Old Aeson

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

　　From Noughts and Crosses: Stories, Studies and Sketches.

　　Judge between me and my guest, the stranger within my gates, the manwhom in his extremity I clothed and fed.

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　　I remember well the time of his coming, for it happened at the end offive days and nights during which the year passed from strength toage; in the interval between the swallow's departure and theredwing's coming; when the tortoise in my garden crept into hiswinter quarters, and the equinox was on us, with an east wind thatparched the blood in the trees, so that their leaves for once knew nogradations of red and yellow, but turned at a stroke to brown, andcrackled like tin-foil.At five o'clock in the morning of the sixth day I looked out.The wind still whistled across the sky, but now without theobstruction of any cloud. Full in front of my window Sirius flashedwith a whiteness that pierced the eye. A little to the right, thewhole constellation of Orion was suspended clear over a wedge-likegap in the coast, wherein the sea could be guessed rather than seen.And, travelling yet further, the eye fell on two brilliant lights,the one set high above the other--the one steady and a fiery red, theother yellow and blazing intermittently--the one Aldebaran, the otherrevolving on the lighthouse top, fifteen miles away.Half-way up the east, the moon, now in her last quarter and decrepit,climbed with the dawn close at her heels. And at this hour theybrought in the Stranger, asking if my pleasure were to give himclothing and hospitality.

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　　Nobody knew whence he came--except that it was from the wind and thenight--seeing that he spoke in a strange tongue, moaning and making asound like the twittering of birds in a chimney. But his journeymust have been long and painful; for his legs bent under him, and hecould not stand when they lifted him. So, finding it useless toquestion him for the time, I learnt from the servants all they had totell--namely, that they had come upon him, but a few minutes before,lying on his face within my grounds, without staff or scrip,bareheaded, spent, and crying feebly for succour in his foreigntongue; and that in pity they had carried him in and brought him tome.Now for the look of this man, he seemed a century old, being bald,extremely wrinkled, with wide hollows where the teeth should be, andthe flesh hanging loose and flaccid on his cheek-bones; and whatcolour he had could have come only from exposure to that bitternight. But his eyes chiefly spoke of his extreme age. They wereblue and deep, and filled with the wisdom of years; and when heturned them in my direction they appeared to look through me, beyondme, and back upon centuries of sorrow and the slow endurance of man,as if his immediate misfortune were but an inconsiderable item in along list. They frightened me. Perhaps they conveyed a warning ofthat which I was to endure at their owner's hands. From compassion,I ordered the servants to take him to my wife, with word that Iwished her to set food before him, and see that it passed his lips.So much I did for this Stranger. Now learn how he rewarded me.

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　　He has taken my youth from me, and the most of my substance, and thelove of my wife.From the hour when he tasted food in my house, he sat there withouthint of going. Whether from design, or because age and hissufferings had really palsied him, he came back tediously to life andwarmth, nor for many days professed himself able to stand erect.Meanwhile he lived on the best of our hospitality. My wife tendedhim, and my servants ran at his bidding; for he managed early to makethem understand scraps of his language, though slow in acquiringours--I believe out of calculation, lest someone should inquire hisbusiness (which was a mystery) or hint at his departure. I myselfoften visited the room he had appropriated, and would sit for an hourwatching those fathomless eyes while I tried to make head or tail ofhis discourse. When we were alone, my wife and I used to speculateat times on his probable profession. Was he a merchant?--an agedmariner?--a tinker, tailor, beggarman, thief? We could never decide,and he never disclosed.Then the awakening came. I sat one day in the chair beside his,wondering as usual. I had felt heavy of late, with a soreness andlanguor in my bones, as if a dead weight hung continually on myshoulders, and another rested on my heart. A warmer colour in theStranger's cheek caught my attention; and I bent forward, peeringunder the pendulous lids. His eyes were livelier and less profound.The melancholy was passing from them as breath fades off a pane ofglass. He was growing younger. Starting up, I ran across theroom, to the mirror.There were two white hairs in my fore-lock; and, at the corner ofeither eye, half a dozen radiating lines. I was an old man.Turning, I regarded the Stranger. He sat phlegmatic as an Indianidol; and in my fancy I felt the young blood draining from my ownheart, and saw it mantling in his cheeks. Minute by minute I watchedthe slow miracle--the old man beautified. As buds unfold, he put ona lovely youthfulness; and, drop by drop, left me winter.I hurried from the room, and seeking my wife, laid the case beforeher. "This is a ghoul," I said, "that we harbour: he is sucking mybest blood, and the household is clean bewitched." She laid asidethe book in which she read, and laughed at me. Now my wife waswell-looking, and her eyes were the light of my soul. Consider,then, how I felt as she laughed, taking the Stranger's part againstme. When I left her, it was with a new suspicion in my heart."How shall it be," I thought, "if after stealing my youth, he go onto take the one thing that is better?"In my room, day by day, I brooded upon this--hating my ownalteration, and fearing worse. With the Stranger there was no longerany disguise. His head blossomed in curls; white teeth filled thehollows of his mouth; the pits in his cheeks were heaped full withroses, glowing under a transparent skin. It was Aeson renewed andthankless; and he sat on, devouring my substance.Now having probed my weakness, and being satisfied that I no longerdared to turn him out, he, who had half-imposed his native tongueupon us, constraining the household to a hideous jargon, the bastardgrowth of two languages, condescended to jerk us back rudely into ourown speech once more, mastering it with a readiness that proved hisformer dissimulation, and using it henceforward as the sole vehicleof his wishes. On his past life he remained silent; but tookoccasion to confide in me that he proposed embracing a militarycareer, as soon as he should tire of the shelter of my roof.And I groaned in my chamber; for that which I feared had come topass. He was making open love to my wife. And the eyes with whichhe looked at her, and the lips with which he coaxed her, had beenmine; and I was an old man. Judge now between me and this guest.One morning I went to my wife; for the burden was past bearing, and Imust satisfy myself. I found her tending the plants on herwindow-ledge; and when she turned, I saw that years had not takenfrom her comeliness one jot. And I was old.So I taxed her on the matter of this Stranger, saying this and that,and how I had cause to believe he loved her."That is beyond doubt," she answered, and smiled."By my head, I believe his fancy is returned!" I blurted out.And her smile grew radiant, as, looking me in the face, she answered,"By my soul, husband, it is."Then I went from her, down into my garden, where the day grew hot andthe flowers were beginning to droop. I stared upon them and couldfind no solution to the problem that worked in my heart. And then Iglanced up, eastward, to the sun above the privet-hedge, and sawhim coming across the flower beds, treading them down inwantonness. He came with a light step and a smile, and I waited forhim, leaning heavily on my stick."Give me your watch!" he called out, as he drew near."Why should I give you my watch?" I asked, while something worked inmy throat."Because I wish it; because it is gold; because you are too old, andwon't want it much longer.""Take it," I cried, pulling the watch out and thrusting it into hishand. "Take it--you who have taken all that is better! Strip me,spoil me--"A soft laugh sounded above, and I turned. My wife was looking downon us from the window, and her eyes were both moist and glad."Pardon me," she said, "it is you who are spoiling the child."

　　THE END.