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Fantasy

PART V. (continued 2)

Henry Harland translation

“Raise the hood, and drive to Centurano,” she said to the driver of a fly. Only once, in passing the Palazzo Reale, solemn, silent, and closed, pale with the solitude that had once more fallen upon it, she leant forward to contemplate it, a stretch of park, and far, far away a white line that was the waterfall, through the arch of the great gate. But she drew herself back immediately, and did not look out again through the rest of the drive. The short winter twilight deepened; a fresh breeze blew over the ploughed fields and the bare trees.

The villas of Centurano were nearly all closed, except two or three that were inhabited by their owners all the year round. Little lights shone in the dwellings of the tenantry. Matteo, who was leaning against the portico quietly smoking his pipe, did not at first recognise his mistress until she had paid the driver. After the latter had wished her “una santa notte” (a holy good-night), he turned and drove away.

“O Signorina.... O Signorina....” stammered Matteo, in confusion, hiding his pipe behind his back.

“Good evening, Matteo; is it open up there?”

“I have the key here, Signora.”

“Can one pass a night here?”

“Certainly, Signora; it is always ready—beds made, floors swept.”

Taking an oil-lamp from his room on the ground-floor, he led the way upstairs, jingling his keys as he went.

“And the Signore, will he be here soon?”

“No, the Signore is not coming. I can manage without him.”

“I wanted to show him how fit Fox and Diana are. They are getting so fat, from having nothing to do.”

“I will tell him to-morrow.”

“Shall you stay here to-night, Signorina?”

“Just for one night. I must find some important documents, and I had no one I could send.”

“But about dinner, Signorina? If you don’t mind it, Carmela can toss you up an omelette and a handful of vermicelli with tomato sauce. Of course, it’s no food for you, but for once....”

“I have dined at Naples; I don’t want anything.”

Despite Matteo’s care, the upstairs department looked cold, dreary, and unhabited. She shivered when she entered the drawing-room, where she had passed so much of her country life.

“No; we’ll soon have a fire burning in the grate.”

While he knelt down and blew the lighted wood she drew off her gloves, stretched them, and placed them on the table.

“Beg pardon, Signorina, but how is the Signora Donna Lucia?”

“She’s well.”

“All the better, poor young thing; she was always so sickly. And that husband of hers, who hadn’t a ha’p’orth of health, the Signor Don Alberto, how is he?”

“He’s ill.”

“The severe weather, eh? But when the Lord calls we must obey.”

“True, Matteo; so the house is in order.”

“From top to bottom, Signorina mia. What you have told me to do, that I have done. The Signora Donna Lucia’s room is just as she left it. Would you like to see it?”

“Let’s see it.”

She followed Matteo, who carried a light, into the room. On the threshold she was arrested by the same shivering sensation.

“Every morning I air the room and let in the sun. Carmela sweeps, I dust. Look, look, Signorina, there is no dust. Tell the Signore....”

“Yes, I will tell him. Shut the door, Matteo; we will go to mine.”

They went there. When they got inside her teeth began to chatter.

“Shall I light the fire in here, too, Signorina?”

“Yes, light it, and bring me another lamp.”

She took off her furs and threw them on the bed. The room was full of shadows, which the faint light of the wick of the lamp he held, of the kind in use among the peasantry, did not dispel. Matteo returned with a larger lamp. She took her place on the sofa. Matteo remained standing before her, as if he were ready to make his report.

“Well, what news?” inquired Caterina, seeing that Matteo wished to be questioned.

“It happened a week ago that the wind was very high, and through the forgetfulness of Carmela, who had left the windows open, four panes were broken in the dining-room.”

“Have you had them replaced?”

“Certainly.”

“You will put them on the bill?”

“Don Claudio, the parish priest, called. They want a new roof to the church, and count on the charity of the faithful. He says that he hopes that the Signorina, who gives so much away in alms, won’t forget the church.”

“What did you say?”

“That he must write to you at Naples.”

“That was right. And what else?”

“And then the Mariagrazia’s boy died.”

“That fine child?”

“Gnorsi[3]: Mariagrazia has been at death’s door herself, saving your presence.”

“You will tell Mariagrazia how sorry I am for her. What is she going to do?”

“She is going to service in Naples, poor woman. Did Pepe Guardino go to Naples?”

“Yes, he came.”

“Then he must have given you the message about the millstone that split. Have I told you all? Yes, it seems to me that I have. No; I was forgetting the best. One day that she was dusting, Carmela found a paper, with writing, under the clock. She always meant to put it in an envelope and send it you, Signorina. Then, as I had to go to Naples, I said, 'I will take it to the Signora myself.’ Shall I go and fetch it?”

“Go,” she said.

A slight expression of fatigue came over her face, the heavy lids dropped for want of rest. The warmth from the grate had overcome the sensation of cold. She tried to shake off the torpor. Matteo returned, carrying a sheet of foreign letter-paper, folded into microscopic compass.

“As neither Carmela nor I can read, your fate might have been written here, and we should have been none the wiser.”

She opened the sheet and read it. Its perusal made no visible impression on her. She put it in her pocket.

“It is a list of certain things that I had forgotten. You can go to bed, Matteo.”

“There is nothing I can do for you?”

“Nothing else.”

“Don’t be afraid of anything, Signorina. I shall be here below. The bell rings in my room; if you want anything, ring.”

“I will, if I want anything. But I shall not want anything.”

“What time will you have your coffee in the morning? Carmela knows how to make coffee.”

“At nine. I shall leave by the twelve o’clock train.”

“The gig at the door at eleven, then?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want anything else, Signorina?”

“No.”

“Do you want to write?”

“I have nothing to write to any one.”

“I am going to supper; a leaf or two of salad and a scrap of cheese, and then to bed; but always ready for your Excellency’s service. Perhaps you’d like your bed warmed?”

“No.”

“It would be no trouble to light a bit of fire in the kitchen.”

“No.”

“Good-night, Signorina; sleep well.”

“Good-night, Matteo.”

He went away with his lamp, closing the door behind him. She heard the steps dying away in the distance, and the last door close. At that moment the clock struck half-past eight. She fell back on the sofa, as pale as though she had fainted.

She waited for two hours without rising from the sofa, in a species of stupor that made her limbs ache. She heard the quarters ring while she counted them. The fire in the grate had gradually turned to ashes, leaving a tepid warmth in the room. She turned her back on the moon. When the clock struck twelve she rose to her feet. The two hours’ rest had restored her strength. She went to the window, but could not distinguish anything. Then, without moving the light, she entered the drawing-room, one window of which overlooked the courtyard. There was no light in Matteo’s room; he must have been asleep, for two hours profound silence reigned in the house.

Then she thought the hour had come. She returned to her room, and with infinite precaution passed out of it again through the drawing-room, the billiard-room, the dining-room, and the ante-chamber. She shaded the light with her hand, and as she passed through the room her little black shadow grew, as it was projected on the wall, to giant stature. She passed a landing, descended two steps, and entered the kitchen. She rested the light on a marble table, crossed the kitchen on tiptoe, placed a chair against the panelling, and unhooked from the wall, where it hung amid shining saucepans and moulds, a copper brazier, with brass feet fashioned like cat’s claws. It was heavy, and the weight of it nearly threw her down. She placed it on the ground near the hearth; then, stooping over the arched angle where coals were kept, she noiselessly took up some pieces of coke with the tongs and filled the brazier with them one by one. She blew the coal off her fingers, but when she came to raise the brazier she found that it needed the support of her two hands, and that it was not possible to carry the light at the same time. She put it down, and carried the light back to her room. Then, in the dark, she crept back to the kitchen and took the brazier, setting it down before every door, which she closed behind her. She crossed the entire length of the house, carrying the burden that bore her down. She had seen an old newspaper lying in the drawing-room, picked it up, entered her room, and locked the door. When she saw her hands in the lamplight she perceived that the coke had soiled them, and proceeded to wash and dry them carefully. She crossed to the window with the intention of closing the shutters; the stars shone high and bright in the night, and the fountain in the street sang its fresh, eternal melody. She preferred to leave the shutters open, returned to the fireplace, and burned the letter in which Lucia had craved her pity—and the love-letter to Andrea that Matteo had found. She mixed the ashes, as she had done at Naples, so that no trace was left of anything. She took the fur wrap off the bed and laid it on the sofa. Was there anything else to be done? Yes; the keys. She took them out of her pocket and laid them on the mantelshelf, well in sight. That was all she had to do.

Then she placed a chair under the image of the Madonna by the bedside, and, kneeling on the carpet, prayed as she used to pray in her school-days. Her face was buried in her hands; she prayed without looking at the Madonna. She neither wept nor sobbed, nor even sighed. It did not transpire whether she repeated her usual prayers or only told the Virgin her thoughts. It was a long, calm, mute prayer, unbroken by thrill, start, or shiver. Twice she made the sign of the cross, glanced for an instant at the Madonna, and rose. Then she put the chair back in its place. She tore a strip off the newspaper, and folded it in four. This she placed under the door, thereby effectually shutting out the draught. With a small roll of paper she closed the keyhole, from which she had previously withdrawn the key. She tore another strip and placed it under the window. She stopped up a tiny hole that let in the rain-water. She placed her head against the window fastening to feel if there were any draught: no, the two sides closed so accurately that there was none. She looked round, wondering if the air could get in anywhere. No. She drew the brazier into the middle of the room, and, with a strip of paper lighted at the lamp, set fire to two small pieces of coal. She blew the fire to spread it. Then she carried the light to the bedside and unlooped the white curtains, standing a moment absorbed in thought. She turned to look at the brazier; one coal caught fire from another, and the whole mass was gradually becoming incandescent. She felt an increasing weight in her head. Without hesitation she blew out the light, and, drawing the curtains, lay down on the bed, on the place where she had been accustomed to sleep.

The bright winter sun shed its light on a room flooded with a light haze. Behind the white curtains lay a little dead woman. She was dressed in black, her feet outstretched and close together, her head resting on the pillows. She looked like a child, smaller than in life. Her face was of leaden hue. The hair was unruffled, the mouth open as if in the effort to breathe, the lips violet, the chest slightly elevated, and the rest of the body sunken in the bed. The glazed eyes of the little dead woman were wide open, as if in stupefaction at an incredible spectacle; and round the violet fingers of the leaden-hued hands there was twisted part of a broken rosary of lapis-lazuli.

FOOTNOTES:

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There is nothing in which the Anglo-Saxon world differs more from the world of the Continent of Europe than in its fiction. English readers are accustomed to satisfy their curiosity with English novels, and it is rarely indeed that we turn aside to learn something of the interior life of those other countries the exterior scenery of which is often so familiar to us. We climb the Alps, but are content to know nothing of the pastoral romances of Switzerland. We steam in and out of the picturesque fjords of Norway, but never guess what deep speculation into life and morals is made by the novelists of that sparsely peopled but richly endowed nation. We stroll across the courts of the Alhambra, we are listlessly rowed upon Venetian canals and Lombard lakes, we hasten by night through the roaring factories of Belgium; but we never pause to inquire whether there is now flourishing a Spanish, an Italian, a Flemish school of fiction. Of Russian novels we have lately been taught to become partly aware, but we do not ask ourselves whether Poland may not possess a Dostoieffsky and Portugal a Tolstoï.

Yet, as a matter of fact, there is no European country that has not, within the last half-century, felt the dew of revival on the threshing-floor of its worn-out schools of romance. Everywhere there has been shown by young men, endowed with a talent for narrative, a vigorous determination to devote themselves to a vivid and sympathetic interpretation of nature and of man. In almost every language, too, this movement has tended to display itself more and more in the direction of what is reported and less of what is created. Fancy has seemed to these young novelists a poorer thing than observation; the world of dreams fainter than the world of men. They have not been occupied mainly with what might be or what should be, but with what is, and, in spite of all their shortcomings, they have combined to produce a series of pictures of existing society in each of their several countries such as cannot fail to form an archive of documents invaluable to futurity.

But to us they should be still more valuable. To travel in a foreign country is but to touch its surface. Under the guidance of a novelist of genius we penetrate to the secrets of a nation, and talk the very language of its citizens. We may go to Normandy summer after summer and know less of the manner of life that proceeds under those gnarled orchards of apple-blossom than we learn from one tale of Guy de Maupassant’s. The present series is intended to be a guide to the inner geography of Europe. It offers to our readers a series of spiritual Baedekers and Murrays. It will endeavour to keep pace with every truly characteristic and vigorous expression of the novelist’s art in each of the principal European countries, presenting what is quite new if it is also good, side by side with what is old, if it has not hitherto been presented to our public. That will be selected which gives with most freshness and variety the different aspects of continental feeling, the only limits of selection being that a book shall be, on the one hand, amusing, and, on the other, wholesome.

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THE COMPLETE WORKS OF HEINRICH HEINE.

I. PICTURES OF TRAVEL.

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MANUAL OF ASSAYING GOLD, SILVER, COPPER, AND LEAD ORES.

By WALTER LEE BROWN, B.Sc.

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THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF GASES.

By ARTHUR L. KIMBALL, Of the Johns Hopkins University.

CONTENTS.

Introduction. Diffusion and Occlusion.

Pressure and Buoyancy. Thermodynamics of Gases.

Elasticity and Expansion with heat. Avogadro’s Land and the Kinetic Theory.

Gases and Vapours. Geissler Tubes and Radiant Matter.

Air-Pumps and High Vacua. Conclusion.

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HEAT AS A FORM OF ENERGY.

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The Philosophers’ Ideas of Heat. Air and Gas Engines, their Work and their Promise.

The Science of Thermodynamics. The Development of the Steam Engine.

Heat Transfer and the World’s Industries. Summary and Conclusion.

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ESSAYS.

By ROBERT BUCHANAN.

In One Volume, Crown 8vo.

GIRLS AND WOMEN.

By E. CHESTER.

A NEW NOVEL

By OUIDA.

A NEW NOVEL

By FLORENCE WARDEN.

A NEW NOVEL

By HANNAH LYNCH.

Heinemann’s International Library.

Edited by EDMUND GOSSE.

Each Volume will have an Introduction specially written by the Editor.

Just Published.

WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.

A TALE OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.

By COUNT LYON TOLSTOI.

Translated from the Russian by E. J. Dillon, Ph.D.

Glasgow Herald.—“Mr. Gosse gives a brief biographical sketch of Tolstoi, and an interesting estimate of his literary productions.”

Scotsman.—“It is impossible to convey any adequate idea of the simplicity and force with which the work is unfolded; no one who reads the book will dispute its author’s greatness.”

Liverpool Mercury.—“Marked by all the old power of the great Russian novelist.”

Manchester Guardian.—“Readable and well translated; full of high and noble feeling.”

In the Press.

FANTASY.

By MATILDE SERAO.

Translated from the Italian by Henry Harland and Paul Sylvester.

FROTH.

By A. P. VALDÈS.

Translated from the Spanish by CLARA BELL.

THE COMMANDER’S DAUGHTERS.

By JONAS LIE.

Translated by A. L. BRAKSTAD.

THE CHIEF JUSTICE.

By Karl Emil Franzos. Author of “For the Right,” &c.

Translated from the German by Miles Corbet.

Manchester Guardian.—“Simple, forcible, and intensely tragic. It is a very powerful study, singularly grand in its simplicity.”

Sunday Times.—“A series of dramatic scenes welded together with a never-failing interest and skill.”

IN GOD’S WAY.

By Björnstjerne Björnson.

Translated from the Norwegian by Elizabeth Carmichael.

With Introduction by Edmund Gosse.

In One Volume, crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.; or Paper Covers, 2s. 6d.

Athenæum.—“Without doubt the most important, and the most interesting work published during the twelve months.... There are descriptions which certainly belong to the best and cleverest things our literature has ever produced. Amongst the many characters, the doctor’s wife is unquestionably the first. It would be difficult to find anything more tender, soft, and refined than this charming personage.”

Saturday Review.—“The English reader could desire no better introduction to contemporary foreign fiction than this notable novel.”

Speaker.—“'In God’s Way’ is really a notable book, showing the author’s deep insight into character, giving evidence that his hand has lost none of its cunning in the delineation of Scandinavian character, and proving, too, how the widespread spirit of criticism is affecting Northern Europe as elsewhere.”

PIERRE AND JEAN.

By Guy de Maupassant.

Translated from the French by Clara Bell.

With Introduction by Edmund Gosse.

In One Volume, crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.; or Paper Covers, 2s. 6d.

Pall Mall Gazette.—“So fine and faultless, so perfectly balanced, so steadily progressive, so clear and simple and satisfying. It is admirable from beginning to end.”

Athenæum.—“Ranks amongst the best gems of modern French fiction.”

The Books of which the titles follow this have been published during the present year.

THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES

As pleasingly exemplified in many instances, wherein the serious ones of this earth, carefully exasperated, have been prettily spurred on to indiscretions and unseemliness, while overcome by an undue sense of right. By J. M’Neil Whistler. In One Volume, pott 4to, 10s. 6d.

Punch, June 21.—“The book in itself, in its binding, print, and arrangement, is a work of art.”

Punch, June 28.—“A work of rare humour, a thing of beauty and a joy for now and ever.”

THE PASSION PLAY AT OBERAMMERGAU, 1890.

By F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., Archdeacon and Canon of Westminster, &c. &c.

In One Volume, small 4to, 2s. 6d.

Spectator.—“Among the many accounts that have been written this year of 'The Passion Play,’ one of the most picturesque, the most interesting, and the most reasonable, is this sketch of Archdeacon Farrar’s.... This little book will be read with delight by those who have, and by those who have not, visited Oberammergau.”

THE GARDEN’S STORY; or, Pleasures and Trials of an Amateur Gardener.

By G. H. Ellwanger.

With an Introduction by the Rev. C. Wolley Dod.

In One Volume, 12mo, with Illustrations, 5s.

Scotsman.—“Deserves every recommendation that a pleasant-looking page can give it; for it deals with a charming subject in a charming manner. Mr. Ellwanger talks delightfully, with instruction but without pedantry, of the flowers, the insects, and the birds.... It will give pleasure to every reader who takes the smallest interest in flowers, and ought to find many readers.”

New Works of Fiction.

THE BONDMAN. A New Saga.

By Hall Caine.

Fourth Edition (Twelfth Thousand).

In One Volume. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.

Mr. Gladstone.—“The 'Bondman’ is a work of which I recognise the freshness, vigour, and sustained interest no lese than its integrity of aim.”

Count Tolstoi.—“A book I have read with deep interest.”

Standard.—“Its argument is grand, and it is sustained with a power that is almost marvellous.”

IN THE VALLEY. A Novel.

By Harold Frederic, Author of “The Lawton Girl,” “Seth’s Brother’s Wife,” &c. &c.

In Three Volumes. Crown 8vo, with Illustrations.

Athenæum.—“A romantic story book, graphic and exciting, not merely in the central picture itself, but also in its weird surroundings. This is a novel deserving to be read.”

Manchester Examiner.—“Certain to win the reader’s admiration. 'In the Valley’ is a novel that deserves to live.”

Scotsman.—“A work of real ability; it stands apart from the common crowd of three-volume novels.”

A MARKED MAN: Some Episodes in his Life.

By Ada Cambridge, Author of “Two Years’ Time,” “A Mere Chance,” &c. &c.

In Three Volumes, crown 8vo.

Morning Post.—“A depth of feeling, a knowledge of the human heart, and an amount of tact that one rarely finds. Should take a prominent place among the novels of the season.”

Illustrated London News.—“The moral tone of this story, rightly considered, is pure and noble, though it deals with the problem of an unhappy marriage.”

Pall Mall Gazette.—“Contains one of the best written stories of a mésalliance that is to be found in modern fiction.”

THE MOMENT AFTER: A Tale of the Unseen.

By Robert Buchanan.

In One Volume, crown 8vo, 10s. 6d.

Athenæum.—“Should be read—in daylight.”

Observer.—“A clever tour de force.”

Guardian.—“Particularly impressive, graphic, and powerful.”

Bristol Mercury.—“Written with the same poetic feeling and power which have given a rare charm to Mr. Buchanan’s previous prose writings.”

COME FORTH!

By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert D. Ward.

In One Volume, imperial 16mo, 7s. 6d.

Scotsman.—“'Come Forth!’ is the story of the raising of Lazarus, amplified into a dramatic love-story.... It has a simple, forthright dramatic interest such as is seldom attained except in purely imaginative fiction.”

THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS.

By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert D. Ward.

In One Volume, imperial 16mo, 7s. 6d.

The Athenæum.—“A success in Biblical fiction.”

THE DOMINANT SEVENTH: A Musical Story.

By Kate Elizabeth Clark.

In One Volume, crown 8vo, 5s.

Speaker.—“A very romantic story.”

A VERY STRANGE FAMILY: A Novel.

By F. W. Robinson, Author of “Grandmother’s Money,” “Lazarus in London,” &c. &c.

In One Volume, crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.

Glasgow Herald.—“An ingeniously-devised plot, of which the interest is kept up to the very last page. A judicious blending of humour and pathos further helps to make the book delightful reading from start to finish.”

HAUNTINGS: Fantastic Stories.

By Vernon Lee, Author of “Baldwin,” “Miss Brown,” &c. &c.

In One Volume, crown 8vo, 6s.

Pall Mall Gazette.—“Well imagined, cleverly constructed, powerfully executed. 'Dionea’ is a fine and impressive idea, and 'Oke of Okehurst’ a masterly story.”

PASSION THE PLAYTHING. A Novel.

By R. Murray Gilchrist.

In One Volume, crown 8vo, 6s.

Athenæum.—“This well-written story must be read to be appreciated.”

Yorkshire Post.—“A book to lay hold of the reader.”

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN AMERICA.

By Richard T. Ely, Ph.D., Associate in Political Economy, Johns Hopkins University.

In One Volume, crown 8vo, 5s.

Weekly Despatch.—“There is much to interest and instruct.”

Saturday Review.—“Both interesting and valuable.”

England.—“Full of information and thought.”

National Reformer.—“Chapter iii. deals with the growth and present condition of labour organisations in America ... this forms a most valuable page of history.”

ARABIC AUTHORS: A Manual of Arabian History and Literature.

By F.F. Arbuthnot, M.R.A.S., Author of “Early Ideas,” “Persian Portraits,” &c.

In One Volume 8vo, 10s.

Manchester Examiner.—“The whole work has been carefully indexed, and will prove a handbook of the highest value to the student who wishes to gain a better acquaintance with Arabian letters.”

IDLE MUSINGS: Essays in Social Mosaic.

By E. Conder Gray, Author of “Wise Words and Loving Deeds,” &c. &c.

In One Volume, crown 8vo, 6s.

Saturday Review.—“Light, brief, and bright are the 'essays in social mosaic.’ Mr. Gray ranges like a butterfly from high themes to trivial with a good deal of dexterity and a profusion of illustrations.”

Graphic.—“Pleasantly written, will serve admirably to wile away an idle half-hour or two.”

IVY AND PASSION FLOWER: Poems.

By Gerard Bendall, Author of “Estelle,” &c. &c.

12mo, 3s. 6d.

Scotsman.—“Will be read with pleasure.”

Woman.—“There is a delicacy of touch and simplicity about the poems which is very attractive.”

Musical World.—“The poems are delicate specimens of art, graceful and polished.”

VERSES.

By Gertrude Hall.

12mo, 3s. 6d.

Musical World.—“Interesting volume of verse.”

Woman.—“Very sweet and musical.”

Manchester Guardian.—“Will be welcome to every lover of poetry who takes it up.”

London: WM. HEINEMANN, 21, Bedford Street, W.C.

Telegraphic Address—Sunlocks, London.

December 1890.

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