Forgetful of his net, and the vanished object of his first pursuit, he, in “good” Germanic Latin, free from the guttural ingesta inflection of saur-kraut, lager bier, sausage, and tobacco, offered apologetic consolation for the shock he had unwittingly occasioned, to which she replied in equally good English, “Pray, don’t mention it;” while with lingering fondness, her sighs and steps were made eloquent in responsive continuation, as he led her back in half-reclining mood to her parents. The prætor, who had witnessed the scene with a peculiar smile of satisfaction, explained the predisposing cause of the encounter,—inasmuch as it was appreciable to ordinary observation,—that it might not be thought an act of premeditation on the part of the female respondent, or her relatives.
“Our Heraclean marriage alliance is so closely interwoven with instinctive impression, hallowed by the unity of an affection independent of the body, that the rupture by death of either of the coaptive sexual individualities, leaves a void, from the material deprivation of functional reciprocation, so desolate to the female in its impression of lonely isolation, that instinct conjures some gentle hallucination, to supply the broken threads of sympathy in the weftage of the severed ties. This illusive visionary substitution is held as a consecrated indication of continued affectionate unity, for the survivor’s material direction in the body. Indeed, all our bereaved experience in some form this impression, in translation to some memorial object presented to view in the agony of instinctive disseveration. Isolita, the daughter of our cremator, who is now reclining in the support of Dr. Baāhar’s arm, had her attention attracted, while in the anguish of separation, by a superb andean butterfly, which floated over the body of her expiring husband, and with his last sigh settled for a moment on her head with wafting wings, as if by invocation to inspire her hopes in bereavement of a material emblematic source of communication and direction; then, from the court colonnades, soared directly upward until lost to view in the blending tints of ethereal azure. This scene impressed us all with its omenic signification, so that we could scarcely wonder that Isolita in her great sorrow received it as a presage of vehicular translation, to be treasured as a token of animus visitations from her departed unity in the flesh. Without doubt, she will hold the conjunctive act you have witnessed this morning as an intimated sign of direction for the selection of a scocius, or companion, for the completion of her earthly term of sojourn. The confiding trust, evinced from her retained position, already betokens her belief in the consummated fulfillment of delegated substitution. In like verification, you will observe that the doctor has abandoned his net, and the winged vanity of his pursuit, for the realization of a more happy and abiding achievement.”
In confirmation of the prætor’s prognostication, but a few moments had been numbered with the past ere a procession had formed headed by the cremator’s family, in hopeful conformity with the ceremonious rites they were disposed to accord in recognition of the instinctive liberalisms of sense which had been fostered by the doctor’s precedental education. Being obliged to pass the scene of encounter in their passage up the dale, the prætor’s face grew anxious as they approached the discarded net, but assumed an expression of gladness when the doctor passed it within the measure of a footfall, and without wincing saw it trodden under foot by the mother of his prospective affiancee. Relieved of his fears by the disdainful look cast upon it by the captured fly hunter, the family group of the prætor moved downward to meet the symbolical procession, and greet the advancing victor of self. While bestowing their congratulations, the fanatical fatuity, inherent with the expression of the doctor’s face, became broken and dissipated, as with mist clouds under the genial rays of the morning sun. In answer to the doctor’s application for the required sanction of his betrothal with Isolita, the prætor expressed his warm approval, with the hope that he would soon be able to derive his happiness from the prospective good his example would confer upon future generations.
“Still,” he continued, “without a clear knowledge of Manatitlan coöperation, in directing the wisdom of the ‘choice,’ I might have questioned the prudent propriety of the betrothal, from your pertinacious adherence to precedental habits, in defiance of the constant increase of self-inflicted misery. Especially, as I have learned from auramental source, that it has been the custom of the Germans, practiced from time immemorial, to render their wives servitas of convenience, rather than for the fulfillment of Creative intention, designed for the perfection of unity. From this isolating peculiarity of self-indulgent German instinct, it might be well for me to question, even now, whether in thought you treasure selfish desire that would detract by indulgence from the socius companionship of bereaved affection. Although naturally endowed with a strong instinctive predisposition, Isolita is in no way derelict in her full appreciation of an affection, matured in purity, independent of the body’s functions. Bethink you, in answering, of your deposed net?”
In reply, the doctor said, “My net has subserved its purpose, in fulfilling its destiny of prestige; for, as you well know, I have expressed my full belief in the especial design of the butterfly’s vocation, from the unrivaled beauty of its embellishments, which indicate the celestial transport, in previsemental aid of angelic visits. This morning I have received satisfactory evidence of the fact, and for the future have no farther object for its use; or, as we might say in quotation, ‘sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.’ If you can assure me of Heraclean reciprocation in the bestowal of the angelic capture I have made this morning, I will endeavor to discard, with my net, precedental pursuits.”
The ingenuity of the insect savan’s reply bespeaking the sanity of his self-possession, the prætor repeated to him the peculiarities of Isolita’s widowed hallucination.
Still himself, the doctor replied, “I feel confirmed in my impressions of her angelic nature, from your acknowledgment of the fact, that as a woman she harbors but one hallucination, and that I have been preferred as an equal for association with her, a privilege which has yet afore been awarded, in civilized society, solely, to her sex’s insatiate unabridged vanity by the cajoleries of man.”
With this additional evidence of the doctor’s consciously sane appreciation of the happy conjunction his morning’s encounter “foreboded,” the espousal received general approbation. The prætor suggesting the efficient aid Isolita would be able to confer in systematizing his botanical labors, from the thorough knowledge of her acquirements necessary for fruitful vegetation, they departed upon their first united essay in botanical research, and were not seen again until the herdsmen sounded their calls for their return to the city; they then appeared crowned with floral decorations in overture anticipation of united reciprocations.
Of all the returning train the padre’s face alone remained subject to the fitful indications of thoughtful sadness. The conjurations of the day had separated him from his last mythological hold upon instinct, raising a happy barrier between him and the familiar conviviality of genial gossipings in the language of talk. Returning to the desolate quarters of the corps, after indulging freely in chirimoya and milk, he became subject to the indigestive broodings of instinct, barren of thoughtful resources for occupation. In this condition, disconsolate, he paced the deserted colonnades long after Mr. Dow and the curators of sound had retired to rest. But the Kyronese, with sympathetic consideration for his lonely plight, busied themselves in the court and cochina, ostensibly in preparation for the duties of the morrow, until, with the impression that he would prefer solitude for the melancholy nursing of his ruminations, they yielded to the drowsy influence evoked by the approaching midnight hour; and unaccustomed to the vigil unrest of anxiety, begot by the dismal forebodings of dread from a belief in mythological rewards and punishments, their eyes were sealed with such sudden surprise that little choice was permitted for the selection of easy positions for repose. Of late, mindful of others’ comfort, he saw these sympathetic vigilantes overcome with sleep unheeded. Even Corycæus intermitted his thought auramentations with the solace of an occasional nap, and with the padre still waking, and walking in a mood of increasing nervous excitement, he at length sank into a dreamless sleep.
The darkness which gathers its deeper pall of blackness, in reversion to the brightness in vivid glow of the dying spark, had merged from the palpable coldness of its impression into the murky gray of the shadowy dawn, when there came a change so sudden and peculiar in the outward sway of the hammacas of the auramentor’s family,—suspended from the vibrillæ of the tragus across the fossæ to the ante-tragus,—that the forward lurch awoke the occupants. Curious to know the cause of a motion so unusual, Corycæus hastened, with the recollection of the padre’s condition, to take an observation, in which his wife joined with sympathetic alacrity. They found the padre kneeling and bowing before a rough-hewn statue of an ancient Heraclean mother, with a child, which she supported in her arms, the while counting with a “vociferous” whisper the beads of the rosary presented to him by Fraile Gallagato, alternating his devotional manipulations by cross “cuts” on his forehead and breast with his index finger. The scene was so ludicrously absurd, in evidence of the superstitious revival of his religious instincts, that the auramentors passed to a neighboring branch to watch his motions and hear his prayers engendered from selfish fears, wrought by indigestion and sleepless innervation, aided by the changes of the night. The image had been closely veiled with a vine embossure of iriditrope, which had been noted for its close resemblance to the sculptured statues of the immaculate virgin, without being aware of the model beneath. By some coincident freak, combined with fear, mist, and muirk, confounding with the incertitude of vision-fancied resemblance, he had discovered the statue beneath, which tended to raise his phantasmic emotions to a pitch of fanatical devotion. Impressed with the belief that it was a special revelation, designed as a reproof for his “backsliding” departure from grace, and neglect of his opportunities for the conversion of the Heracleans, he ventured to unveil the miraculous discovery, before seeking inspiration through the celestial gates of bead prayer. Notwithstanding the impression made upon the family of Corycæus by the ridiculous farce, there was a weird instinctive effect that reminded them sadly of the benighted condition of his race, who still made themselves blindly miserable with selfish labor, to the utter perversion of affectionate ease imparted from the current equality of self-legislation to the Heracleans.