Edna Lyall

“ Nevertheless I still live; and there will come a day when Sigismund and Gertrude shall be comforted and the slanderers punished.
For poor Valerian was right, and there is an Avenger, in whom even my progenitor believes, and before whom he trembles.
There will come a time when those self-satisfied ones, whose hands are all the time steeped in blood, shall be confronted with me, and shall realise to the full all that their idle words have brought about. ”

“ Courtenay, smiling.
“No, not at all,” said Zaluski, with the audacity of a privileged being. “It is just my little amusement, very harmless, very—what you call innocent. Mr. Blackthorne cannot make up his mind about me. One day I appear to him to be Catholic, the next Comtist, the next Orthodox Greek, the next a convert to the Anglican communion. I am a mystery, you see! And mysteries are as indispensable in life as in a romance.”
He laughed. Mrs. Courtenay laughed too, and a little friendly banter was carried on between them, while the curate stood by feeling rather out of it. ”

“ Blackthorne had only been ordained three or four years, and was a little younger, and much less experienced in the ways of the world, than Sigismund Zaluski. He was a good well-meaning fellow, a little narrow, a little prejudiced, a little spoiled by the devotion of the district visitors and Sunday School teachers; but he was honest and energetic, and as a worker among the poor few could have equalled him. He seemed to fancy, however, that with the poor his work ended, and he was not always so wise as he might have been in Muddleton society. ”

“ For that day I wait; and though afterwards I shall be finally destroyed in the general destruction of all that is unmitigatedly evil, I promise myself a certain satisfaction and pleasure (a feeling I doubtless inherit from my progenitor) , when I watch the shame, and horror, and remorse of Mrs. O’Reilly and the rest of the people to whom I owe my existence and rapid growth. ”

“ Selldon. “Such pleasant, hospitable people as they are! Do you remember the Morleys?”
“Oh yes! There was a pretty daughter who played tennis well.”
“Quite so—Gertrude Morley. Well, would you believe it, this miserable fortune-hunter is actually either engaged to her or on the eve of being engaged! Poor Mrs. Milton-Cleave is so unhappy about it, for she knows, on the best authority, that Mr. Zaluski is unfit to enter a respectable house.” ”

“ Finding me burdensome, she had passed me on to somebody else with additions that vastly increased my working powers, and then she talked of leaving it to chance! The way in which mortals practise pious frauds on themselves is really delightful! And yet Lena Houghton was a good sort of girl, and had from her childhood repeated the catechism words which proclaim that, “My duty to my neighbour is to love him as myself . . . To keep my tongue from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering.” ”

“ O’Reilly. She had somehow managed to ignore middle age, and had passed from her position of renowned beauty to the position which she now firmly and constantly claimed of many years and much experience. “Of course,” she continued, “like every one else, I was glad enough to be friendly and pleasant to Sigismund Zaluski, and as to his being a Pole, why, I think it rather pleased me than otherwise. You see, my dear, I have knocked about the world and mixed with all kinds of people. ”

“ Clearly his thoughts were engrossed with his own affairs, which, in other words, meant with Gertrude Morley; and though, as I have since observed, there are times when a man in love is an altogether intolerable sort of being, there are other times when he is very much improved by the passion, and regards the whole world with a genial kindliness which contrasts strangely with his previous cool cynicism.
“How delightful and home-like your room always looks!” he exclaimed, taking the cup of tea which Mrs. O’Reilly handed to him. “I am horribly lonely at Ivy Cottage. ”

“ Shrewsbury, tentatively.
Mrs. Selldon hesitated. Then, under the cover of the general roar of conversation, she said in a low voice:—
“You have guessed quite rightly. He is one of the Nihilists who were concerned in the assassination of the late Czar.”
“You don’t say so!” exclaimed Mark Shrewsbury, much startled. “Is it possible?”
“Indeed, it is only too true,” said Mrs. Selldon. “I heard it only the other morning, and on the very best authority. Poor Gertrude Morley! My heart bleeds for her.” ”

“ His first feeling was one of amazement, his second, one of indignation; however, he was obliged to get up at once and dress, the policeman rigorously keeping guard over him the whole time for fear he should destroy any treasonable document.
“How I shall make them laugh in England when I tell them of this ridiculous affair!” reflected Sigismund, as he was solemnly marched into the adjoining room, where he found his uncle and cousins, each guarded by a policeman. ”

“ I crowded out the Magnificat with a picture of Zaluski and Gertrude Morley. I led her through more terrible future possibilities in the second lesson than would be required for a three-volume novel. I entirely eclipsed the collects with reflections on unhappy marriages; took her off viâ Russia and Nihilism in the State prayers, and by the time we arrived at St. Chrysostom had become so powerful that I had worked her mind into exactly the condition I desired.
The congregation rose. ”

“ I was introduced into the world by an old lady named Mrs. O’Reilly. She was a very pleasant old lady, the wife of a General, and one of those sociable, friendly, talkative people who do much to cheer their neighbours, particularly in a deadly-lively provincial place like Muddleton, where the standard of social intercourse is not very high. Mrs. O’Reilly had been in her day a celebrated beauty ”

“ Don’t say there is no God. There must be a God to avenge such hideous wrong.”
So they spoke to each other through their prison wall as men in the free outer world seldom care to speak; and I, who knew no barriers, looked now on Valerian’s gaunt figure, and brave but prematurely old face, now on poor Zaluski, who, in his weary imprisonment, had wasted away till one could scarcely believe that he was indeed the same lithe, active fellow who had played tennis at Mrs. Courtenay’s garden-party.
Day and night Valerian listened to the terrible cough which came from the adjoining cell. ”

“ Well, would you believe it, my dear! instead of improvising or playing operatic airs as usual, he began to play a stupid little tune which every child was taught years ago, of course with variations of his own. Then he turned round on the music-stool with the oddest smile I ever saw, and said, “Do you know that air, Mrs. O’Reilly?”
“Yes,” I said; “but I forget now what it is.’”
“It was composed by Pestal, one of the victims of Russian tyranny,” said he. “The executioner did his work badly, and Pestal had to be strung up twice. ”

“ I take it for granted that “there is no smoke without fire,” and that there must be something in the very strange tale which I have just heard on the best authority. It is said that this Sigismund Zaluski left St. Petersburg in March 1881, after the assassination of the late Czar, in which he was seriously compromised. He is said to be an out-and-out Nihilist, an atheist, and, in short, a dangerous, disreputable fellow. ”

“ Before long Jane Stiggins, the member who had migrated from Muddleton to Dulminster, had been duly reported, wound up, and made over to the Archdeacon’s wife. Then the tired hand paused. What more could she say to her friend?
“We are leading our usual quiet life here,” she wrote, “with the ordinary round of tennis parties and picnics to enliven us. The children have all been wonderfully well, and I think you will see a great improvement in your god-daughter when you next come to stay with us”—“Oh dear!” sighed Mrs. Milton-Cleave, “how dull and stupid I am to-night! ”

“ But he managed to escape somehow in the month of March 1881, and to reach England safely. I fear it is only too often the case in this world—wickedness is apt to be successful.”
“To flourish like a green bay tree,” said Mark Shrewsbury, congratulating himself on the aptness of the quotation, and its suitability to the Archediaconal dinner-table. “It is the strangest story I have heard for a long time.” Just then there was a pause in the general conversation, and Mrs. Selldon took advantage of it to make the sign for rising, so that no more passed with regard to Zaluski. ”

“ But whispering tongues can poison truth.
Coleridge.
London in early September is a somewhat trying place. Mark Shrewsbury found it less pleasing in reality than in his visions during the dinner-party at Dulminster. True, his chambers were comfortable, and his type-writer was as invaluable a machine as ever, and his novel was drawing to a successful conclusion; but though all these things were calculated to cheer him, he was nevertheless depressed. Town was dull, the heat was trying, and he had never in his life found it so difficult to settle down to work. ”

“ Her popularity was well deserved, for she was always ready to do a kind action, and often went out of her way to help people who had not the slightest claim upon her. There was, however, no repose about Mrs. Milton-Cleave, and an acute observer would have discovered that her universal readiness to help was caused to some extent by her good heart, but in a very large degree by her restless and over-active brain. ”

“ I drew nearer to him, perceiving that my prospects bid fair to improve. For very few people can feel out of it without drifting into a self-regarding mood, and then they are the easiest prey imaginable. ”

“ I can’t think how it has escaped my notice.”
“Nor I, for indeed he is up at the Morleys’ pretty nearly every day. What with tennis, and music, and riding, there is always some excuse for it. I can’t think what Gertrude sees in him, he is not even good-looking.”
“There is a certain surface good-nature about him,” said Mrs. O’Reilly. “It deceived even me at first. But, my dear Lena, mark my words: that man has a fearful temper; and I pray Heaven that poor Gertrude may have her eyes opened in time. Besides, to think of that little gentle, delicate thing marrying a Nihilist! It is too dreadful ”

“ Zaluski; she deserves a better fate than that.”
“I quite agree with you,” said Mrs. O’Reilly, with a troubled look. “And the worst of it is, poor Gertrude is a girl who might very likely take up foolish revolutionary notions; she needs a strong wise husband to keep her in order and form her opinions. ”

“ Dealing surer death and pain,
And the cruel echo answered
Through long years again.
A. A. Procter.
Curiously enough, I must actually have started for Russia on the same day that Sigismund Zaluski was summoned by his uncle at St. Petersburg to return on a matter of urgent business. I learnt afterwards that the telegram arrived at Muddleton on the afternoon of one of those sunny September days and found Zaluski as usual at the Morleys. He was very much annoyed at being called away just then, and before he had received any reply from Gertrude’s uncle as to the engagement. ”

“ The whole neighbourhood has been dominated this year by a young Polish merchant named Sigismund Zaluski, who is very clever and musical and knows well how to win popularity. He has taken Ivy Cottage for four mouths, and is, I fear, doing great mischief. The Morleys are his special friends, and I greatly fear he is making love to Gertrude. Now I know privately, on the very best authority, that although he has so completely deceived every one and has managed so cleverly to pose as a respectable man, that Mr. ”

“ That, for instance, while it takes years to develop the man from the baby, and months to develop the dog from the puppy, the baby monad will grow to maturity in an hour.
Personally I should have preferred to linger in Mrs. O’Reilly’s pleasant drawing-room, for, as I said before, my victim interested me, and I wanted to observe him more closely and hear what he talked about. But I received orders to attend evensong at the parish church, and to haunt the mind of Lena Houghton. ”

“ Zaluski’s play,” she remarked as they walked to the refreshment tent at the other end of the lawn. “Certainly foreigners know how to move much better than we do: our best players look awkward beside them.” ”

“ And they walked home together.
“I am so glad to have this chance of speaking to you,” she began rather nervously. “I wanted particularly to ask your advice.”
Mr. Blackthorne, being human and young, was not unnaturally flattered by this remark. True, he was becoming well accustomed to this sort of thing, since the ladies of Muddleton were far more fond of seeking advice from the young and good-looking curate than from the elderly and experienced rector. They said it was because Mr. Blackthorne was so much more sympathetic, and understood the difficulties of the day so much better ”

“ Leonoff had nothing whatever to do with the Revolutionary movement, but absolute innocence does not free people from the police inquisition, and five or six years ago, when the Search mania was at its height, a case is on record of a poor lady whose house was searched seven times within twenty-four hours, though there was no evidence whatever that she was connected with the Nihilists ”