Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  XXII

  Return of Niafer

  Now the tale tells how Dom Manuel sat at the feet of the image andplayed upon a flageolet. There was wizardry in the music, Dom Manuelsaid afterward, for he declared that it evoked in him a vision and arestless dreaming that followed after Misery.

  So this dreaming showed that when Misery was dispossessed of the earthhe entered (because Misery is unchristian) into the paradise of thepagans, where Niafer, dead now for something over a year, wentrestlessly in bliss: and Misery came shortly afterward to Niafer, andtalked with her in a thin little voice. She listened willingly to thistalk of Manuel and of the adventures which Niafer had shared withManuel: and now that she remembered Manuel, and his clear young face andbright unequal eyes and his strong arms, she could no longer be evenmoderately content in the paradise of the pagans.

  Thereafter Misery went about the heathens' paradise in the appearance ofa light formless cloud. And the fields of this paradise seemed lessgreen, the air became less pure and balmy, and the sky less radiant, andthe waters of the paradisal river Eridanus grew muddy. The poets becametired of hearing one another recite, the heroes lost delight in theirwrestling and chariot racing and in their exercises with the spear andthe bow. "How can anybody expect us to waste eternity with recreationswhich are only fitted to waste time?" they demanded.

  And the lovely ladies began to find the handsome lovers with whom theywandered hand in hand through never-fading groves of myrtle, and withwhom they were forever reunited, rather tedious companions.

  "I love you," said the lovers.

  "You have been telling me that for twelve centuries," replied theladies, yawning, "and too much of anything is enough."

  "Upon my body, I think so too," declared the lovers. "I said it only outof politeness and force of habit, and I can assure you I am as tired ofthis lackadaisical idiocy as you are."

  So everything was at sixes and sevens in this paradise: and when themischief-maker was detected, the blessed held a meeting, for it was nowthe day of All Souls, on which the dead have privilege.

  "We must preserve appearances," said these dead pagans, "and can haveonly happy-looking persons hereabouts, for otherwise our paradise willget a poor name, and the religion of our fathers will fall intodisrepute."

  Then they thrust Misery, and Niafer also, out of the pagan paradise,because Misery clung to Niafer in the appearance of a light formlesscloud, and there was no separating the two.

  These two turned earthward together, and came to the river of sweatcalled Rigjon. Niafer said to the fiery angel Sandalfon that guards thebridge there, "The Misery of earth is with me."

  Sandalfon saw that this was so, and answered, "My fires cannot consumethe Misery of earth."

  They came to Hadarniel, the noisy angel whose, whispering is thethunder. Niafer said, "The Misery of earth is with me."

  Hadarniel replied, "Before the Misery of earth I am silent."

  They came to Kemuel and his twelve thousand angels of destruction thatguard the outermost gateway. Niafer said, "The Misery of earth is withme."

  Kemuel answered, "I ruin and make an end of all things else, but for theMisery of earth I have contrived no ending."

  So Misery and Niafer passed all the warders of this paradise: and in adim country on the world's rim the blended spirit of Misery and theghost of Niafer rose through a hole in the ground, like an imponderablevapor. They dissevered each from the other in a gray place overgrownwith poplars, and Misery cried farewell to Niafer.

  "And very heartily do I thank you for your kindness, now that we part,and now that, it may be, I shall not ever see you again," said Niafer,politely.

  Misery replied:

  "Take no fear for not seeing me again, now that you are about once moreto become human. Certainly, Niafer, I must leave you for a little while,but certainly I shall return. There will first be for you much kissingand soft laughter, and the quiet happy ordering of your home, and theheart-shaking wonder of the child who is neither you nor Manuel, butboth of you, and whose life was not ever seen before on earth: and lifewill burgeon with white miracles, and every blossom you will take to beeternal. Laughing, you will say of sorrow, 'What is it?' And I, whomsome call Beda, and others call Kruchina, shall be monstrously amused bythis.

  "Then your seeing will have my help, and you will observe that Manuel isvery much like other persons. He will be used to having you about, andyou him, and that will be the sorry bond between you. The children thathave reft their flesh from your flesh ruthlessly, and that have derivedtheir living from your glad anguish, each day will, be appearing alittle less intimately yours, until these children find their mates.Thereafter you will be a tolerated intruder into these children's dailyliving, and nobody anywhere will do more than condone your coming: youwill weep secretly: and I, whom some call Beda, and others callKruchina, shall be monstrously amused by this.

  "Then I shall certainly return to you, when your tears are dried, andwhen you no longer believe what young Niafer once believed; and when,remembering young Niafer's desires and her intentions as to the disposalof her life, you will shrug withered shoulders. To go on living willremain desirable. The dilapidations of life will no longer move youdeeply. Shrugging, you will say of sorrow, 'What is it?' for you willknow grief also to be impermanent. And your inability to be quitemiserable any more will assure you that your goings are attended by theghost of outlived and conquered misery: and I, whom some call Beda, andothers call Kruchina, shall be monstrously amused by this."

  Said Niafer, impatiently, "Do you intend to keep me here forever underthese dark twinkling trees, with your thin little talking, while Manuelstays unhappy through his want of me?"

  And Misery answered nothing as he departed from Niafer, for a season.

  Such were the happenings in the vision witnessed by Dom Manuel (as DomManuel afterward declared) while he sat playing upon the flageolet.