Among the Ashes; or, Doomsday (with illustration) (Christmas Supplement) [pp. A001-A032]

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A3fOWU TIlE Ak~IlES. [Cnnis~~~~
of will and instability of character; I
was the victim of severe self-reproach.
Still, Nettlefold woul~ take no denial.
"You must positively come, Aif," he
said; "a vely quiet little party, in a
snug private room. The dinner shJl be
of the simplest-you shall choose every
dish yourself, if you like. No; I really
can't spare you. This is an important oc
casion; in fact, a crisis in ray fate has
arrived-I'm going to be manied! The
guests are to.be my intended bride, her
father and mother, and an intimate
friend of her family, that's all. With
you and myself we shall be six in number.
Now, you know, you can't refuse meyou can't, at such a time, desert the friend
of your boyhood. Say you'll come. Indeed, I won't listen to a refusal. You
must come."
Again I let Nettlefold have his way.
What else could I do?
It was, as I have said, most sultry
weather. The "snug private room" he
bad spoken of proved to be a confined
chamber that l~ad been scorched all day
long by the sun, and was swarming with
flies. They were buzz~ng and clustering
everywhere. The chandeller was cloudy
with il~em, and they had so congregated
about the looking-glass frame as to give
it quite a piebald look. They had freely
settled, too, upon a French bronze clock
that stood on the mantelpiece. It was
a quaint] y-fashioned clock, purposely
tinged, here and there, after a modern
fashion, with verdigris patches. A cadaverous figure of Time, very long and
attenuated, and twisted of liinb-I took
it at first for Mephistopheles, but it was
clearly meant for Thne-was pointing a
grisly forefinger at the dial, grinning sardonically the while. That clock caught
my eye directly I entered the room; and
it attracted my attention in a curious way
again and again.
The window opened on to a narrow
iron balcony, with all its paint shrivelled
and blistered by exposure to the sun.
The river was a glare of light. It was
low water, and an expanse of smooth
shining, noisome mud lined tlie shore.
The distant horizon seemed to be veiled
in steam. The sun was sinking into a
misty bed of angry, thunderous-looking
clouds. There was not a breath of wind
stirring. The heat was, indeed, almost
unendurable; even reclining motionless
in an easy-chair, placed between open
door and open window, one grew fevered,
panting, and faint. I felt as though
some heavy weight were oppressing my
heart, as though a cord were tightly bound
round my temples, hindering the circulation of my blood, and distending all my
veins in a painful degree. My voice was
weak and husky when I tried to speak
my hands were strangely tremulous. I
had never before feTh so completdy sliaken and upset. There was a floating
party-colored mist before iny eyes; my
mind even seemed to be at fault. I experienced a difficulty in connecting my
ideas, in controlling my memory and perceptions. Even now, as I look back
upon it, that little dinner down the river
has to me the vague, weird air of a fantastic vision.
I was introduced to Nettlefold's
friends. I roused myself with an effort
to take some measure of interest in his
intended bride. She was richly dressed;
a tall, thin, faded woman, with lustreless
eyes, tl~in lips, and rather prominent
teeth. She spoke wiil~ a drawl, and her
manner struck me at once as arrogant
and affected. "Alicia, my dear," said
Nettlefold to her, "this is my old friend
Aif, of whom you've heard me speak.
-AIf, old boy, Miss Carberry." She
slightly inclined her head as she surveyed
inc through her gold-rimmed eye-glasses.
ller expression I judged to be hard, in solent, and cruel; yet I was prepared to
learn, as I presently did from Nettlefold,
that she was generally esteemed to be a
lady of great personal attractions. She
drew off her light kid gloves, and revealed her thin, sallow, rather sinewy,
and claw-like hands, with many valuable
rings circling her long bony fingers. Mr.
Carberry-" great contractor, engaged
in enormous undertakings," whispered
Nettlefold - was a stout, mottle-faced,
elderly man, with blank, glassy eyes, and
a gingerbread-colored wig. llis wife,
the mother of Alicia, was a large fiercebrowed woman, who (lid little but fan
herself violently, setting all her many
bracelets clinking and rattling till it
almost seemed as though she were
being fanned by some noisy system of
machinery. The friend of the Carberry
family-he was Alicia's cousin, I believe
-was called Major Meggott, a gaunt,
jaded-looking man, with an erect military figure, bowed "cavalry"legs, and
a dyed and much-waxed mustache. Tie
was dressed in tightly-fitting dark clothes,
and moved stiffly, as though buckled and
trussed up in excess even of War Office
regulations. lle made no complaint of
the heat; it was understood that he had
frequently sojourned in tropical climes.
llis face wore a hard, artificial smile, as
though to mal~e revelation of his whfte,
reven teeth, of w hi cli he was, perhaps,
proud. They also were artificial.
We sat at a circular table. Nettlefold
had his future wife and motherAnAuw on
either side of him. I was8]placed between
Mrs. Carberry and her husband. The
major sat next his cousin, and frequently
interchanged talk with her, I noticed, iii
a subdued tone; otherwise we were but
a silent party. A curious air of restraint
and embarrassment seemed to oppress us.
The dinner was of the most profuse and
luxurious description; the courses seemed
interminable, and the supply of wine of
all kinds was excessive. Glasses were
filled and emptied incessantly; yet no
elation came to tlie party, hut rather
more and more of stupefaction and depression.
We were desperately dull; a kind of
lethargy succeeded to our superabundant
meal. We were gorged, in fact, wfth
~elilefold's little diunor. Some few attempts he made to animate us, by forced
damorousness of speech and laughter;
but these proved futile. We sat for the
most part mute and sleepy, twiddling our
wine- glasses, or trifling with a superb dessert. My sufferings, I know, were acute.
The heat was still intense; the day
liad departed, but the night was close,
sultry, and storm-laden. Not to add to
tlie almost stifling temperature of the
room, the lights of the chandelier were
kept as low as possible. Now and then
the murky sky without was quivering
and aflame wfth lightning, which seemed
to flash a white glare upon the faces
round the table, and reduce the gas-lights
above us to a dull, yellow hue. And
now the thunder, that had long been
rumbling and muttering fiercely in the
distance, drew nearer to us. Presently
it was rolling, and roaring, and crackling
with the utmost violence close at hand.
"Shut the windows, for God's sake!"
cried some one. All looked pale, I
thought; but it might have been only ilie
white flashing of the lightning in our faces.
Nettlefold ordered some more wine.
"We must have something to cheer us,"
he said, with a hollow laugh. Wine was
with him a panacea for all maladies; a
remedy to be resorted to on every occasion.
"It's really the devil of a storm, you
know," remarked the major. lle added,
however, that he had experienced many
worse in the tropics. "Don't be frightened," he said, to Alicia; but she ~as
frightened. Old Mr. Carberry helped
him seW to pineapple; Mrs. Carberry
fanned herself violently, but less regularly than before. It was as though the
machinery which kept her fan in motion
wanted oiling, or bad got somehow out
of gear.
A waiter, pursuant to Nettlefold's
bidding, filled us up glasses of sparkling
red burgundy The dark-hued wine,
with its creaming head of light purple,
had a clogged, drugged, redundantly rich