The Great Divorce (8 page)

‘May I kill it?'

‘Honestly, I don't think there's the slightest necessity for that. I'm sure I shall be able to keep it in order now. I think the gradual process would be far better than killing it.'

‘The gradual process is of no use at all.'

‘Don't you think so? Well, I'll think over what you've
said very carefully. I honestly will. In fact I'd let you kill it now, but as a matter of fact I'm not feeling frightfully well to-day. It would be most silly to do it
now
. I'd need to be in good health for the operation. Some other day, perhaps.'

‘There is no other day. All days are present now.'

‘Get back! You're burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You'd kill
me
if you did.'

‘It is not so.'

‘Why, you're hurting me now.'

‘I never said it wouldn't hurt you. I said it wouldn't kill you.'

‘Oh, I know. You think I'm a coward. But it isn't that. Really it isn't. I say! Let me run back by to-night's bus and get an opinion from my own doctor. I'll come again the first moment I can.'

‘This moment contains all moments.'

‘Why are you torturing me? You are jeering at me. How
can
I let you tear me in pieces? If you wanted to help me, why didn't you kill the damned thing without asking me—before I knew? It would be all over by now if you had.'

‘I cannot kill it against your will. It is impossible. Have I your permission?'

The Angel's hands were almost closed on the Lizard, but not quite. Then the Lizard began chattering to the Ghost so loud that even I could hear what it was saying.

‘Be careful,' it said. ‘He can do what he says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and he
will!
Then you'll be without me for ever and ever. It's not natural. How could you live? You'd be only a sort of ghost, not a real man as you are now. He doesn't understand. He's only a cold, bloodless abstract thing. It may be natural for him, but it isn't for us. Yes, yes. I know there are no real pleasures now, only dreams. But aren't they better than nothing? And I'll be so good. I admit I've sometimes gone too far in the past, but I promise I won't do it again. I'll give you nothing but really nice dreams—all sweet and fresh and almost innocent. You might say, quite innocent…'

‘Have I your permission?' said the Angel to the Ghost.

‘I know it will kill me.'

‘It won't. But supposing it did?'

‘You're right. It would be better to be dead than to live with this creature.'

‘Then I may?'

‘Damn and blast you! Go on, can't you? Get it over. Do what you like,' bellowed the Ghost: but ended, whimpering, ‘God help me. God help me.'

Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard on Earth. The Burning One closed his crimson grip on the reptile: twisted it, while it bit and writhed, and then flung it, broken-backed, on the turf.

‘Ow! That's done for me,' gasped the Ghost, reeling backwards.

For a moment I could make out nothing distinctly. Then I saw, between me and the nearest bush, unmistakably solid but growing every moment solider, the upper arm and the shoulder of a man. Then, brighter still and stronger, the legs and hands. The neck and golden head materialised while I watched, and if my attention had not wavered I should have seen the actual completing of a man—an immense man, naked, not much smaller than the Angel. What distracted me was the fact that at the same moment something seemed to be happening to the Lizard. At first I thought the operation had failed. So far from dying, the creature was still struggling and even growing bigger as it struggled. And as it grew it changed. Its hinder parts grew rounder. The tail, still flickering, became a tail of hair that flickered between huge and glossy buttocks. Suddenly I started back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with mane and tail of gold. It was smooth and
shining, rippled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs. At each stamp the land shook and the trees dindled.

The new-made man turned and clapped the new horse's neck. It nosed his bright body. Horse and master breathed each into the other's nostrils. The man turned from it, flung himself at the feet of the Burning One, and embraced them. When he rose I thought his face shone with tears, but it may have been only the liquid love and brightness (one cannot distinguish them in that country) which flowed from him. I had not long to think about it. In joyous haste the young man leaped upon the horse's back. Turning in his seat he waved a farewell, then nudged the stallion with his heels. They were off before I knew well what was happening. There was riding if you like! I came out as quickly as I could from among the bushes to follow them with my eyes; but already they were only like a shooting star far off on the green plain, and soon among the foothills of the mountains. Then, still like a star, I saw them winding up, scaling what seemed impossible steeps, and quicker every moment, till near the dim brow of the landscape, so high that I must strain my neck to see them, they vanished, bright themselves, into the rose-brightness of that everlasting morning.

While I still watched, I noticed that the whole plain and forest were shaking with a sound which in our world would be too large to hear, but there I could take it with joy. I knew it was not the Solid People who were singing. It was the voice of that earth, those woods and those waters. A strange archaic, inorganic noise, that came from all directions at once. The Nature or Arch-Nature of that land rejoiced to have been once more ridden, and therefore consummated, in the person of the horse. It sang,

‘The Master says to our master, Come up. Share my rest and splendour till all natures that were your enemies become slaves to dance before you and backs for you to ride, and firmness for your feet to rest on.

‘From beyond all place and time, out of the very Place, authority will be given you: the strengths that once opposed your will shall be obedient fire in your blood and heavenly thunder in your voice.

‘Overcome us that, so overcome, we may be ourselves: we desire the beginning of your reign as we desire dawn and dew, wetness at the birth of light.

‘Master, your Master has appointed you for ever: to be our King of Justice and our high Priest.'

‘Do ye understand all this, my Son?' said the Teacher.

‘I don't know about
all,
Sir,' said I. ‘Am I right in thinking the Lizard really turned into the Horse?'

‘Aye. But it was killed first. Ye'll not forget that part of the story?'

‘I'll try not to, Sir. But does it mean that everything—everything—that is in us can go on to the Mountains?'

‘Nothing, not even the best and noblest, can go on as it now is. Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial, will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot come to the Mountains. Not because they are too rank, but because they are too weak. What is a lizard compared with a stallion? Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.'

‘But am I to tell them at home that this man's sensuality proved less of an obstacle than that poor woman's love for her son? For that was, at any rate, an excess of
love
.'

‘Ye'll tell them no such thing,' he replied sternly. ‘Excess of love, did ye say? There was no excess, there was defect. She loved her son too little, not too much. If she had loved him more there'd be no difficulty. I do not know how her affair will end. But it may well be that at
this moment she's demanding to have him down with her in Hell. That kind is sometimes perfectly ready to plunge the soul they say they love in endless misery if only they can still in some fashion possess it. No, no. Ye must draw another lesson. Ye must ask, if the risen body even of appetite is as grand a horse as ye saw, what would the risen body of maternal love or friendship be?'

But once more my attention was diverted. ‘Is there
another
river, Sir?' I asked.

The reason why I asked if there were another river was this. All down one long aisle of the forest the undersides of the leafy branches had begun to tremble with dancing light; and on Earth I knew nothing so likely to produce this appearance as the reflected lights cast upward by moving water. A few moments later I realised my mistake. Some kind of procession was approaching us, and the light came from the persons who composed it.

First came bright Spirits, not the Spirits of men, who danced and scattered flowers—soundlessly falling, lightly drifting flowers, though by the standards of the ghost-world each petal would have weighed a hundred-weight and their fall would have been like the crashing of boulders. Then, on the left and right, at each side of the forest avenue, came youthful shapes, boys upon one hand, and
girls upon the other. If I could remember their singing and write down the notes, no man who read that score would ever grow sick or old. Between them went musicians: and after these a lady in whose honour all this was being done.

I cannot now remember whether she was naked or clothed. If she were naked, then it must have been the almost visible penumbra of her courtesy and joy which produces in my memory the illusion of a great and shining train that followed her across the happy grass. If she were clothed, then the illusion of nakedness is doubtless due to the clarity with which her innermost spirit shone through the clothes. For clothes in that country are not a disguise: the spiritual body lives along each thread and turns them into living organs. A robe or a crown is there as much one of the wearer's features as a lip or an eye.

But I have forgotten. And only partly do I remember the unbearable beauty of her face.

‘Is it?…is it?' I whispered to my guide.

‘Not at all,' said he. ‘It's someone ye'll never have heard of. Her name on Earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green.'

‘She seems to be…well, a person of particular importance?'

‘Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that
fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.'

‘And who are these gigantic people…look! They're like emeralds…who are dancing and throwing flowers before her?'

‘Haven't ye read your Milton?
A thousand liveried angels lackey her
.'

‘And who are all these young men and women on each side?'

‘They are her sons and daughters.'

‘She must have had a very large family, Sir.'

‘Every young man or boy that met her became her son—even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.'

‘Isn't that a bit hard on their own parents?'

‘No. There
are
those that steal other people's children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. Few men looked on her without becoming, in a certain fashion, her lovers. But it was the kind of love that made them not less true, but truer, to their own wives.'

‘And how…but hullo! What are all these animals? A cat—two cats—dozens of cats. And all these dogs…why, I can't count them. And the birds. And the horses.'

‘They are her beasts.'

‘Did she keep a sort of zoo? I mean, this is a bit too much.'

‘Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.'

I looked at my Teacher in amazement.

‘Yes,' he said. ‘It is like when you throw a stone into a pool, and the concentric waves spread out further and further. Who knows where it will end? Redeemed humanity is still young, it has hardly come to its full strength. But already there is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe into life.'

While we spoke the Lady was steadily advancing towards us, but it was not at us she looked. Following the direction of her eyes, I turned and saw an oddly-shaped phantom approaching. Or rather two phantoms: a great tall Ghost, horribly thin and shaky, who seemed to be leading on a chain another Ghost no bigger than an organ-grinder's monkey. The taller Ghost wore a soft black hat, and he reminded me of something that my memory could not quite recover. Then, when he had
come within a few feet of the Lady he spread out his lean, shaky hand flat on his chest with the fingers wide apart, and exclaimed in a hollow voice, ‘At last!' All at once I realised what it was that he had put me in mind of. He was like a seedy actor of the old school.

‘Darling! At last!' said the Lady. ‘Good Heavens!' thought I. ‘Surely she can't—', and then I noticed two things. In the first place, I noticed that the little Ghost was not being led by the big one. It was the dwarfish figure that held the chain in its hand and the theatrical figure that wore the collar round its neck. In the second place, I noticed that the Lady was looking solely at the dwarf Ghost. She seemed to think it was the Dwarf who had addressed her, or else she was deliberately ignoring the other. On the poor dwarf she turned her eyes. Love shone not from her face only, but from all her limbs, as if it were some liquid in which she had just been bathing. Then, to my dismay, she came nearer. She stooped down and kissed the Dwarf. It made one shudder to see her in such close contact with that cold, damp, shrunken thing. But she did not shudder.

‘Frank,' she said, ‘before anything else, forgive me. For all I ever did wrong and for all I did not do right since the first day we met, I ask your pardon.'

I looked properly at the Dwarf for the first time now: or perhaps, when he received her kiss he became a little more visible. One could just make out the sort of face he must have had when he was a man: a little, oval, freckled face with a weak chin and a tiny wisp of unsuccessful moustache. He gave her a glance, not a full look. He was watching the Tragedian out of the corner of his eyes. Then he gave a jerk to the chain: and it was the Tragedian, not he, who answered the Lady.

‘There, there,' said the Tragedian. ‘We'll say no more about it. We all make mistakes.' With the words there came over his features a ghastly contortion which, I think, was meant for an indulgently playful smile. ‘We'll say no more,' he continued. ‘It's not myself I'm thinking about. It is you. That is what has been continually on my mind—all these years. The thought of you—you here alone, breaking your heart about me.'

‘But now,' said the Lady to the Dwarf, ‘you can set all that aside. Never think like that again. It is all over.'

Her beauty brightened so that I could hardly see anything else, and under that sweet compulsion the Dwarf really looked at her for the first time. For a second I thought he was growing more like a man. He opened his mouth. He himself was going to speak this
time. But oh, the disappointment when the words came!

‘You missed me?' he croaked in a small, bleating voice.

Yet even then she was not taken aback. Still the love and courtesy flowed from her.

‘Dear, you will understand about that very soon,' she said. ‘But to-day—.'

What happened next gave me a shock. The Dwarf and Tragedian spoke in unison, not to her but to one another. ‘You'll notice,' they warned one another, ‘she hasn't answered our question.' I realised then that they were one person, or rather that both were the remains of what had once been a person. The Dwarf again rattled the chain.

‘You missed me?' said the Tragedian to the Lady, throwing a dreadful theatrical tremor into his voice.

‘Dear friend,' said the Lady, still attending exclusively to the Dwarf, ‘you may be happy about that and about everything else. Forget all about it for ever.'

And really, for a moment, I thought the Dwarf was going to obey: partly because the outlines of his face became a little clearer, and partly because the invitation to all joy, singing out of her whole being like a bird's song on an April evening, seemed to me such that no creature
could resist it. Then he hesitated. And then—once more he and his accomplice spoke in unison.

‘Of course it would be rather fine and magnanimous not to press the point,' they said to one another. ‘But can we be sure she'd notice? We've done these sort of things before. There was the time we let her have the last stamp in the house to write to her mother and said nothing although she
had
known we wanted to write a letter ourself. We'd thought she'd remember and see how unselfish we'd been. But she never did. And there was the time…oh, lots and lots of times!' So the Dwarf gave a shake to the chain and—

‘I can't forget it,' cried the Tragedian. ‘And I won't forget it, either. I could forgive them all they've done to me. But for your miseries—.'

‘Oh, don't you understand?' said the Lady. ‘There
are
no miseries here.'

‘Do you mean to say,' answered the Dwarf, as if this new idea had made him quite forget the Tragedian for a moment, ‘do you mean to say you've been
happy?'

‘Didn't you want me to be? But no matter. Want it now. Or don't think about it at all.'

The Dwarf blinked at her. One could see an unheard-of idea trying to enter his little mind: one could see even
that there was for him some sweetness in it. For a second he had almost let the chain go: then, as if it were his lifeline, he clutched it once more.

‘Look here,' said the Tragedian. ‘We've got to face this.' He was using his ‘manly' bullying tone this time: the one for bringing women to their senses.

‘Darling,' said the Lady to the Dwarf, ‘there's nothing to face. You don't want me to have been miserable for misery's sake. You only think I must have been if I loved you. But if you'll only wait you'll see that isn't so.'

‘Love!' said the Tragedian striking his forehead with his hand: then, a few notes deeper, ‘Love! Do you know the meaning of the word?'

‘How should I not?' said the Lady. ‘I am in love.
In
love, do you understand? Yes, now I love truly.'

‘You mean,' said the Tragedian, ‘you mean—you did
not
love me truly in the old days.'

‘Only in a poor sort of way,' she answered. ‘I have asked you to forgive me. There was a little real love in it. But what we called love down there was mostly the craving to be loved. In the main I loved you for my own sake: because I needed you.'

‘And now!' said the Tragedian with a hackneyed gesture of despair. ‘Now, you need me no more?'

‘But of course not!' said the Lady; and her smile made me wonder how both the phantoms could refrain from crying out with joy.

‘What needs could I have,' she said, ‘now that I have all? I am full now, not empty. I am in Love Himself, not lonely. Strong, not weak. You shall be the same. Come and see. We shall have no
need
for one another now: we can begin to love truly.'

But the Tragedian was still striking attitudes. ‘She needs me no more—no more. No more,' he said in a choking voice to no one in particular. ‘Would to God,' he continued, but he was now pronouncing it
Gud
—‘would to Gud I had seen her lying dead at my feet before I heard those words. Lying dead at my feet. Lying dead at my feet.'

I do not know how long the creature intended to go on repeating the phrase, for the Lady put an end to that. ‘Frank! Frank!' she cried in a voice that made the whole wood ring. ‘Look at me.
Look
at me. What are you doing with that great, ugly doll? Let go of the chain. Send it away. It is
you
I want. Don't you see what nonsense it's talking.' Merriment danced in her eyes. She was sharing a joke with the Dwarf, right over the head of the Tragedian. Something not at all unlike a smile struggled to appear on
the Dwarf's face. For he
was
looking at her now. Her laughter was past his first defences. He was struggling hard to keep it out, but already with imperfect success. Against his will, he was even growing a little bigger. ‘Oh, you great goose,' said she. ‘What is the good of talking like that here? You know as well as I do that you
did
see me lying dead years and years ago. Not “at your feet”, of course, but on a bed in a nursing home. A very good nursing home it was too. Matron would never have dreamed of leaving bodies lying about the floor! It's ridiculous for that doll to try to be impressive about death
here
. It just won't work.'