The house was large, and its beautiful façade fronted a narrow canal.

To say that the spot was picturesque is to say little, for the whole

of Bruges is picturesque. This corner of the Quai des Augustins was

distinguished even in Bruges. The aspect of the mansion, with its wide

entrance and broad courtyard, on which the inner windows looked down

in regular array, was simple and dignified in the highest degree. The

architecture was an entirely admirable specimen of Flemish domestic

work of the best period, and the internal decoration and the furniture

matched to a nicety the exterior. It was in that grave and silent

abode, with Alresca, that I first acquired a taste for bric-â-brac.

Ah! the Dutch marquetry, the French cabinetry, the Belgian brassware,

the curious panellings, the oak-frames, the faience, the silver

candlesticks, the Amsterdam toys in silver, the Antwerp incunables,

and the famous tenth-century illuminated manuscript in half-uncials!

Such trifles abounded, and in that antique atmosphere they had the

quality of exquisite fitness.

And on the greenish waters of the canal floated several gigantic

swans, with insatiable and endless appetites. We used to feed them

from the dining-room windows, which overhung the canal.

I was glad to be out of London, and as the days passed my gladness

increased. I had not been pleased with myself in London. As the weeks

followed each other, I had been compelled to admit to myself that the

case of Alresca held mysteries for me, even medical mysteries. During

the first day or two I had thought that I understood it, and I had

despised the sayings of Rosetta Rosa in the carriage, and the

misgivings with which my original examination of Alresca had inspired

me. And then I gradually perceived that, after all, the misgivings had

been justified. The man's thigh made due progress; but the man, slowly

failing, lost interest in the struggle for life.

Here I might proceed to a technical dissertation upon his physical

state, but it would be useless. A cloud of long words will not cover

ignorance; and I was most emphatically ignorant. At least, such

knowledge as I had obtained was merely of a negative character. All

that I could be sure of was that this was by no means an instance of

mysterious disease. There was no disease, as we understand the term.

In particular, there was no decay of the nerve-centres. Alresca was

well--in good health. What he lacked was the will to live--that

strange and mystic impulse which alone divides us from death. It was,

perhaps, hard on a young G.P. to be confronted by such a medical

conundrum at the very outset of his career; but, then, the Maker of

conundrums seldom considers the age and inexperience of those who are

requested to solve them.




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