Edith Allonby

“ GARDEN AND HOUSE OF SHADOWS The next morning the sensation of waking in such fine surroundings had lost all its charm. Rosalie awoke with a dull leaden pain at her heart, that gained rather than lost power as she recalled one by one the articles of furniture in this new home. The long mirror had lost its fascination; so had the silken bed-hangings. She did not jump out of bed, but rather lay there idly, with no wish to rise; oppressed with such a heaviness that to lie still seemed the only ease from all those aches and pains that twine around a heavy heart. ”

“ But Mariana shook her head.
“I heard from the Master you had gained strength from weakness; and I heard from Everard you had jewels of your own that you have worn to counteract the fatal charm of these.”
“Not of my own, Mariana; they were of God.” “Ah, God! I had forgotten Him. The dream has passed so long ago.”
“God is no dream, but a living reality, Mariana.”
“I was once bitten by a snake, and here they call the Serpent God. I love not such an image, but live in the never-ending twilight. I think it is the shadowed light the idol throws, placing itself betwixt the world and God.” ”

“ Below, a shimmer of satin, and gold, and silver, all strikingly in contrast to the bareness and poorness of the room, met the eye.
“How lovely!” said Rosalie, drawing her breath. “Do you know, I thought that big white cloth was the material, and it looked to my eyes more like a shroud.”
“This is only the material,” said Mariana. “I finished it the day you came, after being engaged on it three years. It is all hand-spun and woven, but now I’ve put the loom and spinning-wheel away in those big chests. One does not want too many things about.” ”

“ For during this time of waiting and subsequent doubt no one had come to see her, no one at all, except the frog.
In this fit of depression, which was the first of its kind, the outcome of disappointment and hope deferred, the frog spoke.
“What is it, Rosalie? I’ve never seen you cry before.”
“I can’t stand it any longer, I know I can’t. I’ve waited for six months, with never a soul to speak to but you, and nothing has come up. It’s all a failure. My heart is as heavy as a stone. If it gets much worse it will break right in two. I know it will.” ”

“ Barringcourt laughed. Under that laugh Rosalie shrivelled up like a white butterfly under the breath of ice.
“But I do like,” he answered, still laughing. “You must not quote from Mariana. It is too absurd. And so you have no secret. I can scarcely imagine a woman without one, nor a man.”
The merciless mocking eyes were fixed on her, so that she seemed incapable of moving. There rose within her a terrible weakness, a longing to lean on him, to be guided by his advice, to speak of all those doubts that preyed upon her mind, and state the few plain facts that raised them. ”

“ And Rosalie laughed, but her eyes were wonderfully serious, and she said simply:
“I’ll give it to you, Mr. Barringcourt, because it seems to me to love one’s mother is the greatest and the simplest thing in the duty towards one’s neighbour, if that mother is as she should be. And it is more than pleasant to me to know that somewhere in the wide universe there is someone who has broken through the natural hardness of your heart, and called forth a respect and love of which I never thought you capable.” ”

“ All about the cell fluttered the silent moths, settling and rising from the table. Yet they were powerless to canker anything. The bitter iron of living sorrow had too hard a crust.
The light that Rosalie brought with her lit up the room. She stood upon the threshold, gazing spellbound with horror on the central form. Could this be Mariana—this frozen statue, this figure nipped to the spirit with unavailing pain? Oh, never, never! For there this beautiful machine, working so fine a marvel of creation, had come upon a horrid pause, a fearful counterfeit of death, a fearful mockery of life! ”

“ And then the Master, gathering the long reins in his hand as he sat down beside her, wrung Everard’s hand, and seeing Mariana held her hand toward him too, bent over it and kissed it, by that one act undoing all the past in which she suffered through him.
The Master shook the reins. A thousand tingling stars shook from them upon and round about the coal-black steeds. One wild bound forward all in unison, not on a straight road, but up some climbing steep.
Rosalie turned round. And laughing, half in fear and half in happiness, kissed her hand to Brightcoat. ”

“ I give you the benefit of a second opinion upon most things.”
“But there is where I fear to go back to Lucifram. It’s a place where one is so terribly misjudged, and it’s a place, too, where you have just the knack of saying the things you wished unsaid.”
“Well, then, choose. Will you go back, or will you stay?”
But Rosalie, on second thoughts, made answer:
“You know best, and it is for you to choose. Somehow, I could not think to doubt or question what you say; and after all, why should one bother about to-morrow, if one does one’s duty to-day.” ”

“ Dim and mysterious was that holy place, where priests, all flowing and bedecked in golden garments, came each day to bow before the Snake. Its three tails, the gold of them burnished like fire, spread out like fans on high, against a background of mosaic. Below, resting on the altar, was the great head, lying quite still; the genius of ages worked in its cruel fangs and awful eyes. Eyes never closing, jewel-glinting, green and fiery, all-surveying, all-watching. Those terrible eyes lit up the gloom, and compelled men to stand upon their heads as it itself was forced to do. ”

“ Rosalie’s heart was in that terrible state of aching which approaches physical pain. Speechless, she knew herself quite helpless.
For lack of speech she must be separated from one who had suddenly grown more helpless than herself, one whom she could not bear to part with, one who had grown accustomed to her great defect, and had never labelled on the door those words: “Home for the Blind—the Deaf—the Dumb—Incurables.”
“Once I get inside there I am dumb for ever,” she cried to herself, as she stumbled up the darkening aisle. “Oh, I cannot go—I cannot! I want to live like other people. ”

“ And to this city came Rosalie, led by him whom some had called on Lucifram the Master. And being all tired with the journey, Rosalie fell asleep just as they were entering the gates.
For no traveller from a darker sphere can enter there unweary. The soft air, too strong for them, wafts the frail form to tender sleep, that it undergo the great and immortal change.
The sound of laughter and welcome, Heaven’s truest music of joy, and then for us a silence.
So ends a little chapter in the life of Lucifram. A chapter that bore indirectly upon the Serpent, and helped gradually to its undoing. ”

“ And that is why Sir John went to the party—from motives of conscientiousness. And Miss Crokerly went because she wished to give pleasure to Rosalie. She, an ideal chaperon and friend. And Rosalie went because there was no way out of it.
But Rosalie’s dress was in itself that night a thing of beauty. Green, as bright and dazzling a green as the frog’s coat, that fitted to her graceful figure as perfectly as the shining scales of a serpent’s coils, worked with tiny seed jewels and edgings of gold. ”

“ Happiness! Do you call it happiness to be fastened up in there the greater part of the day-time?” And she pointed to the door through which Mariana had passed a short time before.
“When she is contented it is, at least, the nearest approach to happiness. And your ignorant meddling can never have a good result.”
Then Rosalie was silent, and with no heart to answer she turned away, and went upstairs to the little sitting-room.
Her own heart ached enough in all conscience. O God! to be free! away from all this coldness and hardness, and gloom and silence. ”

“ A HUMBLE CRUCIFIXION The next morning sunshine and warmth had come, the frost risen and fled. The birds were singing in the forest, and the melting icicles had none of the dispiriting effect of thaw, but sparkled in the sunshine. The ground was free.
Rosalie went out and took the fork and began the old process—digging. It took a long, long time, days, and weeks, and months, to chip away the soil from the new mound.
And at last the first bright ray—uncheckered—burst through. Rosalie started up with a cry. The frog hopped up to witness. ”

“ BROKEN SPIRITS So full of pain and heaviness was Rosalie that all her childish fear had vanished. She passed up the slippery staircase into the corridor, from which her own small sitting-room was.
Never to go downstairs again for three long weary years! Never to be out of the grey, silent, ghostly shadows of those upper rooms—never to have human companionship or friendliness! A part of the meaning floated through her mind, and cast its heavy shroud on all things. ”

“ The Serpent is a god!”
“Do you believe that?” she asked, suddenly looking up, and fixing his eyes with a look as keen as it was serious.
Two pairs of eyes, dark and light, each encountered one another—each trying to read the other’s secret—and both for once inscrutable, dark and light alike.
“Yes. I’ve got a pretty good mental digestion; it can take most things,” he said, the corners of his mouth curving into a smile. “Look! Miss—Miss—What’s your name, by the way?”
“My name is Rosalie—Rosalie Paleaf.” ”

“ Mariana shook her head.
“It’s the only time I ever feel, the only time I ever live.”
“But it is pain and sorrow.”
“Better than emptiness. Now I have lost the only thing I love. All week it lies quite mute, a thing of idleness, bursting with life. And when I take it up it utters so long a wail, so sad a sigh, that my heart returns to it, and we weep together till pain becomes an ecstasy and sadness joy.”
“Oh, Mariana! what a life is yours!” ”

“ Breakfast was served on the same floor as that on which her bedroom was—three rooms away.
All this portion of the house evidently looked out on to nothing better than the wall mentioned before; but the beauty of the interior compensated for outside gloom. Rosalie was charmed with everything she saw, though somewhat awe-struck, and she took her breakfast shyly from the hands of what she described to herself as the handsomest man she had ever seen. She also made a mental note that he must be brother to the man she saw downstairs. ”

“ And Rosalie said: “This is the light which cures as well as beautifies—the talisman against all ills—the gift of God, the pearl above all price; never pearl shone like to it, or diamond, or ruby, or any stone dug from the mines or caves. I’ll take it to the Governor. None can fail but to acknowledge its beauty, if but for the one central spark from the raised inner surface.” ”