No More Learning

He was
very young when he expressed a desire to write, and perpetrated
blank verse which justified his father in vigorous opposition to his
adoption of authorship as a profession. So, his school days ended,
he presented the not unusual figure of a bright young Englishman
who must earn his bread, yet had no particular aptitude for doing it.
He tried business first, and became articled clerk with a City house


## p. 3880 (#246) ###########################################

3880
WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
in the tea trade. But the work was uncongenial; and after a few
unsatisfactory years he fell in with his father's views, and was entered
at Lincoln's Inn and in due time admitted to the bar, although he
never practiced law.
He continued writing for amusement, however, producing sketches
and stories valuable as training. On his father's death he prepared
a biography of that artist in two volumes (1848), which was consid-
ered a just as well as a loving appreciation. His first novel, how-
ever, was rejected by every publisher to whom he submitted it. His
second, 'Antonina,' a story of the fall of Rome, was mediocre.
He was about twenty-six when he met Charles Dickens, then a
man of forty, at the height of his fame, and with the kindliest feel-
ing for younger writers still struggling for recognition. Dickens,
whose own work was always prompted by sympathetic intuition, and
to whom character development came more easily than ingenious
plots, cordially admired Collins's skill in devising and explaining the
latter. He invited the younger man to become collaborator upon
Household Words, and thus initiated a warm friendship which
lasted until his own death. Encouraged by him, Collins essayed
drama and wrote The Light-House,' played at Gadshill by dis-
tinguished amateurs, Dickens himself among them. At first thought,
his would seem an essentially dramatic talent, and several of his
novels have been successfully dramatized. But the very cleverness
and intricacy of his situations make them unsuited to the stage.
They are too difficult of comprehension to be taken in at a glance
by an average audience, in the swift passage of stage action.
It was also the influence of Dickens which inspired Collins to
attempt social reform. In Man and Wife' he tries to show the
injustice of Scotch marriage laws; in 'The New Magdalen,' the pos-
sible regeneration of fallen women; in 'Heart and Science,' the
abuses of vivisection; and other stories are incumbered with didactic
purpose. Mr. Swinburne comments upon this aspect of his career in
a jocular couplet -
"What brought good Wilkie's genius nigh perdition?
Some demon whispered, 'Wilkie! have a mission! › »
But in all "tendency" novels it is not the discussion of problems
that makes them live; and Wilkie Collins, like others, survives by
purely literary qualities. Soon after his death the critic of the Spec-
tator gave the following capable summary of his peculiar method:-
"He was a literary chess player of the first force, with power of carrying
his plan right through the game and making every move tell. His method
was to introduce a certain number of characters, set before them a well-
defined object, such as the discovery of a secret, the re-vindication of a


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WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
3881
fortune, the tracking of a crime, or the establishment of a doubted mar-
riage, and then bring in other characters to resist or counterplot their
efforts. Each side makes moves, almost invariably well-considered and
promising moves; the counter-moves are equally good; the interest goes on
accumulating till the looker-on - the reader is always placed in that attitude
- is rapt out of himself by strained attention; and then there is a sudden
and totally unexpected mate. It is chess which is being played; and in the
best of all his stories, the one which will live for years,- The Moonstone,'
- the pretense that it is anything else is openly disregarded. »
―――――
This analysis however must not be too narrowly construed, as
petty critics often do, to mean that the only interest in Mr.
Collins's novels is that of disentangling the plot. If this were so, no
one would read them more than once; while in fact the best of them
are eminently readable again and again. This shallow judgment
evidently galled the novelist himself, and 'The New Magdalen' in
one aspect was a throwing-down of the gauntlet to the critics; for in
it he tells the plot page by page, almost paragraph by paragraph,
as he goes along, and even far in advance of the story, yet it is one
of the most fascinating of his novels. He proved that he could do
admirably what they said he could not do at all—make people read
his story with breathless absorption when they knew its end long
before they came to it; and it was as interesting backward as for-
ward. 'No Name' is in some sort a combination of the two methods,
— a revelation of the end, with perpetual interest in the discovery of
means.
'The Moonstone' and 'The Woman in White' are unquestionably
his masterpieces. In both he throws light upon a complex plot by
means of his favorite expedient of letters and diaries written by
different characters, who thus take the reader into their confidence
and bewilder him with conflicting considerations, until the author
comes forward with an ingenious and lucid solution. The Moon-
stone, however, is immensely superior in matter even to its fellow;
its plot is better (in one place The Woman in White' comes to a
dead wall which the author calmly ignores and goes on), and some
passages are worth reading over and over for pure pathos or descrip-
tion. Mr. Collins was in fact, aside from his special gift, a literary
artist of no mean power, even if not the highest: with an eye for
salient effects, a skill in touching the more obvious chords of
emotion, a knowledge of life and books, that enrich his stories with
enough extraneous wealth to prolong their life for many years, and
some of them perhaps for generations.


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3882
WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
THE SLEEP-WALKING
From The Moonstone>
[ This episode is related by the physician in charge of Mr. Franklin Blake,
whose good name he wishes to clear from a charge of fraud. ]
TWO
wo o'clock A. M. -The experiment has been tried. With what
result I am now to describe.
At eleven o'clock I rang the bell for Betteredge and
told Mr. Blake that he might at last prepare himself for bed.
. I followed Betteredge out of the room, and told him
to remove the medicine chest into Miss Verinder's sitting-room.
The order seemed to take him completely by surprise. He
looked as if he suspected me of some occult design on Miss
Verinder! "Might I presume to ask," he said,
what my
young lady and the medicine chest have got to do with each.
other? »
«< Stay in the sitting-room and you will see. ”
Betteredge appeared to doubt his own unaided capacity to
superintend me effectually, on an occasion when a medicine
chest was included in the proceedings.
"Is there any objection, sir," he asked, "to taking Mr.
Bruff into this part of the business? "
"Quite the contrary! I am now going to ask Mr. Bruff to
accompany me down-stairs. "
Betteredge withdrew to fetch the medicine chest without
another word. I went back into Mr. Blake's room, and knocked
at the door of communication. Mr. Bruff opened it, with his
papers in his hand-immersed in Law, impenetrable to Medi-
cine.
"I am sorry to disturb you,
» I said. "But I am going to
prepare the laudanum for Mr. Blake; and I must request you
to be present and to see what I do.
"Yes," said Mr. Bruff, with nine-tenths of his attention riv-
eted on his papers, and with one-tenth unwillingly accorded to
"Anything else? »
me.
"I must trouble you to return here with me, and to see me
administer the dose. "
"Anything else? »
"One thing more. I must put you to the inconvenience of
remaining in Mr. Blake's room to see what happens. "


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WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
3883
"Oh, very good! " said Mr. Bruff. "My room or Mr. Blake's
room, it doesn't matter which; I can go on with my papers
Unless you object, Mr. Jennings, to my importing
that amount of common-sense into the proceedings?
anywhere.
>>>>
Before I could answer, Mr. Blake addressed himself to the
lawyer, speaking from his bed.
--
"Do you really mean to say that you don't feel any interest
in what you are going to do? " he asked. "Mr. Bruff, you have
no more imagination than a cow! "
"A cow is a very useful animal, Mr. Blake," said the lawyer.
With that reply he followed me out of the room, still keeping
his papers in his hand.
We found Miss Verinder pale and agitated, restlessly pacing
her sitting-room from end to end. At a table in a corner stood
Betteredge, on guard over the medicine chest. Mr. Bruff sat
down on the first chair that he could find, and (emulating the
usefulness of the cow) plunged back again into his papers on
the spot.
Miss Verinder drew me aside, and reverted instantly to her
one all-absorbing interest- the interest in Mr. Blake.
"How is he now? " she asked. "Is he nervous? is he out of
temper? Do you think it will succeed? Are you sure it will do
no harm? »
"Quite sure. Come and see me measure it out. "
"One moment. It is past eleven now. How long will it be
before anything happens? "
"It is not easy to say. An hour, perhaps. "
"I suppose the room must be dark, as it was last year? »
"Certainly. "
"I shall wait in my bedroom-just as I did before. I shall
keep the door a little way open. It was a little way open last
year. I will watch the sitting-room door; and the moment it
moves I will blow out my light. It all happened in that way
on my birthday night. And it must all happen again in the
same way, mustn't it? "
"Are you sure you can control yourself, Miss Verinder?
"In his interests I can do anything! " she answered fer-
vently.
>>>
One look at her face told me I could trust her. I addressed
myself again to Mr. Bruff.
"I must trouble you to put your papers aside for a moment,”
I said.


## p. 3884 (#250) ###########################################

3884
WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
"Oh, certainly! " He got up with a start-as if I had dis-
turbed him at a particularly interesting place—and followed me
to the medicine chest. There, deprived of the breathless excite-
ment incidental to the practice of his profession, he looked at
Betteredge and yawned wearily.
Miss Verinder joined me with a glass jug of cold water
which she had taken from a side table. "Let me pour out the
water," she whispered; "I must have a hand in it! "
I measured out the forty minims from the bottle, and poured
the laudanum into a glass. "Fill it till it is three parts full,"
I said, and handed the glass to Miss Verinder. I then directed
Betteredge to lock up the medicine chest, informing him that I
had done with it now. A look of unutterable relief overspread
the old servant's countenance. He had evidently suspected me
of a medical design on his young lady!
After adding the water as I had directed, Miss Verinder
seized a moment - while Betteredge was locking the chest and
while Mr. Bruff was looking back at his papers- and slyly
kissed the rim of the medicine glass. "When you give it to
him," whispered the charming girl, "give it to him on that
side. "
I took the piece of crystal which was to represent the Dia-
mond from my pocket and gave it to her.
"You must have a hand in this too,” I said. "You must
put it where you put the Moonstone last year. "
She led the way to the Indian cabinet, and put the mock
Diamond into the drawer which the real Diamond had occupied
on the birthday night. Mr. Bruff witnessed this proceeding,
under protest, as he had witnessed everything else. But the
strong dramatic interest which the experiment was now assum-
ing proved (to my great amusement) to be too much for Better-
edge's capacity of self-restraint. His hand trembled as he held
the candle, and he whispered anxiously, "Are you sure, miss,
it's the right drawer? "
I led the way out again, with the laudanum and water in
my hand.
At the door I stood to address a last word to Miss
Verinder.
"Don't be long in putting out the lights," I said.
"I will put them out at once," she answered.
wait in my bedroom with only one candle alight. "
She closed the sitting-room door behind us.
Bruff and Betteredge, I went back to Mr. Blake's
"And I will
Followed by
room.


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WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
3885
We found him moving restlessly from side to side of the bed,
and wondering irritably whether he was to have the laudanum
that night. In the presence of the two witnesses I gave him
the dose, and shook up his pillows, and told him to lie down.
again quietly and wait.
His bed, provided with light chintz curtains, was placed
with the head against the wall of the room, so as to leave a
good open space on either side of it. On one side I drew the
curtains completely, and in the part of the room thus screened
from his view I placed Mr. Bruff and Betteredge to wait for
the result. At the bottom of the bed I half drew the curtains,
and placed my own chair at a little distance, so that I might
let him see me or not see me, just as the circumstances might
direct. Having already been informed that he always slept with
a light in the room, I placed one of the two lighted candles on
a little table at the head of the bed, where the glare of the light
would not strike on his eyes. The other candle I gave to Mr.
Bruff; the light in this instance being subdued by the screen
of the chintz curtains. The window was open at the top so as
to ventilate the room. The rain fell softly; the house was quiet.
It was twenty minutes past eleven by my watch when the prepa-
rations were completed, and I took my place on the chair set
apart at the bottom of the bed.
Mr. Bruff resumed his papers, with every appearance of being
as deeply interested in them as ever. But looking toward him
now, I saw certain signs and tokens which told me that the Law
was beginning to lose its hold on him at last. The suspended
interest of the situation in which we were now placed was slowly
asserting its influence even on his unimaginative mind. As for
Betteredge, consistency of principle and dignity of conduct had
become in his case mere empty words. He forgot that I was
performing a conjuring trick on Mr. Franklin Blake; he forgot
that I had upset the house from top to bottom; he forgot that
I had not read Robinson Crusoe' since I was a child. "For the
Lord's sake, sir," he whispered to me, "tell us when it will
begin to work. "
"Not before midnight," I whispered back. "Say nothing
and sit still. "
Betteredge dropped to the lowest depth of familiarity with
me, without a struggle to save himself. He answered by a
wink!


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3886
WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
Looking next toward Mr. Blake, I found him as restless as
ever in his bed; fretfully wondering why the influence of the
laudanum had not begun to assert itself yet. To tell him in
his present humor that the more he fidgeted and wondered the
longer he would delay the result for which we were now wait-
ing, would have been simply useless. The wiser course to take
was to dismiss the idea of the opium from his mind by leading
him insensibly to think of something else.
With this view I encouraged him to talk to me, contriving so
to direct the conversation, on my side, as to lead him back again
the subject which had engaged us earlier in the evening,—
the subject of the Diamond. I took care to revert to those por-
tions of the story of the Moonstone which related to the trans-
port of it from London to Yorkshire; to the risk which Mr.
Blake had run in removing it from the bank at Frizinghall; and
to the expected appearance of the Indians at the house on the
evening of the birthday. And I purposely assumed, in referring
to these events, to have misunderstood much of what Mr. Blake
himself had told me a few hours since. In this way I set him
talking on the subject with which it was now vitally important
to fill his mind-without allowing him to suspect that I was
making him talk for a purpose. Little by little he became so
interested in putting me right that he forgot to fidget in the
bed. His mind was far away from the question of the opium at
the all-important time when his eyes first told me that the
opium was beginning to lay its hold upon his brain.
I looked at my watch. It wanted five minutes to twelve
when the premonitory symptoms of the working of the lau-
danum first showed themselves to me.
At this time no unpracticed eye would have detected any
change in him.
But as the minutes of the new morning wore
away, the swiftly subtle progress of the influence began to show
itself more plainly. The sublime intoxication of opium gleamed
in his eyes; the dew of a steady perspiration began to glisten on
his face. In five minutes more the talk which he still kept up
with me failed in coherence. He held steadily to the subject of
the Diamond; but he ceased to complete his sentences. A little
later the sentences dropped to single words. Then there was an
interval of silence. Then he sat up in bed. Then, still busy
with the subject of the Diamond, he began to talk again—not
to me but to himself. That change told me the first stage in


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WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
3887
the experiment was reached. The stimulant influence of the
opium had got him.
The time now was twenty-three minutes past twelve. The
next half-hour, at most, would decide the question of whether he
would or would not get up from his bed and leave the room.
In the breathless interest of watching him-in the unutter-
able triumph of seeing the first result of the experiment declare
itself in the manner, and nearly at the time, which I had antici-
pated I had utterly forgotten the two companions of my night
vigil. Looking toward them now, I saw the Law (as represented
by Mr. Bruff's papers) lying unheeded on the floor. Mr. Bruff
himself was looking eagerly through a crevice left in the imper-
fectly drawn curtains of the bed. And Betteredge, oblivious of
all respect for social distinctions, was peeping over Mr. Bruff's
shoulder.
They both started back on finding that I was looking at
them, like two boys caught out by their schoolmaster in a fault.
I signed to them to take off their boots quietly, as I was taking
off mine. If Mr. Blake gave us the chance of following him, it
was vitally necessary to follow him without noise.
Ten minutes passed-and nothing happened.
He put
Then he suddenly threw the bedclothes off him.
one leg out of bed. He waited.
"I wish I had never taken it out of the bank," he said to
himself. "It was safe in the bank. "
My heart throbbed fast; the pulses at my temples beat furi-
ously. The doubt about the safety of the Diamond was once
more the dominant impression in his brain! On that one pivot
the whole success of the experiment turned. The prospect thus
suddenly opened before me was too much for my shattered
nerves. I was obliged to look away from him, or I should have
lost my self-control.
There was another interval of silence.
When I could trust myself to look back at him he was out
of his bed, standing erect at the side of it. The pupils of his
eyes were now contracted; his eyeballs gleamed in the light of
the candle as he moved his head slowly to and fro.
He was
thinking; he was doubting; he spoke again.
"How do I know? " he said. "The Indians may be hidden
in the house. "
He stopped, and walked slowly to the other end of the room.
He turned,-waited,—came back to the bed.


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3888
WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
"It's not even locked up," he went on.
of her cabinet. And the drawer doesn't lock. "
"It's in the drawer
He sat down on the side of the bed. "Anybody might take
it," he said.
He rose again restlessly, and reiterated his first words. "How
do I know? The Indians may be hidden in the house. "
bed.
He waited again. I drew back behind the half-curtain of the
He looked about the room, with the vacant glitter in his
eyes. It was a breathless moment. There was a pause of some
A pause in the action of the opium? a pause in the action
of the brain? Who could tell? Everything depended now on
what he did next.
sort.
He laid himself down again on the bed!
A horrible doubt crossed my mind. Was it possible that the
sedative action of the opium was making itself felt already? It
was not in my experience that it should do this. But what is
experience where opium is concerned? There are probably no
two men in existence on whom the drug acts in exactly the
same manner. Was some constitutional peculiarity in him feel-
ing the influence in some new way? Were we to fail, on the
very brink of success?
No! He got up again very abruptly. "How the devil am I
to sleep," he said, "with this on my mind ? »
He looked at the light burning on the table at the head of
his bed. After a moment he took the candle in his hand.
I blew out the second candle burning behind the closed cur-
tains. I drew back, with Mr. Bruff and Betteredge, into the
farthest corner by the bed. I signed to them to be silent, as if
their lives depended on it.
We waited seeing and hearing nothing. We waited, hidden
from him by the curtains.
The light which he was holding on the other side of us moved
suddenly. The next moment he passed us, swift and noiseless,
with the candle in his hand.
He opened the bedroom door and went out.
We followed him along the corridor. We followed him down
the stairs. We followed him along the second corridor. He
never looked back; he never hesitated.
He opened the sitting-room door and went in, leaving it
open behind him.
The door was hung (like all the other doors in the house) on
large old-fashioned hinges. When it was opened, a crevice was


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WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
3889
opened between the door and the post. I signed to my two
companions to look through this, so as to keep them from show-
ing themselves. I placed myself-outside the door also- on the
opposite side. A recess in the wall was at my left hand, in
which I could instantly hide myself if he showed any signs of
looking back into the corridor.
He advanced to the middle of the room, with the candle still
in his hand; he looked about him,- but he never looked back.
I saw the door of Miss Verinder's bedroom standing ajar.
She had put out her light. She controlled herself nobly. The
dim white outline of her summer dress was all that I could see.
Nobody who had not known it beforehand would have suspected
that there was a living creature in the room. She kept back in
the dark; not a word, not a movement escaped her.
It was now ten minutes past one. I heard through the
silence the soft drip of the rain, and the tremulous passage of
the night air through the trees.
After waiting irresolute for a minute or more in the middle
of the room, he moved to the corner near the window where the
Indian cabinet stood.
He put his candle on the top of the cabinet. He opened and
shut one drawer after another, until he came to the drawer in
which the mock Diamond was put. He looked into the drawer
for a moment. Then he took the mock Diamond out with his
right hand. With the other hand he took the candle from the
top of the cabinet.
He walked back a few steps toward the middle of the room
and stood still again.
Thus far he had exactly repeated what he had done on the
birthday night. Would his next proceeding be the same as the
proceeding of last year? Would he leave the room? Would he
go back now, as I believed he had gone back then, to his bed-
chamber? Would he show us what he had done with the Dia-
mond when he had returned to his own room?
His first action, when he moved once more, proved to be an
action which he had not performed when he was under the in-
fluence of the opium for the first time. He put the candle.
down on a table and wandered on a little toward the farther
end of the room. There was a sofa here. He leaned heavily
on the back of it with his left hand - then roused himself and
returned to the middle of the room. I could now see his eyes.
VI-244


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3890
WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
They were getting dull and heavy; the glitter in them was fast
dying out.
The suspense of the moment proved too much for Miss Ver-
inder's self-control. She advanced a few steps,- then stopped
again. Mr. Bruff and Betteredge looked across the open door-
way at me for the first time. The prevision of a coming disap-
pointment was impressing itself on their minds as well as on
mine. Still, so long as he stood where he was, there was hope.
We waited in unutterable expectation to see what would hap-
pen next.
The next event was decisive. He let the mock Diamond
drop out of his hand.
It fell on the floor, before the doorway - plainly visible to
him and to every one. He made no effort to pick it up; he
looked down at it vacantly, and as he looked, his head sank on
his breast. He staggered-roused himself for an instant-
walked back unsteadily to the sofa-and sat down on it. He
made a last effort; he tried to rise, and sank back. His head
fell on the sofa cushions. It was then twenty-five minutes past
one o'clock. Before I had put my watch back in my pocket he
was asleep.
It was over now. The sedative influence had got him; the
experiment was at an end.
I entered the room, telling Mr. Bruff and Betteredge that
they might follow me. There was no fear of disturbing him.
We were free to move and speak.
"The first thing to settle," I said, "is the question of what
we are to do with him. He will probably sleep for the next six
or seven hours at least. It is some distance to carry him back
to his own room. When I was younger I could have done it
alone. But my health and strength are not what they were-I
am afraid I will have to ask you to help me. "
Before they could answer, Miss Verinder called to me softly.
She met me at the door of her room with a light shawl and
with the counterpane from her own bed.
"Do you mean to watch him while he sleeps? " she asked.
"Yes. I am not sure enough of the action of the opium in
this case, to be willing to leave him alone. "
She handed me the shawl and the counterpane.
"Why should you disturb him? " she whispered. "Make his
bed on the sofa. I can shut my door and keep in my room. »


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WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
3891
It was infinitely the simplest and the safest way of disposing
of him for the night. I mentioned the suggestion to Mr. Bruff
and Betteredge, who both approved of my adopting it. In five
minutes I had laid him comfortably on the sofa, and had
covered him lightly with the counterpane and the shawl. Miss
Verinder wished us good-night and closed the door.
At my
request we three then drew round the table in the middle of
the room, on which the candle was still burning, and on which
writing materials were placed.
"Before we separate," I began, "I have a word to say about
the experiment which has been tried to-night. Two distinct
objects were to be gained by it. The first of these objects was
to prove that Mr. Blake entered this room and took the Dia-
mond last year, acting unconsciously and irresponsibly, under the
influence of opium. After what you have both seen, are you
both satisfied so far? ”
They answered me in the affirmative, without a moment's
hesitation.
«<
"The second object," I went on, was to discover what he
did with the Diamond after he was seen by Miss Verinder to
leave her sitting-room with the jewel in his hand on the birthday
night. The gaining of this object depended, of course, on his
still continuing exactly to repeat his proceedings of last year.
He has failed to do that; and the purpose of the experiment is
defeated accordingly. I can't assert that I am not disappointed
at the result-but I can honestly say that I am not surprised
by it. I told Mr. Blake from the first that our complete success
in this matter depended on our completely reproducing in him.
the physical and moral conditions of last year; and I warned
him that this was the next thing to a downright impossibility.
We have only partially reproduced the conditions, and the experi-
ment has been only partially successful in consequence. It is
also possible that I may have administered too large a dose of
laudanum. But I myself look upon the first reason that I have
given as the true reason why we have to lament a failure, as
well as to rejoice over a success. "
After saying those words I put the writing materials before
Mr. Bruff, and asked him if he had any objection, before we
separated for the night, to draw out and sign a plain statement
of what he had seen. He at once took the pen, and produced
the statement with the fluent readiness of a practiced hand.


## p. 3892 (#258) ###########################################

3892
WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS
as
some
"I owe you this," he said, signing the paper,
atonement for what passed between us earlier in the evening. I
beg your pardon, Mr. Jennings, for having doubted you. You
have done Franklin Blake an inestimable service. In our legal
phrase, you have proved your case. "
Betteredge's apology was characteristic of the man.
"Mr. Jennings," he said, "when you read 'Robinson Crusoe'
again (which I strongly recommend you to do), you will find
that he never scruples to acknowledge it when he turns out to
have been in the wrong. Please to consider me, sir, as doing
what Robinson Crusoe did on the present occasion. " With those
words he signed the paper in his turn.
Mr. Bruff took me aside as we rose from the table.