by Oscar Wilde
“The young lady, I fear, is very much indisposed,” remarked Sir Francis Varney, in a sympathetic tone of voice. “If she will accept of my arm, I shall esteem it a great honour.”
“No—no—no!—God! no,” cried Flora.
“Madam, I will not press you.”
He bowed, and Charles led Flora from the summer-house towards the hall.
“Flora,” he said, “I am bewildered—I know not what to think. That man most certainly has been fashioned after the portrait which is on the panel in the room you formerly occupied; or it has been painted from him.”
“He is my midnight visitor!” exclaimed Flora. “He is the vampire;—this Sir Francis Varney is the vampire.”
“Good God! What can be done?”
“I know not. I am nearly distracted.”
“Be calm, Flora. If this man be really what you name him, we now know from what quarter the mischief comes, which is, at all events, a point gained. Be assured we shall place a watch upon him.”
“Oh, it is terrible to meet him here.”
“And he is so wonderfully anxious, too, to possess the Hall.”
“He is—he is.”
“It looks strange, the whole affair. But, Flora, be assured of one thing, and that is, of your own safety.”
“Can I be assured of that?”
“Most certainly. Go to your mother now. Here we are, you see, fairly within doors. Go to your mother, dear Flora, and keep yourself quiet. I will return to this mysterious man now with a cooler judgment than I left him.”
“You will watch him, Charles?”
“I will, indeed.”
“And you will not let him approach the house here alone?”
“I will not.”
“Oh, that the Almighty should allow such beings to haunt the earth!”
“Hush, Flora, hush! we cannot judge of his allwise purpose.”
‘”Tis hard that the innocent should be inflicted with its presence.”
Charles bowed his head in mournful assent.
“Is it not very, very dreadful?”
“Hush—hush! Calm yourself, dearest, calm yourself. Recollect that all we have to go upon in this matter is a resemblance, which, after all, may be accidental. But leave it all to me, and be assured that now I have some clue to this affair, I will not lose sight of it, or of Sir Francis Varney.”
So saying, Charles surrendered Flora to the care of her mother, and then was hastening back to the summer-house, when he met the whole party coming towards the Hall, for the rain was each moment increasing in intensity.
“We are returning,” remarked Sir Francis Varney, with a half bow and a smile, to Charles.
“Allow me,” said Henry, “to introduce you, Mr. Holland, to our neighbour, Sir Francis Varney.”
Charles felt himself compelled to behave with courtesy, although his mind was so full of conflicting feelings as regarded Varney; but there was no avoiding, without such brutal rudeness as was inconsistent with all his pursuits and habits, replying in something like the same strain to the extreme courtly politeness of the supposed vampire.
“I will watch him closely,” thought Charles. “I can do no more than watch him closely.”
Sir Francis Varney seemed to be a man of the most general and discursive information. He talked fluently and pleasantly upon all sorts of topics, and notwithstanding he could not but have heard what Flora had said of him, he asked no questions whatever upon that subject.
This silence as regarded a matter which would at once have induced some sort of inquiry from any other man, Charles felt told much against him, and he trembled to believe for a moment that, after all, it really might be true.
“Is he a vampire?” he asked himself. “Are there vampires, and is this man of fashion—this courtly, talented, educated gentleman one?” It was a perfectly hideous question.
“You are charmingly situated here,” remarked Varney, as, after ascending the few steps that led to the hall door, he turned and looked at the view from that slight altitude.
“The place has been much esteemed,” said Henry, “for its picturesque beauties of scenery.”
“And well it may be. I trust, Mr. Holland, the young lady is much better?”
“She is, sir,” said Charles.
“I was not honoured by an introduction.”
“It was my fault,” said Henry, who spoke to his extraordinary guest with an air of forced hilarity. “It was my fault for not introducing you to my sister.”
“And that was your sister?”
“It was, sir.”
“Report has not belied her—she is beautiful. But she looks rather pale, I thought. Has she bad health?”
“The best of health.”
“Indeed! Perhaps the little disagreeable circumstance, which is made so much food for gossip in the neighbourhood, has affected her spirits?”
“It has.”
“You allude to the supposed visit here of a vampire?” said Charles, as he fixed his eyes upon Varney’s face.
“Yes, I allude to the supposed appearance of a supposed vampire in this family,” said Sir Francis Varney, as he returned the earnest gaze of Charles, with such unshrinking assurance, that the young man was compelled, after about a minute, nearly to withdraw his own eyes.
“He will not be cowed,” thought Charles. “Use has made him familiar to such cross-questioning.”
It appeared now suddenly to occur to Henry that he had said something at Varney’s own house which should have prevented him from coming to the Hall, and he now remarked—
“We scarcely expected the pleasure of your company here, Sir Francis Varney.”
“Oh, my dear sir, I am aware of that; but you roused my curiosity. You mentioned to me that there was a portrait here amazingly like me.”
“Did I?”
“Indeed you did, or how could I know it? I wanted to see if the resemblance was so perfect.”
“Did you hear, sir,” added Henry, “that my sister was alarmed at your likeness to that portrait?”
“No, really.”
“I pray you walk in, and we will talk more at large upon that matter.”
“With great pleasure. One leads a monotonous life in the country, when compared with the brilliancy of a court existence. Just now I have no particular engagement. As we are near neighbours I see no reason why we should not be good friends, and often interchange such civilities as make up the amenities of existence, and which, in the country, more particularly, are valuable.”
Henry could not be hypocrite enough to assent to this; but still, under the present aspect of affairs, it was impossible to return any but a civil reply; so he said—
“Oh, yes, of course—certainly. My time is very much occupied, and my sister and mother see no company.”
“Oh, now, how wrong.”
“Wrong, sir?”
“Yes, surely. If anything more than another tends to harmonize individuals, it is the society of that fairer half of the creation which we love for their very foibles. I am much attached to the softer sex—to young persons full of health. I like to see the rosy checks, where the warm blood mantles in the superficial veins, and all is loveliness and life.”
Charles shrank back, and the word “Demon” unconsciously escaped his lips.
Sir Francis took no manner of notice of the expression, but went on talking, as if he had been on the very happiest terms with every one present.
“Will you follow me, at once, to the chamber where the portrait hangs,” said Henry, “or will you partake of some refreshment first?”
“No refreshment for me,” said Varney. “My dear friend, if you will permit me to call you such, this is a time of the day at which I never do take any refreshment.”
“Nor at any other,” thought Henry.
; They all went to the chamber where Charles had passed one very disagreeable night, and when they arrived, Henry pointed to the portrait on the panel, saying—
“There, Sir Francis Varney, is your likeness.”
He looked, and, having walked up to it, in an under tone, rather as if he were conversing with himself than making a remark for any one else to hear, he said—
“It is wonderfully like.”
“It is, indeed,” said Charles.
“If I stand beside it, thus,” said Varney, placing himself in a favourable attitude for comparing the two faces, “I dare say you will be more struck with the likeness than before.”
So accurate was it now, that the same light fell upon his face as that under which the painter had executed the portrait, that all started back a step or two.
“Some artists,” remarked Varney, “have the sense to ask where a portrait is to be hung before they paint it, and then they adapt their lights and shadows to those which would fall upon the original, were it similarly situated.”
“I cannot stand this,” said Charles to Henry; “I must question him farther.”
“As you please, but do not insult him.”
“I will not.”
“He is beneath my roof now, and, after all, it is but a hideous suspicion we have of him.”
“Rely upon me.”
Charles stepped forward, and once again confronting Varney, with an earnest gaze, he said—
“Do you know, sir, that Miss Bannerworth declares the vampire she fancies to have visited this chamber to be, in features, the exact counterpart of this portrait?”
“Does she indeed?”
“She does, indeed.”
“And perhaps, then, that accounts for her thinking that I am the vampire, because I bear a strong resemblance to the portrait.”
“I should not be surprised,” said Charles.
“How very odd.”
“Very.”
“And yet entertaining. I am rather amused than otherwise. The idea of being a vampire. Ha! ha! If ever I go to a masquerade again, I shall certainly assume the character of a vampire.”
“You would do it well.”
“I dare say, now, I should make quite a sensation.”
“I am certain you would. Do you not think, gentlemen, that Sir Francis Varney would enact the character to the very life? By Heavens, he would do it so well that one might, without much difficulty, really imagine him a vampire.”
“Bravo—bravo,” said Varney, as he gently folded his hands together, with that genteel applause that may even be indulged in in a box at the opera itself. “Bravo. I like to see young persons enthusiastic; it looks as if they had some of the real fire of genius in their composition. Bravo—bravo.”
This was, Charles thought, the very height and acme of impudence, and yet what could he do? What could he say? He was foiled by the downright coolness of Varney.
As for Henry, George, and Mr. Marchdale, they had listened to what was passing between Sir Francis and Charles in silence. They feared to diminish the effect of anything Charles might say, by adding a word of their own; and, likewise, they did not wish to lose one observation that might come from the lips of Varney.
But now Charles appeared to have said all he had to say, he turned to the window and looked out. He seemed like a man who had made up his mind, for a time, to give up some contest in which he had been engaged.
And, perhaps, not so much did he give it up from any feeling or consciousness of being beaten, as from a conviction that it could be the more effectually, at some other and far more eligible opportunity, renewed.
Varney now addressed Henry, saying—
“I presume the subject of our conference, when you did me the honour of a call, is no secret to any one here?”
“None whatever,” said Henry.
“Then, perhaps, I am too early in asking you if you have made up your mind?”
“I have scarcely, certainly, had time to think.”
“My dear sir, do not let me hurry you; I much regret, indeed, the intrusion.”
“You seem anxious to possess the Hall,” remarked Mr. Marchdale, to Varney.
“I am.”
“Is it new to you?”
“Not quite. I have some boyish recollections connected with this neighbourhood, among which Bannerworth Hall stands sufficiently prominent.”
“May I ask how long ago that was?” said Charles Howard, rather abruptly.
“I do not recollect, my enthusiastic young friend,” said Varney. “How old are you?”
“Just about twenty-one.”
“You are, then, for your age, quite a model of discretion.”
It would have been difficult for the most accurate observer of human nature to have decided whether this was said truthfully or ironically, so Charles made no reply to it whatever.
“I trust,” said Henry, “we shall induce you, as this is your first visit, Sir Francis Varney, to the Hall, to partake of some thing.”
“Well, well, a cup of wine—”
“Is at your service.”
Henry now led the way to a small parlour, which, although by no means one of the showiest rooms of the house, was, from the care and exquisite carving with which it abounded, much more to the taste of any who possessed an accurate judgment in such works of art.
Then wine was ordered, and Charles took an opportunity of whispering to Henry—
“Notice well if he drinks.”
“I will.”
“Do you see that beneath his coat there is a raised place, as if his arm was bound up?”
“I do.”
“There, then, was where the bullet from the pistol fired by Flora, when we were at the church, hit him.”
“Hush! for God’s sake, hush! you are getting into a dreadful state of excitement, Charles; hush! hush!”
“And can you blame—”
“No, no; but what can we do?”
“You are right. Nothing can we do at present. We have a clue now, and be it our mutual inclination, as well as duty, to follow it. Oh, you shall see how calm I will be!”
“For Heaven’s sake, be so. I have noted that his eyes flash upon yours with no friendly feeling.”
“His friendship were a curse.”
“Hush! he drinks!”
“Watch him.”
“I will.”
“Gentlemen all,” said Sir Francis Varney, in such soft, dulcet tones, that it was quite a fascination to hear him speak; “gentlemen all, being as I am, much delighted with your company, do not accuse me of presumption, if I drink now, poor drinker as I am, to our future merry meetings.”
He raised the wine to his lips, and seemed to drink, after which he replaced the glass upon the table.
Charles glanced at it, it was still full.
“You have not drank, Sir Francis Varney,” he said.
“Pardon me, enthusiastic young sir,” said Varney, “perhaps you will have the liberality to allow me to take my wine how I please and when I please.”
“Your glass is full.”
“Well, sir?”
“Will you drink it?”
“Not at any man’s bidding, most certainly. If the fair Flora Bannerworth would grace the board with her sweet presence, methinks I could then drink on, on, on.”
“Hark you, sir,” cried Charles, “I can bear no more of this. We have had in this house most horrible and damning evidence that there are such things as vampires.”
“Have you really? I suppose you eat raw pork at supper, and so had the nightmare?”
“A jest is welcome in its place, but pray hear me out, sir, if it suit your lofty courtesy to do so.”
“Oh, certainly.”
“Then I say we believe, as far as human judgment has a righ
t to go, that a vampire has been here.”
“Go on, it’s interesting. I always was a lover of the wild and the wonderful.”
“We have, too,” continued Charles, “some reason to believe that you are the man.”
Varney tapped his forehead as he glanced at Henry, and said—
“Oh, dear, I did not know. You should have told me he was a little wrong about the brain; I might have quarreled with the lad. Dear me, how lamentable for his poor mother.”
“This will not do, Sir Francis Varney alias Bannerworth.”
“Oh—oh! Be calm—be calm.”
“I defy you to your teeth, sir! No, God, no! Your teeth!”
“Poor lad! Poor lad!”
“You are a cowardly demon, and here I swear to devote myself to your destruction.”
Sir Francis Varney drew himself up to his full height, and that was immense, as he said to Henry—
“I pray you, Mr. Bannerworth, since I am thus grievously insulted beneath your roof, to tell me if your friend here be mad or sane?”
“He’s not mad.”
“Then—”
“Hold, sir! The quarrel shall be mine. In the name of my persecuted sister—in the name of Heaven. Sir Francis Varney, I defy you.”
Sir Francis, in spite of his impenetrable calmness, appeared somewhat moved, as he said—
“I have already endured insult sufficient—I will endure no more. If there are weapons at hand—”
“My young friend,” interrupted Mr. Marchdale, stepping between the excited men, “is carried away by his feelings, and knows not what he says. You will look upon it in that light, Sir Francis.”
“We need no interference,” exclaimed Varney, his hitherto bland voice changing to one of fury. “The hot blooded fool wishes to fight, and he shall—to the death—to the death.”
“And I say he shall not,” exclaimed Mr. Marchdale, taking Henry by the arm. “George,” he added, turning to the young man, “assist me in persuading your brother to leave the room. Conceive the agony of your sister and mother if anything should happen to him.”
Varney smiled with a devilish sneer, as he listened to these words, and then he said—
“As you will—as you will. There will be plenty of time, and perhaps better opportunity, gentlemen. I bid you good day.”