Francis Stevens

“ It was only on reaching the grove that I came to myself, as it were, and remembered Jake's story of the gypsies who are camping there.
Then I very quickly emerged from the vague, absurd happiness which sight of the girl had brought.
While talking with my Carcassonnian, I had observed that grove rather carefully. I had thought it perfect—that nothing added could increase the somber ugliness of its trees, nor the desolation of its gray, ruined, tumbledown old huts.
Today I learned better. To be perfect, ugliness must include sordid humanity.
The shacks, dreary in themselves, were hideous now. ”

“ This morning Elva took me around the shops—shops like architectural blossoms, carved out of the finest marble.
They make jewelry, weave fabrics, tool leather, and follow many other interesting occupations. Set in the midst of the lawns is a forge. Every part of it, even to the iron anvil, is embellished with a fernlike inlay of other metals. Several amateur silversmiths were at work there, but Elva hurried me away before I could see what they were about.
I have inquired for the young painter who first told me of Carcassonne and invited me to visit him there. ”

“ I spoke to Elva of my extended visit, and she laughingly informed me that people who have drunk the wine and worn the woven robes of Carcassonne seldom wish to leave. She suggested that I give up trying to "escape" and spend my life here. Jest, of course; but I half wished her words were earnest. She and her people are spoiling me for the common, workaday world.
Not that they are idle, but their occupations as well as pleasures are of a delicate, fascinating beauty. ”

“ After unpacking, though, I resolutely let the microscope and other things be. Walked ten miles up-hill and down. Tried to admire the landscape, as Locke advised, but can't see much in it. Rocks, trees, lumpy hills, yellow roads, sky, clouds, buzzards. Beauty! What beauty is there in this vast, clumsy world that is the outer husk for nature's real and delicate triumphs? ”

“ Professor Theron Tademus, seated on a rock with a gypsy girl, crowned with wild honeysuckle and adjusting a similar wreath to the girl's blue-scarfed head!
Luckily, neither the student nor anyone else passed, and in a few minutes she said something that brought me to my senses. Due to that inexplicable dimness of memory, I quote the sense, not her words.
"My father is a ruler among our people. You must visit us. For my sake, the people and my father will make you welcome." ”

“ There is something in the very atmosphere of Carcassonne which, once yielded to, exhilarates like wine. I have never danced, nor desired to learn. Last night, after a banquet so perfect that I hardly recall its details, I danced. I danced with Elva—and with Elva—and always with Elva. ”

“ Last night I could not sleep at all. Round midnight I ceased trying, rose, dressed, and spent the rest of the night with the good old Stephenson-Swift. My light for night-work—a common oil lamp—is not very brilliant. This morning I suffered considerable pain behind the eyes, and determined to give Locke's "walking and open air" treatment another trial, though discouraged by previous results.
This time I remembered to turn my back on the road which leads to that hideous grove. The sunlight seemed to increase the pain I was already suffering. ”

“ They are more fragrant than I had thought even wild honeysuckle could be.
Elva. Elva of the sky-blue scarf and the yellow honeysuckle
My eyes are heavy, but the pain behind them is gone. I think I shall sleep tonight.
Friday, July 21.
Is there any man so gullible as he who prides himself on his accuracy of observation?
I ask this in humility, for I am that man.
Yesterday I rose, feeling fresher than for weeks past. After all, Locke's treatment seemed worthy of respect. With that in mind, I put in only a few hours staining some of my binucleate cilia and finishing the slides. ”

“ My day for the making of records is over, I think. Any sort of records. I go back to my classes next month. God knows what I shall say to them! Elva.
I may as well finish the story here.
Every day I find it harder to recall the details. If I hadn't this book, with what I wrote in it when I was—when I was there, I should believe that my brain had failed in earnest.
Locke said I couldn't have been in Carcassonne. He stood in the breakfast-room, with the sunlight striking across him. I saw him clearly. I saw the huge, coarse, ugly creature that he was. And in that minute, I knew. ”

“ I see. Pleasant! And that gypsy girl— faugh! What an adventure for such a man! No wonder he tried to lie out of it. I don't think I care to hear the rest, Wharton. Whatever it is, my friend is dead. Let him rest."
"Oh, but wait," cried the young man, with startled earnestness. "Good Lord, doctor, do you believe I would bring this book even to you if it contained that kind of story—about Professor Tademus? No. Its amazing quality is along different lines than you can possibly suspect."
"Get on, then," grumbled Locke, and Wharton continued. ”

“ I have observed since that all these people use the single name only, in presentation and intercourse. Though lacking personal experience with artists, I have heard that they are inclined to peculiar "fads" of unconventionality. I had never, however, imagined that they could be attractive to a man like myself, or pleasant to know.
I am enlightened. These Carcassonnian "colonists" are the only charming, altogether delightful people whom I have ever met.
One and all, they seemed acquainted with Elva's amusing jest at my expense. ”

“ It was like walking out of a dark closet into broad day. The first dazzlement passing, I perceived that instead of the somber grove and ruined huts, I was facing a group of very beautiful houses.
It is curious how a previous and false assumption—will rule a man. ”

“ A few men, whiskered, dirty-faced, were gathered about a sort of forge erected in the grove. They were making something, beating it with hammers in the midst of showers of sparks. As the dog yapped, one of the men turned and saw me. ”

“ The wild honeysuckle has almost ceased to bloom. I can leave now. Locke says I am well, and that I can return to my classes.
I have not entered my laboratory since that morning. Locke admires my "willpower" for dropping all that till physical health should have returned. Will-power! I shall never, as long as I live, look into a microscope again. ”

“ Artists are not necessarily liars, and every artist and near- artist in the Carcassonne colony had not only denied knowledge of the professor, but spent a good part of the week helping hunt for him.
Later, after insisting that Locke accompany him to Carcassonne and meet his friends there, Tademus suddenly admitted that he had not previously been near the place. ”

“ What a horrible, rough iron thing that was which they had held up to me from their forge. Men capable of creating such an uncouthly cruel instrument as that jag toothed trap would be terrible to meet in the night. And I had come near blundering in among them—at night!
This won't do. I have been happy. Don't let me drop back into the morbidly nervous condition which invested those gypsies with more than human horror. Elva is calling me. I have been too long alone.
Friday, July 28.
Home again. I am writing this in my bungalow-laboratory. ”

“ Jake informs me that a band of gypsies have settled themselves in the grove which my Carcassonnian acquaintance chose to paint. They are living in the ruined huts. Now I shall avoid that road, too. Talk of solitude! Why, the hills are fairly swarming with artists, gypsies, and Lord knows who else. ”

“ In this our well-advertised, modern world, crammed with engines, death-dealing shells, life-dealing serums, and science, he who listens to "old wives' tales" is counted idle. He who believes them, a superstitious fool. ”

“ Like this.
"Then Tademus dropped.
"And there are legends, you know, of strange people, either more or less than human, who appear as gypsies, but are not the real gypsies, that possess queer powers. Their outer appearance is rough and vile, but behind that, as a veil, they live a wonderful hidden life of their own. ”

“ It was from Jake Higgins, the Negro caretaker whom he had "lent" to Tademus along with the bungalow.
Leaving his practice to another man's care, Dr. Locke fled for the Carolina Blue Ridge.
He found his caretaker and his bungalow, but no Tademus.
By Jake's story, the professor had gone to walk one afternoon and had not returned. Having wired Locke, the caretaker had otherwise done his best. He notified the county sheriff, and search parties scoured the mountains. At his appeal, too, the entire Carcassonnian colony, male and female, turned out with enthusiasm to hunt for Tademus. ”

“ Elva, of the sky-like scarf and laughing mouth.
"Wait here," I said to the boy, rather brusquely, and entered the house. I had remembered a pocket-case of simple remedies, none of which I had ever used, but there was a direction pamphlet with them. If I must play amateur physician, that might help. I looked for Jake, meaning to inform him of my proposed expedition. ”