THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY HENJQf VAN THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY A Book of Romance And Some Half-Told Tales HENRY VAN DYKE the unknown " LetX represent quantity LeXentreb Algebra NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS I 1912 Copyright, 1912, by Charles Scribner s Sons Published October, 1912 BOOKS BY HENRY VAN DYKE PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCKIBNER S SONS The Unknown Quantity. Illustrated in color net $1.50 The Ruling: Passion. Illustrated in color . $1.50 The Blue Flower. Illustrated in color . $1.50 Jt Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land. Illustrated in color net $1.50 Days Off. Illustrated in color $1.50 Little Rivers. Illustrated in color $1.50 Fisherman s Luck. Illustrated in color . $1.50 Jt Poems .... net $2.00 The White Bees, and Other Poems . net $1.25 The Builders, and Other Poems .... net $1.00 Music, and Other Poems net $1.00 The Toiling of Felix, and Other Poems . net $1.00 The House of Rimmon net $1.00 THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY It did people good to buy of her. DeBicatcU IN THANKFULNESS TO THE MEMORY OF DEAR DAUGHTER DOROTHEA RAY OF LIGHT SONG OF JOY HEART OF LOVE 1888-1912 DOROTHEA A deeper crimson in the rose, A deeper blue in sky and sea, And ever, as the summer goes, A deeper loss in losing thee ! A deeper music in the strain Of hermit-thrush from lonely tree ; And, deeper grows the sense of gain My life has found in having thee. A deeper love, a deeper rest, A deeper joy in all I see ; And ever deeper in my breast A silver song that comes from thee. H. V. D. MOUNT DESERT, August 1, 1912. PREFACE THERE is a chain of little lakes a necklace of lost jewels lying in the forest that clothes the blue Laurentian Mountains in the Province of Quebec. Each of these hidden lakes has its own character and therefore its own charm. One is bright and friendly, with wooded hills around it, and silver beaches, and red berries of the rowan-tree fringing the shores. Another is sombre and lonely, set in a circle of dark firs and larches, with sighing, trem bling reeds along the bank. Another is only a round bowl of crystal water, the colour of an aqua marine, transparent and joyful as the sudden smile on the face of a child. Another is surrounded by fire-scarred mountains, and steep cliffs frown above it, and the shores are rough with fallen fragments of rock; it seems as if the setting of this jewel had been marred and broken in battle, but the gem itself shines tranquilly amid the ruin, and the lichens paint the rocks, and the new woods spring vii PREFACE bright green upon the mountains. There are many more lakes, and all are different. The thread that binds them together is the little river flowing from one to another, now with a short, leaping passage, now with a longer, winding course. You may follow it in your canoe, paddling through the stillwaters, dropping down the rapids with your setting-pole, wading and dragging your boat in the shallows, and coming to each lake as a surprise, something distinct and separate and per sonal. It seems strange that they should be sisters; they are so unlike. But the same stream, rising in unknown springs, and seeking an unknown sea, runs through them all, and lives in them all, and makes them all belong together. The thread which unites the stories in this book is like that. It is the sign of the unknown quan tity, the sense of mystery and strangeness, that runs through human life. We think we know a great deal more about the processes and laws and conditions of life than men used to know. And probably that is true; though it is not quite certain, for it is hard to say viii PREFACE precisely how much those inscrutable old Egyp tians and Hebrews and Chaldseans and Hindus knew and did not tell. But granting that we have gone beyond them, we have not gone very far, we have not come to perfect knowledge. There is still something around us and within that baffles and surprises us. Events happen which are as mysterious after our glib explanations as they were before. Changes for good or ill take place in the heart of man for which his intellect gives no reason. There is the daily miracle of the human will, the power of free choice, for which no one can account, and which sometimes flashes out the strangest things. There is the secret, incalculable influence of one life on another. There is the web of circumstance woven to an unseen pattern. There is the vast, unexplored land of dreams in which we spend one-third of our lives without even remembering most of what be falls us there. I am not thinking now of the so-called "realm of the occult," nor of those extraordinary occur rences which startle and perplex the world from ix PREFACE time to time, nor of those complicated and subtle problems of crime which are set to puzzle us. I am thinking of much more human and familiar things, quite natural and inevitable as it seems, which make us feel that life is threaded through and through by the unknown quantity. This is the thread that I have followed from one to another of these stories. They are as different as my lakes in the North Country; some larger and some smaller; some brighter and some darker; for that is the way life goes. But most of them end happily, even after sorrow; for that is what I think life means. Four of the stories have grown out of slight hints, for which I return thanks. For the two Breton legends which appear in "The Wedding-Ring" and "Messengers at the Window," I am indebted to my friend, M. Anatole Le Braz; for an incident which suggested "The Night Call," to my friend, Mrs. Edward Robinson; and for the germ of "The Mansion," to my friend, Mr. W. D. Sammis. If the stories that have come from their hints are different from what my friends thought they PREFACE would be, that is only another illustration of the theme. Between the longer stories there are three groups of tales that are told in a briefer and different manner. They are like etchings in which more is suggested than is in the picture. For this reason they are called Half-Told Tales, in the hope that they may mean to the reader more than they say. Without the unknown quantity life would be easier, perhaps, but certainly less interesting. It is not likely that we shall ever eliminate it. But we can live with it and work with it bravely, hope fully, happily, if we believe that after all it means good infinite good, passing comprehension to all who live in love. AVALON, June 1, 1912. CONTENTS PAQB The Wedding-Ring 3 Messengers at the Window 25 The Countersign of the Cradle 43 The Key of the Tower 67 The Ripening of the Fruit 73 The King s Jewel 80 The Music-Lover 87 Humoreske 103 An Old Game 139 The Unruly Sprite 144 A Change of Air The Night Call 167 The Effectual Fervent Prayer 203 The Return of the Charm 235 Xlll CONTENTS PAGE Beggars Under the Bush 249 Stronghold 257 In the Odour of Sanctity 266 The Sad Shepherd 2S7 The Mansion 325 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS It did people good to buy of her Frontispiece From a drawing by Charles S. Chapman. Facing page The King s Jewel 82 From a drawing by Garth Jones. The Music-Lover 90 From a drawing by Sigismond de Ivanowski. The Unruly Sprite 154 From a drawing by Garth Jones. She flung herself across his knees and put her arms around him 230 From a drawing by Paul Julien Meylan. Stronghold 258 From a drawing by Garth Jones. So the sad shepherd thanked them for their entertainment From a drawing by Blendon Campbell. Title-page, head and end pieces by Garth Jones THE WEDDING-RING THE WEDDING-RING BEFORE Toinette Girard made up her mind to marry Prosper Leclere, you remember the man at Abbeville who had such a brave heart that he was not willing to fight with an old friend, be fore Toinette perceived and understood how brave Prosper was, it seemed as if she were very much in doubt whether she did not love some one else more than she loved him, whether he and she really were made for each other, whether, in short, she cared for him enough to give herself entirely to him. But after they had been married six weeks there was no doubt left in her mind. He was the one man in the world for her. He satisfied her to the core although by this time she knew most of his faults. It was not so much that she loved him in spite of them, but she simply could not imagine him changed in any way without losing a part of him, and that idea was both intolerable and in- 3 THE WEDDING-RING credible to her. Just as he was, she clung to him and became one with him. I know it seems ridiculous to describe a love like that, and it is certainly impossible to explain it. It is not common, nor regular, nor altogether jus tifiable by precept and authority.