Hawthorne_Marble_Faun.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
, , guide me home ! "
" are both lonely ; both far from home ! " said
, her eyes filling with tears. " am a poor, weak
girl, and have no such wisdom as you fancy in me."
further may have passed between these lovers,
while standing before the pillared shrine, and the marble
that marks 's tomb, whither they had
now wandered, we are unable to record. when the
kneeling figure, beneath the open eye of the
arose, she looked towards the pair, and extended her
hands with a gesture of benediction. they knew
that it was . suffered her to glide out of
the portal, however, without a greeting ; for those ex-
tended hands, even while they blessed, seemed to repel,
as if stood on the other side of a fathomless
abyss, and warned them from its verge.
874 .
won the gentle 's shy affection, and
her consent to be his bride. hand must hence-
forth trim the lamp before the 's shrine ; for
was coming down from her old tower, to be herself en-
shrined and worshipped as a household saint, in the light
of her husband's fireside. , now that life had so much
human promise in it, they resolved to go back to their own
land ; because the years, after all, have a kind of emptiness,
when we spend too many of them on a foreign shore.
defer the reality of life, in such cases, until a future mo-
ment, when we shall again breathe our native air ; but,
by-and-by, there are no future moments ; or, if we do re-
turn, we find that the native air has lost its invigorating
quality, and that life has shifted its reality to the spot
where we have deemed ourselves only temporary resi-
dents. , between two countries, we have none at all,
or only that little space of either, in which we finally lay
down our discontented bones. is wise, therefore, to
come back betimes, or never.
they quitted , a bridal gift was laid on
's table. was a bracelet, evidently of great cost,
being composed of seven ancient gems, dug out
of seven sepulchres, and each one of them the signet of
some princely personage, who had lived an immemorial
time ago. remembered this precious ornament.
had been 's ; and once, with the exuberance of
fancy that distinguished her, she had amused herself with
telling a mythical and magic legend for each gem, com-
prising the imagmary adventures and catastrophe of its
former wearer. , the bracelet became the
connecting bond of a series of seven wondrous tales, all
of which, as they were dug out of seven sepulchres, were
characterized by a sevenfold sepulchral gloom ; such as
's imagination, shadowed by her own misfortunes,
was wont to fling over its most sportive flights.
now, happy as was, the bracelet brought the
tears into her eyes, as being, in its entire circle, the sym-
bol of as sad a mystery as any that had attached
to the separate gems. , what was 's life to be ?
where was ? had a hopeful
, and saw sunlight on the mountain-tops.
. 375
.
comes to the author from many readers of the
foregoing pages, a demand for further elucidations re-
specting the mysteries of the story.
reluctantly avails himself of the opportunity af-
forded by a new edition, to explain such incidents and
passages as may have been left too much in the dark ;
reluctantly, he repeats, because the necessity makes him
sensible that he can have succeeded but imperfectly, at
best, in throwing about this the kind of atmos-
phere essential to the effect at which he aimed.
designed the story and the characters to bear, of
course, a certain relation to human nature and human
life, but still to be so artfully and airily removed from our
mundane sphere, that some laws and proprieties of their
own should be implicitly and insensibly acknowledged.
idea of the modern , for example, loses all
the poetry and beauty which the fancied in it, and
becomes nothmg better than a grotesque absurdity, if we
bring it into the actual light of day. had hoped to
mystify this anomalous creature between the and the
, in such a manner that the reader's sympathies
might be excited to a certain pleasurable degree, without
impelling him to ask how would have classified
poor , or to insist upon being told, m so many
words, whether he had furry ears or no. respects all
who ask such questions, the book is, to that extent, a
failure.
, the fortunately has it in his
power to throw light upon several matters in which some
of his readers appear to feel an interest. confess the
truth, he was himself troubled with a curiosity similar to
that which he has just deprecated on the part of his read-
ers, and once took occasion to cross-examine his friends,
and the sculptor, and to pry into several dark re-
cesses of the story, with which they had heretofore imper-
fectly acquainted him.
three had climbed to the top of 's,
and were looking down upon the we were soon
to leave, but which (having already sinned sufficiently
in that way) it is not my purpose further to describe.
876 .
occurred to me, that, being so remote in the upper
air, my friends might safely utter, here, the secrets which
it would be perilous even to whisper, on lower earth,
"," began, "can you tell me the contents of
that mysterious packet which intrusted to your
charge, and which was addressed to -
boni, at the ? "
" never had any further knowledge of it," replied
, " nor felt it right to let myself be curious upon
the subject."
" to its precise contents," interposed , " it
is impossible to speak. , isolated as she
seemed, had family connections in , one of whom,
there is reason to believe, occupied a position in the
government.
" was either the assumed
name of the personage in question, or the medium of
communication between that mdividual and .
under such a government as that of , it is
obvious that 's privacy and isolated life could
only be maintained through the connivance and support
of some influential person connected with the admin-
istration of affairs. and self-controlled as she
appeared, her every movement was watched and inves-
tigated far more thoroughly by the priestly rulers than
by her dearest friends.
" , if mistake not, had a purpose to withdraw
herself from this irksome scrutiny, and to seek real ob-
scurity in another land ; and the packet, to be delivered
long after her departure, contained a reference to this
design, besides certain family documents, which were to
be imparted to her relative as from one dead and gone."
" , it is clear as a fog," remarked. "
this head no further elucidation can be desired.
when went quietly to deliver the packet, why did
she so mysteriously vanish ? "
" must recollect," replied , with a glance
of friendly commiseration at my obtuseness, " that -
iam had utterly disappeared, leaving no trace by which
her whereabouts could be known. the meantime, the
municipal authorities had become aware of the murder of
the ; and from many precedmg circumstances,
. 377
such as his persecution of , they must have seen
an obvious connection between herself and that tragical
event. , there is reason to believe that -
iam was suspected of connection with some plot, or polit-
ical intrigue, of which there may have been tokens in the
packet. when appeared, as the bearer of this
missive, it was really quite a matter of course, under a
despotic government, that she should be detained."
", quite a matter of course, as you say," answered
. " excessively stupid in me not to have seen it
sooner ! there are other riddles. the night of
the extinction of the lamp, you met in a peni-
tent's garb, and afterwards saw and spoke to , in a
coach, with a gem glowing on her bosom. was the
business of these two guilty ones m , and who was
's companion ? "
" ! " repeated , " why her official relative,
to be sure; and as to their business, 's still
gnawing remorse had brought him hitherward, in spite
of 's entreaties, and kept him lingering in the
neighborhood of , with the ultimate purpose of
delivering himself up to justice. 's disappearance,
which took place the day before, was known to them
through a secret channel, and had brought them into the
city, where , as surmise, began to make arrange-
ments, even then, for that sad frolic of the ."
" where was all that dreary time between ? '*
inquired .
" were you, ? " asked , smiling.
threw her eyes on all sides, and seeing that
there was not even a of the air to fly away with the
secret, nor any human being nearer than the loiterers
by the obelisk, in the piazza below, she told us about her
mysterious abode.
" was a prisoner in the of the ,
in the de' ," said she, " but in such kindly
custody of pious maidens, and watched over by such a
dear old priest, that had it not been for one or two dis-
turbing recollections, and also because am a daughter of
the could willingly have dwelt there for-
ever,
** entanglement with 's misfortunes, and the
878 .
good 's mistaken hope of a proselyte, seem to me
a suflQcient clue to the whole mystery."
" atmosphere is getting delightfully lucid," ob-
served , "but there are one or two things that still
puzzle me. you tell me and it shall be kept a
profound secret, assure you what were 's real
name and rank, and precisely the nature of the troubles
that led to all those direful consequences ? "
" it possible that you need an answer to those ques-
tions ? " exclaimed , with an aspect of vast sur-
prise. " you not even surmised 's name?
awhile, and you will assuredly remember it.
not, congratulate you most sincerely ; for it indicates
that your feelings have never been harrowed by one of
the most dreadful and mysterious events that have oc-
curred within the present century ! "
" ," resumed , after an interval of deep considera-
tion, " have but few things more to ask. , at
this moment, is ? "
" of ," said sadly,
turning his face towards that sepulchral fortress, " is no
longer a prison ; but there are others which have dun-
geons as deep, and in one of them, fear, lies our poor
."
why, then, is at large ? " asked.
it cruelty if you like, not mercy," answered
. ", after all, her crime lay merely in a
glance. did no murder ! "
" one question more," said , with intense earnest-
ness. " 's ears resemble those of the
of ? "
know, but may not tell," replied , smiling
mysteriously. " that point, at all events, there shall
be not one word of explanation."