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Mathematica by Example
Mathematica by
Example
Sixth Edition
Martha L. Abell
Georgia Southern University
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Statesboro, GA, United States
James P. Braselton
Georgia Southern University
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Statesboro, GA, United States
Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the
Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance
Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other
than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our
understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become
necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using
any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods
they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a
professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability
for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or
from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
ISBN: 978-0-12-824163-9
v
vi Contents
Mathematica by Example bridges the gap that exists between the very elementary handbooks
available on Mathematica and those reference books written for the advanced Mathematica
users. Mathematica by Example is an appropriate reference for all users of Mathematica and,
in particular, for beginning users such as students, instructors, engineers, business people, and
other professionals first learning to use Mathematica. Mathematica by Example introduces the
very basic commands and includes typical examples of applications of these commands. In
addition, the text includes commands useful in areas, such as calculus, linear algebra, business
mathematics, ordinary and partial differential equations, and graphics. In all cases, however,
examples follow the introduction of new commands. Readers from the most elementary to
advanced levels will find that the range of topics covered addresses their needs.
Taking advantage of Version 12 of Mathematica, Mathematica by Example, Sixth Edition,
introduces the fundamental concepts of Mathematica to solve typical problems of interest
to students, instructors, and scientists. Features that make Mathematica by Example, Sixth
Edition, as easy to use as a reference and as useful as possible for the beginner include the
following:
1. Version 12 Compatibility. All examples illustrated in Mathematica by Example, Sixth
Edition, were completed using Version 12 of Mathematica. Although many computations
can continue to be carried out with earlier versions of Mathematica, we have taken advan-
tage of the new features in Version 12, as much as possible.
2. Detailed Table of Contents. The table of contents includes all chapter, section, and sub-
section headings. Along with the comprehensive index, we hope that users will be able to
locate information quickly and easily.
3. Examples Designed for the Beginner. As the powers of computers increased and Mathe-
matica’s capabilities increased, so did Mathematica by Example. We hope that this edition
of the text helps return it to its original goal of helping to fulfill the needs of those begin-
ning to use Mathematica.
4. Comprehensive Index. In the index, mathematical examples and applications are listed
by topic, or name, as well as commands, along with frequently used options; particular
mathematical examples and examples illustrating how to use frequently used commands
are easy to locate. In addition, commands in the index are cross-referenced with frequently
used options. Functions available in the various packages are cross-referenced both by
package and alphabetically.
5. As technology has changed, so has the publication of a book. When Mathematica by
Example was first published in 1992, it was published as a single-color book. Conse-
quently, at that time, it was important to use various gray levels in plots to help distinguish
them. Now, many of you will download an electronic copy of the text and print it on a
high-resolution color printer with high-quality paper. The result will be outstanding. To
illustrate, we have chosen colors from various universities and colleges throughout the
United States. We tried to use the colors from at least one university or college in each
state. Sometimes this was difficult to do, because obtaining the color codes from some
colleges was easier than from others. Of course, in the print version of the text, all images
will still be in various levels of gray.
ix
x Preface
We began Mathematica by Example in 1990, and the first edition was published in 1991.
Back then, we were on top of the world using Macintosh IIcx’s with 8 megs of RAM and 40
meg hard drives. We tried to choose examples that we thought would be relevant to beginning
users—typically in the context of mathematics encountered in the first two years of the under-
graduate curriculum at typical universities in the United States. Those examples could also
be carried out by Mathematica in a timely manner on a computer as powerful as a Macintosh
IIcx.
Work on the Sixth Edition involved working with machines with such vast memory, and so
fast that we could not believe that computers would be faster, but they were almost certainly
bound to be nearly obsolete by this reading time. The examples presented in Mathematica by
Example continue to be the ones that we think are most similar to the problems encountered
by beginning users, and are presented in the context of someone familiar with mathematics
typically encountered by undergraduates. As Mathematica grew, so did Mathematica by Ex-
ample, therefore we decided to include more advanced topics that were interesting to us. This
revision of Mathematica by Example attempts to return the text to its original goal. Conse-
quently, we have shortened the text by deleting more advanced topics that were typically not
intended for or expected by the original audience. The other major change in the Sixth Edition
is that the Mathematica notebooks that accompany the text have been completely reworked
as well as renumbered to coincide with the numbering in the text, which we hope will make
cross-referencing much easier for the readers.
Also, be sure to investigate, use, and support Wolfram’s MathWorld—simply an amazing
web resource for mathematics, Mathematica, and other information.
http://store.wolfram.com/catalog/books/
Martha L. Abell
James P. Braselton
Statesboro, GA, United States
April 2021
Chapter 1
Getting started
1.1 Introduction to Mathematica
Mathematica, first released in 1988 by Wolfram Research, Inc.,
http://www.wolfram.com/,
Also, when you go to the Wolfram Documentation center (under Help in the Mathematica
menu), you can choose Wolfram Documentation to see the major differences. Also, the
upper right hand corner of the main help page for each function will tell you if it is new in
Version 12.1 or has been updated in Version 12.1.
If you start Mathematica by selecting the Mathematica icon, Mathematica’s startup win-
dow, “welcome screen,” is displayed.
From the startup window, you can perform a variety of actions, such as creating a new
notebook. For example, selecting New Document generates a new Mathematica notebook.
Getting started Chapter | 1 3
Mathematica’s online help facilities are spectacular. For beginning users, one of the more
convenient features are the various Palettes that are available. The Palettes provide a variety
of fill-in-the-blank templates to perform a wide variety of action. To access a Palette, go to
the Mathematica menu, select Palettes, and then select a given Palette. The following screen
shots show the Basic Math Assistant and Classroom Assistant palettes:
4 Mathematica by Example
If you go further into the submenu and select Other..., you will find the Algebraic Ma-
nipulation palette, a slightly different Basic Math Input palette from that mentioned above,
The standard Mathematica and the Basic Typesetting palette.
palettes are summarized in
Fig. 1.5.
When you start typing in the new notebook created above, the thin black horizontal line near
the top of the window is replaced by what you type.
Once Mathematica has been started, computations can be carried out immediately. Mathe-
matica commands are typed and the black horizontal line is replaced by the command, which
is then evaluated by pressing Enter. Note that pressing Enter or Shift-Return evaluates
Getting started Chapter | 1 5
commands, and pressing Return yields a new line. Output is displayed below input. We il- With some operating systems,
lustrate some of the typical steps involved in working with Mathematica in the calculations Return evaluates commands
that follow. In each case, we type the command and press Enter. Mathematica evaluates the and Shift-Return yields a
command, displays the result, and inserts a new horizontal line after the result. For example, new line.
typing N[, then pressing the π key on the Basic Math Input palette, followed by typing ,50]
and pressing the enter key
N[π, 50]
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751
returns a 50-digit approximation of π. Note that both π and Pi represent the mathematical
constant π, so entering N[Pi,50] returns the same result. For basic computations, enter them
into Mathematica in the same way as you would with most scientific calculators.
The next calculation can then be typed and entered in the same manner as the first. For
example, entering
graphs the functions y = sin x and y = 2 cos 4x on the interval [0, 3π] shown in Fig. 1.1.
With Mathematica 12, you can easily add explanation to the graphic: go to Graphics in
the main menu, followed by Drawings Tools. Alternatively, select a graphic by clicking on
it and then typing the command strokes ctrl-t to call the Drawing Tools palette. You can use
the Drawing Tools palette
6 Mathematica by Example
to quickly enhance a graphic. In this case, we use the arrow button and “T” (text) button twice
to identify each curve.
The various elements can be modified by clicking on them and moving and/or typing as
needed. In particular, notice the “cross-hair” button in the second row.
Getting started Chapter | 1 7
Use this button to identify coordinates in a plot. After selecting the graphic, selecting the
button, then moving the cursor within the graphic, you will see the coordinates.
With Mathematica 12, you can use Manipulate to illustrate how changing various parameters
affects a given function or functions. With the following command, we illustrate how a and
b affect the period of sine and cosine and c affects the amplitude of the cosine function, as
shown in Fig. 1.2:
{{d, 1, “Amplitude for Sine”}, .1, 5}, {{c, 1, “Amplitude for Cosine”}, .1, 5}]
Use the slide bars to adjust the values of the parameters or click on the + button to expand
the options to enter values explicitly or generate an animation to illustrate how changing the
parameter values changes the problem.
Getting started Chapter | 1 9
Plot3D[Sin[x + Cos[y]], {x, 0, 4π}, {y, 0, 4π}, Ticks → None, Boxed → False,
Axes → None]
graphs the function z = sin(x + cos(y)) for 0 ≤ x ≤ 4π, 0 ≤ y ≤ 4π. Later we will learn other
ways of changing the viewing perspective. For now, we note that by selecting the graphic, you
can often use the cursor to move the graphic to the desired perspective or viewing angle, as
illustrated in Fig. 1.3. Notice that every
To print three-dimensional objects with your 3D printer or a 3D printing service, you need Mathematica command
to generate an STL file. To create an STL file, an object must be orientable. This basically begins with capital letters and
means that a three-dimensional object has an inside and an outside. Objects like the Möbius the argument is enclosed by
strip, Klein bottle, and the projective plane are not orientable, so printing the likenesses of square brackets [...].
them can be challenging. On the other hand, objects like spheres, toruses, and so on are
orientable.
In the case of the previous plot, it has a top and a bottom but neither an inside nor an
outside. With Mathematica 12, provided that an object is orientable, you can use Printout3D
to generate an STL object and print it on either your own three-dimensional printer or have it
printed by one of the many services that offer three-dimensional printing services.
10 Mathematica by Example
FIGURE 1.3 On the left, a three-dimensional plot. On the right, select the bounding box and use the cursor to move
the graphic to the desired perspective.
For the previous example, there are multiple ways of proceeding. We also illustrate how
to use Mathematica’s extensive help facilities. From the Welcome Screen, select Documen-
tation,
Getting started Chapter | 1 11
and then—at the bottom of the screen—select New Features. Scroll down to the area labeled
Geometry followed by 3D Printing in the pop-up submenu.
We see that there are two Plot3D options, ThickSurface and FilledSurface, that will be able
to generate STL files. Both approaches are illustrated as follows (and illustrated in Fig. 1.4):
p1 = Plot3D[Sin[x + Cos[y]], {x, 0, 4π}, {y, 0, 4π}, Ticks → None, Boxed → False,
p2 = Plot3D[Sin[x + Cos[y]], {x, 0, 4π}, {y, 0, 4π}, Ticks → None, Boxed → False,
Show[GraphicsRow[{p1, p2}]]
You can now save the results as an STL file, print the result to your 3D printer, or print to a
3D printing service with Print3D, as described above.
12 Mathematica by Example
FIGURE 1.4 On the left, a “thickened” three-dimensional plot. On the right, a “filled” three-dimensional plot.
Entering
Printout3D[p1, “p1.stl”]
On the other hand, the following command sends the result directly to Sculpteo:
Printout3D[p2, “Sculpteo”];
Your browser window will open, and you can adjust the image to your satisfaction before
ordering (or not). Many printing services are supported. You can also use these functions to
print directly to your own 3D printer.
Getting started Chapter | 1 13
solve the equation x 3 − 2x + 1 = 0 for x. In the first case, the input and output are in Stan-
dardForm; in the second case, the input and output are in InputForm; and in the third case,
the input and output are in TraditionalForm.
To convert cells from one type to another, first select the cell, and then over the cursor to
the Mathematica menu,
select Cell, and then Convert To, as illustrated in the following screen shot.
You can change how input and output appear by using ConvertTo or by changing the default
settings. Moreover, you can determine the form of input/output by looking at the cell bracket
that contains the input/output. For example, though all three of the following commands look
2π
different, all three evaluate 0 x 3 sin x dx:
14 Mathematica by Example
In the first calculation, the input is in Input Form and the output in Output Form; in the
second, the input and output are in Standard Form; and in the third, the input and output are
in TraditionalForm. Throughout Mathematica by Example, Sixth Edition, we display input
and output using Input Form (for input) or Standard Form (for output), unless otherwise
stated.
To enter code in Standard Form, we often take advantage of the Basic Math Input
palette, which is accessed by going to Palettes under the Mathematica menu and then select-
ing Basic Math Input.
Use the buttons to create templates and enter special characters. Alternatively, you can
access a complete list of typesetting shortcuts from Mathematica help at
guide/MathematicalTypesetting
Mathematica sessions are terminated by entering Quit[] or by selecting Quit from the File
menu, or by using a keyboard shortcut, such as command-Q, as with other applications. They
can be saved by referring to Save from the File menu.
Mathematica allows you to save notebooks (as well as combinations of cells) in a variety
of formats, in addition to the standard Mathematica format. From the Mathematica menu,
select Save As... and then select one of the following options:
Getting started Chapter | 1 15
Remark 1.1. Input and text regions in notebooks can be edited. Editing input can create a
notebook in which the mathematical output does not make sense in the sequence it appears. It
is also possible to simply go into a notebook and alter input without doing any recalculation.
This also creates misleading notebooks. Hence common sense and caution should be used
when editing the input regions of notebooks. Recalculating all commands in the notebook
will clarify any confusion.
Preview
For the Mathematica user to take full advantage of this powerful software, an understanding
of its syntax is imperative. The goal of Mathematica by Example is to introduce the reader to
the Mathematica commands and sequences of commands most frequently used by beginner
users of Mathematica. Although all of the rules of Mathematica syntax are far too numerous
to list here, knowledge of the following five rules equips the beginner with the necessary tools
to start using the Mathematica program with little trouble:
Remark 1.2. If you get no response or an incorrect response, you may have entered or
executed the command incorrectly. In some cases, the amount of memory allocated to
Mathematica can cause a crash. Like people, Mathematica is not perfect and errors can
occur.
Built-in Mathematica functions are color-coded: Once typed correctly, they will appear
in the color black. While being typed, unless you happen to type a built-in Mathematica
function, they will appear in blue; this indicates that your input is not entered correctly.
Purple characters indicate that the command is understood but not completed.
6. Many calculations and tasks encountered by beginner users can be completed by filling
in templates that are provided in the various palettes and accessed from the Mathematica
menu. The standard Mathematica palettes are shown in Fig. 1.5.
16 Mathematica by Example
Not only can you get significant Mathematica help at the Wolfram website; you can also
access outstanding mathematical resources at Wolfram’s Mathematica resources that are ac-
The exact URL for this cessed from the Welcome Screen by selecting Resources.
address will vary depending
upon your license number
and resources that your
license provides.
Getting started Chapter | 1 17
One way to obtain information about Mathematica commands and functions, including user-
defined functions, is the command ?. ?object gives a basic description and syntax infor-
mation of the Mathematica object object. ??object yields detailed information regarding
syntax and options for the object object. Equivalently, Information[object] yields the in-
formation on the Mathematica object object returned by both ?object and Options[object]
in addition to a list of attributes of object. Note that object may either be a user-defined
object or a built-in Mathematica object, such as a built-in function or sequence of com-
mands.
Example 1.1
whereas ??Plot includes basic information as well as the ability to show a list of options and
their default values associated with the command by clicking on Options.
18 Mathematica by Example
If you click on the >> button or the i symbol in the upper right corner, Mathematica returns
its extensive description of the function.
Options[command] returns a list of the available options associated with command along
with their current settings. This is quite useful when working with a Mathematica command,
such as ParametricPlot, which has many options. Notice that the default value (the value
automatically assumed by Mathematica) for each option is given in the output.
Example 1.2
Use Options to obtain a list of the options and their current settings for the command Parametric-
Plot.
Solution. The command Options[ParametricPlot] lists all the options and their current
settings for the command ParametricPlot.
Getting started Chapter | 1 19
The command Names["form"] lists all objects that match the pattern defined in form.
For example, Names["Plot"] returns Plot, Names["*Plot"] returns all objects that end with
the string Plot, and Names["Plot*"] lists all objects that begin with the string Plot, and
Names["*Plot*"] lists all objects that contain the string Plot.
Names["form", SpellingCorrection->True] finds those symbols that match the pattern de-
fined in form after a spelling correction.
Example 1.3
Create a list of all built-in functions beginning with the string Plot.
Solution. We use Names to find all objects that match the pattern Plot.
Next, we use Names to create a list of all built-in functions beginning with the string Plot.
In the following, after using ? to learn about the Mathematica function ColorData, we go
to the Mathematica menu and select Palettes followed by Color Schemes:
We are given a variety of choices. Using these choices is illustrated throughout Mathematica
by Example. Remember that on a
computer running
Mathematica or in the
electronic version of this
book, these graphics will
appear in color rather than in
black-and-white as seen in
the printed version of this
text.
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“It must be because Di has such a vivid imagination,” continued her
sister musingly. “She sees what he might have been, what he probably was
meant to be——”
“And what he would still be,” put in Jellaby, “if only he would allow his
nice wife to influence him a little.”
“But John,” thought I, “in that is right. Let us be fair and admit his good
sides. A wife should never, under any circumstances, be allowed allowed
——”
Then, suddenly struck by the point of view, by the feminine idea
(Socialists have the minds of women) of a man’s being restored to what he
was primarily intended to be when he issued newly-made (as poets and
parsons would say) from the hands of his Maker through the manipulations
of Mrs. Menzies-Legh, my sense of humour played me a nasty trick (for I
would have liked to have heard more) and I found myself bursting into a
loud chuckle.
“What’s that?” exclaimed Jellaby, jumping up.
He soon saw what it was, for I immediately put my head round the edge
of the pillar.
They both stared at me in a strange alarm.
“Pray do not suppose,” I said, smiling reassuringly, “that I am a ghost.”
They stared without a word.
“You look as though I might be.”
They went on staring.
“I could not help, as I sat here, hearing what you were saying.”
They stared as speechless as though they had been caught killing
somebody.
“I really am not a spirit,” said I, getting up. “Look—do I look like one?”
And striking a match I playfully passed it backward and forward across
my features.
But its light at the same time showed me a flush of the most attractive
and vivid crimson on Frau von Eckthum’s face, colouring it from her hair to
her throat. She looked so beautiful like that, she who was ordinarily white,
that immediately lighting another I gazed at her in undisguised admiration.
“Pardon me,” I said, holding it very near her while her eyes, fixed on
mine, still seemed full of superstitious terror, “pardon me, but I must as a
man and a judge look at you.”
Jellaby, however, unforgivably ill-bred as ever, knocked the match out of
my hand and stamped on it. “Look here, Baron,” he said with unusual heat,
“I am very sorry—as sorry as you like, but you really mustn’t hold matches
in front of somebody’s face.”
“Why sorry, Jellaby?” I inquired mildly, for I was not going to have a
scene. “I do not mind about the match. I have more.”
“Sorry, of course, that you should have heard——”
“Every word, Jellaby,” said I.
“I tell you I’m frightfully sorry—I can’t tell you how sorry——”
“You may be assured,” said I, “that I will be discreet.”
He stared, with a face of stupid surprise.
“Discreet?” said he.
“Discreet, Jellaby. And it may be a relief to you to know,” I continued,
“that I heartily endorse your opinion.”
Jellaby’s mouth dropped open.
“Every word of it.”
Jellaby’s mouth remained open.
“Even the word bounder, which I did not understand but which, I
gathered from your previous remarks, is a very suitable expression.”
Jellaby’s mouth remained open.
I waited a moment, then seeing that it would not shut and that I had
really apparently shattered their nerves beyond readjustment by so suddenly
popping round on them in that ghostly place, I thought it best to change the
subject, promising myself to return to it another time.
So I picked up my hat and stick from the chair I had vacated—Jellaby
peered round the pillar at this piece of furniture with his unshut mouth still
denoting unaccountable shock—bowed, and offered my arm to Frau von
Eckthum.
“It is late,” said I with tender courtliness, “and I observe an official
approaching us with keys. If we do not return to the camp we shall have
your sister setting out, probably on angelic wings”—she started—“in search
of you. Let me, dear lady, conduct you back to her. Nay, nay, you need have
no fears—I really can keep a secret.”
With her eyes fixed on mine, and that strange look of perfect fright in
them, she got up slowly and put her hand on my proffered arm.
I led her away with careful tenderness.
Jellaby, I believe, followed in the distance.
CHAPTER XX
L IFE is a strange thing, and full of surprises. The day before, you think
you know what will happen on the morrow, and on the morrow you find
you did not. Light as you may the candle of your common sense, and
peer as you may by its shining into the future, if you see anything at all it
turns out to have been, after all, something else. We are surrounded by
tricks, by illusions, by fluidities. Even when the natural world behaves
pretty much as experience has led us to expect, the unnatural world, by
which I mean (and I say it is a fair description) human beings, does nothing
of the sort. My ripe conclusion, carefully weighed and unattackably mellow,
is that all one’s study, all one’s thought, all one’s experience, all one’s
philosophy, lead to this: that you cannot account for anything. Do you, my
friends, interrupt me here with a query? My answer to it is: Wait.
The morning after the occurrences just described I overslept myself, and
on emerging about ten o’clock in search of what I hoped would still be
breakfast I found the table tidily set out, the stove alight, and keeping coffee
warm, ham in slices on a dish, three eggs waiting to be transferred to an
expectant saucepan, and not a single caravaner in sight except Menzies-
Legh.
Him, of course, I now pitied. For to have a treacherous friend, and a
sister-in law of whom you are fond but who in her heart cannot endure you,
to be under the delusion that the one is sincere and the other loving, is to
become a fit object for pity; and since no one can at the same time both pity
and hate, I was not nearly so much annoyed as I otherwise would have been
at finding my glum-faced friend was to keep me company. Annoyed, did I
say? Why, I was not annoyed at all. For though I might pity I was also
secretly amused, and further, the feeling that I now had a little private
understanding with Frau von Eckthum exhilarated me into more than my
usual share of good humour.
He was sitting smoking; and when I appeared, fresh, and rested, and
cheery, round the corner of the Elsa, he not only immediately said good
morning, but added an inquiry as to whether I did not think it a beautiful
day; then he got up, went across to the stove, put the eggs in the saucepan,
and fetched the coffee-pot.
This was very surprising. I tell you, my friends, the moods of persons
who caravan are as many and as incalculable as the grains of sand on the
seashore. If you doubt it, go and do it. But you cannot reasonably doubt it
after listening to the narrative. Have I not told you in the course of it how
the party’s spirits were up in the skies one hour, and down on the ground the
next; how their gaiety some days at breakfast was childish in its folly, and
their silence on others depressing; how they quoted poetry and played at
Blind Man’s Buff in the morning, and in the afternoon dragged their feet
without speaking through the mud; how they talked far too much
sometimes, and then, when I wished to, would not talk at all; how they were
suddenly polite and attentive, and then as suddenly forgot I could possibly
want anything; how the wet did not damp their hilarity one day, and no
amount of sunshine coax it forth the next? But of all their moods this of
Menzies-Legh’s in the field above Canterbury was the one that surprised me
most.
You see, he was naturally so very glum. True at the beginning there had
been gleams of light but they soon became extinguished. True, also, at
Frogs’ Hole Farm, when demonstrating truths by means of tea in glasses, he
had been for a short while pleasant—only, however, to plunge immediately
and all the deeper into gloom and ill-temper. Gloom and ill-temper was his
normal state; and to see him attending to my wants, doing it with
unmistakable assiduity, actively courteous, was astonishing. I was
astonished. But my breeding enabled me to behave as though it were the
most ordinary thing in the world, and I accepted sugar from him and
allowed him to cut my bread with the blank expression on my face of him
who sees nothing unusual or interesting anywhere, which is, I take it, the
expression of the perfect gentleman. When at length my plate was
surrounded by specimens of all the comforts available, and I had begun to
eat, he sat down again, and leaning his elbow on the table and fixing his
eyes on the city already sweltering in heat and vapour below, resumed his
pipe.
A train puffed out of the station along the line at the bottom of our field,
jerking up slow masses of white steam into the hot, motionless air.
“There goes Jellaby’s train,” said Menzies-Legh.
“Jellaby’s what?” said I, cracking an egg.
“Train,” said he.
“Why, what has he got to do with trains?” I asked, supposing with the
vagueness of want of interest, that Jellaby, as well as being a Socialist, was
a railway director and kept a particular train as another person would keep a
pet.
“He’s in it,” said Menzies-Legh.
I looked up from my egg at Menzies-Legh’s profile.
“What?” said I.
“In it,” said he. “Obliged to go.”
“What—Jellaby gone? First Lord Sidge, and now Jellaby?”
Naturally I was surprised, for I had heard and noticed nothing of this.
Also the way one after the other left without saying good-bye seemed to me
inconsiderate—at least that: probably more.
“Yes,” said Menzies-Legh. “We are—we are very sorry.”
I could not, however, honestly join in any sorrow over Jellaby, so merely
remarked that the party was shrinking.
“Yes,” said Menzies-Legh, “that’s rather our feeling too.”
“But why has Jellaby——?”
“Oh, well, you know, public man. Parliament. And all that.”
“Does your Parliament reassemble so shortly?”
“Oh, well, soon enough. You have to prepare, you know. Collect your
wits, and that sort of thing.”
“Ah, yes. Jellaby should not leave that to the last minute. But he might,”
I added with a slight frown, “have taken leave of me according to the
customs of good society. Manners are manners, after all is said and done.”
“He was in a great hurry,” said Menzies-Legh.
There was a silence, during which Menzies-Legh smoked and I
breakfasted. Once or twice he cleared his throat as though about to say
something, but when I looked up prepared to listen he continued his pipe
and his staring at the city in the sun below.
“Where are the ladies?” I inquired, when the first edge of my appetite
had been blunted and I had leisure to look about me.
Menzies-Legh shifted his legs, which had been crossed.
“They went to the station with Jellaby to see the last of him,” said he.
“Indeed. All of them?”
“I believe so.”
Jellaby then, though he could not have the courtesy to say good-bye to
me, could take a prolonged farewell of my wife and of the other members
of our party.
“He is not what we in our country would call a gentleman,” I said, after a
silence during which I finished the third egg and regretted there were no
more.
“Who is not?” asked Menzies-Legh.
“Jellaby. No doubt the term bounder would apply to him quite as well as
to other people.”
Menzies-Legh turned his sallow visage to me. “He’s a great friend of
mine,” he said, the familiar scowl weighing down his eyebrows.
I could not help smiling and shaking my head at that, all I had heard the
night before so very fresh in my memory.
“Ah, my dear sir,” I said, “be careful how you trust your great friends.
Do not give way too lavishly to confidence. Belief in them is all very well,
but it should not go beyond the limits of reason.”
“He’s a great friend of mine,” repeated Menzies-Legh, raising his voice.
“I wish then,” said I, “you would tell me what a bounder is.”
He glowered at me a moment from beneath black brows. Then he said
more quietly:
“I’m not a slang dictionary. Suppose we talk seriously.”
“Certainly,” said I, reaching out for the jam.
He cleared his throat. “I got a lot of letters and telegrams last night,” he
said.
“How did you manage that?” I asked.
“They were waiting for me at the post-office here. I had telegraphed for
them to be forwarded. And I’m afraid—I’m sorry, but it’s inevitable—we
shall have to be off.”
“Off what?” said I, for a few of the more intimate English idioms still
remained for me to master.
“Off,” said he. “Go. Leave this.”
“Oh,” said I. “Well, we are used to that. This tour, my dear sir, is surely
the very essence of what you call being off. Where do we go next? I trust to
a place with trees in it.”
“You don’t understand, Baron. We don’t go anywhere next as far as the
caravans are concerned. My wife and I are obliged to go home.”
I was, of course, surprised. “We are, indeed,” said I, after a moment,
“shrinking rapidly.”
Then the thought of being rid of Mrs. Menzies-Legh and her John and
Jellaby at, so to speak, one swoop, and continuing the tour purged of these
baser elements with the tender lady entirely in our charge, made me unable
to repress a smile of satisfaction.
Menzies-Legh looked in his turn surprised. “I am glad,” he said, “that
you don’t mind.”
“My dear sir,” I said courteously, “of course I mind, and we shall miss
you and your—er—er—” it was difficult on the spur of the moment to find
an adjective, but Frau von Eckthum’s praises of her sister the night before
coming into my mind I popped in the word suggested suggested—“angelic
wife——”
He stared—ungratefully I thought, considering the effort it had been.
“But,” I continued, “you may be very sure we shall take every care of
your sister-in-law, and return her safe and well into your hands on
September the first, which is the date my contract with the owner of the
Elsa expires.”
“I’m afraid,” said he, “I wasn’t clear. We all go. Betti included, and
Jumps and Jane too. I’m very sorry,” he interrupted, as I opened my mouth,
“very sorry indeed that things should have turned out so unexpectedly, but it
is absolutely impossible for us to go on. Out of the question.”
And he set his jaws, and shut his mouth into a mere line of opposition
and finality.
Well, my friends, what do you say to that? What do you think of this
example of the surprises life has in store for one? And, incidentally, what do
you think of human nature? Especially of human nature when it caravans?
And still more especially of human nature that is also English? Not without
reason do our neighbours label the accursèd island perfide Albion. It is true
I am not clear about the Albion, but I am very clear about the perfide.
“Do you mean to tell me,” I said, leaning toward him across the table
and forcing him to meet my gaze, “that your sister-in-law wishes to go with
you?”
“She does,” said he.
“Then, sir——” I began, amazement and indignation struggling together
within me.
“I tell you, Baron,” he interrupted, “we are very sorry things have turned
out like this. My wife is most genuinely distressed. But she too sees the
impossibility—unforeseen complications demand we should go home.”
“Sir——” I again began.
“My dear Baron,” he again interrupted, “it needn’t in the least interfere
with you. Old James will stay with you if you and the Baroness would like
to go on.”
“Sir, I have paid for a month, and have only had a week.”
“Well, go on and finish your month. Nobody is preventing you.”
“But I was persuaded to join the tour on the understanding that it was a
party—that we were all to be together—four weeks together——”
“My dear fellow,” said he (never had I been addressed as that before),
“you talk as if it were a business arrangement, a buying and selling, as if we
were bound by a contract, under agreement——”
“Your sister-in-law inveigled me into it,” I exclaimed, emphasizing what
I said by regular beats on the table with my forefinger, “on the definite
understanding that it was to be a party and she—was—to be—a—member
of it.”
“Pooh, my dear Baron—Betti’s definite understandings. She’s in love,
and when a woman’s that it’s no earthly use——”
“What?” said I, startled for a moment out of all self-possession.
“Well?” he said, looking at me in surprise. “Why not? She’s young. Or
do you consider it improper for widows——”
“Improper? Natural, sir—natural. How long——?”
“Oh, before the tour even started. And propinquity, seeing each other
every day—well,” he finished suddenly, “one mustn’t talk about it, you
know.”
But you, my friends, what do you say to that? What do you think of this
second example of the surprises life has in store for us? I have been in two
minds as to whether I would tell you this one at all, but to a law-abiding
man, calm and objective as I know myself to be and as you by now must
know me too, such an incident though pleasurable could not in any way
affect or alter my conduct. Strictly Menzies-Legh was to be censured for
mentioning it; however that, I suppose, was what Jellaby called the bounder
coming out in him, and I perceived that whatever they exactly may be
bounders have their uses. I repeat, I make no attempt to deny that it was a
pleasurable incident, and although I am aware Storchwerder never liked her
(chiefly, I firmly believe, because she would not ask it to her dinners) I am
convinced that not one of you, my friends, and I say it straight in your
faces, but would have been glad to stand at that moment in my shoes. I did
not forget I was a husband, but you can be a husband and yet remain a man.
I think I behaved very creditably. Only for an instant was there the least
little lapse from complete self-possession. Immediately I became and
remained perfectly calm. Edelgard; duty; my position in life; my beliefs; I
remembered them all. It also occurred to me (but I could not well tell
Menzies-Legh) that having regard to the behaviour throughout the tour of
his wife it was evident these things ran in families. I could not tell him, but
I felt myself inwardly in every way tickled. All I could do, indeed all I did
do, was to say “Strange, strange world,” and get up from my chair because I
found myself unable to continue sitting in it.
“But what do you propose to do?” Menzies-Legh asked, after he had
watched me taking a hasty turn or two up and down in the sun.
“Behave,” said I, stopping in front of him, “as an officer and a
gentleman.”
He stared. Then he got up and said with a touch of impatience—a most
unreliable person as regards temper: “Yes, yes—no doubt. But what shall I
tell old James about your caravan? Are you going on or not? If not, he’ll
pilot it home for you. I’m afraid I must know soon. I haven’t much time. I
must get away to-day.”
“What? To-day?”
“I must. I’m very sorry. Obliged to, you know——”
“And the Ailsa?”
“Oh, that’s all arranged. I telegraphed last night for one of the grooms.
He’ll be down in an hour or two and take charge of it back to Panthers.”
“And the Ilsa?”
“He’ll take that too.”
“No, my dear sir,” said I firmly. “You leave the Ilsa in our charge—it and
its contents.”
“Eh?” said he.
“It and its contents—human and otherwise.”
“Nonsense, Baron. What on earth would you do with Jane and Jumps?
They’re going up to town with me by train. And my wife and Betti—oh,
yes, by the way, my wife gave me instructions to tell you how very sorry
she was not to be able to say good-bye to you. I assure you she was really
greatly distressed, but she and Betti are motoring up to London and felt they
ought to start as early as possible——”
“But—motoring? You said they had gone to the sta——”
“So they did. They saw Jellaby off, and then were picked up by a motor I
ordered for them last night in the town, and went straight from there——”
I heard no more. He went on speaking, but I heard no more. The series
of surprises had done their work, and I could attend to nothing further. I
believe he continued to express regret and offer advice, but what he said fell
on my ear with the indifferent trickling of water when one is not thirsty. At
first anger, keen resentment, and disappointment surged within me, for why,
I asked myself, did she not say good-bye? I walked up and down on the hot
stubble, my hands deep in my pockets and myself deep in conflicting
emotions, while Menzies-Legh supposing I was listening regretted and
advised, asking myself why she did not say good-bye. Then, gradually, I
could not but see that here was tact, here was delicacy, the right feeling of
the truly feminine woman, and began to admire her all the more because
she had not said it. By degrees composure stole upon me. Reason returned
to my assistance. I could think, arrange, decide. And before Edelgard came
back with the two children, mere heated débris of that which had lately
been so complete, what I had decided with the clear-headed rapidity of the
practical and sensible man was to give up the Elsa, lose my money, and go
home. Home after all is the best place when life begins to wobble; and
home in this case was very near the Eckthum property—I only had to
borrow a vehicle, or even in extremity take a droschke, and there I was.
There too the delightful lady must sooner or later be, and I would at least
see her from time to time, whereas in England among her English relations
she was entirely and hopelessly cut off.
Thus it was, my friends, that I did not see Frau von Eckthum again. Thus
it was our caravaning came to an untimely end.
You can figure to yourselves what kind of reflections a man inclined to
philosophize would reflect as the reduced party hastily packed, in the heat
and glare of the summer morning, that which they had unpacked a week
previously amid howling winds and hail showers in the yard at Panthers.
Nature then had frowned, but vainly, on our merriment. Nature now was
smiling, equally vainly on our fragments. One brief week; and what had
happened? Rather, I should say, what had not happened?
On the stubble I walked up and down lost in reflection, while Edelgard,
helped (officiously I thought, but I did not care enough to mind) by
Menzies-Legh, stuffed our belongings into bags. She had asked no
questions. If she had I would not have answered them, being little in the
mood as you can imagine to put up with wives. I just told her, on her return
from seeing Jellaby off, of my decision to cross by that night’s boat, and
bade her get our things together. She said nothing, but at once began to
pack. She did not even inquire why we were not going to look at London
first, as we had originally planned. London? Who cared for London? My
mood was not one in which a man bothers about London. With reference to
that city it can best be described by the single monosyllable Tcha.
I will not linger over the packing, or relate how when it was finished
Edelgard indulged in a prolonged farewell (with embraces, if you please) of
the two uninteresting fledglings, in a fervent shaking of both Menzies-
Legh’s hands combined with an invitation—I heard it—to stay with us in
Storchwerder, and the pressing upon old James in a remote corner of
something that looked suspiciously like a portion of her dress-allowance; or
how she then set out by my side for the station steeped in that which we call
Abschiedsstimmung, old James preceding us with our luggage while the
others took care for the last time of the camp; or with what abandonment of
apparent affectionate regret she hung herself out of the train window as we
presently passed along the bottom of the field and waved her handkerchief.
Such rankness of sentiment could only make me shrug my shoulders, filled
as I was by my own absorbing thoughts.
I did glance up, though, and there on the stubble, surrounded by every
sort of litter, stood the three familiar brown vehicles blistering in the sun,
with Menzies-Legh and the fledglings knee-deep in straw and saucepans
and bags and other forlorn discomforts, watching us depart.
Strange how alien the whole thing seemed, how little connection it
seemed to have with me now that the sparkling bubbles (if I may refer to
Frau von Eckthum as bubbles) had disappeared and only the dregs were
left. I could not help feeling glad, as I raised my hat in courteous
acknowledgment of the frantic wavings of the fledglings, that I was finally
out of all the mess.
Menzies-Legh gravely returned my salute; our train rounded a curve;
and camp and caravaners disappeared at once and forever into the
unrecallable past.
CHAPTER XXI
THE END
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