 section 14 of unprofessional tales this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Logan Lorenz unprofessional tales by Norman Douglas the devil's oak those low rounded hillocks near the mansion with their emerald moss of exquisite softness and like an encrusted stones are all that now remains of an ancient and renowned monastery wherein was preserved for many long years a relic of no small interest but alas for the permanence of man's best works the country was invaded in the early days of the crusades by certain of the revolted peasantry when piously sacked and burned the convent slaughtered the good monks and filled the relic albeit worthless to themselves to expiate this crime the Prince of the country not long afterwards caused the venerable forests of oak and juniper and fur to be hewn down and dragged into the swollen wintery torrent that tossed them past Hamlet and villages into the calm river and the docks of the city where they were wrought into proud galleys that swept the blue ocean and bore the terror of Kristen Valor into distant pagan lands much of this forest indeed might have been destroyed without disadvantage at an earlier period for it was said to have been so dense in the days before the monastery was yet built and when the light of the gospel yet shown but faintly in this darkness that not everyone had the heart to venture into its occlusion they feared the gloom that brooded over it they feared to its evil repute for it was known with certainty that bloody abominations had formally been observed in this very Glen by such as loved not well-built churches but raised alters to their foul gods in the natural shade of a grove and strange it is to think how hard they died these devils practices considering the effulgence of our divine faith and how long divers of those heathen shapes that Christian saints could not kill outright nor subdued were permitted to linger in sequestered clefts or in the stony desert where they have been encountered at various times face-to-face by the men of God as may be read in their lives in those days therefore when little was ascertained and all was believed it was commonly supposed among the poor sort of folk that some such evil spirits did still reside in this dark veil and the more reasonably supposed in as much as not a few of the early converts to Christianity woodcutters and others who had dared to penetrate into the forest never more return to their homes not a vestige of them was ever found it was indeed as if they had been clean-spirited away but the full truth of the matter was not revealed until one morning when a certain young woman of the country who swided by name poor but renowned for her Christian piety left that small village whose site is now no longer remembered to gather berries with her child under the trees it is reported that they had not wondered far before the little one a press may be with the unaccustomed heat of early summer began to cry of weariness and the woman likewise strong as she was suddenly fell drowsy to a wondrous degree then looking around her in the green twilight of overhanging trees she is spied near at hand an oak of great age standing somewhat apart by itself stout and cumley decked in glittering leaves without a blemish a prince among his fellows who is far projecting in high perched roots seem to invite her as one who should say come lie down and rest at my foot and soon enough alas she lay down with the child in her lap and was charmed by the beguiling murmur of the leaves into a deep sleep a fatal sleep what her dreams were God alone can tell the afternoon meanwhile drawing on a pace her husband went to see her nor had he proceeded far before he heard wailings and heartrending cries in the forest that led him to where stood the oak and where his beloved wife was even now perishing miserably for the high perched roots and kindled and then livened by some subtle device of the devil had clasped mother and child in a stubborn embrace and closed in about them beyond the power of his strong arm smothering her piteous lamentations whilst the unholy tree quivered with exertion its arms swelling like brawny muscles and its rough bark oozing beads of sweat last of all her long golden hair loosened in the struggle was slowly sucked into its naughty heart and wherever a drop of crimson blood had fallen to earth the boughs bent down and greedily lapped it up nodding for joy and in a trice the hellish growth had assimilated as bloody banquet and its leaves fluttering with transports of delight glowed more defiantly brave and beautiest than before heaven knows how many had already yielded up their lives to its enchantment but the husband turned to flee stumbling in a trance back to his village now whether this ancient oak had witnessed in its youth the revels and salamnities paid in this grove to the old gods and had thus itself imbibed by a satanic principle somewhat of the monstrous notions of those early days or whether in the olden time its roots were won't to be drenched with the blood of human sacrificial victims and were thereby turned from their natural appetite to prey upon such foul humors or whether as some maintained certain of the banished heathen spirits did truly still haunt this valley taking up their abode in this tree and cluster among its branches whatever may be the true exposition of this marvel and God alone knows sure it is that this oak never forgot the false gods of its youth but clung to them with more than human pernacity for we human creatures do justly change upon occasion clung to them and revenge them with a hateful and vindictive spirit resentful of our new resplendent faith and satiating its unhallowed lust with Christian blood a strange example of perverted nature a strange example indeed and its purport altogether beyond our wretched comprehension were it not for that which there upon ensued whereby the worth of such progenies for the good government of mankind is made manifest for as concerns the woman's husband he returned to his village but found few or none among the more enlightened disposed to give ear to his ravings they called him moon struck possessed of the devil and whatnot and many on that account were for casting him out into the woods when he came as was then the custom but it was wide and never returning the priest finally with certain others of the country resolved to accompany him to the spot in order to view the oak and to pronounce upon it the formula of excommunication and this they did more to humor him than from any belief in his tail for they supposed the woman perished through some more natural mishap thus the holy man came and stood before the tree and commenced fervently to utter the sentence and while he yet spake the words the truth was revealed for the oak's fresh leaves of spring withered and fell faster than flakes of wintery snow while the turgid trunk rocked to and fro and writhed in agony lashed by the word of the almighty suddenly with the most prodigious crash it fell to earth and all the spectators bowed the knee before the apparent miracle nevertheless even in the very agony of death it was not unmindful of its old faith for a certain melanus a pious man and nephew to the priest approaching to near in his ardor to witness the divine prodigy was crushed death under the weight of its falling trunk then all departed and left it lying and there it lay for many days and many months till woodman passing by chance near the same spot did observe that one of its branches had again put forth fresh leaves in defiance of the power of God this self same branch therefore was incontinentally lopped off and tortured into the shape of a cross and it was put aside in a small chapel that was built to commemorate the event soon afterwards upon the actual ground where the devil's oak had stood meanwhile the report of this miracle was noised broad into all lands till it became a notorious matter and hundreds and thousands flocked together to visit the chapel where the oak had stood and to contemplate the relic there in preserved so that in the end the once humble chapel grew into a frequented place of pilgrimage and ultimately into a rich and powerful monastery and yet who would believe it this fragment of wood although fashioned into the sacred album of our faith and stored away in a consecrated edifice all these many hundreds of years was never truly reformed to our belief but remained up to the last crooked and green and twisted awry in mockery many a monk and pilgrim of seemingly pure heart hath strained the strength of his piety upon the rebellious lug and sought with tears and prayers to wipe this shame from off the face of the earth in vain the oak and grass did crucify them all and this is not the least marvelous part of a tale which although now forgotten is nonetheless true likely enough the holy righteous man might yet have been found in the future but as it be fell the monastery was sacrilegiously invaded by a band of discontented rioters after ages of calm prosperity and the wondrous relic was carried away into distant regions and lost so that the very memory of it has faded from mankind end of section 14 section 15 of unprofessional tales this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org unprofessional tales by Norman Douglass the psychological moment nobody thought that Albarique would ever marry apart from all other considerations he was much too old yet now at the end of three years his friends were obliged to confess that the marriage was as much of a success as could have been expected in view of the difference in the respective ages and characters of the two parties concerned for she was almost a child in his selection of a wife he had displayed as usual his penetration and knowledge of the fair sex Sylvia with a rose leaf complexion her perfect figure the sunlight of her ruddy hair and all those external charms to which no one had been more susceptible than her husband could have done with him whatever she liked dissipated his means turned him to ridicule converted him into a devil she did none of these things by honoring Albarique and his position she silent scandal and demonstrated that he had not read amiss the signs of nobility in her features who is Albarique a mere nobody so far as wealth was concerned appear but not altogether a languid load of the earth he had thrust himself before the British public on various occasions by his brilliant administrative talents long ago as governor of Upper Somnolia he had developed a disquieting energy that convulsed the permanent staff who up to their dying day spoke in an odd whisper of that reign of terror as author he was studied by a select few who could sympathize with his passion for minute researches into certain aspects of history a passion the origin of which may be traced to a justifiable pride in many of the romantic vicissitudes that his own family in the course of centuries had undergone for he was one of those families renowned of old for intrigues and escapades and adventures in which as a rule the wig viblica played no inconspicuous part for the rest he had glided through life and observed by the many hereditary feebleness of constitution a tendency devices were counterbalanced by other qualities envied of most men who can only acquire by patience or bitter experience what he likewise naturally inherited from these interminable ancestors tacked insight taste he was quick to judge of a man's worth as of a woman's beauty his tack was equal to the most embarrassing situations self-centered doubtless but courteous at the same time and generous to all mankind particularly to pretty women ill health unhappily had somewhat soured his temper of late and drawn more frequent lines about a smooth shaven once handsome features his hair was of the thin texture of one who has lived perhaps too well they had just returned from a winter in Egypt the pale ungenerous rays of an early spring afternoon penetrated through the lace curtains of their London drying room Sylvia standing at the window drew them aside to let in more light she had never found England so gloomy before she was still dazzled with the remembrance of the glowing sunsets the orange tiny desert the monstrous cravings and all the strange experiences of the last months for she was none too old to feel wonder nor to affect it to profess indifference she had been brought up and acquainted with the world its marvels its realities like some hot house flower she had hitherto breathed the tepid atmosphere of London society knowing nothing of the storms of life nothing of its intense joys nothing of such joy as the snow drop fields in that sweet awakening from its wintery sleep amid the rough caresses of the northern wind impulsive and ambitious by nature she had early learned demure ways the recollection of that wonderland of Egypt had aroused new interests in her vague yearnings hitherto unfelt for another existence she ventured to open the window after casting an anxious look to assure herself that albariq was well protected from the air the moist warmth poured in and with it came wafted all the seductive lastitude of spring the hopes the fears the tender longings that penetrate on such days to the soul of man even through the smoky shell of a great city a passive life she had expected more of marriage she wondered what ailed her looking around she saw contentment everywhere save in her own heart outside the street passengers passed one another briskly before her eyes each intend upon his own particular duty all was life and activity the carriages emerging with cheerful din from the bluish haze splashed through the river of gold at her feet and vanished again like streaks of light some children were playing on the glittering wet asphalt near the house steps she listened a while to their merry laughter and then closed the window sadly at such moments Sylvia had an intuition of what life might have been there was indeed a void somewhere a great void in her existence if she were at least allowed to continue her music albariq's voice frail and high-pitched but of peculiar charm broken upon her meditations you will require cheering up in this gloomy place you must take to your violin again Sylvia how can I she replied regretfully you know you forbade me allow me dearest to apologize for my mistake and my unkindness you must bear with me and pardon the unamiable caprice of an invalid you don't know what it is to be an invalid and he sighed a very sincere sigh he added I feel now as if I could dissolve away upon the strains of your instrument but I wish I wish perhaps he wished for youth Sylvia did not always fathom his wishes barely twenty years of age she felt quite a child beside him more especially as he seemed to take pleasure in deliberately keeping her ignorant upon many matters how can one be so old she often wonderingly asked herself and yet feel such a child but she at least had often endeavored to interest herself in his occupations whereas this was certainly the first time that he had alluded to her plane in an appreciative manner perhaps she thought it might really do him good she was solicitous for nothing so much as his health his enfeeblement only fostered her devotion upon that score albariq allowed himself to cherish no illusions he was approaching the seventh climactic beyond which he could hardly hope to pass certain fainting fits had warned him of serious organic trouble and the weakness had become more apparent since his marriage for alas the union though a happy one had been in other respects a grievous miscalculation albariq had drooped and faded away like some tender convolveless in that glorious sunshine he had hoped to enter upon a second youth with an infusion of new life but it came contrary wise he gave all receiving nothing in return the ruddy vampire innocent of intent drained away his life Egypt he felt had done him no good presently he renewed the subject I suppose after this long pause in your studies you will require a teacher at least at first no answer Sylvie was thinking of her former teacher Lennox a young Scotchman of more than common talent looking back now upon the past days of their intercourse she felt that he had gained more influence over her than she cared to admit indeed the Scotch Paganini as he was called exerted by the mere strength of his character a strange power overall who came in contact with him and could appreciate the high aims of his life born to a good family he had deliberately chosen in early youth the art of the violin as a profession and had pursued his studies stubbornly with that craving after perfection that determination to excel without which genius is an empty name his pupils were few wealthy and of highest promise his infrequent appearances on the concert platform were the signal for unwanted outpourings on the part of the press the critics with patriotic fervor compared him to some young high priest pale with the scourge of study about to initiate an unbelieving world into the mysteries of which he was the chosen interpreter to see his sober mean his well-bred conciliatory bow to the public was as good they said as a liberal education and then the way in which he took his instrument out of its case and lovingly reverentially tuned it constituted in itself they declared a poem a revelation sylvia was wondering what had become of linux no doubt among the interests of an active professional life he had already forgotten his former pupil why not linux she started at the sound of his name but albariq was smiling and enigmatic a smile it was really as if he had mentioned linux on purpose as if he had led her thoughts up to this point for some object of his own what that object might be she could not even guess she remained silent but her husband insisted what if you wrote to linux he was looking at her now in a manner that almost scared her there was mingle defiance and regret in his eyes was it love some composed emotion no doubt that he could not or would not formulate but why speak of linux why speak of him the unfolder of her talents to whom she had looked up with childlike veneration whose name conjured up the now forbidden fairyland of art whose remembrance she had erased from her young mind not perhaps without a sigh to be permitted to take up music again was almost too good to be true but why linux albariq persisted I have blamed myself bitterly all this time for discouraging your love of music no don't thank me I am only doing what I ought to have done long ago forgive me rather for this delay I met him once linux I mean seems a gentleman you were his favorite pupil I hear and if so I am sure you will become his favorite pupil again you can go on with him you know where you left off he looks as if he could appreciate favorite pupils of your style here he left and soon added almost imperiously write to him dear and make an appointment this speech confused her considerably albariq had a way of making ambiguous illusions to her person that were absolutely incomprehensible to her she tried to puzzle out his meaning he evidently expected her to say something really she inconclusively faltered at last and then more resolutely why linux why not indeed but Sylvia instead of rejoicing grew sad she sighed as if with an immense despair for she seemed to see advancing towards her some ill-defined terrible phantom that threatened her future peace and happiness since her marriage she had never seen the scotch Paganini she only knew this much that soon after that event he had broken off his English engagements and had left London for the continent in order to perfect his already highly chastened style so the papers announced under a certain master in the Belgian capital all this was true enough there locked up in his room violin in hand he wrestled anew with his old opponent struggled with the brute material of string and bow purged away through sheer physical exhaustion every other remembrance of life here was an adversary worthy of himself endowed with more than human obstinacy one who gave no advantages all the yielding must be on his side but Sylvia did not know how could she ignorant as she was of his nature that Linux now lived like one who gazing long into the sun yet sees its spectral image burning everywhere his glance may stray that amid the mazes of Tartini and Saint signs were mingled and floated and glowed persistently before his mental eye the picture of her own ambrosial smile the golden witchery of her hair for his character was primitive as alboreaks complex he was one of those men of natural not acquired purity who oppressed with disappointment and temptation are not led away by the alarmants of venus vulgivaga but cling to their first ideal and exalted with all the devotion of their simple natures and in the course of these few years he had experienced in his own person a singular phenomenon in proportion as he schooled his judgment and delved deeper into the mysteries of musical art mastering its intricacies realizing its limitations discriminating its beauties the picture of Sylvia likewise became clearer and more lovely his taste refined and exclusive enabled him now to discover charms in her person that had hitherto escaped his appreciation he could detect no discordant node in that rosy at symphony one might almost think that day by day as the artist grew more discerning more enamored of pure form Sylvia on her part shook off the attributes of common mortality and resolved herself into the incarnation of all harmony in proportion from being beautiful she had become flawless and after these radiant visions the reality Lennox who used to have faith in his star and believe in the ultimate adjustment of fate was growing sadly despondent but when on the eve of his departure for England he emerged from the three years fray emaciated as with monkish self-chastisement when he had deposited his violin for the last time in its case and asked himself where Lee what next his eye roving round the room in a farewell glance happened to fall upon a letter that lay at his elbow it must have arrived that very evening if in a moment of self-flattery Lennox imagined that he owed his introduction to Albrecht's household to some machinations on the part of Sylvia he was quickly undeceived by her grave demeanor that silently rebuked such an assumption to whom then was he indebted for this honor he took to observing Albrecht closely but Albrecht wore a mask he had met his advances with dignified ease and professed to take the greatest pleasure in bringing Sylvia and himself together was Albrecht then the far scene grown blind to their duets he often listened with wrapped attention at other times he leaned back on the couch book in hand and seemed to doze perhaps he marched in imagination with the scared veterans of Pizarro upon some incredible expedition across the Peruvian Sierras or saw himself gliding pliantly obsequiously among the gilded pageantry of Versailles perhaps who knows he was watching Sylvia all the time out of the corner of his eye and taking a kind of pleasure as Lennox surmised in the spectacle of resistance to his own insidious attacks a cruel amusement but one characteristic of his complex nature or was it all generosity on Albrecht's part generosity to himself a perverse form of generosity and a dangerous one but Lennox soon very soon desisted from attempting to solve the enigma of Albrecht and confined himself to Sylvia he thanked God for this opportunity of seeing her whoever its immediate author might be and made the most of it he was no lover of the sugar water type Lennox the dreamer in Brussels had changed considerably since his arrival all the energy stored up during those years was released at the site of his ideal his primitive passions aroused by personal contact with their object ignited as a consuming fire he never attempted to conceal from Sylvia the state of his heart he wax bold impetuous reckless she woman like was ill at ease she could not help inwardly reproaching her husband for thus willfully exposing her to temptation but whatever her thoughts may have been her external conduct remained irreproachable although at time she felt her power of resistance giving way before the impetuous desire of the other one what rendered her defense doubly difficult was his assumption that she had loved him from the beginning him and him only and that she loved him still how disprove it how disprove what she now almost confessed to herself to be true to this embarrassment was added her own susceptibility to that art of which in her eyes the exponent and personification alike was Lennox whose genius she revered whose single-hearted devotion to herself she could not but recognize with respect her acute sensibility to music unstrung her reserve and open new vistas to the spiritual lie at which she trembled she knew not why there came upon her under that spell visions that she would faint have been linger forever visions of a celestial dawn the unfolding as it were of some proximate unspeakable bliss looking up timidly in such moments she would find his eyes fixed upon her in a steadfast gaze he had divined a right and their thoughts thus coinciding their lips unmoved would say our joy our hope how shall we conceal it from him conceal it alboree knew the truth from the beginning he knew of their growing infatuation and the inevitable consequence but he thought he could surely trust Sylvia so long as he lived she would keep the Scotchman within bounds whatever his pretensions might be soon enough he would be dead and then they might do what they liked another year or two and then the odious change in the contemplation of that change he recoiled his worldly yet sensitive mind that had dwelt long upon the theme of horror shattered at the prospect of a fair human body that exquisite engine of delights it's right of existence withdrawn its individuality remorsefully snuffed out becoming a masterless meaningless heap a clawed to be handled irreverently abhorrently by common persons once loved now loath the ball men and thrust at last unresisting into a coffin the end of all things or rather not the end but only the beginning of that yet more hideous transformation beyond how inconceivably hateful it all was albariq was loath to part with life it had dealt fairly with him he had neither feared nor despised the pleasures of the world he only deplored his inability to enjoy them as here to four to console himself therefore he had devised an amusement intelligible only to self-indulgent hypersensuous natures like his own the spectacle of the two lovers ready to faint within one another's arms a spectacle that would have driven to desperation most men in his position afforded albariq of voluptuous relish a new zest in life he had arranged it specially for himself it was a risky undertaking he knew but the temptation had been too great to resist albariq was no spin thrift no drunkard at a race meeting at Monte Carlo he could afford to laugh at the weakness of his fellow creatures transport him to a desert island bereft of women and he would have shared his last crust with some shipwrecked sailor but to anticipate in the person of Lennox whom he had selected by some veritable intuition of genius those joys that he himself could no longer taste to watch with sensual interest a faltering rehearsal of the drama that he well knew would be played immediately after his death this was a temptation after his own heart before the idea was fully developed he had already yielded and he enjoyed his jest prodigiously the better aftertaste only served to tickle his appetite it possessed besides the requisite spice of wrongdoing of perversity without which albariq's pleasures had long ago become insipid for some time past he had been engaged upon a careful study of their characters he often looked from one to the other and pictured to himself how they would act their very words their caresses thus and thus he would say complacently thus and no wise differently then he would take note of their present exasperation it was like perfume to his senses and almost compensated for his regret at leaving the world yet at times he grew tired of his comedy and told himself plainly the truth he envied their health their youth their beauty he was afraid of death and his complacent smile would then crystallize into a hard grin of defiance that distorted his still attractive features it was a remarkably dull melody that they were playing or rather no melody at all Bach he thought upon an Ottoman under a stately drooping palm his head upon one hand his feet crossed he reclined in a calm and languid attitude that had something of the rigid grace of the leaves that overhung and shadowed him little could be seen of him say the sinuous outlines of his figure but he lost nothing of the scene and his eyes were fixed upon Sylvia where she stood violin in hand beside an immense lamp whose rosy shade tinged her white shoulders with a warmer glow they followed the vigorous motion of her arm glancing in the light and rested occasionally upon her scarlet lips parted in emotion he surveyed her as a connoisseur might survey some flawless tenagra statuette from her well poised head reflungent in golden glory down to the dainty feet encased in that particular moment in slippers of a peculiarly appetizing description she was palpitating with young life the pose he thought was absolutely perfect as for her coloring she had all the loveliness of an eye ad with nothing of her chill oh yes there was no denying her beauty dammit and if he were only twenty years younger or even ten she had actually improved he thought since her marriage her eye was brighter fuller while that veiled look of maidenhood yet lingered about those lips her waist was still that of a young girl he laughed uneasily and his glance wandered in the direction of the scotchman who under some pretext had laid aside his instrument and contrived to take up at the piano a position convenient for eyeing sylvia he played a listless accompaniment only accentuating a phrase here and there albaric whilst admiring the young man's adroitness began to feel almost sorry for his continued repulses at the hand of sylvia in his present somewhat cheerless mood he needed distraction he would have liked a little more movement in the play some diverting incident that might have afforded him the opportunity of making one of his withering but proverbial tactful remarks and exalting over their subsequent discomforture they were such very correct lovers he was almost tired of their correctness but linux far from being animated had become pretty naturally grave he was marveling at sylvia's music for she certainly played as she had never played before it was an artistic problem that wholly absorbed him he lost sight temporarily of the woman and saw only the performer and as she proceeded his astonishment at her mastery of the instrument grew a pace he was surprised at her technique and control of expression he was amazed above all things at the loftiness of her interpretation then gazing into her face he saw that it was irradiated with joy transfigured by the magic of love her heart came out upon those strains the older man had not been slow to observe the alternation in her physiognomy and how the dull melody swelled into a peon of life his sensitive mind instantly guessed the import of the change sylvia for the first time was breaking down her reserve she was casting aside her veil of demureness and assumed indifference taking the lead encouraging her torpid lover here was a contingency for which he had not provided how would it end he knew her impulsive nature too well to think that once aroused she would rest content with half-measures and what then as sylvia's husband he had been amused by her secret love for the other as her master he was irritated by this confession of it he began to dislike the willful parade of her beauty and this parade of her sentiments under the disguise of music was yet more obnoxious to him with a sudden revulsion of feeling he told himself that the affair had gone far enough too far he saw his mistake but how to mend it he would gladly have spoken and put an end to the tension but how said about it sylvia played on regardless of his menacing look unaware inner exaltation of his existence and then that thought upon which he had often dwelt with a kind of insane pleasure suddenly thrust itself upon him in its most offensive aspect I will be dead soon dead the food of worms ah the sinister transformation the pitiful consummation and they thus and thus ah curse curse their folly and my own the blood was leaving his face upon which a malignant look had settled his breath came rapidly and he leaned forwards grinding his teeth and grasping in his long fingers a gossamer wisp of silk and hair he still endeavored to control his excitement knowing its pernicious effect upon his health but she continued to play and Lennox had dropped his hand from the keyboard and was staring wonder stricken at his former pupil he had not often heard Bach unriddled after this fashion he seemed to have lost sense of time and place and to roam far away among cool wooded glades with a sunlight pouring through the glittering leaves overhead to breathe the fragrance of do spangled moss and fern to hear the caress of light winds playing among the crowns and melodious rustling of leaves and streamlets and all those charmed woodland voices which the master himself in his solitary wanderings had heard and thenceforth imprisoned everlastingly coaxing their reluctant echoes into those numbers whose enchantment none but chosen spirits little less than angels can unseal the heated london drawing room with its thousand artificial contrivances its carpets its bronzes its general atmosphere of weary refinement was invaded and filled by sylvia's music as with a living breath of clean spring air the snow drops awakening and in that hour the scotchman's love tainted of late by a worldly carnal flavor was again quickened and purified he knew that sylvia the artist had lighted her torch at the same altar as himself she had demonstrated the nobility of her soul her exalted intelligence her right to the homage of common mortality she ceased flushed and breathing fast and immediately as seemed to Lennox as though a curtain were drawn aside the artist had melted away from before his eyes and he beheld again the woman whom he loved radiant and adorable and he knew the truth this then was her answer to his pleading it was an answer plain and altogether lovely she loved him but for the faded frivolous form crouching yonder he would have fallen upon his knees and worshiped her as a goddess love given and returned what was lacking nothing he felt was lacking save the occasion but when the strains had ceased to vibrate in the air a profound silence followed it lay heavy upon them all neither of the men seemed inclined to speak at last Lennox remarked in a choked voice a divine rendering how hollow the word sounded how trivial tackless almost impertinent false false indeed he should have said surrendering for sylvia knew that she would now yield at the first touch of her lover's hand distance of space alone kept her upright Lennox himself was aware how unworthy his remark had been of the dignity of the moment but he was determined to break the spell for in that silence he heard the throbbing of his own heart and felt himself drawn towards her by a power stronger than his own will there was danger in that silence he still restrained himself with difficulty for her sake sylvia only shuttered a sense of trouble had suddenly come upon her as though she had been detected in some guilty action she made no answer there was another long pause she ventured to look at her lover but encountered a glance of fire that made her cast down her eyes bewildered alboree said never a word so far as she could see he was grinning from ear to ear in a meaningless fashion the strain became intense intolerable then she observed with this may that Lennox had risen to his feet and was taking a step in her direction he came still nearer trembling with passion he was now almost at arms length heavens had he lost all control over himself with a supreme effort she shook off the fascination and remembered alboree she quickly faced about and turned to her husband for comfort and support gladly enough in that one moment would she have thrown her arms around alboree can cry beseechingly in his ear save me take me from him save me before it's too late once in his arms I am lost to you lost forever more why sit there and say nothing oh alboree one word surely she thought alboree could redeem the situation he was notorious for his consummate tacked alboree could always be relied upon to do the right thing at the right moment alboree had fainted away end of the psychological moment section 16 of unprofessional tales this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org unprofessional tales by Norman Douglas the meeting of Autos and Escada Autos the chill has worn away I have slept an enduring sleep a sleep of a hundred of ten thousand years who shall say time ceased to exist from that moment when the disintegration accomplished the last of my earthly particles did painfully creep away to build up new life but now a change is upon me I am no longer alone some presence intrudes itself upon my repose rousing me from my trance of dreamless being who approaches escada the bitterness is past Autos who speaks escada I shiver yet streams of fire pervade me ah I have remembered Autos who speaks escada a woman and the last of the humankind Autos the last of the humankind escada even so Autos the end has come then escada it has come all is past but alas not forgotten Autos your news affects me wondrously little at this distance of time my earthly life seems to have been but the fever of an hour a noisy interlude between two periods of ambrosial slumber the world doubtless was engulfed in red combustion amid the crack of continents and the hiss of tormented waters even as was foretold by the apostle in the holy book escada I know not of whom you speak Autos or it may be the prediction of our philosophers was verified they taught if I air not that the earth would surely starve out in ice and ashes its eternal fires smoldering down to such stillness as the frozen bowels of the moon all life they said would then fade away in frigid desolation and these men were much regarded for they prophesied by the light of reason escada I know not of whom you speak Autos strange my interest waxes tell me then what affliction God or devil wiped away the fair life upon the globe the beasts the birds the delectable plantations and all the blithe millions of the human race what calamity fell upon them escada a nat Autos a nat escada even so Autos strange indeed I remember that in my day certain tracks of the earth's surface were cursed by creatures of this sort there were regions in the african continent and in that of the new world where men were teased out of life by insect plagues of various kinds your visitation I conceive was somewhat of this nature but in degree immeasurably worse escada I know not of what places you speak Autos wonderous have you not read of these things in your books escada the arts of which you speak and all others ceased to be cultivated long before my birth I know them but by hearsay lands and lost remembrance of their names books had molded away for the life of my fellow creatures was an unceasing battle with the fiends of the air they hung about us and sucked us dry one by one I was the last to perish Autos unhappy world I loved it not yet needs must I now sorrow for it how came the end escada by slow degrees it is said that mankind at first made light of the visitation as it were a matter of mirthful talk but the days brought no betterment than they sought to shield themselves with nets and unguents and masks and fumigations and all manner of devices soon however not a spot upon the earth's surface was free from the affliction men herded together in cities for they of the country were driven away from their work by the dense swarms soon nothing availing they burnt down the forests in prodigious conflagrations in order to shield themselves behind the clouds of smoke but the days brought no betterment it was publicly confessed that no remedy could be devised then indeed an immense despondency fell over all men saw how matters stood and they feared to look one another in the eye they put on new faces each thought for himself alone certain teachers arose with unprofitable discourse and charms they were crucified for their pains the sky meanwhile grew darker overhead although the fiends yet remained minute in size they penetrated everywhere the air was full of their music their stings goaded the meekest to madness outdos i conjecture that the waters upon the earth had spread befalling the land with noisome swamps and thus generating this pestilence escada i know not but this i know that soon enough the humankind shook off their wits and became even as frenzied beasts they ran abroad smiting blindly all that crossed their path there was blood upon all things the unburied dead lay in the streets thousands threw themselves down from the housetops in despair tens of thousands spring into deep waters the rivers choked with decaying bodies were puffed up into sullen lakes nature was in putrescence unutterable stagnation fell upon the earth trees stretched blackened arms to heaven unclean things littered in palaces ships rotted in harbors night and day were confounded for that which in former times had caressed and enlivened the world was now effaced blotted out and glowed but rarely as a dull red stain behind the living clouds about this time too the fiends began to swell in size outdos an inglorious end escada i it came the end we lived three of us alone among the dead in a land where in olden days a thousand cities had sparkled in the blue ether we watched over one another and scraped dark holes beneath the earth's surface to escape from them for they had grown frightful in size and in audacity beyond all belief the very air was tainted with their breath we lived my child and i so long as he the father yet lived but once looking out into the leaden twilight i saw our defender stretched upon the ground his face upon his hands they had not yet left him i swooned away alas and while i yet swooned the end indeed had come for they entered and upon my awakening the child in my lap laid dead one of them yet hung upon his forehead and drained the blood his swollen flanks palpitating with joy but his frail waxen wings availed not to carry off the scarlet burden and he crawled into a corner and looked up to me with his eye then i took up a club and felled him i was drenched with blood then others came end of section 16 section 17 of unprofessional tales this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jennifer McEwen unprofessional tales by Norman Douglas section 17 Bella Donna miss Dorothy Melville to her mother my dearest mother i am quite well and i hope you are the same when are you coming back to england please come as soon as you can because you have already stayed away so long and you are so far away aunt has given me a most beautiful work box which i like very much and i am longing to show it to you i am sure you will like it too it has been raining hard for two days and i'm nearly always indoors aunt has just been here and has read this letter i am writing and she says that she would gladly take me to you if you would allow her will you i would be so happy but she also said that i am no trouble to her and that she will keep me here as long as you would like and that she will write to you in a day or two but i do so want to be with you and she also says i am to write and tell you exactly about the two fortescue children although it will take me an awfully long time to do so and i think i shall never do it but she says that you will wish to hear all about it as you know their mother so well who has always been so unkind to them and aunt said that i ought to indeed be thankful to have a mother who is not like theirs and i think so too so i met birdie fortescue on friday morning and you know he's only four years younger than i am and ever so nice i often used to play with him and his sister daisy almost every day but i never liked daisy so much as him because she often spoke so not only although she's only five and when birdie told me let's go for a run to oakley woods because you know he and daisy are nearly always alone and their mother does not mind a bit what they do or where they go to and their nurse has her holiday so i said yes and we went but when daisy saw us go she shouted so much that we had to take her too and when we got there daisy found a beautiful little cherry tree with black cherries growing all over it which i never saw before and just the same color as her very own eyes because birdie's eyes are blue and she said that they were wood cherries and that because she had found them she was going to eat them all herself but i told her she was greedy which indeed she always was and then birdie said i say i know let's have them for tea all three of us this afternoon and let's invite mother as well and let's pretend and send her a real invitation as if it were a real party and so daisy thought a bit and said all right let's pretend and she got all the cherries lots of them and filled them into birdie's sailor hat and got her hands ever so messy with them and we carried them home to their room and never let her eat a single one of them and hid them in their old doll's house and then they asked me to write a real invitation because i was the eldest for them to leave on their mother's dressing table so i wrote it out just like this mister and miss fortescu desire the presence of mrs fortescu at tea this day in the old nursery there will be cherries then daisy went and pinned it to her mother's dressing table where she knew she would find it soonest when she came home i could have written it better for them but i had no time as i had to run back to ant for luncheon but at luncheon ant told me that i could not go to tea with them because she had promised to take me to see mrs helier that very afternoon so i ran and told them about it and then they told me that their mother had also said she would be away the whole afternoon and could not come to their party and that they were to mind and be good children and that her maid would take them for a short walk at half past two and that afterwards they could have their tea alone and do what they liked but daisy said she thought it nasty of her mother always to leave them alone or to send them out walking with her nasty maid so birdie got quite angry with her and said what will dorthy think of you if you go on talking like that you mustn't talk like that you know you mustn't daisy but i believe he thought so too at last they decided they would arrange the party just as if i and their mother were coming all the same and pretend we were there all the time and when ant and i drove home for mrs heliers it was nearly seven but ant allowed me to stop the carriage at the fortescu's house because i had told birdie i would try to come and see them when they were all alone again after their party so i ran along the drive and up the steps and into the house but i did not see either mrs fortescu or anyone else in the house although i heard the servants below and then i went up to the old nursery and saw that they had eaten up all the cherries from an empty plate on the table but daisy was lying on the floor with her black hair all over her face and never spoke a word to me and birdie sat still in a corner of the room then i thought they were only playing some game and pretending you know so i went up close to him but he looked quite white in the face and was so unhappy that i got afraid and ran downstairs to ant then she went up to the nursery and came down again and sent some of the servants for mrs fortescu and drove herself and fetched dr simmons in our carriage and sent me away home alone on foot so i wondered what was the matter and when ant came home she told me that the fortescu children were both quite dead and that i must never see either of them again and dr simmons came later in the evening and asked me a lot about those cherries he said they were not at all real cherries but he thinks that they must have been planted by the wind from some seed of some plant which major arbuthnaught brought from abroad long ago into his plant garden you know he is the man who looks so like poor father and ant says it is funny that a man who looks so like poor father should so nearly have been the cause of my death as if father already wished me to live in heaven with him and she says it is a blessing i was spared and a mercy and a providential escape and a warning so now i have told you all and you cannot think how much i cried i am often unhappy and cross about myself which i ought not to be for ant is so very good to me but i do so long to be with you again and the fortescu children are to be buried in the churchyard tomorrow both together but i am not to go but ant took me to see the grave this afternoon it is full of rainwater and very deep and near the wall where i found the robin's nest with you last spring so now goodbye please dearest mother write soon to me and come your affectionate daughter dorthy ps i heard mrs helier say to ant that captain bowmont was staying at the very same hotel as you are if you ever see him please say that i have nearly done the pocket handker chief i am doing for him the end end of section 17 recording by jennifer mcqueen and a professional tales by norman douglas