Collected Works (Vol. II)

ALICE: AN ADULTERY 1903 INTRODUCTION! BY THE EDITOR. YOKOHAMA, April, 1901. It has often been pointed out how strange are the prophecies made from time to time by writers of what purports to be merely fiction. Of all the remarkable tales with which Mr. R. Kipling has delighted the world, none is more striking than that of McIntosh Jellaludin? and his mysterious manuscript. And now, only a few years after reading that incredible tale, I myself, at Yoko- Hama, come across a series of circum- stances wonderfully analogous. But I will truthfully set down this history just as it all happened. I went one memorable Wednesday night to No. 29.3 For my advent in this most re- putable quarter of the city, which is, after all, Yama,? and equally handy for the consul, the chaplain, and the doctor, readers of Rossetti will expect no excuse; for their sakes I may frankly admit that I was actu- ated by other motives than interest and solicitude for my companion, a youth still blindly groping for Romance beneath the skirts of tawdry and painted Vice. Perhaps I may have hoped to save him from what men call the graver and angels the lesser consequences of his folly. This for the others. As to the character of the mansion at 1 This and the ‘‘ Critical Essay ’’ (now omit- ted) were the result of collaboration. Some omissions, &c., in the text of the First Edition were intended to aid the illusion of this in- troduction. 2 A dissipated but gifted European who be- came unified with the Indian native, and wrote a book about him. 3 Disinclination to marry is congénital in the elect: the Pauline alternative is discounten- anced by my doctor.—ED. 4 The Bluff, or European quarter. which we arrived, after a journey no less dubious than winding, I will say that, despite its outward seeming, it was, in reality, a most respectable place; the main occupation of its inhabitants seemed to be the sale of as much ‘‘champagne” as possible; in which inspiring preface my friend was soon deeply immersed. . .. Golden-haired, a profound linguist, swear- ing in five Western and three Oriental lan- guages, and comparable rather to the accomplished courtesans of old-time Athens than to the Imperial Peripatetics of the Daily Telegraph and Mr. Raven-Hill,! her looks of fire turned my friend’s silky and insipid moustache into a veritable Burning Bush. But puppy endearments are of little interest to one who has just done his duty by No. 9? in distant Yoshiwara; so turned to the conversation of our dirty old Irish hostess, who, being drunk, grew more so, and exceedingly entertaining. Of the central forces which sway man- kind, her knowledge was more comprehen- sive than conventional. For thirty years she had earned her bread in the capacity of a Japanese Mrs. Warren ;* but having played with fire in many lands, the knowledge she had of her own subject, based on indefatig- able personal research, was as accurate in detail as it was cosmopolitan in character. Yet she had not lost her ideals; she was a devout Catholic, and her opinion of the human understanding, despite her virginal innocence of Greek, was identical with that of Mr. Locke.4 On occasions I am as sensitive to inexplic- 1 A talented artist, who published a book of amusing sketches of the loose women who promenaded the ‘‘ Empire’’ Music Hall. 2 Called ‘‘ Nectarine,’’ a famous brothel. 3 A bawd. From Shaw’s play, ‘‘ Mrs, Warren’s Profession,” 4 The philosopher, 58