I
MY VISITOR
There are some events of which each circumstance and surrounding detailseems to be graven on the memory in such fashion that we cannot forgetit, and so it is with the scene that I am about to describe. It risesas clearly before my mind at this moment as though it had happened butyesterday.
It was in this very month something over twenty years ago that I, LudwigHorace Holly, was sitting one night in my rooms at Cambridge, grindingaway at some mathematical work, I forget what. I was to go up for myfellowship within a week, and was expected by my tutor and my collegegenerally to distinguish myself. At last, wearied out, I flung my bookdown, and, going to the mantelpiece, took down a pipe and filled it.There was a candle burning on the mantelpiece, and a long, narrow glassat the back of it; and as I was in the act of lighting the pipe I caughtsight of my own countenance in the glass, and paused to reflect. Thelighted match burnt away till it scorched my fingers, forcing me to dropit; but still I stood and stared at myself in the glass, and reflected.
"Well," I said aloud, at last, "it is to be hoped that I shall be ableto do something with the inside of my head, for I shall certainly neverdo anything by the help of the outside."
This remark will doubtless strike anybody who reads it as being slightlyobscure, but I was in reality alluding to my physical deficiencies.Most men of twenty-two are endowed at any rate with some share of thecomeliness of youth, but to me even this was denied. Short, thick-set,and deep-chested almost to deformity, with long sinewy arms, heavyfeatures, deep-set grey eyes, a low brow half overgrown with a mop ofthick black hair, like a deserted clearing on which the forest had oncemore begun to encroach; such was my appearance nearly a quarter of acentury ago, and such, with some modification, it is to this day.Like Cain, I was branded--branded by Nature with the stamp of abnormalugliness, as I was gifted by Nature with iron and abnormal strength andconsiderable intellectual powers. So ugly was I that the spruceyoung men of my College, though they were proud enough of my feats ofendurance and physical prowess, did not even care to be seen walkingwith me. Was it wonderful that I was misanthropic and sullen? Was itwonderful that I brooded and worked alone, and had no friends--at least,only one? I was set apart by Nature to live alone, and draw comfortfrom her breast, and hers only. Women hated the sight of me. Only a weekbefore I had heard one call me a "monster" when she thought I was outof hearing, and say that I had converted her to the monkey theory. Once,indeed, a woman pretended to care for me, and I lavished all the pent-upaffection of my nature upon her. Then money that was to have come to mewent elsewhere, and she discarded me. I pleaded with her as I have neverpleaded with any living creature before or since, for I was caught byher sweet face, and loved her; and in the end by way of answer she tookme to the glass, and stood side by side with me, and looked into it.
"Now," she said, "if I am Beauty, who are you?" That was when I was onlytwenty.
And so I stood and stared, and felt a sort of grim satisfaction in thesense of my own loneliness; for I had neither father, nor mother, norbrother; and as I did so there came a knock at my door.
I listened before I went to open it, for it was nearly twelve o'clock atnight, and I was in no mood to admit any stranger. I had but one friendin the College, or, indeed, in the world--perhaps it was he.
Just then the person outside the door coughed, and I hastened to openit, for I knew the cough.
A tall man of about thirty, with the remains of great personal beauty,came hurrying in, staggering beneath the weight of a massive iron boxwhich he carried by a handle with his right hand. He placed the box uponthe table, and then fell into an awful fit of coughing. He coughed andcoughed till his face became quite purple, and at last he sank intoa chair and began to spit up blood. I poured out some whisky into atumbler, and gave it to him. He drank it, and seemed better; though hisbetter was very bad indeed.
"Why did you keep me standing there in the cold?" he asked pettishly."You know the draughts are death to me."
"I did not know who it was," I answered. "You are a late visitor."
"Yes; and I verily believe it is my last visit," he answered, with aghastly attempt at a smile. "I am done for, Holly. I am done for. I donot believe that I shall see to-morrow."
"Nonsense!" I said. "Let me go for a doctor."
He waved me back imperiously with his hand. "It is sober sense; but Iwant no doctors. I have studied medicine and I know all about it. Nodoctors can help me. My last hour has come! For a year past I haveonly lived by a miracle. Now listen to me as you have never listened toanybody before; for you will not have the opportunity of getting me torepeat my words. We have been friends for two years; now tell me howmuch do you know about me?"
"I know that you are rich, and have had a fancy to come to College longafter the age that most men leave it. I know that you have been married,and that your wife died; and that you have been the best, indeed almostthe only friend I ever had."
"Did you know that I have a son?"
"No."
"I have. He is five years old. He cost me his mother's life, and I havenever been able to bear to look upon his face in consequence. Holly,if you will accept the trust, I am going to leave you that boy's soleguardian."
I sprang almost out of my chair. "_Me!_" I said.
"Yes, you. I have not studied you for two years for nothing. I haveknown for some time that I could not last, and since I realised the factI have been searching for some one to whom I could confide the boy andthis," and he tapped the iron box. "You are the man, Holly; for, like arugged tree, you are hard and sound at core. Listen; the boy will be theonly representative of one of the most ancient families in the world,that is, so far as families can be traced. You will laugh at me whenI say it, but one day it will be proved to you beyond a doubt, that mysixty-fifth or sixty-sixth lineal ancestor was an Egyptian priestof Isis, though he was himself of Grecian extraction, and was calledKallikrates.[*] His father was one of the Greek mercenaries raisedby Hak-Hor, a Mendesian Pharaoh of the twenty-ninth dynasty, and hisgrandfather or great-grandfather, I believe, was that very Kallikratesmentioned by Herodotus.[+] In or about the year 339 before Christ, justat the time of the final fall of the Pharaohs, this Kallikrates (thepriest) broke his vows of celibacy and fled from Egypt with a Princessof Royal blood who had fallen in love with him, and was finally wreckedupon the coast of Africa, somewhere, as I believe, in the neighbourhoodof where Delagoa Bay now is, or rather to the north of it, he and hiswife being saved, and all the remainder of their company destroyed inone way or another. Here they endured great hardships, but were at lastentertained by the mighty Queen of a savage people, a white woman ofpeculiar loveliness, who, under circumstances which I cannot enter into,but which you will one day learn, if you live, from the contents ofthe box, finally murdered my ancestor Kallikrates. His wife, however,escaped, how, I know not, to Athens, bearing a child with her, whom shenamed Tisisthenes, or the Mighty Avenger. Five hundred years or moreafterwards, the family migrated to Rome under circumstances of which notrace remains, and here, probably with the idea of preserving the ideaof vengeance which we find set out in the name of Tisisthenes, theyappear to have pretty regularly assumed the cognomen of Vindex, orAvenger. Here, too, they remained for another five centuries or more,till about 770 A.D., when Charlemagne invaded Lombardy, where they werethen settled, whereon the head of the family seems to have attachedhimself to the great Emperor, and to have returned with him across theAlps, and finally to have settled in Brittany. Eight generations laterhis lineal representative crossed to England in the reign of Edwardthe Confessor, and in the time of William the Conqueror was advanced togreat honour and power. From that time to the present day I can tracemy descent without a break. Not that the Vinceys--for that was the finalcorruption of the name after its bearers took root in English soil--havebeen particularly distinguished--they never came much to the fore.Sometimes they were soldiers, sometimes merchants, but on the whole theyhave preserved a dead level of respectability, and a still
deader levelof mediocrity. From the time of Charles II. till the beginning of thepresent century they were merchants. About 1790 by grandfather made aconsiderable fortune out of brewing, and retired. In 1821 he died, andmy father succeeded him, and dissipated most of the money. Ten years agohe died also, leaving me a net income of about two thousand a year. Thenit was that I undertook an expedition in connection with _that_," and hepointed to the iron chest, "which ended disastrously enough. On my wayback I travelled in the South of Europe, and finally reached Athens.There I met my beloved wife, who might well also have been called the'Beautiful,' like my old Greek ancestor. There I married her, and there,a year afterwards, when my boy was born, she died."
[*] The Strong and Beautiful, or, more accurately, the Beautiful in strength.
[+] The Kallikrates here referred to by my friend was a Spartan, spoken of by Herodotus (Herod. ix. 72) as being remarkable for his beauty. He fell at the glorious battle of Platæa (September 22, B.C. 479), when the Lacedæmonians and Athenians under Pausanias routed the Persians, putting nearly 300,000 of them to the sword. The following is a translation of the passage, "For Kallikrates died out of the battle, he came to the army the most beautiful man of the Greeks of that day--not only of the Lacedæmonians themselves, but of the other Greeks also. He when Pausanias was sacrificing was wounded in the side by an arrow; and then they fought, but on being carried off he regretted his death, and said to Arimnestus, a Platæan, that he did not grieve at dying for Greece, but at not having struck a blow, or, although he desired so to do, performed any deed worthy of himself." This Kallikrates, who appears to have been as brave as he was beautiful, is subsequently mentioned by Herodotus as having been buried among the ?????? (young commanders), apart from the other Spartans and the Helots.--L. H. H.
He paused a while, his head sunk upon his hand, and then continued--
"My marriage had diverted me from a project which I cannot enter intonow. I have no time, Holly--I have no time! One day, if you accept mytrust, you will learn all about it. After my wife's death I turned mymind to it again. But first it was necessary, or, at least, I conceivedthat it was necessary, that I should attain to a perfect knowledge ofEastern dialects, especially Arabic. It was to facilitate my studiesthat I came here. Very soon, however, my disease developed itself, andnow there is an end of me." And as though to emphasise his words heburst into another terrible fit of coughing.
I gave him some more whisky, and after resting he went on--
"I have never seen my boy, Leo, since he was a tiny baby. I never couldbear to see him, but they tell me that he is a quick and handsome child.In this envelope," and he produced a letter from his pocket addressedto myself, "I have jotted down the course I wish followed in the boy'seducation. It is a somewhat peculiar one. At any rate, I could notentrust it to a stranger. Once more, will you undertake it?"
"I must first know what I am to undertake," I answered.
"You are to undertake to have the boy, Leo, to live with you till he istwenty-five years of age--not to send him to school, remember. On histwenty-fifth birthday your guardianship will end, and you will then,with the keys that I give you now" (and he placed them on the table)"open the iron box, and let him see and read the contents, and saywhether or no he is willing to undertake the quest. There is noobligation on him to do so. Now, as regards terms. My present income istwo thousand two hundred a year. Half of that income I have securedto you by will for life, contingently on your undertaking theguardianship--that is, one thousand a year remuneration to yourself, foryou will have to give up your life to it, and one hundred a year topay for the board of the boy. The rest is to accumulate till Leo istwenty-five, so that there may be a sum in hand should he wish toundertake the quest of which I spoke."
"And suppose I were to die?" I asked.
"Then the boy must become a ward of Chancery and take his chance. Onlybe careful that the iron chest is passed on to him by your will. Listen,Holly, don't refuse me. Believe me, this is to your advantage. You arenot fit to mix with the world--it would only embitter you. In a fewweeks you will become a Fellow of your College, and the income that youwill derive from that combined with what I have left you will enable youto live a life of learned leisure, alternated with the sport of whichyou are so fond, such as will exactly suit you."
He paused and looked at me anxiously, but I still hesitated. The chargeseemed so very strange.
"For my sake, Holly. We have been good friends, and I have no time tomake other arrangements."
"Very well," I said, "I will do it, provided there is nothing in thispaper to make me change my mind," and I touched the envelope he had putupon the table by the keys.
"Thank you, Holly, thank you. There is nothing at all. Swear to me byGod that you will be a father to the boy, and follow my directions tothe letter."
"I swear it," I answered solemnly.
"Very well, remember that perhaps one day I shall ask for the account ofyour oath, for though I am dead and forgotten, yet I shall live. Thereis no such thing as death, Holly, only a change, and, as you may perhapslearn in time to come, I believe that even that change could undercertain circumstances be indefinitely postponed," and again he brokeinto one of his dreadful fits of coughing.
"There," he said, "I must go, you have the chest, and my will will befound among my papers, under the authority of which the child will behanded over to you. You will be well paid, Holly, and I know that youare honest, but if you betray my trust, by Heaven, I will haunt you."
I said nothing, being, indeed, too bewildered to speak.
He held up the candle, and looked at his own face in the glass. It hadbeen a beautiful face, but disease had wrecked it. "Food for the worms,"he said. "Curious to think that in a few hours I shall be stiff andcold--the journey done, the little game played out. Ah me, Holly! lifeis not worth the trouble of life, except when one is in love--at least,mine has not been; but the boy Leo's may be if he has the courage andthe faith. Good-bye, my friend!" and with a sudden access of tendernesshe flung his arm about me and kissed me on the forehead, and then turnedto go.
"Look here, Vincey," I said, "if you are as ill as you think, you hadbetter let me fetch a doctor."
"No, no," he said earnestly. "Promise me that you won't. I am going todie, and, like a poisoned rat, I wish to die alone."
"I don't believe that you are going to do anything of the sort," Ianswered. He smiled, and, with the word "Remember" on his lips, wasgone. As for myself, I sat down and rubbed my eyes, wondering if I hadbeen asleep. As this supposition would not bear investigation I gave itup and began to think that Vincey must have been drinking. I knew thathe was, and had been, very ill, but still it seemed impossible that hecould be in such a condition as to be able to know for certain that hewould not outlive the night. Had he been so near dissolution surely hewould scarcely have been able to walk, and carry a heavy iron box withhim. The whole story, on reflection, seemed to me utterly incredible,for I was not then old enough to be aware how many things happen inthis world that the common sense of the average man would set down asso improbable as to be absolutely impossible. This is a fact that I haveonly recently mastered. Was it likely that a man would have a son fiveyears of age whom he had never seen since he was a tiny infant? No. Wasit likely that he could foretell his own death so accurately? No. Wasit likely that he could trace his pedigree for more than threecenturies before Christ, or that he would suddenly confide the absoluteguardianship of his child, and leave half his fortune, to a collegefriend? Most certainly not. Clearly Vincey was either drunk or mad. Thatbeing so, what did it mean? and what was in the sealed iron chest?
The whole thing baffled and puzzled me to such an extent that at last Icould stand it no longer, and determined to sleep over it. So I jumpedup, and having put the keys and the letter that Vincey had left awayinto my despatch-box, and stowed the iron chest in a large portmanteau,I turned in, and was soon fast asleep.
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As it seemed to me, I had only been asleep for a few minutes when I wasawakened by somebody calling me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes; it wasbroad daylight--eight o'clock, in fact.
"Why, what is the matter with you, John?" I asked of the gyp who waitedon Vincey and myself. "You look as though you had seen a ghost!"
"Yes, sir, and so I have," he answered, "leastways I've seen a corpse,which is worse. I've been in to call Mr. Vincey, as usual, and there helies stark and dead!"