his faded 
 cheeks. He was now as haughty and superb 
 as a Paladin. 
 
 " I will discuss business subjects with my 
 subordinates, Mr Dyke ; not others, if you 
 please. This dispute was not begun by me. 
 Let it be carried no further, sir. Twins are 
 not necessarily, nor invariably, of the same 
 complexion. Let nothing more be said, Mr 
 Dyke. I trust the little girl may yet be found 
 and restored to her family — to — to her brother. 
 I trust she may yet be found, sir!" and he 
 glared at Mr Dyke aggressively. 
 
 " I trust you may live to see it, Mr MacGen- 
 
 H
 
 I 1 4 IDOLATRY. 
 
 tie, sir!" retorted the confidential clerk, shifting 
 his ground in a truly masterly manner ; and be- 
 fore the President could recover, he had bowed 
 and gone out. Ten minutes afterwards, Mac- 
 Gentle opened the door, and lo! Dyke himself 
 on the threshold. 
 ''Mr Dyke!" 
 
 " Mr MacGentle!" in the same breath. 
 *' I — Mr Dyke, let me apologise for my 
 asperity — for my rudeness," says MacGentle, 
 holding out his thin white hand, his eyebrows 
 more raised, the corners of his mouth more de- 
 pressed than ever. " I am sincerely sorry that — 
 that-" 
 
 " O sir ! " exclaims the square clerk, grasping 
 the thin hand in both his square palms. " O 
 sir ! — O sir ! — no, no ! — no, no ! I was just com- 
 ing to beg you — my fault, my fault, Mr Mac- 
 Gentle, sir ! — no, no ! " 
 
 Thus incoherently ended the quarrel between 
 these old friends, the dispute being left unde-
 
 A QUARREL. I I 5 
 
 cided. But the important point was estab- 
 lished that, in case his uncle's fortune failed 
 to enrich him, Balder was insured a practice in 
 Boston.
 
 VIII. 
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. 
 
 A LARGE handsome steamer was the " Empire 
 State," of the line which ran between Newport 
 and New York. She was painted white, had 
 walking-beam engines, and ornamented paddle- 
 boxes, and had been known to run nearly 
 twenty knots In an hour. On the evening of 
 the 27th of May, in the year of which we write, 
 she left her Newport dock as usual, with a full 
 complement of passengers. On getting out of 
 the harbour, she steamed into a bank of solid 
 fog, and only got out of it next morning just 
 before passing Hellgate, at the head of East 
 River, New York. On the passage down 
 Long Island Sound, she met with an accident. 
 She ran into the schooner " Resurrection," 
 which was lying becalmed across her course,
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. I I 7 
 
 carrying away most of the schooner's bowsprit, 
 but doing no serious damage. This, however, 
 was not the worst. On arriving in New York, 
 it was found that one of the passengers was 
 missing! He had fallen overboard during the 
 night, — possibly at the moment of the collision. 
 
 Balder Helwyse was on board. After dining 
 with the cook, and smoking a real Havana cigar 
 (probably the first real one he had ever been 
 blessed withal), he put a package of the same 
 brand in his haversack, bade his entertainer — 
 who solemnly engaged to remain in Boston for 
 Mr Helwyse's sole sake, — bade his fellow convi- 
 vialist good-by, and took the train to Newport, 
 and from there, '* The Empire State " for New 
 York. 
 
 The darkness was the most impenetrable 
 the young man had ever seen ; Long Island 
 Sound was like a pocket ! The passengers — 
 those who did not go to their staterooms at 
 once,- — ^sat in the cabin reading, or dozing on
 
 I I 8 IDOLATRY. 
 
 the chairs and sofas. A few men stayed out 
 on deck for an hour or two, smoking ; but at 
 length they too went In. The darkness was 
 appalling. The officer on the bridge blew the 
 steam-fog-whistle, every few moments, and kept 
 his lanterns hung out : but they must have been 
 invisible at sixty yards. 
 
 Helwyse kept the deck alone. Apparently 
 he meant to smoke his whole bundle of cigars 
 before turning In. Up and down he paced. 
 Napoleon-like in his high boots, until finally 
 he was brought to a stand by the blind night- 
 wall, which no man can either scale or circum- 
 vent. Then he leaned on the railing and looked 
 against the darkness. Not a light to be seen, 
 in heaven or on earth ! The water below whis- 
 pered and swirled past, torn to soft fragments 
 by the gigantic paddle-wheel. Helwyse s beard 
 was wet, and his hands sticky with the salt mist. 
 
 Ever and anon sounded the fog-whistle, 
 hoarsely, as though the fog had got in its throat ;
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. II9 
 
 and the pale glare of a lantern, fastened aloft 
 somewhere, lit up the white issuing steam for a 
 moment. There was no wind ; one was con- 
 scious of motion, but all sense of direction and 
 position — save to the steersman — was lost. 
 Helwyse could see the red end of the cigar, 
 and very cosey and comfortable it looked ; but 
 he could see nothing else. 
 
 It is said that staid and respectable people, 
 when thoroughly steeped in night, will some- 
 times break out in wild grimaces and outlandish 
 gesticulations ! It is certainly the time when 
 unlawful thoughts and words come to men most 
 readily and naturally. Night brings forth many 
 things w^hich daylight starts from. The real 
 power of darkness lies not in merely baffling 
 the eyesight, but in creating the feeling of dark- 
 ness in the soul. The chains of light are 
 broken, and we can almost believe our internal 
 night to be as impenetrable to God's eye, as the 
 external, to our own ! —
 
 J 20 IDOLATRY. 
 
 By and by, Helwyse thought he would find 
 some snug place and sit down. The cabin of 
 of the " Empire State " was built on the main 
 deck, abaft the funnel, like a long low house. 
 Between the stern end of this house and the 
 taffrail, was a small space, thickly grown with 
 camp-stools. Thither Helwyse groped his 
 way, got hold of a couple of the camp-stools, 
 and arranged himself comfortably with his back 
 against the cabin wall. The waves bubbled 
 Invisibly In the wake beneath. After sitting 
 for a while in the dense blackness, Helwyse 
 began to feel as though his whole physical self 
 was shrivelled Into a single atom, careering 
 blindly through infinite space ! 
 
 After all, and really, was he anything more ? 
 If he chose to think not, what logic could con- 
 vince him of the contrary ? Visible creation, 
 as any child could tell him, was an Illusion — 
 was not what It seemed to be. But this darkness 
 was no Illusion ! why then was It not the only
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. 121 
 
 reality ? and he but an atom charged with a 
 vital power of so-called senses, which generally 
 deceived him, but sometimes — as now, — let him 
 glimpse the truth ? The fancy, absurd as it 
 was, had its attraction for the time being. This 
 great living, staring world of men and things is 
 a terrible weight to lug upon one's back. But 
 if man be an invisible atom — what a vast wild 
 boundless freedom is his ! Infinite space is 
 wide enough to cut any caper in, and no one 
 the wiser. 
 
 One would like to converse with a man who 
 had been born and had lived in solitude and 
 darkness. What original views he would have 
 about himself and life ! Would he think him- 
 self an abstract intelligence, out of space and 
 time ! What a riddle his physical sensations 
 would be to him ! Or, suppose him to meet 
 with another being brought up in the same way : 
 — how they would mystify each other ! Would 
 they learn to feel shame, love, hate ? or do the
 
 122 IDOLATRY. 
 
 passions grow only In sunshine ? Would they 
 ever laugh ? Would they hatch plots against 
 each other, He, deceive ? Would they have 
 secrets from each other ? 
 
 But, fantasy aside, take a supposable case. 
 Suppose two sinners of our daylight world to 
 meet for the first time, mutually unknown, on a 
 night like this. Invisible — only audible — how 
 might they plunge profound Into most naked 
 intimacy — read aloud to each other their deepest 
 heart-secrets ! Would the confession lighten 
 their souls, or make them twice as heavy as 
 before ? — Then, the next morning, they might 
 meet and pass, unrecognising and unrecognised. 
 But would the knot binding them to each other 
 be any the less real, because neither knew to 
 whom he was tied ? Some day, in the midst 
 of friends, in the brightest glare of the sunshine, 
 — the tone of a voice would strike them pale 
 and cold ! — 
 
 Somewhat after this fashion, perhaps, did
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. 
 
 123 
 
 Helwyse commune with himself. He hked to 
 follow the whim of the moment whither it 
 would lead him. He was romantic — it was one 
 of his agreeablest traits, because spontaneous : 
 and he indulged it the more as being confident 
 that he had too much solid ballast in the hold 
 to be in danger of oversetting. To-night, at 
 this point of his mental ramble, he discovered 
 that his cigar was gone out. Had he been 
 thinking aloud ? He believed not — and yet 
 there was no telling : he often did so, uncon- 
 sciously. Were it so, and were any one listen- 
 ing, — that person had him decidedly at advan- 
 tage ! 
 
 What had put it into his head that some one 
 might be listening ? It may have come by 
 pure accident — if there be such a thing. The 
 idea returned, stealing over his mind like a 
 chilling breath. What if some one had all 
 along been close at hand, with eyes fixed 
 upon him ! — Helwyse found himself sitting
 
 1 24 IDOLATRY. 
 
 perfectly still, holding his breath to listen. 
 There was no disguising it — he felt uneasy. 
 He wished his cigar had not gone out. On 
 second thoughts, he wished there had been no 
 cigar at all ; because if any one were near, the 
 cigar must have pointed out the smoker's pre- 
 cise position. The uneasiness did not lessen, 
 but grew more defined. 
 
 It was like the sensation felt when pointed at 
 by a human finger, or persistently stared at. 
 Was there, indeed, any one near ? No sound 
 or movement gave answer, but the odd sensa- 
 tion continued. Helwyse fancied he could now 
 tell whence it came, — it was from the left, and 
 not far away. He peered earnestly thither- 
 ward, but his eyes only swallowed blackness. 
 
 Was not this carrying a whim to a foolish 
 length ? If he thought he had a companion, 
 why not speak and end the doubt ? But the 
 dense silence, darkness, uncertainty, made 
 common-sense seem out of place. The whole
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. I 25 
 
 black fog, the sea, the earth Itself, seemed to be 
 pressing down his will ! The longer he delayed 
 the weaker he grew. 
 
 A slight shifting of his position caused him 
 all at once to encounter the eyes of the unseen 
 presence with his own ! The stout-nerved 
 young fellow w^as startled to the very heart. 
 Was the unseen presence startled also ? At 
 all events, the shock found Balder Helwyse his 
 tongue, seldom before tied up without his 
 consent ! 
 
 " I hope I'm not disturbing your solitude ? 
 You are not a noisy neighbour, sir ! " 
 
 So flat fell the words on the blank darkness, 
 It seemed as If there could never be a reply. 
 Nevertheless, a reply came. 
 
 " You must come much nearer me than you 
 are, to disturb my solitude. It does not consist 
 in being without a companion." 
 
 The quality of this voice of darkness was 
 peculiar. It sounded old, yet of an age that
 
 126 IDOLATRY. 
 
 had not out-lived the devil of youth. Probably 
 the invisibility of the speaker enhanced its 
 effect. With most of the elements of pleasing 
 It was nevertheless repulsive. It was soft, 
 fluent, polished, — but savage licence was not 
 far off, hard-held by a slender leash : an under- 
 lying suggestion of harsh discordance. The 
 utterance, though somewhat rapid was carefully 
 distinct. 
 
 Helwyse had the gift of familiarity — of that 
 rare kind of familiarity which does not degene- 
 rate Into contempt. But there was an incon- 
 gruity about this person, hard to assimilate. In 
 a couple of not very original sentences, he had 
 wrought upon his listener an effect of depraved 
 intellectual power, strangely combined with art- 
 less simplicity — an unspeakably distasteful con- 
 junction ! Imagination, freed from the check of 
 the senses, easily becomes grotesque ; and Hel- 
 wyse, unable to see his companion, had no 
 difficulty In picturing him as a grisly monster,
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. 12'J 
 
 having a satanic head set upon the ingenuous 
 shoulders of a child. And what was Helwyse 
 himself ? No longer surely the gravely humour- 
 ous moraliser ? the laws of harmony forbid ! 
 He likewise is a monster, — say (since grotesque- 
 ness is the fashion) the heart of Lucifer burning 
 beneath the cool brain of a Grecian sage. The 
 symbolism is not inapt, since Helwyse — while 
 afflicted with pride and ambition as abstract as 
 boundless — had a logical fearless brain, and 
 keen delight in beauty. — 
 
 " I was just thinking," remarked the latter 
 monster, *' that this was a good place for con- 
 fidential conversation." 
 
 '* You believe then that talking relieves the 
 mind ! " rejoined the former, softly. 
 
 ** I believe a thief or a murderer would be 
 glad of an hour — such as now passes — to 
 impart the story of what is dragging him to 
 Hell. — And even the best houses are better for 
 an airing ! "
 
 128 IDOLATRY. 
 
 *' A pregnant Idea ! There are certainly 
 some topics one would like to discuss, free from 
 the restraint which responsibility imposes. — 
 Have you ever reflected on the subject of 
 omnipotence ? " 
 
 Somewhat confounded at this bold question, 
 Helwyse hesitated a moment. 
 
 " I can't see you, remember, any more than 
 you can see me ! " insinuated the voice 
 demurely. 
 
 " I believe I have sometimes asked myself 
 whether It were obtainable — how It might be 
 approximated," admitted Helwyse, cautiously; 
 for he began to feel that even darkness might 
 be too transparent for the utterance of some 
 thoughts. 
 
 " But you never got a satisfactory answer, 
 and are not therefore omnipotent ? Well, the 
 reason probably is that you began wrongly. 
 Did it ever occur to you to try the method of 
 sm r
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. 1 29 
 
 " To obtain omnipotence ? — No ! " 
 " It would not be right, eh ? " chuckled the 
 voice. " But then one must lay aside prejudice 
 if one wants to be all-powerful ! Now, sin 
 denotes separation : the very etymology of the 
 word should have attracted the attention of an 
 ambitious man, such as you seem to be. It is 
 a path separate from all other paths, and there- 
 fore worth exploring." 
 
 "It leads to weakness, not to power ! " 
 "If followed in the wrong spirit — very true. 
 But the wise man sins and is strong ! See how 
 frank I am ! — But don't let me monopolise the 
 conversation." 
 
 " I should like to hear your argument, if you 
 have one. You are a prophet of new things." 
 
 " Sin is an old force, though it may be applied 
 in new ways. — Well, you will admit that the 
 true sinner is the only true reformer and 
 philosopher among men ? — No ? — I will explain 
 then. The world is full of discordances for
 
 130 IDOLATRY. 
 
 which man is not to blame. His endeavour to 
 meet and harmonise this discordance is called 
 sin. His indignation at disorder — rebellion 
 against it — attempts to right it — are crimes ! 
 That is the vulgar argument, which wise men 
 smile at." 
 
 '' I may be very dull, but I think your 
 explanations need explaining ! " 
 
 '' We will take some examples. What is the 
 liar, but one who sees the false relations of things, 
 and seeks to put them in the true ? The mission 
 of the thief, again. Is to equalise the notoriously 
 unjust distribution of wealth. A fundamental 
 defect in the principles of human association gave 
 birth to the murderer ; and as for the adulterer, 
 he is an Immortal protest against the absurd 
 laws which interfere between the sexes. — Are 
 not these men, and others of like stamp, the 
 bulwarks of true society ? — our leaders towards 
 justice and freedom ? " 
 
 Whether this were satire, madness, or earnest,
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. I3I 
 
 Helwyse could not determine. The night fog 
 had got into his brain. He made shift, how- 
 ever, to say that the criminal class were not, as 
 a mere matter of fact, the most powerful. 
 
 ** Again you misapprehend me," rejoined the 
 voice with perfect suavity. " No doubt there 
 are many weak and foolish persons who com- 
 mit crimes ; nay, I will admit that the vast 
 majority of criminals are weak and foolish. , 
 But that does not affect the dignity of the true 
 sinner — he who sins from exalted motives. 
 Ignorance is the only real crime — polluting 
 deeds that, wisely done, are sublime. Sin Is 
 culture!" 
 
 ''Were I, then, from motives of self-culture, 
 to kill you, I should be taking a long step 
 towards rising in your estimation?" put in 
 Helwyse. 
 
 "Admirable!" softly exclaimed the voice, in 
 a tone as of an approving pat on the back. 
 " Certainly I should be the last to deny it !
 
 132 IDOLATRY. 
 
 But would It not be more for the general good 
 were I, who have long been a student of these 
 arcana, to kill a seeming novice like you ! It 
 would assure me of having had one sincere 
 disciple !" 
 
 " I wonder whether he's really mad ?" mused 
 Balder Helwyse, shuddering a little in the 
 dampness. 
 
 ** But badinage aside," resumed this loqua- 
 cious voice, " although there is so much talk 
 and dispute about evil, very few people know 
 what evil essentially is. Now, there are some 
 things the mere doing of which, by the most 
 involuntary agent, would at once stamp his 
 soul with the conviction of ineffable sin. He 
 would have touched the essence of evil. And' 
 if a wise man has done that, he has had in his 
 hand the key to omnipotence !" 
 
 ** It is easily had, then ! A man need but 
 take his Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and run 
 through the catalogue of crimes. He would be
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. 1 33 
 
 sure of finding your key hidden beneath some 
 of them." 
 
 " No ; you do Moses scant justice ! He — 
 shrewd soul ! — was too cunning to fall Into such 
 an error as that. He forbade a few Insignifi- 
 cant and harmless acts which every one Is 
 liable to commit. His policy was no less 
 sagacious than simple. By amusing mankind 
 with such trumpery, he lured them off the scent 
 of true sin. Believe me, the artifice was no 
 idle one ! Should mankind learn the secret, a 
 generation would not pass before the world 
 would be turned upside down, and Its present 
 Ruler be buried in the ruins !" 
 
 At this point surely Helwyse got up and 
 went to his state-room, without listening to 
 another word ? — Not so ! the Lucifer In him 
 was getting the better of the sage. He wanted 
 to hear all that the voice of darkness had to 
 say. There might be something new, some- 
 thing instructive, In It. He might chance to
 
 1 34 IDOLATRY. 
 
 hear a word that would unbar the door he had 
 striven so long to open. He aimed at know- 
 ledge and power beyond recognised human 
 reach. He had taken thought with himself 
 keenly and deeply, but was still uncertain and 
 unsatisfied. Here opened a new avenue so 
 untried as to transcend common criticism. The 
 temptation to omnipotence is a grand thing, 
 and may have shaken greater men than Hel- 
 wyse ; and he had trained himself to regard it 
 — not exactly as a temptation ! As for good 
 or bad methods, at a certain intellectual height 
 such distinctions vanish. Vulgar immorality 
 he would turn from as from anything vulgar ; 
 but refined philosophic immorality as a weapon 
 of power — there was fascination in it ! 
 
 Folly and delusion ! But Helwyse was only 
 Helwyse, careering through pitchy darkness, on 
 a viewless sea, with a plausible voice at his ear 
 insinuating villainous thoughts with an air of 
 devilish good-fellowship ! —
 
 A COLLISION IMMINENT. I 35 
 
 The " Empire State" was at this moment 
 four and a-half miles north-east of the schooner 
 whose bowsprit she was destined to carry away. 
 The steamer was makinof ten knots an hour ; 
 the schooner was slowly drifting with the tide 
 into the line of the steamer's course. The 
 catastrophe was, therefore, about twenty-seven 
 minutes distant.
 
 IX. 
 
 THE VOICE OF DARKNESS. 
 
 The fog- whistle screeched dismally. Helwyse 
 took his foot off the camp-stool in front of him, 
 and sat upright. 
 
 *' Do you know this secret of sin V he asked. 
 
 ** It must, of course, be an object of specula- 
 tion to a thoughtful man," answered the voice, 
 modesdy parrying the question. " But I assure 
 you that only a man of Intellect — of genius — 
 has in him the intelligence, the sublime reach 
 of soul, which could attain the full solution of 
 the problem. They who merely blunder into 
 it would fail to grasp the grand significance of 
 the idea." 
 
 " But you affirm that whoever fairly masters 
 the problem of absolute sin, would have God 
 and His kingdom at his mercy ?"
 
 THE VOICE OF DARKNESS. 1 37 
 
 " I am loth to appear boastful, but I do 
 apprehend the fact to be not unlike what you 
 suggest," returned the voice, with a subdued 
 gusto. ** It would depend upon our hypo- 
 thetical person's discretion, and his views as to 
 the claims of the august Being who has so 
 long controlled the human race, — how much 
 the existing order of things might have to fear 
 from him. I should imagine that the august 
 Being, if He be as wise as they say He is, 
 would be careful how He treated the hypo- 
 thetical person !" 
 
 "You are a liar!" said Helwyse unceremoni- 
 ously. "Why is not Satan, who must possess this 
 all-powerful secret, supreme over the universe ?" 
 
 Instead of taking offence (as Helwyse, to do 
 him justice, had hoped ; for his Berserker blood, 
 which boiled only at heaven-and-hell tempera- 
 ture, was beginning to stir in him) — so far from 
 being offended, the voice only uttered its pe- 
 culiar quiet chuckle.
 
 138 IDOLATRY. 
 
 " Your frankness charms me ! — it proves you 
 worthy to learn. — Satan — supposing there is 
 such a personage — divides with the august 
 Being the sovereignty of the spiritual world. 
 Were I a cynic, I should say he owned, at 
 least, one - half the physical world into the 
 bargain ! But Satan is only a spirit, and his 
 power over men but as the power of a dream. 
 Were a Satan to arise in the flesh, so that man- 
 kind could see and touch him, and hear his 
 
 voice with their fleshly ears there were a 
 
 Satan! Already has the Incarnation of good- 
 ness appeared to men, and though the world is 
 moved to virtue slowly only and reluctantly, 
 mark how mighty has been his Influence ! 
 What think you, then, would be the power of 
 a Christ of Evil, opening to men the path 
 they already grope for ? — I tell you the 
 human race would be his only ! Hell, full to 
 bursting with their hurrying souls, would out- 
 weigh heaven In the balance ! The teller
 
 THE VOICE OF DARKNESS. I 39 
 
 of the secret would be king above all — for 
 ever!" 
 
 The sinuous voice had twined round the 
 listener's mind, swaddling the vigorous limbs 
 into imbecile inertia. When before now did 
 a sane human brain suffer Itself to be duped 
 by sophistry? This case were worth marking 
 if only because it is unparalleled. 
 
 " And the only punishable sin is ignorance," 
 muttered Helwyse. " Well, I have thought so, 
 too; and questioned whether a man might have 
 power over himself to put his hand to evil and 
 to good alike, remaining impartial and impas- 
 sive; and so make good and evil alike minister 
 to his culture and raise him upwards!" 
 
 " The question does credit to your wit," 
 chimed in the voice of darkness. *' Whoever 
 has in him the making of a deity, must learn 
 the nature of opposites. The soldier will not 
 join battle without studying the tactics of his 
 enemy. Without experimental knowledge of
 
 140 IDOLATRY. 
 
 both evil and good, none save a fool would be- 
 lieve that a man may become all powerful." 
 
 " From the care with which you avoid speak- 
 ing the name of God, — if from no other cause, — 
 I should take you to be the Devil himself!" ob- 
 served Helwyse bluntly. 
 
 " Well, profanity is vulgar! As to my being 
 the Devil, it is too dark here for either denial 
 or acknowledgment to be of practical use. But 
 (to be serious) about this secret — " 
 
 The voice paused interrogatively. Lucifer, 
 speaking through Helwyse's lips, demanded 
 sullenly, 
 
 " Well, — what is the secret ? " — 
 
 What, indeed ! — Why, there is no such secret : 
 it is a bugbear ! But the moral perversion of 
 the person who could soberly put the question 
 that Helwyse asked is not so easily disposed of. 
 It met, indeed, with full recognition. As for 
 the subtle voice, having accomplished its main 
 purpose, it now began to evade the point and
 
 THE VOICE OF DARKNESS. I4I 
 
 run into digressions ; until the collision came and 
 ended the conversation for ever. 
 
 " Unfortunately," said the voice, " the secret 
 is not such as can be told In a word. Like 
 all profound knowledge, It can be communicated 
 only by leading the learner step by step over 
 the ground traversed by the original discoverer. 
 Let me, as a sort of preliminary, suppose a 
 case." 
 
 Hereupon ensued a considerable silence, and 
 Helwyse seemed to himself once more a de- 
 tached atom flying without guide or control 
 through infinite darkness. Where was he? — 
 what was he? Did the world exist, — the broad 
 earth, the sunny sky, the beauty, the sound, the 
 order and sweet succession of nature ? Was he 
 but a shadow that had dreamed a strange dream 
 for a moment, and would anon be quenched, 
 and know what had seemed Self no more? — 
 Strangely, through the doubt and uncertainty, 
 Helwyse felt the pressure of his shoulders
 
 142 IDOLATRY. 
 
 against the cabin wall, and the touch of the dead 
 cigar between his fingers ! 
 
 The voice, resuming, restored him to a reality 
 that seemed less trustworthy than the doubt. 
 The tone was not quite the same as heretofore. 
 The smooth mocking had given place to a 
 hurried excitement, alien to the philosophic 
 temperament. 
 
 " A man kidnaps the child of his enemy, 
 through the child to revenge himself. — Kill it ? 
 — no ! he is no short-sighted bungler : he has 
 refinement, foresight, understanding. She is 
 but an infant — open and impressible, warm and 
 sanguine! He isolates her from sight and reach. 
 He pries into her nature with keenest delicacy 
 — no leaf is unread. Being learnt — he works 
 upon it; touches each budding trait with gen- 
 tlest impulse. No violence! he seems to leave 
 her to her own development; yet nothing goes 
 against his will. More than half is left to 
 nature, but his scarce perceptible touches
 
 THE VOICE OF DARKNESS. 1 43 
 
 bias nature. Ah! the idealisation of educa- 
 tion." 
 
 " This sounds more real than hypothetical ! " 
 thought Helwyse. 
 
 " So cunning was he, he reversed in her mind 
 the universal law. Evil was good — good, evil. 
 She grew fast and strong, for evil is the sweeter 
 food — it is rich earth to the plant. She never 
 knew that evil existed, yet evil was all she 
 knew! For, whatever is forced, reacts: he 
 never taught her positive sin, lest she perversely 
 turn to good." 
 
 " Did he mean insensibly to initiate her into 
 the knowledge of absolute sin.'^" 
 
 " Such would be his purpose — such would be 
 his purpose ! To make her a devil, without the 
 chance of knowing it possible to be anything 
 else!" 
 
 " He was a fool! " growled Helwyse. " The 
 plan is folly — impracticable in twenty ways, A 
 soul cannot be so influenced. Devils are not
 
 144 IDOLATRY. 
 
 made by education. The only devil would be 
 the educator ! " 
 
 But the voice had forgotten his presence. It 
 ceased not to mutter to itself while he was 
 speaking, and now it broke forth again. 
 
 " Years have passed — she is a woman now. 
 She knows not that the world exists. All is 
 yet latent within her. But the time is at hand 
 when the latent forces shall flower! Plunged 
 into life with nothing to hold by — no truth, no 
 divine help: her marvellous powers and pas- 
 sions in full strength — all trained to drag her 
 down — not one aspiring : maddened by new 
 thoughts — limitless opportunities opening be- 
 fore her, she will plunge into such an abyss of 
 sin as has been undreamt of since the Deluge!" 
 
 '* Well ? what of it ? what is the upshot ? " 
 questioned Helwyse, with sullen impatience. 
 The emotion now apparent in the voice, un- 
 canny though it was, counteracted the spell 
 wrought by its purely intellectual depravity.
 
 THE VOICE OF DARKNESS. 1 45 
 
 Helwyse was perhaps beginning to understand 
 that he had ventured his stock of virgin gold 
 for a handful of unclean waste-paper! 
 
 " He will come back — her father — my enemy! 
 I have waited for him from youth to age. I 
 have seen him in my dreams, and in visions. I 
 am with him continually — we talk together. 
 First, cringingly and softly, I lead him to recall 
 the past, — to speak of his dead wife, — of his 
 lost child — her baby ways and words. I lure 
 him on until imagination has fired his love, and 
 given life and vividness to his memory. Then 
 I whisper — She is alive ! she is near ! in a mo- 
 ment he shall behold her ! And while his 
 heart beats and he trembles, I bring her 
 forth in her beauty. — Take her! your daugh- 
 ter ! the only devil on earth : but devils 
 shall spring like grass in the track of her 
 footsteps! " — 
 
 The voice had worked itself into a frenzy, 
 and forgetting secrecy, had crazily exposed 
 
 I. K
 
 146 IDOLATRY. 
 
 Itself. Its owner was probably some poor 
 lunatic, subject to fits of madness. But Hel- 
 wyse was full of scorn and anger, born of that 
 bitterest disappointment that admits not even 
 the poor comfort of having worthily aspired. 
 He had been duped — and by the cobwebs of a 
 madman's brain ! He broke into a short laugh, 
 harsh to the ear, and answering to no mirthful 
 impulse. 
 
 ** So ! you are the hero of your story ? You 
 have brooded all your life over a crazy scheme 
 of stabbing a father through his child, until you 
 have become as blind as you are vicious ! As 
 for the girl, you may have made her ignor- 
 ant and stupid, or even idiotic : but that she 
 should be Queen of Hell, or anything of that 
 kind—." 
 
 He stopped, for his unseen companion was 
 evidently beyond hearing him. The man 
 seemed to be actually struggling in a fit — gasp- 
 ing and choking. It was a piteous business —
 
 THE VOICE OF DARKNESS. 1 47 
 
 not less piteous than revolting. But Helwyse 
 felt no pity — only ugly, hateful, unrelenting 
 anger, needing not much stirring to blaze forth 
 in fearful passion. Where now were his wise 
 saws — his philosophic indifference ? Self- 
 respect is the pith of such supports, which 
 being gone, the supports fail. 
 
 " My music — my music ! " gasped the voice ; 
 " my music or I shall die ! " 
 
 *' Die ? Yes, it were well you should die. 
 
 You cumber the earth ! Shall I do it ? " 
 
 Helwyse muttered to his heart : '' merely as a 
 means of culture ! " 
 
 Perhaps it was said only in a mood of 
 sardonic jesting. The next moment, no doubt, 
 Balder Helwyse would have retired to his cabin, 
 leaving the voice of darkness forever. But at 
 that moment, the hurried flash of a lantern on 
 the captain's bridge fell full on the young man's 
 face and shoulders, gleaming in his eyes and 
 lighting up the masses of yellow hair and
 
 14^ IDOLATRY. 
 
 mighty beard. He was standing with one 
 hand resting upon the taffrall. The dim halo 
 of the fog, folding him about, made him look 
 like a spirit.
 
 X. 
 
 HELWYSE RESISTS THE DEVIL. 
 
 As the light so fell, hoarse voices shouted, and 
 then a concussion shivered through the steamer, 
 and her headway was stopped. But of this, 
 Helwyse knew nothing : for the voice of dark- 
 ness had burst forth In a cry of fear, amaze- 
 ment and hate ; and In another breath, he 
 found himself clutched tightly In long wiry 
 arms, and felt panting breath hot against his 
 face. 
 
 He struggled at first to free himself, but he 
 was held in the grip of a madman ! Then did 
 the turbid current of his blood begin to leap and 
 tingle, and strange half-thoughts darted through 
 his mind like deformed spectres, capering as 
 they flew ! The bulwark of his will was 
 overthrown ; he could not poise himself long
 
 150 IDOLATRY. 
 
 enough to recover his self-sway. He was 
 sHding headlong down a steep, with velocity 
 momently increasing. — 
 
 Was it Balder Helwyse that was struggling 
 thus furiously, his body full of fire, his brain of 
 madness, his heart quick-beating with savage, 
 wicked, thirsty joy ? His soul, — his own no 
 longer — was bestridden by a frantic demon who, 
 brimming over with hot glee, drove him whirl- 
 ing blindly on, with an ever-growing purpose 
 which surcharged each smallest artery, and 
 furnished a condensed dart of malice wherewith 
 to stab and stab again the opposing soul. He 
 waxed every instant madder, wickeder, more 
 devilishly exultant ; and now, although panting, 
 breathless, pricking at every pore with the 
 agony of the strain, — he could scarce forbear 
 screaming with delight ! for he felt he was 
 gaining, and — oh ecstasy ! knew that his ad- 
 versary felt it also, and that his heart was 
 as full of black despair and terror, as was
 
 HELWYSE RESISTS THE DEVIL. 151 
 
 his conqueror's of intolerable triumph. — Gain- 
 ing still ! — 
 
 Strange, that all through this wild frenzy in 
 which body and soul were rapt, the essential 
 Balder Helwyse seemed to be looking on, with 
 a curious repellant twist of the features, com- 
 menting on what was going forward, and noting, 
 with quiet interest and accuracy, every varying 
 phase of the struggle; — noting as of significance 
 that the sway of the demon of murder made the 
 idea of other crimes seem beyond words con- 
 genial, enticing, delicious. 
 
 Steadily, through the storm of lawless fury, 
 the pre-destined victory has been drawing near ! 
 The throbbing of his enemy's heart — Helwyse 
 feels it : did ever lover so rejoice in the palpi- 
 tations of his mistress ? O the wine of life ! 
 drunk from the cup of murder ! — Hear how the 
 wretch's voice breaks choking from his throat ! 
 he would beg for mercy, but cannot — shall not ! 
 Keep your fingers in his throat; the other
 
 152 IDOLATEY. 
 
 hand creeps warily downwards. — Now, hurl 
 him up — over ! 
 
 — But with what an ugly gulp the black water 
 swallowed his body ! —
 
 XI. 
 
 A DEAD WEIGHT. 
 
 Was it not well done ? Tempted to covet 
 imaginary wickedness, Helwyse was ripe for 
 real crime, — and who so worthy to suffer as the 
 tempter ? 
 
 He leaned panting against the taffrail. His 
 predominant feeling was that he had been 
 ensnared. His judgment had been drugged — 
 he had been lured on to evil. An infamous 
 conspiracy ! 
 
 His breath regained, he stood upright, and 
 in a mechanical manner began to arrange his 
 disordered dress. His haversack was gone, — 
 had been torn from his shoulders, and carried 
 overboard. An awkward loss ! for it contained, 
 among other things, certain valuable letters and 
 papers given him by his father ; not to speak of
 
 154 IDOLATRY. 
 
 a note-book of his own, and uncle Glyphic s 
 miniature. His dead enemy had carried off the 
 proofs of his murderer's identity ! 
 
 Not till now did Helwyse become aware of 
 an unusual tumult on the steamer. Had they 
 seen the deed ? He stood with set teeth, one 
 hand on the tafifrail. Rather than be taken 
 alive, he would leap over ! But it soon became 
 evident that the nucleus of excitement was else- 
 where. The " Empire State " was at a stand- 
 still. Captain and mates were shouting to one 
 another and at the sailors. By the flying light 
 of lanterns, Helwyse caught glimpses of the 
 sails and tall masts of a schooner. He began 
 to comprehend what had happened. 
 
 " Thank God ! that saves me," he said with 
 a sense of relaxation. Then he turned and 
 peered fearfully into the black abyss beyond the 
 stern. — Nothing there ! nothing save the heavy 
 breathing of remorseless waves. 
 
 The statistics of things God has been thanked
 
 A DEAD WEIGHT. 15 5 
 
 for, — what piquant instances would such a collec- 
 tion afford ! Any unusual stir of emotion seems 
 to impel a reference to something higher than 
 the world. Only a bloodless calm appears 
 secure from God's interference. It is worthy 
 of remark, that this was the first time in Hel- 
 wyse's life (at least since his arrival at years of 
 discretion) that he had thanked God for any- 
 thing. It was owing — not to his being of a 
 specially ungrateful disposition, but, to his 
 peculiar ideas upon the subject of a Supreme 
 Being. God, he believed, was no more than 
 the highest phase of man ; and he saw in any 
 man of sufficient natural endowment, a possible 
 God : just as every American citizen is a pos- 
 sible President ! What is of moment at pre- 
 sent, however, is the fact, that Helwyse's first 
 inconsistency of word with creed, dates at the 
 time he forsook his self-control on board the 
 midnight steamer. 
 
 In that prayer of thanksgiving, his passion
 
 156 IDOLATRY. 
 
 passed away. After unnaturally distending 
 every sense and faculty, it had suddenly ebbed, 
 leaving the irritating consciousness of a painful 
 vacuum. Something must be done to fill it. 
 One drawback to crime seems to be, that it is 
 not sufficient unto itself. It creates a craving 
 that needs to be fed. The demon returns and 
 demands a fresh task ; and he returns again 
 for ever ! 
 
 Helwyse, therefore, plunged into the midst 
 of the uproar consequent upon the collision, 
 and tried to absorb something of the common 
 feeling of excitement, to Identify himself with 
 other men — no longer to be apart from them 
 and above them. But he did not succeed. It 
 seemed as though he never would feel excite- 
 ment or warmth In the blood again ! His deed 
 was a dead-weight that steadied him In spite of 
 his best efforts. His aim had hitherto been 
 not to forget himself: let him forget himself 
 now if he can !
 
 A DEAD WEIGHT. I 57 
 
 The uproar was over all too soon, and the 
 steamer was once more under- way. 
 
 " No serious harm done, Sir ! — no harm 
 done ! " observed a spruce steward to Hel- 
 wyse. 
 
 " No— no harm ! " 
 
 " By the way. Sir, thought I heard some one 
 sing out aft just afore we struck. You hear it, 
 Sir ? Thought some fellow'd gone overboard, 
 may be ! " 
 
 '* I saw no one," replied Helwyse ; nor had 
 he. But he turned away fearing that the brisk 
 steward might read prevarication in his face. 
 No, he had seen no one : but he had heard a 
 plunge ! The memory of it revolted him, yet 
 he could not banish it. Had there been a soul 
 in the body before it made that dive ? — even 
 for a few moments afterwards ? He would 
 have given much to know ! In theorising about 
 crime, he had maintained that the motive was 
 all. Now, though he could not controvert his
 
 158 IDOLATRY. 
 
 logic, he felt that it did not tell the whole truth. 
 He recognised a divine conservative virtue in 
 straws, and clutched at the smallest ! Through 
 the long torture of self-questioning and inde- 
 cision let us not follow him. Uncertainty is a 
 ghastly element in such a matter. 
 
 He groped his way back to the taffrail, — 
 why, he knew not ; but there he was at last ! 
 He might soliloquise now,^ — there was no 
 listener. He might light a cigar and smoke, — 
 no one would see him. But on second thoughts 
 — his cigars had gone overboard with the 
 haversack ! 
 
 He bent over the slender iron railing. 
 Where was — it, now ? — Miles away by this 
 time, swinging, swaying, down, — down, — down 
 to the bottom of the Sound ! Slowly turning 
 over as it sinks, its arms now thrown out, now 
 doubled underneath ; the legs sprawling help- 
 lessly ; the head loosely wagging on the dead 
 neck. Down, — down : now pitching slowly
 
 A DEAD WEIGHT. 1 59 
 
 head fonvards ; now snatched sideways by a 
 sudden current ; now righting and going 
 down standing, the hair floating straight up on 
 end. Down ! — O would it never have done 
 sinking, — sinking, — sinking ? Was the sea as 
 deep as Hell ? 
 
 But when it reached the bottom, would it 
 rest there ? Ah, no — not even then ! It would 
 drift about uneasily on the dark sand for a 
 while, the green gloom of the water above it. 
 Every hour it would grow less and less heavy : 
 by and by it would begin slowly to rise — rise ! 
 How horrible it looked now — not like itself, 
 that had been horrible enough before. Rising, 
 rising. O fearful thing ! why come to tell dead- 
 men's tales here ? You have done with the 
 world. What wants mankind with you ? Be- 
 gone ! sink, and rise no more ! — It will not sink : 
 still it rises, and the gloom lightens as it slowly 
 buoys upward ; the green light shrinkingly 
 rests upon it — reveals the dreadful features.
 
 l60 IDOLATRY. 
 
 The limbs are pliant no longer, but stiff — 
 terribly stiff and unyielding. Still it rises — 
 nearer, and nearer to the surface. See where 
 the throat has been gripped ! — Up it comes at 
 last, in the morning sun, amidst the sparkling, 
 laughing, pure blue waves — the swollen, dead 
 thing ! dead in the midst of the world's life : 
 hideous In the midst of the world's beauty. It 
 bobs and floats and will sink no more — would 
 rise to heaven if It could ! No need for that ! 
 the tide takes It, and creeps stealthily with it 
 towards the shore, and casts It with shudder 
 and recoil upon the beach. There It lies. — 
 
 Such visions haunted Helwyse as he leant 
 over the taffrall. He had not suspected, when 
 he started, upon how long a voyage he was 
 bound. How many hours was It since he and 
 the cook had dined so merrily together ? Was 
 such a contrast possible ? Surely no more hide- 
 ous delusion than this of time, ever imposed 
 upon mankind. For months and years he jogs
 
 A DEAD WEIGHT. l6l 
 
 on with us, a dull and sober-paced pedestrian. 
 Then comes a sudden eternity ! But time 
 thrusts a clock in our faces, and shows us that 
 the hands have marked a minute only. Shall 
 we believe him ? 
 
 Helwyse suffered from a vivid imagination. 
 He went not to his room that night. He kept 
 the deck and tried to talk with the men, follow- 
 ing them about and asking aimless questions, 
 until they began to give him short answers. 
 Where were his pride and serene superiority 
 to the friendship or enmity of his race ? his 
 philosophic self-criticism and fanciful badinage ? 
 his resolute conquering eyes ? his bearing of 
 graceful careless authority ? Had he packed 
 all these attributes in his travelling-bag, and 
 cast them with it upon the waters ? and would 
 they, no more than he, to whose care they were 
 entrusted, ever come back ? 
 
 With every new hour morning seemed further 
 off. Helwyse, in his objectless wanderings,
 
 1 62 IDOLATRY. 
 
 came at last to the well of the engine-room, and 
 hung over It, gazing at the bright swift sliding 
 machinery, studying all the parts, tracing the 
 subtle transmission of force from piece to piece. 
 Here was companionship for him. It was a 
 beautiful combinatlon-^so polished, effective, 
 logical : like the minds of some philosophers 
 moving with super-human power and regularity 
 — but lifeless ! 
 
 Helwyse watched it long, but Its monotony 
 finally wearied him. It was doing admirable 
 work, but It never swerved from its course at 
 the call of sentiment or emotion. Its tra- 
 vesty of life was repulsive. Machinery is the 
 most excellent invention of man, but is modelled 
 after no heavenly prototype, and will have no 
 part in the millennium. It seems to annul space 
 and time, yet gives no taste of eternity. 
 Man lives more quickly by it, but not more. 
 With another kind of weapon must the true 
 victory over matter be achieved!
 
 XII. 
 
 MORE VAGARIES. 
 Most benlorn and beautiful was the morninor. 
 
 o o 
 
 The ''Empire State" emerged from the fog, 
 and left It, a rosy cloud, astern. The chasing 
 waves sparkled and danced for joy. The sun 
 was up, fresh and unstained as yesterday. 
 Night, that had changed so much, had not 
 dimmed him. With the same power and 
 brightness as for Innumerable past centuries 
 his glorious glance coloured the grey sky blue. 
 Helwyse, (he was at the stern taffrall again,) 
 looked at the marvellous sphere with unwink- 
 ing eyes, till It blurred and swam before him 
 and danced In coloured rings. It warmed his 
 face, but penetrated no deeper. Looking away, 
 black suns moved before his eyes everywhere,
 
 1 64 ' IDOLATRY. 
 
 and the earth looked dim and shabby, as though 
 bhghted by a curse. 
 
 Helwyse had not slept, partly from disinclina- 
 tion to the solitude of his berth, partly because 
 the thought of awakening dismayed him. 
 Nevertheless, he could scarcely believe In what 
 had happened now. He stood on the very 
 spot ; here was the semi-circle of railing, the 
 camp-stools, the white cabin-wall against which 
 he had leaned. But the blackness of night had 
 so utterly passed away, that it seemed as if the 
 deed done in it must in some manner have van- 
 ished likewise. What is fact at one time looks 
 unreal at another. It must be associated with 
 all times and moods before it can be fully com- 
 prehended and accepted. 
 
 Glancing down at the deck, Helwyse saw 
 there the cigar he had been smoking the 
 night before, flattened out by the tread of a 
 foot ; and lying close beside it, a sparkling ring. 
 He picked It up ; It was a diamond of purest
 
 MORE VAGARIES. 1 65 
 
 water, curiously caught beween the mouths of 
 two Httle serpents, whose golden and black 
 bodies, twisted round each other, formed the 
 hoop. Realising after a moment from whose 
 finger it must have fallen, he had an impulse 
 to fling It far Into the sea; but his second 
 thought was not to part from It. True, the 
 idea of Its former owner must always be hateful 
 to his murderer ; but the bond between their 
 souls was closer than that between man and 
 wife, and more indissoluble : and of such an un- 
 natural union this ring was a fair emblem. Un- 
 natural though the union were, it seemed to 
 Helwyse at the time better than total solitude. 
 
 He felt heavy and inelastic, averse to himself, 
 but still more to society. He wished to see 
 men and women, yet not to be seen of them. 
 He had used to be ready In speech and willing 
 to listen ; now, no subject interested him save 
 one, on which his lips must be forever closed. 
 When the sun had made himself thoroughly at
 
 1 66 IDOLATRY. 
 
 home on earth and in heaven, Helwyse went 
 to his state-room, feeHng unclean from the soul 
 out. While making his toilet, he took care to 
 leave the window-blind up, that he might at 
 any moment see the blue sky and water, and 
 the bright shore with its foliage and occasional 
 houses. He shrank from severing even for an 
 instant his communication with the beneficent 
 spirit of nature. Yet, nature could not comfort 
 him ; in his extremest need he found her most 
 barren. He had been wont to rejoice in her as 
 the creature of his own senses, but when he 
 asked her to sympathise with his pain, she 
 laughed at him-^the magnificent coquette ! and 
 bade him (since she was only his reflection) be 
 content with his own sympathy. Truly, if man 
 and nature be thus allied, and God be but de- 
 veloped man, then is self-sufficiency the sole 
 virtue worth cultivating, and idolatry must be- 
 gin at home! 
 
 His efforts to improve his appearance were
 
 MORE VAGARIES. 1 6/ 
 
 not satisfactory ; the loss of his toilet articles 
 embarrassed him not a little, and he, moreover, 
 lac'ved zest to enter Into the business with his 
 cus:omary care. And what he did was done — 
 not merely for his own satisfaction as hereto- 
 fore — but with an eye to the criticisms of other 
 people. His naive unconscious Independence 
 had got a blow. Having done his best he went 
 out, pale and heavy-eyed, the diamond ring on 
 his finger. 
 
 The passengers had begun to assemble In the 
 cabin. It seemed to Helwyse, as he entered, 
 that one and all stared at him with suspicious 
 curiosity. He half expected to behold an ac- 
 cuser rise up and point a dreadful finger at him. 
 But, in truth, the sensation he created was no- 
 thing more than common ; it was his morbid 
 sensitiveness that for the first time took note of 
 it. He had been accustomed to look at him- 
 self as at a third person, in whose faults and 
 successes he was alike interested; but, although
 
 1 6S IDOLATRY. 
 
 his present mental attitude might have moved 
 him to smile, he actually felt no such impulse. 
 The hue of his deed had permeated all possible 
 forms of himself, thus barring him from any 
 standpoint whence to see its humorous aspect. 
 The sun would not shine on it ! 
 
 As time passed on and no one offered to de- 
 nounce him, he began to be a little at ease. 
 Seeing the steward, with whom he had spoken! 
 the night before, he asked him whereabouts hel 
 supposed the " Resurrection " was ? 
 
 " Oh ! she'll be in by night, sir, safe enough ! 
 Wind's freshened up a good bit since. — Beg 
 pardon, sir, did you happen to know the party 
 next door to you?" 
 
 *' I know no one. What about him?" 
 
 *' Can't find him nowhere, sir ! Door locked 
 this morning — hadn't used his bed. Must have 
 come aboard, for there was a violin lying on the 
 bed, in a black box, for all the world like a little 
 coffin, sir. Queer, ain't it?"
 
 MORE VAGARIES. 1 69 
 
 The Steward was called away, but Helwyse's 
 uneasiness had returned. Did this fellow sus- 
 pect nothing? The student of men could not 
 read his face ; the power of Insight seemed to 
 have forsaken him. Reason could tell him that 
 it was Impossible he should be suspected, but 
 reason no longer satisfied him. 
 
 He left the cabin, and once more sought the 
 deck, harried and anxious. Why could he not 
 be stolid and indifferent, as were many worse 
 criminals than he ? Or was his disquiet the 
 gauge of his moral accountability ? By as 
 much as he was more finely gifted than other 
 men, was the stain of sin upon his soul more 
 ineffaceable than upon theirs ? Last night, 
 ignorance was the only evil ! but had he been 
 satisfied with less wisdom, might he not have 
 sinned with more impunity ? — Nevertheless, 
 Balder Helwyse would hardly have been willing 
 to purchase greater ease at the price of being 
 less a man.
 
 I 70 IDOLATRY. 
 
 The Steamer descended the narrow and swift 
 current of East River, rounded Castle Garden, 
 and reached her pier before eight o'clock. 
 Shoulder to shoulder with the other passengers 
 Helwyse descended the gang-plank. He 
 reached the street unmolested, and beginning 
 to realise that the notice he attracted was less 
 on account of any visible brand of Cain upon 
 him, than because his beard and hair were at 
 variance with the fashion of the day. It 
 occurred to him, moreover, that his unique 
 appearance was now unsafe as well as irksome. 
 Were — something found, in connection with 
 evidence more or less circumstantial, how 
 readily could he be pointed out I — how many 
 and easily described were his peculiarities ! 
 His carelessness of public remark had been 
 folly! The sooner his eccentricities were re- 
 duced, the better ! 
 
 At the corner of the street stood a couple of 
 policemen — ponderous, powerful fellows, able
 
 MORE VAGARIES. I /I 
 
 between them to carry to gaol the most re- 
 fractory criminal. One path was open to 
 Helwyse whereby to recover his self-respect, 
 and to regain his true footing with the world ; 
 and that led into the hands of those policemen ! 
 With a revulsion of feeling which was perhaps 
 less strange than it appears, he walked up to 
 them, resolved to surrender on a charge of 
 murder. How simple an issue to all his em- 
 barrassments ! 
 
 " Policemen!" he began, with a return of his 
 assured voice and hearing. They stared at 
 him, and one said, " How ?" 
 
 "Direct me to the best hotel near here!" 
 said Helwyse ; and they stared, and told him 
 the way to the Astor House. 
 
 There had been but the slightest hesitation 
 in Helwyse's mind, but during that pause he 
 had reconsidered his resolve, and said no to it. 
 Remembering some episodes of his past history, 
 he cannot hastily be accused of vulgar fear of
 
 1 72 IDOLATRY. 
 
 death. In his case, indeed, It may have 
 required more courage to close his mouth than 
 to open it. Be that as it might, the question 
 as to the degree and nature of his guilt was 
 still undecided in his own mind. Moreover, 
 had he been clear upon this point, he yet dis- 
 trusted the competence of human laws to do 
 him justice. He shrank from surrender less as 
 affecting his person than as superseding his 
 judgment. Failing himself and mankind, how- 
 ever, to what other court can he appeal ? 
 Should the fitting tribunal present itself, will 
 he have the nerve to face it ? 
 
 He did not go to the Astor House, not- 
 withstanding the trouble he had taken to ask 
 his way thither. He coasted along the more 
 obscure thoroughfares, seeming to find some- 
 thing congenial in them. Here were people, 
 many of whom had also committed crimes — 
 who were his brethren — whose eyes he need 
 not shun to meet. To be sure, they gave him
 
 MORE VAGARIES. 
 
 ^7?> 
 
 no friendly glances, taking him for some dainty 
 aristocrat who, from Idle curiosity, had sauntered 
 Into their domains. But Helwyse knew the 
 secret of his kinship ; and perhaps he indulged 
 a momentary wild dream of proclaiming himself 
 to them, entering Into their life, and vanishing 
 from that world which had known him hereto- 
 fore. It Is a shorter step than is generally 
 supposed, from human height to human degra- 
 dation. 
 
 A pale girl, with handsome features, careless 
 expression, and somewhat disordered hair, leant 
 out of a low window, her loose dress falling 
 partly open from her bosom as she did so. 
 
 ^' Where are you going, my love?" inquired 
 she, with a professionally attractive smile. 
 *' Aren't you going to give me a lock of that 
 sweet yellow hair ? — there's a duck !" 
 
 It so happened that Helwyse had never 
 before been openly accosted by a member of 
 this class of the community. Was this Infringe-
 
 1 74 IDOLATRY. 
 
 ment of the rule the result of his own fall, or of 
 her exceptional effrontery ? He had an indig- 
 nant glance ready poised, — but forbore to hurl 
 it ! The worst crime of the young woman was, 
 that she disposed of herself at a rate of remu- 
 neration exactly equivalent to the value of the 
 commodity ; whereas he, less economical and 
 orderly, had mortgaged his own soul by dispos- 
 ing of some one else's body, and was, if 
 anything, out of pocket by the transaction ! 
 Undoubtedly the young woman had the best of 
 it : very likely, had she been aware of the 
 circumstances, she would not have deigned him 
 so much as a smile. He therefore neither 
 yielded to her solicitations nor rebuked them, but 
 passed on. The adventure rectified his frater- 
 nising impulse. Albeit standing accountant for 
 so great a sin, the mire was as yet alien to him. 
 But there was pertinence in the young wo- 
 man's question — where was he going, indeed ? 
 Since the catastrophe on board the steamer, he
 
 MORE VAGARIES. I 75 
 
 had forgotten Doctor Glyphic. He felt small 
 inclination to meet him now ; but certain con- 
 siderations of personal interest wore another 
 colour than yesterday. Robbed of his self- 
 respect, he could ill afford to surrender worldly 
 wealth into the bargain. On the other hand, 
 to palm himself off upon his uncle for a true 
 man, was adding hypocrisy to his other crime. 
 
 Such an objection, however, would hardly 
 have turned the scale. Great crimes are mae- 
 nets of smaller ones. It was necessar}^ for 
 Helwyse to alter the entire scheme of his life- 
 voyage ; and since he had failed in beating up 
 against the wind, why not make all sail before 
 it ? Meanwhile it was easier to call on uncle 
 Hiero than to devise any new course of action ; 
 and thus (had matters been left to their natural 
 turn) mere inertia might have brought about 
 their meeting. 
 
 But the irony of events turns our sternest 
 resolves to ridicule. On the corner of the next
 
 1 76 IDOLATRY. 
 
 Street was a hairdresser's shop, with its genial 
 little proprietor, plump and smug, rubbing his 
 hands and smiling in the doorway. Beholding 
 the commanding figure of the yellow-bearded 
 young aristocrat afar off, his professional mouth 
 may well have watered over him. What a 
 harvest for shears and razor was here ! Dare 
 he hope that to him would be entrusted the 
 glorious task of reaping it ? 
 
 As Helwyse gained the corner, his weary 
 eyes took In the smiling hairdresser, the little 
 room beyond, cheerful with sunshine and 
 coloured paper-hangings, and the padded chair 
 for customers. ■ Here might he go In and rest 
 awhile, and rise up a new man — a stranger to 
 himself and to all who knew him. It was 
 fitting that the inward change should take effect 
 without — not to mention that the wearing of so 
 conspicuous a mane was as unsafe as it was 
 unsuitable. 
 
 He entered the shop therefore — the pro-
 
 MORE VAGARIES I 77 
 
 prietor backing and bowing before him — and 
 sat down in the padded chair with a sigh. 
 Immediately, he w^as enveloped in a light linen 
 robe, a towel was tucked in round his neck by 
 deft caressing fingers, the soothing murmur of 
 a voice was in his ear, and presently sounded 
 the click-click of shears. The descendant of 
 vikings closed his eyes and felt rather com- 
 fortable. 
 
 The peculiar colour and luxuriance of 
 Balder s hair were a marked attribute of the 
 Helwyse line. In these days of ponderous 
 genealogies, who would be surprised to learn 
 that the family sprang from that Balder, sur- 
 named the Beautiful, who was the sun-god of 
 Scandinavian mythology ? Certain distinctive 
 characteristics of his, physical as well as mental, 
 would appear to have been perpetuated with 
 marvellous faithfulness throughout the descent : 
 above all, golden locks, blue eyes, and a sunny 
 disposition. 
 
 I. M
 
 1 78 IDOLATRY. 
 
 For the rest, so far as sober history can trace 
 them back, they seem to have been a noble and 
 adventurous race of men, loving the sea, but 
 often taking a high part in the political affairs 
 of the nation. The sons were uniformly fair, 
 the daughters dark — owing, it was said, to the 
 first mother of the line having been a dark-eyed 
 woman. But the advent of a dark-eyed heir 
 had been foretold from the earliest times, not 
 without ominous — albeit obscure — hints as to 
 the part he would play in the family history. 
 The precise wording of no one of these old 
 prophecies has come down to us ; but they 
 appear in general to have intimated that the 
 dark-eyed Helwyse would bring the race to a 
 ruinous and disgraceful end, saving on the 
 fulfilment of certain conditions too improbable 
 to deserve recording. The dead must return 
 to life, the living must forsake their identity, 
 love must unite the blood of the victim to that 
 of the destroyer, — and other yet stranger things
 
 MORE VAGARIES. I 79 
 
 must happen, before the danger could be 
 averted. 
 
 The superstitious reverence paid to enigmat- 
 ical utterances of this kind has long passed 
 away, and if any meaning ever attaches to 
 them, it is apt to be sadly common-place. 
 Nevertheless, when Balder was born, and the 
 hereditary blue eyes were found wanting, the 
 circumstance was doubtless the occasion of 
 much half-serious banter among those to whom 
 the ominous prophecies were familiar. Cer- 
 tainly the young man had already made one 
 grave mistake ; and he could hardly have 
 followed it up by a more disgraceful retreat 
 than this to the hairdresser's saloon. The 
 shades of his heroic forefathers in Valhalla would 
 disown his shorn head with indignant scorn ; 
 for their golden locks had ever been sacred to 
 them as their honour. When the Roman 
 Empire was invaded by the Goths and Vandals, 
 a Helwyse — so runs the tale — was taken
 
 1 80 IDOLATRY. 
 
 prisoner and brought before the Roman 
 General. The latter summoned a barber and a 
 headsman, and Informed the captive that he 
 might choose between forfeiting his head, and 
 that which grew upon it. As to the precise 
 words in which the northern warrior couched 
 his reply, historians vary ; but they are agreed 
 upon the important point that his head was 
 chopped off without delay ! 
 
 Did the memory of these things bring no 
 blush to Balder's cheeks ? There he sat, as 
 indifferent, to all outward seeming, as though he 
 were asleep. This, however, may have been 
 the apathy consequent upon the abandonment 
 of lofty pretensions and sublime ambitions, 
 betraying a proud sensitiveness rather than any 
 lack of feeling. Balder Helwyse was not the 
 first man of parts to appear in an undignified 
 and unheroic light. The foremost man of all 
 this world whined, like a sick girl, for his 
 physic, and preposterously over-estimated his
 
 MORE VAGARIES. l8l 
 
 swimming powers : yet his greatness found 
 him out ! 
 
 In sober earnest, however — what real import- 
 ance attaches to Helwyse's doings at this 
 juncture ? Physically and mentally weary, he 
 may have acted from the most ordinary motives. 
 As to his having entertained any superstitious 
 crotchets about losing his hair — the spirit of the 
 age forbid !
 
 XIII. 
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. 
 
 The hairdresser possessed the quaHty (now 
 rare among his class) of unlimited and self- 
 enjoying loquacity ; — soothing, because its little 
 waves lapsed In objectless prattle upon the 
 shore of the apprehension, to be attended to or 
 not at pleasure. The sentences were without 
 regular head or tail, and were connected rather 
 by a friendly arrangement among themselves 
 than by any logical sequence ; while the ever- 
 recurring pauses at interesting moments of 
 work, wrought a recognition of how caressing 
 had been the easy voice, and accumulated a 
 lazy disposition to hear it continue. 
 
 Having decked Helwyse for the sacrifice, 
 the little man had murmured confidentially In 
 his ear,
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. 1 83 
 
 " Hair, sir ? — or beard, sir ? — or both ? — little 
 off both, sir ? Just so. Hair first, please, sir. 
 Love — ly morning ! " 
 
 And thereupon the artist had begun to clip, 
 and coo, and whisk softly about In the highest 
 state of barberic joy. As he worked, Inspired 
 by the curly, flowing, glossy locks which, to his 
 eye, called Inarticulately for the tools of his 
 trade, his undulating monologue welled forth 
 until Coleridge might have envied him. Hel- 
 wyse listened to the sound, but let the words 
 go by to that unknown limbo whither all sounds, 
 good or bad, have been flying since time began. 
 
 By and by, the hair was done ; there ensued 
 a plying of brushes, a blowing down the neck, 
 and a shaking out of the linen apron. 
 
 ** Will you cast your eyes on the mirror now, 
 sir, please ? " 
 
 *' No ! go on and finish first," replied Hel- 
 wyse ; and forthwith a cushion was Insinuated 
 beneath his head, and his feet were elevated
 
 184 IDOLATRY. 
 
 Upon a rest. He heard the preparation of the 
 warm lather, and anon the knowing strapping 
 of a razor. He put up his hand and stroked 
 his beard for the last time, wondering how he 
 would look without it. 
 
 " Never saw the like before, sir ! must have 
 annoyed you dreadful ! " remarked the com- 
 miserating barber, as he passed the preparatory 
 scissors round his customer's jaw, mowing the 
 great golden sheaf at one sweep. He spoke of 
 it as of a cancer or some such painful excre- 
 scence, the removal of which must be to the 
 sufferer a boon unspeakable ! 
 
 Helwyse's face expressed neither anguish 
 nor relief; he presently lost himself in thoughts 
 of his own, only returning to the perception of 
 outward things on being asked by the barber 
 whether he, also, had ever attended Camp- 
 meetings ? the subject evidently being one 
 which had been held forth upon for some time 
 past.
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. 1 85 
 
 " No ? " continued the little man, who, by 
 long practice, had acquired a wonderful knack ol 
 interpreting silences : " Well, it's a great thing, 
 sir ! and a right curious thing experiencing 
 religion is, too ! A great blessing I've found 
 It, sir ; there's a peace dwells with me, as the 
 minister says, right along all the time now. 
 Does the razor please you, sir ? Ah ! I was a 
 wild and godless being once, though always 
 considered smart with the razor ; Satan never 
 took my cunning hand, as the Poet says, away 
 from me. Yes, there was a time, sir, when I 
 was how-d'y'-do with all the bloods around 
 the place, and a good business I used to 
 do out of them too, sir ; but religion's a 
 peace there's no understanding, as the good 
 Book says, and if I don't make all I used 
 to, I save twice as much, and that's the eood 
 of It, sir ! Beau-ti-ful chin is yours, sir, I de- 
 clare ! " 
 
 " Do you believe in the orthodox faith ? "
 
 1 86 IDOLATRY. 
 
 asked Helwyse : " in miracles, and the Trinity, 
 and so forth ? " 
 
 " Everything we're told to believe In I be- 
 lieve, I hope, sir; and as quick as I hear any- 
 thing more, why, I'm ready to believe that also, 
 provided only It comes through orthodox chan- 
 nels, as the saying Is. Ah, sir. It's the unques- 
 tioning belief that brings the happiness: I 
 wouldn't have anything explained to me — not 
 if I could ! and my faith Is such that what goes 
 against It I never would believe, not if you 
 proved It to me In black and white, sir. Lovely 
 skin yours, sir, — ^just like a woman's ! The Intel- 
 lect Is a snare, that's what It Is. — Ah, yes I 
 You think with me, sir, don't you?" 
 
 But Helwyse had relapsed Into silence. The 
 little hair-dresser was happy, was he? happy 
 and hopeful, and confident of spiritual progress ? 
 had no misgivings and feared no danger, — be- 
 cause he had eliminated reason from his scheme 
 of religion ! Divine reason — could man live
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. 1 87 
 
 without It ! A snare ? — Well, had not Balder 
 found it so? 
 
 True, that was not reason's fault, but his that 
 misused reason. True, also that he who be- 
 lieved on other's authority, believed not ideas 
 but men, and was destitute of self-reliance and 
 dignity. Yet the hair-dresser seemed to find 
 in that very dependence his best happiness, 
 and had built up a factitious self-respect from 
 the ruins themselves of true dignity. His po- 
 sition was the antipodes of Balder s ; yet, if 
 results were evidence, it was tenable and more 
 successful. 
 
 This plump superficial smiling little hair- 
 dresser was a person of no importance, yet it 
 happened to him to modify not only Helwyse's 
 external aspect, but the aspect of his mind as 
 well — by the presentation of a new idea ! For, 
 strange to say, Helwyse had never happened to 
 doubt that Seraphim were higher than Cherubim, 
 or that independence was the only ladder to
 
 IDOLATR\^. 
 
 heaven. To be taught by one avowedly with- 
 out intellect is humiliating; but the experience 
 of many men will furnish examples of a singular 
 disregard of this kind of proprieties ! 
 
 When the shaving was done to the barber's 
 satisfaction, he held the mirror before his cus- 
 tomer's face. Helwyse looked at the reflection 
 narrowly, as was natural, since he was making 
 the acquaintance of one who was to be his near 
 and inseparable companion. He saw a set of 
 features strongly, yet gracefully built, but shorn 
 of a certain warm manly attractiveness. The 
 immediate visibility of mouth and chin, index of 
 so large a part of man's nature, startled him : he 
 was dismayed at the ease with which the work- 
 ings of emotion might now be traced. Man, 
 wholly unveiled to himself, is, indeed, an awful 
 spectacle, be the dissection room that of the 
 surgeon or of the psychologist. Hardly might 
 angels themselves endure it. A measure of 
 ignorance regarding ourselves is wise, because
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. 1 89 
 
 consciousness of a weakness may lead us to give 
 it rein. Perfect strength can co-exist only 
 with perfect knowledge, but neither is at- 
 tainable by man. He should pray to be some- 
 what screened from himself, lest his sword fall : 
 lest the Gorgon's head In his breast change him 
 to stone ! 
 
 The gracious abounding veil of Balder's life 
 had vanished, leaving nakedness. Henceforth, 
 he must depend on fence, feint and guard, not 
 on the downright sword-stroke. For Adam, 
 the fig-leaf succeeded innocence as a garment ; 
 for Helwyse, artificial address must do duty as 
 a fig-leaf The day of guiltless sincerity was 
 past ; gone likewise the day of open acknow- 
 ledgment of guilt. Now dawned the day of 
 counterfeiting — not always the shortest of our 
 mortal year ! 
 
 On the whole, Helwyse's new face pleased 
 him not. He felt self-estranged and self-dis- 
 trustful. Standing on the borders of a darker
 
 1 90 IDOLATRY. 
 
 land, the thoughts and deeds of his past Hfe 
 swarmed in review before him. Many a seeming- 
 trifling event now showed as the forewarning 
 of harm to come. The day's journey once over, 
 we see Its issue prophesied by every trumpery 
 raven or cloud that we have passed since morn- 
 ing. But then, the omens would have read as 
 well another way; for nature, like man. Is two- 
 fold, and can be quoted to Satan's advantage as 
 glibly as to God's. 
 
 " Very well done," said Helwyse to the bar- 
 ber, passing a hand over the close-cropped head 
 and polished chin. " The trouble is that it can- 
 not be done once for all ! " 
 
 As the little man smilingly remarked, how- 
 ever, the charge was only five cents; and his 
 customer paid it and went out, and was seen by 
 the hair-dresser to walk listlessly up the street. 
 The Improvement In his personal appearance 
 had not mended his spirits. Indeed, it cannot 
 be disguised that his trouble was more serious
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. I9I 
 
 than a barber's skill "could altogether set 
 right. 
 
 Were man potentially omniscient (as Bal- 
 der assumed) then might his late deed be no 
 crime, but an exercise of prerogative merely. 
 But is knowledge of evil, real knowledge ? — God 
 is goodness, and man is evil : God knows both 
 good and evil : man knows evil — knows himself 
 — only; knows God only so far as he ceases to 
 be man and admits God. But this simple truth 
 becomes confused if we fancy a possible God in 
 man. 
 
 This was Balder's difficulty. Possessed of a 
 strong comprehensive mind, he made a provi- 
 dence of himself; confounded intellieence with 
 integrity; used the moral principle, not as a law 
 of action, but as a means of insight. The temp- 
 tation so to do is strong In proportion as the mind 
 is greatly gifted. But experience shows no good 
 results from it. Blind moral instinct. If not 
 safer, is more comfortable.
 
 192 THROUGH A GLASS. 
 
 Not the deed alone, however, but the revela- 
 tion that It brought, preyed upon Balder 's peace. 
 If he were a criminal now, then was the whole 
 logic of his past life criminal likewise. The 
 deed done yesterday was but the Inevitable 
 Issue of a course of thought extending over 
 many yesterdays. Why then had not his pre- 
 sent gloom Impended also, and warned him In 
 time ? — Because, while parleying with the Devil, 
 he looks angelic ; but having given our soft- 
 spoken Interlocutor house-room, he becomes 
 direfully sincere, to make up for lost time ! — 
 
 On first facing the world In his new guise, 
 Helwyse felt embarrassment at his nakedness, 
 which he fancied everyone must remark. But 
 in fact (as he was not long In discovering) he 
 was no longer remarkable; the barber had de- 
 stroyed his Individuality. It was what he had 
 wished, yet his insignificance annoyed him. 
 The stare of the world put him out of counte- 
 nance; yet when they stopped staring he was
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. 1 93 
 
 Still unsatisfied. What can be the explanation 
 of this paradox ? 
 
 Perhaps It was the occasion of his seeking 
 the upper part of the city, where houses were 
 more scarce, and there were fewer people to be 
 unconcerned. He could still be the chief figure 
 of country solitudes ! He entered Broadway at 
 the point where Grace Church stands, and 
 passed along it through the sparsely-inhabited 
 region now known as Union Square. The 
 cross - streets hereabouts were but roughly 
 marked out, and In many Instances were left to 
 the Imagination. On the corner of Twenty- 
 third street was a low, whitewashed inn, whose 
 spreading roof overshadowed Its surround- 
 ing balcony. Several farmers' waggons were 
 housed beneath the adjoining shed, and one 
 was drawn up before the door, while its driver 
 conversed with a man In shirt - sleeves and 
 straw hat, answering to the name of Corporal 
 Thompson. — Did no presentiment of the mighty 
 
 I. N
 
 194 IDOLATRY. 
 
 marble palace which now lifts its white walls 
 above the roar of three thoroughfares, creep 
 into these good people's thoughts or speech ? 
 or was their talk only of the price of potatoes 
 as affected by the earliness of the season ? — 
 
 Helwyse, perhaps, stopped at Corporal 
 Thompson's hospitable little establishment to 
 rest himself and get some breakfast ; but 
 whether or not, his walk did not end here, but 
 continued up Broadway, and, after passing a 
 large kitchen - garden on the right (whose 
 owner, a stout Dutchman, was pacing down 
 the central path, smoking a long-stemmed clay 
 pipe, which he occasionally took from his lips 
 to growl gutteral orders to the gardeners who 
 were stooping here and there among the beds), 
 emerged into the open country, where the soli- 
 tude was broken only by an Irish shanty here 
 and there. 
 
 How long the young man walked he never 
 knew ; but at length, from the top of a low
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. 1 95 
 
 hill, he looked north-west and saw the gleam 
 of Hudson River. He left the road, and, 
 striking across the rocky fields, he finally came 
 out upon the river-bank. A stony promontory 
 jutted out into the water, and on this — having 
 clambered to its outer extremity — Helwyse 
 sat down, his feet overhanging the swirling 
 current. The tide was just past the flood. 
 
 About two hundred yards up stream, to the 
 northward, stood a small wooden house on the 
 beach, in front of which a shabby old mariner 
 was bailing out his boat. Southwards, some 
 miles below, curved the shadowed edge of the 
 city, a spire mounting here and there, a pen- 
 cilled mist of smoke from the chimneys, a fine 
 fringe of masts around the furthest point. In 
 front of the spectator slid ceaselessly away the 
 vast sweep of levelled water, and still came 
 undiminished on. The opposing shore was a 
 mile distant, its rocky front gradually increasing 
 in abruptness and height until lost round the
 
 196 IDOLATRY. 
 
 northern curve. But directly opposite the 
 Helwyse promontory the stony wall was for 
 some way especially precipitous and high, and 
 Its lofty brink was serried with a thick phalanx 
 of trees. 
 
 This spot finally monopolised the adven- 
 turers attention ; had he been in Germany he 
 would have looked for the grey towers of a 
 castle rising behind the trees. The place 
 looked inaccessible and romantic, and was 
 undeniably picturesque ; New York was far 
 enough away to be mistaken for Alexandria, 
 while the broad river certainly took Its rise in 
 as prehistoric an age as the Nile itself. Who 
 could say that, in the early morning of the 
 world, some chieftain had not built his strong- 
 hold here, and fought notable battles, and 
 given mighty feasts, and finally married and 
 begotten stalwart sons, or a daughter beautiful 
 as earth and sky ? Where to-day were her 
 youth and beauty, her loving, noble heart, her
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. I97 
 
 warm, melodious voice, her eyes full of dark 
 light ? Why were there no such women now ? 
 — not warped, imperfect, only half alive in body 
 and spirit, but charged from the heart outwards 
 with pure divine vitality — natures vivid as hre, 
 yet serene by strength ! 
 
 " Why did not I live when she lived, to 
 marry her?" muttered Helwyse, in a dream. 
 " A woman whose infinite variety age could 
 not alter nor custom stale ! With a true wife 
 I should have fallen into no error. Who can 
 comprehend the world if he put half the world 
 away ? — Too late. She might have helped me 
 rise to greatness, but not to bear disgrace. — 
 Ah, Balder Helwyse, my poor fool, you babble 
 as if she stood before you to take or to leave ! 
 Yo2c rise to greatness ? — you never had the 
 germs of greatness in you ! You are so little 
 that not the goddess Freya herself could have 
 made you tall ! What delusion made you be- 
 lieve yourself better than any other worm ?" —
 
 198 IDOLATRY. 
 
 Through a break not more than a rod or two 
 wide in the hedge of trees which hned the 
 opposite diff, it was possible to get a narrow 
 ghmpse of what lay beyond. A strip of grassy 
 lawn extended in front of what seemed to be 
 the grey stone corner of a house. The distance 
 was too great to make out details, but it looked 
 solidly built — not after the modern style. As 
 Helwyse gazed, sharpening his eyes to discern 
 more clearly, he saw a figure moving across the 
 lawn directly towards him. It advanced to the 
 very brink, and, pausing there, seemed to return 
 his glance. Helwyse could not tell whether it 
 were man or woman. Had the river only been 
 narrower ! 
 
 The next moment, however, he remembered 
 his telescope, and taking it from the case, he 
 was at one bound within a hundred yards of 
 the western shore ! — Man or woman ? He 
 steadied the glass on his knee and looked 
 again. A woman, surely, — but how strangely
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. 1 99 
 
 dressed ! Such a costume had not been in 
 vogue since Damascus was a new name 
 in men's mouths. Balder gazed and gazed. 
 Accurately to distinguish the features was 
 impossible — tantalisingly so ! for the gazer was 
 convinced that she was both young and beauti- 
 ful. Her motions, her bearing, the graceful 
 peculiarity of her garb — a hundred nameless 
 evidences made it sure. How delightful to 
 watch her in her unconsciousness ! Yet he felt 
 a delicacy about thus stealing on her without 
 her consent or knowledge. The misgiving 
 could not, however, deter him from looking — 
 perhaps it gave a zest to the enjoyment. 
 
 '' The very princess you w^ere just now 
 dreaming of!" murmured he; ''the most beau- 
 tiful and complete woman ! — Would I were the 
 prince to win thee ! " 
 
 This aspiration was whispered aloud, as 
 though she were within conversable distance. 
 Balder could be imaginative enough when the
 
 200 IDOLATRY. 
 
 humour took him. Hardly had the whisper 
 passed his lips when he saw the princess majes- 
 tically turn her lovely head, slowly and heed- 
 fully, until her glance directly met his own. 
 His cheeks burned! — it was as if she had 
 actually overheard him. He saw her stretch 
 her arms towards him, and then, with a gesture 
 of beautiful power, clasp her hands together, 
 and draw them in towards her bosom. 
 
 Prince Balder's hand trembled, the telescope 
 slipped ; the quick effort he made to regain it 
 lent it an impetus which shot it far into the 
 water. It had done its work, and was gone 
 for ever. The beautiful princess was once 
 more a vague speck across a mile of rapid 
 river ; — now even the speck had moved behind 
 the trees and was out of sight. 
 
 The episode had come so unexpectedly and 
 so quickly passed, that now it might almost 
 seem not to have been at all. But Helwyse 
 had yielded himself unreservedly to the spirit
 
 THROUGH A GLASS. 201 
 
 of the moment ; following so aptly on the fanci- 
 ful creation of his thought, the apparition had 
 for him a peculiar significance. The abrupt 
 disappearance afflicted him like a positive loss. 
 
 Did he then soberly believe himself and the 
 princess to have exchanged glances, — not to 
 speak of thoughts, — across a river a mile wide ? 
 — Perhaps he merely courted a fancy from which 
 the test of reason was deliberately withheld. 
 Spirits not being amenable to material laws, 
 what was the odds (so far as interchange of 
 spiritual sentiments was concerned) whether the 
 prince and princess were separated by miles or 
 by inches ? 
 
 But however plausible the fancy, it was now 
 over. Helwyse lay back upon the rock, drew 
 his hat over his eyes, folded his hands beneath 
 his head, and appeared to sleep.
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE TOWER OF BABEL, 
 
 In a perfect state of society, when people will 
 think and act in harmony with only the purest 
 aesthetic laws, a knowledge of stenography and 
 photography will be all-sufficient to the crea- 
 tion of perfect works of art. But until that 
 epoch comes, the artist must be content, 
 (under pain of redundancy and confusion,) 
 to do the grouping, toning and proportion- 
 ing of his picture for himself. People now- 
 a-days seldom do or think the right thing at 
 the fitting moment ; insomuch that the historian 
 of their lives, if he will make himself intelligible, 
 must exercise his own discretion in the arrange- 
 ment of his materials. 
 
 Now, in view of the rough shaking which 
 late events had given Balder Helwyse and his
 
 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 203 
 
 Opinions, it is doing no violence to probability 
 to suppose him improving the first quiet moment 
 to pass those opinions in review. And it would 
 be easy, by a glance at the magic ring, to repro- 
 duce his meditations just as they passed through 
 his brain. But it seems preferable, on grounds 
 of brevity and pertinence, to recall a dialogue 
 which had taken place about three years before. 
 Balder and his father were then in the north 
 of England, and the latter (who never con- 
 cerned himself with any philosophy save of the 
 plainest and most practical sort), was not a little 
 startled at an analogy drawn by his son between 
 the cloud-cap on Helvellyn's head, and the 
 Almighty ! Premising that the cloud-cap in 
 question, although apparently stable, was in 
 fact the effect of the continuous passage of 
 warmer air throuorh a cold reo^ion about the 
 summit of the mountain, whereby it was con- 
 densed into visibility for a moment, and then 
 swept on : — having premised this, and disregard-
 
 204 IDOLATRY. 
 
 ing the elder's remark, that he didn't believe a 
 word of It : — Balder went on to affirm that God 
 was only a set of attributes — the perfection, in 
 fact, of all human attributes, and not an indi- 
 vidual at all. 
 
 " And what has that to do with your cloud- 
 making theory ? " demanded Thor with scorn. 
 
 '' These perfect attributes," replied Balder, 
 unruffled, *' correspond to the region of conden- 
 sation — the cold place, you understand." 
 
 " Oh, do they ? Well ? " 
 
 " The constant condensation of the warm 
 current from below, corresponds to the taking 
 on of these attributes by a ceaseless succession 
 of human souls. In filling out the Divine 
 character, they lose their identity, and so pass 
 on to make room for others." 
 
 " And what are the attributes ?" 
 
 " They are ineffable, — they are omniscience, 
 — the comprehension of the whole idea of the 
 universe."
 
 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 205 
 
 "You expect me to believe that, eh?" 
 growled Thor. 
 
 " If I could believe you understood It, dear 
 old sceptic ! " returned Balder with affectionate 
 irreverence, throwing his arm across his father's 
 broad shoulders. '' I say that every soul of 
 right capacity, living for culture, and not afraid 
 of itself, will reach at last that highest point. 
 It is the sublime goal of man, and no human 
 life Is complete unless In gaining it. ]\Iany fail, 
 but not all. I will not ! — No, I am not blasphe- 
 mous : I think life not worth havlno- without a 
 definite aim, and that the highest conceivable." 
 
 Thor, having stared In silence at his descen- 
 dant, came forth with a stentorian viking laugh, 
 which Balder bore with perfect good humour. 
 
 " Ho, ho ! the devil's in you, boy ! — in those 
 black eyes of yours — ho, ho ! Xo other Hel- 
 wyse ever had such eyes or such ideas either ! 
 Well, supposing you passed the condensation 
 point, what becomes of you then ? "
 
 206 IDOLATRY. 
 
 Balder, who was entirely in earnest about the 
 matter, answered gravely, 
 
 *' I cease to be ; but what was I, becomes 
 the pure life-giving spiritual substance, and 
 enters into fresh personalities, and passes up 
 and through again, in endless circulation." 
 
 *' Hum ! and how with the evil ones, boy ? " 
 
 " As with all waste matter : they are cast 
 aside, and sink gradually into annihilation as 
 distinct souls : but they may still manure the 
 soil, and so involuntarily help the growth of 
 others. And thus sooner or later, in one form 
 or another, all come into use." 
 
 " For all I see, then," quoth Thor, " your 
 devils and your Gods come to the same end." 
 
 " There is much the same difference," retorted 
 the philosopher, " as between light and the 
 earth ; both help flowers to grow, but light gives 
 colour and beauty, earth only the base material. 
 I would rather be the light ! " 
 
 " Another thing," proceeded Thor, ignoring
 
 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 207 
 
 this distinction, "admitting everything else, 
 how do you account for your region of conden- 
 sation ? " 
 
 " From the necessity of perfection," said 
 Balder, after some consideration. " There 
 would be no meaning in existence unless it 
 tended towards a supreme condition. But you 
 have hit upon the question which nobody can 
 fully answer." 
 
 Thor shook his head and tossed his huge 
 grizzled beard. " German University humbug," 
 growled he. " Get you into a scrape some day, 
 boy ; the cloud's not made in that way, I tell 
 you ! — Come, let's go back to the inn." 
 
 '' Take my arm," said Balder ; and as they 
 descended the spur of the mountain together, 
 he added lovingly, " Til never bring any 
 clouds across your sky, my dear old man ! " 
 So the hospitable inn received them. 
 
 The discussion was never renewed between 
 the two ; but Balder held to his creed. He
 
 208 IDOLATRY. 
 
 elaborated and fortified what had been mere 
 outline before. No dogma can be conceived 
 which many circumstances will not seem to 
 confirm and justify. But we cannot attempt to 
 keep abreast of Balder's deductions. There 
 are as many theological systems as Individual 
 souls, and save by Its originator no system can 
 be wholly apprehended. 
 
 Mastery of men and things, — supreme know- 
 ledge to the end of supreme power, — such 
 seems to have been his ambition; an ambition 
 too abstract and lofty to admit much rivalry. 
 Nature and human nature were at once his 
 laboratory and his Instruments. His senses 
 were to him the outlets of divinity. — The good 
 and evil of such a scheme hardly need pointing 
 out. It was the apotheosis of self-respect; 
 but self-respect raised to such a height becomes 
 self- worship : human vision dazzles at the awful 
 sublimity of the prospect ; in the moment 
 of greatest weakness the soul arrogates power
 
 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 
 
 209 
 
 invincible — and so falls ! For, the mightier 
 man is, the more seems he to need the support 
 of a mightier Man than he can ever be. 
 
 No doubt, Balder had often found himself 
 assailed by doubts and weariness; the path had 
 seemed too arduous and too lone, and he had 
 secretly pined for some swift means of issue 
 from perplexity and delay. In such a moment 
 was it that the voice of darkness gained his ear, 
 and, like a Will-o'-the-Wisp, lured him to 
 calamity. Verily, it is not easy to be God. 
 The builders only of the Tower of Babel know 
 the aw^fulness of its overthrow ! 
 
 Balder's spirit lay prostrate among the ruins, 
 too stunned and bewildered to see the reasons 
 or justice of his overthrow. Such a condition 
 is dangerous ; for, the deeper part of the mind 
 being either occupied with its disaster or 
 stupefied by it, the surface is readily moved 
 to folly or extravagance, to deeds and thoughts 
 which a saner moment would ridicule. Well
 
 2IO IDOLATRY. 
 
 Is It, then, If our blind steps are guided to 
 a better foothold than we know how to choose 
 for ourselves. Angels are said to be peculiarly 
 watchful over men in sleep : perhaps also dur- 
 ing the darkness consequent upon moral per- 
 version.
 
 XV. 
 
 CHARON'S FERRY. 
 
 After lying motionless for, perhaps, half-an- 
 hour, Balder suddenly sat upright, and settled 
 his hat upon his head. A new idea which had 
 come to him, later than it might have done, 
 demanded to be put in action without delay. 
 
 The old mariner had by this time bailed out 
 his boat, shipped a mast in the forward thwart, 
 and was dropping down stream. As he neared 
 the promontory. Balder hailed him : 
 
 " Hullo ! Skipper, take me across the river." 
 The skipper, without replying, steered shore- 
 wards, while the other clambered down the 
 rock to meet him. After a brief parley, during 
 which the old fellow scrutinised his intending 
 passenger closely from head to foot, a bargain 
 was struck, and they put forth, tacking dia-
 
 212 IDOLATRY. 
 
 gonally across stream. For, Balder having 
 charged his imagination with castles, warlike 
 chieftains, and beautiful princesses, had finally 
 arrived at the conclusion that the stone house 
 was an enchanted stronghold, the figure he had 
 seen an imprisoned lady, himself a knight-errant 
 bound to rescue her and give the wicked en- 
 chanter his deserts. This fancy possessed his 
 brain more vividly than do realities many men. 
 The plumed helmet was on his head, he glit- 
 tered with shining arms and sword, his heart 
 warmed and throbbed with visions of conflict 
 and bold emprise. The commonplace surround- 
 ings assumed an aspect of grandeur and stateli- 
 ness in harmony with his chivalric mania. The 
 leaky craft in which he sate became a majestic 
 barge, the skipper, some wrinkled Charon, who 
 doubtless had ferried many a brave knight to 
 his death beneath yonder castle's walls. No 
 birch stump was that on the shore, but the 
 castle champion, ready with silver armour and
 
 CHARON S FERRY. 2 1 3 
 
 drawn sword to do battle against all comers. — 
 Trim thy sail, ferryman, and steer with thy 
 best cunning. 
 
 That kind of insanity which sees in outward 
 manifestation the fantasies of the mind, Is an 
 affection incident at certain times to every one. 
 The artist sees beauty in a landscape, the 
 artisan in pulleys and levers, and either Is so 
 far insane in the eyes of the other. Nature 
 discovers grandeur, beauty, truth, according as 
 the quality abides in the seer. In this view 
 Balder or Don Quixote was no more insane 
 than other people. Their eyes bore true wit- 
 ness to what was in their minds, and the sanest 
 eyes can do no more. Their minds were out 
 of focus, perhaps ; but who can cast the first 
 stone ? 
 
 The skipper, masquerading as Charon, was 
 lean, brown, and wrinkled : neither complete 
 nor clean of garb, and bulging as to one lank 
 cheek with a quid of tobacco. During the
 
 214 IDOLATRY. 
 
 first minutes he sat silent, dividing his attention 
 between his boat and his passenger. 
 
 " Whereabouts will yer land, Captain ? " he 
 asked when they were fairly under way. 
 
 '' Wherever there is a path upwards. Who 
 is the owner of the castle ? " 
 
 " The castle ? Well, there ain't many rightly 
 knows just what his name is," drawled Charon, 
 cocking his grey eye rather quizzically. " Some 
 says one thing, some another. I have heard 
 tell, now, that he was Davy Jones himself! " 
 
 " Have you ever seen him ? " 
 
 " Well, I don't know : I've seen something 
 that might have been him, — but there's no tell- 
 ing ; he can fix himself up to look like pretty 
 much anything, they say. There ain't many 
 calls up at the castle, whoever he is ! " 
 
 '' Why not ? " 
 
 *' Well, there's a big wall all around the 
 place for one thing, and never a gate in it ; so 
 without yer dives under ground and up
 
 CHARON S FERRY. 2 I 5 
 
 again, there don't seem no easy way of getting 
 in." 
 
 " Does the owner never come out then ? " 
 
 "Well, he can get out, I expect, when he 
 wants to," answered the wrinkled humourist, 
 with a weather-beaten grin. *' They do say he 
 whips off on a broomstick about once a month, 
 and steers for Bos-ton !" His fashion of utter- 
 ance was a leisurely sing-song, like the roll of a 
 vessel anchored in a ground-swell. 
 
 " What does he go there for ? " demanded 
 Prince Balder, with the air of finding nothing 
 extravagant or improbable in the sailor's yarns ; 
 and the latter, a little in doubt as to whether 
 his interlocutor were a simpleton or a " deep 
 one," said, — after a pause to replenish his imagi- 
 nation perhaps, — ■ 
 
 " Well, in course I knows nothing what 
 he does ; but they do say he coasts around 
 to all the ho-tels and overhauls the log. 
 He's been laying to for some one these
 
 2l6 IDOLATRY. 
 
 twenty year. My idea it's about time he 
 hailed him !" 
 
 '' What does he want with him ?" 
 '' Well, yer see, what folks say is, this chap 
 had played some game off on Davy, so Davy 
 he puts a rod in pickle, and vows he'd be 
 even with the chap yet ! 
 
 " Yer see — I'll tell yer," continued Charon, 
 leaning forward on his knee and speaking con- 
 fidentially : '' just as this chap was putting off, 
 — with some of Davy's belongings, likely, — 
 Davy he up and cut a slice of his flesh and 
 blood off him. Well, he takes this slice and 
 fixes it up one way and another, and makes a 
 witch out of it, handsome as she can be, 
 enough to draw a chap's heart right through 
 his jacket. Now, being as she's his own flesh 
 and blood, d'yer see, this chap I'm telling yer 
 on 's bound to come back after her afore he 
 dies. Well, soon as Davy gets hold on him, 
 he ups with him to the castle yonder, and outs
 
 CHARON S FERRY. 2 I 7 
 
 with the witch. ' Here yer are, my dear 
 friend,' says he (as civil as may be), ' here's 
 yer own flesh and blood a-waiting for yer!' 
 Well, the chap he grabs for her; and once he 
 touches her, there ain't no lettino- o-q no more. 
 Off she starts on her broomstick, he along 
 
 behind, till they gets over Hellgate" 
 
 (Charon checked himself, made an ominous 
 downward gesture with his forefinger, and 
 emphasised it by spitting solemnly to leeward.) 
 
 " Did you ever meet him — this man ?" asked 
 Helwyse, rousing himself from a brown study, 
 and looking Charon in the eyes. 
 
 "Well, now, I couldn't tell for certain as I 
 ever met him," replied the other, returning the 
 look with an odd wrinkling of the features. 
 *' But it's nigh on twenty year that I fetched 
 a man across this very spot, and back again in 
 the evening, that might have been him. Least- 
 ways he was the last caller ever I took over 
 to that house ! "
 
 2 1 8 IDOLATRY. 
 
 " I am the first since he, eh ?" 
 
 '* Well, yer are ; and. Captain — no offence to 
 you, but, excepting for a heap of hair he had, 
 he was like enough to you to be your twin- 
 brother!" 
 
 "Yes, or even myself! — and so Davy Jones 
 goes by the name of Doctor Glyphic in these 
 parts, does he ?" said Balder, with a sudden 
 incisive smile and glance, which quite cut 
 through the old ferryman's self-possession. 
 The boat at the same moment glided into a 
 little cove, and the passenger jumped ashore. 
 Charon stood touching his weather-stained hat 
 deferentially, too much alarmed and mysti- 
 fied to speak. But the fare which Helwyse 
 handed him restored his voice. 
 
 " Thankee, Captain — thank yer kindly ; hope 
 no offence. Captain — a chap picks up a deal of 
 gossip in twenty years, and" 
 
 "No offence in the world ! I take you for a 
 powerful enchanter, who seems to steer one
 
 CHARON S FERRY. 2 1 9 
 
 way while he is taking his passenger in another. 
 — Where are you bound ?" 
 
 " Well, I was dropping down a bit to see if 
 the schooner ain't around yet. She'd ought to 
 be in by now, if nothing ain't runned into her 
 in the fog." 
 
 " The schooner ' Resurrection,' — began Hel- 
 wyse — and seeing that he had hit the mark, 
 he continued — '' was run into last nieht, on 
 Long Island Sound. She had her bowsprit 
 carried away ; but no serious damage was 
 done, and she'll be in by night if the wind 
 holds." 
 
 With this the young man bade the awed 
 and humbled old yarn-spinner farewell, not 
 without enjoyment of his bewilderment, and 
 turned to the zig-zag path which climbed the 
 bank. A few vigorous minutes brought him 
 to the summit, whence, facing round, he saw 
 the broad river crawl beneath him, the little 
 boat, with Charon in the stern, drifting down-
 
 220 IDOLATRY. 
 
 wards, and the whole rough length of Man- 
 hattan Island beyond. 
 
 A few days before Thor Helwyse's departure 
 for Europe — some four years after his wife's 
 death, — he had left a certain little boy and girl 
 in charge of the nurse (a woman in whose 
 faithfulness he placed the greatest confidence), 
 and had crossed over from Brooklyn to New 
 Jersey to say good-bye to brother HIero. Re- 
 turning at night, he found one of the children 
 (his son Balder) locked up alone in the nursery. 
 The nurse and the little girl had disappeared, 
 nor did Thor ever again set eyes on either of 
 them. 
 
 Balder, as he grew up, often questioned his 
 father concerning events which had happened 
 further back than his childish memory ex- 
 tended ; and, among other stories, no doubt 
 this of the farewell visit to Uncle Glyphic had 
 often been related, with all the details. By no 
 miracle, therefore, but simply by an acute
 
 CHARON S FERRY. 221 
 
 mental process, associating time, place, and 
 description together, was he enabled so to 
 dumfounder old Charon. 
 
 Embarking on a phantom quest, his brain 
 full of whimsical visions. Balder had thus 
 unexpectedly stepped into the path of his 
 legitimate affair. The accident (for no better 
 reason, perhaps, than that it was such) inspired 
 him with a superficial cheerfulness. He had 
 landed some distance below his uncle Glyphic's 
 house, — for such it was, — and he now took his 
 way towards it through a thick growth of trees 
 and underbrush. The house was so situated, 
 and was surrounded by so dense an array of 
 foliage, as to be visible from no point in the 
 vicinity. Had the site been selected with a 
 view to concealment, the builder could not have 
 chosen better. Remembering the eccentricity 
 of his uncle's character, as portrayed in many an 
 anecdote. Balder would not have been surprised 
 to find him living underground, or in a pyramid.
 
 22 2 IDOLATRY. 
 
 On arriving at the wall whereof the ferryman 
 had told him, he found it a truly formidable 
 affair, some twelve feet in height, and built of 
 brick. To scale it without a ladder was impos- 
 sible ; but Balder, never doubting there was a 
 gate somewhere, set out in search of it. 
 
 It was tiresome walking over the uneven 
 ground, and through the obstructions of 
 stumps, bushes, and branches. The tall brick 
 barrier seemed to be as interminable as it was 
 unbroken. How many houses, thought Bal- 
 der, might have been built with the material 
 thus wasted ! If he ever came into possession 
 of the place, he resolved to give the brick to 
 his friend Charon, that he might replace his 
 wooden shanty with something more durable 
 and convenient. It must have taken a fortune 
 to build such a wall, and were the enclosure 
 proportionately valuable, it was worth crossing 
 the ocean to see it. — Still more wall ! There 
 had been fully a mile of it already, and yet
 
 CHARON S FERRY. 223 
 
 further it rambled on through leafy thickets, 
 with no signs of a gate. 
 
 ''I believe the devil really does live here!" 
 exclaimed Balder, in impatient heat : " the only 
 way to the other side Is by flying over on a broom- 
 stick, or diving underground, as Charon said !" 
 
 Stumbling onwards a few rods further, he sud- 
 denly came again upon the river-bank, having 
 traversed the whole length of the wall. There 
 was actually no getting through ! The castle 
 was impregnable. 
 
 Helwyse seated himself at the foot of a tall 
 birch tree, which grew three or four yards from 
 the base of the wall. 
 
 " How does my uncle manage about his 
 butcher and baker, I wonder! He might 
 at least have provided a derrick for victu- 
 alling his stronghold. Perhaps he hauls his 
 provisions up by ropes over the face of the 
 cliff. No doubt Charon knew about It. Shall 
 I go down and look ? "
 
 224 IDOLATRY. 
 
 It was provoking, having come so far to call 
 upon a relative, to be put off with a mile or two 
 of inhospitable brick ! The gate must have 
 been walled up since his father s time, for Thor 
 had never mentioned any deficiency in that 
 respect. But Balder s determination was piqued, 
 not to speak of his curiosity. Had the path 
 from Mr MacGentle's office to uncle Hiero's 
 door been straight and unobstructed, the young 
 man might have wandered aside and never 
 reached the end of it at all. As it was, he was 
 goaded into resolving to see his uncle at all 
 hazards. An additional spur was the thought 
 of the gracious apparition that he had seen, — or 
 dreamed he had seen, — from the further bank of 
 the river. Had she indeed been but an appari- 
 tion ? or was she the sole reality amidst the 
 throng of fantasies evoked by his overwrought 
 mind ? beaconing him through misty errors to 
 a fate better than he knew. — In all seriousness, 
 who could she be ? Charon's enigmatic hints
 
 CHARON S FERRY. 225 
 
 about witches bore no meaning to Balder's 
 mind. Was It possible that his uncle had 
 crowned his eccentricity by marriage, and beget- 
 ting a daughter ? — 
 
 These speculations were Interrupted by the 
 clear joyous note of a bird just above his head : 
 such a note as might have been uttered by a 
 paradisical cuckoo, with the breath of a brighter 
 world in its throat. Looking up, he saw a 
 beautiful little fowl perched upon the topmost 
 twig of the tree against which he was leaning. 
 It had a slender bill, and a splendid crest of 
 feathers on its head, which It set up at Balder 
 in a most coquettish manner. The next moment 
 It flew over the wall, and warbled from the 
 further side an invitation to follow ! 
 
 Although he could not fly. Balder reflected 
 
 that he could climb, and that the top of the tree 
 
 could show him what was on the other side of 
 
 the wall, albeit it might not transport him thither. 
 
 The birch appeared to be tolerably climbable, 
 I. p
 
 226 IDOLATRY. 
 
 and was high enough for all purposes. 
 As to Its toughness, he thought not about it. 
 — Beneath what frivolous guises does destiny- 
 mark her approach ! Discretion is a virtue, yet 
 had Balder been discreet enough to examine 
 the tree before getting in to it — the ultimate 
 consequences are incalculable ! 
 
 As it was (and marvelling why he had not 
 thought of it before), he set stoutly to work, 
 and soon, in spite of his jack-boots, was among 
 the upper branches. The tree trembled and 
 groaned, but he heeded it not. There was 
 the bird (an Egyptian bird it was, the hoopoe, 
 descendant of a pair brought from the Nile a 
 quarter of a century before by Dr Glyphic), the 
 hoopoe was fluttering and warbling and setting 
 its brilliant cap at him more captivatingly than 
 ever. A glance over the enclosure revealed 
 a beautifully fertile and luxuriant expanse, 
 damasked with soft green grass, and studded 
 with flowers and trees. A few hundred yards
 
 CHARON S FERRY. 22/ 
 
 away, billowed the white tops of an apple orchard 
 in full bloom. Southward, half seen through 
 boughs and leaves, rose an anomalous structure 
 of brick, glass, and stone, which could only be 
 the famous house upon the designing and 
 erecting of which old Hiero Glyphic had spent 
 years and fortunes. 
 
 The tract was like an oasis amidst a forbid- 
 ding land. The soil had none of the sandy or 
 clayey consistency peculiar to New Jersey, but 
 was deep and rich as an English valley. The 
 sunshine rested more warmly and mellowly here 
 than elsewhere. The southerly breeze acquired 
 a tropical flavour in loitering across it. The 
 hoopoe, which had seemed out of place on the 
 hither side of the wall, now looked as much at 
 home as though the Hudson had indeed been 
 the Nile. 
 
 " My uncle has certainly succeeded wonder- 
 fully well in transporting a piece of Egypt to 
 America," said Balder to himself *' Were I
 
 2 28 IDOLATRY. 
 
 on the other side of the wall, no doubt I would 
 appreciate that also ! " 
 
 The hoopoe responded encouragingly, the 
 birch tree cracked, and Balder felt to his dismay 
 that it was tottering beneath him. There was 
 no time to clamber down again. With a long 
 creak the faithless birch gave way, and leaned 
 slowly through the air. There was nothing to 
 be done but to go with it : but Balder, even 
 as he descended, was able to imagine how 
 absurd he must appear. The tree fell, but 
 was intercepted at half its height by the 
 top of the wall. The upper part of the 
 stem, with its human fruit still attached to 
 it, bent bow-like towards the earth, the 
 trunk not being quite separated from the 
 root. 
 
 Helwyse had managed to maintain his pre- 
 sence of mind thus far, and now glancing down- 
 wards, he saw the ground not eight feet below 
 him. He loosed his hold, and stood un-
 
 CHARON S FERRY. 229 
 
 harmed in the soft grass ! The birch tree had 
 been his broomstick. Meanwhile, the hoopoe, 
 with a triumphant note, flew off towards the 
 house to tell the news.
 
 XVI. 
 
 LEGENDS AND CHRONICLES. 
 
 HiERO Glyphic's house did not come into the 
 world complete at a birth, but was the result of 
 an irregular growth progressing through many 
 years. It was originally a single-gabled edifice 
 of brick, possessing no other peculiarity than 
 that it was brick instead of wooden. Here, red 
 and unornamented as the house itself, the future 
 Egyptologist was born. The parallel between 
 him and his dwelling was maintained more or 
 less closely so long as they existed. 
 
 He was the first pledge of affection between 
 his mother and father; and he was also the last, 
 for shortly after his arrival, the latter parent, (a 
 retired undertaker by profession,) failed from this 
 world. The widow Glyphic was much younger 
 than her spouse, and handsome to boot; never-
 
 LEGENDS AND CHRONICLES. 23 1 
 
 theless, It was several years before she married 
 again. Her second lord was likewise an elderly 
 retired business man ; but he differed from her 
 first In being enormously wealthy. The Issue 
 of this union was a daughter, — the Helen of our 
 story, — a pretty, dark-eyed little thing, petted 
 and Indulged by all the family, and reigning 
 undisputed over all. 
 
 Meanwhile, the old house had been deserted, 
 Mrs Glyphic, upon her second marriage, having 
 accompanied her husband to his more ambitious 
 home in Brooklyn. But as years went on, 
 Hiero (or, as he was then called, Henry) 
 took it into his round head to return 
 to the original family mansion and live there. 
 No objection was made to this desire: in 
 truth, Henry's oddities, awkwardnesses, and 
 propensity to meddle with queer branches of re- 
 search and experiment, may have helped allay 
 the parting-pangs. Back he blundered, there- 
 fore, to the banks of the Hudson, and established
 
 232 IDOLATRY. 
 
 himself In his birth-place. What he did there 
 during the next few years will never be known. 
 Many grisly stories concerning the man in the 
 brick house were current among the country- 
 people. A devil was said to be his familiar 
 friend ; nay, it was whispered that he was him- 
 self the Arch Fiend ! Nothing positively super- 
 natural however, or even unholy, was ever 
 proved to have taken place. The recluse had 
 the command of as much money as he could 
 spend, and no doubt he wrought with it miracles 
 Incomprehensible to the vulgar. His mind, be 
 It remarked, had no more real depth than a 
 cracked looking-glass, and its Images were 
 similarly disjointed and confused : never- 
 theless, it was capable of reflecting much frag- 
 mentary truth and beauty. There are many 
 such men alive, but few possess unlimited 
 means of carrying their whimsicalities Into 
 execution. 
 
 During this, which may be called the second.
 
 LEGENDS AND CHRONICLES. 233 
 
 period of Glyphlc's life, he made several anoma- 
 lous additions to the brick house, all after de- 
 signs of his own. He, moreover, furnished it 
 throughout in a manner that made the uphol- 
 sterer stare. Each room, — so reads the legend, 
 — was fitted up in a style representative of a par- 
 ticular country, — according to Glyphic's notions 
 of it. He was said to take up his quarters in 
 one room or another, according as it was his 
 whim to be a Spaniard, a Turk, a Russian, a 
 Hindoo, a Chinaman. He also devoted himself 
 to gardening, and enclosed some seven hundred 
 acres of ground adjoining the house with a pic- 
 ket-fence — the forerunner of the famous brick 
 wall. The whole tract was dug out and 
 manured to the depth of many feet, till it was 
 by far the most fertile spot in the State. The 
 larger trees were not disturbed, but the lesser 
 ones gave place to new and rare varieties, 
 mostly imported from foreign countries. Gor- 
 geous were the flowers, like banks of sunset
 
 234 IDOLATRY. 
 
 clouds : the lawns showed the finest turf out of 
 England. There was a kitchen-garden, too, 
 rich and extensive enough to feed an army of 
 epicures all their lives. In short, the place was 
 a concentrated extract of the world at large, 
 where one might at the same moment be a re- 
 cluse and a cosmopolitan. Here might one live 
 independent of the world, yet sipping the cream 
 thereof : and might easily persuade himself that 
 all beyond those seven hundred acres was a 
 shadow, — the diffused reflection of the 
 concrete existence between the cliff and the 
 picket-fence. 
 
 But to this second period, finally succeeded 
 the third — that which saw the birth and growth 
 of the great Egyptian mania. Its exact natal 
 moment is undetermined ; perhaps it was a 
 gradual accretion. Mr Glyphic's relatives in 
 Brooklyn were one day electrified by the news 
 that the quondam Henry's real name was 
 Hiero, and that Hiero purposed instant de-
 
 LEGENDS AND CHRONICLES. 235 
 
 parture for Egypt. Before going, however, he 
 built the brick wall round his estate, shutting it 
 out forever from human eyes. Then he van- 
 ished, and for nine years was seen no more. 
 
 His return was heralded by the arrival at the 
 port of New- York of a mountain of freight, de- 
 scribed in the invoice as the property of Doctor 
 Hiero Glyphic, of New Jersey. The boxes, as 
 they stood piled together on the wharf, could 
 have furnished timber sufficient to build a small 
 town. They held the fruits of Hiero Glyphic's 
 antiquarian researches. 
 
 The Doctor himself — (where he picked up his 
 learned title is unknown) — was accompanied by 
 a slender, swarthy young factotum answering to 
 the name of Manetho. He was introduced to 
 the Brooklyn relatives as the pupil, assistant, 
 and adopted son of Hiero Glyphic. The lat- 
 ter, though physically broadened, browned and 
 thickened by his travels, was intellectually just 
 the same good-natured fussy flighty original as
 
 236 IDOLATRY. 
 
 ever: shallow, enthusiastic, incoherent, energetic. 
 
 He and his adopted son shut themselves up 
 behind the brick wall; but it soon trans- 
 pired that extensive additions were making 
 to the old house. Beyond this elementary 
 fact, conjecture had the field to herself: 
 for all the architects and builders were men 
 imported from another State and sworn to 
 secrecy; while the high wall and the hedge of 
 trees baffled prying eyes. Great quantities of red 
 granite, and many blocks of precious marbles 
 were understood to be using in the work. The 
 opinion gained ground that such an Oriental 
 palace was building as never had been seen out- 
 side an Arabian fairy-tale. 
 
 By and by all was done and the workmen 
 disappeared; but whoever hoped that now the 
 mystery would be revealed, and the Oriental 
 palace be made the scene of a gorgeous house- 
 warming — was doomed to disappointment. The 
 dwellers behind the wall emerged not from their
 
 LEGENDS AND CHRONICLES. 2-^"] 
 
 seclusion, nor were others invited to relieve it. 
 In course of time Doctor Glyphic's worthy step- 
 father died; the mother and sister, however, 
 still occupied the Brooklyn house up to the 
 time of the former's death, which took place a 
 few years afterwards. Then Helen came to 
 live with her brother, and the Brooklyn house 
 was put under lock and key, and so remained 
 until Helen's marriage, when it was set in order 
 for the bridal pair. But Thor's wife died as 
 they were on the point of moving thither, and 
 he sold it four years later and left America for 
 ever. 
 
 After his departure less was known than 
 ever of what went on behind the brick wall. 
 The iron gate was removed, and the space 
 filled in with masonry. No one was ever seen 
 to enter the enclosure or to leave it, though it 
 was supposed that, by some means or other, 
 communication was occasionally had with the 
 outside world. But as knowledge dwindled,
 
 238 IDOLATRY. 
 
 legend grew, and many were the wild tales told 
 about the Invisible Doctor and his foster-son. 
 In his youthful days the former had been 
 suspected of simple witchcraft : he was not let 
 off so easily now. Manetho was at first dubbed 
 a Genie, whom the Doctor had brought from 
 Egypt. Afterwards It was whispered that the 
 two were one and the same demon, who, by 
 means of some Infernal jugglery, was able to 
 appear as two persons during the day-time, but 
 at night resumed his undivided shape, and 
 played all manner of unholy pranks. 
 
 By another version. Doctor Glyphlc had died 
 in Egypt, but not before bargaining with the 
 Prince of Darkness that his lifeless body should 
 return home In charge of Its condemned soul, 
 under the guise of Manetho. In day-light, 
 affirmed these theorists, the body was inspired 
 with phantom life, but became a mummy at 
 night, when the condemned soul suffered tor- 
 ments till morning, and then the ghastly drama
 
 LEGENDS AND CHRONICLES. 239 
 
 began anew. This condition of things must 
 continue until the sun shone all night long 
 within the brick-wall enclosure. 
 
 A third more modified account was the one 
 we have already listened to from Charon's lips ; 
 and he perhaps built upon a broader basis of 
 fact than did some of the other yarn-spinners. 
 But under whatever form the legend appeared, 
 there was always mingled with it a vague hint 
 — a mysterious whisper — relating to the alleged 
 presence in the Doctor's tomb (so the enclosure 
 was nick-named) of an apparition wearing the 
 female form. What or whence she was, no 
 one pretended soberly to conjecture. Even 
 her personal appearance was the subject of 
 vehement dispute, some maintaining her to be 
 of more than human beauty, while others swore 
 by their heads that she was so hideous fire 
 would not burn her ! These damned her for 
 a malignant witch ; those upheld her as a 
 heavenly angel, urged by love divine to ex-
 
 240 IDOLATRY. 
 
 plate, through vokmtary suffering, the name- 
 less crimes of the demoniac Doctor; but 
 unless the redemption were effected within 
 a certain time, she must be swallowed up 
 with him in common destruction. Were the 
 how and why of these alternatives called in 
 question, the answer was a wise shake of the 
 head ! 
 
 The gentle reader will believe no one of the 
 fantastic legends here recorded ; possibly they 
 were not believed by their very fabricators. 
 They are useful only as tending to show the 
 kind of moral atmosphere surrounding the 
 house and its occupants. There is sometimes 
 a subtile symbolic element inwoven with such 
 tales, which, though not the truth, helps us to 
 an understanding of the truth when we come 
 to know it. Moreover, the fanciful parts of 
 history are to the facts, as clouds to a land- 
 scape — the picture is not complete without 
 them ; they aid in bringing out the distances,
 
 LEGENDS AND CHRONICLES. 24I 
 
 and cast shadows or lights over tracts else 
 harsh and bare. 
 
 Beyond what he had gathered from the 
 ancient manner, Balder Helwyse knew nothing 
 of these fearful fables ; and this perhaps ac- 
 counted for the boldness with which he pur- 
 sued his way towards the mysterious house, 
 following in the airy wake of the bright- 
 throated little hoopoe.
 
 XVII. 
 
 FACE TO FACE. 
 
 The ground -plan of the house was like a 
 capital H, placed endwise towards the river. 
 The northern side consisted of the original 
 brick building, and the additions of the second 
 period ; the southern was that stone edifice 
 which so few persons had ever been lucky 
 enough to see. The central piece held the 
 great entrance-hall and staircase, heavily pan- 
 nelled with dark oak, and flagged with squares 
 of black and white marbles. 
 
 The entrance-hall opened eastward into a 
 generous conservatory, filling the whole wide 
 space between the wings at that end. The 
 corresponding western court was devoted to the 
 roomy portico : two or three steps led up to a 
 marble platform, twenty feet deep, and nearly
 
 FACE TO FACE. 243 
 
 twice as wide, protected by a lofty roof, sup- 
 ported on slender Moorish columns. Crossing 
 this, one came to the main door of the house, 
 which was likewise Moorish in its arch and 
 ornamentation. Considered room by room, and 
 apartment by apartment, the house was good, 
 and sometimes beautiful ; taken as a whole, it 
 was the craziest amalgamation of incongruities 
 ever conceived by human brain. 
 
 Balder, approaching from the north, trod 
 enjoyingly the silken grass. No misgiving had 
 he ; his uncle would hardly be from home, nor 
 would he be apt to discredit his nephew's 
 identity. His face had already been evidence 
 sufficient to more than one former knower of 
 his father : — why not also to his uncle ? 
 
 The house was more than half-a-mile distant 
 In a direct line from the birch tree, and pre- 
 sented an imposing appearance ; but, on draw- 
 ing near, the odd architectural discrepancies 
 became noticeable. Side by side with the
 
 244 FACE TO FACE. 
 
 prosy Americanism of the brick wing sprang 
 the graceful Moorish columns of the portico ; 
 while beyond uprose, in massive granite, 
 quaintly inscribed and carved, and strength- 
 ened by heavy pilasters, the ponderous Egyp- 
 tian features of the southern side. The latter 
 was neither storeyed nor windowed, and, as 
 Balder conjectured, probably comprised but a 
 single vast room, lighted from within. 
 
 Meanwhile there were no signs of an inha- 
 bitant either in the house or out of it. It had, 
 in parts, an air of emptiness and neglect — not 
 exactly as though gone to seed, but as if little 
 human love and care had been lavished there. 
 The deep-set windows of the brick wing, like 
 the sunken eyes of an old woman, peered at 
 the visitor with dusky forlornness. Lonely and 
 stern, on the other hand, stood the Egyptian 
 pilasters, as though unaccustomed to the eye 
 of man ; the hieroglyphics running round the 
 cornice intensified the impression of desertion.
 
 FACE TO FACE. 245 
 
 As the young man set foot within the portico, 
 he laid his hand on one of the slender pillars, 
 to assure himself that It was real, and not a 
 vision. Cool solid marble met his grasp — the 
 building did not vanish in a peal of thunder, 
 with an echo of demoniac lauo;hter. — Yes, all 
 was real ! 
 
 But the stillness was Impressive ; and Balder 
 struck the pillar sharply with the palm of his 
 hand, merely for the sake of hearing a noise. 
 There was no answering sound ; so after a 
 moment's hesitation he walked forwards to the 
 door, which stood ajar, purposing to call in the 
 aid of bell and knocker. Neither of these civi- 
 lised appliances was to be found. While de- 
 bating whether to use his voice, or to go in and 
 use his eyes, the joyous warble of the hoopoe 
 fell on his ear from within ; an instant after- 
 wards came an answering note, deeper, sweeter, 
 and stronger ; It thrilled through to Balder's 
 heart, bringing to his mind, by some obscure
 
 246 FACE TO FACE. 
 
 process, the figure he had seen standing above 
 the cHff. 
 
 He crossed the oak-panelled hall (where the 
 very essence of mediaeval England lingered), 
 and came to the threshold of the conservatory. 
 It was a scene confusedly beautiful. The air, 
 as it touched his face, was tropically warm, 
 and indolent with the voluptuous fragrance of 
 flowers and plants. Luxuriant shrubs with 
 broad-drooping leaves stood motionless in the 
 heat. Two palm-trees uplifted their heavy 
 plumes forty feet aloft on slender stems, brush- 
 ing the high glass roof. In the midst of the 
 conservatory a pool slumbered between rocky 
 margins, overgrown with a profusion of reeds, 
 grasses, and water-plants. There floated the 
 giant leaves and blossoms of the tropical water- 
 lily ; and on a fragment of rock rising above 
 the surface dozed a small crocodile, not more 
 than four feet long, but looking as old, dried- 
 up, and coldly cruel as sin itself.
 
 FACE TO FACE. 247 
 
 The place looked like an Indian jungle; 
 Balder half expected to see the glancing spots 
 of a tiger crouching beneath the over-arching 
 leaves, or a naked savage with bow and arrows. 
 But amidst all this vegetable luxuriance ap- 
 peared no human being, — no animal save the 
 crocodile. Whence, then, that melodious voice 
 — the clear essence of Nature's sweetest utter- 
 ances ? 
 
 In the left side of the conserv^atory was a 
 door, the entrance to the Egyptian temple. It 
 was square and heavy-browed, flanked by short 
 thick columns rising from a base of sculptured 
 papyrus-leaves, and terminating in lotus-flower 
 capitals. Three marble steps mounted to the 
 threshold, while on either side a sphinx reclined 
 in polished granite. On the deep panels of the 
 door were mystic emblems carved in relief. A 
 line of hieroglyphics inscribed the lintel in 
 colours deep blue, red, and black ; to what pur- 
 port Balder could not divine.
 
 248 FACE TO FACE. 
 
 In the opposite side of the conservatory was 
 a corresponding door, veiled by ample folds of 
 silken tapestry, cunningly hand- worked with the 
 representation of a moon half-veiled In clouds, 
 shining athwart a stormy sea. A labouring 
 ship was by her light warned off the lee- 
 ward rocks. This room was one of the later 
 additions, and by Its external promise might 
 have been the bower of some fashionable beauty 
 thousands of years ago. 
 
 Balder looked from one of these doors to the 
 other, doubting at which to apply. The tapestry 
 curtain of that on the right was swept aside at 
 the base, leaving a small passage clear to the 
 room beyond ; In this opening suddenly ap- 
 peared the bright crested head and eyes of the 
 hoopoe, peeping mischievously at the intruder : 
 who forthwith stepped down into the conserva- 
 tory, holding out to the little bird a friendly 
 finger. The bird eyed him critically, then 
 launched itself In the air, alighted on a spray
 
 FACE TO FACE. 249 
 
 just above his head, and warbled out Its bril- 
 liant call. 
 
 Hereupon was heard within the curtained 
 room a quick rustling movement ; the tapestry- 
 was thrust aside, and a youthful woman stepped 
 forth among the warm plants. She was within 
 a few feet of Balder Helwyse before seeming 
 to realise his presence. She caught herself 
 motionless in a moment. The sparkle of laugh- 
 ter in her eyes sank In a black depth of wonder ; 
 they filled themselves with Balder as a lake 
 is filled with sunshine ; and he — the man of the 
 world and the philosopher — could only return 
 her gaze in voiceless admiration. 
 
 Were a face and form of primeval perfection 
 to appear among men, might not its divine 
 originality repel an ordinary observer, used to 
 consider beautiful such abortions of the Creator's 
 first design as sin and degeneration have pro- 
 duced ? Not easily can one imagine what a 
 real man or woman would look like. Painting
 
 250 FACE TO FACE. 
 
 nor sculpture can teach us ; we must learn, 
 If at all, from living electric flesh and blood. 
 
 This woman was tall and erect with youthful 
 majesty ; she stood like the rejoicing upgush of 
 a living fountain. Her contour was subtle with 
 womanly power, suggesting the spring of the 
 panther, the glide of the serpent. Warm she 
 seemed from Nature's bosom ; one felt from her 
 the influence of trees, the peace of meadows, 
 the high freedom of blue air, the happiness of 
 hills. She might have been the sister of the 
 sun ! 
 
 The moulding linger of God seemed freshly 
 to have touched her face. It was single and 
 harmonious as a chord of music, yet inexhaust- 
 ible in its variety. It recalled no other, 
 yet one might see in it the germs of a mighty 
 nation, who should begin from her, and among 
 a myriad resemblances evolve no perfect dupli- 
 cate. No angel's countenance, but warmest 
 human clay, which must undergo much change
 
 FACE TO FACE. 25 I 
 
 ere reaching Heaven. The sphinx before the 
 gloom of her riddle had dimmed her primal joy, — 
 before men vexed themselves to unravel God's 
 webs from without instead of from within, — 
 might have looked thus; or such might have been 
 Isis in the first flush of her divinity, fresh from 
 Him who made her immortally young and fair. 
 Her black hair was crowned with a low com- 
 pact turban, — a purple and white twist of some 
 fine cottony substance, striped with gold. Round 
 her wide low brow ran a band of jewelled gold, 
 three fingers' breadth, from which, at each 
 temple, depended a broad flat chain of woven 
 coral, following the margin of the cheeks, and 
 falling loose on the shoulders. A golden serpent 
 coiled round her smooth throat, and drooped its 
 head low down on her bosom. Her elastic feet, 
 arched like a dolphins back, were sandalled; 
 the bright coloured straps crossing one another 
 half-way to the knee, set dazzlingly off the clear 
 dusky whiteness of the skin.
 
 252 FACE TO FACE. 
 
 From her shoulders fell a long full robe of 
 purple byssus, over an under-dress of white 
 which reached the knee. This tunic was con- 
 fined at the waist by a hundredfold girdle em- 
 broidered with rainbow flowers, and fastened in 
 a broad knot below the bosom, the low-hanging 
 ends heavy with fringe. The outer robe, with 
 its long drooping sleeves falling open at the 
 elbow, was ample enough to envelope the whole 
 figure, but was now girded up, and one fold 
 brought round and thrust beneath the girdle in 
 front, to give freedom of motion. A rare pef- 
 fume came from her, like the evening breath of 
 orange blossoms. 
 
 Balder was no unworthy balance to this pic- 
 ture, though his else stately features showed 
 too much the stimulus of modern thought. He 
 was eminent by culture, she by nature only. 
 But Balder's culture had not greatened him. 
 Greatness is not of the brain except as allied to 
 the deep and pure chords which thrill at the
 
 FACE TO FACE. 253 
 
 base of the human symphony. He might stand 
 for our age ; she, for that more primitive but 
 profounder era which is at once man's be- 
 ginning and his goal. 
 
 Balder's eyes could not frankly hold their 
 own against her gaze of awful simplicity. All 
 he had ever done amiss arose and put him to 
 the blush. Nevertheless, he would not ad- 
 mit his inferiority; instead of dropping his eyes 
 he closed his soul behind them, and sharpened 
 their glance with a shallow out-striking light. 
 Without understanding the change, she felt it 
 and was troubled. Loftily majestic as were 
 her form and features, she was feminine to the 
 core — tender and finely perceptive. The in- 
 cisive masculine gaze abashed her. She raised 
 one deprecating hand, and her lips moved 
 though without sound. 
 
 He relented at this : and straightway her ex- 
 pression again shifted, and she smiled so radi- 
 antly that Balder almost looked to see whence
 
 2 54 FACE TO FACE. 
 
 came the light. The wondrous lines of her 
 face curved and softened — all that was grave 
 vanished. A summer tree standingf in the 
 sober beauty of shadow, when suddenly lit by 
 the sun, changes as she changed: for sunshine 
 is the laughter of the world. 
 
 The smile seemed to refresh her courage, for 
 she came nearer, and made a sideways movement 
 with her arm, apparently expecting it to pass 
 through the stalwart young man as readily as 
 through the air. On encountering solid sub- 
 stance, she drew startled back, half in alarm 
 and wholly in surprise. Balder had felt her 
 touch first as a benediction; then, it chilled him, 
 remembering a deed which must debar him from 
 aught so pure and innocent as she. The sub- 
 tilties of his philosophy might have cajoled him 
 anywhere save in her presence. There he felt 
 unmistakably guilty. Yet, from an irrational 
 dread that she whose intuitions seemed so swift 
 and deep, might grasp the cause of his discom-
 
 FACE TO FACE. 255 
 
 posure, he strove to hide it. Last of all the 
 world should she know his crime ! 
 
 Scarce two minutes since their meeting, — 
 yet, perhaps, a large proportion of their lives 
 had, meanwhile, been charmed away. No word 
 had been spoken; eyes had superseded tongues. 
 Nay, was ordinary conversation admissible with 
 a young goddess such as this ? So perfect 
 seemed her mastery over those profounder ele- 
 ments of intercourse underlying speech, which 
 are higher and more direct than the mechanism 
 of articulate words, — that, perhaps, that method 
 was unknown to her. _ 
 
 Nevertheless, one must say something — but 
 what ? with what sentence of supreme signi- 
 ficance should he begin ? Moreover, what lan- 
 guage should he use ? for she, whose look and 
 bearing were so alien to the land and age, 
 might likewise be a stranger to modern dialects 
 — and Aryan nor Semitic was at the tip of 
 Balder's tongue.
 
 256 FACE TO FACE. 
 
 In the midst of his embarrassment the start- 
 ling note of the hoopoe pierced his ear, and 
 precipitated him into asking that elemental 
 question which all created things are forever 
 putting to one another — 
 
 '* What is your name ? " 
 
 END OF VOL,
 
 December, i874- 
 
 A Classified Catalogue of 
 
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 Physiology of the Senses. 
 
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 Modern Epidemics. 
 
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 MILITARY WORKS. 
 
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 by the Crimean yva.T."—At/ieuau;/t. brief survey of its present state and latest achievc- 
 
 " Even more interestinjf, perhaps, than Lieu- | ment." — Graphic. 
 
 THE VOLUNTEER, THE MILITIAMAN, AND THE 
 
 BEaULAB SOLDIEB; a Conservative View of the Armies of England, Past, 
 Present, and Future, as Seen in Januarj-^, 1874. By A Public School Boy. i vol. 
 Crown 8vo. Price s^- 
 
 " Deserves special attention. ... It is a good I step.s in the growth of the En^'lish army from the 
 and compact little work, and treats the whole time of the Anglo-Saxons. The writer is at great 
 topic in a clear, intelligible, and rational way. pains to examine the renl facts concerning enlist- 
 There is an interesting chapter styled "Historical ment into tlie different branches of the army at 
 Retrospect," which very briefly traces all the main | the present day." — Ji'estmiiisier Rniciu. 
 
 THE OPERATIONS OF THE GERMAN ENGINEERS AND 
 
 TECHNICAL TBOOPS IN THE FBANCO-GEBMAN WAB OP 1870-71. 
 By Capt. A. von Groetze. Translated by Col. G. Graham. Demy 8vo. With 
 Six Plans. 
 
 THE OPERATIONS OF THE FIRST ARMY, UNDER GEN. 
 VON STEINMETZ. By Major von Schell. Translated by Captain E. O. 
 Hiollist. With Three Maps. Demy 8vo. Price xos. 6d. 
 
 " A very complete and important account of the 
 investment of Metz." 
 
 " The volume is of somewhat too technical a 
 character to be recommended to the general 
 reader, but the military student v/ill find it a valu- 
 
 able contribution to the history of the great 
 struggle ; and its utility is increased by a capital 
 general map of the operations of the First Army, 
 and also plans of .Spichercn and of the battle-fields 
 round Metz." — Jolin Bull. 
 
 THE OPERATIONS OF THE FIRST ARMY UNDER GEN. 
 
 VON GOEBEN. By Major von Schell. Translated by Col. C. H. VOn 
 
 Wrigrht. Four Maps. Demy 8vo. Price q.t. 
 
 has he sjicceeded, that it might really be imagined 
 that the book had been originally composed in 
 English. . . The work is decidedly val->:at!e to a 
 student of the art of war, and no military library 
 can be considered complete without it." — Hour. 
 
 " In concluding our notice of this instructive 
 work, which, by the way, is enriched by several 
 large-scale maps, we must not withhold our tribute 
 of admiration at the manner in which the translator 
 has performed his task. So thoroughly, indeed, 
 
 THE OPERATIONS OF THE FIRST ARMY UNDER GEN. 
 VON MANTEUFFEL. By Col. Count Hermann von Wartensleben, 
 Chief of the Staff of the First Army. Translated by Colonel C. H. VOn Wright. 
 With Two Maps. Demy 8vo. Price 9.y. 
 
 "Very clear, simple, yet eminently instructive, 1 estimable value of being in great measure the re- 
 is this liistory. It is not overladen with useless de- cord of operations actually witnessed by the author, 
 tails, is written in good taste, and possesses the in- I supplemented by official documents." — Athatauin. 
 
 65, Cornhill ; 6^ 12, Pater ?ioster Row, London.
 
 Works Published by Henry S. King &* Co., 13 
 
 Military ysov^KS—contintded. 
 THE GERMAN ARTILLERY IN THE BATTLES NEAR METZ 
 
 Eased on the official reports of the German Artillerj'. By Captain BCoffbauer, 
 Instrtictor in the German Artillery and Engineer School. Translated by Capt. E. O. 
 HoUist. Demy 8vo. With Map and Plans. Price 21s. 
 
 " Captain Hoftbauer's style is much more simple I able and instructive book ; whilst to his brother 
 and ajfreeable than those of many of his comrades officers, who have a special professional interest ia 
 and fellowauthors, and it suffers nothing in the hands the subject, its value cannot well be overrated." — 
 01 Captain HoUist, whose translation is close and Academy. 
 faithful. He has given the general poblic a read- , 
 
 THE OPERATIONS OF THE BAVARIAN ARMY CORPS. 
 By Captain Hugo Helvig-. Translated by Captain Q. S. Schwabe. 
 
 With 5 large Maps. In 2 vols. Demy 8vo. Price 24J. 
 
 '• It contains nmch material that may prove use- I and that the translator has performed his work 
 ful to the future historian of the war ; and it is, on most creditably." — Afhenanm. 
 
 the whole, written in a spirit of fairness and im- | "Captain Schwabe has done well to translate it, 
 partiality. . . It only remains to say that the work ' and his translation is admirably executed." — PaU 
 u enriched by some excellent large scale maps, 1 Mall Gazette. 
 
 AUSTRIAN CAVALRY EXERCISE. From an Abridged Edition 
 
 compiled by Capt.^in Illia Woinovits, of the General Staff, on the Tactical Regula- 
 tions of the Austrian Army, and prefaced by a General Sketch of the Organisation, &c., 
 of the Cavalry. Translated by Captain W. S. Cooke. Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 75-. 
 
 "Among the valuable group of works on the 1 ' Austrian Cavalry Exercise' ^vill hold a good and 
 inilitary tactics of the chief States of Europe which useful place." — IVestniitister Review. 
 Msisrs. King are publishing, a small treatise on I 
 
 History of the Organisation^ Equipment^ and War Sei-vices of 
 THE REGIMENT OF BENGAL ARTILLERY. Compiled from 
 
 Published Official and other Records, and various private sources, by Major Francis 
 "W. Stubbs, Royal (late Bengal) Artillery. Vol. I. will contain War Services. The 
 Second Volume will be published separately, and will contain the History of the 
 Organisation and Equipment of the Regiment. In 2 vols. Svo. With Maps 
 and Plans. [^Preparing. 
 
 VICTORIES AND DEFEATS. An Attempt to explain the Causes which 
 have led to them. An Officer's Manual. By Col. R. P. Anderson. Svo. 14J. 
 
 "The youngs officer should have it always at 
 hand to open anywhere and read a bit, and we 
 warrant him that let that bit be ever so small it 
 wia give him material for an hour's thinking." — 
 Ur.iud Set-vice Gazette. 
 
 "The present book proves that he is a diligent 
 student of military historj', his illustrations ranging 
 over a wide field, and including ancient and mo- 
 dem Indian and European \\zx\^&."— Standard. 
 
 THE FRONTAL ATTACK OF INFANTRY. By Capt. Laymann, 
 
 Instructor of Tactics at the Military College, Neisse. Translated by Colonel 
 Edward Newdig-ate. Crown 8vo, limp cloth. Price is. 6d. 
 
 plains how these were modified in the course of 
 the campaign by the terrible and unanticipated 
 effect of the fire ; and liow, accordingly, troops 
 should be trained to attack in future wars." — Aaznl 
 ajtd Military Gazette. 
 
 "An exceedingly useful kind cf Look. A valu- 
 able acquisition to the militarj- student's librar>'. 
 It recounts, in the first place, the opinions and 
 tactical formations which regulated the German 
 ani-.y during the early battles of the late war ; e.t- 
 
 ELEMENTARY MILITARY GEOGRAPHY, RECONNOITRING, 
 
 AND SKETCHING. Compiled for Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers of aH 
 Arms. By Capt. C. E. H. Vincent. Square cr. Svo. 2^. 6d. 
 
 language, definitions of varieties of ground and the 
 
 " This manual takes into view tlia necessity of 
 every soldier knowing how to read a military map, 
 ia order to know to what points in an enemy's 
 countrj- to direct his attention ; and provides for 
 this necessity by giving, in terse and sensible 
 
 dvantages they present in warfare, together with 
 a number of useful hints in militarj- sketching." — 
 Xaval and Military Gazette. 
 
 THREE WORKS BY LIEUT.-COL. THE HON. A. ANSON, 
 
 V.C. M.P. 
 
 The Abolition of Purchase and the 
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 Ak.'.?v Resfrves and Militia Reforms. 
 
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 Thk Stoky of thf, Sli'Ersessions. Crown 
 
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 65. Coi'nhill ; 6^ 12, Pater7wster Row, London.
 
 mirably treated ; indeed, we cannot but consider 
 it to be decidedly superior to any work which has 
 liitherto appeared in Engflish upon this all-import- 
 ant subject." — Standard. 
 
 14 Works Fublished by Hawy S. King &> Co., 
 
 Military \^ o\\.YJS,—continiccd. 
 THE OPERATIONS OF THE SOUTH ARMY IN JANUARY 
 
 AND FEBRUABY, 1871. Compiled from the Official War Documents of the Head- 
 quarters of the Southern Army. By Count Hermann von Wartensleben, 
 Colonel in the Prussian General Staff. Translated by Colonel C. H. von Wrigllt. 
 Demy 8vo, with Maps. Uniform with the above. Price 6.?. 
 
 STUDIES IN THE NEW INFANTRY TACTICS. Parts I. & IT. 
 By Maj or W. von Scherff. Translated from the German by Colonel Lumley 
 Graliam. Demy 8vo. Price is. 6d. 
 
 " The subject of the respective advantages of 
 attack and defence, and of the methods in which 
 each form of battle should be carried out under 
 the fire of modern arms, is exhaustively and ad- 
 
 Second Edition. Revised and Corrected. 
 
 TACTICAL DEDUCTIONS FROM THE WAR OF 1870—71. By 
 Captain A. von Bogruslawski. Translated by Colonel Lnmley Grraham, 
 
 late iSth (Royal Irish) Regiment. Demy 8vo. Uniform with the above. Price -js. 
 
 "We must, without delay, impress brain and I the German Armies' and 'Tactical Deductions') 
 forethought into the British Service ; and we can- we have here criticised in every military library, 
 not commence the good work too soon, or better, and introducing them as class-books in every tac- 
 tlian by placing the" two books (' The Operations of I tical school."— Um'/cd Serz'ice Cajiette. 
 
 THE ARMY OF. THE NORTH-GERMAN CONFEDERATION. 
 
 A Brief Description of its Organization, of the different Branches of the Service, and 
 their "Role" in War, of its Mode of Fighting, &c. By a Prussian General. 
 Translated from the German by Col. Edward Newdig-ate. Demy 8vo. Price 55-. 
 
 study .... The information given on mobilisation, 
 garrison troops, keeping up estabhshment during 
 war, and on th':: employment of the different 
 branches of the service, is of great value.'' — 
 Standard. 
 
 THE OPERATIONS OF THE GERMAN ARMIES IN FRANCE, 
 
 PROM SEDAN TO THE END OP THE WAR OP 1870-71. With large 
 Official Map. From the Journals of the Head-quarters Staff, by Major William 
 Blume. Translated by E. M. Jones, Major 20th Foot, late Professor of Military 
 History, Sandhurst. Demy 8vo. Price gs. 
 
 " The book is of absolute necessity to the mill- [ of v/orks upon the war that our press has put forth, 
 tary student .... The work is one of high merit." Our space forbids our doing more than comn-.end- 
 — United Service Gazette. ing it earnestly as the most authentic and instruc- 
 
 " The work of Major von Blume in its English tive narrative of the second section of the war that 
 dress forms the most valuable addition to our stock | has yet appeared." — Saturday Review. 
 
 HASTY INTRENCHMENTS. By Colonel A. Brialmont. Translated 
 by Lieut. Charles A. Empson, It. A. With Nine Plates. Demy 8vo. Price 6.y. 
 
 " A valuable contribution to military literature." 1 " It supplies that which our own text-books give 
 — Athenatitn. \ but imperfectly, viz., hints as to how a position can 
 
 " In seven short chapters it gives plain directions ' best be strengthened by means . . . of such extem- 
 for forming shelter-trenches, with the best method porised intrenchments and batteries as can be 
 of carrying the necessary tools, and it offers prac- thrown up by infantry in the space of four or five 
 tical illustrations of the use of hasty intrenchmento hours . . . deserves to become a standard military 
 on the field oihaXW^."— United Service Magazine. ; -woxV."— Standard. 
 
 STUDIES IN LEADING TROOPS. Parts I. and II. By Colonel von 
 
 Verdy du Vernois. An authorised and accurate Translation by Lieutenant 
 H. J. T. Hildyard, 71st Foot. Demy 8vo. Price 7J. 
 
 observant and fortunately-placed staff-officer i 
 
 " The work is quite essential to the full use of 
 the other volumes of the ' German Military Series,' 
 which Messrs. King are now producing in hand- 
 some uniform style. — United Service Magazine. 
 Every page of the book deserves attentive 
 
 *.• General BEAUCHAMP "WALKER says of 
 this work : — " I recommend the first two numbers 
 of Colonel von Verdy's ' Studies ' to the attentive 
 perusal of my brother officers. They supply a 
 want which I have often felt during my service in 
 this country, namely, a minuter tactical detail of 
 the minor operations of war than any but the most 
 
 a position to give. I have read and re-read them 
 very carefully, I hope with profit, certainly with 
 great mterest, and believe that practice, in the 
 sense of these ' Studies,' would be a valuable pre- 
 paration for manoeuvres on a more extended 
 scale." — Berlin, June, 1872. 
 
 DISCIPLINE AND DRILL. Four Lectures delivered to the London 
 Scottish Rifle Volunteers. By Capt. S. Flood Pag-e. ChcaperEdition. Cr. Svo. \s. 
 
 "The very useful and interesting work."— I " An admirable collection of lectures."— 7"2;«fj. 
 Volunteer Service Gazette. \ 
 
 65, Cornhill ; <£>» 12, Paternoster Row, London.
 
 Works Published by Henry S. King & Co.^ 15 
 
 Military Works — continued. 
 
 CAVALRY FIELD DUTY. By Major- General von Mirus. Translated 
 by Captain Frank S. Bussell, 14th (King's; Hussars. Cr. 8vo, cloth limp. -js. 6d. 
 
 " We have no book on cavalry duties that at all 
 approaches to this, either for completeness in 
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 utility. In its pages will be found plain instructions 
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 combatant horseman will be called upon to per- 
 form, and if a dragoon but studies it well and 
 
 intelligently, his value to the army, we are confi- 
 dent, must be increased one hundredfold. Skir- 
 mishing, scouting, patrolling, and vedetting are 
 now the chief duties dragoons in peace should be 
 practised at, and how to perform these duties 
 effectively is what the book teaches."— L'n tied 
 Sei vice Magazine. 
 
 INDIA AND THE EAST. 
 
 THE THREATENED FAMINE IN BENGAL ; How it may be 
 
 Met, and the Recurrence of Famines in Indi.\ Prevented. Being Xo. i of 
 " Occasional Notes on Indian Affairs." By Sir H. Bartle E. Frere, G-.C.B., 
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 THE ORIENTAL SPORTING MAGAZINE. A Reprint of the first 
 
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 "Lovers of sport will find ample amusement in specimens of the animal wdrld vn. their native 
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 have attacked the fiercest asd most gigantic Service Gazette. 
 
 Second Edition, Revised and Corrected. 
 THE EUROPEAN IN INDIA. A Hand-book of Practical Information 
 
 for those proceeding to, or residing in, the East Indies, relating to Outfits, Routes, 
 Time for Departure, Indian Climate, &c. By Edmund C. P. Hull. With a 
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 English settler or traveller in India." — Standard. 
 
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 careful array of pertin«nt facts, aind its sterling 
 
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 MEDICAL GUIDE FOR ANGLO-INDIANS. Being a Compendium 
 
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 TAS-HIL UL KALAM; or, Hindustani Made Easy. By Captain 
 
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 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. By L. Bowring-, C.S.I., Lord Canning's 
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 Illustrated with Maps and Diagrams. Demy Svo. Price i&y. 
 
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 own." — Daily Neivs. 
 
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 65, Cornhill I 6^ 12, Paternoster Row, Lo?idon.
 
 1 6 IVerks Published by Henry S. King &> Co.^ 
 
 India and the East — continued. 
 EDUCATIONAL COURSE OF SECULAR SCHOOL BOOKS 
 
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 The follcnoing Works are nozo ready: — 
 
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 GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA, with 
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 tracing the growth ef the British 
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 ELEMENTARY GEOGRAPHY OF I FACTS AND FEATURES OF INDIAN 
 INDIA. HISTORY, in a series of alternating 
 
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 WESTERN INDIA BEFORE AND DURING THE MUTINIES. 
 Pictures drawn from life. By Major-Gen. Sir George Le Grand Jacoli, 
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 AthenceiDit. ' I 
 
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 PRETTY LESSONS IN VERSE FOR GOOD CHILDREN, 
 
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 THREE WORKS BY MARTHA FARQUHARSON. 
 
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 THE AFRICAN CRUISER. A Midshipman's Adventures on the West 
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 BRAVE RfEN'S FOOTSTEPS. A Book of Example and Anecdote kr 
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 1 8 Wo7'ks Published by Heniy S. King &» Co,, 
 
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 GUTTA-PERCHA WILLIE, THE WORKING GENIUS. By 
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 THE DESERT PASTOR, JEAN JAROUSSEAU. Translated from 
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 SEVEN AUTUMN LEAVES FROM FAIRY-LAND. Illustrated 
 
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 The tales have an original national ring in them, serviceable collection of Slavonic Fairy Tales. 
 and will be pleasant reading to thousands besides ^ Its contents are, as a general rule, well chosen, 
 children. Yet children will eagerly open the and they are translated with a fidelity which 
 pages, and not willingly close them, of the pretty i deserves cordial praise . . . Bafore taking leave 
 volume." — Standard. of his prettily got up volume, we oug)it to mention 
 
 " English readers now have an opportunity of | that its contents fully come up to the promise held 
 becoming acquainted with eleven Polish and eight ' out in its preface." — Academy. 
 Bohemian stories, as well as with eight Russ'ian I 
 
 WAKING AND WORKING; OR, FROM GIRLHOOD TO 
 WOMANHOOD. By Mrs. G. S. Reaney. Cr. 8vo. With a Frontispiece. 5^. 
 
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 Works Published by Heiiry S. King gn Co., 19 
 
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 AT SCHOOL WITH AN OLD DRAGOON. By Stephen J. 
 
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 "consisting almost entirely of startling stories of " Mr. Mac Kenna's formerwork,' Plucky Fellows,' 
 
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 Third Edition. 
 STORIES IN PRECIOUS STONES. By Helen Zimmem. With 
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 readers of many a legend, and many an imaginary 
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 Fourth Edition. 
 THE GREAT DUTCH ADMIRALS. By Jacob de Liefde. Crown 
 
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 ' ' May be recommend c-d as a wholesome present I "A really good hocAC—SUi^uiard. 
 for boys. They will find in it numerous tales of "A really excellent hook." —Spectator. 
 adventure." — Athenaiim. \ 
 
 THE TASMANIAN LILY. By James Bonwick. Cro\ra 8vo. 
 With Frontispiece. Price 55. 
 
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 MIKE HOWE, THE BUSHRANGER OF VAN DIEMEN'S 
 
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 " He illustrates the career of the bushranger half 1 are, to say the least, exquisite, and his representa- 
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 ' aLii luanner ; his delineations of life m the bush I Courant. 
 
 PHANTASMION. A Fairy Romance. By Sara Coleridge. With an 
 Ir.tnductory Preface by the Rigrht Hon. Lord Coleridg-e of Ottery S. 
 Mary. A new Edition. In i vol. Crown 8vo. Price 7^. 6d. 
 
 " Ti.c readers of this fairy tale will find them- read it were it twice the length, closii^ the book 
 
 selves liwcUing for a time in a veritable region of with a feeling of regret that the repaist was at.an 
 
 romance, breathing an atmosphere of unrealitj-, end." — Vanity Fair. 
 
 and jiurrounded by supernatural beings." — Post. " A beautifiil conception of a rarelj'-gvfted mind." 
 
 •• 1 his delightful work . . . We would gladly have —Exay. 
 
 LAYS OF A KNIGHT-ERRANT IN MANY LANDS. By Major- 
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 Si.x Illustrations. Price -js. 6d. 
 
 Ph.iraoh Land. I Home Land. I Wonder Land, | Rkine Land. 
 
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 stanzas . . . abounding in real fim and humour." . amusing." — Standard. 
 — Literary World. ' 
 
 BEATRICE AYLMER AND OTHER TALES. By Mary M. Howard, 
 
 Author of " Brampton Rectory." i vol. Crown Svo. Price 6s. 
 
 "These tales possess considerable merit."—' " A neat and chattj- little volume."— /f<j»<r. 
 Court yournal. ( 
 
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 c 2
 
 20 Works Published by Henry S. Ki?ig 6^ Co., 
 
 WORKS BY ALFRED TENNYSON. 
 
 THE CABINET EDITION. 
 
 Messrs. Henry S. King & Co. have the pleasure to announce that 
 they are issuing an Edition of the Laureate's works, in Tc/i Monthly 
 Volumes, foolscap 8vo, at Half-a-Crown each, entitled "The Cabinet 
 Edition," which will contain the whole of Mr. Tennyson's works. 
 The first volume is illustrated by a beautiful Photographic Portrait ; 
 and the other volumes are each to contain a Frontispiece. They are 
 tastefully bound in Crimson Cloth, and are to be issued in the 
 following order : — 
 
 Vol. Vol. 
 
 1. EARLY POEMS. 
 
 2. ENGLISH IDYLLS & OTHER POEMS. 
 
 3. LOCKSLEY HALL & OTHER POEMS. 
 
 4. LirORETIUS & OTHER POEMS. 
 6. IDYLLS OF THE KING. 
 
 6. IDYLLS OF THE KING. 
 
 7. IDYLLS OF THE KING. 
 
 8. THE PRINCESS. 
 
 9. MATJD AND ENOCH ARDEN. 
 10. IN MEMORLAM. 
 
 Volumes I. to VII. are now ready. 
 Subscribers' names received by all Booksellers. 
 
 Rcductio7i in prices of Mr. Tennyson'' s Works: — 
 
 PRICE, 
 
 ^. d. 
 
 POEMS. Small Svo 60 
 
 MAUD AND OTHER POEMS. Small Svo 36 
 
 THE PRINCESS. Small Svo 36 
 
 IDYLLS OF THE KING. Small Svo 50 
 
 „ „ Collected. Small Svo 70 
 
 THE HOLY GRAIL, AND OTHER POEMS. Small Svo 46 
 
 GARETH AND LYNETTE. Small Svo 30 
 
 ENOCH ARDEN, &c. Small Svo. 36 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. Small Svo 40 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE ABOVE WORKS. Square Svo, cloth . ..36 
 
 ,, „ M cloth, gilt edges . . . .40 
 
 SONGS FROM THE ABOVE WORKS. Square Svo, cloth 36 
 
 LIBRARY EDITION OF MR. TENNYSON'S WORKS. 6 vols. Post Svo, each 10 6 
 POCKET VOLUME EDITION OF MR. TENNYSON'S WORKS, n vols., in 
 
 neat case 316 
 
 ,, extra cloth, gilt, in case 35 o 
 
 POEMS. Illustrated Edition, 4to 25 o 
 
 *,^* All the aboi'e are kept in leather bindings. 
 
 65, Corn hill; 6- 12, Paternoster Rouf, London.
 
 Works Published by Henry S. King g^ Co., 
 POETRY. 
 
 " A most excellent collection. . . . Shows taste I as a whole, is very choice." — British Quarterly 
 and care." — If-'esttninstir Gazett:. Rciictv. 
 
 FOUR ELEGANT POETICAL GIFT BOOKS: 
 LYRICS OF LOVE, From Shakspeare to Tennyson. Selected and arranged 
 by W. Davenport Adams, Junr. Fcap. 8vo, cloth extra, gilt edges, 3^. &f. i I 
 
 "A charming and scholarly pocket volume of I " The anthoIog:>' is a very full and jjood one, and 
 poetry . . . The editor annotates his pieces just represents the robust school of Carew and Suckling 
 sufficiently for information. ... The collection, | better than any other tliat we know."— .^ca<j^ir;/z>'. 
 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT'S POEMS. Red-line Edition. Hand- 
 somely bound. With Illustrations and Portrait of the Author. Price -js. 6d. 
 A Cheaper Edition, with Frontispiece, is also published. Price 3J. 6d. 
 
 These are tJie oftly complete Enjiish Editions sanctioned by tJte Author. 
 " Of all the poets of the United States there is no 'Cio'n."— Academy. 
 one who obtained the fame and position of a classic ; " We are glad to possess so neat and elegant an 
 earher, or has kept them longer, than William edition of the works of the most thoughtful, grace- 
 Cullen Bryant . . . A singularly sunple and straight- \ ful, and Words^vorthian of American poets." — 
 forward fashion of verse. Very rarely has any British Quarterly Review. 
 
 writer preserved such an even level of merit j "Some of the purest and tenderest poetry of this 
 throughout his poems. Like some other American ' generation . . . Undoubtedly the best edition of tiie 
 poets, Mr. Bryant is particularly happy in transla- i poet now in existence." — Giasg<nu Kcil's. 
 
 ENGLISH SONNETS. Collected and Arranged by Jolin Dennis. 
 Fcap. 8vo. Elegantly bound. Price 3^^. (>d. 
 
 " Mr. Dennis has shown great judgment in this 
 selection." — Saturday Rezncw. 
 
 ■'An exquisite selection, a selection which every 
 ■ ■ ■ ■ , with 
 
 delight The not«s are verj- useful. . .The volume 
 is one for which English literature owes Mr. Dennis 
 the heartiest thanks."— ii/tfcia/cr. 
 
 lover of poetry will consult again and again 
 
 Second Edition. 
 
 HOME-SONGS FOR QUIET HOURS. Edited by the Rev. Canon 
 
 K. H. Baynes, Editor of " Lyra Anglicana," &c. Fcap 8vo. Cloth extra, 3.?. 6^/. 
 
 "A tasteful collection of devotional poetry of a good addition to the gift books of the season."— 
 very high standard of excellence. The pieces are Rock. 
 
 short, mostly original, and instinct, for the most I " These are poems in which everj* word has a 
 part, with the most ardent spirit of devotion."— j meaning, and from which it would be unjust to 
 Standard. remove a stanza . . . Some of the best pieces in 
 
 " A most acceptable volume of sacred poetry ; a | the book are anon>-mous." — Pall Mall Gaztttt. 
 
 * * The above four books may also be had handsomely bound in 
 
 Morocco with gilt edges. 
 
 THE DISCIPLES. A New Poem. By Mrs. Hamilton King:. Second 
 
 Edition, with some Notes. Crown 8vo. Price ys. 6d. 
 
 "A higher impression of the imaginative power could scarcely denj- to ' Ugo Bassi' the praise of 
 of the writer is given by the objective truthfulness ■ being a work worthy in every way to live . . . The 
 of the glimpses she gives us of her master, help- . style of her writing is pure and simple in the last 
 ing us to understand how he could be regarded ! degree, and all is natural, truthful, and free from 
 by some as a heartless charlatan, by others as an ] the slightest shade of obscurity in thought or die- 
 inspired saint."— Acaderuy. 1 tion . . . The book altogether is one that merits 
 
 "Mrs. King can wxite good verses. The de- unqualified admiration and praise."— X'ajVy Tele- 
 scription of the capture of the Croats at Mestre is graph. 
 
 extremely spirited ; there is a pretty picture of the ; " Throughout it breathes restrained pjission and 
 road to Rome, from the Abruzzi, and another of lofty sentiment, which flow out now and then as a 
 Pailermo."— A theuaitr/!. stream widening to bless the lands into powerful 
 
 " In her new volume Mrs. King has far surpassed muiic."— British Quarterly Review. 
 her previous attempt. Even the most hostile critic 
 
 ASPROMONTE, AND OTHER POEMS. By the same Author. Second 
 
 Edition. Cloth, 4^. td. 
 
 ' ' The volume is anonj-mous, but there is no reason 1 ' The Execution of Felice Orsini,' has much poetic 
 for the author to be ashamed of it. The ' Poems merit, the event celebrated being told witli dra- 
 of Italy ' are evidently inspired by genuine enthu- I malic {oTCe."—/tthefuzufn. 
 suism in the cause espoused ; and one of tiiem, | " The verse is fluent and free." — Spectator. 
 
 ARYAN : or, the Story of the Sword. A Poem. By Herbert Todd, M.A., 
 
 late of Trinity College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 
 
 65, Cornhill ; &* 12, Paternoster Row, London.
 
 22 
 
 Works Published by Henry S. King 6^ Co., 
 
 P OETRY — continued. 
 
 THROUGH STORM AND SUNSHINE. 
 By Adorij Author of "Lays of Modern 
 Oxford." With Illustrations by H. Pater- 
 son, M. E. Edwards, A. T., and the 
 Author. 
 
 SONGS FOR MUSIC. By Four Friends. 
 Square crown 8vo. Price 5J. 
 
 CONTAINING SONGS BY 
 
 Reginald A. Gatty. Stephen H. Gatty. 
 
 Greville J. Chester. Juliana H. Ewing. 
 
 "A charming gift-book, which will be very 
 popular with lovers of poetry." — John BiM. 
 
 *' The charm of simplicity is manifest through- 
 out, and the subjects are well chosen and suc- 
 cessfully treated." — Rock. 
 
 ROBERT BUCHANAN'S POETICAL 
 WORKS. Collected Edition, in 3 Vols., 
 price i8j. Vol. I. contains, — " Ballads 
 and Romances ;" " Ballads and Poems 
 of Life," and a Portrait of the Author. 
 
 Vol. IL — " Ballads and Poems of Life ;" 
 "Allegories and Sonnets." 
 
 Vol.IIL — "Coruiskeen Sonnets;" "Book 
 of Orm ;" "Political Mystics." 
 
 " Holding, as Mr. Buchanan does, such a con- 
 spicuous place amongst modern writers, the read- 
 ing public will be dufy thankful for this handsome 
 edition of the poet's works.' — Civil Service 
 Gazette. 
 
 " Taking the poems before us as experiments, 
 we hold that they are very full of promise ... In 
 the romantic ballad, Mr. Buchanan shows real 
 power." — Hour. 
 THOUGHTS IN VERSE. Small crown 
 8vo. Price i.y. 6d. 
 
 This is a Collection of Verses expressive 
 of religious feeling, written from a Theistic 
 stand-point. 
 
 "All who are interested in devotional verse 
 should read this tiny voXxime."— Academy. 
 
 ON THE NORTH WIND— THISTLE- 
 DOWN. A volume of Poems. By the 
 Hon. Mrs. Willoughby. Elegantly 
 bound. Small crown 8vo. 7J. 6d. 
 
 PENELOPE AND OTHER POEMS. 
 By Allison Hughes. Fcap. 8vo. 45. 6d. 
 
 "Full of promise. They possess both form 
 and colour, they are not wanting in suggestion, 
 and they reveal something not far removed from 
 imagination. ... If the verse moves stiffly it is 
 because the substance is rich and carefully 
 wrought. That artistic regard for the value of 
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 and the ornament, even when it might be pro- 
 nounced exce.'-sive, is tasteful in arrangement."— 
 Athetiau}'n.. 
 
 COSMOS. A Poem. 8vo. 3^. ed. 
 
 Subject.— Nature in the Past and in the Pre- 
 sent.— Man in the Past and in the Present.— The 
 Future. 
 
 POEMS. By Augustus Taylor. Fcp.Svo. 5^. 
 NARCISSUS AND OTHER POEMS. 
 
 By E. Carpenter, Fcap. Svo. 5^. 
 
 " In many of these poems there is a force of 
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 these Aa.\s."— Standard. 
 
 AURORA; A Volume of Verse. Fcap. Svo. SJ. 
 
 POEMS. By Annette F. C. Knight. Fcap. 
 Svo. Cloth. Price 5J. 
 
 " . . . . Very fine also is the poem entitled ' Past 
 and Present,' from which we take the song pic- 
 turing the 'Spirits of the Present.' The verses here 
 are so simple in form as almost to veil the real 
 beauty and depth of the image ; yet it would not 
 be easy to find a more exquisite picture in poetry 
 or on canvas of the spirit of the ti^e."— Scotsman. 
 " These poems are musical to read, they give 
 true and pleasant pictures of common things, and 
 they tell sweetly of the deeper moral and religious 
 harmonies wliich sustain us under the discords and 
 the griefs of actual life." — Spectator. 
 
 "full of tender and felicitous verse ... ex- 
 pressed with a rare artistic perfection. . . . The 
 gems of the book to our mind are the poems 
 entitled ' In a Town Garden.'"— Literary Chiirch- 
 fnan. 
 A TALE OF THE SEA, SONNETS, 
 AND OTHER POEMS. By James 
 Howell. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 5.?. 
 
 " Mr. Howell has a keen perception of the 
 beauties of nature, and a just appreciation of the 
 charities of life. . . . Mr. Howell's book deserves, 
 and will probably receive, a warm reception." — 
 Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 METRICAL TRANSLATIONS FROM 
 THE GREEK AND LATIN POETS, 
 AND OTHER POEMS. By R. B. 
 Boswell, M.A. Oxon. Crown 8vo. 5.y. 
 
 " Most of these translations we can praise as of 
 very high merit. . . . For sweetness and regu- 
 larity, his verses are ^xt-tminenX.."— Literary 
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 " Mr. Boswell has a strong poetical vein in 
 his nature, and gives us every promise of success 
 as an original poet." — Standard. 
 
 EASTERN LEGENDS AND STORIES 
 IN ENGLISH VERSE. By Lieu- 
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 Crown Svo. 55-. 
 
 " There is a rollicking sense of fun about the 
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 Second Edition. 
 VIGNETTES IN RHYME AND VERS 
 DE SOCIETE. By Austin Dobson. 
 Fcap. Svo. 5s. 
 " Clever, clear-cut, and csireful."— A tAenceiem. 
 "As a writer of Vers de Soci^te, Mr. Dobson 
 is almost, if not quite, unnvAlled."—iixamifier. 
 
 " Lively, innocent, elegant in expression, and 
 graceful in iancy."— Morning Post. 
 
 SONGS FOR SAILORS. By Dr. W. C. 
 Bennett. Dedicated by Special Request 
 to H. R. H. the Duke of Edinburgh. 
 Crown Svo. 3^. 6d. With Steel Portrait 
 and Illustrations. 
 
 An Edition in Illustrated paper Covers. 
 Price IS. 
 WALLED IN, AND OTHER POEMS. 
 By the Rev. Henry J. Bulkeley. Fcp. 
 8vo. 5s. 
 
 " A remarkable book of genuine poetry."— 
 Evettiug Standard. 
 
 "Genuine power displayed." — Examiner. 
 
 " Poetical feeling is manifest here, and the 
 diction of the poem is unimpeachable."— Aj// 
 Mall Gazette. 
 
 65, Cornhill ; 6^ 12, Pater jwster Row, London,
 
 Works Published by Henry S. King &> Co. 
 
 23 
 
 Poetry — continued. 
 
 SONGS OP LIFE AND DEATH. By 
 John Payne, Author of " Intaglios," 
 " Sonnets," etc. Crown Svo. 5J. 
 
 " The art of ballad-writine has long been lost 
 in England, and Mr Payne may claim to be its 
 restorer. It is a perfect delight to meet with such 
 a ballad as ' May Margaret ' in the present 
 volume. ' — U 'esttn tnster Reviezv. 
 IMITATIONS FROM THE GERMAN 
 OF SPITTA AND TERSTEGEN. 
 By Lady Durand. Fcap. Svo. \s. 
 
 •• A charming little volume. . . Will be a very 
 valuable assistance to peaceful, meditative souls.'' 
 — Church Herald. 
 
 ON VIOL AND FLUTE. A New Volume 
 of Poems, by Edmund W. Gosse. With 
 Frontispiece by W, B. Scott. Cr. Svo. ^s. 
 
 " A careful perusal of hLs verses will show that 
 he is a poet. . . His song has the fateful, mur- 
 muring sound which reminds one of the softness 
 and deliciousness of summer time. . . . There is 
 much that is good in the \olame."—S/>eciaior. 
 EDITH; OR, Love and Life in Cheshire. 
 By T. Ashe, Author of " The Sorrows of 
 Hypsipyle," etc. Sewed. Price 6^. 
 
 " A really fine poem, fuU of tender, subtle 
 touches of feeling." — Manchester .Xnvs. 
 
 " Pregnant fro;n beginning to end with the re- 
 s-j!ts of careful ol'serv.iti'on and imaginative 
 1 ower." — Chester Chroaic'c. 
 
 THE INN OF STRANGE MEETINGS, 
 AND OTHER POEMS. By Mortimer 
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 " Abounding in quiet humour, in bright fancy, 
 in sweetness and melody of expression, and, at 
 times, in the tenderest touches of pathos."— 
 Graphic. 
 
 "Mr. Collins has an undercurrent of chivalry 
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 humoured banter which is the special character- 
 istic of his verse." — Athenautn. 
 GOETHE'S FAUST. A New Translation in 
 Rime. By C. Kegan Paul. Crown Svo. 6y. 
 •' His translation is the most minutely accurate 
 that has yet been pr^vluced. . . " — Exaniitter. 
 
 "'.Mr. Paul is a z-^alous and a faithful inter- 
 preter.' — SatKrday Ri-'inv. 
 AN OLD LEGEND OF S. PAUL'S. By 
 the Rev. G. B. Howard. Fcp. Svo. 3J. td. 
 " We admire, and deservedly admire, the gen- 
 uine poetry of this charming old legend as here 
 presented to us by the br.iliant imagination and 
 the chastened taste of t':.e gifted writer." — Stati- 
 dard. 
 
 SONNETS, LYRICS, AND TRANSLA- 
 TIONS. By the Rev. Charles Turner. 
 Cr. Svo. 4J. (xi. 
 
 "Mr. Turner is a genuine poet; his song is 
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 subtle in thought."— Pa// Mali Gazette. 
 
 "The light of a devout, gentle, and kindly 
 spirit, a delicate and graceful fancy, a keen in- 
 tellig;nce irradiates these thoughts." — Contem- 
 porary Review'. 
 THE DREAM AND THE DEED, AND 
 OTHER POEMS. By Patrick Scott, 
 Author of " Footpaths between Two 
 Worlds," etc. Fcap. Svo. Cloth, 5^. 
 
 " A bitter and able satire on the vice and follies 
 of the daj', literary, social, and political." — Stan- 
 dard. 
 
 "Shows real poetic power coupled with evi- 
 dences of satirical energy." — Edinburgh Daily 
 Rccicw. 
 
 EROS AGONISTES. By E. B. D. Fcap. 
 Svo. y. ()d. 
 
 "It is not the least merit of these pages that 
 they are everywhere illumined with moral and 
 religious sentiment suggested, not paraded, of the 
 brightest, purest character.'' — Standard. 
 CALDERON'S DRAMAS. Translated from 
 the Spanish. By Denis Florence Mac- 
 Carthy. Post Svo. Cloth, gilt edges, icw. 
 
 " The lambent verse flows with an ease, spirit, 
 and music perfectly aatural, liberal, and har- 
 monious." — Spectator. 
 
 " It is impossible to speak too highly of this 
 beautiful work. '—Month. 
 
 Second Edition. 
 SONGS OF TWO WORLDS. First 
 Series. By a Ne'w Writer. Fcp. Svo. 5.^. 
 
 " These poems will assuredly take high rank 
 among the class to v.hich they belong."— i/r/^jj/t 
 Quarterly Review, April \st. 
 
 "Xo extracts coulcl do justice to the exquisite 
 tones, the felicitous phrasing and delicately 
 wrought harmonies of some of these poems."— 
 AfHcon/orinist. 
 
 " A purity and delicacy of feeling like morning 
 air.'' — Graphic. 
 
 Second Edition. 
 SONGS OF TWO WORLDS. Second 
 Series. By a New Writer. Fcp. Svo. 5^. 
 
 " The most noteworthy poem is the 'Ode on a 
 Spring Morning,' which has somewhat of the 
 charm of ' L' Allegro ' and ' II Penseroso.' It is 
 the nearest approach to a masterpiece in the col- 
 lection. AVe cannot find too much praise for its 
 noble assertion of man's resurrection.' — Saturday 
 Review. 
 
 " A real advance on its predecessor, and con- 
 tains at least one poem (' The Organ Boy ') of 
 great originality, as well as many of much beautj' 
 .... As exquisite a little poem as we have read 
 for many a day .... but not at all alone in its 
 power to fascinate." — Spectator. 
 
 " Will be grateluUy welcomed." — Exa;niner. 
 THE GALLERY OF PIGEONS, AND 
 OTHER POEMS. By Theo. Mar- 
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 "A conceit abounding in prettiness." — Ex- 
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 " The rush of fresh, sparkling fancies is too 
 rapid, too sustained, too abundant, not to be 
 spontaneous." — Academy. 
 THE LEGENDS OF ST. PATRICK 
 AND OTHER POEMS. By Aubrey 
 de Vere. Crown Svo. 5^. 
 
 " Mr. DeVere's versification in his earlier poems 
 is characterised by great sweetness and sim- 
 plicity. He is master of his instnunent, and 
 rarely offends the ear with false notes."— Pa/^ 
 Mall GazetU: 
 
 " We have but space to commend the varied 
 structure of his verse, the carefulness of his 
 grammar, and his excellent English.'' — Saturday 
 Rerieiv. 
 
 ALEXANDER THE GREAT. A 
 Dramatic Poem. By Aubrey de Vere, 
 Author of ** The Legends of St. Patrick." 
 Crown Svo. 51. 
 
 " Undeniably well written." — Exatni>ier. 
 
 " A noble play. . . . The work of a true poet, 
 and of a fine artist, in whom there is nothing 
 vulgar and nothing weak. . . . We had no con- 
 ception, from our knowledge of Mr. De Vere's 
 former poems, that so much poetic power lay in 
 him as tills drama shows. It is terse as well as full 
 of beauty, nervous as well as rich in thought."— 
 SpectiZtor. 
 
 65, Cornhill ; c>' 12, Paternoster Row, London.
 
 24 
 
 Works Published by Henry S. King 6^ Co.^ 
 
 FICTION. 
 
 HIS QUEEN. Ey Alice Fisher, Author of 
 "Too Bright to Last." 3 vols. Cr. Svo. 
 
 ISRAEL MORT : OVERMAN. The Sto.ry 
 of the Mine. By John Saunders, Author 
 of " Hirell," &c. 3 vols. Crown Svo. 
 
 MALCOIjM : A Scottish Story. By George 
 MacDonald, Author of " David Elgin- 
 brod," &c. 3 vols. Crown Svo. 
 
 THE NEGLECTED QUESTION. By 
 B. Markewitch. Translated from the 
 Russian, by the Princesses Ouroussoff. 
 
 2 vols. Crown Svo. 145. 
 WOMAN'S A RIDDLE; or, Baby 
 
 Warmstrey. By Philip Sheldon, 
 
 3 vols. 
 
 " In the delineation of idiosyncrasy, special and 
 particular, and its effects on the lives of the per- 
 sonages of the story, the author may, without 
 exaggeration, be said to be masterly. Whether 
 in the long-drawn-out development of character, 
 or in the description of peculiar qualities in a 
 single pointed sentence, he is equally skilful, 
 while, where pathos is necessary, he has it at com- 
 mand, and subdued, sly humour is not wanting." 
 — Morning Post. 
 
 lilSETTE'S VENTURE. By Mrs. 
 Russell Gray. 2 vols. 
 
 IDOLATRY. A Romance. By Julian 
 
 awthorne. Author of "Bressant." 2 vols. 
 
 " A more powerful book than ' Bressant" .... 
 
 If the figures are mostly phantoms, they are 
 
 phantoms which take a more powerful hold on the 
 
 mind than many very real figures There 
 
 are three scenes in this romance, any one of 
 which would prove true genius." — spectator. 
 " The character of the Egyptian, half mad, 
 
 and all wicked, is remarkably drawn 
 
 Manetho is a really fine conception .... That 
 there are passages of almost exquisite beauty 
 here and there is only what we might expect." — 
 Athcnau^n. 
 
 BRESSANT. A Romance. By Julian 
 Hawthorne. 2 vols. Crown Svo. 
 
 " One of the most powerful with which we are 
 acquainted." — Times. 
 
 " We shall once more have reason to rejoice 
 whenever we hear th.at a new work is coming out 
 written by one who bears the honoured name of 
 Hawthorne. "—Saturday Review. 
 
 VANESSA. ,By the Author of " Thomasina," 
 " Dorothy," &c. 2 vols. Second Edition. 
 
 THOMASINA. py the Author of" Dorothj'," 
 " De Cressy," &c. 2 vols. Crown Svo. 
 
 "A finished and delicate cabinet picture; no 
 line is without its purpose." — Athenceuin. 
 
 AILSEN FERRERS. By Susan Morley. 
 In 2 vols. Crown Svo, cloth. 
 
 " Her novel rises to a level far above that which 
 cultivated women with a facile pen ordinarily at- 
 tain when they set themselves to write a story. It 
 is as a study of character, worked out in a manner 
 that is free from almost all the usual faults of lady 
 writers, that ' Aileen Ferrers' merits a place 
 apart from its innumerable rivals." — Saturday 
 Revieiu. 
 
 LADY MORETOUN'S DAUGHTER. 
 By Mrs. Eiloart. In % vok. Crown Svo. 
 
 " Carefully written .... The narrative is well 
 sustained." — Athenaiim. 
 
 " An interesting story .... Above the run of 
 average novels." — Vanity Fair. 
 
 " Will prove more popular than any of the 
 author's former works .... Interesting and read- 
 able." — Hour. 
 
 " The story is well put together, and readable." 
 — Exajniner. 
 
 WAITING FOR TIDINGS. By the 
 
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 " An interesting novel." — Vanity Fair. 
 
 " A very hvely tale, abounding with amusing 
 incidents." — yohn Bull. 
 
 TWO GIRLS. By Frederick Wedmore, 
 Author of " A Snapt Gold Ring." 2 vols. 
 "A carefully-written novel of character, con- 
 trasting the two heroines of one love tale, an 
 English lady and a French actress. Cicely is 
 charnung ; the introductory description of her is 
 a good specimen of the well-balanced sketches in 
 which the author shines." — Athenauni. 
 
 CIVIL SERVICE. By J. T. Listado. 
 
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 " A very charmir.g and amusing story . . . The 
 characters are all w ell drawn and life-like .... It 
 is with no ordinary skill that Mr. Listado has 
 drawn the character of Hugh Haughton, full as 
 lie is of scheming and subtleties . . . The plot is 
 worked out with great skill and is of no ordinary 
 kind." — Civil Service Gazette. 
 
 " A story of Irish life, free from burlesque and 
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 MR. CARINGTON. A Tale of Love and 
 Conspiracy. By Robert Turner Cotton. 
 In 3 vols. Cloth, crown Svo. 
 
 " A novel in so many ways good, as in a fresh 
 and elastic diction, stout unconventionality, and 
 happy boldness of conception and execution. 
 His novels, though free spoken, will be some of 
 the healthiest of our day." — Exajniner. 
 
 TOO LATE. By Mrs. Newnaan. 2 vols. 
 
 "The plot is skilfully constructed, the charac- 
 ters are well conceived, and the narrative moves 
 to its conclusion without any waste of words . . . 
 The tone is healthy, in spite of its incidents, 
 which will please the lovers of sensational fiction. 
 . . . The reader who opens the book will read it 
 all through."— Pa// Mall Gazette. 
 
 REGINALD BRAMBLE. A Cynic of the 
 19th Century. An Autobiography, i vol. 
 
 "There is plenty of vivacity in Mr. Bramble's 
 narrative." — Athejicetun. 
 
 " Written in a hvely and readable style." — Hour. 
 
 CRUEL AS THE GRAVE. By the 
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 " Jealousy is cruei as the Grave." 
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 THE HIGH MILLS. By Katherine 
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 Sec. 3 vols. . 
 
 65, Corjihill ; 6^ 12, Paterfioster Row^ London.
 
 IV&rks Published by Henry S. King &> Co., 
 
 25 
 
 Fiction — continued. 
 
 SEPTIMIUS. A Romance. By Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne. Second Edition. i voL 
 Crown 8vo, cloth, extra gilt. gs. 
 
 The Athenaxim says that " the book is full of 
 Hawthorne's mos characteristic WTiting." 
 
 EFFEB'S GAME; How she Lost and 
 HOW SHE Won. By Cecil Clayton. 
 
 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 
 
 " Well ^Titten. The characters move, and act, 
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 JUDITH QWYNNE. By Lisle Carr. 
 In 3 yols. Cr. 8vo, cloth. Second Edition. 
 
 " ^h•. Carr's novel is certauily amusing^ 
 
 There is much varietj-, and the dialogue and 
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 CHESTERIiEIGH. By Ansley Coayers. 
 
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 HONOR BIjAKE : The Story of a Plain 
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 " One of the best novels we have met with for 
 some time." — Morning- Post. 
 
 " A story which must do good to all, young and 
 old, who read it." — Daily News. 
 
 HEATHERGATE. a Story of Scottish 
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 2 vols. 
 
 "Its merit lies in the marked antithesis of 
 strongly developed characters, in different ranks 
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 their marked nationality." — Athenuttni. 
 
 THE QUEEN'S SHILLING. By Captain 
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 "Every scene, character, and incident of the 
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 MIRANDA. A Midsummer Madness. By 
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 " Not a dull page in the whole three volumes." 
 —Standard. 
 
 " The work of a man who is at once a thinker 
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 SQUIRE BILCHESTER'S WHIM. By 
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 " We tliink it the best (story) Mr. Collins has 
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 " So clever, so irritating, and so charming a 
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 THE PRINCESS CLARICE. A Story of 
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 "Mr. Collins has produced a readable book, 
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 JOHANNES OLAP. By E. de Wille. 
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 perception of character and capacity for delineat- 
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 — Morning Post. 
 
 A GOOD MATCH. By Amelia Perrier, 
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 " Racy and Wvtly." —Atn'-n^mn. 
 
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 I THE STORY OF SIR EDWARD'S 
 WIFE. By Hamilton MarshaD, 
 Author of " For Very Life." i vol. Cr. Svo. 
 
 "A quiet, graceful little ilOTy."— Spectator. 
 
 •• Mr. Hamilton Marshall can tell a story closely 
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 tive. By W. Gififord Palgrave. 2 vols. 
 Crown Svo, cloth, extra gilt. i8j. 
 
 " There is a positive fragrance as of newly-mown 
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 volume." — Morni7ig Post. 
 
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 OFF THE SKELLIGS. By Jean 
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 " Thoroughly interesting and enjoyable read- 
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 WHAT 'TIS TO LOVE. By the Author 
 of " Flora Adair," " The Value of Fosters- 
 town." 3 vols. 
 
 " ^Vorthy of praise : it is well written ; the 
 story is simple, the interest is well sustained ; the 
 characters are well depicted."— i:'«Yw*. Conrattt. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF MRS. LSTITIA 
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 day ; has much more claim to critical considera- 
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 65, Cornhill; &> 12, Paternoster Rou\ London.
 
 26 Works Published by Henry S. King &> Co., 
 
 THE CORN HILL LIBRARY OF FICTION. 
 
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 ABEL DRAKE'S WIFE. By John Saunders. 
 
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 original. We have seldom met with a book so Athenceum. 
 thoroughly true to life, so deeply interesting in its | 
 
 OTHER STANDARD NOVELS TO FOLLOW. 
 
 65, Co7'jihill ; 6^ 12, Paternoster Row^ Lotidon,
 
 Works Published by Henry S. Kuig 6^ Co.^ 27 
 
 THEOLOGICAL. 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT, TRANSLATED FROM THE 
 
 LiATEST GREEK TEXT OP TISCHENDORF. By Samuel Davidson, 
 
 D.D., LiL.D. The desirableness of presenting a single text, especially if it be the 
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 From an exact translation of Tischendorf 's final critical edition, readers will get both the 
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 of the authorised version. Such a work will shortly appear, with aji Introduction 
 embodying ideas common to Dr. Davidson and the famous Professor at Leipzig. 
 
 STUDIES OF THE DIVINE MASTER. By the Bev. T. Griffith. 
 
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 28 Works Published by Henry S. King &^ Co., 
 
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 HARTHAM CONFERENCES; OR, DISCUSSIONS UPON SOME 
 
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 Works Published by Henry S. King &> Co., 29 
 
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