"Eh, is that anything to jump a man up for in the dead o" night?"
retorted the old man, cursing under his breath. "I was feared of a smoky black beggaring fire at the least, I was. What the devil do I care about the young rip? He owes me a hundred pound, he do, and I wrote him, but he never sent back a penny nor a post-card."
"You"re a nice, pretty father," exclaimed the Poet. "I"ve got your hundred in my pocket."
"I"ll come down to you and Mr Gaffekin," said William Price very civilly.
"No you won"t," retorted the Poet, "you should have come down before.
You"ll stay right where you are and answer me some questions I have in my head to ask you. And if you budge from that window you sha"n"t have a groat nor a tizzy of all your hundred pounds."
"It"s cold-here," grumbled Mr Price, churlishly, flapping his arms across his chest. "What d"yer want to know?"
"Why, first of all, tell me why you never go out of nights?" cried the Poet.
"What"s that to you?" bawled back the old man.
"And tell me, tell me, William Price, who was the mother of your son?"
the Poet shouted.
"What in h.e.l.l or under it is that to you?" came in very full-throated accents from the open window.
"Why is your bedstead all made of wood?" thundered the relentless Poet in stentorian tones.
"Hey, stop that!" cried the voice from the window.
But the Poet continued his questions unperturbed.
"Why have you half forgotten your own son, William Price? Why do you sleep all day, Father William, and pretend to be more stupid than the grave? Do you think a Poet cannot see through the film you cast over your happy eyes?"
"Eh, what are you driving at?" exclaimed Sir Price in a voice no longer angry but rather tremulous.
"Who are your guests to-night, old man, who are your guests to-night?"
yelled the Poet, positively dancing with malicious satisfaction.
"Why, be you one of them that know?" cried the old man in a new tone of something like awe and something like fellowship.
"I am one of the chief of those that know," replied the Poet; "for me shutters unbar, for me the music pipes, and even my companion for all he can wrap his soul up in the wisdom of Oxford town shall see the fairies haunting.
"_What_!" said John.
But the Poet urbanely continued: "I"m forgetting those hundred pounds,"
and taking out a sheaf of banknotes from a vast white pocket like a snow-cavern he crumpled them into a ball and hurled them at one of the barred shutters.
The shutter opened to let the packet pa.s.s.
"Money, my friend," observed the Poet tranquilly, "opens all doors."
A soft peal of very quiet laughter filled the little house and all the other shutters opened to a thin music: room after room flashed into light as though so many plays were starting on so many miniature stages with all the shadows flying to the roof: and one by one the half naked little women of the wild crept out of hiding and began their dance. And through it all as though it meant nothing for him, though his room was flashing from hue to hue like a transformation scene and an enchanting person had her arms around his neck, old Price bawled down: "Well, what of Norman?"
"He has become King of that country and wedded to its Queen," roared the Poet.
"I always said he was a sound practical fellow without an idea in his head," remarked William Price with serene philosophy.
"Like most of the Half-Race," a.s.sented the Poet.
"But we filled his bottle with luck," trilled the silvery lady upstairs.
"And his countenance with beauty," replied the Poet. "Well, we really must be off now. Good-bye to you all, and a pleasant evening!"
Laughing good-byes rippled back at him from all over the house like the jingling of toy harness bells.
"Let us walk down to the sea," said the Poet, turning to go. "How far is it to the sea, John?"
"Ten miles."
"And by which road?"
"Straight on."
"Ah, yes," said the Poet, setting off at a swinging pace, "it is the road by which first I came to Blaindon."
But before they had gone many yards John heard his name called and stood still. Down through the moonlight glided as it might be a wingless angel and by his side there stood the fairy of the upper window.
"John," she said, "when you see my son again give him this kiss."
And kissing him she floated away.
The Poet who had gone ahead, waited for John to come up.
"But I must go back to my mother," the young man protested, as though a glimpse of the unmagical past had driven a sword through his mind. "She is very ill."
"I fear she will die within the week," replied the Poet, "but I inquired at your house on the way to the Blaindon Arms and learnt that to-night she is happily asleep and will not need you. When you are alone in the world, John, you must go to Norman to give him his mother"s kiss and help him through days of trouble. It"s no easy game even in a little country, even with a born Queen, even with the Immortals helping--the game of King."
He said no more. The two went on together on the road leading to the sea, without another word, for miles. John dared not speak; he was half delirious with the silence; the dread prediction of his mother"s death, the wild story about his friend, rang in his ears; the house of the Fairies danced before his eyes; and he feared his fateful companion. The wizard forms of the hedges threatened John Gaffekin, the harvest moon, golden and vast, seemed to shine hot upon his hatless brow. He kept comparing the trickling of the roadside brook to the trickling of the little thoughts in his head; he could not get rid of this grotesque comparison, and grew more afraid. At last the poet broke the silence.
"Are you lonely, John?" he said. "Or have you found women after your desire?"
"Women?" said John. "I never cared for any woman but for my mother. I have one friend far away of whom you tell me news I cannot understand. I have known many men at Oxford--good athletes or great wits. But I shall never make another friend like him. I shall certainly seek him out if what you predict falls true. I am indeed lonely."
They were silent again. They had now come to brackish marshes, and to a land of dizzy vapours. The wind blew harder from the sea, singing like a hero, bringing with it a salt and pungent odour. The poet linked his arm with the young man"s as though to protect him from the evil spells of night.
"Take heart, my friend," said he. "You have years of glorious life before you, and it is a splendid night for visions."
John suddenly stopped, swung round to face the old man, and began speaking hurriedly, gasping for breath before each phrase.
"What has happened?" he cried. "Why am I here? Who are you? An hour or two ago I was just an unhappy man, rather lonely, with a mother lying ill. Now, you tell me my mother will die, and you tell me news about my friend too wild for a sober man to repeat; you have already shown me that which I feared to see, and now, as though it were not sufficient, you say the night is propitious for visions. I am so distressed in mind that I cannot talk properly; the words get inverted, the world reels like a decadent"s dream, my head is turning with it, and I keep on feeling a sort of brook trickling. What are you doing in that white coat? Who are you? Tell me who you are."
John raised his voice to the pitch of anger at the end, wroth that this mysterious being should cross his path "_fantasia, non h.o.m.o_."
"Be calm, my friend: all is well; you are not used to the extensions of Reality, that is all. I do not want to take advantage of the night.