Thelma

M >> Marie Corelli >> Thelma


"Don't be snappish, old boy!" laughed Errington gaily. "Put on that
other sock and listen. I don't want to tell those other fellows just
yet, they might go making inquiries about her--"

"Oh, there is a 'her' in the case, is there?" said Lorimer, opening his
eyes rather widely. "Well, Phil! I thought you had had enough, and
something too much, of women."

"This is not a woman!" declared Philip with heat and eagerness, "at
least not the sort of woman _I_ have ever known! This is a
forest-empress, sea-goddess, or sun-angel! I don't know _what_ she is,
upon my life!"

Lorimer regarded him with an air of reproachful offense.

"Don't go on--please don't!" he implored. "I can't stand it--I really
can't! Incipient verse-mania is too much for me. Forest-empress,
sea-goddess, sun-angel--by Jove! what next? You are evidently in a very
bad way. If I remember rightly, you had a flask of that old green
Chartreuse with you. Ah! that accounts for it! Nice stuff, but a little
too strong."

Errington laughed, and, unabashed by his friend's raillery, proceeded to
relate with much vivacity and graphic fervor the occurrences of the
morning. Lorimer listened patiently with a forbearing smile on his open,
ruddy countenance. When he had heard everything he looked up and
inquired calmly--

"This is not a yarn, is it?"

"A yarn!" exclaimed Philip. "Do you think I would invent such a thing?"

"Can't say," returned Lorimer imperturbably. "You are quite capable of
it. It's a very creditable crammer, due to Chartreuse. Might have been
designed by Victor Hugo; it's in his style. Scene, Norway--midnight.
Mysterious maiden steals out of a cave and glides away in a boat over
the water; man, the hero, goes into cave, finds a stone coffin,
says--'Qu'est-ce que c'est? Dieu! C'est la mort!' Spectacle affreux!
Staggers back perspiring; meets mad dwarf with torch; mad dwarf talks a
good deal--mad people always do,--then yells and runs away. Man comes
out of cave and--and--goes home to astonish his friends; one of them
won't be astonished,--that's me!"

"I don't care," said Errington. "It's a true story for all that. Only, I
say, don't talk of it before the others; let's keep our own counsel--"

"No poachers allowed on the Sun-Angel Manor!" interrupted Lorimer
gravely. Philip went on without heeding him.

"I'll question Valdemar Svensen after breakfast. He knows everybody
about here. Come and have a smoke on deck when I give you the sign, and
we'll cross-examine him."

Lorimer still looked incredulous. "What's the good of it?" he inquired
languidly. "Even if it's all true you had much better leave this
goddess, or whatever you call her, alone, especially if she has any mad
connections. What do _you_ want with her?"

"Nothing!" declared Errington, though hiss color heightened. "Nothing, I
assure you! It's just a matter of curiosity with me. I should like to
know who she is--that's all! The affair won't go any further."

"How do you know?" and Lorimer began to brush his stiff curly hair with
a sort of vicious vigor. "How can you tell? I'm not a spiritualist, nor
any sort of a humbug at all, I hope, but I sometimes indulge in
presentiments. Before we started on this cruise, I was haunted by that
dismal old ballad of Sir Patrick Spens--"

'The King's daughter of Norroway
'Tis thou maun bring her hame!'

"And here you have found her, or so it appears. What's to come of it, I
wonder?"

"Nothing's to come of it; nothing _will_ come of it!" laughed Philip.
"As I told you, she said she was a peasant. There's the breakfast-bell!
Make haste, old boy, I'm as hungry as a hunter!"

And he left his friend to finish dressing, and entered the saloon, where
he greeted his two other companions, Alec, or, as he was oftener called,
Sandy Macfarlane, and Pierre Duprez; the former an Oxford student,--the
latter a young fellow whose acquaintance he had made in Paris, and with
whom he had kept up a constant and friendly intercourse. A greater
contrast than these two presented could scarcely be imagined. Macfarlane
was tall and ungainly, with large loose joints that seemed to protrude
angularly out of him in every direction,--Duprez was short, slight and
wiry, with a dapper and by no means ungraceful figure. The one had
formal _gauche_ manners, a never-to-be-eradicated Glasgow accent, and a
slow, infinitely tedious method of expressing himself,--the other was
full of restless movement and pantomimic gesture, and being proud of his
English, plunged into that language recklessly, making it curiously
light and flippant, though picturesque, as he went. Macfarlane was
destined to become a shining light of the established Church of
Scotland, and therefore took life very seriously,--Duprez was the spoilt
only child of an eminent French banker, and had very little to do but
enjoy himself, and that he did most thoroughly, without any calculation
or care for the future. On all points of taste and opinion they differed
widely; but there was no doubt about their both being good-hearted
fellows, without any affectation of abnormal vice or virtue.

"So you did not climb Jedke after all!" remarked Errington laughingly,
as they seated themselves at the breakfast table.

"My friend, what would you!" cried Duprez. "I have not said that I will
climb it; no! I never say that I will do anything, because I'm not sure
of myself. How can I be? It is that _cher enfant_, Lorimer, that said
such brave words! See! . . . we arrive; we behold the shore--all black,
great, vast! . . . rocks like needles, and, higher than all, this most
fierce Jedke--bah! what a name!--straight as the spire of a cathedral.
One must be a fly to crawl up it, and we, we are not flies--_ma foi_!
no! Lorimer, he laugh, he yawn--so! He say, 'not for me to-day; I very
much thank you!' And then, we watch the sun. Ah! that was grand,
glorious, beautiful!" And Duprez kissed the tips of his fingers in
ecstacy.

"What did _you_ think about it, Sandy?" asked Sir Philip.

"I didna think much," responded Macfarlane, shortly. "It's no sae grand
a sight as a sunset in Skye. And it's an uncanny business to see the sun
losin' a' his poonctooality, and remainin' stock still, as it were, when
it's his plain duty to set below the horizon. Mysel', I think it's been
fair over-rated. It's unnatural an' oot o' the common, say what ye
like."

"Of course it is," agreed Lorimer, who just then sauntered in from his
cabin. "Nature _is_ most unnatural. I always thought so. Tea for me,
Phil, please; coffee wakes me up too suddenly. I say, what's the
programme to-day?"

"Fishing in the Alten," answered Errington promptly.

"That suits me perfectly," said Lorimer, as he leisurely sipped his tea.
"I'm an excellent fisher. I hold the line and generally forget to bait
it. Then,--while it trails harmlessly in the water, I doze; thus both
the fish and I are happy."

"And this evening," went on Errington, "we must return the minister's
call. He's been to the yacht twice. We're bound to go out of common
politeness."

"Spare us, good Lord!" groaned Lorimer.

"What a delightfully fat man is that good religious!" cried Duprez. "A
living proof of the healthiness of Norway!"

"He's not a native," put in Macfarlane; "he's frae Yorkshire. He's only
been a matter of three months here, filling the place o' the settled
meenister who's awa' for a change of air."

"He's a precious specimen of a humbug, anyhow," sighed Lorimer drearily.
"However, I'll be civil to him as long as he doesn't ask me to hear him
preach. At that suggestion I'll fight him. He's soft enough to bruise
easily."

"Ye're just too lazy to fight onybody," declared Macfarlane.

Lorimer smiled sweetly. "Thanks, awfully! I dare say you're right. I've
never found it worth while as yet to exert myself in any particular
direction. No one has asked me to exert myself; no one wants me to exert
myself; therefore, why should I?"

"Don't ye want to get on in the world?" asked Macfarlane, almost
brusquely.

"Dear me, no! What an exhausting idea! Get on in the world--what for? I
have five hundred a year, and when my mother goes over to the majority
(long distant be that day, for I'm very fond of the dear old lady), I
shall have five thousand--more than enough to satisfy any sane man who
doesn't want to speculate on the Stock Exchange. _Your_ case, my good
Mac, is different. You will be a celebrated Scotch divine. You will
preach to a crowd of pious numskulls about predestination, and so forth.
You will be stump-orator for the securing of seats in paradise. Now,
now, keep calm!--don't mind me. It's only a figure of speech! And the
numskulls will call you a 'rare powerful rousin' preacher'--isn't that
the way they go on? and when you die--for die you must, most
unfortunately--they will give you a three-cornered block of granite (if
they can make up their minds to part with the necessary bawbees) with
your name prettily engraved thereon. That's all very nice; it suits some
people. It wouldn't suit me."

"What _would_ suit you?" queried Errington. "You find everything more or
less of a bore."

"Ah, my good little boy!" broke in Duprez. "Paris is the place for you.
You should live in Paris. Of that you would never fatigue yourself."

"Too much absinthe, secret murder and suicidal mania," returned Lorimer,
meditatively. "That was a neat idea about the coffins though. I never
hoped to dine off a coffin."

"Ah! you mean the Taverne de l'Enfer?" exclaimed Duprez. "Yes; the
divine waitresses wore winding sheets, and the wine was served in
imitation skulls. Excellent! I remember; the tables were shaped like
coffins."

"Gude Lord Almighty!" piously murmured Macfarlane. "What a fearsome
sicht!"

As he pronounced these words with an unusually marked accent, Duprez
looked inquiring.

"What does our Macfarlane say?"

"He says it must have been a 'fearsome sicht,'" repeated Lorimer, with
even a stronger accent than Sanby's own, "which, _mon cher_ Pierre,
means all the horrors in your language; _affreux_, _epouvantable_,
_navrant_--anything you like, that is sufficiently terrible."

"_Mais, point du tout_!" cried Duprez energetically. "It was charming!
It made us laugh at death--so much better than to cry! And there was a
delicious child in a winding-sheet; brown curls, laughing eyes and
little mouth; ha ha! but she was well worth kissing!"

"I'd rather follow ma own funeral, than kiss a lass in a winding-sheet,"
said Sandy, in solemn and horrified tones. "It's just awfu' to think
on."

"But, see, my friend," persisted Duprez, "you would not be permitted to
follow your own funeral, not possible,--_voila_! You _are_ permitted to
kiss the pretty one in the winding-sheet. It _is_ possible. Behold the
difference!"

"Never mind the Taverne de l'Enfer just now," said Errington, who had
finished his breakfast hurriedly. "It's time for you fellows to get your
fishing toggery on. I'm off to speak to the pilot."

And away he went, followed more slowly by Lorimer, who, though he
pretended indifference, was rather curious to know more, if possible,
concerning his friend's adventure of the morning. They found the pilot,
Valdemar Svensen, leaning at his ease against the idle wheel, with his
face turned towards the eastern sky. He was a stalwart specimen of Norse
manhood, tall and strongly built, with thoughtful, dignified features,
and keen, clear hazel eyes. His chestnut hair, plentifully sprinkled
with gray, clustered thickly over a broad brow, that was deeply furrowed
with many a line of anxious and speculative thought, and the forcible
brown hand that rested lightly on the spokes of the wheel, told its own
tale of hard and honest labor. Neither wife nor child, nor living
relative had Valdemar; the one passion of his heart was the sea. Sir
Philip Errington had engaged him at Christiansund, hearing of him there
as a man to whom the intricacies of the Fjords, and the dangers of
rock-bound coasts, were more familiar than a straight road on dry lake,
and since then the management of the _Eulalie_ had been entirely
entrusted to him. Though an eminently practical sailor, he was half a
mystic, and believed in the wildest legends of his land with more
implicit faith than many so-called Christians believe in their sacred
doctrines. He doffed his red cap respectfully now as Errington and
Lorimer approached, smilingly wishing them "a fair day." Sir Philip
offered him a cigar, and, coming to the point at once, asked abruptly--

"I say, Svensen, are there any pretty girls in Bosekop?"

The pilot drew the newly lit cigar from his mouth, and passed his rough
hand across his forehead in a sort of grave perplexity.

"It is a matter in which I am foolish," he said at last, "for my ways
have always gone far from the ways of women. Girls there are plenty, I
suppose, but--" he mused with pondering patience for awhile. Then a
broad smile broke like sunshine over his embrowned countenance, as he
continued, "Now, gentlemen, I do remember well; it is said that at
Bosekop yonder, are to be found some of the homeliest wenches in all
Norway."

Errington's face fell at this reply. Lorimer turned away to hide the
mischievous smile that came on his lips at his friend's discomfiture.

"I _know_ it was that Chartreuse," he thought to himself. "That and the
midnight sun-effects. Nothing else!"

"What!" went on Philip. "No good-looking girls at all about here, eh?"

Svensen shook his head, still smilingly.

"Not at Bosekop, sir, that I ever heard of."

"I say!" broke in Lorimer, "are there any old tombs or sea-caves, or
places of that sort close by, worth exploring?"

Valdemar Svensen answered this question readily, almost eagerly.

"No, sir! There are no antiquities of any sort; and as for eaves, there
are plenty, but only the natural formations of the sea, and none of
these are curious or beautiful on this side of the Fjord."

Lorimer poked his friend secretly in the ribs.

"You've been dreaming, old fellow!" he whispered slyly. "I knew it was a
crammer!"

Errington shook him off good-humoredly.

"Can you tell me," he said, addressing Valdemar again in distinct
accents, "whether there is any place, person, or thing near here called
_Thelma_?"

The pilot started; a look of astonishment and fear came into his eyes;
his hand went instinctively to his red cap, as though in deference to
the name.

"The Froeken Thelma!" he exclaimed, in low tones. "Is it possible that
you have seen her?"

"Ah, George, what do you say now?" cried Errington delightedly. "Yes,
yes, Valdemar; the Froeken Thelma, as you call her. Who is she? . . .
What is she?--and how can there be no pretty girls in Bosekop if such a
beautiful creature as she lives there?"

Valdemar looked troubled and vexed.

"Truly, I thought not of the maiden," he said gravely. "'Tis not for me
to speak of the daughter of Olaf," here his voice sank a little, and his
face grew more and more sombre. "Pardon me, sir, but how did you meet
her?"

"By accident," replied Errington promptly, not caring to relate his
morning's adventure for the pilot's benefit. "Is she some great
personage here?"

Svensen sighed, and smiled somewhat dubiously.

"Great? Oh, no; not what you would call great. Her father, Olaf Gueldmar,
is a _bonde_,--that is, a farmer in his own right. He has a goodly
house, and a few fair acres well planted and tilled,--also he pays his
men freely,--but those that work for him are all he sees,--neither he
nor his daughter ever visit the town. They dwell apart, and have nothing
in common with their neighbors."

"And where do they live?" asked Lorimer, becoming as interested as he
had formerly been incredulous.

The pilot leaned lightly over the rail of the deck and pointed towards
the west.

"You see that great rock shaped like a giant's helmet, and behind it a
high green knoll, clustered thick with birch and pine?"

They nodded assent.

"At the side of the knoll is the _bonde's_ house, a good eight-mile walk
from the outskirts of Bosekop. Should you ever seek to rest there,
gentlemen," and Svensen spoke with quiet resolution, "I doubt whether
you will receive a pleasant welcome."

And he looked at them both with an inquisitive air, as though seeking to
discover their intentions.

"Is that so?" drawled Lorimer lazily, giving his friend an expressive
nudge. "Ah! _We_ shan't trouble them! Thanks for your information,
Valdemar! We don't intend to hunt up the--what d'ye call him?--the
_bonde_, if he's at all surly. Hospitality that gives you greeting and a
dinner for nothing,--that's what suits _me_."

"Our people are not without hospitality," said the pilot, with a touch
of wistful and appealing dignity. "All along your journey, gentlemen,
you have been welcomed gladly, as you know. But Olaf Gueldmar is not like
the rest of us; he has the pride and fierceness of olden days; his
manners and customs are different; and few like him. He is much feared."

"You know him then?" inquired Errington carelessly.

"I know him," returned Valdemar quietly. "And his daughter is fair as
the sun and the sea. But it is not my place to speak of them--." He
broke off, and after a slightly embarrassed pause, asked, "Will the
Herren wish to sail to-day?"

"No Valdemar," answered Errington indifferently. "Not till to-morrow,
when we'll visit the Kaa Fjord if the weather keeps fair."

"Very good, sir," and the pilot, tacitly avoiding any further converse
with his employer respecting the mysterious Thelma and her equally
mysterious father, turned to examine the wheel and compass as though
something there needed his earnest attention. Errington and Lorimer
strolled up and down the polished white deck arm-in-arm, talking in low
tones.

"You didn't ask him about the coffin and the dwarf," said Lorimer.

"No; because I believe he knows nothing of either, and it would be news
to him which I'm not bound to give. If I can manage to see the girl
again the mystery of the cave may explain itself."

"Well, what are you going to do?"

Errington looked meditative. "Nothing at present We'll go fishing with
the others. But, I tell you what, if you're up to it, we'll leave Duprez
and Macfarlane at the minister's house this evening and tell them to
wait for us there,--once they all begin to chatter they never know how
time goes. Meanwhile you and I will take the boat and row over in search
of this farmer's abode. I believe there's a short cut to it by water; at
any rate I know the way _she_ went."

"'I know the way she went home with her maiden posy!'" quoted Lorimer,
with a laugh. "You are hit Phil, 'a very palpable hit'! Who would have
thought it! Clara Winsleigh needn't poison her husband after all
in-order to marry you, for nothing but a sun-empress will suit you now."

"Don't be a fool, George," said Errington, half vexedly, as the hot
color mounted to his face in spite of himself. "It is all idle
curiosity, nothing else. After what Svensen told us, I'm quite as
anxious to see this gruff old _bonde_ as his daughter."

Lorimer held up a reproachful finger. "Now, Phil, don't stoop to
duplicity--not with me, at any rate. Why disguise your feelings? Why, as
the tragedians say, endeavor to crush the noblest and best emotions that
ever warm the _boo-zum_ of man? Chivalrous sentiment and admiration for
beauty,--chivalrous desire to pursue it and catch it and call it your
own,--I understand it all, my dear boy! But my prophetic soul tells me
you will have to strangle the excellent Olaf Gueldmar--heavens! what a
name!--before you will be allowed to make love to his fair _chee-ild_.
Then don't forget the madman with the torch,--he may turn up in the most
unexpected fashion and give you no end of trouble. But, by Jove, it _is_
a romantic affair, positively quite stagey! Something will come of it,
serious or comic. I wonder which?"

Errington laughed, but said nothing in reply, as their two companions
ascended from the cabin at that moment, in full attire for the fishing
expedition, followed by the steward bearing a large basket of provisions
for luncheon,--and all private conversation came to an end. Hastening
the rest of their preparations, within twenty minutes they were skimming
across the Fjord in a long boat manned by four sailors, who rowed with a
will and sent the light craft scudding through the water with the
swiftness of an arrow. Landing, they climbed the dewy hills spangled
thick with forget-me-nots and late violets, till they reached a shady
and secluded part of the river, where, surrounded by the songs of
hundreds of sweet-throated birds, they commenced their sport, which kept
them, well employed till a late hour in the afternoon.




CHAPTER IV.

"Thou art violently carried away from grace; there is a devil
haunts thee in the likeness of a fat old man,--a tun of man is
thy companion."
SHAKESPEARE.


The Reverend Charles Dyceworthy sat alone in the small dining-room of
his house at Bosekop, finishing a late tea, and disposing of round after
round of hot buttered toast with that suave alacrity he always displayed
in the consumption of succulent eatables. He was a largely made man,
very much on the wrong side of fifty, with accumulations of unwholesome
fat on every available portion of his body. His round face was cleanly
shaven and shiny, as though its flabby surface were frequently polished
with some sort of luminous grease instead of the customary soap. His
mouth was absurdly small and pursy for so broad a countenance,--his nose
seemed endeavoring to retreat behind his puffy cheeks as though
painfully aware of its own insignificance,--and he had little, sharp,
ferret-like eyes of a dull mahogany brown, which were utterly destitute
of even the faintest attempt at any actual expression. They were more
like glass beads than eyes, and glittered under their scanty fringe of
pale-colored lashes with a sort of shallow cunning which might mean
malice or good-humor,--no one looking at them could precisely determine
which. His hair was of an indefinite shade, neither light nor dark,
somewhat of the tinge of a dusty potato before it is washed clean. It
was neatly brushed and parted in the middle with mathematical precision,
while from the back of his head it was brought forward in two
projections, one on each side, like budding wings behind his ears. It
was impossible for the most fastidious critic to find fault with the
Reverend Mr. Dyceworthy's hands. He had beautiful hands, white, soft,
plump and well-shaped,--his delicate filbert nails were trimmed with
punctilious care, and shone with a pink lustre that was positively
charming. He was evidently an amiable man, for he smiled to himself over
his tea,--he had a trick of smiling,--ill-natured people said he did it
on purpose, in order to widen his mouth and make it more in pro-portion
to the size of his face. Such remarks, however, emanated only from the
spiteful and envious who could not succeed in winning the social
popularity that everywhere attended Mr. Dyceworthy's movements. For he
was undoubtedly popular,--no one could deny that. In the small Yorkshire
town where he usually had his abode, he came little short of being
adored by the women of his own particular sect, who crowded to listen to
his fervent discourses, and came away from them on the verge of
hysteria, so profoundly moved were their sensitive souls by his
damnatory doctrines. The men were more reluctant in their admiration,
yet even they were always ready to admit "that he was an excellent
fellow, with his heart in the right place."

He had a convenient way of getting ill at the proper seasons, and of
requiring immediate change of air, whereupon his grateful flock were
ready and willing to subscribe the money necessary for their beloved
preacher to take repose and relaxation in any part of the world he
chose. This year, however, they had not been asked to furnish the usual
funds for travelling expenses, for the resident minister of Bosekop, a
frail, gentle old man, had been seriously prostrated during the past
winter with an affection of the lungs, which necessitated his going to a
different climate for change and rest. Knowing Dyceworthy as a zealous
member of the Lutheran persuasion, and, moreover, as one who had in his
youth lived for some years in Christiania,--thereby gaining a knowledge
of the Norwegian tongue,--he invited him to take his place for his
enforced time of absence, offering him his house, his servants, his
pony-carriage and an agreeable pecuniary _douceur_ in exchange for his
services,--proposals which the Reverend Charles eagerly accepted. Though
Norway was not exactly new to him, the region of the Alten Fjord was,
and he at once felt, though he knew not why, that the air there would be
the very thing to benefit his delicate constitution. Besides, it looked
well for at least _one_ occasion, to go away for the summer without
asking his congregation to pay for his trip. It was generous on his
part, almost noble.

The ladies of his flock wept at his departure and made him socks,
comforters, slippers, and other consoling gear of the like description
to recall their sweet memories to his saintly mind during his absence
from their society. But, truth to tell, Mr. Dyceworthy gave little
thought to these fond and regretful fair ones; he was much too
comfortable at Bosekop to look back with any emotional yearning to the
ugly, precise little provincial town he had left behind him. The
minister's quaint, pretty house suited him perfectly; the minister's
servants were most punctual in their services: the minister's phaeton
conveniently held his cumbrous person, and the minister's pony was a
quiet beast, that trotted good-temperedly wherever it was guided, and
shied at nothing. Yes, he was thoroughly comfortable,--as comfortable as
a truly pious fat man deserves to be, and all the work he had to do was
to preach twice on Sundays, to a quiet, primitive, decently ordered
congregation, who listened to his words respectfully though without
displaying any emotional rapture. Their stolidity, however, did not
affect him,--he preached to please himself,--loving above all things to
hear the sound of his own voice, and never so happy as when thundering
fierce denunciations against the Church of Rome. His thoughts seemed
tending in that direction now, as he poured himself out his third cup of
tea and smilingly shook his head over it, while he stirred the cream and
sugar in,--for he took from his waistcoat pocket a small glittering
object and laid it before him on the table, still shaking his head and
smiling with a patient, yet reproachful air of superior wisdom. It was a
crucifix of mother-o'-pearl and silver, the symbol of the Christian
faith. But it seemed to carry no sacred suggestions to the soul of Mr.
Dyceworthy. On the contrary, he looked at it with an expression of meek
ridicule,--ridicule that bordered on contempt.