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Page 56
"What a strange world, in which entire races come and go, some of them
leaving a ruin or two, and perhaps an odd indecipherable inscription
here and there! The world was fortunate indeed to grasp, from the
obliterated and forgotten past, Hebraism and Hellenism--the moral and
the beautiful; from which man's craving for goodness has resulted in
Christianity; and from which his impulses of sweetness and brightness
and loveliness have developed the Renascence! Between goodness and
beauty, why should there ever be conflict? Pure goodness is pure love,
and love is almost synonymous with beauty.--But, pardon the digression.
"The tour of the islands comprising Hili-liland continued through
December and January. I could tell you much of the social gayeties in
many a bright country-home during these two months; but in these Peters
was not much interested, and I could not get from him many of the
particulars. Thus far I have striven to keep all facts unpolluted by any
possible alloy of my own imagination--let me continue to be, in word and
in spirit, true to the facts. Were I to attempt a description of these
island festivities in faraway Hili-liland, perhaps, inadvertently--the
facts being meagre--I might say something bordering on untruth; and,
rather than untruth--a thousand times rather--silence.
"I will close for this evening by saying that the wedding-party arrived
at the island of Hili-li about February 1st--the year being 1829. Some
time before starting on the tour, Lilama had begun the construction of a
new home; and by the time of her return it was completed. Her new
residence was not large, but it was elegant. Here the happy couple
dwelt, Peters having an apartment to himself which was enough to set a
sailor wild with joy. Peters says that he grew to like very much what he
calls 'volcano tobacco;' that it was 'good and strong'--to his taste all
the better for that. The only mistake that Lilama's architect made in
his plan for her new home was in not having Peters' apartment either on
the roof, or else next door. Peters now smokes American tobacco; and
even now--but let the past go; I did not sit on the edge of the old
sailor's bed for thirty hours for nothing. Tomorrow evening I shall tell
you of the great catastrophe which occurred on the island of Hili-li
during the visit of Pym and Peters."
Here Bainbridge closed his recital for the evening. I believe that he
would have remained for at least a few minutes longer; but as he was
about to reply to a question of mine, Castleton rushed into the room,
and Bainbridge departed.
Castleton, who was overflowing with joyous excitement, informed me that
the dreaded yellow fever of the South was on its way North; and that if
I would delay my return to England for a week or ten days I could see
it. His remark did not much alarm me. Then I proceeded to tell him in
outline what had become of Ahpilus, of the marriage of Lilama and Pym,
and of the wedding-tour of the islands. As I closed, he said:
"Young man, you will soon be returning to England, that lordly nation to
whose hind-quarters the sun is kinder than to its head-quarters. When
you get home tell your countrymen of the discoveries you have here made.
Tell them of the wonders of Hili-li--but be careful. This fellow
Bainbridge is a romantic youth, and he is liable to lead you astray in
some important respects. Tell your noble countrymen of the central
crater--that, no doubt, Peters saw; as to the Hili-lites being
descendants of the pure stock of ancient Rome, that, too, I believe. But
do not repeat this foolish theory about love which he introduces into
Peters' narrative. The wise, practical, and puissant residents of that
Corinthian Capital of Brains--I refer to London--will know better. Oh,
yes; women are true!--very true! Better than wealth--pshaw! better than
empire--pooh! That nonsense will pass at twenty-five; at forty a man has
some brains. The 'constancy' of women--that gets me! Why, sir, I once
loved three women at the same time, and not one of the three was true to
me--yet Bainbridge talks of a woman's constancy, single-heartedness, and
such chimerical stuff--the kind of stuff, that, with youth, takes the
place of the recently discarded nursery fiction. I think of the hundreds
of women that I have loved, beginning in my early boyhood, passing
through my adolescence to the acme of my powers, and even now as I stand
on the verge of my desuetude! Surely some one of these many women would
have been constant, if women have any constancy in their make-up. Show
me a woman howling out her life on _my_ grave, and then I'll believe
Bainbridge. But I know all about Bainbridge. I know where he goes the
evenings that he doesn't come here. Never mind--I'm silent as the grave.
I don't need to tell a man of your superlative acumen what Bainbridge's
talk implies. He mustn't talk to me though about woman's constancy and
single-heartedness till he's ten years older; let him tell that stuff to
Peters and the other mariners."
After some further talk, Castleton remarked:
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