Of One Blood: Or, the Hidden Self

The singers from Fisk University represent, in the narrator’s view, the post-Emancipation enthusiasm of wealthy white people for Black music, especially “matchless untrained voices” (9). Reuel and Aubrey join their friends in the crowded concert hall, though Reuel is still distressed by his vision. One of their party, the “[g]ood natured” Charlie Vance, comments on the beauty of the group’s soprano, Dianthe Lusk.

Reuel relaxes as the performance begins; like many in the audience, he is deeply moved by these songs about bondage and freedom. He is “dazed” at the appearance of the fair-skinned Dianthe, who seems to evade any preconceptions of what a Black woman looks like. Hearing her voice is a painful pleasure: “[a]ll the horror, the degradation from which a race had been delivered were in the pleading strains of the singer’s voice” (12). As he leans in to see her more clearly, Reuel is stunned to realize that her face is the one he saw in his vision that afternoon.

Reuel and Aubrey gather with friends at Charlie Vance’s suburban mansion on “Hallow-eve.” Molly, Charlie’s sister and Aubrey’s fiancée, tells a ghost story about a woman in white who haunts the neighboring estate on Hallow-eve when there is a new moon. Molly explains that the ghost is the niece of the house’s former owner, who was in the house the night her uncle murdered a guest for money. The men of the group agree to go out one by one to see if the ghost will appear after midnight. Aubrey and others are skeptical, but Reuel voices his belief that not every phenomenon can be explained rationally.

Aubrey is the first to visit the avenue after midnight, but sees nothing. Charlie, the second in line, claims he saw a figure among the trees. Reuel goes out last. As he strolls along the avenue, he thinks about his loneliness. He ponders Aubrey and Molly’s relationship and longs for companionship. However, he resolves that he must be fully in love with a woman to marry her.

Just as Reuel feels distressed again, he sees a female figure approaching him. She has large, dark eyes and a “sorrowful” expression. Reuel recognizes her as Dianthe Lusk—the soprano from the concert several weeks prior. He asks if she needs help, and she responds that he can help her the next day. She stops him from coming closer and says, “[t]he time is not yet” (19). Finally, she disappears among the trees.

Reuel returns to Charlie’s home but evades his friends’ questions, worried that they might consider him a “slave” of his passion for Dianthe. That night, he dreams of his meeting with her.

The following morning, Reuel is called to the hospital to treat victims of a train crash. A nurse brings Reuel to the room of an unconscious woman who shows no signs of life but has no injuries. The other doctors, including Aubrey, are ready to pronounce her dead, but Reuel, recognizing the woman as Dianthe, argues that she is only in suspended animation. Privately, he feels that “destiny, not chance, had brought him to her” (22), and he registers the fact that no one else, including Aubrey, knows who she is.

Reuel argues that shock is the cause of Dianthe’s unconscious state. He sends Aubrey to bring him his medicine cabinet and, when he returns, Reuel reveals the results of his experiments. He states that “in some cases of seeming death – or even death in reality – consciousness may be restored or the dead brought back to life” (25). The doctors and nurses call his arguments “supernatural” and “charlatanism.” Reuel responds that life is “supernatural endowment.” Despite the contempt, he administers a powder to Dianthe, and a while later she begins to move. Everyone exclaims with wonder. Dianthe sees Reuel and tells him she was dreaming of him. Reuel holds her hands and tells her she will be better soon. Aubrey congratulates Reuel, but the latter warns that the depths of Dianthe’s trance necessitates a long recovery period. He suggests that they wait until her memory returns before searching for her relations.

Reuel’s revival of Dianthe makes him famous. Scientific journals describe his accomplishment as part of a rising interest in “animal magnetism.” Reuel’s popularity among his classmates grows, but he remains focused on his patient. Aubrey admires Reuel’s “self-sacrifice” and his desire for “the wellbeing of all humanity” (32). He works closely with Reuel in Dianthe’s case and develops an independent interest in her. Aubrey secretly seeks information about Dianthe, learning that she left the troupe of singers to join a “magnetic physician.” He hires a detective to trace Dianthe’s whereabouts after she left the other singers, but finds only a woman near Chicago who housed Dianthe for three weeks, after which she disappeared. Aubrey keeps the results of his investigations a secret from Reuel.

In the hospital, Dianthe slowly recovers. She still falls into trances, though not in front of Aubrey. However, Aubrey does manage to witness one of these trances and thus sees Dianthe ask Reuel for deliverance from suffering. Aubrey realizes that he is falling for her.

At Christmas, Reuel joins Aubrey for dinner before going to the Vance house. Aubrey asks Reuel about his connection with the patient. Reuel reveals the secret of his vision of Dianthe, apologizing for not having entrusted it to his friend earlier. He states that he is a person who experiences “hallucinations” and confesses that he is in love with Dianthe. Aubrey tells him he should consider the impact that marriage to a Black woman would have in his future. Reuel declares that he will marry her before she “awakens to consciousness of her identity” (36); since coming out of her coma, Dianthe has been unaware of her racial identity. Finally, Aubrey holds Reuel’s hands and whispers that he knows his secret.