Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated) (392 page)

In all this talk of an elixir and the restoration of his youth, I scarce knew from which hypothesis I should the more eagerly recoil.  If his hopes reposed on any base of fact, if indeed, by some abhorrent miracle, he should discard his age, death were my only refuge from that most unnatural, that most ungodly union.  If, on the other hand, these dreams were merely lunatic, the madness of a life waxed suddenly acute, my pity would become a load almost as heavy to bear as my revolt against the marriage.  So passed the night, in alternations of rebellion and despair, of hate and pity; and with the next morning I was only to comprehend more fully my enslaved position.  For though he appeared with a very tranquil countenance, he had no sooner observed the marks of grief upon my brow than an answering darkness gathered on his own.  ‘Asenath.’ he said, ‘you owe me much already; with one finger I still hold you suspended over death; my life is full of labour and anxiety; and I choose,’ said he, with a remarkable accent of command, ‘that you shall greet me with a pleasant face.’  He never needed to repeat the recommendation; from that day forward I was always ready to receive him with apparent cheerfulness; and he rewarded me with a good deal of his company, and almost more than I could bear of his confidence.  He had set up a laboratory in the back part of the house, where he toiled day and night at his elixir, and he would come thence to visit me in my parlour: now with passing humours of discouragement; now, and far more often, radiant with hope.  It was impossible to see so much of him, and not to recognise that the sands of his life were running low; and yet all the time he would be laying out vast fields of future, and planning, with all the confidence of youth, the most unbounded schemes of pleasure and ambition.  How I replied I know not; but I found a voice and words to answer, even while I wept and raged to hear him.

A week ago the doctor entered my room with the marks of great exhilaration contending with pitiful bodily weakness.  ‘Asenath,’ said he, ‘I have now obtained the last ingredient.  In one week from now the perilous moment of the last projection will draw nigh.  You have once before assisted, although unconsciously, at the failure of a similar experiment.  It was the elixir which so terribly exploded one night when you were passing my house; and it is idle to deny that the conduct of so delicate a process, among the million jars and trepidations of so great a city, presents a certain element of danger.  From this point of view, I cannot but regret the perfect stillness of my house among the deserts; but, on the other hand, I have succeeded in proving that the singularly unstable equilibrium of the elixir, at the moment of projection, is due rather to the impurity than to the nature of the ingredients; and as all are now of an equal and exquisite nicety, I have little fear for the result.  In a week then from to-day, my dear Asenath, this period of trial will be ended.’  And he smiled upon me in a manner unusually paternal.

I smiled back with my lips, but at my heart there raged the blackest and most unbridled terror.  What if he failed?  And oh, tenfold worse! what if he succeeded?  What detested and unnatural changeling would appear before me to claim my hand?  And could there, I asked myself with a dreadful sinking, be any truth in his boasts of an assured victory over my reluctance?  I knew him, indeed, to be masterful, to lead my life at a sign.  Suppose, then, this experiment to succeed; suppose him to return to me, hideously restored, like a vampire in a legend; and suppose that, by some devilish fascination . . . My head turned; all former fears deserted me: and I felt I could embrace the worst in preference to this.

My mind was instantly made up.  The doctor’s presence in London was justified by the affairs of the Mormon polity.  Often, in our conversation, he would gloat over the details of that great organisation, which he feared even while yet he wielded it; and would remind me, that even in the humming labyrinth of London, we were still visible to that unsleeping eye in Utah.  His visitors, indeed, who were of every sort, from the missionary to the destroying angel, and seemed to belong to every rank of life, had, up to that moment, filled me with unmixed repulsion and alarm.  I knew that if my secret were to reach the ear of any leader my fate were sealed beyond redemption; and yet in my present pass of horror and despair, it was to these very men that I turned for help.  I waylaid upon the stair one of the Mormon missionaries, a man of a low class, but not inaccessible to pity; told him I scarce remember what elaborate fable to explain my application; and by his intermediacy entered into correspondence with my father’s family.  They recognised my claim for help, and on this very day I was to begin my escape.

Last night I sat up fully dressed, awaiting the result of the doctor’s labours, and prepared against the worst.  The nights at this season and in this northern latitude are short; and I had soon the company of the returning daylight.  The silence in and around the house was only broken by the movements of the doctor in the laboratory; to these I listened, watch in hand, awaiting the hour of my escape, and yet consumed by anxiety about the strange experiment that was going forward overhead.  Indeed, now that I was conscious of some protection for myself, my sympathies had turned more directly to the doctor’s side; I caught myself even praying for his success; and when some hours ago a low, peculiar cry reached my ears from the laboratory, I could no longer control my impatience, but mounted the stairs and opened the door.

The doctor was standing in the middle of the room; in his hand a large, round-bellied, crystal flask, some three parts full of a bright amber-coloured liquid; on his face a rapture of gratitude and joy unspeakable.  As he saw me he raised the flask at arm’s length.  ‘Victory!’ he cried.  ‘Victory, Asenath!’  And then — whether the flask escaped his trembling fingers, or whether the explosion were spontaneous, I cannot tell — enough that we were thrown, I against the door-post, the doctor into the corner of the room; enough that we were shaken to the soul by the same explosion that must have startled you upon the street; and that, in the brief space of an indistinguishable instant, there remained nothing of the labours of the doctor’s lifetime but a few shards of broken crystal and those voluminous and ill-smelling vapours that pursued me in my flight.

THE SQUIRE OF DAMES (Concluded)

What with the lady’s animated manner and dramatic conduct of her voice, Challoner had thrilled to every incident with genuine emotion.  His fancy, which was not perhaps of a very lively character, applauded both the matter and the style; but the more judicial functions of his mind refused assent.  It was an excellent story; and it might be true, but he believed it was not.  Miss Fonblanque was a lady, and it was doubtless possible for a lady to wander from the truth; but how was a gentleman to tell her so?  His spirits for some time had been sinking, but they now fell to zero; and long after her voice had died away he still sat with a troubled and averted countenance, and could find no form of words to thank her for her narrative.  His mind, indeed, was empty of everything beyond a dull longing for escape.  From this pause, which grew the more embarrassing with every second, he was roused by the sudden laughter of the lady.  His vanity was alarmed; he turned and faced her; their eyes met; and he caught from hers a spark of such frank merriment as put him instantly at ease.

‘You certainly,’ he said, ‘appear to bear your calamities with excellent spirit.’

‘Do I not?’ she cried, and fell once more into delicious laughter.  But from this access she more speedily recovered.  ‘This is all very well,’ said she, nodding at him gravely, ‘but I am still in a most distressing situation, from which, if you deny me your help, I shall find it difficult indeed to free myself.’

At this mention of help Challoner fell back to his original gloom.

‘My sympathies are much engaged with you,’ he said, ‘and I should be delighted, I am sure.  But our position is most unusual; and circumstances over which I have, I can assure you, no control, deprive me of the power — the pleasure — Unless, indeed,’ he added, somewhat brightening at the thought, ‘I were to recommend you to the care of the police?’

She laid her hand upon his arm and looked hard into his eyes; and he saw with wonder that, for the first time since the moment of their meeting, every trace of colour had faded from her cheek.

‘Do so,’ she said, ‘and — weigh my words well — you kill me as certainly as with a knife.’

‘God bless me!’ exclaimed Challoner.

‘Oh,’ she cried, ‘I can see you disbelieve my story and make light of the perils that surround me; but who are you to judge?  My family share my apprehensions; they help me in secret; and you saw yourself by what an emissary, and in what a place, they have chosen to supply me with the funds for my escape.  I admit that you are brave and clever and have impressed me most favourably; but how are you to prefer your opinion before that of my uncle, an ex-minister of state, a man with the ear of the Queen, and of a long political experience?  If I am mad, is he?  And you must allow me, besides, a special claim upon your help.  Strange as you may think my story, you know that much of it is true; and if you who heard the explosion and saw the Mormon at Victoria, refuse to credit and assist me, to whom am I to turn?’

‘He gave you money then?’ asked Challoner, who had been dwelling singly on that fact.

‘I begin to interest you,’ she cried.  ‘But, frankly, you are condemned to help me.  If the service I had to ask of you were serious, were suspicious, were even unusual, I should say no more.  But what is it?  To take a pleasure trip (for which, if you will suffer me, I propose to pay) and to carry from one lady to another a sum of money!  What can be more simple?’

‘Is the sum,’ asked Challoner, ‘considerable?’

She produced a packet from her bosom; and observing that she had not yet found time to make the count, tore open the cover and spread upon her knees a considerable number of Bank of England notes.  It took some time to make the reckoning, for the notes were of every degree of value; but at last, and counting a few loose sovereigns, she made out the sum to be a little under £710 sterling.  The sight of so much money worked an immediate revolution in the mind of Challoner.

‘And you propose, madam,’ he cried, ‘to intrust that money to a perfect stranger?’

‘Ah!’ said she, with a charming smile, ‘but I no longer regard you as a stranger.’

‘Madam,’ said Challoner, ‘I perceive I must make you a confession.  Although of a very good family — through my mother, indeed, a lineal descendant of the patriot Bruce — I dare not conceal from you that my affairs are deeply, very deeply involved.  I am in debt; my pockets are practically empty; and, in short, I am fallen to that state when a considerable sum of money would prove to many men an irresistible temptation.’

‘Do you not see,’ returned the young lady, ‘that by these words you have removed my last hesitation?  Take them.’  And she thrust the notes into the young man’s hand.

He sat so long, holding them, like a baby at the font, that Miss Fonblanque once more bubbled into laughter.

‘Pray,’ she said, ‘hesitate no further; put them in your pocket; and to relieve our position of any shadow of embarrassment, tell me by what name I am to address my knight-errant, for I find myself reduced to the awkwardness of the pronoun.’

Had borrowing been in question, the wisdom of our ancestors had come lightly to the young man’s aid; but upon what pretext could he refuse so generous a trust?  Upon none he saw, that was not unpardonably wounding; and the bright eyes and the high spirits of his companion had already made a breach in the rampart of Challoner’s caution.  The whole thing, he reasoned, might be a mere mystification, which it were the height of solemn folly to resent.  On the other hand, the explosion, the interview at the public-house, and the very money in his hands, seemed to prove beyond denial the existence of some serious danger; and if that were so, could he desert her?  There was a choice of risks: the risk of behaving with extraordinary incivility and unhandsomeness to a lady, and the risk of going on a fool’s errand.  The story seemed false; but then the money was undeniable.  The whole circumstances were questionable and obscure; but the lady was charming, and had the speech and manners of society.  While he still hung in the wind, a recollection returned upon his mind with some of the dignity of prophecy.  Had he not promised Somerset to break with the traditions of the commonplace, and to accept the first adventure offered?  Well, here was the adventure.

He thrust the money into his pocket.

‘My name is Challoner,’ said he.

‘Mr. Challoner,’ she replied, ‘you have come very generously to my aid when all was against me.  Though I am myself a very humble person, my family commands great interest; and I do not think you will repent this handsome action.’

Challoner flushed with pleasure.

‘I imagine that, perhaps, a consulship,’ she added, her eyes dwelling on him with a judicial admiration, ‘a consulship in some great town or capital — or else — But we waste time; let us set about the work of my delivery.’

She took his arm with a frank confidence that went to his heart; and once more laying by all serious thoughts, she entertained him, as they crossed the park, with her agreeable gaiety of mind.  Near the Marble Arch they found a hansom, which rapidly conveyed them to the terminus at Euston Square; and here, in the hotel, they sat down to an excellent breakfast.  The young lady’s first step was to call for writing materials and write, upon one corner of the table, a hasty note; still, as she did so, glancing with smiles at her companion.  ‘Here,’ said she, ‘here is the letter which will introduce you to my cousin.’  She began to fold the paper.  ‘My cousin, although I have never seen her, has the character of a very charming woman and a recognised beauty; of that I know nothing, but at least she has been very kind to me; so has my lord her father; so have you — kinder than all — kinder than I can bear to think of.’  She said this with unusual emotion; and, at the same time, sealed the envelope.  ‘Ah!’ she cried, ‘I have shut my letter!  It is not quite courteous; and yet, as between friends, it is perhaps better so.  I introduce you, after all, into a family secret; and though you and I are already old comrades, you are still unknown to my uncle.  You go then to this address, Richard Street, Glasgow; go, please, as soon as you arrive; and give this letter with your own hands into those of Miss Fonblanque, for that is the name by which she is to pass.  When we next meet, you will tell me what you think of her,’ she added, with a touch of the provocative.