"What is Heaven? A state of perfect happiness. What is Happiness? The
immortal union of two Souls in one, creatures of God's eternal light,
partaking each other's thoughts, bestowing upon each other the renewal
of joy, and creating loveliness in form and action by their mutual
sympathy and tenderness. Age cannot touch them--death has no meaning
for them,--life is their air and space and movement--life palpitates
through them and warms them with colour and glory as the sunshine warms
and reddens the petals of the rose--they grow beyond mortality and are
immune from all disaster--they are a world in themselves, involuntarily
creating other worlds as they pass from one phase to another of
production and fruition. For there is no good work accomplished without
love,--no great triumph achieved without love,--no fame, no victory
gained without love! The lovers of God are the beloved of God!--their
passion is divine, knowing no weariness, no satiety, no end! For God is
the Supreme Lover and there is nothing higher than Love!"
Here, on a sudden impulse, I took up the book, closed it and held it
clasped in my two hands. As I did this, a great darkness overwhelmed
me--a sound like thunder crashed on my ears, and I felt the whole room
reeling into chaos. The floor sank, and I sank with it, down to a great
depth so swiftly that I had no time to think what had happened till the
sensation of falling stopped abruptly, and I found myself in a narrow
green lane, completely shadowed by the wide boughs of over-arching
trees. Hardly could I realise my surroundings when I saw Rafel!--Rafel
Santoris himself walking towards me--but--not alone! The eager impulse
to run to him was checked--I stood quiet, and cold to the heart. A
woman was with him--a woman young and very beautiful--his arm was round
her, and his eyes looked with unwearied tenderness at her face. I heard
his voice--caressing, and infinitely gentle.
"Beloved!" he said--"I call you by this name as I have always called
you through many cycles of time! Is it not strange that even the eager
spirit, craving for its preordained mate, is subject to error? I
thought I had found her whom I should love a little while before I met
you--but this was a momentary blindness!--YOU are the one I have sought
for many centuries!--YOU are the one and only beloved!--promise never
to leave me again!" She answered--and I heard her murmur, soft as a
sigh--"I promise!" Still walking together like lovers, they came on--I
knew they must pass me,--and I stood in their way that Rafel Santoris
at least might see me--might know that I had adventured into the House
of Aselzion for his sake, and that so far I had not failed! If he were
false, then surely the failure would be his! With a sickening heart I
watched him approach,--his blue eyes rested on me carelessly with a
cold smile--his fair companion glanced at me as at a stranger--and they
moved on and passed out of sight. I could not have spoken, had I
tried--I was stricken dumb and feeble. This was the end, then? I had
made my journey to no purpose,--he had already found another 'subject'
for his influence!
Stunned and bewildered with the confusion of thought in my brain, I
tried to walk a few paces, and found the ground soft as velvet, while a
cool breeze blowing through the trees refreshed my aching forehead and
eyes. I still held the book--'The Secret of Life'--and in a dull,
aimless way thought how useless it was! What does Life matter if Love
be untrue? The sun was shining somewhere above me, for I saw glinting
reflections of it through the close boughs, and there were birds
singing. But both beauty of sight and beauty of sound were lost to
me--I had no real consciousness left save that the lover who professed
to love me with an eternal love loved me no more! So the world was
desolate, and heaven itself a blank!--death, and death alone seemed
dear and desirable! I walked slowly and with difficulty--my limbs were
languid, and I had lost all courage. If I could have found my way to
Aselzion I would have told him--"This is enough! No more do I need the
secret of youth or life, since love has left me."
Presently I began to think more coherently. A little while back I had
heard voices behind a wall saying that Rafel Santoris was
dead,--drowned in his own yacht 'off Armadale, in Skye.' If that was
true how came he here? I questioned myself in vain,--till presently I
gathered up sufficient force to remember that love--REAL love--knows no
change. Did I believe in my lover's love, or did I doubt it? That was a
point for my own consideration! But, had I not the testimony of my own
eyes? Was I not myselt the witness of his altered mind?
Here, seeing a rustic seat under one of the shadiest trees, I sat down,
and my mind gradually steadied itself. Why, I inwardly asked, had I
been so suddenly and forcibly brought into this place for no apparent
reason save to look upon Rafel Santoris in the company of another woman
whom it seemed that he now preferred to me? Ought that to make any
difference in my love for him? "In love, if love be love, if love be
ours, Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers, Unfaith in aught is
want of faith in all." If the happiness of the one I loved was obtained
through other means than mine, ought I to grudge it? And yet!--my heart
was full of a sick heaviness,--it seemed to me that I had lately been
the possessor of an inestimable joy which had been ruthlessly snatched
from me. Still meditating in solitary sadness, I sat in the soft gloom
wondering at the strange chance that had brought me into such a place,
and, curiously enough, never thinking that the whole adventure might be
the result of a pre-ordained design.
Presently, hearing slow footsteps approaching, I looked up and saw an
aged man walking towards me, accompanied by a woman of gentle and
matronly appearance who supported him on her arm. The looks of both
these personages were kindly, and inspired confidence at a glance,--and
I watched them coming with a kind of hope that perhaps they might
explain my present dilemma. I was particularly attracted by the
venerable and benevolent aspect of the man--and as he drew near, seeing
that he evidently intended to speak to me, I rose from my seat, and
made a step or two forward to meet him. He inclined his head
courteously, and smiled upon me with a grave and compassionate air.
"I am very glad,"--he said, in a friendly tone--"that we have not come
too late. We feared--did we not?" here he looked to his companion for
confirmation of his words--"that you might have been hopelessly
ensnared and victimised before we could come to the rescue."
"Alas, yes!" said the woman, in accents of deep pity; "And that would
have been terrible indeed!"
I stared at them both, utterly bewildered. They spoke of
rescue,--rescue from what? 'Hopelessly ensnared and victimised.' What
did they mean? Since I had seen Rafel Santoris with another woman he
called 'beloved'--I had felt almost incapable of speech--but now I
found my voice suddenly.
"I do not understand you"--I said, as clearly and firmly as I could--"I
am here by my own desire, and I am not being ensnared or victimised.
Why should I need rescue?"
The old man shook his head compassionately.
"Poor child!" he said--"Are you not a prisoner in the House of
Aselzion?"
"With my own consent,"--I answered.
He lifted his hands in a kind of appealing astonishment, and the woman
smiled sadly.
"Not so!"--she told me--"You are under a very serious delusion. You are
here by the wicked will of Rafel Santoris--a man who would sacrifice
any life remorselessly in the support of his own mad theories! You are
under his influence, you poor creature!--so easily trapped, too!--you
think you are following your own way and carrying out your own wishes,
but you are really the slave of Santoris and have been so ever since
you met him. You are a mere instrument on which he can play any tune."
And she turned to the old man beside her with an appealing gesture--"Is
it not so?"
He bent his head in the affirmative.
For a moment my brain was in a whirl. Could it be possible that what
they said was true? Their looks were sincere,--they could have no
object but kindness in warning me of intended mischief. I tried to
conceal the torturing anxiety that possessed me, and asked quietly--
"If you have good reason to think all this, what would you advise me to
do? If I am in danger how shall I escape from it?"
The woman looked curiously at me, and her eyes glittered with sudden
interest. Her venerable companion replied to my question--
"Escape is quite easy here and now. You have only to follow us and we
will take you out of this wood and escort you to a place of safety.
Then you can return to your own home and forget--"
"Forget what?" I interrupted him.
"All this foolishness"--he answered, with a gentle seriousness--"This
idea of eternal life and love which the artful conjurer Rafel Santoris
has instilled into your too sensitive and credulous imagination--these
fantastic beliefs in the immortality and individuality of the
soul,--and you will accept old age and death with the sane resignation
of ordinary mortals. Such love as he professes to believe in does not
exist,--such life can never be,--and the secret of his youth--"
"Ah!" I exclaimed eagerly--"Tell me of that! And of Aselzion's splendid
prime when he should be old and feeble? Tell me of that also!"
For the first time during this interview, my two companions looked
confused. I saw this, and I gained confidence from their evident
embarrassment.
"Why," I pursued--"should you come to me with warnings against those
whom God or Destiny has brought into my life? You may perhaps say that
you yourselves have been sent by God--but does Deity contradict Itself?
I am not conscious of having suffered any evil through Rafel Santoris
or through Aselzion--I am pained and perplexed and tortured by what I
hear and see--but my hearing and sight are capable of being
deceived--why should I think of evil things which are not proved?"
The woman surveyed me with sudden scorn.
"So you will stay here, the dupe of your own sentiments and
dreams!"--she said, contemptuously--"You, a woman, will remain among a
community of men who are known impostors, and sacrifice your name and
reputation to a mere chimera!"
Her look and manner had completely changed, and I was at once on my
guard.
"My name and reputation are my own to protect,"--I answered,
coldly--"Whatever I do I shall be ready to answer for to anyone having
the right to ask."
The old man now advanced and laid his hand on my arm. His eyes sparkled
angrily.
"You must be saved from yourself"--he said, sharply, "You must come
with us whether you will or no! We have seen too many victims of
Aselzion's art already--we are resolved to save you from the peril
which threatens you."
And he made an effort to draw me closer to him--but my spirit was up
and I held back with all my force.
"No, I will not go with you!" I exclaimed, hotly--"God alone shall
remove me from harm if any harm is really meant towards me. I do not
believe one word you have said against Rafel Santoris or against
Aselzion--I love the one, and I trust the other!--let me go my own way
in peace!"
Hardly had I spoken these words when both the old man and woman threw
themselves upon me and seizing me by force, endeavoured to drag me away
with them. I resisted with all my strength, still holding tightly the
book of the 'Secret of Life' in one hand. But their united efforts were
beginning to overpower me, and feeling myself growing weaker and weaker
I cried aloud in desperation:
"Rafel! Rafel!"
In an instant I stood free. My captors loosed their hold of me, and I
rushed away, not knowing whither--only running, running, running,
afraid of pursuit--till I suddenly found myself alone on the borders of
a dark stretch of water spreading away in cold blackness to an unseen
horizon.