She | Page 7

by
Nature with the stamp of abnormal ugliness, as I was gifted by Nature
with iron and abnormal strength and considerable intellectual powers.
So ugly was I that the spruce young men of my College, though they
were proud enough of my feats of endurance and physical prowess, did
not even care to be seen walking with me. Was it wonderful that I was
misanthropic and sullen? Was it wonderful that I brooded and worked
alone, and had no friends--at least, only one? I was set apart by Nature
to live alone, and draw comfort from her breast, and hers only. Women
hated the sight of me. Only a week before I had heard one call me a
"monster" when she thought I was out of hearing, and say that I had
converted her to the monkey theory. Once, indeed, a woman pretended
to care for me, and I lavished all the pent-up affection of my nature
upon her. Then money that was to have come to me went elsewhere,
and she discarded me. I pleaded with her as I have never pleaded with
any living creature before or since, for I was caught by her sweet face,
and loved her; and in the end by way of answer she took me to the glass,
and stood side by side with me, and looked into it.
"Now," she said, "if I am Beauty, who are you?" That was when I was
only twenty.
And so I stood and stared, and felt a sort of grim satisfaction in the
sense of my own loneliness; for I had neither father, nor mother, nor

brother; and as I did so there came a knock at my door.
I listened before I went to open it, for it was nearly twelve o'clock at
night, and I was in no mood to admit any stranger. I had but one friend
in the College, or, indeed, in the world--perhaps it was he.
Just then the person outside the door coughed, and I hastened to open it,
for I knew the cough.
A tall man of about thirty, with the remains of great personal beauty,
came hurrying in, staggering beneath the weight of a massive iron box
which he carried by a handle with his right hand. He placed the box
upon the table, and then fell into an awful fit of coughing. He coughed
and coughed till his face became quite purple, and at last he sank into a
chair and began to spit up blood. I poured out some whisky into a
tumbler, and gave it to him. He drank it, and seemed better; though his
better was very bad indeed.
"Why did you keep me standing there in the cold?" he asked pettishly.
"You know the draughts are death to me."
"I did not know who it was," I answered. "You are a late visitor."
"Yes; and I verily believe it is my last visit," he answered, with a
ghastly attempt at a smile. "I am done for, Holly. I am done for. I do
not believe that I shall see to-morrow."
"Nonsense!" I said. "Let me go for a doctor."
He waved me back imperiously with his hand. "It is sober sense; but I
want no doctors. I have studied medicine and I know all about it. No
doctors can help me. My last hour has come! For a year past I have
only lived by a miracle. Now listen to me as you have never listened to
anybody before; for you will not have the opportunity of getting me to
repeat my words. We have been friends for two years; now tell me how
much do you know about me?"
"I know that you are rich, and have had a fancy to come to College long

after the age that most men leave it. I know that you have been married,
and that your wife died; and that you have been the best, indeed almost
the only friend I ever had."
"Did you know that I have a son?"
"No."
"I have. He is five years old. He cost me his mother's life, and I have
never been able to bear to look upon his face in consequence. Holly, if
you will accept the trust, I am going to leave you that boy's sole
guardian."
I sprang almost out of my chair. "/Me!/" I said.
"Yes, you. I have not studied you for two years for nothing. I have
known for some time that I could not last, and since I realised the fact I
have been searching for some one to whom I could confide the boy and
this," and he tapped the iron box. "You are the man, Holly; for, like a
rugged tree, you are hard and sound at core. Listen;