Jezebel’s Daughter E-Book

Wilkie Collins

• Herausgeber: Ktoczyta.pl
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

The heroine of the novel, Mina, the only daughter of Madame de Fontaine, is in love with Fritz. But Fritz’s father is opposed to his son’s marriage and believes that Mina and her mother encroached on the family’s wealth. Suddenly, the groom’s father, Mr. Koehler, falls ill, and Madame de Fontaine gives the sick man a miraculous medicine. She cures him of a fatal illness. But this medicine turns out to be an antidote. Who poisoned Herr Koehler?

Leseprobe

Contents

To Alberto Caccia

Part i

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Between the Parts

I

II

III

Part ii

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Postscript

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

To Alberto Caccia

Let me begin by informing you, that this new novel does not present the proposed sequel to my last work of fiction–“The Fallen Leaves.”

The first part of that story has, through circumstances connected with the various forms of publications adopted thus far, addressed itself to a comparatively limited class of readers in England. When the book is finally reprinted in its cheapest form–then, and then only, it will appeal to the great audience of the English people. I am waiting for that time, to complete my design by writing the second part of “The Fallen Leaves.”

Why?

Your knowledge of English Literature–to which I am indebted for the first faithful and intelligent translation of my novels into the Italian language–has long since informed you, that there are certain important social topics which are held to be forbidden to the English novelist (no matter how seriously and how delicately he may treat them), by a narrow-minded minority of readers, and by the critics who flatter their prejudices. You also know, having done me the honor to read my books, that I respect my art far too sincerely to permit limits to be wantonly assigned to it, which are imposed in no other civilized country on the face of the earth. When my work is undertaken with a pure purpose, I claim the same liberty which is accorded to a writer in a newspaper, or to a clergyman in a pulpit; knowing, by previous experience, that the increase of readers and the lapse of time will assuredly do me justice, if I have only written well enough to deserve it.

In the prejudiced quarters to which I have alluded, one of the characters in “The Fallen Leaves” offended susceptibilities of the sort felt by Tartuffe, when he took out his handkerchief, and requested Dorine to cover her bosom. I not only decline to defend myself, under such circumstances as these–I say plainly, that I have never asserted a truer claim to the best and noblest sympathies of Christian readers than in presenting to them, in my last novel, the character of the innocent victim of infamy, rescued and purified from the contamination of the streets. I remember what the nasty posterity of Tartuffe, in this country, said of “Basil,” of “Armadale,” of “The New Magdalen,” and I know that the wholesome audience of the nation at large has done liberal justice to those books. For this reason, I wait to write the second part of “The Fallen Leaves,” until the first part of the story has found its way to the people.

Turning for a moment to the present novel, you will (I hope) find two interesting studies of humanity in these pages.

In the character called “Jack Straw,” you have the exhibition of an enfeebled intellect, tenderly shown under its lightest and happiest aspect, and used as a means of relief in some of the darkest scenes of terror and suspense occurring in this story. Again, in “Madame Fontaine,” I have endeavored to work out the interesting moral problem, which takes for its groundwork the strongest of all instincts in a woman, the instinct of maternal love, and traces to its solution the restraining and purifying influence of this one virtue over an otherwise cruel, false, and degraded nature.

The events in which these two chief personages play their parts have been combined with all possible care, and have been derived, to the best of my ability, from natural and simple causes. In view of the distrust which certain readers feel, when a novelist builds his fiction on a foundation of fact, it may not be amiss to mention (before I close these lines), that the accessories of the scenes in the Deadhouse of Frankfort have been studied on the spot. The published rules and ground-plans of that curious mortuary establishment have also been laid on my desk, as aids to memory while I was writing the closing passages of the story.

With this, I commend “Jezebel’s Daughter” to my good friend and brother in the art–who will present this last work also to the notice of Italian readers.

W. C.

Gloucester Place, London:

February 9, 1880.

Part i

Mr. David Glenney consults his memory and opens the story

Chapter 1

In the matter of Jezebel’s Daughter, my recollections begin with the deaths of two foreign gentlemen, in two different countries, on the same day of the same year.

They were both men of some importance in their way, and both strangers to each other.

Mr. Ephraim Wagner, merchant (formerly of Frankfort-on-the-Main), died in London on the third day of September, 1828.

Doctor Fontaine–famous in his time for discoveries in experimental chemistry–died at Wurzburg on the third day of September, 1828.

Both the merchant and the doctor left widows. The merchant’s widow (an Englishwoman) was childless. The doctor’s widow (of a South German family) had a daughter to console her.

At that distant time–I am writing these lines in the year 1878, and looking back through half a century–I was a lad employed in Mr. Wagner’s office. Being his wife’s nephew, he most kindly received me as a member of his household. What I am now about to relate I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. My memory is to be depended on. Like other old men, I recollect events which happened at the beginning of my career far more clearly than events which happened only two or three years since.

Good Mr. Wagner had been ailing for many months; but the doctors had no immediate fear of his death. He proved the doctors to be mistaken; and took the liberty of dying at a time when they all declared that there was every reasonable hope of his recovery. When this affliction fell upon his wife, I was absent from the office in London on a business errand to our branch-establishment at Frankfort-on-the-Main, directed by Mr. Wagner’s partners. The day of my return happened to be the day after the funeral. It was also the occasion chosen for the reading of the will. Mr. Wagner, I should add, had been a naturalized British citizen, and his will was drawn by an English lawyer.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth clauses of the will are the only portions of the document which it is necessary to mention in this place.

The fourth clause left the whole of the testator’s property, in lands and in money, absolutely to his widow. In the fifth clause he added a new proof of his implicit confidence in her–he appointed her sole executrix of his will.

The sixth and last clause began in these words:–

“During my long illness, my dear wife has acted as my secretary and representative. She has made herself so thoroughly well acquainted with the system on which I have conducted my business, that she is the fittest person to succeed me. I not only prove the fullness of my trust in her and the sincerity of my gratitude towards her, but I really act in the best interests of the firm of which I am the head, when I hereby appoint my widow as my sole successor in the business, with all the powers and privileges appertaining thereto.”

The lawyer and I both looked at my aunt. She had sunk back in her chair; her face was hidden in her handkerchief. We waited respectfully until she might be sufficiently recovered to communicate her wishes to us. The expression of her husband’s love and respect, contained in the last words of the will, had completely overwhelmed her. It was only after she had been relieved by a burst of tears that she was conscious of our presence, and was composed enough to speak to us.

“I shall be calmer in a few days’ time,” she said. “Come to me at the end of the week. I have something important to say to both of you.”

The lawyer ventured on putting a question. “Does it relate in any way to the will?” he inquired.

She shook her head. “It relates,” she answered, “to my husband’s last wishes.”

She bowed to us, and went away to her own room.

The lawyer looked after her gravely and doubtfully as she disappeared. “My long experience in my profession,” he said, turning to me, “has taught me many useful lessons. Your aunt has just called one of those lessons to my mind.

“May I ask what it is, sir?”

“Certainly.” He took my arm and waited to repeat the lesson until we had left the house; “Always distrust a man’s last wishes on his death-bed–unless they are communicated to his lawyer, and expressed in his will.”

At the time, I thought this rather a narrow view to take. How could I foresee that coming events in the future life of my aunt would prove the lawyer to be right? If she had only been content to leave her husband’s plans and projects where he had left them at his death, and if she had never taken that rash journey to our branch office at Frankfort–but what is the use of speculating on what might or might not have happened? My business in these pages is to describe what did happen. Let me return to my business.

Chapter 2

At the end of the week we found the widow waiting to receive us.

To describe her personally, she was a little lady, with a remarkably pretty figure, a clear pale complexion, a broad low forehead, and large, steady, brightly-intelligent gray eyes. Having married a man very much older than herself, she was still (after many years of wedded life) a notably attractive woman. But she never seemed to be conscious of her personal advantages, or vain of the very remarkable abilities which she did unquestionably possess. Under ordinary circumstances, she was a singularly gentle, unobtrusive creature. But let the occasion call for it, and the reserves of resolution in her showed themselves instantly. In all my experience I have never met with such a firm woman, when she was once roused.

She entered on her business with us, wasting no time in preliminary words. Her face showed plain signs, poor soul, of a wakeful and tearful night. But she claimed no indulgence on that account. When she spoke of her dead husband–excepting a slight unsteadiness in her voice–she controlled herself with a courage which was at once pitiable and admirable to see.

“You both know,” she began, “that Mr. Wagner was a man who thought for himself. He had ideas of his duty to his poor and afflicted fellow-creatures which are in advance of received opinions in the world about us. I love and revere his memory–and (please God) I mean to carry out his ideas.”

The lawyer began to look uneasy. “Do you refer, madam, to Mr. Wagner’s political opinions?” he inquired.

Fifty years ago, my old master’s political opinions were considered to be nothing less than revolutionary. In these days–when his Opinions have been sanctioned by Acts of Parliament, with the general approval of the nation–people would have called him a “Moderate Liberal,” and would have set him down as a discreetly deliberate man in the march of modern progress.

“I have nothing to say about politics,” my aunt answered. “I wish to speak to you, in the first place, of my husband’s opinions on the employment of women.”

Here, again, after a lapse of half a century, my master’s heresies of the year 1828 have become the orthodox principles of the year 1878. Thinking the subject over in his own independent way, he had arrived at the conclusion that there were many employments reserved exclusively for men, which might with perfect propriety be also thrown open to capable and deserving women. To recognize the claims of justice was, with a man of Mr. Wagner’s character, to act on his convictions without a moment’s needless delay. Enlarging his London business at the time, he divided the new employments at his disposal impartially between men and women alike. The scandal produced in the city by this daring innovation is remembered to the present day by old men like me. My master’s audacious experiment prospered nevertheless, in spite of scandal.

“If my husband had lived,” my aunt continued, “it was his intention to follow the example, which he has already set in London, in our house at Frankfort. There also our business is increasing, and we mean to add to the number of our clerks. As soon as I am able to exert myself, I shall go to Frankfort, and give German women the same opportunities which my husband has already given to English women in London. I have his notes on the best manner of carrying out this reform to guide me. And I think of sending you, David,” she added, turning to me, “to our partners in Frankfort, Mr. Keller and Mr. Engelman, with instructions which will keep some of the vacant situations in the office open, until I can follow you.” She paused, and looked at the lawyer. “Do you see any objection to what I propose?” she said.

“I see some risks,” he answered, cautiously.

“What risks?”

“In London, madam, the late Mr. Wagner had special means of investigating the characters of the women whom he took into his office. It may not be so easy for you, in a strange place like Frankfort, to guard against the danger–” He hesitated, at a loss for the moment to express himself with sufficient plainness and sufficient delicacy.

My aunt made no allowances for his embarrassment.

“Don’t be afraid to speak out, sir,” she said, a little coldly. “What danger are you afraid of?”

“Yours is a generous nature, madam: and generous natures are easily imposed upon. I am afraid of women with bad characters, or, worse still, of other women–”

He stopped again. This time there was a positive interruption. We heard a knock at the door.

Our head-clerk was the person who presented himself at the summons to come in. My aunt held up her hand. “Excuse me, Mr. Hartrey–I will attend to you in one moment.” She turned to the lawyer. “What other women are likely to impose on me?” she asked.

“Women, otherwise worthy of your kindness, who may be associated with disreputable connections,” the lawyer replied. “The very women, if I know anything of your quick sympathies, whom you would be most anxious to help, and who might nevertheless be a source of constant trouble and anxiety, under pernicious influences at home.”

My aunt made no answer. For the moment, the lawyer’s objections seemed to annoy her. She addressed herself to Mr. Hartrey; asking rather abruptly what he had to say to her.

Our head-clerk was a methodical gentleman of the old school. He began by confusedly apologizing for his intrusion; and ended by producing a letter.

“When you are able to attend to business, madam, honor me by reading this letter. And, in the meantime, will you forgive me for taking a liberty in the office, rather than intrude on your grief so soon after the death of my dear and honored master?” The phrases were formal enough; but there was true feeling in the man’s voice as he spoke. My aunt gave him her hand. He kissed it, with the tears in his eyes.

“Whatever you have done has been well done, I am sure,” she said kindly. “Who is the letter from?”

“From Mr. Keller, of Frankfort, madam.”

My aunt instantly took the letter from him, and read it attentively. It has a very serious bearing on passages in the present narrative which are yet to come. I accordingly present a copy of it in this place:

“Private and confidential.

“Dear Mr. Hartrey–It is impossible for me to address myself to Mrs. Wagner, in the first days of the affliction that has fallen on her. I am troubled by a pressing anxiety; and I venture to write to you, as the person now in charge at our London office.

“My only son Fritz is finishing his education at the university of Wurzburg. He has, I regret to say, formed an attachment to a young woman, the daughter of a doctor at Wurzburg, who has recently died. I believe the girl to be a perfectly reputable and virtuous young person. But her father has not only left her in poverty, he has done worse–he has died in debt. Besides this, her mother’s character does not stand high in the town. It is said, among other things, that her extravagance is mainly answerable for her late husband’s debts. Under these circumstances, I wish to break off the connection while the two young people are separated for the time by the event of the doctor’s recent death. Fritz has given up the idea of entering the medical profession, and has accepted my proposal that he shall succeed me in our business. I have decided on sending him to London, to learn something of commercial affairs, at headquarters, in your office.

“My son obeys me reluctantly; but he is a good and dutiful lad–and he yields to his father’s wishes. You may expect him in a day or two after receipt of these lines. Oblige me by making a little opening for him in one of your official departments, and by keeping him as much as possible under your own eye, until I can venture on communicating directly with Mrs. Wagner–to whom pray convey the expression of my most sincere and respectful sympathy.”

My aunt handed back the letter. “Has the young man arrived yet?” she asked.

“He arrived yesterday, madam.”

“And have you found some employment for him?”

“I have ventured to place him in our corresponding department,” the head-clerk answered. “For the present he will assist in copying letters; and, after business-hours, he will have a room (until further orders) in my house. I hope you think I have done right, madam?”

“You have done admirably, Mr. Hartrey. At the same time, I will relieve you of some of the responsibility. No grief of mine shall interfere with my duty to my husband’s partner. I will speak to the young man myself. Bring him here this evening, after business-hours. And don’t leave us just yet; I want to put a question to you relating to my husband’s affairs, in which I am deeply interested.” Mr. Hartrey returned to his chair. After a momentary hesitation, my aunt put her question in terms which took us all three by surprise.

Chapter 3

“My husband was connected with many charitable institutions,” the widow began. “Am I right in believing that he was one of the governors of Bethlehem Hospital?”

At this reference to the famous asylum for insane persons, popularly known among the inhabitants of London as “Bedlam,” I saw the lawyer start, and exchange a look with the head-clerk. Mr. Hartrey answered with evident reluctance; he said, “Quite right, madam”–and said no more. The lawyer, being the bolder man of the two, added a word of warning, addressed directly to my aunt.

“I venture to suggest,” he said, “that there are circumstances connected with the late Mr. Wagner’s position at the Hospital, which make it desirable not to pursue the subject any farther. Mr. Hartrey will confirm what I say, when I tell you that Mr. Wagner’s proposals for a reformation in the treatment of the patients–”

“Were the proposals of a merciful man,” my aunt interposed “who abhorred cruelty in all its forms, and who held the torturing of the poor mad patients by whips and chains to be an outrage on humanity. I entirely agree with him. Though I am only a woman, I will not let the matter drop. I shall go to the Hospital on Monday morning next–and my business with you to-day is to request that you will accompany me.”

“In what capacity am I to have the honor of accompanying you?” the lawyer asked, in his coldest manner.

“In your professional capacity,” my aunt replied. “I may have a proposal to address to the governors; and I shall look to your experience to express it in the proper form.”

The lawyer was not satisfied yet. “Excuse me if I venture on making another inquiry,” he persisted. “Do you propose to visit the madhouse in consequence of any wish expressed by the late Mr. Wagner?”

“Certainly not! My husband always avoided speaking to me on that melancholy subject. As you have heard, he even left me in doubt whether he was one of the governing body at the asylum. No reference to any circumstance in his life which might alarm or distress me ever passed his lips.” Her voice failed her as she paid that tribute to her husband’s memory. She waited to recover herself. “But, on the night before his death,” she resumed, “when he was half waking, half dreaming, I heard him talking to himself of something that he was anxious to do, if the chance of recovery had been still left to him. Since that time I have looked at his private diary; and I have found entries in it which explain to me what I failed to understand clearly at his bedside. I know for certain that the obstinate hostility of his colleagues had determined him on trying the effect of patience and kindness in the treatment of mad people, at his sole risk and expense. There is now in Bethlehem Hospital a wretched man–a friendless outcast, found in the streets–whom my noble husband had chosen as the first subject of his humane experiment, and whose release from a life of torment he had the hope of effecting through the influence of a person in authority in the Royal Household. You know already that the memory of my husband’s plans and wishes is a sacred memory to me. I am resolved to see that poor chained creature whom he would have rescued if he had lived; and I will certainly complete his work of mercy, if my conscience tells me that a woman should do it.”

Hearing this bold announcement–I am almost ashamed to confess it, in these enlightened days–we all three protested. Modest Mr. Hartrey was almost as loud and as eloquent as the lawyer, and I was not far behind Mr. Hartrey. It is perhaps to be pleaded as an excuse for us that some of the highest authorities, in the early part of the present century, would have been just as prejudiced and just as ignorant as we were. Say what we might, however, our remonstrances produced no effect on my aunt. We merely roused the resolute side of her character to assert itself.

“I won’t detain you any longer,” she said to the lawyer. “Take the rest of the day to decide what you will do. If you decline to accompany me, I shall go by myself. If you accept my proposal, send me a line this evening to say so.”

In that way the conference came to an end.

Early in the evening young Mr. Keller made his appearance, and was introduced to my aunt and to me. We both took a liking to him from the first. He was a handsome young man, with light hair and florid complexion, and with a frank ingratiating manner–a little sad and subdued, in consequence, no doubt, of his enforced separation from his beloved young lady at Wurzburg. My aunt, with her customary kindness and consideration, offered him a room next to mine, in place of his room in Mr. Hartrey’s house. “My nephew David speaks German; and he will help to make your life among us pleasant to you.” With those words our good mistress left us together.

Fritz opened the conversation with the easy self-confidence of a German student.

“It is one bond of union between us that you speak my language,” he began. “I am good at reading and writing English, but I speak badly. Have we any other sympathies in common? Is it possible that you smoke?”

Poor Mr. Wagner had taught me to smoke. I answered by offering my new acquaintance a cigar.

“Another bond between us,” cried Fritz. “We must be friends from this moment. Give me your hand.” We shook hands. He lit his cigar, looked at me very attentively, looked away again, and puffed out his first mouthful of smoke with a heavy sigh.

“I wonder whether we are united by a third bond?” he said thoughtfully. “Are you a stiff Englishman? Tell me, friend David, may I speak to you with the freedom of a supremely wretched man?”

“As freely as you like,” I answered. He still hesitated.

“I want to be encouraged,” he said. “Be familiar with me. Call me Fritz.”

I called him “Fritz.” He drew his chair close to mine, and laid his hand affectionately on my shoulder. I began to think I had perhaps encouraged him a little too readily.

“Are you in love, David?” He put the question just as coolly as if he had asked me what o’clock it was.

I was young enough to blush. Fritz accepted the blush as a sufficient answer. “Every moment I pass in your society,” he cried with enthusiasm, “I like you better–find you more eminently sympathetic. You are in love. One word more–are there any obstacles in your way?”

There wereobstacles in my way. She was too old for me, and too poor for me–and it all came to nothing in due course of time. I admitted the obstacles; abstaining, with an Englishman’s shyness, from entering into details. My reply was enough, and more than enough, for Fritz. “Good Heavens!” he exclaimed; “our destinies exactly resemble each other! We are both supremely wretched men. David, I can restrain myself no longer; I must positively embrace you!”

I resisted to the best of my ability–but he was the stronger man of the two. His long arms almost strangled me; his bristly mustache scratched my cheek. In my first involuntary impulse of disgust, I clenched my fist. Young Mr. Keller never suspected (my English brethren alone will understand) how very near my fist and his head were to becoming personally and violently acquainted. Different nations–different customs. I can smile as I write about it now.

Fritz took his seat again. “My heart is at ease; I can pour myself out freely,” he said. “Never, my friend, was there such an interesting love-story as mine. She is the sweetest girl living. Dark, slim, gracious, delightful, desirable, just eighteen. The image, I should suppose, of what her widowed mother was at her age. Her name is Minna. Daughter and only child of Madame Fontaine. Madame Fontaine is a truly grand creature, a Roman matron. She is the victim of envy and scandal. Would you believe it? There are wretches in Wurzburg (her husband the doctor was professor of chemistry at the University)–there are wretches, I say, who call my Minna’s mother “Jezebel,’ and my Minna herself “Jezebel’s Daughter!’ I have fought three duels with my fellow-students to avenge that one insult. Alas, David, there is another person who is influenced by those odious calumnies!–a person sacred to me–the honored author of my being. Is it not dreadful? My good father turns tyrant in this one thing; declares I shall never marry “Jezebel’s Daughter;’ exiles me, by his paternal commands, to this foreign country; and perches me on a high stool to copy letters. Ha! he little knows my heart. I am my Minna’s and my Minna is mine. In body and soul, in time and in eternity, we are one. Do you see my tears? Do my tears speak for me? The heart’s relief is in crying freely. There is a German song to that effect. When I recover myself, I will sing it to you. Music is a great comforter; music is the friend of love. There is another German song to thateffect.” He suddenly dried his eyes, and got on his feet; some new idea had apparently occurred to him. “It is dreadfully dull here,” he said; “I am not used to evenings at home. Have you any music in London? Help me to forget Minna for an hour or two. Take me to the music.”

Having, by this time, heard quite enough of his raptures, I was eager on my side for a change of any kind. I helped him to forget Minna at a Vauxhall Concert. He thought our English orchestra wanting in subtlety and spirit. On the other hand, he did full justice, afterwards, to our English bottled beer. When we left the Gardens he sang me that German song, “My heart’s relief is crying freely,’ with a fervor of sentiment which must have awakened every light sleeper in the neighborhood.

Retiring to my bedchamber, I found an open letter on my toilet-table. It was addressed to my aunt by the lawyer; and it announced that he had decided on accompanying her to the madhouse–without pledging himself to any further concession. In leaving the letter for me to read, my aunt had written across it a line in pencil: “You can go with us, David, if you like.”

My curiosity was strongly aroused. It is needless to say I decided on being present at the visit to Bedlam.

Chapter 4

On the appointed Monday we were ready to accompany my aunt to the madhouse.

Whether she distrusted her own unaided judgment, or whether she wished to have as many witnesses as possible to the rash action in which she was about to engage, I cannot say. In either case, her first proceeding was to include Mr. Hartrey and Fritz Keller in the invitation already extended to the lawyer and myself.

They both declined to accompany us. The head-clerk made the affairs of the office serve for his apology, it was foreign post day, and he could not possibly be absent from his desk. Fritz invented no excuses; he confessed the truth, in his own outspoken manner. “I have a horror of mad people,” he said, “they so frighten and distress me, that they make me feel half mad myself. Don’t ask me to go with you–and oh, dear lady, don’t go yourself.”

My aunt smiled sadly–and led the way out.

We had a special order of admission to the Hospital which placed the resident superintendent himself at our disposal. He received my aunt with the utmost politeness, and proposed a scheme of his own for conducting us over the whole building; with an invitation to take luncheon with him afterwards at his private residence.

“At another time, sir, I shall be happy to avail myself of your kindness,” my aunt said, when he had done. “For the present, my object is to see one person only among the unfortunate creatures in this asylum.”

“One person only?” repeated the superintendent. “One of our patients of the higher rank, I suppose?”

“On the contrary,” my aunt replied, “I wish to see a poor friendless creature, found in the streets; known here, as I am informed, by no better name than Jack Straw.”

The superintendent looked at her in blank amazement.

“Good Heavens, madam!” he exclaimed; “are you aware that Jack Straw is one of the most dangerous lunatics we have in the house?”

“I have heard that he bears the character you describe,” my aunt quietly admitted.

“And yet you wish to see him?”

“I am here for that purpose–and no other.”

The superintendent looked round at the lawyer and at me, appealing to us silently to explain, if we could, this incomprehensible desire to see Jack Straw. The lawyer spoke for both of us. He reminded the superintendent of the late Mr. Wagner’s peculiar opinions on the treatment of the insane, and of the interest which he had taken in this particular case. To which my aunt added: “And Mr. Wagner’s widow feels the same interest, and inherits her late husband’s opinions.” Hearing this, the superintendent bowed with his best grace, and resigned himself to circumstances. “Pardon me if I keep you waiting for a minute or two,” he said, and rang a bell.

A man-servant appeared at the door.

“Are Yarcombe and Foss on duty on the south side?” the superintendent asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Send one of them here directly.”

We waited a few minutes–and then a gruff voice became audible on the outer side of the door. “Present, sir,” growled the gruff voice.

The superintendent courteously offered his arm to my aunt. “Permit me to escort you to Jack Straw,” he said, with a touch of playful irony in his tone.

We left the room. The lawyer and I followed my aunt and her escort. A man, whom we found posted on the door-mat, brought up the rear. Whether he was Yarcombe or whether he was Foss, mattered but little. In either case he was a hulking, scowling, hideously ill-looking brute. “One of our assistants,” we heard the superintendent explain. “It is possible, madam, that we may want two of them, if we are to make things pleasant at your introduction to Jack Straw.”

We ascended some stairs, shut off from the lower floor by a massive locked door, and passed along some dreary stone passages, protected by more doors. Cries of rage and pain, at one time distant and at another close by, varied by yelling laughter, more terrible even than the cries, sounded on either side of us. We passed through a last door, the most solid of all, which shut out these dreadful noises, and found ourselves in a little circular hall. Here the superintendent stopped, and listened for a moment. There was dead silence. He beckoned to the attendant, and pointed to a heavily nailed oaken door.

“Look in,” he said.

The man drew aside a little shutter in the door, and looked through the bars which guarded the opening.

“Is he waking or sleeping?” the superintendent asked.

“Waking, sir.”

“Is he at work?”

“Yes, sir.”

The superintendent turned to my aunt.

“You are fortunate, madam–you will see him in his quiet moments. He amuses himself by making hats, baskets, and table-mats, out of his straw. Very neatly put together, I assure you. One of our visiting physicians, a man with a most remarkable sense of humor, gave him his nickname from his work. Shall we open the door?”

My aunt had turned very pale; I could see that she was struggling with violent agitation. “Give me a minute or two first,” she said; “I want to compose myself before I see him.”

She sat down on a stone bench outside the door. “Tell me what you know about this poor man?” she said. “I don’t ask out of idle curiosity–I have a better motive than that. Is he young or old?”

“Judging by his teeth,” the superintendent answered, as if he had been speaking of a horse, “he is certainly young. But his complexion is completely gone, and his hair has turned gray. So far as we have been able to make out (when he is willing to speak of himself), these peculiarities in his personal appearance are due to a narrow escape from poisoning by accident. But how the accident occurred, and where it occurred, he either cannot or will not tell us. We know nothing about him, except that he is absolutely friendless. He speaks English–but it is with an odd kind of accent–and we don’t know whether he is a foreigner or not. You are to understand, madam, that he is here on sufferance. This is a royal institution, and, as a rule, we only receive lunatics of the educated class. But Jack Straw has had wonderful luck. Being too mad, I suppose, to take care of himself, he was run over in one of the streets in our neighborhood by the carriage of an exalted personage, whom it would be an indiscretion on my part even to name. The personage (an illustrious lady, I may inform you) was so distressed by the accident–without the slightest need, for the man was not seriously hurt–that she actually had him brought here in her carriage, and laid her commands on us to receive him. Ah, Mrs. Wagner, her highness’s heart is worthy of her highness’s rank. She occasionally sends to inquire after the lucky lunatic who rolled under her horse’s feet. We don’t tell her what a trouble and expense he is to us. We have had irons specially invented to control him; and, if I am not mistaken,” said the superintendent, turning to the assistant, “a new whip was required only last week.”

The man put his hand into the big pocket of his coat, and produced a horrible whip, of many lashes. He exhibited this instrument of torture with every appearance of pride and pleasure. “This is what keeps him in order, my lady,” said the brute, cheerfully. “Just take it in your hand.”

My aunt sprang to her feet. She was so indignant that I believe she would have laid the whip across the man’s shoulders, if his master had not pushed him back without ceremony. “A zealous servant,” said the superintendent, smiling pleasantly. “Please excuse him.”

My aunt pointed to the cell door.

“Open it,” she said, “Let me see anything,rather than set eyes on that monster again!”

The firmness of her tone evidently surprised the superintendent. He knew nothing of the reserves of resolution in her, which the mere sight of the whip had called forth. The pallor had left her face; she trembled no longer; her fine gray eyes were bright and steady. “That brute has roused her,” said the lawyer, looking back at the assistant, and whispering to me; “nothing will restrain her, David–she will have her way now.”

Chapter 5

The superintendent opened the cell door with his own hand.

We found ourselves in a narrow, lofty prison, like an apartment in a tower. High up, in one corner, the grim stone walls were pierced by a grated opening, which let in air and light. Seated on the floor, in the angle formed by the junction of two walls, we saw the superintendent’s “lucky lunatic” at work, with a truss of loose straw on either side of him. The slanting rays of light from the high window streamed down on his prematurely gray hair, and showed us the strange yellow pallor of his complexion, and the youthful symmetry of his hands, nimbly occupied with their work. A heavy chain held him to the wall. It was not only fastened round his waist, it also fettered his legs between the knee and the ankle. At the same time, it was long enough to allow him a range of crippled movement, within a circle of five or six feet, as well as I could calculate at the time. Above his head, ready for use if required, hung a small chain evidently intended to confine his hands at the wrists. Unless I was deceived by his crouching attitude, he was small in stature. His ragged dress barely covered his emaciated form. In other and happier days, he must have been a well-made little man; his feet and ankles, like his hands, were finely and delicately formed. He was so absorbed in his employment that he had evidently not heard the talking outside his cell. It was only when the door was banged to by the assistant (who kept behind us, at a sign from the superintendent) that he looked up. We now saw his large vacantly-patient brown eyes, the haggard outline of his face, and his nervously sensitive lips. For a moment, he looked from one to the other of the visitors with a quiet childish curiosity. Then his wandering glances detected the assistant, waiting behind us with the whip still in his hand.

In an instant the whole expression of the madman’s face changed. Ferocious hatred glittered in his eyes; his lips, suddenly retracted, showed his teeth like the teeth of a wild beast. My aunt perceived the direction in which he was looking, and altered her position so as to conceal from him the hateful figure with the whip, and to concentrate his attention on herself. With startling abruptness, the poor creature’s expression changed once more. His eyes softened, a faint sad smile trembled on his lips. He dropped the straw which he had been plaiting, and lifted his hands with a gesture of admiration. “The pretty lady!” he whispered to himself. “Oh, the pretty lady!”

He attempted to crawl out from the wall, as far as his chain would let him. At a sign from the superintendent he stopped, and sighed bitterly. “I wouldn’t hurt the lady for the world,” he said; “I beg your pardon, Mistress, if I have frightened you.”

His voice was wonderfully gentle. But there was something strange in his accent–and there was perhaps a foreign formality in his addressing my aunt as “Mistress.” Englishmen in general would have called her “ma’am.”

We men kept our places at a safe distance from his chain. My aunt, with a woman’s impulsive contempt of danger when her compassion is strongly moved, stepped forward to him. The superintendent caught her by the arm and checked her. “Take care,” he said. “You don’t know him as well as we do.”

Jack’s eyes turned on the superintendent, dilating slowly. His lips began to part again–I feared to see the ferocious expression in his face once more. I was wrong. In the very moment of another outbreak of rage, the unhappy man showed that he was still capable, under strong internal influence, of restraining himself. He seized the chain that held him to the wall in both hands, and wrung it with such convulsive energy that I almost expected to see the bones of his fingers start through the skin. His head dropped on his breast, his wasted figure quivered. It was only for an instant. When he looked up again, his poor vacant brown eyes turned on my aunt, dim with tears. She instantly shook off the superintendent’s hold on her arm. Before it was possible to interfere, she was bending over Jack Straw, with one of her pretty white hands laid gently on his head.

“How your head burns, poor Jack!” she said simply. “Does my hand cool it?”

Still holding desperately by the chain, he answered like a timid child. “Yes, Mistress; your hand cools it. Thank you.”

She took up a little straw hat on which he had been working when his door was opened. “This is very nicely done, Jack,” she went on. “Tell me how you first came to make these pretty things with your straw.”

He looked up at her with a sudden accession of confidence; her interest in the hat had flattered him.

“Once,” he said, “there was a time when my hands were the maddest things about me. They used to turn against me and tear my hair and my flesh. An angel in a dream told me how to keep them quiet. An angel said, “Let them work at your straw.” All day long I plaited my straw. I would have gone on all night too, if they would only have given me a light. My nights are bad, my nights are dreadful. The raw air eats into me, the black darkness frightens me. Shall I tell you what is the greatest blessing in the world? Daylight! Daylight!! Daylight!!!”

At each repetition of the word his voice rose. He was on the point of breaking into a scream, when he took a tighter turn of his chain and instantly silenced himself. “I am quiet, sir,” he said, before the superintendent could reprove him.

My aunt added a word in his favor. “Jack has promised not to frighten me; and I am sure he will keep his word. Have you never had parents or friends to be kind to you, my poor fellow?” she asked, turning to him again.

He looked up at her. “Never,” he said, “till you came here to see me.” As he spoke, there was a flash of intelligence in the bright gratitude of his eyes. “Ask me something else,” he pleaded; “and see how quietly I can answer you.”

“Is it true, Jack, that you were once poisoned by accident, and nearly killed by it?”

“Yes!”

“Where was it?”

“Far away in another country. In the doctor’s big room. In the time when I was the doctor’s man.”

“Who was the doctor?”

He put his hand to his head, “Give me more time,” he said. “It hurts me when I try to remember too much. Let me finish my hat first. I want to give you my hat when it’s done. You don’t know how clever I am with my fingers and thumbs. Just look and see!”

He set to work on the hat; perfectly happy while my aunt was looking at him. The lawyer was the unlucky person who produced a change for the worse. Having hitherto remained passive, this worthy gentleman seemed to think it was due to his own importance to take a prominent part in the proceedings. “My professional experience will come in well here,” he said; “I mean to treat him as an unwilling witness; you will see we shall get something out of him in that way. Jack!”

The unwilling witness went on impenetrably with his work. The lawyer (keeping well out of reach of the range of the chain) raised his voice. “Hullo, there!” he cried, “you’re not deaf, are you?”

Jack looked up, with an impish expression of mischief in his eyes. A man with a modest opinion of himself would have taken warning, and would have said no more. The lawyer persisted.

“Now, my man! let us have a little talk. “Jack Straw’ can’t be your proper name. What is your name?”

“Anything you like,” said Jack. “What’s yours?”

“Oh, come! that won’t do. You must have had a father and mother.”

“Not that I know of.”

“Where were you born?”

“In the gutter.”

“How were you brought up?”

“Sometimes with a cuff on the head.”

“And at other times?”

“At other times with a kick. Do be quiet, and let me finish my hat.”

The discomfited lawyer tried a bribe as a last resource. He held up a shilling. “Do you see this?”

“No, I don’t. I see nothing but my hat.”

This reply brought the examination to an end. The lawyer looked at the superintendent, and said, “A hopeless case, sir.” The superintendent looked at the lawyer, and answered, “Perfectly hopeless.”

Jack finished his hat, and gave it to my aunt. “Do you like it, now it’s done?” he asked.

“I like it very much,” she answered: “and one of these days I shall trim it with ribbons, and wear it for your sake.”

She appealed to the superintendent, holding out the hat to him.

“Look,” she said. “There is not a false turn anywhere in all this intricate plaiting. Poor Jack is sane enough to fix his attention to this subtle work. Do you give him up as incurable, when he can do that?”

The superintendent waved away the question with his hand. “Purely mechanical,” he replied. “It means nothing.”

Jack touched my aunt. “I want to whisper,” he said. She bent down to him, and listened.

I saw her smile, and asked, after we had left the asylum, what he had said. Jack had stated his opinion of the principal officer of Bethlehem Hospital in these words: “Don’t you listen to him, Mistress; he’s a poor half-witted creature. And short, too–not above six inches taller than I am!”

But my aunt had not done with Jack’s enemy yet.

“I am sorry to trouble you, sir,” she resumed–“I have something more to say before I go, and I wish to say it privately. Can you spare me a few minutes?”

The amiable superintendent declared that he was entirely at her service. She turned to Jack to say good-bye. The sudden discovery that she was about to leave him was more than he could sustain; he lost his self-control.

“Stay with me!” cried the poor wretch, seizing her by both hands. “Oh, be merciful, and stay with me!”

She preserved her presence of mind–she would permit no interference to protect her. Without starting back, without even attempting to release herself, she spoke to him quietly.

“Let us shake hands for to-day,” she said; “you have kept your promise, Jack–you have been quiet and good. I must leave you for a while. Let me go.”

He obstinately shook his head, and still held her.

“Look at me,” she persisted, without showing any fear of him. “I want to tell you something. You are no longer a friendless creature, Jack. You have a friend in me. Look up.”

Her clear firm tones had their effect on him; he looked up. Their eyes met.

“Now, let me go, as I told you.”

He dropped her hand, and threw himself back in his corner and burst out crying.

“I shall never see her again,” he moaned to himself. “Never, never, never again!”

“You shall see me to-morrow,” she said.

He looked at her through his tears, and looked away again with an abrupt change to distrust. “She doesn’t mean it,” he muttered, still speaking to himself; “she only says it to pacify me.”

“You shall see me to-morrow,” my aunt reiterated; “I promise it.”

He was cowed, but not convinced; he crawled to the full length of his chain, and lay down at her feet like a dog. She considered for a moment–and found her way to his confidence at last.

“Shall I leave you something to keep for me until I see you again?”

The idea struck him like a revelation: he lifted his head, and eyed her with breathless interest. She gave him a little ornamental handbag, in which she was accustomed to carry her handkerchief, and purse, and smelling-bottle.

“I trust it entirely to you, Jack: you shall give it back to me when we meet to-morrow.”