Part 1 (1/2)

SHE

By H Rider Haggard

INTRODUCTION

In giving to the world the record of what, looked at as an adventure only, is I suppose one of the one by mortal men, I feel it incumbent on me to explain what my exact connection with it is And so I may as well say at once that I am not the narrator but only the editor of this extraordinary history, and then go on to tell how it found its way intowith a friend, ”vir doctissimus et amicus neus,” at a certain University, which for the purposes of this history ill call Cae, and was one day oing arentle fellow I have ever seen He was very tall, very broad, and had a look of power and a grace of bearing that see In addition his face was alood face as well as a beautiful one, and when he lifted his hat, which he did just then to a passing lady, I saw that his head was covered with little golden curls growing close to the scalp

”Good gracious!” I said to , ”why, that fellow looks like a statue of Apollo come to life What a splendid man he is!”

”Yes,” he answered, ”he is the handsomest man in the University, and one of the nicest too They call him 'the Greek God'; but look at the other one, he's Vincey's (that's the God's nauardian, and supposed to be full of every kind of information They call him 'Charon'” I looked, and found the older lorified specimen of hue, and was I think as ugly as his coin with, he was shortish, rather bow- legged, very deep chested, and with unusually long arht down on his forehead, and his whiskers grew right up to his hair, so that there was uncoether he re very pleasing and genial about thethat I should like to know hi easier I know Vincey; I'll introduce you,” and he did, and for so-- about the Zulu people, I think, for I had just returned from the Cape at the time Presently, however, a stoutish lady, whose na the paveirl, and these two Mr Vincey, who clearly knew the off in their coe in the expression of the elder man, whose na He suddenly stopped short in his talk, cast a reproachful look at his companion, and, with an abrupt nod to myself, turned and marched off alone across the street I heard afterwards that he was popularly supposed to be as , which accounted for his precipitate retreat I cannot say, however, that young Vincey showed much aversion to fe, and re to my friend at the time that he was not the sort of man who to ly probable that the acquaintance would end in a transfer of her affections He was altogether too good-looking, and, what is more, he had none of that consciousness and conceit about him which usually afflicts handsome men, and makes them deservedly disliked by their fellows

That sa my visit came to an end, and this was the last I saw or heard of ”Charon” and ”the Greek God” forday Indeed, I have never seen either of them from that hour to this, and do not think it probable that I shall But a o I received a letter and two packets, one of ned by ”Horace Holly,” a name that at the moe, Cae, May 1, 18-- ”My dear Sir,--You will be surprised, considering the very slight nature of our acquaintance, to get a letter fro you that we once o, when I and my ward Leo Vincey were introduced to you in the street at Cae To be brief and come to my business I have recently read witha Central African adventure I take it that this book is partly true, and partly an effort of the iivenether with the Scarab, the 'Royal Son of the Sun,' and the original sherd, I a to you by hand), that my ward, or rather my adopted son Leo Vincey and h a real African adventure, of a nature so much more marvellous than the one which you describe, that to tell the truth I am almost ashamed to submit it to you lest you should disbelieve my tale You will see it stated in this manuscript that I, or rather we, hadour joint lives Nor should we alter our determination were it not for a circumstance which has recently arisen We are for reasons that, after perusing this ain this time to Central Asia where, if anywhere upon this earth, wisdom is to be found, and we anticipate that our sojourn there will be a long one Possibly we shall not return Under these altered conditions it has beco from the world an account of a phenomenon which we believe to be of unparalleled interest, merely because our private life is involved, or because we are afraid of ridicule and doubt being cast upon our statements I hold one view about this matter, and Leo holds another, and finally, after much discussion, we have co you full leave to publish it if you think fit, the only stipulation being that you shall disguise our real na our personal identity as is consistent with the maintenance of the bona fides of the narrative

”And nohat am I to say further? I really do not know beyond onceis described in the accoards She herself I have nothing to add Day by day we gave greater occasion to regret that we did not better avail ourselves of our opportunities to obtain more information from that marvellous woman Who was she? How did she first coion? We never ascertained, and now, alas! we never shall, at least not yet These and ood of asking theive you complete freedom, and as a reward you will, we believe, have the credit of presenting to the world the uished from romance, that its records can show Read the manuscript (which I have copied out fairly for your benefit), and let me know

”Believe me, very truly yours, ”L Horace Holly[]

”PS--Of course, if any profit results fro should you care to undertake its publication, you can do what you like with it, but if there is a loss I will leave instructions with my lawyers, Messrs Geoffrey and Jordan, to meet it We entrust the sherd, the scarab, and the parch, till such tiain --L H H”

[] This nahout in accordance with the writer's request--Editor

This letter, as ined, astonished me considerably, but when I came to look at the MS, which the pressure of other work prevented ht, I was still more astonished, as I think the reader will be also, and at once made up my mind to press on with the matter I wrote to this effect to Mr Holly, but a week afterwards received a letter fro my oith the information that their client and Mr Leo Vincey had already left this country for Thibet, and they did not at present know their address

Well, that is all I have to say Of the history itself the reader ive it him, with the exception of a very few alterations,the identity of the actors froeneral public, exactly as it came to me Personally I have made up my mind to refrain from comments At first I was inclined to believe that this history of a woman on whom, clothed in the majesty of her almost endless years, the shadow of Eternity itself lay like the dark wing of Night, was so Then I thought that it ht be a bold attempt to portray the possible results of practical i the substance of a th from Earth, and in whose human boso world around her the winds and the tides rise and fall and beat unceasingly But as I went on I abandoned that idea also To me the story seems to bear the stamp of truth upon its face Its explanation I ht preface, which circumstances make necessary, I introduce the world to Ayesha and the Caves of Kor--The Editor

PS--There is on consideration one circumstance that, after a reperusal of this history, struckthe attention of the reader to it He will observe that so far as we arein the character of Leo Vincey which in the opinion of most people would have been likely to attract an intellect so powerful as that of Ayesha He is not even, at any rate to ine that Mr Holly would under ordinary circumstances have easily outstripped him in the favour of She Can it be that extremes meet, and that the very excess and splendour of her e physical reaction to worshi+p at the shrine ofbut a splendid animal loved for his hereditary Greek beauty? Or is the true explanation what I believe it to be-- na further than we can see, perceived the gerreatness which lay hid within her lover's soul, and well knew that under the influence of her gift of life, watered by her wisdom, and shone upon with the sunshi+ne of her presence, it would bloo the world with light and fragrance?

Here also I am not able to answer, but ment on the facts before hies

I

MY VISITOR

There are so detail seeraven on the et it, and so it is with the scene that I am about to describe It rises as clearly before ht it had happened but yesterday

It was in this veryHorace Holly, was sitting one night inaway at soo up for my fellowshi+p within a week, and was expected by uishto the mantelpiece, took down a pipe and filled it There was a candle burning on the lass at the back of it; and as I was in the act of lighting the pipe I caught sight of lass, and paused to reflect The lightedlass, and reflected

”Well,” I said aloud, at last, ”it is to be hoped that I shall be able to do so with the inside ofby the help of the outside”

This rehtly obscure, but I was in reality alluding to my physical deficiencies Most men of twenty-two are endowed at any rate with some share of the comeliness of youth, but to me even this was denied Short, thick-set, and deep-chested al sinewy arroith aon which the forest had once un to encroach; such was o, and such, with some modification, it is to this day Like Cain, I was branded--branded by Nature with the staifted by Nature with iron and abnorly was I that the spruce young h of my feats of endurance and physical prowess, did not even care to be seen walking with me Was it wonderful that I was misanthropic and sullen? Was it wonderful that I brooded and worked alone, and had no friends--at least, only one? I was set apart by Nature to live alone, and draw coht of me Only a week before I had heard one call , and say that I had converted her to the monkey theory Once, indeed, a woman pretended to care for me, and I lavished all the pent-up affection of my nature upon her Then money that was to have come to me went elsewhere, and she discardedcreature before or since, for I was caught by her sweet face, and loved her; and in the end by way of answer she took lass, and stood side by side with me, and looked into it

”Now,” she said, ”if I am Beauty, who are you?” That hen I was only twenty

And so I stood and stared, and felt a sort of grim satisfaction in the sense of my own loneliness; for I had neither father, nor mother, nor brother; and as I did so there came a knock at my door

I listened before I went to open it, for it was nearly twelve o'clock at night, and I was in no e, or, indeed, in the world--perhaps it was he

Just then the person outside the door coughed, and I hastened to open it, for I knew the cough

A tall reat personal beauty, caht of a ht hand He placed the box upon the table, and then fell into an awful fit of coughing He coughed and coughed till his face becaan to spit up blood I poured out soave it to hih his better was very bad indeed

”Why did you keepthere in the cold?” he asked pettishly ”You know the draughts are death to me”

”I did not knoho it was,” I answered ”You are a late visitor”

”Yes; and I verily believe it is hastly attempt at a smile ”I am done for, Holly I am done for I do not believe that I shall see to-o for a doctor”

He waved me back imperiously with his hand ”It is sober sense; but I want no doctors I have studied medicine and I know all about it No doctors can help me My last hour has come! For a year past I have only lived by a miracle Now listen to me as you have never listened to anybody before; for you will not have the opportunity of getting me to repeat my words We have been friends for two years; now tell me how much do you know about me?”

”I know that you are rich, and have had a fancy to coe that most men leave it I know that you have been married, and that your wife died; and that you have been the best, indeed almost the only friend I ever had”

”Did you know that I have a son?”

”No”

”I have He is five years old He cost me his mother's life, and I have never been able to bear to look upon his face in consequence Holly, if you will accept the trust, I a almost out of my chair ”Me!” I said

”Yes, you I have not studied you for two years for nothing I have known for some time that I could not last, and since I realised the fact I have been searching for some one to whom I could confide the boy and this,” and he tapped the iron box ”You are the ed tree, you are hard and sound at core Listen; the boy will be the only representative of one of the most ancient families in the world, that is, so far as fah at me when I say it, but one day it will be proved to you beyond a doubt, that yptian priest of Isis, though he was himself of Grecian extraction, and was called Kallikrates[] His father was one of the Greek mercenaries raised by Hak-Hor, a Mendesian Pharaoh of the twenty-ninth dynasty, and his grandfather or great-grandfather, I believe, was that very Kallikrates mentioned by Herodotus[+] In or about the year 339 before Christ, just at the time of the final fall of the Pharaohs, this Kallikrates (the priest) broke his vows of celibacy and fled froypt with a Princess of Royal blood who had fallen in love with him, and was finally wrecked upon the coast of Africa, sooa Bay now is, or rather to the north of it, he and his wife being saved, and all the remainder of their coreat hardshi+ps, but were at last entertained by the e people, a white woman of peculiar loveliness, who, under circumstances which I cannot enter into, but which you will one day learn, if you live, from the contents of the box, finally murdered my ancestor Kallikrates His wife, however, escaped, how, I know not, to Athens, bearing a child with her, whoer Five hundred years or rated to Rome under circumstances of which no trace re the idea of vengeance which we find set out in the naularly assuer Here, too, they remained for another five centuries or ne invaded Lombardy, where they were then settled, whereon the head of the fareat Emperor, and to have returned with him across the Alps, and finally to have settled in Brittany Eight generations later his lineal representative crossed to England in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and in the tireat honour and power From that time to the present day I can trace my descent without a break Not that the Vinceys--for that was the final corruption of the nalish soil--have been particularly distinguished--they never came much to the fore Sometimes they were soldiers, sometimes merchants, but on the whole they have preserved a dead level of respectability, and a still deader level ofof the present century they were randfather , and retired In 1821 he died, and my father succeeded hio he died also, leaving me a net income of about two thousand a year Then it was that I undertook an expedition in connection with that,” and he pointed to the iron chest, ”which ended disastrously enough On my way back I travelled in the South of Europe, and finally reached Athens There I ht well also have been called the 'Beautiful,' like my old Greek ancestor There I married her, and there, a year afterwards, whenand Beautiful, or, th

[+] The Kallikrates here referred to by my friend was a Spartan, spoken of by Herodotus (Herod ix 72) as being relorious battle of Plataea (September 22, BC 479), when the Lacedaemonians and Athenians under Pausanias routed the Persians, putting nearly 300,000 of thee, ”For Kallikrates died out of the battle, he came to the army the most beautiful man of the Greeks of that day--not only of the Lacedaemonians themselves, but of the other Greeks also He when Pausanias was sacrificing ounded in the side by an arrow; and then they fought, but on being carried off he regretted his death, and said to Ari for Greece, but at not having struck a blow, or, although he desired so to do, performed any deed worthy of himself” This Kallikrates, who appears to have been as brave as he was beautiful, is subsequentlythe {irenes} (young commanders), apart from the other Spartans and the Helots--L H H

He paused a while, his head sunk upon his hand, and then continued-- ”My e had diverted me from a project which I cannot enter into now I have no time, Holly--I have no time! One day, if you accept my trust, you will learn all about it After ain But first it was necessary, or, at least, I conceived that it was necessary, that I should attain to a perfect knowledge of Eastern dialects, especially Arabic It was to facilitate my studies that I came here Very soon, however, my disease developed itself, and now there is an end of h to ehing

I gave hi he went on-- ”I have never seen my boy, Leo, since he was a tiny baby I never could bear to see him, but they tell me that he is a quick and handsome child In this envelope,” and he produced a letter from his pocket addressed to myself, ”I have jotted down the course I wish followed in the boy's education It is a somewhat peculiar one At any rate, I could not entrust it to a stranger Once more, will you undertake it?”