Shadow-shapes

Chapter I

“ T ’M not a weak fool — what did they say? I 1 want to know exactly what they said, Mac.”

“ They told you themselves. There are distinct signs of valvular disease — you must be very careful.”

“ Pooh ! ” The man got up and walked to the window and drummed impatiently on the rainsplashed pane. Then he turned and stared at his friend seated, with drooping head, by the table.

“ Look here,” he exclaimed suddenly, “ are you going to be sensible, or are you not? You’ve known me for — nineteen years, isn’t it? Well, that’s time enough, surely, to understand me ! Have you ever known me to act like a hen in traffic ? Why should you begin to treat me like an infant just because your professional interest is roused for the first time? You are certainly a doctor, but you are — my friend too.”

There was a most curious expression in the speaker’s eyes as he uttered the last words, and the other man noticed it, and spoke hurriedly, almost incoherently.

“ Yes, yes — but you heard what they said— I— 1 how can I tell you more? They kept nothing back.”

“ You were shut up with them for three-quarters of an hour — what did they say ? ”

“ We talked about other cases.” He still spoke in that queer hurried way. “ Doctors always do in consultation — it’s like lawyers. We compared your case with others. Sir Ellis always proses by the hour ; it interests me of course professionally, but he’s very technical and stilted. He only stopped then because Bruner had to leave, he ”

He was interrupted by a laugh, half amused, half sardonic, and he flushed a little, and looked up at his companion, who was staring at him with an expression of faint scorn.

“ You mentioned lawyers just now, Mac. Well, if the money hadn’t come just when it did I should have been sweating away at the Bar — done jolly well too, I fancy! Let us imagine that I am in wig and gown now! You don’t seem able to speak by yourself. I will help you. I will ask questions ; you must answer. Regard yourself as on oath, Mac. Regard me as an eminent K.C. cross-examining a — criminal.”

Again that curious look flashed into his eyes, and MacFarlane stirred uneasily.

The master of the house rose to his feet and placed his hands on the table and leant forward. His piercing eyes looked steadily at his companion — eyes ringed by the bluish-grey smear of delicate health.

“Did Sir Ellis say that there was immediate danger ? ”

“ No”

“ There is danger ? ”

“ There is always ”

“ Don’t generalize, please. Is there danger in my case ? Answer yes or no.”

“ Yes — but, Brock, old chap, don’t ”

“ Thanks. You can bring in the sentiment afterwards. At present I want facts. The end may come suddenly ? ”

MacFarlane squirmed in his chair, and did not answer till the question was repeated somewhat more sternly.

“ Yes — if care is not taken.”

“ What care? ”

“You must not overwork or fatigue yourself, you must not worry” (the other man’s mouth twisted with a silent laugh), “ you must not hurry — but we told you all this before ! ”

“Yes. There must be no sudden shocks, I suppose ? ”

“ Quite so.”

“ How is one to guard against shocks, I wonder ! Then I must be good and take my medicines like a model little boy, I suppose?”

“They will certainly help. You must not forget to take them regularly.”

“Ah! Well, Gra will see to that. She is an excellent nurse — isn’t she, Mac ? ”

It was impossible this time to ignore the irony in his face and voice.

“Why do you speak like that, Brock? You ought to know how good she is : she saved your life two years ago in Scotland.”

“ Ah yes, so they all said. I believe she did. What a pity ! ”

“ A pity ? ”

“ Yes ; if I’d gone off then it would have saved such a lot of — of — er — difficulty now. Well, now for technical details, please.”

He sat down, and crossed his knees.

Then began a series of questions which astonished the doctor. He realized suddenly that his friend must have been reading up the subject for some time. He talked of valvular lesions, auriculo-ventricular valves, tricuspid and mitral, and the chorda tendinece , as if he had been familiar with the terms all his life.

MacFarlane was puzzled and confused. Whenever he hesitated over a reply, fearing to agitate the patient, he was met by a look so hard, by a few words of such biting sarcasm, that finally he answered almost angrily.

At last his tormentor ended his questions, and was silent. He was looking across the room out of the window at the passing vehicles, and his face was like a mask.

MacFarlane shook himself, got up, and walked about somewhat nervously, looking at, without seeing, various objects. He stared for some time at a plaster bust of Darwin, then he wheeled round and spoke.

“All this is rot, you know, Brock! You are now as wise as I am about the case, and I hope you’ll be sensible and take care of yourself."

There was a pause, and he suddenly felt horribly uncomfortable as his eyes met his friend’s sombre gaze.

“Yes,” said Brocklehurst quietly, “I intend to take care of myself. Pm only forty-two, and I don’t wish to die yet.”

“ Of course not. Who spoke of dying ? ” He spoke with a noisy cheerfulness.

Brocklehurst’s answer seemed irrelevant.

“ What are you earning now, Mac ? ”

MacFarlane gasped.

“ I — how do you mean ? ” he stammered.

“ I mean how have you got on lately ? I know your practice has been growing of late years, but of course the profession is rather overcrowded. Do you mind my asking this ? ”

“ Oh, not at all : you’ve always known my affairs more or less intimately. I am making about twelve hundred a year on an average — sometimes more, sometimes less, but it works out at about that.”

He still looked surprised ; he could not follow the working of the other’s thoughts.

“ You’re a very clever doctor, Mac ; I believe in you — that is, in your speciality. I don’t think you’re very good at things outside the heart ! ”

MacFarlane laughed.

“ No ; I shouldn’t make a good G.P.”

“Quite so. Well, I’ve a proposal to make to you. The state I am in needs constant care and attendance, as you know. I should like to have you with me always, permanently. No, don’t interrupt, please. I could give you two rooms here for your own, and at Wane’s Ferry you can have the west tower for your domain. I will give you for one year from to-day fourteen hundred pounds, the following years an increase of two hundred each year. I pay all your expenses of course. You can choose a horse for your own at Wane’s ; here you can order any horse or vehicle you wish from the stables. Anything else you can think of please ask me — I will do all I can to make you comfortable. What do you say ? ”

“ Impossible ! ” MacFarlane exclaimed ; “ utterly impossible ! ”

“ Why ? ”

“ It would never do — I Besides, you don’t

need a constant attendant like that. You have only to be careful.”

“ But if I prefer to have some one with me to be careful for me ? ”

“ Well — any one would do. It’s ridiculous to get a specialist, and pay huge sums to him, just to see you don’t overwork or overtire yourself.”

“ Ah ! I don’t agree with you. You see I think it would pay me (even at the price offered) to keep some one by me whose interest it was to keep me alive.”

“ Interest?”

“Yes, interest. It will pay you to keep me in this vale of tears.”

“ So it would any one else ! I can find you some careful man for three or four hundred a year, say, who would think himself on a bed of roses ; he’d take care of you all right. No one would want to lose a good post like that ; while as for me, I’m already on my feet, and I — — ”

T

The other man interrupted.

“ I’m not speaking of money.”

“ What then ? ”

There was a silence in the room, but a horrible silence which seemed to hold a brooding, uncanny presence. The doctor shivered slightly, and involuntarily looked over his shoulder at the door. Then Brocklehurst spoke. His voice was low and even. A singularly refined and musical voice at any time, it now sounded more so than ever.

“ I mean Gra.”

“ Of course you believe in nothing. You modern doctors pride yourselves on your materialism. But I believe in other things. I know . I intend to do all I can to buy my life at a big price — to you . When I go, Gra goes too.”

MacFarlane sprang to his feet, white to the lips.

“ What are you saying ? Are you mad ? ”

“No, or I should employ a brain specialist. I say this in all seriousness. I wish you to be in constant attendance on me because it will be to your interest to keep me alive.”

“ How — how ? Why, even supposing your preposterous suggestion were true, how — what should I ”

Brocklehurst rose to his feet, and the men stood face to face, the library table between them. He held out his arm and pointed straight at the other man’s eyes, then he spoke harshly, loudly :

“ Don’t lie, man. / Don’t be a hypocrite. I know”

Then the doctor crumpled up like a wounded man. He sank on the chair he had risen from, his arms fell limply on the table, and his head bent down on his chest

“ I have — I ” His broken voice trembled to

silence.

“You need not speak. I know just how far it has gone. Now, I repeat, your interest is to guard my life as your own.”

Then the drooping man flung back his shoulders, and a wave of colour sprang to his face.

He spoke quickly, firmly.

“You are trying to frighten me! It is a wild extravagant lie. How could you possibly make me believe that you hold powers over life and death ? If you die, you die suddenly — there would be no chance to kill her.”

He laughed wildly. Then he looked at the man standing opposite, and saw a look on his face that he had never seen on any face in his life — a look of fixed purpose, of almost God-like strength of resolve.

“ I should not try to kill ” he said slowly ; then he lifted his eyes and looked up, up, out, beyond the walls — beyond the world, it seemed. He spoke solemnly, intensely.

“ I swear by Almighty God, in whom even you believe, I swear by all the living and all the dead, I swear by every sacred thing known, that, when I go to the shades beyond, she goes too.”

Again there was a silence which seemed to vibrate. When Brocklehurst spoke again it was in a different voice, politely, quietly, as if he were discussing an ordinary bargain.

“ You will want time to think this over. It is now Monday ; on Thursday you can give me your answer.”

“ I don’t want time,” stuttered the doctor. “ The thing is mad, it’s ”

The door opened and a woman stood on the threshold.

“ Well ? ” she said, holding the heavy portiere in

her hand. “ What is it ? You look so — so

What is it? You promised to come to me. Is there anything more I don’t know ? They said they had kept nothing back.”

She came into the room and sat down, looking first at one man, then at the other.

Her husband laughed lightly.

“ No, Gra,” he answered, with a glance at Mac- Farlane ; “ you were told all. It’s valvular disease, as I thought. I have to be very careful, that’s all. I may, with care, live to be ninety. I was only having a business talk with Mac. I’m trying to persuade him to come to live with us permanently, to take care of me.”

His wife’s eyelids flickered, and she stooped and picked up a thread off the carpet.

“ Can’t / do that ? ” she asked.

“ Well, you see, Mac is a doctor, and also a man has more authority. If I employed him to see after me, I should be bound to obey him ! ”

“ But how could he leave his practice ? ”

“ That’s just what we were trying to arrange. I think we shall manage it. You’ll give me your answer on Thursday, Mac, won’t you ? ”

MacFarlane got up stiffly from his chair.

“Yes,” he said dully; “ but I don’t see how it’s to be done. Well, good-bye ; I’ll come in to-morrow as usual.”

There were no formal hand-shakings ; he just went out of the door, and down the hall with a step a little less firm than usual. He slipped his arms into the sleeves of the overcoat a footman held out for him, took his hat and umbrella, and went down the steps to his brougham.

“ Home,” he said sullenly, and sat back in the corner, watching the rain.

“ Bah ! ” he exclaimed presently. “ The man’s mad. So am I, for that matter, to be frightened like a kid at the theatrical ravings of a lunatic.”

When he reached his house he found that there were five patients waiting for him. Three were on his free list, daughters or wives of doctors. He went through the professional business automatically. There was no outward difference in his manner.

He then had lunch, read over a pamphlet that had been sent him by a confrere , pulled out some manuscript paper and started to write an article for a medical paper.

After writing a few lines in his rather untidy handwriting the pen fell from his fingers and rolled to the floor.

“God ! if it’s that ! ” he exclaimed, and sat staring straight in front of him.

Hitherto Brocklehurst’s announcement had struck him as mania. He knew that, whatever others might believe, there was no such thing as the supernatural. He did not believe it possible that a power unknown could be called into play to do the impossible. Quite suddenly the word “ suggestion ” flashed to his brain, and his hands were shaking on the table in front of him.

He got dizzily to his feet and went to the bookcase that stretched to the ceiling all along two sides of the room. He mounted the steps and ran his eyes along a row of books till he found what he wanted. Then, with some volumes in his hand, he went back to his desk. They were the volumes on Phenomenes de Suggestion , from the complete works of Charcot. Feverishly he read on and on, turning over the pages hurriedly, searching in the index, taking notes on a sheet of paper. His man brought in some tea, and turned up the lights, but he still continued reading. At last he shut the cover with a bang, and rested his head on his hand. His face was grey and worn, his mouth shut in a hard line of pain.

“ Fool that I was ! ” he muttered. Then he thought and thought.

Suggestion, that was it. There was no necessity for the supernatural.

At the Salpetriere experiments had been tried over and over again ; there was no uncertainty about the results. In the hypnotic state patients had been ordered to do certain things at certain times, and hours or days afterwards they had carried out the commands.

Brocklehurst had always taken a deep interest in this branch of science ; he had hypnotized people over and over again. MacFarlane, who had not the power himself, had been amused and interested in some of his friend’s experiments. Why, even in the old days at Oxford Brocklehurst had given exhibitions of his gift. How all their circle had laughed when the sedate porter was found one afternoon sitting with his feet in a tub of water ! Brocklehurst had hypnotized him the day before, and, when he asked for ideas for suggestion, had accepted that offered by a mischievous youth : “ Order him to put his feet in a tub of water to-morrow at three o’clock.” No one thought it was possible, but the suggestion had worked all right. It was not the only time by any means. Many were the cases he could remember where the power had been called into play.

Gra ? Ah, Gra had been an easy subject. She was interested in the matter herself, and had lent herself willingly for her husband’s experiments. What was easier than for him to give her the suggestion, time after time till it was beyond fear of failure, that her life was to end with his ?

MacFarlane groaned and hit his clenched hand on the table.

Then the telephone bell rang, and he seized the receiver and put it to his ear.

“ Yes ? Yes, it is I. What is it, Gra ? ”

The answer came buzzing through the wires.

“ Mac, I couldn’t telephone before. I wanted to, but he wouldn’t let me go. I want to know whether he ought to exert himself with doing experiments.”

“ What experiments ? He of course ought not to tire himself.”

“ He insisted ! I couldn’t stop him, and I have never refused before. He hypnotized me after lunch. What? Mac, did you cry out ? Are you listening ? ”

The man’s face was white with terror, his hands shook, and he was gasping, as if out of breath. He cleared his voice by a cough, then spoke quietly and distinctly.

“ Gra, are you listening ? You must not let him do it again. Do you hear? Will you promise? Swear you won’t let him.

“ Very well. I won’t if I can help it .”

“ If you can help it? But of course you can help it.”

“ Mac, don’t you remember I told you that he’d hypnotized me once when I was asleep? What? What’s the matter, Mac? You frighten me.”

“ Go on.” The doctor’s voice was hoarse, and he could hardly hold the ear-piece against his ear his hand was so unsteady.

“ He told me of that the next morning,” the woman’s voice went on ; “he only did it 'for an experiment, to see if he could. But if I refuse him he may do it again. Will it hurt him?”

“Yes ; on no account must he do it. I will tell him so to-morrow.”

“Yes, do. If you tell him perhaps he will obey. Oh, Mac, he seems to think that you will come and live with us.”

“ Does he ? ”

“Yes. Of course it’s absurd.”

“ Why absurd ? ”

“ Mac ! ” Gra’s voice climbed to a note of astonishment. Then she sighed. “ Dear, it would not do. Our strength is only human strength

after all. I could not bear ” She broke off

suddenly, and the listener hit his free hand on the desk.

lt Very well; Gra, we will talk it over,” he said quietly ; “ don’t worry yourself now.”

“ Good-bye, Mac. I must go.”

“ Good-bye, Gra.”

He hung up the receiver, and let his head drop on his arms.

“ Oh my God, my God!” he groaned. “ So that was it. I am right.”

He remained with his head on his outstretched arms for nearly an hour ; when he raised it his face had changed: always firm and resolute, it now held an added strength, and there was an expression of almost sublime renunciation on it.

“ I must save her,” he said quietly ; “ if my life will do it I am ready to give it — willingly, God knows.”

Then he wrote two letters. One was to Brocklehurst saying that he had already decided. He would go to him ; but first he must travel for a few weeks — he needed a change. He would arrange matters with him on the morrow.

The other letter he wrote in French, and it was directed to a very well-known doctor in Paris.

Chapter II

MONTH after the twins came into the world Lady Ethersbury had a violent attack of indigestion, which she mistook for conscience. While the aggressive phase of piety that this gave rise to lasted the christening took place ; and, instead of the family names already chosen, the infants were labelled Grace and Faith. By the time the babies could lisp, Lady Ethersbury — who always did things rabidly — was deep in Ibsen, so her better feelings were not outraged by the fact that the pious names became Gra and Fai in small mouths which could not manage the sibilant and th. The baby names had stuck to the girls, and few friends of after days knew what the original appellations had been. When her daughters were nineteen her ladyship’s hobby happened to be Norman architecture. She had photographs and drawings of famous buildings hung all over her bedroom and boudoir, and her talk bristled with “ buttresses,” “ engaged shafts,” “ cushion capitals,” “ groins,” and “ surface sculpture.” Then she heard about Wane’s Ferry, managed to meet Cuthbert Brocklehurst at a friend’s house, and set herself to scheme for an invitation. She got it after Brocklehurst had seen Gra. At Wane’s (as the house was called locally) Lady Ethersbury was enthusiastic and unwearying in her researches. Brocklehurst’s aunt, who kept house for him, was tired out.

One night, when Gra was nearly asleep, her door opened, and her mother came in — stately and handsome even with dressing-gown and toupeeless head.

“ It is the most purely Norman house in England,” said she, sitting on the bed. “ It has not been spoilt by any vulgar additions — anyway, outside, and the inside has been done very skilfully. Gra, we must keep it in the family.”

“ Eh ? ” cried Gra, sitting up and blinking.

“ My heart would break if I could not come here often. One of you must marry him.”

Gra laughed. She was used to her mother.

“ Why don’t you do it yourself? Then you could be here always.”

“ My dear ! Don’t be absurd. He is thirtyfive, I am forty-four. Besides, I do not care to give up my liberty — even for Wane’s. I think, I really think, he has taken a fancy to you. At first I thought it was Fai ; now I think it is you.”

Gra gurgled. She was quite sure it was she.

“ Mind, dearie,” her mother said, as she rose to leave the room, “ I shall be bitterly disappointed if we don’t keep it in the family.”

So Gra was married to the purest piece of Norman architecture in England, and, amongst other things, a house in Curzon Street, a property in Scotland, a yacht, about fifty thousand a year, and — a very handsome man, who worshipped his wife with a wild overmastering passion, which seemed as unmodern as Wane’s Ferry.

For two months she was quite happy. Then James MacFarlane returned from abroad, and she found her fate. He was her husband’s most intimate friend, and she had to see him every day when they were in London.

After one heartrending scene between them, when the man’s iron will was broken down by some small accident, they agreed to suffer in silence, bury their mutual love out of sight, be honourable — and unhappy.

For six years they had fought the fight. Quietly, doggedly they had gone on, sometimes in an agony of soul that had left its mark on their faces, sometimes with an almost automatic perseverance which resulted in a numbness of spirit not good to know.

Only once since that first illuminating moment had his resolution broken down. When the baby died he had taken the dry-eyed, stunned mother into his arms and comforted her. Her tears had come at the tender touch, and together they had gone into the silent room and looked at the little waxen figure.

“ Thank you, Mac,” she said quietly ; “ you have taken away the bitterness. It was not wrong, my dear; I would not even mind Wee Willie Winkie knowing of that. Oh, my baby ! ”

But Wee Willie Winkie slept his last baby sleep, and the mother shut the memory in her heart, and 2 went on with her life. No other baby came to soothe with tiny hands the ache of the long struggle against dishonour. She was alone. Not even Fai knew, and when she was twenty-three Fai married the man of her choice and went to India. Lady Ethersbury was not a mother to confide in — though she was intensely affectionate and very sympathetic to her children, she had too light a mind to grasp an idea for long together. She was a will-o’-thewisp mentally, and Gra would no more have thought of confiding in her than in a child.

Now she had an added misery. Hitherto she had gathered strength by absence from the beloved one — strength to bear the constant agony of his presence during the four months of the year she spent in London. While she and her husband were travelling, or installed quietly at Wane’s Ferry, or in Scotland, she fought the fight alone, and was able to meet MacFarlane again with the certainty that she could go on as before. But now — would she be strong enough, she asked herself, to see him day after day, and all day long for weeks and months, without breaking down ? It was cruel. Why was he doing it ?

With trembling lips and beating heart she asked him this the day after the consultation.

The man was racked with misery ; he did not know how to answer. He walked about her pretty room with quick, uneven strides, and stammered as he gave his explanation.

“ Dear, it is hard, I know. But — but he had set his heart on it. I — well, I feel I owe him something ; how can I refuse ? I — Gra, I have stolen your heart from him ; I must try to save his life in return.”

It did not sound convincing, and she lifted her eyebrows.

“ Mac, you could have found some one else to do as well ; he only wants care, and some one to forbid him to over-exert himself.”

“ Yes, I suggested that — but he wanted me. Oh, Gra, Gra, do trust me — I have my reasons.” The words were a cry of appeal.

Suddenly she sprang to him and clutched his arm ; her face was white with an unnamed terror.

“ Mac, oh, Mac — you — you — dear, you are going to do your best ? You are going to — to try and save him ? ”

He read the thought that she did not know herself, and he shuddered.

“ Yes, I am going to try my utmost, that I swear. Till I return from Paris you must try your best too. And, Gra, you must keep him from hypnotizing you. Do you hear ? ”

“ I will try. But it is difficult. If I slept in another room it would be all right, but it is impossible. I suggested it after what you told me on the telephone last night, but he was upset, said suppose he was taken ill in the night, would I have him left there to die alone — and so on. I daren’t do it, Mac. I will refuse to be hypnotized when I can, but he seems to be crazy just now on the subject, and I fear he may try it at night.”

Mac groaned.

“ Is it so bad for him ? ” she asked anxiously.

“ God ! yes, and — and for ” He broke off, so then went on more quietly, “ That is the reason why I am coming, chiefly. I— Gra, will you swear to keep a secret ? ”

“ Of course. Why not ? Tell me.”

“Well, I am going to Paris to try if I can learn hypnotism. They say it is easy to learn if one has got will-power and concentration, and I have both. When I return — when I come to you, I want you to let me hypnotize you as often as I wish.”

She gave a surprised exclamation, and he went on hurriedly.

“ It never seems to hurt you, and I want to see if I can manage something.”