Lady into Fox

  LADY INTO FOX

  By

  DAVID GARNETT

  ILLUSTRATED WITH WOOD ENGRAVINGS

  BY R. A. GARNETT

  1922

  TO

  DUNCAN GRANT

  MR. AND MRS. TEBRICK AT HOME]

  Wonderful or supernatural events are not so uncommon, rather they areirregular in their incidence. Thus there may be not one marvel to speakof in a century, and then often enough comes a plentiful crop of them;monsters of all sorts swarm suddenly upon the earth, comets blaze inthe sky, eclipses frighten nature, meteors fall in rain, while mermaidsand sirens beguile, and sea-serpents engulf every passing ship, andterrible cataclysms beset humanity.

  But the strange event which I shall here relate came alone, unsupported,without companions into a hostile world, and for that very reasonclaimed little of the general attention of mankind. For the suddenchanging of Mrs. Tebrick into a vixen is an established fact which wemay attempt to account for as we will. Certainly it is in theexplanation of the fact, and the reconciling of it with our generalnotions that we shall find most difficulty, and not in accepting fortrue a story which is so fully proved, and that not by one witness butby a dozen, all respectable, and with no possibility of collusionbetween them.

  But here I will confine myself to an exact narrative of the event andall that followed on it. Yet I would not dissuade any of my readers fromattempting an explanation of this seeming miracle because up till nownone has been found which is entirely satisfactory. What adds to thedifficulty to my mind is that the metamorphosis occurred when Mrs.Tebrick was a full-grown woman, and that it happened suddenly in soshort a space of time. The sprouting of a tail, the gradual extension ofhair all over the body, the slow change of the whole anatomy by aprocess of growth, though it would have been monstrous, would not havebeen so difficult to reconcile to our ordinary conceptions, particularlyhad it happened in a young child.

  But here we have something very different. A grown lady is changedstraightway into a fox. There is no explaining that away by any naturalphilosophy. The materialism of our age will not help us here. It isindeed a _miracle_; something from outside our world altogether; anevent which we would willingly accept if we were to meet it investedwith the authority of Divine Revelation in the scriptures, but which weare not prepared to encounter almost in our time, happening inOxfordshire amongst our neighbours.

  The only things which go any way towards an explanation of it are butguesswork, and I give them more because I would not conceal anything,than because I think they are of any worth.

  Mrs. Tebrick's maiden name was certainly Fox, and it is possible thatsuch a miracle happening before, the family may have gained their nameas a _soubriquet_ on that account. They were an ancient family, and havehad their seat at Tangley Hall time out of mind. It is also true thatthere was a half-tame fox once upon a time chained up at Tangley Hall inthe inner yard, and I have heard many speculative wiseacres in thepublic-houses turn that to great account--though they could not butadmit that "there was never one there in Miss Silvia's time." At first Iwas inclined to think that Silvia Fox, having once hunted when she wasa child of ten and having been blooded, might furnish more of anexplanation. It seems she took great fright or disgust at it, andvomited after it was done. But now I do not see that it has much bearingon the miracle itself, even though we know that after that she alwaysspoke of the "poor foxes" when a hunt was stirring and never rode tohounds till after her marriage when her husband persuaded her to it.

  She was married in the year 1879 to Mr. Richard Tebrick, after a shortcourtship, and went to live after their honeymoon at Rylands, nearStokoe, Oxon. One point indeed I have not been able to ascertain andthat is how they first became acquainted. Tangley Hall is over thirtymiles from Stokoe, and is extremely remote. Indeed to this day there isno proper road to it, which is all the more remarkable as it is theprincipal, and indeed the only, manor house for several miles round.

  Whether it was from a chance meeting on the roads, or less romantic butmore probable, by Mr. Tebrick becoming acquainted with her uncle, aminor canon at Oxford, and thence being invited by him to visit TangleyHall, it is impossible to say. But however they became acquainted themarriage was a very happy one. The bride was in her twenty-third year.She was small, with remarkably small hands and feet. It is perhaps worthnoting that there was nothing at all foxy or vixenish in her appearance.On the contrary, she was a more than ordinarily beautiful and agreeablewoman. Her eyes were of a clear hazel but exceptionally brilliant, herhair dark, with a shade of red in it, her skin brownish, with a few darkfreckles and little moles. In manner she was reserved almost to shyness,but perfectly self-possessed, and perfectly well-bred.

  She had been strictly brought up by a woman of excellent principles andconsiderable attainments, who died a year or so before the marriage. Andowing to the circumstance that her mother had been dead many years, andher father bedridden, and not altogether rational for a little whilebefore his death, they had few visitors but her uncle. He often stoppedwith them a month or two at a stretch, particularly in winter, as he wasfond of shooting snipe, which are plentiful in the valley there. Thatshe did not grow up a country hoyden is to be explained by thestrictness of her governess and the influence of her uncle. But perhapsliving in so wild a place gave her some disposition to wildness, even inspite of her religious upbringing. Her old nurse said: "Miss Silvia wasalways a little wild at heart," though if this was true it was neverseen by anyone else except her husband.

  On one of the first days of the year 1880, in the early afternoon,husband and wife went for a walk in the copse on the little hill aboveRylands. They were still at this time like lovers in their behaviour andwere always together. While they were walking they heard the hounds andlater the huntsman's horn in the distance. Mr. Tebrick had persuaded herto hunt on Boxing Day, but with great difficulty, and she had notenjoyed it (though of hacking she was fond enough).

  Hearing the hunt, Mr. Tebrick quickened his pace so as to reach the edgeof the copse, where they might get a good view of the hounds if theycame that way. His wife hung back, and he, holding her hand, beganalmost to drag her. Before they gained the edge of the copse shesuddenly snatched her hand away from his very violently and cried out,so that he instantly turned his head.

  _Where his wife had been the moment before was a small fox, of a verybright red._ It looked at him very beseechingly, advanced towards him apace or two, and he saw at once that his wife was looking at him fromthe animal's eyes. You may well think if he were aghast: and so maybewas his lady at finding herself in that shape, so they did nothing fornearly half-an-hour but stare at each other, he bewildered, she askinghim with her eyes as if indeed she spoke to him: "What am I now become?Have pity on me, husband, have pity on me for I am your wife."

  So that with his gazing on her and knowing her well, even in such ashape, yet asking himself at every moment: "Can it be she? Am I notdreaming?" and her beseeching and lastly fawning on him and seeming totell him that it was she indeed, they came at last together and he tookher in his arms. She lay very close to him, nestling under his coat andfell to licking his face, but never taking her eyes from his. Thehusband all this while kept turning the thing in his head and gazing onher, but he could make no sense of what had happened, but only comfortedhimself with the hope that this was but a momentary change, and thatpresently she would turn back again into the wife that was one fleshwith him.

  One fancy that came to him, because he was so much more like a loverthan a husband, was that it was his fault, and this because if anythingdreadful happened he could never blame her but himself for it.

  So they passed a good while, till at last the tears welled up in thepoor fox's eyes and she began weeping (but quite in silence), and shetrembled too
as if she were in a fever. At this he could not contain hisown tears, but sat down on the ground and sobbed for a great while, butbetween his sobs kissing her quite as if she had been a woman, and notcaring in his grief that he was kissing a fox on the muzzle.

  They sat thus till it was getting near dusk, when he recollectedhimself, and the next thing was that he must somehow hide her, and thenbring her home.

  He waited till it was quite dark that he might the better bring her intoher own house without being seen, and buttoned her inside his topcoat,nay, even in his passion tearing open his waistcoat and his shirt thatshe might lie the closer to his heart. For when we are overcome withthe greatest sorrow we act not like men or women but like childrenwhose comfort in all their troubles is to press themselves against theirmother's breast, or if she be not there to hold each other tight in oneanother's arms.

  When it was dark he brought her in with infinite precautions, yet notwithout the dogs scenting her after which nothing could