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Next Generation Search
Engines:
Advanced Models for
Information Retrieval
Christophe Jouis
University Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle and LIP6 (UPMC & CNRS), France

Ismail Biskri
University of Quebec at Trois Rivieres, Canada

Jean-Gabriel Ganascia
LIP6, (UPMC & CNRS), France

Magali Roux
INIST and LIP6, (UPMC & CNRS), France
Managing Director: Lindsay Johnston
Senior Editorial Director: Heather A. Probst
Book Production Manager: Sean Woznicki
Development Manager: Joel Gamon
Development Editor: Myla Harty
Acquisitions Editor: Erika Gallagher
Typesetter: Nicole Sparano
Cover Design: Nick Newcomer, Lisandro Gonzalez

Published in the United States of America by

Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global)
701 E. Chocolate Avenue
Hershey PA 17033
Tel: 717-533-8845
Fax: 717-533-8661
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.igi-global.com

Copyright © 2012 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or distributed in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher.
Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or
companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Next generation search engines: advanced models for information retrieval / Christophe Jouis ... [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “This book is intended for scientists and decision-makers who wish to gain working knowledge about search
engines in order to evaluate available solutions and to dialogue with software and data providers”--Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4666-0330-1 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-4666-0331-8 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-4666-0332-5 (print & perpetual
access) 1. Information retrieval. 2. Information retrieval--Research. 3. Information storage and retrieval systems--Re-
search. 4. Search engines. 5. Indexation (Economics) 6. Data mining. 7. User interfaces (Computer systems) 8. Informa-
tion behavior. I. Jouis, Christophe, 1965-
ZA3075.N495 2012
025.042’52--dc23
2011044986

British Cataloguing in Publication Data

A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.

All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the
authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.
Editorial Advisory Board
Berry, Michael W., University of Tennessee, USA
Biskri, Ismaïl, Professor, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
Boughanem, Mohand, Université Paul Sabatier, France
Bourdaillet, Julien, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada
Bourdoncle, François, EXALEAD, France
Chailloux, Jérôme, ERCIM (European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics), France
Chaudiron, Stéphane, Université Lille 3, France
Constant, Patrick, PERTIMM, France
Das, Abhishek, Google Inc., USA
Desclés, Jean-Pierre, Université Paris-Sorbonne, France
Dulong, Tanneguy, ARISEM (THALES), France
Emam, Ossama, Cairo HLT Group IBM, USA
Ferret, Olivier, LI2CM/CEA (Laboratoire d’Ingénierie de la Connaissance Multimédia Multilingue/
Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique), France
Fluhr, Christian, Cedege/Hossur’Tech, France
Fouladi, Karan, LIP6/ UMPC-CNRS (Laboratoire d’Informatique de Paris 6/ Université Pierre et Marie
Curie and CNRS), France
Gallinari, Patrick, LIP6 (UMPC/CNRS), France
Ganascia, Jean-Gabriel, LIP6 (UMPC/CNRS), France
Gargouri, Faiez, ISIM (Institut Supérieur d’Informatique et de Multimédia de Sfax), Tunisia
Ghitalla, Frank, INIST (Institut de l’Information Scientifique et Technique), France
Grau, Brigitte, LIMSI/CNRS (Laboratoire d’Informatique pour la Mécanique et les Sciences de l’Ingénieur),
France and ENSIIE (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Informatique pour l’Industrie et l’Entreprise), France
Grefenstelle, Gregory, EXALEAD, France
Habib, Bassel, LIP6 (UMPC-CNRS), France
Jaziri, Wassim, ISIM, Sfax, Tunisia
Huot, Charles, TEMIS Group, France
Jain, Ankit, Google Inc., USA
Jouis, Christophe, Université Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle and LIP6 (UMPC-CNRS), France
Lassale, Edmond, Orange Labs (France Telecom), France
Le Borgne, Hervé, LI2CM (CEA), France
Lucas, Philippe, TECHNOLOGIES group (Spirit software), France
Meng, Fan, University of Michigan, USA
Meunier, Jean-Guy, UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal), Québec, Canada
Moulinier, Isabelle, Thomson Reuters, USA
Mustafa El-Hadi, IDIST, Universite Lille3, France
Nie, Jian-Yun, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Piwowarski, Benjamin, Information Retrieval Group, University of Glasgow, UK
Poupon, Anne, Equipe Biologie et Bioinformatique des Systèmes de Signalisation Physiologie du Com-
portement et de la Reproduction, France
Riad, Mokadem, IRIT (Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse), France
Robertson, Stephen, Microsoft Research Laboratory in Cambridge, UK
Rocca-Serra, Philippe, The European Bioinformatics Institute, EMBL Outstation - Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
Roux, Magali, LIP6 (UMPC-CNRS) and INIST, France
Shafei, Bilal, ITS – BBE department, Columbia University, USA and An-Najah National University,
Palestine
Sansone, Susanna-Assunta, The European Bioinformatics Institute, EMBL Outstation - Hinxton, Cam-
bridge, UK
Savoy, Jacques, Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Smyth, Barry, University College Dublin, Ireland
Stroppa, Nicolas, Yahoo! Labs, France
Timimi, Ismaïl, IDIST, Universite Lille 3, France
Velcin, Julien, ERIC Lab, University Lyon 2, France
Vinot, Romain, Yahoo! Labs in Paris, France
Wassermann, Renata, Computer Science Department, University of São Paulo, Brasil
Table of Contents

Preface.................................................................................................................................................. xvi

Section 1
Indexation

Chapter 1
Indexing the World Wide Web: The Journey So Far................................................................................ 1
Abhishek Das, Google Inc., USA
Ankit Jain, Google Inc., USA

Chapter 2
Decentralized Search and the Clustering Paradox in Large Scale Information Networks.................... 29
Weimao Ke, College of Information Science and Technology, Drexel University, USA

Chapter 3
Metadata for Search Engines: What can be Learned from e-Sciences?................................................ 47
Magali Roux, Laboratoire d’Informatique de Paris VI, France

Chapter 4
Crosslingual Access to Photo Databases................................................................................................78
Christian Fluhr, GEOL Semantics, France

Chapter 5
Fuzzy Ontologies Building Platform for Semantic Web: FOB Platform...............................................92
Hanêne Ghorbel, University of Sfax, Tunisia
Afef Bahri, University of Sfax, Tunisia
Rafik Bouaziz, University of Sfax, Tunisia
 Section 2
Data Mining for Information Retrieval

Chapter 6
Searching and Mining with Semantic Categories................................................................................ 115
Brahim Djioua, University of Paris-Sorbonne, France
Jean-Pierre Desclés, University of Paris-Sorbonne, France
Motasem Alrahabi, University of Paris-Sorbonne, France

Chapter 7
Semantic Models in Information Retrieval.......................................................................................... 138
Edmond Lassalle, Oranges Labs, France
Emmanuel Lassalle, Université Paris 7, France

Chapter 8
The Use of Text Mining Techniques in Electronic Discovery for Legal Matters................................ 174
Michael W. Berry, University of Tennessee, USA
Reed Esau, Catalyst Repository Systems, USA
Bruce Kiefer, Catalyst Repository Systems, USA

Chapter 9
Intelligent Semantic Search Engines for Opinion and Sentiment Mining........................................... 191
Mona Sleem-Amer, Pertimm, France
Ivan Bigorgne, Lutin, France
Stéphanie Brizard, Arisem, France
Leeley Daio Pires Dos Santos, EDF, France
Yacine El Bouhairi, Thales, France
Bénédicte Goujon, Thales, France
Stéphane Lorin, Thales, France
Claude Martineau, LIGM, France
Loïs Rigouste, Pertimm, France
Lidia Varga, LIGM, France

Section 3
Interface

Chapter 10
Human-Centred Web Search................................................................................................................ 217
Orland Hoeber, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

Chapter 11
Extensions of Web Browsers Useful to Knowledge Workers.............................................................. 239
Sarah Vert, Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE), Luxembourg
Chapter 12
Next Generation Search Engine for the Result Clustering Technology............................................... 274
Lin-Chih Chen, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan

Chapter 13
Using Association Rules for Query Reformulation..............................................................................291
Ismaïl Biskri, University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, Canada
Louis Rompré, University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada

Chapter 14
Question Answering............................................................................................................................. 304
Ivan Habernal, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic
Miloslav Konopík, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic
Ondřej Rohlík, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic

Chapter 15
Finding Answers to Questions, in Text Collections or Web, in Open Domain
or Specialty Domains........................................................................................................................... 344
Brigitte Grau, LIMSI-CNRS and ENSIIE, France

Chapter 16
Context-Aware Mobile Search Engine.................................................................................................371
Jawad Berri, College of Computing and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Rachid Benlamri, Lakehead University, Canada

Chapter 17
Spatio-Temporal Based Personalization for Mobile Search................................................................ 386
Ourdia Bouidghaghen, IRIT-CNRS-University Paul Sabatier of Toulouse, France
Lynda Tamine, IRIT-CNRS-University Paul Sabatier of Toulouse, France

Section 4
Evaluation

Chapter 18
Studying Web Search Engines from a User Perspective: Key Concepts and Main Approaches......... 411
Stéphane Chaudiron, University of Lille 3, France
Madjid Ihadjadene, University of Paris 8, France

Chapter 19
Artificial Intelligence Enabled Search Engines (AIESE) and the Implications................................... 438
Faruk Karaman, Gedik University, Turkey
Chapter 20
A Framework for Evaluating the Retrieval Effectiveness of Search Engines..................................... 456
Dirk Lewandowski, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Compilation of References................................................................................................................ 480

About the Contributors.....................................................................................................................527

Index...................................................................................................................................................536
Detailed Table of Contents

Preface.................................................................................................................................................. xvi

Section 1
Indexation

Chapter 1
Indexing the World Wide Web: The Journey So Far................................................................................ 1
Abhishek Das, Google Inc., USA
Ankit Jain, Google Inc., USA
As the World Wide Web has grown, one notes a significant change and improvement in technologies of
indexation. In this chapter, the authors describe in detail the key indexing technologies behind today’s
web-scale search engines. They are used to provide a better understanding of how web indexes are utilized.
An overview of the infrastructure needed to support the growth of web search engines to modern scales
is also given. Finally, the authors outline the potential future directions for search engines, particularly
in real-time and social contexts.

Chapter 2
Decentralized Search and the Clustering Paradox in Large Scale Information Networks.................... 29
Weimao Ke, College of Information Science and Technology, Drexel University, USA
The Web poses great challenges for information retrieval because of its size, dynamics, and heterogene-
ity. Centralized IR systems are becoming inefficient in the face of continued Web growth and a fully
distributed architecture seems to be desirable. Without a centralized information repository and global
control, a new distributed architecture can take advantage of distributed computing power and can allow
a large number of systems to participate in the decision making for finding relevant information. In this
chapter, the author presents a decentralized, organic view of information systems pertaining to searching
in large-scale networks. The Clustering Paradox phenomenon is discussed.

Chapter 3
Metadata for Search Engines: What can be Learned from e-Sciences?................................................ 47
Magali Roux, Laboratoire d’Informatique de Paris VI, France
Petabytes of data are generated by data-intensive sciences, also known as e-sciences. These data have to
be searched to further perform multifarious analyses, including disparate data aggregation, in order to
produce new knowledge. To achieve this, e-sciences have developed various strategies, mostly based on
metadata, to deal with data complexity and specificities. In this chapter, Nuclear Physics, Geosciences
and Biology, which are three seminal domains of e-sciences, are considered with regards to the strate-
gies they have developed to search complex data. Metadata, which are data about data, were given a
pivotal role in most of these approaches. The structure and the organization of metadata-based retrieval
approaches are discussed.
Chapter 4
Crosslingual Access to Photo Databases................................................................................................78
Christian Fluhr, GEOL Semantics, France
For several years, normalized vocabulary has provided an unambiguous description of photos for users’
queries. One could imagine that indexes are made by professionals that control normalized vocabulary.
However, according to the author, this is only an ideal view far from the reality of the actual indexation
process. The description of photos is done by photographers who have no knowledge of information
retrieval or of normalized vocabulary. Moreover, the description does not take into account aspects such
as semantic ambiguities, cross-lingual querying, etc. In this chapter, the author presents an experience
in which all these limitations are avoided.

Chapter 5
Fuzzy Ontologies Building Platform for Semantic Web: FOB Platform...............................................92
Hanêne Ghorbel, University of Sfax, Tunisia
Afef Bahri, University of Sfax, Tunisia
Rafik Bouaziz, University of Sfax, Tunisia
To improve the quality of information retrieval systems, a lot of research has been conducted over the
last decade, which resulted in the development of Semantic Web techniques. It includes models and
languages for the description of Web resources on the one hand and ontologies for describing resources
on the other hand. Although ontologies mainly consist of hierarchical descriptions of domain concepts,
some domains cannot be precisely and adequately formalized in classic ontology description languages.
To overcome those limitations, promising research is being conducted on fuzzy ontologies. In this chapter,
the authors propose a definition for a fuzzy ontological model based on fuzzy description logic, along
with a methodology for building fuzzy ontologies and platforms.

Section 2
Data Mining for Information Retrieval

Chapter 6
Searching and Mining with Semantic Categories................................................................................ 115
Brahim Djioua, University of Paris-Sorbonne, France
Jean-Pierre Desclés, University of Paris-Sorbonne, France
Motasem Alrahabi, University of Paris-Sorbonne, France
In this chapter, the authors present a new approach for the design of web search engines that uses semantic
and discourse annotations according to certain points of view, which has the advantage of focusing on the
user interests. The semantic and discourse annotations are provided by means of the contextual explora-
tion method. This method describes the discursive organization of texts by using linguistic knowledge
present in the textual context. This knowledge takes the form of lists of linguistic markers and contextual
exploration rules of each linguistic marker. The linguistic markers and the contextual exploration rules
can help to retrieve relevant information like causality relations, definitions of concepts or quotations,
etc., which are difficult to capture with classical methods using keywords.
Chapter 7
Semantic Models in Information Retrieval..........................................................................................138
Edmond Lassalle, Oranges Labs, France
Emmanuel Lassalle, Université Paris 7, France
In this chapter, the authors propose a new descriptive model for semantics dedicated to Information
Retrieval. Every object is considered as a concept. Indeed, the model associates concepts to words. It
analyzes every word of a document within its context and translates it into a concept, which will be the
meaning of the word. The model is evaluated and documents are classified in categories by using their
conceptual representations.

Chapter 8
The Use of Text Mining Techniques in Electronic Discovery for Legal Matters................................ 174
Michael W. Berry, University of Tennessee, USA
Reed Esau, Catalyst Repository Systems, USA
Bruce Kiefer, Catalyst Repository Systems, USA
In this chapter the authors discuss the electronic discovery (eDiscovery), which consists of the process
of collecting and analyzing electronic documents to determine their relevance to a legal matter. At first
glance, the large volumes of data needed to be reviewed seem to lend themselves very well to traditional
informational retrieval and text mining techniques. However, the noisy and ever-changing aspects of
the collections of documents and the particularities of the domain cause the results to be inconsistent
using existing tools. Therefore, new tools that take these specific elements into consideration need to be
developed. Starting with the history of the collection process of legal documents, the authors then examine
how text mining and information retrieval tools are used to deal with the collection process and further
propose some research directions to improve it, such as collaborative filtering and cloud computing.

Chapter 9
Intelligent Semantic Search Engines for Opinion and Sentiment Mining...........................................191
Mona Sleem-Amer, Pertimm, France
Ivan Bigorgne, Lutin, France
Stéphanie Brizard, Arisem, France
Leeley Daio Pires Dos Santos, EDF, France
Yacine El Bouhairi, Thales, France
Bénédicte Goujon, Thales, France
Stéphane Lorin, Thales, France
Claude Martineau, LIGM, France
Loïs Rigouste, Pertimm, France
Lidia Varga, LIGM, France
With the tremendous rise in popularity of social media web over the last few years, enterprises are show-
ing more and more interest in the exploitation of opinions and sentiments expressed by the users about
their products and services in the content of social media. Indeed, it contains precious and strategic data
for product marketing and business intelligence. However, conventional search engines are inadequate
for this task, as they are not designed to retrieve these particular kinds of data. Consequently, the field
of opinion mining and retrieval is getting increasing amounts of attention. In this chapter, the authors
present the Doxa project, a work in progress that aims to build a semantic enterprise search engine with
integrated business intelligence technology and state of the art opinion and sentiment extraction, analysis
and querying of electronic text in French.
 Section 3
Interface

Chapter 10
Human-Centred Web Search.................................................................................................................217
Orland Hoeber, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
In the Internet era, searching information on the Web has become an essential part of the lives for many
people. Research on information retrieval in recent years has mainly focused on addressing issues such
as document indexation, document ranking and on providing simple and quick means to search the Web,
in an attempt to provide fast and high-quality results to user queries. Despite the great progress made in
regard to those aspects and the success of many search engines, people still commonly have difficulties
retrieving the information they are seeking, especially when they are unable to formulate an appropriate
query or are overwhelmed by results. More needs to be done to include the user into the search process
and assist them into the crafting and refinement of their queries and the exploration of the results. This
chapter discusses the state-of-the-art research in the field of human-centered Web search.

Chapter 11
Extensions of Web Browsers Useful to Knowledge Workers.............................................................. 239
Sarah Vert, Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE), Luxembourg
In this chapter the author illustrates the customization of the web browser from the perspective of users
who work at any of the tasks of using, planning, acquiring, searching, analyzing, organizing, storing,
programming, distributing, marketing, or otherwise contributing to the transformation and commerce
of information. In fact, the browser and its various possible parameterizations seem to be an important
factor that allows a user to better meet its task. An analysis of the customization of web browsers for
knowledge workers is proposed. It demonstrates that a browser offering the possibility of add-ons is an
application that is highly adaptable in meeting the specific requirements of its users.

Chapter 12
Next Generation Search Engine for the Result Clustering Technology............................................... 274
Lin-Chih Chen, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan
When using search engines, users tend to input very short and thus often ambiguous queries. Therefore,
identifying the correct user’s search needs is not always an easy task. In order to solve this issue, the next
generation of search engines will assist the users in dealing with large sets of results by offering various
post-search tools such as result clustering, which has received a lot of attention recently. It consists of
clustering search results into a hierarchical labeled tree so the users can customize their view of search
results by navigating through it. In this chapter, the author presents WSC, a high-performance result
clustering system, based on a mixed clustering method and a genuine divisive hierarchical clustering
algorithm to organize the labels into a hierarchical tree. The author also shows that WSC achieves better
performances than current commercial and academic systems.
Chapter 13
Using Association Rules for Query Reformulation..............................................................................291
Ismaïl Biskri, University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, Canada
Louis Rompré, University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada
To express their needs, users formulate queries that often take the form of keywords submitted to an
information retrieval system based either on a Boolean model, on a vector model, or on a probabilistic
model. It is often difficult for users to find key words that express their exact needs. In many cases, the
users are confronted on the one hand with a lack of knowledge on the subject of interest in their infor-
mation search and on the other hand with biases that may affect the results. Thus, retrieving relevant
documents in just one pass is almost impossible. There is a need to carry out a reformulation of the query
either by using completely different keywords, or by expanding the initial query with the addition of new
keywords. In this chapter, authors present a semi-automatic method of reformulation of queries based
on the combination of two methods of data mining: text classification and maximal association rules.

Chapter 14
Question Answering............................................................................................................................. 304
Ivan Habernal, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic
Miloslav Konopík, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic
Ondřej Rohlík, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic
In order to provide a more sophisticated and satisfactory answer to informational needs, question an-
swering systems aim to give one or more answers in the form of precise and concise sentences to a
question asked by a user in natural language, instead of only a set of documents as a result to a query
as in a traditional retrieval information system. Therefore, Question Answering systems rely heavily on
natural language processing techniques for syntactic and semantic analysis and for the construction of
appropriate answers. This chapter presents the state of the art in the field of question answering, within
which the authors cover all types of promising QA systems, techniques and approaches for the next
generation of search engines, focusing mainly on systems aimed at the (semantic) web.

Chapter 15
Finding Answers to Questions, in Text Collections or Web, in Open Domain
or Specialty Domains........................................................................................................................... 344
Brigitte Grau, LIMSI-CNRS and ENSIIE, France
This chapter is dedicated to factual question-answering in open domains and in specialty domains. In
querying a database, it is expected that factual questions will yield short answers that give precise in-
formation. However, with a web environment, topics are not limited and knowledge is not structured.
Finding answers requires analyzing texts. In fact, the problem of finding answers to questions consists
of, in this context, extracting a piece of information from a text. In this chapter, the author presents
question-answering systems that extract answers from web documents in a fixed multilingual collection.
Chapter 16
Context-Aware Mobile Search Engine................................................................................................ 371
Jawad Berri, College of Computing and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Rachid Benlamri, Lakehead University, Canada
The recent emergence of mobile handsets as a new means of information exchange has led up to the need
for information retrieval systems specialized for mobile users. Lately, a lot of efforts have been put into
the development of robust mobile search engines capable of providing attractive and practical services
to mobile users, such as tools that provide directions to business locations according to the user location
or voice speech search that uses speech recognition technologies. However, the capabilities of current
mobile search engines are still limited. In particular, enhancements are made possible by exploiting
information about the current context of the users and providing this to search engines to improve the
relevance of the results. In this chapter, a context model and an architecture that promote the integration
of contextual information are presented through a case study.

Chapter 17
Spatio-Temporal Based Personalization for Mobile Search................................................................ 386
Ourdia Bouidghaghen, IRIT-CNRS-University Paul Sabatier of Toulouse, France
Lynda Tamine, IRIT-CNRS-University Paul Sabatier of Toulouse, France
The explosion of information available on the Internet and its heterogeneity has considerably reduced
the effectiveness of traditional information retrieval systems. In recent years, much research has been
devoted to develop contextual information retrieval technologies. Moreover, from the proliferation of
new means of communication and information access, such as mobile devices, have emerged new needs
in IR. In this chapter, the authors discuss this specific issue with respect to mobile information retrieval,
followed by a presentation of a model of spatio-temporal-based personalization for mobile search, using
contextual data such as location and time in order to dynamically select the most appropriate profile from
a given situation. Each profile contains user interests learnt according to searches in past individual ex-
plorations. They also propose a novel evaluation scenario for mobile search based on diary study entries.

Section 4
Evaluation

Chapter 18
Studying Web Search Engines from a User Perspective: Key Concepts and Main Approaches......... 411
Stéphane Chaudiron, University of Lille 3, France
Madjid Ihadjadene, University of Paris 8, France
In this chapter, the user perspective is highlighted. Some recent challenges in search engine evolu-
tion change users’ information behavior. The authors identify four major trends in the “user-oriented
approach” that focus respectively on strategies and tactics, cognitive and psychological approaches,
management, and consumer and marketing approaches. However, the authors note that there is a need
to better understand the dynamics and the nature of the interaction between Web searching and users.
Also, other aspects such as ethics, cultural issues, growing social networks, etc. need to be considered.
Chapter 19
Artificial Intelligence Enabled Search Engines (AIESE) and the Implications................................... 438
Faruk Karaman, Gedik University, Turkey
Nowadays, search engines constitute the main means of classifying, sorting, and delivering information
to users over the Internet. As time progresses, advances in Artificial Intelligence will be made and thus
new artificial intelligence technologies will be developed to enhance the sophistication of the search
engines. This future generation of search engines, called artificial intelligence enabled search engines,
will be compelled to play an even more crucial role for information retrieval, but this will not be without
any consequences. Through this chapter, the author analyzes the concept of technological singularity,
discusses the direct and indirect impacts of the development of new technologies and artificial intel-
ligence, notably regarding search engines, and proposes a four-stage evolution model of search engines.

Chapter 20
A Framework for Evaluating the Retrieval Effectiveness of Search Engines..................................... 456
Dirk Lewandowski, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany
The evaluation of information retrieval systems and search engines in development or already on the
market is a crucial process for the improvement of the quality of the search results. Quality measures for
most evaluations consist of calculating precision and recall using a set of ad-hoc queries and assume that
common users examine every result returned by a search engine in the same order they are presented.
While this may be true in some contexts, it has been shown that it is not necessarily the case in Web
searches, where modern Web search engines present results in various and enriched forms and where
the users are typically interested only in a few highly relevant results and examine them as they see fit.
Therefore, there is a need for new extended evaluation models for Web search engines. To this end, the
author proposes a framework for evaluating the retrieval effectiveness of next-generation search engines.

Compilation of References................................................................................................................ 480

About the Contributors..................................................................................................................... 527

Index.................................................................................................................................................... 536
xvi

Preface

NEEDS AND REQUIREMENTS FOR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

Scientific and economic organizations are confronted with handling an abundance of strategic informa-
tion in their domain activities. One main challenge is to be able to find the right information quickly
and accurately. In order to do so, organizations must master information access: getting relevant query
results that are organized, sorted, and actionable.
As noted by Mukhopadhyay and Mukhopadhyay (2004), almost everyone agrees that in the current
state of the art on Internet search engine technology, extracting information from the Web is an art itself.
Almost all commercial search engines use classical keyword-based methods for information retrieval
(IR). That means that they try to match user specified patterns (i.e., queries) to the texts of all documents
in their database and then return the documents that contain terms matching the query. Such methods are
quite effective for well-controlled collections - such as bibliographic CD-ROMs or handcrafted scientific
information repositories. Unfortunately the organization of the Internet has not been rationally supervised,
but it has rather spontaneously evolved and, therefore, cannot be treated as a well-controlled collection.
It contains a lot of garbage and redundant information and, what is maybe even more important, it does
not rely on any underlying semantic structure intended to facilitate navigation.
In addition, some of the current issues result from inappropriate query constructions. The user queries
that are usually submitted to search engines are often too general (like “water sources” or “capitals”)
and this produces millions of returned documents. The results, which are of interest to users, are prob-
ably among them, but they cannot be distinguished from the mass; it appears impossible to emphasize
them to the human attention. One hundred documents are generally regarded as the maximum amount
of information that can be useful to users in such situations.
On the other hand, some documents cannot be retrieved because the specified pattern does not exactly
match. This can be caused by flexion in some languages, or by confusion introduced by synonyms and
complex idiom structures (e.g., in English the word Mike is often given as an example of this, as it can
be used as a male name or as a shortened form for the noun “microphone”). Most search engines have
also very poor user interfaces. Computer-aided query constructions are very rare and the presentation
of the search results concentrates mostly on individual documents, but it does not provide any general
overview of retrieved data, which is crucial when the number of returned documents is huge. A last
group of problems comes from the nature of information stored on the Internet. Search tools must not
only deal with hypertext documents (in the form of WWW pages) but also with text repositories (mes-
sage archives, e-books etc.), FTP and Usenet servers and with many sources of non-textual information
such as audio, video, and interactive contents.
 xvii

Recent technological progress in computer science, Web technologies, and constantly evolving infor-
mation available on the Internet has drastically changed the landscape of search and access to informa-
tion. Web search has significantly evolved in recent years. In the beginning, web search engines such as
Google and Yahoo! were only providing search service over text documents. Aggregated search was one
of the first steps to go beyond text search, and was the beginning of a new era for information seeking
and retrieval. These days, new web search engines support aggregated search over a number of vertices,
and blend different types of documents (e.g., images, videos) in their search results. New search engines
employ advanced techniques involving machine learning, computational linguistics and psychology, user
interaction and modeling, information visualization, Web engineering, artificial intelligence, distributed
systems, social networks, statistical analysis, semantic analysis, and technologies over query sessions.
Documents no longer exist on their own; they are connected to other documents, they are associated
with users and their position in a social network, and they can be mapped onto a variety of ontologies.
Similarly, retrieval tasks have become more interactive and are solidly embedded in a user’s geospatial,
social, and historical context. It is conjectured that new breakthroughs in information retrieval will not
come from smarter algorithms that better exploit existing information sources, but from new retrieval
algorithms that can intelligently use and combine new sources of contextual metadata.
With the rapid growth of web-based applications, such as search engines, Facebook, and Twitter,
the development of effective and personalized information retrieval techniques and of user interfaces
is essential. The amount of shared information and of social networks has also considerably grown,
requiring metadata for new sources of information, like Wikipedia and ODP. These metadata have to
provide classification information for a wide range of topics, as well as for social networking sites like
Twitter, and Facebook, each of which provides additional preferences, tagging information and social
contexts. Due to the explosion of social networks and other metadata sources, it is an opportune time
to identify ways to exploit such metadata in IR tasks such as user modeling, query understanding, and
personalization, to name a few. Although the use of traditional metadata such as html text, web page
titles, and anchor text is fairly well-understood, the use of category information, user behavior data, and
geographical information is just beginning to be studied.

OBJECTIVES OF THE BOOK

The main goal of this book is to transfer new research results from the fields of advanced computer sci-
ences and information science to the design of new search engines. The readers will have a better idea
of the new trends in applied research. The achievement of relevant, organized, sorted, and workable
answers – to name but a few – from a search is becoming a daily need for enterprises and organizations,
and, to a greater extent, for anyone. It does not consist of getting access to structural information as in
standard databases; nor does it consist of searching information strictly by way of a combination of key
words. It goes far beyond that. Whatever its modality, the information sought should be identified by
the topics it contains, that is to say by its textual, audio, video or graphical contents. This is not a new
issue. However, recent technological advances have completely changed the techniques being used. New
Web technologies, the emergence of Intranet systems and the abundance of information on the Internet
have created the need for efficient search and information access tools.
xviii

TARGET AUDIENCE

This book is intended for scientists and decision-makers who wish to gain working knowledge of
searches in order to evaluate available solutions and to dialogue with software and data providers. It
also targets intranet or Web server designers, developers and administrators who wish to understand
how to integrate search technology into their applications according to their needs. This book is further
designed for designers, developers and administrators of databases, groupware applications and docu-
ment management systems (EDM), as well as directors of libraries or documentation centers who seek
a deeper understanding of the tools they use, and how to set up new information systems. Lastly, this
book is aimed at all professionals in technology or competitive intelligence and, more generally, the
specialists of the information market.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

The book is divided into four sections:

Section 1 is “Indexation”. The goal of automatic indexing is to establish an index for a set of docu-
ments that has to facilitate future access to documents and to their content. Usually, an index is composed
of a list of descriptors, each of them being associated to a list of documents and/or of parts of documents
to which it refers. In addition, theses references may be weighted. When searching to answer the users’
queries, the system looks for a list of answers, of which an index is as close as possible to the demand.
As a consequence, indexation could be seen as a required preliminary to intelligent information retrieval,
since it pre-structures textual data according to topic, domain, keyword or center of interest.
Section 2 is “Data Mining for Information Retrieval”. Data Mining (i.e., Knowledge Discovery from
Data Bases) is the process of automatically extracting meaningful, useful, previously unknown and
ultimately comprehensible patterns from large data sets. Data mining is a relatively young and interdis-
ciplinary field that combines methods from statistics and artificial intelligence with database manage-
ment. With the considerable increase of processing power, storage capacities, and inter-connectivity of
computer technology, in particular with the grid computation, data mining is now seen as an increasingly
important field by modern business for transforming unprecedented quantities of digital data into new
knowledge that provides a significant competitive advantage. This is now a large part of what people
refer to as business intelligence strategy. It is currently used in a wide range of profiling practices, such
as marketing, surveillance, fraud detection, and scientific discovery. The growing consensus that data
mining can bring real added value has led to an explosion in demand for novel data mining technologies.
Section 3 is “Interface”. The term “interface” refers to the part of the search engine in which (1) the
user formulates his request and (2) the user reads the results. The interface is then seen in four views:
Human-centered Web Search, Personalization, Question/Answering, and Mobile Search Engines. “Human-
centered Web Search” is understood to be how Web search engines help people to find the information
they are seeking. “Personalization” takes keywords from the user as an expression of their information
need, but also uses additional information about the user (such as their preferences, community, location
or history) to assist in determining the relevance of pages. “Question/Answering” addresses the problem
of finding answers to questions posed in natural language; answering is the task which, when given
a query in natural language, aims at finding one or more concise answers in the form of sentences or
phrases. “Mobile Search Engines” may be defined as the combining of search technologies and knowl-
 xix

edge about the user context in his mobile environment into a single framework in order to provide the
most appropriate answer for users information needs.
Finally, Section 4 is “Evaluation”. Evaluation means two things: (1) tracing the users’ behaviors, with
a special attention to the concept of “information practice” and other related concepts such as “use”,
“activity”, and “behavior” largely used in the literature but not always strictly defined, the aim being
to place the users and their needs at the center of the design process; (2) evaluating the next generation
search engines with four main criteria for improving the quality of the search results: index quality,
quality of the results, quality of search features, and search engine usability.

Christophe Jouis
University Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle and LIP6 (UPMC & CNRS), France

Ismaïl Biskri
University of Quebec at Trois Rivieres, Canada

Jean-Gabriel Ganascia
LIP6, (UPMC & CNRS), France

Magali Roux
INIST and LIP6, (UPMC & CNRS), France

REFERENCE

Mukhopadhyay, B., & Mukhopadhyay, S. (2004, February 11-13). Data mining techniques for informa-
tion retrieval. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of the Convention on Automation of
Libraries in Education and Research Institution, New Delhi, India (p. 506).
 Section 1
Indexation
 1

Chapter 1
Indexing the World Wide Web:
The Journey So Far

Abhishek Das
Google Inc., USA

Ankit Jain
Google Inc., USA

ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors describe the key indexing components of today’s web search engines. As the
World Wide Web has grown, the systems and methods for indexing have changed significantly. The au-
thors present the data structures used, the features extracted, the infrastructure needed, and the options
available for designing a brand new search engine. Techniques are highlighted that improve relevance of
results, discuss trade-offs to best utilize machine resources, and cover distributed processing concepts in
this context. In particular, the authors delve into the topics of indexing phrases instead of terms, storage
in memory vs. on disk, and data partitioning. Some thoughts on information organization for the newly
emerging data-forms conclude the chapter.

INTRODUCTION “The World-Wide Web (W3) was developed to be

a pool of human knowledge, and human culture,
The World Wide Web is considered to be the great- which would allow collaborators in remote sites
est breakthrough in telecommunications after the to share their ideas and all aspects of a common
telephone, radically altering the availability and project.”
accessibility to information. Quoting the new me-
dia reader from MIT press (Wardrip-Fruin, 2003): The last two decades have witnessed many
significant attempts to make this knowledge
“discoverable”. These attempts broadly fall into
two categories:
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0330-1.ch001

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
 Indexing the World Wide Web

1. Classification of webpages in hierarchical if not thousands, of machines has proven key in

categories (directory structure), championed addressing this challenge of grand scale.
by the likes of Yahoo! and Open Directory Using search engines may have become
Project; routine nowadays, but they too have followed
2. Full-text index search engines such as Excite, an evolutionary path (Figure 1). Jerry Yang and
AltaVista, and Google. David Filo created Yahoo in 1994, starting it out
as a listing of their favorite web sites along with
The former is an intuitive method of arranging a description of each page (Yahoo, 2010). Later
web pages, where subject-matter experts collect in 1994, WebCrawler was introduced which was
and annotate pages for each category, much like the first full-text search engine on the Internet;
books are classified in a library. With the rapid the entire text of each page was indexed for the
growth of the web, however, the popularity of first time. Introduced in 1993 by six Stanford
this method gradually declined. First, the strictly University students, Excite became functional in
manual editorial process could not cope with the December 1995. It used statistical analysis of word
increase in the number of web pages. Second, relationships to aid in the search process and is
the user’s idea of what sub-tree(s) to seek for a part of AskJeeves today. Lycos, created at CMU
particular topic was expected to be in line with the by Dr. Michael Mauldin, introduced relevance
editors’, who were responsible for the classifica- retrieval, prefix matching, and word proximity
tion. We are most familiar with the latter approach in 1994. Though it was the largest of any search
today, which presents the user with a keyword engine at the time, indexing over 60 million docu-
search interface and uses a pre-computed web ments in 1996, it ceased crawling the web for its
index to algorithmically retrieve and rank web own index in April 1999. Today it provides access
pages that satisfy the query. In fact, this is prob- to human-powered results from LookSmart for
ably the most widely used method for navigating popular queries and crawler-based results from
through cyberspace today, primarily because it can Yahoo for others. Infoseek went online in 1995
scale as the web grows. Even though the indexable and is now owned by the Walt Disney Internet
web is only a small fraction of the web (Selberg, Group. AltaVista, also started in 1995, was the
1999), the earliest search engines had to handle first search engine to allow natural language ques-
orders of magnitude more documents than previ- tions and advanced searching techniques. It also
ous information retrieval systems. Around 1995, provided multimedia search for photos, music, and
when the number of static web pages was believed videos. In February 2003, AltaVista was bought
to double every few months, AltaVista reported by Overture, which itself was acquired by Yahoo
having crawled and indexed approximately 25 later in the year. Inktomi was started in 1996 at UC
million webpages. In 1997, the total estimated Berkeley, and in June of 1999 introduced a direc-
number of pages indexed by all the largest search tory search engine powered by concept induction
engines was 200 million pages (Bharat, 1998), technology. This technology tries to model human
which reportedly grew to 800 million pages by conceptual classification of content, and projects
1998 (Lawrence, 1999). Indices of today’s search this intelligence across millions of documents.
engines are several orders of magnitude larger Yahoo purchased Inktomi in 2003.
(Gulli, 2005); Google reported around 25 billion AskJeeves launched in 1996 and became fa-
web pages in 2005 (Patterson, 2005), while Cuil mous for being the natural language search engine,
indexed 120 billion pages in 2008 (Arrington, that allowed users to search by framing queries
2008). Harnessing together the power of hundreds, in question form and responding with what seemed
to be the right answer. In reality, behind the scenes,

2
Indexing the World Wide Web

Figure 1. History of major Web search engine innovations (1994-2010)

the company had many human editors who most comprehensive human-edited directory of
monitored search logs and located what seemed the Web”. Formerly known as NewHoo, it was
to be the best sites to match the most popular acquired by AOL Time Warner-owned Netscape
queries. 1997 was the first year in which two in November 1998. Baidu, China’s largest search
major non-US search engines launched: Fast engine with over 55% market share (Jin, 2011),
Search & Transfer (FAST) in Norway and Yandex was formed in 2000, the same year the open source
in Russia. Yandex is the most popular site in Rus- search library, Lucene, first released. Vivisimo
sia to this day and has over 64% market share was founded in 2000 by a trio of researchers from
(Wikipedia, 2011). In 1999, they acquired Direct CMU to organize numerous search results into
Hit, which had developed the world’s first click several meaningful categories (clusters). They
popularity search technology, and in 2001, they finally became successful in 2004 with the metase-
acquired Teoma whose technology was built upon arch engine Clusty, which got acquired in 2010
clustering concepts of subject-specific popularity. by Yippy, Inc. Beginning in 2005, using licensed
Teoma was founded in 2000 at Rutgers Univer- natural language technology from PARC, Pow-
sity and was a result of the DiscoWeb project erset started building a natural language search
(Davison, 1998). Google, developed by Sergey engine to find targeted answers to user questions
Brin and Larry Page at Stanford University, (as opposed to keyword based search). Microsoft
launched in 1998 and used inbound links to rank acquired Powerset in 2008.
sites. The MSN Search and Open Directory Proj- All current search engines rank web pages to
ect were also started in 1998, of which the former identify potential answers to a query. Borrowing
turned into a full-fledged search engine in 2005 from information retrieval, a statistical similarity
and then reincarnated as Bing in 2009. The Open measure has always been used in practice to assess
Directory, according to its website, “is the largest, the closeness of each document (web page) to the

3
 Indexing the World Wide Web

user text (query); the underlying principle being to each website or webpage. Over time, search
that the higher the similarity score, the greater the engines encountered another drawback (Man-
estimated likelihood that it is relevant to the user. ning, 2008) of web decentralization: the desire to
This similarity formulation is based on models manipulate webpage content for the purpose of
of documents and queries, the most effective of appearing high up in search results. This is akin
which is the vector space model (Salton, 1975). to companies using names that start with a long
The cosine measure (Salton, 1962) has consistently string of A’s to be listed early in the Yellow Pages.
been found to be the most successful similarity Content manipulation not only includes tricks like
measure in using this model. It considers docu- repeating multiple keywords in the same color as
ment properties as vectors, and takes as distance the background, but also sophisticated techniques
function the cosine of the angle between each vec- such as cloaking and using doorway pages, which
tor pair. From an entropy-based perspective, the serve different content depending on whether the
score assigned to a document can be interpreted as http request came from a crawler or a browser.
the sum of information conveyed by query terms To combat such spammers, search engines
in the document. Intuitively, one would like to started exploiting the connectivity graph, estab-
accumulate evidence by giving more weight to lished by hyperlinks on web pages. Google (Brin,
documents that match a query term several times 1998) was the first web search engine known to
as opposed to ones that contain it only once. Each apply link analysis on a large scale, although
term’s contribution is weighted such that terms all web search engines currently make use of
appearing to be discriminatory are favored while it. They assigned each page a score, called Pag-
reducing the impact of more common terms. eRank, which can be interpreted as the fraction
Most similarity measures are a composition of a of time that a random web surfer will spend on
few statistical values: frequency of a term t in a that webpage when following the out-links from
document d (term frequency or TF), frequency each page on the web. Another interpretation is
of a term t in a query, number of documents that when a page links to another page, it is ef-
containing a term t (document frequency or DF), fectively casting a vote of confidence. PageRank
number of terms in a document, number of docu- calculates a page’s importance from the votes cast
ments in the collection, and number of terms in for it. HITS is another technique employing link
the collection. Introduction of document-length analysis which scores pages as both hubs and
pivoting (Singhal, 1996) addressed the issue of authorities, where a good hub is one that links to
long documents either containing too many terms, many good authorities, and a good authority is
or many instances of the same term. one that is linked from many good hubs. It was
The explosive growth of the web can primar- developed by Jon Kleinberg and formed the basis
ily be attributed to the decentralization of content of Teoma (Kleinberg, 1999).
publication, with essentially no control of author- Search engines aim not only to give quality
ship. A huge drawback of this is that web pages are results but also to produce these results as fast as
often a mix of facts, rumors, suppositions and even possible. With several terabytes of data spread over
contradictions. In addition, web-page content that billions of documents in thousands of computers,
is trustworthy to one user may not be so to another. their systems are enormous in scale. In comparison,
With search engines becoming the primary means the text of all the books held in a small university
to discover web content, however, users could no might occupy only around 100 GB. In order to
longer self-select sources they find trustworthy. create such highly available systems, which con-
Thus, a significant challenge for search engines tinually index the growing web and serve queries
is to assign a user-independent measure of trust with sub-second response times, it must optimize

4
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
walked on. He had put out to sea, as it were, and the new movement made
him giddy—and yet it was not pain; love was not life to him, but he had
never known what it was to live without it. There seemed no reason why he
should not do perfectly well for himself; Hugh would be affronted, of
course—but it could make no difference to Islay, for example, nor much to
his mother, for it would still be one of her sons. These were the thoughts
that went through Wilfrid’s mind as he walked along; from which it will be
apparent that the wickedness he was about to do was not nearly so great in
intention as it was in reality; and that his youth, and inexperience, and want
of imagination, his incapacity to put himself into the position of another, or
realize anything but his own wants and sentiments, pushed him unawares,
while he contemplated only an act of selfishness, into a social crime.
But yet the sense of doing this thing entirely alone, of doing it in secret,
which was contrary to all his habitudes of mind, filled him with a strange
inquietude. It hurt his conscience more to be making such a wonderful
move for himself, out of the knowledge of his mother and everybody
belonging to him, than to be trying to disgrace his mother and overthrow
her good name and honour; of the latter, he was only dimly conscious, but
the former he saw clearly. A strange paradox, apparently, but yet not
without many parallels. There are poor creatures who do not hesitate at
drowning themselves, and yet shrink from the chill of the “black flowing
river” in which it is to be accomplished. As for Will, he did not hesitate to
throw dark anguish and misery into the peaceful household he had been
bred in—he did not shrink from an act which would embitter the lives of all
who loved him, and change their position, and disgrace their name—but the
thought of taking his first great step in life out of anybody’s knowledge,
made his head swim, and the light fail in his eyes—and filled him with a
giddy mingling of excitement and shame. He did not realize the greater
issue, except as it affected him solely—but he did the other in its fullest
sense. Thus he went on through the common-place streets, with his heart
throbbing in his ears, and the blood rushing to his head; and yet he was not
remorseful, nor conscience-stricken, nor sorry, but only strongly excited,
and moved by a certain nervous shyness and shame.
Notwithstanding this, a certain practical faculty in Wilfrid led him,
before seeking out his tempter and first informant, to seek independent
testimony. It would be difficult to say what it was that turned his thoughts
towards Mrs. Kirkman; but it was to her he went. The colonel’s wife
received him with a sweet smile, but she was busy with much more
important concerns; and when she had placed him at a table covered with
tracts and magazines, she took no further notice of Will. She was a woman,
as has been before mentioned, who laboured under a chronic dissatisfaction
with the clergy, whether as represented in the person of a regimental
chaplain, or of a Dean and Chapter; and she was not content to suffer
quietly, as so many people do. Her discontent was active, and expressed
itself not only in lamentation and complaint, but in very active measures.
She could not reappoint to the offices in the Cathedral, but she could do
what was in her power, by Scripture-readers, and societies for private
instruction, to make up the deficiency; and she was very busy with one of
her agents when Will entered, who certainly had not come about any
evangelical business. As time passed, however, and it became apparent to
him that Mrs. Kirkman was much more occupied with her other visitor than
with any curiosity about his own boyish errand, whatever it might be, Will
began to lose patience. When he made a little attempt to gain a hearing in
his turn, he was silenced by the same sweet smile, and a clasp of the hand.
“My dear boy, just a moment; what we are talking of is of the greatest
importance,” said Mrs. Kirkman. “There are so few real means of grace in
this benighted town, and to think that souls are being lost daily, hourly—
and yet such a show of services and prayers—it is terrible to think of it. In a
few minutes, my dear boy.”
“What I want is of the greatest importance, too,” said Wilfrid, turning
doggedly away from the table and the magazines.
Mrs. Kirkman looked at him, and thought she saw spiritual trouble in his
eye. She was flattered that he should have thought of her under such
interesting circumstances. It was a tardy but sweet compensation for all she
had done, as she said to herself, for his mother; and going on this mistaken
idea she dismissed the Scripture-reader, having first filled him with an
adequate sense of the insufficiency of the regular clergy. It was, as so often
happens, a faithful remnant, which was contending alone for religion
against all the powers of this world. They were sure of one thing at least,
and that was that everybody else was wrong. This was the idea with which
her humble agent left Mrs. Kirkman; and the same feeling, sad but sweet,
was in her own mind as she drew a chair to the table and sat down beside
her dear young friend.
 “And so you have come all the way from Kirtell to see me, my dear
boy?” she said. “How happy I shall be if I can be of some use to you. I am
afraid you won’t find very much sympathy there.”
“No,” said Wilfrid, vaguely, not knowing in the least what she meant. “I
am sorry I did not bring you some flowers, but I was in a hurry when I
came away.”
“Don’t think of anything of the kind,” said the colonel’s wife, pressing
his hand. “What are flowers in comparison with the one great object of our
existence? Tell me about it, my dear Will; you know I have known you
from a child.”
“You knew I was coming then,” said Will, a little surprised, “though I
thought nobody knew? Yes, I suppose you have known us all our lives.
What I want is to find out about my mother’s marriage. I heard you knew
all about it. Of course you must have known all about it. That is what I want
to understand.”
“Your mother’s marriage!” cried Mrs. Kirkman; and to do her justice she
looked aghast. The question horrified her, and at the same time it
disappointed her. “I am sure that is not what you came to talk to me about,”
she said coaxingly, and with a certain charitable wile. “My dear, dear boy,
don’t let shyness lead you away from the greatest of all subjects. I know
you came to talk to me about your soul.”
“I came to ask you about my mother’s marriage,” said Will. His
giddiness had passed by this time, and he looked her steadily in the face. It
was impossible to mistake him now, or think it a matter of unimportance or
mere curiosity. Mrs. Kirkman had her faults, but she was a good woman at
the bottom. She did not object to make an allusion now and then which
vexed Mary, and made her aware, as it were, of the precipice by which she
was always standing. It was what Mrs. Kirkman thought a good moral
discipline for her friend, besides giving herself a pleasant consciousness of
power and superiority; but when Mary’s son sat down in front of her, and
looked with cold but eager eyes in his face, and demanded this frightful
information, her heart sank within her. It made her forget for the moment all
about the clergy and the defective means of grace; and brought her down to
the common standing of a natural Christian woman, anxious and terror-
stricken for her friend.
 “What have you to do with your mother’s marriage?” she said, trembling
a little. “Do you know what a very strange question you are asking? Who
has told you anything about that? O me! you frighten me so, I don’t know
what I am saying. Did Mary send you? Have you just come from your
mother? If you want to know about her marriage, it is of her that you should
ask information. Of course she can tell you all about it—she and your Aunt
Agatha. What a very strange question to ask of me!”
Wilfrid looked steadily into Mrs. Kirkman’s agitated face, and saw it was
all true he had heard. “If you do not know anything about it,” he said, with
pitiless logic, “you would say so. Why should you look so put out if there
was nothing to tell?”
“I am not put out,” said Mrs. Kirkman, still more disturbed. “Oh, Will,
you are a dreadful boy. What is it you want to know? What is it for? Did
you tell your mother you were coming here?”
“I don’t see what it matters whether I told my mother, or what it is for,”
said Will. “I came to you because you were good, and would not tell a lie. I
can depend on what you say to me. I have heard all about it already, but I
am not so sure as I should be if I had it from you.”
This compliment touched the colonel’s wife on a susceptible point. She
calmed a little out of her fright. A boy with so just an appreciation of other
people’s virtues could not be meditating anything unkind or unnatural to his
mother. Perhaps it would be better for Mary that he should know the rights
of it; perhaps it was providential that he should have come to her, who
could give him all the details.
“I don’t suppose you can mean any harm,” she said. “Oh, Will, our
hearts are all desperately wicked. The best of us is little able to resist
temptation. You are right in thinking I will tell you the truth if I tell you
anything; but oh, my dear boy, if it should be to lead you to evil and not
good——”
“Never mind about the evil and the good,” said Will impatiently. “What I
want is to know what is false and what is true.”
Mrs. Kirkman hesitated still; but she began to persuade herself that he
might have heard something worse than the truth. She was in a great
perplexity; impelled to speak, and yet frightened to death at the
consequences. It was a new situation for her altogether, and she did not
know how to manage it. She clasped her hands helplessly together, and the
very movement suggested an idea which she grasped at, partly because she
was really a sincere, good woman who believed in the efficacy of prayer,
and partly, poor soul, to gain a little time, for she was at her wits’ end.
“I will,” she said. “I will, my dear boy; I will tell you everything; but oh,
let us kneel down and have a word of prayer first, that we may not make a
bad use of—of what we hear.”
If she had ever been in earnest in her life it was at that moment; the tears
were in her eyes, and all her little affectations of solemnity had disappeared.
She could not have told anybody what it was she feared; and yet the more
she looked at the boy beside her, the more she felt their positions change,
and feared and stood in awe, feeling that she was for the moment his slave,
and must do anything he might command.
“Mrs. Kirkman,” said Will, “I don’t understand that sort of thing. I don’t
know what bad use you can think I am going to make of it;—at all events it
won’t be your fault. I shall not detain you five minutes if you will only tell
me what I want to know.”
And she did tell him accordingly, not knowing how to resist, and
warmed in the telling in spite of herself, and could not but let him know that
she thought it was for Mary’s good, and to bring her to a sense of the vanity
of all earthly things. She gave him scrupulously all the details. The story
flowed out upon Will’s hungry ears with scarcely a pause. She told him all
about the marriage, where it had happened, and who had performed it, and
who had been present. Little Hugh had been present. She had no doubt he
would remember, if it was recalled to his memory. Mrs. Kirkman
recollected perfectly the look that Mary had thrown at her husband when
she saw the child there. Poor Mary! she had thought so much of reputation
and a good name. She had been so much thought of in the regiment. They
all called her by that ridiculous name, Madonna Mary—and made so much
of her, before——
“And did they not make much of her after?” said Will, quickly.
“It is a different thing,” said Mrs. Kirkman, softly shaking her long curls
and returning to herself. “A poor sinner returning to the right way ought to
be more warmly welcomed than even the best, if we can call any human
creature good; but——”
“Is it my mother you call a poor sinner?” asked Will.
 Then there was a pause. Mrs. Kirkman shook her head once more, and
shook the long curls that hung over her cheeks; but it was difficult to
answer. “We are all poor sinners,” she said. “Oh, my dear boy, if I could
only persuade you how much more important it is to think of your own
soul. If your poor dear mamma has done wrong, it is God who is her judge.
I never judged her for my part, I never made any difference. I hope I know
my own shortcomings too well for that.”
“I thought I heard you say something odd to her once,” said Will. “I
should just like to see any one uncivil to my mother. But that’s not the
question. I want that Mr. Churchill’s address, please.”
“I can truly say I never made any difference,” said Mrs. Kirkman; “some
people might have blamed me—but I always thought of the Mary that loved
much—— Oh, Will, what comforting words! I hope your dear mother has
long, long ago repented of her error. Perhaps your father deceived her, as
she was so young; perhaps it was all true the strange story he told about the
register being burnt, and all that. We all thought it was best not to inquire
into it. We know what we saw; but remember, you have pledged your word
not to make any dispeace with what I have told you. You are not to make a
disturbance in the family about it. It is all over and past, and everybody has
agreed to forget it. You are not going to make any dispeace——”
“I never thought of making any dispeace,” said Will; but that was all he
said. He was brief, as he always was, and uncommunicative, and inclined,
now he had got all he wanted, to get up abruptly and go away.
“And now, my dear young friend, you must do something for me,” said
Mrs. Kirkman, “in repayment for what I have done for you. You must read
these, and you must not only read them, but think over them, and seek light
where it is to be found. Oh, my dear boy, how anxious we are to search into
any little mystery in connection with ourselves, and how little we think of
the mysteries of eternity! You must promise to give a little attention to this
great theme before this day has come to an end.”
“Oh, yes, I’ll read them,” said Will, and he thrust into his pocket a roll of
tracts she gave him without any further thought what they were. The truth
was, that he did not pay much attention to what she was saying; his head
had begun to throb and feel giddy again, and he had a rushing in his ears.
He had it all in his hands now, and the sense of his power overwhelmed
him. He had never had such an instrument in his hands before, he had never
known what it was to be capable of moving anybody, except to momentary
displeasure or anxiety; and he felt as a man might feel in whose hand there
had suddenly been placed the most powerful of weapons, with unlimited
license to use it as he would—to break down castles with it or crowns, or
slay armies at a blow—and only his own absolute pleasure to decide when
or where it should fall. Something of intoxication and yet of alarm was in
that first sense of power. He was rapt into a kind of ecstacy, and yet he was
alarmed and afraid. He thrust the tracts into his pocket, and he received,
cavalierly enough, Mrs. Kirkman’s parting salutations. He had got all he
wanted from her, and Will’s was not a nature to be very expansive in the
way of gratitude. Perhaps even, any sort of dim moral sense he might have
on the subject, made him feel that in the news he had just heard there was
not much room for gratitude. Anyhow he made very little pretence at those
hollow forms of courtesy which are current in the elder world. He went
away having got what he wanted, and left the colonel’s wife in a state of
strange excitement and growing compunction. Oddly enough, Will’s scanty
courtesy roused more compunctions in her mind than anything else had
done. She had put Mary’s fate, as it were, into the hands of a boy who had
so little sense of what was right as to withdraw in the most summary and
abrupt way the moment his curiosity was satisfied; who had not even grace
enough, or self-control enough, to go through the ordinary decorums, or pay
common attention to what she said to him; and now this inexperienced
undisciplined lad had an incalculable power in his hands—power to crush
and ruin his own family, to dispossess his brother and disgrace his mother:
and nothing but his own forbearance or good pleasure to limit him. What
had she done?
Will walked about the streets for a full hour after, dizzy with the same
extraordinary, intoxicating, alarming sense of power. Before, it had all been
vague, now it was distinct and clear; and even beyond his desire to “right”
himself, came the inclination to set this strange machine in motion, and try
his new strength. He was still so much a boy, that he was curious to see the
effect it would produce, eager to ascertain how it would work, and what it
could do. He was like a child in possession of an infernal machine, longing
to try it, and yet not unconscious of the probable mischief. The sense of his
power went to his head, and intoxicated him like wine. Here it was all ready
in his hands, an instrument which could take away more than life, and he
was afraid of it, and of the strength of the recoil: and yet was full of
eagerness to see it go off, and see what results it would actually bring forth.
He walked about the town, not knowing where he was going, forgetting all
about his mother’s commissions, and all about Percival, which was more
extraordinary—solely occupied with the sensation that the power was in his
hands. He went into the cathedral, and walked all round it, and never knew
he had been there; and when at last he found himself at the railway station
again, he woke up again abruptly, as if he had been in a dream. Then
making an effort he set his wits to work about Percival, and asked himself
what he was to do. Percival was nothing to Will: he was his Aunt Winnie’s
husband, and perhaps had not used her well, and he could furnish no
information half so clear or distinct as that which Mrs. Kirkman had given.
Will did not see any reason in particular why he should go out of his way to
seek such a man out. He had been no doubt his first informant, but in his
present position of power and superiority, he did not feel that he had any
need of Percival. And why should he seek him out? When he had
sufficiently recovered his senses to go through this reasoning, Will went
deliberately back to town again, and executed his mother’s commissions.
He went to several shops, and gave orders which she had charged him with,
and even took the trouble to choose the things she wanted, in the most
painstaking way, and was as concerned that they should be right as if he had
been the most dutiful and tender of sons; and all the while he was thinking
to ruin her, and disgrace her, and put the last stigma upon her name, and
render her an outcast from the peaceful world. Such was the strange
contradiction that existed within him; he went back without speaking to any
one, without seeing anybody, knitting his brows and thinking all the way.
The train that carried him home, with his weapon in his hands, passed with
a rush and shriek the train which was conveying Nelly, with a great basket
of flowers in her lap, and a vague gleam of infinite content in her eyes, back
to her nursery and her duties, with Hugh by her side, who was taking care
of her, and losing himself, if there had been any harm in it. That sweet loss
and gain was going on imperceptibly in the carriage where the one brother
sat happy as a young prince, when the other brother shot past as it were on
wings of flame like a destroying angel. Neither thought of the other as they
thus crossed, the one being busy with the pre-occupation of young love, the
other lost in a passion, which was not hate, nor even enmity, which was not
inconsistent with a kind of natural affection, and yet involved destruction
and injury of the darkest and most overwhelming kind. Contrasts so sharply
and clearly pointed occur but seldom in a world so full of modifications and
complicated interests; yet they do occur sometimes. And this was how it
was with Mary’s boys.
 CHAPTER XXXVI.
HEN Wilfrid reached home, he found his mother by herself in
the drawing-room. Winnie had a headache, or some other of
those aches which depend upon temper and the state of the
mind, and Aunt Agatha was sitting by her, in the darkened
room, with bottles of eau de Cologne, and sal volatile, and smelling salts,
and all the paraphernalia of this kind of indisposition. Aunt Agatha had been
apt to take headaches herself in her younger days when she happened to be
crossed, and she was not without an idea that it was a very orthodox
resource for a woman when she could not have her own way. And thus they
were shut up, exchanging confidences. It did poor Winnie good, and it did
not do Miss Seton any harm. And Mary was alone downstairs. She was not
looking so bright as when Wilfrid went away. The idea which Sir Edward
had suggested to her, even if it had taken no hold of her mind, had breathed
on her a possible cloud; and she looked up wistfully at her boy as he came
in. Wilfrid, too, bore upon his face, to some extent, the marks of what he
had been doing; but then his mother did not know what he had been doing,
and could not guess what the dimness meant which was over his
countenance. It was not a bright face at any time, but was often lost in
mists, and its meaning veiled from his mother’s eyes; and she could not
follow him, this time any more than other times, into the uncertain depths.
All she could do was to look at him wistfully, and long to see a little clearer,
and wonder, as she had so often wondered, how it was that his thoughts and
ways were so often out of her ken—how it was that children could go so far
away, and be so wholly sundered, even while at the very side of those who
had nursed them on their knees, and trained them to think and feel. A
standing wonder, and yet the commonest thing in nature. Mary felt it over
again with double force to-day, as he came and brought her her wool and
bits of ribbon, and she looked into his face and did not know what its
meaning was.
As for Will, it was a curious sensation for him, too, on his part. It was
such an opportunity as he could scarcely have looked for, for opening to his
mother the great discovery he had made, and the great changes that might
follow. He could have had it all out with her and put his power into
operation, and seen what its effects were, without fear of being disturbed.
But he shrank from it, he could not tell why. He was not a boy of very
fastidious feelings, but still to sit there facing her and look into her face, and
tell her that he had been inquiring into her past life, and had found out her
secret, was more than Will was capable of. To meditate doing it, and to
think over what he would say, and to arrange the words in which he would
tell her that it was still one of her sons who would have Earlston—was a
very different thing from fairly looking her in the face and doing it. He
stared at her for a moment in a way which startled Mary; and then the
impossibility became evident to him, and he turned his eyes away from her
and sat down.
“You look a little strange, Will,” said Mary. “Are you tired, or has
anything happened? You startled me just now, you looked so pale.”
“No, I am not tired,” said Will, in his curt way. “I don’t know anything
about being pale.”
“Well, you never were very rosy,” said Mrs. Ochterlony. “I did not
expect you so soon. I thought you would have gone to the Askells’, and
come home with Hugh.”
“I never thought of that. I thought you wanted your wool and things,”
said Will.
It was very slight, ordinary talk, and yet it was quivering with meaning
on both sides, though neither knew what the other’s meaning was. Will, for
his part, was answering his mother’s questions with something like the
suppressed mania of homicide within him, not quite knowing whether at
any moment the subdued purpose might not break out, and kill, and reveal
itself; whereas his mother, totally unsuspecting how far things had gone,
was longing to discover whether Percival had gained any power over him,
and what that adversary’s tactics were.
“Have you seen anybody?” she said. “By the way, Sir Edward was
talking of Major Percival—he seemed to think that he might still be in
Carlisle. Did you by any chance see anything of him there?”
She fixed her eyes full upon him as she spoke, but Will did not in any
way shrink from her eyes.
“No,” he said carelessly. “I did not see him. He told me he was going to
stay a day or two in Carlisle, but I did not look out for him, particularly. He
gets to be a bore after the first.”
 When Mary heard this, her face cleared up like the sky after a storm. It
had been all folly, and once more she had made herself unhappy about
nothing. How absurd it was! Percival was wicked, but still he had no cause
to fix any quarrel upon her, or poison the mind of her son. It was on
Winnie’s account he came, and on Winnie’s account, no doubt, he was
staying; and in all likelihood Mrs. Ochterlony and her boys were as utterly
unimportant to him, as in ordinary circumstances he was to them. Mary
made thus the mistake by which a tolerant and open mind, not too much
occupied about itself, sometimes goes astray. People go wrong much more
frequently from thinking too much of themselves, and seeing their own
shadow across everybody’s way; but yet there may be danger even in the
lack of egotism: and thus it was that Mary’s face cleared up, and her doubts
dispersed, just at the moment when she had most to dread.
Then there was a pause, and the homicidal impulse, so to speak, took
possession of Will. He was playing with the things he had bought, putting
them into symmetrical and unsymmetrical shapes on the table, and when he
suddenly said “Mother,” Mrs. Ochterlony turned to him with a smile. He
said “Mother,” and then he stopped short, and picked to pieces the
construction he was making, but at the same time he never raised his eyes.
“Well, Will?” said Mary.
And then there was a brief, but sharp, momentary struggle in his mind.
He meant to speak, and wanted to speak, but could not. His throat seemed
to close with a jerk when he tried; the words would not come from his lips.
It was not that he was ashamed of what he was going to do, or that any
sudden compunction for his mother seized him. It was a kind of spasm of
impossibility, as much physical as mental. He could no more do it, then he
could lift the Cottage from its solid foundations. He went on arranging the
little parcels on the table into shapes, square, oblong, and triangular, his
fingers busy, but his mind much more busy, his eyes looking at nothing, and
his lips unable to articulate a single word.
“Well, Will, what were you going to say?” said Mary, again.
“Nothing,” said Will; and he got up and went away with an abruptness
which made his mother wonder and smile. It was only Willy’s way; but it
was an exaggerated specimen of Will’s way. She thought to herself when he
was gone, with regret, that it was a great pity he was so abrupt. It did not
matter at home, where everybody knew him; but among strangers, where
people did not know him, it might do him so much injury. Poor Will! but he
knew nothing about Percival, and cared nothing, and Mary was ashamed of
her momentary fear.
As for the boy himself, he went out, and took himself to task, and felt all
over him a novel kind of tremor, a sense of strange excitement, the feeling
of one who had escaped a great danger. But that was not all the feeling
which ought to have been in his mind. He had neglected and lost a great
opportunity, and though it was not difficult to make opportunities, Will felt
by instinct that his mother’s mere presence had defeated him. He could not
tell her of the discovery he had made. He might write her a letter about it, or
send the news to her at secondhand; but to look in her face and tell her, was
impossible. To sit down there by her side, and meet her eyes, and tell her
that he had been making inquiries into her character, and that she was not
the woman she was supposed to be, nor was the position of her children
such as the world imagined, was an enterprise which Wilfrid had once and
for ever proved impossible. He stood blank before this difficulty which lay
at the very beginning of his undertaking; he had not only failed, but he saw
that he must for ever fail. It amazed him, but he felt it was final. His mouth
was closed, and he could not speak.
And then he thought he would wait until Hugh came home. Hugh was
not his mother, nor a woman. He was no more than Will’s equal at the best,
and perhaps even his inferior; and to him, surely, it could be said. He waited
for a long time, and kept lingering about the roads, wondering what train his
brother would come by, and feeling somehow reluctant to go in again, so
long as his mother was alone. For in Mrs. Ochterlony’s presence Will could
not forget that he had a secret—that he had done something out of her
knowledge, and had something of the most momentous character to tell her,
and yet could not tell it to her. It would be different with Hugh. He waited
loitering about upon the dusty summer roads, biting his nails to the quick,
and labouring hard through a sea of thought. This telling was disagreeable,
even it was only Hugh that had to be told—more disagreeable than anything
else about the business, far more disagreeable, certainly, than he had
anticipated it would be; and Wilfrid did not quite make out how it was that a
simple fact should be so difficult to communicate. It enlarged his views so
far, and gave him a glimpse into the complications of maturer life, but it did
not in any way divert him from his purpose, or change his ideas about his
rights. At length the train appeared by which it was certain Hugh must come
home. Wilfrid sauntered along the road within sight of the little station to
meet his brother, and yet when he saw Hugh actually approaching, his heart
gave a jump in his breast. The moment had come, and he must do it, which
was a very different thing from thinking it over, and planning what he was
to say.
“You here, Will!” said Hugh. “I looked for you in Carlisle. Why didn’t
you go to Mrs. Askell’s and wait for me?”
“I had other things to do,” said Will, briefly.
Hugh laughed. “Very important things, I have no doubt,” he said; “but
still you might have waited for me, all the same. How is Aunt Winnie? I
saw that fellow,—that husband of hers,—at the station. I should like to
know what he wants hanging about here.”
“He wants her, perhaps,” said Will, though with another jump of his
heart.
“He had better not come and bother her,” said Hugh. “She may not be
perfect herself, but I won’t stand it. She is my mother’s sister, after all, and
she is a woman. I hope you won’t encourage him to hang about here.”
“I!” cried Will, with amazement and indignation.
“Yes,” said Hugh, with elder-brotherly severity. “Not that I think you
would mean any harm by it, Will; it is not a sort of thing you can be
expected to understand. A fellow like that should be kept at a distance.
When a man behaves badly to a woman—to his wife—to such a beautiful
creature as she has been——”
“I don’t see anything very beautiful about her,” said Will.
“That doesn’t matter,” said Hugh, who was hot and excited, having been
taken into Winnie’s confidence. “She has been beautiful, and that’s enough.
Indeed, she ought to be beautiful now, if that fellow hadn’t been a brute.
And if he means to come back here——” “Perhaps it is not her he wants,”
said Will, whose profound self-consciousness made him play quite a new
part in the dialogue.
“What could he want else?” said Hugh, with scorn. “You may be sure it
is no affection for any of us that brings him here.”
Here was the opportunity, if Will could but have taken it. Now was the
moment to tell him that something other than Winnie might be in Percival’s
mind—that it was his own fortune, and not hers, that hung in the balance.
But Will was dumb; his lips were sealed; his tongue clove to the roof of his
mouth. It was not his will that was in fault. It was a rebellion of all his
physical powers, a rising up of nature against his purpose. He was silent in
spite of himself; he said not another word as they walked on together. He
suffered Hugh to stray into talk about the Askells, about the Museum, about
anything or nothing. Once or twice he interrupted the conversation abruptly
with some half-dozen words, which brought it to a sudden stop, and gave
him the opportunity of broaching his own subject. But when he came to that
point he was struck dumb. Hugh, all innocent and unconscious, in serene
elderly-brotherly superiority, good humoured and condescending, and
carelessly affectionate, was as difficult to deal with as Mary herself.
Without withdrawing from his undertaking, or giving up his “rights,”
Wilfrid felt himself helpless; he could not say it out. It seemed to him now
that so far from giving in to it, as he once imagined, without controversy,
Hugh equally without controversy would set it aside as something
monstrous, and that his new hope would be extinguished and come to an
end if his elder brother had the opportunity of thus putting it down at once.
When they reached home, Will withdrew to his own room, with a sense of
being baffled and defeated—defeated before he had struck a blow. He did
not come downstairs again, as they remembered afterwards—he did not
want any tea. He had not a headache, as Aunt Agatha, now relieved from
attendance upon Winnie, immediately suggested. All he wanted was to be
left alone, for he had something to do. This was the message that came
downstairs. “He is working a great deal too much,” said Aunt Agatha, “you
will see he will hurt his brain or something;” while Hugh, too, whispered to
his mother, “You shall see; I never did much, but Will will go in for all sorts
of honours,” the generous fellow whispered in his mother’s ear; and Mary
smiled, in her heart thinking so too. If they had seen Will at the moment
sitting with his face supported by both his hands, biting his nails and
knitting his brows, and pondering more intently than any man ever
pondered over classic puzzle or scientific problem, they might have been
startled out of those pleasant thoughts.
And yet the problem he was considering was one that racked his brain,
and made his head ache, had he been sufficiently at leisure to feel it. The
more impossible he felt it to explain himself and make his claim, the more
obstinately determined was he to make it, and have what belonged to him.
His discouragement and sense of defeat did but intensify his resolution. He
had failed to speak, notwithstanding his opportunities; but he could write, or
he could employ another voice as his interpreter. With all his egotism and
determination, Wilfrid was young, nothing but a boy, and inexperienced,
and at a loss what to do. Everything seemed easy to him until he tried to do
it; and when he tried, everything seemed impossible. He had thought it the
most ordinary affair in the world to tell his discovery to his mother and
brother, until the moment came which in both cases proved the
communication to be beyond his powers. And now he thought he could
write. After long pondering, he got up and opened the little desk upon
which he had for years written his verses and exercises, troubled by nothing
worse than a doubtful quantity, and made an endeavour to carry out his last
idea. Will’s style was not a bad style. It was brief and terse, and to the point,
—a remarkable kind of diction for a boy,—but he did not find that it suited
his present purpose. He put himself to torture over his letters. He tried it
first in one way, and then in another; but however he put it, he felt within
himself that it would not do. He had no sort of harsh or unnatural meaning
in his mind. They were still his mother and brother to whom he wanted to
write, and he had no inclination to wound their feelings, or to be
disrespectful or unkind. In short, it only required this change, and his
establishment in what he supposed his just position, to make him the
kindest and best of sons and brothers. He toiled over his letters as he had
never toiled over anything in his life. He could not tell how to express
himself, nor even what to say. He addressed his mother first, and then
Hugh, and then his mother again; but the more he laboured the more
impossible he found his task. When Mrs. Ochterlony came upstairs and
opened his door to see what her boy was about, Wilfrid stumbled up from
his seat red and heated, and shut up his desk, and faced her with an air of
confusion and trouble which she could not understand. It was not too late
even then to bring her in and tell her all; and this possibility bewildered
Will, and filled him with agitation and excitement, to which naturally his
mother had no clue.
“What is the matter?” she said, anxiously; “are you ill, Will? Have you a
headache? I thought you were in bed.”
“No, I am all right,” said Will, facing her with a look, which in its
confusion seemed sullen. “I am busy. It is too soon to go to bed.”
“Tell me what is wrong,” said Mary, coming a step further into the room.
“Will, my dear boy, I am sure you are not well. You have not been
quarrelling with any one—with Hugh——?”
“With Hugh!” said Will, with a little scorn; “why should I quarrel with
Hugh?”
“Why, indeed!” said Mrs. Ochterlony, smiling faintly; “but you do not
look like yourself. Tell me what you have been doing, at least.”
Will’s heart thumped against his breast. He might put her into the chair
by which she was standing, and tell her everything and have it over. This
possibility still remained to him. He stood for a second and looked at her,
and grew breathless with excitement, but then somehow his voice seemed
to die away in his throat.
“If I were to tell you what I was doing, you would not understand it,” he
said, repeating mechanically words which he had used in good faith, with
innocent schoolboy arrogance, many a time before. As for Mary, she looked
at him wistfully, seeing something in his eyes which she could not interpret.
They had never been candid, frank eyes like Hugh’s. Often enough before,
they had been impatient of her scrutiny, and had veiled their meaning with
an apparent blank; but yet there had never been any actual harm hid by the
artifice. Mary sighed; but she did not insist, knowing how useless it was. If
it was anything, perhaps it was some boyish jealousy about Nelly,—an
imaginary feeling which would pass away, and leave no trace behind. But,
whatever it was, it was vain to think of finding it out by questions; and she
gave him her good-night kiss and left him, comforting herself with the
thought that most likely it was only one of Will’s uncomfortable moments,
and would be over by to-morrow. But when his mother went away, Will for
his part sank down, with the strangest tremor, in his chair. Never before in
his life had this sick and breathless excitement, this impulse of the mind and
resistance of the flesh, been known to him, and he could not bear it. It
seemed to him he never could stand in her presence, never feel his mother’s
eyes upon him, without feeling that now was the moment that he must and
ought to tell her, and yet could not tell her, no more than if he were
speechless. He had never felt very deeply all his life before, and the sense
of this struggle took all his strength from him. It made his heart beat, so that
the room and the house and the very solid earth on which he stood seemed
to throb and tingle round him; it was like standing for ever on the edge of a
precipice over which the slightest movement would throw him, and the very
air seemed to rush against his ears as it would do if he were falling. He sank
down into his chair, and his heart beat, and the pulses throbbed in his
temples. What was he to do?—he could not speak, he could not write, and
yet it must be told, and his rights gained, and the one change made that
should convert him into the tenderest son, the most helpful brother, that
ever man or woman had. At last in his despair and pertinacity, there came
into his mind that grand expedient which occurs naturally to everything that
is young and unreasonable under the pressure of unusual trials. He would
go away; he could not go on seeing them continually, with this
communication always ready to break from the lips which would not utter
it,—nor could he write to them while he was still with them, and when any
letter must be followed by an immediate explanation. But he could fly; and
when he was at a safe distance, then he could tell them. No doubt it was
cowardice to a certain extent; but there were other things as well. Partly it
was impatience, and partly the absoluteness and imperious temper of youth,
and that intolerance of everything painful that comes natural to it. He sat in
his chair, noiseless and thinking, in the stillness of night, a poor young soul,
tempted and yielding to temptation, sinful, yet scarcely conscious how
sinful he was, and yet at the same time forlorn with that profound
forlornness of egotism and ill-doing which is almost pathetic in the young.
He could consult nobody, take no one into his confidence. The only
counsellors he had known in all his small experience were precisely those
upon whom he was about to turn. He was alone, and had everything to plan,
everything to do for himself.
And yet was there nobody whom he could take into his confidence?
Suddenly, in the stillness of the night a certain prosperous, comfortable
figure came into the boy’s mind—one who thought it was well to get money
and wealth and power, anyhow except dishonestly, which of course was an
impracticable and impolitic way. When that idea came to him like an
inspiration, Will gave a little start, and looked up, and saw the blue dawn
making all the bars of his window visible against the white blind that
covered it. Night was gone with its dark counsels, and the day had come.
What he did after that was to take out his boy’s purse, and count over
carefully all the money it contained. It was not much, but yet it was enough.
Then he took his first great final step in life, with a heart that beat in his
ears, but not loud enough to betray him. He went downstairs softly as the
dawn brightened, and all the dim staircase and closed doors grew visible,
revealed by the silent growth of the early light. Nobody heard him, nobody
dreamed that any secret step could ever glide down those stairs or out of the
innocent honest house. He was the youngest in it, and should have been the
most innocent; and he thought he meant no evil. Was it not his right he was
going to claim? He went softly out, going through the drawing-room
window, which it was safer to leave open than the door, and across the
lawn, which made no sound beneath his foot. The air of the summer
morning was like balm, and soothed him, and the blueness brightened and
grew rosy as he went his way among the early dews. The only spot on
which, like Gideon’s fleece, no dew had fallen, was poor Will’s beating
heart, as he went away in silence and secrecy from his mother’s door.
 CHAPTER XXXVII.
HE breakfast-table in the Cottage was as cheerful as usual next
morning, and showed no premonitory shadow. Winnie did not
come downstairs early; and perhaps it was all the more cheerful
for her absence. And there were flowers on the table, and
everything looked bright. Will was absent, it is true, but nobody took much
notice of that as yet. He might be late, or he might have gone out; and he
was not a boy to be long negligent of the necessities of nature. Aunt Agatha
even thought it necessary to order something additional to be kept hot for
him. “He has gone out, I suppose,” Miss Seton said; “and it is rather cold
this morning, and a long walk in this air will make the boy as hungry as a
hunter. Tell Peggy not to cook that trout till she hears him come in.”
The maid looked perturbed and breathless; but she said, “Yes, ma’am,”
humbly—as if it was she who was in the wrong; and the conversation and
the meal were resumed. A minute or two after, however, she appeared once
more: “If you please, there’s somebody asking for Mr. Hugh,” said the
frightened girl, standing, nervous and panting, with her hand upon the door.
“Somebody for me?” said Hugh. “The gamekeeper, I suppose; he need
not have been in such a hurry. Let him come in and wait a little. I’ll be
ready presently.”
“But, my dear boy,” said Aunt Agatha, “you must not waste the man’s
time. It is Sir Edward’s time, you know; and he may have quantities of
things to do. Go and see what he wants: and your mother will not fill out
your coffee till you come back.”
And Hugh went out, half laughing, half grumbling—but he laughed no
more, when he saw Peggy standing severe and pale at the kitchen door,
waiting for him. “Mr. Hugh,” said Peggy, with the aspect of a chief justice,
“tell me this moment, on your conscience, is there any quarrel or
disagreement between your brother and you?”
“My brother and me? Do you mean Will?” said Hugh, in amazement.
“Not the slightest. What do you mean? We were never better friends in our
life.”
 “God be thanked!” said Peggy; and then she took him by the arm, and
led the astonished young man upstairs to Will’s room. “He’s never sleepit in
that bed this night. His little bag’s gone, with a change in’t. He’s putten on
another pair of boots. Where is the laddie gone? And me that’ll have to face
his mother, and tell her she’s lost her bairn!”
“Lost her bairn! Nonsense,” cried Hugh, aghast; “he’s only gone out for
a walk.”
“When a boy like that goes out for a walk, he does not take a change
with him,” said Peggy. “He may be lying in Kirtell deeps for anything we
can tell. And me that will have to break it to his mother——”
Hugh stood still in consternation for a moment, and then he burst into an
agitated laugh. “He would not have taken a change with him, as you say,
into Kirtell deeps,” he said. “Nonsense, Peggy! Are you sure he has not
been in bed? Don’t you go and frighten my mother. And, indeed, I daresay
he does not always go to bed. I see his light burning all the night through,
sometimes. Peggy, don’t go and put such ridiculous ideas into people’s
heads. Will has gone out to walk, as usual. There he is, downstairs. I hear
him coming in: make haste, and cook his trout.”
Hugh, however, was so frightened himself by all the terrors of
inexperience, that he precipitated himself downstairs, to see if it was really
Will who had entered. It was not Will, however, but a boy from the railway,
with a note, in Will’s handwriting, addressed to his mother, which took all
the colour out of Hugh’s cheeks—for he was still a boy, and new to life, and
did not think of any such easy demonstration of discontent as that of going
to visit Uncle Penrose. He went into the breakfast-room with so pale a face,
that both the ladies got up in dismay, and made a rush at him to know what
it was.
“It is nothing,” said Hugh, breathless, waving them off, “nothing—only
a note—I have not read it yet—wait a little. Mother, don’t be afraid.”
“What is there to be afraid of?” asked Mary, in amazement and dismay.
And then Hugh again burst into an unsteady and tremulous laugh. He
had read the note, and threw it at his mother with an immense load lifted off
his heart, and feeling wildly gay in the revulsion. “There’s nothing to be
frightened about,” said Hugh. “By Jove! to think the fellow has no more
taste—gone off to see Uncle Penrose. I wish them joy!”
 “Who is it that has gone to visit Mr. Penrose?” said Aunt Agatha; and
Hugh burst into an explanation, while Mary, not by any means so much
relieved, read her boy’s letter.
“I confess I got a fright,” said Hugh. “Peggy dragged me upstairs to
show me that he had not slept in his bed, and said his carpet-bag was gone,
and insinuated—I don’t know what—that we had quarrelled, and all sorts of
horrors. But he’s gone to see Uncle Penrose. It’s all right, mother; I always
thought it was all right.”
“And had you quarrelled?” asked Aunt Agatha, in consternation.
“I am not sure it is all right,” said Mary; “why has he gone to see Uncle
Penrose? and what has he heard? and without saying a word to me.”
Mary was angry with her boy, and it made her heart sore—it was the first
time any of them had taken a sudden step out of her knowledge—and then
what had he heard? Something worse than any simple offence or discontent
might be lurking behind.
But Hugh, of course, knew nothing at all about that. He sat down again
to his interrupted breakfast, and laughed and talked, and made merry. “I
wonder what Uncle Penrose will say to him?” said Hugh. “I suppose he has
gone and spent all his money getting to Liverpool; and what could his
motive be, odd fellow as he is? The girls are all married——”
“My dear boy, Will is not thinking of girls as you are,” said Mary,
beguiled into a smile.
Hugh laughed and grew red, and shook his abundant youthful locks. “We
are not talking of what I think,” he said; “and I suppose a man may do
worse than think about girls—a little: but the question is, what was Will
thinking about? Uncle Penrose cannot have ensnared him with his odious
talk about money? By-the-way, I must send him some. We can’t let an
Ochterlony be worried about a few miserable shillings there.”
“I don’t think we can let an Ochterlony, at least so young a one as Will,
stay uninvited,” said Mary. “I feel much disposed to go after him and bring
him home, or at least find out what he means.”
“No, you shall do nothing of the kind,” said Hugh, hastily. “I suppose
our mother can trust her sons out of her sight. Nobody must go after him.
Why, he is seventeen—almost grown up. He must not feel any want of
confidence——”
 “Want of confidence!” said Aunt Agatha. “Hugh, you are only a boy
yourself. What do you know about it? I think Mary would be very wrong if
she let Will throw himself into temptation; and one knows there is every
kind of temptation in those large, wicked towns,” said Miss Seton,
shuddering. It was she who knew nothing about it, no more than a baby, and
still less did she know or guess the kind of temptation that was acting upon
the truant’s mind.
“If that were all,” said Mary, slowly, and then she sighed. She was not
afraid of the temptations of a great town. She did not even know what she
feared. She wanted to bring back her boy, to hear from his own lips what his
motive was. It did not seem possible that there could be any harm meant by
his boyish secrecy. It was even hard for his mother to persuade herself that
Will could think of any harm; but still it was strange. When she thought of
Percival’s visit and Will’s expedition to Carlisle, her heart fluttered within
her, though she scarcely knew why. Will was not like other boys of his age;
and then it was “something he had heard.” “I think,” she said, with
hesitation, “that one of us should go—either you or I——”
“No,” said Hugh. “No, mother, no; don’t think of it; as if he were a girl
or a Frenchman! Why it’s Will! What harm can he do? If he likes to visit
Uncle Penrose, let him; it will not be such a wonderful delight. I’ll send him
some money to-day.”
This, of course, was how it was settled; for Mary’s terrors were not
strong enough to contend with her natural English prejudices against
surveillance and restraint, backed by Hugh’s energetic remonstrances.
When Winnie heard of it, she dashed immediately at the idea that her
husband’s influence had something to do with Will’s strange flight, and was
rather pleased and flattered by the thought. “I said he would strike me
through my friends,” she said to Aunt Agatha, who was bewildered, and did
not know what this could mean.
“My dear love, what good could it do him to interfere with Will?” said
Miss Seton. “A mere boy, and who has not a penny. If he had wanted to
injure us, it would have been Hugh that he would have tried to lead away.”
“To lead away?” said Winnie scornfully. “What does he care for leading
away? He wants to do harm, real harm. He thinks he can strike me through
my friends.”
 When Aunt Agatha heard this she turned round to Mary, who had just
come into the room, and gave a little deprecating shake of her head, and a
pathetic look. Poor Winnie! She could think of nothing but her husband and
his intentions; and how could he do this quiet household real harm? Mary
said nothing, but her uneasiness increased more and more. She could not sit
down to her work, or take up any of her ordinary occupations. She went to
Will’s room and examined it throughout, and looked through his wardrobe
to see what he had taken with him, and searched vainly for any evidence of
his meaning; and then she wrote him a long letter of questions and appeals,
which would have been full of pathetic eloquence to anybody who knew
what was in her mind, but would have appeared simply amazing and
unintelligible to anybody ignorant of her history, as she herself perceived,
and burnt it, and wrote a second, in which there was still a certain mystery.
She reminded him that he might have gone away comfortably with
everybody’s knowledge, instead of making the household uneasy about
him; and she could not but let a little wonder creep through, that of all
people in the world it was Uncle Penrose whom he had elected to visit; and
then she made an appeal to him: “What have I done to forfeit my boy’s
confidence? what can you have heard, oh Will, my dear boy, that you could
not tell to your mother?” Her mind was relieved by writing, but still she was
uneasy and disquieted. If he had been severely kept in, or had any reason to
fear a refusal;—but to steal away when he might have full leave and every
facility; this was one of the things which appeared the most strange.
The servants, for their part, set it down to a quarrel with his brother, and
jealousy about Nelly, and took Hugh’s part, who was always the favourite.
And as for Hugh himself, he sent his brother a cheque (his privilege of
drawing cheques being still new, and very agreeable), and asked why he
was such an ass as to run away, and bade him enjoy himself. The house was
startled—but after all, it was no such great matter; and nobody except Mary
wasted much consideration upon Will’s escapade after that first morning.
He was but a boy; and it was natural, everybody thought, that boys should
do something foolish now and then.
 CHAPTER XXXVIII.
N a curious state of mind, Will was flying along towards Liverpool,
while this commotion arose in the Cottage. Not even now had the
matter taken any moral aspect to him. He did not feel that he had
gone skulking off to deliver a cowardly blow. All that he was
conscious of was the fact, that having something to tell which he could not
somehow persuade himself to tell, he was going to make the
communication from a distance under Uncle Penrose’s advice. And yet the
boy was not comfortable. It had become apparent to him vaguely, that after
this communication was made, the relations existing between himself and
his family must be changed. That his mother might be “angry,” which was
his boyish term for any or every displeasure that might cloud Mrs.
Ochterlony’s mind; that Hugh might take it badly—and that after all it was
a troublesome business, and he would be pleased to get it over. He was
travelling in the cheapest way, for his money was scanty; but he was not the
kind of boy to be beguiled from his own thoughts by the curious third-class
society into which he was thus brought, or even by the country, which
gradually widened and expanded under his eyes from the few beaten paths
he knew so well, into that wide unknown stretch of hill and plain which was
the world. A vague excitement, it is true, came into his mind as he felt
himself to have passed out of the reach of everything he knew, and to have
entered upon the undiscovered; but this excitement did not draw him out of
his own thoughts. It did but mingle with them, and put a quickening thrill of
life into the strange maze. The confused country people at the stations, who
did not know which carriage to take, and wandered, hurried and
disconsolate, on the platforms, looking into all—the long swift moment of
passage over the silent country, in which the train, enveloped in its own
noise, made for itself a distinct atmosphere—and then again a shriek, a
pause, and another procession of faces looking in at the window—this was
Will’s idea of the long journey. He was not imaginative; but still everybody
appeared to him hurried, and downcast, and pre-occupied. Even the
harmless country folks had the air of having something on their minds. And
through all he kept on pondering what his mother and what Hugh would
say. Poor boy! his discovery had given him no advantage as yet; but it had
put a cross upon his shoulders—it had bound him so hard and fast that he
could not escape from it. It had brought, if not guilt, yet the punishment of
guilt into all his thoughts.
Mr. Penrose had a handsome house at some distance from Liverpool, as
was usual. And Will found it a very tedious and troublesome business to get
there, not to speak of the calls for sixpences from omnibuses and porters,
and everybody (he thought) who looked at him, which was very severe on
his slender purse. And when he arrived, his uncle’s servants looked upon
him with manifest suspicion; he had never been there before, and Mr.
Penrose was now living alone, his wife being dead, and all his children
married, so that there was nobody in the house who could identify the
unknown nephew. The Cottage was not much bigger than Mr. Penrose’s
porter’s lodge, and yet that small tenement had looked down upon the great
mansion all its life, and been partly ashamed of it, which sentiment gave
Will an unconscious sense that he was doing Uncle Penrose an honour in
going to visit him. But when he was met at the door by the semi-polite
suspicion of the butler, who proposed that he should call again, with an
evident reference in his mind to the spoons, it gave the boy the forlornest
feeling that can be conceived. He was alone, and they thought him an
impostor, and nobody here knew or cared whether he was shut out from the
house or not. His heart went back to his home with that revulsion which
everybody knows. There, everybody would have rushed to open the door to
him, and welcome him back; and though his errand here was simply to do
that home as much injury as possible, his heart swelled at the contrast.
While he stood, however, insisting upon admittance in his dogged way,
without showing any feelings, it happened that Mr. Penrose drove up to the
door, and hailed his nephew with much surprise. “You here, Will?” Mr.
Penrose said. “I hope nothing has gone wrong at the Cottage?” and his
man’s hand instantly, and as by magic, relaxed from the door.
“There is nothing wrong, sir,” said Will, “but I wanted to speak to you;”
and he entered triumphantly, not without a sense of victory, as the subdued
servant took his bag out of his hand. Mr. Penrose was, as we have said,
alone. He had shed, as it were, all incumbrances, and was ready, unfettered
by any ties or prejudices, to grow richer and wiser and more enlightened
every day. His children were all married, and his wife having fulfilled all
natural offices of this life, and married all her daughters, had quietly taken
her dismissal when her duties were over, and had a very handsome
tombstone, which he looked at on Sunday. It occurred to very few people,
however, to lament over Mr. Penrose’s loneliness. He seemed to have been
freed from all impediments, and left at liberty to grow rich, to get fat, and to
believe in his own greatness and wisdom. Nor did it occur to himself to feel
his great house lonely. He liked eating a luxurious dinner by himself, and
knowing how much it had cost, all for his single lordly appetite—the total
would have been less grand if wife and children had shared it. And then he
had other things to think of—substantial things, about interest and
investments, and not mere visionary reflections about the absence of other
chairs or other faces at his table. But he had a natural interest in Wilfrid, as
in a youth who had evidently come to ask his advice, which was an article
he was not disinclined to give away. And then “the Setons,” as he called his
sister’s family and descendants, had generally shut their ears to his advice,
and shown an active absence of all political qualities, so that Will’s visit
was a compliment of the highest character, something like an unexpected
act of homage from Mordecai in the gate.
But even Mr. Penrose was struck dumb by Will’s communication. He put
up his hand to his cravat and gasped, and thumped himself on the breast,
staring at the boy with round, scared, apoplectic eyes—like the eyes of a
boiled fish. He stared at Will,—who told the story calmly enough, with a
matter-of-fact conciseness—and looked as if he was disposed to ring the
bell and send for a doctor, and get out of the difficulty by concluding his
nephew to be mad. But there was no withstanding the evidence of plain
good faith and sincerity in Will’s narration. Mr. Penrose remained silent
longer than anybody had ever known him to remain silent before, and he
was not even very coherent when he had regained the faculty of speech.
“That woman was present, was she?” he said, “and Winnie’s husband—
good Lord! And so you mean to tell me Mary has been all this time—When
I asked her to my house, and my wife intended to make a party for her, and
all that—and when she preferred to visit at Earlston, and that old fool, Sir
Edward, who never had a penny—except what he settled on Winnie—and
all that time, you know, Mary was—good Lord!”
“I don’t see what difference it makes to my mother,” said Will. “She is
just what she always was—the difference it makes is to me—and of course
to Hugh.”
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