Basil Hallward

“ He kept his youth,--that was enough. And, besides, might not his nature grow finer, after all? There was no reason that the future should be so full of shame. Some love might come across his life, and purify him, and shield him from those sins that seemed to be already stirring in spirit and in flesh,--those curious unpictured sins whose very mystery lent them their subtlety and their charm. Perhaps, some day, the cruel look would have passed away from the scarlet sensitive mouth, and he might show to the world Basil Hallward's masterpiece. ”

“ There was a God who called upon men to tell their sins to earth as well as to heaven. Nothing that he could do would cleanse him till he had told his own sin. His sin? He shrugged his shoulders. The death of Basil Hallward seemed very little to him. He was thinking of Hetty Merton. For it was an unjust mirror, this mirror of his soul that he was looking at. ”

“ He realized that, and when he had locked the door of his library, he opened the secret press into which he had thrust Basil Hallward's coat and bag. A huge fire was blazing. He piled another log on it. The smell of the singeing clothes and burning leather was horrible. It took him three-quarters of an hour to consume everything. At the end he felt faint and sick, and having lit some Algerian pastilles in a pierced copper brazier, he bathed his hands and forehead with a cool musk-scented vinegar.
Suddenly he started. His eyes grew strangely bright, and he gnawed nervously at his underlip. ”

“ You are not stronger,—you are too much afraid of life,—but you are better. And how happy we used to be together! Don't leave me, Basil, and don't quarrel with me. I am what I am. There is nothing more to be said."
Hallward felt strangely moved. Rugged and straightforward as he was, there was something in his nature that was purely feminine in its tenderness. The lad was infinitely dear to him, and his personality had been the great turning-point in his art. He could not bear the idea of reproaching him any more. After all, his indifference was probably merely a mood that would pass away. ”

“ But still I don't think I would go to Harry if I was in trouble. I would sooner go to you, Basil."
"But you won't sit to me again?"
"Impossible!"
"You spoil my life as an artist by refusing, Dorian. No man comes across two ideal things. Few come across one."
"I can't explain it to you, Basil, but I must never sit to you again. I will come and have tea with you. That will be just as pleasant."
"Pleasanter for you, I am afraid," murmured Hallward, regretfully. "And now good-by. I am sorry you won't let me look at the picture once again. But that can't be helped. ”

“ The wind shook some blossoms from the trees, and the heavy lilac blooms, with their clustering stars, moved to and fro in the languid air. A grasshopper began to chirrup in the grass, and a long thin dragon-fly floated by on its brown gauze wings. Lord Henry felt as if he could hear Basil Hallward's heart beating, and he wondered what was coming. ”

“ One he put in his pocket, the other he handed to the valet.
"Take this round to 152, Hertford Street, Francis, and if Mr. Campbell is out of town, get his address."
As soon as he was alone, he lit a cigarette and began sketching upon a piece of paper, drawing first flowers and bits of architecture, and then human faces. Suddenly he remarked that every face that he drew seemed to have a fantastic likeness to Basil Hallward. He frowned, and getting up, went over to the book-case and took out a volume at hazard. ”

“ "I suppose you have heard the news, Basil?" said Lord Henry that evening as Hallward was shown into a little private room at the Bristol where dinner had been laid for three. ”

“ There were pictures not so pleasant; great hulking men smoking pipes and lounging about, with "Brute" stamped on their features, and women as coarse, whose birth and training perhaps were a legitimate answer to their worse than common language and manners. Basil's observations of London life during the last few months had supplied him with ample food for reflection, and he could honestly have preached a homily on charity which better men than he--say, for instance, philanthropists or statesmen with hobbies--might serviceably have taken to heart. ”

“ The most I can say for it is, that it’s a more satisfactory plan than casting your bread on the waters, on the off-chance some kindly Elijah will butter it.”
“Where are the socks, G?” Basil asked, looking round. “I should like Hal to enjoy the edifying spectacle of your knitting babies’ socks.”
“You don’t mean that,” interrupted Hal comically. “I can’t believe it.”
“It’s the horrible truth,” asserted the spinster, calmly going on with her tea—“most of them go to little black whelps in the Antipodes. After all, it isn’t any more incongruous than the music—is it?” ”

“ Chaytor must be an out-and-outer--as cunning as they make 'em now-a-days. It's as well you should have a man like me with you. I know the ropes; you don't. Let's get to the office, sir. I must give 'em notice I'm going away on an important job. Luckily there's nothing very particular on hand just now." This preliminary was soon accomplished, and Basil and his companions arrived at Waterloo Station a few minutes before the train started for Bournemouth. On the road it was arranged that Basil should go alone to Mrs. Crawford's house. ”

“ If the stranger had not Stated that he had important business to transact, and had there not been something superior in his speech and deportment to the ordinary tramp with whom every man in the Australian colonies is familiar, Basil would have set him down as a member of that delectable fraternity. ”

“ Jim the Hatter was the first to speak.
"Well, mate?" he said.
"Is this the township of Gum Flat?" inquired Basil.
"It is. If you're looking for it, you're dead on the gutter."
"I thought I must have mistaken my way," said Basil. "What has come over the place?"
Newman Chaytor answered him. "It has gone," he said, "to the dogs."
"Like yourselves," thought Basil, gazing at the men, but deeming it prudent not to express himself aloud upon a point so personal. He spoke, however. "It is the place I was making for. I suppose I can put up here for the night?"
"There's nothing to prevent you. ”

“ Basil's face was very grave. It looked almost like the face of a man who finds himself in the presence of a great tragedy; or of one who knows he is fighting an insuperable obstacle. "Ah, yes," he sighed, "Doctor Johnson. Surely that is very pathetic." And he turned away and leant disconsolately against the railings, with his eyes fixed on the door of Number Three.
"Come and sit down, Missie, come and sit down," cried the Admiral, heartily.
Marjolaine accepted his invitation. "I used to be so afraid of you, Sir Peter!"
"Gobblessmysoul! Why?" ”

“ I was just thinking it's a wild place in which to find one's self at night. By the way," added Basil, as though anxious to change a disagreeable subject, "do you think Jarvey Hale a nice fellow?"
"No, I don't. I have met him at Maraquito's, and I don't like him. He's a bounder. Moreover, a respectable lawyer has no right to gamble to the extent he does. I wonder Miss Loach trusted him."
"Perhaps she didn't know of his gambling," said Basil, his eyes wandering everywhere but to the face of his companion; "but, should you think Hale would be hard on a fellow?" ”

“ He has not yet reached middle age, but he looks sixty at least, and on his worn, anxious face dwells the expression of a man who is waiting for a mortal stroke. He is well dressed, after the free bush fashion, and is no less a gentleman than Basil Whittingham. It is the mutual recognition of social equality that keeps Basil penniless and poorly clad, for he is a guest, not a dependent, on the plantation of which Anthony Bidaud is master. ”

“ Basil! Bring him here! bring me Basil!”
“He is here,” repeated Mr. Bernard loudly. “Look! look up at him!”
She turned in an instant, and tore the hair back from her face. For a moment, I forced myself to look at her; for a moment, I confronted the smouldering fever in her cheeks; the glare of the bloodshot eyes; the distortion of the parched lips; the hideous clutching of the outstretched fingers at the empty air—but the agony of that sight was more than I could endure: I turned away my head, and hid my face in horror.
“Compose yourself,” whispered the doctor. ”

“ A vindictive man would have argued otherwise, would have thought that it was at least a comrade's duty, before he left the spot, to convince himself by ocular proof that the fall was fatal. But Basil was not vindictive; he believed he had the best of reasons to be grateful to Chaytor, and if the gold his mate had taken was any repayment for services rendered in the past, he was welcome to it. The strong moral principle in Basil's nature kept him from yielding to temptations against which not all men struggle successfully when misfortune persistently dogs them. ”

“ I don't want you to be seen, Basil, that's the plain truth of the matter. You're not up to the men we meet. Now, I am sly and cunning----"
"You?" interrupted Basil. "You are the soul of candour and honesty, Chaytor. No one else should say that of you while I stood by."
"I don't mean exactly what I said, Basil, but I am sure I can do the job more neatly than you could. As to the tramp through the bush, I think nothing of it, so let it be as I say."
Basil making no further objection, the tent was put up and a trench dug around to carry the rain away. ”

“ The future is a blank: there is no brightness in it. If it happens that we are fortunate, that after all our ill luck we should strike a rich claim, I will give you my share of the gold freely, for I should have no use for it."
"I would not accept it, Basil," said Chaytor; "we will share and share alike. Have you no desire, then, to return to England?"
"I shall never go back," replied Basil. "My days will be ended in Australia."
"Where you will one day meet with a woman who will drive all thoughts of Annette out of your head." ”

“ Yes, Chaytor, I should expect my share." Basil said this in a rather shamefaced voice. "It proves in the first place that I am not a very dependable fellow, and in the second place it proves my philosophy, that we are moulded by immediate circumstances."
"Oh, it is natural enough; I never expected to meet with a man who would step out of the ordinary grooves. There are temptations which it is impossible to resist, and you and I are no different from the rest of mankind." ”

“ It is myself I am rendering a service to, not you. This deserted hole, and the association of those men"--jerking his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the tent--"sicken me. Does there not come to some men a crisis in their lives which compels them to turn over a new leaf, as the saying is, to cut themselves away entirely from the past and commence life anew?"
"Yes," said Basil, struck by the application of this figure of speech to his own circumstances, "it has come to me."
"And to me. I intended to leave Gum Flat to-morrow, and I did not know in which direction. ”

“ Splendid and exciting as life was in continual contact with an intellect like Basil's, I had always the feeling that that splendour and excitement were on the borderland of sanity. He lived perpetually near the vision of the reason of things which makes men lose their reason. And I felt of his insanity as men feel of the death of friends with heart disease. It might come anywhere, in a field, in a hansom cab, looking at a sunset, smoking a cigarette. ”

“ Would the idiot Basil ever have humbled himself as I did; would he ever have worked his old uncle as I have done? What is the result? I softened the old fellow's heart, and the money he would have left to some charity has fallen to me. Every labourer is worthy of his hire, and I am worthy of mine. Basil would never have had one penny of the fortune, and therefore it is my righteous due. At last, at last! No more sweating and toiling. The world is before me, and I shall live the life of a gentleman. There is work still to be done, both here and at home, and I will do it. No blenching, Chaytor ”

“ Chaytor for a week was in his element; he ascertained from the hall porter in the hotel the places of amusement which Basil visited of an evening, and he followed him to them; he waited outside the hotel to catch glimpses of him; he studied every feature, every expression, every movement attentively, until he declared to himself that he knew him by heart. He began to let his moustache grow, and he practised little tricks of manners which he had observed. He was like a man possessed.
"He is a gentleman," he said. "So am I. I am as good looking as he is any day of the week. ”

“ Yes, quite alone. I dropped my axe, told the jackass to shut up--which it didn't, Master Basil--and took the hand she held out to me. Such a little hand, Master Basil! I give you my word that as I held it in mine my thoughts went back, more years than I care to count, to the time when I was a little 'un myself, snuggling close up to my mother's apron. I can't remember when I'd thought of those days last. They were stowed away in a coffin, and dropped into a grave which stood between me as a boy and me as a man. It's like having lived two lives, one of which was dead and buried. ”

“ Newman Chaytor, there are not many men who can beat you."
He received other letters as well from other persons--from his old mother, addressed to himself, and from Annette, addressed to Basil. Certainly when he went to Sydney his hands were full, and he had enough to do. He did not grudge the labour. He saw in the distance the pleasures of life awaiting him, and it is a fact that in time he came to believe that they were his to enjoy, and that Basil had no rightful claim to them. It was he, Newman Chaytor, who had schemed for them, who was working for them. What was Basil doing? Nothing. ”