THE MAN IN THE CHAIR
"From out the crumbling ruins of fallen pride
And chambers of transgression, now forlorn."
The house at Lac Calvaire was, as stated, a fair specimen of the
dwellings erected in the first half of the eighteenth century by those
Canadians who, living frugally though comfortably, felt that affection
for the soil, for the natural features of the wild but picturesque
country, even for its severe and strenuous climate, which in many cases
prompted them to make homes and found families. In the year 1729, a
Clairville, rich trader in furs and skins, built the house five miles
from the majestic and lonely Fall. This Clairville was the grandson of
a certain François Gaillard, body servant and faithful follower of the
Sieur de Clairville--Antoine-Louis-Onesime--who came to New France in
1664. The nobleman in question led a truly chequered life in the gay
garrisons of the new world, varied by a couple of voyages to the gayer
Court he had left behind, but through all the reckless episodes of his
long and stirring career, François was by his side, patient, adroit,
silent when necessary, at other times a madcap for freak and fantasy.
Faith of a gentleman--François Gaillard was everything his noble master
should have been, and that master too often such as the poorest lackey
might have been ashamed to be, yet--faith of a gentleman--De Clairville
atoned for much ere he died. François, his foster-brother, received at
his master's death a gift of land under the Crown to him and his heirs
for ever, the name Gaillard to be abandoned for that of Clairville. In
1684 the Sieur de Clairville died; François survived him twenty years,
leaving one son and two daughters. These became _Clairvilles_; there
were no De Clairvilles. The son prospered, as did _his_ son, another
François, who built the strong stone farm-house and planted the poplars
and laid the foundation of a well-known name, respected and quoted far
and near in the community. Both house and family seemed to bear
charmed lives. Canada was lost to France and in that losing many fine
manor-houses and farms were destroyed, but Clairville and Clairville
Manor went untouched. For this, the peculiar situation of the house,
so far back from the Fall, its existence almost undreamt of by English
soldiery, ignorant of the country, was, of course, responsible. A
Clairville went to France at the close of the Revolution, made himself
useful and remained in some post under the Government. Another went up
to Quebec, became a sound lawyer, and batonnier of his district. Both
of these individuals, however, died unmarried, and the next owner of
the manor neither distinguished himself nor contributed to the glory of
his line. That glory, such as it was, for the ignoble François was the
founder of it, gradually departed. The Clairvilles deteriorated, sold
off large parcels of their land, married undesirable persons, till, in
the present generation, the culmination of domestic ruin seemed
probable. For the Clairville now inhabiting the manor was not only
reduced in purse and delicate in health but suspiciously weak in
intellect.
When Ringfield woke on the Monday following his inaugural service, the
sun was shining brightly into his room at Poussette's, and it is a fact
that in his mind he saw a picture of a dazzling fan of foamy white
feathers waving proudly in that sunlight. It really was the bird and
not the lady that intercepted other and more pertinent reflections
having to do with his future movements. He loitered about all morning,
fished, lunched with his guide, made a pencil sketch of the Fall, and
then about three o'clock in the afternoon walked out to Lac Calvaire.
He neared the house; at first he saw no one, it was the middle-day
siesta. No peacock was visible, no lady. Then he saw a face at a
window and it stared at him. Ringfield, taken by surprise, returned
the stare. To the stare succeeded a weak smile, then a beckoning
finger, then an insistent tapping. The window was closed, with a
roughly crocheted curtain half-drawn back on a string. The young man
had no cause to hesitate, for he knew nothing of what lay inside the
house. He was also a clergyman, which means much. It means, if you
rightly understand your office, that you must be always ready to go
anywhere, to do anything, that may be of the smallest benefit to your
fellow-man. It means, that because of that high office, there is
nothing really beneath your attention, too insignificant for your
study, and yet you are so far above the rest of mankind, the mere lay
portion of the world, that, like a God in courage and in calm, you may
indeed enter where Angel and Devil alike fear to tread. At least, that
is the old and orthodox conception of the clerical profession, and
although it might be sometimes foolishly and conceitedly pushed to
extremes by other men, there was nothing in Ringfield of the mere fussy
moralist and pulpit egoist. After all, as he entered the house and,
guided by the voice of its owner, found his way to the room looking on
the dusty country road, he saw nothing very terrible, only a thinnish,
fair, middle-aged man, wearing a black skull-cap and clad in a faded
and greasy but rather handsome theatrical-looking dressing-gown and
seated in a worn arm-chair. As for the room itself, he suppressed an
exclamation of mingled surprise and impatient remonstrance, for,
although of large proportions and not badly lighted, it was so littered
with books, papers, maps, and pamphlets, so overgrown with piles of
dusty blue-books, reports, dictionaries and works of reference, thick
and antiquated, thin and modern, local and foreign, standing on end, on
tables, on the mantel-shelf, extending into the old-fashioned cupboards
minus doors, taking up a ragged sofa, a couple of arm-chairs, and a
dilapidated _armoire_, and even the greater portion of a bed, that
almost every gleam of sunlight was obscured, and upon this warm damp
August afternoon the air was heavy and close with a suggestion of
staler odours still.
"I saw you yesterday," said the man in the chair, "from this window,
but you did not see me, eh? You were greatly interested in the bird."
He paused, and a weak smile changed to a haughty air, accompanied by a
flourish of the hand.
"It is without doubt rare, a great curiosity. But there have been
white peacocks at Clairville a long time, many years, many years."
"Clairville! That is your name, the name of the young lady, the name
of this place?"
"Of this house. Also the estate. This house is, or should be, the
Manoir of the Clairvilles, of the _De_ Clairvilles. You are some kind
of clergyman?"
"I am. I am a Methodist."
"Have you read much?"
Ringfield, looking around somewhat whimsically at so many books, on a
pile of which he was obliged to sit, felt unusual ignorance. He was
probably in the presence of some famous scholar.
"Not much. Not anything like what you must have read if you have even
gone through a quarter of all these!"
"Ah!"
The strange man, savant, scientist, bibliophile, whatever he was, drew
his dirty dressing-gown around him with another flourish of complacent
self-admiration.
"I am--you are quite right, Mr. Clergyman--a great reader. I have read
every book in this room two, three, many times over. You
were--surprised--to see all this book, all this document, all this
pamphlette--here, at this place, eh?"
Ringfield, as yet only partly guessing at the peculiarities of his
host, assented politely.
"My name is Ringfield," he said, noting for the first time the strong
broken accent of the other and his use of French idiom. "I am a
Methodist minister, spending some time at St. Ignace, and yesterday I
encountered a lady, who, I believe, lives here. At least, I----"
The other cut him short.
"Ringfield? That is your name? _Anneau, champ_--no the other way,
Champanneau. We have not this name with us. Yet, I do not know, it
may be a good name."
The young man was superior to the slighting tone because he belonged to
the class which lives by work, and which has not traced or kept track
of its genealogy. He was so far removed from aristocratic tendencies,
ideas of caste, traditions of birth, that he scarcely apprehended the
importance of such subjects in the mind of anyone.
"The English name, Champney," continued the man in the chair, "you know
that--might derive from it, might derive. But I am not so well
acquainted with the English names as with the French. You _comprenez
pour quoi, sans doute_. I am derive--myself, from a great French name,
a great family."
The satisfaction with which he repeated this oracular statement
continued to amuse Ringfield, a son of the people, his friends of the
people, but it did not amuse the third person who heard it, the lady
who, advancing into the dark stuffy room, received a pleased glance
from the minister and a half-fearful, half-defiant scowl from the man
in the chair.
"Henry!" exclaimed she, with great volubility and a kind of fierce
disgust, "how is this? What can you mean by so disobeying me? This is
no place to bring strangers! Nor do I want strangers brought into any
part of this house at any time of the day! It is suffocating here. Do
you not find it very heavy, very close in here?" she added, to
Ringfield, who had risen and slightly changed countenance as she
pronounced the word "stranger".
He looked from the lady to the man in the chair in astonishment, for he
saw the former in a new and painful light. So dark was the frown upon
her usually serene countenance, so angry the light in her fine hazel
eyes, so anxious and perturbed her entire being, that she appeared
almost ugly. Not only so, but added to impatience and anger there
seemed something like repugnance, disgust, directed at the miserable
pedant who under the fires of womanly wrath blinked and smiled, but had
no defence ready.
"It is altogether my fault that I am here," said Ringfield quietly; "I
took another walk in this direction, hoping for a sight of the peacock."
"And you saw something else instead! Ah!--there is much I must explain
to you, you who come among us not knowing, not understanding. You see
only the outside. But I suppose I must tell you who we are. This is
my brother, my only brother, in fact my only living relative, Henry
Clairville. I am Miss--Mademoiselle Clairville."
Ringfield bowed to her and to the man in the chair.
"We are the last of what--of what it pleases him to call our Line. It
is all most foolish, most absurd. But I cannot tell you here. Since
chance has brought you our way again, and as you may take up your
residence in the neighbourhood--have you decided yet?--I feel I must
make some explanation of how you find us, my brother and myself. Can
you row? or paddle?"
Her manner, gradually changing and growing easier every moment, made it
easy for Ringfield, who answered her with a smile.
"Of course."
"I asked, because some clergymen are so useless in some directions
while good enough in others."