|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 47
After his departure less was known, than before of how things went on
behind the brick wall. The gateway was filled in with masonry. No one
was ever seen entering the enclosure or leaving it; though it was
supposed that, somehow or other, communication was occasionally had
with the outside world. As knowledge dwindled, legend grew, and wild
were the tales told of the invisible Doctor and his foster-son. In his
youth, the former had been suspected of simple witchcraft, but he was
not let off so easily now. Manetho was first dubbed a genie whom the
Doctor had brought out of Egypt. Afterwards it was hinted that these
two worthies were in fact one and the same demon, who by some infernal
jugglery was able to appear twain during the daytime, but resumed his
proper shape at night, and cut up all manner of unholy capers.
By another version, Doctor Glyphic died in Egypt, not before
bargaining with the Prince of Darkness that his body should return
home in charge of a condemned soul under the guise of Manetho. During
the day, affirmed these theorists, the body was inspired by the soul
with phantom life; but became a mummy at night, when the condemned
soul suffered torments till morning. With sunrise the ghastly drama
began anew. This state of things must continue until the sun shone all
night long within the brick wall enclosure.
A third, more moderate account is that to which we have already
listened from Charon's lips. And he perhaps built on a broader basis
of truth than did the other yarn-spinners. But under whatever form the
legend appeared, there was always mingled with it a vaguely mysterious
whisper relating to the alleged presence in the Doctor's Den (so the
enclosure was nicknamed) of an apparition in female form. What or
whence she was no one pretended soberly to conjecture. Even her
personal aspect was the subject of vehement dispute; some maintaining
her to be of more than human beauty, while others swore by their heads
that she was so hideous fire would not burn her! These damned her for
a malignant witch; those upheld her as a heavenly angel, urged by love
divine to expiate, through voluntary suffering, the nameless crimes of
the demoniac Doctor. But unless the redemption were effected within a
certain time, she must be swallowed up with him in common destruction.
Were the how and wherefore of these alternatives called in question,
the answer was a wise shake of the head!
The gentle reader will believe no one of the fantastic legends here
recorded; possibly they were not believed by their very fabricators.
They are useful only as tending to show the moral atmosphere of the
house and its occupants. There is sometimes a subtile symbolic element
inwoven with such tales, which--though not the truth--helps us to
apprehend the truth when we come to know it. Moreover, the fanciful
parts of history are to the facts as clouds to a landscape; a picture
is incomplete without them; they aid in bringing out the distances,
and cast lights and shadows over tracts else harsh and bare.
Beyond what he had gathered from the ancient mariner, Balder Helwyse
knew nothing of these fearful fables. This perhaps accounted for the
boldness wherewith he pursued his way towards the mysterious house,
following in the airy wake of the clear-throated little hoopoe.
XVII.
FACE TO FACE.
The ground-plan of the house was like a capital H placed endwise
towards the river. The northern side consisted of the original brick
building and the additions of the second period; the southern was that
stone edifice which so few persons had been lucky enough to see. The
centre or cross-piece comprised the grand entrance-hall and staircase,
heavily panelled with dark oak, and the floor flagged with squares of
black and white marbles.
This entrance-hall opened eastward into a generous conservatory,
filling the whole square court between the wings at that end. The
corresponding western court was devoted to the roomy portico. Two or
three broad steps mounted to a balcony twenty feet deep and nearly
twice as wide, protected by a lofty roof supported on slender Moorish
columns. Crossing this, one came to the hall-door, likewise Moorish in
arch and ornamentation. Considered room by room and part by part, the
house was good and often beautiful; taken as a whole, it was the
craziest amalgamation of incongruities ever conceived by human brain.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|