There had been a thunderstorm in the village of Hurly Burly. Every door was shut, every dog in his kennel, every rut and gutter a flowing river after the deluge of rain that had fallen. Up at the great house, a mile from the town, the rooks were calling to one another about the fright they had been in, the fawns in the deer-park were venturing their timid heads from behind the trunks of trees, and the old woman at the gate-lodge had risen from her knees, and was putting back her prayer-book on the shelf. In the garden, July roses, unwieldy with their full-blown richness and saturated with rain, hung their heads heavily to the earth; others, already fallen, lay flat upon their blooming faces on the path, where Bess, Mistress Hurly’s maid, would find them, when going on her morning quest for rose-leaves for her lady’s potpourri. Ranks of white lilies, just brought to perfection by today’s sun, lay dabbled in the mire of flooded mould. Tears ran down the amber cheeks of the plums on the south wall, and not a bee had ventured out of the hives, though the scent of the air was sweet enough to tempt the laziest drone. The sky was still lurid behind the boles of the upland oaks, but the birds had begun to dive in and out of the ivy that wrapped up the home of the Hurlys of Hurly Burly.
This thunderstorm took place more than half a century ago, and we must remember that Mistress Hurly was dressed in the fashion of that time as she crept out from behind the squire’s chair, now that the lightning was over, and, with many nervous glances towards the window, sat down before her husband, the tea-urn and the muffins. We can picture her fine lace cap, with its peachy ribbons, the frill on the hem of her cambric gown just touching her ankles, the embroidered clocks on her stockings, the rosettes on her shoes, but not so easily the lilac shade of her mild eyes, the satin skin, which still kept its delicate bloom, though wrinkled with advancing age, and the pale, sweet, puckered mouth, that time and sorrow had made angelic while trying vainly to deface its beauty.
The squire was as rugged as his wife was gentle, his skin as brown as hers was white, his grey hair as bristling as hers was glossed; the years had ploughed his face into ruts and channels; a bluff, choleric, noisy man he had been; but of late a dimness had come on his eyes, a hush on his loud voice, and a check in the spring of his hale step. He looked at his wife often, and very often she looked at him. She was not a tall woman, and he was only a head higher. They were a quaintly well-matched couple, despite their differences. She turned to you with nervous sharpness and revealed her tender voice and eye; he spoke and glanced roughly, but the turn of his head was courteous. Of late they fitted one another better than they had ever done in the heyday of their youthful love. A common sorrow had developed a singular likeness between them. In former years the cry from the wife had been, ‘Don’t curb my son too much!’ and from the husband, ‘You ruin the lad with softness.’ But now the idol that had stood between them was removed, and they saw each other better.
The room in which they sat was a pleasant old-fashioned drawing-room, with a general spider-legged character about the fittings; spinnet and guitar in their places, with a great deal of copied music beside them; carpet, tawny wreaths on the pale blue; blue flutings on the walls, and faint gilding on the furniture. A huge urn, crammed with roses, in the open bay-window, through which came delicious airs from the garden, the twittering of birds settling to sleep in the ivy close by, and occasionally the pattering of a flight of raindrops, swept to the ground as a bough bent in the breeze. The urn on the table was ancient silver, and the china rare. There was nothing in the room for luxurious ease of the body, but everything of delicate refinement for the eye.
There was a great hush all over Hurly Burly, except in the neighbourhood of the rooks. Every living thing had suffered from heat for the past month, and now, in common with all Nature, was receiving the boon of refreshed air in silent peace. The mistress and master of Hurly Burly shared the general spirit that was abroad, and were not talkative over their tea.
‘Do you know,’ said Mistress Hurly, at last, ‘when I heard the first of the thunder beginning I thought it was – it was – ’
The lady broke down, her lips trembling, and the peachy ribbons of her cap stirring with great agitation.
‘Pshaw!’ cried the old squire, making his cup suddenly ring upon the saucer, ‘we ought to have forgotten that. Nothing has been heard for three months.’
At this moment a rolling sound struck upon the ears of both. The lady rose from her seat trembling, and folded her hands together, while the tea-urn flooded the tray.
‘Nonsense, my love,’ said the squire; ‘that is the noise of wheels. Who can be arriving?’
‘Who, indeed?’ murmured the lady, reseating herself in agitation.
Presently pretty Bess of the rose-leaves appeared at the door in a flutter of blue ribbons.
‘Please, madam, a lady has arrived, and says she is expected. She asked for her apartment, and I put her into the room that was got ready for Miss Calderwood. And she sends her respects to you, madam, and she’ll be down with you presently.’
The squire looked at his wife, and his wife looked at the squire. ‘It is some mistake,’ murmured madam. ‘Some visitor for Calderwood or the Grange. It is very singular.’
Hardly had she spoken when the door again opened and the stranger appeared: a small creature – whether girl or woman it would be hard to say – dressed in a scanty black silk dress, her narrow shoulders covered with a white muslin pelerine. Her hair was swept up to the crown of her head, all but a little fringe which hung over her low forehead within an inch of her brows. Her face was brown and thin, eyes black and long, with blacker settings, mouth large, sweet and melancholy. She was all head, mouth and eyes; her nose and chin were nothing.
This visitor crossed the floor hastily, dropped a courtesy in the middle of the room, and approached the table, saying abruptly, with a soft Italian accent: ‘Sir and madam, I am here. I am come to play your organ.’
‘The organ!’ gasped Mistress Hurly.
‘The organ!’ stammered the squire.
‘Yes, the organ,’ said the little stranger lady, playing on the back of a chair with her fingers, as if she felt notes under them. ‘It was but last week that the handsome signor, your son, came to my little house, where I have lived teaching music since my English father and my Italian mother and brothers and sisters died and left me so lonely.’
Here the fingers left off drumming, and two great tears were brushed off, one from each eye with each hand, child’s fashion. But the next moment the fingers were at work again, as if only while they were moving the tongue could speak.
‘The noble signor, your son,’ said the little woman, looking trustfully from one to the other of the old couple, while a bright blush shone through her brown skin, ‘he often came to see me before that, always in the evening, when the sun was warm and yellow all through my little studio, and the music was swelling my heart, and I could play out grand with all my soul; then he used to come and say, “Hurry, little Lisa, and play better, better still. I have work for you to do by and by.” Sometimes he said, “Brava!” and sometimes he said “Eccellentissima!” but one night last week he came to me and said, “It is enough. Will you swear to do my bidding, whatever it may be?” ’ Here the black eyes fell. ‘And I said, “Yes.” And he said, “Now you are my betrothed.” And I said, “Yes.” And he said, “Pack up your music, little Lisa, and go off to England, to my English father and mother, who have an organ in their house which must be played upon. If they refuse to let you play, tell them I sent you, and they will give you leave. You must play all day, and you must get up in the night and play. You must never tire. You are my betrothed, and you have sworn to do my work.” I said, “Shall I see you there, signor?” And he said, “Yes, you shall see me there.” I said, “I will keep my vow, Signor.” And so, sir and madam, I am come.’
The soft foreign voice left off talking, the fingers left off thrumming on the chair, and the little stranger gazed in dismay at her auditors, both pale with agitation.
‘You are deceived. You make a mistake,’ said they in one breath.
‘Our son,’ began Mistress Hurly, but her mouth twitched, her voice broke, and she looked piteously towards her husband.
‘Our son,’ said the squire, making an effort to conquer the quavering in his voice, ‘our son is long dead.’
‘Nay, nay,’ said the little foreigner. ‘If you have thought him dead have good cheer, dear sir and madam. He is alive; he is well, and strong, and handsome. But one, two, three, four, five’ (on the fingers) ‘days ago he stood by my side.’
‘It is some strange mistake, some wonderful coincidence!’ said the mistress and master of Hurly Burly.
‘Let us take her to the gallery,’ murmured the mother of this son who was thus dead and alive. ‘There is yet light to see the pictures. She will not know his portrait.’
The bewildered wife and husband led their strange visitor away to a long gloomy room at the west side of the house, where the faint gleams from the darkening sky still lingered on the portraits of the Hurly family.
‘Doubtless he is like this,’ said the squire, pointing to a fair-haired young man with a mild face, a brother of his own who had been lost at sea.
But Lisa shook her head, and went softly on tiptoe from one picture to another, peering into each canvas, and always turning away troubled. But at last a shriek of delight startled the shadowy chamber.
‘Ah, here he is! See, here he is, the noble signor, the beautiful signor, not half so handsome as he looked five days ago, when talking to poor little Lisa! Dear sir and madam, you are now content. Now take me to the organ, that I may commence to do his bidding at once.’
The mistress of Hurly Burly clung fast to her husband’s arm. ‘How old are you, girl?’ she said faintly.
‘Eighteen,’ said the visitor impatiently, moving towards the door.
‘And my son has been dead for twenty years!’ said his mother, and swooned on her husband’s breast.
‘Order the carriage at once,’ said Mistress Hurly, recovering from her swoon; ‘I will take her to Margaret Calderwood. Margaret will tell her the story. Margaret will bring her to reason. No, not tomorrow; I cannot bear tomorrow, it is so far away. We must go tonight.’
The little signora thought the old lady mad, but she put on her cloak again obediently, and took her seat beside Mistress Hurly in the Hurly family coach. The moon that looked in at them through the pane as they lumbered along was not whiter than the aged face of the squire’s wife, whose dim faded eyes were fixed upon it in doubt and awe too great for tears or words. Lisa, too, from her corner, gloated upon the moon, her black eyes shining with passionate dreams.
A carriage rolled away from the Calderwood door as the Hurly coach drew up at the steps.
Margaret Calderwood had just returned from a dinner-party, and was standing, a splendid figure, at the open door – a tall woman dressed in brown velvet, the diamonds on her bosom glistening in the moonlight that was pouring over the house from eaves to basement. Mistress Hurly fell into her outstretched arms with a groan, and the strong woman carried her aged friend, like a baby, into the house. Little Lisa was overlooked, and sat down contentedly on the threshold to gloat awhile longer on the moon, and to thrum imaginary sonatas on the doorstep.
There were tears and sobs in the moonlit room into which Margaret Calderwood carried her friend. There was a long consultation, and then Margaret, having hushed away the grieving woman into some quiet corner, came forth to look for the little dark-faced stranger, who had arrived, so unwelcome, from beyond the seas, with such wild communication from the dead.
Up the grand staircase of handsome Calderwood the little woman followed the tall one into a large chamber where a lamp burned, showing Lisa, if she cared to see it, that this mansion of Calderwood was fitted with much greater luxury and richness than was that of Hurly Burly. The appointments of this room announced it the sanctum of a woman who depended for the interest of her life upon resources of intellect and taste. Lisa noticed nothing but a morsel of biscuit that was lying on a plate.
‘May I have it?’ said she eagerly. ‘It is so long since I have eaten. I am hungry,’
Margaret Calderwood gazed at her with a sorrowful, motherly look, and, parting the fringing hair on her forehead, kissed her. Lisa, staring at her in wonder, returned the caress with ardour.
Margaret’s large fair shoulders, Madonna face and yellow braided hair excited a rapture within her. But when food was brought her, she flew to it and ate.
‘It is better than I have ever eaten at home!’ she said gratefully. And Margaret Calderwood murmured, ‘She is physically healthy, at least.’
‘And now, Lisa,’ said Margaret Calderwood, ‘come and tell me the whole history of the grand signor who sent you to England to play the organ.’
Then Lisa crept in behind a chair, and her eyes began to burn and her fingers to thrum, and she repeated word for word her story as she had told it at Hurly Burly.
When she had finished, Margaret Calderwood began to pace up and down the floor with a very troubled face. Lisa watched her, fascinated, and when she bade her listen to a story which she would relate to her, folded her restless hands together meekly and listened.
‘Twenty years ago, Lisa, Mr and Mrs Hurly had a son. He was handsome, like that portrait you saw in the gallery, and he had brilliant talents. He was idolised by his father and mother, and all who knew him felt obliged to love him. I was then a happy girl of twenty. I was an orphan, and Mrs Hurly, who had been my mother’s friend, was like a mother to me. I, too, was petted and caressed by all my friends, and I was very wealthy; but I only valued admiration, riches, every good gift that fell to my share, just in proportion as they seemed of worth in the eyes of Lewis Hurly. I was his affianced wife, and I loved him well.
‘All the fondness and pride that were lavished on him could not keep him from falling into evil ways, nor from becoming rapidly more and more abandoned to wickedness, till even those who loved him best despaired of seeing his reformation. I prayed him with tears, for my sake, if not for that of his grieving mother, to save himself before it was too late. But to my horror I found that my power was gone, my words did not even move him; he loved me no more. I tried to think that this was some fit of madness that would pass, and still clung to hope. At last his own mother forbade me to see him.’
Here Margaret Calderwood paused, seemingly in bitter thought, but resumed: ‘He and a party of his boon companions, named by themselves the “Devil’s Club”, were in the habit of practising all kinds of unholy pranks in the country. They had midnight carousings on the tombstones in the village graveyard; they carried away helpless old men and children, whom they tortured by making believe to bury them alive; they raised the dead and placed them sitting round the tombstones at a mock feast. On one occasion there was a very sad funeral from the village. The corpse was carried into the church, and prayers were read over the coffin, the chief mourner, the aged father of the dead man, standing weeping by. In the midst of this solemn scene the organ suddenly pealed forth a profane tune, and a number of voices shouted a drinking chorus. A groan of execration burst from the crowd, the clergyman turned pale and closed his book, and the old man, the father of the departed, climbed the altar steps, and, raising his arms above his head, uttered a terrible curse. He cursed Lewis Hurly to all eternity; he cursed the organ he played, that it might be dumb henceforth, except under the fingers that had now profaned it, which, he prayed, might be forced to labour upon it till they stiffened in death. And the curse seemed to work, for the organ stood dumb in the church from that day, except when touched by Lewis Hurly.
‘For a bravado he had the organ taken down and conveyed to his father’s house, where he had it put up in the chamber where it now stands. It was also for a bravado that he played on it every day. But, by and by, the amount of time which he spent at it daily began to increase rapidly. We wondered long at this whim, as we called it, and his poor mother thanked God that he had set his heart upon an occupation which would keep him out of harm’s way. I was the first to suspect that it was not his own will that kept him hammering at the organ so many laborious hours, while his boon companions tried vainly to draw him away. He used to lock himself up in the room with the organ, but one day I hid myself among the curtains, and saw him writhing on his seat, and heard him groaning as he strove to wrench his hands from the keys, to which they flew back like needles to a magnet. It was soon plainly to be seen that he was an involuntary slave to the organ; but whether through a madness that had grown within himself, or by some supernatural doom, having its cause in the old man’s curse, we did not dare to say. By and by there came a time when we were wakened out of our sleep at nights by the rolling of the organ. He wrought now night and day. Food and rest were denied him. His face got haggard, his beard grew long, his eyes started from their sockets. His body became wasted, and his cramped fingers like the claws of a bird. He groaned piteously as he stooped over his cruel toil. All save his mother and I were afraid to go near him. She, poor, tender woman, tried to put wine and food between his lips, while the tortured fingers crawled over the keys; but he only gnashed his teeth at her with curses, and she retreated from him in terror, to pray. At last, one dreadful hour, we found him, a ghastly corpse, on the ground before the organ.
‘From that hour the organ was dumb to the touch of all human fingers. Many, unwilling to believe the story, made persevering endeavours to draw sound from it, in vain. But when the darkened empty room was locked up and left, we heard as loud as ever the well-known sounds humming and rolling through the walls. Night and day the tones of the organ boomed on as before. It seemed that the doom of the wretched man was not yet fulfilled, although his tortured body had been worn out in the terrible struggle to accomplish it. Even his own mother was afraid to go near the room then. So the time went on, and the curse of this perpetual music was not removed from the house. Servants refused to stay about the place. Visitors shunned it. The squire and his wife left their home for years, and returned; left it, and returned again, to find their ears still tortured and their hearts wrung by the unceasing persecution of terrible sounds. At last, but a few months ago, a holy man was found, who locked himself up in the cursed chamber for many days, praying and wrestling with the demon. After he came forth and went away the sounds ceased, and the organ was heard no more. Since then there has been peace in the house. And now, Lisa, your strange appearance and your strange story convince us that you are a victim of a ruse of the Evil One. Be warned in time, and place yourself under the protection of God, that you may be saved from the fearful influences that are at work upon you. Come.’
Margaret Calderwood turned to the corner where the stranger sat, as she had supposed, listening intently. Little Lisa was fast asleep, her hands spread before her as if she played an organ in her dreams.
Margaret took the soft brown face to her motherly breast, and kissed the swelling temples, too big with wonder and fancy.
‘We will save you from a horrible fate!’ she murmured, and carried the girl to bed.
In the morning Lisa was gone. Margaret Calderwood, coming early from her own chamber, went into the girl’s room and found the bed empty.
‘She is just such a wild thing,’ thought Margaret, ‘as would rush out at sunrise to hear the larks!’ and she went forth to look for her in the meadows, behind the beech hedges and in the home park. Mistress Hurly, from the breakfast-room window, saw Margaret Calderwood, large and fair in her white morning gown, coming down the garden path between the rose bushes, with her fresh draperies dabbled by the dew, and a look of trouble on her calm face. Her quest had been unsuccessful. The little foreigner had vanished.
A second search after breakfast proved also fruitless, and towards evening the two women drove back to Hurly Burly together. There all was panic and distress. The squire sat in his study with the doors shut, and his hands over his ears. The servants, with pale faces, were huddled together in whispering groups. The haunted organ was pealing through the house as of old.
Margaret Calderwood hastened to the fatal chamber, and there, sure enough, was Lisa, perched upon the high seat before the organ, beating the keys with her small hands, her slight figure swaying, and the evening sunshine playing about her weird head. Sweet unearthly music she wrung from the groaning heart of the organ – wild melodies, mounting to rapturous heights and falling to mournful depths. She wandered from Mendelssohn to Mozart, and from Mozart to Beethoven. Margaret stood fascinated awhile by the ravishing beauty of the sounds she heard, but, rousing herself quickly, put her arms round the musician and forced her away from the chamber. Lisa returned next day, however, and was not so easily coaxed from her post again.
Day after day she laboured at the organ, growing paler and thinner and more weird-looking as time went on.
‘I work so hard,’ she said to Mrs Hurly. ‘The signor, your son, is he pleased? Ask him to come and tell me himself if he is pleased.’
Mistress Hurly got ill and took to her bed. The squire swore at the young foreign baggage, and roamed abroad. Margaret Calderwood was the only one who stood by to watch the fate of the little organist. The curse of the organ was upon Lisa; it spoke under her hand, and her hand was its slave.
At last she announced rapturously that she had had a visit from the brave signor, who had commended her industry, and urged her to work yet harder. After that she ceased to hold any communication with the living. Time after time Margaret Calderwood wrapped her arms about the frail thing, and carried her away by force, locking the door of the fatal chamber. But locking the chamber and burying the key were of no avail. The door stood open again, and Lisa was labouring on her perch.
One night, wakened from her sleep by the well-known humming and moaning of the organ, Margaret dressed hurriedly and hastened to the unholy room. Moonlight was pouring down the staircase and passages of Hurly Burly. It shone on the marble bust of the dead Lewis Hurly, that stood in the niche above his mother’s sitting-room door. The organ-room was full of it when Margaret pushed open the door and entered – full of the pale-green moonlight from the window, mingled with another light, a dull lurid glare which seemed to centre round a dark shadow, like the figure of a man, standing by the organ, and throwing out in fantastic relief the slight form of Lisa writhing, rather than swaying, back and forth, as if in agony. The sounds that came from the organ were broken and meaningless, as if the hands of the player lagged and stumbled on the keys. Between the intermittent chords, low moaning cries broke from Lisa, and the dark figure bent towards her with menacing gestures. Trembling with the sickness of supernatural fear, yet strong of will, Margaret Calderwood crept forward within the lurid light, and was drawn into its influence. It grew and intensified upon her, it dazzled and blinded her at first; but presently, by a daring effort of will, she raised her eyes and beheld Lisa’s face convulsed with torture in the burning glare and bending over her the figure and the features of Lewis Hurly! Smitten with horror, Margaret did not even then lose her presence of mind. She wound her strong arms around the wretched girl and dragged her from her seat and out of the influence of the lurid light, which immediately paled away and vanished. She carried her to her own bed, where Lisa lay, a wasted wreck, raving about the cruelty of the pitiless signor who would not see that she was labouring her best. Her poor cramped hands kept beating the coverlet, as though she were still at her agonising task.
Margaret Calderwood bathed her burning temples, and placed fresh flowers upon her pillow. She opened the blinds and windows, and let in the sweet morning air and sunshine, and then, looking up at the newly awakened sky with its fair promise of hope for the day, and down at the dewy fields, and afar off at the dark green woods with the purple mists still hovering about them, she prayed that a way might be shown her by which to put an end to this curse. She prayed for Lisa, and then, thinking that the girl rested somewhat, stole from the room. She thought that she had locked the door behind her.
She went downstairs with a pale, resolved face, and, without consulting anyone, sent to the village for a bricklayer. Afterwards she sat by Mistress Hurly’s bedside, and explained to her what was to be done. Presently she went to the door of Lisa’s room and, hearing no sound, thought the girl slept, and stole away. By and by she went downstairs, and found that the bricklayer had arrived and already begun his task of building up the organ-room door. He was a swift workman, and the chamber was soon sealed safely with stone and mortar.
Having seen this work finished, Margaret Calderwood went and listened again at Lisa’s door; and still hearing no sound, she returned, and took her seat at Mrs Hurly’s bedside once more. It was towards evening that she at last entered her room to assure herself of the comfort of Lisa’s sleep. But the bed and room were empty. Lisa had disappeared.
Then the search began, upstairs and downstairs, in the garden, in the grounds, in the fields and meadows. No Lisa. Margaret Calderwood ordered the carriage and drove to Calderwood to see if the strange little Will-o’-the-wisp might have made her way there; then to the village, and to many other places in the neighbourhood which it was not possible she could have reached. She made enquiries everywhere; she pondered and puzzled over the matter. In the weak, suffering state that the girl was in, how far could she have crawled?
After two days’ search, Margaret returned to Hurly Burly. She was sad and tired, and the evening was chill. She sat over the fire wrapped in her shawl when little Bess came to her, weeping behind her muslin apron.
‘If you’d speak to Mistress Hurly about it, please, ma’am,’ she said. ‘I love her dearly, and it breaks my heart to go away, but the organ haven’t done yet, ma’am, and I’m frightened out of my life, so I can’t stay.’
‘Who has heard the organ, and when?’ asked Margaret Calderwood, rising to her feet.
‘Please, ma’am, I heard it the night you went away, the night after the door was built up!’
‘And not since?’
‘No, ma’am,’ hesitatingly, ‘not since. Hist! hark, ma’am! Is not that like the sound of it now?’
‘No,’ said Margaret Calderwood; ‘it is only the wind.’ But pale as death she flew down the stairs and laid her ear to the yet damp mortar of the newly built wall. All was silent. There was no sound but the monotonous sough of the wind in the trees outside. Then Margaret began to dash her soft shoulder against the strong wall, and to pick the mortar away with her white fingers, and to cry out for the bricklayer who had built up the door.
It was midnight, but the bricklayer left his bed in the village, and obeyed the summons to Hurly Burly. The pale woman stood by and watched him undo all his work of three days ago, and the servants gathered about in trembling groups, wondering what was to happen next.
What happened next was this: When an opening was made the man entered the room with a light, Margaret Calderwood and others following. A heap of something dark was lying on the ground at the foot of the organ. Many groans arose in the fatal chamber. Here was little Lisa dead!
When Mistress Hurly was able to move, the squire and his wife went to live in France, where they remained till their death. Hurly Burly was shut up and deserted for many years. Lately it has passed into new hands. The organ has been taken down and banished, and the room is a bedchamber, more luxuriously furnished than any in the house. But no one sleeps in it twice.
Margaret Calderwood was carried to her grave the other day, a very aged woman.