Lady into Fox

by David Garnett

wouldbe further rumour. Indeed, had he known it, there was a story alreadygoing round the country that his wife had run away with Major Solmes,and that he was gone mad with grief, that he had shot his dogs and hishorses and shut himself up alone in the house and would speak with noone. This story was made up by his neighbours not because they werefanciful or wanted to deceive, but like most tittle-tattle to fill agap, as few like to confess ignorance, and if people are asked aboutsuch or such a man they must have something to say, or they suffer ineverybody's opinion, are set down as dull or "out of the swim." In thisway I met not long ago with someone who, after talking some little whileand not knowing me or who I was, told me that David Garnett was dead,and died of being bitten by a cat after he had tormented it. He had longgrown a nuisance to his friends as an exorbitant sponge upon them, andthe world was well rid of him.

  Hearing this story of myself diverted me at the time, but I fullybelieve it has served me in good stead since. For it set me on my guardas perhaps nothing else would have done, against accepting for true allfloating rumour and village gossip, so that now I am by second nature atrue sceptic and scarcely believe anything unless the evidence for it isconclusive. Indeed I could never have got to the bottom of this historyif I had believed one tenth part of what I was told, there was so muchof it that was either manifestly false and absurd, or else contradictoryto the ascertained facts. It is therefore only the bare bones of thestory which you will find written here, for I have rejected all theflowery embroideries which would be entertaining reading enough, Idaresay, for some, but if there be any doubt of the truth of a thing itis poor sort of entertainment to read about in my opinion.

  To get back to our story: Mr. Tebrick having considered how much theappetite of his neighbours would be whetted to find out the mystery byhis remaining in that part of the country, determined that the bestthing he could do was to remove.

  After some time turning the thing over in his mind, he decided that noplace would be so good for his purpose as old Nanny's cottage. It wasthirty miles away from Stokoe, which in the country means as far asTimbuctoo does to us in London. Then it was near Tangley, and his ladyhaving known it from her childhood would feel at home there, and also itwas utterly remote, there being no village near it or manor house otherthan Tangley Hall, which was now untenanted for the greater part of theyear. Nor did it mean imparting his secret to others, for there was onlyMrs. Cork's son, a widower, who being out at work all day would beeasily outwitted, the more so as he was stone deaf and of a slow andsaturnine disposition. To be sure there was little Polly, Mrs. Cork'sgranddaughter, but either Mr. Tebrick forgot her altogether, or elsereckoned her as a mere baby and not to be thought of as a danger.

  He talked the thing over with Mrs. Cork, and they decided upon it out ofhand. The truth is the old woman was beginning to regret that her loveand her curiosity had ever brought her back to Rylands, since so far shehad got much work and little credit by it.

  When it was settled, Mr. Tebrick disposed of the remaining business hehad at Rylands in the afternoon, and that was chiefly putting out hiswife's riding horse into the keeping of a farmer near by, for he thoughthe would drive over with his own horse, and the other spare horse tandemin the dogcart.

  The next morning they locked up the house and they departed, havingfirst secured Mrs. Tebrick in a large wicker hamper where she would betolerably comfortable. This was for safety, for in the agitation ofdriving she might jump out, and on the other hand, if a dog scented herand she were loose, she might be in danger of her life. Mr. Tebrickdrove with the hamper beside him on the front seat, and spoke to hergently very often.

  She was overcome by the excitement of the journey and kept poking hernose first through one crevice, then through another, turning andtwisting the whole time and peeping out to see what they were passing.It was a bitterly cold day, and when they had gone about fifteen milesthey drew up by the roadside to rest the horses and have their ownluncheon, for he dared not stop at an inn. He knew that any livingcreature in a hamper, even if it be only an old fowl, always drawsattention; there would be several loafers most likely who would noticethat he had a fox with him, and even if he left the hamper in the cartthe dogs at the inn would be sure to sniff out her scent. So not to takeany chances he drew up at the side of the road and rested there, thoughit was freezing hard and a north-east wind howling.

  He took down his precious hamper, unharnessed his two horses, coveredthem with rugs and gave them their corn. Then he opened the basket andlet his wife out. She was quite beside herself with joy, running hitherand thither, bouncing up on him, looking about her and even rolling overon the ground. Mr. Tebrick took this to mean that she was glad at makingthis journey and rejoiced equally with her. As for Mrs. Cork, she satmotionless on the back seat of the dogcart well wrapped up, eating hersandwiches, but would not speak a word. When they had stayed therehalf-an-hour Mr. Tebrick harnessed the horses again, though he was socold he could scarcely buckle the straps, and put his vixen in herbasket, but seeing that she wanted to look about her, he let her tearaway the osiers with her teeth till she had made a hole big enough forher to put her head out of.

  They drove on again and then the snow began to come down and that inearnest, so that he began to be afraid they would never cover theground. But just after nightfall they got in, and he was content toleave unharnessing the horses and baiting them to Simon, Mrs. Cork'sson. His vixen was tired by then, as well as he, and they slepttogether, he in the bed and she under it, very contentedly.

  The next morning he looked about him at the place and found the thingthere that he most wanted, and that was a little walled-in garden wherehis wife could run in freedom and yet be in safety.

  After they had had breakfast she was wild to go out into the snow. Sothey went out together, and he had never seen such a mad creature in allhis life as his wife was then. For she ran to and fro as if she werecrazy, biting at the snow and rolling in it, and round and round incircles and rushed back at him fiercely as if she meant to bite him. Hejoined her in the frolic, and began snowballing her till she was so wildthat it was all he could do to quiet her again and bring her indoors forluncheon. Indeed with her gambollings she tracked the whole garden overwith her feet; he could see where she had rolled in the snow and whereshe had danced in it, and looking at those prints of her feet as theywent in, made his heart ache, he knew not why.

  They passed the first day at old Nanny's cottage happily enough, withouttheir usual bickerings, and this because of the novelty of the snowwhich had diverted them. In the afternoon he first showed his wife tolittle Polly, who eyed her very curiously but hung back shyly and seemeda good deal afraid of the fox. But Mr. Tebrick took up a book and letthem get acquainted by themselves, and presently looking up saw thatthey had come together and Polly was stroking his wife, patting her andrunning her fingers through her fur. Presently she began talking to thefox, and then brought her doll in to show her so that very soon theywere very good playmates together. Watching the two gave Mr. Tebrickgreat delight, and in particular when he noticed that there wassomething very motherly in his vixen. She was indeed far above the childin intelligence and restrained herself too from any hasty action. Butwhile she seemed to wait on Polly's pleasure yet she managed to give atwist to the game, whatever it was, that never failed to delight thelittle girl. In short, in a very little while, Polly was so taken withher new playmate that she cried when she was parted from her and wantedher always with her. This disposition of Mrs. Tebrick's made Mrs. Corkmore agreeable than she had been lately either to the husband or thewife.

  Three days after they had come to the cottage the weather changed, andthey woke up one morning to find the snow gone, and the wind in thesouth, and the sun shining, so that it was like the first beginning ofspring.

  Mr. Tebrick let his vixen out into the garden after breakfast, stayedwith her awhile, and then went indoors to write some letters.

  When he got out again he could see no sign of her anywhere, so that heran about bewildered, c
alling to her. At last he spied a mound of freshearth by the wall in one corner of the garden, and running thither foundthat there was a hole freshly dug seeming to go under the wall. On thishe ran out of the garden quickly till he came to the other side of thewall, but there was no hole there, so he concluded that she was not yetgot through. So it proved to be, for reaching down into the hole he felther brush with his hand, and could hear her distinctly working away withher claws. He called to her then, saying: "Silvia, Silvia, why do you dothis? Are you trying to escape from me? I am your husband, and if I keepyou confined it is to protect you, not to let you run into danger. Showme how I can make you happy and I will do it, but do not try to escapefrom me. I love you, Silvia; is it because of that that you want to flyfrom me to go into the world where you will be in danger of your lifealways? There are dogs everywhere and they all would kill you if it werenot for me. Come out, Silvia, come out."

  But Silvia would not listen to him, so he waited there silent. Then hespoke to her in a different way, asking her had she forgot the bargainshe made with him that she would not go out alone, but now when she hadall the liberty of a garden to herself would she wantonly break herword? And he asked her, were they not married? And had she not alwaysfound him a good husband to her? But she heeded this neither untilpresently his temper getting somewhat out of hand he cursed herobstinacy and told her if she would be a damned fox she was welcome toit, for his part he could get his own way. She had not escaped yet. Hewould dig her out for he still had time, and if she struggled put her ina bag.

  These words brought her forth instantly and she looked at him with asmuch astonishment as if she knew not what could have made him angry.Yes, she even fawned on him, but in a good-natured kind of way, as ifshe were a very good wife putting up wonderfully with her husband'stemper.

  These airs of hers made the poor gentleman (so simple was he) repent hisoutburst and feel most ashamed.

  But for all that when she was out of the hole he filled it up with greatstones and beat them in with a crowbar so she should find her work atthat point harder than before if she was tempted to begin it again.

  In the afternoon he let her go again into the garden but sent littlePolly with her to keep her company. But presently on looking out he sawhis vixen had climbed up into the limbs of an old pear tree and waslooking over the wall, and was not so far from it but she might jumpover it if she could get a little further.

  Mr. Tebrick ran out into the garden as quick as he could, and when hiswife saw him it seemed she was startled and made a false spring at thewall, so that she missed reaching it and fell back heavily to the groundand lay there insensible. When Mr. Tebrick got up to her he found herhead was twisted under her by her fall and the neck seemed to be broken.The shock was so great to him that for some time he could not doanything, but knelt beside her turning her limp body stupidly in hishands. At length he recognised that she was indeed dead, and beginningto consider what dreadful afflictions God had visited him with, heblasphemed horribly and called on God to strike him dead, or give hiswife back to him.

  "Is it not enough," he cried, adding a foul blasphemous oath, "that youshould rob me of my dear wife, making her a fox, but now you must rob meof that fox too, that has been my only solace and comfort in thisaffliction?"

  Then he burst into tears and began wringing his hands and continuedthere in such an extremity of grief for half-an-hour that he carednothing, neither what he was doing, nor what would become of him in thefuture, but only knew that his life was ended now and he would not liveany longer than he could help.

  All this while the little girl Polly stood by, first staring, thenasking him what had happened, and lastly crying with fear, but he neverheeded her nor looked at her but only tore his hair, sometimes shoutedat God, or shook his fist at Heaven. So in a fright Polly opened thedoor and ran out of the garden.

  At length worn out, and as it were all numb with his loss, Mr. Tebrickgot up and went within doors, leaving his dear fox lying near where shehad fallen.

  He stayed indoors only two minutes and then came out again with a razorin his hand intending to cut his own throat, for he was out of hissenses in this first paroxysm of grief. But his vixen was gone, atwhich he looked about for a moment bewildered, and then enraged,thinking that somebody must have taken the body.

  The door of the garden being open he ran straight through it. Now thisdoor, which had been left ajar by Polly when she ran off, opened into alittle courtyard where the fowls were shut in at night; the woodhouseand the privy also stood there. On the far side of it from the gardengate were two large wooden doors big enough when open to let a cartenter, and high enough to keep a man from looking over into the yard.

  When Mr. Tebrick got into the yard he found his vixen leaping up atthese doors, and wild with terror, but as lively as ever he saw her inhis life. He ran up to her but she shrank away from him, and would thenhave dodged him too, but he caught hold of her. She bared her teeth athim but he paid no heed to that, only picked her straight up into hisarms and took her so indoors. Yet all the while he could scarce believehis eyes to see her living, and felt her all over very carefully to findif she had not some bones broken. But no, he could find none. Indeed itwas some hours before this poor silly gentleman began to suspect thetruth, which was that his vixen had practised a deception upon him, andall the time he was bemoaning his loss in such heartrending terms, shewas only shamming death to run away directly she was able. If it had notbeen that the yard gates were shut, which was a mere chance, she had gother liberty by that trick. And that this was only a trick of hers tosham dead was plain when he had thought it over. Indeed it is an old andtime-honoured trick of the fox. It is in Aesop and a hundred otherwriters have confirmed it since. But so thoroughly had he been deceivedby her, that at first he was as much overcome with joy at his wife stillbeing alive, as he had been with grief a little while before, thinkingher dead.

  He took her in his arms, hugging her to him and thanking God a dozentimes for her preservation. But his kissing and fondling her had verylittle effect now, for she did not answer him by licking or soft looks,but stayed huddled up and sullen, with her hair bristling on her neckand her ears laid back every time he touched her. At first he thoughtthis might be because he had touched some broken bone or tender placewhere she had been hurt, but at last the truth came to him.

  Thus he was again to suffer, and though the pain of knowing hertreachery to him was nothing to the grief of losing her, yet it was moreinsidious and lasting. At first, from a mere nothing, this pain grewgradually until it was a torture to him. If he had been one of yourstock ordinary husbands, such a one who by experience has learnt neverto enquire too closely into his wife's doings, her comings or goings,and never to ask her, "How she has spent the day?" for fear he should bemade the more of a fool, had Mr. Tebrick been such a one he had beenluckier, and his pain would have been almost nothing. But you mustconsider that he had never been deceived once by his wife in the courseof their married life. No, she had never told him as much as one whitelie, but had always been frank, open and ingenuous as if she and herhusband were not husband and wife, or indeed of opposite sexes. Yet wemust rate him as very foolish, that living thus with a fox, which beasthas the same reputation for deceitfulness, craft and cunning, in allcountries, all ages, and amongst all races of mankind, he should expectthis fox to be as candid and honest with him in all things as thecountry girl he had married.

  His wife's sullenness and bad temper continued that day, for she coweredaway from him and hid under the sofa, nor could he persuade her to comeout from there. Even when it was her dinner time she stayed, refusingresolutely to be tempted out with food, and lying so quiet that he heardnothing from her for hours. At night he carried her up to the bedroom,but she was still sullen and refused to eat a morsel, though she drank alittle water during the night, when she fancied he was asleep.

  The next morning was the same, and by now Mr. Tebrick had been throughall the agonies of wounded self-esteem, disillusionment
and despair thata man can suffer. But though his emotions rose up in his heart andnearly stifled him he showed no sign of them to her, neither did heabate one jot his tenderness and consideration for his vixen. Atbreakfast he tempted her with a freshly killed young pullet. It hurt himto make this advance to her, for hitherto he had kept her strictly oncooked meats, but the pain of seeing her refuse it was harder still forhim to bear. Added to this was now an anxiety lest she should starveherself to death rather than stay with him any longer.

  All that morning he kept her close, but in the afternoon let her looseagain in the garden after he had lopped the pear tree so that she couldnot repeat her performance of climbing.

  But seeing how disgustedly she looked while he was by, never offering torun or to play as she was used, but only standing stock still with hertail between her legs, her ears flattened, and the hair bristling on hershoulders, seeing this he left her to herself out of mere humanity.

  When he came out after half-an-hour he found that she was gone, butthere was a fair sized hole by the wall, and she just buried all but herbrush, digging desperately to get under the wall and make her escape.

  He ran up to the hole, and put his arm in after her and called to her tocome out, but she would not. So at first he began pulling her out by theshoulder, then his hold slipping, by the hind legs. As soon as he haddrawn her forth she whipped round and snapped at his hand and bit itthrough near the joint of the thumb, but let it go instantly. Theystayed there for a minute facing each other, he on his knees and shefacing him the picture of unrepentant wickedness and fury. Being thus onhis knees, Mr. Tebrick was down on her level very nearly, and her muzzlewas thrust almost into his face. Her ears lay flat on her head, her gumswere bared in a silent snarl, and all her beautiful teeth threateninghim that she would bite him again. Her back too was half-arched, all herhair bristling and her brush held