Memelland

“ Peleg!” said Bildad, lifting his eyes and hands, “thou thyself, as I myself, hast seen many a perilous time; thou knowest, Peleg, what it is to have the fear of death; how, then, can’st thou prate in this ungodly guise. Thou beliest thine own heart, Peleg. Tell me, when this same Pequod here had her three masts overboard in that typhoon on Japan, that same voyage when thou went mate with Captain Ahab, did’st thou not think of Death and the Judgment then?” ”

“ As Memling unslung his canvas from his back, he bowed to the old artist who lived at their little hotel, a genial patriarch who was so kindly of soul that Memling felt ashamed of himself for not admiring the veteran’s art as much as his heart.
Nellie had quite fallen in love with him. Old Henri la Berthe—which Nellie called “Ornery lar Boit—knew a little English, and enjoyed trying to make Nellie understand it. He even enjoyed trying to comprehend her. It was a sort of game of chess. To-day he insisted on seeing Memling's work, and it evoked his intense enthusiasm. ”

“ Still, however, the behaviour of the islanders towards me was as kind as ever. Fayaway was quite as engaging; Kory-Kory as devoted; and Mehevi the king just as gracious and condescending as before. But I had now been three months in their valley, as nearly as I could estimate; I had grown familiar with the narrow limits to which my wandering had been confined; and I began bitterly to feel the state of captivity in which I was held. There was no one with whom I could freely converse; no one to whom I could communicate my thoughts; no one who could sympathize with my sufferings. ”

“ When it comes to art, commend us to Dirk Memling. If he paints a picture it is a real painting, not a daub. His heart is in it; his soul. This is the story of how, during his stay in the beautiful city on the Seine, he painted, alas, too well
IF I’d ’a’ been slammed ashore on Robinson Caruso’s island all by me lonesome, I couldn’t feel lonesomer than what I feel lonesome now.” Nellie Gaskell was mumbling to herself for company. Crowds surrounded her, but she knew nobody. She faced the city of Cherbourg, and was afraid of it. ”

“ Memling vowed.
“Do what again?”
“Use forethought and caution, and all that sort of thing. Every time I take old Father Time by the forelock, he knees me in the stomach. Never in my life did I set out extra early to make a train that I didn’t get left.”
“There’s sumpum in what you say, Doik,” Nellie philosophized. “Trust to luck and you got a chance—not much, but some. But use your brain and it seems like you was challengin’ the Fates to a duel. They feel they gotta show you what a woim you really are.” ”

“ Now re-entering the tent, she again inquired where tarried Aleema.
"Think not of him, sweet Yillah," I cried. "Look on me. Am I not white like yourself? Behold, though since quitting Oroolia the sun has dyed my cheek, am I not even as you? Am I brown like the dusky Aleema? They snatched you away from your isle in the sea, too early for you to remember me there. But you have not been forgotten by me, sweetest Yillah. Ha! ha! ”

“ Memling answered with a bow.
“Paris is doin’ you good already,” Nellie beamed. “Keep right on.”
“I painted a portrait of you, and showed it to old Vervins. He said: ‘You are a very poor painter, monsieur, but if you can remove what you put on, I shall do myself the honor of calling you a great artist.’”
Nellie was furious. “He’s got a noive! Why didn’t you smack his fat face off for him?” she demanded. “Telling you you weren’t a great painter. Didn’t you tell him you were a great sculptor?” ”

“ Nellie turned to Memling: "I knew it! They can disguise anything except their feet." She turned to Berthe: "And what did he have to say for himself, Boit?"
"Nossing for himself, madame. Me, I do not go to the door, but I hear heem ask the second man much question—when are you come here, how long you stay, and I do not know what."
"What did the second baseman say?"
"He say you are come feerst for Saturday a week ago, and then you are come back for veesit and make the bust of madame."
Nellie sighed with relief. "Doik, you'll have to slip that second baseman a little extra pin money. ”

“ He poured forth a French rhapsody which Memling translated to Nellie in the crevices of the conversation.
“He says it’s wonderful—I’ve got the texture—better than Diaz, he says—no, not the Mexican—Diaz, the immortal painter—he says Diaz’s trees were too velvety—too plushy. But he says I ought to get the human note in—just a picture of a tree is not popular—he suggests a nymph or something—a dryad—or a Watteau shepherdess—not a bad idea—fun to do, anyway.” ”

“ As soon as the trunk was taken to her room at the hotel Memling had selected, she was all for venturing forth again.
Refreshed by her sleep on the train, and stimulated by the ozone of Paris air, she had the mood of a summer dawn. And Mending, renewing his acquaintance with the Paris of his young art-student days, felt youth throbbing again in his arteries.
He kept full stride with Nellie’s zestful pace, and the sidewalk café, which was such a joyous discovery to her, was a paradise regained to him. ”

“ It was evident that during the night a cordon had been drawn around the Worthington estate. They were under siege.
Believing that the best defense is attack, Memling determined to make a sally. After an examination through the commodore's marine glasses, he decided that the man on the front beach was Lieutenant Melick himself in plain clothes. He decided to beard the lion before the lion sprang at him. Nellie protested frantically, but Memling answered that if they were to be taken it would happen inside the house or out. ”

“ Now, as we were thus strolling about the Morai, the old chronicler elucidating its mysteries, we suddenly spied Pani and the pilgrims approaching the image of Doleema; his child leading the guide.
"This," began Pani, pointing to the idol of stone, "is the holy god Ananna who lives in the sap of this green and flourishing tree."
"Thou meanest not, surely, this stone image we behold?" said Divino.
"I mean the tree," said the guide. "It is no stone image."
"Strange," muttered the chief; "were it not a guide that spoke, I would deny it. As it is, I hold my peace." ”

“ Memling beamed. "I don't know much about police affairs, but with so many policemen going to Sing Sing promotions must be very rapid, and you look to me like an ambitious man. You leave no stomach unturned—I mean no stone unturned. Fancy, now, you're being so thorough as to visit the home of so prominent a man as Commodore Worthington and accuse a starving sculptor of having carried off a whole storage warehouse. ”

“ That art dealer said I was a bad painter. Those art dealers always say that of truly great painters at first. What if I should paint so much better than the men whose pictures I’m to disguise, that I should feel it my duty to art not to rub out my own pictures?”
“Well, I should worry!”
V. In the emerald depths of Fontainebleau Forest, Memling sat painting the portrait of an ancient oak, a veritable grand duke of a tree. Nellie was sitting on the turf, watching him. ”

“ Memling sighed dismally: "The circumstances are not particularly conducive to a jocund entente."
Nellie threw him a startled look. "I got the woid 'soicumstances,' but after that I fell off. But I think the soicumstances are such that we all got a right to be full of glee and moith. Here's you, the greatest sculptor in the woild, making the portrait bust of a grande dame—I suppose swells don't call it bust, but boist—anyway, you ought to be happy dabbling in clay again, but you act like you was kneading red-hot mush and it boint your fingers. ”

“ That was my first kick.
“Is that the way they heave in the marchant service?” he roared. “Spring, thou sheep-head; spring, and break thy backbone! Why don’t ye spring, I say, all of ye—spring! Quohog! spring, thou chap with the red whiskers; spring there, Scotch-cap; spring, thou green pants. Spring, I say, all of ye, and spring your eyes out!” And so saying, he moved along the windlass, here and there using his leg very freely, while imperturbable Bildad kept leading off with his psalmody. Thinks I, Captain Peleg must have been drinking something to-day. ”

“ On the afternoon of the day that I took my first bath in the valley, we received another visit from Mehevi. The noble savage seemed to be in the same pleasant mood, and was quite as cordial in his manner as before. After remaining about an hour, he rose from the mats, and motioning to leave the house, invited Toby and myself to accompany him. I pointed to my leg; but Mehevi in his turn pointed to Kory-Kory, and removed that objection; so, mounting upon the faithful fellow's shoulders again—like the old man of the sea astride of Sindbad—I followed after the chief. ”

“ Now, at the head of the vale of Ardair, rose a tall, dark peak, presenting at the top the grim profile of a human face; whose shadow, every afternoon, crept down the verdant side of the mountain: a silent phantom, stealing all over the bosom of the glen.
At times, when the phantom drew near, Aleema would take Yillah forth, and waiting its approach, lay her down by the shadow, disposing her arms in a caress; saying, "Oh, Apo! dost accept thy bride?" And at last, when it crept beyond the place where he stood, and buried the whole valley in gloom; Aleema would say, "Arise Yillah ”

“ Rallying upon this, and perceiving that by divulging all they knew, these sons of Aleema might stir up the Islanders against me, I resolved to anticipate their story; and, turning to Borabolla, said— "In these strangers, oh, king! you behold the survivors of a band we encountered on our voyage. From them I rescued a maiden, called Yillah, whom they were carrying captive. Little more of their history do I know."
"Their maledictions?" exclaimed Borabolla.
"Are they not delirious with suffering?" I cried. "They know not what they say." ”

“ All that day the cordon remained. And the next morning the same figures were visible like hungry wolves on the prowl about a sheepfold.
VI. "Doik, we gotta do sumpum to shake off that Melick mut," said Nellie. "We can't stay here forever. I think I'd rather be in the pen than spend a life sentence here watching Mrs. Worthington pouring the love light from her eyes on you, and dodging the old commodore's impoitinent advances to me."
"If I only had those documents of Melick's here, I could scare him to death. I wasn't as wise as I thought I was when I put them in the Continental Warehouse. ”

“ That same night the perfidious Typees, who had thus inveigled her into their fatal bay, flocked aboard the doomed vessel by hundreds, and at a given signal murdered every soul on board.
I shall never forget the observation of one of our crew as we were passing slowly by the entrance of the bay in our way to Nukuheva. As we stood gazing over the side at the verdant headlands, Ned, pointing with his hand in the direction of the treacherous valley, exclaimed, 'There—there's Typee. Oh, the bloody cannibals, what a meal they'd make of us if we were to take it into our heads to land! ”

“ With these wild words, Pierre seized his hat, and departed the room, muttering something about bringing the key of the additional chamber.
As the door closed on him, Delly dropped on her knees. She lifted her head toward the ceiling, but dropped it again, as if tyrannically awed downward, and bent it low over, till her whole form tremulously cringed to the floor.
'God that made me, and that wast not so hard to me as wicked Delly deserved,—God that made me, I pray to Thee! ward it off from me, if it be coming to me. Be not deaf to me; these stony walls—Thou canst hear through them. Pity! ”

“ In the first impulse of the moment, Pierre stepped forward, and would have pursued him; but smiling at his own causeless curiosity and trepidation, paused again; and softly turned over the letter in his hand. What mysterious correspondent is this, thought he, circularly moving his thumb upon the seal; no one writes me but from abroad; and their letters come through the office; and as for Lucy—pooh!—when she herself is within, she would hardly have her notes delivered at her own gate. Strange! ”

“ This unusual tenderness of feeling is probably also the origin of the legend that Memling was taken into the Hospital of S. John at Bruges—where he painted most of his masterpieces—as a sick soldier after the battle of Nancy. In feeling for beauty and grace he was more gifted than any painter except Hubert Van Eyck, and this quality, conspicuous amid the somewhat ugly realism of most of his contemporaries, has ensured him perhaps a little more popularity than is rightly his share. ”

“ The commodore, Mrs. Worthington, and Nellie made themselves conspicuous on the veranda.
Memling reached the pier without being held up, and the motor boat hastened him to the yacht. The anchor came up with a rush, and the vessel turned her nose to New York. Memling retired to a stateroom and emerged in his own clothes. The yacht dropped him in a dinghy at an unfrequented slip, and he made his way to his club, found in his letter box the self-addressed envelope containing the safe-deposit keys, and took a taxicab to the warehouse. ”

“ Melville’s vagabondage as a common sailor on a merchantman, on whaling vessels, and in the United States Navy, together with his Bohemian associations with cannibals, mutineers, and some of the choicest dregs of our Christian civilisation, must have wrenched a chorus of groans from a large congregation of shocked ancestral ghosts. For Melville was descended from a long and prolific line of the best American stock. Through his mother, Maria Gansevoort, he traced back to the earliest Dutch emigrants to New York ”