r^ARY 
 
 : S TY Of I 
 
 UNDERfiRAD. 
 LI6RAKT 
 
THE COMPLETE WRITINGS OF 
 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 
 
 WITH PORTRAITS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND FACSIMILES 
 
 IN TWENTY-TWO VOLUMES 
 VOLUME XV 
 
There is blood on that threshold! 
 
THE 
 
 HOUGHTON M1FFLIN COMPANY 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S 
 SECRET 
 
 A ROMANCE 
 
 BY 
 
 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 
 
 EDITED, WITH PREFACE AND NOTES BY 
 
 JULIAN HAWTHORNE 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 Cambridge 
 
MOFFITT-UGL 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1882 AND 1910, BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
1110 
 
 TO 
 
 MR. AND MRS. GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP 
 
 anfc 
 
 OF 
 
 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 
 
 THIS ROMANCE is DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 THE EDITOR 
 
EDITOR S PREFACE 
 
 A PREFACE generally begins with a truism; and 
 I may set out with the admission that it is not 
 always expedient to bring to light the posthu 
 mous work of great writers. A man generally 
 contrives to publish, during his lifetime, quite as 
 much as the public has time or inclination to 
 read ; and his surviving friends are apt to show 
 more zeal than discretion in dragging forth from 
 his closed desk such undeveloped offspring of 
 his mind as he himself had left to silence. Lit 
 erature has never been redundant with authors 
 who sincerely undervalue their own productions; 
 and the sagacious critics who maintain that 
 what of his own an author condemns must be 
 doubly damnable, are, to say the least of it, as 
 often likely to be right as wrong. 
 
 Beyond these general remarks, however, it 
 does not seem necessary to adopt an apologetic 
 attitude. There is nothing in the present vol 
 ume which any one possessed of brains and 
 cultivation will not be thankful to read. The 
 appreciation of Nathaniel Hawthorne s writings 
 is more intelligent and widespread than it used 
 to be ; and the later development of our national 
 literature has not, perhaps, so entirely exhausted 
 
 vn 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 our resources of admiration as to leave no wel 
 come for even the less elaborate work of a 
 contemporary of Dickens and Thackeray. As 
 regards Doctor Grimshawes Secret : , the title 
 which, for lack of a better, has been given to 
 this Romance, it can scarcely be pronounced 
 deficient in either elaboration or profundity. 
 Had Mr. Hawthorne written out the story in 
 every part to its full dimensions, it could not 
 have failed to rank among the greatest of his 
 productions. He had looked forward to it as 
 to the crowning achievement of his literary career. 
 In the Preface to Our Old Home he alludes to 
 it as a work into which he proposed to convey 
 more of various modes of truth than he could 
 have grasped by a direct effort. But circum 
 stances prevented him from perfecting the de 
 sign which had been before his mind for seven 
 years, and upon the shaping of which he be 
 stowed more thought and labor than upon any 
 thing else he had undertaken. The successive 
 and consecutive series of notes or studies 1 which 
 he wrote for this Romance would of themselves 
 make a small volume, and one of autobiogra 
 phical as well as literary interest. There is no 
 
 1 These studies, extracts from which will be published in one of our maga 
 zines, are hereafter to be added, in their complete form, to the Appendix of 
 this volume. [The studies, thus referred to, have appeared thus far in the 
 Century Magazine for January, 1883, under the title " A Look into Haw 
 thorne s Workshop," and in Lippincotf s Magazine for January, 1890, 
 under the title "The Elixir of Life."] 
 
 viii 
 
EDITOR S PREFACE 
 
 other instance, that I happen to have met with, 
 in which a writer s thought reflects itself upon 
 paper so immediately and sensitively as in these 
 studies. To read them is to look into the man s 
 mind, and see its quality and action. The pen 
 etration, the subtlety, the tenacity ; the stubborn 
 gripe which he lays upon his subject, like that 
 of Hercules upon the slippery Old Man of the 
 Sea ; the clear and cool common-sense, controll 
 ing the audacity of a rich and ardent imagina 
 tion ; the humorous gibes and strange expletives 
 wherewith he ridicules, to himself, his own fail 
 ure to reach his goal; the immense patience 
 with which again and again, and yet again 
 he " tries back," throwing the topic into fresh 
 attitudes, and searching it to the marrow with a 
 gaze so piercing as to be terrible ; all this 
 gives an impression of power, of resource, of 
 energy, of mastery, that exhilarates the reader. 
 So many inspired prophets of Hawthorne have 
 arisen of late, that the present writer, whose 
 relation to the great Romancer is a filial one 
 merely, may be excused for feeling some em 
 barrassment in submitting his own uninstructed 
 judgments to competition with theirs. It has 
 occurred to him, however, that these undress 
 rehearsals of the author of The Scarlet Letter 
 might afford entertaining and even profitable 
 reading to the later generation of writers whose 
 pleasant fortune it is to charm one another and 
 
 ix 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 other matter. It lacks balance and proportion. 
 Some characters and incidents are portrayed 
 with minute elaboration ; others, perhaps not 
 less important, are merely sketched in outline. 
 Beyond a doubt it was the author s purpose to 
 rewrite the entire work from the first page to 
 the last, enlarging it, deepening it, adorning it 
 with every kind of spiritual and physical beauty, 
 and rounding out a moral worthy of the noble 
 materials. But these last transfiguring touches 
 to Aladdin s Tower were never to be given ; 
 and he has departed, taking with him his Won 
 derful Lamp. Nevertheless there is great splen 
 dor in the structure as we behold it. The 
 character of old Doctor Grimshawe, and the 
 picture of his surroundings, are hardly sur 
 passed in vigor by anything their author has 
 produced ; and the dusky vision of the secret 
 chamber, which sends a mysterious shiver 
 through the tale, seems to be unique even in 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 There have been included in this volume 
 photographic reproductions of certain pages of 
 the original manuscript of Doctor Grimshawe y 
 selected at random, upon which those ingenious 
 persons whose convictions are in advance of 
 their instruction are cordially invited to try their 
 teeth ; for it has been maintained that Mr. 
 Hawthorne s handwriting was singularly legible. 
 xii 
 
EDITOR S PREFACE 
 
 The present writer possesses specimens of Mr. 
 Hawthorne s chirography at various ages, from 
 boyhood until a day or two before his death. 
 Like the handwriting of most men, it was at its 
 best between the twenty-fifth and the fortieth 
 years of life ; and in some instances it is a re 
 markably beautiful type of penmanship. But 
 as time went on it deteriorated, and, while of 
 course retaining its elementary characteristics, it 
 became less and less easy to read, especially in 
 those writings which were intended solely for his 
 own perusal. As with other men of sensitive 
 organization, the mood of the hour, a good or 
 a bad pen, a ready or an obstructed flow of 
 thought, would all be reflected in the formation 
 of the written letters and words. In the manu 
 script of the fragmentary sketch which has just 
 been published in a magazine, which is written 
 in an ordinary commonplace book, with ruled 
 pages, and in which the author had not yet be 
 come possessed with the spirit of the story and 
 characters, the handwriting is deliberate and 
 clear. In the manuscript of Doctor Grimshawes 
 Secret^ on the other hand, which was written 
 almost immediately after the other, but on un 
 ruled paper, and when the writer s imagination 
 was warm and eager, the chirography is for the 
 most part a compact mass of minute cramped 
 hieroglyphics, hardly to be deciphered save by 
 xiii 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 flashes of inspiration. The matter is not, in 
 itself, of importance, and is alluded to here 
 only as having been brought forward in con 
 nection with other insinuations, with the notice 
 of which it seems unnecessary to soil these 
 pages. Indeed, were I otherwise disposed, Doc 
 tor Grimshawe himself would take the words 
 out of my mouth; his speech is far more poign 
 ant and eloquent than mine. In dismissing 
 this episode, I will take the liberty to observe 
 that it appears to indicate a spirit in our age 
 less sceptical than is commonly supposed, 
 belief in miracles being still possible, provided 
 only the miracle be a scandalous one. 
 
 It remains to tell how this Romance came to 
 be published. It came into my possession (in 
 the ordinary course of events) about eight years 
 ago. I had at that time no intention of pub 
 lishing it ; and when, soon after, I left England 
 to travel on the Continent, the manuscript, to 
 gether with the bulk of my library, was packed 
 and stored at a London repository, and was not 
 again seen by me until last summer, when I 
 unpacked it in this city. I then finished the 
 perusal of it, and, finding it to be practically 
 complete, I re-resolved to print it in connection 
 with a biography of Mr. Hawthorne which I 
 had in preparation. But upon further consid 
 eration it was decided to publish the Romance 
 xiv 
 
EDITOR S PREFACE 
 
 separately; and I herewith present it to the 
 public, with my best wishes for their edifica 
 tion. 
 
 JULIAN HAWTHORNE. 
 
 NEW YORK, November 21, 1882. 
 XV 
 
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 PAGE 
 
 u THERE is BLOOD ON THAT THRESHOLD ! " 
 (page 309) .... Frederick McCormick 
 
 Frontispiece 
 VIGNETTE ON ENGRAVED TITLE-PAGE 
 
 Frederick McCormick 
 
 FACSIMILE OF PAGES OF THE ORIGINAL MS. xvi 
 "THERE HE GOES, THE OLD SPIDER- WITCH !" 
 
 Frederick McCormick 56 
 LEAVING THE HOUSE . Frederick McCormick 132, 
 
 " WE HAVE RECOGNIZED EACH OTHER " 
 
 Frederick McCormick 312 
 
 IN HALF FROLIC RfiDCLYFFE TOOK THE CHAIR 
 
 Frederick McCormick 356 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S 
 SECRET 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ALONG time ago, 1 in a town with which 
 I used to be familiarly acquainted, there 
 dwelt an elderly person of grim aspect, 
 known by the name and title of Doctor Grim- 
 shawe, 2 whose household consisted of a remark 
 ably pretty and vivacious boy, and a perfect 
 rosebud of a girl, two or three years younger 
 than he, and an old maid of all work, of 
 strangely mixed breed, crusty in temper and 
 wonderfully sluttish in attire. 3 It might be 
 partly owing to this handmaiden s characteristic 
 lack of neatness (though primarily, no doubt, 
 to the grim Doctor s antipathy to broom, brush, 
 and dusting cloths) that the house at least in 
 such portions of it as any casual visitor caught 
 a glimpse of was so overlaid with dust, that, 
 in lack of a visiting card, you might write your 
 name with your forefinger upon the tables ; and 
 so hung with cobwebs, that they assumed the 
 appearance of dusky upholstery. 
 
 It grieves me to add an additional touch or 
 i 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 two to the reader s disagreeable impression of 
 Doctor Grimshawe s residence, by confessing 
 that it stood in a shabby by-street, and cornered 
 on a graveyard, with which the house commu 
 nicated by a back door ; so that with a hop, 
 skip, and jump from the threshold, across a flat 
 tombstone, the two children 4 were in the daily 
 habit of using the dismal cemetery as their 
 playground. In their graver moods they spelled 
 out the names and learned by heart doleful 
 verses on the headstones ; and in their merrier 
 ones (which were much the more frequent) 
 they chased butterflies and gathered dandelions, 
 played hide and seek among the slate and 
 marble, and tumbled laughing over the grassy 
 mounds which were too eminent for the short 
 legs to bestride. On the whole, they were the 
 better for the graveyard, and its legitimate in 
 mates slept none the worse for the two chil 
 dren s gambols and shrill merriment overhead. 
 Here were old brick tombs with curious sculp 
 tures on them, and quaint gravestones, some of 
 which bore puffy little cherubs, and one or two 
 others the effigies of eminent Puritans, wrought 
 out to a button, a fold of the ruff, and a wrinkle 
 of the skullcap ; and these frowned upon the 
 two children as if death had not made them a 
 whit more genial than they were in life. But 
 the children were of a temper to be more en 
 couraged by the good-natured smiles of the 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 puffy cherubs, than frightened or disturbed by 
 the sour Puritans. 
 
 This graveyard (about which we shall say not 
 a word more than may sooner or later be need 
 ful) was the most ancient in the town. The 
 clay of the original settlers had been incor 
 porated with the soil ; those stalwart English 
 men of the Puritan epoch, whose immediate 
 ancestors had been planted forth with succulent 
 grass and daisies for the sustenance of the par 
 son s cow, round the low-battlemented Norman 
 church towers in the villages of the fatherland, 
 had here contributed their rich Saxon mould to 
 tame and Christianize the wild forest earth of 
 the New World. In this point of view as 
 holding the bones and dust of the primeval an 
 cestor the cemetery was more English than 
 anything else in the neighborhood, and might 
 probably have nourished English oaks and Eng 
 lish elms, and whatever else is of English 
 growth, without that tendency to spindle up 
 wards and lose their sturdy breadth, which is 
 said to be the ordinary characteristic both of 
 human and vegetable productions when trans 
 planted hither. Here, at all events, used to 
 be some specimens of common English garden 
 flowers, which could not be accounted for, 
 unless, perhaps, they had sprung from some 
 English maiden s heart, where the intense love 
 of those homely things, and regret of them in 
 
 3 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the foreign land, had conspired together to keep 
 their vivifying principle, and cause its growth 
 after the poor girl was buried. Be that as it 
 might, in this grave had been hidden from sight 
 many a broad, bluff visage of husbandman, who 
 had been taught to plough among the heredi 
 tary furrows that had been ameliorated by the 
 crumble of ages : much had these sturdy la 
 borers grumbled at the great roots that ob 
 structed their toil in these fresh acres. Here, 
 too, the sods had covered the faces of men 
 known to history, and reverenced when not a 
 piece of distinguishable dust remained of them ; 
 personages whom tradition told about ; and 
 here, mixed up with successive crops of native- 
 born Americans, had been ministers, captains, 
 matrons, virgins good and evil, tough and ten 
 der, turned up and battened down by the sex 
 ton s spade, over and over again ; until every 
 blade of grass had its relations with the human 
 brotherhood of the old town. A hundred and 
 fifty years was sufficient to do this ; and so much 
 time, at least, had elapsed since the first hole 
 was dug among the difficult roots of the forest 
 trees, and the first little hillock of all these green 
 beds was piled up. 
 
 Thus rippled and surged, with its hundreds 
 of little billows, the old graveyard about the 
 house which cornered upon it ; it made the 
 street gloomy, so that people did not altogether 
 
 4 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 like to pass along the high wooden fence that 
 shut it in ; and the old house itself, covering 
 ground which else had been sown thickly with 
 buried bodies, partook of its dreariness, be 
 cause it seemed hardly possible that the dead 
 people should not get up out of their graves 
 and steal in to warm themselves at this con 
 venient fireside. But I never heard that any of 
 them did so ; nor were the children ever startled 
 by spectacles of dim horror in the night-time, 
 but were as cheerful and fearless as if no grave 
 had ever been dug. They were of that class of 
 children whose material seems fresh, not taken 
 at second hand, full of disease, conceits, whims, 
 and weaknesses, that have already served many 
 people s turns, and been moulded up, with some 
 little change of combination, to serve the turn 
 of some poor spirit that could not get a better 
 case. 
 
 So far as ever came to the present writer s 
 knowledge, there was no whisper of Doctor 
 Grimshawe s house being haunted ; a fact on 
 which both writer and reader may congratulate 
 themselves, the ghostly chord having been played 
 upon in these days until it has become weari 
 some and nauseous as the familiar tune of a bar 
 rel organ. The house itself, moreover, except 
 for the convenience of its position close to the 
 seldom disturbed cemetery, was hardly worthy 
 to be haunted. As I remember it (and for 
 
 5 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 aught I know it still exists in the same guise), 
 it did not appear to be an ancient structure, nor 
 one that would ever have been the abode of a 
 very wealthy or prominent family ; a three- 
 story wooden house, perhaps a century old, low- 
 studded, with a square front, standing right 
 upon the street, and a small enclosed porch, con 
 taining the main entrance, affording a glimpse 
 up and down the street through an oval window 
 on each side, its characteristic was decent re 
 spectability, not sinking below the boundary of 
 the genteel. It has often perplexed my mind 
 to conjecture what sort of man he could have 
 been who, having the means to build a pretty, 
 spacious, and comfortable residence, should have 
 chosen to lay its foundation on the brink of so 
 many graves ; each tenant of these narrow houses 
 crying out, as it were, against the absurdity of 
 bestowing much time or pains in preparing any 
 earthly tabernacle save such as theirs. But de 
 ceased people see matters from an erroneous 
 at least too exclusive point of view ; a com 
 fortable grave is an excellent possession for those 
 who need it, but a comfortable house has like 
 wise its merits and temporary advantages. 5 
 
 The founder of the house in question seemed 
 sensible of this truth, and had therefore been care 
 ful to lay out a sufficient number of rooms and 
 chambers, low, ill lighted, ugly, but not unsus 
 ceptible of warmth and comfort ; the sunniest 
 
 6 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and cheerfulest of which were on the side that 
 looked into the graveyard. Of these, the one 
 most spacious and convenient had been selected 
 by Doctor Grimshawe as a study, and fitted up 
 with bookshelves, and various machines and 
 contrivances, electrical, chemical, and distilla 
 tory, wherewith he might pursue such researches 
 as were wont to engage his attention. The great 
 result of the grim Doctor s labors, so far as 
 known to the public, was a certain preparation 
 or extract of cobwebs, which, out of a great abun 
 dance of material, he was able to produce in any 
 desirable quantity, and by the administration 
 of which he professed to cure diseases of the 
 inflammatory class, and to work very wonderful 
 effects upon the human system. It is a great 
 pity, for the good of mankind and the advantage 
 of his own fortunes, that he did not put forth 
 this medicine in pill boxes or bottles, and then, 
 as it were, by some captivating title, inveigle 
 the public into his spider s web, and suck out 
 its gold substance, and himself wax fat as he sat 
 in the central intricacy. 
 
 But grim Doctor Grimshawe, though his aim 
 in life might be no very exalted one, seemed sin 
 gularly destitute of the impulse to better his 
 fortunes by the exercise of his wits : it might 
 even have been supposed, indeed, that he had 
 a conscientious principle or religious scruple 
 only, he was by no means a religious man 
 
 7 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 against reaping profit from this particular nos 
 trum which he was said to have invented. He 
 never sold it ; never prescribed it, unless in 
 cases selected on some principle that nobody 
 could detect or explain. The grim Doctor, it 
 must be observed, was not generally acknow 
 ledged by the profession, with whom, in truth, 
 he had never claimed a fellowship ; nor had he 
 ever assumed of his own accord the medical title 
 by which the public chose to know him. His 
 professional practice seemed, in a sort, forced 
 upon him ; it grew pretty extensive, partly be 
 cause it was understood to be a matter of favor 
 and difficulty, dependent on a capricious will, to 
 obtain his services at all. There was unques 
 tionably an odor of quackery about him; but 
 by no means of an ordinary kind. A sort of 
 mystery yet which, perhaps, need not have 
 been a mystery, had any one thought it worth 
 while to make systematic inquiry in reference 
 to his previous life, his education, even his na 
 tive land assisted the impression which his 
 peculiarities were calculated to make. He was 
 evidently not a New Englander, nor a native 
 of any part of these Western shores. His 
 speech was apt to be oddly and uncouthly idio 
 matic, and even when classical in its form was 
 emitted with a strange, rough depth of utter 
 ance, that came from recesses of the lungs which 
 we Yankees seldom put to any use. In person, 
 
 8 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 he did not look like one of us : a broad, rather 
 short personage, with a projecting forehead, a 
 red, irregular face, and a squab nose ; eyes that 
 looked dull enough in their ordinary state, but 
 had a faculty, in conjunction with the other 
 features, which those who had ever seen it de 
 scribed as especially ugly and awful. As re 
 garded dress, Doctor Grimshawe had a rough 
 and careless exterior, and altogether a shaggy 
 kind of aspect, the effect of which was much in 
 creased by a reddish beard, which, contrary to 
 the usual custom of the day, he allowed to grow 
 profusely, and the wiry perversity of which 
 seemed to know as little of the comb as of the 
 razor. 
 
 We began with calling the grim Doctor an 
 elderly personage ; but in so doing we looked 
 at him through the eyes of the two children, 
 who were his intimates, and who had not learnt 
 to decipher the purport and value of his wrin 
 kles and furrows and corrugations, whether as 
 indicating age, or a different kind of wear and 
 tear. Possibly he seemed so aggressive and 
 had such latent heat and force to throw out 
 when occasion called he might scarcely have 
 seemed middle-aged ; though here again we 
 hesitate, finding him so stiffened in his own 
 way, so little fluid, so encrusted with passions 
 and humors, that he must have left his youth 
 very far behind him, if indeed he ever had any. 
 
 9 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 The patients, or whatever other visitors were 
 ever admitted into the Doctor s study, carried 
 abroad strange accounts of the squalor of dust 
 and cobwebs in which the learned and scientific 
 person lived ; and the dust, they averred, was 
 all the more disagreeable, because it could not 
 well be other than dead men s almost intangi 
 ble atoms, resurrected from the adjoining grave 
 yard. As for the cobwebs, they were no signs 
 of housewifely neglect on the part of crusty 
 Hannah, the handmaiden ; but the Doctor s 
 scientific material, carefully encouraged and pre 
 served, each filmy thread more valuable to him 
 than so much golden wire. Of all barbarous 
 haunts in Christendom or elsewhere, this study 
 was the one most overrun with spiders. They 
 dangled from the ceiling, crept upon the tables, 
 lurked in the corners, and wove the intricacy of 
 their webs wherever they could hitch the end 
 from point to point across the window panes, 
 and even across the upper part of the doorway, 
 and in the chimney place. It seemed impos 
 sible to move without breaking some of these 
 mystic threads. Spiders crept familiarly towards 
 you and walked leisurely across your hands ; 
 these were their precincts, and you only an in 
 truder. If you had none about your person, 
 yet you had an odious sense of one crawling up 
 your spine, or spinning cobwebs in your brain, 
 
 10 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 so pervaded was the atmosphere of the place 
 with spider life. What they fed upon (for all 
 the flies for miles about would not have sufficed 
 them) was a secret known only to the Doctor. 
 Whence they came was another riddle ; though, 
 from certain inquiries and transactions of Doc 
 tor Grimshawe s with some of the shipmasters 
 of the port, who followed the East and West 
 Indian, the African and the South American 
 trade, it was supposed that this odd philosopher 
 was in the habit of importing choice monstrosi 
 ties in the spider kind from all those tropic 
 regions. 6 
 
 All the above description, exaggerated as it 
 may seem, is merely preliminary to the intro 
 duction of one single enormous spider, the big 
 gest and ugliest ever seen, the pride of the grim 
 Doctor s heart, his treasure, his glory, the pearl 
 of his soul, and, as many people said, the 
 demon to whom he had sold his salvation, on 
 condition of possessing the web of the foul 
 creature for a certain number of years. The 
 grim Doctor, according to this theory, was but 
 a great fly which this spider had subtly entan 
 gled in his web. But, in truth, naturalists are 
 acquainted with this spider, though it is a rare 
 one ; the British Museum has a specimen, and, 
 doubtless, so have many other scientific institu 
 tions. It is found in South America ; its most 
 
 ii 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 hideous spread of legs covers a space nearly as 
 large as a dinner plate, and radiates from a body 
 as big as a door-knob, which one conceives to 
 be an agglomeration of sucked-up poison which 
 the creature treasures through life ; probably to 
 expend it all, and life itself, on some worthy 
 foe. Its colors, variegated in a sort of ugly 
 and inauspicious splendor, were distributed over 
 its vast bulb in great spots, some of which glis 
 tened like gems. It was a horror to think of 
 this thing living ; still more horrible to think 
 of the foul catastrophe, the crushed-out and 
 wasted poison, that would follow the casual set 
 ting foot upon it. 
 
 No doubt, the lapse of time since the Doc 
 tor and his spider lived has already been suf 
 ficient to cause a traditionary wonderment to 
 gather over them both ; and, especially, this 
 image of the spider dangles down to us from 
 the dusky ceiling of the Past, swollen into 
 somewhat uglier and huger monstrosity than he 
 actually possessed. Nevertheless, the creature 
 had a real existence, and has left kindred like 
 himself; but as for the Doctor, nothing could 
 exceed the value which he seemed to put upon 
 him, the sacrifices he made for the creature s 
 convenience, or the readiness with which he 
 adapted his whole mode of life, apparently, so 
 that the spider might enjoy the conditions best 
 suited to his tastes, habits, and health. And 
 
 12 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 yet there were sometimes tokens that made peo 
 ple imagine that he hated the infernal creature 
 as much as everybody else who caught a glimpse 
 of him. 7 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 CONSIDERING that Doctor Grim 
 shawe, when we first look upon him, 
 had dwelt only a few years in the house 
 by the graveyard, it is wonderful what an ap 
 pearance he, and his furniture, and his cobwebs, 
 and their unweariable spinners, and crusty old 
 Hannah, all had of having permanently at 
 tached themselves to the locality. For a cen 
 tury, at least, it might be fancied that the study 
 in particular had existed just as it was now ; 
 with those dusky festoons of spider silk hang 
 ing along the walls, those bookcases with vol 
 umes turning their parchment or black-leather 
 backs upon you, those machines and engines, 
 that table, and at it the Doctor, in a very faded 
 and shabby dressing gown, smoking a long clay 
 pipe, the powerful fumes of which dwelt con 
 tinually in his reddish and grisly beard, and 
 made him fragrant wherever he went. This 
 sense of fixedness stony intractability seems 
 to belong to people who, instead of hope, which 
 exalts everything into an airy, gaseous exhilara 
 tion, have a fixed and dogged purpose, around 
 which everything congeals and crystallizes. 1 
 Even the sunshine, dim through the dustiness 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 of the two casements that looked upon the 
 graveyard, and the smoke, as it came warm out 
 of Doctor Grimshawe s mouth, seemed already 
 stale. But if the two children, or either of 
 them, happened to be in the study, if they 
 ran to open the door at the knock, if they came 
 scampering and peeped down over the banis 
 ters, the sordid and rusty gloom was apt to 
 vanish quite away. The sunbeam itself looked 
 like a golden rule, that had been flung down 
 long ago, and had lain there till it was dusty 
 and tarnished. They were cheery little imps, 
 who sucked up fragrance and pleasantness out 
 of their surroundings, dreary as these looked ; 
 even as a flower can find its proper perfume in 
 any soil where its seed happens to fall. The 
 great spider, hanging by his cordage over the 
 Doctor s head, and waving slowly, like a pen 
 dulum, in a blast from the crack of the door, 
 must have made millions and millions of pre 
 cisely such vibrations as these ; but the children 
 were new, and made over every day, with yes 
 terday s weariness left out. 
 
 The little girl, however, was the merrier of 
 the two. It was quite unintelligible, in view 
 of the little care that crusty Hannah took of 
 her, and, moreover, since she was none of your 
 prim, fastidious children, how daintily she kept 
 herself amid all this dust ; how the spiders webs 
 never clung to her, and how, when without 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 being solicited she clambered into the Doc 
 tor s arms and kissed him, she bore away no 
 smoky reminiscences of the pipe that he kissed 
 continually. She had a free, mellow, natural 
 laughter, that seemed the ripened fruit of the 
 smile that was generally on her little face, to be 
 shaken off and scattered abroad by any breeze 
 that came along. Little Elsie made playthings 
 of everything, even of the grim Doctor, though 
 against his will, and though, moreover, there 
 were tokens now and then that the sight of 
 this bright little creature was not a pleasure to 
 him, but, on the contrary, a positive pain ; a 
 pain, nevertheless, indicating a profound inter 
 est, hardly less deep than though Elsie had been 
 his daughter. 
 
 Elsie did not play with the great spider, but 
 she moved among the whole brood of spiders as 
 if she saw them not, and, being endowed with 
 other senses than those allied to these things, 
 might coexist with them and not be sensible of 
 their presence. Yet the child, I suppose, had 
 her crying fits, and her pouting fits, and naugh 
 tiness enough to entitle her to live on earth ; 
 at least crusty Hannah often said so, and often 
 made grievous complaint of disobedience, mis 
 chief, or breakage, attributable to little Elsie ; 
 to which the grim Doctor seldom responded by 
 anything more intelligible than a puff of to 
 bacco smoke, and, sometimes, an imprecation ; 
 
 16 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 which, however, hit crusty Hannah instead of 
 the child. Where the child got the tenderness 
 that a child needs to live upon is a mystery to 
 me ; perhaps from some aged or dead mother, 
 or in her dreams ; perhaps from some small 
 modicum of it, such as boys have, from the 
 little boy ; or perhaps it was from a Persian kit 
 ten, which had grown to be a cat in her arms, 
 and slept in her little bed, and now assumed 
 grave and protective airs towards her former 
 playmate. 2 
 
 The boy, 3 as we have said, was two or three 
 years Elsie s elder, and might now be about six 
 years old. He was a healthy and cheerful child, 
 yet of a graver mood than the little girl, ap 
 pearing to lay a more forcible grasp on the 
 circumstances about him, and to tread with a 
 heavier footstep on the solid earth ; yet perhaps 
 not more so than was the necessary difference be 
 tween a man-blossom, dimly conscious of com 
 ing things, and a mere baby, with whom there 
 was neither past nor future. Ned, as he was 
 named, was subject very early to fits of musing, 
 the subject of which if they had any definite 
 subject, or were more than vague reveries it 
 was impossible to guess. They were of those 
 states of mind, probably, which are beyond the 
 sphere of human language, and would necessa 
 rily lose their essence in the attempt to commu 
 nicate or record them. The little girl, perhaps, 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 had some mode of sympathy with these unut- 
 tered thoughts or reveries, which grown people 
 had ceased to have ; at all events, she early 
 learned to respect them, and, at other times as 
 free and playful as her Persian kitten, she never 
 in such circumstances ventured on any greater 
 freedom than to sit down quietly beside him, 
 and endeavor to look as thoughtful as the boy 
 himself. 
 
 Once, slowly emerging from one of these 
 waking reveries, little Ned gazed about him, and 
 saw Elsie sitting with this pretty pretence of 
 thoughtfulness and dreaminess in her little chair, 
 close beside him ; now and then peeping under 
 her eyelashes to note what changes might come 
 over his face. After looking at her a moment 
 or two, he quietly took her willing and warm 
 little hand in his own, and led her up to the 
 Doctor. 
 
 The group, methinks, must have been a pic 
 turesque one, made up as it was of several 
 apparently discordant elements, each of which 
 happened to be so combined as to make a more 
 effective whole. The beautiful grave boy, with 
 a little sword by his side and a feather in his 
 hat, of a brown complexion, slender, with his 
 white brow and dark, thoughtful eyes, so ear 
 nest upon some mysterious theme ; the prettier 
 little girl, a blonde, round, rosy, so truly sym 
 pathetic with her companion s mood, yet un~ 
 
 18 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 consciously turning all to sport by her attempt 
 to assume one similar ; these two standing 
 at the grim Doctor s footstool ; he meanwhile, 
 black, wild-bearded, heavy-browed, red-eyed, 
 wrapped in his faded dressing gown, puffing out 
 volumes of vapor from his long pipe, and mak 
 ing, just at that instant, application to a tum 
 bler, which, we regret to say, was generally at 
 his elbow, with some dark-colored potation in 
 it that required to be frequently replenished 
 from a neighboring black bottle. Half, at least, 
 of the fluids in the grim Doctor s system must 
 have been derived from that same black bottle, 
 so constant was his familiarity with its contents ; 
 and yet his eyes were never redder at one time 
 than another, nor his utterance thicker, nor his 
 mood perceptibly the brighter or the duller for 
 all his conviviality. It is true, when, once, the 
 bottle happened to be empty for a whole day 
 together, Doctor Grimshawe was observed by 
 crusty Hannah and by the children to be con 
 siderably fiercer than usual ; so that probably, 
 by some maladjustment of consequences, his in 
 temperance was only to be found in refraining 
 from brandy. 
 
 Nor must we forget in attempting to con 
 ceive the effect of these two beautiful children 
 in such a sombre room, looking on the grave 
 yard, and contrasted with the grim Doctor s as 
 pect of heavy and smouldering fierceness that 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 over his head, at this very moment, dangled the 
 portentous spider, who seemed to have come 
 down from his web aloft for the purpose of 
 hearing what the two young people could have 
 to say to his patron, and what reference it might 
 have to certain mysterious documents which the 
 Doctor kept locked up in a secret cupboard 
 behind the door. 
 
 " Grim Doctor," said Ned, after looking up 
 into the Doctor s face, as a sensitive child in 
 evitably does, to see whether the occasion was 
 favorable, yet determined to proceed with his 
 purpose whether so or not, " Grim Doctor, 
 I want you to answer me a question." 
 
 " Here s to your good health, Ned ! " quoth 
 the Doctor, eyeing the pair intently, as he often 
 did, when they were unconscious. " So you 
 want to ask me a question ? As many as you 
 please, my fine fellow ; and I shall answer as 
 many, and as much, and as truly, as may please 
 myself!" 
 
 "Ah, grim Doctor ! " said the little girl, now 
 letting go of Ned s hand, and climbing upon 
 the Doctor s knee, " ou shall answer as many 
 as Ned please to ask, because to please him and 
 me!" 
 
 " Well, child," said Doctor Grimshawe, " lit 
 tle Ned will have his rights at least, at my 
 hands, if not other people s rights likewise ; 
 and, if it be right, I shall answer his question. 
 
 20 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 Only, let him ask it at once ; for I want to be 
 busy thinking about something else." 
 
 " Then, Doctor Grim," said little Ned, " tell 
 me, in the first place, where I came from, and 
 how you came to have me." 
 
 The Doctor looked at the little man, so seri 
 ously and earnestly putting this demand, with 
 a perplexed, and at first it might almost seem a 
 startled aspect. 
 
 " That is a question, indeed, my friend Ned ! " 
 ejaculated he, putting forth a whiff of smoke 
 and imbibing a nip from his tumbler before he 
 spoke ; and perhaps framing his answer, as many 
 thoughtful and secret people do, in such a way 
 as to let out his secret mood to the child, be 
 cause knowing he could not understand it. 
 " Whence did you come ? Whence did any of 
 us come ? Out of the darkness and mystery ; 
 out of nothingness ; out of a kingdom of shad 
 ows ; out of dust, clay, mud, I think, and to 
 return to it again. Out of a former state of 
 being, whence we have brought a good many 
 shadowy revelations, purporting that it was no 
 very pleasant one. Out of a former life, of 
 which the present one is the hell ! And why 
 are you come ? Faith, Ned, he must be a wiser 
 man than Doctor Grim who can tell why you 
 or any other mortal came hither; only one 
 thing I am well aware of, it was not to be 
 happy. To toil and moil and hope and fear ; 
 
 21 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and to love in a shadowy, doubtful sort of way, 
 and to hate in bitter earnest, that is what you 
 came for ! " 
 
 <c Ah, Doctor Grim ! this is very naughty," 
 said little Elsie. " You are making fun of little 
 Ned, when he is in earnest." 
 
 " Fun ! " quoth Doctor Grim, bursting into 
 a laugh peculiar to him, very loud and obstrep 
 erous. " I am glad you find it so, my little 
 woman. Well, and so you bid me tell abso 
 lutely where he came from ? " 
 
 Elsie nodded her bright little head. 
 
 " And you, friend Ned, insist upon know- 
 ing?" 
 
 " That I do, Doctor Grim ! " answered Ned. 
 His white, childish brow had gathered into a 
 frown, such was the earnestness of his determi 
 nation ; and he stamped his foot on the floor, 
 as if ready to follow up his demand by an ap 
 peal 1 to the little tin sword which hung by his 
 side. The Doctor looked at him with a kind 
 of smile, not a very pleasant one ; for it was 
 an unamiable characteristic of his temper that 
 a display of spirit, even in a child, was apt to 
 arouse his immense combativeness, and make 
 him aim a blow without much consideration 
 how heavily it might fall, or on how unequal 
 an antagonist. 
 
 " If you insist upon an answer, Master Ned, 
 you shall have it," replied he. "You were 
 
 22 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 *<iken by me, boy, a foundling from an alms- 
 house ; and if ever hereafter you desire to know 
 your kindred, you must take your chance of 
 the first man you meet. He is as likely to be 
 your father as another ! " 
 
 The child s eyes flashed, and his brow grew 
 as red as fire. It was but a momentary fierce 
 ness ; the next instant he clasped his hands over 
 his face, and wept in a violent convulsion of 
 grief and shame. Little Elsie clasped her arms 
 about him, kissing his brow and chin, which 
 were all that her lips could touch, under his 
 clasped hands ; but Ned turned away uncom- 
 forted, and was blindly making his way towards 
 the door. 
 
 " Ned, my little fellow, come back ! " said 
 Doctor Grim, who had very attentively watched 
 the cruel effect of his communication. 
 
 As the boy did not reply, and was still tend 
 ing towards the door, the grim Doctor vouch 
 safed to lay aside his pipe, get up from his 
 armchair (a thing he seldom did between sup 
 per and bedtime), and shuffle after the two chil 
 dren in his slippers. He caught them on the 
 threshold, brought little Ned back by main 
 force, for he was a rough man even in his 
 tenderness, and, sitting down again and tak 
 ing him on his knee, pulled away his hands 
 from before his face. Never was a more pitiful 
 sight than that pale countenance, so infantile 
 
 2 3 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 still, yet looking old and experienced already, 
 with a sense of disgrace, with a feeling of lone 
 liness ; so beautiful, nevertheless, that it seemed 
 to possess all the characteristics which fine he 
 reditary traits and culture, or many forefathers, 
 could do in refining a human stock. And this 
 was a nameless weed, sprouting from some 
 chance seed by the dusty wayside ! 
 
 " Ned, my dear old boy," said Doctor Grim, 
 and he kissed that pale, tearful face, the first 
 and last time, to the best of my belief, that he 
 was ever betrayed into that tenderness, " for 
 get what I have said ! Yes, remember, if you 
 like, that you came from an almshouse ; but re 
 member, too, what your friend Doctor Grim 
 is ready to affirm and make oath of, that he 
 can trace your kindred and race through that 
 sordid experience, and back, back, for a hundred 
 and fifty years, into an old English line. Come, 
 little Ned, and look at this picture." 
 
 He led the boy by the hand to a corner of 
 the room, where hung upon the wall a portrait 
 which Ned had often looked at. It seemed an 
 old picture ; but the Doctor had had it cleaned 
 and varnished, so that it looked dim and dark, 
 and yet it seemed to be the representation of a 
 man of no mark ; not at least of such mark as 
 would naturally leave his features to be trans 
 mitted for the interest of another generation. 
 For he was clad in a mean dress of old fashion, 
 
 24 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 a leather jerkin it appeared to be, and 
 round his neck, moreover, was a noose of rope, 
 as if he might have been on the point of being 
 hanged. But the face of the portrait, neverthe 
 less, was beautiful, noble, though sad ; with a 
 great development of sensibility, a look of suf 
 fering and endurance amounting to triumph, 
 a peace through all. 
 
 " Look at this, * continued the Doctor, " if 
 you must go on dreaming about your race. 
 Dream that you are of the blood of this being ; 
 for, mean as his station looks, he comes of an 
 ancient and noble race, and was the noblest of 
 them all ! Let me alone, Ned, and I shall spin 
 out the web that shall link you to that man 
 The grim Doctor can do it ! " 
 
 The grim Doctor s face looked fierce with the 
 earnestness with which he said these words. You 
 would have said that he was taking an oath to 
 overthrow and annihilate a race, rather than to 
 build one up by bringing forward the infant heir 
 out of obscurity, and making plain the links 
 the filaments which cemented this feeble child 
 ish life, in a far country, with the great tide of a 
 noble life, which had come down like a chain 
 from antiquity, in old England. 
 
 Having said the words, however, the grim 
 Doctor appeared ashamed both of the heat and 
 of the tenderness into which he had been be 
 trayed ; for rude and rough as his nature was, 
 25 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 there was a kind of decorum in it, too, that kept 
 him within limits of his own. So he went back 
 to his chair, his pipe, and his tumbler, and was 
 gruffer and more taciturn than ever for the rest 
 of the evening. And after the children went to 
 bed, he leaned back in his chair and looked up 
 at the vast tropic spider, who was particularly 
 busy in adding to the intricacies of his web ; 
 until he fell asleep with his eyes fixed in that 
 direction, and the extinguished pipe in one hand 
 and the empty tumbler in the other. 
 
 26 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE, after the 
 foregone scene, began a practice of con 
 versing more with the children than 
 formerly; directing his discourse chiefly to Ned, 
 although Elsie s vivacity and more outspoken 
 and demonstrative character made her take 
 quite as large a share in the conversation as he. 
 The Doctor s communications referred chiefly 
 to a village, or neighborhood, or locality in Eng 
 land, which he chose to call Newnham ; although 
 he told the children that this was not the real 
 name, which, for reasons best known to himself, 
 he wished to conceal. Whatever the name were, 
 he seemed to know the place so intimately, that 
 the children, as a matter of course, adopted the 
 conclusion that it was his birthplace, and the spot 
 where he had spent his schoolboy days, and had 
 lived until some inscrutable reason had impelled 
 him to quit its ivy-grown antiquity, and all the 
 aged beauty and strength that he spoke of, and 
 to cross the sea. 
 
 He used to tell of an old church, far unlike 
 the brick and pine-built meeting-houses with 
 which the children were familiar ; a church, the 
 stones of which were laid, every one of them, 
 
 2 7 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 before the world knew of the country in which 
 he was then speaking ; and how it had a spire, 
 the lower part of which was mantled with ivy, 
 and up which, towards its very spire, the ivy was 
 still creeping; and how there was a tradition, 
 that, if the ivy ever reached the top, the spire 
 would fall upon the roof of the old gray church, 
 and crush it all down among its surrounding 
 tombstones. 1 And so, as this misfortune would 
 be so heavy a one, there seemed to be a miracle 
 wrought from year to year, by which the ivy, 
 though always flourishing, could never grow 
 beyond a certain point ; so that the spire and 
 church had stood unharmed for thirty years ; 
 though the wise old people were constantly fore 
 telling that the passing year must be the very 
 last one that it could stand. 
 
 He told, too, of a place that made little Ned 
 blush and cast down his eyes to hide the tears 
 of anger and shame at he knew not what, which 
 would irresistibly spring into them ; for it re 
 minded him of the almshouse where, as the cruel 
 Doctor said, Ned himself had had his earliest 
 home. And yet, after all, it had scarcely a fea 
 ture of resemblance ; and there was this great 
 point of difference, that whereas, in Ned s 
 wretched abode (a large, unsightly brick house), 
 there were many wretched infants like himself, 
 as well as helpless people of all ages, widows, 
 decayed drunkards, people of feeble wits, and 
 
 28 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 all kinds of imbecility ; it being a haven for 
 those who could not contend in the hard, eager, 
 pitiless struggle of life ; in the place the Doctor 
 spoke of, a noble, Gothic, mossy structure, there 
 were none but aged men, who had drifted into 
 this quiet harbor to end their days in a sort of 
 humble yet stately ease and decorous abundance. 
 And this shelter, the grim Doctor said, was the 
 gift of a man who had died ages ago ; and having 
 been a great sinner in his lifetime, and having 
 drawn lands, manors, and a great mass of wealth 
 into his clutches by violent and unfair means, 
 had thought to get his pardon by founding this 
 Hospital, as it was called, in which thirteen old 
 men should always reside ; and he hoped that 
 they would spend their time in praying for the 
 welfare of his soul. 2 
 
 Said little Elsie, " I am glad he did it, and I 
 hope the poor old men never forgot to pray for 
 him, and that it did good to the poor wicked 
 man s soul." 
 
 " Well, child," said Doctor Grimshawe, with 
 a scowl into vacancy, and a sort of wicked leer 
 of merriment at the same time, as if he saw be 
 fore him the face of the dead man of past cen 
 turies, " I happen to be no lover of this man s 
 race, and I hate him for the sake of one of his 
 descendants. I don t think he succeeded in 
 bribing the Devil to let him go, or God to save 
 him!" 
 
 29 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " Doctor Grim, you are very naughty ! " said 
 Elsie, looking shocked/ 
 
 " It is fair enough," said Ned, " to hate your 
 enemy to the very brink of the grave, but then 
 to leave him to get what mercy he can." 
 
 " After shoving him in ! " quoth the Doctor, 
 and made no further response to either of these 
 criticisms, which seemed indeed to affect him 
 very little if he even listened to them. For 
 he was a man of singularly imperfect moral cul 
 ture ; insomuch that nothing else was so remark 
 able about him as that possessing a good deal 
 of intellectual ability, made available by much 
 reading and experience he was so very dark 
 on the moral side ; as if he needed the natural 
 perceptions that should have enabled him to ac 
 quire that better wisdom. Such a phenomenon 
 often meets us in life ; oftener than we recog 
 nize, because a certain tact and exterior decency 
 generally hide the moral deficiency. But often 
 there is a mind well polished, married to a con 
 science and natural impulses left as they were in 
 childhood, except that they have sprouted up 
 into evil and poisonous weeds, richly blossom 
 ing with strong-smelling flowers, or seeds which 
 the plant scatters by a sort of impulse ; even as 
 the Doctor was now half consciously throwing 
 seeds of his evil passions into the minds of these 
 children. He was himself a grown-up child, 
 without tact, simplicity, and innocence, and with 
 3 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ripened evil, all the ranker for a native heat that 
 was in him and still active, which might have 
 nourished good things as well as evil. Indeed, 
 it did cherish by chance a root or two of good, 
 the fragrance of which was sometimes percep 
 tible among all this rank growth of poisonous 
 weeds. A grown-up child he was, that was 
 all. 
 
 The Doctor now went on to describe an old 
 country seat, which stood near this -village and 
 the ancient Hospital that he had been telling 
 about, and which was formerly the residence of 
 the wicked man (a knight and a brave one, well 
 known in the Lancastrian wars) who had founded 
 the latter. It was a venerable old mansion, which 
 a Saxon Thane had begun to build more than 
 a thousand years ago, the old English oak that 
 he built into the frame being still visible in the 
 ancient skeleton of .its roof, sturdy and strong 
 as if put up yesterday. And the descendants 
 of the man who built it, through the French 
 line (for a Norman baron wedded the daughter 
 and heiress of the Saxon), dwelt there yet ; and 
 in each century they had done something for the 
 old Hall, building a tower, adding a suite of 
 rooms, strengthening what was already built, 
 putting in a painted window, making it more 
 spacious and convenient, till it seemed as if 
 Time employed himself in thinking what could 
 be done for the old house. As fast as any part 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 decayed, it was renewed, with such simple art 
 that the new completed, as it were, and fitted it 
 self to the old. So that it seemed as if the house 
 never had been finished, until just that thing was 
 added. For many an age, the possessors had 
 gone on adding strength to strength, digging 
 out the moat to a greater depth, piercing the 
 walls with holes for archers to shoot through, 
 or building a turret to keep watch upon. But 
 at last all necessity for these precautions passed 
 away, and then they thought of convenience and 
 comfort, adding something in every generation 
 to these. And by and by they thought of 
 beauty too ; and in this time helped them with 
 its weather-stains, and the ivy that grew over 
 the walls, and the grassy depth of the dried-up 
 moat, and the abundant shade that grew up 
 everywhere, where naked strength would have 
 been ugly. 
 
 " One curious thing in the house," said the 
 Doctor, lowering his voice, but with a mysteri 
 ous look of triumph, and that old scowl, too, at 
 the children, " was that they built a secret cham 
 ber, a very secret one ! " 
 
 " A secret chamber ! " cried little Ned ; " who 
 lived in it ? A ghost ? " 
 
 " There was often use for it," said Doctor 
 Grim : " hiding people who had fought on the 
 wrong side, or Catholic priests, or criminals, or 
 perhaps who knows ? enemies that they 
 
 3 2 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 wanted put out of the way, troublesome 
 folks. Ah ! it was often of use, that secret 
 chamber ; and is so still ! " 
 
 Here the Doctor paused a long while, and 
 leaned back in his chair, slowly puffing long 
 whiffs from his pipe, looking up at the great 
 spider demon that hung over his head, and, as 
 it seemed to the children by the expression of 
 his face, looking into the dim secret chamber 
 which he had spoken of, and which, by some 
 thing in his mode of alluding, to it, assumed 
 such a weird, spectral aspect to their imagina 
 tions that they never wished to hear of it again. 
 Coming back at length out of his reverie, re 
 turning, perhaps, out of some weird, ghostly, se j 
 cret chamber of his memory, whereof the one in 
 the old house was but the less horrible emblem, 
 he resumed his tale. 
 
 He said that, a long time ago, a war broke 
 out in the old country between King and Par 
 liament. At that period there were several 
 brothers of the old family (which had adhered 
 to the Catholic religion), and these chose the 
 side of the King instead of that of the Puritan 
 Parliament : all but one, whom the family hated 
 because he took the Parliament side ; and he 
 became a soldier, and fought against his own 
 brothers ; and it was said among them that, 
 so inveterate was he, he went on the scaffold, 
 masked, and was the very man who struck off 
 
 33 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the King s head, and that his foot trod in the 
 King s blood, and that always afterwards he 
 made a bloody track wherever he went. And 
 there was a legend that his brethren once caught 
 the renegade and imprisoned him in his own 
 birthplace 
 
 "In the secret chamber ? " interrupted Ned. 
 
 " No doubt ! " said the Doctor, nodding, 
 " though I never heard so." 
 
 They imprisoned him, but he made his escape 
 and fled, and in the morning his prison place, 
 wherever it was, was empty. But on the thresh 
 old of the door of the old manor house there 
 was the print of a bloody footstep ; and no 
 trouble that the housemaids took, no rain of all 
 the years that have since passed, no sunshine, 
 has made it fade ; nor have all the wear and 
 tramp of feet passing over it since then availed 
 to erase it. 
 
 " I have seen it myself," quoth the Doctor, 
 " and know this to be true." 
 
 " Doctor Grim, now you are laughing at us," 
 said Ned, trying to look grave. But Elsie hid 
 her face on the Doctor s knee ; there being 
 something that affected the vivid little girl with 
 peculiar horror in the idea of this red footstep 
 always glistening on the doorstep, and wetting, 
 as she fancied, every innocent foot of child or 
 grown person that had since passed over it. 3 
 
 " It is true ! " reiterated the grim Doctor ; 
 34 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " for, man and boy, I have seen it a thousand 
 times." 
 
 He continued the family history, or tradition, 
 or fantastic legend, whichever it might be ; tell 
 ing his young auditors that the Puritan, the 
 renegade son of the family, was afterwards, by 
 the contrivances of his brethren, sent to Vir 
 ginia and sold as a bond-slave ; and how he had 
 vanished from that quarter and come to New 
 England, where he was supposed to have left 
 children. And by and by two elder brothers 
 died, and this missing brother became the heir 
 to the old estate and to a title. Then the fam 
 ily tried to track his bloody footstep, and sought 
 it far and near, through green country paths, 
 and old streets of London ; but in vain. Then 
 they sent messengers to see whether any traces 
 of one stepping in blood could be found on the 
 forest leaves of America ; but still in vain. The 
 idea nevertheless prevailed that he would come 
 back, and it was said they kept a bedchamber 
 ready for him yet in the old house. But much 
 as they pretended to regret the loss of him and 
 his children, it would make them curse their 
 stars were a descendant of his to return now. 
 For the child of a younger son was in posses 
 sion of the old estate, and was doing as much 
 evil as his forefathers did ; and if the true heir 
 were to appear on the threshold, he would (if 
 he might but do it secretly) stain the whole 
 
 35 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 doorstep as red as the Bloody Footstep had 
 stained one little portion of it. 
 
 " Do you think he will ever come back ? " 
 asked little Ned. 
 
 " Stranger things have happened, my little 
 man/ said Doctor Grimshawe, " than that the 
 posterity of this man should come back and 
 turn these usurpers out of his rightful inherit 
 ance. And sometimes, as I sit here smoking 
 my pipe and drinking my glass, and looking up 
 at the cunning plot that the spider is weaving 
 yonder above my head, and thinking of this 
 fine old family and some little matters that have 
 been between them and me, I fancy that it may 
 be so ! We shall see ! Stranger things have 
 happened." 
 
 And Doctor Grimshawe drank off his tum 
 bler, winking at little Ned in a strange way, that 
 seemed to be a kind of playfulness, but which 
 did not affect the children pleasantly ; insomuch 
 that little Elsie put both her hands on Doctor 
 Grim s knees, and begged him not to do so any 
 
 more. 4 
 
 36 
 
CHAPTER IV 1 
 
 THE children, after this conversation, 
 often introduced the old English man 
 sion into their dreams and little ro 
 mances, which all imaginative children are con 
 tinually mixing up with their lives, making the 
 commonplace day of grown people a rich, misty, 
 glancing orb of fairyland to themselves. Ned, 
 forgetting or not realizing the long lapse of 
 time, used to fancy the true heir wandering all 
 this while in America, and leaving a long track 
 of bloody footsteps behind him ; until the pe 
 riod when, his sins being expiated (whatever 
 they might be), he should turn back upon his 
 steps and return to his old native home. And 
 sometimes the child used to look along the 
 streets of the town where he dwelt, bending his 
 thoughtful eyes on the ground, and think that 
 perhaps some time he should see the bloody 
 footsteps there, betraying that the wanderer had 
 just gone that way. 
 
 As for little Elsie, it was her fancy that the 
 hero of the legend still remained imprisoned in 
 that dreadful secret chamber, which had made a 
 most dread impression on her mind ; and that 
 there he was, forgotten all this time, waiting, 
 
 37 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 like a naughty child shut up in a closet, until 
 some one should come to unlock the door. In 
 the pitifulness of her disposition, she once pro 
 posed to little Ned that, as soon as they grew 
 big enough, they should set out in quest of the 
 old house, and find their way into it, and find 
 the secret chamber, and let the poor prisoner 
 out. So they lived a good deal of the time in 
 a half-waking dream, partly conscious of the 
 fantastic nature of their ideas, yet with these 
 ideas almost as real to them as the facts of the 
 natural world, which, to children, are at first 
 transparent and unsubstantial. 
 
 The Doctor appeared to have a pleasure, or 
 a purpose, in keeping his legend forcibly in their 
 memories ; he often recurred to the subject of 
 the old English family, and was continually giv 
 ing new details about its history, the scenery in 
 its neighborhood, the aspect of the mansion 
 house ; indicating a very intense interest in the 
 subject on his own part, of which this much talk 
 seemed the involuntary overflowing. 
 
 There was, however, an affection mingled with 
 this sentiment. It appeared to be his unfortunate 
 necessity to let his thoughts dwell very con 
 stantly upon a subject that was hateful to him, 
 with which this old English estate and manor 
 house and family were somehow connected : and, 
 moreover, had he spoken thus to older and more 
 experienced auditors, they might have detected 
 
 38 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 in the manner and matter of his talk a certain 
 hereditary reverence and awe, the growth of ages, 
 mixed up with a newer hatred, impelling him to 
 deface and destroy what, at the same time, it was 
 his deepest impulse to bow before. The love 
 belonged to his race ; the hatred, to himself indi 
 vidually. It was the feeling of a man lowly born, 
 when he contracts a hostility to his hereditary 
 superior. In one way, being of a powerful, pas 
 sionate nature, gifted with force and ability far 
 superior to that of the aristocrat, he might scorn 
 him and feel able to trample on him ; in another, 
 he had the same awe that a country boy feels 
 of the magistrate who flings him a sixpence and 
 shakes his horsewhip at him. 
 
 Had the grim Doctor been an American, he 
 might have had the vast antipathy to rank, with 
 out the trace of awe that made it so much more 
 malignant : it required a low-born Englishman to 
 feel the two together. What made the hatred 
 so fiendish was a something that, in the natural 
 course of things, would have been loyalty, in 
 herited affection, devoted self-sacrifice to a supe 
 rior. Whatever it might be, it seemed at times 
 (when his potations took deeper effect than or 
 dinary) almost to drive the grim Doctor mad ; for 
 he would burst forth in wild diatribes and anathe 
 mas, having a strange, rough force of expression 
 and a depth of utterance, as if his words came 
 from a bottomless pit within himself, where 
 
 39 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 burned an everlasting fire, and where the furies 
 had their home ; and plans of dire revenge were 
 welded into shape as in the heat of a furnace. 
 After the two poor children had been affrighted 
 by paroxysms of this kind, the strange being 
 would break out into one of his roars of laughter, 
 that seemed to shake the house, and, at all events, 
 caused the cobwebs and spiders suspended from 
 the ceiling to swing and vibrate with the motion 
 of the volumes of reverberating breath which he 
 thus expelled from his capacious lungs. Then, 
 catching up little Elsie upon one knee and Ned 
 upon the other, he would become gentler than 
 in his usual moods, and, by the powerful mag 
 netism of his character, cause them to think him 
 as tender and sweet an old fellow as a child could 
 desire for a playmate. Upon the whole, strange 
 as it may appear, they loved the grim Doctor 
 dearly ; there was a loadstone within him that 
 drew them close to him and kept them there, in 
 spite of the horror of many things that he said 
 and did. One thing that, slight as it seemed, 
 wrought mightily towards their mutually petting 
 each other, was that no amount of racket, hubbub, 
 shouting, laughter, or noisy mischief which the 
 two children could perpetrate, ever disturbed the 
 Doctor s studies, meditations, or employments 
 of whatever kind. He had a hardy set of nerves, 
 not refined by careful treatment in himself or 
 his ancestors, but probably accustomed from of 
 
 40 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 old to be drummed on by harsh voices, rude 
 sounds, and the clatter and clamor of house 
 hold life among homely, uncultivated, strongly 
 animal people. 
 
 As the two children grew apace, it behooved 
 their strange guardian to take some thought for 
 their instruction. So far as little Elsie was con 
 cerned, however, he seemed utterly indifferent to 
 her having any cultivation ; having imbibed no 
 modern ideas respecting feminine capacities and 
 privileges, but regarding woman, whether in the 
 bud or in the blossom, as the plaything of man s 
 idler moments, and the helpmeet but in a 
 humble capacity of his daily life. He some 
 times bade her go to the kitchen and take lessons 
 of crusty Hannah in bread-making, sweeping, 
 dusting, washing, the coarser needlework, and 
 such other things as she would require to know 
 when she came to be a woman ; but carelessly 
 allowed her to gather up the crumbs of such in 
 struction as he bestowed on her playmate Ned, 
 and thus learn to read, write, and cipher ; which, 
 to say the truth, was about as far in the way of 
 scholarship as little Elsie cared to go. 
 
 But towards little Ned the grim Doctor 
 adopted a far different system. No sooner had 
 he reached the age when the soft and tender 
 intellect of the child became capable of retain 
 ing impressions, than he took him vigorously in 
 hand, assigning him such tasks as were fit for 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 him, and curiously investigating what were the 
 force and character of the powers with which the 
 child grasped them. Not that the Doctor pressed 
 him forward unduly ; indeed, there was no need 
 of it ; for the boy manifested a remarkable docil 
 ity for instruction, and a singular quickness in 
 mastering the preliminary steps which lead to 
 science : a subtle instinct, indeed, which it seemed 
 wonderful a child should possess for anything 
 as artificial as systems of grammar and arithmetic. 
 A remarkable boy, in truth, he was, to have been 
 found by chance in an almshouse ; except that, 
 such being his origin, we are at liberty to sup 
 pose for him whatever long cultivation and gen 
 tility we may think necessary, in his parentage 
 of either side, such as was indicated also by 
 his graceful and refined beauty of person. He 
 showed, indeed, even before he began to read at 
 all, an instinctive attraction towards books, and 
 a love for and interest in even the material form 
 of knowledge, the plates, the print, the bind 
 ing of the Doctor s volumes, and even in a book 
 worm which he once found in an old volume, 
 where it had eaten a circular furrow. But the 
 little boy had too quick a spirit of life to be in 
 danger of becoming a bookworm himself. He 
 had this side of the intellect, but his impulse 
 would be to mix with men, and catch something 
 from their intercourse fresher than books could 
 
 42 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 give him ; though these would give him what 
 they might. 
 
 In the grim Doctor, rough and uncultivated 
 as he seemed, this budding intelligence found 
 no inadequate instructor. Doctor Grimshawe 
 proved himself a far more thorough scholar, in 
 the classics and mathematics, than could easily 
 have been found in our country. He himself 
 must have had rigid and faithful instruction at 
 an early period of life, though probably not in 
 his boyhood. For, though the culture had been 
 bestowed, his mind had been left in so singu 
 larly rough a state that it seemed as if the re 
 finement of classical study could not have been 
 begun very early. Or possibly the mind and 
 nature were incapable of polish ; or he may 
 have had a coarse and sordid domestic life 
 around him in his infancy and youth. He was 
 a gem of coarse texture, just hewn out. An 
 American with a like education would more 
 likely have gained a certain fineness and grace, 
 and it would have been difficult to distinguish 
 him from one who had been born to culture and 
 refinement. This sturdy Englishman, after all 
 that had been done for his mind, and though 
 it had been well done, was still but another 
 ploughman, of a long race of such, with a few 
 scratchings of refinement on his hard exterior. 
 His son, if he left one, might be a little less of 
 43 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the ploughman ; his grandson, provided the 
 female element were well chosen, might ap 
 proach to refinement ; three generations a cen 
 tury at least would be required for the slow 
 toil of hewing, chiselling, and polishing a gen 
 tleman out of this ponderous block, now rough 
 from the quarry of human nature. But, in 
 the meantime, he evidently possessed in an un 
 usual degree the sort of learning that refines 
 other minds, the critical acquaintance with the 
 great poets and historians of antiquity, and ap 
 parently an appreciation of their merits, and 
 power to teach their beauty. So the boy had 
 an able tutor, capable, it would seem, of show 
 ing him the way to the graces he did not him 
 self possess ; besides helping the growth of the 
 strength without which refinement is but sickly 
 and disgusting. 
 
 Another sort of culture, which it seemed odd 
 that this rude man should undertake, was that 
 of manners ; but, in fact, rude as the grim 
 Doctor s own manners were, he was one of the 
 nicest and severest censors in that department 
 that was ever known. It is difficult to account 
 for this ; although it is almost invariably found 
 that persons in a low rank of life, such as ser 
 vants and laborers, will detect the false pre 
 tender to the character of a gentleman, with at 
 least as sure an instinct as the class into which 
 they seek to thrust themselves. Perhaps they 
 44 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 recognize something akin to their own vulgar 
 ity, rather than appreciate what is unlike them 
 selves. The Doctor possessed a peculiar power 
 of rich rough humor on this subject, and used 
 to deliver lectures,, as it were, to little Ned, 
 illustrated with sketches of living individuals 
 in the town where they dwelt ; by an unscru 
 pulous use of whom he sought to teach the 
 boy what to avoid in manners, if he sought to 
 be a gentleman. But it must be confessed he 
 spared himself as little as other people, and 
 often wound up with this compendious injunc 
 tion, " Be everything in your behavior that 
 Doctor Grim is not ! " 
 
 His pupil, very probably, profited somewhat 
 by these instructions ; for there are specialties 
 and arbitrary rules of behavior which do not 
 come by nature. But these are few ; and beau 
 tiful, noble, and genial manners may almost 
 be called a natural gift ; and these, however he 
 inherited them, soon proved to be an inherent 
 possession of little Ned. He had a kind of 
 natural refinement, which nothing could ever 
 soil or offend ; it seemed, by some magic or 
 other, absolutely to keep him from the know 
 ledge of much of the grim Doctor s rude and 
 sordid exterior, and to render what was around 
 him beautiful by a sort of affiliation, or reflec 
 tion from that quality in himself, glancing its 
 white light upon it. The Doctor himself was 
 
 45 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 puzzled, and apparently both startled and de 
 lighted at the perception of these characteristics. 
 Sometimes he would make a low, uncouth bow, 
 after his fashion, to the little fellow, saying, 
 " Allow me to kiss your hand, my lord ! " and 
 little Ned, not quite knowing what the grim 
 Doctor meant, yet allowed the favor he asked, 
 with a grave and gracious condescension that 
 seemed much to delight the suitor. This re 
 fusal to recognize or to suspect that the Doctor 
 might be laughing at him was a sure token, at 
 any rate, of the lack of one vulgar characteristic 
 in little Ned. 
 
 In order to afford little Ned every advantage 
 to these natural gifts, Doctor Grim nevertheless 
 failed not to provide the best attainable instruc 
 tor for such positive points of a polite educa 
 tion as his own fierce criticism, being destructive 
 rather than generative, would not suffice for. 
 There was a Frenchman in the town a M. Le 
 Grand, secretly calling himself a Count who 
 taught the little people, and, indeed, some of 
 their elders, the Parisian pronunciation of his 
 own language ; and likewise dancing (in which 
 he was more of an adept and more successful 
 than in the former branch) and fencing : in 
 which, after looking at a lesson or two, the grim 
 Doctor was satisfied of his skill. Under his 
 instruction, with the stimulus of the Doctor s 
 praise and criticism, Ned soon grew to be the 
 46 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 pride of the Frenchman s school, in both the 
 active departments ; and the Doctor himself 
 added a further gymnastic acquirement (not 
 absolutely necessary, he said, to a gentleman s 
 education, but very desirable to a man perfect 
 at all points) by teaching him cudgel-playing 
 and pugilism. In short, in everything that re 
 lated to accomplishments, whether of mind or 
 body, no pains were spared with little Ned ; 
 but of the utilitarian line of education, then al 
 most exclusively adopted, and especially desir 
 able for a fortuneless boy like Ned, dependent 
 on a man not wealthy, there was little given. 
 
 At first, too, the Doctor paid little attention 
 to the moral and religious culture of his pupil ; 
 nor did he ever make a system of it. But by 
 and by, though with a singular reluctance and 
 kind of bashfulness, he began to extend his care 
 to these matters ; being drawn into them un 
 awares, and possibly perceiving and learning 
 what he taught as he went along. One even 
 ing, I know not how, he was betrayed into 
 speaking on this point, and a sort of inspiration 
 seized him. A vista opened before him : han 
 dling an immortal spirit, he began to know its 
 requisitions, in a degree far beyond what he had 
 conceived them to be when his great task was 
 undertaken. His voice grew deep, and had a 
 strange, impressive pathos in it ; his talk be 
 came eloquent with depth of meaning and feel- 
 47 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ing, as he told the boy of the moral dangers of 
 the world, for which he was seeking to educate 
 him ; and which, he said, presented what looked 
 like great triumphs, and yet were the greatest 
 and saddest of defeats. He told him that many 
 things that seemed nearest and dearest to the 
 heart of man were destructive, eating and gnaw 
 ing away and corroding what was best in him ; 
 and what a high, noble, re-creating triumph it 
 was when these dark impulses were resisted and 
 overthrown ; and how, from that epoch, the soul 
 took a new start. He denounced the selfish 
 greed of gold, lawless passion, revenge, and 
 here the grim Doctor broke out into a strange 
 passion and zeal of anathema against this deadly 
 sin, making a dreadful picture of the ruin that 
 it creates in the heart where it establishes itself, 
 and how it makes a corrosive acid of those gen 
 ial juices. Then he told the boy that the con 
 dition of all good was, in the first place, truth ; 
 then, courage ; then, justice ; then, mercy ; out 
 of which principles operating upon one another 
 would come all brave, noble, high, unselfish ac 
 tions, and the scorn of all mean ones ; and how 
 that from such a nature all hatred would fall 
 away, and all good affections would be ennobled. 
 I know not at what point it was, precisely, in 
 these ethical instructions that an insight seemed 
 to strike the grim Doctor that something more 
 vastly more was needed than all he had 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 said ; and he began, doubtfully, to speak of 
 man s spiritual nature and its demands, and the 
 emptiness of everything which a sense of these 
 demands did not pervade, and condense, and 
 weighten into realities. And going on in this 
 strain, he soared out of himself and astonished 
 the two children, who stood gazing at him, won 
 dering whether it were the Doctor who was 
 speaking thus ; until some interrupting circum 
 stance seemed to bring him back to himself, and 
 he burst into one of his great roars of laughter. 
 The inspiration, the strange light whereby he 
 had been transfigured, passed out of his face ; 
 and there was the uncouth, wild-bearded, rough, 
 earthy, passionate man, whom they called Doc 
 tor Grim, looking ashamed of himself, and try 
 ing to turn the whole matter into a jest. 2 
 
 It was a sad pity that he should have been 
 interrupted, and brought into this mocking 
 mood, just when he seemed to have broken 
 away from the sinfulness of his hot, evil nature, 
 and to have soared into a region where, with all 
 his native characteristics transfigured, he seemed 
 to have become an angel in his own likeness. 
 Crusty Hannah, who had been drawn to the 
 door of the study by the unusual tones of his 
 voice, a kind of piercing sweetness in it, 
 always averred that she saw the gigantic spider 
 swooping round his head in great crafty circles, 
 and clutching, as it were, at his brain with its 
 
 49 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 great claws. But it was the old woman s absurd 
 idea that this hideous insect was the Devil, 
 in that ugly guise, a superstition which 
 deserves absolutely no countenance. Never 
 theless, though this paroxysm of devotional feel 
 ing and insight returned no more to the grim 
 Doctor, it was ever after a memorable occasion 
 to the two children. It touched that religious 
 chord, in both their hearts, which there was no 
 mother to touch ; but now it vibrated long, and 
 never ceased to vibrate so long as they remained 
 together, nor, perhaps, after they were parted 
 from each other and from the grim Doctor. 
 And even then, in those after years, the strange 
 music that had been awakened was continued, 
 as it were the echo from harps on high. Now, 
 at all events, they made little prayers for them 
 selves, and said them at bedtime, generally in 
 secret, sometimes in unison ; and they read in 
 an old dusty Bible which lay among the grim 
 Doctor s books ; and from little heathens, they 
 became Christian children. Doctor Grimshawe 
 was perhaps conscious of this result of his in 
 voluntary preachment, but he never directly 
 noticed it, and did nothing either to efface or 
 deepen the impression. 
 
 It was singular, however, that, in both the 
 children s minds, this one gush of irresistible 
 religious sentiment, breaking out of the grim 
 Doctor s inner depths, like a sort of holy lava 
 
 50 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 from a volcano that usually emitted quite other 
 matter (such as hot, melted wrath and hate), 
 quite threw out of sight, then and always after 
 wards, his darker characteristics. They remem 
 bered him, with faith and love, as a religious 
 man, and forgot what perhaps had made no 
 impression on their innocent hearts all the 
 traits that other people might have called devil 
 ish. To them the grim Doctor was a saint, 
 even during his lifetime and constant intercourse 
 with them, and canonized forever afterwards. 
 There is almost always, to be sure, this pro 
 found faith, with regard to those they love, in 
 childhood ; but perhaps, in this instance, the 
 children really had a depth of insight that grown 
 people lacked ; a profound recognition of the 
 bottom of this strange man s nature, which was 
 of such stuff as martyrs and heroic saints might 
 have been made of, though here it had been 
 wrought miserably amiss. At any rate, his face 
 with the holy awe upon it was what they saw 
 and remembered, when they thought of their 
 friend Doctor Grim. 
 
 One effect of his zealous and analytic instruc 
 tion of the boy was very perceptible. Hereto 
 fore, though enduring him, and occasionally 
 making a plaything of him, it may be doubted 
 whether the grim Doctor had really any strong 
 affection for the child : it rather seemed as if 
 his strong will were forcing him to undertake, 
 
 51 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and carry sedulously forward, a self-imposed 
 task. All that he had done his redeeming 
 the bright child from poverty and nameless de 
 gradation, ignorance, and a sordid life hopeless 
 of better fortune, and opening to him the whole 
 realm of mighty possibilities in an American 
 life did not imply any love for the little indi 
 vidual whom he thus benefited. It had some 
 other motive. 
 
 But now, approaching the child in this close, 
 intimate, and helpful way, it was very evident 
 that his interest took a tenderer character. 
 There was everything in the boy, that a boy 
 could possess, to attract affection ; he would 
 have been a father s pride and joy. Doctor 
 Grimshawe, indeed, was not his father ; but to 
 a person of his character this was perhaps no 
 cause of lesser love than if there had been the 
 whole of that holy claim of kindred between 
 them. We speak of the natural force of blood ; 
 we speak of the paternal relation as if it were 
 productive of more earnest affection than can 
 exist between two persons, one of whom is pro 
 tective, but unrelated. But there are wild, for 
 cible, unrestricted characters, on whom the ne 
 cessity and even duty of loving their own child 
 is a sort of barrier to love. They perhaps do 
 not love their own traits, which they recognize 
 in their children ; they shrink from their own 
 features in the reflection presented by these lit- 
 
 52 
 
DOCTOR GRLMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 tie mirrors. A certain strangeness and unlike- 
 ness (such as gives poignancy to the love be 
 tween the sexes) would excite a livelier affection. 
 Be this as it may, it is not probable that Doctor 
 Grimshawe would have loved a child of his own 
 blood, with the coarse characteristics that he 
 knew both in his race and himself, with nearly 
 such fervor as this beautiful, slender, yet strenu 
 ous, intelligent, refined boy, with such a high 
 bred air, handling common things with so re 
 fined a touch, yet grasping them so firmly ; 
 throwing a natural grace on all he did. Was 
 he not his father, he that took this fair blos 
 som out of the sordid mud in which he must 
 soon have withered and perished ? Was not 
 this beautiful strangeness, which he so wondered 
 at, the result of his care ? 
 
 And little Elsie ? did the grim Doctor love 
 her as well ? Perhaps not, for, in the first 
 place, there was a natural tie, though not the 
 nearest, between her and Doctor Grimshawe, 
 which made him feel that she was cast upon his 
 love : a burden which he acknowledged himself 
 bound to undertake. Then, too, there were 
 unutterably painful reminiscences and thoughts, 
 that made him gasp for breath, that turned his 
 blood sour, that tormented his dreams with 
 nightmares and hellish phantoms ; all of which 
 were connected with this innocent and happy 
 child ; so that, cheerful and pleasant as she was, 
 
 53 
 
V 
 
 DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 there was to the grim Doctor a little fiend play 
 ing about his floor and throwing a lurid light 
 on the wall, as the shadow of this sun-flickering 
 child. It is certain that there was always a pain 
 and horror mixed with his feelings towards 
 Elsie ; he had to forget himself, as it were, and 
 all that was connected with the causes why she 
 came to be, before he could love her. Amid 
 his fondness, when he was caressing her upon 
 his knee, pressing her to his rough bosom, as 
 he never took the freedom to press Ned, came 
 these hateful reminiscences, compelling him to 
 set her down, and corrugating his heavy brows 
 as with a pang of fiercely resented, strongly 
 borne pain. Still, the child had no doubt con 
 trived to make her way into the great gloomy 
 cavern of the grim Doctor s heart, and stole 
 constantly further and further in, carrying a ray 
 of sunshine in her hand as a taper to light her 
 way, and illuminate the rude dark pit into which 
 she so fearlessly went. 
 
 54 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 DOCTOR GRIM had the English faith 
 in open air and daily acquaintance with 
 the weather, whatever it might be; and 
 it was his habit, not only to send the two chil 
 dren to play, for lack of a better place, in the 
 graveyard, but to take them himself on long 
 rambles, of which the vicinity of the town af 
 forded a rich variety. It may be that the Doc 
 tor s excursions had the wider scope, because 
 both he and the children were objects of curi 
 osity in the town, and very much the subject 
 of its gossip : so that always, in its streets and 
 lanes, the people turned to gaze, and came to 
 their windows and to the doors of shops to see 
 this grim, bearded figure, leading along the 
 beautiful children each by a hand, with a surly 
 aspect like a bulldog. Their remarks were 
 possibly not intended to reach the ears of the 
 party, but certainly were not so cautiously whis 
 pered but they occasionally did do so. The 
 male remarks, indeed, generally died away in 
 the throats that uttered them ; a circumstance 
 that doubtless saved the utterer from some very 
 rough rejoinder at the hands of the Doctor, 
 who had grown up in the habit of a very ready 
 
 55 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and free recourse to his fists, which had a way 
 of doubling themselves up seemingly of their 
 own accord. But the shrill feminine voices 
 sometimes sent their observations from window 
 to window without dread of any such repartee 
 on the part of the subject of them. 
 
 " There he goes, the old Spider-witch ! " quoth 
 one shrill woman, " with those two poor babes 
 that he has caught in his cobweb, and is going 
 to feed upon, poor little tender things ! The 
 bloody Englishman makes free with the dead 
 bodies of our friends and the living ones of our 
 children ! " 
 
 " How red his nose is ! " quoth another; "he 
 has pulled at the brandy bottle pretty stoutly 
 to-day, early as it is ! Pretty habits those chil 
 dren will learn, between the Devil in the shape 
 of a great spider, and this devilish fellow in his 
 own shape ! It were well that our townsmen 
 tarred and feathered the old British wizard ! " 
 
 And, as he got further off, two or three little 
 blackguard barefoot boys shouted shrilly after 
 him, 
 
 " Doctor Grim, Doctor Grim, 
 
 The Devil wove a web for him ! " 
 
 being a nonsensical couplet that had been made 
 for the grim Doctor s benefit, and was hooted 
 in the streets, and under his own windows. 
 Hearing such remarks and insults, the Doctor 
 would glare round at them with red eyes, espe- 
 
 56 
 
There be goes, the old spider-witch ! " 
 
I 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 daily if the brandy bottle had happened to be 
 much in request that day. 
 
 Indeed, poor Doctor Grim had met with a 
 fortune which befalls many a man with less 
 cause than drew the public attention on this odd 
 humorist; for, dwelling in a town which was 
 as yet but a larger village, where everybody 
 knew everybody, and claimed the privilege to 
 know and discuss their characters, and where 
 there were few topics of public interest to take 
 off their attention, a very considerable portion 
 of town talk and criticism fell upon him. The 
 old town had a certain provincialism, which is 
 less the characteristic of towns in these days, 
 when society circulates so freely, than then : be 
 sides, it was a very rude epoch, just when the 
 country had come through the war of the Re 
 volution, and while the surges of that commotion 
 were still seething and swelling, and while the 
 habits and morals of every individual in the com 
 munity still felt its influence ; and especially the 
 contest was too recent for an Englishman to be 
 in very good odor, unless he should cease to 
 be English, and become more American than 
 the Americans themselves in repudiating Brit 
 ish prejudices or principles, habits, mode of 
 thought, and everything that distinguishes Brit 
 ons at home or abroad. As Doctor Grim did 
 not see fit to do this, and as, moreover, he was 
 a very doubtful, questionable, morose, unami- 
 
 57 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 able old fellow, not seeking to make himself 
 liked nor deserving to be so, he was a very un 
 popular person in the town where he had chosen 
 to reside. Nobody thought very well of him ; 
 the respectable people had heard of his pipe and 
 brandy bottle ; the religious community knew 
 that he never showed himself at church or meet 
 ing ; so that he had not that very desirable 
 strength (in a society split up into many sects) 
 of being able to rely upon the party sympathies 
 of any one of them. The mob hated him with 
 the blind sentiment that makes one surly cur 
 hostile to another surly cur. He was the most 
 isolated individual to be found anywhere ; and, 
 being so unsupported, everybody was his enemy. 
 The town, as it happened, had been pleased 
 to interest itself much in this matter of Doctor 
 Grim and the two children, insomuch as he never 
 sent them to school, nor came with them to meet 
 ing of any kind, but was bringing them up igno 
 rant heathen to all appearances, and, as many 
 believed, was devoting them in some way to the 
 great spider, to which he had bartered his own 
 soul. It had been mooted among the select 
 men, the fathers of the town, whether their duty 
 did not require them to put the children under 
 more suitable guardianship ; a measure which, 
 it may be, was chiefly hindered by the consider 
 ation that, in that case, the cost of supporting 
 them would probably be transferred from the 
 
 58 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 grim Doctor s shoulders to those of the com 
 munity. Nevertheless, they did what they could. 
 Maidenly ladies, prim and starched, in one or 
 two instances called upon the Doctor the two 
 children meanwhile being in the graveyard at 
 play to give him Christian advice as to the 
 management of his charge. But, to confess the 
 truth, the Doctor s reception of these fair mis 
 sionaries was not extremely courteous. They 
 were, perhaps, partly instigated by a* natural 
 feminine desire to see the interior of a place 
 about which they had heard much, with its 
 spiders webs, its strange machines and confus 
 ing tools ; so, much contrary to crusty Hannah s 
 advice, they persisted in entering. Crusty Han 
 nah listened at the door ; and it was curious to 
 see the delighted smile which came over her dry 
 old visage as the Doctor s growling, rough voice, 
 after an abrupt question or two, and a reply in 
 a thin voice on the part of the maiden ladies, 
 grew louder and louder, till the door opened, 
 and forth came the benevolent pair in great dis 
 composure. Crusty Hannah averred that their 
 caps were much rumpled ; but this view of the 
 thing was questioned ; though it were certain 
 that the Doctor called after them downstairs, 
 that, had they been younger and prettier, they 
 would have fared worse. A male emissary, who 
 was admitted on the supposition of his being a 
 patient, did fare worse ; for (the grim Doctor 
 
 59 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 having been particularly intimate with the black 
 bottle that afternoon) there was, about ten min 
 utes after the visitor s entrance, a sudden fierce 
 upraising of the Doctor s growl ; then a strug 
 gle that shook the house; and, finally, a terrible 
 rumbling down the stairs, which proved to be 
 caused by the precipitate descent of the hapless 
 visitor; who, if he needed no assistance of the 
 grim Doctor on his entrance, certainly would 
 have been the better for a plaster or two after 
 his departure. 
 
 Such were the terms on which Doctor Grim- 
 shawe now stood with his adopted townspeople ; 
 and if we consider the dull little town to be full 
 of exaggerated stories about the Doctor s odd 
 ities, many of them forged, all retailed in an 
 unfriendly spirit ; misconceptions of a character 
 which, in its best and most candidly interpreted 
 aspects, was sufficiently amenable to censure ; 
 surmises taken for certainties ; superstitions 
 the genuine hereditary offspring of the frame of 
 public mind which produced the witchcraft de 
 lusion all fermenting together ; and all this 
 evil and uncharitableness taking the delusive hue 
 of benevolent interest in two helpless children ; 
 we may partly judge what was the odium in 
 which the grim Doctor dwelt, and amid which 
 he walked. The horrid suspicion, too, counte 
 nanced by his abode in the corner of the grave 
 yard, affording the terrible Doctor such facili- 
 
 60 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ties for making free, like a ghoul as he was, with 
 the relics of mortality from the earliest progen 
 itor to the man killed yesterday by the Doctor s 
 own drugs, was not likely to improve his repu 
 tation. 
 
 He had heretofore contented himself with, 
 at most, occasionally shaking his stick at his as 
 sailants ; but this day the black bottle had im 
 parted, it may be, a little more fire than ordi 
 nary to his blood ; and besides, an unlucky 
 urchin happened to take particularly good aim 
 with a mud-ball, which took effect right in the 
 midst of the Doctor s bushy beard, and, being 
 of a soft consistency, forthwith became incorpo 
 rated with it. At this intolerable provocation 
 the grim Doctor pursued the little villain, amid 
 a shower of similar missiles from the boy s play 
 mates, caught him as he was escaping into a 
 back yard, dragged him into the middle of the 
 street, and, with his stick, proceeded to give him 
 his merited chastisement. 
 
 But, hereupon, it was astonishing how sud 
 den commotion flashed up like gunpowder along 
 the street, which, except for the petty shrieks 
 and laughter of a few children, was just before 
 so quiet. Forth out of every window in those 
 dusky, mean wooden houses were thrust heads 
 of women, old and young ; forth out of every 
 door and other avenue, and as if they started up 
 from the middle of the street or out of the un- 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 paved sidewalks, rushed fierce avenging forms, 
 threatening at full yell to take vengeance on the 
 grim Doctor ; who still, with that fierce dark 
 face of his, his muddy beard all flying abroad, 
 dirty and foul, his hat fallen off, his red eyes flash 
 ing fire, was belaboring the poor hinder end 
 of the unhappy urchin, paying off upon that one 
 part of the boy s frame the whole score which 
 he had to settle with the rude boys of the town ; 
 giving him at once the whole whipping which 
 he had deserved every day of his life, and not 
 a stroke of which he had yet received. Need 
 enough there was, no doubt, that somebody 
 should interfere with such grim and immitiga 
 ble justice ; and certainly the interference was 
 prompt, and promised to be effectual. 
 
 " Down with the old tyrant ! Thrash him ! 
 Hang him ! Tar and feather the viper s fry ! 
 the wizard ! the body-snatcher ! " bellowed the 
 mob, one member of which was raving with de 
 lirium tremens, and another was a madman just 
 escaped from bedlam. 
 
 It is unaccountable where all this mischievous, 
 bloodthirsty multitude came from, how they 
 were born into that quietness in such a moment 
 of time ! What had they been about hereto 
 fore ? Were they waiting in readiness for this 
 crisis, and keeping themselves free from other 
 employment till it should come to pass ? Had 
 they been created for the moment, or were they 
 
 62 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 fiends sent by Satan in the likeness of a black 
 guard population ? There you might see the 
 offscourings of the recently finished war, old 
 soldiers, rusty, wooden-legged; there, sailors, 
 ripe for any kind of mischief ; there, the drunken 
 population of a neighboring grogshop, stagger 
 ing helter-skelter to the scene, and tumbling 
 over one another at the Doctor s feet. There 
 came the father of the punished urchin, who had 
 never shown heretofore any care for his street- 
 bred progeny, but who now came pale with rage, 
 armed with a pair of tongs ; and with him the 
 mother, flying like a fury, with her cap awry, 
 and clutching a broomstick, as if she were a 
 witch just alighted. Up they rushed from cel 
 lar doors, and dropped down from chamber 
 windows ; all rushing upon the Doctor, but over 
 turning and thwarting themselves by their very 
 multitude. For, as good Doctor Grim levelled 
 the first that came within reach of his fist, two 
 or three of the others tumbled over him and lay 
 grovelling at his feet ; the Doctor meanwhile 
 having retreated into the angle between two 
 houses. Little Ned, with a valor which did 
 him the more credit inasmuch as it was exer 
 cised in spite of a good deal of childish trepida 
 tion, as his pale face indicated, brandished his 
 fists by the Doctor s side ; and little Elsie did 
 what any woman may, that is, screeched in 
 Doctor Grim s behalf with full stretch of lungs. 
 
 63 
 
n 
 
 DOCTOR GRIMSH AWE S SECRET 
 
 Meanwhile the street boys kept up a shower of 
 mud-balls, many of which hit the doctor, while 
 the rest were distributed upon his assailants, 
 heightening their ferocity. 
 
 " Seize the old scoundrel ! the villain ! the 
 Tory ! the dastardly Englishman ! Hang him 
 in the web of his own devilish spider, tis 
 long enough ! Tar and feather him ! tar and 
 feather him ! " 
 
 It was certainly one of those crises that show 
 a man how few real friends he has, and the tend 
 ency of mankind to stand aside, at least, and 
 let a poor devil fight his own troubles, if not as 
 sist them in their attack. Here you might have 
 seen a brother physician of the grim Doctor s 
 greatly tickled at his plight ; or a decorous, pow 
 dered, ruffle-shirted dignitary, one of the weighty 
 men of the town, standing at a neighbor s corner 
 to see what would come of it. 
 
 " He is not a respectable man, I understand, 
 this Grimshawe, a quack, intemperate, always 
 in these scuffles : let him get out as he may ! " 
 
 And then comes a deacon of one of the 
 churches, and several church members, who, 
 hearing a noise, set out gravely and decorously 
 to see what was going forward in a Christian 
 community. 
 
 " Ah ! it is that irreligious and profane Grim 
 shawe, who never goes to meeting. We wash 
 our hands of him ! " 
 
 64 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 And one of the selectmen said : 
 
 " Surely this common brawler ought not to 
 have the care of these nice, sweet children ; 
 something must be done about it ; and when 
 the man is sober, he must be talked to ! " 
 
 Alas ! it is a hard case with a man who lives 
 upon his own bottom and responsibility, making 
 himself no allies, sewing himself on to nobody s 
 skirts, insulating himself, hard, when his 
 trouble comes ; and so poor Doctor Grim- 
 shawe was like to find it. 
 
 He had succeeded by dint of good skill, and 
 some previous practice at quarterstaff, in keep 
 ing his assailants at bay, though not without 
 some danger on his own part ; but their num 
 ber, their fierceness, and the more skilled assault 
 of some among them must almost immediately 
 have been successful, when the Doctor s part 
 was strengthened by an unexpected ally. This 
 was a person 2 of tall, slight figure, who, without 
 lifting his hands to take part in the conflict, 
 thrust himself before the Doctor, and turned 
 towards the assailants, crying : 
 
 " Christian men, what would you do ? Peace, 
 peace ! " 
 
 His so well-intended exhortation took effect, 
 indeed, in a certain way, but not precisely as 
 might have been wished ; for a blow, aimed at 
 Doctor Grim, took effect on the head of this 
 man, who seemed to have no sort of skill or 
 
 65 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 alacrity at defending himself, any more than at 
 making an assault ; for he never lifted his hands, 
 but took the blow as unresistingly as if it had 
 been kindly meant, and it levelled him sense 
 less on the ground. 
 
 Had the mob really been enraged for any 
 strenuous cause, this incident would have oper 
 ated merely as a preliminary whet to stimulate 
 them to further bloodshed. But, as they were 
 mostly actuated only by a natural desire for mis 
 chief, they were about as well satisfied with what 
 had been done as if the Doctor himself were the 
 victim. And besides, the fathers and respecta 
 bilities of the town, who had seen this mishap 
 from afar, now began to put forward, crying out, 
 " Keep the peace ! keep the peace ! A riot ! a 
 riot! " and other such cries as suited the emer 
 gency ; and the crowd vanished more speedily 
 than it had congregated, leaving the Doctor and 
 the two children alone beside the fallen victim 
 of a quarrel not his own. Not to dwell too long 
 on this incident, the Doctor, laying hold of the 
 last of his enemies, after the rest had taken to 
 their heels, ordered him sternly to stay and help 
 him bear the man, whom he had helped to mur 
 der, to his house. 
 
 "It concerns you, friend ; for, if he dies, you 
 hang to a dead certainty ! " 
 
 And this was done accordingly. 
 66 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 A3UT an hour thereafter there lay on a 
 couch that had been hastily prepared in 
 the study a person of singularly impres 
 sive presence : a thin, mild-looking man, with 
 a peculiar look of delicacy and natural refinement 
 about him, although he scarcely appeared to be 
 technically and as to worldly position what we 
 call a gentleman ; plain in dress and simple 
 in manner, not giving the idea of remarkable 
 intellectual gifts, but with a kind of spiritual 
 aspect, fair, clear complexion, gentle eyes, still 
 somewhat clouded and obscured by the syncope 
 into which a blow on the head had thrown him. 
 He looked middle-aged, and yet there was a 
 kind of childlike, simple expression, which, un 
 less you looked at him with the very purpose 
 of seeing the traces of time in his face, would 
 make you suppose him much younger. 
 
 " And how do you find yourself now, my 
 good fellow ? " asked Doctor Grimshawe, put 
 ting forth his hand to grasp that of the stranger, 
 and giving it a good, warm shake. " None the 
 worse, I should hope ? " l 
 
 " Not much the worse," answered the stran 
 ger: " not at all, it may be. There is a plea- 
 
 67 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 sant dimness and uncertainty in my mode of 
 being. I am taken off my feet, as it were, and 
 float in air, with a faint delight in my sensations. 
 The grossness, the roughness, the too great an 
 gularity of the actual, is removed from me. It 
 is a state that I like well. It may be, this is the 
 way that the dead feel when they awake in an 
 other state of being, with a dim pleasure, after 
 passing through the brief darkness of death. It 
 is very pleasant." 
 
 He answered dreamily, and sluggishly, reluc 
 tantly, as if there were a sense of repose in him 
 which he disliked to break by putting any of 
 his sensations into words. His voice had a re 
 markable sweetness and gentleness, though lack 
 ing in depth of melody. 
 
 " Here, take this," said the Doctor, who had 
 been preparing some kind of potion in a tea 
 spoon : it may have been a dose of his famous 
 preparation of spider s web, for aught I know, 
 the operation of which was said to be of a sooth 
 ing influence, causing a delightful silkiness of 
 sensation ; but I know not whether it was con 
 sidered good for concussions of the brain, such 
 as it is to be supposed the present patient had 
 undergone. " Take this : it will do you good ; 
 and here I drink your very good health in some 
 thing that will do me good." 
 
 So saying, the grim Doctor quaffed off a 
 tumbler of brandy and water. 
 68 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " How sweet a contrast," murmured the stran 
 ger, " between that scene of violence and this 
 great peace that has come over me ! It is as 
 when one can say, I have fought the good 
 
 fight." 
 
 " You are right," said the Doctor, with what 
 would have been one of his deep laughs, but 
 which he modified in consideration of his pa 
 tient s tenderness of brain. " We both of us 
 fought a good fight ; for though you struck no 
 actual stroke, you took them as unflinchingly as 
 ever I saw a man, and so turned the fortune of 
 the battle better than if you smote with a sledge 
 hammer. Two things puzzle me in the affair. 
 First, whence came my assailants, all in that 
 moment of time, unless Satan let loose out of 
 the infernal regions a synod of fiends, hoping 
 thus to get a triumph over me. And secondly, 
 whence came you, my preserver, unless you are 
 an angel, and dropped down from the sky." 
 
 " No," answered the stranger, with quiet sim 
 plicity. " I was passing through the street to 
 my little school, when I saw your peril, and 
 felt it my duty to expostulate with the people." 
 
 " Well," said the grim Doctor, " come whence 
 you will, you did an angel s office for me, and I 
 shall do what an earthly man may to requite it. 
 There, we will talk no more for the present." 
 
 He hushed up the children, who were al 
 ready, of their own accord, walking on tiptoe 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and whispering, and he himself even went so 
 far as to refrain from the usual incense of his 
 pipe, having observed that the stranger, who 
 seemed to be of a very delicate organization, 
 had seemed sensible of the disagreeable effect 
 on the atmosphere of the room. The restraint 
 lasted, however, only till (in the course of the 
 day) crusty Hannah had fitted up a little bed 
 room on the opposite side of the entry, to which 
 she and the grim Doctor moved the stranger, 
 who, though tall, they observed was of no great 
 weight and substance, the lightest man, the 
 Doctor averred, for his size, that ever he had 
 handled. 
 
 Every possible care was taken of him, and in 
 a day or two he was able to walk into the study 
 again, where he sat gazing at the sordidness and 
 unneatness of the apartment, the strange fes 
 toons and drapery of spiders webs, the gigan 
 tic spider himself, and at the grim Doctor, so 
 shaggy, grizzly, and uncouth, in the midst of 
 these surroundings, with a perceptible sense of 
 something very strange in it all. His mild, 
 gentle regard dwelt too on the two beautiful 
 children, evidently with a sense of quiet wonder 
 how they should be here, and altogether a sense 
 of their unfitness ; they, meanwhile, stood a lit 
 tle apart, looking at him, somewhat disturbed 
 and awed, as children usually are, by a sense 
 that the stranger was not perfectly well, that he 
 
 7 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 had been injured, and so set apart from the rest 
 of the world. 
 
 " Will you come to me, little one ? " said he, 
 holding out a delicate hand to Elsie. 
 
 Elsie came to his side without any hesitation, 
 though without any of the rush that accompa 
 nied her advent to those whom she affected. 
 " And you, my little man," added the stranger 
 quietly, and looking to Ned, who likewise will 
 ingly approached, and, shaking him by the of 
 fered hand, let it go again, but continued stand 
 ing by his side. 
 
 " Do you know, my little friends," said the 
 stranger, " that it is my business in life to in 
 struct such little people as you ? " 
 
 " Do they obey you well, sir ? " asked Ned, 
 perhaps conscious of a want of force in the per 
 son whom he addressed. 
 
 The stranger smiled faintly. " Not too well," 
 said he. " That has been my difficulty ; for I 
 have moral and religious objections, and also a 
 great horror, to the use of the rod, and I have 
 not been gifted with a harsh voice and a stern 
 brow ; so that, after a while, my little people 
 sometimes get the better of me. The present 
 generation of men is too gross for gentle treat 
 ment." 
 
 " You are quite right," quoth Doctor Grim- 
 shawe, who had been observing this little scene, 
 and trying to make out, from the mutual de- 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 portment of the stranger and the two children, 
 what sort of man this fair, quiet stranger was, 
 with his gentleness and weakness, character 
 istics that were not attractive to himself, yet in 
 which he acknowledged, as he saw them here, 
 a certain charm ; nor did he know, scarcely, 
 whether to despise the one in whom he saw 
 them, or to yield to a strange sense of reverence. 
 So he watched the children, with an indistinct 
 idea of being guided by them. " You are quite 
 right : the world now and always before, as 
 far as I ever heard requires a great deal of 
 brute force, a great deal of animal food and 
 brandy in the man that is to make an impres 
 sion on it." 
 
 The convalescence of the stranger he gave 
 his name as Colcord proceeded favorably ; 
 for the Doctor remarked that, delicate as his 
 system was, it had a certain purity, a simple 
 healthfulness that did not run into disease as 
 stronger constitutions might. It did not appar 
 ently require much to crush down such a being 
 as this, not much unkindly breath to blow 
 out the taper of his life, and yet, if not abso 
 lutely killed, there was a certain aptness to keep 
 alive in him not readily to be overcome. 
 
 No sooner was he in a condition so to do, 
 than he went forth to look after the little school 
 that he had spoken of, but soon came back, 
 announcing in a very quiet and undisturbed 
 
 72 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 way that, during his withdrawal from duty, the \ 
 scholars had been distributed to other instruc- \ 
 tors, and consequently he was without place or 
 occupation. 2 
 
 " A hard case," said the Doctor, flinging a 
 gruff curse at those who had so readily deserted 
 the poor schoolmaster. 
 
 " Not so hard," replied Colcord. " These 
 little fellows are an unruly set, born of parents 
 who have led rough lives, here in battle time, 
 too, with the spirit of battle in them, there 
 fore rude and contentious beyond my power to 
 cope with them. I have been taught, long 
 ago," he added, with a peaceful smile, " that 
 my business in life does not lie with grown-up 
 and consolidated men and women ; and so, not 
 to be useless in my day, and to gain the little 
 that my sustenance requires, I have thought to 
 deal with children. But even for this I lack 
 force." 
 
 " I dare say," said the Doctor, with a modi 
 fied laugh. " Little devils they are, harder to 
 deal with than men. Well, I am glad of your 
 failure for one reason, and of your being thrown 
 out of business ; because we shall have the bene 
 fit of you the longer. Here is this boy to be in 
 structed. I have made some attempts myself; 
 but having no art of instructing, no skill, no 
 temper I suppose, I make but an indifferent 
 hand at it : and besides I have other business 
 
 73 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 that occupies my thoughts. Take him in hand> 
 if you like, and the girl for company. No mat 
 ter whether you teach her anything, unless you 
 happen to be acquainted with needlework." 
 
 " I will talk with the children," said Colcord, 
 " and see if I am likely to do good with them. 
 The lad, I see, has a singular spirit of aspiration 
 and pride, no ungentle pride, but still hard 
 to cope with. 1 will see. The little girl is a 
 most comfortable child." 
 
 " You have read the boy as if you had his 
 heart in your hand," said the Doctor, rather 
 surprised. " I could not have done it better 
 myself, though I have known him all but from 
 the egg." ^ 
 
 Accordingly, the stranger, who had been thrust 
 so providentially into this odd and insulated lit 
 tle community, abode with them, without more 
 words being spoken on the subject ; for it seemed 
 to all concerned a natural arrangement, although, 
 on both parts, they were mutually sensible of 
 something strange in the companionship thus 
 brought about. To say the truth, it was not 
 easy to imagine two persons apparently less 
 adapted to each other s society than the rough, 
 uncouth, animal Doctor, whose faith was in his 
 own right arm, so full of the old Adam as he 
 was, so sturdily a hater, so hotly impulsive, so 
 deep, subtle, and crooked, so obstructed by his 
 animal nature, so given to his pipe and black 
 
 74 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 bottle, so wrathful and pugnacious and wicked, 
 and this mild, spiritual creature, so milky, 
 with so unforceful a grasp ; and it was singular 
 to see how they stood apart and eyed each other, 
 each tacitly acknowledging a certain merit and 
 kind of power, though not well able to appre 
 ciate its value. The grim Doctor s kindness, 
 however, and gratitude, had been so thoroughly 
 awakened, that he did not feel the disgust that 
 he probably otherwise might at what seemed the 
 mawkishness of Colcord s character ; his want, 
 morally speaking, of bone and muscle ; his fas 
 tidiousness of character, the essence of which it 
 seemed to be to bear no stain upon it ; other 
 wise it must die. 
 
 On Colcord s part there was a good deal of 
 evidence to be detected, by a nice observer, that 
 he found it difficult to put up with the Doctor s 
 coarse peculiarities, whether physical or moral. 
 His animal indulgences of appetite struck him 
 with wonder and horror ; his coarse expressions, 
 his free indulgence of wrath, his sordid and un 
 clean habits ; the dust, the cobwebs, the monster 
 that dangled from the ceiling ; his pipe, diffus 
 ing its fragrance through the house, and show 
 ing, by the plainest and simplest proof, how we 
 all breathe one another s breath, nice and proud 
 as we may be, kings and daintiest ladies breath 
 ing the air that has already served to inflate a 
 beggar s lungs. He shrank, too, from the rude 
 
 75 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 manhood of the doctor s character, with its 
 human warmth, an element which he seemed 
 not to possess in his own character. He was 
 capable only of gentle and mild regard, that: 
 was his warmest affection ; and the warmest, 
 too, that he was capable of exciting in others. 
 So that he was doomed as much apparently as 
 the Doctor himself to be a lonely creature, with 
 out any very deep companionship in the world, 
 though not incapable, when he, by some rare 
 chance, met a soul distantly akin, of holding a 
 certain high spiritual communion. With the 
 children, however, he succeeded in establishing 
 some good and available relations ; his simple 
 and passionless character coincided with their 
 simplicity, and their as yet unawakened pas 
 sions : they appeared to understand him better 
 than the Doctor ever succeeded in doing. He 
 touched springs and elements in the nature of 
 both that had never been touched till now, and 
 that sometimes made a sweet, high music. But 
 this was rarely ; and as far as the general duties 
 of an instructor went, they did not seem to be 
 very successfully performed. Something was 
 cultivated ; the spiritual germ grew, it might 
 be ; but the children, and especially Ned, were 
 intuitively conscious of a certain want of sub 
 stance in the instructor, a something of earthly 
 bulk ; a too etherealness. But his connection 
 with our story does not lie in any excellence, or 
 
 76 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 lack of excellence, that he showed as an in 
 structor, and we merely mention these things 
 as illustrating more or less his characteristics. 
 
 The grim Doctor s curiosity was somewhat 
 piqued by what he could see of the schoolmas 
 ter s character, and he was desirous of finding 
 out what sort of a life such a man could have 
 ]ed in a world which he himself had found so 
 rough a one ; through what difficulties he had 
 reached middle age without absolutely vanish 
 ing away in his contact with more positive sub 
 stances than himself; how the world had given 
 him a subsistence, if indeed he recognized any 
 thing more dense than fragrance, like a certain 
 people whom Pliny mentioned in Africa, a 
 point, in fact, which the grim Doctor denied, 
 his performance at table being inappreciable, 
 and confined, at least almost entirely, to a dish 
 of boiled rice, which crusty Hannah set before 
 him, preparing it, it might be, with a sympathy 
 of her East Indian part towards him. 
 
 Well, Doctor Grimshawe easily got at what 
 seemed to be all of the facts of Colcord s life; how 
 that he was a New Englander, the descendant 
 of an ancient race of settlers, the last of them ; 
 for, once pretty numerous in their quarter of the 
 country, they seemed to have been dying out, 
 exhaling from the earth, and passing to some 
 other region. 
 
 " No wonder," said the Doctor bluffly. " You 
 
 77 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 have been letting slip the vital principle, if you 
 are a fair specimen of the race. You do not 
 clothe yourself in substance. Your souls are 
 not coated sufficiently. Beef and brandy would 
 have saved you. You have exhaled for lack of 
 them/ 
 
 The schoolmaster shook his head, and prob 
 ably thought his earthly salvation and suste 
 nance not worth buying at such a cost. The 
 remainder of his history was not tangible enough 
 to afford a narrative. There seemed, from what 
 he said, to have always been a certain kind of 
 refinement in his race, a nicety of conscience, 
 a nicety of habit, which either was in itself a 
 want of force, or was necessarily connected with 
 it, and which, the Doctor silently thought, had 
 culminated in the person before him. 
 
 " It was always in us," continued Colcord, 
 with a certain pride which people generally feel 
 in their ancestral characteristics, be they good or 
 evil. " We had a tradition among us of our first 
 emigrant, and the causes that brought him to the 
 New World ; and it was said that he had suf 
 fered so much, before quitting his native shores, 
 so painful had been his track, that always after 
 wards on the forest leaves of this land his foot 
 left a print of blood wherever he trod." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 A PRINT of blood ! " said the grim Doc 
 tor, breaking his pipestem by some 
 sudden spasm in his gripe of it. " Pooh ! 
 the devil take the pipe ! A very strange story 
 that ! Pray how was it ? " l 
 
 " Nay, it is but a very dim legend/ answered 
 the schoolmaster : " although there are old yel 
 low papers and parchments, I remember, in my 
 father s possession, that had some reference to 
 this man, too, though there was nothing in them 
 about the bloody footprints. But our family 
 legend is, that this man was of a good race, in 
 the time of Charles the First, originally Papists, 
 but one of them the second son, our legend 
 sa y S W as of a milder, sweeter cast than the 
 rest, who were fierce and bloody men, of a hard, 
 strong nature ; but he partook most of his 
 mother s character. This son had been one of 
 the earliest Quakers, converted by George Fox ; 
 and moreover there had been love between him 
 and a young lady of great beauty and an heiress, 
 whom likewise the eldest son of the house had 
 designed to make his wife. And these brothers, 
 cruel men, caught their innocent brother and 
 
 7Q 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 kept him in confinement long in his own native 
 home " 
 
 " How ? " asked the Doctor. " Why did not 
 he appeal to the laws ? " 
 
 " Our legend says," replied the schoolmaster, 
 "only that he was kept in a chamber that was 
 forgotten/ 2 
 
 " Very strange that ! " quoth the Doctor. 
 " He was sold by his brethren." 
 
 The schoolmaster went on to tell, with much 
 shuddering, how a Jesuit priest had been mixed 
 up with this wretched business, and there had 
 been a scheme at once religious and political to 
 wrest the estate and the lovely lady from the 
 fortunate heir; and how this grim Italian priest 
 had instigated them to use a certain kind of 
 torture with the poor heir, and how he had suf 
 fered from this ; but one night, when they left him 
 senseless, he contrived to make his escape from 
 that cruel home, bleeding as he went ; and how, 
 by some action of his imagination, his sense 
 of the cruelty and hideousness of such treatment 
 at his brethren s hands, and in the holy name of 
 his religion, his foot, which had been crushed 
 by their cruelty, bled as he went, and that blood 
 had never been stanched. And thus he had 
 come to America, and, after many wanderings, 
 and much track of blood along rough ways, to 
 New England. 3 
 
 80 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 "And what became of his beloved?" asked 
 the grim Doctor, who was puffing away at a fresh 
 pipe with a very queer aspect. 
 
 " She died in England," replied the school 
 master. " And before her death, by some means 
 or other, they say that she found means to send 
 him a child, the offspring of their marriage, and 
 from that child our race descended. And they 
 say, too, that she sent him a key to a coffin, in 
 which was locked up a great treasure. But we 
 have not the key. But he never went back to 
 his own country ; and being heart-broken, and 
 sick and weary of the world and its pomps and 
 vanities, he died here, after suffering much per 
 secution likewise from the Puritans. For his 
 peaceful religion was accepted nowhere." 
 
 " Of all legends, all foolish legends," 
 quoth the Doctor wrathfully, with a face of a 
 dark blood-red color, so much was his anger and 
 contempt excited, " and of all absurd heroes of 
 a legend, I never heard the like of this ! Have 
 you the key? " 
 
 " No : nor have I ever heard of it," answered 
 the schoolmaster. 
 
 " But you have some papers ? " 
 
 " They existed once : perhaps are still re 
 coverable by search," said the schoolmaster. 
 " My father knew of them." 
 
 " A foolish legend," reiterated the Doctor. 
 81 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 "It is strange how human folly strings itself on 
 to human folly, as a story originally false and 
 foolish grows older/ 
 
 He got up and walked about the room, with 
 hasty and irregular strides and a prodigious 
 swinging of his ragged dressing gown, which 
 swept away as many cobwebs as it would take a 
 week to reproduce. After a few turns, as if to 
 change the subject, the Doctor asked the school 
 master if he had any taste for pictures, and drew 
 his attention to the portrait which has been al 
 ready mentioned, the figure in antique sordid 
 garb, with a halter round his neck, and the ex 
 pression in his face which the Doctor and the 
 two children had interpreted so differently. Col- 
 cord, who probably knew nothing about pictures, 
 looked at it at first merely from the gentle and 
 cool complaisance of his character ; but becom 
 ing absorbed in the contemplation, stood long 
 without speaking ; until the Doctor, looking in 
 his face, perceived his eyes were streaming with 
 tears. 
 
 " What are you crying about ? " said he 
 gruffly. 
 
 " I don t know," said the schoolmaster qui 
 etly. " But there is something in this picture 
 that affects me inexpressibly ; so that, not be 
 ing a man passionate by nature, I have hardly 
 ever been so moved as now ! " 
 
 " Very foolish," muttered the Doctor, re- 
 82 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 suming his strides about the room. " I am 
 ashamed of a grown man that can cry at a pic 
 ture, and can t tell the reason why." 
 
 After a few more turns he resumed his easy- 
 chair and his tumbler, and, looking upward, 
 beckoned to his pet spider, which came dan 
 gling downward, great parti-colored monster 
 that he was, and swung about his master s head 
 in hideous conference as it seemed ; a sight that 
 so distressed the schoolmaster, or shocked his 
 delicate taste, that he went out, and called the 
 two children to take a walk with him, with the 
 purpose of breathing air that was neither in 
 fected with spiders nor graves. 
 
 After his departure, Doctor Grimshawe 
 seemed even more disturbed than during his 
 presence : again he strode about the study ; 
 then sat down with his hands on his knees, 
 looking straight into the fire, as if it imaged 
 the seething element of his inner man, where 
 burned hot projects, smoke, heat, blackness, 
 ashes, a smouldering of old thoughts, a blazing 
 up of new; casting in the gold of his mind, as 
 Aaron did that of the Israelites, and waiting to 
 see what sort of a thing would come out of the 
 furnace. The children coming in from their 
 play, he spoke harshly to them, and eyed little 
 Ned with a sort of savageness, as if he meant to 
 eat him up, or do some other dreadful deed : 
 and when little Elsie came with her usual frank- 
 
 83 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ness to his knee, he repelled her in such a way 
 that she shook her little hand at him, saying, 
 " Naughty Doctor Grim, what has come to 
 you?" 
 
 Through all that day, by some subtle means 
 or other, the whole household knew that some 
 thing was amiss ; and nobody in it was com 
 fortable. It was like a spell of weather ; like 
 the east wind ; like an epidemic in the air, that 
 would not let anything be comfortable or con 
 tented, this pervading temper of the Doctor. 
 Crusty Hannah knew it in the kitchen ; even 
 those who passed the house must have known 
 it somehow or other, and have felt a chill, an 
 irritation, an influence on the nerves, as they 
 passed. The spiders knew it, and acted as they 
 were wont to do in stormy weather. The 
 schoolmaster, when he returned from his walk, 
 seemed likewise to know it, and made himself 
 secure and secret, keeping in his own room, ex 
 cept at dinner, when he ate his rice in silence, 
 without looking towards the Doctor, and ap 
 peared before him no more till evening, when 
 the grim Doctor summoned him into the study, 
 after sending the two children to bed. 
 
 " Sir/ began the Doctor, " you have spoken 
 of some old documents in your possession re 
 lating to the English descent of your ancestors. 
 I have a curiosity to see these documents. 
 Where are they ? " 4 
 
 84 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " I have them about my person," said the 
 schoolmaster ; and he produced from his pocket 
 a bundle of old yellow papers done up in a 
 parchment cover, tied with a piece of white 
 cord, and presented them to Doctor Grimshawe, 
 who looked over them with interest. They 
 seemed to consist of letters, genealogical lists, 
 certified copies of entries in registers, things 
 which must have been made out by somebody 
 who knew more of business than this ethereal 
 person in whose possession they now were. 
 The Doctor looked at them with considerable 
 attention, and at last did them hastily up in 
 the bundle again, and returned them to the 
 owner. 
 
 " Have you any idea what is now the condi 
 tion of the family to whom these papers refer ? " 
 asked he. 
 
 " None whatever, none for almost a hun 
 dred years," said the schoolmaster. " About 
 that time ago, I have heard a vague story that 
 one of my ancestors went to the old country 
 and saw the place. But, you see, the change 
 of name has effectually covered us from view ; 
 and I feel that our true name is that which 
 my ancestor assumed when he was driven forth 
 from the home of his fathers, and that I have 
 nothing to do with any other. I have no views 
 on the estate, none whatever. I am not so 
 foolish and dreamy." 
 
 85 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " Very right/ said the Doctor. " Nothing 
 is more foolish than to follow up such a pur 
 suit as this, against all the vested interests of 
 two hundred years, which of themselves have 
 built up an impenetrably strong allegation 
 against you. They harden into stone, in Eng 
 land, these years, and become indestructible, 
 instead of melting away as they do in this happy 
 country." 
 
 "It is not a matter of interest with me," 
 replied the schoolmaster. 
 
 " Very right, very right ! " repeated the 
 grim Doctor. 
 
 But something was evidently amiss with him 
 this evening. It was impossible to feel easy 
 and comfortable in contact with him : if you 
 looked in his face, there was the red, lurid glare 
 of his eyes ; meeting you fiercely and craftily as 
 ever : sometimes he bit his lip and frowned in 
 an awful manner. Once, he burst out into an 
 awful fit of swearing, for no good reason, or 
 any reason whatever that he explained, or that 
 anybody could tell. Again, for no more suit 
 able reason, he uplifted his stalwart arm, and 
 smote a heavy blow with his fist upon the oak 
 table, making the tumbler and black bottle leap 
 up, and damaging, one would think, his own 
 knuckles. Then he rose up, and resumed his 
 strides about the room. He paused before the 
 portrait before mentioned ; then resumed his 
 
 86 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 heavy, quick, irregular tread, swearing under 
 his breath ; and you would imagine, from what 
 you heard, that all his thoughts and the move 
 ment of his mind were a blasphemy. Then 
 again but this was only once he heaved a 
 deep, ponderous sigh, that seemed to come up 
 in spite of him, out of his depths, an exhalation 
 of deep suffering, as if some convulsion had 
 given it a passage to upper air, instead of its 
 being hidden, as it generally was, by accumu 
 lated rubbish of later time heaped above it. 
 
 This latter sound appealed to something 
 within the simple schoolmaster, who had been 
 witnessing the demeanor of the Doctor, like a 
 being looking from another sphere into the 
 trouble of the mortal one ; a being incapable 
 of passion, observing the mute, hard struggle of 
 one in its grasp. 
 
 " Friend," said he at length, " thou hast 
 something on thy mind." 
 
 " Aye," said the grim Doctor, coming to a 
 stand before his chair. " You see that ? Can 
 you see as well what it is ? " 
 
 " Some stir and writhe of something in the 
 past that troubles you, as if you had kept a 
 snake for many years in your bosom, and stu 
 pefied it with brandy, and now it awakes again, 
 and troubles you with bites and stings." 
 
 " What sort of a man do you think me ? " 
 asked the Doctor. 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " I cannot tell," said the schoolmaster. "The 
 sympathies of my nature are not those that 
 should give me knowledge of such men." 
 
 "Am I, think you," continued the grim 
 Doctor, " a man capable of great crime ? " 
 
 "A great one, if any," said Colcord ; "a 
 great good, likewise, it might be." 
 
 " What would I be likely to do," asked Doc 
 tor Grim, "supposing I had a darling purpose, 
 to the accomplishment of which I had given my 
 soul, yes, my soul, my success in life, my 
 days and nights of thought, my years of time, 
 dwelling upon it, pledging myself to it, until at 
 last I had grown to love the burden of it, and 
 not to regret my own degradation ? I, a man 
 of strongest will. What would I do, if this were 
 to be resisted ? " 
 
 " I do not conceive of the force of will shap 
 ing out my ways," said the schoolmaster. " I 
 walk gently along and take the path that opens 
 before me." 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha ! " shouted the grim Doctor, 
 with one of his portentous laughs. " So do we 
 all, in spite of ourselves ; and sometimes the 
 path comes to a sudden ending ! " And he re 
 sumed his drinking. 
 
 The schoolmaster looked at him with won 
 der, and a kind of shuddering, at something so 
 unlike himself; but probably he very imper 
 fectly estimated the forces that were at work 
 
 88 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 within this strange being, and how dangerous 
 they made him. He imputed it, a great deal, 
 to the brandy, which he had kept drinking in 
 such inordinate quantities ; whereas it is prob 
 able that this had a soothing, emollient effect, 
 as far as it went, on the Doctor s emotions ; a 
 sort of like to like, that he instinctively felt to 
 be a remedy. But in truth it was difficult to 
 see these two human creatures together, with 
 out feeling their incompatibility ; without hav 
 ing a sense that one must be hostile to the 
 other. The schoolmaster, through his fine in 
 stincts, doubtless had a sense of this, and sat 
 gazing at the lurid, wrathful figure of the Doc 
 tor, in a sort of trance and fascination : not able 
 to stir ; bewildered by the sight of the great 
 spider and other surroundings ; and this strange, 
 uncouth fiend, who had always been abhorrent 
 to him, he had a kind of curiosity in it, 
 waited to see what would come of it, but felt it 
 to be an unnatural state to him. And again the 
 grim Doctor came and stood before him, pre 
 pared to make another of those strange utter 
 ances with which he had already so perplexed 
 him. 
 
 That night that midnight it was ru 
 mored through the town that one of the inhab 
 itants, going home late along the street that led 
 by the graveyard, saw the grim Doctor standing 
 by the open window of the study behind the 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 elm-tree, in his old dressing gown, chill as was 
 the night, and flinging his arms abroad wildly 
 into the darkness, and muttering like the growl 
 ing of a tempest, with occasional vociferations 
 that grew even shrill with passion. The lis 
 tener, though affrighted, could not resist an im 
 pulse to pause, and attempt overhearing some 
 thing that might let him into the secret counsels 
 of this strange wild man, whom the town held 
 in such awe and antipathy ; to learn, perhaps, 
 what was the great spider, and whether he were 
 summoning the dead out of their graves. How 
 ever, he could make nothing out of what he 
 overheard, except it were fragmentary curses, of 
 a dreadful character, which the Doctor brought 
 up with might and main out of the depths of his 
 soul and flung them forth, burning hot, aimed 
 at what, and why, and to what practical end, it 
 was impossible to say ; but as necessarily as a 
 volcano, in a state of eruption, sends forth boil 
 ing lava, sparkling and scintillating stones, and 
 a sulphurous atmosphere, indicative of its in 
 ward state. 5 
 
 Dreading lest some one of these ponderous 
 anathemas should alight, reason or none, on his 
 own head, the man crept away, and whispered 
 the thing to his cronies, from whom it was com 
 municated to the townspeople at large, and so 
 became one of many stories circulating with 
 
 90 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 reference to our grim hero, which, if not true to 
 the fact, had undoubtedly a degree of apposite- 
 ness to his character, of which they were the 
 legitimate flowers and symbols. If the anathe 
 mas took no other effect, they seemed to have 
 produced a very remarkable one on the unfor 
 tunate elm-tree, through the naked branches of 
 which the Doctor discharged this fiendish shot. 
 For, the next spring, when April came, no ten 
 der leaves budded forth, no life awakened there ; 
 and never again, on that old elm, widely as its 
 roots were imbedded among the dead of many 
 years, was there rustling bough in the summer 
 time, or the elm s early golden boughs in Sep 
 tember ; and after waiting till another spring 
 to give it a fair chance of reviving, it was cut 
 down and made into coffins, and burnt on the 
 sexton s hearth. The general opinion was that 
 the grim Doctor s awful profanity had blasted 
 that tree, fostered, as it had been, on grave- 
 mould of Puritans. In Lancashire they tell of 
 a similar anathema. It had a very frightful 
 effect, it must be owned, this idea of a man 
 cherishing emotions in his breast of so horrible 
 a nature that he could neither tell them to any 
 human being, nor keep them in their plenitude 
 and intensity within the breast where they had 
 their germ, and so was forced to fling them 
 forth upon the night, to pollute and put fear 
 
 91 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 into the atmosphere, and that people should 
 breathe in somewhat of horror from an un 
 known source, and be affected with nightmare, 
 and dreams in which they were startled at their 
 own wickedness. 
 
 92 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A the breakfast table the next morning, 
 however, appeared Doctor Grimshawe, 
 wearing very much the same aspect of 
 an uncombed, unshorn, unbrushed, odd sort of 
 a pagan as at other times, and making no differ 
 ence in his breakfast, except that he poured a 
 pretty large dose of brandy into his cup of tea ; 
 a thing, however, by no means unexampled or 
 very unusual in his history. There were also 
 the two children, fresher than the morning it 
 self, rosy creatures, with newly scrubbed cheeks, 
 made over again for the new day, though the 
 old one had left no dust upon them ; 1 laughing 
 with one another, flinging their little jokes about 
 the table, and expecting that the Doctor might, 
 as was often his wont, set some ponderous old 
 English joke trundling round among the break 
 fast cups ; eating the corn cakes which crusty 
 Hannah, with the aboriginal part of her, had a 
 knack of making in a peculiar and exquisite 
 fashion. But there was an empty chair at table; 
 one cup, one little jug of milk, and another of 
 pure water, with no guest to partake of them. 
 
 "Where is the schoolmaster?" said Ned, 
 pausing as he was going to take his seat. 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " Yes, Doctor Grim ? " said little Elsie. 
 
 " He has overslept himself for once," quoth 
 Doctor Grim gruffly ; " a strange thing, too, 
 for a man whose victuals and drink are so light 
 as the schoolmaster s. The fiend take me if I 
 thought he had mortal mould enough in him 
 ever to go to sleep at all ; though he is but a 
 kind of dream-stuff in his widest-awake state. 
 Hannah, you bronze jade, call the schoolmas 
 ter to come to breakfast." 
 
 Hannah departed on her errand, and was 
 heard knocking at the door of the schoolmas 
 ter s chamber several times, till the Doctor 
 shouted to her wrathfully to cease her clatter 
 and open the door at once, which she appeared 
 to do, and speedily came back. 
 
 " He no there, massa. Schoolmaster melted 
 away ! " 
 
 " Vanished like a bubble ! " quoth the Doc 
 tor. 
 
 " The great spider caught him like a fly," 
 quoth crusty Hannah, chuckling with a sense 
 of mischief that seemed very pleasant to her 
 strange combination. 
 
 " He has taken a morning walk," said little 
 Ned ; " don t you think so, Doctor Grim ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the grim Doctor. " Go on with 
 your breakfast, little monkey; the walk may be 
 a long one, or he is so slight a weight that the 
 wind may blow him overboard." 
 
 Q4 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 A very long walk it proved ; or it might be 
 that some wind, whether evil or good, had blown 
 him, as the Doctor suggested, into parts un 
 known ; for, from that time forth, the Yankee 
 schoolmaster returned no more. It was a sin 
 gular disappearance. The bed did not appear 
 to have been slept in ; there was a bundle, in 
 a clean handkerchief, containing two shirts, two 
 pocket handkerchiefs, two pairs of cotton socks, 
 a Testament, and that was all. Had he in 
 tended to go away, why did he not take this 
 little luggage in his hand, being all he had, and 
 of a kind not easily dispensed with ? The 
 Doctor made small question about it, how 
 ever ; he had seemed surprised, at first, yet 
 gave certainly no energetic token of it; and 
 when Ned, who began to have notions of things, 
 proposed to advertise him in the newspapers, 
 or send the town crier round, the Doctor ridi 
 culed the idea unmercifully. 
 
 " Lost, a lank Yankee schoolmaster," quoth 
 he, uplifting his voice after the manner of the 
 town crier ; " supposed to have been blown out 
 of Doctor Grim s window, or perhaps have rid 
 den off astride of a humblebee." 
 
 "It is not pretty to laugh in that way, Doc 
 tor Grim," said little Elsie, looking into his face, 
 with a grave shake of her head. 
 
 " And why not, you saucy little witch ? " said 
 the Doctor. 
 
 95 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 "It is not the way to laugh, Doctor Grim," 
 
 persisted the child, but either could not or would 
 not assign any reason for her disapprobation, 
 although what she said appeared to produce a 
 noticeable effect on Doctor Grimshawe, who 
 lapsed into a rough, harsh manner, that seemed 
 to satisfy Elsie better. Crusty Hannah, mean 
 while, seemed to dance about the house with a 
 certain singular alacrity, a wonderful friskiness, 
 indeed, as if the diabolical result of the mixture 
 in her nature was particularly pleased with some 
 thing; so she went, with queer gesticulations, 
 crossings, contortions, friskings, evidently in a 
 very mirthful state ; until, being asked by her 
 master what was the matter, she replied, " Massa, 
 me know what became of the schoolmaster. 
 Great spider catch in his web and eat him ! " 
 
 Whether that was the mode of his disappear 
 ance, or some other, certainly the schoolmaster 
 was gone ; and the children were left in great 
 bewilderment at the sudden vacancy in his place. 
 They had not contracted a very yearning affec 
 tion for him, and yet his impression had been 
 individual and real, and they felt that something 
 was gone out of their lives, now that he was no 
 longer there. Something strange in their cir 
 cumstances made itself felt by them ; they were 
 more sensible of the grim Doctor s uncoutnness, 
 his strange, reprehensible habits, his dark, mys 
 terious life, in looking at these things, and 
 
 96 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the spiders, and the graveyard, and their insu 
 lation from the world, through the crystal me 
 dium of this stranger s character. In remember 
 ing him in connection with these things, a certain 
 seemly beauty in him showed strikingly the 
 unfitness, the sombre and tarnished color, the 
 outreness, of the rest of their lot. Little Elsie 
 perhaps felt the loss of him more than her play 
 mate, although both had been interested by him. 
 But now things returned pretty much to their 
 old fashion ; although, as is inevitably the case, 
 whenever persons or things have been taken 
 suddenly or unaccountably out of our sphere, 
 without telling us whither and why they have 
 disappeared, the children could not, for a long 
 while, bring themselves to feel that he had really 
 gone. Perhaps, in imitation of the custom in 
 that old English house, of which the Doctor had 
 told them, little Elsie insisted that his place 
 should still be kept at the table ; and so, when 
 ever crusty Hannah neglected to do so, she 
 herself would fetch a plate, and a little pitcher 
 of water, and set it beside a vacant chair ; and 
 sometimes, so like a shadow had he been, this 
 pale, slender creature, it almost might have been 
 thought that he was sitting with them. But 
 crusty Hannah shook her head, and grinned. 
 " The spider know where he is. We never see 
 him more ! " 
 
 His abode in the house had been of only two 
 97 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 or three weeks ; and in the natural course of 
 things, had he come and gone in an ordinary 
 way, his recollection would have grown dim and 
 faded out in two or three weeks more ; but the 
 speculations, the expectations, the watchings for 
 his reappearance, served to cut and grave the 
 recollection of him into the children s hearts, so 
 that it remained a lifelong thing with them, 
 a sense that he was something that had been 
 lost out of their life too soon, and that was 
 bound, sooner or later, to reappear, and finish 
 what business he had with them. Sometimes 
 they prattled around the Doctor s chair about 
 him, and they could perceive sometimes that he 
 appeared to be listening, and would chime in 
 with some remark ; but he never expressed 
 either wonder or regret ; only telling Ned, once, 
 that he had no reason to be sorry for his disap 
 pearance. 
 
 " Why, Doctor Grim ? " asked the boy. 
 
 The Doctor mused, and smoked his pipe, as 
 if he himself were thinking why, and at last he 
 answered, "He was a dangerous fellow, my old 
 boy." 
 
 " Why ? " said Ned again. 
 
 " He would have taken the beef out of you," 
 said the Doctor. 
 
 I know not how long it was before any other 
 visitor (except such as brought their shattered 
 constitutions there in hopes that the Doctor 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 would make the worn-out machinery as good as 
 new) came to the lonely little household on the 
 corner of the graveyard. The intercourse be 
 tween themselves and the rest of the town re 
 mained as scanty as ever. Still, the grim, shaggy 
 Doctor was seen setting doggedly forth, in all 
 seasons and all weathers, at a certain hour of 
 the day, with the two children, going for long 
 walks on the seashore, or into the country, miles 
 away, and coming back, hours afterwards, with 
 plants and herbs that had perhaps virtue in 
 them, or flowers that had certainly beauty ; even, 
 in their season, the fragrant magnolias, leaving 
 a trail of fragrance after them, that grow only in 
 spots, the seeds having been apparently dropped 
 by some happy accident when those proper to 
 the climate were distributed. Shells there were, 
 also, in the baskets that they carried, minerals, 
 rare things, that a magic touch seemed to have 
 created out of the rude and common things that 
 others find in a homely and ordinary region. 
 The boy was growing tall, and had got out of 
 the merely infantile age ; agile he was, bright, 
 but still with a remarkable thoughtfulness, or 
 gravity, or I know not what to call it ; but it 
 was a shadow, no doubt, falling upon him from 
 something sombre in his warp of life, which the 
 impressibility of his age and nature so far ac 
 knowledged as to be a little pale and grave, 
 without positive unhappiness ; and when a play- 
 
 99 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ful moment came, as they often did to these two 
 healthy children, it seemed all a mistake that 
 you had ever thought either of them too grave 
 for their age. But little Elsie was still the mer 
 rier. They were still children, although they 
 quarrelled seldomer than of yore, and kissed sel- 
 domer, and had ceased altogether to complain 
 of one another to the Doctor ; perhaps the time 
 when Nature saw these bickerings to be neces 
 sary to the growth of some of their faculties was 
 nearly gone. When they did have a quarrel, the 
 boy stood upon his dignity, and visited Elsie 
 with a whole day, sometimes, of silent and stately 
 displeasure, which she was accustomed to bear, 
 sometimes with an assumption of cold indiffer 
 ence, sometimes with liveliness, mirth in double 
 quantity, laughter almost as good as real, little 
 arts which showed themselves in her as natu 
 rally as the gift of tears and smiles. In fact, hav 
 ing no advantage of female intercourse, she could 
 not well have learnt them unless from crusty 
 Hannah, who was such an anomaly of a crea 
 ture, with all her mixture of races, that she 
 struck you as having lost all sex as one result 
 of it. Yet this little girl was truly feminine, 
 and had all the manners and preeminently un- 
 criticisable tenets proper to women at her early 
 age. 
 
 She had made respectable advancement in 
 study ; that is, she had taught herself to write, 
 100 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 with even greater mechanical facility than Ned ; 
 and other knowledge had fallen upon her, as it 
 were, by a reflected light from him ; or, to use 
 another simile, had been spattered upon her by 
 the full stream which the Doctor poured into 
 the vessel of the boy s intellect. So that she 
 had even some knowledge of the rudiments of 
 Latin, and geometry, and algebra ; inaccurate 
 enough, but yet with such a briskness that she 
 was sometimes able to assist Ned in studies in 
 which he was far more deeply grounded than 
 herself. All this, however, was more by sym 
 pathy than by any natural taste for such things ; 
 being kindly, and sympathetic, and impressible, 
 she took the color of what was nearest to her, 
 and especially when it came from a beloved ob 
 ject, so that it was difficult to discover that it was 
 not really one of her native tastes. The only 
 thing, perhaps, altogether suited to her idiosyn 
 crasy (because it was truly feminine, calculated 
 for dainty fingers, and a nice little subtlety) was 
 that kind of embroidery, twisting, needlework, 
 on textile fabric, which, as we have before said, 
 she learnt from crusty Hannah, and which was 
 emblematic perhaps of that creature s strange 
 mixture of races. 
 
 Elsie seemed not only to have caught this art 
 in its original spirit, but to have improved upon 
 it, creating strange, fanciful, and graceful de 
 vices, which grew beneath her ringer as naturally 
 101 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 as the variegated hues grow in a flower as it 
 opens ; so that the homeliest material assumed a 
 grace and strangeness as she wove it, whether it 
 were grass, twigs, shells, or what not. Never 
 was anything seen, that so combined a wild, bar 
 barian freedom with cultivated grace ; and the 
 grim Doctor himself, little open to the impres 
 sions of the beautiful, used to hold some of her 
 productions in his hand, gazing at them with 
 deep intentness, and at last, perhaps, breaking 
 out into one of his deep roars of laughter ; for 
 it seemed to suggest thoughts to him that the 
 children could not penetrate. This one feature 
 of strangeness and wild faculty in the otherwise 
 sweet and natural and homely character of Elsie 
 had a singular effect ; it was like a wreath of 
 wild flowers in her hair, like something that set 
 her a little way apart from the rest of the world, 
 and had an even more striking effect than if she 
 were altogether strange. 
 
 Thus were the little family going on ; the 
 Doctor, I regret to say, growing more morose, 
 self-involved, and unattainable since the disap 
 pearance of the schoolmaster than before ; more 
 given up to his one plaything, the great spider ; 
 less frequently even than before coming out of 
 the grim seclusion of his moodiness, to play with 
 the children, though they would often be sensi 
 ble of his fierce eyes fixed upon them, and start 
 
 102 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and feel incommoded by the intensity of his 
 regard ; thus things were going on, when one 
 day there was really again a visitor, and not a 
 dilapidated patient, to the grim Doctor s study. 
 Crusty Hannah brought up his name as Mr. 
 Hammond, and the Doctor filling his ever 
 lasting pipe, meanwhile, and ordering Hannah 
 to give him a coal (perhaps this was the circum 
 stance that made people say he had imps to 
 bring him coals from Tophet) ordered him 
 to be shown up. 2 
 
 A fresh-colored, rather young man 3 entered 
 the study, a person of rather cold and ungrace 
 ful manners, yet genial-looking enough; at least, 
 not repulsive. He was dressed in rather a 
 rough, serviceable travelling dress, and except 
 for a nicely brushed hat and unmistakably white 
 linen, was rather careless in attire. You would 
 have thought twice, perhaps, before deciding 
 him to be a gentleman, but finally would have 
 decided that he was ; one great token being, that 
 the singular aspect of the room into which he 
 was ushered, the spider festoonery, and other 
 strange accompaniments, the grim aspect of the 
 Doctor himself, and the beauty and intelligence 
 of his two companions, and even that horrific 
 weaver, the great dangling spider, neither one 
 nor all of these called any expression of surprise 
 to the stranger s face. 
 
 103 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " Your name is Hammond ? " begins the 
 Doctor, with his usual sparseness of ornamental 
 courtesy. 4 
 
 The stranger bowed. 
 
 " An Englishman, I perceive," continued the 
 Doctor, but nowise intimating that the fact of 
 being a countryman was any recommendation 
 in his eyes. 
 
 " Yes, an Englishman, * replied Hammond ; 
 " a briefless barrister, 5 in fact, of Lincoln s Inn, 
 who, having little or nothing to detain him at 
 home, has come to spend a few idle months in 
 seeing the new republic which has been made 
 out of English substance." 
 
 " And what," continued Doctor Grim, not a 
 whit relaxing the repulsiveness of his manner, 
 and scowling askance at the stranger, " what 
 may have drawn on me the good fortune of 
 being compelled to make my time idle, because 
 yours is so ? " 
 
 The stranger s cheek flushed a little ; but he 
 smiled to himself, as if saying that here was a 
 grim, rude kind of humorist, who had lost the 
 sense of his own peculiarity, and had no idea 
 that he was rude at all. " I came to America, 
 as I told you," said he, " chiefly because I was 
 idle, and wanted to turn my enforced idleness 
 to what profit I could, in the way of seeing men, 
 manners, governments, and problems, which I 
 hope to have no time to study by and by. But 
 104 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 I also had an errand intrusted to me, and of a 
 singular nature ; and making inquiry in this lit 
 tle town (where my mission must be performed, 
 if at all), I have been directed to you, by your 
 townspeople, as to a person not unlikely to be 
 able to assist me in it." 
 
 " My townspeople, since you choose to call 
 them so," answered the grim Doctor, " ought 
 to know, by this time, that I am not the sort 
 of man likely to assist any person, in any way." 
 
 " Yet this is so singular an affair," said the 
 stranger, still with mild courtesy, " that at least 
 it may excite your curiosity. I have come here 
 to find a grave." 
 
 " To find a grave ! " said Doctor Grim, giv 
 ing way to a grim sense of humor, and relaxing 
 just enough to let out a joke, the tameness of 
 which was a little redeemed, to his taste, by its 
 grimness. " I might help you there, to be sure, 
 since it is all in the way of business. Like others 
 of my profession, I have helped many people to 
 find their graves, no doubt, and shall be happy 
 to do the same for you. You have hit upon 
 the one thing in which my services are ready." 
 
 " I thank you, my dear sir," said the young 
 stranger, having tact enough to laugh at Doctor 
 Grim s joke, and thereby mollifying him a little ; 
 " but as far as I am personally concerned, I pre 
 fer to wait a while before making the discovery 
 of that little spot in Mother Earth which I am 
 105 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 destined to occupy. It is a grave which has 
 been occupied as such for at least a century and 
 a half which I am in quest of; and it is as an 
 antiquarian, a genealogist, a person who has had 
 dealings with the dead of long ago, not as a pro 
 fessional man engaged in adding to their number, 
 that I ask your aid." 
 
 " Ah, ahah ! " said the Doctor, laying down 
 his pipe, and looking earnestly at the stranger ; 
 not kindly nor genially, but rather with a lurid 
 glance of suspicion out of those red eyes of his, 
 but no longer with a desire to escape an intruder ; 
 rather as one who meant to clutch him. " Ex 
 plain your meaning, sir, at once/ 
 
 " Then here it is," said Mr. Hammond. 
 " There is an old English family, one of the 
 members of which, very long ago, emigrated to 
 this part of America, then a wilderness, and long 
 afterwards a British colony. He was on ill terms 
 with his family. There is reason to believe that 
 documents, deeds, titular proofs, or some other 
 thing valuable to the family, were buried in the 
 grave of this emigrant ; and there have been 
 various attempts, within a century, to find this 
 grave, and if possible some living descendant 
 of the man, or both, under the idea that either 
 of these cases might influence the disputed de 
 scent of the property, and enable the family to 
 prove its claims to an ancient title. Now, rather 
 as a matter of curiosity, than with any real hope 
 106 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 of success, and being slightly connected with 
 the family, I have taken what seems to my 
 self a wild-goose chase ; making it merely inci 
 dental, you will understand, not by any means 
 the main purpose of my voyage to America/ 
 
 " What is the name of this family ? " asked 
 the Doctor abruptly. 
 
 " The man whose grave I seek," said the 
 stranger, " lived and died, in this country, under 
 the assumed name of Colcord." 
 
 " How do you expect to succeed in this 
 ridiculous quest ? " asked the Doctor, " and what 
 marks, signs, directions, have you to guide your 
 search ? And moreover, how have you come 
 to any knowledge whatever about the matter, 
 even that the emigrant ever assumed this name 
 of Colcord, and that he was buried anywhere, 
 and that his place of burial, after more than a 
 century, is of the slightest importance ? " 
 
 " All this was ascertained by a messenger on 
 a similar errand with my own, only undertaken 
 nearly a century ago, and more in earnest than 
 I can pretend to be," replied the Englishman. 
 " At that period, however, there was probably 
 a desire to find nothing that might take the 
 hereditary possessions of the family out of the 
 branch which still held them ; and there is strong 
 reason to suspect that the information acquired 
 was purposely kept secret by the person in Eng 
 land into whose hands it came. The thing is 
 107 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 differently situated now ; the possessor of the 
 estate is recently dead ; and the discovery of an 
 American heir would not be unacceptable to 
 many. At all events, any knowledge gained 
 here would throw light on a somewhat doubtful 
 matter." 
 
 " Where, as nearly as you can judge," said the 
 Doctor, after a turn or two through the study, 
 " was this man buried ? " 
 
 " He spent the last years of his life, certainly, 
 in this town," said Hammond, " and may be 
 found, if at all, among the dead of that period." 
 
 "And they their miserable dust, at least, 
 which is all that still exists of them were buried 
 in the graveyard under these windows," said the 
 Doctor. " What marks, I say, for you might 
 as well seek a vanished wave of the sea, as a grave 
 that surged upward so long ago." 
 
 " On the gravestone," said Hammond, " a 
 slate one, there was rudely sculptured the im 
 press of a foot. What it signifies I cannot con 
 jecture, except it had some reference to a certain 
 legend of a bloody footstep, which is currently 
 told, and some token of which yet remains on 
 one of the thresholds of the ancient mansion 
 house." 
 
 Ned and Elsie had withdrawn themselves from 
 
 the immediate vicinity of the fireside, and were 
 
 playing at fox and geese in a corner near the 
 
 window. But little Elsie, having very quick 
 
 1 08 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ears, and a faculty of attending to more affairs 
 than one, now called out, " Doctor Grim, Ned 
 and I know where that gravestone is." 
 
 " Hush, Elsie/ whispered Ned earnestly. 
 
 " Come forward here, both of you," said 
 Doctor Grimshawe. 
 
 109 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE two children approached, and stood 
 before the Doctor and his guest, the 
 latter of whom had not hitherto taken 
 particular notice of them. He now looked from 
 one to the other, with the pleasant, genial ex 
 pression of a person gifted with a natural liking 
 for children, and the freemasonry requisite to 
 bring him acquainted with them ; and it lighted 
 up his face with a pleasant surprise to see two 
 such beautiful specimens of boyhood and girl 
 hood in this dismal, spider-haunted house, and 
 under the guardianship of such a savage lout 
 as the grim Doctor. He seemed particularly 
 struck by the intelligence and sensibility of 
 Ned s face, and met his eyes with a glance that 
 Ned long afterwards remembered ; but yet he 
 seemed quite as much interested by Elsie, and 
 gazed at her face with a perplexed, inquiring 
 glance. 
 
 "These are fine children," said he. " May 
 1 ask if they are your own ? Pardon me if I 
 ask amiss," added he, seeing a frown on the 
 Doctor s brow. 
 
 " Ask nothing about the brats," replied he 
 no 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 grimly. "Thank Heaven, they are not my 
 children ; so your question is answered." 
 
 " I again ask pardon," said Mr. Hammond. 
 " I am fond of children ; and the boy has a 
 singularly fine countenance ; not in the least 
 English. The true American face, no doubt. 
 As to this sweet little girl, she impresses me 
 with a vague resemblance to some person I have 
 seen. Hers I should deem an English face." 
 
 " These children are not our topic," said the 
 grim Doctor, with gruff impatience. " If they 
 are to be so, our conversation is ended. Ned, 
 what do you know of this gravestone with the 
 bloody foot on it ? " 
 
 " It is not a bloody foot, Doctor Grim," said 
 Ned, " and I am not sure that it is a foot at 
 all ; only Elsie and I chose to fancy so, because 
 of a story that we used to play at. But we 
 were children then. The gravestone lies on 
 the ground, within a little bit of a walk of our 
 door ; but this snow has covered it all over ; 
 else we might go out and see it." 
 
 " We will go out at any rate," said the Doc 
 tor, " and if the Englishman chooses to come 
 to America, he must take our snows as he finds 
 them. Take your shovel, Ned, and if neces 
 sary we will uncover the gravestone." 
 
 They accordingly muffled themselves in their 
 warmest, and plunged forth through a back 
 in 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 door into Ned and Elsie s playground, as the 
 grim Doctor was wont to call it. The snow, 
 except in one spot close at hand, lay deep, like 
 cold oblivion, over the surging graves, and piled 
 itself in drifted heaps against every stone that 
 raised itself above the level ; it filled enviously 
 the letters of the inscriptions, enveloping all the 
 dead in one great winding-sheet, whiter and 
 colder than those which they had individually 
 worn. The dreary space was pathless ; not a 
 footstep had tracked through the heavy snow ; 
 for it must be warm affection indeed that could 
 so melt this wintry impression as to penetrate 
 through the snow and frozen earth, and estab 
 lish any warm thrills with the dead beneath : 
 daisies, grass, genial earth, these allow of the 
 magnetism of such sentiments ; but winter sends 
 them shivering back to the baffled heart. 
 
 " Well, Ned," said the Doctor impatiently. 
 
 Ned looked about him somewhat bewildered, 
 and then pointed to a spot within not more 
 than ten paces of the threshold which they had 
 just crossed ; and there appeared, not a grave 
 stone, but a new grave (if any grave could be 
 called new in that often-dug soil, made up of 
 old mortality), an open hole, with the freshly 
 dug earth piled up beside it. A little snow (for 
 there had been a gust or two since morning) 
 appeared, as they peeped over the edge, to have 
 fallen into it ; but not enough to prevent a cof 
 
 I 12 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 fin from finding fit room and accommodation 
 in it. But it was evident that the grave had 
 been dug that very day. 
 
 " The headstone, with the foot on it, was 
 just here," said Ned, in much perplexity, "and, 
 as far as I can judge, the old sunken grave ex 
 actly marked out the space of this new one." 1 
 
 " It is a shame," said Elsie, much shocked 
 at the indecorum, " that the new person should 
 be thrust in here ; for the old one was a friend 
 of ours." 
 
 " But what has become of the headstone ! " 
 exclaimed the young English stranger. 
 
 During their perplexity, a person had ap 
 proached the group, wading through the snow 
 from the gateway giving entrance from the 
 street ; a gaunt figure, with stooping shoulders, 
 over one of which was a spade and some other 
 tool fit for delving in the earth ; and in his face 
 there was the sort of keen, humorous twinkle 
 that grave-diggers somehow seem to get, as if 
 the dolorous character of their business necessi 
 tated something unlike itself by an inevitable 
 reaction. 
 
 " Well, Doctor," said he, with a shrewd wink 
 in his face, " are you looking for one of your 
 patients ? The man who is to be put to bed 
 here was never caught in your spider s web." 
 
 " No," said Doctor Grimshawe ; " when my 
 patients have done with me, I leave them to 
 "3 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 you and the old Nick, and never trouble my 
 self about them more. What I want to know 
 is, why you have taken upon you to steal a 
 man s grave, after he has had immemorial pos 
 session of it. By what right have you dug up 
 this bed, undoing the work of a predecessor of 
 yours, who has long since slept in one of his 
 own furrows ? " 
 
 " Why, Doctor," said the grave-digger, look 
 ing quietly into the cavernous pit which he had 
 hollowed, " it is against common sense that a 
 dead man should think to keep a grave to him 
 self longer than till you can take up his sub 
 stance in a shovel. It would be a strange thing 
 enough, if, when living families are turned out 
 of their homes twice or thrice in a generation 
 (as they are likely to be in our new govern 
 ment), a dead man should think he must sleep 
 in one spot till the day of judgment. No ; 
 turn about, I say, to these old fellows. As 
 long as they can decently be called dead men, 
 I let them lie ; when they are nothing but dust, 
 I just take leave to stir them on occasion. This 
 is the way we do things under the republic, 
 whatever your customs be in the old country." 
 
 " Matters are very much the same in any old 
 English churchyard," said the English stranger. 
 " But, my good friend, I have come three 
 thousand miles, partly to find this grave, and 
 am a little disappointed to find my labor lost." 
 114 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " Ah ! and you are the man my father was 
 looking for," said the grave-digger, nodding his 
 head at Mr. Hammond. " My father, who 
 was a grave-digger afore me, died four and 
 thirty years ago, when we were under the King ; 
 and says he, c Ebenezer, do not you turn up a 
 sod in this spot, till you have turned up every 
 other in the ground.* And I have always 
 obeyed him." 
 
 " And what was the reason of such a singu 
 lar prohibition ? " asked Hammond. 
 
 " My father knew," said the grave-digger, 
 " and he told me the reason too ; but since we 
 are under the republic, we have given up re 
 membering those old-world legends, as we used 
 to. The newspapers keep us from talking in 
 the chimney corner ; and so things go out of 
 our minds. An old man, with his stories of 
 what he has seen, and what his great-grandfather 
 saw before him, is of little account since news 
 papers came up. Stop I remember no, I 
 forget, it was something about the grave 
 holding a witness, who had been sought before 
 and might be again." 
 
 " And that is all you know about it? " said 
 Hammond. 
 
 " All, every mite," said the old grave-dig 
 ger. " But my father knew, and would have 
 been glad to tell you the whole story. There 
 was a great deal of wisdom and knowledge, 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 about graves especially, buried out yonder where 
 my old father was put away, before the Stamp 
 Act was thought of. But it is no great matter, 
 I suppose. People don t care about old graves 
 in these times. They just live, and put the 
 dead out of sight and out of mind." 
 
 " Well ; but what have you done with the 
 headstone ? " said the Doctor. " You can t 
 have eaten it up." 
 
 " No, no, Doctor," said the grave-digger, 
 laughing ; " it would crack better teeth than 
 mine, old and crumbly as it is. And yet I 
 meant to do something with it that is akin to 
 eating ; for my oven needs a new floor, and I 
 thought to take this stone, which would stand 
 the fire well. But here," continued he, scrap 
 ing away the snow with his shovel, a task in 
 which little Ned gave his assistance, " here 
 is the headstone, just as I have always seen it, 
 and as my father saw it before me." 
 
 The ancient memorial, being cleared of snow, 
 proved to be a slab of freestone, with some rude 
 traces of carving in bas-relief around the border, 
 now much effaced, and an impression, which 
 seemed to be as much like a human foot as any 
 thing else, sunk into the slab ; but this device 
 was wrought in a much more clumsy way than 
 the ornamented border, and evidently by an un 
 skilful hand. Beneath was an inscription, over 
 which the hard, flat lichens had grown, and done 
 116 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 their best to obliterate it, although the follow 
 ing words might be written 2 or guessed : 
 
 " Here lyeth the mortal part of Thomas Col- 
 cord, an upright man, of tender and devout 
 soul, who departed this troublous life Septem 
 ber y e nineteenth, 1667, aged 57 years and nine 
 months. Happier in his death than in his 
 lifetime. Let his bones be/ 
 
 The name, Colcord, was somewhat defaced ; 
 it was impossible, in the general disintegration 
 of the stone, to tell whether wantonly, or with 
 a purpose of altering and correcting some error 
 in the spelling, or, as occurred to Hammond, to 
 change the name entirely. 
 
 " This is very unsatisfactory/ said Ham 
 mond, " but very curious, too. But this cer 
 tainly is the impress of what was meant for a 
 human foot, and coincides strangely with the 
 legend of the Bloody Footstep, the mark of 
 the foot that trod in the blessed King Charles s 
 blood." 
 
 " For that matter," said the grave-digger, 
 " it comes into my mind that my father used to 
 call it the stamp of Satan s foot, because he 
 claimed the dead man for his own. It is plain 
 to see that there was a deep cleft between two 
 of the toes." 
 
 "There are two ways of telling that legend," 
 remarked the Doctor. " But did you find no 
 thing in the grave, Hewen? " 
 117 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " O, yes, a bone or two, as much as 
 could be expected after above a hundred years," 
 said the grave-digger. " I tossed them aside ; 
 and if you are curious about them, you will find 
 them when the snow melts. That was all ; and 
 it would have been unreasonable in old Colcord 
 especially in these republican times to have 
 wanted to keep his grave any longer, when there 
 was so little of him left." 
 
 " I must drop the matter here, then," said 
 Hammond, with a sigh. " Here, my friend, is 
 a trifle for your trouble." 
 
 " No trouble," said the grave-digger, " and in 
 these republican times we can t take anything 
 for nothing, because it won t do for a poor man 
 to take off his hat and say thank you." 
 
 Nevertheless, he did take the silver, and 
 winked a sort of acknowledgment. 
 
 The Doctor, with unwonted hospitality, in 
 vited the English stranger to dine in his house ; 
 and though there was no pretence of cordiality 
 in the invitation, Mr. Hammond accepted it, 
 being probably influenced by curiosity to make 
 out some definite idea of the strange household 
 in which he found himself. Doctor Grimshawe 
 having taken it upon him to be host, for, up 
 to this time, the stranger stood upon his own 
 responsibility, and, having voluntarily presented 
 himself to the Doctor, had only himself to thank 
 for any scant courtesy he might meet, but 
 118 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 now the grim Doctor became genial after his 
 own fashion. At dinner he produced a bottle 
 of port, which made the young Englishman al 
 most fancy himself on the other side of the 
 water ; and he entered into a conversation, 
 which I fancy was the chief object which the 
 grim Doctor had in view in showing himself in 
 so amiable a light, 3 for in the course of it the 
 stranger was insensibly led to disclose many 
 things, as it were of his own accord, relating to 
 the part of England whence he came, and espe 
 cially to the estate and family which have been 
 before mentioned, the present state of that 
 family, together with other things that he seemed 
 to himself to pour out naturally, for, at last, 
 he drew himself up, and attempted an excuse. 
 
 " Your good wine/* said he, " or the unex 
 pected accident of meeting a countryman, has 
 made me unusually talkative, and on subjects, 
 I fear, which have not a particular interest for 
 you." 
 
 " I have not quite succeeded in shaking off 
 my country, as you see," said Doctor Grim- 
 shawe, " though I neither expect nor wish ever 
 to see it again." 
 
 There was something rather ungracious in the 
 grim Doctor s response, and as they now ad 
 journed to his study, and the Doctor betook him 
 self to his pipe and tumbler, the young English 
 man sought to increase his acquaintance with 
 119 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the two children, both of whom showed them 
 selves graciously inclined towards him ; more 
 warmly so than they had been to the school 
 master, as he was the only other guest whom 
 they had ever met. 
 
 " Would you like to see England, my little 
 fellow? " he inquired of Ned. 
 
 " O, very much ! more than anything else 
 in the world," replied the boy ; his eyes gleam 
 ing and his cheeks flushing with the earnestness 
 of his response ; for, indeed, the question stirred 
 up all the dreams and reveries which the child 
 had cherished, far back into the dim regions of 
 his memory. After what the Doctor had told 
 him of his origin, he had never felt any home 
 feeling here ; it seemed to him that he was wan 
 dering Ned, whom the wind had blown from 
 afar. Somehow or other, from many circum 
 stances which he put together and seethed in his 
 own childish imagination, it seemed to him that 
 he was to go back to that far old country, and 
 there wander among the green, ivy-grown, ven 
 erable scenes ; the older he grew, the more his 
 mind took depth, the stronger was this fancy in 
 him ; though even to Elsie he had scarcely 
 breathed it. 
 
 " So strong a desire," said the stranger, smil 
 ing at his earnestness, " will be sure to work out 
 its own accomplishment. I shall meet you in 
 England, my young friend, one day or another, 
 
 120 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 And you, my little girl, are you as anxious to 
 see England as your brother ? " 
 
 "Ned is not my brother," said little Elsie. 
 
 The Doctor here interposed some remark on 
 a different subject ; for it was observable that he 
 never liked to have the conversation turn on 
 these children, their parentage, or relations to 
 each other or himself. The children were sent 
 to bed ; and the young Englishman, finding the 
 conversation lag, and his host becoming gruffer 
 and less communicative than he thought quite 
 courteous, retired. But before he went, how 
 ever, he could not refrain from making a remark 
 on the gigantic spider, which was swinging like 
 a pendulum above the Doctor s head. 
 
 " What a singular pet ! " said he ; for the ner 
 vous part of him had latterly been getting up 
 permost, so that it disturbed him ; in fact, the 
 spider above and the grim man below equally 
 disturbed him. " Are you a naturalist ? Have 
 you noted his habits ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the Doctor, " I have learned from 
 his web how to weave a plot, and how to catch 
 my victim and devour him ! " 
 
 " Thank God," said the Englishman, as he 
 issued forth into the cold gray night, " I have 
 escaped the grim fellow s web, at all events. 
 How strange a group, those two sweet chil 
 dren, that grim old man ! " 
 
 As regards this matter of the ancient grave, 
 
 121 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 it remains to be recorded, that, when the snow 
 melted, little Ned and Elsie went to look at the 
 spot, where, by this time, there was a little hil 
 lock with the brown sods laid duly upon it, 
 which the coming spring would make green. By 
 the side of it they saw, with more curiosity than 
 repugnance, a few fragments of crumbly bones, 
 which they plausibly conjectured to have apper 
 tained to some part of the framework of the an 
 cient Colcord, wherewith he had walked through 
 the troublous life of which his gravestone spoke. 
 And little Elsie, whose eyes were very sharp, 
 and her observant qualities of the quickest, found 
 something which Ned at first pronounced to be 
 only a bit of old iron, incrusted with earth ; but 
 Elsie persisted to knock off some of the earth 
 that seemed to have incrusted it, and discovered 
 a key. The children ran with their prize to the 
 grim Doctor, who took it between his thumb 
 and finger, turned it over and over, and then 
 proceeded to rub it with a chemical substance 
 which soon made it bright. It proved to be a 
 silver key, of antique and curious workmanship. 
 
 " Perhaps this is what Mr. Hammond was in 
 search of," said Ned. " What a pity he is gone ! 
 Perhaps we can send it after him." 
 
 " Nonsense," said the gruff Doctor. 
 
 And attaching the key to a chain, which he 
 took from a drawer, and which seemed to be 
 gold, he hung it round Ned s neck. 
 
 122 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " When you find a lock for this key," said 
 he, " open it, and consider yourself heir of what 
 ever treasure is revealed there ! " 
 
 Ned continued that sad, fatal habit of growing 
 out of childhood, as boys will, until he was now 
 about ten years old, and little Elsie as much as 
 six or seven. He looked healthy, but pale; 
 something there was in the character and influ 
 ences of his life that made him look as if he were 
 growing up in a shadow, with less sunshine than 
 he needed for a robust and exuberant develop 
 ment, though enough to make his intellectual 
 growth tend towards a little luxuriance, in some 
 directions. He was likely to turn out a fanci 
 ful, perhaps a poetic youth ; young as he was, 
 there had been already discoveries, on the grim 
 Doctor s part, of certain blotted and clumsily 
 scrawled scraps of paper, the chirography on 
 which was arrayed in marshalled lines of un 
 equal length, and each commanded by a capital 
 letter and marching on from six to ten lame feet. 
 Doctor Grim inspected these things curiously, 
 and to say the truth most scornfully, before he 
 took them to light his pipe withal ; but they 
 told him little as regarded this boy s internal 
 state, being mere echoes, and very lugubrious 
 ones, of poetic strains that were floating about 
 in the atmosphere of that day, long before any 
 now remembered bard had begun to sing. But 
 there were the rudiments of a poetic and ima- 
 123 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ginative mind within the boy, if its subsequent 
 culture should be such as the growth of that 
 delicate flower requires ; a brooding habit taking 
 outward things into itself and imbuing them 
 with its own essence until, after they had lain 
 there awhile, they assumed a relation both to 
 truth and to himself, and became mediums to 
 affect other minds with the magnetism of his 
 own. He lived far too much an inward life for 
 healthfulness, at his age ; the peculiarity of his 
 situation, a child of mystery, with certain reaches 
 and vistas that seemed to promise a bright solu 
 tion of his mystery, keeping his imagination 
 always awake and strong. That castle in the 
 air, so much more vivid than other castles, 
 because it had perhaps a real substance of an 
 cient, ivy-grown, hewn stone somewhere, that 
 visionary hall in England, with its surrounding 
 woods and fine lawns, and the beckoning shad 
 ows at the ancient windows, and that fearful 
 threshold, with the blood still glistening on it, 
 he dwelt and wandered so much there, that 
 he had no real life in the sombre house on the 
 corner of the graveyard ; except that the loneli 
 ness of the latter, and the grim Doctor with his 
 grotesque surroundings, and then the great ugly 
 spider, and that odd, inhuman mixture of crusty 
 Hannah, all served to remove him out of the 
 influences of common life. Little Elsie was all 
 that he had to keep life real, and substantial ; 
 124 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and she, a child so much younger than he, was 
 influenced by the same circumstances, and stil] 
 more by himself, so that, as far as he could im 
 part himself to her, he led her hand in hand 
 through the same dream scenery amid which he 
 strayed himself. They knew not another child 
 in town ; the grim Doctor was their only friend. 
 As for Ned, this seclusion had its customary and 
 normal effect upon him ; it had made him think 
 ridiculously high of his own gifts, powers, at 
 tainments, and at the same time doubt whether 
 they would pass with those of others ; it made 
 him despise all flesh, as if he were of a superior 
 race, and yet have an idle and weak fear of com 
 ing in contact with them, from a dread of his 
 incompetency to cope with them ; so he at once 
 depreciated and exalted, to an absurd degree, 
 both himself and others. 
 
 " Ned," said the Doctor to him one day, in 
 his gruffest tone, " you are not turning out to 
 be the boy I looked for and meant to make. I 
 have given you sturdy English instruction, and 
 solidly grounded you in matters that the poor 
 superficial people and time merely skim over ; 
 I looked to see the rudiments of a man in you 
 by this time ; and you begin to mope and pule 
 as if your babyhood were coming back on you. 
 You seem to think more than a boy of your 
 years should ; and yet it is not manly thought, 
 nor ever will be so. What do you mean, boy, 
 125 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 by making all my care of you come to nothing, 
 in this way ? " 
 
 " I do my best, Doctor Grim," said Ned, 
 with sullen dignity. " What you teach me, I 
 learn. What more can I do ? " 
 
 " I 11 tell you what, my fine fellow," quoth 
 Doctor Grim, getting rude, as was his habit. 
 " You disappoint me, and I 11 not bear it. I 
 want you to be a man ; and I 11 have you a 
 man or nothing. If I had foreboded such a 
 fellow as you turn out to be, I never would 
 have taken you from the place where, as I once 
 told you, I found you, the almshouse ! " 
 
 " O, Doctor Grim, Doctor Grim ! " cried lit 
 tle Elsie, in a tone of grief and bitter reproach. 
 
 Ned had risen slowly, as the Doctor uttered 
 those last words, turning as white as a sheet, 
 and stood gazing at him, with large eyes, in 
 which there was a calm upbraiding ; a strange 
 dignity was in his childish aspect, which was no 
 longer childish, but seemed to have grown older 
 all in a moment. 
 
 " Sir," added the Doctor, incensed at the 
 boy s aspect, " there is nonsense that ought to 
 be whipt out of you." 
 
 " You have said enough, sir," said the boy. 
 
 " Would to God you had left me where you 
 
 found me ! 4 It was not my fault that you 
 
 took me from the almshouse. But it will be 
 
 126 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 my fault if I ever eat another bit of your bread, 
 or stay under your roof an hour longer." 
 
 He was moving towards the door, but little 
 Elsie sprung upon him and caught him round 
 the neck, although he repelled her with severe 
 dignity ; and Doctor Grimshawe, after a look 
 at the group in which a bitter sort of mirth and 
 mischief struggled with a better and kindlier 
 sentiment, at last flung his pipe into the chim 
 ney, hastily quaffed the remnant of a tumbler, 
 and shuffled after Ned, kicking off his old slip 
 pers in his hurry. He caught the boy just by 
 the door. 
 
 " Ned, Ned, my boy, I m sorry for what I 
 said," cried he. " I am a guzzling old block 
 head, and don t know how to treat a gentleman 
 when he honors me with his company. It is 
 not in my blood nor breeding to have such 
 knowledge. Ned, you will make a man, and I 
 lied if I said otherwise. Come, I m sorry, I m 
 sorry." 
 
 The boy was easily touched, at these years, 
 as a boy ought to be ; and though he had not 
 yet forgiven the grim Doctor, the tears, to his 
 especial shame, gushed out of his eyes in a tor 
 rent, and his whole frame shook with sobs. 
 The Doctor caught him in his arms, and hugged 
 him to his old tobacco-fragrant dressing-gown, 
 hugged him like a bear, as he was ; so that 
 127 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 poor Ned hardly knew whether he was embra 
 cing him with his love, or squeezing him tc 
 death in his wrath. 
 
 " Ned," said he, " I m not going to live a 
 great while longer ; I seem an eternal nuisance 
 to you, I know ; but it s not so, I m mortal 
 and I feel myself breaking up. Let us be 
 friends while I live ; for believe me, Ned, I Ve 
 done as well by you as I knew, and care for 
 nothing, love nothing, so much as you. Little 
 Elsie here, yes. I love her too. But that s 
 different. You are a boy, and will be a man ; 
 and a man whom I destine to do for me what 
 it has been the object of my life to achieve. 
 Let us be friends. We will we must be 
 friends ; and when old Doctor Grim, worthless 
 wretch that he is, sleeps in his grave, you shall 
 not have the pang of having parted from him 
 in unkindness. Forgive me, Ned ; and not 
 only that, but love me better than ever ; for 
 though I am a hasty old wretch, I am not alto 
 gether evil as regards you." 
 
 I know not whether the Doctor would have 
 said all this, if the day had not been pretty 
 well advanced, and if his potations had not been 
 many ; but, at any rate, he spoke no more than 
 he felt, and his emotions thrilled through the 
 sensitive system of the boy, and quite melted 
 him down. He forgave Doctor Grim, and, as 
 he asked, loved him better than ever ; and so 
 128 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 did Elsie. Then it was so sweet, so good, to 
 have had this one outgush of affection, he, 
 poor child, who had no memory of mother s 
 kisses, or of being cared for out of tenderness, 
 and whose heart had been hungry, all his life, 
 for some such thing ; and probably Doctor 
 Grim, in his way, had the same kind of enjoy 
 ment of this passionate crisis ; so that though, 
 the next day, they all three looked at one an 
 other a little ashamed, yet it had some remote 
 analogy to that delicious embarrassment of two 
 lovers, at their first meeting after they know all. 
 
 129 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 IT is very remarkable that Ned had so much 
 good in him as we find there ; in the first 
 place, born, as he seemed to be, of a wild, 
 vagrant stock, a seedling sown by the breezes, 
 and falling among the rocks and sands ; the 
 growing up without a mother to cultivate his 
 tenderness with kisses, and the inestimable, in 
 evitable love of love breaking out on all little 
 occasions, without reference to merit or demerit, 
 unfailing whether or no ; mother s faith in ex 
 cellences, the buds which were yet invisible to 
 all other eyes, but to which her warm faith was 
 the genial sunshine necessary to their growth ; 
 mother s generous interpretation of all that was 
 doubtful in him, and which might turn out good 
 or bad, according as should be believed of it ; 
 mother s pride in whatever the boy accom 
 plished, and unfailing excuses, explanations, 
 apologies, so satisfactory, for all his failures ; 
 mother s deep intuitive insight, which should 
 see the permanent good beneath all the appear 
 ance of temporary evil, being wiser through her 
 love than the wisest sage could be, the dull 
 est, homeliest mother than the wisest sage. The 
 Creator, apparently, has set a little of his own 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 infinite wisdom and love (which are one) in a 
 mother s heart, so that no child, in the common 
 course of things, should grow up without some 
 heavenly instruction. Instead of all this, and 
 the vast deal more that mothers do for children, 
 there had been only the gruff, passionate Doc 
 tor, without sense of religion, with only a fitful 
 tenderness, with years length between the fits, 
 so fiercely critical, so wholly unradiant of hope, 
 misanthropic, savagely morbid. Yes ; there was 
 little Elsie too ; it must have been that she was 
 the boy s preserver, being childhood, sisterhood, 
 womanhood, all that there had been for him of 
 human life, and enough he being naturally of 
 such good stuff to keep him good. He had 
 lost much, but not all : he was not nearly what 
 he might have been under better auspices ; flaws 
 and imperfections there were, in abundance, 
 great uncultivated wastes and wildernesses in 
 his moral nature, tangled wilds where there 
 might have been stately, venerable religious 
 groves ; but there was no rank growth of evil. 
 That unknown mother, that had no opportu 
 nity to nurse her boy, must have had gentle 
 and noblest qualities to endow him with ; a 
 noble father, too, a long, unstained descent, one 
 would have thought. Was this an almshouse 
 child ? 
 
 Doctor Grim knew, very probably, that there 
 was all this on the womanly side that was want- 
 131 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ing to Ned s occasion ; and very probably, too, 
 being a man not without insight, he was aware 
 that tender treatment, as a mother bestows it, 
 tends likewise to foster strength, and manliness 
 of character, as well as softer developments ; but 
 all this he could not have supplied, and now as 
 little as ever. But there was something else 
 which Ned ought to have, and might have ; and 
 this was intercourse with his kind, free circula 
 tion, free air, instead of the stived-up house, 
 with the breeze from the graveyard blowing 
 over it, to be drawn out of himself, and made 
 to share the life of many, to be introduced, at 
 one remove, to the world with which he was to 
 contend. To this end, shortly after the scene 
 of passion and reconciliation above described, 
 the Doctor took the resolution of sending Ned 
 to an academy, famous in that day, and still 
 extant. Accordingly they all three the grim 
 Doctor, Ned, and Elsie set forth, one day of 
 spring, leaving the house to crusty Hannah and 
 the great spider, in a carryall, being the only 
 excursion involving a night s absence that either 
 of the two children remembered from the house 
 by the graveyard, as at nightfall they saw the 
 modest pine-built edifice, with its cupola and 
 bell, where Ned was to be initiated into the 
 schoolboy. The Doctor, remembering perhaps 
 days spent in some gray, stately, legendary great 
 school of England, instinct with the boyhood 
 132 
 
Leaving the bouse 
 

DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 of men afterwards great, puffed forth a depreci 
 ating curse upon it ; but nevertheless made all 
 arrangements for Ned s behoof, and next morn 
 ing prepared to leave him there. 
 
 " Ned, my son, good-by," cried he, shaking 
 the little fellow s hand as he stood tearful and 
 wistful beside the chaise shivering at the loneli 
 ness which he felt settling around him, a new 
 loneliness to him, the loneliness of a crowd. 
 " Do not be cast down, my boy. Face the 
 world ; grasp the thistle strongly, and it will 
 sting you the less. Have faith in your own 
 fist ! Fear no man ! Have no secret plot ! 
 Never do what you think wrong ! If hereafter 
 you learn to know that Doctor Grim was a bad 
 man, forgive him, and be a better one yourself. 
 Good-by, and if my blessing be good for any 
 thing, in God s name, I invoke it upon you 
 heartily." 
 
 Little Elsie was sobbing, and flung her arms 
 about Ned s neck, and he his about hers ; so 
 that they parted without a word. As they 
 drove away, a singular sort of presentiment 
 came over the boy, as he stood looking after 
 them. 
 
 " It is all over, all over," said he to him 
 self: "Doctor Grim and little Elsie are gone 
 out of my life. They leave me and will never 
 come back not they to me, not I to them. 
 O, how cold the world is ! Would we three -- 
 133 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the Doctor, and Elsie, and I could have lain 
 down in a row, in the old graveyard, close under 
 the eaves of the house, and let the grass grow 
 over us. The world is cold ; and I am an alms- 
 house child/ 
 
 The house by the graveyard seemed dismal 
 now, no doubt, to little Elsie, who, being of a 
 cheerful nature herself (common natures often 
 having this delusion about a home), had grown 
 up with the idea that it was the most delightful 
 spot in the world ; the place fullest of pleasant 
 play, and of household love (because her own 
 love welled over out of her heart, like a spring 
 in a barrel) ; the place where everybody was 
 kind and good, the world beyond its threshold 
 appearing perhaps strange and sombre ; the spot 
 where it was pleasantest to be, for its own mere 
 sake ; the dim old, homely place, so warm and 
 cosy in winter, so cool in summer. Who else 
 was fortunate enough to have such a home, 
 with that nice, kind, beautiful Ned, and that 
 dear, kind, gentle, old Doctor Grim, with his 
 sweet ways, so wise, so upright, so good, beyond 
 all other men ? O, happy girl that she was, to 
 have grown up in such a home ! Was there 
 ever any other house with such cosy nooks in 
 it ? Such probably were the feelings of good lit 
 tle Elsie about this place, which has seemed to 
 us so dismal ; for the home feeling in the child s 
 heart, her warm, cheerful, affectionate nature, 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 was a magic, so far as she herself was concerned, 
 and made all the house and its inmates over 
 after her own fashion. But now that little Ned 
 was gone, there came a change. She moped 
 about the house, and, for the first time, sus 
 pected it was dismal. 
 
 As for the grim Doctor, there did not appear 
 to be much alteration in that hard old charac 
 ter ; perhaps he drank a little more, though that 
 was doubtful, because it is difficult to see where 
 he could find niches to stick in more frequent 
 drinks. Nor did he more frequently breathe 
 through the pipe. He fell into desuetude, how 
 ever, of his daily walk, 1 and sent Elsie to play 
 by herself in the graveyard (a dreary business 
 enough for the poor child) instead of taking her 
 to country or seaside himself. He was more 
 savage and blasphemous, sometimes, than he 
 had been heretofore known to be ; but, on the 
 other hand, he was sometimes softer, with a 
 kind of weary consenting to circumstances, in 
 tervals of helpless resignation, when he no 
 longer fought and struggled in his heart. He 
 did not seem to be alive all the time ; but, on 
 the other hand, he was sometimes a good deal 
 too much alive, and could not bear his potations 
 as well as he used to do, and was overheard 
 blaspheming at himself for being so weakly, 
 and having a brain that could not bear a thim 
 bleful, and growing to be a milksop like Colcord, 
 135 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 as he said. This person, of whom the Doctor 
 and his young people had had such a brief ex 
 perience, appeared nevertheless to hang upon 
 his remembrance in a singular way, the more 
 singular as there was little resemblance between 
 them, or apparent possibility of sympathy. Lit 
 tle Elsie was startled to hear Doctor Grim some 
 times call out, " Colcord ! Colcord ! " as if he 
 were summoning a spirit from some secret place. 
 He muttered, sitting by himself, long, indistinct 
 masses of talk, in which this name was discern 
 ible, and other names. Going on mumbling, 
 by the hour together, great masses of vague 
 trouble, in which, if it only could have been un 
 ravelled and put in order, no doubt all the se 
 crets of his life, secrets of wrath, guilt, ven 
 geance, love, hatred, all beaten up together, 
 and the best quite spoiled by the worst, might 
 have been found. His mind evidently wan 
 dered. Sometimes, he seemed to be holding 
 conversation with unseen interlocutors, and al 
 most invariably, so far as could be gathered, he 
 was bitter, and then sat, immitigable, pouring 
 out wrath and terror, denunciating, tyrannical, 
 speaking as to something that lay at his feet, 
 but which he would not spare. 2 Then suddenly, 
 he would start, look round the dark old study, 
 upward to the dangling spider overhead, and 
 then at the quiet little girl, who, try as she 
 might, could not keep her affrighted looks from 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 his face, and always met his eyes with a loyal 
 frankness and unyielded faith in him. 
 
 " O, you little jade, what have you been 
 overhearing ? " 
 
 " Nothing, Doctor Grim, nothing that I 
 could make out." 
 
 " Make out as much as you can," he said. 
 " I am not afraid of you." 
 
 " Afraid of little Elsie, dear Doctor Grim ! " 
 " Neither of you, nor of the Devil," mur 
 mured the Doctor, " of nobody but little 
 Ned and that milksop Colcord. If I have 
 wronged anybody it is them. As for the rest, 
 let the day of judgment come. Doctor Grim 
 is ready to fling down his burden at the judg 
 ment seat and have it sorted there." 
 
 Then he would lie back in his chair and look 
 up at the great spider, who (or else it was El 
 sie s fancy) seemed to be making great haste in 
 those days, filling out his web as if he had less 
 time than was desirable for such a piece of work. 
 One morning the doctor arose as usual, and 
 after breakfast (at which he ate nothing, and 
 even after filling his coffee-cup half with brandy, 
 half with coffee, left it untouched, save sipping 
 a little out of a teaspoon) he went to the study 
 (with a rather unsteady gait, chiefly remarkable 
 because it was so early in the day), and there 
 established himself with his pipe, as usual, and 
 his medical books and rnachines, and his man- 
 137 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 uscript. But he seemed troubled, irresolute, 
 weak, and at last he blew out a volley of oaths, 
 with no apparent appropriateness, and then 
 seemed to be communing with himself. 
 
 "It is of no use to carry this on any fur 
 ther," said he fiercely, in a decided tone, as if he 
 had taken a resolution. " Elsie, my girl, come 
 and kiss me." 
 
 So Elsie kissed him, amid all the tobacco 
 smoke which was curling out of his mouth, as 
 if there were a half-extinguished furnace in his 
 inside. 
 
 " Elsie, my little girl, I mean to die to-day," 
 said the old man. 
 
 " To die, dear Doctor Grim ? O, no ! O, 
 no!" 
 
 " O, yes ! Elsie," said the Doctor, in a very 
 positive tone. " I have kept myself alive by 
 main force these three weeks, and I find it 
 hardly worth the trouble. It requires so much 
 exercise of will ; and I am weary, weary. 
 The pipe does not taste good, the brandy be 
 wilders me. Ned is gone, too; I have no 
 thing else to do. I have wrought this many a 
 year for an object, and now, taking all things 
 mto consideration, I don t know whether to exe 
 cute it or no. Ned is gone ; there is nobody 
 but my little Elsie, a good child, but not 
 quite enough to live for. I will let myself die, 
 therefore, before sunse.t." 
 
 138 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " O, no ! Doctor Grim. Let us send foi 
 Ned, and you will think it worth the trouble 
 of living." 
 
 " No, Elsie, I want no one near my death 
 bed ; when I have finished a little business, you 
 must go out of the room, and I will turn my 
 face to the wall, and say good-night. But first 
 send crusty Hannah for Mr. Pickering." 
 
 He was a lawyer of the town, a man of clas 
 sical and antiquarian tastes, as well as legal ac 
 quirement, and some of whose pursuits had 
 brought him and Doctor Grim occasionally to 
 gether. Besides calling this gentleman, crusty 
 Hannah (of her own motion, but whether out 
 of good-will to the poor Doctor Grim, or from 
 a tendency to mischief inherent in such unnat 
 ural mixtures as hers) summoned, likewise, in 
 all haste, a medical man, and, as it happened, 
 the one who had taken a most decidedly hostile 
 part to our Doctor, and a clergyman, who 
 had often devoted our poor friend to the infer 
 nal regions, almost by name, in his sermons ; 
 a kindness, to say the truth, which the Doctor 
 had fully reciprocated in many anathemas against 
 the clergyman. These two worthies, arriving 
 simultaneously and in great haste, were forth 
 with ushered to where the Doctor lay half re 
 clining in his study ; and upon showing their 
 heads, the Doctor flew into an awful rage, threat 
 ening, in his customary improper way when an- 
 139 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 gry, to make them smell the infernal regions, 
 and proceeding to put his threats into execution 
 by flinging his odorous tobacco pipe in the face 
 of the medical man, and rebaptizing the clergy 
 man with a half-emptied tumbler of brandy and 
 water, and sending a terrible vociferation of 
 oaths after them both, as they clattered hastily 
 down the stairs. Really, that crusty Hannah 
 must have been the Devil, for she stood grin 
 ning and chuckling at the foot of the stairs, 
 courtesying grotesquely. 
 
 " He terrible man, our old Doctor Grim, 1 
 quoth crusty Hannah. " He drive us all to the 
 wicked place before him." 
 
 This, however, was the final outbreak of 
 poor Doctor Grim. Indeed, he almost went 
 off at once in the exhaustion that succeeded. 
 The lawyer arrived shortly after, and was shut 
 up with him for a considerable space ; after 
 which crusty Hannah was summoned, and de 
 sired to call two indifferent persons from the 
 street, as witnesses to a will ; and this document 
 was duly executed, and given into the posses 
 sion of the lawyer. This done, and the lawyer 
 having taken his leave, the grim Doctor de 
 sired, and indeed commanded imperatively, that 
 crusty Hannah should quit the room, having 
 first we are sorry to say placed the brandy 
 bottle within reach of his hand, and leaving him 
 propped up in his armchair, in which he leaned 
 140 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 back, gazing up at the great spider, who was 
 dangling overhead. As the door closed behind 
 crusty Hannah s grinning and yet strangely in 
 terested face, the Doctor caught a glimpse of 
 Elsie in the passage, bathed in tears, and linger 
 ing and looking earnestly into the chamber. 3 
 
 Seeing the poor little girl, the Doctor cried 
 out to her, half wrathfully, half tenderly, "Don t 
 cry, you little wretch ! Come and kiss me once 
 more." So Elsie, restraining her grief with a 
 great effort, ran tp him and gave him a last 
 kiss. 
 
 " Tell Ned," said the Doctor solemnly, " to 
 think no more of the old English hall, or of 
 the bloody footstep, or of the silver key, or any 
 of all that nonsense. Good-by, my dear ! " 
 Then he said, with his thunderous and impera 
 tive tone, " Let no one come near me till to 
 morrow morning." 
 
 So that parting was over ; but still the poor 
 little desolate child hovered by the study door 
 all day long, afraid to enter, afraid to disobey, 
 but unable to go. Sometimes she heard the 
 Doctor muttering, as was his wont ; once she 
 fancied he was praying, and dropping on her 
 knees she also prayed fervently, and perhaps 
 acceptably ; then, all at once, the Doctor called 
 out, in a loud voice, " No, Ned, no. Drop it, 
 drop it ! " 
 
 And then there was an utter silence, un- 
 141 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 broken forevermore by the lips that had uttered 
 so many objectionable things. 
 
 And finally, after an interval which had been 
 prescribed by the grim Doctor, a messenger was 
 sent by the lawyer to our friend Ned, to inform 
 him of this sad event, and to bring him back 
 temporarily to town, for the purpose of hearing 
 what were his prospects, and what disposition 
 was now to be made of him. We shall not at 
 tempt to describe the grief, astonishment, and 
 almost incredulity of Ned, cyi discovering that 
 a person so mixed up with and built into his 
 whole life as the stalwart Doctor Grimshawe 
 had vanished out of it thus unexpectedly, like 
 something thin as a vapor, like a red flame, 
 that one [instant] is very bright in its lurid ray, 
 and then is nothing at all, amid the darkness. 
 To the poor boy s still further grief and aston 
 ishment, he found, on reaching the spot that he 
 called home, that little Elsie (as the lawyer gave 
 him to understand, by the express orders of 
 the Doctor, and for reasons of great weight) had 
 been conveyed away by a person under whose 
 guardianship she was placed, and that Ned could 
 not be informed of the place. Even crusty 
 Hannah had been provided for and disposed of, 
 and was no longer to be found. Mr. Pickering 
 explained to Ned the dispositions in his favor 
 which had been made by his deceased friend, 
 who, out of a moderate property, had left him 
 142 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the means of obtaining as complete an education 
 as the country would afford, and of supporting 
 himself until his own exertions would be likely 
 to give him the success which his abilities were 
 calculated to win. The remainder of his pro 
 perty (a less sum than that thus disposed of) 
 was given to little Elsie, with the exception of a 
 small provision to crusty Hannah, with the re 
 commendation from the Doctor that she should 
 retire and spend the remainder of her life among 
 her own people. There was likewise a certain 
 sum left for the purpose of editing and print 
 ing (with a dedication to the Medical Society of 
 the State) an account of the process of distilling 
 balm from cobwebs ; the bequest being worded 
 in so singular a way that it was just as impossi 
 ble as it had ever been to discover whether the 
 grim Doctor was in earnest or no. 
 
 What disappointed the boy, in a greater de 
 gree than we shall try to express, was the lack 
 of anything in reference to those dreams and 
 castles of the air, any explanation of his birth; 
 so that he was left with no trace of it, except 
 just so far as the almshouse whence the Doctor 
 had taken him. There all traces of his name 
 and descent vanished, just as if he had been 
 made up of the air, as an aerolite seems to be 
 before it tumbles on the earth with its mysteri 
 ous iron. 
 
 The poor boy in his bewilderment, had not 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 yet come to feel what his grief was ; it was not 
 to be conceived, in a few days, that he was de 
 prived of every person, thing, or thought that 
 had hitherto kept his heart warm. He tried 
 to make himself feel it, yearning for this grief 
 as for his sole friend. Being, for the present, 
 domiciled with the lawyer, he obtained the key 
 of his former home, and went through the deso 
 late house that he knew so well, and which now 
 had such a silent, cold, familiar strangeness, with 
 none in it, though the ghosts of the grim Doc 
 tor, of laughing little Elsie, of crusty Hannah, 
 dead and alive alike, were all there, and 
 his own ghost among them ; for he himself was 
 dead, that is, his former self, which he recog 
 nized as himself, had passed away, as they were. 
 In the study everything looked as formerly, 
 yet with a sort of unreality, as if it would dis 
 solve and vanish on being touched ; and, in 
 deed,- it partly proved so ; for over the Doctor s 
 chair seemed still to hang the great spider, but 
 on looking closer at it, and finally touching it 
 with the end of the Doctor s stick, Ned discov 
 ered that it was merely the skin, shell, appari 
 tion, of the real spider, 4 the reality of whom, it 
 is to be supposed, had followed the grim Doc 
 tor, whithersoever he had gone. 
 
 A thought struck Ned while he was here ; he 
 remembered the secret niche in the wall, where 
 he had once seen the Doctor deposit some pa- 
 144 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 pers. He looked, and there they were. Who 
 was the heir of those papers, if not he ? If there 
 were anything wrong in appropriating them, it 
 was not perceptible to him in the desolation, 
 anxiety, bewilderment, and despair of that mo 
 ment. He grasped the papers, and hurried 
 from the room and down the stairs, afraid to 
 look round, and half expecting to hear the gruff 
 voice of Doctor Grim thundering after him to 
 bring them back. 
 
 Then Ned went out of the back door, and 
 found his way to the Doctor s new grave, which, 
 as it happened, was dug close beside that one 
 which occupied the place of the one which the 
 stranger had come to seek ; and, as if to spite 
 the Doctor s professional antipathies, it lay be 
 side a grave of an old physician and surgeon, 
 one Doctor Summerton, who used to help dis 
 eases and kill patients above a hundred years 
 ago. But Doctor Grim was undisturbed by 
 these neighbors, and apparently not more by 
 the grief of poor little Ned, who hid his face in 
 the crumbly earth of the grave, and the sods 
 that had not begun to grow, and wept as if his 
 heart would break. 
 
 But the heart never breaks on the first grave ; 
 and, after many graves, it gets so obtuse that 
 nothing can break it. 
 
 And now let the mists settle down over the 
 trail of our story, hiding it utterly on its on- 
 H5 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ward course, for a long way to come, until, after 
 many years, they may disperse and discover 
 something which, were it worth while to follow 
 it through all that obscurity, would prove to be 
 the very same track which that boy was tread 
 ing when we last saw him, though it may 
 have lain over land and sea since then ; but the 
 footsteps that trod there are treading here. 
 146 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THERE is or there was, now many 
 years ago, and a few years also it was 
 still extant a chamber, which when 
 I think of, it seems to me like entering a deep 
 recess of my own consciousness, a deep cave of 
 my nature ; so much have I thought of it and 
 its inmate, through a considerable period of my 
 life. After I had seen it long in fancy, then I 
 saw it in reality, with my waking eyes ; and 
 questioned with myself whether I was really 
 awake. 
 
 Not that it was a picturesque or stately cham 
 ber; not in the least. It was dim, dim as a 
 melancholy mood ; so dim, to come to particu 
 lars, that, till you were accustomed to that twi 
 light medium, the print of a book looked all 
 blurred ; a pin was an indistinguishable object ; 
 the face of your familiar friend, or your dearest 
 beloved one, would be unrecognizable across 
 it, and the figures, so warm and radiant with 
 life and heart, would seem like the faint gray 
 shadows of our thoughts, brooding in age over 
 youthful images of joy and love. Nevertheless, 
 the chamber, though so difficult to see across, 
 was small. You detected that it was within very 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWES SECRET 
 
 narrow boundaries, though you could not pre 
 cisely see them ; only you felt yourself shut 
 in, compressed, impeded, in the deep centre of 
 something; and you longed for a breath of 
 fresh air. Some articles of furniture there 
 seemed to be ; but in this dim medium, to 
 which we are unaccustomed, it is not well to try 
 to make out what they were, or anything else 
 now at least about the chamber. Only 
 one thing : small as the light was, it was rather 
 wonderful how there came to be any ; for no 
 windows were apparent, no communication with 
 the outward day. 1 
 
 Looking into this chamber, in fancy it is some 
 time before we who come out of the broad sunny 
 daylight of the world discover that it has an in 
 mate. Yes, there is some one within, but where ? 
 We know it, but do not precisely see him ; only 
 a presence is impressed upon us. It is in that 
 corner ; no, not there ; only a heap of darkness 
 and an old antique coffer, that, as we look closely 
 at it, seems to be made of carved wood. Ah ! 
 he is in that other dim corner ; and now that we 
 steal close to him, we see him ; a young man, 
 pale, flung upon a sort of mattress couch. He 
 seems in alarm at something or other. He 
 trembles ; he listens, as if for voices. It must 
 be a great peril, indeed, that can haunt him thus 
 and make him feel afraid in such a seclusion as 
 you feel this to be ; but there he is, tremulous, 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and so pale that really his face is almost visible 
 in the gloomy twilight. How came he here ? 
 Who is he? What does he tremble at? In 
 this duskiness we cannot tell. Only that he is 
 a young man, in a state of nervous excitement 
 and alarm, looking about him, starting to his 
 feet, sometimes standing and staring about him. 
 
 Has he been living here? Apparently not; 
 for see, he has a pair of long riding boots on, 
 coming up to the knees ; they are splashed with 
 mud, as if he had ridden hastily through foul 
 ways ; the spurs are on the heel. A riding 
 dress upon him. Ha ! is that blood upon the 
 hand which he clasps to his forehead ? 
 
 What more do you perceive ? Nothing, the 
 light is so dim ; but only we wonder where is 
 the door, and whence the light comes. There 
 is a strange abundance of spiders, too, we per 
 ceive ; spinning their webs here, as if they would 
 entrammel something in them. A mouse has 
 run across the floor, apparently, but it is too 
 dim to detect him, or to detect anything beyond 
 the limits of a very doubtful vagueness. We 
 do not even know whether what we seem to have 
 seen is really so ; whether the man is young, or 
 old, or what his surroundings are ; and there 
 is something so disagreeable in this seclusion, 
 this stifled atmosphere, that we should be loath 
 to remain here long enough to make ourselves 
 certain of what was a mystery. Let us forth 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 into the broad, genial daylight, for there is 
 magic, there is a devilish, subtile influence, in 
 this chamber ; which, I have reason to believe, 
 makes it dangerous to remain here. There is a 
 spell on the threshold. Heaven keep us safe 
 from it ! 
 
 Hark ! has a door unclosed ? Is there another 
 human being in the room ? We have now be 
 come so accustomed to the dim medium that 
 we distinguish a man of mean exterior, with a 
 look of habitual subservience that seems like 
 that of an English serving man, or a person in 
 some menial situation ; decent, quiet, neat, softly 
 behaved, but yet with a certain hard and ques 
 tionable presence, which we would not well like 
 to have near us in the room. 
 
 "Am I safe?" asks the inmate of the prison 
 chamber. 
 
 " Sir, there has been a search." 
 
 " Leave the pistols/ said the voice. 
 
 Again, 2 after this time, a long time extending 
 to years, let us look back into that dim chamber, 
 wherever in the world it was, into which we had 
 a glimpse, and where we saw apparently a fugi 
 tive. How looks it now? Still dim, per 
 haps as dim as ever, but our eyes, or our 
 imagination, have gained an acquaintance, a cus- 
 tomariness, with the medium ; so that we can 
 discern things now a little more distinctly than 
 of old. Possibly, there may have been some- 
 ISO 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 thing cleared away that obstructed the light ; at 
 any rate, we see now the whereabouts better 
 than we did. It is an oblong room, lofty but 
 narrow, and some ten paces in length ; its floor 
 is heavily carpeted, so that the tread makes no 
 sound ; it is hung with old tapestry, or carpet, 
 wrought with the hand long ago, and still retain 
 ing much of the ancient colors, where there was 
 no sunshine to fade them ; worked on them is 
 some tapestried story, done by Catholic hands, 
 of saints or devils, looking each equally grave 
 and solemn. The light, whence comes it ? 
 There is no window ; but it seems to come 
 through a stone, or something like it, a dull 
 gray medium, that makes noonday look like 
 evening twilight. Though sometimes there is 
 an effect as if something were striving to melt 
 itself through this dull medium, and never 
 making a shadow yet to produce the effect of 
 a cloud gathering thickly over the sun. There 
 is a chimney ; yes, a little grate in which burns 
 a coal fire, a dim smouldering fire ; it might be 
 an illumination, if that were desirable. 
 
 What is the furniture ? An antique chair, 
 one chair, no more. A table, many-footed, 
 of dark wood ; it holds writing materials, a book, 
 too, on its face, with the dust gathered on its 
 back. There is, moreover, a sort of antique box, 
 or coffer, of some dark wood, that seems to have 
 been wrought or carved with skill, wondrous 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 skill, of some period when the art of carving 
 wainscot with arms and devices was much prac 
 tised; so that on this coffer, some six feet 
 long it is, and two or three broad, most richly 
 wrought, you see faces in relief of knight and 
 dame, lords, heraldic animals ; some story, very 
 likely, told, almost revelling in Gothic sculpture 
 of wood, like what we have seen on the marble 
 sarcophagus of the old Greeks. It has, too, a 
 lock, elaborately ornamented and inlaid with 
 silver. 
 
 What else ? Only the spider s webs spinning 
 strangely over everything ; over that light which 
 comes into the room through the stone ; over 
 everything. And now we see, in a corner, a 
 strange great spider curiously variegated. The 
 ugly, terrible, seemingly poisonous thing makes 
 us shudder. 3 
 
 What else ? There are pistols ; they lie on 
 the coffer ! There is a curiously shaped Italian 
 dagger, of the kind which in a groove has poi 
 son that makes its wound mortal. On the old 
 mantelpiece, over the fireplace, there is a vial 
 in which are kept certain poisons. It would 
 seem as if some one had meditated suicide ; or 
 else that the foul fiend had put all sorts of im 
 plements of self-destruction in his way ; so that, 
 in some frenzied moment, he might kill him 
 self. 
 
 But the inmate ! There he is ; but the fren- 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 zied alarm in which we last saw him seems to 
 ftave changed its character. No throb, now ; 
 no passion ; no frenzy of fear or despair. He 
 sits dull and motionless. See ; his cheek is 
 very pale; his hair long and dishevelled. His 
 beard has grown, and curls round his face. He 
 has on a sleeping gown, a long robe as of one 
 who abides within doors, and has nothing to do 
 with outward elements ; a pair of slippers. A 
 dull, dreamy reverie seems to have possessed 
 him. Hark ! there is again a stealthy step on 
 the floor, and the serving man is here again. 
 There is a peering, anxious curiosity in his face, 
 as he struts towards him, a sort of enjoyment, 
 one would say, in the way in which he looks at 
 the strange case. 
 
 " I am here, you know," he says, at length, 
 after feasting his eyes for some time on the 
 spectacle. 
 
 " I hear you ! " says the young man, in a 
 dull, indifferent tone. 
 
 " Will not your honor walk out to-day ? " 
 says the man. " It is long now since your 
 honor has taken the air." 
 
 " Very long," says the master, " but I will 
 not go out to-day. What weather is it ? " 
 
 " Sunny, bright, a summer day," says the 
 man. " But you would never know it in these 
 damp walls. The last winter s chill is here yet. 
 Had riot your honor better go forth ? " 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 It might seem that there was a sort of sneer, 
 deeply hidden under respect and obeisance, in 
 the man s words and craftily respectful tone ; 
 deeply hidden, but conveying a more subtile 
 power on that account. At all events, the mas 
 ter seemed aroused from his state of dull indif 
 ference, and writhed as with poignant anguish 
 an infused poison in his veins as the man 
 spoke. 
 
 " Have you procured me that new drug I 
 spoke of?" asked the master. 
 
 " Here it is," said the man, putting a small 
 package on the table. 
 
 " Is it effectual ? " 
 
 " So said the apothecary," answered the man ; 
 " and I tried it on a dog. He sat quietly a 
 quarter of an hour ; then had a spasm or two, 
 and was dead. But, your honor, the dead car 
 cass swelled horribly." 
 
 " Hush, villain! Have there have there 
 been inquiries for me, mention of me ? " 
 
 " O, none, sir, none, sir. Affairs go on 
 bravely, the new live. The world fills up. 
 The gap is not vacant. There is no mention 
 of you. Marry, at the alehouse I heard some 
 idle topers talking of a murder that took place 
 some few years since, and saying that Heaven s 
 vengeance would come for it yet." 
 
 " Silence, villain, there is no such thing," said 
 the young man ; and, with a laugh that seemed 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 like scorn, he relapsed into his state of sullen in 
 difference ; during which the servant stole away, 
 after looking at him some time, as if to take all 
 possible note of his aspect. The man did not 
 seem so much to enjoy it himself, as he did to 
 do these things in a kind of formal and matter- 
 of-course way, as if he were performing a set 
 duty ; as if he were a subordinate fiend, and 
 were doing the duty of a superior one, without 
 any individual malice of his own, though a gen 
 eral satisfaction in doing what would accrue to 
 the agglomeration of deadly mischief. He stole 
 away, and the master was left to himself. 
 
 By and by, by what impulse or cause it is 
 impossible to say, he started upon his feet in a 
 sudden frenzy of rage and despair. It seemed 
 as if a consciousness of some strange, wild, mis 
 erable fate that had befallen him had come upon 
 him all at once ; how that he was a prisoner to 
 a devilish influence, to some wizard might, that 
 bound him hand and foot with spider s web. 
 So he stamped ; so he half shrieked, yet stopped 
 himself in the midst, so that his cry was stifled 
 and smothered. Then he snatched up the poi 
 soned dagger and looked at it ; the noose, and 
 put it about his neck, evil instrument of 
 death, but laid it down again. And then was 
 a voice at the door : " Quietly, quietly you know, 
 or they will hear you." And at that voice he 
 sank into sullen indifference again. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 A TRAVELLER with a knapsack on his 
 shoulders comes out of the duskiness 
 of vague, unchronicled times, throwing 
 his shadow before him in the morning sunshine 
 along a well-trodden, though solitary path. 
 
 It was early summer, or perhaps latter spring, 
 and the most genial weather that either spring 
 or summer ever brought, possessing a charac 
 ter, indeed, as if both seasons had done their 
 utmost 1 to create an atmosphere and tempera 
 ture most suitable for the enjoyment and exer 
 cise of life. To one accustomed to a climate 
 where there is seldom a medium between heat 
 too fierce and cold too deadly, it was a new de 
 velopment in the nature of weather. So genial 
 it was, so full of all comfortable influences, and 
 yet, somehow or other, void of the torrid char 
 acteristic that inevitably burns in our full sun 
 bursts. The traveller thought, in fact, that the 
 sun was at less than his brightest glow ; for 
 though it was bright, though the day seemed 
 cloudless, though it appeared to be the clear, 
 transparent morning that precedes an unshad 
 owed noon, still there was a mild and sof 
 tened character, not so perceptible when he di- 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 rectly sought to see it, but as if some veil were 
 interposed between the earth and sun, absorbing 
 all the passionate qualities out of the latter, and 
 leaving only the kindly ones. Warmth was in 
 abundance, and yet, all through it, and strangely 
 akin to it, there was a half-suspected coolness 
 that gave the atmosphere its most thrilling and 
 delicious charm. It was good for human life, 
 as the traveller felt throughout all his being ; 
 good, likewise, for vegetable life, as was seen in 
 the depth and richness of verdure over the gen 
 tly undulating landscape, and the luxuriance of 
 foliage, wherever there was tree or shrub to put 
 forth leaves. 
 
 The path along which the traveller was pass 
 ing deserved at least a word or two of descrip 
 tion : it was a well-trodden footpath, running 
 just here along the edge of a field of grass, and 
 bordered on one side by a hedge which con 
 tained materials within itself for varied and 
 minute researches in natural history ; so richly 
 luxuriant was it with its diverse vegetable life, 
 such a green intricacy did it form, so impenetra 
 ble and so beautiful, and such a Paradise it was 
 for the birds that built their nests there in a 
 labyrinth of little boughs and twigs, unseen and 
 inaccessible, while close beside the human race 
 to which they attach themselves, that they must 
 have felt themselves as safe as when they sung 
 to Eve. Homely flowers likewise grew <n it, 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and many creeping and twining plants, that were 
 an original part of the hedge, had come of their 
 own accord and dwelt here, beautifying and en 
 riching the verdant fence by way of repayment 
 for the shelter and support which it afforded 
 them. At intervals, trees of vast trunk and 
 mighty spread of foliage, whether elms or oaks, 
 grew in the line of the hedge, and the bark of 
 those gigantic, age-long patriarchs was not gray 
 and naked, like the trees which the traveller had 
 been accustomed to see, but verdant with mosSj 
 or in many cases richly enwreathed with a net 
 work of creeping plants, and oftenest the ivy of 
 old growth, clambering upward, and making its 
 own twisted stem almost of one substance with 
 the supporting tree. On one venerable oak 
 there was a plant of mystic leaf, which the trav 
 eller knew by instinct, and plucked a bough of 
 it with a certain reverence for the sake of the 
 Druids and Christmas kisses and of the pasty 
 in which it was rooted from of old. 
 
 The path in which he walked, rustic as it was 
 and made merely by the feet that pressed it 
 down, was one of the ancientest of ways ; older 
 than the oak that bore the mistletoe, older than 
 the villages between which it passed, older per 
 haps than the common road which the traveller 
 had crossed that morning ; old as the times 
 when people first debarred themselves from wan 
 dering freely and widely wherever a vagrant im- 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 pulse led them. The footpath, therefore, still 
 retains some of the characteristics of a woodland 
 walk, taken at random, by a lover of nature not 
 pressed for time nor restrained by artificial bar 
 riers ; it sweeps and lingers along, and finds 
 pretty little dells and nooks of delightful scen 
 ery, and picturesque glimpses of halls or cot 
 tages, in the same neighborhood where a high 
 road would disclose only a tiresome blank., 
 They run into one another for miles and miles 
 together, and traverse rigidly guarded parks and 
 domains, not as a matter of favor, but as a right ; 
 so that the poorest man thus retains a kind of 
 property and privilege in the oldest inheritance 
 of the richest. The highroad sees only the 
 outside ; the footpath leads down into the heart 
 of the country. 
 
 A pleasant feature of the footpath was the 
 stile, between two fields ; no frail and tempo 
 rary structure, but betokening the permanence 
 of this rustic way ; the ancient solidity of the 
 stone steps, worn into cavities by the hobnailed 
 shoes that had pressed upon them : here not 
 only the climbing foot had passed for ages, but 
 here had sat the maiden with her milk pail, the 
 rustic on his way afield or homeward ; here had 
 been lover meetings, cheerful chance chats, song 
 as natural as bird note, a thousand pretty scenes 
 of rustic manners. 
 
 It was curious to see the traveller pause, to 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 contemplate so simple a thing as this old stile 
 of a few stone steps ; antique as an old castle ; 
 simple and rustic as the gap in a rail fence ; and 
 while he sat on one of the steps, making him 
 self pleasantly sensible of his whereabout, like 
 one who should handle a dream and find it tan 
 gible and real, he heard a sound that bewitched 
 him with still another dreamy delight. A bird 
 rose out of the grassy field, and, still soaring 
 aloft, made a cheery melody that was like a spire 
 of audible flame, rapturous music, as if the 
 whole soul and substance of the winged creature 
 had been distilled into this melody, as it van 
 ished skyward. 
 
 " The lark ! the lark ! " exclaimed the trav 
 eller, recognizing the note (though never heard 
 before) as if his childhood had known it. 
 
 A moment afterwards another bird was heard 
 in the shadow of a neighboring wood, or some 
 other inscrutable hiding place, singing softly in 
 a flutelike note, as if blown through an instru 
 ment of wood, " Cuckoo ! Cuckoo ! " only 
 twice, and then a stillness. 
 
 " How familiar these rustic sounds ! " he ex 
 claimed. " Surely I was born here ! " 
 
 The person who thus enjoyed these sounds, 
 as if they were at once familiar and strange, was 
 a young man, tall and rather slenderly built ; 
 and though we have called him young, there 
 were the traces of thought, struggle, and even 
 160 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 of experience in his marked brow and somewhat 
 pale face ; but the spirit within him was evi 
 dently still that of a youth, lithe and active, gaz 
 ing out of his dark eyes and taking note of 
 things about him, with an eager, centring inter 
 est, that seemed to be unusually awake at the 
 present moment. 
 
 It could be but a few years since he first called 
 himself a man ; but they must have been thickly 
 studded with events, turbulent with action, spent 
 amidst circumstances that called for resources of 
 energy not often so early developed ; and thus 
 his youth might have been kept in abeyance 
 until now, when in this simple rural scene he 
 grew almost a boy again. As for his station in 
 life, his coarse gray suit and the knapsack on 
 his shoulders did not indicate a very high one ; 
 yet it was such as a gentleman might wear of a 
 morning, or on a pedestrian ramble, and was 
 worn in a way that made it seem of a better 
 fashion than it really was, as it enabled him to 
 find a rare enjoyment, as we have seen, in by 
 path, hedge row, rustic stile, lark, and cuckoo, 
 and even the familiar grass and clover blossom. 
 It was as if he had long been shut in a sick- 
 chamber or a prison ; or, at least, within the 
 iron cage of busy life, that had given him but 
 few glimpses of natural things through its bars ; 
 or else this was another kind of nature than he 
 had heretofore known. 
 
 161 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 As he walked along (through a kind of dream, 
 though he seemed so sensibly observant of tri 
 fling things around him), he failed to notice that 
 the path grew somewhat less distinctly marked, 
 more infringed upon by grass, more shut in by 
 shrubbery ; he had deviated into a side track, 
 and, in fact, a certain printed board nailed against 
 a tree had escaped his notice, warning off intrud 
 ers with inhospitable threats of prosecution. He 
 began to suspect that he must have gone astray 
 when the path led over plashy ground with a 
 still fainter trail of preceding footsteps, and 
 plunged into shrubbery, and seemed on the 
 point of deserting him altogether, after having 
 beguiled him thus far. The spot was an entan 
 glement of boughs, and yet did not give one the 
 impression of wildness ; for it was the stranger s 
 idea that everything in this long-cultivated re 
 gion had been touched and influenced by man s 
 care, every oak, every bush, every sod, that 
 man knew them all, and that they knew him, 
 and by that mutual knowledge had become far 
 other than they were in the first freedom of 
 growth, such as may be found in an American 
 forest. Nay, the wildest denizens of this sylvan 
 neighborhood were removed in the same degree 
 from their primeval character ; for hares sat on 
 their hind legs to gaze at the approaching trav 
 eller, and hardly thought it worth their while to 
 leap away among some ferns, as he drew near ; 
 162 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 two pheasants looked at him from a bough, a lit 
 tle inward among the shrubbery ; and, to com- 
 plete the wonder, he became aware of the antlers 
 and brown muzzle of a deer protruding among 
 the boughs, and though immediately there en 
 sued a great rush and rustling of the herd, it 
 seemed evidently to come from a certain linger 
 ing shyness, an instinct that had lost its purpose 
 and object, and only mimicked a dread of man, 
 whose neighborhood and familiarity had tamed 
 the wild deer almost into a domestic creature. 
 Remembering his experience of true woodland 
 life, the traveller fancied that it might be possi 
 ble to want freer air, less often used for human 
 breath, than was to be found anywhere among 
 these woods. 
 
 But then the sweet, calm sense of safety that 
 was here ! the certainty that with the wild ele 
 ment that centuries ago had passed out of this 
 scene had gone all the perils of wild men and 
 savage beasts, dwarfs, witches, leaving nature, 
 not effete, but only disarmed- of those rougher, 
 deadlier characteristics, that cruel rawness, which 
 make primeval Nature the deadly enemy even 
 of her own children. Here was consolation, 
 doubtless ; so we sit down on the stone step of 
 the last stile that he had crossed, and listen to 
 the footsteps of the traveller, and the distant rus 
 tle among the shrubbery, as he goes deeper and 
 deeper into the seclusion, having by this time 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 lost the deceitful track. No matter if he go 
 astray ; even were it after nightfall instead of 
 noontime, a will-o -the-wisp, or Puck himself, 
 would not lead him into worse harm than to de 
 lude him into some mossy pool, the depths of 
 which the truant schoolboys had known for ages. 
 Nevertheless, some little time after his disap 
 pearance, there was the report of a shot that 
 echoed sharp and loud, startling the pheasants 
 from their boughs, and sending the hares and 
 deer a-scampering in good earnest. 
 
 We next find our friend, from whom we parted 
 on the footpath, in a situation of which he then 
 was but very imperfectly aware ; for, indeed, he 
 had been in a state of unconsciousness, lasting 
 until it was now late towards the sunset of that 
 same day. He was endeavoring to make out 
 where he was, and how he came thither, or what 
 had happened ; or whether, indeed, anything 
 had happened, unless to have fallen asleep, and 
 to be still enveloped in the fragments of some 
 vivid and almost tangible dream, the more con 
 fused because so vivid. His wits did not come 
 so readily about him as usual ; there may have 
 been a slight delusion, which mingled itself with 
 his sober perceptions, and by its leaven of ex 
 travagance made the whole substance K the 
 scene untrue. Thus it happened that, as it 
 were at the same instant, he fancied himself 
 years back in life, thousands of miles away, in a 
 164 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 gloomy cobwebbed room, looking out upon a 
 graveyard, while yet, neither more nor less dis 
 tinctly, he was conscious of being in a small 
 chamber, panelled with oak, and furnished in an 
 antique style. He was doubtful, too, whether 
 or no there was a grim feudal figure, in a shabby 
 dressing gown and an old velvet cap, sitting 
 in the dusk of the room, smoking a pipe that 
 diffused a scent of tobacco, quaffing a deep- 
 hued liquor out of a tumbler, looking up 
 wards at a spider that hung above. Was there, 
 too, a child sitting in a little chair at his foot 
 stool ? In his earnestness to see this appari 
 tion more distinctly, he opened his eyes wider 
 and stirred, and ceased to see it at all. 
 
 But though that other dusty, squalid, cob- 
 webbed scene quite vanished, and along with it 
 the two figures, old and young, grim and child 
 ish, of whose portraits it had been the frame 
 work, still there were features in the old, oaken- 
 panelled chamber that seemed to belong rather 
 to his dream. The panels were ornamented, 
 here and there, with antique carving, represent 
 ing over and over again an identical device, 
 being a bare arm, holding the torn-off head of 
 some savage beast, which the stranger could not 
 know by species, any more than Agassiz himself 
 could have assigned its type or kindred ; because 
 it was that kind of natural history of which her 
 aldry alone keeps the menagerie. But it was 
 165 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 just as familiar to his recollection as that of the 
 cat which he had fondled in his childhood. 
 
 There was likewise a mantelpiece, heavily 
 wrought of oak, quite black with smoke and age, 
 in the centre of which, more prominent than 
 elsewhere, was that same leopard s head that 
 seemed to thrust itself everywhere into sight, as 
 if typifying some great mystery which human 
 nature would never be at rest till it had solved ; 
 and below, in a cavernous hollow, there was a 
 smouldering fire of coals ; for the genial day had 
 suddenly grown chill, and a shower of rain spat 
 tered against the small window panes, almost 
 at the same time with the struggling sunshine. 
 And over the mantelpiece, where the light of 
 the declining day came strongest from the win 
 dow, there was a larger and more highly re 
 lieved carving of this same device, and under 
 neath it a legend, in Old English letters, which, 
 though his eyes could not precisely trace it at 
 that distance, he knew to be this : 
 
 " SfoItJ jjarU tjje $eaU." 
 
 Otherwise the aspect of the room bewildered 
 him by not being known, since these details were 
 so familiar : a narrow precinct it was, with one 
 window full of old-fashioned, diamond-shaped 
 panes of glass ; a small desk table, standing on 
 clawed feet ; two or three high-backed chairs, 
 on the top of each of which was carved that 
 166 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 same crest of the fabulous brute s head, which 
 the carver s fancy seemed to have clutched so 
 strongly that he could not let it go ; in another 
 part of the room a very old engraving, rude and 
 strong, representing some ruffled personage, 
 which the stranger only tried to make out with 
 a sort of idle curiosity, because it was strange 
 he should dream so distinctly. 
 
 Very soon it became intolerably irritating 
 that these two dreams, both purposeless, should 
 have mingled and entangled themselves in his 
 mind. He made a nervous and petulant mo 
 tion, intending to rouse himself fully ; and im 
 mediately a sharp pang of physical pain took 
 him by surprise, and made him groan aloud. 
 
 Immediately there was an almost noiseless 
 step on the floor ; and a figure emerged from a 
 deep niche, that looked as if it might once have 
 been an oratory, in ancient times ; and the 
 figure, too, might have been supposed to pos 
 sess the devout and sanctified character of such 
 as knelt in the oratories of ancient times. It 
 was an elderly man, tall, thin, and pale, and wea*-- 
 ing a long, dark tunic, and in a peculiar fashion, 
 which like almost everything else about him 
 the stranger seemed to have a confused re 
 membrance of; this venerable person had a be 
 nign and pitiful aspect, and approached the bed 
 side with such good will and evident desire to 
 do the sufferer good, that the latter felt soothed, 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 at least, by his very presence. He lay, a mo 
 ment, gazing up at the old man s face, without 
 being able to exert himself to say a word, but 
 sensible, as it were, of a mild, soft influence 
 from him, cooling the fever which seemed to 
 burn in his veins. 
 
 " Do you suffer much pain ? " asked the old 
 man gently. 
 
 " None at all," said the stranger ; but again 
 a slight motion caused him to feel a burning 
 twinge in his shoulder. " Yes ; there was a 
 throb of strange anguish. Why should I feel 
 pain ? Where am I ? " 
 
 "In safety, and with those who desire to be 
 your friends," said the old man. " You have 
 met with an accident ; but do not inquire about 
 it now. Quiet is what you need." 
 
 Still the traveller gazed at him ; and the old 
 man s figure seemed to enter into his dream, or 
 delirium, whichever it might be, as if his peace 
 ful presence were but a shadow, so quaint was 
 his address, so unlike real life, in that dark robe, 
 with a velvet skullcap on his head, beneath 
 which his hair made a silvery border ; 2 and look 
 ing more closely, the stranger saw embroidered 
 on the breast of the tunic that same device, the 
 arm and the leopard s head, which was visible 
 in the carving of the room. Yes ; this must 
 still be a dream, which, under the unknown laws 
 which govern such psychical states, had brought 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 out thus vividly figures, devices, words, forgot 
 ten since his boyish days. Though of an im 
 aginative tendency, the stranger was neverthe 
 less strongly tenacious of the actual, and had a 
 natural horror at the idea of being seriously at 
 odds, in beliefs, perceptions, conclusions, with 
 the real world about him ; so that a tremor ran 
 through him, as if he felt the substance of the 
 world shimmering before his eyes like a mere 
 vaporous consistency. 
 
 " Are you real ? " said he to the antique pre 
 sence ; " or a spirit ? or a fantasy ? " 
 
 The old man laid his thin, cool palm on the 
 stranger s burning forehead, and smiled benig- 
 nantly, keeping it there an instant. 
 
 " If flesh and blood are real, I am so," said 
 he ; "a spirit, too, I may claim to be, made 
 thin by fantasy. Again, do not perplex your 
 self with such things. To-morrow you may 
 find denser substance in me. Drink this com 
 posing draught, and close your eyes to those 
 things that disturb you." 
 
 " Your features, too, and your voice," said 
 the stranger, in a resigned tone, as if he were 
 giving up a riddle, the solution of which he 
 could not find, " have an image and echo some 
 where in my memory. It is all an entangle 
 ment. I will drink, and shut my eyes." 
 
 He drank from a little old-fashioned silver 
 cup, which his venerable guardian presented to 
 160 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 his lips ; but in so doing he was still perplexed 
 and tremulously disturbed with seeing that same 
 weary old device, the leopard s head, engraved 
 on the side ; and shut his eyes to escape it, for 
 it irritated a certain portion of his brain with 
 vague, fanciful, elusive ideas. So he sighed, 
 and spoke no more. The medicine, whatever 
 it might be, had the merit, rare in doctor s stuff, 
 of being pleasant to take, assuasive of thirst, 
 and imbued with a hardly perceptible fragrance, 
 that was so ethereal that it also seemed to enter 
 into his dream and modify it. He kept his 
 eyes closed, and fell into a misty state, in which 
 he wondered whether this could be the panacea 
 or medicament which old Doctor Grimshawe 
 used to distil from cobwebs, and of which the 
 fragrance seemed to breathe through all the 
 waste of years since then. He wondered, too, 
 who was this benign, saintlike old man, and 
 where, in what former state of being, he could 
 nave known -him ; to have him thus, as no 
 strange thing, and yet so strange, be attending 
 at his bedside, with all this ancient garniture. 
 But it was best to dismiss all things, he being 
 so weak ; to resign himself; all this had hap 
 pened before, and had passed away, prosper 
 ously or unprosperously ; it would pass away 
 in this case, likewise ; and in the morning what 
 ever might be delusive would have disappeared 
 170 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE patient 1 had a favorable night, and 
 awoke with a much clearer head, though 
 still considerably feverish and in a state 
 of great exhaustion from loss of blood, which 
 kept down the fever. The events of the pre 
 ceding day shimmered as it were and shifted 
 illusively in his recollection ; nor could he yet 
 account for the situation in which he found him 
 self, the antique chamber, the old man of mediae 
 val garb, nor even for the wound which seemed 
 to have been the occasion of bringing him 
 thither. One moment, so far as he remem 
 bered, he had been straying along a solitary 
 footpath, through rich shrubbery, with the ant- 
 lered deer peeping at him, listening to the lark 
 and the cuckoo ; the next, he lay helpless in 
 this oak-panelled chamber, surrounded with 
 objects that appealed to some fantastic shadow 
 of recollection, which could have had no real 
 ity. 2 
 
 To say the truth, the traveller perhaps wil 
 fully kept hold of this strange illusiveness, and 
 kept his thoughts from too harshly analyzing 
 his situation, and solving the riddle in which he 
 found himself involved. In his present weak- 
 171 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ness, his mind sympathizing with the sinking 
 down of his physical powers, it was delightful 
 to let all go ; to relinquish all control, and let 
 himself drift vaguely into whatever region of 
 improbabilities there exists apart from the dull, 
 common plane of life. Weak, stricken down, 
 given over to influences which had taken pos 
 session of him during an interval of insensibil 
 ity, he was no longer responsible ; let these de 
 lusions, if they were such, linger as long as they 
 would, and depart of their own accord at last. 
 He, meanwhile, would willingly accept the idea 
 that some spell had transported him out of an 
 epoch in which he had led a brief, troubled ex 
 istence of battle, mental strife, success, failure, 
 all equally feverish and unsatisfactory, into some 
 past century, where the business was to rest, 
 to drag on dreamy days, looking at things 
 through half-shut eyes ; into a limbo where 
 things were put away, shows of what had once 
 been, now somehow fainted, and still maintain 
 ing a sort of half-existence, a serious mockery ; 
 a state likely enough to exist just a little apart 
 from the actual world, if we only know how to 
 find our way into it. Scenes and events that 
 had once stained themselves, in deep colors, on 
 the curtain that Time hangs around us, to shut 
 us in from eternity, cannot be quite effaced by 
 the succeeding phantasmagoria, and sometimes, 
 172 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 by a palimpsest, show more strongly than 
 they. 3 
 
 In the course of the morning, however, he 
 was a little too feelingly made sensible of reali 
 ties by the visit of a surgeon, who proceeded to 
 examine the wound in his shoulder, removing 
 the bandages which he himself seemed to have 
 put upon this mysterious hurt. The traveller 
 closed his eyes, and submitted to the manipula 
 tions of the professional person, painful as they 
 were, assisted by the gentle touch of the old 
 palmer ; and there was something in. the way 
 in which he resigned himself that met the ap- 
 probation of the surgeon, in spite of a little 
 fever, and slight delirium too, to judge by his 
 eye. 
 
 " A very quiet and well-behaved patient," 
 said he to the palmer. " Unless I greatly mis 
 take, he has been under the surgeon s hand for 
 a similar hurt ere now. He has learned under 
 good discipline how to take such a thing easily. 
 Yes, yes; just here is a mark where a bullet 
 went in some time ago, three or four years 
 since, when he could have been little more than 
 a boy. A wild fellow this, I doubt." 
 
 "It was an Indian bullet," said the patient, 
 still fancying himself gone astray into the past, 
 " shot at me in battle ; t was three hundred 
 years hereafter." 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 f( Ah ! he has served in the East Indies," said 
 the surgeon. " I thought this sunburned cheek 
 had taken its hue elsewhere than in England." 
 
 The patient did not care to take the trouble 
 which would have been involved in correcting 
 the surgeon s surmise ; so he let it pass, and 
 patiently awaited the end of the examination, 
 with only a moan or two, which seemed rather 
 pleasing and desirable than otherwise to the 
 surgeon s ear. 
 
 " He has vitality enough for his needs," said 
 he, nodding to the palmer. " These groans 
 betoken a good degree of pain ; though the 
 young fellow is evidently a self-contained sort 
 of nature, and does not let us know all he feels. 
 It promises well, however ; keep him in bed 
 and quiet, and within a day or two we shall see." 
 
 He wrote a recipe, or two or three, perhaps 
 (for in those days the medical fraternity had 
 faith in their own art), and took his leave. 
 
 The white-bearded palmer withdrew into the 
 half-concealment of the oratory which we have 
 already mentioned, and then, putting on a pair 
 of spectacles, betook himself to the perusal of 
 an old folio volume, the leaves of which he 
 turned over so gently that not the slightest 
 sound could possibly disturb the patient. All 
 his manifestations were gentle and soft, but of 
 a simplicity most unlike the feline softness 
 which we are apt to associate with a noiseless 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 tread and movement in the male sex. The sun 
 shine came through the ivy and glimmered upon 
 his great book, however, with an effect which 
 a little disturbed the patient s nerves ; besides, 
 he desired to have a fuller view of his benign 
 guardian. 
 
 " Will you sit nearer the bedside? " said he. 
 " I wish to look at you." 
 
 Weakness, the relaxation of nerves, and the 
 state of dependence on another s care very 
 long unfelt had made him betray what we 
 must call childishness ; and it was perceptible 
 in the low half-complaining tone in which he 
 spoke, indicating a consciousness of kindness 
 in the other, a little plaintiveness in himself; 
 of which, the next instant, weak and wandering 
 as he was, he was ashamed, and essayed to ex 
 press it. 4 
 
 " You must deem me very poor-spirited, * 
 said he, " not to bear this trifling hurt with a 
 firmer mind. But perhaps it is not entirely that 
 I am so weak, but I feel you to be so benign." 
 
 " Be weak, and be the stronger for it," said 
 the old man, with a grave smile. "It is not in 
 the pride of our strength that we are best or 
 wisest. To be made anew, we even must be 
 again a little child, and consent to be enwrapt 
 quietly in the arms of Providence, as a child in 
 its mother s arms." 
 
 " I never knew a mother s care," replied the 
 1 75 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 traveller, in a low, regretful tone, being weak to 
 the incoming of all soft feelings, in his present 
 state. " Since my boyhood, I have lived among 
 men, a life of struggle and hard rivalry. It 
 is good to find myself here in the long past, 
 and in a sheltered harbor." 
 
 And here he smiled, by way of showing to 
 this old palmer that he saw through the slight 
 infirmity of mind that impelled him to say such 
 things as the above ; that he was not its dupe, 
 though he had not strength, just now, to resist 
 its impulse. After this he dozed off softly, and 
 felt through all his sleep some twinges of his 
 wound, bringing him back, as it were, to the 
 conscious surface of the great deep of slumber, 
 into which he might otherwise have sunk. At 
 all such brief intervals, half unclosing his eyes 
 (like a child, when the mother sits by his bed, 
 and he fears that she will steal away if he falls 
 quite asleep, and leave him in the dark solitude), 
 he still beheld the white-bearded, kindly old 
 man, of saintly aspect, sitting near him, and 
 turning over the pages of his folio volume so 
 softly that not the faintest rustle did it make ; 
 the picture at length got so fully into his idea, 
 that he seemed to see it even through his closed 
 eyelids. After a while, however, the slumber 
 ous tendency left him more entirely, and, with 
 out having been consciously awake, he found 
 himself contemplating the old man, with wide- 
 176 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 open eyes. The venerable personage seemed 
 soon to feel his gaze, and, ceasing to look at 
 the folio, he turned his eyes with quiet inquiry 
 to meet those of the stranger. 5 
 
 " What great volume is that ? " asked the 
 latter. 6 
 
 " It is a book of English chronicles," said 
 the old man, "mostly relating to the part of the 
 island where you now are, and to times previ 
 ous to the Stuarts." 
 
 " Ah ! it is to you, a contemporary, what 
 reading the newspaper is to other men," said 
 the stranger ; then, with a smile of self-reproach, 
 " I shall conquer this idle mood. I m not so 
 imbecile as you must think me. But there is 
 something that strangely haunts me, where, 
 in what state of being, can I have seen your 
 face before ? There is nothing in it I distinctly 
 remember ; but some impression, some charac 
 teristic, some look, with which I have been long 
 ago familiar, haunts me and brings back all old 
 scenes. Do you know me ? " 
 
 The old man smiled. " I knew, long ago, 
 a bright and impressible boy," said he. 
 
 " And his name ? " said the stranger. 
 
 " It was Edward Redclyffe," said the old man. 
 
 " Ah, I see who you are," said the traveller, 
 not too earnestly, but with a soft, gratified feel 
 ing, as the riddle thus far solved itself. " You 
 are my old kindly instructor. You are Colcord 
 177 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 That is it. I remember you disappeared. You 
 shall tell me, when I am quite myself, what was 
 that mystery, and whether it is your real self, 
 or only a part of my dream, and going to van 
 ish when I quite awake. Now I shall sleep and 
 dream more of it." 
 
 One more waking interval he had that day, 
 and again essayed to enter into conversation 
 with the old man, who had thus strangely again 
 become connected with his life, after having so 
 long vanished from his path. 
 
 " Where am I ? " asked Edward Redclyffe. 
 
 " In the home of misfortune," said Colcord. 
 
 " Ah ! then I have a right to be here ! " said 
 he. " I was born in such a home. Do you 
 remember it ? " 
 
 " I know your story," said Colcord. 
 
 "Yes; from Doctor Grim," said Edward. 
 " People whispered he had made away with you. 
 I never believed it ; but finding you here in this 
 strange way, and myself having been shot, per 
 haps to death, it seems not so strange. Pooh ! 
 I wander again, and ought to sleep a little more. 
 And this is the home of misfortune, but not like 
 the squalid place of rage, idiocy, imbecility, 
 drunkenness, where I was born. How many 
 times I have blushed to remember that native 
 home ! But not of late ! I have struggled ; I 
 have fought ; I have triumphed. The unknown 
 boy has come to be no undistinguished man ! 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 His ancestry, should he ever reveal himself to 
 them, need not blush for the poor foundling." 
 
 " Hush ! " said the quiet watcher. " Your 
 fever burns you. Take this draught, and sleep 
 a little longer." T 
 
 Another day or two found Edward Redclyffe 
 almost a convalescent. The singular lack of 
 impatience that characterized his present mood 
 
 the repose of spirit into which he had lapsed 
 
 had much to do with the favorable progress 
 of his cure. After strife, anxiety, great mental 
 exertion, and excitement of various kinds, which 
 had harassed him ever since he grew to be a 
 man, had come this opportunity of perfect rest ; 
 
 this dream in the midst of which he lay, while 
 its magic boundaries involved him, and kept far 
 off the contact of actual life, so that its sounds 
 and tumults seemed remote ; its cares could not 
 fret him ; its ambitions, objects good or evil, 
 were shut out from him ; the electric wires that 
 had connected him with the battery of life were 
 broken for the time, and he did not feel the un 
 quiet influence that kept everybody else in gal 
 vanic motion. So, under the benign influence 
 of the old palmer, he lay in slumberous luxury, 
 undisturbed save by some twinges of no intol 
 erable pain ; which, however, he almost was glad 
 of, because it made him sensible that this deep 
 luxury of quiet was essential to his cure, how 
 ever idle it might seem. For the first time since 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 he was a child, he resigned himself not to put a 
 finger to the evolution of his fortune ; he deter 
 mined to accept all things that might happen, 
 good or evil ; he would not imagine an event 
 beyond to-day, but would let one spontaneous 
 and half-defined thought loiter after another, 
 through his mind ; listen to the spattering 
 shower, the puffs of shut-out wind ; and look 
 with half-shut eyes at the sunshine glimmering 
 through the ivy twigs, and illuminating those old 
 devices on the wall ; at the gathering twilight ; 
 at the dim lamp; at the creeping upward of 
 another day, and with it the lark singing so far 
 away that the thrill of its delicious song could 
 not disturb him with an impulse to awake. 
 Sweet as its carol was, he could almost have 
 been content to miss the lark; sweet and clear, 
 it was too like a fairy trumpet call, summoning 
 him to awake and struggle again with eager 
 combatants for new victories, the best of which 
 were not worth this deep repose. 
 
 The old palmer did his best to prolong a 
 mood so beneficial to the wounded young man. 
 The surgeon also nodded approval, and attrib 
 uted this happy state of the patient s mind, 
 and all the physical advantages growing out of 
 it, to his own consummate skill ; nor, indeed, 
 was he undeserving of credit, not often to be 
 awarded to medical men, for having done no 
 thing to impede the good which kind Nature 
 180 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 was willing to bring about. She was doing the 
 patient more good, indeed, than either the sur 
 geon or the palmer could fully estimate, in tak 
 ing this opportunity to recreate a mind that had 
 too early known stirring impulse, and that had 
 been worked to a degree beyond what its or 
 ganization (in some respects singularly delicate) 
 ought to have borne. Once in a long while 
 the weary actors in the headlong drama of life 
 must have such repose, or else go mad or die. 
 When the machinery of human life has once 
 been stopped by sickness or other impediment, 
 it often needs an impulse to set it going again, 
 even after it is nearly wound up. 
 
 But it could not last forever. The influx of 
 new life into his being began to have a poign 
 ancy that would not let him lie so quietly, 
 lapped in the past, in gone-by centuries, and 
 waited on by quiet Age, in the person of the 
 old palmer ; he began to feel again that he was 
 young, and must live in the time when his lot 
 was cast. He began to say to himself, that it 
 was not well to be any longer passive, but that 
 he must again take the troublesome burden of 
 his own life on his own shoulders. He thought 
 of this necessity, this duty, throughout one 
 whole day, and determined that on the morrow 
 he would make the first step towards terminating 
 his inaction, which he now began to be half im 
 patient of, at the same time that he clutched it 
 181 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 still, for the sake of the deliciousness that it had 
 had. 
 
 "To-morrow, I hope to be clothed and in 
 my right mind," said he to the old palmer, 
 " and very soon I must thank you, with my 
 whole heart, for your kind care, and go. It is 
 a shame that I burden the hospitality of this 
 house so long. * 
 
 " No shame whatever," replied the old man, 
 " but, on the contrary, the fittest thing that 
 could have chanced. You are dependent on no 
 private benevolence, nor on the good offices of 
 any man now living, or who has lived these last 
 three hundred years. This ancient establish 
 ment is for the support of poverty, misfortune, 
 and age, and, according to the word of the 
 founder, it serves him : he was indebted to 
 the beneficiaries, not they to him, for, in re 
 turn for his temporal bequests, he asked their 
 prayers for his soul s welfare. He needed them, 
 could they avail him ; for this ponderous struc 
 ture was built upon the founder s mortal trans 
 gressions, and even, I may say, out of the actual 
 substance of them. Sir Edward Redclyffe was 
 a fierce fighter in the Wars of the Roses, and 
 amassed much wealth by spoil, rapine, confisca 
 tion, and all violent and evil ways that those 
 disturbed times opened to him ; and on his 
 deathbed he founded this Hospital for twelve 
 men, who should be able to prove kindred with 
 182 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 his race, to dwell here with a stipend, and pray 
 for him ; and likewise provision for a sick 
 stranger, until he should be able to go on his 
 way again." 
 
 " I shall pray for him willingly," said Edward, 
 moved by the pity which awaits any softened 
 state of our natures to steal into our hearts. 
 " Though no Catholic, I will pray for his soul. 
 And that is his crest which you wear embroid 
 ered on your garment ? " 
 
 " It is," said the old man. " You will see it 
 carved, painted, embroidered, everywhere about 
 the establishment ; but let us give it the better 
 and more reasonable interpretation ; not that 
 he sought to proclaim his own pride of ancestry 
 and race, but to acknowledge his sins the more 
 manifestly, by stamping the emblem of his race 
 on this structure of his penitence." 
 
 " And are you," said Redclyffe, impressed 
 anew by the quiet dignity of the venerable 
 speaker, " in authority in the establishment ? " 
 
 " A simple beneficiary of the charity," said 
 the palmer ; " one of the twelve poor brethren 
 and kinsmen of the founder. Slighter proofs 
 of kindred are now of necessity received, since, 
 in the natural course of things, the race has long 
 been growing scarce. But I had it in my power 
 to make out a sufficient claim." 
 
 " Singular," exclaimed Redclyffe 3 " you being 
 an American ! " 8 
 
 183 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " You remember me, then," said the old man 
 quietly. 
 
 " From the first," said Edward, " although 
 your image took the fantastic aspect of the be 
 wilderment in which I then was ; and now that 
 I am in clearer state of mind, it seems yet 
 stranger that you should be here. We two 
 children thought you translated, and people, I 
 remember, whispered dark hints about your 
 fate." 
 
 " There was nothing wonderful in my disap 
 pearance," said the old man. " There were 
 causes, an impulse, an intuition, that made me 
 feel, one particular night, that I might meet 
 harm, whether from myself or others, by re 
 maining in a place with which I had the most 
 casual connection. But I never, so long as I 
 remained in America, quite lost sight of you ; 
 and Doctor Grimshawe, before his death, had 
 knowledge of where I was, and gave me in 
 charge a duty which I faithfully endeavored to 
 perform. Singular man that he was ! much 
 evil, much good in him. Both, it may be, will 
 live after him ! " 
 
 Redclyffe, when the conversation had reached 
 this point, felt a vast desire to reveal to the old 
 man all that the grim Doctor had instilled into 
 his childish mind ; all that he himself, in sub 
 sequent years, had wrought more definitely out 
 of it ; all his accompanying doubts respecting 
 184 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the secret of his birth and some supposed claims 
 which he might assert, and which, only half 
 acknowledging the purpose, had availed to bring 
 him, a republican, hither as to an ancestral 
 centre. He even fancied that the benign old 
 man seemed to expect and await such a confi 
 dence ; but that very idea contributed to make 
 it impossible for him to speak. 
 
 "Another time," he said to himself. " Per 
 haps never. It is a fantastic folly ; and with what 
 the workhouse foundling has since achieved, he 
 would give up too many hopes to take the re 
 presentation of a mouldy old English family." 
 
 " I find my head still very weak," said he, by 
 way of cutting short the conversation. " I must 
 try to sleep again." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE next day he called for his clothes, 
 and, with the assistance of the pen 
 sioner, managed to be dressed, and 
 awaited the arrival of the surgeon, sitting in a 
 great easy-chair, with not much except his pale, 
 thin cheeks, dark, thoughtful eyes, and his arm 
 in a sling, to show the pain and danger through 
 which he had passed. Soon after the departure 
 of the professional gentleman, a step somewhat 
 louder than ordinary was heard on the staircase, 
 and in the corridor leading to the sick-chamber, 
 the step (as Redclyffe s perceptions, nicely 
 attempered by his weakness, assured him) of a 
 man in perfect and robust health, and of station 
 and authority. A moment afterwards, a gentle 
 man of middle age, or a little beyond, appeared 
 in the doorway, in a dress that seemed clerical, 
 yet not very decidedly so ; he had a frank, 
 kindly, yet authoritative bearing, and a face that 
 might almost be said to beam with geniality, 
 when, as now, the benevolence of his nature was 
 aroused and ready to express itself. 
 
 " My friend/ said he, " Doctor Portingale 
 tells me you are much better ; and I am most 
 happy to hear it." 
 
 1 86 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 There was something brusque and unceremo 
 nious in his manner, that a little jarred against 
 Redclyffe s sensitiveness, which had become 
 morbid in sympathy with his weakness. He 
 felt that the newcomer had not probably the 
 right idea as to his own position in life ; he was 
 addressing him most kindly, indeed, but as an 
 inferior. 
 
 " I am much better, sir," he replied gravely, 
 and with reserve ; " so nearly well, that I shall 
 very soon be able to bid farewell to my kind 
 nurse here, and to this ancient establishment, to 
 which I owe so much." 
 
 The visitor seemed struck by Mr. Red 
 clyffe s tone and finely modulated voice, and 
 glanced at his face, and then over his dress and 
 figure, as if to gather from them some reliable 
 data as to his station. 
 
 " I am the Warden of this Hospital," said he, 
 with not less benignity than heretofore, and 
 greater courtesy ; " and, in that capacity, must 
 consider you under my care, as my guest, in 
 fact, although, owing to my casual absence, 
 one of the brethren of the house has been the 
 active instrument in attending you. I am most 
 happy to find you so far recovered. Do you 
 feel yourself in a condition to give any account 
 of the accident which has befallen you ? " 
 
 "It will be a very unsatisfactory one, at 
 best," said Redclyffe, trying to discover some 
 187 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 definite point in his misty reminiscences. " I am 
 a stranger to this country, and was on a pedes 
 trian tour with the purpose of making myself 
 acquainted with the aspects of English scenery 
 and life. I had turned into a footpath, being 
 told that it would lead me within view of an old 
 Hall, which, from certain early associations, I 
 was very desirous of seeing. I think I went 
 astray ; at all events, the path became indistinct ; 
 and, so far as I can recollect, I had just turned 
 to retrace my steps, in fact, that is the last 
 thing in my memory." 
 
 " You had almost fallen a sacrifice," said 
 the Warden, " to the old preference which our 
 English gentry have inherited from their Nor 
 man ancestry, of game to man. You had come 
 unintentionally as an intruder into a rich pre 
 serve much haunted by poachers, and exposed 
 yourself to the deadly mark of a spring gun s 
 which had not the wit to distinguish between a 
 harmless traveller and a poacher. At least, such 
 is our conclusion ; for our old friend here (who 
 luckily for you is a great rambler in the woods), 
 when the report drew him to the spot, found 
 you insensible, and the gun discharged." 
 
 " A gun has so little discretion," said Red- 
 clyffe, smiling, " that it seems a pity to trust 
 entirely to its judgment, in a matter of life and 
 death. But, to confess the truth, I had come 
 this morning to the suspicion that there was a 
 1 88 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 direct human agency in the matter ; for I find 
 missing a little pocketbook which I carried." 
 
 " Then," said the Warden, " that certainly 
 gives a new aspect to the affair. Was it of 
 value ? " 
 
 " Of none whatever," said Redclyffe, " merely 
 containing pencil memoranda, and notes of a 
 traveller s little expenses. I had papers about 
 me of far more value, and a moderate sum of 
 money, a letter of credit, which have escaped. I 
 do not, however, feel inclined, on such grounds, 
 to transfer the guilt decidedly from the spring 
 gun to any more responsible criminal ; for it is 
 very possible that the pocketbook, being care 
 lessly carried, might have been lost on the way. 
 I had not used it since the preceding day." 
 
 " Much more probable, indeed," said the 
 Warden. " The discharged gun is strong evi 
 dence against itself. Mr. Colcord," continued 
 he, raising his voice, " how long was the interval 
 between the discharge of the gun and your ar 
 rival on the spot ? " 
 
 " Five minutes, or less," said the old man, 
 "for I was not far off, and made what haste I 
 could, it being borne in on my spirit that mis 
 chief was abroad." 
 
 " Did you hear two reports ? " asked the 
 Warden. 
 
 " Only one," replied Colcord. 
 
 " It is a plain case against the spring gun," 
 189 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 said the Warden ; " and, as you tell me you are 
 a stranger, I trust you will not suppose that 
 our peaceful English woods and parks are the 
 haunt of banditti. We must try to give you 
 a better idea of us. May I ask, are you an 
 American, and recently come among us ? " 
 
 " I believe a letter of credit is considered as 
 decisive as most modes of introduction," said 
 Redclyffe, feeling that the good Warden was 
 desirous of knowing with some precision who 
 and what he was, and that, in the circumstances, 
 he had a right to such knowledge. " Here is 
 mine, on a respectable house in London." 
 
 The Warden took it and glanced it over, with 
 a slight apologetic bow ; it was a credit for a 
 handsome amount in favor of the Honorable 
 Edward Redclyffe, a title that did not fail to 
 impress the Englishman rather favorably to 
 wards his new acquaintance, although he hap 
 pened -to know something of their abundance, 
 even so early in the republic, among the men 
 branded sons of equality. But, at all events, it 
 showed no ordinary ability and energy for so 
 young a man to have held such position as this 
 title denoted in the fiercely contested political 
 struggles of the new democracy. 
 
 " Do you know, Mr. Redclyffe, that this 
 
 name is familiar to us, hereabouts ? " asked he, 
 
 with a kindly bow and recognition, "that 
 
 it is in fact the principal name in this neighbor- 
 
 190 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 hood, that a family of your name still pos 
 sesses Braithwaite Hall, and that this very 
 Hospital, where you have happily found shel 
 ter, was founded by former representatives of 
 your name ? Perhaps you count yourself among 
 their kindred." 
 
 " My countrymen are apt to advance claims 
 to kinship with distinguished English families 
 on such slight grounds as to make it ridiculous," 
 said Redclyffe, coloring. " I should not choose 
 to follow so absurd an example." 
 
 " Well, well, perhaps not," said the Warden, 
 laughing frankly. " I have been amongst your 
 republicans myself, a long while ago, and saw 
 that your countrymen have no adequate idea of 
 the sacredness of pedigrees and heraldic dis 
 tinctions, and would change their own names at 
 pleasure, and vaunt kindred with an English 
 duke on the strength of the assumed one. But 
 I am happy to meet an American gentleman 
 who looks upon this matter as Englishmen ne 
 cessarily must. I met with great kindness in 
 your country, Mr. Redclyffe, and shall be truly 
 happy if you will allow me an opportunity of 
 returning some small part of the obligation. 
 You are now in a condition for removal to my 
 own quarters, across the quadrangle. I will 
 give orders to prepare an apartment, and you 
 must transfer yourself there by dinner time." 
 
 With this hospitable proposal, so decisively 
 191 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 expressed, the Warden took his leave ; and 
 Edward Redclyffe had hardly yet recovered 
 sufficient independent force to reject an invi 
 tation so put, even were he inclined ; but, in 
 truth, the proposal suited well with his wishes, 
 such as they were, and was, moreover, backed, 
 it is singular to say, by another of those dream 
 like recognitions which had so perplexed him 
 ever since he found himself in the Hospital. 
 In some previous state of being, the Warden 
 and he had talked together before. 
 
 " What is the Warden s name ? " he inquired 
 of the old pensioner. 
 
 " Hammond," said the old man ; " he is a 
 kinsman of the Redclyffe family himself, a man 
 of fortune, and spends more than the income cf 
 his wardenship in beautifying and keeping up 
 the glory of the establishment. He takes great 
 pride in it." 
 
 " And he has been in America," said Red 
 clyffe. " How strange ! I knew him there. 
 Never was anything so singular as the discovery 
 of old acquaintances where I had reason to sup 
 pose myself unknowing and unknown. Unless 
 dear Doctor Grim, or dear little Elsie, were to 
 start up and greet me, I know not what may 
 chance next." 
 
 Redclyffe took up his quarters in the War 
 den s house the next day, and was installed in 
 an apartment that made a picture, such as he 
 192 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 had not before seen, of English household com 
 fort. He was thus established under the good 
 Warden s roof, and, being very attractive of 
 most people s sympathies, soon began to grow 
 greatly in favor with that kindly personage. 
 
 When Edward Redclyffe removed from the 
 old pensioner s narrow quarters to the far am 
 pler accommodations of the Warden s house, the 
 latter gentleman was taking his morning exer 
 cise on horseback. A servant, however, in a 
 grave livery, ushered him to an apartment, 
 where the new guest was surprised to see some 
 luggage which two or three days before Edward 
 had ordered from London, on finding that his 
 stay in this part of the country was likely to be 
 much longer than he had originally contem 
 plated. The sight of these things the sense 
 which they conveyed that he was an expected 
 and welcome guest tended to raise the spirits 
 of the solitary wanderer, and made him . . . .* 
 
 The Warden s abode was an original part of 
 the ancient establishment, being an entire side 
 of the quadrangle which the whole edifice sur 
 rounded ; and for the establishment of a bache 
 lor (which was his new friend s condition), it 
 seemed to Edward Redclyffe abundantly spa 
 cious and enviably comfortable. His own cham 
 ber had a grave, rich depth, as it were, of serene 
 and time-long garniture, for purposes of repose, 
 convenience, daily and nightly comfort, that it 
 193 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 was soothing even to look at. Long accus 
 tomed, as Redclyffe had been, to the hardy and 
 rude accommodations, if so they were to be 
 called, of log huts and hasty, mud-built houses 
 in the Western States of America, life, its daily 
 habits, its passing accommodations, seemed to 
 assume an importance, under these aspects, 
 which it had not worn before ; those deep downy 
 beds, those antique chairs, the heavy carpet, the 
 tester and curtains, the stateliness of the old 
 room, they had a charm as compared with 
 the thin preparation of a forester s bedchamber, 
 such as Redclyffe had chiefly known them, in 
 the ruder parts of the country, that really seemed 
 to give a more substantial value to life ; so 
 much pains had been taken with its modes and 
 appliances, that it looked more solid than be 
 fore. Nevertheless, there was something ghostly 
 in that stately curtained bed, with the deep gloom 
 within its drapery, so ancient as it was; and 
 suggestive of slumberers there who had long 
 since slumbered elsewhere. 
 
 The old servant, whose grave, circumspect 
 courtesy was a matter quite beyond RedclyfFe s 
 experience, soon knocked at the chamber door, 
 and suggested that the guest might desire to 
 await the Warden s arrival in the library, which 
 was the customary sitting room. RedclyfFe as 
 senting, he was ushered into a spacious apart 
 ment, lighted by various Gothic windows, sur- 
 194 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 rounded with old oaken cases, in which were 
 ranged volumes, most or many of which seemed 
 to be coeval with the foundation of the Hospi 
 tal ; and opening one of them, Redclyffe saw 
 for the first time in his life 2 a genuine book 
 worm, that ancient form of creature living upon 
 literature ; it had gnawed a circular hole, pene 
 trating through perhaps a score of pages of the 
 seldom opened volume, and was still at his 
 musty feast. There was a fragrance of old 
 learning in this ancient library ; a soothing in 
 fluence, as the American felt, of time-honored 
 ideas, where the strife, novelties, uneasy agitat 
 ing conflict, attrition of unsettled theories, fresh- 
 springing thought, did not attain a foothold ; a 
 good place to spend a life which should not be 
 agitated with the disturbing element ; so quiet, 
 so peaceful ; how slowly, with how little wear, 
 would the years pass here ! How unlike what 
 he had hitherto known, and was destined to 
 know, the quick, violent struggle of his 
 mother country, which had traced lines in his 
 young brow already ! How much would be 
 saved by taking his former existence, not as 
 dealing with things yet malleable, but with fos 
 sils, things that had had their life, and now 
 were unchangeable, and revered, here ! 
 
 At one end of this large room there was a 
 bowed window, the space near which was cur 
 tained oflf from the rest of the library, and, the 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 window being filled with painted glass (most of 
 which seemed old, though there were insertions 
 evidently of modern and much inferior handi 
 work), there was a rich gloom of light, or you 
 might call it a rich glow, according to your 
 mood of mind. Redclyffe soon perceived that 
 this curtained recess was the especial study of 
 his friend, the Warden, and as such was pro 
 vided with all that modern times had contrived 
 for making an enjoyment out of the perusal of 
 old books : a study table, with every conven 
 ience of multifarious devices, a great inkstand, 
 pens ; a luxurious study chair, where thought 
 [illegible] upon. To say the truth, there was 
 not, in this retired and thoughtful nook, any 
 thing that indicated to Redclyffe that the War 
 den had been recently engaged in consultation 
 of learned authorities, or in abstract labor, 
 whether moral, metaphysical, or historic : there 
 was a volume of translations of Mother Goose s 
 Melodies into Greek and Latin, printed for 
 private circulation, and with the Warden s name 
 on the title-page ; a London newspaper of the 
 preceding day ; Lillebullero, Chevy Chase, and 
 the old political ballads ; and, what a little 
 amused Redclyffe, the three volumes of a novel 
 from a circulating library ; so that Redclyffe 
 came to the conclusion that the good Warden, 
 like many educated men, whose early scholas 
 tic propensities are backed up by the best of 
 196 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 opportunities, and all desirable facilities and sur 
 roundings, still contented himself with gather 
 ing a flower or two, instead of attempting the 
 hard toil requisite to raise a crop. 
 
 It must not be omitted, that there was a fra 
 grance in the room, which, unlike as the scene 
 was, brought back, through so many years, to 
 Redclyffe s mind a most vivid remembrance of 
 poor old Doctor Grim s squalid chamber, with 
 his wild, bearded presence in the midst of it, 
 puffing his everlasting cloud ; for here was the 
 same smell of tobacco, and on the mantelpiece 
 of a chimney lay a German pipe, and an old 
 silver tobacco box into which was wrought the 
 leopard s head and the inscription in black let 
 ter. The Warden had evidently availed him 
 self of one of the chief bachelor sources of com 
 fort. Redclyffe, whose destiny had hitherto, 
 and up to a very recent period, been to pass a 
 feverishly active life, was greatly impressed by 
 all these tokens of learned ease, a degree of 
 self-indulgence combined with duties enough to 
 quiet an otherwise uneasy conscience, by the 
 consideration that this pensioner acted a good 
 part in a world where no one is entitled to be 
 an unprofitable laborer. He thought within 
 himself, that his prospects in his own galvanized 
 country, that seemed to him, a few years since, 
 to offer such a career for an adventurous young 
 man, conscious of motive power, had nothing 
 197 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 so enticing as such a nook as this, a quiet 
 recess of unchangeable old time, around which 
 the turbulent tide now eddied and rushed, but 
 could not disturb it. Here, to be sure, hope, 
 love, ambition, came not, progress came not ; 
 but here was what, just now, the early wearied 
 American could appreciate better than aught 
 else, here was rest. 
 
 The fantasy took Edward to imitate the use 
 ful labors of the learned Warden, and to make 
 trial whether his own classical condition the 
 results of Doctor Grim s tuition, and subse 
 quently that of an American College had ut 
 terly deserted him, by attempting a translation 
 of a few verses of Yankee Doodle ; and he was 
 making hopeful progress when the Warden 
 came in fresh and rosy from a morning s ride 
 in a keen east wind. He shook hands heartily 
 with his guest, and, though by no means frigid 
 at their former interview, seemed to have de 
 veloped at once into a kindlier man, now that 
 he had suffered the stranger to cross his thresh 
 old, and had thus made himself responsible for 
 his comfort. 
 
 " I shall take it greatly amiss," said he, " if 
 you do not pick up fast under my roof, and 
 gather a little English ruddiness, moreover, in 
 the walks and rides that I mean to take you. 
 Your countrymen, as I saw them, are a sallow 
 set ; but I think you must have English blood 
 198 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 enough in your veins to eke out a ruddy tint, 
 with the help of good English beef and ale, and 
 daily draughts of wholesome light and air." 
 
 " My cheeks would not have been so very 
 pale/ said Edward, laughing, " if an English 
 shot had not deprived me of a good deal of my 
 American blood." 
 
 " Only follow my guidance," said the War 
 den, " and I assure you you shall have back 
 whatever blood we have deprived you of, to 
 gether with an addition. It is now luncheon 
 time, and we will begin the process of replen 
 ishing your veins." 
 
 So they went into a refectory, where were 
 spread upon the board what might have seemed 
 a goodly dinner to most Americans ; though 
 for this Englishman it was but a by-incident, a 
 slight refreshment, to enable him to pass the 
 midway stage of life. It is an excellent thing 
 to see the faith of a hearty Englishman in his 
 own stomach, and how well that kindly organ 
 repays his trust ; with what devout assimilation 
 he takes to himself his kindred beef, loving it, 
 believing in it, making a good use of it, and 
 without any qualms of conscience or prescience 
 as to the result. They surely eat twice as much 
 as we ; and probably because of their undoubted 
 faith it never does them any harm. Dyspepsia 
 is merely a superstition with us. If we could 
 cease to believe in its existence, it would exist 
 199 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 no more. Redclyffe, eating little himself, his 
 wound compelling him to be cautious as to his 
 diet, was secretly delighted to see what sweets 
 the Warden found in a cold round of beef, in a 
 pigeon pie, and a cut or two of Yorkshire ham ; 
 not that he was ravenous, but that his stomach 
 was so healthy. 
 
 " You eat little, my friend," said the Warden, 
 pouring out a glass of sherry for Redclyffe, and 
 another for himself. " But you are right, in 
 such a predicament as yours. Spare your stom 
 ach while you are weakly, and it will help you 
 when you are strong. This, now, is the most 
 enjoyable meal of the day with me. You will 
 not see me play such a knife and fork at din 
 ner; though there too, especially if I have rid 
 den out in the afternoon, I do pretty well. 
 But, come now, if (like most of your country 
 men, as I have heard) you are a lover of the 
 weed, I can offer you some as delicate Latakia 
 as you are likely to find in England." 
 
 " I lack that claim upon your kindness, I am 
 sorry to say," replied Redclyffe. " I am not a 
 good smoker, though I have occasionally taken 
 a cigar at need." 
 
 " Well, when you find yourself growing old, 
 and especially if you chance to be a bachelor, I 
 advise you to cultivate the habit," said the 
 Warden. " A wife is the only real obstacle or 
 objection to a pipe ; they can seldom be thor- 
 200 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 oughly reconciled, and therefore it is well for a 
 man to consider, beforehand, which of the two 
 he can best dispense with. I know not how it 
 might have been once, had the conflicting claim 
 of these two rivals ever been fairly presented to 
 me ; but I now should be at no loss to choose 
 the pipe." 
 
 They returned to the study ; and while the 
 Warden took his pipe, Redclyffe, considering 
 that, as the guest of this hospitable Englishman, 
 he had no right to continue a stranger, thought 
 it fit to make known to him who he was, and 
 his condition, plans, and purposes. He repre 
 sented himself as having been liberally educated, 
 bred to the law, but (to his misfortune) having 
 turned aside from that profession to engage in 
 politics. In this pursuit, indeed, his succes? 
 wore a flattering outside ; for he had become dis 
 tinguished, and, though so young, a leader, lo 
 cally at least, in the party which he had adopted. 
 He had been, for a biennial term, a member of 
 Congress, after winning some distinction in the 
 legislature of his native State ; but some one of 
 those fitful changes to which American politics 
 are peculiarly liable had thrown him out, in his 
 candidacy for his second term ; and the virulence 
 of party animosity, the abusiveness of the press, 
 had acted so much upon a disposition naturally 
 somewhat too sensitive for the career which he 
 had undertaken, that he had resolved, being now 
 
 201 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 freed from legislative cares, to seize the oppor 
 tunity for a visit to England, whither he was 
 drawn by feelings which every educated and im 
 pressible American feels, in a degree scarcely 
 conceivable by the English themselves. And 
 being here (but he had already too much expe 
 rience of English self-sufficiency to confess so 
 much), he began to feel the deep yearning which 
 a sensitive American his mind full of English 
 thoughts, his imagination of English poetry, his 
 heart of English character and sentiment can 
 not fail to be influenced by, the yearning of 
 the blood within his veins for that from which 
 it has been estranged ; the half-fanciful regret 
 that he should ever have been separated from 
 these woods, these fields, these natural features 
 of scenery, to which his nature was moulded, 
 from the men who are still so like himself, from 
 these habits of life and thought which (though 
 he may not have known them for two centu 
 ries) he still perceives to have remained in some 
 mysterious way latent in the depths of his char 
 acter, and soon to be reassumed, not as a for 
 eigner would do it, but like habits native to him, 
 and only suspended for a season. 
 
 This had been Redclyffe s state of feeling ever 
 since he landed in England, and every day 
 seemed to make him more at home ; so that it 
 seemed as if he were gradually awakening to a 
 former reality. 
 
 202 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 A PER lunch the Warden showed a good 
 degree of kind anxiety about his guest, 
 and ensconced him in a most comfort 
 able chair in his study, where he gave him his 
 choice of books old and new, and was somewhat 
 surprised, as well as amused, to see that Red- 
 clyffe seemed most attracted towards a depart 
 ment of the library filled with books of English 
 antiquities, and genealogies, and heraldry ; the 
 two latter, indeed, having the preference over the 
 others. 
 
 " This is very remarkable," said he, smiling. 
 " By what right or reason, by what logic of 
 character, can you, a democrat, renouncing all 
 advantages of birth, neither priding yourself 
 on family, nor seeking to found one, how 
 therefore can you care for genealogies, or for 
 this fantastic science of heraldry ? Having no 
 antiquities, being a people just made, how can 
 you care for them ? " 
 
 " My dear sir," said Redclyffe, " I doubt 
 whether the most devoted antiquarian in Eng 
 land ever cares to search for an old thing merely 
 because it is old, as any American just landed 
 on your shores would do. Age is our novelty ; 
 203 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 therefore it attracts and absorbs us. And as for 
 genealogies, I know not what necessary repul 
 sion there may be between it and democracy. 
 A line of respectable connections, being the 
 harder to preserve where there is nothing in the 
 laws to defend it, is therefore the more precious 
 when we have it really to boast of." 
 
 " True," said the Warden, " when a race 
 keeps itself distinguished among the grimy order 
 of your commonalty, all with equal legal rights 
 to place and eminence as itself, it must needs be 
 because there is a force and efficacy in the blood. 
 I doubt not," he said, looking with the free ap 
 proval of an elder man at the young man s finely 
 developed face and graceful form, "I doubt 
 not that you can look back upon a line of an 
 cestry, always shining out from the surrounding 
 obscurity of the mob." 
 
 RedclyrTe, though ashamed of himself, could 
 not but feel a paltry confusion and embarrass 
 ment, as he thought of his unknown origin, and 
 his advent from the almshouse ; coming out of 
 that squalid darkness as if he were a thing that 
 had had a spontaneous birth out of poverty, 
 meanness, petty crime ; and here in ancestral 
 England, he felt more keenly than ever before 
 what was his misfortune. 
 
 "I must not let you lie under this impres 
 sion," said he manfully to the Warden. " J 
 have no ancestry ; at the very first step my 
 204 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 origin is lost in impenetrable obscurity. I only 
 know that but for the aid of a kind friend on 
 whose benevolence I seem to have had no claim 
 whatever my life would probably have been 
 poor, mean, unenlightened." 
 
 "Well, well," said the kind Warden, 
 hardly quite feeling, however, the noble senti 
 ment which he expressed, " it is better to be 
 the first noble illustrator of a name than even 
 the worthy heir of a name that has been noble 
 and famous for a thousand years. The highest 
 pride of some of our peers, who Rave won their 
 rank by their own force, has been to point to 
 the cottage whence they sprung. Your poster 
 ity, at all events, will have the advantage of you, 
 they will know their ancestor." 
 
 Redclyffe sighed, for there was truly a great 
 deal of the foolish yearning for a connection 
 with the past about him ; his imagination had 
 taken this turn, and the very circumstances- of 
 his obscure birth gave it a field to exercise it 
 self. 
 
 " I advise you," said the Warden, by way of 
 changing the conversation, " to look over the 
 excellent history of the county which you are 
 now in. There is no reading better, to my 
 mind, than these county histories ; though 
 doubtless a stranger would hardly feel so much 
 interest in them as one whose progenitors, male 
 or female, have strewn their dust over the whole 
 205 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 field of which the history treats. This history 
 is a fine specimen of the kind." 
 
 The work to which RedclyrTe s attention was 
 thus drawn was in two large folio volumes, pub 
 lished about thirty years before, bound in calf 
 by some famous artist in that line, illustrated 
 with portraits and views of ruined castles, 
 churches, cathedrals, the seats of nobility and 
 gentry ; Roman, British, and Saxon remains, 
 painted windows, oak carvings, and so forth. 
 And as for its contents, the author ascended for 
 the history of the county as far as into the pre- 
 Roman ages, before Caesar had ever heard of 
 Britain ; and brought it down, an ever swelling 
 and increasing tale, to his own days ; inclu 
 sive of the separate histories, and pedigrees, 
 and hereditary legends, and incidents, of all the 
 principal families. In this latter branch of in 
 formation, indeed, the work seemed particu 
 larly full, and contained every incident that 
 i would have worked well into historical ro 
 mance. 
 
 " Aye, aye," said the Warden, laughing at 
 some strange incident of this sort which Red- 
 clyffe read out to him. " My old friend Gibber, 
 the learned author of this work (he has been 
 dead this score of years, so he will not mind my 
 saying it), had a little too much the habit of 
 seeking his authorities in the cottage chimney 
 corners. I mean that an old woman s tale was 
 206 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 just about as acceptable to him as a recorded 
 fact ; and to say the truth, they are really apt to 
 have ten times the life in them." 
 
 RedclyfFe saw in the volume a full account of 
 the founding of the Hospital, its regulations and 
 purposes, its edifices ; all of which he reserved 
 for future reading, being for the present more 
 attracted by the mouldy gossip of family anec 
 dotes which we have alluded to. Some of these, 
 and not the least singular, referred to the an 
 cient family which had founded the Hospital ; 
 and he was attracted by seeing a mention of a 
 Bloody Footstep, which reminded him of the 
 strange old story which good Doctor Grimshawe 
 had related by his New England fireside, in 
 those childish days when Edward dwelt with 
 him by the graveyard. On reading it, however, 
 he found that the English legend, if such it 
 could be called, was far less full and explicit 
 than that of New England. Indeed, it assigned 
 various origins to the Bloody Footstep; one 
 being, that it was the stamp of the foot of the 
 Saxon thane, who fought at his own threshold 
 against the assault of the Norman baron, who 
 seized his mansion at the Conquest ; another, 
 that it was the imprint of a fugitive who had 
 sought shelter from the lady of the house dur 
 ing the Wars of the Roses, and was dragged out 
 by her husband, and slain on the doorstep ; 
 still another, that it was the footstep of a Protes- 
 207 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 tant in Bloody Mary s days, who, being sent to 
 prison by the squire of that epoch, had lifted 
 his hands to Heaven, and stamped his foot, in 
 appeal as against the unjust violence with which 
 he was treated, and stamping his foot, it had 
 left the bloody mark. It was hinted too, how 
 ever, that another version, which out of delicacy 
 to the family the author was reluctant to state, 
 assigned the origin of the Bloody Footstep to 
 so late a period as the wars of the Parliament. 
 And, finally, there was an odious rumor that 
 what was called the Bloody Footstep was no 
 thing miraculous, after all, but most probably a 
 natural reddish stain in the stone doorstep ; but 
 against this heresy the excellent Doctor Gibber 
 set his face most sturdily. 
 
 The original legend had made such an im 
 pression on Redclyffe s childish fancy, that he 
 became strangely interested in thus discovering 
 it, or something remotely like it, in England, 
 and being brought by such unsought means to 
 reside so near it. Curious about the family to 
 which it had occurred, he proceeded to examine 
 its records, as given in the County History. 
 The name was Redclyffe. Like most English 
 pedigrees, there was an obscurity about a good 
 many of the earlier links ; but the line was traced 
 out with reasonable definiteness from the days 
 of Coeur de Lion, and there was said to be a 
 cross-legged ancestor in the village church, who 
 208 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 (but the inscription was obliterated) was prob 
 ably a Redclyffe, and had fought either under 
 the Lion Heart or in the Crusades. It was, in 
 subsequent ages, one of the most distinguished 
 families, though there had been turbulent men 
 in all those turbulent times, hard fighters. In 
 one age, a barony of early creation seemed to 
 have come into the family, and had been, as it 
 were, playing bo-peep with the race for several 
 centuries. Some of them had actually assumed 
 the title ; others had given it up for lack of 
 sufficient proof; but still there was such a claim, 
 and up to the time at which this County His 
 tory was written, it had neither been made out, 
 nor had the hope of doing so been relinquished, 
 
 " Have the family," asked Redclyffe of his 
 host, " ever yet made out their claim to this 
 title, which has so long been playing the will- 
 of-the-wisp with them P " 
 
 " No, not yet," said the Warden, puffing 
 out a volume of smoke from his meerschaum, 
 and making it curl up to the ceiling. " Their 
 claim has as little substance, in my belief, as 
 yonder vanishing vapor from my pipe. But 
 they still keep up their delusion. I had sup 
 posed that the claim would perish with the last 
 squire, who was a childless man, at least, 
 without legitimate heirs ; but this estate passed 
 to one whom we can scarcely call an English 
 man, he being a Catholic, the descendant of 
 209 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 forefathers who have lived in Italy since the 
 time of George the Second, and who is, more 
 over, a Catholic. We English would not will 
 ingly see an ancestral honor in the possession 
 of such a man ! " 
 
 " Is there, do you think, a prospect of his 
 success P " 
 
 " I have heard so, but hardly believe it," re 
 plied the Warden. " I remember, some dozen 
 or fifteen years ago, it was given out that some 
 clue had been found to the only piece of evi 
 dence that was wanting. It had been said that 
 there was an emigration to your own country, 
 above a hundred years ago, and on account of 
 some family feud the true heir had gone thither 
 and never returned. Now, the point was to 
 prove the extinction of this branch of the family. 
 But, excuse me, I must pay an official visit to 
 my charge here. Will you accompany me, or 
 continue to pore over the County History ? " 
 
 Redclyffe felt enough of the elasticity of con 
 valescence to be desirous of accompanying the 
 Warden ; and they accordingly crossed the en 
 closed quadrangle to the entrance of the Hos 
 pital portion of the large and intricate structure. 
 It was a building of the early Elizabethan age, 
 a plaster and timber structure, like many houses 
 of that period and much earlier. 1 Around this 
 court stood the building, with the date 1437 
 cut on the front. On each side, a row of ga- 
 210 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 bles looked upon the enclosed space, most ven 
 erable old gables, with heavy mullioned win 
 dows filled with little diamond panes of glass, 
 and opening on lattices. On two sides there 
 was a cloistered walk, under echoing arches, and 
 in the midst a spacious lawn of the greenest 
 and loveliest grass, such as England only can 
 show, and which, there, is of perennial verdure 
 and beauty. In the midst stood a stone statue 
 of a venerable man, wrought in the best of me 
 diaeval sculpture, with robe and ruff, and tunic 
 and venerable beard, resting on a staff, and 
 holding what looked like a clasped book in his 
 hand. The English atmosphere, together with 
 the coal smoke, settling down in the space of 
 centuries from the chimneys of the Hospital, 
 had roughened and blackened this venerable 
 piece of sculpture, enclosing it as it were in a 
 superficies of decay ; but still (and perhaps the 
 more from these tokens of having stood so long 
 among men) the statue had an aspect of vener 
 able life, and of connection with human life, 
 that made it strongly impressive. 
 
 " This is the effigy of Sir Edward Redclyffe, 
 the founder of the Hospital," said the Warden. 
 " He is a most peaceful and venerable old gen 
 tleman in his attire and aspect, as you see; but 
 he was a fierce old fellow in his day, and is 
 said to have founded the Hospital as a means 
 of appeasing Heaven for some particular deed 
 
 211 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 of blood, which he had imposed upon his con* 
 science in the War of the Roses." 
 
 " Yes," said Redclyffe, " I have just read in 
 the County History that the Bloody Footstep 
 was said to have been imprinted in his time. 
 But what is that thing which he holds in his 
 hand?" 
 
 " It is a famous heirloom of the Redclyffes," 
 said the Warden, " on the possession of which 
 (as long as they did possess it) they prided 
 themselves, it is said, more than on their an 
 cient manor house. It was a Saxon ornament, 
 which a certain ancestor was said to have had 
 from Harold, the old Saxon king ; but if there 
 ever was any such article, it has been missing 
 from the family mansion for two or three hun 
 dred years. There is not known to be an an 
 tique relic of that description now in existence." 
 
 "I remember having seen such an article, 
 yes, precisely of that shape," observed Red- 
 clyffe, " in the possession of a very dear old 
 friend of mine, when I was a boy." 
 
 " What, in America ? " exclaimed the War 
 den. " That is very remarkable. The time 
 of its being missed coincides well enough with 
 that of the early settlement of New England. 
 Some Puritan, before his departure, may have 
 thought himself doing God service by filching 
 the old golden gewgaw from the Cavalier ; for 
 it was said to be fine, ductile gold." 
 212 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 The circumstances struck Redclyffe with a 
 pleasant wonder ; for, indeed, the old statue 
 held the closest possible imitation, in marble, 
 of that strange old glitter of gold which he him 
 self had so often played with in the Doctor s 
 study ; 2 so identical, that he could have fancied 
 that he saw the very thing, changed from metal 
 into stone, even with its bruises and other cas 
 ual marks in it. As he looked at the old statue, 
 his imagination played with it, and his naturally 
 great impressibility half made him imagine that 
 the old face looked at him with a keen, subtile, 
 wary glance, as if acknowledging that it held 
 some secret, but at the same time defying him 
 to find it out. And then again came that vi 
 sionary feeling that had so often swept over 
 him since he had been an inmate of the Hos 
 pital. 
 
 All over the interior part of the building was 
 carved in stone the leopard s head, with weari 
 some iteration ; as if the founder were anxious 
 to imprint his device so numerously, lest 
 when he produced this edifice as his remunera 
 tion to Eternal Justice for many sins the Om 
 niscient Eye should fail to be reminded that Sir 
 Edward Redclyffe had done it. But, at all 
 events, it seemed to Redclyffe that the ancient 
 knight had purposed a good thing, and in a 
 measurable degree had effected it ; for here 
 stood the venerable edifice securely founded, 
 213 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 bearing the moss of four hundred years upon 
 it ; and though wars, and change of dynasties, 
 and religious change, had swept around it, with 
 seemingly destructive potency, yet here had the 
 lodging, the food, the monastic privileges of the 
 brethren been held secure, and were unchanged 
 by all the altering manners of the age. The old 
 fellow, somehow or other, seemed to have struck 
 upon an everlasting rock, and founded his pom 
 pous charity there. 
 
 They entered an arched door on the left of 
 the quadrangle, and found themselves in a dark 
 old hall with oaken beams ; to say the truth, it 
 was a barnlike sort of enclosure, and was now 
 used as a sort of rubbish place for the Hospi 
 tal, where they stored away old furniture, and 
 where carpenter s work might be done. And 
 yet, as the Warden assured Redclyffe, it was 
 once a hall of state, hung with tapestry, car 
 peted, for aught he knew, with cloth of gold, 
 and set with rich furniture, and a groaning board 
 in the midst. Here, the hereditary patron of 
 the Hospital had once entertained King James 
 the First, who made a Latin speech on the oc 
 casion, a copy of which was still preserved in the 
 archives. On the rafters of this old hall there 
 were cobwebs in such abundance that Red- 
 clyffe could not but reflect on the joy which old 
 Doctor Grimshawe would have had in seeing 
 them, and the health to the human race which 
 214 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 he would have hoped to collect and distil from 
 them. 
 
 From this great, antique room they crossed 
 the quadrangle and entered the kitchen of the 
 establishment. A hospitable fire was burning 
 there, and there seemed to be a great variety of 
 messes cooking ; and the Warden explained to 
 Redclyffe that there was no general table in the 
 Hospital ; but the brethren, at their own will 
 and pleasure, either formed themselves into com 
 panies or messes, of any convenient size, or en 
 joyed a solitary meal by themselves, each in their 
 own apartments. There was a goodly choice of 
 simple but good and enjoyable food, and a suf 
 ficient supply of potent ale, brewed in the vats 
 of the Hospital, which, among its other praise 
 worthy characteristics, was famous for this ; hav 
 ing at some epoch presumed to vie with the 
 famous ale of Trinity, in Cambridge, and the 
 Archdeacon of Oxford, these having come 
 down to the Hospital from a private receipt of 
 Sir Edward s butler, which was now lost in the 
 Redclyffe family ; nor would the ungrateful 
 Hospital give up its secret even out of loyalty 
 to its founder. 
 
 " I would use my influence with the brewer," 
 said the Warden, on communicating this little 
 fact to Redclyffe ; " but the present man 
 now owner of the estate is not worthy to have 
 good ale brewed in his house ; having himself 
 215 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 no taste for anything but Italian wines, wretched 
 fellow that he is ! He might make himself an 
 Englishman if he would take heartily to our 
 ale; and with that end in view, I should be glad 
 to give it him." 
 
 The kitchen fire blazed warmly, as we have 
 said, and roast and stewed and boiled were in 
 process of cooking, producing a pleasant fume, 
 while great heaps of wheaten loaves were smok 
 ing hot from the ovens, and the master cook 
 and his subordinates were in fume and hiss, like 
 beings that were of a fiery element, and, though 
 irritable and scorching, yet were happier here 
 than they could have been in any other situa 
 tion. The Warden seemed to have an especial 
 interest and delight in this department of the 
 Hospital, and spoke apart to the head cook on 
 the subject (as Redclyfte surmised from what he 
 overheard) of some especial delicacy for his own 
 table that day. 
 
 " This kitchen is a genial place," said he to 
 Redclyffe, as they retired. "In the evening, 
 after the cooks have done their work, the breth 
 ren have liberty to use it as a sort of common 
 room, and to sit here over their ale till a reason 
 able bedtime. It would interest you much to 
 make one at such a party ; for they have had a 
 varied experience in life, each one for himself, 
 and it would be strange to hear the varied roads 
 by which they have come hither." 
 216 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 "Yes," replied Redclyffe, "and, I presume, 
 not one of them ever dreamed of coming hither 
 when he started in life. The only one with 
 whom I am acquainted could hardly have ex 
 pected it, at all events." 
 
 " He is a remarkable man, more so than you 
 may have had an opportunity of knowing," said 
 the Warden. " I know not his history, for he 
 is not communicative on that subject, and it was 
 only necessary for him to make out his proofs 
 of claim to the charity to the satisfaction of the 
 Curators. But it has often struck me that there 
 must have been strange and striking events in 
 his life, though how it could have been with 
 out his attracting attention and being known, I 
 cannot say. I have myself often received good 
 counsel from him in the conduct of the Hospi 
 tal, and the present owner of the Hall seems to 
 have taken him for his counsellor and confidant, 
 being himself strange to English affairs and life." 
 
 " I should like to call on him, as a matter 
 of course rather than courtesy," observed Red- 
 clyffe, " and thank him for his great kindness." 
 
 They accordingly ascended the dark oaken 
 staircase with its black balustrade, and ap 
 proached the old man s chamber, the door of 
 which they found open, and in the blurred look 
 ing-glass which hung deep within the room 
 Redclyffe was surprised to perceive the young 
 face of a woman, who seemed to be arranging 
 217 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 her headgear, as women are always doing. It 
 was but a moment, and then it vanished like a 
 vision. 
 
 " I was not aware," he said, turning to the 
 Warden, " that there was a feminine side to this 
 establishment." 
 
 " Nor is there," said the old bachelor, " else 
 it would not have held together so many ages 
 as it has. The establishment has its own wise, 
 monkish regulations ; but we cannot prevent 
 the fact, that some of the brethren may have 
 had foolish relations with the other sex at some 
 previous period of their lives. This seems to 
 be the case with our wise old friend of whom 
 we have been speaking, whereby he doubtless 
 became both wiser and sadder. If you have 
 seen a female face here, it is that of a relative 
 who resides out of the Hospital, an excellent 
 young lady, I believe, who has charge of a 
 school." 
 
 While he was speaking, the young lady in 
 question passed out, greeting the Warden in a 
 cheerful, respectful way, in which deference to 
 him was well combined with a sense of what 
 was due to herself. 
 
 " That," observed the Warden, who had re 
 turned her courtesy, with a kindly air betwixt 
 that of gentlemanly courtesy and a superior s 
 acknowledgment, " that is the relative of our 
 old friend; a young person a gentlewoman, 
 218 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 I may almost call her who teaches a little 
 school in the village here, and keeps her guard 
 ian s heart warm, no doubt, with her presence. 
 An excellent young woman, I iio believe, and 
 very useful and faithful in her station." 
 219 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 ON entering the old palmer s apartment, 
 they found him looking over some 
 ancient papers, yellow and crabbedly 
 written, and on one of them a large old seal, 
 all of which he did up in a bundle and enclosed 
 in a parchment cover, so that, before they were 
 well in the room, the documents were removed 
 from view. 
 
 " Those papers and parchments have a fine 
 old yellow tint, Colcord," said the Warden, 
 " very satisfactory to an antiquary." 
 
 " There is nothing in them," said the old 
 man, " of general interest. Some old papers 
 they are, which came into my possession by in 
 heritance, and some of them relating to the af 
 fairs of a friend of my youth ; a long past 
 time, and a long past friend," added he, sighing. 
 
 " Here is a new friend, at all events," said 
 the kindly Warden, wishing to cheer the old 
 man, " who feels himself greatly indebted to 
 you for your care." 
 
 There now ensued a conversation between 
 the three, in the course of which reference was 
 made to America, and the Warden s visit there. 
 220 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 cc You are so mobile," he said, " you change 
 so speedily, that I suppose there are few exter 
 nal things now that I should recognize. The 
 face of your country changes like one of your 
 own sheets of water, under the influence of sun, 
 cloud, and wind ; but I suppose there is a depth 
 below that is seldom effectually stirred. It is a 
 great fault of the country that its sons find it 
 impossible to feel any patriotism for it." 
 
 "I do not by any means acknowledge that im 
 possibility," responded Redclyffe, with a smile. 
 " I certainly feel that sentiment very strongly 
 in my own breast, more especially since I have 
 left America three thousand miles behind me." 
 
 " Yes, it is only the feeling of self-assertion 
 that rises against the self-complacency of the 
 English," said the Warden. " Nothing else ; 
 for what else have you become the subject of 
 this noble weakness of patriotism ? You cannot 
 love anything beyond the soil of your own es 
 tate ; or in your case, if your heart is very large, 
 you may possibly take in, in a quiet sort of 
 way, the whole of New England. What more 
 is possible ? How can you feel a heart s love for 
 a mere political arrangement, like your Union ? 
 How can you be loyal, where personal attach 
 ment the lofty and noble and unselfish at 
 tachment of a subject to his prince is out of 
 the question ? where your sovereign is felt to 
 be a mere man like yourselves, whose petty 
 
 10 T J 
 
 221 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 struggles, whose ambition, mean before it 
 grew to be audacious, you have watched, and 
 know him to be just the same now as yester 
 day, and that to-morrow he will be walking un- 
 honored amongst you again ? Your system is 
 too bare and meagre for human nature to love, 
 or to endure it long. These stately degrees of 
 society, that have so strong a hold upon us in 
 England, are not to be done away with so 
 lightly as you think. Your experiment is not 
 yet a success by any means ; and you will live 
 to see it result otherwise than you think ! " 
 
 " It is natural for you Englishmen to feel 
 thus," said Redclyffe ; " although, ever since I 
 set my foot on your shores, forgive me, but 
 you set me the example of free speech, I have 
 had a feeling of coming change among all that 
 you look upon as so permanent, so everlast 
 ing ; and though your thoughts dwell fondly 
 on things as they are and have been, there is 
 a deep destruction somewhere in this country, 
 that is inevitably impelling it in the path of my 
 own. But I care not for this. I do aver that 
 I love my country, that I am proud of its insti 
 tutions, that I have a feeling unknown, proba 
 bly, to any but a republican, but which is the 
 proudest thing in me, that there is no man above 
 me, for my ruler is only myself, in the person 
 of another, whose office I impose upon him, 
 nor any below me. If you would understand 
 222 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 me, I would tell you of the shame I felt when 
 first, on setting foot in this country, I heard a 
 man speaking of his birth as giving him privi 
 leges ; saw him looking down on laboring men, 
 as of an inferior race. And what I can never 
 understand is the pride which you positively 
 seem to feel in having men and classes of men 
 above you, born to privileges which you can 
 never hope to share. It may be a thing to be 
 endured, but surely not one to be absolutely 
 proud of. And yet an Englishman is so." 
 
 " Ah ! I see we lack a ground to meet upon," 
 said the Warden. " We can never truly under 
 stand each other. What you have last men 
 tioned is one of our inner mysteries. It is not 
 a thing to be reasoned about, but to be felt, - 
 to be born within one ; and I uphold it to be 
 a generous sentiment, and good for the human 
 heart." 
 
 "Forgive me, sir," said Redclyffe, "but I 
 would rather be the poorest and lowest man in 
 America than have that sentiment." 
 
 " But it might change your feeling, perhaps," 
 suggested the Warden, " if you were one of the 
 privileged class." 
 
 " I dare not say that it would not/ said Red- 
 clyffe, " for I know I have a thousand weak 
 nesses, and have doubtless as many more that 
 I never suspected myself of. But it seems to 
 me at this moment impossible that I should ever 
 223 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 have such an ambition, because I have a sense 
 of meanness in not starting fair, in beginning 
 the world with advantages that my fellows have 
 not." 
 
 " Really this is not wise," said the Warden 
 bluntly. " How can the start in life be fair for 
 all ? Providence arranges it otherwise. Did 
 you yourself, a gentleman evidently by birth 
 and education, did you start fair in the race 
 of life ? " 
 
 Redclyffe remembered what his birth, or 
 rather what his first recollected place had been, 
 and reddened. 
 
 " In birth, certainly, I had no advantages," 
 said he, and would have explained further, but 
 was kept back by invincible reluctance ; feeling 
 that the bare fact of his origin in an almshouse 
 would be accepted, while all the inward assur 
 ances and imaginations that had reconciled him 
 self to the ugly fact would go for nothing. " But 
 there were advantages, very early in life," added 
 he, smiling, " which perhaps I ought to have 
 been ashamed to avail myself of." 
 
 " An old cobwebby library, an old dwell 
 ing by a graveyard, an old Doctor, busied 
 with his own fantasies, and entangled in his own 
 cobwebs, and a little girl for a playmate: 
 these were things that you might lawfully avail 
 yourself of," said Colcord, unheard by the War 
 den, who, thinking the conversation had lasted 
 224 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 long enough, had paid a slight passing courtesy 
 to the old man, and was now leaving the room. 
 " Do you remain here long ? " he added. 
 
 "If the Warden s hospitality holds out," said 
 the American, " I shall be glad ; for the place 
 interests me greatly." 
 
 " No wonder," replied Colcord. 
 
 " And wherefore no wonder ? " said Red- 
 clyffe, impressed with the idea that there was 
 something peculiar in the tone of the old man s 
 remark. 
 
 " Because," returned the other quietly, " it 
 must be to you especially interesting to see an 
 institution of this kind, whereby one man s be 
 nevolence or penitence is made to take the sub 
 stance and durability of stone, and last for cen 
 turies ; whereas, in America, the solemn decrees 
 and resolutions of millions melt away like 
 vapor, and everything shifts like the pomp of 
 sunset clouds ; though it may be as pompous as 
 they. Heaven intended the past as a founda 
 tion for the present, to keep it from vibrating 
 and being blown away with every breeze." 
 
 " But," said Redclyffe, " I would not see in 
 my country what I see elsewhere, the Past 
 hanging like a millstone round a country s 
 neck, or incrusted in stony layers over the liv 
 ing form ; so that, to all intents and purposes, 
 it is dead." 
 
 " Well," said Colcord, " we are only talking 
 225 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 of the Hospital. You will find no more inter 
 esting place anywhere. Stay amongst us ; this 
 is the very heart of England, and if you wish to 
 know the fatherland, the place whence you 
 sprung, this is the very spot ! " 
 
 Again Redclyffe was struck with the impres 
 sion that there was something marked, some 
 thing individually addressed to himself, in the 
 old man s words ; at any rate, it appealed to 
 that primal imaginative vein in him which had 
 so often, in his own country, allowed itself to 
 dream over the possibilities of his birth. He 
 knew that the feeling was a vague and idle one ; 
 but yet, just at this time, a convalescent, with a 
 little play moment in what had heretofore been 
 a turbulent life, he felt an inclination to follow 
 out this dream, and let it sport with him, and 
 by and by to awake to realities, refreshed by a 
 season of unreality. At a firmer and stronger 
 period of his life, though Redclyffe might have 
 indulged his imagination with these dreams, yet 
 he would not have let them interfere with his 
 course of action ; but having come hither in ut 
 ter weariness of active life, it seemed just the 
 thing for him to do, just the fool s paradise 
 for him to be in. 
 
 " Yes," repeated the old man, looking keenly 
 in his face, " you will not leave us yet." 
 
 Redclyffe returned through the quadrangle 
 to the Warden s house ; and there were the 
 226 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 brethren, sitting on benches, loitering in the 
 sun, which, though warm for England, seemed 
 scarcely enough to keep these old people warm, 
 even with their cloth robes. They did not seem 
 unhappy ; nor yet happy ; if they were so, it 
 must be with the mere bliss of existence, a sleepy 
 sense of comfort, and quiet dreaminess about 
 things past, leaving out the things to come, of 
 which there was nothing, indeed, in their future, 
 save one day after another, just like this, with 
 loaf and ale, and such substantial comforts, and 
 prayers, and idle days again, gathering by the 
 great kitchen fire, and at last a day when they 
 should not be there, but some other old men in 
 their stead. And RedclyfFe wondered whether, 
 in the extremity of age, he himself would like 
 to be one of the brethren of the Leopard s Head. 
 The old men, he was sorry to see, did not seem 
 very genial towards one another ; in fact, there 
 appeared to be a secret enjoyment of one an 
 other s infirmities, wherefore it was hard to tell, 
 unless that each individual might fancy himself 
 to possess an advantage over his fellow, which 
 he mistook for a positive strength ; and so there 
 was sometimes a sardonic smile, when, on rising 
 from his seat, the rheumatism was a little evident 
 in an old fellow s joints; or when the palsy 
 shook another s fingers so that he could barelv 
 fill his pipe ; or when a cough, the gathered 
 spasmodic trouble of thirty years, fairly con- 
 227 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 vnlsed another. Then, any two that happened 
 to be sitting near one another looked into each 
 other s cold eyes, and whispered, or suggested 
 merely by a look (for they were bright to such 
 perceptions), " The old fellow will not out 
 last another winter." 
 
 Methinks it is not good for old men to be 
 much together. An old man is a beautiful ob 
 ject in his own place, in the midst of a circle 
 of young people, going down in various gra 
 dations to infancy, and all looking up to the 
 patriarch with filial reverence, keeping him warm 
 by their own burning youth ; giving him the 
 freshness of their thought and feeling, with such 
 natural influx that it seems as if it grew within 
 his heart ; while on them he reacts with an in 
 fluence that sobers, tempers, keeps them down. 
 His wisdom, very probably, is of no great ac 
 count, he cannot fit to any new state of things ; 
 but, nevertheless, it works its effect. In such a 
 situation, the old man is kind and genial, mel 
 low, more gentle and generous and wider-minded 
 than ever before. But if left to himself, or 
 wholly to the society of his contemporaries, the 
 ice gathers about his heart, his hope grows tor 
 pid, his love having nothing of his own blood 
 to develop it grows cold; he becomes selfish, 
 when he has nothing in the present or the future 
 worth caring about in himself; so that, instead 
 of a beautiful object, he is an ugly one, little, 
 228 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 mean, and torpid. I suppose one chief reason 
 to be, that unless he has his own race about 
 him he doubts of anybody s love, he feels him 
 self a stranger in the world, and so becomes 
 unamiable. 
 
 A very few days in the Warden s hospitable 
 mansion produced an excellent effect on Red- 
 clyffe s frame ; his constitution being naturally 
 excellent, and a flow of cheerful spirits contribut 
 ing much to restore him to health, especially as 
 the abode in this old place, which would prob 
 ably have been intolerably dull to most young 
 Englishmen, had for this young American a 
 charm like the freshness of Paradise. In truth 
 it had that charm, and besides it another intan 
 gible, evanescent, perplexing charm, full of an 
 airy enjoyment, as if he had been here before. 
 What could it be? It could be only the old, 
 very deepest, inherent nature, which the Eng 
 lishman, his progenitor, carried over the sea with 
 him, nearly two hundred years before, and which 
 had lain buried all that time under heaps of new 
 things, new customs, new institutions, new snows 
 of winter, new layers of forest leaves, until it 
 seemed dead, and was altogether forgotten as if 
 it had never been ; but, now, his return had 
 seemed to dissolve or dig away all this incrusta 
 tion, and the old English nature awoke all fresh, 
 so that he saw the green grass, the hedge rows, 
 the old structures and old manners, the old 
 229 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 clouds, the old raindrops, with a recognition, 
 and yet a newness. Redclyffe had never been 
 so quietly happy as now. He had, as it were, 
 the quietude of the old man about him, and the 
 freshness of his own still youthful years. 
 
 The Warden was evidently very favorably 
 impressed with his Transatlantic guest, and he 
 seemed to be in a constant state of surprise to 
 find an American so agreeable a kind of person. 
 
 " You are just like an Englishman," he some 
 times said. " Are you quite sure that you were 
 not born on this side of the water ? " 
 
 This is said to be the highest compliment 
 that an Englishman can pay to an American ; 
 and doubtless he intends it as such. All the 
 praise and good will that an Englishman ever 
 awards to an American is so far gratifying to the 
 recipient, that it is meant for him individually, 
 and is not to be put down in the slightest de 
 gree to the score of any regard to his countrymen 
 generally. So far from this, if an Englishman 
 were to meet the whole thirty millions of Amer 
 icans, and find each individual of them a plea 
 sant, amiable, well-meaning, and well-mannered 
 sort of fellow, he would acknowledge this hon 
 estly in each individual case, but still would speak 
 of the whole nation as a disagreeable people. 
 
 As regards RedclyrTe being precisely like an 
 Englishman, we cannot but think that the good 
 Warden was mistaken. No doubt, there was a 
 230 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 common ground ; the old progenitor (whose 
 blood, moreover, was mixed with a hundred 
 other streams equally English) was still there, 
 under this young man s shape, but with a vast 
 difference. Climate, sun, cold, heat, soil, insti 
 tutions, had made a change in him before he was 
 born, and all the life that he had lived since (so 
 unlike any that he could have lived in England) 
 had developed it more strikingly. In manners, 
 I cannot but think that he was better than the 
 generality of Englishmen, and different from the 
 highest-mannered men, though most resembling 
 them. His natural sensitiveness, a tincture of 
 reserve, had been counteracted by the frank 
 mixture with men which his political course had 
 made necessary ; he was quicker to feel what 
 was right at the moment, than the Englishman ; 
 more alive ; he had a finer grain ; his look was 
 more aristocratic than that of a thousand Eng 
 lishmen of good birth and breeding ; he had a 
 faculty of assimilating himself to new manners, 
 which, being his most un-English trait, was what 
 perhaps chiefly made the Warden think him so 
 like an Englishman. When an Englishman is a 
 gentleman, to be sure, it is as deep in him as the 
 marrow of his bones, and the deeper you know 
 him, the more you are aware of it, and that 
 generation after generation has contributed to 
 develop and perfect these unpretending man 
 ners, which, at first, may have failed to impress 
 231 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 you, under his plain, almost homely exterior. 
 An American often gets as good a surface of man 
 ners, in his own progress from youth, through 
 the wear and attrition of a successful life, to some 
 high station in middle age ; whereas a plebeian 
 Englishman, who rises to eminent station, never 
 does credit to it by his manners. Often you 
 would not know the American ambassador from 
 a duke. This is often merely external ; but in 
 Redclyffe, having delicate original traits in his 
 character, it was something more ; and we are 
 bold to say, when our countrymen are developed, 
 or any one class of them, as they ought to be, 
 they will show finer traits than have yet been 
 seen. We have more delicate and quicker sen 
 sibilities, nerves more easily impressed ; and 
 these are surely requisites for perfect manners ; 
 and, moreover, the courtesy that proceeds on the 
 ground of perfect equality is better than that 
 which is a gracious and benignant condescension, 
 as is the case with the manners of the aristo 
 cracy of England. 
 
 An American, be it said, seldom turns his 
 best side outermost abroad ; and an observer, 
 who has had much opportunity of seeing the 
 figure which they make, in a foreign country, 
 does not so much wonder that there should be 
 severe criticism on their manners as a people. 
 I know not exactly why, but all our imputed 
 peculiarities our nasal pronunciation, our un- 
 232 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 graceful idioms, our forthputtingness, our un 
 couth lack of courtesy do really seem to 
 exist on a foreign shore ; and even, perhaps, to 
 be heightened of malice prepense. The cold, 
 unbelieving eye of Englishmen, expectant of 
 solecisms in manners, contributes to produce 
 the result which it looks for. Then the feeling 
 of hostility and defiance in the American must 
 be allowed for ; and partly, too, the real exist 
 ence of a different code of manners, founded 
 on, and arising from, different institutions ; and 
 also certain national peculiarities, which may be 
 intrinsically as good as English peculiarities ; 
 but being different, and yet the whole result 
 being just too nearly alike, and, moreover, the 
 English manners having the prestige of long es 
 tablishment, and furthermore our own manners 
 being in a transition state between those of old 
 monarchies and what is proper to a new re 
 public, it necessarily follows that the American, * 
 though really a man of refinement and delicacy, 
 is not just the kind of gentleman that the Eng- . 
 lish can fully appreciate. In cases where they 
 do so, their standard being different from ours, 
 they do not always select for their approbation 
 the kind of man or manners whom we should 
 judge the best ; we are perhaps apt to be a lit 
 tle too fine, a little too sedulously polished, and 
 of course too conscious of it, a deadly social 
 crime, certainly. 
 
 233 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 TO return from this long discussion, the 
 Warden took kindly, as we have said, 
 to Redclyffe, and thought him a mi 
 raculously good fellow, to have come from the 
 rude American republic. Hitherto, in the little 
 time that he had been in England, Redclyffe 
 had received civil and even kind treatment from 
 the English with whom he had come casually 
 in contact ; but still perhaps partly from our 
 Yankee narrowness and reserve he had felt, 
 in the closest coming together, as if there were 
 a naked sword between the Englishman and 
 him, as between the Arabian prince in the tale 
 and the princess whom he wedded ; he felt as 
 if that would be the case even if he should love 
 an Englishwoman ; to such a distance, into 
 such an attitude of self-defence, does English 
 self-complacency and belief in England s superi 
 ority throw the stranger. In fact, in a good- 
 natured way, John Bull is always doubling his 
 fist in a stranger s face ; and though it be good- 
 natured, it does not always produce the most 
 amiable feeling. 
 
 The worthy Warden, being an Englishman, 
 had doubtless the same kind of feeling ; doubt- 
 234 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 less, too, he thought ours a poor, distracted 
 country, perhaps prosperous for the moment, 
 but as likely as not to be the scene of anarchy 
 five minutes hence ; but being of so genial a 
 nature, when he came to see the amiableness of 
 his young guest, and how deeply he was im 
 pressed with England, all prejudice died away, 
 and he loved him like a treasure that he had 
 found for himself, and valued him as if there 
 were something of his own in him. And so 
 the old Warden s residence had never before 
 been so cheery as it was now ; his bachelor life 
 passed the more pleasantly with this quiet, viva 
 cious, yet not troublesomely restless spirit be 
 side him, this eager, almost childish interest 
 in everything English, and yet this capacity to 
 take independent views of things, and some 
 times, it might be, to throw a gleam of light 
 even on things appertaining to England. And 
 so, the better they came to know one another, 
 the greater was their mutual liking. 
 
 " I fear I am getting too strong to burden 
 you much longer," said RedclyrTe, this morn 
 ing. " I have no pretence to be a patient 
 now." 
 
 " Pooh ! nonsense ! " ejaculated the Warden. 
 " It will not be safe to leave you to yourself 
 for at least a month to come. And I have 
 half a dozen excursions in a neighborhood of 
 twenty miles, in which I mean to show you 
 235 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 what old England is, in a way that you would 
 never find out for yourself. Do not speak of 
 going. This day, if you find yourself strong 
 enough, you shall go and look at an old village 
 church." 
 
 " With all my heart," said Redclyffe. 
 
 They went, accordingly, walking slowly, 
 in consequence of Redclyffe s yet imperfect 
 strength, along the highroad, which was over 
 shadowed with elms, that grew in beautiful shape 
 and luxuriance in that part of England, not with 
 the slender, drooping, picturesque grace of a 
 New England elm, but more luxuriant, fuller 
 of leaves, sturdier in limb. It was a day which 
 the Warden called fine, and which RedclyfFe, at 
 home, would have thought to bode rain ; though 
 here he had learned that such weather might 
 continue for weeks together, with only a few 
 raindrops all the time. The road was in the 
 finest condition, hard and dry. 
 
 They had not long emerged from the gate 
 way of the Hospital, at the venerable front 
 and gables of which RedclyfTe turned to look 
 with a feeling as if it were his home, when 
 they heard the clatter of hoofs behind them, 
 and a gentleman on horseback rode by, paying 
 a courteous salute to the Warden as he passed. 
 A groom in livery followed at a little distance, 
 and both rode roundly towards the village, 
 whither the Warden and his friend were going. 
 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " Did you observe that man ? " asked the 
 Warden. 
 
 " Yes," said Redclyffe. " Is he an English 
 man ? " 
 
 " That is a pertinent question/ replied the 
 Warden, " but I scarcely know how to answer 
 it." 
 
 In truth, Redclyffe s question had been sug 
 gested by the appearance of the mounted gen 
 tleman, who was a dark, thin man, with black 
 hair, and a black moustache and pointed beard 
 setting off his sallow face, in which the eyes 
 had a certain pointed steeliness, which did not 
 look English, whose eyes, methinks, are 
 usually not so hard as those of Americans or 
 foreigners. Redclyffe, somehow or other, had 
 fancied that these not very pleasant eyes had 
 been fixed in a marked way on himself, a 
 stranger, while at the same time his salute was 
 evidently directed towards the Warden. 
 
 " An Englishman ? why, no," continued 
 the latter. " If you observe, he does not even sit 
 his horse like an Englishman, but in that ab 
 surd, stiff Continental way, as if a poker should 
 get on horseback. Neither has he an English 
 face, English manners, nor English religion, 
 nor an English heart ; nor, to sum up the whole, 
 had he English birth. Nevertheless, as fate 
 would have it, he is the inheritor of a good old 
 English name, a fine patrimonial estate, and a 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 very probable claim to an old English title. 
 This is Lord Braithwaite of Braithwaite Hall, 
 who if he can make his case good (and they say 
 there is good prospect of it) will soon be Lord 
 Hinchbrooke." 
 
 " I hardly know why, but I should be sorry 
 for it," said Redclyffe. " He certainly is not 
 English ; and I have an odd sort of sympathy, 
 which makes me unwilling that English honors 
 should be enjoyed by foreigners. This, then, 
 is the gentleman, of Italian birth whom you 
 have mentioned to me, and of whom there is a 
 slight mention in the County History." 
 
 " Yes," said the Warden. " There have been 
 three descents of this man s branch in Italy, and 
 only one English mother in all that time. Posi 
 tively, I do not see an English trait in his face, 
 and as little in his manner. His civility is 
 Italian, such as oftentimes, among his country 
 men, has offered a cup of poison to a guest, or 
 insinuated the stab of a stiletto into his heart." 
 
 " You are particularly bitter against this poor 
 man," said Redclyffe, laughing at the Warden s 
 vehemence. " His appearance and yet he is 
 a handsome man is certainly not prepossess 
 ing ; but unless it be countersigned by some 
 thing in his actual life, I should hardly think it 
 worth while to condemn him utterly." 
 
 " Well, well ; you can forgive a little Eng 
 lish prejudice," said the Warden, a little ashamed. 
 
 238 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " But, in good earnest, the man has few or no 
 good traits, takes no interest in the country, 
 dislikes our sky, our earth, our people, is close 
 and inhospitable, a hard landlord, and whatever 
 may be his good qualities, they are not such as 
 flourish in this soil and climate, or can be ap 
 preciated here/ l 
 
 " Has he children ? " asked Redclyffe. 
 
 " They say so, a family by an Italian wife, 
 whom some, on the other hand, pronounce to 
 be no wife at all. His son is at a Catholic 
 college in France ; his daughter in a convent 
 there." 
 
 In talk like this they were drawing near the 
 little rustic village of Braithwaite, and saw, 
 above a cloud of foliage, the small, low, battie- 
 mented tower, the gray stones of which had 
 probably been laid a little after the Norman 
 conquest. Approaching nearer, they passed a 
 thatched cottage or two, very plain and simple 
 edifices, though interesting to Redclyffe from 
 their antique aspect, which denoted that they 
 were probably older than the settlement of his 
 own country, and might very likely have nursed 
 children who had gone, more than two centu 
 ries ago, to found the commonwealth of which 
 he was a citizen. If you considered them in 
 one way, prosaically, they were ugly enough ; 
 but then there were the old latticed windows, 
 and there the thatch, which was verdant with 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 leek, and strange weeds, possessing a whole bo 
 tanical growth. And birds flew in and out, as 
 if they had their homes there. Then came a 
 row of similar cottages, all joined on together, 
 and each with a little garden before it divided 
 from its neighbors by a hedge, now in full ver 
 dure. RedclyfFe was glad to see some symp 
 toms of natural love of beauty here, for there 
 were plants of box, cut into queer shapes of 
 birds, peacocks, etc., as if year after year had 
 been spent in bringing these vegetable sculp 
 tures to perfection. In one of the gardens, 
 moreover, the ingenious inhabitant had spent 
 his leisure in building grotto work, of which the 
 English are rather ludicrously fond, on their 
 little bits of lawn, and in building a miniature 
 castle of oyster shells, where were seen turrets, 
 ramparts, a frowning arched gateway, and minia 
 ture cannon looking from the embrasures. A 
 pleasanter and better adornment were the homely 
 household flowers, and a pleasant sound, too, 
 was the hum of bees, who had their home in 
 several beehives, and were making their honey 
 among the flowers of the garden, or come from 
 afar, buzzing dreamily through the air, laden 
 with honey that they had found elsewhere. Fruit 
 trees stood erect, or, in some instances, were 
 flattened out against the walls of cottages, look 
 ing somewhat like hawks nailed in terrorem 
 against a barn door. The male members of 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 this little community were probably afield, with 
 the exception of one or two half-torpid great- 
 grandsires, who [were] moving rheumatically 
 about the gardens, and some children not yet 
 in breeches, who stared with stolid eyes at the 
 passers-by ; but the good dames were busy 
 within doors, where Redclyffe had glimpses of 
 their interior with its pavement of stone flags. 
 Altogether it seemed a comfortable settlement 
 enough. 
 
 " Do you see that child yonder," observed 
 the Warden, " creeping away from the door, and 
 displaying a vista of his petticoats as he does 
 so ? That sturdy boy is the lineal heir of one 
 of the oldest families in this part of England, 
 though now decayed and fallen, as you may 
 judge. So, you see, with all our contrivances to 
 keep up an aristocracy, there still is change for 
 ever going on." 
 
 " There is something not agreeable, and some 
 thing otherwise, in the thought," replied Red- 
 clyffe. " What is the name of the old family, 
 whose representative is in such a case ? " 
 
 " Moseby," said the Warden. " Their family 
 residence stood within three miles of Braithwaite 
 Hall, but was taken down in the last century, 
 and its place supplied by a grand show place, 
 built by a Birmingham manufacturer, who also 
 originated here." 
 
 They kept onward from this outskirt of the 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 village, and soon, passing over a little rising 
 ground and descending now into a hollow, 
 came to the new portion of it, clustered around 
 its gray Norman church, one side of the tower 
 of which was covered with ivy, that was care 
 fully kept, the Warden said, from climbing to 
 the battlements, on account of some old pro 
 phecy that foretold that the tower would fall, if 
 ever the ivy mantled over its top. Certainly, 
 however, there seemed little likelihood that the 
 square, low mass would fall, unless by external 
 violence, in less than as many ages as it had 
 already stood. 
 
 Redclyffe looked at the old tower and little 
 adjoining edifice with an interest that attached 
 itself to every separate, moss-grown stone ; but 
 the Warden, like most Englishmen, was at once 
 amazed and wearied with the American s enthu 
 siasm for this spot, which to him was uninter 
 esting for the very reason that made it most 
 interesting to Redclyffe, because it had stood 
 there such a weary while. It was too common 
 an object to excite in his mind, as it did in Red- 
 clyffe s, visions of the long ago time when it was 
 founded, when mass was first said there, and the 
 glimmer of torches at the altar was seen through 
 the vista of that broad-browed porch ; and of all 
 the procession of villagers that had since gone 
 in and come out during nine hundred years, in 
 their varying costume and fashion, but yet 
 242 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and this was the strongest and most thrilling 
 part of the idea all, the very oldest of them, 
 bearing a resemblance of feature, the kindred, 
 the family likeness, to those who died yesterday, 
 to those who still went thither to worship ; 
 and all the grassy and half-obliterated graves 
 around had held those who bore the same 
 traits. 
 
 In front of the church was a little green, on 
 which stood a very ancient yew-tree, 2 all the 
 heart of which seemed to have been eaten away 
 by time, so that a man could now creep into the 
 trunk, through a wide opening, and, looking 
 upward, see another opening to the sky. 
 
 "That tree," observed the Warden, " is well 
 worth the notice of such an enthusiastic lover of 
 old things ; though I suppose aged trees may be 
 the one antiquity that you do not value, having 
 them by myriads in your primeval forests. But 
 then the interest of this tree consists greatly in 
 what your trees have not, in its long connec 
 tion with men and the doings of men. Some 
 of its companions were made into bows for 
 Harold s archers. This tree is of unreckonable 
 antiquity ; so old, that in a record of the time 
 of Edward the Fourth it is styled the yew- 
 tree of Braithwaite Green. That carries it 
 back to Norman times, truly. It was in com 
 paratively modern times when it served as a 
 gallows for one of James the Second s blood- 
 243 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 thirsty judges to hang his victims on after Mon- 
 mouth s rebellion." 
 
 On one side of this yew was a certain struc 
 ture which Redclyffe did not recognize as any 
 thing that he had before seen, but soon guessed 
 its purpose ; though, from appearances, it 
 seemed to have been very long since it had 
 served that purpose. It was a ponderous old 
 oaken framework, six or seven feet high, so con 
 trived that a heavy cross-piece shut down over 
 another, leaving two round holes ; in short, it 
 was a pair of stocks, in which, I suppose, hun 
 dreds of vagrants and petty criminals had sat of 
 old, but which now appeared to be merely a 
 matter of curiosity. 
 
 " This excellent old machine," said the War 
 den, " had been lying in a rubbish chamber of 
 the church tower for at least a century, when 
 the clerk, who is a little of an antiquarian, un 
 earthed it, and I advised him to set it here, where 
 it used to stand ; not with any idea of its 
 being used (though there is as much need of it 
 now as ever), but that the present age may see 
 what comforts it has lost." 
 
 They sat dowji a few moments on the circu 
 lar seat, and looked at the pretty scene of this 
 quiet little village, clustered round the old 
 church as a centre ; a collection of houses, 
 mostly thatched, though there were one or two, 
 with rather more pretension, that had roofs of 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 red tiles. Some of them were stone cottages, 
 whitewashed, but the larger edifices had timber 
 frames, filled in with brick and plaster, which 
 seemed to have been renewed in patches, and to 
 be a frailer and less durable material than the 
 old oak of their skeletons. They were gabled, 
 with lattice windows, and picturesquely set off 
 with projecting stones, and many little patch 
 work additions, such as, in the course of gener 
 ations, the inhabitants had found themselves to 
 need. There was not much commerce, appar 
 ently, in this little village, there seeming to be 
 only one shop, with some gingerbread, penny 
 whistles, ballads, and such matters, displayed in 
 the window ; and there, too, across the little 
 green, opposite the church, was the village ale 
 house, with its bench under the low projecting 
 eaves, with a Teniers scene of two wayfaring 
 yeomen drinking a pot of beer and smoking 
 their pipes. 
 
 With Redclyffe s Yankee feelings, there was 
 something sad to think how the generations had 
 succeeded one another, over and over, in innu 
 merable succession, in this little spot, being born 
 here, living, dying, lying down among their 
 fathers dust, and forthwith getting up again, as 
 it were, and recommencing the same meaning 
 less round, and really bringing nothing to pass ; 
 for probably the generation of to-day, in so se 
 cluded and motionless a place as this, had few or 
 245 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 no ideas in advance of their ancestors of five cen 
 turies ago. It seems not worth while that more 
 than one generation of them should have existed. 
 Even in dress, with their smock frocks and 
 breeches, they were just like their fathers. The 
 stirring blood of the new land, where no man 
 dwells in his father s house, where no man 
 thinks of dying in his birthplace, awoke 
 within him, and revolted at the thought ; and, 
 as connected with it, revolted at all the heredi 
 tary pretensions which, since his stay here, had 
 exercised such an influence over the fanciful 
 part of his nature. In another mood, the vil 
 lage might have seemed a picture of rural peace, 
 which it would have been worth while to give 
 up ambition to enjoy ; now, as his warmer im 
 pulse stirred, it was a weariness to think of. 
 The new American was stronger in him than 
 the hereditary Englishman. 
 
 " I should go mad of it ! " exclaimed he 
 aloud. 
 
 He started up impulsively, to the amazement 
 of his companion, who of course could not com 
 prehend what seemed so to have stung his 
 American friend. As they passed the tree, on 
 the other side of its huge trunk, they saw a 
 young woman, sitting on that side of it, and 
 sketching, apparently, the church tower, with 
 the old Elizabethan vicarage that stood near it, 
 246 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 with a gate opening into the churchyard, and 
 much embowered and ivy-hung. 
 
 " Ah, Miss Cheltenham," said the Warden, 
 " I am glad to see that you have taken the old 
 church in hand, for it is one of the prettiest 
 rustic churches in England, and as well worthy 
 as any to be engraved on a sheet of note paper 
 or put into a portfolio. Will you let my friend 
 and me see your sketch ? " 
 
 The Warden had made his request with 
 rather more freedom than perhaps he would to 
 a lady whom he considered on a level with him 
 self, though with perfect respect, that being con 
 sidered; and Redclyffe, looking at the person, 
 saw that it was the same of whose face he had 
 had a glimpse in the looking-glass, in the old 
 palmer s chamber. 
 
 " No, Doctor Hammond," said the young 
 lady, with a respectful sort of frankness, " you 
 must excuse me. I am no good artist, and am 
 but jotting down the old church because I like 
 
 it." 
 
 " Well, well, as you please," said the War 
 den ; and whispered aside to Redclyffe, " A 
 girl s sketchbook is seldom worth looking at. 
 But now, Miss Cheltenham, I am about to give 
 my American friend here a lecture on gargoyles, 
 and other peculiarities of sacred Gothic architec 
 ture ; and if you will honor me with your at- 
 247 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 tendon, I should be glad to find my audience 
 increased by one." 
 
 So the young lady arose, and Redclyffe, con 
 sidering the Warden s allusion to him as a sort 
 of partial introduction, bowed to her, and she 
 responded with a cold, reserved, yet not un 
 pleasant sort of courtesy. They went towards 
 the church porch, and, looking in at the old 
 stone bench on each side of the interior, the 
 Warden showed them the hacks of the swords 
 of the Roundheads, when they took it by storm. 
 Redclyffe, mindful of the old graveyard on the 
 edge of which he had spent his childhood, be 
 gan to look at this far more antique receptacle, 
 expecting to find there many ancient tomb 
 stones, perhaps of contemporaries or predeces 
 sors of the founders of his country. In this, 
 however, he was disappointed, at least in a great 
 measure ; for the persons buried in the church 
 yard were probably, for the most part, of a hum 
 ble rank in life, such as were not so ambitious 
 as to desire a monument of any kind, but were 
 content to let their low earth-mounds subside 
 into the level, where their memory had waxed 
 so faint that none among the survivors could 
 point out the spot, or cared any longer about 
 knowing it ; while in other cases, where a mon 
 ument of red freestone, or even of hewn gran 
 ite, had been erected, the English climate had 
 forthwith set to work to gnaw away the inscrip- 
 248 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 tions ; so that in fifty years in a time that 
 would have left an American tombstone as fresh 
 as if just cut it was quite impossible to make 
 out the record. Their superiors, meanwhile, 
 were sleeping less enviably in dismal mouldy 
 and dusty vaults, instead of under the daisies.. 
 Thus Redclyffe really found less antiquity here 
 than in the graveyard which might almost be 
 called his natal spot. 
 
 When he said something to this effect, the 
 Warden nodded. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " and, in truth, we have not 
 much need of inscriptions for these poor people. 
 All good families every one almost, with any 
 pretensions to respectable station, has his family 
 or individual recognition within the church, or 
 upon its walls ; or some of them you see on 
 tombs on the outside. As for our poorer friends 
 here, they are content, as they may well be, to 
 swell and subside, like little billows of mortal 
 ity, here on the outside." 
 
 " And for my part," said Redclyffe, " if there 
 were anything particularly desirable on either 
 side, I should like best to sleep under this lovely 
 green turf, with the daisies strewn over me by 
 Nature herself, and whatever other homely flow 
 ers any friend might choose to add." 
 
 " And, Doctor Hammond," said the young 
 woman, " we see by this gravestone that some 
 times a person of humble rank may happen to 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 be commemorated, and that Nature in this 
 instance at least seems to take especial pains 
 and pleasure to preserve the record." 
 
 She indicated a flat gravestone, near the porch, 
 which time had indeed beautified in a singular 
 way, for there was cut deep into it a name and 
 date, in old English characters, very deep it 
 must originally have been ; and as if in despair 
 of obliterating it, Time had taken the kindlier 
 method of filling up the letters with moss ; so 
 that now, high embossed in loveliest green, was 
 seen the name " Richard Oglethorpe 1613 " ; 
 green, and flourishing, and beautiful, like the 
 memory of a good man. The inscription ori 
 ginally seemed to have contained some twenty 
 lines, which might have been poetry, or perhaps 
 a prose eulogy, or perhaps the simple record of 
 the buried person s life ; but all this, having been 
 done in fainter and smaller letters, was now so 
 far worn away as to be illegible ; nor had they 
 ever been deep enough to be made living in 
 moss, like the rest of the inscription. 
 
 " How tantalizing," remarked RedclyfFe, " to 
 see the verdant shine of this name, impressed 
 upon us as something remarkable and nothing 
 else ! I cannot but think that there must be 
 something worth remembering about a man thus 
 distinguished, when two hundred years have 
 taken all these natural pains to illustrate and 
 250 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 emblazon ( Richard Oglethorpe 1613. Ha ! 1 
 surely recollect that name. It haunts me some 
 how, as if it had been familiar of old." 
 
 " And me," said the young lady. 
 
 "It was an old name, hereabouts," observed 
 the Warden, " but has been long extinct, a 
 cottage name, not a gentleman s. I doubt not 
 that Oglethorpes sleep in many of these undis 
 tinguished graves." 
 
 Redclyffe did not much attend to what his 
 friend said, his attention being attracted to the 
 tone to something in the tone of the young 
 lady, and also to her coincidence in his remark 
 that the name appealed to some early recollec 
 tion. He had been taxing his memory, to tell 
 him when and how the name had become famil 
 iar to him ; and he now remembered that it had 
 occurred in the old Doctor s story of the Bloody 
 Footstep, told to him and Elsie, so long ago. 3 
 To him and Elsie ! It struck him what if 
 it were possible but he knew it was not 
 that the young lady had a remembrance also of 
 the fact, and that she, after so many years, were 
 mingling her thoughts with his ? As this fancy 
 recurred to him, he endeavored to get a glimpse 
 of her face, and while he did so she turned -it. 
 upon him. It was a quick, sensitive face, that 
 did not seem altogether English ; he would 
 rather have imagined it American ; but at all 
 251 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 events he could not recognize it as one that he 
 had seen before, and a thousand fantasies died 
 within him as, in his momentary glance, he took 
 in the volume of its contour. 
 252 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 A PER the two friends had parted from 
 the young lady, they passed through 
 the village, and entered the park gate 
 of Braithwaite Hall, pursuing a winding road 
 through its beautiful scenery, which realized all 
 that Redclyffe had read or dreamed about the 
 perfect beauty of these sylvan creations, with 
 the clumps of trees, or sylvan oaks, picturesquely 
 disposed. To heighten the charm, they saw a 
 herd of deer reposing, who, on their appear 
 ance, rose from their recumbent position, and 
 began to gaze warily at the strangers ; then, 
 tossing their horns, they set off on a stampede, 
 but only swept round, and settled down not far 
 from where they were. Redclyffe looked with 
 great interest at these deer, who were at once 
 wild and civilized ; retaining a kind of free for 
 est citizenship, while yet they were in some 
 sense subject to man. It seemed as if they 
 were a link between wild nature and tame ; as 
 if they could look back, in their long recollec 
 tions, through a vista, into the times when Eng 
 land s forests were as wild as those of America, 
 though now they were but a degree more re 
 moved from domesticity than cattle, and took 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 their food in winter from the hand of man, and 
 in summer reposed upon his lawns. This 
 seemed the last touch of that delightful con 
 quered and regulated wildness, which English 
 art has laid upon the whole growth of English 
 nature, animal or vegetable. 
 
 " There is nothing really wild in your whole 
 island," he observed to the Warden. " I have 
 a sensation as if somebody knew, and had cul 
 tivated and fostered, and set out in its proper 
 place, every tree that grows ; as if somebody had 
 patted the heads of your wildest animals and 
 played with them. It is very delightful to me, 
 for the present ; and yet, I think, in the course 
 of time, I should feel the need for something 
 genuine, as it were, something that had not 
 the touch and breath of man upon it. I sup 
 pose even your skies are modified by the modes 
 of human life that are going on beneath them. 
 London skies, of course, are so ; but the breath 
 of a great people, to say nothing of its furnace 
 vapors and hearth smokes, makes the sky other 
 than it was a thousand years ago." 
 
 " I believe we English have a feeling like 
 this occasionally," replied the Warden, " and it 
 is from that, partly, that we must account for 
 our adventurousness into other regions, espe 
 cially for our interest in what is wild and new. 
 In your own forests, now, and prairies, I fancy 
 we find a charm that Americans do not. In 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the sea, too, and therefore we are yachters. 
 For my part, however, I have grown to like 
 Nature a little smoothed down, and enriched ; 
 less gaunt and wolfish than she would be if left 
 to herself." 
 
 " Yes ; I feel that charm too," said Redclyffe. 
 " But yet life would be slow and heavy, me- 
 thinks, to see nothing but English parks." 
 
 Continuing their course through the noble 
 clumps of oaks, they by and by had a vista of 
 the distant hall itself. It was one of the old 
 English timber and plaster houses, many of 
 which are of unknown antiquity ; as was the 
 case with a portion of this house, although 
 other portions had been renewed, repaired, or 
 added, within a century. It had, originally, the 
 Warden said, stood all round an enclosed 
 courtyard, like the great houses of the Conti 
 nent; but now one side of the quadrangle had 
 long been removed, and there was only a front, 
 with two wings ; the beams of old oak being 
 picked out with black, and three or four gables 
 in a line forming the front, while the wings 
 seemed to be stone. It was the timber portion 
 that was most ancient. A clock was on the 
 midmost gable, and pointed now towards one 
 o clock. The whole scene impressed Red 
 clyffe, not as striking, but as an abode of an 
 cient peace, where generation after generation 
 of the same family had lived, each making the 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 most of life, because the life of each successive 
 dweller there was eked out with the lives of all 
 who had hitherto lived there, and had in it 
 equally those lives which were to come after 
 wards ; so that there was a rare and successful 
 contrivance for giving length, fulness, body, 
 substance, to this thin and frail matter of hu 
 man life. And, as life was so rich in compre 
 hensiveness, the dwellers there made the most 
 of it for the present and future, each genera 
 tion contriving what it could to add to the cosi 
 ness, the comfortableness, the grave, solid re 
 spectability, the sylvan beauty, of the house 
 with which they seemed to be connected both 
 before and after death. The family had its 
 home there ; not merely the individual. An 
 cient shapes, that had apparently gone to the 
 family tomb, had yet a right by family hearth 
 and in family hall ; nor did they come thither 
 cold and shivering, and diffusing dim ghostly 
 terrors, and repulsive shrinkings, and death in 
 life ; but in warm, genial attributes, making 
 this life now passing more dense, as it were, by 
 adding all the substance of their own to it. 
 Redclyffe could not compare this abode, and 
 the feelings that it aroused, to the houses of his 
 own country ; poor tents of a day, inns of a 
 night, where nothing was certain, save that the 
 family of him who built it would not dwell here, 
 even if he himself should have the bliss to die 
 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 under the roof which, with absurdest anticipa 
 tions, he had built for his posterity. Posterity ! 
 An American can have none. 
 
 " All this sort of thing is beautiful ; the 
 family institution was beautiful in its day," 
 ejaculated he aloud, to himself, not to his com 
 panion ; " but it is a thing of the past. It is 
 dying out in England ; and as for ourselves, 
 we never had it. Something better will come 
 up ; but as for this, it is past/ 1 
 
 " That is a sad thing to say," observed the 
 Warden, by no means comprehending what was 
 passing in his friend s mind. " But if you wish 
 to view the interior of the Hall, we will go 
 thither ; for, harshly as I have spoken of the 
 owner, I suppose he has English feeling enough 
 to give us lunch and show us the old house of 
 his forefathers." 
 
 " Not at present, if you please," replied Red- 
 clyffe. " I am afraid of destroying my delight 
 ful visionary idea of the house by coming too 
 near it. Before I leave this part of the coun 
 try, I should be glad to ramble over the whole 
 of it, but not just now." 
 
 While Redclyffe was still enjoying the frank 
 hospitality of his new friend, a rather marked 
 event occurred in his life ; yet not so important 
 in reality as it seemed to his English friend. 
 
 A large letter was delivered to him, bearing 
 the official seal of the United States and the 
 257 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 indorsement of the State Department ; a very 
 important-looking document, which could not 
 but add to the importance of the recipient in 
 the eyes of Englishmen, accustomed as they 
 are to bow down before any seal of government. 
 Redclyffe opened it rather coolly, being rather 
 loath to renew any of his political remem 
 brances, now that he was in peace ; or to think 
 of the turmoil of modern and democratic poli 
 tics, here in this quietude of gone-by ages and 
 customs. The contents, however, took him 
 by surprise ; nor did he know whether to be 
 pleased or not. 
 
 The official package, in short, contained an 
 announcement that he had been appointed by 
 the President, by and with the advice of the 
 Senate, to one of the Continental missions, 
 usually esteemed an object of considerable am 
 bition to any young man in politics ; so that, 
 if consistent with his own pleasure, he was now 
 one of the Diplomatic Corps, a Minister, and 
 representative of his country. On first consid 
 ering the matter, Redclyffe was inclined to 
 doubt whether this honor had been obtained for 
 him altogether by friendly aid, though it did 
 happen to have much in it that might suit his 
 half-formed purpose of remaining long abroad ; 
 but with an eye already rendered somewhat ob 
 lique by political practice, he suspected that a 
 political rival a rival, though of his own party 
 258 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 had been exerting himself to provide an in 
 ducement for Redclyffe to leave the local field 
 to him ; while he himself should take advan 
 tage of the vacant field, and his rival be thus 
 insidiously, though honorably, laid on the shelf, 
 whence if he should try to remove himself 
 a few years hence the shifting influences of 
 American politics would be likely enough to 
 thwart him ; so that, for the sake of being a few 
 years nominally somebody, he might in fine 
 come back to his own country and find him 
 self permanently nobody. But Redclyffe had 
 already sufficiently begun to suspect that he 
 lacked some qualities that a politician ought to 
 have, and without which a political life, whether 
 successful or otherwise, is sure to be a most 
 irksome one : some qualities he lacked, others 
 he had, both almost equally an obstacle. When 
 he communicated the offer, therefore, to his 
 friend, the Warden, it was with the remark that 
 he believed he should accept it. 
 
 " Accept it ? " cried the Warden, opening his 
 eyes. " I should think so, indeed ! Why, it puts 
 you above the level of the highest nobility of 
 the Court to which you are accredited ; simple 
 republican as you are, it gives you rank with 
 the old blood and birth of Europe. Accept it? 
 By all means ; and I will come and see you at 
 your court." 
 
 " Nothing is more different between England 
 259 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and America," said Redclyffe, " than the differ 
 ent way in which the citizen of either country 
 looks at official station. To an Englishman, a 
 commission, of whatever kind, emanating from 
 his sovereign, brings apparently a gratifying 
 sense of honor ; to an American, on the con 
 trary, it offers really nothing of the kind. He 
 ceases to be a sovereign, an atom of sover 
 eignty, at all events, and stoops to be a ser 
 vant. If I accept this mission, honorable as you 
 think it, I assure you I shall not feel myself 
 quite the man I have hitherto been ; although 
 there is no obstacle in the way of party obliga 
 tions or connections to my taking it, if I please." 
 
 " I do not well understand this," quoth the 
 good Warden. " It is one of the promises of 
 Scripture to the wise man, that he shall stand 
 before kings, and that this embassy will enable 
 you to do. No man no man of your coun 
 try surely is more worthy to do so ; so pray 
 accept." 
 
 " I think I shall," said Redclyffe. 
 
 Much as the Warden had seemed to affec- 
 tionize Redclyffe hitherto, the latter could not 
 but be sensible, thereafter, of a certain deference 
 in his friend towards him, which he would fain 
 have got rid of, had it been in his power. How 
 ever, there was still the same heartiness under 
 it all ; and after a little he seemed, in some de 
 gree, to take Redclyffe s own view of the mat- 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ter ; namely, that, being so temporary as 
 these republican distinctions are, they really do 
 not go skin-deep, have no reality in them, and 
 that the sterling quality of the man, be it higher 
 or lower, is nowise altered by it, an apo 
 thegm that is true even of an hereditary nobil 
 ity, and still more so of our own Honorables 
 and Excellencies. However, the good Warden 
 was glad of his friend s dignity, and perhaps, 
 too, a little glad that this high fortune had be 
 fallen one whom he chanced to be entertaining 
 under his roof. As it happened, there was an 
 opportunity which might be taken advantage of 
 to celebrate the occasion ; at least, to make it 
 known to the English world so far as the extent 
 of the county. 1 
 
 It was an hereditary custom for the Warden 
 of Braithwaite Hospital, once a year, to give a 
 grand dinner to the nobility and gentry of the 
 neighborhood ; and to this end a bequest had 
 been made by one of the former squires or lords 
 of Braithwaite which would of itself suffice to 
 feed forty or fifty Englishmen with reasonable 
 sumptuousness. The present Warden, being a 
 gentleman of private fortune, was accustomed 
 to eke the limited income, devoted for this 
 purpose, with such additions from his own 
 resources as brought the rude and hearty hos 
 pitality contemplated by the first founder on a 
 par with modern refinements of gourmandism. 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 The banquet was annually given in the fine old 
 hall where James the Second had feasted ; and 
 on some of these occasions the Warden s table 
 had been honored with illustrious guests, espe 
 cially when any of them happened to be wanting 
 an opportunity to come before the public in an 
 after-dinner speech. Just at present there was 
 no occasion of that sort ; and the good Warden 
 fancied that he might give considerable eclat to 
 his hereditary feast by bringing forward the 
 young American envoy, a distinguished and 
 eloquent man, to speak on the well-worn topic 
 of the necessity of friendly relations between 
 England and America. 
 
 " You are eloquent, I doubt not, my young 
 friend ? " inquired he. 
 
 " Why, no," answered Redclyffe modestly. 
 
 " Ah, yes, I know it," returned the Warden. 
 " If one have all the natural prerequisites of 
 eloquence : a quick sensibility, ready thought, 
 apt expression, a good voice, and not making 
 its way into the world through your nose either, 
 as they say most of your countrymen s voices 
 do. You shall make the crack speech at my 
 dinner ; and so strengthen the bonds of good- 
 fellowship between our two countries, that there 
 shall be no question of war for at least six months 
 
 to come." 
 
 Accordingly, the preparations for this stately 
 banquet went on with great spirit, and the 
 262 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 Warden exhorted Redclyffe to be thinking of 
 some good topics for his international speech ; 
 but the young man laughed it off, and told his 
 friend that he thought the inspiration of the 
 moment, aided by the good old wine which the 
 Warden had told him of, as among the trea 
 sures of the Hospital, would perhaps serve him 
 better than any elaborate preparation. 
 
 Redclyffe, being not even yet strong, used to 
 spend much time, when the day chanced to be 
 pleasant (which was oftener than his preconcep 
 tions of English weather led him to expect), in 
 the garden behind the Warden s house. It was 
 an extensive one, and apparently as antique as 
 the foundation of the establishment ; and during 
 all these years it had probably been growing 
 richer and richer. Here were flowers of ancient 
 race, and some that had been merely field or 
 wayside flowers when first they came into the gar 
 den ; but by long cultivation and hereditary care, 
 instead of dying out, they had acquired a new 
 richness and beauty, so that you would scarcely 
 recognize the daisy or the violet. Roses too, 
 there were, which Doctor Hammond said had 
 been taken from those white and red rose-trees 
 in the Temple Gardens, whence the partisans 
 of York and Lancaster had plucked their fatal 
 badges. With these, there were all the modern 
 and far-fetched flowers from America, the East, 
 and elsewhere ; even the prairie flowers and the 
 263 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 California blossoms were represented here ; for 
 one of the brethren had horticultural tastes, and 
 was permitted freely to exercise them there. 
 The antique character of the garden was pre 
 served, likewise, by the alleys of box, a part of 
 which had been suffered to remain, and was now 
 grown to a great height and density, so as to 
 make impervious green walls. There were also 
 yew-trees clipped into strange shapes of bird and 
 beast, and uncouth heraldic figures, among which 
 of course the leopard s head grinned triumphant ; 
 and as for fruit, the high garden wall was lined 
 with pear-trees, spread out flat against it, where 
 they managed to produce a cold, flavorless fruit, 
 a good deal akin to cucumbers. 
 
 Here, in these genial old arbors, RedclyfTe 
 used to recline in the sweet, mild summer 
 weather, basking in the sun, which was seldom 
 too warm to make its full embrace uncomfort 
 able ; and it seemed to him, with its fertility, 
 with its marks everywhere of the quiet long-be 
 stowed care of man, the sweetest and cosiest se 
 clusion he had ever known ; and two or three 
 times a day, when he heard the screech of the 
 railway train, rushing on towards distant Lon 
 don, it impressed him still more with a sense of 
 safe repose here. 
 
 Not unfrequently he here met the white- 
 bearded palmer in whose chamber he had found 
 himself, as if conveyed thither by enchantment, 
 264 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 when he first came to the Hospital. The old 
 man was not by any means of the garrulous 
 order ; and yet he seemed full of thoughts, full 
 of reminiscences, and not disinclined to the 
 company of Redclyffe. In fact, the latter some 
 times flattered himself that a tendency for his 
 society was one of the motives that brought him 
 to the garden ; though the amount of their in 
 tercourse, after all, was not so great as to war 
 rant the idea of any settled purpose in so doing. 
 Nevertheless, they talked considerably ; and 
 Redclyffe could easily see that the old man had 
 been an extensive traveller, and had perhaps 
 occupied situations far different from his present 
 one, and had perhaps been a struggler in trou 
 bled waters before he was drifted into the re 
 tirement where Redclyffe found him. He was 
 fond of talking about the unsuspected relation 
 ship that must now be existing between many 
 families in England and unknown consanguin 
 ity in the New World, where, perhaps, really the 
 main stock of the family tree was now existing, 
 and with a new spirit and life, which the repre 
 sentative growth here in England had lost by 
 too long continuance in one air and one mode 
 of life. For history and observation proved 
 that all people and the English people by no 
 means less than others needed to be trans 
 planted, or somehow renewed, every few gener 
 ations ; so that, according to this ancient phi- 
 
 265 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 losopher s theory, it would be good for the whole 
 people of England, now, if it could at once be 
 transported to America, where its fatness, its 
 sleepiness, its too great beefmess, its preponder 
 ant animal character, would be rectified by a 
 different air and soil ; and equally good, on the 
 other hand, for the whole American people to 
 be transplanted back to the original island, 
 where their nervousness might be weighted with 
 heavier influences, where their little women 
 might grow bigger, where their thin, dry men 
 might get a burden of flesh and good stomachs, 
 where their children might, with the air, draw 
 in a reverence for age, forms, and usage. 
 
 RedclyfFe listened with complacency to these 
 speculations, smiling at the thought of such an 
 exodus as would take place, and the reciprocal 
 dissatisfaction which would probably be the re 
 sult. But he had greater pleasure in drawing 
 out some of the old gentleman s legendary lore, 
 some of which, whether true or not, was very 
 
 curious. 2 
 
 As RedclyfFe sat one day watching the old 
 man in the garden, he could not help being 
 struck by the scrupulous care with which he 
 attended to the plants ; it seemed to him that 
 there was a sense of justice, of desiring to do 
 exactly what was right in the matter, not favor 
 ing one plant more than another, and doing all 
 he could for each. His progress, in conse- 
 266 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 quence, was so slow, that in an hour, while Red- 
 clyffe was off and on looking at him, he had 
 scarcely done anything perceptible. Then he 
 was so minute ; and often, when he was on the 
 point of leaving one thing to take up another, 
 some small neglect that he saw or fancied called 
 him back again, to spend other minutes on the 
 same task. He was so full of scruples. It 
 struck Redclyffe that this was conscience, mor 
 bid, sick, a despot in trifles, looking so closely 
 into life that it permitted nothing to be done. 
 The man might once have been strong and able, 
 but by some unhealthy process of his life he 
 had ceased to be so now. Nor did any happy 
 or satisfactory result appear to come from these 
 painfully wrought efforts ; he still seemed to 
 know that he had left something undone in do 
 ing too much in another direction. Here was 
 a lily that had been neglected, while he paid too 
 much attention to a rose ; he had set his foot 
 on a violet ; he had grubbed up, in his haste, a 
 little plant that he mistook for a weed, but that 
 he now suspected was an herb of grace. Grieved 
 by such reflections as these, he heaved a deep 
 sigh, almost amounting to a groan, and sat down 
 on the little stool that he carried with him in his 
 weeding, resting his face in his hands. 
 
 Redclyffe deemed that he might be doing the 
 old man a good service by interrupting his mel 
 ancholy labors ; so he emerged from the oppo- 
 
 267 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 site door of the summer-house, and came along 
 the adjoining walk with somewhat heavy foot 
 steps, in order that the palmer might have 
 warning of his approach without any grounds to 
 suppose that he had been watched hitherto. 
 Accordingly, when he turned into the other 
 alley, he found the old man sitting erect on his 
 stool, looking composed, but still sad, as was 
 his general custom. 
 
 " After all your wanderings and experience," 
 said he, " I observe that you come back to the 
 original occupation of cultivating a garden, 
 the innocentest of all." 
 
 " Yes, so it would seem," said the old man ; 
 " but somehow or other I do not find peace in 
 this." 
 
 " These plants and shrubs," returned Red- 
 clyffe, " seem at all events to recognize the good 
 ness of your rule, so far as it has extended over 
 them. See how joyfully they take the sun; how 
 clear [they are] from all these vices that lie 
 scattered round, in the shape of weeds. It is a 
 lovely sight, and I could almost fancy a quiet 
 enjoyment in the plants themselves, which they 
 have no way of making us aware of, except by 
 giving out a fragrance." 
 
 " Ah ! how infinitely would that idea increase 
 man s responsibility," said the old palmer, " if, 
 besides man and beast, we should find it neces 
 sary to believe that there is also another set of 
 268 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 beings dependent for their happiness on our do 
 ing, or leaving undone, what might have effect 
 on them ! " 
 
 " I question," said Redclyffe, smiling, " whe 
 ther their pleasurable or painful experiences can 
 be so keen, that we need trouble our consciences 
 much with regard to what we do, merely as it 
 affects them. So highly cultivated a conscience 
 as that would be a nuisance to one s self and 
 one s fellows." 
 
 " You say a terrible thing," rejoined the old 
 man. " Can conscience be too much alive in 
 us ? Is not everything, however trifling it seems, 
 an item in the great account, which it is of in 
 finite importance, therefore, to have right ? A 
 terrible thing is that you have said." 
 
 " That may be," said Redclyffe; "but it is 
 none the less certain to me, that the efficient 
 actors those who mould the world are the 
 persons in whom something else is developed 
 more strongly than conscience. There must 
 be an invincible determination to effect some 
 thing ; it may be set to work in the right direc 
 tion, but after that it must go onward, trampling 
 down small obstacles small considerations of 
 right and wrong as a great rock, thundering 
 down a hillside, crushes a thousand sweet flow 
 ers, and ploughs deep furrows in the innocent 
 hillside." 
 
 As Redclyffe gave vent to this doctrine, which 
 269 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 was not naturally his, but which had been the 
 inculcation of a life hitherto devoted to politics, 
 he was surprised to find how strongly sensible 
 he became of the ugliness and indefensibleness 
 of what he said. He felt as if he were speak 
 ing under the eye of Omniscience, and as if 
 every word he said were weighed, and its empti 
 ness detected, by an unfailing intelligence. He 
 had thought that he had volumes to say about 
 the necessity of consenting not to do right in all 
 matters minutely, for the sake of getting out an 
 available and valuable right as the whole ; but 
 there was something that seemed to tie his 
 tongue. Could it be the quiet gaze of this old 
 man, so unpretending, so humble, so simple in 
 aspect ? He could not tell, only that he fal 
 tered, and finally left his speech in the midst. 
 
 But he was surprised to find how he had to 
 struggle against a certain repulsion within him 
 self to the old man. He seemed so nonsen 
 sical, interfering with everybody s right in the 
 world ; so mischievous, standing there and shut 
 ting out the possibility of action. It seemed 
 well to trample him down ; to put him out of 
 the way no matter how somehow. It gave 
 him, he thought, an inkling of the way in which 
 this poor old man had made himself odious to 
 his kind, by opposing himself, inevitably, to 
 what was bad in man, chiding it by his very 
 presence, accepting nothing false. You must 
 270 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 either love him utterly, or hate him utterly ; 
 for he could not let you alone, RedclyfFe, being 
 a susceptible man, felt this influence in the 
 strongest way ; for it was as if there was a bat 
 tle within him, one party pulling, wrenching 
 him towards the old man, another wrenching 
 him away, so that, by the agony of the contest, 
 he felt disposed to end it bv taking flight, and 
 never seeing the strange individual again. He 
 could well enough conceive how a brutal nature, 
 if capable of receiving his influence at all, might 
 find it so intolerable that it must needs get rid 
 of him by violence, by taking his blood if 
 necessary. 
 
 All these feelings were but transitory, how 
 ever ; they swept across him like a wind, and 
 then he looked again at the old man and saw 
 only his simplicity, his unworldliness, saw 
 little more than the worn and feeble individual 
 in the Hospital garb, leaning on his staff, and 
 then turning again with a gentle sigh to weed in 
 the garden. And then RedclyfFe went away, 
 in a state of disturbance for which he could not 
 account to himself. 
 
 271 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 HIGH up in the old carved roof, mean 
 while, the spiders of centuries still hung 
 their flaunting webs with a profusion 
 that old Doctor Grimshawe would have been 
 ravished to see ; but even this was to be reme 
 died, for one day, on looking in, Redclyffe found 
 the great hall dim with floating dust, and down 
 through it came great floating masses of cob 
 web, out of which the old Doctor would have 
 undertaken to regenerate the world ; and he 
 saw, dimly aloft, men on ladders sweeping away 
 these accumulations of years, and breaking up 
 the haunts and residences of hereditary spiders. 
 The stately old hall had been in process of 
 cleaning and adapting to the banquet purposes 
 of the nineteenth century, which it was accus 
 tomed to subserve, in so proud a way, in the 
 sixteenth. It was, in the first place, well swept 
 and cleansed ; the painted glass windows were 
 cleansed from dust, and several panes, which 
 had been unfortunately broken and filled with 
 common glass, were filled in with colored panes, 
 which the Warden had picked up somewhere 
 in his antiquarian researches. They were net, 
 to be sure, just what was wanted, a piece of 
 272 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 a saint, from some cathedral window, supplying 
 what was lacking of the gorgeous purple of a 
 mediaeval king ; but the general effect was rich 
 and good, whenever the misty English atmo 
 sphere supplied sunshine bright enough to per 
 vade it. Tapestry, too, from antique looms, 
 faded, but still gorgeous, was hung upon the 
 walls. Some suits of armor, that hung beneath 
 the festal gallery, were polished till the old bat 
 tered helmets and pierced breastplates sent a 
 gleam like that with which they had flashed 
 across the battlefields of old. 1 
 
 So now the great day of the Warden s din 
 ner had arrived ; and, as may be supposed, there 
 were fiery times in the venerable old kitchen. 
 The cook, according to ancient custom, con 
 cocted many antique dishes, such as used to be 
 set before kings and nobles ; dainties that might 
 have called the dead out of their graves ; combi 
 nations of ingredients that had ceased to be put 
 together for centuries ; historic dishes, which 
 had long, long ceased to be in the list of revels. 
 Then there was the stalwart English cheer of the 
 sirloin, and the round ; there were the vast plum 
 puddings, the juicy mutton, the venison ; there 
 was the game, now just in season, the half- 
 tame wild fowl of English covers, the half-do 
 mesticated wild deer of English parks, the heath 
 cock from the far-off hills of Scotland, and one 
 little prairie hen and some canvas-back ducks 
 273 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 obtained, Heaven knows how, in compliment 
 to Redclyffe from his native shores. O, the 
 old jolly kitchen ! how rich the flavored smoke 
 that went up its vast chimney ! how inestima 
 ble the atmosphere of steam that was diffused 
 through it! How did the old men peep into 
 it, even venture across the threshold, braving 
 the hot wrath of the cook and his assistants, for 
 the sake of imbuing themselves with these rich 
 and delicate flavors, receiving them in as it were 
 spiritually ! for, received through the breath 
 and in the atmosphere, it was really a spiritual 
 enjoyment. The ghosts of ancient epicures 
 seemed, on that day and the few preceding ones, 
 to haunt the dim passages, snuffing in with shad 
 owy nostrils the rich vapors, assuming visibil 
 ity in the congenial medium, almost becoming 
 earthly again in the strength of their earthly 
 longings for one other feast such as they used to 
 enjoy. 
 
 Nor is it to be supposed that it was only these 
 antique dainties that the Warden provided for 
 his feast. No ; if the cook, the cultured and 
 recondite old cook, who had accumulated within 
 himself all that his predecessors knew for cen 
 turies, if he lacked anything of modern fash 
 ion and improvement, he had supplied his defect 
 by temporary assistance from a London club ; 
 and the bill of fare was provided with dishes that 
 Soyer would not have harshly criticised. The 
 274 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ethereal delicacy of modern taste, the nice ad 
 justment of flowers, the French style of cookery, 
 was richly attended to ; and the list was long 
 of dishes with fantastic names, fish, fowl, and 
 flesh ; and entremets, and " sweets," as the Eng 
 lish call them, and sugared cates, too numerous 
 to think of. 
 
 The wines we will not take upon ourselves to 
 enumerate ; but the juice, then destined to be 
 quaffed, was in part the precious vintages that 
 had been broached half a century ago, and had 
 been ripening ever since ; the rich and dry old 
 port, so unlovely to the natural palate that it 
 requires long English seasoning to get it down ; 
 the sherry, imported before these modern days 
 of adulteration ; some claret, the Warden said 
 of rarest vintage ; some Burgundy, of which it 
 was the quality to warm the blood and genialize 
 existence for three days after it was drunk. Then 
 there was a rich liquid contributed to this de 
 partment by Redclyffe himself; for, some weeks 
 since, when the banquet first loomed in the dis 
 tance, he had (anxious to evince his sense of 
 the Warden s kindness) sent across the ocean 
 for some famous Madeira which he had inher 
 ited from the Doctor, and never tasted yet. 
 This, together with-some of the Western wines 
 of America, had arrived, and was ready to be 
 broached. 
 
 The Warden tested these modern wines, and 
 275 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 recognized a new flavor, but ave it only a 
 moderate approbation ; for, in truth, an elderly 
 Englishman has not a wide appreciation of wines, 
 nor loves new things in this kind more than in 
 literature or life. But he tasted the Madeira, 
 too, and underwent an ecstasy, which was only 
 alleviated by the dread of gout, which he had 
 an idea that this wine must bring on, and 
 truly, if it were so splendid a wine as he pro 
 nounced it, some pain ought to follow as the 
 shadow of such a pleasure. 
 
 As it was a festival of antique date, the dinner 
 hour had been fixed earlier than is usual at such 
 stately banquets ; namely, at six o clock, which 
 was long before the dusky hour at which English 
 men love best to dine. About that period, the 
 carriages drove into the old courtyard of the 
 Hospital in great abundance ; blocking up, too, 
 the ancient portal, and remaining in a line outside. 
 Carriages they were with armorial bearings, fam 
 ily coaches in which came Englishmen in their 
 black coats and white neckcloths, elderly, white- 
 headed, fresh-colored, squat ; not beautiful, cer 
 tainly, nor particularly dignified, nor very well 
 dressed, nor with much of an imposing air, but 
 yet, somehow or other, producing an effect of 
 force, respectability, reliableness, trust, which is 
 probably deserved, since it is invariably expe 
 rienced. Cold they were in deportment, and 
 iooked coldly on the stranger, who, on his part, 
 276 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 drew himself up with an extra haughtiness and 
 reserve, and felt himself in the midst of his en 
 emies, and more as if we were going to do battle 
 than to sit down to a friendly banquet. The 
 Warden introduced him, as an American diplo 
 matist, to one or two of the gentlemen, who 
 regarded him forbiddingly, as Englishmen do 
 before dinner. 
 
 Not long after Redclyffe had entered the re 
 ception room, which was but shortly before the 
 hour appointed for the dinner, there was an 
 other arrival betokened by the clatter of hoofs 
 and grinding wheels in the courtyard ; and then 
 entered a gentleman of different mien from the 
 bluff, ruddy, simple-minded, yet worldly Eng 
 lishmen around him. He was a tall, dark man, 
 with a black mustache and almost olive skin, 
 a slender, lithe figure, a flexible face, quick, 
 flashing, mobile. His deportment was graceful ; 
 his dress, though it seemed to differ in little or 
 nothing from that of the gentlemen in the room, 
 had yet a grace and picturesqueness in his mode 
 of wearing it. He advanced to the Warden, 
 who received him with distinction, and yet, Red- 
 clyfFe fancied, not exactly with cordiality. It 
 seemed to RedclyfFe that the Warden looked 
 round, as if with the purpose of presenting Red 
 clyfFe to this gentleman, but he himself, from 
 some latent reluctance, had turned away and 
 entered into conversation with one of the other 
 277 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 gentlemen, who said now, looking at the new 
 comer, " Are you acquainted with this last ar 
 rival ? " 
 
 " Not at all," said Redclyffe. " I know Lord 
 Braithwaite by sight, indeed, but have had no 
 introduction. He is a man, certainly, of dis 
 tinguished appearance." 
 
 " Why, pretty well," said the gentleman, " but 
 un-English, as also are his manners. It is a pity 
 to see an old English family represented by such 
 a person. Neither he, his father, nor grand 
 father was born among us ; he has far more 
 Italian blood than enough to drown the slender 
 stream of Anglo-Saxon and Norman. His 
 modes of life, his prejudices, his estates, his reli 
 gion, are unlike our own ; and yet here he is in 
 the position of an old English gentleman, pos 
 sibly to be a peer. You, whose nationality em 
 braces that of all the world, cannot, I suppose, 
 understand this English feeling." 2 
 
 " Pardon me," said Redclyffe, " I can per 
 fectly understand it. An American, in his feel 
 ings towards England^ has all the jealousy and 
 exclusiveness of Englishmen themselves, per 
 haps, indeed, a little exaggerated." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said the Englishman 
 incredulously. " I think you cannot possibly 
 understand it!" 3 
 
 The guests were by this time all assembled, 
 278 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and at the Warden s bidding they moved from 
 the reception room to the dining hall, in some 
 order and precedence, of which Redclyffe could 
 not exactly discover the principle, though he 
 found that to himself in his quality, doubt 
 less, of Ambassador there was assigned a 
 pretty high place. A venerable dignitary of the 
 Church a dean, he seemed to be having 
 asked a blessing, the fair scene of the banquet 
 now lay before the guests, presenting a splendid 
 spectacle, in the high-walled, antique, tapestried 
 hall, overhung with the dark, intricate oaken 
 beams, with the high Gothic windows, through 
 one of which the setting sunbeams streamed, 
 and showed the figures of kings and warriors, 
 and the old Braithwaites among them. Beneath 
 and adown the hall extended the long line of 
 the tables, covered with the snow of the damask 
 tablecloth, on which glittered, gleamed, and 
 shone a good quality of ancient ancestral plate, 
 and an epergne of silver, extending down the 
 middle ; also the gleam of golden wine in the 
 decanters; and truly Redclyffe thought that it 
 was a noble spectacle, made so by old and stately 
 associations, which made a noble banquet of 
 what otherwise would be only a vulgar dinner. 
 The English have this advantage, and know how 
 to make use of it. They bring in these old, 
 time-honored feasts all the past to sit down 
 279 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and take the stately refreshment along with 
 them, and they pledge the historic characters in 
 their wine. 
 
 A printed bill of fare, in gold letters, lay by 
 each plate, on which Redclyffe saw the company 
 glancing with great interest. The first dish, of 
 course, was turtle soup, of which as the gen 
 tleman next him, the Mayor of a neighboring 
 town, told Redclyffe it was allowable to take 
 twice. This was accompanied, according to one 
 of those rules which one knows not whether they 
 are arbitrary or founded on some deep reason, 
 by a glass of punch. Then came the noble 
 turbot, the salmon, the sole, and divers of fishes, 
 and the dinner fairly set in. The genial War 
 den seemed to have given liberal orders to the 
 attendants, for they spared not to offer hock, 
 champagne, sherry, to the guests, and good bit 
 ter ale, foaming in the goblet ; and so the stately 
 banquet went on, with somewhat tedious mag 
 nificence ; and yet with a fulness of effect and 
 thoroughness of sombre life that made Red 
 clyffe feel that, so much importance being as 
 signed to it, it being so much believed in, 
 it was indeed a feast. The cumbrous courses 
 swept by, one after another ; and Redclyffe, 
 finding it heavy work, sat idle most of the time, 
 regarding the hall, the old decaying beams, the 
 armor hanging beneath the galleries, and these 
 Englishmen feasting where their fathers had 
 280 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 feasted for so many ages, the same occasion, the 
 same men, probably, in appearance, though the 
 black coat and the white neckcloth had taken 
 the place of ruff, embroidered doublet, and the 
 magnificence of other ages. After all, the Eng 
 lish have not such good things to eat as we in 
 America, and certainly do not know better how 
 to make them palatable. 4 
 
 Well ; but by and by the dinner came to a 
 conclusion, as regarded the eating part; the 
 cloth was withdrawn ; a dessert of fruits, fresh 
 and dried, pines, hothouse grapes, and all can 
 died conserves of the Indies, was put on the 
 long extent of polished mahogany. There was 
 a tuning up of musicians, an interrogative draw 
 ing of fiddle bows, and other musical twangs and 
 puffs ; the decanters opposite the Warden and 
 his vice president sherry, port, RedclyfFe s 
 Madeira, and claret were put in motion 
 along the table, and the guests filled their glasses 
 for the toast which, at English dinner tables, is 
 of course the first to be honored, the Queen. 
 Then the band struck up the good old anthem, 
 God save the Queen, which the whole com 
 pany rose to their feet to sing. It was a spec 
 tacle both interesting and a little ludicrous to 
 RedclyfFe, being so apart from an American s 
 sympathies, so unlike anything that he has in 
 his life or possibilities, this active and warm 
 sentiment of loyalty, in which love of country 
 281 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 centres, and assimilates, and transforms itself 
 into a passionate affection for a person, in whom 
 they love all their institutions. To say the 
 truth, it seemed a happy notion; nor could the 
 American while he comforted himself in the 
 pride of his democracy, and that he himself was 
 a sovereign could he help envying it a little, 
 this childlike love and reverence for a person 
 embodying all their country, their past, their 
 earthly future. He felt that it might be de 
 lightful to have a sovereign, provided that sov 
 ereign were always a woman, and perhaps a 
 young and fine one. But, indeed, this is not 
 the difficulty, methinks, in English institutions 
 which the American finds it hardest to deal with. 
 We could endure a born sovereign, especially if 
 made such a mere pageant as the English make 
 of theirs. What we find it hardest to conceive 
 of is, the satisfaction with which Englishmen 
 think of a race above them, with privileges that 
 they cannot share, entitled to condescend to 
 them, and to have gracious and beautiful man 
 ners at their expense ; to be kind, simple, un 
 pretending, because these qualities are more 
 available than haughtiness ; to be specimens of 
 perfect manhood ; all these advantages in con 
 sequence of their position. If the peerage were 
 a mere name, it would be nothing to envy ; but 
 it is so much more than a name ; it enables 
 men to be really so superior. The poor, the 
 282 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 lower classes, might bear this well enough ; but 
 the classes that come next to the nobility, 
 the upper middle classes, how they bear it 
 so lovingly is what must puzzle the American. 
 But probably the advantage of the peerage is 
 the less perceptible the nearer it is looked at. 
 
 It must be confessed that Redclyffe, as he 
 looked at this assembly of peers and gentlemen, 
 thought with some self-gratulation of the prob 
 ability that he had within his power as old a 
 rank, as desirable a station, as the best of them ; 
 and that if he were restrained from taking it, it 
 would probably only be by the democratic pride 
 that made him feel that he could not, retaining 
 all his manly sensibility, accept this gewgaw on 
 which the ages his own country especially 
 had passed judgment, while it had been sus 
 pended over his head. He felt himself, at any 
 rate, in a higher position, having the option 
 of taking this rank, and forbearing to do so, 
 than if he took it. 5 
 
 After this ensued a ceremony which is of 
 antique date in old English corporations and 
 institutions, at their high festivals. It is called 
 the Loving Cup. A sort of herald or toast- 
 master behind the Warden s chair made pro 
 clamation, reciting the names of the principal 
 guests, and announcing to them, " The War 
 den of the Braithwaite Hospital drinks to you 
 in a Loving Cup ; " of which cup, having sipped, 
 
 283 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 or seemed to sip (for Redclyffe observed that 
 the old drinkers were rather shy of it), a small 
 quantity, he sent it down the table. Its pro 
 gress was accompanied with a peculiar entangle 
 ment of ceremony, one guest standing up while 
 another drinks, being pretty much as follows. 
 First, each guest receiving it covered from the 
 next above him, the same took from the silver 
 cup its silver cover ; the guest drank with a 
 bow to the Warden and company, took the 
 cover from the preceding guest, covered the 
 cup, handed it to the next below him, then 
 again removed the cover, replaced it after the 
 guest had drunk, who, on his part, went through 
 the same ceremony. And thus the cup went 
 slowly on its way down the stately hall ; these 
 ceremonies being, it is said, originally precau 
 tions against the risk, in wild times, of being 
 stabbed by the man who was drinking with you, 
 or poisoned by one who should fail to be your 
 taster. The cup was a fine, ancient piece of 
 plate, massive, heavy, curiously wrought with 
 armorial bearings, in which the leopard s head 
 appeared. Its contents, so far as Redclyffe could 
 analyze them by a moderate sip, appeared to 
 be claret, sweetened, with spices, and, however 
 suited to the peculiarity of antique palates, was 
 not greatly to Redclyffe s taste. 6 
 
 Redclyffe s companion just below him, while 
 284 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 the Loving Cup was beginning its march, had 
 been explaining the origin of the custom as a 
 defence of the drinker in times of deadly feud ; 
 when it had reached Lord Braithwaite, who 
 drank and passed it to Redclyffe covered, and 
 with the usual bow, Redclyffe looked into his 
 Lordship s Italian eyes and dark face as he did 
 so, and the thought struck him, that, if there 
 could possibly be any use in keeping up this 
 old custom, it might be so now ; for, how inti 
 mated he could hardly tell, he was sensible in 
 his deepest self of a deadly hostility in this dark, 
 courteous, handsome face. He kept his eyes 
 fixed on his Lordship as he received the cup, 
 and felt that in his own glance there was an ac 
 knowledgment of the enmity that he perceived, 
 and a defiance, expressed without visible sign, 
 and felt in the bow with which they greeted one 
 another. When they had both resumed their 
 seats, Redclyffe chose to make this ceremonial 
 intercourse the occasion of again addressing him. 
 
 " I know not whether your Lordship is more 
 accustomed than myself to these stately cere 
 monials," said he. 
 
 " No," said Lord Braithwaite, whose English 
 was very good. " But this is a good old cere 
 mony, and an ingenious one ; for does it not 
 twine us into knotted links of love this Lov 
 ing Cup like a wreath of Bacchanals whom I 
 
 285 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 have seen surrounding an antique vase. Doubt 
 less it has great efficacy in entwining a company 
 of friendly guests into one affectionate society." 
 
 " Yes ; it should seem so," replied Redclyffe, 
 with a smile, and again meeting those black eyes, 
 which smiled back on him. " It should seem 
 so, but it appears that the origin of the custom 
 was quite different, and that it was as a safeguard 
 to a man when he drank with his enemy. What 
 a peculiar flavor it must have given to the liquor, 
 when the eyes of two deadly foes met over the 
 brim of the Loving Cup, and the drinker knew 
 that, if he withdrew it, a dagger would be in his 
 heart, and the other watched him drink, to see 
 if it was poison ! " 
 
 " Ah ! " responded his Lordship, " they had 
 strange fashions in those rough old times. Now 
 adays, we neither stab, shoot, nor poison. I 
 scarcely think we hate except as interest guides 
 us, without malevolence." 
 
 This singular conversation was interrupted 
 by a toast, and the rising of one of the guests 
 to answer it. Several other toasts of routine 
 succeeded ; one of which, being to the honor of 
 the old founder of the Hospital, Lord Braith- 
 waite, as his representative, rose to reply, 
 which he did in good phrases, in a sort of elo 
 quence unlike that of the Englishmen around 
 him, and, sooth to say, comparatively unaccus 
 tomed as he must have been to the use of the 
 ?.86 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 language, much more handsomely than they 
 In truth, Redclyffe was struck and amused with 
 the rudeness, the slovenliness, the inartistic qual 
 ity of the English speakers, who rather seemed 
 to avoid grace and neatness of set purpose, as if 
 they would be ashamed of it. Nothing could 
 be more ragged than these utterances which they 
 called speeches, so patched and darned ; and 
 yet, somehow or other though dull and heavy 
 as all which seemed to inspire them they had 
 a kind of force. Each man seemed to have the 
 faculty of getting, after some rude fashion, at 
 the sense and feeling that was in him ; and with 
 out glibness, without smoothness, without form 
 or comeliness, still the object with which each 
 one rose to speak was accomplished, and what 
 was more remarkable, it seemed to be accom 
 plished without the speaker s having any partic 
 ular plan for doing it. He was surprised, too, 
 to observe how loyally every man seemed to 
 think himself bound to speak, and rose to do 
 his best, however unfit his usual habits made 
 him for the task. Observing this, and thinking 
 how many an American would be taken aback 
 and dumbfounded by being called on for a 
 dinner speech, he could not but doubt the cor 
 rectness of the general opinion, that Englishmen 
 are naturally less facile of public speech than 
 our countrymen. 
 
 " You surpass your countrymen," said Red- 
 287 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 dyfTe, when his Lordship resumed his seat, amid 
 rapping and loud applause. 
 
 " My countrymen ? I scarcely know whether 
 you mean the English or Italians," said Lord 
 Braithwaite. " Like yourself, I am a hybrid, 
 vith really no country, and ready to take up with 
 any." 
 
 " I have a country, one which I am little 
 inclined to deny," replied Redclyffe gravely, 
 while a flush (perhaps of conscientious shame) 
 rose to his brow. 
 
 His Lordship bowed, with a dark Italian 
 smile, but Redclyffe s attention was drawn away 
 from the conversation by a toast which the War 
 den now rose to give, and in which he found 
 himself mainly concerned. With a little preface 
 of kind words (not particularly aptly applied) 
 to the great and kindred country beyond the 
 Atlantic, the worthy Warden proceeded to re 
 mark that his board was honored, on this high 
 festival, with a guest from that new world ; a 
 gentleman yet young, but already distinguished 
 in the councils of his country ; the bearer, he 
 remarked, of an honored English name, which 
 might well claim to be remembered here, and on 
 this occasion, although he had understood from 
 his friend that the American bearers of this name 
 did not count kindred with the English ones. 
 This gentleman, he further observed, with con 
 siderable flourish and emphasis, had recently 
 288 
 
DOCTOR GRLMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 been called from his retirement and wanderings 
 into the diplomatic service of his country, which 
 he would say, from his knowledge, the gentle 
 man was well calculated to honor. He drank 
 the health of the Honorable Edward Redclyffe, 
 Ambassador of the United States to the Court 
 of Hohen-Linden. 
 
 Our English cousins received this toast with 
 the kindest enthusiasm, as they always do any 
 such allusion to our country ; it being a festal 
 feeling, not to be used except on holidays. They 
 rose, with glass in hand, in honor of the Am 
 bassador ; the band struck up Hail, Colum 
 bia ; and our hero marshalled his thoughts as 
 well as he might for the necessary response, and 
 when the tumult subsided he arose. 
 
 His quick apprehending had taught him 
 something of the difference of taste between an 
 English and an American audience at a dinner 
 table ; he felt that there must be a certain loose 
 ness, and carelessness, and roughness, and yet a 
 certain restraint ; that he must not seem to aim 
 at speaking well, although, for his own ambition, 
 he was not content to speak ill ; that, somehow 
 or other, he must get a heartiness into his speech ; 
 that he must- not polish, nor be too neat, and 
 must come with a certain rudeness to his good 
 points, as if he blundered on them, and were sur 
 prised into them. Above all, he must let the 
 good wine and cheer, and all that he knew and 
 289 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 really felt of English hospitality, as represented 
 by the kind Warden, do its work upon his heart, 
 and speak up to the extent of what he felt 
 and if a little more, then no great harm about 
 his own love for the fatherland, and the broader 
 grounds of the relations between the two coun 
 tries. On this system, Redclyffe began to speak ; 
 and being naturally and habitually eloquent, and 
 of mobile and ready sensibilities, he succeeded, 
 between art and nature, in making a speech that 
 absolutely delighted the company, who made 
 the old hall echo, and the banners wave and 
 tremble, and the board shake, and the glasses 
 jingle, with their rapturous applause. What he 
 said or some shadow of it, and more than he 
 quite liked to own was reported in the county 
 paper that gave a report of the dinner ; but on 
 glancing over it, it seems not worth while to 
 produce this eloquent effort in our pages, the 
 occasion and topics being of merely temporary 
 interest. 
 
 Redclyffe sat down, and sipped his claret, 
 feeling a little ashamed of himself, as people are 
 apt to do after a display of this kind. 
 
 " You know the way to the English heart 
 better than I do," remarked his Lordship, after 
 a polite compliment to the speech. " Methinks 
 these dull English are being improved in your 
 atmosphere. The English need a change every 
 few centuries, either by immigration of new 
 290 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 stock, or transportation of the old, or else 
 they grow too gross and earthly, with their beef, 
 mutton, and ale. I think, now, it might bene 
 fit both countries, if your New England popu 
 lation were to be reciprocally exchanged with an 
 equal number of Englishmen. Indeed, Italians 
 might do as well." 
 
 " I should regret," said Redclyffe, " to change 
 the English, heavy as they are." 
 
 " You are an admirable Englishman," said his 
 Lordship. " For my part, I cannot say that the 
 people are very much to my taste, any more 
 than their skies and climate, in which I have 
 shivered during the two years that I have spent 
 here." 
 
 Here their conversation ceased ; and Redclyffe 
 listened to a long train of speechifying, in the 
 course of which everybody, almost, was toasted ; 
 everybody present, at all events, and many ab 
 sent. The Warden s old wine was not spared ; 
 the music rang and resounded from the gallery ; 
 and everybody seemed to consider it a model 
 feast, although there were no very vivid signs 
 of satisfaction, but a decorous, heavy enjoyment, 
 a dull red heat of pleasure, without flame. Soda 
 and seltzer water, and coffee, by and by were 
 circulated ; and at a late hour the company be 
 gan to retire. 
 
 Before taking his departure, Lord Braithwaite 
 resumed his conversation with Redclyffe, and, 
 291 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 as it appeared, with the purpose of making a 
 hospitable proposition. 
 
 " I live very much alone/ said he, " being 
 insulated from my neighbors by many circum 
 stances, habits, religion, and everything else 
 peculiarly English. If you are curious about 
 old English modes of life, I can show you, at 
 least, an English residence, little altered within 
 a century past. Pray come and spend a week 
 with me before you leave this part of the coun 
 try. Besides, I know the court to which you 
 are accredited, and can give you, perhaps, use 
 ful information about it." 
 
 Redclyffe looked at him in some surprise, 
 .and with a nameless hesitation ; for he did not 
 like his Lordship, and had fancied, in truth, that 
 there was a reciprocal antipathy. Nor did he 
 yet feel that he was mistaken in this respect ; 
 although his Lordship s invitation was given in 
 a tone of frankness, and seemed to have no re 
 serve, except that his eyes did not meet his like 
 Anglo-Saxon eyes, and there seemed an Italian 
 looking out from within the man. But Red 
 clyffe had a sort of repulsion within himself; 
 and he questioned whether it would be fair to 
 his proposed host to accept his hospitality, while 
 he had this secret feeling of hostility and repug 
 nance, which might be well enough accounted 
 for by the knowledge that he secretly entertained 
 hostile interests to their race, and half a purpose 
 292 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 of putting them in force. And, besides this, 
 although Redclyffe was ashamed of the feeling, 
 he had a secret dread, a feeling that it was 
 not just a safe thing to trust himself in this man s 
 power ; for he had a sense, sure as death, that 
 he did not wish him well, and had a secret dread 
 of the American. But he laughed within him 
 self at this feeling, and drove it down. Yet it 
 made him feel that there could be no disloyalty 
 in accepting his Lordship s invitation, because 
 it was given in as little friendship as it would be 
 accepted. 
 
 " I had almost made my arrangements for 
 quitting the neighborhood," said he, after a 
 pause ; " nor can I shorten the week longer 
 which I had promised to spend with my very 
 kind friend, the Warden. Yet your Lordship s 
 kindness offers me a great temptation, and I 
 would gladly spend the next ensuing week at 
 Braithwaite Hall." 
 
 " I shall expect you, then," said Lord Braith 
 waite. " You will find me quite alone, except 
 my chaplain, a scholar, and a man of the 
 world, whom you will not be sorry to know." 
 
 He bowed and took his leave, without shak 
 ing hands, as an American would have thought 
 it natural to do, after such a hospitable agree 
 ment ; nor did Redclyffe make any motion 
 towards it, and was glad that his Lordship had 
 omitted it. On the whole, there was a secret 
 293 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 dissatisfaction with himself, a sense that he was 
 not doing quite a frank and true thing in accept 
 ing this invitation, and he only made peace with 
 himself on the consideration that Lord Braith- 
 waite was as little cordial in asking the visit as 
 he in acceding to it. 
 
 294 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE guests were now rapidly taking 
 their departure, and the Warden and 
 Redclyffe were soon left alone in the 
 antique hall, which now, in its solitude, pre 
 sented an aspect far different from the gay fes 
 tivity of an hour before ; the duskiness up in 
 the carved oaken beams seemed to descend and 
 fill the hall ; and the remembrance of the feast 
 was like one of those that had taken place cen 
 turies ago, with which this was now numbered, 
 and growing ghostly, and faded, and sad, even 
 as they had long been. 
 
 " Well, my dear friend,* said the Warden, 
 stretching himself and yawning, " it is over. 
 Come into my study with me, and we will have 
 a devilled turkey bone and a pint of sherry in 
 peace and comfort." 
 
 " I fear I can make no figure at such a sup 
 per," said Redclyffe. " But I admire your 
 inexhaustibleness in being ready for midnight 
 refreshment after such a feast." 
 
 " Not a glass of good liquor has moistened 
 
 my lips to-night," said the Warden, " save and 
 
 except such as was supplied by a decanter of 
 
 water made brown with toast ; and such a sip 
 
 295 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 as I took to the health of the Queen, and an 
 other to that of the Ambassador to Hohen- 
 Linden. It is the only way, when a man has 
 this vast labor of speechifying to do ; and in 
 deed there is no possibility of keeping up a jolly 
 countenance for such a length of time except on 
 
 toast water." 
 
 They accordingly adjourned to the Warden s 
 sanctum, where that worthy dignitary seemed 
 to enjoy himself over his sherry and cracked 
 bones, in a degree that he probably had not 
 heretofore ; while Redclyffe, whose potations 
 had been more liberal, and who was feverish 
 and disturbed, tried the effect of a little brandy 
 and soda water. As often happens at such mid 
 night symposiums, the two friends found them 
 selves in a more kindly and confidential vein 
 than had happened before, great as had been 
 the kindness and confidence already grown up 
 between them. Redclyffe told his friend of 
 Lord Braithwaite s invitation, and of his o\*n 
 resolution to accept it. 
 
 "Why not? You will do well," said the 
 Warden ; " and you will find his Lordship an 
 accustomed host, and the old house most inter 
 esting. If he knows the secrets of it himself, 
 and will show them, they will be well worth the 
 seeing." 
 
 " I have had a scruple in accepting this invi* 
 tation/ said Redclyffe. 
 
 296 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " I cannot see why," said the Warden. " 1 
 advise it by all means, since I shall lose nothing 
 by it myself, as it will not lop off any part of 
 your visit to me." 
 
 " My dear friend," said Redclyffe, irresisti 
 bly impelled to a confidence which he had not 
 meditated a moment before, " there is a foolish 
 secret which I must tell you, if you will listen 
 to it ; and which I have only not revealed to 
 you because it seemed to me foolish and dream 
 like ; because, too, I am an American, and a 
 democrat; because I am ashamed of myself and 
 laugh at myself." 
 
 " Is it a long story ? " asked the Warden. 
 
 " I can make it of any length, and almost any 
 brevity," said RedclyfFe. 
 
 " I will fill my pipe then," answered the 
 Warden, " and listen at my ease ; and if, as you 
 intimate, there prove to be any folly in it, I will 
 impute it all to the kindly freedom with which 
 you have partaken of our English hospitality, 
 and forget it before to-morrow morning." 
 
 He settled himself in his easy-chair, in a 
 most luxurious posture ; and Redclyffe, who 
 felt a strange reluctance to reveal for the first 
 time in his life the shadowy hopes, if hopes 
 they were, and purposes, if such they could be 
 called, with which he had amused himself so 
 many years, begun the story from almost the 
 earliest period that he could remember. He 
 297 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 told even of his earliest recollection, with an old 
 woman, in the almshouse, and how he had been 
 found there by the Doctor, and educated by 
 him, with all the hints and half-revelations that 
 had been made to him. He described the sin 
 gular character of the Doctor, his scientific pur 
 suits, his evident accomplishments, his great 
 abilities, his morbidness and melancholy, his 
 moodiness, and finally his death, and the sin 
 gular circumstances that accompanied it. The 
 story took a considerable time to tell ; and after 
 its close, the Warden, who had only interrupted 
 it by now and then a question to make it 
 plainer, continued to smoke his pipe slowly 
 and thoughtfully for a long while. 
 
 " This Doctor of yours was a singular char 
 acter," said he, " Evidently, from what you 
 tell me as to the accuracy of his local reminis 
 cences, he must have been of this part of the 
 country, of this immediate neighborhood, 
 and such a man could not have grown up here 
 without being known. I myself for I am an 
 old fellow now might have known him if he 
 lived to manhood hereabouts." 
 
 " He seemed old to me when I first knew 
 him," said Redclyffe. " But children make no 
 distinctions of age. He might have been forty- 
 five then, as well as I can judge." 
 
 " You are now twenty seven or eight," said 
 the Warden, " and were four years old when 
 298 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 you first knew him. He might now be sixty- 
 five. Do you know, my friend, that I have 
 something like a certainty that I know who 
 your Doctor was ? " . 
 
 " How strange this seems ! " exclaimed Red- 
 clyffe. " It has never struck me that I should 
 be able to identify this singular personage with 
 any surroundings or any friends." 
 
 The Warden, to requite his friend s story, 
 and without as yet saying a word, good or 
 bad, on his ancestral claims, proceeded to tell 
 him some of the gossip of the neighborhood, 
 what had been gossip thirty or forty years ago, 
 but was now forgotten, or, at all events, seldom 
 spoken of, and only known to the old, at the 
 present day. He himself remembered it only 
 as a boy, and imperfectly. There had been a 
 personage of that day, a man of poor estate, 
 who had fallen deeply in love and been be 
 trothed to a young lady of family ; he was a 
 young man of more than ordinary abilities, and 
 of great promise, though small fortune. It was 
 not well known how, but the match between 
 him and the young lady was broken off, and his 
 place was supplied by the then proprietor of 
 Braithwaite Hall ; as it was supposed, by the 
 artifices of her mother. There had been cir 
 cumstances of peculiar treachery in the matter, 
 and Mr. Oglethorpe had taken it severely to 
 heart ; so severely, indeed, that he had left the 
 299 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 country, after selling his ancestral property, 
 and had only been occasionally heard of again. 
 Now, from certain circumstances, it had struck 
 the Warden that this might be the mysterious 
 Doctor of whom Redclyffe spoke. 1 
 
 " But why," suggested Redclyffe, " should a 
 man with these wrongs to avenge take such an 
 interest in a descendant of his enemy s family ? " 
 
 " That is a strong point in favor of my sup 
 position," replied the Warden. " There is cer 
 tainly, and has long been, a degree of proba 
 bility that the true heir of this family exists in 
 America. If Oglethorpe could discover him, 
 he ousts his enemy from the estate and honors, 
 and substitutes the person whom he has dis 
 covered and educated. Most certainly there is 
 revenge in the thing. Should it happen now, 
 however, the triumph would have lost its sweet- 
 ness, even were Oglethorpe alive to partake of 
 it ; for his enemy is dead, leaving no heir, and 
 this foreign branch has come in without Ogle- 
 thorpe s aid." 
 
 The friends remained musing a considerable 
 time, each in his own train of thought, till the 
 Warden suddenly spoke. 
 
 " Do you mean to prosecute this apparent 
 claim of yours ? " 
 
 " I have not intended to do so," said Red 
 clyffe. 
 
 " Of course," said the Warden, " that should 
 300 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 depend upon the strength of your ground ; and 
 I understand you that there is some link want 
 ing to establish it. Otherwise, I see not how 
 you can hesitate. Is it a little thing to hold a 
 claim to an old English estate and honors?" 
 
 " No ; it is a very great thing, to an Eng 
 lishman born, and who need give up no higher 
 birthright to avail himself of it," answered Red- 
 clyffe. " You will laugh at me, my friend ; but 
 I cannot help feeling that I, a simple citizen of 
 a republic, yet with none above me except those 
 whom I help to place there, and who are 
 my servants, not my superiors, must stoop to 
 take these honors. I leave a set of institutions 
 which are the noblest that the wit and civiliza 
 tion of man have yet conceived, to enlist my 
 self in one that is based on a far lower concep 
 tion of man, and which therefore lowers every 
 one who shares in it. Besides," said the 
 young man, his eyes kindling with the ambi 
 tion which had been so active a principle in his 
 life, " what prospects what rewards for spirited 
 exertion what a career, only open to an Amer 
 ican, would I give up, to become merely a rich 
 and idle Englishman, belonging (as I should) 
 nowhere, without a possibility of struggle, such 
 as a strong man loves, with only a mockery of 
 a title, which in these days really means no 
 thing, hardly more than one of our own Hon- 
 orables ! What has any success in English life 
 301 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 to offer (even were it within my reach, which, 
 as a stranger, it would not be) to balance the 
 proud career of an American statesman? " 
 
 " True, you might be a President, I suppose," 
 said the Warden rather contemptuously, "a 
 four years potentate. It seems to me an of 
 fice about on a par with that of the Lord Mayor 
 of London. For my part, I would rather be 
 a baron of three or four hundred years anti 
 quity." 
 
 " We talk in vain," said Redclyffe, laughing. 
 " We do not approach one another s ideas on 
 this subject. But, waiving all speculations as 
 to my attempting to avail myself of this claim, 
 do you think I can fairly accept this invitation 
 to visit Lord Braithwaite ? There is certainly 
 a possibility that I may arraign myself against 
 his dearest interests. Conscious of this, can I 
 accept his hospitality ? " 
 
 The Warden paused. " You Rave not sought 
 access to his house," he observed. " You have 
 no designs, it seems, no settled designs at all 
 events, against his Lordship, nor is there a 
 probability that they would be forwarded by 
 your accepting this invitation, even if you had 
 any. I do not see but you may go. The only 
 danger is, that his Lordship s engaging quali 
 ties may seduce you into dropping your claims 
 out of a chivalrous feeling, which I see is among 
 your possibilities. To be sure, it would be 
 302 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 more satisfactory if he knew your actual posi 
 tion, and should then renew his invitation." 
 
 " I am convinced," said Redclyffe, looking 
 up from his musing posture, " that he does know 
 them. You are surprised ; but in all Lord 
 Braithwaite s manner towards me there has been 
 an undefinable something that makes me aware 
 that he knows on what terms we stand towards 
 each other. There is nothing inconceivable in 
 this. The family have for generations been sus 
 picious of an American line, and have more than 
 once sent messengers to try to search out and 
 put a stop to the apprehension. Why should 
 it not have come to their knowledge that there 
 was a person with such claims, and that he is 
 now in England ? " 
 
 " It certainly is possible," replied the Warden, 
 " and if you are satisfied that his Lordship knows 
 it, or even suspects it, you meet him on fair 
 ground. But I fairly tell you, my good friend, 
 that his Lordship being a man of unknown 
 principles of honor, outlandish, and an Italian 
 in habit and moral sense I scarcely like to 
 trust you in his house, he being aware that your 
 existence may be inimical to him. My humble 
 board is the safer of the two." 
 
 "Pshaw!" said Redclyffe. "You English 
 men are so suspicious of anybody not regularly 
 belonging to yourselves. Poison and the dag 
 ger haunt your conceptions of all others. In 
 33 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 America you think we kill every third man with 
 the bowie knife. But, supposing there were any 
 grounds for your suspicion, I would still en 
 counter it. An American is no braver than an 
 Englishman ; but still he is not quite so chary 
 of his life as the latter, who never risks it except 
 on the most imminent necessity. We take such 
 matters easy. In regard to this invitation, I 
 feel that I can honorably accept it, and there are 
 many idle and curious motives that impel me to 
 it. I will go." 
 
 " Be it so ; but you must come back to me 
 for another week, after finishing your visit," 
 said the Warden. " After all, it was an idle 
 fancy in me that there could be any danger. 
 His Lordship has good English blood in his 
 veins, and it would take oceans and rivers of 
 Italian treachery to wash out the sterling quality 
 of it. And, my good friend, as to these claims 
 of yours, I would not have you trust too much 
 to what is probably a romantic dream ; yet, were 
 the dream to come true, I should think the 
 British peerage honored by such an accession to 
 its ranks. And now to bed ; for we have heard 
 the chimes of midnight, two hours agone." 
 
 They accordingly retired; and RedclyfTewas 
 surprised to find what a distinctness his ideas 
 respecting his claim to the Braithwaite honors 
 had assumed, now that he, after so many years, 
 had imparted them to another. Heretofore, 
 34 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 though his imagination had played with them so 
 much, they seemed the veriest dreams ; now, 
 they had suddenly taken form and hardened into 
 substance ; and he became aware, in spite of all 
 the lofty and patriotic sentiments which he had 
 expressed to the Warden, that these prospects 
 had really much importance in his mind. 
 
 Redclyffe, during the few days that he was to 
 spend at the Hospital, previous to his visit to 
 Braithwaite Hall, was conscious of a restlessness 
 such as we have all felt on the eve of some 
 interesting event. He wondered at himself at 
 being so much wrought up by so simple a thing 
 as he was about to do ; but it seemed to him 
 like a coming home after an absence of centu 
 ries. It was like an actual prospect of entrance 
 into a castle in the air, the shadowy threshold 
 of which should assume substance enough to 
 bear his foot, its thin, fantastic walls actually 
 protect him from sun and rain, its hall echo with 
 his footsteps, its hearth warm him. That de 
 licious, thrilling uncertainty between reality and 
 fancy, in which he had often been enwrapt since 
 his arrival in this region, enveloped him more 
 strongly than ever ; and with it, too, there came 
 a sort of apprehension, which sometimes shud 
 dered through him like an icy draught, or the 
 touch of cold steel to his heart. He was ashamed, 
 too, to be conscious of anything like fear ; yet 
 he would not acknowledge it for fear ; and in- 
 35 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 deed there was such an airy, exhilarating, thrill 
 ing pleasure bound up with it, that it could not 
 really be so. 
 
 It was in this state of mind that, a day or two 
 after the feast, he saw Colcord sitting on the 
 bench, before the portal of the Hospital, in the 
 sun, which September though it was still 
 came warm and bright (for English sunshine) 
 into that sheltered spot ; a spot were many gen 
 erations of old men had warmed their limbs, 
 while they looked down into the life, the torpid 
 life, of the old village that trailed its homely yet 
 picturesque street along by the venerable build 
 ings of the Hospital. 
 
 " My good friend," said Redclyffe, " I am 
 about leaving you, for a time, indeed, with the 
 limited time at my disposal, it is possible that 
 I may not be able to come back hither, except 
 for a brief visit. Before I leave you, I would 
 fain know something more about one whom I 
 must ever consider my benefactor." 
 
 "Yes," said the old man, with his usual be 
 nignant quiet, " I saved your life. It is yet to 
 be seen, perhaps, whether thereby I made my 
 self your benefactor. I trust so." 
 
 " I feel it so, at least," answered Redclyffe, 
 " and I assure you life has a new value for me 
 since I came to this place ; for I have a deeper 
 hold upon it, as it were, more hope from it, 
 more trust in something good to come of it." 
 306 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " This is a good change, or should be so," 
 quoth the old man. 
 
 " Do you know," continued Redclyffe, " how 
 long you have been a figure in my life? " 
 
 " I know it," said Colcord, " though you 
 might well have forgotten it." 
 
 " Not so," said Redclyffe. " I remember, as 
 if it were this morning, that time in New Eng 
 land when I first saw you." 
 
 " The man with whom you then abode," said 
 Colcord, " knew who I was." 
 
 " And he being dead, and finding you here 
 now, by such a strange coincidence," said Red 
 clyffe, " and being myself a man capable of tak 
 ing your counsel, I would have you impart it to 
 me ; for I assure you that the current of my life 
 runs darkly on, and I would be glad of any light 
 on its future, or even its present phase." 
 
 " I am not one of those from whom the world 
 waits for counsel," said the pensioner, " and I 
 know not that mine would be advantageous to 
 you, in the light which men usually prize. Yet 
 if I were to give any, it would be that you should 
 be gone hence." 
 
 " Gone hence ! " repeated Redclyffe, sur 
 prised. " I tell you what I have hardly 
 hitherto told to myself that all my dreams, 
 all my wishes hitherto, have looked forward to 
 precisely the juncture that seems now to be ap 
 proaching. My dreaming childhood dreamt of 
 37 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 this. If you know anything of me, you know 
 how I sprung out of mystery, akin to none, a 
 thing concocted out of the elements, without 
 visible agency ; how all through my boyhood I 
 was alone ; how I grew up without a root, yet 
 continually longing for one, longing to be 
 connected with somebody, and never feeling my 
 self so. Yet there was ever a looking forward 
 to this time at which I now find myself. If my 
 next step were death, yet while the path seemed 
 to lead toward a certainty of establishing me in 
 connection with my race, I would take it. I 
 have tried to keep down this yearning, to stifle 
 it, annihilate it, by making a position for my 
 self, by being my own fact ; but I cannot over 
 come the natural horror of being a creature 
 floating in the air, attached to nothing ; ever 
 this feeling that there is no reality in the life 
 and fortunes, good or bad, of a being so uncon 
 nected. There is not even a grave, not a heap 
 of dry bones, not a pinch of dust, with which I 
 can claim kindred, unless I find it here ! " 
 
 " This is sad," said the old man, " this 
 strong yearning, and nothing to gratify it. Yet, 
 I warn you, do not seek its gratification here. 
 There are delusions, snares, pitfalls, in this life. 
 I warn you, quit the search." 
 
 " No," said Redclyffe, " I will follow the mys 
 terious clue that seems to lead me on ; and, even 
 now, it pulls me one step further." 
 308 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " How is that? " asked the old man. 
 
 "It leads me onward even as far as the thresh 
 old across the threshold of yonder man 
 sion," said Redclyffe. 
 
 " Step not across it ; there is blood on that 
 threshold ! " exclaimed the pensioner. " A 
 bloody footstep emerging. Take heed that 
 there be not as bloody a one entering in ! " 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said Redclyffe, feeling the ridicule 
 of the emotion into which he had been betrayed, 
 as the old man s wildness o demeanor made him 
 feel that he was talking with a monomaniac. 
 " We are talking idly. I do but go, in the com 
 mon intercourse of society, to see the old Eng 
 lish residence which (such is the unhappy ob 
 scurity of my position) I fancy, among a thousand 
 others, may have been that of my ancestors. 
 Nothing is likely to come of it. My foot is 
 not bloody, nor polluted with anything except 
 the mud of the damp English soil." 
 
 " Yet go not in ! " persisted the old man. 
 
 " Yes, I must go," said RedclyfFe determin 
 edly, " and I will." 
 
 Ashamed to have been moved to such idle 
 utterances by anything that the old man could 
 say, Redclyffe turned away, though he still heard 
 the sad, half-uttered remonstrance of the old 
 man, like a moan behind him, and wondered 
 what strange fancy had taken possession of him. 
 
 The effect which this opposition had upon 
 39 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 him made him the more aware how much his 
 heart was set upon this visit to the Hall ; how 
 much he had counted upon being domiciliated 
 there ; what a wrench it would be to him to tear 
 himself away without going into that mansion, 
 and penetrating all the mysteries wherewith his 
 imagination, exercising itself upon the theme 
 since the days of the old Doctor s fireside talk, 
 had invested it. In his agitation he wandered 
 forth from the Hospital, and, passing through 
 the village street, foi^nd himself in the park of 
 Braithwaite Hall, where he wandered for a space, 
 until his steps led him to a point whence the 
 venerable Hall appeared, with its limes and its 
 oaks around it ; its look of peace, and aged re 
 pose, and loveliness ; its stately domesticity, so 
 ancient, so beautiful ; its mild, sweet simplicity : 
 it seemed the ideal of home. The thought 
 thrilled his bosom, that this was his home, 
 the home of the wild Western wanderer, who 
 had gone away centuries ago, and encountered 
 strange chances, and almost forgotten his origin, 
 but still kept a clue to bring him back ; and had 
 now come back, and found all the original emo 
 tions safe within him. It even seemed to him, 
 that, by his kindred with those who had gone 
 before, by the line of sensitive blood linking 
 him with that final emigrant, he could re 
 member all these objects ; that tree, hardly 
 more venerable now than then ; that clock 
 310 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 tower, still marking the elapsing time ; that 
 spire of the old church, raising itself beyond. 
 He spread out his arms in a kind of rapture, 
 and exclaimed : 
 
 " O home, my home, my forefathers home ! 
 I have come back to thee ! The wanderer has 
 come back ! " 
 
 There was a slight stir near him ; and on a 
 mossy seat, that was arranged to take advan 
 tage of a remarkably good point of view of the 
 old Hall, he saw Elsie sitting. She had her 
 drawing materials with her, and had probably 
 been taking a sketch. Redclyffe was ashamed 
 of having been overheard by any one giving way 
 to such idle passion as he had been betrayed 
 into ; and yet, in another sense, he was glad, 
 glad, at least, that something of his feeling, as 
 yet unspoken to human being, was shared, and 
 shared by her with whom, alone of living beings, 
 he had any sympathies of old date, and whom he 
 often thought of with feelings that drew him 
 irresistibly towards her. 
 
 " Elsie," said he, uttering for the first time 
 the old name, " Providence makes you my confi 
 dante. We have recognized each other, though 
 no word has passed between us. Let us speak 
 now again with one another. How came you 
 hither ? What has brought us together again ? 
 Away with this strangeness that lurks be 
 tween us ! Let us meet as those who began 
 3 11 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 life together, and whose lifestrings, being so 
 early twisted in unison, cannot now be torn 
 apart." 
 
 " You are not wise," said Elsie, in a faltering 
 voice, "to break the restraint we have tacitly 
 imposed upon ourselves. Do not let us speak 
 further on this subject." 
 
 " How strangely everything evades me ! " 
 exclaimed Redclyffe. " I seem to be in a land 
 of enchantment, where I can get hold of no 
 thing that lends me a firm support. There is 
 no medium in my life between the most vulgar 
 realities and the most vaporous fiction, too thin 
 to breathe. Tell me, Elsie, how came you 
 here ? Why do you not meet me frankly ? 
 What is there to keep you apart from the old 
 est friend, I am bold to say, you have on earth ? 
 Are you an English girl ? Are you one of our 
 own New England maidens, with her freedom, 
 and her know-how, and her force, beyond any 
 thing that these demure and decorous damsels 
 can know ? " 
 
 " This is wild," said Elsie, struggling for com 
 posure, yet strongly moved by the recollections 
 that he brought up. " It is best that we should 
 meet as strangers, and so part." 
 
 " No," said Redclyffe ; " the long past comes 
 
 up, with its memories, and yet it is not so 
 
 powerful as the powerful present. We have 
 
 met again ; our adventures have shown that 
 
 312 
 
We have recognized each other 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 Providence has designed a relation in my fate 
 to yours. Elsie, are you lonely as I am ? " 
 
 " No," she replied, " I have bonds, ties, a life, 
 a duty. I must live that life, and do that duty. 
 You have, likewise, both. Do yours, lead your 
 own life, like me." 
 
 " Do you know, Elsie," he said, " whither 
 that life is now tending ? " 
 
 " Whither ? " said she, turning towards him. 
 
 " To yonder Hall," said he. 
 
 She started up, and clasped her hands about 
 his arm. 
 
 " No, no ! " she exclaimed, " go not thither ! 
 There is blood upon the threshold ! Return : 
 a dreadful fatality awaits you here." 
 
 " Come with me, then," said he, " and I yield 
 my purpose." 
 
 " It cannot be," said Elsie. 
 
 "Then I, too, tell you it cannot be," re 
 turned RedclyfFe. 2 
 
 The dialogue had reached this point, when 
 there came a step along the wood path ; the 
 branches rustled, and there was Lord Braith- 
 waite, looking upon the pair with the ordinary 
 slightly sarcastic glance with which he gazed 
 upon the world. 
 
 " A fine morning, fair lady and fair sir," said 
 he. " We have few such, except in Italy." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 SO Redclyffe left the Hospital, where he 
 had spent many weeks of strange and not 
 unhappy life, and went to accept the in 
 vitation of the lord of Braithwaite Hall. It was 
 with a thrill of strange delight, poignant almost 
 to pain, that he found himself driving up to 
 the door of the Hall, and actually passing the 
 threshold of the house. He looked, as he stept 
 over it, for the Bloody Footstep, with which 
 the house had so long been associated in his 
 imagination ; but could nowhere see it. The 
 footman ushered him into a hall, which seemed 
 to be in the centre of the building, and where, 
 little as the autumn was advanced, a fire was 
 nevertheless burning and glowing on the hearth ; 
 nor was its effect undesirable in the somewhat 
 gloomy room. The servants had evidently re 
 ceived orders respecting the guest ; for they 
 ushered him at once to his chamber, which 
 seemed not to be one of those bachelor s rooms, 
 where, in an English mansion, young and sin 
 gle men are forced to be entertained with very 
 bare and straitened accommodations, but a large, 
 well, though antiquely and solemnly furnished 
 room, with a curtained bed, and all manner of 
 3H 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 elaborate contrivances for repose ; but the deep 
 embrasures of the windows made it gloomy, 
 with the little light that they admitted through 
 their small panes. There must have been Eng 
 lish attendance in this department of the house 
 hold arrangements, at least ; for nothing could 
 exceed the exquisite nicety and finish of every 
 thing in the room, the cleanliness, the attention 
 to comfort, amid antique aspects of furniture, 
 the rich, deep preparations for repose. 
 
 The servant told RedclyfFe that his master 
 had ridden out, and, adding that luncheon would 
 be on the table at two o clock, left him ; and 
 RedclyfFe sat some time trying to make out and 
 distinguish the feelings with which he found 
 himself here, and realizing a lifelong dream. 
 He ran back over all the legends which the 
 Doctor used to tell about this mansion, and 
 wondered whether this old, rich chamber were 
 the one where any of them had taken place ; 
 whether the shadows of the dead haunted here. 
 But, indeed, if this were the case, the apartment 
 must have been very much changed, antique 
 though it looked, with the second, or third, or 
 whatever other numbered arrangement, since 
 those old days of tapestry hangings and rush- 
 strewed floor. Otherwise this stately and gloomy 
 chamber was as likely as any other to have been 
 the one where his ancestor appeared for the last 
 time in the paternal mansion ; here he might 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 have been the night before that mysterious 
 Bloody Footstep was left on the threshold, 
 whence had arisen so many wild legends, and 
 since the impression of which nothing certain 
 had ever been known respecting that ill-fated 
 man, nothing certain in England, at least, 
 and whose story was left so ragged and question 
 able even by all that he could add. 
 
 Do what he could, Redclyffe still was not 
 conscious of that deep home feeling which he 
 had imagined he should experience when, if ever, 
 he should come back to the old ancestral place ; 
 there was strangeness, a struggle within himself 
 to get hold of something that escaped him, an 
 effort to impress on his mind the fact that he 
 was, at last, established at his temporary home 
 in the place that he had so long looked forward 
 to, and that this was the moment which he would 
 have thought more interesting than any other 
 in his life. He was strangely cold and indiffer 
 ent, frozen up as it were, and fancied that he 
 would have cared little had he been obliged to 
 leave the mansion without so much as looking 
 over the remaining part of it. 
 
 At last, he became weary of sitting and in 
 dulging this fantastic humor of indifference, and 
 emerged from his chamber with the design of 
 finding his way about the lower part of the 
 house. The mansion had that delightful intri 
 cacy which can never be contrived, never be 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 attained by design, but is the happy result 
 where many builders, many designs, many 
 ages, perhaps, have concurred in a structure, 
 each pursuing his own design. Thus it was a 
 house that you could go astray in, as in a city, 
 and come to unexpected places, but never, until 
 after much accustomance, go where you wished ; 
 so Redclyffe, although the great staircase and 
 wide corridor by which he had been led to his 
 room seemed easy to find, yet soon discovered 
 that he was involved in an unknown labyrinth, 
 where strange little bits of staircases led up and 
 down, and where passages promised much in 
 letting him out, but performed nothing. To be 
 sure, the old English mansion had not much of 
 the stateliness of one of Mrs. Radcliffe s castles, 
 with their suites of rooms opening one into 
 another ; but yet its very domesticity its look 
 as if long ago it had been lived in made it 
 only the more ghostly ; and so Redclyffe felt the 
 more as if he were wandering through a homely 
 dream ; sensible of the ludicrousness of his posi 
 tion, he once called aloud ; but his voice echoed 
 along the passages, sounding unwontedly to his 
 ears, but arousing nobody. It did not seem to 
 him as if he were going afar, but were bewildered 
 round and round, within a very small compass ; 
 a predicament in which a man feels very fool 
 ish, usually. 
 
 As he stood at an old window, stone-mul- 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 Honed, at the end of a passage into which he had 
 come twice over, a door near him opened, and 
 a personage looked out whom he had not before 
 seen. It was a face of great keenness and in 
 telligence, and not unpleasant to look at, though 
 dark and sallow. The dress had something which 
 Redclyffe recognized as clerical, though not ex 
 actly pertaining to the Church of England, 
 a sort of arrangement of the vest and shirt collar ; 
 and he had knee breeches of black. He did not 
 seem like an English clerical personage, how 
 ever ; for even in this little glimpse of him Red- 
 clyffe saw a mildness, gentleness, softness, and 
 asking-of-leave in his manner, which he had not 
 observed in persons so well assured of their 
 position as the Church of England clergy. 
 
 He seemed at once to detect Redclyffe s pre 
 dicament, and came forward with a pleasant 
 smile, speaking in good English, though with a 
 somewhat foreign accent. 
 
 " Ah, sir, you have lost your way. It is a 
 labyrinthian house for its size, this old English 
 Hall, full of perplexity. Shall I show you 
 to any point? " 
 
 " Indeed, sir," said Redclyffe, laughing, " I 
 hardly know whither I want to go ; being a 
 stranger, and yet knowing nothing of the pub 
 lic places of the house. To the library, per 
 haps, if you will be good enough to direct me 
 thither." 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " Willingly, my dear sir," said the clerical 
 personage ; " the more easily, too, as my own 
 quarters are close adjacent; the library being my 
 province. Do me the favor to enter here." 
 
 So saying, the priest ushered Redclyffe into 
 an austere-looking yet exceedingly neat study, 
 as it seemed, on one side of which was an ora 
 tory, with a crucifix and other accommodations 
 for Catholic devotion. Behind a white curtain 
 there were glimpses of a bed, which seemed ar 
 ranged on a principle of conventual austerity 
 in respect to limits and lack of softness ; but 
 still there was in the whole austerity of the 
 premises a certain character of restraint, poise, 
 principle, which Redclyffe liked. A table was 
 covered with books, many of them folios in an 
 antique binding of parchment, and others were 
 small, thick-set volumes, into which antique lore 
 was rammed and compressed. Through an open 
 door, opposite to the one by which he had en 
 tered, there was a vista of a larger apartment, 
 with alcoves, a rather dreary-looking room, 
 though a little sunshine came through a win 
 dow at the further end, distained with colored 
 glass. 
 
 " Will you sit down in my little home ? " 
 said the courteous priest. " I hope we may be 
 better acquainted ; so allow me to introduce 
 myself. I am Father Angelo, domestic chap 
 lain to his Lordship. You, I know, are the 
 3*9 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 American diplomatic gentleman, from whom his 
 Lordship has been expecting a visit/ 
 
 Redclyffe bowed. 
 
 " I am most happy to know you," continued 
 the priest. " Ah, you have a happy country, 
 most catholic, most recipient of all that is out 
 cast on earth. Men of my religion must ever 
 bless it." 
 
 " It certainly ought to be remembered to our 
 credit," replied Redclyffe, " that we have shown 
 no narrow spirit in this matter, and have not, 
 like other Protestant countries, rejected the 
 good that is found in any man, on account of 
 his religious faith. American statesmanship 
 comprises Jew, Catholic, all." 
 
 After this pleasant little acknowledgment, 
 there ensued a conversation having some refer 
 ence to books ; for though Redclyffe, of late 
 years, had known little of what deserves to be 
 called literature, having found political life as 
 much estranged from it as it is apt to be with 
 politicians, yet he had early snuffed the musty 
 fragrance of the Doctor s books, and had learned 
 to love its atmosphere. At the time he left col 
 lege, he was just at the point where he might 
 have been a scholar ; but the active tendencies 
 of American life had interfered with him, as 
 with thousands of others, and drawn him away 
 from pursuits which might have been better 
 adapted to some of his characteristics than the 
 320 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 one he had adopted. The priest gently felt and 
 touched around his pursuits, and rinding some 
 remains of classic culture, he kept up a conver 
 sation on these points ; showing him the pos 
 sessions of the library in that department, where, 
 indeed, were some treasures that he had discov 
 ered, and which seemed to have been collected 
 at least a century ago. 
 
 " Generally, however," observed he, as they 
 passed from one dark alcove to another, " the 
 library is of little worth, except to show how 
 much of living truth each generation contrib 
 utes to the botheration of life, and what a pub 
 lic benefactor a bookworm is, after all. There, 
 now ! did you ever happen to see one ? Here 
 is one that I have watched at work, some time 
 past, and have not thought it worth while to 
 stop him." 
 
 Redclyffe looked at the learned little insect, 
 who was eating a strange sort of circular trench 
 into an old book of scholastic Latin, which 
 probably only he had ever devoured, at least 
 ever found to his taste. The insect seemed in 
 excellent condition, fat with learning, having 
 doubtless got the essence of the book into him 
 self. But Redclyffe was still more interested in 
 observing in the corner a great spider, which 
 really startled him, not so much for its own 
 terrible aspect, though that was monstrous, as 
 because he seemed to see in it the very great 
 321 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 spider which he had known in his boyhood; that 
 same monster that had been the Doctor s famil 
 iar, and had been said to have had an influence 
 in his death. He looked so startled that Father 
 Angelo observed it. 
 
 " Do not be frightened, * said he ; " though 
 I allow that a brave man may well be afraid of 
 a spider, and that the bravest of the brave need 
 not blush to shudder at this one. There is a 
 great mystery about this spider. No one knows 
 whence he came, nor how long he has been 
 here. The library was very much shut up dur 
 ing the time of the last inheritor of the estate, 
 and had not been thoroughly examined for some 
 years when I opened it, and swept some of the 
 dust away from its old alcoves. I myself was 
 not aware of this monster until the lapse of 
 some weeks, when I was startled at seeing him, 
 one day, as I was reading an old book here. 
 He dangled down from the ceiling, by the cord 
 age of his web, and positively seemed to look 
 into my face. " 
 
 " He is of the species Condetas," said Red- 
 clyffe, " a rare spider seldom seen out of the 
 tropic regions." 
 
 " You are learned, then, in spiders," observed 
 the priest, surprised. 
 
 " I could almost make oath, at least, that I 
 have known this ugly specimen of his race," 
 observed RedclyfFe. " A very dear friend, now 
 322 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 deceased, to whom I owed the highest obliga 
 tions, was studious of spiders, and his chief 
 treasure was one the very image of this." 
 
 " How strange !" said the priest. "There 
 has always appeared to me to be something 
 uncanny in spiders. I should be glad to talk 
 further with you on this subject. Several times 
 I have fancied a strange intelligence in this 
 monster ; but I have natural horror of him, and 
 therefore refrain from interviews. " 
 
 " You do wisely, sir," said Redclyffe. " His 
 powers and purposes are questionably benefi 
 cent, at best." 
 
 In truth, the many-legged monster made the 
 old library ghostly to him by the associations 
 which it summoned up, and by the idea that it 
 was really the identical one that had seemed so 
 stuffed with poison, in the lifetime of the Doc 
 tor, and at that so distant spot. Yet, on reflec 
 tion, it appeared not so strange ; for the old 
 Doctor s spider, as he had heard him say, was 
 one of an ancestral race that he had brought 
 from beyond the sea. They might have been 
 preserved, for ages possibly, in this old library, 
 whence the Doctor had perhaps taken his speci 
 men, and possibly the one now before him was 
 the sole survivor. It hardly, however, made the 
 monster any the less hideous to suppose that 
 this might be the case ; and to fancy the poison 
 of old times condensed into this animal, who 
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DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 might have sucked the diseases, moral and phy 
 sical, of all this family into him, and made 
 himself their demon. He questioned with him 
 self whether it might not be well to crush him 
 at once, and so perhaps do away with the evil 
 of which he was the emblem. 
 
 " I felt a strange disposition to crush this 
 monster, at first," remarked the priest, as if he 
 knew what Redclyffe was thinking of, "a 
 feeling that in so doing I should get rid of a 
 mischief; but then he is such a curious mon 
 ster. You cannot long look at him without 
 coming to the conclusion that he is indestruc 
 tible/ 
 
 " Yes ; and to think of crushing such a deep- 
 bowelled monster ! " said Redclyffe, shudder 
 ing. " It is too great a catastrophe." 
 
 During this conversation in which he was so 
 deeply concerned, the spider withdrew himself, 
 and hand over hand ascended to a remote and 
 dusky corner, where was his hereditary abode. 
 
 " Shall I be likely to meet Lord Braithwaite 
 here in the library ? " asked Redclyffe, when the 
 fiend had withdrawn himself. " I have not yet 
 seen him since my arrival." 
 
 " I trust," said the priest, with great courtesy, 
 <c that you are aware of some peculiarities in his 
 Lordship s habits, which imply nothing in detri 
 ment to the great respect which he pays all his 
 few guests, and which, I know, he is especially 
 324 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 desirous to pay to you. I think that we shall 
 meet him at lunch, which, though an English in 
 stitution, his Lordship has adopted very readily." 
 
 " I should hope," said Redclyffe, willing to 
 know how far he might be expected to comply 
 with the peculiarities which might prove to 
 be eccentricities of his host, " that my pre 
 sence here will not be too greatly at variance 
 with his Lordship s habits, whatever they may 
 be. I came hither, indeed, on the pledge that, 
 as my host would not stand in my way, so 
 neither would I in his." 
 
 " That is the true principle," said the priest, 
 <f and here comes his Lordship in person to 
 begin the practice of it." 
 325 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 ERD BRAITHWAITE came into the 
 principal door of the library as the priest 
 was speaking, and stood a moment just 
 upon the threshold, looking keenly out of the 
 stronger light into this dull and darksome apart 
 ment, as if unable to see perfectly what was with 
 in ; or rather, as Redclyffe fancied, trying to dis 
 cover what was passing between those two. And, 
 indeed, as when a third person comes suddenly 
 upon two who are talking of him, the two gen 
 erally evince in their manner some consciousness 
 of the fact, so it was in this case, with Red 
 clyffe at least, although the priest seemed per 
 fectly undisturbed, either through practice of 
 concealment, or because he had nothing to con 
 ceal. 
 
 His Lordship, after a moment s pause, came 
 forward, presenting his hand to Redclyffe, who 
 shook it, and not without a certain cordiality ; 
 till he perceived that it was the left hand, when 
 he probably intimated some surprise by a change 
 of manner. 
 
 " I am an awkward person," said his Lord 
 ship. " The left hand, however, is nearest the 
 heart ; so be assured I mean no discourtesy." 
 
 326 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " The Signer Ambassador and myself," ob 
 served the priest, " have had a most interesting 
 conversation (to me, at least) about books and 
 bookworms, spiders, and other congruous mat 
 ters ; and I find his Excellency has heretofore 
 made acquaintance with a great spider bear 
 ing strong resemblance to the hermit of our 
 library." 
 
 " Indeed," said his Lordship. " I was not 
 aware that America had yet enough of age and 
 old misfortune, crime, sordidness, that accumu 
 late with it, to have produced spiders like this. 
 Had he sucked into himself all the noisomeness 
 of your heat ? " 
 
 Redclyffe made some slight answer, that the 
 spider was a sort of pet of an old virtuoso to 
 whom he owed many obligations in his boy 
 hood ; and the conversation turned from this 
 subject to others suggested by topics of the day 
 and place. His Lordship was affable, and Red 
 clyffe could not, it must be confessed, see any 
 thing to justify the prejudices of the neighbors 
 against him. Indeed, he was inclined to at 
 tribute them, in great measure, to the narrow 
 ness of the English view, to those insular 
 prejudices which have always prevented them 
 from fully appreciating what differs from their 
 own habits. At lunch, which was soon an 
 nounced, the party of three became very plea 
 sant and sociable, his Lordship drinking a light 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 Italian red wine, and recommending it to Red- 
 clyffe ; who, however, was English enough to 
 prefer some bitter ale, while the priest contented 
 himself with pure water, which is, in truth, a 
 less agreeable drink in chill, moist England than 
 in any country we are acquainted with. 
 
 "You must make yourself quite at home 
 here," said his Lordship, as they rose from 
 table. " I am not a good host, nor a very gen 
 ial man, I believe. I can do little to entertain 
 you ; but here is the house and the grounds at 
 your disposal, horses in the stable, guns in 
 the hall ; here is Father Angelo, good at chess. 
 There is the library. Pray make the most of 
 them all ; and if I can contribute in any way 
 to your pleasure, let me know." 
 
 All this certainly seemed cordial, and the 
 manner in which it was said seemed in accord 
 ance with the spirit of the words ; and yet, 
 whether the fault was in anything of morbid 
 suspicion in Redclyffe s nature, or whatever it 
 was, it did not have the effect of making him 
 feel welcome, which almost every Englishman 
 has the natural faculty of producing on a guest, 
 when once he has admitted him beneath his 
 roof. It might be in great measure his face, 
 so thin and refined, and intellectual without 
 feeling ; his voice, which had melody, but not 
 heartiness ; his manners, which were not simple 
 by nature, but by art ; whatever it was, Red- 
 328 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 clyffe found that Lord Braithwaite did not call 
 for his own naturalness and simplicity, but his 
 art, and felt that he was inevitably acting a part 
 in his intercourse with him, that he was on his 
 guard, playing a game ; and yet he did not wish 
 to do this. But there was a mobility, a subtle 
 ness in his nature, an unconscious tact, which 
 the mode of life and of mixing with men in 
 America fosters and perfects, that made this 
 sort of finesse inevitable to him, with any but 
 a natural character ; with whom, on the other 
 hand, RedclyfFe could be as fresh and natural as 
 any Englishman of them all. 
 
 Redclyffe spent the time between lunch and 
 dinner in wandering about the grounds, from 
 which he had hitherto felt himself debarred by 
 motives of delicacy. It was a most interesting 
 ramble to him, coming to trees which his ances 
 tor, who went to America, might have climbed 
 in his boyhood, might have sat beneath, with 
 his lady love, in his youth ; deer there were, 
 the descendants of those which he had seen : old 
 stone stiles, which his foot had trodden. The 
 sombre, clouded light of the day fell down upon 
 this scene, which, in its verdure, its luxuriance 
 of vegetable life, was purely English, cultivated 
 to the last extent without losing the nature out 
 of a single thing. In the course of his walk 
 he came to the spot where he had been so mys 
 teriously wounded on his first arrival in this 
 3 2 9 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 region ; and, examining the spot, he was startled 
 to see that there was a path leading to the other 
 side of a hedge, and this path, which led to the 
 house, had brought him here. 
 
 Musing upon this mysterious circumstance, 
 and how it should have happened in so orderly 
 a country as England, so tamed and subjected 
 to civilization, an incident to happen in an 
 English park which seemed better suited to the 
 Indian-haunted forests of the wilder parts of his 
 own land, and how no researches which the 
 Warden had instituted had served in the small 
 est degree to develop the mystery, he clam 
 bered over the hedge, and followed the foot 
 path. It plunged into dells, and emerged from 
 them, led through scenes which seemed those 
 of old romances, and at last, by these devious 
 ways, began to approach the old house, which, 
 with its many gray gables, put on a new aspect 
 from this point of view. Redclyffe admired its 
 venerableness anew, the ivy that overran parts 
 of it, the marks of age ; and wondered at the 
 firmness of the institutions which, through all 
 the changes that come to man, could have kept 
 this house the home of one lineal race for so 
 many centuries, so many, that the absence of 
 his own branch from it seemed but a temporary 
 visit to foreign parts, from which he was now 
 returned, to be again at home, by the old 
 hearthstone. 
 
 330 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " But what do I mean to do r " said he to 
 himself, stopping short, and still looking at the 
 old house. " Am I ready to give up all the 
 actual life before me, for the sake of taking up 
 with what I feel to be a less developed state of 
 human life ? Would it not be better for me to 
 depart now, to turn my back on this flattering 
 prospect? I am not fit to be here, I, so 
 strongly susceptible of a newer, more stirring 
 life than these men lead ; I, who feel that, what 
 ever the thought and cultivation of England 
 may be, my own countrymen have gone for 
 ward a long, long march beyond them, not in 
 tellectually, but in a way that gives them a 
 further start. If I come back hither, with the 
 purpose to make myself an Englishman, espe 
 cially an Englishman of rank and hereditary 
 estate, then for me America has been discovered 
 in vain, and the great spirit that has been breathed 
 into us is in vain ; and I am false to it ajl ! " 
 
 But again came silently swelling over him 
 like a flood all that ancient peace, and quietude, 
 and dignity, which looked so stately and beau 
 tiful as brooding round the old house ; all that 
 blessed order of ranks, that sweet superiority, 
 and yet with no disclaimer of common brother 
 hood, that existed between the English gentle 
 man and his inferiors ; all that delightful inter 
 course, so sure of pleasure, so safe from rudeness, 
 lowness, unpleasant rubs, that exists between 
 
 i 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 gentleman and gentleman, where, in public af 
 fairs, all are essentially of one mind, or seem so 
 to an American politician, accustomed to the 
 fierce conflicts of our embittered parties ; where 
 life was made so enticing, so refined, and yet 
 with a sort of homeliness that seemed to show 
 that all its strength was left behind ; that seem 
 ing taking in of all that was desirable in life, 
 and all its grace and beauty, yet never giving 
 life a hard enamel of over-refinement. What 
 could there be in the wild, harsh, ill-conducted 
 American approach to civilization, which could 
 compare with this ? What to compare with 
 this juiciness and richness ? What other men 
 had ever got so much out of life as the polished 
 and wealthy Englishmen of to-day ? W T hat 
 higher part was to be acted than seemed to lie 
 before him, if he willed to accept it ? 
 
 He resumed his walk, and, drawing near the 
 manor house, found that he was approaching 
 another entrance than that which had at first 
 admitted him ; a very pleasant entrance it was, 
 beneath a porch, of antique form, and ivy-clad, 
 hospitable and inviting ; and it being the ap 
 proach from the grounds, it seemed to be more 
 appropriate to the residents of the house than 
 the other one. Drawing near, Redclyffe saw 
 that a flight of steps ascended within the porch, 
 old looking, much worn ; and nothing is more 
 suggestive of long time than a flight of worn 
 33 2 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 steps ; it must have taken so many soles, through 
 so many years, to make an impression. Judg 
 ing from the make of the outside of the edifice, 
 Redclyffe thought that he could make out the 
 way from the porch to the hall and library ; so 
 he determined to enter this way. 
 
 There had been, as was not unusual, a little 
 shower of rain during the afternoon ; and as 
 Redclyffe came close to the steps, they were 
 glistening with the wet. The stones were whit 
 ish, like marble, and one of them bore on it a 
 token that made him pause, while a thrill like 
 terror ran through his system. For it was the 
 mark of a footstep, very decidedly made out, 
 
 and red, like blood, the Bloody Footstep, 
 
 the mark of a foot, which seemed to have been 
 slightly impressed into the rock, as if it had been 
 a soft substance, at the same time sliding a little, 
 and gushing with blood. The glistening mois 
 ture of which we have spoken made it appear as 
 if it were just freshly stamped there ; and it sug 
 gested to Redclyffe s fancy the idea, that, im 
 pressed more than two centuries ago, there was 
 some charm connected with the mark which kept 
 it still fresh, and would continue to do so to the 
 end of time. It was well that there was no 
 spectator there, for the American would have 
 blushed to have it known how much this old 
 traditionary wonder had affected his imagination. 
 But, indeed, it was as old as any bugbear of his 
 333 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 mind, as any of those bugbears and private 
 terrors which grow up with people, and make 
 the dreams and nightmares of childhood, and 
 the fever images of mature years, till they haunt 
 the deliriums of the dying bed, and after that, 
 possibly, are either realized or known no more. 
 The Doctor s strange story vividly recurred to 
 him, and all the horrors which he had since 
 associated with this trace; and it seemed to him 
 as if he had now struck upon a bloody track, 
 and as if there were other tracks of this super 
 natural foot which he was bound to search out ; 
 removing the dust of ages that had settled on 
 them, the moss and deep grass that had grown 
 over them, the forest leaves that might have 
 fallen on them in America, marking out the 
 pathway, till the pedestrian lay down in his 
 grave. 
 
 The foot was issuing from, not entering into, 
 the house. Whoever had impressed it, or on 
 whatever occasion, he had gone forth, and doubt 
 less to return no more. Redclyffe was impelled 
 to place his own foot on the track ; and the 
 action, as it were, suggested in itself strange 
 ideas of what had been the state of mind of the 
 man who planted it there ; and he felt a strange, 
 vague, yet strong surmise of some agony, some 
 terror and horror, that had passed here, and 
 would not fade out of the spot. While he was 
 in these musings, he saw Lord Braithwaite look- 
 334 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 ing at him through the glass of the porch, with 
 fixed, curious eyes, and a smile on his face. On 
 perceiving that RedclyrTe was aware of his pre 
 sence, he came forth without appearing in the 
 least disturbed. 
 
 " What think you of the Bloody Footstep ? " 
 asked he. 
 
 "It seems to me, undoubtedly/ said Red 
 clyrTe, stooping to examine it more closely, " a 
 good thing to make a legend out of; and, like 
 most legendary lore, not capable of bearing close 
 examination. I should decidedly say that the 
 Bloody Footstep is a natural reddish stain in 
 the stone." 
 
 " Do you think so, indeed ? " rejoined his 
 Lordship. " It may be ; but in that case, if not 
 the record of an actual deed, of a foot stamped 
 down there in guilt and agony, and oozing out 
 with unwipeupable blood, we may consider 
 it as prophetic ; as foreboding, from the time 
 when the stone was squared and smoothed, and 
 laid at this threshold, that a fatal footstep was 
 really to be impressed here." 
 
 " It is an ingenious supposition," said Red- 
 clyffe. " But is there any sure knowledge that 
 the prophecy you suppose has yet been ful 
 filled?" 
 
 " If not, it might yet be in the future," said 
 Lord Braithwaite. " But I think there are 
 enough in the records of this family to prove 
 335 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 tnat there did one cross this threshold in a bloody 
 agony, who has since returned no more. Great 
 seekings, I have understood, have been had 
 throughout the world for him, or for any sign 
 of him, but nothing satisfactory has been heard." 
 
 " And it is now too late to expect it," ob 
 served the American. 
 
 " Perhaps not," replied the nobleman, with 
 a glance that Redclyffe thought had peculiar 
 meaning in it. "Ah ! it is very curious to see 
 what turnings up there are in this world of old 
 circumstances that seem buried forever ; how 
 things come back, like echoes that have rolled 
 away among the hills and been seemingly hushed 
 forever. We cannot tell when a thing is really 
 dead ; it comes to life, perhaps in its old shape, 
 perhaps in a new and unexpected one ; so that 
 nothing really vanishes out of the world. I 
 wish it did." 
 
 The conversation now ceased, and Redclyffe 
 entered the house, where he amused himself for 
 some time in looking at the ancient hall, with 
 its gallery, its armor, and its antique fireplace, 
 on the hearth of which burned a genial fire. 
 He wondered whether in that fire was the con 
 tinuance of that custom which the Doctor s leg 
 end spoke of, and whether the flame had been 
 kept up there two hundred years, in expectation 
 of the wanderer s return. It might be so, al 
 though the climate of England made it a natural 
 
 336 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 custom enough, in a large and damp old room, 
 into which many doors opened, both from the 
 exterior and interior of the mansion ; but it was 
 pleasant to think the custom a traditionary one, 
 and to fancy that a booted figure, enveloped in 
 a cloak, might still arrive, and fling open the 
 veiling cloak, throw off the sombre and droop- 
 ing-brimmed hat, and show features that were 
 similar to those seen in pictured faces on the 
 walls. Was he himself in another guise, as 
 Lord Braithwaite had been saying that long- 
 expected one ? Was his the echoing tread that 
 had been heard so long through the ages sc 
 far through the wide world approaching the 
 blood-stained threshold ? 
 
 With such thoughts, or dreams (for they were 
 hardly sincerely enough entertained to be called 
 thoughts), Redclyffe spent the day ; a strange, 
 delicious day, in spite of the sombre shadows 
 that enveloped it. He fancied himself strangely 
 wonted, already, to the house, as if his every 
 part and peculiarity had at once fitted into its 
 nooks, and corners, and crannies ; but, indeed, 
 his mobile nature and active fancy were not en 
 tirely to be trusted in this matter ; it was, per 
 haps, his American faculty of making himself at 
 home anywhere, that he mistook for the feeling 
 of being peculiarly at home here c 
 337 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 KLDCLYFFE was now established in the 
 great house which had been so long and 
 so singularly an object of interest with 
 him. With his customary impressibility by the 
 influences around him, he begun to take in the 
 circumstances, and to understand them by more 
 subtile tokens than he could well explain to 
 himself. There was the steward, 1 or whatever 
 was his precise office ; so quiet, so subdued, so 
 nervous, so strange ! What had been this man s 
 history ? What was now the secret of his daily 
 life ? There he was, creeping stealthily up and 
 down the staircases, and about the passages of 
 the house ; always as if he were afraid of meet 
 ing somebody. On seeing Redclyffe in the 
 house, the latter fancied that the man expressed 
 a kind of interest in his face, but whether plea 
 sure or pain he could not well tell ; only he 
 sometimes found that he was contemplating him 
 from a distance, or from the obscurity of the 
 room in which he sat, or from a corridor, while 
 he smoked his cigar on the lawn. A great part, 
 if not the whole of this, he imputed to his 
 knowledge of RedclyfFe s connections with the 
 Doctor ; but yet this hardly seemed sufficient 
 
 338 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 to account for the pertinacity with which the old 
 man haunted his footsteps, the poor, nervous 
 old thing, always near him, or often unex 
 pectedly so ; and yet apparently not very will 
 ing to hold conversation with him, having no 
 thing of importance to say. 
 
 " Mr. Omskirk," said Redclyffe to him, a day 
 or two after the commencement of his visit, 
 " how many years have you now been in this 
 situation ? " 
 
 " O,sir, ever since the Doctor s departure for 
 America," said Omskirk, " now thirty and five 
 years, five months, and three days." 
 
 " A long time," said RedclyfFe, smiling, " and 
 you seem to keep the account of it very accu 
 rately." 
 
 " A very long time, your honor," said Oms 
 kirk ; " so long, that I seem to have lived one 
 life before it began, and I cannot think of any 
 life than just what I had. My life was broken 
 off short in the midst, and what belonged to the 
 earlier part of it was another man s life ; this is 
 mine." 
 
 " It might be a pleasant life enough, I should 
 think, in this fine old Hall," said Redclyffe ; 
 " rather monotonous, however. Would you not 
 like a relaxation of a few days, a pleasure trip, 
 in all these thirty-five years ? You old English 
 men are so sturdily faithful to one thing. You 
 do not resemble my countrymen in that." 
 339 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " O, none of them ever lived in an old man 
 sion house like this," replied Omskirk ; " they 
 do not know the sort of habits that a man gets 
 here. They do not know my business either, 
 nor any man s here." 
 
 " Is your master, then, so difficult ? " said 
 Redclyffe. 
 
 " My master ! Who was speaking of him ? " 
 said the old man, as if surprised. " Ah, I was 
 thinking of Doctor Grimshawe. He was my 
 master, you know." 
 
 And Redclyffe was again inconceivably struck 
 with the strength of the impression that was 
 made on the poor old man s mind by the char 
 acter of the old Doctor ; so that, after thirty 
 years of other service, he still felt him to be the 
 master, and could not in the least release him 
 self from those earlier bonds. He remembered 
 a story that the Doctor used to tell of his once 
 recovering a hanged person, and more and more 
 came to the conclusion that this was the man ; 
 and that, as the Doctor had said, this hold of a 
 strong mind over a weak one, strengthened by 
 the idea that he had made him, had subjected 
 the man to him in a kind of slavery that em 
 braced the soul. 
 
 And then, again, the lord of the estate inter 
 ested him greatly, and not unpleasantly. He 
 compared what he seemed to be now witn what, 
 according to all reports, he had been in the past, 
 340 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and could make nothing of it, nor reconcile the 
 two characters in the least. It seemed as if the 
 estate were possessed by a devil, a foul and 
 melancholy fiend, who resented the attempted 
 possession of others by subjecting them to him 
 self. One had turned from quiet and sober hab 
 its to reckless dissipation ; another had turned 
 from the usual gayety of life to recluse habits, 
 and both, apparently, by the same influence ; 
 at least, so it appeared to Redclyffe, as he insu 
 lated their story from all other circumstances, 
 and looked at them by one light. He even 
 thought that he felt a similar influence coming 
 over himself, even in this little time that he had 
 spent here ; gradually, should this be his per 
 manent residence, and not so very gradually 
 either, there would come its own individual 
 mode of change over him. That quick sugges 
 tive mind would gather the moss and lichens of 
 decay. Palsy of its powers would probably be 
 the form it would assume. He looked back 
 through the vanished years to the time which he 
 had spent with the old Doctor, and he felt un 
 accountably as if the mysterious old man were yet 
 ruling him, as he did in his boyhood; as if his 
 inscrutable, inevitable eye were upon him in all 
 his movements ; nay, as if he had guided every 
 step that he took in coming hither, and were 
 stalking mistily before him, leading him about 
 He sometimes would gladly have given up all 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 these wild and enticing prospects, these dreams 
 that had occupied him so long, if he could only 
 have gone away and looked back upon the house, 
 its inmates, and his own recollections no more; 
 but there came a fate, and took the shape of the 
 old Doctor s apparition, holding him back. 
 
 And then, too, the thought of Elsie had much 
 influence in keeping him quietly here ; her nat 
 ural sunshine was the one thing that, just now, 
 seemed to have a good influence upon the world. 
 She, too, was evidently connected with this place, 
 and with the fate, whatever it might be, that 
 awaited him here. The Doctor, the ruler of his 
 destiny, had provided her as well as all the rest ; 
 and from his grave, or wherever he was, he still 
 seemed to bring them together. 
 
 So here, in this darkened dream, he waited 
 for what should come to pass ; and daily, when 
 he sat down in the dark old library, it was with 
 the thought that this day might bring to a close 
 the doubt amid which he lived, might give 
 him the impetus to go forward. In such a state, 
 no doubt, the witchcraft of the place was really 
 to be recognized ; the old witchcraft, too, of the 
 Doctor, which he had escaped by the quick 
 ebullition of youthful spirit, long ago, while the 
 Doctor lived, but which had been stored up till 
 now, till an influence that remained latent for 
 years had worked out in active disease. He 
 held himself open for intercourse with the lord 
 342 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 of the mansion ; and intercourse of a certain 
 nature they certainly had, but not of the kind 
 which Redclyffe desired. They talked together 
 of politics, of the state of the relations between 
 England and America, of the court to which 
 Redclyffe was accredited : sometimes Redclyffe 
 tried to lead the conversation to the family topics; 
 nor, in truth, did Lord Braithwaite seem to de 
 cline his lead, although it was observable that 
 very speedily the conversation would be found 
 turned upon some other subject, to which it had 
 swerved aside by subtle underhand movements. 
 Yet Redclyffe was not the less determined, and 
 at no distant period, to bring up the subject on 
 which his mind dwelt so much, and have it fairly 
 discussed between them. 
 
 He was sometimes a little frightened at the 
 position and circumstances in which he found 
 himself; a great disturbance there was in his be 
 ing, the causes of which he could not trace. It 
 had an influence on his dreams, through which 
 the Doctor seemed to pass continually ; and 
 when he awoke it was often with the sensation 
 that he had just the moment before been hold 
 ing conversation with the old man, and that the 
 latter with that gesture of power that he re 
 membered so well had been impressing some 
 command upon him; but what that command 
 was, he could not possibly call to mind. He 
 wandered among the dark passages of the house, 
 343 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and up its antique staircases, as if expecting at 
 every turn to meet some one who would have 
 the word of destiny to say to him. When he 
 went forth into the park, it was as if to hold an 
 appointment with one who had promised to meet 
 him there ; and he came slowly back, lingering 
 and loitering, because this expected one had 
 not yet made himself visible, yet plucked up a 
 little alacrity as he drew near the house, because 
 the communicant might have arrived in his ab 
 sence, and be waiting for him in the dim library. 
 It seemed as if he was under a spell ; he could 
 neither go away nor rest, nothing but dreams, 
 troubled dreams. He had ghostly fears, as Y 
 some one were near him whom he could not make 
 out ; stealing behind him, and starting away 
 when he was impelled to turn round. A ner 
 vousness that his healthy temperament had never 
 before permitted him to be the victim of, assailed 
 him now. He could not help imputing it partly 
 to the influence of the generations who had left 
 a portion of their individual human nature in 
 the house, which had become magnetic by them 
 and could not rid itself of their presence, in one 
 sense ; though, in another, they had borne it as 
 far off as to where the gray tower of the village 
 church rose above their remains. 
 
 Again, he was frightened to perceive what a 
 hold the place was gettingupon him ; how the ten 
 drils of the ivy seemed to hold him and would 
 344 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 not let him go ; how natural and homelike (grim 
 and sombre as they were) the old doorways and 
 apartments were becoming ; how in no place 
 that he had ever known had he had such a home 
 like feeling. To be sure, poor fellow, he had 
 no earlier home except the almshouse, where his 
 recollection of a fireside crowded by grim old 
 women and pale, sickly children of course never 
 allowed him to have the reminiscences of a pri 
 vate, domestic home. But then there was the 
 Doctor s home by the graveyard, and little Elsie, 
 his constant playmate ? No, even those recol 
 lections did not hold him like this heavy present 
 circumstance. How should he ever draw him~ 
 self away ? No ; the proud and vivid and active 
 prospects that had heretofore spread themselves 
 before him, the striving to conquer, the strug 
 gle, the victory, the defeat, if such it was to be, 
 the experiences for good or ill, the life, life, 
 life, all possibility of these was passing from 
 him, all that hearty earnest contest or commun 
 ion of man with man, and leaving him nothing 
 but this great sombre shade, this brooding of the 
 old family mansion, with its dreary ancestral hall, 
 its mouldy dignity, its life of the past, its fetter 
 ing honor, which to accept must bind him hand 
 and foot, as respects all effort, such as he had 
 trained himself for, such as his own country 
 offered. It was not any value for these, as 
 it seemed to Redclyffe, but a witchcraft, an 
 345 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 indefinable spell, a something that he could not 
 define, that enthralled him, and was now doing 
 a work on him analogous to, though different 
 from, that which was wrought on Omskirk and 
 all the other inhabitants, high and low, of this 
 old mansion. 
 
 He felt greatly interested in the master of 
 the mansion ; although perhaps it was not from 
 anything in his nature, but partly because he 
 conceived that he himself had a controlling 
 power over his fortunes, and likewise from the 
 vague perception of this before-mentioned trou 
 ble in him. It seemed, whatever it might be, 
 to have converted an ordinary superficial man 
 of the world into a being that felt and suffered 
 inwardly, had pangs, fears, a conscience, a sense 
 of unseen things. It seemed as if underneath 
 this manor house were the entrance to the cave 
 of Trophonius, one visit to which made a man 
 sad forever after; and that Lord Braithwaite 
 had been there once, or perhaps went nightly, 
 or at any hour. Or the mansion itself was like 
 dark-colored experience, the reality ; the point 
 of view where things were seen in their true 
 lights ; the true world, all outside of which was 
 delusion, and here dreamlike as its structures 
 seemed the absolute truth. All those that 
 lived in it were getting to be a brotherhood, 
 and he among them ; and perhaps before the 
 blood-stained threshold would grow up an im- 
 346 
 
DOCTOR GRLMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 passable barrier, which would cause himself to 
 sit down in dreary quiet, like the rest of them. 
 RedclyfFe, as has been intimated, had an 
 unavowed unavowed to himself suspicion 
 that the master of the house cherished no kindly 
 purpose towards him ; he had an indistinct feel 
 ing of danger from him ; he would not have 
 been surprised to know that he was concocting 
 a plot against his life ; and yet he did not think 
 that Lord Braithwaite had the slightest hostil 
 ity towards him. It might make the thing more 
 horrible, perhaps ; but it has been often seen in 
 those who poison for the sake of interest, with 
 out feelings of personal malevolence, that they 
 do it as kindly as the nature of the thing will 
 permit ; they, possibly, may even have a certain 
 degree of affection for their victims, enough to 
 induce them to make the last hours of life sweet 
 and pleasant ; to wind up the fever of life with 
 a double supply of enjoyable throbs ; to sweeten 
 and delicately flavor the cup of death that they 
 offer to the lips of him whose life is inconsist 
 ent with some stated necessity of their own. 
 4< Dear friend," such a one might say to the 
 friend whom he reluctantly condemned to death, 
 " think not that there is any base malice, any 
 desire of pain to thee, that actuates me in this 
 thing. Heaven knows, I earnestly wish thy 
 good. But I have well considered the matter, 
 more deeply than thou hast, and have 
 347 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 found that it is essential that one thing should 
 be, and essential to that thing that thou, my 
 friend, shouldst die. Is that a doom which 
 even thou wouldst object to with such an end 
 to be answered ? Thou art innocent ; thou art 
 not a man of evil life ; the worst thing that can 
 come of it, so far as thou art concerned, would 
 be a quiet, endless repose in yonder churchyard, 
 among dust of thy ancestry, with the English 
 violets growing over thee there, and the green, 
 sweet grass, which thou wilt not scorn to asso 
 ciate with thy dissolving elements, remember 
 ing that thy forefather owed a debt, for his own 
 birth and growth, to this English soil, and paid 
 it not, consigned himself to that rough soil 
 of another clime, under the forest leaves. Pay 
 it, dear friend, without repining, and leave me 
 to battle a little longer with this troublesome 
 world, and in a few years to rejoin thee, and 
 talk quietly over this matter which we are now 
 arranging. How slight a favor, then, for one 
 friend to do another, will seem this that I seek 
 of thee ! " 
 
 Redclyffe smiled to himself, as he thus gave 
 expression to what he really half fancied were 
 Lord Braithwaite s feelings and purposes to 
 wards him ; and he felt them in the kindness 
 and sweetness of his demeanor, and his evident 
 wish to make him happy, combined with his own 
 subtile suspicion of some design with which he 
 548 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 had been invited here, or which had grown up 
 since he came. 
 
 Whoever has read Italian history must have 
 seen such instances of this poisoning without 
 malice or personal ill feeling. 
 
 His own pleasant, companionable, perhaps 
 noble traits and qualities may have made a 
 favorable impression on Lord Braithwaite, and 
 perhaps he regretted the necessity of acting as 
 ne was about to do, but could not therefore 
 weakly relinquish his deliberately formed design. 
 And, on his part, Redclyffe bore no malice to 
 wards Lord Braithwaite, but felt really a kindly 
 interest in him, and could he have made him 
 happy at any less cost than his own life or 
 dearest interests, would perhaps have been glad 
 to do so. He sometimes felt inclined to re 
 monstrate with him in a friendly way ; to tell 
 him that his intended course was not likely to 
 lead to a good result ; that they had better try 
 to arrange the matter on some other basis, and 
 perhaps he would not find the American so 
 unreasonable as he supposed. 
 
 A I 1 this, it will be understood, was the mere 
 dreamy supposition of RedclyfFe, in the idle 
 ness and languor of the old mansion, letting his 
 mind run at will, and following it into dim 
 caves, whither it tended. He did not actuallv 
 believe anything of all this ; unless it be a 
 lawyer, or a policeman, or some very vulgar 
 349 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 natural order of mind, no man really suspects 
 another of crime. It is the hardest thing in the 
 world for a noble nature the hardest and the 
 most shocking to be convinced that a fellow 
 being is going to do a wrong thing, and the 
 consciousness of one s own inviolability renders 
 it still more difficult to believe that one s self 
 is to be the object of the wrong. What he had 
 been fancying looked to him like a romance. 
 The strange part of the matter was, what sug 
 gested such a romance in regard to his kind 
 and hospitable host, who seemed to exercise the 
 hospitality of England with a kind of refine 
 ment and pleasant piquancy that came from his 
 Italian mixture of blood? Was there no spir 
 itual whisper here? 
 
 So the time wore on ; and Redclyffe began to 
 be sensible that he must soon decide upon the 
 course that he was to take ; for his diplomatic 
 position waited for him, and he could not loiter 
 many days more away in this half-delicious, half- 
 painful reverie and quiet in the midst of his 
 struggling life. He was yet as undetermined 
 what to do as ever ; or, if we may come down 
 to the truth, he was perhaps loath to acknow 
 ledge to himself the determination that he had 
 actually formed. 
 
 One day, at dinner, which now came on after 
 candlelight, he and Lord Braithwaite sat to- 
 350 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 gether at table, as usual, while Omskirk waited 
 at the sideboard. It was a wild, gusty night, 
 in which an autumnal breeze of later autumn 
 seemed to have gone astray, and come into 
 September intrusively. The two friends for 
 such we may call them had spent a pleasant 
 day together, wandering in the grounds, look 
 ing at the old house at all points, going to the 
 church, and examining the cross-legged stone 
 statues ; they had ridden, too, and taken a great 
 deal of healthful exercise, and had now that 
 pleasant sense of just weariness enough which it 
 is the boon of the climate of England to incite 
 and permit men to take. Redclyffe was in one 
 of his most genial moods, and Lord Braithwaite 
 seemed to be the same ; so kindly they were 
 both disposed to one another, that the American 
 felt that he might not longer refrain from giv 
 ing his friend some light upon the character in 
 which he appeared, or in which, at least, he had 
 it at his option to appear. Lord Braithwaite 
 might or might not know it already ; but at all 
 events it was his duty to tell him, or to take his 
 leave, having thus far neither gained nor sought 
 anything from their connection which would 
 tend to forward his pursuit should he decide 
 to undertake it. 
 
 When the cheerful fire, the rare wine, and the 
 good fare had put them both into a good phy- 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 sical state, Redclyffe said to Lord Braithwaite^ 
 " There is a matter upon which I have been 
 some time intending to speak to you." 
 
 Braithwaite nodded. 
 
 " A subject," continued he, " of interest to 
 both of us. Has it ever occurred to you, from 
 the identity of name, that I may be really, what 
 we have jokingly assumed me to be, a rela 
 tion ? " 
 
 "It has," said Lord Braithwaite readily 
 enough. " The family would be proud to ac 
 knowledge such a kinsman, whose abilities and 
 political rank would add a public lustre that it 
 has long wanted." 
 
 Redclyffe bowed and smiled. 
 
 "You know, I suppose, the annals of your 
 house," he continued, "and have heard how, 
 two centuries ago, or somewhat less, there was 
 an ancestor who mysteriously disappeared. He 
 was never seen again. There were tales of pri 
 vate murder, out of which a hundred legends 
 have come down to these days, as I have my 
 self found, though most of them in so strange 
 a shape that I should hardly know them, had I 
 not myself a clue." 
 
 " I have heard some of these legends," said 
 Lord Braithwaite. 
 
 " But did you ever hear, among them," asked 
 Redclyffe, " that the lost ancestor did not really 
 die, was not murdered, but lived long, 
 352 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 though in another hemisphere, lived long, 
 and left heirs behind him ? " 
 
 " There is such a legend," said Lord Braith- 
 waite. 
 
 " Left posterity," continued Redclyffe, "a 
 representative of whom is alive at this day." 
 
 "That I have not known, though I might 
 conjecture something like it," said Braithwaite. 
 
 The coolness with which he took this per 
 plexed Redclyffe. He resolved to make trial at 
 once whether it were possible to move him. 
 
 " And I have reason to believe," he added, 
 " that that representative is myself." 
 
 " Should that prove to be the case, you are 
 welcome back to your own," said Lord Braith 
 waite quietly. " It will be a very remarkable 
 case, if the proofs for two hundred years, or 
 thereabouts, can be so distinctly made out as to 
 nullify the claim of one whose descent is un 
 doubted. Yet it is certainly not impossible. 
 I suppose it would hardly be fair in me to ask 
 what are your proofs, and whether I may see 
 them?" 
 
 " The documents are in the hands of my 
 agents in London," replied Redclyffe, " and 
 seem to be ample; among them being a certified 
 genealogy from the first emigrant downward, 
 without a break. A declaration of two men of 
 note among the first settlers, certifying that they 
 knew the first emigrant, under a change of 
 353 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 name, to be the eldest son of the house of 
 Braithwaite ; full proofs, at least on that head." 
 
 " You are a lawyer, I believe," said Braith 
 waite, " and know better than I what may be 
 necessary to prove your claim. I will frankly 
 own to you, that I have heard, long ago, as 
 long as when my connection with this heredi 
 tary property first began, that there was sup 
 posed to be an heir extant for a long course of 
 years, and that there was no proof that that 
 main line of the descent had ever become ex 
 tinct. If these things had come fairly before me, 
 and been represented to me with whatever force 
 belongs to them, before my accession to the es 
 tate, these and other facts which I have since 
 become acquainted with, I might have delib 
 erated on the expediency of coming to such a 
 doubtful possession. The property, I assure 
 you, is not so desirable that, taking all things 
 into consideration, it has much increased my 
 happiness. But, now, here I am, having paid 
 a price in a certain way, which you will un 
 derstand, if you ever come into the property, 
 a price of a nature that cannot possibly be 
 refunded. It can hardly be presumed that I 
 shall see your right a moment sooner than you 
 make it manifest by law." 
 
 " I neither expect nor wish it," replied Red- 
 clyffe, " nor, to speak frankly, am I quite sure 
 that you will ever have occasion to defend your 
 354 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 title, or to question mine. When I came hither, 
 to be your guest, it was almost with the settled 
 purpose never to mention my proofs, nor to 
 seek to make them manifest. That purpose is 
 not, I may say, yet relinquished." 
 
 " Yet I am to infer from your words that it 
 is shaken ? " said Braithwaite. " You find the 
 estate, then, so delightful, this life of the old 
 manor house so exquisitely agreeable, this air 
 so cheering, this moral atmosphere so invig 
 orating, that your scruples are about coming 
 to an end. You think this life of an English 
 man, this fair prospect of a title, so irresistibly 
 enticing as to be worth more than your claim, 
 in behalf of your American birthright, to a pos 
 sible Presidency." 
 
 There was a sort of sneer in this, which Red- 
 clyffe did not well know how to understand ; 
 and there was a look on Braithwaite s face, as 
 he said it, that made him think of a condemned 
 soul, who should be dressed in magnificent 
 robes, and surrounded with the mockery of 
 state, splendor, and happiness, who, if he should 
 be congratulated on his fortunate and blissful 
 situation, would probably wear just such a look, 
 and speak in just that tone. He looked a 
 moment in Braithwaite s face. 
 
 " No," he replied. " I do not think that 
 there is much happiness in it. A brighter, 
 healthier, more useful, far more satisfactory, 
 355 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 though tumultuous life would await me in my 
 own country. But there is about this place a 
 strange, deep, sad, brooding interest, which pos 
 sesses me, and draws me to it, and will not let 
 me go. I feel as if, in spite of myself and my 
 most earnest efforts, I were fascinated by some 
 thing in the spot, and must needs linger here, 
 and make it my home if I can." 
 
 " You shall be welcome ; the old hereditary 
 chair will be filled at last," said Braithwaite, 
 pointing to the vacant chair. " Come, we will 
 drink to you in a cup of welcome. Take the 
 old chair now." 
 
 In half frolic Redclyffe took the chair. 
 
 Braithwaite called to Omskirk to bring a bot 
 tle of a particularly exquisite Italian wine, known 
 only to the most deeply skilled in the vintages 
 of that country, and which, he said, was oftener 
 heard of than seen, oftener seen than tasted. 
 Omskirk put it on the table in its original glass, 
 and Braithwaite rilled Redclyffe s glass and his 
 own, and raised the latter to his lips, with a 
 frank expression of his mobile countenance. 
 
 " May you have a secure possession of your 
 estate," said he, " and live long in the midst of 
 your possessions. To me, on the whole, it 
 seems better than your American prospects." 
 
 Redclyffe thanked him, and drank off the 
 glass of wine, which was not very much to his 
 taste ; as new varieties of wine are apt not to 
 
 356 
 
/;/ half frolic Redclyjfe took the chair 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 be. All the conversation that had passed had 
 been in a free, careless sort of way, without ap 
 parently much earnestness in it ; for they were 
 both men who knew how to keep their more 
 serious parts within them. But Redclyffe was 
 glad that the explanation was over, and that he 
 might now remain at Braithwaite s table, under 
 his roof, without that uneasy feeling of treachery 
 which, whether rightly or not, had haunted him 
 hitherto. He felt joyous, and stretched his 
 hand out for the bottle which Braithwaite kept 
 near himself, instead of passing it. 
 
 " You do not yourself do justice to your own 
 favorite wine," observed Redclyffe, seeing his 
 host s full glass standing before him. 
 
 " I have filled again," said Braithwaite care 
 lessly ; " but I know not that I shall venture 
 to drink a second glass. It is a wine that does 
 not bear mixture with other vintages, though 
 of most genial and admirable qualities when 
 taken by itself. Drink your own, however, 
 for it will be a rare occasion indeed that would 
 induce me to offer you another bottle of this 
 rare stock." 
 
 RedclyfFe sipped his second glass, endeavor 
 ing to find out what was this subtile and pecul 
 iar flavor that hid itself so, and yet seemed on 
 the point of revealing itself. It had, he thought, 
 a singular effect upon his faculties, quickening 
 and making them active, and causing him to 
 357 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 feel as if he were on the point of penetrating 
 rare mysteries, such as men s thoughts are 
 always hovering round, and always returning 
 from. Some strange, vast, sombre, mysterious 
 truth, which he seemed to have searched for 
 long, appeared to be on the point of being re 
 vealed to him ; a sense of something to come, 
 something to happen that had been waiting 
 long, long to happen ; an opening of doors, a 
 drawing away of veils ; a lifting of heavy, mag 
 nificent curtains, whose dark folds hung before 
 a spectacle of awe ; it was like the verge of 
 the grave. Whether it was the exquisite wine 
 of Braithwaite, or whatever it might be, the 
 American felt a strange influence upon him, as 
 if he were passing through the gates of eternity, 
 and finding on the other side the revelation, of 
 some secret that had greatly perplexed him on 
 this side. He thought that Braithwaite s face 
 assumed a strange, subtile smile, not mali 
 cious, yet crafty, triumphant, and at the same 
 time terribly sad ; and with that perception his 
 senses, his life, welled away, and left him in 
 the deep ancestral chair at the board of Braith 
 waite. 
 
 358 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 WHEN awake, 1 or beginning to awake, 
 he lay for some time in a maze ; not 
 a disagreeable one, but thoughts were 
 running to and fro in his mind, all mixed and 
 jumbled together. Reminiscences of early days, 
 even those that were Preadamite ; referring, we 
 mean, to those times in the almshouse, which 
 he could not at ordinary times remember at all ; 
 but now there seemed to be visions of old wo 
 men and men, and pallid girls, and little dirty 
 boys, which could only be referred to that epoch. 
 Also, and most vividly, there was the old Doc 
 tor, with his sternness, his fierceness, his mys 
 tery ; and all that happened since, playing phan 
 tasmagoria before his yet unclosed eyes ; nor r 
 so mysterious was his state, did he know, when 
 he should unclose those lids, where he should 
 find himself. He was content to let the world 
 go on in this way, as long as it would, and 
 therefore did not hurry, but rather kept back 
 the proofs of awakening ; willing to look at the 
 scenes that were unrolling for his amusement, 
 as it seemed ; and willing, too, to keep it uncer 
 tain whether he were not back in America, and 
 in his boyhood, and all other subsequent im- 
 359 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 pressions a dream or a prophetic vision. But 
 at length something stirring near him, or 
 whether it stirred, or whether he dreamed it, he 
 could not quite tell, but the uncertainty im 
 pelled him, at last, to open his eyes, and see 
 whereabouts he was. 
 
 Even then he continued in as much uncer 
 tainty as he was before, and lay with marvellous 
 quietude in it, trying sluggishly to make the 
 mystery out. It was in a dim, twilight place, 
 wherever it might be ; a place of half-awakeness, 
 where the outlines of things were not well de 
 fined ; but it seemed to be a chamber, antique 
 and vaulted, narrow and high, hung round with 
 old tapestry. Whether it were morning or mid 
 day he could not tell, such was the character of 
 the light, nor even where it came from ; for there 
 appeared to be no windows, and yet it was not 
 apparently artificial light, nor light at all, in 
 deed, but a gray dimness. It was so like his 
 own half-awake state that he lay in it a longer 
 time, not incited to finish his awaking, but in a 
 languor, not disagreeable, yet hanging heavily, 
 heavily upon him, like a dark pall. It was, in 
 fact, as if he had been asleep for years, or cen 
 turies, or till the last day was dawning, and then 
 was collecting his thoughts in such slow fashion 
 as would then be likely. 
 
 Again that noise, a little, low, quiet sound, 
 as of one breathing somewhere near him. The 
 360 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 whole thing was very much like that incident 
 which introduced him to the Hospital, and his 
 first coming to his senses there ; and he almost 
 fancied that some such accident must again have 
 happened to him, and that when his sight cleared 
 he should again behold the venerable figure 
 the pensioner. With this idea he let his head 
 steady itself; and it seemed to him that its diz 
 ziness must needs be the result of very long and 
 deep sleep. What if it were the sleep of a cen 
 tury ? What if all things that were extant when 
 he went to sleep had passed away, and he was 
 waking now in another epoch of time ? Where 
 was America, and the republic in which he hoped 
 for such great things? Where England? had 
 she stood it better than the republic ? Was the 
 old Hospital still in being, although the good 
 Warden must long since have passed out of his 
 warm and pleasant life ? And himself, how came 
 he to be preserved ? In what musty old nook 
 had he been put away, where Time neglected 
 and Death forgot him, until now he was to get 
 up friendless, helpless, when new heirs had 
 come to the estate he was on the point of lay 
 ing claim to, and go onward through what 
 remained of life ? Would it not have been better 
 to have lived with his contemporaries, and to 
 be now dead and dust with them ? Poor, petty 
 interests of a day, how slight ! 
 
 Again the noise, a little stir, a sort of quiet 
 361 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 moan, or something that he could not quite de 
 fine ; but it seemed, whenever he heard it, as if 
 some fact thrust itself through the dream-work 
 with which he was circumfused ; something alien 
 to his fantasies, yet not powerful enough to dis 
 pel them. It began to be irksome to him, this 
 little sound of something near him ; and he 
 thought, in the space of another hundred years, 
 if it continued, he should have to arouse him 
 self and see what it was. But, indeed, there was 
 something so cheering in this long repose, 
 this rest from all the troubles of earth, which it 
 sometimes seems as if only a churchyard bed 
 would give us, that he wished the noise would 
 let him alone. But his thoughts were gradually 
 getting too busy for this slumberous state. He 
 begun, perforce, to come nearer actuality. The 
 strange question occurred to him, Had any time 
 at all passed ? Was he not still sitting at Lord 
 Braithwaite s table, having just now quaffed a 
 second glass of that rare and curious Italian 
 wine ? Was it not affecting his head very 
 strangely, so that he was put out of time, as 
 it were ? He would rally himself, and try to 
 set his head right with another glass. He must 
 be still at table, for now he remembered he had 
 not gone to bed at all. 2 
 
 Ah, the noise ! He could not bear it ; he 
 would awake now, now ! silence it, and then 
 to sleep again. In fact, he started up ; started 
 362 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 to his feet, in puzzle and perplexity, and stood 
 gazing around him, with swimming brain. It 
 was an antique room, which he did not at all 
 recognize, and, indeed, in that dim twilight 
 which how it came he could not tell he could 
 scarcely discern what were its distinguishing 
 marks. But he seemed to be sensible, that, in 
 a high-backed chair, at a little distance from 
 him, sat a figure in a long robe ; a figure of a 
 man with snow-white hair and a long beard, who 
 seemed to be gazing at him quietly, as if he had 
 been gazing a hundred years. I know not what 
 it was, but there was an influence as if this old 
 man belonged to some other age and category 
 of man than he was now amongst. He remem 
 bered the old family legend of the existence of 
 an ancestor two or three centuries in age. 
 
 " It is the old family personified," thought 
 he. 
 
 The old figure made no sign, but continued 
 to sit gazing at him in so strangely still a man 
 ner that it made RedclyfTe shiver with some 
 thing that seemed like affright. There was an 
 aspect of long, long time about him ; as if he 
 had never been young, or so long ago as when 
 the world was young along with him. He 
 might be the demon of this old house ; the re 
 presentative of all that happened in it, the grief, 
 the long languor and weariness of life, the deaths, 
 gathering them all into himself, and figuring 
 3 6 3 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 them in furrows, wrinkles, and white hairs, a 
 being that might have been young, when those 
 old Saxon timbers were put together, with the 
 oaks that were saplings when Caesar landed, and 
 was in his maturity when the Conqueror came, 
 and was now lapsing into extreme age when the 
 nineteenth century was elderly. His garb might 
 have been of any time, that long, loose robe 
 that enveloped him. Redclyffe remained in 
 this way, gazing at this aged figure ; at first 
 without the least wonder, but calmly, as we feel 
 in dreams, when, being in a land of enchant 
 ment, we take everything as if it were a matter 
 of course, and feel, by the right of our own 
 marvellous nature, on terms of equal kindred 
 with all other marvels. So it was with him 
 when he first became aware of the old man, sit 
 ting there with that age-long regard directed 
 towards him. 
 
 But, by degrees, a sense of wonder had its 
 will, and grew, slowly at first, in Redclyffe s 
 mind ; and almost twin-born with it, and grow 
 ing piece by piece, there was a sense of awful 
 fear, as his waking senses came slowly back to 
 him. In the dreamy state, he had felt no fear; 
 but, as a waking man, it was fearful to discover 
 that the shadowy forms did not fly from his 
 awaking eyes. He started at last to his feet 
 from the low couch on which he had all this 
 time been lying. 
 
 3 6 4 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " What are you ? " he exclaimed. " Where 
 am I ? " 
 
 The old figure made no answer ; nor could 
 Redclyffe be quite sure that his voice had any 
 effect upon it, though he fancied that it was 
 shaken a little, as if his voice came to it from 
 afar. But it continued to gaze at him, or at 
 least to have its aged face turned towards him 
 in the dim light ; and this strange composure 
 and unapproachableness were very frightful. 
 As his manhood gathered about his heart, how 
 ever, the American endeavored to shake off 
 this besetting fear, or awe, or whatever it was, 
 and to bring himself to a sense of waking things, 
 to burst through the mist and delusive shows 
 that bewildered him, and catch hold of a reality. 
 He stamped upon the floor ; it was solid stone, 
 the pavement, or oak so old and stanch that it 
 resembled it. There was one firm thing, there 
 fore. But the contrast between this and the 
 slipperiness, the unaccountableness, of the rest 
 of his position, made him the more sensible of 
 the latter. He made a step towards the old fig 
 ure; another; another. He was face to face 
 with him, within a yard of distance. He saw 
 the faint movement of the old man s breath ; he 
 sought, through the twilight of the room, some 
 glimmer of perception in his eyes. 
 
 " Are you a living man ? " asked Redclyffe 
 faintly and doubtfully. 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 He mumbled, the old figure, some faint 
 moaning sound, that, if it were language at all, 
 had all the edges and angles worn off it by 
 decay, unintelligible, except that it seemed to 
 signify a faint mournfulness and complaining- 
 ness of mood ; and then held his peace, contin 
 uing to gaze as before. Redclyffe could not 
 bear the awe that filled him, while he kept at a 
 distance, and, coming desperately forward, he 
 stood close to the old figure ; he touched his 
 robe, to see if it were real ; he laid his hand 
 upon the withered hand that held the staff, in 
 which he now recognized the very staff of the 
 Doctor s legend. His fingers touched a real 
 hand, though bony and dry as if it had been in 
 the grave. 
 
 " Then you are real ? " said Redclyffe doubt 
 fully. 
 
 The old figure seemed to have exhausted it 
 self its energies, what there were of them 
 in the effort of making the unintelligible commu 
 nication already vouchsafed. Then he seemed 
 to lapse out of consciousness, and not to know 
 what was passing, or to be sensible that any per 
 son was near him. But Redclyffe was now re 
 suming his firmness and daylight consciousness 
 even in the dimness. He ran over all that he 
 had heard of the legend of the old house, rap 
 idly considering whether there might not be 
 something of fact in the legend of the undying 
 366 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 old man ; whether, as told or whispered in the 
 chimney corners, it might not be an instance of 
 the mysterious, the half-spiritual mode in which 
 actual truths communicate themselves imper 
 fectly through a medium that gives them the 
 aspect of falsehood. Something in the atmo 
 sphere of the house made its inhabitants and 
 neighbors dimly aware that there was a secret 
 resident ; it was by a language not audible, but 
 of impression ; there could not be such a secret 
 in its recesses without making itself sensible. 
 This legend of the undying one translated it to 
 vulgar apprehension. He remembered those 
 early legends, told by the Doctor, in his child 
 hood ; he seemed imperfectly and doubtfully 
 to see what was their true meaning, and how, 
 taken aright, they had a reality, and were the 
 craftily concealed history of his own wrongs, 
 sufferings, and revenge. And this old man ! 
 who was he? He joined the Warden s account 
 of the family to the Doctor s legends. He 
 could not believe, or take thoroughly in, the 
 strange surmise to which they led him ; but, by 
 an irresistible impulse, he acted on it. 
 
 {< Sir Edward Redclyffe ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Ha ! who speaks to me ? " exclaimed the 
 old man, in a startled voice, like one who hears 
 himself called at an unexpected moment. 
 
 " Sir Edward Redclyffe," repeated Redclyffe, 
 * I bring you news of Norman Oglethorpe ! " 3 
 
 36? 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " The villain ! the tyrant ! mercy ! mercy ! 
 save me ! " cried the old man, in most violent 
 emotion of terror and rage intermixed, that 
 shook his old frame as if it would be shaken 
 asunder. He stood erect, the picture of ghastly 
 horror, as if he saw before him that stern face 
 that had thrown a blight over his life, and so 
 fearfully avenged, from youth to age, the crime 
 that he had committed. The effect, the passion, 
 was too much, the terror with which it smote, 
 the rage that accompanied it, blazed up for a 
 moment with a fierce flame, then flickered and 
 went out. He stood tottering ; Redclyffe put 
 out his hand to support him ; but he sank down 
 in a heap on the floor, as if a thing of dry bones 
 had been suddenly loosened at the joints, and 
 fell in a rattling heap. 4 
 
 368 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 K^DCLYFFE, apparently, had not com 
 municated to his agent in London his 
 change of address, when he left the 
 Warden s residence to avail himself of the hos 
 pitality of Braithwaite Hall ; for letters arrived 
 for him, from his own country, both private and 
 with the seal of state upon them ; one among 
 the rest that bore on the envelope the name of 
 the President of the United States. The good 
 Warden was impressed with great respect for so 
 distinguished a signature, and, not knowing but 
 that the welfare of the Republic (for which he 
 had an Englishman s contemptuous interest) 
 might be involved in its early delivery at its de 
 stination, he determined to ride over to Braith 
 waite Hall, call on his friend, and deliver it with 
 his own hand. With this purpose, he mounted 
 his horse, at the hour of his usual morning ride, 
 and set forth ; and, before reaching the village, 
 saw a figure before him which he recognized as 
 that of the pensioner. 1 
 
 " Soho ! whither go you, old friend ? " said 
 the Warden, drawing his bridle as he came up 
 with the old man. 
 
 "To Braithwaite Hall, sir," said the pen- 
 3 6 9 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 sioner, who continued to walk diligently on ; 
 " and I am glad to see your honor (if it be so) 
 on the same errand." 
 
 " Why so ? " asked the Warden. " You 
 seem much in earnest. Why should my visit 
 to Braithwaite Hall be a special cause of rejoi 
 cing ? " 
 
 " Nay," said the pensioner, " your honor is 
 specially interested in this young American, 
 who has gone thither to abide ; and when one 
 is in a strange country he needs some guidance. 
 My mind is not easy about the young man." 
 
 " Well," said the Warden, smiling to himself 
 at the old gentleman s idle and senile fears, 
 " I commend your diligence on behalf of your 
 friend." 
 
 He rode on as he spoke, and deep in one of 
 the woodland paths he saw the flutter of a wo 
 man s garment, and, greatly to his surprise, over 
 took Elsie, who seemed to be walking along 
 with great rapidity, and, startled by the approach 
 of hoofs behind her, looked up at him, with a 
 pale cheek. 
 
 " Good-morning, Miss Elsie," said the War 
 den. " You are taking a long walk this morn 
 ing. I regret to see that I have frightened 
 you." 
 
 " Pray, whither are you going ? " said she. 
 
 " To the Hall," said the Warden, wondering 
 at the abrupt question. 
 
 370 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " Ah, sir," exclaimed Elsie, " for Heaven s 
 sake, pray insist on seeing Mr. RedclyfFe, > 
 take no excuse ! There are reasons for it." 
 
 " Certainly, fair lady," responded the War 
 den, wondering more and more at this injunc 
 tion from such a source. " And when I see this 
 fascinating gentleman, pray what message am 
 I to give him from Miss Elsie, who, more 
 over, seems to be on the eve of visiting him in 
 person ? " 
 
 " See him ! see him ! Only see him ! " said 
 Elsie, with passionate earnestness, " and in haste ! 
 See him now ! " 
 
 She waved him onward as she spoke ; and 
 the Warden, greatly commoted for the nonce, 
 complied with the maiden s fantasy so far as to 
 ride on at a quicker pace, uneasily marvelling 
 at what could have aroused this usually shy 
 and reserved girl s nervousness to such a pitch. 
 The incident served at all events to titillate his 
 English sluggishness ; so that he approached 
 the avenue of the old Hall with a vague expec 
 tation of something that had happened there, 
 though he knew not of what nature it could 
 possibly be. However, he rode round to the 
 side entrance, by which horsemen generally en 
 tered the house, and, a groom approaching to 
 take his bridle, he alighted and approached the 
 door. I know not whether it were anything 
 more than the glistening moisture common in 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 an English autumnal morning; but so it was, 
 that the trace of the Bloody Footstep seemed 
 fresh, as if it had been that very night imprinted 
 anew, and the crime made all over again, with 
 fresh guilt upon somebody s soul. 
 
 When the footman came to the door, respon 
 sive to his ring, the Warden inquired for Mr. 
 Redclyffe, the American gentleman. 
 
 " The American gentleman left for London 
 early this morning," replied the footman, in a 
 matter-of-fact way. 
 
 " Gone ! " exclaimed the Warden. " This is 
 sudden ; and strange that he should go without 
 saying good-by. Gone ! " and then he remem 
 bered the old pensioner s eagerness that the 
 Warden should come here, and Elsie s strange 
 injunction that he should insist on seeing Red 
 clyrTe. " Pray, is Lord Braithwaite at home ? " 
 
 " I think, sir, he is in the library," said the 
 servant, " but will see ; pray, sir, walk in." 
 
 He returned in a moment, and ushered the 
 Warden through passages with which he was 
 familiar of old, to the library, where he found 
 Lord Braithwaite sitting with the London news 
 paper in his hand. He rose and welcomed his 
 guest with great equanimity. 
 
 To the Warden s inquiries after Redclyffe 
 
 Lord Braithwaite replied that his guest had that 
 
 morning left the house, being called to London 
 
 by letters from America ; but of what nature 
 
 372 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 Lord Braithwaite was unable to say, except that 
 they seemed to be of urgency and importance. 
 The Warden s further inquiries, which he pushed 
 as far as was decorous, elicited nothing more 
 than this ; and he was preparing to take his 
 leave, not seeing any reason for insisting (ac 
 cording to Elsie s desire) on the impossibility 
 of seeing a man who was not there, nor, 
 indeed, any reason for so doing. And yet it 
 seemed very strange that RedclyfFe should have 
 gone so unceremoniously > nor was he half sat 
 isfied, though he knew not why he should be 
 otherwise. 
 
 " Do you happen to know Mr. Redclyffe s 
 address in London ? " asked the Warden. 
 
 " Not at all," said Braithwaite. " But I pre 
 sume there is courtesy enough in the American 
 character to impel him to write to me, or both 
 of us, within a day or two, telling us of his 
 whereabouts and whatabouts. Should you know, 
 I beg you will let me know ; for I have really 
 been pleased with this gentleman, and should 
 have been glad could he have favored me with 
 a somewhat longer visit." 
 
 There was nothing more to be said ; and the 
 Warden took his leave, and was about mount 
 ing his horse, when he beheld the pensioner ap 
 proaching the house, and he remained standing 
 until he should come up. 
 
 " You are too late," said he, as the old man 
 373 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 drew near. " Our friend has taken French 
 leave." 
 
 " Mr. Warden/ said the old man solemnly, 
 " let me pray you not to give him up so easily. 
 Come with me into the presence of Lord Braith- 
 waite." 
 
 The Warden made some objections ; but the 
 pensioner s manner was so earnest, that he soon 
 consented ; knowing that the strangeness of his 
 sudden return might well enough be put upon 
 the eccentricities of the pensioner, especially as 
 he was so well known to Lord Braithwaite. He 
 accordingly again rang at the door, which being 
 opened by the same stolid footman, the War 
 den desired him to announce to Lord Braithwaite 
 that the Warden and a pensioner desired to see 
 him. He soon returned, with a request that 
 they would walk in, and ushered them again to 
 the library, where they found the master of the 
 house in conversation with Omskirk at one end 
 of the apartment, a whispered conversation, 
 which detained him a moment, after their ar 
 rival. The Warden fancied that he saw in old 
 Omskirk s countenance a shade* more of that 
 mysterious horror which made him such a bug 
 bear to children ; but when Braithwaite turned 
 from him and approached his visitors, there was 
 no trace of any disturbance, beyond a natural 
 surprise to see his good friend the Warden so 
 soon after his taking leave. 2 
 374 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " I see you are surprised," said the latter. 
 " But you must lay the blame, if any, on our 
 good old friend here, who, for some reason, best 
 known to himself, insisted on having my com 
 pany here." 
 
 Braithwaite looked to the old pensioner, with 
 a questioning look, as if good-humoredly (yet 
 not as if he cared much about it) asking for an 
 explanation. As Omskirk was about leaving the 
 room, having remained till this time, with that 
 nervous look which distinguished him gazing 
 towards the party, the pensioner made him a 
 sign, which he obeyed as if compelled to do so. 
 
 " Well, my friend," said the Warden, some 
 what impatient of the aspect in which he him 
 self appeared, " I beg of you, explain at once to 
 Lord Braithwaite why you have brought me 
 back in this strange way." 
 
 " It is," said the pensioner quietly, " that in 
 your presence I request him to allow me to see 
 Mr. Redclyffe." 
 
 " Why, my friend," said Braithwaite, " how 
 can I show you a man who has left my house, 
 and whom, in the chances of this life, I am not 
 very likely to see again, though hospitably de 
 sirous of so doing? " 
 
 Here ensued a laughing sort of colloquy be 
 tween the Warden and Braithwaite, in which 
 the former jocosely excused himself for having 
 yielded to the whim of the pensioner, and re- 
 375 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 turned with him on an errand which he well 
 knew to be futile. 
 
 " I have long been aware," he said apart, in 
 a confidential way, " of something a little awry 
 in our old friend s mental system. You will 
 excuse him, and me for humoring him." 
 
 " Of course, of course," said Braithwaite, in 
 the same tone. " I shall not be moved by any 
 thing the old fellow can say." 
 
 The old pensioner, meanwhile, had been, as it 
 were, heating up, and gathering himself into a 
 mood of energy which those who saw him had 
 never before witnessed in his usually quiet per 
 son. He seemed somehow to grow taller and 
 larger, more impressive. At length, fixing his 
 eyes on Lord Braithwaite, he spoke again. 
 
 " Dark, murderous man ! " exclaimed he. 
 " Your course has not been unwatched ; the se 
 crets of this mansion are not unknown. For 
 two centuries back they have been better known 
 to them who dwell afar off than to those resi 
 dent within the mansion. The foot that made 
 the Bloody Footstep has returned from its long 
 wanderings, and it passes on, straight as destiny, 
 sure as an avenging Providence, to the 
 punishment and destruction of those who incur 
 retribution." 
 
 " Here is an odd kind of tragedy," said Lord 
 Braithwaite, with a scornful smile. " Come, my 
 old friend, lay aside this vein, and talk sense." 
 376 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 " Not thus do you escape your penalty, hard 
 ened and crafty one ! " exclaimed the pensioner. 
 " I demand of you, before this worthy Warden, 
 access to the secret ways of this mansion, of 
 which thou dost unjustly retain possession. I 
 shall disclose what for centuries has remained 
 hidden, the ghastly secrets that this house 
 hides." 
 
 " Humor him," whispered the Warden, " and 
 hereafter I will take care that the exuberance 
 of our old friend shall be duly restrained. He 
 shall not trouble you again." 
 
 Lord Braithwaite, to say the truth, appeared 
 a little flabbergasted and disturbed by these latter 
 expressions of the old gentleman. He hesitated, 
 turned pale ; but at last, recovering from his mo 
 mentary confusion and irresolution, he replied, 
 with apparent carelessness: 
 
 " Go wherever you will, old gentleman. The 
 house is open to you for this time. If ever you 
 have another opportunity to disturb it, the fault 
 will be mine." 
 
 " Follow, sir," said the pensioner, turning to 
 the Warden ; " follow, maiden ! 3 Now shall a 
 great mystery begin to be revealed." 
 
 So saying, he led the way before them, pass 
 ing out of the hall, not by the doorway, but 
 through one of the oaken panels of the wall, 
 which admitted the party into a passage which 
 seemed to pass through the thickness of the wall, 
 377 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and was lighted by interstices through which 
 shone gleams of light. This led them into what 
 looked like a little vestibule, or circular room, 
 which the Warden, though deeming himself 
 many years familiar with the old house, had 
 never seen before, any more than the passage 
 which led to it. To his surprise, this room was 
 not vacant, for in it sat, in a large old chair, 
 Omskirk, like a toad in its hole, like some wild, 
 fearful creature in its den, and it was now partly 
 understood how this man had the possibility of 
 suddenly disappearing, so inscrutably, and so in 
 a moment ; and, when all quest for him was 
 given up, of as suddenly appearing again. 
 
 " Ha ! " said old Omskirk, slowly rising, as 
 it the approach of some event that he had long 
 expected. " Is he coming at last ? " 
 
 " Poor victim of another s iniquity," said 
 the pensioner. " Thy release approaches. Re 
 joice!" 
 
 The old man arose with a sort of trepidation 
 and solemn joy intermixed in his manner, and 
 bowed reverently, as if there were in what he 
 heard more than other ears could understand 
 in it. 
 
 " Yes ; I have waited long," replied he. 
 " Welcome, if my release is come." 
 
 " Well," said Lord Braithwaite scornfully. 
 " This secret retreat of my house is known to 
 many. It was the priest s secret chamber when 
 
 378 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 it was dangerous to be of the old and true re 
 ligion, here in England. There is no longer 
 any use in concealing this place ; and the War 
 den, or any man, might have seen it, or any of 
 the curiosities of the old hereditary house, if 
 desirous so to do." 
 
 " Aha ! son of Belial ! " quoth the pensioner. 
 " And this, too ! " 
 
 He took three paces from a certain point of 
 the wall, which he seemed to know, and stooped 
 to press upon the floor. The Warden looked 
 at Lord Braithwaite , and saw that he had grown 
 deadly pale. What his change of cheer might 
 bode, he could not guess ; but, at the pressure 
 of the old pensioner s finger, the floor, or a seg 
 ment of it, rose like the lid of a box, and dis 
 covered a small darksome pair of stairs, within 
 which burned a lamp, lighting it downward, like 
 the steps that descend into a sepulchre. 
 
 " Follow," said he to those who looked on, 
 wondering. 
 
 And he began to descend. Lord Braithwaite 
 saw him disappear, then frantically followed, the 
 Warden next, and old Omskirk took his place 
 in the rear, like a man following his inevitable 
 destiny. At the bottom of a winding descent, 
 that seemed deep and remote, and far within, 
 they came to a door, which the pensioner pressed 
 with a spring ; and, passing through the space 
 that disclosed itself, the whole party followed, 
 379 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and found themselves in a small, gloomy room. 
 On one side of it was a couch, on which sat 
 Redclyffe ; face to face with him was a white- 
 haired figure in a chair. 
 
 " You are come ! " said Redclyffe solemnly. 
 " But too late ! " 
 
 " And yonder is the coffer, " said the pen 
 sioner. " Open but that, and our quest is 
 ended." 
 
 " That, if I mistake not, I can do," said Red 
 clyffe. 
 
 He drew forth what lie had kept all this 
 time, as something that might yet reveal to him 
 the mystery of his birth the silver key that 
 had been found by the grave in far New Eng 
 land ; and applying it to the lock, he slowly 
 turned it on the hinges, that had not been turned 
 for two hundred years. All even Lord Braith- 
 waite, guilty and shame-stricken as he felt 
 pressed forward to look upon what was about 
 to be disclosed. What were the wondrous con 
 tents ? The entire, mysterious coffer was full 
 of golden ringlets, abundant, clustering through 
 the whole coffer, and living with elasticity, so as 
 immediately, as it were, to flow over the sides 
 of the coffer, and rise in large abundance from 
 the long compression. Into this by a mir 
 acle of natural production which was known like 
 wise in other cases into this had been re 
 solved the whole bodily substance of that fair 
 380 
 
DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE S SECRET 
 
 and unfortunate being, known so long in the 
 legends of the family as the Beauty of the 
 Golden Locks. As the pensioner looked at this 
 strange sight, the lustre of the precious and 
 miraculous hair gleaming and glistening, and 
 seeming to add light to the gloomy room, 
 he took from his breast pocket another lock of 
 hair, in a locket, and compared it, before their 
 faces, with that which brimmed over from the 
 coffer. 
 
 " It is the same ! " said he. 
 
 " And who are you that know it ? " asked 
 Redclyffe, surprised. 
 
 " He whose ancestors taught him the secret, 
 who has had it handed down to him these 
 two centuries, and now only with regret yields 
 to the necessity of making it known. * 
 
 " You are the heir ! " said Redclyffe. 
 
 In that gloomy room, beside the dead old 
 man, they looked at him, and saw a dignity 
 beaming on him, covering his whole figure, that 
 broke out like a lustre at the close of day. 
 
 381 
 
NOTES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 1. The MS. gives the following alternative open 
 ings : " Early in the present century ; " " Soon after 
 the Revolution;" "Many years ago." 
 
 2. Throughout the first four pages of the MS. the 
 Doctor is called "Ormskirk," and in an earlier draft 
 of this portion of the romance, " Etheredge." 
 
 3. Author s note. "Crusty Hannah is a mixture 
 of Indian and negro." 
 
 4. Author s note. " It is understood from the first 
 that the children are not brother and sister. Describe 
 the children with really childish traits, quarrelling, be 
 ing naughty, etc. The Doctor should occasionally 
 beat Ned in course of instruction." 
 
 5. In order to show the manner in which Haw 
 thorne would modify a passage, which was neverthe 
 less to be left substantially the same, I subjoin here a 
 description of this graveyard as it appears in the earlier 
 draft : " The graveyard (we are sorry to have to treat 
 of such a disagreeable piece of ground, but everybody s 
 business centres there at one time or another) was the 
 most ancient in the town. The dust of the original 
 Englishmen had become incorporated with the soil; of 
 those Englishmen whose immediate predecessors had 
 been resolved into the earth about the country churches, 
 the little Norman, square, battlemented stone towers 
 
 383 
 
NOTES 
 
 of the villages in the old land ; so that in this point of 
 view, as holding bones and dust of the first ancestors, 
 this graveyard was more English than anything else in 
 town. There had been hidden from sight many a 
 broad, bluff visage of husbandmen that had ploughed 
 the real English soil ; there the faces of noted men, 
 now known in history ; there many a personage whom 
 tradition told about, making wondrous qualities of 
 strength and courage for him ; all these, mingled 
 with succeeding generations, turned up and battened 
 down again with the sexton s spade; until every blade 
 of grass was human more than vegetable, for an 
 hundred and fifty years will do this, and so much time, 
 at least, had elapsed since the first little mound was 
 piled up in the virgin soil. Old tombs there were, too, 
 with numerous sculptures on them, and quaint, mossy 
 gravestones ; although all kinds of monumental ap 
 pendages were of a date more recent than the time of 
 the first settlers, who had been content with wooden 
 memorials, if any, the sculptor s art not having then 
 reached New England. Thus rippled, surged, broke 
 almost against the house, this dreary graveyard, which 
 made the street gloomy, so that people did not like to 
 pass the dark, high wooden fence, with its closed gate, 
 that separated it from the street. And this old house 
 was one that crowded upon it, and took up the ground 
 that would otherwise have been sown as thickly with 
 dead as the rest of the lot; so that it seemed hardly 
 possible but that the dead people should get up out of 
 their graves, and come in there to warm themselves. 
 But, in truth, I have never heard a whisper of its being 
 haunted." 
 
 384 
 
NOTES 
 
 6. Author s note. "The spiders are affected by 
 the weather and serve as barometers. It shall always 
 be a moot point whether the Doctor really believed in 
 cobwebs, or was laughing at the credulous." 
 
 7. Author s note. "The townspeople are at war 
 with the Doctor. Introduce the Doctor early as a 
 smoker, and describe. The result of Crusty Hannah s 
 strangely mixed breed should be shown in some strange 
 way. Give vivid pictures of the society of the day, 
 symbolized in the street scenes." 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 1. Author s note. " Read the whole paragraph be 
 fore copying any of it." 
 
 2. Author s note. "Crusty Hannah teaches Elsie 
 curious needlework, etc." 
 
 3. These two children are described as follows in 
 an early note of the author s : " The boy had all the 
 qualities fitted to excite tenderness in those who had 
 the care of him ; in the first and most evident place, 
 on account of his personal beauty, which was very re 
 markable, the most intelligent and expressive face 
 that can be conceived, changing in those early years 
 like an April day, and beautiful in all its changes ; dark, 
 but of a soft expression, kindling, melting, glowing, 
 laughing; a varied intelligence, which it was as good as 
 a book to read. He was quick in all modes of mental 
 exercise; quick and strong, too, in sensibility; proud, 
 and gifted (probably by the circumstances in which he 
 was placed) with an energy which the softness and im 
 pressibility of his nature needed. As for the little 
 girl, all the squalor of the abode served but to set off 
 
 385 
 
NOTES 
 
 her lightsomeness and brightsomeness. She was a pale, 
 large-eyed little thing, and it might have been supposed 
 that the air of the house and the contiguity of the burial 
 place had a bad effect upon her health. Yet I hardly 
 think this could have been the case, for she was of a 
 very airy nature, dancing and sporting through the house 
 as if melancholy had never been made. She took all 
 kinds of childish liberties with the Doctor, and with 
 his pipe, and with everything appertaining to him ex 
 cept his spiders and his cobwebs." All of which goes 
 to show that Hawthorne first conceived his characters 
 in the mood of the Twice-Told Tales, and then by 
 meditation solidified them to the inimitable flesh and 
 blood of The House of the Seven Gables and The 
 Blithedale Romance. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 1. An English church spire, evidently the proto 
 type of this, and concerning which the same legend is 
 told, is mentioned in the author s English Note-Books. 
 
 2. Leicester Hospital, in Warwick, described in 
 Our Old Home, is the original of this charity. 
 
 3. Author s note. "The children find a grave 
 stone with something like a footprint on it." 
 
 4. Author s note. "Put into the Doctor s char 
 acter a continual enmity against somebody, breaking 
 out in curses of which nobody can understand the ap 
 plication." 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 I. The Doctor s propensity for cobwebs is ampli 
 tied in the following note for an earlier and somewhz 
 386 
 
NOTES 
 
 milder version of the character: "According to him, 
 all science was to be renewed and established on a sure 
 ground by no other means than cobwebs. The cob 
 web was the magic clue by which mankind was to be 
 rescued from all its errors, and guided safely back to 
 the right. And so he cherished spiders above all things, 
 and kept them spinning, spinning away ; the only textile 
 factory that existed at that epoch in New England. 
 He distinguished the production of each of his ugly 
 friends, and assigned peculiar qualities to each ; and he 
 had been for years engaged in writing a work on this new 
 discovery, in reference to which he had already com 
 piled a great deal of folio manuscript, and had unguessed- 
 at resources still to come. With this suggestive sub 
 ject he interwove all imaginable learning, collected 
 from his own library, rich in works that few others 
 had read, and from that of his beloved University, 
 crabbed with Greek, rich with Latin, drawing into 
 itself, like a whirlpool, all that men had thought hith 
 erto, and combining them anew in such a way that it 
 had all the charm of a racy originality. Then he had 
 projects for the cultivation of cobwebs, to which end, 
 in the good Doctor s opinion, it seemed desirable to 
 devote a certain part of the national income; and not 
 content with this, all public-spirited citizens would 
 probably be induced to devote as much of their time 
 and means as they could to the same end. According 
 to him, there was no such beautiful festoon and drapery 
 for the halls of princes as the spinning of this hereto 
 fore despised and hated insect; and by due encourage 
 ment it might be hoped that they would flourish, and 
 hang and dangle and wave triumphant in the breeze, 
 
 387 
 
NOTES 
 
 to an extent as yet generally undreamed of. And he 
 lamented much the destruction that has heretofore 
 been wrought upon this precious fabric by the house 
 maid s broom, and insisted upon by foolish women who 
 claimed to be good housewives. Indeed, it was the 
 general opinion that the Doctor s celibacy was in great 
 measure due to the impossibility of rinding a woman 
 who would pledge herself to cooperate with him in 
 this great ambition of his life, that of reducing the 
 world to a cobweb factory ; or who would bind herself 
 to let her own drawing-room be ornamented with this 
 kind of tapestry. But there never was a wife precisely 
 fitted for our friend the Doctor, unless it had been 
 Arachne herself, to whom, if she could again have been 
 restored to her female shape, he would doubtless have 
 lost no time in paying his addresses. It was doubtless 
 the having dwelt too long among the musty and dusty 
 clutter and litter of things gone by, that made the 
 Doctor almost a monomaniac on this subject. There 
 were cobwebs in his own brain, and so he saw nothing 
 valuable but cobwebs in the world around him; and 
 deemed that the march of created things, up to this 
 time, had been calculated by foreknowledge to produce 
 them." 
 
 2. Author s note. "Ned must learn something of 
 the characteristics of the Catechism, and simple cottage 
 devotion." 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 1. Authors note. "Make the following scene 
 emblematic of the world s treatment of a dissenter." 
 
 2, Author s note. "Yankee characteristics should 
 be shown in the schoolmaster s manners." 
 
NOTES 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 1. Author s note. "He had a sort of horror of 
 violence, and of the strangeness that it should be done 
 to him; this affected him more than the blow." 
 
 2. Author s note. "Jokes occasionally about the 
 schoolmaster s thinness and lightness, how he might 
 suspend himself from the spider s web and swing, etc." 
 
 3. Author s note. " The Doctor and the school 
 master should have much talk about England." 
 
 4. Author s note. "The children were at play in 
 the churchyard." 
 
 5. Authors note. "He mentions that he was 
 probably buried in the churchyard there." 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 1 . Author s note. " Perhaps put this narratively, 
 not as spoken." 
 
 2. Author s note. "He was privately married to 
 the heiress, if she were an heiress. They meant to 
 kill him in the wood, but, by contrivance, he was kid 
 napped." 
 
 3. Author s note. " They were privately married." 
 
 4. Author s note. "Old descriptive letters, refer 
 ring to localities as they existed." 
 
 5. Author s note, "There should be symbols and 
 tokens, hinting at the schoolmaster s disappearance, 
 from the first opening of the scene." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 I. Author s note. "They had got up in remarka 
 bly good case that morning." 
 
 389 
 
NOTES 
 
 2. Author s note. "The stranger may be the fu 
 ture master of the Hospital. Describe the winter 
 day." 
 
 3. Author s note. "Describe him as clerical." 
 
 4. Author s note. "Represent him as a refined, 
 agreeable, genial young man, of frank, kindly, gentle 
 manly manners." 
 
 5. Alternative reading: "A clergyman." 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 1. Author s note. "Make the old grave-digger a 
 laudator temporis acti, especially as to burial customs." 
 
 2. Instead of "written," as in the text, the author 
 probably meant to write " read." 
 
 3. The MS. has "delight," but "a light" is evi 
 dently intended. 
 
 4. Author s note. " He aims a blow, perhaps with 
 his pipe, at the boy, which Ned wards off." 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 1. Author s note. " No longer could play at quar- 
 terstaff with Ned." 
 
 2. Author s note. "Referring to places and peo 
 ple in England: the Bloody Footstep sometimes." 
 
 3. In the original the following occurs, but marked 
 to indicate that it was to be omitted : "And kissed his 
 hand to her, and laughed feebly; and that was the last 
 that she or anybody, the last glimpse they had of Doc 
 tor Grimshawe alive." 
 
 4. Author s notes. "A great deal must be made 
 out of the spiders, and their gloomy, dusky, flaunting 
 
 390 
 
NOTES 
 
 tapestry. A web across the orifice of his inkstand 
 every morning; everywhere, indeed, except across the 
 snout of his brandy bottle. Depict the Doctor in an 
 old dressing gown, and a strange sort of a cap, like a 
 wizard s. The two children are witnesses of many 
 strange experiments in the study ; they see his moods, 
 too. The Doctor is supposed to be writing a work 
 on the Natural History of Spiders. Perhaps he used 
 them as a blind for his real project, and used to bam 
 boozle the learned with pretending to read them pas 
 sages in which great learning seemed to be elaborately 
 worked up, crabbed with Greek and Latin, as if the 
 topic drew into itself, like a whirlpool, all that men 
 thought and knew; plans to cultivate cobwebs on a 
 large scale. Sometimes, after overwhelming them with 
 astonishment in this way, he would burst into one of 
 his laughs. Schemes to make the world a cobweb 
 factory, etc., etc. Cobwebs in his own brain. Crusty 
 Hannah such a mixture of persons and races as could 
 be found only at a seaport. There was a rumor that 
 the Doctor had murdered a former maid, for having, 
 with housewifely instinct, swept away the cobwebs ; 
 some said that he had her skeleton in a closet. Some 
 said that he had strangled a wife with web of the great 
 spider. Read the description of Bolton Hall, the 
 garden, lawn, etc., Aug. 8, 53. Bebbington church 
 and churchyard, Aug. 29, 53. The Doctor is able 
 to love, able to hate; two great and rare abilities 
 nowadays. Introduce two pine-trees, ivy-grown, as at 
 Lowwood Hotel, July 16, 58. The family name 
 might be Redclyffe. Thatched cottage, June 22, 55. 
 391 
 
NOTES 
 
 Early introduce the mention of the cognizance of 
 the family, the Leopard s Head, for instance, in the 
 first part of the romance ; the Doctor may have pos 
 sessed it engraved as coat of arms in a book. The 
 Doctor shall show Ned, perhaps, a drawing or engrav 
 ing of the Hospital, with figures of the pensioners in the 
 quadrangle, fitly dressed ; and this picture and the fig 
 ures shall impress themselves strongly on his memory." 
 The above dates and places refer to passages in the 
 published English Note-Books. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 1. Author s note. "Compare it with Spenser s 
 Cave of Despair. Put instruments of suicide there." 
 
 2. Author s note. " Once, in looking at the man 
 sion, RedclyfFe is struck by the appearance of a marble 
 inserted into the wall, and kept clear of lichens." 
 
 3. Author s note. "Describe, in rich poetry, all 
 shapes of deadly things." 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 1. Author s note. " Conferred their best quali 
 ties : * an alternative phrase for c done their utmost." 
 
 2. Author 1 note. " Let the old man have a beard 
 as part of the costume." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 1 . Author s note. " Describe him as delirious, and 
 the scene as adopted into his delirium." 
 
 2. Author s note. "Make the whole scene very 
 dreamlike and feverish." 
 
 3. Author s note. " There should be a slight wild- 
 
 392 
 
NOTES 
 
 ness in the patient s remark to the surgeon, which he 
 cannot prevent, though he is conscious of it." 
 
 4. Author s note. "Notice the peculiar depth and 
 intelligence of his eyes, on account of his pain and 
 sickness." 
 
 5. Author s note. " Perhaps the recognition of the 
 pensioner should not be so decided. Redclyffe thinks 
 it is he, but thinks it as in a dream, without wonder or 
 inquiry ; and the pensioner does not quite acknowledge 
 it." 
 
 6. The following dialogue is marked to be omitted 
 or modified in the original MS. ; but it is retained here, 
 in order that the thread of the narrative may not be 
 broken. 
 
 7. Author s note. "The patient, as he gets better, 
 listens to the feet of old people moving in corridors ; to 
 the ringing of a bell at stated periods ; to old, tremu 
 lous voices talking in the quadrangle ; etc., etc." 
 
 8. At this point the modification indicated in Note 
 5 seems to have been made operative, and the recog 
 nition takes place in another way. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 1. This paragraph is left incomplete in the original 
 MS. 
 
 2. The words " Rich old bindings" are interlined 
 here, indicating, perhaps, a purpose to give a more de 
 tailed description of the library and its contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 I. Author s note. "I think it shall be built of 
 stone, however." 
 
 393 
 
NOTES 
 
 2. This probably refers to some incident which 
 the author intended to incorporate in the former por 
 tion of the romance, on a final revision. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 I. Several passages, which are essentially repro 
 ductions of what had been previously treated, are 
 omitted from this chapter. It belongs to an earlier 
 version of the romance. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 1. Author s note. u Redclyffe shows how to find, 
 under the surface of the village green, an old cross." 
 
 2. Author s note. "A circular seat around the 
 tree." 
 
 3. The reader now hears for the first time what 
 RedclyfFe recollected. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 1. Author s note. "The dinner is given to the 
 pensioners, as well as to the gentry, I think." 
 
 2. Author s note. " For example, a story of three 
 brothers, who had a deadly quarrel among them more 
 than two hundred years ago for the affections of a 
 young lady, their cousin, who gave her reciprocal love 
 to one of them, who immediately became the object of 
 the deadly hatred of the two others. There seemed 
 to be madness in their love, perhaps madness in the 
 love of all three ; for the result had been a plot to kid 
 nap this unfortunate young man and convey him to 
 America, where he was sold for a servant." 
 
 394 
 
NOTES 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 I. The following passage, though it seems to fit 
 in here chronologically, is concerned with a side issue 
 which was not followed up. The author was experi 
 menting for a character to act as the accomplice of 
 Lord Braithwaite at the Hall ; and he makes trial of 
 the present personage, Mountford ; of an Italian priest, 
 Father Angelo ; and finally, of the steward, Omskirk, 
 who is adopted. It will be noticed that Mountford is 
 here endowed (for the moment) with the birthright of 
 good Doctor Hammond, the Warden. He is repre 
 sented as having made the journey to America in search 
 of the grave. This alteration being inconsistent with 
 the true thread of the story, and being, moreover, not 
 continued, I have placed this passage in the Notes in- 
 siead of in the text. 
 
 REDCLYFFE often, in the dim weather, when the 
 prophetic intimations of rain were too strong to allow 
 an American to walk abroad with peace of mind, was 
 in the habit of pacing this noble hall, and watching the 
 process of renewal and adornment ; or, which suited 
 him still better, of enjoying its great, deep solitude when 
 the workmen were away. Parties of visitors, curious 
 tourists, sometimes peeped in, took a cursory glimpse 
 at the old hall, and went away : these were the only 
 ordinary disturbances. But, one day, a person entered, 
 looked carelessly round the hall, as if its antiquity had 
 no great charm to him; then he seemed to approach 
 Redclyffe, who stood far and dim in the remote distance 
 395 
 
NOTES 
 
 of the great room. The echoing of feet on the stone 
 pavement of the hall had always an impressive sound, 
 and turning his head towards the visitant Edward stood 
 as if there were an expectance for him in this approach. 
 It was a middle-aged man, rather, a man towards 
 fifty, with an alert, capable air ; a man evidently with 
 something to do in life, and not in the habit of throw 
 ing away his moments in looking at old halls ; a gentle 
 manly man enough, too. He approached Redclyffe 
 without hesitation, and, lifting his hat, addressed him 
 in a way that made Edward wonder whether he could 
 be an Englishman. If so, he must have known that 
 Edward was an American, and have been trying to 
 adapt his manners to those of a democratic free 
 dom. 
 
 "Mr. Redclyffe, I believe," said he. 
 
 Redclyffe bowed, with the stiff caution of an English 
 man ; for, with American mobility, he had learned to 
 be stiff. 
 
 "I think I have had the pleasure of knowing at 
 least of meeting you very long ago," said the gentle 
 man. u But I see you do not recollect me." 
 
 Redclyffe confessed that the stranger had the advan 
 tage of him in his recollection of a previous acquaint 
 ance. 
 
 " No wonder," said the other, " for, as I have already 
 hinted, it was many years ago." 
 
 " In my own country, then, of course," said Red 
 clyffe. 
 
 " In your own country certainly," said the stranger, 
 " and when it would have required a penetrating eye 
 to see the distinguished Mr. Redclyffe, the representa- 
 396 
 
NOTES 
 
 tive of American democracy abroad, in the little pale- 
 faced, intelligent boy, dwelling with an old humorist in 
 the corner of a graveyard." 
 
 At these words Redclyffe sent back his recollections, 
 and, though doubtfully, began to be aware that this 
 must needs be the young Englishman who had come to 
 his guardian on such a singular errand as to search an 
 old grave. It must be he, for it could be nobody else ; 
 and, in truth, he had a sense of his identity, which, 
 however, did not express itself by anything that he 
 could confidently remember in his looks, manner, or 
 voice, yet, if anything, it was most in the voice. But 
 the image which, on searching, he found in his mind of 
 a fresh-colored young Englishman, with light hair and a 
 frank, pleasant face, was terribly realized for the worse 
 in this somewhat heavy figure, and coarser face, and 
 heavier eye. In fact, there is a terrible difference be 
 tween the mature Englishman and the young man who 
 is not yet quite out of his blossom. His hair, too, was 
 getting streaked and sprinkled with gray ; and, in short, 
 there were evident marks of his having worked, and 
 succeeded, and failed, and eaten and drunk, and being 
 made largely of beef, ale, port, and sherry, and all the 
 solidities of English life. 
 
 " I remember you now," said Redclyffe, extending 
 his hand frankly ; and yet Mountford took it in so cold 
 a way that he was immediately sorry that he had done 
 it, and called up an extra portion of reserve to freeze 
 the rest of the interview. He continued, coolly enough : 
 "I remember you, and something of your American 
 errand, which, indeed, has frequently been in my 
 mind since. I hope you found the results of your 
 397 
 
NOTES 
 
 voyage, in the way of discovery, sufficiently successful 
 to justify so much trouble." 
 
 " You will remember," said Mountford, " that the 
 grave proved quite unproductive. Yes, you will not 
 have forgotten it ; for I well recollect how eagerly you 
 listened, with that queer little girl, to my talk with the 
 old governor, and how disappointed you seemed when 
 you found that the grave was not to be opened. And 
 yet, it is very odd. I failed in that mission ; and yet 
 there are circumstances that have led me to think that 
 I ought to have succeeded better, that some other 
 person has really succeeded better." 
 
 Redclyffe was silent ; but he remembered the strange 
 old silver key, and how he had kept it secret, and the 
 doubts that had troubled his mind then and long after 
 wards, whether he ought not to have found means 
 to convey it to the stranger, and ask whether that was 
 what he sought. And now here was that same doubt 
 and question coming up again, and he found himself 
 quite as little able to solve it as he had been twenty 
 years ago. Indeed, with the views that had come up 
 since, it behooved him to be cautious, until he knew 
 both the man and the circumstances. 
 
 "You are probably aware," continued Mountford, 
 " for I understand you have been some time in this 
 neighborhood, that there is a pretended claim, a con 
 testing claim, to the present possession of the estate 
 of Braithwaite, and a long dormant title. Possibly 
 who knows? you yourself might have a claim to 
 one or the other. Would not that be a singular co 
 incidence ? Have you ever had the curiosity to inves 
 tigate your parentage with a view to this point ? " 
 
 398 
 
NOTES 
 
 "The title," replied Redclyffe, "ought not to be a 
 very strong consideration with an American. One of 
 us would be ashamed, I verily believe, to assume anv 
 distinction, except such as may be supposed to indicate 
 personal, not hereditary merit. We have in some 
 measure, I think, lost the feeling of the past, and even 
 of the future, as regards our own lines of descent ; and 
 even as to wealth, it seems to me that the idea of heap 
 ing up a pile of gold, or accumulating a broad estate 
 for our children and remoter descendants, is dying out. 
 We wish to enjoy the fulness of our success in life 
 ourselves, and leave to those who descend from us the 
 task of providing for themselves. This tendency is 
 seen in our lavish expenditure and the whole arrange 
 ment of our lives ; and it is slowly yet not very 
 slowly, either effecting a change in the whole 
 economy of American life." 
 
 "Still," rejoined Mr. Mountford, with a smile that 
 Redclyffe fancied was dark and subtle, " still, I should 
 imagine that even an American might recall so much of 
 hereditary prejudice as to be sensible of some earthly 
 advantages in the possession of an ancient title and 
 hereditary estate like this. Personal distinction may 
 suit you better, to be an Ambassador by your own 
 talent ; to have a future for yourself, involving the 
 possibility of ranking (though it were only for four 
 years) among the acknowledged sovereigns of the earth ; 
 this is very good. But if the silver key would open 
 the shut-up secret to-day, it might be possible that you 
 would relinquish these advantages." 
 
 Before Redclyffe could reply (and, indeed, there 
 seemed to be an allusion at the close of Mountford s 
 399 
 
NOTES 
 
 speech which, whether intended or not, he knew not 
 how to reply to) a young lady entered the hall, whom 
 he was at no loss, by the colored light of a painted 
 window that fell upon her, translating her out of the 
 common daylight, to recognize as the relative of the 
 pensioner. She seemed to have come to give her fanciful 
 superintendence to some of the decorations of the hall ; 
 such as required woman s taste, rather than the sturdy 
 English judgment and antiquarian knowledge of the 
 Warden. Slowly following after her came the pen 
 sioner himself, leaning on his staff, and looking up at 
 the old roof and around him with a benign composure, 
 and himself a fitting figure by his antique and venerable 
 appearance to walk in that old hall. 
 
 "Ah!" said Mountford, to Redclyffe s surprise, 
 "here is an acquaintance, two acquaintances of mine." 
 
 He moved along the hall to accost them ; and as he 
 appeared to expect that Redclyffe would still keep him 
 company, and as the latter had no reason for not doing 
 so, they both advanced to the pensioner, who was now 
 leaning on the young woman s arm. The incident, 
 too, was not unacceptable to the American, as promis 
 ing to bring him into a more available relation with 
 her whom he half fancied to be his old American 
 acquaintance than he had yet succeeded in obtaining. 
 
 " Well, my old friend," said Mountford, after bowing 
 with a certain measured respect to the young woman, 
 " how wears life with you ? Rather, perhaps, it does 
 not wear at all ; you being so well suited to the life 
 around you, you 2;row by it like a lichen on a wall. I 
 could fancy now that you have walked here for three 
 hundred years, and remember when King James of 
 400 
 
NOTES 
 
 blessed memory was entertained in this hall, and could 
 marshal out all the ceremonies just as they were then." 
 
 " An old man," said the pensioner quietly, " grows 
 dreamy as he wanes away ; and I, too, am sometimes 
 at a loss to know whether I am living in the past or 
 the present, or whereabouts in time I am, or whether 
 there is any time at all. But I should think it hardly 
 worth while to call up one of my shifting dreams more 
 than another." 
 
 " I confess," said Redclyffe, " I shall find it im 
 possible to call up this scene any of these scenes 
 hereafter, without the venerable figure of this, whom I 
 may truly call my benefactor, among them-. I fancy 
 him among them from the foundation, young then, 
 but keeping just the equal step with their age and decay, 
 and still doing good and hospitable deeds to those 
 who need them." 
 
 The old man seemed not to like to hear these remarks 
 and expressions of gratitude from Mountford and the 
 American ; at any rate, he moved away with his slow 
 and light motion of infirmity, but then came uneasily 
 back, displaying a certain quiet restlessness, which Red 
 clyffe was sympathetic enough to perceive. Not so the 
 sturdier, more heavily moulded Englishman, who con 
 tinued to direct the conversation upon the pensioner, 
 or at least to make him a part of it, thereby bringing out 
 more of his strange characteristics. In truth, it is not 
 quite easy for an Englishman to know how to adapt 
 himself to the fine feelings of those below him in point 
 of station, whatever gentlemanly deference he may have 
 for his equals or superiors. 
 
 " I should like now, father pensioner," said he, " to 
 401 
 
NOTES 
 
 know how many steps you may have taken in life 
 before your path led into this hole, and whence your 
 course started. 
 
 " Do not let him speak thus to the old man," said 
 the young woman, in a low, earnest tone, to Redclyffe. 
 He was surprised and startled ; it seemed like a voice 
 that had spoken to his boyhood. 
 
 2. Author s note. " Redclyffe s place is next to 
 that of the proprietor at table." 
 
 3. Author s note. " Dwell upon the antique liv 
 eried servants somewhat." 
 
 4. Author s note. " The rose-water must precede 
 the toasts." 
 
 5. Author s note. " The jollity of the Warden at 
 the feast to be noticed ; and afterwards explain that he 
 had drunk nothing." 
 
 6. Author s note. " Mention the old silver snuff 
 box which I saw at the Liverpool Mayor s dinner." 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 1. This is not the version of the story as indicated 
 in the earlier portion of the romance. It is there 
 implied that Elsie is the Doctor s granddaughter, her 
 mother having been the Doctor s daughter, who was 
 ruined by the then possessor of the Braithwaite estates, 
 and who died in consequence. That the Doctor s 
 scheme of revenge was far deeper and more terrible 
 than simply to oust the family from its possessions will 
 appear further on. 
 
 2. The foregoing passage was evidently experi 
 mental, and the author expresses his estimate of its 
 
 402 
 
NOTES 
 
 value in the following words, " What unimaginable 
 nonsense! " He then goes on to make the following 
 memoranda as to the plot. It should be remembered, 
 however, that all this part of the romance was written 
 before the American part. 
 
 u Half of a secret is preserved in England, that is 
 to say, in the particular part of the mansion in which 
 an old coffer is hidden ; the other part is carried to 
 America; One key of an elaborate lock is retained in 
 England, among some old curiosities of forgotten pur 
 pose ; the other is the silver key that Redclyffe found 
 beside the grave. A treasure of gold is what they ex 
 pect ; they find a treasure of golden locks. This lady, 
 the beloved of the Bloody Footstep, had been murdered 
 and hidden in the coffer on account of jealousy. Elsie 
 must know the baselessness of Redclyffe s claims, and 
 be loath to tell him, because she sees that he is so much 
 interested in them. She has a paper of the old Doc 
 tor s revealing the whole plot, a deathbed confes 
 sion ; Redclyffe having been absent at the time." 
 
 The reader will recollect that this latter suggestion 
 was not adopted : there was no deathbed confession. 
 As regards the coffer full of golden locks, it was sug 
 gested by an incident recorded in the English Note- 
 Books, 1854. "The grandmother of Mrs. O Sulli- 
 van died fifty years ago, at the age of twenty-eight. 
 She had great personal charms, and among them a head 
 of beautiful chestnut hair. After her burial in a fam 
 ily tomb, the coffin of one of her children was laid on 
 her own, so that the lid seems to have decayed, or been 
 broken from this cause ; at any rate, this was the case 
 when the tomb was opened, about a year ago. The 
 403 
 
NOTES 
 
 grandmother s coffin was then found to be filled with 
 beautiful, glossy, living chestnut ringlets, into which 
 her whole substance seems to have been transformed, 
 for there was nothing else but these shining curls, the 
 growth of half a century, in the tomb. An old man, 
 with a ringlet of his youthful mistress treasured in his 
 heart, might be supposed to witness this wonderful 
 thing." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 i. In a study of the plot, too long to insert here, 
 this new character of the steward is introduced and 
 described. It must suffice to say, in this place, that 
 he was intimately connected with Doctor Grimshawe, 
 who had resuscitated him after he had been hanged, and 
 had thus gained his gratitude and secured his implicit 
 obedience to his wishes, even twenty years after his 
 (Grimshawe s) death. The use the Doctor made of 
 him was to establish him in Braithwaite Hall as the 
 perpetual confidential servant of the owners thereof. 
 Of course, the latter are not aware that the steward is 
 acting in Grimshawe s interest, and therefore in deadly 
 opposition to their own. Precisely what the steward s 
 mission in life was will appear hereafter. 
 
 The study above alluded to, with others, amounting 
 10 about a hundred pages, will be published as a sup 
 plement to a future edition of this work. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 I. Author s note. " RedclyfFe lies in a dreamy 
 state, thinking fantastically, as if he were one of the 
 seven sleepers. He does not yet open his eyes, but 
 lies there in a maze." 
 
 404 
 
NOTES 
 
 2. Author s note. " Redclyffe must look at the 
 old man quietly and dreamily, and without surprise, 
 for a long while." 
 
 3. Presumably the true name of Doctor Grim- 
 shawe. 
 
 4. This mysterious prisoner, Sir Edward Red- 
 clyffe, is not, of course, the Sir Edward who founded 
 the Hospital, but a descendant of that man, who ruined 
 Doctor Grimshawe s daughter, and is the father of 
 Elsie. He had been confined in this chamber, by the 
 Doctor s contrivance, ever since, Omskirk being his 
 jailer, as is foreshadowed in Chapter XI. He has 
 been kept in the belief that he killed Grimshawe, in a 
 struggle that took place between them ; and that his 
 confinement in the secret chamber is voluntary on his 
 own part, a measure of precaution to prevent arrest 
 and execution for murder. In this miserable delusion 
 he has cowered there for five and thirty years. This 
 and various other dusky points are partly elucidated in 
 the notes hereafter to be appended to this volume. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 1. At this point, the author, for what reason I will 
 not venture to surmise, chooses to append this gloss : 
 u Bubble-and-Squeak ! " 
 
 2. Author s note. " They found him in the hall 
 about to go out." 
 
 3. Elsie appears to have joined the party. 
 
 405 
 
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