After a fortunate, but for me very troublesome voyage, we finally
reached the port. The instant that I touched land in the boat, I loaded
myself with my few effects, and passing through the swarming people I
entered the first and least house before which I saw a sign hang. I
requested a room; the boots measured me with a look, and conducted me
into the garret. I caused fresh water to be brought, and made him
exactly describe to me where I should find Mr. Thomas John.
"Before the north gate; the first country-house on the right hand; a
large new house of red and white marble, with many columns."
"Good." It was still early in the day. I opened at once my bundle; took
thence my new black-cloth coat; clad myself cleanly in my best apparel;
put my letter of introduction into my pocket, and set out on the way to
the man who was to promote my modest expectations.
When I had ascended the long North Street, and reached the gate, I soon
saw the pillars glimmer through the foliage. "Here it is, then," thought
I. I wiped the dust from my feet with my pocket-handkerchief, put my
neckcloth in order, and in God's name rang the bell. The door flew open.
In the hall I had an examination to undergo; the porter however
permitted me to be announced, and I had the honor to be called into the
park, where Mr. John was walking with a select party. I recognized the
man at once by the lustre of his corpulent self-complacency. He received
me very well,--as a rich man receives a poor devil,--even turned towards
me, without turning from the rest of the company, and took the offered
letter from my hand. "So, so, from my brother. I have heard nothing from
him for a long time. But he is well? There," continued he, addressing
the company, without waiting for an answer, and pointing with the letter
to a hill, "there I am going to erect the new building." He broke the
seal without breaking off the conversation, which turned upon riches.
"He that is not master of a million at least," he observed, "is--pardon
me the word--a wretch!"
"Oh, how true!" I exclaimed, with a rush of overflowing feeling.
That pleased him. He smiled at me and said, "Stay here, my good friend;
in a while I shall perhaps have time to tell you what I think about
this." He pointed to the letter, which he then thrust into his pocket,
and turned again to the company. He offered his arm to a young lady; the
other gentlemen addressed themselves to other fair ones; each found what
suited him: and all proceeded towards the rose-blossomed mount.
I slid into the rear without troubling any one, for no one troubled
himself any further about me. The company was excessively lively; there
was dalliance and playfulness; trifles were sometimes discussed with an
important tone, but oftener important matters with levity; and the wit
flew with special gayety over absent friends and their circumstances. I
was too strange to understand much of all this; too anxious and
introverted to take an interest in such riddles.
We had reached the rosery. The lovely Fanny, who seemed the belle of the
day, insisted out of obstinacy in breaking off a blossomed stem herself.
She wounded herself on a thorn, and the purple streamed from her tender
hand as if from the dark roses. This circumstance put the whole party
into a flutter. English plaster was sought for. A quiet, thin, lanky,
longish, oldish man who stood near, and whom I had not hitherto
remarked, put his hand instantly into the tight breast-pocket of his old
gray French taffeta coat; produced thence a little pocket-book, opened
it, and presented to the lady with a profound obeisance the required
article. She took it without noticing the giver, and without thanks; the
wound was bound up and we went forward over the hill, from whose back
the company could enjoy the wide prospect over the green labyrinth of
the park to the boundless ocean.
The view was in reality vast and splendid. A light point appeared on the
horizon between the dark flood and the blue of the heaven. "A telescope
here!" cried John; and already, before the servants who appeared at the
call were in motion, the gray man, modestly bowing, had thrust his hand
into his coat pocket, drawn thence a beautiful Dollond, and handed it to
Mr. John. Bringing it immediately to his eye, he informed the company
that it was the ship which went out yesterday, and was detained in view
of port by contrary winds. The telescope passed from hand to hand, but
not again into that of its owner. I however gazed in wonder at the man,
and could not conceive how the great machine had come out of the narrow
pocket; but this seemed to have struck no one else, and nobody troubled
himself any further about the gray man than about myself.
Refreshments were handed round; the choicest fruits of every zone, in
the costliest vessels. Mr. John did the honors with an easy grace, and a
second time addressed a word to me: "Help yourself; you have not had the
like at sea." I bowed, but he did not see it; he was already speaking
with some one else.
The company would fain have reclined upon the sward on the slope of the
hill, opposite to the outstretched landscape, had they not feared the
dampness of the earth. "It were divine," observed one of the party, "had
we but a Turkey carpet to spread here." The wish was scarcely expressed
when the man in the gray coat had his hand in his pocket, and was busied
in drawing thence, with a modest and even humble deportment, a rich
Turkey carpet interwoven with gold. The servants received it as a matter
of course, and opened it on the required spot. The company, without
ceremony, took their places upon it; for myself, I looked again in
amazement on the man--at the carpet, which measured about twenty paces
long and ten in breadth and rubbed my eyes, not knowing what to think of
it, especially as nobody saw anything extraordinary in it.
I would fain have had some explanation regarding the man and have asked
who he was, but I knew not to whom to address myself, for I was almost
more afraid of the gentlemen's servants than of the served gentlemen. At
length I took courage, and stepped up to a young man who appeared to me
to be of less consideration than the rest, and who had often stood
alone. I begged him softly to tell me who the agreeable man in the gray
coat there was.
"He there, who looks like an end of thread that has escaped out of a
tailor's needle?"
"Yes, he who stands alone."
"I don't know him," he replied, and--in order to avoid a longer
conversation with me, apparently--he turned away and spoke of
indifferent matters to another.
The sun began now to shine more powerfully, and to inconvenience the
ladies. The lovely Fanny addressed carelessly to the gray man--whom, as
far as I am aware, no one had yet spoken to--the trifling question
whether he "had not, perchance, also a tent by him?" He answered her by
an obeisance most profound, as if an unmerited honor were done him, and
had already his hand in his pocket, out of which I saw come canvas,
poles, cordage, iron-work,--in short, everything which belongs to the
most splendid pleasure-tent. The young gentlemen helped to expand it,
and it covered the whole extent of the carpet, and nobody found anything
remarkable in it.
I had already become uneasy--nay, horrified--at heart; but how
completely so, as at the very next wish expressed I saw him pull out of
his pocket three roadsters I tell you, three beautiful great black
horses, with saddle and caparison. Take it in, for Heaven's sake!--three
saddled horses, out of the same pocket from which already a pocket-book,
a telescope, an embroidered carpet twenty paces long and ten broad, a
pleasure-tent of equal dimensions and all the requisite poles and irons,
had come forth! If I did not protest to you that I saw it myself with my
own eyes, you could not possibly believe it.
Embarrassed and obsequious as the man himself appeared to be, little as
was the attention which had been bestowed upon him, yet to me his grisly
aspect, from which I could not turn my eyes, became so fearful that I
could bear it no longer.
I resolved to steal away from the company, which from the insignificant
part I played in it seemed to me an easy affair. I proposed to myself to
return to the city to try my luck again on the morrow with Mr. John, and
if I could muster the necessary courage, to question him about the
singular gray man. Had I only had the good fortune to escape so well!
I had already actually succeeded in stealing through the rosery, and on
descending the hill found myself on a piece of lawn, when, fearing to be
encountered in crossing the grass out of the path, I cast an inquiring
glance round me. What was my terror to behold the man in the gray coat
behind me, and making towards me! The next moment he took off his hat
before me, and bowed so low as no one had ever yet done to me. There was
no doubt but that he wished to address me, and without being rude I
could not prevent it. I also took off my hat, bowed also, and stood
there in the sun with bare head as if rooted to the ground. I stared at
him full of terror, and was like a bird which a serpent has fascinated.
He himself appeared very much embarrassed. He did not raise his eyes,
again bowed repeatedly, drew nearer and addressed me with a soft
tremulous voice, almost in a tone of supplication:--
"May I hope, sir, that you will pardon my boldness in venturing in so
unusual a manner to approach you? but I would ask a favor. Permit me
most condescendingly--"
"But in God's name!" exclaimed I in my trepidation, "what can I do for a
man who--" we both started, and as I believe, reddened.