The Paradise of Choice

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

　　

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It was not as in certain toy houses that foretell the weather bymeans of a man-doll and a woman-doll--the man going in as the womancomes out, and vice versa. In this case both man and woman steppedout, the man half a minute behind; so that the woman was almost atthe street-corner while he hesitated just outside the door, blinkingup at the sky, and then dropping his gaze along the pavement.The sky was flattened by a fog that shut down on the roofs andchimneys like a tent-cloth, white and opaque. Now and then ayellowish wave rolled across it from eastward, and the cloth would beshaken. When this happened, the street was always filled with gloom,and the receding figure of the woman lost in it for a while.The man thrust a hand into his trousers pocket, pulled out a penny,and after considering for a couple of seconds, spun it carelessly.It fell in his palm, tail up; and he regarded it as a sailor might acompass. The trident in Britannia's hand pointed westward, down thestreet."West it is," he decided with a shrug, implying that all the fourquarters were equally to his mind. He was pocketing the coin, whenfootsteps approached, and he lifted his head. It was the womanreturning. She halted close to him with an undecided manner, and thepair eyed each other.We may know them as Adam and Eve, for both were beginning a worldthat contained neither friends nor kin. Both had very white handsand very short hair. The man was tall and meagre, with a recedingforehead and a sandy complexion that should have been freckled, butwas not. He had a trick of half-closing his eyes when he looked atanything, not screwing them up as seamen do, but appearing rather todrop a film over them like the inner eyelid of a bird. The woman'seyes resembled a hare's, being brown and big, and set far back, sothat she seemed at times to be looking right behind her. She wore afaded look, from her dust-coloured hair to her boots, which wantedblacking."It all seems so wide," she began; "so wide--""I'm going west," said the man, and started at a slow walk.Eve followed, a pace behind his heels, treading almost in his tracks.He went on, taking no notice of her."How long were you in there?" she asked, after a while."Ten year'." Adam spoke without looking back. "'Cumulated jobs, youknow.""I was only two. Blankets it was with me. They recommended me tomercy.""You got it," Adam commented, with his eyes fastened ahead.The fog followed them as they turned into a street full of traffic.Its frayed edge rose and sank, was parted and joined again--nowdescending to the first-storey windows and blotting out the cabmenand passengers on omnibus tops, now rolling up and over the parapetsof the houses and the sky-signs. It was noticeable that in the crowdthat hustled along the pavement Adam moved like a puppy not yetwaywise, but with lifted face, while Eve followed with her head bent,seeing nothing but his heels. She observed that his boots werehardly worn at all.Three or four times, as they went along, Adam would eye a shop windowand turn in at the door, while Eve waited. He returned fromdifferent excursions with a twopenny loaf, a red sausage, a pipe, boxof lights and screw of tobacco, and a noggin or so of gin in an oldsoda-water bottle. Once they turned aside into a public, and had adrink of gin together. Adam paid.Thus for two hours they plodded westward, and the fog and crowd werewith them all the way--strangers jostling them by the shoulder on thegreasy pavement, hansoms splashing the brown mud over them--the samedin for miles. Many shops were lighting up, and from these a yellowflare streamed into the fog; or a white when it came from theelectric light; or separate beams of orange, green, and violet, whenthe shop was a druggist's.Then they came to the railings of Hyde Park, and trudged down thehill alongside them to Kensington Gardens. It was yet early in theafternoon. Adam pulled up."Come and look," he said. "It's autumn in there," and he went in atthe Victoria gate, with Eve at his heels."Mister, how old might you be?" she asked, encouraged by the sound ofhis voice."Thirty.""And you've passed ten years in--in there." She jerked her head backand shivered a little.He had stooped to pick up a leaf. It was a yellow leaf from achestnut that reached into the fog above them. He picked it slowlyto pieces, drawing full draughts of air into his lungs. "Fifteen,"he jerked out, "one time and another. 'Cumulated, you know."Pausing, he added, in a matter-of-fact voice, "What I've took wouldcome to less'n a pound's worth, altogether."The Gardens were deserted, and the pair roamed towards the centre,gazing curiously at so much of sodden vegetation as the fog allowedthem to see. Their eyes were not jaded; to them a blade of grass wasnot a little thing.They were down on the south side, amid the heterogeneous plants therecollected, examining each leaf, spelling the Latin labels andcomparing them, when the hour came for closing. In the denseatmosphere the park-keeper missed them. The gates were shut; and thefog settled down thicker with the darkness.Then the man and the woman were aware, and grew afraid. They sawonly a limitless plain of grey about them, and heard a murmur as ofthe sea rolling around it."This gaol is too big," whispered Eve, and they took hands. The mantrembled. Together they moved into the fog, seeking an outlet.

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　　At the end of an hour or so they stumbled on a seat, and sat down forawhile to share the bread and sausage, and drink the gin. Eve wastired out and would have slept, but the man shook her by theshoulder."For God's sake don't leave me to face this alone. Can you sing?"She began "When other lips . . ." in a whisper which graduallydeveloped into a reedy soprano. She had forgotten half the words,but Adam lit a pipe and listened appreciatively."Tell you what," he said at the close; "you'll be able to pick up alittle on the road with your singing. We'll tramp west to-morrow,and pass ourselves off for man and wife. Likely we'll get some farmwork, down in the country. Let's get out of this."They joined hands and started off again, unable to see a foot beforethem in the blackness. So it happened next morning that thepark-keeper, coming at his usual hour to unlock the gates, found aman and a woman inside with their white faces pressed against therailings, through which they glared like caged beasts. He set themfree, and they ran out, for his paradise was too big.

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　　Now, facing west, they tramped for two days on the Bath road, leavingthe fog behind them, and drew near Reading. It was a clear night asthey approached it, and the sky studded with stars that twinkledfrostily. Eleven o'clock sounded from a tower ahead. On theoutskirts of the town they were passing an ugly modern villa with alarge garden before it, when an old gentleman came briskly up theroad and turned in at the gate.Adam swung round on his heel and followed him up the path, begging.Eve hung by the gate."No," said the old gentleman, fitting his latchkey into the door,"I have no work to offer. Eh?--Is that your wife by the gate?Hungry?"Adam whispered a lie in his ear."Poor woman, and to be on the road, in such a state, at this hour!Well, you shall share my supper before you search for a lodging.Come inside," he called out to Eve, "and be careful of the step.It's a high one."He led them in, past the ground-floor rooms and up a flight ofstairs. After pausing on the landing and waiting a long time for Eveto take breath, he began to ascend another flight."Are we going to have supper on the leads?" Adam wondered.They followed the old gentleman up to the attics and into a kind oftower, where was a small room with two tables spread, the one with asupper, the other with papers, charts, and mathematical instruments."Here," said their guide, "is bread, a cold chicken, and a bottle ofwhisky. I beg you to excuse me while you eat. The fact is, I dabblein astronomy. My telescope is on the roof above, and to-night everymoment is precious."There was a ladder fixed in the room, leading to a trap-door in theceiling. Up this ladder the old gentleman trotted, and in half aminute had disappeared, shutting the trap behind him.It was half an hour or more before Adam climbed after him, with Eve,as usual, at his heels."My dear madam!" cried the astronomer, "and in your state!""I told you a lie," Adam said. "I've come to beg your pardon.May we look at the stars before we go?"In two minutes the old gentleman was pointing out theconstellations--the Great Bear hanging low in the north-east,pointing to the Pole star, and across it to Cassiopeia's brightzigzag high in the heavens; the barren square of Pegasus, with itslong tail stretching to the Milky Way, and the points that clusterround Perseus; Arcturus, white Vega and yellow Capella; the Twins,and beyond them the Little Dog twinkling through a coppice of nakedtrees to eastward; yet further round the Pleiads climbing, with redAldebaran after them; below them Orion's belt, and last of all,Sirius flashing like a diamond, white and red, and resting on thehorizon where the dark pasture lands met the sky.Then, growing flushed with his subject, he began to descant on thesestars, their distances and velocities; how that each was a sun,careering in measureless space, each trailing a company of worldsthat spun and hurtled round it; that the Dog-star's light shone intotheir eyes across a hundred trillion miles; that the star itselfswept along a thousand miles in a minute. He hurled figures at them,heaping millions on millions. "See here"--and, turning the telescopeon its pivot, he sighted it carefully. "Look at that small star inthe Great Bear: that's Groombridge Eighteen-thirty. He's twohundred billions of miles away. He travels two hundred miles asecond, does Groombridge Eighteen-thirty. In one minute GroombridgeEighteen-thirty could go from here to Hong-Kong.""Then damn Groombridge Eighteen-thirty!"It was uttered in the bated tone that night enforces: but it camewith a groan. The old gentleman faced round in amazement."He means, sir," explained the woman, who had grown to understandAdam passing well, "my man means that it's all too big for us.We've strayed out of prison, sir, and shall feel safer back again,looking at all this behind bars."She reached out a hand to Adam: and this time it was he thatfollowed, as one blinded and afraid. In three months they were backagain at the gates of the paradise they had wandered from.There stood a warder before it, clad in blue: but he carried noflaming sword, and the door opened and let them in.

　　THE END.

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