Flames

wn for a week on the following day. He took his way to the sea, and tried to feel nor

in London, still busily concerned itself with the very things that should now undergo a sea change and vanish in ozone. Recent events oppressed him, to the occasional undoing of the old salt, well accustomed to the seasick reverence of his despairing clients on board the Star of the Sea. When the mind of a man has once fallen into the habit of prancing in a circle like a cir

g jaws, savages, instead of calm companions. On the other side, in the hall, Lawler and Valentine paused in amazement, and a colloquy shot to and fro through the wooden barrier. On hearing the name o

atter?" Valentine'

please go into the dining-room. We

s,

he dining-room, be careful to shut the

s,

d this. Then the footsteps of servant and visitor had retreated. Presently a door was heard to shut. Lawler returned, a

and in a moment I shal

s,

his footsteps seemed to tremble uneasily upon the stairs as he retired. Then the doc

at the dogs. "Now, Addison, keep hold of Mab and go in front of me down the servants'

not get it out of his head. Entangled among the leaping dogs on the narrow stairway, he had a sense of whirling in the eddies of a stream, driven from this side to the other. His arms were nearly pulled out of their sockets. The shriek of the lash curling over and around the dogs, the dim vision of the doctor's compressed lips and eyes full of unaccustomed fire, the damp foam on his hands as he rocked from one wall to the other, amid a dull music of growls, and fierce, low barks, came b

hat's come to them?

e doctor was scarcely less pale as he leaned agains

ey will be all ri

ed hims

ike, Lawler," he said,

iso

tine. He was sitting by the dining-table in a watch

"what a pandemonium! I near

't, Cresswell," the docto

hy

u might chance to be a

e perhaps stranger silence that followed it. For Valentine had made no comment, had asked for no explanation. He had simply dropp

back now

up from the servants' quarters the half-strangled howling of the mastiffs. Involuntarily Dr. Levillier

, or there will be a summons applied for again

out while he retreated o

n a silent one. Only w

had he found a tongue

in all this

rely nodded with a s

d the doctor's mastiffs, and even hated the unconscious Rip, who lay, in a certain shivering discomfort and apprehension, seeking sleep with the determination of sorrow. There are things, feelings, and desires, which should surely be kicked out of men and dogs. Such a thing, beyond doubt, was a savage hatred of Valentine. What prompted it, and whence it came, were merely mysteries, which the dumbness of dogs must forever sustain. But what specially plunged Julian into concern was the latent fear that Dr. Levillier might echo the repulsion of his dogs and come to look upon Valentine with different eyes. Julian's fine jealousy for his friend sharpened his faculties of observation and of deduction, and he had observed the little doctor's dry reception of Valentine after the struggle on the stairs, and his eager dism

old salt to the tobacco-chewing, which was his only solace during the winter season, now fast dra

about Marr in the papers?" h

me at once with

ried to give myself up entirely to the sea,

l it to you, or no doubt Lady Crich

there to exag

the hotel and evaporated so mysteriously, but there was no one to identify her. The Frenchman had not noticed h

ther eagerly, "but what

rious organs were sound. There was no obvious reason for death, and

ut compre

all all die strictly

hat is

account in some remote part of the country, took the train to town, and found that Marr was, as she suspected, the man whom she had

or gross cruelty, for incredible, un

got a judicia

s the histo

tory as is known," Valent

aking his blue eyes h

Julian looked up t

y a wretch, a devil," Julian said now. "It se

appy. Her first mate chastised her with whips. To fulfil her destin

id, voluptuously generalizing

tence stirred some depth in his mind a

think? Since you have been away I have thought again over our c

Vale

had held you ba

es

e not, perhaps, held you back, held myself b

looked

not worth having,

es as in a nest, and unspoken things lie warm. Julian was vaguely afraid of himself. It is dangerous to lean on any one, however strong. Having met Valentine on the threshold of life, Julian had never learned to walk alone. He trusted another, instead of trusting himself. He had never forged his own swo

urd feeling, Val," he said. "I thoug

those dark nights in the tentroom. Since you have been away I have wondered. An extraordinary sensation of bodily

oke he slowly stretched his limbs. It was a

?" Julia

tine's words he too became violently conscious of his own s

o the world with different eyes. I have been livin

ted him. He leaned one arm on the mantelpiece. His

to you," he said. "And y

rity and my refinement are due perhaps to my cowardice. I am called the Saint of Victoria Street because I live in a sort of London cloister with you for my companion, and

e perfectly

follies of others, at what I call their c

wallo

y along the road, and gets the mud on his boots, and lets the rain fall on him and the w

even from him. And he had believed most honestly that this very detachment had drawn him to Valentine more than to any other human being. But to-night he began suddenly to feel that to be actually side by side with his friend would be a very glorious thing. He could never hope t

to be purged of excessive good, the other of excessive evil, and between them, midway, is man, natural man. Julian, you are natural

n worth much? That is th

philosopher thinks, he knows how to die. And then he lives thoroug

ly without, say, the fi

a

if excited, and stood by

eroism," he said, "wh

drink

good fel

Julian could not for a moment accept it as uttered seriousl

ime," he exclaimed, "and I actually w

e with what

gravely and earnestly, and

have proved so often that you are always right in the end. So your real theory of life mus

that, I fan

what has c

met his ey

ow," he sai

w shou

r a long while. It is difficult to say; but to-nig

ed to it. Don't you

r on a mountain peak forever, an

d. It shot up, leaving the naked window, through which

we, in England, had the

glass, and the ni

e, Julian

among the discoloured houses. Spring will not be denied, even among men who dwell in flats. The cabs hurried past, and pedestrians went by in twos and threes or solitary; soldiers walking vaguely, seeking cheap pleasures, or more gaily with adoring maidens; tired business men; jour

eatures driving for ever to stations, yet never able to get into the wide world. And yet they are all living, Julian; that is the thing: all having their experiences, all in strong touch with humanity. The newspaper-boy has got his flower-girl to give him grimy kisses; and the cabman is proud of the shine on his harness; and the soldier glories in his military faculty of seduction, and in his quick capacity for getting drunk in the glittering gin-palace at the corner of the street; and the policeman hopes to take some one up, and to be praised by a magistrate; and in those houses opposite intrigues are going on, and jealousy is being born, and men and w

pulses throbbed and hammered as he looked upon the street, and he seemed to see all the passers-by with eyes from which scales had fallen. If to die should be nothing to the wise man, to live should be much. Underneath, two drunken m

than I," he slowly said. "

years old. They paused by a lamp-post, and the girl openly kissed the boy. He sturdily endured the compliment, staring firmly at her pale cheeks and tired eyes. Then the girl walked away, and he stood alone till she was out of

e they want things; yes, they do. It is a philosophy of life. That boy has a life becau

ave known you,

ll linked in Valentine's. Slowly he withdrew it. Valent

nces to work one upon the other, and for each to convert the ot

he Philistines could not have been more as

you say, to die to th

f you have taught

as serious, even eager. There was an unwonted stain of red on his smooth, usually pale cheeks. A certain wild bo

my lesson?"

his eyeballs. Suddenly a notion took him that Valentine had never been so magnificent as now,-now when a n

lesson, V

ers, and of taking all their scent to you. That's the lesson of your strength, Julian, and of all the strength of the spring. Lie out in the showers, and let the clouds cover you with shadows, and listen to the song of every bird, and-and-ah!" he

s,

that come to you and l

know

n the mire. I must find out whether I have been lying when I said that. Julian, this spring, you and I will see the world, at any rate, with open eyes. We will watch the budding and blossoming of the souls arou

as carried away as a weak swimmer by a resistless torrent, and instinctively he seemed to be aware of danger and to be stretching out his arms for some rock or tree-branch

e this sort of thing

icture of "The Merciful Knight" usually hung. For Valentine's music was in

, in astonishment,

Knight'? It has g

as all rig

badly and I am having it reframe

ust mi

very

re spoken with cu