The Waters of Hercules

Front matter

THE WATEES Of HEECULES THE WATERS OF HERCULES BY E. D. GERARD, AUTHOR OF ' REATA,' ' BEGGAR MY NEIMiWrtf^ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. I. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXXXV A U Rights reserved ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 'BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE' CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAP. PAGE THE LEGEND, ....... 1 THE PROLOGUE, . . . . . .17 I. KATZENJAMMER, ...... 47 II. A LEGAL ADVISER, . . . . . .71 III. THE ASH-WEDNESDAY VISITOR, .... 88 IV. A VICTIM OF SCIENCE, . . . . .108 V. A GLIMMER OP FORTUNE, . . . .130 VI. WHEN DOCTORS DISAGREE, . . . .150 VII. ON THE WING, . . . . . .168 VIII. THE VALLEY-GOD, . . . . . .187 IX. THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, ..... 203 X. A LOVE-LETTER, . . . . . .227 XI. THE VALLEY'-KING, 245 XII. THE WORLD ABOVE, 256 XIII. "SIR HOVART," 285 XIV. THE BOHEMIAN, ......

THE WATEES OF HEECULES. THE LEGEND. He had obeyed the call of the war-trumpet which echoed throughout the Eoman Empire. He had gone forth at the head of his legion, to fight under the Eagle of his Emperor — the mighty Trajan. Eome was this Eoman's first idol, but his wife was his second. — his young wife whom he had possessed for scarcely three moons. His warrior-heart did not flinch as her white arms clung round him ; he kissed the mute lips which did not trust themselves to speak, for fear of speaking words unworthy a Eoman wife ; he unclasped the soft fingers which clutched the folds of his paludamentum VOL. I. A with the clinging strength of despair. Trajan called, and he must follow, and follow to the death, if Eome commanded ; but she must be safe. He would send her to the far -distant province by the Danube, to that quiet valley where flowed the health-giving waters.

There reigned deep peace. The fierce Dacians had long since bow*ed before Trajan's victorious sword. The din of war could not pierce through those mountain ramparts. A trusty escort should guard her ; the sweet society of her friends, the noble ladies Flavia and Lavinia, should help her to pass the hours of waiting ; the sacred waters of Hercules should give back the roses which had faded from her cheek. There she should how strong again, — strong enough to hail the returning hero, if by the help of the immortal gods he were victorious, — strong enough to receive his ashes, if it were decreed that he must fall. He kissed her lips, he unclasped her fingers, and he tore from his neck the golden chain he wore. It had been given to him by the priestess of Bel lona : its sacred links would guard her from harm.

Chapter II

A LEGAL ADVISER. " I too a sister had, an only sister ; She loved me dearly." — Coleridge. While Gretchen had been settling the amount of her future income, at the opposite end of the town a tall man was walking leisurely through the streets. The rain splashed in heavy drops on his hat, each drop squirting up again like a tiny foun tain, then joining into little torrents, which ran merrily down his forehead and his nose, blur ring the glass of his massive spectacles, then losing themselves a little in his beard, and end ing by drawing long wet lines all down his winter coat. He had an umbrella with him, but it was tightly rolled up in his hand, instead of fulfilling an umbrella's vocation. He walked on with a long but unhurried step, as uncon cerned about the weather as if there had been a dry pavement beneath his feet and a blue sky overhead, and evidently plunged in some deep and absorbing thought.

Still wTith that abstracted look on his face, and with a mere mechanical sense of locality which spoke of constant habit, he turned into a narrow lonely street, and entered a door. A steep staircase took him up to the second story, and there, on a brass plate, stood en graved the name— " Dr Vincenz Komers." That was his door, and the name on the brass plate was his name. He was Vincenz Komers, lawyer, or Doctor der Rechte, coming home rather late from his office to his dinner. Before he had had time to touch the bell handle, the door was opened quickly from the inside, and a thin sallow*-faced lady confronted him. " I knew it was you ; I heard your step," she greeted him in a tone of shrill reproach. " Too stingy, of course, to give himself a cab home in the rain ; never minds whether he frightens his sister into fits by coming home late ; overworks himself, catches cold, and I have to nurse him when I need nursing my self."

She had drawn him into the room by this time, and was looking at him critically. " Preserve us ! he has not opened his um brella ; he has ruined his best hat and soaked his collar. Nothing like a lawyer for nice practical common-sense ! " Certainly Dr Komers presented a rather striking sight, as he stood there with his neatly rolled-up umbrella in his hand, and the rain drops dripping from his clothes. His sister contemplated him with a sort of affectionate contempt, then curtly prescribed dry clothes as the prelude to eating his " cold dinner." Vincenz meekly complied, and presently re appeared metamorphosed from an amphibious into a terrestrial being. His sister looked at him again critically. "Did you not see your slippers standing ready for you ? Why have you not put them 0 ft on . " Because I must go out again this after noon," answered Vincenz, his pale face flushing ever so slightly.

" Indeed ! to your office 1 "No, not to my office." " Might I venture to inquire where to 1 " "To the Krautgasse." "Oh, there again!" Vincenz laid down his spoon to let his "cold" soup cool, but he did not answer. Having waited for a minute, Anna found her self obliged to add, — "Anything new about their precious lawsuit ? Is it going to come to an end at last i " "Not that I know of; matters remain per fectly unchanged." " Then what is it you are going to do in the Krautgasse?" Vincenz looked up with marked impatience. " Does it not strike you, Anna, that a man need not always go there as a legal adviser ? Why should I not call in the Krautgasse as a friend ? " There was a sort of pride in the way he said the last word. " As a friend — ah ! " repeated Anna. Then she looked from her brother to the girl who was waiting upon them ; and then she sat silent for some time, eating her dinner and throwing stolen and piercing glances at Vincenz opposite.

Although she had, with cheerless emphasis, invited him to come to his cold dinner, the din ner was in fact scalding hot. Anna was too good a Hausfrau, and far too devoted a sister, to let anything but a steaming repast be set upon the table. She dearly loved to receive her brother, when he came late from his office, with promises of discomfort and overcooked meat, — but she would rather have cut off her right hand than put her threats into practice. Had she not stood in the kitchen herself to-day, roasting her face over the fire, and earning for herself one of her chronic headaches, merely in order that Vincenz should get his fried carps crisp and hot, as he liked them on fast-days Anna was four years older than her brother, and long before she had passed the barrier of her fortieth year, she had given up all claim to feminine charms.

But feminine she remained in mind and manner ; womanish and womanly in the highest degree, in spite of the command ing mien and cutting tone with which she armed herself, and in defiance to the dash of strong mindedness she carried on the surface. It was a mere coat of varnish, and under the thin glaze her true nature lay. She was tall, meagre, and already wrinkled — her features cut so sharply as to be al most a caricature ; ill health it was, more than years, which had so quickly withered her cheek. She never could have been beautiful ; but there had been a time when that exaggerated profile had not been without its charm ; and even now there were moments when, entering the half-lighted room, or looking at her without his spectacles, Vincenz was vividly reminded of what she had been in the days when they were both young and prosperous, and before Anna had succumbed to that mortal illness which had ended her youth with one blow.

The maid-servant had scarcely closed the door behind her, when Anna looked at her brother and said, " Well ? " " Well what ? " " How about that visit ? Explain yourself." For a moment Vincenz hesitated. Should he confess or evade ? " Evade " was the first in stinctive answer which rose in his mind ; but in the next second he had felt that he ought to confess. The remembrance of a past obligation, the consciousness of a heavy debt, for which his whole life could not repay Anna, rose before his eyes. She had a right to his confidence. What a minute before had irritated him as womanish curiosity, now appeared to him in the light of sisterly solicitude. He threw down his napkin, and taking off his spectacles, began to rub them with much unnecessary zeal, looking straight at his sister, while, with a touch of defiance in his voice, he said — " I am going to try my chance with her."

Anna returned her brother's look without the slightest surprise, for she had known perfectly well what was coming. She had seen it coming all these long months, although never had he breathed one word to her. She had seen it coming before even he had seen it coming him self. Therefore when, after a moment's pause, he began explaining who " she " was, and what "taking his chance " meant, Anna interrupted him — " You need not tell me — I know it all." Here was a shock for Vincenz, who all this time had been priding himself on his masculine impenetrability. He had never written a single love -verse, which might have fallen into her hands ; he had never hung up the sacred photo graph in his room ; he had never pronounced the name, whose very sound stirred his heart, except in what he considered to be a studiously indifferent tone.

He had never, he was quite sure, — he had never been caught in the act of kissing that battered old pocket-book, which she with her own fingers had so amiably and deftly stitched up for him. No, he was quite confident that he had not comported himself like a heart - sick lover, and yet Anna had guessed ! Her voice broke in upon his thoughts. " Why must you do it to-day ? " " I should have done it long before to-day, only that during the Carnival wœeks there was no possibility of approaching her. I dare not now delay." " Nobody but you would think of choosing Ash-Wednesday for the day of your betrothal." " It remains to be seen whether it is the day of my betrothal," said Vincenz, with an anxious smile. " Vincenz, this is nonsense ! What can you fear ? " "Rivals, Anna; she is so young and beau tiful."

" So sweet, and tender, and helpless, why do you not add ? " retorted Anna, sharply. " Oh for the blindness of men ! Do you not see that that girl, who looks as delicate as an angel going into consumption, is in reality as wiry as a man, as tough as a sailor, as hard-headed as a lawyer, ay, and as hard-hearted too 1 — I believe, more hard-hearted than some lawyers," — she added, with a severe glance at her brother. "No, Vincenz; angels may have golden hair. but golden hair does not make angels." " Anna," said Vincenz, unheeding, " what do you think of my chance ? " "Your what?" " My chance of winning her." " It may amuse you to call it a chance, but you must know perfectly well that you cannot seriously contemplate the possibility of a refusal." "It is not a grand marriage for her," said Vincenz, musing ; " but, after all, I do not ask her to share a crust of bread with me ; she need not go without the comforts which she has in her father's house."

" I will tell you what I think," burst out Anna. " You are throwing yourself away. Not a grand marriage for her ? Pooh ! you are ten times too good, and too handsome, and too clever for hei*. She ought to thank you on her knees for your condescension." Vincenz smiled absently ; he was used to such speeches. If he could have seen himself with Anna's eyes, he would have beheld a sort of impossible demigod, as far above his fellow-creatures in loftiness of character and majesty of countenance, as the sky is removed from the earth. Even as it was, he had been sufficiently influenced to think himself both clever and good-looking beyond the average of men, until a certain day, when he had for the first time looked at himself in the light of a suitor for that flower-faced girl in her teens ; then only his mirror had told him that his youth was past, and then only he discovered all the qualities which he wanted — and washed, with all the strength of his strong mind, that he could be twenty times better-looking, and greater and more brilliant, for her sake.

" I wonder you never thought of marrying Barbara Bitterfreund," said Anna, " instead of that chit of a girl. Barbara would have suited you much better. She has just written a pam phlet upon the prospects of lady dentists." Vincenz shuddered a little. "Why, Barbara is seventeen years older than " F VOL. I. " And two years younger than yourself," in terrupted Anna ; " and you don't call yourself old." This was a new view of the case for Vincenz. Hitherto Barbara Bitterfreund had always appeared to him in the light of an old scarecrow ; and yet it was quite true that she was two years younger than himself. Was it not barely possible that he might appear in the light of an old scarecrow when looked at by eyes of eighteen ! He lost himself in the train of thought suggested by this idea. Brother and sister were in their sitting-room now ; there was a long pause.

On one side the rain-drops fell against the pane ; on the other there was the clatter of plates as the maid - servant was clearing away the remains of the fried carp. Anna lay back wTith closed eyes, for her head was beginning to ache. Vincenz stood and looked round the room, as he had never looked at it before. The wall - paper seemed to him dingy to - day ; he had not till now noticed how shabby was the piece of carpet in the middle of the room ; how unshapely looked the pile of law papers which loaded his writing-table ; and really it was time that Anna should replace that starved-looking pot of ivy by some brighter plant. " I wrish the stairs were not so steep," he said aloud. Anna understood the thought underlying that wish. " If they are good enough for you, they will be good enough for her."

He scarcely heard the words. There was another pause, longer this time, and then Vincenz, looking at his watch, walked to the table and took up his hat. Anna opened her eyes and followed his movements. " Are you really going now ? "Yes, it is time," said Vincenz, brushing his hat, and speaking with forced composure. Anna's lips tightened as if in pain. She thoroughly disapproved of the step he was about to take ; but she knew perfectly well that it would be taken. She could bully Vincenz about his coats, and his boots, and the pattern of his neckties; but she never could move him an inch in such a resolution as this. Fortunately she was wise enough to spare the unnecessary annoyance of argument both to herself and to him. It was a moment of trepidation as Vincenz took up his hat, and in spite of herself the trepidation touched Anna also.

The sound of the hat-brush even had something solemn in it, and the fact that Vincenz w*as not much given to the polishing of his hats, gave all the more weight to the circumstance. He would not have thought of doing it if it had not been for her : henceforward everything would be done for her. Anna watched him, and it seemed to her that a great deal more than mere dust was being brushed away in this minute. When the hat had been operated upon with a perseverance which threatened to be destruc tive, Vincenz turned, and said slowly, " I am going; if it is 'yes,' you need not expect me home till late." Then, with a change of tone, " If it is ' no,' I shall be back at once, in half an hour." "If!" echoed Anna, firing a last shot. "I wish — I wish, with all my heart, that it could be no, but that is impossible.

Of course I shall have to sit up late. There is no hope of a refusal." " Good-bye," said Vincenz, from the door ; " will you not wash me luck, Anna ? " But Anna leant back again with closed eyes, and gave no answer. He shut the door softly, and went out. She let him get as far as the top of the staircase, and then, springing from her chair, over took him, breathless. She did not speak to wish him good luck, but she first seized his hand, and then threw her thin arms round him. For one minute brother and sister held each other thus clasped. Anna was somewhat less profuse in her caresses than the generality of German sisters, and Vincenz understood her now, though she said no word. She was meagre, and withered, and unbeautiful, but she was his sister, and they had been all in all to each other during so many long years; for these two stood alone in the world.

The same thing was in both their minds. I do not know what strange train of ideas it was which made them both think now of another day, long past, as decisive as this one, — the day on which Anna's youth had been ended. When his steps had died away on the steep staircase, the old maid went back to her room and to her knitting. Her head ached acutely, but the click of the needles would at least break the silence of the lonely room. She sat till the rain ceased and the early dusk fell ; then she knitted on by the light of the lamp, pausing every now and then to listen for his step. The clock from the nearest church spire struck ten, and Anna rose. " It is no use sitting up later," she said aloud, as she rolled up her knitting. " There is no sense in waiting; I shall hear it soon enough." But though there was no sense in waiting, the stroke of the next hour still fell upon wakeful ears ; and the young moon, looking in doubtfully at the window, saw the figure of a thin woman Avith idle knitting-needles in her lap. Eleven o'clock, and Anna still sat up — for Vincenz had not yet returned.

Chapter III. The Ash-wednesday Visitor

" Alas ! syr knight, how may this bee, For my degree's soe highe ? " — Sir Cauline. Gretchen, though somewhat pale, stood reso lutely facing the door when she heard the sound of a man's step in the passage. It was not quite jaunty enough for Baron Federbusch, nor pon derous enough for Herr von Barten ; and there was no clank of spurs to betray a lancer lieuten ant. Who could it be ? " Dr Komers," announced the servant, opening the door and closing it again behind the lawyer. Gretchen's pulses calmed down instantly, and the colour came back to her face ; relief, disappointment, and amusement, all took possession of her at once. On the whole, amusement had the upper hand. Here had she been listening for the approach of a suitor ; and after all, that step had belonged to Dr Komers, the family lawyer, whom she had known for years, and who had probably brought some scanty shred of information about the Damianovics' cause.

It was provoking that he should have been shown in here, and just at this critical juncture, when any minute might bring the expected wooer. Her first impulse was to vent her displeasure on Dr Komers ; but looking at the matter from a logical point of view, it struck her that Dr Komers was not to blame. It should have been made clear to the servant that the visitor she expected was a young gentleman, and not middle-aged like this one. No doubt her mother would appear soon to take him off her hands, and in the meantime she must entertain him. It was a respite ; and perhaps a little calm con versation with the family lawyer might help her to prepare for the coming crisis. " Does mamma know that you are here ? " she graciously inquired. " I am sure that she will appear directly," and Gretchen motioned Dr Komers to a seat.

" There is no hurry," said Dr Komers, first peering at the chair in his short-sighted man ner, and then sitting down upon it. " I hope your sister is quite well ? " inquired Gretchen, noticing the extra shade of gravity on the lawyer's face. Thank you, as well as she ever is." You have not brought mamma any bad news ? " ' I have not brought any news at all." " Then why have you come ? " w*as rising to Gretchen's lips, but she checked herself in time, remembering that it would not be logical to show her vexation. The conversation seemed likely to drop here, for Vincenz was wondering whether, after all, her father could have prepared her ; and accord ing to his invariable habit, when he became in volved in a train of thought, had lost for the moment all sense of his surroundings. Vincenz Komers had two distinct and quite opposite manners.

In the law court or at his desk, he was the clear-minded, keensighted lawyer, who never for a moment permitted his vagrant thoughts to carry him from the point in hand ; but no sooner was his office-door closed behind him, than the whole man underwent a transformation. He became absent, dreamy, awkward sometimes, although never shy. His nature was unsociable ; and a loss of fortune and position in early youth had fed this disposi tion, until he had become a systematic shunner of his fellow-creatures ; he was, what is termed sauvage. He struck attention everywhere as a conspicuous figure, — an absurd figure, perhaps, with his tall stooping frame, his short-sighted gaze, and gold-rimmed spectacles; but not all the absurdity in the world could make him look otherwise than a gentleman. The Mohrs were the only family with whom circumstances had thrown him intimately in contact.

For several years he had been in the habit of visiting there — merely as a legal adviser, he persuaded him self; but though, since the death of old Zauderer (who had been his principal, and from whose hands he had received the legacy of the Dami anovics case), it is true that there had been many business conversations between Ascelinde and Dr Komers, it is equally true that business had often been followed by a warm invitation from Adalbert, and a friendly supper in the family circle. A very tall man, with spectacles and a beard, was the first general impression which Vincenz produced ; but the nearer he was looked at, and the longer he was known, the more there was to be discovered in his face. The thick, rich brown beard, which almost reached the middle of his chest, did its best to conceal the fine moulding of the jaw and the classical cut of the mouth ; but the curve of the nostrils and the bold sweep of the high white forehead were enough to show that it was both a handsome and a proud face.

It was a calm face as well, and grave, and would have exactly accorded with the manner, only that the short-sighted eyes had a habit of lighting up suddenly in a way which betrayed that that calmness owed some of its existence to training and not all to nature. In stature he was not only tall, but massive and large-limbed, although utterly lacking that straightness of carriage which a large frame requires. THE ASH- WEDNESDAY VISITOR. A painful want of drill betrayed itself in both his sitting and his standing attitudes. Placed in tender youth under a drill-sergeant, he might have learned how to manage his long legs with more ease and grace, and a certain degree of rigidity would have replaced the general loose ness of his appearance. A connoisseur of human physique would have sighed to see such breadth of shoulder stooping over a desk, instead of breasting the beating waves ; a recruiting sergeant would have measured his general build with an approving eye ; a worshipper of virile muscle would have cast an envious glance at the shape of those long legs which always were in the way in a small room, but which in the wrestling arena would have been pronounced " adorable."

The ruddy colour of health should have been on those features instead of that pale, bureau crat complexion ; those long-jointed hands should have grown brown with the sun, and not have whitened within closed rooms. To look at Vin cenz Komers was to think of some great fund of power lying waste and useless : of some strongly wrought piece of machinery, for in stance, iron-sinewed and giant-limbed, built up with care and wit, and now standing silent — the huge joints rusting in their sockets, the wheels growing helpless with inaction ; or else, to change metaphors, you might have compared him to a wide tract of land on which only the puny blue -bell trembles and the foolish con volvulus twines, but which on its broad and generous breast might have borne corn to nour ish thousands ; or else you might have thought of him as of a mighty cataract, with the power of thunder in its voice and the strength of legions in its rush, and which yet falls useless upon mossy stones, and wastes its spray upon untrodden banks.

Fate is very provoking sometimes. If every one's business were measured out by his strength, wTe should at least be spared the absurdity of seeing a man with the strength of a gladiator and the arms of a Hercules passing his day in tying up little parcels neatly with red tape ; while that puny youth with thin legs and peaked features is sent out to defend his country from her enemies. THE ASH- WEDNESDAY VISITOR. Having waited in vain until Dr Komers's train of thought should have come to a natural conclusion, Gretchen at length considered her self justified in yielding to her first im pulse, and asking, " AVhat have you come for ? " " I wanted first to inquire whether you were quite well ? " began Vincenz, starting out of his thoughts. " But you are always asking me that, Dr Komers, and you know that I am always quite well.

You cannot have called here to ask me that ? Are you quite sure you have no news for mamma ? " " Quite sure. It is not your mother I wish to speak to, but yourself." He paused for a moment, and then added, " I am glad of this opportunity of finding you alone." " I shall not be long alone," said Gretchen ; and she rose from her chair, and walking to the window, threw a searching glance up and down the long street, wondering from wdiich side the suitor would come. " Are you waiting for anybody ? " asked Vincenz. " Ye-es," said Gretchen, hesitating. " Yes, I am expecting a visitor," she added more col lectedly, thinking by this threat to drive away Dr Komers. Dr Komers showed no signs of flight. " Your father told me that you would be alone this evening," he remarked in a tone of disappointment.

" My father ! " said Gretchen, turning slowdy from the window. " Why, it was he himself who told me of the visitor ; he never mentioned you at all." " He told you that you would have another visitor this evening ? " asked Dr Komers rising, and according to his habit at critical moments, taking off his spectacles to rub them. " Yes," she answered, staring at him with parted lips ; but already the light of under standing was dawning in her eyes. One moment more and it flashed out. " You are the visitor ! " she cried, and sank down trembling in her chair. THE ASH-WEDNESDAY VISITOR. ' Yes, I am the visitor," said Dr Komers, with his spectacles still in his hand. " And surely you know why I have come ? " " I know nothing," retorted Gretchen, setting her teeth and shutting her eyes as if to blind herself to the truth.