Val

“ A beautiful town, with a few quiet shops, and a drowsiness pervading the air, and a general stillness and torpor pervading everywhere. Val retired early; but he arose early also, and was out with his hands in his pocket and a cigar in his mouth, wandering about again, staring at the Government House and the Colonial Buildings, and the fly-specked books in the stationers' shops, and the deserted drygoods'-stores, and going into the cathedral where morning-service was going on, and contemplating the pretty nuns of Notre Dame reading their missals with devoutly downcast eyes, in their pew. ”

“ I was there with Val when the end came. Bildy passed away quite peacefully while we joined in the prayers for the dying; a calm smile was on his face, and some vision of delight before his wide-open eyes, which it is not for mortals to attempt to fathom.
"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Val, as we took our way home; "life has held little of happiness for him. ”

“ THE WAYS OF A LOVER
THE WAY OF THE SEA
"All the great things of life are simply done,
Creation, Death, and Love the Double Gate."
MASEFIELD.
One morning Harriott came into Val's room and found her writing at the table with the blue veil fallen off, lying on her shoulders.
"Why, Val!" she exclaimed in genuine astonishment. "Your hair is perfectly lovely! Never, never cover it up any more!"
"Really?" said Val shyly and flushing deep rose. "Do you think I might go without the veil now?"
"Do I think! Look at yourself!" ”

“ What then was to become of Val—Val, who was the apple of her eye, whose very childishness and helplessness were dear to her, whose beauty of face and form—stop, she had it, she laughed as she told herself she had it. And how often she strained those dim old eyes of hers to see more clearly when her darling's step was heard, and how fondly they rested on the approaching figure and strove to appraise at its exact value the curiously beautiful face, no one but herself knew. ”

“ Val was supremely conscious of the fact that here was a man who would stop at nothing to attain his end, whatever that was. Here was a man to whom no villainy was too great if thereby he might achieve that which he desired. ”

“ Val found himself in the entrance foyer, bare of furniture of any kind, with plaster hanging perilously from the walls and ceiling, his lantern making flickering shadows on the walls and in the comers. He felt something brush his feet, and heard something padding away swiftly in the darkness. Rats! Well, he wasn’t afraid of rats—not after the kind he had known in the trenches. ”

“ Silent lips and striking hand."
"It seems hardly worth while now to have shirked!" he said quietly. "Just for a few more years crawling up and down the earth! I wonder why we dread old Death so, Val? After all he 's the best pal we have--always waiting so patiently and faithfully; whatever we do, nothing estranges him from his purpose. ”

“ A fine day coming soon after this, Val prepared for action.
First of all he prepared his mind; had he anything else he wished to do? Was there anything tempting in the way of sport to be had? He considered and shook his head. His grandmother's shooting was limited, and he had strained its capacity rather fully of late. The river was too full for fishing. ”

“ Suddenly, with a wet sobbing splash, one of the drops struck the candle wick full, extinguishing it instantly, leaving the room and Val in a black, velvet darkness. For an instant or two,—or was it an eternity or two?—he sat there, immovable, his face pale.
There was a sudden, leaping flash of sheet lightning, illuminating the room to the last, farthest corner for a brief instant. At the window toward which Val was looking, he saw something that made his blood run cold.
Framed in the window, a figure from the old world, was the upper part of a man. ”

“ Val is not a bad fellow in the main; quite the contrary, Maude. Of course we all know his besetting sin—irresolution. A child might sway him, either for good or ill. The very best thing that could happen to Val would be his marriage with Anne. She is sensible and judicious; and I think Val could not fail to keep straight under her influence. If Dr. Ashton could only be brought to see the matter in this light! ”

“ Rather will I take it and give it to the first dog I meet!"
"As you please, madame," repeated Mother Durand blandly, not to be nonplussed, whatever might be her feelings.
Val stalked from the shop, the shoulder now devoid of wrappings in her hand. Haidee and Bran, sympathetic but apprehensive, waited without.
"She shall not have it. Find a dog, Haidee."
"Oh, Val! What's the good? ... keep it ... it will be better than nothing for dinner to-morrow."
"I would rather eat mud," said Val, white to the lips. "Find a dog." ”

“ Du Val invited me to dine with him at six o'clock. So I went to Carlton Grove, his residence, and found it a very pretty house, with its own lawn and shrubbery about it. . . . . There was a mellow fire in the grate, which made the drawing-room very cosey and pleasant, as the dusk came on before dinner. Mr. Du Val looked like an artist, and like a remarkable man. . . . . We had very good talk, chiefly about the Exhibition, and Du Val spoke generously and intelligently of his brother-artists. He says that England might furnish five exhibitions, each one as rich as the present. ”

“ Eddie was getting the best of his opponent, forcing him back and down, pounding violently at him with his fists.
Val could feel the muscles of Teck swelling under his arms as they strained backward and forward. This was no mean opponent, with his great weight and his terrible passion. Teck’s face was livid in his anger, and against the pasty skin his scar throbbed and glowed evilly, his mouth sending forth a stream of foul curses. He wrenched an arm loose and started to flick it upwards at Val’s head, but Val had had that done to him once; he was watching for him. ”

“ Gasp. My lord! ’tis of the poor lunatic she speaks; she whom the baron has confined: this woman claims her as her charge.
De Val.I saw the person not, but heard in brief her story from the baron; rest, good woman, rest; my kinsman is her friend.
Mon. No, no, he is a monster thirsting for her blood: here, here, I have read his character.
Producing Eugenia’s MSS.
De Val. Beware! you offend me; grief yields no privilege to slander.
Mon. I am not a slanderer, indeed, indeed, I am not; here are proofs: your lordship, I find, is called the Count De Valmont ”

“ On the day of the christening itself he said:
"We 'll call him Bran if you like, Val--one of Ireland's old savage kings. I think that son of yours will be some one fine some day," he added with a boyish, lovable smile, that had something of pride in it, and something of humility too, and for those words Val forgave him and was happy again. And the baby was baptised into the Holy Catholic Church under the pagan and kingly name of Bran.
CHAPTER VII
MORE WINDING PATHS
"There is a crack in everything God has made." ”

“ The room was full of smoke, and it was hard to breathe—getting harder every moment.
Val opened his door, and shut it instantly. The corridor was thick with rolling billows of choking smoke, and in the distance, at the end, he saw the dull red of flames leaping the height of the hall.
“Eddie, let’s go!” gasped Val. “This old rattletrap of a hotel’ll go up like tinder—I know this place. No chance.”
“Right, sir!” Eddie shouted back at him. ”

“ Du Val in his Geography informs us, that there is a Nation in America, bordering on the River of the Amazons, where old Women go off better than young; under a Notion, that the Knowledge of the One is preferable to the Vigour and Beauty of the Other. ”

“ It was he whom Val had seen in the lightning, and it was he who had cut Val loose. It was his sibilant whisper of warning Val had heard down the stairs. The young man had seemed to be on the friendly side, but he was unfamiliar with the developments, and he did not wish to take the chance of disclosing himself until he knew exactly what was occurring down here, in his supposed absence. ”

“ Why did the man who had no hands desire him to keep away? Why was it so important that he had gone to the trouble personally to warn him? And now that he knew Val suspected him of having been in his room and stolen the books from him, undoubtedly he knew that Val, in his mind, implicated him in the murder of the bookseller, for there the books had been the only things taken, also—the books sold by Miss Pomeroy. ”

“ That's odd, we are going there, too, but only to the Val d'Iliez, for the summer. Your route will lie quite differently, I imagine. I remember you were bound for the high mountains when I saw you last. ”

“ A triumph? If you could only have looked into the future, Lady Kirton! A triumph!
The above was not the only letter written that evening. At the hotel where Lord and Lady Hartledon halted for the night, when she had retired under convoy of her maid, then Val's restrained remorse broke out. He paced the room in a sort of mad restlessness; in the midst of which he suddenly sat down to a table on which lay pens, ink, and paper, and poured forth hasty sentences in his mind's wretched tumult. ”

“ Rocky heights guard it to the south. The valley between is green, without wood, and, with much that is grand, has little beautiful, till near its conclusion; where, more fertile and still more wild, it divides into three narrower vallies, two of which disclose scenes of such sublime severity as even our long view of Saddleback had not prepared us to expect.
The first of these is the vale of St. John, a narrow, cultivated spot, lying in the bosom of tremendous rocks, that impend over it in masses of gray crag, and often resemble the ruins of castles. ”

“ Vale broke down with a gasp and a sob. His piteous aspect might have moved even Tod.
“Look here,” said he, “I don’t care in general to punish a coward; I regard him as an abject animal beneath me: but I cannot go from my word. Ducking is too good for you, Vale, but you shall have it. Be off to that tree yonder; we’ll give you so much grace. Let him start fair, boys, and then hound him on. It will be a fine chase.” ”

“ The sun is tending downward like a huge ball of fire, the vale is in a dreamy shade; how glistening the appearance of the water-courses, like a big silvery thread winding in and out along the vale! the evening air is full of music ”

“ In one very sweet part of the vale a gate crossed the road, which was opened by an old woman who lived in a cottage close to it; I said to her, ‘You live in a very pretty place!’ ‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘the water of Tweed is a bonny water.’ The lines of the hills are flowing and beautiful, the reaches of the vale long; in some places appear the remains of a forest, in others you will see as lovely a combination of forms as any traveller who goes in search of the picturesque need desire, and yet perhaps without a single tree ”

“ Built on sloping ground that rises gently from the rich, level pastures of the Vale of Pickering, the town has a picturesque and pleasant site. At the top of the market-place where the ground becomes much steeper stands the church, its grey bulk dominating every view. From all over the Vale one can see the tall spire, and from due east or west it has a surprising way of peeping over the hill tops. ”

“ The vale, with its deep fountains, is their choice,
⁠And gentle hearts rejoice
Around their steps; till, silently, they die,
As a stream shrinks from summer's burning eye.
⁠And these—of whose abode,
Midst her green vallies, earth retained no trace,
Save a flower springing from their burial-sod,
A shade of sadness on some kindred face,
⁠A dim and vacant place
In some sweet home;—thou hadst no wreaths for these,
Thou sunny land! with all thy deathless trees!
⁠The peasant at his door
Might sink to die when vintage feasts were spread,
And songs on every wind! ”

“ The road is carried through this valley, which only differs from the lower part of the vale of the lake in being excessively narrow, and without water; it is enclosed by mountains, rocky mounds, hills and hillocks scattered over with birch-trees, and covered with Dutch myrtle [101] and heather, even surpassing what we had seen before. Our mother Eve had no fairer, though a more diversified garden, to tend, than we found within this little close valley. It rained all the time, but the mists and calm air made us ample amends for a wetting. ”

“ And pour'd her fond plaint in the sweet lovely vale.
"Ye fairies that dance in yon wild lonely dell,
Whose drink is the dew frae the sweet flow'rets bell,
Whose food is the incense that's borne on the gale
From the primrose and hawthorn that bloom in the vale.
"O say, have you seen a young swain passing by,
With health on his cheek, and with love in his eye:
Detain the fond youth—now his sighs shall prevail
With the maid he oft woo'd in the sweet flow'ry vale. ”

“ Vali, who ranked as one of the twelve deities occupying seats in the great hall of Glads-heim, shared with his father the dwelling called Valaskialf, and was destined, even before birth, to survive the last battle and twilight of the gods, and to reign with Vidar over the regenerated earth.
Worship of Vali.
Vali is god of eternal light, just as Vidar of imperishable matter; and as beams of light were often called arrows, he is always represented and worshiped as an archer. ”

“ Light and shadow are sufficient contrast and furnish sufficient excitement when we are well.
Now we were passing the vale of Brown and Tarbell, a sunshiny mead pastured by cattle and sparkling with dew, the sound of crows and swallows heard in the air, and leafy-columned elms seen here and there shining with dew. The morning freshness and unworldliness of that domain! [341] The vale of Tempe and of Arcady is not farther off than are the conscious lives of men from their opportunities. ”