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- Herausgeber: Musaicum Books
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
Lewis Carroll's 'Sylvie and Bruno - Complete Series (All 3 Books in One Illustrated Edition)' is a complex and whimsical tale that seamlessly weaves together fantasy and reality. Featuring a unique blend of poetry and prose, Carroll's literary style captivates readers with its imaginative storytelling and vivid imagery. Set in a fantastical world filled with magical creatures and enchanting adventures, the book explores profound themes such as love, friendship, and the nature of reality. With its thought-provoking narrative and intricate plot twists, 'Sylvie and Bruno' stands as a timeless classic in children's literature. Carroll's use of wordplay and symbolism adds depth to the story, offering readers a rich and rewarding reading experience. With its charming illustrations and intricate storytelling, 'Sylvie and Bruno' is a must-read for fans of fantasy and literary fiction. Lewis Carroll's insightful exploration of human nature and the power of imagination makes this book a truly enchanting read for readers of all ages.
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Sylvie and Bruno - Complete Series
(All 3 Books in One Illustrated Edition)
Published by
Books
Table of Contents
Sylvie and Bruno
(1889)
Illustrated by
Harry Furniss
Contents
Preface
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
Is all our Life, then, but a dream
Seen faintly in the golden gleam
Athwart Time’s dark resistless stream?
Bowed to the earth with bitter woe,
Or laughing at some raree-show,
We flutter idly to and fro.
Man’s little Day in haste we spend,
And, from its merry noontide, send
No glance to meet the silent end.
Preface
One little picture in this book, the Magic Locket was drawn by ‘Miss Alice Havers.’ I did not state this on the title-page, since it seemed only due, to the artist of all these (to my mind) wonderful pictures, that his name should stand there alone.
The descriptions, here and here, of Sunday as spent by children of the last generation, are quoted verbatim from a speech made to me by a child-friend and a letter written to me by a lady-friend.
The Chapters, headed ‘Fairy-Sylvie’ and ‘Bruno’s Revenge,’ are a reprint, with a few alterations, of a little fairy-tale which I wrote in the year 1867, at the request of the late Mrs. Gatty, for ‘Aunt Judy’s Magazine,’ which she was then editing.
It was in 1874, I believe, that the idea first occurred to me of making it the nucleus of a longer story. As the years went on, I jotted down, at odd moments, all sorts of odd ideas, and fragments of dialogue, that occurred to me—who knows how?—with a transitory suddenness that left me no choice but either to record them then and there, or to abandon them to oblivion. Sometimes one could trace to their source these random flashes of thought—as being suggested by the book one was reading, or struck out from the ‘flint’ of one’s own mind by the ‘steel’ of a friend’s chance remark—but they had also a way of their own, of occurring, à propos of nothing—specimens of that hopelessly illogical phenomenon, ‘an effect without a cause.’ Such, for example, was the last line of ‘The Hunting of the Snark,’ which came into my head (as I have already related in ‘The Theatre’ for April, 1887) quite suddenly, during a solitary walk; and such, again, have been passages which occurred in dreams, and which I cannot trace to any antecedent cause whatever. There are at least two instances of such dream-suggestions in this book—one, my Lady’s remark, ‘it often runs in families, just as a love for pastry does’; the other, Eric Lindon’s badinage about having been in domestic service.
And thus it came to pass that I found myself at last in possession of a huge unwieldy mass of litterature—if the reader will kindly excuse the spelling—which only needed stringing together, upon the thread of a consecutive story, to constitute the book I hoped to write. Only! The task, at first, seemed absolutely hopeless, and gave me a far clearer idea, than I ever had before, of the meaning of the word ‘chaos’: and I think it must have been ten years, or more, before I had succeeded in classifying these odds-and-ends sufficiently to see what sort of a story they indicated: for the story had to grow out of the incidents, not the incidents out of the story. [ to 2nd preface]
I am telling all this, in no spirit of egoism, but because I really believe that some of my readers will be interested in these details of the ‘genesis’ of a book, which looks so simple and straight-forward a matter, when completed, that they might suppose it to have been written straight off, page by page, as one would write a letter, beginning at the beginning and ending at the end.
It is, no doubt, possible to write a story in that way: and, if it be not vanity to say so, I believe that I could, myself,—if I were in the unfortunate position (for I do hold it to be a real misfortune) of being obliged to produce a given amount of fiction in a given time,—that I could ‘fulfil my task,’ and produce my ‘tale of bricks,’ as other slaves have done. One thing, at any rate, I could guarantee as to the story so produced—that it should be utterly commonplace, should contain no new ideas whatever, and should be very very weary reading!
This species of literature has received the very appropriate name of ‘padding’—which might fitly be defined as ‘that which all can write and none can read.’ That the present volume contains no such writing I dare not avow: sometimes, in order to bring a picture into its proper place, it has been necessary to eke out a page with two or three extra lines: but I can honestly say I have put in no more than I was absolutely compelled to do.
My readers may perhaps like to amuse themselves by trying to detect, in a given passage, the one piece of ‘padding’ it contains. While arranging the ‘slips’ into pages, I found that the passage [starting here] was 3 lines too short. I supplied the deficiency, not by interpolating a word here and a word there, but by writing in 3 consecutive lines. Now can my readers guess which they are? [ to 2nd preface]
A harder puzzle—if a harder be desired—would be to determine, as to the Gardener’s Song, in which cases (if any) the stanza was adapted to the surrounding text, and in which (if any) the text was adapted to the stanza.
Perhaps the hardest thing in all literature—at least I have found it so: by no voluntary effort can I accomplish it: I have to take it as it comes—is to write anything original. And perhaps the easiest is, when once an original line has been struck out, to follow it up, and to write any amount more to the same tune. I do not know if ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was an original story—I was, at least, no conscious imitator in writing it—but I do know that, since it came out, something like a dozen story-books have appeared, on identically the same pattern. The path I timidly explored believing myself to be ‘the first that ever burst into that silent sea’—is now a beaten high-road: all the way-side flowers have long ago been trampled into the dust: and it would be courting disaster for me to attempt that style again.
Hence it is that, in ‘Sylvie and Bruno,’ I have striven—with I know not what success—to strike out yet another new path: be it bad or good, it is the best I can do. It is written, not for money, and not for fame, but in the hope of supplying, for the children whom I love, some thoughts that may suit those hours of innocent merriment which are the very life of Childhood; and also in the hope of suggesting, to them and to others, some thoughts that may prove, I would fain hope, not wholly out of harmony with the graver cadences of Life.
If I have not already exhausted the patience of my readers, I would like to seize this opportunity—perhaps the last I shall have of addressing so many friends at once—of putting on record some ideas that have occurred to me, as to books desirable to be written—which I should much like to attempt, but may not ever have the time or power to carry through—in the hope that, if I should fail (and the years are gliding away very fast) to finish the task I have set myself, other hands may take it up.
First, a Child’s Bible. The only real essentials of this would be, carefully selected passages, suitable for a child’s reading, and pictures. One principle of selection, which I would adopt, would be that Religion should be put before a child as a revelation of love—no need to pain and puzzle the young mind with the history of crime and punishment. (On such a principle I should, for example, omit the history of the Flood.) The supplying of the pictures would involve no great difficulty: no new ones would be needed: hundreds of excellent pictures already exist, the copyright of which has long ago expired, and which simply need photo-zincography, or some similar process, for their successful reproduction. The book should be handy in size—with a pretty attractive looking cover—in a clear legible type—and, above all, with abundance of pictures, pictures, pictures!
Secondly, a book of pieces selected from the Bible—not single texts, but passages of from 10 to 20 verses each—to be committed to memory. Such passages would be found useful, to repeat to one’s self and to ponder over, on many occasions when reading is difficult, if not impossible: for instance, when lying awake at night—on a railway-journey—when taking a solitary walk—in old age, when eye-sight is failing or wholly lost—and, best of all, when illness, while incapacitating us for reading or any other occupation, condemns us to lie awake through many weary silent hours: at such a time how keenly one may realise the truth of David’s rapturous cry ‘O how sweet are thy words unto my throat: yea, sweeter than honey unto my mouth!’
I have said ‘passages,’ rather than single texts, because we have no means of recalling single texts: memory needs links, and here are none: one may have a hundred texts stored in the memory, and not be able to recall, at will, more than half-a-dozen—and those by mere chance: whereas, once get hold of any portion of a chapter that has been committed to memory, and the whole can be recovered: all hangs together.
Thirdly, a collection of passages, both prose and verse, from books other than the Bible. There is not perhaps much, in what is called ‘un-inspired’ literature (a misnomer, I hold: if Shakespeare was not inspired, one may well doubt if any man ever was), that will bear the process of being pondered over, a hundred times: still there are such passages—enough, I think, to make a goodly store for the memory.
These two books of sacred, and secular, passages for memory—will serve other good purposes besides merely occupying vacant hours: they will help to keep at bay many anxious thoughts, worrying thoughts, uncharitable thoughts, unholy thoughts. Let me say this, in better words than my own, by copying a passage from that most interesting book, Robertson’s Lectures on the Epistles to the Corinthians, Lecture XLIX. ‘If a man finds himself haunted by evil desires and unholy images, which will generally be at periodical hours, let him commit to memory passages of Scripture, or passages from the best writers in verse or prose. Let him store his mind with these, as safeguards to repeat when he lies awake in some restless night, or when despairing imaginations, or gloomy, suicidal thoughts, beset him. Let these be to him the sword, turning everywhere to keep the way of the Garden of Life from the intrusion of profaner footsteps.’
Fourthly, a ‘Shakespeare’ for girls: that is, an edition in which everything, not suitable for the perusal of girls of (say) from 10 to 17, should be omitted. Few children under 10 would be likely to understand or enjoy the greatest of poets: and those, who have passed out of girlhood, may safely be left to read Shakespeare, in any edition, ‘expurgated’ or not, that they may prefer; but it seems a pity that so many children, in the intermediate stage, should be debarred from a great pleasure for want of an edition suitable to them. Neither Bowdler’s, Chambers’s, Brandram’s, nor Cundell’s ‘Boudoir’ Shakespeare, seems to me to meet the want: they are not sufficiently ‘expurgated.’ Bowdler’s is the most extraordinary of all: looking through it, I am filled with a deep sense of wonder, considering what he has left in, that he should have cut anything out! Besides relentlessly erasing all that is unsuitable on the score of reverence or decency, I should be inclined to omit also all that seems too difficult, or not likely to interest young readers. The resulting book might be slightly fragmentary: but it would be a real treasure to all British maidens who have any taste for poetry.
If it be needful to apologize to any one for the new departure I have taken in this story—by introducing, along with what will, I hope, prove to be acceptable nonsense for children, some of the graver thoughts of human life—it must be to one who has learned the Art of keeping such thoughts wholly at a distance in hours of mirth and careless ease. To him such a mixture will seem, no doubt, ill-judged and repulsive. And that such an Art exists I do not dispute: with youth, good health, and sufficient money, it seems quite possible to lead, for years together, a life of unmixed gaiety—with the exception of one solemn fact, with which we are liable to be confronted at any moment, even in the midst of the most brilliant company or the most sparkling entertainment. A man may fix his own times for admitting serious thought, for attending public worship, for prayer, for reading the Bible: all such matters he can defer to that ‘convenient season,’ which is so apt never to occur at all: but he cannot defer, for one single moment, the necessity of attending to a message, which may come before he has finished reading this page, ‘this night shall thy soul be required of thee.’
The ever-present sense of this grim possibility has been, in all ages,(1) an incubus that men have striven to shake off. Few more interesting subjects of enquiry could be found, by a student of history, than the various weapons that have been used against this shadowy foe. Saddest of all must have been the thoughts of those who saw indeed an existence beyond the grave, but an existence far more terrible than annihilation—an existence as filmy, impalpable, all but invisible spectres, drifting about, through endless ages, in a world of shadows, with nothing to do, nothing to hope for, nothing to love! In the midst of the gay verses of that genial ‘bon vivant’ Horace, there stands one dreary word whose utter sadness goes to one’s heart. It is the word ‘exilium’ in the well-known passage
Omnes eodem cogimur, omnium
Versatur urna serius ocius
Sors exitura et nos in aeternum
Exilium impositura cymbae.
Yes, to him this present life—spite of all its weariness and all its sorrow—was the only life worth having: all else was ‘exile’! Does it not seem almost incredible that one, holding such a creed, should ever have smiled?
And many in this day, I fear, even though believing in an existence beyond the grave far more real than Horace ever dreamed of, yet regard it as a sort of ‘exile’ from all the joys of life, and so adopt Horace’s theory, and say ‘let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.’
We go to entertainments, such as the theatre—I say ‘we,’ for I also go to the play, whenever I get a chance of seeing a really good one and keep at arm’s length, if possible, the thought that we may not return alive. Yet how do you know—dear friend, whose patience has carried you through this garrulous preface—that it may not be your lot, when mirth is fastest and most furious, to feel the sharp pang, or the deadly faintness, which heralds the final crisis—to see, with vague wonder, anxious friends bending over you—to hear their troubled whispers—perhaps yourself to shape the question, with trembling lips, ‘Is it serious?,’ and to be told ‘Yes: the end is near’ (and oh, how different all Life will look when those words are said!)—how do you know, I say, that all this may not happen to you, this night?
And dare you, knowing this, say to yourself ‘Well, perhaps it is an immoral play: perhaps the situations are a little too “risky,” the dialogue a little too strong, the “business” a little too suggestive. I don’t say that conscience is quite easy: but the piece is so clever, I must see it this once! I’ll begin a stricter life to-morrow.’ To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow!
‘Who sins in hope, who, sinning, says,
“Sorrow for sin God’s judgement stays!”
Against God’s Spirit he lies; quite stops
Mercy with insult; dares, and drops,
Like a scorch’d fly, that spins in vain
Upon the axis of its pain,
Then takes its doom, to limp and crawl,
Blind and forgot, from fall to fall.’
Let me pause for a moment to say that I believe this thought, of the possibility of death—if calmly realised, and steadily faced—would be one of the best possible tests as to our going to any scene of amusement being right or wrong. If the thought of sudden death acquires, for you, a special horror when imagined as happening in a theatre, then be very sure the theatre is harmful for you, however harmless it may be for others; and that you are incurring a deadly peril in going. Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die.
But, once realise what the true object is in life—that it is not pleasure, not knowledge, not even fame itself, ‘that last infirmity of noble minds’—but that it is the development of character, the rising to a higher, nobler, purer standard, the building-up of the perfect Man—and then, so long as we feel that this is going on, and will (we trust) go on for evermore, death has for us no terror; it is not a shadow, but a light; not an end, but a beginning!
One other matter may perhaps seem to call for apology—that I should have treated with such entire want of sympathy the British passion for ‘Sport,’ which no doubt has been in by-gone days, and is still, in some forms of it, an excellent school for hardihood and for coolness in moments of danger. But I am not entirely without sympathy for genuine ‘Sport’: I can heartily admire the courage of the man who, with severe bodily toil, and at the risk of his life, hunts down some ‘man-eating’ tiger: and I can heartily sympathize with him when he exults in the glorious excitement of the chase and the hand-to-hand struggle with the monster brought to bay. But I can but look with deep wonder and sorrow on the hunter who, at his ease and in safety, can find pleasure in what involves, for some defenceless creature, wild terror and a death of agony: deeper, if the hunter be one who has pledged himself to preach to men the Religion of universal Love: deepest of all, if it be one of those ‘tender and delicate’ beings, whose very name serves as a symbol of Love—‘thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women’—whose mission here is surely to help and comfort all that are in pain or sorrow!
‘Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.’
Chapter 1
Less Bread! More Taxes!
—and then all the people cheered again, and one man, who was more excited than the rest, flung his hat high into the air, and shouted (as well as I could make out) ‘Who roar for the Sub-Warden?’ Everybody roared, but whether it was for the Sub-Warden, or not, did not clearly appear: some were shouting ‘Bread!’ and some ‘Taxes!,’ but no one seemed to know what it was they really wanted.
All this I saw from the open window of the Warden’s breakfast-saloon, looking across the shoulder of the Lord Chancellor, who had sprung to his feet the moment the shouting began, almost as if he had been expecting it, and had rushed to the window which commanded the best view of the market-place.
‘What can it all mean?’ he kept repeating to himself, as, with his hands clasped behind him, and his gown floating in the air, he paced rapidly up and down the room. ‘I never heard such shouting before—and at this time of the morning, too! And with such unanimity! Doesn’t it strike you as very remarkable?’
I represented, modestly, that to my ears it appeared that they were shouting for different things, but the Chancellor would not listen to my suggestion for a moment. ‘They all shout the same words, I assure you!’ he said: then, leaning well out of the window, he whispered to a man who was standing close underneath, ‘Keep ’em together, ca’n’t you? The Warden will be here directly. Give ’em the signal for the march up!’ All this was evidently not meant for my ears, but I could scarcely help hearing it, considering that my chin was almost on the Chancellor’s shoulder.
The ‘march up’ was a very curious sight: a straggling procession of men, marching two and two, began from the other side of the market-place, and advanced in an irregular zig-zag fashion towards the Palace, wildly tacking from side to side, like a sailing vessel making way against an unfavourable wind—so that the head of the procession was often further from us at the end of one tack than it had been at the end of the previous one.
Yet it was evident that all was being done under orders, for I noticed that all eyes were fixed on the man who stood just under the window, and to whom the Chancellor was continually whispering. This man held his hat in one hand and a little green flag in the other: whenever he waved the flag the procession advanced a little nearer, when he dipped it they sidled a little farther off, and whenever he waved his hat they all raised a hoarse cheer. ‘Hoo-roah!’ they cried, carefully keeping time with the hat as it bobbed up and down. ‘Hoo-roah! Noo! Consti! Tooshun! Less! Bread! More! Taxes!’
‘That’ll do, that’ll do!’ the Chancellor whispered. ‘Let ’em rest a bit till I give you the word. He’s not here yet!’ But at this moment the great folding-doors of the saloon were flung open, and he turned with a guilty start to receive His High Excellency. However it was only Bruno, and the Chancellor gave a little gasp of relieved anxiety.
‘Morning!’ said the little fellow, addressing the remark, in a general sort of way, to the Chancellor and the waiters. ‘Doos oo know where Sylvie is? I’s looking for Sylvie!’
‘She’s with the Warden, I believe, y’reince!’ the Chancellor replied with a low bow. There was, no doubt, a certain amount of absurdity in applying this title (which, as of course you see without my telling you, was nothing but ‘your Royal Highness’ condensed into one syllable) to a small creature whose father was merely the Warden of Outland: still, large excuse must be made for a man who had passed several years at the Court of Fairyland, and had there acquired the almost impossible art of pronouncing five syllables as one.
But the bow was lost upon Bruno, who had run out of the room, even while the great feat of The Unpronounceable Monosyllable was being triumphantly performed.
Just then, a single voice in the distance was understood to shout ‘A speech from the Chancellor!’ ‘Certainly, my friends!’ the Chancellor replied with extraordinary promptitude. ‘You shall have a speech!’ Here one of the waiters, who had been for some minutes busy making a queer-looking mixture of egg and sherry, respectfully presented it on a large silver salver. The Chancellor took it haughtily, drank it off thoughtfully, smiled benevolently on the happy waiter as he set down the empty glass, and began. To the best of my recollection this is what he said.
‘Ahem! Ahem! Ahem! Fellow-sufferers, or rather suffering fellows—’ (‘Don’t call ’em names!’ muttered the man under the window. ‘I didn’t say felons!’ the Chancellor explained.) ‘You may be sure that I always sympa—’ (‘’Ear, ’ear!’ shouted the crowd, so loudly as quite to drown the orator’s thin squeaky voice) ‘—that I always sympa—’ he repeated. (‘Don’t simper quite so much!’ said the man under the window. ‘It makes yer look a hidiot!’ And, all this time, ‘’Ear, ’ear!’ went rumbling round the market-place, like a peal of thunder.) ‘That I always sympathise!’ yelled the Chancellor, the first moment there was silence. ‘But your true friend is the Sub-Warden! Day and night he is brooding on your wrongs—I should say your rights—that is to say your wrongs—no, I mean your rights—’ (‘Don’t talk no more!’ growled the man under the window. ‘You’re making a mess of it!’) At this moment the Sub-Warden entered the saloon. He was a thin man, with a mean and crafty face, and a greenish-yellow complexion; and he crossed the room very slowly, looking suspiciously about him as if be thought there might be a savage dog hidden somewhere. ‘Bravo!’ he cried, patting the Chancellor on the back. ‘You did that speech very well indeed. Why, you’re a born orator, man!’
‘Oh, that’s nothing!’ the Chancellor replied, modestly, with downcast eyes. ‘Most orators are born, you know.’
The Sub-Warden thoughtfully rubbed his chin. ‘Why, so they are!’ he admitted. ‘I never considered it in that light. Still, you did it very well. A word in your ear!’
The rest of their conversation was all in whispers: so, as I could hear no more, I thought I would go and find Bruno.
I found the little fellow standing in the passage, and being addressed by one of the men in livery, who stood before him, nearly bent double from extreme respectfulness, with his hands hanging in front of him like the fins of a fish. ‘His High Excellency,’ this respectful man was saying, ‘is in his Study, y’reince!’ (He didn’t pronounce this quite so well as the Chancellor.) Thither Bruno trotted, and I thought it well to follow him.
The Warden, a tall dignified man with a grave but very pleasant face, was seated before a writing-table, which was covered with papers, and holding on his knee one of the sweetest and loveliest little maidens it has ever been my lot to see. She looked four or five years older than Bruno, but she had the same rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes, and the same wealth of curly brown hair. Her eager smiling face was turned upwards towards her father’s, and it was a pretty sight to see the mutual love with which the two faces—one in the Spring of Life, the other in its late Autumn—were gazing on each other.
‘No, you’ve never seen him,’ the old man was saying: ‘you couldn’t, you know, he’s been away so long—traveling from land to land, and seeking for health, more years than you’ve been alive, little Sylvie!’
Here Bruno climbed upon his other knee, and a good deal of kissing, on a rather complicated system, was the result.
‘He only came back last night,’ said the Warden, when the kissing was over: ‘he’s been traveling post-haste, for the last thousand miles or so, in order to be here on Sylvie’s birthday. But he’s a very early riser, and I dare say he’s in the Library already. Come with me and see him. He’s always kind to children. You’ll be sure to like him.’
‘Has the Other Professor come too?’ Bruno asked in an awe-struck voice.
‘Yes, they arrived together. The Other Professor is—well, you wo’n’t like him quite so much, perhaps. He’s a little more dreamy, you know.’
‘I wiss Sylvie was a little more dreamy,’ said Bruno.
‘What do you mean, Bruno?’ said Sylvie.
Bruno went on addressing his father. ‘She says she ca’n’t, oo know. But I thinks it isn’t ca’n’t, it’s wo’n’t.’
‘Says she ca’n’t dream!’ the puzzled Warden repeated.
‘She do say it,’ Bruno persisted. ‘When I says to her “Let’s stop lessons!”, she says “Oh, I ca’n’t dream of letting oo stop yet!”’
‘He always wants to stop lessons,’ Sylvie explained, ‘five minutes after we begin!’
‘Five minutes’ lessons a day!’ said the Warden. ‘You wo’n’t learn much at that rate, little man!’
‘That’s just what Sylvie says,’ Bruno rejoined. ‘She says I wo’n’t learn my lessons. And I tells her, over and over, I ca’n’t learn ’em. And what doos oo think she says? She says “It isn’t ca’n’t, it’s wo’n’t!”’
‘Let’s go and see the Professor,’ the Warden said, wisely avoiding further discussion. The children got down off his knees, each secured a hand, and the happy trio set off for the Library—followed by me. I had come to the conclusion by this time that none of the party (except, for a few moments, the Lord Chancellor) was in the least able to see me.
‘What’s the matter with him?’ Sylvie asked, walking with a little extra sedateness, by way of example to Bruno at the other side, who never ceased jumping up and down.
‘What was the matter—but I hope he’s all right now—was lumbago, and rheumatism, and that kind of thing. He’s been curing himself, you know: he’s a very learned doctor. Why, he’s actually invented three new diseases, besides a new way of breaking your collar-bone!’
‘Is it a nice way?’ said Bruno.
‘Well, hum, not very,’ the Warden said, as we entered the Library. ‘And here is the Professor. Good morning, Professor! Hope you’re quite rested after your journey!’
A jolly-looking, fat little man, in a flowery dressing-gown, with a large book under each arm, came trotting in at the other end of the room, and was going straight across without taking any notice of the children. ‘I’m looking for Vol. Three,’ he said. ‘Do you happen to have seen it?’
‘You don’t see my children, Professor!’ the Warden exclaimed, taking him by the shoulders and turning him round to face them.
The Professor laughed violently: then he gazed at them through his great spectacles, for a minute or two, without speaking.
At last he addressed Bruno. ‘I hope you have had a good night, my child?’
Bruno looked puzzled. ‘I’s had the same night oo’ve had,’ he replied. ‘There’s only been one night since yesterday!’
It was the Professor’s turn to look puzzled now. He took off his spectacles, and rubbed them with his handkerchief. Then he gazed at them again. Then he turned to the Warden. ‘Are they bound?’ he enquired.
‘No, we aren’t,’ said Bruno, who thought himself quite able to answer this question.
The Professor shook his head sadly. ‘Not even half-bound?’
‘Why would we be half-bound?’ said Bruno. ‘We’re not prisoners!’
But the Professor had forgotten all about them by this time, and was speaking to the Warden again. ‘You’ll be glad to hear,’ he was saying, ‘that the Barometer’s beginning to move—’
‘Well, which way?’ said the Warden—adding, to the children, ‘Not that I care, you know. Only he thinks it affects the weather. He’s a wonderfully clever man, you know. Sometimes he says things that only the Other Professor can understand. Sometimes he says things that nobody can understand! Which way is it, Professor? Up or down?’
‘Neither!’ said the Professor, gently clapping his hands. ‘It’s going sideways—if I may so express myself.’
‘And what kind of weather does that produce?’ said the Warden. ‘Listen, children! Now you’ll hear something worth knowing!’
‘Horizontal weather,’ said the Professor, and made straight for the door, very nearly trampling on Bruno, who had only just time to get out of his way.
‘Isn’t he learned?’ the Warden said, looking after him with admiring eyes. ‘Positively he runs over with learning!’
‘But he needn’t run over me!’ said Bruno.
The Professor was back in a moment: he had changed his dressing-gown for a frock-coat, and had put on a pair of very strange-looking boots, the tops of which were open umbrellas. ‘I thought you’d like to see them,’ he said. ‘These are the boots for horizontal weather!’
‘But what’s the use of wearing umbrellas round one’s knees?’
‘In ordinary rain,’ the Professor admitted, ‘they would not be of much use. But if ever it rained horizontally, you know, they would be invaluable—simply invaluable!’
‘Take the Professor to the breakfast-saloon, children,’ said the Warden. ‘And tell them not to wait for me. I had breakfast early, as I’ve some business to attend to.’ The children seized the Professor’s hands, as familiarly as if they had known him for years, and hurried him away. I followed respectfully behind.
Chapter 2
L’Amie Inconnue
As we entered the breakfast-saloon, the Professor was saying ‘—and he had breakfast by himself, early: so he begged you wouldn’t wait for him, my Lady. This way, my Lady,’ he added, ‘this way!’ And then, with (as it seemed to me) most superfluous politeness, he flung open the door of my compartment, and ushered in ‘—a young and lovely lady!’ I muttered to myself with some bitterness. ‘And this is, of course, the opening scene of Vol. I. She is the Heroine. And I am one of those subordinate characters that only turn up when needed for the development of her destiny, and whose final appearance is outside the church, waiting to greet the Happy Pair!’
‘Yes, my Lady, change at Fayfield,’ were the next words I heard (oh that too obsequious Guard!), ‘next station but one.’ And the door closed, and the lady settled down into her corner, and the monotonous throb of the engine (making one feel as if the train were some gigantic monster, whose very circulation we could feel) proclaimed that we were once more speeding on our way. ‘The lady had a perfectly formed nose,’ I caught myself saying to myself, ‘hazel eyes, and lips—’ and here it occurred to me that to see, for myself, what ‘the lady’ was really like, would be more satisfactory than much speculation.
I looked round cautiously, and—was entirely disappointed of my hope. The veil, which shrouded her whole face, was too thick for me to see more than the glitter of bright eyes and the hazy outline of what might be a lovely oval face, but might also, unfortunately, be an equally unlovely one. I closed my eyes again, saying to myself ‘—couldn’t have a better chance for an experiment in Telepathy! I’ll think out her face, and afterwards test the portrait with the original.’
At first, no result at all crowned my efforts, though I ‘divided my swift mind,’ now hither, now thither, in a way that I felt sure would have made Æneas green with envy: but the dimly-seen oval remained as provokingly blank as ever—a mere Ellipse, as if in some mathematical diagram, without even the Foci that might be made to do duty as a nose and a mouth. Gradually, however, the conviction came upon me that I could, by a certain concentration of thought, think the veil away, and so get a glimpse of the mysterious face—as to which the two questions, ‘is she pretty?’ and ‘is she plain?,’ still hung suspended, in my mind, in beautiful equipoise.
Success was partial—and fitful—still there was a result: ever and anon, the veil seemed to vanish, in a sudden flash of light: but, before I could fully realise the face, all was dark again. In each such glimpse, the face seemed to grow more childish and more innocent: and, when I had at last thought the veil entirely away, it was, unmistakeably, the sweet face of little Sylvie!
‘So, either I’ve been dreaming about Sylvie,’ I said to myself, ‘and this is the reality. Or else I’ve really been with Sylvie, and this is a dream! Is Life itself a dream, I wonder?’
To occupy the time, I got out the letter, which had caused me to take this sudden railway-journey from my London home down to a strange fishing-town on the North coast, and read it over again:
‘Dear old friend,
‘I’m sure it will be as great a pleasure to me, as it can possibly be to you, to meet once more after so many years: and of course I shall be ready to give you all the benefit of such medical skill as I have: only, you know, one mustn’t violate professional etiquette! And you are already in the hands of a first-rate London doctor, with whom it would be utter affectation for me to pretend to compete. (I make no doubt he is right in saying the heart is affected: all your symptoms point that way.) One thing, at any rate, I have already done in my doctorial capacity—secured you a bedroom on the ground-floor, so that you will not need to ascend the stairs at all.
‘I shall expect you by last train on Friday, in accordance with your letter: and, till then, I shall say, in the words of the old song, “Oh for Friday nicht! Friday’s lang a-coming!”
‘Yours always,
‘Arthur Forester.
‘P.S. Do you believe in Fate?’
This Postscript puzzled me sorely. ‘He is far too sensible a man,’ I thought, ‘to have become a Fatalist. And yet what else can he mean by it?’ And, as I folded up the letter and put it away, I inadvertently repeated the words aloud. ‘Do you believe in Fate?’
The fair ‘Incognita’ turned her head quickly at the sudden question. ‘No, I don’t!’ she said with a smile. ‘Do you?’
‘I—I didn’t mean to ask the question!’ I stammered, a little taken aback at having begun a conversation in so unconventional a fashion.
The lady’s smile became a laugh—not a mocking laugh, but the laugh of a happy child who is perfectly at her ease. ‘Didn’t you?’ she said. ‘Then it was a case of what you Doctors call “unconscious cerebration”?’
‘I am no Doctor,’ I replied. ‘Do I look so like one? Or what makes you think it?’
She pointed to the book I had been reading, which was so lying that its title, ‘Diseases of the Heart,’ was plainly visible.
‘One needn’t be a Doctor,’ I said, ‘to take an interest in medical books. There’s another class of readers, who are yet more deeply interested—’
‘You mean the Patients?’ she interrupted, while a look of tender pity gave new sweetness to her face. ‘But,’ with an evident wish to avoid a possibly painful topic, ‘one needn’t be either, to take an interest in books of Science. Which contain the greatest amount of Science, do you think, the books, or the minds?’
‘Rather a profound question for a lady!’ I said to myself, holding, with the conceit so natural to Man, that Woman’s intellect is essentially shallow. And I considered a minute before replying. ‘If you mean living minds, I don’t think it’s possible to decide. There is so much written Science that no living person has ever read: and there is so much thought-out Science that hasn’t yet been written. But, if you mean the whole human race, then I think the minds have it: everything, recorded in books, must have once been in some mind, you know.’
‘Isn’t that rather like one of the Rules in Algebra?’ my Lady enquired. (‘Algebra too!’ I thought with increasing wonder.) ‘I mean, if we consider thoughts as factors, may we not say that the Least Common Multiple of all the minds contains that of all the books; but not the other way?’
‘Certainly we may!’ I replied, delighted with the illustration. ‘And what a grand thing it would be,’ I went on dreamily, thinking aloud rather than talking, ‘if we could only apply that Rule to books! You know, in finding the Least Common Multiple, we strike out a quantity wherever it occurs, except in the term where it is raised to its highest power. So we should have to erase every recorded thought, except in the sentence where it is expressed with the greatest intensity.’
My Lady laughed merrily. ‘Some books would be reduced to blank paper, I’m afraid!’ she said.
‘They would. Most libraries would be terribly diminished in bulk. But just think what they would gain in quality!’
‘When will it be done?’ she eagerly asked. ‘If there’s any chance of it in my time, I think I’ll leave off reading, and wait for it!’
‘Well, perhaps in another thousand years or so—’
‘Then there’s no use waiting!’ said my Lady. ‘Let’s sit down. Uggug, my pet, come and sit by me!’
‘Anywhere but by me!’ growled the Sub-Warden. ‘The little wretch always manages to upset his coffee!’
I guessed at once (as perhaps the reader will also have guessed, if, like myself, he is very clever at drawing conclusions) that my Lady was the Sub-Warden’s wife, and that Uggug (a hideous fat boy, about the same age as Sylvie, with the expression of a prize-pig) was their son. Sylvie and Bruno, with the Lord Chancellor, made up a party of seven.
‘And you actually got a plunge-bath every morning?’ said the Sub-Warden, seemingly in continuation of a conversation with the Professor. ‘Even at the little roadside-inns?’
‘Oh, certainly, certainly!’ the Professor replied with a smile on his jolly face. ‘Allow me to explain. It is, in fact, a very simple problem in Hydrodynamics. (That means a combination of Water and Strength.) If we take a plunge-bath, and a man of great strength (such as myself) about to plunge into it, we have a perfect example of this science. I am bound to admit,’ the Professor continued, in a lower tone and with downcast eyes, ‘that we need a man of remarkable strength. He must be able to spring from the floor to about twice his own height, gradually turning over as he rises, so as to come down again head first.’
‘Why, you need a flea, not a man!’ exclaimed the Sub-Warden.
‘Pardon me,’ said the Professor. ‘This particular kind of bath is not adapted for a flea. Let us suppose,’ he continued, folding his table-napkin into a graceful festoon, ‘that this represents what is perhaps the necessity of this Age—the Active Tourist’s Portable Bath. You may describe it briefly, if you like,’ looking at the Chancellor, ‘by the letters A.T.P.B.’
A portable plunge-bath
The Chancellor, much disconcerted at finding everybody looking at him, could only murmur, in a shy whisper, ‘Precisely so!’
‘One great advantage of this plunge-bath,’ continued the Professor, ‘is that it requires only half-a-gallon of water—’
‘I don’t call it a plunge-bath,’ His Sub-Excellency remarked, ‘unless your Active Tourist goes right under!’
‘But he does go right under,’ the old man gently replied. ‘The A.T. hangs up the P.B. on a nail—thus. He then empties the water-jug into it—places the empty jug below the bag—leaps into the air—descends head-first into the bag—the water rises round him to the top of the bag—and there you are!’ he triumphantly concluded. ‘The A.T. is as much under water as if he’d gone a mile or two down into the Atlantic!’
‘And he’s drowned, let us say, in about four minutes—’
‘By no means!’ the Professor answered with a proud smile. ‘After about a minute, he quietly turns a tap at the lower end of the P.B.—all the water runs back into the jug—and there you are again!’
‘But how in the world is he to get out of the bag again?’
‘That, I take it,’ said the Professor, ‘is the most beautiful part of the whole invention. All the way up the P.B., inside, are loops for the thumbs; so it’s something like going up-stairs, only perhaps less comfortable; and, by the time the A.T. has risen out of the bag, all but his head, he’s sure to topple over, one way or the other—the Law of Gravity secures that. And there he is on the floor again!’
‘A little bruised, perhaps?’
‘Well, yes, a little bruised; but having had his plunge-bath: that’s the great thing.’
‘Wonderful! It’s almost beyond belief!’ murmured the Sub-Warden. The Professor took it as a compliment, and bowed with a gratified smile.
‘Quite beyond belief!’ my Lady added—meaning, no doubt, to be more complimentary still. The Professor bowed, but he didn’t smile this time.
‘I can assure you,’ he said earnestly, ‘that, provided the bath was made, I used it every morning. I certainly ordered it—that I am clear about—my only doubt is, whether the man ever finished making it. It’s difficult to remember, after so many years—’
At this moment the door, very slowly and creakingly, began to open, and Sylvie and Bruno jumped up, and ran to meet the well-known footstep.
Chapter 3
Birthday-Presents
‘It’s my brother!’ the Sub-Warden exclaimed, in a warning whisper. ‘Speak out, and be quick about it!’
The appeal was evidently addressed to the Lord Chancellor, who instantly replied, in a shrill monotone, like a little boy repeating the alphabet, ‘As I was remarking, your Sub-Excellency, this portentous movement—’
‘You began too soon!’ the other interrupted, scarcely able to restrain himself to a whisper, so great was his excitement. ‘He couldn’t have heard you. Begin again!’
‘As I was remarking,’ chanted the obedient Lord Chancellor, ‘this portentous movement has already assumed the dimensions of a Revolution!’
‘And what are the dimensions of a Revolution?’ The voice was genial and mellow, and the face of the tall dignified old man, who had just entered the room, leading Sylvie by the hand, and with Bruno riding triumphantly on his shoulder, was too noble and gentle to have scared a less guilty man: but the Lord Chancellor turned pale instantly, and could hardly articulate the words ‘The dimensions—your—your High Excellency? I—I—scarcely comprehend!’
‘Well, the length, breadth, and thickness, if you like it better!’ And the old man smiled, half-contemptuously.
The Lord Chancellor recovered himself with a great effort, and pointed to the open window. ‘If your High Excellency will listen for a moment to the shouts of the exasperated populace—’ (‘of the exasperated populace!’ the Sub-Warden repeated in a louder tone, as the Lord Chancellor, being in a state of abject terror, had dropped almost into a whisper) ‘—you will understand what it is they want.’
And at that moment there surged into the room a hoarse confused cry, in which the only clearly audible words were ‘Less—bread—More—taxes!’ The old man laughed heartily. ‘What in the world—’ he was beginning: but the Chancellor heard him not. ‘Some mistake!’ he muttered, hurrying to the window, from which he shortly returned with an air of relief. ‘Now listen!’ he exclaimed, holding up his hand impressively. And now the words came quite distinctly, and with the regularity of the ticking of a clock, ‘More—bread—Less—taxes!’
‘More bread!’ the Warden repeated in astonishment. ‘Why, the new Government Bakery was opened only last week, and I gave orders to sell the bread at cost-price during the present scarcity! What can they expect more?’
‘The Bakery’s closed, y’reince!’ the Chancellor said, more loudly and clearly than he had spoken yet. He was emboldened by the consciousness that here, at least, he had evidence to produce: and he placed in the Warden’s hands a few printed notices, that were lying ready, with some open ledgers, on a side-table.
‘Yes, yes, I see!’ the Warden muttered, glancing carelessly through them. ‘Order countermanded by my brother, and supposed to be my doing! Rather sharp practise! It’s all right!’ he added in a louder tone. ‘My name is signed to it: so I take it on myself. But what do they mean by “Less Taxes”? How can they be less? I abolished the last of them a month ago!’
‘It’s been put on again, y’reince, and by y’reince’s own orders!’ and other printed notices were submitted for inspection.
The Warden, whilst looking them over, glanced once or twice at the Sub-Warden, who had seated himself before one of the open ledgers, and was quite absorbed in adding it up; but he merely repeated ‘It’s all right. I accept it as my doing.’
‘And they do say,’ the Chancellor went on sheepishly—looking much more like a convicted thief than an Officer of State, ‘that a change of Government, by the abolition of the Sub-Warden—I mean,’ he hastily added, on seeing the Warden’s look of astonishment, ‘the abolition of the office of Sub-Warden, and giving the present holder the right to act as Vice-Warden whenever the Warden is absent—would appease all this seedling discontent, I mean,’ he added, glancing at a paper he held in his hand, ‘all this seething discontent!’
‘For fifteen years,’ put in a deep but very harsh voice, ‘my husband has been acting as Sub-Warden. It is too long! It is much too long!’ My Lady was a vast creature at all times: but, when she frowned and folded her arms, as now, she looked more gigantic than ever, and made one try to fancy what a haystack would look like, if out of temper.
‘He would distinguish himself as a Vice!’ my Lady proceeded, being far too stupid to see the double meaning of her words. ‘There has been no such Vice in Outland for many a long year, as he would be!’
‘What course would you suggest, Sister?’ the Warden mildly enquired.
My Lady stamped, which was undignified: and snorted, which was ungraceful. ‘This is no jesting matter!’ she bellowed.
‘I will consult my brother,’ said the Warden. ‘Brother!’
‘—and seven makes a hundred and ninety-four, which is sixteen and two-pence,’ the Sub-Warden replied. ‘Put down two and carry sixteen.’
The Chancellor raised his hands and eyebrows, lost in admiration. ‘Such a man of business!’ he murmured.
‘Brother, could I have a word with you in my Study?’ the Warden said in a louder tone. The Sub-Warden rose with alacrity, and the two left the room together.
My Lady turned to the Professor, who had uncovered the urn, and was taking its temperature with his pocket-thermometer. ‘Professor!’ she began, so loudly and suddenly that even Uggug, who had gone to sleep in his chair, left off snoring and opened one eye. The Professor pocketed his thermometer in a moment, clasped his hands, and put his head on one side with a meek smile
‘You were teaching my son before breakfast, I believe?’ my Lady loftily remarked. ‘I hope he strikes you as having talent?’
‘Oh, very much so indeed, my Lady!’ the Professor hastily replied, unconsciously rubbing his ear, while some painful recollection seemed to cross his mind. ‘I was very forcibly struck by His Magnificence, I assure you!’
‘He is a charming boy!’ my Lady exclaimed. ‘Even his snores are more musical than those of other boys!’
If that were so, the Professor seemed to think, the snores of other boys must be something too awful to be endured: but he was a cautious man, and he said nothing.
‘And he’s so clever!’ my Lady continued. ‘No one will enjoy your Lecture more—by the way, have you fixed the time for it yet? You’ve never given one, you know: and it was promised years ago, before you—’
‘Yes, yes, my Lady, I know! Perhaps next Tuesday—or Tuesday week—’
‘That will do very well,’ said my Lady, graciously. ‘Of course you will let the Other Professor lecture as well?’
‘I think not, my Lady,’ the Professor said with some hesitation. ‘You see, he always stands with his back to the audience. It does very well for reciting; but for lecturing—’
‘You are quite right,’ said my Lady. ‘And, now I come to think of it, there would hardly be time for more than one Lecture. And it will go off all the better, if we begin with a Banquet, and a Fancy-dress Ball—’
‘It will indeed!’ the Professor cried, with enthusiasm.
‘I shall come as a Grass-hopper,’ my Lady calmly proceeded. ‘What shall you come as, Professor?’
The Professor smiled feebly. ‘I shall come as—as early as I can, my Lady!’
‘You mustn’t come in before the doors are opened,’ said my Lady.
‘I ca’n’t,’ said the Professor. ‘Excuse me a moment. As this is Lady Sylvie’s birthday, I would like to—’ and he rushed away.
Bruno began feeling in his pockets, looking more and more melancholy as he did so: then he put his thumb in his mouth, and considered for a minute: then he quietly left the room.
He had hardly done so before the Professor was back again, quite out of breath. ‘Wishing you many happy returns of the day, my dear child!’ he went on, addressing the smiling little girl, who had run to meet him. ‘Allow me to give you a birthday-present. It’s a second-hand pincushion, my dear. And it only cost fourpence-halfpenny!’
‘Thank you, it’s very pretty!’ And Sylvie rewarded the old man with a hearty kiss.
‘And the pins they gave me for nothing!’ the Professor added in high glee. ‘Fifteen of ’em, and only one bent!’
‘I’ll make the bent one into a hook!’ said Sylvie. ‘To catch Bruno with, when he runs away from his lessons!’
‘You ca’n’t guess what my present is!’ said Uggug, who had taken the butter-dish from the table, and was standing behind her, with a wicked leer on his face.
‘No, I ca’n’t guess,’ Sylvie said without looking up. She was still examining the Professor’s pincushion.
‘It’s this!’ cried the bad boy, exultingly, as he emptied the dish over her, and then, with a grin of delight at his own cleverness, looked round for applause.
Sylvie coloured crimson, as she shook off the butter from her frock: but she kept her lips tight shut, and walked away to the window, where she stood looking out and trying to recover her temper.
Uggug’s triumph was a very short one: the Sub-Warden had returned, just in time to be a witness of his dear child’s playfulness, and in another moment a skilfully-applied box on the ear had changed the grin of delight into a howl of pain.
‘My darling!’ cried his mother, enfolding him in her fat arms. ‘Did they box his ears for nothing? A precious pet!’
‘It’s not for nothing!’ growled the angry father. ‘Are you aware, Madam, that I pay the house-bills, out of a fixed annual sum? The loss of all that wasted butter falls on me! Do you hear, Madam?’
‘Hold your tongue, Sir!’ My Lady spoke very quietly—almost in a whisper. But there was something in her look which silenced him. ‘Don’t you see it was only a joke? And a very clever one, too! He only meant that he loved nobody but her! And, instead of being pleased with the compliment, the spiteful little thing has gone away in a huff!’
The Sub-Warden was a very good hand at changing a subject. He walked across to the window. ‘My dear,’ he said, ‘is that a pig that I see down below, rooting about among your flower-beds?’ [ to 1st preface][ to 2nd preface]
‘A pig!’ shrieked my Lady, rushing madly to the window, and almost pushing her husband out, in her anxiety to see for herself. ‘Whose pig is it? How did it get in? Where’s that crazy Gardener gone?’
At this moment Bruno re-entered the room, and passing Uggug (who was blubbering his loudest, in the hope of attracting notice) as if he was quite used to that sort of thing, he ran up to Sylvie and threw his arms round her. ‘I went to my toy-cupboard,’ he said with a very sorrowful face, ‘to see if there were somefin fit for a present for oo! And there isn’t nuffin! They’s all broken, every one! And I haven’t got no money left, to buy oo a birthday-present! And I ca’n’t give oo nuffin but this!’ (‘This’ was a very earnest hug and a kiss.)
‘Oh, thank you, darling!’ cried Sylvie. ‘I like your present best of all!’ (But if so, why did she give it back so quickly?)
His Sub-Excellency turned and patted the two children on the head with his long lean hands. ‘Go away, dears!’ he said. ‘There’s business to talk over.’
Sylvie and Bruno went away hand in hand: but, on reaching the door, Sylvie came back again and went up to Uggug timidly. ‘I don’t mind about the butter,’ she said, ‘and I—I’m sorry he hurt you!’ And she tried to shake hands with the little ruffian: but Uggug only blubbered louder, and wouldn’t make friends. Sylvie left the room with a sigh.
The Sub-Warden glared angrily at his weeping son. ‘Leave the room, Sirrah!’ he said, as loud as he dared. His wife was still leaning out of the window, and kept repeating ‘I ca’n’t see that pig! Where is it?’
‘It’s moved to the right—now it’s gone a little to the left,’ said the Sub-Warden: but he had his back to the window, and was making signals to the Lord Chancellor, pointing to Uggug and the door, with many a cunning nod and wink.
The Chancellor caught his meaning at last, and, crossing the room, took that interesting child by the ear—the next moment he and Uggug were out of the room, and the door shut behind them: but not before one piercing yell had rung through the room, and reached the ears of the fond mother.
‘What is that hideous noise?’ she fiercely asked, turning upon her startled husband.
‘It’s some hyæna—or other,’ replied the Sub-Warden, looking vaguely up to the ceiling, as if that was where they usually were to be found. ‘Let us to business, my dear. Here comes the Warden.’ And he picked up from the floor a wandering scrap of manuscript, on which I just caught the words ‘after which Election duly holden the said Sibimet and Tabikat his wife may at their pleasure assume Imperial—’ before, with a guilty look, he crumpled it up in his hand. [•]
Chapter 4
A Cunning Conspiracy
The Warden entered at this moment: and close behind him came the Lord Chancellor, a little flushed and out of breath, and adjusting his wig, which appeared to have been dragged partly off his head.
‘But where is my precious child?’ my Lady enquired, as the four took their seats at the small side-table devoted to ledgers and bundles and bills.
‘He left the room a few minutes ago—with the Lord Chancellor,’ the Sub-Warden briefly explained.
‘Ah!’ said my Lady, graciously smiling on that high official. ‘Your Lordship has a very taking way with children! I doubt if any one could gain the ear of my darling Uggug so quickly as you can!’ For an entirely stupid woman, my Lady’s remarks were curiously full of meaning, of which she herself was wholly unconscious.
The Chancellor bowed, but with a very uneasy air. ‘I think the Warden was about to speak,’ he remarked, evidently anxious to change the subject.
But my Lady would not be checked. ‘He is a clever boy,’ she continued with enthusiasm, ‘but he needs a man like your Lordship to draw him out!’
The Chancellor bit his lip, and was silent. He evidently feared that, stupid as she looked, she understood what she said this time, and was having a joke at his expense. He might have spared himself all anxiety: whatever accidental meaning her words might have, she herself never meant anything at all.
‘It is all settled!’ the Warden announced, wasting no time over preliminaries. ‘The Sub-Wardenship is abolished, and my brother is appointed to act as Vice-Warden whenever I am absent. So, as I am going abroad for a while, he will enter on his new duties at once.’
‘And there will really be a Vice after all?’ my Lady enquired.
‘I hope so!’ the Warden smilingly replied.
My Lady looked much pleased, and tried to clap her hands: but you might as well have knocked two feather-beds together, for any noise it made. ‘When my husband is Vice,’ she said, ‘it will be the same as if we had a hundred Vices!’
‘Hear, hear!’ cried the Sub-Warden.
‘You seem to think it very remarkable,’ my Lady remarked with some severity, ‘that your wife should speak the truth!’
‘No, not remarkable at all!’ her husband anxiously explained. ‘Nothing is remarkable that you say, sweet one!’
My Lady smiled approval of the sentiment, and went on. ‘And am I Vice-Wardeness?’
‘If you choose to use that title,’ said the Warden: ‘but “Your Excellency” will be the proper style of address. And I trust that both “His Excellency” and “Her Excellency” will observe the Agreement I have drawn up. The provision I am most anxious about is this.’ He unrolled a large parchment scroll, and read aloud the words ‘“item, that we will be kind to the poor.” The Chancellor worded it for me,’ he added, glancing at that great Functionary. ‘I suppose, now, that word “item” has some deep legal meaning?’
‘Undoubtedly!’ replied the Chancellor, as articulately as he could with a pen between his lips. He was nervously rolling and unrolling several other scrolls, and making room among them for the one the Warden had just handed to him. ‘These are merely the rough copies,’ he explained: ‘and, as soon as I have put in the final corrections—’ making a great commotion among the different parchments, ‘—a semi-colon or two that I have accidentally omitted—’ here he darted about, pen in hand, from one part of the scroll to another, spreading sheets of blotting-paper over his corrections, ‘all will be ready for signing.’
‘Should it not be read out, first?’ my Lady enquired.
‘No need, no need!’ the Sub-Warden and the Chancellor exclaimed at the same moment, with feverish eagerness.
