Gryll Grange

CHAPTER XXVII

Il faut avoir aimé une fois en sa vie, non pour le moment où l'on aime, car on n'éprouve alors que des tourmens, des regrets, de la jalousie: mais peu à peu ces tourmens-là deviennent des souvenirs, quI charment notre arrière saison:... et quand vous verrez la vieillesse douce, facile et tolérante, vous pourrez dire comme Fontenelle: L'amour a passé par-la.

Scribe: La Vieille.

Miss Gryll carefully avoided being alone with Mr. Falconer, in order not to give him an opportunity of speaking on the forbidden subject. She was confident that she had taken the only course which promised to relieve her from a life of intolerable suspense; but she wished to subject her conduct to dispassionate opinion, and she thought she could not submit it to a more calmly-judging person than her old spinster friend, Miss Ilex, who had, moreover, the great advantage of being a woman of the world. She therefore took an early opportunity of telling her what had passed between herself and Mr. Falconer, and asking her judgment on the point.

Miss Ilex. Why, my dear, if I thought there had been the slightest chance of his ever knowing his own mind sufficiently to come to the desired conclusion himself, I should have ad-

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vised your giving him a little longer time; but as it is clear to me that he never would have done so, and as you are decidedly partial to him, I think you have taken the best course which was open to you. He had all but declared to you more than once before; but this 'all but' would have continued, and you would have sacrificed your life to him for nothing.

Miss Gryll. But do you think you would in my case have done as I did?

Miss Ilex. No, my dear, I certainly should not; for, in a case very similar, I did not. It does not follow that I was right. On the contrary, I think you are right, and I was wrong. You have shown true moral courage where it was most needed.

Miss Gryll. I hope I have not revived any displeasing recollections.

Miss Ilex. No, my dear, no; the recollections are not displeasing. The day-dreams of youth, however fallacious, are a composite of pain and pleasure: for the sake of the latter the former is endured, nay, even cherished in memory.

Miss Gryll. Hearing what I hear you were, seeing what I see you are, observing your invariable cheerfulness, I should not have thought it possible that you could have been crossed in love, as your words seem to imply.

Miss Ilex. I was, my dear, and have been foolish enough to be constant all my life to a single idea; and yet I would not part with this shadow for any attainable reality.

Miss Gryll. If it were not opening the fountain of an ancient sorrow, I could wish to know the story, not from idle curiosity, but from my interest in you.

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Miss Ilex. Indeed, my dear Morgana, it is very little of a story: but such as it is, I am willing to tell it you. I had the credit of being handsome and accomplished. I had several lovers; but my inner thoughts distinguished only one; and he, I think, had a decided preference for me, but it was a preference of present impression. If some Genius had commanded him to choose a wife from any company of which I was one, he would, I feel sure, have chosen me; but he was very much of an universal lover, and was always overcome by the smiles of present beauty. He was of a romantic turn of mind: he disliked and avoided the ordinary pursuits of young men: he delighted in the society of accomplished young women, and in that alone. It was the single link between him and the world. He would disappear for weeks at a time, wandering in forests, climbing mountains, and descending into the dingles of mountain-streams, with no other companion than a Newfoundland dog; a large black dog, with a white breast, four white paws, and a white tip to his tail: a beautiful affectionate dog: I often patted him on the head, and fed him with my hand. He knew me as well as Bajardo75 knew Angelica.

Tears started into her eyes at the recollection of the dog. She paused for a moment.

Miss Gryll. I see the remembrance is painful Do not proceed.

Miss Ilex. No, my dear. I would not, if I could, forget that dog. Well, my young gentleman, as I have said, was a sort of universal lover, and made a sort of half-declaration to half the young women he knew: sincerely for the moment to all: but

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with more permanent earnestness, more constant return, to me than to any other. If I had met him with equal earnestness, if I could have said or implied to him in any way, 'Take me while you may, or think of me no more,' I am persuaded I should not now write myself spinster. But I wrapped myself up in reserve. I thought it fitting that all advances should come from him: that I should at most show nothing more than willingness to hear, not even the semblance of anxiety to receive them. So nothing came of our love but remembrance and regret. Another girl, whom I am sure he loved less, but who understood him better, acted towards him as I ought to have done, and became his wife. Therefore, my dear, I applaud your moral courage, and regret that I had it not when the occasion required it.

Miss Gryll. My lover, if I may so call him, differs from yours in this: that he is not wandering in his habits, nor versatile in his affections.

Miss Ilex. The peculiar system of domestic affection in which he was brought up, and which his maturer years have confirmed, presents a greater obstacle to you than any which my lover's versatility presented to me, if I had known how to deal with it.

Miss Gryll. But how was it, that, having so many admirers as you must have had, you still remained single?

Miss Ilex. Because I had fixed my heart on one who was not like any one else. If he had been one of a class, such as most persons in this world are, I might have replaced the first idea by another; but his soul was like a star, and dwelt apart.

Miss Gryll. A very erratic star, apparently. A comet, rather.

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CHAPTER XXVIII

ARISTOPHANES IN LONDON

Non duco contentionis funern, dum constet inter nos, quod fere totus mundus exerceat histrioniam. – Petronius Arbiter.

I do not draw the rope of contention,77 while it is agreed amongst us, that almost the whole world practises acting.

All the world's a stage. – Shakespeare.

En el teatro del mundo

Todos son représentantes. – Calderon.

Tous les comédiens ne sont pas au théâtre.

French Proverb.

Rain came, and thaw, followed by drying wind. The roads were in good order for the visitors to the Aristophanic comedy. The fifth day of Christmas was fixed for the performance. The theatre was brilliantly lighted, with spermacetI candles in glass chandeliers for the audience, and argand lamps for the stage. In addition to Mr. Gryll's own houseful of company, the beauty and fashion of the surrounding country, which comprised an extensive circle, adorned the semicircular seats; which, however, were not mere stone benches, but were backed, armed,

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and padded into comfortable stalls. Lord Curryfin was in his glory, in the capacity of stage-manager.

The curtain rising, as there was no necessity for its being made to fall,78 discovered the scene, which was on the London bank of the Thames, on the terrace of a mansion occupied by the Spirit-rapping Society, with an archway in the centre of the building, showing a street in the background. Gryllus was lying asleep. Circe, standing over him, began the dialogue.

CIRCE

Wake, Gryllus, and arise in human form.

GRYLLUS

I have slept soundly, and had pleasant dreams.

CIRCE

I, too, have soundly slept – Divine how long.

GRYLLUS

Why, judging by the sun, some fourteen hours.

CIRCE

Three thousand years»

GRYLLUS

That is a nap indeed.

But this is not your garden, nor your palace.

Where are we now?

CIRCE

Three thousand years ago,

This land was forest, and a bright pure river

Ran through it to and from the Ocean stream.

Now, through a wilderness of human forms,

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And human dwellings, a polluted flood

Rolls up and down, charged with all earthly poisons, Poisoning the air in turn.

GRYLLUS

I see vast masses

Of strange unnatural things.

CIRCE

Houses, and ships,

And boats, and chimneys vomiting black smoke, Horses, and carriages of every form,

And restless bipeds, rushing here and there For profit or for pleasure, as they phrase it.

GRYLLUS

Oh, Jupiter and Bacchus! what a crowd, Flitting, like shadows without mind or purpose, Such as Ulysses saw in Erebus.

But wherefore are we here?

CIRCE

There have arisen

Some mighty masters of the invisible world, And these have summoned us.

GRYLLUS

With what design?

CIRCE

That they themselves must tell. Behold they come, Carrying a mystic table, around which

They work their magic spells. Stand by, and mark.

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Three spirit-rappers appeared, carrying a table, which they placed on one side of the stage:

1.Carefully the table place, Let our gifted brother trace

A ring around the enchanted space

2.Let him tow'rd the table point With his first fore-finger joint, And with mesmerised beginning Set the sentient oak-slab spinning.

3.Now it spins around, around, Sending forth a murmuring sound, By the initiate understood

As of spirits in the wood.

ALL.

Once more Circe we invoke.

CIRCE

Here: not bound in ribs of oak,

Nor, from wooden disk revolving,

In strange sounds strange riddles solving,

But in native form appearing,

Plain to sight, as clear to heating.

THE THREE

Thee with wonder we behold.

By thy hair of burning gold,

By thy face with radiance bright,

By thine eyes of beaming light,

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