EVASIO MON
There are some people whose presence in a room seems to establish a
mental centre of gravity round which other minds hover uneasily,
conscious of the dead weight of that attraction.
"I have known Evasio all my life," the Count de Sarrion once said to his
son. "I have stood at the edge of that pit and looked in. I do not know
to this day whether there is gold at the bottom or mud. I have never
quarreled with him, and, therefore, we have never made it up."
Which, perhaps, was as good a description of Evasio Mon as any man had
given. He had never quarreled with any one. He was, in consequence, a
lonely man. For the majority of human beings are gregarious. They meet
together in order to quarrel. The majority of women prefer to sit and
squabble round one table to seeking another room. They call it the
domestic circle, and spend their time in straining at the family tie in
order to prove its strength.
It was Evasio Mon who, standing at the open window of his apartment in
the tall house next door to the Posada de los Reyes on the Paseo del
Ebro, had observed with the help of a field-glass, that a traveler was
crossing the river by the ferry-boat after midnight. He noted the unusual
proceeding with a tolerant shrug. It will be remembered that he closed
his glasses with a smile--not a smile of amusement or of contempt--not
even a deep smile such as people wear in books. It was merely a smile,
and could not be construed into anything else by any physiognomist. The
wrinkles that made it were deeply marked, which suggested that Evasio Mon
had learnt to smile when he was quite young. He had, perhaps, been
taught.
And, after all, a man may as well show a smile to the world as a worried
look, or a mean look, or one of the countless casts of countenance that
are moulded by conceit and vanity. A smile is frequently misconstrued by
the simple-hearted into the outward sign of inward kindness. Many think
that it conciliates children and little dogs. But that which the many
think is usually wrong.
If Evasio Mon's face said anything at all, it warned the world that it
had to deal with a man of perfect self-control. And the man who controls
himself is usually able to control just so much of his surrounding world
as may suit his purpose.
There was something in the set of this man's eyes which suggested no easy
victory over self. For his eyes were close together. His hair was almost
red. His face was rather narrow and long. It was not the face of an
easy-going man as God had made it. But years had made it the face of a
man that nothing could rouse. He was of medium height, with rather narrow
shoulders, but upright and lithe. He was clean shaven and of a pleasant
ruddiness. His eyes were a bluish gray, and looked out upon the world
with a reflective attention through gold-rimmed eye-glasses, with which
he had a habit of amusing himself while talking, examining their
mechanism and the knot of the fine black cord with a bat-like air of
blindness.
In body and mind he seemed to be almost a young man. But Ramon de Sarrion
said that he had known him all his life. And the Count de Sarrion had
spoken with Christina when that woman was Queen of Spain.
Mon was still astir, although the bells of the Cathedral of the Virgin of
the Pillar, immediately behind his house, had struck the half hour. It
was more than thirty minutes since the ferry-boat had sidled across the
river, and Mon glanced at the clock on his mantelpiece. He expected, it
would seem, a sequel to the arrival which had been so carefully noted.
And at last the sequel came. A soft knock, as of fat fingers, made Mon
glance towards the door, and bid the knocker enter. The door opened, and
in its darkened entry stood the large form of the friar who had rendered
such useful aid to a stricken traveler. The light of Mon's lamp showed
this holy man to be large and heavy of face, with the narrow forehead of
the fanatic. With such a face and head, this could not be a clever man.
But he is a wise worker who has tools of different temper in his bag. Too
fine a steel may snap. Too delicately fashioned an instrument may turn in
the hand when suddenly pressed against the grain.
Mon held out his hand, knowing that there would be no verbal message.
From the mysterious folds of the friar's sleeves a letter instantly
emerged.
"They have blundered. The man is still living. You had better come," it
said; and that was all.
"And what do you know of this affair, my brother?" asked Mon, holding the
letter to the candle, and, when it was ignited, throwing it on to the
cold ashes in the open fireplace, where it burnt.
"Little enough, Excellency. One of the Fathers, praying at his window,
heard the sound of a struggle in the street, and I was sent out to see
what it signified. I found a man lying on the ground, and, according to
instructions, did not touch him, but went back for help."
Mon nodded his compact head thoughtfully.
"And the man said nothing?"
"Nothing, Excellency."
"You are a wise man, my brother. Go, and I will follow you."
The friar's meek face was oily with that smile of complete
self-satisfaction which is only found when foolishness and fervour meet
in one brain.
Mon rose slowly from his chair and stretched himself. It was evident that
had he followed his own inclination he would have gone to bed. He perhaps
had a sense of duty. He had not far to go, and knew the shortest ways
through the narrow streets. He could hear a muleteer shouting at his
beasts on the bridge as he crossed the Calle Don Jaime I. The streets
were quiet enough otherwise, and the watchman of this quarter could be
heard far away at the corner of the Plaza de la Constitucion calling to
the gods that the weather was serene.
Evasio Mon, cloaked to the eyes against the autumn night, hurried down
the Calle San Gregorio and turned into an open doorway that led into the
patio of a great four-sided house. He climbed the stone stair and knocked
at a door, which was instantly opened.
"Come!" said the man who opened it--a white-haired priest of benevolent
face. "He is conscious. He asks for a notary. He is dying! I thought
you--"
"No," replied Mon quickly. "He would recognise me, though he has not seen
me for twenty years. You must do it. Change your clothes."
He spoke as with authority, and the priest fingered the silken cord
around his waist.
"I know nothing of the law," he said hesitatingly.
"That I have thought of. Here are two forms of will. They are written so
small as to be almost illegible. This one we must get signed if we can;
but, failing that, the other will do. You see the difference. In this one
the pin is from left to right; in that, from right to left. I will wait
here while you change your clothes. As emergencies arise we will meet
them."
He spoke the last sentence coldly, and followed with his narrow gaze the
movements of the old priest, who was laying aside his cassock.
"Let us have no panics," Evasio Mon's manner seemed to say. And his air
was that of a quiet pilot knowing his way through the narrow waters that
lay ahead.
In a small room near at hand, Francisco de Mogente was facing death. He
lay half dressed upon a narrow bed. On a table near at hand stood a
basin, a bottle, and a few evidences of surgical aid. But the doctor had
gone. Two friars were in the room. One was praying; the other was the
big, strong man who had first succoured the wounded traveler.
"I asked for a notary," said Mogente curtly. Death had not softened him.
He was staring straight in front of him with glassy eyes, thinking deeply
and quickly. At times his expression was one of wonder, as if a
conviction forced itself upon his mind from time to time against his will
and despite the growing knowledge that he had no time to waste in
wondering.
"The notary has been sent for. He cannot delay in coming," replied the
friar. "Rather give your thoughts to Heaven, my son, than to notaries."
"Mind your own business," replied Mogente quietly. As he spoke the door
opened and an old man came in. He had papers and a quill pen in his hand.
"You sent for me--a notary," he said. Evasio Mon stood in the doorway a
yard behind the dying man's head. The notary moved the table so that in
looking at his client he could, with the corner of his eye, see also the
face of Evasio Mon.
"You wish to make a statement or a last testament?" said the notary.
"A statement--no. It is useless since they have killed me. I will make a
statement ... Elsewhere."
And his laugh was not pleasant to the ear.
"A will--yes," he continued--and hearing the notary dip his pen--
"My name," he said, "is Francisco de Mogente."
"Of?" inquired the notary, writing.
"Of this city. You cannot be a notary of Saragossa or you would know
that."
"I am not a notary of Saragossa--go on."
"Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba. And I have a great fortune to leave."
One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement. The love of
money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant. The man
who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
"Give me," he said, "some cordial, or I shall not last."
After a pause he went on.
"There is a will in existence which I now cancel. I made it when I was a
younger man. I left my fortune to my son Leon de Mogente. To my daughter
Juanita de Mogente I left a sufficiency. I wish now to make a will in
favour of my son Leon"--he paused while the notary's quill pen ran over
the paper--"on one condition."
"On one condition"--wrote the notary, who had leant forward, but sat
upright rather suddenly in obedience to a signal from Evasio Mon in the
doorway. He had forgotten his tonsure.
"That he does not go into religion--that he devotes no part of it to the
benefit or advantage of the church."
The notary sat very straight while he wrote this down.
"My son is in Saragossa," said Mogente suddenly, with a change of manner.
"I will see him. Send for him."
The notary glanced up at Evasio Mon, who shook his head.
"I cannot send for him at two in the morning."
"Then I will sign no will."
"Sign the will now," suggested the lawyer, with a look of doubt towards
the dark doorway behind the sick man's head. "Sign now, and see your son
to-morrow."
"There is no to-morrow, my friend. Send for my son at once."
Mon grudgingly nodded his head.
"It is well, I will do as you wish," said the notary, only too glad, it
would seem, to rise and go into the next room to receive further minute
instructions from his chief.
The dying man laid with closed eyes, and did not move until his son spoke
to him. Leon de Mogente was a sparely-built man, with a white and
oddly-rounded forehead. His eyes were dark, and he betrayed scarcely any
emotion at the sight of his father in this lamentable plight.
"Ah!" said the elder man. "It is you. You look like a monk. Are you one?"
"Not yet," answered the pale youth in a low voice with a sort of
suppressed exultation. Evasio Mon, watching him from the doorway, smiled
faintly. He seemed to have no misgivings as to what Leon might say.
"But you wish to become one?"
"It is my dearest desire."
The dying man laughed. "You are like your mother," he said. "She was a
fool. You may go back to bed, my friend."
"But I would rather stay here and pray by your bedside," pleaded the son.
He was a feeble man--the only weak man, it would appear, in the room.
"Then stay and pray if you want to," answered Mogente, without even
troubling himself to show contempt.
The notary was at his table again, and seemed to seek his cue by an
upward glance.
"You will, perhaps, leave your fortune," he suggested at length, "to--to
some good work."
But Evasio Mon was shaking his head.
"To--to--?" began the notary once more, and then lapsed into a puzzled
silence. He was at fault again. Mogente seemed to be failing. He lay
quite still, looking straight in front of him.
"The Count Ramon de Sarrion," he asked suddenly, "is he in Saragossa?"
"No," answered the notary, after a glance into the darkened door.
"No--but your will--your will. Try and remember what you are doing. You
wish to leave your money to your son?"
"No, no."
"Then to--your daughter?"
And the question seemed to be directed, not towards the bed, but behind
it.
"To your daughter?" he repeated more confidently. "That is right, is it
not? To your daughter?"
Mogente nodded his head.
"Write it out shortly," he said in a low and distinct voice. "For I will
sign nothing that I have not read, word for word, and I have but little
time."
The notary took a new sheet of paper and wrote out in bold and, it is to
be presumed, unlegal terms that Francisco de Mogente left his earthly
possessions to Juanita de Mogente, his only daughter. Being no notary,
this elderly priest wrote out a plain-spoken document, about which there
could be no doubt whatever in any court of law in the world, which is
probably more than a lawyer could have done.
Francisco de Mogente read the paper, and then, propped in the arms of the
big friar, he signed his name to it. After this he lay quite still, so
still that at last the notary, who stood watching him, slowly knelt down
and fell to praying for the soul that was gone.