A Mere Accident

flowerage and loggia. What horrible taste, and quite

ld butler who had known him since babyhood. "Very g

of Mrs Norton, who rushed out of the drawing-room, followed by Kitty, and embraced her son, at once set on edge all his curious antipathies. Why this kissing, this approachment of flesh? Of course she

ts of Shakespeare and Milton, that there was but one wretched stand full of books in the room, and that in the gloom of a far corner. Hi

are told me you said that you went two and three nights without closi

ver took a sleeping draug

comfortable here. You are in the best bedroom in the house, the one in front of the staircas

er I dislike, it is a feather-bed. I should not be abl

on a feather-bed. Mr Hare told me you complained of insomnia, and there is no surer way of losing

that point, mother, I say I ca

don't believe you ever slept

not going to

house, and it is really too late to a

e obliged to sleep at

o your mother in that w

quarrelling already; I

think it is very stubborn of you to refuse to sleep on a fe

rritation. Then John, for politeness' sake, spoke of when he had last seen

and she jerked in a suggestion that if John were to apply at once, he would be placed on the list of deputy-lieuten

and you have not seen any of the county people for years. We will have

more than glance at the Anglo-Latin. Literature died in France with Gregory of Tours at the end of the sixth century; with St Gregory the Great, in Italy, at the commencement of the seventh century; in Spain about the same time. And then

terram t

ervatim

?lorum

..

..

atur tu

ur nigri

octurna

storm which he was caught in as h

ould advise you not to go on with any of that nonsen

s ten a load?... But we must grow something, and there is nothing else but wheat. We must procure a certain amount of straw, or we'd have no manure, and you can't work a farm without manure. I don't belie

to me so! I will not allow it." And then relapsing into an

opinion; and to this end an adjuvant was found in the dose of fantasy, mysticism, idealism which was inherent in John's character. "Why is he not like other people? Why will

the life she has marked out for me to live-to take up my position in the county, and, above all, to marry and give an heir to the property. I see it all; that is why she wanted me to spend Christmas with her; that is why she has

pring morning-a morning when the birds are trilling. The face sharpened to a tiny chin, and the face was pale, although there was bloom on the cheeks. The forehead was shadowed by a sparkling cloud of brown hair, the nose was straight, and each little nostril was pink tinted. The ears

g syrup for the bees; and their discussion of the illness of poor Dr --, who would no longer be able to get through the work of the parish single-handed, and would require a curate, was continued till the ladies rose from table. Nor did matters mend in the library. John's thoughts went back to his book; the room seemed to him intolerably uncomfortable and

and the toilette-table hung out its skirts in the wavering light of the fire. John tossed to and fro staring at the birds and petals. He thought of his ascetic college bed, of the great Christ up

ust go out for a walk with Kitty Hare, and I hope you will make yourself agreeable. I want you to see the new greenhouse I

ere in my business; had I wanted to s

hat must be put into repair at once. As for interfering in your business, I don't know ho

save me a great deal of

won't go out to wa

usy just now. I had thought of doing a little reading, for

rents; now, if you were to do it yourself, you would

to do as it is.... But if I am goi

nto the library

ty, Kitty, Kitty! Presently she appeared, and they walked towards the garden, talking. She told him she had been at Thornby Place the w

I've fed him since he was a l

great caressing creature, and when she put him down he mewed reproachfully.

fly away, and join th

nd the bird cawed, and rubbed its black head against its mistress' cheek. "Poor little things, they fell

t like

eems as strange as if you said

like to speak to me about them cottages

ten o'clock. I intend to go thoroughly into everything. How

sir, the weath

at a much cheaper rate at Lloyds' than at most of the o

th thinking

raps of meat. The coachman came to speak about oats and straw. They went to the stables. Kitty adored horses,

ne with a farm for which a tenant could not be found even at a reduced rent. At four o'clock he came into tea, his head full of calculations of such a complex character that even his mother could not follow the different statements to his satisfaction. When she disagreed with him, he took up the "Epistles of St Columban of Bangor," the "Epistola ad Sethum," or the celebrated poem, "Epistola ad Fedolium," written when the

t the meet of the hounds had been fixed for the f

don't mean that they ar

g here to lunch, but of course you can shut your doors to all your friends and acqua

hat the hunt breakfast used to go on all day long. Every woman in the county used to come,

consented to come to Thornby Place, only I hope you do

nt for the Woreington farm. I am afraid I shall have to provide the capital and farm

ink of retrenching when you present Stanton College wit

if you like

put down the hunt breakfast the first time you honour us with a visi

e!" replied John, laughing; "but

girls here: the Misses Green are coming from Worthing; the eldest is such a prett

ngs that were wanted. John continued to go through his accounts in the morning, and to read

dry toast in a back room. The dining-room was full of servants, who laid out a long table r

alling leaves was hidden in the grey mist. It ceased to rain. "This weather will keep many away; so much the better; there will be too many as it is. I wonder who this can be." A melancholy

west, and she is happier and better than I." And then the three sweet old maids talked with their cousin of the

ds trotted about a single horseman. Voices. "Oh! how sweet they look! oh, the dear dogs!" The huntsman stopped in front of the house, the hounds sniffed here and there, the whips trotted their horse

reeked of the tropics. "Look how good and kind they are; they would not hurt anything; it is only wicked men

strolled about in groups. As usual young men were lacking. Looking at his watch, the huntsman pressed the sides of his horse, and rode to draw the covers at the end of the park. The ladies followed to see the start, although the mud was inches deep under foot. "Hu in, hu in," cried the huntsman. The whips trotted round cracking their long whips. N

f on a northern shore; its crown of trees is grim. The abrupt ascents of Toddington Mo

he'll never reach them; he got n

lky roads cut in the precipitous side of the downs. Rain began

ressed he is! I wish you would let your moustache grow; it would improve you immensely." With these and similar remarks whispered to him, Mrs Norton continued to exasperate her son until the servants announced that lunch was ready

d-room to smoke. The girls, mighty in numbers, followed, and, with their arms round each other's waists, and interlacing fingers, they grouped themselves about the room. Two huntsmen returned drip

ery ill, and now a long sharp pain had grown through his left side, and momentarily it became more and more difficult to exchange polite words and smiles. The footmen stood waiting by the open door, the horses

sent for. A bad attack of pleurisy. John was rolled up in an enormous mustard plaster-mustard and cayenne pepper; it bi

nerve had been wound up too tightly in the left side. He was fed on gruel and beef-tea,

ay back, looking very weak and pale, before a blazing fire. "It was very lucky I

lirious,

us when we rolled you up in the mustard plaster...

n me. But did I use very bad language? I suppose I

slig

ery bad language; and people when they are really delir

you were only slightly delirious ... you were maddened

think I knew wh

you were saying, because y

held accountable

in the full possession of your senses. Your mother (Mrs Norton) was very mu

d accountable, I did not

ctly; people in a passion

in our passion; we were wrong in the first instance in giving way to passion.... But I was

can call it a

could not choose but listen. Each interval of thought grew longer; the scabs of forgetfulness were picked away, the red sore was exposed bleeding and bare. Was he responsible for those words? He could remember them all now; each like a burning arrow lacerated his bosom, and he pulled them to and fro. Remembrance in the watches of the night, dawn fills the dark spaces of a window, medit

e. I might have been called to confront my Maker with horrible blasphemies in my heart and on my tongue; but He in His Divine goodness spared me: He gave me time to repent. Am I answerable, O my God, for those dreadful words that I uttered against Thee, because I

fore desire is rebellion prolonged indefinitely against the realities of existence; when we attain the object of our desire, we must perforce neglect it in favour of something still unknown, and so we progress from illusion to illusion. The winds of folly and desolation howl about us; the sorrows of happiness are the worst to bear, and the wise soon learn that there is nothing to dream of but the end

sins, he turned to the primal idea of the vileness of this life, and its sole utility in enabling man to gain heaven. Beauty, what was it but temptation? He winced before a

a side which none would guess, so complex and contradictory are the involutions of the human brain. Hellenism, Greek culture and ideal; academic groves; young disciples, Plato and Socrates, the august nakedness of the Gods were equal, or almost equal, in his mind with the lacerated bodies of meagre saints; and his heart wavered between the temple of simple

le. His childhood had been one of bitter tumult and passionate sorrow; the different and dissident ideals growing up in his heart and striving for the mastery, had torn and tortured him, and he had long lain as upon a mental rack. Ignorance of the material laws of existence had extended even into his sixteenth year, and when, bit by bit, the veil fell, and he understood, he was filled with loathing

e fairest places darkened as the examination of conscience proceeded. His thought whirled in dreadful night, soul-torturing contradictions came suddenly under his eyes, like images in a night-mare; and in horror and despair, as a woman rising from a bed of small-pox drops the mirror after the first glance, and shrinks from destroying the fair remembrance of her face by pursuing the traces of the disease through every feature, he hid his face in his h

learer than any previous vision. He paused. There was but one conclusion ... it looked down upon him like a star-he would become a priest. All darkness, all mad

and tall. The great flames decorate the darkness, and the twilight sheds upon the rose curtains, walking birds and falling petals. But his thoughts are dreaming through long aisle and solemn arch, clouds of incense and painted panes.... The palms rise in great curls like the sky; and amid the opul

to her entreaty; he could neither feel nor see beyond the immediate object he had in mind, and he spoke to her in despair of the length of months that separated him from consecration; he speculated on the possibility of expediting that happy day by a dispensation from the Pope. Th