Allan George Gray

“ When, under the influence of that potent perfume you filled Minna Walstein’s goblet and met the glance of her eyes you completed my design—my daughter’s life was saved, and I have now two living poisons to assist me in, what you may call, my ambitious aims. Look calmly, if you can, at your fate—you will poison and kill every living creature you come in contact with, except my daughter Minna. Her you cannot hurt, and there can be no affinity between you and anyone else in the world. ”

“ I heard the sound of Cosmo’s footsteps, as he ran through the garden towards the cliffs, and then Doctor Walstein’s voice:
“We have had enough of this trifling, youngster. Your fate is in your own hands, and I am the only person who can save your life. It seems that I have miscalculated, and that you have not given your mind and reason so completely into my power as I had supposed. It would appear that, through the rapport which exists between my daughter and yourself, you are able to weaken the power of life in her. ”

“ It is the pure, essential principle of the poison of one of the most fatal snakes—the Cobra di Capello!”
“Good heavens! Doctor Walstein!” I exclaimed, putting the case far from me on the table, “all your practical chemistry seems to tend in the direction of poisons.”
“Young man, my aim—my object—my ambition is to fathom the deep secret of Life; to trace its origin, and to analyse its nature. I see in the future that I am destined to discover the wondrous Elixir of Life. ”

“ There was not enough wind even to rustle the leaves overhead. The park stretched down the slope from where I lay, shadowless, until it reached the deep, dark wood which surrounded it about half-a-mile away, and the many-leaved wood itself seemed motionless in the still, summer air. The only sound that broke the silence was the murmur of a little brook which wandered round the bend of the neighbouring garden hedge. As I lay in the chequered shadow, lulled by the stillness of the scene and the musical murmur of the rippling stream, dreamy thoughts and fancies passed through my mind. ”

“ Nobody seems to know, but he is a very clever old fellow,—Doctor Walstein I believe he calls himself. He has taken out a card for practical chemistry at our place, and works all day in our laboratory. He is deep in organic chemistry, and has prepared, while he has been with us, a splendid collection of rare crystals, both from animal and vegetable substances. He is very talkative, and has taken a great fancy to me, but there is something about the look of his eyes that I don’t like. In fact, there is no ‘elective affinity,’ as you call it, between us, as far as I am concerned. ”

“ The woman’s nature was giving way under the fierce ordeal through which it had to pass, for she not only breathed, but lived and fed on poisons! She was dying slowly and gradually. This did not serve my purpose. She was valuable to me, and I resolved that she should live. I have not studied the secrets of life and death in vain, and I had not long to seek before I met the man who could save my daughter’s life, by taking upon himself half of her poisonous existence. ”

“ We were still strolling about when we heard the dinner-bell sound from the house.
“Oh dear me, Cousin Charlie, what have I been thinking about! Uncle told me to come out and try to find you, and to bring you back immediately. What will he say?—will he be angry?”
“It’s quite plain, Polly, that you don’t know Uncle Mark. He will only be too glad to see us. I am the most to blame, for I am sure he is anxious to see me, and in the search for your flowers I quite forgot all about him. Let us go back to the house at once.” ”

“ Am I right?”
“No,—all my brothers and sisters are dead, and you are to be my cousin Charlie, and I am your cousin Mary, or Polly, as papa used to call me. You may call me which name you like.”
“Cousin Polly, then—I am very glad to see you at Haughton Tower, and I hope you will be happy, but I fear you will find it dull.”
“Don’t be afraid about me, I am never dull when people are kind, and among these beautiful woods, and in this garden with its lovely flowers, how could any one be dull, cousin? ”

“ Then suddenly, like a shock of electricity, came the remembrance of the evening of my arrival at Pwlldu. All my former belief and blind confidence in Dr. Walstein flashed away in an instant, and nothing filled my mind but a feeling of intense hatred and horror of the man. But I was physically so weak that I had no more strength than an infant. I tried to rise, and succeeded, with difficulty, in raising myself on one arm, but the exertion was too much for me, I fell back stunned and fainting on the couch. ”

“ I rapidly became immersed in my studies, and Holdsworth seemed also immersed in pleasure and all the jollities of medical student life. We were very unlike in disposition, and probably for that very reason were the better friends. We never had the semblance of a quarrel, and consequently lived on very comfortably. He could not comprehend my wish to study chemistry only for the love of science. ”

“ In due time I left Haughton Tower, and joined Mr. Ellis in London. I was amazed and positively enchanted with the town, never having seen any large town before, and, after a month’s pleasant sojourn, we started for Paris, and from thence we went, by way of Brussels, up the Rhine, and from there into Italy.
We remained on the continent for two years, during which time I contrived to learn that England was not the whole world, and the hard angles of my character were knocked off. I heard regularly from my uncle, and sometimes I got a short note from Cousin Polly. ”

“ The next afternoon I called at the laboratory according to appointment. It was a large dingily-lighted apartment, looking out on the Thames under arches. There were wooden benches fitted up with shelves filled with bottles and phials, retorts, lamps, crucibles, and all the paraphernalia required in the study of chemistry. The room was full of young students, from the midst of whom Holdsworth emerged and led me forward to introduce me to Doctor Walstein.
The old man seemed quite out of place among the crowd of youthful students around him. ”

“ The little girl had grown up into a woman, seemingly. The long thick jet-black hair I recognised, and the dark eyelashes which she never raised; but the change of climate and the bracing country-air had brought such a glow of health into her cheeks that it was no wonder that I scarcely knew her again.
Before the evening was over, however, we were all on a more easy footing. I had much to tell, and was spokesman nearly all the night. Somehow or other, although I addressed my uncle whenever I spoke, I felt that I was speaking to Cousin Polly. ”

“ Even in chemistry we find that some acids when mixed form a more powerful acid than when separate. But still I hold that throughout the organic and inorganic worlds, opposite natures attract each other and combine the most strongly.”
“Oh, Charlie, Charlie,” said Holdsworth, “you are getting quite beyond the subject. I should make the Professor stare with astonishment if I were to come out with such fantastic notions. But I could not help thinking, while you were speaking, that Old Walstein would just suit you.”
“Old Walstein! Who is Old Walstein?” ”

“ It was late when I left Doctor Walstein, but I did not do so without promising to visit him on the following evening. Holdsworth was disappointed that I could give him so little information about Miss Walstein, and looked very sceptical when I told him that she was conversant with the science of chemistry, declaring that it was utterly unnatural and impossible.
I went to the Doctor’s house the next evening—in fact, I was there every night for a week, and became more and more attracted by my new acquaintance on every visit. Let me be understood: I neither liked nor respected the old man. ”

“ I found that my uncle did not now go out as frequently in the fields as he was in the habit of doing formerly; not that he enjoyed his favourite sports less, but that he enjoyed the presence and sunny smiles of Mary Maurice more. When therefore I became once more a member of the household of Haughton Tower, I found, with great pleasure, that my uncle devoted a considerable portion of his leisure time to the pursuit of science. ”

“ Gradually the perfume died away.
“You may think it unfeminine,” the Doctor continued, “but my daughter is well versed in our favourite science—if you will allow me to call it so; from her earliest years she has been my companion, and as she showed a taste for the study of chemistry, I encouraged it, and in many of my researches and discoveries she has been my copartner, and often, indeed, my guide and director. ”

“ This rose-bud I had placed in the breast of my coat before my visit. The servant at the door told me that Doctor Walstein had not yet returned, but that he had requested me to wait for him. I had noticed one peculiarity about the Doctor’s household, which was that there seemed to be only one servant, and that was the evil-faced man in black who opened the door. I never saw any female domestic about the establishment, and the evil-faced man only admitted me, he never entered the apartments. ”

“ The new acid and the lime spring to each other and combine together at once, while the colourless carbonic acid gas is thrown off into the air. What power is this, that the new acid possesses? What makes the lime throw up its alliance with the gas? I believe myself that it is intimately connected with a law that exists throughout creation both in the animate and inanimate world,—that opposite natures should be drawn together. Inorganic substances which have the strongest “attraction” for one another, are those which differ most entirely in their qualities. ”

“ I hope you are taking heed of what I say, for I wish you to understand what kind of a man you have to deal with. I am not only a student of the mysteries of Nature, but I worship Nature, and have no religion except science. ”

“ I cannot send her to my father’s house; those who have been so cruel to the daughter, will not be kind to the daughter’s child. I rely on your generosity and goodness of heart, and I know that my hopes will be fully realised when I am dead. ”

“ I was trembling with terror. It was then that the idea first rose to my mind,—Why not go to Wales and see this old man, and there learn from himself what truth there might be in the vague fears that beset me? ”

“ Take the case of elective affinity, which, by its very title, gives to these so-called dead substances the property of a power of choosing. As an example of what I mean generally let me remind you of a very common mineral, chalk, or carbonate of lime; in it a solid substance, lime, is combined with a colourless gas called carbonic acid. Now, the instant that another acid, say sulphuric acid, is brought in contact with chalk, what is the result? ”

“ When I came of age I should be in the possession of wealth. No trouble, no grief, no pain had ever crossed my path within my recollection, and my prospects were as bright and sunny as the scene around me. ”

“ Cousin Mark. Forgive me, and may Heaven reward you! Mary.
I, who knew nothing of the matter then, was astonished to see tears in my uncle’s eyes, after reading this letter, and still more astonished when I saw him dash them hurriedly away, saying .
“God bless the woman! what on earth made her write to me in this way? It’s impossible—she can’t be dead. But in any case, I must be off to London at once. Take care of her child—of Mary’s child? Of course I will—twenty of them, if there were as many! Here, Charlie, don’t stand gaping at me in that way. ”

“ Don’t stay long away, Charlie, but come back soon and make her your wife.”
In an hour or two afterwards I was in the railway carriage, hurrying on to London, and as the night grew darker and darker, between pauses of sleeping and waking, I fancied that ever and anon I heard Mary’s gentle voice whispering in my ear that strange warning—“Beware of poisons! Beware of poisons!” ”

“ He had a room which was fitted up purposely for his studies, but it was only for experiments of a very limited character. Uncle Mark pursued science more as a relaxation or a pleasure, than for any specific object to be attained. ”

“ I said, “that some chemical substances are of such a nature that when brought into contact, they immediately lay hold of one another, so to speak. They unite together ultimately, and form a substance entirely different from either of the original. ”

“ Look around, too, in the world of your acquaintances, and do you not everywhere see persons of opposite natures strongly attracted to one another, especially in the cases of friends, lovers, or husbands and wives? ”

“ I cannot explain my reasons to you, but my wish is, to avoid Doctor Walstein if possible; besides, you cannot care very much for a girl whom you have never spoken to.”
Holdsworth was a handsome, strong young fellow, but he had one weakness, which was, that he could not conceal a blush. ”

“ He did arrive in a few days, bringing with him Cousin Polly. I will not describe our meeting. Uncle Mark never heard this narrative,—he is long since dead; and Cousin Polly had been for years my loving little wife before I told it to her.
All that I ever heard again of Doctor Walstein was from Holdsworth, who told me that two nights after I escaped from the old man’s clutches the scattered inhabitants of that part of Gower were startled at seeing a great conflagration at Pwlldu House. When discovered, the building was burning in every part. ”