George Delany Deceased

: The Crack Of Doom

"It is a good thing to be alive," Natalie Brande repeated slowly,

gazing, as it were, far off through her half-closed eyelids. Then

turning to me and looking at me full, wide-eyed, she asked: "A good

thing for how many?"



"For all; for everything that is alive."



"Faugh! For few things that are alive. For hardly anything. You say it

is a good thing to be alive. How often have you said that in our life?"



"All my life through," I answered stoutly. My constitution was a good

one, and I had lived healthily, if hardily. I voiced the superfluous

vitality of a well nourished body.



"Then you do not know what it is to feel for others."



There was a scream in the underwood near us. It ended in a short,

choking squeak. The girl paled, but she went on with outward calm.



"That hawk or cat feels as you do. I wonder what that young rabbit

thinks of life's problem?"



"But we are neither hawks nor cats, nor even young rabbits," I answered

warmly. "We can not bear the burthens of the whole animal world. Our own

are sufficient for us."



"You are right. They are more than sufficient."



I had made a false move, and so tried to recover my lost ground. She

would not permit me. The conversation which had run in pleasant channels

for two happy hours was ended. Thenceforth, in spite of my obstructive

efforts, subjects were introduced which could not be conversed on but

must be discussed. On every one Miss Brande took the part of the weak

against the strong, oblivious of every consideration of policy and even

ethics, careful only that she championed the weak because of their

weakness. Miss Metford abetted her in this, and went further in their

joint revolt against common sense. Miss Brande was argumentative,

pleading. Miss Metford was defiant. Between the two I fared ill.



Of course the Woman question was soon introduced, and in this I made the

best defence of time-honoured customs of which I was capable. But my

outworks fell down as promptly before the voices of these young women as

did the walls of Jericho before the blast of a ram's horn. Nothing that

I had cherished was left to me. Woman no longer wanted man's protection.

("Enslavement" they called it.) Why should she, when in the evolution of

society there was not now, or presently would not be, anything from

which to protect her? ("Competing slaveowners" was what they said.) When

you wish to behold protectors you must postulate dangers. The first are

valueless save as a preventive of the second. Both evils will be

conveniently dispensed with. All this was new to me, most of my thinking

life having been passed in distant lands, where the science of ethics is

codified into a simple statute--the will of the strongest.



When my dialectical humiliation was within one point of completion, Miss

Metford came to my rescue. For some time she had looked on at my

discomfiture with a good-natured neutrality, and when I was

metaphorically in my last ditch, she arose, stretched her shapely

figure, flicked some clinging grass blades from her suit, and declared

it was time to return. Brande was a man of science, but as such he was

still amenable to punctuality in the matter of dinner.



On the way back I was discreetly silent. When we reached the house I

went to look for Herbert Brande. He was engaged in his study, and I

could not intrude upon him there. To do so would be to infringe the only

rigid rule in his household. Nor had I an opportunity of speaking to him

alone until after dinner, when I induced him to take a turn with me

round the lake. I smoked strong cigars, and made one of these my excuse.



The sun was setting when we started, and as we walked slowly the

twilight shadows were deepening fast by the time we reached the further

shore. Brande was in high spirits. Some new scientific experiment, I

assumed, had come off successfully. He was beside himself. His

conversation was volcanic. Now it rumbled and roared with suppressed

fires. Anon, it burst forth in scintillating flashes and shot out

streams of quickening wit. I have been his auditor in the three great

epochs of his life, but I do not think that anything that I have

recollected of his utterances equals the bold impromptus, the masterly

handling of his favourite subject, the Universe, which fell from him on

that evening. I could not answer him. I could not even follow him, much

less suppress him. But I had come forth with a specific object in view,

and I would not be gainsaid. And so, as my business had to be done

better that it should be done quickly. Taking advantage of a pause which

he made, literally for breath, I commenced abruptly:



"I want to speak to you about your sister."



He turned on me surprised. Then his look changed to one of such complete

contempt, and withal his bearing suggested so plainly that he knew

beforehand what I was going to say, that I blurted out defiantly, and

without stopping to choose my words:



"I think it an infernal shame that you, her brother, should allow her to

masquerade about with this good-natured but eccentric Metford girl--I

should say Miss Metford."



"Why so?" he asked coldly.



"Because it is absurd; and because it isn't decent."



"My dear Abraham," Brande said quietly, "or is your period so recent as

that of Isaac or Jacob? My sister pleases herself in these matters, and

has every right to do so."



"She has not. You are her brother."



"Very well, I am her brother. She has no right to think for herself; no

right to live save by my permission. Then I graciously permit her to

think, and I allow her to live."



"You'll be sorry for this nonsense sooner or later--and don't say I

didn't warn you." The absolute futility of my last clause struck me

painfully at the moment, but I could not think of any way to better it.

It was hard to reason with such a man, one who denied the fundamental

principles of family life. I was thinking over what to say next, when

Brande stopped and put his hand, in a kindly way, upon my shoulder.



"My good fellow," he said, "what does it matter? What do the actions of

my sister signify more than the actions of any other man's sister? And

what about the Society? Have you made up your mind about joining?"



"I have. I made it up twice to-day," I answered. "I made it up in the

morning that I would see yourself and your Society to the devil before I

would join it. Excuse my bluntness; but you are so extremely candid

yourself you will not mind."



"Certainly, I do not mind bluntness. Rudeness is superfluous."



"And I made it up this evening," I said, a little less aggressively,

"that I would join it if the devil himself were already in it, as I half

suspect he is."



"I like that," Brande said gravely. "That is the spirit I want in the

man who joins me."



To which I replied: "What under the sun is the object of this Society of

yours?"



"Proximately to complete our investigations--already far advanced--into

the origin of the Universe."



"And ultimately?"



"I cannot tell you now. You will not know that until you join us."



"And if your ultimate object does not suit me, I can withdraw?"



"No, it would then be too late."



"How so? I am not morally bound by an oath which I swear without full

knowledge of its consequences and responsibilities."



"Oath! The oath you swear! You swear no oath. Do you fancy you are

joining a society of Rechabites or Carmelites, or mediaeval rubbish of

that kind. Don't keep so painstakingly behind the age."



I thought for a moment over what this mysterious man had said, over the

hidden dangers in which his mad chimeras might involve the most innocent

accomplice. Then I thought of that dark-eyed, sweet-voiced, young girl,

as she lay on the green grass under the beech-tree in the wood and

out-argued me on every point. Very suddenly, and, perhaps, in a manner

somewhat grandiose, I answered him:



"I will join your Society for my own purpose, and I will quit it when I

choose."



"You have every right," Brande said carelessly. "Many have done the same

before you."



"Can you introduce me to any one who has done so?" I asked, with an

eagerness that could not be dissembled.



"I am afraid I can not."



"Or give me an address?"



"Oh yes, that is simple." He turned over a note-book until he found a

blank page. Then he drew the pencil from its loop, put the point to his

lips, and paused. He was standing with his back to the failing light, so

I could not see the expression of his mobile face. When he paused, I

knew that no ordinary doubt beset him. He stood thus for nearly a

minute. While he waited, I watched a pair of swans flit ghost-like over

the silken surface of the lake. Between us and a dark bank of wood the

lights of the house flamed red. The melancholy even-song of a blackbird

wailed out from a shrubbery beside us. Then Herbert Brande wrote in his

note-book, and tearing out the page, he handed it to me, saying: "That

is the address of the last man who quitted us."



The light was now so dim I had to hold the paper close to my eyes in

order to read the lines. They were these--



GEORGE DELANY,

Near Saint Anne's Chapel,

Woking Cemetery.