Read The Physiognomy for Free Online

I read Beaton. In my eye’s-mind I saw him holding out a message to me he had come all the way from Paradise to deliver.
    I called loudly for Mantakis, who eventually appeared on the porch, wearing an apron and carrying a feather duster. He displayed a long face and was as tiresome as could be with his sighs and labored step.
    â€œSnap out of it, Mantakis,” I commanded.
    â€œYour honor,” he said.
    â€œWhat’s your problem, man?”
    â€œI missed the party last night,” he said.
    â€œYou missed nothing,” I replied. “The mayor loosed a dangerous animal on his people and there was nothing to eat but turds.”
    â€œThe missus said you were quite eloquent in your oration,” he said.
    â€œHow would the missus know?” I asked, soaping my left armpit.
    â€œThe missus—” he began, but could I really have let him go on?
    â€œMantakis,” I said, “I want you to send Beaton up to my study.”
    â€œBegging your pardon,” he said, “but I think the family wants him.”
    â€œThe family can have what is left of him when I am through,” I said.
    â€œAs you wish,” he said, and lightly dusted the air in front of him.
    â€œMantakis,” I said as he was about to leave the porch.
    â€œYour honor?” he asked, looking back over his shoulder.
    â€œYou missed the party quite some time ago,” I said.
    He nodded in agreement as if I had told him the sky was blue.
    I heard them lugging Beaton up the steps to the study as I dried off in my room and prepared an injection. The voices of the two workmen who wrestled with the stone echoed up the stairway and through my door. Their curses became a boys’ choir as the beauty put her arms around me and began to slowly breathe. I dressed amid waves of an inland sea, my eyes twin lighthouse beacons casting visions on reality. Professor Flock made an appearance to help me with my tie, and then the fire bat circled and swooped for five minutes while I hid beneath the bed. Down on the floor there in the dark, up to my nose in dust, I heard the Master whisper in my ear. I felt his breath and the presence of his body nearby. “Now answer the door,” he said. “There is no bat.”
    As I slid out from beneath the bed, I heard a knocking at my door. I hurried to my feet and dusted myself off. “Who is it?” I called.
    â€œMiss Beaton is here to see you,” shouted Mrs. Mantakis.
    â€œBring her to my study,” I said. “I’ll be in shortly.”
    I went to the mirror and tried to compose myself. I studied my features, a mock physiognomical exam, in an attempt to win back my reason. I was doing quite well, when out of the corner of my eye I saw Arden’s blue lips begin to move. They remained stone, yet they moved like flesh. A strained voice struggled like a mole burrowing up through a landslide to call faintly for help.
    I closed the door behind me and went across the hall to the study. She was there, sitting next to my desk. When I entered, she stood and bowed slightly. “Your honor,” she said.
    â€œBe seated,” I told her.
    As she sat, I watched her body bend.
    â€œWhere did you learn the Physiognomy?” I asked her.
    â€œFrom books,” she said.
    â€œMy books?” I asked.
    â€œSome,” she said.
    â€œHow old were you when you began your studies?”
    â€œI began in earnest three years ago when I was fifteen,” she said.
    â€œWhy?”
    After a lengthy pause, she explained: “Two of the miners of Anamasobia had developed a grudge against each other. No one knew exactly what the cause was. Things got so bad between them that they decided to settle things by having a pickax duel in the stand of willows on the western side of town. The willows were at their peak and their tendrils hung almost to the ground. The two men entered from different sides, wielding axes, and two days later someone went in and