The darling scheme of authorship had seized upon Edna's mind with a
tenacity that conquered and expelled all other purposes, and though
timidity and a haunting dread of the failure of the experiment prompted
her to conceal the matter, even from her beloved pastor, she pondered
it in secret, and bent every faculty to its successful accomplishment.
Her veneration for books--the great eleemosynary granaries of human
knowledge to which the world resorts--extended to those who created
them; and her imagination invested authors with peculiar sanctity, as
the real hierophants annointed with the chrism of truth. The glittering
pinnacle of consecrated and successful authorship seemed to her longing
gaze as sublime, and well-nigh as inaccessible, as the everlasting and
untrodden Himalayan solitudes appear to some curious child of Thibet or
Nepaul; who gamboling among pheasants and rhododendrons, shades her
dazzled eyes with her hand, and looks up awe-stricken and wondering at
the ice-domes and snow-minarets of lonely Deodunga, earth's loftiest
and purest altar, nimbused with the dawning and the dying light of the
day. There were times when the thought of presenting herself as a
candidate for admission into the band of literary esoterics seemed to
Edna unpardonably presumptuous, almost sacrilegious, and she shrank
back, humbled and abashed; for writers were teachers, interpreters,
expounders, discoverers, or creators--and what could she, just
stumbling through the alphabet of science and art, hope to donate to
her race that would ennoble human motives or elevate aspirations? Was
she, an unknown and inexperienced girl, worthy to be girded with the
ephod that draped so royally the Levites of literature? Had God's own
hand set the Urim and Thummim of Genius in her soul? Above all, was she
mitred with the plate of pure gold--"Holiness unto the Lord?"
Solemnly and prayerfully she weighed the subject, and having finally
resolved to make one attempt, she looked trustingly to heaven for aid
and went vigorously to work. To write currente calamo for the mere
pastime of author and readers, without aiming to inculcate some
regenerative principle, or to photograph some valuable phase of protean
truth, was in her estimation ignoble; for her high standard demanded
that all books should be to a certain extent didactic, wandering like
evangels among the people, and making some man, woman, or child
happier, or wiser, or better--more patient or more hopeful--by their
utterances. Believing that every earnest author's mind should prove a
mint, where all valuable ores are collected from the rich veins of a
universe--are cautiously coined, and thence munificently
circulated--she applied herself diligently to the task of gathering,
from various sources the data required for her projected work: a
vindication of the unity of mythologies. The vastness of the cosmic
field she was now compelled to traverse, the innumerable ramifications
of polytheistic and monotheistic creeds, necessitated unwearied
research, as she rent asunder the superstitious veils which various
nations and successive epochs had woven before the shining features of
truth. To-day peering into the golden Gardens of the Sun at Cuzco;
to-morrow clambering over Thibet glaciers, to find the mystic lake of
Yamuna; now delighted to recognize in Teoyamiqui (the wife of the Aztec
God of War) the unmistakable features of Scandinavian Valkyrias; and
now surprised to discover the Greek Fates sitting under the Norse tree
Ygdrasil, deciding the destinies of mortals, and calling themselves
Nornas; she spent her days in pilgrimages to mouldering shrines, and
midnight often found her groping in the classic dust of extinct
systems. Having once grappled with her theme, she wrestled as
obstinately as Jacob for the blessing of a successful solution, and in
order to popularize a subject bristling with recondite archaisms and
philologic problems, she cast it in the mould of fiction. The
information and pleasure which she had derived from the perusal of
Vaughan's delightful Hours with the Mystics, suggested the idea of
adopting a similar plan for her own book, and investing it with the
additional interest of a complicated plot and more numerous characters.
To avoid anachronisms, she endeavored to treat the religions of the
world in their chronologic sequence, and resorted to the expedient of
introducing pagan personages. A fair young priestess of the temple of
Neith, in the sacred city of Sais--where people of all climes collected
to witness the festival of lamps--becoming skeptical of the miraculous
attributes of the statues she had been trained to serve and worship,
and impelled by an earnest love of truth to seek a faith that would
satisfy her reason and purify her heart, is induced to question
minutely the religious tenets of travellers who visited the temple, and
thus familiarized herself with all existing creeds and hierarchies. The
lore so carefully garnered is finally analyzed, classified, and
inscribed on papyrus. The delineation of scenes and sanctuaries in
different latitudes, from Lhasa to Copan, gave full exercise to Edna's
descriptive power, but imposed much labor in the departments of
physical geography and architecture.
Verily! an ambitious literary programme for a girl over whose head
scarcely eighteen years had hung their dripping drab wintry skies, and
pearly summer clouds.
One March morning, as Edna entered the breakfast-room, she saw unusual
gravity printed on Mrs. Murray's face; and observing an open letter on
the table conjectured the cause of her changed countenance. A moment
after the master came in, and as he seated himself his mother said:
"St. Elmo, your cousin Estelle's letter contains bad news. Her father
is dead; the estate is wretchedly insolvent; and she is coming to
reside with us."
"Then I am off for Hammerfest and the midnight sun! Who the deuce
invited her I should like to know?"
"Remember she is my sister's child; she has no other home, and I am
sure it is very natural that she should come to me, her nearest
relative, for sympathy and protection."
"Write to her by return mail that you will gladly allow her three
thousand a year, provided she ensconces herself under some other roof
than this."
"Impossible! I could not wound her so deeply."
"You imagine that she entertains a most tender and profound regard for
both of us?"
"Certainly, my son; we have every reason to believe that she does."
Leaning back in his chair, St. Elmo laughed.
"I should really enjoy stumbling upon something that would overtax your
most marvellous and indefinitely extensible credulity! When Estelle
Harding becomes an inmate of this house I shall pack my valise, and
start to Tromso! She approaches like Discord, uninvited, armed with an
apple or a dagger. I am perfectly willing to share my fortune with her,
but I'll swear I would rather prowl for a month through the
plague-stricken district of Constantinople than see her domesticated
here! You tried the experiment when she was a child, and we fought and
scratched as indefatigably as those two amiable young Theban bullies,
who are so often cited as scarecrows for quarrelsome juveniles. Of
course, we shall renew the battle at sight."
"But, my dear son, there are claims urged by natural affection which it
is impossible to ignore. Poor Estelle is very desolate, and has a right
to our sympathy and love."
"Poor Estelle! Hoeredipetoe! The frailties of old Rome survive her
virtues and her ruins!"
Mr. Murray laughed again, beat a tattoo with his fork on the edge of
his plate, and, rising, left the room.
Mrs. Murray looked puzzled, and said: "Edna, do you know what he meant?
He often amuses himself by mystifying me, and I will not gratify him by
asking an explanation."
"Hoeredipetoe were legacy-hunters in Rome, where their sycophantic
devotion to people of wealth furnished a constant theme for satire."
Mrs. Murray sighed heavily, and the orphan asked:
"When do you expect your niece?"
"Day after to-morrow. I have not seen her for some years, but report
says she is very fascinating, and even St. Elmo, who met her in Europe,
admits that she is handsome. As you heard him say just now, they
formerly quarreled most outrageously and shamefully, and he took an
unaccountable aversion to her; but I trust all juvenile reminiscences
will vanish when they know each other better. My dear, I have several
engagements for to-day, and I must rely upon you to superintend the
arrangement of Estelle's room. She will occupy the one next to yours.
See that everything is in order. You know Hagar is sick, and the other
servants are careless."
Sympathy for Miss Harding's recent and severe affliction prepared
Edna's heart to receive her cordially, and the fact that an
irreconcilable feud eristed between the stranger and St. Elmo, induced
the orphan to hope that she might find a congenial companion in the
expected visitor.
On the afternoon of her arrival, Edna leaned eagerly forward to catch a
glimpse of her countenance, and as she threw back her long
mourning-veil, and received her aunt's affectionate greeting, the first
impression was, "How exceedingly handsome--how commanding she is!" But
a few minutes later, when Mrs. Murray introduced them, and the
stranger's keen, bright, restless eyes fell upon the orphan's face, the
latter drew back, involuntarily repelled, and a slight shiver crept
over her, for an unerring instinctive repulsion told her they could
never be friends.
Estelle Harding was no longer young; years had hardened the outline of
her features, and imparted a certain staidness or fixedness to her calm
countenance, where strong feeling or passionate impulse was never
permitted to slip the elegant mask of polished suavity. She was
surprisingly like Mrs. Murray, but not one line of her face resembled
her cousin's. Fixing her eyes on Edna, with a cold, almost stern
scrutiny more searching than courteous, she said:
"I was not aware, Aunt Ellen, that you had company in the house."
"I have no company at present, my dear. Edna resides here. Do you not
remember one of my letters in which I mentioned the child who was
injured by the railroad accident?"
"True. I expected to see a child, certainly not a woman."
"She seems merely a child to me. But come up to your room; you must be
very much fatigued by your journey."
When they left the sitting-room Edna sat down in one corner of the
sofa, disappointed and perplexed.
"She does not like me, that is patent; and I certainly do not like her.
She is handsome and very graceful, and quite heartless. There is no
inner light from her soul shining in her eyes; nothing tender and
loving and kind in their clear depths; they are cold, bright eyes, but
not soft, winning, womanly eyes. They might, and doubtless would, hold
an angry dog in check, but never draw a tired, fretful child to lean
its drooping head on her lap. If she really has any feeling, her eyes
should be indicted for slander. I am sorry I don't like her, and I am
afraid we never shall be nearer each other than touching our
finger-tips."
Such was Edna's unsatisfactory conclusion, and dismissing the subject,
she picked up a book, and read until the ladies returned and seated
themselves around the fire.
To Mrs. Murray's great chagrin and mortification her son had positively
declined going to meet his cousin, had been absent since breakfast, and
proved himself shamefully derelict in the courtesy demanded of him. It
was almost dark when the quick gallop of his horse announced his
return, and, as he passed the window on his way to the stables, Edna
noticed a sudden change in Estelle's countenance. During the next
quarter of an hour her eyes never wandered from the door, though her
head was turned to listen to Mrs. Murray's remarks. Soon after, Mr.
Murray's rapid footsteps sounded in the hall, and as he entered she
rose and advanced to meet him. He held out his hand, shook hers
vigorously, and said, as he dropped it:
"Mine ancient enemy, declare a truce and quiet my apprehensions; for I
dreamed last night that, on sight, we flew at each other's throats, and
renewed the sanguinary scuffles of our juvenile acquaintance. Most
appallingly vivid is my recollection of a certain scar here on my left
arm, where you set your pearly teeth some years ago."
"My dear cousin, as I have had no provocation since I was separated
from you, I believe I have grown harmless and amiable. How very well
you look, St. Elmo."
"Thank you. I should like to return the compliment, but facts forbid.
You are thinner than when we dined together in Paris. Are you really in
love with that excruciating Brummell of a Count who danced such
indefatigable attendance upon you?"
"To whom do you allude?"
"That youth with languishing brown eyes, who parted his 'hyacinthine
tresses' in the middle of his head; whose moustache required
Ehrenberg's strongest glasses--and who absolutely believed that Ristori
singled him out of her vast audiences as the most appreciative of her
listeners; who was eternally humming 'Ernani' and raving about
'Traviata.' Your memory is treacherous--as your conscience? Well, then,
that man, who I once told you reminded me of what Guilleragues is
reported to have said about Pelisson, 'that he abused the permission
men have to be ugly.'"
"Ah! you mean poor Victor! He spent the winter in Seville. I had a
letter last week."
"When do you propose to make him my cousin?"
"Not until I become an inmate of a lunatic asylum."
"Poor wretch! If he only had courage to sue you for breach of promise,
I would, with pleasure, furnish sufficient testimony to convict you and
secure him heavy damages; for I will swear you played fiancee to
perfection. Your lavish expenditure of affection seemed to me
altogether uncalled for, considering the fact that the fish already
floundered at your feet."
The reminiscence evidently annoyed her, though her lips smiled, and
Edna saw that, while his words were pointed with a sarcasm lost upon
herself, it was fully appreciated by his cousin.
"St. Elmo, I am sorry to see that you have not improved one iota; that
all your wickedness clings to you like Sinbad's burden."
Standing at his side, she put her hand on his shoulder.
As he looked down at her, his lips curled.
"Nevertheless, Estelle, I find a pale ghost of pity for you wandering
up and down what was once my heart. After the glorious intoxication of
Parisian life, how can you endure the tedium of this dullest of
humdrum--this most moral and stupid of all country towns? Little
gossip, few flirtations, neither beaux esprits nor bons vivants--what
will become of you? Now, whatever amusement, edification, or warning
you may be able to extract from my society, I here beg permission to
express the hope that you will appropriate unsparingly. I shall, with
exemplary hospitality, dedicate myself to your service--shall try to
make amends for votre cher Victor's absence, and solemnly promise to do
everything in my power to assist you in strangling time, except parting
my hair in the middle of my head, and making love to you. With these
stipulated reservations, command me ad libitum."
Her face flushed slightly, she withdrew her hand and sat down.
Taking his favorite position on the rug, with one hand thrust into his
pocket and the other dallying with his watch-chain, Mr. Murray
continued:
"Entire honesty on my part, and a pardonable and amiable weakness for
descanting on the charms of my native village, compel me to assure you,
that, notwithstanding the deprivation of opera and theatre, bal masque
and the Bois de Bologne, I believe you will be surprised to find that
the tone of society here is quite up to the lofty standard of the
'Society of Areueil,' or even the requirements of the Academy of
Sciences. Our pastors are erudite as Abelard, and rigid as Trappists;
our young ladies are learned as that ancient blue-stocking daughter of
Pythagoras, and as pious as St. Salvia, who never washed her face. For
instance, girls yet in their teens are much better acquainted with
Hebrew than Miriam was, when she sung it on the shore of the Red Sea
(where, by the by, Talmudic tradition says Pharaoh was not drowned),
and they will vehemently contend for the superiority of the Targum of
Onkelos over that on the Hagiographa, ascribed to one-eyed Joseph of
Sora! You look incredulous, my fair cousin. Nay, permit me to complete
the inventory of the acquirements of your future companions. They quote
fluently from the Megilloth, and will entertain you by fighting over
again the battle of the school of Hillel versus the school of Shammai!
Their attainments in philology reflect discredit on the superficiality
of Max Muller; and if an incidental allusion is made to archaeology,
lo! they bombard you with a broadside of authorities, and recondite
terminology that would absolutely make the hair of Lepsius and
Champollion stand on end. I assure you the savants of the Old World
would catch their breath with envious amazement, if they could only
enjoy the advantage of the conversation of these orthodox and erudite
refugees from the nursery! The unfortunate men of this community are
kept in pitiable terror lest they commit an anachronism, and if, after
a careful reconnoissance of the slippery ground, they tremblingly
venture an anecdote of Selwyn or Hood, or Beaumarchais, they are
invariably driven back in confusion by the inquiry, if they remember
this or that bon mot uttered at the court of Aurungzebe or of one of
the early Incas! Ah! would I were Moliere to repaint Les Precieuses
Ridicules!"
Although his eyes had never once wandered from his cousin's face,
toward the corner where Edna sat embroidering some mats, she felt the
blood burning in her cheeks, and forced herself to look up. At that
moment, as he stood in the soft glow of the firelight, he was handsomer
than she had ever seen him; and when he glanced swiftly over his
shoulder to mark the effect of his words, their eyes met, and she
smiled involuntarily.
"For shame, St. Elmo! I will have you presented by the grand jury of
this county for wholesome defamation of the inhabitants thereof," said
his mother, shaking her finger at him.
Estelle laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
"My poor cousin! how I pity you, and the remainder of the men here,
surrounded by such a formidable coterie of blues."
"Believe me, even if their shadows are as blue as those which I have
seen thrown upon the snow of Eyriks Jokull, in Iceland, where I would
have sworn that every shade cast on the mountain was a blot of indigo.
Sometimes I seriously contemplate erecting an observatory and
telescope, in order to sweep our sky and render visible what I am
convinced exist there undiscovered--some of those deep blue nebulae
which Sir John Herschel found in the southern hemisphere! If the
astronomical conjectures be correct, concerning the possibility of a
galaxy of blue stars, a huge cluster hangs in this neighborhood and
furnishes an explanation of the color of the women."
"Henceforth, St. Elmo, the sole study of my life shall be to forget my
alphabet. Miss Earl, do you understand Hebrew?"
"Oh, no; I have only begun to study it."
"Estelle, it is the popular and fashionable amusement here. Young
ladies and young gentlemen form classes for mutual aid and 'mutual
admiration' while they clasp hands over the Masora. If Lord Brougham,
and other members of the 'Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge,' could only have been induced to investigate the
intellectual status of the 'rising generation' of our village, there is
little room to doubt that, as they are not deemed advocates for works
of supererogation, they would long ago have appreciated the expediency
of disbanding said society. I imagine Tennyson is a clairvoyant, and
was looking at the young people of this vicinage, when he wrote:
'Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.'
Not even egoistic infallible 'Brain Town'--that self-complacent and
pretentious 'Hub,' can show a more ambitious covey of literary
fledgelings!"
"Your random firing seems to produce no confusion on the part of your
game," answered his cousin, withdrawing her gaze from Edna's tranquil
features, on which a half smile still lingered.
He did not seem to hear her words, but his eyebrows thickened, as he
draw a couple of letters from his pocket and looked at the
superscription.
Giving one to his mother, who sat looking over a newspaper, he crossed
the room and silently laid the other on Edna's lap.
It was post-marked in a distant city and directed in a gentleman's
large, round business handwriting. The girl's face flushed with
pleasure as she broke the seal, glanced at the signature, and without
pausing for a perusal, hastily put the letter into her pocket.
"Who can be writing to you, Edna?" asked Mrs. Murray, when she had
finished reading her own letter.
"Oh! doubtless some Syrian scribe has indited a Chaldee billet-doux,
which she can not spell out without the friendly aid of dictionary and
grammar. Permit her to withdraw and decipher it. Meantime here comes
Henry to announce dinner, and a plate of soup will strengthen her for
her task."
Mr. Murray offered his arm to his cousin, and during dinner he talked
constantly, rapidly, brilliantly of men and things abroad; now hurling
a sarcasm at Estelle's head, now laughing at his mother's
expostulations, and studiously avoiding any further notice of Edna, who
was never so thoroughly at ease as when he seemed to forget her
presence.
Estelle sat at his right hand, and suddenly refilling his glass with
bubbling champagne, he leaned over and whispered a few words in her ear
that brought a look of surprise and pleasure into her eyes. Edna only
saw the expression of his face, and the tenderness, the pleading
written there astonished and puzzled her. The next moment they rose
from the table, and as Mr. Murray drew his cousin's hand under his arm,
Edna hurried away to her own room.
Among the numerous magazines to which St. Elmo subscribed was one
renowned for the lofty tone of its articles and the asperity of its
carping criticisms, and this periodical Edna always singled out and
read with avidity.
The name of the editor swung in terrorum in the imagination of all
humble authorlings, and had become a synonym for merciless critical
excoriation.
To this literary Fouquier Tinville, the orphan had daringly written
some weeks before, stating her determination to attempt a book, and
asking permission to submit the first chapter to his searching
inspection. She wrote that she expected him to find faults--he always
did; and she preferred that her work should be roughly handled by him,
rather than patted and smeared with faint praise by men of inferior
critical astuteness.
The anxiously expected reply had come at last, and as she locked her
door and sat down to read it, she trembled from head to foot. In the
centre of a handsome sheet of tinted paper she found these lines:
"MADAM: In reply to your very extraordinary request I have the honor to
inform you, that my time is so entirely consumed by necessary and
important claims, that I find no leisure at my command for the
examination of the embryonic chapter of a contemplated book. I am,
madam,
"Very respectfully,
"DOUGLASS G. MANNING."
Tears of disappointment filled her eyes and for a moment she bit her
lip with uncontrolled vexation; then refolding the letter, she put it
in a drawer of her desk, and said sorrowfully:
"I certainly had no right to expect anything more polite from him. He
snubs even his popular contributors, and of course he would not be
particularly courteous to an unknown scribbler. Perhaps some day I may
make him regret that letter; and such a triumph will more than
compensate for this mortification. One might think that all literary
people, editors, authors, reviewers, would sympathize with each other,
and stretch out their hands to aid one another! but it seems there is
less free-masonry among literati than other guilds. They wage an
internecine war among themselves, though it certainly can not be termed
'civil strife,' judging from Mr. Douglass Manning's letter."
Chagrined and perplexed she walked up and down the room, wondering what
step would be most expedient in the present state of affairs; and
trying to persuade herself that she ought to consult Mr. Hammond. But
she wished to surprise him, to hear his impartial opinion of a printed
article which he could not suspect that she had written, and finally
she resolved to say nothing to any one, to work on in silence, relying
upon herself. With this determination she sat down before her desk,
opened the MS. of her book, and very soon became absorbed in writing
the second chapter. Before she had finished even the first sentence a
hasty rap summoned her to the door.
She opened it, and found Mr. Murray standing in the hall, with a candle
in his hand.
"Where is that volume of chess problems which you had last week?"
"It is here, sir."
She took it from the table, and as she approached him, Mr. Murray held
the light close to her countenance, and gave her one of those keen
looks which always reminded her of the descriptions of the scrutiny of
the Council of Ten, in the days when "lions' mouths" grinned at the
street-corners in Venice.
Something in the curious expression of his face, and the evident
satisfaction which he derived from his hasty investigation, told Edna
that the book was a mere pretext. She drew back and asked:
"Have I any other book that you need?"
"No; I have all I came for."
Smiling half mischievously, half maliciously, he turned and left her.
"I wonder what he saw in my face that amused him?"
She walked up to the bureau and examined her own image in the mirror;
and there, on her cheeks, were the unmistakable traces of the tears of
vexation and disappointment.
"At least he can have no idea of the cause, and that is some comfort,
for he is too honorable to open my letters."
But just here a doubt flashed into her mind.
"How do I know that he is honorable? Can any man be worthy of trust who
holds nothing sacred, and sneers at all religions? No; he has no
conscience; and yet--"
She sighed and went back to her MS., and though for a while St. Elmo
Murray's mocking eyes seemed to glitter on the pages, her thoughts ere
long were anchored once more with the olive-crowned priestess in the
temple at Sais.