The Proposals of Bastin and Bickley
So far as my body was concerned I grew well with great rapidity, though
it was long before I got back my strength. Thus I could not walk far or
endure any sustained exertion. With my mind it was otherwise. I can not
explain what had happened to it; indeed I do not know, but in a sense
it seemed to have become detached and to have assumed a kind of
personality of its own. At times it felt as though it were no longer an
inhabitant of the body, but rather its more or less independent
partner. I was perfectly clear-headed and of insanity I experienced no
symptoms. Yet my mind, I use that term from lack of a better, was not
entirely under my control. For one thing, at night it appeared to
wander far away, though whither it went and what it saw there I could
never remember.
I record this because possibly it explains certain mysterious events,
if they were events and not dreams, which shortly I must set out. I
spoke to Bickley about the matter. He put it by lightly, saying that it
was only a result of my long and most severe illness and that I should
steady down in time, especially if we could escape from that island and
its unnatural atmosphere. Yet as he spoke he glanced at me shrewdly
with his quick eyes, and when he turned to go away I heard him mutter
something to himself about “unholy influences” and “that confounded old
Oro.”
The words were spoken to himself and quite beneath his breath, and of
course not meant to reach me. But one of the curious concomitants of my
state was that all my senses, and especially my hearing, had become
most abnormally acute. A whisper far away was now to me like a loud
remark made in a room.
Bickley’s reflection, for I can scarcely call it more, set me thinking.
Yva had said that Oro sent me medicine which was administered to me
without Bickley’s knowledge, and as she believed, saved my life, or
certainly my reason. What was in it? I wondered. Then there was that
Life-water which Yva brought and insisted upon my drinking every day.
Undoubtedly it was a marvelous tonic and did me good. But it had other
effects also. Thus, as she said would be the case, after a course of it
I conceived the greatest dislike, which I may add has never entirely
left me, of any form of meat, also of alcohol. All I seemed to want was
this water with fruit, or such native vegetables as there were. Bickley
disapproved and made me eat fish occasionally, but even this revolted
me, and since I gained steadily in weight, as we found out by a simple
contrivance, and remained healthy in every other way, soon he allowed
me to choose my own diet.
About this time Oro began to pay me frequent visits. He always came at
night, and what is more I knew when he was coming, although he never
gave me warning. Here I should explain that during my illness Bastin,
who was so ingenious in such matters, had built another hut in which he
and Bickley slept, of course when they were not watching me, leaving
our old bed-chamber to myself.
Well, I would wake up and be aware that Oro was coming. Then he
appeared in a silent and mysterious way, as though he had materialised
in the room, for I never saw him pass the doorway. In the moonlight, or
the starlight, which flowed through the entrance and the side of the
hut that was only enclosed with latticework, I perceived him seat
himself upon a certain stool, looking like a most majestic ghost with
his flowing robes, long white beard, hooked nose and hawk eyes. In the
day-time he much resembled the late General Booth whom I had often
seen, except for certain added qualities of height and classic beauty
of countenance. At night, however, he resembled no one but himself,
indeed there was something mighty and godlike in his appearance,
something that made one feel that he was not as are other men.
For a while he would sit and look at me. Then he began to speak in a
low, vibrant voice. What did he speak of? Well, many matters. It was as
though he were unburdening that hoary soul of his because it could no
longer endure the grandeur of its own loneliness. Amongst sundry secret
things, he told me of the past history of this world of ours, and of
the mighty civilisations which for uncounted ages he and his
forefathers had ruled by the strength of their will and knowledge, of
the dwindling of their race and of the final destruction of its
enemies, although I noticed that now he no longer said that this was
his work alone. One night I asked him if he did not miss all such pomp
and power.
Then suddenly he broke out, and for the first time I really learned
what ambition can be when it utterly possesses the soul of man.
“Are you mad,” he asked, “that you suppose that I, Oro, the King of
kings, can be content to dwell solitary in a great cave with none but
the shadows of the dead to serve me? Nay, I must rule again and be even
greater than before, or else I too will die. Better to face the future,
even if it means oblivion, than to remain thus a relic of a glorious
past, still living and yet dead, like that statue of the great god Fate
which you saw in the temple of my worship.”
“Bastin does not think that the future means oblivion,” I remarked.
“I know it. I have studied his faith and find it too humble for my
taste, also too new. Shall I, Oro, creep a suppliant before any Power,
and confess what Bastin is pleased to call my sins? Nay, I who am great
will be the equal of all greatness, or nothing.”
He paused a while, then went on:
“Bastin speaks of ‘eternity.’ Where and what then is this eternity
which if it has no end can have had no beginning? I know the secret of
the suns and their attendant worlds, and they are no more eternal than
the insect which glitters for an hour. Out of shapeless, rushing gases
they gathered to live their day, and into gases at last they dissolve
again with all they bore.”
“Yes,” I answered, “but they reform into new worlds.”
“That have no part with the old. This world, too, will melt, departing
to whence it came, as your sacred writings say, and what then of those
who dwelt and dwell thereon? No, Man of today, give me Time in which I
rule and keep your dreams of an Eternity that is not, and in which you
must still crawl and serve, even if it were. Yet, if I might, I confess
it, I would live on for ever, but as Master not as Slave.”
On another night he began to tempt me, very subtly. “I see a spark of
greatness in you, Humphrey,” he said, “and it comes into my heart that
you, too, might learn to rule. With Yva, the last of my blood, it is
otherwise. She is the child of my age and of a race outworn; too
gentle, too much all womanly. The soul that triumphs must shine like
steel in the sun, and cut if need be; not merely be beauteous and shed
perfume like a lily in the shade. Yet she is very wise and fair,” here
he looked at me, “perchance of her might come children such as were
their forefathers, who again would wield the sceptre of the dominion of
the earth.”
I made no answer, wondering what he meant exactly and thinking it
wisest to be silent.
“You are of the short-lived races,” he went on, “yet very much a man,
not without intelligence, and by the arts I have I can so strengthen
your frame that it will endure the shocks of time for three such lives
as yours, or perchance for more, and then—”
Again he paused and went on:
“The Daughter of kings likes you also, perhaps because you resemble—”
here he fixed me with his piercing eyes, “a certain kinglet of base
blood whom once she also liked, but whom it was my duty to destroy.
Well, I must think. I must study this world of yours also and therein
you may help me. Perhaps afterwards I will tell you how. Now sleep.”
In another moment he was gone, but notwithstanding his powerful
command, for a while I could not sleep. I understood that he was
offering Yva to me, but upon what terms? That was the question. With
her was to go great dominion over the kingdoms of the earth. I could
not help remembering that always this has been and still is Satan’s
favourite bait. To me it did not particularly appeal. I had been
ambitious in my time—who is not that is worth his salt? I could have
wished to excel in something, literature or art, or whatever it might
be, and thus to ensure the memory of my name in the world.
Of course this is a most futile desire, seeing that soon or late every
name must fade out of the world like an unfixed photograph which is
exposed to the sun. Even if it could endure, as the old demigod, or
demidevil, Oro, had pointed out, very shortly, by comparison with
Time’s unmeasured vastness, the whole solar system will also fade. So
of what use is this feeble love of fame and this vain attempt to be
remembered that animates us so strongly? Moreover, the idea of enjoying
mere temporal as opposed to intellectual power, appealed to me not at
all. I am a student of history and I know what has been the lot of
kings and the evil that, often enough, they work in their little day.
Also if I needed any further example, there was that of Oro himself. He
had outlived the greatness of his House, as a royal family is called,
and after some gigantic murder, if his own story was to be believed,
indulged in a prolonged sleep. Now he awoke to find himself quite alone
in the world, save for a daughter with whom he did not agree or
sympathise. In short, he was but a kind of animated mummy inspired by
one idea which I felt quite sure would be disappointed, namely, to
renew his former greatness. To me he seemed as miserable a figure as
one could imagine, brooding and plotting in his illuminated cave, at
the end of an extended but misspent life.
Also I wondered what he, or rather his _ego_, had been doing during all
those two hundred and fifty thousand years of sleep. Possibly if Yva’s
theory, as I understood it, were correct, he had reincarnated as
Attila, or Tamerlane, or Napoleon, or even as Chaka the terrible Zulu
king. At any rate there he was still in the world, filled with the
dread of death, but consumed now as ever by his insatiable and most
useless finite ambitions.
Yva, also! Her case was his, but yet how different. In all this long
night of Time she had but ripened into one of the sweetest and most
gentle women that ever the world bore. She, too, was great in her way,
it appeared in her every word and gesture, but where was the ferocity
of her father? Where his desire to reach to splendour by treading on a
blood-stained road paved with broken human hearts? It did not exist.
Her nature was different although her body came of a long line of these
power-loving kings. Why this profound difference of the spirit? Like
everything else it was a mystery. The two were as far apart as the
Poles. Everyone must have hated Oro, from the beginning, however much
he feared him, but everyone who came in touch with her must have loved
Yva.
Here I may break into my personal narrative to say that this, by their
own confession, proved to be true of two such various persons as Bastin
and Bickley.
“The truth, which I am sure it would be wrong to hide from you,
Arbuthnot,” said the former to me one day, “is that during your long
illness I fell in love, I suppose that is the right word, with the
Glittering Lady. After thinking the matter over also, I conceived that
it would be proper to tell her so if only to clear the air and prevent
future misunderstandings. As I remarked to her on that occasion, I had
hesitated long, as I was not certain how she would fill the place of
the wife of the incumbent of an English parish.”
“Mothers’ Meetings, and the rest,” I suggested.
“Exactly so, Arbuthnot. Also there were the views of the Bishop to be
considered, who might have objected to the introduction into the
diocese of a striking person who so recently had been a heathen, and to
one in such strong contrast to my late beloved wife.”
“I suppose you didn’t consider the late Mrs. Bastin’s views on the
subject of re-marriage. I remember that they were strong,” I remarked
rather maliciously.
“No, I did not think it necessary, since the Scriptural instructions on
the matter are very clear, and in another world no doubt all
jealousies, even Sarah’s, will be obliterated. Upon that point my
conscience was quite easy. So when I found that, unlike her parent, the
Lady Yva was much inclined to accept the principles of the faith in
which it is my privilege to instruct her, I thought it proper to say to
her that if ultimately she made up her mind to do so—of course _this_
was a _sine qua non_—I should be much honoured, and as a man, not as a
priest, it would make me most happy if she would take me as a husband.
Of course I explained to her that I considered, under the
circumstances, I could quite lawfully perform the marriage ceremony
myself with you and Bickley as witnesses, even should Oro refuse to
give her away. Also I told her that although after her varied
experiences in the past, life at Fulcombe, if we could ever get there,
might be a little monotonous, still it would not be entirely devoid of
interest.”
“You mean Christmas decorations and that sort of thing?”
“Yes, and choir treats and entertaining Deputations and attending other
Church activities.”
“Well, and what did she say, Bastin?”
“Oh! she was most kind and flattering. Indeed that hour will always
remain the pleasantest of my life. I don’t know how it happened, but
when it was over I felt quite delighted that she had refused me. Indeed
on second thoughts, I am not certain but that I shall be much happier
in the capacities of a brother and teacher which she asked me to fill,
than I should have been as her husband. To tell you the truth,
Arbuthnot, there are moments when I am not sure whether I entirely
understand the Lady Yva. It was rather like proposing to one’s guardian
angel.”
“Yes,” I said, “that’s about it, old fellow. ‘Guardian Angel’ is not a
bad name for her.”
Afterwards I received the confidence of Bickley.
“Look here, Arbuthnot,” he said. “I want to own up to something. I
think I ought to, because of certain things I have observed, in order
to prevent possible future misunderstandings.”
“What’s that?” I asked innocently.
“Only this. As you know, I have always been a confirmed bachelor on
principle. Women introduce too many complications into life, and
although it involves some sacrifice, on the whole, I have thought it
best to do without them and leave the carrying on of the world to
others.”
“Well, what of it? Your views are not singular, Bickley.”
“Only this. While you were ill the sweetness of that Lady Yva and her
wonderful qualities as a nurse overcame me. I went to pieces all of a
sudden. I saw in her a realisation of every ideal I had ever
entertained of perfect womanhood. So to speak, my resolves of a
lifetime melted like wax in the sun. Notwithstanding her queer history
and the marvels with which she is mixed up, I wished to marry her. No
doubt her physical loveliness was at the bottom of it, but, however
that may be, there it was.”
“She is beautiful,” I commented; “though I daresay older than she
looks.”
“That is a point on which I made no inquiries, and I should advise you,
when your turn comes, as no doubt it will, to follow my example. You
know, Arbuthnot,” he mused, “however lovely a woman may be, it would
put one off if suddenly she announced that she was—let us say—a hundred
and fifty years old.”
“Yes,” I admitted, “for nobody wants to marry the contemporary of his
great-grandmother. However, she gave her age as twenty-seven years and
three moons.”
“And doubtless for once did not tell the truth. But, as she does not
look more than twenty-five, I think that we may all agree to let it
stand at that, namely, twenty-seven, plus an indefinite period of
sleep. At any rate, she is a sweet and most gracious woman, apparently
in the bloom of youth, and, to cut it short, I fell in love with her.”
“Like Bastin,” I said.
“Bastin!” exclaimed Bickley indignantly. “You don’t mean to say that
clerical oaf presumed—well, well, after all, I suppose that he is a
man, so one mustn’t be hard on him. But who could have thought that he
would run so cunning, even when he knew my sentiments towards the lady?
I hope she told him her mind.”
“The point is, what did she tell _you_, Bickley?”
“Me? Oh, she was perfectly charming! It really was a pleasure to be
refused by her, she puts one so thoroughly at one’s ease.” (Here,
remembering Bastin and his story, I turned away my face to hide a
smile.) “She said—what did she say exactly? Such a lot that it is
difficult to remember. Oh! that she was not thinking of marriage. Also,
that she had not yet recovered from some recent love affair which left
her heart sore, since the time of her sleep did not count. Also, that
her father would never consent, and that the mere idea of such a thing
would excite his animosity against all of us.”
“Is that all?” I asked.
“Not quite. She added that she felt wonderfully flattered and extremely
honoured by what I had been so good as to say to her. She hoped,
however, that I should never repeat it or even allude to the matter
again, as her dearest wish was to be able to look upon me as her most
intimate friend to whom she could always come for sympathy and
counsel.”
“What happened then?”
“Nothing, of course, except that I promised everything that she wished,
and mean to stick to it, too. Naturally, I was very sore and upset, but
I am getting over it, having always practised self-control.”
“I am sorry for you, old fellow.”
“Are you?” he asked suspiciously. “Then perhaps you have tried your
luck, too?”
“No, Bickley.”
His face fell a little at this denial, and he answered:
“Well, it would have been scarcely decent if you had, seeing how lately
you were married. But then, so was that artful Bastin. Perhaps you will
get over it—recent marriage, I mean—as he has.” He hesitated a while,
then went on: “Of course you will, old fellow; I know it, and, what is
more, I seem to know that when your turn comes you will get a different
answer. If so, it will keep her in the family as it were—and good luck
to you. Only—”
“Only what?” I asked anxiously.
“To be honest, Arbuthnot, I don’t think that there will be real good
luck for any one of us over this woman—not in the ordinary sense, I
mean. The whole business is too strange and superhuman. Is she quite a
woman, and could she really marry a man as others do?”
“It is curious that you should talk like that,” I said uneasily. “I
thought that you had made up your mind that the whole business was
either illusion or trickery—I mean, the odd side of it.”
“If it is illusion, Arbuthnot, then a man cannot marry an illusion. And
if it is trickery, then he will certainly be tricked. But, supposing
that I am wrong, what then?”
“You mean, supposing things are as they seem to be?”
“Yes. In that event, Arbuthnot, I am sure that something will occur to
prevent your being united to a woman who lived thousands of years ago.
I am sorry to say it, but Fate will intervene. Remember, it is the god
of her people that I suppose she worships, and, I may add, to which the
whole world bows.”
At his words a kind of chill fell upon me. I think he saw or divined
it, for after a few remarks upon some indifferent matter, he turned and
went away.
Shortly after this Yva came to sit with me. She studied me for a while
and I studied her. I had reason to do so, for I observed that of late
her dress had become much more modern, and on the present occasion this
struck me forcibly. I do not know exactly in what the change, or
changes, consisted, because I am not skilled in such matters and can
only judge of a woman’s garments by their general effect. At any rate,
the gorgeous sweeping robes were gone, and though her attire still
looked foreign and somewhat oriental, with a touch of barbaric
splendour about it—it was simpler than it had been and showed more of
her figure, which was delicate, yet gracious.
“You have changed your robes, Lady,” I said.
“Yes, Humphrey. Bastin gave me pictures of those your women wear.” (On
further investigation I found that this referred to an old copy of the
_Queen_ newspaper, which, somehow or other, had been brought with the
books from the ship.) “I have tried to copy them a little,” she added
doubtfully.
“How do you do it? Where do you get the material?” I asked.
“Oh!” she answered with an airy wave of her hand, “I make it—it is
there.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, but she only smiled radiantly, offering
no further explanation. Then, before I could pursue the subject, she
asked me suddenly:
“What has Bickley been saying to you about me?”
I fenced, answering: “I don’t know. Bastin and Bickley talk of little
else. You seem to have been a great deal with them while I was ill.”
“Yes, a great deal. They are the nearest to you who were so sick. Is it
not so?”
“I don’t know,” I answered again. “In my illness it seemed to me that
_you_ were the nearest.”
“About Bastin’s words I can guess,” she went on. “But I ask again—what
has Bickley been saying to you about me? Of the first part, let it be;
tell me the rest.”
I intended to evade her question, but she fixed those violet,
compelling eyes upon me and I was obliged to answer.
“I believe you know as well as I do,” I said; “but if you will have it,
it was that you are not as other human women are, and that he who would
treat you as such, must suffer; that was the gist of it.”
“Some might be content to suffer for such as I,” she answered with
quiet sweetness. “Even Bastin and Bickley may be content to suffer in
their own little ways.”
“You know that is not what I meant,” I interrupted angrily, for I felt
that she was throwing reflections on me.
“No; you meant that you agreed with Bickley that I am not quite a
woman, as you know women.”
I was silent, for her words were true.
Then she blazed out into one of her flashes of splendour, like
something that takes fire on an instant; like the faint and distant
star which flames into sudden glory before the watcher’s telescope.
“It is true that I am not as your women are—your poor, pale women, the
shadows of an hour with night behind them and before. Because I am
humble and patient, do you therefore suppose that I am not great? Man
from the little country across the sea, I lived when the world was
young, and gathered up the ancient wisdom of a greater race than yours,
and when the world is old I think that I still shall live, though not
in this shape or here, with all that wisdom’s essence burning in my
breast, and with all beauty in my eyes. Bickley does not believe
although he worships. You only half believe and do not worship, because
memory holds you back, and I myself do not understand. I only know
though knowing so much, still I seek roads to learning, even the humble
road called Bastin, that yet may lead my feet to the gate of an
immortal city.”
“Nor do I understand how all this can be, Yva,” I said feebly, for she
dazzled and overwhelmed me with her blaze of power.
“No, you do not understand. How can you, when even I cannot? Thus for
two hundred and fifty thousand years I slept, and they went by as a
lightning flash. One moment my father gave me the draught and I laid me
down, the next I awoke with you bending over me, or so it seemed. Yet
where was I through all those centuries when for me time had ceased?
Tell me, Humphrey, did you dream at all while you were ill? I ask
because down in that lonely cavern where I sleep a strange dream came
to me one night. It was of a journey which, as I thought, you and I
seemed to make together, past suns and universes to a very distant
earth. It meant nothing, Humphrey. If you and I chanced to have dreamed
the same thing, it was only because my dream travelled to you. It is
most common, or used to be. Humphrey, Bickley is quite right, I am not
altogether as your women are, and I can bring no happiness to any man,
or at the least, to one who cannot wait. Therefore, perhaps you would
do well to think less of me, as I have counselled Bastin and Bickley.”
Then again she gazed at me with her wonderful, great eyes, and, shaking
her glittering head a little, smiled and went.
But oh! that smile drew my heart after her.