Professor Cutter and I walked to the village that afternoon. He is a
great pedestrian, and is never satisfied unless he can walk four or five
miles a day. His robust and somewhat heavy frame was planned rather for
bodily labor than for the housing of so active a mind, and he often
complains that the exercise of his body has robbed him of years of
intellectual labor. He grumbles at the necessity of wasting time in that
way, but he never omits his daily walk.
"I should like to possess your temperament, Mr. Griggs," he remarked, as
we walked briskly through the park. "You might renounce exercise and
open air for the rest of your life, and never be the worse for it."
"I hardly know," I answered. "I have never tried any regular method of
life, and I have never been ill. I do not believe in regular methods."
"That is the ideal constitution. By the by, I had hoped to induce Patoff
to come with us, but he said he would stay with the ladies."
"You will never induce him to do anything he does not want to do," I
replied. "However, I dare say you know that as well as I do."
"What makes you say that?"
"I can see it,--it is plain enough. Carvel wanted him to go and shoot
something after lunch, you wanted him to come for a walk, Macaulay
wanted him to bury himself up-stairs and talk out the Egyptian question,
I wanted to get him into the smoking-room to ask him questions about
some friends of mine in the East, Miss Dabstreak had plans to waylay him
with her pottery. Not a bit of it! He smiled at us all, and serenely
sat by Mrs. Carvel, talking to her and Miss Hermione. He has a will of
his own."
"Indeed he has," assented the professor. "He is a moderately clever
fellow, with a smooth tongue and a despotic character, a much better
combination than a weak will and the mind of a genius. You are right, he
is not to be turned by trifles."
"I see that he must be a good diplomatist in these days."
"Diplomacy has got past the stage of being intellectual," said the
professor. "There was a time when a fine intellect was thought important
in an ambassador; nowadays it is enough if his excellency can hold his
tongue and show his teeth. The question is, whether the low estimate of
intellect in our day is due to the exigency of modern affairs, or to the
exiguity of modern intelligence."
"Men are stronger in our time," I answered, "and consequently have less
need to be clever. The transition from the joint government of the world
by a herd of wily foxes to the domination of the universe by the mammoth
ox is marked by the increase of clumsy strength and the disappearance of
graceful deception."
"That is true; but the graceful deception continues to be the more
interesting, if not the more agreeable. As for me, I would rather be
gracefully deceived, as you call it, than pounded to jelly by the hoofs
of the mammoth,--unless I could be the mammoth myself."
"To return to Patoff," said I, "what are they going to do with him?"
"The question is much more likely to be what he will do with them, I
should say," answered the scientist, looking straight before him, and
increasing the speed of his walk. "I am not at all sure what he might
do, if no one prevented him. He is capable of considerable originality
if left to himself, and they follow him up there at the Place as the
boys and girls followed the Pied Piper."
"Is he at all like his mother?" I asked.
"In point of originality?" inquired the professor, with a curious smile.
"She was certainly a most original woman. I hardly know whether he is
like her. Boys are said to resemble their mother in appearance and their
father in character. He is certainly not of the same type of
constitution as his mother, he has not even the same shape of head, and
I am glad of it. But his father was a Slav, and what is madness in an
Englishwoman is sanity in a Russian. Her most extraordinary aberrations
might not seem at all extraordinary when set off by the natural violence
he inherits from his father."
"That is a novel idea to me," I remarked. "You mean that what is madness
in one man is not necessarily insanity in another; besides, you refused
to allow this morning that Madame Patoff was crazy."
"I did not refuse to allow it; I only said I did not know it to be the
case. But as for what I just said, take two types of mankind, a Chinese
and an Englishman, for instance. If you met a fair-haired, blue-eyed,
sanguine Englishman, whose head and features were shaped precisely like
those of a Chinaman, you could predicate of him that he must be a very
extraordinary creature, capable, perhaps, of becoming a driveling idiot.
The same of a Chinese, if you met one with a brain shaped like that of
an Englishman, and similar features, but with straight black hair, a
yellow skin, and red eyes. He would have the brain of the Anglo-Saxon
with the temperament of the Mongol, and would probably become a raving
maniac. It is not the temperament only, nor the intellect only, which
produces the idiot or the madman; it is the lack of balance between the
two. Arrant cowards frequently have very warlike imaginations, and in
their dreams conceive themselves doing extremely violent things. Suppose
that with such an imagination you unite the temperament of an Arab
fanatic, or the coarse, brutal courage of an English prize-fighter, you
can put no bounds to the possible actions of the monster you create.
The salvation of the human race lies in the fact that very strong and
brave people commonly have a peaceable disposition, or else commit
murder and get hanged for it. It is far better that they should be
hanged, because nobody knows where violence ends and insanity begins,
and it is just as well to be on the safe side. Whenever a given form of
intellect happens to be joined to a totally inappropriate temperament,
we say it is a case of idiocy or insanity. Of course there are many
other cases which arise from the mind or the body being injured by
extraneous causes; but they are not genuine cases of insanity, because
the evil has not been transmitted from the parents, nor will it be to
the children."
The professor marched forward as he gave his lecture on unsoundness of
brain, and I strode by his side, silent and listening. What he said
seemed very natural, and yet I had never heard it before. Was Madame
Patoff such a monster as he described? It was more likely that her son
might be, seeing that he in some points answered precisely to the
description of a man with the intellect of one race and the temperament
of another; and yet any one would scoff at the idea that Paul Patoff
could go mad. He was so correct, so staid, so absolutely master of what
he said, and probably of what he felt, that one could not imagine him a
pray to insanity.
"What you say is very interesting," I remarked, at last, "but how does
it apply to Madame Patoff?"
"It does not apply to her," returned Professor Cutter. "She belongs to
the class of people in whom the mind has been injured by extraneous
circumstances."
"I suppose it is possible. I suppose a perfectly sound mind may be
completely destroyed by an accident, even by the moral shock from a
sorrow or disappointment."
"Yes," said the professor. "It is even possible to produce artificial
insanity,--perfectly genuine while it lasts; but it is not possible for
any one to pretend to be insane."
"Really? I should have thought it quite possible," said I.
"No. It is impossible. I was once called to give my opinion in such a
case. The man betrayed himself in half an hour, and yet he was a very
clever fellow. He was a servant; murdered his master to rob him; was
caught, but succeeded in restoring the valuables to their places, and
pretended to be crazy. It was very well managed and he played the fool
splendidly, but I caught him."
"How?" I asked.
"Simply by bullying. I treated him roughly, and never stopped talking to
him,--just the worst treatment for a person really insane. In less than
an hour I had wearied him out, his feigned madness became so fatiguing
to him that there was finally only a spasmodic attempt, and when I had
done with him the sane man was perfectly apparent. He grew too much
frightened and too tired to act a part. He was hanged, to the
satisfaction of all concerned, and he made a complete confession."
"But how about the artificial insanity you spoke of? How can it be
produced?"
"By any poison, from coffee to alcohol, from tobacco to belladonna. A
man who is drunk is insane."
"I wonder whether, if a madman got drunk, he would be sane?" I said.
"Sometimes. A man who has delirium tremens can be brought to his right
mind for a time by alcohol, unless he is too far gone. The habitual
drunkard is not in his right mind until he has had a certain amount of
liquor. All habitual poisons act in that way, even tea. How often do you
hear a woman or a student say, 'I do not feel like myself to-day,--I
have not had my tea'! When a man does not feel like himself, he means
that he feels like some one else, and he is mildly crazy. Generally
speaking, any sudden change in our habits of eating and drinking will
produce a temporary unsoundness of the mind. Every one knows that
thirst sometimes brings on a dangerous madness, and hunger produces
hallucinations and visions which take a very real character."
"I know,--I have seen that. In the East it is thought that insanity can
be caused by mesmerism, or something like it."
"It is not impossible," answered the scientist. "We do not deny that
some very extraordinary circumstances can be induced by sympathy and
antipathy."
"I suppose you do not believe in actual mesmerism, do you?"
"I neither affirm nor deny,--I wait; and until I have been convinced I
do not consider my opinion worth giving."
"That is the only rational position for a man of science. I fancy that
nothing but experience satisfies you,--why should it?"
"The trouble is that experiments, according to the old maxim, are
generally made, and should be made, upon worthless bodies, and that they
are necessarily very far from being conclusive in regard to the human
body. There is no doubt that dogs are subject to grief, joy, hope, and
disappointment; but it is not possible to conclude from the conduct of a
dog who is deprived of a particularly interesting bone he is gnawing,
for instance, how a man will act who is robbed of his possessions.
Similarity of misfortune does not imply analogy in the consequences."
"Certainly not. Otherwise everybody would act in the same way, if put in
the same case."
The professor's conversation was interesting if only on account of the
extreme simplicity with which he spoke of such a complicated subject. I
was impressed with the belief that he belonged to a class of scientists
whose interest in what they hope to learn surpasses their enthusiasm for
what they have already learned,--a class of scientists unfortunately
very rare in our day. For we talk more nonsense about science than
would fill many volumes, because we devote so much time to the pursuit
of knowledge; nevertheless, the amount of knowledge actually acquired,
beyond all possibility of contradiction, is ludicrously small as
compared with the energy expended in the pursuit of it and the noise
made over its attainment. Science lays many eggs, but few are hatched.
Science boasts much, but accomplishes little; is vainglorious, puffed
up, and uncharitable; desires to be considered as the root of all
civilization and the seed of all good, whereas it is the heart that
civilizes, never the head.
I walked by the professor's side in deep thought, and he, too, became
silent, so that we talked little more until we were coming home and had
almost reached the house.
"Why has Patoff never been in England before?" I asked, suddenly.
"I believe he has," answered Cutter.
"He says he has not."
"Never mind. I believe he was in London during nearly eighteen months,
about four or five years ago, as secretary in the Russian embassy. He
never went near his relations."
"Why should he say now that he never was in the country?"
"Because they would not like it, if they knew he had been so near them
without ever visiting them."
"Was his mother with him? Did she never write to her people?"
"No," said Cutter, with a short laugh, "she never wrote to them."
"How very odd!" I exclaimed, as we entered the hall-door.
"It was odd," answered my companion, and went up-stairs. There was
something very unsatisfactory about him, I thought; and then I cursed my
own curiosity. What business was it all of mine? If Paul Patoff chose to
tell a diplomatic falsehood, it certainly did not concern me. It was
possible that his mother might have quarreled with her family,--indeed,
in former years I had sometimes thought as much from their never
mentioning her; and in that case it would be natural that her son might
not have cared to visit his relations when he was in England before. He
need not have made such a show of never having visited the country, but
people often do that sort of thing. And now it was probable that since
Madame Patoff had been insane there might have been a reconciliation and
a smoothing over of the family difficulties. I had no idea where Madame
Patoff might be. I could not ask any one such a delicate question, for I
supposed she was confined in an asylum, and no one volunteered the
information. Probably Cutter's visit to Carvel Place was connected with
her sad state; perhaps Patoff's coming might be the result of it, also.
It was impossible to say. But of this I was certain: that John Carvel
and his wife had both grown older and sadder in the past two years, and
that there was an air of concealment about the house which made me very
uncomfortable. I have been connected with more than one odd story in my
time, and I confess that I no longer care for excitement as I once did.
If people are going to get into trouble, I would rather not be there to
see it, and I have a strong dislike to being suddenly called upon to
play an unexpected part in sensational events. Above all, I hate
mystery; I hate the mournful air of superior sorrow that hangs about
people who have a disagreeable secret, and the constant depression of
long-protracted anxiety in those about me. It spoiled my pleasure in the
quiet country life to see John's face grow every day more grave and Mary
Carvel's eyes turn sadder. Pain of any sort is unpleasant to witness,
but there is nothing so depressing as to watch the progress of
melancholy in one's friends; to feel that from some cause which they
will not confide they are losing peace and health and happiness. Even if
one knew the cause one might not be able to do anything to remove it,
for it is no bodily ill, that can be doctored and studied and
experimented upon, a subject for dissertation and barbarous,
semi-classic nomenclature; quacks do not pretend to cure it with patent
medicines, and great physicians do not write nebulous articles about it
in the reviews. There is little room for speculation in the matter of
grief, for most people know well enough what it is, and need no Latin
words with Greek terminations to express it. It is the breaking of the
sea of life over the harbor bar where science ends and humanity begins.
Poor John! It needed something strong indeed to sadden his cheerfulness
and leaden his energy. That evening I talked with Hermione in the
drawing room. She looked more lovely than ever dressed all in white,
with a single row of pearls around her throat. Her delicate features
were pale and luminous, and her brown eyes brighter than usual,--a mere
girl, scarcely yet gone into the world, but such a woman! It was no
wonder that Paul glanced from time to time in admiration at his cousin.
We were seated in Chrysophrasia's corner, Hermione and I. There was
nothing odd in that; the young girl likes me and enjoys talking to me,
and I am no longer young. You know, dear friend, that I am forty-six
years old this summer, and it is a long time since any one thought of
flirting with me. I am not dangerous,--nature has taken care of
that,--and I am thought very safe company for the young.
"Tell me one of your stories, Mr. Griggs. I am so tired this evening,"
said Hermione.
"I do not know what to tell you," I answered. "I was hoping that you
would tell me one of yours, all about the fairies and the elves in the
park, as you used to when you were a little girl."
"I do not believe in fairies any more," said Hermione, with a little
sigh. "I believed in them once,--it was so nice. I want stories of real
life now,--sad ones, that end happily."
"A great many happy stories end sadly," I replied, "but few sad ones
end happily. Why do you want a sad story? You ought to be gay."
"Ought I? I am not, I am sure. I cannot take everything with a laugh, as
some people can; and I cannot be always resigned and religious, as mamma
is."
"The pleasantest people are the ones who are always good, but not always
alike," I remarked. "It is variety that makes life charming, and
goodness that makes it worth living."
Hermione laughed a little.
"That sounds very good,--a little goody, as we used to say when we were
small. I wonder whether it is true. I suppose I have not enough variety,
or not enough goodness, just at present."
"Why?" I asked. "I should think you had both."
"I do not see the great variety," she answered.
"Have you not found a new relation to-day? An interesting cousin who has
seen the whole world ought to go far towards making a variety in life."
"What should you think of a man, Mr. Griggs, whose brother has not been
dead eighteen months, and whose mother is dangerously ill, perhaps
dying, and who shows no more feeling than a stone?"
The question came sharply and distinctly; Hermione's short lip curled in
scorn, and the words were spoken through her closed teeth. Of course she
was speaking of Paul Patoff. She turned to me for an answer, and there
was an angry light in her eyes.
"Is your cousin's mother very ill?" I asked.
"She is not really dying, but she can never get well. Oh, Mr. Griggs,"
she cried, clasping her hands together on her knees, and leaning back in
her seat, "I wish I could tell you all about it! I am sure you might do
some good, but they would be very angry if I told you. I wonder whether
he is really so hard-hearted as he looks!"
"Oh, no," I answered. "Men who have lived so much in the world learn to
conceal their feelings."
"It is not thought good manners to have any feeling, is it?"
"Most people try to hide what they feel. What is good of showing every
one that you are hurt, when nobody can do anything to help you? It is
undignified to make an exhibition of sorrow for the benefit of one's
neighbors."
"Perhaps. But I almost think aunt Chrysophrasia is right: the world was
a nicer place, and life was more interesting, when everybody showed what
they felt, and fought for what they wanted, and ran away with people
they loved, and killed people they hated."
"I think you would get very tired of it," I said, laughing. "It is
uncomfortable to live in constant danger of one's life. You used not to
talk so, Miss Carvel; what has happened to you?"
"Oh, I do not know; everything is happening that ought not. I should
think you might see that we are all very anxious. But I do not half
understand it myself. Will you not tell me a story, and help me to
forget all about it? Here comes papa with Professor Cutter, looking
graver than ever; they have been to see--I mean they have been talking
about it again."
"Once upon a time there was a"---- I stopped. John Carvel came straight
across the room to where we were sitting.
"Griggs," he said, in a low voice, "will you come with me for a moment?"
I sprang to my feet. John laid his hand upon my arm; he was very pale.
"Don't look as though anything were the matter," he added.
Accordingly I sauntered across the room, and made a show of stopping a
moment before the fire to warm my hands and listen to the general
conversation that was going on there. Presently I walked away, and John
followed me. As I passed, I looked at the professor, who seemed already
absorbed in listening to one of Chrysophrasia's speeches. He did not
return my glance, and I left the room with my friend. A moment later we
were in his study. A student's lamp with a green shade burned steadily
upon the table, and there was a bright fire on the hearth. A huge
writing-table filled the centre of the room, covered with papers and
pamphlets. John did not sit down, but stood leaning back against a heavy
bookcase, with one hand behind him.
"Griggs," he said, and his voice trembled with excitement, "I am going
to ask you a favor, and in order to ask it I am obliged to take you into
my confidence."
"I am ready," said I. "You can trust me."
"Since you were here last, very painful things have occurred. In
consequence of the death of her eldest son, and of certain circumstances
attending it which I need not, cannot, detail, my wife's sister, Madame
Patoff, became insane about eighteen months ago. Professor Cutter
chanced to be with her at the time, and informed me at once. Her
husband, as you know, died twenty years ago, and Paul was away, so that
Cutter was so good as to take care of her. He said her only chance of
recovery lay in being removed to her native country and carefully
nursed. Thank God, I am rich. I received her here, and she has been here
ever since. Do not look surprised. For the sake of all I have taken
every precaution to keep her absolutely removed from us, though we visit
her from time to time. Cutter told me that dreadful story of her trying
to kill herself in Suabia. He has just informed me that it was you who
saved both her life and his with your rope,--not knowing either of them.
I need not tell you my gratitude."
John paused, and grasped my hand; his own was cold and moist.
"It was nothing," I said. "I did not even incur any danger; it was
Cutter who risked his life."
"No matter," continued Carvel. "It was you who saved them both. From
that time she has recognized no one. Cutter brought her here, and the
north wing of the house was fitted up for her. He has come from time to
time to see her, and she has proper attendants. You never see them nor
her, for she has a walled garden,--the one against which the hot-houses
and the tennis-court are built. Of course the servants know,--everybody
in the house knows all about it; but this is a huge old place, and there
is plenty of room. It is not thought safe to take her out, and there
appears to be something so peculiar about her insanity that Cutter
discourages the idea of the ordinary treatment of placing the patient in
the company of other insane, giving them all manner of amusement, and so
on. He seems to think that if she is left alone, and is well cared for,
seeing only, from time to time, the faces of persons she has known
before, she may recover."
"I trust so, indeed," I said earnestly.
"We all pray that she may, poor thing!" rejoined Carvel, very sadly.
"Now listen. Her son. Paul Patoff, arrived this morning, and insisted
upon seeing her this afternoon. Cutter said it could do no harm, as she
probably would not recognize him. To our astonishment and delight she
knew him at once for her son, though she treated him with a coldness
almost amounting to horror. She stepped back from him, and folded her
arms, only saying, over and over again, 'Paul, why did you come
here,--why did you come?' We could get nothing more from her than that,
and at the end of ten minutes we left her. She seemed very much
exhausted, excited, too, and the nurse who was with her advised us to
go."
"It is a great step, however, that she should have recognized any one,
especially her own son," I remarked.
"So Cutter holds. She never takes the least notice of him. But he has
suggested to me that while she is still in this humor it would be worth
while trying whether she has any recollection of you. He says that
anything which recalls so violent a shock as the one she experienced
when you saved her life may possibly recall a connected train of
thought, even though it be a very painful reminiscence; and anything
which helps memory helps recovery. He considers hers the most
extraordinary case he has ever seen, and he must have seen a great many;
he says that there is almost always some delusion, some fixed idea, in
insanity. Madame Patoff seems to have none, but she has absolutely no
recognition for any one, nor any memory for events beyond a few minutes.
She can hardly be induced to speak at all, but will sit quite still for
hours with any book that is given her, turning over the pages
mechanically. She has a curious fancy for big books, and will always
select the thickest from a number of volumes; but whether or not she
retains any impression of what she reads, or whether, in fact, she
really reads at all, it is quite impossible to say. She will sometimes
answer 'yes' or 'no' to a question, but she will give opposite answers
to the same question in five minutes. She will stare stolidly at any one
who talks to her consecutively; or will simply turn away, and close her
eyes as though she were going to sleep. In other respects she is in
normal health. She eats little, but regularly, and sleeps soundly; goes
out into her garden at certain hours, and seems to enjoy fine weather,
and to be annoyed when it rains. She is not easily startled by a sudden
noise, or the abrupt appearance of those of us who go to see her. Cutter
does not know what to make of it. She was once a very beautiful woman,
and is still as handsome as a woman can be at fifty. Cutter says that if
she had softening of the brain she would behave very differently, and
that if she had become feeble-minded the decay of her faculties would
show in her face; but there is nothing of that observable in her. She
has as much dignity and beauty as ever, and, excepting when she stares
blankly at those who talk to her, her face is intelligent, though very
sad."
"Poor lady!" I said. "How old did you say she is?"
"She must be fifty-two, in her fifty-third year. Her hair is gray, but
it is not white."
"Had she any children besides Paul and his brother?"
"No. I know very little of her family life. It was a love match; but old
Patoff was rich. I never heard that they quarreled. Alexander entered
the army, and remained in a guard regiment in St. Petersburg, while Paul
went into the diplomacy. Madame Patoff must have spent much of her time
with Alexander until he died, and Cutter says he was always the favorite
son. I dare say that Paul has a bad temper, and he may have been
extravagant. At all events, she loved Alexander devotedly, and it was
his death that first affected her mind."
John had grown more calm during this long conversation. To tell the
truth, I did not precisely understand why he should have looked so pale
and seemed so anxious, seeing that the news of Madame Patoff was
decidedly of an encouraging nature. I myself was too much astonished at
learning that the insane lady was actually an inmate of the house, and I
was too much interested at the prospect of seeing her so soon, to think
much of John and his anxiety; but on looking back I remember that his
mournful manner produced a certain impression upon me at the moment.
The story was strange enough. I began to comprehend what Hermione had
meant when she spoke of Paul's cold nature. An hour before dinner the
man had seen his mother for the first time in eighteen months,--it might
be more, for all I knew,--for the first time since she had been out of
her mind. I had learned from John that she had recognized him, indeed,
but had coldly repulsed him when he came before her. If Paul Patoff had
been a warm-hearted man, he could not have been at that very moment
making conversation for his cousins in the drawing-room, laughing and
chatting, his eyeglass in his eye, his bony fingers toying with the
flower Chrysophrasia had given him. It struck me that neither Mrs.
Carvel nor her sister could have known of the interview, or they would
have manifested some feeling, or at least would not have behaved just as
they always did. I asked John if they knew.
"No," he answered. "He told my daughter because he broke off his
conversation with her to go and see his mother, but Hermy never tells
anything except to me."
"When would you like me to go?" I asked.
"Now, if you will. I will call Cutter. He thinks that, as she last saw
you with him, your coming together now will be more likely to recall
some memory of the accident. Besides, it is better to go this evening,
before she has slept, as the return of memory this afternoon may have
been very transitory, and anything which might stimulate it again should
be tried before the mood changes. Will you go now?"
"Certainly," I replied, and John Carvel left the room to call the
professor.
While I was waiting alone in the study, I happened to take up a pamphlet
that lay upon the table. It was something about the relations of England
with Russia. An idea crossed my mind.
"I wonder," I said to myself, "whether they have ever tried speaking to
her in Russian. Cutter does not know a word of the language; I suppose
nobody else here does, either, except Paul, and she seems to have spoken
to him in English."
The door opened, and John entered with the professor. I laid down the
pamphlet, and prepared to accompany them.
"I suppose Carvel has told you all that I could not tell you, Mr.
Griggs," said the learned man, eying me through his glasses with an air
of inquiry, and slowly rubbing his enormous hands together.
"Yes," I said. "I understand that we are about to make an experiment in
order to ascertain if this unfortunate lady will recognize me."
"Precisely. It is not impossible that she may know you, though, if she
saw you at all, it was only for a moment. You have a very striking face
and figure, and you have not changed in the least. Besides, the moment
was that in which she experienced an awful shock. Such things are
sometimes photographed on the mind."
"Has she never recognized you in any way?" I asked.
"Never since that day at Weissenstein. There is just a faint possibility
that when she sees us together she may recall that catastrophe. I think
Carvel had better stay behind."
"Very well," said John, "I will leave you at the door."
Carvel led the way to the great hall, and then turned through a passage
I had never entered. The narrow corridor was brightly lighted by a
number of lamps; at the end of it we came to a massive door. John took a
little key from a niche in the wall, and inserted it in the small metal
plate of the patent lock.
"Cutter will lead you now," he said, as he pushed the heavy mahogany
back upon its hinges. Beyond it the passage continued, still brilliantly
illuminated, to a dark curtain which closed the other end. It was very
warm. Carvel closed the door behind us, and the professor and I
proceeded alone.