The Miraculous Revenge | Page 2

and at the
disordered decorations, ghostly in the white light. Then I saw there was
a grand piano still open in the middle of the room. My fingers throbbed

as I sat down before it and expressed all I felt in a grand hymn which
seemed to thrill the cold stillness of the shadows into a deep hum of
approbation, and to people the radiance of the moon with angels. Soon
there was a stir without too, as if the rapture were spreading abroad. I
took up the chant triumphantly with my voice, and the empty saloon
resounded as though to the thunder of an orchestra.
"Hallo sir!" "Confound you, sir--" "Do you suppose that this--" "What
the deuce--?"
I turned; and silence followed. Six men, partially dressed, with
disheveled hair, stood regarding me angrily. They all carried candles.
One of them had a bootjack, which he held like a truncheon. Another,
the foremost, had a pistol. The night porter was behind trembling.
"Sir," said the man with the revolver, coarsely, "may I ask whether you
are mad, that you disturb people at this hour with such unearthly
noise?"
"Is it possible that you dislike it?" I replied courteously.
"Dislike it!" said he, stamping with rage. "Why--damn everything--do
you suppose we were enjoying it?"
"Take care: he's mad," whispered the man with the bootjack.
I began to laugh. Evidently they did think me mad. Unaccustomed to
my habits, and ignorant of the music as they probably were, the mistake,
however absurd, was not unnatural. I rose. They came closer to one
another; and the night porter ran away.
"Gentlemen," I said, "I am sorry for you. Had you lain still and listened,
we should all have been the better and happier. But what you have done,
you cannot undo. Kindly inform the night porter that I am gone to visit
my uncle, the Cardinal Archbishop. Adieu!"
I strode past them, and left them whispering among themselves. Some
minutes later I knocked at the door of the Cardinal's house. Presently a

window opened and the moonbeams fell on a grey head, with a black
cap that seemed ashy pale against the unfathomable gloom of the
shadow beneath the stone sill.
"Who are you?"
"I am Zeno Legge."
"What do you want at this hour?"
The question wounded me. "My dear uncle," I exclaimed, "I know you
do not intend it, but you make me feel unwelcome. Come down and let
me in, I beg."
"Go to your hotel," he said sternly. "I will see you in the morning.
Goodnight." He disappeared and closed the window.
I felt that if I let this rebuff pass, I should not feel kindly towards my
uncle in the morning, nor indeed at any future time. I therefore plied the
knocker with my right hand, and kept the bell ringing with my left until
I heard the door chain rattle within. The Cardinal's expression was
grave nearly to moroseness as he confronted me on the threshold.
"Uncle," I cried, grasping his hand, "do not reproach me. Your door is
never shut against the wretched. Let us sit up all night and talk."
"You may thank my position and my charity for your admission,
Zeno," he said. "For the sake of the neighbors, I had rather you played
the fool in my study than upon my doorstep at this hour. Walk upstairs
quietly if you please. My housekeeper is a hard-working woman: the
little sleep she allows herself must not be disturbed."
"You have a noble heart, uncle. I shall creep like a mouse."
"This is my study," he said as we entered an ill-furnished den on the
second floor. "The only refreshment I can offer you, if you desire any,
is a bunch of raisins. The doctors have forbidden you to touch
stimulants, I believe."

"By heaven----!" He raised his finger. "Pardon me: I was wrong to
swear. But I had totally forgotten the doctors. At dinner I had a bottle
of Grave."
"Humph! You have no business to be traveling alone. Your mother
promised that Bushy should come over here with you."
"Pshaw! Bushy is not a man of feeling. Besides, he is a coward. He
refused to come with me because I purchased a revolver."
"He should have taken the revolver from you, and kept to his post."
"Why will you persist in treating me like a child, uncle? I am very
impressionable, I grant you; but I have gone around the world alone,
and do not need to be dry-nursed through a tour in Ireland."
"What do you intend to do during your stay here?"
I had no plans and instead of answering I shrugged my shoulders and
looked round the apartment. There was a statue of the Virgin upon my
uncle's desk. I looked at