Iras: a mystery

Chapter I

I have become subject to a failure of memor}', the partial consequence of recent severe illness. Already, as I look back, a confused mist obliterates certain portions of the past ; and names and dates have a trick of desert ing me at the moment of requirement. I am told this naturally results from the weakness I now suffer ; but in my hours of depression I fear that mist with a deadly terror, foreboding how it may gather more thickly and blankly about me, until, from my lonely stand point on a ridge of the dark mountains, all A Iras : A Mystery. 2 the land of Beulah I have left will be blotted out Therefore, that a certain experience may be for ever preserved to me, being in my sane mind and telling truth as on oath, I, Ralph Lavenham, write. I think it well to preface the narrative with a few brief particulars, which — should this MS. after my death fall into the hands of a stranger — may assist in a better understanding of what follows.

I am singularly devoid of near ties. I have no certain knowledge whether the name I bear is mine by right or mine by adoption : I never knew father or mother. I was placed at school by a guardian who showed no disposition to cultivate a nearer acquaintance ; and from school I passed to college, where I made few friends and took only a moderate degree. At twenty three I attained the control of my modest fortune, a few hundreds yearly, — not enough for wealth, but enough to set me free from the necessity of adopting a profession. The next ten years I spent aimlessly enough — Iras : A Mystery. 3 partly in foreign travel, and in writing one or two descriptive books which met with some degree of ephemeral popularity. And then I found at last the absorbing interest of my life in Egyptian exploration, and threw in my lot with a certain well-known body of workers.

From 1877 to 1882 I laboured in the Nile valley, working with hands as well as with brain, uncovering temple sites, opening tombs, deciphering hieroglyphics, driving fellaheen, and building up theories like the rest. But in the early spring of 1882 a misfortune befell me, and I was laid aside with sunstroke and fever. I had only myself to thank for it — so my friends were kind enough to tell me. I had presumed on long immunity and a naturally hardy constitution, and exposed myself over recklessly to the increasing heat. We were then at work on the temple of Kom Ombo, examining the remains of that earlier founda tion which dates from the Pharaohs of the Third Period, as well as the later structure \\ hich bears the symbols of the hawk and the Iras : A Mystery. 4 crocodile. I had been absorbed in the dis covery of some unknown and deeply interest ing particulars, relating to the temple service and with allusion to its mysteries, and was proportionately annoyed at having to relin quish my share in the work ; but there was nothing for it but to return home.

It is natural to call England home, even when, as in my case, home is an empty name. I took steamer from Alexandria, and arrived in London so much restored by the sea breezes that I resolved at once to set about the book I had planned, and for which I had already amassed voluminous notes. I found my former publishers open to negoti ations, and having given an undertaking it should be forthcoming by the winter, I hired rooms within easy reach of the British Museum. I still suffered at times with my head, but not in a degree to debar me from work ; and I spent the greater part of the summer and late autumn days sitting at my desk. The book grew, and by the end of August I had several completed chapters, Iras : A Mystery. 5 and my friend Knollys was at work on the illustrations to be developed from my own rough sketches, reproducing inscriptions and depicting certain curios, a collection of which I had brought with me from the East.

My rooms in G Street were moderately convenient, and my landlady would serve me there with a sufficiently palatable dinner when I was not disposed to go out to the club. I had a bedroom and sitting-room on the ground-floor, the sitting-room behind to ensure greater quiet, though the outside traffic was not great. They had formerly been in the occupation of an artist, and their chief attraction to me had been the permitted use of a temporary outer room in the garden-court at the back, built there as a studio with top lights, and entered either by a glass door at the end of the hall or from one side of the projecting window of my study. In this I found convenient stowage for my collection, and Knollys would come to work there as a rule — passing in and out without disturbing me unless communication Iras : A Mystery. became necessary.

In that early October of which I write— the October of 1882— he began to look in rather often, with an ex pression of concern on his kind quizzical face. " I tell you what, Lavenham," he would say, "you are overdoing it, — that is where it is. You will have your fever back again, and the devil to pay besides. You are working like a pack-horse, and I believe you hardly knock off even to have your meals. I should like to get a doctor to give you a talking to." I looked up at my kind monitor on about the eleventh delivery of this diatribe, which had become an almost daily formula ; and I was conscious, first, that my head was paining me worse than usual ; and secondly, that the passage I had been striving for the last hour to elaborate would be better shut away till I could go back to it with less wearied brain.

"You look like a ghost, Lavenham. You had better take my advice, and you know it. You cannot make any real advance till that precious consignment of Turkey sponges comes to hand, and that will not be for Iras : A Mystery. 7 another ten days at earliest. Lock up the pens and paper, and give yourself a holiday. Is there no one you could take a run out of town to see, for the week-end if no more?" No, there was no one. I had forgotten my former associates, and had been forgotten by them ; and there was not a single intimacy I felt disposed to revive. I had been away too many years, and since my return had inclined only to bury myself more and more remotely, like a hermit-crab in its shell. I shook my head over the suggestion. " I would offer to go with you, but you know how I am tied at the present time.

But I have for once a free evening, and I am going to throw it away in what will seem a sufficiently fantastic fashion to a grave and reverend seignior like yourself. I'm going to Mrs Bevis Payne's, and I want you to dine with me at the club, and come too." " My dear fellow, I don't know her, and I am sure she will not want to know me." " You are quite mistaken. She likes lions, and I will introduce you as one of the first Iras: A Mystery. 8 blood : my friend Lavenham, author, explorer, Egyptologist ; engaged on a work which will be the book of the season ! I've got a card for self and friend ; and to tell you the truth, there's a little girl there I want especially to meet." I should have had no hesitation usually in negativing such a suggestion ; but this time Knollys looked so kindly eager over his pro posal, as he began to hunt his pockets for the letter, that excuses faltered on my tongue.

When the card at last was found and laid before me, my unreadiness had sealed my fate : it was tacitly understood I would go to this leonine reception with my friend. The card was somewhat peculiar. Below the announcement of " Mrs Bevis Payne at home" was written, in a rather dashing feminine hand, " Psychological Evening. To meet Madame St Heliers." "Oh, it's just one of Mrs Payne's fads," said Knollys, in reply to my inquiry. " Some times it is theosophy — sometimes it is a mis sion to the heathen — sometimes it is art. Just Iras : A Mystery. 9 now it is palmistry and clairvoyance and all that — so Madge tells me. I believe this Frenchwoman is rather an extraordinary per son — ready to turn you inside out, analyse your character, and predict your future as soon as look at you. Madge is afraid of her, and so I am going to mount guard.

She receives in the back drawing-room, and you need not go near her unless you like." This was all the preparation I had for what was before me. When Knollys was gone I so far obeyed his injunctions as to fold together my papers and put them away, together with the flimsy pink telegram which advised me of the despatch of the case of Turkey sponges to which he had alluded. The sender was Jack Skipton, a friend in Alexandria, and the curious consignment really enveloped and concealed a widely different one, which I had requested him to procure for the purpose of some experiments necessary to my work. The true en closure was a mummy of the superior class, still sealed in its original casings and un- Iras : A Mystery. 10 violated by the wholesale system of robbery which has prevailed in Egypt for centuries ; a system by which the dead have been de spoiled, not only of such valuables as it was the practice to bury with them, but of the very spices with which their bodies were embalmed, — stolen in former times to figure again in the market, and take a fresh turn of service with the modern dead.

I was in this case to be the despoiler, as I wished to submit these spices, or what traces re mained of them, to the analysis of an expert. I had for long suspected that in the higher walks of the embalmer's art — as mentioned by Herodotus and others — existed certain secrets both of ingredient and method ; and to trace these, as far as might now be possible, was part of the design of my book. It is in these days no easy matter to procure such a mummy as would serve my purpose, as there are certain restrictions which are diffi cult to evade. But I knew, if the thing could be accomplished at all, Jack Skipton was the man to put it through for me ; and the coming Iras : A Mystery. 11 of that flimsy pink paper with the brief message, " Expect sponges," had that morning assured me of success. I had certainly awaited the intimation with some anxiety, and was gratified by its re ception ; but the singular excitement which agitated me from that time forward was quite unexpected and wholly annoying.

It must be due, as Knollys said, to overwork — to gether with the pain in my head, and the sudden inability to string together a dozen connected sentences of what before had been ready to flow from my pen. I could not count on many vacant days if the MS. was really to be completed within the terms of my en gagement ; but it might, after all, be the wisest economy of time to try what rest would do for me — over the week-end at any rate : leaving a shut desk behind in G Street, and spending a solitary Sunday by the sea. It was a somewhat haggard countenance which faced me in the glass as I made my evening toilet — a ceremony I did not often perform ; but Knollys, when I joined him Iras : A Mystery. 12 at the club, professed already to see improvement. I could not honestly say I felt better — the pain in my head still continued, together with the over - rapid unequal pulse ; but I told him of my projected visit to Brighton, and he was on the whole well satisfied.

We were early arrivals at Mrs Payne's — probably Knollys was pledged to be punctual ; and I imagine he had in some way contrived to sound the leonine trumpet before me, as I was received with effusion. Mrs Payne professed herself honoured, and volubly re gretted having so small an assembly to meet me — so few people had yet returned to town, &c, &c. The drawing-rooms were certainly empty on our arrival, but in another half-hour they began to fill up as if the psychological entertainment promised attraction ; and I noticed that Knollys managed to keep a remarkably pretty girl at his elbow in a recess, the hostess's attention being mainly directed to me. This no doubt was Madge, who I discovered was a companionable poor relation and guest, not a daughter of the house. Iras : A Mystery. 13 I did not expect to meet acquaintances, and stood about in solitary fashion when Mrs Payne was not plying me with dexterous flatteries, or questions about the East and my forthcoming work.

She introduced me here and there ; but conversation all ran in the same groove about the mysterious Madame St Heliers : had I consulted her before ? did I know if she had arrived ? Was it not possible she might fail Mrs Payne at the last, she was said to be so very uncertain ? Or was she all the time behind the heavy velvet portieres which shut out the inner room ? I need hardly say these queries were feminine ; indeed the feminine element largely prevailed at the gathering, only four or five black coats keeping Knollys and me in countenance. The sibyl did not fail us : the expectation had hardly become strained when I saw our hostess turn to the door to greet a new ar rival. This was a small person dressed in brown, a soft gown which trailed after her on the floor, and who did not attempt, as so many short women do, to ape a higher Iras : A Mystery. 14 stature by any exaggeration of coiffure.

She was elderly enough to be grey -haired, and only redeemed from plainness by a good pair of eyes. The eyes had, I thought, a peculiarly intense and magnetic look about them ; and, while Mrs Payne was whispering instructions, she deliberately surveyed the room, and looked curiously at me as I stood against the wall behind the arm - chairs of the dowagers. What she thought of her audience I cannot say — they were not a particularly attractive gathering ; but she shrugged her shoulders and spread out her hands with a foreign little gesture of protest in replying to Mrs Payne, who forthwith con ducted her behind the closed portieres, and both disappeared from view. With this the stiff order of the room was broken up, and small groups began to press nearer to the curtains in the hope of an earl)' interview.

Mrs Payne when she reappeared was at once besieged. As I looked on from my post of observation with, it must be con fessed, only a languid interest, wondering how Iras : A Mystery. 15 soon I could slip away with Knollys, my attention was arrested by a totally unexpected figure. This was a man in the sacerdotal costume of ancient Egypt, such as I have seen portrayed in temples and tombs, and associated with the blue complexion which is the conventional sign of the priestly caste. His garment of white linen partly covered the head, which I saw was shaven : he was tall in stature, lithe and upright, and his distinctly Egyptian features would have been strikingly handsome, but that they were disfigured by so intense an expression of malevolent anger. He came into view from behind a knot of people near the doorway, some twenty feet away across the width of the room, and stood for a few seconds in the vacant space, his eyes blazing into mine and his hand clenched, while I remained trans fixed with astonishment.

It may have been half a minute before he moved, slipping behind another group nearer the recess — his face turned on me to the last with the same look of scathing hatred. Iras : A Mystery. 16 With his withdrawal came an instant impulse to follow; but it is impossible to rush across a room full of people, elbowing them right and left, and treading recklessly on the trailing skirts of the women. I had to thread my way with caution and courtesy, and, tall as was the figure and peculiar the attire, I completely lost sight of it in the crowd. When I gained the recess, no one was there but Knollys and his inamorata, and two elderly ladies, each engaged in conversing into the ear-trumpet of the other. " Which way has he gone — the Egyptian ? " I said sotto voce to Knollys. He gave me a bewildered look, totally at a loss to guess my meaning.

" You must have seen him from here — you can see down all the length of the room. A tall fellow in white linen, like a priest." " My dear Lavenham, there is no such person here : we don't go in for fancy dress. Unless indeed" — with an appeal to the girl beside him — " it is some satellite of Madame St Heliers' ? " Iras : A Mystery. 17 Madge shook her pretty head and looked puzzled. Madame had a black page, she thought ; but no — she had never brought him here with her ; and she too had seen nobody. I did not think that very surprising in either case, as probably she and Knollys were both engrossed with affairs of their own. I could not cross-examine the deaf ladies, so I strolled back into the larger room to keep watch on the doorway ; but the singular figure did not appear again. Could it have been somebody masquerading ?

But who would take the trouble for such an instantaneous appearance, and in a costume of which perhaps I alone of all those present would comprehend the meaning ? And it was not as if I had been a specially invited and expected guest. I had been brought there as an inpromptu after thought by Knollys ; unless, indeed, Knollys was in the plot — an idea quite untenable. I tried to anchor myself on the conviction that the man was a confederate of Madame St Heliers' — it was easy to suspect a fortune teller of any amount of charlatanry ; but the B Iras : A Mystery. dress and the stare of anger, and the fact that he seemed to attract no attention from the persons surrounding him, unusual as had been his appearance, still remained unaccountable by any explanation I could guess at. In the meantime several people had pene trated one by one behind the drawn curtains, returning — some graver than they went, others giggling (these were mainly the younger ones) — when Mrs Payne appeared to be summoned to a conference.

On her return she waved away the eager aspirants. " I must beg of you all to wait a little," she said. " Madame has seen ten ladies, and she now asks for some one of the opposite sex. She says it prevents an undue drain on her power to have an alternation. This time I am to send a gentleman, and she asks for the gentleman with a beard who was opposite the door when she entered. That must be you, Mr Lavenham. You'll go in, of course ? " It had been far from my intention to consult the oracle ; but it occurred to me on the in stant that here was my opportunity to solve the Iras : A Mystery. 19 mystery of the Egyptian — doubtless I should discover him in the back drawing-room in conjunction with the rest of the diablerie. I thanked Mrs Payne, and came forward at her bidding ; disappearing in my turn behind the curtains.

Chapter II

The back drawing-room had been effectively arranged in semi-darkness ; a single lamp with a deep red shade burnt in the farther corner, and under the circle of its illumination sat Madame St Heliers. She wore a black lace scarf thrown over her grey curls, possibly because the room felt chilly with only the embers of a dying fire left in the grate ; and she sat propping her chin on her hand, and looking fixedly and in silence at the entering victim. I made my bow also in silence ; I would wait, I thought, for the sibyl to address me, and abstain from leading questions. The Egyptian was not visible ; but my eyes were still dazzled with the glare of the outer apart ment, and might not penetrate his hiding-place. Iras : A Mystery. 21 Madame maintained her silence and her serious aspect sufficiently long to make me feel somewhat foolish ; then a bright smile flashed from eyes to mouth, irradiating her small pale face, and she drew aside the velvet folds of her dress, pointing to a low seat at her side.

"You did not want to come to me — I know that ; and you have no opinion of this sort of thing — I know that also. But I was attracted to you directly I saw you, and determined I would have a talk with you. You are a man with a history— it is either made or yet to make. I shall soon find out which it is, little as you credit my methods. Give me your hands." I held them out palm upwards, scarred and roughened as they were with the manual labour of the past. She took them with her soft ones, and held them closer to the circle of red light, poring intently over them for a few moments. Then she released me, and leaned back in her chair, looking rather grave. " I have seen hands by the hundred, and Iras : A Mystery. 22 read spheres by the hundred also, — that is, the personality, as perhaps you would term it, which is often more indicative than the lines.

But I never knew a parallel case to yours. I am glad I made you come. You arc unique It was now my turn to smile. Was this the jargon, I thought, which was ready for all comers ? "There is plenty of history. You had an unhappy childhood. Your life has been solitary — you have travelled far across seas — you arc a writer. Some one might have told me all this, might they not ? though I do not know even your name. Am I right so far ? " I assented briefly, but I had the thought she indicated. Much of this might have been known of me through Knollys to Mrs Payne. " But the history I see is to come. Your solitude is nearly over. You are an affec tionate man, though you do not know it. You are capable of passionate devotion, and you will throw your all at the feet of a stranger, who will become suddenly, in a Iras : A Mystery. 23 moment, the ruling influence of your life.

Whether this will be for good or for evil I cannot determine ; it seems to me that you are under the shadow of a great calamity, but I am unable to say if it comes to you with your love. You have the gift of clair voyance, but I imagine it has hitherto been dormant : you may in this way receive warning. And I would warn you also that you have an enemy, and a powerful one, who will strike you through your heart's dearest, and strike home. That will be the blow which shatters : see here ! it is marked already, through your heart and fate. Beware of the snows of winter and Orion low in the east. Now Mrs Payne will expect you back. Have you anything to ask before you leave me ? " I had risen, accepting my dismissal, and she rose also as I stood before her. My eyes by this time were focussed to the dim light, and I could be sure we were alone in the room, which was a small one.

"Tell me this," I said ; " who is the Egyptian ? " Iras: A Mystery. 24 "The Egyptian?" "Yes; the man in white linen, shaven like a priest. What do you know of him ? Did he come with you?" "Then do you see him as well ?" was her counter question. "That is a danger the less. Beware of him; it is he that is your enemy." She came close to me, speaking these words in an emphatic whisper, and then pushed me away from her with both hands as Mrs Payne opened the curtains. I forgot all about Knollys. I made my acknowledgments and excuses to our hostess — how I can hardly say ; for all is confusion to my remembrance till I found myself alone in the street under the night sky, facing the chill autumn wind as I walked eastward. I think it was that cold breath about me which cleared my brain and brought me to myself, for I felt as a man might who is drunk with the inhala tion of a narcotic.

What spell had bewitched me in that ordinary middle-class house, with its good-natured hostess and crowd of common- Iras : A Mystery. 25 place guests, credulous enough to be enter tained by a fortune-teller ? I would fain have styled the fortune-teller commonplace as well, but the term did not fit Madame St Heliers. I could not help suspecting that her magnetism had wrought about me this singular disturbance of the senses, and I was conscious the words of her ominous warning were burning them selves into my brain. The irritability induced by overwork had rendered me sensitive to impression — doubtless that was all ; but I could not feel Knollys's prescription of a social evening, however well meant, had met my case. I went to bed and to sleep without opening a book, and woke late, though unrefreshed, as I had been harassed by dreams.

After breakfast I went as usual to my desk, resolving to limit myself in the way of hours, but was aghast to find I was incapable of the effort of composition. I sat with the pen in my hand staring blankly at the unwritten page, and at last flung it from me in despair. Knollys was right — whatever the sensitive intellectual Iras : A Mystery. 26 machinery may be on which we depend for origination, it was clear mine had been over strained ; and, for a time at least, I must try change of scene andrest. I dashed off a line to leave for Knollys, and in another hour had taken train for Brighton. I should perhaps have done wisely to seek a quieter place with more of country surroundings, rather than go in this way from a town to a town ; but, with all my usual occupations cut away, it seemed to me that I should feel less ennui in a crowd, even though it would be a crowd of the unknown.

I arrived there on a Friday afternoon, and spent that evening and most of the following day dawdling up and down the esplanade, or propped against the railing puffing tobacco smoke. As I looked out over the heaving plain of green water, I heartily wished myself back again, spade in hand, among my comrades in the East — battling with our enemy the sand, at once the great obliterator and the great preserver of those relics of a dead past. Welcome the hot wind like the breath of a Iras : A Mystery. 27 furnace, the torrid sun, the plague of flies beyond the power of even a Moses to remit, could I have exchanged for them England and inaction such as weighed upon me now. There was beauty in sky and sea, and music in the wash of the waves on the shingle, wet higher and higher every moment by the ad vancing border of foam ; but my eyes were dull to the one as my ears to the other.

I could not get up the faintest interest in the endless procession of Bath-chairs, the over dressed women, the riotous children, the abounding dog-population, the smart equipages and equestrians in the ride. Possibly I was all the more disposed to dwell on the events of my last evening in London, and the expected consignment from Alexandria, than if my mind had been otherwise occupied. I had seen too many mummies to be san guine as to Jack Skipton's capture being a real treasure-trove of historical interest ; but I hoped it would prove to be an unopened one of the higher caste, such as I stipulated for, and suitable for the desired experiments. I Iras: A Mystery. had strolled down to the shingle on the Satur day afternoon to while away the last hour before table d'hote, scrutinising the boats hauled up above the tide-line, and picking my way among waifs of sea-weed and debris, but with the pink telegram shut up in G Street always the rallying-point of meditation.