The Wish House and Other Stories

  By woman wailing for her demon-lover.

  But though I believed my brain thus occupied, my every sense hung upon the writing under the dry, bony hand, all brown-fingered with chemicals and cigarette-smoke.

  Our windows fronting on the dangerous foam,

  (he wrote, after long, irresolute snatches), and then –

  Our open casements facing desolate seas

  Forlorn – forlorn –

  Here again his face grew peaked and anxious with that sense of loss I had first seen when the Power snatched him. But this time the agony was tenfold keener. As I watched it mounted like mercury in the tube. It lighted his face from within till I thought the visibly scourged soul must leap forth naked between his jaws, unable to endure. A drop of sweat trickled from my forehead down my nose and splashed on the back of my hand.

  Our windows facing on the desolate seas

  And pearly foam of magic fairyland –

  ‘Not yet – not yet,’ he muttered, ‘wait a minute. Please wait a minute. I shall get it then –

  Our magic windows fronting on the sea,

  The dangerous foam of desolate seas…

  For aye.

  Ouh, my God!’

  From head to heel he shook – shook from the marrow of his bones outwards – then leaped to his feet with raised arms, and slid the chair screeching across the tiled floor where it struck the drawers behind and fell with a jar. Mechanically, I stooped to recover it.

  As I rose, Mr Shaynor was stretching and yawning at leisure.

  ‘I’ve had a bit of a doze,’ he said. ‘How did I come to knock the chair over? You look rather —‘

  ‘The chair startled me,’ I answered. ‘It was so sudden in this quiet.’

  Young Mr Cashell behind his shut door was offendedly silent.

  ‘I suppose I must have been dreaming,’ said Mr Shaynor.

  ‘I suppose you must,’ I said. ‘Talking of dreams – I – I noticed you writing – before —‘

  He flushed consciously.

  ‘I meant to ask you if you’ve ever read anything written by a man called Keats.’

  ‘Oh! I haven’t much time to read poetry, and I can’t say that I remember the name exactly. Is he a popular writer?’

  ‘Middling. I thought you might know him because he’s the only poet who was ever a druggist. And he’s rather what’s called the lover’s poet.’

  ‘Indeed. I must dip into him. What did he write about?’

  ‘A lot of things. Here’s a sample that may interest you.’

  Then and there, carefully, I repeated the verse he had twice spoken and once written not ten minutes ago.

  ‘Ah! Anybody could see he was a druggist from that line about the tinctures and syrups. It’s a fine tribute to our profession.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said young Mr Cashell, with icy politeness, opening the door one half-inch, ‘if you still happen to be interested in our trifling experiments. But, should such be the case —‘

  I drew him aside, whispering, ‘Shaynor seemed going off into some sort of fit when I spoke to you just now. I thought, even at the risk of being rude, it wouldn’t do to take you off your instruments just as the call was coming through. Don’t you see?’

  ‘Granted – granted as soon as asked,’ he said, unbending. ‘I did think it a shade odd at the time. So that was why he knocked the chair down?’

  ‘I hope I haven’t missed anything,’ I said.

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t say that, but you’re just in time for the end of a rather curious performance. You can come in too, Mr Shaynor. Listen, while I read it off.’

  The Morse instrument was ticking furiously. Mr Cashell interpreted: “‘K.K.V. Can make nothing of your signals.”’ A pause. ‘“M.M.V. M.M.V. Signals unintelligible. Purpose anchor Sandown Bay. Examine instruments tomorrow.” Do you know what that means? It’s a couple of men-o’-war working Marconi signals off the Isle of Wight. They are trying to talk to each other. Neither can read the other’s messages, but all their messages are being taken in by our receiver here. They’ve been going on for ever so long. I wish you could have heard it.’

  ‘How wonderful!’ I said. ‘Do you mean we’re overhearing Portsmouth ships trying to talk to each other – that we’re eavesdropping across half South England?’

  ‘Just that. Their transmitters are all right, but their receivers are out of order, so they only get a dot here and a dash there. Nothing clear.’

  ‘Why is that?’

  ‘God knows – and science will know tomorrow. Perhaps the induction is faulty; perhaps the receivers aren’t tuned to receive just the number of vibrations per second that the transmitter sends. Only a word here and there. Just enough to tantalize.’

  Again the Morse sprang to life.

  ‘That’s one of ’em complaining now. Listen: “Disheartening – most disheartening.” It’s quite pathetic. Have you ever seen a spiritualistic séance? It reminds me of that sometimes – odds and ends of messages coming out of nowhere – a word here and there – no good at all.’

  ‘But mediums are all imposters,’ said Mr Shaynor, in the doorway, lighting an asthma-cigarette. ‘They only do it for the money they can make. I’ve seen ’em.’

  ‘Here’s Poole, at last-clear as a bell. L.L.L. Now we shan’t be long.’ Mr Cashell rattled the keys merrily. ‘Anything you’d like to tell ’em?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘I’ll go home and get to bed. I’m feeling a little tired.’

  THE RETURN OF THE CHILDREN

  Neither the harps nor the crowns amused, nor the cherubs’ dove-winged races –

  Holding hands forlornly the Children wandered beneath the Dome;

  Plucking the radiant robes of the passers-by, and with pitiful faces

  Begging what Princes and Powers refused: ‘Ah, please will you let us go home?’

  Over the jewelled floor, nigh weeping, ran to them Mary the Mother,

  Kneeled and caressed and made promise with kisses, and drew them along to the gateway–

  Yea, the all-iron unbribeable Door which Peter must guard and none other.

  Straightway She took the Keys from his keeping, and opened and freed them straightway.

  Then to Her Son, Who had seen and smiled, She said: ‘On the night that I bore Thee

  What didst Thou care for a love beyond mine or a heaven that was not my arm?

  Didst Thou push from the nipple, O Child, to hear the angels adore Thee?

  When we two lay in the breath of the kine?’ And He said: – ‘Thou hast done no harm.’

  So through the Void the Children ran homeward merrily hand in hand,

  Looking neither to left nor right where the breathless Heavens stood still;

  And the Guards of the Void resheathed their swords, for they heard the Command:

  ‘Shall I that have suffered the children to come to me hold them against their will?’

  ‘They’

  ONE view called me to another; one hilltop to its fellow, half across the county, and since I could answer at no more trouble than the snapping forward of a lever, I let the county flow under my wheels. The orchid-studded flats of the East gave way to the thyme, ilex, and grey grass of the Downs; these again to the rich cornland and fig-trees of the lower coast, where you carry the beat of the tide on your left hand for fifteen level miles; and when at last I turned inland through a huddle of rounded hills and woods I had run myself clean out of my known marks. Beyond that precise hamlet which stands godmother to the capital of the United States, I found hidden villages where bees, the only things awake, boomed in eighty-foot lindens that overhung grey Norman churches; miraculous brooks diving under stone bridges built for heavier traffic than would ever vex them again; tithe-barns larger than their churches, and an old smithy that cried out aloud how it had once been a hall of the Knights of the Temple. Gypsies I found on a common where the gorse, bracken, and heath fought it out together up a mile of Roman road; and a little farther on I disturbe
d a red fox rolling dog-fashion in the naked sunlight.

  As the wooded hills closed about me I stood up in the car to take the bearings of that great Down whose ringed head is a landmark for fifty miles across the low countries. I judged that the lie of the country would bring me across some westward-running road that went to his feet, but I did not allow for the confusing veils of the woods. A quick turn plunged me first into a green cutting brim-full of liquid sunshine, next into a gloomy tunnel where last year’s dead leaves whispered and scuffled about my tyres. The strong hazel stuff meeting overhead had not been cut for a couple of generations at least, nor had any axe helped the moss-cankered oak and beech to spring above them. Here the road changed frankly into a carpeted ride on whose brown velvet spent primrose-clumps showed like jade, and a few sickly, white-stalked bluebells nodded together. As the slope favoured I shut off the power and slid over the whirled leaves, expecting every moment to meet a keeper; but I only heard a jay, far off, arguing against the silence under the twilight of the trees.

  Still the track descended. I was on the point of reversing and working my way back on the second speed ere I ended in some swamp, when I saw sunshine through the tangle ahead and lifted the brake.

  It was down again at once. As the light beat across my face my fore-wheels took the turf of a great still lawn from which sprang horsemen ten feet high with levelled lances, monstrous peacocks, and sleek round-headed maids of honour – blue, black, and glistening – all of clipped yew. Across the lawn – the marshalled woods besieged it on three sides – stood an ancient house of lichened and weather-worn stone, with mullioned windows and roofs of rose-red tile. It was flanked by semi-circular walls, also rose-red, that closed the lawn on the fourth side, and at their feet a box hedge grew man-high. There were doves on the roof about the slim brick chimneys, and I caught a glimpse of an octagonal dove-house behind the screening wall.

  Here, then, I stayed: a horseman’s green spear laid at my breast; held by the exceeding beauty of that jewel in that setting.

  ‘If I am not packed off for a trespasser, or if this knight does not ride a wallop at me,’ thought I, ‘Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth at least must come out of that half-open garden door and ask me to tea.’

  A child appeared at an upper window, and I thought the little thing waved a friendly hand. But it was to call a companion, for presently another bright head showed. Then I heard a laugh among the yew-peacocks, and turning to make sure (till then I had been watching the house only) I saw the silver of a fountain behind a hedge thrown up against the sun. The doves on the roof cooed to the cooing water; but between the two notes I caught the utterly happy chuckle of a child absorbed in some light mischief.

  The garden door-heavy oak sunk deep in the thickness of the wall – opened further: a woman in a big garden hat set her foot slowly on the time-hallowed stone step and as slowly walked across the turf. I was forming some apology when she lifted up her head, and I saw that she was blind.

  ‘I heard you,’ she said. ‘Isn’t that a motor car?’

  ‘I’m afraid I’ve made a mistake in my road. I should have turned off up above – I never dreamed —‘ I began.

  ‘But I’m very glad. Fancy a motor car coming into the garden! It will be such a treat—‘ She turned and made as though looking about her. ‘You – you haven’t seen any one, have you – perhaps?’

  ‘No one to speak to, but the children seemed interested at a distance.’

  ‘Which?’

  ‘I saw a couple up at the window just now, and I think I heard a little chap in the grounds.’

  ‘Oh, lucky you!’ she cried, and her face brightened. ‘I hear them, of course, but that’s all. You’ve seen them and heard them?’

  ‘Yes,’ I answered. ‘And if I know anything of children, one of them’s having a beautiful time by the fountain yonder. Escaped, I should imagine.’

  ‘You’re fond of children?’

  I gave her one or two reasons why I did not altogether hate them.

  ‘Of course, of course,’ she said. ‘Then you understand. Then you won’t think it foolish if I ask you to take your car though the gardens, once or twice – quite slowly. I’m sure they’d like to see it. They see so little, poor things. One tries to make their lives pleasant, but—‘ she threw out her hands towards the woods. ‘We’re so out of the world here.’

  ‘That will be splendid,’ I said. ‘But I can’t cut up your grass.’

  She faced to the right. ‘Wait a minute,’ she said. ‘We’re at the South gate, aren’t we? Behind those peacocks there’s a flagged path. We call it the Peacocks’ Walk. You can’t see it from here, they tell me, but if you squeeze along by the edge of the wood you can turn at the first peacock and get on to the flags.’

  It was sacrilege to wake that dreaming house-front with the clatter of machinery, but I swung the car to clear the turf, brushed along the edge of the wood and turned in on the broad stone path where the fountain-basin lay like one star-sapphire.

  ‘May I come too?’ she cried. ‘No, please don’t help me. They’ll like it better if they see me.’

  She felt her way lightly to the front of the car, and with one foot on the step she called: ‘Children, oh, children! Look and see what’s going to happen!’

  The voice would have drawn lost souls from the Pit, for the yearning that underlay its sweetness, and I was not surprised to hear an answering shout behind the yews. It must have been the child by the fountain, but he fled at our approach, leaving a little toy boat in the water. I saw the glint of his blue blouse among the still horsemen.

  Very disposedly we paraded the length of the walk and at her request backed again. This time the child had got the better of his panic, but stood far off and doubting.

  ‘The little fellow’s watching us,’ I said. ‘I wonder if he’d like a ride.’

  ‘They’re very shy still. Very shy. But, oh, lucky you to be able to see them! Let’s listen.’

  I stopped the machine at once, and the humid stillness, heavy with the scent of box, cloaked us deep. Shears I could hear where some gardener was clipping; a mumble of bees and broken voices that might have been the doves.

  ‘Oh, unkind!’ she said weariedly.

  ‘Perhaps they’re only shy of the motor. The little maid at the window looks tremendously interested.’

  ‘Yes?’ She raised her head. ‘It was wrong of me to say that. They are really fond of me. It’s the only thing that makes life worth living-when they’re fond of you, isn’t it? I daren’t think what the place would be without them. By the way, is it beautiful?’

  ‘I think it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen.’

  ‘So they all tell me. I can feel it, of course, but that isn’t quite the same thing.’

  ‘Then have you never —?’ I began, but stopped abashed.

  ‘Not since I can remember. It happened when I was only a few months old, they tell me. And yet I must remember something, else how could I dream about colours. I see light in my dreams, and colours, but I never see them. I only hear them just as I do when I’m awake.’

  ‘It’s difficult to see faces in dreams. Some people can, but most of us haven’t the gift,’ I went on, looking up at the window where the child stood all but hidden.

  ‘I’ve heard that too,’ she said. ‘And they tell me that one never sees a dead person’s face in a dream. Is that true?’

  ‘I believe it is – now I come to think of it.’

  ‘But how is it with yourself – yourself?’ The blind eyes turned towards me.

  ‘I have never seen the faces of my dead in any dream,’ I answered.

  ‘Then it must be as bad as being blind.’

  The sun had dipped behind the woods and the long shades were possessing the insolent horsemen one by one. I saw the light die from off the top of a glossy-leafed lance and all the brave hard green turn to soft black. The house, accepting another day at its end, as it had accepted an hundred thousand gone, seemed to settle
deeper into its rest among the shadows.

  ‘Have you ever wanted to?’ she said after the silence.

  ‘Very much sometimes,’ I replied. The child had left the window as the shadows closed upon it.

  ‘Ah! So’ve I, but I don’t suppose it’s allowed…Where d’you live?’

  ‘Quite the other side of the county – sixty miles and more, and I must be going back. I’ve come without my big lamps.’

  ‘But it’s not dark yet. I can feel it.’

  ‘I’m afraid it will be by the time I get home. Could you lend me someone to set me on my road at first? I’ve utterly lost myself.’

  ‘I’ll send Madden with you to the crossroads. We are so out of the world, I don’t wonder you were lost! I’ll guide you round to the front of the house; but you will go slowly, won’t you, till you’re out of the grounds? It isn’t foolish, do you think?’

  ‘I promise you I’ll go like this,’ I said, and let the car start herself down the flagged path.

  We skirted the left wing of the house, whose elaborately cast lead guttering alone was worth a day’s journey; passed under a great rose-grown gate in the red wall, and so round to the high front of the house, which in beauty and stateliness as much excelled the back as that all others I had seen.

  ‘Is it so very beautiful?’ she said wistfully when she heard my raptures. ‘And you like the lead figures too? There’s the old azalea garden behind. They say that this place must have been made for children. Will you help me out, please? I should like to come with you as far as the crossroads, but I mustn’t leave them. Is that you, Madden? I want you to show this gentleman the way to the crossroads. He has lost his way, but – he has seen them.’

  A butler appeared noiselessly at the miracle of old oak that must be called the front door, and slipped aside to put on his hat. She stood looking at me with open blue eyes in which no sight lay, and I saw for the first time that she was beautiful.

  ‘Remember,’ she said quietly, ‘if you are fond of them you will come again,’ and disappeared within the house.