STELLA MARIS--Star of the Sea!
That was not her real name. No one could have christened an inoffensive
babe so absurdly. Her mother had, indeed, through the agency of
godfathers and godmothers, called her Stella after a rich old maiden
aunt, thereby showing her wisdom; for the maiden aunt died gratefully
a year after the child was born, and bequeathed to her a comfortable
fortune. Her father had given her the respectable patronymic of Blount,
which, as all the world knows, or ought to know, is not pronounced as it
is spelled.
It is not pronounced “Maris,” however, as, in view of the many vagaries
of British nomenclature, it might very well be, but “Blunt.” It was
Walter Herold, the fantastic, who tacked on the Maris to her Christian
name, and ran the two words together so that to all and sundry the poor
child became Stellamaris, and to herself a baptismal puzzle, never being
quite certain whether Stella was not a pert diminutive, and whether she
ought to subscribe herself in formal documents as “Stellamaris Blount.”
The invention of this title must not be regarded as the supreme effort
of the imagination of Walter Herold. It would have been obvious to
anybody with a bowing acquaintance with the Latin tongue.
Her name was Stella, and she passed her life by the sea--passed it away
up on top of a cliff on the South coast; passed it in one big, beautiful
room that had big windows south and west; passed it in bed, flat on her
back, with never an outlook on the outside world save sea and sky. And
the curtains of the room were never drawn, and in the darkness a lamp
always shone in the western window; so that Walter Herold, at the foot
of the cliff, one night of storm and dashing spray, seeing the light
burning steadily like a star, may be excused for a bit of confusion of
thought when he gripped his friend John Risca's arm with one hand and,
pointing with the other, cried:
“Stella Maris! What a name for her!”
And when he saw her the next morning--she was twelve years old at the
time and had worked out only a short term of her long imprisonment--he
called her Stellamaris to her face, and she laughed in a sweet, elfin
way, and Herold being the Great High Favourite of her little court (a
title conferred by herself), she issued an edict that by that style and
quality was it her pleasure henceforth to be designated. John Risca,
in his capacity of Great High Belovedest, obeyed the ukase without
question; and so did His Great High Excellency, her uncle, Sir Oliver
Blount, and Her Most Exquisite Auntship, Lady Blount, his wife and first
cousin to John Risca.
The events in the life of Stella Blount which this chronicle will
attempt to record did not take place when she was a child of twelve. But
we meet her thus, at this age, ruling to a certain extent the lives of
grown-up men and women by means of a charm, a mystery, a personality
essentially gay and frank, yet, owing to the circumstances of her life,
invested with a morbid, almost supernatural atmosphere. The trouble
in the upper part of her spine, pronounced incurable by the faculty,
compelled a position rigidly supine. Her bed, ingeniously castored,
could be wheeled about the great room. Sometimes she lay enthroned
in the centre; more often it was brought up close to one of the two
windows, so that she could look out to sea and feed her fancy on the
waves, and the ships passing up and down the Channel, and the white
sea-gulls flashing their wings in mid air. But only this unvibrating
movement was permitted. For all the splints and ambulance contrivances
in the world, she could not be carried into another room, or into the
pleasant, sloping garden of the Channel House, for a jar would have
been fatal. The one room, full of air and sunlight and sweet odours and
exquisite appointments, was the material kingdom in which she ruled with
sweet autocracy; the welter of sea and sky was her kingdom, too,
the gulls and spring and autumn flights of migratory birds were her
subjects, the merchants and princes traversing the deep in ships, her
tributaries.
But this was a kingdom of Faerie, over which she ruled by the aid of
Ariels and Nereids and other such elemental and intangible ministers.
The latter had a continuous history, dreamy and romantic, episodes of
which she would in rare moments relate to her Great High Belovedest and
her Great High Favourite; but ordinarily the two young men were admitted
only into the material kingdom, where, however, they bent the knee with
curious humility. To them, all she seemed to have of human semblance
was a pair of frail arms, a daintily curved neck, a haunting face, and
a mass of dark hair encircling it on the pillow like a nimbus. The face
was small, delicately featured, but the strong sea air maintained a
tinge of colour in it; her mouth, made for smiles and kisses, justified
in practice its formation; her eyes, large and round and of deepest
brown, sometimes glowed with the laughter of the child, sometimes seemed
to hold in their depths holy mysteries, gleams of things hidden and
divine, unsealed revelations of another world, before which the two
young men, each sensitive in his peculiar fashion, bowed their young
and impressionable heads. When they came down to commonplace, it was her
serene happiness that mystified them. She gave absolute acceptance to
the conditions of her existence, as though no other conditions were
desirable or acceptable. She was delicate joyousness just incarnate and
no more--“the music from the hyacinth bell,” said Herold. In the early
days of his acquaintance with Stellamaris, Herold was young, fresh
from the university, practising every one of the arts with feverish
simultaneousness and mimetic in each; so when he waxed poetical, he made
use of Shelley.
Stella was an orphan, both her parents having died before the obscure
spinal disease manifested itself. To the child they were vague, far-off
memories. In _loco parentium_, and trustees of her fortune, were
the uncle and aunt above mentioned. Sir Oliver, as a young man, had
distinguished himself so far in the colonial service as to obtain his
K.C.M.G. As a man nearing middle age, he had so played the fool with a
governorship as to be recalled and permanently shelved. To the end
of his days Sir Oliver was a man with a grievance. His wife, publicly
siding with him, and privately resentful against him, was a woman with
two grievances. Now, one grievance on one side and two on the other,
instead of making three, according to the rules of arithmetic, made
legion, according to the law of the multiplication of grievances. Even
Herold, the Optimist, introduced by his college friend John Risca into
the intimacies of the household, could not call them a happy couple.
In company they treated each other with chilling courtesy; before the
servants they bickered very slightly; when they wanted to quarrel, they
retired, with true British decorum, to their respective apartments and
quarreled over the house telephone.
There was one spot on the earth, however, which by common consent
they regarded as a sanctuary,--on whose threshold grievances and
differences and bickerings and curses (his imperial career had given Sir
Oliver an imperial vocabulary) and tears and quarrelings were left
like the earth-stained shoes of the Faithful on the threshold of
a mosque,--and that was the wide sea-chamber of Stellamaris. That
threshold crossed, Sir Oliver became bluff and hearty; on Julia,
Lady Blount, fell a mantle of tender womanhood. They “my-deared” and
“my-darlinged” each other until the very dog (the Lord High
Constable), a Great Dane, of vast affection and courage, but of limited
intelligence, whose post of duty was beside Stella's couch, would raise
his head for a disgusted second and sniff and snort from his deep lungs.
But dogs are dogs, and in their doggy way see a lot of the world which
is a sealed book to humans, especially to those who pass their lives in
a room on the top of a cliff overlooking the sea.
It was the unwritten law of the house: Stella's room was sacrosanct. An
invisible spirit guarded the threshold and forbade entrance to anything
evil or mean or sordid or even sorrowful, and had inscribed on the
portal in unseen, but compelling, characters
Never harm nor spell nor charm
Come our lovely lady nigh.
Whence came the spirit, from Stella herself or from the divine lingering
in the faulty folks who made her world, who can tell? There never was
an invisible spirit guarding doors and opening hearts, since the
earth began, who had not a human genesis. From man alone, in this
myriad-faceted cosmos, can a compassionate God, in the form of angels
and ministering spirits, he reflected. Perhaps the radiant spirit of
the child herself, triumphing over disastrous circumstances, instilled
a sacred awe in those who surrounded her; perhaps the pathos of her
lifelong condemnation stirred unusual depths of pity. At all events, the
unwritten law was irrefragable. Outside Stella's door the wicked must
cast their evil thoughts, the gloomy shed their cloak of cloud, and
the wretched unpack their burden of suffering. Whether it was for the
ultimate welfare of Stellamaris to live in this land of illusion is
another matter.
“Save her from knowledge of pain and from suspicion of evil,” John Risca
would cry, when discussing the matter. “Let us make sure of one perfect
flower in this poisonous fungus garden of a world.”
“Great High Belovedest,” Stellamaris would say when they were alone
together, “what about the palace to-day?”
And the light would break upon the young man's grim face, and he would
tell her of the palace in which he dwelt in the magic city of London.
“I have got a beautiful new Persian carpet,” he would say, “with blues
in it like that band of sea over there, for the marble floor of the
vestibule.”
“I hope it matches the Gobelin tapestry.”
“You couldn't have chosen it better yourself, Stellamaris.”
The great eyes looked at him in humorous dubiety. He was wearing a faded
mauve shirt and a flagrantly blue tie.
“I am not so sure of your eye for colour, Great High Belovedest, and it
would be a pity to have the beautiful palace spoiled.”
“I assure you that East and West in this instance are blended in perfect
harmony.”
“And how are Lilias and Niphetos?”
Lilias and Niphetos were two imaginary Angora cats, nearly the size of
the Lord High Constable, who generally sat on the newel-posts of the
great marble staircase. They were fed on chickens' livers and Devonshire
cream.
“Arachne,” he replied gravely, referring to a mythical attendant of
Circassian beauty--“Arachne thought they were suffering from ennui, and
so she brought them some white mice--and what do you think happened?”
“Why, they gobbled them up, of course.”
“That's where you 're wrong, Stellamaris. Those aristocratic cats turned
up their noses at them. They looked at each other pityingly, as if to
say, 'Does the foolish woman really think we can be amused by white
mice?'”
Stella laughed. “Don't they ever have any kittens?”
“My dear,” said Risca, “they would die if I suggested such a thing to
them.”
It had been begun long ago, this fabulous history of the palace, and the
beauty and luxury with which he was surrounded; and Stella knew it
all to its tiniest detail--the names of the roses in his gardens, the
pictures on his walls, the shapes and sizes of the ornaments on his
marquetry writing-table; and as her memory was tenacious and he dared
not be caught tripping, his wonder-house gradually crystallized in his
mind to the startling definiteness of a material creation. Its suites
of apartments and corridors, the decoration and furniture of each room,
became as vividly familiar as the dreary abode in which he really had
his being. He could wander about through house and grounds with unerring
certainty of plan. The phantom creatures with whom he had peopled
the domain had become invested with clear-cut personalities; he had
visualized them until he could conjure up their faces at will.
He had begun the building of the dream palace first with the mere object
of amusing a sick child and hiding from her things forlorn and drab;
gradually, in the course of years, it had grown to be almost a refuge
for the man himself. When the child developed into the young girl he
did not undeceive her. More and more was it necessary, if their sweet
comradeship was to last, that he should extend the boundaries of her
Land of Illusion; for the high ambitions which had made him laugh at
poverty remained unsatisfied, the promise of life had been hopelessly
broken, and he saw before him nothing but a stretch of dull, laborious
years unlit by a gleam of joy. Only in the sea-chamber of Stellamaris
was life transformed into a glowing romance. Only there could he inhabit
a palace and walk the sweet, music-haunted, fragrant streets of an
apocalyptic London, where all women were fair and true, and all men were
generous, and all work, even his own slavery at the press, was noble and
inspired by pure ideals.
“What exactly is your work, Belovedest?” she asked one day.
He replied: “I teach the great and good men who are the King's ministers
of state how to govern the country. I show philanthropists how to spend
their money. I read many books and tell people how beautiful and wise
the books are, so that people should read them and become beautiful and
wise, too. Sometimes I preach to foreign sovereigns on the way in which
their countries should be ruled. I am what is called a journalist,
dear.”
“It must be the most wonderful work in the world,” cried Stella, aglow
with enthusiasm, “and they must pay you lots and lots of money.”
“Lots and lots.”
“And how you must love it--the work, I mean!”
“Every hour spent in the newspaper-office is a dream of delight,” said
Risca.
Walter Herold, who happened to be present during this conversation,
remarked, with a shake of his head, as soon as they had left the room:
“God forgive you, John, for an amazing liar!”
Risca shrugged his round, thick shoulders.
“He will,” said he, “if He has a sense of humour.” Then he turned upon
his friend somewhat roughly. “What would you have me tell the child?”
“My dear fellow,” said Herold, “if you would only give the world at
large some of the imaginative effort you expend in that room, you would
not need to wear your soul to shreds in a newspaper-office.”
“What is the good of telling me that?” growled Risca, the deep lines
of care returning to his dark, loose-featured face. “Don't I know it
already? It's just the irony of things. There's an artist somewhere
about me. If there was n't, why should I have wanted to write novels
and plays and poetry ever since I was a boy? It's a question of
outlet. There are women I know who can't do a blessed thing except write
letters; there they find their artistic outlet. I can find my artistic
outlet only in telling lies to Stella. Would you deny me that?”
“Not at all,” said Herold, with a gay laugh. “The strain of having to
remember another fellow's lies, in addition to one's own, is heavy, I
admit, but for friendship's sake I can bear it. Only the next time
you add on a new wing to that infernal house and fill it with majolica
vases, for Heaven's sake tell me.”
For Herold, being Risca's intimate, had, for corroborative purposes,
to be familiar with the dream palace, and when Risca made important
additions or alterations without informing him, was apt to be sore beset
with perplexities during his next interview with Stellamaris. But being
an actor by profession (at the same time being an amateur in all other
arts), he was quick to interpret another man's dream, and once,
being rather at a loss, improved on his author and interpolated a
billiard-room, much to Risca's disgust. Where the deuce, he asked, in
angry and childlike seriousness, was there a place for a billiard-room
in his palace? Did n't he know the whole lay-out of the thing by this
time? It was inexcusable impertinence!
“Then why did n't you tell me about the music-room?” cried Herold,
hotly, on this particular occasion. “How should I guess that an
unmusical dog like you would want a music-room? In order not to give
you away, I had to invent the billiard-room. A rotten house without a
billiard-room!”
“I suppose you think it's a commodious mansion, with five
reception-rooms, fourteen bedrooms and baths, hot and cold.”
The two men nearly quarreled.
But no hard words followed the discussion of Risca's rose-coloured and
woefully ironical description of his work. Herold knew what pains of
hell had got round about the man he loved, and strove to mitigate them
with gaiety and affection. And while the Great High Belovedest and the
Great High Favourite were grappling together with a tragedy not referred
to in speech between them, and as remote from Stella's purview of life
as the Lupanaria of Hong-Kong, she, with her white hand on the head of
the blue Great Dane, who regarded her with patient, topaz eyes, looked
out from her western window, over the channel, on the gold and crimson
lake and royal purple of the sunset, and built out of the masses of
gloried cloud and streaks of lapis lazuli and daffodil gem a castle of
dreams compared with which poor John Risca's trumpery palace, with its
Arachnes and Liliases and Niphetoses, was only a vulgar hotel in a new
and perky town.