text
stringlengths 0
6.48M
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
Q:
Python MapReduce Hadoop Streaming Job that requires 3 input files?
I have 3 small sample input files (the actual files are much larger),
# File Name: books.txt
# File Format: BookID|Title
1|The Hunger Games
2|To Kill a Mockingbird
3|Pride and Prejudice
4|Animal Farm
# File Name: ratings.txt
# File Format: ReaderID|BookID|Rating
101|1|1
102|2|2
103|3|3
104|4|4
105|1|5
106|2|1
107|3|2
108|4|3
# File Name: readers.txt
# File Format: ReaderID|Gender|PostCode|PreferComms
101|M|1000|email
102|F|1001|mobile
103|M|1002|email
104|F|1003|mobile
105|M|1004|email
106|F|1005|mobile
107|M|1006|email
108|F|1007|mobile
I want to create a Python MapReduce Hadoop Streaming Job to get the following output which is the Average Rating by Title by Gender
Animal Farm F 3.5
Pride and Prejudice M 2.5
The Hunger Games M 3
To Kill a Mockingbird F 1.5
I searched this forum and someone pointed out a solution but it is for 2 input files instead of 3. I gave it a go but am stuck at the mapper part because I am not able to sort it correctly so that the reducer can appropriately recognise the 1st record for Title & Gender, then start aggregating. My mapper code below,
#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
for line in sys.stdin:
try:
ReaderID = "-1"
BookID = "-1"
Title = "-1"
Gender = "-1"
Rating = "-1"
line = line.strip()
splits = line.split("|")
if len(splits) == 2:
BookID = splits[0]
Title = splits[1]
elif len(splits) == 3:
ReaderID = splits[0]
BookID = splits[1]
Rating = splits[2]
else:
ReaderID = splits[0]
Gender = splits[1]
print('%s\t%s\t%s\t%s\t%s' % (BookID, Title, ReaderID, Rating, Gender))
except:
pass
PS: I need to use Python and Hadoop Streaming only. Not allowed to install Python packages like Dumbo, mrjob and etc.
Appreciate your help in advance.
Thanks,
Lobbie
A:
Went through some core Java MR and all have suggested, the three files cannot be merged together in a single map job. We have to first join the first two, and the resultant should be joined with the third one. Applying your logic for the three, does not give me good result. Hence, I tried with Pandas, and its seems to give promising result. If using pandas is not a constraint for you, please try my code. Else, we will try to join these three files with Python Dictionary and Lists.
Here is my suggested code. I have just concatenated all the input to test it. In you code, just comment my for loop (line #36) and un-comment your for loop (line #35).
import pandas as pd
import sys
input_string_book = [
"1|The Hunger Games",
"2|To Kill a Mockingbird",
"3|Pride and Prejudice",
"4|Animal Farm"]
input_string_book_df = pd.DataFrame(columns=('BookID','Title'))
input_string_rating = [
"101|1|1",
"102|2|2",
"103|3|3",
"104|4|4",
"105|1|5",
"106|2|1",
"107|3|2",
"108|4|3"]
input_string_rating_df = pd.DataFrame(columns=('ReaderID','BookID','Rating'))
input_string_reader = [
"101|M|1000|email",
"102|F|1001|mobile",
"103|M|1002|email",
"104|F|1003|mobile",
"105|M|1004|email",
"106|F|1005|mobile",
"107|M|1006|email",
"108|F|1007|mobile"]
input_string_reader_df = pd.DataFrame(columns=('ReaderID','Gender','PostCode','PreferComms'))
#for line in sys.stdin:
for line in input_string_book + input_string_rating + input_string_reader:
try:
line = line.strip()
splits = line.split("|")
if len(splits) == 2:
input_string_book_df = input_string_book_df.append(pd.DataFrame([[splits[0],splits[1]]],columns=('BookID','Title')))
elif len(splits) == 3:
input_string_rating_df = input_string_rating_df.append(pd.DataFrame([[splits[0],splits[1],splits[2]]],columns=('ReaderID','BookID','Rating')))
else:
input_string_reader_df = input_string_reader_df.append(pd.DataFrame([[splits[0],splits[1],splits[2],splits[3]]]
,columns=('ReaderID','Gender','PostCode','PreferComms')))
except:
raise
l_concat_1 = input_string_book_df.merge(input_string_rating_df,on='BookID',how='inner')
l_concat_2 = l_concat_1.merge(input_string_reader_df,on='ReaderID',how='inner')
for each_iter in l_concat_2[['BookID', 'Title', 'ReaderID', 'Rating', 'Gender']].iterrows():
print('%s\t%s\t%s\t%s\t%s' % (each_iter[1][0], each_iter[1][1], each_iter[1][2], each_iter[1][3], each_iter[1][4]))
Output
1 The Hunger Games 101 1 M
1 The Hunger Games 105 5 M
2 To Kill a Mockingbird 102 2 F
2 To Kill a Mockingbird 106 1 F
3 Pride and Prejudice 103 3 M
3 Pride and Prejudice 107 2 M
4 Animal Farm 104 4 F
4 Animal Farm 108 3 F
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
package at.grabner.circleprogress;
import android.animation.TimeInterpolator;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.os.Message;
import android.os.SystemClock;
import android.view.animation.AccelerateDecelerateInterpolator;
import android.view.animation.DecelerateInterpolator;
import java.lang.ref.WeakReference;
public class AnimationHandler extends Handler {
private final WeakReference<CircleProgressView> mCircleViewWeakReference;
// Spin bar length in degree at start of animation
private float mSpinningBarLengthStart;
private long mAnimationStartTime;
private long mLengthChangeAnimationStartTime;
private TimeInterpolator mLengthChangeInterpolator = new DecelerateInterpolator();
// The interpolator for value animations
private TimeInterpolator mInterpolator = new AccelerateDecelerateInterpolator();
private double mLengthChangeAnimationDuration;
private long mFrameStartTime = 0;
AnimationHandler(CircleProgressView circleView) {
super(circleView.getContext().getMainLooper());
mCircleViewWeakReference = new WeakReference<CircleProgressView>(circleView);
}
/**
* Sets interpolator for value animations.
*
* @param mInterpolator the m interpolator
*/
public void setValueInterpolator(TimeInterpolator mInterpolator) {
this.mInterpolator = mInterpolator;
}
/**
* Sets the interpolator for length changes of the bar.
*
* @param mLengthChangeInterpolator the m length change interpolator
*/
public void setLengthChangeInterpolator(TimeInterpolator mLengthChangeInterpolator) {
this.mLengthChangeInterpolator = mLengthChangeInterpolator;
}
@Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
CircleProgressView circleView = mCircleViewWeakReference.get();
if (circleView == null) {
return;
}
AnimationMsg msgType = AnimationMsg.values()[msg.what];
if (msgType == AnimationMsg.TICK) {
removeMessages(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal()); // necessary to remove concurrent ticks.
}
//if (msgType != AnimationMsg.TICK)
// Log.d("JaGr", TAG + "LOG00099: State:" + circleView.mAnimationState + " Received: " + msgType);
mFrameStartTime = SystemClock.uptimeMillis();
switch (circleView.mAnimationState) {
case IDLE:
switch (msgType) {
case START_SPINNING:
enterSpinning(circleView);
break;
case STOP_SPINNING:
//IGNORE not spinning
break;
case SET_VALUE:
setValue(msg, circleView);
break;
case SET_VALUE_ANIMATED:
enterSetValueAnimated(msg, circleView);
break;
case TICK:
removeMessages(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal()); // remove old ticks
//IGNORE nothing to do
break;
}
break;
case SPINNING:
switch (msgType) {
case START_SPINNING:
//IGNORE already spinning
break;
case STOP_SPINNING:
enterEndSpinning(circleView);
break;
case SET_VALUE:
setValue(msg, circleView);
break;
case SET_VALUE_ANIMATED:
enterEndSpinningStartAnimating(circleView, msg);
break;
case TICK:
// set length
float length_delta = circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent - circleView.mSpinningBarLengthOrig;
float t = (float) ((System.currentTimeMillis() - mLengthChangeAnimationStartTime)
/ mLengthChangeAnimationDuration);
t = t > 1.0f ? 1.0f : t;
float interpolatedRatio = mLengthChangeInterpolator.getInterpolation(t);
if (Math.abs(length_delta) < 1) {
//spinner length is within bounds
circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent = circleView.mSpinningBarLengthOrig;
} else if (circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent < circleView.mSpinningBarLengthOrig) {
//spinner to short, --> grow
circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent = mSpinningBarLengthStart + ((circleView.mSpinningBarLengthOrig - mSpinningBarLengthStart) * interpolatedRatio);
} else {
//spinner to long, --> shrink
circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent = (mSpinningBarLengthStart - ((mSpinningBarLengthStart - circleView.mSpinningBarLengthOrig) * interpolatedRatio));
}
circleView.mCurrentSpinnerDegreeValue += circleView.mSpinSpeed; // spin speed value (in degree)
if (circleView.mCurrentSpinnerDegreeValue > 360) {
circleView.mCurrentSpinnerDegreeValue = 0;
}
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
circleView.invalidate();
break;
}
break;
case END_SPINNING:
switch (msgType) {
case START_SPINNING:
circleView.mAnimationState = AnimationState.SPINNING;
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(circleView.mAnimationState);
}
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
break;
case STOP_SPINNING:
//IGNORE already stopping
break;
case SET_VALUE:
setValue(msg, circleView);
break;
case SET_VALUE_ANIMATED:
enterEndSpinningStartAnimating(circleView, msg);
break;
case TICK:
float t = (float) ((System.currentTimeMillis() - mLengthChangeAnimationStartTime)
/ mLengthChangeAnimationDuration);
t = t > 1.0f ? 1.0f : t;
float interpolatedRatio = mLengthChangeInterpolator.getInterpolation(t);
circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent = (mSpinningBarLengthStart) * (1f - interpolatedRatio);
circleView.mCurrentSpinnerDegreeValue += circleView.mSpinSpeed; // spin speed value (not in percent)
if (circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent < 0.01f) {
//end here, spinning finished
circleView.mAnimationState = AnimationState.IDLE;
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(circleView.mAnimationState);
}
}
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
circleView.invalidate();
break;
}
break;
case END_SPINNING_START_ANIMATING:
switch (msgType) {
case START_SPINNING:
circleView.mDrawBarWhileSpinning = false;
enterSpinning(circleView);
break;
case STOP_SPINNING:
//IGNORE already stopping
break;
case SET_VALUE:
circleView.mDrawBarWhileSpinning = false;
setValue(msg, circleView);
break;
case SET_VALUE_ANIMATED:
circleView.mValueFrom = 0; // start from zero after spinning
circleView.mValueTo = ((float[]) msg.obj)[1];
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
break;
case TICK:
//shrink spinner till it has its original length
if (circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent > circleView.mSpinningBarLengthOrig && !circleView.mDrawBarWhileSpinning) {
//spinner to long, --> shrink
float t = (float) ((System.currentTimeMillis() - mLengthChangeAnimationStartTime)
/ mLengthChangeAnimationDuration);
t = t > 1.0f ? 1.0f : t;
float interpolatedRatio = mLengthChangeInterpolator.getInterpolation(t);
circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent = (mSpinningBarLengthStart) * (1f - interpolatedRatio);
}
// move spinner for spin speed value (not in percent)
circleView.mCurrentSpinnerDegreeValue += circleView.mSpinSpeed;
//if the start of the spinner reaches zero, start animating the value
if (circleView.mCurrentSpinnerDegreeValue > 360 && !circleView.mDrawBarWhileSpinning) {
mAnimationStartTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
circleView.mDrawBarWhileSpinning = true;
initReduceAnimation(circleView);
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(AnimationState.START_ANIMATING_AFTER_SPINNING);
}
}
//value is already animating, calc animation value and reduce spinner
if (circleView.mDrawBarWhileSpinning) {
circleView.mCurrentSpinnerDegreeValue = 360;
circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent -= circleView.mSpinSpeed;
calcNextAnimationValue(circleView);
float t = (float) ((System.currentTimeMillis() - mLengthChangeAnimationStartTime)
/ mLengthChangeAnimationDuration);
t = t > 1.0f ? 1.0f : t;
float interpolatedRatio = mLengthChangeInterpolator.getInterpolation(t);
circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent = (mSpinningBarLengthStart) * (1f - interpolatedRatio);
}
//spinner is no longer visible switch state to animating
if (circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent < 0.1) {
//spinning finished, start animating the current value
circleView.mAnimationState = AnimationState.ANIMATING;
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(circleView.mAnimationState);
}
circleView.invalidate();
circleView.mDrawBarWhileSpinning = false;
circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent = circleView.mSpinningBarLengthOrig;
} else {
circleView.invalidate();
}
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
break;
}
break;
case ANIMATING:
switch (msgType) {
case START_SPINNING:
enterSpinning(circleView);
break;
case STOP_SPINNING:
//Ignore, not spinning
break;
case SET_VALUE:
setValue(msg, circleView);
break;
case SET_VALUE_ANIMATED:
mAnimationStartTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
//restart animation from current value
circleView.mValueFrom = circleView.mCurrentValue;
circleView.mValueTo = ((float[]) msg.obj)[1];
break;
case TICK:
if (calcNextAnimationValue(circleView)) {
//animation finished
circleView.mAnimationState = AnimationState.IDLE;
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(circleView.mAnimationState);
}
circleView.mCurrentValue = circleView.mValueTo;
}
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
circleView.invalidate();
break;
}
break;
}
}
private void enterSetValueAnimated(Message msg, CircleProgressView circleView) {
circleView.mValueFrom = ((float[]) msg.obj)[0];
circleView.mValueTo = ((float[]) msg.obj)[1];
mAnimationStartTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
circleView.mAnimationState = AnimationState.ANIMATING;
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(circleView.mAnimationState);
}
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
}
private void enterEndSpinningStartAnimating(CircleProgressView circleView, Message msg) {
circleView.mAnimationState = AnimationState.END_SPINNING_START_ANIMATING;
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(circleView.mAnimationState);
}
circleView.mValueFrom = 0; // start from zero after spinning
circleView.mValueTo = ((float[]) msg.obj)[1];
mLengthChangeAnimationStartTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
mSpinningBarLengthStart = circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent;
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
}
private void enterEndSpinning(CircleProgressView circleView) {
circleView.mAnimationState = AnimationState.END_SPINNING;
initReduceAnimation(circleView);
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(circleView.mAnimationState);
}
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
}
private void initReduceAnimation(CircleProgressView circleView) {
float degreesTillFinish = circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent;
float stepsTillFinish = degreesTillFinish / circleView.mSpinSpeed;
mLengthChangeAnimationDuration = (stepsTillFinish * circleView.mFrameDelayMillis) * 2f;
mLengthChangeAnimationStartTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
mSpinningBarLengthStart = circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent;
}
private void enterSpinning(CircleProgressView circleView) {
circleView.mAnimationState = AnimationState.SPINNING;
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(circleView.mAnimationState);
}
circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent = (360f / circleView.mMaxValue * circleView.mCurrentValue);
circleView.mCurrentSpinnerDegreeValue = (360f / circleView.mMaxValue * circleView.mCurrentValue);
mLengthChangeAnimationStartTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
mSpinningBarLengthStart = circleView.mSpinningBarLengthCurrent;
//calc animation time
float stepsTillFinish = circleView.mSpinningBarLengthOrig / circleView.mSpinSpeed;
mLengthChangeAnimationDuration = ((stepsTillFinish * circleView.mFrameDelayMillis) * 2f);
sendEmptyMessageDelayed(AnimationMsg.TICK.ordinal(), circleView.mFrameDelayMillis - (SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mFrameStartTime));
}
/**
* *
*
* @param circleView the circle view
* @return false if animation still running, true if animation is finished.
*/
private boolean calcNextAnimationValue(CircleProgressView circleView) {
float t = (float) ((System.currentTimeMillis() - mAnimationStartTime)
/ circleView.mAnimationDuration);
t = t > 1.0f ? 1.0f : t;
float interpolatedRatio = mInterpolator.getInterpolation(t);
circleView.mCurrentValue = (circleView.mValueFrom + ((circleView.mValueTo - circleView.mValueFrom) * interpolatedRatio));
return t >= 1;
}
private void setValue(Message msg, CircleProgressView circleView) {
circleView.mValueFrom = circleView.mValueTo;
circleView.mCurrentValue = circleView.mValueTo = ((float[]) msg.obj)[0];
circleView.mAnimationState = AnimationState.IDLE;
if (circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener != null) {
circleView.mAnimationStateChangedListener.onAnimationStateChanged(circleView.mAnimationState);
}
circleView.invalidate();
}
}
| {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
A variety of types of medical devices are used for chronic, e.g., long-term, provision of therapy to patients. As examples, pulse generators are used for provision of cardiac pacing and neurostimulation therapies, and pumps are used for delivery of therapeutic agents, such as drugs. Typically, such devices provide therapy continuously or periodically according to parameters. For instance, a program comprising respective values for each of a plurality of parameters may be specified by a clinician and used to deliver the therapy.
It may be desirable in some circumstances to activate and/or modify the therapy based on a patient state. For example, the symptoms such as the intensity of pain of patients who receive spinal cord stimulation (SCS) therapy may vary over time based on the activity level or posture of the patient, the specific activity undertaken by the patient, or the like. It is desirable to be able to detect and classify the state of the patient accurately so that this classification may be used to activate and/or select a therapy that is most efficacious for that state. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
How 5 Stories Will Change the Way You Approach Hotel Las Casas De La Judería Sevilla
This picture shows damage which was caused by the earthquake in December 2004 that led to the Asian tsunami to the Rahmatullah mosque in Lampuuk in Banda of Hotel Las Casas De La Judería Sevilla – 5 0 magnitude earthquake rocks Indonesia s Aceh General News of
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon in Buckinghamshire England Built between in the Neo Renaissance style of a French chateau of Hotel Las Casas De La Judería Sevilla – 650 best small places in my big heart images by MinuMinu Andreev | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
As talks with Milan began today, Leandro Damiao’s agents admit that the Rossoneri are keen to sign the Brazilian international striker.
The San Siro outfit are in the market for replacements are both ends of the pitch following the departures of Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to France and Damiao looks to be the identified substitute for Ibra in attack.
Agents to the 22-year-old, who has scored 24 goals in just over two seasons with current club Internacional, were this afternoon spotted in Milan before talks with Diavolo club officials.
“We talked, it was an provisional meeting. Milan seem interested and we will meet again later,” admitted one of those representatives, Vinicius Frates, to reporters later on.
Damiao, who is believed to be preferred to Milan’s Alexandre Pato to lead the Brazil attack at the London Olympics starting soon, is valued at €20m. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Archive
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
Cheshire Cat: That depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t care much where…
Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which was you go.
Alice: …So long as I get get somewhere.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if you only walk long enough.
Sometimes the path you walk seems clearly defined, but then, something happens. It looks unfamiliar, and you realize you’ve lost your way.
Maybe you’ve encountered a rift in the earth. One tectonic plate sinks beneath another. It’s not the kind of ground breaking you had in mind.
Or the way might be flooded and you can’t get through. It’s not the image you had of yourself, rising up from the sea foam like Poseidon, or Aphrodite on the half shell.
Or maybe you are trapped, mesmerized by the reflection of your own image in the floodwater. It’s not what others meant by staying fluid. You might be like poor Echo, pining away watching someone else watch their reflection in the water.
Even simpler, maybe the compass rose has lost its petals and you realize you are traveling in the wrong direction.
Have you ever found yourself lost like this? Are you lost, right now, like this? Does it feel like the intersection of blood and guts? Which way do you go?
Go this way, and it’s the blood of the walking wounded, or the sacrificial lamb. Maybe that lost little lamb is you. Or maybe you will be the one to hurt someone else down the road. It’s the easier path to take. No apologies necessary. Losses cut. The escape route.
Or go that way, with guts – it’s taking the long, winding road. Perseverance. Compassion. All options and consequences considered. A harder path to walk.
None of it’s easy. Free will? It’s a bitch.
Maybe the journey takes us along all of the paths. The road is filled with seekers, navigating blood and guts. May the rose ride up to meet you, may the wind be at your back… We are Whitman wanderers walking towards a glowing inner light…
In language, some words diminish in value, the meaning loses its weight over time. Today, everyone’s a genius. And everything that happens is epic. There are also words and phrases that completely lose their true meaning, their relevance, and their beauty, in a devolution of their original form.
Over the weekend I attended the virtual Essential Magic Conference, hosted in Portugal by Luis de Matos. It was filled with the best in magic, and attended by over two thousand people from 74 countries. It is a fine learning experience, and creatively stimulating, even if you are not interested in magic. One of the presenters was Norberto Jansenson, whose work combines storytelling, mystery and magic. His talk was intense and inspiring, and something he mentioned struck a chord. It was the true, lost meaning of “abracadabra”.
While the word “abracadabra” may bring to mind faded images of magic acts replete with red curtains and a rabbit in a hat, the original word is far more compelling. There is a theory that the word is derived from a Semitic language. Jansenson says it is Aramaic in origin: “Avra kehdabra” — meaning “I will create as I speak”. How beautiful, rich, and powerful. It represents the spontaneity that, in the moment, gives way to articulation and creativity — sparking and igniting right before your eyes. It is a shared experience of wonder, from the ancient Greek theater to this morning’s street performer, occurring in full presence of the moment.
With a little digging, I found the source of the phrase may originate from these three words – ab (father), ben (son) and ruach acadosch (holy spirit). The three points form a triangle, a trinity, and the enclosed space of the three lines is where building is possible. Where things begin. Where magic happens. Art. Articulation. Astonishment. I will create as I speak. Abracadabra. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Even with cameras in the All-Star clubhouses, Fox couldn't have shown the traditional pregame pep talk given the American League by perennial All-Star right fielder Ichiro Suzuki. Not only do his anti-National League diatribes work like WD-40 – the AL hasn't lost an All-Star Game since he first made one as a “rookie” in 2001 – but they reveal that Ichiro knows a lot more English than he lets on.
Most of it unprintable.
Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is the one who always orders the normally low-key but mischievous Ichiro to make what Larry Stone of the Seattle Times calls his “Win One for the Bleeper” speech. This year's wild-eyed, obscenity-filled rant was thusly recalled by temporary teammate Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins:
“(Suzuki) was sitting in the locker back there, and David Ortiz said, 'Ichi's got something to say.' And then he pops out and everybody started dying. I had no idea it was coming. It was hilarious. If you've never seen it, it's definitely something pretty funny.”
You won't see it. Not on family TV.
“That's what gets you, too, is hearing him say what he says,” Morneau said. “I've talked to him a little bit when he gets to first, but I didn't know he knew those words.”
Oh, he knows them. Ichiro clearly has a grasp of American slang, though he prefers almost always to speak through his interpreter. His pregame speeches come with no translation necessary – and total focus.
“I'm concentrating more at that moment,” said Ichiro, “than I am in the game.”
Ex-Aztec making mark
While well on his way to being the No. 1 overall pick in next June's draft – he's already on his way to Beijing as the rare collegiate player named to the U.S. Olympic Team – Stephen Strasburg is not the only dude who pitched for Tony Gwynn at San Diego State who has caused a stir lately.
Already big in the plans of the Boston Red Sox is right-hander Justin Masterson, an ex-Aztec whose sinking fastball and size (6 feet 6, 250 pounds) warranted a second-round pick (71st overall) by the Red Sox in 2006. Called up earlier this season as an emergency replacement, Masterson stuck around long enough for nine starts, a 4-3 record and 3.67 ERA.
His bugaboo proved to be lefty hitters, who drew 21 walks and hit six homers off him in 54 innings. But his sinker is so effective against righties that the Red Sox have sent him back to Triple-A Pawtucket for a crash course in Reliever 101.
“It doesn't mean I'm not going to be a starter again,” Masterson said. “It was one of those things where I came on a team where the five starters were good and they said, 'We'd really like to use you in the 'pen.' I said, 'Will that keep me on the team?' They said, 'Yeah.'
“Whatever it is, I just love to pitch. That gets me back up (to Boston).”
Perhaps more interesting is the route Masterson has taken to this point. The son of an evangelical pastor, he was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Beavercreek, Ohio, starting his college career at tiny Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind. He was a dominant pitcher at the NAIA level, posting a 20-8 record and 1.85 ERA while striking out 185 in the same number of innings.
It was while pitching for the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod League in 2005 that Masterson was first introduced not only to the role of closer, but also to Bruce Billings, a Morse High product who was Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year at SDSU. Billings dropped Masterson's name to Gwynn, who obliged Masterson's desire to gain some Division I experience with the Aztecs.
Mind of its own
Happen to see that wicked bases-loaded, two-out, third strike from Orioles lefty George Sherrill that Adrian Gonzalez chased in the 12th inning at Yankee Stadium? The movement prompted Rays catcher Dioner Navarro, who backhanded the ball, to compliment Sherrill on his “nice cutter.”
“I don't throw a cutter,” said a mystified but laughing Sherrill, admitting that he had no idea why that pitch acted the way it did. “It looked like it was a strike and then all the sudden it just cut. We were lucky.”
Travel-loggers
Three of the four active players who have appeared in the most major league ballparks – Chris Gomez (47), Gary Sheffield (47), Ken Griffey Jr. (45) and Brad Ausmus (44) – have played for the Padres.
“I think part of it is that in the time that I'm playing it's the era of the new baseball stadium,” said Ausmus, a longtime North County resident who's still catching with the Astros. “When I was growing up in Connecticut there was only one baseball stadium, and that was Fenway Park, in my mind.”
Ausmus is known primarily for his defensive prowess, but for the record, he actually has at least three hits in every place he's played. A career .252 hitter, his two highest National League averages by far are at AT&T Park in San Francisco (.319) and Petco (.318). Go figure.
The Union-Tribune contributes to – and uses information from – a national network of major league correspondents. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Pages top
Social Icons
Boss Babes
1.14.2019
I wish I had the balls to take risks and do all the fun things in life. I would like to be brave enough to put myself out there and not even hear the voices of doubt in my head. Sadly, I'm not that type of person, but I can pretend to be, can't I?
With my goal for 2019 to make each day a day better than the last, an awesome day of sorts- it was serendipitous that I stumble upon this design by my fave BOSS BABE out there and since we're talking Boss Babes today on the Blended Blog- this was a perfect way to show case it.
Now I can have that reminder to wake up and be awesome anytime I want. Doesn't help that this hoodie is extremely lightweight and cozy, making it the perfect piece to wear to the gym, which I was doing this day in particular. Hence the crazy pants.
So I say cheers to being more like Boss Babe Colette from Brandsquawk who has created a truly unique line of comfortable graphic tees, sweatshirts and hoodies in a world of many many many graphic tee retailers. There needs to be more women out there like her who are consistently lifting people up and cheering them on instead of squashing them.
Brandsquawk is based out of Vancouver and I hope someday to meet up with her. I would hope rubbing elbows with women who are risk-takers would help me become more unafraid.
My mom even got a graphic sweater from her first born for her birthday- I swear it was made just for her, the camping queen. You can take advantage of some sweet deals on Brandsquawk's site by using my code for 20% off- shoestoshiraz.
Here's to all the BossBabes out there. Wanna see how I'm aspiring to be one? Check out the venture here. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Q:
SQL: Reorder by 2 columns
I got a problem to reorder this. I want to order this by Username and UserType without broken the NumRow order. It should be 1,2,3 etc. Below is the image my current result:
This is the current sql:
WITH ReceiverList AS
(
SELECT
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY receiver.username asc) NumRow,
receiver.username AS Username,
user_lookup.user_login_id AS UserID,
CASE
WHEN user_lookup.username = user_lookup.user_login_id THEN 'RECEIVER'
ELSE 'SUB-RECEIVER'
END AS UserType
FROM receiver
JOIN user_lookup
ON receiver.username = user_lookup.username
)
SELECT TOP 4 *
FROM ReceiverList
Here is the result I want but the order(NumRow) should be 1,2,3,4. This sql I'm using inside datatables ajax to order and search. Please help me guys.
A:
According to your result, you also want to order by UserId:
WITH ReceiverList AS (
SELECT r.username AS Username,
ul.user_login_id AS UserID,
(CASE WHEN ul.username = ul.user_login_id THEN 'RECEIVER'
ELSE 'SUB-RECEIVER'
END) AS UserType
FROM receiver r JOIN
user_lookup ul
ON r.username = ul.username
)
SELECT TOP 4
row_number() over (username, usertype, userid) as rownum
rl.*
FROM ReceiverList
ORDER BY rownum;
You cannot use the usertype in the same SELECT where it is defined.
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
Q:
Adventurers League, DM Quest: "Giving DM"
The question is about a DM Quest from Adventurer League.
There is an achievement 'Giving DM: Run a game as part of a charity event'.
Can anybody expain what it means and how to get it? Does it mean that I must run an adventure without getting money or any other goods from my players? Or does it mean that there are special charity events across the world where DMs are running sessions?
I dont understand what "charity events" is. Can somebody explain me what a "charity event" is? How I could join a charity event?
I'm not sure, but maybe I should mention that in the country where I live D&D is almost unknown, so we dont have any particular "charity events" where I could run a game.
Thanks in advance!
A:
In Adventurers League play, DM's can receive rewards for the time that they spend DM'ing, that they can use for their own PCs:
Dungeon Master Quests are a series of out-of-game quests that DMs can undertake during the course of a specific season’s adventures. By completing quests such as DMing for a New player or logging a certain number of hours behind the screen, Dungeon Masters earn rewards for their own characters and their players. If you are an organizer, DM Quests are a great tool to recruit and thank your DMs.
So, DM Quests, can be awarded by event organizers, as an incentive and a reward for the DM's who are giving up their time.
One of those quest categories is called: Giving DM and it's awarded for having 'Run a game as part of a charity event'.
So, what does that mean?
A DM not being paid, does not make the game a charity game.
It is fair to assume that the majority of the time, the majority of DMs are not being paid for their work. They are doing it voluntarily.
This is the reason that the DM Quests exist in general - to help incentivise (and reward) people to give up their own time and DM for others for no personal gain. So, not being paid does not make any given game a 'charity event'.
What is a 'charity event' then?
Well there we can refer to the general understanding of this term - rather than a DnD specific understanding:
If you do something for charity, you do it in order to raise money for one or more charitable organizations. (Collins Dictionary)
And this seems to be the way that the DM Quests are using the term. Evidence of this can be found in the section of the Quest Sheet that details rewards:
DM's Reward: Double the standard DM Rewards. If the event is an Extra-Life event, also gain a Potion of Vitality for one of your tier appropriate characters.
Extra Life is a specific charitable effort, that is frequently supported by RPG players, which has raised more than $40 million for sick and injured kids since 2008.
So, a charity event, is an event (and in this context, one at which DnD occurs) which is specifically aimed at raising money for a charitable organisation or cause.
How could you get involved in a charity event?
If, as you say, no one in your country is running charitable events that you could volunteer to help with, then getting this DM Quest reward may prove tricky. However, given some time and effort, you might be able to organise your own event to raise money for a local organistation, or cause. Or, there might be charity events that you could support, and volunteer your time for, online.
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
---
abstract: 'We demonstrate a state reconstruction technique which provides either the Wigner function or the density matrix of a field mode and requires only avalanche photodetectors, without any phase or amplitude discrimination power. It represents an alternative to quantum homodyne tomography of simpler implementation.'
author:
- Alessia Allevi
- Alessandra Andreoni
- Maria Bondani
- Giorgio Brida
- Marco Genovese
- Marco Gramegna
- Stefano Olivares
- 'Matteo G. A. Paris'
- Paolo Traina
- Guido Zambra
title: 'State reconstruction by on/off measurements'
---
Introduction
============
The characterization of states and operations at the quantum level plays a leading role in the development of quantum technology. A state reconstruction technique is a method that provides the complete description of a physical system upon the measurements of an observable or a set of observables [@gentomo]. An effective reconstruction technique gives the maximum possible knowledge of the state, thus allowing one to make the best, at least the best probabilistic, predictions on the results of any measurement that may be performed on the system. At a first sight, there is an unavoidable tradeoff between the complexity of the detection scheme and the amount of extractable information, which can be used to reconstruct the quantum state [@mg]. Currently, the most effective quantum state reconstruction technique for the radiation field is quantum homodyne tomography [@wv99; @sp], which requires the measurement of a continuous set of field quadrature and allows for the reliable reconstruction of any quantity expressible in terms of an expectation value [@rec1; @rec2; @rec3; @rec4; @rec5; @rec6]. A question arises on whether the tradeoff may be overcome by a suitable experimental configuration or it corresponds to some fundamental limitations. Here we demonstrate that no specific discrimination power is required to the detector in either amplitude or phase, and that full state reconstruction is possible by a suitable processing of the data obtained with detectors revealing light in the simplest way, i.e. on/off detectors, such as single-photon avalanche photodiodes. Of course, some form of phase and/or amplitude modulation is necessary, which, in our scheme, is imposed to the field before the detection stage. In fact, our technique is built on the completeness of any set of displaced number states [@WB96; @WV96; @L96; @TO971; @TO972; @KB99] and the reliable maximum likelihood reconstruction of arbitrary photon-number distributions [@CVP] from on/off data.
The paper is structured as follows. In Section \[s:rec\] we describe our reconstruction method, whereas in Section \[s:exp\] the experimental setup used in the reconstruction is described in some details. Results are illustrated in Section \[s:res\] and the error analysis is reported in Section \[s:err\]. In Section \[s:dis\] we discuss few additional topics while Section \[s:out\] closes the paper with some concluding remarks.
State reconstruction by on/off measurements {#s:rec}
===========================================
We start to describe our reconstruction technique by observing that the modulation of a given signal, described by the density matrix $\varrho$, corresponds to the application of a coherent displacement (probe) $\varrho_\alpha = D(\alpha) \varrho D^\dag (\alpha)$, $\alpha\in
{\mathbb C}$. In practice, it can be easily obtained by mixing the state under investigation with a known coherent reference in a beam-splitter or a Mach-Zehnder interferometer [@bs96]. Upon varying amplitude and phase of the coherent reference and/or the overall transmissivity of the interferometer, the modulation may be tuned in a relatively broad range of values. The main idea behind our method is simple: the photon distributions of coherently modulated signals, i.e. the diagonal elements $p_n(\alpha)=\langle n |\varrho_\alpha |n\rangle$ of the density matrix $\varrho_\alpha$, contain relevant information about the complete density matrix of the original signal $\varrho$. Upon measuring or reconstructing the photon distribution $p_n(\alpha)$ for different values of the modulation one has enough information for full state reconstruction. By re-writing the above relation as $p_n(\alpha) = \sum_{km} D_{nk}(\alpha) \varrho_{km} D_{mn} (\alpha)$, the off diagonal matrix elements may be recovered upon inversion by least square method, i.e. [@TO971] $$\langle m+s | \varrho |m\rangle = N_\phi^{-1} \sum_{l=1}^{N_\phi}
\sum_{n=0}^{\bar n} F^{(s)}_{nm} (|\alpha|) p_n (|\alpha|
e^{i \phi_l}) e^{i s \phi_l}$$ where $N_\phi$ is the number of modulating phases, $\bar n$ the truncation dimension of the Fock space, and $F$ depends only on $|\alpha|$ [@TO971]. State reconstruction by the above formula requires, in principle, only phase modulation of the signal under investigation. Maximum likelihood methods and iterative procedures may be also used [@ZJ06]. On the other hand, the Wigner function may be reconstructed using its very definition in terms of displacement [@Cahill] $$W(\alpha) = \hbox{Tr}[D(\alpha)\varrho D^\dag (\alpha)\, (-)^{a^\dag
a}] = \sum_n (-)^n\, p_n (\alpha)\:.$$ As a matter of fact, the measurement of the photon distribution is challenging as photo-detectors that can operate as photon counters are rather rare and affected either by a low quantum efficiency [@burle] or require cryogenic conditions, thus impairing common use [@xxx; @serg]. Therefore, a method with displacement but without photo-counting has been used so far only for states in the 0-1 subspace of the Fock space [@KB99]. On the other hand, the experimental reconstructions of photon-number distributions for both continuous-wave and pulsed light beams is possible using simple on/off single-photon avalanche photodetectors. This requires the collection of the frequencies of the [*off*]{} events, $P_{0,k}=\sum_{n = 0}^\infty{( {1 - \eta_k})^n p_n}$ at different quantum efficiencies of the detector, $\eta_k$. The data are then used in a recursive maximum likelihood reconstruction algorithm that yields the photon-number distributions as $$p_n^{i + 1} = p_n^i \sum_{k = 1}^K
(A_{kn}/\sum_j {A_{kj}})(P_{0,k}/p_{0,k}[\{p_n^i\}]),$$ where $A_{kn} = \left({1 - \eta _k } \right)^n$ and $p_{0,k}$ is the probability of [*off*]{} events calculated from the reconstructed distribution at the $i$th iteration [@pcount]. The effectiveness of the method has been demonstrated for single-mode [@CVP] and multimode fields [@bip], and also applied to improve quantum key distribution [@TM08].
Since the implementation of the modulation is relatively easy, we have thus a reconstruction technique which provides the quantum state of radiation modes and requires only avalanche detectors, without any phase or amplitude discrimination power. Here, we develop the idea into a proper reconstruction technique and demonstrate the reconstruction of the Wigner function [@silb] and the density matrix for different states of the optical field.
Experimental setups {#s:exp}
===================
We have performed two experiments for the reconstruction of the Wigner function and the density matrix respectively. In Fig. \[f:setup\] we sketch the corresponding experimental setups: the upper panel for the measurement of the Wigner function and the lower panel for the density matrix (lower panel). The first set of measurements was performed on ps-pulsed light fields at 523 nm wavelength. The light source was the second-harmonic output of a Nd:YLF mode-locked laser amplified at 5 kHz (High Q Laser Production) delivering pulses of $\sim 5.4$ ps duration.
![(Color online) Schematic diagram of the two experimental setups. Upper panel: Nd:YLF, pulsed laser source; P, polarizer; HPD, hybrid photodetector; SGI, synchronous gated integrator; ADC, analog-to-digital converter. Lower panel: He-Ne, cw laser source; IF, interference filter; APD, single-photon avalanche photodiode. F, neutral-density filter; BS, beam splitter; Pz, piezoelectric movement; R, rotating ground glass plate. Components in dotted boxes are inserted/activated when necessary.[]{data-label="f:setup"}](f1_setup.ps){width="0.8\columnwidth"}
The field, spatially filtered by means of a confocal telescope, was split into two parts to give both signal and probe. The photon-number distribution of the probe was kept Poissonian, while the coherent photon-number distribution of the signal field was modified in order to get suitable states of light. In particular, we have generated two phase-insensitive classical states, namely a phase-averaged coherent state and a single-mode thermal state. The first one was obtained by changing the relative phase between signal and probe fields at a frequency of $\sim300$ Hz by means of a piezoelectric movement (Pz in the upper panel of Fig. \[f:setup\]), covering 1.28 $\mu$m span. On the other hand, to get the single-mode thermal state we inserted an Arecchi’s rotating ground glass disk on the pathway of the signal field followed by a pin-hole that selected a single coherence area.
Signal and probe fields were mixed in an unpolarizing cube beam-splitter (BS) and a portion of the exiting field was sent, through a multimode optical fiber (600 $\mu$m core-diameter), to a hybrid photodetector module (HPD, mod. H8236-40, Hamamatsu, maximum quantum efficiency $\eta_\mathrm{HPD}$=0.4 at 550 nm). Although the detector is endowed with partial photon resolving capability, we used it as a simple on/off detector by setting a threshold at the value corresponding to zero detected photons. Its output current pulses were suitably gate-integrated by a SR250 module (Stanford Research Systems, CA) and sampled to produce a voltage, which was digitized and recorded at each shot. In order to modulate the amplitude of the probe field, a variable neutral density filter was placed on its pathway. The maximum overall detection efficiency, calculated by including the losses of the collection optics, was $\eta_{max}=0.29$. We used a polarizer put in front of the fiber to vary the quantum efficiency of the detection chain from $\eta_{max}$ to 0.
Results {#s:res}
=======
Here we illustrate the reconstruction obtained for the Wigner function and the density matrix of phase-averaged coherent states and thermal states, as obtained by our method after recording the on/off statistics of amplitude- and/or phase-modulated signals.
![(Color online) State reconstruction by amplitude-modulation and on/off measurements. In the main plot we report the [*off*]{} frequencies as a function of the quantum efficiency as obtained when the signal under investigation is a phase-averaged coherent state and for different values of the probe intensity $|\alpha|^2$. The two insets show the reconstructed photon distributions for $|\alpha|^2=5.02$ and $|\alpha|^2=10.69$, corresponding to the off distributions indicated by the arrows. The vertical black bars denote the mean value of the photon number for the two distributions ($\langle a^\dag a\rangle = 11.3$, upper, and $\langle a^\dag a\rangle = 18.0$, lower). In the lower left plot we report the corresponding reconstructed Wigner function. In the lower right plot we report the Wigner functions for signals in (blue) thermal state and (yellow, with sharper peak) vacuum . \[f:wsamm\]](f2_wsamm.ps){width="0.88\columnwidth"}
In Fig. \[f:wsamm\] we report the reconstructed Wigner functions for a phase-averaged coherent state with real amplitude $z \simeq2.1$ and a thermal state with average number of photons $n_{th}\simeq2.4$. The Wigner function of the vacuum state is also reported for comparison. As it is apparent from the plots all the relevant features of the Wigner functions are well recovered, including oscillations and the broadening due to thermal noise. In this case raw data are frequencies of the [*off*]{} event (collected over 30000 laser shots) as a function of detector efficiency, taken at different amplitudes of the modulating field, whereas the intermediate step corresponds to the reconstruction of the $p_n(\alpha)$. The insets of Fig. \[f:wsamm\] display $p_n(\alpha)$ for the phase-averaged coherent state at two values of the modulation.
![(Color online) State reconstruction by phase-modulation and on/off measurements. In the upper plot we report the [*off*]{} frequencies as a function of the quantum efficiency as obtained when the signal under investigation is a coherent state and for different phase-shifts. The two insets show the reconstructed photon distributions for the two phase-modulated versions of the signal corresponding to maximum and minimum visibility at the output of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The vertical black bars denote the mean value of the photon number for the two distributions, $\langle a^\dag a\rangle = 3.5$ and $\langle a^\dag a\rangle = 2.9$. In the lower left plot (left) we report the corresponding reconstructed density matrix in the Fock representation (diagonal and subdiagonal elements). In the lower right plot we report the density matrix for the signal excited in a thermal state. \[f:dmphm\]](f3_dmphm.ps){width="0.88\columnwidth"}
The second set of measurements has been performed to achieve state reconstruction with phase modulation. Here the light source was a He-Ne laser beam attenuated to single-photon regime by neutral density filters. The spatial profile of the beam was purified from non-Gaussian components by a spatial filter. Beyond a beam-splitter, part of the beam was addressed to a control detector in order to monitor the laser amplitude fluctuations, while the remaining part was sent to a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A piezo-movement system allowed changing the phase between the “short” and “long” paths by driving the position of the reflecting prism with nanometric resolution and high stability. The beam on the short arm represented the probe, while the beam on the long arm was the state to be reconstructed. In the first acquisition the signal was the coherent state itself while in the second acquisition it was a pseudo-thermal state generated as described above. The detector, a Perkin-Elmer Single Photon Avalanche Photodiode (SPCM-AQR) with quantum efficiency $\eta_{max}=0.67$, was gated by a 20 ns time window at a repetition rate of 200 kHz. To obtain a reasonable statistics, a single run consisted of 5 repetitions of acquisitions lasting 4 s each. In the bottom part of Fig. \[f:dmphm\] we report the reconstructed density matrix in the Fock representation (diagonal and subdiagonal) for a coherent state with real amplitude $z\simeq1.8$ and a thermal state with average number of photons equal to $n_{th}\simeq1.4$.
As it is apparent from the plots the off-diagonal elements are correctly reproduced in both cases despite the limited visibility. Here the raw data are frequencies of the [*off*]{} event as a function of the detector efficiency, taken at different phase modulations, $\phi$, whereas the intermediate step corresponds to the reconstruction of the photon distribution for the phase-modulated signals. In our experiments we used $N_\phi=12$ and $|\alpha|^2=0.01$ for the coherent state and $|\alpha|^2=1.77$ for the thermal state. The use of a larger $N_\phi$ would allow the reliable reconstruction of far off-diagonal elements, which is not possible in the present configuration. In the insets of Fig. \[f:dmphm\] we report the reconstructed distributions at the minimum and maximum of the interference fringes.
Error analysis {#s:err}
==============
The evaluation of uncertainties on the reconstructed states involves the contributions of experimental fluctuations of on/off frequencies as well as the statistical fluctuations connected with photon-number reconstruction. It has been argued [@KER97; @KER99] that fluctuations involved in the reconstruction of the photon distribution may generally result in substantial limitations in the information obtainable on the quantum state, e.g. in the case of multipeaked distributions [@zz]. For our purposes this implies that neither large displacement amplitudes may be employed, nor states with large field and/or energy may be reliably reconstructed, although the mean values of the fields measured here are definitely non-negligible. On the other hand, for the relevant regime of weak field or low energy, observables characterizing the quantum state can be safely evaluated from experimental data, including e.g. the parity operator used to reconstruct the Wigner function in the phase-space. In our experiments, the errors on the reconstructed Wigner function are of the order of the size of the symbols in Fig. \[f:dmphm\] whereas the absolute errors $\Delta_{nm}=|\varrho^{exp}_{nm}-\varrho^{th}_{nm}|$ on the reconstruction of the density matrix in the Fock basis are reported in Fig. \[f:err\].
![(Color online) Absolute difference $\Delta_{nm}=|\varrho^{exp}_{nm}
-\varrho^{th}_{nm}|$ between reconstructed and theoretical values of the density matrix elements for the coherent (left) and thermal (right) states used in our experiments.[]{data-label="f:err"}](f4_err.eps){width="0.88\columnwidth"}
Discussions {#s:dis}
===========
We have so far reconstructed the Wigner function and the density matrix for coherent and thermal states. The extension to highly nonclassical states does not require qualitative changes in the setups. The only difference stays in the displacement, which should be obtained with high transmissivity beam splitter in order to avoid mixing of the signal [@bs96].
As our method involves a beam splitter where the signal interferes with a reference state in order to obtain the displacement, we have optimized the effectiveness of mode matching and of the overall scheme by standard visibility test. We note that in this point our technique is similar to quantum homodyne tomography (QHT), where the signal is amplified by the mixing at a beam splitter with a strong local oscillator. The main difference with standard QHT, however, is the spectral domain of the measurement, which for QHT is confined to the sideband chosen for the measurement, while it is not in our case. The use of pulsed temporal homodyning [@ht1; @ht1a; @ht2; @ht3; @ht4] would remove this limitation of QHT. However, this technique is still challenging from the experimental point of view and thus of limited use. The effect of photodetectors efficiency should be also taken into account. This is a crucial issue for QHT, which may even prevent effective reconstruction [@prec]. For the present on/off reconstrucion, it does not dramatically affect the accuracy [@pcount]. Notice also that any uncertainty in the nominal efficiency $\eta_{max}$ of the involved photodetectors does not substantially affect the reconstruction [@pcount].
We stress that our method is especially suited for low excited states, as it does not involve intense fields and delicate balancing to reveal the relevant quantum fluctuations.
Conclusions {#s:out}
===========
In conclusion, we have demonstrated a state reconstruction technique providing Wigner function and density matrix of a field mode starting from on/off photodetection of amplitude- and/or phase-modulated versions of the signal under investigation. Our scheme is little demanding as to the detectors, with the amplitude and phase control required for full state characterization transferred to the optical setup, and appears to be reliable and simple especially for states with small number of photons. We foresee a possible widespread use in emerging quantum technologies like quantum information, metrology and lithography.
Acknowledgments {#acknowledgments .unnumbered}
===============
This work has been partially supported by the CNR-CNISM agreement, EU project QuCandela, Compagnia di San Paolo, MIUR-PRIN-2007FYETBY (CCQOTS), and Regione Piemonte (E14).
[99]{} G. M. D’Ariano, L. Maccone, and M. G. A. Paris, J. Phys. A, [**34**]{}, 93 (2001). Y. Bogdanov et al., JETP Lett. [**82**]{}, 180 (2005); C. Marquardt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. [**99**]{}, 220401 (2007). D. G. Welsch et al., Prog. Opt. [**39**]{}, 63 (1999). , Lect. Not. Phys. [**649**]{}, M. G. A. Paris and J. Rehacek Eds. (Springer, Berlin, 2004); A. I. Lvovsky and M. G. Raymer, Rev. Mod. Phys. [**81**]{}, 299 (2009). D.T. Smithey et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. [**70**]{}, 1244 (1993); G. Breitenbach et al., Nature [**387**]{}, 471 (1997); M. Vasilyev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. [**84**]{}, 2354 (2000); I. Lvovsky et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. [**87**]{}, 050402 (2001); V. Parigi et al., Science [**317**]{}, 1891 (2008); V. D’Auria et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. [**102**]{}, 020502 (2009). S. Wallentowitz and W. Vogel, Phys. Rev. A [**53**]{}, 4528 (1996). K. Banaszek and K. Wodkiewicz, Phys. Rev. Lett. [**76**]{}, 4344 (1996). D. Leibfried et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. [**77**]{}, 4281 (1996). T. Opatrny and D. G. Welsch, Phys. Rev A [**55**]{}, 1462 (1997). T. Opatrny, D. G. Welsch, and W. Vogel, Phys. Rev A [**56**]{}, 1788 (1997). K. Banaszek et al., Phys. Rev. A [**60**]{}, 674 (1999); Act. Phys. Slov. [**49**]{}, 643 (1999). G. Zambra et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. [**95**]{}, 063602 (2005); G. Brida et al., Las. Phys. [**16**]{}, 385 (2006); G. Brida et al., Open Syst. & Inf. Dyn. [**13**]{}, 333 (2006); M. Bondani et al., Adv. Sci. Lett. (in press) ArXiv:0810.4026. M. G. A. Paris, Phys. Lett. A [**217**]{}, 78 (1996). Z. Hradil, D. Mogilevtsev, and J. Řeháček, Phys. Rev. Lett. [**96**]{}, 230401 (2006); New J. Phys. [**10**]{}, 043022 (2008). K. E. Cahill and R. J. Glauber, Phys. Rev. **177**, 1882 (1969). G. Zambra, M. Bondani, A. S. Spinelli, and A. Andreoni, Rev. Sci. Instrum. [**75**]{}, 2762 (2004). J. Kim, S. Takeuchi, Y. Yamamoto, and H.H. Hogue, Appl. Phys. Lett. [**74**]{}, 902 (1999); A. Peacock et al., Nature [**381**]{}, 135 (1996); A.E.Lita et al., Opt. Exp. 16 (2008) 3032. G. Di Giuseppe, A. V. Sergienko, B. E. A. Saleh, and M. C. Teich in [*Quantum Information and Computation*]{}, E. Donkor, A. R. Pirich, and H. E. Brandt Eds., Proceedings of the SPIE [**5105**]{}, 39 (2003). A. R. Rossi, S. Olivares, and M. G. A. Paris, Phys. Rev. A [**70**]{}, 055801 (2004). G. Brida et al., Opt. Lett. [**31**]{}, 3508 (2006). T. Moroder et al., ArXiv:0811.0027v1 K. Laiho, M. Avenhaus, K. N. Cassemiro, Ch. Silberhorn, New J. Phys. [**11**]{}, 043012 (2009). K. Banaszek and K. Wodkiewicz, J. Mod. Opt. [**44**]{}, 2441 (1997). K. Banaszek, J. Mod. Opt. [**46**]{}, 675 (1999). G. Zambra and M. G. A. Paris, Phys. Rev. A [**74**]{}, 063830 (2006). H. Hansen, T. Aichele, C. Hettich, P. Lodahl, A. I. Lvovsky, J. Mlynek, S. Schiller, Opt. Lett. [**26**]{}, 1714 (2001). A. Zavatta, M. Bellini,P. L. Ramazza, F. Marin, F. T. Arecchi, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B [**19**]{}, 1189 (2002). T. Hirano, H. Yamanaka, M. Ashikaga, I. Konishi, R. Namiki, Phys. Rev. A[68]{}, 042331 (2003). J. Wenger, R. Tualle-Brouri, P. Grangier, Opt. Lett. [**29**]{} 1267 (2004). Y. Eto, T. Tajima, Y. Zhang Y, T. Hirano, Opt. Lett. [**32**]{}, 1698 (2007). G. M. D’Ariano, M. G. A Paris, and M. F. Sacchi, Adv. Im. Electr. Phys. [**128**]{}, 205 (2003).
| {
"pile_set_name": "ArXiv"
} |
ghest common factor of t and o.
9
Let d be 96 + ((-7)/(-21))/((-1)/(-6)). Suppose k + d = 8*k. Suppose -f - 3*x + 69 = x, 0 = -3*x + 15. What is the greatest common divisor of f and k?
7
Suppose w + 5*f - 205 = 0, -4*w + 9*f + 925 = 8*f. What is the greatest common divisor of 70 and w?
10
Let a(n) = -17*n + 256. Let u be a(15). Let w = 107 - 102. Calculate the highest common factor of u and w.
1
Suppose 8*h + 59 - 331 = 0. Let l = h - 48. Let n be ((-6)/21)/(-1) - 780/l. Calculate the highest common factor of 84 and n.
28
Suppose 0 = -4*s + 132*x - 135*x + 60576, -5*s = -x - 75739. What is the highest common divisor of s and 17?
17
Suppose 31*r - 10*p = -14*p + 1131884, -5*r - p + 182563 = 0. What is the highest common divisor of r and 224?
224
Let k(f) = -7*f**3 + 11*f - 17. Let q be k(-4). Let y = 255 - 169. What is the greatest common divisor of y and q?
43
Suppose -15*q + 10*q = -3*m - 13, -4*q - 5*m = -3. Suppose 148 - 6 = l. What is the highest common factor of l and q?
2
Let s(g) = 2*g**3 + 9*g**2 + 205*g + 1086. Let t be s(-5). Calculate the greatest common factor of t and 30.
6
Let u(f) = 2*f + 5*f - 5*f + 2*f + 14. Let o be u(4). Suppose 3*k + z - 417 = 0, -5*z + o + 515 = 4*k. What is the highest common factor of k and 20?
20
Suppose 32 = 2*j + 4*r, -r = -414*j + 419*j - 134. What is the highest common factor of j and 6608?
28
Let j(c) = c**3 - 3*c**2 - 338*c - 31. Let y be j(20). Suppose 4*o = 4*n - 2788, 0 = -0*n - 5*n - 3*o + 3525. Calculate the highest common divisor of n and y.
9
Suppose 12*t = 10*t + 10. Suppose t*c + 19 = 3*v, 1 = -v - 2*c - 0. Suppose v*p - 41 = 100. What is the highest common divisor of p and 376?
47
Let g = 235 + -239. Let w be -8*(3 + (-2 - g))/(-1). Calculate the highest common factor of w and 640.
40
Let u = 611 - 256. What is the greatest common factor of 923 and u?
71
Suppose -61*a + 19872 = -29*a. What is the greatest common divisor of 27 and a?
27
Suppose -312 = -5*p + 238. Suppose -5*f - m + 10 = 0, m = -0*m - 5. Suppose -13 = f*v - 145. What is the greatest common factor of p and v?
22
Let o(c) = -2*c - 11. Let z be o(-9). Let h be (-20)/(-70) + (-23)/7 - -29. Suppose -4*a + 222 - h = 0. Calculate the highest common factor of a and z.
7
Let s = -3657 + 9825. What is the highest common divisor of s and 24?
24
Let d be 116/5 + (-80)/(-100). Calculate the greatest common factor of d and 3552.
24
Let w(q) = -q**3 + 22*q**2 - 7*q + 15. Let r be w(21). Let s = r + -305. What is the greatest common divisor of 32 and s?
4
Let d = 569 + -561. Suppose -4*m - d = 0, 36*m - 33*m = -y + 26. What is the highest common factor of y and 56?
8
Let m be (-7252)/(-98) + 18/3. Calculate the highest common factor of m and 15880.
40
Let o = 504 + -507. Let f be -1 + 9 + (-12)/(o/1). What is the greatest common divisor of 60 and f?
12
Suppose -36 = -5*h + 2*h. Suppose 52*r = 24*r + 3696. What is the greatest common factor of h and r?
12
Let d(z) = 2*z**2 - 8*z - 185. Let n be d(-8). Suppose 3*y + 56 = 5*y. Calculate the highest common factor of y and n.
7
Suppose -5*n - 8 = 7. Let u be ((-16)/(-12))/(0 + (-2)/n). Let m(h) = 6*h + 2. Let o be m(u). What is the highest common divisor of o and 42?
14
Let f(m) = 11*m - 6. Let k be f(-20). Let c = -73 - k. Calculate the greatest common factor of 34 and c.
17
Suppose 0 = 113*k - 14386 - 3242. Calculate the highest common divisor of k and 228.
12
Let j = -4449 + 4482. Calculate the greatest common divisor of j and 649.
11
Suppose -4*p - p = -140. Let x be 2/(-16) + (-3880)/(-128)*20/50. Calculate the highest common factor of x and p.
4
Suppose 4*v - 7 = 5, 0 = -3*q - v + 24. Suppose -263 + 53 = q*y. Let a = y - -105. What is the highest common factor of 15 and a?
15
Suppose -5*o + 200 - 75 = 0. Suppose 12*b = o*b - 3172. Let w = b - 174. Calculate the greatest common divisor of w and 14.
14
Suppose -a = -d - 0 - 1, d - 2*a = 1. Let b be 15*(-5)/d - 1. Calculate the highest common factor of 84 and b.
12
Let k = -3045 + 3055. What is the highest common factor of k and 894?
2
Let x be (-4)/1 + (24 - -13). Suppose -6*g + x = -39. What is the highest common factor of g and 108?
12
Suppose -12 + 26 = c - 2*x, 4*c - 30 = -5*x. Let h(l) = 24*l - 141. Let m be h(c). What is the highest common divisor of m and 22?
11
Suppose 54569 = 254*n + 4277. Suppose 2*l = -2*d + 108, -216 = -4*l + 4*d + d. Calculate the highest common divisor of l and n.
18
Let a = 2405 + -2402. What is the highest common factor of a and 1527?
3
Suppose -5*r + 4*z = -2797, -4*r - 2*z - 2*z = -2252. Let w(y) = y**2 + 23*y - 3495. Let t be w(49). Calculate the highest common factor of r and t.
33
Suppose 3*l + 300 = 4*p, -81*p + 4*l = -79*p - 160. Calculate the greatest common factor of p and 486.
18
Let u(p) = -40*p**3 + 3*p**2 + 2*p + 1. Let j be u(-1). Calculate the greatest common divisor of j and 98.
14
Let y be (2240/(-50) - 4)/((-1)/5). Calculate the greatest common divisor of 1769 and y.
61
Let h = 234 - 223. Suppose -z + h*z = 400. What is the greatest common factor of z and 150?
10
Suppose -9*t = 5531 - 6125. What is the greatest common factor of 2024 and t?
22
Suppose -3*n + 6*a = 4*a - 51, -3*n = -a - 57. Suppose 3 - 24 = -3*v. Calculate the greatest common factor of n and v.
7
Suppose 5*k + 738 = 2*v - 78, 3*v = -k + 1224. What is the greatest common factor of v and 153?
51
Let d(f) = -12*f - 4. Let m be d(-3). Suppose 14*j - 3*j = 847. Let l = 81 - j. Calculate the highest common factor of l and m.
4
Suppose 8*h - 359 = -15. Suppose 0*z - h = -4*m - z, 2*m - 5*z = 5. Calculate the greatest common divisor of m and 190.
10
Suppose 0 = -59*t + 71*t - 3120. Suppose -61*w - t = -65*w. What is the highest common factor of w and 5?
5
Let g(h) = 3*h - 15*h - 20 - 116*h + 3. Let b be g(-9). Suppose b = 4*v - 3*p - 349, 4*v = -p + 1500. Calculate the greatest common factor of v and 34.
34
Suppose 369 = 2*y + 321. Suppose 5*h = 16 - 1. Suppose 20 = r + 4*j, -2*r + h*j = -0*r - 51. Calculate the highest common divisor of r and y.
24
Let k be ((-6)/(1 + -7))/((-11)/(-198)). Let w = 29 + -11. What is the greatest common factor of w and k?
18
Let q(f) = f**3 + 7*f**2 - 16*f - 27. Let n be q(-7). Let c(h) = h**3 - 9*h**2 + 15. Let z be c(9). What is the highest common factor of n and z?
5
Suppose 71*x - 932 = 68*x + 2*n, -2*n = 7*x - 2228. Calculate the greatest common factor of 2449 and x.
79
Let j = 5382 + -5370. Calculate the greatest common factor of 4536 and j.
12
Let y(a) = 2. Let j(q) = -5*q + 2. Let c(o) = -j(o) - 2*y(o). Let d be c(3). What is the greatest common factor of 621 and d?
9
Suppose 14 = c + c - 5*h, 0 = -5*c + 3*h + 16. Suppose s + 10*g - 7*g - 66 = 0, c*g = s - 66. Calculate the highest common factor of s and 22.
22
Let r(m) = 67*m + 615. Let x be r(-7). Calculate the greatest common divisor of x and 1387.
73
Let b(d) = 38*d - 416. Let w be b(14). Calculate the greatest common factor of w and 87.
29
Let h be 6/((-16)/(-24)*(-9)/(-4)). Suppose 5*l + 5*m - 555 = 0, -6*l - h*m + 108 = -5*l. What is the greatest common divisor of l and 48?
16
Suppose -w - 2692 = -f - 2705, 3*f + 9 = 0. Calculate the greatest common divisor of 3430 and w.
10
Suppose 0 = -2*y - 52 + 132. Suppose 53 = 3*m - 2*z - 16, -24 = -8*z. Calculate the greatest common divisor of y and m.
5
Let l(c) = -3*c**2 + 7*c - 8. Let k(t) = -2*t**2 + 6*t - 10. Let s(f) = 4*k(f) - 3*l(f). Let o be s(5). Calculate the greatest common divisor of 40 and o.
8
Suppose -8 + 4 = -2*r. Suppose r*a - 572 = -2*a. Let g(y) = -18157*y + 36325. Let k be g(2). What is the greatest common factor of a and k?
11
Let h(c) = -11*c - 51. Let l be h(-13). Suppose -5*s = -2*n + 66, -2*s - l = -3*n + 2*s. Calculate the highest common factor of 36 and n.
4
Let p(o) = 7*o**2 + 2*o - 118. Let s be p(17). Suppose -33 = s*t - 1942*t. Let l be 2/(0 - (-2)/11). What is the highest common divisor of t and l?
11
Suppose -5*g + 8149 = -2*x + 1210, 1350 = g + 5*x. Calculate the greatest common factor of g and 1108.
277
Suppose -4358 = -85*n + 5587. Calculate the highest common factor of n and 143.
13
Let i = -17865 + 18074. What is the highest common divisor of i and 11?
11
Suppose -1041*o = -g - 1046*o + 1189, -3*o - 6057 = -5*g. What is the highest common divisor of g a | {
"pile_set_name": "DM Mathematics"
} |
// RUN: %clang_cc1 -triple x86_64-unknown-freebsd -emit-llvm -fobjc-runtime=gnustep-1.7 -fblocks -o - %s | FileCheck --check-prefix=CHECK-COMDAT %s
// RUN: %clang_cc1 -triple x86_64-pc-linux-gnu -emit-llvm -fobjc-runtime=gcc -fblocks -o - %s | FileCheck --check-prefix=CHECK-COMDAT %s
// RUN: %clang_cc1 -triple=x86_64-apple-darwin10 -emit-llvm -fblocks -o - %s | FileCheck %s
// Test that descriptor symbol names don't include '@'.
// CHECK-COMDAT: $"__block_descriptor_40_8_32o_e5_v8\01?0l" = comdat any
// CHECK-COMDAT: @[[STR:.*]] = private unnamed_addr constant [6 x i8] c"v8@?0\00"
// CHECK-COMDAT: @"__block_descriptor_40_8_32o_e5_v8\01?0l" = linkonce_odr hidden unnamed_addr constant { i64, i64, i8*, i8*, i8*, {{.*}} } { i64 0, i64 40, i8* bitcast ({{.*}} to i8*), i8* bitcast ({{.*}} to i8*), i8* getelementptr inbounds ([6 x i8], [6 x i8]* @[[STR]], i32 0, i32 0), {{.*}} }, comdat, align 8
// CHECK: @[[STR:.*]] = private unnamed_addr constant [6 x i8] c"v8@?0\00"
// CHECK: @"__block_descriptor_40_8_32o_e5_v8\01?0l" = linkonce_odr hidden unnamed_addr constant { i64, i64, i8*, i8*, i8*, {{.*}} } { i64 0, i64 40, i8* bitcast ({{.*}} to i8*), i8* bitcast ({{.*}} to i8*), i8* getelementptr inbounds ([6 x i8], [6 x i8]* @[[STR]], i32 0, i32 0), {{.*}} }, align 8
typedef void (^BlockTy)(void);
void test(id a) {
BlockTy b = ^{ (void)a; };
}
| {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
Ask HN: How does saved submisisons work? - avinassh
I don't understand how this feature works. I searched and found that all the threads upvoted by me goes into saved submissions, but I tried, it does not seem to work that way.<p>I upvoted from front page or the submission page, but no difference<p>Can anyone tell me how does this work and how do I save submissions?
======
avinassh
Okay, couldn't find any proper info. So installed Pocket chrome extension and
saving them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Rough Riders are called in to help save Master's stage line. Taggart has his gang robbing the stages and shooting the drivers. When Buck drives the next stage, Taggart's men rob it and then make it look like Roberts is part of the gang. Written by Maurice Van Auken | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Introduction {#Sec1}
============
Pore fluid pressure (*P*~f~) is of great importance in understanding earthquake mechanics. The temporal buildup of pore fluid pressure during the seismic cycle may promote temporal changes in fault strength^[@CR1]^. In the co-seismic period of the seismic cycle, high pore fluid pressure close to lithostatic is observed around faults (i.e., where the pore fluid pressure ratio, *λ*~v~ = *P*~f~/σ~v~ \> 0.9; σ~v~ vertical stress^[@CR2],[@CR3]^). The distribution of high pore fluid pressure is likely to be time-dependent, thus varying over the seismic cycle^[@CR1]^. The time-varying seismic reflectivity may be used to detect the porosity changes related to the development of pore fluid overpressure along the subduction interfaces^[@CR4]^. The porosity changes are controlled by the temporal stress changes during the seismic cycle. In forearc regions, the near complete stress release that occurs during huge trench-type earthquakes (e.g., the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake) induces a change from reverse-faulting type stress regime to a non-Andersonian stress regime including normal faulting earthquakes^[@CR5]^. Previous hydrological research has suggested that the fluid loss by the formation of these extensional deformation structures (e.g., extension cracks and normal faults) in the post-seismic period increases the fault strength and creates drainage asperities along the plate interface^[@CR6]^. Here, we focus on the fluid migration in the hanging wall by the extension crack formation. The key question arises: To what degree is pore fluid pressure reduced by the extension crack formation? The temporal change in pore fluid pressure given by Skempton\'s relationship^[@CR7],[@CR8]^ is of the same order as the stress drop related to trench type earthquakes^[@CR6]^. However, crustal stresses and pore fluid pressures at depth are difficult to quantify directly, and downhole measurements of in situ pore fluid pressure are generally limited to depths of a few kilometers^[@CR9]^. Sibson^[@CR6]^ estimated that the change in frictional strength at 10 km depth is 6--64 MPa, increasing to 26--256 MPa at 40 km depth. Given the large range of estimates at each depth range, we seek to more tightly constrain the change in pore fluid pressure and the resulting change in frictional strength.
To answer this question, we examine temporal changes in pore fluid pressure during seismic cycles by analyzing extension mineral veins that are exposed along an ancient megasplay fault. The Nobeoka Thrust, southwestern Japan, which is an on-land example of the megasplay fault at shallow depths in the Nankai Trough, contains datasets of quartz veins that enable an understanding of fluid pathways in the hanging wall of the subduction zone^[@CR10]--[@CR13]^. Mineral veins are the fossils of the ancient fluid flow, as widespread quartz veins in subduction zones at seismogenic depths are generally taken as evidence of significant fluid flow and silica precipitation^[@CR14]--[@CR16]^. The silica precipitation in the accretionary wedge reduces the rock porosity and may control the recurrence interval of large earthquakes in subduction zones^[@CR17],[@CR18]^. In this study, by using the poro-elastic model for extension quartz vein formation^[@CR19]^, we estimate (i) the pore fluid pressure loss and (ii) the amount of fault strength recovery by the extension crack formation during the post-seismic period in a subduction zone.
Model for estimating pore fluid overpressure {#Sec2}
============================================
The character of the tectonic stress regime (i.e., the principal compressive stresses, σ~1~ \> σ~2~ \> σ~3~) plays a critical role in the containment of pore fluid overpressure, with overpressures being much more easily sustained in compressional stress fields^[@CR20]^. Brittle-rock failure depends on the coefficient of internal friction and the balance between differential stress (Δσ = σ~1~ − σ~3~) and rock tensile strength (*Ts*)^[@CR21]--[@CR23]^. In particular mode I cracks, which we focused on this study, is formed under low differential stress of Δσ \< 4*Ts*^[@CR21]^. At the same time, the type of failure affecting an intact rock mass is strongly dependent on *P*~f~, which controls the principal effective stresses^[@CR24]^. For fluid to generate a crack, *P*~f~ must exceed the normal stress (σ~n~) acting on the crack wall^[@CR25]^. Extensional veins are formed when pore fluid pressure exceeds the sum of the minimum principal stress (σ~3~) and *Ts*^[@CR26]^. Hence, the extensional veins are formed when$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$$ P_{{\text{f}}} > \sigma_{{3}} + Ts. $$\end{document}$$
The mechanics of crack opening can be represented in three dimensions using the Mohr circle construction, with the conditions for opening being represented by the shaded area in Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}. The part of *P*~f~ that exceed the σ~3~ + *Ts* sum is the pore fluid overpressure (Δ*P*~o~) defined as$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$$\Delta P_{{\text{o}}} = \left( {P_{{\text{f}}} - \left( {\sigma_{{3}} + Ts} \right)} \right) = P_{{\text{f}}} - \sigma_{{3}} - Ts.$$\end{document}$$ Figure 1Mohr diagram. (**a**) Schematic illustrations showing formation of extension cracks by using the Mohr diagram. Open circles inside the shaded area indicate the normal and shear stress magnitudes on the cracks. When the pore fluid pressure exceeds the sum of σ~3~ and the tensile strength (*Ts*), veins filling mode I cracks are generated. When high-pressurized fluids flow into the mode I cracks, the overpressure is reduced (Gray dotted Mohr diagram). *P*~f~: pore fluid pressure. Δ*P*~o~: pore fluid overpressure. Δσ: differential stress for formation of mode I cracks. σ**′**: effective stress. σ~N~: normal stress. *τ*: shear stress. σ~v~: over burden pressure. C~0~: cohesion. *Ts*: rock tensile strength. (**b**) Pore fluid pressure assumed to satisfy *P*\* = (*P*~f~ − σ~3~ − *Ts*)/(σ~1~ − σ~3~) = 0.4 (left) and 0.8 (right). Gray regions show the pore fluid pressure exceeds σ~3~. σ~N~: normal stress. τ: shear stress.
Here, we employed the poro-elastic model to estimate Δ*P*~o~. To calculate the Δ*P*~o~ is possible to use the vein aspect ratio (*W*/*L*), where *W* represent vein aperture width and *L* the vein length, assuming that it is linearly related to pore fluid overpressure Δ*P*~o~ and to the elastic rock properties of the host rock^[@CR19]^:$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$$ W/L = \left( {\Delta P_{{\text{o}}} {2}\left( {{1} - \nu^{{2}} } \right)} \right)/E $$\end{document}$$
where *ν* is the Poisson's ratio and *E* the Young's modulus. Hence, *W*/*L* of veins is depended on Δ*P*~o~ and *E*^[@CR19]^.
The driving pore fluid pressure ratio (*P*\*) is the ration between the pore fluid overpressure Δ*P*~o~ and Δσ as follows:$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$$P^* = \Delta P_{{\text{o}}} /\Delta \sigma = (P_{{\text{f}}} - \sigma_{{3}} - Ts)/\left( {\sigma_{{1}} - \sigma_{{3}} } \right).$$\end{document}$$
*P*\* is estimated as the result of the stress tensor inversion using the veins^[@CR27],[@CR28]^. In nature, there is both type of the vein: the vein filling re-opened crack and the vein filling newly formed crack. It is easily re-opened the existing cracks (*Ts* = 0) under lower pore pressure than the pore pressure to newly form the cracks. Therefore, to estimate the upper limit of the pore pressure, considering the formation of the crack is appropriate and we use the equation with *Ts* on *P*\*. *P*\* varies from 0 (no opening of cracks) to 1 (forming new cracks), and describes the equilibrium between *P*~f~ and the minimum and maximum stresses (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). *P*\* is estimated by picking the maximum normal stress among all veins in a Mohr circle^[@CR28],[@CR29]^. *P*\* means the mode I cracks are formed as a result of multiple ascending events of fluids with various fluid pressures^[@CR28]^. Here, we assume that Δ*P*~o~ is reduced when the high-pressure fluid flows into the mode I cracks.
We can thus calculate Δσ from the driving pore fluid pressure ratio *P*\* and the pore fluid overpressure Δ*P*~o~ rearranging Eq. ([4](#Equ4){ref-type=""}):$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$$\Delta\sigma = \sigma_{{1}} - \sigma_{{3}} = {\Delta}P_{{\text{o}}} /P^*.$$\end{document}$$
Thus, we can thus calculate *P*~f~ arranging Eq. ([2](#Equ2){ref-type=""}) as follows:$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$$P_{{\text{f}}} = \sigma_{{3}} + Ts + {\Delta}P_{{\text{o}}} .$$\end{document}$$
In particular, Δσ = σ~1~ − σ~3~, therefore σ~3~ = σ~1~ − Δσ. If the extensional veins are formed under a normal faulting type stress regime, σ~1~ = σ~v~ calculated as *ρgz* where *ρ* is the rock density, *g* is the gravitational acceleration and *z* is the depth. In addition, Δσ = Δ*P*~o~/*P*\* therefore Δ*P*~o~ = Δσ*P*\*. Therefore, the final equation is:$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$$P_{{\text{f}}} = \sigma_{{\text{v}}} - \Delta \sigma + Ts + \Delta \sigma P^*.$$\end{document}$$
Geological setting and extensional quartz veins around Nobeoka Thrust {#Sec3}
=====================================================================
We observed discrete extensional veins around the Nobeoka Thrust, filled mainly with quartz and lesser calcite^[@CR13]^. The Nobeoka Thrust is a major fault that bounds the northern and southern Shimanto belts of Kyushu, southwestern Japan^[@CR10]^ (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, traceable for \> 800 km in the Cretaceous--Neogene accretionary complex parallel to the modern Nankai Trough^[@CR10]^. The Nobeoka Thrust is considered to be a fossilized seismogenic megasplay fault due to the presence of pseudotachylite in the damage zone of its hanging wall^[@CR30]^ and its paleo-temperatures (hanging wall: \~ 320 °C and footwall: \~ 250 °C)^[@CR10]^. Its total estimated displacement of \~ 8.6--14.4 km, based on a 70 °C temperature difference between the hanging wall (phyllite that include thin coherent sandstone layers of the Kitagawa Group) and footwall (shale-dominated chaotic rocks of mélange in the Hyuga Group), is comparable to the deeper part (\~ 8 km) of the modern megasplay fault in the Nankai subductione zone^[@CR10],[@CR12]^. Around the Nobeoka Thrust, we observed \~ 800 quartz veins that filled mode I crack (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}). Quartz crystals in vein grew on quartz grain surfaces, from vein walls towards vein center, and there is no evidence of repeated crack--seal events^[@CR18]^ (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}a,b). Here, we interpret the quartz veins as pre-existing cracks that have been opened. *W*/*L* has been determined for quartz veins that meet the following criteria^[@CR19]^: (i) mode I crack veins with no appreciable shear displacement; and (ii) veins that do not intersect other cracks, veins or rock discontinuities (unrestricted veins). *W* and *L* of the quartz veins around the Nobeoka Thrust were estimated from the thin sections and field surveys, respectively; both measurements are log-normally distributed, with *W* = 10--400 μm (geometric mean 52 μm) and *L* = 1--50 cm (geometric mean 7.4 cm), with a few veins being longer than 50 cm^[@CR18]^. Overall, *W*/*L* ratios of all veins vary between 0.00002 and 0.04 with an average of 0.0007.Figure 2Geological conditions on the Nobeoka Thrust. (**a**) Geological setting of the Nobeoka Thrust, southwest Japan^[@CR48]^. (**b**) Geologic map of the studied area^[@CR11]^. KI: Kitagawa Group. HY: Hyuga Group. The maps were created using Adobe Illustrator CC software. Figure 3The formation of extension veins associated with thrust. (**a**) Photograph of the extension quartz vein observed around the Nobeoka Thrust. (**b**) Photograph of a thin section from the quartz veins around the Nobeoka Thrust. V: vein. (**c**) Equal-area projection showing poles to the extension veins around the Nobeoka Thrust^[@CR13]^. N is number of the veins. σ~1~ and σ~3~ are maximum and minimum principal stresses, respectively, detected by using the stress tensor inversion^[@CR13]^. Gray arrow indicates the slip direction of the Nobeoka Thrust (top-to-the-SSE^[@CR10]^). (**d**) Geological map of the coastal region of the Nobeoka Thrust and driving pore fluid pressure ratio (*P*\*) around the Nobeoka Thrust inferred from the stress tensor inversion^[@CR13]^. N is number of the veins. The westward distance from the fault core of the Nobeoka Thrust is represented by a positive distance. The map was created using Adobe Illustrator CC software.
The stress tensor inversion reveals that the extensional quartz veins formed under a normal faulting type stress regime, with the orientation of the minimum principal stress (σ~3~) axis being sub-horizontal and trending roughly NNW--SSE in both the hanging wall and footwall^[@CR13]^. The reverse faulting type stress regime in pre-seismic period, combined with the σ~3~ axis sub-parallel to the slip direction of the Nobeoka Thrust (top to the SSE)^[@CR13],[@CR31]^ (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}c), indicates that the normal faulting type stress regime at the time of crack opening was a secondary stress state generated by slip of the Nobeoka Thrust^[@CR13]^. Under this stress state, the increasing of pore space by the extension cracking around the Nobeoka Thrust contributes to the pore fluid pressure reduction. And, the stress tensor inversion estimated *P*\* = 0.16--0.19 and 0.29--0.46 in the hanging wall and footwall, respectively^[@CR13]^ (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}d).
Pore fluid overpressure in postfailure period around Nobeoka Thrust {#Sec4}
===================================================================
Δ*P*~o~ at the time of vein formation can be estimated by using the average values of the vein *W*/*L* ratio. *E* varies from 25--51 and 15--30 GPa for the rocks of the hanging wall and footwall respectively^[@CR32]^, whereas *ν* and *Ts* of the rocks of the hanging wall and footwall are not known directly. We therefore adopt values derived from the elastic parameters of lithologies that best approximate the mechanical behavior of this unit (i.e., shale, sandstone and phyllite). The following elastic parameters were derived from the literature: ν = 0.25 and *Ts* = 15 Ma (hanging-wall) and 10 MPa (footwall)^[@CR33]--[@CR36]^. The resulting average Δ*P*~o~ values range between \~ 9 and \~ 19 MPa and between \~ 6 and \~ 11 MPa for the hanging wall and footwall veins, respectively (Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}). The average Δσ values range between \~ 47 and \~ 119 MPa and between \~ 15 and \~ 40 MPa for the hanging wall and the footwall veins, respectively (Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Here, because the extensional veins were formed as mode I cracks under low differential stress of Δσ \< 4*Ts* ^[@CR21]^, Δ*P*~o~ and Δσ for the hanging wall can be \~ 9--\~ 12 MPa and \~ 31--\~ 60 MPa, respectively. Hence, the maximum case of Δ*P*~o~ for the hanging wall and footwall are 12 MPa and 11 MPa, respectively. Taking into account that *P*~f~ = σ~v~ − ∆σ + *Ts* + ∆σ*P*\* and assuming that *ρ* = 2,700 kg/m^3^ (the rocks of the hanging wall and footwall^[@CR37]^) at 8 km depth (*z* = 8 km), the *P*~f~ derived from our vein data range between \~ 189 and \~ 196 MPa and between \~ 200 and \~ 211 MPa for the hanging wall and the footwall veins, respectively. Hence, the maximum case of *P*~f~ for the hanging wall and footwall are 196 MPa and 211 MPa, respectively.Figure 4Pore fluid overpressure (Δ*P*~o~) for formation of mode I cracks around the megasplay fault, Nobeoka Thrust. Pore fluid overpressure (Δ*P*~o~) is represented by the gray contours. Black line bars represent the range of the fluid pressure ratio (*P*\*) and differential stress for the hanging wall and footwall of the Nobeoka Thrust, respectively.
Temporal change of pore fluid pressure around Megasplay fault {#Sec5}
=============================================================
We show that the pore fluid pressure at the mode I crack formation is close to the lithostatic pressure around the Nobeoka Thrust. In the maximum case of footwall of the Nobeoka Thrust at 8 km depth, the pore fluid pressure ratio (*λ*~v~ = *P*~f~/σ~v~) for the formation of the mode I crack exceeds 0.95. To compare with the pore fluid pressure inferred from the seismic velocity structures, this ratio can be converted to the normalized fluid pressure ratio, *λ*\*, which is calculated as follows:$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$$\lambda^* = \left( {P_{{\text{f}}} - P_{{\text{h}}} } \right)/\left( {{\text{P}}_{{\text{c}}} - P_{{\text{h}}} } \right)$$\end{document}$$
where *P*~h~ is the hydrostatic pressure and *P*~c~ is the lithostatic pressure^[@CR25],[@CR38]^. The calculate *λ*\* is 0.92. When the high-pressure fluid flows into the mode I cracks, the overpressure in the total pore fluid pressure is reduced. In the maximum case of the Nobeoka Thrust (8 km depth), \~ 7% and \~ 8% of the total pore fluid pressure, \~ 12 MPa and \~ 11 MPa, are reduced by the formation of the mode I cracks in the hanging wall and footwall of the Nobeoka Thrust, respectively. When the pore fluid pressure falls below the sum of σ~3~ and *Ts*, the cracks are closed and the reduction of pore fluid pressure is stopped^[@CR26]^. Here, for the Eq. ([8](#Equ8){ref-type=""}), we use the maximum cases of the pore fluid pressure for the hanging wall and footwall to estimate the temporal changes of the normalized pore fluid pressure ratio *λ*\* and the pore fluid pressure ratio *λ*~v~. During the formation of the mode I crack in the post-seismic period, the normalized pore fluid pressure ratio *λ*\* (the pore fluid pressure ratio *λ*~v~) changes from 0.75 to 0.66 (from 0.84 to 0.79) and from 0.92 to 0.80 (from 0.95 to 0.87) in the maximum cases of hanging-wall and footwall of the Nobeoka Thrust, respectively (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). The results indicate that there is small change in the pore fluid pressure around the Nobeoka Thrust during the seismic cycle.Figure 5A diagram for effective frictional coefficient along the megasplay fault. Pore fluid pressure ratio in the hanging wall and footwall of the Nobeoka Thrust is represented by horizontal gray and black lines, respectively. Hydrostatic pressure around the megasplay is indicated by a horizontal gray thick line. Thick lines are the effective frictional coefficient *μ′* (*μ′* = *μ*~0~(1 − *λ*~v~)) for *μ*~0~ = 0.4, 0.6 and 0.7.
We compare our results with the pore fluid pressure around the currently-active megasplay fault in the Nankai Trough. The fluid pressure ratio *λ*~v~ along the seismogenic zone in the Nankai Trough is as high as 0.95--0.98, which can be converted to normalized fluid pressure ratio of *λ*\* = 0.92--0.96^[@CR3]^. The maximum case of our results during the pre-seismic period support similar *λ*~v~ in the Nankai Trough^[@CR3]^. The value of normalized pore fluid pressure ratio *λ*\* around the megasplay fault in the Nankai Trough is around 0.8, inferred from the seismic velocity structures^[@CR39]^. The value of *λ*\* after the large earthquakes that we estimated in this study is consistent with the value revealed by the seismic velocity structures^[@CR39]^. Hence, our results indicate the temporal variation of the pore fluid pressure along the megasplay fault at a depth of \~ 8 km beneath the sea bottom surface in the seismogenic zone. In the present Nankai Trough, \~ 70 years have passed since the last large earthquake, the 1944 Tonankai Earthquake (M = 7.9). Our results indicate that the present pore fluid pressure around the megasplay fault in the Nankai Trough has not recovered to the value of the pre-seismic period.
Cracks opened in the post-seismic period are closed by the precipitation of silica in the pore fluid^[@CR6],[@CR18],[@CR40]^. In the subduction zone, the fluid can be supplied to the upper plate by the dehydration from subducting sediments and altered oceanic crust^[@CR41]--[@CR44]^. Saishu et al.^[@CR18]^ proposed a novel model of quartz vein formation associated with fluid advection from the host rocks and silica precipitation in a crack. In the extension quartz veins around the Nobeoka Thrust, the fluid pressure drops of 10--25 MPa from the lithostatic pressure facilitates the formation of the extension quartz veins under a period of 50--100 years^[@CR18]^. When the cracks are closed by the silica, the porosity of the host rock decreases. The occlusion of the porosity promotes the build-up of the pore fluid pressure. Hence, the sealing time of silica in the cracks around the Nobeoka Thrust^[@CR18]^ suggests that the onset of increasing of pore fluid pressure around the megasplay fault is delayed from the start of tectonic stress accumulation.
Limited increase of fault strength after formation of mode I cracks {#Sec6}
===================================================================
The fluid loss by the formation of mode I cracks increases the fault strength and creates drainage asperities along plate interface^[@CR6]^. Approximating the frictional strength of the megasplay fault to *τ*~f~ = *μ*~0~σ~v~′ = *μ*~0~*ρgz*(1 − *λ*~v~) and adopting a frictional coefficient (*μ*~0~) of 0.6 (Byerlee\'s friction law^[@CR23]^) and a density (*ρ*) of 2,700 kg/m^3^ (the rocks of the hanging wall and footwall^[@CR34]^), any increases in frictional strength (Δ*τ*~f~), can be related to decreases in *P*~f~. When the pore fluid pressure decreases by \~ 11--19 MPa due to the extension crack formation, frictional strength can increase by \~ 7--12 MPa. The order of pore fluid pressure change (Δ*P*~f~) and increasing Δ*τ*~f~ is less than the stress drop in large trench type earthquakes (20--40 MPa^[@CR45]^). The temporal change in fault frictional strength is at the low end of the estimates of Sibson^[@CR6]^ for 10 km depth. Here, the effective frictional coefficient (*μ*′) of the megasplay fault is estimated by *μ*′ = *μ*~0~(1 − *λ*~v~). Previous studies showed that the frictional coefficient (*μ*~0~) of illite-rich shales ranges from \~ 0.4 to \~ 0.7^[@CR46]^ at room temperature. In this study, we employed a frictional coefficient (*μ*~0~) of 0.4--0.7 along the Nobeoka Thrust. In the case of the Nobeoka Thrust, the effective frictional coefficient (*μ*′) before the fluid-loss by the formation of mode I cracks is smaller than 0.12 (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). After the fluid-loss, the effective frictional coefficient (*μ*′) increases up to 0.15 (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). The results indicate that the change amount of the pore fluid pressure by formation of mode I cracks is too small to substantially change the fault strength of the megasplay fault (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). Hence, we suggest that the reduction of pore fluid pressure due to the mode I crack formation at post-seismic period plays limited contribution to the increasing of the effective frictional coefficient along the megasplay fault. In the hanging wall, the relative expansion following a megathrust earthquake may reduce the fluid pressure. Flow from a highly-pressured fault interface into these zones would seem to have the potential to reduce fluid pressure on the fault interface. Future work will focus on relationships between the upwelling drainage by the extension crack formation and the expansion.
In summary, our model offers an explanation for how much pore fluid pressure decreases by the extensional crack formation during post-seismic period. It implies that the pathways of upwelling drainage by the extension crack formation are the limited deformation process of the strength-cycling (Figs. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"} and [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). The earthquakes may nucleate at local heterogeneities where the pore fluid pressure is close to the lithostaic pressure^[@CR47]^. The long-term monitoring of such transient pore fluid pressure variation in the order of 10^0^--10^1^ MPa between co-seismic and inter-seismic periods around fault zones is an important goal of earthquake hazard mitigation. Our results are part of a complex seismic cycle involving change in stresses orientation. Other possible component of the stress-fluid cycle is, for instance, the poro-elastic responses due to change in mean stress and the change in the permeability of the system^[@CR6]^.
Supplementary information
=========================
{#Sec7}
Supplementary file1 (DOCX 141 kb)
**Publisher\'s note**
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
=========================
is available for this paper at 10.1038/s41598-020-68418-z.
The authors would like to thank H. Kitajima, A. Okamoto and K. Yoshida for their constructive comments on the model concepts. We thank A. Barbour and E. Roeloffs for the improvement of the manuscript. Comments by L. Smeraglia and anonymous reviewer improved the manuscripts. M.O. received further support through JMEXT KAKENHI (19K04046).
M.O. conceived the initial concept and J.H. and A.M. expanded the model. M.O., A.M., A.Y. and G.K. observed the extensional quartz veins and summarized parameters of the Nobeoka Thrust. All authors wrote the manuscript and composed the figures.
The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
| {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
} |
Krasner v McMath
Krasner v McMath [2005] EWCA Civ 1072 (also, Re Huddersfield Fine Worsteds Ltd) is a UK labour and insolvency law case concerning the priority of payments to workers of an insolvent company in priority to other creditors.
Facts
Gerald Krasner was the administrator of an insolvent worsted company, in an appeal joined to another two companies. Barry McMath was one of the employees claiming that his right to compensation for the employer’s failure to consult the workforce about redundancies was payable in priority to the expenses of administration. TULRCA 1992 s 188 gives the right to be consulted 90 days in advance where there are twenty or more dismissals, s 189 gives the right to a ‘protective award’ in lieu of consultation and s 190 specifies this should be one week’s pay per missed week. Mr McMath’s contract had been adopted (in priority to administration expenses) under IA 1986 Sch B1 para 99, and so was owed any ‘liability arising under a contract of employment’. Were protective awards in that category?
Peter Smith J in one case had held that they were payable in priority and Etherton J in the other had held they were not.
Judgment
Neuberger LJ held that protective payments under TULRCA 1992 s 189 are not payable in priority to administration expenses. He noted that if a broad interpretation to ‘wages and salary’ is given under then it could hurt the purpose of rescuing insolvent companies, which was inspired by the Cork Report and underpinned the Insolvency Act 1986. This accorded with the natural meaning of IA 1986 para 99(5) and the list of payments in para 99(6), and accorded with the policy considerations surrounding rescue. In particular, many administrators would not decide that a rescue is possible if they know damages for failure to consult the workers who are retained and have their contracts adopted get super-priority for more than the work they do.
Clarke LJ and Jacob LJ concurred in the judgment.
See also
European Union Insolvency Protection Directive 2008/94/EC
Employment Rights Act 1996 ss 166-170, 182-190
Regeling v Bestuur van de Bedrijfsvereniging voor de Metaalnijverheid [1999] IRLR 379 (C-125/97)
Robins v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2007] ICR 779 (C-278/05)
Insolvency Act 1986 Sch B1, paras 3 and 99Powdrill v Watson''
Notes
References
Category:United Kingdom labour case law
Category:United Kingdom insolvency case law
Category:Court of Appeal of England and Wales cases
Category:2005 in case law
Category:2005 in British law | {
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
} |
The role of nitric oxide in A3 adenosine receptor-mediated cardioprotection.
1 Limiting the impact of ischemia reperfusion-related cell death is of vital importance given the enormous figures of heart related mortality in the world. 2 Coronary heart disease (CHD) is responsible for over 100,000 deaths in the UK each year, and is the most common cause of premature death in the UK and as a whole it is estimated that there are just over 1.5 million men, and 1.1 million women, who have suffered CHD in the form of either angina or myocardial infarction (http://www.heartstats.org). 3 In patients undergoing standard clinical reperfusion treatment today such as thrombolysis, percutaneous coronary angioplasty (primary PCTA), and bypass surgery, there remains an underscored need for novel therapies and strategies to reduce post-ischemic infarct size. 4 This review focuses on some of the intracellular signalling pathways that have been proposed to be coupled to A3 adenosine receptors in order to reduce post-ischemic infarct size, in particular the role of nitric oxide in A3 adenosine receptor-mediated cardioprotection is discussed. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
// 为练习15.41专门定义的文件
#ifndef QUERY_H
#define QUERY_H
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <memory>
#include "QueryResult.h"
#include "TextQuery.h"
static constexpr bool open_debug = false;
inline void PrintDebug(const char *msg)
{
if (open_debug)
std::cout << "[Debug] " << msg << "\n";
}
static QueryResult invalid_qr("", 0, 0);
// 这是一个抽象基类，具体的查询类型从中派生，所有成员都是private的
class Query_base {
friend class Query;
protected:
using line_no = TextQuery::line_no;
virtual ~Query_base() = default;
private:
// eval返回与当前Query匹配的QueryResult
virtual QueryResult eval(const TextQuery&) const = 0;
// rep是表示查询的一个string
virtual std::string rep() const = 0;
};
class WordQuery : public Query_base {
friend class Query; // Query使用WordQuery构造函数
WordQuery(const std::string &s) : query_word(s)
{ PrintDebug("WordQuery::WordQuery(const std::string &s)"); }
// 具体的类：WordQuery将定义所有继承而来的纯虚函数
QueryResult eval(const TextQuery &t) const override
{ return t.query(query_word); }
std::string rep() const override
{
PrintDebug("WordQuery::rep");
return query_word;
}
std::string query_word; // 要查找的单词
};
// 这是一个管理Query_base继承体系的接口类
class Query {
// 这些运算符需要访问接受shared_ptr的构造函数，而该函数是私有的
friend Query operator~(const Query &);
friend Query operator|(const Query&, const Query&);
friend Query operator&(const Query&, const Query&);
public:
Query(const std::string &s) : q(new WordQuery(s)), use(new size_t(1)) // 构建一个新的WordQuery
{ PrintDebug("Query::Query(const std::string &s)"); }
Query(const Query &query) : q(query.q), use(query.use) { ++*use; }
Query& operator=(const Query &rhs)
{
++*rhs.use;
if (--*use == 0) {
delete q;
delete use;
}
q = rhs.q;
use = rhs.use;
return *this;
}
// 接口函数：调用对应的Query_base操作
QueryResult eval(const TextQuery &t) const { return q->eval(t); }
std::string rep() const
{
PrintDebug("Query::rep");
return q->rep();
}
private:
Query(Query_base *query) : q(query)
{ PrintDebug("Query::Query(std::shared_ptr<Query_base> query)"); }
size_t *use; // 引用计数
Query_base *q;
};
inline std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream &os, const Query &query)
{
// Query::rep通过它的Query_base指针对rep()进行了虚调用
return os << query.rep();
}
class NotQuery : public Query_base {
friend Query operator~(const Query&);
NotQuery(const Query &q) : query(q)
{ PrintDebug("NotQuery::NotQuery(const Query &q)"); }
// 具体的类：NotQuery将定义所有继承而来的纯虚函数
std::string rep() const
{
PrintDebug("NotQuery::rep");
return "~" + query.rep() + ")";
}
QueryResult eval(const TextQuery&) const;
Query query;
};
inline Query operator~(const Query &operand)
{
return new NotQuery(operand);
}
class BinaryQuery : public Query_base {
protected:
BinaryQuery(const Query &l, const Query &r, std::string s) :
lhs(l), rhs(r), opSym(s)
{ PrintDebug("BinaryQuery::BinaryQuery(const Query &l, const Query &r, std::string s)"); }
// 抽象类：BinaryQuery不定义eval
std::string rep() const
{
PrintDebug("BinaryQuery::rep");
return "(" + lhs.rep() + " " + opSym + " " + rhs.rep() + ")";
}
Query lhs, rhs; // 左侧和右侧的运算对象
std::string opSym; // 运算符的名字
};
class AndQuery : public BinaryQuery {
friend Query operator&(const Query&, const Query&);
AndQuery(const Query &left, const Query &right) : BinaryQuery(left, right, "&")
{ PrintDebug("AndQuery::AndQuery(const Query &left, const Query &right)"); }
// 具体的类：AndQuery继承了rep并且定义了其他纯虚函数
QueryResult eval(const TextQuery&) const override;
};
inline Query operator&(const Query &lhs, const Query &rhs)
{
return new AndQuery(lhs, rhs);
};
class OrQuery : public BinaryQuery {
friend Query operator|(const Query&, const Query&);
OrQuery(const Query &left, const Query &right) : BinaryQuery(left, right, "|")
{ PrintDebug("OrQuery::OrQuery(const Query &left, const Query &right)"); }
QueryResult eval(const TextQuery&) const override;
};
inline Query operator|(const Query &lhs, const Query &rhs)
{
return new OrQuery(lhs, rhs);
}
#endif
| {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
Memory disaggregation is a technique which logically extends the local memory attached to a host Central Processing Unit (CPU) with additional memory provided on special memory devices (e.g. a memory blade or Solid State Drive (SSD)) connected via an Input/Output (I/O) interconnect (e.g. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe)). Further, memory disaggregation may be implemented in connection with a virtualized computing environments that include a plurality of Virtual Machines (VMs) managed by a hypervisor. Example VMs include the LINUX™ or WINDOWS™ operating system, whereas example hypervisors include the XEN™ or FUSION™ hypervisor. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
INTRODUCTION
============
Lung cancer remains the most common cause of mortality from malignant disease in the world for several decades, and it has been the most common cancer in China.^[@B1]^ It is estimated that there are 1.8 million new cases in 2012, 58% of them occur in the less developed countries.^[@B1]^ Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for about 80% of lung cancer cases, and has a overall five-year survival rate of less than 15%.^[@B2],[@B3]^ Most of the NSCLC patients show locally advanced or metastatic disease when diagnosed.^2^Platinum agents have been used as the first-line chemotherapeutic regimens to improve the clinical outcome of advanced NSCLC.^[@B3]^ Despite advances in diagnostics, surgery and chemotherapy, 70% of NSCLC patients still show metastatic disease after receiving chemotherapy.^[@B4]^ Moreover, even patients with similar clinical characteristics present different response to chemotherapy, which shows that some molecular biomarkers have a role in altering the efficacy of chemotherapy for advanced NSCLC patients. Therefore, detection of molecular markers could help design individualized chemotherapy to improve the survival of advanced NSCLC.
Previous study reported that bulky DNA adducts by cisplatin or carboplatin are mainly repaired by nucleotide excision repair pathway.^[@B5]^ The DNA repair mechanism can allow cancer cell to repair the DNA damages caused by platinum compounds, and it can influence the anticancer effect of these agents.^[@B6]^ Excision repair cross complementing 1 (ERCC1) and breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1) are two key factors involved in nuclear excision repair, and increased clinical data have showed that expression.^[@B7],[@B8]^ Ribonucleotide reductase subunit M1(RRM1) and Ribonucleotide reductase subunit M2(RRM2) are encoded by different genes on separate chromosomes and their mRNAs are differentially expressed through the cell cycle, and over-expression of RRM1 and RRM2 is correlated with resistance to chemotherapy.^[@B9],[@B10]^
Previous studies have reported the association between ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 and NSCLC prognosis.^[@B9],[@B11]-[@B13]^ However, the results are inconsistent.^[@B9],[@B11]-[@B13]^ Therefore, we conducted this prospective study to investigate the role of mRNA expression quantities of ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 in NSCLC patients, and investigate their association with response to chemotherapy and clinical outcome of advanced NSCLC.
METHODS
=======
***Subjects:***236 eligible patients who were diagnosed as advanced stage NSCLC were enrolled at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University between January 2009 and January 2010. Finally, 208 patients agreed to participate into our study, with participation rate of 88.1%. Excluded criteria were patients who previously received radiotherapy or chemotherapy, and those who had symptomatic brain metastases, spinal cord compression and uncontrolled massive pleural effusion. Informed consent was obtained from all patients before conducting the study. All the patients were followed up until January 2012. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University.
***Study design:***All patients were treated with platinum-based doublets chemotherapy. The treatment regimens included 25 mg/ m^2^vinorelbine on day one and day eight, or 1000mg/m^2^ gemcitabine plus 75 mg/ m^2^cisplatin or carboplatin on day one. The chemotherapy treatment was conducted every three weeks, and then the toxicities were evaluated after chemotherapy. The chemotherapy treatment was conducted for a maximum of six cycles. When patients showed grade three or four drug-related toxcities, the dose of cytotoxic agents were immediately reduced by 25%. The response to platinum-based doublets chemotherapy was assessed by the WHO criteria.^[@B14]^
Complete remission (CR) and partial remission (PR) were defined as responsive and stable disease (SD) and progressive disease (PD) were defined as non-responsive. Overall survival (OS) was calculated from the time of diagnosis to the time of death or the end of follow-up.
***RNA isolation and cDNA quantification:*** 5 mlL whole blood samples were collected from each patient, and stored at −20C until use. For genotype determination, extraction of RNA from a peripheral blood sample was conducted by an EZNA Blood RNA Mini Kit (Omega, Berkeley, CA, US). A fluorescence-based and real-time detection method was used to determine the relative cDNA quantification for ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2, and β-actin was used as the reference gene. When comparing the threshold cycle with the standard curve (β-actin amount), the relative amount of cRNA of ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 was determined. Primers and probes of the ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification were designed using Sequenom Assay Design 3.1 software (Sequenom).The PCR reaction was started at 95℃ for 10 min to activate Taq polymerase, followed by 45 cycles of denaturation at 95℃ for 15 s, and annealing at 60℃ for 60s.
***Statistical analysis:***Mean ± standard deviation (SD) was used to express the continuous variables, whereas frequencies and percentages were used to express the categorical variables. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 mRNA expression and response to chemotherapy, with adjusted odd ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). The survival distribution was plotted by Kaplan-Meier methods and compared by log-rank test. Cox regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 mRNA expression and overall survival, with hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI). Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS^®^ statistical package, version 11.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) for Windows. Two-tailed with a *P*-value \<0.05 was considered as statistical significant.
######
Characteristics of included patients
---------------------------------------------------------------
*Characteristics* *Number*\ *Percentage (%)*
*N=208*
-------------------------- ----------------- ------------------
Age
Median age(years) 64.1(25.3-86.1)
≤60 91 43.7
\>60 117 56.3
Gender
Male 158 76.2
Female 50 23.8
Smoking status
Never 139 66.8
Current or former 69 33.2
Stage
IIIB 51 24.5
IV 157 75.5
Histopathology
Adenocarcinoma 92 44.3
Squamous 98 47.3
Mixed/other NSCLC 17 8.4
Response to chemotherapy
CR or PR 87 41.7
SD or PD 121 58.3
---------------------------------------------------------------
######
ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 mRNA expression and response to chemotherapy
*Expression level* *Total expression quantities* *Responders* *Non-responders* *P value* *OR(95%CI)*
-------------------- ------------------------------- -------------- ------------------ ----------- ------------- ------ -----------------
High ERCC1 0.67±0.17 36 41.4 68 56.2 1.0(Ref.)
Low ERCC1 51 58.6 53 43.8 0.04 1.82(1.01-3.20)
High BRCA1 0.095±0.012 32 36.8 72 59.5 1.0(Ref.)
Low BRCA1 55 63.2 49 40.5 0.02 2.53(1.38-4.64)
High RRM1 0.24±0.17 40 46.0 64 52.9 1.0(Ref.)
Low RRM1 49 56.3 55 45.5 0.21 1.43(0.79-2.57)
High RRM2 2.45±0.32 42 48.3 62 51.2 1.0(Ref.)
Low RRM2 45 51.7 59 48.8 0.67 1.13(0.63-1.13)
######
ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 mRNA expression and overall survival of advanced NSCLC
*Gene* *Death* *%* *Alive* *%* *Overall Survival Median (month)* *Log-rank* *OS*
------------ --------- ------ --------- ------ ----------------------------------- ------------ ----------------- ---------
High ERCC1 66 58.4 38 40.0 16.05 1.0(Ref.)
Low ERCC1 47 41.6 57 60.0 21.32 0.02 0.43(0.27-0.89) 0.008
High BRCA1 70 61.9 34 35.8 14.75 1.0(Ref.)
Low BRCA1 43 38.1 61 64.2 22.61 0.004 0.37(0.22-0.66) \<0.001
High RRM1 62 54.9 42 44.2 17.25 1.0(Ref.)
Low RRM1 51 45.1 53 55.8 19.65 0.17 0.65(0.39-1.23) 0.58
High RRM2 58 51.3 46 48.4 18.6 1.0(Ref.)
Low RRM2 55 48.7 49 51.6 20.7 0.75 0.89(0.50-1.59) 0.68
{#F1}
{#F2}
RESULTS
=======
***Patients:***Characteristics of patients are summarized in [Table-I](#T1){ref-type="table"}. The median age of the enrolled patients was 64.1(25.3-86.1) years. Among these 208 patients, 117 (56.3%) were above the age of 60 years old, 158 (76.2%) were men, 69 (33.2%) were current or former smokers, 157 (75.5%) were at stage IV diseases and 190 (91.6%) were squamous and adenocarcinoma non-small cell lung cancer. After performing platinum-based doublets chemotherapy for these NSCLC patients, 87(41.7%) patients showed CR and PR to chemotherapy, and 121 (58.3%) achieved SD and PD to chemotherapy.
The standardized mRNA quantification amount of ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 was assessed by comparing the target amount of β-action amount. The expression of ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 was classified into high and low expression according to median expression level. The median expression levels of ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 were 0.67±0.17, 0.095±0.012, 0.24±0.17 and 2.45±0.32, respectively ([Table-II](#T2){ref-type="table"}). Our study found that the low ERCC1 and Low BRCA1 mRNA expression was more likely to be response to chemotherapy when compared with high expression, with the ORs (95% CI) of 1.82(1.01-3.20) and 2.53(1.38-4.64), respectively. However, we did not find the low level of RRM1 (OR=1.43, 95%CI=0.79-2.57) and RRM2 (OR=1.13, 95%CI=0.63-1.13) mRNA expression has a role on the response to platinum-based chemotherapy.
The median overall survival of enrolled patients was 17.9±7.5 months. We found that low expression of ERCC1 and BRCA1 mRNA had significantly longer overall survival time when compared with high expression of ERCC1 and BRCA1 mRNA ([Table-III](#T3){ref-type="table"}). Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that patients with low expression of ERCC1 and BRCA1 attained 0.43 (OR=0.43, 95%CI=0.27-0.89) and 0.37 (OR=0.37, 95%CI=0.22-0.66) fold risk of death from NSCLC ([Fig.1](#F1){ref-type="fig"} and [Fig.2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). However, no association was found between RMM1 and RRM2 mRNA expression and prognosis of NSCLC.
DISCUSSION
==========
Our study found an inverse correlation between ERCC1 and BRCA1 mRNA expression and response to platinum-based chemotherapy and clinical outcome of advanced NSCLC patients. Our study suggests expression of ERCC1 and BRCA1 mRNA could be helpful in predicting the clinical outcome of NSCLC and understand the pathogenesis of chemotherapy for NSCLC. Recently, several studies reported the association between ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 mRNA expression and clinical outcome of NSCLC.^[@B3],[@B8]-[@B13]^ Zhang et al. reported that RRM1 and ERCC1 mRNA expression in tumor tissue could be predictive and prognostic biomarkers in advanced NSCLC receiving platinum-based chemotherapy.^[@B3]^ Boukovinas et al. reported that mRNA expression of BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 could be used to design individualized chemotherapy for NSCLC patients.^[@B9]^ Vassalou et al. reported that ERCC1 protein expression in tumor cell could influence the response rate to chemotherapy and clinical outcome of advanced NSCLC patients.^[@B12]^ However, the results are inconsistent. Therefore, we investigated the role of mRNA expression quantities of ERCC1, BRCA1, RRM1 and RRM2 in response to chemotherapy and clinical outcome of NSCLC patients.
ERCC1 is one of the key factors involved in nuclear excision repair and encodes the 5'endonuclease of the NER complex. It is reported that high expression of ERCC1 is corrected with resistance to cisplatin, which is involved in correcting the excision repair deficiency of the NER pathway.^[@B15]^ Previous studies reported that mRNA expression of ERCC1 was associated with response to chemotherapy and clinical outcome of head and neck cancer, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer and breast cancer.^[@B16]-[@B19]^ For patients with NSCLC, mRNA expression of ERCC1 might play an important role in the prognosis of NSCLCL patients treated with chemotherapy.^[@B3],[@B8],[@B11]-[@B13]^ One study conducted in China indicated that low expression of ERCC1 in peripheral blood or tumor tissue was associated with better response to chemotherapy longer median survival and longer progression-free survival.^[@B3]^ Another study conducted also conducted in China indicated that high ERCC1 protein expression was associated with clinical outcome of NSCLC patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy.^[@B10]^ The previous two studies are in line with our findings. However, another study reported that ERCC1 expression was not prognostic of tumor recurrence and overall survival in patients with advanced NSCLC.^[@B12],[@B13]^ The inconsistency of these findings could be explained by differences in ethnicities, number of included cases and study design. Therefore, further studies with different populations are greatly needed to confirm the finding of our study.
BRCA1 was considered as one important gene involved in regulating DNA damage responses and pivotal.^[@B20],[@B21]^ Previous meta-analysis reported that the individuals with low or negative expression of BRCA1 were associated with longer OS and better objective response rate^[@B20]^ which is consistent with our study.
There are some limitations in our study. First, these advanced NSCLC patients were selected from one place, which may not better represent NSCLC patients in other populations. Second, the sample size of this study is relative small, which would reduce the statistical power to find the difference between groups. The relatively sample size may be the reason that no association was found between RRM1 and RRM2 mRNA expression and clinical outcome of NSCLC patients. Therefore, further large sample size and well designed studies are warranted.
In conclusion, our results indicate that mRNA expression of ERCC1 and BRCA1 could influence the efficacy of chemotherapy and clinical outcome of advanced NSCLC patients. Therefore, ERCC1 and BRCA1 mRNA expression could be important predictive markers for individualized platinum-based chemotherapy for NSCLC patients.
We thank the helps from the staffs from First Affiliate Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, and funding from Science and Technology Department of Henan Province (No.623031300).
Authors Contributions:
======================
***FXJ & LPF*** designed and performed the study, did statistical analysis & editing of manuscript.
***LD, ZL, WWL, QXG & FH***did data collection and manuscript writing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
} |
Q:
Conflicting between Firebase messaging and Content Provider when i use them together
I have an application that share locations between users on Google maps and sorting and retrieving database using content provider and also opening chat messages using firebase messaging but when i combine Firebase messaging and Android content provider together the conflict happens and i found the error below , although when i use content provider or firebase messaging separately they work well and i have outputs from both, but once i combine both i have that message :
04-22 09:13:36.734 23186-23186/pioneers.safwat.onecommunity E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to get provider com.google.firebase.provider.FirebaseInitProvider: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "com.google.firebase.provider.FirebaseInitProvider" on path: /data/app/pioneers.safwat.onecommunity-5.apk
at android.app.ActivityThread.installProvider(ActivityThread.java:5199)
at android.app.ActivityThread.installContentProviders(ActivityThread.java:4802)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:4686)
at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1400(ActivityThread.java:168)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1389)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:177)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5496)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:525)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1225)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1041)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "com.google.firebase.provider.FirebaseInitProvider" on path: /data/app/pioneers.safwat.onecommunity-5.apk
at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:64)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:501)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:461)
at android.app.ActivityThread.installProvider(ActivityThread.java:5184)
at android.app.ActivityThread.installContentProviders(ActivityThread.java:4802)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:4686)
at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1400(ActivityThread.java:168)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1389)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:177)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5496)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:525)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1225)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1041)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
my Gradle file is (Module) :
apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
android {
compileSdkVersion 25
buildToolsVersion "25.0.2"
defaultConfig {
applicationId "pioneers.safwat.onecommunity"
minSdkVersion 18
targetSdkVersion 25
multiDexEnabled true
versionCode 1
versionName "1.0"
testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
}
buildTypes {
release {
minifyEnabled true
proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
}
}
}
dependencies {
compile fileTree(include: ['*.jar'], dir: 'libs')
androidTestCompile('com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:2.2.2', {
exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-annotations'
})
compile 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.0.0-alpha7'
// compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:10.0.1'
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.2.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:10.2.1'
// compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-plus:10.0.1'
compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:25.2.0'
compile 'com.android.support:design:25.2.0'
compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.1'
compile 'com.firebaseui:firebase-ui:0.6.1'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:10.2.1'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:10.2.1'
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-core:10.0.1'
testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'
}
apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'
and my gradle file( Build):
buildscript {
repositories {
jcenter()
}
dependencies {
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.1'
// NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
// in the individual module build.gradle files
classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:3.0.0'
}
}
allprojects {
repositories {
jcenter()
}
}
task clean(type: Delete) {
delete rootProject.buildDir
}
and My manifest:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="pioneers.safwat.onecommunity">
<permission
android:name="pioneers.safwat.onecommunity.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE"
android:protectionLevel="signature"/>
<uses-permission android:name="pioneers.safwat.onecommunity.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:supportsRtl="true"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
<activity android:name=".Start">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".Authentic"/>
<activity android:name=".MainActivity"/>
<activity android:name=".UserData"/>
<activity android:name=".UpdateData"/>
<provider
android:name=".Myprovider"
android:authorities="pioneers.safwat.onecommunity.Myprovider"
android:exported="true"
android:multiprocess="true"/>
<meta-data
android:name="com.google.android.maps.v2.API_KEY"
android:value="" />
</application>
</manifest>
A:
Try adding this in your manifest
<application
....
android:name=".MyApplication">
// ...
</application>
Then make a class.
public class MyApplication extends Application {
@Override
protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
super.attachBaseContext(base);
MultiDex.install(this);
}
}
Try this link for more details.
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
Developing outcome measures for pediatric mitochondrial disorders: which complaints and limitations are most burdensome to patients and their parents?
Since some drug intervention effects are only experienced by the patient, organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration prefer clinically meaningful outcome measures. Here, we evaluated which symptoms and limitations in daily life are most burdensome to pediatric patients with mitochondrial disorders and their parents, using two questionnaires. In a study of 78 patients, the most burdensome complaints included fatigue, behavior and speech disturbances, epilepsy and muscle weakness and a high degree of limitations in daily activities was found. Importantly, there was a discrepancy between what symptoms metabolic pediatricians estimated would be most burdensome compared to the patients'/caretakers' opinion. To include feasible and relevant outcome measures in intervention studies, the experience and opinions of patients and caretakers should therefore be heard. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
About the Hall
Built in 2007 and housing 141 students, St. Sebastian Hall
is one of the four men’s residence halls at Ave Maria University.
St. Sebastian Hall has forty-two rooms that serve as
doubles/triples and eight 8-person suites. The doubles/triples each have a
bathroom and the suites include a common area and two bathrooms. The hall
features a large lobby complete with an air hockey, Ping-Pong, and foosball
table as well as a kitchen available for student use. Each floor is also is
fitted with 40’’ HD TV located in each floors common room. An on-site laundry
room is available to residents free of charge. Students can also study and work
in one of the halls three computer labs with a printer available for student
use in the first floor lab.At the heart
of Sebastian Hall is our chapel that houses the Blessed Sacrament where
students can pause to reflect and pray. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
ect the terms in 5*j**2 - 76 - j**2 - 2*j**2 + 81 + 68.
2*j**2 + 73
Collect the terms in 120*d**2 + 186*d**2 + 20*d**2.
326*d**2
Collect the terms in -126359765 + 126359765 - 4*r.
-4*r
Collect the terms in 35*b**3 + 16*b**3 - 21*b**3 + 13*b**3.
43*b**3
Collect the terms in 20*g**3 - 7*g**3 + 2*g**3 + 14*g**3 - 5*g**3.
24*g**3
Collect the terms in -3 - 8756*g**2 + 8762*g**2 + 2.
6*g**2 - 1
Collect the terms in 78*s**2 - 8*s - 12*s**2 - 13*s**2 - 40*s**2 - 15*s**2.
-2*s**2 - 8*s
Collect the terms in 965*n**2 + 1498*n**2 + 5223*n**2.
7686*n**2
Collect the terms in 16 + 13*u**2 - 6 - 3*u**2 - 8.
10*u**2 + 2
Collect the terms in 3*w - 3*w + 316*w**3 + 358*w**3 - 648*w**3.
26*w**3
Collect the terms in 28772*w**2 - 14389*w**2 - 14375*w**2.
8*w**2
Collect the terms in 706*c - 1380*c + 693*c.
19*c
Collect the terms in -3*q - 5093*q**3 - 4*q + 5091*q**3 + 2*q.
-2*q**3 - 5*q
Collect the terms in -416*a + 132261 - 132261.
-416*a
Collect the terms in -2530244*f**3 + 28*f**2 + f - 28*f**2 + 2530245*f**3 - f.
f**3
Collect the terms in -129*h**2 - 30*h**2 + 1 - 3 + 40*h + 24*h.
-159*h**2 + 64*h - 2
Collect the terms in -4409 - 718*q**2 + 4409.
-718*q**2
Collect the terms in -261*c**2 + 611*c**2 - 352*c**2.
-2*c**2
Collect the terms in -9 + 3 - 6*x**2 + 4*x**2 + x + 3*x**2 + 2*x.
x**2 + 3*x - 6
Collect the terms in -17*i**2 + 2*i**2 - 23*i**2 + 15*i**2 - 22*i**2 - 2*i**2.
-47*i**2
Collect the terms in 125 - 11*q**3 + 274*q**2 - 125 - q - 4*q.
-11*q**3 + 274*q**2 - 5*q
Collect the terms in -308*w + 96*w + 108*w - 52 - 4*w**3 + 104*w.
-4*w**3 - 52
Collect the terms in 3095*d + 1101*d - 19516*d.
-15320*d
Collect the terms in 1 - 173*i - 1 + 317*i - 358*i.
-214*i
Collect the terms in 136642*a + 6*a**2 - 136642*a.
6*a**2
Collect the terms in -17715 - 17709 + 9*h**3 - 12*h**3 + 35424.
-3*h**3
Collect the terms in -481*z + 5*z**2 + 962*z - 492*z.
5*z**2 - 11*z
Collect the terms in 4841*m**3 + 6582*m**3 + 0 + 0.
11423*m**3
Collect the terms in -52*z + 158 + 23 + 88 + 263.
-52*z + 532
Collect the terms in -55399*n + 156682*n + 1 - 1.
101283*n
Collect the terms in -239*d**2 + 88*d**2 + 64*d**2 + 88*d**2.
d**2
Collect the terms in -f - f + f**2 + 160*f**3 + 3*f.
160*f**3 + f**2 + f
Collect the terms in -874951*v + 874951*v + 30*v**2.
30*v**2
Collect the terms in 170*p**2 - 68*p**2 - 972*p**2.
-870*p**2
Collect the terms in -10663*v + 21450*v - 10482*v.
305*v
Collect the terms in 2 + 48 + 18*h - 52.
18*h - 2
Collect the terms in 25550107 - 2*v**3 - 25550107.
-2*v**3
Collect the terms in -2*x - 41 - 31 + 159 - 52 - 35.
-2*x
Collect the terms in 677866*j**3 - 1355742*j**3 + 677883*j**3.
7*j**3
Collect the terms in -6*d**3 - 7*d - 15*d**2 + 14*d**2 + 7*d.
-6*d**3 - d**2
Collect the terms in 15*y**3 + 36*y**3 - 12*y**3 - 3*y**3.
36*y**3
Collect the terms in -4*x**2 - 2*x**2 + 3890*x + 5*x**2 - 3890*x.
-x**2
Collect the terms in -1287*u**3 - 424 + 424.
-1287*u**3
Collect the terms in 12*m**2 + 7*m**3 + 9*m**3 + 8*m**3 - 26*m**3.
-2*m**3 + 12*m**2
Collect the terms in -377 + 228*n + 377.
228*n
Collect the terms in 481 + 3*s + 60 + 1124.
3*s + 1665
Collect the terms in -3699*d + 1801*d + 1892*d.
-6*d
Collect the terms in 5*j**2 + 17*j**2 - 17*j**2 - 37*j**2 - j**2.
-33*j**2
Collect the terms in 841*w**3 - 2*w**2 - 6*w**2 - 1991*w**3 + 8*w**2.
-1150*w**3
Collect the terms in 10226*v**3 + 0*v - 10225*v**3 + 0*v - 941 + 941.
v**3
Collect the terms in -925*c - 2385*c + 398*c + 716*c - 2369*c.
-4565*c
Collect the terms in -1056*m - 1075*m + 2141*m.
10*m
Collect the terms in m**3 + 21675989*m - 21675989*m.
m**3
Collect the terms in 2*s**2 - 3*s**2 - 425*s + 501*s.
-s**2 + 76*s
Collect the terms in 19*d**3 + 4823143*d**2 - 4823143*d**2.
19*d**3
Collect the terms in -5*q + 8*q + 21*q - 14*q.
10*q
Collect the terms in 4137*t + 9 - 8269*t + 4137*t.
5*t + 9
Collect the terms in -20*f - 15*f + 35*f - 2*f**2 - 52*f**2 + 17*f**3.
17*f**3 - 54*f**2
Collect the terms in 45*p - 702*p + 559*p.
-98*p
Collect the terms in 5232*b + 5223*b - 15678*b + 5222*b.
-b
Collect the terms in -2678*m**2 - 2658*m**2 + 5339*m**2.
3*m**2
Collect the terms in i**3 - 566841*i + 566841*i - 5.
i**3 - 5
Collect the terms in -50*y + 83*y - 49*y.
-16*y
Collect the terms in 6*o + o**2 + 20682 - 10335 - 10347 - 6*o.
o**2
Collect the terms in 14*z**3 - 94*z**3 + 0*z**3 + 41*z**3.
-39*z**3
Collect the terms in 323 - 164 + 2*u**3 + u - 159 + 2*u**3.
4*u**3 + u
Collect the terms in -31 - 27 - 35 + 95 - 7*g**2 + 0*g**2.
-7*g**2 + 2
Collect the terms in 289373 - 289373 + 2*b.
2*b
Collect the terms in -1594*g**2 + 1686*g**2 - 96*g**2.
-4*g**2
Collect the terms in m + 323*m**3 + 220*m**3 + 253*m**3.
796*m**3 + m
Collect the terms in 131*b**3 + 91*b**3 - 235*b**3.
-13*b**3
Collect the terms in 15*v - 19*v - 20*v + 5*v - 53*v.
-72*v
Collect the terms in 10*g - 92*g + 3*g**2 - 6*g**2.
-3*g**2 - 82*g
Collect the terms in 5781*g - 11586*g + 5790*g.
-15*g
Collect the terms in -61 - 2981*y + 61.
-2981*y
Collect the terms in -94695217*s**2 + 5*s**3 + 94695217*s**2.
5*s**3
Collect the terms in -1437 - 1434 + 2871 - 16*l**3.
-16*l**3
Collect the terms in -1263*t - 346*t + 1614*t.
5*t
Collect the terms in 335*v**2 - 164*v**2 + 154*v**2.
325*v**2
Collect the terms in -746*f - 20 + 9*f**2 + 746*f.
9*f**2 - 20
Collect the terms in -25520 - 3*t**2 + 0*t**2 + 25520.
-3*t**2
Collect the terms in 20*i**3 - 15*i**3 - 44 - 4*i**3.
i**3 - 44
Collect the terms in -46*p**2 - 102*p**2 + p + 15*p**2.
-133*p**2 + p
Collect the terms in 516*g**2 - 17*g - 1017*g**2 + 505*g**2 + 17*g.
4*g**2
Collect the terms in -23261*q**2 + 23261*q**2 + 345*q**3.
345*q**3
Collect the terms in 6*u**2 - 21383 + 42770 - 21382.
6*u**2 + 5
Collect the terms in -1867284*k + 3734574*k - 1867292*k.
-2*k
Collect the terms in 50*u - 108*u + 25*u + 26*u.
-7*u
Collect the terms in 320*x**2 - 225*x**2 + 585*x**2 + 89*x**2.
769*x**2
Collect the terms in -85*t - 133564 + 133564.
-85*t
Collect the terms in 68964*g - 68964*g + 17*g**3.
17*g**3
Collect the terms in -17*i - 7*i + 31*i - 4*i - 8*i.
-5*i
Collect the terms in -233*y + 1188*y + 2373*y + 91*y.
3419*y
Collect the terms in 3*n**3 + 40 + 57 - 140 + 45.
3*n**3 + 2
Collect the terms in 2 + 1 - 61*x**3 + 51*x**3 - 3.
-10*x**3
Collect the terms in -3*t**3 - 161*t**2 + 166 - 84 + 61*t**2 - 82.
-3*t**3 - 100*t**2
Collect the terms in -4*k**2 + 2*k - 7*k**2 + 12*k**2 + 0*k**2 - 2*k**2.
-k**2 + 2*k
Collect the terms in 31343*r**2 - 23*r + 11*r - 31345*r**2 + 12*r.
-2*r**2
Collect the terms in -4*d**3 + 8*d**2 + 0*d**2 - 2*d**2 + 0*d**3 + 2*d**2.
-4*d**3 + 8*d**2
Collect the terms in 24*v**3 + v - 46*v**3 - v + 0*v.
-22*v**3
Collect the terms in -1484*f - 4365*f + 292*f - 1685*f.
-7242*f
Collect the terms in -30*i**3 - 4*i**3 + 13*i**3 - 66*i**3 + 2.
-87*i**3 + 2
Collect the terms in 10*p + 16*p**3 - 10*p - 12*p**3.
4*p**3
Collect the terms in -731*k + 244*k + 245*k + 244*k.
2*k
Collect the terms in 20*c - 10*c + 4320*c**2 - 10*c.
4320*c**2
Collect the terms in -416348298 + 52*j**3 + 416348298.
52*j**3
Collect the terms in -26*r + 587 + 606 - 1193.
-26*r
Collect the terms in -657*o + 16*o**2 + 34 - 6*o**2 - 11*o**2.
-o**2 - 657*o + 34
Collect the terms in 140*s + 33*s - 61*s + 19*s.
131*s
Collect the terms in 1451*l - 729*l - 8873*l - 1434*l.
-9585*l
Collect the terms in -2 + 35 + 25*f**3 - 33 - 28*f**3.
-3*f**3
Collect the terms in -27 - 28 + 4281*n + 55 - 4286*n.
-5*n
Collect the terms in 70*q**3 - 24705843*q**2 + 24705843*q**2.
70*q**3
Collect the terms in -516*t**2 - 87448 - 2*t + 87448.
-516*t**2 - 2*t
Collect the terms in -419*m + 174*m + 291*m.
46*m
Collect the terms in -2 + 108*h - 250*h + 2 + 143*h.
h
Collect the terms in -33*q**2 - 56*q**2 + 88*q**2.
-q**2
Collect the terms in -971*m**2 + 504*m**2 + 463*m**2 + 6.
-4*m**2 + 6
Collect the terms in -10*v**2 - 1606 - 29*v**3 + 10*v**2.
-29*v**3 - 1606
Collect the terms in -394912317 + 394912317 + j**3.
j**3
Collect the terms in -20537 + 20537 + 5*y.
5*y
Collect the terms in -r**2 - 393*r + 841*r - 448*r.
-r**2
Collect the terms in 650*d + 663*d + 647*d - 1962*d.
-2*d
Collect the terms in -529*t**2 + 2 + 528*t**2 - 2.
-t**2
Collect the terms in -165*x + 32*x + 33*x + 35*x + 39*x + 30*x.
4*x
Collect the terms in -74*q - 87*q + 246*q - 49*q - 77*q.
-41*q
Collect the terms in -31*a**2 | {
"pile_set_name": "DM Mathematics"
} |
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.Composition;
using System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using NuGetPackageExplorer.Types;
using NuGetPe;
namespace PackageExplorerViewModel
{
[Export(typeof(IPackageViewModelFactory))]
public class PackageViewModelFactory : IPackageViewModelFactory
{
private readonly Lazy<PluginManagerViewModel> _pluginManagerViewModel;
#pragma warning disable CS8618 // Non-nullable field is uninitialized.
public PackageViewModelFactory()
#pragma warning restore CS8618 // Non-nullable field is uninitialized.
{
_pluginManagerViewModel = new Lazy<PluginManagerViewModel>(
() => new PluginManagerViewModel(PluginManager!, UIServices!, PackageChooser!, PackageDownloader!));
}
[Import]
public IMruManager MruManager { get; set; }
[Import]
public IUIServices UIServices { get; set; }
[Import]
public Lazy<IPackageEditorService> EditorService { get; set; }
[Import]
public ISettingsManager SettingsManager { get; set; }
[Import]
public CredentialPublishProvider CredentialPublishProvider { get; set; }
[Import(typeof(IPluginManager))]
public IPluginManager PluginManager { get; set; }
[Import(typeof(IPackageChooser))]
public IPackageChooser PackageChooser { get; set; }
[Import(typeof(INuGetPackageDownloader))]
public INuGetPackageDownloader PackageDownloader { get; set; }
[SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Design", "CA1002:DoNotExposeGenericLists"),
SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Usage", "CA2227:CollectionPropertiesShouldBeReadOnly"),
SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Design", "CA1006:DoNotNestGenericTypesInMemberSignatures")]
[ImportMany(AllowRecomposition = true)]
public List<Lazy<IPackageContentViewer, IPackageContentViewerMetadata>> ContentViewerMetadata { get; set; }
[SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Design", "CA1006:DoNotNestGenericTypesInMemberSignatures"),
SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Design", "CA1002:DoNotExposeGenericLists"),
SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Usage", "CA2227:CollectionPropertiesShouldBeReadOnly")]
[ImportMany(AllowRecomposition = true)]
public List<Lazy<IPackageRule>> PackageRules { get; set; }
#region IPackageViewModelFactory Members
public async Task<PackageViewModel> CreateViewModel(IPackage package, string packagePath, string packageSource)
{
// If it's a zip package, we need to load the verification data so it's ready for later
if (package is ISignaturePackage zip)
{
await zip.LoadSignatureDataAsync();
}
var pvm = new PackageViewModel(
package,
packagePath,
packageSource,
MruManager,
UIServices,
EditorService.Value,
SettingsManager,
CredentialPublishProvider,
ContentViewerMetadata,
PackageRules);
DiagnosticsClient.TrackEvent("PackageViewModelFactory_CreateViewModel", package, pvm.PublishedOnNuGetOrg);
return pvm;
}
public PackageChooserViewModel CreatePackageChooserViewModel(string? fixedPackageSource)
{
var packageSourceSettings = new PackageSourceSettings(SettingsManager);
var packageSourceManager = new MruPackageSourceManager(packageSourceSettings);
var model = new PackageChooserViewModel(packageSourceManager,
UIServices,
SettingsManager.ShowPrereleasePackages,
fixedPackageSource);
model.PropertyChanged += OnPackageChooserViewModelPropertyChanged;
return model;
}
public PluginManagerViewModel CreatePluginManagerViewModel()
{
return _pluginManagerViewModel.Value;
}
#endregion
private void OnPackageChooserViewModelPropertyChanged(object? sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
var model = (PackageChooserViewModel)sender!;
if (e.PropertyName == "ShowPrereleasePackages")
{
SettingsManager.ShowPrereleasePackages = model.ShowPrereleasePackages;
}
}
}
}
| {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
Isolated Pneumocystis carinii cell wall glucan provokes lower respiratory tract inflammatory responses.
Macrophage-induced lung inflammation contributes substantially to respiratory failure during Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. We isolated a P. carinii cell wall fraction rich in glucan carbohydrate, which potently induces TNF-alpha and macrophage-inflammatory protein-2 generation from alveolar macrophages. Instillation of this purified P. carinii carbohydrate cell wall fraction into healthy rodents is accompanied by substantial increases in whole lung TNF-alpha generation and is associated with neutrophilic infiltration of the lungs. Digestion of the P. carinii cell wall isolate with zymolyase, a preparation containing predominantly beta-1,3 glucanase, substantially reduces the ability of this P. carinii cell wall fraction to activate alveolar macrophages, thus suggesting that beta-glucan components of the P. carinii cell wall largely mediate TNF-alpha release. Furthermore, the soluble carbohydrate beta-glucan receptor antagonists laminariheptaose and laminarin also substantially reduce the ability of the P. carinii cell wall isolate to stimulate macrophage-inflammatory activation. In contrast, soluble alpha-mannan, a preparation that antagonizes macrophage mannose receptors, had minimal effect on TNF-alpha release induced by the P. carinii cell wall fraction. P. carinii beta-glucan-induced TNF-alpha release from alveolar macrophages was also inhibited by both dexamethasone and pentoxifylline, two pharmacological agents with potential activity in controlling P. carinii-induced lung inflammation. These data demonstrate that P. carinii beta-glucan cell wall components can directly stimulate alveolar macrophages to release proinflammatory cytokines mainly through interaction with cognate beta-glucan receptors on the phagocyte. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
Q:
testng multiple threads for whole IT class
i have a testng suite with some 2 test methods. createuser() and updateuser(). also i have an instance variable User user;
so at end of createUser() i associate the created user to that instance variable user. now in updateUSer() (dependent upon Createuser) i try to update some attributes of this object.
everything runs fine normally. but when i use invocationcount=3, threadpoolsize=3, sometimes some of the methods will fail. now i figured out this is due to 1 common shared User instance for different threads.
is there any way whole IT class with different methods run in 1 single thread but i can spawn multiple executions of this IT.
so thread 1 -> IT with 2 tests, thread 2-> IT with 2 tests and so on...
so i am looking something like invocationcount and threadpoolsize for the whole IT class instead of each method.
A:
i used ExecutorService to manually run TestNG tests in different threads.
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
Laptop Case
The exclusive Komen Collection by Mobile Edge has been designed as our way of 'giving back' to those in need. As a tenured official sponsor of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Mobile Edge continues to donate 10% from the sale of each case to the Foundation in the hope of eradicating breast cancer as a life-threatening disease. All cases in this Collection incorporate the Komen pink hue as well as the official Komen ribbon, telling the world that you care.
The Ultra Tote in Full-Grain Leather offers women an elegance and functionality rarely found in notebook cases.
This is the case you need for both work and play, thanks to its removable computer section that allows you to carry it as a beautiful leather tote. As gorgeous as it is functional the Ultra Tote in Full-Grain Leather!
The Ultra Tote in Full-Grain Leather offers women an elegance and functionality rarely found in notebook cases.
This is the case you need for both work and play, thanks to its removable computer section that allows you to carry it as a beautiful leather tote.
As gorgeous as it is functional the Ultra Tote in Full-Grain Leather!
The Boomer Esiason Foundation is committed to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis and Mobile Edge is committed to supporting their very worthy efforts. Constructed with the finest heavy-duty materials and backed by a Lifetime Warranty, this tote is designed to safely carry your notebook computer as well as your personal gear.
Mobile Edge will donate 10% of the retail sales of these cases to the Boomer Esiason Foundation.
This good-looking leather laptop case has been planned with simplicity in mind - the padded section for your laptop (fully adjustable to accommodate size variations up to 17 inch) at the front and the briefcase/ filing scheme at the back! In different words, this leather laptop case can be utilized to contain all your serviceable necessities. The handle is padded for ease and also takes on a detachable thick shoulder strap.
There is no better way to flaunt your new laptop than in the Slim Tote by Melissa Beth. This tote is slim enough to keep you from knocking people over as you fly about but still big enough to keep your laptop safe and hold all your necessities. Velour outer body material, colorful inside lining and foam padding make the Slim Tote ultra unique.
Available in 13
BookBook is a one-of-a-kind, hardback leather case designed exclusively for MacBook and MacBook Pro. Available in Classic Black or Vibrant Red, BookBook brings three levels of security to your prized Mac.
This Limited Edition Messenger is screen printed with a Threadless artist graphic. It features a waterproof liner and legendary tough construction, this bag makes utility stylish. [Made in San Francisco]. A self-developed artist, Robert Hardgrave creates work both highly intricate and abundant with personal symbols. Inspired by experiences from disease and recovery, his paintings and drawings reflect ideas of reincarnation and the richness of life beyond death.
An update on a classic. We refined our classic Cargo Tote and updated the colors so our new tote is way more stylish than everyone else's. It might sound like we are bragging, but that's only because we are. Messenger styling takes you anywhere, day or night. How utilitarian of us. Um, I mean you. [Imported]
This Limited Edition Messenger is screen printed with a Threadless artist graphic. It features a waterproof liner and legendary tough construction, this bag makes utility stylish. [Made in San Francisco].
Gluekit is Christopher and Kathleen, a two-person graphic image-making team based out of New England. Gluekit creates illustrations, graphics, lettering, and interesting projects that are sometimes hard to describe. In 2007, Gluekit founded Part of It, a charitable initiative that invites artists to create designs about causes they are passionate about.
Computer Clutches - Python Leather 15
Email a friend
Computer Clutches
Possibly the most glamorous laptop sleeve in the world out new silver python computer clutch is the super glam way to protect your laptop when you slip it into your handbag. To fit most 15" PC laptops and also the 17" Apple MacBook Pro.
Qty
Price: £295.00 / 383.50* / $501.50*
*Price includes VAT (15%) which is automatically removed for shipments outside the EU.
The Element may be the most versatile women's laptop case ever introduced. The perfect combination of fashion and functionality, the Element Briefcase is the ideal case for women on the go. Now when traveling, you can keep your laptop in your case when passing through airport security. Good looks and functional too. The rich green suede and brown faux-leather exterior is highlighted by a matching striped satin lining.
he ScanFast Onyx Briefcase Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Bag combines designer quality materials, fittings and accents with the functionality, organization and computer protection that only Mobile Edge can offer! TSA compliant means you can leave your laptop in the case when passing through airport security checkpoints. Save time and travel smart!
The tailored construction of the Onyx Briefcase protects your laptop in the dedicated Computer Compartment while providing additional sections and pockets for your papers and accessories. Part of the ScanFast for Her Collection, the classic design will keep you looking good and help make traveling easier for years to come!
A new take on an old favorite. The Classic Messenger Bag has been in production for 18 years, so we thought it deserved a little make-over. This bag features unique specialty fabrics that are tougher than tough and a waterproof liner to keep your gear dry. Being perfect just got easier. [Imported]
This Limited Edition Messenger is screen printed with a Threadless artist graphic. It features a waterproof liner and legendary tough construction, this bag makes utility stylish. [Made in San Francisco]. Julia Sonmi Heglund's professional life consists of creating maps of ancient worlds and drawing illustrations for high school textbooks, working as cartographer and illustrator for a custom map-making company. She enjoys imagery that brings intrigue, whether it be through the mystical, the bizarre, or the grotesque. Graduating with a bachelor's degree in art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006, Julia utilizes her roots in fine art with her interest in child-like styles, creating whimsical worlds with sublime elements to allure the viewer's mind.
Cozy up at a cafe with our Espresso floral fabric but make it a crowded one so everyone can see you're single. Single Panel that is! This bag features a single panel design, waterproof liner, and legendary tough construction. [Made in San Francisco] Available in x-small and small. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
James W. Hill
James W. Hill (1791 – 1864) was an American farmer, lawyer, and politician. He served in the first session of the Michigan House of Representatives
Biography
James Hill was born in Rhode Island in 1791. By 1820, he was living in Grafton, New York, and by 1830 in Orangeville, New York.
Hill was the first settler in what is now Freedom Township in Washtenaw County, Michigan, when he moved there in June 1831 and built the first house and barn and planted the first wheat field in the area.
In 1835, Hill was elected as a Democrat to the first session of the Michigan House of Representatives following the adoption of the state's constitution.
He taught school for several years and was a director of Miller's Bank of Washtenaw. He transferred operation of the farm to his son Hanson in 1844 and moved to Manchester, Michigan, where he practiced law. He sold his farm in 1855 and moved to Prescott, Wisconsin, but returned to Lenawee County, Michigan by 1864. He died there, in Clinton, in 1864.
Family
Hill had a wife named Esther, and the couple at least three sons and four daughters; among the sons were two named Hanson and Lodmua.
Notes
References
Category:1791 births
Category:1864 deaths
Category:Members of the Michigan House of Representatives
Category:Michigan Democrats | {
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
} |
/*
* Copyright 2009-2020 Ping Identity Corporation
* All Rights Reserved.
*/
/*
* Copyright 2009-2020 Ping Identity Corporation
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
/*
* Copyright (C) 2009-2020 Ping Identity Corporation
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPLv2 only)
* or the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPLv2.1 only)
* as published by the Free Software Foundation.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses>.
*/
package com.unboundid.ldap.sdk;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
import com.unboundid.util.LDAPSDKUsageException;
import static com.unboundid.util.StaticUtils.*;
/**
* This class provides a set of test cases for the EntrySourceException class.
*/
public class EntrySourceExceptionTestCase
extends LDAPSDKTestCase
{
/**
* Provides coverage for a case in which the client may continue reading.
*
* @throws Exception If an unexpected problem occurs.
*/
@Test()
public void testMayContinueReading()
throws Exception
{
EntrySourceException e = new EntrySourceException(true, new Exception());
assertNotNull(e);
assertNotNull(e.getCause());
assertTrue(e.mayContinueReading());
assertNotNull(e.toString());
assertNotNull(getExceptionMessage(e));
}
/**
* Provides coverage for a case in which the client may not continue reading.
*
* @throws Exception If an unexpected problem occurs.
*/
@Test()
public void testMayNotContinueReading()
throws Exception
{
EntrySourceException e = new EntrySourceException(false, new Exception());
assertNotNull(e);
assertNotNull(e.getCause());
assertFalse(e.mayContinueReading());
assertNotNull(e.toString());
assertNotNull(getExceptionMessage(e));
}
/**
* Ensures that attempting to provide a {@code null} cause will not be
* allowed.
*
* @throws Exception If an unexpected problem occurs.
*/
@Test(expectedExceptions = { LDAPSDKUsageException.class })
public void testNoCause()
throws Exception
{
new EntrySourceException(false, null);
}
}
| {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
Thursday, December 18, 2014
They're
bombarded from all directions with examples of anything but a godly
lifestyle. Studies show that boys learn how to behave as men by what
they observe around them. With television, music and even their peers,
they spend much more time exposed to bad examples than ever before.
That's
what makes CSB Ministries so important. Serving as a light in a dark
world, we expose young men to the principles of godly living. We teach
and instill in them values and ethics that last a lifetime. To show them
what it really means to be a man.....and we've been doing it for over
75 years.
Click here to
donate and help a boy become what this world so desperately needs him
to be: "Bright and Keen for Christ". You can do this by supporting our
general fund or a Regional Director in your area.
By
donating, you will help boys develop spiritually, mentally and
physically through biblically based programs. You'll be helping us build
godly men, husbands, fathers, leaders and so much more. Heaven knows we
need them.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
I want to thank you for your partnership in the ministry of Christian Service Brigade.
It has been my honor and privilege to serve CSB in a “dual leadership role” since November 2009, when I accepted the invitation to serve as president of CSB US while continuing as president of CSB Canada. At that time and throughout the past five years, both the US and Canadian Boards of Directors and I recognized the tremendous advantages of this model to empower greater collaboration and synergy between the North American ministries as well as providing strong stewardship gains. We also recognized this model might not be sustainable long term, while feeling strongly that God had led us to this for this chapter of our ministry.
Throughout this past summer and fall, I reached the difficult realization that it was time to step back from my added role in CSB US and focus exclusively on the ministry in Canada. I am pleased to announce that the CSB US Board of Directors has asked Scott Haima, our Director of Finance and Operations, to serve as Interim President while we seek to identify the right path for this next exciting chapter of Brigade’s ministry in the US. I am delighted that Scott will be providing strong, fiscally responsible leadership to the ministry while moving the ministry forward with continued momentum. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Tigran Davtyan
Tigran Davtyan (, born 10 June 1978) is an Armenian football midfielder. He currently plays for the Armenian Premier League club FC Shirak.
National team history
His debut and last match was an away friendly match against Andorra on 7 June 2002.
Honours
FC Shirak
Armenian Premier League (1): 2012-13
Armenian Cup (3): 2005, 2006, 2011–12
Armenian Supercup (2): 2003, 2006
References
Category:1978 births
Category:Living people
Category:Armenian footballers
Category:Association football midfielders
Category:FC Shirak players | {
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
} |
Nomismoceratoidea
Nomismoceratoidea is one of seventeen superfamilies of the Goniatitina suborder. They are an extinct group of ammonoid, which are shelled cephalopods related to squids, belemnites, octopodes, and cuttlefish, and more distantly to the nautiloids.
References
The Paleobiology Database accessed on 10/01/07
Category:Goniatitida superfamilies
Category:Goniatitina | {
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
} |
2008-2009 Flow Cytometry Core Utilization Report Encompassing July 2008- June 2009 PI - Fellow (or staff/student) Adelstein Schmist Adelstein Kim Adelstein Wang Adelstein Shmist Adelstein Kim Barrett Hewitt Barrett Zeilah Barrett Melenhorst Beaven Qiao Beaven Park Boehm Ma Boehm Kovacic Boehm Berry Boehm Wragg Boehm Konoplyannikov Boehm Ding Burg Gallazini Cannon Blum Cannon Song Cannon Mingjung Childs Ramathanan Childs Vasu Childs Lopez Childs Berg Childs Smith Childs Su Childs Lundqvist Childs Gormley Childs Yokoyama Dunbar Metais Dunbar Larochelle Dunbar Barese Finkel Schieke Finkel Liu Finkel Su Finkel Wu Gladwin Woods Gladwin Raghavachari Greene Zhao Hammer McCroskey Hwang Sung Hwang Ma Kato Tailor Khakoo Kotin Kolosylchenko Kotin Li Kruth Leyva Kruth Anzinger Leonard Kwon Leonard Qiao Leonard Liao Levine Zhao Lo Francis Lo Zhen Lo Tansey Manganiello Shen Michelson Busser Michelson Kim Milgram Buckingham Mohiuddin Singh Mohiuddin Kennett Moss El-chemaly Moss Cai Moss Pacheco Moss Kasamatsu Moss Yahiro Mukoyama O'Donnell Mukoyama Chi Mukoyama Hu Murphy Lim Nabel Beers Nirenberg Rovescalli Nirenberg Ivanov Orlic Song Pohl Masson Pohl Chakrabarty Pohl Kalid Puertollano Martina Raghuram Yang Restifo Heinrichs Sack Joseph Sack Schwartz Sack Pagel Sack Bao Sloand Solomon Chen Tisdale Washington Waterman Kuo Waterman Nishimura Waterman Thievenssen Weistner Young Calado Young Cooper Young Feng Young Chen Zhao Wei Zheng NCI | {
"pile_set_name": "NIH ExPorter"
} |
957 F.2d 978
60 USLW 2566
Steven M. ASHERMAN, Petitioner-Appellee,v.Larry MEACHUM, Commissioner, Connecticut Department ofCorrection, Respondent-Appellant.
No. 002, Docket 90-2530.
United States Court of Appeals,Second Circuit.
Argued Sept. 10, 1991.Decided Feb. 13, 1992.
Stephen J. O'Neill, Asst. Atty. Gen., Hartford, Conn. (Richard Blumenthal, Atty. Gen., Steven R. Strom, Asst. Atty. Gen., on the brief), for respondent-appellant.
William J. Tracy, Jr., Bristol, Conn. (Furey, Donovan, Eddy, Kocsis, Tracy & Daly, on the brief), for petitioner-appellee.
Before OAKES, Chief Judge, and LUMBARD, MESKILL, NEWMAN, KEARSE, CARDAMONE, WINTER, PRATT, MINER, ALTIMARI, MAHONEY, WALKER and McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judges.
JON O. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge:
1
This appeal was reheard in banc to reconsider the issue of whether prison officials violate the Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment by terminating the supervised home release of a sentenced prisoner upon notification that the prisoner would refuse to answer questions about his crime at a scheduled psychiatric evaluation. The issue arises on an appeal by the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Correction from a judgment of the District Court for the District of Connecticut (Ellen Bree Burns, Chief Judge) granting the petition of Steven M. Asherman for a writ of habeas corpus. We hold that such action does not violate the Fifth Amendment. We therefore vacate the panel opinion that had affirmed the District Court's judgment and return the appeal to the panel for consideration of any remaining issues.
Facts
2
Asherman was sentenced in 1980 to a term of seven to fourteen years by the Connecticut Superior Court after his conviction for first-degree manslaughter. His conviction was affirmed on direct review by the Connecticut Supreme Court, State v. Asherman, 193 Conn. 695, 478 A.2d 227 (1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1050, 105 S.Ct. 1749, 84 L.Ed.2d 814 (1985), and a federal habeas corpus challenge to the conviction was rejected by the District Court, Asherman v. Meachum, 739 F.Supp. 718 (D.Conn.), aff'd mem., 923 F.2d 845 (2d Cir.1990).
3
Asherman began serving his sentence in March 1985. In December 1987, the Connecticut Commissioner of Corrections granted his application for supervised home release (SHR). See Conn.Gen.Stat. 18-100(e) (1990). Asherman was released initially to a halfway house and thereafter resided with his wife in an apartment. On July 19, 1988, the Connecticut Parole Board denied Asherman's application for parole. On August 19, 1988, the Commissioner instructed Asherman to report to the Commissioner's office for a psychiatric evaluation. The Commissioner later testified that he was "concerned about what this [parole] denial may mean in terms of [Asherman's] mind, and his behavior."
4
On August 22, 1988, Asherman's attorney wrote the Commissioner, stating that Asherman would not "participate in any interrogation which is related to the crime for which he was charged." The federal habeas corpus petition challenging the conviction was then pending in the District Court. When Asherman reported as ordered, he was returned to confinement within the state prison system.
5
Thereafter, a prison disciplinary board determined that Asherman had violated the terms of his SHR and should be removed from SHR status. The Commissioner subsequently reversed the determination of a disciplinary violation, but confirmed the termination of SHR status. In a written explanation of his reasons, the Commissioner stated:
6
Your refusal to fully participate in this psychiatric evaluation precludes me from obtaining information necessary to determine whether the ... conclusion of the Board of Parole affected you to the point where you no longer are a suitable person for home release status.
7
The absence of the information referred to ... constitutes sufficient ground for determining that you no longer are a suitable person for home release status.
8
Thereafter a state court habeas corpus challenge to the SHR termination resulted in Asherman's temporary return to SHR status, but that reprieve was ended when the Connecticut Supreme Court rejected the habeas corpus challenge. See Asherman v. Meachum, 213 Conn. 38, 566 A.2d 663 (1989). Asherman then renewed his challenge to the SHR termination by bringing the pending habeas corpus challenge in the District Court. The District Court granted relief on the ground that the termination of Asherman's SHR status had violated his self-incrimination privilege, a panel of this Court affirmed, Asherman v. Meachum, 932 F.2d 137 (2d Cir.1991), and a rehearing in banc was ordered.
Discussion
9
The issue presented, though important, is rather narrow. It concerns the extent to which state officials may take adverse administrative action in response to a refusal to answer questions under circumstances where the answers might tend to incriminate but are also relevant to the proper exercise of state authority. In resolving that issue, we are willing to make several assumptions for purposes of this case. First, we assume, without deciding, that the answers to the questions Asherman refused to answer created a risk of self-incrimination. In saying that, we are not deciding whether, had Asherman responded to questions about his crime, the State may lawfully use such answers against him in any criminal proceeding. We assume only that Asherman reasonably apprehended a risk of self-incrimination, sufficient to warrant his assertion of the privilege. Second, we assume, without deciding, that Asherman's challenge to the revocation of SHR status may be challenged in a habeas corpus proceeding, cf. Brennan v. Cunningham, 813 F.2d 1, 4 (1st Cir.1987) (challenge to revocation of work release). Third, we assume, without deciding, that the adverse state court decision in Asherman's habeas corpus challenge to the termination of his SHR status has no res judicata effect upon his pending federal court habeas challenge.
10
The Supreme Court has issued a series of decisions that guides our resolution of this appeal. First, the Court has made clear that a person cannot be compelled to be a witness against himself in a criminal proceeding nor forced "to answer official questions put to him in any other proceeding, civil or criminal, formal or informal, where the answers might incriminate him in future criminal proceedings." Lefkowitz v. Turley, 414 U.S. 70, 77, 94 S.Ct. 316, 322, 38 L.Ed.2d 274 (1973). Thus, on the assumptions we have made for purposes of this case, Asherman could not have been ordered to answer questions concerning his crime, by which we mean only that he could not have been subjected to a court order directing him to answer and punished with contempt penalties for refusing to obey such an order. Nor could he have been ordered to waive his self-incrimination privilege. See Gardner v. Broderick, 392 U.S. 273, 279, 88 S.Ct. 1913, 1916-17, 20 L.Ed.2d 1082 (1968).
11
Second, the Court has ruled that in some circumstances adverse state action may not be taken as a consequence of a person's invocation of the self-incrimination privilege. See Slochower v. Board of Higher Education, 350 U.S. 551, 558-59, 76 S.Ct. 637, 641-42, 100 L.Ed. 692 (1956). Without endeavoring to describe the full range of such circumstances, we may observe that a state may not take adverse action in response to an invocation of the privilege in response to questions not reasonably related to the valid exercise of state authority. Slochower well illustrates the point. A city was prevented from terminating the services of a college teacher in response to the teacher's assertion of his self-incrimination privilege while being questioned by a congressional committee.
12
Third, the Court has ruled that in some circumstances adverse state action may be taken upon a person's refusal to answer questions pertinent to the exercise of state administrative authority. See Uniformed Sanitation Men Ass'n, Inc. v. Commissioner of Sanitation, 392 U.S. 280, 88 S.Ct. 1917, 20 L.Ed.2d 1089 (1968); Gardner v. Broderick, supra. Since these two decisions are especially pertinent to the pending appeal, we examine them in some detail.
13
Both decisions concern municipal employees who were questioned about corruption in their agencies. The police officer in Gardner was brought before a grand jury and asked to sign a waiver of the immunity that otherwise might have been conferred under state law had he testified. See N.Y.Penal Law § 2447 (1953), repealed by N.Y.Penal Law § 500.05 (McKinney 1967). He was discharged from public employment for his refusal to waive immunity. The fifteen sanitation workers in Uniformed Sanitation Men were brought before a hearing conducted by a commissioner of investigations. They were told that their answers could be used against them in a court of law. 392 U.S. at 283 n. 4, 88 S.Ct. at 1919 n. 4. Three answered the questions and were subsequently brought before a grand jury and asked to sign waivers of immunity. Twelve refused to answer, invoking their privilege against self-incrimination. All fifteen were discharged.
14
The Supreme Court held all the discharges to be unconstitutional. In both decisions, the Court was careful to distinguish between permissible questioning and impermissible impairment of constitutional rights. In Gardner, the Court said:
15
[The police officer] was discharged from office, not for failure to answer relevant questions about his official duties, but for refusal to waive a constitutional right.... He was dismissed solely for his refusal to waive the immunity to which he is entitled if he is required to testify despite his constitutional privilege.
16
392 U.S. at 278, 88 S.Ct. at 1916. In Sanitation Men, the Court said:
17
"[The sanitation workers] were not discharged merely for refusal to account for their conduct as employees of the city. They were dismissed for invoking and refusing to waive their constitutional right against self-incrimination."
18
392 U.S. at 283, 88 S.Ct. at 1919. With the three workers who answered, the impairment arose, as with the police officer in Gardner, because the discharge was based on a refusal to waive immunity. With the twelve workers who declined to answer, the impairment arose because they were explicitly told that their answers could be used against them. And the Court concluded that it was clear that the City was not merely seeking an account of their public functions, but was seeking "testimony from their own lips which, despite the constitutional prohibition, could be used to prosecute them criminally." Id. at 284, 88 S.Ct. at 1919-20. However, the Court carefully preserved the authority of public agencies to discharge employees for refusing to answer relevant inquiries:
19
Petitioners as public employees are entitled, like all other persons, to the benefit of the Constitution, including the privilege against self-incrimination [citing cases]. At the same time, petitioners, being public employees, subject themselves to dismissal if they refuse to account for their performance of their public trust, after proper proceedings, which do not involve an attempt to coerce them to relinquish their constitutional rights.
20
Id. at 284-85, 88 S.Ct. at 1919-20.
21
The distinction drawn by the Court was critical for the concurring Justices:
22
I find in these opinions a procedural formula whereby, for example, public officials may now be discharged and lawyers disciplined for refusing to divulge to appropriate authority information pertinent to the faithful performance of their offices.
23
Id. at 285, 88 S.Ct. at 1920 (Harlan, J., with whom Stewart, J., joins, concurring).
24
What clearly emerges from these decisions is both a limit and a grant of power with respect to governmental inquiries. Public agencies may not impair the privilege against self-incrimination by compelling incriminating answers, or by requiring a waiver of immunity, or even by asking incriminating questions in conjunction with an explicit threat to use the answers in criminal proceedings. But public agencies retain the authority to ask questions relevant to their public responsibilities and to take adverse action against those whose refusal to answer impedes the discharge of those responsibilities. The fact that a public employee might face the unpleasant choice of surrendering his silence or losing his job is no bar to an adverse consequence so long as the consequence is imposed for failure to answer a relevant inquiry and not for refusal to give up a constitutional right. The Supreme Court left public employees facing this choice without ruling definitively as to the effect of the choice upon governmental use of any responses the employee elected to give. See Gardner, 392 U.S. at 278-79, 88 S.Ct. at 1916-17; Sanitation Men, id. at 284, 88 S.Ct. at 1919-20.
25
Applying the teaching of these decisions to Asherman's case, we conclude that the Commissioner was entitled to revoke Asherman's SHR status for his refusal to discuss his crime. The inquiry was relevant to the Commissioner's public responsibilities. He was entitled to conduct periodic reviews of Asherman's suitability for home release, and he was entitled to assess the impact of parole denial upon Asherman's mental health. Asherman's attempt to foreclose all questions about his crime prevented the Commissioner from pursuing a relevant inquiry. In pursuing the inquiry, the Commissioner took no action to impair Asherman's self-incrimination privilege. He sought no court order compelling answers, he did not require a waiver of immunity, and he did not insist that Asherman's answers could be used against him in a criminal proceeding. He stayed well within the authority outlined by Gardner and Sanitation Men by conducting a relevant inquiry and then taking appropriate adverse action, not for Asherman's invocation of his constitutional rights, but for his failure to answer a relevant inquiry. In Justice Harlan's terms, just as public officials may be discharged and lawyers disciplined "for refusing to divulge to appropriate authority information pertinent to the faithful performance of their offices," Sanitation Men, 392 U.S. at 285, 88 S.Ct. at 1920, a prisoner may be terminated from home release status for refusing to divulge to a corrections commissioner information pertinent to the administration of a home release program.
26
We have no occasion to consider what adverse use might have been made of Asherman's answers. See Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493, 87 S.Ct. 616, 17 L.Ed.2d 562 (1967) (testimony given under threat of discharge for not answering may not be used in subsequent prosecution). We decide only that, even assuming he had a privilege to prevent being compelled to answer, his home release status could be terminated upon his refusal to answer questions about his crime.
27
Having determined the issue that occasioned the in banc rehearing and having rejected the ground on which the panel rested its affirmance of the District Court's judgment, we face the choice of deciding the remaining issues tendered by the appellee in support of the judgment or returning the appeal to the panel for consideration of the remaining issues. We elect to return the appeal to the panel. In banc reconsideration is a cumbersome procedure that should not be used more extensively than is necessary and useful. Obviously, judicial resources are needlessly used if all thirteen members of this in banc court are obliged to consider issues that can be expeditiously resolved by a panel of three judges. The possibility that the panel's resolution of the remaining issues would precipitate renewed in banc consideration is too remote to be taken seriously. In leaving remaining issues for the panel, we inject no additional layer into the judicial process; we merely permit the normal second layer--a court of appeals panel--to perform its customary role.
28
On several occasions we have chosen to confine in banc consideration to less than all of the issues in a case by granting rehearing limited to one or more specified issues, see United States v. Chestman, 947 F.2d 551, 554 (2d Cir.1991) (in banc) (in banc granted only on issues concerning Rule 14e-3(a), Rule 10b-5, and mail fraud), petition for cert. filed, (U.S. Jan. 2, 1992) (No. 91-1085); United States v. Indelicato, 865 F.2d 1370, 1385 (2d Cir.) (in banc) (in banc granted only on issue of sufficiency of evidence to establish RICO pattern), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 811, 110 S.Ct. 56, 107 L.Ed.2d 24 (1989), New York v. 11 Cornwell Co., 718 F.2d 22, 24 (2d Cir.1983) (in banc) (in banc granted only on State's cross-appeal for attorney's fees); Daye v. Attorney General, 696 F.2d 186, 190 (2d Cir.1982) (in banc) (in banc granted only on issue of exhaustion of state remedies); Farrand Optical Co. v. United States, 317 F.2d 875, 885-86 (2d Cir.1962) (in banc) (in banc granted only on issue of district court jurisdiction). Where this occurred and issues remained after the in banc court's consideration of the limited issue, the in banc court left the issues that remained for further consideration by the original panel. See Indelicato, 865 F.2d at 1385; Farrand, 317 F.2d at 886.
29
The fact that the in banc court is authorized to resolve "[c]ases and controversies," see 28 U.S.C. § 46(c) (1988), or an "appeal," see Fed.R.App. 35(a), does not preclude the court from electing to use less than all of the authority conferred upon it. The same reasoning has evidently persuaded the Supreme Court that it may limit its consideration on certiorari to specific questions despite the statutory grant of jurisdiction to review "[c]ases," 28 U.S.C. § 1254(1) (1988 & Supp. I 1989), see, e.g., Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc., 424 U.S. 908, 96 S.Ct. 1101, 47 L.Ed.2d 311 (1976), and has persuaded our Court that it may grant a certificate of probable cause limited to a single issue despite the statutory grant of jurisdiction over an "appeal," 28 U.S.C. § 2253 (1988), see Vicaretti v. Henderson, 645 F.2d 100 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 868, 102 S.Ct. 334, 70 L.Ed.2d 171 (1981). Since the in banc court may elect at the outset to rehear a limited issue in an appeal, it may equally well elect to do so during the course of its in banc consideration of the appeal.
30
We therefore vacate the panel opinion and return the appeal to the panel for further consideration of any remaining issues and disposition in light of this opinion and the panel's resolution of those issues.
MINER, Circuit Judge, concurring:
31
I concur in the majority opinion as far as it goes. My problem with it is that it does not go far enough because it does not dispose of all the issues raised on the appeal. I am of the opinion that the appeal should be decided in its entirety by the in banc court convened to hear it. The issues remaining unresolved by the majority opinion should not be returned to the panel for consideration. There is a legal basis as well as a pragmatic basis for this proposition.
32
We are constrained to hear and determine cases and controversies by a court of three judges, "unless a hearing or rehearing before the court in banc is ordered by a majority of the circuit judges of the circuit who are in regular active service." 28 U.S.C. § 46(c). According to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, "[a] majority of the circuit judges who are in regular active service may order that an appeal or other proceeding be heard or reheard by the court of appeals in banc." Fed.R.App.P. 35(a). Whether the matter before the in banc court is denominated a case, a controversy, or an appeal, the statute and rule contemplate a full resolution of all issues. An in banc court, once constituted, supplants the panel and proceeds to a direct review of the district court's judgment. See Drake Bakeries Inc. v. American Bakery & Confectionery Workers International, 294 F.2d 399 (2d Cir.) (per curiam) (in banc), aff'd, 370 U.S. 254, 82 S.Ct. 1346, 8 L.Ed.2d 474 (1961). Ultimately, it supplants the panel's opinion with its own. Accordingly, the in banc court on rehearing is called upon to perform the principal function first assigned to the panel in the determination of all issues properly raised on appeal.
33
I am much persuaded by the reasoning of Judge Waterman (in dissent, unfortunately) in Farrand Optical Co. v. United States, 317 F.2d 875 (2d Cir.1963) (in banc). Judge Waterman wrote that it seemed obvious to him
34
that the in banc court having supplanted the panel, the "unless" clause in 28 U.S.C. § 46(c) commands that the in banc court hear and determine all the undetermined issues remaining undisposed of in this controversy. No language in the statutes dealing with Courts of Appeals, 28 U.S.C. §§ 41-48, and no precedent, can be found that justifies an in banc court that has partially heard a case ordering a remand, or a reference, of that case to a displaced panel in order for that panel to determine issues the in banc court did not wish to determine.
35
Id. at 886. Despite the lapse of thirty years and the Court's continued acceptance of the limited issue approach, see, e.g., United States v. Indelicato, 865 F.2d 1370, 1371 (2d Cir.) (in banc), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 811, 110 S.Ct. 56, 107 L.Ed.2d 25 (1989), Judge Waterman's reasoning maintains its vitality and should be adopted by the Court.
36
Aside from the force of the legal argument that militates against a remand of undecided issues to the panel, considerations of judicial economy at this point in time very much favor resolution of the entire appeal by the in banc court. The demands of our ever-increasing caseload are well known and need not be recounted here. See, e.g., Meskill, Caseload Growth: Struggling to Keep Pace, 57 Brook.L.Rev. 299 (1991). Suffice it to say, the caseload in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has been trending upward for many years. Over the past three years alone, the number of cases filed has increased from 2,942 in 1988 to 3,172 in 1989, to 3,424 in 1990, to 3,511 in 1991. See U.S. Courts for the Second Circuit, Second Circuit Reports for 1989, 1990 and 1991. Every member of the Court is aware of the fact that 1992 filings already are outpacing 1991 filings by a large margin. This is no time to make extra work for the Court.
37
The pragmatic reason for adopting an "all issues" approach is a powerful one, because it speaks to the conservation of scarce judicial resources in the face of overwhelming demands. The author of the majority opinion has written that the in banc process generally "is a cumbersome one that places a severe strain on judicial resources already considerably overburdened." Newman, In Banc Practice in the Second Circuit: The Virtues of Restraint, 50 Brook.L.Rev. 365, 382 (1984). The majority opts for a process even more cumbersome and a strain even more severe. It cannot be denied "that an in banc is not an efficient procedure in the litigation process. It injects a fourth layer into a system that already provides first instance determination in the trial court, mandatory appellate review by a panel of the court of appeals, and the opportunity for discretionary review by the Supreme Court." Newman, In Banc Practice in the Second Circuit, 1984-1988, 55 Brook.L.Rev. 355, 369 (1989). Why my colleagues would add a fifth, and possibly a sixth, seventh or eighth layer into the system is difficult to understand.
38
There is another "downside" involved in the piecemeal approach to appellate decision-making. The time spent in bouncing issues back and forth between panel and in banc court like so many ping pong balls needlessly delays the ultimate termination of the case to the point of denying to the litigants the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of their appeals to which they are entitled. It goes without saying that time and money are important factors in all litigation, and we shirk our duties if we fail to grasp the opportunity to shorten the time and save money for litigants in the process of achieving a just result. If piecemeal review is to be avoided in appeals to the courts of appeals because of inconvenience and cost, see Dickinson v. Petroleum Conversion Corp., 338 U.S. 507, 511, 70 S.Ct. 322, 324, 94 L.Ed. 299 (1950), it surely should be avoided for the same reasons in the decision-making process within the courts of appeals.
39
The Court's in banc order of June 17, 1991 did not restrict the in banc rehearing in this case to the Fifth Amendment issue. In fact, the parties briefed and argued, in addition to the Fifth Amendment issue, the due process, equal protection and First Amendment claims of petitioner-appellee, Steven M. Asherman. I have formed an opinion as to each of the three claims my colleagues in the majority choose to leave unresolved and have communicated my views to each member of the court. Out of institutional and collegial concerns, however, I do not set forth those views here. After all, I may have the opportunity to do so on the second rehearing in banc in this case ... or the third ... or the fourth.
LUMBARD, Circuit Judge, dissenting in part:
40
I dissent from the opinion of the majority to the extent it vacates the decision of the original panel. Once again I would have affirmed the judgment of the District Court. I agree that the court en banc need not resolve every question presented in an appeal and may properly return any remaining issues to the panel.
CARDAMONE, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
41
I respectfully dissent from the en banc majority because its result threatens the foundation of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The Commissioner's authority to conduct a legitimate inquiry into Steven M. Asherman's continued suitability for Home Release Status is not disputed. Yet, contrary to the import of the majority opinion, the Fifth Amendment does not simply yield in the face of a relevant inquiry, but instead is a fundamental limitation on a governmental agency's ability to conduct such an inquiry. If the Fifth Amendment means anything at all, it demands in this case that Asherman not have his Home Release Status terminated solely on account of the invocation of his constitutional privilege.1 By sanctioning this result--on the subtle ground that his answers are relevant to an administrative inquiry--the majority greatly disserves judicial precedents construing the language of this Amendment broadly, and ignores the long history of cruel punishments inflicted on recalcitrant witnesses that led to its adoption in our Bill of Rights.
42
* The Fifth Amendment, made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, provides in relevant part that "[n]o person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." The privilege "not only protects the individual against being involuntarily called as a witness against himself in a criminal prosecution but also privileges him not to answer official questions put to him in any other proceeding, civil or criminal, formal or informal, where the answers might incriminate him in future criminal proceedings." Lefkowitz v. Turley, 414 U.S. 70, 77, 94 S.Ct. 316, 322, 38 L.Ed.2d 274 (1973). If an individual asserts the privilege, "he 'may not be required to answer a question if there is some rational basis for believing that it will incriminate him, at least without at that time being assured that neither it nor its fruits may be used against him' in a subsequent criminal proceeding." Minnesota v. Murphy, 465 U.S. 420, 429, 104 S.Ct. 1136, 1143, 79 L.Ed.2d 409 (1984) (quoting Maness v. Meyers, 419 U.S. 449, 473, 95 S.Ct. 584, 598, 42 L.Ed.2d 574 (1975) (White, J. concurring in result)) (emphasis in original).
43
Thus, simply put, the Fifth Amendment requires that unless an individual is given immunity at the time of his testimony, he may not be confronted with the dilemma of either answering questions that may tend to incriminate him or being penalized solely for the assertion of his constitutional privilege. Here, Asherman was not offered immunity. Hence, because, as the majority assumes, the answers to the only questions to which Asherman refused to respond--those relating to the crime for which his habeas corpus appeal was pending--created a risk that he would be "a witness against himself" in the new trial he might obtain, Asherman was entitled to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege. And it is clear from the record that it was the invocation of this constitutional right that was the sole basis for which Asherman was reimprisoned. This is plain from the Commissioner's letter to Asherman explaining the revocation of his Home Release Status. There he stated that Asherman's "refusal to fully participate" in the psychiatric evaluation--that is, by invoking the Fifth Amendment with regard to questions relating to the crime--prevented the Commissioner from obtaining information relating to Asherman's continued eligibility, and the absence of that information constituted "sufficient ground for determining that [he] no longer [was] a suitable person for home release status." Consequently, Asherman was punished solely for the invocation of his constitutional right--a manifest violation of a citizen's right to remain silent.
44
It must be emphasized, as it was in the original panel opinion, that the result compelled by the Fifth Amendment in this case in no way forecloses the Commissioner from conducting a legitimate evaluation of Asherman's continued suitability for Home Release Status, and in fact reimprisoning him if an adverse determination is made on the basis of this evaluation. Petitioner may properly be required to answer any relevant inquiry not involving the risk of self-incrimination, and if he refuses to do so or if the answers to that inquiry cast doubt on his suitability, his status can be revoked on that basis. In fact, the Commissioner is entitled to draw an adverse inference from Asherman's silence regarding the crime if after a grant of immunity he refuses to testify, Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308, 318, 96 S.Ct. 1551, 1557-58, 47 L.Ed.2d 810 (1976), or if the decision to reimprison him is not based solely on his silence. Id. at 317-18, 96 S.Ct. at 1557-58. What the Fifth Amendment forbids is exactly what occurred in this case--adverse action taken solely as a result of the invocation of the privilege against self-incrimination. See id. at 318, 96 S.Ct. at 1557-58.
II
45
Ironically, while the majority acknowledges that "Asherman could not have been ordered to answer questions concerning his crime," they allege that "the Commissioner took no action to impair Asherman's self-incrimination privilege," because "[h]e sought no court order compelling answers, he did not require a waiver of immunity, and he did not insist that Asherman's answers could be used against him in a criminal proceeding." This analysis simply mischaracterizes Fifth Amendment jurisprudence. It cannot seriously be contended that the actions listed above are necessary for the finding of a Fifth Amendment violation. All that is required is that the governmental agency "sought to induce [an individual] to forego the Fifth Amendment privilege by threatening to impose economic or other sanctions 'capable of forcing the self-incrimination which the Amendment forbids.' " Murphy, 465 U.S. at 434, 104 S.Ct. at 1145-46 (quoting Lefkowitz v. Cunningham, 431 U.S. 801, 806, 97 S.Ct. 2132, 2136, 53 L.Ed.2d 1 (1977)).
46
Moreover, the very cases relied upon by the majority do not support its novel proposition, but instead compel the opposite conclusion; that is, Asherman's Home Release Status was revoked in violation of the Fifth Amendment. The Supreme Court, interpreting Uniformed Sanitation Men Ass'n Inc. v. Commissioner of Sanitation, 392 U.S. 280, 283-84, 88 S.Ct. 1917, 1919-20, 20 L.Ed.2d 1089 (1968) and Gardner v. Broderick, 392 U.S. 273, 278-279, 88 S.Ct. 1913, 1916-17, 20 L.Ed.2d 1082 (1968), explicitly stated that "[t]hese cases make clear that 'a State may not impose substantial penalties because a witness elects to exercise his Fifth Amendment right not to give incriminating testimony against himself.' " Murphy, 465 U.S. at 434, 104 S.Ct. at 1145-46 (quoting Lefkowitz v. Cunningham, 431 U.S. at 805, 97 S.Ct. at 2135-36). The holding of those cases is that the employees were presented with an impermissible "choice between surrendering their constitutional right or their jobs." Uniformed Sanitation Men, 392 U.S. at 284, 88 S.Ct. at 1919-20.
47
Here, Asherman was likewise confronted with an impermissible choice--between surrendering his right to refuse to answer questions relating to the crime or losing his Home Release Status due to the absence of those answers. It seems to me uncontrovertible that reimprisonment solely on the basis of a refusal to answer incriminating questions constitutes the unlawful imposition of "substantial penalties because a witness elects to exercise his Fifth Amendment right not to give incriminating testimony against himself." To my mind, there could be no clearer violation of the Self-Incrimination Clause.
48
In fact, in Murphy, the Supreme Court stated that "[o]ur decisions have made clear that the State could not constitutionally carry out a threat to revoke probation for the legitimate exercise of the Fifth Amendment privilege." 465 U.S. at 438, 104 S.Ct. at 1148. It is difficult to fathom, then, how the majority can conclude that the revocation of Asherman's Home Release Status--also resulting in reimprisonment--on the basis of the invocation of his constitutional privilege is permissible. Just as is the case with revocation of parole, the revocation of Asherman's Home Release Status is a "classic penalty situation," id. at 435, 104 S.Ct. at 1146, foreclosed by the Fifth Amendment.
49
The majority makes a tortured attempt to disregard the result compelled by this Amendment, boldly asserting that the adverse action taken was "not for Asherman's invocation of his constitutional rights, but for his failure to answer a relevant inquiry." This is a distinction without a difference where, as here, the two are inextricably intertwined. Asherman's failure to answer a relevant inquiry was solely and directly the result of his invocation of the right to remain silent. In other words, his assertion of right did not constitute a complete refusal to respond to relevant questions, as evidenced by his appearance at the appointed time to undergo the evaluation; instead Asherman refused to respond only insofar as to do so could incriminate him.
50
Thus, the clear import of the majority decision can only be that when "answers might tend to incriminate but are also relevant to the proper exercise of state authority," the relevant inquiry trumps the Fifth Amendment. This simply cannot be the correct way to construe the constitution. It is axiomatic that to constitute a proper exercise of state authority a governmental inquiry must not violate the Constitution. The majority reverses this fundamental proposition, insisting that in this case Asherman's Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination must give way to a relevant governmental inquiry. The absurdity of this result is plain in its recitation--the Fifth Amendment dissolves in the face of a relevant governmental inquiry.
51
The majority states in support of its result that Uniformed Sanitation Men and Gardner "carefully preserved the authority of public agencies to discharge employees for refusing to answer relevant inquiries." While this is true as far as it goes, the majority's result ignores the very holdings of these cases--that adverse action may be taken for failure to answer even relevant inquiries only when those inquiries "do not involve an attempt to coerce [individuals] to relinquish their constitutional rights," i.e., answer questions that may tend to incriminate them. Uniformed Sanitation Men 392 U.S. at 285, 88 S.Ct. at 1920. Undeniably, in both cases the inquiries were relevant to the employment. Nonetheless, in each of the cases, the Supreme Court held that termination of employment based on the assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege was unconstitutional. It is these holdings that constitute the legal authority on which this dissent is premised. The constitutional violations occurred because "[the employees] were not discharged merely for refusal to account for their conduct as employees of the city. They were dismissed for invoking and refusing to waive their constitutional right against self-incrimination." Id. at 283, 88 S.Ct. at 1919 (emphasis added).
52
The distinction, it seems to me, is clear. Thus, for example, if the employees refused to answer questions about their conduct that did not involve the risk of self-incrimination, or if immunity had been supplied, any discharge would be based "merely" on refusal to account for conduct as employees, and would be permissible. But when refusal is based on a legitimate invocation of the right against self-incrimination, i.e., where the answer could subject them to criminal penalty, the Fifth Amendment is implicated and the discharge is not "merely" based on refusal to account for conduct as employees. Instead, dismissal is based on the invocation of a constitutional right, and this right predominates over the government's interest in the inquiry.
53
In Lefkowitz v. Turley the Supreme Court explained the distinction made in Uniformed Sanitation Men and Gardner between the ability of the state to take adverse action on the basis of a mere refusal to answer a relevant inquiry and the unconstitutionality of such action when Fifth Amendment rights come into play:
54
[T]he accommodation between the interest of the State and the Fifth Amendment requires that the State have means at its disposal to secure testimony if immunity is supplied and testimony is still refused.... [G]iven adequate immunity, the State may plainly insist that employees either answer questions under oath about the performance of their job or suffer the loss of employment.... [However] the State must recognize what our cases hold: that answers elicited upon the threat of loss of employment are compelled and inadmissible in evidence. Hence, if answers are to be required in such circumstances States must offer to the witness whatever immunity is required to supplant the privilege and may not insist that the employee ... waive such immunity.
55
414 U.S. at 84-85, 94 S.Ct. at 325-26 (emphasis added). The rule that a governmental inquiry, no matter how relevant, must not contravene the protection of the Fifth Amendment could not be stated more clearly. Consequently, without a grant of immunity, a governmental agency cannot take adverse action for an individual's failure to answer even relevant questions that may tend to incriminate him. This notion is the gravamen of the Fifth Amendment privilege, and the majority opinion contravenes this fundamental constitutional principle.
III
56
When a court construes a statute, it examines legislative history. When it construes one of the Amendments contained in our Bill of Rights, it must turn to human history. This case may not be reviewed in proper context without considering in some detail the history leading to the adoption of the Fifth Amendment. That we enjoy an accusatorial rather inquisitorial system of criminal justice is not a fortuitous happenstance. History reveals there would be no Fifth Amendment if over a period of 800 years certain men and women had not suffered cruel punishments, which mobilized public opinion against oppressive official action aimed at extracting confessions from the mouth of the accused. The passage of time, the Supreme Court has noted in analyzing the Fifth Amendment, has "not shown that protection from the evils against which this safeguard was directed is needless or unwarranted. This constitutional protection must not be interpreted in a hostile or niggardly spirit." Ullmann v. United States, 350 U.S. 422, 426, 76 S.Ct. 497, 500, 100 L.Ed. 511 (1956). Justice Holmes' aphorism in New York Trust Co. v. Eisner, 256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921), that "a page of history is worth a volume of logic" is, as Justice Frankfurter observed, peculiarly true with respect to the right to remain silent. Ullmann, 350 U.S. at 438, 76 S.Ct. at 506-07.
57
In the twelfth century Henry II of England (1154-1189) laid the early foundation for accusational prosecution by extending the then 400-year-old "inquiry of neighbors," an ancestor of the jury system. At that same time Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) devised the inquisitional technique. The two systems differed in at least one fundamental respect: under the accusatory, the investigating officials developed the case from sources other than the accused; under the inquisitory, the same officials obtained their case from the mouth of the accused. Under an edict of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215-16, an ecclesiastical official could make a person swear to tell the truth to the full extent of his knowledge as to any matter about which he was questioned. See O. John Rogge, The First and the Fifth, 140-41 (1960) (Rogge). This is precisely the kind of testimony Asherman was directed by Meachum to give in the instant case.
58
Although the inquisitional method was used originally in England and on the Continent to pursue heretics, its use spread in the thirteenth century to the English Courts of Common Pleas and King's Bench, id. at 147, and continued to grow until the time of Elizabeth I, when popular opposition to the oppressiveness of the inquisitional technique led to the Act of Supremacy (1558), which barred the Church from using this procedure. Id. at 151.
59
During the 1600s Edward Coke (1552-1634) became Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas by order of King James I (1566-1625), but later fell out of the king's favor because of his insistence on the supremacy of the law over the royal prerogative. In Burrowes case, while sustaining a writ of prohibition against the High Commission Court that wanted to use the oath ex officio (the inquisitorial oath) and releasing those held by that court on bail, Coke wrote: "the statute of I Eliz. is a penal law, and so they are not to examine one upon oath upon this law; thereby to make him to accuse himself ..." Id. at 163-70; 8 Wigmore on Evidence, § 2250 at 280-282 (McNaughton rev. 1961).
60
The growing use of the accusatorial system in England must be contrasted with the oppressive power of the inquisitional system on the Continent in the same century. This is well-illustrated by the case of Galileo Galilei, then a 70-year citizen of Florence, Italy. He was taken before the Inquisition in Rome in 1633 to answer for the "Dialogue", a book he had authored 17 years earlier. In this book, Galileo--perhaps the greatest living scientist and mathematician of his day--had stated that the doctrine proposed by Copernicus, which asserted the immobility of the sun and the movement of the earth around the sun, was correct, even though according to the Church's prelates the doctrine contradicted the literal meaning of certain Biblical passages. Galileo was given the choice of either renouncing his 50 years of life's work by retracting what he had written or taking the Inquisitional Oath and thereby possibly subjecting himself to torture as a heretic. Under these cruel alternatives he confessed his "error," for which he was sentenced to life in prison. See Zsolt de Harsanyi, Galileo and the Inquisition (1939).
61
In 1637 one John Lilburne, a Puritan, was taken before the Star Chamber on a charge of importing seditious books from Holland. For his refusal to answer certain questions he was fined, whipped and pilloried. While in the pillory Lilburne made a speech in which he said the inquisitional oath ex officio was "an oath against the law of the land.... [I]t is absolutely against the law of God, for that law requires no man to accuse himself." Christ himself, said Lilburne, would not accuse himself, but in response to his accusers said: "Why ask me? Go to them that heard me." Rogge at 171-73. See John 18:21-22 (Ronald Knox ed.). A thousand or more years before, as part of the ancient Jewish law, there is found in the Talmud the Hebrew equivalent of the Latin maxim nemo tenetur seipsum prodere, "no one is bound to betray himself." L. Levy, Origins of the Fifth Amendment, Appendix at 434 (1968) (Levy).2
62
Three years later, in 1640, the Long Parliament convened and a petition for Lilburne's release was passed. The Star Chamber and the High Commission were abolished, and the oath ex officio as an ecclesiastical procedure was banned. 8 Wigmore on Evidence, § 2250 at 283-84. While most of the agitation had been directed at ecclesiastical courts, after the Lilburne case and the reforms of the Long Parliament it began to be flatly asserted in common law trials that no person was bound to incriminate himself on any charge or in any court. Id. at 289. By 1660 the right against self-incrimination was broadly established and extended not only to the accused, but also to witnesses. Id. at 290.
63
In colonial America, this common law history took root. In Virginia in 1677 the House of Burgess declared that "noe law can compell a man to sweare against himselfe in any matter wherein he is lyable to corporall punishment." Rogge at 180. But the road toward attaining a privilege against self-incrimination in the colonies was not without dramatic detours: The Salem Witch trials of 1692, which resulted in defendants being burned at the stake, are a prime example of torture and death being used against a recalcitrant witness who refuses to confess. See M. Berger, Taking the Fifth, 21-22 (1980) (Berger).
64
Virginia's Declaration of Rights, a preface to the 1776 Virginia Constitution authored by George Mason, included the right to silence. Levy at 405. Eight of the other Colonies followed the basic formulation in their own constitution requiring no man to be "compelled to give evidence against himself." Id. at 409. Nonetheless, at the Constitutional Convention there were dark warnings that nothing in the initial draft prevented Congress from establishing "that diabolical institution, the Inquisition," id. at 417, and perhaps repeating "the history of the inquisitions of the Star Chamber Court of England." Id. at 419. Thus, in 1789 James Madison drafted the Fifth Amendment drawing on Mason's Declaration of Rights. When the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791 the enshrinement of the ancient maxim nemo tenetur into a constitutional right to remain silent was completed. See Berger at 23. That the Self-Incrimination Clause was included in the Fifth and not the Sixth Amendment--which Amendment, referring to the "accused," protected that person alone--required that it be given a broader reading, one not restricted to a criminal defendant only, nor only to occasions when a defendant was on trial. See Levy at 427.
IV
65
When the Fifth Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights, the history just recited was in the forefront of the minds of its drafters. This history, to my mind, must neither be forgotten nor ignored. The majority opinion takes a step backward in the continuing struggle to maintain this precious right. It simply abrogates the protection of the Self-Incrimination Clause--as construed by Supreme Court decisions--by permitting the revocation of Asherman's Home Release Status solely on the basis of his refusal to answer incriminating questions. Because the right to remain silent must be upheld, even in the face of administrative relevance, I dissent.3
1
By letter dated February 11, 1992, the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut notified this Court "that Steven Asherman completed service of his sentence on February 11, 1992 and, as of this date, was discharged from the custody of the Connecticut Commissioner of Correction."
2
The Puritan minister John Udall was tried for seditious libel at common law and asked to take an oath and answer the question whether he wrote the book Demonstration of Discipline which was published in 1589, and when he declined to answer the judges of the Court of High Commission, an ecclesiastical court, argued his guilt to the jury. See Levy at 150-70. As one commentator has put it, following Udall's conviction and sentence to hang, "Udall rotted away in prison and died...." See Oakes, The Proper Role of the Federal Courts in Enforcing the Bill of Rights, 54 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 911, 919-20 (1979)
3
The majority has directed the remaining issues be returned to the original panel for it to consider. In my view, the en banc court has the legal authority to make that direction and has done so properly in this case
| {
"pile_set_name": "FreeLaw"
} |
Comedy Movie Blunders: 21 of the Worst 'Oops' Moments From the Genre (PHOTOS)
We don't love classics comedies like "Anchorman," "Animal House," and "Airplane" for their flawless story-lines or great character development, we love them because they are hilarious. The characters usually get themselves into ridiculous situations, like fatal street fights with rival news teams, for example. So, it's OK for our favorite comedies to have a few flaws, right?
Not exactly. As with any other movie, filmmakers make mistakes during shooting and editing -- a reappearing, then disappearing plate here, a visible stunt wire there. No one's perfect, after all. But, some blunders are just too blatant to ignore, so we decided to point them out for you. You're welcome.
Take a look below at what we think are some of the worst "oops" moments from some very funny movies. As usual, all photos are courtesy of moviemistakes.com.
When Chazz and Jimmy are talking about Chazz's shampoo (Mane 'n Tail), Jimmy puts the shampoo bottle on top of the bed post. When he turns away, however, the bottle is suddenly gone. Another one of Chazz's mind tricks? Who knows. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
VARIETY: 5 Real Ways YouTube Can Fix Its Problems With the Music Industry
Lyor Cohen recently wrote a piece defending YouTube and what it has done to benefit songwriters and artists, which included “five factors that explain the current situation.” The industry has responded forcefully — rightly so — and pointed out the many deficiencies in Mr. Cohen’s arguments and in YouTube’s actions. In an effort to help Mr. Cohen and his friends at YouTube and its parent company Google, we suggest five ways YouTube can actually be successful in working with the music creators it claims to help promote. If YouTube is serious about treating and paying creators fairly, these are actual steps they can take beyond a blog post.
First, YouTube must commit to “take down, stay down” — or keeping infringing videos down after a proper DMCA takedown notice. We know this can be done. In fact, YouTube should be commended for quickly, effectively and permanently blocking hate and pornographic videos. It is clear to songwriters and artists that keeping videos that contain infringing material down isn’t something they can’t do, it’s something they won’t do. It is time for YouTube to step out from behind the protections of the DMCA and work with the music industry to ensure that where copyright owners identify infringing content, that material is taken down permanently. Show songwriters and artists that their rights — and the time taken to protect those rights — are a priority to YouTube.
Second, YouTube must provide greater transparency into and scrutiny of their “partners,” including multi-channel networks (MCNs) that operate unchecked on the YouTube platform. YouTube is aware that many of these partners do not have licenses to use the massive amounts of music contained within their videos, but it has chosen to remain willfully blind. And it continues to collect substantial revenue from these MCNs while artists and songwriters are paid nothing for the use of their music. Again, YouTube must demonstrate that it values songwriters and artist as business partners equal to the MCNs. Making public the list of MCNs and partners operating on the YouTube platform, and working with copyright owners to address those partners who use music unlicensed, is an important and doable first step.
Third, Lyor puts a large emphasis on transparency in the industry. Sadly, however, YouTube is anything but transparent when it comes to royalty payments it has made to songwriters and artists. Mr. Cohen himself provides an incredibly vague explanation as to why YouTube’s royalties seem too low, blaming it on international payments. Specifically — or, rather, unspecifically — he says, “YouTube is global and the numbers get diluted by lower contributions in developing markets.” Why not simply make public YouTube’s royalty payments in each country? This would go a long way toward the industry transparency he claims is so important. Instead, he implores us to trust that they are “working the ads hustle like crazy.” Mr. Cohen’s comments provide little consolation to the working songwriters who are hustling every day, and who need more than ambiguous promises.
Speaking of payments, our fourth suggestion is that YouTube look to its competitors and pay at least as much as they do to songwriters. Mr. Cohen compares his platform to Spotify, which arguably provides a reduced service since its music isn’t accompanied with video. But Spotify and other subscription services such as Apple Music pay a statutory minimum rate for interactive streaming, and YouTube does not. Paying this minimum rate — dictated by Section 115 of the Copyright Act and determined by the courts — would provide a floor for working writers who need a minimum wage from the world’s largest music service. Though music played on YouTube is not a traditional mechanical reproduction covered under Section 115, this would guarantee songwriters something reliable they could take to the bank — and is still woefully inadequate, considering the contribution songwriters make to YouTube’s services.
Finally, our fifth suggestion is stylistic: YouTube should change its tone when it comes to takedowns. For years, YouTube displayed a red sad face where a proper takedown of pirated material occurred. This gave millions, if not billions, of consumers the idea that when the law is enforced, it’s something to be upset about. This taught users — particularly millennials — to expect free content on the Internet. However, imagine the reality for songwriters and music creators — who poured their hearts and finances into creating something — to see a digital company that is using their work express disappointment when their rights are enforced. No one wants music to be taken down, but we do need a legitimate Internet marketplace, as opposed to the Wild West where writers are the casualties. Their work deserves to be valued, and it’s disappointing when it’s stolen, not the other way around.
As an association, we at NMPA have worked with YouTube to fix problems in the past. We know they can do better, and we appreciate Mr. Cohen’s love of music. But if he really wants to promote the creators of it, he should pay them what they deserve. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Monoamine oxidase in amphistomes and its role in worm motility.
The quantitative assay of mitochondrial monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity revealed a higher enzyme level in Explanatum explanatum than Gastrothylax crumenifer. The specific MAO inhibitors, chlorgyline, pargyline, deprenyl and nialamide produced different degrees of interspecific inhibition. The differential effects on enzyme activity of chlorgyline and deprenyl suggests the possible existence of polymorphic forms of the enzyme, MAO-A and MAO-B, in amphistomes. These specific inhibitors also had a differential influence on the in vitro motility of amphistomes, further indicating the involvement of different forms of MAO in the oxidative deamination of biogenic monoamines which might be partly responsible for neuromuscular coordination in amphistomes. The experimental procedures used in this study could be conveniently used for quick screening and evaluation of some of the qualitative effects of anthelmintic drugs under in vitro conditions. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
Kulstadholmane
Kulstadholmane ( or Kulstad Islets) is the southernmost group of islets in Thousand Islands, an archipelago south of Edgeøya. It comprises Håøya and the skerries or islets surrounding it: Håungen, Håkallen and Håkjerringa. The islets are named after the Norwegian sealing skipper Johan Kulstad, who was shipwrecked in Storfjorden in 1853 before being rescued by the Danish skipper Schau.
References
Norwegian Polar Institute Place Names of Svalbard Database
Category:Islands of Svalbard | {
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
} |
Influence of recipient gender on intrasplenic fetal liver tissue transplants in rats: cytochrome P450-mediated monooxygenase functions.
Rat livers display a sex-specific cytochrome P450 (P450) isoforms expression pattern with consecutive differences in P450-mediated monooxygenase activities, which have been shown to be due to a differential profile of growth hormone (GH) secretion. Parallel to previous investigations on P450 isoforms expression, the aim of the present study was to elucidate the influence of recipient gender on P450-mediated monooxygenase activities in intrasplenic liver tissue transplants in comparison to orthotopic liver. Fetal liver tissue suspensions of mixed gender were transplanted into the spleen of adult male or female syngenic recipients. Four months after grafting transplant-recipients and age-matched controls were treated with beta-naphthoflavone (BNF), phenobarbital (PB), dexamethasone (DEX) or the vehicles and sacrificed 24 or 48 h thereafter. P450-dependent monooxygenase activities were assessed by a series of model reactions for different P450 subtypes in liver and spleen 9000 g supernatants. In spleens of male and female control rats only very low monooxygenase activities were detectable, whereas with most model reactions distinct activities were observed in transplant-containing organs. Livers and transplant-containing spleens from male rats displayed higher basal ethoxycoumarin O-deethylase and testosterone 2alpha-, 2beta-, 6beta-, 14alpha-, 15alpha-, 15beta-, 16alpha-, 16beta- and 17-hydroxylase activities than those from females. On the other hand, like the respective livers, spleens from female transplant-recipients demonstrated more pronounced p-nitrophenol- and testosterone 6alpha- and 7alpha-hydroxylase activities than those from male hosts. With nearly all model reactions gender-specific differences in inducibility by BNF, PB or DEX could be demonstrated in livers as well as in transplant-containing spleens. These results further confirm that the P450 system of intrasplenic liver tissue transplants and the respective orthotopic livers is similarly influenced by recipient gender. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
Q:
Directories containing brackets [ ] in the name being deleted in Powershell
Using Powershell for the first time here, so please go easy on me...
I've written a script that checks a directory and, for any directory inside that is empty, it is to be deleted. The problem I'm having is with directories containing brakets -> [] in the directory name. Even if the directory isn't empty, it's still being deleted. Can anyone help? Here's the code I'm using:
$path = "C:\path\to\directory"
Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -and (Get-ChildItem -Path $_.FullName -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer }) -eq $null } | Remove-Item -Force -Recurse
I don't fully understand the code above, I found it online. But it's working for directories that don't have the brackets.
For a directory with the name of "SummerPhotos" that contains a file, the directory is not deleted. -> Good
For a directory that is empty, it is deleted. -> Good
For a directory named "SummerPhotos[2009]", it's being deleted even if it contains a file. -> Bad
I googled and read that powershell treats brackets as wildcards, but I'm not sure how to get around it. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
A:
In PowerShell Get-ChildItem the [] denote a range, to avoid this don't use -Path but -LiteralPath inside the Where-Object
To avoid possible irritations with $env:path choose a different
variable name.
$Mypath = "C:\path\to\directory"
Get-ChildItem -Path $Mypath -Recurse -Force |
Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -and (Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $_.FullName -Recurse -Force |
Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer }) -eq $null } |
Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Confirm
In more recent PowerShell versions you can use Get-ChildItem parameters -Directoy and -File instead of Where {$_.PSIsContainer}
$Mypath = "C:\path\to\directory"
Get-ChildItem -Path $Mypath -Recurse -Force -Directory -EA 0 |
Where-Object { (Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $_.FullName -Recurse -Force -File -EA 0 ) -eq $null } |
Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Confirm
-EA 0 is an abbreviation for -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
while testing I suggest using -WhatIf or -Confirm in the Remove-Item cmdlet
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
// @skipLibCheck: true
// @lib: es6,dom,dom.iterable
// @target: es6
for (const element of document.getElementsByTagName("a")) {
element.href;
} | {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
Q:
AutoLayout constraint animation scales from wrong point
I'm trying to achieve an animation using autolayout constraints, working together with UIStackViews. There is one animation I am getting stuck with.
I have an UIImageView (green) nested in an UIView (orange), that's in turn handled by a UIStackView. When only those elements are left visible, the views should shrink. I am trying to change the following constraints:
Normally at 64 for width and height and 10 for the leading/trailing/top/bottom constraints, I am using the following method to change them to 46 and 7 respectively:
private func setImageShrunk() {
imageWidth.constant = 46
imageHeight.constant = 46
imageTopMargin.constant = 7
imageBottomMargin.constant = 7
imageRightMargin.constant = 7
imageLeftMargin.constant = 7
}
This function is called by another function:
func shrinkImage(animated: Bool) {
if(animated) {
UIView.animate(withDuration: 1) {
self.setImageShrunk()
self.layoutIfNeeded()
}
} else {
setImageShrunk()
}
}
Shrinking the image without animation returns the expected result, of course abruptly. However, trying to animate it, I am getting the following result:
I want the view to shrink towards the top left corner, instead it shrinks from the center. It shouldn't "move first, scale later". Does anyone know how to achieve this using AutoLayout in iOS 11?
A:
So I figured out what happened trying to make a small project to recreate the error.
In the second project, the setup was the same but the animation worked like I expected. After some thinking I realized that in this new project, I had called the animations from the UIViewController containing the UIStackView.
In the original question, I had neglected to mention that I was calling the animations from a class extending UIStackView, so the View to be animated itself. Even though it had references to the constraints from the outside, the View didn't know its environment and embedding Views. That's why it just jumped and then scaled.
I fixed the problem by transferring the animations to be done to the UIViewController containing the UIStackView.
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
Q:
Query to locate multiple instances of MARC tag (SQL)
I am trying to run a query that will search the bibliographic record database and output all of the records that have more than one 020 tag according to some set parameters.
Note: the parameters are flexible. The important part is to find the records with two or more 020 tags.
Here is what I have:
select b.bib#, b.text, t.processed, i.call, i.collection, i.creation_date
from bib b, title t, item i
where b.bib# = t.bib# and t.bib# = i.bib#
and b.tag = '020'
and i.collection in ('PIC', 'E')
order by i.creation_date DESC, i.collection
This will display each 020 and the accompanying text, but I want it to only display records with two or more 020s. Group by bib# maybe?
A:
I'm not sure about the exact syntax you'll need, but you could use the subquery:
select b.bib#
from bib b
where b.tag = '020'
group by b.bib#
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
To identify bib# with multiple '020' entries, then either JOIN to that or use WHERE criteria with IN like:
select b.bib#, b.text, t.processed, i.call, i.collection, i.creation_date
from bib b, title t, item i
where b.bib# = t.bib# and t.bib# = i.bib#
and b.tag = '020'
and i.collection in ('PIC', 'E')
and b.bib# IN (select b.bib#
from bib b
where b.tag = '020'
group by b.bib#
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1)
order by i.creation_date DESC, i.collection
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
---
abstract: 'Many real-world applications involve multivariate, geo-tagged time series data: at each location, multiple sensors record corresponding measurements. For example, air quality monitoring system records PM2.5, CO, etc. The resulting time-series data often has missing values due to device outages or communication errors. In order to impute the missing values, state-of-the-art methods are built on Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), which process each time stamp sequentially, prohibiting the direct modeling of the relationship between distant time stamps. Recently, the self-attention mechanism has been proposed for sequence modeling tasks such as machine translation, significantly outperforming RNN because the relationship between each two time stamps can be modeled explicitly. In this paper, we are the first to adapt the self-attention mechanism for multivariate, geo-tagged time series data. In order to jointly capture the self-attention across multiple dimensions, including time, location and the sensor measurements, while maintain low computational complexity, we propose a novel approach called Cross-Dimensional Self-Attention (CDSA) to process each dimension sequentially, yet in an order-independent manner. Our extensive experiments on four real-world datasets, including three standard benchmarks and our newly collected NYC-traffic dataset, demonstrate that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art imputation and forecasting methods. A detailed systematic analysis confirms the effectiveness of our design choices.'
author:
- 'Jiawei Ma$^1$[^1]'
- 'Zheng Shou$^{1*}$'
- Alireza Zareian$^1$
- Hassan Mansour$^2$
- Anthony Vetro$^2$
- 'Shih-Fu Chang$^1$'
- |
\
$^{1}$Columbia University $^{2}$Mitsubishi Electric
bibliography:
- 'Section/reference.bib'
title: 'CDSA: Cross-Dimensional Self-Attention for Multivariate, Geo-tagged Time Series Imputation'
---
Conclusion
==========
In this paper, we have proposed a cross-dimensional self-attention mechanism to impute the missing values in multivariate, geo-tagged time series data. We have proposed and investigated three methods to model the crossing-dimensional self-attention. Experiments show that our proposed model achieves superior results to the state-of-the-art methods on both imputation and forecasting tasks. Given the encouraging results, we plan to extend our CDSA mechanism from multivariate, geo-tagged time series to the input that has higher dimension and involves multiple data modalities. Furthermore, we will publicly release the collected NYC-traffic dataset for future research.
Acknowledgments
===============
This work is supported by Mitsubishi Electric.
[^1]: indicates equal contributions.
| {
"pile_set_name": "ArXiv"
} |
Now it's Horford's turn to help Celtics' newcomers
Wednesday
Sep 27, 2017 at 8:23 PMSep 27, 2017 at 8:32 PM
Jim Fenton The Enterprise @JFenton_ent
NEWPORT, R.I. – He was the veteran who had to go through an adjustment last season after joining a new team.Al Horford had spent nine years with the Atlanta Hawks before signing with the Celtics in the summer of 2016, so it took a little while to get comfortable.
With one season in Boston under his belt, Horford will be providing tips to newcomers Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, who have joined the Celtics after playing six and seven years with the Cavaliers and the Jazz, respectively.
“Last year for me, I had to learn a lot of things, even though I’m a veteran,’’ said Horford on Wednesday before the fourth practice of training camp at Salve Regina University. “I had to learn a new system, everything, and I was kind of following some of the guys who had been here already.’’
Horford, who begins his 11th season on Oct. 17 when the Celtics face the Cleveland Cavaliers, had a solid first season in Boston after being slowed by a concussion early.
He averaged 14 points, 6.8 rebounds and five assists, then contributed 15.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists in the playoffs.
Horford’s presence and unselfish play helped Isaiah Thomas have the best season of his career. Now, he is one of only four players returning this season, and Horford will once again be a leader.
“Every day you lead by example and you’re making sure we’re holding each other accountable,’’ said Horford. “That’s one of the things I’ve been trying to focus on every day.’’
Said coach Brad Stevens: “Whenever he talks, it’s worth listening to. He really has a way about him. He picks his words and his times to speak. Clearly when he speaks, everybody listens.’’
Horford’s role will also be to help Irving and Hayward make the transition to the Celtics after being with the same team since leaving college.
“We’ll keep talking as we go along,’’ said Horford. “It’s getting acclimated and used to the surroundings, the people around you, the city.
“For them, it’s going to be a learning experience and I’ll be there to kind of support them and help them out. Change can be difficult sometimes, but I feel like we’ll be able to help them get acclimated with the team.’’
Irving and Hayward have talked about how much having Horford on the floor will help their games.
Horford showed the ability to get players open by setting picks, and by playing outside, he opened the floor for Thomas to drive last season.
“For me, it’s to make sure I make the game easy for (Irving) and Gordon,’’ said Horford. “It’s to learn tendencies, what they want to do, how they’re playing and I’m going to play around them and I’ll make adjustments. I’ve always been able to do that.’’
The Celtics wrap up their stay at Salve Regina with one practice on Thursday, then return to Waltham to prepare for the start of the preseason schedule Monday night.
With so many changes to the roster, the Celtics know they will be able to count on Horford from start to finish.
“I think Al played a real big part for us last year and he brings a lot of leadership and unselfishness,’’ said president of basketball operations Danny Ainge. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that so many of our perimeter guys had the best years of their careers last year.
“Al, the way he plays, how unselfish he is, his experience and his ability to take over at times (really helps). He’s the kind of guy who has the reputation around the league that guys do want to play with him.’’
With one season down and three more to go on his contract, Horford has settled in with his second NBA team after a long run in Atlanta.
“It feels good to have a year under my belt here and being a Celtic,’’ said Horford. “Last year, I wouldn’t say it was like a rookie year for me, but there was a lot new, a lot to learn. Now I know what to expect. I feel much more comfortable with my surroundings.’’
Never miss a story
Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
DELETE FROM WHERE~y NOT NULL NOT IN a.y
| {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
Smartphones Facilitate Far More Interactions Than Real-world
VICE – Oct 29 – The smartphone has completely changed the way modern relationships function. In this episode of Love Industries, Slutever’s Karley Sciortino investigates the ways that mobile apps have become an essential part of our search for hook-ups or true love. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Eliters is a Fun and Family League, No Gambling, Betting, or Wagering.Eliters serves ads on its site in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Using our site means that you acknowledge acceptance of this policy.
Yahoo: Play on rated tables, so matches can be validated in case of dispute.
Pogo: Winner takes screen captures using Snag-It or Print Screen.
The Division Period Administrator ( DPA) must be copied on all correspondence related to Match Reporting.
The losing Player should report immediately after the match is concluded.
The winning Player should check to see that the match is reported.
If the Match is not reported within 1 hour of completion, the winning Player should claim the win, by clicking the 'Claim' button on the Division page.
A Win Claim can only be issued after 1 hour from Match Finish Time.
The Player who submits a Win Claim is requested to provide enough details but in a brief manner, in addition to any screen captures to support the claim.
The DPA will study and investigate the validity of the Win Claims as soon as possible, and will respond to them in timely manner.
The decision of the DPA in such cases is final.
The last reporting time for any Period is 23:59 PM EST on the last day of the Period (14th or 28th). Try to play all matches and report them before that time; no players reporting will be allowed after 23:59 PM EST.
Any abuse of the EDS system, especially false reporting, will not be tolerated. If you notice any violation to the EDS Rules or any false reporting please email all details to the DPA as soon as possible and before 23:59 PM EST on the last day of the Period (14th or 28th). The DPA will also check any possible violation, will amend the records to adjust any false reporting, and will have a note on the Player.
The Player violating the above rule, besides losing the illegally earned points and being penalized 50 YEPs for every illegally reported Match:
On the first violation; will be put in the Penalty Box for 14 Days and will be prevented from playing and advancing.
On the second violation; the Player will be removed from the EDS for one Period so s/he will restart at the bottom.
Disclaimer: Eliters is a fun, friendly, and family tournament-based online League. Eliters Members can play online tournaments in many games of skill available on Free Play Sites on the Internet. Eliters is a non-gambling skill-based competition; No Gambling, Betting, or Wagering; Eliters is Free to all; you can register, participate in tournaments, and win points to continue playing forever completely Free. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
******************************************************
The ‘‘officially released’’ date that appears near the
beginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will
be published in the Connecticut Law Journal or the
date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative
date for the beginning of all time periods for filing
postopinion motions and petitions for certification is
the ‘‘officially released’’ date appearing in the opinion.
In no event will any such motions be accepted before
the ‘‘officially released’’ date.
All opinions are subject to modification and technical
correction prior to official publication in the Connecti-
cut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the
event of discrepancies between the electronic version
of an opinion and the print version appearing in the
Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Con-
necticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the
latest print version is to be considered authoritative.
The syllabus and procedural history accompanying
the opinion as it appears on the Commission on Official
Legal Publications Electronic Bulletin Board Service
and in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes
of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of
the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be repro-
duced and distributed without the express written per-
mission of the Commission on Official Legal
Publications, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut.
******************************************************
SUSAN YORGENSEN, INLAND WETLANDS
ENFORCEMENT OFFICER OF THE TOWN
OF EASTFORD v. DARLENE A.
CHAPDELAINE ET AL.
DARLENE A. CHAPDELAINE v. TOWN OF
EASTFORD ET AL.
(AC 35464)
DiPentima, C. J., and Gruendel and Lavery, Js.
Argued November 20, 2013—officially released May 6, 2014
(Appeal from Superior Court, judicial district of
Hartford, Land Use Litigation Docket, Berger, J.)
Darlene A. Chapdelaine, self-represented, the appel-
lant (named defendant in the first case, plaintiff in the
second case).
Eric Knapp, for the appellees (plaintiff in the first
case, defendants in the second case).
Opinion
LAVERY, J. This appeal arises out of two separate
actions that were consolidated for trial. In one action,
the plaintiff, Darlene A. Chapdelaine, sought a judgment
declaring that the defendants, the town of Eastford
(town) and its Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Com-
mission (commission), did not have jurisdiction over
her activities. In a second action, the plaintiff, Susan
Yorgensen, the inland wetlands enforcement officer of
the town of Eastford, sought to enjoin certain activities
of the defendant Darlene A. Chapdelaine.1 Chapdelaine,
proceeding as a self-represented party, appeals from
the trial court’s judgment denying her request for a
declaratory judgment, and its judgment determining
that she conducted activities in violation of General
Statutes § 22a-44 (b). On appeal, Chapdelaine claims
that (1) the court improperly denied her request for
a declaratory judgment, asserting that her claim was
jurisdictional in nature; (2) the enforcement complaint
was fatally defective because it did not cite § 22a-44
(b); and (3) the court’s judgment determining that she
violated § 22a-44 (b) was based on factual findings that
are clearly erroneous.2 We affirm the judgments of the
trial court.
The following facts and procedural history are rele-
vant to this appeal. On October 1, 2010, Chapdelaine
and her partner, Gary Warren, as buyers, entered into a
bond for deed and real estate agreement for the subject
property with Mary A. Duncan, and her husband, John
C. Revill, as sellers.3 The subject property is located at
211 Eastford Road in Eastford. On October 12, 2010,
the town granted Warren a building permit to construct
a barn. Shortly thereafter, on October 18, 2010, Yor-
gensen inspected the property from off-site and saw that
work was being performed on the property, including
regrading. On November 12, 2010, Yorgensen wrote to
Chapdelaine to cease and desist all regulated activities
within 100 feet of inland wetlands or watercourses and
to submit an application and plan to reclaim and restore
the wetlands pursuant to the Eastford Inland Wetlands
and Watercourses Regulations (regulations). At a hear-
ing held on November 18, 2010, the commission con-
firmed the cease and desist order.
On November 30, 2010, Chapdelaine e-mailed Yor-
gensen indicating that she did not receive the cease
and desist order, did not receive the meeting agenda,
and that she wished to settle the matter amicably. The
next day, Brendan Schain, the attorney for the commis-
sion, e-mailed Chapdelaine, indicating that he would
instruct the commission not to publish notice of its
decision as the matter might be resolved.
Also on November 30, 2010, Chapdelaine filed an
amended application with the commission seeking a
jurisdictional ruling, asserting that her activities were
either unregulated or constituted farming activities that
were exempt from local regulation under General Stat-
utes § 22a-40. Schain e-mailed Chapdelaine explaining
the proper procedure for requesting a determination of
exempt activity, as well as informing Chapdelaine that
notice of the cease and desist order had not yet then
published. As detailed in Schain’s e-mail: ‘‘Just because
you consider your property to meet the statutory defini-
tion of a farm does not mean that regulated activities
can be conducted in the absence of either a permit or
a determination of no jurisdiction. An application for
a determination of no jurisdiction must include a plan
showing the location of wetlands, the location of any fill
deposited on the property and the location and nature of
any other activities being conducted within the wet-
lands or upland review area.’’
On December 6, 2010, again responding to an e-mail
from Chapdelaine, Schain reiterated for Chapdelaine
that she must submit a map showing the location of
wetlands and watercourses, as well as the location and
nature of her exempt activities, and that, if she did not,
the commission would not be able to take action on
her application at its December 16, 2010 meeting. Chap-
delaine failed to comply with this request; instead, while
Chapdelaine submitted numerous documents, she sub-
mitted a site plan of the property that did not delineate
wetlands, and she did not supply a written list of the
specific activities being performed on the property. At
the December 16, 2010 meeting of the commission,
Thomas DeJohn, the chairman of the commission,
noted that Chapdelaine and the commission had a dis-
agreement as to the process for determining exemption
from the regulations, and concluded that the commis-
sion could not make a determination on her request
without a delineation of the wetlands boundaries. The
commission decided to revisit the application at its
meeting the following month.
By the date of the following meeting, Chapdelaine
had failed to comply with the commission’s request for
a site map delineating the location of wetlands and
watercourses, as well as the location and nature of her
exempt activities. On January 27, 2011, the commission
determined that, first, Chapdelaine may pursue ‘‘eques-
trian instruction, training, and breeding’’ and ‘‘selective
cutting of trees in the woodland area for the purposes
of pasture expansion’’ on the property because they
fit within the statutory definition of agriculture and
therefore are exempt from the regulations. Nonetheless,
as to the remainder of Chapdelaine’s activities, the com-
mission determined that it was unable to make a deter-
mination as to its jurisdiction. Specifically, the
commission determined: ‘‘[Chapdelaine] has con-
structed a riding arena on the northeastern portion of
the property. As part of that construction, a large stock-
pile of topsoil or other material has been placed on
the [p]roperty north of the existing dwelling. These
activities have involved the disturbance, grading, filling
or removal of soils. If these activities have occurred
within the physical area of an inland wetland or water-
course with continual flow, they fall outside the exemp-
tion created by . . . § 22a-40 and are therefore subject
to the jurisdiction of the [c]ommission. The [c]ommis-
sion hereby finds that [Chapdelaine] has submitted an
incomplete request for a ‘determination of no jurisdic-
tion.’ Without a delineation of the wetlands soils and
watercourses located on the property by a licensed soil
scientist, no determination of the jurisdiction of the
[c]ommission is possible. The [c]ommission finds that
there is not substantial evidence in the record that the
construction of the riding arena and stockpiling of fill on
the property have occurred entirely outside the physical
limits of inland wetlands or watercourses with contin-
ual flow and therefore declines to find these activities
exempt from regulation.’’ Notice of the commission’s
decision was published on February 11, 2011.
Chapdelaine did not appeal the commission’s deci-
sion that it had insufficient information to determine
whether her activities were exempt from the regula-
tions.4 Instead, in April, 2011, Chapdelaine commenced
an action for a declaratory judgment, requesting that
the court determine whether the commission had juris-
diction to regulate her activities.
On June 1, 2011, Yorgensen commenced the enforce-
ment action against Chapdelaine alleging, in the first
count, that Chapdelaine was in violation of the cease
and desist order issued on November 12, 2010, and that
despite notice, the violation had not been remedied. In
the second count, Yorgensen sought relief under § 22a-
44 (b), but did not cite to that statute in the complaint.5
The court consolidated the two actions for trial. A
trial was held to the court on six days over a period of
three months. On January 24, 2013, in a memorandum
of decision, the court denied Chapdelaine’s request for
a declaratory judgment, determining that she failed to
exhaust her administrative remedies and, thus, her inde-
pendent challenge to the commission’s jurisdiction was
procedurally improper. The court determined that,
accordingly, any special defenses raised by Chapdelaine
as to the enforcement action that concerned the juris-
diction of the commission also were precluded. As to
the enforcement action, the court rendered judgment
in favor of Chapdelaine with respect to count one, and
in favor of Yorgensen with respect to count two.
Specifically, the court determined that the first count
of the enforcement complaint failed because Yorgensen
failed to ensure that Chapdelaine had proper notice of
the cease and desist hearing, in accordance with the
statutory requirements of § 22a-44 (a). As to the second
count, however, the court determined Yorgensen estab-
lished that Chapdelaine violated § 22a-44 (b) because
‘‘[t]he testimony . . . is quite clear that Chapdelaine
and Warren performed a regulated activity as defined
in § 2.1 of the regulations and without obtaining a permit
as required by § 6.1 thereof. Notwithstanding whether
or when Chapdelaine and Warren received notice of
the cease and desist order, there is no question that
they knew the commission sought additional informa-
tion and could not, at that time, issue the requested
jurisdictional ruling without such information. There is
also no question that they attended the December and
January commission meetings, knew of the request for
additional information, did not comply with the request
and, in fact, continued working.’’ The court concluded:
‘‘Yorgensen’s burden was to prove that Chapdelaine
and Warren conducted activities within the regulated
area without a permit or some clear authority from the
commission that their activities were exempt. She . . .
succeeded.’’ This appeal followed. Additional facts will
be set forth as necessary.
I
First, Chapdelaine challenges the court’s denial of
her request for a declaratory judgment, claiming that
she properly filed an action for a declaratory judgment
because her claim was jurisdictional in nature, and the
evidence that she presented at trial established that
either she did not perform activities within wetlands
or her activities were exempt from regulation in accor-
dance with § 22a-40 (a) (1). We disagree.
In its memorandum of decision, the court concluded
that the ‘‘determination of whether [Chapdelaine’s]
activities are exempt is, in the first instance, for the
commission,’’ citing Cannata v. Department of Envi-
ronmental Protection, 215 Conn. 616, 627, 577 A.2d 1017
(1990), Aaron v. Conservation Commission, 183 Conn.
532, 547, 441 A.2d 30 (1981) (Aaron II), Canterbury v.
Deojay, 114 Conn. App. 695, 708, 971 A.2d 70 (2009),
and Wilkinson v. Inland Wetlands & Watercourses
Commission, 24 Conn. App. 163, 167–68, 586 A.2d 631
(1991). The court found that ‘‘[t]he commission’s
request that [Chapdelaine] file more information about
activities, whether within wetlands or watercourses or
outside of those areas that still might impact the river
or the wetlands is absolutely proper under Connecticut
law. . . . [Chapdelaine] started the process with her
initial request for a determination of exempt activities.
Her failure to comply with the commission’s request is
compounded by her failure to appeal the January 27,
2011 decision. She has failed to exhaust her administra-
tive remedies and thus her independent challenge to
jurisdiction is procedurally improper.’’ Accordingly, the
court denied her request for a declaratory judgment.
Chapdelaine concedes that this case is controlled by
Aaron II, supra, 183 Conn. 532, but she alleges that her
action for a declaratory judgment was proper because
the issues that she raised were jurisdictional in nature.
See Aaron v. Conservation Commission, 178 Conn.
173, 178–79, 422 A.2d 290 (1979) (Aaron I) (‘‘While
exhaustion of administrative remedies is generally held
to be applicable to proceedings involving judicial review
of administrative agency action, there are certain excep-
tions to the rule. . . . [O]ne such exception is that
resort to administrative agency procedures will not be
required when the claims sought to be litigated are
jurisdictional. . . . Another exception is that exhaus-
tion of administrative remedies will not be required
when the remedies available are futile or inadequate.
. . . In the present case there is some question as to
whether the plaintiff’s claims could properly be litigated
by way of appeal because of the rule that a party who
seeks some advantage under a statute or ordinance,
such as a permit or a variance, is precluded from subse-
quently attacking the validity of the statute or ordi-
nance.’’ [Citations omitted; internal quotation marks
omitted.]). Nonetheless, to support her claim, Chapde-
laine details extensively in her brief the evidence that
she presented at trial to support her contention that the
commission did not have jurisdiction over her activities;
namely, that an agent of the Connecticut Department
of Agriculture, and an agent of the Connecticut Depart-
ment of Energy and Environmental Protection, sur-
veyed her property and concluded that her activities
fell within the statutory definition of ‘‘farming’’ under
General Statutes § 1-1 (q), such that her activities are
permitted as of right in accordance with § 22a-40 (a)
(1). Further, two soil scientists from the United States
Army Corps of Engineers reported that no regulated
soils were disturbed.6
Chapdelaine’s argument is unavailing. Here, Chapde-
laine first challenged the commission’s jurisdiction
before the commission itself. Thereafter, she failed to
comply with the commission’s requests, and as a result,
the commission decided that it had insufficient evi-
dence to make a determination as to its jurisdiction
over her activities. Chapdelaine did not appeal that
determination, and instead, she started over by bringing
a declaratory judgment action. Chapdelaine did not
challenge the regulations or the commission’s proce-
dures for its determination of jurisdiction; instead, she
solely sought a determination from the court that her
activities are exempt. Aaron II and its progeny are clear
that, in Connecticut, the first arbiter of the jurisdiction
of a local inland wetlands and watercourses commis-
sion is the commission itself, and not a court, because
‘‘the administrative requirement that one apply to the
commission in order to determine if [her] application
is one for an exempt use or operation under § 22a-40
(a) is, in and of itself, valid and is administratively
necessary for the commission to discharge its function
under the enabling statutes [of the Inland Wetlands and
Water Courses Act, General Statutes § 22a-36 et seq.].’’
Aaron II, supra, 183 Conn. 547; see also Cannata v.
Department of Environmental Protection, supra, 215
Conn. 627–29; Wilkinson v. Inland Wetlands & Water-
courses Commission, supra, 24 Conn. App. 164–68.
‘‘Specific procedures are set out in the regulations . . .
to obtain a determination by the commission that a use
is permitted or nonregulated, and one seeking such a
determination must first, before undertaking any activ-
ity on the property in question, notify the commission
of his or her intentions and obtain a written determina-
tion by the commission of the categorization of that
use. Whether the defendants’ [activity] is considered
farming for the purposes of § 22a-40 and [the local regu-
lations] is not for [this court] to determine. Such deter-
mination must be made by the commission in the first
instance. The trial court cannot, nor by extension can
we, make a finding that the defendants’ actions could
be considered farming without the commission first
having considered the issue.’’ (Internal quotation marks
omitted.) Canterbury v. Deojay, supra, 114 Conn. App.
708; see also Cannata v. Department of Environmental
Protection, supra, 215 Conn. 628–29.
In particular, we draw Chapdelaine’s attention to this
court’s decision in Wilkinson, in which this court held
that the wetlands commission must be the first to deter-
mine whether it has jurisdiction over a particular sub-
ject matter. Wilkinson v. Inland Wetlands &
Watercourses Commission, supra, 24 Conn. App. 167.
In Wilkinson, like here, the plaintiffs requested that the
local wetlands commission issue a declaratory ruling
that their proposed activities—namely, constructing a
horse barn and indoor riding arena—constituted ‘‘farm-
ing’’ and were therefore permitted as of right under
§ 22a-40 (a) (1). Id., 164–65. In Wilkinson, as in the
present case, the commission asked the plaintiffs to
produce additional information, in particular a site plan
sealed by a licensed engineer or surveyor. Id., 165. The
plaintiffs in Wilkinson did not do this, and instead sub-
mitted other materials that they considered to be rele-
vant. As a result, like here, the commission determined
that the plaintiffs failed to prove that their proposed
activities constituted ‘‘farming.’’ Id., 165–66. In
response, the plaintiffs in Wilkinson appealed to the
Superior Court challenging the commission’s authority
to make such a ruling, and that court agreed, finding
that the plaintiffs’ proposed activities were farming and,
as such, were exempt from the local regulations. Id.,
166. The commission appealed, and this court reversed,
citing Cannata, and determined that: ‘‘In the present
case, the [local wetlands commission] . . . must be
given the first opportunity to determine its jurisdiction.
Requiring the plaintiffs to apply for a permit is neither
futile nor inadequate. If the [commission] finds that the
plaintiff’s proposed use is exempt from regulation under
. . . § 22a-40 (a) (1), the plaintiffs will be allowed to
conduct their activities without a permit. If the commis-
sion determines that the plaintiffs’ proposed use is not
exempt, it must then decide whether to issue a permit.
. . . [T]he plaintiffs in the present case can appeal from
an adverse ruling, challenging both the [commission’s]
jurisdiction and its decision denying them a permit. If,
conversely, a permit is granted, the plaintiffs will have
received the underlying relief sought, i.e., permission
to build horseback riding facilities on the property.’’
Wilkinson v. Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Com-
mission, supra, 167–68; see also Cannata v. Depart-
ment of Environmental Protection, supra, 215 Conn.
628–29.
Accordingly, a party cannot file a declaratory judg-
ment action to circumvent the requests of a wetlands
commission to determine its jurisdiction over that par-
ty’s activities. In the present case, Chapdelaine did not
appeal from the commission’s determination denying
her request for an exemption from the regulations, nor
did she appeal from the commission’s cease and desist
order. ‘‘The proper way to vindicate a legal position is
not to disobey the orders, but rather to challenge them
on appeal.’’ Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commis-
sion v. Andrews, 139 Conn. App. 359, 364, 56 A.3d 717
(2012). The commission’s jurisdiction over Chapde-
laine’s activities must first be determined by the com-
mission. Accordingly, the court properly denied her
request for a declaratory judgment.
II
Second, Chapdelaine claims that Yorgensen should
not have prevailed on the second count of the enforce-
ment complaint because she failed to cite § 22a-44 (b)
in her complaint. We disagree.
‘‘Because the interpretation of pleadings presents an
issue of law, our review is plenary. . . . It is fundamen-
tal in our law that the right of a plaintiff to recover is
limited to the allegations of [its] complaint. . . . More
than a century ago, our Supreme Court held that [w]hen
the facts upon which the court in any case founds its
judgment are not averred in the pleadings, they cannot
be made the basis for a recovery. . . . The vitality of
that bedrock principle of Connecticut practice is
unquestionable.’’ (Citations omitted; internal quotation
marks omitted.) Michalski v. Hinz, 100 Conn. App. 389,
393, 918 A.2d 964 (2007).
Chapdelaine asserts that Yorgensen should not have
prevailed on count two of her complaint because she
failed to cite the statute upon which the claim was
founded, namely, § 22a-44 (b). She asserts that such a
failure of reference, solely, was fatal to count two.
Practice Book § 10-3 (a) provides in relevant part that
‘‘[w]hen any claim made in a complaint . . . is
grounded on a statute, the statute shall be specifically
identified by its number.’’ The enforcement complaint
did not cite § 22a-44 (b) as the basis for count two.
Contrary to Chapdelaine’s assertion, however, this vio-
lation of Practice Book § 10-3 (a) is not a complete bar
to recovery on count two. ‘‘[O]ur courts repeatedly have
recognized that the rule embodied in Practice Book
§ 10-3 is discretionary and not mandatory . . .
[although] notice is the critical consideration in such
instances. As this court has observed, [a]s long as the
defendant is sufficiently apprised of the nature of the
action . . . the failure to comply with the directive of
Practice Book § 10-3 (a) will not bar recovery.’’ (Cita-
tions omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
Michalski v. Hinz, supra, 100 Conn. App. 394.
The record indicates that Chapdelaine was suffi-
ciently apprised of the statutory basis of count two of
the enforcement complaint. As asserted by Chapdelaine
in her brief: ‘‘In the instant matter Chapdelaine continu-
ously argued that [Yorgensen] failed to amend [her]
complaint to reflect any of the proper statutes . . .
and this was brought to the court’s attention numerous
times including [Chapdelaine’s] testimony and closing
argument. . . . [Yorgensen had] fatal flaws in [her]
complaint that the trial court could not and should have
amended verbally for [her] during trial.’’ Chapdelaine’s
argument makes it clear that she was aware of the flaw
in the complaint, aware of the statute upon which the
claim was founded, and aware that the court was to
render a judgment on that statute. Furthermore, a
review of the record indicates that the court repeatedly
stated that it was to make a determination as to Chapde-
laine’s declaratory judgment action, and, in the enforce-
ment action, on the cease and desist order and the
§ 22a-44 (b) count. Accordingly, in the present case,
Yorgensen’s failure to comply with Practice Book § 10-
3 (a) properly did not bar recovery as Chapdelaine was
sufficiently apprised as to the nature of the action.
III
Finally, Chapdelaine challenges the court’s determi-
nation that she violated § 22a-44 (b). Specifically, she
asserts that there was no substantial evidence before
the court of a violation because (1) she provided sub-
stantial evidence to the contrary, and (2) the evidence
provided by Yorgensen was not credible. We are not
persuaded that the findings of the court were clearly
erroneous.
Section 22a-44 (b) provides in relevant part that
‘‘[a]ny person who commits, takes part in, or assists in
any violation of any provision of sections 22a-36 to 22a-
45, inclusive, including . . . ordinances and regula-
tions promulgated by municipalities or districts pursu-
ant to the grant of authority herein contained, shall be
assessed a civil penalty . . . . The Superior Court, in
an action brought by the . . . municipality . . . or any
person, shall have jurisdiction to restrain a continuing
violation of said sections, to issue orders directing that
the violation be corrected or removed and to assess
civil penalties pursuant to this section. . . .’’
The court found that Chapdelaine performed a regu-
lated activity, as defined in § 2.1 of the regulations,
without obtaining a permit as required by § 6.1 of the
regulations. Section 2.1 of the Eastford Inland Wetlands
and Watercourses Regulations provides in relevant part
that ‘‘regulated activity’’ means ‘‘any operation within
or use of a wetland or watercourse involving removal or
deposition of material, or any obstruction, construction,
alteration or pollution, of such wetlands or water-
courses . . . . Furthermore, any clearing, grubbing,
filling, grading, paving, excavating, constructing, depos-
iting or removing of material and discharging of storm
water on the land within 100 feet measuring horizontally
from the boundary of any wetland or watercourse is a
regulated activity. The Commission may rule that any
other activity located within such upland review area
or in any other non-wetland or non-watercourse area
is likely to impact or affect wetlands or watercourses
and is a regulated activity.’’7
The court determined that the evidence established
that Chapdelaine performed activities within 100 feet
of the wetlands, in violation of § 2.1 of the regulations.
Specifically, the court found that ‘‘Yorgensen testified
that in addition to her on-site visits in the fall of 2010,
she has viewed the property from off-site and saw that
work was continuing, including a road being built into
the woods and regrading. DeJohn, who in addition to
being chairman of the commission has also been a gen-
eral contractor for twenty-eight years, testified that he
inspected the site almost daily from both Eastford Road
and from the town’s nature trail across the river. He
also attended the site visit on August 14, 2012. He
observed the construction work, which predated the
cease and desist order, and watched the 2011 work
that commenced in May including the use of heavy
equipment through mid-August. DeJohn testified that
the activities were conducted in violation of the Novem-
ber 18, 2010 cease and desist order. Michael Klein, a
registered soil scientist retained by the [c]ommission,
inspected the property on August 14, 2012 and testified
to a number of findings including that he found distur-
bances of soil within 100 feet of a wetland or water-
course, that there was recently deposited sediment in a
swale (a possible watercourse), [that] there was grading
from the riding ring within twenty or thirty feet from
the wetlands, that a portion of the property had been
denuded of vegetation, [that] alluvium was present, and
that there were disturbances in the southwestern part
of the property. Duncan also testified that there has
been significant grading and the removal of trees near
the river.’’ (Footnotes omitted.)
In her brief, Chapdelaine, first, describes evidence
that she presented at trial to support her position that
she never violated the regulations. Specifically, she
details that the property was never denuded of vegeta-
tion, as exhibited by aerial photographs submitted as
evidence, and supported by her own testimony, along
with the testimony of Warren and Duncan. She further
details that her expert, George Logan, testified that he
analyzed the soil on the property at issue and deter-
mined that no regulated soils were disturbed.
Second, Chapdelaine details in her brief that the court
should not have found the testimony upon which it
relied to be credible. Specifically, she details that the
testimony of the expert for the plaintiff, Klein, was not
credible because he failed to provide a detailed report
to support his testimony, he testified that he was
unaware of the Connecticut Soil and Erosion Control
Guidelines of 2002, he failed to remember the continued
education requirements for soil scientists, and he pro-
vided blurry photographs. She also details that the testi-
mony of DeJohn was not credible because he only
inspected her property from adjacent properties, and
did not perform soil analysis such as that performed
by her own experts. She also asserts that there was no
evidence of filling of the wetlands, and there was no
evidence of cutting of trees for expansion of crop land.
‘‘Our review of the factual findings of the trial court
is limited to a determination of whether they are clearly
erroneous. . . . A finding of fact is clearly erroneous
when there is no evidence in the record to support it
. . . or when although there is evidence to support it,
the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with
the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been
committed. . . . Because it is the trial court’s function
to weigh the evidence and determine credibility, we
give great deference to its findings.’’ (Internal quotation
marks omitted.) Canterbury v. Deojay, supra, 114 Conn.
App. 720–21.
Our review of the record indicates that the court’s
factual findings are supported by the evidence.8 To the
extent that Chapdelaine challenges the credibility of
the evidence, and the court’s weighing of the evidence,
such a determination is outside the scope of our review.
As to Chapdelaine’s challenge of the court’s reliance
on Klein’s testimony, in particular, we note that ‘‘[t]he
acceptance or rejection of the opinions of expert wit-
nesses is a matter peculiarly within the province of the
trier of fact and its determinations will be accorded
great deference by this court. . . . In its consideration
of the testimony of an expert witness, the trial court
might weigh, as it sees fit, the expert’s expertise, his
opportunity to observe the defendant and to form an
opinion, and his thoroughness. It might consider also
the reasonableness of his judgments about the underly-
ing facts and of the conclusions which he drew from
them. . . . It is well settled that the trier of fact can
disbelieve any or all of the evidence proffered . . . .’’
(Internal quotation marks omitted.) Sheppard v. Shep-
pard, 80 Conn. App. 202, 212, 834 A.2d 730 (2003).
Accordingly, we are not left with a definite and firm
conviction that a mistake has been committed.
The judgments are affirmed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
1
In the declaratory judgment action, Chapdelaine named as defendants
the town, Yorgensen, and Thomas DeJohn, the chairman of the Inland Wet-
lands and Watercourses Commission of the Town of Eastford.
In the enforcement action, Yorgensen named as defendants Chapdelaine,
Gary Warren, who occupies the property with Chapdelaine, and Mary A.
Duncan and John C. Revill, who are the owners of the property. Warren,
Duncan, and Revill are not parties to this appeal.
Hereafter, for the sake of clarity, we refer in this opinion to all individuals
by name rather than by party designation.
2
In her brief, Chapdelaine raised seventy-one claims of error. ‘‘[I]t is
the established policy of the Connecticut courts to be solicitous of [self-
represented] litigants and when it does not interfere with the rights of
other parties to construe the rules of practice liberally in favor of the [self-
represented] party. . . . Although we allow [self-represented] litigants
some latitude, the right of self-representation provides no attendant license
not to comply with relevant rules of procedural and substantive law.’’ (Cita-
tion omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Strobel v. Strobel, 64 Conn.
App. 614, 617–18, 781 A.2d 356, cert. denied, 258 Conn. 937, 786 A.2d 426
(2001). ‘‘This torrent of claimed error . . . serves neither the ends of justice
nor the defendant’s own purposes as possibly meritorious issues are
obscured by the sheer number of claims that are put before us. . . . Legal
contentions, like the currency, depreciate through over-issue. The mind of
an appellate judge is habitually receptive to the suggestion that a lower
court committed an error. But receptiveness declines as the number of
assigned errors increases. Multiplicity hints at lack of confidence in any
one [issue]. . . . [M]ultiplying assignments of error will dilute and weaken
a good case and will not save a bad one. . . . Most cases present only one,
two, or three significant questions. . . . Usually . . . if you cannot win on
a few major points, the others are not likely to help. . . . The effect of
adding weak arguments will be to dilute the force of the stronger ones.’’
(Citations omitted; footnote omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
State v. Pelletier, 209 Conn. 564, 566–67, 552 A.2d 805 (1989); see also Strobel
v. Strobel, supra, 618–19.
The majority of Chapdelaine’s claims are allegations that lack factual and
legal support. Furthermore, for each claim raised in her statement of issues,
she cites for our reference a range of pages that encompasses the entirety
of her brief. ‘‘[W]e are not required to review issues that have been improperly
presented to this court through an inadequate brief. . . . Analysis, rather
than mere abstract assertion, is required in order to avoid abandoning an
issue by failing to brief the issue properly. . . . Where the parties cite no
law and provide no analysis of their claims, we do not review such claims.’’
(Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Turner v. American
Car Rental, Inc., 92 Conn. App. 123, 130–31, 884 A.2d 7 (2005). Accordingly,
the three claims addressed in this opinion are those upon which substantive
argument can be gleaned from Chapdelaine’s brief and oral argument before
this court. Those that are not addressed are without merit.
3
According to the agreement, the closing was to take place on or before
August 15, 2012. The property had not closed as of January 24, 2013, the
date of the court’s judgment.
4
Chapdelaine stated at trial that she did not appeal the commission’s
decision because she ‘‘was extremely happy.’’ Specifically, she stated that
‘‘I was happy with their decision. They gave me the decision to pasture
expand. They gave me permission to train.’’ She reiterated this satisfaction
and justification as to why she did not appeal the commission’s decision at
oral argument to this court.
5
In the enforcement complaint, Yorgensen failed to cite § 22a-44 (a) as
the basis for count one, and § 22a-44 (b) as the basis for count two. Instead,
she detailed count one as a violation of an unappealed cease and desist
order, and count two as a violation of §§ 2.1 and 6 of the regulations. We
address why Yorgensen’s failure to cite to § 22a-44 (b) did not bar her
recovery in part II of this opinion.
6
Chapdelaine makes various claims that are rooted in her belief that the
court impermissibly treated her declaratory judgment action as an appeal,
such as her contention that the court lacked a full record for review, because
the case was not brought as an appeal under the Uniform Administrative
Procedure Act (UAPA). However, we note for Chapdelaine that the court did
not treat her declaratory judgment action as an appeal of the commission’s
determination; instead, the court held that she should have appealed. The
UAPA only applies to appeals from the determination of a wetlands commis-
sion; Klug v. Inland Wetlands Commission, 30 Conn. App. 85, 91, 619 A.2d
8 (1993); and as found by the court, and as conceded by Chapdelaine, no
such appeal was taken. Instead, this was a consolidation of two separate
actions, neither of which was an appeal from the determination of the com-
mission.
7
Section 6.1 of the Eastford Wetlands and Watercourses Regulations pro-
vides that ‘‘[n]o person shall conduct or maintain a regulated activity without
first obtaining a permit for such activity from the Inland Wetlands and
Watercourses Commission of the Town of Eastford.’’ We note that a 100
foot upland review area imposed by a local wetlands regulation has been
held to be ‘‘a valid administrative device reasonably designed to enable the
commission to protect and preserve wetlands located within [the town] in
fulfillment of its duty under the [Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Act].’’
(Internal quotation marks omitted.) Queach Corp. v. Inland Wetlands Com-
mission, 258 Conn. 178, 201, 779 A.2d 134 (2001).
8
Notably, the record indicates that Chapdelaine’s expert, George Logan,
testified that Chapdelaine’s construction of the riding arena disturbed soils
within 100 feet of the Still River. The following colloquy occurred between
Schain, who was Yorgensen’s trial counsel, and Logan:
‘‘[Attorney Schain]: Mr. Logan, were soils disturbed during the construc-
tion of the riding arena?
‘‘[Logan]: Yeah.
‘‘[Attorney Schain]: And is some of that disturbance within 100 feet of
the Still River?
‘‘[Logan]: Yes.
‘‘[Attorney Schain]: And on other areas of the property, there are dis-
turbed soils?
‘‘[Logan]: Well, it depends on how you define disturbed soils.
‘‘[Attorney Schain]: Soils which are—which have been—I’m sorry, allow
me to think of another word. Soils which have been upset from their natu-
ral state?
‘‘[Logan]: Minimally.
‘‘[Attorney Schain]: And some of that disturbance is within 100 feet of
the Still River? . . .
‘‘[Logan]: Yes.’’
| {
"pile_set_name": "FreeLaw"
} |
Paintings by Rick Eakins.
Virtual Paintout…July 2015 (Santa Fe, NM)
For the month of July, 2015 I visited a region I’m very fond of, Santa Fe, NM. I painted a very familiar Adobe Home on Canyon Road and Delgado Street. This old door way (portal) must have been here forever. I can’t walk up Canyon Road without being amazed by it. Check out the other ART for this month’s Virtural Paintout at http://virtualpaintout.blogspot.com/ | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
56 N.Y.2d 619 (1982)
The People of the State of New York ex rel. Julius E. Gluch, Appellant,
v.
Deborah Gluch, Respondent.
Court of Appeals of the State of New York.
Argued March 22, 1982.
Decided April 6, 1982.
Lois McS. Webb for appellant.
John F. Niles for respondent.
Chief Judge COOKE and Judges JASEN, GABRIELLI, JONES, WACHTLER, FUCHSBERG and MEYER concur.
*620MEMORANDUM.
The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed, with costs.
The Appellate Division reversed "on the law and on the facts". Even if it were to be concluded that it was error to have reversed on the law (i.e., to have held that on no view of the record could acceptance of jurisdiction under the Uniform Child Jurisdiction Act [Domestic Relations Law, art 5-A] be sustained and accordingly that for Family Court to have done so was an abuse of discretion as a matter of law), nevertheless the Appellate Division also reversed on the facts. By this latter disposition the Appellate Division substituted its own exercise of discretion not to accept jurisdiction for the exercise of discretion by the Family Court to accept such jurisdiction. Inasmuch as we conclude that there was no abuse of discretion or other error of law by the Appellate Division with respect to this latter disposition our review is at an end.
Order affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.
| {
"pile_set_name": "FreeLaw"
} |
Effects of iron(III) reduction on organic carbon decomposition in two paddy soils under flooding conditions.
Iron oxidation and reduction have important effects on soil organic carbon conversion in paddy soil during flooding and dry conditions. This study selected two paddy soil samples, one from the city of Yueyang of Hunan Province and one from the city of Haikou of Hainan Province, that differ significantly in iron content. During a 25-day incubation, the effects of Fe(II) and Fe(III) contents and changes in the levels of several major iron forms on soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) levels and emission of CH4 and CO2 were observed. The ratio of Fe(II) content to all active Fe increased with an increase in Fe(II) content after soil flooding, and the proportion of all active Fe was significantly higher in the soil samples from Yueyang than in those from Haikou. In only 5 days, 92% of Fe(III) was converted to Fe(II) in Yueyang soil samples, and almost all Fe(III) had been transformed into Fe(II) by the end of incubation. Similar behaviors occurred in soil samples collected from Haikou, but Fe(II) represented only 59% of the active Fe by the end of incubation. In total, 2.2 g kg-1 of organic carbon in the Yueyang soil sample was converted to CO2 and CH4, and the DOC content increased to 410% of its initial value by the end of incubation. In the Haikou soil, only 0.7 g kg-1 of organic carbon was converted to CO2 and CH4, and its DOC content increased to 245% of its initial value by the end of incubation, which was a much smaller increase than observed for the Yueyang sample. Decomposition of organic carbon in the soil was closely related to iron reduction, and reduction of iron in soil significantly affected the conversion rate of organic carbon in soil. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
Support Groups
ALS support groups provide an excellent opportunity to connect with others who understand what you are experiencing on a daily basis.
Support groups can give you a new perspective on your situation. They are a place to share, learn, and realize that you are not alone. If you feel hesitant, you can try attending once to see if it is for you.
The ALS Association hosts free monthly support groups across the country for people with ALS, caregivers, and loved ones. Meetings often last 90 minutes or more. Each group is facilitated by a qualified leader who can offer advice and provide accurate and information. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Correction of chromatic aberrations in GRIN endoscopes.
A gradient-index (GRIN) endoscope can be constructed by substituting for the usual objective and relay sections suitable cylindrical index-distribution rod lenses. Currently available GRIN lenses exhibit large amounts of chromatic aberration. Axial color arises mostly from the relay lens, while lateral color is due to the objective lens. A negative lens cemented to a shortened GRIN relay lens can simultaneously correct axial and lateral chromatic aberrations with commercially available components. This correction system reduces the requirements for mechanical centration better than do color correctors that are incorporated into the ocular design. Monochromatic aberrations are also considered. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
Lollapalooza returns to Grant Park Aug. 1-3. Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot reported last week that Eminem, Skrillex, Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys will be among the headliners. More than 100 bands and artisits will perform on eight stages this year.
Additional headliners and the complete line up will be announced later this week. Single-day passes will go on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Mechanism of action of some commonly used nasal drugs.
This article provides a brief description of the mechanism of action of drugs commonly used in the treatment of nasal disorders. These include oral and topical vasoconstrictors, antihistamines, atropine-like drugs, cocaine, topical corticosteroids, and mast-cell stabilizers. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
St. Olav's Cathedral, Oslo
St. Olav's Cathedral () is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo and the parish church of St. Olav's parish in Oslo, Norway. The cathedral has church services and masses in Norwegian and several other languages, including English and Polish.
History
At the time of construction, this church, being built at Hammersborg, near the graveyard of Our Saviour (), was located in the countryside outside the then city of Oslo. The work was funded by private donations and fundraising abroad, the most generous individual donor being Queen Josephine, who was a Catholic herself. The first mass of the church was celebrated on 24 August 1856, but as there was no Roman Catholic bishop in the country, the church was not consecrated until 8 August 1896.
A relic, reportedly a bone from St. Olav's arm, have been placed in a showcase since the 1860s. When the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo was established in 1953, St. Olav's was chosen as the episcopal seat and was elevated to the rank of cathedral. It is the second Catholic cathedral in Oslo. St. Olav's Cathedral was visited by Pope John Paul II when he visited the Scandinavian countries in 1989.
See also
List of cathedrals in Norway
List of Roman Catholic parishes in Norway
Roman Catholicism in Norway
St. Hallvard's Cathedral
References
External links
Katolsk.no website Cathedral
Parish blog (in English)
Timetable for Catholic Masses - all languages (in English)
Category:Churches in Oslo
St. Olav's Cathedral in Oslo
Category:Roman Catholic cathedrals in Norway
Olav
Category:Churches completed in 1856
Category:19th-century churches in Norway | {
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
} |
Joseph T. Ryan
John Joseph Thomas Ryan (November 1, 1913 – October 9, 2000), better known as Joseph T. Ryan, was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was Archbishop for the Military Services from 1985 to 1991, having previously served as Archbishop of Anchorage, Alaska from 1966 to 1975.
Biography
Ryan was born in Albany, New York, to Patrick and Agnes (Patterson) Ryan. He attended Manhattan College in New York City and St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers.
He was ordained to the priesthood on June 3, 1939. He was in the Navy Chaplain Corps from 1943 to 1946 and took part in the Marine landing at Okinawa; he was cited twice for bravery.
Ryan served in the Diocese of Albany from 1946 to 1957 and was chancellor of the U.S. Military Vicariate from 1957 to 1958. From 1958 to 1960, he was based in Beirut, where he did relief work with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and the Pontifical Mission for Palestine.
Archbishop of Anchorage
On February 7, 1966, Ryan was appointed the first archbishop of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska, by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following March 25 from Cardinal Francis Spellman, with Bishops Edward Joseph Maginn and Edward Ernest Swanstrom serving as co-consecrators. The Anchorage Archdiocese was erected following the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, and was formed from the South Central area of the Diocese of Juneau. After nine years in Alaska, Ryan was named Coadjutor Archbishop for the Military Vicariate and Titular Archbishop of Gabii on November 4, 1975.
Archbishop for the Military Services
After the death of Cardinal Terence Cooke, Pope John Paul II elevated the Military Vicariate (which had had the same ordinary as the Archdiocese of New York) to the rank of an Archdiocese and named Ryan the first Archbishop for the Military Services on March 16, 1985. In this capacity, he provided for the pastoral and spiritual care of Catholics in the United States armed forces and their families, residents of veterans hospitals and civilian government employees living abroad.
Retirement
He retired as archbishop on May 14, 1991 and returned to his native Albany, where he later died at age 86.
See also
Catholic Church hierarchy
Catholic Church in the United States
Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
Insignia of Chaplain Schools in the US Military
List of Catholic bishops of the United States
List of Catholic bishops of the United States: military service
Lists of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops
Military chaplain
Religious symbolism in the United States military
United States military chaplains
United States Navy Chaplain Corps
References
External links
Official site of the Holy See
Category:1913 births
Category:2000 deaths
Category:Archbishops of Anchorage
Category:Roman Catholic Archbishops for the United States Military Services
Category:American Roman Catholic archbishops
Category:20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops
Category:Manhattan College alumni
Category:Religious leaders from Albany, New York
Category:United States Navy chaplains
Category:World War II chaplains
Chaplains | {
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
} |
name = 'TensorFlow'
version = '1.4.0'
versionsuffix = '-Python-%(pyver)s'
homepage = 'https://www.tensorflow.org/'
description = "An open-source software library for Machine Intelligence"
toolchain = {'name': 'foss', 'version': '2017b'}
source_urls = ['https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/archive/']
sources = ['v%(version)s.tar.gz']
patches = [
'TensorFlow-%(version)s_swig-env.patch',
'TensorFlow-%(version)s_no-enum34.patch',
]
checksums = [
'8a0ad8d61f8f6c0282c548661994a5ab83ac531bac496c3041dedc1ab021107b', # v1.4.0.tar.gz
'53807290f1acb6a0f2a84f1a0ad9f917ee131c304b3e08679f3cbd335b22c7ef', # TensorFlow-1.4.0_swig-env.patch
'2eab03d83eb90ce87f3d0aece8b4a61e773a08624118a8a762546763d1f06b9d', # TensorFlow-1.4.0_no-enum34.patch
]
builddependencies = [
('Bazel', '0.7.0'),
('wheel', '0.30.0', versionsuffix),
]
dependencies = [('Python', '3.6.3')]
moduleclass = 'lib'
| {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
A bronze and stone marker (left) In Haddonfield, N.J. commemorates the site where the skeleton of Hadrosaurus foulkii (right) was unearthed in 1858.
In the summer of 1858, Victorian gentleman and fossil hobbyist William Parker Foulke was vacationing in Haddonfield, New Jersey, when he heard that twenty years previous, workers had found gigantic bones in a local marl pit. Foulke spent the the late summer and fall directing a crew of hired diggers shin deep in gray slime. Eventually he found the bones (above, right) of an animal larger than an elephant with structural features of both a lizard and a bird.
First Nearly-Complete Dinosaur Skeleton
Foulke had discovered the first nearly-complete skeleton of a dinosaur -- an event that would rock the scientific world and forever change our view of natural history.
Today, located where a tidy suburban street dead ends against deep woods, the historic site is marked with a modest commemorative stone (above, left) and a tiny landscaped park. Just beyond the stone the ground drops away into the steep ravine where the bones of Hadrosaurus foulkii were originally excavated on the eve of the Civil War.
The "Ground Zero" of Dinosaur Paleontology
In relation to the history of dinosaur paleontology, this Haddonfield Hadrosaurus site is ground zero; the spot where our collective fascination with dinosaurs began. Visitors can still climb down crude paths into the 30-foot, vine-entangled chasm to stand in an almost primordial quiet at the actual marl pit where the imagination of all mankind was exploded outward to embrace the stunning fact that our planet was once ruled by fantastically large, bizarrely shaped reptilian creatures. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
The present invention relates to a method of bend-shaping a glass plate in a heating furnace and an apparatus for bend-shaping the glass plate. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved method of and apparatus for bend-shaping the glass plate suitably used for deeply bending a side portion of the glass plate.
Generally, a laminated glass is formed by laminating two glass plates and an intermediate plastic film such as polyvinyl butyral as an interlayer, and it is widely used particularly for a windshield for an automobile from the standpoint of safety.
In such laminated glass of this kind, it is necessary to bend two flat glass plates to thereby form a laminated glass because there is a demand for the laminated glass having a curved surface from the viewpoint of excellent design for automobiles. In this case, when the glass plates are separately bent, a subtle difference in the shape of curve appears between the glass plates to be laminated. Accordingly, when they are laminated with the intermediate layer interposed therebetween, there results disadvantages such as that a complete joint between the two glass plates and the interlayer is not obtainable, or air bubbles are left at the surfaces of bonding when manufactured or in use, this causing the peeling-off of the laminated glass. Accordingly, a method of bending simultaneously two overlapping glass plates has been used for manufacturing the laminated glass.
As a conventional method of bend-shaping glass plates for a laminated glass, there has been known such a method that a bending mold having a bend-shaping surface corresponding to a curved surface of the laminated glass is prepared; two glass plates are placed on the bending mold in an overlapping state; the bending mold is transferred into a heating furnace together with the glass plates; the glass plates are heated to a temperature capable of softening glass so that the glass plates are bent by their own deadweight as the glass plates are softened, whereby the glass plates are bent so as to correspond to the bend-shaping surface of the bending mold (Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 10332/1974).
In such method, when it is necessary to bend deeply a side portion of the laminated glass, there is used a bending mold having a fixed split mold portion in a ring form which has a bend-shaping surface corresponding to an intermediate curved portion of the laminated glass and a movable split mold portion in a ring form which is placed at a side (or both sides) of the fixed split mold portion so that it can move to the fixed mold portion so as to be in alignment with the fixed mold portion by its own deadweight, and which has a bend-shaping surface corresponding to a portion to be deeply bent of a side portion of the laminated glass. Two glass plates in a flat form are placed in an overlapping state on the bending mold with the movable split mold portion (portions) so that the movable split mold portion is developed; the bending mold is transferred into a heating furnace along with the glass plates; the glass plates are heated; and as the glass plates are softened, the movable split mold portion is moved so as to come into alignment with the fixed mold portion, whereby the side portion of the glass plates is deeply bent by their deadweight by means of the movable split mold portion.
In the conventional method of bend-shaping the glass plates for a laminated glass and when the both side portions of the overlapping glass plates are to be deeply bent, the side portions of the overlapping glass plates are forcibly bent-shaped by means of the movable split mold portions which are moved by the own deadweight of the glass plates. However, when the side portions of the overlapping glass plates are to be further deeply bent, the following disadvantage results. Namely, although the peripheral portion of the deeply bent portions of the glass plates can follow the shape of the bend-shaping surfaces of the movable split mold portions, the softened glass plates can not follow a desired radius of curvature of the curved surface excluding the peripheral portion of the deeply bent portions of the overlapping glass plates. Accordingly, the shaping operation for the deeply bent portions of the overlapping glass plates is insufficient. There is an attempt to heat locally the portions to be deeply bent of the glass plates to thereby make the bending operation easy. However, such method is still insufficient.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, it is considered to use a pressing method wherein the glass plates are interposed between a convex mold and a concave mold so that a correct curved shape of the glass plates is obtainable. In this method, however, the overlapping glass plates have to be simultaneously bend-shaped. Accordingly, it is necessary to correctly place the two overlapping glass plates and to hold them at the time of bend-shaping. However, when the two overlapping glass plates are to be held by using known techniques such as a hanging method or a sucking method, it is still insufficient to correctly position the overlapping glass plates, and as a result, the above-mentioned pressing method can not be used.
FIG. 13 shows an example of a split type bending mold 110 adapted to bend-shape two overlapping glass plates by utilizing the deadweight of the glass plates. The bending mold 110 is mounted on a base truck 126 which constitutes a transferring means. The bending mold 110 comprises a ring-like fixed split mold portion 111 having a bend-shaping surface 111a corresponding to the intermediate curved portion excluding both side portions of the overlapping glass plates 101 which are to be subjected to a deeply bending operation, and ring-like movable split mold portions 112 each having a bend-shaping surface 112a corresponding to a portion to be deeply bent of the glass plates 101 which are to be formed into a laminated glass plate 101, the bend-shaping surface 112a coming in alignment with the bend-shaping surface 111a of the fixed split mold portion 111 when the movable split mold portions 112 are moved to a set position at both sides of the fixed split mold portion 111. The fixed split mold portion 111 is fixed onto the base truck 126 by means of supporting bars 113, and both side portions in the width direction of each of the movable split mold portions 112 are respectively supported at the free ends of the supporting bars 115 provided on fixed brackets 114 of the base truck 126 so as to be swingable. Further, a balance weight 117 is attached to the supporting portion of each of the movable split mold portions 112 by means of a moment arm so as to be moved to the set position whereby the movable split mold portions 112 are in alignment with the fixed split mold portion 111.
FIG. 13a shows the bending mold on which two flat glass plates are placed in an overlapping state before they are subjected to the heating operation. FIG. 13b shows that the bending operation for the glass plates has been finished. FIG. 13c is a plan view for illustrating a state that the bending mold is split. The bending mold assumes a position that the movable split mold portions are in alignment with the fixed split mold portion before the flat glass plates are placed on the bending mold. However, when the flat glass plates are placed on the bending mold, the movable split mold portions are automatically split due to the deadweight of the glass plates, whereby the bending mold assumes the state as shown in FIG. 13a. The construction of the movable split mold portions may be changed in design as desired so long as they can move in the direction capable of aligning with the fixed split mold portion due to the deadweight of the glass plates and to stop at the position in alignment with the fixed split mold portion. The direction of the movable split mold portions to the original set position can be adjusted by using some structural elements of the movable split mold portions or weights.
In case of press-shaping the glass plates on the split type bending mold by using an auxiliary pressing member so as to deeply bend portions of the glass plates from the upper direction, there sometimes takes place a phenomenon that a portion of the movable split mold portions which is close to the fixed split mold portion jumps up, this causing the deformation of a local portion of the glass plates. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the above-mentioned phenomenon.
In FIG. 3, a reference numeral 1 designates a working surface of pressing load, a numeral 2 designates the bending mold and a numeral 3 designates a pivotal shaft for a movable split mold portion. In such typical bending mold, a moment of force resulting around the pivotal shaft applied to the movable split mold portion due to a pressing load functions to separate the bend-shaping surface of the movable split mold portion away from the bend-shaping surface of the fixed split mold portion, whereby there results the jumping phenomenon as described above.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the following method has been proposed. Namely, the glass plates are bent by their deadweight on a so-called split type bending mold comprising movable split mold portions and a fixed split mold portion; side portions of the glass plates which are to be deeply bent are pressed by auxiliary pressing members from the upper direction of the glass plates while the movable split mold portions are clamped with respect to the fixed split mold portion, whereby the deeply bent portions are provided. The clamping operation is conducted to prevent the movable split mold portions from opening when the pressing operation is carried out. In order to assure a sufficient clamping function, it is necessary to support the movable split mold portions by raising them at the outside of the each of the pivotal shafts with respect to the fixed split mold portion, and to exert a force so that the bend-shaping surface of the movable split mold portions comes in alignment with the bend-shaping surface of the fixed mold portion inwardly from each of pivotal shafts with respect to the bend-shaping surface of each of the movable split mold portions.
FIG. 2 is a side view showing an example of the bending mold having the above-mentioned clamping structure, wherein a reference numeral 4 designates a weight clamping jig, a numeral 5 designates a pushing rod clamping jig, a numeral 6 designates a pushing rod, a numeral 10 designates a hinge, a numeral 13 designates an auxiliary pressing member, a numeral 1115 designates a weight, a numeral 16 designates a bending mold and a numeral 17 designates a glass.
However, the above-mentioned supporting structure using pushing means has difficulty in the adjustment of the height of the pushing rod 6 for each bending mold because the pushing operation has to be carried out from the outside of the heating furnace in order to avoid the disadvantage that a driving section is exposed in the high temperature of the heating furnace, and there often results local deformation at the portion of the laminated glass plate corresponding to the border portions between the movable split mold portions and the fixed split mold portion. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention is directed to fiber optical transport systems. More particularly, the invention provides a method and system for an integrated optical receiver for reducing the size and cost of optical transport systems. Merely by way of example, the invention has been applied to dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical transport systems employing InP photodetectors. But it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applicability.
Since its first deployment in the middle of 1990s, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) has become a dominant technology for long haul and regional backbone transport networks, and is gradually making its way to metro area networks. An optical transport system usually includes one or more linecards. A linecard is often built around one or several optical components. For example, the received DWDM optical signal from the transmission fiber is first passed through a demultiplexer linecard, which includes DMUX filters. A commonly used DMUX filter is based on arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) made of silica-on-silicon. The optical outputs from the demultiplexer linecard, each at a wavelength by the ITU-T standards, are then fed into the receiver linecards. The optical connections between the linecards are generally made through optical fibers. A receiver card typically includes a photodetector, for example, a p-i-n (PIN) photodiode, or an avalanche photodiode (APD), that converts the input optical into an electrical signal for further processing. The photodetector chips inside the photodetector packages are typically made of InP semiconductor compounds.
Even though these conventional DWDM systems are useful in some areas, they have many limitations that restrict their effectiveness in broader applications. Some of these limitations are discussed below, and then improved techniques based on embodiments of the present invention are presented. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Q:
Finding Column Number using OpenCSV
I am using openCSV package in Java to create CSVs. I am creating a CSV with two columns. First Column represents first name of a person. Second Column represents second name of a person. So, it is like
Deepak, Prasath
Rakesh, Mehra
Prakash, Merhra
Now, what I want to do is : If someone tries to add Deepak Kumar like "Deepak,Kareem" . Then the script should be able to append to the existing record like
Deepak, Prasath, Kareem
Can any one help, how using OpenCSV package we can append to a particular row or column ?
A:
I have made a code which meets this requirement :
static CSVReader read = null;
static CSVWriter writer = null;
static String csvfile;
static List<String[]> arg = null;
static Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
public static List<String[]> readFile(CSVReader read, List<String[]> arg) throws IOException {
arg = read.readAll();
for (String[] lineTokens : arg) {
for (String token : lineTokens) {
System.out.print(token + ",");
}
System.out.println("");
}
return arg;
}
public static void write_to_csv(String command_input, String command_output, CSVWriter writer, String csvfile, List<String[]> arg) throws IOException {
String[] count = (command_input + "," + command_output).split(",");
String rename = (getFilename(csvfile) + "_part.csv");
int i = 0;
String[] tail;
writer = new CSVWriter(new FileWriter(rename));
for (String[] head : arg) {
if (head[0].equals(command_input)) {
i = 0;
tail = new String[head.length + 1];
for (String h : head) {
tail[i] = h;
System.out.println(h);
i++;
}
tail[tail.length - 1] = command_output;
writer.writeNext(tail);
} else {
i--;
writer.writeNext(head);
}
}
if(i < 0){
writer.writeNext(count);
}
writer.close();
File original = new File(rename);
File gre = new File(csvfile);
boolean fr = original.renameTo(gre);
System.out.println(fr);
}
static {
try {
System.out.println("Enter the file name");
csvfile = in.nextLine();
File file_exists = new File(csvfile);
if (file_exists.exists()) {
read = new CSVReader(new FileReader(csvfile));
} else {
file_exists.createNewFile();
read = new CSVReader(new FileReader(csvfile));
}
arg = readFile(read, arg);
read.close();
if (file_exists.delete()) {
System.out.println(file_exists.getName() + " is deleted.");
} else {
System.out.println("Operation Failed");
}
} catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(DifferentApproach.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(DifferentApproach.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
public static String getFilename(String csvfile) {
String last[] = csvfile.split("\\.");//csvfile.split(".*(?=\\.)");
return last[last.length - 2];
}
public static void main(String... args) {
try {
write_to_csv("mno", "Hi I am N Deepak Prasath", writer, csvfile, arg);
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(DifferentApproach.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
1,2-Dichlorobenzene-induced lipid peroxidation in male Fischer 344 rats is Kupffer cell dependent.
1,2-Dichlorobenzene (1,2-DCB) is a potent hepatotoxicant in male Fischer 344 (F344) rats and previous studies have suggested that reactive oxygen species may play a role in the development of hepatotoxicity. Since reactive oxygen species can damage lipid membranes, this study was conducted to determine the extent of lipid peroxidation after administration of 1,2-DCB by immuno-histochemical analysis of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) protein adduct formation in liver and conjugated diene formation in liver and serum. The contribution of Kupffer cells to the lipid peroxidation was also investigated. Male F344 rats were administered 1,2-DCB (3.6 mmol/kg i.p. in corn oil) and killed at selected times between 3 and 48 h. Time course studies revealed the greatest abundance of 4-HNE protein adducts in the centrilobular regions of the liver 24 h after 1,2-DCB administration, with much lower levels at 16 h. Adducts were present in necrotic and vacuolized centrilobular hepatocytes of 1,2-DCB treated rats but not in livers of controls. Further, conjugated dienes were significantly increased in liver and serum 16 and 24 h after 1,2-DCB administration, peaking at 24 h. These data correlated with hepatocellular injury, determined by serum alanine aminotransferase activity and histopathological evaluation, which was markedly elevated within 16 h and peaked at 24 h. When rats were pretreated with gadolinium chloride (GdCl3; 10 mg/kg i.v. 24 h prior to 1,2-DCB), an inhibitor of Kupffer cells, hepatotoxicity was decreased by 89 and 86%, at 16 and 24 h, respectively. Conjugated diene concentrations were decreased to control values at these times after 1,2-DCB administration. Moreover, no 4-HNE protein adducts were detected in livers of 1,2-DCB-treated rats pretreated with GdCl3. Finally, Kupffer cells isolated from 1,2-DCB-treated rats produced significantly more superoxide anion than Kupffer cells isolated from vehicle controls. These data, along with previous findings, suggest that lipid peroxidation associated with 1,2-DCB is mediated in part by Kupffer cell-derived reactive oxygen species. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
http://ppe.sagepub.com/ Politics, Philosophy & Economics http://ppe.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/04/15/1470594X13483466 The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.1177/1470594X13483466 published online 15 April 2013Politics Philosophy Economics Jeppe von Platz Are economic liberties basic rights? Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: The Murphy Institute of Political Economy can be found at:Politics, Philosophy & EconomicsAdditional services and information for http://ppe.sagepub.com/cgi/alertsEmail Alerts: http://ppe.sagepub.com/subscriptionsSubscriptions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navPermissions: What is This? Apr 15, 2013OnlineFirst Version of Record >> at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from Article Are economic liberties basic rights? Jeppe von Platz Suffolk University, USA Abstract In this essay I discuss a powerful challenge to high-liberalism: the challenge presented by neoclassical liberals that the high-liberal assumptions and values imply that the full range of economic liberties are basic rights. If the claim is true, then the high-liberal road from ideals of democracy and democratic citizenship to left-liberal institutions is blocked. Indeed, in that case the high-liberal is committed to an institutional scheme more along the lines of laissez-faire capitalism than property-owning democracy. To present and discuss this challenge, I let John Rawls represent the high-liberal argument that only a narrow range of economic liberties are basic rights and John Tomasi represent the neoclassical liberal argument that the full range of economic liberties are basic rights. I show that Rawls's argument is inadequate, but also that Tomasi's argument fails. I thus conclude that high-liberalism is in a precarious situation, but is not yet undone by the neoclassical liberal challenge. Keywords Liberalism, liberty, rights, economic liberties, economic rights, John Rawls, John Tomasi, Samuel Freeman Introduction This essay is about one of the more divisive political issues of our time: whether economic liberties are basic rights. Corresponding author: Jeppe von Platz, Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences, Suffolk University, 8 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108, USA. Email: vonplatz@gmail.com Politics, Philosophy & Economics 1–22 a The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1470594X13483466 ppe.sagepub.com at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from At issue is not merely whether economic liberties are basic rights, but how considerations of distributive justice, efficiency, and other social values may legitimately inform democratic legislation: the wider the range of basic economic rights, the narrower is the range of issues subject to democratic authority. If the full range of economic liberties are basic rights, then the activities of economic agency should be regulated only to secure basic rights. If only a narrow range of economic liberties are basic rights, then the activities of economic agency may be regulated for the sake of other social goods, such as equality of opportunity or to secure a fair and efficient distribution of income and wealth among the members of society. More concretely, I suspect that a number of current political disagreements are really disagreements about whether economic liberties are basic rights: disagreements about the justice of taxing income, inheritance, and bequests, about whether a democracy legitimately can legislate a minimum wage, mandate decent working conditions, mandate provisions for health-care or retirement savings, and so on. Until recently there were three main camps in the debate about the status of economic liberties: classical liberalism, libertarianism, and high-liberalism.1 Classical liberals and libertarians agree that the full range of economic liberties are basic rights, but offer different arguments for this conclusion. Libertarians argue that individuals have basic natural rights and that these include or entail the economic liberties.2 Classical liberals defend the economic liberties by the consequentialist argument that the economic liberties are necessary to maximize productive output and protect happy and productive living.3 High-liberals, by contrast, understand justice in terms of the principles of reciprocity and fairness proper to the democratic idea(l) of society as a system of social cooperation between free and equal citizens.4 High-liberals argue from the ideals of democratic society and citizenship to the conclusion that only a narrow range of economic liberties are basic rights. Since classical liberals, libertarians, and high-liberals proceed from different views of the nature of justice, neither camp has made much headway in persuading its opponents. Even so, the high-liberal camp is often viewed as occupying the higher ground (hence the flattering name), presumably because it proceeds from an attractive view of democracy and citizenship that carries a minimum of questionable commitments. However, there is a new kid on the block – neoclassical liberalism.5 Neoclassical liberalism upsets the debate about the status of economic liberties. On one hand, neoclassical liberals accept the high-liberal view of the nature of justice and therefore reject the classical liberal and libertarian arguments. On the other hand, neoclassical liberals argue that the high-liberal view of justice implies that the full range of economic liberties are basic rights. In this essay I discuss the neoclassical liberal argument that the high-liberal view of justice implies that the full range of economic liberties are basic rights. To focus the discussion I take John Rawls to represent the high-liberal position and John Tomasi to represent the neoclassical liberal position. I proceed as follows. First, I articulate what the disagreement is about (the second and third sections). Next, I present Rawls's theory of basic liberties and his argument that only a narrow range of economic liberties are basic rights (the fourth and fifth sections). I then present and discuss Tomasi's argument that Rawls and like-minded high-liberals should include the full range of economic liberties on the list of basic rights (the sixth to ninth sections). I conclude that, although 2 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from Rawls's argument is lacking, Tomasi's argument falls short of establishing that more than a narrow range of economic liberties are basic rights. What are basic rights? Basic rights are liberties or entitlements that must be respected and protected by democratic legislation under (almost) any circumstances. Basic rights are not absolute in the sense that they cannot be regulated. Rather, a basic right can only be regulated for the sake of securing equal basic rights for all, and so cannot be regulated to secure other social values, such as equality of opportunity, distributive justice, or efficiency. Nonbasic rights, by contrast, are liberties or entitlements that may or may not be protected and respected by democratic legislation. Whether or not to protect a non-basic right can be decided by democratic procedures in light of other social values. So, basic rights determine necessary limits and ends of democratic legislation. The limiting requirement is clear enough: the scheme of basic rights delineates the space wherein democratic legislation is authoritative. There is more controversy about the positive requirement, that is, about what it takes to protect and secure that basic rights are enjoyed by all citizens. Socialist critics of liberal democracy have, for example, argued that protecting formal rights falls short of justice, since access to wealth and opportunities determines the value of these rights –without the means needed to exercise a liberty the protection it offers is of little worth.6 A socialist might, therefore, argue that the norm of equal liberty implies an egalitarian principle of distributive justice. In light of this criticism, Rawls and others have argued that, with the exception of the political liberties, the equal worth of liberties is not a requirement of justice. Instead, the worth of liberties can be dealt with by securing that all have adequate means for exercising their liberties and that inequalities in material resources are fair (cf. Rawls, 1996: 324–331; 2001a: 148–150). What are economic liberties? Economic liberties are liberties of the citizen as an economic agent. Abstractly speaking, we can identify four categories of economic liberties (following Nickel, 2000: 156–157): 1. Liberties of working (of the person as laborer): liberties to employ one's body, time, and mind in productive activities of one's choice and according to the terms one has freely consented to (e.g. to donate, sell, trade, and buy labor); 2. Liberties of transacting (of the person as entrepreneur): liberties to engage in economic activities, to manage one's own affairs, to buy and sell goods, to save and invest, to start, run, and close a commercial enterprise, such as a business or farm, and to engage in the activities of running such an enterprise: to hire workers, buy and use land, display, advertise, and sell one's products or services; 3. Liberties of holding property (of the person as owner): liberties of acquisition, holding, and transfer of property (whether personal or productive), of using and developing one's property for commercial and productive purposes, to bequest, sell, trade, and invest one's property; Platz 3 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from 4. Liberties of using property (of the person as consumer): liberties to buy, use, consume, destroy, or otherwise do as one pleases with one's goods, resources, and services. So, the questions of this essay are whether, which, and why these liberties are basic rights that must be respected and protected by the constitution and laws of society. Rawls on economic rights By his own admission, Rawls's discussion of the basic liberties and their priority in A Theory of Justice was inadequate (Rawls, 1996: Lecture VIII; 2001a: sections 13 & 32). In A Theory of Justice Rawls defended the following as first principle of justice: ''Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all.'' (1971: 302). Rawls further argued that this principle should have priority over the second principle, which requires fair equality of opportunity and that inequalities in income and wealth are to the advantage of the least well off (Rawls, 1996: 294–299; 1971: sections 39, 46; 2001a: section 30). Hart (1973) criticized Rawls's discussion of liberty on three grounds: firstly, it is unclear whether Rawls's first principle is about liberty or liberties; secondly, Rawls fails to explain why the parties in the original position adopt the first principle and its priority; and, thirdly, Rawls fails to explain how we are to specify the basic liberties and weigh them against one another at the constitutional and legislative stages. In his reply to Hart, Rawls explains that he did not mean for the first principle to be about liberty as such, but about a list or scheme of liberties, and he retracts the idea7 that there is a scheme of equal liberties that should be maximized (Rawls, 1996: 291–293). Instead, what is required is an adequate scheme of equal basic liberties. Rawls, accordingly, changes the first principle of justice to: ''Each person is to have an equal right to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic liberties which is compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for all.'' (1996: 5, 291). Adequate to what? The answer is: adequate to the development and exercise of the two moral powers (Rawls, 1996: 292–293; 2001a: 45, 112–113). These moral powers are the capacity to offer and abide by fair terms of social cooperation and the capacity to form, revise, and pursue a conception of the good. Thus, according to Rawls, the basic liberties are all and the only protections necessary to ensure for all citizens the social conditions essential for the adequate development and the full and informed exercise of the two moral powers (1996: 74, 187, 293, 308, 325; 1999: xii; 2001a: 45, 112, 169). The grounding relation between liberties, moral powers, and basic rights has a complex modal structure: a basic right is a liberty necessary for the adequate development and full exercise of the moral powers. Below I look more closely at how we should understand ''necessary'' and ''adequate'', but I want to straightaway clarify two aspects of this relation. First ''full exercise'' does not indicate a maximizing modality of the grounding relation between liberties, moral powers, and basic rights. By ''full exercise'' we should understand exercise in the central cases that are to offer and abide by fair terms of social cooperation and to devise, revise, and pursue a determinate conception 4 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from of the good.8 Second a liberty is a basic right if it is necessary for the adequate development and exercise of either moral power – it need not be necessary for both.9 We can, accordingly, restate the grounding relation: a basic right is a liberty, the protection of which is necessary for the adequate development and exercise of one of the two moral powers. There are, accordingly, three different groups of basic rights (Rawls, 1996: 310–324, 409–419; 2001a: 45, 112–113):10 1. A liberty is a basic right if it is necessary to adequately develop and exercise the sense of justice. Rawls thinks that the political liberties (and their fair value) and liberties of thought and speech are justified on this ground. 2. A liberty is a basic right if it is necessary to adequately develop and exercise the capacity for a conception of the good. Rawls thinks that liberty of conscience and freedom of association are justified on this ground. 3. Thirdly, a liberty is a basic right if it is necessary for guaranteeing any of the liberties immediately necessary for the development and exercise of one of the moral powers (i.e. for securing one of the liberties established as basic rights by 1 or 2). Rawls thinks that liberty and integrity of the person, the rights and liberties covered by the rule of law, rights of privacy, rights to hold personal property, and freedom of occupation are justified in this mediate manner. If a liberty is not necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the two moral powers in one of these three ways, then it is not a basic right. What about the economic liberties? Rawls argues that only two categories of economic liberties satisfy any of the three conditions (Rawls, 1971: 42, 43, 82; 1996: 228, 232, 298, 335, 338, 363; 2001a: 114): first, the right to hold and have exclusive use of personal property. Rawls suggests that this right is justified by its necessity for the adequate development and exercise of both moral powers. It is easiest to see how this right is presupposed by the demands raised by the second moral power: it is hard to imagine how persons can be secure and independent without rights of personal property. Second, freedom of occupation is required by freedom of association and in general for the adequate exercise of the second moral power.11 Apart from these two, Rawls thinks that the scheme of economic rights that a society should provide should be determined by reference to realizing the fair value of political liberties, equality of opportunity, and a fair distribution of income and wealth. Unfortunately, Rawls does not say much about why the other economic liberties are not basic. In general, his argument must be that they are not necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the two moral powers (cf. Rawls, 1996: 298; 2001a: 114). However, the details of this argument are, I think, unclear – in part because it is unclear what it means for a scheme of liberties to be necessary for the adequate development of the two moral powers. So, Rawls's argument leaves some questions unanswered: How, exactly, should we understand the requirement to provide the scheme of liberties necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the two moral powers? In what sense necessary? In what sense adequate? And, why are the economic liberties not in the scheme of basic rights? In the sixth to ninth sections I discuss these questions. Firstly, however, it will be helpful Platz 5 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from to present an overview of how those who disagree with Rawls might argue that the economic liberties are basic rights. How to argue that the economic liberties are basic rights The general form of Rawls's argument that only a few economic liberties are basic is that: 1. A liberty is a basic right if and only if it is necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the two moral powers; 2. Only a few economic liberties are necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the two moral powers. 3. Thus, only these few economic liberties are basic. In this section I identify the main strategies for rejecting this argument. A way to reject Rawls's argument is to reject the idea that the basic liberties are tied to the development and exercise of the two moral powers. Such rejection is not the topic of this essay. Assuming that the basic liberties are grounded in the two moral powers, there are four general strategies for rejecting Rawls's conclusion that only a narrow range of economic liberties are basic. The first two strategies target the modalities of the first premise of Rawls's argument: Rawls argues that the basic liberties are necessary for the adequate development of the two moral powers, and we might reject either of these modalities. So, the first way to reject Rawls's argument is to reject the modality of necessity. Instead one might argue that the basic liberties are protections that are conducive to or promote the development and exercise of the two moral powers. It is easier to show that the economic liberties are conducive to the development and exercise of the moral powers than to show that they are necessary. Note that necessity does not imply universality: it may be that protecting a liberty is necessary for some but not all, members of society to develop and exercise their two moral powers. Rawls is, I think, committed to allow for this possibility. If general facts about human nature and sociology imply that a liberty is necessary for some group of members of society to develop and exercise their moral powers, then this liberty is in the scheme of basic rights. If, for example, reproductive rights are necessary for women to adequately develop and exercise their moral powers, then reproductive rights are basic. The second strategy is to challenge the modality of adequacy. Instead one might argue that the basic liberties are the protections necessary to secure the full or maximum development and exercise of the two moral powers. Since more is required by a maximizing than a satisficing reading of this modality, this change of modality would make it easier to argue that the economic liberties are basic rights. A third way to reject Rawls's argument would be to reject his interpretation of the moral powers. If one rejects Rawls's interpretation of the two moral powers, then the road is open for a new argument that a wide range of economic liberties are necessary for their adequate development and exercise. 6 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from Finally, even if we accept Rawls's modalities and understanding of the two moral powers, it might still be argued that a wide range of economic liberties are in fact necessary for the adequate development of the two moral powers, as Rawls understands these. Tomasi's charge Tomasi accepts Rawls's idea of society as a system of social cooperation between free and equal citizens and Rawls's argument from this idea to the two principles of justice and their priority rules. However, Tomasi rejects Rawls's interpretation of the two principles. Most importantly, Tomasi argues that democratic legitimacy requires that the full range of economic liberties are protected as basic rights and as such can be restricted only for the sake of securing an adequate scheme of equal basic rights for all. Accordingly, the scope of legitimate laws that can be enacted in the pursuit of the second principle is limited. So, institutionally Tomasi defends laissez-faire capitalism or democratic limited government against Rawls's favored market socialism or property-owning democracy.12 If Tomasi's argument succeeds, it shows that the ideals and values that high-liberals thought supported left-liberal conclusions and institutions really support the conclusions and institutions of their right-liberal foes. Tomasi's main criticism of Rawls is a charge of unjustified exceptionalism: that the reasons Rawls offers for including other liberties on the list of basic rights apply equally to the full range of economic liberties.13 However, the exact character of Tomasi's argument is hard to pin down, perhaps because Rawls was not too clear on the modalities at work in his argument. In the following I disentangle and discuss Tomasi's arguments in light of the strategies identified in the previous section. Shifting modalities One way to argue that Rawls's list of liberties is too narrow is to change the first modal operator from necessity to conduciveness: if the basic liberties are the protections conducive to the development and exercise of the two moral powers, then the list of basic liberties would expand, and it would be more likely that the full range of economic liberties would be on the list. It seems clear that ''conduciveness'' is the wrong modality: it would expand the list of basic rights to include every protection that can serve to develop and exercise the moral powers and just about any protection we can think of could be thus justified. In addition, it is clear that Rawls worked with necessity, not conduciveness. Tomasi would, I think, agree; his argument is that ''a thick conception of economic liberty is a necessary condition of responsible self-authorship.''14 – Responsible self-authorship is Tomasi's term for the two moral powers: ''the capacity people have to become responsible authors of their own lives, along with their capacity to recognize their fellow citizens as responsible self-authors.'' (2012a: 88). So far, then, I think Tomasi's argument is true to his claim that he follows Rawls's assumptions and that his choice of outer modality is the right one. Not so for the second modality. Rawls, again, argues that the basic rights are the protections necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the two moral powers. A second way to show that Platz 7 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from Rawls's list of basic rights is too short is to challenge this satisficing modality: if the basic rights are those necessary for the full, complete, or maximum accessible development and exercise of the two moral powers, then it is more likely that the economic liberties are on the list of basic rights, since more is necessary to reach the maximum development and exercise than to reach some threshold below the maximum. Tomasi pursues this strategy. There are times where Tomasi affirms the satisficing modality of adequacy; he says, for example, that the economic liberties together with the other basic rights function ''as a fully adequate scheme of rights and liberties'' (2012a: 90). However, these are exceptions. Tomasi's general line of argument is that the basic rights are those liberties the protection of which is necessary for the full, complete, or maximum development and exercise of the two moral powers and that the economic liberties are so necessary. Here are some passages that indicate Tomasi's shift in modality (respectively, 2012a: 76, 76, 82, 82; my emphases): . . . the imperative to create a social world in which the moral powers of citizens can be fully developed is a requirement of legitimacy. . . . high-liberals claim that some forms of independent economic activity must be protected if people are fully to develop and exercise their moral powers, while other aspects of personal economic freedom need not be so protected. In seeking the most appropriate specification of the basic rights and liberties, we seek the specification that most fully allows citizens to develop themselves as responsible self-authors. . . . [high-liberals] owe us a moral explanation of how any [ . . . ] narrowing of private economic liberty enhances the status of persons as responsible self-authors. More significant than these passages is how Tomasi's charge of unjustified exceptionalism relies on the maximizing modality. Firstly, in defending that the liberties of working are basic rights, Tomasi argues that Rawls's argument that freedom of occupation is a basic right applies equally to the other liberties of working. According to Tomasi, Rawls argues that freedom of occupation is protected as a basic liberty, since our choice of occupation expresses who we are and thus serves as part of what it is to develop and exercise our moral powers: ''by choosing which occupation to pursue, we express our values.'' (Tomasi, 2012a: 77). Tomasi claims that this argument applies equally to the other liberties of working: If the freedom to choose an occupation is essential to the development of the moral powers, the freedom to sell, trade, and donate one's labor looks equally essential for the same reasons. After all, one is defined by one's workplace experience not simply by what profession one pursues. One is also defined by where one chooses to work, by the terms that one seeks and accepts for one's work, by the number of hours that one devotes to one's work, and much more besides. (2012a: 77) So, a society that does not protect the freedoms of working as basic rights allows legislation that limits the possibilities for citizens to realize their powers of responsible selfownership: ''A society that denied individuals the right to make decisions regarding 8 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from those aspects of their working experience would truncate the ability of those people to be responsible authors of their own lives.'' (2012a: 77). Tomasi's argument that the economic liberties of holding property are basic rights follows a parallel path. According to Tomasi, Rawls argues that the right to personal property is a basic right, because ownership in personal property provides for personal security, expresses the identity of persons, and is necessary to meet basic needs. Tomasi then charges Rawls with unjustified exceptionalism, since ownership of means of production has many of the same features and benefits as personal property: it too provides security, can serve as a means to express who we are, to secure independence, and so on: [F]or many people the ownership of productive property plays a profound role in the formation and maintenance of self-authored lives. [ . . . ] Societies that protect the private ownership of productive property as a basic right increase the range of projects, and the forms of economic relationships, that are available to citizens. Such societies broaden the evaluative horizons of citizens. The economic liberties make it possible for citizens with diverse values and interests to more fully develop and exercise the powers they have as responsible selfauthors. (2012a: 78–79) The claim, then, is that the economic rights of ownership can serve to promote and expand the evaluative horizons of citizens and that a society that protects these as basic rights, therefore, provides for a fuller or more complete development and exercise of the two moral powers than a society that does not. Thus, Tomasi concludes that a society that permits restrictions of economic liberties: ''thereby diminishes the capacity of citizens to become fully responsible and independent agents. [ . . . and] creates social conditions in which the moral powers of citizens can be exercised and developed in only a stunted way.'' (2012a: 81). Yet, even if it is true that the economic liberties expand the possibilities for developing and exercising the two moral powers, this does not justify the conclusion that these liberties are basic rights. The implicit premise needed to go from the claim that these allow for a fuller development and exercise of the moral powers to the conclusion that these liberties are basic rights, is that basic rights are those protections necessary to secure a full (or the most fully accessible) development and exercise of the two moral powers. Roughly speaking, there are two problems with Tomasi's argument as a charge of unjustified exceptionalism: it is wrong in the specifics and it is wrong in general. That is, Tomasi's interpretation of why Rawls affirms freedom of occupation and the right to hold personal property as basic rights is wrong, as is his general claim that Rawls maintains that the basic liberties are those necessary to secure the full or maximum development and exercise of the two moral powers. Firstly, Rawls did not, as Tomasi suggests, argue that free choice of occupation and the right to personal property are immediately necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the two moral powers, since they are necessary to secure access to the fullest range of options for individual life-plans. Recall that Rawls identifies three kinds of basic rights: the first two are the basic rights that are immediately necessary for the development and exercise of each of the moral powers, the third kind are those that are Platz 9 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from necessary to secure the rights that are immediately necessary – this third type of right is thus only mediately necessary for the development and exercise of the moral powers. The right to free choice of occupation and to hold personal property are of this third kind: Rawls argues that unless these are protected, we cannot be secure in the basic liberties established by the two fundamental cases (Rawls, 1996: 298, 308, 335, 338; 2001a: 114, 138).15 That these liberties are only mediately basic does not affect their weight – they are equal members of the scheme of basic rights. However, it shows that Tomasi's charge of unjustified exceptionalism via Rawls's endorsement of these liberties is a tad too quick: Tomasi argues that the other economic liberties are important for independence, broaden the evaluative horizons, and increase the life-options of citizens; however, Rawls's argument was not from the breadth of evaluative horizons or the range of available life-options, but from the necessity of protecting these liberties in order to secure the basic liberties immediately necessary for the development and exercise of the moral powers. Moving on to Tomasi's general assumption that Rawls maintains that the basic liberties are those necessary for the full or maximum development of the two moral powers: Tomasi is mistaken to read Rawls's argument as working with such a maximizing modality. In his reply to Hart, Rawls explicitly rejected that the basic liberties are those necessary for maximizing moral powers or evaluative horizons or anything like that: ''the scheme of basic liberties is not drawn up so as to maximize anything, and, in particular, not the development and exercise of the moral powers.'' (Rawls, 1996: 332).16 The modality of the grounding relation in Rawls's argument is satisficing: the basic liberties are the protections necessary for reaching the threshold of an adequate, the ''minimum requisite degree'' (Rawls, 1996: 19, 74, 106, 302) of development and exercise of the two moral powers. Why does Rawls adopt the satisficing rather than the maximizing modality? Rawls provides two reasons. The first is that, given what the moral powers are and why they are significant, we have no coherent notion of what could be maximized: We cannot maximize the development and exercise of the two moral powers at once. And how could we maximize the development of either power by itself? [ . . . ] [W]e have no notion of the maximum development of these powers. What we do have is a conception of a well-ordered society with certain general features and certain basic institutions. Given this conception, we form the notion of the development and exercise of these powers which is adequate and full relative to the two fundamental cases. (Rawls, 1996: 333) The second reason is that ''the two moral powers do not exhaust the person, for persons also have a determinate conception of the good.'' (Rawls, 1996: 333). The point is that the good of a person is not that she develops and exercises her moral powers, even less that she develops and exercises these to some full or maximum extent: the good of a person is her determinate conception of the good, which may require some degree of development and exercise of the moral powers.17 This relation between the moral powers and determinate conceptions of the good is brought out by the interests of the parties in the original position. The parties in the original position care for the development and exercise of the moral powers only insofar as 10 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from they deem their development and exercise necessary for those they represent to pursue their determinate conceptions of the good, whatever they are. The parties find that for this purpose, they want all members of society to develop and exercise a sufficiently effective sense of justice to secure stability, self-respect, and that society can serve as a ''social union of social unions'' (see Rawls, 1996: 315–324). However, the parties have no interest in aiming for a ''more full'' development and exercise of the sense of justice, even less in the maximum development and exercise of the sense of justice, for there is no reason to assume that such a development and exercise would serve the determinate conception of the good of those they represent (nor is it easy to imagine what a more full development and exercise of the sense of justice would be). So, from the perspective of the parties in the original position, the target and cut-off point of their interest in the development of the sense of justice is the point at which the members of society are able to offer and abide by fair terms of social cooperation. This target defines the adequate development and exercise of this moral power. The basic liberties that are immediately or mediately grounded in this moral power are those (and only those) necessary to reach this target. Matters are a bit more complex for the second moral power, the capacity for developing, revising, and pursuing a conception of the good. The development and exercise of this moral power is not merely instrumentally valuable. Since a determinate conception of the good must be endorsed as one's own, the capacity to develop and revise one's conception of the good is itself ingredient in the determinate conceptions of the good of members of society (Rawls, 1996: 313–314). So, the parties in the original position take an interest in the development and exercise of this moral power both instrumentally and as an end in itself. In addition, this dual interest makes it harder to identify the target that defines what it is to adequately develop and exercise this moral power: the instrumental interest dictates that the adequate development and exercise of this moral power is when the capacity is sufficiently developed for persons to develop, revise, and pursue conceptions of the good. This target presents a satisficing requirement. Yet, it is less clear that there is a target and cut-off point when the development and exercise of this moral power is taken as an end in itself. Why not think that when this moral power is part of determinate conceptions of the good, what counts is the fullest possible development? The answer that Rawls suggests (1996: 314) is that this moral power is an end in itself and part of determinate conceptions of the good only because having this moral power is necessary to freely develop and endorse one's determinate conception of the good as one's own. So, the target presented by this moral power taken as an end in itself is the development and exercise sufficient to develop and exercise a determinate conception of the good – and this target is the same measure of adequacy as that provided by the instrumental value. In this manner, the target that defines ''adequate'' in ''necessary to adequately develop and exercise'' can be identified for each of the moral powers (Rawls was not entirely clear about this part of his argument): relative to the moral power that is the capacity for a sense of justice, ''adequate'' means sufficient to offer and abide by fair terms of social cooperation; relative to the moral power that is a capacity for a conception of the good, ''adequate'' means sufficient to freely devise, revise, and pursue a determinate conception of the good. Platz 11 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from The discussion has showed that Tomasi's argument for the claim that Rawls engages in unjustified exceptionalism rests on a misinterpretation of Rawls's position: Rawls leaves the majority of economic liberties off the list of basic rights, because he believes that these, by contrast with the liberties he includes on the list, are not necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the moral powers, so Tomasi's argument that the economic liberties are necessary for the full or maximum development and exercise of the moral powers is not to the point. However, even if Rawls does not engage in unjustified exceptionalism of the kind Tomasi alleges, Tomasi might be correct in either of two important respects: firstly, it may be that we should use the maximizing modality of the grounding relation between liberties, moral powers, and basic rights. Secondly, even if the satisficing modality is the right one, it may still be that Rawls engages in unjustified exceptionalism – but if so, we need a different argument for this charge than the one discussed above. In the following section I discuss the first of these issues in light of Tomasi's interpretation of the two moral powers in terms of responsible self-authorship. In the ninth section I turn to the second issue of whether Tomasi might still have an argument that Rawls engages in unjustified exceptionalism. A different interpretation of the two moral powers The moral powers are capacities for realizing an ideal of moral personality. For Rawls, this ideal is the ideal of free and equal citizenship. For Tomasi it is the ideal of responsible self-authorship.18 At first, the difference between Rawls's and Tomasi's interpretations of the moral powers looks superficial. However, there is a real difference in why and how Rawls and Tomasi think that the development and exercise of the moral powers is a concern of justice. Tomasi expresses this difference in terms of a difference in foci: where Rawls's focus is on securing the status of citizens as ''free equals'', Tomasi's focus is on the agency of persons; on what they do as ''equally free'' (Tomasi, 2012a: 304). According to Tomasi, what matters is not merely the relational status of equal citizenship, but rather ''what citizens choose to do as responsible independent agents'' (2012a: 193). There is a substantial difference between Rawls and Tomasi here. For Rawls, the moral powers are capacities for free and equal citizenship: free in that one has and pursues one's own determinate conception of the good; equal in that one does so with the rights and duties of equal citizenship. From the standpoint of justice, the development and exercise of the moral powers that matters is the realization of this potential for free and equal citizenship, and this defines what their adequate development is and explains the satisficing interpretation of the modality of the relation between moral powers and basic rights. For Tomasi, by contrast, the moral powers are the capacities for responsible self-authorship and what matters from the standpoint of justice is the realization of responsible self-authorship. The ideal of responsible self-authorship is open-ended; it is an ideal that is realized to the extent that a person's decisions are her own. So, where Rawls claims that the moral powers are sufficiently realized when a person is able to offer and abide by fair terms of social cooperation and to devise and pursue a determinate conception of the good, for Tomasi the moral powers are realized to the extent that a 12 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from person achieves responsible self-authorship.19 So, where the ideal behind the moral powers in Rawls's theory is an ideal realized by some threshold development and exercise of the moral powers, the ideal behind the moral powers in Tomasi's theory is the full or complete realization of the moral powers. On Tomasi's interpretation, then, there ''is no natural limit'' (Tomasi, 2012a: 194) to the development and exercise of the two moral powers, no target or threshold of adequacy, and so Tomasi's ideal does not define such a target or measure of adequacy, but supports a maximizing interpretation. Tomasi's argument for why the economic liberties of transaction and of using property are basic illustrates how his understanding of the ideal implied by the moral powers differs from Rawls's: Many people define themselves by the financial decisions they make for themselves and their families. [ . . . ] Such decisions require that people assess their most basic values and, in light of that assessment, to set themselves on a course of life that is their own. Economic liberty protects these important aspects of responsible self-authorship. Indeed, among the most important protections needed by responsible self-authors are those that empower individuals to act and to make decisions about the economic aspects of their lives. (Tomasi, 2012a: 79–80) Economic liberties expand the sphere of decisions where persons decide on their own what types of lives to lead. By narrowing the sphere in which persons are subjected to democratic authority, the sphere of responsible self-authorship is expanded: For many people, independent economic activity is an essential, ongoing part of a well-lived life. This is why market democracy sees private economic liberty as a requirement of political autonomy. For many productive citizens, it is not enough merely to know that the ones they love live well. It is also important to such people that they be the visible cause of that state of affairs. (Tomasi, 2012a: 183–184) Tomasi illustrates the value of the economic liberties for expanding the sphere of selfdetermination by contrasting a European ''social democratic'' model that restricts economic liberties to provide a social safety net with an idealized American ''market democratic'' model where economic liberties are basic rights. According to Tomasi, the European model undermines the responsible self-authorship of citizens: ''by insulating people from economic risks, the European model denies ordinary citizens opportunities to feel the special sense that they have done something genuinely important with their lives. The material benefits of social democracies come with a moral opportunity cost.'' (Tomasi, 2012a: 80). Borrowing an example from Murray (2009), Tomasi imagines a janitor that supports her family to draw out the difference: in the American system of economic liberty the janitor should experience self-respect and be respected by the community; in the European system, the bases of (self-)respect are absent: ''If those same persons lived under a system in which they were heavily insulated from economic risks [ . . . ] then that status goes away [ . . . ] The experience of risk seems to be an essential precondition of the sort of self-respect that liberals value.'' (Tomasi, 2012a: 80). Platz 13 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from I am not sure that Tomasi's contrast is fortunate. Tomasi suggests that the European janitor is less of a responsible self-author than an American janitor, since she faces a lesser risk of social disaster. However, it is unclear why we should accept the assumption that there is less self-authorship involved in pursuing one's conception of the good in the absence than in the presence of risk of social disaster. Moreover, risks materialize, so the American janitor might succeed in providing for her family, but if she does so in a risky environment, presumably some other persons fail to provide for their families. If so, the argument implies that there in the American system are children that are not taken care of by their parents. I am not sure who will be taking care of them. In addition, I do not see why it is preferable to have a system where parents fail and the children are then helped rather than a system where parents are protected from failing. More to the point, perhaps, Tomasi's argument that the economic liberties of transaction and using property are basic illustrates how he departs from Rawls's understanding of what it means to develop and exercise the two moral powers. Tomasi's argument works from an ideal of self-authorship, where the moral powers are developed and exercised to the extent that persons are the causes of how they fare in life, in control of the decisions by which they define and pursue their conception of the good life. The economic liberties are basic rights, because restricting the economic liberties limits the responsible self-authorship of persons. If this interpretation is correct, the disagreement between Rawls and Tomasi boils down to a disagreement about the nature of justice. Rawls tries to articulate the theory of justice best suited to the liberal democratic ideal of society as a system of social cooperation between free and equal citizens. Although Tomasi claims to work from the same ideal, his vision of the just society is the society that best guarantees for the members the resources and opportunities of responsible self-authorship consistent with equal opportunities for all. Or, the short version, Tomasi's first principle of justice is: promote responsible self-authorship.20 ''Promote responsible self-authorship'' is not a bad principle of justice – indeed, Kant and Mill can be said to affirm it. (Kant, 1996; Mill, 1989) However, it is not Rawls's. In addition, if I am right that this is a basic disagreement, then Tomasi's attempt to ground the economic liberties in Rawlsian assumptions and values has failed. In the end, then, I think that Tomasi's argument for why the economic liberties are basic rights is that restricting them hinders responsible self-authorship. Rawls would allow that this is a reason for not restricting them, but not that this shows that they are basic rights. To show that they are basic rights, we have to show that they are necessary for the adequate development of the moral powers. In the following section I look at this option. Economic liberties as requirements of democratic legitimacy I have defended two claims: first, that Tomasi's charge of unjustified exceptionalism relies on Rawls using a maximizing modality of the relation between moral powers and basic rights, whereas Rawls relies on a satisficing modality. Second I reconstructed what I think is Tomasi's argument for why we should go with the maximizing modality: that justice requires the conditions that best serve responsible self-authorship. I did not discuss this principle except to note that taking this principle as basic amounts to a rejection 14 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from of basic assumptions of Rawls's theory of justice, wherefore Tomasi cannot both rely on this principle and claim to work from assumptions that Rawls shares. So, the charge of unjustified exceptionalism fails. Tomasi might be unimpressed. True, he uses the vocabulary of maximizing when he says that a system with basic economic liberties would serve the ''full'',''more full'', or ''most full'' development and exercise of the moral powers and that a system that restricts the economic liberties ''diminishes'', ''stunts'', or ''truncates'' the development and exercise of the moral powers, but his position can be restated as satisficing, so that ''full'' means ''full enough'' or ''adequate to reach the threshold'', and ''diminishes'', ''truncates'', and so on means ''hinders the development and exercise of the moral powers to the degree that some citizens cannot reach the threshold''. Thus restated, the previous discussion leaves untouched Tomasi's charge of unjustified exceptionalism: the charge of unjustified exceptionalism is that the full range of economic liberties are as necessary as the other basic liberties for the adequate development and exercise of the two moral powers as Rawls understands them. I am not sure that the argument thus restated coheres with Tomasi's discussion of the moral powers and why we should care about their development and exercise that I outlined above. Leaving that aside, the restated charge of unjustified exceptionalism works if, firstly, Rawls provides insufficient reason for excluding the economic liberties from the list of basic rights, and, secondly, Tomasi shows that there are good Rawlsian reasons for including them. So, our first question is: Does Rawls provide a persuasive argument that the economic liberties are not necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the moral powers? The answer is that he does not. There is a troubling lacuna in Rawls's argument: Rawls does not show that all and only the liberties he includes on the list of basic rights belong there. Rawls exemplifies the argument for including a liberty on the list with discussions of liberty of conscience, freedom of speech, and the fair value of the political liberties. However, he does not provide similar arguments for the other liberties. Even worse, he provides no argument to the effect that other liberties are not on the list of basic rights. This lacuna is troubling, since the requirements of the first principle of justice and the legislation that can be enacted in pursuit of other social values vary dramatically with variations in the list of basic liberties. The problem is especially grave with regard to the economic liberties: leaving the economic liberties off the list of basic rights allows a comparatively wide sphere of legislative authority; including them on the list would, as neoclassical liberals argue, limit the reach of legislative authority. Can we construct an argument on behalf of Rawls? Samuel Freeman (2007a: 58; 2011: 30–35, 52–55) suggests the following argument: instituting the full range of economic liberties as basic rights would make it very hard for some members of society to achieve economic independence and enjoy income and wealth adequate to pursue a wide range of reasonable plans of life and so would make it hard or even impossible for some members of society to adequately develop their two moral powers. We should, therefore, only protect a narrow range of economic liberties as basic rights. Alas, Freeman's suggested argument slips between liberty and the worth of liberty and overlooks how economic liberties would belong in a scheme of basic rights. Platz 15 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from Firstly, Freeman's suggested argument can be restated as the claim that if we take the full range of economic liberties as basic, then the worth of liberties would be lessened for some members of society. Freeman does not give an argument for this claim, but it seems plausible that it will be harder to secure fair equality of opportunity in a system where the economic liberties are basic, since, for example, such a system would have limited authority to impose anti-discriminatory laws or tax inheritance and bequests. In addition, it might also be true that the least well off members would be less well off if there can be no regulation of minimum wage, working conditions, or mandatory schemes for health or retirement benefits. However, there is a problem with this argument: the scheme of basic rights is determined independently of considerations of the worth of this scheme. Whether the economic liberties are in the scheme of basic rights depends on whether they are necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the two moral powers, and this question is prior to and independent of questions about the worth of the scheme of liberties. If the neoclassical liberal argument is correct, we ought to secure the worth of the economic liberties as much as any other (non-political) basic liberty.21 Secondly, Freeman might reply that the problem is not merely that the worth of liberties is lessened if the full range of economic liberties are basic rights, but that their worth is lessened to the point where some members cannot adequately develop and exercise their moral powers. This suggestion is worrying: if some liberties are necessary for some members to adequately develop and exercise their moral powers, but protecting them would make it impossible for some members to develop and exercise their moral powers, then the situation is tragic; in that case it is impossible to provide a scheme of rights that is adequate for all. Fortunately, we do not have to embrace this conclusion. Freeman's claim is that ''[u]nregulated economic liberties render practically impossible many persons' adequate development of their moral powers'' (Freeman, 2007: 58), but no one suggested that the economic liberties should be unregulated. The challenge to Rawls is not that the economic liberties should be unregulated, but that they are basic and so should be regulated only for the sake of providing an adequate scheme of equal rights to all. Even if we take the economic liberties as basic rights they can and should be regulated when doing so is necessary to provide equally to all a scheme of rights adequate for the development and exercise of the moral powers. So, Freeman's suggested argument does not work. Alas, I am not sure I see a better alternative. Since Rawls does not provide an adequate argument that the economic liberties are not basic rights, the road is clear for Tomasi. So, our second question is: Does Tomasi offer an argument that the economic liberties are necessary for adequate development and exercise of the moral powers as Rawls understands them? The answer is yes, but it is not persuasive. Tomasi's argument is the following: treating citizens as free and equal requires respecting the liberal principle of legitimacy, that ''the use of political coercion is legitimate only if that coercion is conducted on the basis of principles that can be endorsed by the people subject to that coercion.'' (Tomasi, 2012a: 74). Citizens can only assess and endorse these principles if they are ''free to exercise and develop their two moral powers.'' (Tomasi, 2012a: 75). Since the basic liberties are the protections that are necessary to develop and exercise the two moral powers, it follows that the ''basic rights are requirements of democratic legitimacy.'' (Tomasi, 2012a: 75–76). 16 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from Tomasi then argues that the economic liberties are necessary to adequately develop and exercise the moral powers needed to assess and endorse the principles of political authority. It follows that taking the economic liberties as basic rights is a requirement of democratic legitimacy.22 Thus reconstructed, Tomasi's argument is not so much a rejection or revision of Rawls's assumptions, as it adds an apparently missing piece to these: where Rawls left it unclear what ties the basic rights to democratic legitimacy, Tomasi suggests that the basic rights are tied to democratic legitimacy via the idea that citizens must be capable of assessing and endorsing the laws to which they are subject. Moreover, the capacity to assess and endorse is plausibly constructed as a threshold concept, so this argument avoids the temptation to endorse a principle of maximizing responsible self-authorship. I do not think that Rawls understood the relation between moral powers, basic rights, and democratic legitimacy in terms of the powers of assessment and endorsement. However, Tomasi does not and need not claim that it is a correct interpretation. High-liberals are committed to the principle of legitimacy that Tomasi relies on, so if Tomasi shows that the economic liberties are necessary for democratic legitimacy in the suggested manner, then high-liberals should embrace the conclusion that the economic liberties are basic rights, no matter what Rawls did or might say about it. So, our question is whether the economic liberties are truly necessary for citizens to adequately assess and endorse the laws of society. Unfortunately, I see no reason to agree that they are. The problem can be presented as a dilemma: either Tomasi claims that the basic rights are all and only those rights grounded in democratic legitimacy, because they are necessary to develop the powers to assess and endorse the laws of society, or he claims that some basic rights are grounded in democratic legitimacy in the suggested manner, while others have a different grounding. The first claim is implausible. The reason we care about freedom of religion, the integrity of the person, or the right to choose whom to marry is not that these rights protect activities necessary to assess and endorse the laws of society, but that they protect activities that are necessary to freely develop and pursue a conception of the good. In addition, the reason we care about the capacity to develop and pursue a determinate conception of the good is that we care about having and pursuing a determinate conception of the good – not because developing it is necessary to assess and endorse the laws of society. The second claim is more plausible, but it does not support the needed conclusion: the political rights, freedom of speech, and whatever rights necessary to protect these are feasibly constructed as requirements of democratic legitimacy in the sense suggested by Tomasi. So, we might welcome Tomasi's suggestion as an elaboration of why we should protect the liberties immediately or mediately grounded in the sense of justice. Yet, it is a strange stretch to ground the economic liberties – the liberties of the person as laborer, producer, owner, and entrepreneur – in the sense of justice. Freedom of contract, rights of ownership, and so on are like freedom of religion and the integrity of the person in that they protect activities that are part of the development and exercise of the conception of the good. More concretely, I do not see how legislating a minimum wage, mandating savings for retirement, or taxing inheritance and bequest for the sake of securing equality of opportunity can be construed as truncating or stunting the capacity of citizens to assess and endorse the laws of society. In short, the activities of economic agency are part of our development and exercise of Platz 17 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from the capacity for a conception of the good and are, as such, not well grounded in the powers of assessment and endorsement needed to secure democratic legitimacy. So, I do not think that the reconstructed argument from democratic legitimacy to the conclusion that the economic liberties are basic rights works. If the economic liberties are basic rights, it is because protecting them is mediately or immediately necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the moral power that is a capacity for a conception of the good. The result of this section is a sort of stalemate. Rawls provides insufficient reason that the economic liberties are not basic rights. Tomasi provides insufficient reason that they are basic rights. Even so, there is a constructive outcome of this section in that we have identified the main question: whether the economic liberties are basic rights will depend on whether the activities of economic agency are mediately or immediately necessary for the adequate development or exercise of the capacity for a conception of the good. How to answer that question is a topic for another essay. Conclusion I have discussed a powerful challenge to high-liberalism: the neoclassical liberal challenge that the high-liberal ideals of democracy and democratic citizenship support the conclusion that the full range of economic liberties are basic rights. To discuss this challenge, I presented and assessed Tomasi's charge that Rawls engages in unjustified exceptionalism, since the full range economic liberties are as necessary as the other basic rights for the development and exercise of the powers of moral personality. I showed how Tomasi's argument relies on a mischaracterization of the modality of the relation between moral powers, liberties, and basic rights: where Tomasi relies on a maximizing relation, Rawls's argument relies on a satisficing relation. I further indicated that Tomasi's argument could be defended by the principle that institutions are just to the extent that they protect and promote responsible self-authorship, but that this principle departs from the high-liberal view of justice. I then discussed and found wanting Tomasi's attempt to tie ground economic liberties in the principle of democratic legitimacy. I also acknowledged that Rawls offers no satisfactory argument for his claim that the economic liberties are not basic. So, although Tomasi fails to show that the economic liberties are basic rights, Rawls fails to show that the economic liberties are not basic rights. Two further conclusions are suggested by the argument of this essay. First, that if we want to ground the basic rights in the powers of moral personality, then we should work with a satisficing interpretation of the relation between moral powers and basic rights. Secondly, that the question about whether the economic liberties are basic rights should be restated in terms of the relation between the economic liberties and the adequate development of the capacity for a conception of the good; the test of whether the economic liberties are basic rights is whether these liberties are necessary for the adequate development and exercise of the capacity for a conception of the good. The burden of proof is on neoclassical liberals to establish this claim and they have yet to carry this burden. Thus, although high-liberalism is in a precarious situation, it is not yet undone by the neoclassical liberal challenge. 18 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from Acknowledgements I am grateful to Corey Brettschneider, David Estlund, Samuel Freeman, Alex Gourevitch, Javier Hidalgo, Sharon Krause, Ryan Muldoon, Doug Paletta, John Tomasi, Kevin Vallier and to the members of the Political Philosophy Workshop at Brown University for comments on earlier drafts of this essay. I am especially grateful to John Tomasi though critical, I hope this essay also shows my respect and admiration for John and his work. Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Notes 1. I owe this way of drawing the distinction between classical liberalism, high-liberalism, and libertarianism to Samuel Freeman (2005, see Tomasi and Brennan, 2012). 2. Varieties of libertarianism are provided by Nozick (1974), Narveson (1988), and Rothbard (2006). 3. Adam Smith (1982), Hayek (1978), Epstein (1998), and Friedman (2002) offer varieties of classical liberalism. 4. High-liberals include Rawls (1996, 1999), Nagel (1991), Scheffler (2010), Joshua Cohen (2010), and Samuel Freeman (2007b). 5. Neoclassical liberalism is a relatively new movement. Amongst its members I would include Gaus, Tomasi, Brennan, and Nickel. Nickel (2000) was one of the first to defend economic liberties along neoclassical lines. More systematic defenses of neoclassical liberalism are offered by Gaus (2007, 2010a, 2010b) and Tomasi (2012a, 2012b). 6. Thus, Anatole France's famous quip: ''How noble the law, in its majestic equality, that both the rich and poor are equally prohibited from peeing in the streets, sleeping under bridges, and stealing bread!'' 7. Suggested by passages like this one: ''Taking the two principles together, the basic structure is to be arranged to maximize the worth to the least advantaged of the complete scheme of equal liberty shared by all. This defines the end of social justice.'' (Rawls, 1999: 179). 8. Which explains why Rawls sometimes omits ''full'' (e.g. Rawls, 2001b: 366). 9. An additional wrinkle is that the conjunction in ''development and exercise'' is really an inclusive disjunct, so that a liberty is a basic right if it is necessary for the adequate development or exercise of either of the two moral powers. This wrinkle does not affect the argument of this essay. 10. At times Rawls includes freedom of movement as one of the liberties justified in the second manner, but at times he places it outside of the category of basic rights (e.g. 1996: 228). 11. Notably, most often free choice of occupation is not included amongst the basic liberties in the list of primary goods (cf. Rawls, 1996: 181, 308; 2001b: 362). 12. Tomasi also defends these institutional schemes in light of different interpretations of the second principle, but I cannot in this essay go into this part of Tomasi's argument. 13. Tomasi at times restricts the charge to economic liberties, so that ''the same reasons that highliberals offer in support of their preferred economic liberties apply with at least as much force to the aspects of economic freedom they wish to exclude.'' (2012a: 76). Platz 19 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from 14. Rawls (2012a: 98), my emphasis. There are exceptions, for example: ''Even if people in such a society acquiesced to these restrictions on their liberty, they would not be in position to endorse the rules of their society in anything like a full or robust manner. Freedom of labor, and to use labor in production, is an essential aspect of a social world that encourages citizens to develop and exercise their moral powers of responsible self-authorship.'' (2012a: 77–78; my emphasis). 15. Note also that the right to own personal property and freedom of occupation are not always included in the list of basic liberties, indeed, in ''Kantian Constructivism'' and in ''Social Unity and Primary Goods'' Rawls places free choice of occupation together with freedom of movement in a distinct category of primary goods (2001b: 362, 366; 2001c: 313–314; see also Rawls, 1996: 227–230). 16. This clarifies the statement made in A Theory of Justice that ''these rights are assigned to fulfill the principles of cooperation that citizens would acknowledge when each is fairly represented as a moral person. The conception defined by these principles is not that of maximizing anything, except in the vacuous sense of best meeting the requirements of justice, all things considered.'' (Rawls, 1999: 185rev.). 17. This claim simplifies Rawls's argument and disregards how his ideas developed via Kantian constructivism. In Kantian constructivism, the development of the two moral powers is in the highest-order interests of persons and is seen as such by the parties in the original position (cf. 2001b: 365; 2001c: 312–313; see also Rawls, 1996: 73–74). 18. The capacities of responsible self-authorship are, firstly, corresponding to Rawls's conception of the good, the capacity: to assess one's options, set standards for a way of life one finds worth living, and pursue this way of life; secondly, corresponding to Rawls's sense of justice, the moral power to recognize and respect one's fellow citizens as equal self-authors (cf. Tomasi, 2012a: 40–41, 74–75; 2012b: 65–66). 19. In other words, for Rawls what matters from the standpoint of justice is that the moral powers are realized to some threshold level whereas for Tomasi what matters is the degree to which persons are responsible self-authors – compare the discussion of the basis of equality in A Theory of Justice, section 77. 20. I am inclined to think that ''responsible'' does little work here, since interpersonal consistency is implied by maximization, but there is an aggregation/distribution wrinkle that I do not want to iron here. 21. Another problem is that Freeman's argument relies on the possibility of ranking the worth of different schemes of liberty: the claim is that the scheme that includes economic liberties is of significantly lesser worth than those that do not include them. However, it seems conceptually confused to rank the worth of different schemes of liberties. The worth of a scheme of liberty varies according to the means available to the members of society. However, worth is always the worth of one particular scheme of liberties and so cannot be compared with the worth of another scheme. 22. In conversations, Tomasi has suggested that this is his main argument. The centrality of assessment and endorsement is brought out more clearly in Tomasi's ''Democratic Legitimacy and Economic Liberty'' than in Free Market Fairness. References Brettschneider C (2010) Democratic Rights: The Substance of Self-Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 20 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from Cohen J (2010) The Arc of the Moral Universe and Other Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Epstein RA (1998) Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good. Reading, MA: Perseus Books. Freeman S (2005) ''Illiberal Libertarians: Why Libertarianism Is Not a Liberal View''. Philosophy and Public Affairs 30(2): 105–151. Freeman S (2007a) Rawls. London: Routledge. Freeman S (2007b) Justice and the Social Contract. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Freeman S (2011) ''Capitalism in the Classical and High-liberal Traditions''. Social Philosophy & Policy 28 (2): 19–55. Friedman M (2002) Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Gaus J (2010) The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gaus J (2007) ''On Justifying the Rights of the Moderns: A Case of Old Wine in New Bottles''. Social Philosophy & Policy 24: 84–119 Gaus J (2010b) ''Coercion, Ownership, and the Redistributive State: Justificatory Liberalism's Classical Tilt''. Social Philosophy & Policy 27 (1): 233–275. Hart HLA (1973) ''Rawls on Liberty and its Priority''. The University of Chicago Law Review 40 (3): 534–555. Hayek FA (1978) The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Kant I (1996) The Metaphysics of Morals. Gregor M. transl and ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mill JS On Liberty and Other Writings. Collini S. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Murray C (2009) ''The Happiness of the People''. Speech given at the American Enterprise Institute, 11 March, 2009. Nagel T (1999) Equality and Partiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Narveson J (1988) The Libertarian Idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Nickel J (2000) ''Economic Liberties''. In Davion V. and Wolf C. (eds.) The Idea of Political Liberalism: Essays on Rawls. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Nozick R (1974) Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books. Rawls J (1971) A Theory of Justice.Cambridge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Rawls J (1999) A Theory of Justice Revised Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Rawls J (1996) Political Liberalism: Second Paperback Edition. New York: Columbia University Press. Rawls J (2001a) Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Rawls J (2001b) ''Social Unity and Primary Goods''. In Freeman S (ed.) John Rawls: Collected Papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Rawls J (2001c) ''Kantian Constructivism''. In Freeman S (ed.) John Rawls: Collected Papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Rothbard MN (2011) For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. Scheffler S (2010) Equality & Tradition: Questions of Value in Moral and Political Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Smith A (1982) An Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, in 2 vols. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc. Platz 21 at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from Tomasi J and Brennan J (2012) ''Classical Liberalism''. In Estlund D (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tomasi J (2012a) Free Market Fairness. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Tomasi J (2012b) ''Democratic Legitimacy and Economic Liberty''. Social Philosophy and Policy 29 (1): 50–80. About the author Jeppe von Platz has a PhD in Philosophy from University of Pennsylvania. He is now Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Suffolk University in Boston. Before he went to Suffolk he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Political Theory Project at Brown University. 22 Politics, Philosophy & Economics at SUFFOLK UNIV on April 23, 2013ppe.sagepub.comDownloaded from | {
"pile_set_name": "PhilPapers"
} |
Full Moon Kailash Mansarovar Yatra: What to Expect
Life beyond human form is what you feel when you reach Kailash Mansarovar passing through explicit terrains, imperial environments and fascinating vibes. The journey entices one to such a core that the strenuous climb seems a piece of cake if one is in a complete trance state to reach an altitude not achievable by many.
The journey will introduce you to key attractions; a sacred Parikrama around the Mount Kailash and a holy dip in Mansarovar Lake. You will also get a chance to admire the splendorous of the blue lake Pieko-Tso and Yarlung Zangpo. Another major attraction of the yatra is Yama Dwar, the gates of the lord of death. It is a place of great religious and mythological significance. Also, the distinct four sides of Mt Kailash resemble the cardinal points of the compass. Both geography and mythology combine to lend the Mount Kailash, a charm of its own.
Holy Lake Mansarovar
When we think of Mount Kailash, all that comes to the mind is a spiritual journey to the abode of God Shiva. For sure there is no shrine but you can definitely meet the divine. The place is invariably sacred to Hindus as it is to Jains, Bons and Buddhists. Kailash Mansarovar is to these faiths as Mecca is to Islam. However, one must believe that Kailash is the seat of all spiritual power and if you truly believe it nothing will surpass your devotion.
What’s unique about full moon on Mt. Kailash?
Mt. Kailash in all its might and divinity
Standing in high spirits at 22,000 feet, Mount Kailash on a full moon night is just majestic. It is said a dip in Lake Mansarovar at the night of new moon washes away the sins of current and past 100 lives. Feel the spiritual powers around while you circumambulate the lake in a ring on full moon night. Wash away sins of seven past lifetimes with a Parikrama while 108 Parikramas provide eternal oblivion or Moksha or Nirvana. Watch the stunning super moon over Mount Kailash and its imagery reflected on the Mansarovar lake; one of the most picturesque view on the yatra.
Many stories revolve around the significance of full phase of moon on the lands of Lord Shiva. The call for Full Moon Kailash Yatra 2019 is to be a part of sheer spiritual energy that the natural surroundings of Kailash region emanate. One such story reveals that Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati come alive on full moon night. Numerous devotees flock to the lake for this magical moment, but only a human of pure heart will be able to see it. Pilgrims who have seen it can’t believe their eyes. As on full moon there is an abundance of energy and spirituality around the lake. It seems as if the moon god itself want to come down and pay tribute to the divine Shiva.
Lake Mansarovar is considered sacred as Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati are believed to have a bath in his lake. The lake washes away your sins if you believe in the powers of holy water of the sacred lake. The best time to bathe is between 3-5 am as it is the time of gods. On a full moon night many pilgrims have visually seen the god and Goddess taking a holy dip. They have also seen the holy water getting dispersed just like when a human takes a holy dip. The entire night boasts of exceptional beauty that varies from spiritual godly vibes to.
What will you call such stories, a complete myth or faith? Whatever it is if you want to see heaven while on earth, Kailash Mansarovar Yatra on a full Moon night will make you believe you lived a day in heaven. “If you can really be with Kailash even for a few moments, life will never again be the same for you. It is a phenomenon beyond all human imagination.” – Sadhguru
About Author
Resham Bhatia
Resham likes to call herself a humanist and a global citizen. She is an avid foodie, loves to travel, and is a mountain aficionado. In her free time, she cooks desserts, reads travel magazines and dances to her own tunes. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Our Mission is to Become The Best Service Company in The World.
Our Mission
Our mission is to help our clients make distinctive, lasting, and substantial improvements in their performance and to build a great firm that attracts, develops, excites, and retains exceptional people.
We believe we will be successful if our clients are successful.
Solving the hardest problems requires the best people. We think that the best people will be drawn to the opportunity to work on the hardest problems. We build our firm around that belief. These two parts of our mission reinforce each other and make our firm strong and enduring.
Core Values
We are a values-driven organization. Our values reflect the thinking of our founder, John Doe Learn about History
Join us in celebrating customer successes made possible by ReposiTrak. From success stories to videos, this is where you'll find all the latest ReposiTrak Speed Retail Platform innovations at work. Be our next success story! | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
162 Wis.2d 73 (1991)
469 N.W.2d 629
Massoud MALEKI, M.D., Plaintiff-Respondent-Petitioner,
v.
FINE-LANDO CLINIC CHARTERED, S.C., Defendant-Appellant,
Eddy D. CO, M.D., Defendant-Co-Appellant.
No. 88-2027.
Supreme Court of Wisconsin.
Argued January 24, 1991.
May 23, 1991.
*76 For the plaintiff-respondent-petitioner there were briefs by Adrian N. Cohen, Mark M. Leitner and Charne, Clancy & Taitelman, S.C. and Donald J. Jacquart and Richard H. Hart, all of Milwaukee and oral argument by Mr. Jacquart.
For the defendant-appellant there was a brief by David H. Hutchinson and Machulak & Hutchinson and David J. Cannon, Kevin P. Reak and Michael, Best & Friedrich, all of Milwaukee and oral argument by Mr. Cannon.
For the defendant-co-appellant there was a brief by Thomas J. Binder and Otjen, Van Ert, Stangle, Lieb & Weir, S.C., Milwaukee and oral argument by Mr. Binder.
HEFFERNAN, CHIEF JUSTICE.
This is a review of a decision[1] of the court of appeals reversing the judgment of the circuit court for Milwaukee county, Patricia S. Curley, Judge, that held that Fine-Lando Clinic and Dr. Eddy D. Co were liable to Dr. Massoud Maleki for damages allegedly caused by a conspiracy between Fine-Lando and Dr. Co. We affirm because there is insufficient evidence to support the existence of a necessary element of a civil conspiracy, that the parties to the conspiracy acted "maliciously." Specifically, there is no evidence sufficient in law to support a finding that Dr. Co acted maliciously, as that term is defined in the context of a civil conspiracy.
The claimed conspiracy arose when Fine-Lando, through its agents or employees, allegedly suggested to Maleki, an invasive cardiologist surgeon, that a condition of continued surgical referrals from Fine-Lando, a multi-specialty clinic with at least some emphasis on cardiology, would be dependent upon Maleki's entering *77 into an agreement to share fees with Fine-Lando. Maleki refused to enter into such agreement, telling the representative of Fine-Lando that he considered the proposed arrangement to be fee-splitting, prohibited by sec. 448.08(1), Stats.[2] Thereafter, Maleki testified, his referrals from Fine-Lando dropped to zero. Maleki later learned that Co entered into an agreement with Fine-Lando similar to the one proposed to Maleki and commenced receiving a large number of surgical referrals from the Fine-Lando Clinic.
Maleki commenced an action in the Milwaukee county circuit court alleging that he was the victim of a conspiracy between Fine-Lando Clinic and Co in violation of sec. 134.01, Stats.[3] Although other allegations of restraint of trade were asserted, all except the action brought under sec. 134.01 were abandoned or dismissed at the trial level. On this review, only the cause of action arising under sec. 134.01 is at issue,[4] and only sec. 134.01 *78 was considered by the court of appeals in reaching its decision.
The following facts pertinent to this review were adduced at trial:
Maleki testified that, in 1976, Doctor Tabet, an officer of Fine-Lando, approached him and asked him to practice cardiology at Trinity Hospital, which was located near the Fine-Lando Clinic. Maleki stated that he first declined, because it would limit the exercise of his staff privileges at other hospitals, but Maleki asserted that Tabet said Fine-Lando would be supportive of Maleki's practices. This latter statement was denied by Tabet. Maleki did, however, accept Tabet's suggestion and his application for staff privileges at Trinity Hospital as an invasive cardiologist was accepted in early 1978, and he immediately commenced performing surgical procedures, apparently on referrals from Fine-Lando.[5]
*79 It was in 1981, Maleki testified, that a partner in Fine-Lando, Dr. Ali Tavaf, stated that, if referrals were to continue, Maleki would have to agree to pay a percentage of the fees earned to Fine-Lando. It was this proposition that was refused, because Maleki considered it an illegal fee-splitting arrangement. While witnesses for Fine-Lando denied that this offer was ever made, Maleki testified it was soon thereafter the diminution of referrals from Fine-Lando commenced. There was also testimony that two patients at Fine-Lando were discouraged from having procedures performed by Maleki. One invasive cardiologist stated that he was told by a Fine-Lando physician not to use Maleki for angioplasty. Two Fine-Lando physicians testified that they continued to refer patients to Maleki for procedures to be performed at hospitals other than Trinity.
The other party to the alleged conspiracy, as the proof developed at trial, was asserted by Maleki to be Dr. Eddy Co, an invasive cardiologist who had staff privileges at Trinity since 1976, a couple years before Maleki became a member of the staff.
Maleki testified that he suspected "that there was some kind of arrangements [sic] made between Dr. Co and Fine-Lando." There was evidence adduced at trial that Co had entered into an agreement with Fine-Lando similar to the one Maleki said he had rejected.
When Maleki was asked why he believed Co contracted with Fine-Lando, he stated that it was to make money and to eliminate competition. He stated that he did not believe that Co had any animosity toward him but he did think Co bore him "ill will." This testimony was contrary to a pre-trial deposition that was placed before the jury in which Maleki concluded that neither *80 Fine-Lando nor Co had any animosity or ill will in respect to him.
The upshot of this testimony at the circuit court level was submission to the jury of two questions, both based upon provisions of sec. 134.01, Stats. The court of appeals correctly concluded that these questions mirrored the protections afforded by sec. 134.01.
The first question addressed to the jury was:
Did both defendants, Fine-Lando Clinic and Dr. Eddy Co, combine, associate, agree, mutually undertake, or conspire for the purpose of willfully or maliciously injuring Dr. Maleki's trade or business?
The jury answered this first question "No." The second question asked:
Did both defendants, Fine-Lando Clinic and Dr. Eddy Co, combine, associate, agree, mutually undertake, or conspire to maliciously prevent or hinder Dr. Maleki from doing or performing any cardiac procedures?
The jury answered this question "Yes."
The jury awarded $331,833 in compensatory damages and $510,000 in punitive damages. The verdict and damage awards were approved by Judge Patricia Curley. Appeal was taken from the judgment subsequently entered. The court of appeals reversed, saying:
[W]e limit our discussion to the dispositive issue: whether Fine-Lando and Co's actions, as established by the evidence evaluated in a light most favorable to Maleki . . . support the jury's answer to the second question.
Id at 480.
However, the court of appeals limited its evidentiary inquiry to whether there was evidence that Fine-Lando *81 stopped making referrals to Maleki because Maleki refused to enter into a fee-splitting arrangement. It found, because there was some evidence to support that conclusion, the only question was whether the conduct of Fine-Lando created a cause of action. It concluded it did not, because Maleki "ha[d] not demonstrated any legal right to an unremitting stream of referrals from Fine-Lando, termination of those referrals, even if it was to further Fine-Lando's arrangement with Co, does not subject Fine-Lando and Co to liability under sec. 134.01, Stats." Id. at 485-86.
Thus, the court of appeals reversed the circuit court on the theory that there can be no liability unless the conspiracy interfered with Maleki's independent right, and held that, because Maleki had no contractual right to the flow of referrals, he, therefore, could not be damaged by a conspiracy that eliminated those referrals.
[1]
We agree with the court of appeals decision that the judgment of the circuit court awarding damages to Maleki must be reversed, first, because the jury answers to Question One and Question Two are inconsistent and, second and more importantly, that evidence of malice, which must be found in respect to both conspirators, is lacking in respect to Co.[6] Also, we concludealthough this conclusion is not necessary to the resolution of this reviewthat the court of appeals erred when it relied upon a principle not recognized in Wisconsin that there *82 can be no recovery for conspiracy unless an independent right is invaded. Contrary to the assertion of the court of appeals that sec. 134.01, Stats., "is not a petri dish in which we may culture new `rights' absent legislative action" (Id. at 483), the clear legislative intent of sec. 134.01 is that the right protected by the legislative action is not to be damaged in any respect by conspiratorial conduct. The question is: Was the plaintiff damaged by a conspiracy? Wisconsin law is devoid of a legal premise that would support the ratio decedendi of the court of appeals. The review sought in this court by Maleki is premised upon his correct assertion that the plaintiff does not have to demonstrate an independent legal right for there to be civil liability under sec. 134.01. Nevertheless, we are obliged on other grounds to affirm the court of appeals decision to reverse the trial court judgment in favor of Maleki.
We conclude that the verdict questions resulted in inconsistent answers. The answer to the first being unfavorable to the plaintiff, and the answer to the second being favorable. We conclude, however, that the evidence was insufficient to support an affirmative answer to either question and, therefore, the judgment of the trial court must be reversed.
The first question, to which the jury answered "no," was:
Did both defendants, Fine-Lando Clinic and Dr. Eddy Co, combine, associate, agree, mutually undertake, or conspire for the purpose of willfully or maliciously injuring Dr. Maleki's trade or business?
The jury answered "yes" to the question:
Did both defendants, Fine-Lando Clinic and Dr. Eddy Co, combine, associate, agree, mutually undertake, or conspire to maliciously prevent or hinder Dr. *83 Maleki from doing or performing any cardiac procedures?
From the facts recited above, it is undisputably apparent that Maleki's "trade or business" was doing or performing cardiac procedures. The answer to Question Two is therefore inconsistent with the answer given to Question One.
As this court said in Fondell v. Lucky Stores, Inc., 85 Wis. 2d 220, 228, 270 N.W.2d 205 (1978), "An inconsistent verdict is a term of art used in describing jury answers which are logically repugnant to one another."
In Westfall v. Kottke, 110 Wis. 2d 86, 328 N.W.2d 481 (1983), we held that, initially, it was the duty of a trial judge to carefully consider a returned verdict to ascertain the possibility of inconsistency and, if inconsistency is discovered, to return the verdict immediately to the jury for reconsideration. We said that, in the event there were not a timely reconsideration by the jury, there must be a new trial. Westfall at 98.
[2]
In the instant case, however, it appears to this court that there is no necessity of a remand, for it is apparent, as a matter of law, that the jury, properly instructed, could not have answered affirmatively to either question.[7]
We conclude that neither question as a matter of law is susceptible to an affirmative answer, because there is insufficient evidence of malice on the part of Co.
The court of appeals used an oft-repeated and almost always correct standard of review for sufficiency *84 of evidencethat the evidence should be evaluated in a light most favorable to the verdict. See Rule 805.14(1), Stats.[8] It used this test to conclude that there was sufficient evidence that Fine-Lando stopped making referrals to Maleki because he refused the clinic's proposal to split fees.
While, in our analysis of the decision, that test appears to be correct as applied to the motive of Fine-Lando, whether or not Fine-Lando acted in a certain manner and for a certain purpose becomes inconsequential if there is not evidence sufficient to support the elements of conspiracy, in this case, in respect to both of the alleged conspirators.
[3]
While inferences reasonably drawn are appropriate bases for unassailable findings of fact in most cases, and the acceptance of one inference rather than another by the jury is generally a sufficient finding of fact (see St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Burchard, 25 Wis. 2d 288, 130 N.W.2d 866 (1964), and Currie & Heffernan, Wisconsin Appellate Practice and Procedure, pp. 36-7, 1975 Wis. Bar ATS), Wisconsin law in respect to conspiracies imposes a more stringent test. To prove a conspiracy, a plaintiff must show more than a mere suspicion or conjecture that there was a conspiracy or that there was evidence of the elements of a conspiracy. The *85 United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, relying on Wisconsin cases, recently stated:
In Wisconsin, if circumstantial evidence supports equal inferences of lawful action and unlawful action, then the claim of conspiracy [under sec. 134.01, Stats.] is not proven. See Scheit v. Duffy, 248 Wis. 174, 176, 21 N.W. 2d 257 (1946).
Allen & O'Hara, Inc. v. Barrett Wrecking, Inc., 898 F.2d 512 (7th Cir. 1990).
Scheit points out that, in such circumstances, the matter at issue should not be submitted to the jury.
[4]
Thus, it appears that in Wisconsin the credible evidence that is sufficient to sustain a jury verdict of conspiracy must be of a quantum that the trial judge can conclude leads to a reasonable inference of conspiracy. If not, it should not be submitted to a jury at all.
Allen & O'Hara arises out of facts analogous to those put before the court in the instant case. In Allen & O'Hara, at or about the same time Allen & O'Hara's contract was cancelled, one alleged to be a party to the conspiracy entered into a contract with another alleged conspirator. It was held that the circumstances did not provide evidence probative "that the conspirators acted with the specific, malicious purpose of injuring the plaintiff" (Id. at 516) required by Wisconsin law.
The specific element of the conspiracy action that is evidentially insufficient in the present case is the element of malice on the part of Co.
Section 134.01, Stats., provides:
134.01 Injury to business; restraint of will. Any 2 or more persons who shall combine, associate, agree, mutually undertake or concert together for the purpose of wilfully or maliciously injuring another in *86 his reputation, trade, business or profession by any means whatever, or for the purpose of maliciously compelling another to do or perform any act against his will, or preventing or hindering another from doing or performing any lawful act shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year or by fine not exceeding $500.
Both categories of sec. 134.01, Stats., require malice. The words of the legislature in the first portion of the statute are "for the purpose of wilfully or maliciously injuring," and in the second portion of the statute "for the purpose of maliciously compelling . . . or preventing" another from a lawful act.
[5]
Thus, malice is an integral element that must be proved in respect to either portion of the statute and must be proved in respect to both parties to the conspiracy. There can be no conspiracy if malice is not found in respect to both conspirators. Allen & O'Hara, supra at 516. Thus, there can be no recovery on either Question One or Question Two submitted to the jury if there is no evidence that both of the alleged conspirators were guilty of malice. We conclude that there was insufficient evidence of malicious intent to harm Maleki to sustain any verdict on either Question One or Question Two.
[6]
For conduct to be malicious under conspiracy law it must be conduct intended to cause harm for harm's sake.
In Wisconsin a civil conspiracy is defined "as a combination of two or more persons by some concerted action to accomplish some unlawful purpose or to accomplish by unlawful means some purpose not in itself unlawful." Radue v. Dill 74 Wis.2d 239, 241, 246 N.W.2d 507 (1976).
*87 [7]
Radue, relying on earlier cases, points out that the conspiracy alone, unlike a situation where there is a criminal conspiracy, is not the unique jural act that gives rise to a remedy. In civil conspiracy, the essence of the action is the damages that arise out of the conspiracy, not the conspiracy itself. See Singer v. Singer, 245 Wis. 191, 195, 14 N.W.2d 43 (1944).
A convenient starting point on the meaning of "maliciously," as used in sec. 134.01, Stats., is State ex rel. Durner v. Huegin, 110 Wis. 189, 85 N.W. 1046 (1901), and the associated case that went to the United States Supreme Court sub nominee, Aikens v. Wisconsin, 195 U.S. 194 (1904). In Huegin, the Wisconsin Supreme Court said:
`Malice,' as here used, does not merely mean an intent to harm, but means an intent to do a wrongful harm and injury. An intent to do a wrongful harm and injury is unlawful, and if a wrongful act is done to the detriment of the right of another, it is malicious; and an act maliciously done, with the intent and purpose of injuring another, is not lawful competition.[9]
Id. at 260.
On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., speaking for the Court, thus spoke of the element of malice in Wisconsin's conspiracy statute:
We interpret `maliciously injuring' to import doing a harm malevolently for the sake of the harm *88 as an end in itself, and not merely as a means to some further end legitimately desired [such as hurting someone else's business by competition].
195 U.S. at 203.
Justice Winslow, writing for this court in Hawarden v. The Youghiogheny & Lehigh Coal Co., 111 Wis. 545, 550, 87 N.W. 472 (1901), said:
[P]ersons have a right to combine together for the purpose of promoting their individual welfare in any legitimate way, but where the purpose of the organization is to inflict injury on another, and injury results, a wrong is committed upon such other; and this is so notwithstanding such purpose, if formed and executed by an individual, would not be actionable.
Justice Winslow goes on to state that, while an individual can ruin another's business through malicious motives, there is no actionable redress, but if there is a combination of persons and they act, even in part as the result of malicious motives and cause the harm, the injury to another is actionable.
[8]
It is apparent then that whatever other evidence is produced, an essential element of the cause of action is the malicious motive of the conspirators sought to be charged. We do not pursue the facts that may or may not lead to the conclusion that Fine-Lando was or was not actuated by malice. We need not do so, for the fact that there is no evidence of Co's malice is obvious.
Five types or items of evidence have been offered by Maleki to demonstrate that Co acted maliciously to injure him in concert with Fine-Lando. We find none of them or all of them combined to be more than marginally or speculatively probative of malice.
*89 Maleki refers to the "fee splitting" agreement itself, which without doubt was agreed upon by Fine-Lando and Co. But fee-splitting prohibitions are designed to protect the public and not individual physicians. See 3 Op. Att'y Gen. 218, 219 (1914). There is no evidence that the agreement between Fine-Lando and Co was for the purpose of malevolently causing injury to Maleki. To the contrary, the clear motive was to enhance profits for Fine-Lando and Co. Maleki did not assert malice on the part of Co. He asserted the profit motive as reason for Co's actions and only marginally and contradictorily did he even ascribe any ill will or animosity toward him on the part of Co. Ascriptions of attitude even if true fall short of being evidence of malicious action or conduct.
Maleki also points to the fact that, after the fee-splitting proposal was rejected by him, the referrals from Fine-Lando soon fell off to zero. While this sequence of events might marginally point to some vindictiveness on the part of Fine-Lando, it does not even purport to implicate Co's motives. Indeed, it appears to be mere evidence of Fine-Lando's legitimate unwillingness to deal with Maleki solely on the basis of business advantage and has little probative value of malice even in respect to Fine-Lando. The important point is that the episode is irrelevant in respect to Co's motives. Interestingly enough, at or about the same time Co allegedly was acting maliciously in respect to Maleki, he actively promoted Maleki's election to membership in the catheterization laboratory at Trinity Hospital, conduct that one could reasonably infer would not be intended to injure Maleki, but on the contrary to promote his professional interests.
There was also testimony of a Doctor Rogers that a Fine-Lando physician, whom he refused to name, told Rogers not to use Maleki for angioplasty procedures. *90 This evidence, tenuous at best in regard to Fine-Lando, is completely irrelevant in respect to Co. There is no disagreement that Co was in no way associated with this direction to divert referrals from Maleki.
In addition, two Fine-Lando patients testified that they were steered away from using Maleki by Fine-Lando. Again, Co appears not to be implicated in this diversion.
Looking at the record as a whole, there is really no evidence that Co had any malicious intent to injure Maleki for the sake of injury. Even if the rule were not as correctly stated in Allen & O'Hara, there is no evidence of any malicious motive on the part of Co.
The rule in Allen & O'Hara points out that substantially equal inferences pointing to malice are insufficient to allow the question to go to the jury. Here, it would be stretching the probativeness of the evidence relied upon by Maleki to conclude that any reasonable inference whatsoever could arise that Co acted with malice. There simply was insufficient evidence to associate Co with a malicious conspiracy intended to cause hurt or injury to Maleki.
[9]
The inconsistent verdict demonstrates the jury's problems with the proof placed before it. While, as we have pointed out, the usual remedy where the jury verdicts are repugnant to each other and are inconsistent is to remand for a new trial, here the evidence adduced is insufficient to support either. The trial judge, under the state of the record, as a matter of law, should have dismissed Maleki's action on the basis of insufficient evidence. We are obliged to do so at this juncture and, accordingly, affirm the decision of the court of appeals reversing the judgment of the trial courtbut on the ground that, because there is insufficient evidence of *91 malice on the part of at least one alleged conspirator, Co, a statutory element has not been proved and, as a matter of law, there can be no sec. 134.01, Stats., conspiracy.
While the evidentiary question is dispositive, it was not the basis used by the court of appeals to reach the same result. The court of appeals mandated its reversal on the stated ground that:
Since Maleki had not demonstrated any legal right to an unremitting stream of referrals from Fine-Lando, termination of these referrals, even if it was to further Fine-Lando's arrangement with Co, does not subject Fine-Lando and Co to liability under sec. 134.01, Stats.
154 Wis.2d at 485-86.
We believe that this conclusion asserting that there be a prior independent right violates elementary principles of civil conspiracy law long recognized in Wisconsin.
Our determination that, under the evidence, Co did not act "willfully and maliciously"[10] in respect to Maleki requires the affirmance of the decision of the court of appeals on the ground that the evidence was insufficient.
The court of appeals, as we have stated, principally relied upon the theory that Maleki had no "right" to an "unremitting stream of referrals" from Fine-Lando. Hence, the reasoning of the court of appeals seems to be that, if Maleki suffered damage, it was a damage for which the law would offer no recourse, because he had no underlying cause of action or right to the referrals. The court of appeals bolsters this argument with the statement, "Maleki does not contend that the vague terms of *92 Tabet's alleged oral promise amounts to an enforceable contract." Id. at 483.
This is, of course, irrelevant. If the promise created an enforceable contract, there would be no purpose in alleging conspiracy. As this court stated in Radue v. Dill, 74 Wis.2d at 244, quoting with approval 1 Eddy, The Law of Combinations, p. 398, sec. 503 (1901):
`If the proposition is sound that a conspiracy to do certain acts gives a right of action only where the acts agreed to be done, and in fact done, would have involved a civil injury to the plaintiff regardless of any confederation, then the combination is entirely immaterial, and the entire law of civil conspiracy is a superfluous discussion.'
[10]
It is clear that, in the Wisconsin law of conspiracy, there is no requirement of a preexisting right, the breach of which would give rise to a cause of action.
[11]
In Radue we said, relying upon State ex rel. Durner v. Huegin, 110 Wis. 189, 258-59, 85 N.W. 1046 (1901), that this state has rejected the rule that, for a cause of action for conspiracy to lie, there must be an underlying conduct which would in itself be actionable.[11] Thus, for Maleki to prevail in this instance, assuming all elements of sec. 134.01, Stats., are proved, there is no requirement that he had a right to "an unremitting stream of referrals." If he did, his cause of action would be for breach of contract or tortious interference with a business relationship *93 and Fine-Lando and Co could be answerable as joint tortfeasors. It is because he does not have a right that is contractual in nature that an action for damages arising out of the conspiracy is appropriate.
Although the law has recently and definitively been stated in this respect in Radue, it is consistent with long-stated decisional law of this court. We cite only a few examples.
In Hawarden v. The Youghiogheny & Lehigh Coal Co., 111 Wis. 545, 87 N.W. 472 (1901), dock owners, wholesalers, and certain retailers conspired to deprive a particular retailer of a supply of coal for the malicious purpose of forcing that retailer out of business. A cause of action for the damages resulting from that conspiracy was recognized, although it was clear that the injured plaintiff had no right, contractual or otherwise, to an "unremitting" flow of coal. We said in that case at 550:
[W]here the purpose of the organization is to inflict injury on another, and injury results, a wrong is committed upon such other; and this is so notwithstanding such purpose, if formed and executed by an individual, would not be actionable.
In Lonstorf v. Lonstorf, 118 Wis. 159, 95 N.W. 961 (1903), this court ruled that a husband did not have any right to the performance of the marital duties of his wife and, hence, had no cause of action against his mother-in-law, who allegedly alienated the affections of the wife.
Yet shortly thereafter, in Randall v. Lonstorf, 126 Wis. 147, 105 N.W. 663 (1905), the very facts were again before the court except that it was alleged that the mother-in-law had entered into a conspiracy with a number of other relatives to alienate the affections of the wife. The court held that a cause of action was stated, because the gist of an action for conspiracy was not the *94 breach of an underlying right. There was found to be no right in the earlier case, but in the subsequent case there was a cause of action for the damages suffered by reason of the conspiracy.
Despite the archaic discussion of the now-prohibited cause of action for alienation of affections, the sequence of these cases could not be clearer in their illustration that there need be no independent right. The right is not to be the victim of a conspiracy that results in damages. Damages are the gist of the action, and their payment by the conspirators is the remedy.[12]
Boyce v. Independent Cleaners, 206 Wis. 521, 240 N.W. 132 (1932), also demonstrates that the remedies to be afforded by the theory of a civil conspiracy are not dependent upon an independent right. Boyce was in the retail cleaning and dyeing business. In a fact situation remarkably like that alleged in the instant case, he was induced to abandon his own business and to relocate. After about a year, the group of conspirators made arrangements that resulted in making it impossible for him to have his dry cleaning processed. It is clear that none of the conspirators individually would have sustained any liability had he refused to deal with Boyce. There was no underlying right to deal with any of the conspirators, but the court held that a cause of action was stated. No independent right was required. All that is required is that parties conspire for a malicious purpose and damage results.
In the context of the present case, it is obvious that, if Maleki had an enforceable contract that gave rise to *95 some independent right, he would not have needed to bring an action for conspiracy. The rationale espoused by the court of appeals would set over one hundred years of conspiracy law at naught and render superfluous any civil conspiracy action. It would leave those damaged by a civil conspiracy remediless unless they, in addition, had a cause of action for contract or tort. That is not what conspiracy law in Wisconsin is designed to accomplish.
The discussion of the independent-right rationale is not essential to our affirmance of the court of appeals; but because we do affirm, we consider it essential to make clear that we do so on the basis of there being insufficient evidence of Co's malicious conduct and not on the aberrant theory of independent rights espoused by the court of appeals. There simply was no proof of an element essential to establish a conspiracy under sec. 134.01, Stats.the malicious purpose of Co.
By the Court.Decision affirmed.
NOTES
[1] 154 Wis.2d 471, 453 N.W.2d 208 (1990).
[2] 448.08 Fee splitting; separate billing required, partnerships and corporations; contract exceptions. (1) Fee splitting. Except as otherwise provided in this section, no person licensed or certified under this chapter may give or receive, directly or indirectly, to or from any person, firm or corporation any fee, commission, rebate or other form of compensation or anything of value for sending, referring or otherwise inducing a person to communicate with a licensee in a professional capacity, or for any professional services not actually rendered personally or at his or her direction.
[3] 134.01 Injury to business; restraint of will. Any 2 or more persons who shall combine, associate, agree, mutually undertake or concert together for the purpose of wilfully or maliciously injuring another in his reputation, trade, business or profession by any means whatever, or for the purpose of maliciously compelling another to do or perform any act against his will, or preventing or hindering another from doing or performing any lawful act shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year or by fine not exceeding $500.
[4] The trial court dismissed the cause of action for antitrust brought under sec. 133.03, Stats., on March 17, 1985. That count, realleged, and an amended count alleging racketeering under RICO (18 U.S.C. § 196) were subsequently dismissed. The trial court in its order of January 22, 1986, recognized that only the conspiracy charge under sec. 134.01 was at issue, thus disposing of any reliance on a common-law conspiracy claim. A claim based on promissory estoppel was also dismissed and is no longer in contention. Because none of these dismissed or abandoned claims is asserted on this review, we have no occasion to consider whether or not the trial court made correct determinations in regard to those no-longer relevant claims.
[5] Maleki performed the following number of procedures at Trinity on the referral of Fine-Lando: 21 in 1978, 42 in 1979, 36 in 1980, 28 in 1981, and 4 in 1982. Thereafter, his referrals, he claimed, dropped to zero. However, he performed numerous procedures at other hospitals. Including the procedures at Trinity, he performed 201 in 1980, 223 in 1981, 236 in 1982, 242 in 1983, 215 in 1984, 246 in 1985, and 284 in 1986. His income in 1981 exceeded $353,000, $444,000 in 1982, $492,000 in 1983, $432,000 in 1984, $520,000 in 1985, and more than $504,000 in 1986.
[6] It should be noted that the court of appeals by order dated October 12, 1989, directed that this case be orally argued specifically to explore the question of malice. Yet, the opinion all but ignores a discussion of that essential element of a civil conspiracy as specifically applied to the alleged conspirators in this case. The question of Co's malice was addressed extensively by Co's counsel at oral argument in this court.
[7] We are not unmindful that in Westfall we said, "[I]f the answer is truly one that can be decided as a matter of law, the question should have been decided by the court in the first place and not by the jury." Id. at 95.
[8] Rule 805.14(1), Stats., provides:
805.14 Motions challenging sufficiency of evidence; motions after verdict. (1) Test of sufficiency of evidence. No motion challenging the sufficiency of the evidence as a matter of law to support a verdict, or an answer in a verdict, shall be granted unless the court is satisfied that, considering all credible evidence and reasonably inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion is made, there is no credible evidence to sustain a finding in favor of such party.
[9] The conspiracy cases are replete with statements pointing out that competition that incidentally harms another when the purpose is to improve one's competitive advantage does not run afoul of conspiracy laws if there is not a malicious motive.
[10] It should be noted that Justice Holmes in Aikens pointed out that the words of the statute must be read conjunctively and not disjunctively. Wisconsin law has thereafter accepted that interpretation.
[11] We stated somewhat circumlocutionally at 244 that:
Long ago, however, this court rejected the rule that no action may be maintained against the parties to a conspiracy for damages caused by acts which, if done by individuals severally, would not give rise to a cause of action.
[12] It is important to recognize, particularly in earlier cases, the court took great pains to distinguish between a criminal conspiracy, which is actionable in itself as a crime, and the civil conspiracy, where the damages resulting are the essence of the action.
| {
"pile_set_name": "FreeLaw"
} |
Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team
CASHEL BYRON'S PROFESSION
By George Bernard Shaw
PROLOGUE
I
Moncrief House, Panley Common. Scholastic establishment for the sons of
gentlemen, etc.
Panley Common, viewed from the back windows of Moncrief House, is
a tract of grass, furze and rushes, stretching away to the western
horizon.
One wet spring afternoon the sky was full of broken clouds, and the
common was swept by their shadows, between which patches of green
and yellow gorse were bright in the broken sunlight. The hills to the
northward were obscured by a heavy shower, traces of which were drying
off the slates of the school, a square white building, formerly a
gentleman's country-house. In front of it was a well-kept lawn with a
few clipped holly-trees. At the rear, a quarter of an acre of land was
enclosed for the use of the boys. Strollers on the common could hear, at
certain hours, a hubbub of voices and racing footsteps from within the
boundary wall. Sometimes, when the strollers were boys themselves,
they climbed to the coping, and saw on the other side a piece of common
trampled bare and brown, with a few square yards of concrete, so worn
into hollows as to be unfit for its original use as a ball-alley. Also
a long shed, a pump, a door defaced by innumerable incised inscriptions,
the back of the house in much worse repair than the front, and about
fifty boys in tailless jackets and broad, turned-down collars. When the
fifty boys perceived a stranger on the wall they rushed to the spot with
a wild halloo, overwhelmed him with insult and defiance, and dislodged
him by a volley of clods, stones, lumps of bread, and such other
projectiles as were at hand.
On this rainy spring afternoon a brougham stood at the door of Moncrief
House. The coachman, enveloped in a white india-rubber coat, was
bestirring himself a little after the recent shower. Within-doors, in
the drawing-room, Dr. Moncrief was conversing with a stately lady aged
about thirty-five, elegantly dressed, of attractive manner, and only
falling short of absolute beauty in her complexion, which was deficient
in freshness.
"No progress whatever, I am sorry to say," the doctor was remarking.
"That is very disappointing," said the lady, contracting her brows.
"It is natural that you should feel disappointed," replied the doctor.
"I would myself earnestly advise you to try the effect of placing him
at some other--" The doctor stopped. The lady's face had lit up with a
wonderful smile, and she had raised her hand with a bewitching gesture
of protest.
"Oh, no, Dr. Moncrief," she said. "I am not disappointed with YOU; but
I am all the more angry with Cashel, because I know that if he makes no
progress with you it must be his own fault. As to taking him away, that
is out of the question. I should not have a moment's peace if he were
out of your care. I will speak to him very seriously about his conduct
before I leave to-day. You will give him another trial, will you not?"
"Certainly. With the greatest pleasure," exclaimed the doctor, confusing
himself by an inept attempt at gallantry. "He shall stay as long as
you please. But"--here the doctor became grave again--"you cannot too
strongly urge upon him the importance of hard work at the present time,
which may be said to be the turning-point of his career as a student. He
is now nearly seventeen; and he has so little inclination for study that
I doubt whether he could pass the examination necessary to entering one
of the universities. You probably wish him to take a degree before he
chooses a profession."
"Yes, of course," said the lady, vaguely, evidently assenting to the
doctor's remark rather than expressing a conviction of her own. "What
profession would you advise for him? You know so much better than I."
"Hum!" said Dr. Moncrief, puzzled. "That would doubtless depend to some
extent on his own taste--"
"Not at all," said the lady, interrupting him with vivacity. "What does
he know about the world, poor boy? His own taste is sure to be something
ridiculous. Very likely he would want to go on the stage, like me."
"Oh! Then you would not encourage any tendency of that sort?"
"Most decidedly not. I hope he has no such idea."
"Not that I am aware of. He shows so little ambition to excel in any
particular branch that I should say his choice of a profession may be
best determined by his parents. I am, of course, ignorant whether his
relatives possess influence likely to be of use to him. That is often
the chief point to be considered, particularly in cases like your son's,
where no special aptitude manifests itself."
"I am the only relative he ever had, poor fellow," said the lady, with
a pensive smile. Then, seeing an expression of astonishment on the
doctor's face, she added, quickly, "They are all dead."
"Dear me!"
"However," she continued, "I have no doubt I can make plenty of interest
for him. But it is difficult to get anything nowadays without passing
competitive examinations. He really must work. If he is lazy he ought to
be punished."
The doctor looked perplexed. "The fact is," he said, "your son can
hardly be dealt with as a child any longer. He is still quite a boy in
his habits and ideas; but physically he is rapidly springing up into a
young man. That reminds me of another point on which I will ask you
to speak earnestly to him. I must tell you that he has attained some
distinction among his school-fellows here as an athlete. Within due
bounds I do not discourage bodily exercises: they are a recognized part
of our system. But I am sorry to say that Cashel has not escaped that
tendency to violence which sometimes results from the possession of
unusual strength and dexterity. He actually fought with one of the
village youths in the main street of Panley some months ago. The matter
did not come to my ears immediately; and, when it did, I allowed it to
pass unnoticed, as he had interfered, it seems, to protect one of the
smaller boys. Unfortunately he was guilty of a much more serious fault
a little later. He and a companion of his had obtained leave from me to
walk to Panley Abbey together. I afterwards found that their real object
was to witness a prize-fight that took place--illegally, of course--on
the common. Apart from the deception practised, I think the taste they
betrayed a dangerous one; and I felt bound to punish them by a severe
imposition, and restriction to the grounds for six weeks. I do not hold,
however, that everything has been done in these cases when a boy has
been punished. I set a high value on a mother's influence for softening
the natural roughness of boys."
"I don't think he minds what I say to him in the least," said the lady,
with a sympathetic air, as if she pitied the doctor in a matter that
chiefly concerned him. "I will speak to him about it, of course.
Fighting is an unbearable habit. His father's people were always
fighting; and they never did any good in the world."
"If you will be so kind. There are just the three points: the necessity
for greater--much greater--application to his studies; a word to him
on the subject of rough habits; and to sound him as to his choice of a
career. I agree with you in not attaching much importance to his ideas
on that subject as yet. Still, even a boyish fancy may be turned to
account in rousing the energies of a lad."
"Quite so," assented the lady. "I will certainly give him a lecture."
The doctor looked at her mistrustfully, thinking perhaps that she
herself would be the better for a lecture on her duties as a mother. But
he did not dare to tell her so; indeed, having a prejudice to the effect
that actresses were deficient in natural feeling, he doubted the use of
daring. He also feared that the subject of her son was beginning to bore
her; and, though a doctor of divinity, he was as reluctant as other men
to be found wanting in address by a pretty woman. So he rang the bell,
and bade the servant send Master Cashel Byron. Presently a door was
heard to open below, and a buzz of distant voices became audible.
The doctor fidgeted and tried to think of something to say, but his
invention failed him: he sat in silence while the inarticulate buzz rose
into a shouting of "By-ron!" "Cash!" the latter cry imitated from the
summons usually addressed to cashiers in haberdashers' shops.
Finally there was a piercing yell of "Mam-ma-a-a-a-ah!" apparently in
explanation of the demand for Byron's attendance in the drawing-room.
The doctor reddened. Mrs. Byron smiled. Then the door below closed,
shutting out the tumult, and footsteps were heard on the stairs.
"Come in," cried the doctor, encouragingly.
Master Cashel Byron entered blushing; made his way awkwardly to his
mother, and kissed the critical expression which was on her upturned
face as she examined his appearance. Being only seventeen, he had not
yet acquired a taste for kissing. He inexpertly gave Mrs. Byron quite a
shock by the collision of their teeth. Conscious of the failure, he drew
himself upright, and tried to hide his hands, which were exceedingly
dirty, in the scanty folds of his jacket. He was a well-grown youth,
with neck and shoulders already strongly formed, and short auburn hair
curling in little rings close to his scalp. He had blue eyes, and an
expression of boyish good-humor, which, however, did not convey any
assurance of good temper.
"How do you do, Cashel?" said Mrs. Byron, in a queenly manner, after a
prolonged look at him.
"Very well, thanks," said he, grinning and avoiding her eye.
"Sit down, Byron," said the doctor. Byron suddenly forgot how to sit
down, and looked irresolutely from one chair to another. The doctor made
a brief excuse, and left the room; much to the relief of his pupil.
"You have grown greatly, Cashel. And I am afraid you are very awkward."
Cashel and looked gloomy.
"I do not know what to do with you," continued Mrs. Byron. "Dr. Moncrief
tells me that you are very idle and rough."
"I am not," said Cashel, sulkily. "It is bec--"
"There is no use in contradicting me in that fashion," said Mrs. Byron,
interrupting him sharply. "I am sure that whatever Dr. Moncrief says is
perfectly true."
"He is always talking like that," said Cashel, plaintively. "I can't
learn Latin and Greek; and I don't see what good they are. I work as
hard as any of the rest--except the regular stews, perhaps. As to
my being rough, that is all because I was out one day with Gully
Molesworth, and we saw a crowd on the common, and when we went to see
what was up it was two men fighting. It wasn't our fault that they came
there to fight."
"Yes; I have no doubt that you have fifty good excuses, Cashel. But I
will not allow any fighting; and you really must work harder. Do you
ever think of how hard _I_ have to work to pay Dr. Moncrief one hundred
and twenty pounds a year for you?"
"I work as hard as I can. Old Moncrief seems to think that a fellow
ought to do nothing else from morning till night but write Latin verses.
Tatham, that the doctor thinks such a genius, does all his constering
from cribs. If I had a crib I could conster as well--very likely
better."
"You are very idle, Cashel; I am sure of that. It is too provoking to
throw away so much money every year for nothing. Besides, you must soon
be thinking of a profession."
"I shall go into the army," said Cashel. "It is the only profession for
a gentleman."
Mrs. Byron looked at him for a moment as if amazed at his presumption.
But she checked herself and only said, "I am afraid you will have to
choose some less expensive profession than that. Besides, you would have
to pass an examination to enable you to enter the army; and how can you
do that unless you study?"
"Oh, I shall do that all right enough when the time comes."
"Dear, dear! You are beginning to speak so coarsely, Cashel. After all
the pains I took with you at home!"
"I speak the same as other people," he replied, sullenly. "I don't see
the use of being so jolly particular over every syllable. I used to have
to stand no end of chaff about my way of speaking. The fellows here know
all about you, of course."
"All about me?" repeated Mrs. Byron, looking at him curiously.
"All about your being on the stage, I mean," said Cashel. "You complain
of my fighting; but I should have a precious bad time of it if I didn't
lick the chaff out of some of them."
Mrs. Byron smiled doubtfully to herself, and remained silent and
thoughtful for a moment. Then she rose and said, glancing at the
weather, "I must go now, Cashel, before another shower begins. And do,
pray, try to learn something, and to polish your manners a little. You
will have to go to Cambridge soon, you know."
"Cambridge!" exclaimed Cashel, excited. "When, mamma? When?"
"Oh, I don't know. Not yet. As soon as Dr. Moncrief says you are fit to
go."
"That will be long enough," said Cashel, much dejected by this reply.
"He will not turn one hundred and twenty pounds a year out of doors in
a hurry. He kept big Inglis here until he was past twenty. Look here,
mamma; might I go at the end of this half? I feel sure I should do
better at Cambridge than here."
"Nonsense," said Mrs. Byron, decidedly. "I do not expect to have to take
you away from Dr. Moncrief for the next eighteen months at least, and
not then unless you work properly. Now don't grumble, Cashel; you annoy
me exceedingly when you do. I am sorry I mentioned Cambridge to you."
"I would rather go to some other school, then," said Cashel, ruefully.
"Old Moncrief is so awfully down on me."
"You only want to leave because you are expected to work here; and that
is the very reason I wish you to stay."
Cashel made no reply; but his face darkened ominously.
"I have a word to say to the doctor before I go," she added, reseating
herself. "You may return to your play now. Good-bye, Cashel." And she
again raised her face to be kissed.
"Good-bye," said Cashel, huskily, as he turned toward the door,
pretending that he had not noticed her action.
"Cashel!" she said, with emphatic surprise. "Are you sulky?"
"No," he retorted, angrily. "I haven't said anything. I suppose my
manners are not good enough, I'm very sorry; but I can't help it."
"Very well," said Mrs. Byron, firmly. "You can go, Cashel. I am not
pleased with you."
Cashel walked out of the room and slammed the door. At the foot of the
staircase he was stopped by a boy about a year younger than himself, who
accosted him eagerly.
"How much did she give you?" he whispered.
"Not a halfpenny," replied Cashel, grinding his teeth.
"Oh, I say!" exclaimed the other, much disappointed. "That was beastly
mean."
"She's as mean as she can be," said Cashel. "It's all old Monkey's
fault. He has been cramming her with lies about me. But she's just as
bad as he is. I tell you, Gully, I hate my mother."
"Oh, come!" said Gully, shocked. "That's a little too strong, old chap.
But she certainly ought to have stood something."
"I don't know what you intend to do, Gully; but I mean to bolt. If she
thinks I am going to stick here for the next two years she is jolly much
mistaken."
"It would be an awful lark to bolt," said Gully, with a chuckle. "But,"
he added, seriously, "if you really mean it, by George, I'll go too!
Wilson has just given me a thousand lines; and I'll be hanged if I do
them."
"Gully," said Cashel, his eyes sparkling, "I should like to see one of
those chaps we saw on the common pitch into the doctor--get him on the
ropes, you know."
Gully's mouth watered. "Yes," he said, breathlessly; "particularly the
fellow they called the Fibber. Just one round would be enough for the
old beggar. Let's come out into the playground; I shall catch it if I am
found here."
II
That night there was just sufficient light struggling through the clouds
to make Panley Common visible as a black expanse, against the lightest
tone of which a piece of ebony would have appeared pale. Not a human
being was stirring within a mile of Moncrief House, the chimneys of
which, ghostly white on the side next the moon, threw long shadows on
the silver-gray slates. The stillness had just been broken by the stroke
of a quarter past twelve from a distant church tower, when, from the
obscurity of one of these chimney shadows, a head emerged. It belonged
to a boy, whose body presently wriggled through an open skylight. When
his shoulders were through he turned himself face upward, seized the
miniature gable in which the skylight was set, drew himself completely
out, and made his way stealthily down to the parapet. He was immediately
followed by another boy.
The door of Moncrief House was at the left-hand corner of the front, and
was surmounted by a tall porch, the top of which was flat and could be
used as a balcony. A wall, of the same height as the porch, connected
the house front with the boundary wall, and formed part of the enclosure
of a fruit garden which lay at the side of the house between the lawn
and the playground. When the two boys had crept along the parapet to a
point directly above the porch they stopped, and each lowered a pair
of boots to the balcony by means of fishing-lines. When the boots were
safely landed, their owners let the lines drop and reentered the house
by another skylight. A minute elapsed. Then they reappeared on the top
of the porch, having come out through the window to which it served as a
balcony. Here they put on their boots, and stepped on to the wall of the
fruit garden. As they crawled along it, the hindmost boy whispered.
"I say, Cashy."
"Shut up, will you," replied the other under his breath. "What's wrong?"
"I should like to have one more go at old mother Moncrief's pear-tree;
that's all."
"There are no pears on it this season, you fool."
"I know. This is the last time we shall go this road, Cashy. Usen't it
to be a lark? Eh?"
"If you don't shut up, it won't be the last time; for you'll be caught.
Now for it."
Cashel had reached the outer wall, and he finished his sentence by
dropping from it to the common. Gully held his breath for some moments
after the noise made by his companion's striking the ground. Then he
demanded in a whisper whether all was right.
"Yes," returned Cashel, impatiently. "Drop as soft as you can."
Gully obeyed; and was so careful lest his descent should shake the
earth and awake the doctor, that his feet shrank from the concussion. He
alighted in a sitting posture, and remained there, looking up at Cashel
with a stunned expression.
"Crikey!" he ejaculated, presently. "That was a buster."
"Get up, I tell you," said Cashel. "I never saw such a jolly ass as you
are. Here, up with you! Have you got your wind back?"
"I should think so. Bet you twopence I'll be first at the cross roads. I
say, let's pull the bell at the front gate and give an awful yell before
we start. They'll never catch us."
"Yes," said Cashel, ironically; "I fancy I see myself doing it, or you
either. Now then. One, two, three, and away."
They ran off together, and reached the cross roads about eight minutes
later; Gully completely out of breath, and Cashel nearly so. Here,
according to their plan, Gully was to take the north road and run to
Scotland, where he felt sure that his uncle's gamekeeper would hide
him. Cashel was to go to sea; where, he argued, he could, if his affairs
became desperate, turn pirate, and achieve eminence in that profession
by adding a chivalrous humanity to the ruder virtues for which it is
already famous.
Cashel waited until Gully had recovered from his race. Then he said.
"Now, old fellow, we've got to separate."
Gully, thus confronted with the lonely realities of his scheme, did not
like the prospect. After a moment's reflection he exclaimed:
"Damme, old chap, but I'll come with you. Scotland may go and be
hanged."
But Cashel, being the stronger of the two, was as anxious to get rid of
Gully as Gully was to cling to him. "No," he said; "I'm going to rough
it; and you wouldn't be able for that. You're not strong enough for a
sea life. Why, man, those sailor fellows are as hard as nails; and even
they can hardly stand it."
"Well, then, do you come with me," urged Gully. "My uncle's gamekeeper
won't mind. He's a jolly good sort; and we shall have no end of
shooting."
"That's all very well for you, Gully; but I don't know your uncle;
and I'm not going to put myself under a compliment to his gamekeeper.
Besides, we should run too much risk of being caught if we went through
the country together. Of course I should be only too glad if we could
stick to one another, but it wouldn't do; I feel certain we should be
nabbed. Good-bye."
"But wait a minute," pleaded Gully. "Suppose they do try to catch us; we
shall have a better chance against them if there are two of us."
"Stuff!" said Cashel. "That's all boyish nonsense. There will be at
least six policemen sent after us; and even if I did my very best, I
could barely lick two if they came on together. And you would hardly
be able for one. You just keep moving, and don't go near any railway
station, and you will get to Scotland all safe enough. Look here, we
have wasted five minutes already. I have got my wind now, and I must be
off. Good-bye."
Gully disdained to press his company on Cashel any further. "Good-bye,"
he said, mournfully shaking his hand. "Success, old chap."
"Success," echoed Cashel, grasping Gully's hand with a pang of remorse
for leaving him. "I'll write to you as soon as I have anything to tell
you. It may be some months, you know, before I get regularly settled."
He gave Gully a final squeeze, released him, and darted off along the
road leading to Panley Village. Gully looked after him for a moment, and
then ran away Scotlandwards.
Panley Village consisted of a High Street, with an old-fashioned inn at
one end, a modern railway station and bridge at the other, and a pump
and pound midway between. Cashel stood for a while in the shadow under
the bridge before venturing along the broad, moonlit street. Seeing no
one, he stepped out at a brisk walking pace; for he had by this time
reflected that it was not possible to run all the way to the Spanish
main. There was, however, another person stirring in the village besides
Cashel. This was Mr. Wilson, Dr. Moncrief's professor of mathematics,
who was returning from a visit to the theatre. Mr. Wilson had
an impression that theatres were wicked places, to be visited by
respectable men only on rare occasions and by stealth. The only plays he
went openly to witness were those of Shakespeare; and his favorite was
"As You Like It"; Rosalind in tights having an attraction for him which
he missed in Lady Macbeth in petticoats. On this evening he had seen
Rosalind impersonated by a famous actress, who had come to a neighboring
town on a starring tour. After the performance he had returned to
Panley, supped there with a friend, and was now making his way back to
Moncrief House, of which he had been intrusted with the key. He was in
a frame of mind favorable for the capture of a runaway boy. An habitual
delight in being too clever for his pupils, fostered by frequently
overreaching them in mathematics, was just now stimulated by the effect
of a liberal supper and the roguish consciousness of having been to the
play. He saw and recognized Cashel as he approached the village pound.
Understanding the situation at once, he hid behind the pump, waited
until the unsuspecting truant was passing within arm's-length, and then
stepped out and seized him by the collar of his jacket.
"Well, sir," he said. "What are you doing here at this hour? Eh?"
Cashel, scared and white, looked up at him, and could not answer a word.
"Come along with me," said Wilson, sternly.
Cashel suffered himself to be led for some twenty yards. Then he stopped
and burst into tears.
"There is no use in my going back," he said, sobbing. "I have never done
any good there. I can't go back."
"Indeed," said Wilson, with magisterial sarcasm. "We shall try to make
you do better in future." And he forced the fugitive to resume his
march.
Cashel, bitterly humiliated by his own tears, and exasperated by a
certain cold triumph which his captor evinced on witnessing them, did
not go many steps farther without protest.
"You needn't hold me," he said, angrily; "I can walk without being
held." The master tightened his grasp and pushed his captive forward.
"I won't run away, sir," said Cashel, more humbly, shedding fresh tears.
"Please let me go," he added, in a suffocated voice, trying to turn his
face toward his captor. But Wilson twisted him back again, and urged him
still onward. Cashel cried out passionately, "Let me go," and struggled
to break loose.
"Come, come, Byron," said the master, controlling him with a broad,
strong hand; "none of your nonsense, sir."
Then Cashel suddenly slipped out of his jacket, turned on Wilson, and
struck up at him savagely with his right fist. The master received the
blow just beside the point of his chin; and his eyes seemed to Cashel
roll up and fall back into his head with the shock. He drooped forward
for a moment, and fell in a heap face downward. Cashel recoiled,
wringing his hand to relieve the tingling of his knuckles, and terrified
by the thought that he had committed murder. But Wilson presently moved
and dispelled that misgiving. Some of Cashel's fury returned as he shook
his fist at his prostrate adversary, and, exclaiming, "YOU won't
brag much of having seen me cry," wrenched the jacket from him with
unnecessary violence, and darted away at full speed.
Mr. Wilson, though he was soon conscious and able to rise, did not feel
disposed to stir for a long time. He began to moan with a dazed faith
that some one would eventually come to him with sympathy and assistance.
Five minutes elapsed, and brought nothing but increased cold and pain.
It occurred to him that if the police found him they would suppose him
to be drunk; also that it was his duty to go to them and give them
the alarm. He rose, and, after a struggle with dizziness and nausea,
concluded that his most pressing duty was to get to bed, and leave Dr.
Moncrief to recapture his ruffianly pupil as best he could.
Accordingly, at half-past one o'clock, the doctor was roused by a
knocking at his chamber-door, outside which he presently found his
professor of mathematics, bruised, muddy, and apparently inebriated.
Five minutes elapsed before Wilson could get his principal's mind on the
right track. Then the boys were awakened and the roll called. Byron and
Molesworth were reported absent. No one had seen them go; no one had
the least suspicion of how they got out of the house. One little boy
mentioned the skylight; but observing a threatening expression on the
faces of a few of the bigger boys, who were fond of fruit, he did not
press his suggestion, and submitted to be snubbed by the doctor for
having made it. It was nearly three o'clock before the alarm reached the
village, where the authorities tacitly declined to trouble themselves
about it until morning. The doctor, convinced that the lad had gone to
his mother, did not believe that any search was necessary, and contented
himself with writing a note to Mrs. Byron describing the attack on Mr.
Wilson, and expressing regret that no proposal having for its object the
readmission of Master Byron to the academy could be entertained.
The pursuit was now directed entirely after Molesworth, an it wan plain,
from Mr. Wilson's narrative, that he had separated from Cashel outside
Panley. Information was soon forthcoming. Peasants in all parts of
the country had seen, they said, "a lad that might be him." The
search lasted until five o'clock next afternoon, when it was rendered
superfluous by the appearance of Gully in person, footsore and
repentant. After parting from Cashel and walking two miles, he had lost
heart and turned back. Half way to the cross roads he had reproached
himself with cowardice, and resumed his flight. This time he placed
eight miles betwixt himself and Moncrief House. Then he left the road to
make a short cut through a plantation, and went astray. After wandering
until morning, thinking dejectedly of the story of the babes in the
wood, he saw a woman working in a field, and asked her the shortest way
to Scotland. She had never heard of Scotland; and when he asked the way
to Panley she lost patience and threatened to set her dog at him.
This discouraged him so much that he was afraid to speak to the other
strangers whom he met. Having the sun as a compass, he oscillated
between Scotland and Panley according to the fluctuation of his courage.
At last he yielded to hunger, fatigue, and loneliness, devoted his
remaining energy to the task of getting back to school; struck the
common at last, and hastened to surrender himself to the doctor, who
menaced him with immediate expulsion. Gully was greatly concerned at
having to leave the place he had just run away from, and earnestly
begged the doctor to give him another chance. His prayer was granted.
After a prolonged lecture, the doctor, in consideration of the facts
that Gully had been seduced by the example of a desperate associate,
that he had proved the sincerity of his repentance by coming back of his
own accord, and had not been accessory to the concussion of the brain
from which Mr. Wilson supposed himself to be suffering, accepted his
promise of amendment and gave him a free pardon. It should be added
that Gully kept his promise, and, being now the oldest pupil, graced his
position by becoming a moderately studious, and, on one occasion, even a
sensible lad.
Meanwhile Mrs. Byron, not suspecting the importance of the doctor's
note, and happening to be in a hurry when it arrived, laid it by
unopened, intending to read it at her leisure. She would have forgotten
it altogether but for a second note which came two days later,
requesting some acknowledgment of the previous communication. On
learning the truth she immediately drove to Moncrief House, and there
abused the doctor as he had never been abused in his life before; after
which she begged his pardon, and implored him to assist her to recover
her darling boy. When he suggested that she should offer a reward for
information and capture she indignantly refused to spend a farthing on
the little ingrate; wept and accused herself of having driven him away
by her unkindness; stormed and accused the doctor of having treated him
harshly; and, finally, said that she would give one hundred pounds to
have him back, but that she would never speak to him again. The doctor
promised to undertake the search, and would have promised anything
to get rid of his visitor. A reward of fifty pounds was offered. But
whether the fear of falling into the clutches of the law for murderous
assault stimulated Cashel to extraordinary precaution, or whether he had
contrived to leave the country in the four days which elapsed between
his flight and the offer of the reward, the doctor's efforts were
unsuccessful; and he had to confess their failure to Mrs. Byron. She
agreeably surprised him by writing a pleasant letter to the effect that
it was very provoking, and that she could never thank him sufficiently
for all the trouble he had taken. And so the matter dropped.
Long after that generation of scholars had passed away from Moncrief
House, the name of Cashel Byron was remembered there as that of a hero
who, after many fabulous exploits, had licked a master and bolted to the
Spanish Main.
III
There was at this time in the city of Melbourne, in Australia, a wooden
building, above the door of which was a board inscribed "GYMNASIUM AND
SCHOOL OF ARMS." In the long, narrow entry hung a framed manuscript
which set forth that Ned Skene, ex-champion of England and the colonies,
was to be heard of within daily by gentlemen desirous of becoming
proficient in the art of self-defence. Also the terms on which Mrs.
Skene, assisted by a competent staff of professors, would give lessons
in dancing, deportment, and calisthenics.
One evening a man sat smoking on a common wooden chair outside the door
of this establishment. On the ground beside him were some tin tacks and
a hammer, with which he had just nailed to the doorpost a card on which
was written in a woman's handwriting: "WANTED A MALE ATTENDANT WHO CAN
KEEP ACCOUNTS. INQUIRE WITHIN." The smoker was a powerful man, with a
thick neck that swelled out beneath his broad, flat ear-lobes. He had
small eyes, and large teeth, over which his lips were slightly parted in
a good-humored but cunning smile. His hair was black and close-cut; his
skin indurated; and the bridge of his nose smashed level with his face.
The tip, however, was uninjured. It was squab and glossy, and, by giving
the whole feature an air of being on the point of expanding to its
original shape, produced a snubbed expression which relieved the
otherwise formidable aspect of the man, and recommended him as probably
a modest and affable fellow when sober and unprovoked. He seemed about
fifty years of age, and was clad in a straw hat and a suit of white
linen.
He had just finished his pipe when a youth stopped to read the card on
the doorpost. This youth was attired in a coarse sailor's jersey and a
pair of gray tweed trousers, which he had considerably outgrown.
"Looking for a job?" inquired the ex-champion of England and the
colonies.
The youth blushed and replied, "Yes. I should like to get something to
do."
Mr. Skene stared at him with stern curiosity. His piofessional pursuits
had familiarized him with the manners and speech of English gentlemen,
and he immediately recognized the shabby sailor lad as one of that
class.
"Perhaps you're a scholar," said the prize-fighter, after a moment's
reflection.
"I have been at school; but I didn't learn much there," replied the
youth. "I think I could bookkeep by double entry," he added, glancing at
the card.
"Double entry! What's that?"
"It's the way merchants' books are kept. It is called so because
everything is entered twice over."
"Ah!" said Skene, unfavorably impressed by the system; "once is enough
for me. What's your weight?"
"I don't know," said the lad, with a grin.
"Not know your own weight!" exclaimed Skene. "That ain't the way to get
on in life."
"I haven't been weighed since I was in England," said the other,
beginning to get the better of his shyness. "I was eight stone four
then; so you see I am only a light-weight."
"And what do you know about light-weights? Perhaps, being so well
educated, you know how to fight. Eh?"
"I don't think I could fight you," said the youth, with another grin.
Skene chuckled; and the stranger, with boyish communicativeness,
gave him an account of a real fight (meaning, apparently, one between
professional pugilists) which he had seen in England. He went on to
describe how he had himself knocked down a master with one blow
when running away from school. Skene received this sceptically, and
cross-examined the narrator as to the manner and effect of the blow,
with the result of convincing himself that the story was true. At the
end of a quarter of an hour the lad had commended himself so favorably
by his conversation that the champion took him into the gymnasium,
weighed him, measured him, and finally handed him a pair of boxing
gloves and invited him to show what he was made of. The youth, though
impressed by the prize-fighter's attitude with a hopeless sense of
the impossibility of reaching him, rushed boldly at him several times,
knocking his face on each occasion against Skene's left fist, which
seemed to be ubiquitous, and to have the property of imparting the
consistency of iron to padded leather. At last the novice directed
a frantic assault at the champion's nose, rising on his toes in his
excitement as he did so. Skene struck up the blow with his right arm,
and the impetuous youth spun and stumbled away until he fell supine in a
corner, rapping his head smartly on the floor at the same time. He rose
with unabated cheerfulness and offered to continue the combat; but Skene
declined any further exercise just then, and, much pleased with his
novice's game, promised to give him a scientific education and make a
man of him.
The champion now sent for his wife, whom he revered as a preeminently
sensible and well-mannered woman. The newcomer could see in her only a
ridiculous dancing-mistress; but he treated her with great deference,
and thereby improved the favorable opinion which Skene had already
formed of him. He related to her how, after running away from school, he
had made his way to Liverpool, gone to the docks, and contrived to hide
himself on board a ship bound for Australia. Also how he had suffered
severely from hunger and thirst before he discovered himself; and how,
notwithstanding his unpopular position as stowaway, he had been fairly
treated as soon as he had shown that he was willing to work. And in
proof that he was still willing, and had profited by his maritime
experience, he offered to sweep the floor of the gymnasium then and
there. This proposal convinced the Skenes, who had listened to his story
like children listening to a fairy tale, that he was not too much of a
gentleman to do rough work, and it was presently arranged that he should
thenceforth board and lodge with them, have five shillings a week for
pocket-money, and be man-of-all-work, servant, gymnasium-attendant,
clerk, and apprentice to the ex-champion of England and the colonies.
He soon found his bargain no easy one. The gymnasium was open from nine
in the morning until eleven at night, and the athletic gentlemen who
came there not only ordered him about without ceremony, but varied the
monotony of being set at naught by the invincible Skene by practising
what he taught them on the person of his apprentice, whom they pounded
with great relish, and threw backwards, forwards, and over their
shoulders as though he had been but a senseless effigy, provided for
that purpose. Meanwhile the champion looked on and laughed, being too
lazy to redeem his promise of teaching the novice to defend himself. The
latter, however, watched the lessons which he saw daily given to others,
and, before the end of a month, he so completely turned the tables on
the amateur pugilists of Melbourne that Skene one day took occasion to
remark that he was growing uncommon clever, but that gentlemen liked
to be played easy with, and that he should be careful not to knock them
about too much. Besides these bodily exertions, he had to keep account
of gloves and foils sold and bought, and of the fees due both to Mr. and
Mrs. Skene. This was the most irksome part of his duty; for he wrote
a large, schoolboy hand, and was not quick at figures. When he at last
began to assist his master in giving lessons the accounts had fallen
into arrear, and Mrs. Skene had to resume her former care of them; a
circumstance which gratified her husband, who regarded it as a fresh
triumph of her superior intelligence. Then a Chinaman was engaged to do
the more menial work of the establishment. "Skene's novice," as he was
now generally called, was elevated to the rank of assistant professor to
the champion, and became a person of some consequence in the gymnasium.
He had been there more than nine months, and had developed from an
active youth into an athletic young man of eighteen, when an important
conversation took place between him and his principal. It was evening,
and the only persons in the gymnasium were Ned Skene, who sat smoking
at his ease with his coat off, and the novice, who had just come
down-stairs from his bedroom, where he had been preparing for a visit to
the theatre.
"Well, my gentleman," said Skene, mockingly; "you're a fancy man, you
are. Gloves too! They're too small for you. Don't you get hittin' nobody
with them on, or you'll mebbe sprain your wrist."
"Not much fear of that," said the novice, looking at his watch, and,
finding that he had some minutes to spare, sitting down opposite Skene.
"No," assented the champion. "When you rise to be a regular professional
you won't care to spar with nobody without you're well paid for it."
"I may say I am in the profession already. You don't call me an amateur,
do you?"
"Oh, no," said Skene, soothingly; "not so bad as that. But mind you,
my boy, I don't call no man a fighting-man what ain't been in the ring.
You're a sparrer, and a clever, pretty sparrer; but sparring ain't the
real thing. Some day, please God, we'll make up a little match for you,
and show what you can do without the gloves."
"I would just as soon have the gloves off as on," said the novice, a
little sulkily.
"That's because you have a heart as big as a lion," said Skene, patting
him on the shoulder. But the novice, who was accustomed to hear his
master pay the same compliment to his patrons whenever they were seized
with fits of boasting (which usually happened when they got beaten),
looked obdurate and said nothing.
"Sam Ducket, of Milltown, was here to-day while you was out giving
Captain Noble his lesson," continued Skene, watching his apprentice's
face cunningly. "Now Sam is a real fighting-man, if you like."
"I don't think much of him. He's a liar, for one thing."
"That's a failing of the profession. I don't mind telling YOU so,"
said Skene, mournfully. Now the novice had found out this for himself,
already. He never, for instance, believed the accounts which his master
gave of the accidents and conspiracies which had led to his being
defeated three times in the ring. However, as Skene had won fifteen
battles, his next remark was undeniable. "Men fight none the worse for
being liars. Sam Ducket bet Ebony Muley in twenty minutes."
"Yes," said the novice, scornfully; "and what is Ebony Muley? A wretched
old <DW65> nearly sixty years old, who is drunk seven days in the week,
and would sell a fight for a glass of brandy! Ducket ought to have
knocked him out of time in seventy seconds. Ducket has no science."
"Not a bit," said Ned. "But he has lots of game."
"Pshaw! Come, now, Ned; you know as well as I do that that is one of the
stalest commonplaces going. If a fellow knows how to box, they always
say he has science but no pluck. If he doesn't know his right hand from
his left, they say that he isn't clever but that he is full of game."
Skene looked with secret wonder at his pupil, whose powers of
observation and expression sometimes seemed to him almost to rival those
of Mrs. Skene. "Sam was saying something like that to-day," he remarked.
"He says you're only a sparrer, and that you'd fall down with fright if
you was put into a twenty-four-foot ring."
The novice flushed. "I wish I had been here when Sum Ducket said that."
"Why, what could you ha' done to him?" said Skene, his small eyes
twinkling.
"I'd have punched his head; that's what I could and would have done to
him."
"Why, man, he'd eat you."
"He might. And he might eat you too, Ned, if he had salt enough with
you. He talks big because he knows I have no money; and he pretends he
won't strip for less than fifty pounds a side."
"No money!" cried Skene. "I know them as'll make up fifty pound before
twelve to-morrow for any man as I will answer for. There'd be a start
for a young man! Why, my fust fight was for five shillings in Tott'nam
Fields; and proud I was when I won it. I don't want to set you on to
fight a crack like Sam Ducket anyway against your inclinations; but
don't go for to say that money isn't to be had. Let Ned Skene pint to a
young man and say, 'That's the young man as Ned backs,' and others will
come for'ard--ay, crowds of 'em."
The novice hesitated. "Do you think I ought to, Ned?" he said.
"That ain't for me to say," said Skene, doggedly. "I know what I would
ha' said at your age. But perhaps you're right to be cautious. I tell
you the truth, I wouldn't care to see you whipped by the like of Sam
Ducket."
"Will you train me if I challenge him?"
"Will I train you!" echoed Skene, rising with enthusiasm. "Ay will I
train you, and put my money on you, too; and you shall knock fireworks
out of him, my boy, as sure as my name's Ned Skene."
"Then," cried the novice, reddening with excitement, "I'll fight him.
And if I lick him you will have to hand over your belt as champion of
the colonies to me."
"So I will," said Skene, affectionately. "Don't out late; and don't for
your life touch a drop of liquor. You must go into training to-morrow."
This was Cashel Byron's first professional engagement.
CHAPTER I
Wiltstoken Castle was a square building with circular bastions at the
corners, each bastion terminating skyward in a Turkish minaret. The
southwest face was the front, and was pierced by a Moorish arch fitted
with glass doors, which could be secured on occasion by gates of
fantastically hammered iron. The arch was enshrined by a Palladian
portico, which rose to the roof, and was surmounted by an open pediment,
in the cleft of which stood a black-marble figure of an Egyptian, erect,
and gazing steadfastly at the midday sun. On the ground beneath was
an Italian terrace with two great stone elephants at the ends of the
balustrade. The windows on the upper story were, like the entrance,
Moorish; but the principal ones below were square bays, mullioned.
The castle was considered grand by the illiterate; but architects and
readers of books on architecture condemned it as a nondescript
mixture of styles in the worst possible taste. It stood on an eminence
surrounded by hilly woodland, thirty acres of which were enclosed as
Wiltstoken Park. Half a mile south was the little town of Wiltstoken,
accessible by rail from London in about two hours.
Most of the inhabitants of Wiltstoken were Conservatives. They stood in
awe of the castle; and some of them would at any time have cut half a
dozen of their oldest friends to obtain an invitation to dinner, or oven
a bow in public, from Miss Lydia Carew, its orphan mistress. This Miss
Carew was a remarkable person. She had inherited the castle and park
from her aunt, who had considered her niece's large fortune in railways
and mines incomplete without land. So many other legacies had Lydia
received from kinsfolk who hated poor relations, that she was now, in
her twenty-fifth year, the independent possessor of an annual income
equal to the year's earnings of five hundred workmen, and under no
external compulsion to do anything in return for it. In addition to the
advantage of being a single woman in unusually easy circumstances, she
enjoyed a reputation for vast learning and exquisite culture. It was
said in Wiltstoken that she knew forty-eight living languages and
all dead ones; could play on every known musical instrument; was an
accomplished painter, and had written poetry. All this might as well
have been true as far as the Wiltstokeners were concerned, since she
knew more than they. She had spent her life travelling with her father,
a man of active mind and bad digestion, with a taste for sociology,
science in general, and the fine arts. On these subjects he had written
books, by which he had earned a considerable reputation as a critic and
philosopher. They were the outcome of much reading, observation of men
and cities, sight-seeing, and theatre-going, of which his daughter had
done her share, and indeed, as she grew more competent and he weaker and
older, more than her share. He had had to combine health-hunting with
pleasure-seeking; and, being very irritable and fastidious, had schooled
her in self-control and endurance by harder lessons than those which had
made her acquainted with the works of Greek and German philosophers long
before she understood the English into which she translated them.
When Lydia was in her twenty-first year her father's health failed
seriously. He became more dependent on her; and she anticipated that he
would also become more exacting in his demands on her time. The contrary
occurred. One day, at Naples, she had arranged to go riding with an
English party that was staying there. Shortly before the appointed
hour he asked her to make a translation of a long extract from Lessing.
Lydia, in whom self-questionings as to the justice of her father's yoke
had been for some time stirring, paused thoughtfully for perhaps two
seconds before she consented. Carew said nothing, but he presently
intercepted a servant who was bearing an apology to the English party,
read the note, and went back to his daughter, who was already busy at
Lessing.
"Lydia," he said, with a certain hesitation, which she would have
ascribed to shyness had that been at all credible of her father when
addressing her, "I wish you never to postpone your business to literary
trifling."
She looked at him with the vague fear that accompanies a new and
doubtful experience; and he, dissatisfied with his way of putting the
case, added, "It is of greater importance that you should enjoy yourself
for an hour than that my book should be advanced. Far greater!"
Lydia, after some consideration, put down her pen and said, "I shall not
enjoy riding if there is anything else left undone."
"I shall not enjoy your writing if your excursion is given up for it,"
he said. "I prefer your going."
Lydia obeyed silently. An odd thought struck her that she might end the
matter gracefully by kissing him. But as they were unaccustomed to make
demonstrations of this kind, nothing came of the impulse. She spent the
day on horseback, reconsidered her late rebellious thoughts, and made
the translation in the evening.
Thenceforth Lydia had a growing sense of the power she had unwittingly
been acquiring during her long subordination. Timidly at first, and more
boldly as she became used to dispense with the parental leading-strings,
she began to follow her own bent in selecting subjects for study, and
even to defend certain recent developments of art against her father's
conservatism. He approved of this independent mental activity on her
part, and repeatedly warned her not to pin her faith more on him than
on any other critic. She once told him that one of her incentives to
disagree with him was the pleasure it gave her to find out ultimately
that he was right. He replied gravely:
"That pleases me, Lydia, because I believe you. But such things are
better left unsaid. They seem to belong to the art of pleasing, which
you will perhaps soon be tempted to practise, because it seems to all
young people easy, well paid, amiable, and a mark of good breeding. In
truth it is vulgar, cowardly, egotistical, and insincere: a virtue in
a shopman; a vice in a free woman. It is better to leave genuine praise
unspoken than to expose yourself to the suspicion of flattery."
Shortly after this, at his desire, she spent a season in London, and
went into English polite society, which she found to be in the main a
temple for the worship of wealth and a market for the sale of virgins.
Having become familiar with both the cult and the trade elsewhere, she
found nothing to interest her except the English manner of conducting
them; and the novelty of this soon wore off. She was also incommoded by
her involuntary power of inspiring affection in her own sex. Impulsive
girls she could keep in awe; but old women, notably two aunts who had
never paid her any attention during her childhood, now persecuted her
with slavish fondness, and tempted her by mingled entreaties and bribes
to desert her father and live with them for the remainder of their
lives. Her reserve fanned their longing to have her for a pet; and, to
escape them, she returned to the Continent with her father, and ceased
to hold any correspondence with London. Her aunts declared themselves
deeply hurt, and Lydia was held to have treated them very injudiciously;
but when they died, and their wills became public, it was found that
they had vied with one another in enriching her.
When she was twenty-five years old the first startling event of her life
took place. This was the death of her father at Avignon. No endearments
passed between them even on that occasion. She was sitting opposite to
him at the fireside one evening, reading aloud, when he suddenly said,
"My heart has stopped, Lydia. Good-bye!" and immediately died. She had
some difficulty in quelling the tumult that arose when the bell was
answered. The whole household felt bound to be overwhelmed, and took
it rather ill that she seemed neither grateful to them nor disposed to
imitate their behavior.
Carew's relatives agreed that he had made a most unbecoming will. It
was a brief document, dated five years before his death, and was to the
effect that he bequeathed to his dear daughter Lydia all he possessed.
He had, however, left her certain private instructions. One of these,
which excited great indignation in his family, was that his body
should be conveyed to Milan, and there cremated. Having disposed of
her father's remains as he had directed, she came to set her affairs
in order in England, where she inspired much hopeless passion in
the toilers in Lincoln's Inn Fields and Chancery Lane, and agreeably
surprised her solicitors by evincing a capacity for business, and a
patience with the law's delay, that seemed incompatible with her age and
sex. When all was arranged, and she was once more able to enjoy perfect
tranquillity, she returned to Avignon, and there discharged her last
duty to her father. This was to open a letter she had found in his desk,
inscribed by his hand: "For Lydia. To be read by her at leisure when I
and my affairs shall be finally disposed of." The letter ran thus:
"MY DEAR LYDIA,--I belong to the great company of disappointed men. But
for you, I should now write myself down a failure like the rest. It is
only a few years since it first struck me that although I had failed in
many ambitions with which (having failed) I need not trouble you now,
I had achieved some success as a father. I had no sooner made this
discovery than it began to stick in my thoughts that you could draw no
other conclusion from the course of our life together than that I have,
with entire selfishness, used you throughout as my mere amanuensis
and clerk, and that you are under no more obligation to me for your
attainments than a slave is to his master for the strength which
enforced labor has given to his muscles. Lest I should leave you
suffering from so mischievous and oppressive an influence as a sense of
injustice, I now justify myself to you.
"I have never asked you whether you remember your mother. Had you at any
time broached the subject, I should have spoken quite freely to you on
it; but as some wise instinct led you to avoid it, I was content to let
it rest until circumstances such as the present should render further
reserve unnecessary. If any regret at having known so little of the
woman who gave you birth troubles you, shake it off without remorse. She
was the most disagreeable person I ever knew. I speak dispassionately.
All my bitter personal feeling against her is as dead while I write as
it will be when you read. I have even come to cherish tenderly certain
of her characteristics which you have inherited, so that I confidently
say that I never, since the perishing of the infatuation in which I
married, felt more kindly toward her than I do now. I made the best,
and she the worst, of our union for six years; and then we parted. I
permitted her to give what account of the separation she pleased, and
allowed her about five times as much money as she had any right
to expect. By these means I induced her to leave me in undisturbed
possession of you, whom I had already, as a measure of precaution,
carried off to Belgium. The reason why we never visited England during
her lifetime was that she could, and probably would, have made my
previous conduct and my hostility to popular religion an excuse for
wresting you from me. I need say no more of her, and am sorry it was
necessary to mention her at all.
"I will now tell you what induced me to secure you for myself. It was
not natural affection; I did not love you then, and I knew that you
would be a serious encumbrance to me. But, having brought you into the
world, and then broken through my engagements with your mother, I felt
bound to see that you should not suffer for my mistake. Gladly would
I have persuaded myself that she was (as the gossips said) the fittest
person to have charge of you; but I knew better, and made up my mind to
discharge my responsibility as well as I could. In course of time
you became useful to me; and, as you know, I made use of you without
scruple, but never without regard to your own advantage. I always kept
a secretary to do whatever I considered mere copyist's work. Much as you
did for me, I think I may say with truth that I never imposed a task of
absolutely no educational value on you. I fear you found the hours you
spent over my money affairs very irksome; but I need not apologize for
that now: you must already know by experience how necessary a knowledge
of business is to the possessor of a large fortune.
"I did not think, when I undertook your education, that I was laying the
foundation of any comfort for myself. For a long time you were only a
good girl, and what ignorant people called a prodigy of learning.
In your circumstances a commonplace child might have been both. I
subsequently came to contemplate your existence with a pleasure which
I never derived from the contemplation of my own. I have not succeeded,
and shall not succeed in expressing the affection I feel for you, or
the triumph with which I find that what I undertook as a distasteful
and thankless duty has rescued my life and labor from waste. My literary
travail, seriously as it has occupied us both, I now value only for
the share it has had in educating you; and you will be guilty of no
disloyalty to me when you come to see that though I sifted as much sand
as most men, I found no gold. I ask you to remember, then, that I did my
duty to you long before it became pleasurable or even hopeful. And, when
you are older and have learned from your mother's friends how I failed
in my duty to her, you will perhaps give me some credit for having
conciliated the world for your sake by abandoning habits and
acquaintances which, whatever others may have thought of them, did much
while they lasted to make life endurable to me.
"Although your future will not concern me, I often find myself thinking
of it. I fear you will soon find that the world has not yet provided a
place and a sphere of action for wise and well-instructed women. In my
younger days, when the companionship of my fellows was a necessity
to me, I voluntarily set aside my culture, relaxed my principles, and
acquired common tastes, in order to fit myself for the society of the
only men within my reach; for, if I had to live among bears, I had
rather be a bear than a man. Let me warn you against this. Never attempt
to accommodate yourself to the world by self-degradation. Be patient;
and you will enjoy frivolity all the more because you are not frivolous:
much as the world will respect your knowledge all the more because of
its own ignorance.
"Some day, I expect and hope, you will marry. You will then have an
opportunity of making an irremediable mistake, against the possibility
of which no advice of mine or subtlety of yours can guard you. I think
you will not easily find a man able to satisfy in you that desire to be
relieved of the responsibility of thinking out and ordering our course
of life that makes us each long for a guide whom we can thoroughly
trust. If you fail, remember that your father, after suffering a bitter
and complete disappointment in his wife, yet came to regard his marriage
as the happiest event in his career. Let me remind you also, since you
are so rich, that it would be a great folly for you to be jealous of
your own income, and to limit your choice of a husband to those already
too rich to marry for money. No vulgar adventurer will be able to
recommend himself to you; and better men will be at least as much
frightened as attracted by your wealth. The only class against which
I need warn you is that to which I myself am supposed to belong. Never
think that a man must prove a suitable and satisfying friend for
you merely because he has read much criticism; that he must feel
the influences of art as you do because he knows and adopts the
classification of names and schools with which you are familiar; or
that because he agrees with your favorite authors he must necessarily
interpret their words to himself as you understand them. Beware of men
who have read more than they have worked, or who love to read better
than to work. Beware of painters, poets, musicians, and artists of all
sorts, except very great artists: beware even of them as husbands and
fathers. Self-satisfied workmen who have learned their business well,
whether they be chancellors of the exchequer or farmers, I recommend to
you as, on the whole, the most tolerable class of men I have met.
"I shall make no further attempt to advise you. As fast as my counsels
rise to my mind follow reflections that convince me of their futility.
"You may perhaps wonder why I never said to you what I have written down
here. I have tried to do so and failed. If I understand myself aright,
I have written these lines mainly to relieve a craving to express
my affection for you. The awkwardness which an over-civilized man
experiences in admitting that he is something more than an educated
stone prevented me from confusing you by demonstrations of a kind I had
never accustomed you to. Besides, I wish this assurance of my love--my
last word--to reach you when no further commonplaces to blur the
impressiveness of its simple truth are possible.
"I know I have said too much; and I feel that I have not said enough.
But the writing of this letter has been a difficult task. Practised as I
am with my pen, I have never, even in my earliest efforts, composed with
such labor and sense of inadequacy----"
Here the manuscript broke off. The letter had never been finished.
CHAPTER II
In the month of May, seven years after the flight of the two boys from
Moncrief House, a lady sat in an island of shadow which was made by
a cedar-tree in the midst of a glittering green lawn. She did well
to avoid the sun, for her complexion was as delicately tinted as
mother-of-pearl. She was a small, graceful woman, with sensitive lips
and nostrils, green eyes, with quiet, unarched brows, and ruddy gold
hair, now shaded by a large, untrimmed straw hat. Her dress of Indian
muslin, with half-sleeves terminating at the elbows in wide ruffles,
hardly covered her shoulders, where it was supplemented by a scarf
through which a glimpse of her throat was visible in a nest of soft
Tourkaris lace. She was reading a little ivory-bound volume--a miniature
edition of the second part of Goethe's "Faust."
As the afternoon wore on and the light mellowed, the lady dropped her
book and began to think and dream, unconscious of a prosaic black object
crossing the lawn towards her. This was a young gentleman in a
frock coat. He was dark, and had a long, grave face, with a reserved
expression, but not ill-looking.
"Going so soon, Lucian?" said the lady, looking up as he came into the
shadow.
Lucian looked at her wistfully. His name, as she uttered it, always
stirred him vaguely. He was fond of finding out the reasons of things,
and had long ago decided that this inward stir was due to her fine
pronunciation. His other intimates called him Looshn.
"Yes," he said. "I have arranged everything, and have come to give an
account of my stewardship, and to say good-bye."
He placed a garden-chair near her and sat down. She laid her hands one
on the other in her lap, and composed herself to listen.
"First," he said, "as to the Warren Lodge. It is let for a month only;
so you can allow Mrs. Goff to have it rent free in July if you still
wish to. I hope you will not act so unwisely."
She smiled, and said, "Who are the present tenants? I hear that they
object to the dairymaids and men crossing the elm vista."
"We must not complain of that. It was expressly stipulated when they
took the lodge that the vista should be kept private for them. I had
no idea at that time that you were coming to the castle, or I should of
course have declined such a condition."
"But we do keep it private for them; strangers are not admitted. Our
people pass and repass once a day on their way to and from the dairy;
that is all."
"It seems churlish, Lydia; but this, it appears, is a special case--a
young gentleman, who has come to recruit his health. He needs daily
exercise in the open air; but he cannot bear observation, and he has
only a single attendant with him. Under these circumstances I agreed
that they should have the sole use of the elm vista. In fact, they are
paying more rent than would be reasonable without this privilege."
"I hope the young gentleman is not mad."
"I satisfied myself before I let the lodge to him that he would be a
proper tenant," said Lucian, with reproachful gravity. "He was strongly
recommended to me by Lord Worthington, whom I believe to be a man of
honor, notwithstanding his inveterate love of sport. As it happens,
I expressed to him the suspicion you have just suggested. Worthington
vouched for the tenant's sanity, and offered to take the lodge in his
own name and be personally responsible for the good behavior of this
young invalid, who has, I fancy, upset his nerves by hard reading.
Probably some college friend of Worthington's."
"Perhaps so. But I should rather expect a college friend of Lord
Worthington's to be a hard rider or drinker than a hard reader."
"You may be quite at ease, Lydia. I took Lord Worthington at his word
so far as to make the letting to him. I have never seen the real tenant.
But, though I do not even recollect his name, I will venture to answer
for him at second-hand."
"I am quite satisfied, Lucian; and I am greatly obliged to you. I will
give orders that no one shall go to the dairy by way of the warren. It
is natural that he should wish to be out of the world."
"The next point," resumed Lucian, "is more important, as it concerns
you personally. Miss Goff is willing to accept your offer. And a most
unsuitable companion she will be for you!"
"Why, Lucian?"
"On all accounts. She is younger than you, and therefore cannot
chaperone you. She has received only an ordinary education, and her
experience of society is derived from local subscription balls. And, as
she is not unattractive, and is considered a beauty in Wiltstoken, she
is self-willed, and will probably take your patronage in bad part."
"Is she more self-willed than I?"
"You are not self-willed, Lydia; except that you are deaf to advice."
"You mean that I seldom follow it. And so you think I had better employ
a professional companion--a decayed gentlewoman--than save this
young girl from going out as a governess and beginning to decay at
twenty-three?"
"The business of getting a suitable companion, and the pleasure or duty
of relieving poor people, are two different things, Lydia."
"True, Lucian. When will Miss Goff call?"
"This evening. Mind; nothing is settled as yet. If you think better of
it on seeing her you have only to treat her as an ordinary visitor and
the subject will drop. For my own part, I prefer her sister; but she
will not leave Mrs. Goff, who has not yet recovered from the shock of
her husband's death."
Lydia looked reflectively at the little volume in her hand, and seemed
to think out the question of Miss Goff. Presently, with an air of having
made up her mind, she said, "Can you guess which of Goethe's characters
you remind me of when you try to be worldly-wise for my sake?"
"When I try--What an extraordinary irrelevance! I have not read Goethe
lately. Mephistopheles, I suppose. But I did not mean to be cynical."
"No; not Mephistopheles, but Wagner--with a difference. Wagner taking
Mephistopheles instead of Faust for his model." Seeing by his face
that he did not relish the comparison, she added, "I am paying you a
compliment. Wagner represents a very clever man."
"The saving clause is unnecessary," he said, somewhat sarcastically. "I
know your opinion of me quite well, Lydia."
She looked quickly at him. Detecting the concern in her glance, he shook
his head sadly, saying, "I must go now, Lydia. I leave you in charge of
the housekeeper until Miss Goff arrives."
She gave him her hand, and a dull glow came into his gray jaws as he
took it. Then he buttoned his coat and walked gravely away. As he went,
she watched the sun mirrored in his glossy hat, and drowned in his
respectable coat. She sighed, and took up Goethe again.
But after a little while she began to be tired of sitting still, and she
rose and wandered through the park for nearly an hour, trying to find
the places in which she had played in her childhood during a visit to
her late aunt. She recognized a great toppling Druid's altar that had
formerly reminded her of Mount Sinai threatening to fall on the head of
Christian in "The Pilgrim's Progress." Farther on she saw and avoided a
swamp in which she had once earned a scolding from her nurse by filling
her stockings with mud. Then she found herself in a long avenue of green
turf, running east and west, and apparently endless. This seemed the
most delightful of all her possessions, and she had begun to plan a
pavilion to build near it, when she suddenly recollected that this must
be the elm vista of which the privacy was so stringently insisted upon,
by her invalid tenant at the Warren Lodge. She fled into the wood at
once, and, when she was safe there, laughed at the oddity of being a
trespasser in her own domain. She made a wide detour in order to avoid
intruding a second time; consequently, after walking for a quarter of
an hour, she lost herself. The trees seemed never ending; she began to
think she must possess a forest as well as a park. At last she saw an
opening. Hastening toward it, she came again into the sunlight, and
stopped, dazzled by an apparition which she at first took to be a
beautiful statue, but presently recognized, with a strange glow of
delight, as a living man.
To so mistake a gentleman exercising himself in the open air on a
nineteenth-century afternoon would, under ordinary circumstances, imply
incredible ignorance either of men or statues. But the circumstances in
Miss Carew's case were not ordinary; for the man was clad in a jersey
and knee-breeches of white material, and his bare arms shone like those
of a gladiator. His broad pectoral muscles, in their white covering,
were like slabs of marble. Even his hair, short, crisp, and curly,
seemed like burnished bronze in the evening light. It came into Lydia's
mind that she had disturbed an antique god in his sylvan haunt. The
fancy was only momentary; for she perceived that there was a third
person present; a man impossible to associate with classic divinity. He
looked like a well to do groom, and was contemplating his companion much
as a groom might contemplate an exceptionally fine horse. He was the
first to see Lydia; and his expression as he did so plainly showed that
he regarded her as a most unwelcome intruder. The statue-man, following
his sinister look, saw her too, but with different feelings; for his
lips parted, his color rose, and he stared at her with undisguised
admiration and wonder. Lydia's first impulse was to turn and fly; her
next, to apologize for her presence. Finally she went away quietly
through the trees.
The moment she was out of their sight she increased her pace almost to
a run. The day was too warm for rapid movement, and she soon stopped
and listened. There were the usual woodland sounds; leaves rustling,
grasshoppers chirping, and birds singing; but not a human voice or
footstep. She began to think that the god-like figure was only the
Hermes of Praxiteles, suggested to her by Goethe's classical Sabbat, and
changed by a day-dream into the semblance of a living reality. The
groom must have been one of those incongruities characteristic of
dreams--probably a reminiscence of Lucian's statement that the tenant
of the Warren Lodge had a single male attendant. It was impossible that
this glorious vision of manly strength and beauty could be substantially
a student broken down by excessive study. That irrational glow of
delight, too, was one of the absurdities of dreamland; otherwise she
should have been ashamed of it.
Lydia made her way back to the castle in some alarm as to the state of
her nerves, but dwelling on her vision with a pleasure that she would
not have ventured to indulge had it concerned a creature of flesh
and blood. Once or twice it recurred to her so vividly that she
asked herself whether it could have been real. But a little reasoning
convinced her that it must have been an hallucination.
"If you please, madam," said one of her staff of domestics, a native of
Wiltstoken, who stood in deep awe of the lady of the castle, "Miss Goff
is waiting for you in the drawing-room."
The drawing-room of the castle was a circular apartment, with a
dome-shaped ceiling broken into gilt ornaments resembling thick
bamboos, which projected vertically downward like stalagmites. The
heavy chandeliers were loaded with flattened brass balls, magnified
fac-similes of which crowned the uprights of the low, broad,
massively-framed chairs, which were covered in leather stamped with
Japanese dragon designs in copper- metal. Near the fireplace was
a great bronze bell of Chinese shape, mounted like a mortar on a black
wooden carriage for use as a coal-scuttle. The wall was decorated with
large gold crescents on a ground of light blue.
In this barbaric rotunda Miss Carew found awaiting her a young lady
of twenty-three, with a well-developed, resilient figure, and a clear
complexion, porcelain surfaced, and with a fine red in the cheeks.
The lofty pose of her head expressed an habitual sense of her
own consequence given her by the admiration of the youth of the
neighborhood, which was also, perhaps, the cause of the neatness of her
inexpensive black dress, and of her irreproachable gloves, boots, and
hat. She had been waiting to introduce herself to the lady of the castle
for ten minutes in a state of nervousness that culminated as Lydia
entered.
"How do you do, Miss Goff, Have I kept you waiting? I was out."
"Not at all," said Miss Goff, with a confused impression that red hair
was aristocratic, and dark brown (the color of her own) vulgar. She had
risen to shake hands, and now, after hesitating a moment to consider
what etiquette required her to do next, resumed her seat. Miss Carew
sat down too, and gazed thoughtfully at her visitor, who held herself
rigidly erect, and, striving to mask her nervousness, unintentionally
looked disdainful.
"Miss Goff," said Lydia, after a silence that made her speech
impressive, "will you come to me on a long visit? In this lonely place I
am greatly in want of a friend and companion of my own age and position.
I think you must be equally so."
Alice Goff was very young, and very determined to accept no credit that
she did not deserve. With the unconscious vanity and conscious honesty
of youth, she proceeded to set Miss Carew right as to her social
position, not considering that the lady of the castle probably
understood it better than she did herself, and indeed thinking it quite
natural that she should be mistaken.
"You are very kind," she replied, stiffly; "but our positions are quite
different, Miss Carew. The fact is that I cannot afford to live an
idle life. We are very poor, and my mother is partly dependent on my
exertions."
"I think you will be able to exert yourself to good purpose if you come
to me," said Lydia, unimpressed. "It is true that I shall give you very
expensive habits; but I will of course enable you to support them."
"I do not wish to contract expensive habits," said Alice, reproachfully.
"I shall have to content myself with frugal ones throughout my life."
"Not necessarily. Tell me, frankly: how had you proposed to exert
yourself? As a teacher, was it not?"
Alice flushed, but assented.
"You are not at all fitted for it; and you will end by marrying. As
a teacher you could not marry well. As an idle lady, with expensive
habits, you will marry very well indeed. It is quite an art to know how
to be rich--an indispensable art, if you mean to marry a rich man."
"I have no intention of marrying," said Alice, loftily. She thought
it time to check this cool aristocrat. "If I come at all I shall come
without any ulterior object."
"That is just what I had hoped. Come without condition, or second
thought of any kind."
"But--" began Alice, and stopped, bewildered by the pace at which the
negotiation was proceeding. She murmured a few words, and waited for
Lydia to proceed. But Lydia had said her say, and evidently expected a
reply, though she seemed assured of having her own way, whatever Alice's
views might be.
"I do not quite understand, Miss Carew. What duties?--what would you
expect of me?"
"A great deal," said Lydia, gravely. "Much more than I should from a
mere professional companion."
"But I am a professional companion," protested Alice.
"Whose?"
Alice flushed again, angrily this time. "I did not mean to say--"
"You do not mean to say that you will have nothing to do with me," said
Lydia, stopping her quietly. "Why are you so scrupulous, Miss Goff? You
will be close to your home, and can return to it at any moment if you
become dissatisfied with your position here."
Fearful that she had disgraced herself by ill manners; loath to be taken
possession of as if her wishes were of no consequence when a rich
lady's whim was to be gratified; suspicious--since she had often heard
gossiping tales of the dishonesty of people in high positions--lest she
should be cheated out of the salary she had come resolved to demand; and
withal unable to defend herself against Miss Carew, Alice caught at the
first excuse that occurred to her.
"I should like a little time to consider," she said.
"Time to accustom yourself to me, is it not? You can have as long as you
plea-"
"Oh, I can let you know tomorrow," interrupted Alice, officiously.
"Thank you. I will send a note to Mrs. Goff to say that she need not
expect you back until tomorrow."
"But I did not mean--I am not prepared to stay," remonstrated Alice,
feeling that she was being entangled in a snare.
"We shall take a walk after dinner, then, and call at your house, where
you can make your preparations. But I think I can supply you with all
you will require."
Alice dared make no further objection. "I am afraid," she stammered,
"you will think me horribly rude; but I am so useless, and you are so
sure to be disappointed, that--that--"
"You are not rude, Miss Goff; but I find you very shy. You want to
run away and hide from new faces and new surroundings." Alice, who was
self-possessed and even overbearing in Wiltstoken society, felt that
she was misunderstood, but did not know how to vindicate herself. Lydia
resumed, "I have formed my habits in the course of my travels, and so
live without ceremony. We dine early--at six."
Alice had dined at two, but did not feel bound to confess it.
"Let me show you your room," said Lydia, rising. "This is a curious
drawingroom," she added, glancing around. "I only use it occasionally to
receive visitors." She looked about her again with some interest, as if
the apartment belonged to some one else, and led the way to a room on
the first floor, furnished as a lady's bed-chamber. "If you dislike
this," she said, "or cannot arrange it to suit you, there are others, of
which you can have your choice. Come to my boudoir when you are ready."
"Where is that?" said Alice, anxiously.
"It is--You had better ring for some one to show you. I will send you my
maid."
Alice, even more afraid of the maid than of the mistress, declined
hastily. "I am accustomed to attend to myself, Miss Carew," with proud
humility.
"You will find it more convenient to call me Lydia," said Miss Carew.
"Otherwise you will be supposed to refer to my grandaunt, a very old
lady." She then left the room.
Alice was fond of thinking that she had a womanly taste and touch
in making a room pretty. She was accustomed to survey with pride her
mother's drawing-room, which she had garnished with cheap cretonnes,
Japanese paper fans, and knick-knacks in ornamental pottery. She felt
now that if she slept once in the bed before her, she could never be
content in her mother's house again. All that she had read and believed
of the beauty of cheap and simple ornament, and the vulgarity of
costliness, recurred to her as a hypocritical paraphrase of the "sour
grapes" of the fox in the fable. She pictured to herself with a shudder
the effect of a sixpenny Chinese umbrella in that fireplace, a cretonne
valance to that bed, or chintz curtains to those windows. There was in
the room a series of mirrors consisting of a great glass in which she
could see herself at full length, another framed in the carved oaken
dressing-table, and smaller ones of various shapes fixed to jointed arms
that turned every way. To use them for the first time was like having
eyes in the back of the head. She had never seen herself from all points
of view before. As she gazed, she strove not to be ashamed of her dress;
but even her face and figure, which usually afforded her unqualified
delight, seemed robust and middle-class in Miss Carew's mirrors.
"After all," she said, seating herself on a chair that was even more
luxurious to rest in than to look at; "putting the lace out of
the question--and my old lace that belongs to mamma is quite as
valuable--her whole dress cannot have cost much more than mine. At any
rate, it is not worth much more, whatever she may have chosen to pay for
it."
But Alice was clever enough to envy Miss Carew her manners more than
her dress. She would not admit to herself that she was not thoroughly
a lady; but she felt that Lydia, in the eye of a stranger, would answer
that description better than she. Still, as far as she had observed,
Miss Carew was exceedingly cool in her proceedings, and did not take
any pains to please those with whom she conversed. Alice had often made
compacts of friendship with young ladies, and had invited them to call
her by her Christian name; but on such occasions she had always called
themn "dear" or "darling," and, while the friendship lasted (which was
often longer than a month, for Alice was a steadfast girl), had never
met them without exchanging an embrace and a hearty kiss.
"And nothing," she said, springing from the chair as she thought of
this, and speaking very resolutely, "shall tempt me to believe that
there is anything vulgar in sincere affection. I shall be on my guard
against this woman."
Having settled that matter for the present, she resumed her examination
of the apartment, and was more and more attracted by it as she
proceeded. For, thanks to her eminence as a local beauty, she had not
that fear of beautiful and rich things which renders abject people
incapable of associating costliness with comfort. Had the counterpane of
the bed been her own, she would have unhesitatingly converted it into a
ball-dress. There were toilet appliances of which she had never felt the
need, and could only guess the use. She looked with despair into the two
large closets, thinking how poor a show her three dresses, her ulster,
and her few old jackets would make there. There was also a dressing-room
with a marble bath that made cleanliness a luxury instead of one of the
sternest of the virtues, as it seemed at home. Yet she remarked that
though every object was more or less ornamental, nothing had been placed
in the rooms for the sake of ornament alone. Miss Carew, judged by her
domestic arrangements, was a utilitarian before everything. There was
a very handsome chimney piece; but as there was nothing on the mantel
board, Alice made a faint effort to believe that it was inferior in
point of taste to that in her own bedroom, which was covered with blue
cloth, surrounded by fringe and brass headed nails, and laden with
photographs in plush frames.
The striking of the hour reminded her that she had forgotten to prepare
for dinner. Khe hastily took off her hat, washed her hands, spent
another minute among the mirrors, and was summoning courage to ring
the bell, when a doubt occurred to her. Ought she to put on her gloves
before going down or not? This kept her in perplexity for many seconds.
At last she resolved to put her gloves in her pocket, and be guided
as to their further disposal by the example of her hostess. Then, not
daring to hesitate any longer, she rang the bell, and was presently
joined by a French lady of polished manners--Miss Carew's maid who
conducted her to the boudoir, a hexagonal apartment that, Alice thought,
a sultana might have envied. Lydia was there, reading. Alice noted with
relief that she had not changed her dress, and that she was ungloved.
Miss Goff did not enjoy the dinner. There was a butler who seemed to
have nothing to do but stand at a buffet and watch her. There was also a
swift, noiseless footman who presented himself at her elbow at intervals
and compelled her to choose on the instant between unfamiliar things
to eat and drink. She envied these men their knowledge of society, and
shrank from their criticism. Once, after taking a piece of asparagus
in her hand, she was deeply mortified at seeing her hostess consume the
vegetable with the aid of a knife and fork; but the footman's back was
turned to her just then, and the butler, oppressed by the heat of the
weather, was in a state of abstraction bordering on slumber. On the
whole, by dint of imitating Miss Oarew, who did not plague her with any
hostess-like vigilance, she came off without discredit to her breeding.
Lydia, on her part, acknowledged no obligation to entertain her guest
by chatting, and enjoyed her thoughts and her dinner in silence. Alice
began to be fascinated by her, and to wonder what she was thinking
about. She fancied that the footman was not quite free from the same
influence. Even the butler might have been meditating himself to
sleep on the subject. Alice felt tempted to offer her a penny for her
thoughts. But she dared not be so familiar as yet. And, had the offer
been made and accepted, butler, footman, and guest would have been
plunged into equal confusion by the explanation, which would have run
thus:
"I saw a vision of the Hermes of Praxiteles in a sylvan haunt to-day;
and I am thinking of that."
CHAPTER III.
Next day Alice accepted Miss Carew's invitation. Lydia, who seemed
to regard all conclusions as foregone when she had once signified her
approval of them, took the acceptance as a matter of course. Alice
thereupon thought fit to remind her that there were other persons to be
considered. So she said, "I should not have hesitated yesterday but for
my mother. It seems so heartless to leave her."
"You have a sister at home, have you not?"
"Yes. But she is not very strong, and my mother requires a great deal
of attention." Alice paused, and added in a lower voice, "She has never
recovered from the shock of my father's death."
"Your father is then not long dead?" said Lydia in her usual tone.
"Only two years," said Alice, coldly. "I hardly know how to tell my
mother that I am going to desert her."
"Go and tell her today, Alice. You need not be afraid of hurting her.
Grief of two years' standing is only a bad habit."
Alice started, outraged. Her mother's grief was sacred to her; and yet
it was by her experience of her mother that she recognized the truth of
Lydia's remark, and felt that it was unanswerable. She frowned; but the
frown was lost: Miss Carew was not looking at her. Then she rose and
went to the door, where she stopped to say,
"You do not know our family circumstances. I will go now and try to
prevail on my mother to let me stay with you."
"Please come back in good time for dinner," said Lydia, unmoved. "I
will introduce you to my cousin Lucian Webber. I have just received a
telegram from him. He is coming down with Lord Worthington. I do not
know whether Lord Worthington will come to dinner or not. He has an
invalid friend at the Warren, and Lucian does not make it clear whether
he is coming to visit him or me. However, it is of no consequence; Lord
Worthington is only a young sportsman. Lucian is a clever man, and will
be an eminent one some day. He is secretary to a Cabinet Minister, and
is very busy; but we shall probably see him often while the Whitsuntide
holidays last. Excuse my keeping you waiting at the door to hear that
long history. Adieu!" She waved her hand; Alice suddenly felt that it
was possible to be very fond of Miss Carew.
She spent an unhappy afternoon with her mother. Mrs. Goff had had the
good-fortune to marry a man of whom she was afraid, and who made himself
very disagreeable whenever his house or his children were neglected in
the least particular. Making a virtue of necessity, she had come to be
regarded in Wiltstoken as a model wife and mother. At last, when a drag
ran over Mr. Goff and killed him, she was left almost penniless, with
two daughters on her hands. In this extremity she took refuge in grief,
and did nothing. Her daughters settled their father's affairs as best
they could, moved her into a cheap house, and procured a strange tenant
for that in which they had lived during many years. Janet, the elder
sister, a student by disposition, employed herself as a teacher of the
scientific fashions in modern female education, rumors of which had
already reached Wiltstoken. Alice was unable to teach mathematics and
moral science; but she formed a dancing-class, and gave lessons in
singing and in a language which she believed to be current in France,
but which was not intelligible to natives of that country travelling
through Wiltstoken. Both sisters were devoted to one another and to
their mother. Alice, who had enjoyed the special affection of her
self-indulgent father, preserved some regard for his memory, though
she could not help wishing that his affection had been strong enough
to induce him to save a provision for her. She was ashamed, too, of the
very recollection of his habit of getting drunk at races, regattas, and
other national festivals, by an accident at one of which he had met his
death.
Alice went home from the castle expecting to find the household divided
between joy at her good-fortune and grief at losing her; for her views
of human nature and parental feeling were as yet pure superstitions. But
Mrs. Goff at once became envious of the luxury her daughter was about
to enjoy, and overwhelmed her with accusations of want of feeling,
eagerness to desert her mother, and vain love of pleasure. Alice, who
loved Mrs. Goff so well that she had often told her as many as five
different lies in the course of one afternoon to spare her some
unpleasant truth, and would have scouted as infamous any suggestion
that her parent was more selfish than saintly, soon burst into tears,
declaring that she would not return to the castle, and that nothing
would have induced her to stay there the night before had she thought
that her doing so could give pain at home. This alarmed Mrs. Goff, who
knew by experience that it was easier to drive Alice upon rash resolves
than to shake her in them afterwards. Fear of incurring blame in
Wiltstoken for wantonly opposing her daughter's obvious interests,
and of losing her share of Miss Carew's money and countenance, got the
better of her jealousy. She lectured Alice severely for her headstrong
temper, and commanded her, on her duty not only to her mother, but also
and chiefly to her God, to accept Miss Carew's offer with thankfulness,
and to insist upon a definite salary as soon as she had, by good
behavior, made her society indispensable at the castle. Alice, dutiful
as she was, reduced Mrs. Goff to entreaties, and even to symptoms of an
outburst of violent grief for the late Mr. Goff, before she consented
to obey her. She would wait, she said, until Janet, who was absent
teaching, came in, and promised to forgive her for staying away the
previous night (Mrs. Goff had falsely represented that Janet had been
deeply hurt, and had lain awake weeping during the small hours of the
morning). The mother, seeing nothing for it but either to get rid of
Alice before Janet's return or to be detected in a spiteful untruth, had
to pretend that Janet was spending the evening with some friends, and to
urge the unkindness of leaving Miss Carew lonely. At last Alice washed
away the traces of her tears and returned to the castle, feeling very
miserable, and trying to comfort herself with the reflection that her
sister had been spared the scene which had just passed.
Lucian Webber had not arrived when she reached the castle. Miss Carew
glanced at her melancholy face as she entered, but asked no questions.
Presently, however, she put down her book, considered for a moment, and
said,
"It is nearly three years since I have had a new dress." Alice looked up
with interest. "Now that I have you to help me to choose, I think I will
be extravagant enough to renew my entire wardrobe. I wish you would take
this opportunity to get some things for yourself. You will find that my
dress-maker, Madame Smith, is to be depended on for work, though she is
expensive and dishonest. When we are tired of Wiltstoken we will go to
Paris, and be millinered there; but in the meantime we can resort to
Madame Smith."
"I cannot afford expensive dresses," said Alice.
"I should not ask you to get them if you could not afford them. I warned
you that I should give you expensive habits."
Alice hesitated. She had a healthy inclination to take whatever she
could get on all occasions; and she had suffered too much from poverty
not to be more thankful for her good-fortune than humiliated by Miss
Carew's bounty. But the thought of being driven, richly attired, in
one of the castle carriages, and meeting Janet trudging about her daily
tasks in cheap black serge and mended gloves, made Alice feel that she
deserved all her mother's reproaches. However, it was obvious that a
refusal would be of no material benefit to Janet, so she said,
"Really I could not think of imposing on your kindness in this wholesale
fashion. You are too good to me."
"I will write to Madame Smith this evening," said Lydia.
Alice was about to renew her protest more faintly, when a servant
entered and announced Mr. Webber. She stiffened herself to receive
the visitor. Lydia's manner did not alter in the least. Lucian, whose
demeanor resembled Miss Goff's rather than his cousin's, went through
the ceremony of introduction with solemnity, and was received with a
dash of scorn; for Alice, though secretly awe-stricken, bore herself
tyrannically towards men from habit.
In reply to Alice, Mr. Webber thought the day cooler than yesterday. In
reply to Lydia, he admitted that the resolution of which the leader of
the opposition had given notice was tantamount to a vote of censure on
the government. He was confident that ministers would have a majority.
He had no news of any importance. He had made the journey down with
Lord Worthington, who had come to Wiltstoken to see the invalid at the
Warren. He had promised to return with him in the seven-thirty train.
When they went down to dinner, Alice, profiting by her experience of
the day before, faced the servants with composure, and committed no
solecisms. Unable to take part in the conversation, as she knew little
of literature and nothing of politics, which were the staple of Lucian's
discourse, she sat silent, and reconsidered an old opinion of hers that
it was ridiculous and ill-bred in a lady to discuss anything that was
in the newspapers. She was impressed by Lucian's cautious and somewhat
dogmatic style of conversation, and concluded that he knew everything.
Lydia seemed interested in his information, but quite indifferent to his
opinions.
Towards half-past seven Lydia proposed that they should walk to the
railway station, adding, as a reason for going, that she wished to make
some bets with Lord Worthington. Lucian looked grave at this, and
Alice, to show that she shared his notions of propriety, looked shocked.
Neither demonstration had the slightest effect on Lydia. On their way to
the station he remarked,
"Worthington is afraid of you, Lydia--needlessly, as it seems."
"Why?"
"Because you are so learned, and he so ignorant. He has no culture save
that of the turf. But perhaps you have more sympathy with his tastes
than he supposes."
"I like him because I have not read the books from which he has borrowed
his opinions. Indeed, from their freshness, I should not be surprised to
learn that he had them at first hand from living men, or even from his
own observation of life."
"I may explain to you, Miss Goff," said Lucian, "that Lord Worthiugton
is a young gentleman--"
"Whose calendar is the racing calendar," interposed Lydia, "and who
interests himself in favorites and outsiders much as Lucian does in
prime-ministers and independent radicals. Would you like to go to Ascot,
Alice?"
Alice answered, as she felt Lucian wished her to answer, that she had
never been to a race, and that she had no desire to go to one.
"You will change your mind in time for next year's meeting. A race
interests every one, which is more than can be said for the opera or the
Academy."
"I have been at the Academy," said Alice, who had made a trip to London
once.
"Indeed!" said Lydia. "Were you in the National Gallery?"
"The National Gallery! I think not. I forget."
"I know many persons who never miss an Academy, and who do not know
where the National Gallery is. Did you enjoy the pictures, Alice?"
"Oh, very much indeed."
"You will find Ascot far more amusing."
"Let me warn you," said Lucian to Alice, "that my cousin's pet caprice
is to affect a distaste for art, to which she is passionately devoted;
and for literature, in which she is profoundly read."
"Cousin Lucian," said Lydia, "should you ever be cut off from
your politics, and disappointed in your ambition, you will have an
opportunity of living upon art and literature. Then I shall respect your
opinion of their satisfactoriness as a staff of life. As yet you have
only tried them as a sauce."
"Discontented, as usual," said Lucian.
"Your one idea respecting me, as usual," replied Lydia, patiently, as
they entered the station.
The train, consisting of three carriages and a van, was waiting at the
platform. The engine was humming subduedly, and the driver and fireman
were leaning out; the latter, a young man, eagerly watching two
gentlemen who were standing before the first-class carriage, and the
driver sharing his curiosity in an elderly, preoccupied manner. One
of the persons thus observed was a slight, fair-haired man of about
twenty-five, in the afternoon costume of a metropolitan dandy. Lydia
knew the other the moment she came upon the platform as the Hermes of
the day before, modernized by a straw hat, a canary- scarf, and
a suit of a minute black-and-white chess-board pattern, with a crimson
silk handkerchief overflowing the breast pocket of the coat. His hands
were unencumbered by stick or umbrella; he carried himself smartly,
balancing himself so accurately that he seemed to have no weight; and
his expression was self-satisfied and good-humored. But--! Lydia felt
that there was a "but" somewhere--that he must be something more than a
handsome, powerful, and light-hearted young man.
"There is Lord Worthington," she said, indicating the slight gentleman.
"Surely that cannot be his invalid friend with him?"
"That is the man that lives at the Warren," said Alice. "I know his
appearance."
"Which is certainly not suggestive of a valetudinarian," remarked
Lucian, looking hard at the stranger.
They had now come close to the two, and could hear Lord Worthington, as
he prepared to enter the carriage, saying, "Take care of yourself,
like a good fellow, won't you? Remember! if it lasts a second over the
fifteen minutes, I shall drop five hundred pounds."
Hermes placed his arm round the shoulders of the young lord and gave
him a playful roll. Then he said with good accent and pronunciation, but
with a certain rough quality of voice, and louder than English gentlemen
usually speak, "Your money is as safe as the mint, my boy."
Evidently, Alice thought, the stranger was an intimate friend of Lord
Worthington. She resolved to be particular in her behavior before him,
if introduced.
"Lord Worthington," said Lydia.
At the sound of her voice he climbed hastily down from the step of the
carriage, and said in some confusion, "How d' do, Miss Carew. Lovely
country and lovely weather--must agree awfully well with you. Plenty of
leisure for study, I hope."
"Thank you; I never study now. Will you make a book for me at Ascot?"
He laughed and shook his head. "I am ashamed of my low tastes," he said;
"but I haven't the heap to distinguish myself in your--Eh?"
Miss Carew was saying in a low voice, "If your friend is my tenant,
introduce him to me."
Lord Worthington hesitated, looked at Lucian, seemed perplexed and
amused at the name time, and at last said,
"You really wish it?"
"Of course," said Lydia. "Is there any reason--"
"Oh, not the least in the world since you wish it," he replied quickly,
his eyes twinkling mischievously as he turned to his companion who was
standing at the carriage door admiring Lydia, and being himself admired
by the stoker. "Mr. Cashel Byron: Miss Carew."
Mr. Cashel Byron raised his straw hat and reddened a little; but, on the
whole, bore himself like an eminent man who was not proud. As, however,
he seemed to have nothing to say for himself, Lord Worthington hastened
to avert silence by resuming the subject of Ascot. Lydia listened to
him, and looked at her new acquaintance. Now that the constraint of
society had banished his former expression of easy good-humor, there
was something formidable in him that gave her an unaccountable thrill
of pleasure. The same impression of latent danger had occurred, less
agreeably, to Lucian, who was affected much as he might have been by
the proximity of a large dog of doubtful temper. Lydia thought that Mr.
Byron did not, at first sight, like her cousin; for he was looking at
him obliquely, as though steadily measuring him.
The group was broken up by the guard admonishing the gentlemen to take
their seats. Farewells were exchanged; and Lord Worthington cried, "Take
care of yourself," to Cashel Byron, who replied somewhat impatiently,
and with an apprehensive glance at Miss Carew, "All right! all right!
Never you fear, sir." Then the train went off, and he was left on the
platform with the two ladies.
"We are returning to the park, Mr. Cashel Byron," said Lydia.
"So am I," said he. "Perhaps--" Here he broke down, and looked at Alice
to avoid Lydia's eye. Then they went out together.
When they had walked some distance in silence, Alice looking rigidly
before her, recollecting with suspicion that he had just addressed
Lord Worthington as "sir," while Lydia was admiring his light step and
perfect balance, which made him seem like a man of cork; he said,
"I saw you in the park yesterday, and I thought you were a ghost. But
my trai--my man, I mean--saw you too. I knew by that that you were
genuine."
"Strange!" said Lydia. "I had the same fancy about you."
"What! You had!" he exclaimed, looking at her. While thus unmindful of
his steps, he stumbled, and recovered himself with a stifled oath. Then
he became very red, and remarked that it was a warm evening.
Miss Goff, whom he had addressed, assented. "I hope," she added, "that
you are better."
He looked puzzled. Concluding, after consideration, that she had
referred to his stumble, he said,
"Thank you: I didn't hurt myself."
"Lord Worthington has been telling us about you," said Lydia. He
recoiled, evidently deeply mortified. She hastened to add, "He mentioned
that you had come down here to recruit your health; that is all."
Cashel's features relaxed into a curious smile. But presently he became
suspicious, and said, anxiously, "He didn't tell you anything else about
me, did he?"
Alice stared at him superciliously. Lydia replied, "No. Nothing else."
"I thought you might have heard my name somewhere," he persisted.
"Perhaps I have; but I cannot recall in what connection. Why? Do you
know any friend of mine?"
"Oh, no. Only Lord Worthington."
"I conclude then that you are celebrated, and that I have the misfortune
not to know it, Mr. Cashel Byron. Is it so?"
"Not a bit of it," he replied, hastily. "There's no reason why you
should ever have heard of me. I am much obliged to you for your kind
inquiries," he continued, turning to Alice. "I'm quite well now, thank
you. The country has set me right again."
Alice, who was beginning to have her doubts of Mr. Byron, in spite of
his familiarity with Lord Worthington, smiled falsely and drew herself
up a little. He turned away from her, hurt by her manner, and so ill
able to conceal his feelings that Miss Carew, who was watching him, set
him down privately as the most inept dissimulator she had ever met. He
looked at Lydia wistfully, as if trying to read her thoughts, which
now seemed to be with the setting sun, or in some equally beautiful and
mysterious region. But he could see that there was no reflection of Miss
Goff's scorn in her face.
"And so you really took me for a ghost," he said.
"Yes. I thought at first that you were a statue."
"A statue!"
"You do not seem flattered by that."
"It is not flattering to be taken for a lump of stone," he replied,
ruefully.
Lydia looked at him thoughtfully. Here was a man whom she had mistaken
for the finest image of manly strength and beauty in the world; and
he was so devoid of artistic culture that he held a statue to be a
distasteful lump of stone.
"I believe I was trespassing then," she said; "but I did so
unintentionally. I had gone astray; for I am comparatively a stranger
here, and cannot find my way about the park yet."
"It didn't matter a bit," said Cashel, impetuously. "Come as often as
you want. Mellish fancies that if any one gets a glimpse of me he won't
get any odds. You see he would like people to think--" Cashel checked
himself, and added, in some confusion, "Mellish is mad; that's about
where it is."
Alice glanced significantly at Lydia. She had already suggested that
madness was the real reason of the seclusion of the tenants at the
Warren. Cashel saw the glance, and intercepted it by turning to her and
saying, with an attempt at conversational ease,
"How do you young ladies amuse yourselves in the country? Do you play
billiards ever?"
"No," said Alice, indignantly. The question, she thought, implied
that she was capable of spending her evenings on the first floor of a
public-house. To her surprise, Lydia remarked,
"I play--a little. I do not care sufficiently for the game to make
myself proficient. You were equipped for lawn-tennis, I think, when I
saw you yesterday. Miss Goff is a celebrated lawn-tennis player. She
vanquished the Australian champion last year."
It seemed that Byron, after all, was something of a courtier; for he
displayed great astonishment at this feat. "The Australian champion!" he
repeated. "And who may HE--Oh! you mean the lawn-tennis champion. To be
sure. Well, Miss Goff, I congratulate you. It is not every amateur that
can brag of having shown a professional to a back seat."
Alice, outraged by the imputation of bragging, and certain that slang
was vulgar, whatever billiards might be, bore herself still more
loftily, and resolved to snub him explicitly if he addressed her again.
But he did not; for they presently came to a narrow iron gate in the
wall of the park, at which Lydia stopped.
"Let me open it for you," said Cashel. She gave him the key, and he
seized one of the bars of the gate with his left hand, and stooped as
though he wanted to look into the keyhole. Yet he opened it smartly
enough.
Alice was about to pass in with a cool bow when she saw Miss Carew offer
Cashel her hand. Whatever Lydia did was done so well that it seemed the
right thing to do. He took it timidly and gave it a little shake,
not daring to meet her eyes. Alice put out her hand stiffly. Cashel
immediately stepped forward with his right foot and enveloped her
fingers with the hardest clump of knuckles she had ever felt. Glancing
down at this remarkable fist, she saw that it was discolored almost to
blackness. Then she went in through the gate, followed by Lydia, who
turned to close it behind her. As she pushed, Cashel, standing outside,
grasped a bar and pulled. She at once relinquished to him the labor of
shutting the gate, and smiled her thanks as she turned away; but in that
moment he plucked up courage to look at her. The sensation of being so
looked at was quite novel to her and very curious. She was even a little
out of countenance, but not so much so as Cashel, who nevertheless could
not take his eyes away.
"Do you think," said Alice, as they crossed the orchard, "that that man
is a gentleman?"
"How can I possibly tell? We hardly know him."
"But what do you think? There is always a certain something about a
gentleman that one recognizes by instinct."
"Is there? I have never observed it."
"Have you not?" said Alice, surprised, and beginning uneasily to fear
that her superior perception of gentility was in some way the effect of
her social inferiority to Miss Carew. "I thought one could always tell."
"Perhaps so," said Lydia. "For my own part I have found the same
varieties of address in every class. Some people enjoy a native
distinction and grace of manner--"
"That is what I mean," said Alice.
"--but they are seldom ladies and gentlemen; often actors, gypsies, and
Celtic or foreign peasants. Undoubtedly one can make a fair guess, but
not in the case of this Mr. Cashel Byron. Are you curious about him?"
"I!" exclaimed Alice, superbly. "Not in the least."
"I am. He interests me. I seldom see anything novel in humanity; and he
is a very singular man."
"I meant," said Alice, crestfallen, "that I take no special interest in
him."
Lydia, not being curious as to the exact degree of Alice's interest,
merely nodded, and continued, "He may, as you suppose, be a man
of humble origin who has seen something of society; or he may be a
gentleman unaccustomed to society. Probably the latter. I feel no
conviction either way."
"But he speaks very roughly; and his slang is disgusting. His hands are
hard and quite black. Did you not notice them?"
"I noticed it all; and I think that if he were a man of low condition he
would be careful not to use slang. Self-made persons are usually precise
in their language; they rarely violate the written laws of society.
Besides, his pronunciation of some words is so distinct that an idea
crossed me once that he might be an actor. But then it is not uniformly
distinct. I am sure that he has some object or occupation in life: he
has not the air of an idler. Yet I have thought of all the ordinary
professions, and he does not fit one of them. This is perhaps what makes
him interesting. He is unaccountable."
"He must have some position. He was very familiar with Lord
Worthington."
"Lord Worthington is a sportsman, and is familiar with all sorts of
people."
"Yes; but surely he would not let a jockey, or anybody of that class,
put his arm round his neck, as we saw Mr. Byron do."
"That is true," said Lydia, thoughtfully. "Still," she added, clearing
her brow and laughing, "I am loath to believe that he is an invalid
student."
"I will tell you what he is," said Alice suddenly. "He is companion
and keeper to the man with whom he lives. Do you recollect his saying
'Mellish is mad'?"
"That is possible," said Lydia. "At all events we have got a topic; and
that is an important home comfort in the country."
Just then they reached the castle. Lydia lingered for a moment on the
terrace. The Gothic chimneys of the Warren Lodge stood up against the
long, crimson cloud into which the sun was sinking. She smiled as if
some quaint idea had occurred to her; raised her eyes for a moment to
the black-marble Egyptian gazing with unwavering eyes into the sky; and
followed Alice in-doors.
Later on, when it was quite dark, Cashel sat in a spacious kitchen at
the lodge, thinking. His companion, who had laid his coat aside, was at
the fire, smoking, and watching a saucepan that simmered there. He broke
the silence by remarking, after a glance at the clock, "Time to go to
roost."
"Time to go to the devil," said Cashel. "I am going out."
"Yes, and get a chill. Not if I know it you don't."
"Well, go to bed yourself, and then you won't know it. I want to take a
walk round the place."
"If you put your foot outside that door to-night Lord Worthington will
lose his five hundred pounds. You can't lick any one in fifteen minutes
if you train on night air. Get licked yourself more likely."
"Will you bet two to one that I don't stay out all night and knock the
Flying Dutchman out of time in the first round afterwards? Eh?"
"Come," said Mellish, coaxingly; "have some common-sense. I'm advising
you for your good."
"Suppose I don't want to be advised for my good. Eh? Hand me over that
lemon. You needn't start a speech; I'm not going to eat it."
"Blest if he ain't rubbing his 'ands with it!" exclaimed Mellish, after
watching him for some moments. "Why, you bloomin' fool, lemon won't
'arden your 'ands. Ain't I took enough trouble with them?"
"I want to whiten them," said Cashel, impatiently throwing the lemon
under the grate; "but it's no use; I can't go about with my fists like a
<DW65>'s. I'll go up to London to-morrow and buy a pair of gloves."
"What! Real gloves? Wearin' gloves?"
"You thundering old lunatic," said Cashel, rising and putting on his
hat; "is it likely that I want a pair of mufflers? Perhaps YOU think you
could teach me something with them. Ha! ha! By-the-bye--now mind this,
Mellish--don't let it out down here that I'm a fighting man. Do you
hear?"
"Me let it out!" cried Mellish, indignantly. "Is it likely? Now, I asts
you, Cashel Byron, is it likely?"
"Likely or not, don't do it," said Cashel. "You might get talking with
some of the chaps about the castle stables. They are generous with their
liquor when they can get sporting news for it."
Mellish looked at him reproachfully, and Cashel turned towards the door.
This movement changed the trainer's sense of injury into anxiety. He
renewed his remonstrances as to the folly of venturing into the night
air, and cited many examples of pugilists who had suffered defeat
in consequence of neglecting the counsel of their trainers. Cashel
expressed his disbelief in these anecdotes in brief and personal terms;
and at last Mellish had to content himself with proposing to limit the
duration of the walk to half an hour.
"Perhaps I will come back in half an hour," said Cashel, "and perhaps I
won't."
"Well, look here," said Mellish; "we won't quarrel about a minute or
two; but I feel the want of a walk myself, and I'll come with you."
"I'm d--d if you shall," said Cashel. "Here, let me out; and shut up.
I'm not going further than the park. I have no intention of making a
night of it in the village, which is what you are afraid of. I know
you, you old dodger. If you don't get out of my way I'll seat you on the
fire."
"But duty, Cashel, duty," pleaded Mellish, persuasively. "Every man
oughter do his duty. Consider your duty to your backers."
"Are you going to get out of my way, or must I put you out of it?" said
Cashel, reddening ominously.
Mellish went back to his chair, bowed his head on his hands, and wept.
"I'd sooner be a dog nor a trainer," he exclaimed. "Oh! the cusseduess
of bein' shut up for weeks with a fightin' man! For the fust two days
they're as sweet as treacle; and then their con trairyness comes out.
Their tempers is puffict 'ell."
Cashel, additionally enraged by a sting of remorse, went out and slammed
the door. He made straight towards the castle, and watched its windows
for nearly half an hour, keeping in constant motion so as to avert a
chill. At last an exquisitely toned bell struck the hour from one of
the minarets. To Cashel, accustomed to the coarse jangling of ordinary
English bells, the sound seemed to belong to fairyland. He went slowly
back to the Warren Lodge, and found his trainer standing at the open
door, smoking, and anxiously awaiting his return. Cashel rebuffed
certain conciliatory advances with a haughty reserve more dignified,
but much less acceptable to Mr. Mellish, than his former profane
familiarity, and went contemplatively to bed.
CHAPTER IV
One morning Miss Carew sat on the bank of a great pool in the park,
throwing pebbles two by two into the water, and intently watching the
intersection of the circles they made on its calm surface. Alice was
seated on a camp-stool a little way off, sketching the castle, which
appeared on an eminence to the southeast. The woodland rose round them
like the sides of an amphitheatre; but the trees did not extend to the
water's edge, where there was an ample margin of bright greensward and a
narrow belt of gravel, from which Lydia was picking her pebbles.
Presently, hearing a footstep, she looked back, and saw Cashel Byron
standing behind Alice, apparently much interested in her drawing. He was
dressed as she had last seen him, except that he wore primrose gloves
and an Egyptian red scarf. Alice turned, and surveyed him with haughty
surprise; but he made nothing of her looks; and she, after glancing at
Lydia to reassure herself that she was not alone, bade him good-morning,
and resumed her work.
"Queer place," he remarked, after a pause, alluding to the castle.
"Chinese looking, isn't it?"
"It is considered a very fine building," said Alice.
"Oh, hang what it is considered!" said Cashel. "What IS it? That is the
point to look to."
"It is a matter of taste," said Alice, very coldly.
"Mr. Cashel Byron."
Cashel started and hastened to the bank. "How d'ye do, Miss Carew," he
said. "I didn't see you until you called me." She looked at him; and he,
convicted of a foolish falsehood, quailed. "There is a splendid view of
the castle from here," he continued, to change the subject. "Miss Goff
and I have just been talking about it."
"Yes. Do you admire it?"
"Very much indeed. It is a beautiful place. Every one must acknowledge
that."
"It is considered kind to praise my house to me, and to ridicule it to
other people. You do not say, 'Hang what it is considered,' now."
Cashel, with an unaccustomed sense of getting the worst of an encounter,
almost lost heart to reply. Then he brightened, and said, "I can tell
you how that is. As far as being a place to sketch, or for another
person to look at, it is Chinese enough. But somehow your living in it
makes a difference. That is what I meant; upon my soul it is."
Lydia smiled; but he, looking down at her, did not see the smile because
of her coronet of red hair, which seemed to flame in the sunlight. The
obstruction was unsatisfactory to him; he wanted to see her face. He
hesitated, and then sat down on the ground beside her cautiously, as if
getting into a very hot bath.
"I hope you won't mind my sitting here," he said, timidly. "It seems
rude to talk down at you from a height."
She shook her head and threw two more stones into the pool. He could
think of nothing further to say, and as she did not speak, but gravely
watched the circles in the water, he began to stare at them too; and
they sat in silence for some minutes, steadfastly regarding the waves,
she as if there were matter for infinite thought in them, and he as
though the spectacle wholly confounded him. At last she said,
"Have you ever realized what a vibration is?"
"No," said Cashel, after a blank look at her.
"I am glad to hear you make that admission. Science has reduced
everything nowadays to vibration. Light, sound, sensation--all the
mysteries of nature are either vibrations or interference of vibrations.
There," she said, throwing another pair of pebbles in, and pointing
to the two sets of widening rings as they overlapped one another; "the
twinkling of a star, and the pulsation in a chord of music, are THAT.
But I cannot picture the thing in my own mind. I wonder whether the
hundreds of writers of text-books on physics, who talk so glibly of
vibrations, realize them any better than I do."
"Not a bit of it. Not one of them. Not half so well," said Cashel,
cheerfully, replying to as much of her speech as he understood.
"Perhaps the subject does not interest you," she said, turning to him.
"On the contrary; I like it of all things," said he, boldly.
"I can hardly say so much for my own interest in it. I am told that you
are a student, Mr. Cashel Byron. What are your favorite studies?--or
rather, since that is generally a hard question to answer, what are your
pursuits?"
Alice listened.
Cashel looked doggedly at Lydia, and his color slowly deepened. "I am a
professor," he said.
"A professor of what? I know I should ask of where; but that would only
elicit the name of a college, which would convey no real information to
me."
"I am a professor of science," said Cashel, in a low voice, looking
down at his left fist, which he was balancing in the air before him, and
stealthily hitting his bent knee as if it were another person's face.
"Physical or moral science?" persisted Lydia.
"Physical science," said Cashel. "But there's more moral science in it
than people think."
"Yes," said Lydia, seriously. "Though I have no real knowledge of
physics, I can appreciate the truth of that. Perhaps all the science
that is not at bottom physical science is only pretentious nescience.
I have read much of physics, and have often been tempted to learn
something of them--to make the experiments with my own hands--to
furnish a laboratory--to wield the scalpel even. For, to master science
thoroughly, I believe one must take one's gloves off. Is that your
opinion?"
Cashel looked hard at her. "You never spoke a truer word," he said. "But
you can become a very respectable amateur by working with the gloves."
"I never should. The many who believe they are the wiser for reading
accounts of experiments deceive themselves. It is as impossible to learn
science from theory as to gain wisdom from proverbs. Ah, it is so easy
to follow a line of argument, and so difficult to grasp the facts that
underlie it! Our popular lecturers on physics present us with chains of
deductions so highly polished that it is a luxury to let them slip from
end to end through our fingers. But they leave nothing behind but a
vague memory of the sensation they afforded. Excuse me for talking
figuratively. I perceive that you affect the opposite--a reaction on
your part, I suppose, against tall talk and fine writing. Pray, should
I ever carry out my intention of setting to work in earnest at science,
will you give me some lessons?"
"Well," said Cashel, with a covert grin, "I would rather you came to me
than to another professor; but I don't think it would suit you. I should
like to try my hand on your friend there. She's stronger and straighter
than nine out of ten men."
"You set a high value on physical qualifications then. So do I."
"Only from a practical point of view, mind you," said Cashel, earnestly.
"It isn't right to be always looking at men and women as you would at
horses. If you want to back them in a race or in a fight, that's one
thing; but if you want a friend or a sweetheart, that's another."
"Quite so," said Lydia, smiling. "You do not wish to commit yourself to
any warmer feeling towards Miss Goff than a critical appreciation of her
form and condition."
"Just that," said Cashel, satisfied. "YOU understand me, Miss Carew.
There are some people that you might talk to all day, and they'd be no
wiser at the end of it than they were at the beginning. You're not one
of that sort."
"I wonder do we ever succeed really in communicating our thoughts to one
another. A thought must take a new shape to fit itself into a strange
mind. You, Mr. Professor, must have acquired special experience of the
incommunicability of ideas in the course of your lectures and lessons."
Cashel looked uneasily at the water, and said in a lower voice, "Of
course you may call me just whatever you like; but--if it's all the same
to you--I wish you wouldn't call me professor."
"I have lived so much in countries where professors expect to be
addressed by their titles on all occasions, that I may claim to be
excused for having offended on that point. Thank you for telling me. But
I am to blame for discussing science with you. Lord Worthington told
us that you had come down here expressly to escape from it--to recruit
yourself after an excess of work."
"It doesn't matter," said Cashel.
"I have not done harm enough to be greatly concerned; but I will not
offend again. To change the subject, let us look at Miss Goff's sketch."
Miss Carew had hardly uttered this suggestion, when Cashel, in a
business-like manner, and without the slightest air of gallantry,
expertly lifted her and placed her on her feet. This unexpected
attention gave her a shock, followed by a thrill that was not
disagreeable. She turned to him with a faint mantling on her cheeks. He
was looking with contracted brows at the sky, as though occupied with
some calculation.
"Thank you," she said; "but pray do not do that again. It is a little
humiliating to be lifted like a child. You are very strong."
"There is not much strength needed to lift such a feather-weight as you.
Seven stone two, I should judge you to be, about. But there's a great
art in doing these things properly. I have often had to carry off a man
of fourteen stone, resting him all the time as if he was in bed."
"Ah," said Lydia; "I see you have had some hospital practice. I
have often admired the skill with which trained nurses handle their
patients."
Cashel made no reply, but, with a sinister grin, followed her to where
Alice sat.
"It is very foolish of me, I know," said Alice, presently; "but I never
can draw when any one is looking at me."
"You fancy that everybody is thinking about how you're doing it," said
Cashel, encouragingly. "That's always the way with amateurs. But the
truth is that not a soul except yourself is a bit concerned about it.
EX-cuse me," he added, taking up the drawing, and proceeding to examine
it leisurely.
"Please give me my sketch, Mr. Byron," she said, her cheeks red with
anger. Puzzled, he turned to Lydia for an explanation, while Alice
seized the sketch and packed it in her portfolio.
"It is getting rather warm," said Lydia. "Shall we return to the
castle?"
"I think we had better," said Alice, trembling with resentment as she
walked away quickly, leaving Lydia alone with Cashel, who presently
exclaimed,
"What in thunder have I done?"
"You have made an inconsiderate remark with unmistakable sincerity."
"I only tried to cheer her up. She must have mistaken what I said."
"I think not. Do you believe that young ladies like to be told that
there is no occasion for them to be ridiculously self-conscious?"
"I say that! I'll take my oath I never said anything of the sort."
"You worded it differently. But you assured her that she need not object
to have her drawing overlooked, as it is of no importance to any one."
"Well, if she takes offence at that she must be a born fool. Some people
can't bear to be told anything. But they soon get all that thin-skinned
nonsense knocked out of them."
"Have you any sisters, Mr. Cashel Byron?"
"No. Why?"
"Or a mother?"
"I have a mother; but I haven't seen her for years; and I don't much
care if I never see her. It was through her that I came to be what I
am."
"Are you then dissatisfied with your profession?"
"No--I don't mean that. I am always saying stupid things."
"Yes. That comes of your ignorance of a sex accustomed to have its
silliness respected. You will find it hard to keep on good terms with my
friend without some further study of womanly ways."
"As to her, I won't give in that I'm wrong unless I AM wrong. The
truth's the truth."
"Not even to please Miss Goff?"
"Not even to please you. You'd only think the worse of me afterwards."
"Quite true, and quite right," said Lydia, cordially. "Good-bye, Mr.
Cashel Byron. I must rejoin Miss Goff."
"I suppose you will take her part if she keeps a down on me for what I
said to her."
"What is 'a down'? A grudge?"
"Yes. Something of that sort."
"Colonial, is it not?" pursued Lydia, with the air of a philologist.
"Yes; I believe I picked it up in the colonies." Then he added,
sullenly, "I suppose I shouldn't use slang in speaking to you. I beg
your pardon."
"I do not object to it. On the contrary, it interests me. For example, I
have just learned from it that you have been in Australia."
"So I have. But are you out with me because I annoyed Miss Goff?"
"By no means. Nevertheless, I sympathize with her annoyance at the
manner, if not the matter, of your rebuke."
"I can't, for the life of me, see what there was in what I said to raise
such a fuss about. I wish you would give me a nudge whenever you see me
making a fool of myself. I will shut up at once and ask no questions."
"So that it will be understood that my nudge means 'Shut up, Mr. Cashel
Byron; you are making a fool of yourself'?"
"Just so. YOU understand me. I told you that before, didn't I?"
"I am afraid," said Lydia, her face bright with laughter, "that I cannot
take charge of your manners until we are a little better acquainted."
He seemed disappointed. Then his face clouded; and he began, "If you
regard it as a liberty--"
"Of course I regard it as a liberty," she said, neatly interrupting him.
"Is not my own conduct a sufficient charge upon my attention? Why should
I voluntarily assume that of a strong man and learned professor as
well?"
"By Jingo!" exclaimed Cashel, with sudden excitement, "I don't care what
you say to me. You have a way of giving things a turn that makes it a
pleasure to be shut up by you; and if I were a gentleman, as I ought
to be, instead of a poor devil of a professional pug, I would--" He
recollected himself, and turned quite pale. There was a pause.
"Let me remind you," said Lydia, composedly, though she too had changed
color at the beginning of his outburst, "that we are both wanted
elsewhere at present; I by Miss Goff, and you by your servant, who has
been hovering about us and looking at you anxiously for some minutes."
Cashel turned fiercely, and saw Mellish standing a little way off,
sulkily watching him. Lydia took the opportunity, and left the place. As
she retreated she could hear that they were at high words together; but
she could not distinguish what they were saying. Fortunately so; for
their language was villainous.
She found Alice in the library, seated bolt upright in a chair that
would have tempted a good-humored person to recline. Lydia sat down in
silence. Alice, presently looking at her, discovered that she was in
a fit of noiseless laughter. The effect, in contrast to her habitual
self-possession, was so strange that Alice almost forgot to be offended.
"I am glad to see that it is not hard to amuse you," she said.
Lydia waited to recover herself thoroughly, and then replied, "I have
not laughed so three times in my life. Now, Alice, put aside your
resentment of our neighbor's impudence for the moment, and tell me what
you think of him."
"I have not thought about him at all, I assure you," said Alice,
disdainfully.
"Then think about him for a moment to oblige me, and let me know the
result."
"Really, you have had much more opportunity of judging than I. _I_ have
hardly spoken to him."
Lydia rose patiently and went to the bookcase. "You have a cousin at one
of the universities, have you not?" she said, seeking along the shelf
for a volume.
"Yes," replied Alice, speaking very sweetly to atone for her want of
amiability on the previous subject.
"Then perhaps you know something of university slang?"
"I never allow him to talk slang to me," said Alice, quickly.
"You may dictate modes of expression to a single man, perhaps, but not
to a whole university," said Lydia, with a quiet scorn that brought
unexpected tears to Alice's eyes. "Do you know what a pug is?"
"A pug!" said Alice, vacantly. "No; I have heard of a bulldog--a
proctor's bulldog, but never a pug."
"I must try my slang dictionary," said Lydia, taking down a book and
opening it. "Here it is. 'Pug--a fighting man's idea of the contracted
word to be produced from pugilist.' What an extraordinary definition!
A fighting man's idea of a contraction! Why should a man have a special
idea of a contraction when he is fighting; or why should he think of
such a thing at all under such circumstances? Perhaps 'fighting man' is
slang too. No; it is not given here. Either I mistook the word, or it
has some signification unknown to the compiler of my dictionary."
"It seems quite plain to me," said Alice. "Pug means pugilist."
"But pugilism is boxing; it is not a profession. I suppose all men are
more or less pugilists. I want a sense of the word in which it denotes
a calling or occupation of some kind. I fancy it means a demonstrator of
anatomy. However, it does not matter."
"Where did you meet with it?"
"Mr. Byron used it just now."
"Do you really like that man?" said Alice, returning to the subject more
humbly than she had quitted it.
"So far, I do not dislike him. He puzzles me. If the roughness of his
manner is an affectation I have never seen one so successful before."
"Perhaps he does not know any better. His coarseness did not strike me
as being affected at all."
"I should agree with you but for one or two remarks that fell from him.
They showed an insight into the real nature of scientific knowledge, and
an instinctive sense of the truths underlying words, which I have never
met with except in men of considerable culture and experience. I suspect
that his manner is deliberately assumed in protest against the selfish
vanity which is the common source of social polish. It is partly
natural, no doubt. He seems too impatient to choose his words heedfully.
Do you ever go to the theatre?"
"No," said Alice, taken aback by this apparent irrelevance. "My father
disapproved of it. But I was there once. I saw the 'Lady of Lyons.'"
"There is a famous actress, Adelaide Gisborne--"
"It was she whom I saw as the Lady of Lyons. She did it beautifully."
"Did Mr. Byron remind you of her?"
Alice stared incredulously at Lydia. "I do not think there can be two
people in the world less like one another," she said.
"Nor do I," said Lydia, meditatively. "But I think their dissimilarity
owes its emphasis to some lurking likeness. Otherwise how could he
have reminded me of her?" Lydia, as she spoke, sat down with a troubled
expression, as if trying to unravel her thoughts. "And yet," she added,
presently, "my theatrical associations are so complex that--" A long
silence ensued, during which Alice, conscious of some unusual stir in
her patroness, watched her furtively and wondered what would happen
next.
"Alice."
"Yes."
"My mind is exercising itself in spite of me on small and impertinent
matters--a sure symptom of failing mental health. My presence here is
only one of several attempts that I have made to live idly since my
father's death. They have all failed. Work has become necessary to me. I
will go to London tomorrow."
Alice looked up in dismay; for this seemed equivalent to a dismissal.
But her face expressed nothing but polite indifference.
"We shall have time to run through all the follies of the season before
June, when I hope to return here and set to work at a book I have
planned. I must collect the material for it in London. If I leave town
before the season is over, and you are unwilling to come away with me, I
can easily find some one who will take care of you as long as you please
to stay. I wish it were June already!"
Alice preferred Lydia's womanly impatience to her fatalistic calm.
It relieved her sense of inferiority, which familiarity had increased
rather than diminished. Yet she was beginning to persuade herself,
with some success, that the propriety of Lydia's manners was at least
questionable. That morning Miss Carew had not scrupled to ask a man what
his profession was; and this, at least, Alice congratulated herself on
being too well-bred to do. She had quite lost her awe of the servants,
and had begun to address them with an unconscious haughtiness and a
conscious politeness that were making the word "upstart" common in the
servants' hall. Bashville, the footman, had risked his popularity there
by opining that Miss Goff was a fine young woman.
Bashville was in his twenty-fourth year, and stood five feet ten in his
stockings. At the sign of the Green Man in the village he was known as a
fluent orator and keen political debater. In the stables he was deferred
to as an authority on sporting affairs, and an expert wrestler in the
Cornish fashion. The women servants regarded him with undissembled
admiration. They vied with one another in inventing expressions of
delight when he recited before them, which, as he had a good memory and
was fond of poetry, he often did. They were proud to go out walking with
him. But his attentions never gave rise to jealousy; for it was an open
secret in the servants' hall that he loved his mistress. He had never
said anything to that effect, and no one dared allude to it in his
presence, much less rally him on his weakness; but his passion was well
known for all that, and it seemed by no means so hopeless to the younger
members of the domestic staff as it did to the cook, the butler, and
Bashville himself. Miss Carew, who knew the value of good servants,
appreciated her footman's smartness, and paid him accordingly; but she
had no suspicion that she was waited on by a versatile young student of
poetry and public affairs, distinguished for his gallantry, his personal
prowess, his eloquence, and his influence on local politics.
It was Bashville who now entered the library with a salver, which he
proffered to Alice, saying, "The gentleman is waiting in the round
drawing-room, miss."
Alice took the gentleman's card, and read, "Mr. Wallace Parker."
"Oh!" she said, with vexation, glancing at Bashville as if to divine his
impression of the visitor. "My cousin--the one we were speaking of just
now--has come to see me."
"How fortunate!" said Lydia. "He will tell me the meaning of pug. Ask
him to lunch with us."
"You would not care for him," said Alice. "He is not much used to
society. I suppose I had better go and see him."
Miss Carew did not reply, being plainly at a loss to understand how
there could be any doubt about the matter. Alice went to the round
drawing-room, where she found Mr. Parker examining a trophy of Indian
armor, and presenting a back view of a short gentleman in a spruce blue
frock-coat. A new hat and pair of gloves were also visible as he stood
looking upward with his hands behind him. When he turned to greet Alice
lie displayed a face expressive of resolute self-esteem, with eyes whose
watery brightness, together with the bareness of his temples, from which
the hair was worn away, suggested late hours and either very studious
or very dissipated habits. He advanced confidently, pressed Alice's hand
warmly for several seconds, and placed a chair for her, without noticing
the marked coldness with which she received his attentions.
"I was surprised, Alice," he said, when he had seated himself opposite
to her, "to learn from Aunt Emily that you had come to live here without
consulting me. I--"
"Consult you!" she said, contemptuously, interrupting him. "I never
heard of such a thing! Why should I consult you as to my movements?"
"Well, I should not have used the word consult, particularly to such
an independent little lady as sweet Alice Goff. Still, I think you
might--merely as a matter of form, you know--have informed me of the
step you were taking. The relations that exist between us give me a
right to your confidence."
"What relations, pray?"
"What relations!" he repeated, with reproachful emphasis.
"Yes. What relations?"
He rose, and addressed her with tender solemnity. "Alice," he began; "I
have proposed to you at least six times--"
"And have I accepted you once?"
"Hear me to the end, Alice. I know that you have never explicitly
accepted me; but it has always been understood that my needy
circumstances were the only obstacle to our happiness. We--don't
interrupt me, Alice; you little know what's coming. That obstacle no
longer exists. I have been made second master at Sunbury College, with
three hundred and fifty pounds a year, a house, coals, and gas. In the
course of time I shall undoubtedly succeed to the head mastership--a
splendid position, worth eight hundred pounds a year. You are now free
from the troubles that have pressed so hard upon you since your father's
death; and you can quit at once--now--instantly, your dependent position
here."
"Thank you: I am very comfortable here. I am staying on a visit with
Miss Carew."
Silence ensued; and he sat down slowly. Then she added, "I am
exceedingly glad that you have got something good at last. It must be a
great relief to your poor mother."
"I fancied, Alice--though it may have been only fancy--I fancied that
YOUR mother was colder than usual in her manner this morning. I hope
that the luxuries of this palatial mansion are powerless to corrupt
your heart. I cannot lead you to a castle and place crowds of liveried
servants at your beck and call; but I can make you mistress of an
honorable English home, independent of the bounty of strangers. You can
never be more than a lady, Alice."
"It is very good of you to lecture me, I am sure."
"You might be serious with me," he said, rising in ill-humor, and
walking a little way down the room.
"I think the offer of a man's hand ought to be received with respect."
"Oh! I did not quite understand. I thought we agreed that you are not to
make me that offer every time we meet."
"It was equally understood that the subject was only deferred until
I should be in a position to resume it without binding you to a long
engagement. That time has come now; and I expect a favorable answer at
last. I am entitled to one, considering how patiently I have waited for
it."
"For my part, Wallace, I must say I do not think it wise for you to
think of marrying with only three hundred and fifty pounds a year."
"With a house: remember that; and coals and gas! You are becoming very
prudent, now that you live with Miss Whatshername here. I fear you no
longer love me, Alice."
"I never said I loved you at any time."
"Pshaw! You never said so, perhaps; but you always gave me to understand
that--"
"I did nothing of the sort, Wallace; and I won't have you say so."
"In short," he retorted, bitterly, "you think you will pick up some
swell here who will be a better bargain than I am."
"Wallace! How dare you?"
"You hurt my feelings, Alice, and I speak out. I know how to behave
myself quite as well as those who have the entree here; but when my
entire happiness is at stake I do not stand on punctilio. Therefore, I
insist on a straightforward answer to my fair, honorable proposal."
"Wallace," said Alice, with dignity; "I will not be forced into giving
an answer against my will. I regard you as a cousin."
"I do not wish to be regarded as a cousin. Have I ever regarded you as a
cousin?"
"And do you suppose, Wallace, that I should permit you to call me by my
Christian name, and be as familiar as we have always been together, if
you were not my cousin? If so, you must have a very strange opinion of
me."
"I did not think that luxury could so corrupt--"
"You said that before," said Alice, pettishly. "Do not keep repeating
the same thing over and over; you know it is one of your bad habits.
Will you stay to lunch? Miss Carew told me to ask you."
"Indeed! Miss Carew is very kind. Please inform her that I am deeply
honored, and that I feel quite disturbed at being unable to accept her
patronage."
Alice poised her head disdainfully. "No doubt it amuses you to make
yourself ridiculous," she said; "but I must say I do not see any
occasion for it."
"I am sorry that my behavior is not sufficiently good for you. You
never found any cause to complain of it when our surroundings were less
aristocratic. I am quite ashamed of taking so much of your valuable
time. GOOD-morning."
"Good-morning. But I do not see why you are in such a rage."
"I am not in a rage. I am only grieved to find that you are corrupted by
luxury. I thought your principles were higher. Good-morning, Miss Goff.
I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you again in this very choice
mansion."
"Are you really going, Wallace?" said Alice, rising.
"Yes. Why should I stay?"
She rang the bell, greatly disconcerting him; for he had expected her
to detain him and make advances for a reconciliation. Before they could
exchange more words, Bashville entered.
"Good-bye," said Alice, politely.
"Good-bye," he replied, through his teeth. He walked loftily out,
passing Bashville with marked scorn.
He had left the house, and was descending the terrace steps, when he was
overtaken by the footman, who said, civilly,
"Beg your pardon, sir. You've forgotten this, I think." And he handed
him a walking-stick.
Parker's first idea was that his stick had attracted the man's attention
by the poor figure it made in the castle hall, and that Bashville was
requesting him, with covert superciliousness, to remove his property.
On second thoughts, his self-esteem rejected this suspicion as too
humiliating; but he resolved to show Bashville that he had a gentleman
to deal with. So he took the stick, and instead of thanking Bashville,
handed him five shillings.
Bashville smiled and shook his head. "Oh, no, sir," he said, "thank you
all the same! Those are not my views."
"The more fool you," said Parker, pocketing the coins, and turning away.
Bashville's countenance changed. "Come, come, sir," he said, following
Parker to the foot of the stops, "fair words deserve fair words. I am no
more a fool than you are. A gentleman should know his place as well as a
servant."
"Oh, go to the devil," muttered Parker, turning very red and hurrying
away.
"If you weren't my mistress's guest," said Bashville, looking menacingly
after him, "I'd send you to bed for a week for sending me to the devil."
CHAPTER V
Miss Carew remorselessly carried out her intention of going to London,
where she took a house in Regent's Park, to the disappointment of Alice,
who had hoped to live in Mayfair, or at least in South Kensington. But
Lydia set great store by the high northerly ground and open air of the
park; and Alice found almost perfect happiness in driving through London
in a fine carriage and fine clothes. She liked that better than concerts
of classical music, which she did not particularly relish, or even than
the opera, to which they went often. The theatres pleased her more,
though the amusements there were tamer than she had expected. Society
was delightful to her because it was real London society. She acquired a
mania for dancing; went out every night, and seemed to herself far more
distinguished and attractive than she had ever been in Wiltstoken, where
she had nevertheless held a sufficiently favorable opinion of her own
manners and person.
Lydia did not share all these dissipations. She easily procured
invitations and chaperones for Alice, who wondered why so intelligent
a woman would take the trouble to sit out a stupid concert, and then go
home, just as the real pleasure of the evening was beginning.
One Saturday morning, at breakfast, Lydia said,
"Your late hours begin to interfere with the freshness of your
complexion, Alice. I am getting a little fatigued, myself, with literary
work. I will go to the Crystal Palace to-day, and wander about the
gardens for a while; there is to be a concert in the afternoon for the
benefit of Madame Szczymplica, whose playing you do not admire. Will you
come with me?"
"Of course," said Alice, resolutely dutiful.
"Of choice; not of course," said Lydia. "Are you engaged for to-morrow
evening?"
"Sunday? Oh, no. Besides, I consider all my engagements subject to your
convenience."
There was a pause, long enough for this assurance to fall perfectly
flat. Alice bit her lip. Then Lydia said, "Do you know Mrs. Hoskyn?"
"Mrs. Hoskyn who gives Sunday evenings? Shall we go there?" said Alice,
eagerly. "People often ask me whether I have been at one of them. But I
don't know her--though I have seen her. Is she nice?"
"She is a young woman who has read a great deal of art criticism, and
been deeply impressed by it. She has made her house famous by bringing
there all the clever people she meets, and making them so comfortable
that they take care to come again. But she has not, fortunately for her,
allowed her craze for art to get the better of her common-sense. She
married a prosperous man of business, who probably never read anything
but a newspaper since he left school; and there is probably not a
happier pair in England."
"I presume she had sense enough to know that she could not afford to
choose," said Alice, complacently. "She is very ugly."
"Do you think so? She has many admirers, and was, I am told, engaged to
Mr. Herbert, the artist, before she met Mr. Hoskyn. We shall meet Mr.
Herbert there to-morrow, and a number of celebrated persons besides--his
wife, Madame Szczymplica the pianiste, Owen Jack the composer, Hawkshaw
the poet, Conolly the inventor, and others. The occasion will be a
special one, as Herr Abendgasse, a remarkable German socialist and art
critic, is to deliver a lecture on 'The True in Art.' Be careful, in
speaking of him in society, to refer to him as a sociologist, and not as
a socialist. Are you particularly anxious to hear him lecture?"
"No doubt it will be very interesting," said Alice. "I should not like
to miss the opportunity of going to Mrs. Hoskyn's. People so often ask
me whether I have been there, and whether I know this, that, and the
other celebrated person, that I feel quite embarrassed by my rustic
ignorance."
"Because," pursued Lydia, "I had intended not to go until after the
lecture. Herr Abendgasse is enthusiastic and eloquent, but not original;
and as I have imbibed all his ideas direct from their inventors, I
do not feel called upon to listen to his exposition of them. So that,
unless you are specially interested--"
"Not at all. If he is a socialist I should much rather not listen to
him, particularly on Sunday evening."
So it was arranged that they should go to Mrs. Hoskyn's after the
lecture. Meanwhile they went to Sydenham, where Alice went through
the Crystal Palace with provincial curiosity, and Lydia answered her
questions encyclopedically. In the afternoon there was a concert, at
which a band played several long pieces of music, which Lydia seemed to
enjoy, though she found fault with the performers. Alice, able to detect
neither the faults in the execution nor the beauty of the music, did as
she saw the others do--pretended to be pleased and applauded decorously.
Madame Szczymplica, whom she expected to meet at Mrs. Hoskyn's,
appeared, and played a fantasia for pianoforte and orchestra by the
famous Jack, another of Mrs. Hoskyn's circle. There was in the programme
an analysis of this composition from which Alice learned that by
attentively listening to the adagio she could hear the angels singing
therein. She listened as attentively as she could, but heard no angels,
and was astonished when, at the conclusion of the fantasia, the audience
applauded Madame Szczymplica as if she had made them hear the music of
the spheres. Even Lydia seemed moved, and said,
"Strange, that she is only a woman like the rest of us, with just
the same narrow bounds to her existence, and just the same prosaic
cares--that she will go by train to Victoria, and from thence home in a
common vehicle instead of embarking in a great shell and being drawn by
swans to some enchanted island. Her playing reminds me of myself as I
was when I believed in fairyland, and indeed knew little about any other
land."
"They say," said Alice, "that her husband is very jealous, and that she
leads him a terrible life."
"THEY SAY anything that brings gifted people to the level of their own
experience. Doubtless they are right. I have not met Mr. Herbert, but I
have seen his pictures, which suggest that he reads everything and sees
nothing; for they all represent scenes described in some poem. If
one could only find an educated man who had never read a book, what a
delightful companion he would be!"
When the concert was over they did not return directly to town, as Lydia
wished to walk awhile in the gardens. In consequence, when they left
Sydenham, they got into a Waterloo train, and so had to change at
Clapham Junction. It was a fine summer evening, and Alice, though she
thought that it became ladies to hide themselves from the public in
waiting-rooms at railway stations, did not attempt to dissuade Lydia
from walking to and fro at an unfrequented end of the platform, which
terminated in a bank covered with flowers.
"To my mind," said Lydia, "Clapham Junction is one of the prettiest
places about London."
"Indeed!" said Alice, a little maliciously. "I thought that all artistic
people looked on junctions and railway lines as blots on the landscape."
"Some of them do," said Lydia; "but they are not the artists of our
generation; and those who take up their cry are no better than parrots.
If every holiday recollection of my youth, every escape from town
to country, be associated with the railway, I must feel towards it
otherwise than did my father, upon whose middle age it came as a
monstrous iron innovation. The locomotive is one of the wonders of
modern childhood. Children crowd upon a bridge to see the train pass
beneath. Little boys strut along the streets puffing and whistling in
imitation of the engine. All that romance, silly as it looks, becomes
sacred in afterlife. Besides, when it is not underground in a foul
London tunnel, a train is a beautiful thing. Its pure, white fleece of
steam harmonizes with every variety of landscape. And its sound! Have
you ever stood on a sea-coast skirted by a railway, and listened as the
train came into hearing in the far distance? At first it can hardly be
distinguished from the noise of the sea; then you recognize it by its
vibration; one moment smothered in a deep cutting, and the next sent
echoing from some hillside. Sometimes it runs smoothly for many minutes,
and then breaks suddenly into a rhythmic clatter, always changing
in distance and intensity. When it comes near, you should get into a
tunnel, and stand there while it passes. I did that once, and it was
like the last page of an overture by Beethoven--thunderingly impetuous.
I cannot conceive how any person can hope to disparage a train
by comparing it with a stage-coach; and I know something of
stage-coaches--or, at least, of diligences. Their effect on the men
employed about them ought to decide the superiority of steam without
further argument. I have never observed an engine-driver who did not
seem an exceptionally intelligent mechanic, while the very writers and
artists who have preserved the memory of the coaching days for us do
not appear to have taken coachmen seriously, or to have regarded them
as responsible and civilized men. Abuse of the railway from a pastoral
point of view is obsolete. There are millions of grown persons in
England to whom the far sound of the train is as pleasantly suggestive
as the piping of a blackbird. Again--is not that Lord Worthington
getting out of the train? Yes, that one, at the third platform from
this. He--" She stopped.
Alice looked, but could see neither Lord Worthington nor the cause of a
subtle but perceptible change in Lydia, who said, quickly,
"He is probably coming to our train. Come to the waiting-room." She
walked swiftly along the platform as she spoke. Alice hurried after her;
and they had but just got into the room, the door of which was close to
the staircase which gave access to the platform, when a coarse din
of men's voices showed that a noisy party were ascending the steps.
Presently a man emerged reeling, and at once began to execute a drunken
dance, and to sing as well as his condition and musical faculty allowed.
Lydia stood near the window of the room and watched in silence. Alice,
following her example, recognized the drunken dancer as Mellish. He was
followed by three men gayly attired and highly elated, but comparatively
sober. After them came Cashel Byron, showily dressed in a velveteen
coat, and tightly-fitting fawn- pantaloons that displayed the
muscles of his legs. He also seemed quite sober; but he was dishevelled,
and his left eye blinked frequently, the adjacent brow and cheek being
much yellower than his natural complexion, which appeared to advantage
on the right side of his face. Walking steadily to Mellish, who was now
asking each of the bystanders in turn to come and drink at his expense,
he seized him by the collar and sternly bade him cease making a fool of
himself. Mellish tried to embrace him.
"My own boy," he exclaimed, affectionately. "He's my little nonpareil.
Cashel Byron again' the world at catch weight. Bob Mellish's money--"
"You sot," said Cashel, rolling him about until he was giddy as well as
drunk, and then forcing him to sit down on a bench; "one would think you
never saw a mill or won a bet in your life before."
"Steady, Byron," said one of the others. "Here's his lordship." Lord
Worthington was coming up the stairs, apparently the most excited of the
party.
"Fine man!" he cried, patting Cashel on the shoulder. "Splendid man! You
have won a monkey for me to-day; and you shall have your share of it,
old boy."
"I trained him," said Mellish, staggering forward again. "I trained him.
You know me, my lord. You know Bob Mellish. A word with your lordship in
c-confidence. You ask who knows how to make the beef go and the muscle
come. You ask--I ask your lordship's pard'n. What'll your lordship
take?"
"Take care, for Heaven's sake!" exclaimed Lord Worthington, clutching at
him as he reeled backward towards the line. "Don't you see the train?"
"_I_ know," said Mellish, gravely. "I am all right; no man more so. I am
Bob Mellish. You ask--"
"Here. Come out of this," said one of the party, a powerful man with a
scarred face and crushed nose, grasping Mellish and thrusting him into
the train. "Y'll 'ave to clap a beefsteak on that ogle of yours, where
you napped the Dutchman's auctioneer, Byron. It's got more yellow paint
on it than y'll like to show in church to-morrow."
At this they all gave a roar of laughter, and entered a third-class
carriage. Lydia and Alice had but just time to take their places in the
train before it started.
"Eeally, I must say," said Alice, "that if those were Mr. Cashel Byron's
and Lord Worthington's associates, their tastes are very peculiar."
"Yes," said Lydia, almost grimly. "I am a fair linguist; but I did not
understand a single sentence of their conversation, though I heard it
all distinctly."
"They were not gentlemen," said Alice. "You say that no one can tell by
a person's appearance whether he is a gentleman or not; but surely you
cannot think that those men are Lord Worthington's equals."
"I do not," said Lydia. "They are ruffians; and Cashel Byron is the most
unmistakable ruffian of them all."
Alice, awestruck, did not venture to speak again until they left the
train at Victoria. There was a crowd outside the carriage in which
Cashel had travelled. They hastened past; but Lydia asked a guard
whether anything was the matter. He replied that a drunken man,
alighting from the train, had fallen down upon the rails, and that, had
the carriage been in motion, he would have been killed. Lydia thanked
her informant, and, as she turned from him, found Bashville standing
before her, touching his hat. She had given him no instructions to
attend. However, she accepted his presence as a matter of course, and
inquired whether the carriage was there.
"No, madam," replied Bashville. "The coachman had no orders."
"Quite right. A hansom, if you please." When he was gone she said to
Alice, "Did you tell Bashville to meet us?"
"Oh, DEAR, no," said Alice. "I should not think of doing such a thing."
"Strange! However, he knows his duties better than I do; so I have no
doubt that he has acted properly. He has been waiting all the afternoon,
I suppose, poor fellow."
"He has nothing else to do," said Alice, carelessly. "Here he is. He has
picked out a capital horse for us, too."
Meanwhile, Mellish had been dragged from beneath the train and seated on
the knee of one of his companions. He was in a stupor, and had a large
lump on his brow. His eye was almost closed. The man with the crushed
nose now showed himself an expert surgeon. While Cashel supported the
patient on the knee of another man, and the rest of the party kept off
the crowd by mingled persuasion and violence, he produced a lancet
and summarily reduced the swelling by lancing it. He then dressed the
puncture neatly with appliances for that purpose which he carried about
him, and shouted in Mellish's ear to rouse him. But the trainer only
groaned, and let his head drop inert on his breast. More shouting was
resorted to, but in vain. Cashel impatiently expressed an opinion that
Mellish was shamming, and declared that he would not stand there to be
fooled with all the evening.
"If he was my pal 'stead o' yours," said the man with the broken nose,
"I'd wake him up fast enough."
"I'll save you the trouble," said Cashel, coolly stooping and seizing
between his teeth the cartilage of the trainer's ear.
"That's the way to do it," said the other, approvingly, as Mellish
screamed and started to his feet. "Now, then. Up with you."
He took Mellish's right arm, Cashel took the left, and they brought
him away between them without paying the least heed to his tears, his
protestations that he was hurt, his plea that he was an old man, or his
bitter demand as to where Cashel would have been at that moment without
his care.
Lord Worthington had taken advantage of this accident to slip away from
his travelling companions and drive alone to his lodgings in Jermyn
Street. He was still greatly excited; and when his valet, an old
retainer with whom he was on familiar terms, brought him a letter that
had arrived during his absence, he asked him four times whether any
one had called, and four times interrupted him by scraps of information
about the splendid day he had had and the luck he was in.
"I bet five hundred even that it would be over in a quarter of an hour;
and then I bet Byron two hundred and fifty to one that it wouldn't.
That's the way to doit; eh, Bedford? Catch Cashel letting two hundred
and fifty slip through his fingers! By George, though, he's an artful
card. At the end of fourteen minutes I thought my five hundred was
corpsed. The Dutchman was full of fight; and Cashel suddenly turned weak
and tried to back out of the rally. You should have seen the gleam in
the Dutchman's eye when he rushed in after him. He made cock-sure of
finishing him straight off."
"Indeed, my lord. Dear me!"
"I should think so: I was taken in by it myself. It was only done to
draw the poor devil. By George, Bedford, you should have seen the way
Cashel put in his right. But you couldn't have seen it; it was too
quick. The Dutchman was asleep on the grass before he knew he'd been
hit. Byron had collected fifteen pounds for him before he came to. His
jaw must feel devilish queer after it. By Jove, Bedford, Cashel is a
perfect wonder. I'd back him for every cent I possess against any man
alive. He makes you feel proud of being an Englishman."
Bedford looked on with submissive wonder as his master, transfigured
with enthusiasm, went hastily to and fro through the room, occasionally
clinching his fist and smiting an imaginary Dutchman. The valet at last
ventured to remind him that he had forgotten the letter.
"Oh, hang the letter!" said Lord Worthington. "It's Mrs. Hoskyn's
writing--an invitation, or some such rot. Here; let's see it."
"Campden Hill Road, Saturday.
"My dear Lord Worthington,--I have not forgotten my promise to obtain
for you a near view of the famous Mrs. Herbert--'Madame Simplicita,'
as you call her. She will be with us to-morrow evening; and we shall be
very happy to see you then, if you care to come. At nine o'clock, Herr
Abendgasse, a celebrated German art critic and a great friend of mine,
will read us a paper on 'The True in Art'; but I will not pay you the
compliment of pretending to believe that that interests you, so you may
come at ten or half-past, by which hour all the serious business of the
evening will be over."
"Well, there is nothing like cheek," said Lord Worthington, breaking
off in his perusal. "These women think that because I enjoy life in a
rational way I don't know the back of a picture from the front, or the
inside of a book from the cover. I shall go at nine sharp."
"If any of your acquaintances take an interest in art, I will gladly
make them welcome. Could you not bring me a celebrity or two? I am very
anxious to have as good an audience as possible for Herr Abendgasse.
However, as it is, he shall have no reason to complain, as I flatter
myself that I have already secured a very distinguished assembly. Still,
if you can add a second illustrious name to my list, by all means do
so."
"Very good, Mrs. Hoskyn," said Lord Worthington, looking cunningly at
the bewildered Bedford. "You shall have a celebrity--a real one--none
of your mouldy old Germans--if I can only get him to come. If any of her
people don't like him they can tell him so. Eh, Bedford?"
CHAPTER VI
Next evening, Lydia and Alice reached Mrs. Hoskyn's house in Campden
Hill Road a few minutes before ten o'clock. They found Lord Worthington
in the front garden, smoking and chatting with Mr. Hoskyn. He threw away
his cigar and returned to the house with the two ladies, who observed
that he was somewhat flushed with wine. They went into a parlor to take
off their wraps, leaving him at the foot of the stairs. Presently they
heard some one come down and address him excitedly thus,
"Worthington. Worthington. He has begun making a speech before the whole
room. He got up the moment old Abendgasse sat down. Why the deuce did
you give him that glass of champagne?"
"Sh-sh-sh! You don't say so! Come with me; and let us try to get him
away quietly."
"Did you hear that?" said Alice. "Something must have happened."
"I hope so," said Lydia. "Ordinarily, the fault in these receptions is
that nothing happens. Do not announce us, if you please," she added to
the servant, as they ascended the stairs. "Since we have come late,
let us spare the feelings of Herr Abendgasse by going in as quietly as
possible."
They had no difficulty in entering unnoticed, for Mrs. Hoskyn considered
obscurity beautiful; and her rooms were but dimly lighted by two curious
lanterns of pink glass, within which were vaporous flames. In the middle
of the larger apartment was a small table covered with garnet-
plush, with a reading-desk upon it, and two candles in silver
candlesticks, the light of which, being brighter than the lanterns, cast
strong double shadows from a group of standing figures about the table.
The surrounding space was crowded with chairs, occupied chiefly by
ladies. Behind them, along the wall, stood a row of men, among whom was
Lucian Webber. All were staring at Cashel Byron, who was making a speech
to some bearded and spectacled gentlemen at the table. Lydia, who had
never before seen him either in evening dress or quite at his ease,
was astonished at his bearing. His eyes were sparkling, his confidence
overbore the company, and his rough voice created the silence it broke.
He was in high good-humor, and marked his periods by the swing of his
extended left arm, while he held his right hand close to his body and
occasionally pointed his remarks by slyly wagging his forefinger.
"--executive power," he was saying as Lydia entered. "That's a very good
expression, gentlemen, and one that I can tell you a lot about. We have
been told that if we want to civilize our neighbors we must do it mainly
by the example of our own lives, by each becoming a living illustration
of the highest culture we know. But what I ask is, how is anybody to
know that you're an illustration of culture. You can't go about like a
sandwich man with a label on your back to tell all the fine notions you
have in your head; and you may be sure no person will consider your mere
appearance preferable to his own. You want an executive power; that's
what you want. Suppose you walked along the street and saw a man beating
a woman, and setting a bad example to the roughs. Well, you would be
bound to set a good example to them; and, if you're men, you'd like to
save the woman; but you couldn't do it by merely living; for that would
be setting the bad example of passing on and leaving the poor creature
to be beaten. What is it that you need to know then, in order to act up
to your fine ideas? Why, you want to know how to hit him, when to hit
him, and where to hit him; and then you want the nerve to go in and do
it. That's executive power; and that's what's wanted worse than sitting
down and thinking how good you are, which is what this gentleman's
teaching comes to after all. Don't you see? You want executive power to
set an example. If you leave all that to the roughs, it's their example
that will spread, and not yours. And look at the politics of it. We've
heard a good deal about the French to-night. Well, they've got executive
power. They know how to make a barricade, and how to fight behind it
when they've made it. What's the result? Why, the French, if they only
knew what they wanted, could have it to-morrow for the asking--more's
the pity that they don't know. In this country we can do nothing; and
if the lords and the landlords, or any other collection of nobs, were
to drive us into the sea, what could we do but go? There's a gentleman
laughing at me for saying that; but I ask him what would he do if the
police or the soldiers came this evening and told him to turn out of his
comfortable house into the Thames? Tell 'em he wouldn't vote for their
employers at the next election, perhaps? Or, if that didn't stop them,
tell 'em that he'd ask his friends to do the same? That's a pretty
executive power! No, gentlemen. Don't let yourself be deceived by people
that have staked their money against you. The first thing to learn is
how to fight. There's no use in buying books and pictures unless you
know how to keep them and your own head as well. If that gentleman that
laughed know how to fight, and his neighbors all knew how to fight
too, he wouldn't need to fear police, nor soldiers, nor Russians, nor
Prussians, nor any of the millions of men that may be let loose on him
any day of the week, safe though he thinks himself. But, says you, let's
have a division of labor. Let's not fight for ourselves, but pay other
men to fight for us. That shows how some people, when they get hold
of an idea, will work it to that foolish length that it's wearisome to
listen to them. Fighting is the power of self-preservation; another man
can't do it for you. You might as well divide the labor of eating your
dinner, and pay one fellow to take the beef, another the beer, and a
third the potatoes. But let us put it for the sake of argument that you
do pay others to fight for you. Suppose some one else pays them higher,
and they fight a cross, or turn openly against you! You'd have only
yourself to blame for giving the executive power to money. And so long
as the executive power is money the poor will be kept out of their
corner and fouled against the ropes; whereas, by what I understand, the
German professor wants them to have their rights. Therefore I say that a
man's first duty is to learn to fight. If he can't do that he can't set
an example; he can't stand up for his own rights or his neighbors'; he
can't keep himself in bodily health; and if he sees the weak ill-used
by the strong, the most he can do is to sneak away and tell the nearest
policeman, who most likely won't turn up until the worst of the mischief
is done. Coming to this lady's drawing-room, and making an illustration
of himself, won't make him feel like a man after that. Let me be
understood, though, gentlemen: I don't intend that you should take
everything I say too exactly--too literally, as it were. If you see
a man beating a woman, I think you should interfere on principle. But
don't expect to be thanked by her for it; and keep your eye on her;
don't let her get behind you. As for him, just give him a good one and
go away. Never stay to get yourself into a street fight; for it's low,
and generally turns out badly for all parties. However, that's only a
bit of practical advice. It doesn't alter the great principle that you
should get an executive power. When you get that, you'll have courage
in you; and, what's more, your courage will be of some use to you. For
though you may have courage by nature, still, if you haven't executive
power as well, your courage will only lead you to stand up to be beaten
by men that have both courage and executive power; and what good does
that do you? People say that you're a game fellow; but they won't find
the stakes for you unless you can win them. You'd far better put your
game in your pocket, and throw up the sponge while you can see to do it.
"Now, on this subject of game, I've something to say that will ease
the professor's mind on a point that he seemed anxious about. I am no
musician; but I'll just show you how a man that understands one art
understands every art. I made out from the gentleman's remarks that
there is a man in the musical line named Wagner, who is what you might
call a game sort of composer; and that the musical fancy, though they
can't deny that his tunes are first-rate, and that, so to speak, he wins
his fights, yet they try to make out that he wins them in an outlandish
way, and that he has no real science. Now I tell the gentleman not to
mind such talk. As I have just shown you, his game wouldn't be any use
to him without science. He might have beaten a few second-raters with a
rush while he was young; but he wouldn't have lasted out as he has done
unless he was clever as well. You will find that those that run him down
are either jealous, or they are old stagers that are not used to his
style, and think that anything new must be bad. Just wait a bit, and,
take my word for it, they'll turn right round and swear that his style
isn't new at all, and that he stole it from some one they saw when
they were ten years old. History shows us that that is the way of such
fellows in all ages, as the gentleman said; and he gave you Beethoven as
an example. But an example like that don't go home to you, because there
isn't one man in a million that ever heard of Beethoven. Take a man that
everybody has heard of--Jack Randall! The very same things were said of
HIM. After that, you needn't go to musicians for an example. The truth
is, that there are people in the world with that degree of envy and
malice in them that they can't bear to allow a good man his merits; and
when they have to admit that he can do one thing, they try to make out
that there's something else he can't do. Come: I'll put it to you short
and business-like. This German gentleman, who knows all about music,
tells you that many pretend that this Wagner has game but no science.
Well, I, though I know nothing about music, will bet you twenty-five
pounds that there's others that allow him to be full of science, but say
that he has no game, and that all he does comes from his head, and not
from his heart. I will. I'll bet twenty-five pounds on it, and let the
gentleman of the house be stakeholder, and the German gentleman referee.
Eh? Well, I'm glad to see that there are no takers.
"Now we'll go to another little point that the gentleman forgot. He
recommended you to LEARN--to make yourselves better and wiser from day
to day. But he didn't tell you why it is that you won't learn, in spite
of his advice. I suppose that, being a foreigner, he was afraid of
hurting your feelings by talking too freely to you. But you're not so
thin-skinned as to take offence at a little plain-speaking, I'll be
bound; so I tell you straight out that the reason you won't learn is not
that you don't want to be clever, or that you are lazier than many that
have learned a great deal, but just because you'd like people to think
that you know everything already--because you're ashamed to be seen
going to school; and you calculate that if you only hold your tongue
and look wise you'll get through life without your ignorance being found
out. But where's the good of lies and pretence? What does it matter if
you get laughed at by a cheeky brat or two for your awkward beginnings?
What's the use of always thinking of how you're looking, when your sense
might tell you that other people are thinking about their own looks and
not about yours? A big boy doesn't look well on a lower form, certainly,
but when he works his way up he'll be glad he began. I speak to you more
particularly because you're Londoners; and Londoners beat all creation
for thinking about themselves. However, I don't go with the gentleman in
everything he said. All this struggling and striving to make the world
better is a great mistake; not because it isn't a good thing to improve
the world if you know how to do it, but because striving and struggling
is the worst way you could set about doing anything. It gives a man a
bad style, and weakens him. It shows that he don't believe in himself
much. When I heard the professor striving and struggling so earnestly to
set you to work reforming this, that, and the other, I said to myself,
'He's got himself to persuade as well as his audience. That isn't the
language of conviction.' Whose--"
"Really, sir," said Lucian Webber, who had made his way to the table, "I
think, as you have now addressed us at considerable length, and as
there are other persons present whose opinions probably excite as much
curiosity as yours--" He was interrupted by a, "Hear, hear," followed by
"No, no," and "Go on," uttered in more subdued tones than are customary
at public meetings, but with more animation than is usually displayed
in drawing-rooms. Cashel, who had been for a moment somewhat put out,
turned to Lucian and said, in a tone intended to repress, but at the
same time humor his impatience, "Don't you be in a hurry, sir. You shall
have your turn presently. Perhaps I may tell you something you don't
know, before I stop." Then he turned again to the company, and resumed.
"We were talking about effort when this young gentleman took it upon
himself to break the ring. Now, nothing can be what you might call
artistically done if it's done with an effort. If a thing can't be done
light and easy, steady and certain, let it not be done at all. Sounds
strange, doesn't it? But I'll tell you a stranger thing. The more effort
you make, the less effect you produce. A WOULD-BE artist is no artist at
all. I see that in my own profession (never mind what that profession is
just at present, as the ladies might think the worse of me for it).
But in all professions, any work that shows signs of labor, straining,
yearning--as the German gentleman said--or effort of any kind, is work
beyond the man's strength that does it, and therefore not well done.
Perhaps it's beyond his natural strength; but it is more likely that
he was badly taught. Many teachers set their pupils on to strain, and
stretch, so that they get used up, body and mind, in a few months.
Depend upon it, the same thing is true in other arts. I once taught
a fiddler that used to get a hundred guineas for playing two or
three tunes; and he told me that it was just the same thing with the
fiddle--that when you laid a tight hold on your fiddle-stick, or even
set your teeth hard together, you could do nothing but rasp like the
fellows that play in bands for a few shillings a night."
"How much more of this nonsense must we endure?" said Lucian, audibly,
as Cashel stopped for breath. Cashel turned and looked at him.
"By Jove!" whispered Lord Worthington to his companion, "that fellow had
better be careful. I wish he would hold his tongue."
"You think it's nonsense, do you?" said Cashel, after a pause. Then he
raised one of the candles, and illuminated a picture that hung on
the wall, "Look at that picture," he said. "You see that fellow in
armor--St. George and the dragon, or whatever he may be. He's jumped
down from his horse to fight the other fellow--that one with his head in
a big helmet, whose horse has tumbled. The lady in the gallery is
half crazy with anxiety for St. George; and well she may be. THERE'S a
posture for a man to fight in! His weight isn't resting on his legs; one
touch of a child's finger would upset him. Look at his neck craned out
in front of him, and his face as flat as a full moon towards his man, as
if he was inviting him to shut up both his eyes with one blow. You can
all see that he's as weak and nervous as a cat, and that he doesn't know
how to fight. And why does he give you that idea? Just because he's all
strain and stretch; because he isn't at his ease; because he carries the
weight of his body as foolishly as one of the ladies here would carry a
hod of bricks; because he isn't safe, steady, and light on his pins, as
he would be if he could forget himself for a minute, and leave his body
to find its proper balance of its own accord. If the painter of that
picture had known his business he would never have sent his man up to
the scratch in such a figure and condition as that. But you can see
with one eye that he didn't understand--I won't say the principles of
fighting, but the universal principles that I've told you of, that ease
and strength, effort and weakness, go together. Now," added Cashel,
again addressing Lucian; "do you still think that notion of mine
nonsense?" And he smacked his lips with satisfaction; for his criticism
of the picture had produced a marked sensation, and he did not know
that this was due to the fact that the painter, Mr. Adrian Herbert, was
present.
Lucian tried to ignore the question; but he found it impossible to
ignore the questioner. "Since you have set the example of expressing
opinions without regard to considerations of common courtesy," he
said, shortly, "I may say that your theory, if it can be called one, is
manifestly absurd."
Cashel, apparently unruffled, but with more deliberation of manner than
before, looked about him as if in search of a fresh illustration. His
glance finally rested on the lecturer's seat, a capacious crimson damask
arm-chair that stood unoccupied at some distance behind Lucian.
"I see you're no judge of a picture," said he, good-humoredly, putting
down the candle, and stepping in front of Lucian, who regarded him
haughtily, and did not budge. "But just look at it in this way. Suppose
you wanted to hit me the most punishing blow you possibly could. What
would you do? Why, according to your own notion, you'd make a great
effort. 'The more effort the more force,' you'd say to yourself. 'I'll
smash him even if I burst myself in doing it.' And what would happen
then? You'd only cut me and make me angry, besides exhausting all your
strength at one gasp. Whereas, if you took it easy--like this--" Here
he made a light step forward and placed his open palm gently against the
breast of Lncian, who instantly reeled back as if the piston-rod of a
steam-engine had touched him, and dropped into the chair.
"There!" exclaimed Cashel, standing aside and pointing to him. "It's
like pocketing a billiard-ball!"
A chatter of surprise, amusement, and remonstrance spread through the
rooms; and the company crowded towards the table. Lucian rose, white
with rage, and for a moment entirely lost his self-control. Fortunately,
the effect was to paralyze him; he neither moved nor spoke, and only
betrayed his condition by his pallor and the hatred in his expression.
Presently he felt a touch on his arm and heard his name pronounced by
Lydia. Her voice calmed him. He tried to look at her, but his vision was
disturbed; he saw double; the lights seemed to dunce before his eyes;
and Lord Worthington's voice, saying to Cashel, "Rather too practical,
old fellow," seemed to come from a remote corner of the room, and yet to
be whispered into his ear. He was moving irresolutely in search of
Lydia when his senses and his resentment were restored by a clap on the
shoulder.
"You wouldn't have believed that now, would you?" said Cashel. "Don't
look startled; you've no bones broken. You had your little joke with me
in your own way; and I had mine in MY own way. That's only--"
He stopped; his brave bearing vanished; he became limp and shamefaced.
Lucian, without a word, withdrew with Lydia to the adjoining apartment,
and left him staring after her with wistful eyes and slackened jaw.
In the meantime Mrs. Hoskyn, an earnest-looking young woman, with
striking dark features and gold spectacles, was looking for Lord
Worthington, who betrayed a consciousness of guilt by attempting to
avoid her. But she cut off his retreat, and confronted him with a
steadfast gaze that compelled him to stand and answer for himself.
"Who is that gentleman whom you introduced to me? I do not recollect his
name."
"I am really awfully sorry, Mrs. Hoskyn. It was too bad of Byron. But
Webber was excessively nasty."
Mrs. Hoskyn, additionally annoyed by apologies which she had not
invited, and which put her in the ignominious position of a complainant,
replied coldly, "Mr. Byron! Thank you; I had forgotten," and was turning
away when Lydia came up to introduce Alice, and to explain why she had
entered unannounced. Lord Worthington then returned to the subject of
Cashel, hoping to improve his credit by claiming Lydia's acquaintance
with him.
"Did you hear our friend Byron's speech, Miss Carew? Very
characteristic, I thought."
"Very," said Lydia. "I hope Mrs. Hoskyn's guests are all familiar with
his style. Otherwise they must find him a little startling."
"Yes," said Mrs. Hoskyn, beginning to wonder whether Cashel could be
some well-known eccentric genius. "He is very odd. I hope Mr. Webber is
not offended."
"He is the less pleased as he was in the wrong," said Lydia. "Intolerant
refusal to listen to an opponent is a species of violence that has no
business in such a representative nineteenth-century drawing-room
as yours, Mrs. Hoskyn. There was a fitness in rebuking it by skilled
physical violence. Consider the prodigious tact of it, too! One
gentleman knocks another half-way across a crowded room, and yet no one
is scandalized."
"You see, Mrs. Hoskyn, the general verdict is 'Served him right,'" said
Lord Worthington.
"With a rider to the effect that both gentlemen displayed complete
indifference to the comfort of their hostess," said Lydia. "However, men
so rarely sacrifice their manners to their minds that it would be a pity
to blame them. You do not encourage conventionality, Mrs. Hoskyn?"
"I encourage good manners, though certainly not conventional manners."
"And you think there is a difference?"
"I FEEL that there is a difference," said Mrs. Hoskyn, with dignity.
"So do I," said Lydia; "but one can hardly call others to account for
one's own subjective ideas."
Lydia went away to another part of the room without waiting for a reply.
Meanwhile, Cashel stood friendless in the middle of the room, stared
at by most of his neighbors, and spoken to by none. Women looked at him
coldly lest it should be suspected that they were admiring him; and
men regarded him stiffly according to the national custom. Since his
recognition of Lydia, his self-confidence had given place to a misgiving
that he had been making a fool of himself. He began to feel lonely and
abashed; and but for his professional habit of maintaining a cheerful
countenance under adverse circumstances, he would have hid himself
in the darkest corner of the room. He was getting sullen, and seeking
consolation in thoughts of how terribly he could handle all these
distantly-mannered, black-coated gentlemen if he chose, when Lord
Worthington came up to him.
"I had no idea you were such an orator, Byron," he said. "You can go
into the Church when you cut the other trade. Eh?"
"I wasn't brought up to the other trade," said Cashel; "and I know how
to talk to ladies and gentlemen as well as to what you'd suppose to be
my own sort. Don't you be anxious about me, my lord. I know how to make
myself at home."
"Of course, of course," said Lord Worthington, soothingly. "Every one
can see by your manners that you are a gentleman; they recognize that
even in the ring. Otherwise--I know you will excuse my saying so--I
daren't have brought you here."
Cashel shook his head, but was pleased. He thought he hated
flattery; had Lord Worthington told him that he was the best boxer
in England--which he probably was--he would have despised him. But he
wished to believe the false compliment to his manners, and was therefore
perfectly convinced of its sincerity. Lord Worthington perceived this,
and retired, pleased with his own tact, in search of Mrs. Hoskyn, to
claim her promise of an introduction to Madame Szczymplica, which Mrs.
Hoskyn had, by way of punishing him for Cashel's misdemeanor, privately
determined not to redeem.
Cashel began to think he had better go. Lydia was surrounded by men
who were speaking to her in German. He felt his own inability to talk
learnedly even in English; and he had, besides, a conviction that she
was angry with him for upsetting her cousin, who was gravely conversing
with Miss Goff. Suddenly a horrible noise caused a general start and
pause. Mr. Jack, the eminent composer, had opened the piano-forte, and
was illustrating some points in a musical composition under discussion
by making discordant sounds with his voice, accompanied by a few chords.
Cashel laughed aloud in derision as he made his way towards the door
through the crowd, which was now pressing round the pianoforte at which
Madame Szczymplica had just come to the assistance of Jack. Near the
door, and in a corner remote from the instrument, he came upon Lydia and
a middle-aged gentleman, evidently neither a professor nor an artist.
"Ab'n'gas is a very clever man," the gentleman was saying. "I am sorry I
didn't hear the lecture. But I leave all that to Mary. She receives the
people who enjoy high art up-stairs; and I take the sensible men down to
the garden or the smoking-room, according to the weather."
"What do the sensible women do?" said Lydia.
"They come late," said Mr. Hoskyn, and then laughed at his repartee
until he became aware of the vicinity of Cashel, whose health he
immediately inquired after, shaking his hand warmly and receiving a
numbing grip in return. As soon as he saw that Lydia and Cashel were
acquainted, he slipped away and left them to entertain one another.
"I wonder how he knows me," said Cashel, heartened by her gracious
reception of a nervous bow. "I never saw him before in my life."
"He does not know you," said Lydia, with some sternness. "He is your
host, and therefore concludes that he ought to know you."
"Oh! That was it, was it?" He paused, at a loss for conversation. She
did not help him. At last he added, "I haven't seen you this long time,
Miss Carew."
"It is not very long since I saw you, Mr. Cashel Byron. I saw you
yesterday at some distance from London."
"Oh, Lord!" exclaimed Cashel, "don't say that. You're joking, ain't
you?"
"No. Joking, in that sense, does not amuse me."
Cashel looked at her in consternation. "You don't mean to say that you
went to see a--a--Where--when did you see me? You might tell me."
"Certainly. It was at Clapham Junction, at a quarter-past six."
"Was any one with me?"
"Your friend, Mr. Mellish, Lord Worthington, and some other persons."
"Yes. Lord Worthington was there. But where were you?"
"In a waiting-room, close to you."
"I never saw you," said Cashel, growing red as he recalled the scene.
"We must have looked very queer. I had had an accident to my eye, and
Mellish was not sober. Did you think I was in bad company?"
"That was not my business, Mr. Cashel Byron."
"No," said Cashel, with sudden bitterness. "What did YOU care what
company I kept? You're mad with me because I made your cousin look like
a fool, I suppose. That's what's the matter."
Lydia looked around to see that no one was within earshot, and, speaking
in a low tone to remind him that they were not alone, said, "There is
nothing the matter, except that you are a grown-up boy rather than a
man. I am not mad with you because of your attack upon my cousin; but he
is very much annoyed, and so is Mrs. Hoskyn, whose guest you were bound
to respect."
"I knew you'd be down on me. I wouldn't have said a word if I'd known
that you were here," said Cashel, dejectedly. "Lie down and be walked
over; that's what you think I'm fit for. Another man would have twisted
his head off."
"Is it possible that you do not know that gentlemen never twist
one another's heads off in society, no matter how great may be the
provocation?"
"I know nothing," said Cashel with plaintive sullenness. "Everything I
do is wrong. There. Will that satisfy you?"
Lydia looked up at him in doubt. Then, with steady patience, she added:
"Will you answer me a question on your honor?"
He hesitated, fearing that she was going to ask what he was.
"The question is this," she said, observing the hesitation. "Are you a
simpleton, or a man of science pretending to be a simpleton for the sake
of mocking me and my friends?"
"I am not mocking you; honor bright! All that about science was only a
joke--at least, it's not what you call science. I'm a real simpleton in
drawing-room affairs; though I'm clever enough in my own line."
"Then try to believe that I take no pleasure in making you confess
yourself in the wrong, and that you cannot have a lower opinion of me
than the contrary belief implies."
"That's just where you're mistaken," said Cashel, obstinately. "I
haven't got a low opinion of you at all. There's such a thing as being
too clever."
"You may not know that it is a low opinion. Nevertheless, it is so."
"Well, have it your own way. I'm wrong again; and you're right."
"So far from being gratified by that, I had rather that we were both in
the right and agreed. Can you understand that?"
"I can't say I do. But I give in to it. What more need you care for?"
"I had rather you understood. Let me try to explain. You think that I
like to be cleverer than other people. You are mistaken. I should like
them all to know whatever I know."
Cashel laughed cunningly, and shook his head. "Don't you make any
mistake about that," he said. "You don't want anybody to be quite as
clever as yourself; it isn't in human nature that you should. You'd like
people to be just clever enough to show you off--to be worth beating.
But you wouldn't like them to be able to beat you. Just clever enough to
know how much cleverer you are; that's about the mark. Eh?"
Lydia made no further effort to enlighten him. She looked at him
thoughtfully, and said, slowly, "I begin to hold the clew to your
idiosyncrasy. You have attached yourself to the modern doctrine of a
struggle for existence, and look on life as a perpetual combat."
"A fight? Just so. What is life but a fight? The curs forfeit or get
beaten; the rogues sell the fight and lose the confidence of their
backers; the game ones and the clever ones win the stakes, and have to
hand over the lion's share of them to the loafers; and luck plays the
devil with them all in turn. That's not the way they describe life in
books; but that's what it is."
"Oddly put, but perhaps true. Still, is there any need of a struggle? Is
not the world large enough for us all to live peacefully in?"
"YOU may think so, because you were born with a silver spoon in your
mouth. But if you hadn't to fight for that silver spoon, some one else
had; and no doubt he thought it hard that it should be taken away from
him and given to you. I was a snob myself once, and thought the world
was made for me to enjoy myself and order about the poor fellows whose
bread I was eating. But I was left one day where I couldn't grab any
more of their bread, and had to make some for myself--ay, and some extra
for loafers that had the power to make me pay for what they didn't own.
That took the conceit out of me fast enough. But what do you know about
such things?"
"More than you think, perhaps. These are dangerous ideas to take with
you into English society."
"Hmf!" growled Cashel. "They'd be more dangerous if I could give every
man that is robbed of half what he earns twelve lessons--in science."
"So you can. Publish your lessons. 'Twelve lectures on political
economy, by Cashel Byron.' I will help you to publish them, if you
wish."
"Bless your innocence!" said Cashel: "the sort of political economy I
teach can't be learned from a book."
"You have become an enigma again. But yours is not the creed of a
simpleton. You are playing with me--revealing your wisdom from beneath a
veil of infantile guilelessness. I have no more to say."
"May I be shot if I understand you! I never pretended to be guileless.
Come: is it because I raised a laugh against your cousin that you're so
spiteful?"
Lydia looked earnestly and doubtfully at him; and he instinctively put
his head back, as if it were in danger. "You do not understand, then?"
she said. "I will test the genuineness of your stupidity by an appeal to
your obedience."
"Stupidity! Go on."
"But will you obey me, if I lay a command upon you?"
"I will go through fire and water for you."
Lydia blushed faintly, and paused to wonder at the novel sensation
before she resumed. "You had better not apologize to my cousin: partly
because you would only make matters worse; chiefly because he does not
deserve it. But you must make this speech to Mrs. Hoskyn when you are
going: 'I am very sorry I forgot myself'--"
"Sounds like Shakespeare, doesn't it?" observed Cashel.
"Ah! the test has found you out; you are only acting after all. But that
does not alter my opinion that you should apologize."
"All right. I don't know what you mean by testing and acting; and I only
hope you know yourself. But no matter; I'll apologize; a man like me can
afford to. I'll apologize to your cousin, too, if you like."
"I do not like. But what has that to do with it? I suggest these things,
as you must be aware, for your own sake and not for mine."
"As for my own, I don't care twopence: I do it all for you. I don't even
ask whether there is anything between you and him."
"Would you like to know?" said Lydia, deliberately, after a pause of
astonishment.
"Do you mean to say you'll tell me?" he exclaimed. "If you do, I'll say
you're as good as gold."
"Certainly I will tell you. There is an old friendship and cousinship
between us; but we are not engaged, nor at all likely to be. I tell you
so because, if I avoided the question, you would draw the opposite and
false conclusion."
"I am glad of it," said Cashel, unexpectedly becoming very gloomy. "He
isn't man enough for you. But he's your equal, damn him!"
"He is my cousin, and, I believe, my sincere friend. Therefore please do
not damn him."
"I know I shouldn't have said that. But I am only damning my own luck."
"Which will not improve it in the least."
"I know that. You needn't have said it. I wouldn't have said a thing
like that to you, stupid as I am."
"Evidently you suppose me to have meant more than I really did. However,
that does not matter. You are still an enigma to me. Had we not better
try to hear a little of Madame Szczymplica's performance?"
"I'm a pretty plain enigma, I should think," said Cashel, mournfully. "I
would rather have you than any other woman in the world; but you're too
rich and grand for me. If I can't have the satisfaction of marrying you,
I may as well have the satisfaction of saying I'd like to."
"Hardly a fair way of approaching the subject," said Lydia, composedly,
but with a play of color again in her cheeks. "Allow me to forbid it
unconditionally. I must be plain with you, Mr. Cashel Byron. I do
not know what you are or who you are; and I believe you have tried to
mystify me on both points--"
"And you never shall find out either the one or the other, if I can help
it," put in Cashel; "so that we're in a preciously bad way of coming to
a good understanding."
"True," assented Lydia. "I do not make secrets; I do not keep them; and
I do not respect them. Your humor clashes with my principle."
"You call it a humor!" said Cashel, angrily. "Perhaps you think I am
a duke in disguise. If so, you may think better of it. If you had a
secret, the discovery of which would cause you to be kicked out of
decent society, you would keep it pretty tight. And that through
no fault of your own, mind you; but through downright cowardice and
prejudice in other people."
"There are at least some fears and prejudices common in society that I
do not share," said Lydia, after a moment's reflection. "Should I
ever find out your secret, do not too hastily conclude that you have
forfeited my consideration."
"You are just the last person on earth by whom I want to be found out.
But you'll find out fast enough. Pshaw!" cried Cashel, with a laugh,
"I'm as well known as Trafalgar Square. But I can't bring myself to tell
you; and I hate secrets as much as you do; so let's drop it and talk
about something else."
"We have talked long enough. The music is over, and the people will
return to this room presently, perhaps to ask me who and what is the
stranger who made them such a remarkable speech."
"Just a word. Promise me that you won't ask any of THEM that."
"Promise you! No. I cannot promise that."
"Oh, Lord!" said Cashel, with a groan.
"I have told you that I do not respect secrets. For the present I will
not ask; but I may change my mind. Meanwhile we must not hold long
conversations. I even hope that we shall not meet. There is only one
thing that I am too rich and grand for. That one thing--mystification.
Adieu."
Before he could reply she was away from him in the midst of a number
of gentlemen, and in conversation with one of them. Cashel seemed
overwhelmed. But in an instant he recovered himself, and stepped
jauntily before Mrs. Hoskyn, who had just come into his neighborhood.
"I'm going, ma'am," he said. "Thank you for a pleasant evening--I'm very
sorry I forgot myself. Good-night."
Mrs. Hoskyn, naturally frank, felt some vague response within herself
to this address. But, though not usually at a loss for words in social
emergencies, she only looked at him, blushed slightly, and offered
her hand. He took it as if it were a tiny baby's hand and he afraid
of hurting it, gave it a little pinch, and turned to go. Mr. Adrian
Herbert, the painter, was directly in his way, with his back towards
him.
"If YOU please, sir," said Cashel, taking him gently by the ribs, and
moving him aside. The artist turned indignantly, but Cashel was passing
the doorway. On the stairs he met Lucian and Alice, and stopped a moment
to take leave of them.
"Good-night, Miss Goff," he said. "It's a pleasure to see the country
roses in your cheeks." He lowered his voice as he added, to Lucian,
"Don't you worry yourself over that little trick I showed you. If any of
your friends chafe you about it, tell them that it was Cashel Byron did
it, and ask them whether they think they could have helped themselves
any better than you could. Don't ever let a person come within distance
of you while you're standing in that silly way on both your heels. Why,
if a man isn't properly planted on his pins, a broom-handle falling
against him will upset him. That's the way of it. Good-night."
Lucian returned the salutation, mastered by a certain latent
dangerousness in Cashel, suggestive that he might resent a snub by
throwing the offender over the balustrade. As for Alice, she had
entertained a superstitious dread of him ever since Lydia had pronounced
him a ruffian. Both felt relieved when the house door, closing, shut
them out of his reach.
CHAPTER VII
Society was much occupied during Alice's first season in London with
the upshot of an historical event of a common kind. England, a few years
before, had stolen a kingdom from a considerable people in Africa, and
seized the person of its king. The conquest proved useless, troublesome,
and expensive; and after repeated attempts to settle the country on
impracticable plans suggested to the Colonial Office by a popular
historian who had made a trip to Africa, and by generals who were tired
of the primitive remedy of killing the natives, it appeared that
the best course was to release the captive king and get rid of the
unprofitable booty by restoring it to him. In order, however, that
the impression made on him by England's short-sighted disregard of her
neighbor's landmark abroad might be counteracted by a glimpse of the
vastness of her armaments and wealth at home, it was thought advisable
to take him first to London, and show him the wonders of the town. But
when the king arrived, his freedom from English prepossessions made it
difficult to amuse, or even to impress him. A stranger to the idea that
a private man could own a portion of the earth and make others pay him
for permission to live on it, he was unable to understand why such
a prodigiously wealthy nation should be composed partly of poor and
uncomfortable persons toiling incessantly to create riches, and partly
of a class that confiscated and dissipated the wealth thus produced
without seeming to be at all happier than the unfortunate laborers at
whose expense they existed. He was seized with strange fears, first for
his health, for it seemed to him that the air of London, filthy with
smoke, engendered puniness and dishonesty in those who breathed it;
and eventually for his life, when he learned that kings in Europe were
sometimes shot at by passers-by, there being hardly a monarch there who
had not been so imperilled more than once; that the Queen of England,
though accounted the safest of all, was accustomed to this variety of
pistol practice; and that the autocrat of an empire huge beyond all
other European countries, whose father had been torn asunder in the
streets of his capital, lived surrounded by soldiers who shot down all
strangers that approached him even at his own summons, and was an
object of compassion to the humblest of his servants. Under these
circumstances, the African king was with difficulty induced to stir
out of doors; and he only visited Woolwich Arsenal--the destructive
resources of which were expected to influence his future behavior in
a manner favorable to English supremacy--under compulsion. At last the
Colonial Office, which had charge of him, was at its wit's end to devise
entertainments to keep him in good-humor until the appointed time for
his departure.
On the Tuesday following Mrs. Hoskyn's reception, Lucian Webber called
at his cousin's house in Regent's Park, and said, in the course of a
conversation with the two ladies there,
"The Colonial Office has had an idea. The king, it appears, is something
of an athlete, and is curious to witness what Londoners can do in that
way. So a grand assault-at-arms is to be held for him."
"What is an assault-at-arms?" said Lydia. "I have never been at one; and
the name suggests nothing but an affray with bayonets."
"It is an exhibition of swordsmanship, military drill, gymnastics, and
so forth."
"I will go to that," said Lydia. "Will you come, Alice?"
"Is it usual for ladies to go to such exhibitions?" said Alice,
cautiously.
"On this occasion ladies will go for the sake of seeing the king,"
said Lucian. "The Olympian gymnastic society, which has undertaken the
direction of the part of the assault that is to show off the prowess of
our civilians, expects what they call a flower-show audience."
"Will you come, Lucian?"
"If I can be spared, yes. If not, I will ask Worthington to go with you.
He understands such matters better than I."
"Then let us have him, by all means," said Lydia.
"I cannot see why you are so fond of Lord Worthington," said Alice. "His
manners are good; but there is nothing in him. Besides, he is so young.
I cannot endure his conversation. He has begun to talk about Goodwood
already."
"He will grow out of his excessive addiction to sport," said Lucian.
"Indeed," said Lydia. "And what will he grow into?"
"Possibly into a more reasonable man," said Lucian, gravely.
"I hope so," said Lydia; "but I prefer a man who is interested in sport
to a gentleman who is interested in nothing."
"Much might indubitably be said from that point of view. But it is not
necessary that Lord Worthington should waste his energy on horse-racing.
I presume you do not think political life, for which his position
peculiarly fits him, unworthy his attention."
"Party tactics are both exciting and amusing, no doubt. But are they
better than horse-racing? Jockeys and horse-breakers at least know their
business; our legislators do not. Is it pleasant to sit on a bench--even
though it be the treasury bench--and listen to either absolute nonsense
or childish disputes about conclusions that were foregone in the minds
of all sensible men a hundred years ago?"
"You do not understand the duties of a government, Lydia. You never
approach the subject without confirming my opinion that women are
constitutionally incapable of comprehending it."
"It is natural for you to think so, Lucian. The House of Commons is
to you the goal of existence. To me it is only an assemblage of
ill-informed gentlemen who have botched every business they have ever
undertaken, from the first committee of supply down to the last land
act; and who arrogantly assert that I am not good enough to sit with
them."
"Lydia," said Lucian, annoyed; "you know that I respect women in their
own sphere--"
"Then give them another sphere, and perhaps they will earn your respect
in that also. I am sorry to say that men, in THEIR sphere, have not won
my respect. Enough of that for the present. I have to make some domestic
arrangements, which are of more immediate importance than the conversion
of a good politician into a bad philosopher. Excuse me for five
minutes."
She left the room. Lucian sat down and gave his attention to Alice,
who had still enough of her old nervousness to make her straighten her
shoulders and look stately. But he did not object to this; a little
stiffness of manner gratified his taste.
"I hope," he said, "that my cousin has not succeeded in inducing you to
adopt her peculiar views."
"No," said Alice. "Of course her case is quite exceptional--she is so
wonderfully accomplished. In general, I do not think women should
have views. There are certain convictions which every lady holds: for
instance, we know that Roman Catholicism is wrong. But that can hardly
be called a view; indeed it would be wicked to call it so, as it is one
of the highest truths. What I mean is that women should not be political
agitators."
"I understand, and quite agree with you. Lydia is, as you say, an
exceptional case. She has lived much abroad; and her father was a very
singular man. Even the clearest heads, when removed from the direct
influence of English life and thought, contract extraordinary
prejudices. Her father at one time actually attempted to leave a large
farm to the government in trust for the people; but fortunately he found
that it was impossible; no such demise was known to the English law
or practicable by it. He subsequently admitted the folly of this by
securing Lydia's rights as his successor as stringently as he could.
It is almost a pity that such strength of mind and extent of knowledge
should be fortified by the dangerous independence which great wealth
confers. Advantages like these bring with them certain duties to the
class that has produced them--duties to which Lydia is not merely
indifferent, but absolutely hostile."
"I never meddle with her ideas on--on these subjects. I am too
ignorant to understand them. But Miss Carew's generosity to me has been
unparalleled. And she does not seem to know that she is generous. I owe
more to her than I ever can repay. At least," Alice added, to herself,
"I am not ungrateful."
Miss Carew now reappeared, dressed in a long, gray coat and plain beaver
hat, and carrying a roll of writing materials.
"I am going to the British Museum to read," said she.
"To walk!--alone!" said Lucian, looking at her costume.
"Yes. Prevent me from walking, and you deprive me of my health. Prevent
me from going alone where I please and when I please, and you deprive me
of my liberty--tear up Magna Charta, in effect. But I do not insist upon
being alone in this instance. If you can return to your office by way of
Regent's Park and Gower Street without losing too much time, I shall be
glad of your company."
Lucian decorously suppressed his eagerness to comply by looking at his
watch and pretending to consider his engagements. In conclusion, he said
that he should be happy to accompany her.
It was a fine summer afternoon, and there were many people in the park.
Lucian was soon incommoded by the attention his cousin attracted. In
spite of the black beaver, her hair shone like fire in the sun. Women
stared at her with unsympathetic curiosity, and turned as they passed
to examine her attire. Men resorted to various subterfuges to get a
satisfactory look without rudely betraying their intention. A few stupid
youths gaped; and a few impudent ones smiled. Lucian would gladly have
kicked them all, without distinction. He at last suggested that they
should leave the path, and make a short cut across the green-sward. As
they emerged from the shade of the trees he had a vague impression that
the fineness of the weather and the beauty of the park made the occasion
romantic, and that the words by which he hoped to make the relation
between him and his cousin dearer and closer would be well spoken there.
But he immediately began to talk, in spite of himself, about the cost of
maintaining the public parks, of the particulars of which he happened to
have some official knowledge. Lydia, readily interested by facts of
any sort, thought the subject not a bad one for a casual afternoon
conversation, and pursued it until they left the turf and got into the
Euston Road, where the bustle of traffic silenced them for a while. When
they escaped from the din into the respectable quietude of Gower Street,
he suddenly said,
"It is one of the evils of great wealth in the hands of a woman, that
she can hardly feel sure--" His ideas fled suddenly. He stopped; but
he kept his countenance so well that he had the air of having made a
finished speech, and being perfectly satisfied with it.
"Do you mean that she can never feel sure of the justice of her title to
her riches? That used to trouble me; but it no longer does so."
"Nonsense!" said Lucian. "I alluded to the disinterestedness of your
friends."
"That does not trouble me either. Absolutely disinterested friends I do
not seek, as I should only find them among idiots or somnambulists. As
to those whose interests are base, they do not know how to conceal their
motives from me. For the rest, I am not so unreasonable as to object to
a fair account being taken of my wealth in estimating the value of my
friendship."
"Do you not believe in the existence of persons who would like you just
as well if you were poor?"
"Such persons would, merely to bring me nearer to themselves, wish me to
become poor; for which I should not thank them. I set great store by the
esteem my riches command, Lucian. It is the only set-off I have against
the envy they inspire."
"Then you would refuse to believe in the disinterestedness of any man
who--who--"
"Who wanted to marry me? On the contrary: I should be the last person
to believe that a man could prefer my money to myself. If he wore
independent, and in a fair way to keep his place in the world without
my help, I should despise him if he hesitated to approach me for fear of
misconstruction. I do not think a man is ever thoroughly honest until he
is superior to that fear. But if he had no profession, no money, and
no aim except to live at my expense, then I should regard him as an
adventurer, and treat him as one--unless I fell in love with him."
"Unless you fell in love with him!"
"That--assuming that such things really happen--would make a difference
in my feeling, but none in my conduct. I would not marry an adventurer
under any circumstances. I could cure myself of a misdirected passion,
but not of a bad husband."
Lucian said nothing; he walked on with long, irregular steps, lowering
at the pavement as if it were a difficult problem, and occasionally
thrusting at it with his stick. At last he looked up, and said,
"Would you mind prolonging your walk a little by going round Bedford
Square with me? I have something particular to say."
She turned and complied without a word; and they had traversed one side
of the square before he spoke again, in these terms:
"On second thoughts, Lydia, this is neither the proper time nor place
for an important communication. Excuse me for having taken you out of
your way for nothing."
"I do not like this, Lucian. Important communications--in this
case--corrupt good manners. If your intended speech is a sensible one,
the present is as good a time, and Bedford Square as good a place, as
you are likely to find for it. If it is otherwise, confess that you have
decided to leave it unsaid. But do not postpone it. Reticence is always
an error--even on the treasury bench. It is doubly erroneous in dealing
with me; for I have a constitutional antipathy to it."
"Yes," he said, hurriedly; "but give me one moment--until the policeman
has passed."
The policeman went leisurely by, striking the flags with his heels, and
slapping his palm with a white glove.
"The fact is, Lydia, that--I feel great difficulty--"
"What is the matter?" said Lydia, after waiting in vain for further
particulars. "You have broken down twice in a speech." There was a
pause. Then she looked at him quickly, and added, incredulously, "Are
you going to get married? Is that the secret that ties your practised
tongue?"
"Not unless you take part in the ceremony."
"Very gallant; and in a vein of humor that is new in my experience of
you. But what have you to tell me, Lucian? Frankly, your hesitation is
becoming ridiculous."
"You have certainly not made matters easier for me, Lydia. Perhaps
you have a womanly intuition of my purpose, and are intentionally
discouraging me."
"Not the least. I am not good at speculations of that sort. On my word,
if you do not confess quickly, I will hurry away to the museum."
"I cannot find a suitable form of expression," said Lucian, in painful
perplexity. "I am sure you will not attribute any sordid motive to
my--well, to my addresses, though the term seems absurd. I am too well
aware that there is little, from the usual point of view, to tempt you
to unite yourself to me. Still--"
A rapid change in Lydia's face showed him that he had said enough. "I
had not thought of this," she said, after a silence that seemed long to
him. "Our observations are so meaningless until we are given the thread
to string them on! You must think better of this, Lucian. The relation
that at present exists between us is the very best that our different
characters will admit of. Why do you desire to alter it?"
"Because I would make it closer and more permanent. I do not wish to
alter it otherwise."
"You would run some risk of simply destroying it by the method you
propose," said Lydia, with composure. "We could not co-operate. There
are differences of opinion between us amounting to differences of
principle."
"Surely you are not serious. Your political opinions, or notions,
are not represented by any party in England; and therefore they are
practically ineffective, and could not clash with mine. And such
differences are not personal matters."
"Such a party might be formed a week after our marriage--will, I think,
be formed a long time before our deaths. In that case I fear that our
difference of opinion would become a very personal matter."
He began to walk more quickly as he replied, "It is too absurd to set up
what you call your opinions as a serious barrier between us. You have no
opinions, Lydia. The impracticable crotchets you are fond of airing are
not recognized in England as sane political convictions."
Lydia did not retort. She waited a minute in pensive silence, and then
said,
"Why do you not marry Alice Goff?"
"Oh, hang Alice Goff!"
"It is so easy to come at the man beneath the veneer by expertly
chipping at his feelings," said Lydia, laughing. "But I was serious,
Lucian. Alice is energetic, ambitious, and stubbornly upright in
questions of principle. I believe she would assist you steadily at
every step of your career. Besides, she has physical robustness. Our
student-stock needs an infusion of that."
"Many thanks for the suggestion; but I do not happen to want to marry
Miss Goff."
"I invite you to consider it. You have not had time yet to form any new
plans."
"New plans! Then you absolutely refuse me--without a moment's
consideration?"
"Absolutely, Lucian. Does not your instinct warn you that it would be a
mistake for you to marry me?"
"No; I cannot say that it does."
"Then trust to mine, which gives forth no uncertain note on this
question, as your favorite newspapers are fond of saying."
"It is a question of feeling," he said, in a constrained voice.
"Is it?" she replied, with interest. "You have surprised me somewhat,
Lucian. I have never observed any of the extravagances of a lover in
your conduct."
"And you have surprised me very unpleasantly, Lydia. I do not think now
that I ever had much hope of success; but I thought, at least, that my
disillusion would be gently accomplished."
"What! Have I been harsh?"
"I do not complain."
"I was unlucky, Lucian; not malicious. Besides, the artifices by
which friends endeavor to spare one another's feelings are pretty
disloyalties. I am frank with you. Would you have me otherwise?"
"Of course not. I have no right to be offended."
"Not the least. Now add to that formal admission a sincere assurance
that you ARE not offended."
"I assure you I am not," said Lucian, with melancholy resignation.
They had by this time reached Charlotte Street, and Lydia tacitly
concluded the conference by turning towards the museum, and beginning to
talk upon indifferent subjects. At the corner of Russell Street he got
into a cab and drove away, dejectedly acknowledging a smile and wave
of the hand with which Lydia tried to console him. She then went to the
national library, where she forgot Lucian. The effect of the shock of
his proposal was in store for her, but as yet she did not feel it; and
she worked steadily until the library was closed and she had to leave.
As she had been sitting for some hours, and it was still light, she did
not take a cab, and did not even walk straight home. She had heard of
a bookseller in Soho who had for sale a certain scarce volume which she
wanted; and it occurred to her that the present was a good opportunity
to go in search of him. Now, there was hardly a capital in western
Europe that she did not know better than London. She had an impression
that Soho was a region of quiet streets and squares, like Bloomsbury.
Her mistake soon became apparent; but she felt no uneasiness in the
narrow thoroughfares, for she was free from the common prejudice of
her class that poor people are necessarily ferocious, though she often
wondered why they were not so. She got as far as Great Pulteney Street
in safety; but in leaving it she took a wrong turning and lost herself
in a labyrinth of courts where a few workmen, a great many workmen's
wives and mothers, and innumerable workmen's children were passing the
summer evening at gossip and play. She explained her predicament to
one of the women, who sent a little boy wilh her to guide her. Business
being over for the day, the street to which the boy led her was almost
deserted. The only shop that seemed to be thriving was a public-house,
outside which a few roughs were tossing for pence.
Lydia's guide, having pointed out her way to her, prepared to return to
his playmates. She thanked him, and gave him the smallest coin in her
purse, which happened to be a shilling. He, in a transport at possessing
what was to him a fortune, uttered a piercing yell, and darted off to
show the coin to a covey of small ragamuffins who had just raced into
view round the corner at which the public-house stood. In his haste he
dashed against one of the group outside, a powerfully built young man,
who turned and cursed him. The boy retorted passionately, and then,
overcome by pain, began to cry. When Lydia came up the child stood
whimpering directly in her path; and she, pitying him, patted him on
the head and reminded him of all the money he had to spend. He seemed
comforted, and scraped his eyes with his knuckles in silence; but
the man, who, having received a sharp kick on the ankle, was stung by
Lydia's injustice in according to the aggressor the sympathy due to
himself, walked threateningly up to her and demanded, with a startling
oath, whether HE had offered to do anything to the boy. And, as he
refrained from applying any epithet to her, he honestly believed that in
deference to Lydia's sex and personal charms, he had expressed himself
with studied moderation. She, not appreciating his forbearance,
recoiled, and stepped into the roadway in order to pass him. Indignant
at this attempt to ignore him, he again placed himself in her path, and
was repeating his question with increased sternness, when a jerk in
the pit of his stomach caused him a severe internal qualm, besides
disturbing his equilibrium so rudely that he narrowly escaped a fall
against the curb-stone. When he recovered himself he saw before him a
showily dressed young man, who accosted him thus:
"Is that the way to talk to a lady, eh? Isn't the street wide enough for
two? Where's your manners?"
"And who are you; and where are you shoving your elbow to?" said the
man, with a surpassing imprecation.
"Come, come," said Cashel Byron, admonitorily. "You'd better keep your
mouth clean if you wish to keep your teeth inside it. Never you mind who
I am."
Lydia, foreseeing an altercation, and alarmed by the threatening aspect
of the man, attempted to hurry away and send a policeman to Cashel's
assistance. But, on turning, she discovered that a crowd had already
gathered, and that she was in the novel position of a spectator in the
inner ring at what promised to be a street fight. Her attention was
recalled to the disputants by a violent demonstration on the part of her
late assailant. Cashel seemed alarmed; for he hastily retreated a step
without regard to the toes of those behind him, and exclaimed, waving
the other off with his open hand,
"Now, you just let me alone. I don't want to have anything to say to
you. Go away from me, I tell you."
"You don't want to have nothink to say to me! Oh! And for why? Because
you ain't man enough; that's why. Wot do you mean by coming and shoving
your elbow into a man's bread-basket for, and then wanting to sneak off?
Did you think I'd 'a' bin frightened of your velvet coat?"
"Very well," said Cashel, pacifically; "we'll say that I'm not man
enough for you. So that's settled. Are you satisfied?"
But the other, greatly emboldened, declared with many oaths that he
would have Cashel's heart out, and also that of Lydia, to whom he
alluded in coarse terms. The crowd cheered, and called upon him to "go
it." Cashel then said, sullenly,
"Very well. But don't you try to make out afterwards that I forced a
quarrel on you. And now," he added, with a grim change of tone that made
Lydia shudder, and shifted her fears to the account of his antagonist,
"I'll make you wish you'd bit your tongue out before you said what you
did a moment ago. So, take care of yourself."
"Oh, I'll take care of myself," said the man, defiantly. "Put up your
hands."
Cashel surveyed his antagonist's attitude with unmistakable
disparagement. "You will know when my hands are up by the feel of the
pavement," he said, at last. "Better keep your coat on. You'll fall
softer."
The rough expressed his repudiation of this counsel by beginning to
strip energetically. A thrill of delight passed through the crowd. Those
who had bad places pressed forward, and those who formed the inner ring
pressed back to make room for the combatants. Lydia, who occupied a
coveted position close to Cashel, hoped to be hustled out of the throng;
for she was beginning to feel faint and ill. But a handsome butcher,
who had made his way to her side, gallantly swore that she should not be
deprived of her place in the front row, and bade her not be frightened,
assuring her that he would protect her, and that the fight would be well
worth seeing. As he spoke, the mass of faces before Lydia seemed to
give a sudden lurch. To save herself from falling, she slipped her arm
through the butcher's; and he, much gratified, tucked her close to him,
and held her up effectually. His support was welcome, because it was
needed.
Meanwhile, Cashel stood motionless, watching with unrelenting
contempt the movements of his adversary, who rolled up his discolored
shirt-sleeves amid encouraging cries of "Go it, Teddy," "Give it
'im, Ted," and other more precise suggestions. But Teddy's spirit
was chilled; he advanced with a presentiment that he was courting
destruction. He dared not rush on his foe, whose eye seemed to discern
his impotence. When at last he ventured to strike, the blow fell short,
as Cashel evidently knew it would; for he did not stir. There was a
laugh and a murmur of impatience in the crowd.
"Are you waiting for the copper to come and separate you?" shouted the
butcher. "Come out of your corner and get to work, can't you?"
This reminder that the police might balk him of his prey seemed to move
Cashel. He took a step forward. The excitement of the crowd rose to a
climax; and a little man near Lydia cut a frenzied caper and screamed,
"Go it, Cashel Byron."
At these words Teddy was terror-stricken. He made no attempt to disguise
his condition. "It ain't fair," he exclaimed, retreating as far as the
crowd would permit him. "I give in. Cut it, master; you're too clever
for me." But his comrades, with a pitiless jeer, pushed him towards
Cashel, who advanced remorselessly. Teddy dropped on both knees.
"Wot can a man say more than that he's had enough?" he pleaded. "Be a
Englishman, master; and don't hit a man when he's down."
"Down!" said Cashel. "How long will you stay down if I choose to have
you up?" And, suiting the action to the word, he seized Teddy with his
left hand, lifted him to his feet, threw him into a helpless position
across his knee, and poised his right fist like a hammer over his
upturned face. "Now," he said, "you're not down. What have you to say
for yourself before I knock your face down your throat?"
"Don't do it, gov'nor," gasped Teddy. "I didn't mean no harm. How was
I to know that the young lady was a pal o' yourn?" Here he struggled a
little; and his face assumed a darker hue. "Let go, master," he cried,
almost inarticulately. "You're ch--choking me."
"Pray let him go," said Lydia, disengaging herself from the butcher and
catching Cashel's arm.
Cashel, with a start, relaxed his grasp; and Teddy rolled on the ground.
He went away thrusting his hands iuto his sleeves, and out-facing his
disgrace by a callous grin. Cashel, without speaking, offered Lydia
his arm; and she, seeing that her best course was to get away from that
place with as few words as possible, accepted it, and then turned and
thanked the butcher, who blushed and became speechless. The little man
whose exclamation had interrupted the combat, now waved his hat, and
cried,
"The British Lion forever! Three cheers for Cashel Byron."
Cashel turned upon him curtly, and said, "Don't you make so free with
other people's names, or perhaps you may get into trouble yourself."
The little man retreated hastily; but the crowd responded with three
cheers as Cashel, with Lydia on his arm, withdrew through a lane of
disreputable-looking girls, roughs of Teddy's class, white-aproned
shopmen who had left their counters to see the fight, and a few pale
clerks, who looked with awe at the prize-fighter, and with wonder at the
refined appearance of his companion. The two were followed by a double
file of boys, who, with their eyes fixed earnestly on Cashel, walked
on the footways while he conducted Lydia down the middle of the narrow
street. Not one of them turned a somersault or uttered a shout. Intent
on their hero, they pattered along, coming into collision with every
object that lay in their path. At last Cashel stopped. They instantly
stopped too. He took some bronze coin from his pocket, rattled it in his
hand, and addressed them.
"Boys!" Dead silence. "Do you know what I have to do to keep up my
strength?" The hitherto steadfast eyes wandered uneasily. "I have to eat
a little boy for supper every night, the last thing before to bed. Now,
I haven't quite made up my mind which of you would be the most to my
taste; but if one of you comes a step further, I'll eat HIM. So, away
with you." And he jerked the coin to a considerable distance. There
was a yell and a scramble; and Cashel and Lydia pursued their way
unattended.
Lydia had taken advantage of the dispersion of the boys to detach
herself from Cashel's arm. She now said, speaking to him for the first
time since she had interceded for Teddy,
"I am sorry to have given you so much trouble, Mr. Cashel Byron. Thank
you for interfering to protect me; but I was in no real danger. I would
gladly have borne with a few rough words for the sake of avoiding a
disturbance."
"There!" cried Cashel. "I knew it. You'd a deal rather I had minded
my own business and not interfered. You're sorry for the poor fellow I
treated so badly; ain't you now? That's a woman all over."
"I have not said one of these things."
"Well, I don't see what else you mean. It's no pleasure to me to fight
chance men in the streets for nothing: I don't get my living that way.
And now that I have done it for your sake, you as good as tell me I
ought to have kept myself quiet."
"Perhaps I am wrong. I hardly understand what passed. You seemed to drop
from the clouds."
"Aha! You were glad when you found me at your elbow, in spite of your
talk. Come now; weren't you glad to see me?"
"I was--very glad indeed. But by what magic did you so suddenly subdue
that man? And was it necessary to sully your hands by throttling him?"
"It was a satisfaction to me; and it served him right."
"Surely a very poor satisfaction! Did you notice that some one in the
crowd called out your name, and that it seemed to frighten the man
terribly?"
"Indeed? Odd, wasn't it? But you were saying that you thought I dropped
from the sky. Why, I had been following you for five minutes before!
What do you think of that? If I may take the liberty of asking, how did
you come to be walking round Soho at such an hour with a little ragged
boy?"
Lydia explained. When she finished, it was nearly dark, and they
had reached Oxford Street, where, like Lucian in Regent's Park that
afternoon, she became conscious that her companion was an object
of curiosity to many of the young men who were lounging in that
thoroughfare.
"Alice will think that I am lost," she said, making a signal to a
cabman. "Good-bye; and many thanks. I am always at home on Fridays, and
shall be very happy to see you."
She handed him a card. He took it, read it, looked at the back to see if
there was anything written there, and then said, dubiously,
"I suppose there will be a lot of people."
"Yes; you will meet plenty of people."
"Hm! I wish you'd let me see you home now. I won't ask to go any further
than the gate."
Lydia laughed. "You should be very welcome," she said; "but I am quite
safe, thank you. I need not trouble you."
"But suppose the cabman bullies you for double fare," persisted Cashel.
"I have business up in Finchley; and your place is right in any way
there. Upon my soul I have," he added, suspecting that she doubted him.
"I go every Tuesday evening to the St. John's Wood Cestus Club."
"I am hungry and in a hurry to got home," said Lydia. "'I must be gone
and live, or stay and die.' Come if you will; but in any case let us go
at once."
She got into the cab, and Cashel followed, making some remark which she
did not quite catch about its being too dark for any one to recognize
him. They spoke little during the drive, which was soon over. Bashville
was standing at the open door as they came to the house. When Cashel got
out the footman looked at him with interest and some surprise, But when
Lydia alighted he was so startled that he stood open-mouthed, although
he was trained to simulate insensibility to everything except his own
business, and to do that as automatically as possible. Cashel bade Lydia
good-bye, and shook hands with her. As she went into the house, she
asked Bashville whether Miss Goff was within. To her surprise, he paid
no attention to her, but stared after the retreating cab. She repeated
the question.
"Madam," he said, recovering himself with a start, "she has asked for
you four times."
Lydia, relieved of a disagreeable suspicion that her usually faultless
footman must be drunk, thanked him and went up-stairs.
CHAPTER VIII
One morning a handsome young man, elegantly dressed, presented himself
at Downing Street, and asked to see Mr. Lucian Webber. He declined
to send in a card, and desired to be announced simply as "Bashville."
Lucian ordered him to be admitted at once, and, when he entered, nodded
amiably to him and invited him to sit down.
"I thank you, sir," said Bashville, seating himself. It struck Lucian
then, from a certain strung-up resolution in his visitor's manner, that
he had come on some business of his own, and not, as he had taken for
granted, with a message from his mistress.
"I have come, sir, on my own responsibility this morning. I hope you
will excuse the liberty."
"Certainly. If I can do anything for you, Bashville, don't be afraid to
ask. But be as brief as you can. I am so busy that every second I give
you will probably be subtracted from my night's rest. Will ten minutes
be enough?"
"More than enough, sir, thank you. I only wish to ask one question.
I own that I am stepping out of my place to ask it; but I'll risk
all that. Does Miss Carew know what the Mr. Cashel Byron is that she
receives every Friday with her other friends?"
"No doubt she does," said Lucian, at once becoming cold in his manner,
and looking severely at Bashville. "What business is that of yours?"
"Do YOU know what he is, sir?" said Bashville, returning Lucian's gaze
steadily.
Lucian changed countenance, and replaced a pen that had slipped from a
rack on his desk. "He is not an acquaintance of mine," he said. "I only
know him as a friend of Lord Worthington's."
"Sir," said Bashville, with sudden vehemence, "he is no more to Lord
Worthington than the racehorse his lordship bets on. _I_ might as well
set up to be a friend of his lordship because I, after a manner of
speaking, know him. Byron is in the ring, sir. A common prize-fighter!"
Lucian, recalling what had passed at Mrs. Hoskyn's, and Lord
Worthington's sporting habits, believed the assertion at once. But
he made a faint effort to resist conviction. "Are you sure of this,
Bashville?" he said. "Do you know that your statement is a very serious
one?"
"There is no doubt at all about it, sir. Go to any sporting public-house
in London and ask who is the best-known fighting man of the day, and
they'll tell you, Cashel Byron. I know all about him, sir. Perhaps you
have heard tell of Ned Skene, who was champion, belike, when you were at
school."
"I believe I have heard the name."
"Just so, sir. Ned Skene picked up this Cashel Byron in the streets of
Melbourne, where he was a common sailor-boy, and trained him for the
ring. You may have seen his name in the papers, sir. The sporting ones
are full of him; and he was mentioned in the Times a month ago."
"I never read articles on such subjects. I have hardly time to glance
through the ones that concern me."
"That's the way it is with everybody, sir. Miss Carew never thinks
of reading the sporting intelligence in the papers; and so he passes
himself off on her for her equal. He's well known for his wish to be
thought a gentleman, sir, I assure you."
"I have noticed his manner as being odd, certainly."
"Odd, sir! Why, a child might see through him; for he has not the sense
to keep his own secret. Last Friday he was in the library, and he got
looking at the new biographical dictionary that Miss Carew contributed
the article on Spinoza to. And what do you think he said, sir? 'This is
a blessed book,' he says. 'Here's ten pages about Napoleon Bonaparte,
and not one about Jack Randall; as if one fighting man wasn't as good as
another!' I knew by the way the mistress took up that saying, and drew
him out, so to speak, on the subject, that she didn't know who she had
in her house; and then I determined to tell you, sir. I hope you won't
think that I come here behind his back out of malice against him. All I
want is fair play. If I passed myself off on Miss Carew as a gentleman,
I should deserve to be exposed as a cheat; and when he tries to take
advantages that don't belong to him, I think I have a right to expose
him."
"Quite right, quite right," said Lucian, who cared nothing for
Bashville's motives. "I suppose this Byron is a dangerous man to have
any personal unpleasantness with."
"He knows his business, sir. I am a better judge of wrestling than half
of these London professionals; but I never saw the man that could put a
hug on him. Simple as he is, sir, he has a genius for fighting, and has
beaten men of all sizes, weights, and colors. There's a new man from
the black country, named Paradise, who says he'll beat him; but I won't
believe it till I see it."
"Well," said Lucian, rising, "I am much indebted to you, Bashville, for
your information; and I will take care to let Miss Carew know how you
have--"
"Begging your pardon, sir," said Bashville; "but, if you please, no. I
did not come to recommend myself at the cost of another man; and perhaps
Miss Carew might not think it any great recommendation neither." Lucian
looked quickly at him, and seemed about to speak, but checked himself.
Bashville continued, "If he denies it, you may call me as a witness,
and I will tell him to his face that he lies--and so I would if he were
twice as dangerous; but, except in that way, I would ask you, sir, as a
favor, not to mention my name to Miss Carew."
"As you please," said Lucian, taking out his purse. "Perhaps you are
right. However, you shall not have your trouble for nothing."
"I couldn't, really, sir," said Bashville, retreating a step. "You will
agree with me, I'm sure, that this is not a thing that a man should take
payment for. It is a personal matter between me and Byron, sir."
Lucian, displeased that a servant should have any personal feelings on
any subject, much more one that concerned his mistress, put back
his purse without comment and said, "Will Miss Carew be at home this
afternoon between three and four?"
"I have not heard of any arrangement to the contrary, sir. I will
telegraph to you if she goes out--if you wish."
"It does not matter. Thank you. Good-morning."
"Good-morning, sir," said Bashville, respectfully, as he withdrew.
Outside the door his manner changed. He put on a pair of primrose
gloves, took up a silver-mounted walking-stick that he had left in the
corridor, and walked from Downing Street into Whitehall. A party
of visitors from the country, who were standing there examining the
buildings, guessed that he was a junior lord of the Treasury.
He waited in vain that afternoon for Lucian to appear at the house
in Regent's Park. There were no callers, and he wore away the time by
endeavoring, with the aid of a library that Miss Carew had placed at the
disposal of her domestics, to unravel the philosophy of Spinoza. At the
end of an hour, feeling satisfied that he had mastered that author's
views, he proceeded to vary the monotony of the long summer's day by
polishing Lydia's plate.
Meanwhile, Lucian was considering how he could best make Lydia not only
repudiate Cashel's acquaintance, but feel thoroughly ashamed of herself
for having encouraged him, and wholesomely mistrustful of her own
judgment for the future. His parliamentary experience had taught him
to provide himself with a few well-arranged, relevant facts before
attempting to influence the opinions of others on any subject. He
knew no more of prize-fighting than that it was a brutal and illegal
practice, akin to cock-fighting, and, like it, generally supposed to be
obsolete. Knowing how prone Lydia was to suspect any received opinion
of being a prejudice, he felt that he must inform himself more
particularly. To Lord Worthington's astonishment, he not only asked him
to dinner next evening, but listened with interest while he descanted to
his heart's content on his favorite topic of the ring.
As the days passed, Bashville became nervous, and sometimes wondered
whether Lydia had met her cousin and heard from him of the interview at
Downing Street. He fancied that her manner towards him was changed; and
he was once or twice on the point of asking the most sympathetic of the
housemaids whether she had noticed it. On Wednesday his suspense ended.
Lucian came, and had a long conversation with Lydia in the library.
Bashville was too honorable to listen at the door; but he felt a strong
temptation to do so, and almost hoped that the sympathetic housemaid
might prove less scrupulous. But Miss Carew's influence extended farther
than her bodily presence; and Lucian's revelation was made in complete
privacy.
When he entered the library he looked so serious that she asked him
whether he had neuralgia, from which he occasionally suffered. He
replied with some indignation that he had not, and that he had a
communication of importance to make to her.
"What! Another!"
"Yes, another," he said, with a sour smile; "but this time it does not
concern myself. May I warn you as to the character of one of your guests
without overstepping my privilege?"
"Certainly. But perhaps you mean Vernet. If so, I am perfectly aware
that he is an exiled Communard."
"I do not mean Monsieur Vernet. You understand, I hope, that I do not
approve of him, nor of your strange fancy for Nihilists, Fenians, and
other doubtful persons; but I think that even you might draw the line at
a prize-fighter."
Lydia lost color, and said, almost inaudibly, "Cashel Byron!"
"Then you KNEW!" exclaimed Lucian, scandalized.
Lydia waited a moment to recover, settled herself quietly in her chair,
and replied, calmly, "I know what you tell me--nothing more. And now,
will you explain to me exactly what a prize-fighter is?"
"He is simply what his name indicates. He is a man who fights for
prizes."
"So does the captain of a man-of-war. And yet society does not place
them in the same class--at least, I do not think so."
"As if there could be any doubt that society does not! There is no
analogy whatever between the two cases. Let me endeavor to open your
eyes a little, if that be possible, which I am sometimes tempted
to doubt. A prize-fighter is usually a man of naturally ferocious
disposition, who has acquired some reputation among his associates as a
bully; and who, by constantly quarrelling, has acquired some practice in
fighting. On the strength of this reputation he can generally find some
gambler willing to stake a sum of money that he will vanquish a pugilist
of established fame in single combat. Bets are made between the admirers
of the two men; a prize is subscribed for, each party contributing a
share; the combatants are trained as racehorses, gamecocks, or their
like are trained; they meet, and beat each other as savagely as they can
until one or the other is too much injured to continue the combat. This
takes place in the midst of a mob of such persons as enjoy spectacles of
the kind; that is to say, the vilest blackguards whom a large city can
afford to leave at large, and many whom it cannot. As the prize-money
contributed by each side often amounts to upwards of a thousand pounds,
and as a successful pugilist commands far higher terms for giving
tuition in boxing than a tutor at one of the universities does for
coaching, you will see that such a man, while his youth and luck last,
may have plenty of money, and may even, by aping the manners of the
gentlemen whom he teaches, deceive careless people--especially those who
admire eccentricity--as to his character and position."
"What is his true position? I mean before he becomes a prize-fighter."
"Well, he may be a handicraftsman of some kind: a journeyman butcher,
skinner, tailor, or baker. Possibly a soldier, sailor, policeman,
gentleman's servant, or what not? But he is generally a common laborer.
The waterside is prolific of such heroes."
"Do they never come from a higher rank?"
"Never even from the better classes in their own. Broken-down gentlemen
are not likely to succeed at work that needs the strength and endurance
of a bull and the cruelty of a butcher."
"And the end of a prize-fighter. What is that like?"
"He soon has to give up his trade. For, if he be repeatedly beaten, no
one will either bet on him or subscribe to provide him with a stake.
If he is invariably successful, those, if any, who dare fight him find
themselves in a like predicament. In either case his occupation is gone.
If he has saved money he opens a sporting public-house, where he sells
spirits of the worst description to his old rivals and their associates,
and eventually drinks himself to death or bankruptcy. If, however, he
has been improvident or unfortunate, he begs from his former patrons and
gives lessons. Finally, when the patrons are tired of him and the pupils
fail, he relapses into the laboring class with a ruined constitution, a
disfigured face, a brutalized nature, and a tarnished reputation."
Lydia remained silent so long after this that Lucian's expression of
magisterial severity first deepened, then wavered, and finally gave way
to a sense of injury; for she seemed to have forgotten him. He was about
to protest against this treatment, when she looked at him again, and
said,
"Why did Lord Worthington introduce a man of this class to me?"
"Because you asked him to do so. Probably he thought that if you chose
to make such a request without previous inquiry, you should not blame
him if you found yourself saddled with an undesirable acquaintance.
Recollect that you asked for the introduction on the platform at
Wiltstoken, in the presence of the man himself. Such a ruffian would
be capable of making a disturbance for much less offence than an
explanation and refusal would have given him."
"Lucian," said Lydia, in a tone of gentle admonition, "I asked to be
introduced to my tenant, for whose respectability you had vouched
by letting the Warren Lodge to him." Lucian reddened. "How does Lord
Worthington explain Mr. Byron's appearance at Mrs. Hoskyn's?"
"It was a stupid joke. Mrs. Hoskyn had worried Worthington to bring
some celebrity to her house; and, in revenge, he took his pugilistic
protege."
"Hm!"
"I do not defend Worthington. But discretion is hardly to be expected
from him."
"He has discretion enough to understand a case of this kind thoroughly.
But let that pass. I have been thinking upon what you tell me about
these singular people, whose existence I hardly knew of before. Now,
Lucian, in the course of my reading I have come upon denunciations of
every race and pursuit under the sun. Very respectable and well-informed
men have held that Jews, Irishmen, Christians, atheists, lawyers,
doctors, politicians, actors, artists, flesh-eaters, and spirit-drinkers
are all of necessity degraded beings. Such statements can be easily
proved by taking a black sheep from each flock, and holding him up as
the type. It is more reasonable to argue a man's character from the
nature of his profession; and yet even that is very unsafe. War is
a cruel business; but soldiers are not necessarily bloodthirsty and
inhuman men. I am not quite satisfied that a prize-fighter is a
violent and dangerous man because he follows a violent and dangerous
profession--I suppose they call it a profession."
Lucian was about to speak; but she interrupted him by continuing,
"And yet that is not what concerns me at present. Have you found out
anything about Mr. Byron personally? Is he an ordinary representative of
his class?"
"No; I should rather think--and hope--that he is a very extraordinary
representative of it. I have traced his history back to his boyhood,
when he was a cabin-boy. Having apparently failed to recommend himself
to his employers in that capacity, he became errand-boy to a sort of
maitre d'armes at Melbourne. Here he discovered where his genius lay;
and he presently appeared in the ring with an unfortunate young man
named Ducket, whose jaw he fractured. This laid the foundation of his
fame. He fought several battles with unvarying success; but at last he
allowed his valor to get the better of his discretion so far as to kill
an Englishman who contended with him with desperate obstinacy for two
hours. I am informed that the particular blow by which he felled
the poor wretch for the last time is known in pugilistic circles as
'Cashel's killer,' and that he has attempted to repeat it in all his
subsequent encounters, without, however, achieving the same fatal
result. The failure has doubtless been a severe disappointment to him.
He fled from Australia and reappeared in America, where he resumed
his victorious career, distinguishing himself specially by throwing
a gigantic opponent in some dreadful fashion that these men have, and
laming him for life. He then--"
"Thank you, Lucian," said Lydia rather faintly. "That is quite enough.
Are you sure that it is all true?"
"My authority is Lord Worthington, and a number of newspaper reports
which he showed me. Byron himself will probably be proud to give you
the fullest confirmation of the record. I should add, in justice to
him, that he is looked upon as a model--to pugilists--of temperance and
general good conduct."
"Do you remember my remarking a few days ago, on another subject, how
meaningless our observations are until we are given the right thread to
string them on?"
"Yes," said "Webber, disconcerted by the allusion.
"My acquaintance with this man is a case in point. He has obtruded his
horrible profession upon me every time we have met. I have actually seen
him publicly cheered as a pugilist-hero; and yet, being off the track,
and ignorant of the very existence of such a calling, I have looked on
and seen nothing."
Lydia then narrated her adventure in Soho, and listened with the perfect
patience of indifference to his censure of her imprudence in going there
alone.
"And now, Lydia," he added, "may I ask what you intend to do in this
matter?"
"What would you have me do?"
"Drop his acquaintance at once. Forbid him your house in the most
explicit terms."
"A pleasant task!" said Lydia, ironically. "But I will do it--not
so much, perhaps, because he is a prize-fighter, as because he is an
impostor. Now go to the writing-table and draft me a proper letter to
send him."
Lucian's face elongated. "I think," he said, "you can do that better for
yourself. It is a delicate sort of thing."
"Yes. It is not so easy as you implied a moment ago. Otherwise I should
not require your assistance. As it is--" She pointed again to the table.
Lucian was not ready with an excuse. He sat down reluctantly, and, after
some consideration, indited the following:
"Miss Carew presents her compliments to Mr. Cashel Byron, and begs to
inform him that she will not be at home during the remainder of the
season as heretofore. She therefore regrets that she cannot have the
pleasure of receiving him on Friday afternoon."
"I think you will find that sufficient," said Lucian.
"Probably," said Lydia, smiling as she read it. "But what shall I do if
he takes offence; calls here, breaks the windows, and beats Bashville?
Were I in his place, that is what such a letter would provoke me to do."
"He dare not give any trouble. But I will warn the police if you feel
anxious."
"By no means. We must not show ourselves inferior to him in courage,
which is, I suppose, his cardinal virtue."
"If you write the note now, I will post it for you."
"No, thank you. I will send it with my other letters."
Lucian would rather have waited; but she would not write while he
was there. So he left, satisfied on the whole with the success of his
mission. When he was gone, she took a pen, endorsed his draft neatly,
placed it in a drawer, and wrote to Cashel thus:
"Dear Mr. Cashel Byron,--I have just discovered your secret. I am sorry;
but you must not come again. Farewell. Yours faithfully,
"Lydia Carew."
Lydia kept this note by her until next morning, when she read it through
carefully. She then sent Bashville to the post with it.
CHAPTER IX
Cashel's pupils frequently requested him to hit them hard--not to play
with them--to accustom them to regular, right down, severe hitting, and
no nonsense. He only pretended to comply; for he knew that a black eye
or loosened tooth would be immoderately boasted of if received in combat
with a famous pugilist, and that the sufferer's friends would make
private notes to avoid so rough a professor. But when Miss Carew's note
reached him he made an exception to his practice in this respect. A
young guardsman, whose lesson began shortly after the post arrived,
remarked that Cashel was unusually distraught. He therefore exhorted
his instructor to wake up and pitch into him in earnest. Immediately he
received a blow in the epigastrium that stretched him almost insensible
on the floor. Rising with his complexion considerably whitened, he
recollected an appointment which would prevent him from finishing his
lesson, and withdrew, declaring in a somewhat shaky voice that that was
the sort of bout he really enjoyed.
Cashel did not at first make any profitable use of the leisure thus
earned. He walked to and fro, cursing, and occasionally stopping to read
the letter. His restlessness only increased his agitation. The arrival
of a Frenchman whom he employed to give lessons in fencing made the
place unendurable to him. He changed his attire, went out, called a cab,
and bade the driver, with an oath, drive to Lydia's house as fast as the
horse could go. The man made all the haste he could, and was presently
told impatiently that there was no hurry. Accustomed to this sort of
inconsistency, he was not surprised when, as they approached the house,
he was told not to stop but to drive slowly past. Then, in obedience to
further instructions, he turned and repassed the door. As he did so a
lady appeared for an instant at a window. Immediately his fare, with a
groan of mingled rage and fear, sprang from the moving vehicle, rushed
up the steps of the mansion, and rang the bell violently. Bashville,
faultlessly dressed and impassibly mannered, opened the door. In reply
to Cashel's half-inarticulate inquiry, he said,
"Miss Carew is not at home."
"You lie," said Cashel, his eyes suddenly dilating. "I saw her."
Bashville reddened, but replied, coolly, "Miss Carew cannot see you
to-day."
"Go and ask her," returned Cashel sternly, advancing.
Bashville, with compressed lips, seized the door to shut him out; but
Cashel forced it back against him, sent him reeling some paces by its
impact, went in, and shut the door behind him. He had to turn from
Bashville for a moment to do this, and before he could face him again he
was clutched, tripped, and flung down upon the tessellated pavement of
the hall.
When Cashel gave him the lie, and pushed the door against him, the
excitement he had been suppressing since his visit to Lucian exploded.
He had thrown Cashel in Cornish fashion, and now desperately awaited the
upshot.
Cashel got up so rapidly that he seemed to rebound from the flags.
Bashville, involuntarily cowering before his onslaught, just escaped his
right fist, and felt as though his heart had been drawn with it as
it whizzed past his ear. He turned and fled frantically up-stairs,
mistaking for the clatter of pursuit the noise with which Cashel,
overbalanced by his ineffectual blow, stumbled against the banisters.
Lydia was in her boudoir with Alice when Bashville darted in and locked
the door. Alice rose and screamed. Lydia, though startled, and that less
by the unusual action than by the change in a familiar face which she
had never seen influenced by emotion before, sat still and quietly asked
what was the matter. Bashville checked himself for a moment. Then he
spoke unintelligibly, and went to the window, which he opened. Lydia
divined that he was about to call for help to the street.
"Bashville," she said, authoritatively: "be silent, and close the
window. I will go down-stairs myself."
Bashville then ran to prevent her from unlocking the door; but she paid
no attention to him. He did not dare to oppose her forcibly. He was
beginning to recover from his panic, and to feel the first stings of
shame for having yielded to it.
"Madam," he said: "Byron is below; and he insists on seeing you. He's
dangerous; and he's too strong for me. I have done my best--on my honor
I have. Let me call the police. Stop," he added, as she opened the door.
"If either of us goes, it must be me."
"I will see him in the library," said Lydia, composedly. "Tell him so;
and let him wait there for me--if you can approach him without running
any risk."
"Oh, pray let him call the police," urged Alice. "Don't attempt to go to
that man."
"Nonsense!" said Lydia, good-humoredly. "I am not in the least afraid.
We must not fail in courage when we have a prize-fighter to deal with."
Bashville, white, and preventing with difficulty his knees from knocking
together, went down-stairs and found Cashel leaning upon the balustrade,
panting, and looking perplexedly about him as he wiped his dabbled brow.
Bashville approached him with the firmness of a martyr, halted on the
third stair, and said,
"Miss Carew will see you in the library. Come this way, please."
Cashel's lips moved, but no sound came from them; he followed Bashville
in silence. When they entered the library Lydia was already there.
Bashville withdrew without a word. Then Cashel sat down, and, to her
consternation, bent his head on his hand and yielded to an hysterical
convulsion. Before she could resolve how to act he looked up at her with
his face distorted and discolored, and tried to speak.
"Pray be calm," said Lydia. "I am told that you wish to speak to me."
"I don't wish to speak to you ever again," said Cashel, hoarsely. "You
told your servant to throw me down the steps. That's enough for me."
Lydia caught from him the tendency to sob which he was struggling with;
but she repressed it, and answered, firmly, "If my servant has been
guilty of the least incivility to you, Mr. Cashel Byron, he has exceeded
his orders."
"It doesn't matter," said Cashel. "He may thank his luck that he has his
head on. If I had planted on him that time--but HE doesn't matter.
Hold on a bit--I can't talk--I shall get my second wind presently, and
then--" Cashel stopped a moment to pant, and then asked, "Why are you
going to give me up?"
Lydia ranged her wits in battle array, and replied,
"Do you remember our conversation at Mrs. Hoskyn's?"
"Yes."
"You admitted then that if the nature of your occupation became known to
me our acquaintance should cease. That has now come to pass."
"That was all very fine talk to excuse my not telling you. But I find,
like many another man when put to the proof, that I didn't mean it. Who
told you I was a fighting man?"
"I had rather not tell you that."
"Aha!" said Cashel, with a triumph that was half choked by the remnant
of his hysteria. "Who is trying to make a secret now, I should like to
know?"
"I do so in this instance because I am afraid to expose a friend to your
resentment."
"And why? He's a man, of course; else you wouldn't be afraid. You think
that I'd go straight off and murder him. Perhaps he told you that it
would come quite natural to a man like me--a ruffian like me--to smash
him up. That comes of being a coward. People run my profession down; not
because there is a bad one or two in it--there's plenty of bad bishops,
if you come to that--but because they're afraid of us. You may make
yourself easy about your friend. I am accustomed to get well paid for
the beatings I give; and your own common-sense ought to tell you that
any one who is used to being paid for a job is just the last person in
the world to do it for nothing."
"I find the contrary to be the case with first-rate artists," said
Lydia.
"Thank you," retorted Cashel, sarcastically. "I ought to make you a bow
for that. I'm glad you acknowledge that it IS an art."
"But," said Lydia seriously, "it seems to me that it is an art wholly
anti-social and retrograde. And I fear that you have forced this
interview on me to no purpose."
"I don't know whether it's anti-social or not. But I think it hard that
I should be put out of decent society when fellows that do far worse
than I are let in. Who did I see here last Friday, the most honored of
your guests? Why, that Frenchman with the gold spectacles. What do you
think I was told when I asked what HIS little game was? Baking dogs in
ovens to see how long a dog could live red hot! I'd like to catch him
doing it to a dog of mine. Ay; and sticking a rat full of nails to see
how much pain a rat could stand. Why, it's just sickening. Do you think
I'd have shaken hands with that chap? If he hadn't been a guest of
yours I'd have given him a notion of how much pain a Frenchman can stand
without any nails in him. And HE'S to be received and made much of,
while I am kicked out! Look at your relation, the general. What is he
but a fighting man, I should like to know? Isn't it his pride and boast
that as long as he is paid so much a day he'll ask no questions whether
a war is fair or unfair, but just walk out and put thousands of men in
the best way to kill and be killed?--keeping well behind them himself
all the time, mind you. Last year he was up to his chin in the blood of
a lot of poor blacks that were no more a match for his armed men than
a feather-weight would be for me. Bad as I am, I wouldn't attack a
feather-weight, or stand by and see another heavy man do it. Plenty
of your friends go pigeon-shooting to Hurlingham. THERE'S a humane and
manly way of spending a Saturday afternoon! Lord Worthington, that comes
to see you when he likes, though he's too much of a man or too little
of a shot to kill pigeons, thinks nothing of fox-hunting. Do you think
foxes like to be hunted, or that the people that hunt them have such
fine feelings that they can afford to call prize-fighters names? Look
at the men that get killed or lamed every year at steeple-chasing,
fox-hunting, cricket, and foot-ball! Dozens of them! Look at the
thousands killed in battle! Did you ever hear of any one being killed
in the ring? Why, from first to last, during the whole century that
prize-fighting has been going on, there's not been six fatal accidents
at really respectable fights. It's safer than dancing; many a woman has
danced her skirt into the fire and been burned. I once fought a man who
had spoiled his constitution with bad living; and he exhausted himself
so by going on and on long after he was beaten that he died of it, and
nearly finished me, too. If you'd heard the fuss that even the oldest
fighting men made over it you'd have thought that a baby had died from
falling out of its cradle. A good milling does a man more good than
harm. And if all these--dog-bakers, and soldiers, and pigeon-shooters,
and fox-hunters, and the rest of them--are made welcome here, why am I
shut out like a brute beast?"
"Truly I do not know," said Lydia, puzzled; "unless it be that your
colleagues have failed to recommend themselves to society by their
extra-professional conduct as the others have."
"I grant you that fighting men ar'n't gentlemen, as a rule. No more were
painters, or poets, once upon a time. But what I want to know is this:
Supposing a fighting man has as good manners as your friends, and is
as well born, why shouldn't he mix with them and be considered their
equal?"
"The distinction seems arbitrary, I confess. But perhaps the true remedy
would be to exclude the vivisectors and soldiers, instead of admitting
the prize-fighters. Mr. Cashel Byron," added Lydia, changing her manner,
"I cannot discuss this with you. Society has a prejudice against you.
I share it; and I cannot overcome it. Can you find no nobler occupation
than these fierce and horrible encounters by which you condescend to
gain a living?"
"No," said Cashel, flatly. "I can't. That's just where it is."
Lydia looked grave, and said nothing.
"You don't see it?" said Cashel. "Well, I'll just tell you all about
myself, and then leave you to judge. May I sit down while I talk?"
He had risen in the course of his remarks on Lydia's scientific and
military acquaintances.
She pointed to a chair near her. Something in the action brought color
to his cheeks.
"I believe I was the most unfortunate devil of a boy that ever walked,"
he began, when he was seated. "My mother was--and is--an actress, and
a tiptop crack in her profession. One of the first things I remember
is sitting on the floor in the corner of a room where there was a big
glass, and she flaring away before it, attitudinizing and spouting
Shakespeare like mad. I was afraid of her, because she was very
particular about my manners and appearance, and would never let me go
near a theatre. I know very little about either my people or hers; for
she boxed my ears one day for asking who my father was, and I took good
care not to ask her again. She was quite young when I was a child; at
first I thought her a sort of angel--I should have been fond of her, I
think, if she had let me. But she didn't, somehow; and I had to keep my
affection for the servants. I had plenty of variety in that way; for
she gave her whole establishment the sack about once every two months,
except a maid who used to bully her, and gave me nearly all the nursing
I ever got. I believe it was my crying about some housemaid or other who
went away that first set her abusing me for having low tastes--a sort of
thing that used to cut me to the heart, and which she kept up till
the very day I left her for good. We were a precious pair: I sulky and
obstinate, she changeable and hot-tempered. She used to begin breakfast
sometimes by knocking me to the other side of the room with a slap, and
finish it by calling me her darling boy and promising me all manner of
toys and things. I soon gave up trying to please her, or like her, and
became as disagreeable a young imp as you'd ask to see. My only thought
was to get all I could out of her when she was in a good-humor, and to
be sullen and stubborn when she was in a tantrum. One day a boy in the
street threw some mud at me, and I ran in crying and complained to
her. She told me I was a little coward. I haven't forgiven her for that
yet--perhaps because it was one of the few true things she ever said to
me. I was in a state of perpetual aggravation; and I often wonder that
I wasn't soured for life at that time. At last I got to be such a little
fiend that when she hit me I used to guard off her blows, and look so
wicked that I think she got afraid of me. Then she put me to school,
telling me that I had no heart, and telling the master that I was an
ungovernable young brute. So I, like a little fool, cried at leaving
her; and she, like a big one, cried back again over me--just after
telling the master what a bad one I was, mind you--and off she went,
leaving her darling boy and blessed child howling at his good luck in
getting rid of her.
"I was a nice boy to let loose in a school. I could speak as well as an
actor, as far as pronunciation goes; but I could hardly read words of
one syllabile; and as to writing, I couldn't make pothooks and hangers
respectably. To this day, I can no more spell than old Ned Skene can.
What was a worse sort of ignorance was that I had no idea of fair play.
I thought that all servants would be afraid of me, and that all grown-up
people would tyrannize over me. I was afraid of everybody; afraid
that my cowardice would be found out; and as angry and cruel in my
ill-tempers as cowards always are. Now you'll hardly believe this; but
what saved me from going to the bad altogether was my finding out that
I was a good one to fight. The bigger boys were given to fighting,
and used to have mills every Saturday afternoon, with seconds,
bottle-holders, and everything complete, except the ropes and stakes. We
little chaps used to imitate them among ourselves as best we could. At
first, when they made me fight, I shut my eyes and cried; but for all
that I managed to catch the other fellow tight round the waist and throw
him. After that it became a regular joke to make me fight, for I always
cried. But the end of it was that I learned to keep my eyes open and hit
straight. I had no trouble about fighting then. Somehow, I could tell by
instinct when the other fellow was going to hit me, and I always hit him
first. It's the same with me now in the ring; I know what a man is going
to do before he rightly knows himself. The power that this gave
me, civilized me. It made me cock of the school; and I had to act
accordingly. I had enough good-nature left to keep me from being a
bully; and, as cock, I couldn't be mean or childish. There would be
nothing like fighting for licking boys into shape if every one could be
cock; but every one can't; so I suppose it does more harm than good.
"I should have enjoyed school well enough if I had worked at my
books. But I wouldn't study; and the masters were all down on me as an
idler--though I shouldn't have been like that if they had known how to
teach--I have learned since what teaching is. As to the holidays, they
were the worst part of the year to me. When I was left at school I was
savage at not being let go home; and when I went home my mother did
nothing but find fault with my school-boy manners. I was getting too big
to be cuddled as her darling boy, you understand. In fact, her treatment
of me was just the old game with the affectionate part left out. It
wasn't pleasant, after being cock of the school, to be made feel like
a good-for-nothing little brat tied to her apron-strings. When she saw
that I was learning nothing she sent me to another school at a place in
the north called Panley. I stayed there until I was seventeen; and then
she came one day, and we had a row, as usual. She said she wouldn't let
me leave school until I was nineteen; and so I settled that question by
running away the same night. I got to Liverpool, where I hid in a ship
bound for Australia. When I was starved out they treated me better than
I expected; and I worked hard enough to earn my passage and my victuals.
But when I wad left ashore in Melbourne I was in a pretty pickle. I
knew nobody, and I had no money. Everything that a man could live by
was owned by some one or other. I walked through the town looking for
a place where they might want a boy to run errands or to clean windows.
But somehow I hadn't the cheek to go into the shops and ask. Two or
three times, when I was on the point of trying, I caught sight of some
cad of a shopman, and made up my mind that I wouldn't be ordered about
by HIM, and that since I had the whole town to choose from I might as
well go on to the next place. At last, quite late in the afternoon, I
saw an advertisement stuck up on a gymnasium, and, while I was reading
it, I got talking to old Ned Skene, the owner, who was smoking at the
door. He took a fancy to me, and offered to have me there as a sort of
lad-of-all-work. I was only too glad to get the chance, and I closed
with him at once. As time went on I became so clever with the gloves
that Ned matched me against a light-weight named Ducket, and bet a lot
of money that I would win. Well, I couldn't disappoint him after his
being so kind to me--Mrs. Skene had made as much of me as if I was her
own son. What could I do but take my bread as it came to me? I was fit
for nothing else. Even if I had been able to write a good hand and keep
accounts I couldn't have brought myself to think that quill-driving and
counting other people's money was a fit employment for a man. It's not
what a man would like to do that he must do in this world, it's what
he CAN do; and the only mortal thing I could do properly was to fight.
There was plenty of money and plenty of honor and glory among my
acquaintances to be got by fighting. So I challenged Ducket, and knocked
him all to pieces in about ten minutes. I half killed him because I
didn't know my own strength and was afraid of him. I have been at the
same work ever since. I was training for a fight when I was down at
Wiltstoken; and Mellish was my trainer. It came off the day you saw me
at Clapham; that was how I came to have a black eye. Wiltstoken did for
me. With all my nerve and science, I'm no better than a baby at heart;
and ever since I found out that my mother wasn't an angel I have always
had a notion that a real angel would turn up some day. You see, I never
cared much for women. Bad as my mother was as far as being what you
might call a parent went, she had something in her looks and manners
that gave me a better idea of what a nice woman was like than I had of
most things; and the girls I met in Australia and America seemed very
small potatoes to me in comparison with her. Besides, of course they
were not ladies. I was fond of Mrs. Skene because she was good to me;
and I made myself agreeable, for her sake, to the girls that came to
see her; but in reality I couldn't stand them. Mrs. Skene said that
they were all setting their caps at me--women are death on a crack
fighter--but the more they tried it on the less I liked them. It was no
go; I could get on with the men well enough, no matter how common they
were; but the snobbishness of my breed came out with regard to the
women. When I saw you that day at Wiltstoken walk out of the trees and
stand looking so quietly at me and Mellish, and then go back out of
sight without a word, I'm blessed if I didn't think you were the angel
come at last. Then I met you at the railway station and walked with you.
You put the angel out of my head quick enough; for an angel, after all,
is only a shadowy, childish notion--I believe it's all gammon about
there being any in heaven--but you gave me a better idea than mamma of
what a woman should be, and you came up to that idea and went beyond
it. I have been in love with you ever since; and if I can't have you,
I don't care what becomes of me. I know I am a bad lot, and have always
been one; but when I saw you taking pleasure in the society of fellows
just as bad as myself, I didn't see why I should keep away when I was
dying to come. I am no worse than the dog-baker, any how. And hang it,
Miss Lydia, I don't want to brag; but I never fought a cross or struck
a foul blow in my life; and I have never been beaten, though I'm only a
middle-weight, and have stood up with the best fourteen-stone men in the
Colonies, the States, or in England."
Cashel ceased. As he sat eying her wistfully, Lydia, who had been
perfectly still, said musingly,
"Strange! that I should be so much more prejudiced than I knew. What
will you think of me when I tell you that your profession does not seem
half so shocking now that I know you to be the son of an artist, and not
a journeyman butcher or a laborer, as my cousin told me."
"What!" exclaimed Cashel. "That lantern-jawed fellow told you I was a
butcher!"
"I did not mean to betray him; but, as I have already said, I am bad at
keeping secrets. Mr. Lucian Webber is my cousin and friend, and has done
me many services. May I rest assured that he has nothing to fear from
you?"
"He has no right to tell lies about me. He is sweet on you, too: I
twigged that at Wiltstoken. I have a good mind to let him know whether I
am a butcher or not."
"He did not say so. What he told me of you, as far as it went, is
exactly confirmed by what you have said yourself. But I happened to ask
him to what class men of your calling usually belonged; and he said that
they were laborers, butchers, and so forth. Do you resent that?"
"I see plainly enough that you won't let me resent it. I should like
to know what else he said of me. But he was right enough about the
butchers. There are all sorts of blackguards in the ring: there's no use
in denying it. Since it's been made illegal, decent men won't go into
it. But, all the same, it's not the fighting men, but the betting men,
that bring discredit on it. I wish your cousin had held his confounded
tongue."
"I wish you had forestalled him by telling me the truth."
"I wish I had, now. But what's the use of wishing? I didn't dare run the
chance of losing you. See how soon you forbade me the house when you did
find out."
"It made little difference," said Lydia, gravely.
"You were always friendly to me," said Cashel, plaintively.
"More so than you were to me. You should not have deceived me. And now
I think we had better part. I am glad to know your history; and I admit
that when you embraced your profession you made perhaps the best choice
that society offered you. I do not blame you."
"But you give me the sack. Is that it?"
"What do you propose, Mr. Cashel Byron? Is it to visit my house in the
intervals of battering and maiming butchers and laborers?"
"No, it's not," retorted Cashel. "You're very aggravating. I won't stay
much longer in the ring now, because my luck is too good to last. I
shall have to retire soon, luck or no luck, because no one can match me.
Even now there's nobody except Bill Paradise that pretends to be able
for me; and I'll settle him in September if he really means business.
After that, I'll retire. I expect to be worth ten thousand pounds then.
Ten thousand pounds, I'm told, is the same as five hundred a year. Well,
I suppose, judging from the style you keep here, that you're worth as
much more, besides your place in the country; so, if you will marry me,
we shall have a thousand a year between us. I don't know much of money
matters; but at any rate we can live like fighting-cocks on that much.
That's a straight and business-like proposal, isn't it?"
"And if I refuse?" said Lydia, with some sternness.
"Then you may have the ten thousand pounds to do what you like with,"
said Cashel, despairingly. "It won't matter what becomes of me. I
won't go to the devil for you or any woman if I can help it; and I--but
where's the good of saying IF you refuse. I know I don't express myself
properly; I'm a bad hand at sentimentality; but if I had as much gab as
a poet, I couldn't be any fonder of you, or think more highly of you."
"But you are mistaken as to the amount of my income."
"That doesn't matter a bit. If you have more, why, the more the merrier.
If you have less, or if you have to give up all your property when
you're married, I will soon make another ten thousand to supply the
loss. Only give me one good word, and, by George, I'll fight the
seven champions of Christendom, one down and t'other come on, for five
thousand a side each. Hang the money!"
"I am richer than you suppose," said Lydia, unmoved. "I cannot tell
you exactly how much I possess; but my income is about forty thousand
pounds."
"Forty thousand pounds!" ejaculated Cashel.
"Holy Moses! I didn't think the queen had so much as that."
He paused a moment, and became very red. Then, in a voice broken by
mortification, he said, "I see I have been making a fool of myself," and
took his hat and turned to go.
"It does not follow that you should go at once without a word," said
Lydia, betraying nervousness for the first time during the interview.
"Oh, that's all rot," said Cashel. "I may be a fool while my eyes are
shut, but I'm sensible enough when they're open. I have no business
here. I wish to the Lord I had stayed in Australia."
"Perhaps it would have been better," said Lydia, troubled. "But since
we have met, it is useless to deplore it; and--Let me remind you of one
thing. You have pointed out to me that I have made friends of men whose
pursuits are no better than yours. I do not wholly admit that; but there
is one respect in which they are on the same footing as you. They are
all, as far as worldly gear is concerned, much poorer than I. Many of
them, I fear, are much poorer than you are."
Cashel looked up quickly with returning hope; but it lasted only a
moment. He shook his head dejectedly.
"I am at least grateful to you," she continued, "because you have sought
me for my own sake, knowing nothing of my wealth."
"I should think not," groaned Cashel. "Your wealth may be a very fine
thing for the other fellows; and I'm glad you have it, for your own
sake. But it's a settler for me. It's knocked me out of time, so it has.
I sha'n't come up again; and the sooner the sponge is chucked up in my
corner, the better. So good-bye."
"Good-bye," said Lydia, almost as pale as he had now become, "since you
will have it so."
"Since the devil will have it so," said Cashel, ruefully. "It's no use
wishing to have it any other way. The luck is against me. I hope, Miss
Carew, that you'll excuse me for making such an ass of myself. It's all
my blessed innocence; I never was taught any better."
"I have no quarrel with you except on the old score of hiding the truth
from me; and that I forgive you--as far as the evil of it affects me.
As for your declaration of attachment to me personally, I have received
many similar ones that have flattered me less. But there are certain
scruples between us. You will not court a woman a hundred-fold richer
than yourself; and I will not entertain a prize-fighter. My wealth
frightens every man who is not a knave; and your profession frightens
every woman who is not a fury."
"Then you--Just tell me this," said Cashel, eagerly. "Suppose I were a
rich swell, and were not a--"
"No," said Lydia, peremptorily interrupting him. "I will suppose nothing
but what is."
Cashel relapsed into melancholy. "If you only hadn't been kind to me!"
he said. "I think the reason I love you so much is that you're the only
person that is not afraid of me. Other people are civil because they
daren't be otherwise to the cock of the ring. It's a lonely thing to be
a champion. You knew nothing about that; and you knew I was afraid of
you; and yet you were as good as gold."
"It is also a lonely thing to be a very rich woman. People are afraid of
my wealth, and of what they call my learning. We two have at least one
experience in common. Now do me a great favor, by going. We have nothing
further to say."
"I'll go in two seconds. But I don't believe much in YOUR being lonely.
That's only fancy."
"Perhaps so. Most feelings of this kind are only fancies."
There was a pause. Then Cashel said,
"I don't feel half so downhearted as I did a minute ago. Are you sure
that you're not angry with me?"
"Quite sure. Pray let me say good-bye."
"And may I never see you again? Never at all?--world without end, amen?"
"Never as the famous prize-fighter. But if a day should come when Mr.
Cashel Byron will be something better worthy of his birth and nature, I
will not forget an old friend. Are you satisfied now?"
Cashel's face began to glow, and the roots of his hair to tingle. "One
thing more," he said. "If you meet me by chance in the street before
that, will you give me a look? I don't ask for a regular bow, but just a
look to keep me going?"
"I have no intention of cutting you," said Lydia, gravely. "But do not
place yourself purposely in my way."
"Honor bright, I won't. I'll content myself with walking through that
street in Soho occasionally. Now I'm off; I know you're in a hurry to
be rid of me. So good-b--Stop a bit, though. Perhaps when that time you
spoke of comes, you will be married."
"It is possible; but I am not likely to marry. How many more things have
you to say that you have no right to say?"
"Not one," said Cashel, with a laugh that rang through the house. "I
never was happier in my life, though I'm crying inside all the time.
I'll have a try for you yet. Good-bye. No," he added, turning from her
proffered hand; "I daren't touch it; I should eat you afterwards." And
he ran out of the room.
In the hall was Bashville, pale and determined, waiting there to rush
to the assistance of his mistress at her first summons. He had a poker
concealed at hand. Having just heard a great laugh, and seeing Cashel
come down-stairs in high spirits, he stood stock-still, and did not know
what to think.
"Well, old chap," said Cashel, boisterously, slapping him on the
shoulder, "so you're alive yet. Is there any one in the dining-room?"
"No," said Bashville.
"There's a thick carpet there to fall soft on," said Cashel, pulling
Bashville into the room. "Come along. Now, show me that little trick of
yours again. Come, don't be afraid. Down with me. Take care you don't
knock my head against the fire-irons."
"But--"
"But be hanged. You were spry enough at it before. Come!"
Bashville, after a moment's hesitation, seized Cashel, who immediately
became grave and attentive, and remained imperturbably so while
Nashville expertly threw him. He sat for a moment thinking on the
hearth-rug before he rose. "_I_ see," he said, then, getting up. "Now,
do it again."
"But it makes such a row," remonstrated Bashville.
"Only once more. There'll be no row this time."
"Well, you ARE an original sort of cove," said Bashville, complying.
But instead of throwing his man, he found himself wedged into a collar
formed by Cashel's arms, the least constriction of which would have
strangled him. Cashel again roared with laughter as he released him.
"That's the way, ain't it?" he said. "You can't catch an old fox twice
in the same trap. Do you know any more falls?"
"I do," said Bashville; "but I really can't show them to you here. I
shall get into trouble on account of the noise."
"You can come down to me whenever you have an evening out," said Cashel,
handing him a card, "to that address, and show me what you know, and
I'll see what I can do with you. There's the making of a man in you."
"You're very kind," said Bashville, pocketing the card with a grin.
"And now let me give you a word of advice that will be of use to you
as long as you live," said Cashel, impressively. "You did a very silly
thing to-day. You threw a man down--a fighting-man--and then stood
looking at him like a fool, waiting for him to get up and kill you. If
ever you do that again, fall on him as heavily as you can the instant
he's off his legs. Drop your shoulder well into him, and, if he pulls
you over, make play with the back of your head. If he's altogether too
big for you, put your knee on his throat as if by accident. But, on no
account, stand and do nothing. It's flying in the face of Providence."
Cashel emphasized these counsels by taps of his forefinger on one of
Bashville's buttons. In conclusion, he nodded, opened the house-door,
and walked away in buoyant spirits.
Lydia, standing year the library window, saw him pass, and observed how
his light, alert step and a certain gamesome assurance of manner marked
him off from a genteelly promenading middle-aged gentleman, a trudging
workman, and a vigorously striding youth who were also passing by. The
iron railings through which she saw him reminded her of the admirable
and dangerous creatures which were passing and repassing behind iron
bars in the park yonder. But she exulted, in her quiet manner, in the
thought that, dangerous as he was, she had no fear of him. When his
cabman had found him and driven him off she went to her desk, opened
a private drawer in it, took out her falher's last letter, and sat for
some time looking at it without unfolding it.
"It would be a strange thing, father," she said, as if he were actually
there to hear her, "if your paragon should turn aside from her friends,
the artists, philosophers, and statesmen, to give herself to an
illiterate prize-fighter. I felt a pang of absolute despair when
he replied to my forty thousand pounds a year with an unanswerable
good-bye."
She locked up her father, as it were, in the drawer again, and rang the
bell. Bashville appeared, somewhat perturbed.
"If Mr. Byron calls again, admit him if I am at home."
"Yes, madam."
"Thank you."
"Begging your pardon, madam, but may I ask has any complaint been made
of me?"
"None." Bashville was reluctantly withdrawing when she added, "Mr. Byron
gave me to understand that you tried to prevent his entrance by force.
You exposed yourself to needless risk by doing so; and you may make a
rule in future that when people are importunate, and will not go away
when asked, they had better come in until you get special instructions
from me. I am not finding fault; on the contrary, I approve of
your determination to carry out your orders; but under exceptional
circumstances you may use your own discretion."
"He shoved the door into my face, and I acted on the impulse of the
moment, madam. I hope you will forgive the liberty I took in locking the
door of the boudoir. He is older and heavier than I am, madam; and he
has the advantage of being a professional. Else I should have stood my
ground."
"I am quite satisfied," said Lydia, a little coldly, as she left the
room.
"How long you have been!" cried Alice, almost in hysterics, as Lydia
entered. "Is he gone? What were those dreadful noises? IS anything the
matter?"
"Dancing and late hours are the matter," said Lydia, coolly. "The season
is proving too much for you, Alice."
"It is not the season; it is the man," said Alice, with a sob.
"Indeed? I have been in conversation with the man for more than half an
hour; and Bashville has been in actual combat with him; yet we are not
in hysterics. You have been sitting here at your ease, have you not?"
"I am not in hysterics," said Alice, indignantly.
"So much the better," said Lydia, gravely, placing her hand on the
forehead of Alice, who subsided with a sniff.
CHAPTER X
Mrs. Byron, under her stage name of Adelaide Gisborne, was now, for the
second time in her career, much talked of in London, where she had boon
for many years almost forgotten. The metropolitan managers of her own
generation had found that her success in new parts was very uncertain;
that she was more capricious than the most petted favorites of the
public; and that her invariable reply to a business proposal was that
she detested the stage, and was resolved never to set foot upon it
again. So they had managed to do without her for so long that the
younger London playgoers knew her by reputation only as an old-fashioned
actress who wandered through the provinces palming herself off on
the ignorant inhabitants as a great artist, and boring them with
performances of the plays of Shakespeare. It suited Mrs. Byron well to
travel with the nucleus of a dramatic company from town to town, staying
a fortnight in each, and repeating half a dozen characters in which she
was very effective, and which she knew so well that she never thought
about them except when, as indeed often happened, she had nothing else
to think about. Most of the provincial populations received her annual
visits with enthusiasm. Among them she found herself more excitingly
applauded before the curtain, her authority more despotic behind it, her
expenses smaller, and her gains greater than in London, for which she
accordingly cared as little as London cared for her. As she grew older
she made more money and spent less. When she complained to Cashel of the
cost of his education, she was rich. Since he had relieved her of that
cost she had visited America, Egypt, India, and the colonies, and
had grown constantly richer. From this great tour she had returned to
England on the day when Cashel added the laurels of the Flying Dutchman
to his trophies; and the next Sunday's paper had its sporting column
full of the prowess of Cashel Byron, and its theatrical column full of
the genius of Adelaide Gisborne. But she never read sporting columns,
nor he theatrical ones.
The managers who had formerly avoided Mrs. Byron were by this time dead,
bankrupt, or engaged in less hazardous pursuits. One of their successors
had lately restored Shakespeare to popularity as signally as Cashel had
restored the prize ring. He was anxious to produce the play of "King
John," being desirous of appearing as Faulconbridge, a part for which he
was physically unfitted. Though he had no suspicion of his unfitness,
he was awake to the fact that the favorite London actresses, though
admirable in modern comedy, were not mistresses of what he called, after
Sir Walter Scott, the "big bow wow" style required for the part of Lady
Constance in Shakespeare's history. He knew that he could find in the
provinces many veteran players who knew every gesture and inflection of
voice associated by tradition with the part; but he was afraid that
they would remind Londoners of Richardson's show, and get Faulconbridge
laughed at. Then he thought of Adelaide Gisborne. For some hours after
the idea came to him he was gnawed at by the fear that her performance
would throw his into the shade. But his confidence in his own popularity
helped his love of good acting to prevail; and he made the newly
returned actress a tempting offer, instigating some journalist friends
of his at the same time to lament over the decay of the grand school of
acting, and to invent or republish anecdotes of Mrs. Siddons.
This time Mrs. Byron said nothing about detesting the stage. She had
really detested it once; but by the time she was rich enough to give
up the theatre she had worn that feeling out, and had formed a habit of
acting which was as irksome to shake off as any other habit. She also
found a certain satisfaction in making money with ease and certainty,
and she made so much that at last she began to trifle with plans of
retirement, of playing in Paris, of taking a theatre in London, and
other whims. The chief public glory of her youth had been a sudden
triumph in London on the occasion of her first appearance on any stage;
and she now felt a mind to repeat this and crown her career where it had
begun. So she accepted the manager's offer, and even went the length of
reading the play of "King John" in order to ascertain what it was all
about.
The work of advertisement followed her assent. Portraits of Adelaide
Gisborne were displayed throughout the town. Paragraphs in the papers
mentioned large sums as the cost of mounting the historical masterpiece
of the national bard. All the available seats in the theatre--except
some six or seven hundred in the pit and gallery--were said to be
already disposed of for the first month of the expected run of the
performance. The prime minister promised to be present on the opening
night. Absolute archaeologic accuracy was promised. Old paintings were
compared to ascertain the dresses of the period. A scene into which
the artist had incautiously painted a pointed arch was condemned as
an anachronism. Many noblemen gave the actor-manager access to their
collections of armor and weapons in order that his accoutrement should
exactly counterfeit that of a Norman baron. Nothing remained doubtful
except the quality of the acting.
It happened that one of the most curious documents of the period in
question was a scrap of vellum containing a fragment of a chronicle of
Prince Arthur, with an illuminated portrait of his mother. It had been
purchased for a trifling sum by the late Mr. Carew, and was now in the
possession of Lydia, to whom the actor-manager applied for leave to
inspect it. Leave being readily given, he visited the house in Regent's
Park, which he declared to be an inexhaustible storehouse of treasure.
He deeply regretted, he said, that he could not show the portrait to
Miss Gisborne. Lydia replied that if Miss Gisborne would come and look
at it, she should be very welcome. Two days later, at noon, Mrs. Byron
arrived and found Lydia alone; Alice having contrived to be out, as she
felt that it was better not to meet an actress--one could never tell
what they might have been.
The years that had elapsed since Mrs. Byron's visit to Dr. Moncrief had
left no perceptible trace on her; indeed she looked younger now than
on that occasion, because she had been at the trouble of putting on
an artificial complexion. Her careless refinement of manner was
so different from the studied dignity and anxious courtesy of the
actor-manager, that Lydia could hardly think of them as belonging to
the same profession. Her voice was not her stage voice; it gave a
subtle charm to her most commonplace remarks, and it was as different as
possible from Cashel's rough tones. Yet Lydia was convinced by the first
note of it that she was Cashel's mother. Besides, their eyes were
so like that they might have made an exchange without altering their
appearance.
Mrs. Byron, coming to the point without delay, at once asked to see the
drawing. Lydia brought her to the library, were several portfolios were
ready for inspection. The precious fragment of vellum was uppermost.
"Very interesting, indeed," said Mrs. Byron, throwing it aside after one
glance at it, and turning over some later prints, while Lydia, amused,
looked on in silence. "Ah," she said, presently, "here is something that
will suit me exactly. I shall not trouble to go through the rest of your
collection, thank you. They must do that robe for me in violet silk.
What is your opinion of it, Miss Carew? I have noticed, from one or two
trifles, that your taste is exquisite."
"For what character do you intend the dress?"
"Constance, in 'King John.'"
"But silk was not made in western Europe until three hundred years after
Constance's death. And that drawing is a sketch of Marie de Medicis by
Rubens."
"Never mind," said Mrs. Byron, smoothly. "What does a dress three
hundred years out of date matter when the woman inside it is seven
hundred years out? What can be a greater anachronism than the death of
Prince Arthur three months hence on the stage of the Panopticon Theatre?
I am an artist giving life to a character in romance, I suppose;
certainly not a grown-up child playing at being somebody out of Mrs.
Markham's history of England. I wear whatever becomes me. I cannot act
when I feel dowdy."
"But what will the manager say?"
"I doubt if he will say anything. He will hardly venture to press on me
anything copied from that old parchment. As he will wear a suit of armor
obviously made the other day in Birmingham, why--!" Mrs. Byron shrugged
her shoulders, and did not take sufficient interest in the manager's
opinion to finish her sentence.
"After all, Shakespeare concerned himself very little about such
matters," said Lydia, conversationally.
"No doubt. I seldom read him."
"Is this part of Lady Constance a favorite one of yours?"
"Troublesome, my dear," said Mrs. Byron, absently. "The men look
ridiculous in it; and it does not draw."
"No doubt," said Lydia, watching her face. "But I spoke rather of your
personal feeling towards the character. Do you, for instance, like
portraying maternal tenderness on the stage?"
"Maternal tenderness," said Mrs. Byron with sudden nobleness, "is far
too sacred a thing to be mimicked. Have you any children?"
"No," said Lydia, demurely. "I am not married."
"Of course not. You should get married. Maternity is a liberal education
in itself."
"Do you think that it suits every woman?"
"Undoubtedly. Without exception. Only think, dear Miss Carew, of the
infinite patieuce with which you must tend a child, of the necessity
of seeing with its little eyes and with your own wise ones at the same
time, of bearing without reproach the stabs it innocently inflicts, of
forgiving its hundred little selfishnesses, of living in continual
fear of wounding its exquisite sensitiveness, or rousing its bitter
resentment of injustice and caprice. Think of how you must watch
yourself, check yourself, exercise and develop everything in you that
can help to attract and retain the most jealous love in the world!
Believe me, it is a priceless trial to be a mother. It is a royal
compensation for having been born a woman."
"Nevertheless," said Lydia, "I wish I had been born a man. Since you
seem to have thought deeply into these problems, I will venture to
ask you a question. Do you not think that the acquirement of an art
demanding years of careful self-study and training--such as yours,
for example--is also of great educational value? Almost a sufficient
discipline to make one a good mother?"
"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Byron, decidedly. "People come into the world
ready-made. I went on the stage when I was eighteen, and succeeded at
once. Had I known anything of the world, or been four years older, I
should have been weak, awkward, timid, and flat; it would have taken
me twelve years to crawl to the front. But I was young, passionate,
beautiful, and indeed terrible; for I had run away from home two years
before, and been cruelly deceived. I learned the business of the stage
as easily and thoughtlessly as a child learns a prayer; the rest came
to me by nature. I have seen others spend years in struggling with bad
voices, uncouth figures, and diffidence; besides a dozen defects that
existed only in their imaginations. Their struggles may have educated
them; but had they possessed sufficient genius they would have had
neither struggle nor education. Perhaps that is why geniuses are such
erratic people, and mediocrities so respectable. I grant you that I
was very limited when I first came out; I was absolutely incapable of
comedy. But I never took any trouble about it; and by and by, when I
began to mature a little, and to see the absurdity of most of the things
I had been making a fuss about, comedy came to me unsought, as romantic
tragedy had come before. I suppose it would have come just the same if I
had been laboring to acquire it, except that I would have attributed
its arrival to my own exertions. Most of the laborious people think they
have made themselves what they are--much as if a child should think it
had made itself grow."
"You are the first artist I ever met," said Lydia, "who did not claim
art as the most laborious of all avocations. They all deny the existence
of genius, and attribute everything to work."
"Of course one picks up a great deal from experience; and there is
plenty of work on the stage. But it in my genius which enables me to
pick up things, and to work on the stage instead of in a kitchen or
laundry."
"You must be very fond of your profession."
"I do not mind it now; I have shrunk to fit it. I began because I
couldn't help myself; and I go on because, being an old woman, I have
nothing else to do. Bless me, how I hated it after the first month! I
must retire soon, now. People are growing weary of me."
"I doubt that. I am bound to assume that you are an old woman, since you
say so; but you must be aware, flattery apart, that you hardly seem to
have reached your prime yet."
"I might be your mother, my dear. I might be a grand mother. Perhaps I
am." There was a plaintive tone in the last sentence; and Lydia seized
the opportunity.
"You spoke of maternity then from experience, Miss Gisborne?"
"I have one son--a son who was sent to me in my eighteenth year."
"I hope he inherits his mother's genius and personal grace."
"I am sure I don't know," said Mrs. Byron, pensively. "He was a perfect
devil. I fear I shock you, Miss Carew; but really I did everything for
him that the most devoted mother could do; and yet he ran away from me
without making a sign of farewell. Little wretch!"
"Boys do cruel things sometimes in a spirit of adventure," said Lydia,
watching her visitor's face narrowly.
"It was not that. It was his temper, which was ungovernable. He was
sulky and vindictive. It is quite impossible to love a sulky child. I
kept him constantly near me when he was a tiny creature; and when he got
too big for that I spent oceans of money on his education. All in vain!
He never showed any feeling towards me except a sense of injury that
no kindness could remove. And he had nothing to complain of. Never was
there a worse son."
Lydia remained silent and grave. Mrs. Byron looked rather beside her
than at her. Suddenly she added,
"My poor, darling Cashel" (Lydia suppressed a start), "what a shame to
talk of you so! You see, I love him in spite of his wickedness." Mrs.
Byron took out her handkerchief, and Lydia for a moment was alarmed by
the prospect of tears. But Miss Gisborne only blew her nose with perfect
composure, and rose to take her leave. Lydia, who, apart from her
interest in Cashel's mother, was attracted and amused by the woman
herself, induced her to stay for luncheon, and presently discovered from
her conversation that she had read much romance of the Werther sort in
her youth, and had, since then, employed her leisure in reading
every book that came in her way without regard to its quality. Her
acquirements were so odd, and her character so unreasonable, that Lydia,
whose knowledge was unusually well organized, and who was eminently
reasonable, concluded that she was a woman of genius. For Lydia knew
the vanity of her own attainments, and believed herself to be merely a
patient and well-taught plodder. Mrs. Byron happening to be pleased
with the house, the luncheon, and Lydia's intelligent listening, her
unaccountable natural charm became so intensified by her good-humor that
Lydia became conscious of it, and began to wonder what its force might
have been if some influence--that of a lover, for instance--had ever
made Mrs. Byron ecstatically happy. She surprised herself at last in the
act of speculating whether she could ever make Cashel love her as his
father must, for a time at least, have loved her visitor.
When Lydia was alone, she considered whether she was justified in
keeping Mrs. Byron apart from her son. It seemed plain that at present
Cashel was a disgrace to his mother, and had better remain hidden from
her. But if he should for any reason abandon his ruffianly pursuits, as
she had urged him to do, then she could bring about a meeting between
them; and the truant's mother might take better care of him in the
future, besides making him pecuniarily independent of prize-fighting.
This led Lydia to ask what new profession Cashel could adopt, and what
likelihood there was of his getting on with his mother any better than
formerly. No satisfactory answer was forthcoming. So she went back to
the likelihood of his reforming himself for her sake. On this theme her
imagination carried her so far from all reasonable probability, that
she was shaking her head at her own folly when Bashville appeared and
announced Lord Worthington, who came into the room with Alice. Lydia had
not seen him since her discovery of the true position of the tenant he
had introduced to her, and he was consequently a little afraid to meet
her. To cover his embarrassment, he began to talk quickly on a number
of commonplace topics. But when some time had elapsed, he began to show
signs of fresh uneasiness. He looked at his watch, and said,
"I don't wish to hurry you, ladies; but this affair commences at three."
"What affair?" said Lydia, who had been privately wondering why he had
come.
"The assault-at-arms. King What's-his-name's affair. Webber told me he
had arranged that you should come with me."
"Oh, you have come to take us there. I had forgotten. Did I promise to
go?"
"Webber said so. He was to have taken you himself; but, failing that, he
promised to do a good thing for me and put me in his place. He said you
particularly wanted to go, hang him!"
Lydia then rose promptly and sent for her carriage. "There is no hurry,"
bhe said. "We can drive to St. James's Hall in twelve minutes."
"Hut we have to go to Islington, to the Agricultural Hall. There will be
cavalry charges, and all sorts of fun."
"Bless me!" said Lydia. "Will there be any boxing?"
"Yes," said Lord Worthington, reddening, but unabashed. "Lots of it. It
will be by gentlemen, though, except perhaps one bout to show the old
king our professional form."
"Then excuse me while I go for my hat," said Lydia, leaving the room.
Alice had gone some time before to make a complete change in her dress,
as the occasion was one for display of that kind.
"You look awfully fetching, Miss Goff," Lord Worthington said, as he
followed them to the carriage. Alice did not deign to reply, but tossed
her head superbly, and secretly considered whether people would,
on comparison, think her overdressed or Lydia underdressed. Lord
Worthington thought they both looked their best, and reflected for
several seconds on the different styles of different women, and how what
would suit one would not do at all for another. It seemed to him that
Miss Carew's presence made him philosophical.
The Agricultural Hall struck Alice at first sight as an immense barn
round which heaps of old packing-cases had been built into race-course
stands, scantily decorated with red cloth and a few flags. She was
conducted to a front seat in one of these balconies, which overhung
the tan-strewn arena. Just below her were the palisades, ornamented at
intervals with evergreens in tubs, and pressed against from without by a
crowd who had paid a shilling apiece for the privilege of admission. She
remarked that it was little to the credit of the management that these
people should be placed so close beneath her that she could hear their
conversation; but as Lydia did not seem to share her disgust, she turned
her attention to the fashionable part of the audience. On the opposite
side of the arena the balconies seemed like beds of flowers in bloom,
blacknesses formed here and there by the hats and coats of gentlemen
representing the interspaces of clay. In the midst of the flowers was a
gaudy dais, on which a powerfully-built black gentleman sat in a raised
chair, his majestic impassivity contrasting with the overt astonishment
with which a row of savagely ugly attendant chiefs grinned and gaped on
either side of him.
"What a pity we are not nearer the king!" said Alice. "I can hardly see
the dear old fellow."
"You will find these the best seats for seeing the assault. It will be
all right," said Lord Worthington.
Lydia's attention was caught by something guilty in his manner.
Following a furtive glance of his, she saw in the arena, not far from
her, an enclosure about twenty feet square, made with ropes and stakes.
It was unoccupied, and there were a few chairs, a basin, and a sponge,
near it.
"What is that?" she asked.
"That! Oh, that's the ring."
"It is not a ring. It is square."
"They call it the ring. They have succeeded in squaring the circle."
Here there was a piercing bugle-call, and a troop of cavalry trotted
into the arena. Lydia found it pleasant enough to sit lazily admiring
the horses and men, and comparing the members of the Olympian Club, who
appeared when the soldiers retired, to the marble gods of Athens, and
to the Bacchus or David of Michael Angelo. They fell short of the Greek
statues in refinement, and of the Italian in impressiveness as they
vaulted over a wooden horse, and swung upon horizontal bars, each
cheapening the exploits of his forerunner by out-doing them. Lord
Worthington, who soon grew tired of this, whispered that when all that
rubbish was over, a fellow would cut a sheep in two with a sword, after
which there would be some boxing.
"Do you mean to say," said Lydia, indignantly, "that they are going to
turn a sheep loose and hunt it on horseback with swords?"
Lord Worthington laughed and said yes; but it presently appeared that by
a sheep was meant a lean carcass of mutton. A stalwart sergeant cut
it in half as a climax to slicing lemons, bars of lead, and silk
handkerchiefs; and the audience, accustomed to see much more disgusting
sights in butchers' shops, liberally applauded him.
Two gentlemen of the Olympian Club now entered the enclosure which Lord
Worthington called the ring. After shaking hands with one another as
well as their huge padded gloves permitted, they hugged themselves with
their right arms as if there were some danger of their stomachs falling
out if not held tightly in, and danced round one another, throwing out
and retracting their left fists like pawing horses. They were both, as
Lydia learned from the announcement of their names and achievements
by the master of the ceremonies, amateur champions. She thought their
pawing and dancing ridiculous; and when they occasionally rushed
together and scuffled, she could distinguish nothing of the leading off,
stopping, ducking, countering, guarding, and getting away to which Lord
Worthington enthusiastically invited her attention, and which elicited
alternate jeers and applause from the shilling audience below. She
laughed outright when, at the expiration of three minutes, the two
dropped supine into chairs at opposite corners of the ring as if they
had sustained excessive fatigue. At the end of a minute, some one
hoarsely cried "Time!" and they rose and repeated their previous
performance for three minutes more. Another minute of rest followed; and
then the dancing and pawing proceeded for four minutes, after which the
champions again shook hands and left the arena.
"And is that all?" said Lydia.
"That's all," said Lord Worthington. "It's the most innocent thing in
the world, and the prettiest."
"It does not strike me as being pretty," said Lydia; "but it seems as
innocent as inanity can make it." Her mind misgave her that she had
ignorantly and unjustly reproached Cashel Byron with ferocity merely
because he practised this harmless exercise.
The show progressed through several phases of skilled violence. Besides
single combats between men armed in various fashions, there were tilts,
tent-peggings, drilling and singlestick practice by squads of British
tars, who were loudly cheered, and more boxing and vaulting by members
of the club. Lydia's attention soon began to wander from the arena.
Looking down at the crowd outside the palisades, she saw a small man
whom she vaguely remembered, though his face was turned from her. In
conversation with him was a powerful man dressed in a yellow tweed suit
and green scarf. He had a coarse, strong voice, and his companion a
shrill, mean one, so that their remarks could be heard by an attentive
listener above the confused noise of the crowd.
"Do you admire that man?" said Lord Worthington, following Lydia's gaze.
"No. Is he anybody in particular?"
"He was a great man once--in the days of the giants. He was champion of
England. He has a special interest for us as the preceptor of a mutual
friend of ours."
"Please name him," said Lydia, intending that the mutual friend should
be named.
"Ned Skene," said Lord Worthington, taking her to mean the man below.
"He has done so well in the colonies that he has indulged himself and
his family with a trip to England. His arrival made quite a sensation
in this country: last week he had a crowded benefit, at which he sparred
with our mutual friend and knocked him about like a baby. Our mutual
behaved very well on the occasion in letting himself be knocked about.
You see he could have killed old Skene if he had tried in earnest."
"Is that Skene?" said Lydia, looking at him with an earnest interest
that astonished Lord Worthington. "Ah! Now I recognize the man with him.
He is one of my tenants at the Warren Lodge--I believe I am indebted to
you for the introduction."
"Mellish the trainer?" said Lord Worthington, looking a little foolish.
"So it is. What a lovely bay that lancer has!--the second from the far
end."
But Lydia would not look at the lancer's horse. "Paradise!" she heard
Skene exclaim just then with scornful incredulity. "Ain't it likely?"
It occurred to her that if he was alluding to his own chance of arriving
there, it was not likely.
"Less likely things have happened," said Mellish. "I won't say that
Cashel Byron is getting stale; but I will say that his luck is too good
to last; and I know for a fact that he's gone quite melancholy of late."
"Melancholy be blowed!" said Skene. "What should he go melancholy for?"
"Oh, _I_ know," said Mellish, reticently.
"You know a lot," retorted Skene with contempt. "I s'pose you mean the
young 'oman he's always talking to my missis about."
"I mean a young woman that he ain't likely to get. One of the biggest
swells in England--a little un with a face like the inside of a
oyster-shell, that he met down at Wiltstoken, where I trained him to
fight the Flying Dutchman. He went right off his training after he met
her--wouldn't do anything I told him. I made so cock-sure that he'd be
licked that I hedged every penny I had laid on him except twenty pound
that I got a flat to bet agin him down at the fight after I had changed
my mind. Curse that woman! I lost a hundred pound by her."
"And served you right, too, you old stupid. You was wrong then; and
you're wrong now, with your blessed Paradise."
"Paradise has never been licked yet."
"No more has my boy."
"Well, we'll see."
"We'll see! I tell you I've seed for myself. I've seed Billy Paradise
spar; and it ain't fighting, it's ruffianing: that's what it is.
Ruffianing! Why, my old missis has more science."
"Mebbe she has," said Mellish. "But look at the men he's licked that
were chock full of science. Shepstone, clever as he is, only won a fight
from him by claiming a foul, because Billy lost his temper and spiked
him. That's the worst of Billy; he can't keep his feelings in. But no
fine-lady sparrer can stand afore that ugly rush of his. Do you think
he'll care for Cashel's showy long shots? Not he: he'll just take 'em on
that mahogany nut of his, and give him back one o' them smashers that he
settled poor Dick Weeks with."
"I'll lay you any money he don't. If he does, I'll go back into the ring
myself, and bust his head off for it." Here Skene, very angry, applied
several epithets to Paradise, and became so excited that Mellish had
to soothe him by partially retracting his forebodings, and asking how
Cashel had been of late.
"He's not been taking care of himself as he oughter," said Skene,
gloomily. "He's showing the London fashions to the missis and
Fanny--they're here in the three-and-sixpenny seats, among the swells.
Theatres every night; and walks every day to see the queen drive through
the park, or the like. My Fan likes to have him with her on account of
his being such a gentleman: she don't hardly think her own father not
good enough to walk down Piccadilly with. Wants me to put on a black
coat and make a parson of myself. The missis just idolizes him. She
thinks the boy far too good for the young 'oman you was speaking of, and
tells him that she's only letting on not to care for him to raise her
price, just as I used to pretend to be getting beat, to set the flats
betting agin me. The women always made a pet of him. In Melbourne it was
not what _I_ liked for dinner: it was always what the boy 'ud like, and
when it 'ud please him to have it. I'm blest if I usen't to have to put
him up to ask for a thing when I wanted it myself. And you tell me that
that's the lad that's going to let Billy Paradise lick him, I s'pose.
Walker!"
Lydia, with Mrs. Byron's charm fresh upon her, wondered what manner of
woman this Mrs. Skene could be who had supplanted her in the affections
of her son, and yet was no more than a prize-fighter's old missis.
Evidently she was not one to turn a young man from a career in the ring.
Again the theme of Cashel's occupation and the chances of his quitting
it ran away with Lydia's attention. She sat with her eyes fixed on the
arena, without seeing the soldiers, swordsmen, or athletes who were busy
there; her mind wandered further and further from the place; and the
chattering of the people resolved itself into a distant hum and was
forgotten.
Suddenly she saw a dreadful-looking man coming towards her across
the arena. His face had the surface and color of blue granite;
his protruding jaws and retreating forehead were like those of
an orang-outang. She started from her reverie with a shiver, and,
recovering her hearing as well as her vision of external things, became
conscious of an attempt to applaud this apparition by a few persons
below. The man grinned ferociously, placed one hand on a stake of the
ring, and vaulted over the ropes. Lydia now remarked that, excepting his
hideous head and enormous hands and feet, he was a well-made man, with
loins and shoulders that shone in the light, and gave him an air of
great strength and activity.
"Ain't he a picture?" she heard Mellish exclaim, ecstatically. "There's
condition for you!"
"Ah!" said Skene, disparagingly. "But ain't HE the gentleman! Just look
at him. It's like the Prince of Wales walking down Pall Mall."
Lydia, hearing this, looked again, and saw Cashel Byron, exactly as
she had seen him for the first time in the elm vista at Wiltstoken,
approaching the ring with the indifferent air of a man going through
some tedious public ceremony.
"A god coming down to compete with a gladiator," whispered Lord
Worthington, eagerly. "Isn't it, Miss Carew? Apollo and the satyr! You
must admit that our mutual friend is a splendid-looking fellow. If he
could go into society like that, by Jove, the women--"
"Hush," said Lydia, as if his words were intolerable.
Cashel did not vault over the ropes. He stepped through them languidly,
and, rejecting the proffered assistance of a couple of officious
friends, drew on a boxing-glove fastidiously, like an exquisite
preparing for a fashionable promenade. Having thus muffled his left hand
so as to make it useless for the same service to his right, he dipped
his fingers into the other glove, gripped it between his teeth, and
dragged it on with the action of a tiger tearing its prey. Lydia
shuddered again.
"Bob Mellish," said Skene, "I'll lay you twenty to one he stops that
rush that you think so much of. Come: twenty to one!"
Mellish shook his head. Then the master of the ceremonies, pointing to
the men in succession, shouted, "Paradise: a professor. Cashel Byron: a
professor. Time!"
Cashel now looked at Paradise, of whose existence he had not before
seemed to be aware. The two men advanced towards the centre of the ring,
shook hands at arm's-length, cast off each other's grasp suddenly, fell
back a step, and began to move warily round one another from left to
right like a pair of panthers.
"I think they might learn manners from the gentlemen, and shake hands
cordially," said Alice, trying to appear unconcerned, but oppressed by a
vague dread of Cashel.
"That's the traditional manner," said Lord Worthington. "It is done that
way to prevent one from holding the other; pulling him over, and hitting
him with the disengaged hand before he could get loose."
"What abominable treachery!" exclaimed Lydia.
"It's never done, you know," said Lord Worthington, apologetically.
"Only it might be."
Lydia turned away from him, and gave all her attention to the boxers.
Of the two, Paradise shocked her least. He was evidently nervous and
conscious of a screwed-up condition as to his courage; but his sly grin
implied a wild sort of good-humor, and seemed to promise the spectators
that he would show them some fun presently. Cashel watched his movements
with a relentless vigilance and a sidelong glance in which, to Lydia's
apprehension, there was something infernal.
Suddenly the eyes of Paradise lit up: he lowered his head, made a rush,
balked himself purposely, and darted at Cashel. There was a sound like
the pop of a champagne-cork, after which Cashel was seen undisturbed in
the middle of the ring, and Paradise, flung against the ropes and trying
to grin at his discomfiture, showed his white teeth through a mask of
blood.
"Beautiful!" cried Skene with emotion. "Beautiful! There ain't but me
and my boy in the world can give the upper cut like that! I wish I could
see my old missis's face now! This is nuts to her."
"Let us go away," said Alice.
"That was a very different blow to any that the gentlemen gave," said
Lydia, without heeding her, to Lord Worthington. "The man is bleeding
horribly."
"It's only his nose," said Lord Worthington. "He's used to it."
Meanwhile Cashel had followed Paradise to the ropes.
"Now he has him," chuckled Skene. "My boy's got him agin the ropes; and
he means to keep him there. Let him rush now, if he can. See what it is
to have a good judgment."
Mellish shook his head again despondently. The remaining minutes of
the round were unhappy ones for Paradise. He struck viciously at his
opponent's ribs; but Cashel stepped back just out of his reach, and then
returned with extraordinary swiftness and dealt him blows from which,
with the ropes behind him, he had no room to retreat, and which he was
too slow to stop or avoid. His attempts to reach his enemy's face were
greatly to the disadvantage of his own; for Cashel's blows were never so
tremendous as when he turned his head deftly out of harm's way, and
met his advancing foe with a counter hit. He showed no chivalry and no
mercy, and revelled in the hardness of his hitting; his gloves either
resounding on Paradise's face or seeming to go almost through his body.
There was little semblance to a contest: to Lydia there was nothing
discernible but a cruel assault by an irresistible athlete on a helpless
victim. The better sort among the spectators were disgusted by the
sight; for, as Paradise bled profusely, and as his blood besmeared the
gloves and the gloves besmeared the heads and bodies of both combatants,
they were soon stained with it from their waists upward. The managers
held a whispered consultation as to whether the sparring exhibition had
not better be stopped; but they decided to let it proceed on seeing the
African king, who had watched the whole entertainment up to the present
without displaying the least interest, now raise his hands and clap them
with delight.
"Billy don't look half pleased with hisself," observed Mellish, as
the two boxers sat down. "He looks just like he did when he spiked
Shepstone."
"What does spiking mean?" said Lydia.
"Treading on a man's foot with spiked boots," replied Lord Worthington.
"Don't be alarmed; they have no spikes in their shoes to-day. It is not
my fault that they do such things, Miss Carew. Really, you make me feel
quite criminal when you look at me in that way."
Time was now called; and the pugilists, who had, by dint of sponging,
been made somewhat cleaner, rose with mechanical promptitude at the
sound, Cashel had hardly advanced two steps when, though his adversary
seemed far out of his reach, he struck him on the forehead with such
force as to stagger him, and then jumped back laughing. Paradise rushed
forward; but Cashel eluded him, and fled round the ring, looking back
derisively over his shoulder. Paradise now dropped all pretence of
good-humor. With an expression of reckless ferocity, he dashed at
Cashel; endured a startling blow without flinching, and engaged him at
close quarters. For a moment the falling of their blows reminded Lydia
of the rush of raindrops against a pane in a sudden gust of wind.
The next moment Cashel was away; and Paradise, whose blood was again
flowing, was trying to repeat his manoeuvre, to be met this time by a
blow that brought him upon one knee. He had scarcely risen when Cashel
sprang at him; dealt him four blows with dazzling rapidity; drove him
once more against the ropes; but this time, instead of keeping him
there, ran away in the manner of a child at play. Paradise, with foam
as well as blood at his lips, uttered a howl, and tore off his gloves.
There was a shout of protest from the audience; and Cashel, warned
by it, tried to get off his gloves in turn. But Paradise was upon
him before he could accomplish this, and the two men laid hold of one
another amid a great clamor, Lord Worthington and others rising and
excitedly shouting, "Against the rules! No wrestling!" followed by a
roar of indignation as Paradise was seen to seize Cashel's shoulder in
his teeth as they struggled for the throw. Lydia, for the first time
in her life, screamed. Then she saw Cashel, his face fully as fierce as
Paradise's, get his arm about his neck; lift him as a coal-heaver lifts
a sack, and fling him over his back, heels over head, to the ground,
where he instantly dropped on him with his utmost weight and impetus.
The two were at once separated by a crowd of managers, umpires,
policemen, and others who had rushed towards the ring when Paradise had
taken off his gloves. A distracting wrangle followed. Skene had climbed
over the palisade, and was hurling oaths, threats, and epithets at
Paradise, who, unable to stand without assistance, was trying to lift
his leaden eyelids and realize what had happened to him. A dozen others
were trying to bring him to his senses, remonstrating with him on his
conduct, or trying to pacify Skene. Cashel, on the other side, raged at
the managers, who were reminding him that the rules of glove-fighting
did not allow wrestling and throwing.
"Rules be d---d," Lydia heard him shouting. "He bit me; and I'll throw
him to--" Then everybody spoke at once; and she could only conjecture
where he would throw him to. He seemed to have no self-control:
Paradise, when he came to himself, behaved better. Lord Worthington
descended into the ring and tried to calm the hubbub; but Cashel shook
his hand fiercely from his arm; menaced a manager who attempted to call
him sternly to order; frantically pounded his wounded shoulder with his
clenched fist, and so outswore and outwrangled them all, that even
Skene began to urge that there had been enough fuss made. Then Lord
Worthington whispered a word more; and Cashel suddenly subsided,
pale and ashamed, and sat down on a chair in his corner as if to hide
himself. Five minutes afterwards, he stepped out from the crowd with
Paradise, and shook hands with him amid much cheering. Cashel was the
humbler of the two. He did not raise his eyes to the balcony once; and
he seemed in a hurry to retire. But he was intercepted by an officer in
uniform, accompanied by a black chief, who came to conduct him to the
dais and present him to the African king; an honor which he was not
permitted to decline.
The king informed him, through an interpreter, that he had been
unspeakably gratified by what he had just witnessed; expressed great
surprise that Cashel, notwithstanding his prowess, was neither in the
army nor in Parliament; and finally offered to provide him with three
handsome wives if he would come out to Africa in his suite. Cashel
was much embarrassed; but he came off with credit, thanks to the
interpreter, who was accustomed to invent appropriate speeches for
the king on public occasions, and was kind enough to invent equally
appropriate ones for Cashel on this.
Meanwhile, Lord Worthington had returned to his place. "It is all
settled now," he said to Lydia. "Byron shut up when I told him his
aristocratic friends were looking at him; and Paradise has been so
bullied that he is crying in a corner down-stairs. He has apologized;
but he still maintains that he can beat our mutual friend without the
gloves; and his backers apparently think so too, for it is understood
that they are to fight in the autumn for a thousand a side."
"To fight! Then he has no intention of giving up his profession?"
"No!" said Lord Worthington, astonished. "Why on earth should he give it
up? Paradise's money is as good as in his pocket. You have seen what he
can do."
"I have seen enough. Alice, I am ready to go as soon as you are."
Early in the following week Miss Carew returned to Wiltstoken. Miss Goff
remained in London to finish the season in charge of a friendly lady
who, having married off all her own daughters, was willing to set to
work again to marry Alice sooner than remain idle.
CHAPTER XI
Alice was more at her ease during the remnant of the London season.
Though she had been proud of her connection with Lydia, she had always
felt eclipsed in her presence; and now that Lydia was gone, the pride
remained and the sense of inferiority was forgotten. Her freedom
emboldened and improved her. She even began to consider her own judgment
a safer guide in the affairs of every day than the example of her
patroness. Had she not been right in declaring Cashel Byron an ignorant
and common man when Lydia, in spite of her warning, had actually invited
him to visit them? And now all the newspapers were confirming the
opinion she had been trying to impress on Lydia for months past. On
the evening of the assault-at-arms, the newsmen had shouted through the
streets, "Disgraceful scene between two pugilists at Islington in the
presence of the African king." Next day the principal journals commented
on the recent attempt to revive the brutal pastime of prize-fighting;
accused the authorities of conniving at it, and called on them to put it
down at once with a strong hand. "Unless," said a clerical organ, "this
plague-spot be rooted out from our midst, it will no longer be possible
for our missionaries to pretend that England is the fount of the
Gospel of Peace." Alice collected these papers, and forwarded them to
Wiltstoken.
On this subject one person at least shared her bias. Whenever she
met Lucian Webber, they talked about Cashel, invariably coming to the
conclusion that though the oddity of his behavior had gratified Lydia's
unfortunate taste for eccentricity, she had never regarded him with
serious interest, and would not now, under any circumstances, renew her
intercourse with him. Lucian found little solace in these conversations,
and generally suffered from a vague sense of meanness after them. Yet
next time they met he would drift into discussing Cashel over again;
and he always rewarded Alice for the admirable propriety of her views by
dancing at least three times with her when dancing was the business of
the evening. The dancing was still less congenial than the conversation.
Lucian, who had at all times too much of the solemnity of manner for
which Frenchmen reproach Englishmen, danced stiffly and unskilfully.
Alice, whose muscular power and energy were superior to anything of
the kind that Mr. Mellish could artificially produce, longed for swift
motion and violent exercise, and, even with an expert partner, could
hardly tame herself to the quietude of dancing as practised in London.
When waltzing with Lucian she felt as though she were carrying a stick
round the room in the awkward fashion in which Punch carries his baton.
In spite of her impression that he was a man of unusually correct morals
and great political importance, and greatly to be considered in
private life because he was Miss Carew's cousin, it was hard to spend
quarter-hours with him that some of the best dancers in London asked
for.
She began to tire of the subject of Cashel and Lydia. She began to tire
of Lucian's rigidity. She began to tire exceedingly of the vigilance she
had to maintain constantly over her own manners and principles. Somehow,
this vigilance defeated itself; for she one evening overheard a lady of
rank speak of her as a stuck-up country girl. The remark gave her acute
pain: for a week afterwards she did not utter a word or make a movement
in society without first considering whether it could by any malicious
observer be considered rustic or stuck-up. But the more she strove to
attain perfect propriety of demeanor, the more odious did she seem to
herself, and, she inferred, to others. She longed for Lydia's secret
of always doing the right thing at the right moment, even when defying
precedent. Sometimes she blamed the dulness of the people she met for
her shortcomings. It was impossible not to be stiff with them. When she
chatted with an entertaining man, who made her laugh and forget herself
for a while, she was conscious afterwards of having been at her best
with him. But she saw others who, in stupid society, were pleasantly
at their ease. She began to fear at last that she was naturally
disqualified by her comparatively humble birth from acquiring the
well-bred air for which she envied those among whom she moved.
One day she conceived a doubt whether Lucian was so safe an authority
and example in matters of personal deportment as she had hitherto
unthinkingly believed. He could not dance; his conversation was
priggish; it was impossible to feel at ease when speaking to him. Was it
courageous to stand in awe of his opinion? Was it courageous to stand in
awe of anybody? Alice closed her lips proudly and began to be defiant.
Then a reminiscence, which had never before failed to rouse indignation
in her, made her laugh. She recalled the scandalous spectacle of
Lucian's formal perpendicularity overbalanced and doubled up into Mrs.
Hoskyn's gilded arm-chair in illustration of the prize-fighter's theory
of effort defeating itself. After all, what was that caressing touch of
Cashel's hand in comparison with the tremendous rataplan he had
beaten on the ribs of Paradise? Could it be true that effort defeated
itself--in personal behavior, for instance? A ray of the truth that
underlay Cashel's grotesque experiment was flickering in her mind as she
asked herself that question. She thought a good deal about it; and
one afternoon, when she looked in at four at-homes in succession, she
studied the behavior of the other guests from a new point of view,
comparing the most mannered with the best mannered, and her recent self
with both. The result half convinced her that she had been occupied
during her first London season in displaying, at great pains, a
very unripe self-consciousness--or, as she phrased it, in making an
insufferable fool of herself.
Shortly afterwards, she met Lucian at a cinderella, or dancing-party
concluding at midnight. He came at eleven, and, as usual, gravely asked
whether he might have the pleasure of dancing with her. This form of
address he never varied. To his surprise, she made some difficulty about
granting the favor, and eventually offered him "the second extra." He
bowed. Before he could resume a vertical position a young man came up,
remarked that he thought this was his turn, and bore Alice away.
Lucian smiled indulgently, thinking that though Alice's manners were
wonderfully good, considering her antecedents, yet she occasionally
betrayed a lower tone than that which he sought to exemplify in his own
person.
"I wish you would learn to reverse," said Alice unexpectedly to him,
when they had gone round the room twice to the strains of the second
extra.
"I DO reverse," he said, taken aback, and a little indignant.
"Everybody does--that way."
This silenced him for a moment. Then he said, slowly, "Perhaps I am
rather out of practice. I am not sure that reversing is quite desirable.
Many people consider it bad form."
When they stopped--Alice was always willing to rest during a waltz with
Lucian--he asked her whether she had heard from Lydia.
"You always ask me that," she replied. "Lydia never writes except when
she has something particular to say, and then only a few lines."
"Precisely. But she might have had something particular to say since we
last met."
"She hasn't had," said Alice, provoked by an almost arch smile from him.
"She will be glad to hear that I have at last succeeded in recovering
possession of the Warren Lodge from its undesirable tenants."
"I thought they went long ago," said Alice, indifferently.
"The men have not been there for a month or more. The difficulty was to
get them to remove their property. However, we are rid of them now. The
only relic of their occupation is a Bible with half the pages torn out,
and the rest scrawled with records of bets, recipes for sudorific
and other medicines, and a mass of unintelligible memoranda. One
inscription, in faded ink, runs, 'To Robert Mellish, from his
affectionate mother, with her sincere hope that he may ever walk in the
ways of this book.' I am afraid that hope was not fulfilled."
"How wicked of him to tear a Bible!" said Alice, seriously. Then she
laughed, and added, "I know I shouldn't; but I can't help it."
"The incident strikes me rather as being pathetic," said Lucian, who
liked to show that he was not deficient in sensibility. "One can picture
the innocent faith of the poor woman in her boy's future, and so forth."
"Inscriptions in books are like inscriptions on tombstones," said Alice,
disparagingly. "They don't mean much."
"I am glad that these men have no further excuse for going to
Wiltstoken. It was certainly most unfortunate that Lydia should have
made the acquaintance of one of them."
"So you have said at least fifty times," replied Alice, deliberately. "I
believe you are jealous of that poor boxer."
Lucian became quite red. Alice trembled at her own audacity, but kept a
bold front.
"Really--it's too absurd," he said, betraying his confusion by assuming
a carelessness quite foreign to his normal manner. "In what way could I
possibly be jealous, Miss Goff?"
"That is best known to yourself."
Lucian now saw plainly that there was a change in Alice, and that he
had lost ground with her. The smarting of his wounded vanity suddenly
obliterated his impression that she was, in the main, a well-conducted
and meritorious young woman. But in its place came another impression
that she was a spoiled beauty. And, as he was by no means fondest of
the women whose behavior accorded best with his notions of propriety, he
found, without at once acknowledging to himself, that the change was
not in all respects a change for the worse. Nevertheless, he could not
forgive her last remark, though he took care not to let her see how it
stung him.
"I am afraid I should cut a poor figure in an encounter with my rival,"
he said, smiling.
"Call him out and shoot him," said Alice, vivaciously. "Very likely he
does not know how to use a pistol."
He smiled again; but had Alice known how seriously he entertained her
suggestion for some moments before dismissing it as impracticable,
she would not have offered it. Putting a bullet into Cashel struck him
rather as a luxury which he could not afford than as a crime. Meanwhile,
Alice, being now quite satisfied that this Mr. Webber, on whom she had
wasted so much undeserved awe, might be treated as inconsiderately as
she used to treat her beaux at Wiltstoken, proceeded to amuse herself by
torturing him a little.
"It is odd," she said, reflectively, "that a common man like that should
be able to make himself so very attractive to Lydia. It was not because
he was such a fine man; for she does not care in the least about that.
I don't think she would give a second look at the handsomest man in
London, she is so purely intellectual. And yet she used to delight in
talking to him."
"Oh, that is a mistake. Lydia has a certain manner which leads people
to believe that she is deeply interested in the person she happens to be
speaking to; But it is only manner--it means nothing."
"I know that manner of hers perfectly well. But this was something quite
different."
Lucian shook his head reproachfully. "I cannot jest on so serious a
matter," he said, resolving to make the attempt to re-establish his
dignity with Alice. "I think, Miss Groff, that you perhaps hardly know
how absurd your supposition is. There are not many men of distinction
in Europe with whom my cousin is not personally acquainted. A very young
girl, who had seen little of the world, might possibly be deceived by
the exterior of such a man as Byron. A woman accustomed to associate
with writers, thinkers, artists, statesmen, and diplomatists could make
no such mistake. No doubt the man's vulgarity and uncouth address amused
her for a moment; but--"
"But why did she ask him to come to her Friday afternoons?"
"A mere civility which she extended to him because he assisted her in
some difficulty she got into in the streets."
"She might as well have asked a policeman to come to see her. I don't
believe that was it."
Lucian at that moment hated Alice. "I am sorry you think such a thing
possible," he said. "Shall we resume our waltz?"
Alice was not yet able to bear an implication that she did not
understand society sufficiently to appreciate the distance between Lydia
and Cashel.
"Of course I know it is impossible," she said, in her old manner. "I did
not mean it."
Lucian found some difficulty in gathering from this what she did mean;
and they presently took refuge in waltzing. Subsequently, Alice, fearing
that her new lights had led her too far, drew back a little; led the
conversation to political matters, and expressed her amazement at
the extent and variety of the work he performed in Downing Street.
He accepted her compliments with perfect seriousness; and she felt
satisfied that she had, on the whole, raised herself in his esteem
by her proceedings during the evening. But she was mistaken. She knew
nothing of politics or official work, and he knew the worthlessness of
her pretended admiration of his share in them, although he felt that
it was right that she should revere his powers from the depths of her
ignorance. What stuck like a burr in his mind was that she thought him
small enough to be jealous of the poor boxer, and found his dancing
awkward.
After that dance Alice thought much about Lucian, and also about the way
in which society regulated marriages. Before Miss Carew sent for her she
had often sighed because all the nice men she knew of moved in circles
into which an obscure governess had no chance of admission. She had
received welcome attentions from them occasionally at subscription
balls; but for sustained intimacy and proposals of marriage she had been
dependent on the native youth of Wiltstoken, whom she looked upon as
louts or prigs, and among whom Wallace Parker had shone pre-eminent as
a university man, scholar, and gentleman. And now that she was a
privileged beauty in society which would hardly tolerate Wallace Parker,
she found that the nice men were younger sons, poor and extravagant, far
superior to Lucian Webber as partners for a waltz, but not to be thought
of as partners in domestic economy. Alice had experienced the troubles
of poverty, and had never met with excellence in men except in poems,
which she had long ago been taught to separate from the possibilities of
actual life. She had, therefore, no conception of any degree of merit
in a husband being sufficient to compensate for slender means of
subsistence. She was not base-minded; nothing could have induced her to
marry a man, however rich, whom she thought wicked. She wanted money;
but she wanted more than money; and here it was that she found supply
failing to answer the demand. For not only were all the handsome,
gallant, well-bred men getting deeply into debt by living beyond smaller
incomes than that with which Wallace Parker had tempted her, but many
of those who had inherited both riches and rank were as inferior to him,
both in appearance and address, as they were in scholarship. No
man, possessing both wealth and amiability, had yet shown the least
disposition to fall in love with her.
One bright forenoon in July, Alice, attended by a groom, went to the
park on horseback. The Row looked its best. The freshness of morning
was upon horses and riders; there were not yet any jaded people lolling
supine in carriages, nor discontented spectators sitting in chairs
to envy them. Alice, who was a better horsewoman than might have been
expected from the little practice she had had, appeared to advantage in
the saddle. She had just indulged in a brisk canter from the Corner
to the Serpentine, when she saw a large white horse approaching with
Wallace Parker on its back.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, expertly wheeling his steed and taking off his
hat at the same time with an intentional display of gallantry and
horsemanship. "How are you, Alice?"
"Goodness!" cried Alice, forgetting her manners in her astonishment.
"What brings you here; and where on earth did you get that horse?"
"I presume, Alice," said Parker, satisfied with the impression he had
made, "that I am here for much the same reason as you are--to enjoy
the morning in proper style. As for Rozinante, I borrowed him. Is that
chestnut yours? Excuse the rudeness of the question."
"No," said Alice, coloring a little. "This seems such an unlikely place
to meet you."
"Oh, no. I always take a turn in the season. But certainly it would have
been a very unlikely place for us to meet a year ago."
So far, Alice felt, she was getting the worst of the conversation. She
changed the subject. "Have you been to Wiltstoken since I last saw you?"
"Yes. I go there once every week at least."
"Every week! Janet never told me."
Parker implied by a cunning air that he thought he knew the reason of
that; but he said nothing. Alice, piqued, would not condescend to make
inquiries. So he said, presently,
"How is Miss Thingumbob?"
"I do not know any one of that name."
"You know very well whom I mean. Your aristocratic patron, Miss Carew."
Alice flushed. "You are very impertinent, Wallace," she said, grasping
her riding-whip. "How dare you call Miss Carew my patron?"
Wallace suddenly became solemn. "I did not know that you objected to be
reminded of all you owe her," he said. "Janet never speaks ungratefully
of her, though she has done nothing for Janet."
"I have not spoken ungratefully," protested Alice, almost in tears.
"I feel sure that you are never tired of speaking ill of me to them at
home."
"That shows how little you understand my real character. I always make
excuses for you."
"Excuses for what? What have I done? What do you mean?"
"Oh, I don't mean anything, if you don't. I thought from your beginning
to defend yourself that you felt yourself to be in the wrong."
"I did not defend myself; and I won't have you say so, Wallace."
"Always your obedient, humble servant," he replied, with complacent
irony.
She pretended not to hear him, and whipped up her horse to a smart trot.
The white steed being no trotter, Parker followed at a lumbering canter.
Alice, possessed by a shamefaced fear that he was making her ridiculous,
soon checked her speed; and the white horse subsided to a walk, marking
its paces by deliberate bobs of its unfashionably long mane and tail.
"I have something to tell you," said Parker at last.
Alice did not deign to reply.
"I think it better to let you know at once," he continued. "The fact is,
I intend to marry Janet."
"Janet won't," said Alice, promptly, retorting first, and then
reflecting on the intelligence, which surprised her more than it pleased
her.
Parker smiled conceitedly, and said, "I don't think she will raise any
difficulty if you give her to understand that it is all over between
US."
"That what is all over?"
"Well, if you prefer it, that there never has been anything between us.
Janet believes that we were engaged. So did a good many other people
until you went into high life."
"I cannot help what people thought."
"And they all know that I, at least, was ready to perform my part of the
engagement honorably."
"Wallace," she said, with a sudden change of tone; "I think we had
better separate. It is not right for me to be riding about the park with
you when I have nobody belonging to me here except a man-servant."
"Just as you please," he said, coolly, halting. "May I assure Janet that
you wish her to marry me?"
"Most certainly not. I do not wish anyone to marry you, much less my
own sister. I am far inferior to Janet; and she deserves a much better
husband than I do."
"I quite agree with you, though I don't quite see what that has to
do with it. As far as I understand you, you will neither marry me
yourself--mind, I am quite willing to fulfil my engagement still--nor
let any one else have me. Is that so?"
"You may tell Janet," said Alice, vigorously, her face glowing, "that
if we--you and I--were condemned to live forever on a desert isl--No; I
will write to her. That will be the best way. Good-morning."
Parker, hitherto imperturbable, now showed signs of alarm. "I beg,
Alice," he said, "that you will say nothing unfair to her of me. You
cannot with truth say anything bad of me."
"Do you really care for Janet?" said Alice, wavering.
"Of course," he replied, indignantly. "Janet is a very superior girl."
"I have always said so," said Alice, rather angry because some one else
had forestalled her with the meritorious admission. "I will tell her the
simple truth--that there has never been anything between us except what
is between all cousins; and that there never could have been anything
more on my part. I must go now. I don't know what that man must think of
me already."
"I should be sorry to lower you in his esteem," said Parker,
maliciously. "Good-bye, Alice." Uttering the last words in a careless
tone, he again pulled up the white horse's head, raised his hat, and
sped away. It was not true that he was in the habit of riding in the
park every season. He had learned from Janet that Alice was accustomed
to ride there in the forenoon; and he had hired the white horse in order
to meet her on equal terms, feeling that a gentleman on horseback in the
road by the Serpentine could be at no social disadvantage with any lady,
however exalted her associates.
As for Alice, she went home with his reminder that Miss Carew was
her patron rankling in her. The necessity for securing an independent
position seemed to press imminently upon her. And as the sole way of
achieving this was by marriage, she felt for the time willing to marry
any man, without regard to his person, age, or disposition, if only
he could give her a place equal to that of Miss Carew in the world, of
which she had lately acquired the manners and customs.
CHAPTER XII
When the autumn set in, Alice was in Scotland learning to shoot; and
Lydia was at Wiltstoken, preparing her father's letters and memoirs for
publication. She did not write at the castle, all the rooms in which
were either domed, vaulted, gilded, galleried, three-sided, six-sided,
anything except four-sided, or in some way suggestive of the "Arabian
Nights' Entertainments," and out of keeping with the associations of her
father's life. In her search for a congruous room to work in, the idea
of causing a pavilion to be erected in the elm vista occurred to her.
But she had no mind to be disturbed just then by the presence of a
troop of stone-masons, slaters, and carpenters, nor any time to lose
in waiting for the end of their operations. So she had the Warren Lodge
cleansed and lime washed, and the kitchen transformed into a comfortable
library, where, as she sat facing the door at her writing-table, in the
centre of the room, she could see the elm vista through one window
and through another a tract of wood and meadow land intersected by the
high-road and by a canal, beyond which the prospect ended in a distant
green <DW72> used as a sheep run. The other apartments were used by
a couple of maid-servants, who kept the place well swept and dusted,
prepared Miss Carew's lunch, answered her bell, and went on her errands
to the castle; and, failing any of these employments, sat outside in the
sun, reading novels. When Lydia had worked in this retreat daily for two
months her mind became so full of the old life with her father that the
interruptions of the servants often recalled her to the present with
a shock. On the twelfth of August she was bewildered for a moment when
Phoebe, one of the maids, entered and said,
"If you please, miss, Bashville is wishful to know can he speak to you a
moment?"
Permission being given, Bashville entered. Since his wrestle with Cashel
he had never quite recovered his former imperturbability. His manner and
speech were as smooth and respectful as before, but his countenance was
no longer steadfast; he was on bad terms with the butler because he had
been reproved by him for blushing. On this occasion he came to beg leave
to absent himself during the afternoon. He seldom asked favors of this
kind, and was of course never refused.
"The road is quite thronged to-day," she observed, as he thanked her.
"Do you know why?"
"No, madam," said Bashville, and blushed.
"People begin to shoot on the twelfth," she said; "but I suppose it
cannot have anything to do with that. Is there a race, or a fair, or any
such thing in the neighborhood?"
"Not that I am aware of, madam."
Lydia dipped her pen in the ink and thought no more of the subject.
Bashville returned to the castle, attired himself like a country
gentleman of sporting tastes, and went out to enjoy his holiday.
The forenoon passed away peacefully. There was no sound in the Warren
Lodge except the scratching of Lydia's pen, the ticking of her favorite
skeleton clock, an occasional clatter of crockery from the kitchen,
and the voices of the birds and maids without. The hour for lunch
approached, and Lydia became a little restless. She interrupted her work
to look at the clock, and brushed a speck of dust from its dial with the
feather of her quill. Then she looked absently through the window along
the elm vista, where she had once seen, as she had thought, a sylvan
god. This time she saw a less romantic object--a policeman. She looked
again, incredulously, there he was still, a black-bearded, helmeted man,
making a dark blot in the green perspective, and surveying the landscape
cautiously. Lydia rang the bell, and bade Phoebe ask the man what he
wanted.
The girl soon returned out of breath, with the news that there were
a dozen more constables hiding in the road, and that the one she had
spoken to had given no account of himself, but had asked her how many
gates there were to the park; whether they were always locked, and
whether she had seen many people about. She felt sure that a murder
had been committed somewhere. Lydia shrugged her shoulders, and ordered
luncheon, during which Phoebe gazed eagerly through the window, and left
her mistress to wait on herself.
"Phoebe," said Lydia, when the dishes were removed; "you may go to the
gate lodge, and ask them there what the policemen want. But do not go
any further. Stay. Has Ellen gone to the castle with the things?"
Phoebe reluctantly admitted that Ellen had.
"Well, you need not wait for her to return; but come back as quickly as
you can, in case I should want anybody."
"Directly, miss," said Phoebe, vanishing.
Lydia, left alone, resumed her work leisurely, occasionally pausing to
gaze at the distant woodland, and note with transient curiosity a
flock of sheep on the <DW72>, or a flight of birds above the tree-tops.
Something more startling occurred presently. A man, apparently
half-naked, and carrying a black object under his arm, darted through
a remote glade with the swiftness of a stag, and disappeared. Lydia
concluded that he had been disturbed while bathing in the canal, and had
taken flight with his wardrobe under his arm. She laughed at the idea,
turned to her manuscript again, and wrote on. Suddenly there was a
rustle and a swift footstep without. Then the latch was violently jerked
up, and Cashel Byron rushed in as far as the threshold, where he stood,
stupefied at the presence of Lydia, and the change in the appearance of
the room.
He was himself remarkably changed. He was dressed in a pea-jacket, which
evidently did not belong to him, for it hardly reached his middle, and
the sleeves were so short that his forearms were half bare, showing that
he wore nothing beneath this borrowed garment. Below it he had on white
knee-breeches, with green stains of bruised grass on them. The breeches
were made with a broad ilap in front, under which, and passing round
his waist, was a scarf of crimson silk. From his knees to his socks, the
edges of which had fallen over his laced boots, his legs were visible,
naked, and muscular. On his face was a mask of sweat, dust, and blood,
partly rubbed away in places by a sponge, the borders of its passage
marked by black streaks. Underneath his left eye was a mound of bluish
flesh nearly as large as a walnut. The jaw below it, and the opposite
cheek, were severely bruised, and his lip was cut through at one corner.
He had no hat; his close-cropped hair was disordered, and his ears were
as though they had been rubbed with coarse sand-paper.
Lydia looked at him for some seconds, and he at her, speechless. Then
she tried to speak, failed, and sunk into her chair.
"I didn't know there was any one here," he said, in a hoarse, panting
whisper. "The police are after me. I have fought for an hour, and run
over a mile, and I'm dead beat--I can go no farther. Let me hide in the
back room, and tell them you haven't seen any one, will you?"
"What have you done?" she said, conquering her weakness with an effort,
and standing up.
"Nothing," he replied, groaning occasionally as he recovered breath.
"Business, that's all."
"Why are the police pursuing you? Why are you in such a dreadful
condition?"
Cashel seemed alarmed at this. There was a mirror in the lid of a
paper-case on the table. He took it up and looked at himself anxiously,
but was at once relieved by what he saw. "I'm all right," he said.
"I'm not marked. That mouse"--he pointed gayly to the lump under his
eye-"will run away to-morrow. I am pretty tidy, considering. But it's
bellows to mend with me at present. Whoosh! My heart is as big as a
bullock's after that run."
"You ask me to shelter you," said Lydia, sternly. "What have you done?
Have you committed murder?"
"No!" exclaimed Cashel, trying to open his eyes widely in his
astonishment, but only succeeding with one, as the other was gradually
closing. "I tell you I have been fighting; and it's illegal. You don't
want to see me in prison, do you? Confound him," he added, reverting to
her question with sudden wrath; "a steam-hammer wouldn't kill him.
You might as well hit a sack of nails. And all my money, my time, my
training, and my day's trouble gone for nothing! It's enough to make a
man cry."
"Go," said Lydia, with uncontrollable disgust. "And do not let me see
which way you go. How dare you come to me?"
The sponge-marks on Cashel's face grew whiter, and he began, to pant
heavily again. "Very well," he said. "I'll go. There isn't a boy in your
stables that would give me up like that."
As he spoke, he opened the door; but he involuntarily shut it again
immediately. Lydia looked through the window, and saw a crowd of men,
police and others, hurrying along the elm vista. Cashel cast a glance
round, half piteous, half desperate, like a hunted animal. Lydia could
not resist it. "Quick!" she cried, opening one of the inner doors. "Go
in there, and keep quiet--if you can." And, as he sulkily hesitated a
moment, she stamped vehemently. He slunk in submissively. She shut the
door and resumed her place at the writing-table, her heart beating with
a kind of excitement she had not felt since, in her early childhood, she
had kept guilty secrets from her nurse.
There was a tramping without, and a sound of voices. Then two peremptory
raps at the door.
"Come in," said Lydia, more composedly than she was aware of. The
permission was not waited for. Before she ceased speaking a policeman
opened the door and looked quickly round the room. He seemed rather
taken aback by what he saw, and finally touched his helmet to signify
respect for Lydia. He was about to speak, when Phoebe, flushed with
running, pushed past him, put her hand on the door, and pertly asked
what he wanted.
"Come away from the door, Phoebe," said Lydia. "Wait here with me until
I give you leave to go," she added, as the girl moved towards the inner
door. "Now," she said, turning courteously to the policeman, "what is
the matter?"
"I ask your pardon, mum," said the constable, agreeably. "Did you happen
to see any one pass hereabouts lately?"
"Do you mean a man only partly dressed, and carrying a black coat?" said
Lydia.
"That's him, miss," said the policeman, greatly interested." Which way
did he go?"
"I will show you where I saw him," said Lydia, quietly rising and going
with the man to the door, outside which she found a crowd of rustics,
and five policemen, having in custody two men, one of whom was Mellish
(without a coat), and the other a hook-nosed man, whose like Lydia had
seen often on race-courses. She pointed out the glade across which she
had seen Cashel run, and felt as if the guilt of the deception she was
practising was wrenching some fibre in her heart from its natural order.
But she spoke with apparent self-possession, and no shade of suspicion
fell on the minds of the police.
Several peasants now came forward, each professing to know exactly
whither Cashel had been making when he crossed the glade. While they
were disputing, many persons resembling the hook-nosed captive in
general appearance sneaked into the crowd and regarded the police with
furtive hostility. Soon after, a second detachment of police came up,
with another prisoner and another crowd, among whom was Bashville.
"Better go in, mum," said the policeman who had spoken to Lydia first.
"We must keep together, being so few, and he ain't fit for you to look
at."
But Lydia had looked already, and had guessed that the last prisoner was
Paradise, although his countenance was damaged beyond recognition. His
costume was like that of Cashel, except that he was girt with a blue
handkerchief with white spots, and his shoulders were wrapped in a
blanket, through one of the folds of which his naked ribs could be seen,
tinged with every hue that a bad bruise can assume. A shocking spectacle
appeared where his face had formerly been. A crease and a hole in the
midst of a cluster of lumps of raw flesh indicated the presence of an
eye and a mouth; the rest of his features were indiscernible. He could
still see a little, for he moved his puffed and lacerated hand to
arrange his blanket, and demanded hoarsely, and with greatly impeded
articulation, whether the lady would stand a dram to a poor fighting
man wot had done his best for his backers. On this some one produced a
flask, and Mellish volunteered, provided he were released for a moment,
to get the contents down Paradise's throat. As soon as the brandy had
passed his swollen lips he made a few preliminary sounds, and then
shouted,
"He sent for the coppers because he couldn't stand another round. I am
ready to go on."
The policemen bade him hold his tongue, closed round him, and hid him
from Lydia, who, without showing the mingled pity and loathing with
which his condition inspired her, told them to bring him to the castle,
and have him attended to there. She added that the whole party could
obtain refreshment at the same time. The sergeant, who was very tired
and thirsty, wavered in his resolution to continue the pursuit. Lydia,
as usual, treated the matter as settled.
"Bashville," she said, "will you please show them the way, and see that
they are satisfied."
"Some thief has stole my coat," said Mellish, sullenly, to Bashville.
"If you'll lend me one, governor, and these blessed policemen will be so
kind as not to tear it off my back, I'll send it down to you in a day or
two. I'm a respectable man, and have been her ladyship's tenant here."
"Your pal wants it worse than you," said the sergeant. "If there was an
old coachman's cape or anything to put over him, I would see it returned
safe. I don't want to bring him round the country in a blanket, like a
wild Injin."
"I have a cloak inside," said Bashville. "I'll get it for you." And
before Lydia could devise a pretext for stopping him, he went out, and
she heard him reentering the lodge by the back door. It seemed to
her that a silence fell on the crowd, as if her deceit were already
discovered. Then Mellish, who had been waiting for an opportunity to
protest against the last remark of the policeman, said, angrily,
"Who are you calling my pal? I hope I may be struck dead for a liar if
ever I set my eyes on him in my life before."
Lydia looked at him as a martyr might look at a wretch to whom she was
to be chained. He was doing as she had done--lying. Then Bashville,
having passed through the other rooms, came into the library by the
inner door, with an old livery cloak on his arm.
"Put that on him," he said, "and come along to the castle with me.
You can see the roads for five miles round from the south tower, and
recognize every man on them, through the big telescope. By your leave,
madam, I think Phoebe had better come with us to help."
"Certainly," said Lydia, looking steadfastly at him.
"I'll get clothes at the castle for the man that wants them," he added,
trying to return her gaze, but failing with a blush. "Now boys. Come
along."
"I thank your ladyship," said the sergeant. "We have had a hard morning
of it, and we can do no more at present than drink your health." He
touched his helmet again, and Lydia bowed to him. "Keep close together,
men," he shouted, as the crowd moved off with Bashville.
"Ah," sneered Mellish, "keep close together like the geese do. Things
has come to a pretty pass when an Englishman is run in for stopping when
he sees a crowd."
"All right," said the sergeant. "I have got that bundle of
handkerchiefs you were selling; and I'll find the other man before
you're a day older. It's a pity, seeing how you've behaved so well and
haven't resisted us, that you won't drop a hint of where those ropes and
stakes are hid. I might have a good word at the sessions for any one who
would put me in the way of finding them."
"Ropes and stakes! Fiddlesticks and grandmothers! There weren't no ropes
and stakes. It was only a turn-up--that is, if there was any fighting at
all. _I_ didn't see none; but I s'pose you did. But then you're clever,
and I'm not."
By this time the last straggler of the party had disappeared from Lydia,
who had watched their retreat from the door of the Warren Lodge. When
she turned to go in she saw Cashel cautiously entering from the room in
which he had lain concealed. His excitement had passed off; he looked
cold and anxious, as if a reaction were setting in.
"Are they all gone?" he said. "That servant of yours is a good sort.
He has promised to bring me some clothes. As for you, you're better
than--What's the matter? Where are you going to?"
Lydia had put on her hat, and was swiftly wrapping herself in a shawl.
Wreaths of rosy color were chasing each other through her cheeks; and
her eyes and nostrils, usually so tranquil, were dilated.
"Won't you speak to me?" he said, irresolutely.
"Just this," she replied, with passion. "Let me never see you again. The
very foundations of my life are loosened: I have told a lie. I have made
my servant--an honorable man--an accomplice in a lie. We are worse
than you; for even your wild-beast's handiwork is a less evil than the
bringing of a falsehood into the world. This is what has come to me out
of our acquaintance. I have given you a hiding-place. Keep it. I will
never enter it again."
Cashel, appalled, shrank back with an expression such as a child wears
when, in trying to steal sweet-meats from a high shelf, it pulls the
whole cupboard down about its ears. He neither spoke nor stirred as she
left the lodge.
Finding herself presently at the castle, she went to her boudoir, where
she found her maid, the French lady, from whose indignant description of
the proceedings below she gathered that the policemen were being regaled
with bread and cheese, and beer; and that the attendance of a surgeon
had been dispensed with, Paradise's wounds having been dressed skilfully
by Mellish. Lydia bade her send Bashville to the Warren Lodge to see
that there were no strangers loitering about it, and ordered that none
of the female servants should return there until he came back. Then she
sat down and tried not to think. But she could not help thinking; so she
submitted and tried to think the late catastrophe out. An idea that she
had disjointed the whole framework of things by creating a false belief
filled her imagination. The one conviction that she had brought out of
her reading, observing, reflecting, and living was that the concealment
of a truth, with its resultant false beliefs, must produce mischief,
even though the beginning of that mischief might be as inconceivable
as the end. She made no distinction between the subtlest philosophical
misconception and the vulgarest lie. The evil of Cashel's capture was
measurable, the evil of a lie beyond all measure. She felt none the less
assured of that evil because she could not foresee one bad consequence
likely to ensue from what she had done. Her misgivings pressed heavily
upon her; for her father, a determined sceptic, had taught her his
own views, and she was, therefore, destitute of the consolations which
religion has for the wrongdoer. It was plainly her duty to send for the
policeman and clear up the deception she had practised on him. But
this she could not do. Her will, in spite of her reason, acted in the
opposite direction. And in this paralysis of her moral power she saw the
evil of the lie beginning. She had given it birth, and nature would not
permit her to strangle the monster.
At last her maid returned and informed her that the canaille had gone
away. When she was again alone, she rose and walked slowly to and fro
through the room, forgetting the lapse of time in the restless activity
of her mind, until she was again interrupted, this time by Bashville.
"Well?"
He was daunted by her tone; for he had never before heard her speak
haughtily to a servant. He did not understand that he had changed
subjectively, and was now her accomplice.
"He's given himself up."
"What do you mean?" she said, with sudden dismay.
"Byron, madam. I brought some clothes to the lodge for him, but when I
got there he was gone. I went round to the gates in search of him,
and found him in the hands of the police. They told me he'd just
given himself up. He wouldn't give any account of himself; and he
looked--well, sullen and beaten down like."
"What will they do with him?" she asked, turning quite pale.
"A man got six weeks' hard labor, last month, for the same offence. Most
probably that's what he'll get. And very little for what's he's done, as
you'd say if you saw him doing it, madam."
"Then," said Lydia, sternly, "it was to see this"--she shrank from
naming it--"this fight, that you asked my permission to go out!"
"Yes, madam, it was," said Bashville, with some bitterness. "I
recognized Lord Worthington and plenty more noblemen and gentlemen
there."
Lydia was about to reply sharply; but she checked herself; and her usual
tranquil manner came back as she said, "That is no reason why you should
have been there."
Bashville's color began to waver, and his voice to need increased
control. "It's in human nature to go to such a thing once," he said;
"but once is enough, at least for me. You'll excuse my mentioning it,
madam; but what with Lord Worthington and the rest of Byron's backers
screaming oaths and abuse at the other man, and the opposite party doing
the same to Byron--well, I may not be a gentleman; but I hope I can
conduct myself like a man, even when I'm losing money."
"Then do not go to such an exhibition again, Bashville. I must not
dictate to you what your amusements shall be; but I do not think you are
likely to benefit yourself by copying Lord Worthington's tastes."
"I copy no lord's tastes," said Bashville, reddening. "You hid the man
that was fighting, Miss Carew. Why do you look down on the man that was
only a bystander?"
Lydia's color rose, too. Her first impulse was to treat this outburst as
rebellion against her authority, and crush it. But her sense of justice
withheld her.
"Would you have had me betray a fugitive who took refuge in my house,
Bashville? YOU did not betray him."
"No," said Bashville, his expression subdued to one of rueful pride.
"When I am beaten by a better man, I have courage enough to get out of
his way and take no mean advantage of him."
Lydia, not understanding, looked inquiringly at him. He made a gesture
as if throwing something from him, and continued recklessly,
"But one way I'm as good as he, and better. A footman is held more
respectable than a prize-fighter. He's told you that he's in love with
you; and if it is to be my last word, I'll tell you that the ribbon
round your neck is more to me than your whole body and soul is to him or
his like. When he took an unfair advantage of me, and pretended to be a
gentleman, I told Mr. Lucian of him, and showed him up for what he was.
But when I found him to-day hiding in the pantry at the Lodge, I took
no advantage of him, though I knew well that if he'd been no more to you
than any other man of his sort, you'd never have hid him. You know best
why he gave himself up to the police after your seeing his day's work.
But I will leave him to his luck. He is the best man: let the best man
win. I am sorry," added Bashville, recovering his ordinary suave manner
with an effort, "to inconvenience you by a short notice, but I should
take it as a particular favor if I might go this evening."
"You had better," said Lydia, rising quite calmly, and keeping
resolutely away from her the strange emotional result of being
astonished, outraged, and loved at one unlooked-for stroke. "It is not
advisable that you should stay after what you have just--"
"I knew that when I said it," interposed Bashville hastily and doggedly.
"In going away you will be taking precisely the course that would be
adopted by any gentleman who had spoken to the same effect. I am not
offended by your declaration: I recognize your right to make it. If you
need my testimony to further your future arrangements, I shall be happy
to say that I believe you to be a man of honor."
Bashville bowed, and said in a low voice, very nervously, that he had
no intention of going into service again, but that he should always be
proud of her good opinion.
"You are fitted for better things," she said. "If you embark in any
enterprise requiring larger means than you possess, I will be your
security. I thank you for your invariable courtesy to me in the
discharge of your duties. Good-bye."
She bowed to him and left the room. Bashville, awestruck, returned her
salutation as best he could, and stood motionless after she disappeared;
his mind advancing on tiptoe to grasp what had just passed. His chief
sensation was one of relief. He no longer dared to fancy himself in
love with such a woman. Her sudden consideration for him as a suitor
overwhelmed him with a sense of his unfitness for such a part. He saw
himself as a very young, very humble, and very ignorant man, whose head
had been turned by a pleasant place and a kind mistress. Wakened from
his dream, he stole away to pack his trunk, and to consider how best to
account to his fellow-servants for his departure.
CHAPTER XIII
Lydia resumed her work next day with shaken nerves and a longing for
society. Many enthusiastic young ladies of her acquaintance would
have brought her kisses and devotion by the next mail in response to a
telegram; and many more practical people would have taken considerable
pains to make themselves agreeable to her for the sake of spending the
autumn at Wiltstoken Castle. But she knew that they would only cause her
to regret her former solitude. She shrank from the people who attached
themselves to her strength and riches even when they had not calculated
her gain, and were conscious only of admiration and gratitude. Alice,
as a companion, had proved a failure. She was too young, and too much
occupied with the propriety of her own behavior, to be anything more
to Lydia than an occasional tax upon her patience. Lydia, to her own
surprise, thought several times of Miss Gisborne, and felt tempted to
invite her, but was restrained by mistrust of the impulse to communicate
with Cashel's mother, and reluctance to trace it to its source.
Eventually she resolved to conquer her loneliness, and apply herself
with increased diligence to the memoir of her father. To restore her
nerves, she walked for an hour every day in the neighborhood, and drove
out in a pony carriage, in the evening. Bashville's duties were now
fulfilled by the butler and Phoebe, Lydia being determined to admit no
more young footmen to her service.
One afternoon, returning from one of her daily walks, she found a
stranger on the castle terrace, in conversation with the butler. As it
was warm autumn weather, Lydia was surprised to see a woman wearing a
black silk mantle trimmed with fur, and heavily decorated with spurious
jet beads. However, as the female inhabitants of Wiltstoken always
approached Miss Carew in their best raiment, without regard to hours or
seasons, she concluded that she was about to be asked for a subscription
to a school treat, a temperance festival, or perhaps a testimonial to
one of the Wiltstoken curates.
When she came nearer she saw that the stranger was an elderly lady--or
possibly not a lady--with crimped hair, and ringlets hanging at each ear
in a fashion then long obsolete.
"Here is Miss Carew," said the butler, shortly, as if the old lady had
tried his temper. "You had better talk to her yourself."
At this she seemed fluttered, and made a solemn courtesy. Lydia,
noticing the courtesy and the curls, guessed that her visitor kept a
dancing academy. Yet a certain contradictory hardihood in her frame and
bearing suggested that perhaps she kept a tavern. However, as her face
was, on the whole, an anxious and a good face, and as her attitude
towards the lady of the castle was one of embarrassed humility, Lydia
acknowledged her salutation kindly, and waited for her to speak.
"I hope you won't consider it a liberty," said the stranger,
tremulously. "I'm Mrs. Skene."
Lydia became ominously grave; and Mrs. Skene reddened a little. Then she
continued, as if repeating a carefully prepared and rehearsed speech,
"It would be esteemed a favor if I might have the honor of a few words
in private with your ladyship."
Lydia looked and felt somewhat stern; but it was not in her nature to
rebuff any one without strong provocation. She invited her visitor
to enter, and led the way to the circular drawing-room, the strange
decorations of which exactly accorded with Mrs. Skene's ideas of
aristocratic splendor. As a professor of deportment and etiquette, the
ex-champion's wife was nervous under the observation of such an expert
as Lydia; but she got safely seated without having made a mistake to
reproach herself with. For, although entering a room seems a simple
matter to many persons, it was to Mrs. Skene an operation governed by
the strict laws of the art she professed, and one so elaborate that
few of her pupils mastered it satisfactorily with less than a month's
practice. Mrs Skene soon dismissed it from her mind. She was too old to
dwell upon such vanities when real anxieties were pressing upon her.
"Oh, miss," she began, appealingly, "the boy!"
Lydia knew at once who was meant. But she repeated, as if at a loss,
"The boy?" And immediately accused herself of insincerity.
"Our boy, ma'am. Cashel."
"Mrs. Skene!" said Lydia, reproachfully.
Mrs. Skene understood all that Lydia's tone implied. "I know, ma'am,"
she pleaded. "I know well. But what could I do but come to you? Whatever
you said to him, it has gone to his heart; and he's dying."
"Pardon me," said Lydia, promptly; "men do not die of such things; and
Mr. Cashel Byron is not so deficient either in robustness of body or
hardness of heart as to be an exception to THAT rule."
"Yes, miss," said Mrs. Skene, sadly. "You are thinking of the
profession. You can't believe he has any feelings because he fights.
Ah, miss, if you only knew them as I do! More tender-hearted men don't
breathe. Cashel is like a young child, his feelings are that easily
touched; and I have known stronger than he to die of broken hearts
only because they were unlucky in their calling. Just think what a
high-spirited young man must feel when a lady calls him a wild beast.
That was a cruel word, miss; it was, indeed."
Lydia was so disconcerted by this attack that she had to pause awhile
before replying. Then she said, "Are you aware, Mrs. Skene, that my
knowledge of Mr. Byron is very slight--that I have not seen him ten
times in my life? Perhaps you do not know the circumstances in which I
last saw him. I was greatly shocked by the injuries he had inflicted on
another man; and I believe I spoke of them as the work of a wild beast.
For your sake, I am sorry I said so; for he has told me that he regards
you as his mother; and--"
"Oh, no! Far from it, miss. I ask your pardon a thousand times for
taking the word out of your mouth; but me and Ned is no more to him than
your housekeeper or governess might be to you. That's what I'm afraid
you don't understand, miss. He's no relation of ours. I do assure you
that he's a gentleman born and bred; and when we go back to Melbourne
next Christmas, it will be just the same as if he had never known us."
"I hope he will not be so ungrateful as to forget you. He has told me
his history."
"That's more than he ever told me, miss; so you may judge how much he
thinks of you."
A pause followed this. Mrs. Skene felt that the first exchange was over,
and that she had got the better in it.
"Mrs. Skene," said Lydia then, penetratingly; "when you came to pay me
this visit, what object did you propose to yourself? What do you expect
me to do?"
"Well, ma'am," said Mrs. Skene, troubled, "the poor lad has had crosses
lately. There was the disappointment about you--the first one, I
mean--that had been preying on his mind for a long time. Then there was
that exhibition spar at the Agricultural Hall, when Paradise acted so
dishonorable. Cashel heard that you were looking on; and then he read
the shameful way the newspapers wrote of him; and he thought you'd
believe it all. I couldn't get that thought out of his head. I said to
him, over and over again--"
"Excuse me," said Lydia, interrupting. "We had better be frank with
one another. It is useless to assume that he mistook my feeling on
that subject. I WAS shocked by the severity with which he treated his
opponent."
"But bless you, that's his business," said Mrs. Skone, opening her eyes
widely. "I put it to you, miss," she continued, as if mildly reprobating
some want of principle on Lydia's part, "whether an honest man shouldn't
fulfil his engagements. I assure you that the pay a respectable
professional usually gets for a spar like that is half a guinea; and
that was all Paradise got. But Cashel stood on his reputation, and
wouldn't take less than ten guineas; and he got it, too. Now many
another in his position would have gone into the ring and fooled away
the time pretending to box, and just swindling those that paid him. But
Cashel is as honest and high-minded as a king. You saw for yourself the
trouble he took. He couldn't have spared himself less if he had been
fighting for a thousand a side and the belt, instead of for a paltry ten
guineas. Surely you don't think the worse of him for his honesty, miss?"
"I confess," said Lydia, laughing in spite of herself, "that your view
of the transaction did not occur to me."
"Of course not, ma'am; no more it wouldn't to any one, without they were
accustomed to know the right and wrong of the profession. Well, as I was
saying, miss, that was a fresh disappointment to him. It worrited him
more than you can imagine. Then came a deal of bother about the match
with Paradise. First Paradise could only get five hundred pounds; and
the boy wouldn't agree for less than a thousand. I think it's on your
account that he's been so particular about the money of late; for he
was never covetous before. Then Mellish was bent on its coming off down
hereabouts; and the poor lad was so mortal afraid of its getting to your
ears, that he wouldn't consent until they persuaded him you would be
in foreign parts in August. Glad I was when the articles were signed
at last, before he was worrited into his grave. All the time he was
training he was longing for a sight of you; but he went through with it
as steady and faithful as a man could. And he trained beautiful. I saw
him on the morning of the fight; and he was like a shining angel; it
would have done a lady's heart good to look at him. Ned went about like
a madman offering twenty to one on him: if he had lost, we should have
been ruined at this moment. And then to think of the police coming just
as he was finishing Paradise. I cried like a child when I heard of it: I
don't think there was ever anything so cruel. And he could have finished
him quarter of an hour sooner, only he held back to make the market for
Ned." Here Mrs. Skene, overcome, blew her nose before proceeding. "Then,
on the top of that, came what passed betwixt you and him, and made him
give himself up to the police. Lord Worthington bailed him out; but what
with the disgrace and the disappointment, and his time and money thrown
away, and the sting of your words, all coming together, he was quite
broken-hearted. And now he mopes and frets; and neither me nor Ned
nor Fan can get any good of him. They tell me that he won't be sent to
prison; but if he is"--here Mrs. Skene broke down and began to cry--" it
will be the death of him, and God forgive those that have brought it
about."
Sorrow always softened Lydia; but tears hardened her again; she had no
patience with them.
"And the other man?" she said. "Have you heard anything of him? I
suppose he is in some hospital."
"In hospital!" repeated Mrs. Skene, checking her tears in alarm. "Who?"
"Paradise," replied Lydia, pronouncing the name reluctantly.
"He in hospital! Why, bless your innocence, miss, I saw him yesterday,
looking as well as such an ugly brute could look--not a mark on him, and
he bragging what he would have done to Cashel if the police hadn't come
up. He's a nasty, low fighting man, so he is; and I'm only sorry that
our boy demeaned himself to strip with the like of him. I hear that
Cashel made a perfect picture of him, and that you saw him. I suppose
you were frightened, ma'am, and very naturally, too, not being used to
such sights. I have had my Ned brought home to me in that state that
I have poured brandy into his eye, thinking it was his mouth; and even
Cashel, careful as he is, has been nearly blind for three days. It is
not to be expected that they could have all the money for nothing. Don't
let it prey on your mind, miss. If you married--I am only supposing it,"
said Mrs. Skene in soothing parenthesis as she saw Lydia shrink from the
word--"if you were married to a great surgeon, as you might be without
derogation to your high rank, you'd be ready to faint if you saw him
cut off a leg or an arm, as he would have to do every day for his
livelihood; but you'd be proud of his cleverness in being able to do
it. That's how I feel with regard to Ned. I tell you the truth, ma'am,
I shouldn't like to see him in the ring no more than the lady of an
officer in the Guards would like to see her husband in the field of
battle running his sword into the poor blacks or into the French; but as
it's his profession, and people think so highly of him for it, I make up
my mind to it; and now I take quite an interest in it, particularly as
it does nobody any harm. Not that I would have you think that Ned ever
took the arm or leg off a man: Lord forbid--or Cashel either. Oh, ma'am,
I thank you kindly, and I'm sorry you should have given yourself the
trouble." This referred to the entry of a servant with tea.
"Still," said Lydia, when they were at leisure to resume the
conversation, "I do not quite understand why you have come to me.
Personally you are quite welcome; but in what way did you expect to
relieve Mr. Byron's mind by visiting me? Did he ask you to come?"
"He'd have died first. I came down of my own accord, knowing what was
the matter with him."
"And what then?"
Mrs. Skene looked around to satisfy herself that they were alone. Then
she leaned towards Lydia, and said in an emphatic whisper,
"Why won't you marry him, miss?"
"Because I don't choose, Mrs. Skene," said Lydia, with perfect
good-humor.
"But consider a little, miss. Where will you ever get such another
chance? Only think what a man he is! champion of the world and a
gentleman as well. The two things have never happened before, and
never will again. I have known lots of champions, but they were not fit
company for the like of you. Ned was champion when I married him; and my
family thought that I lowered myself in doing it, although I was only
a professional dancer on the stage. The men in the ring are common men
mostly; and so, though they are the best men in the kingdom, ladies are
cut off from their society. But it has been your good luck to take the
fancy of one that's a gentleman. What more could a lady desire? Where
will you find his equal in health, strength, good looks, or good
manners? As to his character, I can tell you about that. In Melbourne,
as you may suppose, all the girls and women were breaking their hearts
for his sake. I declare to you that I used to have two or three of
them in every evening merely to look at him, and he, poor innocent lad,
taking no more notice of them than if they were cabbages. He used to be
glad to get away from them by going into the saloon and boxing with
the gentlemen; and then they used to peep at him through the door. They
never got a wink from him. You were the first, Miss Carew; and, believe
me, you will be the last. If there had ever been another he couldn't
have kept it from me; because his disposition is as open as a child's.
And his honesty is beyond everything you can imagine. I have known him
to be offered eight hundred pounds to lose a fight that he could only
get two hundred by winning, not to mention his chance of getting nothing
at all if he lost honestly. You know--for I see you know the world,
ma'am--how few men would be proof against such a temptation. There are
men high up in their profession--so high that you'd as soon suspect the
queen on her throne of selling her country's battles as them--that fight
cross on the sly when it's made worth their while. My Ned is no low
prize-fighter, as is well known; but when he let himself be beat by that
little Killarney Primrose, and went out and bought a horse and trap
next day, what could I think? There, ma'am, I tell you that of my own
husband; and I tell you that Cashel never was beaten, although times
out of mind it would have paid him better to lose than to win, along of
those wicked betting men. Not an angry word have I ever had from him,
nor the sign of liquor have I ever seen on him, except once on Ned's
birthday; and then nothing but fun came out of him in his cups, when the
truth comes out of all men. Oh, do just think how happy you ought to
be, miss, if you would only bring yourself to look at it in the proper
light. A gentleman born and bred, champion of the world, sober, honest,
spotless as the unborn babe, able to take his own part and yours in any
society, and mad in love with you! He thinks you an angel from heaven
and so I am sure you are, miss, in your heart. I do assure you that my
Fan gets quite put out because she thinks he draws comparisons to her
disadvantage. I don't think you can be so hard to please as to refuse
him, miss."
Lydia leaned back in her chair and looked at Mrs. Skene with a curious
expression which soon brightened into an irrepressible smile. Mrs. Skene
smiled very slightly in complaisance, but conveyed by her serious brow
that what she had said was no laughing matter.
"I must take some time to consider all that you have so eloquently
urged," said Lydia. "I am in earnest, Mrs. Skene; you have produced a
great effect upon me. Now let us talk of something else for the present.
Your daughter is quite well, I hope."
"Thank you kindly, ma'am, she enjoys her health."
"And you also?"
"I am as well as can be expected," said Mrs. Skene, too fond of
commiseration to admit that she was perfectly well.
"You must have a rare sense of security," said Lydia, watching her,
"being happily married to so celebrated a--a professor of boxing as Mr.
Skene. Is it not pleasant to have a powerful protector?"
"Ah, miss, you little know," exclaimed Mrs. Skene, falling into the trap
baited by her own grievances, and losing sight of Cashel's interests.
"The fear of his getting into trouble is never off my mind. Ned is
quietness itself until he has a drop of drink in him; and then he is
like the rest--ready to fight the first that provokes him. And if
the police get hold of him he has no chance. There's no justice for a
fighting man. Just let it be said that he's a professional, and that's
enough for the magistrate; away with him to prison, and good-by to his
pupils and his respectability at once. That's what I live in terror of.
And as to being protected, I'd let myself be robbed fifty times over
sooner than say a word to him that might bring on a quarrel. Many a time
when we were driving home of a night have I overpaid the cabman on the
sly, afraid he would grumble and provoke Ned. It's the drink that does
it all. Gentlemen are proud to be seen speaking with him in public; and
they come up one after another asking what he'll have, until the
next thing he knows is that he's in bed with his boots on, his wrist
sprained, and maybe his eye black, trying to remember what he was doing
the night before. What I suffered the first three years of our marriage
none can tell. Then he took the pledge, and ever since that he's been
very good--I haven't seen him what you could fairly call drunk, not more
than three times a year. It was the blessing of God, and a beating he
got from a milkman in Westminster, that made him ashamed of himself. I
kept him to it and made him emigrate out of the way of his old friends.
Since that, there has been a blessing on him; and we've prospered."
"Is Cashel quarrelsome?"
At the tone of this question Mrs. Skene suddenly realized the
untimeliness of her complaints. "No, no," she protested. "He never
drinks; and as to fighting, if you can believe such a thing, miss, I
don't think he has had a casual turnup three times in his life--not
oftener, at any rate. All he wants is to be married; and then he'll be
steady to his grave. But if he's left adrift now, Lord knows what will
become of him. He'll mope first--he's moping at present--then he'll
drink; then he'll lose his pupils, get out of condition, be beaten,
and--One word from you, miss, would save him. If I might just tell
him--"
"Nothing," said Lydia. "Absolutely nothing. The only assurance I can
give you is that you have softened the hard opinion that I had formed of
some of his actions. But that I should marry Mr. Cashel Byron is simply
the most improbable thing in the world. All questions of personal
inclination apart, the mere improbability is enough in itself to appal
an ordinary woman."
Mrs. Skene did not quite understand this; but she understood
sufficiently for her purpose. She rose to go, shaking her head
despondently, and saying, "I see how it is, ma'am. You think him beneath
you. Your relations wouldn't like it."
"There is no doubt that my relatives would be greatly shocked; and I am
bound to take that into account for--what it is worth."
"We should never trouble you," said Mrs. Skene, lingering. "England will
see the last of us in a month of two."
"That will make no difference to me, except that I shall regret not
being able to have a pleasant chat with you occasionally." This was not
true; but Lydia fancied she was beginning to take a hardened delight in
lying.
Mrs. Skene was not to be consoled by compliments. She again shook her
head. "It is very kind of you to give me good words, miss," she said;
"but if I might have one for the boy you could say what you liked to
me."
Lydia considered far before she replied. At last she said, "I am sorry I
spoke harshly to him, since, driven as he was by circumstances, I cannot
see how he could have acted otherwise than he did. And I overlooked
the economic conditions of his profession. In short, I am not used to
fisticuffs; and what I saw shocked me so much that I was unreasonable.
But," continued Lydia, checking Mrs. Skene's rising hope with a warning
finger, "how, if you tell him this, will you make him understand that
I say so as an act of justice, and not in the least as a proffer of
affection?"
"A crumb of comfort will satisfy him, miss. I'll just tell him that I've
seen you, and that you meant nothing by what you said the other day;
and--"
"Mrs. Skene," said Lydia, interrupting her softly; "tell him nothing at
all as yet. I have made up my mind at last. If he does not hear from
me within a fortnight you may tell him what you please. Can you wait so
long?"
"Of course. Whatever you wish, ma'am. But Mellish's benefit is to be
to-morrow night; and--"
"What have I to do with Mellish or his benefit?"
Mrs. Skene, abashed, murmured apologetically that she was only wishful
that the boy should do himself credit.
"If he is to benefit Mellish by beating somebody, he will not be
behindhand. Remember you are not to mention me for a fortnight. Is that
a bargain?"
"Whatever you wish, ma'am," repeated Mrs. Skene, hardly satisfied. But
Lydia gave her no further comfort; so she begged to take her leave,
expressing a hope that things would turn out to the advantage of all
parties. Then Lydia insisted on her partaking of some solid refreshment,
and afterwards drove her to the railway station in the pony-carriage.
Just before they parted Lydia, suddenly recurring to their former
subject, said,
"Does Mr. Byron ever THINK?"
"Think!" said Mrs. Skene emphatically. "Never. There isn't a more
cheerful lad in existence, miss."
Then Mrs. Skene was carried away to London, wondering whether it could
be quite right for a young lady to live in a gorgeous castle without any
elder of her own sex, and to speak freely and civilly to her inferiors.
When she got home she said nothing of her excursion to Mr. Skene, in
whose disposition valor so entirely took the place of discretion that he
had never been known to keep a secret except as to the whereabouts of
a projected fight. But she sat up late with her daughter Fanny,
tantalizing her by accounts of the splendor of the castle, and consoling
her by describing Miss Carew as a slight creature with red hair and
no figure (Fanny having jet black hair, fine arms, and being one of
Cashel's most proficient pupils).
"All the same, Fan," added Mrs. Skene, as she took her candlestick at
two in the morning, "if it comes off, Cashel will never be master in his
own house."
"I can see that very plain," said Fanny; "but if respectable
professional people are not good enough for him, he will have only
himself to thank if he gets himself looked down upon by empty-headed
swells."
Meanwhile, Lydia, on her return to the castle after a long drive round
the country, had attempted to overcome an attack of restlessness by
setting to work on the biography of her father. With a view to preparing
a chapter on his taste in literature she had lately been examining his
favorite books for marked passages. She now resumed this search, not
setting methodically to work, but standing perched on the library
ladder, taking down volume after volume, and occasionally dipping into
the contents for a few pages or so. At this desultory work the time
passed as imperceptibly as the shadows lengthened. The last book she
examined was a volume of poems. There were no marks in it; but it opened
at a page which had evidently lain open often before. The first words
Lydia saw were these:
"What would I give for a heart of flesh to warm me through Instead of
this heart of stone ice-cold whatever I do; Hard and cold and small, of
all hearts the worst of all."
Lydia hastily stepped down from the ladder, and recoiled until she
reached a chair, where she sat and read and reread these lines. The
failing light roused her to action. She replaced the book on the shelf,
and said, as she went to the writing-table, "If such a doubt as that
haunted my father it will haunt me, unless I settle what is to be my
heart's business now and forever. If it be possible for a child of mine
to escape this curse of autovivisection, it must inherit its immunity
from its father, and not from me--from the man of emotion who never
thinks, and not from the woman of introspection, who cannot help
thinking. Be it so."
CHAPTER XIV
Before many days had elapsed a letter came for Cashel as he sat taking
tea with the Skene family. When he saw the handwriting, a deep red color
mounted to his temples.
"Oh, Lor'!" said Miss Skene, who sat next him. "Let's read it."
"Go to the dickens," cried Cashel, hastily baffling her as she snatched
at it.
"Don't worrit him, Fan," said Mrs. Skene, tenderly.
"Not for the world, poor dear," said Miss Skene, putting her hand
affectionately on his shoulder. "Let me just peep at the name--to see
who it's from. Do, Cashel, DEAR."
"It's from nobody," said Cashel. "Here, get out. If you don't let me
alone I'll make it warm for you the next time you come to me for a
lesson."
"Very likely," said Fanny, contemptuously. "Who had the best of it
to-day, I should like to know?"
"Gev' him a hot un on the chin with her right as ever I see," observed
Skene, with hoarse mirth.
Cashel went away from the table, out of Fanny's reach; and read the
letter, which ran thus:
"Regent's Park.
"Dear Mr. Cashel Byron,--I am desirous that you should
meet a lady friend of mine. She will be here at three o'clock to-morrow
afternoon. You would oblige me greatly by calling on me at that hour.
"Yours faithfully,
"Lydia Carew."
There was a long pause, during which there was no sound in the room
except the ticking of the clock and the munching of shrimps by the
ex-champion.
"Good news, I hope, Cashel," said Mrs. Skene, at last, tremulously.
"Blow me if I understand it," said Cashel. "Can you make it out?" And he
handed the letter to his adopted mother. Skene ceased eating to see his
wife read, a feat which was to him one of the wonders of science.
"I think the lady she mentions must be herself," said Mrs. Skene, after
some consideration.
"No," said Cashel, shaking his head. "She always says what she means."
"Ah," said Skene, cunningly; "but she can't write it though. That's the
worst of writing; no one can't never tell exactly what it means. I never
signed articles yet that there weren't some misunderstanding about; and
articles is the best writing that can be had anywhere."
"You'd better go and see what it means," said Mrs. Skene.
"Right," said Skene. "Go and have it out with her, my boy."
"It is short, and not particularly sweet," said Fanny. "She might have
had the civility to put her crest at the top."
"What would you give to be her?" said Cashel, derisively, catching the
letter as she tossed it disdainfully to him.
"If I was I'd respect myself more than to throw myself at YOUR head."
"Hush, Fanny," said Mrs. Skene; "you're too sharp. Ned, you oughtn't to
encourage her by laughing."
Next day Cashel rose early, went for a walk, paid extra attention to his
diet, took some exercise with the gloves, had a bath and a rub down,
and presented himself at Regent's Park at three o'clock in excellent
condition. Expecting to see Bashville, he was surprised when the door
was opened by a female servant.
"Miss Carew at home?"
"Yes, sir," said the girl, falling in love with him at first sight. "Mr.
Byron, sir?"
"That's me," said Cashel. "I say, is there any one with her?"
"Only a lady, sir."
"Oh, d--n! Well, it can't be helped. Never say die."
The girl led him then to a door, opened it, and when he entered shut it
softly without announcing him. The room in which he found himself was a
long one, lighted from the roof. The walls were hung with pictures. At
the far end, with their backs towards him, were two ladies: Lydia, and a
woman whose noble carriage and elegant form would, have raised hopes of
beauty in a man less preoccupied than Cashel. But he, after advancing
some distance with his eyes on Lydia, suddenly changed countenance,
stopped, and was actually turning to fly, when the ladies, hearing his
light step, faced about and rooted him to the spot. As Lydia offered
him her hand, her companion, who had surveyed the visitor first with
indifference, and then with incredulous surprise, exclaimed, with
a burst of delighted recognition, like a child finding a long-lost
plaything, "My darling boy!" And going to Cashel with the grace of a
swan, she clasped him in her arms. In acknowledgment of which he thrust
his red, discomfited face over her shoulder, winked at Lydia with his
tongue in his cheek, and said,
"This is what you may call the voice of nature, and no mistake."
"What a splendid creature you are!" said Mrs. Byron, holding him a
little way from her, the better to admire him. "Do you know how handsome
you are, you wretch?"
"How d'ye do, Miss Carew," said Cashel, breaking loose, and turning to
Lydia. "Never mind her; it's only my mother. At least," he added, as if
correcting himself, "she's my mamma."
"And where have you come from? Where have you been? Do you know that I
have not seen you for seven years, you unnatural boy? Think of his
being my son, Miss Carew. Give me another kiss, my own," she continued,
grasping his arm affectionately.
"What a muscular creature you are!"
"Kiss away as much as you like," said Cashel, struggling with the old
school-boy sullenness as it returned oppressively upon him. "I suppose
you're well. You look right enough."
"Yes," she said, mockingly, beginning to despise him for his inability
to act up to her in this thrilling scene; "I AM right enough. Your
language is as refined as ever. And why do you get your hair cropped
close like that? You must let it grow, and--"
"Now, look here," said Cashel, stopping her hand neatly as she raised it
to rearrange his locks. "You just drop it, or I'll walk out at that door
and you won't see me again for another seven years. You can either take
me as you find me, or let me alone. Absalom and Dan Mendoza came to
grief through wearing their hair long, and I am going to wear mine
short."
Mrs. Byron became a shade colder. "Indeed!" she said. "Just the same
still, Cashel?"
"Just the same, both one and other of us," he replied. "Before you spoke
six words I felt as if we'd parted only yesterday."
"I am rather taken aback by the success of my experiment," interposed
Lydia. "I invited you purposely to meet one another. The resemblance
between you led me to suspect the truth, and my suspicion was confirmed
by the account Mr. Byron gave me of his adventures."
Mrs. Byron's vanity was touched. "Is he like me?" she said, scanning
his features. He, without heeding her, said to Lydia with undisguised
mortification,
"And was THAT why you sent for me?"
"Are you disappointed?" said Lydia.
"He is not in the least glad to see me," said Mrs. Byron, plaintively.
"He has no heart."
"Now she'll go on for the next hour," said Cashel, looking to Lydia,
obviously because he found it much pleasanter than looking at his
mother. "However, if you don't care, I don't. So, fire away, mamma."
"And you think we are really like one another?" said Mrs. Byron, not
heeding him. "Yes; I think we are. There is a certain--Are you married,
Cashel?" with sudden mistrust.
"Ha! ha! ha!" shouted Cashel. "No; but I hope to be, some day," he
added, venturing to glance again at Lydia, who was, however, attentively
observing Mrs. Byron.
"Well, tell me everything about yourself. What are you? Now, I do hope,
Cashel, that you have not gone upon the stage."
"The stage!" said Cashel, contemptuously. "Do I look like it?"
"You certainly do not," said Mrs. Byron, whimsically--"although you have
a certain odious professional air, too. What did you do when you ran
away so scandalously from that stupid school in the north? How do you
earn your living? Or DO you earn it?"
"I suppose I do, unless I am fed by ravens, as Elijah was. What do you
think I was best fitted for by my education and bringing up? Sweep a
crossing, perhaps! When I ran away from Panley, I went to sea."
"A sailor, of all things! You don't look like one. And pray, what rank
have you attained in your profession?"
"The front rank. The top of the tree," said Cashel, shortly.
"Mr. Byron is not at present following the profession of a sailor; nor
has he done so for many years," said Lydia.
Cashel looked at her, half in appeal, half in remonstrance.
"Something very different, indeed," pursued Lydia, with quiet obstinacy.
"And something very startling."
"CAN'T you shut up?" exclaimed Cashel. "I should have expected more
sense from you. What's the use of setting her on to make a fuss and put
me in a rage? I'll go away if you don't stop."
"What is the matter?" said Mrs. Byron. "Have you been doing anything
disgraceful, Cashel?"
"There she goes. I told you so. I keep a gymnasium, that's all. There's
nothing disgraceful in that, I hope."
"A gymnasium?" repeated Mrs. Byron, with imperious disgust. "What
nonsense! You must give up everything of that kind, Cashel. It is very
silly, and very low. You were too ridiculously proud, of course, to come
to me for the means of keeping yourself in a proper position. I suppose
I shall have to provide you with--"
"If I ever take a penny from you, may I--" Cashel caught Lydia's anxious
look, and checked himself. He paused and got away a step, a cunning
smile flickering on his lips. "No," he said; "it's just playing into
your hands to lose temper with you. You think you know me, and you want
to force the fighting. Well, we'll see. Make me angry now if you can."
"There is not the slightest reason for anger," said Mrs. Byron, angry
herself. "Your temper seems to have become ungovernable--or, rather, to
have remained so; for it was never remarkable for sweetness."
"No," retorted Cashel, jeering good-humoredly. "Not the slightest
occasion to lose my temper! Not when I am told that I am silly and low!
Why, I think you must fancy that you're talking to your little
Cashel, that blessed child you were so fond of. But you're not. You're
talking--now for a screech, Miss Carew!--to the champion of Australia,
the United States, and England, holder of three silver belts and one
gold one (which you can have to wear in 'King John' if you think it'll
become you); professor of boxing to the nobility and gentry of St.
James's, and common prize-fighter to the whole globe, without reference
to weight or color, for not less than five hundred pounds a side. That's
Cashel Byron."
Mrs. Byron recoiled, astounded. After a pause she said, "Oh, Cashel, how
COULD you?" Then, approaching him again, "Do you mean to say that you go
out and fight those great rough savages?"
"Yes, I do."
"And that you BEAT them?"
"Yes. Ask Miss Carew how Billy Paradise looked after standing before me
for an hour."
"You wonderful boy! What an occupation! And you have done all this in
your own name?"
"Of course I have. I am not ashamed of it. I often wondered whether you
had seen my name in the papers."
"I never read the papers. But you must have heard of my return to
England. Why did you not come to see me?"
"I wasn't quite certain that you would like it," said Cashel, uneasily,
avoiding her eye. "Hullo!" he exclaimed, as he attempted to refresh
himself by another look at Lydia, "she's given us the slip."
"She is quite right to leave us alone together under the circumstances.
And now tell me why my precious boy should doubt that his own mother
wished to see him."
"I don't know why he should," said Cashel, with melancholy submission to
her affection. "But he did."
"How insensible you are! Did you not know that you were always my
cherished darling--my only son?"
Cashel, who was now sitting beside her on an ottoman, groaned and moved
restlessly, but said nothing.
"Are you glad to see me?"
"Yes," said Cashel, dismally, "I suppose I am. I--By Jingo," he cried,
with sudden animation, "perhaps you can give me a lift here. I never
thought of that. I say, mamma; I am in great trouble at present, and I
think you can help me if you will."
Mrs. Byron looked at him satirically. But she said, soothingly, "Of
course I will help you--as far as I am able--my precious one. All I
possess is yours."
Cashel ground his feet on the floor impatiently, and then sprang
up. After an interval, during which he seemed to be swallowing some
indignant protest, he said,
"You may put your mind at rest, once and for all, on the subject of
money. I don't want anything of that sort."
"I am glad you are so independent, Cashel."
"So am I."
"Do, pray, be more amiable."
"I am amiable enough," he cried, desperately, "only you won't listen."
"My treasure," said Mrs. Byron, remorsefully. "What is the matter?"
"Well," said Cashel, somewhat mollified, "it is this. I want to marry
Miss Carew; that's all."
"YOU marry Miss Carew!" Mrs. Byron's tenderness had vanished, and her
tone was shrewd and contemptuous. "Do you know, you silly boy, that--"
"I know all about it," said Cashel, determinedly--"what she is, and what
I am, and the rest of it. And I want to marry her; and, what's more,
I will marry her, if I have to break the neck of every swell in London
first. So you can either help me or not, as you please; but if you
won't, never call me your precious boy any more. Now!"
Mrs. Byron abdicated her dominion there and then forever. She sat with
quite a mild expression for some time in silence. Then she said,
"After all, I do not see why you should not. It would be a very good
match for you."
"Yes; but a deuced bad one for her."
"Really, I do not see that, Cashel. When your uncle dies, I suppose you
will succeed to the Dorsetshire property."
"I the heir to a property! Are you in earnest?"
"Of course. Don't you know who your people are?"
"How could I? You never told me. Do you mean to say that I have an
uncle?"
"Old Bingley Byron? Certainly."
"Well, I AM blowed. But--but--I mean--Supposing he IS my uncle, am I his
lawful heir?"
"Yes. Walford Byron, the only other brother of your father, died years
ago, while you were at Moncrief's; and he had no sons. Bingley is a
bachelor."
"But," said Cashel, cautiously, "won't there be some bother about my--at
least--"
"My dearest child, what are you thinking or talking about? Nothing can
be clearer than your title."
"Well," said Cashel, blushing, "a lot of people used to make out that
you weren't married at all."
"What!" exclaimed Mrs. Byron, indignantly. "Oh, they DARE not say so!
Impossible. Why did you not tell me at once?"
"I didn't think about it," said Cashel, hastily excusing himself. "I was
too young to care. It doesn't matter now. My father is dead, isn't he?"
"He died when you were a baby. You have often made me angry with you,
poor little innocent, by reminding me of him. Do not talk of him to me."
"Not if you don't wish. Just one thing, though, mamma. Was he a
gentleman?"
"Of course. What a question!"
"Then I am as good as any of the swells that think themselves her
equals? She has a cousin in the government office; a fellow who gives
out that he is the home secretary, and most likely sits in a big chair
in a hall and cheeks the public. Am I as good as he is?"
"You are perfectly well connected by your mother's side, Cashel. The
Byrons are only commoners; but even they are one of the oldest county
families in England."
Cashel began to show signs of excitement. "How much a year are they
worth?" he demanded.
"I do not know how much they are worth now. Your father was always
in difficulties, and so was his father. But Bingley is a miser. Five
thousand a year, perhaps."
"That's an independence. That's enough. She said she couldn't expect a
man to be so thunderingly rich as she is."
"Indeed? Then you have discussed the question with her?"
Cashel was about to speak, when a servant entered to say that Miss Carew
was in the library, and begged that they would come to her as soon as
they were quite disengaged. When the maid withdrew he said, eagerly,
"I wish you'd go home, mamma, and let me catch her in the library by
herself. Tell me where you live, and I'll come in the evening and tell
you all about it. That is, if you have no objection."
"What objection could I possibly have, dearest one? Are you sure that
you are not spoiling your chance by too much haste? She has no occasion
to hurry, Cashel, and she knows it."
"I am dead certain that now is my time or never. I always know by
instinct when to go in and finish. Here's your mantle."
"In such a hurry to get rid of your poor old mother, Cashel?"
"Oh, bother! you're not old. You won't mind my wanting you to go for
this once, will you?"
She smiled affectionately, put on her mantle, and turned her cheek
towards him to be kissed. The unaccustomed gesture alarmed him; he
retreated a step, and involuntary assumed an attitude of self-defence,
as if the problem before him were a pugilistic one. Recovering himself
immediately, he kissed her, and impatiently accompanied her to the house
door, which he closed softly behind her, leaving her to walk in search
of her carriage alone. Then he stole up-stairs to the library, where he
found Lydia reading.
"She's gone," he said.
Lydia put down her book, looked up at him, saw what was coming, looked
down again to hide a spasm of terror, and said, with a steady severity
that cost her a great effort, "I hope you have not quarrelled."
"Lord bless you, no! We kissed one another like turtle-doves. At odd
moments she wheedles me into feeling fond of her in spite of myself. She
went away because I asked her to."
"And why do you ask my guests to go away?"
"Because I wanted to be alone with you. Don't look as if you didn't
understand. She's told me a whole heap of things about myself that alter
our affairs completely. My birth is all right; I'm heir to a county
family that came over with the Conqueror, and I shall have a decent
income. I can afford to give away weight to old Webber now."
"Well," said Lydia, sternly.
"Well," said Cashel, unabashed, "the only use of all that to me is that
I may marry if I like. No more fighting or teaching now."
"And when you are married, will you be as tender to your wife as you are
to your mother?"
Cashel's elation vanished. "I knew you'd think that," he said. "I am
always the same with her; I can't help it. She makes me look like a
fool, or like a brute. Have I ever been so with you?"
"Yes," said Lydia. "Except," she added, "that you have never shown
absolute dislike to me."
"Ah! EXCEPT! That's a very big except. But I don't dislike her. Blood is
thicker than water, and I have a softness for her; only I won't put up
with her nonsense. But it's different with you. I don't know how to say
it; I'm not good at sentiment--not that there's any sentiment about it.
At least, I don't mean that; but--You're fond of me in a sort of way,
ain't you?"
"Yes; I'm fond of you in a sort of way."
"Well, then," he said, uneasily, "won't you marry me? I'm not such a
fool as you think; and you'll like me better after a while."
Lydia became very pale. "Have you considered," she said, "that
henceforth you will be an idle man, and that I shall always be a busy
woman, preoccupied with the work that may seem very dull to you?"
"I won't be idle. There's lots of things I can do besides boxing. We'll
get on together, never fear. People that are fond of one another never
have any difficulty; and people that hate each other never have any
comfort. I'll be on the lookout to make you happy. You needn't fear my
interrupting your Latin and Greek: I won't expect you to give up your
whole life to me. Why should I? There's reason in everything. So long as
you are mine, and nobody else's, I'll be content. And I'll be yours and
nobody else's. What's the use of supposing half a dozen accidents that
may never happen? Let's sign reasonable articles, and then take our
chance. You have too much good-nature ever to be nasty."
"It would be a hard bargain," she said, doubtfully; "for you would
have to give up your occupation; and I should give up nothing but my
unfruitful liberty."
"I will swear never to fight again; and you needn't swear anything. If
that is not an easy bargain, I don't know what is."
"Easy for me, yes. But for you?"
"Never mind me. You do whatever you like; and I'll do whatever you like.
You have a conscience; so I know that whatever you like will be the best
thing. I have the most science; but you have the most sense. Come!"
Lydia looked around, as if for a means of escape. Cashel waited
anxiously. There was a long pause.
"It can't be," he said, pathetically, "that you are afraid of me because
I was a prize-fighter."
"Afraid of you! No: I am afraid of myself; afraid of the future; afraid
FOR you. But my mind is already made up on this subject. When I brought
about this meeting between you and your mother I determined to marry you
if you asked me again."
She stood up, quietly, and waited. The rough hardihood of the ring fell
from him like a garment: he blushed deeply, and did not know what to do.
Nor did she; but without willing it she came a step closer to him, and
turned up her face towards his. He, nearly blind with confusion, put his
arms about her and kissed her. Suddenly she broke loose from his arms,
seized the lapels of his coat tightly in her hands, and leaned back
until she nearly hung from him with all her weight.
"Cashel," she said, "we are the silliest lovers in the world, I
believe--we know nothing about it. Are you really fond of me?"
She recovered herself immediately, and made no further demonstration of
the kind. He remained shy, and was so evidently anxious to go, that she
presently asked him to leave her for a while, though she was surprised
to feel a faint pang of disappointment when he consented.
On leaving the house he hurried to the address which his mother
had given him: a prodigious building in Westminster, divided into
residential flats, to the seventh floor of which he ascended in a lift.
As he stepped from it he saw Lucian Webber walking away from him along
a corridor. Obeying a sudden impulse, he followed, and overtook him just
as he was entering a room. Lucian, finding that some one was resisting
his attempt to close the door, looked out, recognized Cashel, turned
white, and hastily retreated into the apartment, where, getting behind
a writing-table, he snatched a revolver from a drawer. Cashel recoiled,
amazed and frightened, with his right arm up as if to ward off a blow.
"Hullo!" he cried. "Drop that d--d thing, will you? If you don't, I'll
shout for help."
"If you approach me I will fire," said Lucian, excitedly. "I will
teach you that your obsolete brutality is powerless against the weapons
science has put into the hands of civilized men. Leave my apartments.
I am not afraid of you; but I do not choose to be disturbed by your
presence."
"Confound your cheek," said Cashel, indignantly; "is that the way you
receive a man who comes to make a friendly call on you?"
"Friendly NOW, doubtless, when you see that I am well protected."
Cashel gave a long whistle. "Oh," he said, "you thought I came to pitch
into you. Ha! ha! And you call that science--to draw a pistol on a man.
But you daren't fire it, and well you know it. You'd better put it up,
or you may let it off without intending to: I never feel comfortable
when I see a fool meddling with firearms. I came to tell you that I'm
going to be married to your cousin. Ain't you glad?"
Lucian's face changed. He believed; but he said, obstinately, "I don't
credit that statement. It is a lie."
This outraged Cashel. "I tell you again," he said, in a menacing tone,
"that your cousin is engaged to me. Now call me a liar, and hit me in
the face, if you dare. Look here," he added, taking a leather case from
his pocket, and extracting from it a bank note, "I'll give you that
twenty-pound note if you will hit me one blow."
Lucian, sick with fury, and half paralyzed by a sensation which he would
not acknowledge as fear, forced himself to come forward. Cashel thrust
out his jaw invitingly, and said, with a sinister grin, "Put it in
straight, governor. Twenty pounds, remember."
At that moment Lucian would have given all his political and social
chances for the courage and skill of a prize-fighter. He could see only
one way to escape the torment of Cashel's jeering and the self-reproach
of a coward. He desperately clenched his fist and struck out. The blow
wasted itself on space; and he stumbled forward against his adversary,
who laughed uproariously, grasped his hand, clapped him on the back, and
exclaimed,
"Well done, my boy. I thought you were going to be mean; but you've been
game, and you're welcome to the stakes. I'll tell Lydia that you have
fought me for twenty pounds and won on your merits. Ain't you proud of
yourself for having had a go at the champion?"
"Sir--" began Lucian. But nothing coherent followed.
"You just sit down for a quarter of an hour, and don't drink anything,
and you'll be all right. When you recover you'll be glad you showed
pluck. So, good-night, for the present--I know how you feel, and I'll
be off. Be sure not to try to settle yourself with wine; it'll only make
you worse. Ta-ta!"
As Cashel withdrew, Lucian collapsed into a chair, shaken by the revival
of passions and jealousies which he had thought as completely outgrown
as the school-boy jackets in which he had formerly experienced them. He
tried to think of some justification of his anger--some better reason
for it than the vulgar taunt of a bully. He told himself presently that
the idea of Lydia marrying such a man had maddened him to strike. As
Cashel had predicted, he was beginning to plume himself on his pluck.
This vein of reflection, warring with his inner knowledge that he had
been driven by fear and hatred into a paroxysm of wrath against a man to
whom he should have set an example of dignified self-control, produced
an exhausting whirl in his thoughts, which were at once quickened and
confused by the nervous shock of bodily violence, to which he was quite
unused. Unable to sit still, he rose, put on his hat, went out, and
drove to the house in Regent's Park.
Lydia was in her boudoir, occupied with a book, when he entered. He was
not an acute observer; he could see no change in her. She was as calm
as ever; her eyes were not even fully open, and the touch of her hand
subdued him as it had always done. Though he had never entertained any
hope of possessing her since the day when she had refused him in Bedford
Square, a sense of intolerable loss came upon him as he saw her for the
first time pledged to another--and such another!
"Lydia," he said, trying to speak vehemently, but failing to shake off
the conventional address of which he had made a second nature, "I have
heard something that has filled me with inexpressible dismay. Is it
true?"
"The news has travelled fast," she said. "Yes; it is true." She spoke
composedly, and so kindly that he choked in trying to reply.
"Then, Lydia, you are the chief actor in a greater tragedy than I have
ever witnessed on the stage."
"It is strange, is it not?" she said, smiling at his effort to be
impressive.
"Strange! It is calamitous. I trust I may be allowed to say so. And you
sit there reading as calmly as though nothing had happened."
She handed him the book without a word.
"'Ivanhoe'!" he said. "A novel!"
"Yes. Do you remember once, before you knew me very well, telling me
that Scott's novels were the only ones that you liked to see in the
hands of ladies?"
"No doubt I did. But I cannot talk of literature just--"
"I am not leading you away from what you want to talk about. I was about
to tell you that I came upon 'Ivanhoe' by chance half an hour ago, when
I was searching--I confess it--for something very romantic to read.
Ivanhoe was a prize-fighter--the first half of the book is a description
of a prize-fight. I was wondering whether some romancer of the
twenty-fourth century will hunt out the exploits of my husband, and
present him to the world as a sort of English nineteenth-century Cyd,
with all the glory of antiquity upon his deeds."
Lucian made a gesture of impatience. "I have never been able to
understand," he said, "how it is that a woman of your ability can
habitually dwell on perverse and absurd ideas. Oh, Lydia, is this to be
the end of all your great gifts and attainments? Forgive me if I touch
a painful chord; but this marriage seems to me so unnatural that I must
speak out. Your father made you one of the richest and best-educated
women in the world. Would he approve of what you are about to do?"
"It almost seems to me that he educated me expressly to some such end.
Whom would you have me marry?"
"Doubtless few men are worthy of you, Lydia. But this man least of all.
Could you not marry a gentleman? If he were even an artist, a poet, or a
man of genius of any kind, I could bear to think of it; for indeed I am
not influenced by class prejudice in the matter. But a--I will try to
say nothing that you must not in justice admit to be too obvious to be
ignored--a man of the lower orders, pursuing a calling which even the
lower orders despise; illiterate, rough, awaiting at this moment a
disgraceful sentence at the hands of the law! Is it possible that you
have considered all these things?"
"Not very deeply; they are not of a kind to concern me much. I can
console you as to one of them. I have always recognized him as a
gentleman, in your sense of the word. He proves to be so--one of
considerable position, in fact. As to his approaching trial, I have
spoken with Lord Worthington about it, and also with the lawyers who
have charge of the case; and they say positively that, owing to certain
proofs not being in the hands of the police, a defence can be set up
that will save him from imprisonment."
"There is no such defence possible," said Lucian, angrily.
"Perhaps not. As far as I understand it, it is rather an aggravation of
the offence than an excuse for it. But if they imprison him it will make
no difference. He can console himself by the certainty that I will marry
him at once when he is released."
Lucian's face lengthened. He abandoned the argument, and said, blankly,
"I cannot suppose that you would allow yourself to be deceived. If he is
a gentleman of position, that of course alters the case completely."
"Very little indeed from my point of view. Hardly at all. And now,
worldly cousin Lucian, I have satisfied you that I am not going to
connect you by marriage with a butcher, bricklayer, or other member of
the trades from which Cashel's profession, as you warned me, is usually
recruited. Stop a moment. I am going to do justice to you. You want
to say that my unworldly friend Lucian is far more deeply concerned
at seeing the phoenix of modern culture throw herself away on a man
unworthy of her."
"That IS what I mean to say, except that you put it too modestly. It
is a case of the phoenix, not only of modern culture, but of natural
endowment and of every happy accident of the highest civilization,
throwing herself away on a man specially incapacitated by his tastes
and pursuits from comprehending her or entering the circle in which she
moves."
"Listen to me patiently, Lucian, and I will try to explain the mystery
to you, leaving the rest of the world to misunderstand me as it pleases.
First, you will grant me that even a phoenix must marry some one in
order that she may hand on her torch to her children. Her best course
would be to marry another phoenix; but as she--poor girl!--cannot
appreciate even her own phoenixity, much less that of another, she must
perforce be content with a mere mortal. Who is the mortal to be? Not
her cousin Lucian; for rising young politicians must have helpful
wives, with feminine politics and powers of visiting and entertaining; a
description inapplicable to the phoenix. Not, as you just now suggested,
a man of letters. The phoenix has had her share of playing helpmeet to a
man of letters, and does not care to repeat that experience. She is sick
to death of the morbid introspection and womanish self-consciousness of
poets, novelists, and their like. As to artists, all the good ones are
married; and ever since the rest have been able to read in hundreds of
books that they are the most gifted and godlike of men, they are become
almost as intolerable as their literary flatterers. No, Lucian, the
phoenix has paid her debt to literature and art by the toil of her
childhood. She will use and enjoy both of them in future as best she
can; but she will never again drudge in their laboratories. You say that
she might at least have married a gentleman. But the gentlemen she knows
are either amateurs of the arts, having the egotism of professional
artists without their ability, or they are men of pleasure, which means
that they are dancers, tennis-players, butchers, and gamblers. I leave
the nonentities out of the question. Now, in the eyes of a phoenix, a
prize-fighter is a hero in comparison with a wretch who sets a leash of
greyhounds upon a hare. Imagine, now, this poor phoenix meeting with
a man who had never been guilty of self-analysis in his life--who
complained when he was annoyed, and exulted when he was glad, like a
child (and unlike a modern man)--who was honest and brave, strong and
beautiful. You open your eyes, Lucian: you do not do justice to Cashel's
good looks. He is twenty-five, and yet there is not a line in his face.
It is neither thoughtful, nor poetic, nor wearied, nor doubting, nor
old, nor self-conscious, as so many of his contemporaries' faces are--as
mine perhaps is. The face of a pagan god, assured of eternal youth, and
absolutely disqualified from comprehending 'Faust.' Do you understand a
word of what I am saying, Lucian?"
"I must confess that I do not. Either you have lost your reason, or I
have. I wish you had never taking to reading 'Faust.'"
"It is my fault. I began an explanation, and rambled off, womanlike,
into praise of my lover. However, I will not attempt to complete my
argument; for if you do not understand me from what I have already said,
the further you follow the wider you will wander. The truth, in short,
is this: I practically believe in the doctrine of heredity; and as my
body is frail and my brain morbidly active, I think my impulse towards
a man strong in body and untroubled in mind a trustworthy one. You can
understand that; it is a plain proposition in eugenics. But if I tell
you that I have chosen this common pugilist because, after seeing half
the culture of Europe, I despaired of finding a better man, you will
only tell me again that I have lost my reason."
"I know that you will do whatever you have made up your mind to do,"
said Lucian, desolately.
"And you will make the best of it, will you not?"
"The best or the worst of it does not rest with me. I can only accept it
as inevitable."
"Not at all. You can make the worst of it by behaving distantly to
Cashel; or the best of it by being friendly with him."
Lucian reddened and hesitated. She looked at him, mutely encouraging him
to be generous.
"I had better tell you," he said. "I have seen him since--since--"
Lydia nodded. "I mistook his object in coming into my room as he did,
unannounced. In fact, he almost forced his way in. Some words arose
between us. At last he taunted me beyond endurance, and offered
me--characteristically--twenty pounds to strike him. And I am sorry to
say that I did so."
"You did so! And what followed?"
"I should say rather that I meant to strike him; for he avoided me, or
else I missed my aim. He only gave the money and went away, evidently
with a high opinion of me. He left me with a very low one of myself."
"What! He did not retaliate!" exclaimed Lydia, recovering her color,
which had fled. "And you STRUCK him!" she added.
"He did not," replied Lucian, passing by the reproach. "Probably he
despised me too much."
"That is not fair, Lucian. He behaved very well--for a prize-fighter!
Surely you do not grudge him his superiority in the very art you condemn
him for professing."
"I was wrong, Lydia; but I grudged him you. I know I have acted hastily;
and I will apologize to him. I wish matters had fallen out otherwise."
"They could not have done so; and I believe you will yet acknowledge
that they have arranged themselves very well. And now that the phoenix
is disposed of, I want to read you a letter I have received from Alice
Goff, which throws quite a new light on her character. I have not seen
her since June, and she seems to have gained three years' mental growth
in the interim. Listen to this, for example."
And so the conversation turned upon Alice.
When Lucian returned to his chambers, he wrote the following note, which
he posted to Cashel Byron before going to bed:
"Dear Sir,--I beg to enclose you a bank-note which you left here this
evening. I feel bound to express my regret for what passed on that
occasion, and to assure you that it proceeded from a misapprehension
of your purpose in calling on me. The nervous disorder into which the
severe mental application and late hours of the past session have thrown
me must be my excuse. I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you again
soon, and offering you personally my congratulations on your approaching
marriage. "I am, dear sir, yours truly, "Lucian Webber."
CHAPTER XV
In the following month Cashel Byron, William Paradise, and Robert
Mellish appeared in the dock together, the first two for having
been principals in a prize-fight, and Mellish for having acted as
bottle-holder to Paradise. These offences were verbosely described in
a long indictment which had originally included the fourth man who had
been captured, but against whom the grand jury had refused to find a
true bill. The prisoners pleaded not guilty.
The defence was that the fight, the occurrence of which was admitted,
was not a prize-fight, but the outcome of an enmity which had subsisted
between the two men since one of them, at a public exhibition at
Islington, had attacked and bitten the other. In support of this, it was
shown that Byron had occupied a house at Wiltstoken, and had lived there
with Mellish, who had invited Paradise to spend a holiday with him
in the country. This accounted for the presence of the three men at
Wiltstoken on the day in question. Words had arisen between Byron and
Paradise on the subject of the Islington affair; and they had at last
agreed to settle the dispute in the old English fashion. They had
adjourned to a field, and fought fairly and determinedly until
interrupted by the police, who were misled by appearances into the
belief that the affair was a prize-fight.
Prize-fighting was a brutal pastime, Cashel Byron's counsel said; but
a fair, stand-up fight between two unarmed men, though doubtless
technically a breach of the peace, had never been severely dealt with
by a British jury or a British judge; and the case would be amply met by
binding over the prisoners, who were now on the best of terms with one
another, to keep the peace for a reasonable period. The sole evidence
against this view of the case, he argued, was police evidence; and the
police were naturally reluctant to admit that they had found a
mare's nest. In proof that the fight had been premeditated, and was a
prize-fight, they alleged that it had taken place within an enclosure
formed with ropes and stakes. But where were those ropes and stakes?
They were not forthcoming; and he (counsel) submitted that the reason
was not, as had been suggested, because they had been spirited away, for
that was plainly impossible; but because they had existed only in the
excited imagination of the posse of constables who had arrested the
prisoners.
Again, it had been urged that the prisoners were in fighting costume.
But cross-examination had elicited that fighting costume meant
practically no costume at all: the men had simply stripped in order that
their movements might be unembarrassed. It had been proved that Paradise
had been--well, in the traditional costume of Paradise (roars of
laughter) until the police borrowed a blanket to put upon him.
That the constables had been guilty of gross exaggeration was shown by
their evidence as to the desperate injuries the combatants had inflicted
upon one another. Of Paradise in particular it had been alleged that his
features were obliterated. The jury had before them in the dock the man
whose features had been obliterated only a few weeks previously. If that
were true, where had the prisoner obtained the unblemished lineaments
which he was now, full of health and good-humor, presenting to them?
(Renewed laughter. Paradise grinning in confusion.) It was said
that these terrible injuries, the traces of which had disappeared so
miraculously, were inflicted by the prisoner Byron, a young gentleman
tenderly nurtured, and visibly inferior in strength and hardihood to his
herculean opponent. Doubtless Byron had been emboldened by his skill in
mimic combat to try conclusions, under the very different conditions of
real fighting, with a man whose massive shoulders and determined cast of
features ought to have convinced him that such an enterprise was nothing
short of desperate. Fortunately the police had interfered before he had
suffered severely for his rashness. Yet it had been alleged that he had
actually worsted Paradise in the encounter--obliterated his features.
That was a fair sample of the police evidence, which was throughout
consistently incredible and at variance with the dictates of
common-sense.
Attention was then drawn to the honorable manner in which Byron had come
forward and given himself up to the police the moment he became aware
that they were in search of him. Paradise would, beyond a doubt, have
adopted the same course had he not been arrested at once, and that, too,
without the least effort at resistance on his part. That was hardly
the line of conduct that would have suggested itself to two lawless
prize-fighters.
An attempt had been made to prejudice the prisoner Byron by the
statement that he was a notorious professional bruiser. But no proof of
that was forthcoming; and if the fact were really notorious there could
be no difficulty in proving it. Such notoriety as Mr. Byron enjoyed was
due, as appeared from the evidence of Lord Worthington and others, to
his approaching marriage to a lady of distinction. Was it credible that
a highly connected gentleman in this enviable position would engage in
a prize-fight, risking disgrace and personal disfigurement, for a sum of
money that could be no object to him, or for a glory that would appear
to all his friends as little better than infamy?
The whole of the evidence as to the character of the prisoners went to
show that they were men of unimpeachable integrity and respectability.
An impression unfavorable to Paradise might have been created by the
fact that he was a professional pugilist and a man of hasty temper;
but it had also transpired that he had on several occasions rendered
assistance to the police, thereby employing his skill and strength in
the interests of law and order. As to his temper, it accounted for the
quarrel which the police--knowing his profession--had mistaken for a
prize-fight.
Mellish was a trainer of athletes, and hence the witnesses to his
character were chiefly persons connected with sport; but they were not
the less worthy of credence on that account.
In fine, the charge would have been hard to believe even if supported by
the strongest evidence. But when there was no evidence--when the police
had failed to produce any of the accessories of a prize-fight--when
there were no ropes nor posts--no written articles--no stakes nor
stakeholders--no seconds except the unfortunate man Mellish, whose
mouth was closed by a law which, in defiance of the obvious interests
of justice, forbade a prisoner to speak and clear himself--nothing, in
fact, but the fancies of constables who had, under cross-examination,
not only contradicted one another, but shown the most complete ignorance
(a highly creditable ignorance) of the nature and conditions of a
prize-fight; then counsel would venture to say confidently that the
theory of the prosecution, ingenious as it was, and ably as it had been
put forward, was absolutely and utterly untenable.
This, and much more argument of equal value, was delivered with relish
by a comparatively young barrister, whose spirits rose as he felt the
truth change and fade while he rearranged its attendant circumstances.
Cashel listened for some time anxiously. He flushed and looked moody
when his marriage was alluded to; but when the whole defence was
unrolled, he was awestruck, and stared at his advocate as if he half
feared that the earth would gape and swallow such a reckless perverter
of patent facts. Even the judge smiled once or twice; and when he did
so the jurymen grinned, but recovered their solemnity suddenly when the
bench recollected itself and became grave again. Every one in court knew
that the police were right--that there had been a prize-fight--that the
betting on it had been recorded in all the sporting papers for weeks
beforehand--that Cashel was the mostterrible fighting man of the day,
and that Paradise had not dared to propose a renewal of the interrupted
contest. And they listened with admiration and delight while the advocate
proved that these things were incredible and nonsensical.
It remained for the judge to sweep away the defence, or to favor the
prisoners by countenancing it. Fortunately for them, he was an old man;
and could recall, not without regret, a time when the memory of Cribb
and Molyneux was yet green. He began his summing-up by telling the jury
that the police had failed to prove that the fight was a prize-fight.
After that, the public, by indulging in roars of laughter whenever they
could find a pretext for doing so without being turned out of court,
showed that they had ceased to regard the trial seriously.
Finally the jury acquitted Mellish, and found Cashel and Paradise guilty
of a common assault. They were sentenced to two days' imprisonment,
and bound over to keep the peace for twelve months in sureties of one
hundred and fifty pounds each. The sureties were forthcoming; and as the
imprisonment was supposed to date from the beginning of the sessions,
the prisoners were at once released.
CHAPTER XVI
Miss Carew, averse to the anomalous relations of courtship, made as
little delay as possible in getting married. Cashel's luck was not
changed by the event. Bingley Byron died three weeks after the ceremony
(which was civic and private); and Cashel had to claim possession of the
property in Dorsetshire, in spite of his expressed wish that the lawyers
would take themselves and the property to the devil, and allow him
to enjoy his honeymoon in peace. The transfer was not, however,
accomplished at once. Owing to his mother's capricious reluctance to
give the necessary information without reserve, and to the law's delay,
his first child was born some time before his succession was fully
established and the doors of his ancestral hall opened to him. The
conclusion of the business was a great relief to his attorneys, who had
been unable to shake his conviction that the case was clear enough,
but that the referee had been squared. By this he meant that the Lord
Chancellor had been bribed to keep him out of his property.
His marriage proved an unusually happy one. To make up for the loss of
his occupation, he farmed, and lost six thousand pounds by it;
tried gardening with better success; began to meddle in commercial
enterprises, and became director of several trading companies in the
city; and was eventually invited to represent a Dorsetshire constituency
in Parliament in the Radical interest. He was returned by a large
majority; and, having a loud voice and an easy manner, he soon
acquired some reputation both in and out of the House of Commons by the
popularity of his own views, and the extent of his wife's information,
which he retailed at second hand. He made his maiden speech in the House
unabashed the first night he sat there. Indeed, he was afraid of nothing
except burglars, big dogs, doctors, dentists, and street-crossings.
Whenever any accident occurred through any of these he preserved the
newspaper in which it was reported, read it to Lydia very seriously, and
repeated his favorite assertion that the only place in which a man was
safe was the ring. As he objected to most field sports on the ground of
inhumanity, she, fearing that he would suffer in health and appearance
from want of systematic exercise, suggested that he should resume the
practice of boxing with gloves. But he was lazy in this matter, and had
a prejudice that boxing did not become a married man. His career as a
pugilist was closed by his marriage.
His admiration for his wife survived the ardor of his first love for
her, and she employed all her forethought not to disappoint his reliance
on her judgment. She led a busy life, and wrote some learned monographs,
as well as a work in which she denounced education as practised in the
universities and public schools. Her children inherited her acuteness
and refinement with their father's robustness and aversion to study.
They were precocious and impudent, had no respect for Cashel, and showed
any they had for their mother principally by running to her when they
were in difficulties. She never punished nor scolded them; but
she contrived to make their misdeeds recoil naturally upon them so
inevitably that they soon acquired a lively moral sense which restrained
them much more effectually than the usual methods of securing order in
the nursery. Cashel treated them kindly for the purpose of conciliating
them; and when Lydia spoke of them to him in private, he seldom said
more than that the imps were too sharp for him, or that he was blest
if he didn't believe that they were born older than their father. Lydia
often thonght so too; but the care of this troublesome family had one
advantage for her. It left her little time to think about herself, or
about the fact that when the illusion of her love passed away Cashel
fell in her estimation. But the children were a success; and she soon
came to regard him as one of them. When she had leisure to consider
the matter at all, which seldom occurred, it seemed to her that, on the
whole, she had chosen wisely.
Alice Goff, when she heard of Lydia's projected marriage, saw that she
must return to Wiltstoken, and forget her brief social splendor as soon
as possible. She therefore thanked Miss Carew for her bounty, and begged
to relinquish her post of companion. Lydia assented, but managed to
delay this sacrifice to a sense of duty and necessity until a day early
in winter, when Lucian gave way to a hankering after domestic joys that
possessed him, and allowed his cousin to persuade him to offer his
hand to Alice. She indignantly refused--not that she had any reason to
complain of him, but because the prospect of returning to Wiltstoken
made her feel ill used, and she could not help revenging her soreness
upon the first person whom she could find a pretext for attacking. He,
lukewarm before, now became eager, and she was induced to relent without
much difficulty. Lucian was supposed to have made a brilliant match;
and, as it proved, he made a fortunate one. She kept his house,
entertained his guests, and took charge of his social connections so
ably that in course of time her invitations came to be coveted by people
who were desirous of moving in good society. She was even better looking
as a matron than she had been as a girl; and her authority in matters of
etiquette inspired nervous novices with all the terrors she had
herself felt when she first visited Wiltstoken Castle. She invited her
brother-in-law and his wife to dinner twice a year--at midsummer and
Easter; but she never admitted that either Wallace Parker or Cashel
Byron were gentlemen, although she invited the latter freely,
notwithstanding the frankness with which he spoke to strangers after
dinner of his former exploits, without deference to their professions
or prejudices. Her respect for Lydia remained so great that she never
complained to her of Cashel save on one occasion, when he had shown a
bishop, whose house had been recently broken into and robbed, how to
break a burglar's back in the act of grappling with him.
The Skenes returned to Australia and went their way there, as Mrs. Byron
did in England, in the paths they had pursued for years before. Cashel
spoke always of Mrs. Skene as "mother," and of Mrs. Byron as "mamma."
William Paradise, though admired by the fair sex for his strength,
courage, and fame, was not, like Cashel and Skene, wise or fortunate
enough to get a good wife. He drank so exceedingly that he had but few
sober intervals after his escape from the law. He claimed the title of
champion of England on Cashel's retirement from the ring, and challenged
the world. The world responded in the persons of sundry young laboring
men with a thirst for glory and a taste for fighting. Paradise fought
and prevailed twice. Then he drank while in training, and was beaten.
But by this time the ring had again fallen into the disrepute from
which Cashel's unusual combination of pugilistic genius with honesty
had temporarily raised it; and the law, again seizing Paradise as he
was borne vanquished from the field, atoned for its former leniency by
incarcerating him for six months. The abstinence thus enforced restored
him to health and vigor; and he achieved another victory before he
succeeded in drinking himself into his former state. This was his last
triumph. With his natural ruffianism complicated by drunkenness, he went
rapidly down the hill into the valley of humiliation. After becoming
noted for his readiness to sell the victories he could no longer win,
he only appeared in the ring to test the capabilities of untried youths,
who beat him to their hearts' content. He became a potman, and was
immediately discharged as an inebriate. He had sunk into beggary when,
hearing in his misery that his former antagonist was contesting a
parliamentary election, he applied to him for alms. Cashel at the time
was in Dorsetshire; but Lydia relieved the destitute wretch, whose
condition was now far worse than it had been at their last meeting. At
his next application, which followed soon, he was confronted by Cashel,
who bullied him fiercely, threatened to break every bone in his skin
if he ever again dared to present himself before Lydia, flung him five
shillings, and bade him be gone. For Cashel retained for Paradise that
contemptuous and ruthless hatred in which a duly qualified professor
holds a quack. Paradise bought a few pence-worth of food, which he could
hardly eat, and spent the rest in brandy, which he drank as fast as
his stomach would endure it. Shortly afterwards a few sporting papers
reported his death, which they attributed to "consumption, brought on
by the terrible injuries sustained by him in his celebrated fight with
Cashel Byron."
End of Project Gutenberg's Cashel Byron's Profession, by George Bernard Shaw
*** | {
"pile_set_name": "Gutenberg (PG-19)"
} |
Cobalt-Catalyzed Ortho-C(sp2)-H Amidation of Benzaldehydes with Dioxazolones Using Transient Directing Groups.
An efficient and convenient cobalt-catalyzed ortho-C(sp2)-H amidation of benzaldehydes employing dioxazolones as the aminating reagent has been developed. The key feature of this protocol is the use of green and economic earth-abundant metals cobalt as the catalyst with the p-chloroaniline as the transient directing group. Further application of our approach was demonstrated by the synthesis of C1r serine protease inhibitor 45 and elastase inhibitor 49. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
Q:
My algorithm should search Binary but i dont why it doenst work
My binarySearch algorithm doesnt work. Can you help me ?
It should find target value from the given sorted array values.
If the value could not be found, return None
def binarySearch(values: Array[Int], target: Int): Option[Int] = {
val n = values.size
var left = 0
var right = n - 1
while(left <= right){
val mid = (left + right) / 2
val value = values(mid)
if(value == target)
return Some(mid)
else if(value < target)
right = mid
else
left = mid
}
None
}
A:
Your code suffers from a number of problems.
First off, the while loop condition, left <= right, is always true. The value of mid = (left+right)/2 can never adjust left or right such that left > right.
There's an easy fix for this: while (left < right). But this unfortunately creates 2 exit results, the target can't be found or the target is the final value, so we need to test for that after exiting the while loop.
if (values(left) == target) Some(left) else None
The next problem is that you're adjusting the wrong variable for current mid value. The simple fix is to change from if(value < target) to if(value > target).
Also, after you know that mid is not the target we're looking for, it doesn't have to be retained for any future grouping. So now that section looks like this:
else if(value > target)
right = mid-1
else
left = mid+1
Finally, your code doesn't handle the empty array condition. Let's add that test at the end.
if (n > 0 && values(left) == target) Some(left) else None
So now the code passes all the tests that I've thrown at it. Unfortunately it's still an ugly hodgepodge of mutable variables and imperative programming. Not the clean FP Scala style we like to see.
Here's a possible alternative worth considering.
def binarySearch(values :Array[Int], target :Int) :Option[Int] = {
def bs(lo :Int, hi :Int) :Option[Int] = {
val mid = (lo + hi)/2
target compare values(mid) match {
case 0 => Some(mid) //found
case _ if mid == lo => None //can't be found
case -1 => bs(lo, mid) //lower half
case 1 => bs(mid, hi) //upper half
}
}
values.headOption.flatMap(_ => bs(0, values.length))
}
testing:
val arr = Array(1,2,3,5,6)
binarySearch(arr,0) //res0: Option[Int] = None
binarySearch(arr,1) //res1: Option[Int] = Some(0)
binarySearch(arr,2) //res2: Option[Int] = Some(1)
binarySearch(arr,3) //res3: Option[Int] = Some(2)
binarySearch(arr,4) //res4: Option[Int] = None
binarySearch(arr,5) //res5: Option[Int] = Some(3)
binarySearch(arr,6) //res6: Option[Int] = Some(4)
binarySearch(arr,7) //res7: Option[Int] = None
binarySearch(Array.empty[Int],8) //res8: Option[Int] = None
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
New Awareness After Jonestown Deaths
The word “cults,” rooted in antiquity, has been used by the religiously orthodox in every age to put down contemporaries who marched to a different drummer. Now, five months after the Rev. Jim Jones led more than 900 of his Peoples Temple followers into a mass ritual suicide at their Jonestown commune, “cults” has become for many Americans a pejorative term connoting a mindless commitment to evil in the name of good. Many citizens seem now to perceive the recent rise to prominence of cults in America as evidence of a new, alien and threatening social disease.
The shock and enormity of the Peoples Temple disaster raised the nation's consciousness of cults overnight. That aberrant behavior can lead to sudden death is no surprise to a society permeated by televised violence and exposed to such real life events in the past decade as the Charles Manson “family” killings, the Symbionese Liberation Army shootout, and Hanafi Muslim terrorism. Only five weeks before Jonestown, the bite of a diamondback rattler introduced many Americans to Synanon, a California cult molded by Charles E. Dederich; two members of Synanon's “Imperial Marines” were soon charged with placing the snake in the mailbox of attorney Paul Morantz, winner of a $300,000 judgment against Synanon for an ex-Synanite.
Yet these dramas were only the most compelling of cult-related stories to make the headlines and newscasts of recent years. The recruiting and alleged “brainwashing” of young Americans by the Unification Church of America, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Church of Scientology, the Children of God and other cult-like groups have spawned countless news reports of confrontations between angry parents and emboldened cults in and out of the courtroom. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
package com.epi;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Random;
public class FindMissingAndDuplicateXOR {
// @include
private static class DuplicateAndMissing {
public Integer duplicate;
public Integer missing;
public DuplicateAndMissing(Integer duplicate, Integer missing) {
this.duplicate = duplicate;
this.missing = missing;
}
}
public static DuplicateAndMissing findDuplicateMissing(List<Integer> A) {
// Compute the XOR of all numbers from 0 to |A| - 1 and all entries in A.
int missXORDup = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < A.size(); ++i) {
missXORDup ^= i ^ A.get(i);
}
// We need to find a bit that's set to 1 in missXORDup. Such a bit
// must exist if there is a single missing number and a single duplicated
// number in A.
//
// The bit-fiddling assignment below sets all of bits in differBit to 0
// except for the least significant bit in missXORDup that's 1.
int differBit = missXORDup & (~(missXORDup - 1));
int missOrDup = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < A.size(); ++i) {
// Focus on entries and numbers in which the differBit-th bit is 1.
if ((i & differBit) != 0) {
missOrDup ^= i;
}
if ((A.get(i) & differBit) != 0) {
missOrDup ^= A.get(i);
}
}
// missOrDup is either the missing value or the duplicated entry.
for (int a : A) {
if (a == missOrDup) { // missOrDup is the duplicate.
return new DuplicateAndMissing(missOrDup, missOrDup ^ missXORDup);
}
}
// missOrDup is the missing value.
return new DuplicateAndMissing(missOrDup ^ missXORDup, missOrDup);
}
// @exclude
private static void simpleTest() {
List<Integer> A = Arrays.asList(0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6);
DuplicateAndMissing dm = findDuplicateMissing(A);
assert(dm.duplicate == 6 && dm.missing == 3);
A = Arrays.asList(0, 0, 1);
dm = findDuplicateMissing(A);
assert(dm.duplicate == 0 && dm.missing == 2);
A = Arrays.asList(1, 3, 2, 5, 3, 4);
dm = findDuplicateMissing(A);
assert(dm.duplicate == 3 && dm.missing == 0);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
simpleTest();
Random r = new Random();
for (int times = 0; times < 1000; ++times) {
int n;
if (args.length == 1) {
n = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
} else {
n = r.nextInt(9999) + 2;
}
List<Integer> A = new ArrayList<>(n);
for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
A.add(i);
}
int missingIdx = r.nextInt(n);
int missing = A.get(missingIdx);
int dupIdx = r.nextInt(n);
while (dupIdx == missingIdx) {
dupIdx = r.nextInt(n);
}
int dup = A.get(dupIdx);
A.set(missingIdx, dup);
DuplicateAndMissing ans = findDuplicateMissing(A);
System.out.println("times = " + times);
System.out.println(dup + " " + missing);
System.out.println(ans.duplicate + " " + ans.missing);
assert(ans.duplicate.equals(dup) && ans.missing.equals(missing));
}
}
}
| {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
He better hope that store is a Preferred retailer.... If not than this guy is SOL.... Only Corporate retail and Preferred retail locations are going to have the device and of course the 5 that BB and RS are getting... I have 2 Exclusive stores and we most likely won't be selling them for at least the first few weeks. Hopefully shorter but I am thinking July... Good luck buddy
Is this guy serious? He doesn't even have any food what is he going to do? Does he even have a job? Mommy gonna bring him food? :D Oh sorry this is just sad, it's a phone get up at 6AM go to the sprint store it's not life or death. Wonder how he plans to pay for the service plan, or maybe he took a week off from work. Hahahaha too funny.
He doesnt need food. he still has his old treo 700p, and google maps, he can order chinese, pizza, drinks, companionship, :) ... he can stream Sprint TV, is that an open window to the left? Might even be able to get an extension cord for his charger! Sleeping bag, lawn chair, crazy thing is, i think he's going to be alone until Friday June 5th. (Except for the tv crews, of which i'm sure is 90% of why he's there so early).
I also have to say, he certainly could have picked a nicer store! I mean, isn't there a Sprint store nearby with a little grass, maybe a tree or something? This place looks like it's in an alley in the low rent district.
Instead of starting a line this early like this guy is doing, i have toured a few stores nearby and asked when they are going to be open and how much stock.
The first Sprint corp. store i went to said friday was cancelled (which we know already) because of inventory concerns. And they will be open at 8am but will not/or not allowed to tell me how many are on hand to sell. They said just be there when they open. The second store said the same thing.
So i went to Best Buy which is across the street, and they are opening at 9am on saturday (one hour early) but can not tell me how many are available for one reason or another.
So if i can not snag one at the corp store, i can just go across the street and wait till 9am.
My third option is a 3rd party store that is also opening up at 10am (they are normally closed on saturday) and they have me on a list. they wanted to verify that i was not a sprint employee trying to get one at that store so they took down my ESN, that is how you can get on the list.
My local sprint store just let me put a deposit down on a pre. I filled out a contract for a non-refundable deposit to get on a waiting list for the Palm Pre to guarantee I would recieve one of the units included in their first shipment. They also told me that they were getting 10 units in with the first weeks shipment. They will call me when they receive the phone and I have 48 hours to pick it up or i forfeit my deposit. No longer have to think about waiting in line. Seeing as how my puppy just dumped my centro into his water dish this weekend, I am feeling pretty lucky to be on any kind of list at the moment! F-in A Cotton.
When my friend was unemployed, she used to get paid to wait in line for new release stuff....
I just called the Sprint store in the Castro and SF, and they said they do not have inventory yet, and it's first come, first serve.... | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Influences of chemical sympathectomy, demedullation, and hindlimb suspension on the VO2max of rats.
Results from previous studies have shown that the reduction in maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) with simulated microgravity is attenuated in chemically sympathectomized rats. To determine the contributions of the catecholamines from the adrenal medulla in this process, investigations were conducted with 65 saline injected (SAL) and chemically sympathectomized (SX) female rats that were either surgically demedullated (DM), or intact (IN). Microgravity conditions were simulated by head-down suspension (HDS) while controls were assigned to individual cages (CC). The experimental period was 14 d. The rats were tested for VO2max, treadmill run time (RT), and submaximal mechanical efficiency (ME) prior to suspension and on days 7 and 14. Saline injected rats that had intact adrenal medullas (SAL-IN) exhibited significantly reduced measures of VO2max after 7 and 14 d by 15% and 21%, respectively. No significant reduction in VO2max was observed with HDS in the SX-IN animals. Sympathectomized rats that were demedullated (SX-DM) also exhibited a significant reduction in VO2max (12%). In addition, HDS was associated with a marked and significant reduction in RT in all groups. ME for submaximal exercise was significantly reduced after HDS in SAL-IN rats but not in the SX-IN rats. SX-DM rats experienced significant reductions in ME similar in magnitude to the SAL-IN rats. These results confirm that chemical sympathectomy attenuates the expected decrease in VO2max with HDS and suggests that circulating epinephrine contributes to this response. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
Q:
How to compare values of two controls with a trigger?
I have to buttons, named btnOK and btnSave.
I want that the IsEnabled of btnSave should be the same as the btnOK's value, i.e. if btnOK goes disabled, btnSave should do the same.
I actually need something like (pseudu):
<Button TabIndex="3" Name="btnOK">
<Button.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsEnabled">
<Setter TargetName="btnSave" Property="IsEnabled" Value="Self.IsEnabled"/>
</Trigger>
</Button.Triggers>
</Button>
<Button Name="btnSave"/>
A:
<Button Name="btnOK">OK</Button>
<Button Name="btnSave" IsEnabled="{Binding IsEnabled, ElementName=btnOK}">Save</Button>
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
/*
Copyright (C) 2008 Siarhei Novik (snovik@gmail.com)
This file is part of QLNet Project https://github.com/amaggiulli/qlnet
QLNet is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the QLNet license. You should have received a
copy of the license along with this program; if not, license is
available at <https://github.com/amaggiulli/QLNet/blob/develop/LICENSE>.
QLNet is a based on QuantLib, a free-software/open-source library
for financial quantitative analysts and developers - http://quantlib.org/
The QuantLib license is available online at http://quantlib.org/license.shtml.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the license for more details.
*/
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace QLNet
{
//! Predetermined cash flow
/*! This cash flow pays a predetermined amount at a given date. */
public abstract class Dividend : CashFlow
{
protected Date date_;
// Event interface
public override Date date() { return date_; }
protected Dividend(Date date)
{
date_ = date;
}
public abstract double amount(double underlying);
}
//! Predetermined cash flow
/*! This cash flow pays a predetermined amount at a given date. */
public class FixedDividend : Dividend
{
protected double amount_;
public override double amount() { return amount_; }
public override double amount(double d) { return amount_; }
public FixedDividend(double amount, Date date)
: base(date)
{
amount_ = amount;
}
}
//! Predetermined cash flow
/*! This cash flow pays a predetermined amount at a given date. */
public class FractionalDividend : Dividend
{
protected double rate_;
public double rate() { return rate_; }
protected double? nominal_;
public double? nominal() { return nominal_; }
public FractionalDividend(double rate, Date date)
: base(date)
{
rate_ = rate;
nominal_ = null;
}
public FractionalDividend(double rate, double nominal, Date date)
: base(date)
{
rate_ = rate;
nominal_ = nominal;
}
// Dividend interface
public override double amount()
{
Utils.QL_REQUIRE(nominal_ != null, () => "no nominal given");
return rate_ * nominal_.GetValueOrDefault();
}
public override double amount(double underlying)
{
return rate_ * underlying;
}
}
public static partial class Utils
{
//! helper function building a sequence of fixed dividends
public static DividendSchedule DividendVector(List<Date> dividendDates, List<double> dividends)
{
QL_REQUIRE(dividendDates.Count == dividends.Count, () => "size mismatch between dividend dates and amounts");
DividendSchedule items = new DividendSchedule();
for (int i = 0; i < dividendDates.Count; i++)
items.Add(new FixedDividend(dividends[i], dividendDates[i]));
return items;
}
}
}
| {
"pile_set_name": "Github"
} |
Yang Zhensheng
Yang Zhensheng (; 1890–1956) was a Chinese educator. He was the president of the National University of Qingdao (now a part of Shandong University) from June 1930 to 1932. He was the third president of the university.
Category:1890 births
Category:1956 deaths
Category:Presidents of Shandong University
Category:Chinese male short story writers
Category:20th-century Chinese short story writers
Category:20th-century Chinese male writers
Category:Writers from Yantai
Category:People from Penglai, Shandong
Category:Educators from Shandong
Category:Short story writers from Shandong
Category:Republic of China people born during Qing | {
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
} |
Coach Gary Pinkel on winning
Credit: Getty Images
“How about those Tigers. I am so proud of our team and coaches. It was not going to be easy, we played a great second half. We held them to 21 points, which is (almost) impossible. We scored 21 points in the second half, we did a lot of great things in the fourth quarter.”
“It was a big one (team victory) because it was obviously for a championship. Being able to respond like that in that type of environment, I thought we just settled down a bit. I thought the offense in the first half was a bit erratic.” | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
ESPRIT 최신 뉴스
DP 테크놀로지사가 전하는 최신 제품 정보와 뉴스
We use cookies to offer you a better browsing experience, analyze site traffic, and personalize content. Read about how we use cookies and how you can control them by clicking here.If you continue to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies.
Subscribe to our mailing list
*
indicates required
이메일 *
Not a valid e-mail address
국가/부위 *
Please fill all the required fields
Please accept terms and conditions
Yes, I'd like to receive news from DP Technology Corp. related to its products, services, events and special offers by email.You may unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions in the communications received.
DP Technology Corp. will use any personal information you may provide in accordance with its
개인정보보호정책
Please check your email
You must confirm your subscription to receive communication from ESPRIT. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
---
abstract: 'Low-lying nuclear states of Sm isotopes are studied in the framework of a collective Hamiltonian based on covariant energy density functional theory. Pairing correlation are treated by both BCS and Bogoliubov methods. It is found that the pairing correlations deduced from relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) calculations are generally stronger than those by relativistic mean-field plus BCS (RMF+BCS) with same pairing force. By simply renormalizing the pairing strength, the diagonal part of the pairing field is changed in such a way that the essential effects of the off-diagonal parts of the pairing field neglected in the RMF+BCS calculations can be recovered, and consequently the low-energy structure is in a good agreement with the predictions of the RHB model.'
author:
- 'J. Xiang'
- 'Z. P. Li'
- 'J. M. Yao'
- 'W. H. Long'
- 'P. Ring'
- 'J. Meng'
title: 'Effect of pairing correlations on nuclear low-energy structure: BCS and general Bogoliubov transformation'
---
The study of nuclear low-lying states is of great importance to unveil the low-energy structure of atomic nuclei and turns out to be essential to understand the evolution of shell structure and collectivity [@Meng98; @Hagen12; @Kshetri06], nuclear shape phase transitions [@Meng05; @Casten06; @Cejnar10], shape coexistence [@Heyde11], the onset of new shell gaps [@Ozawa2000], the erosion of traditional magic numbers [@Sorlin08], etc. The understanding and the quantitative description of low-lying states in nuclei necessitate an accurate modeling of the underlying microscopic nucleonic dynamics.
Density functional theory (DFT) is a reliable platform for studying the complicated nuclear excitation spectra and electromagnetic decay patterns [@BHR.03; @JacD.11; @Vretenar05; @Meng06; @Meng2013FrontiersofPhysics55]. Since the DFT scheme breaks essential symmetries of the system, this requires to include the dynamical effects related to the restoration of broken symmetries, as well as the fluctuations in the collective coordinates. In recent years several accurate and efficient models and algorithms, based on microscopic density functionals or effective interactions, have been developed that perform the restoration of symmetries broken by the static nuclear mean field, and take the quadrupole fluctuations into account [@NVR.06a; @NVR.06b; @BH.08; @Yao08; @Yao.09; @Yao.10; @RE.10]. This level of implementation is also referred as the multi-reference (MR)-DFT [@Lacroix09]. Compared with MR-DFT, the model of a collective Hamiltonian with parameters determined in a microscopic way from self-consistent mean-field calculations turns out to be a powerful tool for the systematical studies of nuclear low-lying states [@PR.04; @Nik.09; @Nik.11], with much less numerical demanding. Even for the heavy nuclei full triaxial calculations can be relatively easily carried out with a five-dimension collective Hamiltonian [@Li.10]. It has achieved great success in describing the low-lying states in a wide range of nuclei, from $A\sim 40$ to superheavy nuclei including spherical, transitional, and deformed ones [@Nik.09; @Li.09; @Li.09b; @Li.10; @Li.11; @Nik.11; @Yao11-lambda; @Mei12; @Del10].
For open-shell nuclei, pairing correlations between nucleons have important influence on low-energy nuclear structure [@Dean03]. In the relativistic scheme they could be taken into account using the BCS ansatz [@GRT.90] or full Bogoliubov transformation [@KR.91; @Rin.96]. Compared with the simple BCS method, the consideration of pairing correlations through the Bogoliubov transformation is numerically demanding for heavy triaxial deformed nuclei. It has been demonstrated that there is no essential difference between BCS and Bogoliubov methods for the descriptions of the ground-state of stable nuclei [@Ring80]. Girod [*et al.*]{} have compared the results obtained from Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) and Hartree-Fock plus BCS (HF+BCS) calculations, including the potential energy surfaces (PESs), pairing gaps, and pairing energies as functions of the axial deformation [@Girod83]. It has been shown that the PESs given by these two methods are very similar. Moreover, the pairing gaps and energies from the HF+BCS calculations are slightly smaller than those from the HFB calculation. In view of these facts, it is natural to test the validity of the BCS ansatz in describing the the low-energy structure of nuclei, as referred to [the RHB method]{}. Aiming at this point, the comparisons are performed within the covariant density functional based 5DCH model, specifically between the triaxial deformed RMF+BCS and RHB calculations. Due to the emergence of an abrupt shape-phase-transition [@Li.09], the even-even Sm isotopes with $134\leqslant A\leqslant 154$ are taken as the candidates in this study.
Practically nuclear excitations determined by quadrupole vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom can be treated by introducing five collective coordinates, i.e., the quadrupole deformations $(\beta,\gamma)$ and Euler angles ($\Omega=\phi,\theta,\psi$) [@Pro.99]. The quantized 5DCH that describes the nuclear excitations of quadrupole vibration, rotation and their couplings can be written as, $$\label{hamiltonian-quant}
\hat{H} =
\hat{T}_{\textnormal{vib}}+\hat{T}_{\textnormal{rot}}
+V_{\textnormal{coll}} \; ,$$ where $V_{\textnormal{coll}}$ is the collective potential, and $\hat{T}_{\textnormal{vib}}$ and $\hat{T}_{\textnormal{rot}}$ are respectively the vibrational and rotational kinetic energies, $$\begin{aligned}
\label{Vcoll}
{V}_{\text{coll}} =& E_{\text{tot}}(\beta,\gamma) - \Delta V_{\text{vib}}(\beta,\gamma) - \Delta V_{\text{rot}}(\beta,\gamma),\\
\hat{T}_{\textnormal{vib}} =&-\frac{\hbar^2}{2\sqrt{wr}} \left\{\frac{1}{\beta^4} \left[\frac{\partial}{\partial\beta}\sqrt{\frac{r}{w}}\beta^4
B_{\gamma\gamma} \frac{\partial}{\partial\beta}\right.\right.\nonumber\\
& \left.\left.- \frac{\partial}{\partial\beta}\sqrt{\frac{r}{w}}\beta^3 B_{\beta\gamma}\frac{\partial}{\partial\gamma} \right]+\frac{1}{\beta\sin{3\gamma}} \left[
-\frac{\partial}{\partial\gamma} \right.\right.\label{Tvib}\\
& \left.\left.\sqrt{\frac{r}{w}}\sin{3\gamma} B_{\beta \gamma}\frac{\partial}{\partial\beta} +\frac{1}{\beta}\frac{\partial}{\partial\gamma} \sqrt{\frac{r}{w}}\sin{3\gamma} B_{\beta \beta}\frac{\partial}{\partial\gamma}
\right]\right\}\nonumber,\\
\hat{T}_{\textnormal{\textnormal{\textnormal{rot}}}}
=&\frac{1}{2}\sum_{k=1}^3{\frac{\hat{J}^2_k}{\mathcal{I}_k}}.\label{Trot}\end{aligned}$$ In eq. (\[Vcoll\]), $E_{\textnormal{tot}}(\beta,\gamma)$ is the binding energy determined by the constraint mean-field calculations, and the terms $\Delta V_{\textnormal{vib}}$ and $\Delta V_{\textnormal{rot}}$, calculated in the cranking approximation [@Ring80], are zero-point-energies (ZPE) of vibrational and rotational motions, respectively. In eq. (\[Trot\]), $\hat{J}_k$ denotes the components of the angular momentum in the body-fixed frame of the nucleus. Moreover the mass parameters $B_{\beta\beta}$, $B_{\beta\gamma}$, $B_{\gamma\gamma}$ in eq. (\[Tvib\]), as well as the moments of inertia $\mathcal{I}_k$ in eq. (\[Trot\]), depend on the quadrupole deformation variables $\beta$ and $\gamma$, $$\begin{aligned}
\mathcal{I}_k =& 4B_k\beta^2\sin^2(\gamma-2k\pi/3),&k=&1, 2, 3,\end{aligned}$$ where $B_k$ represents inertia parameter. In eq. (\[Tvib\]), the additional quantities $r=B_1B_2B_3$ and $w=B_{\beta\beta}B_{\gamma\gamma}-B_{\beta\gamma}^2 $ define the volume element of the collective space. The corresponding eigenvalue problem is solved [by expanding the eigenfunctions on]{} a complete set of basis functions in the collective space of the quadrupole deformations $(\beta, \gamma)$ and Euler angles $(\Omega =\phi, \theta, \psi)$.
The dynamics of the 5DCH is governed by seven functions of the intrinsic deformations $\beta$ and $\gamma$: the collective potential $V_{\rm coll}$, three mass parameters $B_{\beta\beta}$, $B_{\beta\gamma}$, $B_{\gamma\gamma}$, and three moments of inertia $\mathcal{I}_k$. These functions are determined using the cranking approximation formula based on the intrinsic triaxially deformed mean-field states. The diagonalization of the Hamiltonian (\[hamiltonian-quant\]) yields the excitation energies and collective wave functions that are used to calculate observables [@Nik.09].
The fact that, the 5DCH model using the collective inertia parameters calculated based on the cranking approximation can reproduce the structure of the experimental low-lying spectra [@Nik.09] up to an overall renormalization factor, demonstrates such approximation is fair enough for the present study. As it has been shown in Ref. [@LNRVYM12], this factor takes into account the contributions of the time-odd fields. A microscopic calculation of this factor would go far beyond the scope of the present investigation.
The intrinsic triaxially deformed mean-field states are the solutions of the Dirac (RMF+BCS) or RHB equations. The point-coupling energy functional PC-PK1 [@Zhao10] and the separable pairing force [@TMR.09a] are used in the particle-hole and particle-particle channels, respectively. In solving the Dirac and RHB equations, the Dirac spinors are expanded on the three-dimension harmonic oscillator basis with 14 major shells [@KR.89; @Peng08]. A quadratic constraint on the mass quadrupole moments is carried out to obtain the triaxially deformed mean-field states with $\beta\in[0.0, 0.8]$ and $\gamma\in[0^\circ, 60^\circ]$,and the step sizes $\Delta\beta=0.05$ and $\Delta\gamma=6^\circ$. More details about the calculations can be found in Refs. [@NRV.10; @Xiang12].
Figure \[fig1\] displays the comparison between the RHB and RMF+BCS calculations for the binding energy per nucleon $E/A$ \[plot (a)\], quadrupole deformation $\beta$ \[plot (b)\], neutron \[plot (c)\] and proton \[plot (d)\] average pairing gaps weighted by the occupation probabilities $v^2$ [@Bender00] of even-even Sm isotopes with $134\leqslant A\leqslant 154$. The binding energies and deformations found in the two calculations are close to each other. However, the average neutron and proton pairing gaps provided by the RHB calculations are generally larger than those by the RMF+BCS ones. This is consistent with the observations in Ref. [@Girod83], which indicates that the BCS ansatz gives slightly weaker pairing correlations with same pairing force. The underlying reason is well-known that the BCS ansatz corresponds to a special Bogoliubov transformation, which only considers pairing correlation between two nucleons in time-reversed conjugate states [@Ring80], and the off-diagonal matrix elements of the pairing field $\Delta$ are neglected in this approach.
In the following we have to consider that neglecting the off-diagonal matrix elements of the pairing field leads i) to a reduced configuration mixing and ii) as a consequence of self-consistency also to an overall reduction of the pairing strength in the diagonal matrix elements of the pairing field. Therefore it is interesting to address two points: i) whether the additional configuration mixing induced by the off-diagonal matrix elements of the pairing field is really essential and ii) whether the reduced strength of pairing caused by neglecting the off-diagonal matrix elements in the RMF+BCS approach can recovered simply by multiplying a strength factor $R_\tau$ to the diagonal pairing, i.e. whether the enhanced pairing strength is also able to reproduce the low-lying structure properties, e.g. the PESs, inertia parameters, as well as the low-lying spectra. Taking $^{152}$Sm as the example, Fig. \[fig2\] shows the neutron and proton average pairing gaps of the global minimum calculated by RMF+BCS as the functions of the pairing strength factor $R_\tau$, as referred to the horizontal lines denoting the RHB results with original pairing force. It is shown that the average pairing gaps increase almost linearly with respect to the pairing strength factor $R_\tau$ and cross the RHB results at $R_\tau\sim1.06$. Moreover, as shown in Fig. \[fig2\] (c) and (d) the RMF+BCS calculations with 6% enhanced pairing strength provide nearly identical average pairing gaps with the RHB results for the selected even-even Sm isotopes, with a relative deviation less than 5%.
As the further clarification, Fig. \[fig3\] displays the PESs, neutron and proton average pairing gaps, moments of inertia ${\cal I}_x$, collective masses $B_{\beta\beta}$ and $B_{\gamma\gamma}$ for $^{152}$Sm as functions of the quadrupole deformation parameter $\beta$, where the results are calculated by RHB with the original, and by RMF+BCS with the original and the enhanced (by 6%) pairing strength. It is well demonstrated that for the selected Sm isotopes the deviations on the low-lying structure properties described by RMF+BCS and RHB models can be eliminated by simply enhancing the pairing force about 6% in the BCS ansatz. Specifically, as the pairing strength increases, the average pairing gaps become larger, which leads to lower spherical barrier of PES [@Rutz99] and reduced inertia parameter [@Sobiczewski69].
In Fig. \[fig4\] we also compare the theoretical low-lying spectra of $^{152}$Sm calculated by RMF+BCS with the original and the enhanced (by 6%) pairing strength, to the RHB results. As seen from the left two panels,when the pairing strength is enhanced by 6%, the low-lying spectrum is extended, and systematically the intraband $B(E2)$ transitions become weaker, and the interband transitions are strengthened, finally leading to an identical prediction as the full RHB calculations (right panel). Quantitatively, the relative deviations between the RHB and RMF+BCS predications are reduced to less than 4% for the intraband transitions, and the main interband transitions agree with each other within $\sim 2$ W.u.. We have also checked the results for the other Sm isotopes, and very similar spectra are predicted by RHB with the original and RMF+BCS with enhanced (6%) pairing forces.
The similarity on the low-lying structure can be understood by analyzing the underlying shell structure predicted by the two mean-field calculations. Taking $^{152}$Sm as an example, in Fig. \[fig5\] we plot the single-particle configurations (energy and occupation probability) around the Fermi surface corresponding to the mean-field states of the global minimum in the PESs determined by the calculations of RHB with the original and RMF+BCS calculations with both original and enhanced (by 6%) pairing strength. Notice that the RHB results correspond to the canonical single-particle configurations, which are determined from the diagonalization of the density matrix [@Ring80]. Consistent with the agreement on the low-lying structure properties, the RMF+BCS calculations with the enhanced pairing strength also provide nearly identical single-particle configurations as the RHB ones.
In conclusion, we have taken Sm isotopes as examples to carry out a detailed comparison between the 5DCH calculations based on the RMF+BCS and the RHB approaches for the nuclear low-lying structure properties. It has been shown that the pairing correlations resulting from the RHB method are generally stronger than those from the RMF+BCS method with the same effective pairing force. However, by simply increasing the pairing strength by a factor 1.06 in the RMF+BCS calculations, the low-energy structure becomes very close to that of the full RHB calculations with the original pairing force. We have also carried out similar calculations in other regions of the nuclear chart and found that the necessary renormalization factor stays roughly constant up to heavy nuclei (1.06 in the Pu region) and increases slightly for light ones (1.10 in the Mg region).
This work was supported in part by the Major State 973 Program 2013CB834400, the NSFC under Grant Nos. 11335002, 11075066, 11175002, 11105110, and 11105111, the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education under Grant No. 20110001110087, the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing cstc2011jjA0376, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2010B007, XDJK2011B002, and lzujbky-2012-k07), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China under Grant No. NCET-10-0466, and the DFG cluster of excellence Origin and Structure of the Universe (www.universe-cluster.de).
[99]{} J. Meng, I. Tanihata, and S. Yamaji, Phys. Lett. **B419**, 1 (1998).
G. Hagen, M. Hjorth-Jensen, G. R. Jansen, R. Machleidt, and T. Papenbrock, Phys. Rev. Lett. **109**, 032502 (2012).
R. Kshetri, M.S. Sarkar and S. Sarkar, Phys. Rev. C **74**, 034314 (2006) .
J. Meng, W. Zhang, S. G. Zhou, H. Toki and L. S. Geng, Eur. Phys. J. A **25**, 23 (2005). R. F. Casten, Nature Physics **2**, 811 (2006).
P. Cejnar, J. Jolie, and R. F. Casten, Rev. Mod. Phys. **82**, 2155 (2010).
K. Heyde and J. L. Wood, Rev. Mod. Phys. **83**, 1467 (2011).
A. Ozawa, T. Kobayashi, T. Suzuki, K. Yoshida, and I. Tanihata, Phys. Rev. Lett. **84**, 5493 (2000).
O. Sorlin and M.-G. Porquet, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. **61**, 602 (2008).
M. Bender, P.-H. Heenen, and P.-G. Reinhard, Rev. Mod. Phys. **75**, 121 (2003).
J. Meng, H. Toki, S. G. Zhou, S. Q. Zhang, W. H. Long, and L. S. Geng, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. **57**, 470 (2006).
D. Vretenar, A. V. Afanasjev, G. A. Lalazissis, and P. Ring, Phys. Rep. **409**, 101 (2005).
J. Meng, J. Peng, S. Q. Zhang, and P.W. Zhao, Frontiers of Physics **8**, 55 (2013).
J. Dobaczewski, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. **312**, 092002 (2011).
T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, and P. Ring, Phys. Rev. C **73**, 034308 (2006).
T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, and P. Ring, Phys. Rev. C **74**, 064309 (2006).
M. Bender and P.-H. Heenen, Phys. Rev. C **78**, 024309 (2008).
J. M. Yao, J. Meng, D. P. Arteaga, and P. Ring, Chin. Phys. Lett. **25**, 3609 (2008).
J. M. Yao, J. Meng, P. Ring, and D. Pena Arteaga, Phys. Rev. C **79**, 044312 (2009).
J. M. Yao, J. Meng, P. Ring, and D. Vretenar, Phys. Rev. C **81**, 044311 (2010).
T. R. Rodr' iguez and J. L. Egido, Phys. Rev. C **81**, 064323 (2010).
D. Lacroix, T. Duguet, and M. Bender, Phys. Rev. C **79**, 044318 (2009).
L. Pr[ó]{}chniak and P. Ring, Int. J. Mod. Phys. E **13**, 217 (2004).
T. Nikšić, Z. P. Li, D. Vretenar, L. Pr[ó]{}chniak, J. Meng, and P. Ring, Phys. Rev. C **79**, 034303 (2009).
T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, and P. Ring, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. **66**, 519 (2011).
Z. P. Li, T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, P. Ring, and J. Meng, Phys. Rev. C 81, 064321 (2010). Z. P. Li, T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, J. Meng, G. A. Lalazissis, and P. Ring, Phys. Rev. C **79**, 054301 (2009).
Z. P. Li, T. Nikšič, D. Vretenar, and J. Meng, Phys. Rev. C **80**, 061301 (2009).
Z. P. Li, J. M. Yao, D. Vretenar, T. Nikšič, H. Chen, and J. Meng, Phys. Rev. C **84**, 054304 (2011).
J.M. Yao, Z.P. Li, K. Hagino, M.Thi Win, Y. Zhang, J. Meng, Nucl. Phys. A **868**, 12 (2011).
H. Mei, J. Xiang, J. M. Yao, Z. P. Li, and J. Meng, Phys. Rev. C **85**, 034321 (2012).
J.-P. Delaroche, M. Girod, J. Libert, H. Goutte, S. Hilaire, S. Péru, N. Pillet, G. F. Bertsch, Phys. Rev. C **81**, 014303 (2010).
D. J. Dean and M. Hjorth-Jensen, Rev. Mod. Phys. **75**, 121(2003). Y. K. Gambhir, P. Ring, A. Thimet, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) **198**, 132 (1990).
H. Kucharek and P. Ring, Z. Phys. A **339**, 23 (1991)
P. Ring, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. **37**, 193 (1996)
P. Ring and P. Schuck. [*The nuclear many-body problem*]{}. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1980.
M. Girod and B. Grammaticos Phys. Rev. C **27**, 2317(1983).
L. Próchniak, K. Zajac, K. Pomorski, S.G. Rohoziński, and J. Srebrny, Nucl. Phys. A **648**, 181 (1999).
Z. P. Li, T. Nikšić, P. Ring, D. Vretenar, J. M. Yao, and J. Meng, Phys. Rev. C **86**, 034334 (2012).
P. W. Zhao, Z. P. Li, J. M. Yao, and J. Meng, Phys. Rev. C **82**, 054319 (2010).
Y. Tian, Z. Y. Ma, and P. Ring, Phys. Lett. B **676**, 44 (2009).
W. Koepf and P. Ring, Nucl. Phys. A **493**, 61 (1989).
J. Peng, J. Meng, P. Ring, and S. Q. Zhang, Phys. Rev. C **78**, 024313 (2008).
T. Nikšić, P. Ring, D. Vretenar, Y. Tian, and Z. Y. Ma, Phys. Rev. C **81**, 054318 (2010).
J. Xiang, Z. P. Li, Z. X. Li, J. M. Yao, and J. Meng, Nucl. Phys. A **873**, 1 (2012).
M. Bender, K. Rutz, P.-G. Reinhard, J.A. Maruhn, Eur. Phys. J. A **8**, 59 (2000).
K. Rutz, M. Bender, P.-G. Reinhard, and J.A. Maruhn, Phys. Lett. B **468** 1 (1999).
A. Sobiczewski, Z. Szymański, S. Wycech, et al. Nucl. Phys. A **131** 67 (1969)
| {
"pile_set_name": "ArXiv"
} |
Q:
JAVA: What values does getRGB() return from a transparent pixel?
If i were to int RGB = image.getRGB(x,y), where x and y were the coordinates of a transparent pixel of image, what would the value of RGB be? Null?
A:
It can be basically anything. The alpha component does not correlate with the RGB component.
So for example if you have an ARGB object with (0, 45, 34, 23) and one with (0, 56, 78, 89) then they are both transparent so you don't have to care about color.
But if they are (10, 45, 34, 23), (10, 56, 78, 89) then the difference is visible. Alpha(A) tells how opaque/transparent is something. The rest (RGB) tells the color of it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
We are a brand new boutique hotel operator with our very first outlet consisting of 40 rooms strategically located right in the city centre. Our aim is to provide a 5 star service at a very affordable 1 star pricing. The average room size ranges from 10sqm-15sqm.
Our rooms are cosy and comfortable, with full facilities available in each room. Each of the hotel rooms is being designed with different colour themes in order to provide our clients with varied options.
Cuéntanos a qué tipo de público quieres llegar
A boutique hotel target for :
-Interstate Businessman/Salesman
-Leisure travelers
Room pricing ranges from USD30-USD60
Requisitos
Our preference is that the logo should be quite simple in nature. We want it to be easily identifiable by people. The design of the logo shall focus on the small alphabet "i",followed by a simple yet corporate looking "hotel" using the right font. We want a unique "i" alphabet to be created which has it own character. This "i-Hotel" logo will be used in our LED/neon/fluorescence signage as well as in advertisements in major newspapers and highway billboards. As mentioned, we are placing a great emphasis on simplicity, so please kindly place your focus on creating a unique "i" alphabet.
However, we are open to any suggestions you may have in regards to the design of the wording.
I've attached a few designs that we previously created on our own but ultimately decided against. If possible, please provide a simple but catchy tagline to go with the logo. Our current tagline is "your ideal place to stay". If you can come up with a better tagline, please feel free to include it in your design. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
653 F.2d 446
8 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 668
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.Gene STIPE and Red Ivy, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 81-1417.
United States Court of Appeals,Tenth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted May 12, 1981.Decided July 1, 1981.
Larry D. Patton, U. S. Atty., Oklahoma City, Okl. (John R. Osgood, Asst. U. S. Atty., Oklahoma City, Okl., with him on the brief) for plaintiff-appellant.
B. J. Rothbaum, Jr., Oklahoma City, Okl. (James P. Linn, James A. Kirk, Drew Neville of Linn, Helms, Kirk & Burkett, and Duane H. Miller, Oklahoma City, Okl., with him on the brief) for defendants-appellees.
Before McWILLIAMS and DOYLE, Circuit Judges, and KERR*, Senior District Judge.
WILLIAM E. DOYLE, Circuit Judge.
1
This is an expedited interlocutory appeal which has been prosecuted pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731, entitled Appeal by the United States. It provides in part as follows:
2
An appeal by the United States shall lie to a court of appeals from a decision or order of a district courts suppressing or excluding evidence or requiring the return of seized property in a criminal proceeding, not made after the defendant has been put in jeopardy and before the verdict or finding on an indictment or information, if the United States attorney certifies to the district court that the appeal is not taken for purpose of delay and that the evidence is a substantial proof of a fact material in the proceeding.
3
The motion of the government which has led to this controversy was entitled Motion of the United States In Re: Order of Proof of a Conspiracy and Admissible Evidence Relating Thereto. In this motion the government sought a number of advance rulings as to order of proof which would govern at trial and evidence which would be tendered during the course of the trial. Thus, the government sought to have what might be called a dry run prior to trial, together with appeal of rulings which it considered to be unfavorable with respect to the order of proof in a conspiracy case and the meaning of "independent evidence," together with admissibility of post conspiracy statements of defendant Ivy. After extensive hearings the trial court ruled against the government. It determined generally that the request of the government that an informal order of proof be established, that conditional rulings be made as to admissibility of hearsay evidence and that a pre-trial determination be made that the defendants were members of the conspiracy be rejected.
4
An extensive hearing was held. It was in the form of extended statements and arguments of counsel together with responses from Judge West.
5
The emphasis throughout was on the design of the order of proof, i. e. whether independent evidence was to be used to first establish the existence of the conspiracy. The government, of course, sought modifications of the preferred order of proof procedure and the deferral of statements of the co-conspirators. The trial court expressed approval of the preferred order approach. The court did not, however, express views as to admissibility or non-admissibility of particular evidence. Nor was there a projection by the government of particular evidence or a request made for rulings on any such tendered testimony.
6
The government did seek rulings on the admissibility of tape recorded conversations of the defendants. The effort was to gain admission of these tapes prior to fully establishing (through independent evidence) the conspiracy. Judge West listened to the tapes. The government finally did consent to one limitation on the admissibility. Those parts of the tapes which contained statements of one of the defendants concerning the other which was inculpatory of him would be excluded. This was the closest that the government came to formulating facts in quest of a specific ruling. The trial court, after hearing the tapes, stated that the ruling would be the same. This was shortly before the court learned that a stay pending appeal by this court had been granted. The court's statement reads as follows:
7
THE COURT: I'm going to stand by my order. There is nothing that I feel that is left unexplained that can't be properly pinpointed or focused on in the context of the trial based upon the predicate laid by the Government as I have outlined they're required to do.
8
Now, you can't The Court's not in a position to anticipate just because it would be convenient to have a pretrial ruling on every item of evidence that they intend to introduce, and I submit to you that there is no reason why the Court should undertake to do that.
9
The government's supplemental statement which was contained in a brief submitted to the trial court contained a very brief statement of evidence. This, however, continued on a highly vague basis. The exact evidentiary questions were not specified, nor were there particular statements capable of providing a basis for a ruling. Moreover, there was no specific request for an evidentiary ruling or hearing. The extreme brevity of the statement was insufficient to provide any basis for ruling and no such rulings were requested.
10
An alternative governmental proposal was that there be a mini-trial to the court following which the government could present its case to the jury. This was also rejected.
Discussion of the Government Proposal
11
The trial court noted that a statement of a co-conspirator is not hearsay under Rule 801 of the Evidence Rules because of the vicarious nature of the co-conspirator relationship. It is a criminal partnership. Due to the relationship the statements of co-conspirators made outside of the presence of another co-conspirator are admissible. Statements of co-conspirators do not prove the conspiracy. Independent evidence is necessary to accomplish this. See United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 at 701, 94 S.Ct. 3090 at 3104, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974). See also, Krulewatch v. United States, 336 U.S. 440, 446, 453, 69 S.Ct. 716, 719, 723, 93 L.Ed. 930.
12
Our decision in United States v. Andrews, 585 F.2d 961 (10th Cir. 1978) was cited by the trial court as holding that acts and declarations of co-conspirators are admissible against another if a conspiracy is first established by independent evidence. 585 F.2d at 964. This has been the law for many years but it has not been strictly enforced. In days past the jury participated in the admission and consideration of statements of co-conspirators. See Andrews, supra.
13
In United States v. Petersen, 611 F.2d 1313, 1333 (10th Cir. 1979) this court took a further step. It established preferred procedure in these cases. It ruled that the trial court determine admissibility of conspirator statements following a threshold judicial decision on admissibility. The procedure approved in United States v. James, 590 F.2d 575 (1979) and recommended by the opinion in Petersen establishes a four-part procedure as follows:
14
1. The judge alone, pursuant to Rule 104(a), Fed.Rules of Evidence, makes the determination as to admissibility of hearsay co-conspirator statements.
15
2. The Court makes a threshold determination based upon substantial independent evidence.
16
3. It is preferable whenever possible to require the government to first introduce independent proof of the conspiracy and subsequent thereto, to establish the connection of the defendant with the conspiracy before admitting hearsay declarations of co-conspirators.
17
4. At the conclusion of all the evidence, the district court must determine as a factual matter whether the prosecution has shown by a preponderance of the evidence independent of the statement itself (1) that a conspiracy existed; (2) that the co-conspirator and the defendant against whom the co-conspirator's statement is offered were members of the conspiracy; and (3) that the statement was made during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy.
18
The government seeks to modify these decisions; it requests a less formal procedure, one which allows the hearsay to be received on a conditional basis subject to "connecting it up." This is not new. It has been practiced by prosecutors for, lo, these many years. During all of this time courts have condemned it. By the time the connected up stage arrives, the evidence has blended so that there is no distinction between hearsay and non-hearsay.
19
United States v. James, supra, ruled that henceforth there was to be a preferred order of proof. Our decisions in Andrews and Petersen are basically in accord with James.
20
The government seeks adoption of an exception to the James doctrine. It requests a ruling that it is not practical to require the conspiracy to be established in advance of the offer of the statements. It would have us rule that it is permissible to receive the statements of the co-conspirators subject to their being connected. The trial court, based on the decisions in James, Andrews and Petersen, rejected this. The trial court recognized that this court has adopted a higher standard based on the Federal Rules of Evidence. These rules allow a trial judge to ground his or her decision on hearsay, but it does not allow the use of the bootstrapping which was practiced prior to the adoption of the Rules.
21
We have reviewed the government's proposal and the trial court's ruling in an effort to discover merit in the government's position. We have been unable to discover any such merit and have concluded that the trial court's rulings are correct.
The Jurisdiction Issue
22
Based upon the representations of the United States Attorney as to the extreme emergency and high importance of the matter being presented, we issued an order staying the commencement of the trial pending a review of the proceedings. The trial court had concluded that "because the government's notice of appeal is manifestly deficient and clearly invalid, this court has jurisdiction to ignore it and proceed with the case." Arthur Andersen & Co. v. Finesilver, 546 F.2d 338, 340-341 (10th Cir. 1976). See also, United States v. Rumpf, 576 F.2d 818, 820-822 (10th Cir. 1978); Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651, 97 S.Ct. 2034, 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1978). Now that we have considered the issue on its merits we agree fully with the trial court's conclusion that the appeal was and is deficient. One claimed deficiency in the application is that the United States Attorney was seeking to persuade the trial judge to depart from decisions of this court. Needless to say, it was no abuse of discretion for the trial court to refuse to follow such a course.
23
We see this as an effort of the United States Attorney to change the law of this circuit in order to expedite the prosecution of the case at hand.
24
Does the case comply with the requirements of 18 U.S.C. § 3731? In our opinion it does not. The main thrust of the trial court's ruling was to adopt an order of proof. It did not attempt to suppress evidence. Hence, our conclusion is that the case fails to satisfy both the letter and the spirit of the statute.
25
The judgment is affirmed and the cause is remanded for trial.
*
Honorable Ewing T. Kerr, Senior Judge, U. S. District Court, Cheyenne, Wyoming, sitting by designation
| {
"pile_set_name": "FreeLaw"
} |
Introduction {#Sec1}
============
Recent studies on atoll islands' future habitability have reaffirmed the threats posed by sea-level rise and increased wave heights to people, housing and critical infrastructure (i.e. airports, harbours and roads), and fresh groundwater supply^[@CR1]--[@CR9]^. Water levels and wave energy at the coast are expected to increase, which will aggravate flooding and associated damage. These impacts will be exacerbated where sea-level rise will outstrip vertical accretion rates of corals, i.e. on islands having narrow and deep reef flats with low coral cover, and/or experiencing rapid human-driven coral degradation, and/or severely affected by ocean warming and acidification^[@CR1],[@CR3],[@CR10]--[@CR16]^. On these islands, sea-level rise, increased wave height and reef decline will alter the coastal protection services provided by the reef ecosystem to human societies, including *(i)* the reduction of marine inundation and coastal erosion by wave energy attenuation through wave friction over the reef flat, and *(ii)* sediment delivery to the island, which is controlled by reef productivity, reef-to-shore sediment transport and the maintenance of accommodation space for sediment deposition at the coast^[@CR17]--[@CR21]^ (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). The alteration of these services would result in important sediment reorganisation, and thereby in substantial changes to atoll island volume and elevation^[@CR1],[@CR3],[@CR22]^. In the long run, this would cause island contraction, and eventually, disappearance. To date, a global assessment including 709 islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans from 30 different atolls highlighted limited areal and positional changes over the past decades, notably emphasizing that 73.1% of islands were stable in area, while respectively 15.5% and 11.4% increased and decreased in size^[@CR23]^. However, the critical ocean climate-related thresholds at which atoll islands may experience physical destabilisation are still incompletely understood.Figure 1Conceptual diagram of atoll island natural dynamics showing the coastal protection services provided by the reef ecosystem. This diagram illustrates the physical processes controlling the natural dynamics of the atoll reef-island system, characterised by the high dependency of the reef island (4 to 7) on the reef ecosystem (1 to 3). The main hydrodynamic processes involved include wave friction over the reef flat, which reduces wave energy and decreases wave run-up (R), i.e. wave-driven water level at the coast. Wave run-up controls washover (e), i.e. the extent to which waves penetrate into inner land areas, especially during storms. These hydrodynamic processes drive sediment production (a), injection (b), and transport (c), from the reef to the island, including sediment deposition at the coast (d) and in inland areas (e). Any change in hydrodynamic processes would therefore result in changes in island configuration, i.e. land area, volume and elevation.
The majority of the studies addressing atoll islands' future have focused on ocean climate-related drivers of risk, based on the implicit assumption that these islands still and will still behave naturally (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). However, previous studies have showed that inhabited and exploited islands (e.g. resort islands) generally do experience human disturbances (e.g. sediment mining, sediment transport disruption and coral reef degradation) that have already altered their natural dynamics, and as a result, exacerbated coastal erosion and marine inundation^[@CR10],[@CR24]--[@CR29]^. Yet, the future of atoll nations --that is, whether their populations will be able to stay or be forced to migrate abroad-- will undoubtedly depend on the behaviour of their inhabited and exploited islands. More broadly, atoll territories' future will be driven by a complex interplay of climatic, ecological and human-driven processes, to which the alteration of the reef ecosystem protection services by human activities is central. To date, however, no country-wide assessment of the extent of such human disturbances and of their implications on these services has been undertaken.
This paper addresses this gap, using the case of the most densely-populated atoll country in the world, the Maldives Islands, which host 402,071 inhabitants on a total land area of 227.4 km^2^ ^[@CR30]^. It is based on an extended sample of 608 islands (out of a total of 1,149) from 23 out of the 25 atolls and oceanic reef platforms forming the country, and includes 107 (out of a total of 188) inhabited islands. For each island, we documented recent (that is, for the 2004--06 and 2014--16 periods) change in human footprint and in human pressure exerted on the reef-island environment, that is shoreline and reef flat. In line with some previous studies e.g.^[@CR31]^, the human footprint, which we use as a proxy of human development, corresponds to the spatial extent of human activities, including buildings and infrastructure, facilities, roads and tracks, agriculture, industrial activities, etc., on the island scale. Unlike impact-based approaches (see e.g.^[@CR32],[@CR33])^, we do not establish any statistical correlation between human footprint and the human pressure exerted on the reef-island system.
This approach allows discussing (1) the rapidity and intensity of human-driven changes, and their detrimental effects on atoll island natural dynamics and capacity to adjust to ocean climate-related pressures; (2) the high diversity of island vulnerability profiles; and (3) the reaching of "anthropogenic tipping points". In the context of this study, the latter are defined as human-driven critical thresholds in the reef-island system that, when exceeded, lead to a significant change in the state of the system and induce a major shift in the associated coastal protection services, often in an irreversible way. The paper concludes on important implications for future research and for the design of context-specific adaptation strategies in atoll countries and territories.
Results {#Sec2}
=======
The results presented below exclude the no data islands (n.d.), the number of which varies depending on variables, but represents from 2% to 5% of the island samples considered (i.e. total, inhabited, or inhabited and exploited islands samples). The results are supported by Supplementary Material ([S1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"} to [S7](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}), including the original database and kmz file showing study island location.
Marked increase in human footprint {#Sec3}
----------------------------------
From 2006 to 2014, the total population of the sample islands grew from 226,357 to 266,812 inhabitants, representing a slightly higher rate than the national one (+17.9% against 15.1%; 30). At the national level, population growth is mostly related to the still ending phase of the demographic transition^[@CR30]^, rather than to the migration of foreigners (around 15.0% of the total population in both 2006 and 2014). In addition, over the same period, the annual number of international tourists doubled (from 601,923 to 1,204,857) and the island resort bed capacity increased by a third (from 17,712 to 24,031).
Seventy-one percent of the 107 inhabited islands considered in this study experienced population growth, at a rate exceeding 5% for 59.8% of them, and even \>25% for 18.6% of them. As a result, the human footprint increased through the spatial expansion of human occupancy on 47 already inhabited or exploited islands and through the new settlement or exploitation of 56 islands (S1 Table B). The development of the latter led to a decrease in the proportion of natural islands, from 374 (61.5% of the island sample) in 2004--06 to 327 (53.8%) in 2014--16. This means that 288 out of the 608 islands considered here were either inhabited or exploited (tourism, agriculture, small industry...) in 2014--16. Only 11 islands (1.8%) exhibited a contraction of human occupancy, including 9 islands that were completely abandoned following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami --e.g. Kandholhudoo (No16 in the database, Raa Atoll) population was first hosted on Ungoofaaru island (No71, Raa Atoll) and then relocated on the newly inhabited Dhuvaafaru island (No67, Raa Atoll)-- or in the frame of the 2009 Population Consolidation Programme^[@CR34]^ partly aiming at decentralising the population --e.g. Faridhoo, Maavaidhoo and Kuburudhoo populations (islands No2, No132 and No137, respectively; Haa Alifu-Noonu Atoll) were relocated on Nolhivaranfaru island (No136, Haa Alifu-Noonu Atoll).
As a result, 32.7% of the sample islands (199) exhibited a very high human footprint (i.e. \>2/3 of island land area; see Materials and Methods for categorisation) in 2014--16, against 23.5% of islands (143) in 2004--06. While most of the islands that changed category moved to the next category (12 islands from ≤1/3 to 1/3 \< x ≤ 2/3, and 25 islands from 1/3 \< x ≤ 2/3 to \>2/3), 9 islands (1.5%) experienced a dramatic increase, changing from a low (≤1/3) to a very high (\>2/3) human footprint in just one decade.
The results highlight marked regional variability. The highest rates of change were observed in the central capital atoll of North Kaafu (Figs [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} and [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}) that concentrates most of the population (especially on the capital island of Male'), infrastructures (airport island of Hulhule') and economic activities. On this atoll, 15% of islands underwent an increase in human footprint. The central-northern (Raa, Lhaviyani, Baa) and central-southern (Meemu and Dhaalu) atolls also exhibited a marked increase in human footprint between 2004--06 and 2014--16, as illustrated by Raa, where this was the case for 31.3% of islands (Figs [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"} and [S1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"} Table A).Figure 2General presentation of the Maldives Islands. The capital atoll has been the historical political, population, and development centre for around 3,000 years. The central-northern and central-southern atolls have been the first ones, after the capital atoll, to benefit from the tourism-induced development boom of the 1970s/1980s. The distant northern and southern atolls represent the secondary less-developed periphery of the country that currently shows rapid socio-economic development. Two exceptions are the Haa Alifu-Noonu (northernmost) and Seenu (southernmost) atolls that have been designed in the 1990s as Regional Development Poles, and have therefore benefited from more investments than other distant atolls.Figure 3Spatial distribution of major human disturbances caused to the reef-island system in the Maldives. This map provides an overview of the results obtained. It highlights increased island occupancy (human footprint, HF), and associated increased human pressure on island shoreline (shoreline type, S) and island reef (R) in just one decade. With the exception of atolls having only one (Kaashidhoo, Goidhoo, Gaafaru, Thoddoo and Gnaviyani) or two (Maamakunudhoo) islands, the results highlight a marked increase in human pressure, even in the central atolls that already exhibited marked human disturbances in 2004--06, as a result of rapid population growth and socio-economic development.
Human-driven changes caused to the reef-island system {#Sec4}
-----------------------------------------------------
The marked increase in human footprint contributed to major changes to island and reef morphology, mainly through artificial island expansion and shoreline armouring.
### Artificial island expansion {#Sec5}
In just a decade, the proportion of islands having artificial reclaimed areas protruding onto their reef flat (hereafter 'reclaimed islands') increased by 51.2% (from 123 to 186 islands). As a result, 30.6% of the sample islands, and 64.6% of the inhabited and exploited islands, had reclaimed areas in 2014--16 (S2 Table A). From a regional perspective, the highest rates of change in the number of reclaimed islands (\>50%) occurred in the distant northern (to the north of Baa) and southern (to the south of Vaavu) developing atolls, with the exception of Laamu, Lhaviyani and Seenu. In contrast, the central atolls around the capital atoll (with the exception of atolls having one single island), which already had 18.2 to 70.0% of their islands exhibiting reclaimed areas in 2004--06, showed more limited change (≤25%).
Land reclamation was generally carried out either to meet housing needs, or as a result of harbour dredging in reef flat, which encourages the reclamation of nearby reef areas through the provision of large quantities of materials. In just one decade, the number of islands having at least one proper harbour increased by 55.2% (from 96 to 149 islands), which resulted in 24.5% of the sample islands and 52.7% of the inhabited and exploited islands having a proper harbour in 2014--16 (S2 Table A).
Out of the 63 inhabited islands (i.e. 57.9%) that experienced land reclamation between 2004--06 and 2014--16, respectively 30 and 33 showed an increase in land area at rates comprised between 3 and 10% and ≥10% (S3 Table A). Among the latter, 17 islands (15.9% of the sample inhabited islands) experienced rates falling between 10 and 25%, while 16 islands (15%) showed rates \>25%. Of note, changes in island land area and population size do not necessarily correlate, due to a time-lag between island expansion and the settlement of artificial areas by in-migrants.
### Shoreline armouring {#Sec6}
Land reclamation and harbour construction contributed to the extension of artificial shoreline (S2 Table B). While land reclamation caused the extension of longitudinal coastal structures (mostly seawalls and riprap), which were erected to stabilise newly reclaimed areas, harbour construction generally encouraged groyne construction to reduce the disturbing impact of jetties on downdrift shoreline sections affected by sediment depletion. In 2014--2016, respectively 59 (+66.3%) and 26 (+48.1%) additional islands (compared to 2004--06) had longitudinal and transversal coastal structures (S2 Table B). As a result, the proportion of islands having respectively longitudinal and transversal structures increased from 14.8% to 24.5% (representing 52.3% of the inhabited and exploited islands in 2014--16), and from 9.0 to 13.3% (representing 28.9% of the inhabited and exploited islands in 2014--16) (S2 Table B). In addition, we found that respectively 112 and 56 islands that already had longitudinal and transversal coastal structures in 2004--06 exhibited additional structures in 2014--16 (S2 Table B). Simultaneously, the number of islands having marine protection structures (mostly breakwaters) established on their reef flat increased from 21 to 45, resulting in 16.2% of the inhabited and exploited islands and 7.5% of the sample islands having such structures in 2014--16 (S2 Table B). Moreover, 35 islands that already had marine protection structures in 2004--06 had additional ones in 2014--16. The central atolls generally exhibited a relative stability in the number of islands having protection structures (most of their islands already having such structures in 2004--06) but a marked increase in the number and extent of these structures. In contrast, northern (excluding Lhaviyani) and central-southern (i.e. Vaavu, Meemu and Thaa) atolls, on which these structures were less common in 2004--06, exhibited very high rates, generally \>100% (S2 Table B).
As a result of the extension of coastal protection structures along island shoreline, 66 islands (10.9% of the total sample) that had an "entirely natural" (i.e. undisturbed) shoreline in 2004--06 had at least a partially artificial shoreline in 2014--16 (S2 Table D). While 58 (9.5%) of these islands moved from the "entirely natural" to the "predominantly natural" shoreline category (See Materials and Methods), 8 islands moved to even higher categories (i.e. "half-natural, half-fixed; "predominantly fixed"; "entirely fixed"), that is, exhibited dramatic shoreline armouring. Only 4 islands (0.7%) showed a decrease in shoreline hardening. As a result, the number of islands having an "entirely natural" shoreline decreased from 472 (77.6%) in 2004--06 to 407 (66.9%) in 2014--16. In addition, the islands that already had armoured shoreline sections in 2004--06 generally experienced an extension of artificial shoreline. This was observed on 89 islands (14.6%), with 31 islands moving from category 1 ("entirely natural") or 2 ("predominantly natural") to categories 3 to 5 ("half-natural", "predominantly fixed", "entirely fixed"). As a result, some central atolls (e.g. North Kaafu and Rasdhoo) exhibited a predominant proportion of islands having a "predominantly fixed" shoreline in 2014--16. In addition, the northern and southern distant atolls exhibited a decrease in the proportion of islands having "entirely natural" shoreline and an approximately proportional increase in the number of islands having a "predominantly natural shoreline", with these two categories taken together still representing between 44.5 and 72.2% of islands, depending on the atoll, in 2014--16 (S2 Table C and Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}).
### Pressure exerted on the island's reef {#Sec7}
On most atolls, the human pressure exerted on the island's reef increased markedly over the past decade (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}). This increased pressure was mainly due to harbour basin dredging in, and sediment mining from, the island's reef (S4 Table A). The number of islands having harbour basins dredged in reef flat increased by 61.8%, from 110 islands (18.2% of the islands sample) in 2004--06 to 178 (29.5%) in 2014--16 (S4 Table A). Additionally, some islands that already had one or more harbour basin(s) dredged in reef flat in 2004--06 experienced either harbour basin(s) extension, as observed on 38 islands (6.3%), or the establishment of one or more additional harbour basin(s), noted on 20 islands (S4 Table A). Aggregating all islands (i.e. with/without a harbour basin in 2004--06), we found that 14.5% of islands (88) experienced an increase in the number of harbour basins over the past decade (S4 Table B). This resulted in a marked extension of boat channels across island reef flat, with 77 islands (12.8%) exhibiting additional boat channels in 2014--16 compared to 2004--06 (S4 Table A).
The increase in the number of islands having harbour basins was the highest (rate ≥ 100%) in the northern (Ihavandhippolhu, Haa Alifu-Noonu, Raa, Baa), central (Rasdhoo) and distant-southern (Faafu, Dhaalu, Gaafu Alifu-Dhaalu) atolls. This highlights the effort made by the national authorities to improve transport facilities in the outer atolls in order to address the historical challenge of making outer and scattered inhabited islands accessible. In contrast, the core atolls exhibited much lower rates (14.3 to 66.7%), due to a high proportion of islands already having harbour basins in 2004--06. It is noteworthy that the establishment of additional harbour basins and the dredging of additional boat channels across island reef flat occurred on most atolls, including central (e.g. South Kaafu for harbour basins), distant (e.g. Haa Alifu-Noonu) and central-northern and -southern (e.g. Vaavu for harbour basins, Raa for boat channels) atolls (S4 Table A).
Simultaneously, 41 additional islands (+6.74% of the island sample) were affected by sediment dredging from reef flat in 2014--16 compared to 2004--06. As a result, the islands affected by this disturbance increased from 84 (13.9.% of the island sample) to 125 (20.7%). The highest rates (\>100%) were observed on the two distant atolls of Haa Alifu-Noonu (from 5.2 to 19% of islands) and Vaavu (from 14.3 to 57.1% of islands) (S4 Table A).
Aggregating the data to assess change in the human pressure exerted on the island's reef, we found that 64 islands (including most inhabited islands and representing 10.5% of the 608 sample islands) exhibited an increase, 523 islands (86.0%) a relative stability, and only 7 islands (1.2%) a decrease (S5 Table B). Twenty-eight islands (4.6% of the sample) that experienced no-to-limited (R1 in S5 Table B) or moderate (R2) human pressure on their reef in 2004--06, exhibited a dramatic increase and therefore a high to very high pressure (R3) just one decade later. As a result, 64 islands representing 10.5% of the whole sample showed a high to very high (R3) human pressure in 2014--16, while 197 islands (32.4%) and 333 islands (54.8%) showed a moderate (R2) and no-to-limited (R1) pressure, respectively (S5 Table B).
Marked increase in disturbed island types {#Sec8}
-----------------------------------------
Based on the shoreline and reef disturbance indicators presented above, we classified the sample islands into five distinct categories (Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}, Materials and Methods, and S5 Table C). While Types 1 and 5 (T1, T5) respectively correspond to an island exhibiting no human disturbance and to a very highly disturbed island, T2 (low disturbance), T3 (moderate disturbance) and T4 (high disturbance) illustrate intermediate gradual situations. We found that 17.6% of islands (107 out of 608) moved to a more disturbed type, while 79.3% (482 out of 608) remained in the same category (mainly T1, T2 and T3) and 0.8% (5 out of 608) moved to a less disturbed type (S5 Table D). The main changes observed were from T1 to T2 and T3 (respectively 21 and 15 islands, 3.5% and 2.5% of the island sample); from T2 to T3 (43 islands, 7.1%); and from T3 to T5 (12 islands, 2%). As a result of changes in island category, T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 represented respectively 54.1%, 11.5%, 22.2%, 2.3% and 7.6% of the sample islands in 2014--16 (2.3% n.d.).Figure 4Illustration of the 5 island types highlighting the degree of human disturbance affecting the reef-island system. Panel A Maafinolhu Island (No7 in the database), Ihavandhippolhu Atoll, illustrates the situation of an "undisturbed" (here, "natural", i.e. unexploited) island exhibiting no human disturbance (Type 1, T1). Of note, some T1 islands are exploited (e.g. nearby Manafaru Island, No8, which is a resort island). Panel B Kudabados Island (No40), North Kaafu Atoll, shows the situation of a "little disturbed island" (T2), where the construction of nearshore breakwaters along the eastern coast has modified hydrodynamics. Panel C Hirimaradhoo (No8), Haa Alifu-Noonu Atoll, is a "moderately disturbed island" (T3), where human disturbances mainly consist of the establishment of a harbour in the reef flat, which disrupts longitudinal and transversal sediment transport on the eastern side of the island, and of land reclamation on both sides of the harbour. Panel D Rasdhoo Island (No2), Rasdhoo Atoll, is a "highly disturbed island" (T4) exhibiting extensive shoreline modification and armouring, marked reef degradation and sediment transport obstruction, due to the establishment of a harbour on its northern side and to the erection of breakwaters on its eastern side. Panel E Fieeali Island (No17), Faafu Atoll, and Panel F Muli Island (No29), Meemu Atoll, are "very highly disturbed islands" exhibiting marked changes in geomorphic configuration (due to island artificial expansion, still in operation on Panel F, and leading to extensive shoreline armouring) and highly degraded reef flats (due to extensive mechanical destruction resulting from harbour establishment in, and boat channel and sediment dredging from, reef flat).
Furthermore, in just one decade, 46.7% of the inhabited islands (50 out of 107) moved to a more disturbed type, while 49.5% remained in the same category and 0.9% moved to a less disturbed type (+2.8% of no data islands). For these islands, the main changes observed were from T2 to T3 (24 islands, 22.4%) and from T3 to T5 (11 islands, 10.3%). As a result of changes in island category, T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 represented respectively 0.0%, 0.9%, 68.2%, 7.5% and 20.6% (2.8% n.d.) of inhabited islands in 2014--16, meaning that 96.3% of these islands were moderately (T3) to very highly (T5) disturbed by human activities (S5 Table E). It is noteworthy that in 2004--06, these proportions were respectively of 5.6%, 24.3%, 53.3%, 7.5% and 6.5% (2.8% n.d.), making 67.3% of the inhabited islands moderately (T3) to very highly (T5) disturbed by human activities. Taken together, the T4 and T5 inhabited islands increased from 14.0% in 2004--06 to 28.0% in 2014--16.
In 2014--16, T4 and especially T5 prevailed in the central atolls of North Kaafu and South Kaafu, reflecting the high human degradation of the reef-island system in these long-standing developed atolls, while T1 to T3 prevailed in the rest of the country (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). However, the spatial distribution of island types shows that highly and very highly disturbed islands (i.e. T4 and T5) now occur on most atolls.Figure 5Spatial distribution of island types. T3 to T5 islands prevail in the central (i.e. densely-populated and highly-developed) atolls of North Kaafu and South Kaafu, while T1, T2 and T3 are the most represented types in distant (i.e. less populated and developed) atolls. This critically highlights the environmentally-detrimental development patterns of the Maldives Islands.
Discussion {#Sec9}
==========
The major role of anthropogenic control {#Sec10}
---------------------------------------
Based on an extended dataset including 608 islands (52.9% of the Maldives Islands) from 23 atolls and oceanic reef platforms, this study constitutes the first detailed, nation-wide assessment of human-driven undermining of the coastal protection services provided by the reef ecosystem to island communities. It confirms that over the last decade, human activities have been a major driver of reef-island morphological change^[@CR35]^. Increasing human pressure led, in just one decade, to the exploitation of 56 natural islands (9.2% of the sample islands) and to the expansion of human occupancy on 47 already inhabited and exploited islands (7.7%). As a result, the proportion of islands exhibiting a very high human footprint (\>2/3 of island land area) increased by 9.2% (from 143 to 199 islands). Additionally, most of the islands that were already inhabited or exploited in 2004--06 underwent substantial changes, especially through artificial expansion. Around 64.6% of these islands had reclaimed areas in 2014--16, and the proportion of islands that experienced human-driven areal expansion between 2004--06 and 2014--16 increased by 51.2% (from 123 to 186 islands). More than half of these islands (33 islands) experienced high (\>10%) island growth rates, with respectively 17 and 16 islands exhibiting rates falling between 10 and 25%, and \>25%. Simultaneously, the proportion of islands having harbour basins dredged in reef flat increased by 61.8% (from 110 to 178 islands).
Land reclamation on and harbour dredging in island reef flat have important detrimental impacts on the coastal protection services delivered by the reef-island system (Fig. [6](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). The direct effects of these activities include the mechanical destruction of the reef flat, which affects sediment production, and the disruption of longshore and cross-shore sediment transport. Their indirect effects include shoreline armouring (carried out to stabilise newly reclaimed areas), increased sediment mining from island reef flat (carried out to provide the materials required for land reclamation and the construction of coastal protection structures), and increased boat channel dredging across island reef flat, which affect sediment production, transfer and deposition at the coast. These results highlight the local-scale adverse consequences of rapid population growth (+15.1% between 2006 and 2014) and socio-economic development (mean GDP annual growth rate of 7.7% between 2006 and 2014) on the reef -island system.Figure 6Conceptual diagram showing various degrees of human-driven undermining of atoll island natural dynamics. Panel A reflects the situation of Type 1 (T1) islands that are undisturbed by human activities. Panel B illustrates the situation of T3 islands, the lagoon side of which is generally the most disturbed, mainly by the establishment of a harbour that causes the mechanical destruction of the reef flat and obstructs longitudinal and transversal sediment transport, and by sediment dredging from their ocean-side reef flat. These disturbances cause the complete disappearance of some geomorphic features (here, the lagoon beach), reduce sediment injection into the island system (b), and alter constructional processes on the whole (a, c, d). Panel C shows the situation of T4 and T5 islands that exhibit marked changes in geomorphic configuration on their lagoon and ocean sides (disappearance of beaches, i.e. 4, 5 and 7 in the figure), and the almost-to-complete annihilation of the services (a, b and c) provided by the reef ecosystem.
Scientific way forward {#Sec11}
----------------------
These results imply that assessing the control exerted by human activities on the reef-island system's change is absolutely critical to properly understand observed trends and appreciate their implications on islands' future. In fact, not considering that island expansion is artificial, one would erroneously conclude that island growth is indicative of a healthy (i.e. still potentially able to naturally adapt to ocean climate-related pressures) reef-island system. Quite the opposite, it is here indicative of a high degradation of the reef-island system.
Better capturing the controlling factors of change on the island scale provides a unique opportunity to discuss the attribution of observed changes (e.g. relative weights of natural vs. anthropogenic drivers), and hence provide new information for prospective modelling studies. Here, we use two major human disturbance indicators (i.e. on shoreline and reef) to develop a typology, classify more than 600 islands and highlight the most critical situations of T4 and T5 islands. Advancing knowledge further would require the scientific community to design and implement physical models integrating the respective effects of different types and degrees of human disturbance on the functionality of the reef-island system. Importantly, such a modelling effort will only be beneficial if ran for contrasting situations to account for context specificities, e.g. using our five island types.
Tracking anthropogenic tipping points {#Sec12}
-------------------------------------
Tipping points refer to 'critical thresholds in a system that, when exceeded, can lead to a significant change in the state of the system, often with an understanding that the change is irreversible'^[@CR36]^:262. Capturing tipping points is critical to understand abrupt changes and irreversibility in a given system's functioning, and has considerable implications in terms of how to respond and anticipate non-linear changes. Tipping points are often discussed in the scientific literature for the physical climate system (e.g., collapse of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet and implications for global sea-level rise) or ecological systems (e.g. mid-century coral decline due to global warming), but less is known about tipping points in the geomorphic components of a given system (here, atoll island shoreline and reef) due to direct human disturbances. This describes the "anthropogenic tipping points" as discussed in this study. We argue here that the above-described island typology can help identify "anthropogenic tipping points".
The results presented here show that the two services provided by the reef ecosystem, namely wave energy attenuation and sediment provision, which are absolutely essential to risk reduction and to the persistence of these islands and of the whole country over time, have so far been preserved from human deterioration on all T1 islands ("undisturbed islands"), which represent 54.1% of the sample islands, and only on 12.5% of the 288 inhabited and exploited islands (Fig. [6A](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). This means that on 43.6% of the sample islands and on 83.0% of the inhabited and exploited islands (T2 to T5, from "low disturbance" to "very high disturbance"), these critical services have to some extent been undermined by human development. In fact, 11.5% of the sample islands and 16.7% of the inhabited and exploited islands exhibit a localised and limited undermining of these services (T2), and are therefore still potentially able to naturally respond and adjust to ocean climate-related pressures through sediment reorganisation. In addition, 22.2% of the sample islands and 46.2% of the inhabited and exploited islands exhibit a partial but significant undermining of these services (T3), and are therefore not fully able to naturally respond and adjust to ocean climate-related pressures. This situation is for example illustrated by those islands that have a harbour basin annihilating reef-to-island sediment transport on their lagoon side and exhibit decreased wave energy attenuation due to sediment mining from their reef flat on their ocean side (Fig. [6B](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). Moreover, 9.9% of the sample islands and 20.1% of the inhabited and exploited islands exhibit a "high to very high" undermining (T4 and T5) of these services by human activities, and have therefore either almost entirely (T4) or entirely (T5) lost their natural capacity to respond and adjust to ocean climate-related pressures. These islands, which generally exhibit a predominantly-to-entirely artificial shoreline and experience an almost annihilation of longshore and cross-shore sediment transport on both their lagoon and ocean sides (Fig. [6C](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}), are now committed to a path-dependency effect in terms of human intervention. On these islands, due to the irreversible destruction of the coastal protection services that drive island adjustment to ocean climate-related changes, an anthropogenic tipping point has been reached.
The fact that the 20.1% of inhabited and exploited islands (T4, T5) have already reached this tipping point and that 46.2% (T3) of these islands may, in regard to their trajectory of change, reach it over the coming decade(s), raises serious concerns in the context of sea-level rise (+1.3 mm/year ±0.4 and +1.4 mm/year ± 0.4 for Male', North Kaafu Atoll, and Gan, Seenu Atoll, respectively, between 1950 and 2009^[@CR37]^) and increased flooding events^[@CR38]^.
Implications for adaptation to climate change {#Sec13}
---------------------------------------------
Such results have two major implications for societal adaptation to ocean climate-related changes, especially sea-level rise and increased island flooding.
First, they reinforce the idea that the degree to which human activities have undermined atoll island capacity to respond and adjust to ocean climate-related pressures should be taken into account when designing response options and adaptation pathways. In the specific context of atoll countries and territories, this suggests that the adequate spatial scale to design well-adapted strategies is the island rather than the archipelago scale. The critical point to consider when designing an adaptation strategy for any given island should therefore first be whether this island has already or almost reached or not the anthropogenic tipping point beyond which human intervention is unavoidable to face ocean climate-related risks. With this respect, we argue that the island typology (i.e. from T1 to T5) and rapid assessment frame proposed in this paper offer a way to find a compromise between two extremities, i.e. too broad assessments conducted on the country scale and too time-consuming in-depth assessments conducted on the island scale.
Second, the highly-contrasting island types highlighted in this study imply the design of diversified adaptation strategies. For those islands that still have the natural capacity to adjust (either entire for T1, or partial for T2-T3), and that can therefore be expected to keep it over the next decades in the face of limited external ocean climate-related forcing if they were sustainably managed, preserving or restoring the coastal protection services provided by the reef ecosystem should be a key priority. Here, nature-based solutions offer a huge area of opportunity. On the contrary, it should be acknowledged that hard-engineered measures (e.g. seawalls, breakwaters) are required on those inhabited and exploited islands that have reached the above-described anthropogenic tipping point. On those islands that exhibit highly disturbed sediment production and transport patterns, together with high densities of human assets (people, buildings, etc.), the use of adequately designed and calibrated protection structures should be prioritised without further delay. With the exception of a limited number of islands on which proper engineered structures were constructed as a result of international aid or following extensive reclamation works operated by the public authorities, and like most developing island countries, the Maldives Islands mostly have handmade, small and poorly designed and built protection structures that do not constitute a climate change-proof solution^[@CR39],[@CR40]^. Collectively, these points suggest that robust adaptation decisions can be taken from now on, on the island scale or at least for different island types, to limit further maladaptive path-dependency effects on the island scale, regardless climate-related uncertainties.
Conclusion {#Sec14}
==========
The 608 sample islands used in this study are representative of the variability of human disturbances across atoll islands^[@CR41],[@CR42]^, making the findings of relevance beyond the case of the Maldives Islands. The results provide the first nation-wide and island-scale assessment of the situation of an atoll country, especially of the inhabited and exploited islands on which the future habitability of such a country critically relies. This study notably highlights not only the major contribution of human disturbances to recent island change, but also and most importantly, that respectively 20.1% and 46.2% of the inhabited and exploited islands of the Maldives have already reached and may reach in the near future an anthropogenic tipping point beyond which island armouring will be the only solution to maintain islands in the face of sea-level rise and extremes, especially. Yet, there is high uncertainty on the future habitability of such armoured islands, which would lie below sea level and therefore likely lose not only their freshwater underground supply but also all cultivable land, due to saltwater intrusion. These results lead us to argue, first, that there is an urgent need to adequately consider the to-date disregarded anthropogenic drivers in atoll island change studies in order to not only take into account their current impacts, but also the lock-in effects induced by the human-driven undermining of the coastal protection services provided by the reef ecosystem. Second, and given the diversity of atoll island profiles, there is a need to design island- or at least island type-specific adaptation strategies. Third, given the rapidity of change observed in the Maldives Islands, we argue that such adaptation strategies must be designed and implemented without delay, despite climate uncertainties, in order to contain any additional detrimental path-dependency effects.
Materials and Methods {#Sec15}
=====================
Presentation of the island sample {#Sec16}
---------------------------------
The total number of islands in the Maldives is constantly changing, due to the highly unstable character (i.e. disappearance and reformation) of the smallest islands. Here, we used the statistics generated by Naseer and Hatcher^[@CR43]^, which constitute the most precise dataset documenting the physical characteristics of the archipelago. We therefore consider the total number of Maldivian islands to be 1,149. The 608 sample islands considered in this study therefore represent 52.9% of the Maldives Islands and are distributed among 23 atolls and oceanic reef platforms out of the 25 inventoried (Alifushi and Vattaru, which have one single island, are not documented in this study). These 608 islands are the islands for which the 2004--06 and 2014--16 satellite images provided by Google Earth and used in this study were available and treatable. The island sample considered for each atoll and oceanic reef platform represents 16.7% to 100.0% of islands, depending on the case (Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}). Of note, the number of documented islands changes from the first to the second date for some variables, due first to variations in image treatability, and second to the aggregation (either natural, or human-induced) of 11 islands between 2004--06 and 2014--16. No data (n.d.) does not exceed 5% of the sample, whatever the variable considered.Table 1Significance and main characteristics of the island sample considered in this study per atoll.Atoll or patch reef nameTotal island land area (km^2^)\*\*Total estimated number of islands\*\*Significance of sample islandsPopulation size in 2014\*\*\*Number% of the total number of islandsIhavandhippolhu5.724187557,078Haa Alifu-Noonu68.71645835.4Maamakunudhoo1.04250.0Raa12.9924852.215,819Lhaviyani7.2552647.38,380Baa5.5644468.79,601 (includes Goidhoo)Kaashidhoo\*2.911100.0Included in North and South KaafuGoidhoo2.26116.7Included in BaaGaafaru0.211100.0Included in North and South KaafuNorth Kaafu9.4564071.4167,996 (total North and South Kaafu)Thoddoo\*1.611100.0Included in AlifuRasdhoo0.610660.0Included into BaaAlifu8.3811822.215,561South Kaafu2.0302480.0Included in North KaafuVaavu0.929724.11,811Faafu2.222836.44,365Meemu4.2392256.45,022Dhaalu4.445920.05,786Thaa9.3702332.89,656Laamu23.1783747.412,676Gaa Alifu-Dhaalu34.324618675.621,911Gnaviyani\*5.111100.08,510Seenu15.02727100.021,275\*Are oceanic reef platforms. \*\*Based on Naseer and Hatcher, 2004^[@CR43]^. \*\*\*Excludes the population of resort islands (28,367 people), and of industrial and other uninhabited islands (8,257 people).
Definitions of the terms used in this study {#Sec17}
-------------------------------------------
'Human footprint' corresponds to the degree of human occupancy for a given island. It corresponds to the proportion of the island exhibiting buildings and infrastructure, facilities, roads and tracks, agriculture, industrial activities, inland vegetation removal. It excludes unexploited and 'natural', i.e. non-cultivated vegetated areas.A 'natural island' (e.g. Ihavandhippolhu Atoll, Nos4, 5,19) is defined as an island having no permanent human construction currently in use and exhibiting no large-scale sign of human exploitation of terrestrial resources. Such an island may have been inhabited in the past and then depopulated, as observed for a number of islands since the 2004 tsunami (e.g. Raa Atoll, No. 15; reported in official census statistics, see^[@CR30]^). It may be vegetated or not and, in the first case, its vegetation may be either native, or introduced (e.g. coconut groves), or even mixed.'Island land area' corresponds to the stabilised part of an island, calculated using the vegetation line as a shoreline proxy, as in most atoll studies (e.g.^[@CR19]^).An 'exploited' island is an island that is dedicated to specific economic activities and/or infrastructures, including tourism (resort island), industry, transport facilities (airport), agriculture, aquaculture, etc. Islands exhibiting unexploited coconut groves are not included in this category, but considered as 'natural'.'Land reclamation' corresponds to artificial land area gain through the landfill of one or more reef flat area(s). Reclaimed areas are included in island land area estimates.'Shoreline armouring' or 'hardening' indicates the replacement of natural shoreline by artificial shoreline due to land reclamation or to the construction of engineered structures, such as coastal protection structures (e.g. seawalls, riprap, etc.) or structures associated with coastal development (e.g. harbour jetties). Fixed shoreline corresponds to the proportion of island shoreline that has been armoured.A 'proper harbour' designates a harbour having engineered structures, i.e. either an alongshore or a transversal quay (e.g. Haa Alifu-Noonu No. 135; Lhaviyani No, 12), or protective structures, such as foreshore breakwaters. 'Proper harbours' may therefore either be fully open to the open sea, or 'closed' by a jetty or breakwater (e.g. Lhaviyani No5), and may include or not a dredged basin (e.g. Gaafu Alifu-Dhaalu No110). They show various configurations, from 'traditional' to 'modern'. We excluded small mooring areas exhibiting no engineered structures (e.g. Ihavandhippolhu, islands Nos 2 and 11, ocean coast). Harbour extensions are included in shoreline estimates.Harbour inventory excludes harbours that are no longer functional (e.g. Haa Alifu-Noonu Nos 21-22). Nearly-completed harbours are included (e.g. Haa Alifu-Noonu No. 85).'Harbour basins dredged in reef flat include the basins of both 'proper harbours' and harbours having no stabilised shoreline or quay.Wharves are mainly present on inhabited and resort islands. They do not include the pontoons connecting water bungalows to the coast on resort islands. They may intercept the longshore sediment drift or not, depending on their design (permeable or not).'Sediment dredging from reef flat' excludes dredging works related to the establishment of boat channels and harbours, which are covered by dedicated variables.
Inventory and classification of human disturbances affecting the 'reef-island system' {#Sec18}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 'reef-island system' considered in this study (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) includes two interdependent geomorphic features, that is, the island and the reef ecosystem that supports it, which supplies the island with sediment and attenuates wave energy, especially generated by storms. Human disturbances affecting the reef-island system were assessed based on satellite image analysis, using high resolution (0.50 m) images from two time periods, 2004--06 and 2014--16, and freely provided by Google Earth. Such free remote-sensing data were already used to conduct nation-wide assessments, e.g. to assess land use change in the Maldives^[@CR35]^. Image interpretation benefited from the conduction by the authors of fieldwork on some atolls, namely North Kaafu, South Kaafu and Seenu.
The human disturbances considered in this study, which are as follows, were classified into three categories, depending on the part of the reef-island system that they affect:*The degree of human occupancy of each island* was assessed using the 'Human Footprint' (see definition above) as a proxy.*The human pressure exerted on the coast* was assessed based on the inventory of human activities that disrupt coastal dynamics, including coastal developments, infrastructures and human-built structures. The latter include reclaimed plots protruding onto the reef flat, harbours, longitudinal (mostly seawalls and riprap) and transversal (i.e. groynes) coastal protection structures, and marine (mostly breakwaters) protection structures. Beyond documenting the occurrence of and change in the extent of such disturbances, we also documented Shoreline (S) type (classified into 5 classes, as follows: "entirely natural", S1; "predominantly natural", S2; and "half-natural, half-fixed", "predominantly fixed", and "entirely fixed" by human-built structures, respectively S3, S4 and S5), using it as a proxy to quantify the degree of disturbance of island shoreline.*The human pressure exerted on the island's reef* was assessed based on the inventory of harbour basins dredged in, sediment mining from, and boat channels dredged across the island's reef flat. Beyond documenting the occurrence of and change in the extent of such human disturbances, we aggregated these variables into a synthetic index ("human pressure exerted on island Reef", called R for "reef") that allowed classifying islands into three distinct categories:R1 corresponds to islands exhibiting *no-to-limited human modification of the island's reef*. These islands exhibit no direct (water pollution is excluded due to data unavailability) and visually detectable (i.e. on the satellite images used) human disturbance. This means that some disturbances (e.g. aggregate extraction) may occur that are not considered in this study because they were not detectable on the satellite images used.R2 corresponds to islands exhibiting *moderate human pressure on the island's reef*. "Moderate" means that these islands have ≤1 harbour basin dredged in the reef flat, and may also exhibit other disturbances, such as boat channels dredged across and/or sediment dredging from the island's reef flat and/or marine protection structures.R3 corresponds to islands exhibiting *high to very high human pressure on the island's reef*. "High to very high" means that these islands have more than one harbour basin dredged in the reef flat (i.e. 2 or more harbour basins), and may also exhibit other disturbances, such as boat channels dredged across and/or sediment dredging from the island's reef flat and/or marine protection structures. Because they have several harbours dredged in the reef flat, generally on both their lagoon and ocean sides, these islands exhibit highly to very highly disturbed sediment production and transport patterns.
Data generation and analysis {#Sec19}
----------------------------
The only official (i.e. established by the Government of the Maldives) data used in this study relates to population number, for which we used national censuses (Statistical Yearbooks 2006, 2016 and 2017; available here: <http://statisticsmaldives.gov.mv/yearbook/>). It is noteworthy that there is no official dataset providing comprehensive and reliable information on the other variables considered in this study. In some cases, some data are available (e.g. for island land area), but because these data are provided without their metadata (i.e. no information on how and when they were generated), we decided to not use them. Moreover, for those variables for which official data exist, one single dataset was generally available, which did not allow the analysis of change. For other variables (e.g. land reclamation), existing datasets are incomplete, that is, not updated, and not always covering all of the Maldives Islands. Due to these constraints, we generated all of the data that are used in this study, using high resolution (0.5 m) and good quality (i.e. excluding images exhibiting cloud cover) satellite images from the 2004--06 and 2014--16 periods that are freely provided by Google Earth. Due to image availability constraint, we used a set of images (and therefore different images from one island to another) to document the situation of each island over the two periods considered in this study. The precise date of the images used for each island is indicated in the database delivered with this paper. Data were generated based on satellite image interpretation, in line with previous studies on atoll island and shoreline change^[@CR19],[@CR23]--[@CR25],[@CR27],[@CR28]^. However, this study includes the assessment of variables that were never assessed in previous studies, for which the methods used are presented hereinafter. The full database is presented in Supplementary Material [S6](#MOESM2){ref-type="media"} (xls file) and [S7](#MOESM3){ref-type="media"} (kmz file).
Human footprint (HF) {#Sec20}
--------------------
For each island, we derived the HF from image analysis and classified the spatial extent of HF into 4 categories: HF = 0 (corresponds to 'natural' islands); HF ≤ 1/3, 1/3 \< HF ≤ 2/3, HF \> 2/3. Changes were assessed based on these four categories, which allowed highlighting changes from 'natural' to 'exploited' islands, and changes in island category over the period of analysis.
Land reclamation {#Sec21}
----------------
Land reclamation was assessed based on image interpretation, similar to previous atoll studies^[@CR24],[@CR25],[@CR27]--[@CR29]^. On atoll islands, artificial island areas resulting from landfill are generally easily detectable on satellite images, as they are indicated by the geometric shape of concerned island areas and related shoreline, and by the absence, limited coverage or different type of vegetation in these areas compared to the rest of the island. As reclaimed areas are generally made of reef sediments that are directly dredged from the island's reef flat, land reclamation is generally also indicated by extensive sediment dredging from the reef flat.
Longitudinal and transversal coastal protection structures {#Sec22}
----------------------------------------------------------
'Coastal protection structures' include all of the protection structures that were erected along the shoreline, including the ocean, lagoon and *hoa* (i.e. inter-islet channel) shoreline, and the shoreline of inner lagoons (e.g. Haa Alifu-Noonu Atoll, No96). The structures that were erected on the reef flat (e.g. foreshore breakwaters) are included in the marine protection structures category. 'Coastal protection structures' may be either proper engineered structures (i.e. well-designed and calibrated structures, e.g. along reclaimed areas), or handmade poorly designed and built structures. Both types are included in this assessment, with no distinction made between them.
'Longitudinal coastal structures' include not only the structures that were built along the shoreline to fix it, but also the structures (generally riprap) that were erected to stabilise reclaimed areas (e.g. Haa Alifu-Noonu Atoll, No5). Of note, some reclaimed areas are not stabilised by protection structures. Stabilised reclaimed areas are common on both sides of harbours, as the dredging of harbour basins in reef flat provides materials that are commonly used to reclaim nearby areas.
The establishment of additional structures between the first and the second date was assessed based on a binary basis (yes = 1/no = 0).
The limited vegetation cover occurring along the shoreline of most islands (as a result of vegetation clearing or entire removal), facilitated the detection of longitudinal coastal structures, which mainly consist of seawalls and riprap^[@CR39],[@CR40]^. However, 43 occurrences (distributed among 31 islands) out of 536 (8%) were uncertain, due to the localised masking of the shoreline (either by cloud cover, or by the coastal vegetation) and to the nature of structures (i.e. small, or made of hardly detectable materials). This limitation does not concern transversal coastal structures (i.e. groynes) and marine protection structures (consisting of foreshore and nearshore breakwaters) that were easily detected on the images used.
Shoreline type (S) {#Sec23}
------------------
Shoreline type refers to natural vs. fixed (i.e. by human-built structures) shoreline. Fixed shoreline includes the shoreline of reclaimed plots that were stabilised by engineered structures (mainly riprap).
Island land area {#Sec24}
----------------
Island land area was calculated at each date, using the stability line as a shoreline proxy, as in previous atoll studies^[@CR29],[@CR44]^. The stability line corresponds to the vegetation line on natural shoreline and to the seaward limit of human-built structures on artificial coastline. In line with previous studies, we used the ±3% threshold to determine significant change, considering that a change falling within --3% and +3% was not significant, that is, indicated areal stability, while changes \<--3% and \>3% respectively corresponded to island contraction and expansion. We classified island areal growth into 5 distinct categories (3 ≤ x \< 10%; 10 ≤ x \< 25%; 25 ≤ x \< 50%; 50 ≤ x \< 100%; x ≥ 100%) in order to highlight the contrasting situations of the sample islands.
Harbour basin and boat channel dredged in reef flat, and sediment dredging from reef flat {#Sec25}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Human activities involving dredging in reef flat are generally detectable on satellite images. Dredging is indicated by a change in the nature (i.e. colour and texture) of the reef flat and by the geometric contours of dredged areas.
For a proper harbour having a basin dredged in reef flat, both the proper harbour and the basin dredged in reef flat were counted, so as to allow appreciating the modifications caused both to the coast (i.e. artificial shoreline and changes in currents and associated sediment transport) and to the reef (degradation of the reef ecosystem). Of note, when a harbour or a harbour basin was situated between two islands located on the same reef flat, it was counted for each island, i.e. double counted (e.g. Seenu, Nos11 and 13).
Data processing and cross-analysis was conducted using Excel software, and allowed generating the results that are presented in the Supplementary Materials.
Determination of island Types (T) {#Sec26}
---------------------------------
We aggregated Shoreline (S) and Reef (R) indicators to generate 5 island types reflecting the degree of human disturbance of the reef-island system. The 5 island types were established as follows:
T1 (island Type 1) -- No human disturbance: S1 + R1
T2 (island Type 2) -- Low human disturbance: S1 + R2, S2 + R1
T3 (island Type 3) -- Moderate human disturbance: S1 + R3, S2 + R2, S2 + R3
T4 (island Type 4) -- High human disturbance: S3 + R1, S3 + R2, S3 + R3
T5 (island Type 5) -- Very high human disturbance: S4 + R1, S4 + R2, S4 + R3, S5 + R1, S5 + R2, S5 + R3
Supplementary information
=========================
{#Sec27}
Supplementary Information S1-S5 Supplementary Information S6 Supplementary Information S7
**Publisher's note** Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
**Change history**
11/29/2019
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Supplementary information
=========================
is available for this paper at 10.1038/s41598-019-51468-3.
This work was supported by the French National Research Agency under the STORISK project (No. ANR-15-CE03-0003). VKED was also funded by the INSeaPTION project, which is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), BMBF (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462). AKM also thanks the ANR programme "Investissements d'avenir" (No. ANR-10-LABX-14-01).
V.K.E.D. and A.K.M. designed the research, generated and analysed the data, prepared the figures and wrote the paper.
All data generated during this study are included in this published article (and its Supplementary Materials files).
The authors declare no competing interests.
| {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
} |
Want to join?
If you are interested in joining Troop 258, please attend one of our troop meetings on Monday evenings from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., at the Troop 258 A-Frame, located inside the Canby Community Park at 1348 SW Berg Parkway in Canby, Oregon. Although visitors are welcome at any of our troop meetings. It is best to contact our Troop Committee Chair a few days in advance of your visit. We do not mind you visiting but we want to make sure that you get to see a “typical” meeting. The 3rd Monday of the month is reserved for a PLC (Patrol Leader Council) meeting, which is a meeting for the youth leaders of the Troop. We also invite potential new scouts or rising Cub Scouts (Webelos 2s) to join us on any of our monthly camping trips to get a feel for our troop. Our monthly camping trips are typically (but not always) on the 3rd weekend of the month. The Troop has room to grow and currently has boys from Canby, Oregon City, Milwaukie, Aurora, Mollala, Mulino, Hubbard, Woodburn, Donald, and other cities adjacent to Canby.
Troop 258 Scout Number Policy
For the safety of the scouts and to maintain a reasonable number that can be supported with parking, building size, and adult supervision, Troop 258 will hold membership around 45 scouts. If the adult leadership reduces, the number of boys, may also need to be reduced. For safety, we are aiming at having a 1:8 ratio for younger boys and 1:12 ratio for adult to older boys. Troop 258 will not hold spots for any future scout. We will accept boys into the troop as they submit their paid registration. Scouts coming to the troop on scholarship will be accepted as equal to paying scouts, private donations/scholarships will be worked out with the family. Scouts may early-register in the year of their crossover. If the Troop reaches capacity, we will honor a wait list. Boys with an adult already in active leadership or older siblings already in the troop will have priority. We will not split parent and scout. Active leadership being monthly participation in a Troop 258 committee or Troop leader position. Sibling entering together will not be split by enrollment limits, we would accept both. We will offer suggestions of other area troops if Troop 258 has reached capacity, or if our Troop is not the right match for an inquiring family. It is our hope that all scout troops in the area will be successful, Troop 258 does not want to become a mega troop, nor monopolize the scouting program. Troop 258 wants to know the boys in the troop and provide individualized attention, which happens with strong leadership as well as a good scout:leader ratio. We are proud of our long-time tradition of scouting, and our high return of former scouting families to our troop. We hope that no Scout will ever need to be redirected to another troop, but hope that supporters understand the necessity in this day and age to a have safe number ratio of scouts to leaders to protect and guide our boys.
Can’t meet on Monday nights but still interested in Scouting?
The Boy Scouts of America realizes that it may be challenging for people to find Boy Scout troops in a certain area. They created https://beascout.scouting.org to help people find units. You type in your address and they display a map of units in the area.
Search for:
Looking for a Troop?
If you are looking for a Boy Scout Troop that is active and has members in Canby, Aurora, Hubbard, Molalla, Mulino, Oregon City, Woodburn, and West Linn, you came to the right place! Please contact us to learn how to get started.
Alumni
If you were a member of the Troop sometime in the past, we would love to hear from you to see how you are doing. Please contact us to let us know. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Max Eitingon
Max Eitingon (26 June 1881 – 30 July 1943) was a Belarusian-German medical doctor and psychoanalyst, instrumental in establishing the institutional parameters of psychoanalytic education and training.
Eitingon was cofounder and president from 1920 to 1933 of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Polyclinic. He was also director and patron of the Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag (1921-1930), president of the International Psychoanalytic Association (1927-1933), founder and president of the International Training Committee (1925-1943), and founder of the Palestine Psychoanalytic Society (1934) and of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Israel.
Life
Eitingon was born to an extremely wealthy Orthodox Jewish family in Mohilev, Imperial Russia, the son of a successful fur trader Chaim Eitingon. When he was twelve the family moved to Leipzig. He studied at private school and at universities in Halle, Heidelberg, and Marburg — studying philosophy under the neo-Kantian Hermann Cohen — before studying medicine at the University of Leipzig in 1902.
Before completing his dissertation, Eitingon worked as an intern at Eugen Bleuler's Burghölzli Clinic in Zurich. In 1907 he was sent by Bleuler to meet Freud, and in 1908-9 underwent five weeks of analysis with Freud: "This was indeed the first training analysis!" He completed his dissertation, Effect of an epileptic attack on mental associations, with Carl Jung's help, and settled in Berlin. In 1913 he married Mirra Jacovleina Raigorodsky, an actress with the Moscow Art Theater.
During World War I Eitingon became an Austrian citizen, joining the army as a doctor and using hypnosis to treat soldiers with war trauma. Settling in Berlin after the war, he was invited by Freud to join the secret Psychoanalytic Committee. Eitingon financed the building of a polyclinic, using Freud's son Ernst Freud as architect. Eitingon, Karl Abraham and Ernst Simmel ran the clinic until the rise of Nazism in 1933. At the Budapest Congress in 1918, Hermann Nunberg had "declared that no one could any longer learn to practice psychoanalysis without having been analyzed himself": as Eitingon's 1922 report made clear, this rule was formalized in the practice of the Polyclinic:
At the 1925 Bad Homburg Congress, Eitingon proposed that the Berlin system of psychoanalytic training should be made an international standard under an International Training Commission. Eitingon was appointed president of the ITC, and kept the position until his death in 1943.
After the family business suffered in the US Great Depression, Eitingon was forced for the first time to take a patient to earn his living. In 1932 he had a cerebral thrombosis. On Freud's advice, Eitingon left Germany in September 1933 and emigrated to Palestine. In 1934 he founded the Palestine Psychoanalytic Association in Jerusalem. However, despite Freud's recommendation, he did not manage to gain a chair in psychoanalysis at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Max Eitingon was described in several books as an important figure in a group of Soviet agents who conducted assassinations in Europe and Mexico, including murders of Ignace Reiss, General Yevgeny Miller, and Lev Sedov. The story was revived in the New York Times Book Review by Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, which resulted in a lengthy discussion between Schwartz, historians who wrote the books, and others who disputed the involvement of Eitingon in the team, such as Theodore Draper and Walter Laqueur. The discussion was concluded by Robert Conquest who noted that although there is no direct proof of involvement of Max Eitingon in the murders, his financial interests in the Soviet Union and connections with all key members of team, including his brother Leonid Eitingon, Nadezhda Plevitskaya, and Nikolai Skoblin who acted as an intermediary between NKVD and Gestapo in Tukhachevsky affair, are grounds for suspicion.
Eitingon died on 30 July 1943 in Jerusalem, and is buried on Mount Scopus.
Works
'Genie, Talent und Psychoanalyse', Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse 2 (1912) 539-540.
'Gott und Vater', Imago 3 (1914), 90-93
'Ein Fall von Verlesen', Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse 3 (1915), 349-350.
'Zur psychoanalytischen Bewegung', Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse 8 (1922), 103-106.
'Report of the Berlin Psychoanalytical Polyclinic', Bulletin of the International Psychoanalytical Association 4 (1923), 254.
'Concluding remarks on the question of lay analysis', International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 8 (1927), p. 399-401
'Report of Marienbad Congress', International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 18 (1937), p. 351
'In the Dawn of Psychoanalysis', in M. Wulff (ed.) Max Eitingon: in memoriam, Jerusalem: Israel Psychoanalytic Society, 1950
See also
Nahum Eitingon
References
External links
Dmitry Olshansky, ISFP Gallery of Russian Thinkers: Max Eitingon
René DesGroseillers, Max Eitingon
Category:1881 births
Category:1943 deaths
Category:People from Mogilev
Category:Imperial Russian Jews
Category:Belarusian Jews
Category:German Jews
Category:German people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
Category:German psychoanalysts
Category:Analysands of Sigmund Freud
Category:Analysands of Ella Freeman Sharpe
Category:Jews in Mandatory Palestine
Category:Leipzig University alumni | {
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
} |
The present invention relates to fireworks displays and, more particularly, to a new method and system of presenting precision fireworks displays with a decreased environmental impact.
"Pyrotechnics" is the "science of fire." Pyrotechnic displays, commonly referred to as fireworks or fireworks displays, have been created and enjoyed for centuries by millions of people. Over the years, the systems and methods for creating the displays have remained substantially unchanged.
The fireworks systems of the prior art are comprised essentially of two main components, namely a pyrotechnic projectile and a mortar for directing the pyrotechnic projectile into the air. The pyrotechnic projectile itself consists of two principal components, comprising an initial burst and a main burst. Black powder is one of the oldest pyrotechnic propulsion agents and it is typically used as the initial burst and main burst component. The main burst also includes pellets of color composition known as "stars." Igniting the stars during detonation of the main burst provides the light and color of the fireworks display.
Common pyrotechnic projectiles comprise an inner shell and an outer shell. To preserve the main burst until aerial ignition, the main burst is enclosed within the inner shell, while the initial burst is enclosed within the outer shell. The pyrotechnic projectile also has two fuses in the form of an initial fuse and a main fuse. The main fuse extends from the initial burst in the outer shell to the main burst in the inner shell. The initial fuse extends from the initial burst to the exterior of the outer shell. By igniting the initial fuse, the initial burst is exploded and propels the pyrotechnic projectile from the mortar into the air. Contemporaneously, the main fuse is lit because the end of the main fuse protrudes into the initial burst. The main fuse then takes a specific time to burn into and ignite the main burst.
The pyrotechnic projectile can take on various shapes. For cylindrical shells, the main burst includes stars which are randomly packed. Upon detonation of the main burst, the shell opens, and the stars are ignited in an irregular visual pattern. For round shells, the main burst consists of the stars arranged around a central core of black powder. When the main burst of the round shell is ignited, the stars are distributed in a round, symmetrical pattern. Sometimes the shell will contain a flash-and-sound powder, instead of stars, to produce a flash of light and a loud noise.
Factors in raising the pyrotechnic projectile to a particular altitude are aerodynamic drag, projectile stability and the size of the initial burst. In this regard, pyrotechnic projectiles are usually hand manufactured, and various materials have been used to form the pyrotechnic projectile's outer shell, including paper and plastics. The manufacturing variations, therefore, can cause uncertainties in the final shape of the pyrotechnic projectile. Hence, such manufacturing variations can create an outer shell that is non-uniform in shape, which causes undesirable drag and instability in flight. As a result, the altitude to which the pyrotechnic projectile is launched can never be determined with precision. In addition to the structural variations in the pyrotechnic projectile outer shell structure, the variations in the quality and composition of the black powder charge used in the initial burst can propel otherwise identical projectiles to various different heights. This is explained in more detail below.
A further related factor regarding altitude is the main fuse technology, which governs detonation timing of the main burst after ignition of the initial burst. The main fuse, used to detonate the main burst of the pyrotechnic projectile, typically is a delayed chemical fuse. Existing chemical fuses are usually non-uniform in their construction and therefore exhibit a wide variation in their burn rate from one pyrotechnic projectile to the next. As a result, it has been found that a pyrotechnic projectile set to detonate at approximately 600 feet in the air may detonate anywhere from between 500 feet and 700 feet, roughly a 16 percent deviation.
Variations in black powder composition, black powder quality, pyrotechnic projectile structure and mortar structure all contribute to the inherent lack of uniformity of projectile height and position at the time of shell ignition. Amounts of black powder in the initial burst, length and orientation of the initial and main fuses, and composition and thickness of the shell casings are only within tolerances obtainable during non-precision hand manufacturing. Because of the lack of precise repeatability during pyrotechnic projectile manufacturing, large variations between the pyrotechnic projectile's ignition time and flight path from pyrotechnic projectile to pyrotechnic projectile are the norm. Historically, fireworks displays have not been precise, repeatable or accurate. However, although it is not possible to exactly duplicate any one display, by using different types of stars and/or flash-and-sound powder, and by arranging them in the shell in a particular way, various types of fireworks displays can be created when a variety of such pyrotechnic projectiles are ignited simultaneously or in series.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that the typical pyrotechnic projectile is a self-contained unit having its means of propulsion (i.e., the initial burst) and mechanism for timing projectile detonation (i.e., the initial and main fuses) incorporated into its structure. As such, these propulsion and timing mechanisms are fixed by the structural composition of the pyrotechnic projectile, which is pre-set at the factory. Hence, it is not possible to adjust those parameters once the manufacturing process for the pyrotechnic projectile has been completed.
Accordingly, it further can be seen that the launch and detonation of existing pyrotechnic projectiles is an inexact science and is subject to severe limitations and drawbacks. To determine the pyrotechnic projectile path and altitude achieved, the amount of black powder in the initial burst is significant, since a greater amount of black powder generates a larger gaseous expansion within the mortar behind the pyrotechnic projectile and a resultant higher projection into the sky. The limitation on the height of the projection is based on the minimum burn rate of the black powder, inasmuch as the rate of pressure increase cannot exceed that which the inner shell can withstand, i.e., structural integrity of the inner shell of the pyrotechnic projectile must be maintained.
For any given size of shell there is a practical limit to the altitude that can be reached using black powder as the initial burst component. Increasing the altitude requires increasing the acceleration rate up the length of the mortar, and therefore increasing the burn rate of the initial burst. However, as the initial burst is formulated to burn faster, it becomes less controllable; as the rate of pressure rise increases, the initial burst is consumed quicker and begins to exhibit explosive detonation characteristics. The result is an exponential pressure rise that will destroy a pyrotechnic projectile in the mortar.
Increasing the force which the inner shell casing can withstand, for example, by increasing the shell thickness, causes a change in the pyrotechnic projectile's performance. This change in performance, which can cause a change in the characteristics of a fireworks shell, is disfavored because it usually diminishes and/or alters the visual display quality. Consequently, the projection height of the pyrotechnic projectile is limited by the durability of the shell. Historically, it was not possible to project the pyrotechnic projectile beyond a certain height, relative to its diameter. For example, a pyrotechnic projectile having a nominal six inch shell casing typically can be launched to an altitude of between about 200-600 feet, with 600 feet being the practical limit. A pyrotechnic projectile having a smaller shell casing will go lower and one with a larger casing will go higher, with 1,000 feet being about as high as they will go.
As noted above, the pyrotechnic projectiles are directed into the air through the mortars. The mortars are cylindrical in shape. To propel the pyrotechnic projectile from the mortar, the pyrotechnic projectile is placed in the mortar. The mortars can be constructed of any rigid material such as cardboard, metal or plastic. The pyrotechnic projectile has a specific orientation within the mortar. The orientation provides for the outer shell having the initial burst to be arranged so that it is below the main burst. This type of fireworks display system also produces a loud noise, from detonation of the initial burst, requiring ear protection at the launch site. There is no existing method of noise reduction for the prior art devices. Moreover, existing mortar construction generally is not conducive to adjustment after installation at the launch site to enable aiming of the pyrotechnic projectile to different locations in the sky.
Another drawback associated with existing pyrotechnic projectiles and mortars is their adverse impact on the environment. For example, the current method of projection using a charge of black powder forms a residue having a detrimental environmental impact on the ground and any water area in and around the firing site. The black powder, products of combustion, and products of incomplete combustion from the pyrotechnic projectile firing are extremely corrosive agents (e.g., various acids). These materials, in addition to corroding the existing equipment at the site, are deposited in the area surrounding the mortar site, both on the ground and in the water. There are significant adverse effects from this deposition of sulfuric acid and other harmful chemicals on the soil and water surrounding the site. Moreover, on the ground, at the time of firing, there are large quantities of smoke. This smoke can be very distracting to the guests and may direct their attention away from the aerial fireworks display. In addition, large quantities of smoke may be blown by the wind toward the guests, causing further irritation.
Fallout from the pyrotechnic projectile after it has been detonated in the air creates further environmental concerns. Firework shell casings are traditionally made from laminated paper or plastic. Paper casings have been in use since the time of Marco Polo, whereas plastic casings were introduced approximately 25 years ago. Existing pyrotechnic projectile shells are not usually completely fragmented and consumed in the air during detonation of the pyrotechnic projectile into its intended display. Instead, the shells are incompletely fragmented, and many portions of the shell, some of them quite large, fall back to the ground. This creates undesirable litter in an area below the point of the fireworks display. Portions of the shell falling back to the ground also cause a safety hazard to people on the ground who could be hit and injured by the fallout. Moreover, after detonation, portions of the shell can and often do fall back to the ground as burning debris. This causes a severe fire hazard in many areas.
In spite of the inability to precisely control fireworks displays, no change from the existing system has ever been successful because of the inability to detonate the main burst of the pyrotechnic projectile by means other than ignition by the initial burst. As previously discussed, because the black powder provides the propelling charge necessary to ignite the main fuse of the pyrotechnic projectile, use of any other type of propulsion means that does not incorporate black powder or its equivalent does not provide for delayed aerial detonation.
In view of the inaccuracy and drawbacks possessed by existing pyrotechnic projectiles and mortars, serious limitations are imposed on the versatility of the resulting pyrotechnic display. For example, the limited capability to aim the pyrotechnic projectile and control its trajectory inhibits the ability to send a pyrotechnic projectile to different locations of the sky having different altitudes. The lack of precision and timing regarding detonation of the projectile in the air prevents precise timing of the main burst explosion. Moreover, fireworks shows cannot be precisely presented in synchronization with programmed material, such as music and dialogue, nor is it possible to repeatably and consistently produce a fireworks pattern corresponding to a recognizable shape, in view of the inaccurate and random nature of firing of the main burst. The relatively high volume of black powder used in the initial burst, as well as the main burst, also requires that the projectile be treated with special care and handling during transportation. In this regard, there are strict statutory shipping requirements for hazardous materials which govern the handling and transportation of the pyrotechnic projectiles. These factors consequently increase fireworks display expense.
Accordingly, there has existed a definite need for a method and system for launching and detonating projectiles which is more accurate, safe and versatile, with a minimum adverse environmental impact. The present invention satisfies these and other needs, and provides further related advantages. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
[Serotypes of enteroinvasive Escherichia coli in China].
results of identification and serotyping of enteroinvasive escherichia in china from 13 provinces in China in 1984-85 were reproted. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
INTRODUCTION
============
At present, a prostate specific antigen (PSA) level of 4 ng/mL is widely used as the cutoff value for recommendation of a prostate biopsy. In this cutoff value, the sensitivity is 67.5-80%, but the specificity is only 20-30%.[@B1]-[@B3] Other indexes such as PSA velocity (PSAV) and PSA density (PSAD) were introduced thereafter in order to compensate the low specificity of PSA level, and several previous studies proved the effectiveness of these new indexes for the early detection of prostate cancer (PCa).[@B4],[@B5] However, despite a possible relationship between these indexes and PCa, the roles of these indexes in early detection of PCa remains a matter of controversy.[@B6]-[@B8]
To compensate the low specificity of PSA level and to confirm other important factors for PCa detection at biopsy, we investigated the relationship between various factors including the initial and last PSA level, age, PSAV, PSAD, prostate volume, and follow-up period and outcomes of prostate biopsy through cumulative PSA follow-up data of a cohort in our hospital\'s health promotion center.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
=====================
Study population
----------------
The current study was a single center, retrospective analysis. A cohort of 1035 men who visited our hospital\'s health promotion center and were tested for their serum PSA levels more than two times between January 2001 and November 2011 were the subjects of this study. Among them, 17 men with an elevated PSA level due to chronic prostatitis or with a history of 5-α-reductase use for benign prostate hyperplasia treatment were excluded from this study. Finally, 116 men who had a change in the PSA level from less than 4 ng/mL to more than 4 ng/mL underwent transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided prostate biopsy. Median age was 55.9 years (range 41-78). The mean follow-up period was 83.7 months (range 12-127).
Measurement
-----------
PSA levels were measured by using ARCHITECT total PSA assay (Abbott Diagnostics inc., Abbott Park, IL, USA) in our hospital. Levels were measured before digital rectal examination or TRUS to minimize interference. Prostate volume was calculated by the ellipsoid formula, \[(π/6)×(width of the maximal transverse dimension)×(length of the maximal anteroposterior dimension)×(height of the maximal superoinferior dimension)\], using values obtained from TRUS (HDI 3500, Philips Medical Systems, Seattle, WA, USA). The height, width and length of a prostate were measured from two orthogonal views (e.g. transverse and sagittal plane) with two-dimensional ultrasound in this study. The 12-core biopsy scheme was used in our institution including a standard sextant, which was originally described by Hodge, et al.[@B9] and three core biopsies was used in case of hypoechoic lesions on TRUS. Biopsies were performed under ultrasound guidance using an 20-gauge, 22 mm, BARD® Magnum® reusable core biopsy instrument (C.R Bard inc., Murray Hill, NJ, USA). PSAV was calculated by using two-point simple method, and defined as \[PSAV=(PSA level of last visit-PSA level of initial visit)/follow-up period\]. PSAD was defined as \[PSAD=PSA/prostate volume\]. We used prostate volume and PSAD measured by TRUS at the time of prostate biopsy.
Statistical analysis
--------------------
Between the PCa group and the non-PCa group, the initial PSA level, the last PSA level, the age, the prostate volume, the PSAD, the PSAV and the follow-up period were compared by Mann-Whitney U test ([Table 1](#T1){ref-type="table"}). To identify the predictive factors for PCa, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis with enter selection were conducted ([Table 2](#T2){ref-type="table"}). Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidential intervals for all covariatives were calculated. Predictive accuracy was quantified using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis ([Fig. 1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}).[@B10] SPSS 12.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) software was used for the statistical analyses. A *p*-value \<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The Institutional Review Board of our medical institution approved this study (IRB No. 2013-023).
RESULTS
=======
Of the 116 men, 26 (22.4%) were diagnosed with PCa by prostate biopsy. The PCa detection rates between PSA levels of 4.1-10.0 ng/mL was 18% (18 of 98 patients) and PCa detection rate in PSA levels over 10 ng/mL was 47% (8 of 18 patients).
The mean initial PSA and last PSA level during the follow-up was 1.91 and 8.07 ng/mL, respectively. The mean PSAV was 1.16 ng/mL/year (range 0.06-20.99). The mean prostate volume was 34.3 mL (range 9.7-106.0) and the mean PSAD was 0.28 ng/mL/mL (range 0.05-2.43).
Of the evaluated variables, the prostate volume at biopsy (36.7 mL vs. 26.0 mL, *p*=0.002), the PSAD at biopsy (0.24 ng/mL/mL vs. 0.41 ng/mL/mL, *p*=0.001) and the follow-up interval (79 months vs. 97 months) were significantly different ([Table 1](#T1){ref-type="table"}). On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the initial PSA, last PSA, PSAV and age between the two groups.
We conducted univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify the predictive factors for PCa in prostate needle biopsy. In the univariate logistic regression analysis, prostate volume (*p*\<0.001, OR=0.916), PSAD (*p*=0.046, OR=3.322) and follow-up period (*p*=0.010, OR=1.025) were identified as significant predictive factors. Among these, prostate volume (*p*\<0.001, OR=0.891) and age (*p*=0.022, OR=1.149) were identified as significant factors in multivariate logistic regression analysis ([Table 2](#T2){ref-type="table"}). Although PSAD was statistically significant in the univariate analysis, the result was challenged by the multivariate analysis. The AUC of prostate volume was 0.724 ([Fig. 1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}). At 28.8 mL of prostate volume, the sensitivity and the specificity were 61.1% and 73.1%, respectively.
DISCUSSION
==========
Although PSA measurement has contributed to the early detection and treatment of PCa, PSA may be elevated in other non-malignant conditions such as benign prostatic hypertrophy and prostatitis, I addition, the specificity of PSA for PCa is less than ideal. Therefore, PSA cutoff values for PCa diagnosis is still controversial and decision-making on the performance of a prostate biopsy based on only PSA cutoff values has clinical limitations considering the relative low specificity of PSA. Many studies have been conducted to determine an appropriate PSA cutoff value for PCa detection. Catalona, et al.[@B11] reported that a PSA level of 4 ng/mL or higher was appropriate as the PSA cutoff value for screening of PCa. It is suggested that lowering the PSA cutoff value from 4 to 2-3 ng/mL is appropriate because high PCa detection rate is demonstrated in those range of PSA. PSA cutoff value from 4 to 2.5 ng/mL results in an increase in the number of men who undergo biopsy and may result in an increased detection of potentially insignificant PCa.[@B12] The adequate PSA cutoff value for prostate biopsy remains controversial. At the cutoff value of 4 ng/mL for PSA, the sensitivity is 67.5-80% and the specificity is only 20-30%. Another study reported the sensitivity and specificity of PSA were about 79% and 59% respectively.[@B13] According to a study by Schmid, et al.,[@B14] the PCa detection rate between PSA levels of 4.1-10.0 ng/mL is 25% and PSA levels of over 10 ng/mL has a detection rate of 50-60%. In our study, the PCa detection rate between PSA levels of 4.1-10.0 ng/mL was 18% and PSA levels of over 10 ng/mL has a detection rate of 47%, which is lower than the detection rates reported by Schmid, et al.[@B14] The lower detection rate of PCa in Korea is likely attributable to the lower morbidity of PCa. However, our result was slightly higher than the PCa detection rate of 15.9% reported by Lee, et al.[@B15] in patients with a PSA of 4.1-10.0 ng/mL in Korea. The low specificity of PSA and the relative low detection rate of PCa in this gray zone, have raised a question as to whether the strategy of prostate biopsy simply based on PSA cutoff values is sufficient for selecting suitable candidates for prostate biopsy. To compensate for the limitations of PSA, many potential predictive factors for PCa in biopsy such as PSAD, PSAV, age-adjusted PSA level and the ratio of free-PSA have been introduced.[@B1] Recently, PSA-age volume, volume of transitional zone, and PSA-transitional volume density have been investigated.[@B16],[@B17]
In the current study, there was a statistically significant difference in prostate volume, PSAD and the follow-up period between the two groups. Prostate volume was identified as a significant predictive factor of PCa detection in both the Student\'s t-test and multivariate logistic regression test. This is supported by the prostate volume AUC of 0.724 in the ROC curve ([Fig. 1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}). Al-Azab, et al.[@B18] also reported that a smaller prostate size was associated with PCa patients with PSA of 2.0-9.0 ng/mL. Other studies also demonstrated significant differences in the prostate volume between the patients with and without PCa.[@B19]-[@B21] High PSA levels are positively related to PCa at biopsy, but a large prostate volume has a negative relationship. Prostate volume, itself is related to serum PSA and age.[@B21] It is thought that high PCa detection in small prostate volume is caused by a relatively large PCa volume in normal prostate.
PSAD also has been introduced as a useful tool to increase the specificity in the early detection of PCa.[@B22] In the current study, PSAD was statistically significant in the univariate analysis but the result was challenged by the multivariate analysis. It was reported that performing a prostate biopsy when the levels of PSAD is greater than 0.15 ng/mL/mL increases the cancer detection rate and can safely reduce the number of patients undergoing prostate biopsy without significantly compromising the cancer detection.[@B23],[@B24] The usefulness of PSAD for PCa detection is widely accepted in the PSA range of 4.0-10.0 ng/mL; however, this has been controversial and it\'s advantages have not been fully accepted.[@B25],[@B26] Prospective multi-center studies with a larger number of patients are needed to firmly establish the usefulness of PSAD.
Our study had some limitations. First, the sample size was relatively small and there was a lack of diversity in the subjects because the subjects were selected from a single hospital. Second, we only considered the first prostate biopsy. We were not able to reflect the results of repeated biopsies due to a considerable number being lost to follow-up and potential ethical issues. Among patients who were not diagnosed with PCa in the initial biopsy, 20% were diagnosed with PCa in repeated prostate biopsy.[@B27] Third, we measured prostate volumes by means of TRUS and several experienced radiologists, not by prostatectomy specimens and only one experienced radiologist. This could be associated with inter- or intra- observer variability due to the subjective aspects of probe placement and choice of planar dimensions for measurement. If any error was made in measuring the height, width or length of the prostate by TRUS, the accuracy of prostate volume and PSAD would be reduced. However, TRUS is widely used to calculate prostate volume and is considered a reliable technique to estimate prostate size, with accuracy within 20% of the pathological weight.[@B28] Moreover, a significant intra-observer variation in TRUS-guided prostate volume measurement could also exist even among highly experience radiologists. However, this variability is not enough to affect one\'s eligibility for PCa active surveillance strategy when PSAD criteria are used.[@B29] Therefore, TRUS-guided prostate volume measurements is a reliable method of assessing prostate volume and PSAD in patients with PCa.
In men with PSA values more than 4 ng/mL during the periodic follow-up, a small prostate volume is the most important factor in the early detection of prostate cancer. It is suggested that clinicians should pay greater attention to patients with a prostate volume less than 28.8 mL as well as high PSA levels more than 4 ng/mL.
This work was supported by Priority Research Center Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2009-0094050).
The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.
{#F1}
######
General Characteristics of Study Population
SD, standard deviation; PSA, prostate specific antigen; PSAV, prostate specific antigen velocity; PSAD, prostate specific antigen density.
######
Variables for the Early Detection of Prostate Cancer
CI, confidential interval; PSAD, prostate specific antigen density; OR, odds ratio; PSA, prostate specific antigen; PSAV, prostate specific antigen velocity.
| {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
} |
I will be using different hashtags to keep my Blog and Instagram feeds consistent.
My personal ones I will use are#ggff#ggfindingfitspo#ggfindingfitspiration#gulfsidegal
You may follow along and use them as well, and I may re-post some pictures! Also, if you happen to be on a journey like me and are living on the Gulf Side of Florida, use the email me function on the right ---> to shoot me an email, I may just want to buddy up and buddy-blog with you!
I will also use Hashtag Headers to announce certain features on certain days of the week. They will be random and I may not do each header each week, but be on the lookout for my new blog prompts: | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Q:
Direct3D9 Exception when calling Release
When I call Release() on my Direct3D9 interface, the programs stops immediately and under the debugger, I have the following output:
VERIFIER STOP 00000900: pid 0x570: A heap allocation was leaked.
In my code, I create and free the D3D9 interface this way:
IDirect3D9 *pD3D = Direct3DCreate9( D3D_SDK_VERSION );
// Do some work...
pD3D->Release();
pD3D = nullptr;
Between the creation and release of the interface, I am able to use it normally.
This is the first time I have something like this happening and I have absolutely no clues of what is going wrong. It may be a problem with my DirectX installation but I have other software using Direct3D9 running without any problems.
A:
It seems that you attched "Application Verifier" to your EXE. Appverif checks for memory leaks and it found one. If you read the full output, appverif gives you the stacktrace of the leaked allocation. You can display it by debugging your EXE with WinDbg and run the command dps STACKTRACE_ADDRES.
The memory leak can come from your //do some work... code, maybe you forgot to release a referenced d3d object. It also happens that Graphical Drivers causes memory leaks detected by appverif, in this case just remove your EXE from appverif.
Finaly Windbg will tell you the culprit.
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
Ethanol labeling: detection of early fluid absorption in endometrial resection.
A study is presented of ethanol labeling of irrigation fluid in endometrial resection. The introduction of ethanol labeling and intraoperative breath ethanol analysis provided an inexpensive and potentially useful means of detecting early fluid absorption during uterine surgery. The breath ethanol analyzer used was a hand-held meter; the irrigant solution was 5% dextrose with 1% ethanol. Simultaneous breath and venous samples were taken from women undergoing endometrial resection. An increase in breath ethanol was positively correlated with fluid absorption, blood ethanol, and serum glucose. This technique may prove valuable in preventing fluid overload during endometrial resection. | {
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
} |
Bruce Hornsby's Modern Classical MomentThe pianist who spent 25 years writing pop hits says he's long been interested in the work of Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg and others. Now he's sharing that interest with his audience.
Known for writing pop hits, Bruce Hornsby ventures into classical and jazz piano forms on the new album Solo Concerts.
Courtesy of the artist
hide caption
toggle caption
Courtesy of the artist
Known for writing pop hits, Bruce Hornsby ventures into classical and jazz piano forms on the new album Solo Concerts.
Courtesy of the artist
Bruce Hornsby cracked the music world three decades ago, making smooth, contemplative piano-pop with his band The Range. But if "The Way It Is" is how you remember him today, you've missed a lot. Since his hitmaking days in the 1980s, Hornsby has been a touring member of the Grateful Dead, gone bluegrass with Ricky Skaggs and played jazz with Wayne Shorter and Charlie Haden. On his new album, a double-disc live collection called Solo Concerts, Hornsby goes a step further by experimenting with 20th-century classical music.
Hornsby spoke with weekends on All Things Considered guest host Tess Vigeland about why these modern, often avant-garde compositions aren't as out of place in a pop artist's repertoire as they might seem. Hear the radio version at the audio link, and read more below.
Tess Vigeland: You've written some lovely liner notes for the new album, and you open with this: "Dedicating oneself to the pursuit of the unattainable is a beautiful way to live a life." What about your career in music have you considered "unattainable"?
Bruce Hornsby: Let's just take the study of the piano. The literature of the piano — if you consider so many different styles and take classical music as a part of it — you could spend two lifetimes and not deal with the totality of the literature that's been written for the piano. I started at age 17, junior year of high school, so I got a really late start. In the classical world, they say if you haven't started by, say, age 7 or so, then forget trying to be a classical pianist, a virtuoso who makes his living playing concerts. That's one area where this is clearly the pursuit of the unattainable. I'm interested in virtuosity on the piano, and I try to deal with it on an intense level, but that is totally an unattainable area for me.
Well, given that you started at 17, I have to say that thereisvirtuosity on display here: You have really difficult, technical stuff going on, with runs and tremolos. What it was about the style of these 20th-century composers that attracted you?
When I was at Berklee College of Music, you could go to the Boston Public Library and borrow records like you would borrow books. For some reason I was drawn to the 20th-century music. Charles Ives was a huge favorite of mine and still is. In fact, I almost got sued: One of my first singles, "Every Little Kiss," had an intro that was sort of an homage to Ives. I was basically paraphrasing the third movement of his Concord Sonata — it's called "The Alcotts."
But what really got me deeply involved in it was, in 2003, I signed with Columbia Records. I had been at RCA for 18 years. And one of the greatest aspects of being a Columbia recording artist is, they allow you to raid their vaults. Columbia Records has one of the greatest catalogs of any label ever. So I had them send me 176, 177 CDs.
Whoa.
And I filled in a lot of areas in the classical area that I had been interested in but had not really dealt with — because it's so vast. I got most of the Glenn Gould catalog. I realized that he was very much into 20th century music, and certain music in particular: Schoenberg, [Anton] Webern, Alban Berg — what they call the Second Viennese School of composition. And I realized that his aesthetic was, he was not really into romantic music. He really loved the rigor and sort of spartan aesthetic of Bach, and modern music. I think he thought that they were kindred spirits, and at that point in my career, I sort of felt the same way. So I started working on certain pieces that moved me. It just broadened my horizons.
Let's take an example here of how you've kind of incorporated all these different parts of your own musicality. You segue from this boogie-woogie piece of yours called "Preacher in the Ring" to a couple of compositions, one by Webern and this wild piece by Elliott Carter. What do you want us to hear? What are you saying here?
I guess what I'm saying is that this music that I've been so interested in for a good number of years now allows for a greater depth and variety of expression. If I'm singing a song that I've written about the snake-handling congregations of Appalachia, and it's sort of a bluesy boogie piece, I could just play the standard sort of blues-based music in the right hand. But I feel like that's a little straight, and goes down a little too easy. So I use that as an excuse to [include] these pieces. The Webern piece, which is very pointillistic, and the Carter piece, which is atonal and sort of a perpetual-motion piece — they feel to me like they're evocative of the lyrics, evocative of the scene I'm painting with the words.
When you strut out on stage in front of a crowd that fell in love with The Range 25 years ago, they're not necessarily expecting to hear an atonal piano piece. I wonder, do you talk to them about the set? Do you talk to them about what to listen for as you're playing?
I do. I talk to them. But these are sort of tried and true for me: I've been playing these pieces for the past couple of years in my solo concerts, and it just always goes over fantastically.
Sure, there are some people there who are there for a nostalgic reason. I try to be nice to them, and every few songs, play one of those songs. But there's a very sizable contingent of people there who wish I would never play those songs. They understand they have to sort of suffer through them, because they know why I'm doing it, but they really wish I wouldn't. It makes it so that I sort of get yelled at by both factions; I just catch it from all sides. But that's fine. It's my lot in life because I've continued to move on, and I haven't stayed the same. And that's, to me, the way a musical life should be: Keep on pushing, keep on evolving and changing. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
cookie policy
We use cookies to improve our website and your experience when using it. By continuing to navigate this site, you agree to the cookie policy. To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, see our cookie policy.
Pope Francis announces the next WYD: Cracovia, Poland 2016!
At the Angelus, before an immense crowd at Copacabana, the Holy Father reveals that this next great event created by JP II will take place in 3 years, in the city where Carol Wojtyla himself was Archbishop. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
File history
One of the last DC-3 ('Candy Bomber') airplanes lifts off from the runway, Tempelhof International Airport, Berlin, Germany, 30 October, 2008. Tempelhof was a vital hub of the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift, the humanitarian mission that provided Germans wit | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Q:
json to php code , need function improvement
My site has lot of javascript, our frontend designer embedded settings code as json format, in js files . I need to this settings json value, from php server . and there are some dynamic changes. I coverted this settings json value into php array .. there are lot of them . so I written a function to convert into php code format
I have written a function toPhp, which is posted in http://jsfiddle.net/2HKMU/
I tried to convert one js file settings into php code .. which works ..
var config_topfive = {
"type":"topfive",
"options":{
"ascending":false, "percentage":true, "limits":[25,5]
}
};
console.log( toPhp( config_topfive ) );
which prints
array(
"type" => "topfive",
"options" => array(
"ascending" => false,
"percentage" => true,
"limits" => array(25,5)
)
)
I would like to know, I miss anything on this conversion .. how could I improve this function more better ..
I know json_decode , but I would like to keep this setting json value in js file ,which made by designer in to php config file .. eg : config_topfive.php . I will copy paste console print of this function console.log( toPhp( config_topfive ) ) into php file
so final my php code in config_topfive.php look like
<?php
return array(
"type" => "topfive",
"options" => array(
"ascending" => false,
"percentage" => true,
"limits" => array(25,5)
)
);
A:
why you didn't use json_decode and json_encode
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.json-encode.php
sample json_decode
$json = '{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}';
print_r(json_decode($json));
sample json_encode
$arr = array('a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3, 'd' => 4, 'e' => 5);
echo json_encode($arr);
output
{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}
edit:
i wrote this test it
function MakeArray(Json){
this.JArray=Json;
this.PArray=function(ar){
for (var J in ar) {
var Type=typeof(ar[J])
if(Type=="string"){
ar[J]="\""+ar[J]+"\"";
}else if( Type== "object") {
if(ar[J] instanceof Array){
ar[J]=this.PArray(ar[J]);
//ar[J]="\""+J+"\"=>array("+ar[J].join(',')+")";
ar[J]="array("+ar[J].join(',')+")";
}else{
ar[J]="\""+J+"\"=>array("+this.MArray(ar[J])+")";
}
//ar[J]=this.MArray(ar[J]);
}
}
return ar;
}
this.MArray=function(IArray){
var Output=Array();
var Count=0;
for (var i in IArray) {
var Type=typeof(IArray[i]);
if( Type== "object") {
if(IArray[i] instanceof Array){
IArray[i]=this.PArray(IArray[i]);
Out="\""+i+"\"=>array("+IArray[i].join(',')+")";
}else{
Out="\""+i+"\"=>array("+this.MArray(IArray[i])+")";
}
}else{
if(Type=="string" || typeof(i)=="string"){
Out="\""+i+"\"=>\""+IArray[i]+"\"";
}else if(Type=="number"){
Out=IArray[i];
}else{
Out="\""+i+"\"=>"+IArray[i];
}
}
Output[Count++]=Out;
}
return Output.join(',');
}
return "array("+this.MArray(this.JArray)+")";
}
document.getElementById('php').innerHTML =MakeArray(config_topfive);
| {
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
} |
Advertisement
Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) has released the online application form for the Engineering courses on Tuesday, 16th January 2018. The application form COMEDK UGET 2018 is available in online mode and the last date for application form submission and online payment is on 19th April 2018. The application fees are in two types, those candidates who opted PCB/PCM program they have to pay Rs. 1,200/- and PCMB candidates have to pay Rs. 1,500/- for the application. There is no fee difference for the category type in the application form.
For the session 2018-2019, COMEDK would conduct an online examination all over India on Sunday, 13th May 2018, across 300 centers for the Engineering programs which offer around 20000 seats offered by the participating institutes of Karnataka and will be filled through the counseling in offline mode.
Important Dates
S.No
Events
Dates
1.
Availablity of online Application Form
16th January 2018
2.
Last Date for online Application Form and Payment
19th April 2018
3.
Availability of Mock Tests
5th February 2018
4.
Availablity of Admit Card
From 4th May to 12th May 2018
5.
Examination Date
13th May 2018
6.
Publishing of Provisional Answer Keys and start date for online submission of objections/challenge
17th May 2018
7.
Last date for online submission of objections/challenge
21st May 2018
8.
Publishing of Final Answer keys
25th May 2018
9.
Announcement of Results
28th May 2018
Requirements/Guidelines for Documents to Be Uploaded
Photograph of Candidate: Candidate photograph must be a recent one (not more than 3 three months old) and should be color photograph with a light background. The photograph should be in .JPEG or. JPG image format and size should be less than 80 kb.
Signature of Candidate: The signature must be on a white paper with a black pen and done by the candidate himself/herself. The dimensions of the signature should be in 35 x 80 mm. The signature should be in .jpg or .jpeg image format and file size should be less than 80 kb.
Signature of Father/Guardian: The signature must be on a white paper with a black pen and done by the candidate’s Father/Guardian. The dimensions of the signature should be in 35 x 80 mm. The signature should be in .jpg or .jpeg image format and file size should be less than 80 kb.
Unique Id Proof: Dimensions of the UID Proof should be 35 x 80 mm and file size should be less than 80 kb in .jpg or .jpeg image format. If candidates Id consists of more than 1 page then candidates have to combine the pages and scan and upload a single image.
Steps to fill COMEDK UGET 2018 Application Form
Candidates need to provide their personal details such as name, dob, email ID, phone number etc. Candidates also will have to provide their academics details. Click Here
After filling the required details Candidates need to upload required scanned documents and their image.
Candidates need to provide desired examination centers. Candidates can provide 3 examination centers out of which anyone can be allotted. Candidates must provide their desired center as per preference from high to low.
Candidates will have to pay the specified fee in online mode through net banking/ credit card/ debit card. In the steps as guided in the portal.
FillandFind.com is a Online college aggregator helping student apply to multiple colleges with filling common admission form only once.
It is a place, which is based on students' need and comes out like a complete solution for them, solving the issues regarding their future adherence with the Universities/colleges/ Institutes which arises, after completing the intermediate. If we see in the sector, excluding few premier National Institutes, there is a dearth of clear information. Here, at FillandFind.com, we provide a straight picture to them and give them opportunity to fill their application forms on behalf of them at the national level for any national University /college/Institute. Along with this students are allowed to analyse, compare and endorse institutions on various factors.
Password Reset
Note:Please contact us if you have any trouble resetting your password.
Compare Colleges Coming Soon
FnF-Compare College algorithm is the most reliable , updated and detailed algorithm based on 57 parameters to compare 2 or more institutions.Hence to compare on so many factors our content development is working day and night to present before you most updated information about educational institution so the compare could be accurate, reliable and based on facts.
FnF - Tools
Register With us
To avail the facility we request you to please register with us so that our bond could be more strong and firm till then
FnF Resources
Share Your Experience
Please share your educational journey's experience.Help us to spread your experience to those who need it the most.Fill in the form below to start sharing.
Choose your avatar/alias image
What are you doing currently ?
Your passing out/last passed out educational institution
About 10th board experience
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
About 12th board experience
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Experience during Under Graduate competition preparation
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Experience during U.G. program study
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Experience during Post Graduate competition preparation
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Experience during P.G. program study
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Overall Experience during your educational journey
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Your views on current Indian educational system
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
* At fillandfind we respect your privacy.Hence, no details shall be shared with any third party until and unless we have your consent.
Share Your Experience
Please share your educational journey's experience.Help us to spread your experience to those who need it the most.Fill in the form below to start sharing.
Choose your avatar/alias image
What are you doing currently ?
Your passing out/last passed out educational institution
About 10th board experience
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
About 12th board experience
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Experience during Under Graduate competition preparation
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Experience during U.G. program study
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Experience during Post Graduate competition preparation
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Experience during P.G. program study
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Overall Experience during your educational journey
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
Your views on current Indian educational system
(Maximum characters: 1000)
You have characters left.
* At fillandfind we respect your privacy.Hence, no details shall be shared with any third party until and unless we have your consent.
SHARE YOUR EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Note: Since we believe that experience of other help us to gain more, hence we request you to fill the form with utmost care and love so that other may not commit those mistake which you did or could follow your path.'; | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |