The Fourth Generation.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIII, Issue XIX, 4 November 1899, Page 803

The Fourth Generation.

[COPYRIGHT.]

By

Sir Walter Besant.

Author of “All Sorts and Conditions of Men,” “Herr Paulus," •‘The Master Craftsman,” “Armorel of LvonessV “The World Went Very Well Then,” “All in a Garden Fair,” “Children of Gibeon,” etc., etc.

CHAPTER I. A REMOTE ANCESTOR.

It was a morning of early March, when a north-east wind ground together the dry branches on which as yet there were no signs of coming spring; the sky was covered by a grey cloud of one even shade, with no gleams of light or streak of blue, or abatement or mitigation of the sombre hue; the hedges showed as yet no flowers, nor even the celandine; the earth had, as yet, assumed no early vernal softening; there were no tender shoots; dolefully the birds cowered on the branches, or flew up into the ivy on the wall, where they waited for a "milder time, with such patience as hunger only half-appeased would allow. Those who live upon berries and buds remembered with anxiety that they had already eaten up all the haws and stripped the currant bushes of all their buds, and must now go further afield; those who hunt the helpless chrysalis, and the slug and the worm and the creeping creatures of the field, reflected that in such weather it was impossible to turn over the heard earth in search of the former; or to expect that the latter would leave their winter quarters on such a day. At such a time, which for all created things is far worse than any terrors offered by King Frost, the human creatures who go abroad wrap themselves in their warmest, and hurry about their business, in haste to finish it and get under shelter again. The south front of the house looked down upon a broad terrace paved with red bricks; a balustrade of brick ran along the edge of the terrace; a short but nobly designed and dignified flight of stairs led into the garden which began with a broad lawn. The house itself, of the early eighteenth century, was stately and spacious; it consisted of two stories only; it had narrow and very high windows; about the first-floor windows ran a row of small circular louvres in the roof, which was of a high pitch and of red tiles; the chimneys were arranged in artistic groups or stacks. The house had somewhat of a foreign appearance; it wa sone of considerable pretension; it was a house which wanted to be surrounded by ancient trees, by. noble gardens and stately lawns, and to be always kept deep in the country far away from town houses and streets; in the surroundings of a city, apart from gardens, lawns, park and lordly trees, it would have been out of place and incongruous. The warm red brick of which it was built had long since mellowed with age; yellow lichen clung to the walls here and there; over one wing, that of the west, ivy grew, covering the whole of that’end of the house.

The gardens wer» more stately than the house itself. They lay round a most noble lawn. On one side grew two cedars of Lebanon, sweeping the bare earth with their drooping branches. On the other side rose three glorious walnut trees. The space between was a bo'wling green, on which no flower beds had ever been permitted. Beyond the bowling green, however, were flower beds in plenty. There were also box trees cut into the old-fashioned shapes which one only sees in old-fashioned gardens. Beyond these was a narrow plantation of shrubs mostly evergreen. Then stretched out, in order, the ample kitchen gardens, the crowded orchard, and the “glass.” Here, also, were ranged the bee hives in a row, for the owners of the house were bee masters as well as gardeners. The whole was stately. One was filled with admiration and respect for so noble a house, so richly set, only by walking along the road outside the park and gazing upon the house from a distance. There were, however, certain bounds imposed upon the admiration and respect of the visitor. . These were called for, in fact, by the gar-

dens and the lawns, and the “glass.” as they must have been in the past. As for the garden of the present, it was difficult even to guess when the hand of man. the spade of the gardener. had last touched any part of the place. Everything was overgrown; weeds covered the moulds which had once been beds of asparagus and celery, the strawberry plants fought for existence and maintained it, by the sacrifice of fruit with thistles; couch grass and those thistles, with shepherd’s purse and all the weeds of the field, covered and concealed the flower beds. The lanes and walks were covered ways, long since rendered impassable by reason of branches that had shot across them; the artificial shapes of the box trees, formerly so trim and precise, showed cloudy and mysterious through the branches which had grown up outside them: the bowling green was covered with coarse grass never mown from year to year. In the glass houses the doors stood open; the glass was broken; the vines grew wild, pushing their way through the broken panes. There could be no respect possible for a garden in such a condition. Yet. the pity of it! The pity of it! So fine a place as it had been, as it might again become, if gardeners were once more ordered to restore it to its ancient splendours.

If one turned from the garden and walked towards the house, he would notice, first, that the stairs of brick leading to the terrace were a good deal battered and broken; that many bricks had been displaced, that weeds grew between the brieks. that in the balustrade there were places where the square brick pillars were broken away; that, if he mounted the stairs, the brick pavement of the terrace showed holes and damaged places here and there; that if he looked at the house itself he would discern there, as well as in the garden, a certain air of neglect and decay. The window frames wanted painting, the door wanted painting, there were no curtains or blinds visible anywhere; one or two panes of glass were broken and not even patched. Stately, even in decay, were house and gardens; but the spectator shivered, as one shivers at the sight cf age and decay and death hovering over what should still be rejoicing in the strength of manhood. On this morning, when the cold of winter ushered in the deceitful spring, a man was walking to and fro on the brick terrace. He was a man very far advanced in life. Cold as it was, he wore no overcoat; he had no wrapper or handkerchief round his neck; he wore no gloves. When one looked more closely, he was not only advanced in years, he was full of years—over full—running over. His great age was apparent in the innumerable lines of his face; not in the loss of his hair, for his abundant white locks fell flowing, uncut and untrimmed, upon his shoulders, while a full white beard laj- over his ample chest. His age was shown by the heightening of the cheek hones and the increased prominence of the nose, in the sunken mcuth and the thin lips, and the deep-set eyes. But though hip face had been roughly handled by time, his frame seemed to have escaped any touch. Old as he was, he bore himself upright still; he walked with a firm, if not an elastic step; he carried a stick, but did not use it. He was still six feet three, or even more, in stature; his shoulders were still broad, his back was not curved, nor was his huge, strong body bowed, nor were his strong legs bent or weakened. Nothing could be more anomalous than the difference between the man's face, ehipped and lined and covered with curves and diagrams, like an Ordnance Survey map, and his figure, still so strong, so erect, so vigorous. He walked from one end of the terrace to the other rapidly, and, so to speak, resolutely.' Then he turned

and walked back. He looked neither to one side nor to the other; he was absorbed in some kind of meditation, for his face was set. It was a stern face, natiurally—the subject of his thoughts made it, perhaps, still harder and more stern. He wore a kind of shooting jacket, a. broad-brimmed felt hat, stout boots fit for the fields, and leggings, as if he were going to take out his gun, and he carried his stick as if it had been a gun. A masterful man —that was apparent at the outset; aggressive—that was also apparent at the moment; defiant —of what? Of whom? Evidently a man built originally as a fighting man, endowed with great courage and enormous strength: probably, also, with a quick temper: retaining still the courage, though some of the strength had gone, and the fighting temperament, though his fighting days were done.

There was no sound about the place — no clatter of servants over their work, no footsteps in the house or outside it. no trampling of horses from the stables, or sight of gardeners working quietly among the forlorn flower beds; all was silent. And the cold wind whistled, and the old man without the common protection from the wintry wind, walked methodically and rapidly from East to West and from West to East. So he went on all the morning, hour after hour, untiring, over this meaningless exercise. He began it at nine, and at half-past twelve he was still marching in this aimless manner, turning neither to the right nor to the left, and preserving unchanged that fixed expression which might have meant patience—a very old man has to be patient—or it might have been, as I have called it, defiance —a man who has known misfortunes sometimes acquires this expression of defiance, as one who bids Fortune do her very worst, and, when she can do no more, still repeats with courage, “Come what may.”

In the distance, half a mile or so away, was a clock in a church tower. If one listened from the garden one might hear the striking of the hours; without waiting for it and expecting it one would not hear the clock at all. A melodious clock at a distance falls in with the general whisper of the atmosphere. We call it silence, but indeed there is no such thing in Nature. Silence would drive us mad; in the country we hear a gentle whisper. tuneful and soothing, and we say it is the sweet silence of the country, but it is not; it is the blend of all the country sounds. At the open door of the house, at about half-past twelve, appeared a young man dressed warmly as was due to the weather. He was tall—over six feet in height; his face resembled that of the old man strikingly; he was certainly some close relation. He stood at the door looking on while that walk, as dismal, as monotonous, as purposeless, as that of the prisoners in their yard, went on minute after minute, hour after hour. He stood there, not hour after hour, but for a full half-hour, watching and wondering.

“Always and every day—and for all these years!"—to give words to his thoughts. “Why this tramp day by day every morning: always alone, always silent, seeing and not seeing, dead to outward things, apart from the world, taking no interest in the world? Nd recluse in a vault could be more lonely. No occupation: nothing to do; nothing to think about. Good heavens! W'hat does he think al>out? No books, no newspapers to read: no letters to write. Why?" He had heard some rumour—not at home, for his mother, for some reason, told him nothing about these things—of a shock. Something happened which put the man off his balance; he became this solitary. Yet. they said, not mad at all. There was no sign of madness in him: only this strange way of solitary life. And he had carried it on for close on

seventy years! Seventy years! It is the whole life of the average man. and this strange creature had spent the whole time alone, in silence, in soliture, and without occupation. It was not the whole span of the man's own life, for he was now completing his ninety-fifth year.

From the distant ehureh tower came presently the striking of the quarters, followed by the stroke of one. At that moment an old woman came out; passed in front of the visitor in the doorway und stood watching to catch the eye of the master. She said nothing, but stood there until he noticed her presence. Perhaps he was expecting her. He stopped: the old woman retired, her master entered the house, taking no notice whatever of the young man as he passed him; his eyes looked through him with no gleam of recognition or even of intelligence as to his presence. Yet this young man. the only one of all his descendants, paid this visit once a month to see if he was still in health and cared for.

He walked straight into the room which was his single sitting-room and dining-room and living room. It was the library; a large room with a north aspect, lofty, and at all times of the year rather dark and cold. A good fire burned in the broad oldfashioned grate. Before the fire was a small table—it had formerly stood in the window for a reading or writing table: now it served as a table set there for the old man’s meals. The cloth was. in fact, spread, and the early dinner laid upon it; a plain dinner of steak, potatoes, and a bottle of port, which is the beverage proper to old age: it warms and comforts: it pleases and exhilarates: ir imparts a sense of strength, and when the common forms of food can no longer be taken this generous drink supplies their place. The walls were lined with shelves, which were filled with books. Evidently some former member of the family had been a scholar and bibliophile. The books were all bound in leather; the gilt of the titles had mostly disappeared. If you took a volume from the shelf you found that it had parted from the binding; or that it took advantage of the movement to remove itself from the binding; had you examined long enough you would have found that there was not one book in the whole library of a date later than 1826. Of all the thousands upon thousands of books published in the seventy years since that time, not one was in ttis library. For instance, the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews — they stood here bound. They stopped at 1826; the Annual Register was here also, bound; it stopped at 1826. And on this great library table there were lying, as if for daily use, scattered volumes and magazines which had been placed there for the reading of the house in 1826. No one had touched the table since some time in that year. A Jong low leather ehair Stood beside the fire, the leather was in rags and tatters, worn to shreds: at the table was placed a splendid great wooden chair, which looked like the chair of a hall porter: the carpet was in rags and tatters, except the part along in front of the shelves: there it was whole, but its colour was faded. In front of the fire was placed a common thick sheepskin.

The young man followed his ancestor into the library. He took a chair, placed it by the fire, and sat down, his long legs curled, watching and waiting. He had been in the same place before. The silence of the old man, the meaningless look in his eyes, terrified him on the first occasion. He was then unaccustomed to the manner of the man. He had gradually grown accustomed to the sight; it no longer terrified him, and he now sat in his place on the other side of the fire, resolved upon making sure that the old man was properly cared for, properly fed, properly clad. properly looked after in all respects, that his health was good, and that there was no need of seeking advice. He sat down, therefore, by the fire and looked on while the old man took his dinner.

The visitor was the great grandson of the reeluse. He was also the heir of his house and the future owner of the place and its possessions. As for what he was by calling you shall hear presently. Being the heir presumptive he assumed the duty of making these occasional visits, which were received —as has been stated—in silence, and with not the slightest show of recognition.

Without heeding his presence, then, the old man took his seat at the table, lifted the cover, and began his dinner. It consisted, every day, of the same dish. Perhaps therv are not many men at ninety-four who can devour every day a full sized steak with potatoes and bread, and can drink with it a whole bottle of port. Yet this is what the recluse did. The descendant for his part made it his business that the port should be of the best and that the steak should be '"treated'' scientifically, in order to ensure its tenderness and juiciness. He took his food fast and eagerly. One could have perceived that in earlier days he must have enjoyed a great and noble power of putting away beef. He took his steak with fierceness, he devoured an immense quantity of bread, he drank his wine off in goblets as in the old days he had tossed off the great glasses of beer. He diil not sip the generous wine, nor did he roll it about in his glass and hold it up to the light; he drank it. as a child drinks water, unconsciously, and yet eagerly, regardless of the taste and careless of its qualities. When the bottle was empty and there was nothing more to eat he left the wooden chair and cast his great length into the long easy chair, where he stretched out his legs towards the fire. and. leaning his head upon his hand and his elbow on the arm of the chair, he gazed into the fire, but with eyes which had in them no kind of expression. "Evidently." thought the spectator, "the old man has two senses left; he likes strong meat and drink, the physical comfort that they provide, and he likes the warmth of a fire." Then he rose slowly and stood with his back to the fire, looking down upon his ancestor, and began a remonstrance, which he repeated with variations on every visit.

"Sir.” he said, "I come to see you from time to time, as you know. I come to make sure that you are cared for. and that you are well. I come to see if anything can be done for you. On these occasions you never fail to pretend that you do not see me. You make believe that T am not present. You do see me; you know I am’ here; you know who I am; you know why I am here. Very well. It is. I suppose, your humour to affect silence and solitude. Nothing that I can say will. I suppose, induce you to break this silence.”

There was no sign of recognition, no reply, or any change of movement. "‘Why you have imposed upon yourself this life long misery I do not know, nor shall I inquire. Perhaps I shall never know. It seems to me a great mistake, whatever the cause. For if it was in consequence of another person's fault, or another person’s misfortune, the waste and wreck of your own life would not remove the cause, and if it was any fault of your own such a wreck and waste of life would only be an aggravation of the offence. But as I do not know the cause I have no right to speak on this point. It is too late.” he went on. "to make up for all the years you have thrown away, but is it too late for a change? Can you not. even now. at this late hour, go back among your fellow creatures and become human again, if it is only for a year or two? I should say it was harder to continue this life of loneliness and misery than to go back to the life for which you were born.” There was no answer.

“I have been over the house this morning.” the young man went on pitilessly. “Y*ou have allowed it to fall into a shameful condition. The damp has got into pictures and wall paper; it will use many thousands to restore the place to -a condition proper to a gentleman's house. Don't you think you ought to spend that money and live in it as a gentleman of your position ought to?”

There was still no answer. But then the heir expected none. The old man lifted his head from his hand and dropped it back on the chair. His eyes closed, his hands dropped, his breathing was soft and regular; he was asleep. His great-grandson still stood over him. This kind of scene affected him but little, because it occurred on every visit. He arrived at eleven or so; he walked across the park; he saw the old man doing his morning tramp; he spent an hour going over the empty, desolate house: he watched the old man taking his walk; he followed him into the library: he wa.ched him taking his food; he stood over him after-

wards and addressed his remonstrance. This was always received, as George the Third received the remonstrance of the City of London, in silence discouraging. And always in the midst of the remonstrance the patriarch fell asleep. The young man waited awhile, watching his great-grandfather of ninety-four. There was very little resemblance lietween a man of that age and himself at twenty six. Yet there may be some. And no one could look upon that old man without becoming conscious that in early manhood he must have been of singular and wonderful comeliness: full of strength and vigour, of fine pro]>ortions. of noble stature, and of remarkable face and head. All these things the descendant possessed as well, but in less marked degree, with more refinement, perhaps, the refinement of scholarship and culture, but with less strength. He had done what he came to do: he had delivered his message: it was a failure, he expected nothing less. He might as well go-, there was nothing more to do, or to be obtained, by staying.

But then’ a very remarkable event happened. He heard, for the first time, the voice of his great-grand-father. He was to hear it once more and only once more. No one. except himself on this occasion, had heard it for nearly seventy years. The patriarch moved in his sleep, his fingers twitched, his legs jerked, he rolled his head. Then he sat up and clutched the arms of his chair; his face became twisted and distorted, as if under the possession of some evil spirit. He half rose to his feet, still holding to the arms of the chair, and he spoke. His voice was rough and harsh, as if rusted with long disuse. His eyes remained closed, yet his attitude was that of someone whom he saw—with whom he was conversing. What he said was this:

"Yes —I ean speak —I can speak—and end it.”

Then he sank back. The distortion went out of him. He laid his head upon the chair; calm and peace, as of a child, returned to his face; he was again asleep —if he had been awake. “A dream,” said the looker on. But he remembered the words, which came back to him. and remained with him—whv. he could not tell.

He looked about the room. He thought of the strange, solitary, meaningless life, the monotonous life, the useless life, that this patriarch had lived for so many years. Seventy long years! This recluse, during the whole of that time —for seventy long years—had never got outside the walls of his garden; he had seen none of his old friends; only his great-grandson might from time to time visit the place to ascertain if he were still living. He had done no kind of work during that long time; he had not even put a spade into the ground; he had never opened a book or seen a newspaper; he knew nothing that had happened. Why. for him the world was still the world before the Reform Act. There was no railways, there were no telegraph wires; none of the inventions and improvements and new ideas and new customs were known to him, or suspected by him; he asked for nothing, he cared for nothing, he took interest in nothing: he never spoke. Oh. the wretchedness of it! The folly of it! What excuse could there be—what reason—sufficient for this throwing away of a life in which so much might have been done? What defence could a man have for thus deserting from the Army of Humanity? As long as this young man remembered anything he had heard of this old man; it was always the same story. He was a kind of family bogey; be always lived the same life, taking the same walk in the morning and sleeping in the afternoon. Sometimes his mother would tell him, when he was a boy, scraps of history about the Recluse. Long ago, in the reign of George the Fourth, the gloomy solitary was a handsome, spirited, popular young man; fond of hunting, fond of shooting and fishing and all outdoor sports, yet not a boor or a barbarian; one who had passed through the University with credit, and had learning and cultivation. He had a fine library which he used; he enjoyed conversations with scholars, he had travelled on the Continent, a thing which then was rare; he was thinking of entering the House. He had a fine, though not a large, estate, and a lovely house and stately gardens. No one in the country had greater reason to be satisfied with his lot. no one had a clearer right to look forward to the future with confidence, than Mr Alger

non Campaigne. He remembered all this talk.

He now contemplated the sleeping figure with a curious blend or mixture of emotions. There was pity in the blend; there was contempt in it; there was something of the respect or reverence due to an ancestor. One does not often get the chance of paying respect to so remote an ancestor as a greatgrandfather. The ancestor lay back in his chair, his head turned a little on one side; his face, perfectfj' calm, had something of the transparent waxen look that belongs to the newly dead. The young man went on thinking of what he had heard of this old man, who was at once the pride and the shame of the family. No one can help being proud of having a recluse, an anchorite, in the family—it Is uncommon, like a folio Shakespeare; moreover. he was the head of the family, and lived in the place where the family hail always lived from time beyond tiie memory of man.

He remembered his mother, a sadfieed widow, and his grandmother, another sad-faced widow. A certain day came back to him—it was a few weeks after his father's early death, when he was a child of seven —when the two women sat together in sorrow, and wept together, and conversed, in Lis presence—but the child could not understand—and said things which he recalled at this moment for the first time. “My dear,” said the elder lady, “we are a family of misfortune.” "But why—why?” asked the other. "What have we done?” The elder lady shook her head. "Things are done,” she said, “that are never suspected. Nobody knows, nobody finds out. but the arm of the Lord is stretched out and vengeance falls upon the guilty, upon his children and his grand-children unto the third and fourth generation ”

“The helpless, innocent children? Oh! It is cruel.” “We have Scripture for it.” These words —this conversation—came back suddenly and unexpectedly to the young map. He had never remembered them before. “Who did what?” he asked. “The guilty person cannot be this venerable patriarch, because this affliction has fallen upon him and still abides with him after seventy years. What misfortunes? But they spoke of something else. Why do these old words come back to me? Ancestor, sleep on.” In the hall he saw the old housekeeper, who stopped to ask after the master. "He spoke just now,” he said. "Spoke, sir? Spoke? The master spoke?” "He sat up in his sleep and spoke.” “What in the name o’ mercy did he say ?” "He said, quite clearly, ‘I can speak and end it.’ ” “Say it again.” He said it again. “Sir,” she said, “something dreadful will happen. It is the first time for seventy years that he has spoken one single word.” "It was in his sleep.” "The first time for seventy years! Something dreadful, for sure, something dreadful is going to happen.” (To be continued.)