Pierre, Or the Ambiguities

by Herman Melville

  In the moment of strong feeling a wonderful condensativeness points the tongue and pen; so that ideas, then enunciated sharp and quick as minute-guns, in some other hour of unruffledness or unstimulatedness, require considerable time and trouble to verbally recall.

  Not here and now can we set down the precise contents of Pierre's letter, without a tautology illy doing justice to the ideas themselves. And though indeed the dread of tautology be the continual torment of some earnest minds, and, as such, is surely a weakness in them; and though no wise man will wonder at conscientious Virgil all eager at death to burn his Aeneid for a monstrous heap of inefficient superfluity; yet not to dread tautology at times only belongs to those enviable dunces, whom the partial God hath blessed, over all the earth, with the inexhaustible self-riches of vanity, and folly, and a blind self-complacency.

  Some rumor of the discontinuance of his betrothment to Lucy Tartan; of his already consummated marriage with a poor and friendless orphan; of his mother's disowning him consequent upon these events; such rumors, Pierre now wrote to his cousin, would very probably, in the parlors of his city-relatives and acquaintances, precede his arrival in town. But he hinted no word of any possible commentary on these things. He simply went on to say, that now, through the fortune of life-which was but the proverbially unreliable fortune of war — he was, for the present, thrown entirely upon his own resources, both for his own support and that of his wife, as well as for the temporary maintenance of a girl, whom he had lately had excellent reason for taking under his especial protection. He proposed a permanent residence in the city; not without some nearly quite settled plans as to the procuring of a competent income, without any ulterior reference to any member of their wealthy and widely ramified family. The house, whose temporary occupancy Glen had before so handsomely proffered him, would now be doubly and trebly desirable to him. But the pre-engaged servants, and the old china, and the old silver, and the old wines, and the Mocha, were now become altogether unnecessary. Pierre would merely take the place-for a short interval-of the worthy old clerk; and, so far as Glen was concerned, simply stand guardian of the dwelling, till his plans were matured. His cousin had originally made his most bounteous overture, to welcome the coming of the presumed bride of Pierre; and though another lady had now taken her place at the altar, yet Pierre would still regard the offer of Glen as impersonal in that respect, and bearing equal reference to any young lady, who should prove her claim to the possessed hand of Pierre.

  Since there was no universal law of opinion in such matters, Glen, on general worldly grounds, might not consider the real Mrs. Glendinning altogether so suitable a match for Pierre, as he possibly might have held numerous other young ladies in his eye: nevertheless, Glen would find her ready to return with sincerity all his cousinly regard and attention. In conclusion, Pierre said, that he and his party meditated an immediate departure, and would very probably arrive in town in eight-and forty hours after the mailing of the present letter. He therefore begged Glen to see the more indispensable domestic appliances of the house set in some little order against their arrival; to have the rooms aired and lighted; and also forewarn the confidential clerk of what he might soon expect. Then, without any tapering sequel of-"Yours, very truly and faithfully, my dear Cousin Glen," he finished the letter with the abrupt and isolated signature of-"pierre."

  BOOK XVI. FIRST NIGHT OF THEIR ARRIVAL IN THE CITY

  I

  THE STAGE was belated.

  The country road they traveled entered the city by a remarkably wide and winding street, a great thoroughfare for its less opulent inhabitants. There was no moon and few stars. It was that preluding hour of the night when the shops are just closing, and the aspect of almost every wayfarer, as he passes through the unequal light reflected from the windows, speaks of one hurrying not abroad, but homeward. Though the thoroughfare was winding, yet no sweep that it made greatly obstructed its long and imposing vista; so that when the coach gained the top of the long and very gradual slope running toward the obscure heart of the town, and the twinkling perspective of two long and parallel rows of lamps was revealed-lamps which seemed not so much intended to dispel the general gloom, as to show some dim path leading through it, into some gloom still deeper beyond, — when the coach gained this critical point, the whole vast triangular town, for a moment, seemed dimly and despondently to capitulate to the eye.

  And now, ere descending the gradually-sloping declivity, and just on its summit as it were, the inmates of the coach, by numerous hard, painful joltings, and ponderous, dragging trundlings, are suddenly made sensible of some great change in the character of the road. The coach seems rolling over cannon-balls of all calibers. Grasping Pierre's arm, Isabel eagerly and forebodingly demands what is the cause of this most strange and unpleasant transition.

  "The pavements, Isabel; this is the town."

  Isabel was silent.

  But, the first time for many weeks, Delly voluntarily spoke: "It feels not so soft as the green sward, Master Pierre." "No, Miss Ulver," said Pierre, very bitterly, "the buried hearts of some dead citizens have perhaps come to the surface."

  "Sir?" said Delly.

  "And are they so hard-hearted here?" asked Isabel.

  "Ask yonder pavements, Isabel. Milk dropped from the milk-man's can in December, freezes not more quickly on those stones, than does snow-white innocence, if in poverty, it chance to fall in these streets."

  'Then God help my hard fate, Master Pierre," sobbed Delly. "Why didst thou drag hither a poor outcast like me?"

  "Forgive me, Miss Ulver," exclaimed Pierre, with sudden warmth, and yet most marked respect; "forgive me; never yet have I entered the city by night, but, somehow, it made me feel both bitter and sad. Come, be cheerful, we shall soon be comfortably housed, and have our comfort all to ourselves; the old clerk I spoke to you about, is now doubtless ruefully eying his hat on the peg. Come, cheer up, Isabel;-'tis a long ride, but here we are, at last. Come! 'Tis not very far now to our welcome."

  "I hear a strange shuffling and clattering," said Delly, with a shudder.

  "It does not seem so light as just now," said Isabel.

  "Yes," returned Pierre, "it is the shop-shutters being put on; it is the locking, and bolting, and barring of windows and doors; the town's-people are going to their rest."

  "Please God they may find it!" sighed Delly.

  "They lock and bar out, then, when they rest, do they, Pierre?" said Isabel.

  "Yes, and you were thinking that does not bode well for the welcome I spoke of."

  "Thou read'st all my soul; yes, I was thinking of that. But whither lead these long, narrow, dismal side-glooms we pass every now and then? What are they? They seem terribly still. I see scarce any body in them;-there's another, now. See how haggardly look its criss-cross, far-separate lamps.-What are these side-glooms, dear Pierre; whither lead they?"

  "They are the thin tributaries, sweet Isabel, to the great Orinoco thoroughfare we are in; and like true tributaries, they come from the far-hidden places; from under dark beetling secrecies of mortar and stone; through the long marsh-grasses of villainy and by many a transplanted bough-beam, where the wretched have hung."

  "I know nothing of these things, Pierre. But I like not the town. Think'st thou, Pierre, the time will ever come when all the earth shall be paved?"

  "Thank God, that never can be!"

  "These silent side-glooms are horrible;-look! Methinks, not for the world would I turn into one."

  That moment the nigh fore-wheel sharply grated under the body of the coach.

  "Courage!" cried Pierre, "we are in it! — Not so very solitary either; here comes a traveler."

  "Hark, what is that?" said Delly, "that keen iron-ringing sound? It passed us just now."

  "The keen traveler," said Pierre, "he has steel plates to his boot-heels;-some tender-souled elder son, I suppose."

  "Pierre," said Isabel, "this silence is unnatural, is fearful. The forests are never so still."
>
  "Because brick and mortar have deeper secrets than wood or fell, sweet Isabel. But here we turn again; now if I guess right, two more turns will bring us to the door. Courage, all will be well; doubtless he has prepared a famous supper. Courage, Isabel. Come, shall it be tea or coffee? Some bread, or crisp toast? We'll have eggs, too; and some cold chicken, perhaps."-Then muttering to himself-"I hope not that, either; no cold collations! there's too much of that in these paving-stones here, set out for the famishing beggars to eat No. I won't have the cold chicken." Then aloud-"But here we turn again; yes, just as I thought. Ho, driver!" (thrusting his head out of the window) "to the right! to the right! it should be on the right! the first house with a light on the right!"

  "No lights yet but the street's," answered the surly voice of the driver.

  "Stupid! he has passed it-yes, yes-he has! Ho! ho! stop; turn back. Have you not passed lighted windows?"

  "No lights but the street's," was the rough reply. "What's the number? the number? Don't keep me beating about here all night! The number, I say!"

  "I do not know it," returned Pierre; "but I well know the house; you must have passed it, I repeat. You must turn back. Surely you have passed lighted windows?"

  "Then them lights must burn black; there's no lighted windows in the street; I knows the city; old maids lives here, and they are all to bed; rest is warehouses."

  "Will you stop the coach, or not?" cried Pierre, now incensed at his surliness in continuing to drive on.

  "I obeys orders: the first house with a light; and 'cording to my reck'ning-though, to be sure, I don't know nothing of the city where I was born and bred all my life-no, I knows nothing at all about it-'cording to my reck'ning, the first light in this here street will be the watch-house of the ward-yes, there it is-all right! cheap lodgings ye've engaged-nothing to pay, and victuals in."

  To certain temperaments, especially when previously agitated by any deep feeling, there is perhaps nothing more exasperating, and which sooner explodes all self-command, than the coarse, jeering insolence of a porter, cabman, or hack-driver. Fetchers and carriers of the worst city infamy as many of them are; professionally familiar with the most abandoned haunts; in the heart of misery, they drive one of the most mercenary of all the trades of guilt. Day-dozers and sluggards on their lazy boxes in the sunlight, and felinely wakeful and cat-eyed in the dark; most habituated to midnight streets, only trod by sneaking burglars, wantons, and debauchees; often in actual pandering league with the most abhorrent sinks; so that they are equally solicitous and suspectful that every customer they encounter in the dark, will prove a profligate or a knave; this hideous tribe of ogres, and Charon ferry-men to corruption and death, naturally slide into the most practically Calvinistical view of humanity, and hold every man at bottom a fit subject for the coarsest ribaldry and jest; only fine coats and full pockets can whip such mangy hounds into decency. The least impatience, any quickness of temper, a sharp remonstrating word from a customer in a seedy coat, or betraying any other evidence of poverty, however minute and indirect (for in that pecuniary respect they are the most piercing and infallible of all the judgers of men), will be almost sure to provoke, in such cases, their least endurable disdain.

  Perhaps it was the unconscious transfer to the stage-driver of some such ideas as these, which now prompted the highly irritated Pierre to an act, which, in a more benignant hour, his better reason would have restrained him from.

  He did not see the light to which the driver had referred; and was heedless, in his sudden wrath, that the coach was now going slower in approaching it. Ere Isabel could prevent him, he burst open the door, and leaping to the pavement, sprang ahead of the horses, and violently reined back the leaders by their heads. The driver seized his four-in-hand whip, and with a volley of oaths was about striking out its long, coiling lash at Pierre, when his arm was arrested by a policeman, who suddenly leaping on the stayed coach, commanded him to keep the peace.

  "Speak! what is the difficulty here? Be quiet, ladies, nothing serious has happened. Speak you!"

  "Pierre! Pierre!" cried the alarmed Isabel. In an instant Pierre was at her side by the window; and now turning to the officer, explained to him that the driver had persisted in passing the house at which he was ordered to stop.

  "Then he shall turn to the right about with you, sir;-in double quick tune too; do ye hear? I know you rascals well enough. Turn about, you sir, and take the gentleman where he directed."

  The cowed driver was beginning a long string of criminating explanations, when turning to Pierre, the policeman calmly desired him to re-enter the coach; he would see him safely at his destination; and then seating himself beside the driver on the box, commanded him to tell the number given him by the gentleman.

  "He don't know no numbers-didn't I say he didn't? — that's what I got mad about."

  "Be still"-said the officer. "Sir"-turning round and addressing Pierre within; "where do you wish to go?"

  "I do not know the number, but it is a house in this street; we have passed it; it is, I think, the fourth or fifth house this side of the last corner we turned. It must be lighted up too. It is the small old-fashioned dwelling with stone lion-heads above the windows. But make him turn round, and drive slowly, and I will soon point it out."

  "Can't see lions in the dark"-growled the driver-"lions; ha! ha! jackasses more likely!"

  "Look you," said the officer, "I shall see you tightly housed this night, my fine fellow, if you don't cease your jabber. Sir," he added, resuming with Pierre, "I am sure there is some mistake here. I perfectly well know now the house you mean. I passed it within the last half-hour; all as quiet there as ever. No one lives there, I think; I never saw a light in it. Are you not mistaken in something, then?"

  Pierre paused in perplexity and foreboding. Was it possible that Glen had willfully and utterly neglected his letter? Not possible. But it might not have come to his hand; the mails sometimes delayed. Then again, it was not wholly out of the question, that the house was prepared for them after all, even though it showed no outward sign. But that was not probable. At any rate, as the driver protested, that his four horses and lumbering vehicle could not turn short round in that street; and that if he must go back, it could only be done by driving on, and going round the block, and so retracing his road; and as after such a procedure, on his part, then in case of a confirmed disappointment respecting the house, the driver would seem warranted, at least in some of his unmannerliness; and as Pierre loathed the villain altogether, therefore, in order to run no such risks, he came to a sudden determination on the spot.

  "I owe you very much, my good friend," said he to the officer, "for your timely assistance. To be frank, what you have just told me has indeed perplexed me not a little concerning the place where I proposed to stop. Is there no hotel in this neighborhood, where I could leave these ladies while I seek my friend?"

  Wonted to all manner of deceitfulness, and engaged in a calling which unavoidably makes one distrustful of mere appearances, however specious, however honest; the really good-hearted officer now eyed Pierre in the dubious light with a most unpleasant scrutiny; and he abandoned the "Sir," and the tone of his voice sensibly changed, as he replied:-"There is no hotel in this neighborhood; it is too off the thoroughfares."

  "Come! come!" — cried the driver, now growing bold again — "though you're an officer, I'm a citizen for all that. You haven't any further right to keep me out of my bed now. He don't know where he wants to go to, 'cause he hain't got no place at all to go to; so I'll just dump him here, and you dar'n't stay me."

  "Don't be impertinent now," said the officer, but not so sternly as before.

  "I'll have my rights though, I tell you that! Leave go of my arm; damn ye, get off the box; I've the law now. I say, mister, come tramp, here goes your luggage," and so saying he dragged toward him a light trunk on the top of the stage.

  "Keep a clean tongue in ye now"-said the officer-"and don't be in quite so great a hurry," then
addressing Pierre, who had now re-alighted from the coach-"Well, this can't continue; what do you intend to do?"

  "Not to ride further with that man, at any rate," said Pierre; "I will stop right here for the present."

  "He! he!" laughed the driver; "he! he! 'mazing 'commodating now-we hitches now, we do-stops right afore the watch-house-he! he! — that's funny!"

  "Off with the luggage then, driver," said the policeman- "here hand the small trunk, and now away and unlash there behind."

  During all this scene, Delly had remained perfectly silent in her trembling and rustic alarm; while Isabel, by occasional cries to Pierre, had vainly besought some explanation. But though their complete ignorance of city life had caused Pierre's two companions to regard the scene thus far with too much trepidation; yet now, when in the obscurity of night, and in the heart of a strange town, Pierre handed them out of the coach into the naked street, and they saw their luggage piled so near the white light of a watch-house, the same ignorance, in some sort, reversed its effects on them; for they little fancied in what really untoward and wretched circumstances they first touched the flagging of the city.

  As the coach lumbered off, and went rolling into the wide murkiness beyond, Pierre spoke to the officer.

  "It is a rather strange accident, I confess, my friend, but strange accidents will sometimes happen."

  "In the best of families," rejoined the other, a little ironically.

  Now, I must not quarrel with this man, thought Pierre to himself, stung at the officer's tone. Then said:-"Is there any one in your-office?"

  "No one as yet-not late enough."

  "Will you have the kindness, then, to house these ladies there for the present, while I make haste to provide them with better lodgment? Lead on, if you please."

  The man seemed to hesitate a moment, but finally acquiesced; and soon they passed under the white light, and entered a large, plain, and most forbidding-looking room, with hacked wooden benches and bunks ranged along the sides, and a railing before a desk in one corner. The permanent keeper of the place was quietly reading a paper by the long central double bat's-wing gas-light; and three officers off duty were nodding on a bench.