Phillis's Education.
The dinner began without much conversation; partly because the twins
were hungry, and partly because they were a little awed by the
presence of an unwonted guest in white draperies.
Phillis noted that, so far as she had learned as yet, things of a
domestic kind in the outer world were much like things at Mr. Dyson's,
that is to say, the furniture of the dining-room was similar, and the
dinner was the same. I do not know why she expected it, but she had
some vague notion that she might be called upon to eat strange dishes.
"The Böllinger, brother Cornelius," said the artist.
"Thoughtful of you, brother Humphrey," the poet answered. "Miss
Fleming, the Böllinger is in your honour."
Phillis looked puzzled. She did not understand where the honour came
in. But she tasted her glass.
"It is a little too dry for me," she said with admirable candour. "If
you have any Veuve Clicquot, Mr. Jagenal"--she addressed the younger
brother--"I should prefer that."
All three perceptibly winced. Jane, the maid, presently returned with
a bottle of the sweeter wine. Miss Fleming tasted it critically and
pronounced in its favor.
"Mr. Dyson, my guardian," she said, "always used to say the ladies
like their wine sweet. At least I do. So he used to drink Perier Jout
très sec, and I had Veuve Clicquot."
The poet laid his forefinger upon his brow and looked meditatively at
his glass. Then he filled it again. Then he drank it off helplessly.
This was a remarkable young lady.
"You have lived a very quiet life," said Joseph, with a note of
interrogation in his voice, "with your guardian at Highgate."
"Yes, very quiet. Only two or three gentlemen ever came to the house,
and I never went out."
"A fair prisoner, indeed," murmured the poet. "Danae in her tower
waiting for the shower of gold."
"Danae must have wished," said Phillis, "when she was put in the box
and sent to sea, that the shower of gold had never come."
Cornelius began to regret his allusion to the mythological maid for
his classical memory failed, and he could not at the moment recollect
what box the young lady referred to. This no doubt came of much poring
over Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. But he remembered other circumstances
connected with Danae's history, and was silent.
"At least you went out," said Humphrey, "to see the Academy and the
Water-colours."
She shook her head.
"I have never seen a picture-gallery at all. I have not once been
outside Mr. Dyson's grounds until to-day, since I was six years old."
Humphrey supported his nervous system, like his brother, with another
glass of the Böllinger.
"You found your pleasure in reading divine Poetry," said the Maker
softly; "perhaps in writing Poetry yourself."
"Oh dear no!" said Phillis. "I have not yet learned to read. Mr. Dyson
said that ladies ought not to learn reading till they are of an age
when acquiring that mischievous art cannot hurt themselves or their
fellow-creatures."
Phillis said this with an air of superior wisdom, as if there could be
no disputing the axiom.
Humphrey looked oceans of sympathy at Cornelius, who took out his
handkerchief as if to wipe away a tear, but as none was in readiness
he only sighed.
"You were taught other things, however?" Joseph asked.
"Yes; I learned to play. My master came twice a week, and I can play
pretty well; I play either by ear or by memory. You see," she added
simply, "I never forget anything that I am told."
Compensation of civilised nature. We read, and memory suffers. Those
who do not read remember. Before wandering minstrels learned to read
and write, the whole Iliad was handed down on men's tongues; there are
Brahmins who repeat all their Sacred Books word for word without slip
or error, and have never learned to read; there are men at Oxford who
can tell you the winners of Events for a fabulous period, and yet get
plucked for Greats because, as they will tell you themselves, they
really cannot read. Phillis did not know how to read. But she
remembered--remembered everything; could repeat a poem dictated twice
if it were a hundred lines long, and never forgot it; caught up an air
and learned how to play it at a sitting.
She could not read. All the world of fiction was lost to her. All the
fancies of poets were lost to her; all the records of folly and crime
which we call history were unknown to her.
Try to think what, and of what sort, would be the mind of a person,
otherwise cultivated, unable to read. In the first place, he would be
clear and dogmatic in his views, not having the means of comparison;
next, he would be dependent on oral teaching and rumor for his
information; he would have to store everything as soon as learned,
away in his mind to be lost altogether, unless he knew where to lay
his hand upon it; he would hear little of the outer world, and very
little would interest him beyond his own circle; he would be in the
enjoyment of all the luxuries of civilisation without understanding
how they got there; he would be like the Mohammedans when they came
into possession of Byzantium, in the midst of things unintelligible,
useful, and delightful.
"You will play to us after dinner, if you will be so kind," said
Joseph.
"Can it be, Miss Fleming," asked Humphrey, "that you never went
outside the house at all?"
"Oh no; I could ride in the paddock. It was a good large field and my
pony was clever at jumping; so I got on pretty well."
"Would it be too much to ask you how you managed to get through the
day?"
"Not at all," she replied; "it was very easy. I had a ride before
breakfast; gave Mr. Dyson his tea at ten; talked with him till twelve;
we always talked 'subjects,' you know, and had a regular course. When
we had done talking, he asked me questions. Then I probably had
another ride before luncheon. In the afternoon I played, looked after
my dress, and drew."
"You are, then, an Artist!" cried Humphrey enthusiastically.
"Cornelius, I saw from the first that Miss Fleming had the eye of an
Artist."
"I do not know about that; I can draw people. I will show you some of
my sketches, if you like, to-morrow. They are all heads and figures; I
shall draw all of you to-night before going to bed."
"And in the evening?"
"Mr. Dyson dined at seven. Sometimes he had one or two gentlemen to
dine with him; never any lady. When there was no one, we talked
'subjects' again."
Never any lady! Here was a young woman, rich, of good family,
handsome, and in her way accomplished, who had never seen or talked
with a lady, nor gone out of the house save into its gardens, since
she was a child.
Yet, in spite of all these disadvantages and the strangeness of her
position, she was perfectly self-possessed. When she left the table,
the two elder brethren addressed themselves to the bottle of Château
Mouton with more rapidity than was becoming the dignity of the wine.
Joseph almost immediately joined his ward. When the twins left the
dining-room with its empty decanters, and returned arm-in-arm to the
drawing-room, they found their younger brother in animated
conversation with the girl. Strange that Joseph should so far forget
his usual habits as not to go straight to his own room. The two bosoms
which heaved in a continual harmony with each other felt a
simultaneous pang of jealousy for which there was no occasion. Joseph
was only thinking of the Coping stone.
"Did I not feel it strange driving through the streets?" Phillis was
saying. "It is all so strange that I am bewildered--so strange and so
wonderful. I used to dream of what it was like; my maid told me
something about it; but I never guessed the reality. There are a
hundred things more than I can ever draw."
It was, as hinted above, the custom of this young person, as it was
that of the Mexicans, to make drawings of everything which occurred.
She was thus enabled to preserve a tolerably faithful record of her
life.
"Show me," said Joseph--"show me the heads of my brothers and myself,
that you promised to do, as soon as they are finished."
The brethren sat together on a sofa, the Poet in his favorite attitude
of meditation, forefinger on brow; the Artist with his eyes fixed on
the fire, catching the effects of colour. Their faces were just a
little flushed with the wine they had taken.
One after the other crossed the room and spoke to their guest.
Said Cornelius:
"You are watching my brother Humphrey. Study him, Miss Fleming; it
will repay you well to know that childlike and simple nature, innocent
of the world, and aglow with the flame of genius."
"I think I can draw him now," said Phillis, looking at the Artist as
hard as a turnkey taking Mr. Pickwick's portrait.
Then came Humphrey:
"I see your eyes turned upon my brother Cornelius. He is a great, a
noble fellow, Miss Fleming. Cultivate him, talk to him, learn from
him. You will be very glad some day to be able to boast that you have
met my brother Cornelius. To know him is a Privilege; to converse with
him is an Education."
"Come," said Joseph cheerfully, "where is the piano? This is a
bachelor's house, but there is a piano somewhere. Have you got it,
Cornelius?"
The Poet shook his head, with a soft sad smile.
"Nay," he said, "is a Workshop the place for music? Let us rather
search for it in the Realms of Art."
In fact it was in Mr. Humphrey's Studio, whither they repaired. The
girl sat down, and as she touched the keys her eyes lit up and her
whole look changed. Joseph was the only one of the three who really
cared for music. He stood by the fire and said nothing. The brethren
on either side of the performer displayed wonders of enthusiastic
admiration, each in his own way--the Poet sad and reflective, as if
music softened his soul; the Artist with an effervescing gaiety
delightful to behold. Joseph was thinking. "Can we"--had his thoughts
taken form of speech--"can we reconstruct from the girl's own account
the old man's scheme anew, provided the chapter on the Coping-stone be
never found? Problem given. A girl brought up in seclusion, without
intercourse with any of her sex except illiterate servants, yet bred
to be a lady: not allowed even to learn reading, but taught orally, so
as to hold her own in talk: required, to discover what the old man
meant by it, and what was wanted to finish the structure. Could it be
reading and writing? Could Abraham Dyson have intended to finish where
all other people begin?"
This solution mightily commended itself to Joseph, and he went to bed
in great good spirits at his own cleverness.
In the dead of night he awoke in fear and trembling.
"They will go into Chancery," he thought. "What if the Court refuses
to take my view?"
At three in the morning the brethren, long left alone with their
pipes, rose to go to bed.
Brandy-and-soda sometimes makes men truthful after the third tumbler,
and beguiles them with illusory hopes after the fourth. The twins were
at the end of their fourth.
"Cornelius," said the Artist, "she has £50,000."
"She has, brother Humphrey."
"It is a pity, Cornelius, that we, who have only £200 a year each, are
already fifty years of age."
"Humphrey, what age do we feel?"
"Thirty. Not a month more," replied the Artist, striking out with both
fists at an imaginary foe--probably old Time.
"Right. Not an hour above the thirty," said the Bard, smiting his
chest gently. "As for Joseph, he is too old----"
"Very much too old----"
"To think of marrying such a young----"
"Fresh and innocent----"
"Engaging and clever girl as Miss Phillis Fleming."
Did they, then, both intend to marry the young lady?