"I don't know the details," said Mrs.Selldon."Probably they are only known to himself.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.
Shrewsbury, flattering himself that he had left a good impression by his last remark, thought better not to efface it later in the evening by any other conversation with his hostess.But in the small hours of the night, when he had finished his bundle of proofs, he took up his notebook and, strangling his yawns, made two or three brief, pithy notes of the story Mrs.Selldon had told him, adding a further development which occurred to him, and wondering to himself whether "Like a Green Bay Tree" would be a selling title.
After this he went to bed, and slept the sleep of the just, or the unbroken sleep which goes by that name.
MY SIXTH STAGE
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.
He began to agree with the Preacher, that "of ****** many books there is no end," and that, in spite of his favourite "Remington's perfected No.2," novel-writing was a weariness to the flesh.Soon he drifted into a sort of vague idleness, which was not a good, honest holiday, but just a lazy waste of time and brains.I was pleased to observe this, and was not slow to take advantage of it.
Had he stayed in Pump Court he might have forgotten me altogether in his work, but in the soft luxury of his Club life I found that I had a very fair chance of being passed on to some one else.
One hot afternoon, on waking from a comfortable nap in the depths of an armchair at the Club, Shrewsbury was greeted by one of his friends.
"I thought you were in Switzerland, old fellow!" he exclaimed, yawning and stretching himself.
"Came back yesterday--awfully bad season--confoundedly dull,"returned the other."Where have you been?""Down with Warren near Dulminster.Deathly dull hole.""Do for your next novel.Eh?" said the other with a laugh.
Mark Shrewsbury smiled good-naturedly.
"Talking of novels," he observed, with another yawn, "I heard such a story down there!""Did you? Let's hear it.A nice little scandal would do instead of a pick-me-up.""It's not a scandal.Don't raise your expectations.It's the story of a successful scoundrel."And then I came out again in full vigour--nay, with vastly increased powers; for though Mark Shrewsbury did not add very much to me, or alter my appearance, yet his graphic words made me much more impressive than I had been under the management of Mrs.Selldon.
"H'm! that's a queer story," said the limp-looking young man from Switzerland."I say, have a game of billiards, will you?"Shrewsbury, with prodigious yawn, dragged himself up out of his chair, and the two went off together.As they left the room the only other man present looked up from his newspaper, following them with his eyes.
"Shrewsbury the novelist," he thought to himself."A sterling fellow! And he heard it from an Archdeacon's wife.Confound it all! the thing must be true then.I'll write and make full inquiries about this Zaluski before consenting to the engagement."And, being a prompt, business-like man, Gertrude Morley's uncle sat down and wrote the following letter to a Russian friend of his who lived at St.Petersburg, and who might very likely be able to give some account of Zaluski:-Dear Leonoff,--Some very queer stories are afloat about a young Polish merchant, by name Sigismund Zaluski, the head of the London branch of the firm of Zaluski and Zernoff, at St.Petersburg.Will you kindly make inquiries for me as to his true character and history? I would not trouble you with this affair, but the fact is Zaluski has made an offer of marriage to one of my wards, and before consenting to any betrothal I must know what sort of man he really is.I take it for granted that "there is no smoke without fire,"and that there must be something in the very strange tale which Ihave 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.Will you sift the matter for me? I don't wish to dismiss the fellow without good reason, but of course I could not think of permitting him to be engaged to my niece until these charges are entirely disproved.
With kind remembrances to your father,I am, yours faithfully,HENRY CRICHTON-MORLEY.
MY SEVENTH STAGE
Yet on the dull silence breaking With a lightning flash, a word, Bearing endless desolation On its blighting wings, I heard;Earth can forge no keener weapon, 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.